SPRINGBOARDS and WALKING STICKS

 When the disciples approached Jesus with the simple request, " Lord, teach us to pray ," they were expressing something far deeper than a desire for religious instruction ( Luke 11: 1-4 ). They had watched Jesus navigate the complex terrains of life— social tensions , religious controversies, relational conflicts—and they observed that prayer was his anchor. In their asking, we discover their longing to cultivate both a spiritual and moral compass that could guide them through their own challenging journeys. This moment represents a universal human yearning: the recognition that we need divine guidance, that we cannot navigate life's complexities on our own strength alone. "Let us pray, teach us to pray"—these words echo through generations as expressions of hope for a better world, a transformed life, a reoriented heart. Reorienting Our Spiritual Compass The Our Father prayer begins with a radical reorientation of our spiritual direction. Like the prodigal ...

  On the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, three worlds collide around one broken body. The parable of the Good Samaritan is not merely a story about helping strangers—it is a diagnosis of the human condition, revealing three distinct ways of being in the world (Luke 10: 25-37). The Exploiter: What I Have Is Mine, and What You Have Is Also Mine The parable begins with violence. Thieves strip a man, beat him, and leave him half-dead by the roadside. These are the exploiters—those who see the world as a zero-sum game where their gain necessitates another's loss. They recognize no boundary between mine and yours; everything is potentially theirs for the taking. The exploiter's world is built on predation. What matters is not mutual flourishing but personal accumulation. The beaten man on the road is not a person but an opportunity—someone with possessions to be seized, vulnerability to be leveraged, dignity to be trampled. We meet exploiters not only in dark alleys but in boardrooms...

 In celebrating Teachers' Day we honour not just the memory of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, but every teacher who has ever lit a candle in the darkness of ignorance. Across religious traditions, the divine and the teacher are one. Sri Krishna, seated on the chariot, instructing Arjuna on detachment and selfless action, was a teacher. Prophet Muhammad taught lawful living and the importance of brotherhood. The Buddha offered the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. Jesus, gathering people on the mountainside or by the shore, challenging them to love and forgive, was a teacher. In most faiths, God is teacher, and the teacher is godlike. There are few professions as noble as teaching. My greatest joy in a long academic career—serving as Head of Department, Academic Dean, and in other roles—has been simply to be known as a teacher. Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, despite being the first Vice President and second President of India, despite holding many major positions, wanted...

 The gospel, Luke 17:5-10, chastises the apostles into faith and dutifulness. It places before the apostles an uneasy parable of a master and his servant. A master who is at the enjoying end constantly, and a servant constantly at the serving end is a poor parable for our times that detests master-slave relationships and existence. So it is natural that when we read the perpetuation of the same in Scriptures we find ourselves repulsed. Where's the warm Jesus? Where's the love, the affirmation? Where is the Jesus who took out his garment and knelt down to wash his disciples' feet? This passage of the gospel has to be read in a particular context. It is material for people who are pursuing novitiate formation. Note that all through Jesus was addressing the crowd who followed him, whom Luke kept addressing as disciples. But here (see verse 17:5) Jesus is precisely speaking to the Apostles, whom Jesus is forming to be his committed and uncompromising followers. Novitiate is a p...

 Nothing fascinated St Francis of Assisi more than the Word of God: the Incarnate Word and the Written Word. From the tenderness of Jesus in the first ever crib that he made in Greccio to his passion of receiving the stigmata on Mount La Verna, it was Francis being possessed by the Incarnate Word—Jesus. From the naïve stories of Francis picking up written words from the ground to keep them away from people trampling on them, to Francis literally obeying the gospel words read in a church, to him becoming an embodiment of the Word of God, it was Francis being consumed by his fascination for the Word of God. Firstly, Francis had a deep and holy reverence for the written word and would often pick up scraps of writings from the ground. His actions were based on the belief that those pieces of paper could contain the name of God or words from the Gospel. Secondly, for Francis the Word of God was something that brought in absolute clarity in his life. The defining moment of Francis's spir...

