The Hindu god who removes obstacles was no match for a tree limb.
Southern Baptist representatives Brendan and Alyson Strizek watched from a balcony as celebrating Hindus tried to navigate a trailer-mounted image of Ganesha through a narrow alley. A low tree limb soon blocked the 10-foot idol’s progress. The crowd, unable to back the trailer out of the alley, tried in vain to sever the tree limb so the idol could proceed.
“It took them about 45 minutes to figure out what to do,” Brendan Strizek said. Finally a child removed the top of the makeshift temple covering Ganesha, barely giving the idol enough room to pass under the tree limb en route to a time of worshiping the idol, also known by the names Ganapati and Ganesh.
“If that’s not the perfect picture — they’re expecting this god to remove obstacles in their lives, but he can’t even remove a tree limb,” Alyson Strizek said.
Hindus widely revere the elephant-headed Ganesha as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. He is the remover of obstacles in their lives and devotees invoke Ganesha’s name to bring success to any venture.
The Strizeks said they feel a deep burden for the people they see worshiping a god that cannot save them.
“There’s a lot of disappointment that they would devote so much of themselves, so much of their time and money, to something that is just clay,” Brendan Strizek said.
Each fall, Hindu families and communities celebrate the Ganesha Chaturthi festival in Ganesha’s honor, crafting idols in Ganesha’s image from clay and plaster. Many compete to have the largest, most ornate Ganesha idol possible, with some communities pooling their resources to make 30-foot statues.
Hindus take the idols into their homes for up to 10 days, where they follow a set of rituals in caring for and worshiping the idols. On the 11th day of the festival, with great fanfare and celebration, the Hindus take the Ganesha idols to rivers, lakes or the ocean where they submerge and leave them to symbolize the cycle of creation and destruction in nature.
Brendan Strizek believes that the best way to reach Hindus for Christ is not by condemning their practices but by connecting with them as human beings, showing interest in their lives. “I think before we have the opportunity to share verbally, we need to show we care about this person,” Strizek said.
Lal Satish agrees the best way to tell Hindus about God is first to understand them. A former Hindu who recently decided to follow Jesus, he believes that believers in Christ must not speak to Hindus with condemnation.
“This is where Christians should be very careful,” Satish said. “You can’t tell them right off that they are worshiping false gods, because the mob will become ferocious.”
Satish urges Christians to model Jesus first if they want Hindus to see Him. “If you want to talk about Jesus, you must be Jesus here. You must show all the qualities of Jesus, His love, His affection, His tolerance. If Jesus is reflected in any person who is a leader, all people will be drawn toward him, and they will find Jesus.”
Editor’s Note — Names have been changed for security reasons. (BP)
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Oct. 2 — Gandhi Jayanti: Oct. 2 is the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), India’s “Father of the Nation.”
Oct. 3 — Lakshmi Puja: Lakshmi is the household goddess of most Hindu families and a favorite of women.
Oct. 4 — Valmiki Jayanti: Maharshi Valmiki, the author of the great Indian epic Ramayana, was a Hindu sage who lived around the beginning of the first millennium B.C.
Oct. 8 — Karwa Chauth: Karwa Chauth is a ritual of fasting observed by married Hindu women seeking the longevity, well-being and prosperity of their husbands.
Oct. 17 — Diwali: Deepawali or Diwali is certainly the biggest of all Hindu festivals. It’s the festival of lights that’s marked by four days of celebration. Each of the four days in the festival of Diwali is separated by a different tradition.
Oct. 17 — Kali Puja: Kali is represented with perhaps the fiercest features among all the world’s deities.
Oct. 19 — Bhai Dooj/Bhai Phota/Bhav-Bij: This ritual is performed by the sister who religiously fasts until she applies a mark on her brother’s forehead, offers him sweets and gifts and prays for his long and healthy life.
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