Soolaba's Blog

Was Jesus a contrived compilation of pagan resurrection myths? Is Jesus the ‘Christ Consciousness’ within us all? Was Jesus just a teacher or the promised Sacrificial Messiah? Was Jesus a Shaktyavesha-avatar? Bodhisattva? Vishnu-tattva? Did Jesus travel to the Americas, Tibet, India and get buried in Kashmir? Are the New Age Gospels of Jesus authentic? Does the Bhavishya Purana give a true account of Jesus? Who was the real Jesus Christ?

Without doubt, these answers depend upon which religion, denomination or ‘Mystery School’ you belong to. This article is an in depth look at the theological identity of Christ from the original Catholic tradition, the Western Occult tradition, and the Hare Krishna or ‘Vaisnava’ tradition. Research by Bhakti Ananda Goswami on the history of Christianity and the history of ISKCON’s understanding of Jesus, provide the content and context of this article.

CONTENTS:

1) JESUS CHRIST IS JAGAD-GURU

2) THE CATHOLIC LINEAGE OF THE APOSTLES

3) THE VEDIC ROOTS OF WESTERN RELIGION

4) SOME HISTORY OF IMPERSONAL AND GNOSTIC CHRISTIANITY

5) THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN STUDIES WITHIN ISKCON

6) JESUS IN INDIA – QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

1) JESUS CHRIST IS JAGAD-GURU

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Question:   Jesus Christ is jagad-guru, the spiritual master of the whole world. His instructions alone are sufficient for our spiritual welfare. Is it still necessary, then, to accept a mahānta-guru – a great spiritual ācārya (one who teaches by his example) – who is still living in this world?

Answer:   We accept both – jagad-guru and mahānta-guru. If only the jagad-guru-vāda [jagad-guru-ism] is accepted, the result has many undesirable consequences (anarthas). If someone accepts such a great soul from the past – in this case Jesus Christ – as jagad-guru and wishes to follow in his footsteps in the present, but considers that there is no need for any mahānta-guru, it is questionable to what extent he will be able to properly follow the views of Jesus. Only the succession of mahānta-gurus mercifully delivers to us the words of the Supreme Lord or of the jagad-guru ācāryas.

The stream of water that originated in the Himalayas has travelled between Gaṅgā’s banks all the way here, to Navadvīpa. As a result, even though we are sitting at such a distance from her source, we are able to touch water from the Himalayas. In the same manner, mahānta-guru brings the current of the river of śuddha-bhakti – as pure and sacred as the waters of Mandākinī (Gaṅgā). He brings that current, which originates at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, all the way to us and showers it on our heads.

Had the banks of the Ganges not existed, then a person as ordinary and weak as me, a person without resources, could never have been able to climb the Himalayas and touch the water there. And without those riverbanks, the concentrated flow of that pure source from the Himalayas would be scattered and we would often tend to accept some polluted stream as pure Himalayan water, inviting our own misfortune.

If the teachings preached by Jesus Christ two thousand years ago are not carried forward through guru-paramparā into the present time, if Jesus Christ’s message is sought only in books and recorded instructions, then there is a possibility that we will mistakenly accept distortions of the truths preached by Him or even accept views that are opposite to his as his own.

Mahānta-guru is also jagad-guru. He is the manifestation of the previous jagad-guru. He receives the teachings of the jagad-guru through disciplic succession and mercifully delivers them to us. He is not someone who would deceive us by not presenting the real truth or say things just to please us; He does not wish for any worldly thing from us. He is the unbiased deliverer of the truth.”

Translated by the Rays of The Harmonist team from Śrīla Prabhupādera Upadeśāmṛta. The Śrīla Prabhupādera Upadeśāmṛta is a compilation of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda’s instructions, in question-and-answer form.

Comments by Bhakti Ananda Goswami:

From Age to Age / Yuga to Yuga, the Supreme Lord Krishna / HARI (ELI / ARI) raises-up Saints and Prophets, Martyrs and all kinds of other Representatives to act as the ‘banks’ of His Historical and Theological ‘Rivers’ of Divine Revelation and Inspiration to GUIDE His faithful DIKSHA DISCiples back to Home, back to Godhead. Thus His Guru, Shastra and Sadhu Schools (Kulas) or Lineages of DIKSHA Initiation and related Siksha Instruction, derived from His many Self-Revelations and Inspirations, can be found World-wide in the Greater (more well-known) and Lesser (less well known) Bhakti Traditions. Because such Traditions are from their beginning ALWAYS under attack by the Adversary of God’s Self-Revealed Truth, there are also always heretical or deviant counterfeit ‘spiritual traditions’ too.

Thus God also gives His Faithful ways to “Test the Spirits”, so that they will not be misled by ‘False Prophets’ into the worship of ‘False Gods’. Because False Worship in the ‘Modes’ Goodness, Passion and Ignorance is not acceptable to the Real Original Supreme Personality of Godhead, His Devotees must also learn to discriminate between what pleases HIM, what is OFFERABLE TO HIM, and what is NOT! Thus ‘Testing the Spirits’ also involves learning that Krishna-Vishnu is ONLY properly worshiped through SACRIFICE IN THE MODE OF GOODNESS. This distinction has ALWAYS been made by the Devotees of God, as much as possible, according to time and circumstance.

So distinctions have to be made regarding the Modes of Goodness, Passion and Ignorance, in categorizing the Vedic Literatures or Shastras, individual Gurus and entire Sadhu Lineages. The One True God must be identified and worshiped though His authentic Gurus/Revelators/Representatives and authentic ‘Scriptures’ and Commentaries and worshiped via His SATTVIC or benevolent Mode of Goodness behaviours and Rites/Rtyas.

Of course humans are NOT INFALLIBLE, and so one can always find fault with them, but the proper DISCIPLINE of the Guru-Shastra-Sadhu DIKSHA Lineages is designed to help us humans individually and collectively to stay within the ‘banks’ of God’s Holy Guidance. Catholicism is the traditional DIKSHA lineage of Christianity from the teachings of the Apostles. Wikipedia defines Catholicism like this:

“The term has been incorporated into the name of the largest Christian communion, the Roman Catholic Church (also called the Catholic Church). All of the three main branches of Christianity in the East (Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church and Church of the East) had always identified themselves as Catholic in accordance with Apostolic traditions and the Nicene Creed. Anglicans, Lutherans, and some Methodists also believe that their churches are “Catholic” in the sense that they too are in continuity with the original universal church founded by the Apostles. However, each church defines the scope of the “Catholic Church” differently. For instance, the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox churches, and Church of the East, each maintain that their own denomination is identical with the original universal church, from which all other denominations broke away.”

Thus ALL of the Apostolic Churches ARE legitimately CATHOLIC, not just the Latin (Roman) Rite.

2) THE CATHOLIC LINEAGE OF THE APOSTLES

Hindus and Hare Krishna’s usually have no idea about the 20 or so unbroken Apostolic Catholic Mass Rite Lineages of disciplic succession from Jesus Christ. Neither have they studied the primary source references about Judeo-Catholic Ascetic Theology and their sattvic practices of abstinence. Their stereotyping of ‘Western Mleccha Religions’ keeps them typically ignorant of the vows of the Mediterranean Helios-worshiping Jewish ascetics, Nazarites and Essenes, nor the Greek initiates like the Orphics, Pythagoreans, Asclepiadae and the Platonists, nor the Egyptians Serapeans, who all abstained from flesh eating, alcohol, sex and gambling. The Book ‘150 Vegetarian Christian Saints’ by Dr. Holly Roberts gives examples of many such Ascetic Saints of the Catholic tradition.

The Catholic and Orthodox Churches are traditional alliances having authentic Diksha Mass Rite Lineages from the Apostles, who were the direct Disciples of Jesus Christ. The five main Catholic Lineages that have survived unbroken today derive from the Coptic Language Alexandrian Rite of Saint Mark in Africa, the Aramaic ‘Eastern’ Rites derived from Jerusalem and Antioch, the Greek Rite derived from Byzantium and the Latin Rite from Rome.

Different lineages of initiation within the Church are founded by Saints or important spiritual leaders, who establish officially accepted schools of spirituality and specific ‘sadhana’ or devotional practices within each Religious Order. In the Catholic Church there are many Religious Orders and Pious Associations. There are Orders for Men, Women and even Married Couples. There are orders for cloistered monks and nuns and for people who have regular jobs in the World. There is something unique about every Catholic Religious Order.  There are sattvic (vegetarian & celibate) Judeo-Catholic  lineages of  Tzaddik  ascetic monks going back to the time of Abraham. The various Rasa Flavours of Love in Bhakti Yoga are lived-out within the different religious orders of the Catholic Church. Thus some Orders as Brides of Christ emphasize ‘Bridal Mysticism’. Others serve Jesus as a Friend or Brother, or Mary’s Child or as a Teacher, Master, Commander or King.

The sacred holy water rituals, known to the worshipers of Narayana of the Indus-Sarasvati culture, were practiced by the Nazarenes of the near-east. In this way the initiation and purification rites of Jesus were performed in the Holy Jordan by John the Baptist. The Sacred River Mikveoth Baptism and Asceticism (Tzaddik – Sadhaka) Tradition within Judaism was the Cult of ELI-YAHU as NHRYM / NAHARAIM (NARAYAN in Hebrew). The Biblical Name for the ‘Land of the Rivers’ (Tigris and Euphrates) was NHRYM / NAHARAIM / NARAYANA. This in Egypt was MZRYM ‘MIZRAYIM’. The NHL ‘NILE’ was NHR (R=L is a common sound-shift). Hebrew NHR and NAAR was a pun meaning both WATER and MAN. The SAME PUN exists in Sanskrit, which is why NARAYANA is traditionally interpreted as (OF) MAN or (OF) WATER. Nara is Man or Water. Suffix YN (JN etc.) means of, from or related-to. Thus NARA-YANA is OF MAN or OF WATER(S). The NAZAREANS were NAHARAIM / NARAYANA worshipers who practiced bathing in the Sacred Rivers that flowed from the Feet of the Supreme Lord in Heaven. The Ethiopian Church to this day consider the water from the source of the Blue Nile especially Holy and healing.

The DIKSHA initiated DISCIple is BORN AGAIN / TWICE BORN via the Vedic MOKSHA RTYA / MASS RITE of MANU-MISSION. The REDEEMING DIKSHA GURU ‘Takes’ the Sins of the DISCiple and by adopting them gives them their NEW FAMILY (LINEAGE NAME) and their new PERSONAL NAME. The words DISCiple, DISCipline, DOCtor, and DOCument are all Sanskrit root DIKSHA cognates.

The DIKSHA DISCiple learns a DISCipline from a DOCtor who teaches from a Sacred DOCument. Likewise, the Greek male devotees of Kouros Helios and Rhoda-Kore of Rhodes (Krishna and Radha) commonly had initiation names ending in TES or TAS (DES or DAS) meaning ‘Son’ or ‘Servant of’. Those of the Warrior Class in the Lineage of Theseus wore the famous Theseus Tonsure which was shaved entirely in the front with a ‘pony tail’ or ‘sika’ in the back.

Each Mass Rite founded by a Diksha Disciple of the real Jesus Christ, established said Mass Rite and Lineage of Worship in a specific language and culture. Thus the scriptures of each Apostolic Catholic Lineage were and are in the Language of that Lineage. They diffused with each Mass Rite Lineage where ever it spread to. Thus, for example, the Coptic language Mass Rite of Alexandria Egypt spread around Egypt and Northern Africa before the Muslims invaded and nearly wiped it out. Those Coptic Catholics who were in the Sudan were able to survive the invasion of Islam and their RITE was also related to the local GEEZ Language Mass Rite of the Ethiopians. Some Aramaic influences also ended-up in Ethiopia and the Sudan Region, which is why the Catholic Iconography of the Region may look Syriac.

In Vaisnava lineages, authenticity of a scripture or practice is tested by three points of proof – the Guru, the Scriptures, and the Saints (Sadhus).  The exact opposite may be said for today’s typically ‘White Aryanist’ Protestant Christians. Because of this, the typical Northern European, or American Baptist Protestant Minister, or a King James English Bible Scholar from a Fundamentalist Bible College in America, would know nothing about the Bible of the Coptic or the Geez Mass Rite Catholics of Eastern Africa.  What would such a ‘Bible Scholar’ know about the actual Guru, Shastra and Sadhu histories of the multiple Mass Rites of the Apostolic Catholic Church? Such anti-Catholic Protestants BEGIN from the belief that Christianity was somehow lost between the Apostles and their own Protestant Founders, who lived much more recently. Their entire belief system is based on a profound denial of history and even present day reality. They live in a fantasy world, in which their own enormously fact-deficient opinions are more trust-worthy than 2000+ years of intact Guru, Shastra and Sadhu Catholic Traditions.

Because of this difference between Protestant Christianity and the East and West Apostolic Catholicism, the understanding of Christ and the Abrahamic Religions by Hindus and the ISKCON Hare Krishna devotees is often very limited or erroneous.  They tend to lump-in together completely different systems of belief and practise, with no grasp of the profound truth that the authentic SATTVIC Ascetic Judeo-Catholic Apostolic Guru-Shastra-Sadhu Tradition Lineage from the Patriarch and Matriarch Abraham and Sarah is a Vedic-Vaishnava Branch of the Brahma and Sarasvati Sampradaya.

Just as many ‘Hindu’ deviations from the authentic Brahma Sampradaya are now existing World-wide, in the same way many deviations from the authentic Tradition of Abraham and Sarah are now existing around the World. Abraham’s and Sarah’s theophanic tradition names clearly identify their initiated DIKSHA Lineage within the Guru-Shastra-Sadhu Lineage of the Vedic-Vaishnava Brahma Sampradaya. After a lifetime of studying this in great depth, we find the interdisciplinary proof of this connection unimpeachable. [see next chapter – The Vedic Roots of Western Religion]

In regards to the forms of God that were Holy to the Hebrews, the authentic Afro-Helleno-Semitic Guru-Shastra-Sadhu Tradition of Judaism and Catholic Christianity DID worship the Supreme Lord and His feminine Shekinah / Shakti in visible THEOPHANIES, ‘Apparitions’, INCARNATIONS and in both painted and carved (relief) ICONS and MURTIS (three dimensional Forms). Especially the Lord and His Shekinah were worshiped in Their Holy Name-Forms, or NAMA-RUPA Hieroglyphic or Ideographic Forms, which are like the ‘short hand’ version of the standard ICONS and MURTIS of the Eastern Bhakti Traditions of Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shakti-ism and Pure Land Buddhism.

The Brahman is NOT a PERSON of the Godhead! The Brahman Effulgence or Brahma Jyoti is the IMPERSONAL FEATURE of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna Bhagavan. In fact, Sri Krishna’s Bodily Effulgence is an attribute of Lord Baladeva’s. Sri Krishna’s Effulgence, Names and Variegated Forms for Pastimes, His Paraphernalia, His Manifest Abode and ALL Spiritual and Material Worlds are ALL Manifest and Created and Maintained Through, With, In and BY Lord Baladeva (Balarama). Lord Baladeva is the Second Self, the Second Person of Sri Krishna. Thus He is called SAM-KARSHANA! KARSHANA is the SAME NAME as KRISHNA. With Their Holy Spirit, Param-Atma, THEY are the Source of all Attraction, all CHARISMA! The Holy Spirit is personal Paramatma – not impersonal Brahman.

It is easy for ISKCON-related Vaishnavas to make this mistake, because they confuse the Judeo-Christian Trinity with the THREE WAYS OF REALIZING GOD, BRAHMAN, PARAMATMA and BHAGAVAN.

Above on the left of the image, The ‘Most Holy Trinity’ of Purushas, is the original giver / masculine Rhodian-related Afro-Heleno-Semitic, Vaishnava and Buddhist Trikaya. This TRINITY of Transcendent-Mediating-Immanent givers (masculine purushas / persons), namely ~HERU-AUSU-ATUM ~HELI-OS-ATOMOS ~ELI-YAHU-ADON ~HARI-VASU-ATMAN ~KRISHNA-BALADEVA-PARAMATMA is inseparable from their feminine receiving Prakritis (on the right of the image) namely ~RADHA-SHAKTI-JIVA (Sanskrit)  ~RHODA-HEKATE-HEBE (Greek)  ~RHODA-SHEKINAH-HEVA (EVE) (Biblical).

While Hari in the HEART / HRID of all beings is the OMNIPRESENT Immanent Third Person of the ‘Godhead’ of Krishna-Baladeva-Paramatma, Sri Krishna’s Brahman Effulgence IS SPECIFICALLY NOT A PERSONAL REALIZATION OF GOD. Realization of PARAMATMA, BALADEVA or KRISHNA is a PERSONAL realization of GOD. PARAMATMA is God Immanent. BALADEVA is GOD EMANATING, and Krishna is GOD UTTERLY TRANSCENDENT. Together THEY are TRANSCENDENT-EMANATING-IMMANENT. They are the PERSONAL SOURCE, the PERSONAL MANIFESTOR and the OMNIPRESENT MANIFEST PERSON.

If ‘Brahman Realization’ is even slightly tinged with LOVE / LOBHA, it is NOT actually Brahman Realization, because it is PERSONAL. The immutable feature of Brahman Realization is that it is IMPERSONAL. The sense of MERGING experienced in Brahman Realization is only that of becoming or dissolving-into an IMPERSONAL ‘LIGHT’. It is what Catholic Theology calls the kind of Nature Mysticism or Natural Mysticism, which has no experience of any Personal God in it. Furthermore impersonal APOPHATIC meditative practices can lead a soul AWAY from any personal relationship with GOD into a Meister Eckhart like ‘Abyss of the Godhead’ or an atheistic ‘God Beyond God’! These impersonal iconoclastic and even anti-Eucharistic APOPHATIC practices are exactly the kind of covered atheistic ‘Yoga’ that the KATAPHATIC Catholic Theologians have correctly warned everyone about.

