Some final thoughts

In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. Isaiah  30:15

As we began our sabbatical it was this verse from Isaiah that served us as our guiding light.  Now that we are at the tail end of our sabbatical, we can clearly testify to the benefits of returning, resting, being still and trusting.

Fr. Raimond conducting mass like a pujari(Hindu priest) doing puja 

One of the stained-glass windows of the cave church 

In many ways spending our sabbatical time in India was a kind of returning. It was a returning to our home, loved-ones, church we grew up in, the country, its culture and its religions.  Though our returning was only for a short period of time, it served the purpose of giving us a sense of our moorings and a frame of reference.  We were able to renew our relationships with family and friends and reawaken that spirituality which had given me the initial stirring for sacred ministry when I was a teenager. 

Koshy and Fr. Vinith sitting for evening meditation

It was also a returning in a metaphysical sense.  The daily practice of yoga and meditation is intended to bring our wandering mind from its exile back to the divine who is within us. I believe our stays at the ashrams gave us a good beginning in this journey back to the center of our being.  Spiritual journey is the journey of the soul back to be with its maker.  This was what both the Desert Fathers of the Christian East and the Forest Sages of Hindu East were on. When one cultivates awareness by sitting restfully in stillness and quietness and working with breath, it is called meditation.  It has its roots in the ancient wisdoms of both the East and the West.

Clearly this contemplative path requires trust and surrender.  Reason and logic of the modern-day mind will not serve us in this journey to the depth.  It calls for a radical openness and child-like trust.  See how quickly Mary, the mother of our Lord, placed her trust in God and let God to use her as the vehicle to bring salvation to the world. And like mother, Jesus, her son, allowed God to do God’s will and not his own will. This kind of absolute and unquestioning trust is necessary to journey deeper into the recesses of our soul, into our inner silence. Our travels to and visits of many of pilgrim centers in India
helped us understand the depth and urgency of human longing for God.  And our ashram experiences with their yoga and meditation disciplines led us to the realization that the God we long for is neither in Rishikesh nor in Jerusalem.  God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:24.  It reads in Deuteronomy, The Word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

Koshy reading the morning prayer after meditation

Early churches had this kind of cross made of stone at the front

The Indian church can grow in India only if it takes genuinely indigenous path.  Just as the church underwent western enculturation as it was introduced in the west, a similar incarnational process should have happened to the church when it first came to the Indian shores.  My travels and research in Kerala gave me the impression that the ancient Church of St. Thomas Christians in Kerala was an exception. In following indigenous socio-cultural customs and practices, they were not different from their 

Hindu neighbors.  It was too bad and tragic that this enculturation process fell victim to the 

arrogance of Western Christian approach and 

attitude of ‘my way or high way’ of the 

Mother Mary in Indian sari on a lotus flower 

An artist's portrayal of Coonan Kurishu Sathyam, a significant event
Kerala Church history 

missionaries during the colonial times.

Today, Christian Ashrams in India serve to bring back the long-lost Indian-ness to the Indian Christianity.  What D. T. Niles said of Indian Christianity is very apt here.

The Gospel is like a seed and we have to sow it.  When we sow the seed of the Gospel in Palestine, a plant that can be called Palestinian Christianity grows.  The seed of the Gospel is later brought to India and a plant grows as that of Indian Christianity.  But, when missionaries came to our land they brought not only the seed of the Gospel, but their plant of Christianity, flower pot included! So, what we have to do is to break the flower pot, take out the seed of the Gospel and sow it in own cultural soil, and let our own version of Christianity grow.  I am happy that I was able to get a glimpse of the reemergence of a Christian spirituality that can be called truly Indian during my sabbatical in India: it is soul bound as opposed to body bound, mystical as opposed to rational, contemplative as opposed to calculative, inward as opposed to outward, prone to rest as opposed to work, and surrendering as opposed to be domineering.

Jesus in yoga pose

My dear blog followers, I thank you for journeying with Susan and me during our sabbatical stint in India.  My thanks to Manju for her technical support and help in setting up the blog, and to Ranjit and Johanna for their timely proofing of weekly blogs. I was encouraged to see your interest and enthusiasm, and am amazed to see number of hits on the blog.
Blessings, Koshy and Susan.

