Posted on 12/18/2004 5:54:58 PM PST by nickcarraway
The three wise men who came to worship the Christ child hailed from India and named him Isa, or "Lord" in Sanskrit - a name that became Jesus in the Bible.
Later, Jesus travelled to India, where he practiced yoga meditation with the great sages some time during his "lost years" from age 13 to 30, a time of his life scarcely mentioned in the Bible.
As Christians immerse themselves in the Advent season to prepare for Christmas, such assertions might sound like blasphemy or pure fantasy. But they come from a renowned Indian guru, the late Paramahansa Yogananda, in a newly published work that is being praised as the first detailed interpretation of the four Gospels by a Hindu.
Compiled from decades of Yogananda's speeches and writings, the book is being published by his Los Angeles-based Self-Realisation Fellowship 52 years after his death.
The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of Christ Within You, offers startling ideas about the deeper meaning of Jesus's teachings and their essential unity with yoga.
AdvertisementAt 1642 pages, the intricate discourse on various Gospel passages is not expected to be a bestseller.
But it has been praised as a groundbreaking work by scholars.
Robert Ellwood, a University of Southern California professor emeritus and world religion expert, called it a "bridge-building book" that could change the way people see Jesus.
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There are at least 18 years unaccounted for in the Gospels. The prevalence of foreign influences could well have brought such practices to Jerusalem and maybe to the attention of Jesus. I have an orthodox Jewish friend who practices tai chi and doesn't seem to see any conflict even though there are Buddhist roots to tai chi. It may be so and it's at least an entertaining idea.
Gee that's almost as wacky as the belief that Jesus came to America and preached to the Indians, oops! he says, running from open can O worms.
"My yoga is easy. . . ."
interesting.. thanks for the link.
You ever hear of soma? It was a drug used by the ancient people who seem to have been responsible for writing down the Upanishads (Hindu sacred scriptures that are really, really old).
These people found that the sacred mushroom with soma simply didn't exist in the Indian Subcontinent so they turned to other hallucinogenic drugs. Their mode of worship was quite interesting.
One branch of Pentecostal belief in America and Scandinavia is associated with Sa'ami (Laplander) beliefs that center on the use of amanita muscaria. This mushroom has been identified as being the source of the ancient soma.
The snake handlers, of course, derive their beliefs from ancient practices more closely associated with the Roma (Gypsies) than with any other group, and, of course, they too come originally from India (circa 1400). The Roma speak a language that is a cognate of ancient Sanskrit, which was the successor language to the Dravidian language in which the Upanishads were first written. The Dravidian languages are related to Sa'ami and Sumerian.
Yoga derives from an entirely different tradition, has nothing to do with soma, and wasn't invented by the Gypsies, Sumerians or Sa'ami. For the most part it is simply exercise.
A friend of mine does combine it with worship. He frequently stands on his head in an inverted lotus position while he focuses on a picture of Lord Krishna as a child ~ my friend does not play the flute, but if he could, he would because he and I know, as do most people, that music is the only pathway to an alterated state of consciousness.
He also practices yoga as a form of exercise!
Exactly... This is why all Hindus should convert to Christianity.
Could be worse. We could have every thread "OK This is how Kerry is going to win" alternated with "OK this is how we can impeach Bush."
Oh, boy!! Just what we Christians have been needing! An interpretation of our Gospels by a heathen!
yoga is fun as exerise. I don't find it incompatable with chritianity.
Yes, thank you - and the belief that Jesus traveled to or near India has been around for a looooooooong time, and has come from a variety of sources.
Alexander the Great brought Hindu Brahmin back from India. Hindu influences are seen among the Greek, Jewish and Middle Eastern cultures and beliefs.
It is part of the Lost Years of Jesus as many others have already intimated..
Whether there is any truth to the stories must be left up to the individual..
There was a book called, I believe, "The Jesus Conspiracy" circa 1966-69 or so..( or Conspiracies ) that covered the lost years as part of the whole life of Jesus..
It intimated ( or just flat out claimed as fact ) that upon reaching age 12, and due to the "incident at the temple with the Elders" it was decided that Jesus should enter the preisthood.. and therefore, should recieve a sound education in comparative religions..
Jesus was "apprenticed" to an uncle, Joseph of Arimathea.. ( same one, supplied the crypt ) and that J of A was a travelling merchant.. a far travelling merchant..
That Jesus travelled to England, learned mystic secrets from the Celts and the Druids, and upon returning from his first travels continued into the east..
He travelled through Greece, Persia, India, and into Tibet, possibly even farther east..
It was purported that he not only learned and mastered the highest teachings of those religions, but mastered certain "techniques" of Yoga, meditation, mental and physical self-control, that others spent entire lifetimes attempting to achieve without success..
Thus, he was able to control breathe, heartbeat, temperature, even perception of time..
Likewise, he learned various medicinal secrets, and techniques of self-defense.. ( martial artists like to point out his walking through a crowd of attackers without being touched as a prime example of AIKIDO..)
Also, examples of possible use of pain management techniques, hypnotism, the medical knowledge to bring people back from the dead, and of course, his own resurrection..
The book purported that Jesus engineered his own crucifixion, and the timing...
Due to the Passover holiday, Jesus had to be removed from the cross at sundown..
With his extensive training in eastern religion, he was able to survive the crucifixion and "revive" himself in a burial crypt.. Provided by his own Uncle, who he knew and trusted as a family member..
The book also contends that, having survived his ordeal, Jesus went on to claim his right to the Maccabee line of succession and his place as king of Israel..
Jesus then led several violent revolts against the Romans, but eventually died in battle, either in one of the final battles, or at Masada, taking his own life along with the others that died just before the seige on the mountain fortress ended..
There may have been an alternative concerning Mary Magdelene and moving to Europe with their child, ( the whole Bible Code thing..) but I may be imagining that.. ( I have seen that story too many times to trust my memory on where I saw it first...)
This is not necessarilly my belief, but it was quite a book, and presented quite an entertaining speculation, if nothing else..
Paramahansa Yogananda was/is a divinely sparked soul. His writings brought me back to Christianity many years ago. "Autobiography of a Yogi" is his story.
Sheesh, I hold a black in Kenpo and my son in TKD. I guess we're satanic too. ')
This wild stuff was widespread in the couple centuries after the Crucifixion. There is not much new to the stories although the stories are new to every generation.
The man was more full of it than the mythical Baron Munchausen (Roerich, I mean) yet somehow he managed to wander over an incredibly dangerous part of the world in an extremely violent time and make an outrageous pest of himself yet somehow avoid arrest and/or execution and always garner publicity and sponsorship among the high and mighty. He is forgotten now, except among the New Agers, but he was once paraded through Manhattan, received by President Herbert Hoover, and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. His highest-placed devotee and acolyte was none other than Henry Wallace, FDR's Vice President, Secy of Ag. and Truman's fired Secretary of Commerce. Roerich is widely suspected of influencing Wallace's design of the one-dollar bill's Great Seal (take that, Nicholas Cage!).
Roerich did a great deal to popularize Eastern Mysticism and his works were likely the source material for James Hilton's 1933 bestselling novel Lost Horizon. He first made a name for himself as a set designer in his native St. Petersburg. He was a pretty good painter and I recommend his (art)works highly. Peace out.
BTTT
People gullible enough to buy the book, maybe.
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