Indianized Bible Hit Among Christians (Westernized Gita Hit Among Westerners???)

krsna · July 22, 2008

Indianized Version Of Bible Hit Among Christians

Source: http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14714631

MUMBAI, INDIA, July 13, 2008: An “Indianized” version of the Bible released in India has become a huge hit among the Christian community. The Bible has proved to be extremely popular among the Catholics in Mumbai where over 15,000 copies were sold out within ten days of its release. An interesting feature of this Bible is that it has drawn references to other religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

“What made it special was that they have also drawn the Indian mythology into it. It’s not only based on Bible and its foreign stories,” said Corin Mendonsa, a buyer of the book. Another interesting thing about the book is that it depicts Mother Mary and other characters in typical Indian clothes.

According to the Catholic community this Bible is getting a good response from the market. The new Bible, which has about 2,200 pages, costs just Rs 250.

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How about folks, a westernized Gita for all them nice Westerners who can't get over their Indianized bias??? Would it work??? :confused:

AncientMariner · July 23, 2008

I wish they would make a pocket sized Srimad Bhagavatam. That would be cool.

bhaktajan · July 23, 2008

your pocket would 'over runneth'

AncientMariner · July 23, 2008

your pocket would 'over runneth'

True but I would settle for a pocket sized 5th Canto if they could fit that into a pocket sized version.

Bishadi · July 23, 2008

the beauty to see, is that within each sect or religion there are truths that the other fails to provide

and once a culture is saturated with one, the other fills much of the gaps

but then find such like Islam, that combines the spiritual (Zoraster) with the western (abrahamic)....

just like knowledge; religions evolve

can you all see how the rude like to sell what they have versus honor God with thanks, giving all that is yours for tomorrow?

just imagine how rich a person could be if he 'sold' the final math to understand how all mass and energy exist within time.

basically, the mathematical frame the majority of the scientific world is pursuing.....

i wonder how much that is worth, being just about every country, government and even the educational communities (in US it is a business) all would like to have that math (comprehension).

lokeshvara · July 23, 2008

indianization of catholicism was a policy approved by the pope about a year ago. the bible is just the first step. there are some churches now chanting namah jesus and the icons are coming closer to looking like traditional murtis. also many churches in kerala and other places are taking on traditional indian architecture instead of the western style most churches take on.

when i was in varanasi last year i visited a church (much to my mistake, i was looking for a temple) the church was being rennovated as a part of its indianization.

it's an interesting phenomenon. i would be interested to see ten years down the road if indian catholicism will resemble its western roots or if it will look more like a local faith much like catholicism in mayan and incan communities of south america.

RadheyRadhey108 · July 25, 2008

Catholicism changes from country to country. Pictures of Mary, Jesus, etc... take on the nationality of the people they've been brought to. Church architecture is always trying to fit in with what the other buildings look like. Prayers are translated into popular languages. Books are written to make the new religion more 'familiar' to the common people. Nothing knew, really. Just a new country.

bija · July 26, 2008

it's an interesting phenomenon. i would be interested to see ten years down the road if indian catholicism will resemble its western roots or if it will look more like a local faith much like catholicism in mayan and incan communities of south america. lokeshvara

It is interesting. I would like a copy of that Indianized bible for my library (being an old catholic boy inclined to the east). Does anyone know where it can be purchased online?

suchandra · July 26, 2008

Real followers of vedic tradition will probably rather see this as too blatant, see below, "the notes even quote Hindu scriptures, such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, to help to explain Christianity to prospective converts".

Since present Christianity is rather a toll-gate than a genuine religious organization ("Thou shall not kill your first business"), could be that their strategy of introducing an institution based upon micropayment turns out as quite lucrative business in a 1.13 billion nation.

By bright face Jeremy Page

From The Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4402482.ece

July 26, 2008

Vatican hopes Indian Bible will translate into surge of converts

A new version of the holy text depicts Virgin Mary in sari and Joseph in a loincloth and turban

Jeremy Page

Barefoot and wearing a sari, with a bindi on her forehead and a naked baby on her shoulder, the woman in the picture is unmistakably Indian. So is the man behind her, clad in a loincloth and turban.

They could be any poor family in an Indian village, or at one of the country's teeming railway stations. This, however, is no ordinary family.

The image is one of the Virgin Mary with Joseph and the baby Jesus in the first “Indianised” version of the Bible, published by the Roman Catholic Church last month.

