Understanding the Hidden Teachings of the Gospels (Self-Realization Fellowship)

Based on Yogananda's book The Second Coming of Christ. Explains the many references to yoga in Jesus' teachings. Very inspiring and enlightening. Will definitely increase one's understanding of Spirit.

I had purchased the Spanish language version of this book for a friend in Mexico. He emailed me that he was enjoying it quite a lot. He is or was a Christian and this book was, he said, helping him in his search for a greater understanding of reality than his particular church teaches. So I bought the English version, which I had purchased previously but left with another friend after reading it the first time. It was equally interesting and nuanced when I read it the second time. I now look forward to seeing my Mexican friend and comparing ideas together. Oh my, what a wonderful book this is indeed. Not too long. Gets right down to the important points right away.

Finally a book which depicts Jesus in his true light. Yogananda reveals Jesus as an Oriental master of God conciousness and strips away Western concepts of Jesus which have been fostered since the second century.

As a Chiristian enjoyed reading Yogananda's interpretation of Gospel Scriptures.
It offers a practical understanding of Jesus Messiah's teachings,away from arid dogma.I recommend that all Christians should take a look at this book to gain a unified perspective of God and religion and the teachings of our beloved Jeus.

YOGANANDA LAYS REST TO ALL THE MYTHS,PREJUDICES AND SUPERSTITIOUS NONSENSE CREATED BY LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF JESUS WORDS. HE SHOWS THE BRILLIANCE OF JESUS TEACHINGS FROM A SPIRITUAL REFERENCE AND HOW IT APPLYS TO ALL PEOPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS, NOT JUST TO THOSE WHO ARE OF CHRISTIAN BELIEF.

If your path includes the notion of the "good news" as some story about an innocent sacrifice in which one must simply have faith, if your path enjoys the earthly rules and dogma and separation propagation of the "thou shalt not..." and the writings of saul, if you are comfortable in that faith and rules journey, then this book is not for you.

If your path is to understand what Jesus teaches about freedom from the separation world (through forgiveness, nonjudgement and nonworry), if you are seeking and knocking on the door and asking, if you have already found your way to deep quiet meditation as Jesus obviously described in Matt Ch 6, if you're trying to grasp the real good news taught by Jesus (i.e., that you already are a son of (the essence of) God and that the kingdom of God is already inside you) and --- like the prodigal son who had to pick himself up out of the mud and take himself home --- you are trying to make your way home, then this book may very well have a place on your path.

Another wonderful book from the insight of Paramahansa Yogananda has fallen into our laps - literally our meditation lap. The Yoga of Jesus, subtitled Understanding the Hidden Teachings of the Gospels is a inspiring, uplifting guide for daily living. As all of Yogananda's books are, it is so clear, that what we think is esoteric is made to be practical; it makes sense.

Just looking at the front cover art depicting Jesus in meditation, upper body immersed in white light lifts the reader into a receptive mood for the inspiring message within the covers. And the drawing by Heinrich Hofmann of The Sermon on the Mount is delicate and I think carries a spiritual vibration.

The content of the book is excerpted from the very large mother volume in a set of two books titled The Second Coming of Christ. I'm glad the publisher thought to create this volume that centers on these topics from the Table of Contents: Part I. Jesus the Christ - Avatar and Yogi; Part II. "One Way" or Universality?; Part III. Jesus' Yoga of Divine Love; plus a Glossary of spiritual terms.

I'd like to share a quote that particularly inspired me. "Remember, Christ seeks the temples of true souls. He loves the quiet shrine of devotion in your heart where your abide with him, there in the sanctuary aglow with the vigil light of your love. Those who meditate devoutly will receive Christ on the altar of calmness in their own consciousness." - from page 10.

The section I am happiest to see included is Chapter 3, Inner Teachings of Jesus the Yogi, How Every Soul Can Attain Christ Consciousness which explains about the importance of communing with the Holy Comforter, the Holy Ghost, the Word, Aum, Cosmic Vibration or other names for the same experience.