Another serious error to be avoided is the idea that Jesus Christ is only the Demigod Brahma. This is also a common misconception in ISKCON related circles. All of these various errors arise from the sad fact that the ISKCON-related Devotees have gotten their predominating ideas about Jesus Christ from all kinds of Sources EXCEPT the Guru, Shastra and Sadhu Apostolic Catholic Lineages from Lord Jesus Christ, Himself. From ANY of the many surviving Catholic Apostolic Lineages, either in the Western (‘Roman’) Catholic or in the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Communions, one can learn the truth about what the direct Disciples, the Apostles of Jesus Christ taught about Him, and about Him being the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity. From Africa to India, all of the Ancient Apostolic Catholic Lineages will tell you the SAME THING. Jesus is not just ‘a son of God’. He is the Second Person of the Godhead, Who Incarnated as the Son of God!

I have travelled around the World on college contracted field studies viewing and studying hundreds of such Vaishnava related Afro-Helleno-Semitic Judeo-Catholic ‘sacred art’ Icons and Murtis. In early Christianity there was an Iconoclasm controversy, but the Apostolic Catholic ‘Fathers’ strongly defended the worship of the Lord and Our Lady, Mother Mary, in Their sacred art Icons, Murtis (Sculpted) and miraculously manifesting ‘material’ Forms. When critics attacked the repetition of the Lord’s Holy Name or prayers to Mary and the Saints, again the Catholic Apostolic Tradition strongly defended these practices as pious and holy.

When Gnostic Mayavadis concocted bogus non-sampradaya teachings about Jesus Christ, and later Mohammed and other Protestants tried to concoct all kinds of deviant teachings while throwing-out the principle of Diksha Lineage Guru, Shastra and Sadhu, the authentic Coptic, Hebrew, Aramaic/Arabic, Greek and Latin Mass Rites of the One True Apostolic (Catholic) Church stood strong against all such deviations in their defence of their authentic Guru (contemporary Priestly and Teaching Authority), Shastras / Scriptures, and Sadhu / Sadhaka (Jewish TZADDIK) Catholic Ascetic Tradition of Veneration of the Saints.

Thus the authentic Judeo-Catholic Repository of the Faith includes the entire Tradition of their Holy Scriptures and Tzaddik / Ascetic Saints’ commentaries in the original Biblical Languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, Coptic, Greek and Latin. From the ‘Old Testament’ description of the NAZARITES and the Priestly Lineage of Melchi-ZEDEK / TZADDIK, down to John the Baptist and Jesus Christ Himself, we have the Bible’s own testimony regarding the authenticity of its Sattvic/Ascetic Abrahamic Tradition. Then from ALL of the Catholic Apostolic Fathers and the history of the early Catholic Church, we have the indisputable evidence of that SAME Ascetic / SATTVIC Diksha Tradition continuing from Lord Jesus Christ.

It is Leaders of this SAME authentic Judeo-Catholic ‘Abrahamic’ Guru-Shastra-Sadhu Tradition who today most honour Krishna-centred Vaishnavism. Among Judaism’s and Catholicism’s most realized scholars and spiritual leaders, there is an eagerness to understand WHY there is such a profound ‘dogmatic’ theological and ‘ascetic’ (moral) theological connection between Krishna-centred Vaishnavism and the Paradisiacal Bridal Mysticism Tradition of the Judeo-Catholic Abrahamic Tradition. Around the world I have met Catholic Priests, Monks, Nuns and Scholars, and Orthodox Jewish Scholars, and Sattvic Sufi Muslims, who told me that they had discovered from their Traditions that Krishna was their God. Catholics recognised the Virginal Mary as the Mystical Rose / RHODA MYSTICA. As Rhoda Regina, She is RADHA-RAJANI, RADHA-RANI the Queen of Paradise.

Tragically the extremely anti-Jewish and Anti-Catholic dis-information and hate-mongering that is popular among Hindus and Vaishnavas today has obscured / blocked their perception of the reality of these profoundly important Brahma-Sarasvati and Abraham-Sarah Sampradaya DIKSHA Lineage connections. Such connections cannot be ascertained from studying the deviant Traditions of iconoclastic Mohammedanism and Protestantism.

Equally important to avoid are the deviant doctrines that claim Jesus was a fabrication, a compilation of pagan resurrection myths. The Academic ‘Search for the Historical Jesus’ Seminar Group claims that Jesus Christ was a real human who was Deified. Others have claimed that there was never any real man Jesus Christ, but that Jesus Christ was a mythological being, an imaginary ‘god’ who was humanized. Was Jesus Christ only a Deified Human or a Humanized Deity? These are the two challenges to the existence of the Apostles’ Divine Jesus Christ that are being recirculated today in various academic circles and popular media.

3) THE VEDIC ROOTS OF WESTERN RELIGION

HARI is one of the most essential Revealed Names of the One True God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This Holy Name can be found throughout the World in cognate forms such as in the African Niger related Languages OLU, the Egyptian HERU, Roman SOLE, Greek HELI, KYRIE  and KOUROS etc., Biblical Hebrew ELI, ALI, ARI, ORI, URI etc., Persian HVARE, Sumerian ILU and Indic HARI, HARA, SURA etc.

The Heart, Circle, Lion, Eagle, or the substance or Colour Gold or Yellow were pictorial puns, hieroglyphs or symbols for the Supreme Lord and His Primal HR or HL Holy Name HARI. Thus when viewing any ancient religious art with these figures, one should understand that the figure originally represented GOD-WHO-IS-LOVE, the Lord of the Heart, HARI. This HARI, Who is the Divine Love, Light and Life of all Beings, is the ancient Lord of the Africans, the Indo-Europeans, the Biblical Semites, Persians, Indians and Asians. He, HARI is Jesus as the PHO eternal Light of God and the Infinite Light and Life (Amita-Bha and Amita-Yus) of the Pure Land Buddhists. By studying the Holy Names of the Supreme Father God World-wide, we can trace-out the history of His worship in the Three Modes of Material Nature, and understand the fundamental conflict between the various Peoples whose cultures tended-towards Goodness, Passion and Ignorance. Properly HARI is only worshiped in the benevolent Sattvic Mode of Goodness. Sri Krishna, HARI Himself, explains this in detail to His Friend Arjuna, in His Bhagavad-Gita.

African HERU-WASU-ATEN, Greek HELI-US-ATOMOS, Jewish ELI-YAHU-ADON as the Vaisnava HARI-VASU-ATMAN, is an example of tracing the Heliopolitan Asyla Federation VISHNU-TATTVA forms from Africa to India. There is a world full of evidence proving these very ancient connections. We truly have one Godhead and one Holy Mother and one universal religion of love and grace.

The dual names and forms of God known as Krishna and Baladeva have equivalent names and forms in Hebrew, Egyptian and Ancient Greek. The primary name of Krishna – Hari – translates to the primary names of God as Eli in Hebrew, Heru in Egyptian, and Helios in Greek. Similarly, the names of Baladeva have equivalent names and forms in the ancient Heliopolitan Mediterranean federation. Baladeva, as the supreme servitor God, takes an amazing variety of forms to serve the Lord. Sometimes as Mahavishnu, sometimes as Shiva, many times as lila avatars, as Lord Nityananda, as Sad-Guru, and wonderful forms as Ananta-Shesha, Garuda, the Cosmic Purusha, Ananta-Patanjali and Ananta-Caraka, who is identified with the incarnation who heals and saves, Jesus Christ. It is not surprising that initiates into these Heliopolitan mystery schools from Greece to Jerusalem worshipped in the mode of goodness, and followed principles such as abstinence and vegetarianism. Worshipers not initiated into the sattvic rites, would have rather eaten flesh and wine, and performed blood sacrifices, such as the Jewish and Greek sacrifice of lambs.

Helios/ELI-YAHU/HERU-WASU Kouros is Krishna. He is the Origin of all of the Heliopolitan Gods/gods. He is the Origin of all of the Kouroi Cowherd Boys, the Gopala Paladin Pals/Friends of His Bucolic Paradise. Helios as His Own Second Self …is BAL-YAHU, BALADEVA, or Osiris- Dionysos. Bal-Yahu is the Hierophant High Priest and Initiator into the Boukolion Bucolic Gokula Hierogamos Divine Love Mysteries of Rhoda-Kouros Radha-Krishna on Their Prehistoric Sacred Lotus Isle Dvipa of Rhodes! Bal-Yahu is the Second Person of Helios. He alone is the revealed MULTI FORM and the NAMA of HELIOS. All realms and worlds lokas/locales are manifested, created and maintained through, with, in and by Him. Through Bal-Yahu Helios infinitely expands Himself as the Kouroi (Gopa) Cowherd Boys and the Gods gods. Through Bal-Yahu Helios also appears in Theophanies and Incarnation as Delphinos / Matsya, Kelemos/ Kurma.

