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Was Christ a Yogi?
IN considering whether or not Christ was a Yogi we
should first understand how spiritual and how divine one must be
before he can be called a Yogi. A true Yogi must be pure, chaste,
spotless, self-sacrificing, and the absolute master of himself.
Humility, unostentatiousness, forgiveness, uprightness, and
firmness of purpose must adorn his character. A true Yogi's mind
should not be attached to sense-objects or sense-pleasures. He
should be free from egotism, pride, vanity, and earthly ambition.
Seeing the ephemeral nature of the phenomenal world, and
reflecting upon the misery, suffering, sorrow, and disease with
which our earthly existence is beset, he should renounce his
attachment to external things, which produce but fleeting
sensations of pleasure, and should overcome all that clinging to
worldly life which is so strong in ordinary mortals.
A true Yogi does not feel happy when he is in the
company of worldly-minded people who live on the sense plane like
animals. He is not bound by family ties. He does not claim that
this is his wife and these are his children; but, on the contrary,
having realized that each individual soul, being a child of
Immortal Bliss, belongs to the Divine Family, he severs all family
relations and worldly connections and thus becomes absolutely
free. A true Yogi must always preserve his equanimity in the face
of the unpleasant as well as of the pleasant experiences of life;
and rising above good and evil he should remain undisturbed by the
success or failure, the victory or defeat, which may come to him
as the result of the actions of his body and mind.
A true Yogi, again, must have unswerving devotion
to the Supreme Spirit, the Almighty and Omniscient Soul of our
souls; and realizing that his body and mind are the playground of
the omnipotent Cosmic will, be should resign his individual will
to the universal, and should be ever ready to work for others, to
live for others, and to die for others. All his works, so long as
he is in the society of people, should be a free offering to the
world for the good of humanity; but at other times he should
resort to secluded places and live alone, constantly applying his
mind to the highest spiritual wisdom that can be obtained in the
state of super consciousness, through meditation on the oneness of
the individual soul with God, the Universal Spirit.
A true Yogi must see the same Divinity dwelling in
all living creatures. He should also love all human beings
equally. He should have neither friend nor foe in the ordinary
sense of those terms. A true Yogi is illumined by the light of
Divine Wisdom, therefore nothing remains unknown to him. Time and
space cannot limit the knowledge and wisdom of a true Yogi. Past
and future events will appear to him like things happening before
his eyes. For him the light of divine wisdom has dispelled the
darkness of ignorance, which prevents one from realizing the true
nature of the soul, and which makes one selfish, wicked, and
sinful. All psychic and spiritual powers serve him as their real
master. Whatever he says is sure to come to pass. He never utters
a word in vain. If he says to a distressed or suffering person,
"Be thou whole," instantly that person will become whole.
The powers of a true Yogi are unlimited; there is
nothing in the world that he cannot do. Indeed, he alone has free
access to the storehouse of infinite powers; but he never draws
there from any force merely to satisfy idle curiosity, or to
gratify selfish motives, or to gain wealth and fame, or to get any
return whatsoever. He does not seek worldly prosperity, and always
remains unconcerned about the result of his works. Praise or
censure does not disturb the peace of his mind. Angels or bright
spirits and the spirits of ancestors rejoice in his company and
adore him. A true Yogi is worshipped by all. Having neither home
nor possessions of his own, he wanders from place to place,
realizing that the canopy of heaven is the roof of his world-wide
home. He is easily pleased by everybody irrespective of his caste,
creed, or nationality, and with a loving heart he blesses those
who rebuke or curse him. If his body be tortured or cut in pieces,
he takes no revenge, but, on the contrary, prays for the welfare
of his persecutor. Such is the character of a true Yogi.
From ancient times there have been many such true
Yogis in India and other countries. The descriptions of their
lives and deeds are furthermore as wonderful and as authentic as
the life and acts of that illustrious Son of Man who preached in
Galilee nearly two thousand years ago. The powers and works of
this meek, gentle, and self-sacrificing Divine man, who is
worshipped throughout Christendom as the ideal Incarnation of God
and the Saviour of mankind, have proved that he was a perfect type
of one who is called in India a true Yogi. Jesus the Christ has
been recognized by his disciples and followers not only as an
exceptionally unique character but as the only-begotten Son of
God; and it is quite natural for those who know nothing about the
lives and deeds of similar ideal characters of great Yogis and
Incarnations of God who have flourished at different times both
before and after the Christian era, to believe that no one ever
reached such spiritual heights or attained to such realization of
oneness with the Heavenly Father as did Jesus of Nazareth.
