There is no universal belief among Hindus regarding Jesus. Some view him as an avatar of God, a yogi, a moral man, a teacher of non-violence, and a mystic, among numerous other views. Here is an overview of the major Hindu beliefs about Jesus.
An Avatar of God
In Hinduism, an avatar denotes the downward descent of a deity manifesting in animal or human form for the sake of humanity. The 19th-century Hindu Renaissance philosopher Keshub Chandra Sen wrongly interpreted Christ as the realization of god in man, seeing Jesus’ incarnation as an avatar.
Former Indian president and philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan expressed similar views of Christ as a manifestation of god but in no way unique or different to god revealing himself in Hindu gods such as Vishnu, Rama, or Krishna. It is important to note that the common Hindu belief is that the divine reality or god is Brahman—the supreme being who is the infinite all-pervading reality.
In India, it is not uncommon to find an idol or picture of Jesus (Ishu) next to a Hindu deity being worshipped by a Hindu.
Prominent Indian Christians coming from high-caste Hindu backgrounds, in their effort to contextualize Christianity, presented Jesus as an avatar, but a unique avatar who is par excellence compared to all other Hindu avatars.
These misguided interpretations of Christ’s incarnation as an avatar by both Hindu and liberal Christian writers have sadly caused great confusion regarding the identity of Christ as God the Son. Hindus largely accept Jesus as an avatar of god and have no qualms about worshipping him. He is regarded as another manifestation of god in man. In India, it is not uncommon to find an idol or picture of Jesus (Ishu) next to a Hindu deity being worshipped by a Hindu.
A Yogi
In the 20th century, Swami Vivekananda introduced the concept of Christ as a yogi—a person who has realized god-consciousness or become one with the divine (Brahman). He interpreted Christ as not only an avatar of god who appears in human form but also a man who renounces the materialism of this world to embrace the higher divine life.
He reinterpreted Christ’s words that he and the Father are one in the Gospel of John (John 1:1; 1:18; 5:18; 10:30; 14:9; 17:21–23) to mean that Jesus had become one with the Father, attaining self-realization of his divinity by transcending this physical realm of reality.
This union with god—the ultimate goal in Hinduism—is said to have been realized by Jesus, and that he now helps his disciples also achieve this true divine state of being. Vivekananda’s views disseminated the yogic Christ across the Western world. He charged the Western Church of having interpreted Christ wrongly.
Today, the view of a yogic Christ is not only popular among spiritually-minded Hindus but also found among the various new-age religious movements that originated during the 1960s counterculture movement. Those who view Christ as a yogi understand union with god as achieving “Christ-consciousness” akin to the concept of Krishna-consciousness, propagated by the Hare Krishna movement.
A Moral Man
The Indian social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy who was deeply influenced by unitarianism, an anti-Trinitarian belief in the absolute oneness of god, sought to present a demythologized Jesus.
In his book, The Precepts of Jesus: The Guide to Peace and Happiness, Roy presented the ethical teachings of Christ from the New Testament and repudiated passages referring to the divinity, incarnation, and atonement of Christ. While the book was opposed by Baptist missionary Joshua Marshman—a colleague of William Carey—it nevertheless became popular, establishing the view of Jesus, not as the Son of God, but as a moral man who demonstrated ethics worth emulating. Such views have been distilled down through the decades and found prevalently among more liberal-minded Hindus today.
An Acharya of Ahimsa
In the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi made popular the image of Jesus as an acharya (teacher) of ahimsa (non-violence). He saw Jesus teaching civil disobedience and tolerance in calling his disciples to turn the other cheek and to love their enemies in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38–48). To Gandhi, this was ultimately demonstrated by Jesus’ violent death wherein he offered himself as a sacrifice of love, even for his enemies.
Gandhi wrote, “Jesus was the most active resister known perhaps to history. His was non-violence par excellence.”
A Kashmiri Mystic
The view that Jesus was a mystic in the northern Himalayan region of Kashmir in India is as much a tall tale as it is fascinating. Nevertheless, this view persists in popular imagination. Russian traveler Nicholai Notovich claimed in his book, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, that Issa (Jesus) traveled to the Himalayan mountains and studied mysticism from Hindu sages and Buddhist monks before returning to teach and do miracles in Palestine.
Another dubious claim appears in a late revised version of the Hindu text, Bhavishya Purana. Interestingly, the heterodox Islamic Ahmadiyya sect claims Isa (Jesus) or Yuz Asaf traveled to Srinagar, Kashmir, after his crucifixion where he died of natural causes. This view is not mainstream and only held by some Sufi and Hindu mystics.
Sharing the True Jesus with Hindus
When communicating Jesus to a Hindu, it is essential one presents the biblical version of Jesus. Most Hindus hold various views about Christ, which must be challenged and corrected in light of Scripture. Hence, the various distortions and confusions regarding the identity of Jesus in the mind of the Hindu presents the wonderful opportunity to share the Word of God and present Jesus as he really is—the Christ, truly God and truly man, the only Saviour of sinners, and hope of humanity.
Christopher Poshin David serves as the Minister of Word and Sacrament at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Chennai. He is also the author of the book, Engaging Hinduism: Rethinking Christian Apologetics in India.
