Deepak Chopra's "Third Jesus": Jesus a State of Mind, Not God

Prominent spiritual leader and author of several best selling books, Deepak Chopra, provides a different take on Jesus in his latest, "The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore."

Chopra examines the teachings of Jesus not in the context of his historical existence as a rabbi, and not that he is the son of God, but as "a cosmic Christ" Jesus as a state of mind.

"I wanted to extend my idea of healing," Chopra said in a recent interview with Associated Press, "If you don't understand spiritual experience, you'll never understand healing."

Challenging the Christian doctrines, the Indian born Chopra, presents an alternative: Jesus as a state of mind, rather than the historical rabbi of Nazareth or Son of God.

The third perspective, which Chopra calls a “cosmic Christ,” looks at Jesus as a spiritual guide whose teaching is not only for the Church but also for the entire human kind.

"I said to myself, 'Why not write a book that takes Jesus' teachings and it doesn't matter if you're Christian or not and learn from this and improve your life,"' he told the AP at the Chopra Center and Spa in midtown Manhattan.

Chopra says, though "The Third Jesus" was on his mind for 25 years, it took him six months to complete once he began writing.

His next book will be on the account of ‘Jesus missing years’.

"Where else do you read a story of the Son of God being executed by their own?" he said. "It is dramatic. It's three years of his teaching and it has shaped the world for 2000 years."

“I want to offer the possibility that Jesus was truly, as he proclaimed, a savior,” Chopra wrote. “Not the savior, not the one and only Son of God. Rather Jesus embodied the highest level of enlightenment.

A pioneer of mindbody alternative medicine, Chopra is president of the ‘Alliance of a New Humanity’ and has been listed among Time magazine's top 100 heroes.

Chopra, who has written more than 40 books, describes Godconsciousness as “a metaphor for a shift in consciousness that makes Jesus’s teachings totally real and vital.”

"I see blogs every day that are negative and very nasty because this is not a literalist interpretation of Jesus," Chopra said. "My book is about Jesus as a state of consciousness. If I can aspire maybe not achieve but aspire to be in that state of mind and if a lot of people were aspiring to be in that state of mind this would be a better world."

"I emphasize this over and over again that whatever we do is about improving ourselves and improving the world."

Chopra said he hoped readers would take away a practical way to understand the New Testament and understand that engaging in contemplative meditation can lead to positive change.

“The Third Jesus” ranked third on The New York Times‘ list for hardcover advice books.

Columnist Kelly Boggs points out that “to deconstruct the orthodox Christian understanding of Jesus, Chopra finds it necessary to undermine the credibility of the Gospels.” Then Chopra turns around and bases his argument for a “third Jesus” on those same “unreliable” Gospels.

“Chopra’s ‘third Jesus’ is no Jesus at all,” Boggs says. “He is nothing more than the figment of a New Age imagination.”