Krishna and Jesus

by Prithu das Adhikary

Introduction

Before you react to any of this material, it is important that you update your knowledge of the New Testament scriptures. As an aid along these lines we'll show the state of scholarly research done over the last 150 years or so.

As for Jesus, here is what some eminent scholars tell us.

Rudolf Bultmann: "The character of Jesus, the clear picture of his personality and life, has faded beyond recognition. I do indeed think that we can now know almost nothing concerning his life and personality, since the early Christian sources show no interest in either, are moreover fragmentary and often legendary..."

Ernst Käsemann: "One is overwhelmed by how little [of the accounts of Jesus in the New Testament] can be called authentic...the historical figure of Jesus is traceable only in a few words of the Sermon on the Mount, the conflict with the Pharisees, a number of parables and some further narratives."

Günther Bornekamm: "The attempt to reconstruct an original draft of the Gospel according to Mark is a hopeless undertaking..."

While more recent New Testament research sounds less depressing--especially with recent developments in New Testament scholarship in the United States-modern experts in general have gradually come to believe that no more than fifteen percent of the words attributed to Jesus in the New Testament are his actual words. The rest have been attributed to him by generations of theologians and scribes.

In other words, the New Testament was not written by eyewitnesses. Rather, the four gospels gradually evolved, reflecting views of various Christian communities that existed from the time when the Gospel of Mark was written, around 70 AD.

The last gospel, the Gospel of John (125 AD), is now regarded as the least authentic because of its exaggerated Christological and Gnostic tendencies. Bultmann considers the Gospel of John a Tendenz Roman (i.e., tendentious literature).

As for the gospels of Matthew and Luke, written shortly after Mark's (c. 80-85 AD), it is widely agreed upon that both drew on Mark for their plots.

Regarding the virtually identical instructional material in Matthew and Luke that is not in Mark, scholars have assumed that the authors of both similar gospels drew upon a common source, logia, labeled 'Q' (from the German word Quelle meaning "source"). Q is said to comprise written or oral sayings of Jesus that might have been in circulation around the time of the composition of the Synoptic Gospels (i.e., those of Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

This assumption in its most basic form is called the Two Sources Theory. It has gained considerable support with the emergence of the Gospel of Thomas (Nag Hammadi Codex, discovered in Egypt, 1945), which indeed turned out to be a Gospel of Jesus' sayings--the existence of the genre of a gospel of sayings thus being demonstrated.

None of the Gospels were written in Israel. All of them reflect the understanding of the evolving Christian communities in the various geographical locations they represent.

Hence at the heart of the argument is the idea that the Gospel stories that we have all known, loved, eagerly recited and reposed our faith in--from the manger in Bethlehem to the crucifixion at Golgotha and beyond, to the resurrection and ascent to heaven--rather than representing the Jesus of history are actually proclamations of the Jesus of faith: What Christian communities outside Israel had come to believe about Jesus after 70 AD.

Along these lines, it is quite certain that neither Jesus nor his disciples had any idea of him being the awaited Messiah, the Christ, God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity, or the savior bringing mankind salvation through his self-sacrifice at Calvary.

Even the Last Supper--first recorded in Paul's letters ("For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me...'" (1 Corinthians 11:23-27)-even this might very well not be what those who actually physically associated with Jesus received (i.e., Peter, John and the rest of his disciples. John Dominic Crossan says the Didache, a second century document of the Jewish-Christian community--discovered in 1873 by Philotheos Bryennios--says nothing about such an event. In other words, the immediate followers of Jesus were not Christians. Nor was Jesus one.

With much of Christianity's most essential theological concepts being called into question--Soteriology (Jesus as the suffering savior) as much as Christology (Jesus as the divine second person of the Trinity)--Christianity is facing a major doctrinal crisis.

And, oddly enough, an incredible opportunity for revival...

Provided it could free itself from its superficial theological constructs that since the days of Paul have been superimposed and grafted onto the simple and perfect teachings of the Jesus of history.

Christianity has yet to discover the transcendental dimensions of God consciousness (or Krishna consciousness) possessed by Jesus, its founder, who declared: "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'It is here,' or 'It is there.' The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21).

yo mam pasyati sarvatra
sarvam ca mayi pasyati
tasyaham na pranasyami
sa ca me na pranasyati

"For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 6.30).

Christianity has not begun its transcendental task.

