The Wisdom of Jesus

About the Book

The Wisdom Of Jesus And the Yoga Siddhas
by Marshall Govindan

This book is addressed to Christians who are interested in comparing Eastern spiritual teachings with those of Christianity, serious Biblical students, and students of spiritual Yoga, otherwise known as Classical Yoga and Tantra, as well as students and practitioners of meditation and other spiritual disciplines.

The discoveries of ancient manuscripts, and their analysis by independent critical scholars using scientific methods, provide much insight into the original teachings of Jesus.

The sayings of Jesus, circulated orally during the first decades following his crucifixion are probably the most authentic source of his teachings that we have available today. These “sayings” are limited to a few dozen parables, aphorisms and sharp retorts, which were repeated in the oral tradition for two or three decades before they were eventually recorded by the anonymous writers of the Gospels.

Remarkably, what Jesus taught through his parables and sayings exactly parallels the yogic teachings of the Yoga Siddhas. For those seeking to apply the wisdom of these sayings in their own life, the implications are clear. Seek not to know about God; instead, seek to know God through higher states of consciousness. The objectives of this book are to:

1. Demonstrate that what Jesus taught, for example through his parables and sayings, was amazingly similar to what the Yoga masters, the Siddhas, taught.
2. To explore the implications of these parallel teachings for those seeking to apply them in their own life, not so much to know about God, as to how to know God through higher states of consciousness.
3. To show how the discoveries of ancient manuscripts, and their analysis by independent critical scholars using scientific methods, provide much insight into the original teachings of Jesus.
4. To demonstrate why the sayings of Jesus, circulated orally during the first decades following his crucifixion before being recorded, are probably the most authentic source of his teachings that we have available today. These are limited to a few dozen parables, aphorisms and sharp retorts, which were repeated in the oral tradition for two or three decades before they were eventually recorded by the anonymous writers of the Gospels.
5. To show how the original teachings of Jesus, as recorded in his sayings and parables, became obscured once Christianity was defined in terms of dogmas and creeds.
6. To explore the question "Who was Jesus?" based upon those statements that many modern critical scholars have concluded are the most authentic.
7. To explore the questions "Where is the Kingdom of God" and "How may I reach it?" based upon those statements that many modern critical scholars have concluded are the most authentic.
8. To explore the question "Why are the teachings of Jesus so contrary to ordinary human nature?"

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Who was Jesus?

One of the most influential human beings of all times?  The founder of Christianity? A messiah or savior sent by God to redeem humanity of its sins? What were His teachings? Is our knowledge of Jesus limited to what is recorded in the Bible?  What has modern historical research to say about what Jesus did and taught? Have there been other spiritual masters in India whose teachings are similar to those of Jesus? If so, what light can they shed on the teachings of Jesus?

The Book The Wisdom of Jesus and The Yoga Siddhas by Marshall Govindan and this website answer these questions.  Please visit our bookstore  to buy the book.

Download Chapter 1 of the Book here

Any questions for discussion on this blog are welcomed and can be submitted wisdomofjesusquestions@yahoo.ca

Marshall Govindan

The Wisdom Jesus and the Yoga Siddhas - Table of Contents

Prologue by the author

Introduction

• Questions
• Remarkable similarities
• Papal Encyclical “Faith and Reason”
• The Objectives of this book

Chapter 1: Modern Historical Research of Jesus and early Christianity

• From the Renaissance to Thomas Jefferson
• The Development of the Seven Pillars of Modern Historical Biblical Research
• Methodology and Findings of Modern Critical Biblical Scholars
• Were the Gospels Inerrant and Inspired by God?
• Two Portraits of Jesus: the Map of Relationships between the Gospels
• Rules of Written Evidence
• The Oral Tradition prior to the Gospels and the Rules of Oral Evidence
• The Distinctive Voice of Jesus
• The Unassertive Sage

Chapter 2:  The Paradoxical Teachings of the Godmen.

• The Problem of Paradox
• What Did Jesus Really Do According to Modern Historical Research?
• Is Yoga a Religion?
• Yoga as a Philosophy
• Who Are the Yoga Siddhas?
• What is the Literature of the Yoga Siddhas and Their Teachings?
• Similarities between Jesus and the Yoga Siddhas and their Teachings
• The Yamas, the Restraints: Yoga Sutra II:30
• Was Jesus a Guru?Devotees versus Disciples
• Are There Any Differences between Jesus and the Yoga Siddhas?

Chapter 3: Gospel of Thomas:  A Gnostic Text?

• History and Distinctiveness of the Gospel of Thomas
• The Gospel of Thomas: A Gnostic Text?
• The Kingdom of Heaven is Already Here
• The Hidden, Gnostic Heart of the Gospel of Thomas: Jesus as Initiator of His Most Worthy Disciples into Esoteric Knowledge: Gnosis
• Discounting Prophecy and its Fulfillment for our Freedom
• Who Am I?
• On Entering the Kingdom of Heaven
• Was Jesus a Gnostic?
• How to Realize the Gnosis, the Saving Knowledge?

