By Nandagopal Jivana das (Narender Nolakha)
I first told him that there is no such word like Hindu ever mentioned anywhere in the Vedic (otherwise called "HINDU") Sastras. And then I told him that we should never doubt the divinity of Jesus Christ. Srila Prabhupada recognized Lord Jesus Christ as "the son of God, Krsna, His representative." Srila Prabhupada further said that because Jesus was preaching the message of Godhead, he is our Guru…our spiritual master. Jesus was preaching Krishna's or God's Message according to time, place and circumstances. He was a Saktya-avesh Avatara i.e. a living entity especially empowered by Lord.
Once a Christian Father asked Srila Prabhupada that if he has seen Jesus in Vaikuntha? Prabhupada replied with a heavy tone that 'YES, I have. When you'll come there, I'll fix a meeting with him for you….!!!!'
His Teachings
Jesus preached in a way that can also be compared to the sayings of Krishna. For example, In Bhagavad-Gita (7.6-7) Krishna said, "I am the cause of the whole universe, through Me it is created and dissolved; all things are dependent on Me as pearls are strung on a thread." Jesus said, "Of Him and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made."(John 1.3) Krishna had said (BG 4.7), "For the establishment of righteousness I am born from time to time." This compares to Jesus in John 18.37, wherein he says, "Thou sayest that I am a King, to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice." These and many other comparisons can be made.
Jesus preached the Vedic teachings but being an Acharya, he molded them according to the time, place and circumstances. By studying the teachings that are ascribed to Jesus, we can easily recognize that the essence of what Jesus taught was an elementary level of the Vedic Process of Bhakti-yoga and Karma-yoga. Both of these systems are much more deeply developed and elaborated in the Vedic Texts, and more fully explained in the Vedic Texts, and more fully explained by many of India's Acharyas.
Bhakti means devotion and surrender to God. As stated in Matthew (22.36-40):
"Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? He answered, Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. That is the greatest commandment. It comes first. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. Everything in the law and the prophets hangs on these two commandments." These two rules are the heart of the processes of Bhakti-yoga & Karma-yoga.
In this way, Jesus taught people the most basic portions of God's law and gave the most simple commandments, such as "Thou shalt not kill," and "Thou shalt not steal," and so on. This is the sign of the kind of people Jesus was dealing with. They were very primitive and had to be taught the most basic of spiritual knowledge. Obviously, one cannot comprehend advanced spiritual topics if he or she does not have any understanding of simple moral values. Therefore, Jesus was very limited in what he could teach the people of that era. As Jesus said, (St, John 16.12-13, 25):"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he'll guide you into the truth: for he shall not speak of himself: but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak: and he'll show you things to come . . . These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly the Father."
Thus, Jesus could not reveal the whole truth to the people of that era, but promised that there would be a time when the whole truth would be open to everyone. But whether the people accept it or not is another thing.
So, Prabhus any guesses what time in future is Jesus is talking about when the whole truth will be open to everyone??
Of course, it's not clear but as a follower of Srila Prabhupada, we take it as a hint for the appearance of Srila Prabhupada who would open the eyes of the millions of people which were closed due to darkness. He would take the torch of Knowledge and tell the truth to everyone…as Jesus is saying he would say what God tells him to say.
Srila Prabhupada's appearance predicted in the Holy Bible..!!!??
Why so??
Because we all are sons of same god, Krishna (or Vishnu)….it is He who speaks either directly or through his bonafide representatives in different languages and different places and in different scriptures. Whether we call him Allah or Yahweh or Visnu or Rama or Krsna or Buddha, He is same personality. And there are many correlations between descriptions of Yahweh in the Bible and Visnu in the Vedic literature. Few of them are as follows:
· Yahweh's voice is described to be like thunder (Job 40.9); Visnu has a voice like thunder (SB 4.30.7).
· Yahweh is described as having a rod (club) and a staff (Psalms 23.4, or 89.32); and it is well-known that Visnu, depending upon which expansions He manifests, has a club (SB 6.4.39) and a trident (4.30.7).
· A fire is sent by Yahweh to burn up His enemies (Psalms 97.3, or 50.3; also see Deut. 9.3); the chakra of Visnu is as destructive as the fire of devastation and burns His enemies to ashes (SB 6.8.23).
· Yahweh, at times, carries a shield (Deut. 33.29; Psalms 84.11); so does Visnu (SB 6.4.39).
· Yahweh rides upon a cherub (means Garuda in Jewish Encyclopedia) and Visnu also rides on Garudaji…Both concepts of God include bird-like carriers!!
