By Om das
Hare krishna,
Dear all devotees, recently I saw few videos and few links from some Islamic and Christian organizations, these sites just focused on topics after topics from Vedas and other Sanatan Dharma scriptures, quoting verses from here and there and trying to say that Sanatan Dharma scriptures are saying that Islam or Christianity is the right religion and hence people should follow them.
Now first I thought it is just some fanatic persons work and didn’t give much importance but within last few weeks I have found that these organizations make public gatherings (some time of thousands) and systematically present there point of view on Vedas and try to convert people (mainly from India).
You will be surprised to see the statistics of such organizations. There are literally hundred of thousands of educated people from India getting converted because of these websites! Also these websites become very good tool to invite people in there gatherings, so don’t we do that?
I have spoken with some of the members of this websites and only by citing writings from prabhupada I have smashed most of there arguments and then I was surprised to see how favorable he was towards Sanatan Dharma and Vaishnava philosophy.
Also these people are very inquisitive and seeker of truth so it will be good tool to reach them. I don’t have skills to create a website and if some one has then please do that. I can help them by giving them topics and questions mostly these websites ask and the quotes. Yes but to fight with such people we have to give lots of references and philosophy, I think we have all of that we just need to gather and put them at one place.
Hare krishna
Om das Prabhu:
Please offer some urls for the sites you are referring to so that we can see first hand what you are talking about. Thanks.
Your servant,
Hari-kirtana dasa
Lets all do a full invasion of the internet with Prabhupadas books and also make sure ALL of Prabhupadas books are in school libraries and suburban libraries.
This is important and should go side by side. Another idea is putting BTG magazine stands at Airports and Railway stations with a FREE vession of Back To Godhead magazine that have discount coupons for Gopals and Govinda Restaurants and the Sunday feast at the local Temple. This also could be done at Universities and colleges to spread the message of Lord Caitanya.
Also major shopping centers like West Fields will take the stands in their Suburban Centres where devotee are rarely seen, free if the it is charity based. The free coupons to ISKCON Restaurants sould be on the front page at the top of the BTG.
This is the best way to mass distribute BTG. The younger generation are now sreaming for a possitive alternative, lets flood BTG throughout all our cities by erecting these stands everywhere!!
Hare Krishna,
Here are some of the links; they are from different Muslim organizations. One organization I am really worried about is Dr Zakir Naiks www.irf.net he is the master mind behind challenging Sanatan Dharma. Now the thing with him is he has studied most of the Sanatan Dharma scriptures and he can quote verses after verses just to justify his motives to propagate Islam! I would have not mind reading him if he was analyzing all this Vedic scriptures with purity and honesty but his motives are wrong. Please check the links and you will realize what I mean.
Plus now what he does is he invites different Hindu gurus and scholars (mostly mayavadis) in the name of interfaith debate and then he will smash them in front of thousands of people by quoting from Vedas and different scriptures and we know how much these mayavadi gurus are educated about scriptures so in total all these people who come to see this debate goes with the impression that YES ISLAM is the only right religion and even Vedas recommend accepting Prophet Mohammed as the real guru!!
Just to clarify I am not racist person and I have full respect towards Islam but this is not the right way how Dr Zakir Naik and some other does.
Please check this video for sure and you will realize what I was talking about. Only problem is this is in Hindi!! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8457665130451146736&q=zakir+naik+ravi
http://www.irf.net/irf/whatsnew/index.htm
http://www.irf.net/irf/download/index.htm
http://www.islamawareness.net/Hinduism/ZakirNaik/
http://www.understanding-islam.com/related/text.asp?type=rarticle&raid=275
http://www.answering-islam.org/Hoaxes/kalkiavatar.html
To see the involvement of Christian missionary please see the link below. My one mistake in writing the original article was, Christians don’t go on such websites and don’t fall in such debates they rather go home to home of poor people (I don’t want to mention all that caste system of India) and systematically propagate against Vedas and Sanatan Dharma.
http://www.dalitchristians.com/Html/history.htm
There are lots of more sites but I am sure from this you will get the idea of what I am talking about.
Hare Krishna,
Dear Om Prabhu,
please accept my humble obeisances
all glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!
all glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Thank you for pointing out what certain people propagate as being “the true religion”.
To me, Dr.Zakir Naik seems to be not the most cultured person by his trying to defeat others’ beliefs, instead of encouraging them.
That he -with or without proof of ANY religious scripture- cannot realise that it is rather unpleasing to have a knife in ones throat (even if you are a goat or chicken), is in itself nullifying all his preaching.
