Jesus Bhakti in Hindu Communities
Try: "R.C. Das", Banaras, Bhakt

The Pilgrim

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

Editor: Rev. A.J. Appasamy, M. A, (Harvard) Ph.D. (Oxon.)

MANORAMA, PALAMCOTTAH

Volume Date Issue
2 October 1942 3

Benares Institute of Hinduism

(October 18 to November 13, 1942)

1. Length of Term

All students will arrive by the evening of Monday the 12th October 1942. The course will be run for five weeks. Students should aim at staying for the full term or at least for a full week Visitors interested in this session and in the religious and cultural life of Benares will be welcome at the lectures and conducted with the students on any tour.

2. Staff and Work

The Medium of Instruction Will Be English

A. The following Christian teachers Will give regular lectures on their particular subjects and assist students in all possible ways:

  1. ‘Village Hinduism’: Six lectures: partly illustrated by lantern slides, By the Rev. M.P. Davis, D.D. of American Evangelical Mission, C. P. (Nov. 2-7).
  2. ‘Special Experiences of Pilgrimages in India’ by Mr. G.W. Maw, President of the Friends’ Service Council, Itarsi, C. P. (Oct-26-31)
    1. ‘The Vedas’ and
    2. ‘The Gita’: eleven lectures: by Mr. Ashananda Nag, B.A. (Sanskrit and Philosophy), of Calcutta Baptist Church.
  4. ‘The Bhakti Saints of India’: fifteen lectures: by the Rev. A.J. Appasamy, M.A. (Harvard); Ph.D. (Oxon.), of the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon:
  5. ‘Hinduism in Theory and Practice’: six lectures: by the Rev. A.C. Chakravarty, G. Th., B.D. of the M. E. Church, Christian Ashram, Brindaban.
  6. ‘The Evolution of Hindu Thought’: Post-Vedic (500 B. C.-1800 A. D.): Six lectures: by Prof. V.E. Dutt, M.A., B.D., Prof. of the History and Philosophy of Religion: Serampore College.
  7. ‘Popular Hinduism’: Fifteen lectures: by R.C. Das, M.A. (Philosophy and Sanskrit); of the Benares United City Mission.

B. Lectures on particular aspects of the indigenous religions of India (viz., Aryanism or Vedicism, Buddhism, Jainism and their modern developments) are expected from the following, among others, of the local non-Christian scholars.

  1. Dr. Bhagavan Das, well-known and widely respected Vedic scholar and author, Collaborator with the late Annie Besant.
  2. Bikshu Jagadish Kashyap, M.A., Sanskrit and Philosophy, Chairman, Pali Department of Hindu University, Buddhist monk.
  3. Bhikshu Anand Kansalyayan, Buddhist monk and scholar of the Mahabodhi Society, Sarnath.
  4. Pandit Sukh Lalji. Prof of Jainism, Hindu University, blind and speaks in Hindi.
  5. Dr. A. A, Altekar, M.A., LL. B.D. Litt., Prof of Ancient Indian History, Hindu University.
  6. Dr. B.L. Atreya, M.A., D. Litt., Prof of Philosophy and Psychology: Hindu University.
  7. Pandit Sri Krishna Joshi, B A., LL. B., of the Department of Religion, Hindu University.
  8. Swami Sbyamanand Brahmachari: author and sadhu.
  9. Mr. G.N. Gokhale, Secretary, Theosophical Society.
  10. Dr. D.P. Gosh, M. B. Superintendent, Ramakrishna Mission Home of Service.
  11. Principal of the D. A. V. College or Secretary of the Arya Samaj.
  12. Swami Gyananand of the Bharat Dharma Mahamandal.

3. Special Opportunities

  1. The Laboratory

Lectures will be supplemented by conversations with pilgrims, saints, sannyasi and scholars, representing almost all the sects of Hinduism

  1. There, are several excellent Libraries in the city for reference and study.

  2. Institutions and places of cultural and religious interest to which visits will be arranged:-

The Golden Temple, the Durga Temples, Totadri (Ramanuja) Mutt, Rishi Valley Trust (Montessori and other Theosophical Institutions), Fine Art Gallery (B.H.U.), Nagri Pracharini Sabha, the Arya Samaj and its Institutions, Weaving centres (where fine and costly Benares. Sarees are made in Mussulman homes), Temple of Mother India, Kashi Vidyapith, Buddhist Ruins and Temple, Hindu University, Bharat Dharma Mahamandal, Central Hindu Schools, the river and Ghats, Ramnagar (fort-place of the Maharaja: of Benares with its armour), Jain College and Temples and sites sacred to the memory of Valmiki and Tulsidas.

4. Expenses

  1. Board and Lodge (inclusive charges) European style Rs. 2/8 per day. Indian style Rs. 1/- per day.
  2. Tuition fees: for salaries under Rs. 100/-, Five Rupees; for salaries under Rs. 200/-, Ten Rupees; upwards, Fifteen Rupees. Charges are for the whole term; no reduction for part-time work.

5. Requisites

Benares will be fairly cool and pleasant in October and November. Clothing and bedding should be warm and adequate Mosquito curtains are essential. It is desirable that Indians should wear indigenous dress, at least for the excursions to Hindu shrines.

UNITED CITY MISSION, RAMKATORA, BENARES CANTONMENT, R.C. DAS, (Convener).

IMPORTANT NOTICE

The Annual Meeting of the Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism at Benares

November 3, 1942, at 10 A.M.

All members and office-bearers of the Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism are urgently invited to attend the Annual Meeting of the Society to be held at the United. City Mission, Benares, on November 3, 1942, at 10 A.M.

The Annual Meeting will hear a review of the year’s work and the minutes of the Society. It will call for reports from all committees, receive the financial statement, set up the budget for the coming year, confirm the new office-holders and make any necessary appointments. Fine fellowship and an address by an outstanding leader will also form part of the Annual Meeting.

Kindly make careful note of the time and place for this meeting and the business to be transacted as no other notice is to be issued.

SIGRID P. GOULD, Secretary.

The Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism

Patrons: The Metropolitan of India, Calcutta Bishop BRENTON T. BRADLEY, Delhi

President: Bishop C.D. ROCKEY, Delhi.

Vice-Presidents: Dr. A.J. APPASAMY, Palamcottah. Rev. G.H.C. ANGUS, Principal, Serampore College.

Secretary: Mrs. W.S. GOULD, Professor, Ewing Christian College, Allahabad.

Convener, Benares Institute: Rev. R.C. DAS, Benares United City Mission, Ramkatora, Benares Cantonment.

Treasurer: Rev. S.R. HOLT, Benares United City Mission, Ramkatora, Benares Cantonment.

Committee: Mr. PAUL DAS, Rev. H.C. BALASUNDRARAM, Prof. V.E. DUTT

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. To conduct in Benares (and if possible in a South Indian centre) an Institute of Hinduism stressing its popular aspects,
  2. To publish The Pilgrim, a quarterly bulletin, bearing on Hinduism, its relation To Christianity and work among Hindus and
  3. To encourage the organisation of a permanent School of Hinduism.

The minimum annual subscription is Rs. 2/- Membership fees and gifts may be sent to the treasurer, Rev. S.R. Holt, Benares United City Mission, Ramkatora, Benares Cantonment

Every member will receive The Pilgrim free.

