India has always been the land of knowledge. It has been for thousands of years. Even Jesus studied in India. That Jesus studied in India is no secret, it is an accepted and documented fact well known to the Indians, which is slowly gathering more support in the west due to the number of books and films written on the subject. Asking the Essene elders where to learn the truth about knowledge, and the knowledge of truth, Jesus was told 'India'.
Wanting to understand the truth of the human being, and our relationship with the creation, one has got to go to India. India is where the knowledge of who we are as human beings has always been kept alive. Kept alive by oral traditions, Alexander the Great immersed himself in India's knowledge, taking back as much as he could with him to Greece. Plato, Pythagorus, and others in Greece all acknowledged India as the home of knowledge, not only of mathematics but of philosophical ideas and religion too.
So this leads one to question: Should we be concerned about the future of India's traditions of knowledge or not?
The knowledge we are talking about is The Sanatan or Sananatana Dharma. These words Sanatan Dharma mean the eternal culture of mankind or the eternal culture that is mankind. The Sanatana Dharma therefore is not an institution. Accordingly, Sanatan Dharma, thought being eternal means no one system of thought can be said to represent truth. All systems of thought therefore are accepted as different systems of knowledge dealing with the same subject: mankind. Buddhism, Vedanta, Samkhya, Shaivism, Vaisnavism, Tantra, Advaita, Dvaita and all religions Jainism, Christianity, Judaism, Muslim religions, Suffism, all are accepted and are seen as forming part of the Sanatan Dharma.
Another tradition in India is the tradition of debating the truth. Buddhism although originating in India - (Buddha was an Indian) - disappeared from India around 2500 years ago. Do you know why? It was removed as a result of a debate between a buddhist monk, and the renowned Indian philosopher Adi Shankara. In Shankara's time, if you lost a debate on truth, you had to accept the other persons point of view, or take your own life. It is curious that in buddhism, Buddha who never even believed in god, is made out to be a god. Buddhism which flourished in India during the days of Ashoka, a great ruler, resulted in a world famous university of Buddhism being built called Nalanda, near Bhodgaya. Although being driven from India, buddhism had already begun flourishing in the rest of Asia, which accounts for its popularity in other parts of the world. It is only recently as a result of Tibetans being forced to flee into exile in India by the Chinese occupation of Tibet, that Tibetan Buddhism has found its way back into India.
This traditional acceptance on the one hand of another's religious ideals, or secular beliefs and points of view, at the same time acknowledges the same one source of all mans ideas.
So as a young man of 14 or so, this is the world a young Jesus would have stepped into as he set off to learn and study the truth in India. The period of his life we are talking about is from the age of 14-30, an important time in anyones life, which is mysteriously missing and not mentioned in any of the biblical texts.
His studies first took him to a small monastery town called Hemis in the district of Leh, Ladak, in northern India, where it is said he studied until he was 21. At 21 he moved on from Leh to Puri - Orissa, on the east coast of India. Here he studied teachings on Vedanta in the shadow of Jagganath Temple, the largest temple on earth at the time, which is where we get our english word 'juggernaut'. It was in Puri that Jesus first got himself into hot water. In Puri, the priests who were his teachers scolded him for sharing his knowledge of vedanta with the lower caste sudras of the neighborhood. Jesus however apparently argued that there is no difference between human beings, and questioned the priests on the whole caste issue, which resulted in them literally threatening to take his life if he persisted, so he had to leave town in a hurry. You don't want to be on the wrong side of a group of Indians chasing you in anger.
It is not quite clear where he went from there, but opinion has it that he moved south to Tamil Nadu, because it is in Tamil Nadu that he would have learnt the tricks of the trade like feeding the 5000, raising the dead, healing the sick, and walking on water, miracles still known and witnessed today in Tamil Nadu. Jesus then re-appeared in Nepal where an ashram formed around him, and he was expected to stay, however later evidence points to him being in Varanasi where he sojourned briefly. Varanasi was THE PLACE to go in those days if you wanted to make your name as a debater, and teacher. After leaving Varanasi he took his original route home leaving India by way of Ladak, revisiting his old monastery, and then going through Kashmir, where he joined the silk route home again through Persia to Israel.
