Christianity believes that Jesus, the Son of God, incarnated on earth in order to redeem mankind. Islam believes that the prophet was sent down to earth to redeem the mankind. Similarly, Hinduism believes that God himself descends to earth once in a while, incarnates on earth as a human in order to redeem the mankind. He is believed to have incarnated a few times by now.
A variation of this incarnation concept is that God incarnates in dual form on earth – one divine form and one human form. What is the purpose of this dual incarnation? By observing the behavioral interaction between the human form and the divine form, mankind learns the path to salvation. By incarnating in this dual form, God intends to teach the path of redemption to mankind through example. The human form of God is called Nara and the divine form is called Narayan. This is the dual form incarnation, or the Nara-Narayan incarnation concept of Indian religion.
The supreme God of Indian religion is Purusha, meaning Man. Purusha Sukta, termed as the essence of all Vedas by Vyasa, the central and revered figure of most Hindu traditions, eulogizes God as Cosmic Man. It is related to a certain Cosmic Man theology, where God is visualized as a gigantic cosmic man who fills and pervades this universe. This sometimes creates confusion, because the same word Purusha can also be used to refer to ordinary men. So, in order to reduce this confusion, God is often addressed as Param Purusha (Supreme Man) or Purushottama (Best of Men). Another word to refer to humans is Nara – Nara means man. Since the word Man can be used to refer to both humans and God in Indian religion, the word Nara can also be used in both the contexts just like the word Purusha.
In the Nara-Narayan incarnation concept, the human form is called Nara, because Nara means man (human). The divine form is called Narayan because the word Narayan is made up of two words nara and ayan – nara means man (God), and ayan means mirror. So Narayan means mirror image of God, the supreme man. Of the two forms Nara and Narayan, Narayan is the real divine incarnation of God, in God’s true mirror image on earth; which is why the divine form is called Narayan. Since an offspring is nothing but a mirror image of its parent, the word Narayan came to mean Son of Man. Although the human form is called Nara, meaning man (human), this is no ordinary human – as an incarnation of supreme God, Nara is an empowered, enlightened, or holy soul. So the Nara-Narayan theology of Indian religion is nothing but a concept in which the Supreme God, the Cosmic Man, incarnates on earth as Narayan, the Son of Man, and Nara, the holy soul. Alternately, it is the trinity of God, Son of God, and Holy spirit. (The meanings of the two terms Nara and Narayan can be confirmed with Monier Williams English Sanskrit dictionary, though the dictionary does not give you in this detail.)
This Nara-Narayan theology is no longer popular in India today, and is an almost forgotten concept. However, it was very popular during the time of Mahabharat war, a famous and legendary war of Indian history. Krishna, the Godly figure of Indians, played a prominent role in this war. The reason for the popularity of this theology at that time was that Krishna was believed to be the Narayan, and Arjun, Krishna’s friend and devotee, was considered to be the Nar. The theology took hold of the imagination of the people because of the influence of Krishna. Wikipedia says:
“According to Bhandarkar, the gods Nara-Narayana must be very famous at the time of the composition of the Mahabharata, since in the opening stanzas of different books obeisance is made to these two gods. In Vanaparvan, Krishna says to Arjuna,"O invincible one, you are Nara and I am Hari Narayana, and we, the sages Nara-Narayana, have come to this world at proper time.."
After Krishna's time, the idols of the Vaishnavite God (God, Man), along with those of Narayan (Son of God, Son of Man), and Nara (holy spirit), were all placed together and worshipped side by side in a trinity form. This practice of worshipping the trinity of idols exists even today in India at a handful of places like Badrinath. The concept of Nara-Narayan has almost been forgotten in India today; but during its heydays, just after Krishna's time, this mode of worshipping all the three idols in the trinity form was the most common mode of worship in India. This trinity is a big black hole in Indian historical studies, something that has not been researched about.
Krishna died after being crucified to a tree. The mainstream Indian scriptures downplayed the crucifixation aspect, because it did not fit into their general paradigm of God who fought and vanquished evil, but apocryphal legends and practices have survived to show that he died after crucifixation to a tree.
A large number of Indian scholars have by now pointed it out that the computerized astronomical calculations done on planetary positions mentioned in the epic Mahabharat show that the war took place 5000 years ago. Calculations based on the lifetimes of kings and dynasties mentioned in the Indian scriptures also support this date. Later, there was a mighty three-century drought around 4200 years ago, which severely affected civilizations across India, West Asia, and North Africa. This intense drought is now universally recognized by geologists and is named as 4.2 Kiloyear BP Aridification Event. This drought debilitated the Indian civilization, leading to a mass exodus of Indians to foreign lands. When these people migrated, they took their religion with them. and the variants of the God, Son, Spirit trinity and the crucifixation legends found their way into a large number of theologies across the world, ultimately finding their way into the Christian theology.
