“Seated on the lower steps of the ghats at Varanasi (Benares) and surrounded by priests, pilgrims and devotees who gather there for the salvation of souls from rebirth, Jesus is expounding his teachings to an attentive audience. In the sense of epiphany, this scene is in the spirit of his teaching in the temple at Jerusalem and probably would be met by the same mixture of fascination, awe, worry about sacrilege, fear and anger which Jesus met in his own time and place, except that Indians love to discuss theology and have accepted that there are many ways to know God…Hindus hold that everyone seeks their own salvation, though it may be found through devotion to a specific deity. It is not often found through the teachings of a contemporary, and if it is, the teacher himself usually becomes the object of worship. In this painting, Jesus is at the centre of the discussion, if not of worship.” From Frank Wesley: Exploring Faith with a Brushby Naomi Wray