Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a festival connected with American history and culture. For me, however, the last Thursday of November marks a day set aside for a few quiet moments. It’s a day to ponder upon the way the Universe has been kind to me.

Have I really learnt to ‘give thanks in all circumstances, to give thanks for all things’?

What are the wonderful things that happened to me this past year, since the last Thanksgiving? What were the opportunities I had for learning?

Who are the new people who have come into my life? What are the new opportunities I got to be happy and make others happy?

As I sit, in the quiet moments of that space between night and dawn, on the close of yet another Thanksgiving Day, I feel my heart opening up to the silence of the Universe, and my mind letting go of the tensions and worries of everyday living. And from somewhere, inside my consciousness, from inside my being, there is a wonderful one-ness with creation, and tears flow… tears of gratitude, tears of joy. As I sit in thankful meditation, I get, for a fleeting moment, a glimpse of the tapestry that is being woven by the Great Weaver in the Sky, as I see in how many beautiful ways hundreds of times throughout the year, She Who Has No Name has worked her miracles for me through the hands of countless people.

I realize, once again, that I am not alone, not for one single moment of the day. I realize that I, perhaps small, perhaps insignificant, definitely imperfect am still the receiver of a boundless, infinite Love. And that is immensely comforting.

That’s what I give thanks for on Thanksgiving Day.

The Mother of Jesus

MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS - A Profile - Part one

Her name was Mary, a form of the name Miriam, the famous sister of Moses. The name was common among Jewish women in those days.

A well-known tradition says she was born in Jerusalem, the daughter of Joachim and Ann.
Other early sources say Mary was born in Nazareth. There is even an ancient record that points to Sepphoris, a town a few miles from Nazareth, as her birthplace.

Wherever she was born, Mary's life most likely unfolded in the staunch Jewish settlement of Nazareth in the hills of Galilee, not far from the important caravan routes linking Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The Jews there were a strong, robust people. The hill climate was dry and healthful. And though the land often lacked water and no one knew from one year to the next if enough rain would fall or if invading locusts or field mice would spoil the crops -- still, facing uncertainty only made the people of Galilee more hard-working and close-knit. Struggling for a living deepened their religious spirit. They learned you must depend on God always.

Mary was a woman of rural Galilee. She lived as they did, in a small family house of stone and mud-brick. She worked like any young girl, grinding wheat and barley into flour, preparing dishes of beans, vegetables, eggs, fruits, nuts, and occasional chunks of mutton. Wool had to be made into clothing. Bread had to be baked. A few chickens and a donkey had to be fed. And in the village, small as it was, there were always little children to care for.

Almost daily she carried a large jar of water from the town well for washing and cooking (the well still supplies modern Nazareth today and is called "Mary's Well"). Early on, the Jews found that cleanliness prevented disease, so frequent washing -- an important chore of women -- became part of their religious practice. The well also was a favorite spot where women talked and traded bits of everyday news.

They lived in a war-torn land. For centuries before the Roman occupation, conquering armies of Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians and Greeks fought over Palestine. Despite their wars, revolts and riots, the Jews remained a subject people -- taxed, bullied and despised by succeeding rulers. Like their compatriots, the Jews of Nazareth were never far from the dangers of political violence. During the Jewish uprisings in Galilee around 6 A.D. -- when Jesus was a child -- Roman legions captured the city of Sepphoris, sold all its inhabitants into slavery and burned the city to the ground.

From the people of Nazareth Mary learned about life. Few strangers visited the town. It had little wealth, culture or learning. But just as a tiny drop of water contains a wealth of living organisms, so the small town of Nazareth had a rich life of its own. Children were born, young people married, someone died and was buried. Mary felt these joys and sorrows. A sheep was lost, a family quarreled, a son left home. From such small things, life's deepest lessons could be learned.

True Theology?

One of the stories collected by a popular story-teller in India goes something like this: Once a parachutist found himself caught up in a storm, and he was swept off several kilometers away from his original destination.

