In 1945 ancient documents were discovered in earthen jars the Middle East. Refreshingly original—literally out of a time capsule—they told of a religion, its beliefs, practices and members. They revealed a religion quite unlike any other thought to have had roots in that region.
Upon deciphering the texts, four major characteristics of the religion we revealed:[1]
1. Direct, personal and absolute knowledge of the authentic truths of existence is accessible to human beings, and the attainment of such knowledge is the supreme achievement of human life. This goal can be further stated as “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.”[2] Their spiritual process was not a rational, proposition-like, logical understanding, but a knowing acquired by experience.
2. “A knowing, by and of an uncreated self, or self-within-the self, a knowledge that leads to freedom.”[3] Primary among all these revelations was the profound awakening that came with the understanding that something within us is uncreated. This “uncreated self” was understood by the followers as the divine seed, the spark of knowing: consciousness, intelligence, light. This seed of intellect was understood to be the self-same substance of God. It was man's authentic reality. It was the glory of humankind and the divine alike. There was always a paradoxical cognizance of duality in experiencing this “self-within-a-self”. Paradoxical because man clearly was not God, and yet in essential truth, was Godly. This mystery and its understanding was considered their greatest treasure.
3. The third prominent element is their reverence for texts and scriptures that were unaccepted by the orthodox fold of the day. Their experience was rich with poetry and so-called myth, both in story and allegory, and perhaps also in ritual enactments. They had deep visionary insights (realizations) that were not expressible by rational thinking or simple dogmatic acceptance. They had many “inspired texts” and so-called myths, and their creation story was much more complex than the simple idea of Adam and Eve of the Bible. Their highest aspiration was to achieve a spiritual nature that they said preceded the material creation.
4. In many of their texts God is presented as a unity of masculine and feminine elements, and was worshiped as such. Members of this group prayed to both the divine Father and Mother.
Perhaps many Vaishnava’s will be startled to hear such descriptions, as they clearly reflect aspects, almost verbatim, of the Vaishnava siddhanta. The parallels would respectively be:
1. An unmistakable reference to the concept of self-realization and God realization being identical and the highest goal of life, with an expression of that realization as being beyond book learning, and actualized in one’s personal experience.
2. The second characteristic properly expresses an understanding of the Vaishnava concept of spirit, and the duality existing in the aspects of svamsa and vibhinamsa, respectively—the eternal separated parts and parcels of the Lord, and the Lord Himself, being qualitatively equal and quanitatively different. This concept comes reasonably close to the understanding of acintyabedabeda tattva, the simultaneous oneness and difference of the living beings and the Lord.
3. This characteristic corresponds to the Vaishnava reverence of the divine message of the Lord revealed in shastra. The Vedas, written in poetic couplets and meter expound upon many wonderful pastimes of the Lord unacceptable to atheists and therefore relegated to the category of myth. Their acceptance of “inspired texts” is very much like the Vaishnava perceives his own scriptures. Ritual enactments are a social art form by which sacred lore is communicated within a culture, and are also a regular part of Vaishnava culture. Finally, the understanding of a creation story that goes far beyond the rudimentary biblical concept of creation is similar to the complex treatment of the subject offered in the Srimad Bhagavatam.
4. In this instance, all Vaishnava’s will immediately recognize this in the worship of our own Sri Sri Radha-Krishna. Although not exactly similar in content and understanding, the concept of both a masculine and feminine divinity is nonetheless present.
Who were these people and from where did they derive such understanding? The discovered texts were named The Nag Hammadi Scrolls after the place near which they were accidentally found in an earthen jar by a peasant farmer. The scrolls, consisting of 52 sacred texts in 13 books, were written on papyrus and bound in leather. They are the long-lost Gnostic gospels that describe the ‘early church’ and its teachings, and make multiple specific, and first hand references to Jesus and his teachings. Rather than attempt to paraphrase the nature of Gnosticism and its early history, I borrow at length from the Gnostic Society Library homepage, written by Lance Owens:[4]
“Gnosis and gnosticism are still rather arcane terms, though in the last two decades the words have been increasingly encountered in the vocabulary of contemporary society. Gnosis derives from Greek, and connotes "knowledge" or the "act of knowing". (On first hearing, it is sometimes confused with another more common term of the same root but opposite sense: agnostic, literally "not knowing", a knower of nothing.) The Greek language differentiates between rational, propositional knowledge, and the distinct form of knowing obtained not by reason, but by personal experience or perception. It is this latter knowledge, gained from experience, from an interior spark of comprehension, that constitutes gnosis.
“In the first century of the Christian era this term, Gnostic, began to be used to denote a prominent, even if somewhat heterodox, segment of the diverse new Christian community. Among these early followers of Jesus, it appears that an elite group delineated themselves from the greater household of the Church by claiming not simply a belief in Christ and his message, but a “special witness” or revelatory experience of the divine. It was this experience, this gnosis, which—so these Gnostics claimed—set the true follower of Christ apart from his fellows.”
Again, Vaishnava’s will find the explanation of Gnosis familiar. Their explanation is similar to how we would describe our ability to understand the Absolute Truth: by revelation, not “book learning”. As Srila Prabhupada explains it: “When one attains Krishna consciousness, then everything is revealed to him, as everything is revealed by the sun in the daytime.”[5]
As I read more I discovered a surprising number of similarities between the spiritual practices of the Jewish Christians and our Vaishnava sadhana. Moreover, I also discovered an alarming number of efforts made to diminish the spiritual understanding and the potency of the spiritual practices of the early church in its early years.
The Early Currents of Christianity
Modern scholarship suggests that in the early decades of Christianity, when mention of Gnostic Christians first appears, a variety of views, beliefs, and practices co-existed and vied for dominance in the emerging orthodoxy, something that we see being repeated in the 20th century. The ultimate course Christianity would take was as yet undecided, with Gnosticism being but one of forces forming that destiny. Some of the others we will elaborate on below.
