By TCN News,
Mumbai: The Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), a Mumbai based community NGO has taken a strong exception to publication of a book “Christ Parichay” (introduction to Christ) and said contents of book hurt religious sentiments of Christians.
The controversial book is written by Ganesh Damodar Savarkar, one of the five people who founded RSS and it claims that Jesus was Vishwakarma Brahmin i.e. a Tamil Hindu by birth.
Ganesh Savarkar – the older brother of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar – had claimed in his 1946 book ‘Christ Parichay’ that Jesus Christ was born a Vishwakarma Brahmin and that Christianity is a sect of Hinduism.
The book is planned for release by Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak (Savarkar National Memorial), a trust that propagates Savarkar brothers’ literature and ideology, in Marathi on February 26, 2016.
Taking objection to the publication of this controversial book, Joseph Dias, the CSF general secretary said that the religious sentiments of the Christian community were hurt and said it was not surprising at the timing of the reprint, when the political dispensation in the country had changed.
“If the intentions of the publishers were genuine, why did they wait for 70 years to reprint the book?” he asked.
He called upon the government to act and investigate the claims made in the book as it amounted to sacrilege. He also called upon the Church hierarchy and other Christian denominations to condemn such a publication.
Dias further said that the Hindutva brigade would not dare publish such fiction on other religions and made Christians ‘soft targets’.
Dias gave the following 10 highly objectionable claims made in the book:
1. Jesus Christ was born Keshao Krishna in a Tamil Hindu Brahmin family and Christianity was a Hindu cult/sect.
2. A cult called Essenes rescued the crucified Christ and revived him with medicinal plants and herbs from the Himalayas.
3. Jesus was a dark complexioned Vishwakarma Brahmin, who attained ‘Samadhi’ in Kashmir after running escaping from Israel
4. Palestinian and Arab territories were Hindu land and that Christ traveled to India where he learnt yoga and ran a cult teaching Hinduism.
5. Christ’s sacred thread ceremony (janeyu) was held when he was 12, as per Brahmin tradition, and that he wore the sacred thread like any other Hindu.
6. Christ prayed to Lord Shiva and Jesus’ family dressed in a typical Indian way. Jesus came to India to study the Vedas, and returned to Israel when he became an expert.
7. The Bible is not Jesus’s preaching. Arabia was a Hindu land and Jews were Hindus. Arabic has many Sanskrit and Tamil words. Palestine’s Arabic language was a version of the Tamil language.
9. Jesus while preaching, got involved in a political storm and was crucified, but miraculously escaped alive, came to Kashmir with a certain Chetan Nath, became healthy, and with Nath’s help, established a ‘math’ (monastery) at the foothills of the Himalayas.
8. The family had Hindu signs on their bodies and Jesus’s father Joseph’s name comes from a common Tamil name – Sheshepa. Ishanath (Isa or Christ), terminated his incarnation by taking Samadhi. Natha-Namawali (Indian scripture) also quotes his name as Ishanatha.
9. Christ worshiped Lord Shiva for three years and achieved ‘darshan’ (vision) of Shiva. He gathered knowledge and energy and placed the trishoola (trident), a seed of the world. He worshipped Lord Shiva in the form of a Linga (phallus). Sadhus (ascetics) and people arrived from all directions to stay with him and accepted him as Guru, the spiritual teacher.
10. Savarkar also said the book was written to remind the Christian world that they have snatched away Christ’s Hinduness and to repay the debt of Christ to us that he gave by hurling the flag of Hinduism beyond India. “I have done this work and I am satisfied with it. Let this literary worship of Christ or Keshao, the Krishna reach his divine feet,” he concluded.