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10
GNOSTIC INVASION
Even though we see
the vestiges of early Christianity in Hinduism, the current Hinduism
is far from Christianity. The Way evolved in a direction that is
totally distinct from its counter parts in the rest of the world.
We need to find out the cause and forces that led to this.
The palm leaf
documents of Kerala tradition indicates a mass persecution of
Christians that occurred in all of inner India resulting in a mass
exodus of Christians into Kerala – Malabar Coast in the Southern
most tip of the Indian continent, where they obtained asylum.
The palm leaves
quotes as follows in one place: then in AD 293 “72 families of
Christians of Vellala origin from Kavery Poopatanam of Puhur
District on the River Kaveri arrived in Kollam (Quilon) in Kerala
as refugees fleeing from the persecution”.

Puhur
was an International Port famous for trading in beads and pearls and
the Christians took the sea route to the Pepper Port of Muziris in
Kerala.
The next reference to
this sequel in the palm leaf documents will give some insight into
what transpired
“One Maniccavachagar
followed them in AD 315 and converted them into Hinduism.” The
Manicavachagar mentioned here is not the poet Manicavachagar who
lived in the twelfth century AD.
This should give us some insight
into the nature of the persecution.
Obviously something happened in the
third century AD which made the Christian churches into Gnostic
churches. The difference between Historic Christianity and Hinduism
is simply the missing Historical Jesus. All through history in every
nation, attempts have been made to assimilate all religions into one
without a historic objective incarnation.
This is usually known under the
head “Gnosticism”. Since Gnosticism is not a simple unified
doctrinal system,(it is everything and anything ) it will be
difficult to describe. In the modern terminology, it is what we
call New Age Movement. It is a new name. Then it had been known
before as Theosophy, Bahai and Hinduism. New names are given and
the potion is served in new cups.

Gnosticism started long before
Christianity in the Middle Eastern History.
The sack
of Babylon by the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great in 539 B.C. ended
the Exile of the people of Israel. Cyrus aided the Jews to return
and to rebuild, This mixing up of two religions developed into
Gnosticism. The basic
characteristics can be stated as follows:
-
Novel beliefs about Gods.
(Denying the Lord)
-
Development of myths. (Fables and
fantasies)
-
Tolerance of different religious
beliefs within and outside of Gnosticism. (All religions are the
same)
·
A belief that
salvation is achieved through knowledge. (Self realization – I am
God, only I don’t know it now)
It is not difficult to see that
what destroyed the Early Indian Catholic Church (Hindu Sanadhana
Dharma) was the introduction of Gnosticism. Today if we want to
define Gnosticism we just have to look at Hinduism.
The Gnostic attempt to take over
Christianity is nothing new. It was present soon after the
Pentecost. Acts of Aposltes 8 gives a glimpse of the Gnostic Saint
Simon Magnus trying to trick Peter. In the ministry of Paul in the
isle of Cyprus the opposition was Elymas the magician (Act 13) and
Paul warns of Gnostic teachers within the church to Timothy by the
names Hymenaus and Alexander.
Thus Jude writing his letter warns
of their infiltration process (Jud 1:3-4) “Beloved, while I was
giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I
was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly
for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints. For
there are certain men crept in privily, ungodly men, turning the
grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master
and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Persian Origins of Pallava Kingdom
Recent
historical, anthropological, and linguistic evidence indicates that
the Pallavas who ruled Dravidian Chera area were of Parthian origin
and the name Pallava is just a variant of a well known
Sanskrit Pahlava. The Pahluvas were the peoples who spoke Pehlvi, a
language of Persia. The Pallavas came to India sometime during
second century BC and settled in south-western and southern India.
The Markendeya Purana and Brhat Samhita mentions Pahlava
and Kamboja settlements.
The earliest known
coinage in lead issued by the then Pallavs could be dated between
3rd and 4th century AD.
The must
have come as merchants just as the later colonisers. They became
powerful and became Kings only by the third century AD. They had
their capital near Kanchipuram.
During the 5th
century, the Pallavas expanded very fast. At the end of 500 AD,
the territory came into the possession of Simha Vishnu, and
he became the founder of the Pallava dynasty.
This gave
impetus to the syncretism of Persian and Indian religions absorbing
Christianity along with it.

Savism and Vaishnavism
were the major religious denominations of the Pallavas. The Early
Pallavas claimed to be
Brahmins of
Bharadwaja gotra
and were evidently Vaishnavites. Later they became Saivites. They
in fact built large number of temples during their period – among
them are the Shore Temples and Chariots of Mahabalipuram shores.
These are probably some of the oldest Hindu temples of India
Vaishnavism was more popular in the North while Saivism became
popular in the South. Kanchipuram became the center of Persian
trade, Gnosticism and of “Hinduism”.
Their Dynasty lasted till the
Ninth century AD. Hinduism started with the Pal lavas.
Mani (A.D.
215-276 )
The major force in
Gnostic take over came through Manichean. Mani was born in
Mardinu in Babylonia. His father was a Mandaen. This is the only
surviving Gnostic religion in Syria 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'. The Babylonian ports of his homeland were "gates to India
and other areas further east"
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 Manichean communities in Turkestan and
India. Then he returned to
Syria and did send his
father and his disciples (one of the names of Mani's disciple was
Thomas) into India to
continue his ministry. His ministry was centered in Kanchi area

