It just happened recently that I was in the company of my summer holiday childhood friends in Ooty.
This childhood friend has a lovely house in the sylvan green Ooty Hills.
Her elder sister along with another friend and I travelled by road to her place.
Bharat is such a wonderful land. People are so warm hearted everywhere and as we passed through rural areas we also stopped at eating houses to have tea, coffee accompanied by speciality eats of the region.
Her elder sister along with another friend and I travelled by road to her place.
Bharat is such a wonderful land. People are so warm hearted everywhere and as we passed through rural areas we also stopped at eating houses to have tea, coffee accompanied by speciality eats of the region.
Vijayam knowing the place like the back of her hand knew where to stop for such eating breaks.
With my newly found 'freedom' of being in भारत भूमि I could wag my tongue (not tail) with one and sundry!
At one place I met two young men from Odisha employed in the south in one such tea house.
Out of curiosity I put forward a query as to which city they were coming?
One of them said Bhubaneshvar (भुवनेश्वर in chaste Samskrit). So again I just asked him as to who was Bhvaneshvar after whom this city got this name. The answer I got was so disappointing.
He told me : O no no..... This is not a person but a place.
Yes I replied and then explained that Bhvaneshvar was the name of Surya the Sun with whose energy and light this planet
enlivened.
Then at Ooty we visited the Mysore Maharaja's Fernhill Palace which has been turned into a lucrative place of hospitality.
Our hostess treated us to some fresh fruit juices that were delicious indeed but turned sour by the price I observed she paid.
There the man who was at our service was exceptionally civil and courteous. Knowing my friend by face, he was proposing different snacks to partake. So finally we ordered some hot 'pakodas' of chillies, onion and potatoes.
The platter of freshly hot pakodas arrived. Just to make light conversation, I asked the man his name. And he said Vilvam. Now this name has great significance it is sacred to Hindus for the Vilvam leaves are offered to the Great God Shiva!
Pleasantly surprised, I congratulated the man on his name. He countered my statement and said - No no Madam, it is William.
O I said with innocent candour. He continued with great pride and said he was RC.
My questioning look made him clarify this term RC. I am a Roman Catholic.
This conversion expansionist tirade against Hindus of Bharat has been going on for a very very long time.
It is still being conducted in a war-like fashion. There was a Catholic of Italian decent called Robert de Nobili who came to Goa. He used to wear the clothes worn by sanyasis. He even kept the 'kudumi'. He studied Samskrit, Telugu and Tamil. In order to covert he used inculturation methods. He called the church as Matha kovil. The Bible was Vedam and he even wore the Rudraksha mala.
Such were the tactics employed.
At one place I met two young men from Odisha employed in the south in one such tea house.
Out of curiosity I put forward a query as to which city they were coming?
One of them said Bhubaneshvar (भुवनेश्वर in chaste Samskrit). So again I just asked him as to who was Bhvaneshvar after whom this city got this name. The answer I got was so disappointing.
He told me : O no no..... This is not a person but a place.
Yes I replied and then explained that Bhvaneshvar was the name of Surya the Sun with whose energy and light this planet
enlivened.
Then at Ooty we visited the Mysore Maharaja's Fernhill Palace which has been turned into a lucrative place of hospitality.
Our hostess treated us to some fresh fruit juices that were delicious indeed but turned sour by the price I observed she paid.
There the man who was at our service was exceptionally civil and courteous. Knowing my friend by face, he was proposing different snacks to partake. So finally we ordered some hot 'pakodas' of chillies, onion and potatoes.
The platter of freshly hot pakodas arrived. Just to make light conversation, I asked the man his name. And he said Vilvam. Now this name has great significance it is sacred to Hindus for the Vilvam leaves are offered to the Great God Shiva!
Pleasantly surprised, I congratulated the man on his name. He countered my statement and said - No no Madam, it is William.
O I said with innocent candour. He continued with great pride and said he was RC.
My questioning look made him clarify this term RC. I am a Roman Catholic.
This conversion expansionist tirade against Hindus of Bharat has been going on for a very very long time.
It is still being conducted in a war-like fashion. There was a Catholic of Italian decent called Robert de Nobili who came to Goa. He used to wear the clothes worn by sanyasis. He even kept the 'kudumi'. He studied Samskrit, Telugu and Tamil. In order to covert he used inculturation methods. He called the church as Matha kovil. The Bible was Vedam and he even wore the Rudraksha mala.
Such were the tactics employed.
To my mind came the thought of telling this man as to what pit he had fallen due to the weakness of his grandfather.
Conversion causes 'Breaching of the Sacred'. Original devotion, faith and respect of the converted victim is forcibly destroyed. The victim is forced to accept alien thought and philosophy and so becomes an alienated person in the very soil of his birth.
His places of worship are far away and his mind is occupied by thinking that is not akin to his origins.
So I went up to him and told him about the ravages of conversion. It is not a pleasant subject and neither easy to deal.
The West from where conversion continues do this not out of love or compassion. It is for getting followers so as to get numbers and numbers mean power.
In their own lands hardly are people taking to 'religious' life
They 'buy' people into Christianity by giving them money. Such people are increasing by the day and are called Rice Christians.
Was it not Bishop Desmond Tutu who said:When the white man came, we had the land and they had the book.
When he left, we had the book and they our land.
It is this that happens.
Moreover, there is a more sinister game at play. The West produces high grade weapons but at the same time preaches peace. One does wonder as to why this action is in exact antipodal position of the preaching !
Weapons get them money and conversion breaks nations. And then they get the opportunity of re-building war-torn nations with the advantage of greater financial power and better re-building technology.
So it is a win-win situation for them despite being the villains of this perennial on-going drama.
Mr. William nodded his head and heard me out solemnly and seriously. I do hope he understood what really caused him to become Mr. William whereas he could have remained Shri Vilvam in this beautiful land of Bharatavarsham!
And so beware of these 'do-good' conversion organisations!
Saying this I folded my palms in Namaste and he followed suit in the manner, I do fervently hope, of an awakened Shri Vilvam!
Conversion causes 'Breaching of the Sacred'. Original devotion, faith and respect of the converted victim is forcibly destroyed. The victim is forced to accept alien thought and philosophy and so becomes an alienated person in the very soil of his birth.
His places of worship are far away and his mind is occupied by thinking that is not akin to his origins.
So I went up to him and told him about the ravages of conversion. It is not a pleasant subject and neither easy to deal.
The West from where conversion continues do this not out of love or compassion. It is for getting followers so as to get numbers and numbers mean power.
In their own lands hardly are people taking to 'religious' life
They 'buy' people into Christianity by giving them money. Such people are increasing by the day and are called Rice Christians.
Was it not Bishop Desmond Tutu who said:When the white man came, we had the land and they had the book.
When he left, we had the book and they our land.
It is this that happens.
Moreover, there is a more sinister game at play. The West produces high grade weapons but at the same time preaches peace. One does wonder as to why this action is in exact antipodal position of the preaching !
Weapons get them money and conversion breaks nations. And then they get the opportunity of re-building war-torn nations with the advantage of greater financial power and better re-building technology.
So it is a win-win situation for them despite being the villains of this perennial on-going drama.
Mr. William nodded his head and heard me out solemnly and seriously. I do hope he understood what really caused him to become Mr. William whereas he could have remained Shri Vilvam in this beautiful land of Bharatavarsham!
And so beware of these 'do-good' conversion organisations!
Saying this I folded my palms in Namaste and he followed suit in the manner, I do fervently hope, of an awakened Shri Vilvam!