New Delhi

This post should have been published earlier.  Susan and I came to New Delhi, the capital of India, in a train from Dehra Dun.  My brother, Mr. Jacob Mathews, who had arrived Delhi earlier from Ahmedabad for business related to his work, met us at the train station, and together we went to stay at the YMCA hostel. Most of the sites we visited in Delhi were of historical and national importance: India Gate, Red Fort, Kutab Minar, Rajghat (Gandhi's site of cremation), Humayun's tomb, and Indira Gandhi Museum.
On the last day we visited the Baha' i  House of Worship, called the Lotus Temple.  This temple made of marble is spectacular and beautiful.  This faith was originated in Iran and based on the view that all humanity is one race.  The visitors, formed in groups, were welcomed into its large auditorium for few minutes of silent meditation.  It was very tranquil and peaceful.  While in Delhi, we visited three of my cousins also. On the last day of February, we took an early flight out of Delhi and arrived Bangalore just in time to see Jonu, our daughter-in-law, off to the US.  Next day, I took a taxi and went to the Christian Ashram about which I had already written in my previous blog.

Qutb Minar, built in 1193. Inside the complex is an iron pillar  built in 4th Century

Jacob and Susan in front of India Gate, a memorial to soldiers who died in wars

Red sandstone gateway to the Red Fort built in 1639

Rajghat, Site of Mahatma Gandhi's cremation 

The Lotus Temple: Baha' i House of Worship 

 
       

Vidyavanam Ashram

Located in Bannerughatta, a suburb of the City of Bangalore, this ashram is unique in many ways. Here, one would see how Christianity is lived in a simple Indian way, incorporating the age-old wisdoms of Hindu spirituality with the message of Christian faith devoid of its western trappings.  Opening such an ashram has been the life-long aspiration of the Rev. Dr V. Francis Vinneth, of CMI (Carmalite of Mary Immaculate) of India. He believes that our knowledge of Jesus Christ will be at its best, when we realize Christ in us and become another Christ as the ancient Christian dictum goes, “Every Christian is another Christ.” In his autobiography, Fr. Vinneth states that founding an ashram, that would resemble the ways of both the Christian ascetic Fathers who lived in the deserts and the Hindu mystics who lived in the forests, is what God has been preparing him for. 

 

The day after coming to Bangalore after spending considerable time in a Hindu ashram in the north, I came to Vidyavanam, the forest of wisdom.  I was warmly received by Guru Vineeth, a very humble and unassuming man in his mid seventies with a double doctorate from Rome and Oxford and well versed in both Indian and Western Philosophies and fluent in Sanskrit, Latin, German, Italian, English and Malayalam. For me it was a dream comes true.  Immediately I felt a spiritual connection with him.

Perhaps you may remember from one of my earlier blogs my ranting on why Christianity failed to make deeper roots in India even after 2000 years.  For anything to flourish in a new place, it has to take on and adjust to its new surrounding, which was what the ancient Thomas Christians in India did.  However this Indianization of Christianity suffered major blow once western colonial powers began to arrive its shores beginning with the Portuguese in1498.  They turned the nascent Indian Christianity into the shape and form of a western religion, and today it is considered to be a foreign religion.  The Christianity brought here by the apostle Thomas was not a western one. However, today, by and large, the Indian church is sadly regarded as an outpost of western influence and culture.  For some Christians anything Indian is not good and they disparage other religions and philosophies of India.  So, I think this ashram’s embrace of yoga spirituality and its emphasis on interiority in experiencing God provide us not only with an alternative to being a Christian in a genuinely Indian way but also give Hindus an Indian lens to see Christ in a fresh way.

The Cottage I stayed

Jesus depicted as a yogi

A Fresco of Jesus in the Garden

A Statue of Jesus on the top of the Chapel

The Cave Chapel in the center of the Ashram

Artwork resembling the familiar anthills in the area

Sitting for meditation with Fr. Vinneth

Fr. Vineeth and Fr. Anto in addition to celebrating masses in the morning and leading prayers in the evening daily, give classes in yoga, meditation, and Indian spirituality to the ashramites.  They also provide spiritual direction and listen to confessions.  The chapel, central to the campus and where the mass and evening prayers are held, is designed to resemble a forest cave. Rooms where people lodge during their stay are very Spartan. Food is very simple and strictly vegetarian. Since the ashram campus is located on a hill, the sunset is especially beautiful and a great place to sit for meditation. Away from the din of the city and embraced in the coolness of the evening, I sat with Fr. Vineeth for meditation daily at dusk, my mind was at peace and it felt as if I were experiencing the Ineffable.             

