"And I will put my spirit within you" - Ezekiel 36:27 "Where two or three come together in my name I am there with them" - Matt.18:20 Testimony Br. Aravindaksha Menon Testimony of Br. Aravindaksha Menon as being delivered at Divine Retreat Centre located at Kerala, South India. My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, 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, Mahabharatha, Bhagavat Gita from very early childhood. I was brought up in my family in a most religious way studying all these scriptures, chanting hymns and attending the pooja ceremonies in the temple 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 love others, I could always think for others, I could always work for others and I could lead a life without any selfish motives. Thus everybody around me, my colleagues, became my friends. Through them I could become the leader of the service organisation of the establishment in which I was working. Through this politically motivated organization I could into contact with Indian Communist party. Within no time I became a staunch worker of the communist party. 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 for 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 these 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 my family and myself was put into so much financial hardships. When financial hardships come to us, we begin 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 incarnated in these temples are called Bharadevatas. I went to the temple of these Bharadevatas and began to pray with all my heart. Giving all sort of offerings to these temples, I spent days, weeks and months in the temple in fasting and prayers. But nothing happened to my life; nothing changed my life; nothing lessened the hardships in my life. Normally and naturally when God’s blessings are denied to us, we the Hindus go to an astrologer and consult him; to find out what is the trouble with our lives. I also went to a very famous 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, curses of birth stars and so on. All the four times he suggested very expensive avoidance’s (penance’s). I did not have any money with me. I borrowed every money I could get and attended to all these avoidance 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 is very eminent atheist in our state. They have got their own association, their own movement. The Rationalists Association of India. I happened to meet some of the leaders of the association at this time. After hearing my story they told me “You are a man of experience, nothing is to be taught to you now. It’s your social duty to go around and tell others that there is no God.” Most happily I took up this assignment and for the next three years I went around the state of Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, 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 this period; I could come into contact with so many intellectual giants, big writers 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. Born to a very poor family. With his own efforts he studied and became an advocate. Then he became a Judge. A judge of the High Court. Finally he became the Chief Justice, 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 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 a race which makes a livelihood out of their worship of the idols in the temples and he tells me when I went to the temple 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 is also wrong. You are a born Hindu. And 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, I have studied them by heart. Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Bhagavath Gita, I have studied by heart. Nothing is to be done in that respect.” Then he laughed at me. He called me a fool and told me “These books, Ramayana, Mahabharatha and Bhagavath Gita are not the religious scriptures. Those are only storybooks. Ramayana is the story of Sri Rama, the king of Ayodhya, historical man. Mahabharatha is the story of Sri Krishna, the prince of Madhura, another historical figure. Bhagavath Gita is compiled of eighteen chapters just selected from Mahabharatha. These are not the religious scriptures. The official religious books of Hinduism are the Vedas. The written four Vedas; the Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and the Adharva Veda. You have to go through these Vedas. Then you will get light, you will find the truth, you can see the real God and the God will give you peace.” He advises me. Out of his advice, I did not get any faith in God. But there may be some point in this advice. To know that point, I went to a library, got a copy of the Rigveda, 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 was correct. I started getting the light. The very first light I could get from Rigveda, the religious book of Hinduism was that, to whomsoever Gods I went in the days of my hardships, gave offerings and prayed to, are not Gods. There are no such Gods. In the official religious book of Hinduism, the Rigveda, there is the mention about only one God. He is the creator of all creations in this universe. He is the creator of all creations in this universe. He is the creator of all mankind the world over; he is the heavenly father, the only God. This only God is omnipresent; He fills this universe. As the Lord almighty is Omnipresent and 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 is worthless and it is useless. A fool who is worshipping an idol gains