Helios Triocculous is Time YAHU TZABAOTH ARYAHU Ari-El (the Lion of Judah) Who is Nara Hari! Helios Polieus is the Rig Vedic Purusha. Helios as ATUM/ATEN, ADON, ATOMOS, AUTOS, ONTOS, etc. is the Holy Spirit Paramatma. Helios as Parasurama is Cadmus. Helios as Indra is Zeus Fulgar. Helios as Quadrigos is Krishna Partha Sarathi. Helios as Brahma is the 4 headed and 4 armed Phanes of Heliopolitan Egypt. Helios BAL-Yahu as the Son and world-healing Great Physician is Asclepius (Serapis, Eshmun, Aesculapius, Yakushi-ji etc.) WHO IS ANANTA BALADEVA AS THE AYUR VEDIC GREAT PHYSICIAN CARAKA! Helios as Shiva is inseparable from the entire mega Tradition of BAL-YAHU, especially in his most renounced and/or ‘wrathful’ Forms, such as His Lion Headed Form as Time. Helios Kouros is the Ever New/NAVA and supremely Beautiful Juvenile/Yauvana Youth. Helios Bal-Yahu is also the Older than the Oldest Ancient of Days, and the Form of Chronus/Time, as the Reaper/ Harvester of all temporary manifestations and worlds. Helios Bal-Yahu is MIN whose phallic symbol reveals Him as the MANU Progenitor of all mankind. He is the SEED GIVER of all existences and thus is AR-ATOR or Baladeva as HALA-DHARA. As YAMA the Judge of the Dead, He is Yima, Yamm in the Levant and the Dog Headed YAma- Dharmaraja as ANUBIS in Egypt. As the Lord situated within the Heart of the Sun, He is SOLEUS/ HELIOS / SURYA. As the Source of the Light of the Brahman He is the Lord of the City of PR-AHMAN the ON or AMUN of Heliopolis Magna in Northern Egypt. As Vasudeva He is the Lord of the Southern Egyptian Tradition of HERU-WASU and the Basileos Vasudevas at Thebes.

Helios is the dwarf Savior-God Bes. Helios is the Patron Protector of accountants, notary-publics and treasurers in the Form of Egyptian KPHR / KUBERA! As the NIGHT LIGHT of the Moon, Bal-Yahu is the Western Semities’ SIN/SOM (SOMA) CHONS (CHANDRA) Masculine ‘Moon-God” of the Soma Rasa Night Revelling Rasa Lila Tradition. He is the LORD of Jericho, the City of Palms! Thus Helios Bal-Yahu is TALA-Dhvaja, Whose Flag (Dhvaja or standard, coat of arms or shield) is emblazoned with His Emblem the Palm Frond or Palm Tree! Bal-Yahu is Garutman GARUDA, Seshata SESHA, the Serpent of Infinity SARPA ANANTA, Nahush NAGA and Nahustan NAGA-STANU the NAGAKAL of the AYUR VEDIC ANANTA SESHA SARPA NAGA medical revelation of Lord Baladeva as the Great Physician’s ALTER-FORM that is called His SERAPHIC (SARPA, SERPENT) Form in Biblical Tradition. In Egypt HERU is depicted by His CIRCLE GLYPH ‘riding’ or seated on His Mount and Alter-Form of ASU as the Giant Egyptian Cobra, or Winged Cobra SERAPH/ Dragon! The Winged Cobra Seraph is a Grauda-Ananta Icon that identifies Guruda and Ananta as Forms of the Same Lord, Who is the Second Person and sole, alone, only Revelator of the Heru-Asu-Aten Godhead! There are countless more connections between the Mediterranean and Eastern and even Western Hemisphere Heliopolitan-related Traditions of Bhakti Yoga devotion to THIS ONE GODHEAD. When will the devotees of the Lord learn this and embrace each other as long-lost loved ones again?

The above collage illustrates how the symbology of the Supreme Lord – Krishna as the Charioteer and personification of Time – has influenced religious iconography from the Middle East to the Mediterranean in ancient times. Often misunderstood as simply a Solar Deity, Lord Hari is seen here to be Helios, the driver of the four-horse ‘quadriga’ and master of the zodiac and time.

Coins of the Bactrian Era North western Greek Kingdoms of Greater India had Helios Quadrigos on them, which were reportedly indistinguishable from the traditional depiction of Krishna driving Partha’s (Arjuna’s) 4-Horse Chariot (Quadriga). Hari / Eli / Helios as PARTHA SARATHI the Driver of the 4-horse chariot, should not be confounded with Surya Narayana who rides a 5 or 7 horse chariot.

Here also Helios is depicted as Heru in Egypt, and in the floor mosaic at the Beit Alpha Synagogue, as Aten at the Sepphoris Synagogue, and on the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemaios Manuscript from the 8th century CE from the Geographia of Ptolemy. In Rome, the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, with Helios in the centre, identified as the Christ by the cross, twelve naked female figures represent the hours, twelve clothed apostles represent the twelve months, and surrounding that the twelve zodiac signs.

Jesus as Asclepius Iasas had two classical Iconographic Forms. One was His eternal Youth/ Kouros Form (Baladeva’s Original Form) and the other was His mature bearded Great Physician Form. In many surviving early Icons of Jesus Christ, He is a beautiful Youth.

“Once, upon seeing the suffering of the fallen souls, Lord Ananta Balarama decided to return to the Earth in a secret Incarnation as a wandering mendicant Healer Who would Heal the Whole World. How would He end the karmic suffering of the whole Cosmos? As the Rig Vedic Cosmic Purusha Himself, He could do it. Thus He stepped-into-Time to take away the sins of the entire cosmic manifestation. As the Great Physician, Who revealed the AYUR VEDA, HE returned to take away the sins of the world, and to teach humankind the path of transcendental forgiveness and LOVE! His ‘Hindu’ ‘Wanderer’ Name was CHARAKA, and the wandering mendicant order of CHARAKA healers was named after Him. In the Mediterranean Region He was called SERAPIS, ESHMUN, AESCULAPIUS, ASCLEPIOS IASAS or YAHU-SHUA (JESUS) and many other Holy Names. East or West, His places of worship, like Alexandria, Epidaurus, Ephesus and Pergamum were the greatest centres of learning and healing in the ancient World.”

4) SOME HISTORY OF IMPERSONAL & GNOSTIC CHRISTIANITY

Gnosticism as an identifiable phenomenon, was first documented after the Advent of Jesus Christ. It was not a single school of thought like the other Philosophical Schools etc. in the Mediterranean Region. Instead it was the no-school School of those with no bonafide lineage. Anyone could claim that they had Gnostic ‘Higher Wisdom’ and gain a following. Anyone could CLAIM to have known Jesus Christ or to have a ‘Gospel’ and thus get into the lucrative guru business by using His Name. What the ancient Gnostics did had nothing to do with the White Racism of the Modern Era Neo-Gnostics 17, 18, 19 or 20 centuries later! Still, because the developers of the Western Occult Tradition considered themselves GNOSTICS, and they held some common Gnostic Beliefs, they historically wed their Neo-Gnosticism to White Racist Aryanism.

Srila Prabhupada warned us that impersonalists (whom he called “covered atheists”) are expert at using the “flowery words of the Vedas” to mislead the Devotees of God. In fact he came to the West to “…deliver the Western Countries from impersonalism and voidism”. He arrived at a time when the Western Occult Tradition (WOT) ‘New Age Movement’ was destroying the ancient DEVOTIONAL / BHAKTI TRADITIONS OF THE WEST. The other Indian ‘Gurus’ and popular New Age Writers who were teaching in the West were primarily teaching MAYAVADI impersonalism. They expertly ABUSED the “flowery words” of the World’s Holy Books, including the Bible and the Vedas etc., to aggrandize themselves and to teach doctrines that actually contradicted the teachings of those same Scriptures and the Lineages of Saints that preserved them.

Dr. Acharya Prabhakar Mishra was both Srila Prabhupada’s first disciple, and his Sanskrit teacher. They studied together for several years while trying to establish the League of Devotees in Jhansi, India. In my discussions with Dr. Acharya Prabhakar Mishra regarding Srila Prabhupada’s knowledge-of and attitude-toward the Judeo-Christian Tradition, he affirmed to me that Srila Prabhupada’s main experience with and concern was about anti-Catholic Protestantism and the Aryan Christ teachings of Western Occult Tradition Mayavadi groups such as the Vedanta Society, the Theosophical Society, and various Rosicrucian and Masonic related (New Age Neo-Gnostic) groups in India. These were the two groups that they (Srila Prabhupada and Dr. Mishra) had the most experience with, and trouble with while trying to establish their League of Devotees in Jhansi.

While the anti-Catholic Protestants were overtly opposed to their Hari Nama Sankirtan public preaching campaign, it was the Mayavadi Theosophists and Vedanta Society etc. people whose infiltration, promised and feigned support for them proved to be the real danger. Dr. Mishra narrated to me how they gained and then lost the facility that was promised to them as a headquarters for the League of Devotees.

He explained how the high-class Hindus of the Theosophical Society etc. would come to their classes and actually try to influence, hijack and take-over the League of Devotees to use it for their own Mayavadi campaign. Thus he described such Mayavadis as pervasive and insidious in their influence among the higher class educated Hindus, who would not really take-to Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s non-sectarian Hari Nama Sankirtan Movement. Instead such Mayavadis would try to parasite-on or infect the Movement and the League of Devotees to USE it to spread their own doctrines!

This is one of the reasons that Srila Prabhupada was so determined to escape India and go to the West, where he thought that the powerful influence of Annie Besant’s (and Blavatsky’s) Theosophy and the Vedanta Society of Vivekananda etc. was not as powerful. Since their League of Devotees Mission in Jhansi was undermined and then ruined by the influence and then the sabotage of these related groups of Mayavadis (covered atheists), Srila Prabhupada realized that his own Guru’s order to take Gaudiya Vaishnavism to the WEST was truly prophetic, and thus Srila Prabhupada was convinced that it MUST BE DONE, even though he had no clue as to how the Lord was going to employ him to do it.

