Francis Acharya - To India

To India

It was very difficult to get a visa for India from Belgium. However, Scourmont had a daughter house in Wales and Fr. Francis was given the opportunity to go to this monastery on Caldey Island as its novice master. After three unsuccessful applications for a visa for India he was eventually granted one through the recommendation of Vijayalaksmi Pandit, who was High Commissioner in England. Impressed by Fr. Francis’s wish to work for the encounter between Christianity and Hinduism and by his determination to start a Christian monastic foundation rooted in the ashram tradition of India, Pandit Nehru, who was then the prime minister of India, approved the application on the condition that he not proselytize.

Fr. Francis set sail for India and arrived in Bombay on July 12, 1955.Swami Abhishiktananda welcomed him. In Bombay Fr. Francis Mahieu’s initiation to India was begun with visits to various ancient sites: Buddhist caves at Kanheri, the island of Elephanta, and Ajanta. At Elephanta, Fr. Francis and Abhishiktananda were profoundly impressed by the central cave, a magnificent temple with immense bas-reliefs (7th century) carved in the solid rock, dedicated to Shiva Maheshwara in his different manifestations. They passed the night in the cave, where the sight of Maheshwara Sadashiva (a huge carving of Shiva with three faces) had moved Swami Abhshiktananda to ecstasy. However the meeting of the two monks, so long anticipated, was not entirely happy, probably on account of the inner turmoil that was tormenting Swami Abhishiktananda at that time. In any case, after visiting Ajanta, Abhishiktananda went on alone to explore north India, while his companion returned to Bombay. Fr. Francis spent about one year in the ashram at Shantivanam with Jules Monchanin and Swami Abhshiktananda; he considered this year to be a period of novitiate for him in India with the two earlier pioneers on the same path. Afterwards, in November, 1956, Fr. Francis left Shantivanam for Kerala.