Book Review: Jesus
Who was Jesus? A divine soul who led humanity to spirituality or a mortal who led himself to divinity on the path of spirituality?
‘Do what you will, Father but if you love me, bury me yourself when it’s done.’
Those are the words of Jesus in this book by internationally acclaimed writer Deepak Chopra and those words definitely do not belong to ‘god or even the son of god.’ They belong to a man, a mortal like you and me – Jesus. Jesus – who was one among the many people of the road, who travelled the roads to find any odd jobs and earn some bread for the family back in Nazareth, who was a Jew like all around him and looked forward to the arrival of the Messiah who will destroy the Romans, the oppressors of his faith and who compelled, by the enthusiasm of his younger brother attends a meeting by the rebels who have taken to fighting the mighty roman empire with a lot of blood shed and no success to their credit. That meeting though proves to be decisional for Jesus not only because he meets the rebel second-in-command and his life’s undoer Judas there but also because destiny will not let him stay in Nazareth anymore. He is compelled by Judas and his wavering conscious to travel with Judas to the heart of Jewish faith – Jerusalem, on a fateful mission that will challenge his faith, mount miseries on him and induct him to his purpose on the earth.
His travels continue beyond Jerusalem towards the Dead Sea, after a debacle at the Temple of Mount where he encounters cult’s of Jews who believe HE is the messiah, a prostitute with the same name as his mother – Mary and a voice that calls him my son.
Deepak Chopra’s Jesus is every bit a mortal and goes through everything humane – guilt pangs, indecisivity, a pull of spirituality, fear of the laws of the land, biased perceptions based on the society he has grown up in, desire to be with a woman and finally acceptability of his true self.
It is a very good read that breaks Jesus out of the tiny, conventional box that bible puts him into and connects him to the man he may had been. The flow of the narration is flawless and the author through fiction conveys the lessons on basic spirituality that Jesus tried conveying through his words apart from the 22-paged reader’s guide at the end of the book. The best thing about the book is it is not a religious narrative; it is narrated by a wonder worker whom Jesus comes to, seeking the door to his true self i.e. by the guide to the god. It is a narration of what the wonder worker saw and heard from Jesus himself. There are no crucifications and stone throwing but what is there is the journey of a man to faith bypassing his mind dwindlings, discovery of light right in his heart while amongst oppressors; it is the evolution of a mortal to an immortal.
A good read for a humane version of Jesus, though some knowledge of the era will help the reader better.
Happy reading.
Title: Jesus – A Story of Enlightenment
Author: Deepak Chopra
Publisher/ Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers India Ltd.
Pages: 273
Genre/ Sub-Genre: Non-Fiction/ Inspirational
Rating: 3.50 of 5.00
Reviewed for: Personal Copy
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