The chapter goes into great detail on how to capture this comforting spiritual experience for yourself, which by the way, I first experienced about half a year after beginning meditation from a touch on my forehead by Paramahansa Yogananda in a spiritual dream. Just 2 months before the dream I had first read his Autobiography of a Yogi, my all-time favorite book.

I cannot say enough about the Holy Cosmic Vibration as it truly has been my comfort in life's ups and downs for 30 years now.

Read and be inspired by this little volume, a clear and concise collection of nuggets of wisdom from a truly great spiritual master who clarifies some of the teachings of Jesus the Christ!

Very amazing book! Quite advanced and complicated and a little time-consuming to get through, so this is no speed read, otherwise awesome! I bought this book two and a half years ago at a local Self Realization Fellowship and started it but never finished until just recently I decided I was going to read the whole thing to see what he says. At first I expected it to be boring and drawn out, but it soon piqued my interest and I found it powerful. Definitely the link between Eastern religions and Christianity which actually reconciles the teachings of Buddha, Krishna, etc. with Jesus! Harmonizes East and West beautifully so that they do not contradict each other. A must-read for every genuine truth seeker!

there has been so much discussion in recent years on what Jesus really said and did,
and even whether He really existed.
Paramahansa Yoganandas commentary sampler "The Yoga Of Jesus," from
Self-Realization Fellowship Publishers LA USA really clarifies a lot in these matters.
This volume serves as a handy and welcomed introduction to the Masters larger and acclaimed work
"the Second Coming of Christ;Resurrection the Christ Within You" from the same publisher in 2004.

This work will most likely answer in the most direct and inspiring way all the questions you had about Jesus life and teachings.
It is truly inspiring and eye opening. For students of scriptures and seekers in general this work
could easily be considered to be "the real Restoration of Jesus teachings before it was so distorted by the
forces of time and politics etc,

For those who need deprogramming [those still attached to the status quo] this volume will be a very effective
starting point to renewed understanding of one of the worlds great prophets/gurus.

It will renew and advance your faith in the real Christ!
It was one of Paramahansa Yoganandas primary missions to RESTORE THE TRUE TEACHINGS of JESUS.

I would also recommend reading the complete work >>>>>
"The Second Coming of Christ; Resurrecting the Christ Within You."

Yogananda has taught me to really appreciate the significance of the life of Jesus. I had a born-again Christian father who liked to force Christianity on me and my siblings which left a bad taste in my mouth. I still really think most Christian leaders don't teach the truth of what Jesus was all about. Some of them do, but most of them don't. Most Christians are very judgmental and are waiting for Jesus to come save them. The messiah is never coming to save anyone, in any religion, because the messiah is YOU! The messiah is not outside of you. I have a greater appreciation of Jesus after this book. I still pray to Him and ask for help when I need it (as well as other enlightened beings), but I am spiritual, not religious. I don't like religion. I think most religions just separate people. I think most religions were created to control people and do not tell people the whole truth, which is that all the power in the world that you need is actually within you. God is within you, not outside of you. He will meet you in your heart if you let him.

The Yoga of Jesus helped to understand Jesus' teachings in the gospels and made me understand why He is the Christ, why He is the Son of God and what His words really meant. I will reread this wonderful book again and again.

This book is truly unique. There are thousands of book on Christianity out there proffering every interpretation imaginable of Jesus' life, work, and purpose. However, most of them are very Western, despite the fact that Jesus was essentially an Eastern teacher (culturally). This book makes a case for a Jesus that is roughly in line with other mystical sages such as Buddha and Krishna. Therefore it is neither Liberal or Conservative; Fundamentalist or Liberal. It is a completely different way to interpret Jesus' life - one that I found at least explains a lot of the unanswered questions that come about in the other commonly given perspectives.

