“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” – Gospel of Thomas, 70
Motivation
I encountered the book Hard Sayings of Jesus by F. F. Bruce in the year 2000. Many of the sayings that I read in that book immediately made sense to me, but not the explanations by the author. The scientist in me—wanting to improve and share extant theories of life, the Universe, and everything—prodded me to write new explanations to these sayings from my own understanding. Of course, I also didn’t understand many other biblical extracts in the book at all. (Maybe I was missing context, I told myself.) But soon, I forgot all about it.
It was sometime in 2008 when I first became aware again of a conscious inner urge to write something compelling on the topic. But because I was a busy professional immersed in my own spiritual study when time permitted, I initially ignored this prodding from within, hoping it might subside and vanish by itself.
Every year after that, I’d get this inspiration to write, especially a few months before December, with the thought of having it ready to share during the festivities of the imminent Christmas season. However, that time of year also served as a period for introspection and reflection for me, so I repeatedly ignored the compulsion. I imagined that if I overlooked it long enough, it would dissipate.
Well, not only did the impulse not go away, it became increasingly intense every year. So, my initial idea of interpreting the sayings of Christ with the support of Vedantic perspective came to me first in 2000, became a significant compulsion in 2008, and persisted all through the years, never diminishing.
Fast forward to the fall of 2019. I finally made the headspace required for writing. All in all, this book finally evolved and functioned as a labor of love to my intellectual and spiritual curiosity and also as a gift to the world.
Who Will Benefit from This Book?
“I came to the conclusion long ago that all religions were true and that also that all had some error in them, and while I hold by my own religion, I should hold other religions as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we were Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu; but our innermost prayer should be that a Hindu should become a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, and a Christian a better Christian.” – Mahatma Gandhi
This book is for everyone who seeks the truth behind the conditioned denotations and common images that familiar biblical sayings conjure in our minds. Almost everyone who reads this book, regardless of one’s religious affiliation, will take something away of value from it, for the material is about experiencing truth uncolored by dogma.
Many sayings of the Bible and credited to Jesus in particular are difficult to understand or accept, including for the followers of the Christian faith. Much commentary exists about them, but almost all of this is within the framework of Christian theology. This theology centers on conferring deification exclusively on Christ and separating him from everyone else. Generally, the path of deification represents the path of love and devotion, or “bhakti,” as it would be categorized in the Indian tradition.
Most of the commentaries on the sayings of Jesus are force-fitted into that Christian framework when sometimes the sayings themselves appear to lack love and compassion (for example, “Let the dead bury the dead.” Matthew 8:22), which often makes them difficult to comprehend in the first place, let alone accept. The contents in this book attempt to explain these sayings without this pre-determined framework.
Finally, this book discusses only nine biblical sayings. Though it’s a small number, these selected sayings evoke emotions that range from practical, to intellectual, to devotional. Indian scripture, both the Upanishadic revelations and commentaries of various modern masters, are similar in this respect. Using textual parallels from the latter, I hope to share the biblical sayings quoted herein in a new light and reach those who seek more satisfying and fulfilling meanings through a deeper understanding of the material.
Background
It’s a valid question for the reader to ask who I am and what my authority to write this book is. Like many people, I’m a professional with a background in science. I consider this an advantage because this has enabled me to approach the topic without “institutional bias.” I would imagine many of my readers are seeking similarly as me, to make their own paths in getting to grips with the topic of spirituality. For the last 36 years, I’ve earnestly committed almost my entire personal time to studying spirituality and practicing some form of meditation. This book is an abridged selection of learnings from this study that began about 6 years before I arrived in the United States from India in 1990. My focus has largely been on Vedantic traditions, and after arriving in the United States, on Christian spirituality.
