Marbaniang, Domenic

The Characters Clark – Pastor Madeleine – His daughter It was a wintry evening, around 9 O’clock, and Rev. Clark was busy in his Study preparing for the Sunday Service, when Madeleine, his daughter of age 13, came to him and broke in “Dad, I wanted to ask something.” Clark [turning around at her]: What is it, my dear? Madeleine : Doesn’t God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit make three gods? [Then, pointing to a picture on the wall] God is that old Father, Jesus is the Son, and that dove is the Holy Spirit. They also look so different from each other. Clark : This picture is just a painting. Somebody imagined it that way. There are not three gods. Only one God, and… Madeleine : But, you said that Jesus is God, and also the Holy Spirit? Clark : Yes, that’s right. Madeleine : Then, there are three gods. Clark : No, there is only one God. It’s not very easy to understand how, but there’s only one God. Madeleine : How can that be, dad? Clark : Well, it’s difficult to understand...

© Domenic Marbaniang, Secularism in India, Google Books, 2005. The Indian school of materialism, Charvaka, perhaps developed as a reaction against the excesses of Brahmin priests and an exploitative society. It dismissed ‘necessarily all belief in everything that constitutes the specific subject-matter of religion and philosophy.’ It had place for neither God who controls the universe nor conscience that guides man. The absence of the transcendent in Charvaka might be reason for its also being called as Lokayata-darsana, meaning philosophical school ‘restricted to the experienced world,’ or ‘secular.’ The Charvaka had no regard for the Shabda Pramana (Verbal Testimony, i.e., the Vedas). It had a purely empirical and rational concept of reality. However, the Charvaka could not gain political approval and so gradually declined – although its hedonism vented out through popular polytheism. Charvaka philosophy could not continue also because of the powerful dominance of Brahmanism over...

© Domenic Marbaniang, Indian Secularism (2005) To an atheist, religion represents superstition, primitive fear, and suppression. Such blind faith is antithetical to the rational and scientific character of secularism. While religion looks beyond the world, secularism looks within the world for answers. Nehru who represented this atheistic form of secularism wrote: ‘India is supposed to be a religious country above everything else.. The spectacle of what is called religion or at any rate organised religion in India and elsewhere has filled me with horror and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Almost always it seemed to stand for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition and exploitation, and preservation and exploitation of vested interests.’   Nehru’s aversion towards religion is well known. He is said to have ‘always grimaced painfully whenever he had to go through even the most perfunctory religious observance.’ He once even a...

© Domenic Marbaniang, Indian Secularism (2005) Most Hindus can see no problem in worshipping two deities at the same time. This polytheistic nature of popular Hinduism helps Hindus to be pluralist and open to other religions as well. Gandhi viewed secularism from a religious perspective. He believed that religion and the State are inseparable, that irreligiosity encouraged by the State leads to demoralization of the people and that, therefore, the State’s religious policy should be pluralistic with equal respect to all religions. Mahatma Gandhi believed that all deities were manifestations of the One and all religions led to the same goal. It was this kind of a pluralistic approach to religion that made him to oppose religious conversions. Though claiming to be liberal, Gandhi opposed religious conversions, especially of the Untouchables, on arguments based on religious pluralism. This, however, caused a lot of agitation among the leaders of the Untouchable community. Dr. B.R. Ambedk...

One dream of two segments, One prophecy on two courts, Unconfused, unmixed, in concord. The first part seems, obviously, fulfilled, I wait for the next to come, One of the dream, another of a prophecy; One ends something; the other fulfills one.

NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF THE POWER OF JUST ASKING. IT HAS A CLEAN HISTORY -- NEVER FAILED. "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." (1John 5:14-15) THE PROMISES OF CHRIST: THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AN UNANSWERED PRAYER  THAT APPROACHES GOD IN THE CHILD-LIKE CONFIDENCE OF FAITH IN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND LOVE And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  (John 14:13) If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.  (John 14:14) You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.  (John 15:16) Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  (John 16:23) Until now you have asked...

Introduction Inter-personal relationship may be simply defined as that relationship that exists between two or more persons. It differs from a person’s association, or relating, to impersonal objects. Types of inter-personal relationship range from intra-family relationship (by birth, marriage, etc) to friendship, romantic love-relationship, business relationship, etc. A study of inter-personal relationship can be approached from, at least, four angles: 1. The Psychological Perspective. It studies the dynamics and problem of relationships based on empirical case studies and psychological theories. In the past century studies in psychoanalysis, logotherapy, and other branches has greatly contributed in this direction. 2. The Sociological Perspective. It studies the social and cultural dynamics of inter-personal relationships with reference to social structure, stratification, culture, taboos, religion, civilization, and related social theories. Sociology usually combines with psycholog...

As the smoke of the two World Wars cleared for the blue, but indifferent, sky to canopy the chaotic world of human design, someone wondered if pre-Enlightenment man was better than the man who “had come to age”. Perhaps, the monster was better unborn or just a child. But, that which is born grows, and that which grows doesn’t remain the same. Darwinism dismantled the myth of birth; hitherto, for the past uncountable millennia, man was a child; now, a man – evil man, wild but restrained by the conscience of some “primitive-minded” fideists that the Lokayatas (this-worldly-people) wanted to purge. These fideists were still immature. Kant annunciated the “Enlightenment” by pounding his fist on the flat table of independent thought. He thought his thought was independent and he felt this to be mature. Every child craves independence and self-determination and every child believes he is mature, if he’s able to raise his fist and pound the floor. When does a child stop being a child anyway, ...

