11 Feb 2005
The straight answer for this question is that Hindus are not converted into Hindus. The Christianity attacks them easily and catches them. The Hindu is not attacked by Hinduism as easily as he is attacked by Christianity. Hinduism does not penetrate into him whereas the Christianity penetrates easily and quickly. Every Hindu remains as a Hindu only because of one point i.e., Hinduism is their own religion. But this should not be the real point. The Hindu must remain as a Hindu and the reason must be his knowledge about Hinduism. The main problem is that the knowledge of Hinduism does not pentrate into the minds of Hindus because all the Hindu spiritual knowledge is in Sanskrit; especially the Vedas.
Our ancient people preserved and restricted not only the Vedas but also the Sanskrit language. They prohibited ladies and Shudras from learning the Vedas and the Sanskrit. Even in Sanskrit dramas women and Shudras do not speak in Sanskrit. They speak only in the regional language (Prakritam). When the Sanskrit language itself is denied to them, what to speak of the sacred scriptures, Vedas, which are in Sanskrit. This conservatism was started by some selfish Sanskrit scholars. They wanted to remain as preachers and get fees from the Shudras and service from their women for their preachings. Therefore they wanted the job of preaching to be limited only to themselves. After sometime the scholars disappeared and priests appeared in their place, who simply recite the Vedas and do not explain their meaning. These priests also followed the same conservatism in the recitation of the Vedas for the same reason. Due to this the spiritual knowledge of the Vedas disappeared completely.
In fact the rituals like marriage etc., were the best occassions for preaching the Vedic spiritual knowledge. People used to gather only for this divine purpose. But today the actual purpose is completely lost. People gather on these occasions for food and waste their time in gossip while the priest is reciting the Vedic hymns. Neither does the priest know the meaning nor the audience. People are not interested in sitting near the priest just to hear some sounds without knowing their meaning. The ritual is only as some actions with materials like coconuts etc., (Dravya Yajna) and the work of simple recitation (Swadhyaya Yajna). The preaching of knowledge (Jnana Yajna) has completely disappeared.
The Gita says that the Lord is pleased only by the Jnana Yajna (Jnana Yajnena Tenaaham). The Gita also says that Jnana Yajna is the best out of the three (Sreyaan Dravyamayat). Due to this, Hinduism which means the spiritual knowledge of the Vedas, never entered the brains of Hindus even on these best occassions. I am sorry to say that the present Hindu is not a real Hindu. He is weak in his religion. Therefore he is easily attacked by other religions and is easily conquerred.
Let us take Christianity. They recite the Bible on such occassions. The Bible is in English, which is their mother tongue. By hearing the recitation of the Bible itself a part of the spiritual knowledge is spontaneously understood. That means the Biblical spiritual knowledge enters the brains of the Christians and so the Christian is strong in his religion. He cannot be easily converted. In ancient times Sanskrit was our national language and there was no other language in India. Therefore when the Vedas were recited the Vedic knowledge spontaneously penetrated into the brains of Hindus. But due to conservatism, today nobody in India knows Sanskrit. People call Sanskrit as a dead language and the local regional languages became very strong. Today if you want to penetrate the spiritual knowledge into the Hindus, either all should learn Sanskrit well or the Vedas should be translated into regional languages. Rituals must be performed by reciting such translations. Today translating Sanskrit into regional languages is easier than teaching Sanskrit to all the people. In the rituals, after reading such translations, the priest should be an excellent scholar to preach the commentary of such Vedic hymns. Only then will Hinduism enter the Hindus. Christians are translating their English Bible into all other languages of the world for the sake of preaching their spiritual knowledge. If they are conservative and recite their Bible only in English, even in a foreign country, there will be no such following of Christianity as we see today.
The largest following of Christianity is due to the translation of the Bible into all major languages so that every one in the world understands the spiritual knowledge of the Bible directly even by reading the Bible. Without taking such practical steps, Hinduism cannot spread even among Hindus. How can you spread it into the entire world? You have denied the spiritual knowledge even to your own people, in your country itself. You have prohibited women and the fourth caste (Shudras) from learning this spiritual knowledge directly by reading the Vedas. You have prepared ‘Payasam’ [a sweet preparation] and you are denying it to the people of your own family. Swami Dayananda Saraswati rectified this mistake and saved Hinduism. Otherwise the foreign conversions would have affected all the Hindus and Hinduism would have remained only in traces by now. The conservative people killed Swami Dayananda by poisioning His food. He opened the doors of the Vedas for all Hindus irrespective of caste. In the Bhagavatam we find that Sūta who was born in a low-caste was made the chief priest of a sacrifice by all the Vedic sages. The conservative traditional Hindu scholars cannot give any answer to this incident, which is mentioned in the Bhagavatam. This incident supports the path of Dayananda Saraswati.
Even in the Gita it is said that the caste system is based on one’s qualities and deeds. The Veda says that a Brahmin is not by birth but by the practice of the Vedic spiritual knowledge (Brahma Bandhuriva). The priests must stand in open competition and prove their efficiency since the ritual is ‘Jnana Yajna’. Only then can the priest prove his efficiency. If you confine the ritual to mere recitation, anyone can do that and the differentiation based on efficiency cannot be done because in this way all competitors are at the same level. If you want to spread Hinduism into the entire world you have to go one step further; you must say that Hinduism and Christianity are alternative paths to reach the same God. They are like alternative food materials, which give the same energy. But the tastes differ and one can choose any religion according to his taste. By this you are placing the Hinduism in open competition. If you say that Payasam is your food and bread is the food of a foreigner, the foreigner will reject the Payasam even though he likes it. Even if he dislikes his bread he will be forced to choose the bread alone because you have labelled bread as the food of the foreigner. If you say that both Payasam and bread are equal and giving the same energy and that one can take any food material as he likes, then all the people in the world may opt for the Payasam because of its extraordinary taste compared to bread. Therefore by labelling Hinduism as your religion and Christianity as his [foreigner’s] religion you are spoiling the opportunites for Hinduism to become a Universal Religion.
Swami Dayananda broke the walls between the rooms within the Hinduism-house and made it into a single house. Swami Vivekananda brought the concept of the Universal Religion by stating that all the religions are equal paths to reach the Lord. He broke the walls between different houses and made all houses into one house. Only after he established the concept of a Universal Religion and stated that all religions are equal, did foreigners appreciate Hinduism. Conservative Hindus are sitting in a single room of a house. Swami Dayananda represents the intra-collegiate activity where as Swami Vivekananda represents the inter-collegiate activity. Both these holy saints are the best pillars of the great Hinduism.