How do they do it?
CONTROVERSIES IN
HINDU HISTORY
"LIE WELL STRUCT IS AS GOOD AS TRUTH"
I
"An
archaeological discovery proves that there were western followers of
Vedic principles twenty-two centuries ago"
The Heliodorus Column
“An archaeological
discovery proves that there were western followers of Vedic principles
twenty-two centuries ago.” By Jack Hebner & Steven Rosen
Here is how the
vaishanavites make this astounding claim: I will quote
“Heliodorus was a
Greek ambassador to India in the second century B.C. Few details are
known about the diplomatic relations between the Greeks and the
Indians in those days, and still less is know about Heliodorus. But
that the column he erected at Besnagar in central India about 113
B.C.. is considered one of the most important archaeological finds on
the Indian subcontinent.
It is known that
Heliodorus was sent to the court of King Bhagabhadra by Antiakalidas,
the Greek king of Taxila. The kingdom of Taxila was part of the
Bactrian region in northwest India, conquered by Alexander the Great
in 325 B.C. By the time of Antialkidas, the area under Greek rule
included what is today Afghanistan, Pakistan and Punjab.
The column erected
by Heliodorus first came to notice in 1877, during an archaeological
survey by General Cunningham. The inscription, however, went
unnoticed, because of the pillar's thick coating of red lead paste. It
had been the custom of pilgrims who had worshipped there to smear the
column with vermillion paste. The column, Cunningham deduced from its
shape, was from the period of the Imperial Guptas (A.D. 300-550).
Thirty-two years later, however, when the inscription was brought to
light, it became clear that the monument was several centuries older.”
So much are fact.
How does it
establish that worship of Krishna was in existence?
In January 1901, a
Mr. Lake presented the the inscription, along with the
transliteration and translation of the ancient Brahmi text. It is
given here as it appeared in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society.
The original
inscription:
I
t is transcribed
as:
1) Devadevasu
Va[sude]vasa Garudadhvajo ayam
2) Karito ia
Heliodorena bhaga
3) Vatena Diyasa
putrena Takhasilakena
4) Yonadatena
agatena maharajasa
5) Amtalikitasa
upa[m]ta samkasam-rano
6) Kasiput[r]asa
[Bh]agabhadrasa tratarasa
7) Vasena [chatu]dasena
rajena vadhamanasa
The translation is
as follows:
" This Garuda-column
of Vasudeva, the god of gods, was erected here by Heliodorus, a
worshipper of Vishnu, the son of Dion, and an inhabitant of Taxila,
who came as Greek ambassador from the Great King Antialkidas to King
Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the Savior, then reigning prosperously in the
fourteenth year of his kingship."
Another inscription
is as follows:
It transcribes as:
1) Trini
amutapadani-[su] anuthitani
2) nayamti svaga
damo chago apramado
It translates as
follows:
"Three immortal
precepts (footsteps)..when practiced lead to heaven-self restraint,
charity, conscientiousness."
This is supposed to
prove that Heliodorus proclaims worship of Visnu.
“From the
inscriptions it is seems clear Heliodorus was influenced by Vedic
principles that he could be considered to be a Vaisnava, a follower or
worshipper of Visnu. Professor Kunja Govinda Goswami of Calcutta
University concludes that Heliodorus " was well acquainted with the
texts dealing with the Bhagavat [Vaisnava] relgion."
“To our knowledge,
Heliodorus is the earliest Westerner on record to adopt Vedic
principles,..”
 “Around
the turn of the century, a number of Indologists (Weber, Macnicol, and
others) had noted " points of similarity' between the Vaisnava
philosophy of unalloyed devotion and Christian doctrine. They had
argued that Vaishnavism (worship of Visnu and Krsna) must have been an
offshoot of Christianity, and cited the similarity between stories
about Krsna and about Christ to further support their claim. But the
discovery of the inscription on the Heliodorus column laid their
speculations to rest. Here was conclusive archaeological proof that
the Vaisnava tradition antedated Christianity by at least two hundred
years.”
But does it?
What God does it
point to? Notice that Visnu is not mentioned directly or even
indirectly. It speaks of worship of Vasudeva. It indicate Vasudeva
cult in that period. The Vaishnavites want to equate Vasudeva with
Visnu and puts that in bracket in the translation. Here is the trick.
The translation is
as follows:
" This Garuda-column
of Vasudeva (Visnu), the god of gods, was erected here by Heliodorus,
a worshipper of Vishnu, the son of Dion, and an inhabitant of Taxila,
who came as Greek ambassador from the Great King Antialkidas to King
Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the Savior, then reigning prosperously in the
fourteenth year of his kingship."
Krishna or Visnu
is never identified as Vasudeva. Vasudeva infact was the father of
Krishna who was put in prison by Kamsa. Krishnas father Vasudeva was
never considered as god. Thus this Vasudeva has no connection with
Krishna and Vishnu.
Now then what does
it imply. There certainly was a cult of Vasudeva worshippers.
·
Vasudeva simply
means god of the elements (Deva of the Vasus)
The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 106 mentions the Vasus “Even as a chariot
from a difficult ravine, bountiful Vasus, rescue us from all
distress.” Repeated six times.