The New Community Bible is part of an attempt by the Vatican to attract more converts in the world's second-most populous country as congregations decline in Europe and North America.

“I am sure this Bible, made in India and for Indians, will bring the word of God closer to millions of our people, not only Christians,” Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Bombay, said at a ceremony on the Bible's release.

Produced by the Society of St Paul, the Bible is the first in this nation of 1.1 billion to be written in simplified English. It features 27 sketches of typical Indian scenes: one shows a family in a slum beneath skyscrapers. Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa also feature in lengthy notes interpreting the text for Indian readers.

The notes even quote Hindu scriptures, such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, to help to explain Christianity to prospective converts. “We wanted to show the parallels between the themes in the Bible and in Indian religions,” Father Tony Charanghat, a spokesman for the Archbishop, said. “We've put the sacred text in a local context.”

Christianity is reputed to have been brought to India by Thomas the Apostle, “Doubting Thomas”, in AD52, and the first Catholic missionaries came from Portugal in the 16th century. It is now the third-largest religion in India - after Hinduism and Islam - with 24 million followers. Of those, 17 million are Catholics, compared with two million in 1900.

The growth of India's Christian flock has slowed since anti-conversion laws were introduced in seven states under pressure from Hindu nationalists. It is still far faster than in Europe and North America, where the congregation has grown by 2.3 per cent since 2000, compared with 21.4 per cent in Asia, according to the International Bulletin of Missionary Research. “The calculation is that this is the last great missionary front on Earth,” John L. Allen Jr, a Vatican expert based in Rome, said.

The idea of an Indianised Bible was conceived in the 1980s after Bernardo Hurault, a French priest in Chile, produced a simple Spanish version with a commentary. His Christian Community Bible of 1971 has been translated into French, Filipino and Chinese and is used in South America, Africa and Asia.

Indian church leaders wanted more than a translation: they wanted cultural relevance. So they asked 20 experts on Christianity and Indian religions to devise a commentary that would help Indian converts. For example, when Jesus tells disciples to turn the other cheek, the notes compare this to Gandhi's creed of non-violence. Conservatives say that such devices corrupt the Bible's original meaning, while Hindu nationalists say that they amount to blatant proselytising.

A print run of 30,000 of the new Bibles sold out in a week in Bombay. In Delhi, St Paul's bookshop has only a few copies left. “We've had to limit the number of copies to three per person,” Father Stephen Calunkudy, who works at the shop, said. “We've even had Hindus coming in to buy a copy.”

bija · July 26, 2008

http://www.stpaulsncb.com/

suchandra · July 26, 2008

http://www.stpaulsncb.com/

Surely a book with entertaining factor. Although the saga of the Flood from another yuga -Cākṣuṣa-manvantara- seems to be copied from the Vedas, http://vedabase.net/sb/8/24/en

bija · July 26, 2008

That's a beautiful picture you know. It is not fantasy...saints who live in accord with super-soul live in harmony with nature. No fear/anxiety exists in that land (vaikuntha - gods kingdom)

Last week the Pope visited Australia and he spoke of the holy spirit alot. That is universal...living in accord with super-soul. Like the jungle animals dancing with our Lord (Sri Gaura)...we can draw close to such harmony if we choose to cultivate (and personally I feel it is possible to cultivate if we distance ourself from close intimacy with grossness).

I can see hope for a better world...if we can all live the universal truth of harmony with God. The birds will show us we are drawing closer. If we keep focus on Krsna (who resides in all)...we may oneday walk in God's kingdom (and be rescued from the devastation - just like the story of noah - they all ridiculed him as mad - he was sane and in direct communion with the higher principle).

krsna · July 27, 2008

That's a beautiful picture you know. It is not fantasy...saints who live in accord with super-soul live in harmony with nature. No fear/anxiety exists in that land (vaikuntha - gods kingdom)

Last week the Pope visited Australia and he spoke of the holy spirit alot. That is universal...living in accord with super-soul. Like the jungle animals dancing with our Lord (Sri Gaura)...we can draw close to such harmony if we choose to cultivate (and personally I feel it is possible to cultivate if we distance ourself from close intimacy with grossness).

I can see hope for a better world...if we can all live the universal truth of harmony with God. The birds will show us we are drawing closer. If we keep focus on Krsna (who resides in all)...we may oneday walk in God's kingdom (and be rescued from the devastation - just like the story of noah - they all ridiculed him as mad - he was sane and in direct communion with the higher principle).