My thoughts on "Is Templeton Foundation digesting Vedanta into Christianity", video session by Rajiv Malhotra ji with Dr. Ravi Ravindra

I have listened to alot of Rajivjis talks where each video is atleast about 80 minutes long. But I think this video is an eye opener to myself.

As the video began, the way it began, the way it proceeded, I developed a respect for the guest of the day. That's because of the way Rajiv ji put it. We humans are impressionable and form opinions from reliable sources. And Rajiv ji is a reliable source for me.

I was almost 10 minutes into the talk and I was confused. 20 minutes passed and I was still confused. 30 minutes now. I remained confused for what felt like a majority share of the talk which was 1 hour 37 minutes long. What was the confusion about? The guest of the day wrote a book in 1990 and the title was, "The Yoga of the Christ". So that meant Christ and Yoga were being intertwined. This was in contradiction to what I heard from Rajiv ji most of the time. He coined a word called digestion and that in simple terms means, you have a big empty house, so you sneak into the house of your neighbour A and smuggle precious gems and gold, you show it to your other people as your own property. Since you have a bigger house than A, nobody is going to believe that you have actually stolen it from A. And even if A finds it out, and he complains, he can't harm you because nobody is going to believe him.

So Christianity did this to many civilizations over thousands of years and digested the Greek and the Roman culture because they couldn't separate the newly converts or the potential converts from their traditions. 

So, I was wondering throughout the video where these talks are leading us to. I thought maybe the guest has some hidden gems which he has hidden as an agenda in his book and which Rajiv ji supports. So yes, my mind was alert and ears erect to get some clarity. And the moment of truth was finally there. That was when he started commenting negatively on some so-called 'gurus' who were caught in sex scandals. That came as a redlight for me and I understood this talk is not going the way I expected it. But Rajiv jis rebuttal was a gem.

I realised that the guest was actually a hard-core believer in his works and he did his job with utmost sincerity and no hidden agendas. He actually came as a saviour for the Christians to pull them out of belief systems, narrow-mindedness and savagery. But Rajiv ji tried very well to throw some light on the practicality and the socio-political implications of such academic works. Christianity is like a huge animal which can hide anything under it's skin and call it it's own flesh. My initial impression of respect for the guest turned to loath and this again turned to sympathy.

I have heard Rajiv ji saying that he is very much interested in debating with people having opposite point of view in a civilized manner. So here it was. I am amazed at the way Rajiv ji treated his guest with dignity. What was more impressive was that Rajiv ji still hoped that the mind of the guest can be changed and he perhaps can be brought to a point where he understands why he is a gem to the Church. 

Our people are so less aware of the snakes in the Ganga. You might want to share your maggi with your friend, but a friend who doesn't share the same feeling and has different intentions is not a friend.