Christ and His message – According to Thiru.Vi.Ka – Relevance from an Interreligious perspective

Introduction to the author:

The following lines are extracts from my Thesis I have submitted to Tamilnadu Theological Seminary for the award of Postgraduate Diploma in Theology. In my opinion this thesis though had been accepted for the award, did not receive any encouragement for sharing and for  further research about Thiru.Vi.Ka and his contribution to Christian thought. His contributions are significant for the fact it was from a Hindu Scholar and the thoughts  developed by him were original and was constructed from the Indian religious experience. Therefore, I thought I should share this with a larger reader group for their further reflection and spiritual growth. I am planning to share only the most important aspects of his thoughts as laid down in this small devotional book in Tamil.  hope this  brief introduction will be helpful to those who have not heard of him at all,  or had had only very few informations about him. The rest will follow.

Introduction:

Thiruvarur V. Kalayanasundaran popularly known as Thiru.Vi.Ka who lived in the later part of the twentieth century was an outstanding Tamil scholar and a religious thinker. He needs no introduction to the Tamil world due to his significant contributions to social and religious thoughts and labour movements in Tamilnadu.   In the book “Saivathin Samarasam” the publishers quote from Kundrakudi Adigalar’s testimony about Thiru.Vi.Ka as follows:  “Thiru.Vi.Ka is a breeze in the language style, in the literary world he is mount Everest, he is a labourer among the labourers, in the world of monks he is a monk, in the world of wealthy people he is a poor man…….because of Thiru.Vi.Ka the difficult poetry style disappeared and simple  literary style emerged, stories disappeared and messages emerged…”[1] This is just one among the several testimonies to recognize the greatness of Thiru.Vi.Ka.  Among his published work on religious thought “Khristuvin Arul Vettal” (The yearning for Christ’s Grace) is an insightful collection of devotional verses on Jesus Christ in Tamil. Thiru.Vi.Ka’s understanding of the message of Christ is well reflected in this small devotional book.  In addition one can find his devotion to Christ and the impact of Christ’s message on his life and work in his other writings too including his autobiography.

In his foreword to this book A.C. Paul writes, “This booklet may be taken as the reaction of one of the most cultured minds in South India to the Challenge of Jesus Christ.  In the concluding paragraph he says, “I may say that this publication is a distinct contribution to Christian thought in Tamil. As a book of devotion in verse, it takes it rank with those of Vedanayaka Sastriar, Vedanayagam Pillai and Krishna Pillai. It has a distinct advantage over the others in that it deals with the deeper problems of life along with the living questions of the day and finds a solution for them in Christ.”[2]  Thiru.Vi.Ka’s understanding of the message of Christ has great relevance to the emerging pluralistic context of to-day.

It is sad to note that the Christian world has known very little about his thoughts on Christianity and the message of Christ.  It is more surprising to note that even in Theological circles that give importance to an indigenous theology, it appears, have given almost no thought to Thiru.Vi.Ka’s writing about Christ.  There appears to be no significant work on his thoughts on Jesus Christ. This thesis is an attempt to elucidate his understanding of Christ’s message and its relevance to the religious pluralism.

[1] Saivathin samarasam, publisher’s note

[2] Khristuvin Arul vettal-foreword by A.C. Paul. 3. P.D. Devanandan, Volume I edited by Joachim Wietzke P.64