The Rozabal Line Part 17

The end of the oath required immersion in water. Like the baptism of Jesus?

Jordan river, Judea, ad 26 In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea. At that time, the people of Jerusalem, all Judea, and the entire region around Jordan were going to him and being baptised by him in the Jordan river as they acknowledged their sins.He said, 'I am baptising you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals.'

Thousands were baptised in the river. The same scene would be repeated in 2001.

Allahabad, north India, 2001 The thirty million people knew that this k.u.mbh Mela was special. This year the planets had come into a position that was very auspicious, occurring after 144 years. A dip in the Ganges during the month-long festival would cleanse the human soul of all sins and enable escape from the cycle of rebirth.

The k.u.mbh Mela had been taking place every three years for thousands of years. A similar event had been seen in Jordan in A.D. 26. The origins of ritual immersion in water were fundamentally Indian, like the sacred ritual of marriage-Hieros Gamos.

Bethany, Judea, A.D. 27 She was making Jesus go through an ancient fertility ritual called Hieros Gamos, or 'the sacred marriage'.

In 1993, a book ent.i.tled The Woman With the Alabaster Jar by Margaret Starbird suggested that the anointing of Jesus by Mary Magdalene was carried out as part of a sacred marriage ritual. Starbird wrote: Jesus had a secret dynastic marriage with Mary of Bethany. She was a daughter of the tribe of Benjamin, whose ancestral heritage was the land surrounding the Holy City of David, the city of Jerusalem. A dynastic marriage between Jesus and a royal daughter of the Benjamites would have been perceived as a source of healing to the people of Israel.

Perhaps the earliest verbal references attaching the epithet Magdala to Mary of Bethany's name had nothing to do with an obscure town in Galilee. In Hebrew, the epithet 'magdala' literally means tower, or elevated, great, magnificent . . . This meaning has particular relevance if the Mary so named was in fact the wife of the Messiah. It would have been the Hebrew equivalent of calling her Mary the Great.

In older sacred marriage rituals, a woman who re-presented the G.o.ddess and the land was wedded to the king. Their union symbolised many things, depending on the time and place such a ritual was practised, including the blessing of ongoing fertility, the rejuvenation of the land and the community soul, and the connection between humans and the Divine. Some of these old ceremonies included a ritualistic slaying of the king, either symbolically or literally, after he was married to the priestess-G.o.ddess. In the symbolic slayings, he would then rise again in a mystical resurrection echoing the cycles of death and rebirth evident in nature.

The million-dollar question: if the anointing of Jesus was part of the sacred fertility ritual, could the crucifixion and resurrection also have been part of this same ritual?

So, was Jesus the bridegroom?

Cana, Galilee, A.D. 23 'They have no wine,' said Mary to Jesus.

And on the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus and his disciples were called to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, Mary, the mother of Jesus, said to him, 'They have no wine.'

Mary immediately ordered the servants to do whatever Jesus instructed. And Jesus told them to fill the pots with water up to the brim. He then asked them to draw wine from them and to serve the governor of the feast.

The servants served the wine. When the ruler of the feast tasted the water that had been made into wine, the governor called the bridegroom and said to him that most people served the good wine first and the lower grade wine later. The bridegroom, on the other hand, had done the reverse. His mother, Mary, had clearly been in charge. She was the hostess, without doubt. And the bridegroom had been Jesus.

Bethany, Israel, A.D. 27 Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth. According to the Gnostic Gospel of Philip, Mary Magdalene was the companion of the Saviour. But Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They asked, 'Why do you love her more than all of us?'

The Saviour answered and said to them, 'Why do I not love you like her? When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another. When the light comes, he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness . . .'After all, he was Jesus the Nazarene, 'the one who could see'.

