Jesus In India — Page 50
50 J e s u s i n I n d i a in inventing such stories, the Sikhs of our country have fared better than the Christians. The Sikhs have given proof of their astuteness in the art of inventing stories; for they state that their Guru, Bawa Nanak, once restored a dead elephant to life. This ‘miracle’ is not open to the above objection, for the Sikhs can say: the elephant had no tongue to bear witness for or against Bawa Nanak. In short, the common people, endowed with little intellect, are pleased with such ‘miracles’, but the wise are embarrassed by the objections raised by others and are put to s hame when such silly stories are related. Now, as I bear the same feelings of love and sincerity towards Jesus as do the Christians; rather, I have a stronger attachment to him, for Christians do not know the man whom they praise, but I know him whom I praise, for I have as good as seen him. Therefore, I now proceed to unveil the real nature of the reports contained in the Gospels that at the time of the crucifixion all dead saints had come back to life and returned to the city. Let it, therefore, be clearly understood that accounts like these are of the nature of Kashf or visions that were seen by some holy men after the crucifixion, in which they saw that the dead saints had been brought back to life and graced the city where they met the people. Just as dreams mentioned in divine scriptures are interpreted, for instance, Joseph’s dream, this vision too had an interpretation of its own. The interpretation was that Jesus had not died on the cross and that God had rescued him. If the question is asked as to the rationale behind this interpretation, the answer is that experts in the art of interpretation testify to its validity and have borne witness to it on the basis of their experience. I quote below from T’atirul-Anaam , a time honoured