SUPREME REALIZATION

A man recounts his journey away from Jesus and back again in this Christian memoir.

Raised as a Roman Catholic in Sri Lanka, Nayagan left the church in his 20s due to what he perceived as its corrupt behaviors and unpersuasive teachings regarding the nature of God. Searching for answers to some of his questions, he explored other religious traditions, including Hinduism. That religion formed the center of a South Asian immigrant community in the United States—a community of which the author soon found himself a member—and in it, the young man discovered many echoes of those things that spoke to him in Catholicism. Eventually, these explorations turned him back toward the place he began: the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. What’s more, his renewed study of Christian texts drew him to seek a better understanding of modern science, philosophy, psychology, and medicine. Combining these findings with the resonant lessons he gained from Hinduism, Nayagan offers this spiritual work from someone who is not quite a Catholic. “This relationship with Christ, as my Guru, is the cornerstone of my being and the basis of this book,” writes the author in his preface. “This book is not a literary contribution, but the fruition of a journal written regularly about an unusual journey.” It is an examination of Christian mysticism from the perspective of one man’s spiritual path, but the author hopes that others may find within it signposts directing their own spiritual adventures. Nayagan’s prose is lucid and balanced, moving easily between textual criticism and more aphoristic statements: “God is not alternating between goodness and indifference. He is closest to us as we go through trials. When our sufferings from trials become intensified, the Lord invites us to speak to Him openly.” It’s an idiosyncratic book, and the many New Age flourishes—like the subtitle—do not do it any favors. In content, though, the work is a thoughtful, occasionally stimulating blend of Christian and Vedic ideas. It will surely appeal to a number of readers, particularly those who find themselves on the periphery of conventional Christianity.

An intriguing and ruminative work documenting one man’s mystical odyssey in Jesus.