The Issue of Conversion: Challenges before Hindu Society
Hindu’s Conversion to Abrahamic Religions

Abstract
The article examines the aggressive proselytization targeting Hindus in India, exposing the socio-political and cultural ramifications of conversions to Abrahamic religions. It highlights the lack of reliable data on conversions, despite documented cases of fraudulent tactics, including financial incentives, “miracle cures,” and exploitation of vulnerable communities. She contrasts Hinduism—an inclusive, philosophy-based tradition emphasizing dharma (righteousness) and universal spiritual truth—with the exclusive, dogmatic nature of Christianity and Islam, which claim sole religious legitimacy and threaten non-believers with eternal damnation. The article wonders why the secular Indian government is enabling religious inequalities, such as preferential treatment for “minority” religions and the marginalization of Hindu institutions. It is argued that conversions fracture social harmony, empower divisive forces, and erode India’s spiritual heritage. She calls for educating Hindus about their profound philosophical roots (e.g., Advaita Vedanta), challenging irrational dogmas of Christianity and Islam through rational discourse, and stopping unequal religious policies by the state. Ultimately, Wirth frames the preservation of Hinduism as essential not only for India’s cultural integrity but also for humanity as a whole. The Vedic knowledge that God is within as blissful consciousness (sat-chit-ananda) is lacking in the Abrahamic religions.

Text

Conversion is a big challenge for Hindu society in India. Yet it is hardly a topic of public debate. Moreover, it is impossible to get accurate data of conversions. In fact, even the data regarding the composition of the population religion wise, may not be reliable.

In 1947, India’s population was around 36.1 crores, of whom 30.37 crores (84.1%) were Hindus, 3.54 crore (9.8%) were Muslims, 0.83 crore (2.3%) were Christians and 0.27 crores (0.7%) Buddhists. (the figures are based on the census of 1951).
In the 2011 census, the Hindu population had shrunk by 4.3 percent and the Muslim population had grown by 4.4 percent. The overall population had tripled to 121.9 crores. Hindus accounted for 96.62 crore (79.8%), Muslims for 17.22 crore (14.23%), Christians for 2.78 crores (2.3%) and Buddhists for 0.84 crore (0.7%).
The census of 2021 was postponed due to the Covid pandemic and will be held only in 2026/27. It can be assumed that since 2011, the Hindu population has shrunk further, yet the population of Muslims is still cited to be 14 percent and that of Christians still 2 percent. Do we bury our heads ostrich-like in the sand?

According to the website censusofindia.net, in 2025, the overall population is estimated at 141 crores, of whom 114 crores are expected to be Hindus. This would be a slight increase of Hindus to 80 percent, which is unlikely considering the massive conversion attempts, apart from the lower Hindu birthrate. Unfortunately, I could not find official numbers for conversions. ChatGPT says: “I could not find any official government estimate that gives a precise number of Hindus who have converted to Christianity since 2011. In fact, the Government of India has explicitly said that no central record/database of religious conversion is maintained.”
The same is valid for Islam: “There is no reliable official data specifying how many Hindus have converted to Islam in India since 2011.” ChatGPT continued, “Most demographic surveys, including those by Pew Research Center, find that religious switching is very rare overall.” According to Pew research survey of 2021, 0.7 percent of the respondents said that they have changed their religion. This would come to around 6 million people. Yet since there is no central database of religious conversion, the true numbers are anybody’s guess.

Aggressive conversions are happening

Most of us know even from personal observation, that missionary activity is extremely high in India by both Christianity and Islam, especially in certain states like Punjab or Tamil Nadu, and basically everywhere, specifically in tribal areas. They don’t hide it. Christian publications exhort their members to convert Hindus. “India must be evangelised in this generation”, declared ‘Blessings’, a Christian youth magazine in its 2008 issue, which a priest from Tamil Nadu had left with me. And a German Catholic magazine, which landed in my mother’s mailbox, had an article with the ominous title, “India – a success story”.

The Joshua project is clearly implemented. New churches shoot up, Christian schools offer discount for fees for Christians, missionaries ‘visit’ patients in hospitals, etc. Occasionally, news about conversions come out in the media due to complaints by Hindus. Some examples from only one week:
On 30. September 2025, several news outlets reported that over 1000 Hindus from poor and backward castes converted to Christianity in Lucknow’s Mohanlalganj. A village once free of Christianity had now 5 churches and100 plus prayer halls. According to India Today, police unearthed a well-oiled nexus to lure Dalits with the help of ‘miracles cures’.
A few days later, another huge conversion ring with wide connections across states was uncovered in Gujarat’s Nandiad, on which OpInda reported.
Soon after, on 6. October, more concerning news surfaced. An American, James Watson, in India on a business visa, was arrested together with two Indian associates for fraudulent conversions in villages in Maharashtra, targeting especially children. He told them that ‘Hinduism is based on superstition. But if they convert, they will be happy, prosperous and cured from illness.’ In this connection, CNN News 18 reported that between 2018 and 2025 over 320 cases had been discovered of visa misuse for religious conversion. This may be only the tip of the iceberg.

Muslims, too, try hard to get Hindus into their fold.
The Chhangur Baba case shows, how much money flows into fraudulent, elaborate conversion efforts. He and his associates were arrested in July 2025. He received hundreds of crores from abroad for his conversion racket, where he funded Muslim men to entrap Hindu girls. Love Jihad, for long denied, can’t be denied any longer. Even otherwise, Muslims are taught to coax Hindus into converting by presenting Islam as far more attractive than Hinduism. Zakir Naik said in one of his speeches around 2016, it is easy for Muslims to convert Hindus. They only need to show Hindus a picture of Ganesha, with his elephant head and big belly, and ask them whether this is the God whom they worship.

This situation is concerning and the question, why the government has no database, is only natural. Even in states, which have enacted anti-conversion laws, and where it is obligatory to register a change of religion, no overall numbers are available. What is available, are FIRs filed for unlawful conversion, and individual notifications in government Gazettes about name changes. But how many conversions in toto happened, nobody seems knows.

Religion is not a concern for the government

Is it possible that the government does not WANT to know what is happening on the religious front? If this is true, then even the 2011 census may not give the correct picture. And from an anecdotical episode, this is indeed possible.
A teacher in Mumbai, who was part of the 2011 census team, told me that during the training for the census, they were instructed to accept whatever information they were given. She surveyed a heavily Muslim populated area and knew that she was not getting honest answers. She went back to her supervisor and told him, that the census won’t be accurate if they are not allowed to check the information, for example how many children a family has. Her instructor was blunt, “You heard the instruction. Accept whatever info is given.” She told me, “If the government manages to conduct an accurate census next time, it will be a shock for Hindus.”

When there is no will to know what is happening regarding conversions, there is probably also no will, to stop it. The government, rightfully, maintains that it is secular and not concerned about the religion of its subjects. It has a point. This is clearly a worldwide attitude. The German government also no longer records the religion of its citizens. It did so till in the 1950s, when I was in primary school and dutifully filled out “rk” for Roman Catholic in all official forms. Yet, today, only the Churches keep a record.

Hinduism and the Abrahamic religions are completely different categories

The situation in India is, however, unique. The Hindu faith of the majority is very different from Islam and Christianity. Often it is not even considered as a religion, because it does not have a rigid ‘belief system’, but it is rather a way of life. It has a solid foundation in philosophy and demands to follow dharma – to do the right thing in the given situation according to one’s conscience. It does not exclude anyone from being ‘allowed’ into the Presence of God. In fact, it claims, God is already present in everyone, and explains what is meant by ‘God” (not a kind of biased superman on a golden throne high up in the sky, but all-pervading, pure, blissful consciousness). In short, Hinduism makes a lot of sense.

Unlike Islam and Christianity, which were brought to India by invaders, Hinduism does not proselytise. Those two foreign religions demand blind belief in dogmas. A dogma is a claim that cannot be proven to be true, and the most irrational, and very harmful dogmas of both Islam and Christianity are the claims that, 1. Only their religion is true (both didn’t sort out over the centuries, which one exactly is true, because of course they don’t have any proof for their claims) and 2. if you don’t convert to Islam or Christianity, the great God will discard you at Judgement Day and let you burn ETERNALLY in hell.

Burden of history

Hindus were threatened and brutally coerced to convert first by Muslim and later by Christian invaders over several centuries. Millions of Hindus died for their faith. Many preferred humiliation and financial burden to conversion. When the outsiders left, Hinduism was still strong. However, most of those Hindus, who had converted to Islam and Christianity during foreign occupation, were successfully alienated from their original tradition especially during British rule, who were, and still are, masters in ‘divide and rule’. They made those converts believe that they were better, higher, more worthy than Hindus.

At Independence in 1947, Muslims demanded their own country to be carved out from India, called Pakistan, which in 1971 split into Pakistan and Bangladesh. So, one would expect that Islam is no longer a problem in India, and Hindus have only to deal with those who converted to Christianity but who also, like Muslims, believe that they alone have the true religion, and Hindus will be eternally damned by God if they don’t convert. Yet this is a wrong notion because many Muslims, who agitated for a separate state before Independence on the ground that they can’t live with Hindus, did not go to Pakistan. They stayed back, possibly even with the nefarious agenda to fulfil Allah’s alleged wish to make all Indians follow Islam. The truncated India was generous and allowed it, maybe on the advice of the British who wanted to sow the seeds for division in Independent India.

Many Hindus probably considered the Indian Muslims and Christians as not very different from themselves, and did not realise that their religious doctrine had meanwhile indoctrinated many of them to look down on Hindus, and they had become as unreasonable as their foreign masters used to be. Now the converts, too, believed that the great God/ Allah does not like Hindus and will throw them into eternal hellfire, and that Allah/God wants only Muslims/Christians on earth. No reasonable person would believe this, and Indians are generally reasonable, but due to indoctrination from childhood, many of the converts had embraced this irrational belief.

Respectable Gods and religions

Moreover, on the international stage, those religions, which consider the creator of this vast universe as personal, revengeful and biased, are considered respectable even today. People, who are otherwise reasonable, don’t realise that a God, who loves only certain people, must be a tribal God and cannot be the Source of All.

Unfortunately, Hindus did not seem to be aware of those dogmas. Otherwise, why would they allow Christian schools to continue after Independence to teach Hindu children, when ‘good’ Christian teachers naturally look down on their Hindu students because, according to the Church, they follow a ‘dark, demonic cult’?
Why would the government allow the catechism to be taught to Christian students, but not allow Vedanta philosophy, which is a rational explanation of what is true, to be taught – not even to Hindu students?
Why would the ‘minority religions’, parts of which are irrational and based entirely on blind belief, get government concessions, and Hindu Dharma, which is based on solid philosophy, would be disadvantaged, for example in the Right to Education Act or regarding their Places of Worship?

Indian Secularism is upside down

So, even though a secular state is not supposed to be interested in the religion of its subjects, in India, certain reforms would only be fair, as presently the stakes are stacked against Hindus. If a Hindu converts, he gets the advantage of belonging to a politically influential ‘minority’, which is worldwide even a majority. And if he happens to be a criminal, even world media will treat him more leniently than it treats Hindus, and it seems, as if this lenient treatment extends even to the judiciary worldwide.

Agreed, the government has no role to play in religion, but it surely has to level the playing field, especially since the Abrahamic religions and Hindu Dharma are in very different categories: Islam and Christianity are exclusive and divide society between those who are right and saved, and those who are wrong and damned. Even in the interest of developing a ‘rational mindset’, which is the explicit goal of education, the followers of those religions should not be given favours by the government.
In contrast, Hindu Dharma is inclusive and makes sense. It claims that ultimately all will reach back to their divine Source and it exhorts to follow Dharma. It would make sense, in the interest of a stable society, to favour it.

