The Hindu Jesus?

[Abominable Snowman]

Namaste.

So I bought Paramahansa Yogananda's Metaphysical Meditations today in my effort to strengthen, lengthen and intensify my meditative practice (along with a few other books) and I ran across the "Christmas Meditation," section which makes a lot of mention of Jesus. I also own The Second Coming of Christ however I got it as a birthingday gift one year and sad to say, haven't gotten to it yet. Also, I seem to remember coming across a book entitled the Yoga of Jesus. What I want to know is why is Jesus metioned so much by Hindus? What is his significance? I don't doubt that he may have been a wise man who was tragically killed by my people but I am getting the since that he holds some special place as teacher within the Hindu community that I (strangely) don't know about. Can someone fill me in? I know next to nothing about Jesus of Nazareth. Infact my family is Jewish (read: Orthodox) and that's how I was raised, so you can kind of see why I'm in the dark about the man. Thanks folks.

[Eastern Mind]

Jesus is mentioned by the Hindus because of modern Christian proseltysing and Christian propaganda, not because there is any mention of him in any ancient text. Hindus have become aware of him only fairly recently except for maybe a few very small pockets here and there.

Personally, I don't believe he existed any more than Luke Skywalker, and I could care even less. Ignorant people clouded by anava need a religion that suits them, and they invented it by writing and collecting some vague and obscure stories and labelling them something. You will get other viewpoints.

Aum Namasivaya

[Abominable Snowman]

Jesus is mentioned by the Hindus because of modern Christian proseltysing and Christian propaganda, not because there is any mention of him in any ancient text. Hindus have become aware of him only fairly recently except for maybe a few very small pockets here and there.

Personally, I don't believe he existed any more than Luke Skywalker, and I could care even less. Ignorant people clouded by anava need a religion that suits them, and they invented it by writing and collecting some vague and obscure stories and labelling them something. You will get other viewpoints.

Aum Namasivaya

Namaste.

You see these were my intial impressions and to be perfectly honest aside from Revelation I can't say I have ever read any of the gospels and due to this I thought maybe perhaps there was more to it. I knew full well that Jesus wasn' mentioned in any of the scriptures and I also assumed due to colonialization and as you said Christian proselytizing that is how Jesus came to India. Have you read any of the works I mentioned? If so, what do you think of them? From first glance without reading it, I would guess that it's all a bunch of rubbish, especially considering the section is called "xmas meditations." But wisdom can from anywhere, I could be wrong.

Aum Namah Shivaya.

[Eastern Mind]

AS: I have never read any of those books, nor any part of the Bible. Once in a blue moon while travelling in the west and staying at a hotel, I open the Bible at a random page, just to reconfirm my pre-existing belief. Usually about 2 lines does the trick. I don't read much. I guess I'm just an ignorant old man. I just have no interest whatsoever exploring anything to do with Christianity. When you're eating on a large beautifully perfect ripe mango, why would you want to chew on a tiny half-rotten raisin? Makes no sense.

But hey, if you want to try this for awhile, I guess there's nothing stopping you.

Aum Namasivaya

[ScottMalaysia]

=What I want to know is why is Jesus metioned so much by Hindus? What is his significance? I don't doubt that he may have been a wise man who was tragically killed by my people but I am getting the since that he holds some special place as teacher within the Hindu community that I (strangely) don't know about.

Eastern Mind has hit the nail square on the head.

Jesus is mentioned by Hindus because of Christian influences, both in the West and in India. Missionaries are being sent to India to convert the Hindus, and Hindus in the West (especially Indian exchange students) are being targeted for conversion to Christianity. The tactic of "friendship evangelism" where Christians become friends with Hindu students on university campuses is becoming common (it is mentioned in the latest edition of Hinduism Today). Because of this, Hindu writers mention Jesus in an attempt to possibly educate Hindus about the real, historical Jesus, not the Jesus that the Christians present.

I myself accept Jesus as an incarnation of God, and His Holy Mother Mary as a form of Goddess Durga.

[sanjaya]

Eastern Mind has hit the nail square on the head.

Jesus is mentioned by Hindus because of Christian influences, both in the West and in India. Missionaries are being sent to India to convert the Hindus, and Hindus in the West (especially Indian exchange students) are being targeted for conversion to Christianity. The tactic of "friendship evangelism" where Christians become friends with Hindu students on university campuses is becoming common (it is mentioned in the latest edition of Hinduism Today). Because of this, Hindu writers mention Jesus in an attempt to possibly educate Hindus about the real, historical Jesus, not the Jesus that the Christians present.

I myself accept Jesus as an incarnation of God, and His Holy Mother Mary as a form of Goddess Durga.

