Posted on 03/24/2010 2:08:17 PM PDT by Steelfish
Edited on 03/27/2010 9:20:51 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Pak Priest Sacrifices 3 Daughters Omer Farooq Khan Mar 24, 2010 ISLAMABAD: A Hindu priest committed suicide after killing his three minor daughters, all under 6-year-old, to please Hindu goddess Kali Mata in Bhemomal area of Sind province on Tuesday.
According to police and eyewitnesses, religious rituals were regularly performed at the Kali Mata Temple established on the first floor of a house owned by Tekam Das Meghwar in Bhemomal. Reports say that Tekam Das Meghwar first slaughtered his three daughters, Parwati, 6-year-old, Reena, 4, and Aarti, 1, with a sharp knife and then slit his own throat to make Kali Mata happy.
Moulchand, brother of deceased Tekam Das Meghwar said, “My deceased brother was Hindu priest of Kali Mata and he performed pooja the whole night but in the early morning when power supply failed he slaughtered his three daughters before committing suicide with a sharp weapon.”
SHO Taluka police Rasool Bux Thaheem told media that after post mortem the bodies of the three sisters and their father were handed over to their heirs.
Initial police investigation suggested that Tekam Das Meghwar, early on Tuesday morning, entered the residential portion of the house, asking his wife, Pavi, to bring milk from a nearby shop. Investigators believe that taking advantage of solitary Tekam Das slit throats of his three daughters.
The ill-fated mother told police that "when I returned home, I saw heads of three girls in a cradle placed in room. Body of Tekam Das also lay in a pool of blood with his throat slit." She started screaming on which neighbours rushed to the house.
Another Hindu priest Bhagat Ashok told media that act of Tekam Das was foolish and it was illegal to offer sacrifice of even animals in Hindu religion. The incident spread panic in the town of Mirwah Gorchani as hundreds of people gathered at the spot.
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This was a case of the sins of the fathers being continued by their children. - God pronounces judgment on Amalek (including a prophetic allusion to continued conflict from Amalek: "from generation to generation") -
It is ONLY after 200-400 years of opportunity and influences to change, and after 200-400 years of continued (and actually escalating) violence against Israel that God decides to execute the judgment.
The invading Muslims called those who lived around and beyond the Sindhu River “Hindus” since they often subsituted “H” for “S”. Nowhere in the Vedas can the word “Hindu” be found. The system of culture and religion taught in the Vedas is usually called sanatan dharma, or varnashram dharma. Among other words. The word “Hindu” has only been used since the time of the Muslim invasions.
Discussing Buddhism and Hinduism, the Catechism states, "The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men."
Just a ray, you understand...
Where's my winky.. ah yes ... ;o)
He may have believed the butchery a proper offering, but no one else does. Just like the mother in Houston who murdered her 5 children thinking God told her to do it. Her butchery does not shed poor light on Christianity, only on her own succumbing to evil.
The violence sanctioned in the Gita is righteous warfare against evil doers, not wholesale or indiscriminate violence. And the casteism is clearly based on personal qualities and character, not on birth. That is another mass misunderstanding in current Hindu society. What we see today in India is a far cry from the real traditions in the Vedas. There are remnants of real understanding and practice left, and there is a grass roots movement to bring back the real Vedic culture and religion.
Of course scholars disagree, but here is I think a very cogent point:
Bible scholars who don’t believe in God, or in the divinity of Jesus, or that he even existed, are not the best translators or commenters on the Bible, as I am sure you would agree.
Similarly, those scholars who decry the authenticity, antiquity or truth of the Vedas are not the best translators or commenters on the Vedas.
I should have said:
SOME scholars disagree, certainly not all, or even most!
Thank you - yes, I really need to start it.
Truth is truth, wherever it is found.
I just realized this happened in Pakistan!
It seems plain to me from the Hadiths that Mohammad was a violent political warlord, a lecher, and either delusional or a conscious religious charlatan.
Compare the example and precepts of Jesus with those of Mohammad: any fair-minded person who can evaluate the evidence can see that they are, by almost any criteria, diametrical opposites.
Agree!
We do agree on a lot of things.
:-)
I can tell you as a practicing Hindu, this butchery is NOT in accordance with Vedic scripture or traditions. No way. The guy is a nutcse. Probably went nuts living in Pakistan. Not that that is an excuse.
This is the problem of engaging in lazy superficial quick-internet quotes and biblical passages rather scholarly discourse. The “genocidal” God of the Bible was made up to justify certain forms of aggression. Indeed, this quote from Samuel was four centuries after what purportedly occurred as historical fact.