Dehra Dun and Buddhist Temple

Susan next to the Stupa

 After two weeks in Rishikesh, we took a taxi to Dehra Dun, about 50 kilometers away, the capital city of Uttranchal State, which used to be part of Uttar Pradesh State.  It has many places to go to and visit, however, almost all of them are from the place we stayed at – Aketa, a three-star hotel. Dehra Dun and the nearby places like Musoorie, are more developed and modernized, partly due to being a military training site, government offices and many academic institutions of international fame.  Because of its moderate climate, the British used this area for their getaways during the colonial period.   Our main goal in coming here was to visit the Buddhist temple.  Since our original plan of going to Dharmasala, the center of Tibetan Buddhism, didn’t work out due to traveling difficulties, visiting this temple was important.

The Buddha Stupa in the middle of the complex

White Tara

A Prayer Wheel

We were immediately drawn into its peaceful atmosphere.  Unlike some of the other holy places we had visited, this temple and its surroundings are kept clean. We were awed by the beauty of all the structures here, especially the stupa of Buddha.  Though there were hundreds of visitors and Tibetan exiles and pilgrims, the place didn’t seem crowded.  We saw men and women walking the trail around the stupa complex and chanting mantras using japamala – a rosary-like chain - with 108 beads.  To learn more about the Buddhist practice of chanting and the use of japamala, google “Buddhist rosary” or visit the site: www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/365.  We were at the site around noontime and saw hundreds of kids coming out of the dining hall after having their lunch.  These are young boys living and studying at the monastery attached to the temple. 

Koshy with two Tibetan Buddhists

One of many advices by Dalai Lama

Buddhism originated in India, it is perhaps more widely practiced in neighboring countries like Sri Lanka, Tibet, Myanmar, and in the far eastern countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Japan.  Buddhism began some 500 years before Christ as a reawakening of Hinduism.  Buddha means ‘the awakened one.’ It is interesting to note that around this time there were other religious re-awakenings happening in other places and cultures of antiquity: Confucius in China, Socrates in Greece, and the completion of manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible of 39 books, etc. Unlike Hinduism, Buddhism does not discriminate people based on caste.  As many of Buddhism’s tenets were incorporated into Hinduism and as Buddha was considered as one of the ten avatars of Hinduism, Buddhism continued to lose its strength in India while it prospered elsewhere.

On our way to Musoorie, situated at an elevation 7,000 feet, we stopped at another temple, Shiv Mandir, famous among the locals as well as international visitors.  I didn’t find anything striking other than that it is located in a beautiful village on a slope.  As we continued our climb to the top, on a narrow road zigzagging, we were giddy in enjoying the nature in all its beauty spread out as far as eye could see. The constant movement, side to side, in the car made us car sick, causing us to not to stay at the top much longer.  After getting back to Dehra Dun, we took rest staying at the hotel and enjoying a walk in the street.  The following morning we took a train to Delhi.  My brother who had arrived a few hours earlier by train from Ahmedabad met us at the station and together we went to the YMCA hostel, the base of our Delhi exploration.          

Samanvaya Vidhya Dham

After a few days of yoga and meditation at the idyllic and serene setting of Sadhaka Grama Ashram, we took an auto rickshaw to Samanvaya Vidhya Dham, also in Rishikesh just few miles down the road, but the setting of this place couldn’t be any more different.  Would you believe this Christian Center is right in the heart of one of Hinduism’s most holy place?  It stands here both as a witness to Hinduism’s tolerance for other faiths as well as this Center’s commitment to develop interfaith understanding and explore the depth of each other’s tradition. 

