He Chose Me (A Hindu Girl)

I was born in a pious Hindu Brahmin family as a granddaughter of a Hindu priest. My parents, especially my mother, was a very devout woman who always worshipped idols, observed almost all the rituals, fasts and holy days on the Hindu calendar. On important religious days, we would go as a family to the famous temples at Mumbai. (Both my parents were working in Mumbai then) and religiously chant the mantras and slokas that we knew. As any other Hindu girl, I and my sister, had grown up fascinated with the stories of Rama and Krishna.

In my teens, I remember having so much faith in Hindu gods.  I remember being scared at night, and whispering a Hindu god’s name over and over again believing that doing so would protect me from harm.

Life was sailing smooth. Both my parents were bankers – that fetched us a fairly good income. We had all the things that we needed. All of my material needs were met. At school I had been a good student securing desirable grades.

In spite of every good thing that life gifted me, I felt so much emptiness in my life. I was a shy teenage girl and hesitated to mingle easily with others. This made me feel the pain of loneliness. I did not have many friends until I was in high school. I always yearned for a “best friend”, but I could not find one. I supposed that everyone around me enjoyed a feeling of wholeness with their best friends, and that it was only I who had been denied this gratifying pleasure. My mom who piously gets up early in the mornings and offers prayers also had no peace in her heart. She used to often worry about every little thing and about the future.

In the year 1997, I was thirteen and would have never imagined that I would find a friend for life. A new lady joined my dad’s office. Her cabin was next to my dad’s. She was a Hindu who had accepted Christ as her Savior, and she would often share the great miracles that Christ had done in her life. She explained that Jesus Christ suffered and paid for the penalty of our sins by means of His death on the cross, and that if we believe in Jesus Christ, we would be saved from the everlasting punishment that we deserve as sinners.

On that day, my dad walked out of his office with great doubts about his faith and his teachings. He wanted to learn more about this Jesus and so he brought home a Bible that he had borrowed from his colleague. That was the first time in my life that I ever looked at the Bible. I piously turned through the pages only to find my mom angrily staring at me. No wonder, my mom was not happy to find a Bible at home.

Whenever my dad shared what he heard about this New God, my mom would yell angrily at him, “We are born a Hindu. Our fathers have taught us a way and a religion to follow. Don’t deviate from that path. All gods are one. Let us follow the one that our ancestors did.” Her angry outbursts made it clear that she was finding it difficult to embrace this new truth.

However, the things that my dad shared made a huge impact in my life. I would love to hear from him every evening when he was back home from office. (Of course, pretending that I had no interest in them fearing my mom).  I still vividly remember him teaching me and my sister to pray and the three of us sat together joining hands and praying to JESUS for the first time in our lives.

My dad articulated a small prayer, not a slogan or a recitation, but spoke out words that came out from his heart. It was just a simple affair – no miracles, no angels visiting. All that he did was just crying out to Jesus (as a child would speak to his father). But when he said Amen, I felt in my heart a desire to follow Jesus.

Now, you can imagine the reaction from my mom. She could not digest her two daughters also praying to this Jesus along with her husband. Her anger mounted. She began yelling and even threatened to take many pills and commit suicide. My dad, with great difficulty, managed to pacify her. However, her horrible anger frightened me.

I completely lost my peace. Multitude of thoughts used to carry me late into the nights. I wondered as to who is right – my dad or my mom. I pondered, ‘If Jesus is the only true God, then were my ancestors wrong?’ My mom was even more worried as to how she would get her two daughters married if my dad embraced Christianity. She was much concerned about the future. She used to cry uncontrollably in her bed that worried me even more. However, amidst all this turmoil at home, the love of Jesus drew me closer to Him. I used to love and long for the prayer time with my dad and sister. Those times of prayer gave me great peace and joy.

One day, my dad’s colleague invited my dad to the church. My dad decided to take both of us with him. The thought of going to the church for the first time in my life excited me so much. I, and my sister, rushed home from our NCC class on a fine Sunday morning to get ready to church.

I still remember my first day at church. Everything was new – the way of worship, the scripture reading, the sermon, the prayer – totally different from the way I used to worship in the temples. I hardly understood anything – the songs, the bible verses and the sermon delivered by the pastor sounded Greek and Latin to me. However, deep down in my heart, I realized that I found the best friend that I was so desperately longing for. Yes, a friend in Jesus! We came back home happily, but you can imagine what would have happened at home! My mother began to shout and yell at me and my sister.

