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
3 April 1943 1

The Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism

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

President: Bishop CLEMENT D. ROCKEY, Delhi.

Vice-Presidents: The BISHOP of LUCKNOW, Allahabad Dr. A.J. APPASAMY, M.A., Ph.D., Palamcottah. Rev. G.H.C. ANGUS, M.A., Serampore College.

Secretary: Mrs. W. STANLEY GOULD, Ewing Christian College, Allahabad

Treasurer: Dr. C.H. HAZLETT, Holland Hall, Allahabad

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

Committee: Rev. H.C. BALASUNDARAM, Allahabad Rev. M.P. DAVID, D.D., Raipur Prof. V.E. DUTT, M.A., Serampore Mr. PAUL DAS, B.A., Banaras

Editorial Board:

Bishop Clement D. Rockey, Lucknow Mrs. W.S. Gould, Ewing Christian College, Allahabad Rev. G.H.C. Angus, Principal, Serampore College Rev. R.C. Das, Benares United City Mission Dr. A.J. Appasamy, Palamcottah (Editor)

The objects of the Christian Society for the Study of 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. 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 treasure, Dr. C.H. Hazlett, Holland Hall, Allahabad.

Every member will receive The Pilgrim free.

Benares Institute of Hinduism - Notice

The next session of the Institute is expected to be head for a full month from the 4th Oct. to the 5th Nov. 1943 both days inclusive. Hospitality will be arranged by the Benares United: City Mission. Tuition fees will be Rs. 5/- and upwards according to salaries. Entertainment charges will be Rs. 1/- per day Indian style and Rs. 3/- European style and also probably Rs. 2/- for a mixed style. The following Christian teachers besides local Hindu scholars are expected to lecture viz., Dr. Appasamy of S. India; Dr. Paranjothi of Isabella College, Lucknow; Prof. V.E. Dutt of Serampore College; Mr. Ashananda Nag of Calcutta; Mr. Cyril Modak formerly of Dr. Jones’ Ashram. Various subjects will be dealt with such as the Vedas, the Gita, the Bhakti Movement and India’s Heritage, Saivism, History of Hindu Thought, the Vedanta, Art and Culture, Modern Movements, Orthodox Living Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Idea of God and Sin etc. Ample time will be devoted to practical investigation of Hindu shrines and institutions in Benares.

A Prospectus giving further details is in preparation. Interested friends and prospective students may kindly register their names as soon as possible.

R.C. DAS UNITED CITY MISSION Ramkatora, Benares Cantonment

Christianity and Educated Hindus

BY THE EDITOR

It is a wise provision that all those who are trained as teachers should make a careful study of Psychology. They must understand something of the way in which the human mind works; they must know how to keep alive the interest of their classes; they must realise how their pupils may most quickly grasp the subjects taught to them; they must also be aware of the processes by which the information given is retained in the memory for long periods of time. Pupils of different ages cannot be taught in the same way. What interests little children may be found boring by older pupils. So different groups of pupils must be carefully studied and the methods of imparting instruction to them clearly understood. Only then can education be given intelligently and effectively.

For the same reason it is very desirable that we should know something of the religious Psychology of the Hindus so that we may preach the Gospel effectively to them; we need to start from where they are and lead them to Christ. Towards the close of this article I discuss briefly the import want question whether we should emphasise only those aspects of the religion of Christ which appeal to them and leave out the others or whether we should take particular are to emphasise those elements of Christian teaching in which they have been found specially wanting. Whatever difference of opinion there may be with regard to this question, all will agree that we must first establish points of contact; every thing which enables us to get into real spiritual touch with Hindus is welcome. I have been reading a new book entitled The Evolution of Indian Mysticism by Dewan Bahadur K.S. Ramaswami Sastri (International Book House. Ltd, Bombay, Price Rs. 1/8). This book contains a chapter called ‘Mysticism Outside India’ which helps us to understand what elements in Christian teaching appeal most effectively to a Hindu mind. The author of the book is a deeply religious scholar and a practising devotee. He has read widely sacred books of many lands and of different creeds. This particular chapter to which I refer sheds light on the way in which a modern educated Hindu reacts to the truths of the Christian religion.

The Bible

Speaking of the Old Testament and of its interpreters the author says, ‘Among the Jews, whom we might be prone to judge from our study of the New Testament to be Pharisees and care for the letter of the law than for its spirit, we find the mystic efflorescence. Many mystics among Jewish Rabbis had trodden and had attained rapture and ecstasy in all their warmth and fervour and intensity. They felt the call of the finite for the Infinite and the call of the Infinite for the finite. They ascended to the region where the wings of the Law are folded and which is above time and space and thought’. (Page 55).

The author need not have waited for the period of the Rabbis to come across a genuine longing for God. There are many experiences in the Psalms which are likely to strike a responsive chord in the soul of a religious Hindu. ‘As the heart panted after the water brooks, so panted my soul after thee O God. My soul thirtieth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and’appear before God? (Psalm 42:1,2) ’Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faith: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.’ (Psalm 73:25,26). Psalm 139 with its vivid account of the omnipresent God will be found dear to every Hindu heart.

The author has this to say about the New Testament: ‘The New Testament is not only a fulfilment and trains condense of the pre-Christian Law, but is also a fulfilment and transcendence of pre-Christian mysticism. St. Paul “The fruit of the Spirit is Love … Love is the fulfilling of the Law”, Law and Light and Love are fused into one. St. John says: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” “He that love not knoweth not God; for God is Love.” The apostles merely carried forward Jesus’ rich and vivid consciousness of God as uttered in the famous declaration, “I and Father are One”. They experienced and affirmed mystical communion and union’. (Pages 56, 57)

