We concluded article 11 of these series with the statement that Paramahansa Yogananda has taken on a difficult – nay, impossible – mission in teaching that two paths – original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ and the original Yoga as explained by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita – are essentially one and the same thing (as worded by PY’s disciple Nabha Cosley in a remark dated Jan. 9,2016)
The more I read this remarkable book, the more convinced am I in this conviction, so much so I wonder how this is not apparent to brighter minds than mine which peruse this book, and most notably to the author himself.
One thing I can say with a reasonable amount of confidence is that PY has remained largely true to his understanding of the original teachings of Jesus Christ. I believe this stems from his (quote:) “personal experience. I know the reality of his life and miracles for I have seen him many many times, communed with him and received his direct communication about these matters.”
We can pause right here and pose certain queries to clarify our grasp of this issue.
a) In the very first article on this subject, we made the point that for PY to have communion with him, Jesus must be alive today and we cited Matthew 28:20 (New International Version) “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Amen!)“.
Since he is embarking on a mission of establishing harmony, would it be alright to ask if PY knew Krishna to the same extent as he did Jesus? Would his averment about personally ” knowing the reality of his life and miracles, for I have seen him many many times, communed with him and received his direct communication about these matters” be still true if the pronouns “his” and “him” were to refer to Krishna rather than Christ?
b) at another place – pages 5 & 6 – of the Introduction in the print edition with me, PY writes and I quote:
“Jesus came in a darkened age that was little able to appreciate him but his message of the love of God and his intercession on behalf of suffering humanity was not only for that time but for all ages to come – that God is with man in his darkest moments as well as in enlightened times. He reminded a world fearful of their creator as a God of wrathful judgement that though “God is a spirit and they that worship Him in spirit and truth,” the absolute is also a personal God who can be appealed to in prayer and who responds as a loving Heavenly Father.”
If you are looking for the root Bible passages from where this enlightenment could have come , I can cite several:
“Jesus came in a darkened age that was little able to appreciate him”
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.(John 1:11)
God is with man in his darkest moments as well as in enlightened times
“they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us”. (Matthew 1:23)
“God is a spirit and they that worship Him in spirit and truth.“(John 4:24)
The absolute is also a personal God who can be appealed to in prayer and who responds as a loving Heavenly Father.
For you have not received a spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of divine adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”(Romans 8:15)
I am open to correction, but my understanding is that the idea of a personal God to whom you can relate as a son to a loving father is foreign to Hinduism. Forgive me, but the image that most often comes to my mind when I think of a “world fearful of their creator as a God of wrathful judgement” is anything but kind, compassionate, merciful and loving:
On the other hand, the notion of child-father relationship brings to my mind the story found in Luke 18:16 where “Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.“”
To be fair, I am aware that there are images of Krishna that portray him as being somewhat naughty and playful – a darn sight different from the forbidding picture of goddess Kali shown above – but I haven’t seen any depicting his loving relationship with his followers.
I agree that that the foregoing by itself proves nothing but the above references give rise to another issue – that of multiple gods – that I believe has been comprehensively laid to rest in the previous article of this series.
So there!
If we are digging into comparison with Jesus, apart from the Abba – Father relationship, you cannot also ignore the following verses:
Mark 3:35 “For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”
John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
So while Paramahansa Yogananda is wrestling with the problem of proving the equivalence of the teachings of Christ and Krishna, would you mind very much if I talk freely to my friend – Jesus!!