Easter - Unveiling The Symbolism of Resurrection Part I

EASTER

Easter is the day on which Jesus was crucified and was resurrected after having been three days in a cave. Actually, Jesus became Christ only after the resurrection. Without the resurrection there would have been no Christ and no Christianity. In a way Easter is even more important to the Christians than Christmas, since the resurrection was what proved his divinity!

So first let us find out who Jesus was and what the true story of his life and resurrection.

 He was the son of a Jewish carpenter called Joseph and his wife Mary. They had no children and it was said Mary’s pregnancy was an immaculate conception.

Till the age of 12 he was probably assisting his father and doing carpenter’s work. There is nothing known about his life from the age of 13 to 31. He is said to have simply disappeared into the desert and reappeared eighteen years later. Many attempts have been made to fill in the missing eighteen years of his life about which no mention is made in the bible. Some say that the death of his father Joseph, when he was only twelve, acted as a catalyst for him to begin a personal quest to attain spiritual enlightenment.

However, efforts made by many people have brought to light the fact that during this period he had travelled to India, Nepal, Ladakh and Tibet, most probably with some caravans that used to go to these various places. Of course, Christians believe that these revelations are of little consequence and unlikely to make a difference to the understanding of the Christian faith. There are rumours that the Vatican holds mysterious truths about his life during these eighteen years which could drastically alter the traditional beliefs. So, nothing has ever been said about these missing years.

A book called “The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ” was published in 1894 by a Russian traveller called Nicholas Notovitch. His book had photos to back his statement. He claimed to have discovered genuine texts written in Pali, in a monastery in Ladakh that proved that Jesus had been there. The text describes the travels and studies of a man called Issa who could only have been the biblical Jesus. Issa is the Arabic name of Jesus in Islam. In fact, the document was entitled “Life of Saint Issa”.

According to this document Jesus left Judea at the age of thirteen and set out on an epic journey of self-enlightenment by studying other religions. He crossed Punjab and reached Puri Jagannath where he studied the Vedas under brahmin priests. He spent six years in Puri and Rajgir (near the ancient university of Nalanda), then went to the Himalayas and spent some time in a Tibetan monastery, studying Buddhism. He then returned to Judea through Persia and reached Judea at the age of 31.

By then he was a realised human being – an enlightened master! It was only after this that he went to Jerusalem and delivered his first sermon! Unfortunately, his chief disciples were all untutored people who were totally incapable of understanding what he taught. All they knew was that he was kind and loving and able to do miracles which are the siddhis that are always found in every great Hindu saint.

The only one amongst his disciples who could write was Thomas, who was a scribe in the tax department of the Romans. He was the first to write down the sayings of Jesus. We can imagine how much such a person was qualified to understand the esoteric teachings of a great sage like Jesus!

Now let us go to the “so-called” resurrection and find out what really happened on that fateful Friday when he was crucified. it will be easy to see that Jesus never died at all.

Yet the fallacy has been reiterated by the church that Jesus died and was raised not only in spirit, but also in his body, and then ascended to heaven. This fact was what made him into a god-man!
Here is evidence to show how Jesus survived the ordeal.

1.     According to modern day doctors and forensic pathologists, it would take a man at least 24-48 hours to die from crucifixion. One would die a slow death, eventually ending in suffocation, as the lungs filled up with fluids.

2.     One of his rich sympathisers, Joseph of Aramathea had made a pact with Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, to crucify Jesus as late as possible on Friday –  because Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, on which day, the jews were not allowed to do anything. Everything comes to a stop on Friday evening.

3.     He was crucified late in the afternoon, and brought down before sunset. He might have been unconscious because so much blood had flowed out of the body, but he was not dead. When the Roman soldier pierced his side with a sword, liquid and blood came out. Blood/liquid does not move in a dead man.

4.     Then he was kept in a cave by his mother and some others. Before the Sabbath ended and the Jews hung him again, his body was secretly taken away by his followers.

5.     To give a man who is condemned to death, wine and spiced herbs – such as myrrh (for pain) and poppy, for narcotic pain relief, was completely in accordance with Jewish customs. There is a plant known as swallow-wort, soma, celandine, asclepias acida or Master Herb also known as Jewish Herb. This was such a magical potion, that the mixture would put a person into a cataleptic state resembling death. Best known example of this is in the story of Romeo and Juliet. This is a comatose state, resembling death, where all signs of life such as respiration, heart-beat, and pulse, are no longer noticeable. It is perfectly feasible to presume that those who loved ‘the Messiah’ would try to save him in some manner such as this.

6.     In the Talmud of the Jews, “he who was to be executed, was given a small piece of incense in a beaker of wine, so that he might lose consciousness” . It has been documented that Jesus was given a sponge by Joseph of Arimathea, to quench his thirst. It was after sucking upon this sponge that Jesus lost consciousness. He was promptly brought down and pronounced ‘dead’. The Sabbath began soon after.

