Enlightening Pilgrimage of Indian Heritage

A Wish That Came Through

(From the Travelogues of Mathew D. Kunnappilly)

A Confession and Warning

I am not a professional writer. I have no formal education or training in that field.  I claim no accuracy in my observations. I have copied on to the papers, what my eyes have seen and what my mind has absorbed. My numbers, height, length, width, depth, distance, space, etc, etc are anything but guess works. This is a raw writing. I did not revise or rewrite anything. You may find plenty of spell and grammar errors. Also, there could be wrong words in the right places and right words in the wrong places. Please use your common sense, if you will, to figure out from the context what I meant to say. Thank you for your interest and patience.

PRELUDE TO JOURNEY

When I left for the United States in 1963 I knew very little about India. I did not know much about Hinduism, for that matter; about Christianity except the few prayers I said parrot wise.

It was in 1964 that I attended a student union meeting at the University of Toledo, Ohio. The topic of discussion was "World Religion" One American student gave a speech about Hinduism. He asked " How can it be a religion when there are 30 million 3 hundred thousand Gods and Goddesses?" (I did not know there were that many Gods and Goddesses in Hinduism). Then he made many derogatory statements about Indians and India. I had many, many Hindu friends-close friends-back in Kerala. They were not like the kind he was talking about. I raised my hand. I was recognized. I said that the speaker knew Hinduism only superficially. I wish to have an opportunity to talk about Hinduism during the next meeting. It was agreed. (They thought that I was a Hindu. If you are from India, you are a Hindu. That was the common perception then. Your Christian name-Mathew- did not mean a thing to them. Many thought, I took that name after reaching America. Many Hindu friends contributed to this perception by taking Christian sounding nicknames " to help Americans to pronounce the name" (Zibignu Brishesanskey (I do not think I spelled his name right) never felt a need for it.) Only my wounded pride gave me the courage to make such a bold declaration. Then I was frightened. What shall I say? What do I know about Hinduism? How can I learn enough in one month about a 5 thousand-year-old religion and its philosophy? My only defense was this. Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Tagore, Vivekananda, etc,etc were Hindus. None of them were known as fools. If Hinduism was such a frivolous religion, as my American friend had tried portraying, all of them should have left that religion.

I took some books from the library on Hinduism and read. My strategy was to choose two or three points the speaker had made and make it understandable to the audience. I cannot make the whole Hinduism understandable to all.

My opening sentence was " Hindu heritage is Indian heritage. But Indian heritage is not JUST Hindu heritage." I remember it to this day because I hold it to be true to this moment.

That day I gave 10 minutes talk on Hinduism. Dr. Nellan Chari who presided the meeting. and afterwards he came to me and said, " It was so pleasant to hear a Christian talking about Hinduism".

This was my introduction to Hinduism and Indian history. The more I read, the more I liked. I am not a Hindu scholar and I am not a learned man. I am not an intellectual. But I dare to say, Hindu philosophy-not with standing its abuses, misuses, misinterpretations, superficial contradictions, at times vulgar appearances, unending ritualistic concepts, rigid formulas, superstitions, myths and mythologies- is, in my opinion, the most BALANCED of all philosophies on life.

Then it was my wish to visit India's historical places. About 95% of my friends thought that it was just a "Big Talk" I was not even sure myself that I shall be able to do it, financially and physically. But finally the moment arrived, not fully but substantially, so far.

My travel companion was Subash, the 22-year-old son of my younger brother. A sister of mine, the daughter of my father's youngest brother was coming with us to Lucknow where her daughter and family live. That is where I was going and that was going to be my base.

I traveled and lived, during the journey, like an ordinary Indian pilgrim, not like a camera-toting tourist. I did not tell anyone that I lived 37 years in the United States of America. I did not travel first class. I did not stay in Star Hotels. I did not Dine in posh restaurants. (Except once when I took a family out to dinner) It was not an easy journey. It was physically demanding, mentally tiring, but spiritually uplifting.

Subash and I left home on September 9th for Ernakulam and stayed in a Lodge because "Thiruvonam" was on the 10th and I did not was to take any chance by waiting for the last minute. Our reservation was on Gorakhpur Exp. Starting from Ernakulam Junction at 9.10 am.

NEXT: THE JOURNEY BEGINS