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.