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.