The Katha Upanishad

BY THE EDITOR

The Upanishads began to be written down when the Aryans had settled down in India on the plains of the Ganges and Jumna. They are no longer a new race adjusting themselves to the conditions of a foreign country and climate. The spontaneity and joyousness of the early Vedic period has disappeared. The priestly caste dominates Hindu Society. Various sacrifices and ceremonies are performed, the minutest details being governed by law. The doctrine of Karma has found a secure lodgement in the country and has thrown a blight over the Hindu people. It is believed that men would have to suffer or enjoy the consequences of their deeds in successive births.

Naturally a reaction to these various conditions set in. Thinkers arose, often from the ranks of laymen, who grappled with the problems of life and death. They were not prepared to accept the laws of the Brahmans without question. They were not satisfied with the elaborate ceremonies and sacrifices which had come into existence. It was not possible for them to go back to the simple, happy, confident outlook of the old Vedic poets. New longings and ideals surged within them. They discussed questions about God and man and salvation with remarkable vigour and independence going courageously wherever they thought the truth led them. The Upanishads bear evidence of this period of alert and bold thinking. There were many seers who lived with their disciples, often in forests, pursuing diligently the spiritual quest. The instruction which they gave to their disciples has been handed down and written out as the Upanishads. At least thirteen of these Upanishads are of great antiquity. They are the source-books for the religious and philosophical systems of India. Every thinker of subsequent times has traced his doctrine to the Upanishads.

The Upanishads show a marked variety of religious beliefs. We find in them the beginnings of Advaita, the doctrine which teaches that there is only one Reality, Brahman and that all else is unreal. Though Sankara who developed this doctrine into a philosophical structure came only in the eighth century A. D. already we see in the Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad passages which point to an Advaita doctrine. The individual soul is identical with the Divine soul. As long as the individual soul thinks it is different from the Divine Soul, so long is it caught in the cycle of births and deaths. In a flash of spiritual insight a person must realise that he and every other person is completely identical with Brahman, the Divine Soul. This knowledge will give him entire freedom from the misery of existence. He who has attained this knowledge in the depths of his heart will no longer be born again and again to complete his spiritual education. For indeed the moment he attains this knowledge his religious training is complete. It will be seen that according to this way of thinking Jnana or knowledge is the supreme means of salvation.

Another doctrine which is found in the Upanishads and which developed later into the Samkhya system is Atheistic Dualism. There are two realities, Prakriti and Purusha, Nature and Soul. The world can be fully explained in these terms. Prakriti has in the course of natural evolution developed into the world as we see it. Men with their various sense - organs and intellectual activities and the elements such as earth, air, fire, water and ether have all by themselves gradually developed from the primordial matter known as Prakriti. This Prakriti evolves by itself: and the light of Purusha falls on it. Prakriti is like a blind man who is active but cannot move about without help. Left to himself the blind man is confined to one place. Purusha is like a lame man, who can see well, but he too cannot move about. Left to himself he is helpless. But if the lame man could sit on the shoulder of the blind man and direct his movements, they could go wherever they please. The lame man gives clear directions as to where they should go, and the blind man willingly carries out these instructions. Such is the relation between Prakriti and Purusha These two realities are enough to account for all the facts of life. There is no need to speak of the existence of a God.

Another doctrine which is found in the Upanishads is that of a belief in a personal God who may be worshipped with Bhakti. This doctrine is found in two of the later Upanishads, the Katha and the Svetasvatara.

The Katha Upanishad was probably written about 500 to 300 B. C, during that great period of religious activity throughout the world when the Hebrew prophets in Palestine, Plato in Greece, Buddha, in India and Confucius in China flourished. The Svetasvatara Upanishad was probably written about 250-200 B. C.

About the Katha Upanishad Mr. C. Rajagopalachari, for some time Premier of Madras, writes in Tamil: ‘There are ten principal Upanishads Among them Katha Upanishad is regarded as the best. When I was free from political work I had a desire to translate the Katha Upanishad in easy Tamil style and to provide a commentary for those who could not read it in the original Sanskrit. As I began the task, I realised that my having undertaken it was a serious mistake for my knowledge of the Scriptures was inadequate, and my spiritual education was far from ripe. It became clear to me that the work was quite beyond my capacity. Yet I have completed it in a way, because of the strong urge within me.’

The Katha Upanishad opens with a story. Naciketas was a Brahman youth who offended his father, a priest. This priest had given as an offering some of his cows which were thin, lean and worn out. Naciketas could not bear the idea that his father had been so mean and had sent such poor cows as his offering to another Brahman priest. He, therefore, himself volunteered to go with the cows and to serve the priest to whom the cows were sent as offering. In this way he thought he would compensate for the poverty and meanness of his father’s gift. So two or three times he asked his father to which priest he could go. These persistent questions on the part of Naciketas troubled his father. They implied a criticism of the gift of the cows which he had made, a criticism which he was not any too pleased to hear. They also implied that he must be prepared to lose his son who, out of a noble heart, volunteered to make up for the deficiency of his father’s gift by his own personal service to the priest. This also the father did not like. Being troubled and disturbed by the persistent questioning he answered angrily, ‘To Death do I give you’. He did not probably mean any more than an angry Englishman who shouts ‘Go to Hell’ when he loses his temper. But it was just like Naciketas to take his father’s word in right earnest and to walk away immediately, in implicit obedience, to the land of death. Arrived at the house of Yama, the God of Death, he found that God absent and no one looked after him. So Naciketas remained for three nights in the house of Death, starving and hungry. When Yama returned and found the Brahman youth unfed, he was greatly worried, for was it not necessary to entertain lavishly a Brahman guest? Behold, this Brahman guest had been greatly neglected! He offered to Naciketas three gifts as recompense for such gross neglect. As his first gift Naciketas asked that he might be reconciled to his father. This is a further trait of nobility in the character of Naciketas. The desired boon was granted to him immediately. Naciketas asked as his second gift the meaning of a particular sacrifice and this also was explained to him readily. As his third gift Naciketas desired to know what happened to man after death. Naciketas said:

    This doubt there is about a man departed, -
    Some say, 'He is,' some, 'He does not exist';
    This would I know, instructed well by thee:
    Of the three gifts, this gift is the third.

1

Obviously the God of Death, if his existence was believed in was the most competent person to answer this question. He would know better than anyone else what was in store for men after death. It was quite a happy idea on the part of Naciketas to have sought light from the right sources on this most perplexing of human questions. But it distressed Yama beyond measure, and he sought to put off Naciketas by the offer of other gifts:

    Centenarian sons and grandsons choose thou,
    Many cattle, elephants, gold, and horses:
    Choose thou far-flung dominion of the earth,
    And live thyself as many autumns as thou wilt.

    Or, if thou thinkest other boon equal to this,
    Choose - riches and a long extended life:
    On the great earth, O Naciketas, be thou King,
    Of thy desires I make thee free - enjoyer.

    Whatever desires in mortal world are hard to win,
    For all desires at pleasure make request:
    These lovely girls, with chariots and lutes,
    Such as are not obtainable by men, -
    By these, by me restored, be waited on:
    O Naciketas, ask not about dying.

