Monday, October 4, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Raimon Panikkar, ‘theologian, mystic, priest and poet’ dies | Holy Post | National Post
Raimon Panikkar, ‘theologian, mystic, priest and poet’ died on 26th August 2010
On Friday, at the Santa Maria Abbey in Montserrat Spain, a mass will be held for a Raimon Panikkar, who the National Catholic Reporter calls “one of the greatest scholars of the 20th century in the areas of comparative religion, theology, and inter-religious dialogue.”
Panikkar, who was 91 when he died in Spain last week, spent most of his life trying to draw the connections between various religions, emphasizing their compatibilities rather than their differences. He did this through lectures and many writings such as “The Unknown Christ of Hinduism”, “The Trinity and World Religions” and “The Intrareligious Dialogue.”
Panikkar was born in Spain, the son of a Spanish Catholic mother and an Indian Hindu father. Around 1940, Panikkar became friends with Opus Dei founder Escriva de Balaguer and was ordained as a Catholic priest a few years later.
In 1954, Panikkar made his first trip to India, which turned out to be life changing for him. Panikkar was struck by the spiritual wisdom he found in Hindu and Buddhist teachings. While in India he befriended a trio of monks who were attempting to live their Catholicism in the context of the predominant religions of the country. Panikkar’s course in life was set. He later wrote:
“I left Europe [for India] as a Christian, I discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be a Christian.”
Panikkar began to move away from his ties to Opus Dei — eventually severing them completely. Panikkar’s new approach was not to simply tack on bits of Eastern philosophy to his Catholicism. Rather he found in Hinduism and Buddhism new ways to express the deeper truths of his Christianity. In an interview with The Christian Century published in 2000, Panikkar said:
I think that after the misadventures of the past 2,000 years Christianity should stop being the religion of the Book and become the religion of the Word — a word that Christians should hear from a Christ who lives, as Paul says, yesterday, today and always. Then their faith can become more of a personal experience. To present the faith to men and women today doesn’t mean trying to introduce a little Thomism here, a little Judaism there, and so forth, but to reach them at their deepest existential, humble and mystical level.
The Christian truth is not the monopoly of a sect, a treatise imposed by a kind of colonization, but an eruption that has existed since the dawn of time, which St. Paul defined very well as “a mystery that has existed since the beginning,” and of which we Christians know only a very small part.
National Catholic Reporter tells us that Panikkar was “simultaneously a philosopher, theologian, mystic, priest and poet.”
Conversant in a dozen or so languages and fluent in at least six, he traveled tirelessly around the world, lecturing, writing, preaching, and conducting retreats. His famous Easter service in his Santa Barbara days would attract visitors from all corners of the globe. Well before dawn they would climb up the mountain near his home in Montecito, meditate quietly in the darkness once they reached the top, and then salute the sun as it arose over the horizon. Panikkar would bless the elements — air, earth, water and fire — and all the surrounding forms of life — plant, animal, and human — and then celebrate Mass and the Eucharist. It was a profound “cosmotheandric” celebration with the human, cosmic, and divine dimensions of life being affirmed, reverenced, and brought into a deep harmony. The celebration after the formal service at Panikkar’s home resembled in some respects the feast of Pentecost as described in the New Testament, where peoples of many tongues engaged in animated conversation.
At the center of these celebrations, retreats, and lectures stood Panikkar himself and his arresting personality. People who heard or encountered him could not help but be struck by this physically small man who packed a punch and who managed to combine the quiet dignity of a sage, the profundity of a scholar, the depth of a contemplative, and the warmth and charm of a friend in his sparkling personality.
Read more: http://life.nationalpost.com/2010/09/02/raimon-panikkar-%E2%80%98theologian-mystic-priest-and-poet%E2%80%99-dies/#ixzz0yQczQpiD
On Friday, at the Santa Maria Abbey in Montserrat Spain, a mass will be held for a Raimon Panikkar, who the National Catholic Reporter calls “one of the greatest scholars of the 20th century in the areas of comparative religion, theology, and inter-religious dialogue.”
Panikkar, who was 91 when he died in Spain last week, spent most of his life trying to draw the connections between various religions, emphasizing their compatibilities rather than their differences. He did this through lectures and many writings such as “The Unknown Christ of Hinduism”, “The Trinity and World Religions” and “The Intrareligious Dialogue.”