Gnosticism was, at least for some time, near the mainstream of the original church. The Nag Hammadi texts are themselves written by those with first-hand knowledge of Jesus and often quote directly from him. The strong influence of the Gnostics held sway in the developing church even into the 2nd and 3rd centuries. This is witnessed by the fact that one of the most prominent and influential early Gnostic teachers, Valentinus, had been considered for election as the Bishop of Rome during the mid-second century. Born in Alexandria around 100 A.D. he distinguished himself as an extraordinary teacher and leader in the educated and diverse Alexandrian Christian community. In the middle of his life, around 140 A.D., he traveled from Alexandria to the evolving capital of the Church, and in Rome he had an active, public and influential role in the developing Church. Though a member of some influence in the mid-second century, within less than twenty years of his zenith he had been forced from the public eye and branded a heretic.
His treatment reflects the growing influence of the now coalescing establishment of the orthodox Roman church. It gathered sufficient political power to turn definitively against Gnosticism in the middle of the second century, and against Valentinus as well. Gnosticism's secret knowledge, revelations, scripture, aestheticism and libertine postures, were given increasing dereliction, suspicion and even revilement. By A.D. 180, Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon, was attacking Gnosticism as a heresy, and his polemical work was continued with increasing vehemence, as did the other ‘orthodox’ church Fathers throughout the next two centuries.
According to Owens, orthodox Christianity perceived Gnosticism to be its most dangerous and insidious challenge: a feared opponent that the Patristic heresiologists (church fathers involved in determining heresy and dogma) had maligned under many different names. However, the orthodox Catholic Church was deeply and profoundly influenced by the struggle against the Gnostic ideology in the second and third centuries. To counter and defeat their influence, an orthodox theology was inventively fabricated,[6] which would become established as official church dogma,[7] a device that we will see often repeated in the years to come. Finally by the end of the fourth century the struggle with Gnosticism as represented in the Nag Hammadi texts was over, and effectively eliminated as a so-called heresy and anathema. Gnosticism’s remaining teachers were murdered or driven into exile, and its sacred books searched out and destroyed. All that remained for scholars seeking to understand Gnosticism in later centuries were the denunciations preserved in the writings of the early church fathers.[8]
The latter part of this story has of course been recorded and known since the early centuries of the Christian era. What makes it all the more remarkable is the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts and the contrasting light it sheds on the machinations of the early church. It reveals that the emerging orthodoxy was deadly serious in rejecting what seems to be, by a simple and impartial review, potent spiritual teachings.[9] Replacing it with what? With an impotent dogma created by spiritually inept empiricists, which is of little genuine spiritual value.[10] Posterity owes a great debt to those surviving souls who, in an effort to preserve their sacred teachings, sealed them carefully within an earthen jar. That it was buried and preserved by the dry atmosphere of Egypt and discovered in an era of mass communications are clearly the arrangement of the Lord. Otherwise, these texts that shed so much light on the early church, may never have seen the light of day.
On the basis of this evidence alone, and without other insights into the history of the time, we would be compelled to believe that Kamsa’s agents had effectively infiltrated the church and had achieved the upper-hand. They had become the orthodoxy, of the 2nd and 3rd century church, and were doing every thing possible to suppress this manifestation of the truth. It had proven to be difficult to completely quash the truth, taking nearly three centuries to do so, but it was finally done. At least in the Middle East. Some years later a inquisition and crusade would be launched even against other Christians, the Cathars of France, for they too managed to hang on to some semblance of truth for which the empiricist Kamsas would require their skins. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. . . There were other developments that shed much more light on the 1st century of Palestine—the fortuitous discovery of more ancient texts coming to us directly from that period and place—another time capsule.
1st Century Archeological Finds An expanding cache of scrolls discovered by a shepherd boy near the Dead Sea and the ruins of the former Qumran community, grew in quick succession as the area caves were searched. The significant feature of these Dead Sea Scrolls, like the Nag Hammadi texts, is that they are original documents, unaffected by interpretations of any so-called orthodoxy or historical consensus. As such they give direct evidence and insight into the ‘early church’ and the disposition of their times.[11] From them we can learn directly what these people knew and accepted as their truths, and make a comparative study with the religion of Christianity as it stands today. Citing any differences we can then look to see what the influences were that brought us to where we stand today.
The picture that most people have of the Palestinian area two millennia ago comes to us from the then current historians such as Josephus and Pliny, as well as the earliest extant Christian writings from the fourth century AD. Generally in the Western world today, it is their understanding that is promulgated by the Christian churches. It is probably safe to say that very few people have studied the period in detail and for most people their factual knowledge of the time is rudimentary at best. However it may be lacking though, it is sufficient for the Roman church’s purpose, which is to provide a context for the early years of Jesus and his activities.
The generally accepted picture of first century Palestine is one of a relatively stable political condition, despite the occupation of the Roman army, with a relatively stable Judaic creed practiced by the inhabitants of the area. Things were more or less peaceful and the Jewish population found the ways and means to co-exist with their Roman governors. In that environment little of note was taking place save the exceptional dumbfounding of the Temple Rabbis by a precocious youth of just 12 tender years. A mostly quite and peaceful scene. Or was it?
Robert Eisenman, Professor of Religious Studies, California State University, Long Beach, and director of The Institute for the Study of Judeo-Christian Origins, has been a key figure in making the Dead Sea Scrolls available to both academia and the general public. As a result of his study of the early Christian era, amplified by his study of the scrolls he paints a compelling picture of restless era of fermenting political movements and ideologies. Rather than being at peace with their situation, a local and powerful movement was building that threatened the established powers of the time.[12] Eisenman’s portrayal of the times is recounted by authors Baigent and Leigh in their book The Dead Sea Scroll Deception, as follows: “This movement has centers in a number of places around Palestine, including Jerusalem. It can exercise considerable influence, can wield considerable power, can command considerable support. It can dispatch men on tasks of recruitment and fund-raising abroad. It can organize riots and public disturbances. It can plot assassinations, and act to carry them out. It can put forward its own legitimate alternative candidate for the position of the Temple’s high priest. It can capture and hold strategically important fortresses such as Masada. Most significantly of all, it can galvanize the entire population of Judea around it and instigate a full-fledged revolt against Rome—a revolt which leads to a major conflict of seven years duration that necessitates the intervention not of a few detachments, but of an entire Roman army.”
