by Didymus Jude Thomas ca. A.D.75-100.

translated by Wim van den Dungen,
Antwerp, 1997.

The present English translation has been inspired by the work of Doresse (1959, 1986), Robinson (1977), Blatz (1987), Dietzfelbinger (1988), Layton (1987), Quispel (1991), Meyer (1992) and Slavenburg & Glaudemans (1994).

Here are the secret sayings which Jesus the Living spoke, and which Didymus Jude Thomas wrote down.

(1) And He said : “He who penetrates the meaning of these words will not taste death.”

(2) Jesus said : “Let him who seeks not cease to seek until he finds : when he finds, he will become troubled. When he is troubled, he will wonder, and he will reign over the All.”

(3) Jesus said : “If those who lead You say to You : ‘See, the Kingdom is in heaven !’, then the birds of the sky will be there before You. If they say to You, ‘It is in the sea !’, then the fish will be there before You. But the Kingdom is inside You and outside You. When You know yourselves, then You will be known, and You will know that You are the children of the Living Father. But if You do not know yourselves, then You dwell in poverty ; then You are that poverty.”

(4) Jesus said : “A person old in days will not hesitate to ask a child of seven days about the Place of Life, and he will live ! For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same.”

(5) Jesus said : “Know that what is before your face, and what is hidden from You will be revealed to You. For nothing hidden will fail to be revealed.”

(6) His disciples asked and said to Him : “Do You want us to fast ? How shall we pray and give alms ? What diet shall we observe ?” Jesus said : “Tell no lie and do not what You hate, for all things are plain in the face of Heaven. For nothing hidden will fail to be revealed, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered.”

(7) Jesus said : “Fortunate is the lion which the man eats so that the lion becomes a man ; and cursed is the man whom the lion eats so that the man becomes a lion.”

(8) Then He said : “A man is like a wise fisherman who casts his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small fish. Among them he found a fine large fish. The wise fisherman threw all the small fish back into the sea and chose the large fish without hesitation. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

(9) Jesus said : “See, the sower went out, filled his hand, and scattered the seed. Some fell on the road ; birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rocky ground, did not take root in the soil, and did not give ears of corn. And others fell among thorns ; they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil and gave good fruit : it bore sixty per measure and a hundred and twenty per measure.”

(10) Jesus said : “I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I watch over it until it blazes up.”

(11) Jesus said : “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. In the days when You consumed death, You made death alive. When You come to dwell in the light, what will You do ? On the day when You were one, You became two. But when You become two, what will You do ?”

(12) The disciples said to Jesus : “We know that You will leave from us. Who is to be our leader ?” Jesus said to them : “From where You stand now, You are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”

(13) Jesus said to His disciples : “Compare Me and tell Me whom I am like.” Simon Peter said to Him : “You are like a righteous angel.” Matthew said to Him : “You are like a wise philosopher.” Thomas said to Him : “Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying what You are like.” Jesus said : “Your Master, because You have drunk, I am not ; You have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring of living water which I have measured out.” And He took him aside and spoke three words to him. When Thomas came back to his companions, they asked him : “What did Jesus say to You ?” Thomas answered them : “If I tell You one of the words He said to me, You will take up stones and throw them at me and fire will come out of the stones and burn You.”

(14) Jesus said to them : “If You fast, You will give rise to sin for yourselves ; and if You pray, You will be condemned ; and if You give alms, You will harm your spirit and when You enter any land and travel over the country, if they receive You, eat what they will set before You, and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile You, but what comes out of your mouth will defile You.”

(15) Jesus said : “When You see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves on your faces and worship. That one is your Father.”

(16) Jesus said : “Men think, perhaps, that it is peace which I have come to bring to the world. They do not know that I have come to bring to the earth : discord, fire, sword, and war. Indeed, if there are five in a house : three will be against two, and two against three, the father against the son, and the son against the father. And they will stand alone.”

(17) Jesus said : “I shall give You what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what never arose in the heart of man.”

(18) The disciples said to Jesus : “Tell us how our end will be.” Jesus said : “So have You discovered the beginning, that You look for the end ? For where the beginning is, there the end will be. Fortunate is he who stands at the beginning ; he will know the end and will not taste death.”

(19) Jesus said : “Fortunate is he who was before he became. If You become My disciples and listen to My words, these stones will serve You. For there are five trees for You in Paradise which remain unshaken summer and winter and their leaves do not fall. He who knows them will not taste death.”

(20) The disciples said to Jesus : “Tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.” He said to them : “It is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. But when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a big plant and becomes a shelter for the birds of the sky.”

(21) Mary said to Jesus : “What are your disciples like ?” He said : “They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say : ‘Let us have our field back.’ When they will let them have the field back they will stand naked in their presence. Therefore I say to You, if the owner of a house knows that the thief is coming, he will stay awake till he comes and will not let him break in the house of his domain to carry away his goods. You, then, be on your guard against the world. Gird your loins with great strength so that the robbers find no way to come to You, for they will find the advantage which You expect. Let there be among You a smart man. When the fruit was ripe, he quickly came with his sickle in his hand and harvested it. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

(22) Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to His disciples : “These infants who suck are like those who enter the Kingdom.” They said to Him : “Shall we then enter the Kingdom as infants ?” Jesus said to them : “When You make the two one, and when You make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when You make the male and the female one, so that the male will not be male nor the female female ; and when You fashion eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in the place of a likeness ; then will You enter the Kingdom.”

(23) Jesus said : “I shall choose You, one from a thousand, and two from ten thousand, and they shall be as a single one.”

(24) His disciples said to Him : “Show us the place where You are, since it is necessary for us to seek it.” He said to them : “He who has ears, let him hear. There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, there is darkness.”

(25) Jesus said : “Love your brother like your own soul, watch over him like the apple of your eye.”

(26) Jesus said : “You see the mote in your brother’s eye, but You do not see the beam in your own eye. When You cast out the beam of your own eye, then You will see clearly enough to cast out the mote from your brother’s eye.”

(27) “If You do not fast as regards the world, You will not find the Kingdom. If You do not observe the Sabbath as Sabbath, You will not see the Father.”

(28) Jesus said : “I took My place in the midst of the world, and I appeared to them in flesh. I found them all drunk. I found none of them thirsty. And My soul ached for the sons of men, because they are blind in their heart and do not see that they came empty into the world, and empty they seek to leave it. But for the moment they are drunk. When they have slept off their wine, they will repent.”

(29) Jesus said : “If the flesh came into being for the sake of the spirit, it is a wonder. But if the spirit came into being for the sake of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Indeed, I marvel at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty.”

(30) Jesus said : “Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him.”

(31) Jesus said : “No prophet is accepted in his own town ; no physician heals those who know him.”

(32) Jesus said : “A fortified city built on a high mountain cannot fall, nor can it be hidden.”