Panikkar was born in Spain, the son of a Spanish Catholic mother and an Indian Hindu father. Around 1940, Panikkar became friends with Opus Dei founder Escriva de Balaguer and was ordained as a Catholic priest a few years later.
In 1954, Panikkar made his first trip to India, which turned out to be life changing for him. Panikkar was struck by the spiritual wisdom he found in Hindu and Buddhist teachings. While in India he befriended a trio of monks who were attempting to live their Catholicism in the context of the predominant religions of the country. Panikkar’s course in life was set. He later wrote:
“I left Europe [for India] as a Christian, I discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be a Christian.”
Panikkar began to move away from his ties to Opus Dei — eventually severing them completely. Panikkar’s new approach was not to simply tack on bits of Eastern philosophy to his Catholicism. Rather he found in Hinduism and Buddhism new ways to express the deeper truths of his Christianity. In an interview with The Christian Century published in 2000, Panikkar said:
I think that after the misadventures of the past 2,000 years Christianity should stop being the religion of the Book and become the religion of the Word — a word that Christians should hear from a Christ who lives, as Paul says, yesterday, today and always. Then their faith can become more of a personal experience. To present the faith to men and women today doesn’t mean trying to introduce a little Thomism here, a little Judaism there, and so forth, but to reach them at their deepest existential, humble and mystical level.
The Christian truth is not the monopoly of a sect, a treatise imposed by a kind of colonization, but an eruption that has existed since the dawn of time, which St. Paul defined very well as “a mystery that has existed since the beginning,” and of which we Christians know only a very small part.
National Catholic Reporter tells us that Panikkar was “simultaneously a philosopher, theologian, mystic, priest and poet.”
Conversant in a dozen or so languages and fluent in at least six, he traveled tirelessly around the world, lecturing, writing, preaching, and conducting retreats. His famous Easter service in his Santa Barbara days would attract visitors from all corners of the globe. Well before dawn they would climb up the mountain near his home in Montecito, meditate quietly in the darkness once they reached the top, and then salute the sun as it arose over the horizon. Panikkar would bless the elements — air, earth, water and fire — and all the surrounding forms of life — plant, animal, and human — and then celebrate Mass and the Eucharist. It was a profound “cosmotheandric” celebration with the human, cosmic, and divine dimensions of life being affirmed, reverenced, and brought into a deep harmony. The celebration after the formal service at Panikkar’s home resembled in some respects the feast of Pentecost as described in the New Testament, where peoples of many tongues engaged in animated conversation.
At the center of these celebrations, retreats, and lectures stood Panikkar himself and his arresting personality. People who heard or encountered him could not help but be struck by this physically small man who packed a punch and who managed to combine the quiet dignity of a sage, the profundity of a scholar, the depth of a contemplative, and the warmth and charm of a friend in his sparkling personality.
Read more: http://life.nationalpost.com/2010/09/02/raimon-panikkar-%E2%80%98theologian-mystic-priest-and-poet%E2%80%99-dies/#ixzz0yQczQpiD
Monday, August 23, 2010
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Friday, August 22, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Dalit woman burnt alive over water row
Blue Star
Friday, June 06, 2008
Dalit woman burnt alive over water row
Harda (MP): An elderly Dalit woman was burnt alive allegedly by three members of an upper caste community over a dispute on fetching water from a village hand pump.
Prembai, 55, suffered 80 per cent burns as she was set ablaze on Tuesday, Abhishek Ranjan, Sub-Divisional Police Officer, said today.
The incident took place at Harda's Kantada village where Prembai was stopped from using the village hand pump by three upper caste persons, Ranjan said.
A quarrel erupted as she refused to budge, following which Hiralal, Dinesh and Rajendra allegedly set her on fire, he said adding Prembai succumbed on Wednesday.
The incident came to light yesterday when Kantada villagers, along with her body, held demonstrations in front of the Harda Collectorate demanding action against the accused.
© Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved
Friday, June 06, 2008
Dalit woman burnt alive over water row
Harda (MP): An elderly Dalit woman was burnt alive allegedly by three members of an upper caste community over a dispute on fetching water from a village hand pump.