2

Naciketas was not so easily led away from his great quest. Though but a youth, a profound sense of the unreality of all these gifts had awakened in him, and he persisted in his original request. He was not prepared to accept as his third gift anything else but an answer to the great question he had asked:

    Ephemeral things They wear away, O Death,
    Whatever vigour of his powers a man may have.
    All life, moreover, at the best is brief:
    Thine be the chariots, thine the dance and song!
    Never with wealth can man be satisfied.
    Shall we get wealth if we have seen thee?
    Shall we even live as long as thou shalt reign?
    That boon then must I choose, and that alone.
    Drawing near the agelessness of the immortals,
    What ageing mortal here below that understands,
    Weighing the joys of beauty and of love,
    Would delight in an over-long life?
    Tell me this thing whereon they doubt, O Death,
    What is the meaning of the great transition:
    This boon which penetrates the mystery,
    Naught else then that doth Naciketas choose

3

Yama was unable to withstand this persistence. He could not very well fail to fulfil his promise. Unwilling though he was to reveal what happened after death he had to redeem his promise and grant the third boon. The rest of the Upanishad sets forth the answer which he made to Naciketas. We may now trace the religious experience underlying the Upanishad.

The Mystery of God

The author of this Upanishad is profoundly impressed by the mystery and transcendent greatness of God. He recurs again and again to this theme. God’s being cannot be reached or grasped by man without the aid of a spiritual teacher.

    Not taught by an inferior man can He
    Be truly understood, though much considered;
    Saved by another taught there's no way thither,
    For He is inconceivably subtler than the subtle.

4

So early in the course of the development of religion in India the importance of a Guru or spiritual teacher comes to be accepted. This recognition has been continually present throughout the past history of Hinduism and is still in vogue among all schools of Hindu thought. Though it has led to many extravagant lengths it contains the valuable truth that what counts in the spread of religion is personal influence and contact. Real religion can be learnt only from a man who has himself passed through vital spiritual experience and who is willing and able to communicate it to others. Here, however, the point for us to note is that God is mysteriously great; inaccessible to the unaided devotion and thought of a Bhakta. In another passage the author sets forth from a different angle the mystery of God:

    Less than an atom, greater than the great,
    The Self is hid in every creature's heart.
    The striving man beholds Him, freed from sorrow,
    Through the Creator's grace he sees the greatness
    of the Self.

Here again we see how this author is impressed by the: mystery of God. Being a Spirit, God can be everywhere; He can compress Himself into the minutest space of an: atom or He can spread Himself out over the widest stretches of space. This Spirit, who can at once be as small or as large as He wants to be, is hidden within the heart of man. One who through His grace surrenders himself to God and rests fully in this attitude will alone see Him. To understand the mystery and depth of God’s being His own grace and man’s complete and restful submission to it are needed. Only by such readiness to abandon his own struggle and: effort will man be at all capable of attaining a knowledge of God.

This thought is carried a step forward in another passage:

    Not by instruction may this Self be gained,
    Nor intellect, nor by much scripture-learning:
    Whom so He chooses, by him, He may be gained,
    To him this Self reveals His own true person,
    Who has not ceased from evil ways,
    Who is tranquil, unprepared,
    Or he whose mind is not at peace,
    By knowledge cannot win to Him

5

When confronted by the profound mystery of God men begin to think that somehow by their own learning and wisdom they could reach Him. He cannot be reached by everyone but the man of real knowledge who has read widely the scriptures and pondered long on them may be in a position to know God. The author of this Upanishad probably came to this conclusion in the early stages of his religious experience. This is a wrong idea which has again and again dogged the footsteps of religion. It has been felt by many ardent souls the world over that much learning may carry them into the deepest secrets of God. The author here rejects this idea. He had probably tried to walk along the path of knowledge to God and had realised its futility and had become convinced that God is clear only to those to whom He reveals Himself. God’s being is utterly beyond the grasp of man seeking to reach it in his own strength. Even if he pores over endless books and masters the intricacies of sacred learning, he will be no whit better, Only if God Himself reveals His divine character is any understanding of it possible. This profound truth emerges again and again in the history of Bhakti thought. We note here its very early appearance.

The Practice of Yoga

God is great and mysterious. If with the help of an advanced and spiritually mature person, man surrenders himself to God and resting fully in His grace seeks to understand such a revelation of Himself as He is willing to make, only then will he reach a knowledge of God. For this purpose of resting fully in God and understanding His personality there is a method of which the author speaks at considerable length and that is the method of Yoga, which he probably practised and the value of which he knew from first-hand experience.

    He who is hard to see, entered into the hidden
    Set in the cave, dwelling in the deep, ancient,-
    Perceiving God through spiritual concentration,
    The wise man leaves behind both joy and sorrow!

6

This method of concentration or Yoga is of ancient origin. The discoveries at Mahenjadaro include images of Siva seated in a posture of Yoga. Whether even in those days Yoga, as we know it now, was practised we have no means of telling That people sat in a posture of Yoga even then (about 5,000 years ago) may well be inferred from the images which have been unearthed. In this Upanishad, however, the word Yoga occurs in a religious sense, for the first time in the sacred literature of India. Not only does the word itself occur, but many stanzas describe some of the essential practices connected with Yoga. One of the vital parts of Yoga technique is the control of the senses. This control is set forth in this Upanishad as the careful driving of a chariot drawn by powerful horses:

    Know the soul as lord of a chariot,
    The body the chariot itself;
    Know reason as chariot-driver,
    And the mind as bridle and reins.

    The senses, they say, are the horses,
    The objects of sense are their path;
    The soul, yoked with mind and the senses,
    Learned men call the 'enjoyer'.

    He who has no understanding,
    Always of unrestrained mind
    His senses are out of control,
    Like a charioteer's bad horses.

    But he who has right understanding
    Always with mind well-restrained
    His senses are under control,
    Like a charioteer's good horses.

    He who has no understanding,
    Careless and ever impure,
    Never attains to that goal,
    But goes on to transmigration.

    But he who has right understanding,
    Always attentive and pure,
    Attains at length to that goal,
    Whence he is no more reborn.

    With reason for chariot-driver,
    The man who has mind well-reined,
    Reaches the end of the journey, -
    The highest abode of Vishnu.

7

Thus, clearly does the seer set forth one stage of the journey that leads to ‘the highest abode of Vishnu’. This phrase recalls Rig Veda I. 154 where the highest place of Vishnu is associated with the friendship of Vishnu. By following the path of Yoga, this author realises, man reaches that stage of the spiritual life in which friendship with God is experienced. The parable of the chariot explains the nature and value of sense-control as a necessary part of the process of meditation. In after ages those who practised Yoga sought to suppress their senses altogether. The world they held, was evil and all contact with it must be avoided To have any connection with the world with its multitude of interests was a spiritual danger. This extreme position, at which a great many later. Yogins arrived, was not accepted in the Katha Upanishad. Here the various senses of man have a real value. They take him to a destination. But in order that they might do so, they should be held under firm control. What this Upanishad advocates is not the suppression of the senses but their right direction. If the chariot driver had stopped all the horses there would have been no movement at all. About the same time as the author of the Katha Upanishad there lived in Greece Plato who wrote a similar parable in his Phoedrus. He said: ‘Our ruling power then drives a pair of horses one being beautiful and noble and the other quite the opposite in breed and character. Therefore, in our case the driving is necessarily difficult and troublesome.’8

The explanation of the further stages of Yoga is obscure and difficult:

    Beyond the senses are sense-objects,
    Beyond the objects is the mind,
    Beyond the mind is the reason,
    Beyond the reason, the great self.

    Beyond the Great is the Unexpressed,
    Beyond the Unexpressed, the Person,
    Beyond Person there is nothing,
    That is the end, that is final goal.

    Hidden in all living beings
    This Self does not shine forth:
    Yet he is seen by subtle seers,
    With subtle keen intelligence.

