Exploring Jesus Christ’s journey in India before he became missionary-martyr of Sanatana Dharma in the West

By Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri)

In India the masters initiated Jesus into yoga and the highest spiritual life, giving him the spiritual name "Isha," which means Lord, Master, or Ruler, a descriptive title often applied to God. It is also a title of Shiva.

For some time Jesus meditated in a cave north of the present-day city of Rishikesh, one of the most sacred locales of India. During the times spent in the Himalayas, he attained the supreme heights of realization. To augment the teachings he had received in the Himalayas, Jesus was sent to live in Benares, the sacred city of Shiva.

Benares and Jagannath Puri

Benares, the spiritual heart of India, was the major center of Vedic learning. During his time in the Himalayas, Jesus's endeavors were centered almost exclusively on the practice of yoga. In Benares, Christ engaged in intense study of the spiritual texts of Sanatana Dharma, especially the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita–which he later quoted in his discourses in Israel.

When Jesus had come to the point where the acharyas of Benares were satisfied with his level of scriptural and philosophical knowledge, he was sent to the sacred city of Jagannath Puri, which at that time was a great center of the worship of Shiva, second only to Benares. In Puri, he lived sometime in the famous Govardhan Math, today a major center of the monastic order of the foremost philosopher-saint of India known as Adi Shankaracharya. There he perfected the synthesis of yoga, philosophy and renunciation, and began to publicly teach the Eternal Dharma.

In the nineteen-fifties, the former head of the Govardhan Math, and head of the entire monastic Swami Order claimed that he had discovered "incontrovertible historical evidence" that Jesus had lived in the Govardhan Math as well as in other places of India. He was writing a book on the subject, but died before it could be finished. Unfortunately the fate of his manuscript and research is presently unknown.

As a teacher, Jesus was as popular as he was proficient in teaching, and also gained great notoriety among all levels of society. However, those who were making religion into a business became intensely jealous and even began to plot his death. Therefore, he left Puri and returned to the Himalayan regions. There final instructions were given to him regarding his mission in the West and the way messages could be sent between Jesus and his Indian teachers. Jesus also lived in various Buddhist monasteries in the Himalayan region at this time.

Jesus was aware of the form and purpose of his death from his very birth. But it was the Indian masters who made everything clear to him regarding them. They promised Jesus that he would be sent a container of Himalayan Balsam to be poured upon his head by a close disciple as a sign that his death was imminent, even "at the door." When Saint Mary Magdalene performed this action in Bethany, Jesus understood the unspoken message, saying: "She is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying" (Mark 14:8).

The full article could be read here