Thus at a time when all pious devotion to THE SUPREME PERSONALITY OF GODHEAD seemed threatened, as an entire generation of young Westerners was abandoning the theistic Bhakti DEVOTION of their ancestors, Srila Prabhupada appeared to counter the atheistic influence of the Mayavadi Indian Gurus and their Western Occult Tradition New Age ‘Masters’.

Tragically, many of Srila Prabhupada’s Followers were already infected with the covered Form of Mayavadi New Age Atheism, which they brought with them into ISKCON. The poisonous effect of this Mayavadi Impersonalism, spread throughout ISKCON, becoming pervasive. Thus today’s ISKCON-related Devotee Community is still infested and infected with the lingering effects of the 1960s Mayavadi Gurus’ Drug Culture. And, they still have their Aryan Christ of the Western Occult Tradition as a kind of mascot or poster boy for Christian Vegetarianism. Never caring to learn the truth about the Jesus Christ of the Apostles, some of these ISKCON related Devotees are still promoting modern FICTIONS ABOUT CHRIST as if these were the same as ancient revealed Shastras. Some Devotees even say that it is not important to distinguish the modern frauds from ancient Scriptures ….  This attitude is most unfortunate for them and for all of humanity, because the truth is supremely important.

The fictional (concocted) ‘Jesus the Christ’ of the Western Occult Tradition (eg. the Theosophical Society and related New Age Neo-Gnostic ‘Spiritualities’) is NOT the original Jesus Christ of the Apostles and the various authentic Mass Rites of the ancient Apostolic Catholic Church that the Apostles, the DIKSHA DISCiples of the real Jesus Christ founded.

Respecting each spirit-soul as equally beloved of God should mean certain things when it comes to our behaviour. Being honest with everyone is essential. The honest person does not purposely delude others, telling them made-up stories, while claiming these to be God’s Truth. The honest or SANE person does not FALSELY claim to be an Avatara of God, or a Prophet, Guru / Master or a Saint. The honest or sane person does not falsely claim to be ‘channelling’ or to be a ‘spirit medium’ of God or Jesus Christ or Mary or some Angel or Saint or some ‘Ascended Master of the Great White / Aryan Brotherhood’! When dishonest persons make such outrageously false claims, leading too-trusting souls astray, someone must object!

Please do not confuse polytheistic, pantheistic, neo-pagans, ‘Holy Spirit’ Omnipresent (Personal) God or Goddess Worshipers or ‘Brahmavadis’ with MAYAVADI IMPERSONALISTS. Sometimes you can identify a Mayavadi Impersonalist by what they say or write, by their WORDS, but as you have noted above, it is really in their actions or inactions that such Impersonalists can be identified. They can read Shastras and chant mantras for years and still be completely hard hearted.

As a doctoral level historian of religion I am careful to use exacting or specific language as much as possible to describe what I am writing about. No-matter what words I use, someone will misunderstand, because to them, my words have a different meaning. I encountered the problem with the term ‘New Age Movement’ back in the 1960s. Even then ‘New Age’ was being used differently as a self-identification by various groups. This popular use of the term was thus very non-specific and its users were quite unaware of the historical genesis of the term AND the Movement that it was an inseparable part-of. It is that historically documentable Movement that I am referring to when I use the term ‘New Age’.

Ancient streams of thought converged in the Modern Era to form the Western Occult (or Esoteric) Tradition. This ‘WOT’ Movement gained in popularity during the 18th and 19th Centuries with the pseudo-sciences of early species evolution, eugenics and White Racist Aryanism. Social Darwinism and Material Atomism (with its historical roots in the ancient Greek School of atheistic Material Atomism [see Democritus]) and Neo-Gnosticism all played a role in this Movement, which was popularized by the Spirit Mediums, raising the Ord, séances, necromancy, and mystical ‘orientalism’ which was at first a kind of romantic fascination with ancient Egypt, but which redirected its focus to Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Kashmir and especially Tibet.

The THEISTIC forms of unitive Nature Mysticism AND the actually atheistic forms of MAYAVADI IMPERSONALISM were all part of this Western Occult Tradition. The Egyptian related Fraternal Orders were heavily influenced by various schools of Sufism. These of course became Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. As the popular focus of this modern trend in popular ‘wisdom’ or mysticism shifted to India, it was absolutely NOT the Bhakti Traditions of Hinduism or Mahayana Buddhism that were incorporated into the Western Occult Traditions.

Instead, when Madam H.P. Blavatsky, already a notorious Russian religious hoaxer and con artist, took her ‘Spiritual Medium’ act to Sri Lanka and became an initiated Theravadin Buddhist atheist there, it was the beginning of the deepening of the historical relationship between the occult atheism of the Western Occult Tradition and the atheistic Mayavadi ‘Hindus’ and Theravadin ‘Buddhists’ of the East.

Blavatsky’s Theosophy became very popular among the elite educated Euro-‘Aryans’ and the native ‘White Aryans’ of the Region. It was exoterically theistic, stealing passages and entire ‘scriptures’ from real Bhakti Traditions, and re-tooling them for use in Blavatsky’s Theosophy. Her disciple, Annie Besant became a major figure in the history of Modern India. While Blavatsky, Besant and Olcott used their fake miracles and the “flowery words of the Vedas” to enthral people, their ‘higher wisdom’ teachings were completely atheistic. They, the powerful Theosophists, allied themselves to the Mayavadi and White Aryanist Racist Hindus and Theravadin Buddhist Racist Aryanist Sinhalese rulers of Sri Lanka.

The wealthy and powerful Theosophists funded regional and Global HINDU and BUDDHIST Conferences in which they cleverly promoted the Atheistic Mayavadi and Theravadin Traditions as the OLDEST and/or MOST AUTHENTIC and ‘highest’ wisdom (GNOSIS) of the Oriental Masters. At these Melas the Mayavadis and Theravadins were promoted while the Vaishnavas and Pure Land Buddhists were marginalized or not invited at all.

In my life I have attended some huge Global ‘interfaith’ events sponsored by the Theosophical Society, and they are STILL doing the same thing that Blavatsky did when she first used the ploy of these Conferences to promote her Occult Atheism Agenda. The innocent Back-to-Nature ‘New Agers’ that attend these Conferences and New Age Fairs funded by the Theosophical Society and its off-shoots (Alice Bailey, the Moonies and countless others) have no idea what they are really being manipulated into.

The degree of the influence of the Theosophists on the various lodges of the Fraternal Orders determined how much ‘covered atheism’ that their members were exposed to. Thus some lodges developed in the direction of White Racist Aryanism and Mayavada and others developed more as centres of Sufi, Protestant Christian Neo-Gnostic Mysticism, or even as centers of the study of Hermeticism and Kaballah or Jewish Merkabah Mysticism. Thus People today must realize that even within so-called Freemasonry, there is a vast difference of beliefs and practices between the individual lodges.

Just as Theosophy formed the foundation of the ATHEISTIC or religio-political RUSSIAN and Soviet Communist ‘LEFT’ SIDE of the eventual ‘New Age Movement’, Southern State Free Masonry in America formed the THEISTIC religio-political ‘RIGHT’ SIDE of the religio-political Movement in America. Previous to the rise of the Religio-Political Atheistic ‘Left’ in Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church was as ‘Far-Right’ as possible.

What has happened since the fall of the militantly atheistic Communist Soviet Union, is the rapid rise to power of the old Czarist Far-Right, backed by the Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow. This Church has active ties to the most Far-Right of the Protestant Evangelical Movement in America. The Russian White Racist Aryanists are close allies of the KKK and Neo-Nazi ‘Christian Identity Movement’ militias in America. Just as the Theosophists today deny the key role of Blavatsky’s Theosophy in the rise of the Third Reich, they also deny the role of THEIR WOT in today’s resurgence of Aryanist White Racism and Neo-Nazism. Of course a fanatical Neo-Gnostic hatred of the God of the Jews and of Judaism and Jews is an important part of this whole phenomenon. But, when occult traditions are involved, the reality behind the appearance can be very complicated. Thus on both the Global Far-Right and the Global Far-Left we can find the pervasive influences of the WOT.

All of the New Age Religions that have major beliefs derived from the Western Occult Tradition (think Theosophy etc.) are part of what historians of religion call the New Age Movement.

Vegetarianism, non-violence, environmentalism, being non-sexist and non-racist, voluntary simplicity etc. are all entirely other than The New Age Movement, but THE PROMOTERS OF NEW AGE MOVEMENT have USED all of these other popular social movements to spread their own teachings and practices. Thus for example, when ISKCON’s New Vrindavan was opened-up to ecumenical and interfaith activity, it was immediately exploited by various Theosophy related New Age ‘New Religious Movements’ seeking to exploit the Devotees’ hospitality to promote their OWN agendas.

