Conversion-Reconversion, Christian Conspiracy and Swami Vivekananda.

Ghar Wapsi (Reconversion) trail; the view of Swami Vivekananda for Conversion and his staunch words to the Christian Missionaries.

~ Upananda Brahmachari.

Swami Vivekananda not only initiated her most devout disciple Nivedita in Vedanta doctrine, he converted Margaret from Christianity to Hinduism also.

The reconversion issue in India made a hue and cry not only in this land, but it ranted the major portions of the world as engineered by the media. The dangerous secular force and the communal Christian missionaries are lauded over the issue for their gain.

On the contrary, the rightist Hindu organisations go forward to their aim to crush down the culpable Semitic conspiracy to convert Hindu populace with the help of huge foreign money.

Dr Pravin Togadia, the International President of VHP clearly opines that if conversion is not stopped by making sufficient strong law, the reconversion process will also continue with greater endeavour.

But, when RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat or Dr Togadia say something favorably or reconversion, instantly those are branded as communal by the secular. Even sometimes BJP is also expresses its view unfavorably against reconversion under the halt of situation. But, ‘suddhi’ (purification) or ‘gharwapsi’ (home coming), in a word- reconversion, was not introduced by any of RSS, VHP or BJP.

First Gharwapi (home coming) was done by Jagadguru Ramanandacharya before 700 years and 25,000 Muslims were reconverted to Hindu at Ayodhya when there was no RSS and VHP. Another mass home coming of 3 lakh Hindus was done by Swami Shraddhanand in 1920 under Arya Samaj’s Suddhi movement for that he was killed by a Muslim goon came from Lahore. History said that Vidyaranya Swami reconverted Harihar and Bukku who made a mighty Vijaynagar Empire. Sri Chaitanyadev also reconverted many Muslims in his Bhakti movement including Rupa, Sanatana and Haridas Goswami.

After Swami Dayananda Saraswati (1824 – 1883), the founder of Arya Samaj, Swami Vivekananda (1863 – 1902) also unequivocally granted the vision of reconversion as an important measure to protect the numerical strength of Hindus including the emancipation for Human kind in the right path of Sanatana Vedic Hindu Dharma.

Sister Nivedita was the most eminent disciple converted by Swami Vivekananda himself and Swamiji had a great concern about the loosing numbers of Hindus under Islamic brutality and Christian conversion conspiracy.

In the very ‘Rules and Regulations of the Ramakrishna Math Belur, 1898’, Swami Vivekanada wrote, “When the Muslims first came to India, there were according their historical records, sixty crores of Hindus in India. This calculation suffers rather form underestimation than exaggeration; or lots o perished solely through the persecution of Muslims. Therefore, it is obvious that the number o Hindus was even more than sixty crores – on no account less than that. But today the same Hindus have dwindled into 20 crores. Over and above that, with the ascendancy o the Christian powers, about two crores of people have become Christians and more that one lakh of people are becoming Christians every year. It is specially or the preservation o Hindu race and religion that Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, the embodiment of mercy, has incarnated himself.” (Para 1 of the Part – PLAN OF WORK FOR INDIA in the Belur Math or RK Mission Constitution written by Swami Vivekananda himself.)

Not only that much, Swamiji directly instructed to convert the followers of other religions into Hindu Dharma by saying ”Great efforts should be made to bring even Muslims and Christians into the Hindu fold.” (Para 20 ibid).

As a matter of fact Swami Vivekananda challenged the menaces of crooked Christian missionaries in their land in the very World Religion Conference in Chicago in 1893.

In his lecture delivered on 20 September 1893 on the topic ‘Religion Not the Crying Need of India’, Swamiji cleared his vision towards Christian Missionaries without any ambiguity.

“Christianity must always be ready for good criticism, and I think that you will hardly mind if I make a little criticism. Christian brethren of America, you are so fond of sending out missionaries to save the souls of heathens. I ask you: what have you done and are doing to save their bodies from starvation? In India, there are 300 million men and women living on an average of a little more than 50 cents a month. I have seen them living for years upon wild flowers. During the terrible famines, thousands died from hunger but the missionaries did nothing. They come and offer life but only on condition that the Hindus become Christians, abandoning the faith of their fathers and forefathers. Is it right? There are hundreds of asylums, but if the Muslims or the Hindus go there, they are kicked out. There are thousands of asylums erected by Hindus where anybody is received. There are hundreds of churches that have been erected with the assistance of the Hindus, but no Hindu temples for which a Christian has given a penny.