Chapter 4: Early Christianity: the formation of the Church and its Dogma

• Paulism
• The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Essenes
• Early Doctrinal Issues
• Docetism
• Ebionitism
• Marcionites
• The Gnostics
• The Proto-Orthodox
• The Cultural and Political Factors which favored the proto-Orthodox
• The Rule of Faith and Creeds
• The Gospel of John versus the Gospels of Thomas, Matthew, Mark and Luke
• The Formation of the Proto-Orthodox New Testament
• Constantine and the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea

Chapter 5: What did Jesus Really Say?

• Reversing Natural Human Inclinations
• The Kingdom of Heaven
• On Entering the Kingdom of Heaven
• Why Should Jesus Say that Those Who are Poor, Hungry, Suffering and  Persecuted are Blessed?
• On Purity
• On Worry, and Being Present
• On Aspiration
• Showing the Path to Others
• The Lord’s Prayer
• God’s Unconditional Love
• Forgiveness of Sins and the Karmic Consequences of our Actions
• Hidden Treasure
• The Good Samaritan

Chapter 6:  What did Jesus not say?

• The Gospel of John
• The “I am” Sayings
• The Farewell Prayer
• The End of the World
• Jesus’ Dying Words
• At the Tomb
• Doubting Thomas?
• The Familiar Tenets of Christianity Cannot Be Traced to Jesus Himself
• Consequences of Christianity’s Replacing the Teachings of Jesus

Conclusion and Recommendations

Notes

Bibliographic References

Glossary

Appendix A: Index of Red and Pink letter sayings from the Jesus Seminar

Book Review

This new book, “The Wisdom of Jesus and the Yoga Siddhas,” by Marshall Govindan is addressed to Christians who are interested in comparing Eastern spiritual teachings with those of Christianity, and students of spiritual Yoga, otherwise known as Classical Yoga and Tantra, as well as students and practitioners of meditation. Mr. Govindan, himself a yogi of 40 years and devout lover of God for nearly 60, presents us a scholarly book to bridge the gap between the Christian religion and Christ-like spiritual experience. 

Christianity speaks of a variety of means to reach God: religion is one, philosophic reflection is another and spiritual realization and experience is a third. While religion and philosophic thought are considered approaches to take, spiritual realization and experience suggests direct entry. Religion has its sacraments, rituals, creeds, theology and prayer. But, religion has too often pushed away spiritual experience and philosophic reflection in favor of dogma, creed, piety and self-prescribed moral conduct.

The overriding theme in this book is, regardless of your religion or philosophy, approach God directly. Jesus spoke about a direct approach to the Kingdom of Heaven, which we can all take. The Siddhas referred to it as Yoga, the goal being samadhi (cognitive absorption) and prescribed the methods of Kundalini Yoga. “Seek not to know about God, now is the time to Seek to know God, through higher states of consciousness.”

According to modern Biblical scholars, the most authentic teachings of Jesus are the “sayings’ and parables passed down orally for two to three decades after the crucifixion of Jesus, before being recorded in the three synoptic Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke between 65 and 85 AD, as well as in the Gospel of Thomas. Remarkably, this book explores these controversial teachings and compares them with those of the Yoga Masters, the Siddhas. These authentic teachings of Jesus, according to modern scholars were later obscured in the Gospel of John, and the letters of Paul as Christianity developed a religion about Jesus.

This book explores the short, provocative, memorable and often repeated phrases and stories of Jesus and compares them to the short, provocative, memorable and often repeated phrases of the Yoga Siddhas. Truly the similarities are profound and revealing. One of the most interesting revelations may be in seeing "Why the teachings of Jesus are so contrary to ordinary human nature?"

Normally man does not have direct entry into the highest states of consciousness. Man is limited by the wide gulf, which lies between ordinary consciousness and “Christ-like Consciousness.” It is up to each individual to discover the means to move between these levels of consciousness, if we are ever to truly access the realm of the Spirit.

Jesus refers to the obstacles to the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven, in his parables. They draw our attention again and again to man’s ignorance of his divine nature and to the delusion caused by his pride and egoism. Jesus taught through parable, as did the Siddhas, that we all must become spiritually disciplined by living in the world, that we must release attachments to the world wealth and glory, and that we must love unconditionally, caring for all others as the Lord, Himself. Only in this way can we transcend the ordinary egoistic perspective, and experience the realm of the Spirit.

Faith must not ignore what reason uncovers. Through his book, Marshall Govindan opens a Siddha’s door to the soul, for all who have taken the sacred teachings of Jesus into their heart.

By Durga Ahlund