Recognising false prophets..

How do we recognise these false prophets ?

False prophets love big expectant and appreciative gatherings, they love to perform miracle healings or exorcisms of demons before a large audience ( not in private or the quietness of a room as how our Saviour cured the lame and asked the dead to stand up and walk). They love to crowd the stge with supporters and create an apparent feeling of large following (Thangu style), amaze listeners with brave thoughts ( M Y and KP Yohannan style) and they enjoy the public exhilaration they receive at the end. Their performances always end up with large monetary collections. ( in the name of cost for prayers, prayer towers ( Dinakaran style), Bibles, cassettes and Cds etc.).

They seek personal glory and benefit. They even slander the true prophets. They want to publicise themselves and increase their popularity through mass media of radio and television, ( TV evangelists), use the mass media to collect revenue to fund and expand their further bogus operations, diabolical charmers in a state of exaltation, conceited preachers presenting themselves as God's chosen to the gullible, innocent believers. They also want to transform religion into a weapon of hatred to slander others and as a personal weapon for personal gain.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. The evil fruits of the activities of the false prophets, common to all of them, are pride and the forcible separation of the people from the Kingdom of God.

Because they speak to people what they love to hear ( or what they itch to hear..) and avoid speaking to people from moving away from sins, they are able to give sermons which are soothing for the audience' ears and they get themselves endearing to the crowd. This makes them instantly acceptable among the people and get the favour of the influential in the society.

With promise of prosperity they lull the conscience of their followers to sleep, leading the followers to think of a comfortable life ahead bereft of problems, gradually leading the society to moral degradation. ( this is the false thinking among the people - whatever I do, if I attend the sessions from these false prophets, I am saved. I can be in close contact with God for that 2 hours)

How distant is this cheap zeal and assuredness from the meek and humble image of Jesus and his disciples ?

ge..

Beware of fraud while filling petrol in Bangalore and elsewhere in india....

In Bangalore it has become common practice to distract the attention of the driver while petrol is being pumped to your vehicle resulting in short filling of the vehicle. This fraud is rampant in Bangalore..

Even when we ask him to fill for Rs 500 or 1000, the tender pretends as if he has heard only Rs 200/=. Smartly after our attention is distracted by pointing to some offer by the oil companies, he starts the filling when the meter is reading from some earlier value, say x, more than zero. He winds up the filling operation and then we see that he has put only for Rs 200/- ( actually he puts only for an amount less than 200, ie (200-x).). Then we ask him to put the remaining 300/= which he does.  Finally the consumer ends up filling less than Rs 500/= and is at a loss of 'x'. This 'x' may be anywhere between 50 , 100 or even 200. A hundred consumers in a day, the gains for the petrol pump is very high ..

The notorious petrol pumps for this is Sri Venkateshwara BP outlet in Madiwala, near the Police station and the BP outlet in Johnson market. These are the two places where I got duped.. I have stopped going there ..

As a precaution ensure the meter is always set to zero before fuel is pumped . Never allow your attention to be distracted while filling fuel, come what may !!

ge..

Exposing spiritual entrepreneurship of Thangu, Yohannan and Dinakarans in Kerala ...

Continuing with my writeup on "fraudsters Thangu, Yohannan and Dinakaran and the others of their kind, engaged in spiritual entrepreneurship in Kerala" and the spam/flame mails I have been receiving from the guilty supporters of these fraudsters who, out of the prick of their conscience, are all out to defend themselves,  let me quote something more from the Bible. ( I do not know what value the Holy Bible have in their lives....!)

Matthew 7:15  - "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are savage wolves. (ISV)



There are many other references in the NT of the Bible where the apostles exhort us to beware of these wolves and ravens...

Mathew 24:11 - "Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.

Mathew 24:24 -  "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

Mark 13:22 - for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.

Luke 6:26 - "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

John 10:12 - "He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

Acts 13:6 -  When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus,

Acts 20:29 -  "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;

2 Peter 2:1 -  But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

1 John 4:1 - Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Dear brethren,

Again from Jeremiah 5:21

'Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, Who have eyes but do not see; Who have ears but do not hear.


george..

ammu and friends come home ..

Ammu and friends came from mumbai for test at Sampurna Montfort.

The test and interview went off well. She made it finally, though not sure whether she will join here.

ge..

snaps in brochure

Bangalore was sold for Rs. 300,000 in 1687 ..

Do you know that,

In 1687, Bangalore was sold by Kasim Khan, the Mughal general to Chikkadevaraya Wodeyar of Mysore for Rs. 300,000/- ??

The present day Bangalore is more well known by the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of government in Karnataka, a beautiful structure built in in 1956 Neo-Dravidian style by Hanumanthaiah, CM of Karnataka from 1951-56. Situated in the Cubbon Park this is the largest legislative building in India and is aptly called the Taj Mahal of South India.