(33) Jesus said : “Preach from your roof-tops that which You will hear in your ear. For no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place, but rather he sets it on a lamp-stand so that all who come in and go out will see its light.”

(34) Jesus said : “When a blind man leads another blind man both fall into a ditch.”

(35) Jesus said : “It is not possible for anyone to enter the house of a strong man and take him by force unless he binds his hands ; then one can ransack his house.”

(36) Jesus said : “Do not be concerned from morning until evening and from evening until morning about what You will put on.”

(37) His disciples said : “When will You reveal yourself to us and when will we see You ?” Jesus said : “When You strip without being ashamed and take up your clothes and place them under your feet like little children and trample on them, then You will see the Son of the Living One, and You will not fear.”

(38) Jesus said : “Often You have desired to hear these words which I am saying to You, and You have no one else to hear them from. There will be days when You will seek Me and will not find Me.”

(39) Jesus said : “The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge and hidden them. They have not entered, nor have they allowed those who wish so to enter. You, however, be as shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”

(40) Jesus said : “A vine shoot is planted away from the Father. Because it is not fastened, it will be plucked up from its roots and perish.”

(41) Jesus said : “To him who has something will be given. And from him who has nothing will be taken away even the little he has.”

(42) Jesus said : “Be passers-by.”

(43) His disciples said to Him : “Who are You, that You say these things to us ?” Jesus said to them : “From what I say to You, You do not realize who I am. But You have become like the Jews, for they like the tree and hate its fruit and like the fruit and hate the tree !”

(44) Jesus said : “He who blasphemes against the Father will be forgiven, and he who blasphemes against the Son will be forgiven, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven.”

(45) Jesus said : “Grapes are not harvested from thorns, nor are figs gathered from thistles, for they do not give fruit. But someone good brings forth good things from his storehouse ; someone evil brings forth evil things from the evil storehouse, which is in the heart, and says evil things. For if one’s heart is filled with that, one brings forth evil things.”

(46) Jesus said : “Among those born of women, from Adam until John the Baptist, there is none greater than John the Baptist that his eyes should not be lowered before him. Yet I have said, that if one of You becomes like a child he will know the Kingdom and be higher than John.”

(47) Jesus said : “It is impossible for a man to mount two horses nor draw two bows. And it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters ; otherwise, he will honor the one and insult the other. No man drinks old wine and desires at the same instant to drink new wine. And new wine is not put into old wineskins, lest they should burst ; nor is old wine put into a new wineskin, lest it should spoil it. An old patch is not sown onto a new garment, for a tear would result.”

(48) Jesus said : “When two make peace with each other in this one house, they will say to the mountain, ‘Move !’ and it will move.”

(49) Jesus said : “Fortunate are You, the alone and the elect, for You will find the Kingdom. Because You came from it, You will also return to it again.”

(50) Jesus said : “If they say to You, ‘Where did You come from ?’, say to them : ‘We came from the light, the place where the light came into being of itself, established itself and revealed itself in their image. If they say to You : ‘Who are You ?’, say : ‘We are its sons. We are the elect of the Living Father.’ If they ask You : ‘What is the sign of your Father in You ?’, say to them : ‘It is movement and rest.’

(51) His disciples said to Him : “On what day will the rest come to those who are dead, and on what day will the new world come ?” He said to them : “What You expected has come, but You do not recognize it.”

(52) His disciples said to Him : “Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel, and all of them spoke about You.” He said to them : “You have passed over the Living One who stands before You and have spoken of the dead.”

(53) His disciples said to Him : “Is circumcision useful or not ?” He said to them : “If it were useful, their Father would beget them already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit is in all ways useful.”

(54) Jesus said : “Fortunate are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

(55) Jesus said : “He who does not hate his father and his mother cannot be My disciple. And he who does not hate his brothers and sisters and take up his cross as I do will not be worthy of Me.”

(56) Jesus said : “He who has come to know the world has found a corpse, and he who has found a corpse, the world is not worthy of him.”

(57) Jesus said : “The Kingdom of the Father is like a man who had good seed. His enemy came by night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The man did not allow them to pull out the weeds ; he said to them : ‘Do nothing ; so that You do not pull out the wheat along with the weeds.’ For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be recognizable, and they will be pulled out and burnt.”

(58) Jesus said : “Fortunate is the man who has suffered ; he found Life.”

(59) Jesus said : “Look to the Living One while You are alive, lest You die and then seek to see Him and are unable to see.”

(60) They saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb on his way to Judea. He said to His disciples : “Why does that man carry the lamb around ?” They said to Him : “So that he may kill it and eat it.” He said to them : “He will not eat it as long as it is alive, but only if he kills it and it has become a corpse.” They said to Him : “He cannot do so otherwise.” He said to them : “But You, seek for a place for yourselves to rest, lest You become a corpse and be eaten.”

(61) Jesus said : “Two will rest on a bed : the one will die, and other will live.” Salome said : “Who are You, man ? You have taken a seat on my couch and have eaten at my table.” Jesus said to her : “I am He who exists from the undivided. I was given some of the things of My Father.” Salome said : “I am your disciple.” Jesus said to her : “Therefore I say, if somebody is one, he will be full of light, but if he is divided, he will be full of darkness.”

(62) Jesus said : “It is to those who are worthy of My mysteries that I tell My mysteries. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is about to do.”

(63) Jesus said : “There was a rich man who had a lot of money. He said : ‘I shall put all my wealth to use so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my barn with harvest, with the result that I shall lack nothing.’ Such were the thoughts of his heart, but during that night he died. He who has ears to hear, let him hear !”

(64) Jesus said : “A man had guests. And when he had prepared the dinner, he sent his servant to invite the guests. He went to the first one and said to him : ‘My master invites You.’ He said, ‘I have claims against some merchants. They are coming to me this evening. I must go and give them my orders. I ask to be excused from the dinner.’ He went to another and said to him : ‘My master has invited You.’ He said to him : ‘I have just bought a house and am required for the day. I shall not have any spare time.’ He went to another and said to him : ‘My master invites You.’ He said to him : ‘My friend is going to get married, and I am to prepare the banquet. I shall not be able to come. I ask to be excused from the dinner.’ He went to another and said to him : ‘My master invites You.’ He said to him : ‘I have just bought a farm, and I am on my way to collect the rent. I shall not be able to come. I ask to be excused.’ The servant returned and said to his master : ‘Those whom You invited to the dinner have asked to be excused.’ The master said to his servant : ‘Go out into the streets and those whom You happen to find, and bring in those that want to dine.’ Buyers and merchants will not enter the places of My Father.”

(65) He said : “There was an honorable man who owned a vineyard. He leased it to tenant farmers so that they might work it and he might collect the fruit from them. He sent his servant so that the tenants might give him the fruit of the vineyard. They seized his servant and beat him, all but killing him. The servant went back and told his master. The master said : ‘Perhaps they did not recognize him.’ He sent another servant. The tenants beat this one as well. Then the owner sent his son and said : ‘Perhaps they will show respect to my son.’ Because the tenants knew that he was the heir to the vineyard, they seized him and killed him. Let him who has ears hear.”

