courtesy Sampradaya Sun
"I'm sure the Orthodox Church thought they had that book buried a long time ago," Richard Bock told me as he handed over a copy of The Unknown Life of Christ. His interest in the lost years of Jesus began with this travel diary recorded in 1887 by Nicolas Notovitch, a Russian doctor who journeyed extensively throughout Afghanistan, India, and Tibet.
Nicolas Notovitch
Dick Bock took the same tour in 1975 and produced a documentary film on the lost years. It includes impressive testimony by John C. Trevor, director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project, and a nuclear physicist named Ralph Graeber. But the most convincing evidence comes from a little Buddhist monk who appears halfway through the film.
"Lord Jesus..." The old man shows one particularly shiny tooth as he speaks. His voice is high, like a tiny child.
I remember the impact of seeing a character like that on camera. I looked at his dark face, his saffron robe, and all those grimacing gods with too many heads and arms and legs. And I wondered how such a man could whisper with so much reverence the holy name of Jesus.
"... Lord Jesus was in India during what are known as the lost years of Jesus," he reports.
The Bible records Jesus age twelve in the temple. Then age thirty at the river Jordan. That leaves eighteen years unaccounted for. But in India? It was hard to imagine my carpenter-of-Nazareth Jesus bathing in the Ganges, for instance.
"Lhasa." The monk describes inhospitable territory that is traversed by a solitary road leading to a Tibetan monastery. Here, he says, there are records originally written in the Pali language -- "ancient scrolls," he explains, curling his blunt fingers as if to open the rigid parchment before my eyes.
"Near Srinigar in the Happy Valley of Kashmir we find the legend of an extraordinary saint known to the Buddhists as St. Issa," says the monk. "Events in the life of Issa closely resemble that of Jesus Christ, revealing what are thought to be the lost years of our Lord."
When I began to read Dick's dog-eared copy of The Unknown Life of Christ, I realized that Notovitch had followed nothing more than a childhood hunch that there was something "majestically colossal" about India. His book tells of the startling discovery of the Issa legend-very much by coincidence, no doubt by fate, and most certainly by the hand of God.
Notovitch wandered through the picturesque passes of Bolan, over the Punjab, down into the arid rocks of Ladak, and, "as curiosity led me," beyond the celebrated Vale of Kashmir into that inviolable secrecy of the Himalayas. Land of the Eternal Snows.
During his investigation," Notovitch learned that there existed in the library at Lhasa ancient records of the life of Jesus Christ. In the course of a visit to the great convent Himis, he located a Tibetan translation of the legend and carefully noted in his carnet de voyage over two hundred verses from the curious document known as "The Life of St. Issa."
Hemis Monastery
Leh, Ladak. Altitude 14,500 feet. The great convent Himis is situated in the environs of the town. There Nicolas Notovitch, Nicholas Roerich, and Swami Abhedananda viewed ancient manuscripts documenting the life of Jesus in India and in Tibet.
The legend recorded by Dr. Notovitch appears to be a collection of eyewitness accounts, a book of tales told by indigenous merchants arriving from Palestine where they had happened to be on business during the controversial execution of a man known as the "king of the Jews."
One of the narratives tells of an Israelite by the name of Issa, "blessed by God and the best of all," who was put to death by Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea. Another detailed account traces the lineage of Issa and closely parallels Matthew's scrupulous chapter-one genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Notovitch never doubted the authenticity of these chronicles, diligently recorded in the Pali tongue by the Brahmanic and Buddhistic historians of India and Nepal. He determined to publish a translation of the Issa legend in at least one of the European languages and addressed himself enthusiastically to a number of respected ecclesiastics, "begging them to revise my notes" and give him an honest opinion.
Cardinal Rotelli opposed the publication of the legend for the ostensible reason that it would be premature. Meeting in Paris, Rotelli told Notovitch that "the Church suffers already too much from the new wave of atheistical thought." In Rome, Notovitch showed the Himis manuscript to a cardinal who was au mieux with the pope. "What would be the good of publishing this?" said the prelate. "You will make yourself a crowd of enemies. If it be a question of money which interests you..."