Mary anointed Jesus twice with nard. She once anointed his head. Another time she anointed his feet, later wiping them with her long hair. Nard was a fragrant ointment more commonly called spikenard and was part of a sacred marriage ritual practised by Hebrew, Sumerian and Egyptian priestesses who were also trained in music, healing, magic, chants, dance and herbal medicine. In the Old Testament's Song of Solomon, this act of anointing was carried out as an element of the marriage ceremony.

Lynn Picknett, a researcher of religious mysteries, would later write: In their time was a sublimely pagan rite that involved a woman anointing a chosen man both on the head and feet-and also on the genitals-for a very special destiny. This was the anointing of the sacred king, in which the priestess singled out the chosen man and anointed him, before bestowing his destiny upon him in a s.e.xual rite known as the Hieros Gamos.

Mary Magdalene was effectively royalty from the tribe of Benjamin, and since Jesus was from the royal family of David, their marriage would have been a powerful dynastic alliance. It now became clear why Jesus was called the 'King of the Jews'. His t.i.tle had not been merely a spiritual one, but also one that was temporal and political.

In 1982, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a book by Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, had come up with the theory that Mary Magdalene's womb had in fact been the Holy Grail which eventually carried the child of Jesus Christ.

In his book King Jesus, Robert Graves had suggested way back in 1946 that Jesus's ancestry and marriage would have been kept hidden from virtually all except a few in order to protect the bloodline.

So this was a temporal and earthly king. A good man, a great man who did good deeds, but simply a man nonetheless. How could he be made divine? Fast forward to A.D. 337.

Constantinople, A.D. 337 Roman Emperor Constantine lay on his deathbed. He had decided to be baptised into the Christian faith before his death. After all, in A.D. 312, he had been able to defeat his rival for the imperial throne, Maxentius, only through Christian support.During his lifetime, he had been sympathetic to the Christian cause but had essentially remained a sun wors.h.i.+pper. In fact, Constantine had ordered the judiciary to observe its weekly holiday on Sunday, which was the 'venerable day of the sun'. Christians, on the other hand, had continued to have their weekly rest on the Jewish Sabbath-Sat.u.r.day. The Christians now fell in line with Constantine's edict and began observing their weekly rest on Sunday. This brought Christianity closer to existing Roman practice.

The birthday of Jesus, which till then had been celebrated on 6 December, was changed to 25 December. This was done in order to bring Christianity in line with the existing 25 December celebrations of the Roman festival of Natalis Invictus.

Christianity was now being marketed to a Roman audience. Jesus could not merely be a messiah or a teacher if he had to be marketed to the Romans; he had to be a G.o.d. One that was greater than the mythology of Mithras, Horus, Tammuz or Krishna. It was necessary to have a virgin birth, and it was imperative to have miracles. It was critical to have a resurrection. He needed to have a stature that was greater than Buddha or Zarathustra, who were merely messengers. Jesus had to be divine!

It also marked the end of the theory of reincarnation. As usual, Constantinople would be at the centre of it all.

Constantinople, Turkey, A.D. 553 'If anyone a.s.serts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and a.s.serts the monstrous restoration which follows from it, let him be anathema,' shouted the church elders.

Origen, the third-century Christian theologian (and pupil of Ammonius Saccas) had written that 'The soul has neither beginning nor end . . . it comes into this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of its previous existence . . .' This view was not uncommon. Early Christians seem to have believed that the soul existed even before the birth of a person. This was similar to several tenets of Greek, Buddhist and Hindu philosophy.

In A.D. 553, around three centuries after Origen's death, Emperor Justinian convened the Second Council of Constanti-nople. The Council pa.s.sed the infamous resolution that 'If anyone a.s.serts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and a.s.serts the monstrous restoration which follows from it, let him be anathema.'

That marked the end of the theory of reincarnation within Christianity, and the beginning of the marketing of Jesus. And no one knew how to design and market a package better than the French.