7.     When he was brought to the Sepulchre, it is documented that large jars of aloes and myrrh were brought into the burial chamber by Joseph of Arimathea for caring for Jesus’s body. Aloes are given to purge poison and to soothe inflammation, broken skin, rashes and wounds. Myrrh is given for pain. Why would these have been brought for a dead man?

8.     When the jews came to search for him, the tomb was found empty.

9.     His disciples must have removed him from the cave as quickly as possible before the Jews came to inspect if he was really dead.

 After he revived, he gave many proofs to some of his disciples to show that he was alive and not a resurrected being. There are many written stories of people having met, touched, and heard from him after the crucifixion, which even the Gospel admits. He told the disbelieving Thomas, “Here touch my wounds, and let us eat together so that you know I am not a ghost, but am as real as you, or any of these men and women here.”

But the bible describes it in such a way that we are made to believe that it was a miraculous happening since he had died and then been resurrected!

This story is of course crucial to Christianity to prove that Jesus was a God who had died and resurrected himself.

If Jesus  survived the crucifixion as a mortal human being, then obviously he was not resurrected and he did not ascend to heaven. Then what ultimately became of him?

There are many proofs that show that after he was totally healed and healthy, he moved towards the east and lived for a very long time in Kashmir.

Now let us examine what the Old Testament says about the coming of the Messiah.  It is a fact that the Jews were expecting the Messiah to come. In the scriptures, it was predicted that he would be known by his deeds. He would heal the sick; cure the blind; raise the dead; preach to the wicked; be killed and rise again on the 3rd day.

One of the key missions of the Jewish Messiah was to gather all the tribes of Israel and to help unite them once more in the land of Israel. Jesus had declared in his vision:

‘And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.’

If Jesus was to truly fulfil his mission he would have to find and preach to these tribes. Whilst the identity of these tribes and their whereabouts at that time is unclear, a number of researchers have concluded that a section of the modern day Afghans descended from these tribes. The evidence comes from facial similarities, linguistics, names of people, places and oral traditions. As we piece together the fragments of information we have about the life of Jesus after the crucifixion, the compelling research suggests that having survived the crucifixion, Jesus journeyed towards the East in search of the Lost Tribes of Israel, who, as is proven from historical sources, had become scattered and dispersed towards the East many hundreds of years previous to his advent.

We have to conclude that Jesus  delivered his message to these dispersed Israelite communities, ultimately reaching Kashmir, where his tomb exists to this day. A growing group of esteemed researchers and writers of different religious beliefs, have all agreed that the final resting place of Jesus Christ is in Srinagar, Kashmir.

Many of the Lost Tribes of Judea were known to have settled in France, Persia and Kashmir, India. There is an enormous body of evidence that Jesus did indeed go in search of these Judean tribes after his crucifixion, which he survived. In fact, evidence reveals that he spent the remainder of his life in Srinagar, Kashmir, until his demise in his late seventies. His tomb is still to be found in Srinagar, at the foothills of the Himalayas and this tomb has been worshipped for centuries by the local people as the tomb of the great Prophet / Messiah,  Issa Masshi (meaning supreme Lord and Messiah) where miraculous healings had happened. It is alleged that the Rozabal Shrine (located in the old part of Srinagar) is the tomb of Jesus. Roza is a Persian word, meaning holy, and Bal is Kashmiri for shrine.

It is said that the original burial place might have been a cave or stone room carved out of rock in the ground, with a simple shelter built over it to hold the casket that was once full of artifacts associated with Jesus, known as Yuz Asaf.

Ever since the site was first recorded in circa 112 AD, it attracted visitors from around the world who believed, even before the advent of Islam in the region, that this was the grave of the prince, Yuz Asaf (which means son of Joseph).

The Government of India’s Films Division released a documentary on the topic, entitled ‘The Rauzabal Shrine’. Another book, written centuries ago in Kashmiri, Urdu, Persian and Sanskrit, quotes from various sources, all pointing out that Yuzu was a prophet. Prof. Hussain concludes that Yuzu Asaph is indeed the Issa of the Muslims and the Jesus of the Christians who came from Palestine to Kashmir during the reign of Raja Gopadatta (49-109 A.D.).

Osho also points out certain salient facts. The grave of Moses is also found in Kashmir. The strange fact is that these two graves are the only ones that are not pointing toward Mecca. All Muslim graves point towards Mecca. The writing on the graves is in Hebrew which can never be seen on a Mohamedan grave. Jesus’ name is written as “Joshua” which is a Jewish name. Jesus is the English conversion.

Over the last 20 years there have been books written by Mantoshe Devji – a Sikh author, Ashwin Sangi – an Indian Hindu novelist, Holger Kersten – a German Buddhist, as well as Anand Krishna – an interfaith spiritualist. These authors approach the topic of Jesus’ post-crucifixion travels in the East from different perspectives, yet all agree on the Rozabal tomb as the final resting place of Jesus Christ. Documentaries on this subject have been also been featured on the BBC, the Discovery Channel and the Sundance Channel.

To be continued next week….