Text 3555: 20-Jun-94
17:59 /69 lines/ Suhotra Swami
Comment on: Text
3517 by Srivatsa (dd) HKS (Almvik - S)
Receiver: (Have)
Danda (Will Travel) <6>
Receiver: Srivatsa
(dd) HKS (Almvik - S) <3> -- Received: 21-Jun-94 11:12
Subject: A
question from Johanna
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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)
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