Introduction: The Call for Incarnation
Warning: Reader discretion is highly recommended. This is not for the faint-hearted. After reading this, if one’s blood pressure increases, the author is not responsible for that. After all, he too is an ‘infant’ (Sisu) in this field.
My response to this is my eternal mantra: Allow the Incarnation of the Lord within every family, community, society, and tradition. Then it will work both ways, transforming and emerging in a new way, which will look completely different from the original but remain the same in essence, mingling naturally and expressing spontaneously within the family, community, society, and tradition. Any outsider who visits that place after a long time, where the same happened in a different way ‘Grafted artificially,’ cannot recognize which one is primitive and which one is new.
The Anthropological Confusion
If a native anthropologist, who went to the West for a scientific Western academic anthropological study, returns to do an anthropological study of her own native people, she will be thoroughly confused and dismayed to differentiate between the old and the new. Though she might manage to write a thesis and present it to her Western University to get her doctorate, she will still struggle to write a conclusion.
Case Study: African Incarnation
This happened wherever the Incarnation occurred. The best case study would be Africa, where, after the initial Western approach failed, native missions developed and created their own African Mandali. Each region looked completely different from the other, but the overall picture presented an African Incarnation.
Personal Reflections and Literary Contributions
I can give several such examples, but I am not a scholar who collects all those pieces of information to present a systematic study. However, I can share from my own life.
My original name given by my parents was Siva Subramanian, but my pet name at home was Kumar. My school and college friends called me ‘Siva.’ I used pen names to write poems: Sisu (from Siva + Subramanian, meaning infant) and Vasi (rearranging Siva, meaning read).
Using both names alternately, I wrote more than four hundred poems in Tamil on various topics. However, I lost all of them as I kept them in one note. Later, when I remembered a few, I recorded them again both in my Secular and Theological Songs. I also wrote a long novel titled ‘Kappar Paravai’ (Ship Bird) and sent it to a competition held by a famous Tamil weekly magazine. It was neither selected nor returned. Later, the same story appeared under a different title with altered names and narratives, written by a famous writer who was one of the panelists. I could not challenge her, but I was content that my story appeared in a different name and form from the pen of a famous writer.
The Challenge of Recognition
Recently, one person sent a message that one of my articles was published in a Christian magazine with slight alterations to best serve their purpose but giving credit to me without my permission. I responded, “No copyright; if copied right.” He replied, “I like your attitude and humor.”
A similar situation occurred when I stayed with a leading evangelical preacher in the North to learn from him. When he read one of my articles in another quarterly published by another person, he said, “He has written well.” When I pointed out that it was written by me, not the editor, he remarked, “Both John and James thought, wrote, and spoke in the same way. We don’t know who is whose echo and who is original and who is a carbon copy. So when James died, they buried John and even wrote an obituary for him.” Then we both laughed. (Of course, he never mentioned writing an obituary; I added that now, as I like to do that often. ) [But I prefer to remain that buried John as his gospel comes closer to our Indian thinking to James’s letter I changed it now. As he was a Christian, he could not even give two Indian names for his story, like Arun and Varun.—Chatgpt removed this while editing. I don’t know the reason for this. May be it is also a Christian product not approving Indian names Arun and Varun]
Evolution and Transformation
Now, consider this: my school-time friend Siva came to live with Dayanand in 2024 to do an anthropological study of my life. He was thoroughly confused about what happened to me. I never remained the same Sisu, not just in age and appearance but also in nature and character—impatience, anger, confusion, instability, childishness, etc. I remain the same, but I am completely different from the original Siva. Unable to read Dayanand as he is now (Vasi), he finally collected all the information about my past 43 years of life (from 1980 to 2024), from my writings, personal talks, family members, and others, and wrote an anthropological thesis about me to get his doctorate from the West. But unable to write a conclusion, he requested me to write one because he was not sure what to write considering all the changes and continuity in my life.
