Jesus in India? A movie on that?

Just saw it in today's newspaper, Deccan Herald, Page 11, Inquirer column. To be honest, I was irritated.

How many hoaxes do these western people create? The heading says "There is almost no doubt Jesus spent some time in India", and the article provides no proof of the above statement. The article is about a producer, Kent Walwin (never heard of his name till date, IMDb though provides me the details that he has produced 19 movies and has written two plays, though the article says that he has made around 70 films?!). Well and good.

This producer, is now interested in making his most important movie which would explore if Jesus Christ spent his mythical 18 missing years in India!!??

Let me list some of the rumours connecting Jesus and India.

1. Jesus visited India and Tibet, served as a student as well as a teacher here and then returned back to Nazareth.

2. Jesus's body is buried somewhere in India.

3. Jesus will take his re-birth again in India.

(These are the major ones I accustomed, there may be many more...)

Googling more on the key 'Jesus in India' would provide you more results. I dont want to list them here. do it if you're interested. By the search I conducted, you get mixed responses. Some say yes, many say no.

According to a site I visited, it says that in 1894, some Russian Nicolas Notovitch, visited India and Tibet, broke his leg which made him stay long here. During this period, he found ancient records about a St. Issa (who turns out to be Christ), who studied and taught people over there. He took a copy those records in his journal,  back to the West, as a proof to the expected controversy. It also says that it was also accepted by his skeptics... blah blah blah... Read the article if interested. It also calls him the Buddha.



Many other pages I visited (which deny the above statement) try to criticize Vedic philosophy on this topic rather than negating Jesus's visit to India.


Now, let me write my opinion on this.


Note:

1. I'm assuming that Jesus had existed, for some may argue on the contrary. I havent done much of research on that perspective. (Son of a virgin lady? One of my basic doubts... Sorry, I don't believe in miracles) But from the debate's perspective, lets assume he had existed.

2. I havent read the Bible but a few parts are brought to my notice, thanks to the Evangelists. I can't quote anything from it.


Of all the pages I read regarding this, they say that there were something called as missing years in Jesus's life. Since he was 13 till he completed 29, there is no record of where he was in those days.


If we consider him coming to India, that would have taken long. Coming all the way from Israel to India when you're 12 in those days where you didn't have flights? hmm! Assuming he had travelled that far. What made him travel? Why did he? For how he knew there was a country called India which is spiritually rich? (accepted by Mr. KW)


Okay, he came. They say, he learned what they called Indian philosophy, He became a teacher too. (Teaching Indian philosophy) Umm, Thats great. But didn't he teach something else back in Israel?


I know no details other than the above mentioned paragraph. Now the question thats hitting me is that after learning so much in India, why did he return back to Nazareth? Geographically if you consider, India, (Kashmir, Ladakh to be specific,) was a heaven when you consider Jerusalem. Okay let us assume, he wanted to teach what he had learnt here to his people over there. Again the same question, did he teach exactly Indian principles?


If he had visited, there should be some more documents referring him say like some pandit in a King's regime, some kind of Sthala Purana, anything. We see no major thing coz if it did existed, it should have been know by now due to the excavation conducted.




Here are some questions I'd like to ask.


1. Why did all of a sudden, people started linking Jesus to India?
2. What is the Pope's stand towards this?
3. What does the Bible say about the missing years as said by Kent Walwin?


My view for the above questions are as follows,


Christianity is suffering a blow in the West, specially in Europe by Islam as India is suffering from blows by both of these cemetic religions(Christianity & Islam) here in India.

People say that in near future, Europe will be named Eurabia as muslims are densly multiplyin in Europe. Due to the intrusion of Islam in Europe, the Christian leaders are trying to find new land for its new Vatican City and they're eyeing India as the prominent destination.


Thanks to the current Indian Politics, which is held by an Italian Lady, well supported by her two kids and the rubber stamp along with a heard of sheeps. Need more proof regarding this? What happened once Congress came to power in 2004? Evangelism was accelerated. Missionaries from all over the world started coming to India. You all remember that stupid Benny Hinn's visit to Bangalore at the Jakkur Aerodrome. Boy! what a mess it was?

Our government lauds the Pope who visits India, vows that he shall make India a complete Christian Nation. Duh! What a pity????



Missionaries started camping allover the country. Where else? At the base of Tirupati, thanks for the late converted Christian CM, YSR (remembering whom, the whole AP cries crocodile tears) Duh!


We were trekking in Nagamale, Male Mahadeshwara hills a year back, to find the hilly area evangelized to a great extent. Cel location indicator on my CellPhone was saying we're at 'Kristarajapuram' (imitating krishnarajapura?) while we were trekking, a few kids of age not crossing 10, came to us begging for money who refused the food we gave. They wanted money. We saw a cross around their necks. Thank evangelists. Hope you understood the whole situation.


They're trying to christianize India stepwise. Thats highly irritating. Don't they have care for us Indians? Doesnt it strike their mind that they're doing exactly the same as to what the muslims are doing to them in Europe?


We Vedics, have never gone abroad trying to evangelize. We dont believe in it. The west simply doesnt understand our philosophy. They need to grow up a lot. I pity them.