The energetic and serious work done by modern New Testament scholars in a quest to discover the historical Jesus reaches back to Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768).

Comparing their work favorably with our own conclusion, we have arrived at their position from a very different angle: the ancient bhakti tradition of India. And with a very different set of tools: guru, shastra [scripture] and sangha [saintly association].

Guru - what has been received via disciplic succession, in our case from His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, a master and self-realized soul in the Gaudiya Vaishnava-sampradaya, a line of realized teachers descending from Brahma via Madhava and Sri Krishna Caitanya into our present time; Shastra - evidence gathered from the body of Vedic scripture and literature; And Sangha - what we learn by practical application of knowledge in the association of saintly devotees.

Associating with devotees on a daily basis, experiencing the glories and frailties of human life, and facing problems and opposition similar to what Jesus faced, in the context of a similar, unenlightened outer environment, have certainly enhanced our understanding of what it must have been like living within a revolutionary spiritual movement two thousand years ago.

Practicing spiritual life under the guidance of a pure devotee of Krishna has further helped us understand that Jesus loves Krishna, and that Krishna loves Jesus too.

om ajnana-timirandhasya
jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena
tasmai sri-gurave namah

"I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him."

Sri Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gita (4.7):

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

"O descendant of Bharata, whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself" (Bhagavad-gita 4.7).

Either Krishna comes Himself or He sends His empowered representative: a shaktyavesa avatara, a perfect being, empowered to preach sanatana dharma: eternal religion, the universal religion of the soul.

Krsna-sakti vina nahe tara pravartana:

Unless one is empowered by Krishna, one cannot preach effectively. (Caitanya Caritamrita Antya Lila 7.11).

We can understand Jesus to be such a shaktyavesa avatara, a perfect soul, a messenger of the Supreme Being.

Such great souls have no business descending to lower planets such as ours, save and except in complete selflessness, to save the conditioned souls - "kara para-upakara." (Cc. Adi 9.41)

They descend to this level of consciousness as

tiksavah karunikah -
suhrdah sarva-dehinam
ajata-satravah santah -
sadhavah sadhu-bhusanah.

"The symptoms of a sadhu [saint] are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime" (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.25.21).

Srila Prabhupada explains this verse:

"The Srimad Bhagavatam states that any bona fide preacher of God consciousness must have the qualities of titiksa (tolerance) and karuna (compassion). In the character of Lord Jesus Christ we find both these qualities. He was so tolerant that even while he was being crucified he didn't condemn anyone. And he was so compassionate that he prayed to God to forgive the very persons who were trying to kill him. As Christ was being crucified he prayed, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they are doing."

Srila Prabhupada said,

"Jesus Christ was such a great personality--the son of God, the representative of God. He had no fault. Still, he was being crucified. He wanted to deliver God consciousness, but in return they crucified him. They were so ungrateful. They could not appreciate his preaching. But we appreciate him and give him all honors as the representative of God" (The Science of Self-Realization, chap. 4).

Great souls are never disturbed under any circumstances:

narayana-parah sarve
na kutascana bibhyati
svargapavarga-narakesv
api tulyartha-darsinah

"Devotees solely engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Lord never fear any condition of life. For them the heavenly planets, liberation and the hellish planets are all the same, for such devotees are interested only in the service of the Lord"
(Srimad Bhagavatam 6.17.28).

Even when facing tribulations, when being led to crucifixion, a perfect being on the highest level of intimacy with God, absorbed in God, is not afraid under any circumstances:

"Daughters of Jerusalem, don't cry for me. Cry for yourselves and for your children" (Luke 23:28).

brahma-bhutah prasannatma
na socati na kanksati
samah sarvesu bhutesu
mad-bhaktim labhate param

"One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed toward every living entity, absorbed in pure devotion to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 18.54).

Being absorbed in carrying out the will of the Lord, great souls return to the spiritual world after accomplishing their mission.

Are Jesus and Krishna One?

This idea, often suggested to us, is based on the statement taken from John: "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30).

This latest of Gospels, John's, was written around AD 125, and is--short of a few sentences--widely questioned by scholars because of its exaggerated claims and Christological tendencies. The idea of Jesus being God incarnate appears much earlier, beginning with Paul's letter to the Romans (written around AD 55): "Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen" (Romans 9:5).

From this the idea begins to spread and is carried throughout the centuries, even into modern times.

