I prayed long into the night, sometimes in words, sometimes just in groans, asking Jesus to sustain me, to keep me faithful, to somehow work all this for good.

The next day, I had to face another consequence.

I went to work at my construction company as usual trying to maintain some normaly but word had spread there too.

Some of my co-workers who were Hindu looked at me with suspicion and disapproval.

My boss called me into his office.

He said he had heard about my conversion.

He asked if it was true.

I confirmed it.

He looked uncomfortable.

Yes, he said that personally he did not care what religion I followed but several of our clients were traditional Hindu families.

If they heard that one of his senior engineers had converted to Christianity, they might not want to work with the company.

He suggested I might want to keep my religious change private, not talk about it publicly.

I understood what he was implying.

keep quiet or risk losing my job.

I told him respectfully that I would not go around announcing my conversion to everyone, but I also would not lie or hide if anyone asked me directly.

He was not happy with this response, but he did not fire me on the spot.

Still, I could sense that my position at the company was now precarious.

Then came the economic consequence I had known was coming.

As a pandit, I had been earning significant additional income performing religious ceremonies, weddings, festivals, rituals.

That income had been a major supplement to my engineering salary.

Now, of course, I could no longer do that work.

Not only was I unwilling to do it, but no one in the community would hire me for it anyway.

A converted Christian could not be a Hindu priest.

This loss of income was substantial.

It meant financial strain for my family which only added to Priya’s reasons to be angry with me.

Days passed.

Priya did not return.

She stayed at her parents’ house with the children.

I called to speak to Arjun and Lakshmi several times but Priya would not let me talk to them.

She said I had made my choice and now I had to live with the consequences.

She said when I came to my senses and renounced this Christian nonsense we could talk until then she was keeping the children away from my influence.

This separation from my children was perhaps the most painful part of everything.

I missed them terribly.

I wanted to see them, to hold them, to explain to them what had happened and why, but I could not.

I was cut off from them.

The pain of this was almost unbearable.

There were nights I wondered if I had made the right choice, if Jesus was worth losing my children.

But then I would remember the vision.

I would remember the light, the presence, the words, the peace.

I would remember standing in bondage to false gods for 42 years.

I would remember the freedom I had found in Christ.

And I knew despite the pain that I had made the right choice.

Truth was worth the cost.

Jesus was worth the cost.

During this time of isolation and pain, I my only support came from the church fellowship.

Pastor Samuel visited me at my home several times.

He prayed with me, read scripture with me, encouraged me.

Arun and other believers from the church also reached out.

They brought me food, sat with me, reminded me that I was not alone, that I was part of a new family in Christ.

Arin particularly understood what I was going through because he had experienced similar rejection from his family.

He told me about the darkest days after his conversion when his family had completely cut him off when he felt completely alone.

He said those were the days that tested his faith most severely.

But he said Jesus had been faithful, had sustained him, had proved to be more than enough.

He encouraged me to hold on, to keep trusting, to let God work.

I I also stayed in constant contact with Ginedu in Nigeria through WhatsApp.

He was my prayer partner through all of this.

When I told him about my baptism and the consequences, he wept with joy for my baptism and with sorrow for my suffering.

He said he was praying for me daily.

His messages of encouragement and scripture verses helped keep me going during the hardest moments.

One thing that sustained me greatly during this wilderness period was the Bible.

I was reading it constantly now, not hiding or sneaking around, but openly, hungrily.

I read about Jesus’s own suffering, how he was rejected by his own people, how he was misunderstood even by his family at times, how he warned his followers that they would face persecution.

I read about the apostles who were beaten and imprisoned for preaching about Jesus, yet rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for his name.

I read about countless believers throughout history who had lost everything for following Christ, yet found him to be worth it all.

These scriptures were like bread to a starving man.

They reminded me that suffering for Jesus was not strange or unusual but normal for those who truly follow him.

They reminded me that present suffering cannot be compared to future glory.

They reminded me that Jesus himself had promised in this world you will have trouble but take heart.

I have overcome the world.

I also began to experience something I had never experienced in my years of Hindu practice.

Genuine joy in the midst of suffering.

It sounds paradoxical but it was real.

Despite losing my family, facing rejection from my community, experiencing financial strain, and feeling isolated, there was a deep joy in my heart that came from knowing Jesus.

The peace that had first touched me in Lagos, that had drawn me to Christ, that peace remained.

Not because my circumstances were good, but because Christ was with me.

About 2 weeks after Priya left, I received an unexpected phone call.

It was from her.

My heart leaped.

Maybe she was ready to talk, to listen, to understand.