(66) Jesus said : “Show Me the stone which the builders have rejected. It is the cornerstone.”

(67) Jesus said : “He who believes to know the All but not himself falls completely short.”

(68) Jesus said : “Fortunate are You when You are hated and persecuted. Where You were persecuted they will find no place.”

(69) Jesus said : “Fortunate are those who are persecuted in their hearts. It is they who have truly come to know the Father. Fortunate are those who are hungry, for they will satisfy their bellies.”

(70) Jesus said : “If You bring forth what is within You, what You have will save You. If You do not have that within You, what You do not have within You will kill You.”

(71) Jesus said : “I will destroy this construction, and no one will be able to rebuild it again.”

(72) A man said to Him : “Tell my brothers to divide my father’s possessions with me.” He said to him : “Man, who has made Me a divider ?” He turned to His disciples and said to them : “I am not a divider, am I ?”

(73) Jesus said : “The harvest is great but the labourers are few. Pray the Lord to send out labourers for the harvest.”

(74) He said : “Lord, many are around the water-spring but nobody is in the well.”

(75) Jesus said : “Many stand outside at the door, but it is the solitaries who will enter the bridal chamber.”

(76) Jesus said : “The Kingdom of the Father is like a man, a merchant, who owned goods and discovered a pearl. This merchant was clever. He sold the merchandise and bought the pearl alone. You also seek his enduring treasure where no moth comes near to eat and no worm destroys.”

(77) Jesus said : “I am the Light that falls on all things. I am the All. From Me the All has gone out and to Me the All came back. Cleave a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up a stone, and You will find Me there.”

(78) Jesus said : “Why did You go out into the desert ? To see a reed shaken by the wind ? To see a man clothed in fine garments ? Your kings and your great men are the ones clothed in fine garments, and they are not able to know the truth.”

(79) A woman from the crowd said to Him : “Fortunate is the womb which bore You and the breasts which fed You.” He said to her : “Fortunate are those who have heard the Word of the Father and kept it. For days are coming when You will say : ‘Fortunate the womb that has not conceived and the breasts which have not given suck.’

(80) Jesus said : “He who knew the world has mastered the body, but he who has mastered the body is superior to the world.”

(81) Jesus said : “He who has grown wealthy will rule, and he who possesses power will renounce it.”

(82) Jesus said : “Whoever is near Me is near the fire, and whoever who is far from Me is far from the Kingdom.”

(83) Jesus said : “Images are visible to man, and the light which is in them is hidden in the image of the Light of the Father. He will reveal Himself and His image is hidden by His light.”

(84) Jesus said : “When You see your own likeness, You rejoice. But when You see the images of yourselves which came into being before You, which do not die nor become visible, how much then will You be able to bear ?”

(85) Jesus said : “Adam came into being from a great power and a great wealth, and he did not become worthy of You. For had he been worthy of You, he would not have experienced death.”

(86) Jesus said : “The foxes have their holes and the birds have their nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head and rest.”

(87) Jesus said : “Wretched is the body which depends on a body, and wretched is the soul dependent on these two.”

(88) Jesus said : “The angels and the prophets will come to You and give You what is yours. You, give them what is in your hands, and ask yourselves : ‘On which day will they come to receive what is theirs ?’

(89) Jesus said : “Why do You wash the outside of the cup ? Do You not realize that He who made the inside is the same one who made the outside ?”

(90) Jesus said : “Come to Me, for My yoke is easy and My Lordship is mild, and You will find rest for yourselves.”

(91) They said to Him : “Tell us who You are so that we may believe in You.” He said to them : “You examine the face of the sky and of the earth, but You have not recognized He who stands in front of You, and You do not know how to examine this moment.”

(92) Jesus said : “Seek and You will find. Yet, what You asked Me about in former times and which I did not tell to You then, I now desire to tell You, but You do not ask after it.”

(93) “Do not give what is holy to the dogs, lest they throw it on the dunghill. Do not cast pearls to swine, lest they grind them {to bits}.”

(94) Jesus said : “He who seeks will find, and he who knocks will be let in.”

(95) Jesus said : “If You have money, do not lend it at interest, but give it to someone from whom You will not get it back.”

(96) Jesus said : “The Kingdom of the Father is like a woman who put a little yeast in some flour, and made some big loaves with it. He who has ears, let him hear !”

(97) Jesus said : “The Kingdom of the Father is like a woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking on a far road the handle of the jar broke and the meal emptied out behind her on the road. She did not realize it. She had noticed no accident. When she reached her house, she put the jar down and found it empty.”

(98) Jesus said : “The Kingdom of the Father is like a man who wanted to kill a powerful man. In his own house he drew his sword and stuck it into the wall in order to find out whether his hand would be firm enough. Then he slew the powerful man.”

(99) The disciples said to Him : “Your brothers and your mother are standing outside.” He said to them : “Those here who do the will of My Father are My brothers and My mother. It is they who will enter the Kingdom of My Father.”

(100) They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to Him : “Caesar’s men demand taxes from us.” He said to them : “Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give Elohim what belongs to Elohim, and give Me what is Mine.”

(101) “He who does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to Me. And he who does not love his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to Me. For My mother {gave Me death}, but My true {Mother} gave Me life.”

(102) Jesus said : “Damn the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen, for neither does he eat nor does he let the oxen eat.”

(103) Jesus said : “Fortunate is the man who knows where the robbers are going to enter, so that he may get up, gather his house, and girds his loins before they enter.”

(104) They said to Jesus : “Come, let us pray and fast.” Jesus said : “What then is the sin that I have committed, or wherein have I been at fault ? But when the bridegroom leaves the bridal chamber, then let them fast and pray.”

(105) Jesus said : “He who knows his father and mother will he be called son of a harlot ?”

(106) Jesus said : “When You make the two one, You will become Sons of Man, and if You say : ‘Mountain, move !’, it will move.”

(107) Jesus said : “The Kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine and looked for that single sheep until he found it. When he had gone to such trouble, he said to the sheep : ‘I love You more than the ninety-nine.’

(108) Jesus said : “He who will drink from My mouth will become like Me. I myself shall become like him, and the hidden will be revealed to him.”

(109) Jesus said : “The Kingdom is like a man who had a treasure hidden in his field without knowing it. And after he died, he left it to his son. The son did not know about the treasure. He accepted the field and sold it. And the one who bought it went plowing and found the treasure. He began to lend money at interest to those who wanted it.”

(110) Jesus said : “He who has found the world and become rich, let him renounce the world.”

(111) Jesus said : “The heavens and the earth will be rolled up before You. And whoever is living from the Living One will not see death.” Jesus says this : “He who finds himself, the world is not worthy of him.”

(112) Jesus said : “Damn the flesh that depends on the soul ; damn the soul that depends on the flesh.”

