Jesus may very well be the "Isa" predicted in the Bhavisya Purana. I

will not go on record as saying that Jesus and Isa are the same person,

because Srila Prabhupada did not exactly confirm that when he was asked

about this Bhavisya Purana prediction. He simply confirmed that

whatever is stated in the Bhavisya Purana is accurate.

There are 10 verses in the Bhavisya Purana that foretell the meeting of

King Salivahana of Sindhusthana (which is the present-day Sind province

of Pakistan) with a saintly person named Isaputra, "the son of Isa

(God)". The purana states that this meeting would take place when

Salivahana visited the mountainous Hunadesa region of what is now

Western Tibet. Historically, Salivahana is supposed to have visited

Hunadesa between AD 39 to 59. There the king came upon an auspicious

man who was living on a mountain. The man's complexion was golden and

his clothes were white. This was Isaputra, or Isa.

The name Isa resembles the name Jesus. "Jesus" is a modern form of the

Hebrew name "Yeshua", which was rendered as "Iesos" in the original

Greek of the New Testament.

Isa introduced himself to the king as Isa-masiha, which resembles

"Jesus, Messiah." In the Sanskrit, Jesus says to Salivahana, isa

murtirt-hradi prapta nityasuddha sivamkari isamasihah iti ca mama nama

pratistitam: "Having placed the eternally pure and auspicious form of

the Supreme Lord in my heart, O protector of the earth planet, I

preached these principles through the Mlecchas own faith and thus my

name became `isa-masiha'."

From this it seems that masiha is a title awarded to Isa by the

Mlecchas. Messiah is a Hebrew word that means "anointed one."

The principles Isa taught to the Mlecchas are listed in the Bhavisya

Purana as follows.

"The living entity is subject to good and bad contaminations. The mind

should be purified by taking recourse of proper conduct and performance

of japa. By chanting the holy names one attains the highest purity.

Just as the immovable sun draws from all directions the elements of all

living beings, so does the Lord of the solar region, who is fixed and

all-attractive, draws the hearts of all living creatures. Thus by

following rules, speaking truthful words, by mental harmony and by

meditation, O descendent of Manu, one should worship the immovable

Lord."

Good and evil, moral conduct, the chanting the name of God, religious

commandments, truthfulness, peacefulness and prayerful meditation are

principles that are indeed found in Christianity. "The Lord of the

solar region" refers to Suryanarayana, a form of Visnu. It is said

that the Essenes, a Jewish mystical sect from the time of Jesus,

worshiped the sun as a representation of the Supreme. Some people say

Jesus was an Essene rabbi.

Isa declared to King Salivahana that he could forsee the rise of the

Mleccha's influence in the Kali age, and he feared that their lawless

way of life would spread throughout the world unless they were taught

religion. Thus he went among them to teach these principles.

There is a legend that Jesus went to India during his so-called "lost

years" between ages 13 and 30. These are called his lost years because

there is no record in the New Testament of what he did during this

time. And there is a legend that Jesus returned to India after his

crucefixion and resurrection. In present-day Pakistan, there is a

place of pilgrimage which is said to be the tomb of Jesus.

Among Indologists the Bhavisya Purana is considered a forgery. So we

can expect that academics will not take us very seriously if we quote

it. But Srila Prabhupada said of this scripture, "Everything is

accurate there." (Bombay conversation, April 2, 1977)

(Text 3555) ------------------------------------------------