But when I answered, her voice was cold.

She said she had talked with her parents and with my mother and with religious leaders in our community.

They all agreed on one thing.

I needed to publicly renounce this Christian foolishness and return to our dharma.

If I did this publicly and sincerely, she would consider coming back with the children.

She outlined what I needed to do.

First, and perform a purification ritual at the main temple to cleanse myself of the Christian influence.

Second, conduct a public puja ceremony apologizing to the gods for my betrayal.

Third, commit to resuming my duties as a pandit.

Fourth, never contact Christians or attend church again.

If I did all of this, she might be willing to reconcile.

As she spoke, part of me wanted desperately to say yes.

I missed her.

I missed my children.

I wanted my family back.

But I knew I could not do what she was asking.

I could not deny Jesus.

I could not go back to idol worship.

I had seen the truth.

I had been set free.

I could not return to bondage.

I told her gently but firmly that I could not do what she was asking.

Jesus was not foolishness to me.

He was truth.

He was life.

He was my Lord and Savior.

I loved her and the children.

But I could not deny him.

Uh I would not deny him.

I invited her to let me explain to tell her about what I had experienced to show her in the Bible why I believed what I believed but she was not interested.

She said I had made my choice.

Then she said something that pierced my heart.

She said you love your Jesus more than you love your family.

Then she hung up.

I sat holding the phone, tears streaming down my face.

Was it true? Did I love Jesus more than my family? The answer I realized was yes, but not in the way she meant it.

I did not love Jesus instead of them.

I loved Jesus above them.

And that is what he required.

He had said clearly in the gospels that anyone who loved father or mother or wife or children more than him was not worthy of him.

Following Jesus demanded ultimate allegiance not because he was cruel but because he was God means and God deserves first place.

This was perhaps the hardest truth I had to accept.

Choosing Jesus meant he had to be first above everyone and everything else even above family.

This did not mean abandoning family or not loving them.

It meant that if a choice had to be made, Jesus won.

And in my situation, that choice had been forced.

My family was demanding I choose them over Jesus, and I could not do it.

The weeks continued to pass.

January turned into February.

I had now been baptized for about a month.

Life settled into a painful new normal.

I went to work, came home to an empty house, attended church on Sundays and Bible study during the week, read scripture constantly, prayed without ceasing.

My family did not return.

My community had largely rejected me.

Some of my Hindu friends stopped associating with me.

Uh I lost some clients and income.

But something else was happening too.

I was growing spiritually in ways I never had in 42 years of Hindu practice.

I was developing a real relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Prayer was no longer ritual recitation but actual conversation with a living person who heard and responded.

Bible reading was no longer religious duty but genuine encounter with God’s word.

Worship was no longer performance but authentic expression of love and gratitude to the one who had saved me.

I was also experiencing the reality of the Christian community as family.

The believers at the house church were not just fellow religious practitioners.

They were my brothers and sisters in Christ.

They loved me, supported me, prayed for me, wept with me, rejoiced with me.

Pastor Samuel became like a spiritual father to me or Arin became like a brother.

This was not biological family, but it was real family nonetheless.

The family of God.

One Sunday in late February during the worship service, I had another powerful moment with the Lord.

We were singing about the cross of Christ, about how Jesus had borne our sins, about how his blood had washed us clean.

As we sang, I was overwhelmed by the reality of what Jesus had done for me.

He had died for my sins.

He had paid the price I could never pay.

He had offered me forgiveness and new life freely as a gift.

All the years I had spent trying to earn my way to God through rituals and good works and religious devotion.

And it had all been worthless.

Salvation could only come through Jesus, through his finished work on the cross.

I fell to my knees right there during worship, weeping.

Not sad tears this time, but tears of gratitude and wonder.

How could I not follow him? How could any cost be too high? He had given everything for me.

Could I not give everything for him? In that moment, the pain of losing my family, the rejection from my community, the financial struggles, all of it seemed small compared to what Jesus had done for me.

I was getting eternal life, forgiveness of sins, relationship with God, hope of resurrection, future glory.

What was temporary suffering compared to eternal gain? During this period, a few unexpected things happened.

One day at work, one of my colleagues, a young engineer named Rahul, approached me privately.

He said he had heard about my conversion.

He asked if it was true.

I said yes.

I expected condemnation or mockery.

But instead he said something surprising.

I He said he had always felt emptiness in Hindu worship but had been afraid to question it because of family and social pressure.

He asked if I would tell him more about Jesus.

I could hardly believe it.

Here was someone actually interested, actually asking questions, actually seeking.