(113) His disciples said to Him : “When will the Kingdom come ?” Jesus said : “It does not come by expecting it. It will not be a matter of saying : ‘See, it is here !’ or : ‘Look, it is there !’. Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread over the earth and men do not see it.”

(114) Simon Peter said to them : “Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.” Jesus said : “Look, I will guide her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit like You males. For every female who will make herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Something remarkable happened when evangelists for two great religions crossed paths more than 1,000 years ago: they got along
By Philip Jenkins
December 14, 2008

WAS THE BUDDHA a demon?

While few mainline Christians would put the matter in such confrontational terms, any religion claiming exclusive access to truth has real difficulties reconciling other great faiths into its cosmic scheme. Most Christian churches hold that Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and many also feel an obligation to carry that message to the world’s unbelievers. But this creates a fundamental conflict with the followers of famous spiritual figures like Mohammed or Buddha, who preached radically different messages. Drawing on a strict interpretation of the Bible, some Christians see these rival faiths as not merely false, but as deliberate traps set by the forces of evil.

Being intolerant of other religions – consigning them to hell, in fact – may be bad enough in its own right, but it increasingly has real-world consequences. As trade and technology shrink the globe, so different religions come into ever-closer contact with one another, and the results can be bloody: witness the apocalyptic assaults in Mumbai. In such a world, teaching different faiths to acknowledge one another’s claims, to live peaceably together side by side, stops being a matter of good manners and becomes a prerequisite for human survival.

Over the past 30 years, the Roman Catholic Church has faced repeated battles over this question of Christ’s uniqueness, and has cracked down on thinkers who have made daring efforts to accommodate other world religions. While the Christian dialogue with Islam has attracted

most of the headlines, it is the encounters with Hinduism and especially Buddhism that have stirred the most controversy within the church. Sri Lankan theologians Aloysius Pieris and Tissa Balasuriya have had many run-ins with Vatican critics, and, more recently, the battle has come to American shores. Last year, the Vatican ordered an investigation of Georgetown University’s Peter Phan, a Jesuit theologian whose main sin, in official eyes, has been to treat the Buddhism of his Vietnamese homeland as a parallel path to salvation.

Following the ideas of Pope Benedict XVI, though, the church refuses to give up its fundamental belief in the unique role of Christ. In a widely publicized open letter to Italian politician Marcello Pera, Pope Benedict declared that “an inter-religious dialogue in the strict sense of the term is not possible.” By all means, he said, we should hold conversations with other cultures, but not in a way that acknowledges other religions as equally valid. While the Vatican does not of course see the Buddha as a demon, it does fear the prospect of syncretism, the dilution of Christian truth in an unholy mixture with other faiths.

Beyond doubt, this view places Benedict in a strong tradition of Christianity as it has developed in Europe since Roman times. But there is another, ancient tradition, which suggests a very different course. Europe’s is not the only version of the Christian faith, nor is it necessarily the oldest heir of the ancient church. For more than 1,000 years, other quite separate branches of the church established thriving communities across Asia, and in their sheer numbers, these churches were comparable to anything Europe could muster at the time. These Christian bodies traced their ancestry back not through Rome, but directly to the original Jesus movement of ancient Palestine. They moved across India, Central Asia, and China, showing no hesitation to share – and learn from – the other great religions of the East.

Just how far these Christians were prepared to go is suggested by a startling symbol that appeared on memorials and stone carvings in both southern India and coastal China during the early Middle Ages. We can easily see that the image depicts a cross, but it takes a moment to realize that the base of the picture – the root from which the cross is growing – is a lotus flower, the symbol of Buddhist enlightenment.

In modern times, most mainstream churches would condemn such an amalgam as a betrayal of the Christian faith, an example of multiculturalism run wild. Yet concerns about syncretism did not bother these early Asian Christians, who called themselves Nasraye, Nazarenes, like Jesus’s earliest followers. They were comfortable associating themselves with the other great monastic and mystical religion of the time, and moreover, they believed that both lotus and cross carried similar messages about the quest for light and salvation. If these Nazarenes could find meaning in the lotus-cross, then why can’t modern Catholics, or other inheritors of the faith Jesus inspired?

Many Christians are coming to terms with just how thoroughly so many of their fundamental assumptions will have to be rethought as their faith today becomes a global religion. Even modern church leaders who know how rapidly the church is expanding in the global South tend to see European values and traditions as the indispensable norm, in matters of liturgy and theology as much as music and architecture.

Yet the reality is that Christianity has from its earliest days been an intercontinental faith, as firmly established in Asia and Africa as in Europe itself. When we broaden our scope to look at the faith that by 800 or so stretched from Ireland to Korea, we see the many different ways in which Christians interacted with other believers, in encounters that reshaped both sides. At their best, these meetings allowed the traditions not just to exchange ideas but to intertwine in productive and enriching ways, in an awe-inspiring chapter of Christian history that the Western churches have all but forgotten.

To understand this story, we need to reconfigure our mental maps. When we think of the growth of Christianity, we think above all of Europe. We visualize a movement growing west from Palestine and Syria and spreading into Greece and Italy, and gradually into northern regions. Europe is still the center of the Catholic Church, of course, but it was also the birthplace of the Protestant denominations that split from it. For most of us, even speaking of the “Eastern Church” refers to another group of Europeans, namely to the Orthodox believers who stem from the eastern parts of the continent. English Catholic thinker Hilaire Belloc once proclaimed that “Europe is the Faith; and the Faith is Europe.”

But in the early centuries other Christians expanded east into Asia and south into Africa, and those other churches survived for the first 1,200 years or so of Christian history. Far from being fringe sects, these forgotten churches were firmly rooted in the oldest traditions of the apostolic church. Throughout their history, these Nazarenes used Syriac, which is close to Jesus’ own language of Aramaic, and they followed Yeshua, not Jesus. No other church – not Roman Catholics, not Eastern Orthodox – has a stronger claim to a direct inheritance from the earliest Jesus movement.

The most stunningly successful of these eastern Christian bodies was the Church of the East, often called the Nestorian church. While the Western churches were expanding their influence within the framework of the Roman Empire, the Syriac-speaking churches colonized the vast Persian kingdom that ruled from Syria to Pakistan and the borders of China. From their bases in Mesopotamia – modern Iraq – Nestorian Christians carried out their vast missionary efforts along the Silk Route that crossed Central Asia. By the eighth century, the Church of the East had an extensive structure across most of central Asia and China, and in southern India. The church had senior clergy – metropolitans – in Samarkand and Bokhara, in Herat in Afghanistan. A bishop had his seat in Chang’an, the imperial capital of China, which was then the world’s greatest superpower.

