The Lost Years of Jesus (Part Two)
In 1908, a book was published which claimed to reveal the truth about the lost years of Jesus, and how he spent the eighteen years leading up to his baptism by John in the river Jordan, which began the ministry that is described in the four gospels of the Bible.
The book was called “The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ“. It was written by an obscure American preacher by the name of Levi H. Dowling. Dowling claimed that the material contained in his book was obtained from his reading of the Akashic Records, which was the same source used by the “sleeping prophet” Edgar Cayce.
Dowling, or “Levi” as he preferred to be called, was born in Belleville, Ohio, in May 1844, and died in August, 1911. He was the son of an immigrant preacher. Levi grew up in a highly religious family, and from an early age developed a deep zeal for spiritual understanding.
Levi began preaching at the age of sixteen. At the age of twenty he joined the U.S Army as a Chaplain, and served in this capacity until the end of the Civil War. He then went on to graduate from two medical colleges and practised medicine until he retired to concentrate on his writing.
Early in his life Levi had experienced a vision in which he was told that he would “build a white city”. This vision repeated itself three times over the next few years. It was only later in his life that he realised that the “white city” was in fact his book about the life of Jesus.
In his “Aquarian Gospel“, Levi described the episode where the young Jesus remained behind in the temple while his parents returned to Nazareth without him. According to Levi, one of the people who witnessed his discussions with the priests of the temple was a wealthy Indian Prince by the name of Ravanna.
Ravanna had come to Jerusalem with a group of Brahmin priests in order to gain a better understanding of the spiritual teachings of the Jews. Hearing the young Jesus speak, he was so captivated by his wisdom and understanding that he followed him back to Nazareth.
There, Ravanna met with Joseph and Mary and asked if Jesus might be allowed to travel back to India under his personal protection. Although they feared for the safety of their son, the young Jesus implored his parents that he be permitted to do so.
And so it was that Jesus joined Ravanna and his party as they travelled back to Orissa. During the years that he spent in India, Jesus was able to study the “Vedas” (Sacred Sanskrit texts), and learn at the feet of the “Rishis” of the East.
According to the “Aquarian Gospel” written by Levi, Jesus lived in India for many years before moving on to visit the peoples of Nepal and Tibet. Finally, at the age of twenty-nine, he set off on the return journey back to the land of his birth.
It should come as no surprise that the “Aquarian Gospel” composed by Levi was ignored by the Church, and he himself was attacked as a charlatan. To this day, Biblical scolars consider the book to be an apocryphal work unworthy of serious study.
Yet there remains one significant coda to this story. When Western explorers visited Tibet in the latter part of the nineteenth century, they came across records of a Jewish “Rishi” who had once lived in the East, and had astonished all who met with him with his eloquence and his profound insight into the human heart.
