Das at the thanksgiving mass on Sunday. Picture by S.H. Patgiri

Guwahati, Nov. 27: Enchanted by gospel music and encouraged by his mother to be a ?good man?, a Hindu has gone on to become the first Assamese to be ordained as a Jesuit priest.

Today, Mathew Das genuflected before his mother in front of a huge gathering and sought her blessings before undertaking his first assignment ? at the Assumption Church in Kathmandu, where he will start preaching on December 3.

Also present at the thanksgiving mass at Guwahati?s St Joseph?s Church were Das? other family-members, all Hindu. In an emotional speech, the 35-year-old priest said: ?My aim is to bring people together from all communities without any discrimination.?

Mathew, who was Mintu before he adopted Christianity, then picked up a guitar and sang: ?God, I have accepted walking on your footsteps??

It was a poignant movement, considering the soulful strains of gospel music had attracted the young Mintu to Christianity. ?The prose and music emanating from the church left me mesmerised,? Mathew recalled.

Mathew was born in north Guwahati in 1970 to Gopal and Aruna Devi and studied at Tezpur, Ambagaon and Gossaigaon before moving to Bettiah in Bihar and Kathmandu in Nepal for higher studies.

It was in Kathmandu that Mathew decided to become a Jesuit priest and joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1992.

He went on to graduate in philosophy from Janadeepa Vidyapeeth in Pune, in theology from Vidyajyoti College in New Delhi and earned a BE degree from Sikkim. He was ordained as a priest in Gossaigaon on November 20.

Mathew?s immediate goal is to ?use the spirituality of Church music to strengthen Nepali culture?. Before heading for Kathmandu, he will visit Allahabad to deliver a spiritual lecture. ?My responsibilities have increased since being ordained as a priest from the Assamese community,? he said after the thanksgiving mass.

The two-and-a-half-hour programme showcased Assamese culture with Bihu and Borgeet depicting the synthesis of Assamese culture and Christianity.

An emotional Mathew said it was a very difficult decision to convert because almost everyone in his family, barring his mother, had initially opposed the idea.

The head of Jesuit House in Guwahati, Walter Fernandes, said the new priest?s family was now proud of his achievement.

The first Christian missionaries arrived in Assam from Spain in September 1626, but the religion did not spread until Baptist missionaries set up camp in the 19th century. Around 4 per cent of the state?s population of 24 million are now Christians.