Jaya’s grandfather was a Hindu Brahmin in Southeast India in a village. Each year, during a special festival, they would set out food in their house for the gods and then leave. When they came back, if the food was over, it was a good omen for the family for the gods had eaten the food.
At the age of twelve, Jaya decided to hide in the house to see the gods. Nothing came for a while and then a little later, to his surprise, huge rats came in to eat the food. Jaya told his grandfather that the gods did not come, but rats, and his grandfather was furious with Jaya and said, “It is not rat, the gods disguise themselves as rats as you cannot look at them and if you look at the gods, you will surely die!”
This did not satisfy Jaya. He wanted to know who the gods were and wanted a deeper understanding of them so one day, he broke into his grandfather’s locked chest containing the ancient Vedic scriptures written on palm leaves. In the Rigveda, which are the oldest Hindu scriptures, Jaya read about the god of light, the Creator of all who came as the Purush Prajapati “The Lord of all creation who came Man and sacrificed Himself so humans could be emancipated from the effects of Karma (payback for the good or bad deeds humans did).
Many references to this in the Vedas. and given very clearly in (urusasukta (purusha suktam). It is found in the 10th Mandala and 90th Chapter.
Something struck Jaya’s heart and he wanted to know more about this God of Light. When fourteen years old, he went to meet some Hindu priests and asked them where he could meet the God of Light. One priest said, “If you want to see the God of Light, immerse yourself in the Krishna River every night for 100 nights and chant a special mantra 100,000 times and if you do this perfectly, the God of Light will appear to you.”
Jaya soaked it up, not realizing that the priest probably said it to put him off searching as the priest never expected this young boy to really do it.
Jaya spent three months chest-deep in filth with human sewage floating in the river and chanted faithfully for the 100 nights. After it was all over, he crawled on the riverbed waiting for the God of Light to appear. He saw nothing but the moon and went back from his yatra (a holy pilgrimage/journey, disappointed.
When Jaya was sixteen years old, a holy man was passing through the village and Jaya again asked him about the God of Light. The holy man told Jaya he would take him to a Hindu high priest who lived 800 miles away who knew the God of Light. So Jaya embarked on another journey along with this man.
` Halfway through the weeklong train journey, Jaya realized the holy man and his assistant had vanished along with off of Jaya’s possessions, luggage and money! Jaya got thrown out of the train for having no ticket as his wallet with the ticked too was stolen by the “holy man.”
Jaya was humiliated and ashamed and did not want to return home in that state. He lay across the railway tracks and cried to God in desperation, “God of Light, if You are real, reveal Yourself to me for I am about to take my life!”
Jaya lay across the tracks for a while and he saw a light ahead, and thought a train was coming, as the light got brighter, it suddenly was blazing around him and a voice came from the light and said, “Jaya, I am the God you are seeking. I am the God of Light. My name is Jesus.”
Jaya became a Christian right there, without a Bible or knowing any Christian!
His life turned around dramatically. He loved the Lord. He got married, and now for more than twenty five year, he and his wife are serving the poorest of the poor in India, set up an orphanage, helping women come out of the sex trade and teaching them skills and he is a pastor.
I am linking this testimony to a website where he shares in his actual words, learn more about Jay Sankar! Here is the link https://bethbac.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/jaya-sankars-story/
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