Of all the Gospels the Gospel of St. John appeals most deeply to the Hindu and of all the sayings in that Gospel the saying ‘I and the Father are one’ (John 10:30) is the most significant for him. I find that most Hindus who have read the Gospel of St. John have been greatly attracted by that verse. It is a Mahavakya for them. Just as Christians are most impressed by the statement For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16) so Hindus are most impressed by the statement ‘I and the Father are one’. It is idle to inquire whether the Hindu is right in attaching so much weight to this saying of our Lord What we should do is rather to recognise the profound attraction which it has for the Hindu mind and to build upon it the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion. In fact the saying is so significant that it can be made the foundation of Christian Theology as the Upanishadic statement Tattvamasi is made the basis of Advaita Philosophy. The declaration of Jesus ‘I and the Father are one’, recorded in the Gospel of St. John and confirmed in numerous ways by the life and teaching of Jesus as set forth in the Synoptic Gospels, points to the supreme importance of a life lived in close fellowship with God. In seeking to bring out the depth of significance in this verse we have to explore the loftiest regions of Christian thought and experience. How did Jesus conceive of. God? Did He think of Him as a personal Being (Saguna) or did He think of Him as an impersonal Being (Nirguna)? Jesus calls God His Father in this verse as well as in numerous other sayings of His found in the Gospels. The rich doctrine of the Fatherhood of God which we note in the teaching of Jesus rules out all impersonal conceptions of Divinity. What was the nature of the oneness which Jesus attained with God whom He described so consistently and lovingly as His Father? There are many types of relationship possible between God and His devotees, as we know from the history of religions. There is a metaphysical oneness which is based upon the identity of substance or being. Then there is a moral oneness, a deep and intimate fellowship between God and man in thought, feeling and will Which of these two types was realised by Jesus? Was His realisation only an occasional experience or a constant and permanent one? To answer these questions the Gospels would have to be studied afresh and that wonderful life of self-surrender and service, culminating in the supreme sacrifice on the Cross, must be understood clearly. Jesus loved His Father with a deep love and constantly sought His Presence in prayer and meditation. He realised His complete dependence on God; He gladly submitted His will to the will of God; it was ever His joy to serve God with the utmost devotion. Loving God He loved all God’s children and travailed with them in spirit and body for their spiritual regeneration. This agony reached its climax on Calvary. Such was the oneness of Jesus with God, and we must seek to grasp something of its mystery and loveliness. Educated Hindus are apt to find in the saying ‘I and the Father are one’ an echo of the Advaita Philosophy which identifies the individual soul with the Supreme Soul. It is the task of the Christian teacher to show that this is not a correct interpretation. Such is the charm and potency of the Advaita ideal to the educated Hindu that it will be sometime before the attractiveness of the life of Jesus lived in such entire conformity with the Father’s will, will dawn on him.

An understanding of the nature of the oneness between Jesus and God will give rise to many other questions. Is such a life of oneness with God the unique privilege and prerogative of Jesus or can we in any measure or degree approximate to it? What do the life and teaching of Jesus Christ shed on the problem of man’s communion with God? As Jesus was the supreme social servant whose example we must try to follow though feebly and at a great distance, so He was the supreme devotee who reached and experienced fullness of life in God, which it is our duty to follow in whatever small measure is available to our limited nature. What are the methods by which this communion with God may be attained, and what are the spiritual fruits which it may be expected to bear? What are the hindrances in the way of such unbroken fellowship with the Divine? Is communion with God in this life different from communion with God in the next? If there is an affinity between these two experience yes here and hereafter, what exactly is its nature? It will thus be seen that any effort to understand the full content of the saying of Jesus ‘I and the Father are one’ will lead us to a consideration of all the vital doctrines of the Christian faith.

(To the reader who is interested in this verse and in its significance for religious thought in India I may say that I have discussed it at some length in my books, What is Moksha?, pp. 48-68, and _The Gospel and India’s Heritage, pp. 35-38).

The Devotional Classics

Those who have sold Christian devotional books to Hindus have again and again remarked about the popularity of the Confessions of St. Augustine. The outlook of this book is similar in many respects to the faith of the Hindu devotee. The persistent effort to understand Reality and the spirit of adoration which pervade the whole book are in line with some of the deepest thought of India. Mr. Ramaswami Sastri says about this book, ’The very opening sentence in the famous Confessions of St. Augustine utters the true mystical note: “Thou hast made us for Thyself and our heart is restless until it rest in Thee”. He says further: “By inward goads Thou didst rouse me, that I should be ill at ease until Thou was manifested to my inward sight”, “I tremble, and I burn; I tremble, feeling that I am unlike Him; I burn, feeling that I am like Him”. (Page 57). It will be recalled that before his conversion to Christianity St. Augustine was the follower of the Neo-Platonist School of Philosophy. He himself has clearly acknowledged his debt to the Neo-Platonists and says that they brought him to the feet of Christ. The Confessions is a very illuminating book to every student of Christian Theology in India. The remarkable way in which St. Augustine has baptised with a Christian significance the doctrines and experiences of the Neo-Platonists is well-worth study. Some have gone to the extent of saying that St. Augustine’s understanding of the Christian religion was warped by his devotion to the fundamental ideas and doctrines of the Neo-Platonist Philosophy. The influence of the Confessions through the ages in the Christian Church is, however, a striking testimony to the genuinely Christian spirit of the book.

It is not surprising that Dewan Bahadur K.S. Ramaswami Sastri should feel much attracted to the writings of Eckhart. ‘The following utterance of Eckhart rises to the loftiest heights of Hindu Advaitic mysticism: “All that is in the Godhead is one. Therefore, we can say nothing. He is above all names, above all nature. God works; so doth not the Godhead”. He calls Godhead, i.e. Brahman, the “nameless Nothing”! God, i.e. Iswara, is the personal self-realisation of Godhead’. (Page 60).

The Christian Church, as a whole, has held that Eckhart is not true to the fundamental genius of the Christian religion. The ultimate goal of Christianity in not the identity of the human and the Divine Soul. On this point the teaching of the Christian Church has been clear and definite. The two experiences of identity and communion are not one and the same. In the experience of identity the personality of the believer is lost; the moral and spiritual consequences of such a doctrine are highly dangerous. In the experience of communion where the personality of the believer is retained the fruits of the spiritual life are rich and abundant Like a great many educated Hindus the author of this book refuses to see any vital distinction between these two types of experience. ‘The Upanishads now speak the language of Dwaita, now of Vishishtadvaita, and now of Advaita. Are we to steam-roller all these into one uniform macadamised road of Dwaita or Vishistadwaita or Advaita? No. We should rather enter into the spirit of the incessant and passionate search which went through such experiences and gave them to the world without imagining any metal incompatibility among them. The concept of the Creator, the concept of the immanent Spirit (antaryami), and the concept of Sachchidananda - are they mutually incompatible and exclusive? Not at all. The concept of the eight blessed qualities (apahatapapma, vijarah, vimrutyuh, visokah, avijigatsah, apipasah, satyakamah and satyasankalpah, i.e., holiness, eternal beauty eternal being, eternal bliss, absolute freedom from hunger and thirst, omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence) and the concept of Nirgunatwa (or the unconditioned Blissful Absolute beyond all Name and Form and Causality and Quality) - are they mutually incompatible and exclusive: Not in the least. The concept of Salokya (co-existence) and Samipya (affinity) and Sarupya (similarity) and Sayujya (union) and the concept of Kaivalya (identity) are they mutually incompatible and exclusive? Not at all’ (Pages 72, 73) It is impossible to agree with the author here. How can we possibly ignore the vital and significant difference between the experience of identity in which the personality of the devotee is lost and the experience of fellowship in which his personality is retained?

