So I believe Jesus went to India. There is an 18-year period of Jesus’ life that was not recorded in written history. There have been rumors circulated about Jesus travelling to India. Of course, many of these stories are fueled by a reactionary desire for the New Age movement to accurately explain everything over-against conventional religious teachings. In a much similar fashion, many devout Christians are not open to understanding Jesus’ life in new ways, ironically; their interests pertain mostly to finding new content within their already existing theological boundaries. Both approaches are warped around appeals to control, to expectation, to mere paradigms of authority. I’m seeking something rooted in truth. I’m willing to believe the orthodox and/or the new agers insofar as they are correct or even simply believable, which often puts me in a position of paradox and, subsequently, double-sided rejection. However, my reasoning for belief in Jesus’ journey to India is not based in the stories of the likes of Novovich, but in the very words and actions of Jesus preserved through history.

I’m not in the mood to give rigorous citations and quotes. I could, but I’m not in the mood. Basically, it would make sense that Jesus went east as a young man because he acted a lot like oriental mystics and because he talked like them. In the Upanisads, there is a quote saying something of the likes of “God is like a mustard seed.” Jesus says something similar but different in his sermon on the mount. There are a few other instances where Jesus makes near-quotes or near-references or near-diversions to the Hindu scriptures. The very fact that Jesus chose remarkably similar words means that he was influenced profoundly by Indian thinking. Those aren’t just passing coincidences. Jesus was interested in Indian thought.

He also acted a lot like Indian mystics, living with periods of spontaneous withdrawal, unusual behavior, healings, transfigurations, profound and beautiful insight, a sense of being elevated and grounded. God was neither pie-in-the-sky nor materialistic for Jesus. God was both and neither. This, at least, exemplifies a deep similarity with eastern thinking that predated him: Buddhism’s tathagata, Hinduism’s brahma, Lao Tzu’s tao.

It doesn’t matter if there is or is not some conspiracy of new age oriental values embedded in a Christian theology, at the end of the day. The fact is that there is almost undeniable logical similarity between these systems. There is a similar apprehension of divinity. And it is basically impossible for Jesus to have made near quotes of Indian scriptures without having heard them first. I’m not saying that Christianity reduces to Indian thought. I’m just saying that there is a major unexplained chapter of Jesus’ life that he himself left a clue to as to where he was and what he was doing. I think he went east learning from the cultures, people, and philosophies. After all, Jesus does not act like a Jew; he acts like a man whose face has seen the all-sustaining sunshine of God: the very thing yogis have always been about. Even for the most conventional, orthodox, evangelical Christian you can think of, the fact that Jesus references Hindu thinking and closely resembles ideals of oriental philosophy is not a cause for doubt in Christianity, but a source of joy and connection with the whole world. It is a sign of greater grace in the world, on the horizon, among the gentiles than what meets the eye. It speaks of the humility of God. Jesus was not an echo chamber, a force of masturbatory narcissistic self-worship, but was an adventurer and world traveler. He’s a good example to follow not in his particularity, as if he were someone we should all become, but in his generality, as identifying with what is worth following in each and every one of our lives. He laid himself down not as someone we should reduce ourselves to, but as someone who became what makes each of our lives worth living. It’s not him we define ourselves by; he did not define himself by himself; he defined himself by what gives meaning to every person, which is so diverse and compassionate for each individual destiny. Jesus Christ is not a monolith but rather is a person who gave himself up to the breath that fills each of our lungs. In so doing, he overcame the defeat of death and was reborn.


March 31, 2021
San Luis Obispo