What is the identity of the movement that is behind such a significant force? The Essenes. And, as Eisenman explains as he leads us through his painstaking research, the “early Church.” Given the nature, range and magnitude of these activities, it is clear that traditional images of the “peaceful” Essenes and of the “early Church” are entirely inadequate. Who then were the Essenes?
The traditional account of the Essenes comes to us from Roman historians Josephus, Philo and Pliny. It is Pliny who identifies the area of the ruins of Qumran as the home of the Essenes.[13] Josephus, echoed by Philo, gives the generally accepted account of who they were: a monastic order, a sect or sub-sect of Judaism, who were both reclusive and peaceful. They were known to hold all possessions in common and required their members to renounce private property. Thus they are considered to despise pleasure and wealth. They are presented as being on good terms with the established authorities, even enjoying the special favor of Herod, who is said to have also honored them[14].
Oxford scholar, Geza Vermes, one of the scholars who had access to the entire corpus of scroll literature suggests that the term ‘Essene’ is derived from the Aramaic word ‘assayya’ meaning healers. This interpretation of the word fosters just such an image—medical practitioners. The only problem with this interpretation is that the word ‘assayya’ never appears in the Qumran communities own literature, which is strange. But for that matter though, neither does the word ‘Essene.’ We are not lost however, as there are alternatives to this mystery. Eisenman found other important characteristics of the community that were reflected in their nomenclature and their references to themselves.
Let’s take the trouble to go through the etymology as it is helpful for our understanding of the community itself, its spiritual practices, and clues to the motives of their future persecution. Bear in mind that while the derivation of these terms may seem speculative, it is necessarily so because of the deliberate obfuscation introduced into the church literature throughout the ages. These perturb Eisenman to no end and he frequently rails against it which we will quote at length in the pages to come. His detailed investigation though has wrought some genuinely revealing insights into the true history of the times. Getting back to the Essene’s he says:
“If the Qumran community never refer to themselves as ‘Essene’ or ‘assayya’, they do employ a number of other Hebrew and Aramaic terms. From these terms, it is clear that the community did not have a single definitive name for themselves. They did, however, have a highly distinctive and unique concept of themselves, and this concept is reflected by a variety of appellations and designations. The concept rests ultimately on the all-important ‘Covenant’, which entailed a formal oath of obedience, totally and eternally, to the Law of Moses. The authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls would thus refer to themselves, as, for example, ‘the Keepers of the Covenant’. As synonyms for Covenant and ‘Law’, they would often use the same words that figure so prominently in Taoism—‘way’, ‘work’, or ‘works’. They would speak, for instance of ‘the Perfect of the Way’, or ‘the Way of Perfect Righteousness’ – ‘way’ meaning ‘the work of the Law’, or the ‘way in which the Law functions’, ‘the way in which the Law works’. Variations of these themes run all through the Dead Sea Scrolls to denote the Qumran community and its members.”[15]
Eisenman makes further connections for us in his Habakkuk Commentary, where he points out a particularly important variation—the ‘Osei ha-Torah’, which means, ‘Doers of the Law.’ This term appears to be the source of the word Essene, since the collective form of ‘Osei ha-Torah’ is ‘Osim.’ The collective community then would have been known as ‘the Osim’ (pronounced Oseem). This possibility is verified by an early Christian writer, Epiphanius, who speaks of an allegedly ‘heretical’ Judaic sect (heretical to so-called orthodox Judaism) that once occupied an area around the Dead Sea. This sect, he says, were called the ‘Ossenes’.[16]
The key element that Eisenman here points out is that the Essenes were determined followers of the Covenant or Mosaic Law—the Law of Moses. They were intent not only on doing things right, but doing the right thing as prescribed by the tenants of their faith. This was a major element of their doctrine, one which we can understand was critical to their spiritual development as individuals, as much as we understand our own spiritual progress to be influenced and largely determined by our own sadhana. Those with but little experience in Krishna Consciousness know full well that the strength of their sadhana directly influences their quality of their consciousness as well as their ability to follow the regulative principles of freedom. It is the basis, the very foundation, from which their spiritual life springs. The strict followers of Srila Prabhupada could likewise then be considered to be ‘keepers of the way’, ‘doers of the law’, or ‘followers of the way’ should we choose to define his instructions for daily sadhana like that.
Likewise for the Essenes, the numerous references to ‘the way’ indicate that this is an essential part of their doctrine, an important aspect of their manifestation of truth, and as such, one that would become subverted later by Kamsa’s antithetical elements acting to subvert their potent spiritual practices.
Complementing the picture of the Essene community in its widespread influence described above, Professor Black of St. Andrews University, Scotland also informs us that the group of Essenes was in large in number and included many others: “. . . provided we do not define Essenism too narrowly, for instance, by equating it exclusively with the Dead Sea group, but are prepared to understand the term as a general description of this widespread movement of anti-Jerusalem, anti-Pharisaic non-conformity of the period.”[17]
There are other groups mentioned in the Scrolls and elsewhere, the profusion of which, and their identity, has baffled scholars. Eisenman, through his detailed study provides us with an understanding that tremendously simplifies what is otherwise almost overwhelmingly complicated and produces an almost impossible enigma. The key to this puzzle is to understand the connection between the names of groups of 1st century Palestine. He concludes: “By now it should be clear that these are rather esoteric or poetic variations around the same theme.” And “terms like: Ebionim, Nozrim, Hassidim, Zaddikim (i.e., Ebionites, Palestinian Christians, Essenes, and Zadokites), turn out to be variations on the same theme”, and “the various phraseologies the community at Qumran used to refer to itself, e.g., ‘Sons of light’, ‘Sons of Truth’, . . . ‘Ebionim’, ‘The Perfect of the Way’, do not all designate different groups, but function as interchangeable metaphors”.[18] His research also clearly demonstrates that the movement which manifested itself through the ‘early Church’ also manifested itself through other groups generally deemed to be separate — the ‘Zadokites’, for example, the Zealots, the Qumran community and the Sacarii.