Heh, I also noticed the "friendship evangelism" when I was in college. Strangely, I didn't get as many people trying to befriend me this way as I thought I would. You'd think being an (ethnically) Indian student on a college campus would make one a popular target, but I guess once I started talking they could tell I was American, and lost interest. I've been to a church several times, and they do emphasize the friendship evangelism technique quite often, not just with Indians, but with everyone. I do have to give them some credit and note that they're not being entirely disingenuous. Remember, these people believe that we're going to spend an eternity in hell if we don't assent to the doctrines of their faith, and they're doing the best they can to keep us out. At the same time, the friendships they form with us are based on wanting to convert us, and they often lose interest when they see that we've no intention of doing so. It's a complicated issue. For what it's worth, I've noticed that most Christian evangelism strategies are designed for atheistic cultural Christians, and a few are designed for Muslims. They often don't know what to do with a Hindu. Many times Christians will waste their time trying to convince Hindus that God exists, not being aware that we already believe in God (or that so many of us are even monotheists!). Then they'll move on to the Ten Commandments (the idea is that if you violate even one commandment once in your life, you are a sinner deserving of hell). But they then notice that the Ten Commandments don't hold the same authority for a Hindu that they would for a cultural Christian who grew up in church hearing them. They're often surprised to find out that we aren't sinners who go around living licentious lifestyles. I've even heard of Christians who started to question evangelical Christianity because of their encounters with Hindus.

Regarding Jesus: I've read the entire Bible (more than once, it's an interesting book), and there's a lot of good stuff in there. Sure, there's all that stuff about God's people killing millions of heathens. But Jesus does teach about the importance of treating other people with love and respect, and I'm convinced that many Westerners are better people because of Christianity. Of course, Jesus also taught about the eternal condemnation doctrine (the Bible mentions hell thirteen times, twelve mentions are from Christ), and it is this doctrine that fuels the missionary zeal. I certainly believe that Hinduism is the best way to achieve moksha, and that of all religions it contains the most truth. However, I also recognize that Hinduism is characteristically Indian, just as the Bible has a Western character. I wouldn't want to force a Westerner to convert to Hinduism and accept Indian culture anymore than I would want to be a Christian and give up my Indian culture (though I am always pleased to meet Western Hindus, who are usually more knowledgable about my religion than I am). I don't believe that God cares about Indians more than anyone else, so I suppose it's possible that Christianity is God's way of making spirituality accessible to Westerners as well. After all, Krishna says that those who worship other gods are really worshiping him, and so a Westerner could be a good person by simply following Jesus' teachings.

I have no trouble accepting Jesus as an incarnation of God. Indeed, his teachings are especially valuable because he casts moral and spiritual teachings in a Western way of thinking, and this can help Hindus when communicating with the West. However, going with Eastern Mind's mango analogy, we already have a vast library of spiritual knowledge in the Hindu Scriptures. And in addition to that, we have living saints and gurus; this is absent in evangelical Christianity. Just as Jesus performed miracles and preached an important message in the first century, as late as the nineteenth century we have people like Shirdi Sai Baba, who also did many recorded miracles and taught important spiritual truths. I do believe that the Bible is worth reading in one's free time, but when we have the vast reservoir of Hindu spiritual knowledge, I don't see why any Hindu would spend terribly much time looking at Christianity.

I hope at least some of that made sense.

[Abominable Snowman]

Thanks for the responses, note I have no interest in Jesus really or any of that, I just wanted to know why exactly he seemed to keep popping up and if perhaps I'm missing something.

[Eastern Mind]

perhaps I'm missing something.

Nope.

Aum

[Abominable Snowman]

Nope.

Aum

10-4.

[TatTvamAsi]

Think of it like a white person trying to fit in with the blacks in a ghetto. They try to talk like them, walk like them etc. Likewise, Hindus like Yogananda and Mahesh Yogi who came to the west had to speak in the language of the west. They had to talk about jeebus the charlatan otherwise they would have been hanged from the closest tree.

this whole gibberish about 'christ consciousness' was to basically ease the needle inside the 'devotees' who came to Yogananda et al. If they came and first said that he was a charlatan who learnt everything from Hindus in India and then was driven out for sullying the Shastras, as stated before, they would have been shot and then run over for good measure.

What better way to get you interested and adopt a philosophy than to take an (albeit fake one) example from your own brood? It was much easier for westerners to find commonality with that dead jew on a stick than an image of Kali with skulls around her neck portraying the annihiliation of the ego. The latter is too complex to understand for mlecchas.

next.

Namaste.

So I bought Paramahansa Yogananda's Metaphysical Meditations today in my effort to strengthen, lengthen and intensify my meditative practice (along with a few other books) and I ran across the "Christmas Meditation," section which makes a lot of mention of Jesus. I also own The Second Coming of Christ however I got it as a birthingday gift one year and sad to say, haven't gotten to it yet. Also, I seem to remember coming across a book entitled the Yoga of Jesus. What I want to know is why is Jesus metioned so much by Hindus? What is his significance? I don't doubt that he may have been a wise man who was tragically killed by my people but I am getting the since that he holds some special place as teacher within the Hindu community that I (strangely) don't know about. Can someone fill me in? I know next to nothing about Jesus of Nazareth. Infact my family is Jewish (read: Orthodox) and that's how I was raised, so you can kind of see why I'm in the dark about the man. Thanks folks.