Re: Shocking/the conversion controversy

["Rayalaseema Informatics Centre" <ric@nettlinx.com>]

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Whether right or wrong, most people all over the world, including India,
believe that they can get good luck, material prosperity, physical and
mental health, peace of mind, entry to heaven or a better birth after death
by parting with a significant portion of their resources towards certain
religious practices in which they have faith. There are a very large number
of religious organizations, which sustain on such people's contributions and
meet their requirements.

A Hindu sees god in every living being. In that way, the number of gods can
be much more than 36 crores. To have belief that there are 36 crore gods,
there is no need for one to recall their names. Gods get actually multiplied
year after year. It is not uncommon to find in the prayer rooms of many
Hindus non-Hindu gods such as Buddha, Christ, Shriddi Baba and Meher Baba.
There are living gods, who continue to be gods even after death. There are
others who become gods only after death. Number of temples of different gods
multiply year after year all over the world. Tourism and employment are
mostly religious-based. More number of gods means more number of temples,
more income and more number of jobs. If people become monotheists, a very
small number of religious organizations monopolize the whole resources and
the number of religious-based jobs cannot be large. As most Hindus worship
more than one god, they find no difficulty to accept the god worshipped even
by his/her enemy as god. Monotheists on the other hand find it difficult to
swallow the idea that there can be a god other than their god.

The quantum of money spent for religious purposes is enormous. Even
governments are tempted to run a religious organization having more
resources and income. For example the world's richest Hindu temple at
Tirupati/Tirumala in Rayalaseema is run by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.
While the vast majority of people have no other interest in religion except
to get some benefit out of it, the same is not true with the religious
organizations. These organizations use a demand-driven free-market system to
expand their activities and boost up their client base by canvassing for
faith and patronage of a large number of people. One way to increase their
client base is to take up 'religious conversions' by hook or crook. They use
all possible methods, whether right or wrong, legal or illegal to project
their greatness and expose the hollowness and weak points of their rival
organizations. They gather historical and mythological records of real or
fictitious nature in support of their arguments. Infighting within an
organization is also not uncommon with a stronger person replacing a weaker
person as head of the organization even by using 'shocking' methods.
Rational people may find objection to some of the methods adopted by such
organizations. The Governments can only intervene when somebody reports on
the unlawful activities of the organization.

R. Jagadiswara Rao


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