Animated by a Fire

Seldom do we come across people who are so full of life and zest; it is not easy to be enchanted by something which turns our life topsy-turvy, that we do not think of anything else. Some years ago, Pedro Arrupe had said something which always ring in my ears. He said, “Nothing is more ractical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything”.

One thing is sure, only people who are impelled by the power of love, who could be so full of life, and I had two duos, who were so animated by what they were convinced of that I could see they had truly fallen in love with what they had found. If there are people who are half dead in our society, it is because they have not fallen in love. A priest who had realized the power of the Word of God is making ripple effects of the transformation that the Word can bring in the lives of simple and ordinary people, and there is a nun, who is young and vibrant, fearlessly taking the Word to far and wide, fully convinced of her mission to help people open their hearts and minds to the Word to be transformed.

I had spent just a couple of hours with them, and they had so many things to share with me that they could not stop talking about what they had experienced, and now feel convinced. It was their love for the Word which is drawing hundreds of people to experience personally the power that Christ is pouring out into the hearts of all those who take the first step to reach the Bible House in Krishnagar. When there is love, which can move mountains, then there is the indefatigable conviction that what they are in love has the power to do the impossible. I had the opportunity to listen to some of the wonderful stories of transformation. Many of the stories are humanly impossible stories.

The young and beautiful girl, who is a post-graduate student, had left her house on the Bengali New Year day to spend a few hours at the Bible House. A Hindu by birth, and quite traditional in approach, she did not mind to leave the house on such an auspicious day, because she felt that she had a lot more to receive at the Bible House than at her home. From lack of peace at home and in her heart, now she has an over flowing of peace and harmony within that she talks about her transformative experiences wherever she goes. She does not even spare marriage parties and even as she decorates the bride and her party (she has done a beautician course), she talks about Jesus and what he could do to people who call on him. She is not a Christian, and there is no talk if she would embrace Christianity soon, but she is a changed person, and there is fire when she shares about the story of her transformation.

The story of the young man, who also had a U-turn in his life two months ago, tells a similar experience, and after seeing the transformation that he had gone through, neither his mother or the Father or Sister, or he himself cannot explain what had happened. All that he had done was to make the effort to reach the Bible House for once, and now he behaves and relates with people in a different note. He confided that he was used to smoking and drinks and ever since he had stepped into the Bible House, he had not touched a cigarette or drinks. There is no inner urge in him to take them. He does not know how all these things happened in him. He is inviting his friends to the Bible to experience for themselves what the Word can do in their lives. There was fire in the two young people too, and I was telling myself, if only our young men had this kind of fire in them, then there would be miracles taking place in every village, town and the state. But to begin with, we will have to start with what we are in love with.

Ushering New Year

It is Bengali new year day, but as I travel to another place, some four hours from home, I see no sign of celebration on the way, except some small shops were beginning to decorate the entrance with flowers; the traffic on the road was relatively less, but what about the celebrations? A good many people in the state seem to be quite oblivious of the fact that they were beginning yet another calendar year, and given the fact that in rural Bengal it is the Bengali calendar which is more in vogue than the English calendar, but we have long embraced the English New Year day than the regional one, and that says a lot about the change in attitude of the people towards long cherished traditions and cultural moors.

As New Year ushers in new hope and new aspirations; unfortunately promises and great plans are still stringed to the English New Year day; and they disappear into thin air a few days after the New Year. I have not heard about anyone taking New Year promises on a Bengali calendar year. For the general public, the regional calendar is of much less significant than the accepted English calendar. We are on the verge of giving a decent burial to the calendar which was shaping our socio-cultural living for centuries, and are prepared to replace it with the foreign and even alien system of calendar which may place us on an equal footing with the rest of the world.>/p>

Exchange of greetings on this day is not common either; as I travelled and met friends and familiar people, only one remembered to wish me Happy New Year, and that person is not a Bengali (in the true sense of the word, but a true Bengali at heart); I too did not dare to wish friends and associates, lest they should think I am old fashioned. The world is fast changing, and whatever that is local, close to the soil, is being relegated to the dusty store rooms, and whatever is foreign (bilati, and even our vegetables and fruits now have a prefix of ‘bilati’ – even our long time favorites, brinjal and tomatoes have fair skins) is glorified, treasured at the core of our homes and hearts.

