RELIGIONS OF THE
WORLD ( Page 6) |
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| I would state that all the people who worship God,
whatever the name they call Him by, form one religion even though
they follow different rites and rituals. So can’t we say that
there are not too many religions but only one? Unfortunately, no.
Today there are two religions, because people worship two Gods, they
serve two masters – the True God and the false god of mammon
or wealth. |
| When I mention wealth as false god I am not blindly
quoting some words of Jesus. My concept of the personal god is this:
“He is the one whom you serve with all your heart, mind and
soul.” From this it clearly follows that if you live and work
with the sole purpose of acquisition of wealth you are worshipping
money and not the true God. One might very well ask if it is wrong
to acquire money or to possess wealth. The answer is a clear ‘no’.
You may possess any amount of wealth as long as you are the master
of it and not its slave. Again you must be selfless in the use of
the wealth. As a faithful trustee you must use the wealth for the
good of the people under you and around you, your employees and the
poor deserving ones around you. Needless to say acquisition of wealth
by wrong means is evil in itself. |
CONVERSION OR CHANGE
OF LABEL ( Page 1) |
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| “It is enough
that man be good, whatever his religion.” Narayana Guru |
| Missionary Religions |
| Founders of some of the religions asked their followers
to go out and spread their teaching and convert people to the new
religion or new way of life. Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are
the three major missionary religions. The teachings of these masters
brought a new way of life to the regions where the word had spread.
Buddhism originated in one corner of India, spread throughout the
length and breadth of India and then through the whole of Asia. Christianity
and Islam with origins in West Asia also have spread through various
regions of the world. |
| Christianity brought the concept of one true God, the
creator of the universe, to the people who lived around the Mediterranean,
those whose religious practices were steeped in mythology, in polytheistic
customs and practices commonly described as pagan. By the end of the
first millennium A.D. all of Europe had been converted to Christianity.
While Christianity had spread from around Jordan or Galilee across
the Mediterranean to North Africa and Western Europe why was the gospel
not preached to the next-door neighbours, to the people of Arabia,
to the children of Ismail? Did not one of the twelve apostles or one
of the hundred or so other disciples go to spread the good news in
Arabia? I think that there was such an attempt and that one of the
twelve; Thomas had gone to Arabia with the intention of preaching
the gospel and converting those people to Christianity. A possible
scenario of what could have happened could be explained something
like this: It is a generally accepted fact that St. Thomas, one of
the twelve, came to India, landed in Kodungalloor on the south-east
coast and that after establishing some congregations in Kerala and
elsewhere in the south he was martyred in Chennai on the south-west
coast. The question of how and why he came all the way from Judea
to Kerala some two thousand years ago has always puzzled me, as I
am sure it has puzzled many others. And now I think that this is what
could have happened. Thomas went to Arabia and started preaching this
new rather revolutionary idea as taught by Christ. The religious and
socio-political leaders of the time found this rather harmful to their
established comfortable lifestyle. What would normally happen in such
case is assassination or martyrdom. But the Arabs didn’t go
that far. Those were the times when the Arabs were having trade with
the spice land of southeastern India by ships or boats. So they took
Thomas, put him in one such boat and ‘took him for a ride’.
This is the most likely explanation for Thomas landing in Kodungalloor.
So instead of preaching Christianity to the Arabs, as he was supposed
to do, he took it to the Hindus. |
| Conversion of Christianity: |
| Thousand years is a very long time in which so much
can happen. What happened in the case of Christianity in Europe was
that many of the teachings of Jesus were forgotten. The emphasis was
shifted from spirituality to religiosity, from the man-centred view
of Christ to a God-centred view. Whereas Christ stood for the rights
of the poor, the representatives of Christ in Europe stood for the
feudal lords and supported the exploitation of the poor by the rich.
In other words, during the first half of the second millennium Europe
successfully converted Christianity to European materialism. It was
this state of affairs that led to the splintering of the Christian
church to various denominations and groups. |
| Conversion of Colonies |
| Though Christians had forgotten most of the teachings
of Christ they held on to one idea. Every one had to be baptised and
thus ‘saved’. In South America the Spaniards plundered
and looted villages and towns for the gold and other precious stuff
abundant there. For the success of this venture it was necessary to
shoot and kill most of the inhabitants who did not have the gun. It
is said that they then baptised the remaining population and taught
them the principles of the catholic faith. The case of the rest of
the Americas and Australia was not very different. I think that the
perpetrators of this genocide considered themselves as doing a good
deed for their country and God by reducing the number of ‘heathens’
and increasing the number of ‘believers’. |
| Billy Graham, the evangelist, was once addressing a
group of American missionaries ready to depart to China. He told them,
“The greatest commandment is not to baptise the nations but
to love one another. Please remember this always.” Most missionaries
considered that their prime duty was to baptise as many non-Christians
as they could. What these missionaries achieved was a change of label
- heathen to Christian. Conversion was not in the agenda of their
missionary schedule. Conversion in the true sense implies a total
renewal, a change of attitude – turning away from the old ways
to new ways of the kingdom, ways of love and happiness. |
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