After Pondy I headed back to Tiruvannamalai. As I wrote earlier, I actually wanted to visit "Quo Vadis" and see some interfaith dialogue. Unfortunately The main pastor Joshua Peter (JP) wasn't there. So I had a fun time with Amalie instead ;)
He told me he was in Tiru from Thursday to Sunday. So I went back on thursday to meet him and maybe find out more about this dialogue.
After arriving he put me in the Hands of Jivah, he is another pastor working at Quo Vadis. He helped me get accomodations in Madurai and helped me get there (booking a sleeper bus). He also tried to get an appointment with the priest of the hindu temple, sadly that didn't work out. Luckily he was able to arrange a meeting with the "head" of the Yogi Ramsuratkumar Ashram (so there are 3 ashrams in Tiruvannamalai that I know of ^^). She is a humble woman, who is respected deeply (from what I saw) by the followers of the ashram.
As usual the meeting from 3pm was postponed to 4pm (typical India, some would say). And when I was at the ashram at 4pm she actually was walking towards us. Other devotees intercepted her, asking her something and touching her feet as a sign of respect and devotion to her. She seemed slightly ashamed or embarrassed of this. She did know the founder (Yogi Ramsuratkumar) and was probably good friends with him, but I guess she doens't like the devotion to her as a person. This is something I also refer to in the oder Post about the ashrams in Pondy!
As soon as the followers left, we sat down under a tree and talked about hinduism and her view of things. She seemed very wise and also knew quite a few stories of christianity. She even used christian parallels and when she gave me advice (do it in the name of god), she would usually add Jesus or just use his name instead of a hindu name.
By viewing Hinduism as an almost monotheistic religion (there is a huge, allpowerful intelligent consciousness) which reveals itself in every being and every thing on earth, also humans, alot of parallels become visible. This again reflects the views and beliefs of Vivekenanda, everything is a diety, everything and everyone is holy. The "dharma" as they call it, is this power. It exists in everything and therefore also the gods. But these gods are only a part of dharma.
Though every god has a "speciality" they are all perfect. So a hindu might have a "main" god he prays to (again making it almost look like monotheism). If the person is seriously devoted to this god, he will acknowledge the other hindu gods but will mostly (only?) pray to this one, eventhough he has a problem which is the speciality of another god. Because the gods are perfect (thanks to dharma) they can help a human being in any situation and not just in the ones of their most known trait.
In her opinion (and that of Yogi Ramsuratkumar) this is what we humans can achieve aswell, this perfection. This is possible through meditation, where we fokus our attention and life to our inside, rather than our surroundings (job, studies, life and other pleasures). By sacrificing this we can reach this purity and perfection, which is inside us (tapas, is what she called this sacrifice)
We are also supposed to do this sacrifice in our everyday life, not for the sake of another human, but for the holiness inside of them. So if someone was to give a gift to me, I should accept it as a gift to the god inside me, rather than to my limited being. This will make the giver approach this state of purity, if he can see through the human flesh and see the diety inside.
This conversation really impressed me. Her openness was intrigueing and she said she was happy to see me, a man raised a christian to be similarly open towards her and listen to what she had to say. She was also thankful to Quo Vadis for exposing their visitors to places such as the ashram, so they can experience other views of life and faith, not just the view of the bible and christianity. I think her main problem with christianity would be the order to mission, so to converse people to christianity. But in her experience, most christian people who visited the ashram were openminded and friendly to the hindus there, not trying to converse the people.
Later I had a talk with JP, about Quo Vadis. He said he actually didn't plan to do the job he is doing now. But when he started this quest to make this interfaith dialogue centre he said, if god didn't want it, it would have failed. But now it is running rather well after 12 years.
In the tourist season (November-January) about 50-200 people would come to the centre a day and especially when groups visit, the place is filled with life. He always enjoys organizing program for children and schools, who visit quo vadis and invited me, if I should have the possibility and a class to visit. He would joyfully arrange nice places for a dialogue on the "grassroot level".
He also talked to me about his view with the other religions and how he loves the openness in Tiruvannamalai, eventhough it is so strongly hinuistic (being a place for pilgrims, because of the Mountain). Yet he still feels the need for the mission, to converse the people, yet not violently or anyway by force, but by being open to them and showing them alternatives to hinduism or islam.
In the evening I was really happy, to have come back and have these interesting talks. Amalie was also leaving for Delhi and so we spent the evening with JP and his wife, untill I left for the sleeper Bus to Madurai. It came a little late, but that was fine. Inside there were several compartments, like you see in the tourbuses of rockbands, where the people sleep. Of course it wasn't air conditioned, but when the bus moved the heat wasn't THAT bad. I was able to sleep a little, but was awake, when we arrived at 4:30 am in Madurai...