Hinduism is very assimilative. The synthesis of social service with religious experience is taking place before our very eyes. As understood and practised through the age Hinduism has been lacking in social service as a vital expression of the religious life. Even a writer like Sir Radhakrishnan, who is always anxious to explain Hinduism at its best, acknowledges that the religious leaders of India in the past were more concerned with their own religious progress than with the spiritual welfare of their fellow-men. (Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 57) The present book shows evidence of the way in which the ideal of service is now being combined with the spirit of love and devotion. Mr. Ramaswami Sastri gays, ‘Eckhart combined service and renunciation and even preferred the former. He said: “If a man were in rapture such as Paul experienced, and if he knew of a person who needed something of him, I think it would be far better out of love to leave the rapture and serve the needy man”’ (Page 60).

There are many other passages in the book where the importance of social service as a part of religious experience is recognised. This is a sign of the times. The Ramakrishna Mission is spreading far and wide, both by teaching and by example, the need for combining the service of one’s fellows who are in distress, physically or spiritually, with a life of prayer and meditation. I feel that the ideal of the Advaita Philosophy which is followed by the Ramakrishna Mission is at least compatible with that of service, for ultimately in this Philosophy there is no room for human personality; and all social service implies the recognition of such personality. We seek to educate and help our fellow-men because they have souls and bodies which are truly real. From the point of view of Logic the ideals of Advaita and social service are quite incompatible; but they are being combined with remarkable success at the present time by the Ramakrishna Mission. Life, in its profound mystery and diversity, seems to defy all Logic.

Like many Hindus the author bears testimony to the charm and appeal of the Imitation of Christ. ‘Thomas a Kempis’s Imitation of Christ is one of the best books of Christian mysticism and teaches us the splendour of mystical experience which is, according to him, “shining to saints in perpetual bright clearness”’ (pp. 62, 63).

Once a distinguished missionary wrote to me and said that the popularity of the Imitation of Christ in India was a dangerous thing as the type of religious experience found in it could reach its logical conclusion only in the experience of identity. This fear, it seems to me, is groundless and far-fetched. It is a long cry from the Imitation of Christ to the doctrine of the Advaita. The Imitation of Christ may well be used in our teaching and preaching to awaken the interest of the Hindu devotee without any fear or risk.

Conclusion

One important matter remains to be dealt with, though briefly. In our approach to Hindus do we emphasise only those aspects of Christianity which appeal to them and ignore the others? They have a deep longing for God. They are keenly aware of the need for realising His Presence. They are prepared for any measure of sacrifice in order to love God fully and to serve Him truly. They know the joy of living in God. These are all profound spiritual experiences. They are of the very texture of the Christian religion. In seeking to build upon them an Indian interpretation of the Christian religion we shall not go wrong. There are many directions, on the other hand; in which Hindu spirituality is lacking. The holiness of God is not first and foremost in the thought of a Hindu devotee. Great prophets of the Bible like Isaiah and Jeremiah have much to teach India in this respect. The awfulness of sin, the need for daily forgiveness, the readiness of God to forgive, the necessity of the Cross, the experience of the joy of forgiveness - all these are comparatively lacking in the religious life of India. It is obvious that these latter experiences belong to the heart of the Christian religion and cannot be ignored even if they do not happen to call forth any immediate or effective response from many Hindus. They will modify in many important respects the experience of oneness with God for which the Hindu earnestly strives; they will also determine the nature of the practical results which will emerge from such oneness. It is necessary that emphasis should be laid in India as well as in the other countries of the world upon the holiness of God and all that follows from it. The only question is whether this ethical stress should come first in our approach to Hindus or whether it should come after we take into account those aspects of Hindu religious life such as the longing to live in fellowship with God which are of characteristic importance and which are in accordance with some of the noblest spiritual experiences of the Old Testament and of the new. I am inclined to think that we must begin at the point where a Hindu has firm convictions and strong beliefs, viz., his profound longing for oneness with God, and then proceed to explain those aspects of Christian teaching which are vitally different from his own heritage but which are just as essential for him if he is to be a true Christian.

I have dealt with only one chapter of this interesting book. There is much else in the book which will repay careful study. Two preliminary chapters take up such questions as ‘What is Mysticism? And The Way of the Mystic’. The chapter on ‘Mysticism and Science’ shows that Science deals with facts in a rational way, while Mysticism deals with facts in an intuitive way and that there is room both for reason and intuition. If reason is valid, so is intuition. There are four chapters on the experiences of the mystics of India. Obviously in a small book of this kind it is not possible to cover anything like the wide field of Indian Mysticism in an adequate way. Those who desire to have a bird’s eye view of this large subject will find this book helpful. The author writes with considerable warmth of feeling and breadth of knowledge. There is a felicity of phrase in many of the things which he says. He is fair in his estimate of the various types of devotional life which have been practised in different parts of India in different ages and sums up briefly the characteristic features of the Mysticism of different periods and of different parts of India. One important feature of the book is the complete absence in it of all reference to abnormal phenomena such as visions. The author understands by mystical experience a profound realisation of God and has nothing to say about some of the abnormal ways in which this realisation has taken place in the hearts and souls of many of saints of the world. This careful elimination by a devout Hindu of some of the supernatural elements constantly associated with mystical experience is quite rare and striking.

The Teaching of Hinduism in Theological Schools

BY REV. H.C. LEFEVER, B.D., Ph.D.

(Paper read at the Pasumalai Conference, April 1942),

It is essential for the Christian Evangelist, whether Missionary or Village Pastor, to understand the life and thought of the great Hindu population in whose midst he works. I believe I am not mistaken when I say that it is more important for him to understand the Hindus than to understand “Hinduism”. His whole approach to the subject should be directed to the end of enabling him to appreciate the life and thought of his Hindu Neighbour. My own experience as a student of Hinduism in the West forces me to the conclusion that what is called “Hinduism” in Theological Schools and Colleges is often insufficiently related to the actual life of the average Hindu. The teaching of Hinduism in these institutions is still far too greatly influenced by the trend of Orientalist studies in the West during the last century and the Western study of Hinduism is still too largely under the influence of Vedic scholars like, Max Muller, for whom Hinduism meant either the religion of the Aryan settlers in ancient India or what they deemed the rank idolatry and priest craft of the present-day Indian villager. So the teaching of Hinduism in Theological Schools and Colleges has been and still is to an inordinate extent concerned with the Vedas and the Vedanta. I do not say that this teaching is without value; but I contend that, especially in relation to the syllabus in Theological Schools where men are trained for the village ministry, this branch of Hinduism should occupy a very minor place in the future evangelist’s study of the Hindu people, and should always be subservient to the practical end of enabling the student to understand the actual Hindus among whom he will have to work.

