dec 6th
well, then, what might one call jesus christ?
Russian Archbishop calls Lord Krishna \'Satan\'
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5983_1566453,00430005.htm
UK Bureau
London, December 6, 2005
Hindustan Times
Hindus are shocked and outraged to read the views of the Russian Orthodox Church on Lord Krishna, who is revered by over one billion Hindus worldwide as the Supreme Lord, said an ISCKON press statement.
According to it, in a letter to the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, dated November 29, 2005, the Archbishop Nikon of Ufa and Sterlitamak from the Russian Orthodox Church called Lord Krishna \"an evil demon, the personified power of hell opposing God\", and \"a livid lascivious youth\".
The Archbishop further requested the Mayor to ban construction of the proposed Krishna temple in Moscow saying it would otherwise become \"an idolatrous disgrace erected for the glory of wicked and malicious \'god\' Krishna\".
\"Construction of the temple (a satanic obscenity destined to be built right in the heart of the Orthodox Christian country of Russia) to Krishna offends our religious feelings and insults the thousand-year religious culture of Russia where the overwhelming majority of people, Christians and Muslims including, consider Krishna an evil demon, the personified power of hell opposing God\", said the Archbishops letter.
\"The shower of offences that Archbishop Nikon decided to publicly pour on Lord Krishna caused us intolerable pain and evoked bitterness and indignation in our hearts,\" said Sanjeet K. Jha, the president of the Association of Indians in Russia.
Aside from displaying stunning ignorance of the world\'s oldest religion, it is also evident from the statement that the Russian Orthodox Church is still embedded in the dark ages of religious exclusivity, which has no place in today\'s increasingly pluralistic society.
To call Lord Krishna \'satanic\' is not only sacrilegious in the eyes of Hindus; it is also patently ridiculous as any student of Hinduism knows; for Krishna is famous as the slayer of demons, Bhagavad-Gita (4.7-8).
In contrast to the Russian Orthodox Church\'s stance, Hindus respect Jesus Christ, who is predicted in the Vedas, the ancient Hindu scriptures, as a specifically empowered personality.
\"We respect all religions\", said Bimal Krishna das, General Secretary of the National Council of Hindu Temples (UK) and the Russian Orthodox Church has nothing to fear from Hindus. \"We think the Archbishop may gain some fresh insights into his own Christian faith by reading Krishna\'s words in the Bhagavad-Gita,\" he said.
16 comments:
This post doesnt bother me much.
I used to have a classmate in
college who tried day and night to
convert me and several others
around. He was friend too and a
really brainy physicist and
mathematician.
He started by telling us that Krishna stole butter and lied that
he didnt. A true God will not steal
and lie. I said he was baby and a
little boy when he did that, do
christians look for sins in babies
also ? Babies and small kids have a
right to be whatever they are.
Then he got into discussing the
belief system, but we were all very
very brainy too, so we had some
nice arguments and we fed him the
Upanishads. He finally came to the
conclusion the the two belief
systems are irreconcilable. We asked me to not to talk to us about
the Bible anymore and just be a
physics friend.
So this post really doesnt bother
me. I know this all first hand. Silly people who dont outgrow their
silliness.
ANYWAY - VERY IMPORTANT:
Rajeev, you have 2-3 very imporant
issues being highlighted in your
blog. One is conversion, the other
environment. I feel the latter is
far more important as of now. I
strongly feel about all environmental issues and I think it
would be a great service to the
world community if you could
maintain a separate blog for that.
Since this blog has religion mixed
up, you may not be getting enough
readers from among those who dont
care for all the religious messes.
Let's pay more attention to solar
power etc. The world needs to work
together on environment issues.
Savitha R.
Rajeev,
I find christian world view amusing.
According to them human kind is the result of original sin, that is falling from the grace of God.
Hence their need to be redeemed by Messiah.
They can not understand how reincarnations are a way to explore divinity in mortals.