Following this, I, my sister and my dad began to pray joining hands daily for my dear mom whom we loved so much. And prayer works! God slowly began to intervene in my mother’s life. All of the sudden, one day, we found that she was not offering her morning prayers. Wondering, my dad asked her what happened, and she replied, “I worship the god of my fathers. You are preaching a different God to me. I do not know which one is true. So, I have decided that I would not pray hereafter to any specific God. I would just pray that whichever God is true, come and reveal to me that you are the true God.” She would sit late in the nights and just pray that the One True God would reveal himself to her.

True God listened, spoke and answered her prayers! One night, as she prayed and went off to sleep, she heard a powerful voice ringing in her ears, “The Spirit of the Lord has chosen your house” in Tamil – our mother tongue. It was on the 30^th August 1998, at 3.00 am. She heard this authoritative yet loving voice three times. She got up and she could find the voice echoing in her ears all through the morning.

Little did she know who is “The Spirit of the Lord” or what the voice meant but for reasons unknown, she felt bountiful joy bubbling in her heart. Much excited, she shared it with all of us. My dad instantly replied, “The true God has spoken to you.”

The same morning, my mom was busy cooking potatoes. She cut them into two, boiled them and began peeling off the skin. She took one cut half of the potato and began peeling it when she found something written on it by ink. It read ‘YOU’. She wondered, ‘Who would ever write on a potato’ and began curiously searching the other half. She found the other half of the potato and that also had something written on it. She joined the two halves together and it read ‘I LOVE YOU’.

The potatoes were boiled well in water but the ink had not disappeared. The words were crystal clear. My mom wondered, ‘How come the words are so clear and neat in a potato that has been boiled for such a long time.’ Much amazed, she showed it to all of us. My dad once again said, ‘See, the Lord Jesus is confirming that He loves you.’ The entire family was overjoyed after a long time. Jesus was working in our family. Much astonished, both my parents went for work, and we went to school.

In the evening, my dad prayed, ‘Lord, if those words were truly written by You and not written by someone with ink, then speak to me through the scripture portion I am going to read today. You must clearly speak to me saying that this is not written by ink.’ He was reading few chapters from the Bible on a daily basis and his scripture portion for the day was 2 Corinthians chapter 3. He began reading anxiously and the 3^rd verse read:

‘clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.’

How amazing, He is the God who speaks! My dad told this to my mom and that night for the very first time, my mother also joined the three of us in prayer. Our entire family got down on our knees and surrendered our lives to Jesus. Each one of us experienced a deep, personal conversion to Christ.

It was not a change of religion; it was not a change of our names (We still have our same old names). It was the change in the way of life – a change that drew us closer to the One True God who led us with bonds of love. The entire family prayed together, and we felt the powerful presence of Jesus. With that presence, came supernatural joy. Our hearts were filled with peace – as scripture says in Philippians 4:7, it was the peace that surpasses all human understanding, something that we had never experienced before. It was the peace that our money, our education or our status could not give us.

As for me, I found my special best friend in Christ who always stood by me in all my tough times and has never let me down till date. Nobody has ever loved me as Jesus did. He demonstrated His greatest love for me by giving His life. Jesus has been with me and my family since then in all our ups and downs. Today, as a family we are serving Christ. We have learnt that life is not all about our desires, but it is about showing the love of Christ to others.

I can honestly say that inviting Jesus into my life and submitting myself fully to Him was the most important decision in my life and I have never regretted making that decision for a moment since that time. I have put this down in writing to persuade you the reader to consider seriously where your life is going and encourage you to have Jesus as your best friend.

Christ is not the God of Christians alone! In fact, Christ can be found in the Vedas – a collection of Hindu religious books written before the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Vedas talk about Prajapati sacrifice meaning the sacrifice of God Himself which was literally fulfilled in the real Prajapati Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, such as sinlessness, the separation, the rejection, the silent suffering, tying to the sacrificial pillar, the shedding of innocent blood, unbroken bones and returning to life. The birth of our lord and savior Jesus Christ, and the good news of the gospel are revealed in the Upanishads. Hinduism’s most ancient text, the 3000 to 4000 year old Rig Veda, contains a prophecy about a “Lamb (Jesus) which must be sacrificed for the sins of mankind- a Lamb without blemish”!

If Christ was a God of Christians alone, He would have never come seeking us – a strictly religious Hindu Brahmin family. As scripture rightly says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit,” it was Jesus who came seeking me.

He is the God who died for each and every one of our sins and rose again. He is alive today and longs to have a personal loving relationship with you. Just call upon Him in prayer and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and then ask Him to take control of your life. He will give you so much more than what the rest of this world could ever offer you. Try Jesus! Cast all your cares and burdens on Him. No one ever can care for you like Jesus. He never fails!