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I know what I have seen and what I now see, and this I am happy to
share with you. I know too, that when the light changes yet again, as
change it must, however different the new aspect may appear, the
essence of the Ashram will remain the same—only the optic varies.
Within two years, however, the very genuineness and intensity of our
efforts at adaptation and Inculturation had all but extinguished this first
light of mine. Survival for the existing forms of Religious life was clearly
not assured by the Ashram way of life. In fact it could be more of a
danger, facilitating their swifter dissolution.
Within three years I was already living in a Hindu Ashram for half the year
and would continue this experience for several years to come. One of the
earliest of the myriad symbolic events of these times was sitting in the
over-crowded Bhajan hall of the Ashram listening in rapt attention for two
hours each week for three months to Swami Krishnanandaji’S teaching on
the BrihadaranYaka Upanishad—the oldest and probably most complex
Upanishad text.
In those weeks the light changed drastically and simply. What was
revealed to me looked very different to the Adapted Ashram I had known,
and I was no longer looking for ‘survival’
I saw with an unarguable Clarity that the ashram could not be equated
with a life-style or a cultural tradition In essence it is a non-physical space
where the Teaching takes place, a womb where wisdom is transmitted to
the yet unawakened consciousness.
In this light I felt the way might be through grafting scions of Sanatana
Dharma into the soundest of the Christian stock. Although I am not a
gardener, yet I know that in order to graft a cultured rose Onto a wild
common rose stock, a deep cut must be made in that stock. The shoot
must be SO implanted into and bound to the receiving stock that it can
draw its new life from the very being of the stock, and yet bloom as itself,
with its own beauty.
Would we? Should we? Could we? set ourselves to such a task of Grafting
Ashrarns7 Deep cuts are painful, but some would bear the pain in order to
bear the fruits.
About the same time, the early 70s, a world- encompassing phenomenon
began to touch the ashrams, Nuclear . physics and high technology were
forming shy but exciting friendships with ancient Eastern spiritualities.
Capra’s Tao of Physic3 was one popular recognition of the importance of
these relationships A most blessed result of these alliances was that each
partner came to yield its tendency to arrogance and recourse to magic.
—One does not usually hear Sri Rama or Sri Krishna referred to as Guru
but as an Ista Devata. To the majority of Indians, to call Jesus the Christ
our Guru might seem to put Him on a par with, for example, Guru Nanak,
Muktananda Swami, or Sai Baba.
—Jesus the Christ would be the Guru of all Christians—not merely those
living in Ashrams.
—Refusal to acknowledge that the way of Sannyasa and of the Vowed life
traditional in Christianity are distinct and ultimately not transposable.
Also Fr Lasalle : European Jesuit (of the strict observance) goes to the Far
East—becomes the disciple of a Roshi—reaches the ‘status’ which allows
him to conduct sessions in Japan—and returns to do the same in a
German Zendo!
A group of Ashramvasis
During our discussion yesterday someone stated that there were two
movements in the Church in India—the Ashram movement and the
Computer movement. Whether this is true, false or debatable, in the wider
movement these two seem to be merging. If our Aikiya has problems with
acknowledging such a development, I wonder if we are not looking on the
Ashram only as a means of giving a more intelligible witness to the life of
Evangelical Poverty? or rather Economic Poverty? We tend to endow the
word ‘simple’ with many inaccurate meanings.
Among the best that the permutations have to offer in the Ashram way of
life is an alternative to the local church community. Christians both in the
East and the West are increasingly disappointed by the failure of the
structured hierarchical Church system to teach and train for deep spiritual
life. Where they find authentic guidance and help, no mailer from what
tradition it stems, they will stay.
So-what will remain? God alone knows and chooses to reveal to us only
one event at a time. Only in hindsight will we see how we are being
transformed,
For myself, the light I now have begins to reveal new secrets of another
ancient tradition, that of Sannyasa and the Sadhu Samaj.
Ishpriya Mataji