The Struggle for Authenticity
Another digression is needed here. When Dr. Hoefer wrote a paper to present at a Rethink Conference in America, he requested me to write the conclusion. First, this surprised me because he could read and understand Tamil, though he used only my imperfect Tanglish (Tamil-English) translations of my poems. Naturally, though he understood the overall theme of each heading, he requested me to write the conclusion as he could not penetrate the deep original in Tamil.
Conclusion: A Call for Future Understanding
As I remain a Hindu but a bhakta of an alien Guru, I managed to even convert that Guru as a Hindu to best serve my purpose. So Siva, unable to read me (Vasi), was not sure what kind of conclusion he could write about such a ‘confusion’ called ‘conversion.’
For this, I said, I cannot even write a conclusion now. Only in the future, when someone who remains sovereign in nature, accommodating both west and east in his life (sovereign = Chakravarthy, but don’t read your own meaning between the words. I don’t mean any personal name here), when he writes an obituary about me, that could be the conclusion to your study. Till that time, you have to postpone presenting your thesis to get your doctorate from a Western University. As I still remain the old Sisu (infant), I cannot articulate properly about myself.
The Natural Incarnation
This is what happens to every culture and tradition where Incarnation occurs. It transforms them both and emerges in a new way that remains natural to the soil. It won’t remain a hybrid plant grafted onto a native plant with a foreign branch. Here, foreign could be any non-native within the same territory. It will retain all that is good and conducive for a smooth social life for that family and community while still bringing new values to enrich life. But an outsider could hardly recognize which is original and which is new, and even the natives can’t clearly articulate it though they can experience and express it in a spontaneously natural way without needing outside guidance or support.
The Challenge of Hybridization
It will produce its own native seeds to grow further rather than genetically modified hybrid seeds, which cannot multiply but can be used one time to grow and discard and import again for another harvest. Even those genetically modified hybrid seeds not only demand imported chemical fertilizer for good yield but also imported chemical pesticides to prevent native insects from invading and stopping its growth. Thus, this imported genetically modified hybrid seed and chemical pesticides ultimately spoil the native soil and people’s health. As those hybrid seeds got international patent rights, even the natives cannot produce them locally. They have only to import to give good business to outsiders at their cost.
The Fight for Native Seeds
On the other hand, those who created such genetically modified seeds, who had good intentions to produce more to feed the growing population of the world, finally commercialized to keep their local needs and comfort, what once remained a ‘Call’ now turned into a ‘Profession’ to make a living.
Now, a new kind of fight is going on locally, trying to get rid of the hybrid imported seeds by developing native seeds that can grow naturally and organically. But as they have to fight so many forces both from outside corporates and their local agents, unless they all come together and make it another global movement, even this enthusiasm and initiative to give local expression will never become successful. For this, there should be coordination but not another organization. But this idea is not understood clearly (like this brainstorm) as they fail to articulate it properly for the natives to understand it. They are in a catch-22 situation. Still, they have to use ‘outsider’s technical terms even to give expression to their original thought. Unless that is overcome, it is a long way to go and a long war to be won. Of course, there will be some lost battles. But ultimately, the war will be won.
Final Thoughts
If you cannot understand the core theme of this brainstorm, don’t blame me. That is also part of my originality. I can think clearly but cannot express it properly.
16-6-2024
@ “Catch-22” is a term that originates from Joseph Heller’s novel “Catch-22,” which was published in 1961. It describes a no-win situation or a paradoxical problem where the solution to the problem is also the cause of the problem itself. In the novel, “Catch-22” refers to a rule governing the lives of World War II bomber pilots: they can be declared insane and unfit to fly if they willingly continue to undertake dangerous missions. However, if they apply for a mental evaluation to be declared insane and avoid the missions, this indicates they are sane, as any rational person would seek to avoid such danger. Therefore, they cannot be declared insane, and they must continue to fly the missions.–Chatgpt
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