Chapter 5

The Bhavishyat Maha Purana and the Natha Namavali Sutra

These are two different scriptural texts. First we have the Bhavishyat Maha Purana and then the Natha Namavali Sutra.

I shall first paraphrase the ancient and revered Hindu scripture, the Bhavishyat Maha Purana, into a readable form based on the several translations that exist. The many Puranas are sacred to the Hindus. They relate the legendary history and mythology of the different gods and goddesses that make up the Hindu pantheon. They rank only second to the Vedas in their importance, and are much revered by the various adherents of the different faiths, which collectively constitute the Hindu religion. From the 4th century BC until the 17th century AD they have been constantly extended by the addition of further narratives. The current collection is 18 volumes, and all in Sanskrit. The ninth volume, the Bhavishyat Maha Purana, has been attributed to the sage, Suta, probably around AD 115, and contains the report that describes Jesus’ visit to India. The Maharajah of Kashmir sent the manuscript to the Research Institute in Poona for verification, and it was published in Bombay in 1910. The Purana states that Israelites came to live in India and then in verses 17–32 describes Jesus’ appearance in India.

THE BHAVISHYAT MAHA PURANA

Ruling over the Aryans was a king called Salivahana (between AD 49 and 50), the grandson of Vikramaditya, who occupied the throne of his father. He defeated the invading Chinese, Parthians, Scythians and Bactrians. He punished them severely and took away their wealth. Salivahana then established the boundaries dividing the separate countries of the Mlecchas (Barbarians or Non-Hindus) and the Aryans. In this way Sindusthan came to be known as the greatest country. He established the Kingdom of the Mlecchas beyond the Sindhu river and to the west.

Once upon a time this subduer of the Scythians went towards Himatunga and in the middle of the Huna country (Hunadesh – the area near Manasa Sarovara or Mount Kailash in western Tibet), the powerful king saw a handsome man who was living on a snow-white mountain. The man’s complexion was golden and his clothes were white. The king asked, ‘Who are you?’ The man answered, ‘You should know that I am Ishaputra, Son of God and I am born of a virgin. I am the teacher of true religion to the barbarian Mlecchas which are the Absolute Truth.’

Hearing this, the king enquired, ‘What are the chief religious teachings in your opinion?’

Hearing these questions of Salivahana, Ishaputra replied, ‘Oh King, when the destruction of the truth, at the end of the Golden Age, occurred in the depraved land of the heathen, I appeared as Masiha, the Messiah, after initiation by the goddess Ishamasi, the Lord Messiah, and came to this country of degraded people where there are no rules and regulations. Finding that fearful irreligious condition of the barbarians spreading from Mleccha-Desha, I have taken to prophecy. Please hear, Oh King, the religious principles I have established among the barbarians. The living soul is subject to good and evil contamination. The mind should be purified by adopting proper conduct and performance of japa, chanting the holy names, to attain the highest purity. Just as the immovable Sun attracts, from all directions, the elements of all living beings, the Lord of the Solar Region, Almighty God, who is immutable and all perfect, attracts the hearts of all living creatures. So by following regulations, speaking truthful words, by mental harmony and by meditation, Oh descendant of Manu, they should worship that immovable Lord. Having placed the eternally pure and auspicious form of the Supreme Lord in my heart, O protector of the earth planet, I preach these principles through the Mlecchas’ own faith and thus my name became “Isha-Masiha” (Jesus the Messiah).’

After hearing these words and paying obeisance to that sage who is worshipped by the wicked, the king humbly requested him to stay there in the dreadful land of Mlecchas.

So ends the second chapter entitled, ‘the age of Salivahara’ of the story of Kali Yuga of the Caturyuga Khanda also called Pratisarga-parva of the wonderful Bhavishya Maha Purana.

Professor Dr Fida Hassnain Levi has written several important books on Jesus in India, published in Kashmir. In these it is stated that the Natha Sect own an ancient Hindu Sutra, known as the Natha-Namavali, still preserved by them. In this text they refer to Jesus as Isha Natha. Here is a rendition.

THE NATHA NAMAVALI SUTRA

Isha Natha came to India at the age of 14. Afterwards he returned to his own homeland and began to preach. Soon, however, his brutal and materialistic countrymen conspired against him, and he was crucified, but before the crucifixion Isha Natha entered samadhi [a deep trance]. Observing him in this way, the Jews assumed he was dead and buried him in a tomb. Simultaneously one of Isha Natha’s Himalayan teachers, the great Chetan Natha, was in samadhi, and he saw in a vision the tortures undergone by Isha Natha. He therefore, with his sidhis [yogic powers], made his body as light as air, and transported himself to Jerusalem. On arrival there was thunder and lightning for God was angry with the Jews, and the world trembled. Then Chetan Natha took the body of Isha Natha and aroused him from his deep trance, and later led him back to India. Isha Natha later built an ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas.

To this day these Natha yogis still sing bhajans (devotional hymns) referring to John the Baptist.

As with the Aquarian Gospel and the Gospel of Issa, the ancient Purana (where the name Ishaputra bears some resemblance to the Tibetan Issa, and the Aramaic Yeshua), along with the Natha Namavali Sutra, will be fully discussed in my final chapter as possible evidence for Jesus having visited India and Tibet.