Yogananda's Oriental Christ and the Second Coming of the First Paraclete
This page explores Paramahansa Yogananda's profound reflections on Jesus as an Oriental Christ— a yogi who embodied Christ Consciousness and taught the universal science of God-union. Yogananda affirms that Jesus's teachings were deeply influenced by Indian spiritual traditions, and that his Second Coming would not be a physical return but an inner resurrection of divine awareness. This esoteric vision finds fulfillment in Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, who declared herself the Paraclete promised by Jesus. Through Sahaja Yoga and Kundalini awakening, she offered the direct experience of the Spirit, restoring the gnosis lost to Western dogma. Her incarnation bridges East and West, fulfilling the prophecy of the Second Coming not as spectacle, but as spiritual revolution. The Christ has returned—not in flesh, but in consciousness. The Paraclete has spoken. The awakening is now.
Table of Contents
1. Abstract
This paper examines Paramahansa Yogananda's declaration that Jesus must be understood as an Oriental Christ, a supreme yogi embodying mastery of God-union, rather than the Westernized figure of traditional Christianity. It integrates this with the role of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi as the Paraclete—the promised Holy Spirit—who extended Jesus' three-year ministry into a 40-year global revelation leading to "all truth." Through her Sahaja Yoga, Shri Mataji provided experiential Self-realization, fulfilling eschatological promises. Both figures restore the Divine Feminine aspect, with the Holy Spirit rendered as feminine, bridging Eastern mysticism and Christian prophecy to offer a unified path to divine union.
2. Introduction
The teachings of Jesus Christ have been profoundly shaped by cultural interpretations, often obscuring their esoteric Oriental roots. Paramahansa Yogananda urged recognition of Jesus as an Oriental Christ, a yogi who mastered the universal science of God-union. Complementing this, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi embodied the Paraclete promised in the Gospel of John, completing Jesus' unfinished message over decades of worldwide programs. This synthesis highlights the feminine nature of the Holy Spirit, central to both visions, as the nurturing force guiding humanity to inner realization.
3. Paramahansa Yogananda: Jesus as the Oriental Christ
In The Second Coming of Christ, Yogananda asserts:
Yogananda draws from ancient manuscripts, such as those discovered by Nicholas Notovitch, indicating Jesus (as "Issa" or "Isa," meaning "Lord" in Sanskrit) spent his "lost years" in India, studying in holy cities like Jagannath Puri.[1] This immersion in yogic traditions shaped his teachings on inner divinity and God-union, influenced by India's ancient spiritual heritage, predating and impacting global religions.[2]
Yogananda critiques dogmatic Western Christianity for desecrating Jesus' esoteric depths through prejudice and man-made doctrines. Instead, he presents Jesus as embodying Kutastha Chaitanya (universal Christ Consciousness), akin to Krishna's universal consciousness, enabling miracles through yogic mastery.
4. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi: The Paraclete Completing Jesus' Message
Jesus promised the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit (feminine in Aramaic/Hebrew as Ruach), to guide believers "into all truth" (John 16:13). Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi fulfilled this role, declaring:
She further explained Jesus' destiny:
From 1970 until 2011, Shri Mataji conducted hundreds of public programs worldwide, awakening the Kundalini for mass Self-realization. This enabled direct experience of the Cool Breeze (Holy Spirit), opening the Sahasrara as the Kingdom of God within. As Adi Shakti, she restored the feminine Holy Spirit, bridging traditions and fulfilling prophecies across religions.[3]
5. Synthesis: Complementary Visions of the Oriental Christ
Yogananda and Shri Mataji converge in portraying Jesus as an Oriental Christ rooted in Indian mysticism. Yogananda provides the historical-yogic framework: Jesus as Isa, trained in Vedantic sciences. Shri Mataji actualizes this through experiential mechanisms—Kundalini awakening opens the Agnya (third eye) and Sahasrara, leading to Christ-like transformation. Both emphasize direct realization over dogma: Yogananda via Kriya Yoga, Shri Mataji via spontaneous awakening. Their work restores the feminine Holy Spirit/Paraclete, countering patriarchal distortions and enabling collective spiritual evolution.[4]
6. Conclusion
Resoundingly, Paramahansa Yogananda and Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi bring forth the best of an Oriental Christ—a supreme yogi whose essence unites East and West in divine realization. Yogananda unveils Jesus' yogic mastery and Indian roots, freeing his teachings from Western dogma. Shri Mataji, as the Paraclete, completes this over 40 years, offering accessible Self-realization and the feminine Holy Spirit's guidance. Together, they herald the Kingdom of God as an inner reality, fulfilling universal prophecies and proving the Oriental Christ's timeless relevance for humanity's awakening.
