RAIMON PANIKKAR HAD HIS ROOTS IN KERALA

The Christian thinker had roots in Palakkad

Raimon Panikkar,the gigantic Christian thinker of 20th Century,had his roots in Mannarkkad.It is a small town 40 kilometers north east to the district head quarters of Palakkad in Kerala,South India,on the way to Kozhikode.I had been there only twice.But the book,Ootacamund:A History says that the first missionaries took this route to reach Ooty. The Silent Valley tropical rain forest with an unbroken evolution history of 50 million years is not far.Ramunni Panikkar,father of Raimon Panikkar,was born in Mannarkkad,in the Nair family ,Karimba Menakath Allambadath. 

He did his BA(it was not Bsc then) in Chemistry from Presidency College,Madras.The gold medal in BA Physics went to Nobel laureate C V Raman the year Panikkar finished the course.

Panikkar won a scholarship to study Msc in Leeds University,England.The family insisted that he should marry before crossing the sea.He married Kalyani and they had a son,Madhava Menon.

In England,Ramunni Panikkar organised a student group to fight against the British as part of the freedom struggle.After wandering a lot,Panikkar became a pauper,but got associated with a rich business family,Alemany which had interests in leather and sea foods.Their business which was on the verge of a collapse,was given a turn around by Panikkar.The Lady in the family placed a proposal before him to marry her daughter,Carmen.He was agonised.He wrote to his wife Kalyani,seeking her view.She wrote back:"If you can find happiness by marrying that girl,go ahead.I will look after our child".Mercedes,Raimon Panikkar's sister reminisces  having seen the letter.

Raimon Panikkar in India

Alemany was a Roman Catholic Catalan family from Spain.The first World War broke out and Panikkar together with the Alemany family escaped to Barcelona in Spain since Spain was a neutral country, not in war.Panikkar became representative of a German Chemical Company in Barcelona.Carmen and Ramunni Panikkar were married invoking the Pauline privilege.It is a term used for dissolution of a purely natural marriage which had been contracted between two non Christians,one has since become a Christian.It has reference to the letter of St Paul in  1Corinthians 7:12-16:To the rest I say,that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever,and she consents to live with him,he should not divorce.It means that Ramunni Panikkar had already become a Christian before he got the consent letter from his first wife,Kalyani.

Ramunni Panikkar didn't assume a Christian name after baptism.I have seen a Spanish Education Ministry document on Ramuni(one n is silent)Paniker Udbodhan Trust registered in the Ottappalam sub registrar office, Ottappalam Amsam Ariyoorthekkummuri Desam.So he has an Ottappalam connection.His earlier family members had contributed to the Trust which gives scholarships to 20 poor,deserving children in Rajagiri College,Kalamassery,Cochin.This was done after Mercedes met Madhavan Nair in Cochin.Raimon also had met his step brother on his first visit to India.

There is a story that Ramunni Panikkar was invited to join the first Indian Cabinet since he was a freedom fighter in England.He refused since he was married,settled and owned a chemical plant in Spain.Unlikely since V K Krishna Menon was there;Menon had gone to London only in 1924.Likely  if Nehru was friendly with Panikkar for which there is no proof-Nehru had studied law during 1910-12 there.Please remember the reference to C V Raman in the beginning.Raman had passed BA in 1904.So,Panikkar may have gone to London in 1906-1907.There is  chance for  Nehru-Panikkar meetings.The year of birth of Panikkar maybe 1885.He died in 1954.Carmen died in 1975.They settled in Barcelona in 1918 and had four children:Raimon,Josep Maria,Mercedes and Salvador.Salvador became a famous Spanish philosopher and journalist.Raimon had this to say about Panikkar and Carmen:"There was a profound harmony between my father and mother in spite of belonging to two different traditions."

Young Raimon

Raimon Panikkar or Raymundo Panikkar, the foremost Christian thinker of 20th century with roots in advaita was born in Barcelona on November 3,1918.He was educated in a Jesuit school.During 1936-1942,he Studied Chemistry and Philosophy at the Universities of Barcelona,Bonn and Madrid.The Spanish Civil war had put the family in risk and hence he left for Germany.He came back to Spain in the summer of  1935.Though he wanted to go back to finish his degree,the Second World War prevented it .He finished it in Spain.He also worked in his father's plant.He had three doctorates:in Philosophy (1946),in Chemistry (1958)from Madrid and in Theology from Pontifical Lateran University in Rome(1961).