These groups, whether as separate entities, or the same entity under various appellations, are what constitute the political force spoken of above. Further, this indicates that the Essenes had an extremely large following. Not only then were the Essenes a large political force that pitted them against the Roman establishment, they also had several significant spiritual doctrines that ran directly counter to established Judaic practices, and thus the Jewish establishment of the time. The light of their truth, and the staunch deliberateness of their practices, thus must have had a significant impact on the then social and political currents of the time. For a better understanding of what those currents and countercurrents might have been, let’s take a closer look at their spiritual understanding and practices and their contrast with those of the religious and political establishments of their time.
The Spiritual Understanding and Practices of the Essenes In his 1,000 page tome, James, the Brother of Jesus Robert Eisenman draws upon a vast array of early church sources, contemporary secular writings, ancient manuscripts and fragments thereof such as the Nag Hammadi Scrolls and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and presents a decided alternative to the establishment view of the development of early Christianity, the differences of which are significant to our analysis and evaluation. He shows that James was the inheritor of the legacy of Jesus, not Peter, and that James was the powerful leader of the growing and influential ‘early church’. Eisenman’s efforts have been “to resurrect James from the dustbin of history.” But we glean much more from his efforts. Eisenman's arguments make it clear the James was a strict observer of The Law, a Nazarite (Essene), who was unwilling to compromise his principles with foreigners in general and with the Roman Empire and their Herodian (followers of Herod) puppet kings in particular. If James practiced the principles of the Essene and led the Essene community, we can understand that Jesus did as well, for as Eisenman puts it, “whatever James was, (and he is much more knowable and accessible through the historical record) Jesus, as his closest living heir and predecessor, was as well”.[19] Eisenman is not alone in his conclusions as many others who study the period without prejudice concur. Even the likes of Frederick the Great wrote that “Jesus was really an Essene; he was imbued with Essene ethics.”[20]
Essene ethics are strikingly similar to the practices of the Vaishnava’s, as were the beliefs of the Gnostics depicted above. The Essenes were known to be strict vegetarians and are described as such by the Catholic Bishop Epphanius of Constantia in Cyprus (d 403 AD), who had been a Jew and an authority on Jewish sects. He tells us that the Nazoreans differed from other Jews in that they did not sacrifice animals, nor eat flesh thereof.[21] This is extremely unusual for Jews as animal sacrifice figured prominently in the Jewish practice of the time, being the only means to atone for one’s sins. The practice was therefore extremely prevalent and the need for it great, because animal sacrifice, as a religious observance, was also attached to most acts of everyday life; any festivity or misfortune was an occasion of sacrifice, and the rivers of blood ran swift on those occasions. Happy were these priests though—the meat of those sacrifices became their meals, at which point the sacrifice was consummated.[22]
The conflicts within this issue intersects with another that is significant—one that strongly torments many devotees connected with Srila Prabhupada’s movement today —the alteration of established doctrine and scripture. Is the practice we are experiencing of altering sacred scripture only a recent problem? Unfortunately, but perhaps not surprisingly, no.
The Essenes were opposed to animal sacrifice because they were of the very strong belief that the Torah had been falsified to such an extent that very little remained of the original pure text. Hans Joachim Schoeps writes in Jewish Christianity: Factional Disputes in the Early Church, that the Essenes considered that changes were made to require animal sacrifices, and that these had nothing to do with the original teachings. Later, church father Clement of Alexandria confirmed these suspicions: “Sacrifices were invented by men to be a pretext for eating flesh.”[23] Of course Srila Prabhupada writes how the Vedas were similarly misinterpreted to justify the lust for flesh as food.
The Essenes were also of the opinion that all of the depictions of God in the Hebrew scriptures were falsified, replacing a loving God with one who was afflicted with all the sins and appetites of the most debauched humans. Therefore, they believed that it was not the Supreme God whom the Torah is portraying but another, perhaps even a human-formed monster who is fallible, cruel, vindictive, jealous, lives in a tent, thunders, and is hungry for sacrifices. The real God, as envisaged by the Ebionites, was kindly and loving.[24] The Essenes were intent on reconstructing their scripture, a lost Torah, that had originally a genial creator God at its center and had been free of bloodletting and animal sacrifice. Jesus, they believed, had come to restore the true law and the original teachings of the Torah that had been suppressed by the sacrificial cult. He was, in our sense of the word, their acharya.
There is a good deal of first hand information to be learned of the Ebionites and their history offered in Schoeps’ Jewish Christianity. That work draws from the Kerygmata Petrou (the preaching of Peter) which Schoeps describes as being “concerned with dialogues between the biblical Peter and Simon (Marcion), and also contains narrative material which apparently represents the remains of an Ebionite historical work with bits of speeches woven in. For our understanding of the Ebionite self-consciousness and their particular view of history, this “Ebionite Acts” is of fundamental significance. The texts claim to be documents deriving from the physical descendants of Jewish Christians belonging to the original church in Jerusalem.”[25] Just as we saw profound similarities in comparing Vaishnavism to the Gnostics, from Schoeps we learn that the practices of the Jewish Christians were also extremely similar to those of the Vaishnavas.
