Transcript Presentation14

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'.
.On Sunday, 20 March, A.D. 242, Mani first proclaimed
his gospel in the royal residence, Gundesapor, on the
coronation day of Sapor
"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”
To the Buddhists Mani became Buddha
and
to the Christians Mani became
the Apostle of Jesus
and
the Paraclete
whom Jesus Promised.
For many years Mani traveled abroad, founding Manichæan
communities in Turkestan and India.
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
Iranian
Manichaen
god
Ganesha
Siva
Vishnu in Varaha Avtar form
Brahma
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
The coins from Taxila with the seal and
inscription of King Gudophorus as
"Maharaja - rajarajasamahata -dramia devavrata Gundapharase"
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”
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.
1498-1961
Portugese brought with them the
Roman Catholic form of Christianity
Malankara Christianity was heretic to them – Nestorian.
All others were heathen.
BRITISH RULE
Warren Hasting
31 December 1600
15 August 1947
Religion of India totally baffled them
Clive
Christian
Hindu
THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT
“Hindu Relgion”
became a Political expediency as a unification
MUSLIM
ISSAI
HINDU
SIKH
1784 The first English translation of the Hindu
Bhagavad Gita
1828
1836-1886
The Brahmo Samaj
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 Gita
Kesari [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 founded
New 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
“One God, One Religion and
One Nation”
Annie Besant and others first
discussed Home Rule, leading to
the call that led to the founding of
[ Indian National Congress
the
and the birth of the Freedom
Movement.
"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.vedantaatlanta.org/articles/Mary.html#shiva%20shakti