Memorial
Lecture on ‘Archbishop Mar Gregorios: His Vision and Contributions to Social
Development and Secularism in India.’ at the Vatican Oct 17, 2015
Your
Beatitude Mar George Cardinal Alamchery,
Your
Eminence Leonardo Cardinal Sandri, Representative of HH the Pope,
Your
Beatitude Mar Baselios Cardinal Cleemis,
Your
Excellencies,
Brothers
and Sisters,
I
am here on a pilgrimage to one of the holiest of holy places, as desired by His
Beatitude Baselios Cardinal Cleemis Catholicos. I consider myself doubly
blessed that this pilgrimage is to pay a tribute to Archbishop Benedict Mar
Gregorios, who touched my life in many different ways. I have been a
beneficiary of his vision and his contributions to social development,
particularly education, and secularism in India.
Archbishop
Mar Gregorios gave me my first ever employment in the Mar Ivanios College, of
which he was the Patron, and gave me my first pay check. It was there that I
met my bride and married her with his blessings. When I embarked on my Foreign
Service career, he gifted me a fountain pen “to make peace, not war”, which is
one of my prized possessions even today. My close association with the
Malankara Syrian Catholic Church and the Mar Ivanios Institutions continues
till today.
The
birth centenary of Archbishop Mar Gregorios has coincided with the period that
His Holiness the Pope has dedicated to the great souls of the Catholic Church
and it is in this context that we remember him today. This commemoration also
coincides with the historic synod at which the church is looking at the kind of
issues that Mar Gregorios grappled with in the past. As a worthy successor to
Archbishop Mar Ivanios, who led a congregation of Christians to return to the
fold of the Catholic Church, Archbishop Mar Gregorios has made a great
contribution to the international Catholic Community. But my topic today is not
his spiritual attainments, but his vision of a prosperous and secular India and
his personal contributions to bring it about. The ultimate objectives of his
prayers, love and sacrifice were for the good of the human kind.
Secularism
in any individual depends on how strong his faith is in his own religion,
because every religion teaches tolerance, brotherhood and love. Fundamentalism
and obscurantism drive people away from the roots of their religions and
alienate them from the one God that every religion expects us to worship. In
the case of Archbishop Mar Gregorios, secularism was fundamental to his faith
and commitment to Christianity.
In
Kerala, we take pride in the fact that Indians embraced Christianity long
before Europe did. We welcomed every civilization and every religion, as we
discovered that none of them contradicted the basic concept of “Vasudhaiva
Kudumbakam” (The whole world is a family) The Indian way of life, named
Hinduism, was enriched rather than diluted by the waves of thoughts that came
to our shores.
Archbishop
Mar Gregorios belonged to the “Sannyasin” or ascetic order of the Malankara
Church, which followed in letter and spirit the words of the Bhagavad Gita,
“One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is
obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic: not he
who lights no fire and performs no work.” While many Hindus saw “Sannyas” as
the last of the four age based stages of life, namely, Brahmacharya (student)
Grihasthasrama (householder), Vanaprastha (retired) and Sannyas (renunciation),
the Bedhany Ashram founded by Mar Ivanios went from “Brahmacharya” to “Sannyas”
and the Mar Gregorian thought transformed “Sannyas” from a period of
introspection and meditation into a period of action in the service of the
Lord.
Steeped
in the history and culture of India, symbolized in the ochre robe he wore, Mar
Gregorios did not consider Christianity to be alien to the land he belonged to.
The land where he was born and chose as his sphere of activity shaped his life
as much as his Christian thought. Secularism, therefore, was an integral part
of the Gregorian way of life. His life was that of a “Karma Yogi” envisaged in
the Gita and the Upanishads. More than tolerance of other religions and faiths,
he integrated them into his own faith and way of life.
Even
in societies, in which secularism and freedom of expression are guaranteed, it
is possible to have frictions arising out of a sense of offence caused by
different religious beliefs and practices. On occasions, such a feeling of
offence, whether real or imaginary, erupts into conflicts and violence. Mar
Gregorios not only condemned such tendencies, but also stepped in to smoothen
the feathers in his own inimitable manner and restored peace and harmony. It
was not in his nature to tolerate violence and bloodshed. He directly
intervened in some of the communal conflicts in and around Trivandrum and succeeded
in bringing the communities together again. His secular credentials were such
that his opinion was respected by every community. No wonder the former
President of India, Mr.K.R.Narayanan, characterized him as the symbol of
secularism in India.