Bangalore also houses the famed Tata Institute, now called the Indian Institute of Science. A brainchild of Sir Jamshedji Tata, this Institute was established in 1898, with a generous land donation of 372 acres from Krishnadevaraja Wodeyar IV of Mysore.

ge..

At Kottayam ..

Tinu, Tony, Appacha, Manu, kochumon, aunty, anila etc in Kottayam on 25 Dec 2007 ..

Silky, the Labrador Retriever ..

Silky, the 20 month old female Labrador Retriever at home ..

Obama and McCain .. any fight at all ??

Finally after months of fighting, Ms Clinton has bowed out of the race for the Democratic candidate nomination for the US presidential elections, paving way for the big two contenders.

Will the charm and patriotism of McCain ( with a stint of 5 years as a POW in Vietnam ) and the millstone of the two lost /losing  wars, an inflationary economy tied to his neck, give way to the  cool-tempered, humoured , first Afro-American contender, to walk up the stairs of the White House ??

Who will be more responsive to a changing world order of decreasing US influence and increasing clout of the Asian powers ? Who will make Americans more outward looking and earn back the respect it had squandered during the past many years ?


ge..

Petrol prices hit thru the roof ..

After the last night hike, petrol is costliest in bangalore, about Rs 58.50 or so in Bangalore. The government has somehow managed to give the impression of not a too big raise, just Rs 5 for petrol and rs 50 for an LPG cyclinder. The prices of Kerosene has been retained for the benefit of the poor sections of the society.

The international prices of crude oil up from $35 two years ago, to $135 presently, is indeed a very alarming state of the world economy, as pointed out by the UN Sec General Ban Ki moon in the recent FAO food summit in Rome to find ways and means to tackle the present world food crisis and the high prices.

But where is all this money going to ?

Some say it is futures trading which is boosting the prices..Speculation in high prices results in a spiral effect. The money which is reaching the Gulf is being diverted back to the western world, for instance funding the Citibank who got badly hit in the sub prime crisis in US is one such instance. Very soon we will find the gulf govts investing in their defence procurements and buying real estate in US and Europe. The money from the developed and develpng govts the world over is now being rerouted to the developed economies.
The continuing high prices of oil, will damage India in more ways than one. First, it will deplete the foreign exchange reserves of the country. Secondly it will result in general inflation going above 10.0 % resulting in an overall appreciation in prices and another round of wage increases, DA increases etc..

A salaried worker will find it difficult to maintain his family and will be forced to cut down on some essential expenses in life.

Politically this may boomerang to give Congress a big hit in the coming general elections if the opposition use this opportunity to to raise public emotions against the govt, even in spite of the inevitables happening.

Let us wait and se...

ge..

Spiritual entrepreneurship, Thanks, Thangu, amma and Yohannans and Dinakarans ....

Spiritual Entrepreneurship, booming business in Kerala ...


The past few days we have been reading about the various successful, partly succesful and totally failed spiritual entrepreneurs in Kerala. Godmen/women. conmen/women, some of whom have gained worldwide fame, name and wealth and some who got exposed with too much of sex and lust. Cutting across religious spectrum, except for the Muslim community, we have seen competitors vying with each other to come to the forefront in this material world, amassing real estate, untold wealth in cash and kind and the appreciation and blind allegiance of thousands of followers within Indian and abroad.

We need to analyse why this pathetic state of affairs in this country of sages, rishis and wise men with a parampara, culture and civilization, perhaps the most ancient in the world, of five thousand years. When the white men were still on trees, our rishis and people of knowledge ( scientists in the modern  terminlogy ) were busy talking of the navagruhas (  the nine planets, it took them hundreds of years to disprove it..) and studying the impact of the position of stars and planets on human life ( something which even the modern Science of present day has not yet understood and hence claims as rubbish..)

Whatever be it, modern day science is under tremendous pressure to denounce such theories for their own survival, existence and acceptance, due to lack of understanding and knowledge of the unknown. Therefore in a spirit of accommodation as in a pluralistic society, we allow these modern theories being propounded by the modern day science to co-exist.

In this materialistic world, it is success and riches which are in great following.  Our spiritual entrepreneurs, both the successful and failed ones, have leveraged or exploited this weakness of our people running after success and material wellbeing. Be it writing an examination and getting a medical or engineering seat, getting a good high paying job, building a palatial house, going in the latest Mercedes, these spiritual entrepreneurs are ever ready to offer succour and comfort our fears, of course at a price. For the recipient it makes good business ation which will get corrected, as it is throwing some money to get more money. In Christianity as in other religions,  the emergence of the recent aggressive, born-again, rock-n-roll movements, extreme charismatism etc to corner all the good things in this materialistic world,  is just a aberration  which will get corrected in due course.

The people of Kerala are smart enough to know this, but the pressure of pursuit after materialistic pleasures, is resulting in the sprouting of such spiritual entrepreneurs ... If we are smart enough, we can avoid these rogues for ever ... ( but some of us will still try to outsmart others..)

Acting together we can live in a better world...

george..