Having studied various Mayavadi and non-traditional WOT related Movements in Hinduism, like the Vedanta Society, and the iconoclastic Arya Samaja, or the links between the Western Occult Tradition (WOT) and Paramahansa Yogananda’s SRF, or the Indian Theosophical Society’s (Annie Besant’s) powerful influence on all of Indian Politics, it is clear why the Acharyas of Gaudiya Vaishnavism strongly opposed the pernicious influence of ALL of these groups. The authentic lineages of Vaishnavism may have seemed backward and ‘sectarian’ to outsiders, but within the ‘Hindu’ religio-political context of ‘Modern Era’ British India, it was the Vaishnavas who were holding fast against the pressure of the small MINORITY ELITE RACIST ARYANIST BRAHMINS, who were HEAVILY INFLUENCED by the Western Occult Tradition (WOT).

If one studies the ‘back-stories’ and related doctrines of the New Age ‘Mayavadi Hindu’ and Theravadin ‘Buddhist’ organizations or movements IN THE EAST, one will encounter these WOT teachings. Thus the SAME STORIES of Jesus in the Lamasery in Tibet, or in the Bhavishya Purana or at Jagannatha Puri or as the King of Kashmir and buried in Srinagar etc. are commonly encountered in all of these New Age (Theosophical Society etc.) influenced Hindu and Buddhist organizations and movements. Some of these New Age WOT originated stories have even become important in various heretical Sufi related Muslim Sects, like the Ahmadiyyas.

So-accepted have these modern ‘urban legends’ become, in India (and the region), that they have influenced the Gaudiya Vaishnavism of today. The WOT had a huge influence on some of Srila Prabhupada’s most powerful disciples. They brought their WOT doctrines (and stories) into the Hare Krishna Movement and normalised these within ISKCON. Thus, many Devotees just accepted as factual, that there were NO intact, surviving sampradayas from Lord Jesus Christ, and so they readily adopted the ‘Jesus In India’ Gnostic ‘Higher Wisdom’ or Theosophical Society ‘Secret Doctrine’ narrative of their New Age ISKCON Gurus. Not understanding that these Aryan Christ of the East teachings were ALL originating in MAYAVADI SOURCES, many Devotees accepted and promoted them.

An amazing development in our time has been the rise of these two adversarial factions within the New Age Movement, with the Far-Left WOT New Agers accusing the Far Right New Agers of trying to create a Theocratic New World Order or One World Order, while the Far-Right WOT New Agers accuse the Far-Left of trying to created an Atheistic One World or New World Order. In this madness BOTH extremist groups blamed the JEWS and the CATHOLICS for what ills humanity, accusing each other as shills or agents for their mutual enemies, Judaism and Catholicism. When the fear and hate mongering message is coming from the Left-influenced sources, it may identify the Jews, Catholics and Freemasons together. When the opposite is the case, the Jews and Catholics may be identified as puppets of the atheistic Russian Communists.

5) THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN STUDIES WITHIN ISKCON

After so many instructions on the subject of the importance of the principle of Guru, Shastra and Sadhu, why do ISKCON related Devotees pollute their minds with all of these non-sampradaya and Theosophical Society New Age related Mayavadi-sampradaya literatures? Just because a literature uses the “flowery words of the Vedas’ and all kinds of ‘spiritual’ vegetarian God-talk, does not mean that it is ANY kind of an authentic ancient ‘Scripture’. This is why these Western Occult Tradition ‘New Age’ authors go to such lengths to make-up their fantastic stories of seeing Golden Tablets from an Angel or reading Akashic Records, or channelling Jesus or Mary or getting materialized letters from some supernatural Mahatmas or finding lost or hidden manuscripts in the Vatican or a Tibetan Lamasery, or some other fabulous nonsense that only they have seen, or can miraculously translate!

The Western Occult Tradition related New Age Movement, with its historical roots in Neo-Gnosticism, and the Caste Brahmin Racist Aryanism Advaita Vedanta and Theravadin Buddhism hybrid ‘Theosophy’ of H.P. Blavatsky, is essentially the covered atheism of Mayavadi Hinduism and the nihilistic nothing-ism of Sunyavadi Theravadin ‘Buddhism’. As Vaishnavas, we were supposed to help our Sampradaya Gurus to ‘…deliver the Western Countries from impersonalism and voidism’. But instead, being taken-in by the ‘Hindu’ like allurements of New Age Occultism, countless Vaishnava Devotees have now unwittingly become the purveyors of impersonalism and voidism. The pathological fascination with the Western Occult Tradition of some of the ISKCON 11 ‘Zonal Acharyas’ and other ISKCON sannyasi-gurus resulted in their poisoning of ISKCON with covered Mayavadism and related pro-Nazi Racist Aryanism and Anti-Semitism.

ISKCON researchers rarely address the historical or theological connections between the Judeo-Catholic Apostolic Tradition and Vaishnavism. We find Srila Prabhupada’s recorded statements on Christ and Christianity are usually responsorial and contextual in nature, addressing only those issues immediately relevant to the persons that he is in dialogue with. His responses were also appropriately coming-from and expressed-in the language-of his own life’s time-and-circumstance.

A thorough study of Srila Prabhupada’s statements about Jesus Christ, Christianity and the Bible reveals he never discussed any of the following topics specific to my years of research:

1. The Septuagint or any of the Apostolic Catholic Bibles or other writings of the Apostolic Catholic Fathers or the Catholic Saints.
2. The Apostolic Catholic Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead and Universal Saviour.
3. Jesus Christ as the Ayur Vedic World-saving Great Physician Ananta Charaka (Baladeva) Incarnate.
4. Jesus Christ as the Cosmic Sacrifice described in the Rig Vedic Purusha Sukta Creation Hymn
5. The Jesus Christ of the Catholic Apostolic Church as the Glory / Doxa / Tejas of God the Father or His Onoma / NAME or His Prasadam / Eucharist or His Veritas Icon / Archana Form etc.
6. The Apostolic Revelation of Jesus Christ’s Self Sacrifice on the Cross as Yupa Dhvaja, His accepting the Sins of the World with an offering of Tulasi Leaves (being Vishnu Tattva), His Iconographic Features and Stigmata as the Tigma / Tika Marks of His previous Avatars, His Birth in Bethlehem ePHRATA / BHARATA which fulfilled the Vedic Prophecies, His traditional likeness as that of Baladeva (Dionysos Kouros) in His Youth and Baladeva Ananta Charaka (Asclepius IASAS / JESUS) in His Maturity, His uniqueness as the Only Begotten (Mono-Genous sole, only, same generated) Incarnate Son of God, His unique Person as One-In-Being / Homo-Ousios with The Father as the God-From-God Second Person of the Godhead through Whom All Things in Heaven and on Earth were made etc., the Doctrine of His Virgin Birth, His Transcendent Abode in the Heaven of Heaven as both the King of the Eternal Jerusalem ‘City of God’ and the Leader of the Circle Dance of Divine Love in the Bucolic Garden of Paradise –  and countless other important Revelations.
7. The Moral (Ascetic) Theology of the Nazarites and the other Tzaddiks of the Jewish Tradition, including John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and the Apostolic Disciples of Jesus and Their Catholic Mass Rite Lineages.
8. The 5 main Catholic Mass Rite Lineages (Sampradayas) that are are still unbroken from Jesus Christ.
9. The difference between the Jesus of these 5 main and unbroken Catholic Lineages and the Jesus of anti-Catholic Protestantism, Mohammed’s Religion, the racially ‘White’ Aryan Christ of Theosophy / New Age Occultism and modern Hinduism etc.
10. The historical relationship between the ascetical Hebrews / Abhiras, the Yadus and the Jews, especially the Nazarites, and the Vaishnavas of India.
11. The historical and theological connections between the Rhodian Tradition of the Dodanim / Rhodanim of the Judeo-Catholic Bridal Mysticism “Song of Songs” Tradition and the Eastern worship of Radha-Krishna.
12. The ‘Fall’ of the finite Jiva Soul (Hebrew HEVA / EVE) from her relationship with God / ADON-YAHU / ATMAN (God as ADAM KADMON) due to her tasting of the ‘Forbidden Fruit’.
13. Mary as Mother Mary-Miriam (Juno-MARINA) NARI-NARAYANI, as the Queen of Heaven REGINA / RAJANI / RANI and as RHODA MYSTICA / RADHA the Ever-Virgin Maiden Beloved of God!
14. Countless other historical and theological connections between the JUDEO-CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC REVELATION and that of Brahma Sampradaya Vaishnavism, Sattvic Theistic Shaivism and Pure Land Buddhism.

The obvious question is why Srila Prabhupada is not on record as discussing any of the above with his Disciples or others. For example, why did he never discuss any of these historical, theological or philosophical subjects with me, a Disciple of his and an acknowledged expert in this area of comparative East-West Bhakti Tradition studies?

The answer is that between 1972 and 1977, I was told by my ISKCON Authorities NOT to write to Srila Prabhupada about my “speculations” and blasphemous NONSENSE about the Jesus Christ of the ‘bogus’ Catholic Church. When I wrote long letters about my research discoveries or tried to discuss these with my ISKCON authorities, they were utterly dismissive of me. At the same time they were reading and sharing with each other all kinds of Western Occult Tradition (Theosophy related) New Age literatures and modern myths.

