पञ्चमहयजन(Maha Yagna): Five Daily Disciplines for the Devotee of Jesus

By mikaku

What follows is the Nepali version of the "Five Daily Disciplines for Devotees of Jesus"  (पाचवटा  प्रतिदिन् अनुशासन). For the one who has given their life to the Lord Sri Jesus, these yagnas are acts that can be done daily as an expression of devotion (bhakti) and faith (biswas).  I will include below the Nepali and English translation.

पञ्चमहयजन

[Five Great Sacrifices / Disciplines]

१. इश्वर यजन [Discipline of God-worship] 

तपाईंको प्रेम जीवनभन्दा श्रेष्ट छ, यसकारण मेरा ओठले तपाईंको महिमा गर्नेछन. (भजन ६३:३) [Your love is better than life, so my lips with glorify you. (Bhajan 63:3)]

२. शास्त्र यजन [Discipline of Scripture Study]

तपाईंका वचन मेरा गोड़ाका निम्ति बत्ती, र मेरो बाटोको निम्ति उज्यालो हो. (भजन ११९:१०५) [Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path (Bhajan 119:105)]

३. पितृ यजन

[Discipline of Honoring Parents and Elders]

आफ्ना बाबु र आमालाई आदर गर, कि जुन देश तिमीहरुलाई परमप्रभु आफ्ना परमेश्वरले दिनुहुन्छ, त्यहाँ तिमीहरुको आयु लामो होस्. (प्रस्थान २०:१२) [Honor your father and mother, so that you will live long in the country that the Lord your God gives you. (Prasthaan 20:12)]

४. मानुष्य यजन [Discipline of Service to other People]

समस्त व्यवस्था एउटी वचनमा पूरा भएको छ, "तैंले आफ्नो छिमेकीलाई आफूलाई झैँ प्रेम गर्." (गलाती ५:१४) [In one word the entire law is completed, "Love your neighbor just as yourself." (Galaatee 5:14)]

५. सृष्टि यजन [Discipline of Creation Care & Stewardship]

आफ्नो निम्ति पृथ्वीमा धन-सम्पत्ति नथुपर, जहाँ कीरा र खियाले ती नष्ट पार्छन् र जहाँ चोरहरुले गर फोरेर ती चोर्छन्. तर आफ्नो निम्ति स्वर्गमा धन-सम्पत्ति थुपार, जहाँ कीराले वा खियाले नष्ट पार्दैन, र चोरले पनि चोर्दैन. किनकि जहाँ तिम्रो धन हुन्छ, त्यहीँ तिम्रो मन पनि हुन्छ. (मत्ती ६:१९-२१) [Don't keep treasures for yourself on earth where insects and rust can destroy and where thieves can break into your house and steal.  But keep for yourselves treasure in heaven where insects and rust cannot destroy and where thieves do not steal.  For where you treasure is, there your heart will also be. (Mattee 6:19-21)]

At TriEak Parmeshwar Mandali, we have had a fruitful summer of study on these topics during our weekly satsangs.  I recommend utilizing these for the creation of storying sets.  That is, we have found many narratives from the Holy Scriptures that can be used to illustrate and teach the above disciplines.  

Should Christ-followers Show Hospitality to People of Other Faiths?

Below is an interesting article that describes how a number of migrant (mostly refugee) groups have gone about establishing places of worship for themselves in Utica, New York.  It isn't often that I get a chance to hear about this process for non-Christian groups and appreciate the chance to learn about some of their struggles.  The article begins with a focus on the Bhutanese-Nepali Hindu community but also talks about Burmese Buddhists and Bosnian Muslims.

As a follower of Christ, I desire for all Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and (for that matter) Christians to know and find salvation in Jesus.  However, I also can't help but to inquire of myself about the my responsibility to show hospitality in my relationships with diaspora people who are my new neighbors in the USA.   Is there are line to be drawn related to the extent of my hospitality towards these people?  Not sure.  Do check out the article, and feel free to weigh in.


Hindu latest group in need of worship place in area - Utica, NY - The Observer-Dispatch, Utica, New York: "UTICA —
    In a bedroom in East Utica, statues of Hindu gods peer out of a converted entertainment center. The inside is decorated with glittering wrapping paper. Around the three statues are offerings of paper flowers, and light from battery-powered candles.
    This is the home of Ganga Rijal, a Hindu priest and his family.
    “This is our temple,” Mukti Rijal, Ganga’s son explains. He bows in front of the temple and gestures to guests to remove their shoes before coming in.
    There are 170 Hindu Bhutanese living in Utica. They arrived from a refugee camp in Nepal’s jungle between 2009 and 2010."

Reflection: If I withdraw my love . . .

If I withdraw my love from one follower of Jesus, I withdraw my love from all of them.