The cardinal did not succeed in bribing Dr. Notovitch. But to this day nobody has ever heard of St. Issa.
Players in Spiritual Drama
There was, as Notovitch put it, a "picturesque situation" at the Himis gonpa the day his caravan arrived. "The doors of the convent opened wide, giving access to some twenty persons disguised as animals, birds, devils, and monsters of every kind." It was a religious mystery play. Culture shock for a Russian orthodox.
"My head was in a whirl," Notovitch confessed. "Young men, dressed as warriors, came out from the temple. They wore monstrous green masks. Making an infernal din with their tambourines and bells, they gyrated round the gods seated on the ground…." The prolonged spectacle was rewarded by an invitation from the chief lama for a drink of "tchang" in honor of the festival.
Notovitch seated himself on a bench opposite the venerable lama. "What signification have all these masks, costumes, bells, and dances-?" he asked diplomatically.
The lama outlined for Notovitch a short history of Tibetan Buddhism, ending with a keen indictment of the priest class, so-called Brahmans, who had made the holy doctrine a matter of commerce. "Our first holy prophets, to whom we give the title of Buddhas, established themselves of old in various countries of the globe," he said. "Their preachings aimed before all at the tyranny of the Brahmans..."
Here Notovitch seized an opportunity to broach the subject so near at heart.
(To be continued…)
Excerpts from 'The Lost Years of Jesus' by E.C. Prophet was republished in the Wolf Lodge Journal (1995).
"During a recent visit that I made to a gonpa," Notovitch began, "one of the lamas told me about a certain prophet, or, as you would say, a Buddha of the name of Issa. Can you tell me anything relative to his existence?"
"The name of Issa is held in great respect by the Buddhists," replied the lama. "But little is known about him save by the chief lamas who have read the scrolls relative to his life. The documents concerning his existence -- brought from India to Nepal and from Nepal to Tibet -- are written in the Pali language and are now in Lassa. But a copy in our language -- that is, the Tibetan -- exists in this convent."
"Would you be committing a sin to recite these copies to a stranger?" Notovitch ventured. "That which belongs to God belongs also to man," said the lama. "I am doubtful where the papers are to be found. But if ever you visit our gonpa again, I shall be pleased to show them to you."
Dr. Notovitch was doubtful when he would consider returning to the wilderness of Hindustan. He remembered the "carnivorous inhabitants" of Kangra. And Zodgi-La, where his caravan tiptoed across projectures in the rock no more than a meter wide. "My heart stood still more than once during my perilous journey."
But, as fortune would have it, a violent fall from his horse furnished Notovitch with an unexpected excuse for an immediate return to the monastery. His fractured leg was bound in an extemporized splint -"one coolie supporting my leg while another led my horse by the bridle."
The caravan arrived back at Himis that evening. "Hearing of my accident, everyone came out to meet me," Notovitch recalled. "I was carried with great care to the best of their chambers under the immediate surveillance of the superior, who affectionately pressed the hand which I offered him in gratitude."
The affable lama kept Notovitch entertained throughout the following day with endless stories. At last, "acceding to my earnest entreaties," he brought out two large yellowed volumes and read to him the biography of St. Issa. Notovitch enlisted a member of his party to translate the Tibetan while he carefully noted each verse in the back pages of his journal.
Notovitch writes in his Journal as his translator interprets the
ancient language read by the lama from the Issa scrolls
The legend begins with the crucifixion.
The earth has trembled and the heavens have wept because of a great crime which has been committed in the land of Israel. For they have tortured and there put to death the great and just Issa, in whom dwelt the soul of the universe, which was incarnate in a simple mortal in order to do good to men and to exterminate their evil thoughts
And in order to bring back man degraded by his sins to a life of peace, love, and happiness and to recall to him the one and indivisible Creator, whose mercy is infinite and without bounds.... At this time came the moment when the all-merciful Judge elected to become incarnate in a human being.
