The Pilgrim

The Quarterly Bulletin of the Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism

Editor: Rev. Dr. R.D. IMMANUEL

Editorial Notes

God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6.

The Buddhist Propaganda Conference

This conference met at Erode in South India, some time in the end of January this year. Many Buddha Bikhus from Ceylon came and took part in the chanting of prayers. The Conference was organised under the auspices of the Dravida Kazhagam. In his inaugural speech, Mr. P.N. Rajbhoj M.P. and General Secretary, All India Scheduled Caste Federation said that it was an irony of fate that though Buddha was born in this country, Buddhism was not a live religion today. He remarked that the Dravidian Kazhagam which had its branches throughout South India would co-operate in the propagation of Buddhism and the fact that this conference had been organised by the people connected with the Dravidian Kazhagam proved that the people behind the organisation had come to the conclusion that there was no salvation for them in Hinduism, and that the only religion which could free them from all age-old shackles of bondage was Buddhism.

The way in which some Neo-Hindu leaders have reacted to this speech and attitude of the Kazhagam leader is very striking. These say, that Buddhism is bone of bones and flesh of flesh of Hinduism, and that the Buddha never attempted to found a religion of any kind, and all that he did was to reform from within Hinduism. All this they claim by the fact that the only doctrine common to all the six systems namely the doctrine of Karma and transmigration was accepted by him wholeheartedly.

Devasthanams and Pressmen

“The Government of Andhra has decided to instruct the Board of Trustees of the Tirumalai Tirupathi Devasthanams to give facilities to Pressmen to report their meetings” Hindu. January 23, 1954.

In November 1951, when some Pressmen wanted to be present at one of the meetings, the Chairman refused to give them the privilege of attendance there. The Pressmen took up the cause and appealed to the Government of Madras - who refused to interfere with the liberties of religious bodies. But the pressmen did not stop pressing their claims, till they got what they wanted. The Journalists Association has expressed its thanks to the minister for religious Endowments, Finance, and Law for the help he has given.

Harijans Satyagraha

It is reported that about fifty persons including six women were arrested last month for attempting to enter the precincts of the famous Himalayan shrine of Pashupatinath four miles from Kathmandu. It seems that under Nepalese law scheduled-castes are not allowed to enter the temple. So in order to exercise this right, these people started a Satyagraha. So, for some time the authorities set police guards including police women at the entrance to the temple to keep a twenty-four-hour vigil.

Sarda Devi

The followers of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa have set apart one full year, i.e. December 1953 to December 1954 for the celebration of the centenary of the birth of Sri Sardamani Devi wife of Sr. Rama Krishna Paramahamsa. According to their claim, she was the immaculate virginal wife of the founder and a holy mother to his disciples.

Sarda Devi, was born on 22nd December 1853, married to Rama Krishna in 1859. Thirteen years after she was married, that is in her 19th year she had been told that her husband was a lunatic, but she would not believe it and she walked all the way from her village Jayarambhati to Dakshineshwar where she found that her husband was only mad after God. The claim of the Ramakrishinites is “that she became the spiritual consort of their sects founder and began the most wonderful and unique and peerless bridal relationship with her husband.” She became a widow in 1888 and survived her husband till 1920.

Prayer Section

The following prayer is a petition of a comparatively little known mystic called Dadu Dayal who is said to have lived in the later part of the 16th century.

    Oh Ram, be graciously pleased to show Thy face and protect me from evil one.
    Oh Lord, how can a baby live, if its mother does not suckle it.
    Hari supports us by His grace, regardless of our good or bad actions.
    The Lord protects us as his own. He watched over us dwelling in the heart.
    Dadu saith, I am powerless:

    Thou art my mother and I am Thy child

    O Hari give me faith, devotion, and love of Thy
    Holy name, let my heart overflow with Thy love.
    Give me gentleness in speech and meekness
    Let me enjoy the elixir of Ram's name
    Give me renunciation, detachment, love, purity of heart and truthfulness.

    Give me the thought gem of devotion to thy feet
    May I keep these treasures securely in my heart
    Give me contentment and modesty; Let my heart be firmly fixed in Thee.

    Oh Thou the indwelling spirit, awaken in my heart and
        let it be in communion with Thee.

    O Mohan give me knowledge and contemplation
    Let my heart have constant communion with Thee.

    Dadu Saith, Oh merciful God, let Thy supreme light shine in my heart.

¹

This prayer is very simple, yet it has a strange fascination. Coming from the depth of human heart it shows how much we need Divine grace and guidance and how deeply we yearn for fellowship with God.

Articles

Giving to the Priests in Hinduism

Here are two Tamil poems that give us an idea of the theory and practice of giving money for the support of priests in Hinduism. The first one says just as the honey bee extracts honey out of the flowers, even so, must the priest get money out of the laity - that is to receive without making the giver feel any loss at all. This is said to be just and ensure blessing to the receiver as well as the giver. On the other hand, to eat away completely as the caterpillar does a leaf is actually sinful.

The second poem is a humorous description of a village farmer pested by a priest. It says “throughout the night rain was falling fast and as a result a portion of the farmer’s house came down. Just then his cow brought forth a calf. The farmer’s wife was down with sickness and the servant of the poor fellow died. There was a knock at the door from a messenger who announced the tragic news of the death of near relatives. This series of mishap stunned the poor farmer, but he was more worried about the crops. He knew that, that was the most opportune day for sowing seeds in the fields and that if he failed to do so the crops that year might not be so good. So leaving every person and thing to their fate he took the seeds and was running to his field - at this juncture came the priest and demanded that he must pay his dues.

