Was Jesus a Yogi?

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Here is an article I found which may interest you. Christmas season is upon us, it may be wise to reflect on his signifigance.

Deb
excerpt from the

Sri Swami Sivananda

Jesus was born a Palestine Jew. He was born of Mary and Joseph at Bethlehem without impregnation, was born, instead, out of immaculate conception. He was meek and humble. He remained as innocent as a child throughout his life. He was tolerant, kind and merciful. He was a Yogi of the East though he preached in Palestine.



{Yoga is a Sanskrit word meaning: to yoke together, to unite, to facilitate two things to work in union. In this philosophical system, the word "yoga" stands to mean the aim of humankind – the union of human with God. St. Paul referred to this union as, "having the mind of Christ" and Jesus indicated his union with God when he stated, "I and the Father are one" and, "the Father is in me and I in the Father, and you in me." Jesus was a Yogi, a person in union with God – and Yoga Philosophy is the philosophy, or rather psychology, of humankind's quest to union with God.


Yoga philosophy is the cream of religious thinking, the result of more than 4000 years of evolution of the Arian and Hindu religions – giving rise to Gnosticism, Buddhism, Taoism (or The Way), the Bhagavad Gita, and continuing its evolvement to later be divided into advaita, tantra, and various other streams. Yogi Philosophy is the culmination of the truth behind the thinking of Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and most enlightened sages and spiritual masters. Yogi philosophy is not religion in the sense of claiming affiliation to Cult, Creed and Dogma – but is a way of life that leads to spiritual growth.


Yoga, in a generic sense, refers to Karma Yoga – the study of the actions and thoughts of humans, in relation to the spiritual quest; Bhakti Yoga – the study of yoga by devotion and love; Jnâna Yoga – the study of wisdom, and its relevance to the spiritual quest; Hatha Yoga – the study of the physical body and its relation to the spiritual quest;.Mantra Yoga – the study of the transformative powers of a sacred sound or combination of sounds chanted during meditation; Laya Yoga (or Kundalini Yoga) – the path of Kundalini awakening; and Raja Yoga – the practice of Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnâna Yoga, and Hatha Yoga in a planned gradual course of spiritual exercise.

The purpose of Yoga is, as stated above, the unification of human and God. This is brought about by understanding of our ultimate goal and destination, understanding of our purpose in life, understanding our relationship to the rest of the universe and our relationship to God. This understanding results in happiness, an inner happiness, a calm and reserved strength – called in the New Testament, blessedness. The purpose of Yoga philosophy is the understanding and practice of the inner teaching of Jesus the Christ, Siddartha Gautama the Lord Buddha, and the other champions of God – to bring about happiness.}


Remember Jesus in the temple preaching at the age of thirteen? He had already surpassed the priests. Shortly thereafter he disappeared to the land beyond the Dead Sea and reappeared in his thirty-first year. It has been the belief of many historians that at some time during the "missing period," from his thirteenth to his thirty-first year, Jesus traveled in India and practiced Yoga.


Jesus left Jerusalem and reached the land of Indus in the company of merchants. He visited Varanasi, Rajgriha and other places in India. He spent several years in Hindustan. Jesus lived like a Hindu or a Buddhist monk, a life of burning renunciation and dispassion. He assimilated the ideals, precepts and principles of Hinduism.


{Christianity is modified Hinduism only, which was suitable for those people who lived in the period of Christ. Philosophically, Jesus was a child of the soil of India. That is the reason why there is so much of similarity between his teachings and the teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism. Some Christians do not believe in this account of the Lord's "missing period." They argue it is not specifically mentioned in the Bible.


Continued in next post!

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In matters connected with persons who lived as far back as nearly twenty centuries ago, there is bound to be slight divergence of view. The Old Testament naturally cannot contain any reference. The New Testament consists of Gospels, etc., written by His Disciples, after He was enlightened. It is obviously futile to search for a reference about the period preceding this – which was the period during which he traveled in India where he got initiation from sages and seers – in accounts of His actions written by people who could never have had any first-hand knowledge of His earlier days.


Anyway, there is nothing implausible in this view, and its acceptance would only strengthen the bonds of love between the East and the West, and promote good will between the two hemispheres, which is the Mission of the Lord.}


Jesus explained the real nature of God, man, and the world he lived in. He taught people to change their way of looking at things. He told them that if they would change their outlook on life from its materialistic to its spiritualistic aspect, they would realize that the world they were living in was God's Kingdom.


Jesus has left no written records of his important teachings. He delivered all his teachings orally. Neither he, nor his followers, ever wrote down even a single word which was spoken by him, in his lifetime. The words of Jesus were not collected till some generations after they were uttered.



His words have been misunderstood, wrongly annotated, mutilated, deformed and transformed; and yet, they have survived almost two thousand years as they were very powerful and came from the heart of a realized Yogi.