The very word Christ (pronounced Krist) originated from Krishna. Take the case of biblical names of God – Yahweh, and Jehovah. Are these names referring to two different gods? Obviously not, right. Y and J are similarly pronounced sounds. The word Yahweh, after a consonant change, with a little bit of vowel modification, became Jehovah – phonetically, the two words are almost identical. Similarly, Krist and Krishna are phonetically almost identical words. N and T are similar sounds – In South India, people named after Krishna are very often named as Kristiah or Kristarao, where consonant T replaces N. With a little bit vowel change, Krishna became Krist. Krishna and Krist are phonetically as much identical as Yahweh and Jehovah are. The word Christ itself originated from Krishna.
After Krishna’s time, Christianity was the main religion of India. It is no longer so, and the concept of Nara-Narayan has been lost in time, relegated to historical oblivion. Christianity is the lost history of India.
The above explanation was given from the Indian theological perspective. The following explanation does it from the Christian theological perspective - it gives you a complete understanding of how Christian theology is related to Indian theology.
Indian Origins of Christian Trinity
Christian theology keeps tying up scholars in knots. There are a lot unexplained elements in it, which almost look mysterious.
What does the phrase “Son of Man” mean? We can understand what “Son of God” means, but what does “Son of Man” mean? Why are the two phrases “Son of Man” and “Son of God” used interchangeably in the scriptures? The explanation generally given is that Jesus wanted to show himself as both human and divine, so both these phrases were used by him. However, the term “Son of Man” is clearly used in Bible in divine context, to refer to Jesus as divine. Several phrases like “Son of Man will send out his angels,” “Son of Man seated at the right hand of God,” “Do you believe in Son of Man?” – these phrases tell us that the phrase Son of Man is being used to refer to Jesus as divine rather than as human. Some scholars tried to explain it by saying that “Son of Man” means “Sun of Man;” As per them, it is related to Sun worship, and all these crucified gods around the world are actually Sun Gods. Admitting this, I would say that even the phrase “Sun of Man” or “Sun of God” does not look convincing enough. Why would anyone call a Sun God as Sun of Man or Sun of God? This phrase is even more odd; I would rather vote for the earlier explanation that “Son of Man” was used to refer to the human element in Jesus.
Even as we try to come out of this puzzle, we have another puzzle staring at us on why God is divided into a Father, a Son, and Holy Spirit. God having a spirit that is distinct from him is not easily and readily intuitive; and the concept of anything being one and three at the same time is quite difficult to comprehend. Other scholars have gone and researched the crucified savior legends all over the world and have come up with the conclusion that this division of three originated from the supposedly pagan cults, like that of the Horus,Orisis,Isis of Egypt. This only throws up another question on why Egyptians or others found it necessary to divide their God into three from the theological perspective.
The questions have been quite daunting. It has been recognized by a large number of scholars by now that the concepts of Christianity did not originate with Jesus but have existed much before Jesus’ time, as attested by the large number of crucified savior legends and figures that existed across the world since ancient times. Kersey Graves, in his 1875 book, The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors, has identified sixteen crucified saviors around the world. Since then, researchers have been coming up with more and more crucified saviors from the nook and corners of our globe. There must be one central root figure in all of these, from where the Christ concepts actually originated from. If we can get at this root figure and the root theology, we can probably better answer the above puzzles related to the Christ concept.
The key to the whole question lies in the observation that the terms Man and God are being used interchangeably. When the terms “Son of Man” and “Son of God” are being used interchangeably, it means that Man is being considered same as God and is being used interchangeably with God. And there lies our answer. The only place where Man is considered as God since ages and continues to be so is India.
The supreme God of Indian religion is called Purusha, meaning Man. Their holiest scriptures are Vedas. And the most important hymn in their Vedas is the Purusha Sukta, termed as the essence of all Vedas by Vyasa, the central and revered figure of most Hindu traditions. It is a hymn addressed to Purusha, the Cosmic Man. It is related to Indian theology, which views God as a Universal Cosmic Man, who pervades and fills this universe.
So the original Christ concept probably originated from the Cosmic Man theology of India, which is why the phrases Son of Man and Son of God are used interchangeably. We have solved one piece of the puzzle. We have answered why Man is being used interchangeably with God. We next come to the second missing piece of the puzzle on why God has to be divided into three. Since we have nailed down the connection to the Cosmic Man theology, we need to ask ourselves on whether there is any other theology in India that is related to the theology of Cosmic Man. And the answer we would get is yes – there is an old and almost forgotten Vaishnavite concept in India called Nara-Narayan. You want to know the meaning of the word Narayan? As per Monier-Williams English-Sanskrit Dictionary, Narayan means Son of Man! And you want to know the meaning of the word Nara? It means the eternal holy spirit!
Even though researchers have been going all around the world in search of the original crucified savior figure or trinity, I do not think they would find another trinity that so closely matches the Christian trinity, right to the very meanings of the words. For example, does Horus mean “Son of Man?” Do Egyptian dictionaries tell you that the meaning of the word Osiris is Man or God, or that Isis means holy spirit? The Christian trinity originated from the Purusha-Narayan-Nara trinity of the Vaishnavite religion of India – an old and almost forgotten concept in India. The minute anyone tries to research into trinity in India, he or she immediately latches on to the popular Indian trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, and compares the Christian trinity with it. And since the two theologies do not match up, the argument always remains unconvincing. As a result, this Nara-Narayan concept is completely overlooked, leaving a big gap in Christological studies.