The Idea of God in the Six Systems of Indian Philosophy - Part 4

By PURVA MIMAMSA

Purva Mimamsa as expounded by Jaimini is a Classical attempt to interpret reality by making use of rituals and ceremonies as helpful clues. “The transcendent importance of Dharma interpreted in the ritualistic sense is the central theme of this great system.” So one might expect to find some great saying regarding God from Jaimini or his classical interpreters - but such an expectation is doomed to failure. The performance of sacrifice is emphasised here to such an extent that the Gods themselves (Devatas) disappeared from the system, for here is an atheistic system of Philosophy which makes rituals an end in themselves.

Is Purva Mimamsa atheistic?

According to the traditional concepts, the Purva Mimamsa is indeed atheistic for the followings reasons: -

1. The early witnesses and commentators are silent about the nature and existence of God.

2. The later writers reject the proofs for the existence of God, and they do not replace these by others which are more convincing to them.

However, such a great scholar as Maxivuller thinks that Mimarsaka is not atheistic. His arguments are based mainly on the following: -

1. Of all the systems it is Purva Mimamsaka which claims that it alone follows the Vedas most faithfully. So it would be very difficult to believe that this school could reject such an important belief of the Vedas as the existence of God.

2. The Mimamsaka rejects the doctrine of a creator. That is if one supposes that God created the World, it would mean that cruelty, partiality mutability etc., must be attributed to Him. So MaxMuller contends that the Mimamsaka just rejects the idea of a creator God and not the idea of God as such. In other words according to MaxMuller, the Mimamsaka’s idea of God does not conform to the customary conception of God.

However, very few scholars support MaxMuller, and it is indeed difficult to hold that the Mimamsaka views are not atheistic. But another question might be asked which is are they polytheistic? But even this has to be doubted for the following reasons: -

1. These deities are not regarded as objects of worship.
2. The deities are not thought of as existing anywhere else except in the Vedic hymns. Probably the Mimamsaka thought of these Vedic deities not as concrete entities in time and space, but as immortal types existing beyond time and space. The following quotation from An Introduction To Indian Philosophy by S.C. Chatterji_and D.M. Datta (Page 384) is very significant. They say: -

“Inherited elements of a faith, like inherited limbs, become atrophied by disuse. The vedic conception of God had no active place in the Mimamsa scheme of life, and it is natural that it should fade away. The Mimamsa is one of the many, examples in human history of how an overemphasised means becomes its own end, and how Gods are sacrificed for temples prophets and saviours. In its zeal for the Vedas, the Mimamsa manages to preserve the book, only to miss its spirit including a living faith in God.”

The criticism of the Saiva Siddhanta philosopher on the atheism of the Mimamsaka leaders is well taken. Here is a quotation from Dr. V. Paranjothi, Saiva Siddhanta (London; Luzacr & Co. 1954) p. 119.

“The Mimamsa is atheistic. However, it accepts the Vedas for the reason that it is interested in sacrifices that the Vedas uphold. Since it does not admit God, it cannot ascribe a divine origin to the Vedas. It maintains therefore, that they are eternal. The Siddhantin, who believes Siva to be the author of the sacred books points out that if God were not the author of them, then the words of the scriptures would sound merely like the noises from the sky without any meaning. If the words and their meanings are considered to come together naturally as the flowers and their fragrance, even then, there must be someone to choose the words; otherwise they will be no better than the senseless roar of the sea. The Siddhantin explains that the reasons for considering the Vedas to be eternal is because they have been revealed by the eternal and uncaused being. This is analogous to describing a”letter from the king as ‘tirumuham’ or the royal presence itself.”

It is very interesting to note that extremes of thought meet. If there is anyone system that stands at the extreme opposite of the mimasaka, it is Buddhism. Both vehemently fought with each other. Yet both of them were atheistic. Dr. Chandra Bhan Sharma says, (Indian Philosophy, Banaras, Nand Kishore & Bros. 1952) p. 329. “It was Kumarila who was actively engaged in a lifelong fight against Buddhists and if the credit for turning out Buddhism from the land of its birth … goes to one single person, it should go to Kumarila alone. Shankara simply beat the dead horse … Kumarila and the Buddhists like two lions fought each other and the fight led both to bleed to death.”

Hindu Avatara and Christian Incarnation

The Hindu term for incarnation is Avatara, literally it means “going through”. This is the doctrine of God going through which is a fundamental concept in the medieval and modern Hindu religions, especially in the Vaishnavaite cult. It is not found in the ancient Rig Vedic times, nor is it popular among the Saivites.

The Saivite does not believe in incarnations, because he thinks that God cannot become man. He thinks that God Shiva only assumes the form of a man (Or an animal), just for a time and to achieve some object to him; these are only appearances and have no reality. The Tiruvilaydal Puranam (the sacred plays of God), one of the finest books in Tamil literature tells how time and again Shiva appears, not as the son of a real woman, but suddenly from Kailash mountains and disappearing as quickly. Later in this article the Saivites arguments against the theory of incarnation is dealt with. In order to get a good view of the Hindu doctrine of “incarnation” one has to examine the Vaishnavaite religion. A greater number of these Vaishnavites’s worship either Rama or Krishna, the last two incarnations of Vishnu.

The following are some of the important aspects of the Avatara doctrine of the Hindu.