When Nestorian Christians were pressing across Central Asia during the sixth and seventh centuries, they met the missionaries and saints of an equally confident and expansionist religion: Mahayana Buddhism. Buddhists too wanted to take their saving message to the world, and launched great missions from India’s monasteries and temples. In this diverse world, Buddhist and Christian monasteries were likely to stand side by side, as neighbors and even, sometimes, as collaborators. Some historians believe that Nestorian missionaries influenced the religious practices of the Buddhist religion then developing in Tibet. Monks spoke to monks.

In presenting their faith, Christians naturally used the cultural forms that would be familiar to Asians. They told their stories in the forms of sutras, verse patterns already made famous by Buddhist missionaries and teachers. A stunning collection of Jesus Sutras was found in caves at Dunhuang, in northwest China. Some Nestorian writings draw heavily on Buddhist ideas, as they translate prayers and Christian services in ways that would make sense to Asian readers. In some texts, the Christian phrase “angels and archangels and hosts of heaven” is translated into the language of buddhas and devas.

One story in particular suggests an almost shocking degree of collaboration between the faiths. In 782, the Indian Buddhist missionary Prajna arrived in Chang’an, bearing rich treasures of sutras and other scriptures. Unfortunately, these were written in Indian languages. He consulted the local Nestorian bishop, Adam, who had already translated parts of the Bible into Chinese. Together, Buddhist and Christian scholars worked amiably together for some years to translate seven copious volumes of Buddhist wisdom. Probably, Adam did this as much from intellectual curiosity as from ecumenical good will, and we can only guess about the conversations that would have ensued: Do you really care more about relieving suffering than atoning for sin? And your monks meditate like ours do?

These efforts bore fruit far beyond China. Other residents of Chang’an at this very time included Japanese monks, who took these very translations back with them to their homeland. In Japan, these works became the founding texts of the great Buddhist schools of the Middle Ages. All the famous movements of later Japanese history, including Zen, can be traced to one of those ancient schools and, ultimately – incredibly – to the work of a Christian bishop.

By the 12th century, flourishing churches in China and southern India were using the lotus-cross. The lotus is a superbly beautiful flower that grows out of muck and slime. No symbol could better represent the rise of the soul from the material, the victory of enlightenment over ignorance, desire, and attachment. For 2,000 years, Buddhist artists have used the lotus to convey these messages in countless paintings and sculptures. The Christian cross, meanwhile, teaches a comparable lesson, of divine victory over sin and injustice, of the defeat of the world. Somewhere in Asia, Yeshua’s forgotten followers made the daring decision to integrate the two emblems, which still today forces us to think about the parallels between the kinds of liberation and redemption offered by each faith.

Christianity, for much of its history, was just as much an Asian religion as Buddhism. Asia’s Christian churches survived for more than a millennium, and not until the 10th century, halfway through Christian history, did the number of Christians in Europe exceed that in Asia.

What ultimately obliterated the Asian Christians were the Mongol invasions, which spread across Central Asia and the Middle East from the 1220s onward. From the late 13th century, too, the world entered a terrifying era of climate change, of global cooling, which severely cut food supplies and contributed to mass famine. The collapse of trade and commerce crippled cities, leaving the world much poorer and more vulnerable. Intolerant nationalism wiped out Christian communities in China, while a surging militant Islam destroyed the churches of Central Asia.

But awareness of this deep Christian history contributes powerfully to understanding the future of the religion, as much as its past. For long centuries, Asian Christians kept up neighborly relations with other faiths, which they saw not as deadly rivals but as fellow travelers on the road to enlightenment. Their worldview differed enormously from the norms that developed in Europe.

To take one example, we are used to the idea of Christianity operating as the official religion of powerful states, which were only too willing to impose a particular orthodoxy upon their subjects. Yet when we look at the African and Asian experience, we find millions of Christians whose normal experience was as minorities or even majorities within nations dominated by some other religion. Struggling to win hearts and minds, leading churches had no option but to frame the Christian message in the context of non-European intellectual traditions. Christian thinkers did present their message in the categories of Buddhism – and Taoism, and Confucianism – and there is no reason why they could not do so again. When modern scholars like Peter Phan try to place Christianity in an Asian and Buddhist context, they are resuming a task begun at least 1,500 years ago.

Perhaps, in fact, we are looking at our history upside down. Some day, future historians might look at the last few hundred years of Euro-American dominance within Christianity and regard it as an unnatural interlude in a much longer story of fruitful interchange between the great religions.

Consider the story told by Timothy, a patriarch of the Nestorian church. Around 800, he engaged in a famous debate with the Muslim caliph in Baghdad, a discussion marked by reason and civility on both sides. Imagine, Timothy said, that we are all in a dark house, and someone throws a precious pearl in the midst of a pile of ordinary stones. Everyone scrabbles for the pearl, and some think they’ve found it, but nobody can be sure until day breaks.

In the same way, he said, the pearl of true faith and wisdom had fallen into the darkness of this transitory world; each faith believed that it alone had found the pearl. Yet all he could claim – and all the caliph could say in response – was that some faiths thought they had enough evidence to prove that they were indeed holding the real pearl, but the final truth would not be known in this world.

Knowing other faiths firsthand grants believers an enviable sophistication, founded on humility. We could do a lot worse than to learn from what we sometimes call the Dark Ages.

Philip Jenkins is Edwin Erle Sparks professor of the humanities at Penn State University. He is author of “The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia — and How It Died,” published last month.

Taken from: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/12/14/when_jesus_met_buddha/?page=full

Excerpt from Chapter 4 of In Search of the Loving God:

. . .The manuscripts read to Notovitch were from two volumes of Tibetan writings. He was told that the Pali manuscripts they were translated from were in Lhasa in Tibet.[10] Notovitch published these scriptures, amidst considerable controversy, in his book The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, and there has been an enduring interest in his work.

Although most of the details of these Issa Scriptures square with what we know about Jesus from the Bible, one very significant difference stands out: all four Gospels blame the Jews for Jesus’ death, whereas the Issa Scriptures clearly put the full blame at the feet of the Roman governor, Pilate, and actually credit the Jewish authorities with going out of their way to try to save Jesus. The significance of this lies in the fact that in recent years a number of Jewish and other scholars have been arguing the same contention. They have pointed out that the Gospels were gentile documents, written after the fall of Jerusalem in order to spread the teachings of Jesus amongst citizens of the Roman Empire, and that it is quite possible the blame for Jesus’ death was shifted to the Jews so as not to offend the Roman citizens they were trying to convert.[11] This ties in, it must be said, with the lack of historical reliability of the Gospels (which was demonstrated in the previous chapter). Whether or not this is the case, though, what is certainly known is that the blaming of the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus was a direct cause of the huge tide of anti-Semitism which inundated Europe for nearly two-thousand years. Considering this, it is not surprising modern Jewish scholars should question whether or not the Jews really were to blame for Jesus’ death. In the light of this, it is interesting that this independent account of events, supposedly preserved in the storerooms of Buddhist monasteries in the Himalayas since the first or second century, should so unequivocally support the interpretation of these scholars that the Jews were not to blame for the crucifixion.