He landed on the top of a tree, and was only happy his life was saved.

He saw someone passing by, and called out to him and asked, "Sir, can you tell me, where I am?" Came the answer, "You are on the top of a tree."

The parachutist said." Are you a theologian?"

At this the other man was simply wonder-struck.

He asked the parachutist. "Yes I am, but how do you know that?".

The parachutist replied. "Oh that is easy. Because what you said is correct, but useless!"
Theology can state many correct things, and yet become quite useless and even ridiculous when it fails to identify its topos, its location.

A general theology would be a theology on the top of a tree, in the clouds.

That is why every theology has to be really located, has to be contextual.

This is what the experiences in our Third World societies continue to impress upon us.

All true theology can only be partial.

Paradoxically, we can say that, precisely because the Ultimate Reality is total, all our theology can only be partial. This is not something new. In fact it has always been so.

But the difference is that certain theologies claimed to be total theologies are unaware of the fact that they were only universalizing what has been a particular, historically and culturally limited experience.

Here I would like to recall an experience narrated to me by a friend from Nepal who is an expert also in Buddhism.

He took a group of theology students to a Buddhist monastery.

After the chief monk spoke, the young students were vying with each other in putting critical questions to the monk.

One of them argued this way: If Buddhism teaches that desire is the root cause of all suffering and that we should free ourselves from desires, then, there will still remain at least one desire the desire not to have desires. Perfect logic, of course! But the response of the experienced monk was simple: "This means, my friend," said the monk, you are not yet ready for Enlightenment."

We need to first walk a bit on the path to experience and understand it.

This is how every authentic theology needs to begin.

But where does this path lie?

Life is today the path on which we encounter God, and it is in walking on the path of life in a determined context that true contextual theology takes flesh and bone.

Community of humanity

Actually, we are all part of the community of humanity.

If humanity is happy, has a successful life, a happy future, automatically, I will benefit.
If humanity suffers, I too will suffer.


Humanity is like one body, and we are part of that body. Once you realize this, once you cultivate this kind of attitude, you can bring about a change in your way of thinking. A sense of caring, commitment, discipline, oneness with humanity - these are very relevant in today's world.





I call this secular ethics, and this is the first level to counter negative emotions.
The second level in this connection is taught by all major religious traditions, whether Christian or Muslim or Jewish or Hindu.

They all carry the message of love, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, contentment, and discipline.
These are countermeasures for negative emotions.


When anger is about to surface, when hatred is about to flare up, think of tolerance.

It is important to stop any mental dissatisfaction when we feel it because it leads to anger and hatred.
Patience is the countermeasure for mental dissatisfaction.

Greed and its self-centeredness bring unhappiness, and also destruction of the environment, exploitation of others, and increases the gap between the rich and the poor.
The countermeasure is contentment.


So practicing contentment is useful in our daily lives.

...All religious traditions talk about methods of compassion and forgiveness.
If we accept religion, we should take the religious methods seriously and sincerely and use them in our daily lives. Then, a meaningful life can develop."



- from Many Ways to Nirvana: Reflections and Advice on Right Living by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Wedding at Cana

Quakers say that God has nothing else but you;
only you -- that's what God has.

This insight has to penetrate deeply.
Jesus Christ. 

The Buddha.
The great 'yes' sayers.

And so, was Mary the Mother of Jesus.
Another great 'yes' sayer.

She's not the pathetic, long faced, woman the Christian artists make her out to be.

Look in the Bible.

There was this feast. A wedding feast.

Everyone was making merry and then- oh no!- they run short of wine.

Wine. the stuff that flows and that which makes Bacchus dance.

If Mary was the sanctimonius, 'no-sayer' and spoil-sport,
the first ever recorded miracle of Jesus would never have happened!


Mary was no 'Naga Mother against Alcoholism'!
She goes up to her son, taps him on the shoulder and says
'They have no wine.' 

Just like any mum would tell her son. (And that's enough of a hint that she wants him to do something about it!)

