BBC Documentary: "Jesus Lived in India"

(BBC Worldwide, Alimirza30) Did Jesus die on the cross or of old age in Kashmir, India? Does the truth destroy the central tenet of Paul's version of Christianity, or does it open Christianity to reveal a "universal" tradition that borrowed liberally from many other traditions? tombofjesus.com

Holger Kersten: "It is simply of vital importance to find again the path to the sources, to the eternal and central truths of Christ's message, which has been shaken almost beyond recognition by the profane ambitions of more or less secular institutions arrogating to themselves a religious authority. This is an attempt to open a way to a new future, firmly founded in the true spiritual and religious sources of the past."

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Thus begins Holger Kersten's book Jesus Lived in India. This German book is a thorough, methodical, and authoritative examination of the evidence of Christ's life beyond the Middle East before the Crucifixion and in India and elsewhere after it.

This article is a summary of Kersten's exhaustive research into Christ's travels after the Crucifixion, his arrival in India with the Mother Mary, and finally his death and entombment in Kashmir. Kersten notes the many parallels of Christ's teachings with other religious [such as Buddhism] and cultural traditions and suggests that at least some of these figures may have been one and the same personality.

It is not possible, Kersten asserts, to disprove that Christ went to India. The current information documenting Christ's life [was massively edited with the burning of every known source that contradicts the Church's official story] is restricted to the gospels and the work of Church theologians. One can hardly trust these sources to be objective considering their obvious interest in maintaining the authority of their Church and its grip on the masses.

The Buddhist connection: a tulku, reincarnation, the search for a bodhisattva, and delusions of messianic (Maitreyanic) grandeur?

The Russian scholar, Nicolai Notovich, was the first to suggest that Christ may have gone to India. In 1887, Notovich, a Russian scholar and Orientalist, arrived in Kashmir during one of several journeys to the Orient. At the Zoji-la pass Notovich was a guest in a Buddhist monastery, where a monk told him of the bodhisattva saint called "Issa" [the pronunciation of Y'shua, his Jewish name, still used by Islam to refer to Jesus]. Notovich was stunned by the remarkable parallels of Issa's teachings and martyrdom with that of Christ's life, teachings, and crucifixion.

For about 16 years, Christ traveled through Turkey, Persia, Western Europe, and possibly England. He finally arrived with Mary to a place near Kashmir, where she died. After many years in Kashmir, teaching to an appreciative population, who venerated him as a great prophet, reformer, and saint, he died and was buried in a tomb in Kashmir itself [which is still there and can be visited, but attempts to disinter the body are prohibited by Islam, which has another saint buried there as well, but the area has been scanned revealing a body inexplicably buried according to Jewish custom and contrary to Islamic custom]. More

(National Geographic) "The Missing Years of Jesus." The years are not "missing" at all; they were carefully edited out by the early Church at various councils. And this has been known by scholars for years even though it has been kept from the Bible-reading public who dismiss this gaping hole in Judeo-Christian history as a perplexing "mystery."

Where to find the full picture of Christianity?
The "Lost" Gospels

(BBC) "The Lost Gospels"

Dawn of Religion: Buddhism in Indo-Arya

Buddhism is far older and more wisdespread than previously imagined. Here in an unrelated photo monks visit a relic of a Tang Dynasty pagoda at Huayuan, NW China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 9/9/06.

Max Müller and The Ur-Heimat of Religions
Ranajit Pal

More than one hundred years have passed since the great German scholar Max Müller (1823-1900) first initiated the study of the history of religions on a cross-cultural basis, not limited only to biblical religion. Max Müller's approach was characterized by a deep commitment to the methods of empirical science and his compilation of the critical edition of the RgVeda marks a new age in Indology.

(berzinarchives.com)

The approach of the Dutch scholars C. P. Tiele and P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye was similar, and it soon became apparent that despite widely different external manifestations, there are extraordinary parallels between the basic thoughts in the great ancient religions. From his profound comparative study of Eastern and Western mysticism, Rudolf Otto drew attention to close similarities between the writings of the medieval Hindu philosopher Shankara and the medieval German mystic Meister Eckehart.

The renowned art critic and theologian Ananda Coomaraswamy pointed to close similarities between the work of Christian writers such as St. Thomas, Ruysbroek, and Boehme, and passages in Vedic literature -- similarities which are so striking that many sentences from the Christian writers can be taken as almost literal translations of Sanskrit sentences.

The famous scholar of Buddhism, T. W. Rhys Davids, drew attention to close parallels between Buddhist and Christian doctrines. Coomaraswamy saw this as an expression of basic unity of the great religions. And Max Müller wrote that this cannot be attributed to chance alone.