Very simply, it explains what happenned to Jesus after he went "east" and came back teaching something very different. It puts Jesus' teachings/life in proper perspective.

I only gave four stars because the book is really a primer for the author's giant book: Second Coming of Christ. So you jump around a bit.

Just say it is a primer for another book on the cover.

I've often found myself confused by the Bible, and rarely have I really grasped the pertinence of its teachings to the dilemmas of our present society. Never before reading this book have I found the Gospels to be so interesting, so universal in scope, and so applicable to my daily concerns.

I found this book (as well as the larger "the Second Coming of Christ") to beautifully and engagingly present the truths of Jesus in great detail and specificity, as well as in terms of universality and Oneness.

So much of the New Testament always left me wondering what this or that meant. This little book is the most amazing thing I have ever read. It gives the teachings of Jesus to everyone, just as Christ intended. Just friggin' AMAZING! Buy it now!

Great book written by a great man. It has renewed my perspective on Christ (original perspective was that of a Catholic who received First Communion in a French church in Rabbat Morocco, and later attended Catechism in Southern Spain as child). The author, Yogananda, really taps into the beauty and truths that I always suspected were the things that all religions had in common.

Although the author clearly means well, the ambiguous citations by Yogananda coupled with the editor's cherry picking of academic work by modern scholars like Elaine Pagels can only serve to alienate many serious students of both Hinduism and first-century Christianity, especially since these editor's notes are fraught with ellipses in brackets that leave one wondering how much of the original source material was excluded. At the point where Yogananda started trying to connect the seven seals of Revelation with the seven chakras of the energetic body, I literally had to put down the book. Apparently he and his Self-Realization Fellowship do not take into account schools of thought that do not have seven chakras. I am inclined to believe simply that anything against the argument they are trying to make at the time is likely to be something they conveniently forget in favour of ideas that sound good.

I hope readers will understand that I do not mean to malign the work of a good man like Yogananda, but I believe it is better to examine the two faiths he is interweaving as different religions of similar beneficial intent rather than to somehow lump them into some sort of pseudo-Christian Hindu megafaith. The writings attributed to Jesus, as well as Hindu teachings, offer some beautiful lessons to the world, and they are strong enough to stand on their own. If the author did not have conclusive proof that would hold up to scrutiny, perhaps he should have simply accepted that at the time of writing such proof did not exist.

If the reader enjoys elaborate mystical revelations, he or she will find them in this book, but it is the kind of thing any decent university professor would blow out of the water fairly quickly because of the lack of good, verifiable source material. A person's inner reality can be a beautiful thing, but Yogananda's inner reality is what you're getting if you buy this book. It is pure mysticism woven with intelligence and kindness. Unfortunately, it contains very little empirical data, and whoever edited this work did the author a great disservice by seeking to reinforce his views at all costs rather than allowing them to stand on their own merits.

Reading the reviews for this book makes me want to buy it, but also makes me hope that I never have to deal with some of you. Playing ping pong with scripture and arguing over whether Christ is the ONLY way to God and being saved or not, is really small minded. In every religion God (whatever God is) created everything and since God is perfection, then so is God's creation. Stop arguing over petty details, learn to just be good people, respect each others ideas (whether they make sense to you or not), open your hearts and allow your lives to be enriched by the diversity of this earth and its inhabitants. Religious wars have begun with even smaller arguments than these!

Reading the reviews for this book makes me want to buy it, but also makes me hope that I never have to deal with some of you. Playing ping pong with scripture and arguing over whether Christ is the ONLY way to God and being saved or not, is really small minded. In every religion God (whatever God is) created everything and since God is perfection, then so is God's creation. Stop arguing over petty details, learn to just be good people, respect each others ideas (whether they make sense to you or not), open your hearts and allow your lives to be enriched by the diversity of this earth and its inhabitants. Religious wars have begun with even smaller arguments than these!