It is remarkable that Plinius Caecilius Secundus (AD 61-114), the Proconsul of the province of Bithynia in AD 111, in his letters to the Emperor Trajan on the Christians noticed that "it was their habit on a fixed day to assemble before daylight and recite a hymn to Christ as a God ("Carmen Christo qasi deo decere secum invincem").

This is evidence that in time the Pauline concept of Jesus as God gained enthusiastic support among the Gentile Christians, heavily opposed by Ebionite Christians and other early Christian groups, who were consequently branded as heretics.

This God-concept was further greatly elaborated by Gregory of Nyassa (AD 335), who formulated the Trinitarian doctrine of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which then emerged as a clear, cogent answer to the Arian questioning. Finally, it found its ultimate dogmatic formulation in the so-called Athanasian Creed (c. AD 500), una substantia-tres personae ("one substance-three persons") which settled the Arian controversy once and for all.

However if we look into the Gospels themselves--at least into the synoptic Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke--we find no notion of Jesus as God incarnate. Rather, Mark 10:8 and Luke 18:19 say: "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone."

Contemporary scholars generally agree that Jesus himself never considered himself divine, God incarnate, or the second person of the Trinity. Even the Gospel of John, for all its Christological pronouncements, says: "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28). Considering the statement: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes" (Luke 10:21); babes don't have the Trinity in mind when reading the Bible.

Rather, the concept of Jesus being God evolved over time. It has nothing to do with the Jesus of history, but rather with what Christians, beginning with Paul, in time came to believe about Jesus.

Burton L. Mack suggests that rather than being the view of the Jesus movement or the people of Q, this idea reflects the mindset of a North Syrian Christ cult, an assumed departure from the Jesus movement--Paul being it's notable exponent.

From Vedic evidence it is clear that Jesus is not Krishna. One only needs to contemplate Krishna's opulence as described in the Vedic version to come to this conclusion. Here are some examples:

Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus claim that he is omnipresent, as Krishna does:

sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto "I am in the heart of all beings" (Bhagavad-gita 15.15),

and can be seen as such by one with perfect vision:

yo mam pasyati sarvatra sarvam ca mayi pasyati
"For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 6.30).

Nor does Jesus claim that he is omnipotent.

mattah parataram nanyat
kincid asti dhananjaya
mayi sarvam idam protam
sutre mani-gana iva

Here Krishna says: "There is no truth beyond Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread" (Bhagavad-gita 7.7),

He is the strength of the strong: balam balavatam caham (Bhagavad-gita 7.11), The intelligence of the intelligent: buddhir buddhimatam asmi (Bhagavad-gita 7.10), And the ability in man: tejas tejasvinam aham (Bhagavad-gita 7.10).

Nor does Jesus says he is omniscient.

vedaham samatitani
vartamanani carjuna
bhavisyani ca bhutani
mam tu veda na kascana

"O Arjuna, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows" (Bhagavad-gita 7.26).

bahuni me vyatitani
janmani tava carjuna
tany aham veda sarvani
na tvam vettha parantapa

"Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot!" (Bhagavad-gita 4.5).

Further, Jesus does not proclaim himself the source of all beings.

bijam mam sarva bhutanam (Bhagavad-gita 7.10) Krishna says that He is "the original seed". And "the father of all": aham bija-pradah pita (Bhagavad-gita 14.4).

Nor did Jesus teach that the creation rests on him, as Krishna teaches:

aham sarvasya prabhavo
mattah sarvam pravartate
iti matva bhajante mam
budha bhava-samanvitah

"I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts" (Bhagavad-gita 10.8).

etad-yonini bhutani
sarvanity upadharaya
aham krtsnasya jagatah
prabhavah pralayas tatha

"Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both the origin and the dissolution" (Bhagavad-gita 7.6).

Jesus does not claim to be the supreme controller, but Krishna does.

tapamy aham aham varsam nigrhnamy utsrjami ca "I give heat, and I withhold and send forth the rain" (Bhagavad-gita 9.19),

or Krishna is described as being the supreme controller -

krishnas tu bhagavan svayam - Lord Krishna is the original supreme controller (S.B. 1.3.28)
isvarah paramah krsnah (Brahma Samhita 5.1), The cause of all physical phenomena
"He is the cause of all causes, material and spiritual" sarva karana karanam (Brahma Samhita 5.1).

