Kurisumala Ashram

Kurisumala Ashram

Simmy and I have just returned from a brief stay at Kurisumala Ashram where we spent the latter part of Passion Week. It was a wonderful experience.

I was going to the Ashram after many many years. The last time I went there was when I took my old friend Yogi Aggarwal (who passed away in February this year) and his young son Abhay there. This must have been more than fifteen years ago, and we met the Abbot, Francis Acharya and had lunch in their refectory.  But in the old days, before I went to college, I was a frequent visitor, and our family had very close links with the monks there.

The Ashram was set up in 1957 or thereabouts, by two spiritually adventurous priests- Francis Mahieu from Belgium and Bede Griffiths from England. Their idea was to establish a centre where there would be a continuous dialogue between Christian and non-Christian (particularly Hindu) intellectuals. The duo had the blessings of the Syro-Malankara church and land (about 100 acres!) was donated by the well-known planter and philanthropist K V Thomas Pottenkulam.

It was a wild and rugged countryside, with minimal road and other facilities, but through sheer hard work and perseverance, the two pioneers and their band of devoted hermits soon established a thriving monastic community which was totally self-contained. They grew their own vegetables and cereals, started a still-flourishing dairy farm (Kurisumala milk is a well-known brand now), lived a monastic life in keeping with Indian traditions such as wearing ochre robes, not using footwear, and eating only simple vegetarian food, sitting cross-legged on the floor! The emphasis was always on prayer, manual labour, silence and a spartan life-style.

A part of the dairy plant at the Ashram

My parents were very hospitable to the monks. Quite often the founders, as well as other members of the community, spent the night in our Mavady house or in the tharawad in Teekoy, while trekking up to Kurisumala from Teekoy ( and sometimes even from Erattupetta), as the State Highway was just being built in those days. And Ammachi, my mother, took special care to serve delicious food to them, something they really appreciated! The famous architect Laurie Baker and his doctor wife Elizabeth, who had a house near the Ashram, were also well-known to us. They too visited us often, though I don't ever remember them staying with us.   

 The founders: Dom Bede Griffiths (Swamy Dayananda) (left) and Acharya Francis Mahieu (right) 

When Simmy and I reached the Ashram on 14th April, the current Abbot, Swamy Sevananda, and the Guest Master, Swamy Nirmalananda received us very warmly. Since they did not have accommodation for couples, they very kindly decided to put us up at 'The Hermitage' a hut little away from the main Ashram. This suited us very well and for three days and nights, we stayed in this little shack resembling a shepherd's hut. It had two small rectangular rooms, fitted with the bare essentials, but we were quite comfortable. The only disadvantage probably was that it had no provision for hot water.

                                                                    Outside our Hut 

  The misty scene outside our 'shepherd's hut' 

The interior of our hut

The main building of the Ashram

Most of our time at the Ashram was spent in their tiny chapel, in silence or in prayer. The Holy Week Services were of course rather long, sometimes lasting up to 5 hours. But we were quite prepared, and took everything in our stride. The liturgy in the Syro-Malankara Rite was very interesting, and the aura of mystery and mysticism was predominant throughout. I noticed too that the sacred Hindu 'AUM' was conspicuously present, along with the Cross, just above the altar. This was something that had fascinated me years ago, and I was glad that this symbol was still there.   

The austere chapel

We also met some interesting priests, nuns, as well as laymen from different parts of the country, including a priest from St.Paul's Publications in Mumbai, a nun who runs a Yoga Centre in Muvattupuzha, and our old acquaintance Fr.Jacob,  Director  of SEERI in Kottayam, an institute that specialises in the teaching and propagation of the Syriac language. There was even a young man named Mark from Manipur (but working in Cochin) who was attending the services. And Simmy was particularly pleased to meet a young girl who turned out to be her Bangalore college classmate's daughter!

We returned to Kottayam on Easter day, after lunch at my sister Laila's house in Mavady, and a brief visit to my cousin Lonappan in Teekoy .   

Altogether, it was an unusual experience.