And the Eternal Spirit, dwelling in a state of complete inaction and of supreme beatitude, awoke and detached itself for an indefinite period from the Eternal Being,
So as to show forth in the guise of humanity the means of self-identification with Divinity and of attaining to eternal felicity,
And to demonstrate by example how man may attain moral purity and, by separating his soul from its mortal coil, the degree of perfection necessary to enter into the kingdom of heaven, which is unchangeable and where happiness reigns eternal.
Soon after, a marvelous child was born in the land of Israel, God himself speaking by the mouth of this infant of the frailty of the body and the grandeur of the soul.
The parents of the newborn child were poor people, belonging by birth to a family of noted piety, who, forgetting their ancient grandeur on earth, praised the name of the Creator and thanked him for the ills with which he saw fit to prove them.
To reward them for not turning aside from the way of truth, God blessed the firstborn of this family. He chose him for his elect and sent him to help those who had fallen into evil and to cure those who suffered.
The divine child, to whom was given the name of Issa, began from his earliest years to speak of the one and indivisible God, exhorting the souls of those gone astray to repentance and the purification of the sins of which they were culpable.
People came from all parts to hear him, and they marveled at the discourses proceeding from his childish mouth. All the Israelites were of one accord in saying that the Eternal Spirit dwelt in this child.
When Issa had attained the age of thirteen years, the epoch when an Israelite should take a wife, The house where his parents earned their living by carrying on a modest trade began to be a place of meeting for rich and noble people, desirous of having for son-in-law the young Issa, already famous for his edifying discourses in the name of the Almighty.
Then it was that Issa left the parental house in secret, departed from Jerusalem, and with the merchants set out towards Sind, with the object of perfecting himself in the Divine Word and of studying the laws of the great Buddhas."
St. Issa Studying in Tibet
Excerpts from 'The Lost Years of Jesus' by E.C. Prophet, text republished in the Wolf Lodge Journal (1995).
Replies
According to the legend, Issa left his father's house secretly at age thirteen. He joined a merchant caravan and arrived in India "this side of the Sind" sometime during his fourteenth year. Young Issa, the Blessed One, traveled south to Gujarat, through the country of the five streams and Rajputana, then on to the holy cities of Jagannath and Benares, where Brahman priests taught him Vedic scripture.
Issa continued north into the Himalayas and settled in the country of the Gautamides, followers of the Buddha Gautama, where for six years he applied himself to the study of the sacred sutras. He left India in his twenty-sixth year, traveling to Persepolis, to Athens, to Alexandria. Issa was twenty-nine when he returned to Israel--and reentered the familiar gospel of St. Luke, chapter three. His baptism by John in the river Jordan.
Paintings © SteamChip
Criticism of "The Life of St. Issa" recorded by Nicolas Notovitch began soon after its original publication. A trenchant note from the author "To the Publishers" in the later English translation counters allegations that he never entered Tibet, "that I am an impostor," and that the Himis manuscript never existed at all.
Notovitch argued that the Vatican library contains sixty-three manuscripts in various Oriental languages which refer to the Issa legend-documents brought to Rome by Christian missionaries from India, China, Egypt, and Arabia. He even suggests that one of the missioners may have been the apostle Thomas -- yes, "doubting Thomas," the empiricist.
That is possible. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Thomas evangelized India and the territory between the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. The apocryphal Acts of Thomas describe him as a carpenter who preached the gospel and performed miracles. He could not have preached in his native Greek to men who spoke only Pali or Sanskrit. So it is possible, even probable that he wrote or edited the historical narratives we now know as "The Life of St. Issa."
Notovitch said that he believed in the authenticity of the Buddhist narrative "because I see nothing that can contradict or invalidate it from a historical or theological point of view."
"Before criticizing my communication," he suggests, "any learned society can equip a scientific expedition having for its mission the investigation of these manuscripts on the spot." In 1922, a punditic disciple of Ramakrishna named Swami Abhedananda took Notovitch up on his offer.