In his view the real reason was more profound but still mundane -- there must have been an early historical contact between ancient peoples in an Ur-Heimat [German, "original homeland"]. Max Müller's enthusiasm was not shared by the next generation of scholars like Otto and the Dutch phenomenologist Gerardus van der Leeuw, who decried the reliance on high scientific ideals[10]. However, a careful study seems to vindicate Max Müller.

Recent archaeological discoveries in southeastern Iran, Baluchistan, and Afghanistan point to the existence of a terrestrial "Heaven" in Seistan, which was the cradle of nearly all the great religions: Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Buddhism, and perhaps also Christianity.

Gotama's Birthplace Kapilavastu was in Seistan
The biggest hurdle in the reconstruction of the [proper] history of religions is the location of Gotama Buddha's birthplace, Kapilavastu, in modern Nepal, far from Seistan.

That this is a fraud by a crafty forger, Dr. Anton Fuhrer, has been shown by T. A. Phelps[11]. About the endless disputes centering the identification of Kapilavastu, Vincent Smith remarked, "The mystery of Kapilavastu will continue for many years to be the sport of unverified conjecture." No primary relic of Gotama has been unearthed from eastern India except his ashes, which were probably brought from the northwest.

As the work of Sir Aurel Stein and others has shown, Buddhist manuscripts are all from Central Asia and Ceylon. Not a single manuscript has been found in modern India. Again Indian-Buddhist finds are all post-Asokan with no trace of Gotama or Chandragupta. Even Gotama's mortal remains are mostly from the Northwest.

Northwest Roots

To solve the problem one has to turn to the northwest -- to Kuh-i-Khwaja in Seistan, near the Afghan border, where Stein discovered a Buddhist shrine. Even during Alexander's day this area was densely populated and was the granary of Iran.

While all the ancient sites of Iran are in the west, Kuh-i-Khwaja is the only site of the East. Since the Bible alludes to an "ancient east," this must have been a center of great importance. Gotama was a contemporary and namesake of Gomata. And stalwarts like Olmstead, Toynbee, and Dandamayev realized that Darius had lied in the Behistun inscription: Gomata was not an impostor. His immense popularity is attested to by Herodotus' report that the whole of Asia rose in revolt in his support.

He was a great benefactor who abolished taxes and freed slaves; his Palace was at Sikayauvati, which links him to Sakya, Gotama's title; he proscribed Zarathustra just as Gotama had banished Devadatta. And Al-beruni stated that the Zoroastrians drove the Buddhists eastward.

In the highly authentic Ajanta caves, the child Siddhartha is shown dressed as a foreigner. Thus, Bagapa, Viceroy of Babylon during Darius' reign, was surely Gotama, whose title was "Bhagava" [Sanskrit honorific, Bhagwan]. Bagapa must have been the chief priest of E-Sagila.

Before his death Gotama lamented his happy days at the Isigili mount, which is the E-Sagila. There is a reference in the Persepolis Fortification tablets (PF 756) to Gaumata in a religious context which indicates that Bardiya was killed, not Gaumata. After Darius-I's death, Gotama was probably banished by his son Xerexes, who crushed the Daevas [Devas] or Buddhists.

Gotama's mortal remains were also found mostly from the Northwest, which must have been his arena.

Alexander in an Abode of Prophets
The large number of "Alexandrias" founded by Alexander in Asia and Africa were his greatest gift to humanity, wrote Bertrand Russell. Of these one in southeastern Iran has a very curious sounding name -- Alexandria Prophthasia.

The eminent Hellenic and Oriental scholar Sir William Tarn located Alexandria Prophthasia (the city was renamed, not founded by Alexander) at Kuh-i-Khwaja in Seistan. Since "Prophtes" in Greek means "Prophet," it must have been named after a Prophet. Who was this Seer of Kuh-i-Khwaja?

Only Jones' folly obscured that this sage was Gomata the Maga, who was Gotama [the Buddha] himself. The name "Prophthasia" may also be a memory of other Prophets including Abraham and Nebuchadrezzar. Alexander was greatly inspired by NebuChandressar and the same may be true of Gotama.

It turns out that both the names Babil and the Bible echo the name of a very ancient city in Seistan -- Kapilavastu or Babil. Babylon later continued the holy tradition of Babil. To understand the Asokan Edict at Ruminidei one has to note that Ashoka followed Alexander who had exempted the Ariaspians of Kapilavastu from taxes. The Ariaspians are the Hariasvas of the [Hindu religious texts the] Puranas. The Mahabharata [literally, "Greater India," another set of texts] refers to king Hariasva, who was a strict vegetarian.

NOTES

10. The classicist Gilbert Murray has termed it as "the failure of nerve" in the academic study of religion.
11. See http://www.lumkap.org.uk. Not a single archaeological find corroborates Jones' so-called discovery of Palibothra at Patna, yet Indologists trudge on wearily.
Pal, R., "Gotama Buddha in West Asia," Annals of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, vol.77, p.67-120