The greater portion of the life of Jesus is
absolutely unknown to us; and as He did not leave behind Him any
systematic teaching regarding the method by which one may attain
to that state of God-consciousness which He Himself reached, there
is no way of finding out what He did or practiced during the
eighteen years that elapsed before His appearance in public. It
is, therefore, extremely difficult to form a clear conception of
what path He adopted. But we can imagine that, being born with
unusually developed spiritual inclinations, He must have devoted
his life and time to such practices as led Him to the realization
of absolute Truth and to the attainment of divine consciousness,
which ultimately gave Him a place among the greatest spiritual
leaders of the world as well as among the disinterested Saviours
of mankind.
India is the only country where not only a complete
system of practices is to be found, but also a perfect method, by
following which well-qualified aspirants can attain to Christhood
or to that spiritual unfoldment and divine enlightenment which
made Jesus of Nazareth stand before the world as the ideal type of
spiritual perfection. By studying the lives, the acts, and the
most systematic and scientific teachings of the great Yogis of
India, and by faithfully following their example and precepts, an
earnest disciple can, through the Yoga practices given in the
various branches of the Vedânta philosophy, hope some day to
become as perfect as the Son of Man. This assurance must be a
comfort and a consolation to the soul that is struggling for the
attainment of spiritual perfection in this life. One peculiarity,
however, of the teachings of the great Yogis of India is that the
acquirement of spiritual perfection is the goal for all, and that
each individual soul is bound, sooner or later, to be perfect even
as Christ was perfect. They claim that spiritual truths and
spiritual laws are as universal as the truths and laws of the
material world, and that the realization of these truths cannot be
confined to any particular time, place, or personality.
Consequently by studying the Science of Yoga anyone can easily
understand the higher laws and principles, an application of which
will explain the mysteries connected with the lives and deeds of
saints, sages, or Incarnations of God, like Krishna, Buddha, or
Christ.
A genuine seeker after Truth does not limit his
study to one particular example, but looks for similar events in
the lives of all the great ones, and does not draw any conclusion
until he has discovered the universal law which governs them all.
For instance, Jesus the Christ said, "I and my Father are one."
Did He alone say it, or did many others who lived before and after
Him and who knew nothing of His sayings, utter similar
expressions? Krishna declared, "I am the Lord of the universe."
Buddha said, "I am the Absolute Truth." A Mahometan Sufi says, "I
am He"; while every true Yogi declares, "I am Brahman." So long as
we do not understand the principle that underlies such sayings,
they seem mysterious to us and we cannot grasp their real meaning;
but when we have realized the true nature of the individual soul,
and its relation to the universal Spirit, or God, or Father in
Heaven, or the Absolute Truth, we have learned the principle and
there is no further mystery about it. We are then sure that
whosoever reaches this state of spiritual oneness or
God-consciousness will express the same thought in a similar
manner. Therefore if we wish to understand the character and
miraculous deeds of Jesus of Nazareth, the surest way open to us
is the study of the Science of Yoga and the practice of its
methods.
This Science of Yoga, as has already been stated,
explains all mysteries, reveals the causes of all miracles, and
describes the laws which govern them. It helps us to unravel the
secrets of nature and to discover the origin of such phenomena as
are called miraculous. All miracles like "walking on the sea,"
"feeding a multitude with a small quantity of food," "raising the
dead," which we read of in the life of Jesus, are described by the
Yogis as manifestations of the powers that are acquired through
long practice of Yoga. These powers are not supernatural; on the
contrary, they are in nature, are governed by natural though
higher laws, and are therefore universal. When these laws are
understood, that which is ordinarily called miraculous by ignorant
people, appears to be the natural result of finer forces working
on a higher plane. There is no such thing as the absolutely
supernatural. If a person's conception of nature be very limited,
that which exists beyond that limit will seem to him supernatural,
while to another, whose idea of nature is broader, the same thing
will appear perfectly natural; therefore that miracle, or that
particular act which is classed as a miracle by a Christian, can
be explained by a Yogi as the result of higher or finer forces of
nature. Why? Because his conception of nature is much wider than
that of an ordinary man. We must not forget that nature is
infinite and that there are circles within circles, grades beyond
grades, planes after planes, arranged in infinite succession; and
the desire of a Yogi is to learn all the laws which govern these
various planes, and to study every manifestation of force, whether
fine or gross. His mind is not satisfied with the knowledge of one
particular plane of existence; his aim is to comprehend the whole
of nature.
