Yogananda ebook: The Second Coming of Christ
The Resurrection of the Christ Within You
A Revelatory Commentary on the Original Teachings of Jesus by Paramahansa Yogananda
“In titling this work ‘The Second Coming of Christ’, I am not referring to a literal return of Jesus to earth…A thousand Christs sent to earth would not redeem its people unless they themselves become Christlike by purifying and expanding their individual consciousness to receive therein the second coming of the Christ Consciousness, as was manifested in Jesus. Contact with this Consciousness, experienced in the ever new joy of meditation, will be the real second coming of Christ – and it will take place right in the devotee’s own consciousness.”
– Paramahansa Yogananda (from The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You).
Paramahansa Yogananda’s landmark commentary on the original teachings of Jesus — The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ within You (Self-Realization Fellowship, Los Angeles, CA) — has just been released for the first time in an eBook edition. One of the most important works from Yogananda—whose best-selling spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi, introduced millions to the science of yoga—The Second Coming of Christ provides a compelling interpretation of the teachings of Jesus Christ, revealing the harmony and basic oneness of original Yoga and original Christianity, and the path for direct experience of God through meditation.
First published by Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in 2004 as a slipcased hardcover edition, The Second Coming of Christ guides the reader through the four Gospels, verse by verse—into the deeper meaning of Jesus’ universal message. “These teachings,” Yogananda says in his introduction, “have been sent to explain the truth as Jesus intended it to be known in the world— not to give a new Christianity, but to give insight into Christ-teachings: how to become like Christ, how to resurrect the eternal Christ within one’s Self.” Through insightful commentary, Yogananda strips away the divisiveness and dogmatic approaches that have accumulated around Jesus’ teachings and affirms that it is possible for every individual—regardless of one’s faith tradition—to have the same relationship that Jesus had with the Divine.
In the book’s 75 discourses, Yogananda provides in-depth discussions of what he describes as the real meaning of Jesus’ words. He outlines the methods of God-communion that he says Jesus imparted to his direct disciples but which were obscured over the centuries, and explains such topics as the Holy Ghost, baptism, meditation, forgiveness of sins, reincarnation, heaven and hell, and resurrection. In so doing, he reveals the underlying unity of Jesus’ moral and esoteric teachings with India’s ancient science of Yoga, meditation, and union with God.
The book also explores the difficult question of Jesus’ miracles, which Yogananda says are possible to saints and sages of any religion who master the scientific laws governing matter, energy, and consciousness. One of the features that distinguishes Yogananda’s commentary from most other Bible interpretations is his conviction that there is no inherent conflict between science and faith. His very accessible overview of the cosmology of India’s seers, cited side-by-side with that of Einstein and the latest in theoretical physics, provides substantial support for the ultimate convergence of science and religion.
About Paramahansa Yogananda and The Second Coming of Christ
Paramahansa Yogananda first arrived in America from his native India on Sept 19, 1920, as an invited delegate to an International he founded his non-profit spiritual organization Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), which for nearly a century has been headquartered in Los Angeles, California. His in-depth exposition of the teachings of Jesus began in his earliest years in Boston with public classes on the Bible and Bhagavad Gita and continued for more than thirty years in nationwide lecture tours and in weekly talks at SRF temples. In 1932, he began composing written commentaries on the Gospels, which were serialized in SRF’s magazine until the time of his passing twenty years later.
When Yogananda passed away in 1952, he left with Self-Realization Fellowship an extensive body of unpublished writings and lectures, many of which addressed important aspects of the life and teachings of Jesus not included in the magazine series.
“His instruction for the completion of this present book was to draw on the full measure of material he had given on the life and teachings of Jesus,” according to the preface by Sri Daya Mata, third president and spiritual head of SRF from 1955 until her passing in 2010, who had undertaken the massive 
task of stenographically recording and transcribing Yogananda’s lectures beginning in 1931. She and Mrinalini Mata, Self-Realization Fellowship’s fourth president (from 2011 until her passing in 2017) and then-editor-in-chief who was personally chosen and trained by Yogananda, completed the extensive process of compiling and sequencing the author’s commentaries on the Gospels from his voluminous manuscripts and his hundreds of unpublished talks into one comprehensive presentation.
Among the many other works by Paramahansa Yogananda are his internationally acclaimed life story, Autobiography of a Yogi, which remains one of the most widely regarded spiritual classics, influencing a diverse range of luminaries, from Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann to opera star Amelita Galli-Curci to Beatle George Harrison to Apple Founder Steve Jobs (who left instructions for all those attending his memorial service to be gifted with a copy of Yogananda’s book), the highly acclaimed commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, God Talks With Arjuna, and the three-volume series of Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life.
From its humble beginnings in Boston, Self-Realization Fellowship, along with its sister organization Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (which Yogananda founded three years earlier in 1917), has grown over the course of its 100-year history to include more than 800 temples, ashrams, retreats, and meditation centers in more than 60 countries around the globe.
The eBook edition of The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ within you features 19 full-color and sepia duotone prints depicting the life of Jesus Christ, including reproductions of rare drawings by German artist Heinrich Hoffmann, as well as index, subject annotations, and comprehensive glossary.