    The wise man should restrain speech and mind;
    He should restrain it in the knowing Self,
    The knowing one he should restrain in the Great Self,
    That he should rest in the Self of Peace.

9

This obscure passage seems to mean that more important than the senses is reason and that our life of instinct and impulse must be under the guidance of reason. But even more significant than reason is intuition. Deep within the self is God who is not the same as the self; He resides within man’s heart and is willing and able to control him. This Divine Self, living within the human heart and yet different from it, is mysterious and inexpressible. We reach Him by a process of intuition which is deeper and farther reaching than reason. This Divine Self must be made the centre of human life. Man must yield himself to Him, dwell on Him in recollected thought and seek His direction for unselfish living. The Divine Self, different from us and yet immanent in our hearts, is fundamentally one with us in nature. Such was the insight which the author of the Katha Upanishad reached in the course of his spiritual experience.

Thus, Yoga, as this Upanishad understood it, consisted mainly of two parts, the control of the senses and the recognition by intuition of the immanent Soul. The technique of Yoga was elaborated much in later ages. Even in the Svetasvatara Upanishad we find a considerable growth in the details of Yoga method. But at this stage we note that the author has practised and understood the essential content of Yoga and realises its immense helpfulness in attaining a knowledge of the mysterious God, always difficult of access.

And thus the story ends. Naciketas has asked, ‘What happens after death?’ a question apparently simple and yet exceedingly difficult from the persistence with which it has been asked all over the world and from the variety of answers which have been given to it. In this old story Yama, in answering the question, probes the depth of the nature of God and of the difficulty of understanding Him. But he points out that: the man who, realising the grace of God and yielding himself to it, engages in continual meditation and realises his real nature, will be immortal. He will escape from the cycle of births and deaths and will rest in perpetual peace. Thus, after death there awaits eternal peace for the soul which has understood something of the real nature of God.

The word Bhakti does not yet occur in Hindu religious literature. For that we have to wait for another couple of hundred years. In the Svetasvatara Upanishad we see the actual word used. But already here in this Upanishad we note all the essential doctrines of a living. Bhakti faith There is a God of grace who is the creator of the world. He exercises choice, electing those to whom. He would like to reveal Himself He lives within the human heart and yet is different from it. The human soul and the Divine Soul are like two people drinking together the order of the righteous world, that is, are subject to the requirements of a moral universe. This Divine Being cannot be reached by mere learning. He can only be reached by that complete surrender to Him which in after ages is described as Bhakti. Such a yielding up of the human soul to God results in genuine peace and joy. As the centuries pass these doctrines were realised with greater or lesser fullness and intensity, sometimes running to extravagant and wild frenzies and at other times kept well under moral direction. But already we see this ancient seer experiencing real religion in some of its profoundest aspects.

A Visit to Ramdas

BY R.R. KEITHAHN, M.A., B.D., KENGERI ASHRAM, BANGALORE

One of the great joys of a traveller in India is to meet with noble souls in every part. India has been and is truly a mother of great spiritual personalities. Travelling south from Mangalore one comes to a small railway station, Kanhangad, near which there is an Ashram and a small settlement called Ram Nagar. Here is where Ramdas, a most joyous, peaceful and loving spirit, lives with many of his: disciples and friends. Nearby is a large hill from which one gets a glorious view of the Arabian Sea and the surrounding rolling country.

Ramdas the Man

Ramdas was an ordinary man of the world working in industrial Coimbatore, I am told. Then the call came to give complete loyalty to God. In the preamble to his In the Vision of God Ramdas writes: ‘It was in the year 1921, in Mangalore, that the all-merciful Lord of the universe first fired Ramdas’ bosom with a keen longing to realise Him. From that time his life was undergoing a marvellous change. His one overwhelming passion and aim of life was to live for God and God alone. God’s powerful Name was indelibly stamped on his tongue. Now it was that he was becoming conscious of a divine influence working silently but irresistibly in him, gradually dominating and possessing him. He felt an awakening within the very core of his being. With steady steps and unflagging zeal he now entered upon a path of rigorous self-discipline. The trials and hardships of the path did not daunt him. Repeated appeals, persuasions and remonstrances could not make him swerve an inch from this path. He was calm, earnest and determined. As time passed in prayer, fasting and repetition of God’s Name, the consciousness of divine possession and guidance assumed such a predominance that at last the divine voice within him drove him forth from Mangalore into the wide world’ (Page 1). It was then that Ramdas left his earthly calling and life and went out, guided by God as he says, to visit for nine years the sacred centres and rivers of India, He went about repeating the name of Ram. His life was literally simple-all his hunger and thirst for Ram. He had been reading and continued to read the teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, Buddha in the Light of Asia, Jesus in the New Testament and Gandhi in Young India. Gradually all considerations for ‘me and mine’ disappeared. And in his two books which are his autobiography, In Quest of God and In the Vision of God, we have a most remarkable collection of the early experiences of Ramdas, the loyal follower of Ram.

In Quest of God

Certain conclusions came as a result of these remarkable pilgrimages throughout India, First he found India a ‘great land of charity’. He found that God took care of all his needs. At times, he even forgot all about food and clothing until some thoughtful friend reminded him of these things and furnished him the same. He experimented with different diets, with fasting, and with other means of realising God, all to his own benefit. Truly Ram became for Ramdas his ‘all in all’. Again, he learned that all creation is kind to the sincere and non-violent. For example, in his many contacts with such violent creatures as snakes, scorpions or tigers he found them absolutely harmless. In many cases they seemed to come to him for protection and friendship. He tells of many experiences in which love conquers hate. In one case an irritated ticket clerk had ill-treated a group of Sadhus, but when he came in contact with Ramdas, radiant in love and joy, his heart was changed. Also, Ramdas found that Ram never punishes but rather He is the Healer and Helper. In one case one who had cursed Ramdas came later to him with a sore throat. Ramdas touched the throat explaining that God never punished and that the throat was alright, and it was so. ‘Money is the root of all evil’ was another experience of these days. A merchant happened to come in the same train where Ramdas was and found his money stolen. He reported to the police and then found that it merely got innocent people into trouble and that it was not worth the trouble. Perhaps one of the most remarkable experiences of these days was the tremendous power the repetition of the word Ram, the name of God, had for Ramdas. Ramdas sums up his experience in these words: ‘One day a young man, weighed down by despondency and despair, came to Ramdas. He recounted the tale of his woe. Ramdas advised him to repeat the Ram-mantram and assured him that all would be well. The friend would thereafter visit Ramdas every day, and he was found immersed in the japa of Ramnam. A few days passed, and he came to Ramdas with a cheerful face and told him that the impending calamity that threatened him had passed off without scathing him in the least. All victory to that Name. The Name of the Lord has undoubtedly the power of dispelling ignorance, pain and misery. So saints all over the world are never tired of glorifying the Name’. (In the Vision of God, Page, 21). Again: ‘Peace can be attained, by the japa of Ramnam only when you do so in a spirit of nishkama, without longing for worldly things. God grants our prayer when we appeal to Him with an earnest fervour of the heart only for pure devotion to His holy feet and for nothing else. So the secret of Ramnam is in the taking of it for realising the goal of life which is immortality or union with God’. (In the Vision of God, Page 387).