The Essenes Were Vaishnavas
The amazing beliefs and daily practices of the Essenes that are similar to that practiced by present-day Vaishnavas are many, and are detailed by Schoeps. They include the following:[26]
Celibacy
Celibacy was advocated and practiced by some, (James, brother of Jesus and leader of the community after Jesus, was a life-long naisthika-brahmacāri) but the practice of monogamy was the general rule. They condemned divorce, and promoted early marriage among youth to prevent immorality.[27]
Cleanliness and Bathing
The practice of early morning bathing rituals, washing before/after eating, before prayer, and bathing after defecation. A morning immersion-bath after nocturnal pollution was something of a regulative principle not to be avoided. According to Tosefta Yadaim, the “morning bathers” say to the Pharisees, “We bring this charge against you, that you pronounce the name of God in the morning without bathing.” Some rejected the custom of these morning bathers as going too far. But these purificatory rites were so important to the Ebionites that they declare that all who neglected them were duped by the devil (Rec. 6.11 f.).[28]
Glorifying the Names of God
Just as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu encouraged everyone to ask those they meet to chant the holy names of the Lord, there is a great deal of evidence that indicates the same of the Essenes or early church. In the New Testament and other places there are many references the holy names of God, and church members calling on, or praising the name of the Lord, although those specific names curiously go unmentioned. In many cases use of ‘the name’ indicates God the Father, especially in events prior to Paul’s establishment of Christianity and the deification of Jesus. For example, in Acts 9:14 referring to Paul: “and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name” or Acts 9.21, which states: “Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?” or “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,” or “And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.” Matt. 18:5, or “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”, Matt. 18:20 or “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” Matt. 21:9 or “baptizing them in the name of the Father” Matt. 28.19 or “Father, glorify thy name.” John 12:28 or “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it” John 17:25-6 or “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” Acts 2:21. In Acts we begin to see references to ‘the name’ mean the name of Jesus as in Acts 4:12 referring to Jesus: “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” And Acts 4:30 “By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.”
Spiritual Initiation
They used water baptism as an unrepeatable rite for initiation, symbolizing spiritual rebirth, transforming a first-birth derived from material lust. This initiation rite was accompanied by the invocation of the name of Jesus.[29] Similarly Vaishnava practice prescribes only one initiation. The initiation and the installation of the Deity, in fact every part of sacrifice in this age is accomplished by harinam. Srila Prabhupada made the point that the installation of the Deities in Vrndavana was in fact accomplished by harinam, but the ceremonies, etc. were conducted for the benefit of the local caste brahmanas.
Water Purification
They used water for purification, as Vaishnavas do, and also as atonement, and as established by Jesus, abandoned the Jewish custom of requiring the blood sacrifice of animals for the cleansing of sins.[30]
Preservation of Scripture Without Alteration
They took great pains to preserve their scripture, even with a view of countering – future! – heresies. Jesus renewed the original doctrine (bona fide Mosaic Law) by removing false pericopes (false passages) from the Torah, such as those requiring blood sacrifice, those that depicted a false god replacing the kind and loving, all-good, true God above all others, and verses that disparaged the previous prophets. The Jewish Christians saw Jesus as a true prophet and representative of Moses, whose will they sought to follow concretely.[31] Vaishnavas are similarly trained to present their siddhanta precisely as they have heard it without any changes: “It is important that we preach the message of Krishna Consciousness exactly as we have heard it from our Spiritual Master. The same philosophy and spirit must be there exactly. Just like we preach in this country exactly as we have heard from our Spiritual Master” Letter to Sivananda 23 Jan 1969.
Disciplic Succession
The Jewish Christians held a concept of disciplic succession of acharyas. They considered the prophets to be representatives of God—akin to our concept of the spiritual master. Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, are in the narrowest sense the contracting parties of the divine covenant, despite there being perhaps hundreds of years separating their time on earth. The truth of each earlier messenger is taken up into the proclamation of the one who follows.[32] Large gaps in our Gaudiya Vaishnava disciplic succession are explained by Srila Prabhupada, for example, in a letter to Dayananda 68-04-12: “In a similar way, we find in the Bhagavad-gita that the Gita was taught to the Sun god, some millions of years ago, but Krishna has mentioned only three names in this parampara system—namely, Vivasvan, Manu, and Iksvaku; and so these gaps do not hamper from understanding the parampara system. We have to pick up the prominent acharya, and follow from him.”
Avoidance of Association with Materialistic Persons
They practiced voluntary seclusion, and detachment from the world and worldly things. They avoided association with non-believers as much as the Vaishnava is recommended to avoid materialistic association. They would in fact bathe if they chanced to even touch such a person. [33] Vaishnavas would formerly similarly practice the principle of bathing upon simply seeing the face of an atheist. The Brihad-visnu-smriti clearly states: “One who considers the body of Krishna to be material should be driven out from all rituals and activities of the shruti and the smriti. And if one by chance sees his face, one should at once take bath in the Ganges to rid himself of infection.” Purport Bg. 9.12
Avoiding materialistic persons is also a Vaishnava principle. “Devotees actually serious about advancing in spiritual life should give up the company of non-devotees and always keep company with devotees. . . Therefore devotees who are determined to perform tapasya (penances and austerities) to realize the self, and who are determined to become advanced in spiritual consciousness, must give up the company of atheistic non-devotees.” Purport SB 7.5.37 And: “The term sanga-varjitah is very significant. One should disassociate himself from persons who are against Krishna. Not only are the atheistic persons against Krishna, but also those who are attracted to fruitive activities and mental speculation.” Purport Bg. 11.55