A harmonious society is rather impossible if the divisiveness of the dogmatic religions is not taken out

If you have many crores of Indians who despise Hindus because according to their belief, Hindus are great sinners by worshipping false Gods, a harmonious society is tough to achieve, and enemies of Bharat have a field day to instigate chaos and violence. This is not theory. It’s happening, including with big money from the Deep State, as the investigation into USAID had revealed.

Do Hindus even know what is preached in the innumerable churches and mosques across India? I know that Hindu Gods are called devils or demons by Christian clergy. Yet incredibly, Hindus don’t challenge those harmful dogmas of Christianity and Islam, even though they easily could, as they have the better arguments. Not only this: according to the Human Rights Charter of the United Nations, it is unacceptable to demean a group of people as inferior and damned for eternity. Yet strangely, when a religious doctrine demeans a billion people, moreover people, who are known to be open-minded and dharmic, nobody flags it as wrong.

It shows that the powers-that-be prefer that humans everywhere hold irrational beliefs instead of gaining deep insights into what is true and what can be experienced. It means, Hinduism is an obstacle for those powers. This is an important point and, in all likelihood, responsible for the unfair negative portrayal of Hinduism in world media and the entertainment industry and for funnelling money into conversion attempts. Yet the eradication of Hinduism is definitely not in the interest of humanity as a whole.

Blunders that need to be corrected

It was clearly a blunder that Hindus did not explain their faith to the Indian followers of the Abrahamic religions right after Independence and it needs to be corrected urgently. And an even greater blunder also needs to be corrected: Hindu pundits hardly explained the solid philosophical foundation of their faith even to their own people and especially to the younger generations.

Hindus are strongly focussed on education. Parents make great sacrifices to educate their children well. Yet they did not realise that under the garb of ‘modern’ education their offspring was not learning anything about their ancient tradition but instead, their children were weaned away from it – due to the immense influence of the Left, which is an arm of the infamous ‘Deep State’.

Young Hindus, who went through college education, no longer know the basics of their faith and have not even heard of the Brahman (Advaita Vedanta) that is their own inner essence. Many become atheists, without knowing what being an atheist actually means. In recent years, they become not only atheists, but also ‘woke’ and ‘sexually liberated’, whatever this means. This virus affects mainly the Hindu youth. Of course, not all Hindu youth, but many have no longer an anchor in their faith – a faith for which earlier generations even died. This negative influence makes them vulnerable to go against dharma, not to believe any longer in Karma, and it also makes them vulnerable for conversion, if they see material benefits.

It’s NO virtue not to propagate Hindu Dharma

Hindus sometimes even seem proud that they don’t propagate their faith. It is a false pride and not wise. Christianity and Islam are clever. They explain their good aspects, like strong belief and trust in God or Allah, and strong community support. They also explain why they are closer to the truth. The reason, they say is, that they have one God compared to many Gods in Hinduism. They are right: one source is closer to the truth. The Source must be formless and therefore only One. Unfortunately, most Hindus can’t counter them because, not only do their Muslim and Christian friends not know, but even they themselves don’t know any longer the basic insights of the Rishis – the one formless Brahman of the Vedas which is within all of us.

If the Hindu representatives had explained the basics of the Vedas right after Independence in a big way, many of those who had converted to Islam and Christianity might have come back. Anyone who has common sense will come to the conclusion that Hindu Dharma is superior to all three Abrahamic religions, as it is a genuine enquiry and not blind belief in the supremacy of a particular group.

Instead, in the name of ‘harmony’, Hindus downplayed the intellectual superiority of Hindu Dharma and allowed Islam and Christianity to aggressively propagate their religions as “only true” and lure Hindus with a simple formula: there is only one true God and our God is this true God. He is compassionate and loving and has promised that He will look after you, provided you accept him and keep the rules and commandments.
Another positive aspect is stressed: the convert is promised to be part of a strongly bonded brotherhood especially in the case of Islam, but also in the case of Christianity, he will get emotional and financial support from the Church if in distress. Apart from that, since for many Hindus this is not enough reason to forgo their tradition, they lure converts with financial benefits, cheat outright with so-called miracles or frighten simple-minded Hindus with eternal hellfire.

What are the solutions?

Very important is of course that the government does not favour the big and powerful ‘minorities’ of Muslims and Christians. How to achieve this change in a democracy, where everyone is focused mainly on vote banks, needs to be brainstormed.

Apart from the government, Hindu Society has a big role to play: First and foremost, the basics of Vedic wisdom need to be made known widely. Schools and Universities are a good start and thanks to the New Education Policy, the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) is now indeed taken into educational institutions. There is however a problem: even teachers often don’t know much about the profound philosophy and haven’t done sadhana in their life to discover Atma within. So, they prefer to explain festivals or customs or stories from the Ramayana or Bhagavad Gita.
All this is important, but if the greatest advantage of Hindu Dharma is not clearly explained, students may not be convinced why they should stick to their tradition, especially when they are lured with material benefits and also told that billion humans worldwide see merit in those dogmatic religions. Otherwise, why would there be so many Christians and Muslims in the world?

The most important point and the crucial difference between Hindu Dharma and the Abrahamic religions is that Hindus claim that God is within as Sat-Chit-Ananda (blissful Consciousness), and that it can be experienced.

To convey this knowledge effectively, it would need Hindus who have touched their Atma, who know from experience about the oneness of all, because if the truth is conveyed only theoretically, it won’t make an impact. Therefore, sadhana needs to be encouraged and sadhana needs to be the criterion for being able to teach, not academic degrees. Small booklets with sayings of genuine saints like Anandamanyi Ma or Mata Amritanandamayi could be distributed in a big way. They are already available and explain Vedanta philosophy in a simple way. For me personally, meeting Anandamayi Ma had a decisive influence in understanding Vedic wisdom. It was easy to understand because she lived this oneness. Anandamayi Ma once said, “There is no difference between you and me and I don’t see a difference.”

Approach to Indian Christians

The theology of Christianity is a little confusing. On the one hand, it is considered heresy for a Christian to claim that he is one with God, yet on the other hand, the Holy Spirit is supposed to come over him and guide him. And all three – God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit – are seen as God. Nowadays, many Christians in the West no longer accept the dogmas of the Church, but take the sayings of Jesus and Bhakti as guideline. Therefore, many even claim that God is within, as Jesus himself said “the Kingdom of heaven is within”.

Hindus should point out to Christians those aspects, where Jesus, in contrast to the Church, is in line with the Indian Rishis. For example, he made the Upanishadic statement, “I and my Father are one” (Aham Brahmasmi). Unfortunately, and shrewdly, the Church declared that this claim is valid only for Jesus, but this of course doesn’t make sense.

Another point: When once asked what is the most important commandment, Jesus said, that the most important commandment is to love God above everything else. This teaching is recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It means, Jesus was foremost advocating Bhakti, the most important path also for Hindus, and for anyone who wants to realise the truth. Yet the Church declared as its first commandment: ‘you shall not have other gods before me’, and doesn’t mention the Bhakti aspect.
Now in all likelihood, the Christians will counter Hindus and claim, “What the Church means, is that we need to worship the true God, and we, the Christians, have the true God and you, Hindus, have false Gods.”

It needs to be understood first by Hindus themselves and then also conveyed to Indian Christians: Hinduism claims that there is absolute truth, and relative truth. Absolute truth is that which is really true, it means it must be always and self-evident. It means, only God (pure, eternal, unchanging Consciousness = Brahman) is really true (it can be logically concluded and experienced). And that Consciousness is really the only true, invisible, formless God. All else is Maya, a temporary appearance on this truth. This is of course universally valid and independent by what name one calls that one Truth.

An analogy makes it clear: in a movie hall, the flickering, changing pictures of the movie cover the movie screen. Yet the invisible white screen is the only real thing in the movie, all else, including the people, houses, etc. are temporary appearances whose substance is the one screen. The story of the movie is more like virtual reality. This should make sense nowadays. Even Elon Musk believes that this apparent reality is not the real thing. It follows naturally, that discovering the ‘real thing’ (Brahman) is the goal of life.
The Abrahamic religions do not have this absolute Truth level. Even their great (good) God and its opposite, the (evil) Satan, are within Maya, more in tune with the Devas and Asuras/Rakshasas of Hinduism.

We should use the sayings of Jesus which are in tune with Vedanta, to make Indian Christians reflect that the dogmas of the Church are unnecessary and even ridiculous, and that their accusation that Hindus worship false Gods does not apply, simply because only one ‘thing’ (not a thing of course) is true and everything is contained in that.

Another point: Often, ordinary Christians are critical of their priests and bishops. I know this from Germany, and it may be the case also in India. Especially the higher clergy may be corrupt – morally and financially. If caught, such news should be spread. It helps to wean away common Christians from the Church.

Approach to Indian Muslims

The previous point that often, the clergy is not living an ideal, but rather an immoral life, is valid also for certain Muslim clergy. It should not be hushed up, but spread in news. It helps ordinary Muslims not to be too much under their sway.

It is probably more difficult to have a sensible dialogue with Muslims. Some Britisher made a valid observation: “While the Hindus sharpen their arguments, the Muslims sharpen their swords.” At present, there is the unfortunate situation, that Muslims are confident that Hindus are afraid of their street power. This needs to change and Muslims need to be afraid that they will pay for instigating violence. Law enforcement agencies need to make them pay, or even Hindus who are not afraid to push them back in street violence.

Yet there are also other means, to make Indian Muslims understand that going against Hindus is not in their own interest. One important point is to make them realise that they are useful tools (idiots) to create chaos which is in the interest of the Deep State (DS). The global financial system, spearheaded by mainly Jewish banker billionaires, is very powerful in the DS. At present, there is a lot of debate in the American society about who actually controls the US government and its foreign policy.
The release of 3 million pages of the Epstein Files in February 2026 has opened a Pandora’s box. For the first time, common people gain insights into the secret, dark practices of the so-called top global elite which seems more like a Satanic cult.

It may sound like a conspiracy theory, but attempts are clearly on to propel humanity into a controlled one world government with the help of surveyance technology. The World Economic Forum openly said that ‘creative destruction’ is needed for the ‘Great Reset’ to occur. The fact that Muslims are convenient tools for the DS to destroy societies, has become especially obvious in Europe. Incidentally, Jewish organisations are instrumental in bringing the Muslim ‘refugees’, mainly young men, into Europe. Why? To destroy nation states by intermingling the races.

It should also be clear to Indian Muslims that Taliban and even ISIS were bankrolled by the CIA and other organisations of the deep state, and that obviously, some of their Muslim leaders are corrupt. On the surface, Muslims and Jews are portrayed as the biggest enemies, yet both religions have a lot in common. However, the really big money, which influences geopolitics in a big way, is not with the Muslims.

There is another worrying aspect, which should also worry Indian Muslims: there is a Jewish prophecy that before the messiah comes, a huge war needs to happen (the war of Gog and Magog) where the majority of humans will perish. Presently in geopolitics, Israel is clearly pushing for a big war, and they openly said, if pushed to a corner, they would use their nuclear weapons.

If Indian Muslims would understand that certain Muslim leaders make deals with the western DS (like in Syria recently or in Bangladesh), and that they will ultimately not get their worldwide caliphate but end up being controlled by the more powerful global financial system which has literally ‘all the money of the world’, they might align themselves with the overall interest of India and not weaken India by going against Hindus. Ex-Muslims can play a big role in making Muslims aware of the geopolitical situation and also in making them doubt the irrational dogmas. Their numbers of ex-Muslims are increasing even in India.

Once I heard a congress spokesperson say on TV, “what does it matter if one worships Krishna or Christ.” True, it doesn’t matter much, Bhakti is a valid path and all true devotion and prayers reach the One. This is valid for Hindus, Christians and Muslims. But it matters what else those religions demand to believe blindly (for example that Hindus are worshipping demons and will go to hell), and which not only creates discord in the society, but also harms those believers individually, as they don’t follow their conscience which tells them to do the right thing in the given circumstances, but instead blindly “believe absurdities which can make them commit atrocities”, as Voltaire had already observed.

