Dhyan Ashram- our Home

Amit Tigga, NSJ

In today’s fast paced world, it is often hard to find simple places of serenity where one can slow down, ponder and recharge one’s spiritual energy with a bit of guidance.  Dhyan Ashram is one of such rarities in Bengal.

It is located not far from the city of Calcutta.  Right when you enter its gates, the first thing you will notice is that its plain looking walls completely separate it from the outside world.  There is a touch of nature’s beauty everywhere in Dhyan Ashram.  There are five buildings in the campus surrounded by beautiful ponds and greenery.  If you are a retreatant, don’t lose heart by the shoddy looking buildings because you will be given the best in the house.

One of the main reasons why Dhyan Ashram is such a popular retreat house is the serenely beautiful environment of the whole campus.  The beauty of the silence of this place is breathtaking: a perfect ambience that will help you to connect with God.

During your stay at Dhyan Ashram you will come across many regular faces going around.  They can all mainly be divided into the following four groups.

First, you will notice our hard working and friendly workers.  Second, the most flashy bunch around (and at times noisy and irritating as well) are the juniors.  Coming in from different provinces and different parts of India, they make up quite an interesting and talented group of youngsters.  The third will be the small group of youngsters hanging around far away from the rest of the crowd.  These are the novices: angelic in appearance, drowned in prayer, and always willing to offer that extra help.  The fourth and the last bunch are the Jesuit fathers.  Don’t be fooled by their simple (and often shabby) appearances.  I can assure you that they are some of the most intellectual, jovial and loving persons you can come across around here.

Dhyan Ashram takes pride in giving Ignatian retreats based on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola.  Our fathers here are excellent retreat directors and counsellors.  They also hold quite an impressive record of turning devils into angels and that is the secret behind all the peace that you experience here.

The vegetation around the campus isn’t just for show.  Most of the fruits and veggies we munch down at meals are home grown.  Besides gulping down all this healthy food, we like to maintain our fitness as well.  For this we have good old fashioned physical sports and some regular manual work etched into our daily routines.  We sweat it out regularly on the basket ball and volley ball courts.

Well, to sum up, you will find that the special touch added to Dhyan Ashram is its Jesuit community.  We are like a big family helping and looking out for each other.  Whenever there is an opportunity, we always come together to mingle, share and pray.  That is why the most memorable experience that the visitors share about Dhyan Ashram is its simple, joyful and pious inhabitants.

Life in the Novitiate

Manish Tigga, NSJ

Novitiate is the time when a person with a desire to follow Jesus in consecrated life comes to deepen his/her deepest desire to follow Christ and he/she grows in this desire spiritually and mentally.  Many young Jesuits admit that they enjoyed and had many unforgettable experiences especially when they were in the Novitiate (that is to say about the time table , the activities in the novitiate, going out for ministries, learning to play musical instruments etc.)

If anyone desires to be a Jesuit, he ought to discern where God is really calling him to be.  This is what we learn, right from the beginning of the novitiate.  It is done through a method for being aware of our feelings and the movements of the spirit.  In the novitiate we are asked to maintain silence both from outside and inside so that we may be aware of our feelings, which will finally help us to grow in our spiritual journey.  “Deepen the inner silence, and find out your deepest desire”, is is what Fr master says all the time.

Anyway, that is about the basics of the novitiate.  Now, let me tell you about my life in the novitiate.  It is really a new life.  It feels as if I am in a new world, where I have a new and big family, where there are many fathers, brothers, taking good care of me.  They all make me feel at home.  But we novices also remember our own parents and family members in our prayer everyday and we also write a letter to them every month telling them that we are happy here (and there is nothing to worry about).

Apart from the spiritual matters, we also learn other things like games (I love playing basket ball, which, by the way, is often called a Jesuit game because it is a very popular game among Jesuits), playing musical instruments, singing, reading, swimming, and so on. But mainly in the novitiate we focus on our prayer life, and our growth according to Ignatian Sirituality day after day by the great help of Fr Master and Fr Socius.  And hoping that one day we would be Jesuits, the companions of Jesus.

The Ignatian Day

Manu Tomy, NSJ

If we look at the calendar we will find many feast days.  But the Christians look at the Ordo to find the feast days of the saints.  Each congregation has its special feast day.  For us Jesuits, the feast of our founder St Ignatius Loyola is a very important day.  This day is not just for us to celebrate and to enjoy among ourselves.  But it is a day to thank God for the work he has done through St Ignatius for us and for the church.