Vasudeva could be the head of the eight Vasus.
·
According to the Mahabharata, the names of the Eight Vasus are as
follows:
“Dharo Dhruvascha Somascha Ahascha Anilo Anala:
Pratyooshascha Prabhaasascha Vasava: ashtou prakeertitaa:”
Anala, Anila, Soma, Ahas. Dhara, Dhruva, Pratyoosha, Prabhaasa:
There is a very late puranic story of
how Ashta Vasus plotted to steal Sage Vashista's cow and was cursed to
become humans.
· As
per another account the Ashta Dik Paalakaas are considered as the
eight Vasus who Guard eight directions These eight deities-
Gods ruling the eight sides are - Indra, (East), Agni (Southeast),
Yama (South), Nirriti (Southwest), Varuna (West), Kubera (North) and
Eesaana (Northeast). However, according to the Manu Smriti, they are:
Soma, Agni, Arka, Anila, Indra, Kubera, Varuna and Yama.
“Thus
there is no Vedic root to ascribe Vasudeva to Vishnu; and of course
Krishna was unknown during the period. In the later
“Hindu mythology,
the patronymic of Krishna (Kṛṣṇa),
who, according to one tradition, was a son of Vāsudeva. The worshipers
of Vāsudeva, or Krishna, formed one of the earliest theistic
devotional movements within Hinduism. When they merged with other
groups, namely the Bhāgavata, they represented the beginnings of
modern Vaiṣṇavism,
or worship of Lord Vishnu. A significant 2nd-century-bc
inscription at Besnagar, near Vidisha (Bhīlsa), Madhya Pradesh, refers
to a column topped by a figure of Garuḍa
(the emblem or mount of Lord Vishnu), erected in honour of Vāsudeva by
the Indo-Greek ambassador Heliodorus, who termed himself a “Bhāgavata.”
Though, in the earliest parts of the great Indian epic the
Mahābhārata,
the divinity of Krishna appears to be still open to doubt, by the time
of the writing of the
Bhagavadgītā (1st–2nd century
AD), Vāsudeva-Krishna was clearly
identified with the Vedic god Vishnu” Britanica Encyclopedia.
Evidently this
identification of Krishna with Vishnu and by partinomic sense with
Vasudeva, after the fact Krishna was called Vasudeva are attempts to
identify Krishna with Vishnu and then to Vasudeva. Justification:
The surname of Krishna is Vasudeva.
In Megasthenes and Indian Religion By
Allan Dahlaquist explain this peculiar trait of Krishna as follows:
“If a god grows in importance, he takes over names, epithets and
emblems from other gods, and it would obviously lead us sadly astray
if we were to try and identify a god by means of such borrowed
plumage, particularly if the attribute in questions happened to have
been taken over at a later date.”
In order to bolster the Vaishnava claim they even identify Heraclitus
the greek god with Krishna- Vasudeva.
The only witness of prechristian supposed “Krishna cult” comes from
Megasthenes which is based on flimsly manipulation, a clever trick
repeatedly used, with multiples of names given to one god with no
basis..
We really have no historical record either archeologically or
documentary of any Krishna who lived in India.
The
earliest recorded instances of a Krishna who could potentially be
identified with the deity can be found in the Chandogya Upanishad,
where he is mentioned as the son of Devaki, and to whom Ghora Angirasa
was a teacher Only by the time of The Upanishads, namely
Nārāyaṇātharvaśirsa
and
Ātmabodha,
Krishna was considered as a god and associated him with Vishnu. Both
these upanishads of post Christian period..
This is clearly the
expertise of the Vaishnavites showing how manipulative interpretation
is employed to establish a fallacy as a truth.
The origin of the
Hare Krishnas (International Society for Krishna Con-sciousness or
ISKCON) dates back to the fifteenth century A.D. by putting the
incarnation statement upside down. In forming Krishna cult, Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu developed The Doctrines of Krishnaism from the Hindu sect
of Vishnuism. The older Vaishnvism believed that Vishnu, the Sky god
is the Supreme God, who incarnated himself at one time as Krishna to
kill his uncle Kamsa.
Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu (1486 - 1534), was a monk and social reformer of eastern
India in the 16th century (present-day
Bangladesh
and states of
West Bengal,Bihar,Jharkhand
and
Orissa
of
India).
Sri Krishna Chaitanya was a notable proponent of
Bhakti yoga.
According to traditional Hinduism, Krishna was one of the Avatars of
Vishnu.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught the reverse where. Krishna was the supreme
God who had revealed himself at one time as Vishnu. However there is
no incarnation called Vishnu. It is justifiable on the basis that
all incarnations are God and in a wider sense everything is God since
God in immanent in everything. This is the circumlocution trick.
Old Vedic religion taught that all creative forces are gods and must
be appeased. But as the Christian infiltration came into the Indian
continent with its concept of immanence of God in all creation,
Vaishnavism found a new trick.
In 1965 Krishnaism
came to America by means of Abhay Charan De Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada, an aged Indian exponent of the worship of Krishna. He
founded ISKCON and remained its leader until his death in 1977.
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