Upon our arrival, the brothers at the Institute took us to the Sunday morning worship service offered at the Syro-Malabar Church of Indian Carmelite tradition.  Fr. Raymond, now in his 70s from Kerala, came to this place and founded the first church in this area in 1974 amid lot of oppositions from the local Hindus. Sitting on a hill on the bank of Ganges with a view of the surrounding mountains, the architecture of this church blends nicely with the area.  And the worship is in Hindi with bhajans using typical Indian musical instruments like harmonium, tabla and small brass bells. The brothers, who are at the center and in training to be ordained priests, served as acolytes, lectors, chanters, cantors, and played the musical instruments.  Congregation sat on carpeted floor during the service. The priest, sitting on the floor on a slightly elevated seat behind the altar, conducted the mass. Incense sticks burned at the altar spread the aroma of sandalwood in the whole church.  The statue of Mother Mary holding the baby Jesus sports a sari, a garland along with a rosary and stands inside the petals of a lotus flower. A visiting Hindu would feel at home in this church. Bearing in mind that there were some foreigners, the priest offered the sermon in English too.  Peace was exchanged with Namaste.  In place of offertory during the service, a box is placed in the church for people to make their offering. Congregation took communion, standing in sline.  Service lasted about an hour.  After the service, tea and cookies were served out side in the open.  We came back to the church the next day, Monday, to attend a service marking the beginning of the 50-day long lent and to be imposed ashes on foreheads.  According to the Eastern tradition, if the lent didn’t start on Monday it wouldn’t be fifty days to Easter.   I posted some of the pictures from this church.

Fr. Davis Varalyilan, the director of the center, was away at another seminary out of state when we came to the center, but he had instructed the brothers to provide us with hospitality.  We were warmly received and were attended to by the brothers.  This class of brothers has only seven at the center and the half of them are undergoing their training in Ghana, Africa.  We were impressed with their simple and ashram like life style.  These brothers, who took the vow of celibacy for life are all in their late twenties and had already finished 13 of 14 years of seminary training and education. 

The Study Center where we are staying at is a new building, about four years old. Additions are being built to have a separate dining hall and a new library.  The ambience of the chapel at the center is, like at the church, and is contextualized to the Indian setting.  The pictures of the chapel are also posted.  The artwork on the wall behind the altar, designed by a Hindu artist, has Jesus portrayed like a yogi in padmasana (lotus posture) meditating right in nature.  The artwork on either side is also very Biblical and symbolic of the context of Indian pluralistic setting.

Fr. Davis, when he returned to the center middle of the week, explained to us the need for a contextualized Christianity in India.  It is a shame that Christianity is still considered a foreign religion even after its 2000-year old history in Indian soil.  So, there is an ever-growing awareness among leading theologians to make Christianity more contextualized to the local setting in India.  Jesus portrayed in the original setting of Palestine as a mendicant and itinerant teacher with his sayings in the gospels in the first century resembles very much a Hindu sadhu or sanyasi we find on the banks of Rishikesh. Samanyvaya, a Sanskrit word meaning ecumenical was started in 1994 as a movement of Carmelite of Mary Immaculate (CMI) to impart contextualized theological education for future priests.  It is an Extension Centre of Dharmaram Vidhya Kshetram, Pontifical Athenaeum of Philosophy, Theology and Canon Law, Bangalore.  This is where I am going next.  

Sadhaka Grama Ashram

We were warmly received at the Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama Ashram.  Though we late for the breakfast, they made sure that we got food and our morning cup of tea.  The cottage we were in is simple, practical, amply furnished and has Wi-Fi connection. Ram Prakash, a graduate of Gurukulam School run by the Ashram, gave us a quick overview of what we can expect in the next few days.  The handbook has the general schedule, the dos and don’ts of the Ashram, names of the books recommended for yoga and meditation practices, and the prayers for various occasions in Sanskrit with English transliteration and translation.  Food was strictly vegetarian with only certain spices and without onion and garlic, no coffee and no alcohol. Each guest is provided a bag with a plate, a spoon, a small bowl, and a tumbler, all stainless steel.  After prayers, we stand in line to get our food, and after we eat, we clean our own dishes and keep it in the bag and take it to our cottage.  Tea is served at 6:30 a. m. and 4 p.m.  Most of the guests were from outside India, mainly Europeans, some from the Americas including us.  One of the pictures uploaded is our daily schedule.

