A Native Flower

First Unitarian Universalist Church
June 12, 2011
Rev. Sandra Fees
A Native Flower
In February, I went on a pilgrimage to the Khasi Hills of India. I traveled with eight other
American Unitarian Universalists. I first spent a week touring what’s known as the
Golden Triangle. These are the cities of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur where many of India’s
most prominent historic sites are located. This includes the Taj Mahal, the Amber Fort,
the shrine to Gandhi, and the largest mosque in all of India, among others.
The second week, we traveled to the Khasi Hills. The Khasi Hills are situated above
Bangladesh. This area is known for its exotic natural beauty, including steep hills, deep
valleys, gorges, waterfalls, and orchids. It is aptly referred to as “the Scotland of India.”
In some ways it seems almost like another country entirely. The people look different.
They have their own style of dress. They have their own language. They even have
their own religion.
And there, somewhat surprisingly, in what may seem like an unlikely place, we find
religious kin. Ten thousand Unitarians live in the Khasi Hills, making it the third largest
population of Unitarian Universalists in the world. There are 37 congregations. Some of
the congregations are urban and middle class, counting doctors, college professors,
and teachers among their membership. They use computers and live in modern homes
with electricity and flush toilets. Other congregations are situated in remote farming
villages without electricity or running water. In those areas, children often drop out of
school before reaching the 10th level.
To understand Khasi Unitarianism requires knowing a bit about its origins. I want to
share with you some of that history. The people of the Khasi Hills were tribal people with
an oral tradition and an animistic religion. They were neither Hindu nor Muslim. When
the British came and occupied India, which began in 1857, they discovered the Khasis.
They sent missionaries to convert the Khasis to Calvinistic Christianity.
Hajom Kissor Singh, who was born in 1865, was among them. He was educated at the
Calvinistic Mission School and converted to Christianity. He was 15 years old. By the
time he was 22, he began to question Calvinism. He already sounds like a Unitarian,
doesn’t he? He rejected trinitarianism, believing instead in what he described as, “The
existence of only one true God – the creator of all things.”
Kissor Singh soon learned about the existence of Unitarianism from a liberal Hindu
organization called the Brahmo Samaj. He contacted Rev. Charles Dall, an American
Unitarian minister in Calcutta, who then provided him with literature, exchanged letters
with him, and offered encouragement. Dall, in turn, introduced Kissor Singh to Rev.
Jabez Sunderland, who was the editor of the American Unitarian Magazine. He too
encouraged Kissor Singh on his religious quest. It’s difficult to capture fully how thrilled
Kissor Singh was at this point. He was overjoyed to discover other people who shared
his views. As many of us know, it can be a lonely spiritual path until we find our home in
Unitarian Universalism. The knowledge that he was not alone in his beliefs changed his
life. The result was profound and lasting. He founded Unitarianism in Northeast India in
1887 as a free religious movement.
Kissor Singh’s new religion conformed to the monotheistic beliefs of the indigenous
religion. The traditional religion taught that there is one God, called “UBlei.” UBlei was
not symbolized or depicted in any shape or form. There are no images of UBlei. Instead
UBlei was understood as the creative power that is formless and universal. God is spirit
and beyond gender, manifest in nature and everywhere else (sermon by Rev. Helpme
Mohrmen, Fairfax Virginia Church, July 2009). Kissor Singh came to call his, “the
religion that worships one God.” To this day, if you ask a Khasi Unitarian what they
believe, they will tell you that God is one.
Our group of Unitarian Universalists stayed in the city of Shillong, in the center of India’s
largest market. Each day we traveled by jeep to churches and schools in different and
sometimes remote villages. The 40 to 50 mile journey typically took two to three hours
in each direction.
Traveling with us was a Khasi Unitarian college student who is studying engineering.
His name is Arky, and he was our tour guide and translator. He speaks both Khasi and
English. One day, sitting in the back of the jeep with him on one of these long drives, I
began a conversation with him about what his Unitarian faith means to him. This is a
good question to ask anyone in our faith tradition. He said the main belief is that God is
one. I’d already heard this a lot from other Khasis. I wanted to know more. I wanted to
know what this means to him. I wanted to know what difference it makes to his life. So I
pressed a little.
He said: “We need to love one another. At church, the youth learn about the right path.”
He described his youth group, which hosts prayer festivals and engages in service
projects, such as painting churches in the poorer villages. He talked about the
importance of having friends from other religious traditions. He has friends who are
Muslim, Hindu, and Christian.
He in turn had some questions for us about our culture. One of his burning questions
was: “What does it mean when you say, ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
peppers?’” This led to a spirited discussion of tongue-twisters. We taught him to say
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” as fast as possible as many times as
possible.
For Khasis, the idea that God is one is not only about whether you believe in the
Christian trinity or not. It is inseparable from the idea of love of God and love of
humanity. Not only is God one, but we are all one. And it doesn’t end there. The
relational Khasi theology honors the connection we have to all life and the underlying
unity of all. Theirs is an eco-spirituality, steeped in an appreciation for the sacredness of
nature.
I was interested to see that the Times of India this week reported that India is trying to
become a green economy. Indians are giving an edge to the environment over the
economy. Given its population growth and increasing energy demands, the pressures
on the ecosystems, especially its forests, are intense
(http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com /2011-06-04/developmental-issues/
29620079_1_green-economy-indians-economic-growth). This is also happening at a
time when in our country we are seeing some signs of a reverse trend, driven by
economic hardship.