Mattill makes this point well:
“God commanded the brutal slaughter of the Amalekites four centuries after the Amalekites had attacked the Israelites on their way out of Egypt. Think of it! God ordered the killing of men, women, children, and their babies for acts committed by their ancestors hundreds of years before. Why should God punish descendants for the sins of their ancestors? After all, the Lord himself said that “only those who sin will be put to death” (Ezekiel 18:4)
This is how absurd this quote gets when one resorts to out-of-context Scriptural passages in an attempt to mitigate the horrible and grisly massacre by a Hindu prelate of three small innocents girls.
Here’s a careful and intellgent anaylsis of this text.
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Annihilate The Amalekites!
A. J. MATTILL Jr.
According to Deuteronomy 25:17-19, Moses said to the Israelites: “People of Israel, do you remember what the Amalekites did to you after you came out of Egypt? You were tired, and they followed along behind, attacking those who could not keep up with the others. This showed that the Amalekites have no respect for God. The Lord your God will help you capture the land [of Canaan], and he will give you peace. But when that day comes, you must wipe out Amalek so completely that no one will remember they ever lived” (contemporary English Version).
Some four hundred years later the prophet Samuel gave to King Saul this message from the Lord: “When the Israelites were on their way out of Egypt, the nation of Amalek attacked them. I am the Lord all Powerful, and now I am going to make Amalek pay! Go and attack the Amalekites! Destroy them and their possessions. Don’t have any pity. Kill their men, women, children, and even their babies. slaughter their cattle, sheep, camels, donkeys” (1 Samuel 15:2-3, Contemporary English Version).
So Saul attacked the Amalekites and killed every one of them except their King Agag, whom the ferocious Samuel himself later chopped to pieces before the altar of the Lord (1 Samuel 15:7-9, 31-33).
Now let us scrutinize these scriptures.
1. Crazy Chosenpeopleism.Any sensitive person who reads these passages gets the creeps and wants to upchuck. But before reacting so negatively to these “inspired scriptures” we should note that the Amalekites were so impious that they had no respect for the Israelites, God’s “chosen people,” “the apple of God’s eye” (Zechariah 2:8). God takes what is done against his favorite people as done against himself. How audacious, then, of the Amalekites to attack God’s chosen people. Why, that’s tantamount to attacking God himself. But this whole notion of God’s playing favorites is itself enough to turn one’s stomach.
2. Annihilate the Amalekites! Now we focus on the brutal command of a merciless God: “Don’t have any pity. Wipe out the Amalekites so completely they’ll be forgotten forever. Slay all of the adults and children and even the tender babes in the loving arms of their mothers. Obliterate the savage Amalekites. And don’t stop with the humans, slaughter their animals too.” No reference for life there!
3. Incomparable Injustice. But it gets worse. God commanded the brutal slaughter of the Amalekites four centuries after the Amalekites had attacked the Israelites on their way out of Egypt. Think of it! God ordered the killing of men, women, children, and their babies for acts committed by their ancestors hundreds of years before. Why should God punish descendants for the sins of their ancestors? After all, the Lord himself said that “only those who sin will be put to death” (Ezekiel 18:4)
4. A Genocidal God.The Bible makes it clear that God is a genocidal God, a god who deliberately destroys whole populations. We are seeing that he ordered the annihilation of the Amalekites. God, speaking through Moses, commanded Israel to destroy without mercy the people of seven nations, the Hitites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and the Jebusites (Deuteronomy 7: 1-5, 16; 20: 16-18).
Turning to the New Testament, we see the kings of the world gathering together for the battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:14-16). Fire comes down from heaven and destroys all the enemies of God (Revelation 20:7-10). could any devil be more cold-blooded? Can anyone in his/her right mind love, serve, and worship such a gruesome genocidal God?
Conclusion. The Bible’s genocidal god was a fictitious idol created by an imperialistic chosen people to give divine approval to their bloody wars of conquest.
That’s the impression I have...that he was troubled, killed his children and himself, and I suspect the local Pakistani press is exploiting it to point the finger at Hindu practitioners in Pakistan.
Whether he thought he was making an offering or not is beside the point. He had gone around the bend.
I agree.
‘LOL’ is just an internet expression, a shortcut if you will, for use on, you guessed it, internet boards.
Such as this one.
I can judge the “seriousness” of your intent when you wilfully indulge in loose accusations and hyperbolic outbursts, the kind which the snapshot I posted from the works of your “distinguished” author, was clearly a part of.
As for the reply to the mandated child-slaughter in the Bible, I am going to read through it carefully immediately after this reply, and get back to you with a response.
Thank you for sending it. I am amazed it took you so long to look it up on the internet.