Attainment

We shall naturally be asked whether Ramdas has truly attained, has truly realised God or not. This is never an easy question to answer. And we must also realise that the experience of God is an eternal experience. Nevertheless, we can well say that Ramdas has realised God in a way that few other people perhaps have done. For example, in his In Quest of God, (Page 142) he writes: “O mother, it is all the work of Ram, Ram alone has freed humble Ramdas from the bonds of samsaric life, and he resides now at Ram’s holy feet. He is now the slave of Ram and prays to Him always to keep him as such. To trust and acknowledge His supreme powers of protection over all, and believe that he alone is the doer of all actions and possessor of all things is the only way to be rid of the miseries of life”. Again, In the Vision of God, (Page 15) he sums up the experiences of those years of seeking: ‘For two years from the time of the significant change which had come over him, Ramdas had been prepared to enter into the very depths of his being for the realisation of the immutable, calm and eternal spirit of God. Here he had to transcend name, form, thought and will-every feeling of the heart and faculty of the mind. The world had then appeared to him as a dim shadow, a dreamy nothing. The vision then was mainly internal. It was only for the glory of the Atman in His pristine purity, peace and joy as an all-pervading, immanent, static, immortal and glowing spirit’.

‘In the earlier stages this vision was occasionally lost, pulling him down to the old life of diversity with its turmoil of like and dislike, joy and grief. But he would be drawn in again into the silence and calmness of the spirit. A stage was soon reached when this dwelling in the spirit became a permanent and unvarying experience with no more falling off from it, and then a still exalted state came on; his hitherto inner vision projected outward. First a glimpse of this new vision dazzled him off and on. This was the working of divine love. He would feel as though his very soul had expanded like the blossoming of a flower and by a flash as it were enveloped the whole universe embracing all in a subtle halo of love and light. This experience granted him a bliss infinitely greater than he had in the previous state. It was now that Ramdas began to cry out ’Ram is all, it is every body and everything.’ This condition was for some months coming on and vanishing. When it wore away, he would instinctively run to solitude. When it was present, he freely mixed in the world preaching the glory of divine love and bliss. With this externalised vision started Ramdas’ mission Its fullness and magnificence was revealed to him during his stay in the Kadri cave, and here the experience became more sustained and continuous. The vision of God shone in his eyes and he would see none but Him in all objects. Now wave after wave of joy rose in him. He realised that he had attained to a consciousness, full of splendour, power and bliss.’

‘Ramdas gave up the cave and set forth once again on a wandering life. He gave a touch of the inexpressible bliss he was enjoying to all who came in contact with him. Vast crowds thronged around him wherever he went. Divine love thrilled his entire being at the sight of big multitudes. In a state of perfect ecstasy he delivered himself out in accents of love and joy’. And certainly when one meets Ramdas and talks over life’s problems with him, one realises that one has come in contact with a man who is very close to the Eternal.

Ramdas and His Vision of Christ

It is very difficult to classify this man of love. In fact, he claimed that he does not belong to any particular creed. And so he writes In the Vision of God. (Page 8), ‘Ramdas does not belong to any particular creed. He firmly believes that all creeds, faiths and religions are different paths which ultimately converge to the same goal. The very sight of a Muhammadan reminds him of Muhammad; of a Christian, Jesus Christ; of a Hindu, Rama, Krishna or Shiva; and of a Buddhist, Buddha; of a Parsee, Zoroaster. All the great teachers of the world are from one God - the first eternal Cause of all existence. Whether it be in the Gita or the Bible or the Quran or the Zend - Avesta, we find the same note insistently ringing, viz., self-surrender is the supreme way to liberation or salvation.’ In this connection it is interesting that he has always had intimate Christian friends and has always kept close contact with Jesus Christ. In one instance he writes of his experience of the vision of Christ; “Now the memorable night. It was on the fifth day, may be after midnight; the nights were pitch-dark. Ramdas usually sat up the whole night in the cave. The cave was suddenly lit up by a strange light. Ramdas saw seated before him on the floor about three or four feet a heavenly splendour. The features were fine, regular and beautiful. There was a short black, glossy beard and moustache on the face. The lips were crimson red, revealing milk-white, lustrous teeth. Soft shining black curls flowed down his shoulders. He wore a long, dark chocolate-coloured robe or gown with wide, loose sleeves. What fascinated Ramdas were his eyes. They were scintillating like twin stars. The rays they were emitting were filled with tenderness, love and compassion. Ramdas gazed on them, charmed and delighted. It struck him ‘This is Jesus Christ’. There was another beside him, but Ramdas’ eyes were not for him, although he was aware of his presence and thought he might be a disciple. Now Christ’s lips moved, He was speaking Ramdas listened, but could not make out what he said. The tongue sounded strange and unknown to him. For perhaps a minute he spoke, then the vision vanished, while the glow of light remained in the cave for some minutes more. Ramdas was completely immersed in ecstasy and only came to external consciousness after broad daylight”. (In the Vision of God, Pages 275, 276). These mystical experiences have without doubt helped him in his realisation. Christians at once will ask what his relationship is to Christ. Perhaps his own quotation is the best answer; “To the Christians Ramdas would say; To have faith in Christ means to accept him as your ideal. Your sole aim should be to attain the Christ-ideal and to live up to his pure and selfless life. Let the thought of Christ-ideal possess your very soul. Christ realised God as love, and this truth he had come to prove in his life. What is the nature of the love he enunciates? It is a mingled perfume of meekness, purity and mercy. Blessed is he who is filled with the fragrance of love, because he will then be a true and accepted child of God-love of God has become manifest in him. He exhorts: Love one another and God dwelleth in you. It is this supreme love that converts you into the image of God. This supreme love enables you to enter into the kingdom of eternal happiness. The kingdom of heaven is nothing but a blissful consciousness which is born of everlasting life. He reveals the secret of this kingdom when he says, The kingdom of heaven is within you. The father and the son are one. Identification with the son is identification with the Father. Father is eternal peace manifest as the Son-the infinite love. So your life should be ruled by Christ, that is love. Then he leads you to the realm of the Father, the absolute peace. Do not think that Christ is the only way to salvation. Great souls have been, long before Christ, holding aloft the torch of divine knowledge for the illumination of the world. Christ held humility as the highest virtue; love and sympathy for all alike as the criterion of conduct; and resignation to the will of God as the means for the attainment of the kingdom of heaven or everlasting life and peace.” (In the Vision of God, Pages 7, 8).

Ramdas at Anandashram

Ramdas now feels that God has called him from his ways of pilgrimage to the Ashram life at Ramnagar, near Kanhangad. Certainly he has chosen a beautiful and inspiring setting. The Ashram buildings are simple and sufficient. In the centre is the Ashram itself where Ramdas and his friends freely gather to praise the name of God; Here everyone lives as a family. And it is’a true family, for, men, women and children are present. This Ashram was opened in 1930 and is now well established. Krishna Bai, who joined Ramdas as a loyal follower of God, is the mother of the Ashram. There are generally twenty or thirty visitors staying from a few days to a few months, drinking in the wonderful spirit of the place. A monthly magazine called The Vision is published and this gives the followers continual contact with what is going on. A number of books have been published besides those already mentioned, such as Krishna Bai, Gita Sandesh, The Sayings of Ramdas and so forth. Some of these are also printed in the vernaculars. This Ashram is also an Ashram of service. In faith, a small school has been started for Harijan children in the vicinity. Last year when I was at the Ashram a building was being constructed. There was no money to carry on the school but Ramdas was absolutely sure that just as God had provided for the building. He would also provide for the carrying on of the school.

