Painterly still life of an old wooden desk at night lit by a single clay oil lamp: an unrolled parchment scroll, an open codex, bundles of palm-leaf manuscripts tied with cord, an inkpot and a reed pen. A window behind shows the first light of dawn. — Artistic illustration (AI-generated), not a historical depiction. Tap to enlarge.

Method

Sources and method

Bible text

All verse text comes from Bible Gateway, checked Oct 30–31, 2026. Every row in every comparison table links to its own passage and version.
Public domain: King James Version (KJV) and Young’s Literal Translation (YLT). These are quoted in full.
In copyright: NRSV Updated Edition (NRSVue, the NRSV text currently on Bible Gateway), ESV and NIV. These are quoted in single verses or single clauses for comparison only.

Greek

ἐντός entos (Strong’s 1787) · ἁπλοῦς haplous (573) · εἷς/ἕν heis/hen (1520) · κολλάω kollaō (2853) · μεταμορφόω metamorphoō (3339) · ἔκστασις ekstasis (1611) · ἁρπάζω harpazō (726). All are Bible Hub lexicon pages, which include Thayer’s.

Indian sources

Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946), Project Gutenberg #7452.
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, tr. Swami Nikhilananda, ramakrishnavivekananda.info. Chapters quoted: 7, 11, 24, 27, 37, 42; Introduction: Christianity, Kali and Maya; Glossary.
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 187 and Talk 391 (tatpada.com transcription); Maharshi’s Gospel (Sri Ramanasramam archive).
Bhagavad Gita 2.54: shlokam.org. Overviews: Sthitaprajna, Jivanmukta (Wikipedia).

Bhagavad Gita and scholarship (Step 6)

K. T. Telang, The Bhagavadgîtâ, Sacred Books of the East 8 (1882): sacred-texts.com. Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial (1885): Project Gutenberg #2388.
F. Lorinser, Die Bhagavad-Gîtâ (1869): archive.org. B. G. Tilak, Gita Rahasya, appendix: wisdomlib. Indian Antiquary notice on Lorinser: wisdomlib.
R. Garbe: Deutsche Biographie, Who Was Who in Indology. B. Griffiths, River of Compassion (1987): archive.org. G. Parrinder, Avatar and Incarnation (1970); R. C. Zaehner, The Bhagavad-Gītā (1969); E. J. Sharpe, The Universal Gita (1985); F. X. Clooney, Hindu God, Christian God (2001): OUP. These four are described, not quoted.

Maya and the unseen (Step 3b)

Svetasvatara Upanishad IV, tr. Max Müller, SBE 15: sacred-texts.com. Shankara’s Vedânta-Sûtra commentary, tr. G. Thibaut, SBE 34: Project Gutenberg #16295. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna ch. 40. Wikipedia: Vivartavada, Vishishtadvaita, Epistle to the Hebrews, Paul the Apostle. Greek: Strong’s 4976 schēma, 2072 esoptron, 135 ainigma, 517 aoratos.

Touch and transmission (Step 5)

Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Introduction: Narendra, Last Days at Cossipore; chapters 3 and 14.
Britannica, “darshan”; Wikipedia: Shaktipat, Diksha, Kalpataru Day, Jivanmukta. Greek: δύναμις dynamis (1411).

Hebrew Bible (Old Testament track and Bridge)

Verse text: Bible Gateway as above (KJV and YLT in full; NRSVue, ESV and NIV briefly). Translators’ footnotes quoted on the pages are from the same Bible Gateway pages. Divine-name small capitals are printed as “LORD” or “GOD”.
Hebrew: Strong’s, Brown-Driver-Briggs and NAS Exhaustive Concordance entries on Bible Hub, linked from each note: raphah 7503, damam 1826, demamah 1827, suach 7742, siach 7878, hagah 1897, naphash 5314, neshamah 5397, hayah 1961, echad 259, elohim 430, hevel 1892, qaran 7160, addereth 155 and others.
Jewish sources (Sefaria, with the translator named on each page): Berakhot 26b (William Davidson Talmud), Rashi on Exodus 3:14 and on Genesis 5:24 (Rosenbaum and Silbermann), Mishnah Yadayim 3:5 (Joshua Kulp).
Overviews (Wikipedia, each line quoted was checked on Oct 31, 2026): Hebrew Bible, I Am that I Am, Shema Yisrael, Ein Sof, Psalm 82, Divine council, Hitbodedut, Elijah, The Oven of Akhnai, Supersessionism, Ruach HaKodesh, Prana, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom (personification), Jacob’s Ladder, Merkabah mysticism, Horns of Moses, Shaktipat, Nazirite, Enoch, Shiviti, Samadhi (Mahāsamādhi), Song of Songs, Book of Job, Vishvarupa, Book of Revelation. Each is linked where it is used.
Patanjali, Books I–IV: J. H. Woods (1914) archive.org; Vivekananda (1896) Book I, Book II, Book III, Book IV.
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi (tatpada.com): 106, 338, 363, 391, 480. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna chapters 1, 10, 11, 24, 25, 32. Yogananda, Autobiography chs. 26, 30, 35. Gita: Telang chs. 2, 5, 11, 12, 18; Arnold 6.19, 11.12.