So, first, Hindus themselves need to be solidly grounded in their ancient wisdom through knowledge and sadhana, and second, the unreasonable dogmas of Islam and Christianity need to be fearlessly challenged – possibly even by taking the issue to international bodies like the United Nations.

By Maria Wirth
if you like my writing, consider reading my books
Why Hindu Dharma is under attack by Muslims, Christians and the Left – July 2025

Why Hindi Dharma is under attack is now also available in Hindi
https://www.amazon.in/Hindu-Muslimon-Isaiyon-Vampanthion-Aakrman/dp/9391154832

Thank you India – a German woman’s journey to the wisdom of Yoga, Nov 2018 (from a personal angle)

The post The Issue of Conversion: Challenges before Hindu Society first appeared on Maria Wirth.

Are you all alone here in India? How often I was asked this question, and how hard it was for the questioner to understand, why on earth, I would venture into a foreign land all alone. Yet of course I am not alone. Especially in India it is almost impossible to be alone. I don’t mean because of the many people everywhere, but it’s impossible due to India’s ancient wisdom. It says that God, that great power, that is the cause for our existence is always with us. Not only with us, like our best, trustworthy friend but it is right WITHIN us as our true essence. It will never leave us, in fact, it cannot even leave us, because we are one with it.

Sure, usually we trust our senses which tell us that we are all alone when no other person is around, with whom we are somehow familiar. We look for friendly relationships to others, and overlook our closest and most familiar relationship with our Self or God. We should keep reminding ourselves about this innermost presence and so become more familiar with it, the Indian Rishis advise. Calling it God and being in an intimate dialogue or prayer, is helpful. This is easier at least in the beginning, when we can focus our full attention on God or our Self – that means, when we are all alone. Then it is easier to realise that in truth all is one (al-one) and that we are one with that which the Indian Rishis call Brahman or pure, blissful awareness.

Suddenly ‘being alone’ has a very different feeling to it and being lonely, cannot happen to us any longer.

By Maria Wirth

If you like my writing, check out my books:
“Why Hindu Dharma is under attack by Muslims, Christians and the Left”, published 2025
https://www.amazon.in/dp/8119670655 also Kindle version

Thank you India – a German woman’s journey to the wisdom of yoga” 2018, from a personal angle.
it’s also available on amazon, but cheaper from the publisher Garuda.
https://garudalife.in/thank-you-india-by-maria-wirth/ (for Rs 349 instead of Rs 499)

The post Of being all alone and lonely first appeared on Maria Wirth.

Conversion is a big challenge for Hindu society in India. Yet it is hardly a topic of public debate. Moreover, it is impossible to get accurate data of conversions. In fact, even the data regarding the composition of the population religion wise, may not be reliable.
In 1947, India’s population was around 36.1 crores, of whom 30.37 crores (84.1%) were Hindus, 3.54 crore (9.8%) were Muslims, 0.83 crore (2.3%) were Christians and 0.27 crores (0.7%) Buddhists. (the figures are based on the census of 1951).
In the 2011 census, the Hindu population had shrunk by 4.3 percent and the Muslim population had grown by 4.4 percent. The overall population had tripled to 121.9 crores. Hindus accounted for 96.62 crore (79.8%), Muslims for 17.22 crore (14.23%), Christians for 2.78 crores (2.3%) and Buddhists for 0.84 crore (0.7%)
The census of 2021 was postponed due to the Covid pandemic and will be held only in 2026/27. It can be assumed that since 2011, the Hindu population has shrunk further, yet the population of Muslims is still cited to be 14 percent and that of Christians still 2 percent. Do we bury our heads ostrich-like in the sand?
According to the website censusofindia.net, in 2025, the overall population is estimated at 141 crores, of whom 114 crores are expected to be Hindus. This would be a slight increase of Hindus to 80 percent, which is unlikely considering the massive conversion attempts, apart from the lower Hindu birthrate. Unfortunately, I could not find official numbers for conversions. ChatGPT tells me:
“I could not find any official government estimate that gives a precise number of Hindus who have converted to Christianity since 2011. In fact, the Government of India has explicitly said that no central record/database of religious conversion is maintained.”
The same is valid for Islam:
“There is no reliable official data specifying how many Hindus have converted to Islam in India since 2011.” ChatGPT continued, “Most demographic surveys, including those by Pew Research Center, find that religious switching is very rare overall.” According to Pew research survey of 2021, 0.7 percent of the respondents said that they have changed their religion. This would come to around 6 million people. Yet since there is no central database of religious conversion, the true numbers are anybody’s guess.

Aggressive conversions are happening
Most of us know even from personal observation, that missionary activity is extremely high in India by both Christianity and Islam, especially in certain states like Punjab or Tamil Nadu, and basically everywhere, specifically in tribal areas. They don’t hide it. Christian publications exhort their members to convert Hindus. “India must be evangelised in this generation”, declared ‘Blessings’, a Christian youth magazine in its 2008 issue, which a priest from Tamil Nadu had left with me. And a German Catholic magazine, which landed in my mother’s mailbox, had an article with the ominous title, “India – a success story”.
The Joshua project is clearly implemented. New churches shoot up, Christian schools offer discount for fees for Christians, missionaries ‘visit’ patients in hospitals, etc. Occasionally, news about conversions come out in the media due to complaints by Hindus. Some examples from only one week: On 30. September 2025, several news outlets reported that over 1000 Hindus from poor and backward castes converted to Christianity in Lucknow’s Mohanlalganj. A village once free of Christianity had now 5 churches and 100 plus prayer halls. According to India Today, police unearthed a well-oiled nexus to lure Dalits with the help of ‘miracles cures’. A few days later, another huge conversion ring with wide connections across states was uncovered in Gujarat’s Nandiad, on which OpInda reported. And soon after, on 6. October, more concerning news surfaced. An American, James Watson, in India on a business visa, was arrested together with two Indian associates for fraudulent conversions in villages in Maharashtra, targeting especially children. He told them that ‘Hinduism is based on superstition. But if they convert, they will be happy, prosperous and cured from illness.’ In this connection, News 18 reported that between 2018 and 2025 over 320 cases had been discovered of visa misuse for religious conversion. This may be only the tip of the iceberg.

Muslims, too, try hard to get Hindus into their fold. The Chhangur Baba case shows, how much money flows into fraudulent, elaborate conversion efforts. He and his associates were arrested in July 2025. He received hundreds of crores from abroad for his conversion racket, where he funded Muslim men to entrap Hindu girls. Love Jihad, for long denied, can’t be denied any longer.
Even otherwise, Muslims are taught to coax Hindus into converting by presenting Islam as far more attractive than Hinduism. Zakir Naik said in one of his speeches around 2016, it is easy for Muslims to convert Hindus. They only need to show Hindus a picture of Ganesha, with his elephant head and big belly, and ask them whether this is the God whom they worship.
This situation is concerning and the question, why the government has no database, is only natural. Even in states, which have enacted anti-conversion laws, and where it is obligatory to register a change of religion, no overall numbers are available. What is available, are FIRs filed for unlawful conversion, and individual notifications in government Gazettes about name changes. But how many conversions in toto happened, nobody seems to know.

Religion is not a concern for the government
Is it possible that the government does not want to know what is happening on the religious front? If this is true, then even the 2011 census may not give the correct picture. And from an anecdotical episode, this is indeed possible.
A teacher in Mumbai, who was part of the 2011 census team, told me that during the training for the census, they were instructed to accept whatever information they were given. She surveyed a heavily Muslim populated area and knew that she was not getting honest answers. She went back to her supervisor and told him, that the census won’t be accurate if they are not allowed to check the information, for example how many children a family has. Her instructor was blunt, “You heard the instruction. Accept whatever info is given.” She told me, “If the government manages to conduct an accurate census next time, it will be a shock for Hindus.”
When there is no will to know what is happening regarding conversions, there is probably also no will, to stop it. The government, rightfully, maintains that it is secular and not concerned about the religion of its subjects. It has a point. This is clearly a worldwide attitude. The German government also no longer records the religion of its citizens. It did so till in the 1950s, when I was in primary school and dutifully filled out “rk” for Roman Catholic in all official forms. Yet, today, only the Churches keep a record.

Hinduism and the Abrahamic religions are completely different categories
The situation in India is, however, unique. The Hindu faith of the majority is very different from Islam and Christianity. Often it is not even considered as a religion, because it does not have a rigid ‘belief system’, but it is rather a way of life. It has a solid foundation in philosophy and demands to follow dharma – to do the right thing in the given situation according to one’s conscience. It does not exclude anyone from being ‘allowed’ into the Presence of God. In fact, it claims, God is already present in everyone, and explains what is meant by ‘God” (not a kind of biased superman on a golden throne high up in the sky, but all-pervading, pure, blissful consciousness). In short, Hinduism makes a lot of sense.
Unlike Islam and Christianity, which were brought to India by invaders, Hinduism does not proselytise. Those two foreign religions demand blind belief in dogmas. A dogma is a claim that cannot be proven to be true, and the most irrational, and very harmful dogmas of both Islam and Christianity are the claims that, 1. only their religion is true (both didn’t sort out over the centuries, which one exactly is true, because of course they don’t have any proof for their claims) and 2. if you don’t convert to Islam or Christianity, the great God will discard you at Judgement Day and let you burn ETERNALLY in hell.

Burden of history
Hindus were threatened and brutally coerced to convert first by Muslim and later by Christian invaders over several centuries. Millions of Hindus died for their faith. Many preferred humiliation and financial burden to conversion. When the outsiders left, Hinduism was still strong.
However, most of those Hindus, who had converted to Islam and Christianity during foreign occupation, were successfully alienated from their original tradition especially during British rule, who were, and still are, masters in ‘divide and rule’. They made those converts believe that they were better, higher, more worthy than Hindus. At Independence in 1947, Muslims demanded their own country to be carved out from India, called Pakistan, which in 1971 split into Pakistan and Bangladesh.
So, one would expect that Islam is no longer a problem in India, and Hindus have only to deal with those who converted to Christianity but who also, like Muslims, believe that they alone have the true religion, and Hindus will be eternally damned by God if they don’t convert.
Yet this is a wrong notion because many Muslims, who agitated for a separate state before Independence on the ground that they can’t live with Hindus, did NOT go to Pakistan. They stayed back, possibly even with the nefarious agenda to fulfil Allah’s alleged wish to make all Indians follow Islam. The truncated India was generous and allowed it, maybe on the advice of the British who wanted to sow the seeds for division in Independent India.
Many Hindus probably considered the Indian Muslims and Christians as not very different from themselves, and did not realise that their religious doctrine had meanwhile indoctrinated many of them to look down on Hindus, and they had become as unreasonable as their foreign masters used to be. Now the converts, too, believed that the great God/ Allah does not like Hindus and will throw them into eternal hellfire, and that Allah/God wants only Muslims/Christians on earth. No reasonable person would believe this, and Indians are generally reasonable, but due to indoctrination from childhood, many of the converts had embraced this irrational belief.

Respectable Gods and religions
Moreover, on the international stage, those religions, which consider the creator of this vast universe as personal, revengeful and biased, are considered respectable even today. People, who are otherwise reasonable, don’t realise that a God, who loves only certain people, must be a tribal God and cannot be the Source of All. Unfortunately, Hindus did not seem to be aware of those dogmas.
Otherwise, why would they allow Christian schools to continue after Independence to teach Hindu children, when ‘good’ Christian teachers naturally look down on their Hindu students because, according to the Church, they follow a ‘dark, satanic cult’? Why would the government allow the catechism to be taught to Christian students, but not allow Vedanta philosophy, which is a rational explanation of what is true, to be taught – not even to Hindu students?
Why would the ‘minority religions’, parts of which are irrational and based entirely on blind belief, get government concessions, and Hindu Dharma, which is based on solid philosophy, would be disadvantaged, for example in the Right to Education Act or regarding their Places of Worship?