I have been doing a lot of interfaith preaching over the years and my personal conclusion is that there are definitely many very nice devotees of God belonging to other faiths than Gaudiya Vaisnavism.
By our enthusiasm and proper example they can become very favourable towards Krishna consciousness (as a result of some meetings I have longtime friends from other faiths).
However, to get converted into devotees is usually not what most members of other religions are waiting for, just as we may be favourable towards other religions without us necessarily wanting to become a Muslim or Christian, etc.
I suppose many devotees can help you in your preaching efforts.
From my side, I would only like to advise you not to get overly involved into arguing with people like Dr.Naik.
Lord Caitanya could defeat the most staunch mayavadi’s, but most of us can not.
I would rather focus on inspiring those innocent people who are willing to hear about Krishna from you, and try to avoid those who are determined to stay atheist or mayavadi’s.
“The madhyama-adhikari is a devotee who worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the highest object of love, makes friends with the Lord’s devotees, is merciful to the ignorant and avoids those who are envious by nature”.(S.B.11.2.46)
My experience is that when we try to please Guru and Krishna by preaching on Their behalf, They will give us all support.
So please continue your valuable preaching activities with increased enthusiasm!
Your servant,
Radhavallabha dasa.
Hari Bol,
pamho. asgtsp.
If anybody is going to start some websites, i can volunteer my computer programming skills and time(about 10 to 20 hours a week).
Please contact me at kbhakt@gmail.com
Thanks
Hare KruShNa
your servant
aspiring vaishnav
Om Prabhu wrote – ‘You will be surprised to see the statistics of such organizations. There are literally hundred of thousands of educated people from India getting converted because of these websites! Also these websites become very good tool to invite people in there gatherings, so don’t we do that?’
I thought I should explain how my previous posting (suggestion) of BTG magazines being set up on stands at shopping centres etc relates to his very interesting article.
Today Young people are extremely inquisitive about philosophy and spiritual life, I forgot to finish off with my last posting that the idea of distributing magazines can also inform others how to find bonafide Vaishnava wed sites,
The idea is, that in this smaller version of Back To Godhead magazine, found in prominent shopping Centres around the suburbs, can only help further educate society about Krishna Conscious Websites.
In the suburbs of Melbourne, Sydney, and around the world, devotees are rarely seen; therefore it is imperative that someway somehow people in the street be exposed to the knowledge of both Vaishnava websites and Prabhupada’s books. What better way is there to educate others than distributing magazines and small books free that simultaneously introduces the reader to Krishna on the web?
Someone mentioned about the cost, well, what about congregational members throughout the suburbs of each city take responsibility for keeping the stand in their suburb always toped up?
Many years ago (June 14 1983) Hari Sauri Prabhu organised the distribution of 1.5 million magazines to go out as a lift out called ‘The wonderful world of Hare Krishna’ in all the Australian major Newspapers in one day! The effect was amazing, maybe even too amazing in those pioneering years because back then we never had the devotee management skills, maturity and experience, that devotees now have in 2008, to deal with the enormouse response such preaching created.
Om Prabhu has put forward an idea where the Internet should be enthusiastically used as a preaching tool. Many also believe that distributing Srila Prabhupada’s magazines and small booklets on a scale never seen before, can only complement his preaching idea. In this way those who read about Krishna in Back To Godhead will also have all the information about how to find devotees on the web.
Hare Krsna
Your fallen servant Gauragopala dasa
Dear Radhavallabh,Gourgopal & “Aspiring Vaishnava” prabhu,
please accept my humble obeisances
all glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!
all glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Thansk for your feed back. I will just like to clarify my point of view.
Yes Radhavallabha prabhu you are right, we can not convert any one and that is not even our aim to do. Krishna is the supreme controller and Gouranga Mahaprabhu is the supreme preacher, but prabhuji I am only requesting that we should put a website which specifically focuses on the questions that neophyte, religionist and fanatics pose towards Sanatan Dharma. This website should only focus on answering such odd questions as:
• Why do we eat plant if they also have life?
• What happens after death?
• Who was Jesus as per Vedas? And if he was recommended as scholar then why should we not follow him?
• Who was Prophet Mohammed as per Vedas? And if he was recommended as scholar then why should we not follow him?
• Did Rama eat meat?
• Why did Krishna marry so many girls?
• Does God have any form?
• Why does Vedas so many times refer formless Bhraman to be God?
There are so many questions but just they need to be presented in systematically and with full of references from Sanatan Dharama scriptures.
Yes we do book stands and sell magazines, but Prabhuji you know that we can not answer all the questions again and again in every edition, plus for those people who freak out from picking up other religion’s scripture they will never know about it! There is many more reason to put such website.