Secularism
for him was not just a matter of religion. As the salt of the earth and light
of the world, his compassion and love were not confined to any particular
section of the people. He believed that, like Jesus Christ, the Buddha, Gandhi
and Narayana Guru and many others, his mission was to wipe every tear from
every eye. His vision was to eradicate poverty, hunger and disease from the
face of the earth, which led to his sustainable development agenda. He used his
own hands to plough the land and to sow the seeds. Fifty years ago he spoke and
worked like His Holiness Pope Francis does today. He came down to the people,
worked with them in every area of development and introduced a new culture of
service of the poor as the service of the Lord.
Education
was a vocation he loved and embellished. Teaching came natural to him. As a
teacher and Principal of Mar Ivanios College, he built a first rate institution
which continues to be a model for private public participation. He built
several new institutions, beginning with kindergartens to higher education,
including technical and vocational programmes. He introduced skills development
in education, which has now become a national priority. He saw education as
integral to the development of the soul and body and as a resource to find
solutions to the problems of the society and to make life meaningful, noble and
purposeful. Like Narayana Guru, he gave attention to the head, the heart and
the hand in his educational endeavors. He stressed the need for education to
change with the times and to use the most modern teaching methodologies and
technology. His contribution to liberate education from political interference,
corruption and indiscipline is of equal significance.
In
my current efforts to reform higher education in Kerala, I am inspired by the
Gregorian concept of education as the tool for nation building. The beginnings
he made in making education an instrument of social change can be seen in the
educational institutions he built. Many years before the IT revolution, he
introduced technology-based education. He saw skil development as one of the
essential components of education and demonstrated how to build a holistic
education system. When the Oommen Chandy Government created autonomous Colleges
in Kerala for the first time in history, the Mar Ivanios College was one
of the first to be selected as it met all the criteria stipulated by the
University Grants Commission for conferring autonomy. He had introduced many
reforms in higher education, which we see today as the integral part of an
education for the twenty first century.
As
a trained economist, his focus was on planning and development of every sector.
He saw the linkage between knowledge and environment when the awareness of the
need for environmental protection was non-existent in education. His attention
turned to farming, not just as a means of providing livelihood to people, but
as restoring ecological balance. His constant quest was for new trees and
plants wherever he went and he brought seedlings of rare trees from as far away
as the United States and popularized them in the villages of Kerala. In his
scheme of sustainable development, education, agriculture, industry and trade
were equally important and he considered them as part of his mission in the
service of God.
Science
was very much a part of religion for the Archbishop. Nature was his laboratory
and he brought in the most modern scientific techniques In horticulture,
fisheries, sericulture and others. Low cost housing was a passion for him and
he discovered the genius of Laurie Baker, who brought in innovative housing,
which adorns Kerala today. He inspired a new generation of architects who cared
for the environment and maximized the blessings of the Kerala climate in
affordable dwelling units.
The
industrial units he set up provided jobs for the poor, particularly women and
opened new frontiers of production and export. He discovered the potential of
the garment industry long before India developed textiles as a major export
under the facilities opened up by the World Trade Organisation. Every activity
for sustainable and holistic development was part of his development agenda,
which enriched the educational, scientific, agricultural, industrial, and
commercial fields in Kerala and provided a model to the rest of India.
To
encapsulate the multifaceted genius and the veritable rainbow of
activities of Archbishop Mar Gregorios is no easy task. An enlightened
spiritual leader, an embodiment of secularism and Indian culture, a practical
economist, an outstanding educationist, a modern agriculturist, an innovative
entrepreneur, a compassionate healer, an eminent linguist and a perfect human
being, he defies all definitions. In my view, he should be remembered as a
Karma Yogi, who gave a new meaning to renunciation and priesthood. In his own
words, “Priests are not mere worshippers of God. They are committed to convey
the grandeur of God to all creations and to bring them closer to the Almighty.
A man, who lives a full life in the service of God is a gift from God.”
We should be grateful to God for giving such a gift to us in the person
of Archbishop Mar Gregorios, who gave us his love in abundance and enriched our
lives. We are fortunate to have seen his life and work. Future generations will
scarcely believe that one person has accomplished so much in one lifetime.
Thank
you.
G
