Christ could be born a thousand times in Galilee—but all in vain ...

The Gospel of John in the Light of Indian Mysticism

"Many years ago in one of my classes, while disputing an interpretation of one of the parables in the Gospels, an ordained minister of a Protestant church declared, "Mysticism has nothing to do with Christianity; it is just a Catholic heresy." To be sure, he later regretted having made that remark and wished to withdraw it because, as he said, he had spoken unconsciously. After the class, a Sufi Muslim and now a well-known professor of religion, said to me with tears in his eyes, "How sad! So many Christians don't know what treasures there are in the Gospels." This book is written in the hope of letting the inner Christ grow in us; for me it is a form of prayer and meditation. I am called by, and heartily endorse, what the seventeenth-century mystic Angelus Silesius (translated by Frederick Franck) wrote: Christ could be born a thousand times in Galilee ..." - Ravi Ravindra Ph.D.

"This book is written with certain assumptions and attitudes, which together specify what may be called "the method of vertical reasoning."

The first assumption is that the Gospel According to St. John is not on test. If anyone or anything is on test, , it is we ourselves and our sensitivity. The text has proved itself: many times, in many places, and to many very intelligent and sensitive people. It is one of the most sacred texts of a great religion, and it has provided spiritual nourishment to an entire culture over centuries. If it does not speak to us, alas! too bad for us! It is not for nothing that so many great teachers have said words to this effect: "You have ears but you do not hear; you have eyes but you do not see." If we cannot hear, we must surely be hardened and closed of heart, and in a defensive posture of narrow-mindedness. There are some people in whom such a posture has been formed in reaction to the extreme insensitivity and bellicose aggression of others who proclaim adherence or opposition to the Gospel and its message. Still, if we can free ourselves of such reactions, the beauty of the Gospel will be apparent.

The second assumption is that the Gospel has come down to us from a higher mind than ours. If there is something in it that we do not understand, the difficulty is likely to be in us and in our limitations. One cannot be blind to the fact that there are several places where later editors, compliers, translators, and others with various interests have added words or stories to the Gospel that change the original meaning or intention. This was perhaps done sometimes unintentionally and sometimes with a view to a doctrinal dispute. Wherever scholarship has revealed several alterations or additions in the text, a note has been made if appropriate and helpful in understanding the heart of the matter. Otherwise, in attempting to make sense of the text, whenever there is any question about its intelligence, there is no doubt that the Gospel comes from a higher intelligence that ours. In fact, precisely at the point where our best efforts do not yield a satisfactory sense in the Gospel, there is an opportunity for us to listen quietly with humility so that we may hear what we are not accustomed to hear and may allow the Gospel to work its magic in uplifting us above ourselves.

I am convinced that scriptures and teachers are not among us for them to be intelligible to us while we remain as we are; on the contrary, I believe that they are here so that we may rise above where we ordinarily are. All religions everywhere insist that we do not live as we might: from our right mind. Thus we live in sin, or in sorrow, or in illusion, or in a dreamlike sleepy state; and not in grace, with joy, in reality, wakeful. The teachings from above, of which the scriptures are an example, cannot be for the purpose of adding more knowledge or comfort or dreams to our sleepy state; they can nudge us a little toward wakefulness if we do not undo their effect by dragging them down to our level—where we win or lose theological arguments, convert others to our doctrines, and exercise control over them while remaining as we are, untransformed.

The third assumption is that the Gospel belongs to the whole world, and in particular to those who feel called by it and find some help in it, even if they are not nominally Christian and have no need of so labelling themselves. It is a great classic of world spirituality, and it is too important to be relegated to an exclusively sectarian reading. I detect a curious attitude among many of the Christians I have met, scholars and non-scholars alike. They find it a little odd that anybody who is not a Christian should be seriously reading Christian books. It is understandable to them that one might read such books to become a Christian, or even in order to engage in polemics against Christianity, but it is expected that one must choose and take sides. Commitment to Christ seems to imply for them either an enthusiastic to mild commitment against other teachers and teachings or a certain degree of tolerance and allowance for the coexistence of other religions, but it does not very often allow any conviction that these other teachings could be useful for one's own salvation. And those Christians who find something of value in other teachings often find it necessary to put Christianity down and to deny that they are Christians. Perhaps this either/or attitude arises from an overliteral interpretation of a fragment of a saying of Jesus Christ, "He who is not with me is against me" (Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23). For myself, I am happy to find light wherever I can, without thereby having to deny other sources of illumination or other colors of the spectrum, which together can more fully express the glory and abundance of the Vastness than any one can alone.

