Mandrake root from National Geographic magazine & Kinnor (Kinnara)
(Please read the first part before you read this section: London Swaminathan)
List of Sanskrit words found in the Bible: Kinnor (Kinnara =musical ), Manna (annam=food),Madrake (mantra root=magical vegetable), Kapi (ape=monkey), Tuke (Siki=peacock),Tukum (suka=parrot), Amen (Om=Hindu prayer), Mass (Namaskaram=namaz=mass), Ibha (elephant), Nova (nava=new), Adam and Eve (Atma, Jeevatma), Abraham (Ibrahim= Abi Raman)
In the first part of the article, I have already dealt with some of the words from the above list. Now we look at few more words in detail:
17.Manna:The food that fell from the heaven according to the Bible is Manna. It is nothing but a corruption of the Sanskrit word Annam meaning food. Vedic priests recite a mantra AHAM ANNAM AHAM ANNAM………. If it is repeated quickly we hear manna. Actually it is the mirror image of the word ANNAM.
*The word Lebanon in the Bible meaning ‘white’ is a corrupted from of the Sanskrit word ‘Lavanam’/salt which is also white.
18.MANDRAKE ( Mantra+ Gora= a root with magical properties)
The Bible mentions a magic plant called ‘Mandrake’. Rachael’s barrenness was ended with the birth of Joseph after she had begged her sister ‘Give me, I pray thee, of thy son’s mandrakes’(Genesis 30). The scholars who identified this plant say that there is an alkaloid called mandragorine in it. This is made up of two Sanskrit words mandra gorai meaning magical root. Barren women in the Near East hung the roots up in their houses.. Even today Tamils in India hang the Gorai grass in their houses during Pongal or the Sankaranti festival. Both these plant species may be different but the custom of hanging plants like neem leaves or Korai grass for medical reasons has been there for long.
Mandrake’s botanical name is Mandragora officianarum (Manthira koraik kizangu in Tamil). Ancient people believed that it has got several magical properties. They thought it could cure impotency. Modern research shows it has some chemicals like atropine, scopolamine, apoatropine and hyociamine. These chemicals can cause delirium and madness in large doses. It was used in small doses during operations in ancient times. They used it to get pain relief and sleep. We still don’t know whether it would cure impotency. In Homeopathy, a tincture is prepared from the plant parts. People believed it would grow under dead man’s gallows. The roots of mandrake look like humans.
19.The Word: The Bible says that The Word was in the beginning and God created the world from the word. The Vedas call this word as Sabda Brahman or the Nada Brahman (The God in Sound form). Aum or Om-the eternal sound is the highest mantra in the Vedas, which is used even by the Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs.
Other Similarities
20.Cross over the body: The Christians putting cross the body to avoid evil is nothing but ‘Achamanam’ done by the Brahmins every time they want to purify themselves. They do it at least thrice a day when they do Sandyavandhana i.e. they utter 12 (Dwathasa) names of Lord Vishnu and touches 12 places in the body. Some people compare it with the Saiva Siddhanta principle of Pasu, Pati,Pasam (Father,Son and Holy Spirit).
21. Unlucky No.13: The Christians think that number 13 unlucky. This is because that Judas, who betrayed Jesus was the thirteenth person at the Last Supper. But this belief about No13 has a different origin. The ‘Brahmanas’, the books that came immediately after Vedic Samahitas, call No13 a dirty number because the thirteenth month is called a dirty (mala) month. When the Vedic society used a lunar calendar unlike our modern solar calendar there was always a few days left as balance at the end of each year. When it accumulated in to a full month they treated as something dirty and avoided all good activities during that period. Amazing coincidence is that the South American Mayan civilization had also the same belief.
