The Three Debts: A Christian Perspective on Ancient Wisdom

Executive Summary

To the seeker of truth who feels the weight of the ancient debts: The Gospel is not a Western rejection of your heritage, but the fulfillment of its deepest longings. This letter explores how Jesus Christ answers the Rna-Traya—the debts to the gods, the ancestors, and the sages—not by demanding more from you, but by paying it all Himself.

Dear friend,

You know the weight of the rna-traya. Maybe you have felt it. Maybe you have not. But you know devout Hindus who carry it every day.

I am writing as a follower of Jesus Christ to tell you that the Gospel does not dismiss these debts. It claims to have paid them in full, once, in history, outside of you, with a receipt that reads Tetelestai - "It is finished."

I. Deva-rna: Will It Ever Be Enough?

You already know Gita 18.66 by heart:

"Abandon all varieties of dharma and surrender to Me alone. I will deliver you from all sins. Do not fear."

Beautiful. Liberating. Yet every honest bhakta eventually asks in the dark: "Have I truly abandoned all varieties of dharma? Was my surrender total enough?"

On the cross, Jesus did not say, "Surrender perfectly and I will consider it." He said, "It is finished."

The Settlement

The Infinite One paid the infinite debt. The wheel of samsara stops. There is no residual karma requiring another birth. The account is settled, not by your sincerity, but by His blood.

II. Pitra-rna: Does My Father’s Eternity Depend on My Sanskrit?

You have probably performed shraddha with a knot in your stomach, wondering if one mispronounced syllable will leave your ancestors in torment. I have held the hands of men who wept saying, "If I stuttered on a mantra, does my father suffer?"

Jesus offers adoption into God’s own family through His finished work. You become the true su-putra (good son) or su-putri (good daughter) not by ritual precision, but by faith in the One who has done enough.

You can lay your parents’ destiny in the hands of the Judge who is also the atoning victim, and sleep.

III. Rishi-rna: Were the Sages Searching for a Person?

The rishis saw Sat-Chit-Ananda. They just did not know His name.

John, writing to Greek philosophers, called Him the Logos, the divine Reason that stands behind all truth, the very Wisdom the Greeks sought. Jesus is not a Western import; He is the universal Logos the rishis were groping toward in the darkness.

Many Indian Christians now look back and say, "We found the One we were looking for; we just did not know His name was Yeshua."

IV. Prajapati: Shadow or Substance?

The Shatapatha Brahmana says Prajapati offered himself, was broken, and was restored by sacrifice. This is not mere instinct. It is a shadow cast by a real event.

But note the difference:

The Avatar

Descends to kill evildoers and restore dharma.

The True Prajapati

Descends to die for evildoers and satisfy dharma.

Jesus did not come with a sword to slay the wicked. He came with outstretched arms to be slain by the wicked, and in that act, He exhausted the claims of eternal justice. That is not the same story.

Krishna: "Surrender to Me alone... I will deliver you."

Jesus: "It is finished."

Raj's Story

(A true composite based on real conversations)

Raj, a Bangalore software engineer and son of a temple priest, flew back to India every year for shraddha, carrying terror in his chest.

"I lived in dread that if I mispronounced even one mantra, my father would suffer in the next world," Raj told me. "Different pandits gave different rules. I felt his eternity rested on my shaky Sanskrit and exhausted mind. The weight of an infinite destiny was crushing my finite shoulders."

One day a colleague invited him to church. He heard three words: "It is finished." He read the story of the thief on the cross receiving paradise with nothing to offer but a plea for mercy. He wept for three days.

Today Raj says: "I still light a lamp for my father on his death anniversary, but now in gratitude, not fear. The debt is paid. The wheel has stopped. I am free."

The Unavoidable Scandal

Both Krishna and Jesus say "Surrender to Me alone." Both claim to be the supreme Person. Both cannot be telling the truth about their own identity. One of them is wrong.

John 14:6 is not spiritual arrogance. It is either the most liberating statement ever spoken, or the most blasphemous.

If Jesus is not the only way, then the kindest thing I can do is delete this letter and leave you alone. But if He is, then the One you have called Isvara, Bhagavan, or Paramatma all your life has revealed His real name, and He is asking you to come home.

If Christ did not rise from the dead, keep your current path. If He did, then everything changes.

I am praying, with tears, that the One who said "No one comes to the Father except through Me" will give you grace to come, even if it costs you everything you currently call holy.

In His grip,
A fellow traveler who found the road ended at a cross and an empty tomb.