Brethren of America, you erect churches all through India, but the crying evil in the East is not religion. They have religion enough, but it is bread that the suffering millions of burning India cry out for with parched throats. What they want is bread, but they are given a stone. It is an insult to a starving people to offer them religion; it is an insult to a starving man to teach him metaphysics. Therefore, if you wish to illustrate the meaning of “brotherhood,” treat the Hindus more kindly, even though they are Hindus and are faithful to their religion. Send missionaries to them to teach them how better to earn a piece of bread and not to teach them metaphysical nonsense.

[At this point, Swami Vivekananda said that he was not feeling too well that day and so wished to be excused. But, we read in the newspaper report, “there were thunders of applause and cries of ‘Go on,’” so Vivekananda continued:]

The earlier speaker said something about the miserable and ignorant priests in China. The same may be said of the priests in India. I am one of those monks who have been described as beggarly. That is the pride of my life. I am proud in that sense to be Christ-like. I eat what I have today and think not of tomorrow. “Behold the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin.” The Hindu carries that out literally. Many gentlemen present in Chicago sitting on this platform can testify that for the last twelve years I never knew whence my next meal would come. I am proud to be a beggar for the sake of the Lord. The idea in the East is that to preach or teach anything for the sake of money is low and vulgar, but to teach the name of the Lord for pay is such degradation as would cause the priest to lose caste and be spat upon.

Writer can be reached at: upananda.br@gmail.com

There is one suggestion in the earlier speaker’s paper that is true: If the priests of China and India were organized, there is an enormous amount of potential energy that could be used for regeneration of society and humanity. I endeavored to organize it in India but failed for lack of money. It may be I shall get the help I want in America.

I came here to seek help for my impoverished people and I fully realized how difficult it was to get help for heathens from Christians in a Christian land. I have heard so much of this land of freedom, of liberty and freedom of thought, that I am not discouraged. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen.” (Swamiji’s Addresses at the Parliament of Religion, Chicago as produced in the site of Belur Math).

But, the politicos and media in India much rely upon the dictum of Vatican and the Al Rabita than the ideology and instructions of Swami Vivekananda.

It is fortunate that the Hindu organisations, the Hindu Saints and most of the common people are believing in the message off Swami Vivekananda who told us categorically, “For whoever goes out of the Hindu Religion, is not only lost to us, but also we have in him one more enemy.”

Hence, every devout Hindu find ‘Reconversion’ as an essential duty to do. But, “Conversion” as a legitimate right to live. Yes, Swamiji told us, Expansion is life and contraction is death. We do want to live with our might and right.

Courtesy: Links used above.

7 comments on “Conversion-Reconversion, Christian Conspiracy and Swami Vivekananda.”

Lambda Scorpio
January 27, 2015

Hindus should unitedly force all for an Anti-conversion law and a complete ban on cow slaughter at the National Level.

LikeLike

Reply
Thillay Naidoo
February 2, 2015

One of the greatest curses that Hindus have to endure is the notion that “all religions lead to the same goal”. It is a statement that has no meaning and can never be true. Hindus have the task of bringing Bhagavan Sri Krishna’s message in the Bhagavad Gita to the world and more especially to the people of Bharat. If Hindus understood the Gita more intelligently there would be no place for foreign religions in India. We should ask Christians and especially Muslims precisely what gives them the right to bring their foreign religions to India. Their religions are an embarrassment because they are the cause of the cultural conflict that India is plagued with. If these people had any cultural values at all they would hasten their reconversion to Hinduism and leave the people of India free to pursue their cultural goals in peace.

LikeLike

Reply
- Orthobro
  December 10, 2021
  
  If a man cures someone of a deadly disease, does anyone ask “what right did that man have to cure that person?”. How much less should we be asking this when a person is cleansed of a disease which puts their eternal soul at risk.
  
  You may be left alone to worship cows here on earth, but you will not have peace. There is only one lasting peace and that is the peace of salvation. God desires for you to have that peace, but you must worship the creator rather than creatures.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
Alex
February 14, 2018

@ naidoo firstly bhagvad gita or veda came to india through aryans. Dravidians never use to worship north indian gods. Using the same logic our own faith is new to india. Foreign religions flourished in india because of social injustice again lower caste from last 5000 years in india. Most of our ancestors are converts but we never want to be hindus again . THe concept of god is not clear t all it looks more of myth . There is no clear explicit version of creator rather than myths and stories .