Notovitch’s work was dismissed by many, and declared to be fraudulent by no less an authority than the great orientalist Max Muller. Nevertheless, over the years, the existence of the manuscripts about Issa, and the authenticity of Notovitch’s work, have been confirmed by quite a few people.

Well before Notovitch went to Hemis, a Mrs. Harvey wrote of the existence of the scripts on Issa in The Adventures of a Lady in Tartary, China and Kashmir.[12] Then, after Notovitch, came a number of other confirmations.

Swami Abhedananda, a leading figure in the Ramakrishna Society, was known and respected throughout the world. He read Notovich’s book while in America, and some years later (in 1922) finally had the opportunity to travel to Hemis to find out for himself whether Notovitch’s story was true. He explained Notovitch’s claims to the lamas, who confirmed they were true. Then he was shown a manuscript, which he was told was a translation into Tibetan of an original which was in a monastery at Marbour near Lhasa.[13] With the aid of one of the lamas, Abhedananda made his own translations, which closely agree with those of Notovitch. Abhedananda published his translations of the Issa Scriptures in Kashmir O Tibbate (In Kashmir and Tibet).[14]

The famous and widely respected expatriate Russian artist and intellectual, Nicholas Roerich, visited the Hemis monastery (in 1925), and published his account of the Issa manuscripts in his books Heart of Asia and Altai-Himalaya. Again they confirm Notovitch’s story and add some extra details. Like Notovitch and Swami Abhedananda before him, Roerich made his own translation of parts of the Issa manuscripts. Where these three translations overlap, they agree quite well.[15]

In the summer of 1939 Madame Caspairi, a Swiss musician, went on a pilgrimage to India organized by a renowned religious leader Mrs Clarence Gasque. Mrs Gasque was known internationally as the head of the World Fellowship of Faith, and she and her party were most cordially received everywhere they went throughout the pilgrimage. In one case, an Indian maharajah literally rolled out a red carpet to greet them. At Hemis, although they arrived just after the annual performance of a mystery play was over, the lamas performed it a second time in their honour. What happened next was extraordinary:

A few days after the performance, when seated alone on the
roof of the monastery, Mrs Gasque and Madame Caspari were
approached by the librarian of the convent and two other monks.
They were carrying three manuscripts in ornate coverings, one of
which the librarian ceremoniously unwrapped. He then presented
Mrs. Gasque the parchment leaves and with great reverence said,
“These books say your Jesus was here.”

…While we have no reason not to take the monks at their
word, unfortunately we do not know what the books said. They
were written in Tibetan and neither of the two women asked for
a translation. However, Madame Caspari did take a picture of
the lama proudly displaying the book.[16]

In 1951, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas traveled to Hemis. In his Beyond the High Himalayas, he observed that there were many legends in the area concerning the monastery at Hemis, and that one of them related to Jesus. Some people believed Jesus visited Hemis, coming at the age of 14 and leaving at the age of 28, traveling under the name Issa. The legend described Issa’s stay there in some detail.[17]

There are two other people who have stumbled upon this legend, even though they had never previously heard of Jesus being in India. Dr Robert S. Ravicz, professor of anthropology at California State University, visited Hemis (in 1975), and while there was told by a friend, an eminent Ladakhi physician, that it was said there were documents at the monastery which stated that Jesus had been to Hemis.[18] In the late 1970’s Edward F. Noack was staying at Hemis when a lama at the monastery told him that a manuscript relating the story of Jesus’ pilgrimage to Ladakh was locked in the storeroom.”[19]

Finally, there is a confirmation of the accuracy of the Hemis Scriptures about Issa from another part of India al-together, and from a Hindu rather than a Buddhist source. It will be recalled that these scriptures said Issa spent six years in Jagannath (now Puri) and other holy cities of the Hindus, before going to live for a further six years in the Himalayas. Sri Daya Mata, president of Self-Realization Fellowship, went to India in 1959, and in an interview with one of India’s great spiritual leaders, His Holiness Sri Bharati Krishna Tirtha, the Shankaracharya of Puri, she mentioned that she had been told that Jesus “spent some of his life in India, in association with her illumined sages. His Holiness replied, ‘That is true. I have studied ancient records in the Puri Jagannath Temple archives confirming those facts. He was known as “Isha,” and during part of his time in India he stayed in the Jagannath Temple. When he returned to his part of the world, he expounded the teachings that are known today as Christianity’”[20]. . .

Taken from: http://www.ial.goldthread.com/ch4ex1.htm

In the book called Bhavishya Purana there’s a very nice and concise overview of the mission and mood of Jesus the Son of God.
We have clear written evidence from the ancient scriptures of India, written down more than five thousand years ago by the great sage Srila Krishna Dvarpayana Veda Vyasa that the coming of Christ (The Son of God) was a genuine incident where the Lord sent His pure devotee to perform a particular function among a particular group of people in a particular tract of land.

Let me include it here for your pleasure:

In Bhavishya Purana He is referred to specifically as Isha Putra – “the Son of God.”

In the following excerpt from a lecture of our Founder Acarya Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada he clearly points out how the Lord sends His partial expansion in the form of empowered being for functionary aspects of fulfilling His works. These empowered beings in the Sanskrit language of India are termed saktyavesha avataras.
“Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ, they are counted as saktyavesha avataras. They are also incarnations of saktyavesha, powerful, in this way the Supreme Lord manifest all over the universes.” (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. 1966. Chaitanya Charitamrta lecture. New York.)

Previously when they appeared They did so swith and for a set purpose. Even prior to their appearance in this world Their clear task was already set out. Actually They were not of this world, but are spiritual beings empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to come to this world to fulfil His mission. As we know Lord Buddha came to stop the people from their animal slaughter and to teach the compassionate path. Their appearance in this world was not of some sectarian, conquestrian mission unlike some of their latter day “followers”. They appeared at a particular place at a particular time and under specific circumstances that allowed the people of the day to accept their mission as meaningful. It was part of the overall plan to re-instill and spread God consciousness, to the masses who were/are in so much need of it.

From SRI BHAVISHYA PURANA. Pratisarga parva, Chaturyuga Khanda Dvitiyadhyayah, 19th Chapter. (text 20 onwards).