Nor does Jesus claim to be "immortality and death personified," but Krishna did: amrtam caiva mrtyus ca sad asac caham arjuna - Krishna says, "Both spirit and matter are in Me": sad asac caham arjuna (Bhagavad-gita 9.19).

Jesus does not say that material nature is under his control; mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-caracaram (Bhagavad-gita 9.1), That all innumerable living entities are his parts and parcels; yena bhutany asesani draksyasy atmany atho mayi (Bhagavad-gita 4.35), That he is the cause of all creation; yad yad vibhutimat sattvam srimad urjitam eva va, or tat tad evavagaccha tvam mama tejo-'msa-sambhavam "Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor" (Bhagavad-gita 10.41).

Nor does Jesus proclaim: "What need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe."- atha va bahunaitena kim jnatena tavarjuna vistabhyaham idam krtsnam ekamsena sthito jagat (Bhagavad-gita 10.42).

However, all this does not mean that Jesus is an ordinary being who ascended to perfection. It is quite clear from what scholars tell us that neither Jesus nor his original followers in Galilee or later Jerusalem, i.e. the members of the Jesus movement, considered Jesus "the Word made flesh living among us," God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity, the son of man who will be coming to us in the future on the clouds -"For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:27).

Jesus as a perfect being, an empowered shaktyavesa avatara, an eternally perfect soul , descended, endowed with divine power, to save the fallen souls in this material world.

Such a body is not subject to the same laws governing us poor fellows. A person on that level is endowed with eight mystic opulences, some of them demonstrated in the Gospels:

anima siddhi-one can go through walls or closed doors (John 20:19,26), laghima siddhi-one can walk on water (Matthew 14.25), prapti siddhi-one can bring into three dimensional space and from a higher plane, things, like food, as when Jesus fed thousands (Matt.15:38, 16:10; Mark 8:9, 8:20), isitva siddhi-to appear and disappear at will: "then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight" (Luke 4:29:30, 24:31).

As for a liberated soul like Jesus (jivan mukta), free from the inebriety of the material laws, it is stated:

iha yasya harer dasye karmana manasa gira nikhilasv apy avasthasu jivan-muktah sa ucyate (Bhakti-rasamita-sindhu 1.2.187).

"A person acting in Krishna consciousness (or, in other words, in the service of Krishna) with his body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person even within the material world, even if engaged in so-called material activities."

Srila Prabhupada explains:

"[such a devotee] has no false ego, for he does not believe that he is this material body, or that he possesses the body. He knows that he is not this body and that this body does not belong to him. He himself belongs to Krishna, and the body too belongs to Krishna. When he applies everything produced of the body, mind, intelligence, words, life, wealth, etc.--whatever he may have within his possession--to Krishna's service, he is at once dovetailed with Krishna. He is one with Krishna and is devoid of the false ego that leads one to believe that he is the body, etc. This is the perfect stage of Krishna consciousness" (Bhagavad-gita 5.11 purport).

"Such a devotee of the Lord can withstand all onslaughts of material nature, and therefore he is known as gosvami. Only such gosvamis can penetrate the mysteries of the Lord's transcendental loving relationships" (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.4.31 purport).

Such a person is on the platform called vasudeva or suddha sattva, beyond material nature, one with Krishna, not in personality but in interest, in service and love, "in this world, but not of it."

mam ca yo 'vyabhicarena
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa gunan samatityaitan
brahma-bhuyaya kalpate

"One who always engages in the spiritual activities of unalloyed devotional service at once transcends the modes of material nature and reaches the platform of Brahman (the transcendental platform)" (Bhagavad-gita 14.26).

The inconceivable state of consciousness of a liberated soul, jivan muktah, a person on the vasudeva platform, absorbed in God is described as such in Bhagavad-gita:

naiva kincit karomiti
yukto manyeta tattva-vit
pasyan srnvan sprsan jighrann
asnan gacchan svapan svasan
pralapan visrjan grhnann
unmisan nimisann api
indriyanindriyarthesu
vartanta iti dharayan

"A person in the divine consciousness, although engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping and breathing, always knows within himself that he actually does nothing at all. Because while speaking, evacuating, receiving, or opening or closing his eyes, he always knows that only the material senses are engaged with their objects and that he is aloof from them" (Bhagavad-gita 5.8-9).