These intrusion of evangelists and missionaries is a further step in that path. Creating false communal issues by disrupting churches by their own people, blaming the Hindus for that is another step. Making this movie, is another step in that regard.

People are trying to eradicate Indian philosophy from the face of earth, but thanks to a lot in saving it.





I believe there will not be an end to the Sanatana Dharma by these meagre foreign creatures for it has faced more tougher situations in the past and is still existing.

Had more points. Will mention the relevant ones in the comments. Please have your say!

On Currency notes

This post is the result of a forward SMS i got yesterday. It goes this way...

Pls don't write anything in our Indian Nationl currency notes.. Bcoz every year our govt is facing 2000 crore loss due to this.!! Pls spread it to All Indians.

I don't know how true it is but I certainly feel its a bad habit to write on anything that isnt writable. Ex: Currency Notes, Bus seats, Compound walls, lamp posts, whatever...

Well, atleast here in Bengalooru, BBMP is doing a good job in tackling the issue of illegal hoardings and writings on public walls by drawing paintings/artifacts and fining the illegals.

Lets concentrate more on currency notes for today.

Well, you might all have seen this. Drawing mustaches and beards on our infamous M. K. Gandhi, making him look like a punk such things are on a side while, writing personal messages, writing numerals on the other.

Let alone common man, even the bank officials are doing this. They count the bundle twice or thrice, after thorough checking, they'll write the count on the topmost bill. Now, whom should we blame? I've seen this in all banks including Axis, Vijaya, Corporation, HDFC, HSBC... what not?

All this made me search for information on the lifecycle of currency notes. After 10 minutes of searching, I found this interesting link from Reserve Bank of India (hereby referred RBI). I strongly suggest you all read that page to know more about Indian notes and coins. Do read it. I should thank the SMS to visit such an informational link.

After reading it, Here are the major points I inferred:

1. Actual money is just coins (Rupee coins and small coins).

2. All the banknotes/currency notes we deal with are mere readymade cheques provided by the RBI. Its like we asking the RBI governor to pay the payee the amount on the note. Its obvious. One can't carry bulky 500/1000 coins everywhere to pay up things. Technically banknotes have no value. The only advantage of a cheque might be the freedom to specify an amount which is fixed here. (Try giving it to a person outside the country, or a person who knows nothing of notes, he'll just throw it as a piece of paper)

3. Number of coins to be minted is decided by the Government of India while the number of currency notes to be printed is decided by the RBI.

4. Decision as to how many notes to be printed is taken based on the requirement for meeting the demand for banknotes due to inflation, GDP growth, replacement of soiled banknotes and reserve stock requirements. RBI also insists the Government of India in the number of coins to be minted every year.

6. We also had notes with 5000 and 10000 denominations for huge transactions which were last demonetized by 1978 (May be during Emergency??)

7. After Independence, we actually had three series of banknotes,
(i). Ashoka Pillar notes: Old notes which you might have seen, Now they've become obsolete. These were introduced in 1950 and continued till 1996.
(ii). Mahatma Gandhi series (MG series for short) produced in the period of [1996, 2005]
(iii). MG 2005 series produced since 2005 till date (2009).

8. How exactly is money transferred from RBI branches to currency chests and small coin chests.

9. Notes marked with a '*' (star/asterisk) in the number panel are actually reprinted ones, meaning notes with the serial number barring the star was already printed but was scrapped and reprinted because it was soiled/mutilated/imperfect.

Lot more...

After all this, what is the major cost of printing/reprinting of a currencynote?

1. RBI has to collect the soiled/mutilated/imperfect notes, keep track of it.
2. cost of producing the amount of paper (number of trees cut/machine cost etc)
3. Make sure that there are no notes with the same serial number. This means RBI should get the old note, scrap it and then print a new one. This might seem simple but in fact it isnt.

To be on the better side, all we can do is to lessen the number of notes getting printed every year. saving paper, saving money, saving time etc... What has RBI gotta say about it?

They say, about clean note policy [copy pasting with due respect to RBI].

G) Clean Note Policy:

Reserve Bank of India has been continuously making efforts to make good quality banknotes available to the members of public. To help RBI and banking system, the members of public are requested to ensure the following:

• Not to staple the banknotes
• Not to write / put rubber stamp or any other mark on the banknotes
• Store the banknotes safely to prevent any damage

What is the harm in us following such simple norms? They are simple things if we regularise in our lives, make sthe job of the bank a bit simpler... aint it?

Here are a few guidelines I would suggest for the interested.

1. Try to store it at max in a single fold. Preferrably in your billfold or wallet (whatever you call it). Do not fold it more than once.

2. Do not staple. use rubber bands instead.

3. If you work in a counter where transactions are very frequent and you've got to know the number of notes in every bundle, Instead of writing it on the banknote itself, attach a piece of paper to the rubberband, write the count/amount on the paper instead.

4. Do not press any seal onto banknotes.

Here are a few more guidelines to prevent soiling/mutilating:

1. Before washing clothes, thoroughly check all its pockets for valuables.

2. Do not carry sharp edged things inside your billfold. This might mutilate banknotes.

3. Store banknotes in less humid places.

Please suggest more guidelines which I might have missed.