Thus I was never able to directly communicate with Srila Prabhupada. Instead Srila Prabhupada’s recorded (preserved) statements and discussions about Jesus, Judaism, Christianity and the Bible were all within the time-and-circumstance context of his interactions with others … others whose interest was primarily in things like the New Age Jesus of the “Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ”, or the Aryan Christ of Puri or the Muslim Jesus of the centuries of Islamic Rule in India, or the Protestant Jesus of the British Raja that he learned about in his English Education.

Srila Prabhupada never had the occasion to examine the evidence or discuss the historical and theological connections between the Great Bhakti Traditions of the East and West. Even in his brief interactions with a few Catholic Priests, Srila Prabhupada said ‘keep your religion, but come up to the mode of goodness’. In Melbourne, Australia, however,  he was very impressed when he visited one hundred St Franciscan Monks who followed vows of abstaining from flesh and wine, took vows of chastity, and did not gamble.

When asked about the significance of the ‘Cross’ Srila Prabhupada once replied “When I think of Lord Jesus on the cross…” He shakes his head. “No, the Cross is not a symbol for devotees. Devotees do not want to concentrate on that, on their master’s suffering. But actually the body of Christ was spiritual. He felt nothing therefore. Like Krishna and Bhisma on the battlefield. When Bhisma’s arrows struck the Lord’s body, they were feeling like kisses. The Lord’s body is never material. It is a great offense to think like that” (Lecture, San Francisco 1967 from Hayagriva’s Biography ‘The Hare Krishna Explosion’)

The Aryan Christ of the New Age Movement may be a useful poster-boy for promoting Christian Vegetarianism, alternative medicine, the UFO Contactee / Ascension Movement, so-called ‘Vedic Astrology’, the Angelic Channelling Movement or God-Knows-What-Else, but ‘he’ is NOT the Jesus Christ of the Apostles, or of the Apostolic Catholic Parampara Church. This fictional Aryan Christ is an anti-‘Christ’ who teaches covered impersonalism and/or voidism under the guise of some higher gnosis or apophatic ‘God-beyond-God’ heretical Germanic (deviant catholic) Iconoclastic Protestant, Muslim-influenced Mayavadi ‘mysticism’.

As concerns the short history of ISKCON, the Aryanist Western Occult Tradition fascination of some of its powerful Leaders is not really very hidden, and the fanatical anti-Semitism that this has engendered in some Devotees is not very hidden either. In fact, the extreme vulnerability of many ‘Aryan’-self-identified ISKCON related Devotees to anti-Semitic New Age Neo-Nazism can be easily observed. Among the intellectually poisoned early Gurukulis, their insidious childhood Neo-Nazi indoctrination has resulted in their acute adult vulnerability and susceptibility to New Age Aryanist Occultism.

Thus as Adults, tragically these Occult Racist Aryanism indoctrinated Gurukulis have become enthralled by the endless number of Neo-Gnostic Western Occult Tradition ‘Evil Jew’, Anti-Catholic, Anti-Masonic, Anti-‘Illuminati’, Anti-New World Order, Anti-‘Cabal of Jewish Banksters’, Anti-JEW-B-C, Anti-ISKCON, Anti-Jewish-Jesuit-Catholic-Babylon, Anti-Israel, Anti-Jewish Reptilian Alien UFO, Anti-USA etc. New Age conspiracy ‘theories’, which both the Far-Right ‘Conservative’ AND the Far-Left ‘Liberal’ Global ‘ALTERNATIVE MEDIA’ traffic in. Not realizing how they are being manipulated or ‘played’ by the Anti-GOD (Anti-Judeo-Christian) Mayavadi and Sunyavadi Aryanist Occultists on BOTH the Geopolitical Far Right and Far Left, these intellectually and culturally poisoned Devotees are continuing to consume the disinformation and propaganda that has already completely corrupted their understanding of World History and our present place in it.

6) JESUS IN INDIA – QUESTIONS and ANSWERS

Question: Srila Prabhupada sometimes quoted from “The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus”. Did he consider that book as bonafide?

Answer:  Bhaktivedanta Vedabase References –

Regarding Aquarian Gospel of Lord Jesus The Christ, I have taken some stray extracts just to support our views, but we don’t give any importance to that book. The best thing is that we accept Lord Jesus Christ as a great devotee of the Lord and the son of God. It is better not to discuss in any detail about the Christian religion or any other religion.” (Letter to Tamal Krsna 14-9-69 & Kirtananda 15-9-69)

“Regarding books like Aquarian Gospel or even the Testaments, we cannot accept them as authorities because sometimes it is learnt that the words are not actually spoken by Christ, but they are so set up by the devotees. For example, in the Ten Commandments it is clearly stated “Thou shalt not kill”, but some Bishop in Boston has changed it to “Thou shalt do no murder”. This means the Bishop wants to keep hold for animal slaughter. So don’t bother about all these literatures.” (Letter to Krsna Devi 2-11-69)

“There is a book called Aquarian Gospel in which it is stated that Lord Jesus Christ lived in the temple of Jagannatha. From that book it appears that Lord Jesus Christ lived in intimate relations with the priest order. So as far as possible, you should prepare yourself for future writings that our movement is not against the philosophy of Jesus Christ, but it is in complete collaboration with his line of religiosity.” (Letter to Hayagriva 31-7-69)

“Often, while preaching, we were asked to state our position regarding Lord Jesus Christ. Had we accepted Jesus as the true Saviour? they wanted to know. If the answer was no, then we were lumped in with all the other devil worshipers who were going to burn in the eternal hell. Of course we accepted Jesus, but not exactly in the way the Christians did. Previously I had come across a book entitled The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ, which de-scribed the activities of Jesus between his twelfth and thirtieth years, an important portion of his life noticeably omitted from the New Testament. Because the book described how Jesus had received the major part of his religious training in India, I thought it worthwhile to bring it to Srila Prabhupada’s attention, and out of curiosity, Srila Prabhupada had me purchase a copy. For a number of afternoons during his last visit to Los Angeles, he would hear with interest as I read the narration of how Jesus learned the art of hearing from the yogis in Benares, travelled to various holy places, and even participated in the Ratha-yatra festival in Jagannatha Puri. The author, however, stated that Jesus did not approve of Deity worship, considering Lord Jagannatha to be an idol. Though much of the book seemed to substantiate our Krishna consciousness tradition, this point made Prabhupada sceptical. What was the author’s parampara? Prabhupada challenged. I explained that the author supposedly obtained his information from the ‘Akashic records’. Prabhupada was not satisfied.” (from the Biography ‘Servant of the Servant’ by Tamal Krsna)

Bhakti Ananda Goswami:

Srila Prabhupada was sceptical of the Aquarian Gospel’s authenticity. In it, Jesus condemns the worship of the Lord Jagannath ‘Idol’ like so many  other iconoclastic and mayavadi Muslim or Protestant doctrines. It is characteristic of such Modern Era Western Occult Tradition literatures to USE their concocted Jesus to teach iconoclastic and impersonalist mysticism. It is no accident that this genre of books, including the Aquarian Gospel, were long distributed in India and the west by the atheistic Theosophists, the impersonalist Vedanta Society, the Rosicrucians and Masons and other Western Occult Organizations.

Question:  Are new gospels like “The Essene Gospel of Peace” or “Gospel of the Holy Twelve” authentic revelations?

Answer:  Bhakti Ananda Goswami:

The Essene Gospel of Peace is a New Age literary fraud, just making-up a ‘Holy Scripture’ and claiming it is an authentic ancient text is deceitful and dangerous:

“Edmond Bordeaux Szekely (1905–1979) was a Hungarian philologist/linguist, philosopher, psychologist and natural living experimenter. He claimed to have translated a text he discovered at the Vatican in 1923, called The Essene Gospel of Peace which he published in four parts over several decades. In 1940 Szekely and his wife opened a camp in Tecate, Mexico, where they could explore and test their ideas.”

WIKIPEDIA – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Bordeaux_Szekely

The “Gospel of the Holy Twelve” is also a Modern Era Western Occult Tradition fraud. The following is completely false:   “The main Essene scripture is the Gospel of the Holy Twelve, also known as the Gospel of the Nazarenes. This is the Gospel repeatedly mentioned, described and quoted by many commentators of the first century Church. However, this ancient scripture was hidden away for centuries in a Tibetan monastery and was rediscovered only in 1888.”

Many of the most revered early church fathers, as well as a surprising number of scholars today, have declared that the Gospel of the Holy Twelve is nothing less than the long-lost original Gospel. According to legend, this Gospel was collectively written by the 12 apostles immediately following Christ’s death, and it is the scripture upon which all of the Biblical synoptic Gospels are based. It so happens that this version of the New Testament also portrays Jesus as a strict vegetarian.

WIKIPEDIA – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gospel_of_the_Holy_Twelve

No real Biblical scholar accepts this 100% modern visionary’s ‘gospel’ as having anything to do with ANY authentically ancient text, what to speak of it being written by the Apostles!

The Gospel of the Holy Twelve – Wikipedia

“The Gospel of the Holy Twelve is a disputed publication purportedly from the early Christian era which was first serialised in The Lindsey and Lincolnshire Star newspaper between July 30, 1898 and March 10, 1901.”

Question:  Isn’t the Bhavishya Purana evidence of Jesus’s travels to India?

