Oct 18, 2004 09:53 PM
1547 Views
(Updated Nov 11, 2004 10:55 AM)
This book falls in the so called intelligent thriller category. It is not the typical Irwing Wallace thriller about the usual American bullshit. The central theme, about the unknown (secret??) life of Jesus Christ and it's fictional rewriting buy Vatican touches the central nerve in many young people-cynical as we are!
The book tries to touch on some central and very important questions about humanity in general and Christianity in particular. It gives a different and fictional (but not far away from the truth, I suspect) perspective of the development of christianity through the ages and the power plays between Vatican and other sects.
Alas, in the second half it becomes very predictable and like a made for hollywood screen script. Is there really a need for bringing in romantic relations between the leading characters? Especially for a book that starts with such grand presumptions? Why can't the leading man and lady be just happily married or with fucked up personal lives or whatever but keep it away from their current professional work? Anyway, obviously the author didn't want to give up on the lucrative Hollywood future of his book!
I am not giving away the entire plot but there is another matter of Jesus's life that is even more intriguing. There are certain missing years in his life when nobody knew where he was. There is very convincing evidence that he was infact in India!! My limited research so far is summarized below.
Jesus first went to Egypt to study the mystical ancient religion there. But soon he found out that the roots of that all lead to India. So he traversed the silk route and reached Kashmir/ladakh. He studied Hinduism and other prevailing religions of the region and also dabbled in some yogic practices etc. His mother (Mary) probably accompanied him and died while in Kashmir.
Even today her tomb can be seen near Srinagar which the locals call the tomb of Mariam, the mother of Isa! Historical evidence has been provided by among others a Russian Historian Notovich, who personally went to Ladakh and collected manuscripts from a Buddhist monastery proving Jesus was there! Swami Abhedananda, a disciple of Swami Ramakrishna, read Notovitch's account, and in 1922 he decided to travel to the Hemis Monastery himself to attempt to verify whether or not documents actually existed that documented the sojourn of Jesus Christ in India before the crucifixion.
Guess what he found them again! Nicolas Roerich, the famous artist repeated the search and found the evidence again, independently. As usual this was all rejected by the leading established historians of the time. Among them the biggest egoist nut, Max Muller! Vatican officials went to the extent of trying to bribe Notovich to keep his findings secret.
This is not Hogwash and you can do a little research yourself. Just google ''Jesus in India'' to start. I am hoping that somebody of you will write a better book on this subject. (I am too busy right now writing reviews here!)
