Christuva Brahmana Seva Samithy

Advent Christian Church Building at Tiruvanmiyur.See the cloth poster displaying in Tamil ‘Christuva Brahmana Seva Samithy’

Yesterday morning (Thursday, 6-8-2009) I got a phone call from some agitated senior Hindu citizens of Tiruvanmiyur. All of them were complaining about a poster put up by the Advent Christian Church at Tiruvanmiyur. The poster has been put up by ‘Christuva Brahmana Seva Samithy’, announcing that there is going to be a ‘Kathaa Kaalakshepam’ by “Poojyasri Bhagavatar Vedanaayakam Shastrikal” on 8-8-2009 (Saturday) at 5 PM at the Advent Christian Church premises. The main man behind this initiative is one Sadhu Chellappa who is endevouring to beat the conversion record of St Francis Xavier (1605-1552) in Goa and elsewhere in India in the 16th century, Robert de Nobili (1577-1656) in Madurai in the 17th century, Fr Schwartz (1726-1798) in Thanjavur District in the 18th Century and Bishop Caldwell (1814-1891) in Tirunelveli District in the 19th Century.

What angered the enlightened Hindus of Tiruvanmiyur is that the Advent Christian Church is misusing the name (and of course caste!!!) of the Brahmin community in order to use it as a ploy to mislead and deceive young Hindu men and women in general and Brahmins in particular, in order to lure them into the commercial trap of treacherous missionary Christianity.

I immediately sent a photographer to the spot to take a photograph of the poster. This photograph of the Advent Christian Church building at Tiruvanmiyur may be seen at the top of this story with the poster of ‘Christuva Brahmana Seva Samithy’ put up by Sadhu Chellappa. I also went to the spot and saw the poster outside the Advent Christian Church at Tiruvanmiyur. Later some of the Hindu citizens of Tiruvanmiyur met the concerned Inspector of Police at the Tiruvanmiyur Police Station and complained that their religious feelings, sentiments and susceptibilities had been hurt by the caste-based offending poster put up by the ‘Christuva Brahmana Seva Samithy’ guided and controlled by Sadhu Chellappa. They represented that the Advent Christian Church and the Adventist Christians have no religious right to tamper with or misuse the sacred and timeless symbols of Hinduism. It was also represented that the offending poster must be removed forthwith because it comes into conflict with Sections 153A and 295A of the IPC under which it is an offence to promote, on ground of religion, disharmony, enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious communities. IT IS UNDERSTOOD THAT THE POLICE TOOK IMMEDIATE ACTION TO GET THE OFFENDING POSTER REMOVED IMMEDIATELY. TIRUVANMIYUR POLICE HAVE EARNED THE APPRECIATION AND GRATITUDE OF THE AGITATED HINDUS OF THE AREA IN QUESTION.

According to the priests of Christianity — of all grades and shades at all levels — Christianity, unlike Hinduism, is a casteless religion. When fraudulent conversion takes place, the poorest sections of Hindu society in India — more particularly the Dalits — are taken for a ride and told that once any one becomes a Christian, there is no need for him to worry about the inferiority or superiority of his caste and that he joins the ‘Brotherhood’ of Christianity in which he will face no more caste-based oppression or social discrimination.

I CAN TESTIFY FROM MY EXPERIENCE AS DISTRICT COLLECTOR AND MAGISTRATE OF UNBIFURCATED TIRUNELVELI DISTRICT THAT THE CASTE FACTOR IS VERY RAMPANT IN ALL THE CHURCHES IN THAT DISTRICT. THERE IS A CONTINUOUS WAR BETWEEN THE NADAR CHRISTIANS AND THE DALIT CHRISTIANS, BETWEEN THE NADAR CHRISTIANS AND THE FERNANDO CHRISTIANS, BETWEEN THE NADAR CHRISTIANS AND THE VELLALA PILLAI CHRISTIANS.

Recently many Dalit Christians in Tamil Nadu, Who had converted to Christianity some years ago, have reconverted themselves into the fold of Hinduism, the religion of their forefathers. When I interviewed some of them they told me in one voice: “We have had enough of cruel and unbearable caste discrimination inside our Church. We are happy to return to Hinduism.”

Perhaps Sitaram Goel (1921-2003) had mercenaries like Sadhu Chellappa in mind when in his classic book ‘History of Hindu-Christian Encounters’ (AD 304 to 1996) he observed as follows: “Jesus Christ has been the stock-in-trade of Christian Mission down the ages. He has been packed in all shapes and sizes depending upon the gullibility of the clients to be duped. And he has been rammed down the throats of those who have refused to be hoodwinked by the hoax. As one surveys the history of Christian Missions in lands where this hoax has been hawked or imposed, one comes across no end of force and fraud employed in its service by a variety of soldiers and salesmen most of whom are presented as saints. It can be said without exaggeration that if one is in search of a hardened criminal with a clean conscience, one should reach out for the first available Christian Saint and one will not miss the mark. Saint Francis Xavier, the Patron Saint of the East according to the Roman Catholic Church, provides an excellent example.”

