Tomichan Matheikal's blog

Gustavo Gutierrez [1928-2024] Obituary What good is religion if it does not make the world a better place, a place of more light and less darkness, more love and compassion, more goodness? A Catholic priest who asked this question and then went on to bring a paradigmatic change to his religion passed away on 22 Oct 2024 at the age of 96. I came to know about his demise only today. The Indian media didn’t think it worth reporting his death. But a Malayalam weekly, Mathrubhoomi , carried an obituary in its latest edition which I happened to read today. Rev Gustavo Gutierrez was the founder of what came to be known as Liberation Theology in the 1960s and 70s in Latin America. I heard about it in 1980s. Gutierrez’s theology was an attempt to interpret Christianity through the lens of social justice. He was a Peruvian, a priest in a country whose poor people were highly exploited and oppressed. The Mathrubhoomi obituary informs me that Gutierrez was inspired by a passage in a novel b

“Who created you?” I was asked by the catechism teacher in the Sunday class of the parish church when I was a kid of 6 or 7 years old. Like any other Catholic contemporary of mine I answered as mechanically as an android of today: “God created me.” That was the very first question of the catechism book in those days. All of us Catholic children had to memorise quite a few dozen such questions. It was followed by: “Why did God create you?” Android’s answer: “In order to know, love and serve God so that we will live with Him in the end.” It went on and on though I don’t remember any question beyond those two. I was reminded of that “little catechism” (as the question-answer booklet was known) this afternoon when a colleague of mine – the young physics teacher who found a mention in this very space a few days ago – narrated his experience in grade 12 (17-year-olds, not kids).   He was speaking about the Big Bang in the class in the context of nuclear fusion and fission. He told t

“The more stupid one is, the clearer one is.” That is one of Ivan Karamazov’s numerous profound observations. Ivan is one of the most fascinating characters in literature for me. He is intelligent and troubled but he would rather be stupid and happy. He is sensitive but such sensitivity can drive one to insanity. He is sceptical but he’d rather be a genuine believer in God. But does God exist at all? If He does, is He a benign entity or a malign one? “If there is a God, then He is a malicious and cruel being,” Ivan asserts. On another occasion, we find him tortured by the thought that “If God exists, then, as the children are tortured, He must exist for the sake of tormenting them.” Children’s pains afflict Ivan particularly. Innocence does deserve better particularly if there is a God who cares. Ivan could not accept God because of the evil in the world. An omnipotent God could easily get rid of evil. And God is not only omnipotent but all-loving too. One of Ivan’s fundamental p

Let me bring here today an old Malayalam story written by M T Vasudevan Nair who turned 90 a couple of months back. Titled The Sacred Sword and Anklet , the story is about an oracle [ velichapadu ] in a Kerala temple. Though the oracle’s name is Ramakkurup, no one calls him by that name. He has no identity other than that of the oracle. He has no name as far as the villagers are concerned. Nobody is concerned either about his living conditions. Ramakkurup became an oracle in his youth when his father, the former oracle, died. His grandfather was an oracle too. When Ramakkurup took up the profession, which by now had become a family profession, the devotees were happy because the young oracle had a tremendous lot of physical energy and churning passion. He would even bring the oracle’s sword down on his own forehead cutting it. Only his wife was anguished by the intensity of such passion. Even she didn’t, in all probability, understand that it was not religious fervour that made the

S elf-discovery, spirituality and meaning in life were the predominant themes of the great writer Herman Hesse who won the Nobel in 1947. He spent some time in India and was fascinated by the Upanishads and other Hindu scriptures. Siddhartha (1923) was one of the resultant novels. Conrad Rooks made an excellent movie out of this novel in 1972 starring Shashi Kapoor in the lead role. Siddhartha is a young Brahmin whose marriage is being arranged by his parents when he decides to pursue asceticism. First he joins the wandering ascetics (Samanas), then goes to the Buddha, for attaining enlightenment. It takes years to realise that enlightenment cannot be taught by others. One has to learn it by oneself though others may be able to show some lights. Siddhartha’s spiritual quest takes him to a most unlikely person too: Kamala, a courtesan whose fee is beyond Siddhartha’s imagination. He decides to earn the money required and does it sooner than we would expect. He becomes the most lo