Those who have read the gospel of Buddha, by Paul
Carus, will remember that, five hundred years before the birth of
Jesus the Christ, Shâriputra, Buddha's illustrious disciple,
walked on the surface of the water across a mighty river named
Shrâvasti. A similar account of crossing a wide river by walking
on the water, we find in the life of Padmapâda, the disciple of
Sankarâchârya, the best exponent of the Vedânta philosophy, who
lived about 600 A.D. Krishna, the Hindu Christ, whose other name
is Lord of the Yogis, raised the dead nearly fourteen hundred
years before the advent of Christ. The transfiguration of Krishna
is likewise most beautifully described in the tenth and eleventh
chapters of the "Song Celestial," and, like Christ, he also fed a
vast multitude of people with a small quantity of food. There are
other instances of similar powers shown by great Yogis who came
later; and these accounts are in every way as historical and as
authentic as those of Jesus the Christ. Thus we see that all the
miracles performed by Jesus are to be found as well in the lives
of Hindu Yogis, who lived both before and after Him.
So long as an event is isolated it appears
supernatural and miraculous; but if we see the same thing
happening elsewhere under similar conditions, it assumes the
aspect of a natural occurrence governed by natural law, and then
comes a proper solution of the mystery as well as the rational
explanation of that which was called a miracle. It is in this that
the Science of Yoga renders especial service to the world, for
more than any science it helps to reveal the secrets of nature and
to explain the causes of all miraculous deeds.
A true Yogi goes to the source of all power and of
all forces, studies the laws behind them, and learns the method of
controlling them. He knows that the various forces of nature are
but expressions of one universal, living, intelligent energy,
which is called in Sanskrit "Prâna." He sees that all the forces
of physical nature, like heat, gravitation, electricity, as also
all mental forces such as mind, intellect, thought, are nothing
but the manifestations of that one living self-existent force, "Prâna."
This intelligent energy projects from its bosom innumerable suns,
moons, stars, and planets into physical space. It has hurled this
earth from the molten furnace of the sun, it has cooled it, bathed
it in air and water, and clothed it with vegetable and animal
life; it wings the atmosphere with clouds and spans the planes
with rivers, it takes a fine minute substance and transforms it
into something huge and gross; it moves the body, gives life and
motion to every atom and molecule, and at the same time manifests
itself as thought and intellect.
Why should it be impossible for one who has
realized his oneness with this fountain-head of all power, who has
learned the method of controlling all phenomena by comprehending
the laws which govern them, and who has become the master of the
world as was Jesus the Christ, to perform simple phenomena like
walking on the sea, turning water into wine, or raising the dead?
According to a true Yogi these acts of Jesus the Christ were only
a few expressions of the Yoga powers which have been exercised
over and over again by the Yogis in India.
Thus we understand that Christ was one of these
great Yogis born in a Semitic family.Jesus was a great Yogi
because He realized the transitory and ephemeral nature of the
phenomenal world, and, discriminating the real from the unreal,
renounced all desire for worldly pleasures and bodily comforts.
Like a great Yogi He lived a life of seclusion, cutting off all
connections with earthly friends and relatives, and having neither
home nor possessions of His own.
Jesus the Christ was a great Karma Yogi, because He
never worked for results; He had neither desire for name nor
ambition for fame or for earthly prosperity. His works were a free
offering to the world. He labored for others, devoted His whole
life to help others, and in the end died for others. Being
unattached to the fruits of His actions, He worked incessantly for
the good of His fellow-men, directing them to the path of
righteousness and spiritual realization through unselfish works.
He understood the law of action and reaction, which is the
fundamental principle of Karma Yoga, and it was for this reason
that He declared, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap."
