My Sooriya Namaskaram - Saluting God in the open! English

My Suriya Namaskaram
(complementing a Christocentric worship/liturgy/mass.)

Meeting God in Jesus Christ, almost daily,

in his Word and in the Eucharist,

is the living and sensible source of my life.

But I like to go also beyond the Revelation in Jesus Christ,

made possible to me through my parents,

through the Roman Catholic church, in word and sacraments.

Gratefully accepting the Revelation of God

made through Jesus Christ

and following Him and His teachings,

with the help of the community founded by Him.

This community grew after the Pentecost,
and gradually came to be known as the Church.

The church has become an Institution
grown out of the community of disciples.
Hence it has its limitations and accumulations of traditions. 

In spite of its shortcomings the Roman Catholic church,

had nursed and fed me up to date. 

While staying fully in the church, where I am, as a catholic priest,

who has lived the teachings of the Second Vatican Council,

I am also critical of its present state and irrelevance to times.

I keep on urging the church - both faithful and hierarchy,
where ever I am,

for a continuous Reformation or Aggiornament or updating

with the changes around us in the world and in our societies.

Though disliked I am and lonely, with my criticisms, 

I will continue to offer criticisms,

 so that with the dying of the older ways in the church,

the Church of Jesus Christ remains ever Young

and up to date in Service of humanity.

Jesus while on earth, spoke to us often of the Father,

His Father as well as our Father,

and taught us that beautiful prayer which sums up in two parts - God's Master plan of His Kingdom

as well as our pleading for His help.

 He revealed the Unknown God as his and our Father,

and that He is returning to Him

and that we all will return there.

Standing on the last Phase of my earthly life,

I dare to do such an Exploration

looking back all the way from birth to the present,

and then in silence and prayer, peeping into the unknown God!

With my feet firm on the ground of a concrete church,

and living a catholic life centred on listening to God's word and the sacraments, I dare to look beyond.

Daily walks or Cycling is good for health.

But pausing for a while to admire the green nature,
the birds and the animals,
can help us to admire the Creator of all these.

Stopping in front of the Sun, I do a Surya Namaskaram!

What?! why?
In Tamil, Surya= Sun and Namaskaram= salutation

It does not mean in any way worshipping the sun!
Sun is only an object of creation, macro-creation
but a unique creation from all the creatures of the earth!
Continuously radiating light and heat to all and always
without difference!
This reminds of a God radiating love and mercy
to all without a difference

(As a Student of Physics and as an admirer of Space-Travel

from my University days,

when the first Russian made his space travel
and thereafter with the landing on moon by Armstrong
I kept interest on the space and space-travel.  

In Jan.2015 I was at Texas,Houston, holidaying with my nephew Michael and wife Agnes,
I visited NASA centre in Jan 2016 to update myself.)

I consider the Sun, the centre of the Solar system,

though 92,million miles away,

it's unique in helping us with an idea of God the creator.

There are numerous stars bright and far away.

But we cannot usefully concentrate on any of them.

The moon, 240,000 miles away is seen by us only as a reflection of sunlight, and that too not every day as full-moon.

During the day I do a bicycle ride through the village

and enjoy the nature and the fresh air of the creation.

But looking at the sun has led me to accept it

as the best seeable of creation

to help me leap further into the unknown beyond the revelations through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ revealing himself as the son of God

and revealing God as our father

spoke of his going to His father and our father.

Hence there are more things to experience here on the earth

and thereafter about his God, father of Jesus Christ!

The Sun is in my view, the best and unique example

to portray the marvels of our God -

creator, giver of energy, life, love, forgiveness everything,

without taking anything away from us.

Standing in prayerful posture before the Sun,

I Salute it as the Symbol of many things we can imagine.
By salute I mean many things of human effort - imagining, acknowledging, thanking, wondering, praising, .....
The first three salutations are to God as creator
and the last three to God as self-Revealer

1. Salute and thank the Unknown God,

Yes, unknown! whether he or she or it, we do not know!
called by all possible names by various religions.  

(Even the greatest scientist of the last century, Albert Einstein admitted a "super-human Force" behind the whole of creation.)
Human concept and language cannot reach out to God, who is beyond all creations, including humanity.
Hence we humans have to accept our inability to think, form concepts and speak about God.
Man speaks or questions about the existence of a God.
But his is born out of the human mind/language, hence limited.
A limitless, beyond human comprehension and language - God! 
As a human being, I posit in my reasoning, a cause for an effect.
with all my faculties of seeing, hearing, feeling, reasoning etc
I experience the marvels beauty order of creation, and posit a cause for all these.
It is against reason to posit that all these marvels exist by "accident", as claimed by atheists!

2. I Salute the Almighty Creator of the many universes,

which the scientists are unable to measure or Count.
The Universe we know something about, is the solar universe.
we acknowledge the existence of many other universes.
This is an indication of the limitless power of God!

 

3. I Salute the creator of this solar universe
as described in the Biblical revelation
in a Special way for the visible Milky Way
where the Sun is the centre, with stars, meteorites and planets, including our-home-planet the Earth

- the Home of Humanity

with the marvellous and beautiful nature

of sea, land, mountains, plants and animals

4.  I Salute the Unknown God revealing Himself

in many ways to all Human Beings.

All religions have caught something of this divine Revelation,

and built their own religions with teachings and rituals

to link humanity to the unknown divine!

5. I Salute this Unknown God

for a particular Revelation through the Israel

culminating in Jesus Christ, the Saviour.

I have been enriched and strengthened by this.
Revelation made through the long history of a people,
interwoven with their human and secular history,
has gone on for many thousand years.
The evolution of their history, collection of various books and coming down to Torah lasted several phases.
This revelation through Israel, and its prophets,
comes to a summit or fulfilment,
in my belief, in Jesus, the Messiah and Redeemer!

6. I salute the God, who revealed and still reveals to me,
 and who has personally invited me to follow Jesus
 as a disciple and a servant in His name to the people.

I implore God to fill me  and strengthen me with that spark of selfless love and bountless mercy

so goes my Suriya Namaskaram,

which I warmly recommend to all,

irrespective of their Religion.

Comments to the 6 steps

1. Unknown, Nameless, Unimaginable, beyond human reason understanding, a created human reason/intellect cannot pose questions about existence or not-existence. Concept of existence is born out of the created reason!

2. Almighty, unmeasurable, unimaginabale...scientists have only acknowledged the existence of many more universes like our milky-way

3. Creator of our universe and how God created - has been through a chain of human narrations as narrated in the bible, book of genesis and the rest.

4. created man, has an inner-thirst to link up to its origin. God answers these thirsts of people through diverse ways only known to him. These ways of revelation, how they are received through centuries, how they have grown into religions, should not be questioned, compared or condemned.

5. As a recipient of a particular revelation, namely, through Israel coming up to Jesus Christ, I thank and praise the Lord.

6. My whole life is a chalice of received-revelation. God personally speaks to me guides me, strengthen me and makes me an instrument and a co-pilot. Hence my thanks and praise.