She found Christ in the Vedas

Path to Divine Paradise passes through mysterious ways of belief system.
In the evening flight from Vienna to New Delhi, I sat in my chair and fastened the seatbelt. Woman on my right seat asked me to help her with her belt. As she was rather out of shape and found it difficult to loosen the belt, my assistance could not be misconstrued. As I looked up and the eyes met, I shudder at the sight of so overbearing personality with whom I am to spend next long 8 hours flying through the high heavens. I cursed my fate and the Lufthansa Airline that I was fond of its services and attractive airhostess. Black is beautiful but this was exceptionally nerve racking. I drew a long breath and discharged my social obligation amicably.

The woman profusely thanked and said: “Before leaving home I prayed the Lord to give me a nice co-passenger in the flight. So you are blessed by Jesus to travel in this flight ( with me). You are such a good man..”

“Thanks,” I said without inviting any further interaction. But the follower of the Prince of Peace was felt encouraged with my briefy and suggested that “you must be a good Christian – Catholic? I believe”, she was prophetic.
Trying to be less offensive, I said, “ Jesus was really a great soul. I like his message of Peace, but I am not a Christian..”

She felt provoked: “ Oh, you must follow then His mission. Spread out , fan out, the Message and Command of Jesus. He is the only saviour of World. We are waiting for His Second Coming, you know. He had promised. There is no other Religion in the world as good as Christianity-- the only True God’s Religion. All others are false and founded by ignorant people. Salvation lies in Jesus. Otherwise we are all sinners in this world. Come, my brother, to the fold of Holy Cross. Embrace Mary and Her Son who died for our sins… Jesus is the Saviour”.

What happened to the souls that lived in the world thousands of years before Mary gave the virgin birth to Jesus? Is there any way to save those sinners born in B.C.? I tried to reason with the good old sinner who was ready to strike at any non-believer.

She exploded an intellectual Atom Bomb: “ Lord had saved them by placing Jesus in the Vedas.”
“Do you know what is the Veda? How many are the Vedas?” I had heard many silly things but this was really the last straw. The woman was confident: “Yes, I know the Vedas. They are four: Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Atherva Veda and Sam Veda. All are written in Old Sanskrit so that not anyone could understand them,” she confirmed her textual authority on the Vedas.

“Now, where, in which mantra of the Vedas you found Jesus?”
She recited Yajur Veda text which also is the first mantra in the Isha-Upanishad.
“Isha-vasyam idam sarvam..” ( Isha- the Lord is omnipresent in the universe). Isha
meaning Lord in Sanskrit, and since Sanskrit is the mother of all Indo-European languages, Jesus phonetically does sound closer to Isha. But at this level of discussion I felt incompetent to deal in such depth of ignorance and bigotry. She now raised her voice with missionary zeal reasserting her faith in the universal supremacy of Christianity over all other religions. I was withdrawn but she was energized and candidly vocal, disturbing the peace inside the cabin. “ Indians are poor and sick because they have given up Christianity. In the Vedic Age there was no sickness in our country because they were saved by Jesus…”

“Oh, tu kee bakwas kiye ja rahi hai…” One Sikh gentleman stood up from the front seat and shouted back to the Christian soul, first in chaste Panjabi slang, and then in accented English translation: “Oh, what a foolish, stupid, ignorant things you have been bombarding here. I have been listening to your remarks insulting all other faiths.. what right do you have to condemn other religions? I don’t want to hear non-sense. The Christians have committed so many crimes against humanity, enslaving poor people around the world, looting the land and resources of our country, and who dropped Atom Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Good Christian soldiers…And now you are saying that world peace is possible only if the world turned to Christianity…”

She meekly fumbled, “ no , no, I say all religions are good. We must work for the world peace and save the world.” Amen.