1. An Avatara is God Himself coming down. No man however good can rise to be an incarnation of God.

2. God in His ineffable reality is beyond our comprehension. In His grace he comes to reveal Himself, and to satisfy the deepest longings of Human souls. The Ramayana of Tulsidas emphasises this feature of the Avatara doctrine time and again. The story of a devotee who went to a saint asking for instructions about God mentioned in Tulsidas’ Ramayana is relevant to this point. The saint in answer to the devotee began a sermon on God as being unbegotten, immaterial indivisible, nameless, unchangeable, wishful, formless, indestructible, incompatible, spotless, immortal, emotionless, illimitable Brahm. The devotee was not satiated. He cried in his agony “Tell me O Father, how to worship the Incarnate”, Dr. A.J. Appasamy summarises this point saying,

The doctrine of Incarnation in India seems to have arisen as a protest, against the theory that God is impersonal, having no qualities or attributes. The impersonal nature of Brahman is expounded in most of the Upanishads. The Bhagavad Gita voices a protest with its doctrine of incarnation and Bhakti. It is only when He becomes incarnate and lives in the world as a man that we can really come to know Him.²

God of His own freewill becomes incarnate. Says Tulsidas in Ramayana.

This Rama, omnipresent Brahm, Lord of the Universe, and of Maya, the gem of the house of Raghu has become incarnate of his own freewill for the sake of his own worshippers.³

God is supposed to become incarnate in order to uphold law and justice, not once but many times. The classical statement went of this is to be found in the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna says.

Whenever there is decline of law, O Arjuna, and an outbreak of lawlessness I incarnate myself.

God’s love for man is said to be the real cause of incarnation. Thus, Tulsidas tells: “From the love that he bore his followers Rama took the form of a man, and by himself enduring misery secured their happiness.”⁴ Also, else where he says, There is one God, who has become incarnate and does many things only for the love he bears to his faithful people.”⁵

1. Some Hindu thinkers have the idea that the various “incarnations of God” are progressive in the nature of their revelation of God.⁶ The basis for this is that the first three avataras of Vishnu were of animals, the fish, the tortoise, and the boar; the fourth one (narasimha) was half human and half lion, and the fifth one was a dwarf. But Dr. A.J. Appasamy points out.

   To believe that god took an animal shape or a semi animal shape belongs to the early forms of religion and all scholars are agreed in thinking that man’s beliefs, are at first crude and primitive and then only gradually become more spiritual and elevated.⁷ The modern educated Hindu does not consider (as a general rule) the animal and semi animal forms of incarnations as a part of his working faith.⁸

2. It is sometimes held by the Hindus that the incarnation is only a human embodiment of a part of God. Thus, in the Ramayana one reads that Rama received half of the divine essence Incarnate in him, and his brother Bharata became an embodiment of only a fourth part of the divine essence, while the other two brothers Lakshman and Satrughna received even less.

The Indian Christian theology of the doctrine of Incarnation developed partly through criticising the Hindu Avatara doctrine and partly by criticising the western philosophical tendencies. Thus, one can almost see a dialectical movement here.

The following are some of the most important points the Indian Christian theologians raise in criticising the Hindu doctrine of Avatara:

1. The idea that the divine being can be divided into small portions that can be mathematically calculated seems to be crude.⁹ “If God is spirit, the laws of material should not be applied to Him. The idea of Amsamsa (part of the portion) goes directly against the advaita philosophy too. The Christian means by Incarnation, the whole being of God.

2. The Indian Christian theologians are not satisfied with the ethical tone of the purpose of the Incarnation as given by Hindus. “While Vaishnavaism is right in accepting the cause of Incarnation to be God’s nature itself, it does not sufficiently see the moral purpose of Incarnation,” says C.S. Paul.¹⁰ The highest expression of the purpose of Incarnation is (according to Gita) the destruction of the wicked and the preservation of the Law (Dharma). Even the Old Testament concept is that “God desireth not the death of a sinner but rather that he might turn from his wickedness and live.”¹¹

This destruction of the wicked, and the upholding of the Dharma is said to take place whenever Adharma is in the ascendant, and Dharma is declining. This means that so long as man is what men have known him to be throughout the ages, there will be practically no moment when an incarnation is not needed. C.S. Paul aptly observes, “There is no need for God incarnating for a purpose such as this. It is the case of adjustment of a moral order which has almost lost its equilibrium.”¹²

When the meaning of the word Dharma is seen in its context in the Gita, the ethical tone of the purpose of Incarnations becomes more baffling.

Dharma in those days had a tribal implication. Hence, when a people are under political dominance of another people, it is supposed that their Dharma is also under abeyance.¹³

Even the interpreter prejudiced in favour of the Gita has to concede that the upholding of the caste system with the Brahmin hierarchy at the top is part of the Dharma envisaged in this great book. “If God’s incarnation is to have any real purpose at all, it must be to burst through this custom morality and open men’s eyes to the higher reflective morality.”¹⁴

3. The doctrine of Avatara in Hinduism is vitiated by the doctrines of Karma and Samsara. Karma is the theory that action good or bad will produce its consequences in this life or the next and works with the precision and inexorableness of a law of nature.

Such a theory vitiates not only the doctrine of Incarnation but any teaching of God associated with the system. This at least is the point of view of Indian Christian theologians though very stoutly denied by Hindu writers, especially Radhakrishnan. The Indian Christian view point is:

1. The relation between God (styled in Hinduism as the bishop of Karma)¹⁵ and Karma is not satisfactorily explained. God becomes quite powerless and, Karma determines mechanically everything and as such, an Incarnation of God is not necessary.

2. The God of Incarnation by punishing the wicked is only helping Karma. But what men are afraid of is not even sin, but Karma itself. “With many Hindus the thought of future births and deaths is a terrible burden too heavy to be borne.”¹⁶ So the greatest yearning of the Hindu is to be freed from the bond of Karma and transmigration.

