My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

My name is Aravindaksha Menon. As the very name suggests, I am hailing from a very Orthodox Semi-Brahmin Hindu Family. As my family was of a Brahmin culture, I was bound to study the Hindu scriptures, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Bhagavat Gita from very early childhood. I was brought up in my family in a most religious way studying all these scriptures, chanting and hymns and attending the pooja ceremonies the temples every day. At the age of 18, after completing my normal education, I entered into central government service in an office under the ministry of commerce. Since then for a period of over 20 years I led a very happy and cheerful life. Having the effect of this spiritual training in abundance in my mind, I could always work for others and could lead a life without any selfish motives. Thus everyday around me, my colleagues, became very close friends. Through them I could become the leader of the service organization of the establishment in which I was working. Through this politically motivated organization I could come into contact with Indian Communist Party. Within no time I became a staunch worker of the Communist Party and within no time I could become a leader of the Communist Party in my locality. Through this political work, being loved and respected by my natives, through this organizational work, being loved and respected by my colleagues and friends, I could lead a very happy and cheerful life for over 20 years.

After this very happy period of twenty years, one day most unexpectedly, I lost my job. Citing ever so many political reasons; my relationship with the Communist Party, my work with the Communist Party, an agitation, a big strike that occurred in my office, the leadership given by me to this strike; citing ever so much political reasons, my authorities dismissed me from the service. Always being engaged in this political and organizational work, financially I was not at all sound ever in my life. I need not explain what will happen to such a family, which is already financially unsound, when its income itself is unexpectedly stopped. Within a few days, the total life of me and my family was put into so much of financial hardships.

When financial hardships come to us, we began to think about God. I also began to think about God. It was easy for me to think about God, because my family is of such a great spiritual background. My family owns three temples. Three big temples in the family compound itself. The gods enshrined in these temples are called Bharadevatas. I went to the temples of these Bharadevatas and began to pray with all my heart. Giving all sorts of offerings to these temples, I spent days, weeks and months in the temples in fasting and prayers. But nothing happened to my life: nothing changed my life; nothing lessened the hardship in my life. Normally and naturally when God’s blessings are denied to us, we the Hindus use to go to an astrologer in our state. Four times I went to him. All the four times he found out different reasons for my hardships. Curses of a god, curses of goddesses, and curses of birth stars and so on. All the four times he suggested very expensive avoidances (penances). I did not have any money left with me. I borrowed every money that I could get and attended to all these avoidances most promptly. Still nothing happened to my life. Nothing lessened the distress in my life. I lost my faith in God; I became an atheist. I was so convinced, there is no such God. God is only a myth created by man, for the welfare of the priests, astrologers and temples. As you know, there are very eminent atheists in Kerala state. They have got their own association, and their own movement: The Rationalists Association of India. I happened to meet some of the leaders of this association at that time. After hearing my story they told me, “You are a man of experience, nothing is to be taught to you now. It is your social duty to go around and tell others that there is no God”. Most happily I took up the assignment and for the next three years I went around the state of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh; I went to almost all cities of India and preached there is no God. God is only a myth created by man for the exploitation of man by man.

Even though I was preaching against God for all these three years, this period of three years turned out to be a blessing in disguise as far as I am concerned. Because I could read a lot of books during the period; I could come into contact with so many eminent personalities, big writers and intellectual giants, during this period. And one of the friendships cultivated by me on those days, while I was preaching against God, changed my life totally.

One day, in a South Indian city, I was giving a lecture on atheism. After hearing my preaching a man came to meet me. He was a Hindu Brahmin by birth. H was born to a very poor family. With his own efforts he studied and became an advocate. Then he became a Judge, a Judge of High Court. Finally he became the Chief Justice, and then retired. He was a great scholar in English and Sanskrit. Such a great man he was. After attending to my talk, he came to me and told me, “My dear son, you have gone wrong twice. Once when your life was put into so much of hardships, thinking that you are turning to God, you did not turn to the real God. But you did turn to idols and temples, it was wrong”. I was rather astonished because these comments came from a Brahmin. He is from such race which makes a livelihood out of their worship of the idols in the temples and he tells me when I went to the temples and worshipped the idols, it was a mistake. “And secondly when you did not get benefited out of your worship of the idols in the temples, you turned to become an atheist, that’s also wrong. You are a born Hindu. And you should be proud of being a Hindu. To be proud of being a Hindu, you have to go through the scriptures of Hinduism”. Very proudly I told him, “I have not only gone through the scriptures, but studied them by heart. I have studied Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Bhagavat Gita by heart. Nothing is to be done in that respect now. Then he laughed at me. He called me a fool and told me, “These books, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Bhagavat Gita are not the religious scriptures. Those are only story books. Ramayana is the story of Sri Rama, the king of Ayodhya, a historical man. Mahabharata is the story of Sri Krishna, the prince of Mathura, another historical figure. Bhagavat Gita is compiled of eighteen chapters just selected from Mahabharata. These are not the religious scriptures. The official religious scriptures of Hinduism are the Vedas. The written four Vedas: the Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Adharva Veda. You have to go through these Vedas. Then you will get light, you can find the truth, you can see the real God and the God will give you peace”. He advised me. Out of his advice, I did not get any faith in God. But there may be some point in his advice. To know that point, I went to a library, got a copy of the Rig Veda, the first and foremost one of the four Vedas and began to read from the Veda.

