A Human's Struggle to stay Human

Imagine…Would a ninety years old Jesus the Christ given us the same zeal and enthusiasm as the thirty three years old wayward youngster? Well I do not think so…That’s the beauty of youthhood. Youthhood is an exuberant epoch; a ripe period when our attitudes, inclinations, passions, ideologies, perceptions, world-views and the like are formed.  A time when we are full of energy which if channelized properly could create wonders. Kahlil Gibran, in his book, “Nymphs of the Valley” has remarked, “Youth is a beautiful dream, but its sweetness is enslaved by the dullness of books and its awakening is a harsh one. Shall there come a day when wise men are able to unite the dreams of youth and the delights of learning as reproach brings together hearts in conflict? Shall there come a day when a man’s teacher is nature and humanity is his book and life his school? Will that day be?”   Youthhood is a period when our inclinations and interests are shaped. As the adage goes, “The t

Jesus was a man who always bore the brunt of controversial rituals. His washing of feet (St. John: 13) was one such ritual. Almost all the traditional commentaries interpret this act as the quintessential symbolism of humility and service of Christ emptying himself. I am not at all fascinated by these abstract and fancy interpretations rather I find them offensive. Euphemisms like humbleness, servanthood, servitude and service are the monopoly and the prerogative of the dominant and not of the subalterns. To serve and to be served are choices that can be made only by the powerful; and that is why the church and clerics have romanticized this act, seeming to be very comfortable with this so called gesture of humbleness as it reaffirms their hierarchical positions. Only who has enough can attempt to empty. As far as the subalterns are concerned they have emptied their blood, their voice, their rights, their sweat and even their existence; what more do we want them to empty?

The great teachers of this world viz. Buddha, Socrates and Jesus never wrote anything because they very well knew the exclusivity and provinciality of written statements. When Jesus went to the extent of revealing God and His kingdom through parables, Buddha was even afraid to speak about the Divine. There is a myth that Buddha celebrated his Enlightenment with Brahma. The first reaction of Buddha to his Enlightenment was an inclination to withdraw into absolute silence and not to communicate his intuition to anyone. Brahma insisted Buddha to reconsider. Reluctance and skepticism augmented Buddha’s bewilderment whether he would find disciples capable of grasping his message. Brahma reassures him; but still the Enlightened One determines to speak only of the way to reach the goal and not the goal itself – the ultimate and most sublime truth i.e. ‘Nirvana’. After all isn’t silence the best medium to express God? Ludwig Wittgenstein an Austrian-British Philosopher remarks, “Hu

Humans dread the freedom offered by Christ and relish in the slavishness of law. How smartly have we fortified Christianity with rigidified fences of legalism! The all-embracing Ecclesia initiated by Christ at the expense of his sweat and blood has now been exclusively institutionalized as the Church with dogmatic and doctrinal impediments. This made Christopher Lynn Hedges, an American journalist, Presbyterian minister, and Princeton University professor to write, Paul Tillich wrote that all institutions, including the church, are inherently demonic. Reinhold Niebuhr asserted that no institution could ever achieve the morality of the individual. Institutions, he warned, to extend their lives when confronted with collapse, will swiftly betray the stances that ostensibly define them. Only individual men and women have the strength to hold fast to virtue when faced with the threat of death. And decaying institutions, including the church, when consumed by fear, swiftly push t

Bible makes us encounter two characters in stark contrast; One who satisfied his hunger at the expense of sacrificing his birth right for a cup of lentil stew – Esau; and One who stayed hungry for 40 days in spite of having opportunities to quell the hunger – Jesus the Christ. Life is all about self-respect and dignity. This dignity is not conditioned by human standards but appropriated by the Divine. Martin Luther King Jr. remarked, “Life is not worth living until you have found something worth dying for.” The Holy Eucharist is the celebration of the conviction of a Man who chose to die for a cause. Nothing is more ferocious than a person who has abandoned the fear to die. When Jesus equated his body and blood to the bread and wine and inspired his disciples to remember the same, he was urging them to find their own causes to die. This is the real anamnesis offered by Christianity. Each Eucharist celebration is an invitation to transcend the sacrificial elements and tread

Ever thought of dismissing the speculations and apprehensions of a child as absurd? Then this Lenten season is an occasion to rethink this enigma. Christians seem to be indolent towards the fact that we continue to follow the God consciousness of a lad. In the Jewish context when even uttering the name of God was considered to be blasphemous, Jesus at the age of twelve at the temple called God as Abba (Father). Do not we foster the same God consciousness till date? Jesus once remarked “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of God.” (St. Matthew 18:3). Have you ever wondered why does Jesus exhibit such profound love towards children? Firstly, Christianity has to bear the brunt of a disturbing past. Bethlehem becomes a site of joy and grief at the same time. On the one hand the incarnation of God in Jesus and on the other hand the soil being drenched by the blood of infants. Yes, the birth of Jesus the Christ was at the e

Without  Her, He  would not be  He. What kind of world would it be? A world without her weakness and strength; a world without her naivety and prudence; a world without her tears and laughter; a world without her impulse and maturity; a world without her chide and love. Imagine... A World without Mothers!!! Each woman is a mother because of the sanctity of her womb, the very womb which God chose to become Human. Biblically, the first woman was named Eve. Eve means  “The Mother of all who have life” . This makes it implicit that she is indeed the source of our existence. For a woman to become a mother should she give birth? If so how did Mary become the mother of John? How did Pharaoh’s daughter become the mother of Moses?  How did Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s wife Sarada become his mother? How did the sisters of Cappadocian Fathers become their mothers?  Motherhood is something that is acquired rather than inherited. It is a divine virtue that every woman invariably has i