Jesus In India!

[Guest guest]

Shankaram Siva Shankaram

 

Jesus In India! {source - sulekha.com}

 

 

The following article tries to focus if 2000 years back, Jesus Christ

actually visited India during his teenage years and did he actually study

Indian culture, Hinduism and Buddhism before returning to Israel to enroot

Christianity?

 

The search for the history of Jesus began at the end of the eighteenth

century when scholars began examining all possible sources for information

on Jesus' life. Scholars discussed whether Jesus was a man or a myth. With

reference to the gospels, the scholars now agree that Jesus actually did

exist. Although the gospels are considered as the prime source of

information about Jesus, it gives us absolutely no idea about what Jesus

looked like? It doesn't talk about his occupation or how he spent his

teenage years.

 

Almost 17 years of Jesus' life are missing. The Bible doesn't talk about

where Jesus was and what he was doing from the age of 13 to 30. The bible

records Jesus at a temple at 12 years, and then at River Jordan at 30, when

his public life started. It is unlikely that the bible can leave out such a

huge span of time. However, there are ancient scrolls in Tibet that reveal

that Jesus spent these years in India.

 

In 1894, Russian scholar Nicolas Notovitch published a book called `The

Unknown Life of Jesus’. Notovitch was a Russian journalist and war

correspondent who journeyed extensively throughout Afghanistan, India and

Tibet. During one of his journeys, he was visiting Leh, the capital of

Ladakh, near where the Buddhist monastery Himis is (about 25 miles from

Leh). He was initially forbidden to see the text, but later he had an

accident and broke his leg. This gave him the unexpected opportunity to stay

awhile at the Himis monastery.

 

Notovitch learned, while he was there, that there existed ancient records of

the life of Jesus Christ. Over there, he came across a Tibetan document

known as `The Life of St. Issa’. According to this Tibetan legend, Issa left

his father's house secretly at the age of thirteen. He joined a merchant

caravan, took the silk route and arrived in India, " this side of the Sind, "

sometime during his fourteenth year. Young Issa traveled south to Gujarat,

through the country of the five rivers and Rajputana, then on to the holy

cities of Jagannath, Orissa and Benaras where Brahman priests taught him to

read and understand the Vedas. They also taught him to cure by aid of

prayer, to teach, to explain the holy scriptures to the people and to drive

out evil spirits from the bodies of men, restoring them to sanity.

 

Issa continued north into the Himalayas and settled in the country of the

Gautamides, followers of Gautama Buddha, where, for six years, he applied

himself to the study of the sacred sutras. He also learnt Pali. After six

years, he was ready to spread Buddha’s holy word and had become a perfect

expositor of the sacred writings. He left India in his twenty-sixth year,

traveling to Persepolis, Athens and Alexandria. Issa was twenty-nine when he

returned to Israel -- and reentered the familiar gospel of St. Luke, chapter

three. His was baptised by John.

 

Here are some quotes from Notovich's book --

 

Chapter IV

 

2. " But Issa, warned of his danger by the Sudras, left the neighborhood of

Juggernaut by night, reached the mountain and established himself in the

country of Gautamides, the birthplace of the great Buddha Sakyamuni, in the

midst of a people worshipping the one and sublime Brahma.

 

3. " After having perfected himself in the Pali language, the just Issa

applied himself to the study of the sacred writings of Sutras. 4. " Six years

after, Issa, whom the Buddha had elected to spread his holy word, had become

a perfect expositor of the sacred writings. "

 

Chapter V

 

1. " In the course of his fourteenth year, the young Issa [Jesus], blessed of

God, came on this side of Sind and established himself among the Aryas in

the land of God.

 

2. " Fame spread the reputation of this marvelous child throughout the length

of northern Sind, and when he crossed the country of the five rivers and the

Rajputana, the devotees of the God Jaine prayed him to dwell among them.

 

3. " But he left the erring worshippers of Jaine and went to Juggernaut in

the country of Orissa, where repose the mortal remains of Vyasa-Krishna and

where the white priests of Brahma made him a joyous welcome.