22. Confessions: Confessions are done in the presence of priests in churches, but Hindus do it in their daily prayers with the Mantra ‘Yanikani cha papani, Janmanthara Krithani cha………’ In the olden days people belonging to three castes did Sandyavandhana thrice every day in which the confession and the atonement are mentioned. Brahmins do it every day and confession and atonement are included in the mantras. In the Brahmin’s annual ceremony called Upakarma (Changing sacred thread ceremony), there is a long list of Sins one does in a year’s time. One does recite all these and ask for a pardon openly. Though no one says what a particular individual did during the year, it would definitely run in one’s mind while reciting the long list. It asks for pardon for the sins during this birth and past births.
23.Food is God: Before eating the food, the devoted Christians thank God for providing them food. The Hindus also do Parishesanam by circling the food with water and offering the food to the God. They respect the food itself as Anna Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth) and parise it before eating. And at the end they bless the person who gave them the food Anna Dhata Sukhi Bhava (Long live the person who provided the food).
24.Sneezing: When one sneezes, the people in the west say “Bless You”. This has been in vogue in India for more than 2000 years. They say ‘Dheergayuz’ meaning “Long Live” when one sneezes. This custom was mentioned in all the important Tamil (Tirukkural) and Sanskrit books.
25.Miracles: There are very many similarities between the miracles done by Jesus Christ, Krishna and Moses. The river Jamuna separated to give way to Krishna and Red Sea separated to give way to Moses and his followers. Jesus fed 5000 people with bread from the basket which contained only a few breads. In the same way Draupati fed a lot of people with Akshayapathram by the grace of Lord Krishna.
26.Adwaita in the Bible: Jesus’ probably learnt Adwaita-Non Dualism from Hindu saints in the Himalayas. Swami Vivekananda spoke about three stages in the preaching of the Christ. When he went to the masses, who could not conceive anything other than a personal God, he said, Pray to your Father in Heaven and he acted like a Messenger of God. To others who could grasp a higher idea, he said, I am the vine, ye are the branches, but to his disiples, to whom he revealed himself fully, he proclaimed the highest truth, I and my father are one. This is what considered as Maha Vakyas in our Upanishads : Aham Brahmasi, That twam asi etc.(I am God, You are That).
When he said,’ The Kingdom of Heaven is within you’ and ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God’, Jesus meant only the non-dualist principle, which was made popular by the greatest philosopher Adi Sankara.
27.Ten Commandments: Moses’ Ten Commandments are in the Vedas and the Upanishads. ‘Matru Devo Bhava and Pitru Devo Bhava’ (Worship Father and Mother as Gods) and don’t covet others property, never indulge in adultery etc are found in all the moral literature of India. Moses used Indian spices in his worship.
Moses was asked to take off his shoes before he went near the holy spot. Hindus, but not the Christians, do it even today before entering any temple or Mutt or even houses.
The pope blesses the congregation in the same way as the saints do in India.
28.Space travel in the Bible : The Bible describes space travel in the chapter Ezekiel and it corresponds to the space travel described in the Mahabharata where Arjuna travels to heaven in the Chariot of Matali. There is also some coincidence with the Puspaka Vimana as described in the Ramayana. It won’t be out of context to mention the amazing descriptions of air travel by two ancient Indian poets Bhasan and Kalidas. It is definitely not the bird’s eye view seen from the top of some mountain. It is clearly the experience of a pilot or one who sat in the cockpit of a plane. These poets’ works were translated by the westerners even before the invention of airplane and one cannot stop wondering how they described a pilot’s experience so accurately.
29.Moses and the Light : Moses saw God as light according to the Bible. Through out the 3000-year-old Sanskrit and Tamil literature God is seen as great light. Even before the westerners discovered that each star is a sun, Hindus were praising the God, ‘Your brightness is equal to 10 million (Surya koti sama prabha) suns’.
30.Yagnavalkya and the Bible: The great philosopher saint Yagnavalkya was questioned by many about the God. When he silenced all of them he put one question in the form of a poem about a tree which has an uncanny resemblance to the comparison of man and a tree in the book of job in the Bible.
