RE: "harvest of faith"
From the Bhakti List Archives
• November 11, 1999
Dear Sir, I appreciate the spiritual view point taken by Sri Sampath here. We should not be exclusive or fanatical. At the same time, I am opposed to conversions to Christianity for the follwoing reasons : 1. There is no Christian toaday including the Pope. Bible very clearly states "Thou shall not Kill". But the Christians under the guidance of the then Pope waged crusade and even today they are killing countless animals. You cannot violate the ten commandments and say that you are a Christian. (The Arch Bishop says that Pope is not talking about conversions which is so obvious. What about "Thou shall not lie") The last Christian died on the cross. 2. In the name of social service, the Christian institutions make huge sums of money out of our resources. The foreign help is only from the point of view of investment which attracts tax benefits in those countries and helps in money laundaring. Then institutions run on our direct money and tax money. Hindu organizations dont get Government aid because the Governments dont have the backbone to support our heritage. 3. They are making religion cheap. If Pope is violating "Thou shall not kill" and Arch bishop is telling blatant lies, what kind of spiritual training do you expect from their followers. 4. They say that they are bringing equality in society. Their idea is to make brahmanas (not caste brahmanas but sattvic people) into mlecchas. Ramanujacharya made not mlecchas into not just brahmanas but vaishnavas. In the modern days, Prabhupada has made yavanas and mlecchas into vaishnavas all over the world. Ours is the most egalitarian society. 5. They are exploing economic inequalities to spread religion. This is not economically profitable in the long run and is not religion anymore. 6. In The Hindu, a backboneless newspaper in my opinion, one David makes a point that Churches have made people of Kerala and North Easter countries literate. They are spreading education. Those who are not fools know how much the Church has tried to crush scientific temper of people like Galileo. Do you think we can rely on them to build our educational infrastructure ? They will only invest in education to the extent that they can make faith harvest. 7. If you talk to born again Christians , you will see how much they decry sanatana dharma and Krishna. Or go to Ashtalakshmi temple and you will see cows slaughtered. It is our right to protect our religion. Yes, we have to preach more. But at the same time we should also counter preach. ISKCON's success is because it boldly counters popular paradigms through scientific means - technology, reason and logic. Regards Rajaram V. -----Original Message----- From: sampath kumar [SMTP:sampathkumar_2000@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 1999 1:42 PM To: bhakti@lists.best.com Subject: "harvest of faith" Dear members, Although this subject adiyen is now posting on is not directly connected to SriVaishnavism still it has some indirect relation. So adiyen is making the following inquiry to all of you just to get your general and valuable opinions: This morning adiyen read the following headlines from the "HIndu": "With his very first public statement - an entry in the Visitor's Book kept at Rajghat - on Saturday morning, Pope John Paul II set the tone for what he was to say during his short visit to India which concluded this morning. In the Visitor's Book, the 79-year-old pontiff had penned down a line from Mahatma Gandhi:``A culture cannot survive if it attempts to be exclusive.'' What he went on to say in the three speeches he was to make subsequently was primarily an elaboration of this thought on the religious front. While the Pope has primarily reiterated the established position of the Church in all his speeches, his statement, ``May the Third Christian Millennium witness a great harvest of faith on this vast and vital continent'', at the Papal High Mass on Sunday, has become a matter of debate; particularly in view of the concerns expressed by some saffron outfits vis-a-vis conversions." ___________________________ adiyen does not fully understand what the above statements mean, especially what is meant by "harvest of faith" that is hoped to be reaped in the continent. Perhaps somebody can explain. adiyen is learning that lots of religious leaders in India are very upset and are afraid of "conversions" and want to prevent it. adiyen is wondering,"What is there to be afraid of "conversions"? After all we also did "conversion" in history, didn't we? Sri.RamanujAchArya converted lot of people in 10-11th century by giving "samAshrayanam" and "pancha-samskAram" to lot of people like tribals, outcastes and under-privileged people. The Christians are only trying to do the same thing in India now. So what is wrong in it? If our religious organizations want to do it, let them, like what Emberumanar did 1000 years ago, also do "conversions". Who is stopping them?Why are they all talking as if Christians are special kind of invaders? If our religious leaders also want to "evangelise" outside India let them also go out to other countries like the Pope. Who is stopping them? Some of them are already doing it in America and Gulf countries like ISKON etc.. Why are they making such big fuss about Pope's visit and "conversion"? adiyEn can't really understand. 1000 years ago RamanujachArya was successful in "converting" millions to SriVaishnavism. Today we do not have such a great one as Ramanuja to do that. The Christians are doing better than our religious leaders, evidently. But rather than crying foul at the Christians, shouldn't we really fault our own religious heads, leaders and organisations for not being able to meet global challenge of other religions? This shows that present day religious leaders are not able to meet challenge in same successful way that our dearest Ramanuja or Sankara AchArya challenged and overcame Buddhism or Islam. Sir, adiyen is feeling that, in the ultimate analysis, the human soul too is a jungle and it is only the fittest religious ideology that will survive in it. Sir, adiyen is wanting to know what are you all thinking about this matter? dAsan, Sampathkumaran ===== __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com
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