3. The Karma doctrine of the Hinduism proves to be very difficult for the Hindu to bear inasmuch as it places the burden of the whole law on human shoulders. Each man must bear his own punishment. There is no possibility of escape from this law. It is not so in Christianity, for to the Indian Christian, the yearning of the Hindu Bhakti poet Tukaram is a doctrine of fundamental importance.

    I am a mass of sin,
    Thou art all purity;
    Yet thou must take me as I am
    And bear my load for me.

¹⁷

The Christian teaching of Incarnation is that God in His abundant love for us became one of us. Of course, the Hindu might reply to this that the Christian doctrine of forgiveness negates the moral law underlying the theory of Karma. An answer to that is attempted in the next issue of the Pilgrim on Karma and the cross.

4. The doctrine of avataras in Hinduism is not satisfying to the Indian Christian, because there are many incarnations. To the Christian, Jesus is not merely a supreme incarnation but the one Incarnation. Because the Hindu thinks there are many incarnations every holy man is considered by the Hindu as an incarnation. So Hinduism as practised by the followers of Ramakrishna takes the Buddha, Mahommed, Krishna, Ramakrishna, Kabir, and literally hundreds of others as incarnations of God. They accept Jesus as one of them. Theoretically, if God be incarnate once, He might be incarnate many times. The answer to this must be faced realistically by the Indian Christian. Metaphysical supposition is one thing, actual fact is another. It might be possible for God to be incarnate several times. But has he actually done so? The answer to this, history alone can answer and not purely speculative theories.

A sincere honest attempt on the part of Christians both Indian and western gives the unqualified answer that in Jesus is to be found something unique not claimed anywhere else in other words, the impartial data furnished by History say that Jesus had a unique moral significance in what he taught, lived and claimed, that is nowhere else found.

Thus, Krishna is not thought to be a historical figure even by the thoughtful critical Hindu. Other founders of the religions may be great. But they do not come anywhere near Jesus in their claims. Nor is this all. The uniqueness of Jesus as the Incarnation is attested clearly by the experience of millions of His followers for the last two millennia.

The following prayer published in a Madras weekly paper shows the extent of God’s dethronement expected by the doctrine of many incarnations:

Sri Aurobindo, your name is our Mantra, your words are our scripture, your presence is our only hope, you are our saviour, you alone have the power to restore humanity to divinity; to bring peace and harmony here.

To serve thee is our salvation. Give us that lofty faith and pure surrender by which alone, we can deserve to be thy humble servants.” ¹⁸

Since the Indian Christian criticism of the Hindu theory of the avatara has been dealt with, it is but fair to say that the Hindus also¹⁹ level their criticism at the Christian Idea of the Incarnation.

1. The Saiva Siddhanta Hindu claims that the infinite God cannot become man. He can only appear. The body of God when he appears can only be a phantom body. Such a theory reminds one of Docetism in church history against which the first epistle of St. John is warning us:

That which was from the beginning that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness) ²⁰

It is surprising that of all the sects of Hinduism, that Saiva Siddhanta should take up this position because the Siddhantist believes that God is love. The answer of the Christian is, that if God’s love is genuine it would not stop at mere manifestations. It would identify itself completely with men. In fact the Christian goes even further and says that genuine love would go to the very limit even to the shameful death upon the cross. The full import of the Incarnation cannot be understood unless it is seen by the light shed upon it, the light of the cross.

Another way of answering the Siddhantist is the line from the first Epistle of John to show how the fact of the birth and the life of Jesus is well attested by History and cannot be easily refuted. It is not possible for anyone whose sense of history is sound to close his eyes to the fact that Jesus was born as a child, was obedient to His parents, was hungry, thirsty, tired, and needed rest. Pharisees and scribes, publicans and sinners, women and children, Roman soldiers and Imperial officials, prostitutes and poor people lepers and demoniac, Greeks and Samaritans, all had come in contact with Him. He lived a man among men. His death on the cross is the greatest attestation that He was not a phantom.

2. The Advaita Hindu criticises the doctrine of Incarnation from the point of view of absolute idealism. From the point of view of advaita, God is the only Real Existence. Reality must be one; so to the extent anything is not God, to that extent its existence becomes phenomenal. From the empirical point of view it might seem to have existence but from the ultimate or transcendent point of view, it has no existence. The unreal is superimposed upon the real and so unity is seen as diversity. God the unlimited cannot be limited by space and time. Anything that is Historical is contingent. Anything contingent cannot be absolute. So God cannot enter into time process. Says Swami Aseshananda:

    To the Hindus the historicity of Christ is of no concern.
    For they care more for the principle than the personality.
    The eternal message matters more than the events of life.
    Knowledge of historical veracity is not the last word or
    acme of true spirituality ... Krishna may be a mythical
    figure but the thinkers who contemplated such an idea
    and conjured up such an image were as great and noble
    as the Krishna they conceived.

²¹

Absolute idealism is not the peculiar proprietary right of Sankara. In the west too it has had a long History and many great thinkers have subscribed to it. The absolute idealists in the west have not launched the same criticism against the doctrine of Incarnation but inherently their position would not be consistent with Incarnation.

The basis of absolute idealism is epistemological monism. But as Dr. Brightman points out:

There must forever be a duality between my mind (as long as it is what it is) and the other minds that I know whether finite or absolute; monism cannot squeeze the many persons into one.

The idea of conceiving God as monistic absolute, seems to be a sort of Noah’s ark affording protection from the deluge of difficulties confronted by the ever-shifting changes and contingencies of history.

So the idealistic philosophy would posit an Absolute, an eternal immutable inflexible reality beyond the world of time. F.H. Bradley, Bosanquet, and Pringle Pattison have more or less subscribed to this view. The epistemological, monism of these if consistently pushed into would lead to the pantheistic metaphysical monism of Sankara and the Upnashadic Dictum of “Tatvamasih” would be their final word. As a matter of fact they are not devoid of pantheistic tendencies.

