Talk:Satyānand Stokes, the Christian Missionary who became a Hindu

By Vishal Agarwal

Today, the state of Himachal Pradesh in India is famous for its apples and other fruit. Few people know however that the scientific cultivation of fruit was introduced into the region by an American named Samuel Evans Stokes, who was born in Philadelphia (USA) in 1882 in a wealthy family. In 1905, a devastating earthquake hit the region. Soon thereafter, Samuel arrived in the hope of helping the people who had suffered and also converting them to Christianity.

When Samuel reached the area, he thought, “Let me study the Hindu religion that these people follow, so that I can tell them about Jesus in a way that they can understand.” But after he started studying about Hinduism, he realized that all the truths of Christianity were already present in the Hindu scriptures. Therefore, there was no need to teach the Bible to these people.

Churches in the western countries like the United States often sent Christian missionaries to convert the Hindus in India saying that the Hindus followed a false religion and were of a low character. Therefore, the missionaries believed that they were doing a great favor to the Hindus by teaching them about Jesus and the Bible. But Samuel realized that what he had been told about the Hindus was completely false. The Hindus he came across were very poor, but they were very good people. Also, their Sādhus lived a very simple life, with very little clothing, food or other possessions.

On the other hand, the Christian priests ate three rich meals every day, and wore well-maintained and expensive clothing. Samuel therefore concluded that there was no need to convert Hindus to Christianity. He decided to settle down in that area and help the local Hindus come out of their poverty. He married a local Hindu woman, learned the Hindi language, and gave up his American diet. Instead, he now ate only Indian vegetarian food.

Samuel thought that the climate of the area was ideal for growing different varieties of fruit, of which there was a shortage in India. He took samples of soils from many areas of the region and sent them to a laboratory for analysis. After getting the test results, he used his research on agriculture to plant the right fruit plant in each area. Within a few years, the locals were able to reap harvests of fruit and sell them to earn money.

In those days, Himachal Pradesh was ruled by many different Hindu kings who often exploited poor people and made them do work for no pay. Samuel supported these poor people and participated in a protest against this practice of making the poor work without pay. A local king arrested him for a short time. But thanks to Samuel’s efforts, the rich of that area started paying the poor decent wages for their work. Samuel also joined the Indian freedom struggle. He wanted the British rulers to leave India. The government therefore jailed him for a year in 1921.

Later, he also helped the Hindus in Hyderabad in southern India to protest against the Nizām (the ruler of that kingdom) because he was harassing the Hindus and forcibly converting them.

Gradually, Samuel became more and more attracted towards Hindu Dharma. He wrote that the teachings of Hindu scriptures had cleared his doubts about Bhagavān when even the Bible could not answer his questions. By 1926, he even started questioning whether Jesus was really unique (as the Church claimed). He was also very troubled by the Christian view that sinners are sent permanently to a hell where they are tortured. He said that Bhagavān could not be so cruel as to torture anyone permanently. Finally, he approached Paṇḍit Ṛṣirām, a follower of Swāmī Dayānanda Sarasvatī, and requested that he be converted to Hindu Dharma. After becoming a Hindu, Samuel Evans Stokes took the Hindu name Satyānand Stokes. Close to his home, he also got constructed a beautiful Mandir whose walls have the verses of the Gītā and the Upaniṣads written on them.

Satyānand Stokes passed away in 1946, but his descendants still live in India, and follow the Hindu Dharma. They continue to work for the welfare of Indians and Hindus, just as Satyānand had done most of his life.