We met several times over the following weeks.

I shared my testimony with him.

I explained the gospel.

I gave him a Bible.

I invited him to church.

He came a few times.

He was genuinely searching.

Whether he would come to faith in Jesus, I did not know.

But at least he was seeking truth.

This gave me hope that my testimony, my conversion, my suffering, it was not in vain.

God could use it to reach others.

Then in early March, something more significant happened.

Priya called me again, but this time her tone was different.

She was not angry or demanding.

She sounded tired, sad, confused.

She said she had been watching me from a distance.

She had heard from some mutual acquaintances that I had lost my priestly income but had not abandoned my new faith.

She had heard that I was facing persecution and rejection but seemed to have peace.

She admitted she did not understand it.

She said she wanted to talk, really talk, not argue but talk.

She asked if she could come to the house with the children to visit.

My heart leaped with hope.

I said, “Yes, of course, anytime.

” She said they would come the next Sunday afternoon.

That week, I prayed more fervently than I had prayed about anything.

I prayed for wisdom, for the right words, for God to open Priya’s heart and the children’s hearts to truth.

I prayed that this visit might be the beginning of reconciliation or not just of our marriage but of their coming to know Jesus.

Sunday came after church.

I went home and prepared.

I cleaned the house thoroughly.

I prepared some food.

I waited nervously.

In the afternoon, there was a knock on the door.

I opened it and there they were.

Priya looked tired but also somehow softer than when she had left.

Arjun looked guarded, uncertain.

Lakshmi ran to me immediately and hugged me.

I held her tight fighting back tears.

They came inside.

It was awkward at first.

We sat in the main room.

Lakshmi stayed close to me.

Arjun sat next to his mother watching me carefully.

Priya looked around the house noticing changes.

Her eyes fell on the altar area.

The idols were gone.

In their place was the Bible and cross.

Her face tightened, but she did not say anything.

We talked carefully, cautiously.

Our Priya asked how I had been.

I told her honestly about the difficulties but also about the peace I had found.

She asked about my work.

I told her I was still employed but had lost the priestly income.

She expressed concern about finances.

I acknowledged it was a challenge but said I trusted God would provide.

Then she asked the question that mattered.

She asked why I was so committed to this Jesus.

Why would I risk everything, lose everything for a foreign religion? what had happened to me that was so powerful.

I took a deep breath and told her.

I told her about the vision in Lagos in detail.

I told her about the light, the presence, the words I heard, the chains breaking.

I told her about the months of struggle and learning.

I told her about the Bible and what it taught.

I told her about Jesus, who he was, what he did, why he died, Joe, how he rose, what it meant.

I told her about the gospel, about grace, about salvation, not through works, but through faith.

She listened.

She did not interrupt.

She did not argue.

She just listened.

I could see she was processing, thinking, perhaps beginning to understand.

even if she did not believe yet.

Then Arjun spoke up.

He asked me directly, “Papa, do you still love us?” I looked at my son.

My heart breaking at the pain in his voice.

I said, “Yes, absolutely yes.

” I loved them with all my heart.

I had not left them.

I had not stopped loving them.

But I had found truth that I could not deny.

I invited them to discover that truth too.

I said Jesus did not want to destroy our family but to save our family all of us.

The visit lasted a few hours.

It was not a complete reconciliation but it was a step.

When they left and Priya said she would think about everything I had said.

She said she needed time.

She did not promise to come back but her heart seemed less hardened than before.

I thanked God for that.

It was not much, but it was something.

The weeks that followed saw gradual improvement in family relations.

Priya called me occasionally to talk.

She asked more questions about Christianity.

I answered patiently, pointing her to scripture, sharing more of my testimony.

She even allowed me to see the children sometimes.

Arjun remained guarded, protective of his mother, but he was slowly warming up to me again.

Lakshmi was just happy to spend time with her father.

One day, Priya asked if she could attend the church service with me.

Not to believe, she emphasized, but just to see what it was like to understand what had captured my devotion so completely.

I was overjoyed.

I said, “Of course, she could come.

” That next Sunday, she came with me to the house church.

She sat through the entire service, the worship, the teaching, the prayers.

She did not participate actively, but she observed everything.

After the service, some of the church members greeted her warmly, especially the women who had also come from Hindu backgrounds.

They shared their testimonies with her gently, not pushing, just witnessing.

On the way home, I asked what she thought.

She said it was very different from Hindu temple worship.

The joy seemed genuine.

The community seemed loving.

She admitted she felt something peaceful in the atmosphere though she was not ready to call it God or Jesus but she was willing to come again.

