Vandana Mataji: Woman of the Spirit – Part 1

(Editor’s Note: September 13 is the 97th birth anniversary of Vandana Mataji, a Catholic nun who was one of the pillars of the Christian ashram movement. Matters India is reproducing an article on the Parsi-convert to Catholicism, written by Tureeya Mataji, one of Vandana Mataji’s followers, for Vidyajyoti Journal published from Delhi. Given below is the first of the four-part series. The article throws light on the life and mission of Vandana Mataji, her revered predecessor at the Jeevandahara Asham.)

Rishikesh:

Raho upasthit meri ankhon ke samne
Chhukar drishti tumhari
Mere geet badal jaye
Jwala mein

Stay always before my eyes,
Touched by your gaze
My song will be transformed
Into blazing fire.

This little Hindi verse which translates a line from Rabindranath Tagore, put to music by Vandana Mataji, is indicative not only of her ardent desire for union with the Lord but also of her desire to speak to India, in an idiom of this land. True to the understanding of sadhana (habitual practice) in the Hindu religious context, she eventually gave up her original name Gool and took the name Vandana (which means praise, veneration, adoration).

Sangeet (Indian music) came naturally to her soul and became her path of spiritual discipline. Its practice centered her in God and went hand in hand with an awakening of the Church to cultural diversity. Vandana gave her all to this. In what follows I shall attempt a condensed glimpse into the journey of Vandana Mataji in her single-minded response to the spiritual and cultural revitalization of the Indian Christian reality.

Born on September 13, 1924, to Parsi parents, she imbibed the adoration of the Sacred Fire. Offering herself as a piece of sandalwood into the Fire, represented her longing for a deep relationship with God—this began as a child in the company of her mother. With her, Vandana visited the Fire Temple and watched her praying for hours.

Vandana said, “later I learnt to associate Jesus’ words, ‘I have come to cast fire upon the earth’ with this Fire. Her elder sister, a theosophist and freemason, introduced her to bhajans of the Hindu tradition. One that she found meaningful and always cherished went as follows:

Guru kripa paya mere bhai, Ram bina kachu janat nahin
Andar Ram, bahar Ram, jahan dekho vahin Rama hi Ram

When in school she found her spiritual anchor in the person of Jesus Christ who, she said, was a “fantastic figure of personal integrity and courage born of incomprehensible love.” Later as a student of Sophia College, Bombay, she waited till her 18th birthday to officially embrace the Catholic faith. Her family was distraught, and while her sister had no difficulty with her decision, she could not understand why Gool could not “love Christ in her heart” without inflicting pain on the family.

Vandana grew up into a woman of deep faith and sincere search for the God of her heart. She had a deep devotion to Mary, whose name she took at her baptism. Years later she wrote a little book on Mary, presenting an Indian Christian understanding of Mary’s role in one’s faith life. In the forward to this book, Cardinal Simon Pimenta wrote:

This book can provide inspiration to scholars of Indian Christian spirituality and it can yet unfold its treasures to all men and women of good will…to discover in this book an excellent guide to grasp the heights and the depths of the personality of Mary, who reveals that harmonious blend of tenderness with courage, of compassion with strength, of contemplation with action.

Total confidence in God that Vandana learnt as a child never left her. This faith was her mainstay later in life. “Ram bharosa bhari re mana” (“O mind, trust in God, put all your confidence in Ram.”) It was a type of absolute faith that would, at times also come to irk some around her when, to their dismay, she would throw all concerns to the winds regarding simple practical issues, e.g., the need to get ready and set out in time to board a train! She would finally arrive, with the help of those around, saying, “learn to have faith and not be unnecessarily hassled!”

After her graduation from Sophia College, she entered the Novitiate of the Society of the Sacred Heart in England, fulfilling her intention to live a life in the Spirit. Though pained, her family nevertheless relented. On her return to India she taught for a brief spell at Sophia High School, Bangalore when she was appointed to teach at Sophia College, Bombay. It was here that her journey to the roots of India’s spiritual and cultural heritage began in earnest. About this she wrote:

I threw myself wholeheartedly into learning all I could about my homeland and its treasures of spirituality. I devoured books on Indian (Hindu) culture with the appreciation of one who is rediscovering the wealth that India has to offer. Returning home meant for me new inspiration and new stimulation.

As fulltime lecturer in the college, she began the Bharatiya Sanskritic Parishad, an extra-curricular group, to encourage students to learn and be proud of their culture. There were Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, and Malayalam mandals and special performances for the North East. The mandals continue even to today! This was surely national integration, even before our Nation felt the urgency to emphasize its need for the country. As a lecturer, Vandana never failed to inculcate spiritual values and ethical principles in her students. Her main concern was to form women of calibre and integrity for the good of society and the country. The path she chose opened up from the gradual integration of the insights gleaned from the Zoroastrian, Christian and Hindu faiths and cultures that moulded her as a person.

As mentioned earlier, for Vandana, practising a sadhana was an essential for a seeker of God. Under the devoted eye of Shri Hardarkarji, the music teacher in the college, she soon graduated to becoming a shishya (disciple) of two sangeet gurus: Pandit Laxman Prasad Jaipurwale ji and later his son Sri Govind Prasad ji. She said it “was a novel experience (for them) to teach Indian classical music to a nun in a white habit!”

Sangeet became her rigorous practice to realize God. Of Govind Prasad’s singing, she said, “it made me enter into the ever-available heart of God! How much I learnt for my spiritual life from these two Hindu masters and friends.” Later, for about two years, she had the privilege of sitting at the feet of the famous Ustad Latafat Hussain Khan. She said, “When he opened his mouth to sing, he just carried you up and away – to the heart of heaven and you felt you were dropped into the lap of God… . Music thus became my main means of entering meditation… . It set me afire with His love.”

(End of part 1)

(The write is a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart (rscj). Besides her M A in Ancient Indian History and Culture from the Bombay University, she has a Bachelor Theology from Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi. She was one of a group that undertook a grassroots study for theological reflection in the Indian Context. She spent several years of insertion in a Dalit context in North India. She was the provincial of the Indian Province of the Society for 6 years from 1994. Subsequently she obtained a Masters in pastoral studies from Loyola College, Chicago. When Vandana Mataji left the Jeevandhara Ashram, Rishikesh for Pune, Tureeya mataji took charge of the Ashram. She received the sanyasa diksha from Swami Veda Bharati, a renowned scholar and successor of Swami Rama of the Himalayan Tradition. The author can be contacted at thelrscj@yahoo.com.)