Prembai, 55, suffered 80 per cent burns as she was set ablaze on Tuesday, Abhishek Ranjan, Sub-Divisional Police Officer, said today.
The incident took place at Harda's Kantada village where Prembai was stopped from using the village hand pump by three upper caste persons, Ranjan said.
A quarrel erupted as she refused to budge, following which Hiralal, Dinesh and Rajendra allegedly set her on fire, he said adding Prembai succumbed on Wednesday.
The incident came to light yesterday when Kantada villagers, along with her body, held demonstrations in front of the Harda Collectorate demanding action against the accused.
© Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Rework caste formula, says Gujjar leader Bainsla
Friday, May 30, 2008
Rework caste formula, says Gujjar leader Bainsla
Karwadi: Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla, spearhading an agitation to press for ST status for his community, on Thursday suggested it was time to exclude some castes which have already benefitted from quota and include new ones that "deserve and require" it.
Acknowledging that the quota space itself was getting increasingly crowded and keeping in mind the court ruling that reservation cannot exceed 49 per cent, Bainsla told reporters here that the "entire reservation system needs a relook".
He said no review had so far taken place about the extent of benefit to castes enjoying the reservation. Such an exercise should be undertaken to exclude castes which have benefitted by it and bring in its purview those castes which "deserve and require" quota, the Gujjar leader said.
"The best homage for the martyrs is that Gujjars get ST status. The Rajasthan government must send the correct recommendation to the Centre," said Bainsla who has already rejected Rajasthan government's suggestion for extending reservation to Gujjars under nomadic tribe status.
On the inconvenience caused by the Gujjars' agitation, he said, "I regret the inconvenience. We had no other option but to stay here till the ST stats recommendation is sent."
Asked where does the agitation go from here, Bainsla said, "We have paid the price. We have to stick to this place because we need this (ST status). We deserve this and we fulfil all parameters."
NCR burns
Meanwhile, at least two persons were on Thursday killed, one of them in police firing, and 14 policemen injured as stray violence marred the Gujjars agitation in Delhi and Haryana where normal life was badly disrupted by a rail and road blockade enforced by the community members, PTI adds from Chandigarh/New Delhi.
One person was killed when police opened fire on agitators who blocked traffic on national highway at Patti Kalyana in Panipat district of Haryana for hours while an elderly man died in the stampede triggered by the police action.
"An elderly fellow died in the stampede during the agitation while another who sustained bullet injury also died," Haryana's Additional Director General of Police (law and order) VB Singh, who visited the spot, told PTI over phone. He said some agitators were carrying arms and they too opened fire.
Singh said about 14 policemen were injured, three of them seriously, in the skirmishes with the agitators. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda ordered a magisterial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of the two persons. Police earlier fired tear gas shells and charged with batons at the agitators.
Hitting the streets in large numbers in support of the ongoing agitation by their community members in Rajasthan demanding Scheduled Tribe status, the Gujjar protestors set afire a Haryana Roadways bus in Panipat and blocked movement of rail and vehicles in the national capital.
In Delhi, police lobbed teargas to dispers stone-pelting Gujjars in Mehrauli area and incidents of violence also occurred at Aya Nagar, bordering Gurgaon.
Thousands of Gujjars took to the streets in the national capital and adjoining region, blocking roads and rail links to the city. Police took about 50 people into custody. The protesters staged demonstrations across the capital and squatted on railway tracks, blocking trains reaching the capital.
Vehicular movement on major stretches leading to the metropolis like the Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) Expressway, Mathura Road connecting Faridabad and Delhi and Mehrauli-Gurgoan road was affected as protesters set-up blockades and burnt tyres.
Anticipating trouble, Railways cancelled ten trains, including Nizamuddin-Kochi, Maharashtra SamparKranti, Nizamuddin-Udaipur and Dehradun-Bandra Express. More than 35,000 police personnel, including those from the central paramilitary forces, were deployed in Delhi and surrounding areas, particularly in Gujjar-dominated areas.
Rail traffic between Aligarh and Ghaziabad was affected as a large number of protesters blocked a train in Loni in adjoining Ghaziabad on Thursday morning. The situation, however, returned to normalcy across the NCR by afternoon. However, tension continued at the village in Panipat where two persons were killed, prompting the authorities to deploy police in strength amidst fear that the situation may again turn volatile when the dead are cremated.
Responding to a call given by Gujjar Sangharsh Samiti, hundreds of Gujjars torched an effigy of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje in Sirsa and Panchkula and raised slogans against her government. Similar protests were held at many places in Gurgaon and Rewari districts.
© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
Rework caste formula, says Gujjar leader Bainsla
Karwadi: Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla, spearhading an agitation to press for ST status for his community, on Thursday suggested it was time to exclude some castes which have already benefitted from quota and include new ones that "deserve and require" it.
Acknowledging that the quota space itself was getting increasingly crowded and keeping in mind the court ruling that reservation cannot exceed 49 per cent, Bainsla told reporters here that the "entire reservation system needs a relook".
He said no review had so far taken place about the extent of benefit to castes enjoying the reservation. Such an exercise should be undertaken to exclude castes which have benefitted by it and bring in its purview those castes which "deserve and require" quota, the Gujjar leader said.
"The best homage for the martyrs is that Gujjars get ST status. The Rajasthan government must send the correct recommendation to the Centre," said Bainsla who has already rejected Rajasthan government's suggestion for extending reservation to Gujjars under nomadic tribe status.
On the inconvenience caused by the Gujjars' agitation, he said, "I regret the inconvenience. We had no other option but to stay here till the ST stats recommendation is sent."
Asked where does the agitation go from here, Bainsla said, "We have paid the price. We have to stick to this place because we need this (ST status). We deserve this and we fulfil all parameters."
NCR burns
Meanwhile, at least two persons were on Thursday killed, one of them in police firing, and 14 policemen injured as stray violence marred the Gujjars agitation in Delhi and Haryana where normal life was badly disrupted by a rail and road blockade enforced by the community members, PTI adds from Chandigarh/New Delhi.
One person was killed when police opened fire on agitators who blocked traffic on national highway at Patti Kalyana in Panipat district of Haryana for hours while an elderly man died in the stampede triggered by the police action.
"An elderly fellow died in the stampede during the agitation while another who sustained bullet injury also died," Haryana's Additional Director General of Police (law and order) VB Singh, who visited the spot, told PTI over phone. He said some agitators were carrying arms and they too opened fire.
Singh said about 14 policemen were injured, three of them seriously, in the skirmishes with the agitators. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda ordered a magisterial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of the two persons. Police earlier fired tear gas shells and charged with batons at the agitators.
Hitting the streets in large numbers in support of the ongoing agitation by their community members in Rajasthan demanding Scheduled Tribe status, the Gujjar protestors set afire a Haryana Roadways bus in Panipat and blocked movement of rail and vehicles in the national capital.
In Delhi, police lobbed teargas to dispers stone-pelting Gujjars in Mehrauli area and incidents of violence also occurred at Aya Nagar, bordering Gurgaon.
Thousands of Gujjars took to the streets in the national capital and adjoining region, blocking roads and rail links to the city. Police took about 50 people into custody. The protesters staged demonstrations across the capital and squatted on railway tracks, blocking trains reaching the capital.
Vehicular movement on major stretches leading to the metropolis like the Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) Expressway, Mathura Road connecting Faridabad and Delhi and Mehrauli-Gurgoan road was affected as protesters set-up blockades and burnt tyres.
Anticipating trouble, Railways cancelled ten trains, including Nizamuddin-Kochi, Maharashtra SamparKranti, Nizamuddin-Udaipur and Dehradun-Bandra Express. More than 35,000 police personnel, including those from the central paramilitary forces, were deployed in Delhi and surrounding areas, particularly in Gujjar-dominated areas.
Rail traffic between Aligarh and Ghaziabad was affected as a large number of protesters blocked a train in Loni in adjoining Ghaziabad on Thursday morning. The situation, however, returned to normalcy across the NCR by afternoon. However, tension continued at the village in Panipat where two persons were killed, prompting the authorities to deploy police in strength amidst fear that the situation may again turn volatile when the dead are cremated.
Responding to a call given by Gujjar Sangharsh Samiti, hundreds of Gujjars torched an effigy of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje in Sirsa and Panchkula and raised slogans against her government. Similar protests were held at many places in Gurgaon and Rewari districts.
© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
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