Indian Secularism is upside down
So, even though a secular state is not supposed to be interested in the religion of its subjects, in India, certain reforms would only be fair, as presently the stakes are stacked against Hindus. If a Hindu converts, he gets the advantage of belonging to a politically influential ‘minority’, which is worldwide even a majority. And if he happens to be a criminal, even world media will treat him more leniently than it treats Hindus, and it seems, as if this lenient treatment extends even to the judiciary worldwide.
Agreed, the government has no role to play in religion, but it surely has to level the playing field, especially since the Abrahamic religions and Hindu Dharma are in very different categories: Islam and Christianity are exclusive and divide society between those who are right and saved, and those who are wrong and damned. Even in the interest of developing a ‘rational mindset’, which is the explicit goal of education, the followers of those religions should not be given favours by the government. In contrast, Hindu Dharma is inclusive and makes sense. It claims that ultimately ALL will reach back to their divine Source and it exhorts to follow Dharma. It would make sense, in the interest of a stable society, to favour it.

A harmonious society is rather impossible if the divisiveness of the dogmatic religions is not given up
If you have many crores of Indians who despise Hindus because according to their belief, Hindus are great sinners by worshipping false Gods, a harmonious society is tough to achieve, and enemies of Bharat have a field day to instigate chaos and violence. This is not theory. It’s happening, including with big money from the Deep State, as the investigation into USAID had revealed.
Do Hindus even know what is preached in the innumerable churches and mosques across India? I know that Hindu Gods are called devils or demons by Christian clergy. Yet incredibly, Hindus don’t challenge those harmful dogmas of Christianity and Islam, even though they easily could, as they have the better arguments. Not only this: according to the Human Rights Charter of the United Nations, it is unacceptable to demean a group of people as inferior and damned for eternity. Yet strangely, when a religious doctrine demeans a billion people, moreover people, who are known to be open-minded and dharmic, nobody flags it as wrong.
It shows that the powers-that-be prefer that humans everywhere hold irrational beliefs instead of gaining deep insights into what is true and what can be experienced. It means, Hinduism is an obstacle for those powers. This is an important point and, in all likelihood, responsible for the unfair negative portrayal of Hinduism in world media and the entertainment industry and for funnelling money into conversion attempts. Yet the eradication of Hinduism is definitely not in the interest of humanity as a whole.

Blunders that need to be corrected
It was clearly a blunder that Hindus did not explain their faith to the Indian followers of the Abrahamic religions right after Independence and it needs to be corrected urgently. And an even greater blunder also needs to be corrected: Hindu pundits hardly explained the solid philosophical foundation of their faith even to their own people and especially to the younger generations.

Hindus are strongly focussed on education. Parents make great sacrifices to educate their children well. Yet they did not realise that under the garb of ‘modern’ education their offspring was not learning anything about their ancient tradition but instead, their children were weaned away from it – due to the immense influence of the Left, which is an arm of the infamous ‘Deep State’.
Young Hindus, who went through college education, no longer know the basics of their faith and have not even heard of the Brahman (Advaita Vedanta) that is their own inner essence. Many become atheists, without knowing what being an atheist actually means. In recent years, they become not only atheists, but also ‘woke’ and ‘sexually liberated’, whatever this means. This virus affects mainly the Hindu youth. Of course, not all Hindu youth, but many have no longer an anchor in their faith – a faith for which earlier generations even died. This negative influence makes them vulnerable to go against dharma, not to believe any longer in Karma, and it also makes them vulnerable for conversion, if they see material benefits.

It’s NO virtue not to propagate Hindu Dharma
Hindus sometimes even seem proud that they don’t propagate their faith. It is a false pride and not wise. Christianity and Islam are clever. They explain their good aspects, like strong belief and trust in God or Allah, and strong community support. They also explain why they are closer to the truth. The reason, they say is, that they have one God compared to many Gods in Hinduism. They are right: one source is closer to the truth. The Source must be formless and therefore only ONE. Unfortunately, most Hindus can’t counter them because, not only do their Muslim and Christian friends not know, but even they themselves don’t know any longer the basic insights of the Rishis – the one formless Brahman of the Vedas which is within all of us.
IF the Hindu representatives had explained the basics of the Vedas right after Independence in a big way, many of those who had converted to Islam and Christianity might have come back. Anyone who has common sense will come to the conclusion that Hindu Dharma is superior to all three Abrahamic religions, as it is a genuine enquiry and not blind belief in the supremacy of a particular group.
Instead, in the name of ‘harmony’, Hindus downplayed the intellectual superiority of Hindu Dharma and allowed Islam and Christianity to aggressively propagate their religions as ”only true” and lure Hindus with a simple formula: there is only one true God and our God is this true God. He is compassionate and loving and has promised that He will look after you, provided you accept him and keep the rules and commandments.
Another positive aspect is stressed: the convert is promised to be part of a strongly bonded brotherhood especially in the case of Islam, but also in the case of Christianity, he will get emotional and financial support from the Church if in distress.
Apart from that, since for many Hindus this is not enough reason to forgo their tradition, they lure converts with financial benefits, cheat outright with so-called miracles or frighten simple-minded Hindus with eternal hellfire.

What are the solutions?
Very important is of course that the government does not favour the big and powerful ‘minorities’ of Muslims and Christians. How to achieve this change in a democracy, where everyone is focused mainly on vote banks, needs to be brainstormed.
Apart from the government, Hindu Society has a big role to play: First and foremost, the basics of Vedic wisdom need to be made known widely. Schools and Universities are a good start and thanks to the New Education Policy, the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) is now indeed taken into educational institutions. There is however a problem: even teachers often don’t know much about the profound philosophy and haven’t done sadhana in their life to discover Atma within. So, they prefer to explain festivals or customs or stories from the Ramayana or Bhagavad Gita. All this is important, but if the greatest advantage of Hindu Dharma is not clearly explained, students may not be convinced why they should stick to their tradition, especially when they are lured with material benefits and also told that billion humans worldwide see merit in those dogmatic religions. Otherwise, why would there be so many Christians and Muslims in the world?

The most important point and the crucial difference between Hindu Dharma and the Abrahamic religions is that Hindus claim that God is within as Sat-Chit-Ananda (blissful Consciousness), and that it can be experienced.
To convey this knowledge effectively, it would need Hindus who have touched their Atma, who know from experience about the oneness of all, because if the truth is conveyed only theoretically, it won’t make an impact. Therefore, sadhana needs to be encouraged and sadhana needs to be the criterion for being able to teach, not academic degrees. Small booklets with sayings of genuine saints like Anandamanyi Ma or Mata Amritanandamayi could be distributed in a big way. They are already available and explain Vedanta philosophy in a simple way. For me personally, meeting Anandamayi Ma had a decisive influence in understanding Vedic wisdom. It was easy to understand because she lived this oneness. Anandamayi Ma once said, “There is no difference between you and me and I don’t see a difference.”

Approach to Indian Christians
The theology of Christianity is a little confusing. On the one hand, it is considered heresy for a Christian to claim that he is one with God, yet on the other hand, the Holy Spirit is supposed to come over him and guide him. And all three – God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit – are seen as God. Nowadays, many Christians in the West no longer accept the dogmas of the Church, but take the sayings of Jesus and Bhakti as guideline. Therefore, many even claim that God is within, as Jesus himself said “the Kingdom of heaven is within”.
Hindus should point out to Christians those aspects, where Jesus, in contrast to the Church, is in line with the Indian Rishis. For example, he made the Upanishadic statement, “I and my Father are one” (Aham Brahmasmi). Unfortunately, and shrewdly, the Church declared that this claim is valid only for Jesus, but this of course doesn’t make sense.

Another point:
When once asked what is the most important commandment, Jesus said, that the most important commandment is to love God above everything else. This teaching is recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It means, Jesus was foremost advocating Bhakti, the most important path also for Hindus, and for anyone who wants to realise the truth. Yet the Church declared as its first commandment: you shall not have other gods before me, and doesn’t mention the Bhakti aspect. Now in all likelihood, the Christians will counter Hindus and claim, “What the Church means, is that we need to worship the TRUE God, and we, the Christians, have the true God and you, Hindus, have false Gods.”
It needs to be understood first by Hindus themselves and then also conveyed to Indian Christians: Hinduism claims that there is absolute Truth, and relative truth. Absolute Truth is that which is REALLY true, it means it must be ALWAYS and SELF-EVIDENT. It means, only God (pure, eternal, unchanging Consciousness = Brahman) is really true (it can be logically concluded and experienced). And that Consciousness is REALLY the only true, invisible, formless God. All else is Maya, a temporary appearance on this truth. This is of course universally valid and independent by what name one calls that one Truth.
An analogy makes it clear: in a movie hall, the flickering, changing pictures of the movie cover the movie screen. Yet the invisible white screen is the only real thing in the movie, all else, including the people, houses, etc. are temporary appearances whose only substance is the ONE screen. The story of the movie is more like virtual reality. This should make sense nowadays. Even Elon Musk believes that this apparent reality is not the real thing. It follows naturally, that discovering the ‘real thing’ (Brahman) is the goal of life. The Abrahamic religions do not have this absolute Truth level. Even their great (good) God and its opposite, the (evil) Satan, are within Maya, more in tune with the Devas and Asuras/Rakshasas of Hinduism.

We should use the sayings of Jesus which are in tune with Vedanta, to make Indian Christians reflect that the dogmas of the Church are unnecessary and even ridiculous, and that their accusation that Hindus worship false Gods does not apply, simply because only one ‘thing’ (not a thing of course) is true and everything is contained in THAT.
Another point: Often, ordinary Christians are critical of their priests and bishops. I know this from Germany, and it may be the case also in India. Especially the higher clergy may be corrupt – morally and financially. If caught, such news should be spread. It helps to wean away common Christians from the Church.

Approach to Indian Muslims
The previous point that often, the clergy is not living an ideal, but rather an immoral life, is valid also for certain Muslim clergy. It should not be hushed up, but spread in news. It helps ordinary Muslims not to be too much under their sway.
It is probably more difficult to have a sensible dialogue with Muslims. Some Britisher made a valid observation: “While the Hindus sharpen their arguments, the Muslims sharpen their swords.” At present, there is the unfortunate situation, that Muslims are confident that Hindus are afraid of their street power. This needs to change and Muslims need to be afraid that they will pay for instigating violence. Law enforcement agencies need to make them pay, or even Hindus who are not afraid to push them back in street violence.

Yet there are also other means, to make Indian Muslims understand that going against Hindus is not in their own interest. One important point is to make them realise that they are useful tools (idiots) to create chaos which is in the interest of the Deep State (DS). The global financial system, spearheaded by mainly Jewish banker billionaires, is very powerful in the DS. At present, there is a lot of debate in the American society about who actually controls the US government and its foreign policy. It may sound like a conspiracy theory, but attempts are clearly on to propel humanity into a controlled one world government with the help of surveyance technology. The World Economic Forum openly said that ‘creative destruction’ is needed for the ‘Great Reset’ to occur. The fact that Muslims are convenient tools for the DS to destroy societies, has become especially obvious in Europe. Incidentally, Jewish organisations are instrumental in bringing the Muslim ‘refugees’, mainly young men, into Europe. Why? To destroy nation states by intermingling the races.
It should also be clear to Indian Muslims that Taliban and even ISIS were bankrolled by the CIA and other organisations of the deep state, and that obviously, some of their Muslim leaders are corrupt. On the surface, Muslims and Jews are portrayed as the biggest enemies, yet both religions have a lot in common. However, the really big money, which influences geopolitics in a big way, is not with the Muslims.

