From: "sanjeev nayyar" Mailing-List: list vediculture@yahoogroups.com Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 19:07:49 +0530 Subject: [world-vedic] 120 missionaries to hyd cross post Missionary Alert About 120 missionaries are on the way to Hyderabad in the next two weeks. They are part of a global mission and mainly Americans. They have raised over two hundred thousand dollars for the journey. They are obviously targeting Hyderabad and surrounding areas. Yesterday, I left work and walking towards home when two young men (in their early 20s) stopped me and asked if I knew about Jesus, the son of God. I said that they believe in the son, but I believe in God Himself! I said I was a Hindu. They said they were from a mission. They said they wanted to find out more about Hinduism and wanted to talk to me in a cafe, I knew it was going to be to try and convert me. But I also knew that I have never lost in a discussion with a follower of Christ and I saw it as an opportunity to educate them. Usually, it ends up with the follower shouting abuse when they had no answers to my questions but in this occasion it was different. This time, when they had no answer they merely changed the subject. They truly believed in converting the world and were well rehearsed in psychology needed for persuading others. I won the battle in the discussion but I had all the answers for them and the ammunition of counter-questions; I am not sure how they will fare in India. One man was a German who gave up his profession to join the mission spending essentially his own money, he was not going to India. The second man was an American who was financed by the mission along with over a hundred others, he was going to India for three months. I started by asking how many people were killed in the name of Jesus who said the earth was round (the Church maintained it was flat and killed anyone who opposed that view). I asked how many civilisations have been destroyed in the name of Christ (including the ones in South America) etc. They tried to separate Jesus's words from the Church; I said that the Church has hijacked Jesus's words, and they agreed. I asked how the Bible states the earth is 6000 years old when there are so many monuments over 10 000 years old and the Vedas are over 10 000 years old. They said that science was wrong in dating; I was surprised that all logic is discounted in these otherwise intelligent individuals. I stated that there are some teachers who teach Hinduism, Christianity and Islam as equal, they asked how could it be the same? They were not willing to consider anything beyond the confines of what they were led to believe. They said Jesus is the way, I said Jesus is one possible way amongst many other ways. I told them the story of the four blind men and the elephant, each feeling different parts (leg, tail, nose, ear) and describing the elephant as different but not knowing the whole. I said that they are like one of these blind men, looking at one part without realising the whole. I said I could not believe in eternal hell, a main belief of Christians and a means of controlling and scaring the population. I don't believe a loving and forgiving God can be vengeful enough to subscribe an everlasting hell. God will always give another chance but this was alien to the missionaries. They said anyone that does not surrender to Jesus will suffer hell. They said that there was only a small time left for people to accept Jesus, after a period it will be too late and anyone left will suffer hell. I questioned the logic of their belief, when Jesus said 'Love thy neighbour' throughout history they have not been able to practise that. One of their main attacks will be the Hindu belief in 'a million gods'. I explained that our belief is that the God is everywhere and God will appear in a form that appeals to an individual. Hinduism recognises the individuality of humans, what appeals to one person does not necessarily appeal to others. I explained there is only one God but many facets of that God and individuals pray of the facet that suits their personality. I questioned the missing thirty odd years in the life of Jesus. How could that be? They said there was a reference in the Bible about when Jesus was about 11 but accepted that there was a big blank for over thirty years and wished there was something written. I said that even though Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Scriptures were much older than the Bible, at least we had all the life evidence. They said that Jesus talks to them and they see Jesus. I said I too talk to God and have seen God. In all such talk, they asked me for examples. They said that we only have one chance. I explained Karma and Reincarnation; this was alien to them. I told them about the time when the early Christians were split into two main groups in Rome and Spain. The Romans sent an army to destroy the Spanish beliefs to take control of the religion and thus power. I explained about the change in Christian belief when Reincarnation was discarded in about the sixth century. I informed about the 200 000 or so 'witches' killed in Europe in the name of Jesus. The missionaries had no idea of their own history and were not interested in finding out more. I told them I had read the Bible but it did nothing for me. Yet just reading two chapters of the Bhagvad Gita totally transformed my life. I asked them to read the Bhagvad Gita. They were reluctant saying that they were not interested as they had found their faith. As it was getting late, we stopped the discussion. I hope the two missionaries went home thinking about our discussion but I got the feeling they were there to talk and not to listen. Every time I said something they could not respond to, they quickly changed subject and tact. I was surprised at the number going to India. This was just one mission of many missions. Most missions in the past have failed but still they keep coming and still they get huge funds to finance the missions. We need to arm people to counteract the missionaries. These people learn from their past failures and we need to get better in counteracting. We also need to learn from how they organise and teach individuals. In this game as any other, the best form of defence is attack, not to follow the missionaries identically for Hinduism is different, but to spread the Hinduism around the world by informing logically and by winning arguments. Raj