LikeLike

Reply
- Gurujepalli Kamsala Ramana tha Char
  May 12, 2018
  
  No doubt, the higher castes degraded the lower castes i.e. SC/ST. Taking advantage of this the other religions converted Hindus to their religions either by force or giving some favours. Some tribes who were converted to other religions again reconverted to Hinduism. In those days people were not dared to fight for their rights. Now to save Hinduism all the converted must be educated through counselling.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
- Orthobro
  December 10, 2021
  
  Exactly, the caste system has been inspiring famine, poverty, racial hatred and subjugation for thousands of years. Swami and other demagogue’s attempts to blame all of this poverty on Christian missionaries, or colonialism for that matter, is nothing but a hollow rhetorical device. Like Lenin and the Bolsheviks political demagogues always manage to exploit the suffering of their own people for their own worldly fleshly goals and inevitably make the problem worse. Look at India today, you have Muslims and Hindus embroiled in a civil war trying to ethnically cleanse one and other from the land. Who in their right mind could look at this and claim that the message of Christ, a message of repentance, forgiveness, and loving one’s neighbour is a harm and a threat to the stabilities of such a Nation?
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
Orthobro
December 10, 2021

Notice how the comments made by Swami don’t deal with Christian theology, nor does he lay out his own theology or worldview and any logical arguments by which his audience may discern whom has the true God.

Like all demagogues he cynically abuses the struggles of his own people and tries to enflame racial and national tensions as a tool to advance his own goals and set himself up to be the salvation of the world, no different than what Lenin and the Bolsheviks did in Russia. And the author of this hagiography is keen to go along with these tactics and makes sure to allude to supposed “Semitic conspiracies”.

Curious how such self proclaimed enlightened people, seem to be so obsessed with fleshly and earthly goals, entirely preoccupied with GDP, Nationalism, fighting race wars, and preserving ethnic boundaries. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with wanting to preserve one’s own culture and people, and I hope the Indians living in England will acknowledge and afford the White Anglo Saxon people this same right. However listening to Swami, one cannot help but wonder whether his whole cult is just a thinly veiled excuse for his political ambitions. Indeed it was Swami himself who said that his ultimate desire was that India would conquer the world and that no Indian should rest until Indian world domination was achieved.

But are these the concerns of a Holy man? One who fancies himself a Monk? Or heaven forbid: a Saint?

One cannot help but wonder why a spiritually enlightened person, empowered by God, would have to rely on such rhetorical devices and dishonest propaganda tactics for the purposes of evangelism? Perhaps it’s because Swami himself knew he didn’t have sufficient logical arguments and evidence to argue for his own confused pagan epistemology. Which would explain why he didn’t want to deal with “metaphysical nonsense”.

I do agree with Swami, that the Protestant missionaries and Catholic missionaries weren’t doing their jobs correctly. Though we never heard about all of the Orthodox Missionaries in India. We never heard from Swami about St. John’s spreading of the gospel to India, and the miracles he wrought in your land for all to see.

The Orthodox Church being the ancient Patristic 1st century Christian faith, let us not point to low quality Protestant and Catholic missionaries as the gold standard of Christianity. Let’s instead compare the political tirades and demagoguery of Swami to the writings of great Christian saints and ascetics such as St. Anthony the great, St. Ephraim the Syrian, St. Isaac the Syrian, St. John of Damascus etc..

Unfortunately many who are caught up in the vague confused mess of Hinduism haven’t taken the time to try to understand the Christian theology they are trying desperately to fend off. If they did, then I am sure that many whom have ears to hear and eyes to see will be shocked to realize the hollowness and lack of spirituality of the gurus and spiritual teachers they follow. Indeed they will find their whole mythology about a pantheon of warring gods, and goddesses, and heavenly beasts, whom somehow managed to create an orderly universe governed by precise laws, mathematics, and metaphysics despite all being at war with one and other, to be lacking. Which is of course why Swami was so fearful of missionaries. As even the Muhammadan Tawhid makes more sense than such confusion and blatant myth making.

LikeLike

Reply