This was significant progress through March and into April.

My situation slowly stabilized and my family had not fully reconciled but relationships were healing.

Priya and the children were still living with her parents but they visited regularly.

Priya attended church with me a few times.

She was asking questions seeking to understand though not yet believing.

My work situation also stabilized.

Though some clients had dropped me, others did not care about my religion as long as I did good engineering work.

My boss decided to keep me employed despite some pressure from Hindu clients.

The loss of priestly income remained a challenge but the church community helped support me when I struggled financially.

Most importantly, my faith was growing stronger.

Every trial seemed to deepen my dependence on Jesus.

Every hardship seemed to reveal more of his faithfulness.

Every lonely night of prayer seemed to draw me closer to him.

I I was experiencing what the Bible talked about that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character and character produces hope.

I also began to feel a calling to share my faith with other Hindus.

My testimony was unique.

a trained Hindu pandit who had encountered Jesus and left everything to follow him.

Pastor Samuel encouraged me to share this testimony publicly when appropriate.

I began speaking at the house church sharing my full story.

Then I spoke at other small Christian gatherings in the region.

Some people were blessed by my testimony.

Some were challenged.

Some who had Hindu backgrounds but were secretly drawn to Christ were encouraged by my story.

I also started writing down my testimony in detail thinking it might be helpful for others who were on similar journeys from Hinduism to Christianity.

And the act of writing helped me process everything I had been through.

It also created a record that I could share with others.

By May, 7 months after my return from Nigeria and 4 months after my baptism, I could see how God had been faithful through everything.

I had lost much my identity as a pandit, my standing in the Hindu community, much of my income and still my family situation was not fully restored.

But I had gained infinitely more.

I knew Jesus.

I had peace with God.

I had hope of eternal life.

I had purpose and meaning.

I had a new family in the church.

And I had joy that circumstances could not take away.

The journey was not over.

Priya had not yet committed to Christ, though she was seeking.

My children were confused and hurt, though slowly healing.

My extended family still rejected me.

The wider community still saw me as a traitor.

But I was standing firm.

I was following Jesus.

And I had no regrets.

Looking back on those months in the wilderness, those months of testing and trial after my baptism, I could see that they had been necessary.

They had purified my faith.

They had shown me what Jesus was really worth.

They had proven that I was not following him for family or community approval or economic benefit or social status.

I was following him because he was true, because he was real, because he was worthy.

The wilderness had been painful, but it had also been precious.

It was where I learned that Jesus really was enough.

The call from Priya came on a Tuesday evening in late May 2020.

Her voice sounded different, not angry, not cold, not merely polite.

There was something soft in it, something vulnerable.

She asked if she could come over to talk.

Not with the children this time, just her.

She had something she needed to tell me.

I felt my heart race.

I said yes, of course, anytime.

She said she would come the next evening.

That Wednesday, I came home from work early to prepare.

I did not know what to expect.

Was she ready to finally reconcile? Was she going to demand one last time that I renounce Christianity? Was she planning to ask for a formal separation? I spent the afternoon in prayer asking God for wisdom, for grace, for whatever outcome he had planned.

When Priya arrived, she looked nervous.

We sat in the main room, the same room where months ago I had told her about my baptism and our world had collapsed.

But now something was different in the air between us.

She looked at the Bible sitting on the table between us.

Then she looked at me.

She began talking.

She said these past months had been the hardest of her life.

She had been angry, confused, hurt, feeling betrayed.

She had tried everything to get me to return to Hinduism.

Anger, ultimatums, separation, religious council.

Nothing had worked.

But more than that not working, she said she had noticed something.

I had not become bitter or angry back at her.

I had not retaliated or threatened.

I had remained peaceful, patient, loving even while she was harsh toward me.

She asked me how that was possible.

I told her it was only possible because of Jesus.

That left to myself I would have responded with anger or given up entirely.

But Jesus was giving me a different kind of strength, a different kind of love.

Not my love, but his love flowing through me.

She was quiet for a moment.

Then she said something that shocked me.

She said she wanted to know more about this Jesus who could change a person so dramatically.

She said she had been reading the Bible secretly.

the one I had offered to give her months ago which she had initially refused.

She had been reading it late at night when no one knew and the words were speaking to her in a way the Vedas and Puranas never had.

She said she had been especially struck by reading about Jesus’s treatment of women.

In Hindu culture, women often had lower status, fewer rights, more restrictions.

But Jesus treated women with respect and dignity.

He talked to the Samaritan woman at the well when Jewish men were not supposed to speak to Samaritan women.