7. References
[1] Yogananda, Paramahansa. The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You, Vol. 1. Self-Realization Fellowship, 2004, pp. 82-90. Link.[2] "India's Influence on Ancient Civilizations." Various sources cited in Yogananda, including Durant, Will. Our Oriental Heritage.
[3] Nirmala Devi, Shri Mataji. Christmas Puja Addresses, 1995 & 1997. AdiShakti.org.
[4] "The Second Coming of Christ - Paramahansa Yogananda's Reflections and Shri Mataji's Fulfillment." AdiShakti.org.
Jesus' journey to India, Motherland of Religion
"During the unaccounted-for years of Jesus' life— the Scripture remains silent about him from approximately ages fourteen to thirty— he journeyed to India, probably traveling the well-established trade route that linked the Mediterranean with China and India. His own God-realization, reawakened and reinforced in the company of the masters and the spiritual environs of India, provided a background of the universality of truth from which he could preach a simple, open message comprehensible to the masses of his native country, yet with underlying meanings that would be appreciated in generations to come as the infancy of man's mind would mature in understanding.
The adoration of the Wise Men is far more significant than merely another scene of pageantry recognizing the holy birth. It was the defining stamp of God placed on the life of Jesus that would in future characterize his mission and message— a reminder that Jesus was born in the Orient, an Oriental Christ; and that his teachings bore the influence of the Eastern culture and customs. There is a very strong tradition in India, authoritatively known amongst high metaphysicians in tales well told and written in ancient manuscripts, that the wise men of the East who made their way to the infant Jesus in Bethlehem were, in fact, great sages of India.
Not only did the Indian masters come to Jesus, but he reciprocated their visit. During the unaccounted-for years of Jesus' life— the Scripture remains silent about him from approximately ages fourteen to thirty— he journeyed to India, probably traveling the well-established trade route that linked the Mediterranean with China and India. His own God-realization, reawakened and reinforced in the company of the masters and the spiritual environs of India, provided a background of the universality of truth from which he could preach a simple, open message comprehensible to the masses of his native country, yet with underlying meanings that would be appreciated in generations to come as the infancy of man's mind would mature in understanding.
As civilization takes giant strides in the proliferation of material knowledge, man will find that the underpinnings of many of his old familiar religious dogmas may well begin to crack and crumble. What is needed is a reunion of the science of religion with the spirit, or inspiration, of religion— the esoteric with the exoteric. The yoga science taught by Lord Krishna, which provides practical methods for actual inner experience of God to supplant the feeble life-expectancy of beliefs, and the spirit of Christ-love and brotherhood preached by Jesus— the only sure panacea to prevent the world from tearing itself apart by its unyielding differences— are in tandem one and the same universal truth, taught by these two Christs of East and West, only with a variant outward emphasis according to the times and conditions of their respective incarnations."
The Second Coming of Christ (The Resurrection of the Christ within You)Paramahansa Yogananda, Self-Realization Fellowship (2008) p. 56
"The Gospel account of Jesus' early life ends in his twelfth year with his discourse with the priests in the temple at Jerusalem. According to the Tibetan manuscripts, it was not long after this that Jesus left his home in order to avoid plans for his betrothal as he reached maturity—which for an Israelite boy at that time was thirteen years of age. Certainly Jesus was above the commonality of marriage. Of what necessity was human love and family ties for one who possessed supreme ardor for God and a universal love that embraced all human beings? The world urges a conformity to its pedestrian course, and little knows how to reckon with those who hew a higher path in response to God's will. Jesus knew his divine destiny and set out for India to prepare himself for its fulfillment.
India is The Mother of religion. Her civilization has been acknowledged as much older than the legendary civilization of Egypt. If you study these matters, you will see how the hoary scriptures of India, predating all other revelations, have influenced the Book of the Dead of Egypt and the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, as well as other religions. All were in touch with, and drew from, the religion of India, because India specialized in religion from time immemorial. [1] So it was that Jesus himself went to India; Notovitch's manuscript tells us: 'Issa secretly absented himself from his father's house; left Jerusalem, and, in a train of merchants, journeyed toward the Sindh, with the object of perfecting himself in the knowledge of the Word of God and the study of the laws of the great Buddhas.' [2]
The ancient manuscripts say Jesus spent six years in various holy cities, settling for some time in Jagannath, a sacred pilgrimage site in Puri, Orissa. [3] The famous temple there, which has existed in one form or another since ancient times, is dedicated to Jagannath, 'Lord of the Universe'—a title associated with the universal consciousness of Bhagavan Krishna. The name by which Jesus is identified in the Tibetan manuscripts is Isa ('Lord'), rendered by Notovitch as Issa. [4] 'Isa' ('Isha'), or its extension 'Ishvara', defines God as the Supreme Lord or Creator immanent in as well as transcendent of His creation. [5] This is the true character of the Christ/Krishna universal consciousness, 'Kutastha Chaitanya', incarnate in Jesus, Krishna, and other God-united souls who possess oneness with the Lord's omnipresence. It is my conviction that the title 'Isa' was given at birth to Jesus by the Wise Men from India who came to honor his advent on earth. In the New Testament, Jesus' disciples commonly refer to him as 'Lord.' [6]...
