A response to Brinda Karat - part 2 - an example of proselytization

This is in continuation with my last post where I had said I would give a personal example of how proselytizers work.

My father and I were in the Visakhapatnam beach some time last year. We were strolling when suddenly a lady walked up to us, gave us a pamphlet and walked away. I am reproducing half of this pamphlet here. There were some scanning issues with the other half. I have attached the screenshots of the original Telugu pamphlet.

Title - The incarnation in our Vedas

The pamphlet claims that the names which follow are part of a sahasranAmAvali. A Hindu would suppose that these nAmAs are part of the Vishnu SahasranAma. 

 

1. However the Vishnu SahasranAma is not part of any Veda as such. It is taken from the Mahabharata. So the pamphlet begins with a lie. Further against each line, sources in the Bible are given which means an originally Greek document has now been translated into Sanskrit! Further there is no concept of the many names of God anywhere in Christianity or in Abrahamic religions. Please correct me if I am wrong.

2. Also to the best of my limited knowledge at least some of the lines are grammatically trash (though an average layman may think otherwise).

3. There is obviously no Om in Christianity. I understand that "the Word" or "Amen" is a Christian equivalent. 

4. The names mentioned - daridranArAyana, brahmaputra, kanyasuta,umArtha, vidhirSTa, ajamuga, michchasoola arudAru, panchaga, phrim proom(?!), dakSina mAtra

5. What follows is too lengthy to type, but sounds like utter nonsense.

6. What follows seem to be either real or fake slokas from Hindu holy books which have been given a Christian twist.

7. But the highlight? It claims that the God mentioned in the gAyatri mantra is the same as that mentioned in the Bible! The translation given of the mantra is nonsense.

A response to Brinda Karat - part 1

This is in response to this article by Brinda Karat in the NDTV website. In the interest of brevity I am putting this post in two parts. The second part is definitely, in my opinion more interesting.

 

At the outset let me declare that I have no issue with any religion as long as it does not interfere with mine. Let each person worship God the way s/he wants. In principle and personally, I am against conversions of any kind - voluntary, forced and more importantly in today's India, induced - and to any religion. Conversion means the converted has lost faith in "his" religion or God. Today, when PK is the flavour of the day, this is all the more abnormal. The Indian saying goes, eko sat, vipraah bahudhaa vadanti - the truth is one, the learned call it by many names. However every person has the freedom to worship God the way he wants. Krishna says in the Gita

yo yo yaam yaam tanum bhaktah shradhdhayaarchitumichchati

tasya tasyaachalaam sradhdhaamtaameva vidadhaamyaham

 

यो  यो याम याम तनुम्  भक्तः श्रद्धयार्चितुमिच्छति 

तस्य तस्याचलाम् श्रध्द्धाम् तामेव विदधाम्यहम्

 

Paraphrasing, however one wishes to worship I make that path steady.

 

Also as Vivekananda said a Hindu does not ask anyone to convert. If that were the case the Jews and Parsis who came to India and took refuge would either have become Hindus or would have been wiped out by now.

This is how Hinduism works.

As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire. Today the aspect which is creating headlines is the smoke - "reconversion" to Hinduism. While this is certainly illegal and deplorable if forced, nobody seems to be talking about the fire behind the smoke - forced and induced conversions, especially to Christianity. Via twitter, Gul Panag and Amrita Bhinder I found this article which highlights the issue well.

We have people like Rajiv Malhotra who are highlighting the activities of proselytizers in their works. Refer to this article in the Times of India. Creation of stotras glorifying Jesus and putting up dhwajastambhas in front of church are ways of "acclimatizing" people to Christianity before striking the final blow and converting them completely to Christianity, when all such pretenses are dropped.

I can personally attest to a few of these practices, the most blatant of which I have reserved for the next part:

1. I have seen major churches in Chennai where there is a prominent pillar in front of the church which resembles a Hindu dhwaja except that it has a cross on top of it - San Thome, St. Thomas Mount for example.

2. The church is referred to as a koil which is the Tamil word for temple.

3. I was in Rajamundry recently for my grandmother's final rites. On the ghats along the Godavari there are painted signs which talk about traita siddhaanta bhagavad geeta. Though it sounds like the Bhagavad Gita this is actually referring to the Gospels and Bible of Christianity. The term actually talks about the concept of the Christian Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

4. Spreading canards about Hinduism - Refer to this Wikipedia post on Thomas, the apostle of Jesus Christ.

In my next post I will share a personal experience along with some translations, as I can manage.