He defended the woman caught in adultery when others wanted to stone her.

He allowed Mary to sit at his feet learning like a disciple when women were not typically taught by rabbis.

Priya said she had never seen any religious text or any god treat women the way Jesus did.

She said she had also been struck by the concept of grace.

All her life she had been trying to earn religious merit through good deeds, through rituals, through puja, hoping for better karma, hoping for better rebirth.

But it never felt like enough.

The burden was heavy.

Reading about grace, that salvation was a gift not earned but received through faith in Jesus.

This was completely new to her.

It seemed too good to be true, but also deeply appealing.

Then she looked at me with tears in her eyes and asked, “Is it real? What you experienced in Nigeria? Was it really real? Or could it have been just emotion or imagination?” I looked back at her and said with complete certainty, “It was real.

Jesus is real.

More real than anything else I have ever known.

She said she wanted to believe but she was afraid.

Afraid of what it would mean for her family, for her parents, for our children.

Afraid of being rejected and persecuted like I had been, afraid of making a mistake.

I took her hand gently and told her I understood those fears because I had felt them all too.

But I also told her that Jesus was worth the cost.

that knowing him, truly knowing him, was worth any price.

We talked long into the night.

I answered her questions about Christianity, about the Bible, about Jesus, about what it meant to be saved.

I shared my testimony again in even more detail.

I showed her scriptures that addressed her specific concerns and questions and I prayed for her that God would reveal truth to her heart the way he had revealed it to mine.

Priya did not make a decision that night, but something had shifted.

She was no longer opposed.

She was seeking.

She was genuinely considering whether Jesus might be who he claimed to be.

Over the next several weeks, Priya came to church with me every Sunday.

She started attending the midweek Bible study too.

She asked Pastor Samuel many questions.

The women in the church, especially those who had come from Hindu backgrounds like Meera, spent time with her sharing their own testimonies and journeys of faith.

During this time I also got to spend more time with Arjun and Lakshmi.

Priya brought them to visit regularly.

The children were seeing both of their parents seeking truth together now instead of being divided.

This was important for them.

They were still young, still processing everything but they were being exposed to the gospel through our changed lives.

Then came a Sunday in midjune that I will never forget.

Pastor Samuel preached about Jesus’s words in Matthew chapter 11.

Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Those words hit Priya powerfully.

After the sermon, when pastor Samuel gave an invitation for anyone who wanted to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior to come forward, Priya stood up.

See, she walked to the front with tears streaming down her face.

I sat there watching my wife take that step and I wept tears of joy and gratitude.

Pastor Samuel prayed with her.

She confessed her faith in Jesus Christ.

She renounced the idols and false gods.

She committed her life to following Jesus.

The church rejoiced with us.

After the service, so many people hugged us both, celebrating what God had done.

Priya was radiant despite the tears.

She said she felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

She said she felt the same peace I had told her about.

She said she understood now why I could not go back to Hinduism.

Once you have encountered the truth, once you have met Jesus, you cannot pretend it did not happen.

That day Priya moved back home with the children.

Our family was reunited but now on a completely different foundation.

Not on Hinduism but on Christ.

Not on rituals but on grace.

Not on false gods but on the true God.

It was like starting our marriage over but this time built on solid rock instead of sand.

Arjun and Lakshmi were happy to have both parents together again and in the same house again.

They did not fully understand all the theological issues yet, but they could see the change in both of us.

They could see the peace, the joy, the love, and they were being raised now in a Christian home, learning about Jesus from the very beginning.

Of course, this did not mean all problems disappeared.

Priya’s decision to follow Jesus meant she too now faced rejection from her family.

Her parents were devastated.

They said both of us had been deceived that we had brought shame on both families.

Oh, they cut off contact with us for a time.

My extended family’s rejection intensified now that not just I but also Priya had converted.

Some relatives said we were under a curse, that we were destroying our children’s future, that we would pay for this betrayal.

The economic challenges also continued without priestly income and with some clients still avoiding me because of my conversion, finances were tight.

But the church community helped support us.

And interestingly, I found that my reputation for honesty and good work ethic actually brought some new clients who did not care about my religion, but valued my professional competence.

Priya decided she wanted to be baptized just as I had been.

In July, about a month after her conversion, we held her baptism at the same river location where I had been baptized 6 months earlier.

And this time I stood on the shore watching and rejoicing as pastor Samuel baptized my wife.

Arjun and Lakshmi were there too, watching their mother publicly declare her faith in Jesus Christ.

It was a beautiful sacred moment.

After Priya’s baptism, our home was completely transformed.

