Customer Reviews

The Gospel According to Acharya S

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Going around the net, I see a lot of comments about Acharya's work from people who obviously haven't read it. Case in point, someone is ranting about this book being "angry," when in fact it's the total opposite. It's a VERY HAPPY book full of GOOD NEWS, as Acharya says is the meaning of "gospel". When it comes to Acharya's books, the "Little Liars for the Lord" are out in force, posting lies about books they've never read. Some sites apparently don't care about having any integrity about allowing falsehoods. Just consider the source when reading about Murdock's work--follow the links to see who these people are.

Honestly, I have to wonder if people are reading the same book I am. While another guy rants on about "feminist" this and that, there is ONE essay in this book that discusses women, and all it does is present FACTS about how badly women are treated in patriarchal religion. Acharya is completely right-on when discussing the abuse of women in religion.

In the meantime, this is one of the most important books I've ever read. I think that when the author says this "purple bible" is the antidote to the world's crazy scriptures, she's absolutely right. For such a small book, it's packed full of wisdom on every page. Like her other books, the Gospel is full of great FACTS that everyone should know. Unlike her other books, this one's a bit easier to read--it's shorter & there's more philosophy, instead of the very scholarly info she provides in her other books, which are so dense and SO SCHOLARLY they can be difficult for many people to read.

This one's much less difficult & a great introduction to Acharya's work for people who haven't read it yet. I highly recommend this excellent HAPPY book--buy it and spread it around. You will be better for it, and so will everyone else who reads it. In fact I think this one book could prevent a lot of warfare & hatred being spread by the organized religions all over the world.

I think this book is about the most important and interesting issues we humans face, like:

What is God?
Is belief in God righteous?
Should we praise God?
Who speaks for God?
Is the Bible God's Word?
Does prayer work?
Are we born in sin?
What is the origin of good and evil?
Who is the Devil?
Is the Bible prophetic?
Do we have free will?
What is the purpose in life?

The back cover also says:

"The Gospel According to Acharya S provides intriguing insights into these important, probing questions and many more, presenting potent observations which seek to define humanity in as enlightened and evolved a manner as is possible. These powerful and profound perceptions reflect crucial concepts that need to be cherished and protected as the greatest of human rights and liberties."

The book is footnoted and has over 130 illustrations, with a long list describing all the images. It's obvious that Acharya worked very hard on this book, as she does on her others, like Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ & Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection Here's a list of the chapters in "The Gospel":

Prologue
What is God?
Belief in God
Praising the Lord
Egotists on Earth
Speaking for God
God's Word
On Being Religious
On a Wing and a Prayer
Born in Sin?
Eternal Life for Everyone?
Holy Days
The Origins of Good and Evil
The Devil is Divine
Prophecy or Blueprint?
Is Cannibalism a Religious Experience? (Loved that one!)
What is a Cult?
Is God a Transsexual?
Abusing Women is Not Religion
A Question of Free Will
Celebration of Life
A Truly Sacred Scripture
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

One of my favorite quotes from the book (p. 158) is:

"Humans Can Be Radiant and Superb

Human beings are also at their best when they are around animals and babies, which can be perfectly enjoyable in a perfect world. Children are frequently simply amazing beings who express endless joy and love...And this natural, innocent state of babyhood is one reason why people have children: To experience vicariously their awe and bliss, which represent divine qualities. Of course, not all children are fortunate to have this rapturous life. But humans at their best strive to provide all others, including animals, with this ultimate life experience of being surrounded by love and wonderment..."

As a parent, I totally agree with Acharya's words & I really appreciated reading them.

Contrary to the blatant lies being posted, this book is really a "Celebration of Life," which is the title of one of the chapters. I found it very inspiring and refreshing, and I wish more websites would have the integrity not to allow lies about such great works as this one. Very sad to read such trash from dishonest people, and I really hope it doesn't prevent people from reading this important book.

