Pack up your bags and leave, if you do not like Hind bhoomi!" This line is not an election-themed hate speech or a pro-Hindutva rally rhetoric. It is the English rendering of an excerpt from a Marathi abhang (a poetic meter associated with songs sung in praise of Lord Vitthal) penned by poet-editor-thinker Reverend Narayan Waman Tilak in praise of Jesus Christ over a century ago. Tilak, a controversial figure who turned to Christianity in 1895, contributed his abhangs to the Dnyanodaya weekly periodical around 1916. His verse did not follow a thematic order; he locked his thoughts in rhythmic patterns, elaborating on his reasons for taking recourse to Christianity, search for a fair and universal religious order, the metaphysical experience of meeting his Lord and most importantly, exploration of the role of faith in an ephemeral human life. He opposed orthodoxy and rigidity of every form and shape, counting the inconsistencies in his discarded (Hinduism) as well as chosen religion. Even as he dared the British missionaries, he fervently appealed to them not to propagate narrowness and sectarianism in the name of Christianity. He had a strong dislike for people who chanted Christ's name as a matter of outward accommodation but did not espouse his compassion — "Navhe Kristi Kristi Pari Krist Krist/ Jag He Santapt Jap Kari!"

Father Francis Correa has devoted a special issue of Suvarta magazine to Reverend Tilak