EPISODE 3
Bhavishya Purana
A blogger Stephen Knapp, in his blog http://www.stephen-knapp.com/jesus_predicted_in_the_vedic_literature.htm gives striking information:
Dr.
Vedavyas, a research scholar with a doctorate in Sanskrit, discusses some
important prophecies from the Bhavishya Purana, which he says dates back to 3000
B.C. He states that one prophecy describes the future appearance of Isha putra,
the son (putra) of God (Isha)(Jesus Christ), born of an unmarried woman named
Kumari (Mary) Garbha Sambhava. He would visit India at the age of thirteen and
go to the Himalayan Mountains and do tapas or penance to acquire spiritual
maturity under the guidance of rishis and siddha-yogis before going back to
Palestine to preach to his people. So, if Jesus was trained by the sages of
India, this would explain why he was able to perform various miracles
(siddhas). It also explains why there are so many philosophical similarities
between early Christianity and Hinduism.
Dr.
Vedavyas goes on to say that the Bhavishya Purana describes how Jesus would
visit Varanasi and other Hindu and Buddhist holy places. This is also
corroborated by the manuscript on the life of Isha (or Issa), discovered by Mr.
Notovich in 1886 at the Hemis monastery in Ladakh, India, as well as by the
Hebrew inscriptions found in Srinagar, Kashmir at the Roza bal, the tomb of Yuz
Asaf [Isha or Issa]. The Bhavishya Purana also is said to have predicted how
Jesus would meet Emperor Shalivahana who established the Shalivahana or “Saka”
era. Dr. Vedavyas describes this in his Telegu book, Veerabrahmendra Yogipai
Parishodhana.[1]
Knapp
goes on giving the information that prophecy of Jesus in the Bhavishya Purana
is found in no other Puranas, which often corroborate each other. Hence, this
story of Isha Mashiha in no other Purana sends a red flag of warning. Furthermore,
everyone doesn’t give the Bhavishya Purana a pure confidence. It is known that
as many as 200 pages from this text had become lost or misplaced, and various
interpolations are likely to have occurred in this text while India was under
the British administration. So, we should be somewhat cautious about accepting
this on face value.
Today,
many preachers or even evangelist use the scripture to share gospel but without
getting knowledge of full text. After grabbing the full text or shlokas, I
don’t think any believer would accept Bhavishya Purana’s brief detail about
counterfeit Jesus. These shlokas were also used by Pastor C.P. Sharma in his
sermon of Teen Trilok Chaudha Bhuvan[2], [3].
The Special Note in Knapp’s blog provides an alarming hazard for Christians.
The
brief instantaneous account of Isha Putra in Bhavishya Purana raises many
dubious issues to both Bhavishya Purana and Gospels in field of historical
framework and reliability. People may support the idea that Christianity has
its root onto Vedic religion or if such event has ever occurred then those
accounts must have been removed from the gospel but preserved in the Bhavishya
Purana.
Knapp
points out, Jesus is advocating the worship of the sun-god (again, something
that is absent in his instructions to the apostles, and in Christianity would
be considered part of paganism). Japa, meditation, the negation of both good
and bad karma, are all concepts that are familiar to eastern religions such as
Hinduism and Buddhism, but not to the Abrahamic religions of the west, unless
Jesus had already been trained by Vedic brahmanas and Buddhist priests at that
time. Considering the fact that no edition of the Bhavishya Purana can be found
prior to the British period in India, it can be deduced that the Bhavishya Purana
may have been tampered with by the Christian missionaries who added the chapter
on Jesus. Their motive would be obvious -- to make the personality of Jesus
acceptable to the Hindus in order to convert them to Christianity.
Hence,
how easily a believer can get triggered using those shlokas from Hindu
scripture that raises several dubious issues and assumption on both sides. In
Knapp’s blog, we can find this trigger: “Plus, we often see that Christians,
especially in India, tell Hindus that since Jesus is supposed to be predicted
in the Vedic texts, then they should accept Jesus as their ultimate savior. But
the Vedic texts are much more open and inclusive than that and also describe so
many more avataras and incarnations of Lord Vishnu. So why shouldn’t the
Christians also accept Lord Vishnu or Krishna as the Supreme Person, or at
least aspects of the Supreme Being? After all, it was proclaimed that Jesus
was the son of God. And who is the Father? So Vishnu or Krishna must
have been the Supreme Father as the Bhagavad-gita and other Vedic texts clearly
state, and as Jesus himself says he is the son of God the Father. And if Jesus
did go to India, then he was familiar with this concept, which he thus
expressed in his own teachings in his homeland. This is not going against the
Biblical tenants. After all, the Bible does not exactly describe who is the
Supreme Person, but only gives Him a name, such as Yahweh. The Vedic texts,
however, give God innumerable names and describes much more about Him, such as
His character, personality, pastimes, and so on.”
Additionally,
from https://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/really-prophecy-jesus-vedas/:
1.
However, there are four known editions of the
Bhavisya Purana, each having different predictions from the other, but
suspiciously having one consistent prediction – that of Jesus.
