Seeing these three Mynah birds at the feeding station in our garden yesterday, who were in three different postures brought memories of the way Mr L.T.Jeyachandran engaged in conversations with young people! He conveyed an integrated and holistic view in his conversations and talks in meetings.
Jeya lived in the present, and yet reflecting meaningfully of the journey we are on in the earth, with our history of the past and the promise of the future! He invited young people to journey in life, "Looking unto Jesus..." who leads us to the truth beyond the transient and temporal experiences. He had a desire for us as students to experience the authentic reality of God "in whom we live, move and have our being".
Jeya presented to us in his talks at meetings the imagery of a loving and healing God. In his exposition of the parable of the Good Samaritan, he introduced the Good Samaritan as one who lived thinking of every one as his neighbour. The Priest and the Levite who passed by the wounded person, had yet to grow out of seeing unfamiliar people as strangers. To hear such insights when we were students in our formative journey, helped us to imbibe the foundations for our thinking.
One aspect that fascinated me about Jeya was his approach to work and responsibilities in his engineering practice. His sense of diligence and excellence at work place was an exceptional outlook to work life in a government office. I remember a colleague of him once mentioning, that Jeya viewed his work as worship. I recall what he used to quote, 'we work because God is at work'. His view of work was co-creating with God to bring fullness of God into the lives of ours. His approach was to avoid to keep any file pending to speed up the process of decision making and implementation of the project. It involved staying back at work place beyond the usual office hours, which he did with ease and comfort. For us as students, it offered us a different view to regard 'work as a calling'!
The personal spirituality Jeya practiced was based on the Bible and was Christocentric. He arrived at this position in his life after a thorough enquiry into the world of philosophy and experiencing a personal revelation in his life of a loving God. Jeya, during his talks would refer to Bertrand Russel or Lenin, or agnosticism or existentialism to bring us aware of the truth that was beyond all of these in the sayings and practice of Jesus of Nazareth. His familiarity with the voices that young people would come across gave him an advantage to move them beyond reason and to embark on a faith journey with God!
Such an approach was personally helpful to me as I was strong in view of communism as a means for social justice and equity. Jeya used the voluntary confession of Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10) that he would give half of his riches to the poor and return four times whom he defrauded when he met Jesus, as an illustration to me as how an inward transformation is more effective and lasting than living for a philosophy. I feel that was the turning point in my journey, when I got introduced to Jesus and His teachings to embrace it as the way of life.
I recall how patient Jeya was with all of us who meandered in our conversations. He listened with his heart patiently to make us feel heard and loved! There was no sense of hurry or judgement in his attitude and responses. He had a space in his thoughts for those who were struggling to find the path. His friendly attitude was deeply comforting.
Jeya had a significant influence in the lives of many others. I got to know of this from an occasional reference he would make about his nearness to some key people in the student movement that he was associated with. It was during his time at Nagpur the student movement was enlarging its presence to the states in the North and North East. Jeya was requested to be present as a speaker in the meetings which formulated plans to get in touch with college students to help them in their formative journey.
I remember how Jeya functioned as a conciliator in difficult circumstances when senior leaders of the student movement had disagreement and experienced tension in relationships. His open ended view of difficult situations freed people from being weighed down by guilt or anger. Jeya was a peace seeker and finder in such situations.
The mid nineteen sixties in India was different with no easy telephone access or colour TV or internet access. We grew up building relationships and finding friendships that would upbuild us. To have found Jeya as a friend and a formator was truly a timely blessing for many of us in our student days. He saw us through the optic of who we can become! It was this thought and aspiration for us which made him involve in our lives in a formative way!
I look back at this season of my medical student days and consider this contact with Jeya for about three years as a pathfinder season in my life! His was a self giving involvement with some of us at Nagpur Medical College to lead us to faith in God and to encourage us to grow up to serve people in need.
Anna and I remember Jeya and Esther and think of them affectionately! We turn to God in prayer for their wellness !
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