Christ has been much misinterpreted by the world. Even the most elementary principles of his teachings have been desecrated, and their esoteric depths have been forgotten. They have been crucified at the hands of dogma, prejudice, and cramped understanding. Genocidal wars have been fought, people have been burned as witches and heretics, on the presumed authority of man-made doctrines of Christianity. How to salvage the immortal teachings from the hands of ignorance? We must know Jesus as an Oriental Christ, a supreme yogi who manifested full mastery of the universal science of God-union, and thus could speak and act as a savior with the voice and authority of God. He has been Westernized too much."
The Second Coming of Christ (The Resurrection of the Christ within You)
Paramahansa Yogananda, Volume 1, Discourse 3, pp. 82-90
Notes:
[1] See also page xxix n. "On the basis of archaeology, satellite photography, metallurgy, and ancient mathematics, it is now clear that there existed a great civilization—a mainly spiritual civilization perhaps—before the rise of Egypt, Sumeria, and the Indus Valley. The heartland of this ancient world was the region from the Indus to the Ganga—the land of the Vedic Aryans," state N.S. Rajaram and David Frawley, O.M.D., in 'Vedic Aryans and the Origins of Civilization' (New Delhi: Voice of India, 1997).
The scriptures of India "are the oldest extant [i.e., still standing or existing] philosophy and psychology of our race," says renowned historian Will Durant in 'Our Oriental Heritage (The Story of Civilization', Part I). Robert C. Priddy, professor of the history of philosophy at the University of Oslo, wrote in 'On India's Ancient Past' (1999): "India's past is so ancient and has been so influential in the rise of civilization and religion, at least for almost everyone in the Old World, that most people can claim it actually to be the earliest part of our own odyssey....The Mother of religion, the world's earliest spiritual teachings of the Vedic tradition contains the most sublime and all-embracing of philosophies."
In his two-volume work 'India and World Civilization' (Michigan State University Press, 1969), historian D.P. Singhal amasses abundant documentation of India's spiritual nurturing of the ancient world. He describes the excavation of a vase near Baghdad that has led researchers to the conclusion that "by the middle of the third millennium B.C., an Indian cult was already being practiced in Mesopotamia....Archaeology thus has shown that two thousand years before the earliest references in cuneiform texts to contact with India, she was sending her manufactures to the land where the roots of Western civilization lie."
India's spiritual influence extended not only west, but east. "India conquered and dominated China for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across its border," observed Dr. Hu Shih, former chancellor of Beijing University and Chinese ambassador to the United States. And Professor Lin Yutang, the famous Chinese philologist and author, says in 'The Wisdom of India' (New York: Random House, 1942): "India was China's teacher in religion and imaginative literature, and the world's teacher in philosophy....India is a land overflowing with religion and with the religious spirit. A trickle of Indian religious spirit overflowed to China and inundated the whole of Eastern Asia."
The high civilizations of the Americas, as well, show definite evidence of India's influence. "In ancient times, no civilization spread abroad more extensively than that of India," Professor Singhal writes. "And thus, occupying a central position in the cultures of the world, India has contributed enormously to human civilization. Indian contacts with the Western world date back to prehistoric times." He goes on to quote the illustrious scientist and explorer Baron Alexander von Humboldt, founder of the systematic study of ancient American cultures, who was convinced of the Asian origin of the advanced pre-Columbian civilizations in the New World: "If languages supply but feeble evidence of ancient communication between the two worlds, their communication is fully proved by the cosmogonies, the monuments, the hieroglyphical characters, and the institutions of the people of America and Asia."
"The traces of Hindu-Buddhist influence in Mexico...correspond in kind precisely to those cultural elements which were introduced by Buddhist monks and Hindu priests in Southeast Asia," Dr. Singhal observes, and cites the conclusion of Professor Robert Heine-Geldern in 'The Civilizations of the Americas' as follows: "We have little doubt that a sober but unbiased comparative analysis of the Mexican religions will reveal many traces of the former influences of either Hinduism or Buddhism or of both....to such an extent, both in a general way and in specific details, that the assumption of historic relationship is almost inevitable." ('Publisher's Note')
[2] Cf. Swami Abhedananda's translation of this verse from the Tibetan: "At this time his great desire was to achieve full realisation of godhead and learn religion at the feet of those who have attained perfection through meditation." —'Journey into Kashmir and Tibet'
'The Lost Years of Jesus Revealed', by Rev. Dr. Charles Francis Potter (Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett, 1962), observes: "Many Hindus believe that Jesus' 'Lost Years' were, partly at least, spent in India, getting much of his best teaching from the Vedas. Didn't he say 'Take my yoga upon you and learn of me, for my yoga is easy?' Both 'yoga' and 'yoke' are pronounced as one syllable, with the final vowel silent, and both are the same word, 'zeugos', in Greek." [And in Sanskrit, for the generic meaning of Sanskrit 'yoga' is 'yoke.'—Publisher.]
