(The text of the speech delivered in a multi-religious vigil for Fr. Stan Swamy)
It is natural and necessary to feel for the tragic death of a noble soul. All the more so, when it is enveloped in injustice. But this should not make us forget that the decisive thing is life, not death. What matters is that Fr. Stan Swamy lived a certain way of life, which merits to be recognized and celebrated.
The untimely death of Fr. Stan, expedited howsoever indirectly by State action, is inseparable from his idea of being a human being. So, the death of Fr. Stan leaves us with a two-fold question: What does it mean to be a human being? And what does it mean to live meaningfully and substantially as a human being?
Fr. Stan embraced the religious way of life. There may be different religions, but there is only one religious way of life. To live religiously is to live in the consciousness that there is a divine element in every human being. This we acknowledge when we greet each other with ‘namaste’. In doing so, we acknowledge the presence of the divine in each other. In the religious way of life, this awareness becomes the very light of life. That is to say, the awareness that the divine is present and active in everyone becomes the guiding light of one’s life. It was this way of life that Fr. Stan embraced and lived to the end.
Such a way of life has its consequences when it is practised. To believe that the same divine Spirit animates all human beings is to become subversive of the divisive and exploitative agendas of the world meant to subserve vested interests. The life of a divinely-oriented life becomes the collision point between the two contrary ways: the way of God, and the way of the world. It was this collision that generated the heat that killed Fr. Stan.
The uniqueness of being human is that in us consciousness attains its highest development. The noblest form of self-consciousness results from becoming conscious of oneself through God. When we are self-aware only through the limited self, we live only for ourselves. Animals are also self-aware in this sense.
When we become aware of ourselves through God, the spirit and goal of our life change. We as individuals, our life, our meaning and purpose, are transformed through the divine or the Eternal Spirit. This re-orientation goes contrary to the interests and agendas of the worldly.
This brought Fr. Stan into solidarity with the exploited and suppressed adivasis in the tribal belt spanning Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. But, the significant thing about him is that he was true to himself; whereas most of us live alienated from ourselves. He died knowing what it means to be fully alive a human being. We may die, hardly knowing what it means to be human. Fr. Stan lived fully and fruitfully. His life deserves to be celebrated.
Of course, there is something to be mourned. We must mourn the way of life that makes us cowards and sycophants, who are deaf and blind to the cry of justice. A way of life from which the divine is excluded, which reduces the canvas of our life to animal-like existence in which there is no room for anyone other than oneself.
When a society, a nation, a culture, becomes too small to accommodate divinely self-conscious individuals like Fr. Stan and Swami Agnivesh, the meaning of it should not be lost on anyone. It is nothing short of a national tragedy.
It is this tragedy that needs to be mourned. In that sense, this memorial meeting is also a memorial meeting to the India that has been.
I join all of you in celebrating the life and mission of Fr. Stan, which has generated a fresh stirring of life nation-wide. So I don’t stay, ‘Fr. Stan, may your soul rest in peace’.
I say, ‘Fr. Stan, may your restlessness infect us and spread across our beloved land so that one day we may know peace fortified with justice’.
Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the poor. For there is the Kingdom of God.’ Serving the oppressed, exploited, broken and bruised is serving God. Working hands, said Mother Teresa, are holier than praying lips. Fr. Stan’s life was a lifelong prayer. We have come together because we resonate with that prayer.
