Gnostic Take Over
Mani, Arya Samaj
and
Indian Nationalism
Manichaenism
The Forgotten Factor in India – Manichæism
Mani
A.D. 215-276
of Mardinu in Babylonia.
Mani’s father was a Mandaen
The only surviving Gnostic religion, now with no more than 20,000 adherents, living in southern Iraq and southwestern Iran. Their main city is Nasiriyya. They are often called the Christians of Saint John Mandaen in Aramaic stand for 'knowledge', i.e. Greek 'gnosis'.
"As once Buddha came to India, Zoroaster to Persia, and
Jesus to the lands of the West, so came in the present time, this prophecy through me,
the Mani, to the land of Babylonia”
.On Sunday, 20 March, A.D. 242, Mani first proclaimed his gospel in the royal residence, Gundesapor, on the
coronation day of Sapor
For many years Mani traveled abroad, founding Manichæan communities in Turkestan and India.
To the Buddhists Mani became Buddha
and
to the Christians Mani became the Apostle of Jesus
and
the Paraclete whom Jesus Promised.
Gnostic Teachings
1. Gnosis was the creative experience of revelation, a rushing progression of understanding,
2. "To know oneself, at the deepest level, is simultaneously to know God: this is the secret of gnosis.... Self-knowledge is knowledge of God; the self and the divine are identical."
3. Reverence for texts and scriptures unaccepted by the orthodox fold
“Every one of them generates something new, day by day, according to his ability; for no one is deemed perfect [or, mature], who does not develop...some mighty fiction” Ireneaus
This developed an intricate mythology, system of allegory wherein the ideas of God were expressed in vivid images and icons and corresponding rituals. Thus gods of India are made superhuman with many heads and many hands carrying varying mythical instruments of destructions and protection.
4. God is a diad or duality
World is a battleground in which Good/Light and Evil/Darkness
“We know that when Mani preached in Turan in India, the local people took him as the Buddha. The Manichaean documents in Sogdian script also described Mani as Buddha.”
Manichaean leaf, bearing the Berlin Museum No. Mik III, 4979
Ganesha
Vishnu in Varaha Avtar form Brahma
Siva
Iranian Manichaen god
Manichaen duality is seen in all Indian mythology
Even in the action of Trinity
Hindu Mythology is an outcome of the Manichaen cosmological fantasy.
. “The key to Mani's system is his cosmogony. Mani was a true Gnostic, as he brought salvation by knowledge. Manichæism professed to be a religion of pure reason as opposed to Christian credulity; it professed to explain the origin, the composition, and the future of the universe; it had an answer for everything.All these were build on mystification or whimsical invention; a series of mythologies that appeals to common man.”
"At the close of King Ardashir's years I set out to preach. I sailed to the land of the Indians. I preached to them the hope of life and I chose there a good selection”.
And what did he teach?
“The Bride is the Church, the Bridegroom is the LightMind; the Bride is the Soul, (and) Jesus is the Bridegroom! If he rises in us, we too shall live in him, if we believe in him, we shall transcend death and come to Life” [Duncan Greenlees, The Gospel of the Prophet Mani, (Adyar, Madras, India: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1956)]
“Marthoma Cross” also known as “Manichaen Cross”.
Manicaen himself is said to have brought this type of cross into Kerala.
Gnostic Sophia Hindu Lakshmi
Acts of Thomas
Depicts Thomas as a Gnostic
Apocryphal writing of c. 200-225 CE
This Takhth-i-Bahi Stone 17" long and 14.5" broad has the inscription
"In the twenty-sixth year of the great King Gudaphara in the year three and one hundred, in the month of Vaishakh, on the
fifth day”
The coins from Taxila with the seal and inscription of King Gudophorus as
"Maharaja - rajarajasamahata -dramia -devavrata Gundapharase"
Villarvattom Pana Dynasty lasted nearly a millennium from 510 to 1439 AD.
72 families of Christians of Vellala origin from Kaverypoopatanam of Pulur District on the River Kaveri arrived in Kollam (Quilon) in Kerala as refugees fleeing from the persecution in AD 293.
One Maniccavachagar followed them in AD 315 and reconverted them back to the Gnosticism.
Thomas ministry extended all over India and beyond. There existed churches all over India.
They worshipped Isa in culturally relevant way
They worshipped Isa in culturally relevant way
Malankara churches had always been in touch with the rest of the Catholic churches in Antioch, Alexandria and Rome
Thus by the third century, Malankara Churches remained within the Universal Historical Church
The rest of the Indian Churches went Gnostic and
became Hindu.
Portugese brought with them the Roman Catholic form of Christianity
Malankara Christianity was heretic to them – Nestorian.
All others were heathen.
1498-1961
31 December 160015 August 1947
Clive
Religion of India totally baffled them
Warren Hasting
Christian Hindu
BRITISH RULE
THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT
“Hindu Relgion” became a Political expediency as a unification
HINDUMUSLIM
SIKH
ISSAI
1784
The first English translation of the Hindu Bhagavad Gita
1828 The Brahmo Samaj
1836-1886 Sri Ramakrishna, Bengali mystic and Hindu saint, lived. He promoted Shankara's philosophy that all religions are equally valid.
1863-1902
1856-1929
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Maratha nationalist leader. He was a key figures in India's nationalist movement for independence and wrote an important commentary on the Bhagavad GitaKesari [lion] and the English-language Mahratta
1869-1948
Under Heaven
One Family
Harijan idea
Arya Samaj founded
Maharishi Swami Dayanand Saraswati April 7,1875 at Mumbai, India
Hinduism is a pure Vedic religion.
Krinvanto Vishvam Aryam - Make This World Noble.-
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891
Theosophical Society foundedNew York City in 1875
Col. Olcott
In 1886, it was decided to shift the headquarters of the society to its present location in Adayar, Madras.
[
1847 –1933
Annie Besant and others first discussed Home Rule, leading to the call that led to the founding of the Indian National Congress and the birth of the Freedom Movement.
“One God, One Religion and One Nation”
"manipulative reinterpretation of cultural material"
and
"invention of tradition" Hindutava tries to create a
monlithic universal religion called Hinduism
or Sanadhana Dharma.
ROSS MODEL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGION
HOW MODERN HINDUISM ARRIVED
A similar transformation took place in Europe. The Roman Catholic Church is an example of Hinduism of Europe.
“In the traditional Christmas Eve celebrations of the Ramakrishna Order, when the worship centers on a representation of the Virgin and Child and the liturgical prayers and hymns and offerings are made to Mary as much as to Jesus.”http://www.vedanta-atlanta.org/articles/Mary.html#shiva%20shakti