Dr. Potter continues: "Fanciful as it may seem to an American, the thought of any connection between Jesus' teaching and India is rendered less fantastic not only by the scrolls from the Qumran caves [the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls], but especially by the new find of many Gnostic Christian books [at Nag Hammadi] in Egypt....The first part (and several other parts) of John's Gospel—'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....'—is pure Gnosticism. Gnostic mysticism had come to the Jews from the East, from India and Persia and Babylon; it had appealed to them in their Babylonian captivity, and they had brought much of it back home with them in the Return....
"Lest we should undervaluate Gnosticism because its terms, symbols, and vocabulary differ so from ours, it should be stated that Gnosticism was Egyptian Christianity for the two hundred years that the leaders of the new faith were working out its theology. It was gradually pushed out by orthodox Catholic Christianity and its books were burned. Similarly, Essenism was the early form of Palestinian Christianity....At Qumran and at Chenoboskion [Nag Hammadi], hidden for centuries, were the great libraries of these early forms of Christianity, which now so suddenly and dramatically have been restored to us. And Essenism and Gnosticism were much alike: if you doubt it, read the canonical Gospel of John, especially the first chapter, where you will find both Essenism and Gnosticism, blended with and sublimated into the Christianity more familiar to us." ('Publisher's Note')
[3] Records of Jesus' years in India were preserved in Puri, according to His Holiness Sri Jagadguru Shankaracharya Bharati Krishna Tirtha, spiritual head of that city's ancient Gowardhan Math and, until his passing in 1962, seniormost of the reigning Shankaracharyas (ecclesiastical heads of orthodox Hinduism; apostolic successors to Swami Shankara, ancient reorganizer of the venerable Swami Order). His Holiness visited America on a speaking tour of major universities in 1958; his historic tour—the first time any Shankaracharya had traveled to the West—was sponsored by Self-Realization Fellowship. Sri Daya Mata, president and spiritual head of Self-Realization Fellowship, wrote: "In my discussions with His Holiness during my visits with him in India, he told me that there is proof positive, to which he had access, that as Paramahansaji has stated, Jesus Christ was in India as a young lad and received training in the monasteries there. The Shankaracharya further told me that, God willing, it was his hope to translate these documents and write a book about this period in the life of Jesus. Unfortunately this could not be accomplished owing to the advanced age and fragile health of this saintly Shankaracharya." ('Publisher's Note')
[4] Notovitch recorded that the manuscripts he saw at the Himis monastery in Ladakh were a translation into the Tibetan language from the original stored at a monastery near Lhasa, which was written in the Pali language. In Pali (and in Sanskrit), 'Isa' (pronounced 'ee-sha') means "lord, owner, ruler"—as does the related word 'Issara' (Pali version of Sanskrit 'Ishvara'). 'Issa', on the other hand, means "jealousy, anger, ill-will" in Pali—obviously not the meaning intended by the Buddhist scribes who composed the scrolls. ('Publisher's Note')
[5] See also Discourse 21, page 350 n.
[6] Jesus' name is pronounced and spelled in different ways in various languages, but it has the same meaning. In the Koran (written in Arabic), the name used for Jesus is 'Isa' or 'Issa'—the same as in the Tibetan texts discovered by Notovitch. Only through changes by speakers in many lands did his name come to be pronounced 'Jesus'. That English word is relatively modern; prior to the sixteenth century it was not spelled with a "J" but with an "I", as in Latin and Greek ('Iesous'). Even today, in Spanish, though spelled with a "J", 'Jesus' is pronounced "Hay-soos."
The Biblical account, given in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew (see Discourse 2), is that both Mary and Joseph were instructed by an angel that the divine child was to be named 'Yeshua', "savior" (in Greek, 'Iesous'; in English, 'Jesus'): "...thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). The Hebrew word 'Yeshua' is a contraction of 'Yehoshua', "Yahweh (Jehovah, the Creator) is salvation." However, the language of daily use for Jesus and his fellow Galileans was not Hebrew, but the related dialect Aramaic, in which his name would have been pronounced "Eshu." Thus, strangely enough, the name predicted for Jesus by the angel, and given to him by his family, was remarkably akin to the more ancient Sanskrit name bestowed by the Wise Men. Aside from the phonetic similarities, there is an underlying unity of meaning of the words 'Isha' and 'Yeshua'—the two appellations bestowed on the one revered by millions as "Lord and Savior." ('Publisher's Note')
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