Jesus mission in the west lasted only 2 1/2 years, starting at the age of 30 on his return to Israel, and ending two and a half years later aged 32 and a half. In the west, on hearing his teachings on Vedanta which he'd received in India, what did we do? We beat the shit out of him, and hung him up on a tree. Why? Because as individuals we abhor the truth, and as a society in the west, we seem unable to abide the truth. Jesus however made one big mistake. In sharing his teachings he failed to acknowledge the true source of his knowledge. In all traditions of knowledge it is customary to acknowledge the source of your understanding and learning, whether it be as a mathematician, a scientist, biologist, or even in one understanding of how to spell ones name. That Jesus decided not to do this is questionable. Whoever lifts our ignorance on a subject, in the case of vedanta the subject being ones own ignorance of oneself as the truth, that person and tradition are generally acknowledged. Especially in the case of ones understanding of oneself. To be able to say 'I and my father are one.' can come only from someone being exposed to a tradition of knowledge, knowing and understanding himself, otherwise no one can know this. This is not rocket science but pretty straight forward stuff if you understand that 'father' and creation are one and the same. Father is none other than, and can only be the 'Creation' which is none other than the 'Creator' Him/Herself- which because we all form part of the creation, we are all inseparably part of, it being impossible for us and the Creation to ever be separate. This means we too are all one with the Father! Try to be separate! Try to absent yourself from the creation or Creator for that matter. It doesn't work! HE or SHE is stuck with us!
Ironically this is the one sentence that not only got Jesus into trouble with the priests, resulting in his subsequent crucifixion, but it is also arguably the sentence that has become the very corner stone of the faith that has since developed around him. Of course it can also be argued that the entire body of Jesus work and teachings is misinterpreted, having been grossly misrepresented, and manipulated for the sake of those whose business it is to benefit and profit from religion.
Asking my teachers what they thought about Jesus one replied, 'Jesus made the mistake of personalizing this knowledge - putting his name on it.' while another said, 'Well none of us has really been that stupid as to get ourselves killed for this knowledge.'
Not much has really changed since then except now, the religion which has since formed around Jesus has become well established in India primarily through Jesus' brother Thomas, whose mission started soon after the crucifixion, and whose remains are still to be found in a church in Chennai. The christian mission is still busy establishing itself and promoting christianity aggressively throughout India.
In Goa the Portuguese tried hard to establish christianity through persecution. The Goan persecution makes the persecution of europe look like child's play with persecution going on in Goa for over 35 years. The british missionaries later tried hard to establish christianity in Calcutta with only 20 converts in over 40 years. Only after the british occupation in India did the british succeed in establishing christianity through education in schools. It is interesting to note that the original department of sanskrit at Oxford University was set up in order to translate the bible into sanskrit, feeling this would be the way to finally convert Indians. Thankfully the sanskrit bible never materialized.
The fact that Sonja Ghandi, arguably the most powerful person in India and apparently the tenth most powerful woman in the world is not only christian, but is not even Indian, does not seem to worry Indians. An Italian by birth Mrs Ghandi married Rajiv Ghandi after meeting him while waitressing in a restaurant in Cambridge England, and the rest is history.
Curiously if one opens a Hindu school in a tribal area of India where education is direly needed, you have to wade through months of documentation and red tape, but if you're opening a christian school, you can virtually start right away. The current drive in India by the christian organizations of the west to convert christians is a cause for alarm, as it has resulted in conflict in some areas. Recently in a rural tribal area of Orissa, christians murdered an Indian Swami who questioned and cautioned them on the killing and eating of cattle.
I find it curious how India, which is where the christian teachings originated, is happily importing christianity. The knowledge is Indian, why would India ever want to re-import a watered down simplistic version of its own knowledge?
Children in tribal areas are brain washed and unfairly indoctrinated by christians who are using unethical tactics to influence the children at their christian schools. Driving home from school in the school's bus the driver will fake a break down, and ask the children to 'Sing to your God!' and when children innocently sing to Lord Krishna or some other hindu god when nothing happens - (basically he wont start the bus) he says 'Ok. Now sing to Jesus.' and immediately after singing to Jesus he will start the bus. Another tactic used by the schools is when a child is ill, they will give the child a powder supposedly from their traditional temple and say, 'See, this is the medicine of your god. Swallow it and see if it makes you feel better'. And when he or she comes back the next day and doesn't feel better, they say 'Here try this', and give the child an asprin 'This is the medicine of Jesus, now go home and see if you feel better.'
Succumbing to fast food and the modern culture of franchising, Indians have become grossly overweight, and becoming diabetic. Eating western foods and proudly sporting Levis, Nike and Reebok which are available on every street corner all over India, India is foregoing its traditional clothing and rituals preferring the lure of modern fashion, technology and the internet. Even divorce which was virtually unknown until a few years ago, after being widely rejected has become acceptable in the big modern cities like Mumbai, and Delhi. A 5000 year old tradition I happen to know personally is having difficulty persuading the young heir apparent to take up his responsibilities, because he prefers spending his time on his computer and the internet, while texting his mates on his cell phone.
As the currents of west and east merge into what is modern 21st century culture, India's modern industrial revolution finds an India groping for health. Dropping its ancient Ayurvedic and Siddha medical heritage, while eating foods that never existed in Indian culture before (chillies were an import from the Portuguese as were both the brinjal and the tomato) - Indians are hypnotized into believing in modern western allopathic cures, and addicted to drinking copious amounts of tea (chai) daily.
