In the late 1920s, Swami Abhedananda published his materials under the title Journey to Kashmir and Tibet. Swami Abhedananda was also unable to obtain the original text – all he testified was that he held the ancient manuscript in his hands.
17. Spiritual Masters about the life of Jesus Christ in India
Nicholas Roerich (1874 – 1947), the greatest Russian mystic, artist, philosopher, and explorer of the East, referring to materials he received from a variety of sources, said that Jesus Christ underwent spiritual training in the ashrams of India.
Nicholas Roerich was initiated into a number of Western and Eastern mystical orders. He was a close student of the Mahatmas, the high spiritual teachers of the Himalayas, and also studied with the Tibetan Lamas.
In the 1920s, Nicholas Roerich made several expeditions to India, Tibet, Mongolia, Central Asia, and Altai. For about thirty years he lived in the Himalayas, in a place called Kulu Manali. He published some materials about his eastern expeditions, in which he mentioned he came into contact with numerous testimonies that Jesus Christ traveled through India and the Himalayas, where at that time he was called Issa.
Nicholas Roerich did not hide the fact he received information about the life of Jesus Christ in India not only from the Himalayan teachers, but also from the secret esoteric societies of the West.
Traveling through the places of power of the East, Roerich came into contact with a large number of legends that Jesus Christ lived and studied in Kashmir. It is difficult to say, perhaps the teachers with whom Roerich met in the Himalayas provided him with the original manuscript. It is only known that Roerich preferred only to refer to the existence of information about the life of Jesus Christ in India, but never provided the general public with more accurate evidence.
Unique information about the life of Jesus Christ in India was also confirmed by Yogananda (1893 – 1952), the greatest teacher of Kriya Yoga. In his lectures and commentaries on the New Testament, Yogananda shared many details about the life of Jesus Christ in India.
According to Yogananda's information, Jesus Christ studied at several mountain ashrams in Kashmir and eastern India, in the holy city of Puri, where one of the most important temples of Krishna, called Jaganath, is located. At the time of Jesus Christ, Buddhism was actively developing in India and numerous ashrams of the Vedic tradition continued to exist in parallel.
Yogananda did not refer to the fact that he saw the ancient texts; rather, he based his understanding on his inner experience of clairvoyance, as well as on the information he received from high teachers from the Himalayas. Yogananda said that Jesus Christ studied the practices of Kriya Yoga in the Himalayas and was a member of the inner circle of disciples of the Himalayan Masters.
Of course, for some, Yogananda's clairvoyance may not be a convincing proof of the truth of the information, but for me it is quite a convincing reason to recognize this information as genuine.
18. Yogi Ramaiah about the life of Jesus Christ in India
The unique information about the life of Jesus Christ in India was also confirmed by my teacher of Kriya Yoga, Yogi Ramaiah (1923 – 2006), with whom I studied for many years. He was a direct student of Mahavatar Babaji, an immortal teacher from the Himalayas. I wrote in more detail about the life of Yogi Ramaiah in my books: Babaji – Eternal Consciousness in an Immortal Body and Babaji – the Mystery of Divine Potential.
Yogi Ramaiah spoke not only about the fact that Jesus Christ studied in India, but also revealed details about who exactly he studied with. Yogi Ramaiah said Jesus Christ was a close disciple of Mahavatar Babaji.
In India, Jesus Christ was called Issa. In some cases, this name is pronounced as Ishsha. This name comes from the Sanskrit word Ishvara, which means the supreme Lord.
Yogi Ramaiah received information about Jesus Christ and his spiritual practices in India from his great Teacher, Mahavatar Babaji. Once I tried to find out from Yogi Ramaiah if he had seen a mysterious manuscript with the story of the life of Jesus Christ in the Himalayas. In answer to my question, Yogi Ramaiah replied he had not seen this text and did not even try to look for it, because he heard all the information about the life and practices of Jesus Christ in India directly from the immortal Mahavatar Babaji.
Jesus Christ was trained by Mahavatar Babaji in the practices of Kriya Yoga. Returning to Palestine, he taught some of his students these great meditation practices. Various elements of Kriya Yoga were practiced in the early Christian communities by the Gnostics.
The worldview of Jesus Christ was strongly influenced by Vedic philosophy and the moral foundations of Buddhism. Of course, Jesus Christ was born in a Jewish environment and his preaching was subsequently based on Biblical terminology, but the essence of his teaching clearly points to the Vedic and Buddhist tradition.
The question may arise as to how in those ancient times could Jesus Christ get to distant India? In that distant era, not only numerous caravans with goods went along the Silk Road, but also manuscripts were transported. Philosophers and mystics traveled with the help of the well-functioning system of the Silk Road.
People living in different parts of the ancient world could exchange not only goods, but also knowledge. No one is surprised that at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ, three Magi with a retinue came from Persia in order to greet the divine child. Why do people doubt the possibility of Jesus Christ traveling to India?
The importance of the information that Jesus Christ studied in India lies in the fact that the main source of the teachings of Jesus Christ was precisely the Vedic tradition. This impressive discovery includes the realization that Christianity, first of all, has Vedic roots.
The materials presented in the previous chapters indicate that Sathya Sai Baba was far from being the first to proclaim the truth about the life of Jesus Christ in India. Sathya Sai Baba confirmed what was already known a hundred years before him and added numerous important details about the inner path and spiritual quest of Jesus Christ.
19. Spiritual Path of Jesus Christ
Sathya Sai Baba said that Jesus Christ went through the path of intensive meditation and contemplation practices before he gained perfect wisdom. As a result of the practice of meditation, Jesus Christ gradually drew closer to God. Finally, he was able to realize that he was the Son of God. After that, he continued to strive for the knowledge of God even more intensely and gained the highest experience of oneness with God.
In order to advance deeply in the process of knowledge of God, Jesus Christ went on a distant pilgrimage to the Himalayas. There he practiced meditation, constantly thinking about God.
Sathya Sai Baba said that Jesus Christ practiced in a remote part of the Himalayas for several years. During this period of his life, Jesus Christ practiced various spiritual techniques. Finally, he fully felt the presence of his Heavenly Father's divine love. Jesus Christ realized that God is the original nature of the soul. Then he was able to proclaim: "I and My Heavenly Father are One." This is how Sathya Sai Baba described the spiritual path of Jesus Christ.
In the information that Sathya Sai Baba reports, it is important to note several fundamental points. First of all, again and again, he confirms the fact that Jesus Christ spent almost half of his life in India, including the Himalayas.
From the story told by Sathya Sai Baba, we learn many astonishing details; in particular, that Jesus Christ practiced for five long years in seclusion in the Himalayas. Perhaps during this period, he was in some cave, or in one of the ashrams. Such solitary retreats are a traditional form of spiritual practice for Himalayan yogis. Practitioners of various traditions retire to small ashrams or caves in order to immerse themselves in contemplation and study sacred texts in depth.