The Church of Our Lord Jesus the Christ

The Lost Years of Jesus:
The Life of Saint Issa
Translation by Notovitch

The Best of the Sons of Men

• Ancient
  scrolls reveal that Jesus spent seventeen years in India and Tibet

• From age
  thirteen to age twenty-nine, he was both a student and teacher of
  Buddhist and Hindu holy men

• The story of
  his journey from Jerusalem to Benares was recorded by Brahman
  historians

• Today they still know him and love him
  as St. Issa. Their ‘buddha’

In 1894 Nicolas Notovitch published a book
called The Unknown Life of Christ.
He was a Russian doctor who journeyed extensively throughout
Afghanistan, India, and Tibet. Notovitch journeyed through the lovely
passes of Bolan, over the Punjab, down into the arid rocky land of
Ladak, and into the majestic Vale of Kashmir of the Himalayas. During
one of his jouneys he was visiting Leh, the capital of Ladak, near
where the buddhist convent Himis is. He had an accident that resulted
in his leg being broken. This gave him the unscheduled opportunity to
stay awhile at the Himis convent.

Notovitch learned, while he was there, that
there existed ancient records of the life of Jesus Christ. In the
course of his visit at the great convent, he located a Tibetan
translation of the legend and carefully noted in his carnet de voyage
over two hundred verses from the curious document known as “The
Life of St. Issa.”

He was shown two large yellowed volumes
containing the biography of St. Issa. Notovitch enlisted a member of
his party to translate the Tibetan volumes while he carefully noted
each verse in the back pages of his journal.

When he returned to the western world there
was much controversy as to the authenticity of the document. He was
accused of creating a hoax and was ridiculed as an imposter. In his
defense he encouraged a scientific expedition to prove the original
tibetan documents existed.

One of his skeptics was Swami Abhedananda.
Abhedananda journeyed into the arctic region of the Himalayas,
determined to find a copy of the Himis manuscript or to expose the
fraud. His book of travels, entitled Kashmir O Tibetti, tells of a
visit to the Himis gonpa and includes a Bengali translation of two
hundred twenty-four verses essentially the same as the Notovitch
text. Abhedananda was thereby convinced of the authenticity of the
Issa legend.

In 1925, another Russian named Nicholas
Roerich arrived at Himis. Roerich, was a philosopher and a
distinguished scientist. He apparently saw the same documents as
Notovitch and Abhedananda. And he recorded in his own travel diary
the same legend of St. Issa. Speaking of Issa, Roerich quotes legends
which have the estimated antiquity of many centuries.

…
He passed his time in several ancient cities of India such as
Benares. All loved him because Issa dwelt in peace with Vaishas and
Shudras whom he instructed and helped. But the Brahmins and
Kshatriyas told him that Brahma forbade those to approach who were
created out of his womb and feet. The Vaishas were allowed to listen
to the Vedas only on holidays and the Shudras were forbidden not only
to be present at the reading of the Vedas, but could not even look at
them.

Issa
said that man had filled the temples with his abominations. In order
to pay homage to metals and stones, man sacrificed his fellows in
whom dwells a spark of the Supreme Spirit. Man demeans those who
labor by the sweat of their brows, in order to gain the good will of
the sluggard who sits at the lavishly set board. But they who deprive
their brothers of the common blessing shall be themselves stripped of
it.

Vaishas
and Shudras were struck with astonishment and asked what they could
perform. Issa bade them “Worship not the idols. Do not consider
yourself first. Do not humiliate your neighbor. Help the poor.
Sustain the feeble. Do evil to no one. Do not covet that which you do
not possess and which is possessed by others.”

Many,
learning of such words, decided to kill Issa. But Issa, forewarned,
departed from this place by night.

Afterward,
Issa went into Nepal and into the Himalayan mountains ….

“Well,
perform for us a miracle,” demanded the servitors of the Temple.
Then Issa replied to them: “Miracles made their appearance from
the very day when the world was created. He who cannot behold them is
deprived of the greatest gift of life. But woe to you, enemies of
men, woe unto you, if you await that He should attest his power by
miracle.”

Issa
taught that men should not strive to behold the Eternal Spirit with
one’s own eyes but to feel it with the heart, and to become a pure
and worthy soul….

“Not
only shall you not make human offerings, but you must not slaughter
animals, because all is given for the use of man. Do not steal the
goods of others, because that would be usurpation from your near one.
Do not cheat, that you may in turn not be cheated ….

“Beware,
ye, who divert men from the true path and who fill the people with
superstitions and prejudices, who blind the vision of the seeing
ones, and who preach subservience to material things. “…

Then
Pilate, ruler of Jerusalem, gave orders to lay hands upon the
preacher Issa and to deliver him to the judges, without however,
arousing the displeasure of the people.

But
Issa taught: “Do not seek straight paths in darkness, possessed
by fear. But gather force and support each other. He who supports his
neighbor strengthens himself

“I
tried to revive the laws of Moses in the hearts of the people. And I
say unto you that you do not understand their true meaning because
they do not teach revenge but forgiveness. But the meaning of these
laws is distorted.”

Then
the ruler sent to Issa his disguised servants that they should watch
his actions and report to him about his words to the people.

“Thou
just man, “said the disguised servant of the ruler of Jerusalem
approaching Issa, “Teach us, should we fulfill the will of
Caesar or await the approaching deliverance?”

But
Issa, recognizing the disguised servants, said, “I did not
foretell unto you that you would be delivered from Caesar; but I said
that the soul which was immersed in sin would be delivered from sin.”

At
this time, an old woman approached the crowd, but was pushed back.
Then Issa said, “Reverence Woman, mother of the universe,’ in
her lies the truth of creation. She is the foundation of all that is
good and beautiful. She is the source of life and death. Upon her
depends the existence of man, because she is the sustenance of his
labors. She gives birth to you in travail, she watches over your
growth. Bless her. Honor her. Defend her. Love your wives and honor
them, because tomorrow they shall be mothers, and later-progenitors
of a whole race. Their love ennobles man, soothes the embittered
heart and tames the beast. Wife and mother-they are the adornments of
the universe.”

“As
light divides itself from darkness, so does woman possess the gift to
divide in man good intent from the thought of evil. Your best
thoughts must belong to woman. Gather from them your moral strength,
which you must possess to sustain your near ones. Do not humiliate
her, for therein you will humiliate yourselves. And all which you
will do to mother, to wife, to widow or to another woman in
sorrow-that shall you also do for the Spirit.”

So
taught Issa; but the ruler Pilate ordered one of his servants to make
accusation against him.

Said
Issa: “Not far hence is the time when by the Highest Will the
people will become purified and united into one family.”

And
then turning to the ruler, he said, “Why demean thy dignity and
teach thy subordinates to live in deceit when even without this thou
couldst also have had the means of accusing an innocent one?”

From
another version of the legend, Roerich quotes fragments of thought
and evidence of the miraculous.

Near
Lhasa was a temple of teaching with a wealth of manuscripts. Jesus
was to acquaint himself with them. Meng-ste, a great sage of all the
East, was in this temple.

Finally
Jesus reached a mountain pass and in the chief city of Ladak, Leh, he
was joyously accepted by monks and people of the lower class …. And
Jesus taught in the monasteries and in the bazaars (the market
places); wherever the simple people gathered–there he taught.

Not
far from this place lived a woman whose son had died and she brought
him to Jesus. And in the presence of a multitude, Jesus laid his hand
on the child, and the child rose healed. And many brought their
children and Jesus laid his hands upon them, healing them.

Among
the Ladakis, Jesus passed many days, teaching them. And they loved
him and when the time of his departure came they sorrowed as
children.