The Yoga of the Christ
Reviews
Published in USA under the title:
“The Gospel of John in the Light of Indian Mysticism”
Translated into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Greek, Finnish & Hungarian
“Ravindra’s is a great book. It challenges the spirit. It calls for deep cogitation and prayerful reconsideration of eternal verities. The author has understood the cosmic significance of Jesus Christ as the universal Spirit, Truth and Love. Undoubtedly, the best commentary on the Fourth Gospel from an Indian point of view…”
–Indian Newspaper The Hindu, Chennai
“Looking at Christ through Hindu eyes, Ravindra’s ‘external’ view of Christ is in ways more faithful to Christian history than much Western Christology now manages to be. This makes The Yoga of the Christ something of a landmark in interfaith dialogue.”
–Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions
“Superb in every way! It catches the tone and spirit of St John and this gospel’s profound coherence with other traditions, particularly the Hindu tradition in India and of course the Bhagavad Gita.”
–Father Thomas Berry, author of The Universe Story
“For the first time, a systematic study of the Gospel according to St. John is made by a non-Christian. Dr. Ravindra explores John’s twenty-one chapters, one by one, with beautiful and incisive style… Ravindra’s commentary is not an intellectual exercise but a heart pilgrimage. He warns us that the ‘rational mind is always uneasy about the Spirit which displaces it from the centre of being…’ The author shares with us his spiritual journey, using John’s Gospel as the structure for his development. The basis of personal experience of the spirit within us is reminiscent of Pascal’s Pensées, and, closer to us, Thomas Merton’s reflections on Zen Buddhism… Stemming from this are larger, more universal truths; on an otherwise too-familiar text he brings us countless insights, which can only be gained from such a fresh perspective. Throughout the book these nuggets startle and delight… The Yoga of the Christ will be for many readers such a source of light, as the best insights of the Hindu tradition are integrated to better reveal the dynamic elasticity and immense spiritual wealth of John’s Gospel.”
–Jacques Goulet in-Atlantic Provinces Book Review.
“IN OUR PLURALISTIC world”, says Ravi Ravindra in his introduction to The Yoga of the Christ, “cross-cultural communication has become a matter of necessity for global survival.” He goes on to claim that a new consciousness is emerging, and that one of its features is a “nonsectarian spirituality”. His book is an attempt to contribute to the development of this new consciousness, and in particular to show how one of the central texts in the Christian tradition- the Gospel of John-contains truths which transcend religious and cultural boundaries.
Ravindra believes that his interpretation of John shows that the exclusiveness which characterises much of Christianity fails to understand the true meaning of texts such as St. John’s Gospel.”
–Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies
“Ravindra’s book remains a moving guide to this most deeply mystical of the canonical gospels and is excellent on several themes such as Christ as both crucifer and crucified, on the nature of evil and the role of Satan, on both Judas and Peter. All offered as insight into the theory and practice of our own transformation, its possibilities and difficulties.“
–The Scientific & Medical Network
“Shows the benefits that cross-cultural perspectives can bring, helping readers to see with the heart as well as the head. . . . The best study of St. John’s Gospel that I have found.”
–James George, Parabola
“The reflections of Ravi Ravindra will stimulate the initiated as well as the less informed readers. This book contributes, in a spirit of tolerance, to the enrichment of religions.”
–Raimundo Panikkar, author of The Hidden Christ of Hinduism
“Dazzlingly brilliant spiritual and cross-cultural study of the most mystical of the books of the Bible, the Gospel of John. Few will finish this book unchanged, either intellectually or spiritually.”
–Robert Ellwood, author of The Cross and the Grail
“…just to say that reading your Yoga [of the Christ] is not merely a delight, it also tended to make me weep. How is it, I wondered, paragraph by paragraph almost, that so many Christians fail to understand the Gospel of John when ‘an outsider ‘ can do it so much better? On second thoughts, however, I realised that that was grossly imperceptive of me… Of course, I have come to know—and by now should have not merely known, but viscerally realized and assumed—that insight, the ability to understand, is a function of the observer’s spiritual depth, not of his or her community membership. And therefore of course you would understand better.”
—Professor Wilfred Cantwell Smith,
(the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University, in a letter dated July 6, 1990)