Jesus in India : Lost years of Jesus

Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax.
"One day, Shalivahana, the chief of the Shakas, came to a snowy mountain (assumed to be in the Indian Himalayas). There, in the Land of the Hun (= Ladakh, a part of the Kushan empire), the powerful king saw a handsome man sitting on a mountain, who seemed to promise auspiciousness. His skin was like copper and he wore white garments. The king asked the holy man who he was. The other replied: 'I am called Isaputra (son of God), born of a virgin, minister of the non-believers, relentlessly in search of the truth.'

O king, lend your ear to the religion that I brought unto the non-believers ... Through justice, truth, meditation, and unity of spirit, man will find his way to Isa (God, in Sanskrit) who dwells in the centre of Light, who remains as constant as the sun, and who dissolves all transient things forever. The blissful image of Isa, the giver of happiness, was revealed in the heart; and I was called Isa-Masih (Jesus the Messiah).'"
Ahmadiyya

• The book The Breath of God  (West Hills, 2011), by religious scholar Jeffrey Small , is a suspense novel that follows American graduate student Grant Matthews who journeys to the Himalayas in search of proof that Jesus traveled through India during his lost years. Small, who holds degrees from Yale, Harvard, and Oxford, weaves mystical teachings from Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam through the story that transports the reader from the American South to the exotic grandeur of the Taj Mahal in India and cliffside monasteries in Bhutan. Although the majority of the novel takes place in the present day, several chapters tell the story from the perspective of a teenage Jesus as he struggles with culture and teachings so different from his own.

• The book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore, is a fictional story of Jesus's adolescence told from the point of view of Jesus's best friend. In it, he travels to India, China, and The Middle East to visit the three wise men, where they in turn teach Jesus one different facet of his later teachings. However in the afterward Moore is specific in mentioning that Buddhism didn't reach China in the lifetime of Jesus. For him to study under a Buddha in Tibet would have been anachronistic.

• Yeshua: A Personal Memoir of the Missing Years of Jesus, by Stan I.S. Law a.k.a. Stanislaw Kapuscinski , is a fictional account of Jesus's journey to India and his preparation there for his later Palestinian mission. Kapuscinski weaves his own philosophy into the story.

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 bhodisattva saint called "Issa". Notovich was stunned by the remarkable parallels of Issa's teachings and martyrdom with that of Christ's life, teachings and crucifixion.

TheRozabalTomb

When Jesus recovered he had to move out of Israel for his own safety as well as those who helped him.  He was already familiar with the Eastern countries, according to Prof Hassnanin’s theories.  So it’s only natural that Jesus moved out into the East.  His mother Mary and friend Mary Magdalene also accompanied him.  Prof Hassnain makes this latter conclusion because the tombs of these two Maries are identified in the East.  The tomb of Mary, Jesus’ mother, lies in Murree, 45 miles east of Taxila, and can be seen even today.  Prof Hasnain locates Mary Magdalene’s tomb in Kashgar, North-West of Ladakh.  [I’m not going into the proofs offered for these tombs in order to avoid making this post too lengthy.

The lost years of Jesus concerns the undocumented timespan between Jesus's childhood and the beginning of his ministry as recorded in the New Testament.

The gospels have accounts of events surrounding Jesus' birth, and the subsequent flight into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod (Gospel of Matthew 2:13-23). There is a general reference to the settlement of Joseph and Mary, along with the young Jesus, at Nazareth (Matthew 2:23; Gospel of Luke 2:39-40). There is also an isolated account of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus' visit to the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, when Jesus was twelve years old (Luke 2:41-50).

Following that episode, there is a blank space in the record that covers eighteen years in the life of Christ (from age 12 to 30). Other than the generic allusion that Jesus advanced in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52), the Bible gives nothing more about Jesus' life during this time span. A common assumption amongst Christians is that Jesus simply lived in Nazareth during that period, but there are various accounts that present other scenarios, including travels to India.

Several authors have claimed to have found proof of the existence of manuscripts in India and Tibet that support the belief that Christ was in India during this time in his life. Others cite legends in a number of places in the region that Jesus passed that way in ancient times. The Jesus in India manuscript was first reported in modern times by Nicolas Notovitch (1894). Subsequently several other authors have written on the subject, including the religious leader Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (founder of Ahmadiyya movement) (1899), Levi H. Dowling (1908), Swami Abhedananda (1922), Nicholas Roerich (1923–1928) Mathilde Ludendorff (1930), and Elizabeth Clare Prophet (founder of Ascended Master Teachings New Age group) (1956).