After going through some passages, I got convinced of one thing. One thing he told me was correct. I started getting the light. The very first light I get from Rig Veda, the religious book of Hinduism was that, to whomsoever gods I went in the days of my hardships, gave offerings and prayed to, am not gods. There are no such gods. In the official religious book of Hinduism, the Rig Veda, there is the mention about only one God: “Ekam Sath Vipra, Bahudhavadanthi” (Truth is absolute. The wise and the scholarly express it in words of many hues). He is the creator of this universe; He is the father of all creations in this universe. He is the heavenly father of all humankind the world over; this only God is Omnipresent; He fills this universe. As He fills this universe, nobody can see Him in a particular body or form as the Lord Almighty is formless and bodiless, nobody can make an idol of God and worship an idol; it’s worthless and it’s useless. According to Veda Saaram, “Mruth shila dhathu darwadi moortha vishwamavidyaya klishyanthi thapasa moodha paraam shaanthim nayaanthithe”, means, “A fool who is worshipping an idol gathers nothing but pain and he never attains salvation”. I was convinced; what all I did earlier were wrong. There are 10 books for the Rig Veda, Ten Mandalams.

From first to ninth Mandalams, in several places it is clearly said who is the real God, who is man, why should man worship the God and how should he worship him. In the tenth Mandalam, besides this Lord Almighty, there is the mention about a Man, the first born and only born son of the God. His name is “Prajapati”. Prajapati, the son of the God comes to this world at the appropriate time. When the sin of the world exceeds the limits and when man, by himself cannot evade the wrath of the Almighty, Prajapati, the son of God plead before the father to give him a form and God, accepting his plead, gives him the form of a man and sends to the earth. Bruhadaranyakopanishad 1:2:7 says, “So kamayatha medhyam ma idam syath atmannuayanena syamithi”. The meaning of the stanza goes like this: “after coming to this world, he travels around advising humankind, what is sin and what is not sin, what is to be done and what is not to be done, and what is wrong and what is right. To those human beings, who accept his advices and obey his orders, he offers prosperity and peace in this worldly life and salvation at the time of their death. And being the completion of this venture to redeem the mankind from sin, he gets sacrificed at the end of his specified period on earth”.

In verse 7, Chapter 90 of the 10th book of the Rig Veda, the sacrifice of Prajapati, the Son of God, is well explained. At the time of sacrifice, the Son of God will be tightly tied to a wooden sacrificial post using iron nails by hands and legs, he will bleed to death and on the third day he will regain his life in a resurrection. Praise the Lord! I was totally confused, who is this Prajapati, and who is the Son of God? As per Hindu mythology, there are 10 incarnations of God. First I thought, this reference about Prajapati, the Son of God, will be about one among those incarnations. But it was not, because each and every incarnation has got its own attributes. None of these attributes suit those attributes of Prajapati as given in the Rig-Veda and as given in Sathapatha Brahmansa, a supplement to Yajur Veda. Then I went to some scholars in my neighborhood and asked them, who is this Prajapati? Who is the Son of God? One among them told me, “Yes, there is a concept of Prajapati. ‘Praja’ means ‘man’ and ‘Pathy’ means savior. There will be a man coming from God being the savior of humankind; he has not yet come, we are still expecting him”. All this time Jesus was in my mind. But being a staunch Hindu, I could not even think like that. But, again, I am not only a Hindu, an atheist, rationalist too. I asked him, “Can this reference be about Jesus Christ?” That scholar asked me, “What made you think like that?” I told him “the attributes!” There are nine attributes altogether, two in the Rig Veda and seven in the Yajur Veda. In the Rig Veda it is said, “(1) Prajapati, the Son of God would be a man by form, but God himself by nature; and (2) Prajapati, the Son of God, when he comes to this world, will take all the sin of the world in his own body and get sacrificed”. So the sin of the world would be forgiven by the heavenly father. But as he is the Son of God, he is immortal; he cannot die in a sacrifice so he will regain his life in a resurrection!