A question which might well occupy the first place in this teaching is “Who are the Hindus? What is their history? Where do they come from? What is the relation of the Aryans to the great family of the Indo-Germanic peoples Who are the Dravidians? What is known of their ancient culture and civilisation? Who are the Pariahs, the Pulayas, the Kuruvas and the many other interesting ethnological and social groups in that part of India in which the student lives ?” The student in these Schools, coming as he does straight from the Secondary Schools, has little anthropological background and is often tempted to think of the various castes and tribes of Southern India, for example, as placed there at the beginning of time by God. But modern research has revealed the most interesting movements of peoples in ancient and even pre-historic times, from Malaya, Indo-China, Africa, Madagascar and other places far away, which have resulted in the mixed types observable to day in different parts of India and of South India in particular. To get these peoples into their respective historical and racial settings is to go a long way towards understanding their peculiar characteristics of thought and custom. This, however, is still only part of the “prolegomena” of the subject. It is necessary for the teacher to pass on without much delay to the Hindu of the present day.

The second question will therefore concern the principal form of Hinduism to be found in the student’s own area. Always, I would emphasise the importance of this local reference! It is far more important for a Tamil student, for instance, to have a working knowledge of the Saiva Siddhanta than to indulge research on the speculations of the Vedanta. It is much more essential for the Bengali student to understand the motives, teachings and practices of the Chaitanya Bhakti Movement than for him to study the ancient sacrificial systems. I can think of few aspects of Hinduism of more importance and interest to the Travancore student than the unusual association of Saivite and Vaishnavite cults indicated by the architecture and ritual of many of the temples, e.g., the Sri Padmanabhaswami Temple at Trivandrum, and by the popular God Ayyappan who receives an increasing number of devotees each year. In the study of local Hinduism an important place will be given to the study of sacred places in the student’s locality. There are eighteen important temples in South India. How many are familiar even in name to the average student in our Theological Schools? Yet each of these great temples has associated with it traditions which play a living part in the experience of its worshippers. Closely connected with the study of sacred places is the study of the main pilgrimages undertaken by Hindus in the different areas.

Equal in importance with the study of religious centres and the stories and practices associated with them is the study of Hindu social customs. Most of these have their origin in some religious conception or, as in the Hebrew religion, they are explained by reference to some myth or religious precept. Especially important in this connection are customs associated with such major events of life as births, marriages, deaths, seed-time and harvest, house-building and where they exist, all the ceremonies connected with royalty. Perhaps we come nearest of all to the Hindu mind in studying such customs and ceremonies. But this branch of our study should not be confined to a supercilious notice of quaint ceremonies. It should be part of a serious study of the Hindu social system. That important Hindu social phenomenon, the Joint Family System, is an example of what should be included in the subject under this heading. These social customs are important for the Christian Evangelist not only in his study of Hindu life but also for his knowledge of Christian life in India, In an interesting and valuable paper read at the Kodaikanal Conference four years ago, the Rev. D.S. Sahayadas pointed out what a surprisingly large number of Hindu social and socio-religious customs had survived in the life of the Christian community.

If our study of Hinduism is to be are eminently the study of the Hindu people the political side or sides of Hindu life cannot be overlooked. Rather they should be given the greatest prominence. It is still levelled against India Christians, by Hindus especially, that they stand in gene outside the main current of the country’s political life. The charge is less justified today than it was in former time but still many Christians, especially those from the for backward communities, cling to the pernicious “Mission Compound mentality”. Very few of our village Christians have any real knowledge of the great trends of politic opinion in India, the various reform (and anti-reform) movements in Hinduism itself and the different sections of Hindu social and political thought. This ignorance may be due to the financial and intellectual inability of many village Christians to read the newspapers, but it is a lamentable form of ignorance which the better educated Pastor or Evangelist should do all in his power to dispel. It is especially in its failure to equip the Church Worker for this important task that the present method of teaching Hinduism in Theological Schools is shown to be fragmentary and academic. It is much more important for the Christian Pastor to understand the teaching of the Hindu Mahasabha and the Sanatanists - to say nothing of the largely Hindu Congress - than to know about the extinct God Varuna or the imaginary exploits of Indra. If the Christian Church is to be an effective agent of God in the redemption of the “whole man” in India, it is essential that Christians should understand the main life streams that flow too often past the Church door and the compound gate without entering in.

A Modern Apologetic for Hinduism

By R.C. DAS, M.A.

(A paper read at the Conference on the Theological Task in India held in Poona Dec. 1942).

1. The Background of Hinduism

A few preliminary remarks are necessary as regards Hinduism which provides our background and field of operation.

  1. The Vedas are the source of Hinduism in all its essentials-adaptable and re-interpretable. The slogan “Back to the Vedas” (like its analogue Back to the Bible) is not merely modern. Hinduism has drawn inspiration, strength and light from the Vedas age after age to meet a particular situation created either by social revolution or political upheaval. It is rooted in the Vedas from which develops its doctrines and supports it re-interpretations and is today Lot decadent but very much alive. In spite of it legalistic rigour and exclusiveness its power of adaptability has been truly wonderful. Different schools of thought and groups of men with different ways of life have fought with one another making a common appeal to the Vedas.

  2. It ought also to be noted that Hinduism is not a mere heterodox jumble of ideas or incoherent plethora of practices as it appears to superficial observers but to all patient and impartial students it will reveal an essential unity and real growth of certain fundamental truths. Hinduism is the resultant from a severe clash, a long contact and wide compromise of Vedic Aryanism, Dravidian culture and aboriginal cults. Hence, one need not be surprised to find in it apparently contradictory elements.

  3. Hinduism is spiritually inclusive, comprehensive, and absorptive but practically and socially exclusive, eventuating in caste and outcaste. It is fearlessly and even licentiously catholic in thought, fostering endless philosophies and legends but strongly critical and even oppressively narrow in the practical affairs of life, issuing in the Varnashram system supported by the Smritis and Samhitas the ethico-social codes.

  4. Hinduism stands for a naturalistic system of metaphysics, worship and social activity. It lacks a clear and emphatic revelation of the nature, will and truth of God and the meaning of the world.

    1. It has woven a widely diversified philosophy and presented a highly organised socio-religious system called Varnashram Dharma and its perversion caste - the divine social order of Hinduism binding all individuals in groups and providing scope for the realisation of their different talents.

