References to India in Christian, Gnostic, and Hermetic Writings
In the Introduction to her book, The Gnostic Mystery, A Connection Between Ancient and Modern Mysticism, Prof. Andrea Diem Lane writes:
"Nearly two thousand years ago strong parallels between Gnostic thought and Indian thought had been recognized. When the heresiologist Hippolytus (died about 235 C.E.) wrote about his Gnostic opponents, he was quick to include Indian religious thought as a similar source of heresy. He asserted:
"'There is... among the Indians a heresy of those who philosophize among the Brahmins, who live a self-sufficient life, abstaining from eating living creatures and all cooked food... They say that God is Light, not like the Light one sees, nor like the sun nor fire, but to them God is Discourse, not that which finds expression in articulate sounds, but that of knowledge, or gnosis, through which the secret mysteries of nature are perceived by the wise."' [1]
"This particular passage from Hippolytus, which mentions the ideas of 'God is Light' and 'God is Discourse' (or Sound), as well as vegetarianism, brought to my attention the remarkable similarities between aspects of the Gnostic traditions and the Sant tradition of India."
Note 1: Hippolytus, Refutation Omnium Haeresium 1.24. Elaine Pagels briefly discusses the connection between this passage and Indian philosophy in her book The Gnostic Gospels (New York: Vintage Books, 1979), p. xxi.
Soul Travel According to Hermes in the Corpus Hermeticum
A noteworthy passage from an ancient Western text mentioning India, also affirming the practice of soul travel, be it to India in spirit, heavenly realms above, or indeed even outside the cosmos.
"Consider this for yourself: command your soul to travel to India, and it will be there faster than your command. Command it to cross over to the ocean, and again it will quickly be there, not as having passed from place to place but simply as being there. Command it even to fly up to heaven, and it will not lack wings. Nothing will hinder it, not the fire of the sun, nor the aether, nor the swirl nor the bodies of the other stars. Cutting through them all, it will fly to the utmost body. But if you wish to break through the universe itself and look upon the things outside (if, indeed, there is anything outside the cosmos), it is within your power."
-- Hermes Trismegistus, Corpus Hermeticum, Book XI, Mind (Nous) to Hermes, 19, Brian Copenhaver translation
Inter-Faith Love!
The following passage is from the Recognitions of Clement. This Ebionite Christian author has very nice things to say about those in India who worship One God, follow peaceful customs and laws, and are vegetarian or vegan. Imagine! Clearly he sees parallels between his own religion and that of his brothers and sisters "in the Indian countries." (India was divided into many kingdoms back then.) This is one of the most amazing passages I know of in the extra-canonical scriptures, as it is a rare example of one religion (Ebionite, Hebrew Christianity) recognizing Truth in another religion (Hinduism), a rare inter-faith moment in human history. The Recognitions of Clement, and The Clementine Homilies are surviving Jewish-Christian texts preserving an Ebionite point of view (the original Jesus movement as a sect within Judaism):
"There are likewise amongst the Bactrians, in the Indian countries, immense multitudes of Brahmans, who also themselves, from the tradition of their ancestors, and peaceful customs and laws, neither commit murder nor adultery, nor worship idols, nor have the practice of eating animal food, are never drunk, never do anything maliciously, but always revere God."
-- Recognitions of Clement, Book 9, Chapter 22, Brahmans, Volume Eight, of the, Ante-Nicene Fathers, page 187, T & T Clark Eerdmans edition
Didymos Judas Thomas, Thomas the Apostle in the Country of the Indians, and the Acts of Saint Thomas in India
"Among the most intriguing works of ancient Christian literature are those associated with St. Didymus Jude Thomas, apostle of the East. According to ancient tradition Thomas deserves credit for the conversion of northern Mesopotamia and India to Christianity, and had the single honor of being Jesus’ 'double,' that is, identical twin. He is the same apostle to whom the New Testament Epistle of Jude is attributed (there he is called 'brother of James'—thus, since James was Jesus’ brother, the brother of the brother of Jesus). Two of the works included in Part Four—The Gospel According to Thomas (GTh) and The Book of Thomas (BTh)—have Thomas as their central human character. A third, The Hymn of the Pearl (HPrl), is found incorporated in a longer work called The Acts of Thomas; in one episode of the Acts this hymn is chanted by St. Thomas while languishing in an Indian prison.
"Although ancient literature often refers to him simply as Thomas, the central component of the apostle’s name is Jude (or Judas, for the two names are different English translations of the same Greek form). 'Didymus' and 'Thomas,' though eventually used as proper names, also had the ordinary meaning of 'twin,' the one in Greek, the other in Syriac (Aramaic). In the Thomas tradition, Thomas is explicitly called Jesus’ 'brother' and 'double'" (BTh 138:7f, 138:19f)."
-- Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures, page 535, School of Saint Thomas section
A good translation of The Acts of Judas Thomas (or the Twin) from the Syriac-Aramaic, including the Hymn of the Pearl, is found in, The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, by William Wright:
