The information that Jesus Christ studied in distant India would hardly please and be understood by the early Christians. Perhaps the evangelists considered it more correct to remain silent about these mysterious years in the life of their teacher.
At the end of the 19th century, a Russian of Jewish origin, Nikolai Notovich (1858-1916) became one of the first to openly speak about the life of Jesus Christ in India. Notovich was born into a Jewish family, but later decided to convert to Orthodox Christianity. At the end of the 19th century, Notovitch went to India in order to try to discover the mystery of Jesus Christ. He visited distant monasteries, temples, and ashrams. He managed to visit different parts of the Himalayas, including Kashmir.
Why did Notovitch go to India in search of information about Jesus Christ? Did he have preliminary information that Jesus Christ lived and studied in India prior to his trip? There are suggestions that such knowledge could exist in the Theosophical Society founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, as well as in some esoteric societies of Western Europe.
It is quite possible that Notovitch did not just go on this expedition but was sent by "someone" to search for important information about the mysterious years of the life of Jesus Christ in India. He confidently headed for India, as if he already knew what to look for and where to find it.
During his expedition to northern India, Notovitch interacted with Hindu and Buddhist teachers. His goal was to find evidence of Jesus Christ in India.
As a result of his research, Nikolai Notovitch was able to find written evidence that Jesus Christ had studied in the Vedic and Buddhist ashrams of Kashmir. Notovitch was shown the original of an ancient text that described the life of Jesus Christ in India. The researcher could not remove the original document from the Himalayan monastery; nevertheless, he was shown the text and was allowed to make copies of some chapters.
Returning to Russia, Nikolai Notovitch wrote a famous book called The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ. It was impossible to publish the book in Russia, so he published it in France.
Returning to Russia, Nikolai Notovitch was immediately arrested. Two years later, he was released from prison. In Russia, he was banned from publishing books, after which Notovitch left the Russian Empire and moved to Europe.
In Europe, Nikolai Notovitch met with several hierarchs of the Catholic Church, in particular with Cardinal Rotelli. Representatives of the Catholic Church also asked Notovitch never to publish materials about the life of Jesus Christ in India.
Interestingly, the representatives of the Catholic Church were not surprised by the very facts presented in Notovitch's book. The subject of their concern was only the disclosure of secrets. It is a known fact that the Catholic Church offered a large sum of money to Nikolai Notovitch so that he would refrain from further publication. It is difficult to say whether Notovitch agreed to accept the money, but subsequently he refrained from active public activity.
One of the remarkable Indian spiritual teachers of the early twentieth century, Swami Abhedananda (1866 – 1939), having read the materials of Nikolai Notovitch, was shocked by the information about the life of Jesus Christ in the Himalayas, and he decided to personally verify the authenticity of this amazing information.