150 years before Sitaram Goel, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), one of the Founders of the American State and the Third President of the United States of America had come to the same conclusion about missionaries like Sadhu Chellappa today. Let us hear his eloquent words: “Millions of innocent men, women and children since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support error and roguery all over the Earth.”

Heroic defender of Hindu faith and Sanatana Dharma

According to Sri Ramgopalji, President of Hindu Munnani, Sadhu Chellappa belongs to the nefarious tradition of fraudulent Christian conversion in Tamil Nadu. He said to me: “I strongly disapprove of the caste based approach to fraudulent conversion at the Advent Christian Church, resorted to by Sadhu Chellappa through his front organisation called ‘Christuva Brahmana Seva Samithy’. I congratulate the Tiruvanmiyur Police for having taken prompt action to get the offending poster put up by this Seva Samity removed yesterday. I would appeal to the Tiruvanmiyur Police to see that the proposed fraudulent conversion meeting scheduled for 8-8-2009 (Saturday) at 5 PM is banned in the larger interest of social and religious harmony. All self-respecting and true practicing Christians — for whom I have the greatest admiration and respect — should strongly condemn the anti-Christian activities of an unscrupulous commercial evangelist like Sadhu Chellappa, whom I would like to describe as SUVISESHAM SOODHU CHELLAPPA. In my view, such unprincipled men would only damage the cause of genuine Christianity, apart from deranging and destroying the fabric of social, cultural and religious harmony of our Nation.”

Seeing the way in which Sadhu Chellappa is trying to cleverly manipulate the time honoured and ancient symbols / names of Hinduism and Sanatana Dharma, in order to meet the commercial targets of his induced evangelical programme, I am reminded of the letter that Swami Dayananda Saraswati wrote to the Indian Express about the shady activities of one Christian priest called Bede Griffiths (who wore ochre robes) who had an ‘Ashram’ in Trichy District: “Ten years ago I suggested to a Papal Nuncio that I might don a friar’s habit and preach Hinduism in the Italian countryside. I was promptly warned that I would be charged with impersonating a cleric and public mischief, as Roman Catholicism was the protected state religion and in full control of Italian education. Hinduism is neither protected nor India’s state religion and we find priests like Bede Griffiths in the garb of Hindu Sanyasis preaching Christianity in the Tamil countryside.”

Later Swami Dayananda also told Bede Griffiths: ”The sannyasin is the very embodiment of SANATAN DHARMA. The church does not recognize a priest outside of the Apostolic succession of St Peter, and we do not recognize a priest outside the Hindu parampara. In that you are a Roman Priest and a Benedictine Monk, you cannot possibly be a sannyasin; it is verily a contradiction in terms.”

Christianity, from its very inception to today, has subsumed and subverted the deities, symbols, rituals and philosophies of the peoples it wishes to conquer. This activity which is imperial and not spiritual, must cease before hostilities and mistrust will die; hostilities by the way that we Hindus never invited in the first place. Swami Dayananda warned Bede Griffiths by saying that he was trying to impugn Hinduism, slur sanyasa, rout reason, ruin meaning, mutilate categories, transpose symbols, deny sacred convention and usage, profane principles, philosophise and generally present an argument that is oxymoronic. Sadhu (Soodhu) Chellappa is trying to do the same thing at the Tiruvanmiyur Church on Saturday 8-8-2009.

I fully endorse the beautiful martial words of Sri B. R. Haran (freelance writer and journalist): “Brahmins were, are and will be always a “Prize Catch” for the Christian gangsters who indulge in conversions. For them converting even a single Brahmin is a great achievement. A converted Brahmin becomes a great asset for them, for with one Brahmin convert they would be able to easily convert a hundred non-Brahmins. Of late, the Christian missionaries have started targeting the Brahmin community, and in the last four or five years, they have been able to achieve a considerable figure. This imposter Chellappa, with the help of other play-actors like Vedanayagam, has been on the hunt for Brahmins for quite sometime. These imposters deliberately misinterpret those verses to suit their agenda and brainwash the gullible youth of the Brahmin community, who have been already ‘secularized’ by the environment prevailing around them. With this aim only, this fraud masquerading as a ‘Sadhu’, had started this bogus organization called “Christian Brahmin Seva Samiti” and utilizes the services of the other cheat Vedanayagam, who is a play-actor masquerading as a ‘Sastrigal” (Vedic Pandit). Christianity has got nothing to do with Brahmins or Sastrigals or Hindu Sastras. The Church or any other Christian organization doesn’t have the rights to use such nomenclatures. Such acts hurt the caste and religious sentiments of the Hindu majority.”

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