Lyons, France, A.D. 185 Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, had just written Adversus Haereses, or Against Heresies. In his work he refuted Gnostic teachings completely while strongly claiming that the four gospels that he espoused were the four pillars of the Church-these were the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Gospels that said that Jesus was born of a virgin, in a manger, with the star of Bethlehem hovering overhead. The same Gospels that said that Jesus had turned water into wine, that he had walked on water, and that he had raised a man from the dead. The same Gospels that stated that he had risen from the dead.

Serapis, Osiris, Horus, Hermes, Mercury, Imhotep, Krishna, Buddha, Mithras, Perseus, Theseus, Hercules, Bacchus, Hyacinth, Nimrod, Marduk, Tammuz, Adonis, Baal, Quetzalcoatl, Baldur, Tien, Attis, Hesus, Crite, Orisaoko, Mahavira and Zarathustra, were just some of the G.o.ds, prophets, messengers, or angels who shared commonalities with Jesus Christ.

They belonged to various time periods prior to Jesus and to various geographical s.p.a.ces including Egypt, Greece, Persia, India, China, Babylonia and Mexico, among others. Some of them were born of virgins. Some were born in caves or mangers. Many of their births were heralded by astral formations. Some of them were visited by wise men. Indeed, there was a great deal of material available to create a story around the historical Jesus Christ.

Often, they were in mortal danger and had to be taken away elsewhere, either for protection or into exile. Many of them had to overcome the temptations of the devil. Most of them performed miracles. Virtually all of them preached love and forgiveness. Some of them wandered with disciples.

Some of them rose from the dead.

Or remained alive under a shroud in Turin.

Turin, Italy, 1988 Anastasio was humiliated. It was 13 October 1988. He, the cardinal of Turin, Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero, was being compelled to tell the world that the Shroud of Turin was a hoax!

A group of eminent scientists had cut a small sample from the edge of the shroud and carried out carbon dating on it. The Roman Catholic Church was left with no alternative but to accept the finding that the Shroud of Turin was a hoax. It was a difficult position to accept, particularly in view of the fact that eight years earlier Pope John Paul II had kissed the same shroud in reverence.

Subsequently, several scientists would show that the original carbon dating had been flawed because the sample collection itself had been flawed. More important, the blood on the shroud had the rare blood group AB.

Oviedo, Spain, 1988 The blood on the Sudarium was also the rare group AB. The Sudarium was a small, b.l.o.o.d.y cloth kept in a cathedral in Oviedo in Spain. It was believed that this garment had been used to cover the head of Jesus after his crucifixion. Unlike the patchy history of the shroud, the history of the Sudarium could be traced back to the first century. This meant that if one considered the Sudarium to be genuine, it also increased the odds of the shroud being genuine.

Was it possible that the shroud, while dating from the time of Jesus, could be from another crucifixion during the same period?

While it was true that the wounds would have been similar in all cases of crucifixion, the one factor that had been significantly different in the case of Jesus was the crown of thorns that the Roman soldiers had placed on his head. The shroud in Turin, as well as the Sudarium in Spain, clearly indicated head wounds caused by precisely such a crown.

According to the Gospels, 'Joseph brought a large linen cloth, took Jesus off the cross, wrapped him in the cloth and laid him in a tomb.' On Easter morning, this garment was found 'folded together on one side of the tomb' and would later reach Abgar V.

King Abgar V ruled Edessa, an independent princ.i.p.ality in southeastern Anatolia, around the time of Jesus's death. The king had been suffering from leprosy and heard that Jesus could heal lepers. He wrote to Jesus requesting him to visit Edessa, but Jesus was unable to go.

After the crucifixion of Jesus, it was believed that two disciples of Jesus had taken the shroud in which he had been buried to Edessa, and Abgar had been miraculously healed. Abgar became a devout follower and had the cloth affixed on top of one of the city's main gates. The cloth had been folded in such a way that only the face could be seen.

After Abgar's death, his kingdom gradually forgot about Jesus and reverted to older religious beliefs and customs. In A.D. 525, when the city walls were reconstructed, the shroud was rediscovered. It reached Constantinople around 420 years later and was finally moved to Turin in northern Italy in 1578.