He entered the Opus Dei,the most controversial force in the Catholic Church in 1940,made very unpopular by the Dan Brown novel,The da Vinci Code.It was a chapter he was never keen to speak on.Opus Dei,which means 'for work of God' in Latin ,was started in Spain by Catholic priest Jose Maria Escriva in 1928,to achieve full Christan life within professional work,though it is not clear what it means.It teaches everyone is called to Holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity.Most of its members are lay people with secular priests under the governance of a prelate elected by specific members and appointed by the Pope.It got the approval of Pope Pius XII,in 1950.It has 91960 members now,of which only 2051 are priests.Everything about it is secretive-I have read a book by the same name,by John L Allen Jr..

Escriva

Raimon became very close to Escriva and became a priest in 1946 agreeing to  his suggestion.Ramunni Panikkar was bedridden and took part in the ordination ceremony lying on bed.Raimon became a Chaplain at Colegio Major la Moncola and a Professor of Philosophy.He was accepted to the company of famous philosophy professors of Madrid,Lain Entralgo,Garcia Morente and Xabier Zubiri.They offered a Chair at Madrid University.Escriva didn't agree saying that it will affect Raimon's pastoral dedication.Raimon was in Madrid till 1950.After that he was in Salamanca for three years.At the end of 1953,moved to Rome and remained there for a year.He was incardinated at the Indian Diocese of Varanasi in 1954,after his father's death.
Varanasi transformed him.He felt proud of his Indian origin.It was a turning point.It made a decisive reorientation of his thoughts.He learnt Sanskrit;he studied Indian Philosophy and religion at Mysore and Benares Hindu University.He taught in Varanasi for long.There he met several western monks seeking Eastern wisdom for the expression for their Christian beliefs.He began to wear ochre dhoti, sandals and a shawl on his shoulders.In this transformation he was influenced by three Benedictan monks who were called the trinity of Tannirpalli.:Jules Monchanin(1895-1957) or Swami Arupiananda,Henri le Saux or better known as Swami Abhishiktananda(1910-1973) and Bede Griffiths(1906-1993) or Swami Dayananda.Monchanin and le Saux cofounded the Sachidanda Asram in Tannirpalli near Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu which was taken forward  by Griffiths.Abhishiktananda became Raimon's close friend.They tried to express their core Christian convictions in Hindu/Buddhist terms and forms.

Raimon began to take interest in advaita.Christianity began as a Jewish tradition,spread to Greco-Roman world imbibing Greek/Roman cultural expressions which gave it a certain form and character.He respected this,and it in turn equipped him to interact with greatest minds of 20th century Catholicism,like Jean Danielou,Yves Congar,Hans Urs Von Balthazar and several others.He famously said later:"I left Europe (for India)as a Christian,I discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be a Christian".He mixed his multicultural origin with Hindu religion and metaphysical leanings.He said:"I don't see myself as half Spanish and half Indian,half Catholic and Half Hindu,but fully Western and fully Eastern...I have always been someone concerned about what is usually called the religious problem".

He lived in a house on the banks of the Ganges.Pope Paul VI called him back to Europe and selected him to be one of the founders of an  Institute in Jerusalem together with Hans Urs Von Balthazar and others.He was a Consultant during the second Vatican Council(1962-1965)to address the relations between the Catholic Church and modern world.He was also invited to the Synod of Rome(I have referred to the Second Council in my story,Panchakshatangal,the stigmata or five wounds of Christ).

While in Jerusalem,he was summoned by Opus Dei Chief Escriva.After a brief trial,Raymon was expelled from it for disobedience.In his 1972 autobiographical book,Cometas,Raimon said:"I don't repent that period in my life...Life's line is neither straight nor zigzag".Advaita rescued him from Opus Dei!

