Why did a priest become a Hindu monk?

This story is not dependent on a few pieces of paper, but this story is written on wood and stone as if it is a whole book. This story is a living document of the great work of Arya Samaj which saved Himachal Pradesh from falling in the trap of Christianity. Call it the story of a priest or the story of an Aryan monk, history will weigh itself on both the sides of the scales. Because this living example starts from a church and finally ends at a temple in Arya Samaj. Or say, starting from the selfishness of an American pastor, it ends at the sacrifice of an Aryan monk.

This history begins about 121 years ago when India was a slave of the British. At that time, the son of a wealthy father born in the city of Philadelphia, America, who was 21 years old and named Samuel Evan Stokes. Growing up under the care of the clergy, Samuel Evan Stokes very soon learned all the customs of the church. The clergy were happy with the sharp intellect of Stocks, so they were also assigned a responsibility and this responsibility was the propagation of Christianity in India.

Just 21 years old, this Christian boy named Samuel Evan Stokes became a Christian missionary on the orders of the church and was sent to India for the conversion of Hindus to give the message of Jesus Christ to the Indians.

At that time there was a doctor couple in India named Mr and Mrs Carlton who were working for the Prevention of Leprosy Mission in India. Ivan Stokes also started carrying forward his conversion work under the guise of service-spirit. Where the patient appeared, told him that if you come under the shelter of Jesus Christ, all the troubles will go away. Those who knew the truth would have taken medicine, but some simple and innocent people would have come in their words.

Well Samuel Evan Stokes lived in Mumbai in his early days and after that in many plains of the country but later moved to the mountains of Himachal due to excessive heat. At a distance of six kilometers from Thanadhar in Kotgarh, Himachal Pradesh, there was a church built by the British in 1843. Coming here, Samuel Evan Stokes got relief from the heat as well as an opportunity to serve Christianity to the innocent people of Himachal.

Time passed slowly and on September 12, 1912, Evan Stokes married Agnes, an Indian Christian woman, according to Christian customs. However, he had to face opposition from his family for this marriage as he was the only heir to his family’s big business.

Gradually the family conflict subsided and when Evan Stokes was determined to live in India, his family bowed to his insistence. Then his mother bought him a tea plantation spread over 200 acres in Barobagh, Shimla, as a wedding gift, worth Rs 30,000.

Which was later converted into an apple orchard by Evan Stokes and in 1916 Stokes prepared an apple orchard by bringing apple saplings from Louisiana, America and also started an apple revolution in Himachal. That is, the Himachal which is famous for apples today, all the credit goes to Evan Stokes.

But it was like a bigger change than this because everything was normal till now, but after that the real story begins. In those days, the disease of plague was spreading in the country and where the plague spread, healthy people of that village used to leave their family patients in the trust of God and go to safe places.

During that time the people of Arya Samaj were engaged day and night in the work of serving the patients. In this dire situation, join Arya Samaj Sanstha, one was a saint or a Mahatma was Pandit Ruliaram ji. In whom there was such a thirst for social service which was increasing even after serving day and night. A thirst for service that was never quenched. Pandit ji had sacrifice for the society, there was enthusiasm and there was selfless service.

When Samuel Evan Stokes, an American Christian youth, saw this sentiment of his, the doors of truth opened in his mind and it came to his mind that in reality these are the real human service that Pandit Ruliaram ji is doing. This is the truth and religion of human service, but they and their priests, who are working on the missionary order of conversion, have selfishness and fraud in the name of service to humanity.

Now Honi took off his buccal and met the Christian youth, Samuel Evan Stokes, Pandit Ruliaram ji, learned about the true Sanatan Vedic religion from him. Knowing the meaning of sacrifice and service to the Vedas of Manurbhav. Learned the true meaning of Dharma and closely observed the true culmination of service and sacrifice.

This was the time when the brave revolutionaries of freedom in India were sacrificing their lives to liberate India and sacrificing themselves in the fire of revolution. Pandit Ruliaram ji asked Samuel Evan Stokes to go to Arya Samaj temple.. Evan Stokes went to Arya Samaj temple for a few days and jumped as a soldier in the ongoing freedom struggle in India, he was the first American who was the voice against the British rule. was picking up That is, influenced by the ideology of Arya Samaj, Samuel Evan Stokes became such a revolutionary that the British government was scared. Samuel Evan Stokes was immediately sentenced to six months in prison for promoting treason and hatred against the British government.

It is said that when something good has to happen, even a curse becomes a boon. This 6-month jail for Evan Stokes became a curse for both the British government and the Christian missionaries and a boon for India. Because as soon as he goes to jail, Evan Stokes meets Lala Lajpat Rai ji, and Lala ji also gives him Satyarth Prakash to study first. While reading Satyarth Prakash, Evan Stokes saw the struggle for the independence of India in Lajpat Rai. Knowing about Swami Dayanand Saraswati ji, inspired by his works of service to the society, studied Satyarth Prakash, now Samuel Stokes became the only American to participate in the Indian independence movement.

Coming out of prison, his desire to read Vedic philosophy intensified, studied the Upanishad Vedas and Manusmriti, and by the year 1932, a wonderful incident happened and Evan Stokes had a change of heart, freed himself from the trap of Vatican and Christianity. And adopting Sanatan Vedic religion changed his name from Samuel Evan Stokes to Satyanand Stokes and set out in search of the true God.

BY- Rajeev Choudhary