Pls advise if this is authentic

[Guest guest]

Dear Devotees

 

Pls enlighten me on the truth of this matter.

 

The article below says that the references to Jesus in the Bhavisya Purana

is not authentic and had been introduced by the British.

 

It also says that as per the Bible Jesus was not born of a virgin.

 

http://www.burningcross.net/crusades/jesus-in-vedas.html

 

 

The Bhavisya Purana is considered to be one of the major 18 Puranas of the

Vedic canon and, as the name suggests, it mainly deals with future events

(the word bhaviysati stemming from the Sanskrit verb 'bhu', meaning "to

be"). The Bhavisya Purana is most certainly an ancient text as it is

mentioned in a much older work, the Apasthambha-dharma-sutras. However, some

of the predictions found in the Bhavisya Purana concerning certain events

and specifically the prediction of Jesus found in the 19th Chapter of the

Pratisarga-parva section, cannot be taken as absolute. A closer look at this

particular prediction of Jesus strongly suggests foul play and interpolation

on the part of Christian Missionaries in India during the late 18th century.

 

There are four known editions of the Bhavisya Purana, each having different

predictions from the other, but suspiciously having one consistent

prediction - that of Jesus.

 

One edition contains five chapters, one contains four, another contains

three and yet another contains only two. Additionally, the contents in all

four editions differ in various degrees - some having extra verses and some

having less. Due to these circumstances, it is difficult to ascertain which

of the four is the original text of the Bhavisya Purana, if indeed an

original text still exists, but suspiciously all four editions do mention

Jesus.

 

The Venkateswar Steam Press edition of the Bhavisya Purana printed in Bombay

in 1829 (and reprinted by Nag Publishers in 2003) is probably the most

complete version available, containing all the main features of the four

manuscripts. Since none of the four editions of the Bhavisya Purana predate

British Rule in India, this further suggests a discrepancy, plus the fact

that all four versions mention Jesus.

 

The consistent prophecy in all four editions concerns the so-called meeting

of Maharaja Salivahana and Jesus. However, in examining this section,

certain flaws can be found which betray its dubious origins. The section

begins thus:

 

vikramaditya-pautrasca pitr-rajyam grhitavan

jitva sakanduradharsams cina-taittiridesajan

 

bahlikankamarupasca romajankhurajanchhatan

tesam kosan-grhitva ca danda-yogyanakarayat

 

sthapita tena maryada mleccharyanam prthak-prthak

sindhusthanam iti jneyam rastramaryasya cottamam

 

mlecchasthanam param sindhoh krtam tena mahatmana

ekada tu sakadiso himatungam samayayau

 

"Ruling over the Aryans was a king called Salivahana, the grandson of

Vikramaditya, who occupied the throne of his father. He defeated the Sakas

who were very difficult to subdue, the Cinas, the people from Tittiri,

Bahlikas and the people of Kamarupa. He also defeated the people from Roma

and the descendants of Khuru, who were deceitful and wicked. He punished

them severely and took their wealth. Salivahana thus established the

boundaries dividing the separate countries of the Mlecchas and the Aryans.

In this way Sindusthan came to be known as the greatest country. That great

personality appointed the abode of the Mlecchas beyond the Sindhu River and

to the west. One time, that subduer of the Sakas went towards Himatunga (the

Himalayas)." (19.19-22)

 

At the very outset, this section is fraught with historical inaccuracies.

Salivahana was the king of Ujjain (in modern day Madhya Pradesh), and while

it is not surprising that Salivahana traveled to the Himalayas, the enemies

that he supposedly vanquished in battle before he went, should be looked

into more thoroughly. Historical research tells us that the only invading

force that Salivahana actually subdued were the Sakas, who entered India

from the north-west regions. But as for his defeating the Cinas (Chinese),

Bahlikas (Bactrians), Kamarupas (Assamese), Romas (Romans) and the Khurus

(Khorasans, or Persians), there is no historical evidence that validates

Salivahana doing this, nor is their any historical proof of the Romans and

the Chinese ever invading India. The Bactrians (Greeks) came earlier during

the Gupta Period and the Persians (Moguls) came later. The people of Assam

were simply a small hill-tribe during this period of Indian history

[conquering which would not have warranted Vedic verse]. The text continues:

 

hunadesasya madhye vai giristhan purusam subham

dadarsa balabanraja gaurangam sveta-vastrakam

 

"In the middle of the Huna country (Hunadesa - the area near Manasa Sarovara

or Kailasa mountain in Western Tibet), the powerful king saw an auspicious

man who was living on a mountain. The man's complexion was golden and his

clothes were white." (19:22)

 

After Salivahana defeated the Sakas he established his empire, thus the

Salivahana period of Indian history began, circa 78 CE. According to this

apparently interpolated section of the Bhavisya Purana, at some point after

establishing his kingdom, Salivahana traveled to the Himalayas and met

Jesus. Yet, Christian scholars opine that Jesus was born in 4 BCE and was

crucified somewhere between 27 and 36 CE. If we entertain the idea that

Christ somehow survived the crucifixion and met Salivahana in the Himalayas,

this would make him around 80 years old at that time. Yet surprisingly, the

description of Jesus in the Bhavisya Purana does not mention that he was an

old man.