Swami Abhedananda
Abhedananda lived in North America for a quarter of a century, traveled extensively, and was acquainted with Thomas Edison, William James, and Dr. Max Muller. He was fascinated by Jesus and skeptical of Notovitch.
Abhedananda journeyed into the arctic region of the Himalayas, determined to find a copy of the Himis manuscript or to expose the fraud. His book of travels, entitled Kashmir 0 Tibetti, tells of a visit to the Himis gonpa and includes a Bengali translation of two hundred twenty-four verses, essentially the same as the Notovitch text. Abhedananda was thereby convinced of the authenticity of the Issa legend.
In 1925, another Russian named Nicholas Roerich arrived at Himis. Roerich, the towering artist, was also a profound philosopher and a distinguished scientist. He apparently saw the same documents as Notovitch and Abhedananda. And he recorded in his own travel diary the same legend of St. Issa.
Nicholas Roerich (Self-portrait)
Nicholas Roerich was a man of strong and definite personality. His writing is characteristically intimate and eloquent. Speaking of Issa, Roerich quotes legends which have the estimated antiquity of many centuries.
He passed his time in several ancient cities of India such as Benares. All loved him because Issa dwelt in peace with Vaishas and Shudras whom he instructed and helped. But the Brahmins and Kshatriyas told him that Brahma forbade those to approach who were created out of his womb and feet. The Vaishas were allowed to listen to the Vedas only on holidays and the Shudras were forbidden not only to be present at the reading of the Vedas, but could not even look at them.
Issa said that man had filled the temples with his abominations. In order to pay homage to metals and stones, man sacrificed his fellows in whom dwells a spark of the Supreme Spirit. Man demeans those who labor by the sweat of their brows, in order to gain the good will of the sluggard who sits at the lavishly set board. But they who deprive their brothers of the common blessing shall be themselves stripped of it.
Vaishas and Shudras were struck with astonishment and asked what they could perform. Issa bade them "Worship not the idols. Do not consider yourself first. Do not humiliate your neighbor. Help the poor. Sustain the feeble. Do evil to no one. Do not covet that which you do not possess and which is possessed by others."
Learning of his words, there were some who wished to kill Issa. But forewarned, Issa departed by night, traveling then into Nepal and the Himalayas.
Excerpts from 'The Lost Years of Jesus' by E.C. Prophet, text republished in the Wolf Lodge Journal (1995).
Nicholas Roerich, third among the famous explorers on the trail of the Issa legend, reported back with fragments of thought and evidence of the miraculous. Near Lhasa was a temple of teaching with a wealth of manuscripts, which Issa wished to acquaint himself with them. Meng-ste, a great sage of the East, resided at this temple.
Issa eventually reached a mountain pass at the chief city of Ladak, Leh, where he was joyously accepted by monks and people of the lower class. He taught in the monasteries and market places, not unlike his earlier years in the temples and bazaars of Jerusalem. And like his Middle East pastimes, a Himalayan woman whose son had died brought him to Jesus, who returned him to life in front of the onlookers.
Nicholas Roerich's own Central Asiatic Expedition lasted four and a half years. In that time he traveled from Sikkim through the Punjab and into Kashmir, Ladak, Karakorum, Khotan, and Irtysh, then over the Altai Mountains and through the Oyrot region into Mongolia, Central Gobi, Kansu, and Tibet. "We learned how widespread are the legends about Issa," he writes. "The sermons related in them, of unity, of the significance of woman and all the indications about Buddhism, are so remarkably timely for us."
Issa on the Silk Road
Although Roerich was familiar with "The Life of St. Issa" recorded by Nicolas Notovitch thirty-five years before, "the local people know nothing of any published book," he says. Yet "they know the legend and with deep reverence they speak of Issa....
It is significant to hear a local inhabitant, a Hindu, relate how Issa preached beside a small pool near the bazaar under a great tree, which now no longer exists. In such purely physical indications you may see how seriously this subject is regarded."
One Hindu said to Roerich that "It is difficult to understand why the wandering of Issa by caravan path into India and into the region now occupied by Tibet should be so vehemently denied."
