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Jesus lived in India?
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 1995 15:50:32 EST
From: Dinesh Agrawal <DXA4@psuvm.psu.edu>
Message-ID: <95042.155032DXA4@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: St John, a Buddhist?
References: <3hf25d$i2k@netserv.unmc.edu>
In article <3hf25d$i2k@netserv.unmc.edu>, dchakrav@netserv.unmc.edu (Dhruba
Chakravarti) says:
>
>Dear Freinds:
>
>I found some interesting discussions in this book by Sri S. K.
>Majumdar, caled The Bhagavad Gita, a scripture for the future.
>
>****
>In an interview in Detroit in 1894, Vivekanada said,
>"Our religion is older than most religions and the Christian
>creeds came directly from the Hindoo religion. It is one of the great
>offshoots. The Catholic religion also takes all its forms from us,
>the confessional, the belief in saints and so on, and a Catholic priest
>who saw this absolute similarity and recognized the truth of the origin
>of the Catholic religion was dethroned from his position because he dared
>to publish a volume explaining all that he observed and was convinced of"
>[Swami's reference was no doubt to Bishop Brigandet's "Life of
>Buddha"].
>(From Swami Vivekananda, New Discoveries , by Mary Louise Burke,
>2nd ed., p 208)
>
>****
> The origin of Christianity is also due to Buddhist influence.
> The Hindus venerate Christ as an Incarnation, and they see that his
> essential message is that of the Sanatana Dharma (the Eternal Religion).
> The special ethical and religious ideas contained in the teachings of
> Christ have no antecedents in the religious tradition in which he was
> born. Non-resistance to evil, love of enemies, monasticism, love of death,
> the assertion of man's innate perfection (the kingdom of heaven is within
> you), universalism are principles not to be found in the religion
> into which he was born.
>
> John the Baptist, who belonged to the monastic sect of the Essenes, was
> a Buddhist. King Asoka of India (third century B.C.) sent Buddhist
> missionaries to different parts of the world, from Siberia to Ceylon,
> from China to Egypt, and for two centuries before the advent
> of Christ, the Buddhist missionaries preached the ethics of
> Buddha in Syria, Palestine and Alexandria. The Christian
> historian, Mahaffi, declared that the Buddhist missionaries
> were the forerunners of Christ.
>
> "Philosophers like Schelling and Schopenhauer, and Christian thinkers
> like Dean Mansel and D. Millman admit that the sect of the Essenes arose
> through the influence of the Buddhist missionaries who came from India"
> (Complete works of Swami Abhedananda, vol.2, p. 120).
>
> ****
>
> The Russian author, Notovitch, translated in 1894 a biography
> of Christ found in Nepal in a Buddhist monastery which said that Christ
> went there during the thirteen years of his life of which there is no
> record in the Gospels.
>
> ****
>
> Many incidents in Christ's life as well as the organization of
> the Catholic Church and its rituals suggest their Buddhistic and Hindu
> origin. The gospel stories of the immaculate conception of a virgin
>mother,
> the miraculous birth, the story of slaughter of the infants by Herod,
> and the chief events of Christ's life seem like repetitions of what
>happened
> in the lives of Krishna and Buddha. The idea of Incarnation is purely an
> Indian idea. It was not known among the Jews. The star over Buddha's
> birthplace and the prophecy of the old monk Asita are repeated in the
>Gospel
> story of Simeon. The temptation of Buddha by Mara, the evil spirit, the
> twelve disciples, with the beloved disciple Ananda, and the many miracles
> recall the stories in Christ's life. Under cover of the legend of Barlaam
> and Josaphet, Buddha has found a place among the Catholic
> saints and has his saint-day in the calendar of the Greek and
> Roman churches. The rosary, the veneration of relics,
> asceticism, baptism, confession etc., are also of Indian
> origin. The name Josaphet is Bodhisattva in corrupt form.
> There are innumerable similarities betweeen
> Hindu-Buddhist practices and doctrines and those of Christianity.
There is another book, "Jesus Lived in India: His unkown life before and after
the crucifixion" by Mr Holger Kersten, which also provides a detailed and
greatly fasciniting account of the life of Jesus; especially the 12 unaccounted
years of his life, and the remainder of his life after crucifixion. The author
claims that Jesus had not died on the cross, and was brought back to India by
his disciples. In India Jesus spent rest of his life (about 30 years) mostly in
Kashmir, and died there. There is still a tomb/samadhi dedicated to Jesus. Even
prior to this, when Jesus was 12 years old he came to India and got initiated
under a Buddhist Monk in Ladakh and himslef became a Buddhist monk. On his way
back to Israel, he preached Buddhism and established Buddhist monstaries all
over the middle east. According to the author, several middle eastern countries
accepted Buddhism as the state religion and continued to practice Buddhism
until they fell to Islamic onslaught in 6-7th century AD. The book even cites
numerous archaeological, biblical, historical facts, and the contemporary Hindu
scriptures in support of his findings. He quotes Puranas where there is clear
mention of the Jesus's sojourn to India. The author also made trips to Kashmir,
Ladakh and other parts of India in 1970's to verify some of the legends and
rumours first hand. And it seems he achieved remarkable success in
substantiating most of the claims made by Nicolai Notovitch. It is a fasciniting
book and sheds new light on the Jesus, bible, and influence of Hindu/Buddhist
philosophy on the social and religious events of that period in middle east.
Mr Kersten even makes an attempt to trace the ancestry of Moses to India
by quoting Jewish and Hindu scriptures, and shows remarkable similarity between
old jewish traditions and Vedic rituals. The book is must for those who have
an inquisitive mind to visualize a unity among all the religions or looking for
a common source for all ancient religions.
Dinesh Agrawal...