If Schiller’s humanism and William James’ pragmatism did give some help to Indian Christian theology, it was their vehement attack upon Bradley and his company. By so doing, they have attacked Sankara and Nagarjuna and have shown the limitations of this pantheistic monistic absolute idealism. While this contribution was purely negative, nonetheless it was great.

The idea of absolute God is a legacy from Greek philosophy so in the early church the difficulty was the problem “how to bring this impassible serene being out of His solitude into the world by the Avatara of Jesus Christ.”²²

The cross is an emphatic convulsion and cataclysm in the Divine mind, which is impossible to reconcile with the absolutist doctrine of unchanging revelation to be drawn up in dogmas and creeds like the axioms and postulates of mathematics.²³

Knudsen shows that etymologically the word absolute means perfect and as such he uses it to refer to God.²⁴ Thus understood it has nothing inconsistent with the Christian concepts of the Incarnation.

So the supreme reality is not a metaphysical unitary entity. He is the Purushottamaa, the excellent person. In other words, the philosophy of personalism is the only answer to the absolute idealism of Sankara.

The real defect of Sankara’s absolute idealism is its identification of thought with reality. Thought to the absolute idealist is all-inclusive. To the personalist, reality includes thought, but is certainly more than thought. Reality is deed as well as thought. How reality is constituted, the personalist would hesitate to describe because of the incapacity of the thought process. But he is quite sure that it is not made in Platonic fashion by taking an idea and stuffing it with a formless substance.

Apart from this idea that idea is the only reality many of the Hindu leaders statements cannot be understood. To the Indian Christian a phantom appearance of God would not be satisfactory. Incarnation must have something objective. It must be apprehended by thought but must be distinct from thought.

From what has been said above, it is clear that the doctrine of the Incarnation has an important place in Indian Christian theology. In this they differ from the Barthian theologians who using Isaiah’s words, “Verily thou art a God that hides Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour,”²⁵ and the words of St. Paul, “Yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we Him no more,”²⁶ seem to think that in Jesus the son was hidden. Their emphasis was more on the resurrection of Jesus rather than the birth, of Jesus. If God does not reveal Himself through the process of history, what Barth says would be true, that is at the moment of His ascension, His divinity flashes out. But the Indian Christian theologians are dissatisfied with Barth. They ask the simple question as to what happened to the body of our lord. It was not found in the tomb. So the risen lord was not separated from His pre-crucifixion body by casting it off, although there is reason to believe that His resurrected body was of a different nature as the New Testament account narrates plainly. “We can only know Jesus after his flesh for he never shed His body. Indian Christian theology probes deeply into the meaning of the fact that Jesus ascended into heaven as Jesus …”²⁷ In other words, Chenchiah would say that humanity has not borrowed Jesus from heaven to stay on earth for a while. “Rather we have lent Jesus to stay in heaven for a while.”²⁸

The refutation of absolute idealism and the acceptance of personalism has certain implications for the doctrine of Incarnation. Chenchiah summarises them thus:

The Indian Christian theology regards Jesus as essentially the son of man who in the midst of changes retains this essential human nature. The identity of man in his various stages of life is not an identity of abstraction but an identity of reference in the midst of change and growth. Even so the identity of man consciousness in the midst of changing circumstances. The classical doctrine which makes incarnation an adventure and episode, a coming into the world for a purpose, necessarily involves that after redemption was achieved Jesus had to go back to his pre-Jesus status in Trinity, does not support the view that Jesus is the unchanging core. Indian Christian theology interpreting Him as permanently human, accepts Him as unchanging to us, Man, in history.²⁹

Here, a reference must be made to the doctrine of “Avykata” or the unmanifest which has certain bearings on the doctrine of avatara. Sankara was a confirmed Kantian, seven hundred years before Kant was born. His phenomenalism might be summarised briefly that thought “conditions”. When we think of a thing we put it into certain categories. The first is the category of “Nama” or name; and the second is that of “Rupa” or form. In other words it is not possible for us to apprehend things as they are apart from their name and form. When we apply this to God the Absolute Reality, Sankara says that we can never think of Him. We cannot even use the word “He” because so doing we put Him under one form of a person and by so doing, limit the supra-personal as well as impersonal qualities of the Brahma. So Sankara dichotomises knowledge or the object of knowledge in perception, into the transcendental and the phenomenal. The God of transcendental knowledge is the Brahm, the unknowable; this he calls Nirguna Brahm, that is Brahm without qualities. But there is the phenomenal knowledge, and the transcendent Brahm is apprehended by the religious people as Ishwar or Saguna Brahm. This God has qualities like goodness, truth and bliss, or sat chit and anand. But the validity of this Saguna Brahm can be claimed only from the empirical standpoint. It might be a means or stepping stone to get to the higher and transcendent knowledge, but Saguna Brahm is relativistic to the human process of knowledge and from the ultimate point of view this knowledge is inferior. For his scriptural basis he uses avyakta or the unmanifest of the Upanishads where the Hiranya Garbha or the germ of the present cosmic universe before its current manifestation, is called the unmanifest.³⁰

The influence of Sankara on Hindu thought is profound, and this idea had definite bearings on the doctrine of the Incarnation. That is, certain distinctions are made within the Godhead as God the transcendent and God the immanent, Brahman and Ishwar and Avykta and Vyatka.³¹ The Incarnation of God in Jesus is not Vyatka or the manifest of the unmanifested God.