nothing but pain and he never attains salvation. I was convinced. As there are 73 books for the Holy Bible, there are 10 books for the Rigveda. Ten mandalams. From first to nine mandalams, in several places it is clearly said who is the real God, who is man and 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 ‘Prajapathy’. Prajapathy, the son of the God comes to this world at the appropriate time. After coming to this world he travels around advising mankind, what is sin and what is not sin; what is to be done and what is not to be done; what is wrong and what is right. To those human beings, which accept his advises 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 his venture to redeem mankind from sin, he gets sacrificed at the end his specified period on earth. In verse 7 chapter 90 of the 10th book of the Rigveda, the sacrifice of Prajapathy 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 Prajapathy, who is the Son of God? As per Hindu mythology, there are 10 incarnations of God. Ten times God comes to this world. “Matsya, Koorma, Varahascha Narasimhascha Vamana, Ramo Ramascha Ramascha, Krishna, Kalki. These are ten incarnations. First I thought, the reference about Prajapathy, the son of God, will be about one among those incarnations. But it was not. Because each incarnation has got its own attributes. None of these attributes suit those attributes of Prajapathy as given in the Rigveda and as given in Sathapadha Brahmana, a supplement to Yajurveda. Then I went to some scholars in my neighbourhood and asked them, who is this Prajapathy, who is the sun of God? One of them told me “Yes, there is a concept of Prajapathy. Praja means man. Pathy means saviour. There will be a man coming from God being the saviour of mankind; he has not yet come; we are still expecting him.” All this time Jesus was in my mind. But I being a staunch Hindu, I could not even think like that. But again I am not only a Hindu, I am an atheist, I am a rationalist. I asked him “Can this reference be about Jesus Christ?. That scholar asked me “No. It can’t be. Because it happened in some Western countries, in Jerusalem or so, not here. Again I told him “It need not be here. The mention is only earth, man and the God, so it can be anywhere.” Now this scholar scolded me. “You fool, don’t make such foolish arguments with me; this is a religious matter, a godly affair, get out!’ With all these confusions in my mind I went to that noble Brahmin who advised me to go through the Vedas and asked him “Who is this Prajapathy, who is this Son of God?” Then he asked me “It’s written in Malayalam, why don’t you 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, even though a scholar, a born Hindu, 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 mankind form sin and got sacrificed at the end is nobody else, but Jesus Christ!” Praise the Lord! Then he asked me “Now its time you go through the Bible. You’ll get further truth.” I came back to my house. I borrowed a Bible from the nearby Christian house and I began to read the Bible. When I read some passage from the very first book of Genesis itself, stronger wonders than I could find Jesus Christ in the Holy Scriptures of Hinduism began to appear before me in the Holy Bible. The same verses or the verses with the same meanings or verses being the answers to the questions, doubts and prayers in the Vedas, Upanishads and even in Bhagavath Gita. All connected verses. I cannot go in detail about such verses now, but only give a few examples, just for your conviction and faith. The very first book in the Holy Bible, is the book of Genesis. Genesis is the history of creation. It’s said that the heavenly father created this universe in six days. The first day, Genesis 1:3 “ The God said let there be light and there was light.” In 16:1 God creates the sun, the moon and the stars, which were created on the fourth day only. Then which was the light, which emanated from God on the first day? Answer to this question we get from verses 1 to 14 of St. John chapter 1. In the beginning was the word. This word from God came to this world in the form of light. The word that came to this world as light became flesh and made his dwelling among us and that’s our Lord Jesus Christ. Now verse 1 of chapter 121 of the 10th book of Rigveda says: - “Hiranyagarbha: samavarthaagre Bhuuthasya jaatha: pathireka aaseeth Sadaadhaara Prudhwivim dyaamuthemam Kasmai devaaya havisha vidhemam.” In the beginning, God and his supreme spirit alone existed. From the supreme Spirit of the God proceeded Hiranya Garbha, alias Prajapathy, the first born of the God in the form of light. As soon as born, he became the saviour of all the worlds. (Rigveda X:90:2) “Purusha evedam sarvam Yadbhutham yachabhavyam Uthaamruthathwasya esaana Ya daannenathirohathi” This man, the first born of the God is all that was, all that is and all that has to be. And he comes to this world to give recompense to everybody as per his deeds. Revelation 1:8 Says the Lord God “Who is, who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 22:12 “Behold, I am coming soon, I bring with me the recompence I will give to each according to his deeds.” Rigveda X:90:7 “Tham yajnam barhishi proukshan Purusham jaathamagratha Thena deva ayajantha Sadhya rushayaschaye” This man, the first born of the God, was tied to a wooden sacrificial post and the gods and the Kings along the seers performed the sacrifice. Click here to continue to next page .....