Q: Guruji, Why do Angels have wings, what is the symbolism of that? Can you please talk about why we have Angels in the Christian tradition?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Man had a fascination to fly. He wanted to dominate space. Man could walk the Earth, he could dive into the ocean and swim in the water. But what he could not do is fly. So Angels, whom he considered one step above him, he gave those wings. He thought, Angels have wings because they are more powerful than man and they can fly and can go anywhere they want.

But today with the kind of airplanes we have, Angels will be much slower. We can reach much faster than them. We will leave the Angels behind somewhere. Nobody with wings, however powerful, can fly faster than an aircraft or a helicopter. So it is just a concept that they are more powerful than us, because it is only then that they can help us. Angels mean those who can help us, who are more powerful, more equipped than us. Now don’t imagine that an Angel is going to come with wings, and take you with them, and give you flowers, and all that.

Also, we see many times, Angels are depicted as children. Do you know why are they depicted as children in the Christian tradition? This is to show innocence. The higher you go you have to be pure and innocent inside, not cunning and crafty. Who is cunning and crafty? One who does not have the ability to walk like a king. Someone who has less power has to manipulate and be cunning and crafty. Someone who is very powerful, why would they be cunning and crafty? If you have the ability and the power to do things in a straightforward manner, you would not do anything surreptitiously. You will not need to. All those people who do cunning things have no self-confidence. They don’t believe that they can achieve things at their will; they think they have to do some manipulation to get there. So Angels are depicted as children with wings because they are innocent. They are depicted to have a stout body, just like a two or three year old baby. If you see all the Michelangelo paintings, you will see most of the angels are babies. It simply represents innocence and purity, and then ability - more ability than normal human beings.