Answer:  The fraudulent Section of the Bhavishya Purana clearly dates to the Modern Era Reign of the last two Kings of Kashmir, whose Royal Library Project was responsible for the collection, translation and copying of many Hindu Classics. As far as I have seen, NO ONE can produce ANY authentic copy of the Bhavishya Purana that pre-dates the one that we have now, which can be traced to the Royal Library of Kashmir.

No one anywhere can produce a single authentic ANCIENT edition of the Bhavishya Purana that includes the inserted section about the Biblical characters, Mohammed or the British Monarchy. The entire Section is a Modern Era fraud that has been inserted into the Text of the authentic Purana by someone during the Reign of the last two Kings of Kashmir.

According to the Wikipedia’s entry on Indologist Francis Wilford (1761–1822), it is the opinion of historians, that Wilford intentionally requested his Sanskrit pundits to compose verses from Bible stories to be added to the Bhavishya Purana. Despite his own admission of fraud and deception, we can still read about Adam and Eve, Kali-purusha as Satan, Noah and his decendants, about a Vedic King meeting Jesus in the mountains of India, about Mohammad and the desert Shiva Linga, and even the prophecy of Queen Victoria ruling India, all in the last section of existing copies of the Bhavishya Purana today.

WIKIPEDIA:
Wilford later admitted his guilt; according to Indira Ghose, that the Hindu expert who had been providing him manuscripts and who had been assisting him in his studies of sacred texts had corroborated the veracity of his religious theories. Wilford smartly blamed the fraud on someone else.

According to Nigel Leask, Wilford narrated the story of Salivahana that the child had born to a virgin and a carpenter, later became a mystic, and finally crucified in a Y-shaped plough. In 1805, Wilford had confessed publicly that some of the manuscripts he had been working were, in fact, forged, though, he didn’t specifically refer to the Salivahana story; later, when he had published in 1807 – 2 years after his confession -, he preceded it with a disclaimer as: – “The Salivahana story is a most crude and undigested mass of heterogeneous legends taken from the apocryphal gospel of the infancy of Christ, the tales of the Rabbis and Talmudists concerning Solomon, with some particulars about Muhammed…jumbled together with…the history of the Persian kings of the Sassanian dynasty.”

Wilford was severely criticised by his contemporaries and historians. He was considered as an eccentric subaltern in the army of Orientalism. Garland Cannon criticised him for misleading William Jones, and his criticism implied that “his Indian languages were poor.” Joseph Schwartzberg, a professor of geography and an author, denounced Wilford’s “gullibility” – as he was looking for classical, Biblical, and Egyptian place names in Puranas as those texts were not scientific.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Wilford]

Those souls who WANT a Mayavadi-nonsense spouting Vegetarian Poster-Boy Jesus or a Saint Isa who is buried in Kashmir or described in the fraudulent Bhavishya Purana or the Book of Mormon or some other concocted New Age ‘Gospel’ will always oppose the authentic Guru, Shastra and Sadhu Traditions of the actual Jesus Christ and His Diksha Disciples.

Question: Are not the Tibetan ‘Scrolls’ of Notovitch evidence of Jesus’s travels in India?

Answer:  Buddhism did not reach Tibet until the arrival of the Buddhist Master Padmasambhava, more than 500 years after Jesus Christ’s Earthly Lila. The story by Notovitch was a complete fraud. The fanciful stories of Jesus in Buddhist Monasteries in Tibet or being buried in Srinagar Kashmir are total nonsense. There were NO Buddhist monasteries in Tibet at the time of Jesus Christ’s Earthly Lila and the City of Srinagar, where the fraudulent ‘Tomb of Jesus’ is, DID NOT EXIST THERE at the time either.

If Notovitch said ‘here is something that I HAVE WRITTEN about Jesus’, there would be no problem. But, he claimed that he read or heard his story from an ancient text in a Tibetan Lamasary while recovering from a broken leg. He then continued to lie about this for years, and he reinforced this story with others, leading to an entirely baseless belief system created by his own self-serving lies. Authentic Sattvic Tibetan Buddhism is historically related to Vaishnavism and the Judeo-Catholic Tradition. The so-called Tibetan ‘Jesus Scrolls’ of Notovitch however, are 100% fraudulent.

WIKIPEDIA:

“In 1894 Russian journalist Nicolas Notovitch claimed Hemis as the origin of an otherwise unknown gospel, the Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men, in which Jesus is said to have traveled to India during his “lost years.” According to Notovitch, the work had been preserved in the Hemis library, and was shown to him by the monks there while he was recuperating from a broken leg.[1] But once his story had been re-examined by historians, it is claimed that Notovitch confessed to having fabricated the evidence.[2][3] The controversial bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman states that “Today there is not a single recognized scholar on the planet who has any doubts about the matter. The entire story was invented by Notovitch, who earned a good deal of money and a substantial amount of notoriety for his hoax”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemis_Monastery

Question:  Was Jesus Buried in Kashmir?

 Answer:  Bhakti Ananda Goswami – My criticism is always based in fact. Anyone can fact-check my assertions, so I do not ask anyone to just accept me as some kind of nominal or titled authority. For example, to research the claim that Jesus Christ died and was buried in Srinagar Kashmir, I studied the primary sources for the history of Srinagar during the claimed time of Jesus Christ’s supposed death and entombment in Srinagar.

Since it was and is primarily the Ahmadiyya Muslim belief that the MUSLIM PROPHET Jesus is buried in the specific Tomb in Srinagar, I examined all of their claims carefully. After I understood the Ahmadiyya claims, I tested them. Of course the Ahmadiyyas and their Supporters were and are ready to produce a lot of evidence that SEEMS scholarly and convincing to the non-expert. However underneath their mountain of pseudo-evidence is actually …..nothing. The Muslims did not exist at the time of Jesus Christ and their entire narrative of the Muslim Prophet Jesus being buried in Kashmir is completely anachronistic. In fact, the present City of Srinagar where Jesus is supposedly buried in that Ahmadiyya-hallowed Tomb, did not EXIST at the time of Jesus Christ. Every ancient primary source and modern study of the physical evidence agrees that the original site of the City of Srinagar was being swallowed-up by the meandering River it was situated along, and so the present day Srinagar is an entirely different City than the original one that existed during the Earthly Lifetime of Jesus Christ.

The ‘Tombmaster’ Website Owner of the present day Ahmadiyya Muslim ‘Tomb of Jesus’ in Srinagar and I had a public debate on this subject. His was the most-read Book on the subject at the time. I merely presented the indisputable facts. His large collection of pseudo-facts and irrelevant Muslim and New Age WOT beliefs could not over-rule the simple basic facts. He and his supporters piled-on their arguments, but, after about 3 weeks of our internet group ‘debate’ he renounced his Ahmadiyya religion, joined the Bahais, stopped publishing his Book and gave his Tombmaster Website to the people who subsequently made that ‘Indian Government Documentary’ about Jesus in India etc.

Several of those people then carried-on a vicious web campaign to discredit me. But with their WOT / New Age and Ahmadiyya religious backing they were able to get funding from the Government of India to promote their actually baseless nonsense. Vaishnavas do not understand that the Ahmadiyyas, who are NOT accepted by any major Tradition of Islam, believe that their Founder was both the return of Jesus and Kalki Avatara! Some Ahmadiyyas want to make their ‘Jesus Tomb’ the ‘Mecca’ of their Religion! Thus their GLOBAL CAMPAIGN is designed to draw pilgrims to Srinagar, making THEIR RELIGION the fulfilment of M0hammed’s Mission, with their Tomb Of Jesus as the Holy Place greater than Mecca or Karbala!

Question:  Is the Theosophical Society concept of ‘Christ Consciousness’ bonafide?

Answer:  As described in detail in the above section “The History of Impersonal and Gnostic Christianity” Blavatsky was a professional con-artist. As a ‘spiritualist medium’ she toured, conning people for a living. In the East the entire foundation of her Theosophical Society was lies. She carried-on various long-cons tricking people with ‘materializations’ and her ‘mahatma letters’ and plagiarized literatures.

The ‘New Age Gospel’ writers have variously claimed that they have discovered or been miraculously shown or given some ANCIENT Bible or Jesus related text. I would celebrate such a revelation if it was authentic, REAL. The problem is that NOT ONE of such newly ‘revealed’ literatures can stand any actual investigative study or linguistic analysis.

As an actual scholar of Biblical Era literature, I cannot suspend my ability to read and analyse a purportedly ancient literature, even in a supposed translation, and this results in my critique of such Western Occult Tradition ‘New Age ‘Gospels’ and other in-authentically ancient texts.

Srila Prabhupada delivered to us the Scriptural Canon of a completely authentic ANCIENT and Holy or Venerable Bhakti Tradition. To me it is unthinkable to consider that something written by a modern con-artist or religious fraud is equal in dignity and spiritual truth to any of Humanity’s ancient Guru, Shastra and Sadhu Traditions. If self-deluded people write their own experiences and want to be venerated as a prophet or even as God, and others want to follow them, that is different from con-artists concocting false ‘revelations’ and purposely LYING to others and tricking them to gain ‘name fame and adoration’.

Copyright © 2017 Steve M. Doyle (Soolaba) and © 2010 David M. Sherman (Bhakti Ananda Goswami)