The comparisons are endless…The central point to understand is that when we talk of Krsna, or Visnu, or Yahweh, we talk of the same Supreme Lord. In this way, we can see that the essence of Christianity is the basic teachings of the Vedic Philosophy.
Was Jesus Killed or Crucified???
Srila Bhaktisiddantha Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada used to say that Lord Jesus was a Vaisnava. And we can find the two most important qualities of Vaisnava in him (of course he had all the twenty six) i.e. titiksa (tolerance) and karuna (compassion. He was so tolerant that even while he was being crucified, he didn't condemn anyone. And he was so compassionate that he prayed to God to forgive the very persons who were trying to kill him. As Christ was being crucified he prayed, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they are doing."
Srila Prabhupada explains that no body could actually kill Jesus. He writes that as Jesus was the son of God and Krishna is God, so he was Krishna's son. But because they were thinking that he could be killed that's why they committed a great offence.
Thakura Bhaktivinode writes:
"He reasons ill who tells that Vaisnavas die
When thou art living still in sound!
The Vaisnavas die to live, and living,
try to spread the holy name around!"
Recently a book named "The Jesus Papers" was released in London a famous writer Michael Baigent. The book says that there is evidence that Christ survived the crucifixion and that his death was faked as a cover to allow him to escape his enemies. Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator of Judaea who sentenced him to death, is said to have aided and abetted the mock execution because Jesus had told the Jews to pay their taxes. Writer Baigent says, "I think the crucifixion was set up to remove a particular political problem which both Pilate and Jesus found themselves in."
He argues that Pilate needed to appease the mob which was calling for Jesus's death. Baigent added: "All that Rome required was taxes were paid. Because Jesus had urged his followers to pay their taxes, Pilate had an incentive to let him live.… Suddenly he couldn't execute this man but he had to get him out of the way because he wanted peace in Judaea."
Buried in the text of the original Greek Bible, Baigent says, is an important clue. When Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate and asks for Jesus's body to take it down from the cross, he asks for the "soma" of Jesus meaning the living body, rather than "ptoma" meaning corpse. After recuperating, Jesus and his wife traveled to the Upper Egypt and taught mystical lore. Later they traveled the whole world.Baigent also claims he has discovered information about a mysterious document that purports to provide evidence that Jesus was alive in AD45, more than a decade after the accepted date for the crime. It was seen by Alfred Lilley, canon at Hereford Cathedral, at a church in Paris in the 1890s but later vanished. Baigent believes it now rests in the Vatican.
There is evidence, however, as more facts are being uncovered, that contends that Jesus may have been nailed to the cross but did not die on it. After having been taken from the cross, he later recovered from the ordeal rather than rose from the dead. The shroud of Turin, if it is authentic (which has been a great debate by itself), seems to provide some evidence that Jesus was not dead when taken from the cross since his body was still bleeding while wrapped in the cloth. Even if Christ did appear to die on the cross, being a yogic master, he could have put himself into trance to be revived later. This goes on even today with yogis in India or fakirs in Egypt who can appear to die, be buried for hours, days, months, or sometimes years, and then be uncovered and resurrected from their apparent death.Even the Holy Koran (4.157-158) in the sura "An-Nisa" or "The Women" states:
"That they said, 'We killed Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah.'But they killed him not, nor crucified him. Only a likeness of that was shown to them. And those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof. They have no knowledge thereof but only conjecture to follow. They kill him not for sure. But Allah took him up unto himself. Allah is Mighty, Wise."
Some of the early Christian sects did not believe that Christ was killed on the Cross. The Gospel of St. Peter states that Barabas was crucified instead of Jesus. The Basilidans believed that someone else was substituted for Christ. There is also evidence that after the crucifixion Jesus traveled through Turkey, Persia, and then India.
Furthermore, the Maha Bhavishya Purana, dating back to more than 3000 B.C. and compiled by Srila Vyasadeva, a literary incarnation of God, also described the future coming of Jesus and his activities. The Purana tells how Jesus would visit the Himalayas and do penance to acquire spiritual maturity under the guidance of the sages and siddha-yogis of India. As the name suggests, the Purana besides describing the future events of Kali-Yuga, also predicted that Jesus would be born of an unmarried woman (a virgin), Kumari (Mari or Mary) Garbha Sambhava, and would first go to India when he was 13 years old and visit many Holy places. This was his spiritual training in a time of his life of which the gospels are totally ignorant.
Hare Krishna!
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