Eastern perspective boxes and the light thread (Update 8)

Upanishads: R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (Oxford, 1921), public domain: archive.org; text checked against the Online Library of Liberty edition (PDF). Passages: Isha 5–7, 15–16; Kena 3.1–6, 4.1; Katha 5.15; Mundaka 2.2.8–10, 3.2.9; Mandukya 2; Aitareya 3.3; Chandogya 3.13.7, 3.14.3, 6.8.7, 6.13.1–2; Brihadaranyaka 1.3.28, 1.4.10, 2.4.5, 4.3.6–7, 4.4.7; Shvetashvatara 4.10, 6.14, 6.23. Hume’s footnote numbers are left out; his brackets and glosses are kept.
Gita: K. T. Telang (1882) on sacred-texts.com, chapters 2, 10, 13, 15, 18. Gita 6.19, 6.29–31 and the second version of 13.17 are from Edwin Arnold (Gutenberg #2388), because the Telang chapter 6 page could not be read cleanly.
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Nikhilananda): chapters 3, 27, 38, 42, and Nikhilananda’s Introduction, “Summary of His Teachings”, quoted as Nikhilananda’s words.
Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 15, note 5 (the spiritual eye and Matthew 6:22): Gutenberg #7452.
Vedanta schools, one-line definitions quoted from Wikipedia (checked Oct 31, 2026): Advaita Vedanta, Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita Vedanta, Mahāvākya.
Light-thread Bible verses (KJV, YLT): John 1:4–9, 8:12, 14:20, 10:30, 17:21; Matthew 5:14, 6:22, 17:2; Psalms 27:1, 36:9, 104:2, 119:105; Isaiah 9:2, 60:19; Genesis 1:3; Exodus 34:29; Deuteronomy 4:35; Daniel 12:3; Ecclesiastes 11:7; Malachi 4:2; 2 Corinthians 4:6; 1 John 1:5; Revelation 21:23. All from Bible Gateway, linked where quoted.
Pairings of Vedanta schools with biblical sayings, and of Upanishad passages with Bible passages, are this site’s own. They are marked as Reflection, and each box has a “Where the traditions differ” note.

Buddhist sources (Update 9)

Pali Canon: Bhikkhu Sujato’s translations on SuttaCentral, dedicated to the public domain (CC0), text taken from the SuttaCentral API on Oct 31, 2026. Discourses: SN 56.11, SN 12.1, SN 12.21, SN 22.59, SN 22.95, SN 44.10; MN 10, MN 22, MN 118; DN 2, DN 11, DN 13; AN 1.49–52, AN 4.36; Sn 1.8; Ud 8.3; Iti 44. Each quote links to its discourse.
Dhammapada, tr. F. Max Müller (1881): Project Gutenberg #2017. Verses 1–2, 5, 165, 172, 183, 223, 277–279, 387.
Diamond Sutra, tr. William Gemmell (1912), ch. 32: Project Gutenberg #64623.
Buddhist Mahāyāna Texts, SBE 49 (1894), tr. F. Max Müller, on sacred-texts.com: Heart Sutra, Larger Sukhāvatī-vyūha §12, Amitāyur-dhyāna Sūtra §9.
Wikipedia (each quoted line checked Oct 31, 2026): Anattā, Buddha-nature, Bodhisattva, Perfect Interpenetration (interbeing), Buddhism and Christianity; overviews linked from the schools table (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Zen, Schools of Buddhism).
New Testament parallels (KJV, Bible Gateway): Matt 5:3, 5:8, 5:44, 6:19–20, 15:18–19; Mark 8:35; Luke 6:31, 10:33–34; Rom 12:21; Eph 2:8; 1 Cor 15:20; James 4:14; 1 John 4:8.
Described, not quoted, because no open text could be checked: Marcus Borg (ed.), Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings (1997); Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ (1995); the Dalai Lama, The Good Heart (1996); the wording of the bodhisattva vow, which varies by school; the meditation nimitta.

Graphics

Diagrams are in-house SVG drawings with a visible botbuhdy.com mark and copyright metadata.
Header and in-page illustrations are AI-generated artistic illustrations, captioned as such on every page. They are not historical depictions. Each carries a visible botbuhdy.com mark and an invisible watermark, and has had all camera and location metadata removed and replaced with BotBuhdy copyright metadata.

Not quoted (could not be checked)

Yogananda, God Talks with Arjuna: in copyright, with no authorised online text. Not quoted.
Catherine Cornille: no passage on the Gita could be checked. Not cited.
Sifra on Leviticus 19:18 (Rabbi Akiva’s “great principle”) and Heschel’s The Sabbath: described, not quoted, because no translation was checked word for word.
The yogic reading of Jacob’s ladder as the suṣumnā channel: a popular modern reading with no primary source checked. It is labelled speculative where it appears.
A Ramana Maharshi line on Psalm 46:10 attributed to “Talks 408” on a blog (kavvanah.blog) could not be found in Talk 408 on tatpada.com and is not used.
Gita chapter 6 in Telang’s translation: the sacred-texts.com page could not be read cleanly, so Arnold is used for 6.19 and 6.29–31.
Yogananda, The Second Coming of Christ: paraphrased only. No authorised online text was available to check wording against.

Editorial stance

These pages are for study and personal practice. They do not speak for any synagogue, church, order or lineage. Green “Reflection” boxes are interpretation. Everything else is quoted text with its source link.