The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ channeled from "Akashik Records" by Levi H. Dowling, and published in 1908, claims to be the true story of the life of Jesus, including "the 'lost' eighteen years silent in the New Testament."

The narrative follows the young Jesus across India, Tibet, Persia, Assyria, Greece and Egypt.

Gruber and Kersten (1995) claim that Buddhism had a substantial influence on the life and teachings of Jesus.They claim that Jesus was influenced by the teachings and practices of Therapeutae, described by the authors as teachers of the Buddhist Theravada school then living in Judaea. They assert that Jesus lived the life of a Buddhist and taught Buddhist ideals to his disciples; their work follows in the footsteps of the Oxford New Testament scholar Barnett Hillman Streeter, who established as early as the 1930s that the moral teaching of the Buddha has four remarkable resemblances to the Sermon on the Mount."

Some scholars believe that Jesus may have been inspired by the Buddhist religion and that the Gospel of Thomas and many Nag Hammadi texts reflect this possible influence. Books such as The Gnostic Gospels and Beyond Belief: the Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels and The Original Jesus by Gruber and Kersten discuss these theories.

In 1887 a Russian war correspondent, Nicolas Notovitch, visited India and Tibet. He left Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir to cross the Himalaya to the remote Ladakh region. His diary has descriptions of the dramatic landscape, the sturdiness of the local people and their friendliness. Notovitch claimed that, at the lamasery or monastery of Hemis inLadakh, he learned of the "Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men." Isa is the Arabic name of Jesus in Islam. His story, with a translated text of the "Life of Saint Issa," was published in French in 1894 as La vie inconnue de Jesus Christ. It was subsequently translated into English, German, Spanish, and Italian.

Notovitch's writings were immediately controversial. The German orientalist Max Mueller, who'd never been to India himself, published a letter he'd received from a British colonial officer, which stated that the presence of Notovitch in Ladakh was "not documented."

J. Archibald Douglas, then a teacher at the Government College in Agra also visited Hemis monastery in 1895, but claimed that he did not find any evidence that Notovich had even been there. But, there is very little biographical information about Notovitch and a record of his death has never been found.The diary of Dr. Karl Rudolph Marx of the Ladane Charitable Dispensary, a missionary of the Order of the Moravian Brothers, and director of the hospital in Leh, clearly states that he treated Nicolas Notovitch for a severe toothache in November 1887. However, Edgar J. Goodspeed in his book "Famous Biblical Hoaxes" claims that the head abbot of the Hemis community signed a document that denounced Notovitch as an outright liar.

The corroborating evidence of later visitors to the monastery having yet to appear, Notovich responded to claims that the lama at Hemis had denied that the manuscript existed by explaining that the monks would have seen enquiries about them as evidence of their value to the outside world and of the risk of their being stolen or taken by force.Tibetologists Snellgrove and Skorupski wrote of the monks at Hemis, "They seem convinced that all foreigners steal if they can. There have in fact been quite serious losses of property in recent years." Notovitch also provided the names of several people in the region who could verify his presence there.

In 1922, after initially doubting Notovitch, Swami Abhedananda, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, and a close acquaintance of Max Müller, journeyed to Tibet, investigated his claim, was shown the manuscript by the lama and with his help translated part of the document, and later championed Notovich's views. Having spoken at Max Müller's funeral, his opposing Müller's assertion that Notovitch's document was a forgery, was no small matter.

A number of authors have taken these accounts and have expanded upon them in their own works. For example, in her book The Lost Years of Jesus: Documentary Evidence of Jesus's 17-Year Journey to the East, Elizabeth Clare Prophet cites Buddhist manuscripts that allegedly provide evidence that Jesus traveled to India, Nepal, Ladakh and Tibet.

However, she reprints objections and rebuttals of Life of Saint Issa, citing both sides of the controversy in detail. She observes, "The fact that Douglas failed to see a copy of a manuscript was no more decisive proof that it did not exist than Notovitch's claim that it did." 