Do not stare at your commas as if they are your full stop. Commas are marks of continuity, not signs of a dead end. "It's a slip, not a fall." - Abe Lincoln after losing a political contest. March 10, 2016 Dale Carnegie, Lincoln the Unknown , p. 104 On election night, Lincoln remained in the telegraph office, reading the returns. When he saw that he had lost, he started home. It was dark and rainy and gloomy. The path leading to his house had been worn pig-backed and was slippery. Suddenly, one foot shot from under and hit the other. Quickly he recovered his balance. "It's a slip," he said, "and not a fall."

You fail to impact the moment you retract. Silence is entropic; mission is action. Shepherds lead by their voice and presence. Generals lead by going ahead of their army in the battlefield. There is no remote control chamber in the Kingdom of God. The seed will only grow where it falls, where it is, where it touches the soil. "Go ye out...to all nations" P.S. Even the devil leads by his presence in the world. Jesus leads by His presence in the Church. The economy of your voice can ruin or build the nation. "Open rebuke is better than secret love." Refuse not your voice to the world, while you have breath and strength to speak. Then they said, "Who are you? Give us an answer to tell those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" John told them in the words of the prophet Isaiah: "I am the voice of one calling out in the desert: 'Make the road straight for the Lord.'" (John 1:22-23)

While the world pursues to understand the why and how of Amit’s death from the Hindutvavadis’ attack on a Christian gathering two days back, I desire to write a few lines in memory of my student, brother, and friend in the Lord. A very calm, kind-hearted, and intensely thoughtful boy, he was soon spotted by our administration to, first, help as a Monitor for the General Convention Week held in 2009, and then appointed as General Monitor for the academic year. This was his Final Year at College. I remember him coming to my room on the last day of College. He said he just wanted to meet me in case I was already leaving and didn’t get to meet. He had been sick for a few days and was unable to write one of my exams. He also looked a bit pale from work fatigue, I supposed. But, I still discerned the glistening in his eyes and was glad that he proved to be faithful and able in the task given to him. That was the last time I saw him, and he said that he would leave for Raipur. The next time I...

The eye salve went a missin' and, boom, blew sunshine out of sky. But, it left this hope a lingerin' that it'll come back by and by. The world needs one beautifier, this cooler of vision and eye. And, tho' the world grow sorer and indifferent, The eye salve will beauty testify: This eye salve does hope certify, vision purify, the world beautify... "anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see." -- Jesus Christ, Rev.3:18 © Domenic Marbaniang, April 2010

Rahiman dhaga prem ka mat todevu chatkai, Tootei to phir na milei, milei ganth parijai. Never snap off the string of love, O Rahim, For broken will it not join; joined it'll leave a knot. The broken string of human love will only join through an enduring knot (Rahim). In contrast, God's love keeps no knots - He forgives and forgets, absolutely, relentlessly, irrevocably.

" The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jer 8:20) He who lives in sin doesn't fall in sin; he who falls in sin doesn't live in sin. The slip and the fall were momentary. He who is born of God doesn't desire to sin; he who desires to sin is not born of God. The slip and the fall were involuntary. No lover of Christ ever desires to displease Him; no displeaser loves Christ. The slip and the fall were a hateful lapsing. Nothing hurts and damages as the deceitfulness of sin; nothing heals and builds up as the truth of God. What man of God desires wickedness? He desires to avoid evil, but desire to avoid is powerless before the desire to fulfill. He who focuses on avoiding sin rather than on fulfilling righteousness is overpowered by sin. Where there is no light, there is darkness all the time. Sow Your righteousness in this soul of Your purchase, Lord!

A Message by Rev. R. Venkata Rao Paulus Download from here

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” (John 19:28) Two pieces of information inserted by John 1. Jesus knew that all things were now accomplished 2. Jesus said something so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. This is a retrospective interpretation. John didn’t know this then. Either Christ revealed this to the disciples after His resurrection or he understood this through the Holy Spirit later on. He only spoke of His thirst after the work was over. 1. Christ’s Zeal for our Salvation – the Ultimate Mission: What is our goal in life? Are souls our concern? Is our own soul our concern? 2. Christ’s Care for the details of God’s Word – the Ultimate Guide: What is our guide in life? Is God’s Truth paramount? Is God’s Witness paramount? Questions: Does physical need supersede spiritual goals? Does leisure and levity take over stringent adherence to His Word? Good Friday, Pentecostal Church, April 2, 2010...

The sun lifted his arm to hide his reddened face, The winds ceased and the earth jolted in confusion; The universe blackened; history was blotted out. The One who held this vast universe by His power Now hung motionless in body on the Cross -- That cursed pole obliterated by His crushed frame. Puny little powers had wielded powerless hammers Driving nails, lifting Him up for all eyes to see What salvation God ordained through this cursed tree. Two thieves for company; few friends, more foes Waited, as time fled, to watch this end; Time did end; history choked. The quivers quivered as bitter arrows were disengaged; Sin rattled against that Love immutable and true: O Mockery, you had never so hatefully grimaced Than when He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” One sinner cursed, the other his sins confessed And sought a hope this world never knew; Glory shone from God’s battered face, As to him He said, “Verily, you’ll be with Me in paradise today, I say to you...