On the surface, Yogananda's teachings sound perfect for our times which promote inclusiveness. In reality, by super-imposing Hindu / Yogic teachings over the New Testament, you rob the Gospels of their unique truths and are left only with Paramahansa Yogananda's Hindu / Yoga teachings. In this book, scholarship is sorely lacking and the Bible taken completely out of context. There's absolutely no biblical or historical support to the proposition that Jesus went to India and practiced yoga. Jesus proclaimed that He is the only way. That claim is supported in numerous other Biblical passages, explicitly and implicitly (i.e., identifying Christ as part of the Trinity and the one and only, long awaited Messiah). One can disagree with this foundational biblical tenet, but it's disingenuous to try to explain away Christianity's unique claims by overlaying yogic philosophy.

As an avid reader of Gnostic teachings, I found The Yoga of Jesus to be a breath of fresh air in understanding some of the deeper meanings found in the gospels that have been all but forgotten in modern interpretations. This is book is for all those looking for information to take them beyond believing to knowing, which is the literal meaning of the word "gnosis."

Rahasya Poe, Lotus Guide magazine (lotusguide.com)

This book in its entirety is inaccurate on methods, writings and the life of Christ. In the beginning was God, not Buddha, nor did Jesus come from Buddha. Be sure to use your Bible as your True North when reading anything about Christ, this way you can look at books such as these as a fairy tale.
This book is not a safe place for a Christian seeking to practice yoga. If you are looking for Truth that aligns with the Bible, this is not the book. Seek other sound biblical knowledge with in depth study of the Christ's life such as Stretching Your Faith by Michelle Thielen, Christian Yoga by J.M. DeChanet and other Christian Yoga Practices-Christ Centered Yoga such as Yogafaith.

If you are a recovering Catholic who bought into the suffering paradigm of the God Jesus at the will of Great Father, then, like Joseph Campbell and Yogananda, you might find yourself attracted to Hinduism with its bliss paradigm of the God Self supported by Great Mother. Thus, this book provides an insightful look at the psyche of Yogananda since he claims to be a reincarnation of William the Conqueror, who persecuted people brutally for slight deviations from Catholic literal ideology. It is reasonable to believe that Yogananda will change his views again as this paradigm of opposites is a textbook manifestation of the Jungian process of psychological growth, which ultimately resolves itself in a 3rd new perspective (transcendent function) of authentic personal insight. It will be hard for him to grow out of yoga mind control, so let's all pray for him.

With a background in anthropology I'm always skeptical of interests that make a leap of history to find spiritual connections between different cultures... Many "New Age" thinkers often combine Druid magic and Native American spiritualism, Egyptology with Mayan belief systems...etc...etc... Christians are no different...this is why we have hundreds of forms of Christianity develop over time. Plenty of Christians make these leaps of history as well; this is one that seems to make philosophical connections with Dharmaistic views and certain passages of Christian scripture, to seemingly reconcile their discomfort with more dogmatic and oppressive perspectives in Christianity..... I have not read the book, and I'm not a Theologian, but I'm pretty sure that most Academics would not support the notion that Jesus' approach to rebelling against Roman oppression, was the result of a Hindu education he acquired on an excursion to India...lol!...Further I believe the author of this book is/was trying to make a connection that does not exist, simply by pointing out similarities in some spiritual practices between. Buddhism and Christianity, without any real evidence other than his feelings that it must be true! This does a disservice to followers of Tantric practices like myself, and my friends, and disrespects the overall tapestry of Eastern philosophy that Yoga exists in... Part of my own spiritual practices include educating people to think critically and I hope anyone who reads this book will recognize it as funny fanciful thinking and not adopt it as a true history....Namaste:)

Beware of Yoga!I was a yogi and experienced demonic possession thru kundalini awakening and nirvana!I came out hissing like a servant snake which is satanic!The only spirit you should be possessed with is jesus holy spirit!using yoga with jesus is dishonor in jesus and a deception as Mormonism or jehovah witness!