Page 11 - Demo
P. 11
THE REVIEW
JANUARY’19-JUNE’19 11
PUNE AGM 2018
real and there’s a reason for that fear. On the other hand, don’t club everything and put it in the same basket.
Friends, perhaps a person in my position should not be talking about another religion, but I will and I shall. The whole debate in India today is whether this is becoming a Hindu rashtra. As a leader, I should talk about what is most important. I’m going to share something with you: how I as a Christian, how I as a Catholic, how I as a believer, how I who said a prayer even before I came here... I’m going to share with you my eulogy for the Hindu way of life. Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan— he was India’s first Vice President and second
the President—he wrote a book called The Hindu Way of Life. It’s a teeny-meeny book; try and
read it. There are some lines I don’t agree with, but broadly this is what he said. He was one of the most profound philosophers of the twentieth century, by the way, and he explains the concepts intrinsic to the Hindu way of life. I believe, after reading that book, if the pivot of our religion— Christianity—is forgiveness and reconciliation (that is the pivot of Christianity, according to me), the centre point of Hinduism and the Hindu way of life, according to Dr Radhakrishnan and many other philosophers, is tolerance. So, those Hindu friends of yours and mine who are not being tolerant... they are not Hindus. Because Hindus, over hundreds of years, are more tolerant than you and me. That’s what it’s supposed to be. He says, ‘The Hindu thinker readily admits other points of view than his own and considers them to be just as worthy of attention.’ As Christians, we are a little different. Do any of you go into a Hindu temple and bow your heads? Most people don’t. But in St Xavier’s school chapel, we used to bob in and bob out before a match or examination, and on Fridays—we had a weekly examination on Fridays—any Xaverian in Calcutta will tell you, it was chock-o-block full of Hindus. They embrace people’s religious beliefs, because they have no problem adding another god. I know Hindus
who actually have the Sacred Heart or a crucifix in their homes. What I am trying to tell you is, more than the Muslim community, more than the Christian community, more than any other community, it’s the Hindu way of life which says you must be tolerant, you must accept and allow people to live their own lives. That’s what it is by definition.
If you ask me which community is the most secular, or should be the most secular by its very ethos, it is Hinduism. And while on the subject of religion, let me share my views on evangelisation. I am seeing many Anglo-Indians who are evangelising Christians. Please remember and understand, evangelisation should happen with the way you live. That’s my belief. So please don’t send prayers and say that if you don’t send it to ten other people, something will happen. Guess what, that’s not Christian; that’s superstitious! I believe that if you have a Christian way of life, you’re a Christian. Many of you have married non- Christians. I know one lady sitting right here, and her non-Christian Rajput, Hindu husband insists that she goes to church, and he goes with her, and he sits in the cemetery where—unfortunately— the other person in his life is, and he is insisting that when he dies, he wants to be buried there.
So, I believe the best way to evangelise is through how we lead our lives. Yesterday I met another interesting lady who lives in Pune. She was sharing with me how she has three sons and her husband is not a Christian and didn’t become a Christian for a long time—not that she asked him to. And then, after the birth of her third son, who had to have an open-heart surgery at birth, she said to me, ‘Barry, the good news is he’s found the right path.’ So that’s what I would like to say about us passing on our religion. Let them say, ‘He’s a Christian. Look at how he lives, how he forgives, how he reconciles!’ If you’re a bitter person, you’re not a Christian. If you’re carrying luggage and baggage for years and years, you’re not a Christian. We all get angry and we all have our bad and ugly sides, but we have to reconcile.
The problem with Hinduism today is there
is a group—they think that the cow is to be worshipped and the cow is to be protected. But they have differences among themselves also, because I am going to quote now what somebody wrote in the Shiv Sena paper, Saamana: ‘In India today, cows are safer than human beings.’ I didn’t say it; they said it. And let me tell you, if you really know Hinduism, it has nothing to do with the cow. This cow vigilantism and mob killing, it’s a real fear friends, and it’s something that people should be disturbed about. I don’t want to continue on that, but just to end this section: We need more leaders who have come from maybe