At the Ashram they’re very particular about the purpose of doing yoga. Here, it is meant to prepare one for meditation (dhyana in Sanskrit).  At Sadhaka Grama, this Himalayan tradition, which traces its origin to thousands of years back and has been kept alive for its intended use by sages and practitioners of meditation, is strictly followed.  This is a far cry from how yoga is now popularly practiced in many places, as a technique to tone one’s body, even though there is nothing wrong with that.   Our Ashram handbook says, “Regular and systematic practice leads to stronger and more flexible body (muscles, joints, tissues, inner organs) and on a subtler level help us to remove blocks in the energy and mental layers of our being  (products of emotional blocks) so that our body and mind can become still, ready for meditation, for the experience of self.” Susan and I found these practices very helpful.  The key, however, is in forming a habit of doing this regularly and systematically.  And that’s now our challenge.

Susan and I had the rare privilege of meeting with Swami Veda Bharati, the Spiritual Director of the Ashram. When we told him that we are Episcopalians from the US and that I’m a priest there, his interest in us was peaked, and shared with us his knowledge of the great Christian tradition of meditation followed by St. Ignatius.  He said people of different faith come there to develop a deeper appreciation of their own faith and to hone their spiritual experience.  He gave us a few of his guided Christian meditation CDs for us to use in the church. To learn more about this Ashram and about Swami Veda Bharati, please log in at www.ahymsin.org, www.the meditationcenter.org, or www.swamiveda.org.

Rishikesh

Rishikesh, twin city to Haridwar, is at the confluence of the rivers Chandrabhaga and Ganges and the starting point of pilgrim route, and is considered to be one of Hinduism’s holiest pilgrimage centers. We wanted to have closer experience of this ancient cand holy city.  So after our stay at the Ashram, on Sunday Susan and I came to Samanvaya Vidhya Dham, at the invitation of Fr, Davis Varayilan.  Located right in the heart of the city, this place provided us with great vantage point to study and explore the magic of this place.  It is said that Rishikesh has this innate quality  about it that sends out certain positive energy vibrations.  This city is spread out few miles on either side of river Ganges and is connected by two suspension bridges called Laxman Jhula and Ram Jhula. Jhula means bridge in Hindi.  We strolled along the streets, lined with eateries and stalls selling ritual paraphernalia, leading to Laxman Jhula. It is fun to watch foreign tourists in Indian clothes mingling in abandon with Hindu holy men or men appearing to be holy and roaming cows.  From the suspension bridge you get a nice view of the river and the city with all its many temples, ashrams, yoga places, Ayurvedic massage parlors and hotels.  Once we reached the other side, we kept walking by the side of the river but without the advantage of seeing the river due to all the shops. By the time we got to Ram Jhula, we were dead tired from heat and exhaustion.  That was when we came upon Café Day, the Indian equivalent of Starbucks. The coffee tasted especially good, as we didn’t have coffee at the ashram; for some reason they served only tea.  With energy coffee provided we went down the steps to the river and got our feet wet in the cool waters of Ganga, much to our surprise the water was clean and very clear. We made a full circle by going over Ram Jhula and walking back to our place of stay.  Though it was tiring, it was good experience. 

We are surrounded by many ashrams.  The two ashrams I was corresponding with while in the US are next to the place of our stay.  Sivananda Ashram is a big one that can accommodate hundreds of people at the same time. We went took a tour of the place and bought couple of books.  Swami Sivananda who started this ashram was a great man, and his followers continued to keep this place going strong.  In addition to this ashram, the society runs couple of hospitals and is involved many other charitable institutions in the city and outside. All these ashrams are based on Hindu philosophy and ancient practices in attaining moksha or salvation.  Salvation is understood as liberating the soul or atman from the endless cycle of reincarnations or rebirths to become one with God or paramatman .  Yoga helps one to meditate with concentration, and such concentrated meditation without any undue attachment to empirical things one will be able to go beyond body, breath and mind to the fourth and fifth dimensions.  This is what human beings are capable of and what creator had in mind at the time of creation.  It reminds me what Jesus says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” And what apostle Paul says in Romans, “For the creation waits with eager longing  for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of glory of the children of God.”