Please quote chapter, line and verse.
Upon my quick perusal of that "distinguished" work, I failed to see any Gita quotes embedded. If you did, please mention the same. If you fail to do so, be honest enough to acknowledge that as well.
Thank you.
YOU SAID: "Indeed, this quote from Samuel was four centuries after what purportedly occurred as historical fact."
MY REPLY: So your point is, not everything in the Old Testament is fact? So, who gets to interpret and re-interpret the dastardly verses which you seem to imply, were an artificial re-interpretation of what supposedly happened?
YOU SAID: "Here’s a careful and intellgent anaylsis of this text."
.
.
.
"Go and attack the Amalekites! Destroy them and their possessions. Don’t have any pity. Kill their men, women, children, and even their babies. Slaughter their cattle, sheep, camels and donkeys”
- 1 Samuel 15:2-3
YOU SAID: "Now let us scrutinize these scriptures."
.
.
.
Conclusion. The Bible’s genocidal god was a fictitious idol created by an imperialistic chosen people to give divine approval to their bloody wars of conquest."
MY REPLY: If the above is your conclusion, as a member of the Catholic sect yourself, who am I to dispute it?
Do I find Biblically-mandated child-slaughter and human sacrifice of the aforementioned ethnicity moral? Of course not!
YOU SAID: "This is how absurd this quote gets when one resorts to out-of-context Scriptural passages in an attempt to mitigate the horrible and grisly massacre by a Hindu prelate of three small innocents girls."
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Definition of 'prelate':
A prelate is a high-ranking member of the clergy who either is an ordinary * or ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from Latin prælatus, the past participle of præferre, literally, "carry before," or "to be set above, or over," or "to prefer," hence a prelate is one set over others.
* - Definition of 'ordinary':
In those hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ecclesiastical law system, an ordinary is an officer of the church who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute the church's laws. The term comes from the Latin word ordinarius.
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HOW ON EARTH DO YOU COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT A MANIAC IS SOMEHOW PART OF THE SUPPOSED HINDU "PRELATE", with the very term being an oxymoron, in the context of a non-clerical, non-heirarchical religion like Hinduism?
Additionally, your "thesis" that Arjuna waging war against his vile and evil opponents, under the conditions of battle which mandated that children and women be spared, and fighting be conducted only during daylight, is somehow more vile than a god of desert nomads invented to mandate, among other things, ritual genital mutilation and unwarranted child-slaughter? Is this you doing the talking, or is this borrowed illogic from Bobby Jindal?
Feel free to use your exceptional intelligence and knowledge to provide us ignorants the actual "context" that necessitated the divinely-mandated, mindless child-slaughter and human sacrifice.
Oh, really?
Read up on the rules of war, as was applicable in that particular battle. Your indulgence in ignorance, is laughable.
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| I am alike for all! I know not hate, | |
| I know not favor! What is made is Mine! | |
| But them that worship Me with love, I love; | 115 |
| They are in Me, and I in them! | |
| Nay, Prince! | |
| If one of evil life turn in his thought | |
| Straightly to Me, count him amidst the good; | |
| He hath the highway chosen; he shall grow | 120 |
| Righteous ere long; he shall attain that peace | |
| Which changes not. Thou Prince of India! | |
| Be certain none can perish, trusting Me! | |
| O Prithâ’s Son! whoso will turn to Me, | |
| Though they be born from the very womb of Sin, | ; 125 |
| Woman or man; sprung of the Vaisya caste | |
| Or lowly disregarded Sudra,—all | |
| Plant foot upon the highest path; how then are | |
| The holy Brahmans, My Royal Saints? | |
| Ah! ye who into this ill world are come— | 130 |
| Fleeting and false—set your faith fast on Me! | |
| Fix heart and thought on Me! Adore Me! Bring | |
| Offerings to Me! Make Me prostrations! Make | |
| Me your supremest joy! and, undivided, | |
| Unto My rest your spirits shall be guided. | 135 |
- Bhagavad-Gita, Ch IX, lines 113-135.
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Cohen
Jewish priest
- also spelt kohen (Hebrew: “priest”), plural cohanim, or cohens
Jewish priest, one who is a descendant of Zadok, founder of the priesthood of Jerusalem when the First Temple was built by Solomon (10th century bc) and through Zadok related to Aaron, the first Jewish priest, who was appointed to that office by his younger brother, Moses. Though laymen such as Gideon, David, and Solomon offered sacrifice as God commanded, the Hebrew priesthood was hereditary in biblical times and was transmitted exclusively to male descendants of Aaron of the tribe of Levi.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/124525/cohen
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