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Hindu Christian Dialogue in Mumbai – another pointless exercise

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Several Catholic Church and Christian websites are reporting about a dialogue between Catholics and Hindus in Mumbai on June 12, 2009. Some of the Holy Men and Saints who will be representing the Hindus include Kanchi Sankaracharya Swami Jayendra Saraswati and Sri Sri Ravisankar, Swami Vageeshananda (Ramakrishna Mission) and Dadi Janakiji (Prajapati Brahma Kumaris). The list provided by official Catholic websites also includes the name of Swami Chidananda Saraswati (who is mentioned as president, Divine Life Society, Uttaranchal. But Swami Chidanandaji attained Mahasamadhi (passed away) in August 2008.

Majority of the Christians in India and Hindus have no problem and they respect each others faith. The problem is for a minority in both the communities – who are the self-proclaimed agents and defenders of the respective religions.

A minority in Christian community in India still dreams of converting India into a Christian country. A minority in Hindu community opposes this overzealous move of a few Christians using violence. And this is the reason for Hindu-Christian conflict in India.

So the conflict is between Christian Missionaries and defenders of Hindu faith. Unfortunately, the people who are fighting out in the streets are missing from the Hindu Christian dialogue in Mumbai.

Catholic Church in India has no control over the Christian fundamentalists in India, which includes New Age Christian Churches, some overzealous and cunning Christian priests, faith healers and those who do business of Christian faith (get funds in the name of Christianity using poor Hindus as a pretext). Similarly, those who are representing Hindus have no control over those Hindus who go about defending Hindu faith using violence.

It is not the Hindus who are creating trouble for Catholics in India but the mushrooming New Age Churches.

Catholic Church in India is under attack from the New Age Christian Churches, which includes thousands of groups – whose main focus is on getting money from United States and Europe in name of running a Church. This was recently openly accepted in a pastoral letter by a Bishop in Kerala.

There are several New Age Church millionaires in India who have become rich by helping poor Hindus in India.

Interestingly, the New Age Churches are not interested in poor Muslims in India and they never distribute pamphlets and plant Churches in Muslim dominated areas.

A true Christian, who has understood the teachings of Christ, will never insult Hindu Gods and Hindu symbolisms. A true follower of Sanatana Dharma will never resort to violence because for a Hindu, all paths lead to the same the Truth. And there is only one Absolute Truth.

The real problem is not respecting an individual’s freedom to choose his/her path to reach the Absolute Truth. Sadly, individuality is something which Christianity cannot digest and individuality is sin for New Age Christian churches. But Hinduism believes in Self Realization and individual freedom in the quest for Truth.

Sadly, there will be no end to this conflict. The only immediate solution for this problem is to keep money out of faith. Stop the flow of funds and majority of the religious personalities will divert their energy to new money-making methods outside religion and all conflicts will come to a halt.

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