The legend of St. Issa persists to this day among street people and scholars in holy cities and remote villages throughout India and Tibet. But few have ever seen the Himis manuscript. Perhaps in future, no one ever will.
Chinese Communists invaded Tibet in 1947, and what remains of the Buddhist gompas and their ancient archives is unknown. But even before the Communist occupation, the written "Life of St. Issa" seems to have disappeared.
Richard Bock describes a visit to a monastery in Calcutta where a man named Prajnananda testifies that he had heard from Abhedananda -- "from his own lips" -- that the manuscripts did exist at Himis in 1922. A few years later, however, those scrolls were no longer there.
"They have been removed," Prajnananda told Bock, "by whom we do not know."
"Dick," I said, "are they in the Vatican?"
"Notovitch thought so."
"Then why doesn't the Church..."
"You have to go back to the early days of Christianity," Bock interrupted. "They wanted a strong church. They thought they had to control the people. So they treated them like children who don't have the capacity to understand a deeper significance. They created a religion for 'commonplace minds', as Notovitch put it."
Chapter V
1. "In the course of his fourteenth year, the young Issa, blessed of God, came on this side of Sind and established himself among the Aryas in the land of God.
2. "Fame spread the reputation of this marvelous child throughout the length of northern Sind, and when he crossed the country of the five rivers and the Rajputana, the devotees of the God Jaine prayed him to dwell among them.
3. "But he left the erring worshippers of Jaine and went to Juggernaut in the country of Orissa, where repose the mortal remains of Vyasa-Krishna and where the white priests of Brahma made him a joyous welcome.
4. "They taught him to read and understand the Vedas, to cure by aid of prayer, to teach, to explain the holy scriptures to the people, and to drive out evil spirits from the bodies of men, restoring unto them sanity." ...
It is not certain what route Jesus took on his journey to the East. The map above shows one possible route, reconstructed from the writings of Notovich, Abhedananda and Roerich, along with historical information about ancient roads and trade routes, described in The Lost Years of Jesus. According to this map, Issa departed Jerusalem (follow the yellow line), took the Silk Road to Bactra, headed south to Kabul, crossed the Punjab and proceeded to a Jain region on the Kathiawar peninsula, where Jain temples were later built near the town of Palitana.
He then crossed India to Jagannatha Puri, made trips to Rajariha (Rajgir), Benares, and other holy cities and, fleeing his enemies, went to Kapilavatsu (Kapilavatthu, in Pali) -- birthplace of Gautama Buddha in the Shakya kingdom. Issa is then thought to have taken a trail west of Mt. Everest to Lhasa.
On the return trip (follow the violet line), he took the caravan route to Leh, went south to the state of Rajputana, then north to Kabul. He proceeded on the southern trade route through Persia, where Zoroastrian priests abandoned him to the wild beasts. Issa survived and arrived unharmed in Jerusalem.
Continuing with recorded statements from Notovitch's journal of the translated Issa scrolls:
Chapter IV
2. "But Issa, warned of his danger by the Sudras, left the neighborhood of Juggernaut by night, reached the mountain, and established himself in the country of Gautamides, the birthplace of the great Buddha Sakyamuni, in the midst of a people worshipping the one and sublime Brahma.
3. "After having perfected himself in the Pali language, the just Issa applied himself to the study of the sacred writings of Sutras.
4. "Six years after, Issa, whom the Buddha had elected to spread his holy word, had become a perfect expositor of the sacred writings."
Shankaracharya of Puri
Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Sarswati
This testimony represents one of the great moments in human spiritual and religious history. It is a massive achievement, for a number of reasons. There are four Shankaracharys. They are the spiritual heads of Hinduism, sort of like the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Because of his position as Shankaracharya, as well as his profound knowledge of the Hindu religion, he commands wide respect in India, particularly in religious Hindu circles.