    2. It has further projected a well-thought-out ethico-religious system called Karma -the divine moral order both internal and external - the law of the universe out of man and the law of the world within man.

    3. Hinduism has developed an ornate, richly ritualistic and symbolical system of polytheistic and idolatrous worship claiming that through it all man obtains satisfaction in this life and reaches his goal in union with God or absorption in the Ultimate Being.

    4. Defying and comprehending all, Hinduism bids man - the lover and seeker - to realise his identity with the Absolute Reality - Brahman. In a nutshell Hinduism has produced the Vedanta - the profoundest philosophy which the human’ mind has ever woven and which holds the intellectuals of India absorbed, admiring and spellbound.

    5. It has also produced a system of popular religion with its hundreds of pilgrim centres and sacred waters, shrines and temples, its millions of Sadhus and Sanyasis, its hierarchy of priests and Gurus, its hundreds of Ashrams and its endless feasts and fasts - all of which keep the ordinary man and woman and child busy and seemingly satisfied.

  5. Christianity confronts this orthodox living Hinduism today. Much of this religion is mechanical, legalistic and institutional but more of it is disorganised, utterly free, liberal and responsive. Will Christianity face and touch this Hinduism from outside from the standpoint of an institution and a creed however good and true and thus supplant it or contact it and possess it, reverify it and regenerate it like a dynamic movement of the Divine Spirit? Or is there a harmony available of these two methods of approach? Could Christianity in view of its historic past reconcile the Church with the Holy Spirit thus making the former the Divine instrument of redemption? This is a very pertinent question that must be raised and answered in any attempt to prepare an effective apologetics for Hinduism.

2. The Internal Situation in the Church

  1. As a prerequisite to an adequate and effective apologetics to meet Hindu India described above independent thinking in the Indian Church is absolutely essential. This implies the need of toleration and even sympathy for concomitant heresies which should not be feared or suppressed but boldly faced and rationally met, then the truth will shine the brighter in contrast. For an excess of caution with a compulsory direction of thought-life on the part of the authorities and fear of consequences on the part of budding scholars and mystics will inhibit all dynamic thought-processes. Until Christianity becomes self-conscious, voluntary and self-respecting through self-exploration and daring experiments, any presentation of its message and meaning to Hindus or others will be lifeless and unappealing like stage-acting prompted by external manoeuvring.

  2. Can be informed and intelligent Christians reasonably hope that the conditions under the present Church and Mission policies will ever induce the growth of creative thought or encourage experiments in Christian living? There is a heavy impact of well-trained foreign missionary personnel upon the meagre, weak and young Indian Church. This group of friends from abroad aspired by the best of motives and rightly claiming membership of the Church have been dominating the life-processes of the Church, may be unconsciously in many cases. The result has been standardised Church life and thought of the Western type but with very little of its spirit of independence and service. Practically the whole Indian personnel engaged in the Church and Mission organisations - some of whom would have made a mark in life under different circumstances - have been thinking second hand thoughts and merely imitating other’s deeds. The writer of this paper could produce instance after instant of how under the prevailing conditions of rivalry, overlapping and a sense of prestige, some genuine indigenous efforts in Christian education, literature and evangelism have been altogether suppressed and in other cases the encouragement has been tardy and hesitating. Indian Christian initiative cannot emerge where the Western genius was full scope and play. It is an illusion and a vain hope that somehow someday the Church in the present situation will come to its own and recover a proper perspective.

  3. Let us remember that at this stage of the development of Christianity and of the national life in India, an emphasis on the importance of the institutional aspect of the Church - its huge and complex administrative machinery and its highly organised and yet divided life - will be an obstacle to the spontaneous growth of an apologetics of the right type. This should not be construed to mean that in the writer’s opinion organised Christianity is wrong or useless. All depends on the emphasis and where it is laid. When one goes carefully through all the documents and negotiations upon the subject of reunion of Churches, one cannot escape the impression that an attempt is being made probably with good and benevolent intentions to cage and chain the young life of the Indian Church, which is just beginning to pulsate, in the steel frame of a comprehensive and strong hierarchical type of ecclesiastic polity exactly reflecting the historic evolution and Western Churches. Motivated and initiated by the Western missionary mind, supported by the Indian clergy of their making or their mission employees, piloted by ecclesiastical experts but thoroughly misunderstood by the large bulk of independent laymen and women, young and old, this movement for reunion is being conducted with undue haste towards consummation. What scope will there be for the play of the Indian genius within such a Church economy? The writer believes in the possibility, desirability and better suitability of reunion of a type different from organisational (as distinct from organic) administrative or mechanical and formal union to discuss which this is not the proper place.

  4. Individuals and group, unconnected with and not responsible to Church and Mission authorities but not necessarily unorthodox or disloyal to the Church’s tradition and authority on that account, will be in a more favourable position to achieve success in the field of indigenous theology and apologetics. Christian Ashrams and educational centres as well as centres of Hindu: learning and religion will provide the appropriate atmosphere for creative thinking and dynamic living if the thinkers and writers, saints and mystics, are assured of not only non-interference, but even positive sympathy end support from higher authorities. It is more natural and probable that Christian apologetics will be produced by individuals and small intellectual and spiritual fellowship than by official committees and councils. Church and Mission authorities should ideally back up the pioneers and experimenters in this field as in others or at least leave them undisturbed. That fresh experiences should be gained, and new traditions formed and added to the heritage and commonwealth of the Universal Church should be no unchristian thought.

  5. Therefore, the rise of a sound and effective apologetics is vitally dependent upon the attainment by the Church in India of true autonomy and initiative. A Church administratively mixed up and subservient and economically dependent and a Christianity intellectually pauperised and unrelated to the national heritage cannot be in a position to produce a suitable Christian apologetics to meet the high demands of Hindu India. So the first prerequisite is the independence of Christian thought and healthy vigorous Christian life in this country.

3. The Nature and Content of the Apologetics

  1. In my humble opinion the most effective approach to Hinduism on behalf of the Christian faith as contained in the Scriptures and as interpreted by the experience of the ecumenical Church (and the precondition of a sound and rich Christian theology in India) ought to be a Christian life of meditation, of search and realisation, of witness, love and service, lived under fully Indian conditions with Indian ideals and inspiration. So we must set about the task of creating an apologetics on the basis of a right Christian life in the intellectual and spiritual climate of India.

