Gaya Charan Tripathi is one of India's foremost Indologists who has worked extensively on Vedic Studies, Comparative Philology, Sanskrit literature and grammar, Comparative Religious Studies, Temple Rituals, Indian Culture, Jainism and more.
Recipient of the President's award for the propagation of Sanskrit, he was born in Agra in 1939 and went on to earn a Ph.D., D.Phil., and D.Litt. He has taught at several universities in India, Germany, Canada, and England, and worked at Research Institutions such as Ganganath Jha Research Institute, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, IIAS Shimla and B.L. Institute of Indology. He has published over 35 books and 150 research papers, and is proficient in over a dozen languages.
The towering figures of Buddha and Christ strove to reform the religious setups into which they were born. In this book, the author points out striking similarities between the tenets of their teachings- e.g., the practice of non-violence, truth, compassion, friendliness towards all beings, and meditation. He also finds parallels in the way both Buddha and Christ propagated their teachings. He then argues that it is likely Christ learned about these principles from Buddhist monasteries in Egypt which had been established by Ashoka's dhamma dūts. Since Egypt was also home to the Jews during that period, the author claims that Christ learned about these successful Buddhist monasteries through the Jews. Although Christ's life is well-documented, contemporary sources are silent on three years of his life, when he was between 27-30 years old. The author argues that Christ was in Egypt during this period, possibly in Alexandria, learning about Buddhist monastic traditions and their model of propagation. This thesis is supported by extensive textual evidence and primary research across monasteries in India and Europe.
One of the noblest contribution of Indian spiritual tradition to the religious practices of the human race in general is monasticism, which entails in itself living alone away from the society and family on very frugal meals and to remain involved or engrossed in the prayers and meditation. I consider monasticism as a kind of by-product of Yogic practices, the roots of which go back probably up to Indus Valley as the figure of an alleged yogi in Padmāsana (by some identified as Shiva!) shows.
A large part of my youth has been spent in Europe - first as a post-doctoral fellow of German Academic Exchange Service and later as Professor in different universities. While studying at the university of Freiburg, I was regularly attending the lectures on Buddhism by Prof. Ulrich Schneider, who was an erudite scholar of Pali and Buddhist studies. He frequently embellished his lectures with slide-shows in order to give an idea of Buddhist moments and monasteries to the students. Apart from the Buddhist philosophy and ethics, the area which, I liked most, was the way of living of the monks in the Buddhist monasteries and used to compare their way of living and activities with the Jain and Hindu mutts following the teachings of Shankaracharya / Ramanujacharya etc. in India.
After coming from Germany, I got busy in my academic work and other duties at various institutions but the subject of similarity between Buddhism and Christianity always fascinated me and I continued to study on it whenever and whatever came to my notice. I went through the whole Bible once again noting the teachings of the Jewish saints. It became quite clear to me that the Old Testament of the Bible has nothing to do with Buddhism because the teachings of the Jewish holy fathers incorporated in the Old Testament are meant only for the people of Israel to lead a virtuous life in harmony with each other whereas it has no spiritual content and it is the New Testament which contains a lot of matter which has strong connection with the Buddhism. I am convinced that it is impossible to think of its author or authors without any previous, at least, rudimentary, knowledge of Buddhism and Buddha's teachings.
Therefore, in 2010, when I was serving as Professor and Head of the Kalakosha Division of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, I unexpectedly got an invitation from Prof. Peter de Souza, the then Director of IIAS, Shimla, to join the Institute as National Fellow. I was immensely happy and thought that this was the best opportunity to work on my favourite theme of examining the similarity and relationship between Chrishanity and Buddhism.
I spent two very happy years at Shimla and worked on the subject. During this period I also visited a number of European countries, especially Germany, France, Italy, Czechoslovakia and stayed in Christian monasteries there in order to get a first-hand knowledge of them. But still the subject proved to be too large and too vast to be completed within some degree of satisfaction, at least. A lot was to be procured, read and interpreted which demanded much more time and leisure. However, as the period of my stay could not be extended. I decided to jot down what I could do within that short span of time so that it may serve at least as a sort of introduction to this vast subject which need to be explored and exploited more thoroughly. I am a senior citizen of 85 years at present with limited capacities of body and mind, but if God permits, I wish to go still deeper into the subject. Till that time let the scholars be content with what I can offer under those circumstances in which I penned them down.
Art (275)
Biography (244)
Buddha (1961)
Children (77)
Deities (48)
Healing (34)
Hinduism (57)
History (538)
Language & Literature (451)
Mahayana (419)
Mythology (76)
Philosophy (433)
Sacred Sites (110)
Tantric Buddhism (96)
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