Carlo Torriani

SWARGA DWAR

The conversion of a catholic missionary

presented by

Card. Simon Pimenta

PIME Publications, PIME Regional House, Eluru - 534 0-07, A.P., India

FR. BEDE GRIFFITHS

Letter No. 31, December 1987

Dear Friends,

    A group of Italian friends came to India, not only for sightseeing, but they came as pilgrims. In their tour of south India they included also four ashrams, because they wanted to know the Indian spirituality and the influence between East and West. The climax of the tour was in Shantivanam with Fr.Bede Griffiths, who spent all his life to foster the dialogue between East and West. His latest book, ‘The Marriage of East and West” is the synthesis which he worked out in his life since he came to India “to search the other half of my soul”.

    Thomas Merton too said that “any religious searching has necessarily to pass through India”.

We fully agree with the above statements. Bede Griffiths is also convinced that the West is gone astray following the separation of matter and spirit, particularly after Newton and Descartes. There is a need to come back to the integral and mystical approach of the East.

    About the contribution that India can give, Griffiths said that the West has to learn the deep sense of spirituality which permeates all Indian life; the sense of sacredness by which the presence of God is seen in everything and in every event. He told that evangelisation has to pass necessarily through dialogue and inculturation. He told that beyond rituals and theological formulations, the meeting point will be in the Mystical experience, in the “cave of the heart”. He spoke to us about the example of Ramana Maharishi and about the two founders of his ashram, Shantivanam: Fr. Monchanain and Fr. Henri Le Saux. This one left France when he was 38, left his Benedictine monastery to come to Shantivanam, and left also Shantivanam to go to live in the Himalayas, on the bank of river Ganges as a sannyasin. In his writings he speaks about the advaita experience (non-duality, unity in diversity, unity between God and the self, between creation an the self) as the most beautiful, most profound and transforming experience of his life. The dilemma and the effort of all his life has been to reconcile in himself the interior advaita experience with the Judeo-Christian revelation of a Trinitarian and transcendent God.

    An Indian novelist, Raja Rao, wrote that India is not only a country or a geographical area, but “is a state of consciousness. It is something which exists in everyone who can attain it”. And Kathleen Raine, the editor of Temenos, comments: “I see India as the term of humanity’s spiritual development, and for those who have reached that “India” there is no return”. It is true.

    But the last sentence, “there is no return” reminds me that there is danger, mentioned also by Fr.Griffiths, that is the danger of lack of concern for the neighbour. Hinduism is an individualistic religion: to the temple for puja (offering) one goes alone, there is no assembly or meeting in congregation. Salvation is a personal affair through consciousness or devotion. The troubles of the others are their business, are their karma. He who reaches the perfect consciousness, the nirvana, the advaita (non-duality) experience, does not have any further duty. The Hindu ideal is to reach the union with God (Yoga), but the danger is that after reaching it, we forget all the other things and “there is no return”, there is no more interest in this world, which is Maya (illusion), and in the others.

    Since the time of the Vedas, the rishi (the seers) of India discovered the Absolute, the Ineffable, the advaita, God-within-us. That happened at the beginning, before history, and it has remained in the psyche and the ethos of the subcontinent. I would say that is like “a shortcut to God”.

We, the children of Abraham, hope to meet God at the end of our life or at the end of human history, in India God is seen in the self, in the present, and it is possible here and now to any human being.

    In India the zero and the infinite coexist side by side and it is always possible to pass, in one instant of grace, from zero to the infinite. This possibility is great achievement for the individual and for humanity, because it means that every man, no matter how poor or illiterate he is, can make it.

    But the Westerners are worried about the “others”. They are worried about the meaning of history and the ascent of humanity. They say that we can be saved only together. Christianity is a religion based on history and with a vision for the future. The Word of God (who was in the beatific vision) became flesh in Jesus (that means he “return back”) to care for his brothers.

    Fr. Griffiths spoke also of the contribution that the Christian West can give to Eastern spirituality. He thinks that the contribution is the concern for the others. This is what the Christian missions have done since the beginning through hospitals, schools, orphanages, and other social commitments. This is what the fathers of the Indian renaissance (Raja Ram Mohanroy, Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Satya Sai Baba,) have integrated  in their reforms. All four ashrams visited (Shantivanam, Pondicherry, Putaparthi, Swarga Dwar) are in fact involved in social work, transformation of the reality and service to the others.

    This has confirmed the validity of our program of prayer, manual work and service.