31.Bhagavad Gita & The Bible: There are many resemblances between the Gita and the New Testament. As an instance of a resemblance between the two scriptures a quotation or two may be given. Krishna says (9-27) ‘whatever thou doest; whatever thou eatest; whatever thou sacrificest; whatever thou givest away; whatever mortification you mayest perform; do all as if to me.’ With this compare (I.Cor.x.31)’whether therefore ye eat or drink, Whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.’ Krishna says again ‘Be not sorrowful; from all thy sins I will deliver thee’. While in Mathew ix.2. we read, Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.’
Let me add jest one further quotation, in which the resemblance is striking: In describing Heaven Krishna says of it that it is a place ‘in which neither sun nor moon need shine, for all the lustre it posses is mine.’
The Heaven described in Revelation xxi.23 is a city which had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of god did lighten it.’ Quoting all these in his book Indian Philosophy, the learned author J.F.Kennedy says that the writers of the New Testament borrowed all these from Bhagavad Gita.
32.Mr.J.F.Kennedy adds one more analogy in the above said book that Kamsa who killed all the children is Indian Herod.( Herod was a Roman king who ordered the slaughter of all the children to make sure that Jesus’ is dead.)
Another comparison can be given here about floating Moses in the basket in the river Nile and the Karna in the river Ganges. Incidentally the word Nile itself is a Sanskrit word-Nila/Blue. Even today Nile is called Blue Nile!
33. Dooms Day and the Pralaya/the great deluge: The Bible says all the souls have to wait till the Day of Judgement to get salvation. But Hindu Scriptures are one step ahead and that one need not wait till the great deluge to get a judgment but one will have to undergo all the fruits of one’s action in his/her next birth. But Bible and Hindu scriptures agree on one point that there will be a Day of Judgment when the whole universe is dissolved. The Hindus call this a Maha Pralaya/ the Great Floods at the end of one Brahma’s life.
34.Cross and the Trisula : There is even resemblance in the Hindu symbol of Trisula/trident of Lord Shiva and Cross-of the Christianity. Actually Cross was used by the Europeans even before Christ as a solar symbol. The Hindu symbol Swastika is found all over the world in all the ancient civilisations and scholars believe it was the solar symbol, later modified as Cross.
35.Catholic Church and the Buddhist Monastery: All the customs, from the uniform to the convent is copied from the Buddhists who were sent to the West from the days of Asoka. This was noticed and reported by a lot of Western scholars.
‘The Original Jesus’ written by E R Gruber and G Kersten gives hundreds of examples with proof. Asoka sent preachers to different countries and Jesus also arranged for his disciples travel even before his death. The convent, the system of preachers, the uniform for the priests- all copied from the Buddhists and the Buddhists adopted all these from the Hindus. To give one example, Hindu saints wore saffron cloth and the Buddhists wore yellow cloth. Hindu saints went to different parts of the world including South East Asia where there are many statues of Agastya even today.
36.Dean and Dakshinamurthy: I can give one amazing example to prove that the church took even minute details from the Hindus. In Roman Catholic order, the Dean is the senior cardinal bishop. He is given a seat in the southern part of the church. The Hindu God who is considered the embodiment of wisdom, known as south facing god/Dakshinamurthy is seated in the southern part of any Hindu (Saivaite)temple. Dean is the corrupted form of the Sanskrit word ‘Dakshin/south.’
37.Marriage ceremony of Hindus and Christians: There is amazing coincidence in the wedding ceremony of the Hindus and Christians. Hindus call the wedding as Kanya dhanam/giving away of the girl/bride. The father leads the daughter to the stage to give the daughter away. In the same way the Christian father leads his daughter to the altar. The ring is also used by both the religions. When the ceremony is over the yellow rice is sprinkled on the bride and the bridegroom by the Hindu elders. In the fire ceremony during the wedding, the Hindus put fried/puffed rice in the fire. Even today the Christians sprinkle rice or puffed rice in front of the couple’s car. The phrase tying the knot is still in vogue in English, but actual custom is forgotten. Even today Hindus literally tie the knot around the bridge’s neck. In Tamil it is called Mundru Mudichu (three knots).
