Jesus Christ told, if I remember, that "Lord, excuse these persons," who were crucifying him. Is it not? He knew that "These rascals, they are killing me, but... They are offending certainly. So they do not know that I cannot be killed

Expressions researched:
"These rascals, they are killing me, but . . . they are offending, certainly. So they do not know that I cannot be killed"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Jesus Christ told, if I remember, that "Lord, excuse these persons," who were crucifying him. Is it not? He knew that "These rascals, they are killing me, but... They are offending certainly. So they do not know that I cannot be killed, but they are thinking that they are killing." You see? But that was offensive, therefore he begged Lord to be excused because God cannot excuse to the offenders of the devotee. He can excuse one who is offender to God, but if somebody is offender to the devotee, God never excuses. Therefore he prayed for them. That is devotee's qualification. He prays for everyone, even of his enemy. And he could not be killed. That he knew. But those rascals, they thought they were killing Jesus Christ.

Lecture on BG 4.1-6 -- Los Angeles, January 3, 1969:

Prabhupāda: Yes. In your Bible also it is said that "Man is made after God," not that God is made after man. The atheist class, they say that, "You have created a God according to your own feature," but no scripture says like that. God has eternal two hands, two legs. So man . . .

God is so kind that man is also made according to His form. That is a special facility given to man, not that somebody imagines God, "Because man has two hands, therefore God has two hands." No. That is not a fact. Here it is explained nicely.

Go on.

Madhudviṣa: "He appears exactly in His eternal body, uncontaminated by this material world. Although He appears in the same transcendental body, it still appears that He has taken His birth like an ordinary living entity, although in fact He is the Lord of the universe. Despite the fact that Lord Kṛṣṇa has grown up from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth, astonishingly enough, He never ages beyond youthhood."

"On the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra when He was present, He had many grandchildren at home, or, in other words, He had sufficiently aged by material calculation. Still, He looked just like a young man, twenty or twenty-five years old. We have never seen a picture of Kṛṣṇa in old age, because He never grows old like us, although He is the oldest person in the whole creation, past, present and future."

"Neither His body nor His intelligence ever deteriorates or changes. Therefore it is clear herein that in spite of His being in the material world, He is the same unborn, eternal form of bliss and knowledge, changeless in His transcendental body and intelligence."

"Factually, His appearance and disappearance are like the sun rising, moving before us and then disappearing from our eyesight. When the sun is out of sight, we think that the sun is set. And when the sun is before our eyes, we think that the sun is on the horizon. Actually, the sun is always there, but owing to our defective, insufficient eyesight we must calculate the appearance and disappearance of the sun in the sky."

"And because His appearance and disappearance are completely different from that of any ordinary common living entity, it is evident that He is eternal in blissful knowledge by His internal potency, and He is not contaminated by material nature."

"The Vedas confirm that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is unborn, and yet He still appears to be taking His birth in multi-manifestations. The Vedic supplementary literature also confirms that even though the Lord appears to be taking His birth, He is still without change of body. In the Bhāgavatam He appears before His mother as Nārāyaṇa, with four hands and the decorations of the six kinds of full opulences."

"His appearance in His original eternal form is His causeless mercy, according to the Viśvakośa dictionary. The Lord is conscious of all His previous appearances and disappearances, but a common living entity forgets everything about his past body as soon as he gets another."

"He shows that He is the Lord of all living entities by performing wonderful and superhuman activities while on this earthly planet. The Lord is always the same Absolute Truth, and is without differentiation between His form and self, or between His quality and body."

"A question may now be raised as to why the Lord appears and disappears in this world at all. This is explained in the next verse."

Prabhupāda: All right. Stop. We shall discuss next. Hare Kṛṣṇa. (devotees offer obeisances)

Very nice. (chuckles) All right.

Any question regarding this discussion?

Balabhadra: I thought Kṛṣṇa was sixteen only.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Balabhadra: But in the Bhagavad-gītā it said that He was twenty or twenty-five.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Just like you see the sun, you say: "Twelve o'clock," or "Sun is older." But sun is the same thing. It is your calculation. Sun at twelve o'clock, midday, is not older than it was in the morning, but it is our calculation that "Sun is now, say, six hours older from His appearance. That is our calculation. So Kṛṣṇa is always sixteen, but we calculate like that.

Devotee: Prabhupāda? Does Lord Jesus Christ appear in the spiritual sky with the body he manifested on the earth?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Otherwise how there can be resurrection? Ordinary body cannot be resurrected. He appeared in his spiritual body, certainly. (pause) Jesus Christ told, if I remember, that "Lord, excuse these persons," who were crucifying him. Is it not?

He knew that, "These rascals, they are killing me, but . . . they are offending, certainly. So they do not know that I cannot be killed, but they are thinking that they are killing." You see? But that was offensive; therefore he begged Lord to be excused, because God cannot excuse to the offenders of the devotee. He can excuse one who is offender to God, but if somebody is offender to the devotee, God never excuses. Therefore he prayed for them.

That is devotee's qualification. He prays for everyone, even of his enemy. And he could not be killed. That he knew. But those rascals, they thought they were killing Jesus Christ.