Jesus, just like the playful fellow that he is, teases her
"Woman, why do you bother me, what can i do about it?"

Mary probably sees the twinkle in her son's eyes.
She tells the servants of the house. 'Do whatever he tells you."

And Jesus asks them to fill the wine jars with water.
And to take a sampling to the Chief steward of the feast.

The guy in charge of the booze takes a sip.

And the steward is amazed.
He tells the servants, "Where have you been keeping this good stuff?'

"Usually the best wines are served first
and when everybody is a bit sozzled, you roll out the inferior stuff.
But you chaps have kept the best wine for later!"

What better example of the fun-loving, yes-saying nature
of Jesus Christ and his Mother.

Yet , it's so sad that the so-called 'pious Christians' 

have taken the exuberance of the gospels
and twisted them the into a long-faced, painful, hypocritical religion

of enforced piety

of mumbling beads

of a spurious sense of  'holiness'

and there's a 'nay-sayer' at every turn.

The law-abiding fear true Love

To me, the season of Lent is not about Law

It’s not about penance and mortification
It’s not about not eating meat and not going to the movies.
It’s about reconciliation and love.

To the Jews, especially the priests, and the politicians,
It appeared that Jesus would just destroy the law.
So they were angry. And they were right!
In a sense, the law would be destroyed, because a higher law would be coming in.
The lower law would have to go.

Law depends on fear. Law depends on greed. Law punishes you.
The central idea of Law is justice, but justice is not enough.
Justice is crude and hard and violent.
Somebody murders, then the law murders him.
Justice has no spirituality in it, it is mathematical.

You have killed somebody, then the law kills you.
But if killing is wrong, then how can the law be right?
The law itself is very much lacking, it depends on the same evil.

“Law is better than lawlessness, but compared to love, law itself is lawlessness.” -- Osho

Only compassion can allow your being to bloom.
Only compassion can help you come to your highest peak – not justice.

When Jesus started talking about love, the people who were law abiding became very much afraid.

They feared that if the law were dropped, the animal hiding inside of them would jump out, and would tear down the whole society.
They knew that their faces were only beautiful on the outside.
Deep down, great ugliness. Suppressed. Repressed.

When Jesus says, ‘Drop all masks’, they become afraid and angry.

‘This man is dangerous. He eats and drinks. He consorts with prostitutes. He eats with sinners and exploiters. This man has to be punished and destroyed before he destroys society”.

My Jesus Journey

I was ‘born’ into Christianity.

When I was a few days old, somebody carried me to church.

Another somebody mumbled some incantation or the other.

Then he asked me: Do you reject Satan?
I probably answered ‘Goooo’
Somebody answered for me ‘I do’.

And he asked me, a seven day-old baby, a lot of other strange questions as well.
To which Somebody answered ‘I do’

And then he sprinkled holy water over me.
And I probably howled in protest.
And he welcomed me into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church
The communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
and to life everlasting.

I peed all over him.

The ‘sin of Adam’ was washed away,
And the ‘indelible mark’ of Christ was imprinted on my tiny,
wrinkled brow.

And through the years I came to know that Christianity meant

Sacrifice and pain.

Giving up sweets and nice things for the sake of sinners.
Feeling guilty about having too much of anything, including fun.

No meat of Fridays.

That the Devil was always peeking over your shoulder.
That there were venial sins [in thousands]
and mortal sins [in hundreds]
and unforgivable sins [seven of them]

and Ten Commandments from God
And ten times that by Holy Mother the Church.

And that God was just waiting to watch you slip up
And that the Devil couldn’t wait to see you in hell.

And the only way out
Was

Our fathers
Hail Mary’s
Rosaries
Holy Mass and Novenas

At fourteen, dozens , and then hundreds of questions
Began simmering in my brain…

Then began my Jesus Journey.

First, I discovered the Bible.

Then, I discovered Jesus Christ Superstar.

The latter was much more believable.

[to be continued under ‘My Jesus Journey]