The Christ of India
Essene roots of Christianity
Their contact and interchange with Indian religion–Brahminical practices in particular–were manifested in several ways among the Essenes:
1. They practiced strict non-violence.
2. They were absolute vegetarians and would not touch alcohol in any form. Nor would they eat any food cooked by a non-Essene. (Edersheim says: "Its adherents would have perished of hunger rather than join in the meals of the outside world.")
3. They refused to wear anything of animal origin, such as leather or wool, usually making their clothes of linen.
4. They rejected animal sacrifice, insisting that the Torah had not originally ordered animal sacrifice, but that its text had been corrupted–in regard to that and many other practices as well. Their assertion was certainly corroborated by passages in the scriptures such as: "Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" (Psalms 50:13). "To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord:…I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats" (Isaiah 1:11). "For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices" (Jeremiah 7:22). The quotation from Isaiah is particularly relevant since he was himself the Master of the Essenes.
The disciples of Saint Thomas
By their own preference the disciples of Saint Thomas were usually referred to in India as "Ishannis." This means "of Isha," just as Lutheran means "of Luther." Although Jesus' Aramaic name was Yeshua, in India he was known as Isha. Perhaps Ishanni could awkwardly, but accurately, be translated "Jesusites" or "Isha-ites." Some Indian scholars such as Swami Abhedananda make the conjecture that either Ishanni is actually a derivation of Essene (Essenees), or that the Essenes themselves were called Ishannis, "Isha" in their case being a reference to God "the Lord." This would certainly reveal their Indian spiritual roots.
Some Distinctive Traits of the Ishanni Sampradaya
A great number of the Ishanni Sampradaya's characteristics have already been discussed, but a few more should be mentioned to help us better understand the Ishanni Sampradaya.
1. Ishannis were vegetarians, abstaining absolutely from meat, fish, and eggs–as well as from alcohol–in any form or quantity. (In 1604, many Ishannis of Cranganore fled into the hills to escape being forced by the Western missionaries to eat fish.)
3. Ishannis held that the twin laws of karma and rebirth were the fundamental truths about human existence, and that without them no religious or personal philosophy can be either true or viable.
4. Ishannis believed that there are three eternal things: God (Parameshwara), the individual souls (jivas), and primordial matter (pradhana or mulaprakriti). These three are the real Father, Son(s), and Holy Spirit (Mahashakti)–or: Pita, Putra, and Prakriti. From the standpoint of God these three are one in an incomprehensible manner. From the standpoint of the individual soul these three are distinct from one another.
Unknown Life of Jesus Christ
The Four Soul Killers
For this reason those who seek higher consciousness should scrupulously avoid: 1) all animal flesh, including fish and eggs; 2) tobacco in any form; 3) alcohol in any form; and 4) mind-altering drugs, including the legal ones. The use of these substances is a form of mental and spiritual suicide–and often physical suicide, too, for the number of suicides committed by those who are pumped full of "tranquillizers" and "anti-depressants" is simply incredible.
Meat, Fish, and Eggs
First let us look at meat. The effect of meat on the mental and psychic states of those who eat it is detrimental to the attempt at attaining higher consciousness. It is even destructive of normal, balanced mental states for, as stated above, our minds are fields of energy which absorb the subtle energies of whatever we eat and are affected thereby. To eat meat is to absorb the mental state of the animal.
The Cave Where Jesus Stayed
A growing mass of evidence indicates that Jesus spent much of his "Lost Years" in India.
This is the cave north of Rishikesh in which Jesus lived for some time. In the last century both Swami Rama Tirtha and Swami (Papa) Ramdas lived there (at separate times), and had visions of Jesus meditating there, though they had no prior knowledge of his having lived there.
Spiritual Benefits of a Vegetarian Diet
Chapter Four of How to Be a Yogi
Christian Vegetarianism
The Esoteric Side Of Diet