Ramdas, an Estimate

Without doubt Ramdas has attained a remarkable experience of God. Continuing in some of the old traditional spiritual paths of India he has also taken note of such distinctive experiences as those of the Christian. He would admit his indebtedness to these other sources of his own religious life. And he is an easy man to approach. As someone has said, ‘Ramdas is as a gentle slope. But Ramana Maharishi of Tiruvanamalai is as a steep precipice for it is not easy to approach or understand him’. Ramdas has been of constructive help to many Christians. I have their testimony for that. And I can understand it. He is so understanding, so sympathetic of other points of view. He seldom creates antagonism. And yet when we are the happy guests of his Ashram I know many of us are troubled by what seems to be almost the worship of a man. Ramdas would be the first to say that he is but a mere man and that each must draw near unto God himself. And yet it is difficult to understand why such a one allows his followers to prostrate regularly at his feet as though he were God himself. Perhaps here is where the West will never understand the East. And Indian Christians, trained by the West, will also find it difficult to appreciate such uncritical obeisance. But the East must also learn from the West that although there is ever need of reverence for human personality - how the West often fails in that! - yet the worship of man is a sin against the Holy Spirit, no matter what form that worship takes. And although many of us will ever be troubled by this free ‘worship’ of the Guru, yet we will thank God for one who has been able to free himself from the clutches of this world, and in his union with God, still feels deeply with the sufferings of mankind, so much so that he can carry on work for the Harijans and poor about him systematically. Surely, as one comes to know several of the religious experiences of Ramdas we must say. ‘Ah, this is definitely Christian; something I have lost! This good man has brought something within my religious experience to my attention I must be thankful and be more loyal to my own Master, the Christ!’

(All the books by Ramdas mentioned in the above article are available from the Anandashram at Kanhangad).

Ashramas Past and Present

By M.G. SAMUEL, B.A.

(A very important book for students of Hinduism appeared recently under the title Ashramas Past & Present, The authors of the book were Sri P. Chenchiah, B.A., M.L., Retired Judge, Pudukottah State, Sri V. Chakkarai, B.A., Mayor of Madras and Sri A.N. Sudarisanam, Editor of the Guardian. The book was published by the Indian Christian Book Club, Madras for Rs. 2/-. This volume has attracted considerable attention. Several appreciative reviews have appeared. A prize of Rs. 60/- was offered for the best critical review of the book: to the students of Bishop’s Theological College, Nazareth, in the Tirunelveli Diocese. We publish here a summary of the essay by Mr. M.G. Samuel to whom the prize was awarded - The Editor)

An Ashrama, as originally understood, was the dwelling place of those who made tapas and lived in peace and harmony, and later on, it signified a stage in life with the appropriate discipline assigned to it. The early settlers were not moved to live in the forest so much by religious motives as by their discontent with their life in the world. Later on the laymen grew tired of the rule of the priests who offered sacrifices, and claimed to be the senior partners of God; so they wanted to go to the forest and think deep. In the forest ritual went to the background and the moral qualities of the sacrificer came to the front. Thus, started tapas in the forest. As a result of tapas the Vanaprastha or forest-dweller discovered Brahman by intuition and the emptiness of the priests was exposed. After the discovery of Brahman the desire of the Vanaprastha was how to become one with Him, and Yoga absorbed all his attention. He also discovered that Kama was the cause of all actions, and Karma kept Being, and salvation lay in the abolition of Kama which was possible only by union with Brahman. All these stages are beautifully described in the Upanishads.

Even from the very beginning all the partition walls disappeared, and the dwellers lived together without any distinction of caste, or rank, or sex. The principal characteristics of the Ashramas were a ‘worship in spirit and truth, a conception of religion as a realisation, actualisation of the ideal, or self and an insistence on harmonious living, a life at one with Brahman, at one with man and nature, a conception of religion as experimentation, the supreme necessity of purity of life, external and internal’.

Buddha and Mahavira, who rose later, influenced the growth of the Vanaprasthas. Both were unable to discover the Brahman of the Upanishads. Buddha attained enlightenment under a Bodhi tree in the forest, and some of his converts were from the Ashramas. He incorporated the essential features of Ashramas in the regulations for the order of monks he established.

The Ashrama was intended to be a corrective of caste; caste disappeared as soon as people entered the forest. It did not create a new order. It only added Vanaprastha to the already, existing system of the other three stages - Bramacharin, Grahastha and Sannyasa. The new stage became a necessity as a result of the introduction of monasteries by Buddhism and Jainism which took away persons of all ages and conditions and thus struck at the stability of home life.

The Grahasthas alone were competent to enter Vanaprastha after begetting a grandson, that is, during middle age. The Vanaprastha lived with his wife and sometimes his children and disciples in a wooden hut in the forest near a flowing river, with fruit trees nearby. The main feature of daily life was Yoga; there was teaching of the disciples and considerable time was given for the observation of nature. Offering sacrifices and reciting the Vedas also formed part of the daily routine. There were many kinds and grades of Vanaprasthas classified according whether they were with wife, or without wife; or on a different principle, namely, into those who cooked their food, and those who did not. They ate roots, fruits, nuts, oils and milk; they did not cultivate the land. Their dress was the bark. Their cardinal virtues were Ahimsa, Brahmacharya and hospitality.

On the death of Harsha; Hinduism underwent a great change. The gods ceased to be fighters and their followers soldiers. God redeemed souls instead. This inner change brought about the collapse of the Ashrama Dharma. ‘Indian theism was theocentric and started with the worship of Siva and Vishnu. Next it developed into a heroic faith with incarnations intervening in history to defend the righteous and punish the wicked’. The peaceful rule of the Guptas converted it into temple-centric religion, which made it unnecessary to seek God, and union with Him, because without exertion man could chain God by his faith; it was a death-knell to Ashrama in effect; ‘renunciation became mental rather than physical; the four stages were converted into four stations in the progress of Bhakti-Samipya, Salokya, Sarupya, Sayujya, i.e., living near God, in the sight of God, being changed into His image, becoming one with Him’.

The characteristics of the Vanaprastha Ashrama may be noted. The negative features were that it was non-authoritarian, non-traditional, non-ritualistic, non-sectarian, non-sacerdotal and non-institutional; the most important positive features were its co-operative life, the ideal of realisation of religion and the free association for social and religious purposes.

The Ashrama may be compared and contrasted with the temples, mutts, gurukuls and satsangs. The temple did not provide for study or intense living; the Buddhist and Hindu mutts completely lacked the family element; the Jewish School of prophets had some slight resemblance to the Vanaprastha Ashrama; the Western monasteries considered life as evil; ‘none of these institutions has the unique features of the Ashrama’.

The authors of this book have mastered the subject thoroughly, taking materials from various sources, especially the Vedas and the Upanishads and have visited at least some of the modern Ashramas. The treatment of the subject is clear, exhaustive and interesting and any reader can easily form a definite idea of what an Ashrama is, its aspects, its advantages and its adaptability. The use of Biblical quotations and Christian doctrines and the interpretations of the life and teaching of Christ enhance the importance of the volume. All through the book we mark the earnest desire of the authors to convince the readers of the advisability of reviving Ashramas on a wide scale. They try to answer all possible objections. The appeal is so forcible, so arresting and so convincing that we cannot be indifferent to it.

