Why did Jesus say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Traditional theology interprets the cry of forsakenness as a literal severing between the divine and the human, framing the crucifixion as a transactional penalty. Viewed through a nondual lens, the statement represents the collapse of relational identity. The localized ego defines itself by standing in opposition to a surrounding world or an objective deity. When the perceived connection to this projected other completely ceases, the ego loses the opposing force required for self-definition. Experiencing total forsakenness means the localized self reaches out for validation from a divine other and finds absolute silence. Without an external deity or objective world to relate to, the conceptual framework of separation collapses from a lack of opposing force.

Absolute consciousness does not perform the action of abandoning. Knowing remains the constant foundation in which all subjective experiences arise and subside. Because the finite self is constructed entirely from awareness, a nondual reality cannot withdraw from a temporary contraction. The perception of abandonment arises exclusively from within the contracted state, marking a crisis of the conceptual mind rather than a shift in the absolute.

The spoken phrase directly references Psalm 22, a scriptural text beginning in despair but ultimately resolving in a recognition of unbroken unity. The psalmist’s transition from perceiving absolute distance to realizing divine presence mirrors the psychological death occurring on the cross. The silence encountered by the finite identity reflects the absence of separation rather than the absence of God. Without an outside object to resist or cling to, the conceptual framework of a separate subject ceases.

What feels like forsakenness to the contracted mind is simply the dissolution of the subject-object illusion. Awareness never withdraws from the individual. Instead, the psychological boundary separating localized knowing from absolute knowing completely falls away. The cessation of finite identity reveals that the localized self was always a temporary contraction within nondual consciousness. ●