We cleaned out every remaining Hindu religious item.

The small idols in the children’s room, the religious pictures on the walls, the ritual items in the kitchen.

Everything related to idol worship was removed.

Our home became a place of Christian worship and prayer.

We established new family rhythms.

Every morning we would gather as a family for prayer and Bible reading.

Every evening before bed we would pray together.

On Sundays the whole family attended church.

The children started attending Sunday school where they learned Bible stories slowly and Arjun and Lakshmi were learning about Jesus too.

In August something significant happened with Arjun.

He was now 15 years old, old enough to make his own decisions about faith.

One evening after our family prayer time, he said he wanted to talk to me privately.

In his room, he told me he had been thinking a lot about everything that had happened.

He said he had been angry at first when I converted, felt like I was betraying the family.

But now seeing both me and his mother changed, seeing the peace in our home despite the difficulties, he was starting to understand.

He said he had been reading the Bible on his own, particularly the gospels, reading about Jesus.

And he said he wanted to believe too.

He wanted to follow Jesus.

We pray together that night father and son as Arjun gave his life to Christ or it was one of the most precious moments of my life.

My son whom I had feared I might lose through my conversion was now joining me in following Jesus.

Lakshmi was younger only 11 and we did not pressure her but she was learning and growing in a Christian environment.

Now we trusted that in God’s timing she too would come to personal faith in Jesus as our family was being rebuilt on the foundation of Christ.

I was also discovering new purpose in my life.

The loss of my identity as a Hindu pandit had initially felt like losing everything.

But God was giving me a new identity and a new calling.

I was being used to reach other Hindus with the gospel, particularly those from Brahman backgrounds who could relate to my story.

Pastor Samuel asked me to start a ministry focused on Hindu outreach.

We began holding special meetings where I would share my testimony and then explain the gospel in a way that addressed Hindu concepts and questions.

We would talk about how Jesus fulfilled what Hinduism sought but could not deliver.

Freedom from karma, direct access to God, hope beyond the cycle of rebirth, a personal relationship with the divine.

Some Hindus who came to these meetings were hostile.

Some argued, some left angry, but others listened with genuine interest.

A few even came to faith in Christ.

Each conversion was a battle because it meant that person would face the same kind of opposition and suffering I had faced.

But seeing people come from darkness to light, from bondage to freedom, from false gods to the true God, this was worth everything.

One particular conversion stands out.

There was a young woman named Angeli and also from a Brahman family who had been secretly searching for spiritual truth for years.

She came to one of our outreach meetings out of curiosity.

My testimony struck her deeply because she identified with the emptiness I had felt in Hindu worship.

Over several weeks of study and discussion, she came to faith in Christ.

Her family’s reaction was severe.

They disowned her completely, threw her out of their house, cut off all financial support.

The church rallied around Anjali, providing her a place to stay, helping her find work, becoming her new family.

Watching the church be the body of Christ to this young woman who had lost everything for Jesus was beautiful and convicting.

It reminded me that following Jesus was not an individual journey but a communal one.

We needed each other.

By September 2020 and exactly one year after I had returned from Nigeria, my life looked completely different from what it had been.

A year ago, I had been a practicing Hindu pandit.

Married to a Hindu wife, raising Hindu children, maintaining an altar of 12 deities, performing rituals I no longer believed in, living in fear and hypocrisy.

Now I was a baptized Christian, married to a Christian wife, raising children in a Christian home, worshiping the one true God openly, serving in ministry to reach others with the gospel, living in freedom and peace.

Had the journey been easy? No.

It had been the hardest year of my life.

I had lost my identity as a pandit, lost standing in my community, lost significant income, faced rejection from family, faced persecution and misunderstanding.

But what I had gained was infinitely greater.

I had gained Jesus.

I I had gained truths.

I had gained freedom.

I had gained peace.

I had gained eternal life.

I had gained a wife and son who shared my faith.

I had gained a purpose.

And I had gained a joy that circumstances could not touch.

The suffering was real, but so was the faithfulness of God through it all.

Not once had he abandoned me.

Not once had he failed to provide what I truly needed.

Not once had I regretted following him.

Jesus had proved to be everything he claimed to be and more.

In October, I had an unexpected communication.

My mother, who had not spoken to me since cutting off contact after my baptism, called me.

I was shocked to see her name on my phone screen.

When I answered, her voice was shaky.

She said she was not calling to approve of my conversion or to reconcile theologically.

Um, but she said she had been diagnosed with a serious illness and wanted to see me.

Wanted to see her grandchildren before she got too sick.