It is interesting to note one of Ghandi's comments on the departure of the British from India:
''They may be leaving, but they have left their tea behind to kill us".
Wanting to understand the truth of the human being, and our relationship with the creation, one has got to go to India. India is where the knowledge of who we are as human beings has always been kept alive. Kept alive by oral traditions, Alexander the Great immersed himself in India's knowledge, taking back as much as he could with him to Greece. Plato, Pythagorus, and others in Greece all acknowledged India as the home of knowledge, not only of mathematics but of philosophical ideas and religion too.
So this leads one to question: Should we be concerned about the future of India's traditions of knowledge or not?
The knowledge we are talking about is The Sanatan or Sananatana Dharma. These words Sanatan Dharma mean the eternal culture of mankind or the eternal culture that is mankind. The Sanatana Dharma therefore is not an institution. Accordingly, Sanatan Dharma, thought being eternal means no one system of thought can be said to represent truth. All systems of thought therefore are accepted as different systems of knowledge dealing with the same subject: mankind. Buddhism, Vedanta, Samkhya, Shaivism, Vaisnavism, Tantra, Advaita, Dvaita and all religions Jainism, Christianity, Judaism, Muslim religions, Suffism, all are accepted and are seen as forming part of the Sanatan Dharma.
Another tradition in India is the tradition of debating the truth. Buddhism although originating in India - (Buddha was an Indian) - disappeared from India around 2500 years ago. Do you know why? It was removed as a result of a debate between a buddhist monk, and the renowned Indian philosopher Adi Shankara. In Shankara's time, if you lost a debate on truth, you had to accept the other persons point of view, or take your own life. It is curious that in buddhism, Buddha who never even believed in god, is made out to be a god. Buddhism which flourished in India during the days of Ashoka, a great ruler, resulted in a world famous university of Buddhism being built called Nalanda, near Bhodgaya. Although being driven from India, buddhism had already begun flourishing in the rest of Asia, which accounts for its popularity in other parts of the world. It is only recently as a result of Tibetans being forced to flee into exile in India by the Chinese occupation of Tibet, that Tibetan Buddhism has found its way back into India.
This traditional acceptance on the one hand of another's religious ideals, or secular beliefs and points of view, at the same time acknowledges the same one source of all mans ideas.
So as a young man of 14 or so, this is the world a young Jesus would have stepped into as he set off to learn and study the truth in India. The period of his life we are talking about is from the age of 14-30, an important time in anyones life, which is mysteriously missing and not mentioned in any of the biblical texts.
His studies first took him to a small monastery town called Hemis in the district of Leh, Ladak, in northern India, where it is said he studied until he was 21. At 21 he moved on from Leh to Puri - Orissa, on the east coast of India. Here he studied teachings on Vedanta in the shadow of Jagganath Temple, the largest temple on earth at the time, which is where we get our english word 'juggernaut'. It was in Puri that Jesus first got himself into hot water. In Puri, the priests who were his teachers scolded him for sharing his knowledge of vedanta with the lower caste sudras of the neighborhood. Jesus however apparently argued that there is no difference between human beings, and questioned the priests on the whole caste issue, which resulted in them literally threatening to take his life if he persisted, so he had to leave town in a hurry. You don't want to be on the wrong side of a group of Indians chasing you in anger.
It is not quite clear where he went from there, but opinion has it that he moved south to Tamil Nadu, because it is in Tamil Nadu that he would have learnt the tricks of the trade like feeding the 5000, raising the dead, healing the sick, and walking on water, miracles still known and witnessed today in Tamil Nadu. Jesus then re-appeared in Nepal where an ashram formed around him, and he was expected to stay, however later evidence points to him being in Varanasi where he sojourned briefly. Varanasi was THE PLACE to go in those days if you wanted to make your name as a debater, and teacher. After leaving Varanasi he took his original route home leaving India by way of Ladak, revisiting his old monastery, and then going through Kashmir, where he joined the silk route home again through Persia to Israel.
Jesus mission in the west lasted only 2 1/2 years, starting at the age of 30 on his return to Israel, and ending two and a half years later aged 32 and a half. In the west, on hearing his teachings on Vedanta which he'd received in India, what did we do? We beat the shit out of him, and hung him up on a tree. Why? Because as individuals we abhor the truth, and as a society in the west, we seem unable to abide the truth. Jesus however made one big mistake. In sharing his teachings he failed to acknowledge the true source of his knowledge. In all traditions of knowledge it is customary to acknowledge the source of your understanding and learning, whether it be as a mathematician, a scientist, biologist, or even in one understanding of how to spell ones name. That Jesus decided not to do this is questionable. Whoever lifts our ignorance on a subject, in the case of vedanta the subject being ones own ignorance of oneself as the truth, that person and tradition are generally acknowledged. Especially in the case of ones understanding of oneself. To be able to say 'I and my father are one.' can come only from someone being exposed to a tradition of knowledge, knowing and understanding himself, otherwise no one can know this. This is not rocket science but pretty straight forward stuff if you understand that 'father' and creation are one and the same. Father is none other than, and can only be the 'Creation' which is none other than the 'Creator' Him/Herself- which because we all form part of the creation, we are all inseparably part of, it being impossible for us and the Creation to ever be separate. This means we too are all one with the Father! Try to be separate! Try to absent yourself from the creation or Creator for that matter. It doesn't work! HE or SHE is stuck with us!