That is why a good hindu will look beyond forms, whereas a good christian will waste time in justifying bible.
Ofcourse I dont have any problem as long as they do it in their churches, but when likes of PAt Robertson solemnly declare that India is a nation of satan, it pisses me off.
And to top that their assertion that India is poor because of hinduism.
Right ! All the christian counteries in Africa and Latin America are stinking rich. Give me a break !
I think the word is chutzpah (hebrew me thinks)
Regards
PS. Regarding languague post, I will reply after I have read and understood what you posted :-)
Really getting tired of this relentless
Krishnar and Ramar bashing! Guess there are many more shishupaalans and hiranyakashipus around, for our Lord's Sport!
All told, I still have to say that
this friend had very honorable intentions. He talked to us (his
classmates)out of genuine concern.
He truly believed we would end up
in hell otherwise. He was trying to
help us go to God in the only way
he knew.
Other than that, he was a
generally nice and kind and helpful person.
Paradoxically, how nice and kind a
person often has very little to
do with his/her religious beliefs
and affiliations.
To add to Savitha's comment,
I came across this interesting anecdote(internet) which took place in a school.
A christian teacher made his usual disdainful remarks about Hinduism and said:-
"Your Hanuman must have crossed a small puddle and you claim He crossed the ocean ".
A backbencher(I always maintain, backbenchers are the truly 'liberated and blessed') retorted:-
"Your Christ must have splashed about in a bucket filled with little water,and you claim He walked on water"!!
Anonymous,
"The road to hell is paved with good (sic)intentions".
Oops, that wasnt any Anonymous,
that was from me Savitha, I
skipped the signature step quite
by mistake. So here goes again:
-------------------------------
All told, I still have to say that
this friend had very honorable intentions. He talked to us (his
classmates)out of genuine concern.
He truly believed we would end up
in hell otherwise. He was trying to
help us go to God in the only way
he knew.
Other than that, he was a
generally nice and kind and helpful person.
Paradoxically, how nice and kind a
person often has very little to
do with his/her religious beliefs
and affiliations.
Savitha R.
It's interesting how an alleged demon respects vegetarianism and shuns intoxication.
This is in contrast to the great white gods, who promote animal slaughter, flesh eating, and alcohol consumption.
This statement of bishop of Moscow breaks the myth that there are 'some' good denominations of christianity which are different from the usual proselytising branches of church, like how you recently pointed out abt catholics not converting etc. and how some say that Indian christian churches like syrian or malabar churches do not convert etc. All churches are same, they share same dislike for hinduism, they unite together when issues regarding christianity come, like asking for reservation or sobbing before media abt 'atrocities' being performed upon them, like how shias and sunnis are... they kill and fight among themselves, but when it come to attacking Hinduism or talking abt their faith, they all unite...
there are 2 things here...
there are no good christist branch and usual bad christist branch
Hindus need to unite and re-assert themselves.
We respect others religions (christians too) and respect their right to worship, but we oppose their dirty converting activities and their opposition to our religions and demeaning our Gods...
Gee, Sameer, you wont miss the opportunity to generalize all Christian denominations, huh? Dark Storm and I spent some time on this, so I wont go any further but I was curious whether anyone would mention the part (in yesterday's posts about certain denominations of Christianity not really interested or having an agenda to convert) or whether it would be carefully avoided.
I could give you examples to prove this (that some denominations dont have a conversion agenda) but I am not sure this would be received well, hence will stop here.
This R Orthodox clergyman calling Krishna satan is deplorable to say the least. I think it is ignorance which forces him to do so but that is no excuse. Also, I wonder where he was when the communists ruled Russia.
DoubtingGaurav, really looking forward to your reply/retort to Srinivasan's language post. He had written once on Hindu, Urdu and Sanskrit in a rediff column too. That was probbaly the only column of his which had me nodding in complete agreement.