The Jesus in India idea has been associated with Louis Jacolliot's book La Bible dans l'Inde, Vie de Iezeus Christna (1869) (The Bible in India, or the Life of Jezeus Christna), but there is no direct connection between his writings and those of writers on the Himmis mauscripts.

Jacolliot compares the accounts of the life of Bhagavan Krishna with that of Jesus Christ in the gospels and concludes that it could not have been a coincidence that the two stories have so many similarities in many of the finer details. He concludes that the account in the gospels is a myth based on the mythology of ancient India. 

 However, Jacolliot is comparing two different periods of history (or mythology) and does not claim that Jesus was in India. He spells "Krishna" as "Christna" and claims that Krishna's disciples gave him the name "Jezeus," a name supposed to mean "pure essence" in Sanskrit, although according to Max Muller it is not even a Sanskrit term at all – "it was simply invented" by Jacoillot.

Holger Kersten suggests^[that the most controversial and administered Hindu Bhavishya Maha Purana, in the Pratisargaarvan (19.17-32), a 19th century redaction of a text purporting to tell future events, describes the arrival of Jesus thus:

According to the Ahmadis, the further sayings of Muhammad mention that Jesus died in Kashmir at the age of one hundred and twenty years. Ahmadis have advocated this view for over 100 years, started by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Muslim and Persian sources purport to trace the sojourn of Jesus, known as Isa, or Yuz Asaf ("leader of the healed") along the old Silk Road to the orient. The books, Christ in Kashmir by Aziz Kashmiri, and Jesus Lived in India by Holger Kersten, list documents and articles in support of this view. They believe Yuz Asaf to be buried at the Roza Bal shrine in Srinagar, India.

The Urantia Book claims to be a revelation of the life of Jesus. It offers a detailed account of his childhood, adolescence and early adulthood and provides a comprehensive narrative of later events as recorded in the Gospels. According to the Urantia Book, Jesus never visited India; instead, beginning in his 28th year (AD 22, according to the Urantia book) he travelled with a wealthy merchant from India and the merchant's son. Jesus was invited, on a number of occasions, to visit India by the wealthy Indian merchant, but Jesus declined, citing responsibilities relating to his family in Palestine.

The "Jesus in India" theme has also been taken up by novelists, in fiction with no pretense of historical accuracy:

On the National Geographic Channel, a documentary titled Mysteries of the Bible refers to the Hemis manuscript and similar accounts as "wild stories of Jesus travelling to India to study with Eastern mystics." The documentary repeats the account of J. Archibald Douglas and the lama's denial of the manuscript's existence, without mentioning the corroborating evidence of Swami Abhedananda and Nicolas Roerich^[As proof that Jesus was in Galilee during that time, one scholar presents the Biblical quotation, "Is not this the carpenter (carpenter's son)"  as proof that he was well known to the local people. He adds that Jesus "went walkabout, he went out on tour."  Another scholar states that "any historian worth his salt" will go "with the earliest evidence, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." "You can envision the family spending many years building houses, building furniture ... that's the family business."  The film continues, "He may not have been just a carpenter either, it is possible that he went [to the sea of Galilee] to fish. If he did, he would most likely have run into a group of fishermen." "It makes sense to presume ... [that Joseph died] and Jesus would have had to ... do the appropriate things as a son, namely ..." "By studying stories agreed on to be true, a clearer, albeit hypothesized, portrait of Christ's life can emerge."

Jesus was mentioned in the sci-fi movie The Man from Earth. The story states that the inspiration for the Jesus story is from a Cro-Magnon man who has survived for more than 14,000 years. The story also states that he was once a Sumerian for 2000 years, then a Babylonian under Hammurabi, then a disciple of Gautama Buddha in India. The film is presented as the Cro-Magnon narrates his own story as a secret revealed to his modern day friends.

Look at the picture carefully. This nondescript Muslim shrine in Kashmir has shot into the international limelight after many believers claimed it was where Jesus Christ was laid to rest. Inquisitive visitors-- mostly Westerners--have started flocking to the shrine, forcing the caretakers to close down the religious structure. Rediff.com's Mukhtar Ahmad travels to Khanyar in Srinagar, in search of some spiritual answers.   

Where did Jesus spend his last days? Had he been to India? Had he been buried in Kashmir?