Book Review Title: Being Hindu in Bangladesh Authors: Deep Halder & Avishek Biswas Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2023 Pages: 178 S heikh Hasina has abandoned her country after having been its longest-serving Prime Minister. She was the country’s PM for more than 20 years. In fact, she was the world’s longest-serving female Head of Government in history. Yet she had to save herself by running away from her own country. She has sought temporary asylum in India. Sheikh Hasina tried to foster secularism in her country. It couldn’t ever have been an easy task given the presence of Islamic militancy all around. Secularism longed to get rooted in that soil right from the time of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who declared that: “This is not the land of Muslims. This is not the land of Hindus. This is everybody’s land.” Mujibur Rahman wanted Bangladesh to be everybody’s land. He even went to the extent of forgiving his enemies and allowing them to return from Pakistan t

AI-generated illustration The parish priest of my neighbourhood committed suicide this morning. His body was found hanging from the ceiling. Just a week back a Catholic nun chose to end her life in the same manner at a place about 20 km from my home. In a country where about 500 persons choose death every day, the suicide of two individuals may not create ripples, let alone waves. But, non-believer as I am, I was shaken by these deaths. Christianity is a religion that accepts suffering as a virtue. In fact, the more the suffering in your life, the better a Christian you can be. Follow the path shown by Jesus, that’s what every priest preaches from the pulpit day after day. Jesus’ path is the way of the cross. I grew up in an extremely conservative Catholic family in an equally conservative village in Kerala. I had a rather wretched childhood. But I was taught to find consolation in the sufferings of Jesus. The Passion of Jesus, that’s what it is called in Catholic theology. Tha

What does religion mean? This is the fundamental question raised by Manu Joseph in his story (in Malayalam) titled Lizard in the Sanctuary . A lizard is driven out of a library in a cleaning drive initiated by the new librarian. It takes shelter in the nearby church. After all, churches are meant for everyone, aren’t they? The lizard sits in the sanctuary right behind the inscription of INRI on the main cross. It observes everything, listens to all the prayers and sermons, and even attends a few catechism classes after the Sunday Mass. The lizard is fascinated by such a wonderful religion which teaches the faithful to love even their enemies. The lizard finds the melodious prayers and hymns soothing and moving. The lessons preached in the sermons are all so noble. The lizard naturally wants to become a Christian. How to become a Christian? The lizard carefully observes all the Christians who attend the church service. There is Mathew who takes a seat near to the women’s side an

Read Part 1 of thi s here . K abir lived in the 15 th century. But his poems and songs are still valued. Being illiterate, he didn’t write them. They were passed on orally until they were collected by certain enthusiasts into books. Vipul Rikhi’s book, Drunk on Love: The Life, Vision and Songs of Kabir , not only brings the songs and poems together in one volume but also seeks to impart the very spirit of Kabir to the reader. Kabir is not just a name, the book informs us somewhere in the beginning. Kabir is a tradition. He is a legend, a philosophy, poetry and music. I would add that Kabir was a mystic. Most of his songs have something to do with spirituality. They strive to convey the deep meaning of reality. They also question the ordinary person’s practice of religion. They criticise the religious leaders such as pandits and mullahs. Though a Muslim, Kabir was immensely taken up by Ram, the Hindu god, for reasons known only to him perhaps. Most of the songs are about the gr