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 and Bahikaus who could assume any form at will. He also defeated the people from Rome 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 to be known as the greatest country. That personality appointed the abode of the Mlecchas beyond the Sindhu river and to the west.

ekadaa tu shakadhisho
himatungari samaayayau
hunadeshasya madhye vai
giristhan purusam shubhano
dadarsha balaram raajaa
Once upon a time the subduer of the Sakas went towards Himatunga and in the middle of the Huna country (Hunadesh – the area near Manasa Sarovara or Kailash 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. (Bhavishya Purana 19:22.)
ko bharam iti tam praaha
su hovacha mudanvitah
iishaa purtagm maam viddhi
kumaarigarbha sambhavam
“The king asked, ‘Who are you sir?’ ‘You should know that I am Isha Putra, the Son of God’. he replied blissfully, and ‘am born of a virgin.’ “(Bhavishya Purana 19:23.)

mleccha dharmasya vaktaram
satyavata paraayanam
iti srutva nrpa praaha
dharmah ko bhavato matah
” ‘I am the expounder of the religion of the Mlecchas and I strictly adhere to the Absolute Truth.’ Hearing this the king enquired, ‘What are religious principles according to you opinion?’ “(Bhavishya Purana 19:24.)
shruto vaaca maharaja
prapte satyasya amkshaye
nirmaaryaade mlechadesh
mahiso ‘ham samaagatah
“Hearing this questions of Salivahara, Isha putra said, ‘O king, when the destruction of the truth occurred, I, Masiha the prophet, came to this country of degraded people where there are no rules and regulations. Finding that fearful irreligious condition of the barbarians spreading from Mleccha-Desha, I have taken to prophethood’.” (Bhavishya Purana 19:25-26.)
mlecchasa sthaapito dharmo
mayaa tacchrnu bhuupate
maanasam nirmalam krtva
malam dehe subhaasbham
naiganam apamasthaya
japeta nirmalam param
nyayena satyavacasaa
manasyai kena manavah

dhyayena pujayedisham
suurya-mandala-samsthitam
acaloyam prabhuh sakshat-
athaa suuryacalah sada

“Please hear Oh king which religious principles I have established among the mlecchas. The living entity is subject to good and bad contaminations. The mind should be purified by taking recourse of proper conduct and performance of japa. By chanting the holy names one attains the highest purity. Just as the immovable sun attracts, from all directions, the elements of all living beings, the Lord of the solar region, who is fixed and all-attractive, attracts the hearts of all living creatures. Thus by following rules, speaking truthful words, by mental harmony and by meditation, Oh descendant of Manu, one should worship that immovable Lord’.” (Bhavishya Purana 19:27-30.)
isha muurtirt-dradi praptaa
nityashuddha sivamkari
ishamasihah iti ca
mama nama pratishthitam
“Having placed the eternally pure and auspicious form of the Supreme Lord in my heart, O protector of the earth planet, I preached these principles through the Mlecchas’ own faith and thus my name became ‘isha-masiha’ (Jesus the Messiah).” (Bhavishya Purana 19:31.)
iti shrutra sa bhuupale
natraa tam mlecchapujaam
sthaapayaamaasa tam tutra
mlecchasthaane hi daarune
“After hearing these words and paying obeisances to that person who is worshipped by the wicked, the king humbly requested him to stay there in the dreadful land of Mlecchas.” (Bhavishya Purana 19:32.)
svaraajyam praaptavaan raajaa
hayamedhan cikirat
rajyam krtva sa sasthyabdam
svarga lokamu paayayau
“King Salivahara, after leaving his kingdom performed an asvamedha yajna and after ruling for sixty years, went to heaven. Now please hear what happened when the king went to svargaloka.” (Bhavishya Purana 19:33.)
Thus ends the second chapter entitled, “the age of Salivahara” of the story of Kali Yuga of the Caturyuga Khanda also called pratisarga-parva of the wonderful Bhavishya Maha Purana.

The following Sanskrit verses are taken directly from the Srimad Bhagavatam of Srila Vyasadeva, the original spiritual master, to support that what we are saying is coming from authorised the word of God that Bhavishya Purana is an authorised book written by Srila Vyasadeva.

brahmam padmam vaisnavam ca
saivam laingam sa-garudam
naradiyam bhagavatam
agneyam skanda-samhnitam
bhavisyam brahma-vaivartam
markandeyam sa-vamanam
varaham matsyam kaurmam ca
brahmandakhyam iti tri-sat
These verses taken from Maha Bhagavata Purana (Srimad Bhagavatam 12:7:23-24) list the eighteen major Puranas that were written by Srila Vyasadeva in His own words. Please note that on the fifth line Bhavishya is mentioned as one of these authorised works.
As we know from reading Srimad Bhagavatam, Srila Vyasadeva was instructed by his Spiritual Master, Srila Narad Muni to compile Srimad Bhagavatam after Srila Vyasadeva had completed all of his other works, thus we find it included in the verses mentioned in the Bhagavatam. The Bhagavatam itself mentions that it was complied after the disappearance of Lord Sri Krsna to His own abode, (S.B.1:1:23. and S.B.1:3:43), just prior to the Kali Yuga which is estimated by Vaisnava scholars as being some five thousand years ago, (A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. S.B 1.3.24 purport.) 3000 B.C. Even mundane western scholars and Indologists who try to deride the Vedic scriptures, and their conclusions agree that they preceded the appearance of Christ by several thousand years.

We can safely say that these scriptures were all compiled and written before five thousand years ago by the literary incarnation of Godhead, Srila Vedavyasa. The above verses are also supported in the Varaha Purana, Siva Purana and Matsya Purana, so we can conclude that this incident found in Bhavishya Purana is definitely an authorised source of information.

Paritranaya sadhunam
vinashaya ca duskrtam
Much time has passed since these words were spoken, and many deceitful men, and women whose ambitions stood foremost in their lives tried their level best to set themselves up as ‘god’, or ‘his chosen representative’. All to be short lived by all devouring Time.
Sadly much of the original theology and theosophy of the early church of Christ, like so many other great saintly teachers, and prophets has been adjusted to the point of in some cases obscurity.

We thus treasure the Bhavishya Purana, and other Vedic literatures for having withstood the test of time, and the adulterers being guarded in its original Sanskrit texts by a chain of dedicated masters and disciples throughout the ages.
How this scripture’s decent has been protectively passed down through time has been captured in the example of the collecting of delicate and ripe mangoes from the tree.
The procedure is that at many places along the trunk of the tree dedicated and careful persons will be employed and thus poised. As the ripened mango fruit is picked it is carefully passed from one person to the next. Each one careful not to add anything that may change or spoil the fruit, and taking nothing away that will diminish its effect of satisfaction. Finally the unadulterated mango finds its way to where it can be stored and distributed for the price known only to those who can afford it.

It is utopian to think that everyone will take to or fully appreciate such a splendid fruit, as it is foolishness to expect common men to know the worth of a diamond, or swine to appreciate pearls.

The tendency for immature, uneducated and narrow minded persons is to think so ethnocentricly. Children do it all the time, “My father is better than yours!”
But looking maturely at the big picture with the use of the analogy of the Sun, one may get a more conclusive understanding. The one Sun that we see in our skies is universally appreciated and beneficial to all. In our individual or particular lands we call the Sun by different names according to our particular culture, and language of that place. In Australia the Aboriginals call it Rakumba; the Maori of New Zealand call the same Sun Ra; in England the Sun is referred to as Sun; in France Sole; in India either Ravi or Surya and so on. Is it not the same Sun???