The Nara-Narayan theology was quite popular amongst the masses of India at the time Mahabharat war, a famous and legendary war in Indian history. Krishna, the Godly figure of Indians, played a prominent role in this war. The reason for the popularity of this theology at that time was that Krishna was believed to be the Narayan, and Arjun, Krishna’s friend and devotee, was considered to be the Nar. The theology took hold of the imagination of the people because of the influence of Krishna. Different books or sections of most important Indian epic Mahabharat start their narration only after paying obeisance to the Nara-Narayan gods, telling us about how popular the theology was at the time of the war.
“OM! HAVING BOWED down to Narayana, and Nara, the foremost of male beings, and unto the goddess Saraswati, must the word Jaya be uttered.”(Kisari Mohan Ganguli, Mahabharataonline.com)
After Krishna's time, this theology took hold of the masses, and dominated the Indian theological landscape. The idols of the Vaishnavite God (God, Man), along with those of Narayan (Son of God, Son of Man) and Nara (eternal spirit) are all placed together and worshipped side by side in a trinity form. This practice of worshipping the trinity of idols exists even today in India at a handful of places like Badrinath. The concept of Nara-Narayan has almost been forgotten in India today; but during its heydays, just after Krishna's time, this mode of worshipping all the three idols in the trinity form was a very common mode of worship in India. This trinity is a big black hole in Indian historical studies, something that no historian ever bothered to research about. And it is this trinity that traveled out of India.
The important thing to notice is that this trinity is a human conceptual understanding of the divine reality. It did not originate from any historical person or from any fancy unconnected legends or pagan cults. The theology did not start with Krishna, it existed even before him. Just like the Cosmic Man theology, the Purusha-Narayan-Nara theology is a conceptualization in Indian religion, in relation to the concept of incarnations of God for the benefit and the ultimate deliverance of human soul. It is about why the Supreme God Purusha incarnates on earth as both Narayan and Nara for the betterment of humanity.
So when did this Nara-Narayan theology travel out of India?
The Mahabharat war is normally placed at around 800-1000 BC by academic historians, while Indians claim a date of 5000 years ago. Given the research of Christ scholars that Christ concepts existed for thousands of years before Jesus’ time of 2000 years ago, this gives sufficient scope to think that the Indian claims are true. Mahabharat war of India did take place 5000 years ago, and Krishna lived around this time.
Later, there was a mighty three century drought aound 4200 years ago, which severely affected civilizations across India, West Asia, and North Africa. This intense drought is now universally recognized by geologists and is named as 4.2 Kiloyear BP Aridification Event. This drought debilitated the Indian civilization, leading to a mass exodus of Indians to foreign lands. When these people migrated, they took their religion with them. Krishna is also considered as a crucified savior by all Christ researchers. The mainstream Indian scriptures downplayed the crucifixation aspect, because it did not fit into their general paradigm of God who fought and vanquished evil. However, they did mention that his body was pierced by an arrow into a tree; other apocryphal literature and practices survived, which amplified on this crucifixation to the tree. The crucified legends of Krishna, and the trinity concept, went along with the Indian migrators to distant corners of the globe, in different forms, shapes, and variations, leading to a large number of crucifed savior figures and trinities all over the world, ultimately finding their way into Christian theology. As the theology traveled across the world, it was assimilated into the native religions. Often, the native religions were deliberately modified to fit into the trinity concept without even properly understanding the theological implications; which is why we have so many crucified savior figures.
The very word Christ (pronounced Krist) originated from Krishna. The word Christ originated from Greek Khristos, meaning ‘anointed’ (as Savior). And where did Khristos originate from? Linguists are normally silent on this, despite an overwhelming similarity between words Khristos and Krishna, the latter referring to the Savior of Indians. Given that both Christ and Krishna are considered as crucified saviors by Christ specialists, given that both the words Krishna and Khristos carry meaning of being Savior, and considering that both are almost similar words, I am surprised that the etymological derivation has not been made until now. In India, in south, people named after Krishna are very commonly named as Krishtiah, where T replaces consonant N. And people named as Krishna are very often addressed as Krishtiah, Kittiah, Krishta, Kishta, or even Kitta by their friends. Even though a person is named as Krishna, his friends or relatives are often seen addressing him as Krishta. And if Krishta and Kristiah are derived from Krishna, why Khristos and Krist are not derived from Krishna is a simple question that I hope linguists would care to answer.
Source: Excerpts from “19000 Years of World History: The Story of Religion” by Prithviraj R – a reconstruction of 19,000 year world history, based on the historical content of the scriptures and theologies of Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and other religions and cultures.
Prithvi’s blog: http://19000years.blogspot.com
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