For young Christians of the neighbourhood of Thevara, Kochi, Gratian achan was a familiar figure, an affectionate animator. I recall how inspired the elders among my siblings were after attending the KCSL camps led by him. He would visit the homes in the neighbourhood which is still considered a desirable pastoral practice, which is yet to be adequately employed by the priests, especially the religious priests in Keralam. He knew good many of them and their families and had that rare talent and discipline of maintaining those contacts even decades after he had left the place. They continued to seek his counsel in their difficulties and in turn, became supportive to his projects, in their own limited ways. Though not as closely connected as my elder siblings to him, when I felt inspired to follow the path of Catholic priesthood with the CMIs, the first person, I felt inclined to disclose this was Bp Gratian. His very first address to us seminarians was to challenge to a life of sanctity, to aim at 'sainthood'. I deem myself fortunate to have been able to spent one full year assisting in the various cultural activities centred around the Chavara Library at the Bishop's House, Kotdwar in the year 1990-91.
The Young Animator in Dialogue with the Youth: Bp Gratian was an influence on the youth of Keralam - perhaps, more from an intra-religious perspective, as the director of KCSL, a vibrant school youth movement of those days, and perhaps with his easy and friendly approach towards the students and staff cutting across religious boundaries, during his brief stint of six years as a faculty member in the department of Mathematics at Sacred Heart College, Kochi. He was beginning to be an influential presence in the cultural circles of Kochi, when he was bestowed with the responsibility of guiding the exarchate of Bijnor, in UP, the heartland of Hindu dharma, with the iconic pilgrim centres of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gomukh, Gangotri and Jamunotri falling in that geographical territory.
Education as a Starting Point for Dialogue: His approach towards evangelisation, the primary mission of any diocese, was prophetic and inclusive, that it hardly included any religious preaching or religious argumentation, but rather focused on spreading the Gospel values of love and acceptance, peace and joy, and justice through institutions of quality education spread throughout that territory. While the more prominent English medium schools, though open to all, served more of the elite of what could have been called the urban centres of that region, he also established schools in the rural areas having Hindi as the medium of instruction, but also taught English well. They catered to the poorer section but ensured quality education, starting with the famous Nayagaon experiment of Bijnor district, as early as 1980.
Reaching out to the Local Population through Radio: Almost from the very beginning of his arrival in the Garhwal-Bijnor region, All India Radio served as a platform for him to present Christian perspective to the regional audience, by way of his address twice a year, on the message of Christ as applicable to all people of good will. (Though the tradition still continues, it ought to be enhanced in many more diverse ways. Perhaps, the diocese should have had an FM radio of its own by now, which served to promote well being, health of mind and body and social and environmental health).
Library as a Dialogue Centre: However, the most constructive platform he created seems to have been the Chavara Library at the Bishop's house. Founded in 1985, it served as a gathering point for people of all walks of life, especially, the youth from all backgrounds, aspiring to crack various public service examinations. The library also functioned as a cultural centre with regular gatherings on occasions of national or religious festivals, which often had an interreligious ring to them - however, the topics of such gathering were consensual rather than contesting. Over the years, it appears that the dialogical fervour of the library faded, and perhaps, finding such a platform irrelevant there, it was closed down.
Prayers - Cultural Attunement: The Syriac tradition morning prayers, rendered in Hindi at his insistence by the dearly beloved late Rev. Fr John Manavalan, began with the daring and unprecedented liturgical use of the 'Triune Original Sound' Aum as a unique starting salutation to the Holy Trinity. The gestures typically involved sukhasana and a yogic bow at the ending triple pranaam - 'namo, namo, nama:' The morning hymns like 'aate hein ham paavan dwaar...' carried with them a rural devotional flavour in rendering which could communicate easily to the aam UP person. However, regretfully, the experiment was not further extended to other liturgical prayers.
Dialogue with Christian Churches: The dialogue was happening without it being articulated thus - Kotdwar had a small community of Methodist Christians who became very much associated with the bishop and the diocese, with mutually welcoming gestures of uthana-baithana. So too, in Pauri, however, with some of the Methodist families later on joining the Catholic fold.
Promoting Individual Sannyasa Experiments: Rev. Fr Augustine, ordained in 1972, soon joined the young bishop's team with an enthusiasm for ashram way of life. He was inspired in this way by Swami Abhishiktananda's experiments, who was creating waves in this direction on the Indian Christian waters. In spite of the paucity of personnel for the fledgling exarchate, Bishop Gratian permitted Fr. Augustine who sanskritised (Indianised) his name as 'Agastyan', to follow his intuition in leading Christian life in the Hindu sannyasa tradition. Though they might not have agreed on the directions the diocese was taking, Bp Gratian always valued the course Agastyan was charting and considered the efforts as contributing to the mission meaningfully.