There is not much of intricate philosophy or Yoga Sadhana (spiritual practice) in Christianity. There is reason for this. Jesus had to deal with the illiterate fishermen of Galilee. He gave them only moral precepts and showed them the way of righteous living. Leaving aside all abstruse philosophical theory and subtle intellectual researches, Jesus told man how he must live, what he must think, what he must feel, and what he must do. To do this, he clothed even the highest truths of spiritual life with simple stories and parables, which even the common man in the street could easily grasp and comprehend. Couched in the form of simple parables, the deepest wisdom of spiritual life became expressed before man, through the sweet and blessed words of Divine Jesus.


Aspiring students of Yoga will be introduced to esoteric teaching (teaching reserved for an inner circle of disciples) that is not meant for the masses. Jesus and St. Paul both reserved the inner teaching for a chosen few – Jesus referring to it as "pearls", St. Paul referring to it as "strong meat for men" as opposed to "milk for babes". Jesus' story of throwing pearls to swine, with the result of it trampling the teaching and turning around to rent the giver, is an explanation of a law of nature that makes the protection and fostering of esoteric teaching important.


His Sermon on the Mount is nothing but the practice of Sadachara or right conduct. It is marvelous, inspiring and soul-stirring. It corresponds to the teachings of the Noble Eightfold Path of Lord Buddha, as well as the practice of Yama (the first step in Raja Yoga; Eternal vows: non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, etc.) and Niyama (the second step in Raja Yoga; Observance: purity, contentment, study, surrender to God, etc.) of Raja-Yoga. Raja Yoga is a system of Yoga propounded by Patanjali Maharishi, the founder of the Yoga Philosophy, who was not only a Philosopher and a Yogi, but a Physician as well. He lived about three hundred years before Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself was a Yogi of a superior order, a Raja-Yogi indeed.


In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, "Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled up." "Those who seek the Kingdom of God within themselves will find Him," and therefore, "All things would be added." "Overcome evil by good." Jesus prescribed this great rule for his followers and the world at large. This is only the practice of Ahimsa or non-violence which purifies and softens the heart. Ahimsa is a form of truth only.


Jesus was a perfect Yogi. He did many miracles. He stopped the waves of the ocean. He gave sight to blind people. He cured lepers by mere touch. He fed a large multitude with a small loaf of bread. Jesus welcomed and embraced the sinners, the despised, and the harlots and purified them. He comforted them and gave them solace and peace. He raised the fallen. He brought relief and rest to the broken-hearted.


To Jesus, God was a loving Father. Jesus' watchword was love for God and fellowmen. "Have faith in God." "The Lord is our God." "Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength." "Love thy neighbour as thyself." "The love of God manifests in the love of man." These are the central teachings of Jesus.


Jesus Christ was crucified and yet he is living now. He has immortalized his name. None can silence his voice. His voice has been speaking through centuries. He accepted death with great joy in order that others might live. What a magnanimous soul!



Why did he have to endure so much of persecution and suffering? Could he not have overwhelmed his foes by a mere exercise of his divine will? Yes. But the supreme incarnation of love that Jesus was, he had willed it that his own life would be an example for people to emulate. Therefore he behaved like any other human being; and while so doing, fully demonstrated in his own brief but eventful life the great Sermon that he gave on the Mount.


His hands were tied to the cross and nails were hammered into them. In this state he prayed for the people who were tormenting him. His last words are an example to the world. He said: "O Lord! Forgive those people who are torturing me and putting me to death, for they know not what they do." How noble! What a large and forgiving heart he had! Jesus was an embodiment of forgiveness. That is the reason why he still lives in our hearts and why millions of people now worship him.


Jesus set an example to man to overcome evil by good. The cross of Jesus will remain for all time as the supreme example of this doctrine: "Return good for evil". Jesus surrendered himself completely to God. He knew that God changed the heart of the unjust through the suffering of the just.


The life of Jesus displays a silent yet supreme heroism in the face of the most determined opposition, persecution, and misunderstanding. And he has set an example how a true seeker repulses the temptations on the spiritual path. Long before the outward drama of crucifixion, Jesus had voluntarily crucified himself spiritually by annihilating the lower self and living a purely divine life. Jesus declares: "Ye cannot serve both God and Mammon". In other words, his teaching implies: Detach; attach. Detach yourself from the material objects of this transient world. Attach yourself to the eternal spiritual treasure of Atman, the Self.


After Jesus was crucified, he was restored to life. The resurrection or the rising again from dead was, according to Jesus, and ineffable condition in which all bodily limitation was transcended. It was a condition of being perpetually in the presence of God.


Jesus was a fully developed Yogi and sage. He had no identification with the physical body. He identified himself with the Supreme Soul. He said: "I and my Father are one".




Downloaded 02/25/04 from The Divine Life Society

[Blu]

It just occurred to me that I sent you an article of a discourse written by a famous Hindu Yogi, written before he died in 1963. , without any background material, as to Edgar Cayce's readings verifying that indeed Jesus went to these far out posts to learn during the "lost years".

See Reading #1472-3 (I believe this was for Judy, the Essene teacher and guardian of Jesus who sent him to these countries.)

also:5749-2 may reference India, Persia and Egyptian studies