Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion (Paperback)

The first full length book regarding a possible post-crucifixion life of Jesus Christ was written in the year 1890 by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Ahmad, at his peak, was considered a foremost and formidable scholar of the Indian Sub-continent.

The book was written in the Urdu language, and was entitled Masih Hindustein Mein [English: Jesus in India]. In it, with stunning detail, Ahmad traced Jesus' entire sojourn from Galilee to Kashmir; he listed in detail the books of history that mention the presence of Jesus (Yuz Asaf) in India; he listed two full pages of references--from books of the Orient and the Occident--that mention the actual ointment ("Marham-i-Isa") that was used to heal Jesus' wounds after the crucifixion, etc.

What disturbs Kersten's critics are two things: Firstly, he has brought the issue OUT of the halls of religious academia (where the subject is VERY WELL KNOWN) and down to earth for the common person. Secondly, by exposing this subject, he has introduced a massive challenge to religious structures, particularly Christianity & Islam.

The Christian challenge is obvious: the entire doctrine of Christianity falls when it is understood that Jesus survived the crucifixion.

The Islamic challenge is little known, but HUGE. The world's Muslims believe that Jesus Christ is returning, in the flesh, to MURDER anybody who does not accept Islam. He will come as "Imam Mahdi" to establish Islam in the "latter days" by force. Anyone refusing him will be killed.

This repugnant belief has been dinned into the ears of Muslim children for centuries, and has shaped the character of many Muslims [not all of them], and represents the true, psychological root of violence in the Islamic world--the expectation of a bloody Imam, full of spite and hatred. This is no exaggeration.

Kerston, along with other scholars like Professor Thomas Sheehan of Loyola University, have challenged Christians to accept THE TEACHINGS of Jesus, not his divinity as God.

Last, this is NOT a bogus, un-scholarly book. There are now at least 15 books written on this subject in English, and some in German. It's an excellent piece, and to attempt to trivialize it reflects ignorance of the subject.

Although there is, in my opinion no absolute evidence, that Jesus actually traveled to the Far East, it cannot be ruled out either. After all, there ARE at least 18 years of his life unaccounted for. Children's books, claiming to give accounts on what Jesus did as a child, relate even less to reality than his "travels to India" proclaimed by Kersten.

It takes a certain nerve to be different. That's what I've always liked about Jesus and IT is what he meant for us to understand, as in Luke's saying in 17:21, (attributed to him): THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU. . ., a principle not generally accepted in his day. Then and again now it is not where people are looking for it. No, we look at the government, the stockmarket, church, anyone but ourselves for that kingdom. Jesus found it within and not through the Judaeic Law of his time, which concerned itself mostly with the well-being of the Haves rather than the Have-Nots. Buddha too knew and taught of this Inner Kingdom, at a time when Israelites were still dancing around Golden Calves or praying to an ill-tempered, violent god.

What's so impossible for an enlightened person like Jesus to have heard of the Compassionate Buddha? To be taught by one of his followers? To pass the idea of compassion on to those who had nothing at all?

The corruption of church since his time, is what makes it difficult for some to believe that Eastern influence ever happend to Jesus.

No one book can entirely uncover that mysterious master Jesus, but I'd like to recommend a couple, which deserve the curious learners attention: "Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography" by John Dominic Crossan and "The Shroud Is Genuine" by Rodney Hoare.

In the end, it IS within where we find truth/God and it is one self who must grant permission to uncover it.