There are certain points in this book with which we cannot agree with the authors. In the first place, the authors say in one of the early chapters ‘Ashrama Dharma was evidently intended to be a corrective of Varna. It provides, as it were, a circulating system for the social body’, and at the end of the chapter on ‘Varna and Ashrama’ the authors say: ‘The Ashrama ideal has to a large extent mitigated the rigour of the caste system’. We cannot agree with the authors in these statements because Ashramas have not achieved their purpose of extirpating the caste system. Varna has been too strong to be conquered by the Ashrama Dharma. In spite of all Christian teaching, ’Love thy neighbour as thyself, even Christians are not able to get out of it, for it has been so deeply rooted in their mind.

The authors do not like religious organisation, especially under a ‘centralised hierarchy’. They hate the idea of placing the Ashrama under the control of the Church. But it would be better to organise all Christian activities under some centralised authority for the sake of peace and order among them and for the sake of economy.

One of the basic features of the Vanaprastha Ashrama is detachment. The attitude of the Vanaprastha should be one of detached interest in life; such detachment was exemplified by Christ. Detached interest is possible, according to the Ashrama Dharma, only in middle age after the Grahastha Ashrama. This arrangement sounds all right psychologically and biologically. The authors emphasise that middle age is the most suitable time for leading a detached life. But in the example quoted, namely. Jesus advising the young man, who inquired what he should do to inherit eternal life, to sell all he had and follow Him, we note that a young man was asked to have a detached interest in life and not a middle-aged man. In Joel 2:28 we read a definite promise of the Holy Spirit to young men, and the promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Even today many young men and women are leading a really detached life. These things go to prove that after all middle age is not the only age to think seriously of religion. Besides, the very idea that the time to devote attention to spiritual matters is to come later will make young people postpone the desire of leading a good life.

The authors think that religion can be realised only in Ashrama outside busy towns. Were not Jesus and His disciples living in the midst of people? And yet did they not realise religion? Jesus’ teaching is that we should be in the world, but not of the world. If Christianity cannot be realised in our homes, what is the use of that religion at all? Religion was realised in the busy towns of Jerusalem and Antioch by the early Christians, and it is even now realised in large cities by at least a few Christians.

The authors treat the financial difficulty very lightly. They say: ‘Where there is money well and good. Where there is no money better still’. Our present condition is different from the past. Almost every man, in the past, had at least a plot of land to cultivate, and a small house to live in, and was the member of a joint family system so that he could leave the home in his middle age without any trouble or care. But now there is no joint family system, especially among Christians. Most Indians now are poor and have to work for their family even after their retirement at the age of fifty-five. In the past the Vanaprastha lived on fruits, nuts, oils and milk that were available in the forest. The problem of the maintenance of the Ashrama-dwellers remains involved.

A word about the authors’ criticism of the Church. They seem to be thoroughly dissatisfied with the existing condition of the Church, and they express this feeling in many places. About the evangelistic work of the Church they say: ‘The message of the Church in evangelism is governed by its creed and its ordinances’. Though this statement is true, it is not the whole truth. The Church is careful about its creed and its ordinances. But to teach the creed the Church must have already laid the foundation of Christ. Another attack against the Church is that it is the ‘indolent seeker who shares the spoils after the day’s battle is over.’ This remark seems to be too sweeping, for not the whole of the Church is greedy after spoils.

Lastly, interpretations in the book of the doctrines of the Church are peculiar; they do not agree with those of the orthodox theologians. For instance, it is said: ‘Jesus is neither God nor man’. Orthodox theologians would have it in the positive way, ‘Jesus is both God and man’, and there is a lot of difference in meaning between these two statements.

In spite of all these differences of opinion we can agree with the authors of this book to a very great extent. In the first place, it is a fact that the Christian community is stale; there is no spiritual progress though the number is increasing and even with regard to conversions the progress is comparatively slow. At present, it is very difficult to convert Hindus, much less Muslims What is the cause of it? Is it the Church or is it Christ? Christ is not to be blamed and so undoubtedly it is the Church that is at fault. Perhaps the absence of opposition and persecution has made Christians quite idle and lifeless. The Church is honest in confessing: ‘There is no life in us’. But Jesus has not lost His attraction among men. He attracts, the Church repulses. So a thorough overhauling of the Church is necessary. In this critical stage comes the message of the learned authors who firmly assert that Ashrama is the only help for Indian Christians.

People retire at fifty-five during their middle age, and most of them spend the rest of their life in idle talk, or in clubs and shows, or meddle with Church or state politics. To these men Ashrama opens a profitable vocation. They can leave their children under the care of the eldest member of the family and retire to Ashramas with their wives. As we have already mentioned, there may be some men who may have to continue to work for the maintenance of their family These persons need not stay permanently in the Ashrama, they may stay in it as long as they can and then return.

In the Church service there is no room for meditation. All the prayers are read from the Prayer Book, and it is almost impossible to concentrate our attention while prayers are read. Busy towns do not provide a quiet place, and the people cannot find time for calm and peace. Ashramas come to the rescue. In an Ashrama we can have undisturbed meditation as long as we like. It is meditation that helps man to examine himself and realise the Presence of God, His purity, glory and love; and by constant meditation on God he can realise the transformation of his life to the image of God.

There is also the possibility of avoiding the differences of castes, races and sex in an Ashrama. ‘The fact that divergent elements agree to continue at all is a gain.’ Tirupattur Ashrama is a typical example in this respect. Though Dr. Paton and Dr. Jesudason belong to two different races they live together, and work together as brothers in the Ashrama.

We often regret seeing Christianity implanted in India in the Western fashion; all the details of the service, building, accommodation, music and even dress are completely Western. The pioneers of missions in India did not care to adapt the religion of Christ to the Indian environment. Had they tried to do so they could not have missed the method of Ashramas. An Ashrama offers the language of forms familiar to the Hindu. The existing Western forms make him think that Jesus has no connection with him. In the Ashrama Jesus is brought near to him. ‘Christ is offered to the Hindu in his solemn spiritual moments and not thrown at him from the street corners’. ‘Ashramas are discovering that to bear Christ is to preach Christ … The Hindu is realising that Christianity has a universal message, ethic and power’.

A Letter to the Editor

[The Rev. C.B. Hall of Lovedadle has written a personal letter to me commenting on my article entitled. ‘The Survival Values of Hindu Bhakti’ in the July Pilgrim. With his permission, the letter is printed here - The Editor]

I have been particularly interested in your appeal in The Pilgrim for a more mystical approach to Hinduism. I am not in this country as a ‘missionary’ but as a very practical schoolmaster, and my work since 1930 has been only in the European Schools of India. And so the practical approach to Hinduism has not been my immediate concern.

But for the last thirteen Years I have been led more along the mystical way of religion, as the basis of discipline in a very practical life of organisation. And I think that it is not to Hindus only, but to all men that we should make this approach. The weakness of Western Christianity is that it has confused mysticism with a kind of mistiness (so hateful to the practical English mind 1) because of a similarity in the sound of the words. Yet all the true mystics have been the most practical of people. A mystic, after all, is only a man or woman who gives time to prayer.

There is a true and a false mysticism, which can only be tested, as Our Lord said, by the fruit they bear. It has always been a puzzle to me that the Hindu mystic can sit in rapt contemplation of the beauty of the Divine, and not leap to his feet, leaving the mount of vision, to plunge into the slough of India’s wretchedness. In so far as a vision of God does not lead directly to ‘Here am I, send me!’ it is a false vision. It is the devil dressed up in the beauty of God, without the marks of the nails. I notice that you stress this aspect in your warnings against false ideas of immanence.