The one word that goes round in our newspapers and during election campaigns these days is the ‘change’; it seems that the ‘change’ is inevitable in the political, cultural and social levels, and when the whole state is on the move towards change, no one can resist its powerful currents. There is a mad rush to welcome change, as if we had not experienced it all these years; we think only in terms of political powers, but we had been confronting change, for better or worse, almost everyday, and many of them had done good too. Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it, so says an old Indian proverb, and therefore we need to keep our records intact, the path we have come along.

New Year ushers in new hope and enthusiasm; every business person or a shopkeeper who opens a new “haal khatha” (account book) hopes that the New Year will come with “subha laabh” (manifold rewards). We all of us plead with the gods and goddesses on this day to make each day, a day of plenty, because it is only in plenty could we find our joy and happiness. But this is a paradox that we have landed in; we may find true joy and happiness only in scarcity and not in plenty. A person who has just a few hands full of rice enjoys it with great relish than the one who has too much to eat and throw off. The person who has just a few rupees spends it with great care than the person who has too much to spare. Therefore my New Year wish is that all may have just enough for them to be happy and contended, and share the surplus with those in dire need of them, and that is when each day of the year can be a New Year’s day.

Ways to Wisdom

The beginning of all wisdom, according to me, is the humility to learn from the last and the least, the friend and the foe, the rain and the shine, the good and the bad! On the one hand, when a person thinks that s/he has learned enough in life, that is the sign that s/he is gripped by the claws of pride, and that opens the floodgates of wisdom, if at all s/he has gained something from life, to let it flow in wastelands. Humility, on the other hand, is the gateway to all wisdom; one cannot bewitch to the goddess of wisdom and knowledge without first befriending humility. For, wisdom often resides in the most unexpected of places, and those who find her dwelling, find it easy to befriend her.

I have felt that some of the wisest men and women garner knowledge even as they fight a ferocious battle with death. I remember many years ago, a great mathematician and teacher, Father Goreaux going through Bengali primer, learning to read and write in Bengali, when he was on the verge of death bed. Someone would have asked him, what use it would be to learn a language when you know for sure, you would not have years to practice it! The utility is secondary; what matters first is to equip oneself with necessary knowledge to face situations, which may or may not require a set of knowledge. Truly wise men and women were ever ready to welcome wisdom in their midst at any time of their life’s journey.

As I venture into a new field or two, I find it necessary to learn the ‘tricks of the trade’. Sometimes there are no ready-made, handy guidebooks, like the hundreds of self-help books and guides you find on any topic imaginable. There is no better guide in life to learn something new than experience itself; however a friend or foe who has already gained knowledge would be in a much better place to open the gates of the new palace, to show which is where, so that I need not walk through all the corridors and rooms to find what is where. If I am ready to be rebuked and reprimanded in the process of gaining knowledge, then I know I am ready to take yet another lesson for life.

There was something mysterious in Christian Life Community (CLC in short) movement, which had attracted me, when I was attending a short course in the Holy City a year ago, and I am enthused to explore what I can learn from the many groups who practice the Ignatian spirituality, served in a way which is not only palatable, but also useful for their daily Christian living. There are young boys and girls, and there are adults, all of them translating the Ignatian vision into reality, through a spirituality which is so practical and pliable that all can feel the divine coming down from heaven to the earth. But ahead of me is the opportunity to learn from these men and women who had tasted God, and be enriched by their experiences.

I am prepared to learn from anyone who would be able to accept me as a disciple; I am also aware that at times my ego pops up and resists the lowly and the least sitting in the chairs of authority and teach me things I have not known in life. Sometimes these experiences may also make me realize how ignorant I am, and when I know what I do not know, then I will know that the doors of knowledge are wide open for me. This experiences are nothing less than spiritual experiences, where I can encounter God in the midst of His people, and I can be well on the way to bridge the gap between God and human beings; that is the role of every priest of God, to play the bridge between heaven and earth, and here is a golden opportunity I can jump and grab!