I immediately went to visit her with Priya and the children.

It was an emotional reunion.

My mother was clearly unwell.

She held Lakshmi and cried.

She looked at Arjun and commented on how much he had grown.

She was polite but distant with Priya and me.

But at least she was willing to see us.

Over the next several weeks, I visited my mother regularly.

She was getting medical treatment, but her condition was not improving quickly.

During these visits, I had opportunities to talk with her about Jesus.

At first, she did not want to hear it.

But gradually, seeing that I truly cared for her despite our religious differences, seeing that my faith had not made me hate her or abandon her, she became more willing to listen.

I shared with her simply and gently about Jesus, about his love, about his sacrifice, about his offer of forgiveness and eternal life.

I told her that I was not better than her, that I was a sinner who needed a savior just like everyone else.

I told her that Jesus did not require her to be good enough first.

He accepted people as they were and then transformed them.

I told her it was never too late.

That even at the end of life, Jesus welcomed those who came to him.

I do not know if my mother ever truly accepted Christ before she passed away a few months later.

She never made a public profession of faith.

But in one of our last conversations, she told me she had been praying to Jesus, asking him to reveal himself to her if he was real.

She said she wanted what I had found, the peace, the certainty, or the hope.

Whether her prayers were answered, whether she truly met Jesus before she died, I will not know with certainty until eternity.

But I have hope.

Her death was painful, but it was different from how Hindu deaths had been in our family before.

We had a Christian funeral service for her, which shocked some of our extended family, but we believed she belonged to Jesus now, and we celebrated that hope.

Some relatives were offended, but others were curious about this different approach to death.

not as the beginning of another cycle of rebirth but as going home to be with the Lord.

As 2020 came to an end, nearly 2 years after my initial encounter with Jesus in Lagos, I reflected on the incredible journey God had taken me on.

From a Hindu pandit bound by rituals and idols to a free man in Christ.

uh from someone seeking God through countless lifetimes of karma to someone who had found God in one moment of grace.

From someone who served false gods in fear to someone who served the true God in love.

My calling became clearer.

God had allowed me to be trained as a Hindu pandit not as a waste but as preparation.

Everything I had learned about Hinduism, I could now use to help other Hindus understand why Jesus was different, why Jesus was better, why Jesus was true.

My testimony as a former pandit who encountered Jesus was powerful in reaching other brahinss and religious Hindus who might never listen to someone who had not walked in their shoes.

I began writing articles and making videos sharing my testimony and explaining the gospel to Hindu audiences.

These reached people across India and even Hindus in other countries.

I I received messages from people saying my story had helped them understand Christianity, had answered their questions, had given them courage to explore faith in Jesus despite family opposition.

Some of these messages came from other pandits and Hindu priests who were secretly doubting, secretly seeking, secretly drawn to Jesus but afraid to admit it.

To these men, I could speak from experience.

I knew their bondage.

I knew their fears.

I knew their questions.

And I could tell them with authority that Jesus was worth it all.

The ministry grew.

By early 2021, we had planted a small house church specifically focused on reaching Hindu background seekers.

It was a safe space where Hindus could come, ask questions, challenge, doubt, explore without being judged or pressured.

Many came just to investigate.

Some came and left unchanged.

Uh but some encountered Jesus there and were transformed just as I had been.

Each person who came to faith faced their own journey of loss and gain.

Each had to count the cost.

Each had to face family opposition.

Each had to choose between comfort and truth.

And each one who chose Christ found him to be faithful and sufficient just as I had found.

One of the questions I was asked frequently was whether I regretted my conversion given all the suffering it had caused.

My answer was always the same.

Not for one moment, not for one second.

Yes, I had lost much.

But what I had lost was worthless compared to what I had gained.

I had lost false gods who could not save.

I had gained the true God who could and did.

I had lost empty rituals that burdened me.

I had gained grace that freed me.

I had lost religious performance.

I had gained relationship with Jesus.

I had lost temporary comfort.

I had gained eternal hope.

The equation was not even close.

Jesus was worth infinitely more than everything I had given up for him.

And not only had I gained him, but he had also restored much of what I had feared lost forever.

My family was now united in faith.

My children were growing up knowing Jesus.

My marriage was stronger than ever because it was built on Christ.

To my fellow Hindus reading or hearing this testimony, I want to say this clearly.

I understand where you are.

I was there.

I know the pull of tradition, of family expectations, of cultural identity.

I know the fear of losing everything.

I know the intellectual barriers and questions.

I know the devotion you might feel to the gods you have worshiped all your life.