Simple Living
They advocated simple living, to the extent that some did not maintain even a fixed household. Srila Prabhupada encouraged his followers to live simply saving time for self-realization: “Another feature of the devotee is nirīhayā, simple living. Nirīhā means “gentle,” “meek” or “simple.” A devotee should not live very gorgeously and imitate a materialistic person. Plain living and high thinking are recommended for a devotee. He should accept only so much as he needs to keep the material body fit for the execution of devotional service.” [34]
Nirmama – Everything Belongs to God
They kept all things in common, as common property from God the Father, and provided for each other according to their individual needs. This principle was many times illustrated by Srila Prabhupada as in the following quote. In the early days when most devotees lived in the ashrama this principle was practiced. “Advestā sarva-bhūtānām maitrah karuna eva ca, nirmamah. Nirmama means without claiming any personal proprietorship or any nepotism. Nirmama. Everything belongs to Krishna. That is the fact. Krishna says bhoktāra yajna-tapasām sarva-loka-mahesvaram. He is the proprietor. God is actually proprietor of everything. Why shall I shall claim “This is mine”? Nothing belongs to me. Everything belongs to Krishna.” [35]
No Meat-eating, No Intoxication
Essenes held meat-eating (including fish) as contrary to nature and were thus strict vegetarians, nor did they drink wine or any other inebriating substance, and some to the extent that they would not even cultivate grapes. Vaishnavas similarly follow four regulative principles which include eating no animal foods, and taking no intoxicants, including coffee or tea.[36]
Avoiding Foods Cooked by Non-devotees
Essenes ate only the pure food of the community at a communal meal and not any other food, especially that offered to idols worshiped in the many other temples (taken to mean demigods, or others, such as the Romans worshipped their standards). Nor would they even share meals with the “foreigners”—those not of their own religious persuasion. Srila Prabhupada’s followers are likewise enjoined to avoid foodstuffs not offered specifically to Krishna. “The three transcendental qualifications—cleanliness, austerity and mercy—are the qualifications of the twice-born and the demigods. Those who are not situated in the quality of goodness cannot accept these three principles of spiritual culture. For the Krishna consciousness movement, therefore, there are three sinful activities which are prohibited—namely illicit sex, intoxication, and eating food other than the prasāda offered to Krishna. These three prohibitions are based on the principles of austerity, cleanliness and mercy.” And: “Generally the goddess Kālī is offered food containing meat and fish, and therefore Kasyapa Muni strictly forbade his wife to take the remnants of such food. Actually a Vaisnava is not allowed to take any food offered to the demigods. A Vaisnava is always fixed in accepting prasāda offered to Lord Visnu.” And: “The members of the Krsna consciousness movement are advised not to take food from anywhere but a Vaisnava's or brahmana's house where [Visnu] Deity worship is performed.” And: “When one eats food offered by a materialistic man, one's mind becomes contaminated, and when the mind is contaminated, one is unable to think of Krsna properly.”[37]
Strict Adherence to Vows
They Jewish Christians took severe vows to strictly observe their principles and carried them out. Hippolytus writes of this: “If, however, anyone would attempt to torture men of this description with the aim of inducing them to eat, speak evil of the Law, or eat that which is sacrificed to an idol, he will not effect his purpose, for these submit to death and endure any torture rather than violate their consciences.” Srila Prabhupada similarly expected strict observance of the principles by those whom he initiated. [38]
Teach the Message As It Is
Another part of their vows was to swear to transmit the teachings exactly as he had received them without even the smallest change. In this way they attempted to maintain the purity of their understanding.[39] New teachers received the Kerygmata Petrou from the hand of the bishop after taking a solemn oath to transmit them only to approved men of the same character and to other candidates for the teaching office under the same conditions. Likewise Vaisnavas are expected to deliver the same message without changing anything. Srila Prabhupada had said many times if he had anything to his credit it was that he delivered the message as it is, without any changes. The example he used was that of a postman who brings the mail without altering it in any way. Needless changes being made to Srila Prabhupada’s books, which are accepted as canonical literatures have created great turmoil within his society. We will have much more to say on this subject in a later Chapter. [40]
Theocracy as the Preferred Political Structure
The Essenes rejected the ancient Israeli monarchy preferring a theocracy guided by pure priests. For the Ebionites the monarchy was so suspect that the biblical sources concerned with its institution were branded as false. According to Recognitions 3.52, the monarchy was not part of the original content of the law. Apparently because of the wars conducted by them, in Recognitions 1.38 the kings were placed in a different category from those favorably depicted during the period of peace. There also the ancient Israelite kings are called “tyrants rather than kings.” This is the system of varnashrama dharma—a theocracy led by priests and saintly kings. Recall the opening paragraphs of Chapter One wherein the citizens were all happy and prosperous due to being protected by saintly kings who followed the brahminical leadership and followed the Law. The Essenes also apparently had a concept of kings being ksatriyas, meaning one who protects from harm. [41]
Supreme God and Creator God
The were absolutely convinced that the then current Pentateuch was falsified stating in the Kerygmata Petrou: “Everything which is said or described concerning God is false” (Hom. 2.40). They held to the existence of a Supreme God Who was served by a creator-god, and saw themselves as servants of the Absolute God (ebed).[42] This, of course, is identical to the Vedic concept of Visnu as the Supreme God who is served by Brahma, the creator-god.