  2. A comprehensive knowledge (preferably in the original) of the Biblical contents and a penetrative insight into their spiritual implications and an equally thorough knowledge of Sanskrit and of the Indian languages is essential. Hitherto Christian literature of whatever kind and quantity has been produced by men (largely non-Indian) who have known little or nothing of India’s classics and her popular literature. Hence, its poor quality and content and its feeble appeal to the Hindu. The importance, therefore, of raising indigenous scholars all over the country and of strongly equipping our Publishing Houses is self-evident.

  3. To be true to the Hindu genius and persuasive to the Hindu mind an apologetic must be surcharged with the spirit of broad nationalism nourished by the knowledge of Indian history, sociology, literature, philosophy, religion, culture and civilisation. This is most important in the interest equally of richer Christian life, more successful evangelisation and firmer planting of the Church on the soil of the country. It is obvious that it will be necessary to give up “the Mission Compound mentality” and to mingle fearlessly with our neighbours in the affairs of life. Our institutions will have to set an example in encouraging the growth of a healthy nationalism by providing a truly indigenous atmosphere in schools and churches and by practically supporting Oriental studies, especially Indology. They should also create in the minds of the young a true respect and pride for the great saints and leaders of India.

  4. An overdose of Western philosophy and an indiscriminate soaking in Western Christian theology - especially in the case of one not conscious of his ancestral inheritance has acted rather as an inhibiting and disabling factor. Originality comes only from originals. Imitation or borrowing is lifeless and insipid, Originality is powerful and catching. It is significant that one hundred and fifty years of Christian education by modern missions has not produced any prophets, saints or scholars who have made any notable impression upon the spiritual or public life of India except those few converts from Hinduism who brought into the Church their national characteristics, their patriotism and knowledge of the country, the intellectual and spiritual energies of Hinduism which were purified and used for the glory of God, for example, Pandit Nilkant Shastri, Pandita Ramabai, Poet Narayan Vaman Tilak, Sadhu Sundar Singh, Rev. K.M. Banerjee, Rev. Lal Bihari Dey, Poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt and so on. May one ask what is the actual production of Western theological and educational teaching which one could count as a worthy contribution to the life of the Church and of the country? Besides the question of literary output and spiritual expression what is the contribution of Indians in the matter of Church building and Church organisation apart from what the missionary genius has achieved ? What is the cause of this failure when we know that the Indian Christian has had a better chance and a greater measure of modern liberal education?

  5. Attacking Hinduism from outside is like beating the wind or the water - Christianity must leaven and transform Hinduism from the inside. Votaries of truth need neither be alarmed nor delighted that in the process a good deal of Hinduism will be surely destroyed. It is the conviction of the writer that eventually Hinduism as a system will die a slow natural death and live within the Church as a force, inspiration and mentality, Should Christianity or need Christianity suppress, supplant and uproot Hinduism or rather should Christianity transplant, transform, vitalism its ideas and institution with Christian spirit, direction and motive? It is futile to attack Hinduism from without, however spiritual our weapons of warfare. A militant religion cannot destroy another religion that looks inwards for power and support The Christian leaven must be allowed to work from within. If this is done Hindu institutions and organisations - its legalistic system - will die, while the true treasures - the ethical and spiritual values-cleansed and replenished by Christian graces, will live within the Church Up to now the Christian leaven was worked very partially in the intellectual life of educated India but the spiritual springs and for intuitions of Hinduism remain untouched In a way it quite urgent to influence the social and public life of India with the Christian verities of liberty, equality and fraternity and with the Christian standards of purity, truth and rectitude - which is possible only if and when the Christian community will act as salt and light, losing itself in the service of men, always being ready to discharge obligation without claiming rights for itself.

  6. Constructive, positive and definite presentation of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and of the divine grab and power of the Cross and the Resurrection is pregnant with momentous consequence as the Hindu mind hungers for spiritual food. Let us emphasise Revelation and Faith, the spiritual values of Christianity-matters upon which Hinduism either says too little or too much, there being no steady criterion of judgement. Exalt the ethical nature of Christianity and magnify the moral transcendence of Christ’s personality. There is a real gap in Hinduism here and the Hindu heart has been groping, though unconsciously, for light and satisfaction found in a worthy example of character.

  7. We must admit, frankly and in humble penitence, the failures and weaknesses of the historic Church. It would be untrue and extremely unwise to equate and confuse, as many do, the Church with the Kingdom of God. Hindus accept the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven as ushered in by Christ and appreciate its realisation, though slow and halting, by Christian individuals and groups. It would be truer to say that the Kingdom is the end, the Church the instrument or better the Kingdom in the making. But to make pretend pious claims to divine infallibility and authority for the visible Church puts Hindus on their mettle, and they see in so many. Churches the same arrogance, hypocrisy and intolerance as they see in their own caste divisions and priestly orders. Humility and love will win, where Pharisaism and mere constitutional propriety or theological correctness will utterly fail.

  8. Christian writers and thinkers should use Hindi religious terminology more abundantly and without fear. This should not frighten or surprise anyone conversant with the spread of Christianity in the West where the thought moulds and the linguistic expressions of Graeco-Roman culture and the Teutonic races have clothed Christian ideas and truths. I suggest that it is usually those who are ignorant of the thought-forms of the Hindu mind and the vocabularies of the Indian languages who see red in any attempt to naturalist Christianity. While it is true that no human word can convey the full Christian meaning I venture to state that Hindu terms are excellent vehicles of expression for Christian truths. Few realise the injury done to the Christian case in India through overmuch caution in this respect. Vernacular Christian literature is on the whole unreadable. Educated Hindus prefer the English Bible to a translation in their mother language. To the less educated vernacular translations are largely unintelligible. The same is true of hymnals and prayer manuals and general Christians books. When Christian truths are put into natural indigenous mounds, Christian apologetics will find their bearings.

  9. My last word is a direct constructive proposal. Let us lay hold of great central Hindu ideas and beliefs, practices and institutions - the very foundation and essence of Hinduism - and definitely build up Christian philosophy and life with them. Such ideas and practices are Brahman, Maya, Karma, Dharma, Ahimsa, Varnashrama, the Family System, Idolatry, Pilgrimage, Moksha, Veda, Yajna, Guru, Avatar, Bhakti, and Juana. Thus, baptism can be linked to washing in sacred waters. We may not discard the idea of sacrifice; else we can never expound the meaning of the Atonement. Even the idea behind idolatry, longing for the manifestation and accessibility of God, is a preparation for the acceptance of the Incarnation - the express image of the Divine Person. Such study as is advocated here is needed not only for evangelistic purposes but for the enrichment of the life of the Church itself. (For a fuller treatment of this point vide article entitled ‘Christian Approach to Popular Hinduism’ printed in N.C.C. Review, April 1937.)

