Was Jesus ever in India?

Was Jesus ever in India? National Geographic recently ran a show (The Secret Lives of Jesus) where they claimed that He was actually in India between the years of 12 to 30. Here He met with many wise men of other religions, and picked up a lot of wisdom, which He then brought back to Judea. Hence we have His wise sayings in the Bible. I havent seen the National Geographic episode (hope to soon), and have only heard second hand from people who saw it and now buy into it, however I can say, that if what I have heard is true as regards its content, then the show was filled with with Himalayan blunders.

Some thoughts ... if Jesus was in India or Asia, then ..

1) Why doesn't Jesus or anyone mention this in the Bible? Paul mentions being in Arabia. Why doesn't Jesus mention His travels, adventures, the friends/enemies that He made, the good times that He had, etc. I mean according to National Geographic, He spent His most formative and best years(12 - 30) of His life in India right?

2) Why doesn't Jesus incorporate Indian elements into his parables - elements that He would have come across in His travels. Why couldn't the parable of the Good Samaritan involve an indian person who was beaten and left by the wayside? Why doesn't Jesus tell us stories involving elephants or mongooses? There is nothing similar to the Panchatantrahas in his parables.

If Jesus had experiential knowledge of India, He would atleast have mentioned something about it in the Bible. Given the wisdom and character that is described of Him in the Scriptures, it seems to me that for Jesus to keep silent on all this would be for Him to act inconsistently with His character.

3) If Jesus was in India, then we would expect to see the influence of Eastern religions on some of His teachings. However at some key points, Jesus' teachings is at variance with those of other religions.

- For example, the Bible(Jesus ofcourse) teaches that man is born with a sinful nature, and as such is bad at his core. All people are basically bad in their inner most parts. This is not what the Gita and many other major religions teach.

- The Bible also does not teach reincarnation. It teaches instead that "it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes the judgment" (Hebrews 9v.27). That is, when you die, you go before God, and are then judged by Him. At that point your will either go to Heaven or to Hell for all eternity.* You will not be reincarnated.

- One more: Jesus taught that no amount of good and charitable work that you do will buy you a passport into Heaven. Your good work will not save you. So, you can do all the yoga that you want. You can give all that you have to the poor. You can be a regular churchgoer and say the rosary nonstop. You can avoid swearing, drinking, smoking, etc... do all sorts of good things, but it will not get you eternal life (i.e. to know God) - nor will it even score for you any sort of brownie points with God. You simply cannot earn your way into Heaven. Other religions(barring Sikhism) - and please do correct me if I am wrong - teach that you can do good things that will earn you a ticket to Heaven or Nirvana or Mukti or Bliss, etc., or atleast help you to find favor in God's eyes. Not so in Christianity. You have to repent of your sinful ways, and accept Jesus payment on the cross for you.

The Wise Sayings Reply:
- Now some people might say that we do see it to some degree in some of Jesus' wise sayings and such. For example Jesus' comment that "if the blind leads the blind, both shall fall into the pit." Apparently, this can be found in some sacred Hindu text. One thought: A good observer can come up with this ... a blind beggar will most assuredly think of this at some point in his life, regardless of whether he has has heard it before or not.

The Parables Reply:
- Some will point out a parable such as the Prodigal Son and say, "Aha." This one can be found in Confucianism as well the Bible. Yes...it is true, that similar stories can be found. However one needs to think also about what makes them dissimilar, because there are important differences to consider.

Even if similar sayings and parables can be found, so what? It still does not mean that Jesus borrowed, nor that the East borrowed from Him...

*** Come back and finish this later ...