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These
words are being written for the Christian Easter festival.
Mumbai's citizens were stirred up by a two-hour dance
extravaganza entitled, "Yes! The Spirit of Triumph."
The show was dedicated to the people of Gujarat who
had an awful earthquake experience. Top
professionals were involved in the performance. Colour.
Movement. Joy. The tragedy of pain. The ecstasy of
life and spirit.
To
prepare for this magnificent celebration, readers
of the "Bombay Times" were treated to inspirational
stories about human beings who said "Yes!" by showing
courage in adversity. For example: Stephen Hawking,
Helen Keller, Douglas Bader, Sudha Chandran, Jayabala
Ashar, Amitabh Bachchan and the like.
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"There
is not a single home that has not gone through trying times
in life. That makes the whole world one family. If we as
a family have the will, and if we try, we will triumph over
any adversity" (Vidyottama Sharma)
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problem remains. Nobody who has faced death courageously
returns to tell the tale! Nobody except one. Jesus Christ.
The whole point of Easter is that death is placed realistically
at the center of the tragedy and triumph of each human
life. Easter allows St. Paul to cry out in his message
to the people of the ancient city of Corinth, "Death
is swallowed up in victory. Death where is your victory?
Death where is your sting?"(I Cor.15, 54-55) |
In
our Indian towns and cities, irrespective of religious affiliation,
it is Christmas that is better known and more widely celebrated.
Easter tends to be considered a more sectarian festival.
A strange Christian idea. Well, that's a pity, because death
does not happen to be restricted to Christians. The great
mysterious darkness at the end of earthly life is something
each human being must face. Christians believe that the
survival of an "immortal soul" freed from a discarded corpse
is very different from the "whole person" returning in bodily
form to new and more vibrant life.
"Do
not go gentle into that good night / Old age should burn
and rave at close of day / Rage, rage against the dying
of the light." Who is not moved by these words of Dylan
Thomas?
The
sparkling, faith-inspired, Christian response is better
conveyed by John Donne, "Death be not proud, though some
have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not
so... / And Death shall be no more : Death, thou shalt die!"
For
Christians, the resurrection of Jesus is symbol and promise
of our own triumph. The beginning of the third millenium
finds the perhaps billion or so inhabitants of Planet Earth
more closely linked through the media in ideas and ideologies,
perspectives and philosophies. Today we tend to absorb from
each other more meaningful and openhearted ways of discovering
significance for our lives and deaths.
Karma,
reincarnation, resurrection, meditation, spiritual growth
and cosmic evolution have entered into our living rooms
and party conversations. It is not uncommon to find in the
Indian newspapers funeral notices announcing the entry of
some beloved relative or friend into "The heavenly abode".
That sort of feeling, close to the Easter hope, is not restricted
today to Christians.
The
central point of Easter is that the loved one passes
through the doors of death into a happier and more
vibrant form of life - without losing her/his personal
identity. The very concept is beautiful and close
to the human longing of many of us, whether or not
one chooses to accept it as belief. Who wouldn't be
delighted to encounter a child or mother or spouse
in another life in familiar, recognizable human form?
Because
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Christian
dares to hope precisely for that kind of possibility.
Inspite of dying a cruel, shameful and undeserved
death on the cross, Jesus reappeared fully alive in
bodily form on numerous occasions to several friends.
And they were not expecting him either! Nevertheless
he passed through doors, walked, talked, ate, cooked
breakfast and otherwise interacted normally before
disappearing once more from sight.
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As
a professional biologist who also happens to be a practicing
Christian, I must explain why the bodily resurrection of
Jesus makes good sense to me. It somehow "fits", if we try
to understand how even now our "body" is related to the
universe.
A
spoonful of ocean water is known to carry millions of living
things. Our Earth is filled with this mysterious, indefinable
reality called "life", and what we consider "inanimate matter"
is intimately bound up with living things. Dead atoms and
molecules pass constantly in and out of our living forms.
The
so-called human "body" - which we walk, talk and dance with
- is firmly meshed into the material universe.
It
is my eternal, indestructible, spiritual energy, which takes
in and puts out what I eat and drink and breathe in order
to say "Yes!" to life. Why should death destroy this pattern?
It makes sense for me to look calmly on all adversity, including
death, and be amused at the prospect of being recognized
in another existence by others in all the true beauty currently
concealed under my current ugliness.
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In
the end, it means becoming joyously aware that the
butterfly is only a transformed caterpillar, and that
the tough imprisonment of the cocoon is worth accepting
because of the freedom of the blue skies to follow.
That would suggest why there are Easter eggs.
As
Beethoven said, "We finite creatives with an infinite
spirit are born to suffer and to rejoice. One might
almost say that the chosen few receive their joy through
pain." Beethoven's best music was written when he
was totally deaf!
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To
end on a deeply personal note, my own Christian Easter hope
is more strongly stamped on my heart whenever I look at
- I mean really look at and take in and become one with
- the face of the famous Carnatic Musician M.S Subbulakshmi
when lost in the ecstasy of her song. Everything
in her becomes radiant with the words, "Primordial One!
Blessed Redeemer! I know not by what austerities or acts
of charity I am privileged to serve, worship and sing your
praise… Let your grace flow to me. The bliss I will then
experience would be beyond description" (Thygaraja).
Never
say die. The joy of the resurrection fills the whole world.
Death, where is thy sting?
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