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The ocean of philosophical insight hiding in the words and story of Jesus Christ has influenced and charged millions of people and are still inspiring. The teaching and philosophy discerned across the four Gospels — According to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — have stirred the philosophical perspective of Muni Narayana Prasad and it paved the way for him making a Gospel commentary in the light of Indian philosophy, Advaita Vedanta. In his scholarly attempt, the author has brought an apocryphal Gospel of Thomas too into its ambit.
Though the words of wisdom revealed by Jesus across these Gospels differ in language and style from Indian Vedanta, they reveal the same wisdom or supreme happiness that the Vedanta philosophy talks about. In this book, the author has attempted to explain the wisdom found in one cultural frame of reference as found in the other. That is, the teachings of Jesus Christ are elucidated in terms of the characteristics of Advaita Vedanta. Jesus, seen across these Gospels, always maintains his position of an enlightened seer (rishi). Thus the author calls him a sad-guru.
The author contends that from the Gospel accounts one may perceive, in Jesus`s life and words, the same absolutist vision that underlies the teachings of Advaita Vedanta. Echoing interreligious harmony, the author invites the non-Christians to visit the great enlightened guru in Jesus and the Christians to imbibe the spirit of Advaita Vedanta in Jesus`s teachings.
A must-collect, the book should find favour with the spiritual gurus, philosophers, and all progressive-thinking persons across religions.
Preface
Introduction
Part I
The Gospel According to Matthew
1.1. Jesus: The Son of God
1.2. The Continuator of a Tradition
1.3. Satan Tempts Jesus
1.4. Jesus Begins to Teach
1.5. Miracles
1.6. Sermon on the Mount
1.7. Sermon on the Mount (contd.):
1.8. Sermon on the Mount (contd.): Give Up Worldly Traits
1.9. Sermon on the Mount (contd.): Absolute Morality
1.10. Sermon on the Mount (contd.): Two Kinds of Knowledge
1.11. The Hard Life: Death and Immortality
1.12. The Harvest and the Harvesters
1.13. Directives to the Disciples
1.14. The Hidden Nature of Wisdom
1.15. The Priceless Value of Wisdom
1.16. The Value of Faith
1.17. Tradition, Purity
1.18. A Peep into the Core of Wisdom
1.19. The Insuperable Will of the Absolute
1.20. Transfiguration, Faith
1.21. Humility, Compassion
1.22. Marital Relationships, Giving Up Attachments
1.23. Exegesis
1.24. A Humble King`s Sovereignty
1.25. The Authority of Jesus
1.26. Who Becomes Enlightened?
1.27. Two Value Worlds
1.28. Resurrection
1.29. Two Commandments
1.30. Christhood
1.31. The Moral Indignation of Jesus
1.32. A Seeker`s Path
1.33. Hard Life and Attainment
1.34. Incomparable Grades of Happiness
1.35. A Criterion for Good and Evil
1.36. The Final Homage
1.37. The Last Supper and Dialectics
1.38. A Guru Does not Desire to Avoid Death
1.39. Crucifixion, Resurrection
Part II
The Gospel According to Mark
2.1. The Secret Nature of Wisdom
2.2. Ignorance Vanishes in the Presence of Wisdom
2.3. A Jnanin at His Home Town
2.4. The Essence of the Teaching
2.5. The Fire Sacrifices: The Two Commandments
2.6. The Resurrection
Part III
The Gospel According to Luke
Introduction
3.1. Divine and Demonic Traits
3.2. John the Baptist and Jesus
3.3. The Unenlightened Disciples and the Uncommon Wisdom
3.4. The Fulfilment of Prayer
3.5. Demons and Priests
3.6. The Ignorant Lawmakers
3.7. Religion and Man
3.8. Disciples and the Public
3.9. A Guru`s Anguish
3.10. Sin, Merit and the Greatness of Wisdom
3.11. The Kingdom of God Within and Its King
3.12. Disciples Vary in Kind
3.13. The Crucifixion and Resurrection
Part IV
The Gospel According to John
4.1. The Word and the World
4.2. The Mission of Jesus
4.3. The First Disciples
4.4. Miracles
4.5. The Second Birth
4.6. Deeds Done in God
4.7. Unrelenting Action
4.8. Jesus Testifies About Himself
4.9. The Bread of Two Types
4.10. The Authority that Jesus Has
4.11. The Secret of Non-duality
4.12. The Competence to Gain Wisdom
4.13. The Way God Acts
4.14. One World, One Religion
4.15. One with the Selfhood of God
4.16. The Guru–Disciple Bipolarity
4.17. The Way, the Truth, the Life
4.18. The Finality of the Teaching
4.19. Again on the Importance of the Guru–Disciple Rapport
4.20. The Guru Departs to the Advantage of the Disciples
4.21. A New Language
4.22. Signature of the Evangelist
Part V
The Gospel of Thomas
Introductory Remarks
5.1. Prologue
5.2. The Kingdom Inside and Outside You
5.3. The Way
5.4. Religious Observances
5.5. Wordly Traits
5.6. Discriminative Power
5.7. A Guru’s Anguish
5.8. The Ineffability of Wisdom
5.9. Absolutist Religious Observances
5.10. The Birth of a Guru
5.11. The Eye of the Eye
5.12. The Beginning and the End
5.13. Minuter than the Minutest, Greater than the Greatest
5.14. The Necessity of Being Strong-minded
5.15. Deconditioning the Mind
5.16. The Way to Enter the Kingdom
5.17. A Guru Grieves
5.18. Doctrinal Differences
5.19. Maya
5.20. Become Childlike
5.21. Forewarnings
5.22. The Nature and Content of Reality
5.23. The Knowledge that Is Above Knowldge
5.24. The Enlightened and the Ignorant
5.25. Competence for Wisdom
5.26. The One who Is Utterly Lacking
5.27. The All-inclusiveness of Wisdom
5.28. Workers Are Few
5.29. Everything Indeed Is Brahman
5.30. Renunciation and Enlightenment
5.31. Reality and Maya
5.32. Ordinary Men and a Guru
5.33. Self-identity with the Body
5.34. Rewarding a Guru
5.35. Inside and Outside
5.36. An Easy and Gentle Yoke
5.37. The Lapsing of Wisdom
5.38. Lift Yourself Up
5.39. Eternal Life
Glossary
Index
ISBN - 9788124607503
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Pages : 456
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