There is another worrying aspect, which should also worry Indian Muslims: there is a Jewish prophecy that before the messiah comes, a huge war needs to happen (the war of Gog and Magog) where the majority of humans will perish. Presently in geopolitics, Israel is clearly pushing for a big war, and they openly said, if pushed to a corner, they would use their nuclear weapons. If Indian Muslims would understand that certain Muslim leaders make deals with the western DS (like in Syria recently or in Bangladesh), and that they will ultimately not get their worldwide caliphate but end up being controlled by the more powerful global financial system which has literally ‘all the money of the world’, they might align themselves with the overall interest of India and not weaken India by going against Hindus.
Ex-Muslims can play a big role in making Muslims aware of the geopolitical situation and also in making them doubt the irrational dogmas. Their numbers of ex-Muslims are increasing even in India.

Once I heard a congress spokesperson say on TV, “what does it matter if one worships Krishna or Christ.” True, it doesn’t matter much, Bhakti is a valid path and all true devotion and prayers reach the ONE. This is valid for Hindus, Christians and Muslims. But it matters what ELSE those religions demand to believe blindly (for example that Hindus are worshipping demons and will go to hell), and which not only creates discord in the society, but also harms those believers individually, as they don’t follow their conscience which tells them to do the right thing in the given circumstances, but instead blindly “believe absurdities which can make them commit atrocities”, as Voltaire had already observed.

So, first, Hindus themselves need to be solidly grounded in their ancient wisdom through knowledge and sadhana, and second, the unreasonable dogmas of Islam and Christianity need to be fearlessly challenged – possibly even by taking the issue to international bodies like the United Nations.

Why I am against Conversion

I wrote the following article in 2008 for Garhwal Post. After a Hindu friend had read it, he looked at me and said with a soft voice, “Maria, I didn’t know that one can say these things about Christianity.” It pained me, as it showed, how much the Britishers had hurt the self-esteem of Hindus. My article was about facts, but even facts were not mentioned earlier…
On the one hand, the situation for Hindus has improved since then, because nowadays, even in mainstream media, Hindus object to deceitful conversions or call out violent verses in the Quran. This was not the case earlier. But the situation has also deteriorated, because now even less Hindus know the basics of Vedic wisdom and especially the youth has become more woke and atheist.
Here is the article:

In 1999, the Pope declared in Mumbai that in the 21st century the cross will be planted in Asia. Strangely, there was not much objection in the media that the Pope expressed so openly his eagerness to convert Hindus. Not only the Pope but also the different evangelical sects want to convert Hindus in big numbers. And unfortunately, they are doing it successfully because they have lots of money. In the years, after the Pope made his statement, Christian missionaries have become increasingly visible, blatant and controversial.

As I grew up as a Christian, I would like to share my observations from a personal angle.
I noticed that most Hindus are very cautious when it comes to religion. They take care ‘not to offend the sensibilities’ of the followers of Christianity and Islam. Yet on the other hand, Christians and Muslims don’t hesitate to offend the sensibilities of Hindus, and even badly demean them.
Many Indians argue that, because those religions are in the minority, their followers need special consideration so that they don’t feel threatened by the Hindu majority.
It is true that those religions are in the minority in India, but worldwide, Christianity and Islam have the biggest number of followers. Both religions have also great financial and political clout to achieve their goal, which is to bring as many Hindus as possible into their fold. This clout is reflected even in the Indian media. Just observe how favorably mainstream media reports on minorities and how unfavorably on the majority. I can’t help feeling that there is a clever Public Relation strategy and maybe also bribe money involved. In contrast, Hindus don’t seem to have a PR strategy. ‘Truth will triumph’, is their motto, even if it takes ages…

Why no debates on religious matters?
Sometimes I hear the following argument from Hindus: “Only because missionaries despise Hinduism, Hinduism does not become bad.” This is of course true, but why not refute the obnoxious, false accusations that Hinduism is a primitive polytheistic religion and Hindus are sinful idol-worshippers?
Such accusations do not only completely misinterpret Hindu Dharma, but they are meant to help the Christian agenda to wean away Hindus from their faith.
Hindus should at least explain the basics of Sanatana or Hindu Dharma, and show how profound they are, if not pointing out the shortcomings of the dogmatic founder religions.
Pointing out the shortcomings of other religions seems to be taboo for Hindus. I wonder why. Debates on religious matters were common in ancient India and were of the highest order. Women also took part in those debates, which are recorded in the Upanishads.
Yet today there is hardly any discussion on religion or philosophy. One reason may be that a part of the intellectual class in India has been influenced by the British to such an extent that they adopted their ignorant view that Hinduism is primitive without ever reading any of the ancient texts. It is a small, but influential group that is ever ready to loudly defend the minority religions.

Christianity and Islam divides humanity into those who go to heaven and those who go to hell
Most Hindus are good-natured and consider all religions as equal, as all believe in the same God, as there is of course only one creator. Moreover, all religions have good points. They all stress the need for a moral life. They all give suggestions how to connect with God in prayer.
Yes, it’s true, but two religions have a very negative point which nullifies the good points. This negative point is that they divide humanity into those who are right and go to heaven and those who are wrong and go to hell without any proof. Christianity is one of those religions (Islam is the other one). It declares that it is not only superior but it alone is true, and therefore everyone needs to join it to be saved. The Church claims that Jesus Christ himself commanded his disciples to go out and baptize all nations (Matthew 28.19). Therefore, they believe that they have the ‘divine duty’ to convert the whole world. And the Church goes about it with great zeal and dubious means. If Jesus Christ was indeed a historical person (some historians doubt it), he might be shocked to see what is happening in his name.

What makes Christianity so special that it declares itself as alone true?
The main point is the status of Jesus Christ. The Church says that he is not only above normal humans but also above enlightened sages and avatars. He is the “only indigenous son of God”, whom God had sent to earth and who, through his death, has saved mankind from the original sin which Adam and Eve committed (their sin was that they ate an apple from the forbidden tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden).
This claim that Jesus is the only son of God can NOT be verified. It has to be believed. It is a dogma and dogma means, there is no proof. So why should one believe it? The reason is that bishops had decided in the Council of Nicaea some 1700 years ago, that Jesus is the son of God, and Christians have to believe it.
Many Christians do believe it, because they hear it from childhood. I, for example, ‘knew’ already in primary school in a small town in Germany, that we, the Roman Catholics, are ‘right’ and chosen by God and all others, including our Protestant neighbors, who had fled from the Russians to our small town at the end of the II World War, were ‘wrong’. Those neighbors had a little girl of my age and we played together, but I would have not gone to her church. I ‘knew’ it was a sin…
In 1965, in the II. Vatican Council, the Catholics reconciled with the Protestants, and it was no longer a sin to pray together. But Hindus remain in the category which needs to be converted or else they go to hell…

How I got doubts
As a child, I believed whatever I was told, but in high school, I started questioning. I could not believe in a God any longer who sits in heaven, loves only Christians and sends all others to hell.
A brother of my mother was a priest and, in his library, I read about the history of the Church. It was an eye-opener – how decadent the popes were, how brutal and bloody the conversion of South America was, how dissenters were imprisoned, tortured and killed, how the bishops schemed for power and wealth… Together with religion, I was about to throw out God as well, as He seemed inextricably linked with it.
Then I read an article on modern physics. It said that the whole creation is one energy. It was for me a Eureka moment. “This means there is a God!” I felt: If God is really the Highest, It cannot love one group and hate others. It has to be the ground of everybody and everything.

Getting to know about the profound Vedic wisdom
When I came to India, I was amazed how profound her ancient wisdom was – a wisdom that makes no claims, which need to be blindly believed, and a wisdom which does not divide people into “us versus them”.
‘Brahman’ or ‘Tat’ of the Vedas is not a personal God that has likes and dislikes, but it is the invisible, conscious basis of all forms and names in this creation. This conscious basis is also in our own person and can be experienced, and this makes sense. “Question, reflect and experience” is recommended.
In contrast, Christianity demands blind belief and does NOT encourage questions, nor experience. It claims doubts are from the devil. A Church that branded its own mystics, who realized their oneness with God, as heretics, cannot teach anything to India. It can only divide.

Hindu Dharma is universal. Christianity is divisive
Missionaries try by hook or crook to get converts and target especially the poorer sections of society and even children. It seems as if they have a quota to achieve.
They claim that Christianity is the right faith and Hinduism is very wrong and they will land in hell if they don’t convert. This is highly divisive. Yet strangely, Christian missionaries are not called “divisive forces” but Hindus, who object to conversion, are called divisive. Why? It does not make sense. The Upanishads claim “Tat Tvam Asi” (You are THAT/ Brahman). “You” means everyone, not only Hindus. This philosophy is truly universal.
Christian theologians would need to study Indian wisdom with an open mind. They would realize that dogmas are a hindrance in the process to uncover Truth. Such openness would make religion spiritual. Mystics would be appreciated. No “us versus them”, no borders, no God, who belongs only to one group and who condemns the rest, just a genuine search for the One Essence beyond name and form…

Narrow-mindedness of clergy
Unfortunately, to expect broad-mindedness from Church representatives seems a long way off. As of now their course is set on confrontation. They are adamant that conversion is not only their right, but also their duty. Many Hindus unfortunately still don’t get the mindset of missionaries, and most Hindus are too polite to question the ‘one and only way’ bogus.
While in the West many leave the Church, in India many join for reasons that have nothing to do with religion. Those converts may initially get some financial benefits but the price is high. They have to confess a belief in dogmas, in which they don’t believe. They have to despise the faith that they had held dear. They or at least their offspring will become convinced that they alone have the right faith and will look down on those who go to temples.
In the process they lose their integrity and will become hypocritical, like so many in the west. And if conversion is not restrained, together with her children, Bharat may lose her integrity. Truth will have no place anymore.

Summary:
Hinduism and the Abrahamic religions are very different. Hinduism is based on enquiry and experience, whereas Islam and Christianity are based on blind belief in unverifiable dogmas – the most harmful dogma is that their God wants all humans to worship only him or else they are damned for eternity. Consequently, aggressive proselytizing happens, which creates disruption in Hindu society.
No official data about conversions is available. Religion is not the government’s concern in a secular state. However, India is unique, as the religions brought in by invaders get favours from the government and Hinduism, which is more an ideal, dharmic way of life, is disadvantaged. This fact makes conversion for lukewarm Hindus appealing and erodes Hindu society.
Moreover, modern education intends to make the youth materialistic due to the great influence of the Left, supported by the Deep State. The profound insights of the Indian Rishis are not taught. Fortunately, in recent years, attempts are on to bring Hindu philosophy and tradition into schools.
The greatest challenge is the presence of many crores of followers of Islam and Christianity, who have been indoctrinated to look down on Hindus. They need to be encouraged to reflect and see sense. Different approaches to Christianity and Islam need to be adopted.
By Maria Wirth

Please consider also reading my books available on Amazon and PadhegaIndia:
‘Why Hindu Dharma is under attack by Muslims, Christians and the Left – a collection of essays’, Published by Vitasta Publishing July 2025
And
‘Thank you India – a German woman’s journey to the wisdom of yoga’, published by Garuda Prakashan Nov. 2018

The post The Issue of Conversion: Challenges before Hindu Society first appeared on Maria Wirth.

Even though I criticize Christianity, I consider it for normal Westerners (not clerics) much preferable to believe in Jesus and his Godfather than to be rootless atheists or communists, as long as these Christians don’t buy into the dogma that “only Christianity can save you”.
Unfortunately, in America (not so much in Europe), many buy into the supremacy claim, as they have only Islam and Judaism as comparison, and the Christian God of the New Testament is relatively less violent and less fiercely protective of only his own people.

