(Philokalia, the theology classic of Athos,
was originally written in Greek and then translated to Russian with the name
Dobrotoluibiye. This was then translated to English by a few monks. Sidhinathananda
Swamiji of Sree Rama Krishna Seva Ashram translated selected portions of
it into Malayalam. Rev. Francis Acharya of Kurisumala Ashram published it
in the name of Adhyatmika Premam. Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios wrote a thought-provoking
preface to this. Here is Gregorios Thirumeni's preface translated into English.
To understand the philosophical genius of Gregorios Thirumeni, in this regard,
one has to study not only the preface and full volumes of the Philokalia,
but also the Vedantas and Christianity itself.)
Love the good! Nothing can be more important than this for the
human beings!
But it is not that easy as it sounds. First of all, we should
be the able to identify the good. This ability is a special God-given gift
to man. However, unless it is developed by training and meditation, this
capacity won't be useful to us. Most of us fail to learn even from our own
experiences that many things that appear good are really not good. Money,
tasty food, alcoholic drink--all these appear good to us, but not permanently.
Unfortunately many people have the tendency to love the evil even
after realizing what is good. One becomes a real lover of good (satpremi)
only when he/she also develops the will power to seek the good that he/she has
realized. We consider such people as sidhas and saints.
How to gain the power to reject the evil and to love the good
was the focus of the thought of our ancient Christian Fathers. Several good-lovers
tried to compile the thoughts and sayings of the fathers related to this.
Such a collection by Saint Mar Baselios (Asya in the 4th century) was named
Philokalia . This is the word in Greek for "love of good" (satpremam). It
was a prominent activity of the early Christian monks to collect and meditate
the sayings of St. Anthonios and other such saintly monks.
This activity became stronger after the 10th century in the monasteries
in Mount Athos. The slavs (Modern Russians, Yugoslavians, Bulgarians etc.)
who were even more pious than the Greeks created many such compilations. Dobrotoliubiye is the word in the ancient slavonic language for Philokalia.
Two such compilations have been translated from Russian to English.
The Greek Philokalia was discovered and compiled by St. Makarios
of Corinth and St. Nikodimos of Athos in 1792. The Russian monk called Theophan,
the Recluse, compiled the Russian one in the name of Dobrotoliubiye in 1877.
Prayer and meditation are given focus in both. Although both contain
the sayings of the Christian monks of fourth to eleventh centuries, contents
vary considerably. What Sidhinadhanandaji has translated here expertly from
English to Malayalam is portions from the Russian one compiled by Theophan,
the Recluse.
That most of the teachings of the Christian ascetics are acceptable
to the Hindu ascetics should make us think. God-realization or unity
with God due to God's grace as well as man's devotion is what all ascetics
seek. That is why these sayings appeal to us Indians (both Christians and
Hindus) even though it has reached us from Greek through Russian and then
English. Sidhinadhanandaji has made a unique contribution to the spiritual
tradition of Malayalam by this translation.
The philokalia compilations by the two Greek monks in 1792 was
based on the compilations of Nicophorus, a monk who lived in 14th century.
Nicophorus followed and taught a special way of silent meditation-- a way
to realize God with prayer from both the mind and the heart together.
A number of expressions and concepts in Christian thought could
be unfamiliar to our Hindu friends. The idea of Satan as the enemy of good,
and the idea of sacraments as the means to attain God realization-- both of
these are central in the thought of the Christian ascetics. It seems that Sidhinadhanandaji has attempted either to minimize or to avoid such ideas
in this translation. This is quite natural for a Hindu monk to do this.
However, a faithful translation of places where such ideas occur in the next
edition will help us understand the original work better.
The Malayalee good-lovers are greatly indebted to Sidhinadhanandaji
for this invaluable contribution. Earlier he translated The Way of the Pilgrim for us. Now he has given us an even more sublime work from the Christian
spiritual treasures. I sincerely pray that God grant him enough health and
spiritual liveliness to make many more similar contributions to Malayalam
spiritual literature.
Many of the fathers mentioned here in this book are not in the
accepted tradition of the Indian Orthodox Church. Fathers like Anthonios,
Makarios, Markos, and Evagrios lived before fifth century, and were commonly
accepted by the universal church. However, Fathers like Nikophorus,
Gregorios of Sinai, and Calisthose (all in 14th century) are not accepted
by the oriental Orthodox Churches. That does not mean that their teachings
are inferior or unacceptable.
The teaching of the ascetic fathers of our ancient Eastern Church
can be very beneficial to the monks of this age. The peculiarity of this
specific tradition is internal silence. It is similar to the Zen Buddhist
search for wisdom.