The Shankaracharya never grants interviews, especially to Westerners. But when told that a team had arrived to ask questions about Jesus’ life in India, everyone was absolutely shocked that the Shankaracharya broke with tradition and agreed, without hesitation, to be interviewed. This, in itself, appeared to be a great sign of the lasting impact that Jesus made in India. It was as if the very name, Jesus, could not be ignored—even by the Shankaracharya.
The text of the interview is below. The interview was conducted by Anil Kumar Urmil, Associate Producer of the film-documentary, Jesus in India. This interview is exhilaratingly revealing, and contains a couple of important firsts. In this interview, the Shankaracharya confirms exactly what Nicholas Notovitch claimed to discover much further north, at the Hemis Gompa in Ladakh: that Jesus had studied at the Jagannath Temple, in Puri. This is the first time that a major Hindu or Buddhist leader of India has confirmed that Jesus had studied at the Jagannath Temple. Although five other people beside Notovitch had viewed the Jesus Scrolls at Hemis, between the years 1922 and 1974, The Shankaracharya is the first highly-placed religious leader of India, and of global Hinduism, to confirm Notovitch’s findings.
Also during the interview, the Shankaracharya totally laid to rest an objection that has been raised by those who do not believe that Jesus visited Jaganaath, as the Jesus Scrolls state that he did. Their objection stems from the fact that most accounts of the Jagannath Temple date the construction of the temple to the year 1174 CE, over a thousand years after Jesus walked this earth. But the Shankaracharya, during the interview, states that the Jagannath Temple was first constructed in the year 483 BC. The temple was rebuilt in the year 1174 CE. This entire interview can be viewed in Paul Davids’ film-documentary, Jesus in India. But we reproduce the entire interview below.
The Interview:
Shankaracharya: I am the 145th Shankaracharya. Actually this tradition is 5000 years old, from the era of Sat Yuga. During the rapid spread of Buddhism, this tradition was suppressed. The first Shankaracharya was born in 506 B.C. The JagannathTemple was established as an education center in 483 B.C.
Anil Kumar Urmil: In the Christian New Testament there is hardly any mention of Jesus’ life from age 12 to 30. When Ed Martin asked about the Missing Years in his church, he was silenced.
Shankarachara: The truth was submerged to propagate lies. Many important religious figures have come here to study. Jesus Christ also came here to study.
Anil Kumar Urmil: So it is true He came here to study?
Shankaracharya: Yes, Yes.
Anil Kumar Urmil: So Jesus Christ did study here for a few years?
Shankaracharya: He studied the Achar Samhita—the Code of Conduct. He must have met the Shankaracharya of that time.
Anil Kumar Urmil: Are there any ancient texts that have a record of this?
Shankaracharya: Our ancient records were buried some place here to protect them from invaders. That is why they are hard to find today. And even though we know these things, the Christians are not willing to believe it. Jesus studied our teachings of Truthfulness, Mercy, Charity; Serving Others, Compassion, and Ethics. The fact that Hindus made a contribution to Jesus’ learning is not accepted by some people.
Anil Kumar Urmil: It is a fact that our very ancient Hindu text, the Bhavishya Maha Purana, has an account of King Shalivahana meeting Jesus in Kashmir, India.
Shankaracharya: Yes, that is true, but the Christians will not believe it. Christians know Jesus was missing for many years. Where was he? Where was he living? Where was he traveling? He lived in Kashmir. Traveled all over India. The truth has been covered up.
Vaisnavas, Shaivaites, Shaktas, Christians, Rastas, Odinists, Mithraists/Zeus, Egyptians, Greek religion, Sikhs, ; all very personal theists ! Natural allies, when enlightened.
Some Hindus, Some African Religions, Islam, Jews, some Buddhists, Shinto, Native American, Pacific Islanders, Australian /South Seas natives, Masons, Druze, Sufis, Jains, ; A bit or a lot of impersonalism mixed in, like saying Allah has no form etc. Sometimes friends, sometimes enemies of theists.
Some Buddhists, Taoists, Atheists; God is formless, or does not exist. Enemies of theists.
Luciferians, Satanists Communists; Enemies of Godhead.