If I don't love Sue, I don't love Steve.  Neither merits my love more than the other.  Both are wretched and redeemed.  If I say that Steve is easier to love, don't I really mean that I enjoy Steve more?  Don't I really refer to what Steve has done for me?  In which case, I am not really loving Steve at all.  I am only loving what Steve does and can do for me.  I am loving myself.  Self-love.


If I withdraw my love from one follower of Jesus, I withdraw my love from all of them.

Christians crucified Christ.  All of us.  Yet he does not withhold His love from any of us.  Because He finds no reason to love us, His love does not depend upon us.  His love comes to us without condition.  Thus, there can be no condition for its removal.  Jesus finds no reason to remove his love from any of his followers.  How can I? If He hasn't stopped loving Sue, what right have I to stop loving? And if I do, my love to all of God's people becomes suspect.  If I can come up with a reason to stop loving one, it would surely prove to be a selfish reason.  It might be a reason for many things, but it cannot be a reason to stop loving.  If there can be a reason for me to withdraw my love when there cannot be a reason for Christ to withdraw His, my love proves to be merely self-love.

If I withdraw my love from one follower of Jesus, I withdraw my love from all of them.

I might say that I love Steve more than I love Sue, but what can I say about them that goes deeper than that together they crucified Christ and that both alike are unconditionally loved by Him.  If I withdraw my love from Sue, I have introduced conditions to my love.  But it is impossible to love one person conditionally and one unconditionally.  By withdrawing my love from Sue, perhaps because of her behavior, I have cheapened my love for Steve.  Now, as much as I may feel my love for him, it is only if he toes the line.  My love proves conditional, selfish.  It is self-love.

Are we prepared for the cost?

Yesterday I was riding my bicycle - my new favorite hobby - and listening to various podcasts.  One was from a recent episode of the Dividing Line with James White (excellent BTW).  A caller phoned in to ask Dr. White if he could recommend any resources on a presuppositional apologetic approach to people of other faiths.  Without getting into what that means, I want to go directly to the conclusion of the resulting discussion in which the caller said something like, "So, I guess I'm just going to have to do my homework and understand what people of other faiths are saying." To which Dr. White said something like, "Uhh . . . yeah."

I liked that because it highlights something for me that I feel is a very significant problem in the Church today.  Christians sort of generally want to have an answer for the Muslim, Mormon, Hindu, or whoever -- a set of memorable apologetical one-liners to throw into the faces of people from other faiths who may come across our paths.  But we don't really want to get our hands dirty.  We want a quick and compelling (to us) presentation or pamphlet.  We don't want a Hindu friend.  We don't want a relationship with a neighbor.  But we have been called to love.  And . . .

"Love is costly. Out of love, something may be offered to a recipient for nothing, but that is not the same as saying it didn't cost the giver anything.  It may cost everything.  Yet when it comes to the issue of witnessing to people of other faiths, we seem to be looking for methods that cost us nothing."

These words by Michael Ramsden in his article "Bearing Witness to the Love of Christ with People of Other Faiths" are right on.  I recently heard of something in a church not too far away from where I live that made me so happy.  It was something like this -- their pastor had begun a series on Islam and Muslims.  No doubt a study designed to help equip the members of that church to have meaningful and effective encounters with their Muslims coworkers and neighbors.  But, you know, such studies are a dime a dozen in evangelical churches.  And very often, the only thing that happens is that the Christians walk away with a feeling of renewed confidence (and sometime arrogance) in the truthfulness of their religion over against the particular cult or world religion featured in the study.  But something totally different happened in the church I'm talking about.  Something kind of cool.

As I heard the story, some of the members of the church spoke with the pastor at the conclusion of the study. They said basically that while they appreciated the study on Islam and Muslims, the reality was that most of them had coworkers, neighbors and friends who were not Muslims but Hindus.  And they said something like, "Pastor can you equip us to share the love of Christ with the Hindus in our lives?" And the pastor said, "Yes."

That's so good, so pure in my mind.  Because the church members there could have just filed that study away someplace and continued to be unengaged with the global mission field around them.  But they refused. They have begun to choose the hard path of love, relationship, dialog, understanding, incarnation, death.

Let me remind you again of this important call to repentance issued by the Lausanne Theology Working Group:

“We need to repent of approaches to people of other faiths that reject or denounce their existing religion as wholly evil or satanic, with no effort to understand, critique and learn, and to discern through genuine encounter, friendship and patient dialogue where there may be bridges for the gospel” (p. 28, full version)."

So, I want to simply echo the question that Ramsden has asked in his paper.  When it comes to sharing the love of Christ to people of other faiths, are we prepared for the cost?  It will cost us everything.  Sadly, most Christians are not ready to pay that kind of price.  Are you?