By calming down the thrust of the waves of our inner thoughts
and emotions and by achieving the internal purity and holiness like the surface
of the still water and like a mirror, man reaches God's presence -- this
is the basic idea of the silent monasticism of Hesychia. Silence is the beginning
of the purification of the soul; the ultimate aim of silence is peace from
all mental disturbances. Freedom from all objects, unceasing and untiring
meditation, internal liveliness that no one can steal-- these three are the
main constituents of the silent meditation.
Not only should one stop talking with mouth, but he must also
stop the internal conversation of thinking. The mind has to become transparent
like a clean glass and the heart has to become spotless like a mirror. The
inner being must meditate the name of Jesus. There should not be any worry
or anxiety. There should not be any want. All emotions have to be controlled
by the soul. Peace, love, and prayer have to be found in harmony in a monk.
The Hesychast movement, or the monasticism in silence, opened
an angry exchange of words between the Greek Orthodox and the Latin Catholics
in the 14th century European Church. Later on the Latinos ridiculed this
monasticism by calling it quietism. If someone wishes to attain fullness
he has to discard his will-power, achieve complete inactiveness, fully eliminate
I-ness, surrender everything to God, not even wish for heaven or hell, not
long for good or evil, attain not only non-desire, but also non-action and
immerse himself in love of God, presence of God and activities of God --
this theory is called quietism. In 1687, the Pope of Rome, Innocent 11, banned
this movement with an official declaration.
As far as spirituality, whether Eastern or Western, is concerned,
here we face an issue which should be of special concern to those who long
for serving God, whether they are Hindus, Moslems, Budhists or Christians.
If I attain fullness, all other problems will be automatically solved --
this way of thinking is found in Vedantas as interpreted by Sri Sankaracharya.
Om Purnamadah purnamidam
Purnath purnamudachyathe
Purnasya purnamadaya
Purnamevavashishyathe.
According to the teaching of Sankara, since the cause for all
miseries is awareness of plurality, the problem is only at the level of consciousness
and when the knowledge Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman) arises in the consciousness,
all other problems, as far as an emancipated soul is concerned, will vanish
by themselves. It is difficult to keep Sankara’s teaching along with the Sarvodaya or Anthyodaya teachings which say that the uplifting of all en
masse to prosperity is good.
The Christian traditional approach is that these two are equally
necessary. Christ, the Lord, prayed the whole night silently, but from sunrise
to sunset he worked hard, fed the poor, healed the sick, and taught the ignorant.
He taught his disciples also the same thing.
These two must happen in the Church, which is the body of Christ.
There should be silent meditations and unceasing prayers on one side and
untiring service to humanity on the other side. In the Church, which is the
body of Christ, some people are called specially for the service of prayers
and some people are called for serving the human needs. But definitely it
is not a division of labor. It does not mean that those who are giving importance
to prayers need not do any human service. It is also not taught that those
who are giving importance to human service need not pray.
The example for Christians is only Christ himself. Prayer and
human service has to work like the two hands of a person. St. Paul, the Apostle,
says that there is no use for your prayer and service if there is no love.
In the Hesychast movement, much importance is given to love. This
can be found in the book Philokalia. There is no doubt that the Hesychast
movement, which was developed by the monks of the holy mountains of Athos,
had shown the path to the realization or awareness of God. The inner spirit
of this movement is very close to that of the teaching of Sankara’s Vedanta.
But, in today's India, it is doubtful whether the teaching of Sankara of
8th century and the teaching of Athos monks of 14th century can be adopted
as such.
What is behind this doubt is the same question which was asked
by Pilate, "What is TRUTH?" According to the definition of Sankara's
Vedanta, truth is that which does not undergo change in subsequent experiences.
If anything that changes is not truth, then the universe and history
as a whole can become false.
Sankara's Vedanta tries to solve this issue by distinguishing
the transcendental reality (Paramarthika satta) and phenomenal reality (vyavaharika
satta). But if the Brahman which is the transcendental reality, only
appears as phenomenal reality because of the projection of the cosmic power
of illusion (mayavikshepam) and the veil of ignorance (avidyavaranam), then
history, time, and the world as a whole turns out to be false. Because
once Maya and Avidya (ignorance) are removed, nothing of these will be found.
More or less, this is the basic idea of Hesychasm or monasticism
of silence. Now in every religion the biggest question facing spirituality
is to connect the transcendental reality (paramarthika satta) and the phenomenal
reality (vyavaharika satta) to the truth, and to mutually connect the temporal
and permanent truths. A religion which doesn't have any such mutual connection
can mislead people.
Let this book lead to good discussions and prayerful meditations
in this regard.