December: Jingle All The Way
Greetings,
Long ago, nearly two millennium, there was born a boy in a carpenter family who was prophesied to become a legend, a divine entity. Jesus Christ, son of Mary (The Virgin) & Joseph was believed to be a direct manifestation of Godhood who came in this world to show mankind, the horizon of Love, Compassion & Peace that knew no bias. In his short span of lifetime (around 33 years), Jesus guided mankind towards the right path, the path of truthfulness; he inspired them to be courageous, to stood for what’s right, no matter how efficacious the person at the other end is. But the greatest lesson he taught was of non-violence, as he believed that with humility we can win the heart of anyone, even our enemy. And he even sacrificed himself for his values, without any struggle or word, or any remorse since he knew; his sacrifice will reap a new approach. With his crucifixion, he didn’t die, but became immortal for his beliefs.
Bible, the holy book of the
Christians (the followers of Christ), confirms Jesus’ divinity. In his lifetime,
Jesus performed many feats that are considered implausible for a common man.
Whether it was performing exorcisms, or turning water into wine, healing
miracles, walking on water or his resurrection. But the biggest miracle was his
humanity, which never made anyone feel inferior. It was his humanity that made
people believe, in him and in his miracles; people were not scared of him, but
they adored him, trusted him and respected him for his benevolence, for the man
he was.
And even after two thousand years, the
fascination hasn’t ceased a bit. Rather, with the help of science man has been
trying to explore the Christ chronicles deeper; especially his appearance. Now
consider this, look closely at
these two photos, so different ain't it. While the first picture is pretty well
known depiction of Jesus Christ by the westerners: fair skin, light colored
eyes and light brown hair; the second picture is an effort to dig deeper, to
carve the actual appearance of Jesus through forensic anthropology. It took the social media (and probably
the whole world) by storm. A couple of years ago, forensic anthropologist
Richard Neave with the help of the scientists' findings drew a depiction
of Jesus Christ to what a first century
Jewish man probably looked like. The results astounds; dark tan face, short
hair, muscular body; a complete contrast to our preconceived notions.
But again, that's an exploration based on
assumptions, nothing definite can be claimed. With time and technology, further
new theories may come to our cognizance that may add on to the latest findings
or may rubbish it all. Yet, with every finding we come closer to the truth if
not reach to it, as only time can tell to what happened/occurred. Whatever
the truth was, his goodness can never be put to question.
While we here remember Jesus of Nazareth for
his great works and his eminence, there is a piece of his life story that’s
never talked about or rather, forbidden; Lost years of Jesus, in India. Yes, as
unreasonable as it seems, there are many theories that back this very notion
that before rising to fame, Jesus visited India, to learn. In his youth, 18
years of young Jesus have no account in the New Testament; they are rather
explained as silent/missing/lost years of Christ.
Many writers viz. Holger Kirsten, Mirza Ghulam
Ahmad, have asserted that during his missing years Jesus spent some years in
Indian region. But it all started in 1887, when a Russian scholar, Nicolas
Notovitch visited Kashmir. There, a Buddhist monk enlightened him of a
Bodhisattva saint called ‘Issa’ (Arabic name for Jesus). Nicolas was taken
aback when he further came to know the detailing provided by the monk and hence
researched the unknown years of Jesus thoroughly.
His
findings briefly stated that when Jesus learned about spiritual wealth of India
and hence to explore it, he visited India with caravan of merchants and
gradually learned the religious scriptures as well as Buddhist teachings. From
the northern land of Kashmir, he visited cities viz. Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh),
Jagannath Puri (Orissa) and other regions. Jesus learned new dimensions of
philosophy: vaidic philosophy, and perfected in Yoga (which is said to have
helped him survive crucifixion). He was able to perceive spirituality with a
fair view, and after living here for six
years, Jesus returned to his land to share the enlightenment he received, with
his people. In his findings, Notovitch also stated that Jesus returned secretly
to Kashmir after resurrection and
lived in a monastery surrounded by many disciples.
Although, Notovitch had been discredited in Europe, Swami Abhedanand, a contemporary and colleague of Swami Vivekanand, visited the Hemis monastery in 1922 to confirm the reports of Notovich. The lamas at the monastery confirmed Notovich's visit. They further told him that the manuscript on Jesus Christ was shown to Notovich and contents interpreted so that he could translate them into Russian.
The original manuscript was said to be in Pali in the monastery of Marbour near Lhasa. The manuscript preserved at Hemis was in Tibetan. Swami Abhedananda himself was shown the manuscript, which had 14 chapters containing 223 couplets (slokas).
Though
to some the above stated may look hypothetical, but Swami Abhedanand's visit provide substance to Notovitch's claim. Even the parallels drawn between
Jesus’ preaching, and Indian philosophy (both vedic & Buddhism) cannot be
discarded. And this all doesn’t degrade Jesus, but actually provide
more authenticity to his legend, for the sublime persona he was.
The mentioning of Jesus brings us to December 25th that is celebrated every year to
commemorate Jesus' birth anniversary. Though the festival is purely Christian,
but it is celebrated all around the world with absolute festivity, by the
followers of other religions alike. Christmas is the festival of remembering
Christ, his sermons and messages. Prayers are held in churches, Christmas
carols are sung with exhilaration; families get together and feast together,
while the elders present their younger ones with gifts.
Christmas
is one of the most jocundly celebrated festivals, especially among the children
who wait all year long, for their dear Santa. Santa Claus is a benign figure
who is known to bring gifts to children who behave well all year. His legend is
inspired from Saint Nicholas, a noble bishop who was famous for his generosity.
Santa Claus’s legend is also said to
have been inspired from Norse God, Odin and Father Christmas of England.
Santa Claus is said to have been
living in the North Pole, where he prepares gifts with the help from elves. He
is depicted as a portly, joyous, white bearded man, wearing a red coat with
white fur collar and cuffs. However, the locale and appearance of Santa has
some astonishing similarities with an Indian deity, who too is famous for his
generosity, Kuber. Guardian of the Northern and treasurer of the devas, Kuber
is believed to have based in the North Pole and is depicted as fair complexioned,
pot-bellied man with opulent wealth that he shares with the deserving, makes
Santa his western equivalent. Whatever the truth behind the similarities of
legend may be, the noble message behind the festivals must always be cherished
with positivity.
The month of December gave us
an unforgettable reason to cheer. We are discussing western legends and their not so coincidental linkage with Bharat; Science
Channel, an American digital cable and satellite television network that is
owned by Discovery Communications, recently posted a video that showed images
by a NASA satellite, and according to the investigation the bridge is a
line of rocks that stretched around 30 miles from India to Sri Lanka. The
bigger picture; they finally accepted that it's man-made. Again, confirming the
authenticity of the epic, Ramayan.
Recently, on my another blog, I posted on the vaanars' journey towards southern in search of Devi Sita and you would be amazed to know that the many of the locations that Sugreeve mentioned then, are still relevant, can be identified in today's geography. I invite you to visit my blog and explore the wondrous:
We as Indians, have always believed in the ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ philosophy
of our Sanatan Dharm, which means the world is one family. And as we learned
some astonishing facts (Jesus in India, Kuber & Santa, Ram-Setu), we can
presume the worldly origins start from the land of Aryavart.
2018 has arrived and may this new year bring loads of smiles and cheers for you; stay good, stay blessed and help those who are really in need of it 🙂.
See
you next month.
'सियाराम'
[Visit my website: www.srirom.in to access my social profiles]
'सियाराम'
[Visit my website: www.srirom.in to access my social profiles]
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