The Iftar organized by Maitri Bhavan at the end of Ramadan in 2024.
Maitri Bhavan
Friendships on the Banks of the Ganges
For the past three years, along with Fr Philip Denis, I have been animating Maitri Bhavan, the centre for interreligious dialogue of the Catholic Diocese of Varanasi (Benares). For a long time, our bishop, Msgr Eugene Joseph, wanted to revitalize this essential institution of our local Church, but Covid disrupted our plans, causing me to live for many months in Kathmandu, where I continued my mission in a world both so similar and yet so different from that on the banks of the Ganges. Nevertheless, I clearly understand now how the uncertainties of the pandemic have mysteriously prepared me to open a new chapter in my Indian life. Sometimes we have to accept fallow periods and even the collapse of our certainties in order to be available for other calls.
New horizons
Since it was founded in 1970, the Catholic Diocese of Varanasi has devoted itself to a very special mission of dialogue. How could it be otherwise in India’s holiest city, where eight religions coexist, each of them being firmly rooted in the landscape of Varanasi, all of them embedded in a multi-millennial history of encounters and cross-fertilization? In a recent message of gratitude for the work accomplished, Msgr Eugene Joseph wrote to me:"Being close to everybody through deep friendships is the true dialogue and the mission of the Church here" True to its Sanskrit name, which means "the house of friendship," Maitri Bhavan has always been a place where, against all odds, beautiful bonds of trust and mutual esteem have been forged between Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Jews, and Buddhists. Being born at the same time as the diocese, Maitri Bhavan drew its inspiration from the interfaith vision of Raimon Panikkar (1918-2010), who, for a decade (1964-1974). spent every winter in Benares. Several priests followed his footsteps, bringing their own specific charisms to the centre. However, like every institution, Maitri Bhavan experienced periods of deep fecundity as well as others that were more barren.
When Msgr Eugene Joseph invited me to continue the story of Maitri Bhavan, he was well aware that the network of friendships I had developed in Varanasi over almost fifteen years would help the place’s mission. However, whilst happily accepting his proposal for an open-ended period, I had not imagined how much this adventure would affect my own life on the banks of the Ganges. I am thinking in particular of meeting the various religious leaders who have always been connected with the diocese. Doubtless, after a long preliminary grounding, I was now ready to become the Church’s ambassador to Swami Avimukteshwarananda, the Sankaracharya of Jyothirpeet, to Abdul Batin Nomani, the Mufti-e-Banaras, whose political role is crucial for the defence of the Muslim community against pressure from Hindu fundamentalists, or with Vishwambharnath Mishra, the High-Priest of the Sankat Mochan temple and a fervent defender of the multi-religious and secular character of Benares. How could I have imagined the intense friendships I would receive among the Sikhs in their gurdwaras or among the Buddhist monks who, drawing on their sparkling intelligence, teach at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath? And what could I say about the Muslim social activist Muniza Khan or Alka Singh, head of the Vasanta College for Women at Raj Ghat, both remarkable women whose company is a priceless treasure for me. So many faces and lives that have led me to new horizons whose human and spiritual richness I had never imagined.
To prepare myself for these encounters, which on the same day can take me from Hindu orthodoxy to Muslim orthodoxy, or from the dizzying metaphysics of Tibetan Buddhism to the ascetic ardour of the Jains, I devote each morning to an extensive reading of books on each of these traditions – putting my writing aside. Fortunately, Varanasi has no shortage of well-stocked bookshops to give me access to an initial knowledge that will deepen existentially as I encounter the different religions. In the afternoon, after an hour’s silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, I set off to visit my friends not only on the banks of the Ganges, but also in all the different parts of the city that I am beginning to know so well. On foot or perched on the back of a moto-taxi, I plunge into the noise and pollution of the huge traffic jams that we have to endure daily and that at times put a strain on my health, which does not emerge unscathed from such a hostile environment. I am nearly fifty years old, but my body is still able to withstand the unspeakable Indian chaos that has now been my companion for more than half of my life.
Multi-voice conversations
Each of these daily visits is essential for the life of Maitri Bhavan, which is above all a story of friendships. It is indeed through so many patiently woven links that a mutual trust has been established between us. After having shattered many prejudices against the Catholic Church (as being rich, foreign to Indian culture, obsessed with making conversions...), we can come together to take another step forward. This means that we can now work together to build a better world, particularly through the organization of a monthly gathering of religious leaders, ordinary faithful, members of civil society, and professors and students from the four universities of Varanasi. For these conversations, we choose a specific theme and invite representatives from each religion to share their insights. This is followed by a time for exchange between the speakers and the audience. It is a genuine spiritual exercise in mutual listening and respect, allowing everyone to be enriched by so many different points of view, and at the same time to celebrate a deeper
A conference given by Francis X. Clooney SJ at Maitri Bhavan in 2024.
unity between us that lies in the common humanity that we share: the insaniyat, as we call it in Hindi. The experience of this plural humanity is a source of great hope in a city and a nation saddled with the turmoil of electoral campaigns that so often promote polarization and conflict between the castes and religions. On the contrary, Maitri Bhavan would like to give a foretaste of a reconciled humanity as promised in the final pages of the Bible that describe the beauty of the heavenly Jerusalem whose gates will be forever open to welcome adoration from all nations.