Uh I know all of it because I lived all of it for 42 years.

But I also want to tell you that those gods are not real.

They cannot hear you.

They cannot save you.

They are wood and stone and metal created by human hands.

And you were not created to worship created things.

You were created to worship the creator.

You were created for relationship with the one true God.

And that God has revealed himself definitively and finally in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is not a western God or a foreign religion.

He was born in Asia.

He walked in the Middle East.

The first Christians were Asian and African.

Jesus transcends all cultures because he is God.

And God is not limited by geography or ethnicity.

Jesus is for everyone including you, including Indians, including Hindus.

You do not need thousands of lifetimes to work off your karma.

Or you need one moment of genuine faith in Jesus Christ and all your sins are forgiven.

past, present, future.

You do not need to perform rituals to appease angry gods.

You need to accept the sacrifice Jesus already made for you on the cross.

You do not need to fear death and rebirth.

You can have assurance of resurrection and eternal life.

The path of Hinduism is broad and includes many ways, many gods, many rituals, but it leads nowhere.

It is a cycle that never ends.

Suffering that never truly stops.

Jesus said, “He is the way, the truth, and the life.

Not a way, but the way.

” Not a truth among many, but the truth.

That sounds exclusive, and it is.

But it is exclusive not to keep people out, but to make clear where salvation is actually found.

Jesus is the only way because he is the only one who paid for sin and the only one who conquered death.

The only one who is truly God.

I know accepting this will cost you.

It cost me everything I had built in my life.

It might cost you your family relationships.

It might cost you your reputation and standing.

It might cost you economic security.

It might cost you comfort and safety, but I promise you based on my own experience and on the promises of God in scripture, Jesus is worth it.

Jesus is worth more than everything you will lose.

And Jesus will prove faithful to you just as he has proved faithful to me.

To my Christian brothers and sisters reading this, I want to say be patient with Hindus and others from different religious backgrounds.

The journey to faith may not be quick or easy.

They are not just changing religions.

They are changing their entire world view, their identity.

They got their family structure, their social network, everything.

Show them love.

Show them respect.

Share truth but do it with gentleness.

Live out the gospel so they can see its reality in your life and pray for them because ultimately it is God who opens blind eyes and transforms hearts.

Also support those who convert from Hinduism or Islam or other religions.

Their courage is immense.

Their losses are real.

Their suffering is severe.

They need a church to be a true family to them to provide practical support and spiritual encouragement.

Do not just celebrate their conversion and then leave them to face persecution alone.

Walk with them, carry their burdens, help them stand firm.

Looking back now at my entire journey, from my childhood training as a pandit to this moment as a follower of Jesus Christ, I can see God’s hand in all of it.

He was preparing me even when I did not know him.

He was drawing me even when I was serving false gods.

He was patient with me through years of darkness and bondage.

He arranged a construction contract to Nigeria that could put me in contact with Chinedu.

He orchestrated a simple act of friendship that led to a church visit.

He revealed himself to me in blazing light when I was least expecting it.

He sustained me through the wilderness of testing and trial.

He brought my family to faith.

He gave me new purpose and calling.

He has been faithful every step of the way.

I am Rajash Sharma.

I was a Hindu pandit for four decades.

Trained from childhood in the rituals and practices of Hinduism, serving as a priest and spiritual guide to my community.

Devoted to 12 deities whom I believed were gods.

I I went to Nigeria in 2019 for a construction project and there in a church in Lagos, Jesus Christ revealed himself to me in a way that changed everything.

I encountered him as the true and living God, the light of the world, the only way to salvation.

I returned to India and faced the cost of following him, losing my identity, my community standing, my income, temporarily my family.

But Jesus proved faithful.

He saved not just me but my wife and son too.

He has given me new life, new purpose, new hope, new joy.

I have lost much but I have gained everything.

I once was blind but now I see.

I was in darkness, but now I am in light.

I was a slave to sin and religious bondage, but now I am free in Christ.

I was dead in my trespasses, but now I am alive in Jesus.

I was far from God, but now I am closed through the blood of Christ.

I I was without hope, but now I have certain hope of eternal life, and I will never go back.

Not for family acceptance, not for community approval, not for financial security, not for comfort or safety or anything else this world offers.

Because I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

I have encountered the living Christ.

I know him and I am known by him.

And nothing in this world compares to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.

This is my testimony.

This is my story.

Not of my achievement or my wisdom or my goodness, but of God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s faithfulness.

All glory belongs to Jesus Christ, the Savior who found me in darkness and brought me into his marvelous light.

To God alone be the glory.

Amen.

 

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