Ashram Experiments in Uttarakhand: The vision to promote dialogue led to the establishment of a centre at the holy land of Rishikesh, very close to the famed Lakshman Jhula, way back in 1985. It was the efforts of Fr George Edathiparambil CMI that led the diocese to be in possession of a piece of land and later on, a residence in the holy land of Rishikesh.
However, it remained almost stagnant till Sr Vandana, who by then had become known as 'Maataaji' appeared on the scene. It was indeed a sangam of symbiotic engagement, with Maataaji seeking a place in the Himalayas to pursue such a call, after her retirement from active academic life as the Principal of the famed Sophia College, Mumbai, and the Bishop desirous of having a centre to promote Christian consecrated life attuned to the established Hindu sannyasa tradition. Prior to that Fr Agastyan and Fr John Chakkanat had a collaborative stint at the land purchased through the efforts of the latter who functioned as the director of the prayer centre and Fr Agastyan as the Programme Coordinator. However, with Fr Agastyan departing in the fatal accident of Satpuli in 1981, the efforts at Jai Hari ashram (convent) were shelved, until Mataji arrived on the scene in 1984. For almost 12 years she made the centre alive with a spiritual vibe tuned to the Indian Sannyasa traditions, befitting to the name given to it by her, Jeevandhara ashram. The combination worked well, the bishop receiving a person with a drive equipped to realise this ideal, and Maataaji receiving all ecclesial support from the local eparch for translating the incarnational theology in the lap of Hindu religious culture. She also made the presence of Christian Sannyasa felt in the Holy Land of Rishikesh, by spending the winters in the Kutis set up on the land obtained by the diocese at Rishikesh for promoting an 'ashram way of life' and the existing priest house of Jaiharikhal was to serve as its Himdarshan centre, from where on all sunny days, the snowcapped peaks of Himalayas provided an ecstatic experience.
It was around this time that Rev. Fr Thomas Kochumuttam was attracted to the place, and Bishop was glad to entrust the ashram to the CMIs with Fr Thomas directing and guiding it for almost a quarter of a century. The ashram still remains a Christian prayer centre engaged in dialogue with what is generally accepted as a dominant Indian spiritual tradition, though still remaining at the experimental level.
Dialogue Centre by the CMI Province and the Bishop's Support: The CMI team led by the Bishop gradually shaped itself into the conventional Christian religious presence animating and supporting the diocese independently. When Rev. Dr. Augustine Keemattam initiated Sadharmyam, a centre for religious dialogue in the territory of the diocese at Srinagar, it had all the blessings of the Bishop. The centre received a fillip with Rev. Dr John Chakkanat taking over as its director soon after completing his Ph D in Philosophy. His enthusiastic pursuit to develop it into a vibrant centre frequented by people of different faiths and cultures had the full support of the bishop. Unofficially, the Bishop considered it as the diocesan centre for dialogue, and that still remains the only such centre in the territory of the diocese.
Standing as the Unattached Kabir at the Sangam of Cultures: As the diocese and its first bishop are celebrating the golden jubilee, I find the Bishop standing almost like Kabir in the market place,
'Kabira khara baazar mein Kabira, maange sabki khair
Na kahu se dosti, na kahu se bair'
He stands at that junction where cultures meet - North and South, English and Hindi, Latin and Syrian, Hindu and Christian, Catholic and Methodist - at this stage looking with compassion on all these streams of human endeavour, and hoping for deeper engagement like the typical sangams of the North. When I asked him about engaging in dialogue with cultures, he had no doubt regarding its significance, and stressed that he had continued the minimal practices he had initiated in this regard till he had remitted his office. However, at 93, he felt drained to recall the initiatives from his end.
Dialogue: The Future of Christian Mission in the Western Himalayan Region: At this juncture, as I observe the Christian presence in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, with my limited experience with the region and exposure its various terrains for about ten years spread over four decades, I feel the time is ripe to tap on the yearnings of the land very often expressed in the triple invocation of 'shantih', and work assiduously to build bridges while dipping in the sanctifying waters of such coming together (confluence) to explore answers for the ailments of the Common Home and disillusionment of all ages. While the bishop himself had narrated his acquaintance with the local actors in this regard like Sri Chandi Prasad Bhat and Sri Sunderlal Bahuguna, I think, in those times the Church did not feel such involvement as part of the Christian mission. Post Laudato Si, this, I consider a great opportunity for the Christian mission to engage in dialogue and joint action with people of all faiths and no religious affiliation.
It is up to his successors to wake up from the apparent slumber, root the diocese of Bhagirathi and Alaknanda, of Badrinath and Devprayag, deeper into the soil of dialogue with greater attention to the treasures of the wisdom of this land, promoting scholarship, enfleshing the gospel in the culture of the land, providing meeting platforms and pursuing collaborative action for the greater common good - bahujan sukhaya, bahujan hitaya!
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