 

4. " They taught him to read and understand the Vedas, to cure by aid of

prayer, to teach, to explain the holy scriptures to the people, and to drive

out evil spirits from the bodies of men, restoring unto them sanity. "

 

Later, in 1922, Abhedananda, disciple of Swami Ramkrishna, traveled into the

Himalayas. Abhedananda was skeptical of Notovitch and took up the journey to

expose this hoax. He crossed the Himalayas on foot and reached Tibet for

studying the manners, customs, Buddhist philosophy and Lamaism. He visited

the Hemis monastery, where he discovered a manuscript on the life of Jesus

Christ. With the help of a senior Lama, he got a translated copy of the

important portions of the life of Jesus. His book of travels, entitled

`Kashmir O Tibetti’, tells of a visit to the convent Himis and includes a

Bengali translation of two hundred and twenty-four verses, essentially the

same as the Notovitch text. Abhedananda was thereby convinced of the

authenticity of the Issa legend.

 

According to Abhedananda, in India, Jesus is likely to have obtained the

name Isa or Issa from `Isha’, which means Lord in Sanskrit. `Lord’ here

relates to their great deity, Shiva, for whom another name is `Ish’.

 

In 1925, another Russian named Nicholas Roerich arrived at Himis. Roerich

was an artist, philosopher, archaeologist and author -- led a life rich in

artistic and humanitarian achievements. Born in St. Petersburg in 1874, he

was a highly disciplined man who seemed to have lived several lives at once.

He created over 6,000 paintings, wrote numerous books and undertook

extensive archaeological expeditions in Russia and Central Asia. One of his

greatest achievements, the Roerich Pact, sought to protect, in war and

peace, cultural treasures. This project led to his nomination for the Nobel

Peace Prize in 1929. He apparently saw the same documents as Notovitch and

Abhedananda. And he recorded in his own travel diary the same legend of St.

Issa. In his diary, Roerich says...

 

.... He passed his time in several ancient cities of India such as Benares.

All loved him because Issa dwelt in peace with Vaishyas and Shudras, whom he

instructed and helped. But the Brahmins and Kshatriyas told him that Brahma

forbade them to approach those who were created out of his womb and feet.

The Vaishyas were allowed to listen to the Vedas only on holidays and the

Shudras were forbidden not only to be present at the reading of the Vedas,

but could not even look at them. Issa said that man had filled the temples

with his abominations. In order to pay homage to metals and stones, man

sacrificed his fellows in whom dwells a spark of the Supreme Spirit. Man

demeans those who labor by the sweat of their brows, in order to gain the

good will of the sluggard who sits at the lavishly set board. But they who

deprive their brothers of the common blessing shall be themselves stripped

of it. Vaishyas and Shudras were struck with astonishment and asked what

they could perform. Issa bade them, " Worship not the idols. Do not consider

yourself first. Do not humiliate your neighbor. Help the poor. Sustain the

feeble. Do evil to no one. Do not covet that which you do not possess and

which is possessed by others. "

 

Many, learning of such words, decided to kill Issa. But Issa, forewarned,

departed from this place by night. Afterwards, Issa went into Nepal and into

the Himalayan mountains... From another version of the legend, Roerich

quotes fragments of thoughts and evidence of miracles. Near Lhasa was a

temple of teaching with a wealth of manuscripts. Jesus was to acquaint

himself with them. Meng-ste, a great sage in the east, was in this temple.

 

Finally, Jesus reached a mountain pass and in the chief city of Ladak, Leh,

he was joyously accepted by monks and people of the lower class... And,

Jesus taught in the monasteries and in the bazaars (the market places);

wherever the simple people gathered -- there he taught. Not far from this

place lived a woman whose son had died and she brought him to Jesus. And in

the presence of the multitudes, Jesus laid his hand on the child, and the

child rose, healed. And many brought their children and Jesus laid his hands

upon them, healing them. Among the Ladakis, Jesus passed many days, teaching

them. And they loved him and when the time of his departure came, they were

sad as children.

 

Many other people have seen or been told about the evidence in Tibetan

books. In 1975, Dick Bock took the same tour and produced a documentary film

on Jesus' lost years in India, which includes impressive testimonies of

several people. In 1987, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Livingston, Montana, 1987,

gathered all these information in a book, `The Lost Years of Jesus’.

 

All the references and documents given above seem to suggest that Jesus

Christ did really visit India during his teenage years. Why seventeen of the

formative years of Jesus Christ have been kept away from his followers and

from the rest of the world is a bit puzzling. In an age where millions of

dollars are being spent by researchers in trying to reconstruct historical

facts, it is only strange that not enough attempts are being made to

research and reveal the life of a man whom many know as mankind’s only

connection to god.

 

For more information and documentation from Notovitch and Roerich, follow

the links given below.

 

Links:

 

http://reluctant-messenger.com/issa.htm

 

http://www.tsl.org/Masters/jesus/front.htm

 

 

 

Shankaram Siva Shankaram