Do yourself and your loved ones a favor - read this book as soon as possible!

Let me say that Acharya has done a great job with this book. I found it very interesting and full of good information and real facts. But I also found it profoundly spiritual.

Those who call this an athiest rant are people who believe that God is a big man who sits on a throne in the sky doling out judgement on the human race. Here is what Acharya says about God on page 10. No athiest would ever write these words. --

"One can think of God as the life force or sentience that permeates the cosmos--gravity or levity, it matters not. . . .

"In the Far East, this life force has been termed 'the Tao'. The Tao is the 'thing' that makes birds chirp, cats purr and the sap of trees run. We can also call it 'cosmic consciousness'. It is simply an energy, sentience or spirit that pervades all living things. Far from having gender, as we have been led to believe, it is the magnetic principle between the male and female potencies. It is also the male and female polarities themselves. This Great Spirit, Tao, or God, encompasses all things. If it is not all encompassing, it is not God. Anything less than the totality is not God. The definition of 'God' is omnipresence itself. Nothing is outside of God."

(Page 11) "Anything that imposes limits on an infinite divinity is not a complete spiritual system or experience. Anything that projects form upon this genderless, raceless, formless and nonhierarchical godliness is not the ultimate truth. The ultimate truth, which is 'God', cannot have any form whatsoever, no gender, no race and no hierarchy."

How great is this conception of God compared to the petty and tyrannical little middle-eastern war god worshipped by the typical Judeo-Christian-Muslem!

Nor, is this an angry book, as one reviewer put it. There may be disgust at the ignorance that some human beings prefer to wallow in, but not anger. But Acharya also has great hope for the human race. Consider the following on page 157 and 158 about when human beings are at their best. --

"When human beings have fully blossomed, when they've reached a certain level of soul maturity that is balanced, neither too aggressive nor too effectual, they are a wonder to behold, bursting with life and love. These divine beings have a tremendous sense of humor, knowing well that there is no reason to take this long, strange trip seriously. This wondrous state of being requires not extraordinary intelligence but wisdom, which can be found even within a tiny seed. . . .

"People at their best maintain the awe and wonder of a child while developing the responsibility and integrity of true adulthood. They are sensitive and empathetic, sharing in the pain of others and providing remedy. Yet, they are not emotional basketcases who become too debilitated by tragedy for their own good and that of others."

And, as I said, this is a profoundly spiritual book, as shown in the following on page 11. --

"True spirituality is defined not by separation but by union, union with the whole, union with the life force, Great Spirit, Tao, or God, that lies behind creation and binds it together. Of course, the separation itself could also be thought of as a spiritual experience, in that it provides an opportunity for an individual soul truly to develop itself. Yet, in that development, we come back to the omnidimensionality of being one with the cosmos. This situation constitutes a paradox, yet one we like to live with, one that we ourselves created, as directors of our own drama. To be separate yet infinite--now, this state is 'God'."

(Page 14) "A true religious system is not one that demands slobbering at the feet of a separate god-ego--however large and frightening, whatever race or gender--but one that leads to communion and union with the quality of divinity itself."

Acharya is not against religion, God and certainly not men. But she is against the superstitious absurdity of false religions, of teaching fear and hatred to children, the enslavement of women, and the persecution of the innocent by the ignorant. And her only "agenda" is to bring a little more light into a spiritually dark world.

I congratulate Acharya S/D. M. Murdock on another excellent book.

Having read two of her other works, Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of the Christ, and "The Christ Conspiracy-The Greatest Story Ever Sold", I expected another scholarly in depth book. Turns out it is exactly that, but with a bit of a new twist.

Acharya takes off the gloves in this book and really bats around some heads. In the aforementioned books her approach is a bit more clinical, relying on facts and extremely well done research.
She surely hasn't abandoned that set of skills in this book.

However, I think she is a bit more casual in her writing, and rightfully a little pissed off. And that comes through. She also offers her view on life and living, hence the title the Gospel According to Acharya S.

