An evangelical television program is being aired on Zee Jagran channel. The name of the program is ‘nutan dhara‘.

• The speaker is a Christian priest called ‘Swami Anil Dev‘.
• The set is christian with a typical Hindu pravachan style. The priest wears saffron robes and mala and sports a beard.
• The audience are probably converted tribals or paid onlookers , and crowds chant christian ‘bhajans’.

It is being run by ‘Matridham ashram‘ , a Christian conversion centre at Chandmari, Varanasi, on saturdays and sundays between 7 – 8 pm. Their phone numbers etc. are given at the end of the program. This is a powerful new thrust by missionaries to mimic Hindu sannyasis with an aim to evangelise the indian masses.

The whole fraud should be exposed.
The fraudsters are using all Hindu styles and symbols to lure people and convert them. It shows that christianity as it is seems to be too drab to get people to their fold. Now they have to ape Hinduism.  Moreover how are christians allowed to use the terms ‘ashram’ and ‘swami’? Will the perpetrators ever be put behind bars for this fraud??
It also seems that Zee Jagran channel is only interested in money and not in monitoring the content of their programmes.

Here is an evaluation of the activities of the ‘Matridham ashram’ posted on the Hindujagruti website:

http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/5367.html

September 8, 2008

Bhadrapad Shuddha Ashtami

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh): In ‘Matrudham’ ashram run by Christians at Chandmari, Hindus are being converted at large extent; but it is propagated by the ashram that Hindus are not converted and only guided in proper manner at the ashram. An experience of a seeker of state of Hindus assembled at the ashram and how they are being converted is given below in brief.

Every Sunday, hundreds of Hindus gather in ‘Matrudham’ to get rid of their worldly and spiritual distress which include problems in employment and business, ailments, possession by ghosts etc. There are two places of worship in the ashram. There is a belief among Hindus that if they drink water from the water tank filled with water in the ashram, they get rid of their distress fast; therefore, Hindus go there forgetting their deities.

They also inform that they are not converted in the ashram; but they are guided in the ashram. They are told that there is only one son of God and he is Jesus; when one prays to him, one goes to heaven and gets liberated. They are also advised that whatever actions/ customs they were following till then (as per Hindu Dharma) were not proper and they should change their ways. Right from 10.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon, Hindus are told something or the other about Jesus and Christianity.

After 12.00 noon, there is topic taken on ‘Witness’ in which people come and one by one, narrate their experineces about how they could overcome their problems. Therefater, a missionary gives a lecture. Camps are also organized occasionally, for youth between 15-25 years of age. Spiritual practice is advised in the form of prayers and devotional songs. (It is shown as if the path of spiritual practice by way of prayers and devotional songs is similar in both the religions. Will Hindus realize the ploy of Christians to convert them? )

These persons are called as devotees of Jesus, the ritual is known as ‘baptism’ and then they are fully converted as Christians.

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