On 6 December, my son came back home around 8 pm after playing with friends. He had chips, juice, chocolate and two DVD’s in his hand. (Picture-1)

I was surprised. My son told me that our Hindu neighbour, a Vishnu worshipper (let’s call him Mr. H)’s son had called the kids playing in the compound of our housing society to celebrate Santa’s coming. There he was given the stuff shown in picture-1 as Santa’s gift.

I was curious. I decided to go through the DVDs myself. Of the two DVDs, one was about the conversion of a Hindu to Christianity. And the other DVD was about the life and message Jesus Christ.

Accompanied by Indian Classical Music, the movie has used Indian (Hindu) symbols, music, stories, and anecdotes wherever required. The following caption appears at the beginning of the story.

The first DVD had a movie based on the book “My Encounter with Truth” written by a certain Pandit Dharam Prakash Sharma with Dr. Babu K Varghese. The DVD begins by mentioning that it is a true story.

This is an attempt to impress upon the viewers the following ideas:

1. The movie begins by depicting a Hindu devotee who prays – “O God. Please prepare your son from this land of Pushkar so that he can be a Saakshi of Truth.
2. The movie then depicts story of the protagonist, Pandit Dharam Prakash of Pushkar, who is in search of inner peace and truth. Throughout the movie, this search or “Khoj” has been highlighted.
3. The protagonist has been depicted as a learned person, who has achieved material gains and is quite successful.
4. Repeated references are made to highlight that the protagonist was a Brahmin and yet he was finally convinced about the “real” path. The message is that a Brahmin was influenced by Christianity only because his inner search for truth was not satisfied.
5. Young Dharam Prakash, is also shown to be intrigued by questions of Life and Death and other existential questions. He asks his father to guide him, who gives him the Bhagavad Gita and asks him to search for the truth himself.
6. Later in one of the scenes, the protagonist says that he has studied Bhagavad Gita, Quran, Ramcharita Manas but his questions remain unanswered.
7. The movie subtly conveys that the protagonist is convinced that the path of Jesus is the right path, without any coercion or pressure.

8. The movie also depicts that the basic introduction about Christianity and Jesus Christ was given to young Dharam by his father and not by any outsider. So once again there was no over conversion attempt.
9. One of the important points of the movie (and perhaps the greatest reason why Dharam Prakash converted) is that the protagonist married a Christian woman. This Christian wife of Dharam Prakash has been shown to be very adaptive and tolerant, whereas there are two incidents where Dharam Prakash hits her because she was reading Bible or was discussing some issues related to Christianity.
10. The protagonist is repeatedly shown to be in touch with the “true voice,” a voice that he tries to ignore. There is a dialogue: “Then I heard a voice that said why you are running away from me?”.
11. The DVD finally ends by showing that even the old parents of Pandit Dharam Prakash Sharma finally accept Christ as their saviour.
12. The Hindu pilgrimage centre of Pushkar has been shown as a place of filth and dirt, Sadhus smoking joints etc.

The second DVD is a 2-hour long movie on Christ. It is in various languages with subtitles in different languages are provided. The movie depicts all major accounts of Christ’s life.

Briefly recounting his early life and profession, the movie also depicts Jesus’s baptism, his disciples and followers, main teachings, miracles and how he was betrayed, arrested and finally crucified. The movie ends with his Resurrection and final message.

The movie is quite a professional effort and has obtained proper censor board certification. Other details of the movie and DVD are as follows:

I was quite alarmed. I asked my son to narrate the whole incident.

He said H’s son who is 9 years old and is in class V, called all his friends to collect Santa’s gift. Around 10 kids, roughly in the age group of 8-12, (my son is 11, and is in class VII) landed up at H’s place. Children were first asked whether they knew about Christmas. Then in a subtle manner, they were told about the “saviour”. There they were made to sing carols and then they were given the Santa’s gift.

The following facts emerge from this incident which should send alarm bells ringing:

1. Innocent children who are at an impressionable age were targeted.
2. The timing was such that the children would not be called from their homes but would be there in a playground; this would facilitate their assembly without informing their parents.
3. The movie is based on the book “My Encounter With Truth”, a name which sounds similar to Mahatma Gandhi’s book “My Experiments With Truth” which every kid is aware of and can easily confuse that the said film is based on Mahatma Gandhi’s book.
4. The DVD cover mentions Dharam Prakash as a freedom fighter. Though the movie depicts his father as a freedom fighter, there is no mention of any major activity or participation of Dharam Prakash in the freedom movement. In fact, as per the movie itself, the protagonist was quite young during that period.

The next day when I confronted my neighbour, he expressed helplessness and said he was caught unawares. He said he has a relative married to a Christian. They came to his house along with a group of 5-6 Christian friends, and said they wanted to celebrate Santa’s coming. And the rest is history.

My housing society houses affluent families in Navi Mumbai. When such activities can be carried out here, one can only imagine the activities carried out elsewhere across the country.

We read about the deadly ISIS, which is certainly a grave danger for humanity but at least it is right there in front of us. However, what just happened in my housing society is what we have to guard against—it is subtle treachery.

With Christianity all but wiped out in the West, conversions have reached their peak in India. No avenue is spared by missionaries to convert Hindus, which makes it urgent for Hindus to always be alert and on guard.

This was sent by Dharma Prahari from Mumbai who tweets at https://twitter.com/Sab_mile_Hue.

IndiaFacts Staff

IndiaFacts Staff articles, reports and guest pieces