 

The text continues with Salivahana asking Jesus, "Who are you?" to which

Jesus replies:

 

isa-putram mam viddhi kumari-garbha sambhavam

 

"I am the Son of God (isa-putra) and I am born of a virgin

(kumari-garbha)."(19:23)

 

The idea common amongst Christians that Jesus was born of a virgin only came

into existence several centuries after Jesus and was not part of early

Christianity. Thus, it is unlikely that Jesus would have spoken of his birth

as such. The Christian idea that Jesus was born of a virgin is based on the

following verse found in the Christian version of the Old Testament in the

Book of Isaiah:

 

"Behold, a virgin has conceived and bears a son and she will call his name

Immanuel."

 

However, the original Hebrew text of the Book of Isaiah does not mention

anything about a virgin:

 

hinneh ha-almah harah ve-yeldeth ben ve-karath shem-o immanuel

 

"Behold, the young woman has conceived - and bears a son and calls his name

Immanuel." (Isaiah 7.14)

 

The Hebrew word for virgin is 'betulah' yet it appears nowhere in this verse

of Isaiah. The word used is 'almah' which simply means 'a young woman'.

Isaiah only uses 'almah' once. However, the word 'Betulah' is used five

times throughout the Book of Isaiah, so Isaiah obviously made a distinction

between these two words.

 

After Jesus has introduced himself to Salivahana he explains that he is

teaching religion in the distant land of the Mlecchas and tells the king

what those teachings are:

 

mlecchasa sthapito dharmo maya tacchrnu bhupate

manasam nirmalam krtva malam dehe subhasubham

 

naigamam japamasthaya japeta nirmalam param

nyayena satyavacasaa manasyaikena manavah

 

dhyanena pujayedisam surya-mandala-samsthitam

acaloyam prabhuh sakshat- atha suryocalah sada

 

"Please hear from me, O King, about the religion that I have established

amongst the Mlecchas. The mind should be purified by taking recourse of

proper conduct, since we are subject to auspicious and inauspicious

contaminations - by following the scriptures and concentrating on japa

(repetition of God's names) one will attain the highest level of purity; by

speaking true words and by mental harmony, and by meditation and worship, O

descendant of Manu. Just as the immovable sun attracts from all directions

the elements of all living beings, the Lord who resides in the Surya-mandala

(sun globe) and is fixed and all-attractive, attracts the hearts of all

living creatures." (19:28-30)

 

Nowhere in the Gospels do we find in the ministry of Jesus the above

teachings to his followers. Furthermore, in this passage, Jesus is

advocating the worship of the Sun-god (again, something that is absent in

his instructions to the apostles). Japa, meditation, the negation of both

good and bad karma, are all concepts that are familiar to eastern religions

such as Hinduism and Buddhism, but not to the Abrahamic religions of the

west.

 

Considering the above anomalies and the fact that no edition of the Bhavisya

Purana can be found prior to the British period in India, we can only deduce

that the Bhavisya Purana was tampered with by the Christian missionaries who

added the chapter on Jesus. Their motive is obvious - to make the

personality of Jesus acceptable to the Hindus, in order to convert them to

Christianity.

 

In 1784, the famous Indologist Sir William Jones wrote the following letter

to Sir Warren Hastings, Governor General of India, confirming our

suspicions.

 

"As to the general extension of our pure faith in Hindoostan there are at

present many sad obstacles to it... We may assure ourselves, that Hindoos

will never be converted by any mission from the church of Rome, or from any

other church; and the only human mode, perhaps, of causing so great a

revolution, will be to translate into Sanscrit... such chapters of the

Prophets, particularly of ISAIAH, as are indisputably evangelical, together

with one of the gospels, and a plain prefatory discourse, containing full

evidence of the very distant ages, in which the predictions themselves, and

the history of the Divine Person (Jesus) is predicted, were severally made

public and then quietly to disperse the work among the well-educated

natives." (Asiatic Researches Vol. 1. Published 1979, pages 234-235. First

published 1788).

 

It may also be noted that throughout the Pratisarga-parva of the Bhavisya

Purana we find the stories of Adam and Eve (Adhama and Havyavati), Noah

(Nyuha), Moses (Musa), and other Biblical characters. These we also consider

to be added by zealous Christians.

 

In conclusion, the Bhavisya Purana may well be a genuine Vedic scripture

prophesying future events, but from the above analysis we can say with

certainty that the Jesus episode of the Bhavisya Purana is not an authentic

Vedic revelation.

 

The Editors