The Influence of Kali / Devil in the Present Age
The devil was understood by the Ebionites as the then (1st century) lord of this world, but that the Christ would have lordship of the earth in an age to come. This is identical to the Vaishnava acceptance that Kali yuga is given over to the godless atheists, but that Lord Chaitanya’s movement will flood the world with love of God and establish a Golden Age lasting as long as ten thousand years.[43]
Strict Following of the Rules and Regulations
They are depicted as being extremely strict followers of the reconstructed Judaic Law as a practice or demonstration of their faith. They went far beyond the common practices of the Jews (i.e., being strict vegetarians in contrast to just following kosher law) This was in contrast to the establishment Jews (Pharisees) who had compromised many of these principles in order to coexist with, and accommodate the occupying Roman forces, earning them the pejorative “seekers after smooth things”. The liberties taken by the Pharisees were greatly offensive to the Essenes, and they were therefore considered fallen although they held the positions of orthodoxy at the Temple in Jerusalem. Similarly within Vaisnava practice people who are materialistically inclined are called as sahajiyās, and so-called Vaisnavas who take everything very casually, are visayīs, or considered to be materialists, while those who strictly follow the rules and regulations but without devotion or understanding, and motivatred by desire for material gain are referred to as smarta brahmanas.[44]
Guru, Shastra, Sadhu
Regarding Jesus, they denied him divinity, accepting him as a natural-conceived-and-born man. Nonetheless, they honored him as a true prophet, meaning one who comes in disciplic succession to establish the true law. It was Jesus who established the doctrine of false pericopes, struck them from the Pentateuch, and replaced them with bona fide teachings. He held the position the Vaisnava’s call acarya.[45]
These practices apply to those designated as either Essenes or Ebionites, which as Eisenman explains are most likely different branches of Jewish Christians. In all likelihood they are one and the same, especially on a philosophical, if not political, basis. It is not my intention to unequivocally state that the Jewish Christians were practicing Vaishnavas, although the evidence certainly suggests that they were, and as I will soon further explain. In any case, there is a profound similarity in the practices. As today’s Vaishnavas know so well, following of the four regulative principles is difficult without a strong sadhana that yields spiritual strength, tempering the demands of the senses. Their reputation as being extremely strict in practice may be understood by inference to be supported by a spiritually potent regimen, although perhaps different in detail from current Vaishnava practices. And beyond their practices, they also held a conception of the self as a spiritual being, quite distinct from the body.
Essene Understanding of Spirit Soul
Additional examples of the spiritual understanding of the Essenes comes to us from Josephus as he recounts the exhortations of Eleazar ben Jair, the leader of the remaining 975 church members at fortress of Masada—the last holdout of the Palestinian population that shared the Essene understanding—and which had all but been eradicated or driven to Syria by the Roman army during the siege of Jerusalem from 66 to 73. Masada, a fortress located high up on a hilltop, had been completely cut off from support for almost two years, and the Roman army was now prepared for the assault that would be the final act of war, extinguishing the revolt that had begun in Jerusalem almost seven years earlier. The community members knew it was to be their last night together. The next day the men would be killed, the women defiled, and the children taken away as slaves. Faced with such unbearable humiliations, Eleazar successfully exhorted his followers to mass suicide with this persuasive appeal, one that reveals their understanding of a spiritual reality that transcends the material body:
“The words of our ancestors and of the gods, supported by the actions and spirits of our forefathers, have constantly impressed on us that life is the calamity for man, not death. Death gives freedom to our souls and lets them depart to their own pure home where they will know nothing of any calamity; but while they are confined within a mortal body and share its miseries, in strict truth they are dead.
“For association of the divine with the mortal is most improper. Certainly the soul can do a great deal when imprisoned in the body; it makes the body its own organ of sense, moving it invisibly and impelling it in its actions further than mortal nature can reach. But when freed from the weight that drags it down to earth and is hung about it, the soul returns to its own place, then in truth it partakes of a blessed power and an utterly unfettered strength, remaining as invisible to human eyes as God Himself. Not even while it is in the body can it be viewed; it enters undetected and departs unseen, having itself one imperishable nature, but causing a change in the body; for whatever the soul touches lives and blossoms, whatever it deserts withers and dies: such is the superabundance it has of immortality.”[46]
Thus we see that the Essenes had a well developed understanding the spirit soul as completely distinct from the body, again very similar, if not identical to, the Vaishnava understanding. Likewise their understanding of a loving God, their vegetarian practices and strict adherence to following spiritual disciplines, shows them to be a group of highly developed spiritual understanding. It is perhaps not too surprising then when we learn from the historian Josephus that the Jews were something wonderful and that they “are derived from the Indian philosophers”! He tells us in Apion, Book 1, verse 22:
“For Clearchus, who was the scholar of Aristotle, says that ‘Aristotle his master related what follows of a Jew,’ and sets down Aristotle's own discourse with him. The account is this, as written down by him: ‘Now, for a great part of what this Jew said, it would be too long to recite it; but what includes in it both wonder and philosophy it may not be amiss to discourse of. I shall herein seem to thee to relate wonders, and what will even resemble dreams themselves. For this cause it will be the best way to follow the rule which requires us first to give an account of the man, and of what nation he was, that so we may not contradict our master's directions.’
“This man then was by birth a Jew, and came from Celesyria; these Jews are derived from the Indian philosophers; they are named by the Indians Calami, and by the Syrians Judaei, and took their name from the country they inhabit, which is called Judea.’”
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan offers confirmation of this heritage in his book Pracya Mattu Paschatya Sanskriti, “that the Greeks asserted that the Jews were Indians whom the Syrians called Judea, the Sanskrit synonym of which is Yadava or yaudheya, and the Indians called them Kalanis, [sic] meaning orthodox followers of scripture.”[47] The characteristic of strictly following scriptural injunctions is a noted similarity, and would seem to be a requirement of anybody to be identified as a Jew. There are other connections between the Jews and Vedic culture given by Stephen Knapp in his Proof of Vedic Culture’s Global Existence.[48]
This likelihood of a Vedic connection becomes even greater when we read that Jesus wore tilak of some kind. He is said to have worn “a line in the middle of his head in the manner of the Nazoreans.”[49] This also implies that the Nazoreans (Jewish Christians) wore tilak as well.
Understanding the spiritual truths of the “early church” we can also realize that such revelations were indeed an manifestation of the Eternal Religion in Palestine. Yet, the similarities between the Jewish Christians and Vaishnavism are concepts and practices that have not been carried forward into either the normative Jewish or Christian understanding of today. They have been dropped by the wayside somewhere, for some reason. The altogether different beginnings of this early church compared with the Christian church of today cause us to question how Christianity became what it is now. Why were these practices, that the Vaishnavas know by experience to be spiritually potent, abandoned and how?