Even more, it is because Maitri Bhavan springs from the Christian faith in the Trinity – an absolute mystery where alterity and difference are no longer a threat but are the very life of God – that dialogue and mutual listening preside over our encounters. On the many fault lines that run through Indian society, these encounters offer unexpected experiences. For example, Brahmin students from the Vedic schools, for the first time in their lives, have an opportunity to hear the deep insights of a Muslim scholar...
The topics we choose for our meetings range from the most spiritual, such as the concept of awakening in each tradition, to the most pressing, such as ecology or the education of women and their place within the religions. For this latter topic, we invited the men to sit in the audience and listen in silence to the women speakers. This was a first, given that the religions in India (and elsewhere in the world) are largely in the hands of men. I confess to being particularly proud to have been able to give the floor to women who were Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist along with a representative of the Baha’i tradition that emerged in Persia during the 19th century!
We also like to remember the sources of inspiration for Maitri Bhavan such as the Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), who in 1921 wrote, "I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible." At a time when Hindu fundamentalists are doing their utmost to obscure the spiritual legacy of the "Father of the Nation," it is good to return to the convictions for which Gandhi gave up his own life. Every year, in accordance with the wishes of Msgr Eugene Joseph, we organize a lecture on Raimon Panikkar to allow his challenging thought to irrigate the intellectual circles of Varanasi. In 2023, the Indologist Bettina Bäumer spoke movingly to us about the master and friend with whom she had walked for over fifty years. In 2024, it was the Belgian Jesuit Jacques Scheuer who brilliantly summarized for us Panikkar’s masterpiece, The Silence of the Buddha. An Introduction to Religious A-theism, in which the Indo-Catalan theologian wrote that he had "related the Buddha’s message to our modern predicament, neither rejecting Christ nor denying allegiance to other traditions. Why should we build walls of separation and feel jealous about constituencies? To extol one religious and human tradition does not mean to belittle the others."
Over the past three years, we have also been able to organize meetings on eminent sages and thinkers who have lived in Benares, for instance Jiddu Krishnamurthi (1895-1986), whose school at Raj Ghat continues to give life to his profound insights concerning the education of youth. To the delight of students and professors at the universities of Varanasi – particularly those in the Sanskrit and Philosophy departments – we were pleased to welcome famous scholars such as the Jesuit Francis Xavier Clooney, professor at Harvard Divinity School, the American Hindu theologian Anantanand Rambachan, and the stimulating Anglo-Indian logician Jonardon Ganeri, whose books unfold a distinctive cosmopolitan thought.
Prophetic encounters
Maitri Bhavan has no other mission than to reflect the remarkable spiritual wealth of India’s holy city. As I often say to our interlocutors, we would simply like to be the servants of the beauty of Varanasi! Indeed, more than the iconic sunrise on the Ganges, I increasingly believe than the splendour of Benares comes from the unique culture that has been built up within it through the multiple religious encounters and the spiritual treasures bequeathed by the greatest minds who at one time or another, have not failed to visit the city, if not to make it their home. This unique fusion of cultures is known as the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, literally the culture between the two sacred rivers, the Ganges and the Yamuna. It speaks of the historical links that, despite sporadic tensions, were patiently forged between Hindus and Muslims. We could mention here the Hindu musician Tansen (1500-1589) and his patron Akbar (1542-1605), the great Mughal emperor who, in the ibadat khana – the house of prayer in his palace at Fatehpur Sikri – used to invite Hindu scholars, Jain monks, Muslim mullahs, and Catholic Jesuits to exchange ideas. Like all the masterpieces of humanity, the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb has today become endangered by political radicalization. It is therefore crucial that Maitri Bhavan humbly participate in preserving the rich human and spiritual fabric that has always made Varanasi a beacon of hope in South Asia. This is the very expression of the secular character of independent India embodied in the preamble of the country's constitution, which declares India to be a “Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic.” Here, "secular" means that the Indian republic recognizes all religions without privileging any single one, an ideal so different from that of the Hindu supremacists who are now in power!
