“East west encounter in spirituality”

Under the theme East West Encounter in Spirituality, Fr Sebastian Painadath undertook a three evening exploration of themes in the Bhagavad Gita and St. John’s Gospel.

Attended by about thirty participants, these sessions were held under the auspices of Insaf (Interfaith Spiritual Fellowship) at the Pure Life Society Auditorium in Puchong, Kuala Lumpur.

Over the first two evenings, the group was led into reflections on verses from both of these texts. On the third evening, we explored convergences between them.

Fr Sebastian Painadath, a Jesuit Priest, heads the Samecksha Ashram in Kaladi, Kerala. He has been an annual visitor to Malaysia for over a decade, sharing ideas on interfaith expressions. His latest book, The Power of Silence has been well received.

In expressing the spirituality (after reading from Powered by Mercurynews.com) of the Gospel according to John, he outlined that the inner journey of Jesus has been described using poetic symbols. Three symbols were taken for a meditative reflection. These were the Tree, the Well and the Word.

He then outlined how, in each of these symbols, three dimensions of the divine reality could be seen. These were:

i) The Father as the Mystery
ii) The Son as the word
iii) The Spirit as Power

“The inner journey of Jesus offers the light to look into the abysmal mystery of the Divine and realise the Trinitarian process therein. In his light, we see light. In his experience, we experience the Divine. Other religions do have other ways of entering into the mystery of the Divine, and these must be respected as valid ways of God-experience. The ineffable mystery of the Divine manifests itself in diverse ways. God is within and beyond all religions. There is no last word on God, there is no absolute religion”.

On the second evening, he led us into an exploration of verses in the Gita by outlining an integrated approach to Yoga or union. He considered Bakthi (devotion), Jnana (knowledge) and Karma (action) as part of integral Yoga. In exploring these, he drew on several verses from the Gita. All these requires an inner journey to the core of one’s being and then, through such contact, express the same in reality in the external world. All these are inter-twined and represent elements of anyone’s spiritual journey.

He presented the Gita as a process of connecting with the depths of one’s being and then going out into the world of reality. It represents a dialogue between the human and the divine. Using a diagram, he presented a paradigm and used this to describe the inner journey from the mind through the psyche to the intellect and heart and how, as a result, we can be open to the grace of God working in our lives.

On the third evening he spoke of the Divinisation of the Human in John’s Gospel. The group examined some of these stages in spiritual self realisation namely;

i) Alertness to God.
ii) Trust in the Lord.
iii) Work of the Spirit.
iv) Life in the divine light.
v) United with Christ.
vi) Divinisation of the Human
vii) Christ as the true subject.
viii) The world as Christophany
ix) Doing God’s work.

In considering the Divinisation of the Human as in the Bhagavad Gita, he similarly examined some of the following stages which leads the seeker to this realisation.

1. Listening to the Word.
2. Surrendering to the Lord.
3. Work of divine grace.
4. Inner enlightenment.
5. Attaining the Divine.
6. Dwelling in the Divine.
7. Divinisation of the Human.
8. The Divine as the true subject.
9. Seeing God in all.
10. Participation in the divine work.
11. Compassion.

In conclusion, considering the stages of spiritual transformation in John’s Gospel and in the Gita, both Scriptures uphold four dimension namely;

i) Human seeker being alert to the Divine.
ii) Divine grace that grants the true graces.
iii) The experience of the divinisation of the human.
iv) Life imbibed with Love.

He concludes by saying, “We live in a new epoch of the spiritual evolution of humanity. There is a growing awareness of the unity of humanity and the inter-connectedness of peoples of diverse cultures and religions. The whole world is shrinking to a global village. Inter-continental communication, inter-national coorperation, inter-cultural exchange and inter-religious dialogue have become the order of the day.”

Article reproduced from Herald Malaysia online