Settling in

I arrived at Shantivanam 24 hours in advance of the start of the Gathering, so that I could relax after my journey and catch up with people I might know. 

I found just two English aficionados, and no other familiar faces amongst the visitors – but a wreath of smiles from the Prior, Brother Martin and the other brothers, fathers and sisters of the community, most of whom I knew from lsat Christmas here. 

It was a warm and genuine welcome, and the rigours of my journey were soon forgotten.

My accommodation is simple and perfectly adequate: a metre-wide bed with mosquito net, a desk, a cupboard, then there’s a wet-room off to one side, with a large mirror, toilet, shower, washbasin and shelves for toiletries. “Shower” in India generally means a shower-head located somewhere on one of the wet-room walls and aimed to the floor. Then there’s a tap to fill a huge bucket, which has a hand-jug hooked on the rim.

The traditional showering procedure is a variation on the “Ice-Bucket Challenge.” You fill the bucket, then dip in the jug and pour a steady flow of jugs of water over your head and body. Now that I am used to the process, I love it. Across Asia there is a general aversion to the idea of washing in baths – soaking in your own dirty suds is considered most unhygienic.

I was chatting to fellow Englishman, Michael, whom I knew from last year, and who is the acting “Guest-Master” again this year. He was saying that the Indian guests are becoming increasingly demanding of the standards of the ashram, because the growing number of quality tourist hotels across India over the past decade has raised everyone’s expectations. He said that many Indian visitors take a very poor view of the primitive facilities at Shantivanam, while the French, Italians, Spaniards, Germans, Brits and others have no problem with lack of glitz and glamour – in fact, I think we like to feel it makes the Indian Experience all a bit more real.

Apart from upgrading the en-suites, the estate is, as last year, alive with renovations and expansion.

Weaving palm fronds into roofing panels

Palm roofing panels drying in the sun to harden

Dining table lashed to two stepladders to facilitate high-level working - don't tell Health & Safety !

 The old Jail-bar windows of some of the older accommodation huts are being replaced with shutters and glazing; some of the traditional palm thatch is, sadly, being replaced with the less aesthetic corrugated “tin” roofs, and there is gleaming fresh paint everywhere. The colour scheme continues to be what we in my family used to call baby-sh*t brown but this colour does have the benefit of blending in with the active vegetable allotments and lush foliage everywhere.

Corrugated roof panels being painted regulation "Baby-sh*t Brown"

The timetable is unchanged, starting at 5.30 in the morning, though I confess I have never made it to the early morning meditation. Morning chanting and Mass is at 6.30, but I skip this on most days as I do not feel any benefit from an hour-long Eucharist service that is mostly unintelligible. I always go to Midday and Evening Prayers in addition to the early evening meditation.

I am sad that the acoustics of the chapel are so poor. The circular design of performance buildings always challenges an architect – hence the giant mushroom-shaped sound baffles hanging over the orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. Before these were designed and installed the sound quality was appalling. With daily readings here from the Koran, the Sikh scriptures and the Hindu Bhagavad Gita – in addition to the Bible – I would love to hear and think about what is being read, but with or without my hearing aids, the feedback and muffled echo, combined with the fairly heavy Indian-English accents defeat me, which is another reason I generally avoid the early morning service.

This December “Gathering” is the first time the Prior has invited friends of the ashram from around the world to meet and discuss.

The Prior chairs a session discussing the principles of Shantivanam

We have had sessions when individuals have recounted their life-journeys, and we have had sessions when Brother Martin has taught about the vision and heritage of Shantivanam. We have also had open discussion about our own thoughts and ideas for the future. People have come from Brazil, Canada, USA, South Africa, Kenya, Italy, Germany and the UK as well as various states of India. Two or three of the participants have known the ashram from its very early days and are very emotional when they talk about the charismatic personality of the late Father Bede Griffiths, who nurtured Shantivanam from its fledgling start to the thriving community it is today.

Brother Martin is in no way charismatic, but speaks from a broad and well-honed intellect, touching on themes that I have been finding time and again over the past couple of years in the seminars and conferences of Progressive Christianity. His theme this afternoon was Liberating Christ from Christianity, which echoed a book I was reading last month: Rescuing Jesus from the Church. I don’t think many people across Britain and elsewhere realise just how much radical thinking is going on behind the stained-glass windows, even if the public see little of such radical thinking when it comes to attitudes to women and sexuality.

Maybe this doesn’t sound like your kind of holiday, but I am simply loving it, – even if the bed is wooden boards, with a meagre two inches of foam mattress. The next step is to take my involvement one stage further by becoming an "Oblate" - a class of secular affiliation to the community here in India.