A way in which Maitri Bhavan honours all the components of Varanasi is to celebrate our religious festivals together. Thus for Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, we call on musicians and poets from different spiritual traditions. Dipawali, the festival of lights, rekindles our desire for awakening, for which the little oil lamps shining in the autumn nights act as a wonderful metaphor. Two other festivals provide an opportunity for larger gatherings, not at Maitri Bhavan near the Ganges, but in the peaceful environment of the bishop’s house compound beside the cathedral. The first is the traditional Christ Jayanti Milan on Christmas Eve, when in front of over two hundred people, representatives of the different religious traditions
The Christmas Interreligious gathering held in 2022.
and members of civil society deliver a message of peace. For us Christians, peace has the face of Jesus, the "Prince of Peace," but for all peace is the expression of a deep yearning, above all in a society as divided and polarized as India is today. The other event at the bishop’s house is an iftar, the breaking of the fast during Ramadan. A magnificent image of carpets spread out on the lawn to welcome the short meal shared together before our Muslim brothers line up for the Maghrib prayer, surrounded by believers of other religions and with the cathedral as a backdrop. Prophetic moments from which we emerge deeply moved. These are also political moments when we want to embrace the holy city in all its beauty and diversity not to set ourselves against one another, but to bring a healing balm of communion to all the wounds of history. For me, who during my teenage years had once thought of starting a family and going into politics, I smile inwardly at the humour of God who over time has managed to transform me into a very political priest.
After each meeting, the various participants never fail to thank us, pointing out what a unique place Maitri Bhavan is in Varanasi – perhaps the only place where religions can meet, listen to each other and enter into friendship – and how much I give thanks to the Lord when I see a collaboration being established between ourselves! Undeniably, we are here at the heart of the Christian vocation to be tireless weavers of fraternity and of reconciliation across the fractures of the world. For me the result is always a miracle, and that is why before each of our monthly meetings, I pray intensely for everything to go as smoothly as possible, only too aware that in Varanasi and India we are living on a powder keg. At the end of our meetings, Fr Philip and I give thanks to the Lord for what we have been given to live together. Something that is so simple, yet so essential.
Opening up the Church
After the Covid crisis, the last three years spent in Varanasi have been very intense, like the gospel measure that is "pressed down, shaken together, overflowing" (Luke 6:38) and will be poured into our lap. It is very difficult to gather up again everything that has been given in abundance. Recently Msgr Eugene Joseph has asked me to prepare a photo album to commemorate all the meetings we had in Maitri Bhavan since 2022.
In this journey that has so expanded my missionary life, I benefit from the total trust of my bishop and, once again, I understand that we can only give of our best if someone else, freed from all petty jealousy, invites us wholeheartedly onto the journey! Sometimes, I go with Msgr Eugene Joseph to meet one or the other of the city’s religious leaders, but generally I am like his representative with everyone, a kind of ambassador for the Church to all these religious traditions and intellectual institutions. Could a priest of the Foreign Missions dream of a better role? In the humility of this singular mission at the service of the mission of the Church in Benares, as it also is at the service of the bishop’s mission in the city, I am fulfilled by a life in the open air that preserves me from the spiritual asthma attacks that I so much dread – those seizures that I experienced physically as a child and so often since in the enclosed worlds of the Church.
"Dialogue is at the heart of the mission of our Church in Varanasi," my bishop wrote to me recently. For all the Churches of India, Maitri Bhavan needs to be able to continue on its path and show that it is possible to break out of the religious fortresses into which our minds and institutions so well know how to lock themselves away. To believe that for a plural India subject to so many political excesses, dialogue, genuine encounter and friendship are as much paths of life as they equally are for the Church sent by her Lord into the vast world. It is not a question of looking back, with the risk of being petrified like the wife of Lot (Genesis 19:26). It is rather a matter of discerning the unforeseen paths by which we must engage in the vast horizons that are calling us ever further afield.
Another of Maitri Bhavan’s graces is to enable Indian Christians – priests, nuns, and laity – to open their hearts to religious traditions whose nobility they are often unaware of due to a lack of genuine encounters with their followers. Faced with the enthusiasm of our Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh friends, these Christians are like those workers of the eleventh hour. And yet they too receive the same wage of profound joy! Finally, how can I not also mention the joy of welcoming seminarians every year for a course I give on the sacred scriptures of Hinduism, in parallel with meetings with Hindu scholars, Buddhist monks, and Muslim teachers. When, at the end of a week spent together, these future priests of India share with me all that this experience in Varanasi has brought them for their journey in terms of conversion and inner enrichment, I watch them leave with great affection, pride and hope...
Translated by Roderick Campbell Guion
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