Abgar V was lucky to have been healed. By the 'Leader of the Healed', Yuz Asaf?

It was in 1898 that the photographer, Secondo Pia, was able to see a negative film of the shroud, and this was even more remarkable. The negative, for the first time, actually showed in stunning detail the image that had been hidden within the garment.

The commonly accepted findings were that the image was definitely that of a crucified person. The bloodstains were real and were of the rare blood type AB. There were no brush strokes or pigments. The weave was typical of the Middle East. Examination of pollen taken from the shroud indicated the presence of pollen from plants specific to Palestine in the times of Jesus. Traces of coins minted by Pilate in A.D. 29 and A.D. 31 were found on the portion of the shroud that would have covered the eyes. Street dust was found in the area where the feet would have been. The image had been created from chemical saccharides, which were synthesised by the proximity of the cloth to the body.

According to the late Professor Bonte, who was the head of the department for forensic science at the University of Dusseldorf, ' . . . everything speaks for the fact that the blood circulation activity had not ceased yet'.

Several scientists now believe that the man under the shroud must have been alive, not dead.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

Hos.h.i.+arpur, Punjab, India, 2011 The Bhrigu Samhita was an exceptionally long treatise that had been compiled in ancient India by a sage called Maharis.h.i.+ Bhrigu. The Maharis.h.i.+ had been the first person to compile half a million horoscopes of individuals to build a database for predictive astrology.

Maharis.h.i.+ Bhrigu had collected details of the lives and events of half a million people along with their dates, times and places of birth. He and his disciples had then charted horoscopes for each of these people based on the planetary positions of the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, at the time of birth.

Using this extensive database, Maharis.h.i.+ Bhrigu had provided predictions and horoscope readings for each of the individuals. The result had been a database that held forty-five million permutations that could be used for predictive astrology.

During the Islamic conquests of India from the seventh century onwards, the invaders had looted these miraculous doc.u.ments that had been lovingly preserved by the Brahmins. The destruction of the ancient Nalanda University in Maghada had further decimated the exhaustive work carried out under the Maharis.h.i.+. Eventually, only around 1,00,000 horoscopes that had formed part of the original half-million database remained in India, and these were scattered all over the country. One chunk of this original lot remained with a Brahmin family in the dusty town of Hos.h.i.+arpur.

The heir to the prized treasure was Pandit Ramgopal Prasad Sharma, the world-famous astrologer who practised his art every alternate week at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. He now sat under the banyan tree outside his ancestral home, poring over the parchments that const.i.tuted his life. He had a troubled expression on his face. In fact, he had not been able to sleep at night. He should never have sharpened his predictive skills to the extent that he had succeeded in doing; it only caused excessive worry.

His chance encounter with the man who had wanted the date reference from his ephemeris had troubled him. He had been on a routine visit to the divine Mother G.o.ddess at Vaishno Devi in Jammu when this meeting had happened. He had immediately returned to Hos.h.i.+arpur to consult his Bhrigu Samhita. He was absolutely convinced. The end of the world was at hand.

He got up and walked to the post office. Pandit Ramgopal did not own a telephone. From the post office, he phoned one of his clients who was an important man in the Indian intelligence services. He needed him to arrange an audience with General Prithviraj Singh.

New Delhi, India, 2012 'Your name begins with the letter "P". Your father's name begins with the letter "P". Your mother's name begins with the letter "P". The year of your birth sums up to twenty-two,' said Pandit Ramgopal Prasad Sharma.

Prithviraj. Padamraj. Parvathi. 1957. 1+9+5+7=22. Prithviraj was stunned. He didn't know this man and yet this stranger seemingly knew lots about him.

'Who are you, sir?' enquired Prithviraj. 'And how do you know who I am?'

'My name is Pandit Ramgopal Prasad Sharma. I am from Hos.h.i.+arpur in Punjab, and I have travelled a great distance simply to meet you. I was not only able to predict when and where I would meet you, but also what you looked like. That's why I could find you.'