There are several versions on Jesus' India sojourn. Some books argue Jesus did spend as many as 16 years in India, becoming a disciple of Buddhism. But many dispute the entire version, saying there has never been conclusive evidence on Jesus' visit to India. 

The old debate or controversy resurfaced after Rozabal shrine of Sufi saint Yuz Asaf at Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir banned visitors and believers alike from entering the sanctum sanctorum. It was at the Rozabal shrine, many believe, Jesus was laid to rest. However, there has not been any conclusive proof to substantiate the claim.  

The shrine's move comes after some believers wanted to exhume the remains to obtain carbon dating and get a DNA done.

"Some Christians claim it is the grave of Jesus and they had approached us with a request to exhume the remains for DNA testing. But, we refused," Mohammad Amin Ringshawl, the shrine's caretaker, told rediff.com

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 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 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.

For about sixteen years, Christ travelled 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.

The first step in Christ's trail after the Crucifixion is found in the Persian scholar F. Mohammed's historical work "Jami-ut-tuwarik" which tells of Christ's arrival in the kingdom of Nisibis, by royal invitation. (Nisibis is today known as Nusaybin in Turkey) . This is reiterated in the Imam Abu Jafar Muhammed's "Tafsi-Ibn-i-Jamir at-tubri." Kersten found that in both Turkey and Persia there are ancient stories of a saint called "Yuz Asaf" ("Leader of the Healed"), whose behaviour, miracles and teachings are remarkably similar to that of Christ.

The many Islamic and Hindu historical works recording local history and legends of kings, noblemen and saints of the areas thought to be travelled by Jesus also give evidence of a Christ like man; the Koran, for example, refers to Christ as "Issar". Further east, the Kurdish tribes of Eastern Anatolia have several stories describing Christ's stay in Eastern Turkey after his resurrection. These traditional legends have been ignored by the theological community.

Kersten also suggests that prior to Christ's mission in the Middle East, he may have been exposed to Buddhist teachings in Egypt. After his birth in Bethlehem, his family fled to Egypt to avoid Herod's persecution. Surprisingly some scholars now acknowledge that Buddhist schools probably existed in Alexandria long before the Christian era.

More clues are drawn from the Apocrypha. These are texts said to have been written by the Apostles but which are not officially accepted by the Church. Indeed, the Church regards them as heresy since a substantial amount of the Apocrypha directly contradicts Church dogma and theology. The Apocryphal 'Acts of Thomas', for example, tell how Christ met Thomas several times after the Crucifixion. In fact they tell us how Christ sent Thomas to teach his spirituality in India. This is corroborated by evidence found in the form of stone inscriptions at Fatehpur Sikri, near the Taj Mahal, in Northern India. They include "Agrapha", which are sayings of Christ that don't exist in the mainstream Bible. Their grammatical form is most similar to that of the Apocryphal gospel of Thomas. This is but one example giving credibility to the idea that texts not recognised by the Church hold important clues about Christ's true life and his teachings.

In tracing Christ's movements to India and beyond, Kersten also discovered that many of his teachings, which have been gradually edited out of the modern Bible were originally Eastern in nature. Principles such as karma and re-incarnation, for example, were common knowledge then, and seem to have been reaffirmed by Christ. Imagine the implications that this discovery holds for Western Christianity and its churches, who have kept Christ in their doctrinal top pockets and have constrained the entire Western culture within the narrow teachings of blind faith, organised religion and original sin!

Further clues are cited from The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, and the Gospel of Thomas which are of Syrian origin and have been dated to the 4th Century AD, or possibly earlier. They are Gnostic Scriptures and despite the evidence indicating their authenticity, they are not given credence by mainstream theologians. In these texts Thomas tells of Christ's appearance in Andrapolis, Paphlagonia (today known as in the extreme north of Anatolia) as a guest of the King of Andrappa. There he met with Thomas who had arrived separately. It is at Andrapolis that Christ entreated Thomas to go to India to begin spreading his teachings. It seems that Christ and Mary then moved along the West coast of Turkey, proof of this could be an old stopping place for travellers called the "Home of Mary", found along the ancient silk route. From here Christ could easily have entered Europe via France. He may have even travelled as far as the British Isles, for in England there is an ancient oak tree called the "Hallowed Tree" which (says local legend) was planted by Christ himself.