NRI Hindus generally do not discuss their faith, and have allowed media, the Church and academia to shape a negative view of Hinduism. But even in Bharat, many Hindus don’t articulate, and maybe don’t know, the essence of the tradition, which they have inherited.

I watched recently a documentary on India which had been aired on German public TV. It was highly biased against PM Modi and Hindus. Yet there was an incident, where a diamond businessman could have easily corrected the view of Hinduism for the German viewers:

“What is special about India”, the businessman was asked.
His reply: “we believe in God, get our strength from Him, start our day with a common prayer.”
“Which God? You have so many,” the interviewer asked.
“Yes, we have many. I personally pray to Swami Narayana.” He then asked someone standing nearby, ‘to whom do you pray?’

If only he had mentioned that all the different Gods are aspects of the one all-pervading Brahman, Hinduism would have looked very differently to the German viewers and closer to the truth, as well.

I recently tweeted: “A pity that Vedic knowledge/ Hinduism is not known in the West. It is the best option for humanity. Sadly, certain forces don’t want people to know that.”

A foreigner reacted to my tweet:
“Excuse me, but yoking yourself to Hindu DEMON GODS is NOT the best path for humanity.”

This tweeter has obviously fallen for mischievous propaganda.

It reminded me of the World Hindu Congress in Bangkok in November 2023. I was asked to talk about “Articulating Hindu Thoughts”, because this is an area where Hindus don’t do a good job. And unfortunately, it’s true.

There are several videos on the net, where for example Shiva is compared to Satan – not by missionaries but by people who talk positively about the Gods of ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia. Usually, India’s ancient tradition is not mentioned at all, and if it is, negatively.

So, the comment about the Hindu DEMON GODS didn’t surprise me, but pained me nevertheless. Can we Hindus do a better job in communicating what Hinduism is about? (I use Hinduism, as this is the term under which the Vedic tradition is known abroad, even though Hindu or Sanatana Dharma would be better, as ‘ism’ connotes a dogmatic system, which Hinduism is not.)

I remembered my notes from the World Hindu Congress:

First: we need to clearly articulate what is most essential in the Vedic tradition. It is: you are not what you think you are. You are not a separate body and mind but you are one with the one Brahman.
Brahman alone is true. The world is an appearance in Brahman. (Brahman satya, Jagat mithya)

Brahman is the absolute Truth, and the world and everything in it, is the relative truth.
It means, only Brahman is fully independent. It needs nothing else to exist and is eternal. Yet the world is dependent on Brahman and temporary. And here ‘the world’ includes not only the visible universe but also the much maligned “many Hindu Gods”, who are far more powerful and long-lived than humans, and as real as we humans, but are also not absolutely true. They also depend on the one Brahman for their existence.

Brahman is beyond words and thoughts. It is pure, thought-free consciousness or awareness. It is purely “I AM” without “this or that”.

This pure consciousness is the substratum on which thoughts and everything else appear. Thoughts are also objects. I can observe ‘my’ thoughts. So, who am I? This is the most important question.

Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman) or Ayam Atma Brahma (this Atma is Brahman) claim the Vedas. Sadhana is needed to wear down the veil that hides our innermost Self. Brahman is the only Subject.

So, is there any doubt that “God”, as the West calls the highest truth, is within us? Are we not all conscious, even though we are usually conscious only of the ‘objects’ (thoughts) within our ‘pure’ (thought-free) consciousness?

To discover the thought-free consciousness is the meaning of life. And this thought-free consciousness is of course very close to us. Closer is not even possible. It is our essence, our Self.

Does this make sense? Does it not sound like top philosophy?

200 years ago and even until 40 years ago, it made sense also to people in the West, to philosophers, to scientists and to many hippies. Yet today, this profound knowledge is completely blacked out. If you google “the greatest philosophers of all time”, not a single Indian is mentioned among the 50 listed, while ancient Greeks, Chinese and Arabs are mentioned.
WHY???
This is surely intriguing.

Unfortunately, even modern Indians have forgotten this basic knowledge.

Yet those Hindus who knew, didn’t do a good job in communicating their knowledge. Even a few years ago, 70 years after the British left, I attended an Interfaith Dialogues and was shocked that the Hindu side didn’t ask any straight question to the representatives of the Abrahamic religions and did not mention the positive sides of Hindu Dharma.
“I can’t afford to be controversial. I have a family”, a participant explained to me his timidity during tea break.

This is very unfortunate, because not to put things straight can become very costly for Hindus in future. Tens of millions of Hindus have been killed due to a terrible misunderstanding or due to an intentional disinformation campaign that “Hindus go against the Will of the “only true God” who doesn’t want other Gods to be worshipped beside Him.”

The Abrahamic religions claim, “there is only one God (separate from his creation)”.
The Rishis claim “there is only God /Brahman (pervading and containing the universe)”.

Is it possible to discover who is right?
Yes, it is. Because the truth can be experienced. Even some Christian and Muslim mystics discovered their oneness with God or Allah – names don’t matter for That what is unnameable. Hindus, too, have other names besides Brahman, for example simply Tat (That), Parabrahma, Parama Shiva…

Other points which speaks greatly in favour of Hindus.
For example, only Hindus pray for the whole world to be happy. “Loka samastha sukhino bhavantu.” In contrast, the Abrahamic religions pray only for their own group and even – incredibly – believe that their God is favouring only them and sends others to hell. It means, their God is more like a tribal God and not the source and basis of all that exists.

Further, Hindus pray to the Gods and not to the demons. Every day, in thousands of temples, the Gods are worshipped. Gods are called Devas and demons are called Asuras.
The difference between them is this: The Gods are compassionate and helpful. The Demons are egoistic and walk even over dead bodies to get their advantage.
Both are within this world of Maya. Therefore, DEMON GODS are not possible in India/ Bharat. Yet today, even the Asuras of extinguished ancient cultures, are ignorantly called Gods.

In the West, demons are more likely to be worshipped than in Bharat – egoistical pursuit of one’s own advantage is paramount in our times, never mind if other humans or animals suffer.…

Open-minded Christians, Muslims and atheists should be able to understand which view is closer to the truth and which is more likely to promote harmony in society.
The Hindu view or the view of the Abrahamic religions?

by Maria Wirth

The post Hinduism is misunderstood all over the world. Because Hindus don’t articulate its essence well. first appeared on Maria Wirth.

He wrote:

Seriously mam, did you think that, Hindu faiths and beliefs are correct, did you find anything good in a religion like Hinduism..?

My reply:

Parvez ji,

Yes, for me Hindu ‘belief’ is closest to truth. It details the absolute Truth: all is one Brahman (other names are possible, like Paramatman, Satchitananda, etc.)

Vedas claim Atman (individual consciousness) is one with Brahman (universal consciousness)

Maybe you could see my article

https://mariawirth.com/indias-wisdom-and-modern-science/

Further, Hindu Dharma gives different people different tips. For the intellectually inclined, Jnana yoga is advocated. Others are more emotional (for them bhakti yoga is recommended), others like to work (karma yoga is advocated), murtis (negatively seen as idols) are personified aspect or powers of the One Truth. Everything in this universe is sustained by That. This means, That can be evoked in a form, to make it easier to worship for those who need a help to focus.

Dharma is most important. One’s own conscience is not suspended by any holy scripture. If something does not make sense, just ignore it. Full trust in That (lovingly called Bhagawan, or Ram or Shiva or Devi) needs to be developed, because that is the only “thing” (not of course a visible, limited thing, but formless, infinite) which is really real.

For me, Christianity felt hypocritical. Especially the claim that we are chosen by God and others are condemned eternally to hell.

Best regards

Maria

He wrote again:

Madam, did you realize that these Gods, of Hinduism, are really exist,, did you ever proofed that by even a single point that, these God of three heads and four hands are true… Did you can ever ask a question that, when did they exist on earth…

Parvez ji,

No, the ‘gods’ don’t look like this with 4 arms, etc. it is a symbolic portrayal – 4 arms means more powerful, 3 faces, seeing past, present, future, etc. Ganesh with an elephant head means wisdom and strength, for which the elephant is known for.

Regarding Ram and Krishna, they were historical kings in India and real ancestors of all Indians, including your forefathers. There is so much information about them in the ancient Ramayana and Mahabharata, and it surely was not ‘imagined’ like in a novel. Also, Dwarka has been found under the see near present Dwarka. People were highly cultured judging from those epics.

In Indian philosophy, the Divine is everywhere, also in humans. And it depends on how pure and refined a person is, on how much Divinity shines through. In Ram and Krishna, a lot came through, so they are called avatar, even though the Divine is in us, too.

I feel it is unfortunate that Deva or Devata has been translated as God. Deva means ‘shining’. The great one God is the one Brahman, and devas are different aspects, maybe more like angels in Christianity and I think also in Islam. There is no proof that Archangel Michael or Gabriel exists, yet there are finer, invisible levels and our senses can perceive very little. To find out, what is true, needs purity and vision and Rishis and prophets had this finer vision.

In Christianity, it is said, that we all have a guardian angel who is always with us. That means that there would be some 2 billion angels, if this applies only for Christians, and some 7 billion if all have one. So, there is no need to ridicule the many gods in Hinduism.

regards

He wrote again and for the last time:

What did you think about Islam,,,,?

My reply:

It’s similar to Christianity, except that Christianity now does not have any more the power to punish heresy.

The post A question by a Muslim about Hindu Dharma first appeared on Maria Wirth.

What is true?
It depends on how religion is defined. Most people probably would say that religion is:

• about believing in an invisible Supreme Being, which is the cause of our existence,
• about methods and rituals to worship it,
• about living according to its laws or will.

In this case, Hinduism is definitely a religion. In fact, it is the Mother of all religions, because the Indian Vedas had postulated already in very ancient times the existence of such a Supreme Being. They called it Brahman (from big) or Paramatma or Paramashiva or simply Tat (That) and declared that it cannot be imagined by the human mind. Nevertheless, a kind of description is given: Sat-Chit-Ananda (it means, it is Truth, Knowledge and Bliss). It is all-pervading and therefore the Essence (Latin: esse = to be) of everything, including us.

So why does the question arise whether Hinduism is a religion?

To discover this, we need to look at those religions where nobody has a doubt that these are religions. The term ‘religion’ was first used for the Catholic Church and later for Islam, too, and nobody has a doubt that these two are the main religions in today’s world.

These two religions also are about the 3 points I mentioned above. Yet there are significant differences.

The Supreme Being (called God or Allah respectively) of these 2 religions is not the essence in all, but is a separate entity which has certain personal traits. One most important trait is that it is jealous of other gods and wants the whole of humanity to worship only Him (yes, the Supreme is clearly imagined as male). Both religions give out a dire warning: those who do not accept this truth will burn eternally in hell.

How do these religions know that this is the truth? Because they claim that the Supreme Being himself has revealed this truth to one person (in the case of Christianity to Jesus Christ some 2000 years ago and in the case of Islam to Prophet Mohammed some 1400 years ago).

Here is where another definition of religion comes in. It is often said that religion is a “belief-system”. It needs blind, unverifiable belief in what the ‘founder’ of the religion has said and which is written down in a book.

Here Hinduism is clearly not a religion. Hinduism does not require blind belief. On the contrary, an open enquiry and an inner exploration into the truth, especially into the truth of one’s own being, is necessary to discover the divine Essence in oneself; to discover that Atman (one’s own consciousness) is indeed Brahman, as the Vedas proclaim.

So is Hinduism not a religion?

Let’s look at the word meaning of religion. Religare (Latin) means to bind. Bind to whom or to what?

Does it mean to bind to the Supreme Being or does it mean to bind to the doctrine?

If we look at history, the Church (for which the term religion was first used) was very adamant that those followers which it had gained through (often forced) baptism must never leave the Church. Christianity had strict blasphemy laws with terrible punishment, like Islam even has today. So, it can be safely assumed that religion meant to bind its followers to the doctrine of the respective religion. The followers must ‘religiously’ stick to the doctrine.

