Indian Christ worshipped in Kerala temple

The Kollam diocese has opened a chapel where Christian theology embraces Indian religious motifs.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Dan Brown could take an idea or two from a chapel in Kerala for his next bestseller. This modern version of the Renaissance classic has Jesus Christ and his disciples eating out of plantain leaves. The thirteen men, squatting on a tile-paved floor, are definitely Indians. They could be feasting anywhere in Kerala, with two traditional lamps around.

Surprises don’t end with the altar painting at the Jagat Jyoti Mandir near Kollam. Eclipsing the conventional crucifix, Christ is sculpted in a sitting posture. He meditates in Abhayamudra under the shadow of a peepul tree. After his White, Black and Hispanic avatars, the West Asian prophet is the Enlightened a la Buddha. (Though the Nepal-born Buddha himself has acquired a Mongol face amid his East Asian followers.)

The church/temple named Jagat Jyoti Mandir (House of the Light of the Universe), inaugurated by Kollam bishop Stanley Roman on Friday, is supposed to be a place of exchange for religions. “We envisaged this chapel as a place to promote fellowship among religions. You can see every religion's motif here,” said Fr Stanley Roman, director of Quilon Social Service Society (QSS), an agency of the Quilon diocese. “The idea is to highlight an Indian experience of Christianity. Our bishops were always in favour of the indigenisation of the Church since the days of the Second Vatican Council. There are many churches in north India, which are architecturally close to Hindu temples. But in the south, Christianity seldom deviated from the original design. I doubt if anyone has done an experiment like this,” Fr Antony added.

On Friday, the bishop celebrated the mass sitting on the floor. So did the believers in the chapel with no chairs. The liturgy was conventional, but bhajans added to the rituals. “Bhajans are not really Hindu-specific. It can be applied to any religion. Parameshwara can be perceived as the Omnipotent and Vikhneshwara the Almighty in the Christian context. We just need to be open to cultures around us,” Fr Antony said.

A bowl of rice and a bronze lamp can be seen beside Christ, who turns water into wine at the biblical wedding on the glass panels in the Jagat Jyoti Mandir. Tantric symbols of the Panchabhootas (the Five Elements) are depicted on coloured glasses. The structure, with a tall stone lamp in front of it, could easily be mistaken for a Hindu temple but for the cross on top of it.

“We are planning to make this church a centre of activity. We are going to conduct a symposium on environment, attended by religious leaders, as a first step. Every religion is closely related to environment and has a different outlook on it,” Fr Antony said.