Father Ceyrac, a well-known French Jesuit and scholar who has lived in India for 66 years and speaks fluent Sanskrit and Tamil, was one of those we decided to interview. This great admirer of Adi Sankara and Pascal told us this interesting story:
"You take ordinary French people, you ask them this question: "Do you exist?" They will all answer: "Of course, I exist (especially after a good glass of wine or a good meat dish), I have a good job, a family, why this idiotic question?"
Then you ask them: "Does God exist?" They will all answer: "This, I am not interested in, whether he exists or not, I don't care."
Later you asked the same questions in reverse order to 10 Indians: "Does God exist?"
"Yes, it is obvious, if God did not exist, how would you get such beautiful stars, their path is so precise that you can calculate their position thousand years in advance, look at the hand of man (such a beautiful tool), look at the plants which die and grow again, of course God exists."
Then you ask them: "Do you exist?" "This I do not know! If I exist separately from God, it means that He is not All, if He is not All, He can't be God, but He is All, so where is I in this."
To write about the last years of Pondicherry implies understanding this basic difference in perception which percolates all life.
Text: Claude Arpi; photograph: courtesy Claude Arpi