Side-tracking has so far ended in futility and frustration. Mere negative criticism or nationalism: (whether of the Hindu reformers or of the Christian missionaries) has in the recent past resulted in the releasing on the part of Hinduism of some of its unsuspected revitalising powers, and we witness today a widespread, joyous and buoyant renaissance of both popular and higher Hinduism from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas. To be quite practical and true to his calling, let the Christian meet the Hindu on his level, speaking language, walking with him on the pilgrim’s was in his quest for truth, reality and bliss unspeakable and leading him ultimately to Jesus Christ in whom he will find these and much more in immeasurable degree - even life eternal.

The Meaning of the Vedic Sacrifice

BY J.N. RAWSON M.A.

Various views have been held as to the meaning and: purpose of the Vedic sacrifice. In origin, it was probably a gift but as we see it in its developed form in the Yajur Veda it has three main aspects:

  1. A gift to the gods
  2. A magic spell
  3. A sacrament of communion

1. The Sacrifice as a Gift

Keith considers that this is the primary nature of the sacrifice as seen in the Rig Vedic hymns, though in later times the magical aspect became more and more prominent: (B.P.V. 18), The Vedic gods are a body of powerful beings before whom man realised his weakness and need, and he sought to propitiate them and secure their help in the simplest way possible, by presenting gifts. The purpose of the gift is in the main twofold:

  1. To obtain a gift in return, usually worldly prosperity
  2. Piacular - to avert punishment for sin.

There is nothing unworthy in itself in the gift -view of sacrifice, but the Yajur Veda in various places sets forth in the most naive and naked way the idea of the sacrifice as essentially a bargain. So the Taittiriya Samhita i: 8.4. says

    Let us bargain food and strength.
    Give thou to me; I shall give to thee:
    Bestow upon me; I shall bestow on thee.

This is the classical statement of what has been called the do ut des view of sacrifice.

It might appear that the bargain is a very one-sided one. The gods are immortal beings, what need do they have of human gifts? Even in the Rig Veda, however, Indra needs the stimulation of the Soma to conquer the demons and more and more in the Yajur Veda and Brahmanas the sacrifices are regarded as necessary to the gods to refresh them and renew their strength. Though this idea doubtless originated in a naive naturalism it is easy to see how it soon became magical.

2. The Sacrifice as a Magic Spell

Sir J. Frazer regards the Vedic sacrifice, like other sacrifices, as being in origin magical. Keith disputes this. In the Rig Veda he says it is essentially a gift appealing to the goodwill of the gods. But certainly in the Yajur Veda and the Brahmanas it is conceived as a rite which not merely appeals to but exercises a compelling power over the gods. This may be connected with the idea of the need of the renewal of the gods by sacrifice referred to above. In any case the importance of the gods and of the sacrifice has now become inverted. The sacrifice itself has become the centre of thought and desire, its correct performance in every detail being all important. Its power is now so great that it not merely influences but compels the gods to do the will of the officiating priests, or even has power quite apart from the gods. On such a view it is easy to see how the priests became all important. As one of the Brahmanas says. ‘There are two kinds of gods, the divas in heaven and the Brahmans on earth’ and of the two the latter tend to be regarded as the more important.

3. The Sacrifice as a Sacrament of Communion

There is, however, plenty of evidence that the sacrifice was not merely magical. An essential part of most of the sacrifices: was that the sacrificer himself partook of the offering and so he and his family and usually the officiating priests enjoyed a common meal with the gods. In this way they were conceived as united (yukta) with the gods, so that they partook of their strength and sacredness.

There is a striking passage at the beginning of the account of the piling of the fire altar in both the Kathaka and Tuittiriya Samhitas in which this idea of union communion through the sacrifice is very clearly set forward

    Yoking first the mind
    And thoughts for truth, Savitar,
    Discerning the light of Agni,
    Brought it down to earth.
    Yoking with mind the gods,
    Going to heaven, the sky, with thought,
    Those that are to make great light,
    Savitar inspires (or stimulates).
    With mind well yoked are we
    By inspiration of god Savitar,
    With strength for gaining heaven
    They yoke their minds and yoke their thoughts,
    The sages of the great wise sage (i.e. Savitar)

Here we seem to have the origin of the idea of Yoga (literally yoking) in the sense of a contemplative and ascetic preliminary: discipline, leading to the experience of communion, which is one of the greatest Hindu ideas. While among many therefore religion as seen in the Yajur Veda seemed to grow more and more mechanical and magical, there were those among the priests who were not content with mere ritual but sought for spiritual, understanding and viewed the sacrifice not merely as a bargain or a spell but as an experience of communion,

(Savitar is described by Macdonell as a solar deity in the capacity of the great stimulator of life and activity in the world - Editor, The Pilgrim.)

The Sanyasi Ideal

When I was in Madras recently I spent a morning in the Theosophical Publishing House; Adyar to see whether there was any new book on Hinduism which might interest the readers of The Pilgrim. There was a large choice of books on Hindu Religion and Philosophy. I was attracted by a book entitled The Jivan Mukti Viveka by Sri Vidyaranya (Theosophical Publishing House, Madras, Rs. 3-8-0). This book is described as being well-known and as being quite a favourite with Hindu Sanyasis. The Sanskrit text, which is printed in full, was compiled by Vidyaranza who lived in the fourteenth century, and rose to be the Prime Minister of Bukka Raya, the King of Vizianagaram. As minister his name was Sayana. But he renounced his work in the King’s court and became a Sanyasi taking the title of Vidyaranya Sayana was responsible for an elaborate commentary on the Vedas known as the Veda Bhashya. The present book, extolling the ideal of renunciation, shows a wide knowledge of the Hindu Scriptures and the evidence of a subtle and powerful mind. The Sanskrit text has been translated into English by Pandit S. Subramanya Sastri and Mr. T.R. Srinivasa Iyyangar.

Jivan Mukti means liberation in this life. The path to such Liberation is the Sanyasi’s life. The Sanyasi ideal is thus set forth in the book: ‘He is verily the Parama hamsa who resumes the condition he was in, at the moment of birth; frees himself from the pairs of opposites; neither receives nor possesses anything, ever walks in the exalted way of the Brahman, with mind ever pure; goes about begging at large at the prescribed time, using his belly alone as his begging bowl; remaining indifferent to gain or loss, abides in any place be it a deserted dwelling, temple, hay-rick, anthill, root of a tree, potter’s work-room, the house where the sacred fires are kept, the sandbank of a river, mountain cave or cleft, the hollow of a tree, rivulet or bare ground; avoids all exertion; is selfless; is ever absorbed in divine contemplation; abides in the Atman ever bent on uprooting ail actions good, bad or indifferent; and shuffles off his mortal coil with the true spirit of renunciation’ (Page 11).

