Something To Think About - 05

Athithi Devo Bhava

It looks like the topic of religious conversion, particularly conversion of Hindus to Christianity, will not come to an end any day soon. I might as well add my bit to this delightful debate.

When the Pope John Paul II’s visit to India (November 1999) was announced, it was known that his visit was primarily to sign and issue the document based on the Asian Bishop’s Synod held in Rome in 1998. Essentially it meant giving a call for more vigorous evangelisation effort in Asia aimed at recruiting Asian people in large numbers into the Christian fold. Not unnaturally it evoked considerable protest from Hindu organisations against such conversion programmes and demands for Papal apology for the atrocities commited against Hindus in Goa, a few centuries ago, when the Christian missionaries resorted to aggressive conversion. Of course the entire Christian establishment was up in arms against any such demands, and they were ably supported by the “liberal”, “intellectual”, “secular” anti-Hindu personalities who claim to still belong to the Hindu fold. Starting with the late Alan De Lastic, the then Archbishop of Delhi and President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, all and sundry church dignitaries began reminding the Hindus that the Pope is coming as a guest to India, and it is India’s tradition to receive guests with honour and courtesy, and they should not resort to any such protests “which will tarnish the image of the country”. Some of them even went to the extent of learning and quoting some jargon like “Athithi Devo Bhava” which means “treat guests like God”. On the one hand, one may feel gratified that they are trying to understand something of India’s traditions, but on the other hand, it is rather like the Devil quoting the scriptures.

There are just a couple of things wrong with their usage of this “Athithi Devo Bhava” in relation to the Pope’s visit. In this connection, Acharya Giriraj Kishore, vice-president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, referred to the Pope as a dacoit.(Asian Age, 30 Oct 1999). One should certainly protest against such a term being used to describe the Pope, since it insults the Indian dacoits who do have a certain code of conduct, and tarnishes their image. An incident, which used to make the rounds extensively quite a while ago, will go to illustrate this aspect. A gang of dacoits planned to raid the house of a wealthy person, but the house-owner came to know of this plan. Instead of panicking, he made his counter move with an intelligent strategy. When the gang arrived late in the night, expecting the household to be deep in slumber, they found the house shrouded in darkness, and made their entry after breaking open the main door. As soon as they were all in, they were taken by surprise when all the lights were switched on, and they found the large hall laid out neatly with dinner places set for the entire gang to have dinner. The house owner approached the leader of the gang and invited them all to have dinner, which they could not refuse. After enjoying the sumptuous dinner, the gang leader announced that it was against their ethics to rob a house after partaking of their food, and offered their protection to the family against attacks from other gangs too. Dacoity as such is bad and unlawful, but such is the ethical standards which even the Indian dacoits were said to have set for themselves. THEY are fit to be called Athithis. But what do the Pope, the Archbishop Alan De Lastic and the thousands of their conversion specialists going by the name of missionaries do? They enjoy all the hospitality of our nation which is not only tolerant toward all religions but accepts the validity of the “Truth” as expounded in all religions, and then exploit this hospitality and tolerance by resorting to converting our people from their native religion to Christianity. Can they ever come under the term Athithi? Can a Trojan horse ever be an Athithi?

There is another aspect which makes this injunction “Athithi Devo Bhava” inappropriate for use in connection with the Pope’s visit. This phrase forms the last part of a set which says, “Mathru Devo Bhava; Pithru Devo Bhava; Acharya Devo Bhava; Athithi Devo Bhava,” which means “Think of your mother as God; Think of your father as God; Think of your teacher as God; Think of the guest as God.” When you think of your mother, father and the teacher as God, it automatically means that you hold in high esteem, almost with a divine reverence, the values you have imbibed from them, which are certainly steeped in the religion into which they themselves have grown all their lives. Now when the Pope and the Archbishop and their cronies come to you and tell you that whatever your mother, father and teachers have taught you is all rubbish, and ask you to dump your mother, father and teachers along with their values into the trash can and go over to their side and accept Jesus Christ as the only saviour, the “Athithi Devo Bhava” also automatically stands trashed. Why should anybody hold this part alone as valid and treat these conversion devils as honourable guests? Isn’t it hypocrisy on the part of the Pope and his army of converters to make a big deal about “Athithi Devo Bhava” while trashing the other parts, namely “Mathru Devo Bhava; Pithru Devo Bhava; Acharya Devo Bhava”?

The Fifth Commandment of Moses says, “Honour thy father and thy mother …………” Doesn’t this sound somewhat like “Mathru Devo Bhava; Pithru Devo Bhava”? It is said Jesus Christ spent quite a few years in India and absorbed a lot of ideas from Hindu Dharma which he later included as part of his teachings. May be Moses too had a similar initiation and translated the Hindu thoughts in his Ten Commandments, which reflect Hindu concepts by and large, except for the first couple of Commandments.

While appreciating the effort of the Pope, the Archbishop and their army of conversion professionals to pickup some catch-words like “Athithi Devo Bhava”, one is certainly entitled to ask whether they have made any effort to learn and understand what their own Bible teaches. It is worth taking a look at some of these Biblical statements.

“Thou shalt not steal,” says the 8th Commandment of Moses. It seems to be a pretty simple instruction which can be easily understood by even the unlettered. But the Pope and his conversion army of highly educated persons do not seem to know that enticing people away from other religions into their Christian fold falls in the category of stealing. Isn’t it hypocritical on the part of the Pope and the Archbishop and others to talk about “Athithi Devo Bhava” when they are not able to understand a much simpler statement “Thou shalt not steal”? One cannot believe that the Pope did not know this, because only just a while earlier he had complained bitterly about the Protestant “wolves” who were poaching on his Catholic flock. Doesn’t it make his hypocrisy a much more heinous sin? Add to this another famous Biblical quotation “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” and where does it take these dignitaries? Have the Pope and the Archbishop and their coterie heard of this statement? One wonders whether to classify them as ignorant louts who do not know what their own religion is talking about, or to place them in the highest category of hypocrites?

The 9th Commandment of Moses says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” Do the Pope and the Archbishop and their conversion brigade think of this when they talk ill of Hinduism and other religions, referring to them as paganism and heathenism, in their effort to “steal” their folks to Christianity? Or do they just conveniently ignore such commandments as minor irritants which should not come in the way of their conversion business? But they don’t fight shy of using slogans like “Athithi Devo Bhava” out of context to demand that Hindus should welcome the Pope to India, knowing full well that he came with the specific purpose of initiating anti-Hindu subversion activity. What hypocrites!

Take a look at the 10th Commandment, which says “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.” Can anything be more comprehensive than this! In the days of Moses, these were the only possessions he could think of as normally held by anybody; house, wife, manservant, maidservant, ox and ass. If he were a Nostradamus, he would probably have added the TV, fridge, car, computer, microwave and other current day possessions. But Moses has not left anything to chance. He has provided a blanket, global coverage by saying “nor anything that is thy neighbour’s”. That means thou shalt not covet to wean away thy neighbours from their loyalty and reverence to their own religion. Do the Pope, the Archbishop and their army know anything about what their own religion teaches?

In subsequent posts we will go further into what the Ten Commandments imply about the business of religious conversion.