In his travels through Persia (today's Iran) Christ became known as Yuz Asaf (leader of the Healed). We know this because a Kashmiri historical document confirms that Isa (the Koranic name for Christ) was in fact also known as Yuz Asaf. The Jami - uf - Tamarik, Volume II, tells that Yuz Asaf visited Masslige, where he attended the grave of Shem, Noah's son. There are various other accounts such as Agha Mustafa's "Awhali Shahaii-i-paras" that tell of Yuz Asaf's travels and teachings all over Persia. It seems that Yuz Asaf blessed Afghanistan and Pakistan with his presence also. There are for example two plains in Eastern Afghanistan near Gazni and Galalabad, bearing the name of the prophet Yuz Asaf. Again in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, Thomas says that he and Christ attended the Court of King Gundafor of Taxila (now Pakistan), in about 47AD, and that eventually both the King and his brother accepted Christ's teachings. Kersten claims that there are more than twenty one historical documents that bear witness to the existence of Jesus in Kashmir, where he was known also as Yuz Asaf and Issa. For example the Bhavishyat Mahapurana (volume 9 verses 17-32) contains an account of Issa-Masih (Jesus the Messiah). It describes Christ's arrival in the Kashmir region of India and his encounter with King Shalivahana, who ruled the Kushan area (39-50AD), and who entertained Christ as a guest for some time.

{Christ's life in India, after the crucifixion, challenges current Church teachings at their very foundation. The theology of Saint Paul, the major influence on modern Christianity, is empty fanaticism in the light of this discovery.

The historian Mullah Nadini (1413) also recounts a story of Yuz Asaf who was a contemporary to King Gopadatta, and confirms that he also used the name Issar, ie. Jesus. There is also much historical truth in the towns and villages of Northern India to prove that Jesus and his mother Mary spent time in the area. For instance, at the border of a small town called Mari, there is nearby a mountain called Pindi Point, upon which is an old tomb called Mai Mari da Asthan or "The final resting place of Mary". The tomb is said to be very old and local Muslims venerate it as the grave of Issa's (ie Christ's) Mother. The tomb itself is oriented East-West consistent with the Jewish tradition, despite the fact it is within a Muslim area. Assuming its antiquity, such a tomb could not be Hindu either since the Hindus contemporary to Christ cremated their dead and scattered their ashes as do Hindus today.

Following Christ's trail into Kashmir, 40km south of Srinagar, between the villages of Naugam and Nilmge is a meadow called Yuz-Marg (the meadow of Yuz Asaf, ie. Jesus). Then there is the sacred building called Aish Muqam, 60km south east of Srinagar and 12km from Bij Bihara. "Aish" says Kersten is derived from "Issa" and "Muqam" place of rest or repose. Within the Aish Muqam is a sacred relic called the 'Moses Rod' or the 'Jesus Rod', which local legend says, belonged to Moses himself. Christ is said to also have held it, perhaps to confirm his Mosaic heritage. Above the town of Srinagar is a temple known as "The Throne of Solomon", which dates back to at least 1000BC, which King Gopadatta had restored at about the same time as Christ's advent. The restoration was done by a Persian architect who personally left four inscriptions on the side steps of the temple. The third and fourth inscription read: "At this time Yuz Asaf announced his prophetic calling in Year 50 and 4" and "He is Jesus -- Prophet of the Sons of Israel"! Herein lies a powerful confirmation of Kersten's theory. Kersten suggests that Christ may have travelled to the South of India also, finally returning to Kashmir to die at the age of approximately 80 years. Christ's tomb, says Kersten, lies in Srinagar's old town in a building called Rozabal. "Rozabal" is an abbreviation of Rauza Bal, meaning "tomb of a prophet". At the entrance there is an inscription explaining that Yuz Asaf is buried along with another Moslem saint. Both have gravestones which are oriented in North-South direction, according to Moslem tradition. However, through a small opening the true burial chamber can be seen, in which there is the Sarcophagus of Yuz Asaf in East-West (Jewish) orientation!

