Did Jesus live in this village of the shepherds?

Pahalgam in Kashmir, where the dastardly terrorist attack, targeting male Hindus, took place on 22nd April 2025, according to apocryphal history, is a sacred place where Jesus and even Moses before him walked!

Pahalgam is in the Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir. It is located in the Lidder Valley on the banks of the Lidder River. It is one of the famous health resorts. No wonder, it is among the most important, not-to-miss destinations for tourists. I too had been there a few years back and experienced its natural beauty and splendour. History records that Aurangzeb went to Kashmir with his favourite sister Roshanara Begum.

Pahalgam is among the important tourist attractions like Gulmarg, Sonmarg and Srinagar. The Hindi translation of the word ‘Pahalgam’ means “the village of the shepherds.” It is quite intriguing that there is a Christian connection to this name and place! Surprised? Jesus lived here in this very place, Pahalgam, for 17 years!! Lived up to the age of 112 years and died in India. This answers the question: What happened to Jesus after the Resurrection? Osho, the Godman, asks this question.

Osho says, Jesus in fact never died on the Cross. And he came to India because in his youth, between the ages of 13 and 30, that is 17 years, he was missing. Where had he been? And why those years are not recorded in the Bible? asks Osho, and says whatever Christ is saying, he has brought from India.

 In some other book, I read, even his divine or spiritual power to walk on water or heal the sick, make the blind see and above all the ultimate miracle of making the dead man come alive by merely saying ‘Lazarus, come forth’ he learns from Indian — Hindu, Buddhist — Yogis, Rishis and Munis. Since Jesus had tasted the spiritual, the cosmic, the ‘ultimate’ closely that he wanted to go back to India, Kashmir, Pahalgam and live the rest of his life here in Pahalgam — the village of the shepherds.

 Osho says the grave of Jesus is still there in Kashmir, maybe in Pahalgam itself. The inscription says Joshua. That is Jesus’ name in Hebrew. Interestingly, Jesus used to call himself a shepherd, says Osho. Hence, the place itself became known as ‘the village of the shepherds.’

Now, why he wanted to be here? Osho says that was because he could grow (spiritually) more. He lived there with a ‘small group’ so that they too could grow and silently. He wanted to live here and die here. And he knew how to live beautifully and also die.

Osho’s final declaration: “Only in India has the art of dying been explored, just as the art of living has been explored; they are both part of one single process.”

But dying by being killed because you are a Hindu, as happened on 22nd April, 2025, at Pahalgam, cannot be that “single process” or a divine process. Amen.

Note: Maharaja Hari Singh was the last Hindu King of Jammu and Kashmir, ruling the princely State from 1925 until the Instrument of Accession was signed in 1947.

Maharaja Hari Singh, who acceded his State of Jammu & Kashmir to India on Oct. 26, 1947, died a dejected man in Bombay on Apr. 26, 1961. It was first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, blinded by his misplaced faith in communal Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who conspired to get Singh expelled from his beloved J&K.

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