 Chapter 10 of Luke's gospel begins with Jesus sending out his disciples to preach; he had told them to take nothing for their journey, no gold, silver, or copper; no haversack, sandals, or two tunics. Perhaps they must have gone out grumbling and complaining. It was only a while ago they had fought to establish who is the greatest among them, and who would sit at the right and left of the one who sits on the throne in heaven. Here in Luke 10:17-24 we find them returning back rejoicing; what really made the difference? Let me draw a parallel to St. Francis of Assisi: born in 1181, he lived an unconscious, unattended, normal life, like any other, for the first 24 years. Returning home from the Assisi-Perugia war as a loser and wounded, he then left home and spent the next 20 years of his life wandering, reading, writing, singing, preaching to creation, loving, giving, forgiving, losing to God, being wounded, praying, bending down, groaning in loud cries. A 24-year-old Francis once s...

 Our expectations differ according to the degree of efforts and possibilities provided. What we expect from a desert, which is dry, does not receive any rain, where nobody spends time on it tilling, sowing, or fencing it to protect it from wild animals, is different from what we expect from a fertile land, that has enough rain, farmers tilling, sowing, and protecting it with fences around it. In Luke 10: 13-16 we see this comparative expectation articulated about Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum where Jesus spoke the gospel and worked many wonders, and Tyre and Sidon where they had no privilege of being recipients of Jesus’ words and wonders. To whom much is given much is expected. Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum received every bit of Jesus’s providence but refused to reciprocate. St. Paul has a lovely expression about the people of Corinth in 2 Corinthians 3:3—you are a letter of Christ. Corinth was a rich city, but it had a morally very loose way of living. Paul preached the...

 Gandhi named the book of his autobiography "My Experiments with Truth," not "My Discovery of Truth" or "The Truth I Learned," but experiments —plural, ongoing, fallible. He approached life like a scientist approaches a lab: with hypotheses to test, failures to document, variables to adjust. He experimented with the spinning wheel: what happens to a nation's soul when it produces its own cloth? Or what happens to a person if he limits himself to wearing just two pieces of clothing—a dhoti and a shawl? What happens if dissent and resistance hold on to non-violent means? What happens if people practice civil disobedience when the laws become oppressive and unfair? Perhaps the most dangerous thing we do on days like, Gandhi Jayanti is to celebrate him as if he is a finished work. As if non-violence has won, permanently. He'd likely find our veneration more troubling than our criticism—because worship puts an end to inquiry, and inquiry was his religio...

 The call is for violence (Luke 9: 51-56). This is a common reaction when people face frustrations, do not get what they want, or don't make as much profit as they desired—they conquer others through violent and ugly means. Jesus was at the height of his ministry. Look at chapter 9, he sends out his disciples to preach, he shows his majesty and glory in transfiguration, he feeds thousands of people, he is able to send people ahead of him to get this ready. To use a modern term, Jesus was influential, powerful, and dominant. James and John frustrated by the nonacceptance of Jesus by a Samaritan village wanted to bring down fire from above and destroy them. Jesus was definitely able to destroy that village even without bringing down fire from above. He could even initiate a  communal violence for he had a very large following. But note the response of Jesus to the call for violence. He not only refused it but also rebuked them. Peace is a deliberate choice made by the dominant o...

 The Gospels resound with an extraordinary truth: no matter how far you have fallen, how lost you have become: you could be the lost sheep, the run away son, the thief on the cross, a sinful person who is caught, a corrupt tax collector, poor, blind, sick, and old; the kingdom of heaven remains within your reach (Luke 16: 1-13). This is not merely inspirational rhetoric—it is the very heartbeat of Jesus's ministry, demonstrated repeatedly through His encounters with society's most marginalised and morally compromised individuals. Jesus taught that heaven is worth everything we possess, declaring, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it (Matthew 13: 44-46). The merchant didn't hesitate to negoti...

 Standing on the streets of ancient Athens, Aristotle observed a phenomenon that continues to perplex and frustrate observers of human nature: why do people consistently choose leaders who are not the most capable among them? In the birthplace of democracy, as citizens gathered in crowded squares to debate and decide, the great philosopher witnessed something profoundly counterintuitive. People believed they were selecting the best, but in reality, they were choosing the familiar, the safe, the comfortable—even when those leaders lacked the vision and competence to guide them toward a better future. We live in an era where leaders often appear more like performers on a stage than architects of the future, where society consistently elevates those who play the role rather than those who possess genuine vision. The question Aristotle posed—why do people not want the best among them to lead?—demands urgent examination in our contemporary context. Society's Survival Instinct Society do...