Even in first century Palestine the empirical Kamsas whose (to them) legitimate quarry is all the earth, would of course be diligent to suppress it before it has time to develop. What then did the Kamsas do? The answer to that will bring with it a clear insight into the deceptive practices of these devils, practices that we may well see repeated in our present day. Our appreciation of those similarities will be enhanced by learning how the Kamsas worked to eliminate this appearance of Truth from the then Western world, 2,000 years ago. The factors driving the transition of the Jewish Christians to modern day Christianity are important considerations for today’s Vaishnavas, for although we now have the great blessing of understanding the Truth by the potent writing and training of Srila Prabhupada, could it happen that the legacy of Srila Prabhupada would follow the legacy of Jesus, with the Truth being buried somewhere along the path into the future?
[1] The four characteristics are from An Introduction to Gnosticism and the Nag Hammadi Library written by Lance S. Owens and found online at the Gnostic Society Library Website. These four characteristics are offered with this caveat: “The complexities of Gnosticism are legion, making generalizations suspect. While several systems for defining and categorizing Gnosticism have been proposed over the years, none has yet gained any general acceptance”. Why such controversy remains unresolved will be understood by the time the reader has finished Chapter 6. [2] Elaine Pagels, quoted in An Introduction to Gnosticism and the Nag Hammadi Library [3] Harold Bloom, The American Religion, p. 49 as cited by Owens [4] Ibid. [5] Bhagavad-gita 5.16 [6] Giovanni Filoramo, A History of Gnosticism (Oxford, 1990), p. 5. [7] It is worth a reminder here that dogma is defined as a religious doctrine that is proclaimed as true without having any proof. It is given as true simply by decree of the ecclesiastical authority, in this case, the Roman Catholic Church. [8] The polemical works against gnosis were found at: ttp://www.webcom.com/~gnosis/library/polem.htm [9] A summary of the Gnostic worldview were found at: http://www.webcom.com/~gnosis/gnintro.htm; Apocryphal texts were found at: http://www.webcom.com/~gnosis/library/cac.htm. These texts include: six separate major categories of writings collected in the Nag Hammadi codices: Writings of creative and redemptive mythology, observations and commentaries on diverse Gnostic themes, such as the nature of reality, the nature of the soul, the relationship of the soul to the world, liturgical and initiatory texts, writings dealing primarily with the feminine deific and spiritual principle, particularly with the Divine Sophia, writings pertaining to the lives and experiences of some of the apostles, and scriptures which contain sayings of Jesus as well as descriptions of incidents in His life. [10] See Footnote 7. [11]Maccabbees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran, Robert Eisenman, in his The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians, p. 5. [12]The Dead Sea Scroll Deception, by Baigent & Leigh, Summit Press, NY 1991, p. 199 [13] Pliny, Natural History, V, xv. [14] Biblical Archeological Review, July/August 1989, p. 18 [15]Maccabbees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran, pgs. 6 & 108, fr. The Dead Sea Scroll Deception, p.172 [16] Epiphanius of Constantia, Adversus octoginta haereses, I, I, Haeres xx, fr. The Dead Sea Scroll Deception, p.172 [17] Ibid., p. 173 [18]Maccabbees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran, p. 21-2, and footnote 30. See also Schoeps, p. 118, and his Theologie, p. 86 [19] Eisenman, Robert, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the First Christians, p. xvii [20] Quoted by Dupont-Sommer, The Essene Writings From Qumran, p. 13 [21] Glenn Allen Koch, “A Critical Investigation of Epiphanius’s Knowledge of the Ebionites: A Translation and Critical Discussion of ‘Panarion’ 30,” Unpublished Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1976, p. 198. Food for the Gods, Rynn Berry, Pythagorean Publishers, NY 1998, p. 193 [22] Smith, Morton Palestinan Parties and Politics That Shaped the Old Testament (New York: Columhia Universtiy Press, 1971), p. 30. [23] Clement of Alexandria, “On Sacrifices,” Book VII, cited in J. Todd Ferrier, On Behalf of the Creatures (London: The Order of the Cross, 1983), p. 19. [24] Schoeps, Hans-Joachim Jewish Christianity: Factional Disputes in the Early Church, trans., D.R.A. Hare (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969). p. 14. [25] Schoeps, p. 16 [26] This long list derives mostly from Schoeps. In his presenting of the material in this book he begins by trying to understand the Ebionites from their own perspective. He asks and answers: How did the Ebionites themselves view their past? The pertinent material is provided by those parts of Recognitions 1 which we have attributed to the Ebionite “Acts of the Apostles,” a writing to which Epiphanius witnessed (Pan. 30.6.9; 16.7) but which, unfortunately, is no longer extant. In any event, these portions are older than the Jewish Christian parts of the Pseudo-Clementines which have been called the Kerygmata Petrou. p. 38. [27] Schoeps p. 115 [28] Schoeps p. 103-4 [29] Schoeps, p. 104-6. [30] Ibid., p. 105 [31] Ibid., p. 23 [32] Ibid., p. 139. [33] Ibid., p. 132. [34] Schoeps p. 101; Purport SB 4.22.24 [35] Schoeps p. 101; Bhagavad-gitä 12.13-14 Bombay, May 12, 1974 [36] Ibid., p. 99-100 [37] Eisenman, James, p. 835; SB 3.16.22; SB 6.18.49; Cc Antya 3.101; Cc Antya 6.278 [38] Eisenman, James, p. 833 [39] Ibid. p. 835 [40] Schoeps p. 111. This was especially the case concerning oral traditions in a mostly illiterate world. [41] Schoeps, p. 85 [42] Ibid., p. 93, 122 [43] Ibid., p. 64; Cc Antya 3.51 purport [44] Ibid., p. 99; Cc Antya 6.278 [45] Ibid., p. 8, 62 [46] Josephus, The Jewish Wars, Book VII, Chapter 8, Section vii; the translation used is that of G.A. Williamson, The Jewish War, p.387 [47] fr. Stephen Knapp, Proof of Vedic Culture’s Global Existence, p. 206 [48] pgs. 138-140 [49] Robert Eisler The Messiah Jesus and John the Baptist (London, Methuen 1976), p. 427, fr. Holy Blood Holy Grail, p. 377
