The Gospel of John in the Light of Indian Mysticism

Introduction\ Since I was brought up in India, my psyche is naturally Indian in its early formation. When I read the Gospel According to St. John, I am struck by many similarities with the Indian traditions, and, of course, by many differences. In trying to understand the Gospel, I have found some Indian texts specifically helpful in bringing a new way of looking at a metaphor or in enlarging the appreciation of something that has been understood. I am persuaded that the major division in the human psyche is not horizontal or regional, dividing the Eastern from the Western soul; but that it is vertical and global, separating the few from the many, and the spiritual, inner and symbolical way of understanding from the material, outer and literal one—culturally as well as in each human soul.\ My understanding of the Hindu tradition is that it aims at Sanatana Dharma (eternal order) of which at its best it is one representation, and that the tradition is most fulfilled only when it succeeds in leading one to the Truth beyond itself and beyond oneself, to experience It and to become one with It. One is born prakrita (natural, common, unformed); one must attempt to die sanskrita (well sculpted, cultured, educated). The truly educated person, the formation of which is the real aim and meaning of any spiritual path, of any yoga, is the one who is internally rightly ordered, and, in the words of the Bhagavad Gita (6:29), “sees the Self in everyone, and everyone in the Self, seeing everywhere impartially.”\ Everywhere, the one Truth and one Being, or simply the One, has manifested itself in many truths, myriad beings and many selves, corresponding to different times, places, cultures, religions and needs. According to the Shatapatha Brahmana (I,7,2,1-5), when a person is born, simultaneously are born obligations to the Gods, to the sages, to the ancestors, and to the community. Out of these, the obligation to the sages is met by studying the Veda (literally, ‘sacred knowledge’); this is how we repay our debt to them.\ We are living at a special moment in world history: for the first time now it seems to be possible for us to be free from our cultural isolation and to become heirs to the wisdom and truth as much of the Christ as of Lao-tzu, of Krishna and of the Buddha, if we would. In the global village that we live in, as we have access to the words and teachings of more sages, our obligations are also increased. I hope to meet a part of my obligation to the Christian sages by studying the Gospel According to St. John, which represents the Christian Veda par excellence.\ However, in paying our debts to the sages and the saints, we must not forget a yet higher obligation: that to the Vastness beyond. It is This that the sages behold and to which they themselves are beholden; they show us that the Kingdom is neither in this place nor in that, but in each individual soul that is centered in the present moment on the only One Who Is. As Christ said, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. An hour is coming, and is already here, when those who are real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Indeed it is just such worshippers the Father seeks. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21,23-24).\ Chapter 1\ The Word became flesh and dwelt in us, and we have seen his glory, such glory as befits the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. (1:14)\ Here we encounter the central core of spirituality, the very heart of the practice: the Incarnation. Precisely because of its profundity, it is a mystery, highly cherished wherever the word mystery has not been denuded of its spiritual power. We have become habituated to the notion of mystery as in a murder mystery or a detective novel, in which the solution is found either when we accidentally stumble upon a missing clue or when we cleverly deduce it from other information. But, as far as spiritual mysteries are concerned, no amount of data or clues or information or cleverness at reasoning can lead us to solve the mystery. Spiritual mysteries always remain mysteries; they cannot be solved, simply because their mysteriousness is not a result of any missing data; it arises from their fullness which cannot be wholly comprehended by our ordinary mind. On the other hand, if we let such a mystery play its proper role, and by submitting to it in contemplation we allow it to work in us, we can ourselves be raised to the level of a higher mind, and higher still, without end. At that vantage point of the right mind, the mystery is not solved, but the knots of the mind are resolved. And the mystery has been instrumental in this movement as a koan can be in the practice of Zen. A genuine mystery carries with it the living water for a true baptism, an initiation to another level of being, a new birth.