I should not call the very sensible suggestion of the late Bishop of Madras that worship should begin with a call to adoration rather than a call to penitence the ‘Indianisation’ of Christian worship, but its ‘Christianisation’. I have always felt that Matins and Evensong begin at the wrong place.

    With my burden I begin, Lord, remove this load of sin

Is not Christ’s teaching about prayer.

For me the order of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer is all important. The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that a good test of our prayers is to ask ourselves where we begin to mean business when we say the Lord’s Prayer. I have often applied that test to children in school and in Confirmation Classes. What is the first thing we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer? The only answer I have ever received to that question has been: ‘Give us this day our daily bread’! But surely the first thing we pray for is the very thing you are after, a spirit of worship, a desire for worship, ‘Hallowed be Thy name’.

We need to approach all people with the challenge of the Lord’s Prayer. God’s glory comes first, our needs second.

  1. THY name. The desire for worship and the vision of God.
  2. THY kingdom. A missionary prayer. Pass it on or you will lose it.
  3. THY will. A prayer for continual surrender daily.
  4. Our daily bread. OUR needs, not My wants.
  5. Our sins. Penitence here, not at the beginning.
  6. Our deliverance from evil.

The last three petitions are to enable us to carry out the first three more perfectly.

There is in England a strong spiritual movement towards training the younger clergy in Prayer, in the world and not in monastic seclusion. It is secret, and it must be so for advertisement and talk are inclined to destroy the vision. We must be men of prayer and contemplation, not merely students of mysticism.

Alvar Saints

BY A.J. APPASAMY

Swami Shuddhananda Bharati’s Alvar Saints (Anbu Nilayam, Ramachandrapuram, Tiruchirappalli District Rs. 2/-) is well worth-reading. When the Swami called on me some years ago, I was impressed by his genuine asceticism. He was clad in a simple saffron dhoti, wrapped over his body and tied together with a knot over a shoulder. Though a Hindu and I think a Brahman, he drank the glass of orange juice which I offered him. At that time he was on the staff of a Tamil daily newspaper in Madras. I heard afterwards that he had settled down at Pondicherry as a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and had gone into a long period of retreat and prayer. A constant stream of books - essays, biographies, poems, stories and aphorisms - is now coming from the Swami, most of them in Tamil and some in English.

This book gives in English an account of the Alvars. The twelve Vaishnava poets in the Tamil country, who lived between the seventh and ninth centuries A. D. and whose hymns are gathered together in the Nalaigra Prabhandham, are known as the Alvars. The chief among them are Nammalvar, Tirumangai Alvar, Perialvar, Kulasekhara Alvar and Sri Andal. The word ‘Alvar’ literally means ‘One who has taken a deep plunge into the ocean of divine consciousness.’ (P.3). The hymns of the Alvars were dedicated to Rama, Krishna, Narayana, Narasimha and others worshipped in the one hundred and eight important Vaishnavite temples of India,

The author thus states the central teaching of the Alvars: ’If man knows his humble measure, he will at once see that there is no way for his liberation, except wholesale surrender at the feet of the Infinite, Eternal, Immaculate, Unborn, Almighty, All-Blissful Truth which we call God, Brahma, Siva, Narayana, Father, Allah, Jehovah according to our conception and fancy.

My Lord, Life of my life, Thou hast again thrown me into this body of nature - only to know Thee better and cling to Thee with a more sincere love and by Thy Grace rise up again and attain Thee. I throw myself at Thy Feet. I have nothing to do here; nothing to add. No desire; no attachment. I have seen the world and its nature from top to toe. After all, I have come to know that Thou art the only Saviour, the only source of Bliss. None that surrenders to Thee is ever disappointed. Thou art all-merciful. Kill my ego, possess me completely. Detach me from all other thoughts, from all other attachments and keep me firm in Thy hold. I do not even know what to ask of Thee, Every demand seems to me impertinent. It is an insult to Thy omniscience, For Thou art my very heart; and Thou knowest me better than I know myself. This frame has been designed to house Thee. Let no petty lust hide anywhere within it. Sweep away all my desires. Poor me, an atom in the vast world which is itself an atom of the Brahmanda, what can I do? What is there to be done for me personally? Nothing my Lord, nothing. Here I sink into silence placing my entire being at Thy feet.’ (pp. 118-120). How rich and fruitful it will be if all this devotion could be offered up to Christ.

The short sketches in this volume give many illustrations of absolute surrender to the Divine. Valadeva was a prince who ruled over the Madura and Tinnevelly Districts. One day a Brahman said to him. One must gather in summer the means for winter; what is needed for the night should be earned during the day; one must acquire in youth that which is necessary in old age: likewise one must earn even while in this world, the virtues that can vouchsafe him the bliss of heaven! (p. 9).

This aroused in Valadeva an ardent desire to know and realise God. He summoned a gathering of the leading religious men of his day. Among those who came was Perialvar, a devotee who spent his time tending:his garden and worshipping God with flowers and hymns. ‘When he was a youth, he sold all his possessions, bought a fertile plot, and created a lovely flower garden. It became a rich heaven of green beauty, smelling sweet with Tulasi, Jasmine, Rose, Champak, Chrysanthemum, and Lotus. He dug a tank for the Lotus. He regarded flowers as the smile of Divinity. He repeated god’s name as he trimmed the plants, watered them and gently gathered the flowers. He strung new wreaths and had them adorned to the Narayana of the local temple.’ (p. 12). Instructed by a vision, he attended the assembly convened by the prince and maintained clearly and convincingly that utter surrender to the feet of God is the only way to bliss. The prince took heed to this teaching and sent away Perialvar after bestowing many honours on him.

Vipranarayana Alvar was a pious Brahman. He lived in Sri Rangam spending all his time in prayer and meditation. A prostitute in the temple cast her eyes on him and made him fall. He lived a sinful life with her until he was won over by the Grace of God. His prayer at the time of repentance is moving: ‘I was a wretch, a gambler, a thief; I associated with the vicious I was caught into the snare of sex. Thou hast redeemed me; Thou hast saved me, O Renganatha! Thou hast softened my iron heart! Why did I live without touching? Thy feet telling Thy prayer, loving Thy Grace? Vain is my life! Why was I born at all? My heart is impure! My tongue has lost Thy sweet name! I have forsaken Truth and purity!? Sensual pleasure degraded me! O Ranga, I shed tears of repentance at Thy feet. Have pity upon me! I outlive this ignominy only to serve Thee. I know that Thou wouldst never forsake Thy humble servant.’ (pp. 58-59).

We miss in the Alvars, with all their rapture and devotion, the spirit of service. They did not realise that love for God must be expressed in the service of the poor, the sick and the needy. India has much to learn from Christ, who constantly sought God’s Presence in silence and contemplation and who also went about doing good.

Printed at the Hilal Press, Tirunelveli 9-1942

  1. J.N. Rawson, Katha Upanishad, p. 75.↩︎

  2. Rawson, Op. Cit. pp. 76, 77.↩︎

  3. Rawson, Op. Cit. pp. 77, 78.↩︎

  4. Rawson, Op, Cit. p. 84.↩︎

  5. Rawson, Op. Cit. pp. 112-115.↩︎

  6. Rawson, Op. Cit. p. 90.↩︎

  7. Rawson, Op. Cit. p. 84.↩︎

  8. Quoted by Rawson, Op. Cit. p. 125.↩︎

  9. Rawson, Op. Cit. p. 129.↩︎