Appendix One: Jesus, a Nath Yogi

Saint Paul wrote: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
The mind of Jesus was the mind of a yogi: a Nath Yogi.

The Nath Yogis claim Jesus–Sri Isha Nath–as a great adept of their order. The Bengali educator and patriot, Bipin Chandra Pal, wrote: “It is also their conjecture that Jesus Christ and this Isha Nath are one and the same person.” He published an autobiographical sketch in which he revealed that Vijay Krishna Goswami, a renowned saint of Bengal, told him about spending time in the Aravalli mountains with a group of extraordinary Nath Yogis. They spoke to him about Isha Nath, whom they looked upon as one of the great teachers of their order. When Vijay Krishna expressed interest in this venerable guru, they read to him his life as recorded in one of their sacred books, the Nathanamavali. It was the life of him whom the Goswami knew as Jesus Christ! Here is the relevant portion of that book:

“Isha Natha came to India at the age of fourteen. After this he returned to his own country and began preaching. Soon after, his brutish and materialistic countrymen conspired against him and had him crucified. After crucifixion, or perhaps even before it, Isha Natha entered samadhi by means of yoga. [In samadhi yogis often leave their bodies or remain without breath or heartbeat, so it is not amiss to say that Jesus did indeed die on the cross.]

“Seeing him thus, the Jews presumed he was dead, and buried him in a tomb. At that very moment however, one of his gurus, the great Chetan Natha, happened to be in profound meditation in the lower reaches of the Himalayas, and he saw in a vision the tortures which Isha Natha was undergoing. He therefore made his body lighter than air and passed over to the land of Israel.

“The day of his arrival was marked with thunder and lightning, for the gods were angry with the Jews, and the whole world trembled. When Chetan Natha arrived, he took the body of Isha Natha from the tomb, woke him from his samadhi, and later led him off to the sacred land of the Aryans. Isha Natha then established an ashram in the lower regions of the Himalayas and he established the cult of the lingam [the Shaivite branch of Hinduism] there.”

This last assertion is supported by two relics of Jesus which are presently found in Kashmir. One is his staff, which is kept in the monastery of Aish-Muqan and is made accessible to the public in times of catastrophe such as floods or epidemics. The other is the Stone of Moses–a Shiva linga that had belonged to Moses and which Jesus brought to Kashmir. This linga is kept in the Shiva temple at Bijbehara in Kashmir. One hundred and eight pounds in weight, if several people put one finger on the stone and recite the bija mantra Ka over and over, it will rise three feet or so into the air and remain suspended as long as the recitation continues. “Shiva” means one who is auspicious and gives blessings and happiness. In ancient Sanskrit the word ka means to please and to satisfy–that which Shiva does for his worshippers. I have met two people who have raised the Stone of Moses. One of them said that the number required to raise the Stone relates to their spiritual development–that he had raised it with only three others. (For more information about Jesus in India, see The Christ of India.)

It is no wonder, then, that Sri Isha Natha said: “I and my Father are one,” and: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 10:30; 14:9), for those words can be summed up in the mantra Soham.

Other yoga teachings of Jesus are recorded in the gospels. He was speaking as a yogi when he said: “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:28). Yoga is our way of return. The capacity for return is innate in us, just as it was said of Jesus that he “knew that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God” (John 13:3). He also said: “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). Only yogis say such things, and only yogis realize their full meaning. Yoga is a restoration of our original consciousness, regarding which Jesus prayed: “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5). For before the world existed we consciously knew that we were one with God, part of Infinite Being.

Saint Augustine wrote in the fourth century: “The identical thing that we now call the Christian religion existed among the ancients and has not been lacking from the beginnings of the human race until the coming of Christ in the flesh, from which moment on the true religion, which already existed, began to be called ‘Christian.’” Earlier Saint Paul had written that the Christian Gospel was that which had already been taught throughout the whole world, “which was preached to every creature which is under heaven” (I Colossians 1:23). Authentic–original–Christianity is not new, but eternal in essence, embracing the Ancient Wisdom that has existed from the beginning of the world. All master teachers of humanity, including Jesus the Christ, were revivers of that Wisdom, reminders of what was at their time either lost or almost extinguished.

When we consider the foregoing facts it is only reasonable to conclude that the following of Jesus involves the following of Sanatana Dharma and the practice of Sanatana Yoga: Soham sadhana.

Sanatana Dharma–Eternal Religion–is the unanimous spiritual vision and beliefs of the great saints and liberated masters found throughout the world, whatever the religious tradition in which they lived and taught. Because it was first expressed in India it is often considered a synonym for Hinduism, but it is much more, being universal and beyond any cultural conditionings.

For more about Jesus and India I again recommend you read my book, The Christ of India.

Next: Appendix Two: The Nath Pantha

We invite you to watch this three minute trailer for the book The Christ of India: