Saccidananda Ashram Trust

Saccidananda Ashram Trust – Home for the Destitute Elderly

Bede Griffiths’ belief in the Vision of Cosmic Unity led him to see Everything and Everyone as Sacred

Bede Griffiths was inspired by a sense of Cosmic Unity in which Humanity and Nature are “sustained by an all-pervading spirit.” In his book, “The Marriage of East and West,” he hoped the West might learn from the East in this regard. From the beginning of his journey in India, Bede saw how the people regarded the earth as sacred: “No ploughing, sowing or reaping can take place without some religious rite. Eating is a sacred action, and every meal is conceived as a sacrifice to God.” He discovered how Hindus bathed while “invoking the sacred power of water, which descends from heaven and is caught on the head of Shiva, and distributed  in the fertilising streams of the Ganges  and other rivers. The air, the plants and animals, and finally, “the human person is sacred … a manifestation of God.”         

It is this sense of the sacredness of persons that impelled Bede to welcome strangers as Christ. It encouraged him to make plans for those unable to find the means with which to ensure a modicum of dignity in their final years.                                      

To this end, upon winning the John Harriott Award, Bede purchased a bungalow by the canal that runs beside the village of Tannirpali, situated adjacent to Shantivanam. In this home, the destitute poor – without family to care for them, may be received with love and dignity, where they are sure of daily meals, a bright, private room in which to live, medical care, and, at the last, the dignity of a proper funeral according to their religious custom.                            

In recent years parents and students of the Prince’s School in the UK has taken on this project with great enthusiasm and a spirit of selfless generosity.

The quiet, joyful faces of the home’s residents show us the wisdom of Bede’s belief in the sacredness of even the most destitute of the poor.

For those who wish to find out more, or help with this great work of love, Br Martin’s email: brothermartin111@hotmail.com