Our Lady's Tumbler Analysis

“Humility is endless”. The play is essentially about the humility with which an offering should be made to God. A lily may be perfect in temporal terms but when it comes to the lily that should go to the feet of God, it is the heart that offers the lily that renders it perfect and pure and not the transient color of the flower. God does not accept anything that carries with it the human imperfection. The play brings to one’s memory the lines of Lord Krishna. “If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it”1. The emphasis is certainly on the love and devotion behind it and not the calculable value of the offering. The humility and an awareness of one’s own wretchedness, in spiritual terms, makes the offering invaluable and a conscious offering, however rich turns into nothing simply because it is offered with consciousness and not with a sense of surrender. The supreme of offerings is the offering of the self, not the self that still carries with it the foul smell of senses, but one that is purged in the process of suffering. In this play “Our Lady’s Tumbler” we find Brother Andrew offering himself at the feet of the Blessed Virgin and the play does conclude with his Atma Nikshepa2. The play takes place in the church on the day of Virgin Mary’s Feast and

Brother Andrew lights the candles before the statue of the “Blessed Virgin”. After the choir, Father Marcellus ascends the pulpit and addresses the congregation. He says that the statue has never moved in previous years and appeals to the congregation not to mistake it as the inability of God to perform miracles but that rather we have not virtue to deserve it, nor the faith to perceive it. He mentions the three offerings, a poem by Brother Sebastian, a song composed by Brother Justin and a rose grown by Brother Gregory and prays that the imperfections of the gift may be redeemed by the humility in which it is