Overall, I'd say this book is going to be a best seller for her. It's loaded with pictures, (perhaps to keep the attention of the less intelligent among us) and loaded with a lot of the relatively obscure words related to the subject matter. Notwithstanding the verbage, this book is an easy read and a real hard hitting, take no prisoners approach to exposing religion for what it truly is. Bravo. 5 Stars.

This is an incredibly excellent book! I just finished The Gospel According to Acharya, and it was just "what the doctor ordered" - just what I needed to add to my ongoing quest for open-minded enlightenment. It not only reinforced my faith in the true hope for freedom of all mankind from the self-shackles of religious dogma, but proved an added foundation block in my own spirituality and quest for a better understanding of what a higher power truly is in my life, as well as a more sensible, factual concept of "God," both historically and realistically. The book's grounded logic and well-sourced research did not shake my faith in the mysteries of life; it only served to enhance and personally reinforce it in an entirely new light.

Acharya's erudite writing style is solidly academic but not staid; obviously well-studied, yet, lively - all the while keeping the "common touch." And, I absolutely LOVED her tongue-in-cheek humor at the ends of certain chapters, serving as a reminder to not take ourselves (or sanctified scripture) too seriously. Moreover, her vocabulary and choice of words is exquisite: Each word - and picture! - Acharya uses in this book is obviously hand-picked to individually convey the exactly precise meaning she intended for its particular usage, and her beautifully natural poetic phrasing is a true example of what my favorite communications professor called a "meeting-of-meanings." For me, it is the utmost pleasure to read her truly original and uniquely refreshing works - all of them.

Recovery from physical addiction - and spiritual abuse

Also, as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous with 11 years of sobriety - a program which depends upon the healthy state of one's spiritual condition - Acharya's book was an additional plank in my understanding of my own spirituality. Twelve Step Fellowships often say that "religion is for those afraid of going to Hell...and spirituality is for those who have already been there." There IS a difference - an important one - especially for recovering alcoholics (and addicts) like me, even though true spirituality is more elusive to discover than simply succumbing to the blind rituals of religion.

Acharya points out how brutal and bloody wars "in the name of God" have been steadily killing millions over the centuries; yet, religion continues its genocide in other, more subtle ways, too. I have seen far too many desperate alcoholics leave the spiritual program of AA glaze-eyed and announcing they have found the answer in a "religious" church somewhere, only to see later those very same mesmerized poor souls drunk again - and scratching their heads wondering, "What happened?" -or worse: You can read or hear about their death from the ravages of alcoholism. It happens all too obscenely often - largely because churchified guilt trips made them feel worse and somehow immoral, yet showed no compassion that the affliction is only because of an honestly inherited genetic propensity to alcoholism through no fault of their own. It's a family -inherited-disease, not contagious and NOT caused by staying away from a particular church or religion that professes to have all the answers.

Then, too, are the still-drunk and/or horribly hung-over newcomers I see coming to their very first AA meeting out of desperation, only to turn around and walk right back out the door again when they initially see or hear the word "God" in the 12 Steps (but not bothering to notice the added caveat: "...as we understood Him"). There are also those who, out of politeness, might stay until the end of the meeting, but label themselves as a "recovering Catholic," or a "recovering Baptist," never to be seen again. They usually go unadvisedly to their doom, still bearing the gaping trademark religious wounds of judgmental "checkin' up on ya" churches and their self created, tiresomely punishing "God" - the one trapped in their tortured minds. That's sad; it puts a whole new twist on the meaning of pious "priestly abuse," and not just of young boys.

Religious abuse is PTSD of the very worst and most recurring kind. That very real psychological damage is nigh-impossible for some of the sickest ones to overcome, and keeps untold numbers of addled alcoholics and addicts perpetually handcuffed to their drug of choice, with no defense and no escape - all, incredibly, "in (or because of) the name of God."

