Pi reflects that Hinduism formed the first and deepest landscape of Pi's religious imagination, full of gods and stories that taught Pi the power of loving kindness through Lord Krishna. From that foundation, Pi explains how, at fourteen, Pi unexpectedly encountered Jesus Christ and was drawn toward Christianity.

While on a family holiday in Munnar, Kerala, Pi notices three hills, each with a different place of worship: a Hindu temple, a mosque, and a Christian church. Curious but wary of Christianity’s reputation, Pi walks around the church and observes the open rectory door, where a priest sits calmly, available to listen to anyone in distress. The quiet openness and the priest’s apparent vocation of love move Pi, and Pi finally dares to enter the church.

Inside, Pi is disturbed and confused by images of suffering and sacrifice, especially a depiction of a bruised, bleeding figure. The next day Pi returns and meets the parish priest, Father Martin, who treats Pi kindly with tea and biscuits and tells Pi Christianity’s central Story: humanity’s sin and the Son of God paying the price. Pi finds the logic strange and asks for other stories, but Father Martin insists everything else is prologue to this one account.

Pi wrestles with the idea of a God who accepts humiliation and real death, contrasting Jesus with the power and cosmic scale of Hindu avatars like Krishna, Vishnu, and Rama. Pi argues that the Christian God seems too human, too limited, and unfairly scarce in manifestation, yet Father Martin’s repeated explanation is simple: love. Over three days of questioning, Pi becomes increasingly irritated by Jesus’ perceived flaws, but that very irritation turns into fixation; the more Pi thinks about Jesus, the less Pi can let go.

On the final day, Pi rushes back to the rectory and asks to be a Christian. Father Martin tells Pi that meeting Christ in good faith already makes Pi a Christian at heart, and blesses Pi with affectionate pats. Pi enters the church without fear, prays to Christ, and then runs to the Hindu temple to thank Lord Krishna for placing Jesus of Nazareth—whose humanity Pi finds compelling—in Pi’s path.