Ironically this is the one sentence that not only got Jesus into trouble with the priests, resulting in his subsequent crucifixion, but it is also arguably the sentence that has become the very corner stone of the faith that has since developed around him. Of course it can also be argued that the entire body of Jesus work and teachings is misinterpreted, having been grossly misrepresented, and manipulated for the sake of those whose business it is to benefit and profit from religion.
Asking my teachers what they thought about Jesus one replied, 'Jesus made the mistake of personalizing this knowledge - putting his name on it.' while another said, 'Well none of us has really been that stupid as to get ourselves killed for this knowledge.'
Not much has really changed since then except now, the religion which has since formed around Jesus has become well established in India primarily through Jesus' brother Thomas, whose mission started soon after the crucifixion, and whose remains are still to be found in a church in Chennai. The christian mission is still busy establishing itself and promoting christianity aggressively throughout India.
In Goa the Portuguese tried hard to establish christianity through persecution. The Goan persecution makes the persecution of europe look like child's play with persecution going on in Goa for over 35 years. The british missionaries later tried hard to establish christianity in Calcutta with only 20 converts in over 40 years. Only after the british occupation in India did the british succeed in establishing christianity through education in schools. It is interesting to note that the original department of sanskrit at Oxford University was set up in order to translate the bible into sanskrit, feeling this would be the way to finally convert Indians. Thankfully the sanskrit bible never materialized.
The fact that Sonja Ghandi, arguably the most powerful person in India and apparently the tenth most powerful woman in the world is not only christian, but is not even Indian, does not seem to worry Indians. An Italian by birth Mrs Ghandi married Rajiv Ghandi after meeting him while waitressing in a restaurant in Cambridge England, and the rest is history.
Curiously if one opens a Hindu school in a tribal area of India where education is direly needed, you have to wade through months of documentation and red tape, but if you're opening a christian school, you can virtually start right away. The current drive in India by the christian organizations of the west to convert christians is a cause for alarm, as it has resulted in conflict in some areas. Recently in a rural tribal area of Orissa, christians murdered an Indian Swami who questioned and cautioned them on the killing and eating of cattle.
I find it curious how India, which is where the christian teachings originated, is happily importing christianity. The knowledge is Indian, why would India ever want to re-import a watered down simplistic version of its own knowledge?
Children in tribal areas are brain washed and unfairly indoctrinated by christians who are using unethical tactics to influence the children at their christian schools. Driving home from school in the school's bus the driver will fake a break down, and ask the children to 'Sing to your God!' and when children innocently sing to Lord Krishna or some other hindu god when nothing happens - (basically he wont start the bus) he says 'Ok. Now sing to Jesus.' and immediately after singing to Jesus he will start the bus. Another tactic used by the schools is when a child is ill, they will give the child a powder supposedly from their traditional temple and say, 'See, this is the medicine of your god. Swallow it and see if it makes you feel better'. And when he or she comes back the next day and doesn't feel better, they say 'Here try this', and give the child an asprin 'This is the medicine of Jesus, now go home and see if you feel better.'
Succumbing to fast food and the modern culture of franchising, Indians have become grossly overweight, and becoming diabetic. Eating western foods and proudly sporting Levis, Nike and Reebok which are available on every street corner all over India, India is foregoing its traditional clothing and rituals preferring the lure of modern fashion, technology and the internet. Even divorce which was virtually unknown until a few years ago, after being widely rejected has become acceptable in the big modern cities like Mumbai, and Delhi. A 5000 year old tradition I happen to know personally is having difficulty persuading the young heir apparent to take up his responsibilities, because he prefers spending his time on his computer and the internet, while texting his mates on his cell phone.
As the currents of west and east merge into what is modern 21st century culture, India's modern industrial revolution finds an India groping for health. Dropping its ancient Ayurvedic and Siddha medical heritage, while eating foods that never existed in Indian culture before (chillies were an import from the Portuguese as were both the brinjal and the tomato) - Indians are hypnotized into believing in modern western allopathic cures, and addicted to drinking copious amounts of tea (chai) daily.
It is interesting to note one of Ghandi's comments on the departure of the British from India:
''They may be leaving, but they have left their tea behind to kill us".
