Ashwin Sanghi - The Rozabal Line

It was Alissa who took over this time. ‘Mary Magdalene must certainly have been one of the best students of the sacred feminine cult. Jesus and Mary met while he was studying in India. She was descended from the royal house of Benjamin and he was from the royal house of David. A union was not only natural, but also a powerful statement-a political alliance and a union with a clear intent to rule. Thus, when Jesus was called King of the Jews , it was not merely a spiritual title, it was also meant as a political one. This political element was seen as a threat by the Romans, and hence the need to crucify Jesus. The Romans had been quite happy to allow the Jews to manage their own religious affairs. There was no need to interfere. The intervention happened because of political reasons, not religious ones,’ explained Alissa.

‘But I saw three Marys with Jesus in my visions,’ said Vincent. ‘How was that possible? There was only one Mary Magdalene.’

‘A hypnotic trance is similar to a meditative trance-in each of them one’s mind becomes pure and it becomes possible to perceive the presence of the divine. You simply saw the divine Mother, not Mary Magdalene. You saw the Mother in her three manifestations,’ explained Martha, ‘and given that all three of us have elements of those traits within us, you simply saw our faces as representative of each of those forms’.

‘I still cannot understand why the world did not end. I saw it in my visions-the end of the world. I saw Hell!’

Swakilki took over. ‘No. Vincent, there is no Heaven, and there is no Hell. Your soul drifts in and out of each lifetime and, depending upon your karma, a given lifetime can be Heaven or Hell. And as for the end of the world… the world is also subject to karma. When one world ends, another begins. The destruction you saw was merely the nuclear explosion in Waziristan-not the end of the world.’

‘So what should I believe? Are all religions bad? Should I give up my religious work?’ asked a bewildered and confused priest, one who seemed to have lost the very ground that he was standing on.

‘On the contrary, all religions are fundamentally good. Judaism asks one to believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those that transgress them. How can a religion that establishes rules for good behaviour be bad?’ asked Swakilki.

‘Christianity teaches us that love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or cruel. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Tell me, Vincent, how can a religion that teaches us to love be bad?’ asked Alissa.

‘Islam enjoins its followers to give food, out of love for Allah, to the poor, the orphan and the slave, while saying, “We feed you only for Allah’s pleasure-we desire from you neither reward nor thanks.” How can a religion that asks people to be charitable be bad?’ asked Martha.

‘Hinduism teaches us that the doer who performs necessary actions unattached to their consequences and without love or hatred is of the nature of the quality of truth. How can a religion that teaches one to do one’s duty be bad?’ asked Swakilki.

‘Buddhism tell us that the kind of seed sown will produce that kind of fruit. Those who do good will reap good results. Those who do evil will reap evil results. If you carefully plant a good seed, you will joyfully gather good fruit. How can a religion that tells us to do good deeds be bad?’ asked Alissa.

‘There is something good to be found in all faiths, Vincent. The problem has never been belief but the deliberate misinterpretation and misuse of it,’ said Swakilki thoughtfully. ‘And yet, all humankind believes redemption awaits us when our souls arise and merge with that Greatest Soul of all. That is the true resurrection. If this universal oneness could be understood by all, there would be no conflict at all!’

Vincent suddenly saw a light at the end of the long, dark, tunnel of violence he’d been running through, scared, for an eternity, it seemed to him. He fell to his knees before the three women. When he looked up again, there was only One.

[1]The Rozabal Tomb does exist. See Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion by Holger Kersten, Penguin, 2001.

[2]The Lashkar-e-Toiba does exist. The Lashkar-e-Talatashar is fictional.

[3]Inspired by speeches of Osama-bin-Laden, although not attributed to him. See Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama-bin-Laden edited by Bruce Lawrence, translated by James Howarth, Verso, 2005.

[4]The words used in both English and Latin for confession have been taken from an online article on the subject located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confession

[5]Bank Leu is indeed the oldest Swiss bank. The character of Egloff, however, is fictional.

[6]The character Dmitriy Novikov is fictional. However, his achievements are based upon the real-life figure of Nicolas Notovitch, the nineteenth-century explorer/researcher, who wrote The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, Leaves of Healing Publications, 1990.

[7]As recounted in Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion by Holger Kersten, Penguin, 2001.

[8]Much of the Islamic rituals and customs are taken from The Absolute Essentials of Islam by Faraz Rabbani, White Thread Press.

[9]Taken from an online article by Shachi Rairikar at http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=69&page=17

[10]See Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10th, 2001 by Steve Coll, Penguin, 2004.

[11]Asahara Shoko is fact. A very well-written online biography is available at http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/aums.html. Takuya is fictional.

[12]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yigal_Amir

[13]A great deal of information was derived on this subject from The Jesus Papers by Michael Baigent, Harper, 2006.

[14]While Opus Dei and the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross are real in every sense, the Crux Decussata Permuta is purely fictional.

[15]Throughout this book, I have utilised travel information such as flight numbers, arrival and departure information, etc. The process of getting this information was effortless because of www.travelocity.com

[16]A wealth of information about the Archdiocese of New York, the seminaries and the cardinals is available online at their official website http://www.archny.org/

[17]I have extensively used the online Bible resources provided at http://www.biblegateway.com/

[18]The entire joke was taken from http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/drlaura.htm

[19]A great deal of information on the White House, historical and biographical information on American Presidents, etc., was obtained at http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html

[20]http://www.forgotten-ny.com/CEMETERIES/Hidden%20cemeteries/hidcem.html

[21]See The Light on Pranayama: The Yogic Art of Breathing by B.K.S. Iyengar, Crossroad General Interest, 1985.