If it would have meant to be bound to the Supreme Being, then surely Christianity or Islam should not have any objection if the Supreme is called by another name, for example Shiva, and the process of being bound to Him ‘Yoga’.

So strictly speaking, Hinduism is not a religion.

But it is also not just a way of life. It has many rules how to live life in an ideal way.

So one could say, Hinduism is an ideal way of life which is helpful in realising one’s ONENESS with the Supreme Being.

This ideal way of life is not based on a dogmatic belief system, but on experiential wisdom.

The post Is Hinduism a religion or a way of life? By Maria Wirth first appeared on Maria Wirth.

It’s finally out in the open even within India and Hindus must not ignore it: the call to eradicate Sanatana Dharma. The attitude “Sanatana Dharma is eternal. Nobody can eradicate it” is dangerous. True, the eternal Dharma, the knowledge about what is right in a given situation, cannot be eradicated. But look at the pitiful conditions of Hindus in Pakistan or Afghanistan! This fate must not befall Hindus in India, or humanity will lose its last beacon of light.

What has happened?  
Udhayanidhi Stalin, a minister in Tamil Nadu and son of the present CM, stated what the Church, the Islamic clergy and the Leftists dream about since centuries. And he is not alone. The conference, where he spoke was titled “Eradicating Sanatana Dharma”. This title might have gone unnoticed, if Stalin had not used a comparison.
He compared Sanatana Dharma with malaria or dengue, which need to be eradicated. When he was pulled up for his comment, he incredibly defended himself saying that he didn’t ask for a genocide of Hindus, as if he deserved praise for this omission.

Why does he want to eradicate Sanatana Dharma? 
Is he so ignorant about Sanatana Dharma? Does he not know that only Sanatana Dharma claims that the essence in all humans is one and the same and in fact divine? Does he not know that the Vedas and Upanishads, the foundational texts of Sanatana Dharma, not only were highly revered in Asia but inspired philosophers and scientists also in the West? That most modern theories for example in quantum physics are based on Vedic knowledge?
Does he not know that only Sanatana Dharma is inclusive of ALL humanity and genuinely proclaims “Vasudhaivam Kutumbakam” (the world is one family)? The Abrahamic religions in contrast divide humanity into those who belong to their religion and those who don’t. Those who don’t are considered as not equal, and even as subhuman.

Does he not know that the so-called caste system, which he seems to wrongly equate with Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism, has been cemented by the British into a hierarchical structure? And that the British declared certain tribes even as “criminal from birth”?
Does he not know that the Vedic varna system is an ideal structure for any society? That all four varnas are absolutely necessary for a harmonious society?

The Vedas compare the four varnas with a body: Brahmins are compared to the head, Kshatriyas to the arms, Vaishyas to the thighs and Shudras to the feet. Does this imply that the head should be respected and the feet should be treated badly? Of course not.

Yet it needs to be mentioned and called out that there is indeed discrimination in Indian society:
I noticed this ‘looking down on other Indians’ first in 1980, when I was new in India. I was in a train which was about to leave. A well-dressed man came in late with a porter carrying his luggage. Instead of paying him, he sent him off to fill his water bottle. The porter rushed out and after he came back with the full bottle, the train started moving. The man SLOWLY took out his purse, gave him some money and the porter rushed to the door and sprang off.

I had no idea whether the porter was Brahmin or Shudra or what the ‘gentleman’ was. I hardly knew anything about India. But I felt his cold-hearted attitude towards the porter was the legacy of the British colonial masters. Only later I came to know that there is indeed a caste system in India based on who speaks English well and who not. Those who speak it well, get higher paid jobs and consider themselves superior to the ‘masses’.

Indians probably didn’t realise that the British officers who behaved so condescendingly, couldn’t behave like this in their own country. They did it in India to show their disdain for the heathen ‘natives’. Did the Indians who took over the administration from the British consider this as the required behavior to get ‘respect’ from their subordinates?

I noticed also that many Indians don’t use the polite form of ‘you’ when they deal with adults ‘lower’ than them, but use it even with the kids of their guests. Now all this has nothing to do with the Vedic structure of society but is a remnant from the British.
  In the Vedic varna system, ideally there is no looking down on others, as all kind of jobs need to be done for the well-being of society. The structure is not hierarchical, but horizontal. So why did I learn already in primary school in Germany that India has a ‘terribly oppressive caste system and untouchables’?

The reason was that the Church had to counteract the great appreciation of Indian wisdom in the 18 and 19th century in the West and its method was to tell children: “Imagine, those arrogant Brahmins don’t take water from lower castes, they even don’t touch them, because they consider them unclean. How absolutely terrible!”
One can debate about these cleanliness rules, but to demand elimination of the highly beneficial Sanatana Dharma due to those rules, is incredible hypocrisy. Not touching somebody who eats meat is portrayed as far more cruel than torturing and killing millions of humans only because they don’t believe in a certain book. The colossal sins of the two Abrahamic religions and of the communists against humanity are hardly ever mentioned, but the Indian ‘caste system’ makes it into the curriculum and to the TV channels.

But why are especially politicians in South India attacking Sanatana Dharma and Brahmins?
The reason may be that Christian missionaries have big plans for full Christianization there, supported by their fake story that Thomas the Apostle had landed in Kerala in the 1. Century and was killed by ‘wily Brahmins’ in what is now Chennai. Brahmins are an obstacle as they keep the knowledge of the Vedas alive. They are literally the head of Sanatana Dharma, which they want to cut off.
If Brahmins are impoverished or driven out of the country, the missionaries have much better chances to convert and ‘eradicate Sanatana Dharma’.

And here we have a connection with Udhayanidhi Stalin.
In November 2022 Stalin announced that he is a proud Christian though I don’t know why he was proud. About the history of the Church which killed millions in the name of Christ, including in India? Or proud about the doctrine, which claims that the true God allows only Christians into heaven and sends Hindus eternally into hell?
He should clarify, but won’t, because he cannot find a good reason to be proud and it seems, recently he went already back to declaring that he is an atheist.

Yet it is important for Hindus to realise that they and their eternal Dharma, which is the basis for humanity, is under heavy attack even from within Bharat.
Sanatana Dharma is dangerous for those who want full control of humanity, because it makes so much sense and empowers people. Those people, who pull the strings of puppets like Udhayanidhi Stalin, want the knowledge that the Divine is within everyone, to be forgotten. They want to cut humans off from their divine roots. Yuval Noah Harari, who is hyped as a great philosopher and speaks at the World Economic Forum, WEF, claims there is no soul or God. Is Hinduism now openly attacked, because it is gaining strength in the recent years? The huge crowds at the Satsangs of Bageshwar Dham Maharaj may worry them.

So the call to eradicate Hinduism was given by the two exclusive religions since long, but so far ignored by Hindus. Now, when politicians also join in, it looks like a declaration of war, and can’t be ignored.

In the Puranas, ancient wars between Devas and Asuras are described. Asuras were sometimes given boons and they looked invincible, but ultimately, the Devas always won… but not without a fight.

by Maria Wirth
If you like my writing, please check out my new book (published 2025) on “why Hindu dharma is under attack by Muslims, Christians and the Left”
https://www.amazon.in/dp/8119670655 it’s also available on Kindle and abroad on amazon.com

The post Is this a declaration of war on Hindus and their Dharma? first appeared on Maria Wirth.

The reason is that two of the three religions, Islam and Christianity, demand blind belief in only their story about the true God and his creation.

Muslims need to believe what around 1400 years ago Prophet Mohammed supposedly said and what is written in the Quran. And in some verses, for example 8.39 or 9.29 the Quran says that Allah wants all to become Muslims, and Muslims even need to wage war to reach this goal.

On the other hand, Christians need to believe what around 2000 years ago Jesus Christ supposedly said and what is written in the Bible. And some verses, for example John 14:6 or Matthew 28:19-20 imply that all need to become Christians.

Since blind belief is demanded of ‘good’ Muslims and ‘good’ Christians, even the most compelling reasoning, or sitting together and suggesting a compromise will not work, because they need to follow the instructions from their book – at least as long as they believe that their book contains the Truth. However, when they get doubts (and actually many got doubts), they are no longer ‘good’ believers, but probably use their (God-given?) reason and intelligence again.

In contrast, Hindus are encouraged from childhood to use their reason and intelligence. And they cannot understand why Muslims and Christians don’t also use it and come to the conclusion that the merciful Almighty surely will not send billions of humans into eternal hellfire, only because they call Him Brahman or Ishwar and not Allah or Godfather.

One more important point:

Muslims and Christians and also Jews wrongly believe that Hindus are idol-worshippers and worship many different Gods, while in contrast, they worship the true God. This belief that Hindus are idol-worshippers, is the main reason that ‘good believers’ look down on Hindus, despise them and even killed them. Idol-worship is considered in the Abrahamic religions as the greatest sin. It means to worship other Gods besides the true God, which seems to make the true God so angry that he will burn those sinners for ever in hellfire.

If Muslims and Christians and Jews would realise that, according to Hindu Dharma, all the different Deities of Hinduism are different aspects of the ONE Brahman, they could get over this wrong belief that Hindus commit idol-worship and get over their disdain or even hatred for Hindus. They would realise that Hindus, too, claim that the source of the creation is only ONE. Of course, there can be only one Source for this miraculous universe.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which came much later than the Vedas, agreed with the One Source of the Vedas, but they made the unimaginable Brahman into a personal God who has likes and dislikes.

Hindus actually have the clearest understanding of the ONE SOURCE of everything. The Vedas claim, only this one Source, which they call Brahman or Paramatma or simply TAT, is absolutely true. All else is Maya, appearing as true but is not fully true. The Upanishads teach “Brahma satyam, jagat mithya”.

The many devas of the Hindus are not separate entities. But we humans, animals, stars, etc. are also not separate entities. All is interconnected. The ancient Vedas postulated that this variety in the universe is in truth ONE. (Does it surprise that modern science agrees with this view?)

Unfortunately, on their own, the followers of Christianity and Islam can’t see this truth and Hindus still don’t try to make them understand, maybe because a few centuries ago, such reasoning with the wrong people would have costed Hindus their head.

Many Hindus know that their Sanatana Dharma (or Hinduism as it is called today) has a solid basis and is preferable to blind belief.

Maybe it’s now time to say it also aloud and let the world know about this wisdom.

The post Since there is of course only ONE creator, why don’t Hindus, Muslims and Christians sit together and solve their differences? first appeared on Maria Wirth.

I had not heard of Pandit Dhirendra Krishna Shastri and Bageshwar Dham Sarkar till then, but when I came home and showed the photo, which I had taken, to my neighbour, she exclaimed, “you have really a good karma to meet him personally. I love to watch his videos.”

A few months later, the young Swami was in the news for bringing back (= Gharwapsi) around 300 Christians to their original Hindu dharma. While one hardly hears any objections in the media about the lakhs of Hindus who are regularly converted by Christian missionaries, Gharwapsi is usually portrayed as “controversial”, when of course, it should be the other way round.

Soon after, an organisation against blind belief went after Dhirendra Shastri challenging his miraculous powers. They even made a police complaint against him, which was, however, dismissed as unfounded. Media, too, tried to discredit the Swami by misleading headlines and by calling him a ‘self-styled god-man’, even though he sees himself as a devotee (bhakta) of Hanuman, and his powers are those of Hanuman ji only, he says.

When he announced a Hanuman Katha in Bihar in June 2023, the ruling political class from Nitish Kumar to Tejaswi Yadav tried to prevent it and to blacken his character. Yet the reception, which the 27-year-old got in Bihar, was simply unbelievable. A crowd of one million came to hear him. He even asked those present at the large venue, NOT to come in the following days but to give others a chance. 