To add one more point, Catholics are lying when they say that they dont proselytize. The Portuguese and Spanish are a fine example to prove that. And the Pope's (current and past) missions also prove otherwise.
Finally, this is not to find fault with ISKCON, but why are they setting up something in Moscow?
Kalyani, I know your mother tongue is Tamizh, why do you call Rama and Krishna as Ramar and Krishnar? Forgive my ignorance but has it got something to with you being from Tamil Nadu?
Toney,
It is more of a matter of preference,
I prefer or rather feel comfortable with crispness of Hindi, Rajeev doesn't.
I do not like to end my words with vowels, Rajeev doesnt like to end it with consonants.
Methinks Sanskrit, Kannada , Malyalam and Tamil have a natural flourish for poetry and verses.
(Here I must clarify that I do not understand any of the above I speak only from listening Tamil songs)
But I prefer proses/essays in Hindi/Urdu
It is just because of differences of mother tongue.
Regards
Toney Yes There are denominations who do not proselytise.
Let me add further, I have christian friends and they are not at all interested in converting.
However I feel annoyed with people who encroach upon my privacy trying to save me from damnation because I chose to worship Rama or Krishna.
This in my view belongs to middle ages and is more suitable to market washing detergent.
Regards
Yes, Toney.
Sameer,
Churchianity (of any denomination) and islam are but predacious cultures and imperialistic tendencies,parading in the name of religion.
Jesus Christ did not ask anyone to 'convert'; all these were added by vested interests.When Sri Adi Shankarar Incarnated Himself, there were 72 or 74 useless creeds.Does anyone know their names now? Likewise these too would perish.Nostradamus, too, has written much about the triumph of Hinduism but the westerners
deliberately suppress it.
YSR the enemy within....
http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=NEWS&id=1133826214
Hindus honor Jesus and Muhammed. But Christians and Muslim never honor Hindu gods. Hindus honor Islam and Christianity, but they will never honor Hinduism. So, the best way is for Hindus to stop honoring these narrow-minded religions and their prophets. I don't say Hindus have to hate others. I am saying that we only see people as people, not as Muslims and Christians. Never encourage them in religious matters. Jesus or Muhammed are not predicted in Hindu scriptures. It is impossible simply because there is nothing like 'Prophecy' in this world. Hinduism is a great tradition made by Human beings like you and me. It allows us to approach God whatever ways we like. Of course there are many errors in Hindu system, but remember " To err is human". All cultures and religions are made by human beings, not God or any supernatural being. So there are errors and mistakes in every religion.
The strength of Hinduism is its ability to adapt to the changing circumstances. It kept its 'tradition of change' unchanged.
Jesus was influenced by Buddhism, Muhammed was influenced by Christianity and Judaism. They were not 'sent' by God.
What Jesus said actually is not known. All about Christianity were created after Jesus' lifetime. There is nothing spiritual in Quran. You will understand if you read it.
So we, Hindus need not bother about other's believes.Just don't encourage Muslims and Christians by saying about the 'Glory' of Muhammed and Jesus.
As having spent time with most religions that have been available to me in within this local area and having associated with people from many cultures I can say that Hinduism has the deepest and most complex forms of worship available to humankind, coming from how I view and feel things. I still have not found anything higher than bowing to Ram's feet, and this is coming from a white guy (whatever that means). I think it could be due to a lack of intelligence and maybe this pastor could research more into Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam and actually know something that he talks about, rather than going on conjecture.
Anyway, It says in most religions to give them up and just be with God. Atman or anatman it really does not matter in the overall flow of things. Christ or Krishna, whatever, you do good things then good things come to you, worship what you want and let others worship what they like.
I aint looking for much, I already know that Krishna is god. I know this. I also know that Christ knew Krishna. And if religion causes further wars that are not sanctioned by the real Lord, then they can count me out.
I wonder what an Eskimo thinks of all this. Or a person who has not been subjected to religious overtones.
Anyway, I ramble. God bless.
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