Jesus In India — Page 89
J e s u s i n I n d i a 89 the Buddha sent out his disciples to preach, addressing them thus: ‘Go forth and wander everywhere out of compassion for the world and for the service of gods and men. Go forth in different directions, go and preach total abstinence, piety and celibacy. ’ He said that he too would go and preach the same doctrine. Accordingly, the Buddha went to Benares and worked a number of miracles in that area. He delivered an impressive sermon on a hill just as Jesus had delivered his sermon on the mount. Again, the same book states that the Buddha preached mostly in parables; he used to explain spiritual phenomena in material terms. Let it be remembered that this moral teaching and this mode of preaching—talking in parables—was the method of Jesus. This mode of preaching and this moral teaching, combined with other circumstantial evidence, at once suggest that all this was in imitation of Jesus. Jesus was here in India where he preached extensively. The followers of the Buddhist faith met him, and found him to be a holy and blessed man. They recorded these things in their books and even called him the Buddha, for it is part of human nature to try to acquire a good thing wherever one can find it. People try to record and remember any clever remark made by anyone they meet. It is, therefore, quite likely that the followers of the Buddhist Faith may have reproduced the entire picture of the Gospels in their books, as, for example, fasting for forty days both by Jesus and the Buddha; the Satanic temptation faced by both; the birth of both being without father; the moral teaching of both; each calling himself the Light; each calling himself Master and his companions disciples. Just as Matthew, chapter 10 verses 8