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A Life of Close Intimacy with God

 

H. E. Paulos Mar Gregorios (1922-1996)

 

By Rev. Fr. John-Brian Paprock

Please join us for the Paulos Mar Gregorios Conference in Chicago, November 23, 2002

(All Rights Reserved)

 

 

Without Divine Aid our human efforts can bear no significant fruit.”

(Mar Gregorios 1994)

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

(Book of Proverbs)

 

 

One of the greatest Orthodox Christian Lights of this century, Paulos Mar Gregorios (Memory eternal!) demonstrated Christian love for all of humanity.  Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios Verghese, PhD, the Malankara (Syrian) Orthodox Bishop of New Delhi and all North India and long-time President of the World Council of Churches, was blessed with many gifts that he shared abundantly with the world. Probably his most substantial gift was one of vision and foresight.  Great men, such as Mar Gregorios, have blessed our planet and have granted our sin-filled world opportunities for spiritual, ethical and moral advancement throughout history.  A few of these have transcended their culture and their personalities to touch the very place where our spirits are connected to God.  There is little doubt that Mar Gregorios was such a man.  Among his many achievements, he opened the centennial Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1993 with an address titled: “The Vision Beckons.”  The address began:

 

“For me, this is a great privilege indeed, to inaugurate the centenary celebrations of the World’s Parliament of Religions.  The World’s Parliament of Religions, convened in this historic city of Chicago a century ago, held aloft a torch which helped us see a vision.  We are far today from having realized it; but to renew that vision is the purpose of my few words this evening.

It is a perennial yearning of the human race to find its own unity. To this, I believe, the 1893 Parliament responded…”  (emphasis mine)  For the complete text of Mar Gregorios Inaugural Speech)

 

Mar Gregorios’ vision of unity in the midst of diversity was controversial, but, even after his passing, continues to inspire and lead others toward greater understandings. He was widely regarded as one of the world's greatest scholars of all religions and a tireless champion of interfaith understanding.  In 1995, he said:

 

"When we work for the unity of humanity we stand on our own convictions and traditions, while sharing a great vision of God at the center of all and an all-embracing love for all humanity… We pledge, rooted in our own religious traditions, to work for the fulfillment of the will of God." (From Towards A New Enlightenment interview with Diana Holland in Share International 2/95)

 

As President of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace in 1994, he wrote:

 

"It is our faith in the Divine that permits us to freely embrace the whole of humanity in a warm embrace of love and respect for their dignity and freedom.”

 

"Experience shows that the deeper we go into our respective religions, the more clearly we find the basic love of God and love for all humanity which should unite us all. The more rooted one is in one's own tradition the freer and more secure one becomes in facing our fellow human beings and finding our unity in God and in our shared aspirations. At the deepest levels, there is more unity than diversity among the world's religions."

 

 

Mar Gregorios never lost site of his Indian Orthodox Christianity and of its founder Mar Thoma (the Apostle Thomas).  Indian Times called him “A modern interpreter of Eastern Christianity,” that Paulos Mar Gregorios "clarified its ethos as a quiet life of prayer and work."  He taught regularly on Christian topics and often was a Christian apologist within his native India.  Babaji (of Gobind Sadan, House of God, New Delhi 2/97) recounted their meeting, "When Father Gregorios and I first met, I said, ‘Jesus is Light. If we try to confine him within sectarian boundaries, the trees and the oceans will despair, the whole Creation will despair, because Jesus gives Light to everything. This is my inner feeling. I respect Jesus day and night.’ Father Gregorios rose and embraced me. He folded his hands and said, 'I feel the same way. Jesus is not a matter of a boundary. He is universal. If the Light is enclosed in a fort, all people will be unhappy.' “

 

Mar Gregorios was a prolific writer. Among his better-known books is a definitive and monumental work on his names’ sake, Saint Gregory of Nyssa: “Cosmic Man – The Divine Presence.”  Scroll down for a list of Mar Gregorios’ works. Many of them are difficult to find and many are out of print.

 

“Love’s Freedom, The Grand Mystery: A Spiritual Autobiography” published posthumously and incomplete by the Mar Gregorios Foundation in India, carries the hopeful designation of Collected Works Volume 1.  In this book, Mar Gregorios wrote with remarkable humility in the opening words of Chapter I: Credentials, Apology For A Personal Confession:

 

“This is my story. I wish I could tell it as it really happened to me, in me, and around me.  That would take a better memory than I have.  It calls for much more: for example, a nobler soul unafraid of exposing itself with more honesty; freedom from the need to brag and boast; better capacity to give credit where it is due and to acknowledge one’s myriad debt to others; in speaking of achievements and failures, less selectivity in favor of the former; perhaps more willingness to perceive one’s own ordinariness….I have not attained to that level of spiritual development where praise and blame would equally bounce off my skin like water off a duck’s back.  An adverse judgment by others still depresses me.  A good review in turn pleases me no end.

           

“In principle, I know that this is not as it should be.  My self-esteem should not, in theory, be dependent on other people’s judgments of me.  I should value myself and love myself for the simple reason that, despite all my failures, faults and foibles, God loves me.  I know that in theory.  But to practice that equanimity fully I must grow deeper roots into that love of God.  The greater my sense of security in being enfolded in God’s caring and dependable love, the higher would be my capacity to be unaffected by accolade or allegation, reproof or approbation.  That sense of security measures up in me at present as fair, but by no means as full or near perfect.”