The fourth assumption is that there is a characteristic, which I call spiritual sensitivity, that perhaps all human beings have a rudimentary form and that is highly developed in some. This spiritual sense is able to comprehend subtle ideas, suggestions, and phenomena that are not comprehensible to the other senses or to the rational mind. To me it appears obvious that scholarship, erudition, and mental acumen by themselves are not sufficient for approaching the scriptures, although they justly have a high place and could be most illuminating. This extra dimension of spiritual sensitivity seems to be a much more important requirement. As is said in another tradition, just as a donkey bearing a load of sandalwood knows its weight but not its fragrance, so also the scholar may know the texts of the scriptures but not their significance. It is clear, however, that ignorance of what scholarship has to say about any matter pertaining to the scriptures is by itself no guarantee of spiritual sensitivity!

My interest in the Gospel is not doctrinal or dogmatic in the ordinary sense of these words. Nevertheless, we may recognize and understand what Jesus the Christ said: "Whoever chooses to do the will of God will know about the doctrine—namely, whether it comes from God or is merely my own" (John 7:17).

There are many levels of the quality of being Christian—from Jesus the Christ to Torquemada the inquisitor. In pointing to this variation, my purpose is not to belittle Christianity or to elevate it; a similar qualitative range exists in every religious tradition. My interest in this book is to discover a subtler and less churchly level in the Gospel than is usual, which is lost to many thoughtful and sensitive Christians as well as non-Christians simply because they have not been taught to appreciate the various levels of being within each person or of the corresponding levels in Christianity. As we grow spiritually, it is natural and necessary to move past the level of religion that we know and in which we dwell; in clinging to that level, we accept a stunting of the natural process of development. Unfortunately, far too often there is a fixed, externalized notion of what Christianity is that does not permit people, especially disgruntled ex-Christians, to see its immense spiritual wealth or its dynamic elasticity, which is adequate to the full measure of the most developed soul. Many years ago in one of my classes, while disputing an interpretation of one of the parables in the Gospels, an ordained minister of a Protestant church declared, "Mysticism has nothing to do with Christianity; it is just a Catholic heresy." To be sure, he later regretted having made that remark and wished to withdraw it because, as he said, he had spoken unconsciously. After the class, a Sufi Muslim and now a well-known professor of religion, said to me with tears in his eyes, "How sad! So many Christians don't know what treasures there are in the Gospels."

This book is written in the hope of letting the inner Christ grow in us; for me it is a form of prayer and meditation. I am called by, and heartily endorse, what the seventeenth-century mystic Angelus Silesius (translated by Frederick Franck) wrote:

Christ could be born
a thousand times in Galilee—but all in vain
until He is born in me."

The Gospel of John in the Light of Indian Mysticism, pp. 4-7
Ravi Ravindra Ph.D.
Inner Traditions; Revised edition (August 16, 2004)
ISBN-10: 1594770182
ISBN-13: 978-1594770180

NOTE: If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the sites listed below where this topic or related issues are discussed in detail to promote global peace, religious harmony, and spiritual development of humanity:

www.adishakti.org/
www.al-qiyamah.org/
www.adi-shakti.org/  — Divine Feminine (Hinduism)
www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/  — Divine Feminine (Christianity)
www.ruach-elohim.org/  — Divine Feminine (Judaism)
www.ruh-allah.org/  — Divine Feminine (Islam)
www.tao-mother.org/  — Divine Feminine (Taoism)
www.prajnaaparamita.org/  — Divine Feminine (Buddhism)
www.aykaa-mayee.org/  — Divine Feminine (Sikhism)
www.great-spirit-mother.org/  — Divine Feminine (Native Traditions)

"Now, the principle of Mother is in every, every scripture - has to be there." Shri Mataji, Radio Interview 1983 Oct 01, Santa Cruz, USA