Z. Lohe
On 24.2.2016, the esteemed local paper Eastern Mirror published a PTI news item on the book written by Ganesh Savarkar, the elder brother of VD Savarkar, the Hindutva/RSS ideologue. The writer Ganesh Savarkar, according to the brief published article, claims that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of the Most High God, had ‘real name’ as ‘Keshao Krishna’ and ‘died in Kashmir’. The crucified Christ Jesus was ‘rescued’ and ‘revived’ ‘with medicinal plants and herbs from the Himalayas’ by the ‘people from the Essene cult’, the writer claims.
The book Christ Parichay also claims that ‘Jesus was a Vishwakarma Brahmin by birth’. The book also claims that ‘the present day Palestinian and Arab territories were Hindu land and that Christ travelled to India where he learnt yoga’. ‘Tamil was His mother tongue and His complexion was dark’, it claims. The writer claims that ‘Christianity initially was a Hindu cult’.Reacting to the book, Father Warner D Souza said that ‘such books will not shake the faith of Christians’. True, who the hell a Christian will be swayed by such highest degree of figment of imaginations. The whole claims of the RSS ideologue Ganesh Savarkar are nothing but lies and falsehood of grotesque in nature. I vehemently condemn all the claims and the total intrigued distortions.
It is not the sole task of the theologians to give reaction to such attacks on Christian faith, but I am (how nominal am I) too responsible to face the attackers as it deems fit. For the sake of those who can be swayed by the white distortions, let me enlighten them briefly with facts based on Bible. It is all about God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit: The Holy Trinity, they are three but One, the Jehovah, the Creator of the Universe. Secondly, it is all about the merciful Father God who had the graceful design to save humanity from everlasting destruction through His only Son Jesus Christ.
This quote from Bible is the apt clarification to part of distortions. In the New Testament, John 3:16-20. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has into the world, but men loved darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”(NIV) These are the words of Jesus Christ preached to mankind.
Never as claimed by RSS writer, but the prophets predicted the advent of Jesus Christ, the Saviour and his crucifixion and miraculous resurrection hundreds of years in advance. For the sins of mankind, Jesus had to be crucified on the cross and buried. As predicted by prophets and Jesus himself during his ministry, He rose from the dead on the third day of His burial for the salvation of mankind. God Jehovah is a God of miracles. The Son of God Jesus Christ with all authority and power healed sicknesses, raised the dead to life, cast out demons from the afflicted without plants and herbs but with merciful grace alone. The marvellous messages of good news of everlasting life, the role model and the precedents of righteous living set by Jesus Christ according to the perfect will of God were matchless and will ever remain so. Therefore, nothing can be more preposterous and absurd than to have such mythical obsession as though Jesus was ‘rescued’ and ‘revived’ by human with herbs.
Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as the Saviour and Lord do worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Great Jehovah who is the Creator. Literally speaking Jehovah is the artist. Those who refuse to believe Jesus Christ, the Saviour do worship the arts, the handiworks of the artist. This is the difference between the Christianity and other faiths including Hinduism. The Hindus believe and worship the creations and not the Creator. In other words, Hindus do not know the Artist except the art works created by the Artist. The Christians do not believe and worship the mythology and human obsessions. The Christians believe Jesus Christ who is the eternal reality whereas the Hindus believe and live by the myth. The Christians worship God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity Who created the cow whereas the Hindus worship the cow. Whose God is greater, the Creator or his creations?
In similar fashion, Prof. Y. Sudershan Rao, Chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research has claimed that ‘Indians were flying aeroplanes....may even have been using cosmic weapons 5000 years ago’.
Rao went to the extent that ‘Hindu epics are adequate to understand the ancient world, rather than relying on evidence or research’.
Incredible! By this, India should have been leading the world in science and technology in place of USA, Japan, Russia, France, Israel, etc. In October 2014, to a gathering of Doctors, PM Narenda Modi claimed that ‘the Hindu god Ganesh’s head was evidence of ancient plastic surgery. A warrior (in) the Mahabharata describes as born outside his mother’s womb was a test tube baby’ Modi said. Adding to the fuel, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said ‘the famous scientist Heisenberg’s theory of uncertainty was based on Vedas’. The most advanced nations spent time, energy and money on discoveries and inventions in all the fields for the sake of humanity. Whereas, the
BJP leaders and cohorts with fanaticism tried to undermine the unrivalled efforts on genuine inventions in order to impose the superiority of Hindu mythology on the gullible mass is nothing but ludicrous. Such assertions make India cheap in the eye of the learned.
In the light of above, and in my confidence, there is no relationship between Hinduism and Christian faith. Therefore, what Ganesh Savarkar wrote that ‘Christianity was initially a Hindu cult’ is 100% unfounded, false and a white lie. Truth and Falsehood have no relationship and so Christianity and Hinduism.
In conclusion, because of the incessant pernicious attacks on other faiths and minorities by BJP and cohorts, the former Indian Navy Chief Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas had to write an open letter to both the President of India and the Prime Minister of India. Quote: “The Hinduism I knew and experienced was gentle, inclusive and filled with extraordinary diversity. Today, as a veteran in my eighties, I am forced to hang my head in shame.” Unquote. The two sentences of the octogenarian are enough to show how BJP is treating India. The country talks about threat from Pakistan, but how about similar potent threat to India by Hindu fundamentalists?