I watched his Katha on TV. Even in front of his hotel the crowds were unmanageable. It must have given shivers to the politicians, who had staunchly opposed him.

What makes him special?

Probably this: Finally, a Swami gives a voice to Hindus whose faith is either intentionally or ignorantly demeaned the world over, including by several Indians with Hindu names. It seems, common Hindus were longing for someone who is solidly rooted in their eternal Dharma, so much so, that he has accessed spiritual powers. They were longing for someone who does not care about political correctness but speaks up for Hinduism – a faith which is no doubt closer to the truth and more beneficial for humanity than the Abrahamic religions.

His supernatural powers to know the details and problems of the persons who come to him before they tell him anything, and the efficacy of his blessing to solve these problems, which he claims is the blessing of Hanuman, surely helped to make him so popular. 

On the other hand, he is forthright, “India was, is and will be a Hindu Rashtra (nation)”, he asserts and wants it officially declared. Apart from this, he advocates Gharwapsi (home-coming) of those who had converted to Islam and Christianity, which the foreign invaders had brought with them.

“Don’t just come and listen to the story of Ram and Hanuman. Come home to your ancient tradition,” he urged tribals in Gujarat, where he went after Bihar. The Christian missionaries have made huge inroads there, mostly by giving goodies or frightening them with eternal hellfire.

This appeal makes a lot of sense, but so far, such an appeal has not been made in front of cameras. This is strange, because all those, who are rooted in Hindu Dharma and know the negative sides of the expansionist religions, surely are aware that Hindu Dharma is much preferable for several important reasons, which I described here  https://mariawirth.com/coming-home-to-intuition-and-reason-from-blind-belief/  and a Hindu nation is much preferable to Christian or Muslim nations, which I described here https://mariawirth.com/are-christian-and-muslim-nations-ok-and-hindu-nations-not/ 

Yet, even the famous Swamis with a huge, worldwide following did not make this appeal so far. On the contrary, they sometimes encourage Christians to “become better Christians” and Muslims to “become better Muslims”. They do not realise that a “good” believer in the dogmas of those religions becomes a danger to Hindus, because his religion teaches him to despise them. According to Bible and Quran, Hindus are despicable heathens or kafirs.

Why would Hindu Swamis hesitate to ask converts to come back to their original faith? Is it due to the still colonised Indian mind? 

Or is it due to fear that such an appeal could go against secularism and may be illegal? 

Unfortunately, after Independence, the politics and the education curriculum were not friendly towards the Hindu tradition but friendly towards the newcomer religions. Convent schools were allowed to teach in independent India. The Hindu administrators probably didn’t even know, that a good Christian teacher despises Hinduism and conveys this in a subtle way to his Hindu students. 

There was no discourse, no discussion about what Hinduism stands for. No discussion about the profound philosophy of Vedanta, which claims that the multiplicity in this universe is a temporary appearance on the one eternal Brahman which is pure, blissful awareness. 

Vedanta not only inspired Western philosophers, but also the top scientists of quantum physics. Yet Indian students were taught that Hindu Dharma is inferior to the Abrahamic religions. Consequently, massive, fraudulent conversions were tolerated. The great value of Hindu Dharma for humanity was played down, and even forgotten over time, as many Hindus became more and more ignorant about their tradition. They only continued the worship of deities and started to believe, what the Abrahamics claimed, that Hinduism is polytheistic idol-worship and nothing else.

However, in recent times, a change is happening, including among the Hindu youth. They discovered the serious drawbacks of the newcomer religions, which instill a divisive, irrational mindset: ‘Either you believe in our God and in His son/messenger, or you burn for all eternity in hellfire.’

Hindu Dharma instills an inclusive mindset: ‘There are different flowers in God’s Garden and different ways to reach Him/Her. He will not discard anyone for eternity. In fact, all are contained in Him, and all will be given chance after chance, life after life.’

Yet strangely, of all the three religions, Hinduism is singled out for attacks even in India. Christians plan to make India a Christian nation and Muslim organisations plan to make India a Muslim nation. 

Why are they so intent to push their religion on Hindus? Because they believe that it’s the command of the Almighty. They claim (without proof) that the Creator wants all to follow what the founder of their religion said, or else He will throw them forever into hell. 

This needs to be challenged. Without this unfounded claim those dogmatic religions will collapse. 

How could it be possible that our Creator wants to burn billions of us for ever in hellfire and only spare those who believe in a certain book? Moreover, those religions never sorted out WHICH BOOK will save from hellfire – the Bible or the Quran?

India and the world have meanwhile reached a stage, where Hindu Dharma urgently needs to be strengthened to stop the downward spiral of violence and moral degradation and turn it around. 

Otherwise, the goal of Islam, Christianity (and of the leftists) – to eliminate Hinduism from the face of the earth –may be achieved, which would be a disaster for humanity. So, the only hope for Hindu India to survive is that those, who converted, lose faith and come back home (Gharwapsi).

The appeal of Dhirendra Krishna for a Hindu Rashtra and for Gharwapsi is therefore timely and comes like a breath of fresh air. There is hope now because at least the goal is defined.

Yet one more issue needs to be tackled. The wisdom of the Rishis needs to reach again the masses. Only when it is clear that Hindu Dharma is indeed superior, those who had converted, will want to come back. Here the Swami of Bageshwar also does his bit, explaining in simple terms how Maya clouds our vision of who we really are in truth. 

Great wisdom is contained in the Hindu tradition –  especially the liberating wisdom of the oneness of the individual’s Atma (Self) with the infinite, eternal Brahman. Those who try to control humanity, may not want this knowledge to reach the common man. It would liberate him from fear and he could not be easily controlled.

These forces have great power and have mainstream media in their grip. False allegations could be spread against the young Swami. He would not be the first to endure such injustice. Swami Vivekananda, too, had to endure lies being spread about him in America. 

Let’s hope, this won’t happen and that with the blessings of Hanuman, Pandit Dhirendra Krishna Shastri will have success in spreading the eternal Hindu Dharma.

The post Dhirendra Krishna Shastri of Bageshwar Dham is a powerful voice for Hindu India first appeared on Maria Wirth.

Strangely, V. Raghunathan did not give a link to my original blog which had outraged him.

I post it here, so that the reader can come to his own conclusion if I am wrong or not:

What if an Indian had written this… Would anyone have believed?

Article by Maria Wirth

Though I have lived in India for a long time, there are still issues here that I find hard to understand. For example, why do so many educated Indians become agitated when India is referred to as a Hindu country? The majority of Indians are Hindus. India is special because of its ancient Hindu tradition. Westerners are drawn to India because of Hinduism. Why then is there this resistance by many Indians to acknowledge the Hindu roots of their country? Why do some people even give the impression that an India which valued those roots would be dangerous? Don’t they know better?

This attitude is strange for two reasons. First, those educated Indians have a problem only with “Hindu” India, but not with “Muslim” or “Christian” countries. Germany, for example, is a secular country, and only 49 percent of the population are registered with the two big Christian churches (Protestant and Catholic). Nevertheless, the country is bracketed under “Christian countries” and no one objects. Angela Merkel, the former Chancellor, had stressed the ‘Christian roots of Germany’ and had urged the population “to go back to Christian values.” In 2012 she even postponed her trip to the G-8 summit to make a public address at the Katholikentag, “Catholics Day.” Two major German political parties carry “Christian” in their name, including Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.

Germans are not incensed that Germany is called a Christian country, though I actually would understand if they were. After all, the history of the Church is appalling. The so-called success story of Christianity depended greatly on tyranny. “Convert or die” were the options given—not only some five hundred years ago to the indigenous population in America, but also in Germany, 1,200 years ago, when Emperor Karl the Great ordered the death sentence for refusal of baptism in his newly conquered realms. This provoked his advisor Alkuin to comment: “One can force them to baptism, but how to force them to believe?”

Those times, when one’s life was in danger for dissenting with the dogmas of Christianity, are thankfully over. Today many in the West do dissent and are leaving the Church in a steady stream. They are disgusted with the unholy behavior of Church officials and they also can’t believe in the dogmas, for example that “Jesus is the only way” and that God sends all those, who don’t accept this claim, to hell.

The second reason why I can’t understand the resistance to associate India with Hinduism is that Hinduism is in a different category from the Abrahamic religions. Its history, compared to Christianity and Islam, was undoubtedly the least violent as it spread in ancient times by convincing arguments and not by force. It is not a belief-system that demands blind acceptance of dogmas and the suspension of one’s intelligence. On the contrary, Hinduism encourages using one’s intelligence to the hilt. It is an enquiry into truth, based on a refined character and intellect. It comprises a huge body of ancient literature, not only regarding dharma and philosophy, but also regarding mathematics, architecture, music, dance, science, astronomy, economics, politics, etc.

If Germany or any other Western country had this kind of literary treasure, they would be so proud and highlight its greatness on every occasion. When I discovered the Upanishads, for example, I was stunned. Here was expressed in clear terms what I intuitively had felt to be true, but could not have expressed clearly: Brahman is not partial; it is the invisible, indivisible Essence in everything. Everyone gets again and again a chance to discover the ultimate Truth and is free to choose his way back to it. Helpful hints are given but not imposed.

In my early days in India, I thought every Indian knew and valued his tradition. Slowly I realized I was wrong. The British colonial masters had been successful in not only weaning away many of the elite from their ancient tradition but even making them despise it. It helped that the British-educated class could no longer read the original Sanskrit texts and believed what the British told them. This lack of knowledge and the brainwashing by the British education may be the reason why many so-called “modern” Indians are against anything Hindu. They don’t realize the difference between Western religions that have to be believed blindly, and which discourage, if not forbid, their adherents to think on their own, and the multi-layered Hindu Dharma which gives freedom and encourages using one’s intelligence.

Many of India’s educated class do not realize that those who dream of imposing Christianity or Islam on this vast country will applaud them for denigrating Hindu Dharma, because this creates a vacuum where Western ideas can easier gain a foothold.

At the same time, many Westerners, including staunch Christians, know the value of Hindu culture and surreptitiously appropriate insights from the vast Indian knowledge system, drop the original Hindu source and present it either as their own or make it look as if these insights had already been known in the West.

As the West appropriates valuable and exclusive Hindu assets, what it leaves behind is deemed inferior. Unwittingly, these ‘modern’ Indians are helping what Rajiv Malhotra of Infinity Foundation calls the digestion of Dharma civilization into Western universalism. That which is being digested, a deer for example (analogue to Hindu Dharma), disappears whereas the tiger (analogue to Western Universalism) becomes stronger.

If only missionaries denigrated Hindu Dharma, it would not be so bad, as they clearly have an agenda which discerning Indians would detect. But sadly, Indians with Hindu names assist them because they wrongly believe Hinduism is inferior to Western religions. They belittle everything Hindu instead of getting in-depth knowledge. As a rule, they know little about their tradition except what the British have deceptively taught them, i.e., that the major features are the caste system and idol worship. They don’t realize that India would gain, not lose, if it solidly backed its profound and all-inclusive Hindu tradition.

The Dalai Lama said some time ago that, as a youth in Lhasa, he had been deeply impressed by the richness of Indian thought. “India has great potential to help the world,” he added.

Will the Westernized Indian elite realize it?

~ Maria Wirth  (freelance writer who has lived in India for the past 40 years)

PS: Since my book “Thank you India- a German woman’s journey to the wisdom of Yoga”, published in Nov 2018 with 45 chapters in 313 pages, got very good reviews, but hardly anyone knows about the book, I would like to let you know that it is available under the below link of the publisher for Rs 349. It’s also available on Amazon.in (they charge more). On amazon.com only the Kindle version is available.

https://www.garudabooks.com/thank-you-india-by-maria-wirth/

(actually i was advised by someone who likes my book and wants more people to read it, to add this para to my articles)

The post I may be politically incorrect but not wrong, Sir… first appeared on Maria Wirth.