As in every year, we celebrated the feast of St Ignatius this year on the 31^st of July.  A good preparation always makes the feast more elegant and enjoyable.  Our celebration also was well prepared and planned for.  We started our preparation early enough.  One part of the preparation that touched me and many others was the nine days of Ignatian novena talks on the theme, “Ease in Finding God”.  These talks were given by some prominent Jesuits of our province.  I could attend only two talks but they gave me with lot of new information and helped me to understand some of the experiences of St Ignatius. I was also inspired by the eagerness of sisters of different congregations who came to listen to the God experience of St Ignatius.

The feast day Eucharist really put me into a good disposition.  It was through the words of Fr Sajeev, the main celebrant, that I and many others came to know a new face of Ignatius who was joyful and jovial.  All those who attended the Eucharist were invited to be joyful in the Lord and to find him in everything.  I was really touched and moved when I was wished a happy feast day by fathers because I could see the joy as being Jesuits on their faces.

Whenever we have important feast days we will have special time for games.  I was quite ecstatic about the games because that is an occasion when the novices and the juniors play together.  On the feast of St Ignatius, we had a friendly match.  That was a golden opportunity for us to enhance our companionship.

The cultural programme in the evening was a beautiful occasion for us to share our joy with others.  We had prepared a pretty good programme and it was a the joyful faces of the audience and their animated support that made us more confident.  We had over a hundred guests from our neighbourhood, especially from other formation houses.  Well, the audience’s appreciation did not make us proud; but helped us to discover that God can do great things through us.

I will always cherish this joyful day not only because of its external enjoyments but because it is a day to thank the Lord for calling me to be a companion of Jesus and a follower of St Ignatius.

The day we wait for...

Johnson K, NSJ

Every year at the Dhyan Ashram novitiate, the Jesuit novices take their first vows of poverty, chastity and obedience on June 21, the feast of St Aloysius Gonzaga.  We offer these vows to God and promise to enter the Society of Jesus and spend our whole lives in it.  Two of my fellow novices, Rakesh Mondol and Vijaya Raju, pronounced their first vows last June.  It was a day of great joy for all of us at Dhyan Ashram.

That morning all of us were busy arranging and decorating the chapel with flowers and garlands.  The vows ceremony was in the evening.  But there was a feeling of celebration all around already from the morning.  I was really joyful to welcome our guests and to see them walking around in the campus.

The main celebrant for the Holy Eucharist was our Provincial, Fr Jeyaraj Velusamy.  He was accompanied at the altar by the director of novices, Fr Jerome Francis, and the dean of Juniors, Fr Maria Joseph.  Rakesh and Vijay looked so peaceful and happy.  I think there was a little bit of halo around there heads that evening.  It was a sight to see them entering the chapel in spotless white kurta-pyjamas with a red rose pinned near their hearts.

While many religious pronounce the vows during or before the offertory, the Jesuits do it just before the communion, because, for St Ignatius Loyola, our Founder, the Eucharist is the total self-offering of Jesus to his Father and to us.  During the communion, he shares his body and blood with us as a free gift.  So the Jesuits make their self-offering, in the form of the vows, before the Eucharistic Jesus.  There was a solemn silence as Rakesh and Vijay knelt before the Blessed Sacrament and pronounced their vows.

As I saw them taking vows, something stirred within me deeply, which made me all the more eager to offer my own life in an act of self-surrender to God, who chose me to be his servant.  When my companions were reciting the vows formula, I started repeating it quietly in my heart.  I felt a great consolation and joy within me, which, I believe, only God can give.  I felt a little sad to think that I have to wait for another year to offer up my own life to God and to add those precious letters, SJ, to my name.

After the mass, we congratulated the new Jesuits with singing and dancing and many fraternal embraces.  Later at the fellowship table, Rakesh and Vijay got a chance to share their sentiments of gratitude with the gathering.  Our hearts were truly touched listening to them.   The day was like a dream.  Next June 21 can’t come too soon!

The First Probation

Vinay, NSJ

The first couple of weeks in the Jesuit novitiate is a kind of a ‘coming of age’ time.  The new novices are kept separated from the rest of the community, to ponder over their decision to join the Jesuits.  It is a time for them to learn and understand the kind of life awaiting them in the novitiate.  In a way it is also a ‘cooling off’ period that facilitates a smooth transition from the homes that we left behind to our new home, the novitiate.

In the beginning of the Probation, I found it pretty difficult to follow the rules and to discipline myself.  But I learned it pretty fast with the help of the ‘guardian angel’, the good second year companion who was appointed to guide us through these days.  When the classes started, I was happy to hear about what a Jesuit vocation really meant, and was motivated by all that I heard.  I was also really touched by how much the Society really cares of each one of us.

After the first week of the probation, I made a general confession, which gave my heart a lot of spiritual consolation.  The three days of reflection and prayer that followed set the right note for the melody that is to follow for the rest of our two years of novitiate.  I already feel part of this big family.