    The God whom we are in search is He who is related
    to our experience, and especially to the mind of Jesus.
    If there is a God or if there are elements in Him unrelated
    to Jesus and existing outside Him, they are simply
    non-existent to us.

³²

The question might be asked here whether the incarnation exhausts the absoluteness of God. If it does not, Jesus’ Incarnation is not an avatara par excellence. If He does, then there seems to be a bit of audacity involved in the conception. But the Indian Christian need not belabour this point. In His last discourse, our master definitely says, “My father is greater than I”³³. Even though at that very discourse He has stated “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,³⁴ and I and my father are one”.³⁵

Story Section

What Makes a Home Really Full?

There is a story which Hindu mothers tell their children. There might be some local adaptation or some slight colouring in minor details - but the story is practically the same as found in the great epic “Mahabharata”.

Once upon a time there lived five good princes named Pandavas. Their cousins Kurus were wicked and selfish. It so happened that the five good princes and their evil cousins were sent to the same teacher for studies.

In those days, the teachers were respected very much. The students were required to leave their homes and go and live with the teacher. They had to cut wood for him, procure his food and in every way serve him and more than all they were to give him the utmost respect and reverence.

Because these princes were of royal blood, this teacher taught them many things that would be of use to princes. He taught them how to use the bow and arrow, how to fight valiantly, how to organise and lead an army etc. He emphasised that they must be virtuous and brave.

The five Pandavas were faithful and intelligent. So the teacher liked them. On the other hand their cousins the Kurus were not so bright. They thought that their teacher was partial to the five brothers. It was the idea of the Kurus that in any honest test or trial they would be able to beat the Pandavas. When the teacher heard this he was sorry, but he thought it would not be harmful to them if they were given a real problem to solve. So he did put them to test.

He told them, “I will give you both an equal sum of money. Each party must join together and prepare a house that is full. I shall come tonight and see and judge which party has done well.

The Kurus met together and thought over the situation. They reasoned and argued, and finally they unanimously came to the conclusion that the amount of money given was ridiculously small and that, hay alone bought for that sum would fill the house full. It was already evening. So they hastened to the hay market and literally filled the house. The house was so full that they had to wait outside. It was a dark rainy night, and they were drenched. When the teacher came he felt sorry that these princes had gone to such troubles to fill their house full. So he said to them “Let us go and see how your five cousins have fared”. When they approached they could see nothing but an empty house from a distance. But as soon as they entered they saw the five princes graciously welcoming with joy the guests. The house was well lighted and there was music and gladness. When the teacher asked the Pandavas, the eldest replied, Oh honoured teacher you asked us to fill the house full, and so we have filled it with cheerful light, radiant joy, innocent laughter, genial hospitality and ravishing music. Don’t you think our house is full?

The teacher did not want to rub hard on the Kurus the plain truth that they had failed in the examination. The radiant joy of the Pandavas was contagious, and they learnt a lesson that a house cannot be filled with mere material things.

Book Reviews

Yoga and Western Psychology: A Comparison

By Geraldine Coster (London Oxford University Press: 1949) p. 248.

A lady psychiatrist has written this popular treatise, and it has already undergone five impressions. The style is simple and very few technical expressions are used. It has three parts. The first deals with analytical therapy in the West. The second part deals with Yoga and has two chapters. The first is concerned with the basic principles of Patanjali’s philosophy and, the second chapter is a modified translation of the Yoga Sutras. The third part is a comparison of the Yoga with the analytic therapy. What the author hopes “to show by the comparison of Yoga with analytic therapy is that these two have much in common, and that although Yoga is perhaps an Eastern method, it nevertheless contains the clue needed by the West, if the analytical method and theory is to reach its fullest scope as a regenerating and recreating factor in modern life”. (pp. 10, 11). The author is Psychiatrist as mentioned before. So she uses the word ‘salvation’ primarily in a psychological sense. It is nothing more than “a sense of poise derived from within”. If this definition is accepted, then the critic has nothing much to say against this book as a whole. But many Hindus would not be willing to do so. At any rate, as far as Patanjali, was concerned, salvation was much more to him than a mere poise of mind, in the present life. Of course the author knows this very well for she says “That they have other and deeper meanings I am fully aware”.

According to the author religion is an abortive experience blind alley leading to frustration to many men and women. She addresses this book to such people. However, the author is not concerned with the actual contents of the theological beliefs of the people for whose lives she offers this remedy Yoga.

For, according to this author, “Yoga is not a training in the tenets of any religious faith, but an exercising of the spiritual faculty of man an expansion of his capacity to deal with spiritual reality in whatever form.” This enables the author to take a non-committal attitude towards the content of any religion and treat all religions especially Christianity and Hinduism alike. This does not mean, that she blinks over facts. Here is a quotation “From our standpoint of religion and morality, the Yoga sutras are both redundant and deficient. They enjoin various practices that are in western eyes foolish, irrelevant, inconvenient and unnecessary and appear to ignore much that we consider vital. Thus, in the four books of Patanjali only four or five sutras are concerned with devotion to a personal deity, and these merely recommend it as a useful practice, as one way of expanding spiritual capacity. On the other hand abstinence from flesh food and from all forms of alcoholic drink is assumed as a Sine Qun Non” (p. 78).

The average reader who is interested in Yoga and does not know Sanskrit, is usually bewildered by text books on Indian Philosophy, because of the large number of technical words used in them. To such persons this book is a real help. Firstly, the author gives a good introduction to the philosophy and world-view assumed by the Yoga system. There is, she says, “much that is foreign to the non-Hindu mind which must be considered” first if one is to have an adequate background on which to evaluate the Yoga Sutras themselves.” This she has done very well - considering the space she has allotted to it in this small book. Then she gives an almost a word by word translation of the sutras - which will enable the reader to judge for himself the merits or demerits of the whole system.