'Me? Why me?'

'Son, I think we had better sit down and talk. There are many things that will need to be explained.' Intrigued, General Prithviraj Singh led Pandit Ramgopal Prasad Sharma to the sitting area of his simple home.

'Tell me, Mr Sharma, who are you and how have you heard of me? More important, how did you track me down?'

'I need you to promise me something first,' said the wise old astrologer.

'And what is that?'

'I need you to promise me that you will keep an open mind and will not let your judgement be clouded by Western tendencies to treat the inexplicable as unscientific,' said Sharma matter-of-factly.

'Don't you think you are prejudging me? Anyway, I promise.'

'Fine. Now hear this. I am a Brahmin from Punjab. I have in my possession one of the oldest doc.u.ments in Hindu history, the Bhrigu Samhita-a database of over half a million horoscopes that can accurately predict future events. If an original leaf containing the horoscope of an individual is available in the database, it will not only accurately recount the past and accurately predict the future, but will also reveal the date, time and place of consultation. Recently, when I was studying the Bhrigu, I stumbled across a horoscope that indicated that I would have to make a reading here in New Delhi, today, to you. This is why I am here,' said Sharma.

Prithviraj was baffled. 'But why did you specifically make the effort of locating me? What was the urgency?'

'You are the only person who has the power to save us from destruction, my son. On the winter solstice of 2012, the noonday sun exactly conjuncts the crossing point of the sun's ecliptic with the galactic plane, while also closely conjuncting the exact centre of the galaxy. This day occurs on 21 December 2012. Your horoscope indicates that you have the power to save a man of G.o.d who holds the key to the riddle.'

'Why should I believe you?' asked Prithviraj, rather irritably.

'You lost your father when you were fifteen, your mother when you were twenty-nine. Yours is an old soul that has been through many human lifetimes. This could be your final one, before you attain moksha. You have neither a brother nor sister. You were born and brought up in Punjab but studied in the West, possibly England, America, or both. Most important, you had a brother, for a while, in spirit.'

Prithviraj sat still, awestruck by the accuracy of Sharma's readings. Then he spoke, 'I never had a brother.'

'Yes, you did. Your mother produced a stillborn son in the seventh month of her pregnancy. He is the brother that you had in the spirit world who I am referring to. He is no longer in the spirit world-he has taken rebirth in some other family,' said Sharma confidently.

'Well, there's only one way to find out,' said Prithviraj, as he got up to use the phone to call his aunt, his mother's younger sister, who lived in Amritsar. She picked up the phone on the fourth ring.

'Auntyji,' he said, using the familiar Punjabi-Indian fusion term. 'Listen, I need to ask you something.'

'Bolo puttar. Go ahead, son.'

'Did Ma go through another pregnancy after I was born?'

'Beta, what's this about?'

'No time for explanations, Auntyji. Just tell me, please.'

'Okay. She went through a pregnancy, which turned out to be near fatal. The doctors were able to save her but not the child . . . a son.'

'And when did this happen, do you remember?'

'I think it was about a year or two after they had you.'

'The child was stillborn?'

'Unfortunately, yes. Your parents never told you because they did not want to burden you with something that they thought was of no relevance in your life.'

'How old was the baby?'

'I think the emergency C-section was done a couple of months before full term. However, the bone marrow transplant was successful.'

'Bone marrow?'

'Puttar, you had been diagnosed with thala.s.semia as an infant. The only solution was a bone marrow transplant from a sibling. That's why your parents had another child . . . to save you.'

Prithviraj was silent as he digested the enormity of this information. 'Thank you, Auntyji. I'll come and see you when I visit Amritsar in a few weeks.'

Prithviraj hung up. He looked over at the old man sitting calmly on the sofa, running the prayer beads through his fingers. He walked over to him.

'Fine. You're not a con. So what?'