Introduction
“I hold that it is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect others’ religions as we would have them to respect our own, a friendly study of the world’s religions is a sacred duty.” – Mahatma Gandhi
The Challenge
“Call themselves?" asked Yama. "You are wrong, Sam, Godhood is more than a name. It is a condition of being.” – Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light
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Hindu scriptures and philosophies assert that the experience of enlightenment is accessible to all. When one “clears away the dust and dirt, the Spirit shines through” (words of Swami Vivekananda in his talk, “Christ the Messenger” in 1900 in Los Angeles).
In Psalms 82:6, it insists, “I have said ye are gods and all of you are children of the most High.” And John observes in the fourth Gospel (1:12), “But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God.”
With such literal references, even the Bible declares that becoming the son of God is possible for anyone. Then the question naturally arises....
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The Sayings
I’ve selected nine biblical sayings and all of them except one, namely saying 4, derive from the four main gospels. Saying 4 comes from the Gospel of Thomas. Only one from this list of nine, namely saying 1, is extracted from the book of Genesis and not uttered by Christ. All others signify the words of Christ the Messenger.
You may ask, “Why only nine sayings, and why these specific nine?” ....
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What’s New?
The reader is well within his or her right to ask, “What’s new in this book?” Two ideas are new and different, and both are worth discovering and exploring.
The first is showing direct parallels between sayings in one tradition, the Christian, through direct textual references and sayings in the other, the Hindu. In an easily accessible manner and with supporting stories, parables, and scientific explanations where appropriate, I explain the core ideas behind them through this short synthetic study.
The Goal
With this book, I hope to impart my understanding of these selected sayings of Christ with support from the Upanishads, which have been termed the “perennial philosophy” by the esteemed English philosopher Aldous Huxley. Spirituality is the invisible stream that nourishes the external forms of all religions. As expressed in the Taittiriya Upanishad, “That from which words turn back, and mind cannot grasp…” (“Brahmananda Valli,” Part II, Ch. 4, Verse 1), the experience of enlightenment cannot be communicated with words. It can only be spoken of allegorically and in metaphor, as did Jesus and many masters before him and since. In other words, any scripture can only point the way; the journey and the effort of uncovering the divine within must be necessarily undertaken by the seeker.