Plus there are lots of Hindus (I will not call them Devotees) who want instant answers just to defend their own religion, I mean when they are questioned they need answers, they don’t want to spend time reading hundred of pages to find one answer! Such people will be very favorable to us when we provide them all the answers with proper references and proper philosophy so that can be a preaching tool as well. Please do not misunderstand me, I am not against any other form of preaching and I think book distribution was, is and will be the best preaching tool for ever, but still there are lots of other reasons to put up a website like this.
I recently saw Nandanandan Prabhujis website, it was very informative but still we need some thing more organized and easily accessible with particular topics and references.
Dr. Naik at least has positive things to say about the Vedas, seeing in them some similar truths to those of his beloved Islam. I guess he is praising the Vedas in a back-handed way, but it as much praise as we would expect from someone like him.
So he has a problem with Deity worship; this is the age of sankirtan anyway. Let him praise the holy name of Allah to his heart’s content, and if he is a little fortunate he will appreciate our chanting of the Maha Mantra, too.
The Christian Dalits website was interesting to me. Certainly a lot of social injustice has gone on in the name of Hinduism (and Christianity, and Islam), and we should readily acknowledge that.
Krishna consciousness and the Maha Mantra are the cures for these social ills. (How to actually apply the medicine and really cure the problems in specific situations sometimes takes some special inspriration or intelligence).
Well run devotee websites are always nice to know about. My favorite is Dandavats. :-)
There is also ISKCON.com, Krishna.com, many nice devotee websites.
Hare Krishna,
Pamho, Agtsp,
Very nice points raised by Akrura prabhuji, yes we should definately accept social responsibilities that follows Sanatan Dharama, but prabhuji my only question is that if we dont clarify our position then how will people know about us?
Sankirtana is good but I still believe in need of Knowledge as much or may be littel lesser. I am just saying 2 things here 1) We should not wait for fire to start before we can start digging well 2) No answer means we dont have answer.
Atlast it is not only about this Dr Naik or one Christian website but we need to see the larger senario of this. Any ways krishna is the supreme controller so I will let him decide!
Hare krishna,
Haribol Omdas Prabhu:
PAMHO. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I totally agree with you that we should broadcast this message of Krishna consciousness as much as possible. I hope you did not think I was challenging your article. I really liked it.
This ISKCON is meant not only for devotees to associate peacefully together but also, and primarily, to make huge propaganda all over the world for Lord Caitanya’s message.
Websites are good. Whatever works is good. Our primary method is book distribution, but in connection with street chanting, temple worship, prasadam distribution, cultural performances (Prabhupada used to like the Krishna conscious theatre like Vaikuntha Players), there are so many methods to spread the chanting and glorification of Krishna.
Yes, we need to clarify our positions by talking amongst ourselves and praying to the disciplic succession for guidance. Sometimes I fear we are not quite “ready for prime time”, if you know what I mean, but I am sure that we will be ready when the time comes, by Lord Caitanya’s arrangement.
Many devotees feel already quite clear about most things. Not all of them have exactly the same positions about social issues or preaching strategies. Maybe that is okay, for now. As long as we chant and serve together nicely everything will work itself out perfectly. We are all very clear and unified about the most essential things.
Myself, I know next to nothing about Indian culture, politics, sociology. It seems to me that if Muslims and Christians are making inroads in India, converting many Hindus through websites, than ISKCON will do much better. We have so much better to offer.
For one thing, we can understand Vedas better because we are actually practicing within parampara and are being enlightened by the acaryas. I did not mean to suggest that Dr. Naik actually has access to the confidential teachings. He might if he eats enough prasadam, but I do not expect it. :-)
Interfaith dialogue is generally good. We won’t convert them, they won’t convert us, but we can clarify and appreciate what we do (and don’t) have in common.
I notice book distribution results are starting to blossom in India and nice new temples seem to be springing up there every year. I am sure with the help of devotees like you, with websites and harinama sankirtan and book distribution and temple worship, ISKCON will continue to help spread the rays of the benediction moon in India in a big way.
Hare krishna,
No no prabhuji I was not offended at all from what you said. Infact that made me think…… is passion to preach more powerfull or desire of soul to learn truth is more powerfull. I dont know the answer as per you said that we need to grow yet!
My only view towards India is…. as few days before there was a tittle for one topic, it was some thing like this or may be I have mistaken but any ways…… While the Ship of Hinduism is sinking in India, we (ISKCON) might fill up our boat but will that be enough.
Hare krishna,