Face Off Between Religion & Truth

Meet Bhavesh Patel (31), a gen-x truthseeker – confused, frustrated and disappointed. Here is one more hungry and thirsty soul, another sheep without a shepherd, another deeply religious man out of more than 700 million strong OBC’s of India.

Bhavesh yearns to know the truth about himself, his religion, his life. First, he tried to locate the purpose and meaning of his existence within his social and cultural realm, but got more confused, more frustrated and more disappointed. Then in 2005, he got attracted to the Christian religion through Geeta, the eldest of four siblings who is married to Victor Paul, now Truthseekers International’s networking partner in Gujarat.  Bhavesh went through the Christian ritual of water baptism in Delhi in an Evangelical fellowship and within weeks, filled with a newfound religious zeal, returned to his ancestral village, gathered all the idols and religious books of his old religion, and set them on fire in his courtyard.

The news of this act went out like wild fire within his close knit community of 72 villages and in no time he was disowned by his family. Everyone in his father’s house was petrified. It was now inevitable that the Council of Elders in their ultra religious community would excommunicate them from all forms of social contact. Bhavesh also soon became aware of the personal and social loss of many inter-personal relationships within the circle of his own family and friends. Apparently, it was a bad religious deal. The witness of the local church leaders too did not inspire any confidence or hope in him. From that point on, it was just a matter of time that he would fall back and wander away from the trappings of the organized church – the upfront representative of the Christian religion. The tragedy was that Bhavesh never encountered Truth in the religiosity of Christianity simply because nobody led him to the Truth – the Person – Jesus Christ. You see, the baptism of repentance does not automatically lead one to a new birth – the essential surrender of one’s willful heart to the Will of God. Bhavesh was not yet a born-again Christ-follower.

The prowling spirits from the dark world pounced on him with a vengeance. The idols were back in place, the demons dug their fangs deep into the soul of this bewildered young man, and thrice, within a span of 2 years, he was led into situations where he faced certain death. Every ill that befell upon him and his family was ascribed to his betraying his own religion and embracing a strange, foreign one instead.  He had committed the unpardonable sin of abandoning and angering the family deities and the ancestral spirits. As a remedial act of penance, an ancestral spirit was summoned through his elder brother to prepare the way for repentance and reconciliation.

Under tremendous pressure from his eldest brother and close friends, he again began seeking truth within the Brahminical religion, commonly known as Hinduism. After numerous back and forth conversations and meetings between the family elders, a Brahmin priest was consulted who agreed to appease the ancestral spirit who was purportedly displeased. It was time to make a deal and buy peace for the family. Needless to say, the price tag was substantial. All immediate paternal blood relations were hastily gathered. They first took a 6 hour long trip in a truck lorry and then a journey in a ferry across the river Narmada.

What you see here is the evidence of the most heinous form of cultural slavery of a vast sea of humanity – 700 million strong to be exact, an enslavement that’s institutionalized and monopolized through the brahmin’s socio-religious stranglehold over the the Other Backward Castes (O.B.C.s).  People without a book of their own, over millennia, they’ve been led to believe that the Brahmin has the last word on religious truth. Like many millions and billions in other religions and cultures, they do not know that religion and truth are poles apart.

In 2010, Victor moved with his family from Delhi to Gujarat with the message of caste reconciliation within the socio-cultural realm of the O.B.C.s. Over years, God has been dealing with this couple, individually as well as jointly, to draw them out of religion and bring them into the kingdom of the risen, glorious King Jesus. Transformed into Kingdom oriented truthseekers with a vision for Gujarat, they were sent by God to that very place – Bhavesh & Geeta’s village – where hundreds and thousands had stumbled at the doorstep of the Christian religion. But this time it is not religion but truth. Jesus Christ has himself come to become the corner stone of His kingdom in Gujarat (ref. Matt. 10:40). The doors slammed shut on this couple’s face by the face-off between religion and truth in this O.B.C. community, have been opened again by the One who is full of grace and truth.

Now hold your breath, because as you read further, your religious sensibilities could be deeply offended. Victor and Geeta, watched intently by many, knew that they will have to build many new bridges on the ashes of the foundations of the old bridges which had been burnt down by their previous insensitive religious approach. This time, they deliberately stayed away from all forms of organized religious activities of the church, not even attending any Sunday worship anywhere. And believe it or not, it is this fact alone that paved the way for Bhavesh to think afresh about approaching truth. Victor and Geeta’s non-religious and non-conventional approach helped Bhavesh in having a glimpse of the vision of Truthseekers. Geeta, Victor and their children never stopped interceding, never shied away from talking about Jesus, continued meeting and praying corporately, but they continued their witness without the accompaniment of any organized religious activity. The battle for Bhavesh’s soul was bitter and bloody. The demons tried every trick in their books. 

But… on Dec 3, 2011 they got a breakthrough! Bhavesh began searching for his long forgotten Bible, found it, dusted it, and again began searching for Truth. But this time the difference is stark and profound. Now he is a truthseeker who has learned in the hardest possible way that Truth is not located in any religious system. Bhavesh now knows that any and all points of reference of truth must necessarily begin and end in a Person – Jesus Christ – who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

We believe that God has answered our prayers and shown us a miraculous sign of beginning a people’s movement in Gujarat. Truthseekers, as a socio-spiritual people’s movement, is about spiritual transformation and not religious conversion. Pray that God may unleash the power of Truth through the new life of this young man. Amen.