Another great value of the book is, there are some acute observations which provoke our thought. We may not accept them but they challenge us. These are parenthetical observations introduced to illustrate or explain her points. Here is an example

“The Eastern idea of ignorance may be compared with the Christian conception of original sin. Just as the Christian is said to be born in sin and to have as his object in life a battle with sin so in the East, the individual is regarded as being born into ignorance as existing in a world of illusion built up by ignorance. The goal of evolution is the dispelling of ignorance, as the goal of Christian life is the conquest of sin.”

The author’s plea is that “Yoga as followed in the East is a practical method of mind-development quite as practical as analytical therapy and far more practical and closely related to life than the average university course.” Her recommendation whose aim is not to prove or disprove the existence of poltergeists - but to demonstrate to the ordinary public the possibility (or impossibility) of genuine super-physical experience on this side”.

This book is very readable and may serve as an introduction to the study of the subject.

R.D.I.

Your God Is Too Small

By J.B. PHILLIPS (New York MacMillan Co. 1953) pp. 14.

This is a challenging book from a famous author. Even though it is written by a Christian Minister and has in mind Christians, it is reviewed in the Pilgrim because it enunciates principles that have wider applications.

Many people harbour in their minds inadequate conceptions concerning the Deity, and because their God is too small they are either unable to accept and worship Him or they become narrow and bigoted in their theology. So this brilliant author takes up a number of these inadequate conceptions and exposes their absurdities. His critical analysis demolishes one notion of God such as a ‘Resident Policeman’, ‘Grand Old Man’, ‘Absolute Perfection’, ‘Heavenly Bosom’, ‘God in a Box’, ‘Managing Director’ etc. as being too small and hence too inadequate to bear the stress and strain of modern times.

But the author is not a destructive critic. He destroys in order that he may build. With clarity and cogency he shows that if we want to have a God whom we can respect and worship we must seek Him where He has most clearly revealed Himself. That is in the historic revelation of Jesus Christ. He says “Unless we are to remain befogged and bewildered and give up all hopes of ever knowing God as a Person, we have to accept His own planned focussing of Himself in a human being - Jesus Christ. If we accept this as fact, as the Fact, of History, it becomes possible to find a satisfactory and comprehensive answer to and what is equally important, a great many problems, and what is equally important, a reasonable ‘shelf’ on which the unsolved perplexities may be left with every confidence.”

The author’s style is simple, direct and forceful. No abstruse or technical words are used. His approach to the subject is original, So the book is very stimulating and profitable.

The book is highly recommended for sceptics and non-Christians because it sets the highest possible standard by which the concept of God is to be judged. In fact, it admits that it is impossible for anyone to have too big a conception of God, and the more scientific knowledge (in whatever field) advances, the greater becomes our idea of His vast and complicated wisdom.

Hope the author will continue to write and produce many more books like this.

Social Ethics in Modern Hinduism

By ROLAND W. SCOTT (Calcutta, Y. M. C. A. Publishing House: 1953) pp. 243. Price not stated.

Here is a thought-provoking book by a distinguished missionary whose keen sense of accurate analytic observation makes this work authoritative. The author deals with the subject in a spirit of scientific objectivity. Movements of tremendous national significance are described without the least trace of passion or prejudice. This spirit of detachment, I am sure, is its passport to many cultured Hindu homes.

The author says that the purpose of this study is to examine the nature and development of Hindu Ethical thought from the early nineteenth century to the beginning of India’s national Independence.

Chapter one is an excellent analysis of the religious situation in a changing society. One of the striking observations mentioned in this chapter is, that values of ancient culture which harmonise with modern culture were approved, with the result that doctrines like Karma and transmigration were reduced to a minor position. The whole book is full of such observations and these make the book meaty.

The second chapter describes the manner in which the leaders of the nineteenth century religious movements undertook the task of reforming Hinduism according to their new ideals. There was the tendency to maintain continuity with traditional religion and criticism was aimed at current religious practices which (the sectarian leaders claimed) perverted the essential meaning and experience of Hinduism. The next three chapters show how the political and economic developments have shaped modern social ethics of Hinduism. The status and value of the individual in society compelled a reconception of the religious meaning of life and varna dharma had to be reinterpreted. In order to understand better the economic ethics among Hindus, the author takes the view of Gandhi (non-violent Voluntary Co-operation), Narendra Deva (revolutionary socialism) and Jawaharlal Nehru (democratic Collectivism) and deals with them separately.

The next two chapters deal with the caste system and the emancipation of women in modern Hindu Society. The last chapter is a nugget of gold. It deals with the new view of life which has risen out of the whole religious and social situation and the extent to which Hindu religion has been affected by it. The Author’s descriptions are accurate, views balanced, and conclusions sober. Every Indian Christian should read this book because herein is shown how the modern Hindu has awakened to new ethical responsibilities and is working out a moral view of life, as a means to immediate social benefits. Every missionary can read this book with profit because it gives him first-hand information of the various factors that condition social ethics in modern Hinduism.

The Y.M.C.A. Publishing House is to be congratulated for the publication of this book. The type is clear, and faultless. A good index and a helpful bibliography at the end of the book adds to its attractiveness.

R.D.I.

Saiva Siddhanta

By V. PARANJOTI (London, Luzac & Co. Ltd. 1954) pp. 152. Price in India Rs. 5/-. In England 10s-6d.