AcknowledgmentsxiPreface to the Revised EditionxiiiIntroduction1Chapter 1Verse 1-9Intelligence Beyond Time13Verse 10-13All Who Receive the Word Are Begotten by God16Verse 14-18Eternity in Love with Time18Verse 19-34The Witness as the Midwife of the Spirit21Verse 35-51Preparation for Withstanding Truth25Chapter 2Verse 1-11Transformation: Water into Wine32Verse 12-25Temple, Body, and Spirit34Chapter 3Verse 1-21New Birth39Verse 22-36None but the Groom Has the Bride and the Fire43Chapter 4Verse 1-3Beware the Hollow Men47Verse 4-15The Inner Spring of Living Water49Verse 16-18The Need for Inner Unity51Verse 19-24The Worshippers Whom the Father Seeks52Verse 25-42The Secret Name of God53Verse 43-54Belief in Signs and Wonders56Chapter 5Verse 1-9The Struggle Between the Self and the Ego58Verse 10-17Action and Rest from Action60Verse 18-30Only They Can Be Just Who Do Nothing by Themselves63Verse 31-47The Esoteric Message of the Tradition66Chapter 6Verse 1-13The Bread from the Simple Heart69Verse 14-15The Fear and Temptation of Becoming King72Verse 16-21The Power of I AM73Verse 22-58I AM as the Bread of Eternal Life75Verse 59-71Levels of Struggle83Chapter 7Verse 1-13Conflict Between the Spirit and the World86Verse 14-32My Teaching Is Not My Own89Verse 33-36Where I AM, No One Can Come93Verse 37-52Rivers of Living Water from the Belly95Chapter 8Verse 1-11Adultery: Mixing of Levels99Verse 12-20The Highest Person as the Witness Within102Verse 21-30Without Knowing I AM, We Die Missing the Mark104Verse 31-47A Disciple Is One Who Lives the Teaching107Verse 48-59Losing Our Minds Rightly111Chapter 9Verse 1-7Spiritual Blindness Is Natural114Verse 8-17Sight as New Birth117Verse 18-34Insight or More Sights?119Verse 35-41The Sighted and the Sightless121Chapter 10Verse 1-21Many Sheep and One Shepherd124Verse 22-42The Father and You Are One128Chapter 11Verse 1-16They Whom Christ Loves Die to Themselves133Verse 17-44Awake, O Sleeper, Arise from the Dead139Verse 45-57Alien People Clutching Their Gods143Chapter 12Verse 1-8Giving Our All to the Master147Verse 9-19The Kingdom of Christ Is Not of This World148Verse 20-36Unless a Seed Dies, It Bears No Fruit150Verse 37-43Levels of Seeing153Verse 44-50The Yoga of the Cross156Chapter 13Verse 1-17Washing Off the Surface Self158Verse 18-32The Trial of Judas161Verse 33-38Only Those Who Know Can Love168Chapter 14Verse 1-14I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life170Verse 15-26Those Who Love Can Come to Truth173Verse 27-31Those Who Have Nothing Will Not Die175Chapter 15Verse 1-6Right Order--Internal and External177Verse 7-13Love from Above, Obedience from Below180Verse 14-17Levels of Disciples182Verse 18-25Leave the World in Order to Change It184Verse 26-27The Eternal Witness from the Beginning187Chapter 16Verse 1-6The Scandal of the Cross189Verse 7-15The Inner Guide191Verse 16-23Death and New Birth193Verse 23-33Participating in the Mind of Christ194Chapter 17Verse 1-13The Work of the Father198Verse 14-26Consecration in Truth201Chapter 18Verse 1-12The Overwhelming Force of I AM205Verse 13-27The Trial of Peter209Verse 28-40The King of the Inner Kingdom211Chapter 19Verse 1-22The Crown of Thorns and the Inner Kingdom214Verse 23-42Delivering the Spirit to the One Whom He Loved218Chapter 20Verse 1-18I Sleep, but My Heart Waketh223Verse 19-31The Spirit of Truth as the Subtle Body of Christ229Chapter 21Verse 1-14A New Beginning235Verse 15-19The Lamb of Christ Among the Wolves of the World239Verse 20-25Let Not Him Who Seeks Cease Until He Finds241Bibliography244Index247

\ Father Thomas Berry"Catches the tone and spirit of St. John and this gospel’s profound coherence with other traditions, particularly the Hindu tradition in India and of course the Bhagavad Gita."\ \ \ \ \ Huston Smith"Looking at Christ through Hindu eyes, Ravindra's 'external' view of Christ is in ways more faithful to Christian history than much Western Christology now manages to be. This makes Christ the Yogi something of a landmark in interfaith dialogue."\ \ \ Yoga International"The book's real value lies in bringing readers into contact with the Gospel itself, highlighting its yogic nature, connecting us to the mystery that leads to rebirth in the Spirit."\ \ \ \ \ Gnosis"The main qualification for an interpreter of a religious text is the ability to discern true wisdom—something Ravindra certainly can do. . . . Christ the Yogi is one of the best studies on a book of the Bibles that I have read. It has opened aspects of John's Gospel that were previously closed to me."\ \ \ \ \ The Theosophical Society"A loving pondering over one of the most beautiful and probably most esoteric of the Four Gospels of the Christian tradition."\ \ \ \ \ Frederic Brussat"This nonsectarian evaluation of Jesus and the Gospel of John is another good example of the fruits of interfaith dialogue."\ \ \ \ \ Robert Ellwood“A dazzlingly brilliant spiritual and cross-cultural study of the most mystical of the books of the Bible, the Gospel of John. Few will finish this book unchanged, either intellectually or spiritually.”\ \ \ \ \ James George“Shows the benefits that cross-cultural perspectives can bring, helping readers to see with the heart as well as the head. . . . The best study of St. John’s Gospel that I have found.”\ \ \ \ \ The Beacon"In this new revision, Mr. Ravinda is surely helping to establish an interfaith sensibility in which beauty and truth in all religions can be simultaneously appreciated and embraced."\ \ \ \ \ Father"Catches the tone and spirit of St. John and this gospel’s profound coherence with other traditions, particularly the Hindu tradition in India and of course the Bhagavad Gita."\ \ \ \ \ Gnosis Magazine"The main qualification for an interpreter of a religious text is the ability to discern true wisdom—something Ravindra certainly can do. . . . Christ the Yogi is one of the best studies on a book of the Bibles that I have read. It has opened aspects of John's Gospel that were previously closed to me."\ \ \ \ \ 1998 Gnosis"The main qualification for an interpreter of a religious text is the ability to discern true wisdom—something Ravindra certainly can do. . . . Christ the Yogi is one of the best studies on a book of the Bibles that I have read. It has opened aspects of John's Gospel that were previously closed to me."\ \ \ \ \ East and West Series“Through the Gospel of John and references to the Bhagavad Gita, which are both cosmological and mystical, the author, in this book, brings about a cross-cultural spiritual presentation, which is brilliant and electrifying.”\ \ \ \ \ From the Publisher\ "In this new revision, Mr. Ravinda is surely helping to establish an interfaith sensibility in which beauty and truth in all religions can be simultaneously appreciated and embraced."\ \