Such devotees see in their heart of hearts in ecstatic vision--premanjana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti-with eyes tinged with the salve of love-syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam--the inconceivable transcendental form of Syamasundara, Krishna, at every moment.

Such a person on the platform of prasannatma-ecstasy--sees God everywhere: yo mam pasyati sarvatra sarvam ca mayi pasyati tasyaham na pranasyami sa ca me na pranasyati -"For one who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 6.30).

He is on the brahma bhuta platform, a liberated soul: brahma-bhutah prasannatma na socati na kanksati samah sarvesu bhutesu mad-bhaktim labhate param, Free from lamentation-- na socati--even when facing intense tribulations like crucifixion: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children" (Luke 23:28).

He has nothing left to desire-- na kanksati.
He the friend of all beings-- samah sarvesu bhutesu.
And his absorption in his pure devotional service to God is complete and perfect-- mad-bhaktim labhate param (Bhagavad-gita 18.54).

Being with Krishna (in Krishna consciousness), he is not afraid under any conditions:

narayana-parah sarve
na kutascana bibhyati
svargapavarga-narakesv
api tulyartha-darsinah

"Devotees solely engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana, never fear any condition of life. For them the heavenly planets, liberation and the hellish planets are all the same, for such devotees are interested only in the service of the Lord" (Srimad Bhagavatam 6.17.28).

Nor are they subject to the law of karma or the laws of nature like ordinary human beings:

mahatmanas tu mam partha
daivim prakrtim asritah
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jnatva bhutadim avyayam

"O son of Prtha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible" (Bhagavad-gita 9.13).

Nor can they be killed, under ordinary circumstances:

kaunteya pratijanihi na me bhaktah pranasyati -"O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes" (Bhagavad-gita 9.31).

There is ample evidence from scriptures that perfect souls like Prahlada Maharaja survived all kinds of tortures and atrocities by his demonic father, such as being thrown into the dens of lions, into pits of snakes and thrown from the tops of mountains.

Even Bhisma, being pierced by a thousand arrows, was beyond the laws of nature and could not be killed, but left his body out of his own will, only after Sri Krishna arrived.

Similarly in the fifteenth century, neither Mira Bhai was killed after being administered poison, nor was Haridas Thakur killed when he was beaten in twenty-one marketplaces and thrown into the Ganges. He walked around freely, as Jesus did after the crucifixion.

In the Old Testament we find the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who preferred to be thrown into a furnace rather than eat the meat of King Nebuchadnezzar, and they chanted in the fire and survived (Daniel 3:19-26). Mare krsna rakhe ke, rakhe krsna mare ke--if Krishna protects you, no one can kill you, and if Krishna wants to kill you, no one can save you.

While the circumstances of Jesus' disappearance are by no means clear, they are for His devotees less important, even irrelevant. As Srila Prabhupada pointed out: "Preaching is the essence." The teachings of Jesus are the most essential part of his mission and incarnation, rather than what happened to him thereafter.

By becoming preoccupied with the death of Jesus, the empty grave and thereafter--curiously called by theologians the 'after-Easter perspective'--the whole emphasis of Jesus' teachings--to leave things behind and to turn to God with heart, soul and mind--becomes clouded and ultimately lost.

Consequently, Srila Prabhupada, speaking on Vedic evidence, discounted the concept of Jesus dying for our sins as an unauthorized shift of paradigm: from the pure and perfect teachings of Jesus to salvation from the cross (Bombay, April 2, 1977).
Tamala Krishna: He says, “Did Jesus die on the cross to redeem all the sins of the world?”
Prabhupada: This is another sinful thought—Jesus has taken contract for ridding your sinful activities. That’s a plea, what is called plea for the sinners, that they will continue acting sinfully, and Christ will take contract to counteract. This is most sinful conviction. Instead of stopping sinful activities, we have given contract to Jesus Christ to counteract it.
Tamala Krishna: So these people are not actually getting free of their sins unless they stop sinning.
Prabhupada: Then what is the use of his preaching? They will continue sinful activities, and Jesus Christ will take contract for saving them. How nonsense idea this is!

The teachings of Jesus are universal, complete in themselves and perfectly salvific-they are sanatana dharma, the eternal religion of the soul in its loving relationship to the Supreme Being, unadulterated by the falsity of bodily designations, or upadhis, designations such as Indian, American, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and so on. Sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam tat-paratvena nirmalam hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate (Narada-pancaratra, quoted in Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu 1.1.2.)-Service to God with one's purified senses is the actual purpose of life.