 What constitutes a life well-lived? The ancient Greeks, with their characteristic precision, identified two distinct yet interconnected pathways to human flourishing—eudaimonia and hedonia (the practice of it is called hedonism). These concepts, far from being mere academic abstractions, represent competing visions of what it means to thrive as a human being, each offering its own map to fulfilment yet pointing toward potentially different destinations. Hedonia is the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. It is the warm satisfaction of a meal shared with loved ones, the relief that follows the resolution of conflict, the simple joy found in a moment of beauty. Hedonic well-being operates in the currency of felt experience, measuring life's worth by the balance of positive over negative emotions, comfort over distress, enjoyment over suffering. There is an undeniable honesty to the hedonic approach. Pain hurts, and pleasure feels good—these are not philosophical cons...

 While making decision, policy, or voting one of the major issues is lack of clarity. Not sure about what we want, or where we want to go, etc. We typify the words from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s adventures in Wonderland , if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. Luke 7: 31-35 addresses the issue of clarity—being sure of what you want or where you want to go. Jesus says that this generation is like children in the market place: play music, they don't dance; play dirges, they don't mourn. They demonise people who are strict and austere; and they call people who are friendly and moving around with all as glutton and cheap. A deeper look makes it clear that the real concern is not what is out there, but what is not in there with the people to make up their mind—clarity. Debashis Chatterjee, a leadership speaker and author of many books on leadership, including the book Break Free , asks in his book, One Minute Wisdom , What is clarity? He has an int...

 Beginning postgraduate studies is a big step. You are taking that next big step in your life. You have mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety. And that is normal. The question I want to pose before you at this moment is: what are you attempting to do? Debashis Chatterjee, a leadership speaker and author of many books on leadership, including the book Break Free , says in his One Minute Wisdom that human life, as we know it, grows out of a single cell. That cell acquires a bachelor's degree by the time it is 20 or 21 years of age. Another two years, this cell will complete a master's programme and call itself a master. Chatterjee says, do we realize that all these were once potency contained in a single cell? And he adds that the knowledge we acquire and what we become through our homes, schools, colleges and universities is not even a tiny fraction of what that single cell is endowed with. True education is waking up that potential. True education is waking every cell of ou...

  In biblical spirituality we have a comforting expression, "The Anawim of Yahweh," meaning the "poor of Yahweh." The phrase refers to the whole lot of people who are defenceless and vulnerable, living at the margins of society, the Church, community, and family. They have only God to turn to in their needs. These are people who may not make a big noise about the injustice done to them; they may not be argumentative. Maybe they are old and ailing, maybe they are struggling with mental illnesses, or maybe they are not as intelligent and demanding as others. Jesus in the New Testament has his eyes open to the anawim of Yahweh. The widow in Luke 7:11-17 is an anawim of Yahweh. She had already lost her husband, now her only son. In ancient Palestine, this wasn't just grief; it was a death sentence of a different kind. Without male protection or provisions from her children, she faced not just sorrow but destitution, marginalisation, and a slow fade into society'...

 The gospel categorically talks about good trees and bad trees, good foundations and bad foundations (Luke 6:43-49). Categorising things and people as good and bad, white and black by limited beings like us is too simplistic and unfair. Life is more complex than what our senses can perceive. So we leave the judging to the omniscient one. Modern humans believe in change and becoming. It is right to say that a human is not a noun—fixed and unchanging—but rather a verb, meaning "he/she is becoming..." We all have the possibility of conversion, change, etc., but the point that Jesus brings us is an important and frightening one: that without warning we may be called to bear fruit, without warning we may be hit by a storm. Then what would become of us? Delaying change is refusing to change. Imagine that you are at a beach or on a riverbank and you find a child being washed away by the waters. You are called forth to act, but you do not know how to swim; your learning to swim in th...