Protestant Christians are considered to be the pioneers of the Christian
ashram movement in India. The purpose of
the Protestant ashram movement was to give India an Oriental Christ.
Christu-Kula
Ashram
The Christu-Kula Ashram was the first
Protestant ashram and was started at Tirupattur, Tamil Nadu, in 1921 by S.
Jesudason and Dr. E. Forrester Paton under the guidance of the National
Missionary Society of India. The Society
had advocated the ashram model at its North India conference in 1912 as a
valuable indigenous model for evangelism in India. Although the founders were affiliated with
the National Missionary Society, the ashram was established independent of control
by any national or foreign organizations.[1]
The term "Christu-Kula"
means "family of Christ." The
ancient Hindu ashrams were called guru-kula, because they were centered around
a guru. The founders of the Christu-Kula
Ashram recognized Christ as the only guru, therefore, they named their ashram
Christu-Kula. The ashram presently has
one administrative head and three other permanent members to help manage
activities.
This ashram consists of a hospital, a small
school, and a chapel built in the architectural style of the Dravidian Hindu
temples, with two kopurams or towers.
The ashram also has ninety-one acres of land and sixteen buildings used
to carry out its activities.[2]
The activities of the ashram include daily
morning and evening worship, caring for the sick in the hospital, and providing
religious education to children. The
ashramites also participate in evangelism in nearby villages; however, they do
not conduct the ordinance of baptism in the ashram. People who accept Christ are led to become
members of the Church of South India.[3]
The primary aim of the ashram is to live an
integrated life of prayer and action.[4] This ashram emphasizes the principles of
renunciation, brotherhood, celibacy, and service in order to realize the
kingdom of God within the ashram context.
Christa
Sishya Ashram
The Christa Sishya Ashram is situated at
Thadagam, Tamil Nadu. It was founded by
the Anglican Bishop, Herbert Pakenham Walsh, and his wife Clare on January,
1936, on a beautiful site of six and a half acres of land at the foot of the
Nilgiri mountains. The ashram originally
followed Protestant principles and lifestyle, but today it is considered to be
an Orthodox Syrian ashram. Worship is
conducted according to the Orthodox Syrian rite.
The purpose of the ashram was evangelism,
health care, and community development.
In order to realize these purposes, the ashram operated a medical center
and two branch offices for village uplift work, and participated in village
evangelism. In the nineties, activities
are limited to conducting retreats, seminars, and camps due to lack of
membership. In the beginning, married
people were allowed to be members of the ashram, but for the past ten years
celibacy was required of all seeking membership. This has caused the ashram to lose some of
its members and make ashram life unattractive to young people.[5] The study of these
two Protestant ashrams clearly shows that the practice of celibacy has become a
hindrance to the growth of ashrams in India today. Most Catholic ashrams also follow the
practice of celibacy, but are not declining because celibacy has long been an
accepted form of life within the Catholic tradition. Although Hindu ashrams and Catholic
monasteries practice celibacy, this is not consistent with Scripture.
Catholic
Ashrams
Although the ashram movement began with the
establishment of the first Protestant ashram in 1921, Catholics in general did
not show much interest in the ashram model until Vatican II (1962-65). However, a few Catholics like J. Monchanin
and H. Le Saux seriously contemplated starting ashrams in the late
forties. Their main concern was to
develop an indigenous liturgy and emphasize the contemplative life. With these two ideas in mind, the first
Catholic ashram was started in Tamil Nadu in 1950. After Vatican II, many Catholics showed
interest in the ashram model and established many Catholic ashrams in India.
Saccidananda
Ashram
Jules Monchanin and Henri Le Saux, French priests,
founded the first Catholic ashram with the name Saccidananda in 1950. The ashram is located near the holy river
Cauvery, near Kulithali, Tamil Nadu. The
ashram looks very much like an ancient Hindu ashram with its huts, temple,
meditation hall, library, gardens, and beautiful surroundings.
