"Was Christ a man like us? Ah! Let us try if we then, too, can be such men as he!"- Mathew Arnold.

Of all the major religions, Christianity has certain uniqueness and needs to be re-examined yet again with great enthusiasm. As of now, many thinkers like philosophers, scholars and theologians wrote about the life of Jesus Christ from different perspectives and some conclusions are rather controversial and indeed provocative. Religions of the world today are mainly Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

And Bible is not the only book that is claimed to be inspired by God. Muslims claim that their sacred book "The Koran" and the Jew claim that their "Torah" also was inspired by Allah or God. And with due respect to my fellow Christian, I would like to clarify that my effort is not to hurt the sentiment of the Christians but just to impart the knowledge of different perspectives from different writers. This does not mean to diminish their personal faith.

One of the greatest philosophers Bertrand Russell was from a very orthodox Christian and belonged to the royal family of England. But when he started studying philosophy in the university, he deemed Christianity as a third-rate religion, because the school of philosophy made him prejudice about spiritual sentiments and finally deprogram himself from Christianity.

He wrote a book, "Why I Am Not A Christian?" He argued that if God creates man then there can be no freedom at all! Thus the choice is between God and freedom. Because, if God create humanity, then we are simply a puppets and God seems to be fanciful.

Surprisingly, Jesus Christ himself was the only bachelor out of all the founders of the above mentioned religions. Who was this man really? Where was he from? Where did he go? Why was it that he appeared so strange and mysterious to his contemporaries? What did he really want? Spiritual feelings became increasingly skeptical, and especially a Christian doctrine became a matter of debate among theologians and scholars.

The moral precepts of Bible, the justice of its laws, its historical inaccuracies makes more debatable in contemporary world. One of the most authoritative books on Jesus is by the famous biblical scholar, E. P. Sanders "The Historical Life of Jesus." Another interesting book is by Holger Kersten "Jesus Lived in India." Both give its possessed historical and documented evidence of the questions.

According to The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, Jesus Christ was a historical figure of astounding influence, perhaps the most enigmatic, mysterious and inspirational leader the world had ever seen. As the prophesied Messiah, he toppled Kings, inspired millions and founded new philosophies. As a descendant of the lines of King Solomon and King David, he possessed a rightful claim to the throne of the Kings of the Jews.

Understandably, his life was recorded by thousands of followers across the land in more than eighty gospels. Yet only few were chosen for inclusion in the New Testament. Mary Magdalene was the prize that bore the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ, the womb from which the sacred fruit sprang forth. How much of this extraordinary story is true? Dan Brown says, "The locations, the paintings, the ancient history, the secret documents, the rituals, all of this factual.

The theory about Mary Magdalene is not my theory. It has persisted over the last thousand years" adding that this is the fundamental irony of Christianity! The bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan (unbeliever) Roman emperor, Constantine the Great. The Bible is a product of man, not of God. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions and revisions.

Each of the four Gospels portrays the life of Christ from different point of view. The genealogy of Jesus is trace through Joseph the legal (although not the actual) father of Jesus to David, then to Abram and David (Genesis 12:1-3; II Samuel 7: 8-17).

Tracing Jesus' genealogy back 4,000 years to Adam, the first man, Dr. Luke established Jesus as the Son of man who understand man's weakness and has compassion for his needs. More details of the human characteristic of Jesus are given in the Gospel. It tells us about Jesus parents; the birth of His cousin, John the Baptist; and Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born and place in a manger (Luke 1:5-7).

When we study carefully the four gospels of the Holy Bible, of course, what strikes our mind most is that why Jesus had certain soft corner for one woman called Mary Magdalene? It's been 17th century now since some thinkers and writers were of the view that this woman had romantic relationship with Jesus Christ.

According to "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" by Henry Licon, Michael Baigent and Richard Leig, Mary Magdalene fled to Europe after the cruciificaxion of Jesus and finally settled down in France along with their daughter. The legend of the Holy Grail is about the royal blood. When the legends of Grail legend speak of "the chalice that held the blood of Christ", it speaks, in fact, of Mary Magdalene- the female womb that carried Jesus` royal bloodline.

Their daughter's name is Sarah. It is believed that during the 12th century, the King of one province, of France-Merrovingian family was a direct descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. And almost the same is written in "Black Mary & The Secret Blood" by Fraser, "Mary Magdalene was the lover and wife of Jesus. King Louis XI (1461-1883) of France was also their descendant", and another book is Mary Magdalene: The Grail Bearer (2001) by Margaret Starbird-I.

Now let's talk about the life of Jesus Christ based on the four gospels of Luke, Marks, Mathew and John and make a comparative study with those writers' assessments on the life of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. John 12: 1-8(ref-Mat 26:6-13; Mk 14:3-9;Lk 7:37-39) In the town of Bethany one of the Pharisees called Simon invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.

A woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. She poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

In fact, the perfume was very expensive. According to Jesus' disciples' calculation, it cost a year's wages, 300 denarii's in Greek. A perfume made from the aromatic oil extracted from the root of a plant grown chiefly in India. According to Holger Kersten, Jesus was supposed to have lived in India for quite some time. So if Holger's investigation "Jesus lived in India" is true perhaps, the costly perfume was a gift to Mary Magdalene from Jesus during His days in Kashmir (Now India).

Here, some of the disciples and the Pharisees couldn't stand anymore on Jesus and Mary Magdalene's behaviors. Actually, the house of the Pharisees should be respected and certain standard needed to be maintained as the Pharisees were the teachers of the laws. And for a Jewish woman to appear with hair unbound was an act of the gravest immodesty. So, they yelled at her to keep quiet.

What was Jesus' reaction? Jesus took it as a privilege and defended her by saying, "Leave her alone". Though her behavior was very provocative but nothing was more precious in the whole world than Jesus to her. So she devoted herself to Jesus as if she didn't have any future. She gave the precious perfume because it was the most precious thing she had. Love seldom calculates. Love's one desire is to give to the uttermost limits! When it has given all it has to give, it still thinks the gift too little.

Jesus loved the home of Mary Magdalene, her sister Martha and her brother Lazarus (John 11: 21-27). Whenever Jesus went up to Jerusalem he passed through Bethany to visit their home to take rest. When Martha saw her sister Mary Magdalene constantly tittle-tattle with Jesus, and being distracted of her sister's attitude, she finally complained to Jesus, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

But surprisingly, Jesus defended Mary Magdalene by saying, "You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her (Luke 10: 38-42)". According to Fraser Asthan, Mary Magdalene was tall and beautiful. In the best analysis, she might be like the bold and the beautiful in Star World TV channel. And she was also the one whom Jesus cured her from the evil spirits and diseases (Luke 8:1-3). A woman caught in the act of adultery was also perhaps Mary Magdalene (John 8: 4-9). Jesus even rescued her from public stoning.

When Jesus was about to be crucified, all the disciples ran away in fear of the Roman soldiers. On top of that, his top disciple Simon Peter denied him thrice. However, Mary Magdalene was found standing near the Cross and shared all sorrows and grieves with Jesus (John 19: 25). At the burial, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb while all the disciples had disappeared (Mathew 27: 61).

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Mary Magdalene followed Jesus up to Golgotha (a land of skull) and even after his death she planned to go to the tomb to anoint Jesus' dead body. Mary Magdalene's love for Jesus was genuine (Mark 16: 1-9). Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb. It was probably about 5:30 AM on Sunday. Normally people feared to go near the tomb early in the morning. But Mary Magdalene didn't fear because she loved him so much.

The risen Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene. Therefore, she became the first witness of Jesus' resurrection. So Mary Magdalene went and told other disciples about the resurrection of Jesus. Humanly speaking, the disciples' pride might be hurt because Mary Magdalene was informing them of the fact of Jesus' resurrection (Mark 16: 1-9). And apart from the four gospels, there is Gnostic Gospel like The Gospel of Mary and The Gospel of Philip which recorded the life of Jesus Christ.

So, based on the Gnostic Gospels, let's elaborate about the relation between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. It appears that most of the disciples' pride was hurt by the intimacy between this woman and Jesus. Their outburst comes, "Without our consents Jesus spoke with this woman alone! Do we need to go back to this woman and asked what Jesus told?

Otherwise, does Jesus choose this woman rather than us? " (Gospel of Mary). "Do you really love this woman more than us?" And Jesus answered, "I love you all just as I loved her" (Gospel of Philip). And one of the top disciples Simon Peter asked to Mary Magdalene, "Sister, we know that our Savior loves you most among all women. May you kindly tell me what Jesus told you that we didn't know?"(Gospel of Mary). Thus, the new believers believed that Mary Magdalene was an apostle of the apostle.

Thus, by carefully re-examining the four gospels and the Gnostic Gospel about the life of Jesus Christ, the question arises: Why Jesus had such soft-corner and attraction to Mary Magdalene? Besides this woman, Jesus had a sweet conversation with the Samaritan woman. Just then his disciples returned and were shocked to find him talking with a woman.

But no one asked, "Why are you talking to her?" And also there was a helpless woman who had been subjected to bleeding for twelve years. She approached Jesus secretly by hiding herself in the crowd and finally touched His cloak. Surprisingly Jesus even recognized the clandestine touch only at his cloak made by the woman in the midst of a large crowd and soon her bleeding stopped.

Whatever may be the case, we learned that Jesus showed compassionate cares not only to Mary Magdalene alone but to these women too. Perhaps Jesus tried to uphold or introduced 'Women's Reservation Bills'.