Simply by surrendering to the will of God one lives with Krishna, and all karma is destroyed.

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah

"Abandon all varieties of dharma and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear" (Bhagavad-gita 18.66).

No one has to die for our sins.

Jesus taught by his personal life how to surrender to God under all conditions: "Thy will be done" (Matthew 26:42), "on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).

To preach this message of love Jesus was so surrendered that he tolerated crucifixion.



Is worshipping Jesus compatible with worshipping Krishna?

Why not?

There is no divine disagreement between father and son.

However, some of the teachings of the New Testament are not standard teachings of spiritual knowledge. They were superficially imposed on the teachings of Jesus by later sources. It appears that there was a rift between two parties, both with no clue as to how to perceive the transcendental nature of the message of Jesus.

Paul tried to make sense out of Jesus, probably to the best of his abilities. So did the group around James, Peter and the rest. Paul made no qualms about it that he preached a different concept of Jesus:

"For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those 'super-apostles' (i.e., James, Peter and the rest)" (2 Cor. 11:5).

Hence Christianity as we know it might well be a spin off of the original Jesus movement, described by the well-established contemporary scholar Burton L. Mack as a "Christ Cult of Northern Syria and Asia Minor"--Paul possibly being its most eloquent exponent.

It appears that James and his party gradually regressed to some extent back toward Judaism, with James praying daily in the temple ("He was in the habit of entering alone into the temple, and was frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel in consequence of constantly bending them on his worship of God" (Eusebius, Church History II. Ch XXIII, 5-7). Meanwhile Paul's party-- with its theology of redemption from the cross, the concept of the dying God (drawn largely from concepts in the pagan mystery cults of the Mediterranean basin)--went its own way.

Especially interesting in this regard is the cult of the savior God Mithra, who similarly dies for the sins of his followers.

It's hard to overlook certain similarities to the Last Supper if one considers that those who partook in the meal in memory of Mithra were also to participate in his death and resurrection.

Further remarkable is that Mithra's birthday happens to be December 25, Christmas day. Even the sacred day of the week for the followers of Mithra, him being the sun-god, is Sunday and not the Sabbath (which was undoubtedly observed by Jesus and his followers).

After Jerusalem's mother church was routed by the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, some of the followers apparently retreated to Trans Jordania (the famous flight to Pella), later to become known as Ebionites. Paul's construct survived by default. It is remarkable that the Ebionites described by Epiphanius of Constantia (AD 315-403) in his Panarion (Ch. 30) perceived Jesus as a perfect human rather than God. They believed that one couldn't follow Jesus unless one renounces eating meat. They did not believe that Jesus was born from a virgin. And they declared the teachings of Paul to be heresy--Paul, being the first apostate (the first to fall from the faith).

Some scholars such as Klausner postulate that the teachings of the Ebionite Christians could well be closer to the teachings of the Jesus of history. "However, the influence of Jewish Christianity, despite its decade of unchallenged supremacy, was not absolute, and the author of this innovating document that we know now as the Gospel of Mark, was clearly inspired by the theology of Paul."

S.G.F. Brandon says: "The death of Jesus, moreover, is set forth not as an accident, to be explained apologetically by means of Old Testament quotation, but as an event of universal soteriological significance, which could not be understood by the celebrated representatives of the Jewish Apostles."

And that's where the whole thing split, and the section which based its theology on a person who never met Jesus in person, namely Paul, took off in a different direction: the Christianity we have known of for two thousand years.

We ask you to discover the historical Jesus. And modern scholarship will help you in the quest to develop a more enlightened understanding of Jesus and his teachings.

Srila Prabhupada, the spiritual master of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness said: "If one loves Krishna, he must love Lord Jesus also. And if one perfectly loves Jesus he must love Krishna too. If he says, 'Why shall I love Krishna? I shall love Jesus,' then he has no knowledge. And if one says, 'Why shall I love Jesus? I shall love Krishna,' then he has no knowledge either. If one understands Krishna, then he will understand Jesus. If you understand Jesus, you'll understand Krishna too" (Room conversation with Allen Ginsberg, May 12, 1969 / Columbus - Ohio).



What is the difference between Jesus and Krishna?

Answer: Essentially there is no difference in the message of Krishna and the message of Jesus. Like father, like son.