Jesus of Nazareth proved Himself to be a great
Bhakti Yogi, a true lover of God, by His unswerving devotion and
His whole-hearted love for the Heavenly Father. His unceasing
prayers, incessant supplications, constant meditation, and
unflinching self-resignation to the will of the Almighty made Him
shine like a glorious morning-star in the horizon of love and
devotion of a true Bhakti Yogi. Christ showed wonderful
self-control and mastery over His mind throughout the trials and
sufferings which were forced upon Him. His sorrow, agony, and
self-surrender at the time of His death as well as before His
crucifixion, are conclusive proofs that He was a human being with
those divine qualities which adorn the soul of a true Bhakti Yogi.
It is true that His soul labored for a while under the heavy
burden of His trials and sufferings; it is also true that He felt
that His pain was becoming wellnigh unbearable when He cried aloud
three times, praying to the Lord, "O my Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me."
But He found neither peace nor consolation until He
could absolutely resign His will to that of the Father and could
say from the bottom of His heart, "Thy will be done." Complete
self-surrender and absolute self-resignation are the principal
virtues of Bhakti Yoga, and as Christ possessed these to
perfection up to the last moment of His life, He was a true Bhakti
Yogi.
Like the great Râja Yogis in India, Jesus knew the
secret of separating His soul from His physical shell, and He
showed this at the time of His death, while His body was suffering
from extreme pain, by saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do." It is quite an unusual event to see one
imploring forgiveness for his persecutors while dying on the
cross, but from a Yogi's point of view it is both possible and
natural. Râmakrishna, the greatest Yogi of the nineteenth century,
whose life and sayings have been written by Max Müller, was once
asked, "How could Jesus pray for His persecutors when He was in
agony on the cross?" Râmakrishna answered by an illustration:
"When the shell of an ordinary green cocoanut is pierced through,
the nail enters the kernel of the nut too. But in the case of the
dry nut the kernel becomes separate from the shell, and so when
the shell is pierced, the kernel is not touched. Jesus was like
the dry nut, i.e., His inner soul was separate from His physical
shell, and consequently the sufferings of the body did not affect
him." 1 Therefore He could pray for the forgiveness of His
persecutors even when His body was suffering; and all true Yogis
are able to do the same. There have been many instances of Yogis
whose bodies have been cut into pieces, but their souls never for
a moment lost that peace and equanimity which enabled Jesus to
forgive and bless His persecutors. By this Christ proved that,
like other Yogis, His soul was completely emancipated from the
bondage of the body and of the feelings. Therefore Christ was a
Yogi.
Through the path of devotion and love Jesus
attained to the realization of the oneness of the individual soul
with the Father or the Universal Spirit, which is the ideal of a
Jnâna Yogi as well as the ultimate goal of all religions. A Jnâna
Yogi says: "I am He"; "I am Brahman"; "I am the Absolute Truth";
"I am one with the Supreme Deity." By good works, by devotion,
love, concentration, contemplation, long fasting, and prayer,
Jesus the Christ realized that His soul was one with God,
therefore He may be said to have attained the ideal of Jnâna
Yoga.
Like Krishna, Buddha, and all other great Yogis of
India, Jesus healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, made
the lame walk, and read the secret thoughts of His disciples. He
knew exactly what Judas and Peter were going to do; but there was
nothing supernatural in any of His actions, there was nothing that
cannot be done again over and over by a true Yogi, and there was
nothing in His life that cannot be explained rationally by the
Science of Yoga and the Philosophy of Vedânta. Without the help of
this science and this philosophy Jesus the Christ cannot be fully
understood and appreciated. By studying His character, on the
other hand, in the light of the Vedânta Philosophy we shall be
able not only to understand Him better, but to have a larger
appreciation of His true glory.
Material science now scoffs at His miracles, but
they are corroborated by the Science of Yoga and confirmed by the
deeds of the great Yogis of India. No devout Christian need for a
moment fear that physical science can ever undermine the work of
Jesus so long as the Science of Yoga is there to sustain all that
He did. Let him study the character of Jesus through the
Philosophy of Vedânta and I am sure that he will understand Him
better and be a truer Christian, a more genuine disciple of the
Son of Man than ever before. Let him follow the teachings of Yoga
and he will some day become perfect like Christ.
It is through the teachings of Vedânta that the
Hindus have learned how to glorify the character of Jesus; so also
it is through Vedânta that a Christian will learn to adore the
great Yogis like Krishna, Buddha, Râmakrishna, and others. It is
through Vedânta that a Christian will be able to see how Divinity
dwells in all animate and inanimate objects, and thus
comprehending the true relation of the individual soul to the
Supreme Spirit. |
