He was shown two large yellowed volumes containing the biography
of St. Issa. Notovitch enlisted a member of his party to translate
the Tibetan volumes while he carefully noted each verse in the back
pages of his journal.
When he returned to the western world there was much controversy
as to the authenticity of the document. He was accused of creating a
hoax and was ridiculed as an imposter. In his defense he encouraged
a scientific expedition to prove the original tibetan documents
existed.
One of his skeptics was Swami Abhedananda. Abhedananda journeyed
into the arctic region of the Himalayas, determined to find a copy
of the Himis manuscript or to expose the fraud. His book of travels,
entitled Kashmir O Tibetti, tells of a visit to the Himis gonpa and
includes a Bengali translation of two hundred twenty-four verses
essentially the same as the Notovitch text. Abhedananda was thereby
convinced of the authenticity of the Issa legend.
In 1925, another Russian named Nicholas Roerich arrived at Himis.
Roerich, was a philosopher and a distinguished scientist. He
apparently saw the same documents as Notovitch and Abhedananda. And
he recorded in his own travel diary the same legend of St. Issa.
Speaking of Issa, Roerich quotes legends which have the estimated
antiquity of many centuries.
... He passed his time in several ancient cities of India
such as Benares. All loved him because Issa dwelt in peace with
Vaishas and Shudras whom he instructed and helped. But the
Brahmins and Kshatriyas told him that Brahma forbade those to
approach who were created out of his womb and feet. The Vaishas
were allowed to listen to the Vedas only on holidays and the
Shudras were forbidden not only to be present at the reading of
the Vedas, but could not even look at them.
Issa said that man had filled the temples with his
abominations. In order to pay homage to metals and stones, man
sacrificed his fellows in whom dwells a spark of the Supreme
Spirit. Man demeans those who labor by the sweat of their brows,
in order to gain the good will of the sluggard who sits at the
lavishly set board. But they who deprive their brothers of the
common blessing shall be themselves stripped of it.
Vaishas and Shudras were struck with astonishment and asked
what they could perform. Issa bade them "Worship not the idols.
Do not consider yourself first. Do not humiliate your neighbor.
Help the poor. Sustain the feeble. Do evil to no one. Do not
covet that which you do not possess and which is possessed by
others."
Many, learning of such words, decided to kill Issa. But Issa,
forewarned, departed from this place by night.
Afterward, Issa went into Nepal and into the Himalayan
mountains ....
"Well, perform for us a miracle," demanded the servitors of
the Temple. Then Issa replied to them: "Miracles made their
appearance from the very day when the world was created. He who
cannot behold them is deprived of the greatest gift of life. But
woe to you, enemies of men, woe unto you, if you await that He
should attest his power by miracle."
Issa taught that men should not strive to behold the Eternal
Spirit with one's own eyes but to feel it with the heart, and to
become a pure and worthy soul....
"Not only shall you not make human offerings, but you must
not slaughter animals, because all is given for the use of man.
Do not steal the goods of others, because that would be
usurpation from your near one. Do not cheat, that you may in
turn not be cheated ....
"Beware, ye, who divert men from the true path and who fill
the people with superstitions and prejudices, who blind the
vision of the seeing ones, and who preach subservience to
material things. "...
Then Pilate, ruler of Jerusalem, gave orders to lay hands
upon the preacher Issa and to deliver him to the judges, without
however, arousing the displeasure of the people.
But Issa taught: "Do not seek straight paths in darkness,
possessed by fear. But gather force and support each other. He
who supports his neighbor strengthens himself
"I tried to revive the laws of Moses in the hearts of the
people. And I say unto you that you do not understand their true
meaning because they do not teach revenge but forgiveness. But
the meaning of these laws is distorted."
Then the ruler sent to Issa his disguised servants that they
should watch his actions and report to him about his words to
the people.
"Thou just man, "said the disguised servant of the ruler of
Jerusalem approaching Issa, "Teach us, should we fulfill the
will of Caesar or await the approaching deliverance?"
But Issa, recognizing the disguised servants, said, "I did
not foretell unto you that you would be delivered from Caesar;
but I said that the soul which was immersed in sin would be
delivered from sin."
At this time, an old woman approached the crowd, but was
pushed back. Then Issa said, "Reverence Woman, mother of the
universe,' in her lies the truth of creation. She is the
foundation of all that is good and beautiful. She is the source
of life and death. Upon her depends the existence of man,
because she is the sustenance of his labors. She gives birth to
you in travail, she watches over your growth. Bless her. Honor
her. Defend her. Love your wives and honor them, because
tomorrow they shall be mothers, and later-progenitors of a whole
race. Their love ennobles man, soothes the embittered heart and
tames the beast. Wife and mother-they are the adornments of the
universe."
"As light divides itself from darkness, so does woman possess
the gift to divide in man good intent from the thought of evil.
Your best thoughts must belong to woman. Gather from them your
moral strength, which you must possess to sustain your near
ones. Do not humiliate her, for therein you will humiliate
yourselves. And all which you will do to mother, to wife, to
widow or to another woman in sorrow-that shall you also do for
the Spirit."
So taught Issa; but the ruler Pilate ordered one of his
servants to make accusation against him.
Said Issa: "Not far hence is the time when by the Highest
Will the people will become purified and united into one
family."
And then turning to the ruler, he said, "Why demean thy
dignity and teach thy subordinates to live in deceit when even
without this thou couldst also have had the means of accusing an
innocent one?"
From another version of the legend, Roerich quotes
fragments of thought and evidence of the miraculous.
Near Lhasa was a temple of teaching with a wealth of
manuscripts. Jesus was to acquaint himself with them. Meng-ste,
a great sage of all the East, was in this temple.
Finally Jesus reached a mountain pass and in the chief city
of Ladak, Leh, he was joyously accepted by monks and people of
the lower class .... And Jesus taught in the monasteries and in
the bazaars (the market places); wherever the simple people
gathered--there he taught.
Not far from this place lived a woman whose son had died and
she brought him to Jesus. And in the presence of a multitude,
Jesus laid his hand on the child, and the child rose healed. And
many brought their children and Jesus laid his hands upon them,
healing them.
Among the Ladakis, Jesus passed many days, teaching them. And
they loved him and when the time of his departure came they
sorrowed as children.
In 1894 Nicolas Notovitch published a book called The Unknown
Life of Christ. He was a Russian doctor who journeyed
extensively throughout Afghanistan, India, and Tibet. Notovitch
journeyed through the lovely passes of Bolan, over the Punjab, down
into the arid rocky land of Ladak, and into the majestic Vale of
Kashmir of the Himalayas. During one of his jouneys he was visiting
Leh, the capital of Ladak, near where the buddhist convent Himis is.
He had an accident that resulted in his leg being broken. This gave
him the unscheduled opportunity to stay awhile at the Himis convent.
Notovitch learned, while he was there, that there existed ancient
records of the life of Jesus Christ. In the course of his visit at
the great convent, he located a Tibetan translation of the legend
and carefully noted in his carnet de voyage over two hundred verses
from the curious document known as "The Life of St. Issa." 