June 1 – Warrior of the Faith
Philippians 1:21: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain
This testimony would warm your hearts with the persistence of PanditaRamabai born in India on 23 April 1858 and died on 5 April 1922. She came from a Marathi speaking Brahmin family. Her father, Anant Shastri Dongre, was highly revered as a Sanskrit scholar, taught her Sanskrit too.Her entire family, except for her brother, died of starvation during the Great Famine of 1876–78. The Brahmins around his home would not touch his dead body, because they could not be sure that he was truly a Brahmin. After their family died, she and her brother Srinivas walked barefoot over 4,000 miles throughout India on various sacred pilgrimages. They often went without food and shelter, living on grain soaked in water, seasoned with salt. Once they dug beds for themselves on the bank of the Jhelum River in Punjab and covered themselves with sand all the way up to their necks.
As they were reciting Sanskrit scriptures, Ramabai’s fame as a lecturer reached Kolkata where the pundits invited her to speak. The amazed questioners said, “We do not feel that you belong to this world since the great Pundits have been dazzled and amazed by your superhuman ability. The very Goddess of Learning ‘Saraswati’ has come down amidst us in human form.”With that she was bequeathed the title “Saraswati,” However, the plight of women in her scriptures disturbed her. In May of 1880, Srinivasa, her dear brother died of an illness while travelling in Bengal. On his deathbed, he wanted her to marry his friend, so she married him,Babu Bipin BeharidasMedhavi, a Bengali lawyer and intimate friend of her brother who had previously asked her to marry him, five times!
One day, at the local library, she found a Bengali pamphlet of the Gospel of Luke, which she read . A Baptist missionary, Mr. Allen, also visited their home at this time and preached the Gospel. She was fascinated as he went through the Genesis account of creation.She had a baby daughter born April 16, 1881 and her husband died of cholera a few months later.
One day, she realize that she needed Christ Himself, not merely His religion: Finally, she surrendered herself unconditionally to Jesus Christ: “Only those who have been convicted of sin and have seen themselves as God sees them under similar circumstances, can understand what one feels when a great and unbearable burden is rolled away from one’s heart. I shall not attempt to describe how and what I felt at the time when I made an unconditional surrender, and knew that I was accepted to be a branch of the True Vine, a child of God by adoption in Jesus Christ my Savior.” Her new life in Christ was especially marked by abundant joy that she never knew before: From this time forward she experienced joy unspeakable and full of glory, for she was receiving the goal of her faith, the salvation of her soul.36 This joy proved to be far too immense to keep hidden under a bushel: “My life is full of joy…. I can scarcely contain the joy and keep it to myself.”37 The joy of the Lord became her strength and empowered her to work indefatigably for her Master. With her incredible heart for women, by July 1892 she built the Mukti Mission, which today is a home for widows and orphan children. Her love for the lost brought forth the mighty revivals in the 1900s over India. She lived and died as a mighty warrior of the faith, never giving up, always a fighter and an overcomer despite all her setbacks.
Rita F. Kurian
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