According to Professor Hassnain, who has studied this tomb, there are carved footprints on the grave stones and when closely examined, carved images of a crucifix and a rosary. The footprints of Yuz Asaf have what appear to be scars represented on both feet, if one assumes that they are crucifixion scars, then their position is consistent with the scars shown in the Turin Shroud (left foot nailed over right). Crucifixion was not practised in Asia, so it is quite possible that they were inflicted elsewhere, such as the Middle East. The tomb is called by some as "Hazrat Issa Sahib" or "Tomb of the Lord Master Jesus". Ancient records acknowledge the existence of the tomb as long ago as 112AD. The Grand Mufti, a prominent Muslim Cleric, himself has confirmed that Hazrat Isa Sahib is indeed the tomb of Yuz Asaf!

Thus Kersten deduces that the tomb of Jesus Christ Himself is in Kashmir!

The implications of Kersten's discovery are monumental. Christ's life in India, after the crucifixion, challenges current Church teachings at their very foundation. The theology of Saint Paul, the major influence on modern Christianity, is empty fanaticism in the light of this discovery. Threatened also are the doctrines of obedience to the Church, original sin, salvation through blind faith and the non-existence of reincarnation, etc. Yet these ideas underlie the morality and ethics, (or lack of them), that govern the entire Western social structure, from the legal system to medical health care schemes. It is no wonder that the modern Churches and their secular interests refuse to consider such a proposition as Kersten's!

There are many ancient Pali, Sanskrit and Arabic texts and inscriptions that hint that the prophet Yuza Asaf buried in the tomb is none other than Jesus. It is perhaps the most mysterious place in the whole world," 

Jesus might not have been killed and died of crucifixion, but escaped and travelled from Palestine to India. “I have seen texts that refer to this prophet who was much revered in Kashmir," said the director. “He interacted with Vedic and Buddhist scholars and kings including Gopananda, Shalivahan and the Great Kanishka, who issues a coin in his honour.

Also, it is the believe of some peoples that the grave of Mai Murree in Murree is actually the grave of Hazrat Mariam.

Jesus did not die on the cross

The traditional Christian belief is that Jesus died on the cross for the salvation of mankind.  Three days after his death he ‘rose’ from death and forty days after his resurrection he ascended into heaven.  These three events are commemorated by the Christian Churches in the names of Good Friday, Easter and Ascension.  The whole doctrinal edifice of Christianity is built upon these events.  Discrediting any of them may undermine that doctrinal edifice and render the Church hollow.  This could be the reason why the Church has always striven to subvert all researches into the death of Jesus.  The Church bought off whatever ‘dangerous’ materials that surfaced time and again in the form of ancient writings, and if the Church could not buy them off it did its best to suppress or manipulate knowledge so that religious faith would not be affected.  More about this can be read in such books as The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception  by Michael Baigent & Richard Leigh.  Even eminent contemporary theologians like Hans Kung have pointed out that the Church still continues the old Inquisition (which was the most brutal way of suppressing dissent in the Church) in more devious ways.  In Kung’s own words, “Just as Pius XII persecuted the most important theologians of his time (Marie-Dominique Chenu, Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac, Rahner and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin), so John Paul II (and his Grand Inquisitor Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) has persecuted Schillebeeckx, Tissa Balasuriya, Leonardo Boff, Gyorgy Bulanyi and Charles Curran, along with Bishop Jacques Gaillot of Evreux and Archbishop Huntington of Seattle” [In an interview to Frontline, Jan 2, 2004, p. 62].  The man who is referred to as the “Grand Inquisitor” by Hans Kung is none other than the present Pope Benedict XVI!

Prof Hassnain’s argument is that Jesus did not die on the cross.  Jesus was perhaps in a kind of coma (or some such condition) when he was brought down from the cross.

Proof?

1.According to the Bible, Jesus was crucified along with two thieves on the eve of the Sabbath.  They were erected on the cross at 3 pm.  The Jews did not want the burial to go on to the next day, it being the Sabbath.  So they had to ascertain that the three crucified people died on the same day itself.  Hence the knees of the two thieves were broken in order to quicken their death.  But when they came to Jesus they found that he was already dead.  Hence Jesus’ knees were not broken.  “But one of the soldiers pierced his side (of the chest) with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” [Bible, John 19:34].

Prof Hassnain quotes Dr Kittermaster, consultant pathologist at Tunbridge Wells, England, “dead or alive, the flow of water is difficult to explain; but blood does not flow from a stab wound which is inflicted after death.  Blood flowing from a stab wound is very much suggestive of life rather than death.”

