On Thursday, August 28th, at the age of 92 years, Swami Chidananda, president of the Divine Life Society, passed away. Swami Chidananda followed with interest the development of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders, though due to his advanced age he was not able to engage in its work. His own commitment to interfaith work, as it has been expressed in recent years through such fora as the 1993 Parliament of World’s Religions, meetings at the International Interfaith Center in Oxford, and various other organizations, was deeply rooted in his spirituality.  The 1981 biography, The Holy Stream (by Sarat Chandra Behera, Divine Life Society Publications) provides some important insights into his deeply engaged pioneering interfaith activities. Trained in Loyola college, Madras, he was exposed to various facets of Christianity. The Bible, Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation of Christ and the figure of St. Francis, all provided him with inspiration. St. Francis’ work with lepers found a direct parallel in Swami Chidananda’s own setting up of a leper colony near Rishikesh and his faithful care for the lepers for decades. Indeed, some have dubbed him the “St. Francis of India”. The famous prayer attributed to St. Francis (though scholars have cast doubt on the attribution), was a strong inspiration for Swami Chidananda, who relied on it almost as upon a mantra. He considered the prayer on a par with the Universal Prayer, composed by his own Guru, Swami Sivananda. The two prayers present a spiritual vision that he has come to symbolize, and also provide the basis for his interfaith openness. They will be quoted below, in the Sharing Wisdom section of the newsletter. Thus, Swami Chidananda was able to consider himself fully Hindu, and at the same time fully Christian, from the spiritual perspective.

 A strong aspect of his spirituality was the association with holy men and holy places. As a world traveler and an all-India pilgrim, he visited major sites consecrated by the spiritual life. His visits to sites associated with Christianity and other religions, in the spirit of humble pilgrimage, is particularly noteworthy. He recounted in my ears the importance of his visit to the Holy Land and to Bethlehem, and the profound impression those left on him. In the early 60s, he twice traveled to visit the famous stigmatized Catholic priest, Padre Pio, in southern Italy. He went on pilgrimages to Lourdes and Assisi. And he had a personal audience with Pope Paul VI in 1969, and proposed to him holding a congress of all faiths.

   The drive for bringing all faiths together was realized already in mid-century, in 1953, at the Sivananda ashram, Rishikesh, in the form of a Parliament of Religions. But it is not until the later years of the 20th century that the coming together of religions has become a global movement. Swami Chidananda took part in various events, as long as his age permitted. What must be noted, however, is what made his involvement unique. Indian sages have, on the whole, had an easy time adapting to the interfaith environment, given their understanding of different religions as different paths or expressions of one underlying spiritual reality. Swami Chidananda was no different in this basic approach. However, he brought to bear upon his relations with other traditions and their representatives a depth of spiritual experience and humility that is probably unprecedented. From the depth of his own spirituality, he was able to recognize the spiritual life in all its manifestations as a living reality, not only as an important view of Hindu (properly speaking: Vedantic) philosophy. This allowed him to engage, share and inspire across religious boundaries, in the awareness of the omnipresent God. The key to Swami Chidananda was his humility, a quality that impressed all those who came into contact with him. This humility also informed his attitude to other traditions. The humility of the seeker-saint was not limited to his relations with his own Guru or with luminaries and dignitaries of India, such as Gandhi and others. It was the hallmark of his personality and therefore colored his approach to everything. His approach to other religions was thus one of full openness, acceptance and humility, grounded in the depths of his own spiritual life. I too was struck by how this humility found expression in his relations with a member of another tradition, myself. I was privileged to have a couple of personal audiences with him. In 2004, he had a “dialogue”-meeting with me, after having received a group of visitors. He had received them, sitting in his regular chair, while they, as is customary, sat on the floor. He turned his attention to me last, after the others had departed. Prior to engaging me, he asked for help from his assistants and sat down on the floor, where I had been sitting, facing me. He did not want to meet a Rabbi from a higher vantage point. He descended to meet me on the same level, face to face. This simple spontaneous gesture tells it all.