Then the Yajur Veda, actually not in the Yajur Veda, but in the Sathapadha Brahmana, a supplementary to the Yajur Veda, seven attributes of the sacrifice of Prajapati are well explained: (1) At the time of sacrifice, the sacrificial victim, would be crowned with a crown of thorns!; (2) His hands and legs would be nailed to a wooden sacrificial post!; (3) None of his bones be broken at that time!; (4) Before death, he would be given a drink of “Somarasa”-the sour wine!; (5) After death, his clothes would be divided among the people; (6) After death his body-flesh-would be eaten up by the people; and (7) after death his blood would be drunken off by the people. All these attributes of Prajapati, the Son of God, given in the Vedas suite those of Jesus in the Bible, that’s why I had that doubt. Then he told me “no, it can’t be, because it happened somewhere in Jerusalem or so, not here”. Again I told him, “it need not be here; the mention is only earth, between man and God, so it can be anywhere”. Now that scholar scolded me, “you fool, don’t make such foolish arguments with me; this is a religious matter, a godly affair, so you get out!” With all these confusion in my mind I went to that noble Brahmin who advised me to go through the Vedas and asked him, “who is this Prajapati, who is this Son of God?” Then he asked me, “Is it not written in Malayalam, why you don’t understand?” I told him, “I could understand, but I have my own doubts”. My dear brothers and sisters, even though a scholar, a born Brahmin, he told me, “My dear Son, there is nothing to be doubted, the only one sent by God, came to this world, tried to redeem humankind from sin and got sacrificed at the end is nobody else, but Jesus Christ! Praise the Lord!

Then he told me, “Now it’s time; you go through the Bible. You’ll get further truth”. I came back to my house. I had never gone through a Bible before and there was no Bible in my house. I borrowed a Bible from the nearby Christian house and began to read the Bible. When I read some passages from the very first book of Genesis itself, stronger wonders that could find Jesus Christ in the Holy Scriptures of Hinduism began to appear before me in the Bible. Almost all the verses I could read from the Rig Veda appeared just the same in the Holy Bible. The same verses and chapters with the same meanings or verses being the answers to the questions, doubts and prayers in Vedas, Upanishads and even in Bhagavat Gita. When I could come across all the verses, I got confused once again. I went to that Brahmin Guru again and told him, “It’s wonderful!” He told me further, “There’s nothing to be wonderstruck. Every ancient scripture was one and the same; Hindu, Christian and Islam were all categorized later, all man made. The Word of God was one because God is only one”. He asked me, “Do you believe that god is only one?” I told him, “Yes, I do believe that God is only one!” Again he asked me, “If God is only one how the Son of God can be several? It is also one”. The heavenly God is incomprehensible. Nobody can see Him! Unless through the Son nobody can see the heavenly Father and the only Son is Jesus Christ! You may be a Hindu! Christian! Muslim, Parsi! Jain! Buddhist! Taoist! Whichever religion you may belong, it doesn’t matter. You have to accept Jesus Christ! Than only you can attain the heavenly Father’s LOVE!

I came back to my house. That day became an unforgettable day in my life. On 27th June 1992, I was completely restless! There was a strong fight going on in my mind. The fight between the culture I was born and brought up in and the truth I had found out from the ancient scriptures of the very same culture. I became totally restless. In the night, on my bed, I thought about Jesus Christ! Of course I knew him before; there was a picture of Jesus Christ in my mind too! Jesus the son of Joseph and Mary, born in Bethlehem, brought up in Nazareth, studied the scriptures of Jewish Religion till the age 29 and a half, tried to hold a riot against the King and the Priests with the help of poor fishermen, caught by the soldiers of the King, faced trial and killed on the cross. This was the image of Jesus Christ in my mind. This was also the communist line of thinking about him. But in that night, for the first time in my life, I thought about Jesus in a different way; Jesus, the Son of God, who got sacrificed for the sins of the world! The result was wonderful. There were certain hymns in the Rig Veda, the meanings of which I could not understand in spite of repeated readings. But when I could ascribe Jesus as the sacrificial victim and his crucifixion as the sacrifice, the meanings of those verses came so clear to me. Then I could understand what my Guru told me was correct! Jesus is the only Son of God!

I sat up on my bed! For the first time in my life, I, a staunch Hindu, prayed to Jesus Christ! I was not aware how to pray, and narrations of prayers given in the Bible. “Oh! Our Father, Thou art in Heaven!” I didn’t know any of such prayers! I just prayed, “Oh! Jesus, Come to me, I am in distress! Come and save me! The result of my prayer, i.e., answer to the prayer, was instantaneous! In the same night I received answers to my prayers. You believe or not, I am a man who spent sleepless nights for over six weeks. For all my requests, God gave me answers and our family was blessed in so many ways! My dear brothers and sisters, when I am mentioning all these gains, I am not highlighting the financial stability that the Lord gave me, but I am testifying that Jesus has given me all the happiness in life we will ever need, because JESUS KEEPS HIS PROMISES, ALL HIS PROMISES LETTER BY LETTER!

Source: Aravindaksha Menon, Book of Witnessing (Muringoor: Divine Retreat Center, 2006): Pages 9-35.