2. According to Jewish tradition, a dead body is washed before burial.  In the case of Jesus, there is no evidence that his body was washed.  Instead, the Bible says that Joseph of Arimathaea, Nicodemus and others applied ointment to the body.  If he were dead, they would have washed the body before burial.  The Turin Shroud also bears witness to the fact that Jesus’ body was not washed before it was enshrouded.  Kurt Berna, a German scholar, who did much research on the Turin Shroud (and wrote a book titled Jesus did not die on the Cross) wrote to Pope John XXIII in 1959: “From a medical point of view, it has been proved that the body that lay in the Shroud was not dead, as the heart was still beating.”  When the Turin Shroud that had been considered a precious relic became too inconvenient for the Church, it was declared as fraud in 1988.  But a team of NASA scientists who examined the Shroud in 1977 had concluded that “the antiquity of the linen is confirmed through its herring-bone weave, of a kind fashionable in the first century AD” and that the Shroud in all probability was used to cover Jesus’ body.

3.The other proofs provided by Prof Hassnain are from ancient writings.  For example, an ancient Hindu sutra, known as Natha-nama-vali, a holy Sutra of the Nath Yogis, says that “Isha Natha” (Jesus) came to India at the age of 14, returned to his own country later, and was crucified by “his brutish and materialistic countrymen.”  The Sutra goes on to say that Jesus entered Samadhi by means of yoga “after crucifixion, or perhaps even before it.”  The Sutra says that the Jews buried Jesus presuming him to be dead, but one of Jesus’ gurus in India, the great Chetan Natha, having had a vision of the tortures undergone by Jesus, reached Israel by means of Yogic powers, took the body of Jesus from the tomb and later led him to India.  [I have used the word ‘India’ though the Sutra uses other words for it.] Please note that this proof is not given much importance in the book.  It’s mentioned to show how some ancient Hindu texts contain references to Jesus’ presence in the East.

Prof Hassnain gives more credence to the Essene version of the crucifixion of Jesus.  The Essenes were a Jewish sect known for their integrity and self-discipline.  It has been argued by many scholars and researchers that Jesus had spent his youth with the Essenes (whereas Prof Hassnain argues that it was spent in India and other countries).  According to the Essene version, Jesus was not dead when he was brought down from the cross and he was nurtured back to health with the help of herbs, spices and medicines available at that time by Joseph of Arimathaea (who was a very rich man) and his friends.  This account fits in well with the Biblical narratives too because the Bible mentions men in long white attires who are traditionally taken as angels but should be construed as Essenes as the latter’s uniform was a full-length white garment.

Rozabel is the tomb of Jesus

Jesus spent his last days in Kashmir.  The tomb of Yuzu Asaph at Rozabal is Jesus’ tomb.  Jesus had to change his name for obvious reasons.  He came to be known as Yuzu Asaph.  Prof Hassnain quotes the Dead Sea Scrolls which mention that Asaph adn Ya Asaph stands for the mystical name of Jesus, while Yuzu is the Persian and Urdu version of Jesus (just as Issa is the Arabic version and Jesu is Aramaic).

The east-west direction of the tomb at Rozabal indicates the Jewish tradition, argues Prof Hassnain.  The Jews lay their dead in an east-west direction, while Muslims lay them in a north-south direction.  The Rozabal tomb has an outer rectangular sepulchre, made of wood, decorated with latticework panels on all four sides.  This sepulchre contains the inner sarcophagus.  There is a wooden cross too in front of the sarcophagus.  Prof Hassnain discovered a stone slab with the impression of two feet which surprisingly showed that the feet belonged to a man who had been crucified.  The imprint-maker, whoever it was, gave prominence to the signs that the man buried there had been crucified. 

Kurt Berna (the German scholar mentioned above) studied the photos of this imprint of the feet and concluded: “... while it is very interesting to find the nail-wound reproduction of the left foot near the toes, the nail-wound reproduction of the right foot is exactly at the place where the classic view said it should be.  This means, this man has been crucified with the left foot over the right foot and only one nail was going through the feet.”

Kurt Berna also added that the Turin Shroud too showed that Jesus was crucified with the left foot nailed over the right foot because the knee inside the shroud was more bowed and stiff than the right leg.

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