Two little kids were playing in a kiddie swimming pool. One of them was a Hindu and the other – you guessed it – a Muslim. The children were also conscious of their being incompatible with each other. This incompatibility awareness is in the DNA of people. We all want to prove that we are better than the others. So we make systems like caste, gender, religion, political parties… Blacks and Whites and Brownies… Chinkies and Pinkies and Cookies… The kids in the DLF Paradise Apartment kiddie pool also carried in their veins the inescapable DNA inherited from their parents as well as a nationalism that had gone juvenile just when they were being conceived – not too later than 2014. It was purely by chance that the shorts of one of the kids slipped. Wardrobe malfunction, you could call it. But that malfunction led to an enlightenment for the kids. The other kid lowered its shorts too to say that there’s something wrong. Something different, it was. But children don’t understand differ

St Mary's is always spick and span Maggie and I had to travel pretty much today for various reasons. Holidays are reserved for such travels and fulfilment of certain obligations to ourselves as well as others. Sometimes the fatiguing demands of a regular working day seem far more accommodatable than these holiday trips. It was a long day, in short, and I needed to take a washroom break. Years of drives in Kerala have taught me that the easily available as well as clean toilets are in the Christian church compounds. So, as we approached the St Mary’s Church in Manarcad (near Kottayam), I asked Maggie, “Don’t you want to pray at this famous pilgrimage centre?” I knew what the answer would be. That is how Maggie and I found ourselves in the sacred precincts of St Mary’s Cathedral church whose history goes back to a thousand years. I don’t want to bore you with the history. If you’re interested, please go to the official website of the church here and read the history. The churc

One of those old wells in Kerala [Pic from Mathrubhumi weekly, 7 Jan 2024] The Bombay Samachar dated 19 Dec 1936 reported a tragic event from Kalady [birthplace of Adi Sankara], Kerala. The report was about the child of a young mother that fell into a well. The hapless mother cried for help but no one rendered any assistance. Wells were not very common in those days especially because Kerala had a large number of natural water bodies such as rivers and lakes. The few wells that did exist were not accessible to everyone. Most of the wells belonged to the high caste people. The low caste people were not even allowed to go anywhere near the wells, even the public ones. If they did, the water would become polluted. Then there would be a whole lot of rituals to cleanse the well. The Bombay Samachar reported that a stranger happened to pass by and he readily got down into the well and saved the child. The man was appreciated and congratulated for his goodness and courage. But soon his

The only possession that Swami Gangadhar priced as precious was his copy of the Bhagavad Gita . His mornings began and evenings ended with meditations on randomly chosen shlokas of the Gita. But one day he lost the Gita. It was missing. He searched everywhere in his simple, ascetic room, where there wasn’t much space to search. He had no doubt that the Gita was missing. Only one person had entered his room that day, his favourite disciple Venkateswar. Swami Gangadhar smiled to himself. Venkateswar had mentioned the other day that he needed some money to help his mother. The shopkeeper from the neighbourhood came to meet Swami Gangadhar. He needed a small help. “Can you look at this book and tell me how much it is worth? Somebody wants to sell it and I’m not sure how much I should pay.” Swami Gangadhar smiled again. It was his copy of the Gita. “I’m willing to pay Rs 100 for it,” Swami Gangadhar said looking at the tattered book. He got his beloved holy book back. And his disc

From the Washington Post Bethlehem, the place of Jesus’ birth, is not celebrating Christmas this time, says the Washington Post . The only scene related to Christmas is Jesus entering the world amid a pile of Gazan rubble. Christmas is a festival of joy, peace, magnanimity – goodness, in general. It is a terrible irony that the very place of Jesus’ birth is marked by the opposite of all what Christmas stands for. What meaning will a Christmas carol like Joy to the World have in Bethlehem today? What would Jesus say about the kind of religions that we have today? Isn’t religion the cause of all the strife in Bethlehem and many other places in the world? The Hamas who attacked Israel were motivated by religion. Israel is a nation founded on the bricks of a particular religion. It is another irony that Jesus was born in that religion. Did Jesus found a new religion? I would hesitate to say ‘Yes’ to that question. His intention was to reform Judaism, his religion, not establish a