Padavinangady: A Christian family of five converted to Hinduism at Pavinangady near Mangalore, a port city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

According to Arun Monteiro, the head of the family, his family had become Christians some 40 years ago.

However, they were not happy after the conversion and kept going to temple and followed Hindu rituals. Since Arun maintained good relations with the Padavinangady Hindu Jagarana Vedike (HJV, Hindu awareness forum) members, he approached them with his desire to accept Hinduism.

HJV members approached the head of the Vajradehi Math Sri Sri Rajashekaranand and on July 24 all five members of the Monteiro family accepted Hinduism at the Vajradehi Math.

Speaking to mangalorean.com Sri Sri Rajashekaranand said Arun Monteiro, his mother, wife and two sons have converted to Hinduism. “Three months ago, Arun approached the Hindu Jagarana Vedike in Padavinangady and explained his desire of converting to Hinduism. HJV members contacted me and briefed about Arun’s wish to convert to Hinduism. From my side, I instructed the HJV members not to force anyone to convert, whoever wants to convert should convert on their own free will. HJV members later confirmed that Arun had decided to convert to Hinduism.”

The Hindu spiritual leader further said, “On July 24, we performed all the rituals and accepted Arun Monteiro and his family to Hinduism. Arun Monteiro has now changed his name to Arun Poojary, his wife Sunitha has become Sangeetha, Arun’s mother Ida Thomas has changed her name to Gauri Poojarthi and Arun’s sons Ajay Poojary and Aneesh Poojary.”

Speaking to mangalorean.com HJV district Secretary Sharath Padavinangady said, Arun Monteiro’s mother Ida Thomas is originally from Kasargod and was born in a Hindu family. But forty years ago she married a Christian and converted to Christianity. Three months ago Arun Monteiro approached us and said that he wanted to convert to Hinduism. As the situation is not favorable we did not give much importance to conversion and even advised him not to convert to Hinduism. But Arun was adamant in his decision saying that his mother was originally a Hindu and wanted to accept her old faith. So we approached the Swamiji of Vajradehi Math.”