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Louis Jacolliot - The Bible in India – Chapter XI

(According to the Bagaveda-Gita and Brahminical tradition).

One evening, as the Virgin was praying, her ears were suddenly charmed with celestial music, her prison became illuminated, and Vischnou appeared to her in all the eclat of his divine Majesty. Devanaguy fell in a profound ecstacy, and having been overshadowed (is the Sanscrit expression ) by the spirit of God that desired to incarnate itself she conceived.

The period of her gestation was to her a time of continued enchantment ; the divine infant afforded his mother infinite enjoyments, which made her forget earth, her captivity, and even her existence.

The night of Devanaguy's accouchement, and as the newly-born uttered its first wail, a violent wind opened a passage through the walls of the prison, and the Virgin was conducted with her son, by a messenger from Vischnou, to a sheep-fold belonging to Nanda, situated on the confines of the territory of Madura.

The newly-born was named Christna (in Sanscrit, sacred).  The shepherds, informed of the charge which was confided to them, prostrated themselves before the infant, and adored him.

The same night, Nanda, inspired by God in a dream, knew what had happened, and commenced his march, with his servants, and many other holy people, in search of Devanaguy and her son, to withdraw her from the intrigues of the tyrant of Madura.

He, on hearing of the accouchement and wonderful escape of his niece, fell into an ungovernable rage ; instead of understanding that it was useless to strive against the Lord, and demanding grace, he resolved, by every possible means, to pursue the son of Devanaguy, and to put him to death, hoping thus to escape the fate with which he was menaced.

Having had another dream, warning him more precisely of the chastisement that awaited him, he ordained the massacre in all his states, of all the children of the male sex, born, during the night of the birth of Christna, thinking thus surely to reach him who in his thought should drive him from his throne.

Guided, no doubt, by the inspiration of a cunning rakchasas, who desired to oppose the designs of Vischnou, a troop of soldiers reached the sheep-fold of Nanda, and as he had not yet arrived, his servants were about to arm themselves to defend Devanaguy and her son, when all at once, O prodigy ! the child who was at his mother's breast, began suddenly to grow, - in a few seconds he had attained the size of a child of ten years of age, and ran to amuse himself midst the herd of sheep.

The soldiers passed near him without suspicion, and not finding in the farm any child of the age of him whom they sought returned to the city, dreading the rage, at their failure, of him who had sent them.

Shortly after arrived Nanda with all his troops, and his first care was to prostrate himself with all the holy persons who accompanied him, before the virgin and her divine child. Not considering them in a place of safety, he conducted them to the banks of the Ganges, and thus was Devanaguy enabled once more to behold the abodes of her infancy.

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NOTES
We shall not here transcribe the many details that refer to the first years of Christna, they were passed in the midst of dangers without number, devised by those who had an interest in his death, but he always came out victorious from these contests, whether with men or with demons.

The poets who have exercised their imaginations on all these things, have so surrounded them with miracles, and with wonderful events, that a dozen volumes would scarce suffice to recount them.  Yet there is one fact of the God-Man which we cannot pass over in silence, because Jesuits in India have made use of it, and still do so every day to maintain that Christna was of dissolute morals, and gave many examples of impurity [sic].

One day, walking on the banks of the Ganges, Christna perceived some fifty young girls who had completely stripped themselves for their ablutions, and some of them, in this condition were laughing and romping without thinking whether or not they might be seen by passers-by

The child remonstrated with them, telling them that it was not decent; they began to laugh and to throw water in his face. Seeing which, Chrisrna, by a gesture, sent all their clothes, scattered on the sands, to the top of a tamarind tree, thus making it impossible for them to dress themselves on coming out of the water.  Perceiving then their fault, the young girls implored pardon, which was accorded on condition of the promise which they made ever after to wear a veil when they came to the sacred river to make their ablutions.

The Jesuits have seized upon this legend, recounting it after their own fashion, and making it appear that Christna had but removed the clothes of the young girls, to see them more at his leisure in their nudity.  This version is consistent with their  programme, and need not surprise us. Not permitted to acknowledge Christna, they combat him with their usual weapons, and we know how clever they are at altering texts, and at seeing what nobody else has ever been able to find.

Have we not seen them attempting to garble certain chapters of modern history ? What wonder if the same spirit presides in their Oriental missions?