In due course he was elevated to
the status of another Son of Siva along with Ganapathi (the Lord of
Hosts who has the face of an elephant) as the Bala Subra Manian. (Bala
means young or child, Subra refers to the emanation of light m the
dazzling white)
The Malabar literature refers to
him as Magician Manicka Vachagar. Even in the New Testament
Gnostics were referred to as Magicians. (Simon Magnus and Elymas
were called Magicians)
SubraManyam is represented with a
Pea cock since the magicians are said to have the ability to fly
like a peacock. (Simon Magnus is said to have died in one of those
flights)

The single most important event
during this period in Indian history was the migration of new groups
of Aryans from Syria and infiltration of their Gnostic theology.
Large number of Syrians were displaced from Persia when the
religious persecution took place against the Christians and the
Gnostics by Zoroastrians. Some of them were rich merchants
They were received with dignity by
the Indian people. Among them was the Thomas of Canaa who came to
Malabar Coast. His descendants form the Kananaya Christian
Community. South India became the center of communication
between Syria and India. This will explain how all of a sudden the
Brahminic dominance came into Malabar. Most of the Namboodiri
Brahmins trace their origin from this period. Some of the villages
where these people lived in Kerala were called Mani-gramakar
(meaning “The Village of Mani people” . Mani literally means Pearl.
So some interprets that they were Pearl
dealers.) Near Kanchipuram we still have a village called after
Mani which dates back from the third century AD; the period when
Syrian immigration was at its peak and also the time when Gnosticism
took root in India.
Thomas Christianity
syncretized with Vedic deity of Sun gave rise to Vaishnavism.
Manichaenism coming from Persia made it easy to associate Christ
with Sun (Son). Most Churches even today faces towards the east to
bring in the glorious sunlight through stained glass windows of
multicolors. In the earliest Aryan texts we find Vishnu already
rising to the status of the supreme Aryan god. Thus Vaishnavism is
the major religion of the North India where the Aryans who came as
conquerors lived.
In the South the
Persians fleeing under persecution received warm reception. But
Saivites retained their control in the South. There had been
constant battle for supremacy between these two groups one
ridiculing the other with obscene and ridiculous stories. The south
Indians were depicted as Asuras (a-suras, non-gods demigods -
rakshasas – evil beings- slaves) and the North Indian Aryans were
considered as Suras (gods – superior conquerors) The conflict of
Siva with Vishnu assumed deadly proportions. Saiva texts ridiculed
Vishnu and Vaishnava texts ridiculed Siva.
We know that the Saivites and
Vaishnavites persecuted each other whenever they were in power.
Most people see this as an attempt for Brahminic domination.
Gnostic Christians – the first
enemy of Apostolic Christian
Churches came along with the trade to India after the 2nd century.
As they became dominant the influence of Persian Gnosticism became
widespread that it swallowed almost all other religions then in
existence in India and changed it to what we today call as
Hinduism.(the name came very recently). Since the Thomas
Churches
of Inner India (i.e. except Malabar/Kerala Churches) did not have
the contact with other churches outside of
India, they succumbed to the heresy
and became the Gnostic Universal Religion the beginning of the
Hinduism. The Christians who disagreed and who put up a vigorous
fight against the heresy, were finally forced to flee to Kerala
where there was a safe refuge until eighth century. Those of the
Northern India fled to the Middle East where the Eastern Churches
welcomed them. Some of these came back to India during the Persian
Immigration under Bishop David in AD 340.

GNOSTICISM
It will not be possible even to
touch the hem of Gnosticism because it is vast and varied. Here I
attempt to give some limited explanation that may be relevant to
Hinduism as a Gnostic religion.
If we define Gnosticism as a
mystical religion then it is "as old as humanity itself." It is in
this sense Hinduism can claim its ancient heritage from millions of
years. Modern Christian Gnostics date their origin from Simon
Magus. Gnosticism is an attempt to syncretize all religions and we
can find them in all religions.
There were two major groups of
Gnosticism: the Syrian Cult and the Alexandrian Cult. The Syrian
Cult was led by Simon Magus, who combined Christianity with
Egyptian, Chaldean and Persian religions. The Alexandrian group was
led by Basilides.
But the greatest force in
Gnosticism as far as India was concerned was Manichean the Aryan
(216-277) who is said to have founded his alternative Christian
Church.
"Mani traveled into what is now
western China and as far south as India to spread his gospel.
Although he had been held in high regard at the Persian court, by
the time he returned home around AD 270, the royal milieu had
changed. The priestly caste of the ancient Persian religion
Zoroastrianism resented Mani's presence and succeeded in exerting
considerable political pressure on the new king, Bharam I, to get
rid of him. Mani was imprisoned, and in AD 276, he was crucified and
his corpse flayed."
- Ancient
Wisdom and Secret Sects
The Gnosis
Gnosis means knowledge. The basis
tenet is the man is bound by cycle of birth and death until he
realizes himself as god. This is called Self Realization in Modern
Hinduism.
Some of the basic beliefs of
Gnosticism are as follows:
The 'self,' the 'I' of the gnostic, his 'spirit' or soul, is
unalterably divine.
This 'I,' however, has fallen into this world, has been imprisoned
and anaesthetized by it, and cannot free itself from it.
Only a divine 'call' from the world of light loosens the bonds of
captivity.
But only at the end of the world does the divine element in a man
return again to its home.
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
Manichaean Psalm
"I am in
everything. I bear the skies. I am the foundation. I support the
earths. I am the Light that shines forth, that gives joy to the
souls.
I am the life of the world; I am the milk that is in all trees; I
am the sweet water that is beneath the sons of matter...
I bore these things until I had fulfilled the will of my father;
the First Man is my father whose will I have carried out...
O soul, raise your eyes to the height and contemplate your
bond...look, your Fathers are calling you."
No one can fail to see the basic Hinduism in Mani.
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