After coming to India, Monchanin and Le Saux
adopted the Sanskrit names Parama Arubi Ananda (The Bliss of the Supreme
Spirit) and Abhishiktananda (The Bliss of the Anointed One),
respectively.[6] They realized that the real Christianization
of India could come only by living a life of contemplation, meditation,
worship, liturgy, and study. They also
considered the ideal of sanyasa as the most effective way of Christian witness. They wanted to integrate the Christian
monastic tradition with the Hindu sanyasa tradition in order to model a
meaningful expression of Christianity in India.
In addition, they intended to identify themselves with the Hindu pursuit
of the Absolute by relating the advaita view of the Absolute with their own
experience of God, the Holy Trinity.[7]
The name, Saccidhananda Ashram, conveys the
idea that the Absolute which is conceived as sat (Being), cit
(Consciousness), and ananda (Bliss) in Hindu tradition is identified
with the Christian Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by the founders. Although the ashram is widely known as the
Saccidhananda Ashram, it is officially called The Ashram of the Holy Trinity.[8]
Monchanin died in 1957 and Le Saux moved
from the ashram in 1968 to live the life of a hermit in the Himalayas and died
in 1973. After he left the ashram, Dom
Bede Griffiths, a Welsh Benedictine, came from the Kurismala Ashram to take
care of the Saccidananda Ashram. At
present (1993) he is recognized as the guru and the head of the ashram. The ashramites are now affiliated with the
Benedictine monastery of Camaldoli in Italy.[9] However, the ashram is free to develop its
own form of worship and lifestyle adapted from Hindu ashrams.
The main activities of the ashram are meditation,
study, classes on yoga and spirituality, corporate prayer three times a day,
and work in the garden. The ashram also
observes major Christian and Hindu festivals like Pongal (harvest festival). Involvement in social services and evangelism
is limited. However, the ashram runs a
nursery school in one village and two spinning units in another village.
The unique feature of this ashram is its
adaptation of Hindu forms of worship. I
have visited the ashram three times and spoken with Bede Griffiths and others,
and participated in their worship. The
worship consisted of bhajans, reading from Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita,
Tamil classics and the Bible, arati (waving light), sprinkling of water,
the ringing of bells, prayers, and distributing Kun-Kumam (purple powder
to put on the forehead).
The
worshippers sat cross-legged on the temple floor around an Indian lamp
decorated with flowers, during a worship
which lasted for thirty minutes. The
Hindus who accompanied me participated in the worship without hesitation, but
did not seem to understand the meaning of the rituals since no one explained
the meaning behind the symbolism which had been adopted from Hinduism. I felt that the ashram should have developed
a method to explain the meaning of the rituals to the visitors.
The Saccidananda Ashram is a great center
for Christian spirituality, serving not only the Hindus but also Westerners who
come to India in search of meaning and purpose in life.
Anbu
Vazhvu Ashram
The word "Anbu" means love
and Vazhvu means "living the life." Living the life of love is the ideal
expressed through this ashram which is located in Palani, Tamil Nadu. Palani is one of the pilgrim centers in Tamil
Nadu for the devotees of Murugan, the popular Tamil god. Father Philip Payant, a French-Canadian Holy
Cross Father, founded this ashram in late 1972 on six acres of land where rice,
vegetables, and fruits are grown for their own use as well as to help operate the
ashram on a self-supporting basis. The
ashram also has other facilities such as a kitchen, dining room, huts,[10]
and a well-organized library with much Tamil literature.[11]
The objective of the ashram is to integrate
the three ways (Jnana-marga, Karma-marga, and Bhakti-marga) using indigenous
symbols, rituals, and music in worship.
Meditation is practiced in the personal prayer life of the ashramites.[12] This ashram also strives to train the
disciples for service with Helen Ralston recently reporting that twelve
candidates have passed through the ashram training.[13]
The ashram
did not seem to carry out any evangelistic work in the neighborhood. However, its presence in a pilgrim center
itself is a great Christian witness to the Hindus who come to this town. Thus far, we have
seen how the ashram came from Hindu traditions and how it has been adapted in
modern India by both Hindus and Christians.
Next, we turn our attention to some communities within Jewish and
Christian traditions where practices similar to ashrams are followed,
especially in respect to community life and spirituality.