If you find a conflict, then that is because a whole superficial theological structure was superimposed on the original teachings of Jesus. So you have to distinguish between the Christ of creed and dogma and the Jesus of history.

Jesus was preaching perfectly, and his universal message is nondifferent from the teachings of Krishna: Man has to change his heart, give up sense gratification and turn to God with complete determination--"Thou shalt love The Lord Thy God with all Thy heart, with all Thy soul, and with all Thy might."

This is the very essence of Jesus' teachings, and such bhakti, or pure devotion to the Supreme Being, was at the heart of his life. It is at the heart of any genuine spirituality.

man-mana bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yaji mam namaskuru
mam evaisyasi satyam te
pratijane priyo 'si me

"Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend" (Bhagavad-gita 18.65).

tesam satata-yuktanam
bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayanti te

"To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me" (Bhagavad-gita 10.10).

tesam evanukampartham
aham ajnana-jam tamah
nasayamy atma-bhava-stho
jnana-dipena bhasvata

"To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance" (Bhagavad-gita 10.11).

The great Spiritual master Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur teaches: manasa deho geho jo kichu mor arpilun tuwa pade nanda-kisor - "My mind, my body, my home, whatever I have in my possession, I offer unto You, my Lord."

Srila Rupa Gosvami, the direct disciple of Sri Krishna Caitanya, says:

sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam
bhaktir ucyate

"When all one's senses are engaged in the service of the Supreme Lord, the master of all the senses, and the soul renders pure service unto the Supreme, he is freed from all material designations, and one's senses are purified" (Narada-pancaratra qtd. in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.12).

Such service to the Lord encompasses all of one's life, and it simply does not matter whether such truth is spoken by Jesus or by Sri Krishna. God the father and his son are one in spirit and one in love. The message is the same: Jesus was preaching intense spiritual life; to forsake, home, relatives and the rest and turn to God radically in pure devotion.

"…and if you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Matthew 19:21).

"…Do not worry about anything: look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than them?"

"…And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:26-33).

"Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him." (Matthew 7:7-11).

One disciple said to him: "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said: "Follow me. Let the dead bury their own dead" (Matthew 8:20-22). We cannot even conceive how radical a statement this was in an oriental society where the duty of the son to bury his father was peremptory. This is the 'Wanderradikalismus" (Gert Theissen) of the original Jesus movement. It is the voice of Jesus, and the message the Jesus movement of history stood for.

These words are music to our ears. Here we hear the same old voice that is speaking at the heart and root of any genuine tradition:

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah

"Abandon all varieties of mundane religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear." (Bhagavad-gita 18:66).

Such transcendental knowledge is universal, never changing, and not subject to the speculation of theologians and philosophers. It is raja-vidya raja-guhyam, "the king of education, the most secret of all secrets"; pavitram idam uttamam, "the purest knowledge and the most perfect"; pratyashavagamam dharmyam, "it provides direct perception of the self by realization, and is the perfection of religion"; su-sukham kartum avyayam, "it is everlasting and joyfully performed" (Bhagavad-gita 9.2).

All it depends upon is the surrender of the soul and complete abandonment to the will of the Supreme Lord: "Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done…" (Matthew 26:42); "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10).

And as the result of such surrender, Sri Krishna reveals Himself to His devotee:

ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham - "As they surrender unto Me, I reveal myself" (Bhagavad-gita 4.11). Never mind religion, race or nation: samo 'ham sarva-bhutesu na me dvesyo 'sti na priyah - "I am not partial to anyone. I am equal to all" (Bhagavad-gita 9.29).

Spiritual life is a practical, verifiable experience. Performed under the guidance of great souls, its results can be experienced by anyone, everywhere, and at all times.

Unfortunately, most Christians are conditioned by the theological constructions that they have been taught. It's hard for them to open their minds to allow the original concept to enter. We must be understanding, and help those understand who want to.

We appreciate the sincere attempts and enormous courage of New Testament scholars in their 150 years of their quest for Jesus - from H.S. Raimarus to F. Strauss, from Albert Schweitzer to R. Bultmann and in recent times from J. Bornekamm to J. D. Crossan, John S. Cloppenborg, Burton L. Mack to Marcus J. Borg, just to name a few. These men have rendered tremendous contributions to freeing our minds from previous impositions, only to return to us the Jesus of History.