In the same way The Absolute Truth (Brahman), The Supreme Being, The Infinite Intelligence, The Almighty Lord (YAHWEH, Jehovah), The Great One (Allah), The Enlightened or Learned One (Buddha), The Reservoir Of All Pleasure (Rama), The All Attractive One (Krishna) etc., etc., are all descriptive names for the same Supreme Being – God. What then is the difference if I say Sun or Surya? The distinctiveness of the name is only applicable to the region in which it is used, and the individual function attributed by it or to it. Are we not talking of the same? Is not our attention and appreciation attracted to the same qualities?

Still there will always be those who will not accept what we say, as there will always be those who will not accept me, as there will be those that will not accept you.

In this presentation we are not trying to wedge the philosophy of Krishna consciousness firmly up anyone’s nose, rather we are trying to broaden the vision of those who may not be aware of fundamental background information that could and hopefully would change the perspective to viewing the broader picture.

More than this we cannot say…….except there are those also that do not accept Lord Sri Krishna or Yahweh, Allah, etc., to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the orchestrator of this Divine master plan, and it wouldn’t matter what we called Him. Also as they say sometimes in India……. “The dogs on the road may bark, yet still the caravan goes by!”

You may have read the Book Jesus Lived in India (Holger Kersten. 1986. Element Books), a book that goes over the lost years of Jesus from the time of his childhood to when he returned to Israel in his mid-thirties, a gap of about 18 years.
” A short introductory section precedes a brief description of the early history of the people of Israel and the life of Moses. An account then follows of how the eternal Spirit resolves to take on human form ’so that he might demonstrate by his own example how moral purity may be attained, and by freeing the soul from its rude mortality, achieve the degree of perfection required to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, which is unchanging and ruled by eternal happiness’. And so a divine infant is born in far-away Israel, and is given the name Issa. Sometime during the fourteenth year of his life, the lad arrives in the region of the Sind (the Indus) in the company of merchants, ‘and he settled among the Aryans, in the land beloved of God, with the intention of perfecting himself and learning from the laws of the great Buddha’, The young Issa travels through the land of the five rivers (the Punjab), stays briefly with the ‘erring Jains’, ‘and then proceeds to Jagannath’, ‘where the white priests of Brahma honoured him with a joyous reception’. At Jagannath Issa/Jesus learns to read and understand the Veda. But by then instructing the Sudras of the lowest castes, he incurs the displeasure of the Brahmanas, who feel their position and power threatened. After spending six years in Jagannath, Rajagriha, Benares and other holy cities, he is compelled to flee the Brahmanas who are outraged at his continuing to teach that it is not the will of God that the worth of human beings should be judged by the caste.
There is an extraordinary correlation between the accounts in the texts found by Notovitch and those of the Gospels, a correlation that can shed more light on Jesus’s own personality – especially in what he said. Notovitch’s Issa opposes the abuses of the caste system, which rob the lower castes of their basic human rights, saying, ‘God our Father makes no difference between any of his children all of whom he loves equally.’ And later on his travels he takes issue with a rigid and inhumane adherence to the letter of the law, declaring that, ‘The law was made for Man, to show him the way., He consoles the weal: ‘The eternal Judge, the eternal Spirit, who forms the sole and indivisible World Soul (Super-soul) …will proceed sternly against those who arrogate His rights to themselves.’ When the priests challenge Issa to produce miracles, to prove the omnipotence of his God, he retorts, ‘The miracles of our God have been performed ever since the first day when the universe was created; they take place every day and at every moment . Those who cannot perceive them are robbed of one of the most beautiful gifts of life.’ Challenging the authority of the priests, he makes his position quite clear: ‘So long as the people had no priests, they were ruled by natural law and they preserved the flawlessness of their souls. Their souls were in the presence of God, and to commune with the Father they had no need to resort to the meditation of an idol or a beast, nor to fire, as is practised here. You say that the Sun must be worshipped, as must the spirits of good and the spirits of evil. Well, I tell you your doctrine is an utterly false one, for the Sun has no power of its own, but solely through the will of the invisible Creator, who gave it birth, and who has willed it to be the star to light the day, and to warm the labour and the seed-time of Man.’
Notovitch’s text goes on to describe how Issa goes further into the Himalayan ranges, to Nepal, where he remains for six years and dedicates himself to the study of Buddhist scriptures. The doctrines that he teaches widely there are simple and clear, and are particularly aimed at uplifting the oppressed and the weak, whose eyes he opens to the falsity of the priests. Finally, he moves on towards the West, passing through various countries as an itinerant preacher, preceded well in advance by a celebrated reputation. He also stands up to the priests of Persia, who expel him one night in the hope that he would quickly fall prey to wild animals. But Providence allows the holy Issa to reach Palestine safely, where the wise men inquire of him, ‘Who are you, and from what country do you come? We have never heard of you and do not even know your name.’
‘I am an Israelite,’ Issa replies, ‘and on the day of my birth I saw the walls of Jerusalem and heard the sobs of my brothers in their slavery and the walls of my sisters condemned to live among the heathen. And my soul grieved sorely when I heard that my brothers had forgotten the true God. As a child, I left my parents’ home to live among other peoples. But after hearing of the great sorrows that my brothers were suffering. I returned to the land where my parents lived, in order to bring my brothers back to the faith of our ancestors, a faith which enjoins us to be patient on Earth so that we might achieve the consummate and highest happiness in the Beyond”.(Holger Kersten. 1986 & 1994. Jesus Lived in India. pages 10-12.)

As well as this there is documented evidence that not only did he visit there at this time but also after the resurrection too.

If anyone is interested I can send you a copy of this FREEWARE electronic book zipped.
This is an English version of an Urdu treatise written by the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908). The theme is the escape of Jesus from death on the cross, and his journey to India in search of the lost tribes of Israel. Christian as well as Muslim scriptures, and old medical and historical books including ancient Buddhist records, provide evidence about this journey.
Jesus is shown to have reached Afghanistan, and to have met the Jews who had settled there after deliverance from the bondage of Nebuchadnezzar. From Afghanistan Jesus went on to Kashmir, where other Israelite tribes had settled. There he made his home, and there in time he died; his tomb has been found in Srinagar.

:Title Jesus in India
1 Jesus in India
2 Preface
2 Introduction
2 Chapter One
2 Chapter Two
3 On the evidence of the Holy Quran and authentic traditions in proof of Jesus’ survival.
2 Chapter Three
3 On the Evidence derived from books and medicine
2 Chapter Four
3 Evidence from books of history
3 Section 1 – Evidence from Islamic books which contain a mention of Jesus’ journey
3 Section 2 – Evidence from books on Buddhism
3 Section 3 – On the evidence from books of history which show that the coming of Jesus…..
1 Appendix
(Copied from “Jesus in India” by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiani, The Promised Messiah (as).)

Taken from: http://www.salagram.net/Jesus-Went-To-India.htm#Vedic