Plugging the hole in the soul

But there is hope - not only for them, but for all of us who have also been abused by religion. Acharya may not have realized she wrote a book that can help recovering alcoholics and addicts (and perhaps recovering Catholics and Baptists, too) understand why they have a seemingly unfillable spiritual void - ironically because of "God" - but she most certainly did! Addiction has been called a "hole in the soul." If they have the capacity to read about an unconventional concept of a "God" - one that may at first seem totally foreign to their unconscionably strict religious upbringing and programming - many alcoholics and addicts could actually be helped in their need to fill that spiritual hole they attempt to fill with alcohol, drugs, and other substances such as too much food, for example. That is, if only they can just get past their understandable resistance to the concept of a power greater than themselves which some call "God" but which - as Acharya explains so simply and clearly - is just the universe as a whole.

Unfortunately, the Twelve Steps were written in 1935 in an archaic language, and the word "God" was used for want of a better label describing a higher power, but it was left open to mean the god of our understanding. Stumbling up against the word "God," most people who could recover, instead, tragically wind up in institutions or in the grave because of the man-made "God" of sanctimonious so-called "scripture" - while bombastically demanding genuflection, to boot. It's time for such balderdash to end, and Acharya's book is a great help toward that goal!

Perhaps the best interpretation of religion was worded unintentionally by the immortal and humorous raconteur Jean Shepherd, narrating "A Christmas Story" in that neo-classic Ralphie and the Red Ryder BB Gun movie: "Some men are Baptists, others, Catholic; my father was an Oldsmobile man..." Yes, Virginia, some people's concepts of religion do NOT have to be taken so seriously.

So, Acharya is right: The world's religions have killed millions of people in wars fought for "God" - and we humans can also tally the ever-increasing death toll as religions continue to kill countless others who wonder why accepting God's supposed "Son" into their lives could not get them sober and keep them alive, as the church fathers admonish is the ONLY answer to their uncleanliness. Would the self-righteous clergy and congregation treat a cancer patient the same way? Don't answer that, lol.

As 12-Steppers say: "I don't have to understand God (whoever, whatever that might be); God only has to understand ME." The Gospel According to Acharya does not contradict that basic philosophy one iota.

Liberating mental constructs

In short, The Gospel According to Acharya S kept me wide-awake - even on a day I was home from work sick with bronchitis intending to sleep all day. The Gospel's actual healing therapy that quiet day at home affected a much more valuable inner-health and peace-of-mind necessary to my overall vitality and well-being - an assured comfort I'd been needing to find for decades. It energized me with a renewed understanding within my own spiritual quest, and I would definitely recommend reading ALL of Acharya S's books - even to obtain her artfully done calendar and hang it on your wall for a daily, surprisingly new and eye-opening learning experience. Are you ready to learn again? I dare you to open your eyes wider than they have been for a long time.

To close this enthusiastic, yet admittedly lengthy, book report/treatise: not only does Acharya's exhaustively learned research broaden one's educational horizons, but it also wakes us all up in so many different ways of personal discovery that - purely by experiencing them - will bring a more profound understanding of what we have all been missing by blindly believing and perpetuating the centuries of hackneyed religious brainwashing and its cunningly-planned blueprint for mass subjugation. It is time for us ALL to break free of those lies, chains - and, indeed, ridiculousness - of religion. The untiring research conveyed in the important works of Acharya S/D.M. Murdock can help us do that and become the happy, joyous and freedom-loving people we want and deserve to be - if we wake up and work for it.

I have now resolved to keep extra copies of Acharya/Murdock's book(s) with me at all times. These I will hand out to those poor, confused, religiously challenged newcomers tentatively peeking through the doors of 12-Step meetings, wondering why everyone inside is so jovially and freely laughing, unafraid, and - for goodness sakes - NOT side-stepping God-launched lightning bolts!

