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“What if Jesus wanted his followers — and us — to reach the same unity with God that he had reached? My story is based on the premise that he did. By following the young seeker from Nazareth on his path to Christhood, I’ve laid out a map of enlightenment. It wasn’t necessary to invent the map. Enlightenment has existed in every age. The path from suffering and separation to bliss and unity with God is well marked. I put Jesus on this path because I believe he walked it.”
– Deepak Chopra, from his Author’s Note in Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment
Skip to Q&A with Deepak Chopra about this book
As he did with his bestselling novel Buddha Deepak Chopra brings history to life as he captures the untold transformation of a teenage rebel to a leader of men, and ultimately to the Son of God. In Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment, Chopra has imagined Jesus’s path to enlightenment moving from obscurity to revolutionary, from doubt to miracles, and then beyond as the role of the long-awaited Messiah. Chopra portrays Jesus as never before, detailing the lost years. The Gospels are silent about Jesus’s life from the age of 12 to 30; when he emerged to begin his ministry.
Chapter 1 : The Stranger in the Snow
A horse!” the temple lad cried as he ran in panting for breath. “Quick, come and see.”
“Why?” I asked without looking up. I was in the middle of writing, which I did every morning. My scribbles never reached anyone outside this dim, falling-down hut, but that’s of no matter.
“Because he’s huge. Hurry, or somebody might steal him.”
“Before you do, you mean?”
The boy was so excited that he kept sloshing his bucket of hot water on the floor. He was permitted to barge into the hut to fill my bath just after dawn.
I frowned at him. “What about detachment?”
“What?” he asked.
“I thought the priest was teaching you not to get so excited.”
“That was before the horse.”
If you were born high in these mountains, a stray horse is an event. Where would this one be from? The Western empire probably, where huge black stallions are bred. The locals knew animals by the compass. Elephants come from the south, where the jungle begins, and camels from the eastern desert. In all my travels, I had seen only one of these gray monsters, who are like walking walls.
From the north, over the passes, came small, furry ponies, and these were very common—traders used ponies to reach the villages with their goods: hemp, silk, incense, salt, dried meat, and flour. The bare necessities plus the silk to adorn a bride in joy or wrap a corpse in sorrow.
I set the ink-laden brush back on its stand and rubbed the black from my fingers. “You’d better put that bucket down before you drown us both,” I said. “Then fetch my cloak.”
Outside, a storm had swooped down off the high peaks overnight, batting at the stretched animal skins over my windows and leaving another foot of fresh snow. I emerged from the hut and looked around.
More than a horse is here, I thought.
The temple lad couldn’t stand to wait for me and rushed down the trail.
“Find the stranger,” I shouted.
The boy whirled around. I was calling with the wind, and at these altitudes my voice could be heard at a long distance.
“What stranger?” the boy called back.
“The one who fell off the horse. Search for him. Search hard, and don’t dawdle.”
The temple lad hesitated. He much preferred gawking at a fine huge horse, but finding a body in the snow had its own appeal. He nodded and turned the corner out of sight. The boulders on either side of the trail were large enough for a grown man to disappear into, much less a scrawny boy.
I proceeded slowly after him, but not because of age. I don’t know how old I am. The matter lost its interest long ago. But I can still move without creaking.
I had foreseen the mysterious stranger two days earlier, but not the overnight storm. The snow wouldn’t kill him, but the blast of frigid air that howled off the peaks most likely would. Nobody from the world below anticipates that kind of cold. I’ve helped the villagers rescue the stranded travelers who were fortunate. Only their noses and toes were blackened. They were numb at first after being dragged to shelter, but started screaming with pain as soon as the rescuers warmed them up.
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