 

On November 24, 1996 – Paulos Mar Gregorios Verghese passed on to the next life after struggling for several years with the effects of a stroke.  As Babaji said of his dear friend’s passing. "He is a very great soul, and he is going to a very great place."

 

This very “Great Soul” left the a last will for all of us:

 

"I leave this word to all who survive me:

v     Love God with all your mind and all your will and all your feeling and all your strength.

v     Live for the good of others. Pursue not perishable gold or worldly glory.

v     Wish no one any evil. Bless God in your heart, and bless all his creation.

v     Discipline yourself while still young, to love God and to love his creation,

v     To serve others and not to seek one’s own interest.

v     Pray always that God’s Kingdom may come and all evil be banished from this created order."

 

For a wonderful and touching account of Paulos Mar Gregorios’ last days written by his long time friend, Dr. Joseph Thomas, click here.

 


 

The Paulos Mar Gregorio Award

 

Dalai Lama Gets Gregorios Award

From The Times of India, November 26, 1997

 

New Delhi: His Holiness the Dalai Lama was presented the Paulos Mar Gregorios Award for 1997 for his contribution to interfaith dialogue at function held here on Tuesday. His Holiness the Catholicos of the East, head of the Orthodox Church in India, presenting the award, paid rich compliments to the Buddhist leader for his qualities of the heart and work towards religious harmony. He also recalled the great scholarship and contribution of Paulos Mar Gregorios in various fields.

 

The Dalai Lama in his acceptance speech stressed that along with material advancement it was necessary to promote spirituality so that man consisting of body and mind could have inner peace as well. Religion, by nurturing values such as love, tolerance and compassion, should strive to eliminate divisions and conflicts in society.

 

The award comprising a medal, citation and a cheque for Rs 1 lakh has been instituted by Sophia Society, founded by Dr Paulos Mar Gregorios (1922-1996), first Metropolitan of the Delhi Diocese and founder of the Delhi Orthodox Centre.

 

Swami Chidanandaji Maharaj, head of the Divine Life Society, in his address, pointed to the oneness of all existence and one indwelling spirit creating a human family. People all over experienced the same hunger and pain and the aim of every one ought to be to add to the joys of the human family.

 

Prof. A Rahman, renowned scientist, complimented the Dalai Lama for setting a rare example by launching a non-violent struggle for the rights of the Tibetan people. He lamented the fear and hatred that were being spread in the name of religion and wanted steps to foster elements of plurality and diversity both in nature and society.

 

A press release issued on the occasion said the Dalai Lama has been moving across the continents in his quest for peace and reconciliation, even while looking after the interests of the exiled Tibetans. He had held dialogues with heads of different religions as well as presidents and prime ministers towards his vision of a peaceful and compassionate human family.

 

The award is intended to honor those who had contributed to peace, justice and wisdom, ideals for which Mar Gregorios lived and worked. The fields chosen for the biannual international awards are interfaith dialogue and cooperation, education, holistic health practices and community self-renewal. The theme and the award "are a celebration of the oneness of the human family as well as a call to persons of goodwill to express their spirituality through individual and collective ethical action."

 


 

Paulos Mar Gregorios, Author – list of books/writings

(English Titles compiled as of November 20, 1999)

 

Love’s Freedom, The Grand Mystery: A Spiritual Autobiography

Mar Gregorios Foundation (Kottayam 1997)

 

A Human God (A Collection of Early Writings of Paulos Mar Gregorios)

The Mar Gregorios Foundation (Kottayam 1993)

 

A Light Too Bright: The Enlightenment Today

SUNY Press 1992

 

Enlightenment: East And West (Pointers In The Quest For India’s Secular Identity)

The Indian Institute of Advanced Study (Shimla) 1992 ISBN: 81-7018-560-2

 

The Meaning of Diakonia

Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1988

 

The Indian Orthodox Church – An Overview

The Malayala Manorama Press, 1982

History of the Mar Thoma Church by Paulos Mar Gregorios

 

Does Chalcedon Divide or Unite?

Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1981

 

The Cosmic Man - The Divine Presence

Sophia Publications (New Delhi 1980)

Paragon House, 1988

 

Science for Sane Societies

Christian Literature Society (Madras 1980)

Paragon House, 1987

 

Science and Our Future

Contributor and Editor - Christian Literature Society Madras, 1978

 

The Human Presence: An Orthodox View of Nature.

Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1978.

Amity House (NY) 1987

 

Truth Without Tradition?

Sri Venkateswara University (Tirupati) 1978

 

The Quest for Certainty

Alwaye Session of the Indian Philosophical Congress, 1975

 

Be Still and Know

Christian Literature Society (Madras) 1974

 

Freedom and Authority

Christian Literature Society (Madras) 1974

 

The Freedom of Man

Westminster Press (Philadelphia) 1972

 

The Faith of Our Fathers

Kottayam, 1969

 

The Gospel of The Kingdom

Christian Literature Society (Madras) 1968

 

Freedom of Man, Eastern Worship and Modern Man

Associated Press (NY), 1967

 

Our Presence in the World (On The Royal Priesthood of Christ)
Sermon on 1 Peter 1:22-2:10

Qyam'tha 1967

 


 


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