Death of a Guru - Rabi R. Maharaj: A Review

 

Ever heard of this sarcastic criticism from your friends, neighborhoods and relatives?

“The West is now longing for the Eastern mind, yoga, meditation and you people are still sticking to the Western religion?"

Yes! 

And this book answers why…

 

Death of a Guru

-Rabi R. Maharaj

From Hinduism to Christianity

From Krishna's instruction to Jesus' calling

From the Bhagavad Gita to the Gospel

From God of Fear to God of Love

From Yoga and meditation to Grace and free gift of Salvation

From fear of uncertain rebirths to spiritual newbirth 

From the laws to Grace

From hypocricy to transformation

From bondage to freedom

From self-high view to self-denial

From self-realization of Brahmanhood to self-affirmation of God's creation

From disperated life to transformed joyful life

From hopeless rituals to hopeful surrender in Christ

From family conflicts to family re-union

From a self-exalted Guru to a genuine and humbled Disciple of Christ 

In fact, to be honest, I am regretting why I had not read this amazing testimonial book before! The book honestly touches the very heart of typical Hindus and lets them travel on a journey of understanding Christ in their own context. Rabi R. Maharaj goes through somersault stages in his life struggling with his dedicated and devoted beliefs in contrast to practical thinking. A devoted Hindu who aims to be a guru and guide peoples in path of enlightenment through the Yoga, finds himself in a serious maze of his journey that ends him in sophisticated despair and troubles offering him nothing but questions and unstable peace in mind.  

The book shows how God seems to be calling him behind the scene but he is always refraining it under a corrupted mindset. Meanwhile, he doesn’t even get a firm satisfaction from his own religion. His self-realization that he has become Lord of Universe, Brahman, offers him nothing but a life of chaos. He realizes he has stolen the glory of True God and he wants to surrender towards the True God. He doesn’t become ready to accept Jesus although he has been helped twice while he was in extreme need. But he also doesn’t show the satisfaction in his own religion either.

The book interestingly helps a read to understand how a Hindu and a Christian worldview differ in ways they understand the world, God, birth, death, karma, forgiveness, and so on. In our society, people measure these religions as same due to superficial analysis. This book helps to understand the fundamental differences hidden behind such superficial analysis. The author throws insightful questions towards typical beliefs of Hinduism that practically challenges our society. He does this before he ever hears about Jesus. A practitioner Hindu gradually realizes pot holes in his own belief system.

He obviously goes through hard times trying to make choice between Hinduism and Christ. Once he realizes he has no other choice except to surrender his life to Christ, he then understands that the very moment he submits himself to Christ, he lost everything that he possessed as a Hindu guru. Literally he loses everything and he has to face lots of troubles from Hindu community. However, he realizes that his previous path doesn’t even lead him to hope but rather a destruction.

The author realizes the danger of Eastern mysticism once he grows in Christ as a new creation. He then aims at awakening the entire west world to get out of Eastern mysticism while offering Christ to the Eastern world. Meanwhile, this task doesn’t get that easy for him. He faces lots of problems with his own mother even after his conversion. The story appears to be very tragic.

He also offers practical reasons why one should attend theological and apologetics trainings in the last chapters. One can find the necessity of both charismatic and intellectual need in growth and walk with Christ. One can comprehend how the Gospel can really touch the heart of the Eastern world if presented carefully.

The concern of the Rabi Maharaj isn’t just about a new creation in Christ but eliminating the Eastern mysticism from the west and saving lives of young generations from total destruction. As a former Hindu and a new convert, he presents worth perspectives from both sides and puts forward remarkable reasons why Hinduism and Christianity cannot have agreements and common grounds both from doctrinal and practical lens.

The book has been excellently carved with a sense of narration and without scholarly edition or layouts. The author excellently presents the need of Christ that can quench the real thirst of Eastern hearts. Many converts from our country can understand the testimony without any deeper analysis. This is not much different from our struggle story.

The book can help a reader to rethink on Eastern philosophies and practices and choose between the religion and Christ. The death of a guru is actually the death of the author and his new birth that he actually wanted. Hence, he provides his contrasting experience while he was a Hindu and then his journey in Christ.

I wanted to draw lines to every highlighted detail from the book. However, I want my readers to pick up this book and start reading it by yourself. If you were a former Hindu and now a Christian struggling with your conversion, this book can be of great help to you.

Rabi’s struggle isn’t merely his but ours too. If you truly dive in in his autobiography, you shall truly relate his life and struggle with your own. The author’s calling might be similar to your call today and we all need to be equipped everyday to prepare for the war.

Take sometime to read this wonderful book if you hadn’t ever read it. Truly, I am regretting why I hadn’t read it although I had heard about this book even before. I was deeply influenced by some similar books written by Sadhu Sundar Singh, Later sir Ravi, Steve Cioccolanti, Farquahar, etc. and now this book has further given me another fuel to interact with Eastern worldviews and offer them Gospel.

Lastly, Merry Christmas to my readers! Don’t just celebrate Jesus’ birth, but offer his birth to life of many hearts who are yet lost in this world! That’s our mission!

***

Note: Nothing is without criticism. I personally have one criticism regarding the book is that the author has told his father was very popular Yogi and Hindu Guru who used be visited by many Hindus around. However, I couldn’t find even a single trace of his father in the internet. This made me puzzled. Perhaps, this issue wouldn’t work as enough missile to his testimony but this may raise question of popularity claimed by the author regarding his father.

If you’ve already read the book, please let me know how you feel about this book in the comment section! I shall be presenting certain highlighted contents from the book in my You Tube shorts. Keep waiting for that! Thanks!