This is the revised and enlarged edition of the volume of the author’s SAIVA SIDHANTA which was very popular and soon ran out of print. In bringing out this second edition, Dr. Paranjothi has made full use of the advance made by the research of modern scholars on ancient Dravidian culture. Says she “Since this book was first published, there have been some writings by scholars, which throw light on the origins of the Sava Siddhanta. Other modern writings which highlight the Dravidian culture-level of ancient times have been helpful in understanding the independence attested by the Saiva Siddhanta system in maintaining its distinctive features against the persuasions of differing schools of thought”.

One of the most important changes is the fact “the monistic norm in the light of which this system had been evaluated in the previous book, has been rejected”. Only the philosophic aspect of the system has been presented in this volume. But we are extremely glad to hear that the author is now preparing another book in which the practical aspects of the system are dealt with. We are earnestly looking forward to its publication soon.

The inclusion of an appendix consisting of some notes and problems is a noteworthy feature of the book.

Here, in brief, is a comprehensive appraisal of the Saiva Siddhanta system soberly worked out in the light of modern scholarship. It is an admirable book, fascinating and richly documented. It contains, in small space, and in beautiful form, exactly the kind of information needed by one who, without wishing to be an expert desires to possess a reliable and accurate knowledge of the Saiva Siddhanta. So we commend this book highly.

Banaras Institute of Hinduism

(October 3rd to November 13th, 1953).

A Brief Report

The course of study in Hinduism and the Christian approach covered a period of full six weeks this year. As the announced dates (October 19th to November 13th) did not suit some students, I had to antedate it by two weeks earlier and start in the beginning of October. Altogether fifteen regular students came. Besides this three local young men attended casually. Of the fifteen one came from Orissa, two from Bengal, nine from Jabalpur, one from Cochin and two from Banaras. There were 2 missionaries, 2 Indian evangelists, 1 Professor, 1 Layman, 1 Secular, student and 8 young theologicals. They represented various churches and missions such as Syrian (both Jacobite and Mar Thoma), Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist and Anglican.

I was fortunate in securing the services of Dr. S.R. Dutta (late of Shantiniketan, Bolpur). He gave two series of lectures one each on:

1. The Modern Religious Movements - especially the Brahmo Samaj and the Ramkrishna Mission
2. The Cultural Heritage of India.

This was both very instructive and practically useful. My own subjects comprised the following:

1. A brief sketch of the development of Aryanism of the Vedas into the present day Hinduism,

2. Certain essential factors of Hindu faith and practice such as:

   1. Varna and caste,
   2. Idolatry,
   3. Karma and reincarnation,
   4. Conceptions of Reality - gods and goddesses,
   5. Ahimsa,
   6. Incarnations and Saviours,
   7. Sanyas and Ashram,
   8. Sin and salvation (Maya and Mukti).

3. Suitable method of approach

4. Present day trends in Hinduism etc.

There were leisurely visits to, and study of, institutions (Cultural and Religious), and of learned saintly personalities. As in the past so, this time not only have students acquired knowledge and experience, but both teachers and taught have grown in Christian convictions and certainties especially through the study of the Word of God with the background of Hinduism.

R.C. DAS.

Printed by Dr. E.M. Moffatt at the Lucknow Publishing House Lucknow - (250) - 808 - 3-1954.

Patrons:

1. The Metropolitan of India, Calcutta.
2. Bishop Clement D. Rockey, Lucknow.

President:

The Rt. Rev, C.J.G. Robinson, M.A., Allahabad.

Vice-Presidents:

1. The Rt. Rev. A.J. Appasamy, M.A., Ph.D., Coimbatore.
2. The Rev. C.E. Abraham, M.A., B.D., D.D., Serampore.
3. The Rev. C.S. Thoburn, M.A., S.T.B., Jabalpur.

Secretary of Society:

Dr. A. Ralla Ram, Jamna, Allahabad.

Convener of Institutes:

Rev. R.C. Das, M.A., 129 Dashashwamedh, Banaras, U.P.

Editor of the Pilgrim:

Dr. R.D. Immanuel, Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur, M.P.

Treasurer:

Prof. P.C. Addy, M.A., Bible House, Thornhill Road, Allahabad.

Committee:

1. Prof. V.E. Devadut, M.A., B.D., Ph.D., Serampore
2. The Rev. Paul Das, B.A., Allahabad.
3. The Rev. C.G. Diehl, Madura.
4. The Principal, School of Islamics, Aligarh.
5. Mr. S.J. Duraiswamy, B.A., N.M.S. Madras.
6. The Rev. R.W. Scott, M.A., Christian Council, Nagpur.

Editorial Committee:

1. Rt. Rev. Bishop A.J. Appasamy, Coimbatore.
2. Rev. C.G. Diehl, Madura.
3. Rev. R.C. Das, M.A., Benares.

Objects and Aims

The objects of the Christian Society for the Study Hinduism are:

1. To create and maintain adequate interest in the study of Hinduism by Christians
2. To carry on the study in a sympathetic, constructive and critical way for the purpose of effective evangelism and
3. To achieve the above objects in co-operation with Church and Mission bodies.

The activities of the Society are:

1. An Institute of Hinduism in Benares,
2. ‘The Pilgrim’, a quarterly bulletin bearing on Hinduism, its relation to Christianity and for work among Hindus and
3. Organising a permanent School Hinduism

Every member will receive THE PILGRIM free Membership fee Rs. 4 per year

Note

Donations may be sent to the Treasurer:

Prof. P.C. Addy, M.A.,
Bible House,
12, Thornhill Road,
Allahabad

Enquiries about the Society and its work should be addressed to the Secretary:

Dr. A. Ralla Ram, Jamna, Allahabad

All communications and correspondence relating to the Pilgrim should be addressed:

Dr. R.D. Immanuel, Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur