KOCHI: Book buff: D Babu Paul, former civil
servant and author
Book: The Philokalia
Author: 4th-15th century Monks of Mt Athos
Language: Greek
Where did the book find me: I had an English version that I bought quite early on. When a Malayalam translation was brought out, I bought that too
‘Nepsis’ is a state of ‘mindfulness’ acquired following a long period of catharsis. The monastic culture of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sees the quality of nepsis as crucial to asceticism, which is the experience of the soul. To someone acquainted with the tenets of Oriental philosophy, the kind of spirituality that calls for an inner quietness aiming at a union with God or the super consciousness is not alien. The Buddhist ‘sammasati’ (Pali) or ‘samyak-smriti’ (Sanskrit), or ‘dharana’ in Hindu philosophy are synonymous concepts that anyone born in India cannot escape having encountered, even if as a sub-conscious leitmotif.
‘The Philokalia’, therefore, is perhaps most spontaneously assimilated in the minds of its Indian readers, other than the monks of Mt Athos in Greece who wrote the texts between the fourth and fifteenth centuries and their descendants. Mt Athos, which today has its independence as the ‘Autonomous Monastic State of the Holy Mountain’, has been the centre of Orthodox monasticism for centuries. Several years down, St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St Makarios of Corinth, two monks at Mt Athos, compiled a selection of the texts, the Greek edition of which was published in 1782, under the title ‘The Philokalia’, which means ‘love of the beautiful’. The anthology of texts on self-perfection, illumination and purification, with a strong emphasis on inward prayer, has since received translations in many world languages, including Slavonic, Russian, English and about five years ago, in Malayalam.
Where else but in the Indian minds tutored on ‘Satyam Sivam Sundaram’ would the beauty of spirituality find a more learned acceptance?
If the ancient text has found its way to the book shelf of D Babu Paul, the author of the seminal work, ‘Veda Sabda Ratnakaram’, the first Bible dictionary in Malayalam, it speaks of the Indian-born scholar’s natural appetite for the spiritual. “It is appealing to both the spiritually inclined and the philosophically inclined,” he says. It is his reference book before a talk on spiritual, religious or philosophic matters, says Babu Paul. “Not always to quote from the texts, but to bring myself to a state of mind that prompts the spiritual and the philosophical. Just as it is well-advised to be in the company of comic books before you go on stage for an oration in the
lighter vein.”
Dr Cheriyan Eapen, an immigrant Malayali whose tryst with Russian spirituality occasioned the initiative to bring out the Malayalam translation of ‘The Philokalia’, is known to Babu Paul for many years. “He is like Oliver Goldsmith’s ‘The Man in Black’, who believes in the Biblical saying ‘Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth’. Dr Eapen supports many orphanages in Kerala but always as an anonymous well-wisher. It is not a surprise that someone like him was instrumental in familiarising the text to Keralites,” says Babu Paul.
Its antiquity, he stresses, only affirms its timelessness, for, its ideals find relevance in all ages. It is best explained in the writing of Kallistos Angeliadis who says that the music of the harp and the singular bliss of its player are unconnected to time and space. “If you ask me what the book means to laymen who are not followers of asceticism, I would tell you that any person who seriously engages oneself with matters of spirituality is on a path worthy of being called asceticism. ‘Sukham bandhat pramuchyate’ — one who is capable of indifference towards carnal and worldly pleasures is well on the plain of asceticism.”
The full name of the text is ‘The Philokalia of the Neptic Saints gathered from our Holy Theophoric Father, through which, by means of the philosophy of ascetic practice and contemplation, the intellect is purified, illumined, and made perfect’. As is evident from the title, ‘The Philokalia’ is rooted in ‘hesychasm’ (which means ‘stillness’ in Greek), a tradition of contemplative prayer, which requires sitting still and quiet and chanting of verses. Babu Paul sees the combining of religious rituals with such practices as ‘sravanam’ and ‘keerthanam’, to attain a state of oneness with the truth as supremely liberating. “The Philokalia’ calls for a physical, intellectual and spiritual engagement with God, which also demands unconditional submission before the Supreme Truth.”
Babu Paul remembers reading ‘The Way of a Pilgrim’ years before, which is about a Russian pilgrim who reads ‘The Philokalia’ during the course of his spiritual journey. “It was translated into Malayalam by Swami Sidhinadhananda of Sri Ramakrishna Mission. It was the closest reference to ‘The Philokalia’ in Malayalam. Someone who has read William Dalrymple’s ‘From the Holy Mountain’ would find ‘Philokalia’s resonance in it. The five-volume text offers no less a joy than reading these distant fictional cousins. It is a reference book, a ready-reckoner when doubts assail your soul.”
aswathy@expressbuzz.com
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