He had the option to be professor in Germany,Harvard and California.Harvard rejected his condition that he want to be in India for six months a year.California accepted it.He joined it in 1972,and taught only during spring.There in Santa Barbara,his Easter service was famous.Raymon would bless the elements-earth,air,water,fire and all surrounding forms of life-plant,animal,human,and then celebrate Mass and the Eucharist,as if he was chanting,agnaye idam na mama(Oh Fire,this was not for me).He coined a new expression for it:Cosmotheandric celebration.Cosmo is universe,theo is God  and antropos,man.After  retirement in 1987,he moved to Tavertet in Catalonia ,100 kilometres north of Barcelona.He bought a farmhouse on a hilltop and formed the Raimon Panikkar Vivarium Foundation,a centre for inter cultural studies.vivarium in Latin means speech.He became the first Indian and Asian to deliver the Gifford Lectures in 1989,in the University of Edinburgh ,thereby joining the company of geniuses like,Karl Barth,William James,Albert Schweitzer and Reinhold Niebuhr.

Raimon during his last days

He married at the age of 73,in 1991,Maria,a novelist against the Church rule to remain a celibate.Not much is known about her.Marriage was  a civil ceremony.She died of cancer;they had adopted a daughter.It was short lived.He considered it later an ineffective mistake.The matter of marriage was "satisfactorily settled" in Rome by Bishop of Varanasi,Patrick D'Souza.Mercedes shared the opinion that it was not right to get another person involved in his sign of protest against the Church.The official Church always kept him out,though few Seminaries in India teach his Theology.Though he was at loggerheads with the conservative Bishop Vic of his Diocese in Madrid ,the Bishop did Raimon's funeral service.Raymon had written against the Bishop to Rome.Raymon lived like an Indian monk completely in reflection and mysticism in his final days.He had even touched the feet of the dancers after a Sufi dance performance in Vivarium.
His doctorate in Philosophy was On the Concept of Nature.In the Introduction he said:
"Concerned about the theological problem of what is beyond nature as metaphysical substratum of an integral Anthropology that would explain the specific and personal man,the real and historical Christian,I had to deal first with the Metaphysical problem of nature".

He matured a lot by the time he got his doctorate in Theology.The thesis was the textual comparison between Adisankara's(788-820) commentary of Brahmasutras with the teachings of Thomas Aquinas(1225-1274).If Sankara was the father of advaita,Aquinas was the father of Thomism.He attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity.His prominent works are,Summa Theologica and Summa Contragentiles.Raimon didn't confuse historical contingency with ultimate truth.In both Hinduism and Budhism he found other languages in addition to Biblical Hebrew,Latin or Greek.This was the main focus of this thesis which became a book,The Unknown Christ of Hinduism(1964).He found Christ transcending Christianity.Raymon called Christ a "super name" because it can encompass other names like Krishna,Rama or Ishwara.So he said:

"To the third Christian millennium is reserved the task of overcoming a tribal Christology by a Christophany which allows Christians to see the work of Christ everywhere,without assuming that they have a better grasp or monopoly of that Mystery,which has been revealed to them in a Unique way." This view is definitely against that of Rome.
Dr K S Radhakrishnan,philosopher,had met Raimon in 1980 in Cochin when he came for an International Religious conference.Radhakrishnan,whose doctorate is in The system of Advaita as it is Exposed in the Adhyatma Ramayana of Ezhuthachan,feels that Raimon had not been transformed to an advaitin.He had tried to read vedas on the basis of Aristotelian philosophy.So he is more close to Aquinas.His logical sructure was that of a Christian.Radhakrishnan felt Raimon was confused because his emphasis was on limitations.

His books include,The Crisis of Madhyamika and Indian Philosophy Today(1966),The Vedic Experience:Mantramanjari-An Anthology of the Vedas for Modern Man(1977) and Initiation to the Vedas(2006).He was unable to fine tune his last book, based on his Gifford Lectures,Rhythm of Being and also avoided the final chapter ,The Survival of Being.In the book he observed:

"I must admit that all ultimate questions cannot have final answers,but that we can at least be aware of the problem we have presented.I have touched the limits of my understanding and must stop here.The Tree of Knowledge again and again attempts one at the cost of neglecting the more important Tree,the Tree of Life.How can Human thinking grasp the destiny of life itself,when we are not its owners".

This view is again  at loggerheads with that of the Church.For Church,Christ is the ultimate truth.For them the final answer is Him.Raimon confessed he didn't get the final answer there.

Reference:
1.The Unknown Christ of Hinduism/Orbis Books/1981
2.Cometas
3.The Rhythm of Being/Orbis Books/2013
4.Talk with my friend Dr K S Radhakrishnan

See my blog,PRINCE RAMAVARMA BECOMES PRINCE JACOB RAMAVARMA