2.
Due to these circumstances, it is difficult to
ascertain which of the four is the original text of the Bhavisya Purana, if
indeed an original text still exists, but suspiciously all four editions do
mention Jesus.
3.
The Venkateswar Steam Press edition of the
Bhavisya Purana printed in Bombay in 1829 (and reprinted by Nag Publishers in
2003) is probably the most complete version available, containing all the main
features of the four manuscripts. Since none of the four editions of the
Bhavisya Purana predate British Rule in India, this further suggests a
discrepancy, plus the fact that all four versions mention Jesus.
4.
The consistent prophecy in all four editions
that seems to indicate an interpolation concerns the so-called meeting of
Maharaja Salivahana and Jesus.
5.
Pratisarga Parva 19:19-22 At the very outset,
this section is fraught with historical inaccuracies. Salivahana was the king
of Ujjain (in modern day Madhya Pradesh), and while it is not surprising that
Salivahana traveled to the Himalayas, the enemies that he supposedly vanquished
in battle before he went, should be looked into more thoroughly. Historical
research tells us that the only invading force that Salivahana actually subdued
were the Sakas, who entered India from the north-west regions. But as for his
defeating the Cinas (Chinese), Bahlikas (Bactrians), Kamarupas (Assamese),
Romas (Romans) and the Khurus (Khorasans, or Persians), there is no historical
evidence that validates Salivahana doing this, nor is their any historical
proof of the Romans and the Chinese ever invading India.
6.
After Salivahana defeated the Sakas he
established his empire, thus the Salivahana period of Indian history began,
circa 78 CE. According to this apparently interpolated section of the Bhavisya
Purana, at some point after establishing his kingdom, Salivahana traveled to
the Himalayas and met Jesus. Yet Christian scholars opine that Jesus was born
in 4 BCE and was crucified somewhere between 27 and 36 CE. If we entertain the
idea that Christ somehow survived the crucifixion and met Salivahana in the
Himalayas, this would make him around 80 years old at that time. Yet
surprisingly, the description of Jesus in the Bhavisya Purana does not mention
that he was an old man.
7.
Furthermore, in this passage, Jesus is
advocating the worship of the Sun-god (again, something that is absent in his
instructions to the apostles). Japa, meditation, the negation of both good and
bad karma, are all concepts that are familiar to eastern religions such as
Hinduism and Buddhism, but not to the Abrahamic religions of the west.
8.
Considering the above anomalies and the fact
that no edition of the Bhavisya Purana can be found prior to the British period
in India, we can only deduce that the Bhavisya Purana was tampered with by the
Christian missionaries who added the chapter on Jesus.
In 1784, the famous Indologist Sir William Jones wrote the
following letter to Sir Warren Hastings, Governor General of India, confirming
our suspicions.
“As to the general extension of our pure faith in Hindoostan
there are at present many sad obstacles to it… We may assure ourselves, that
Hindoos will never be converted by any mission from the church of Rome, or from
any other church; and the only human mode, perhaps, of causing so great a
revolution, will be to translate into Sanscrit… such chapters of the Prophets,
particularly of ISAIAH, as are indisputably evangelical, together with one of
the gospels, and a plain prefatory discourse, containing full evidence of the
very distant ages, in which the predictions themselves, and the history of the
Divine Person (Jesus) is predicted, were severally made public and then quietly
to disperse the work among the well-educated natives.” (Asiatic Researches Vol.
1. Published 1979, pages 234-235. First published 1788).
Let us
investigate briefly throughout the claim of Jesus’ visit to India and Bhavishya
Purana. An apologetics channel named Sakshi Apologetics Network has brought a
great assessment on this topic in https://youtu.be/EID-SJCik78.
Sakshi
apologetics examines:
1.
Do
Hermis Manuscript (which allegedly documents life of Jesus in India) Really
Exist?
2.
Is
Max Mueller a trustworthy scholar or a British / Missionary Agent?
3.
Does
this story help the Hindutva crowd in any manner?
4.
The
real reason why Hindus continue to repeat this unsubstantiated claim -
Bhavishya Mahapurana
5.
Reliability
of Bhavishya Mahapurana. Is it a Fabrication?
6.
Did
Bhavishya Mahapurana prophesy about Lord Jesus Christ?
7.
Tomb
of Jesus in Kashmir
8.
Are
there missing years of Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Bible?
To
avoid lengthy analysis, I shall only provide adequate summary from the entire
assessment and you shall directly go to their link and watch detail
information:
1.
Three
resources: Alleged manuscript of Hermis monastery, Bhavishya Purana and Alleged
Tomb of Jesus in Kashmir
2.
Bhavishya
Purana- at least 10 verses regarding Jesus in India
3.
Alleged
Manuscript at Monastery:
Swami Abhedananda, one of the topmost Vedanta scholars, claimed to have seen
the manuscript.
4.
Nicolos
Notovich, Russian Journalist and author of ‘Unknown life of Christ’, 1894, was
the first one to make the claim of manuscript at Hermis monastery.