Dr. Barnes L. Mawrie, author of the book, The Khasis and Their Natural Environment,
describes the Khasi eco-spirituality. He says it is:
based on their innate love and respect for nature. …Nature for them is alive and
active as any living human person. … Everything in nature living and non-living,
has a direct relationship with [humans] and plays an indispensable role in the
history of the people. This is why we say that the history of the Khasis is written
in the stones, on the trees and the leaves, in the flowers and plants, on the
mountains and the hills, the rivers and the lakes, in animals and birds etc. It is as
if to say that the soul of the Khasis is enveloped in the soul of the universe.
“The soul of the Khasis is enveloped in the soul of the universe.” This sounds similar to
the interdependent web of existence. The interconnectedness exists for Khasis not only
on earth but also in whole universe. The tragic Khasi love story of the sun and the
peacock is told as an example.
The spots on the peacock’s feathers are said to be the tears of the sun as she cried at
the departure of her beloved husband, the peacock. And the peacock was observed to
behave very strangely at sunrise. When the sun began to rise, he would jump as if
wanting to fly toward the sun. The Khasis believed this was the peacock’s desire to go
back to his beloved spouse, the Sun.
For Khasis, relationship is part and parcel of the culture and the religion. Individuals live
and worship together in villages, and of course this helps facilitate the bonds of
community. In India, begging is rampant, but not in the Khasi Hills. One of the church
leaders told us that you won’t see Khasis begging because people take care of
members of their own community and clan.
Another aspect of this deep-seated relationality is their attitude toward education. Most
of the Unitarian churches run a school. The schools are founded on the Gandhian
philosophy that individuals are lifted out of poverty and struggle through education. The
schools are free and open to all children in a village regardless of religion.
Khasi Unitarianism is a unique Unitarian Univeralist spirituality – different from anything
we know here. It blends Khasi indigenous nature religion and liberal Christianity. One of
the ministers I met in India describes it as a middle way. Rev. Helpme Mohrmen says:
To understand the Khasi Hills where the Unitarians live, one must understand
that from a religious point of view, there are two main divisions in the area, the
Christians block and the non Christian block, which comprises of the Khasis who
still uphold the Khasi traditional animist religion. I used to say the Unitarian is a
middle path of the two traditions. It’s a liberal religion based on the liberal
Christian tradition but with strong roots on the basic Khasi values, philosophy,
belief and understanding. (http://unitarianchurchnortheastindia.blogspot.com
/2010/10/where-on-earth-is-khasi-jaintia-hills.html)
Khasi spirituality is a unique form of our faith. Yet it adheres to the values we all share –
to love of neighbor, commitment to religious freedom and pluralism, respect for the
wholeness of life and the interdependence of existence, and regard for the dignity of all
life.
I had the opportunity to worship at the Unitarian Church in Shillong and experience our
common bonds firsthand. This urban congregation is middle class, and most of the
members speak both English and Khasi. Their worship services follow a Presbyterian
liturgy and are conducted in Khasi. They have their own hymnal, which includes original
Khasi music emphasizing the sacredness of nature and Protestant hymns that have
been rewritten, much in the manner we have rewritten hymns.
They light a chalice, and chalice imagery is prominently featured in their windows and
architecture. They pray the Lord’s Prayer every week. I was asked to preach that day,
and my sermon was translated into Khasi. I spoke about the theology that God is love.
That is also part of their “good news” as Khasi Unitarians.
After church, we gathered, just as we do here, only we had tea instead of coffee. I had a
chance to speak with a group of young adults and take some pictures with them. It was
like being at a family reunion. Once the camera came out, everybody wanted in on the
photos. When I offered to share the pictures, one of the young women, Sunabi, asked
me if I’m on Facebook. I smiled and nodded. Everyone else got very excited about the
prospect not only of our exchanging photos but of our being able to stay in touch. I now
have a handful of Khasi Facebook friends. Both Sunabi and Arky are among them. And
I feel, in at least a small way, that I’m still connected to them.
Personal relationships like these are being formed between individual Unitarian
Universalists worldwide and also between congregations. Our North American churches
are partnering with churches in Transylvania, the Philippines, India, and Africa,
specifically Uganda to explore our common bonds and unique expressions.
The Unitarian Universalist Partner Church Council was formed in 1993 to facilitate the
process. The most important thing about these partnerships is that people are
introduced to each other. Personal connections are formed, and lives are changed.
Because we value community, because we recognize the interdependent web as not
only a nice metaphor but a reality of our position in the world, we also know that our
relationships don’t and can’t stop at these doors. Nor can they stop at state or national
lines.
Becoming a Partner with a church in India or elsewhere is one way our congregation
might build a deeper sense of religious kinship worldwide. A partnership could enable
us as a church to be engaged with our faith globally. It’s too soon to know if this is
something that would be right for us at this time. But I do hope you will give some
thought to whether these kinds of relationships would nurture your faith, inspire you in
your religious life, and be an appropriate form of worldwide outreach for us as a
congregation. Do we have a passion to form connections globally with our religious
partners? I want to leave you with that question this morning.
I also want to leave you with the words of the traditional greeting and farewell among
the Khasis. When they meet in the morning and in the evening, they say, “Kublei,” which
means God Bless You. Kublei. God Bless You.
Let us enter now into a shared silence.