To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

The Christian Message / 89
earth because of an immense love for mankind — sent by
God as a divine Incarnation in the case of Jesus; in consequence
of a vow registered lives ago in the case of Gautama
— marks them as links in the chain of compassionate
Guardians who watch over and inspire us to follow the
inward way.*
Inevitably, the colorful accounts of their birth, ministry,
and death are in large part allegory. Whatever there be of
solid history in the canonical Gospels or in Buddhist scriptures
of both Northern and Southern Schools is clothed in
metaphor and legend, so that it is diªcult to separate fact
from fantasy. Nonetheless, the similarities are too close to
ignore, and cause one to question whether the chroniclers
may have patterned their respective narratives on some ancient
sacred prototype.
In all probability they did, for striking parallels are to be
found in the life stories of a number of other world saviors.
Persians of old tell of the trials and conquests of Mithras and
of a series of Zoroasters; in Mexico Quetzalcoatl, the feathered
serpent, was ‘‘crucified’’ and rose from the dead; similarly,
the sun gods of the Phrygians and other peoples of
Asia Minor su¤ered death and abuse, as did the Norse Odin
*One may speculate just how potent an influence was exerted by
Asian pilgrims on the Judean Gospel writers. Aside from commercial
traªc between the Indian subcontinent and the Hellenic world subsequent
to the conquests of Alexander in the 4th century BC, for approximately
700 years thereafter the Library and Museum at Alexandria
were centers of spiritual and intellectual intercourse among Buddhists,
Persians, Arabs, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and of course Egyptians
and other peoples surrounding the Mediterranean Basin; probably also
Hindus and Chinese.