5.
Max
Muller debunked the case of manuscript. He was admired by Swami Vivekananda to
be an incarnation of Sayan Acharya. Muller was also called as Moksha Muller.
This shows how greatly Muller was revered at that time.
6.
First
refutation by Max Muller on the alleged manuscript: Catalogues of Chinese
Buddhists catalogue never mentioned anything remote
7.
Second,
catalogues of Tibetan manuscript including those from monasteries of Tibet
never mentioned anything remote
8.
Third,
improbability of the coincidence mentioned in the book
9.
Fourth,
Jesus name in Arabic rather than Hebrew or Greek in Tibet
10. ‘Isa’ is never a name of Jesus
in any language, not even Arabic which must be Yasu
11. James Douglas – 1896, visited
the monastery. The shocking fact he got was no person named Nicolo Notovich
ever visited the monastery. No Russian gentlemen ever visited in the
corresponding years. Please watch the video for detailed conversation with
Lama.
12. The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ
by Notovich wouldn’t even help Hindu world. Jesus of Notovich rejected caste
system, trimurti, divine inspiration of Vedas, and idols.
13. He tried to divert the true
history of Jesus claiming in his book that Jewish leaders wanted to rescue
Jesus but Pilate wanted to crucify him.
14. The monastery was visited
several times for that solid evidence but never could be found again. Anyway,
that manuscript was of no use even to Hindu world. There was no need to cling
to that manuscript.
15. Bhavishya Purana: Pratisarga Parva, Chaturyuga
Khanda Dvitiyadyaya, 19th chapter, text 17-32 speaks of counterfeit
Jesus.
16. No manuscript evidence before 18th
century and no prophecies of 20th and 21st century. The
scripture does only mention prophecies until 18th century which
seems more like a report of past rather than future predictions.
17. Some internal issues: The
scripture depicts Jesus propagating Sun worship (alien to Christian faith)
which is however a weekly festive of Christians in the day of Sun i.e. Sunday
(under English expression) and another mistake is the meaning of messiah given
as traveler (Islamic influence).
18. The work of Bhavishya Purana is
also regarded as an apologetical movement of Hindus to answer missionary
preaching of Christianity. This can be said like a trend of assimilating others
so that whenever foreign religions are preached, they can easily say those are
already mentioned even in our scriptures.
19. Kashmir Tomb: Tomb of Youza Asaph, Medieval
Islamic Preacher
20. The Bible is crystal clear that
there were no missing years of Jesus if we study gospels clearly.
Next, in his article at https://nepalchurch.com/2524/येशू-पनि-हिन्दु-रे/, Nepali Apologist
Kamal Adhikari admits Isa, discovered by Notovich, was not Jesus of the Bible.
According to Biblical accounts, there is not a single indication that Jesus
ever had left his homeland. What he said is rigid true that teaching of Jesus
is drastically different from Hindu philosophical teaching. Jesus never taught
pantheism, polytheism, monolatry[4], henotheism[5], animism or monism[6]. He never referred any
Hindu scriptures for his allusion or prophecies. The social and cultural
framework in Jesus’ land is enough to debunk his missing years. He was well
known as a carpenter. Here, honourable sir Adhikari provides argument for
missing years not recorded in the gospel. First, in such ancient time, the
biography was written in that way. The ancient literature system was selective
rather than descriptive. Second, the theological argument is concerned with
Jesus’ mission work and not every details of his life. Even the gospel does not
have whole details of his life but only adequate details.
According to Rev. Dr. Balkrishna Sharma, Principal of Nepal
Theological College and has done his Masters in Hinduism, the Bhavishya Purana
has been written at the age after Jesus.[7] Not all Hindu Scriptures
are ancient but some are also written after AD. During that period, Thomas had
reached India and shared gospel. Therefore, it is most probable that those
spreading information about Jesus were then recorded down in Purana. Another
valid understanding, he gives is about Imago Dei i.e. Humans are created in
God’s image and has aspiration of God’s plan and need of Savior. This can be a
mere result why we can see striking shlokas in Hindu scriptures regarding cry
for Savior. However, those are not referencing to Jesus and we must be careful
while interpreting those shlokas concerning proper and systematic hermeneutics.
Therefore, one must strictly investigate the written date, contemporary society
situation, context and cultural framework before diving into direct conclusion.[8]
The only conclusion is not to trust any extra-biblical
resources even if they mention Jesus unless properly and honestly investigated
about their origin, background, development, criteria of interpretation and
context. We can neither accept nor reject extra-biblical resources. We cannot
be certain about any details of Jesus outside the gospel itself.
[3] Critical
analysis: https://apologeticsimpact.blogspot.com/2021/07/gospel-to-hindu-episode-11.html
[4] the
worship of one god without denial of the existence of other gods
[5] adherence
to one particular god out of several, especially by a family, tribe, or other
group.
[6] a
theory or doctrine that denies the existence of a distinction or duality in a
particular sphere, such as that between matter and mind, or God and the world
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