Max G.
Applegate Valley, Oregon

I've always appreciated the work of Acharya S. but "The Gospel" has to be my favorite.

I picked a page at random, for example, 10 - 11 to see what the book says about "True Spirituality" and as usual, Ms. Murdock has hit the nail right on the head!

If I may quote: "True spirituality is defined not by separation but by union, union with the whole, union with the life force, Great Spirit, Tao, or God, that lies behind creation and binds it together."

elsewhere, she says,

"true religion ...has no dogma, no doctrine, no gods, prophets, priests or saviors, but simply benevolence, divine love, and common decency."

"True prayer represents a state of being one with the Absolute. There is no object or subject, only the One."

> this is mysticism, Truth with a capital "T"


By all means, buy this book ! I would rate it TEN stars if I could !



- Gary P., California

A wake-up-call for those who are still asleep in the comfortable arms of christian religion.
For those who are willing to question their conditioned belief.
For those who really want to know how we have been manipulated for centuries.
This book will set your (religious ) world on fire!

I have read all of D. M. Murdock's books. This one may be her best book. It's written in a style that can be comprehended by a high school graduate. You don't need an advanced degree in religion to understand how organized religions have conned mankind for thousands of years. At least 10,000 years for sure and probably before that.

The author defines what God is in a way that makes complete sense to me. You don't need a priest to tell you what God is, but any priest will try to shove their version of God down your throat and you are expected to thank them when they have. I now view priests, pastors, rabbis, etc. as a cut below carnival barkers. They are out to empty your pocket book on Sunday morning and expect you to smile and say thank you when they do.

Acharya exposes the bible, koran, and the holy books as not written by god, but written by men over thousands of years. It's so sad that church goers believe these man made books are without error and holy. Nothing is holy about them as they reveal god to be a revengeful, spiteful little tyrant who has all of man's flaws. The part about how "holy men" have abused women and children for thousands of years and continue to do so today is right on the money.

The author has received incredible flack from the apologists of the organized cult religions. I consider that to be a badge of courage and honor. Obviously, she has got the goods on them and it hits them where it hurts the most, their pocket book and livelihood. The apologists know that Acharya has exposed them for the frauds they are, but all she has done is tell the truth and they think its hell.

This is another fine scholarly work from Acharya S with lots of interesting facts and research. I read three of her other books before this - they left me wondering how she felt about things, what her philosophy was, etc., and this book gave me the opportunity to feel like I got to know her better as a person.

She starts off by giving you her definition of "God," and then she moves into her opinions and views of the Bible and religion in general. Her words so resonated with me that I found the book to be hilarious. I was laughing through much of it because I agreed with everything she said. I consider this book to be a comedy, from my own perspective of course. :-)

I read this book in one day - it's a quick, easy read. So if you've read some of her books and have questions as to who she is and what her views are, then this book will answer your questions as well as provide you with more interesting facts, obscure Bible quotes, Koran quotes and more.

Hi Acharya S. / DMM,

I received my purchased copy of "The Gospel ... " and just wanted you to know how I feel about your efforts and commitment toward researching and sharing truths.

First, Thank YOU for such a marvelously WONDERFUL "rant collection!" :)

Beyond that, I'd also like to say: "YOU WRITE MY HEART!" - - which had not found the voice I was missing, since my youth, when I had noticed the many parallels, contradictions & questions arising within & between religions. This was previously evidenced only by my silence about my confused feelings stemming from religions and hypocrisies.

To find my true heart through your clear understanding, writing and speaking is SUCH A BEAUTIFUL RELIEF!

Cheers for You & Yours ... and TRUTHS REVEALED,

Ralph Lewis :) :) :)

This book is very well done, i have read it and can't wait to read the rest of her books. if you like the facts and history then you will like her books. She doesn't give you fluff it is the real deal, it is refreshing and insightful. A great joy to read, it is well worth the money, I think you will truly enjoy this book.