The Doctrine of Actionlessness

At the bottom of the Hindu Sanyasi ideal lies the fundamental conviction that all action is undesirables for action necessarily leads a man to future births and deaths. One must not even have a sense of duty. If one has a desire to do one’s duty one is far removed from that Janna, which alone brings about Mukti. In this respect Vidyaranya, like most Hindu Sanyasis, has failed to grasp the significance of the Gita doctrine of Nish Kama Karma. The Gita was written at a time when the monastic movement was wide spread in India. Buddhism had given a great stimulus to the popularity and influence of the ideal of renunciation.

Some of the best men of India had given up the world and had become monks. The author of the Gita was face to face with this serious situation. He realised that if the Sanyasi ideal spread any further there would be great harm. Men who ought to be at the head of affairs in the state and in the family would leave for the jungle or the cave and devote themselves entirely to prayer and meditation. The author of the Gita, therefore, inculcated the doctrine of Nish Kama Karma. He taught that men should perform the various duties belonging to their different stations in life, but in a spirit of dedication and surrender to the Divine. The soldier must fight because that is his duty; he must not fight coveting the fruits which are attached to his work such as money or renown or adventure. He must fight simply in order to please God who has placed him in that particular caste and given him that special work to do. Vidyaranya is greatly influenced by the Bhagavad Gita. He constantly quotes from that work and developed the thoughts which are found in it. But he has failed to grasp the central doctrine of the Bhagavad Gita, namely, Nish Kama Karma So have the other Sanyasis of India. If they had taken to heart the main teaching of the Gita in this respect, their understanding of the Sanyasi ideal would have been altogether different.

The Negative Aspect of the Sannyasi Ideal

Throughout this book the negative aspect of renunciation receives emphasis. One of the purposes of the attainment of Jivan Multi is said to be the genesis of supreme bliss. ‘He becomes fully satisfied in the complete discharge of every duty, by realising.’ “I am that Brahman which is All-Transcendent Bliss and the one (fountain source of all consciousness.”

This Yogin - Parama - hamsa reaches the delightful condition of fulfilling all duties whatever, on his ever realising “That Brahman described in the Upanishads as that Supreme Self which is All-Bliss and the One Consciousness - I am that Brahman”. So also says the Smriti:

“Regaling in the nectar of Gnosis to his heart’s content, fully satisfied in the complete discharge of every duty, there remains nothing for the Yogin to do: if at all there is anything which remains, then he cannot be reckoned as having attained Gnosis” (page 221).

The teaching here given is that the man who attains oneness with the Divine reaches a state of great joy. While this thought is found in the book it does not receive the emphasis which it has, for instance, in the Upanishads or in the Gita. One who has reached identity with God is not distracted by what happens around him. This is the positive side of the Sanyasi ideal. He is so filled with the inner joy that he has no use for the good things of this world. Others may seek to increase their joy by wearing pretty clothes or eating good food but not so the Sanyasi. His delight and joy in the Divine is complete and does not need to be supplemented by any material enjoyments. The Sanyasi, therefore, gives up the world and all that is good in it from an inner urge. His positive experience of God becomes an expulsive power,

It is curious that in this learned book the positive experience which really lies at the basis of any true Sanyasi ideal gets so little attention. The negative processes connected with renunciation, on the other hand, receive full and frequent treatment. A Sanyasi is taught to cultivate a sense of detachment towards his wife in the following way: ‘It is women who, though appearing all juicy and green, are verily devoid of grace and who, by their attractive looks, allure men to their destruction and feed the fires of hell raging in a far-off region. They are, verily, traps laid by the bird catcher Cupid, to catch his bevy of birds, viz., unsophisticated men. Woman is the treacherous bait, attached to the line of impure latent desires, to catch men, who are, so to say, so many fish in the pond of birth and death, wallowing in the mire of the mind. Enough with woman - treasure chest, wherein the serene gems of the deadliest sins are kept and the endless chain of torturing misery. Made up of flesh here, blood there and bones in a third place, this female form, O Brahman! After all disintegrates in a few days.’ (Page 101).

A Sanyasi must not be attached to his son; for this purpose he must pursue the following line of reasoning. ‘A son as long as he is not brought forth, gives a lot of anxiety to his parents; even when there is the prospect of his coming there is the anxiety created by the risk of abortion, or parturitive pain; infantile fits and maladies pursue him as soon as he is born; the fear of his turning out a fool is a fruitful source of trouble during his childhood; he may prove to be a confirmed ignoramus, even after being duly initiated by a teacher. He may not find a suitable other in life, though he might have attained proficiency in ruing Youth lays him open to the temptations of illicit love. After he becomes a family-man, there is the instant danger of poverty. Should he amass immense death might, possibly synchronise with it and snatch him away? There is no end to the parent’s misery’. (Page 101).

It is clear then that the author seeks to aim at renunciation by following negative rather than positive methods.

The Need for Service

The need for the Sanyasi to serve there receives but meagre treatment. In a book of 222 pages only two or three pages are devoted to this thought of service for others. Though, according to this principle, no other incarnation trainable through Penance, still it has a distinct purpose to serve, viz., the good of the world. Says the Lord:

    Then having an eye to the welfare of the world also,
    thou shouldst perform action.

— Gita iii, 20

The world to be thus obliged may be divided into three kinds: the world of Pupils, of Devotees and of Neutrals (i.e., neither the one, nor the other). Of these, the first in virtue of the highest faith in the truthfulness of the Guru (teacher) who is a real Yogin ever-centred within was implicit trust and confidence in the Truth taught by him and attains mental composure in a very short space of time. Hence, it is said in the Sruti:

    He, who is absolutely devoted to God and verily looks
    upon his Guru (teacher) as his God - to that great soul are
    revealed the sublime truths of what is imparted by the
    teacher.

— Svetasvatara Upanishad, vi. 23

The Smriti also says:

    The man who is full of faith obtaineth wisdom, and he
    also, who hath mastery over his senses; and having obtained
    wisdom, he goeth swiftly to the supreme peace.

— Gita vi. 39

The second kind of men, Devotees: themselves appropriate as it were, the Penance practised by the Yogin merely by rendering service to him by way of accommodating him in the matter of food, habitation and the like. Says the Sruti: “His (the Yogin’s) sons share the patrimony, his friends his good deeds, and his enemies his sins”.

Neutrals again are of two kinds, Believers and Unbelievers. The first, observing the Yogins themselves treading the path of rectitude, follow in their wake. The Smriti has it!

    Whatever a great man doth, that other men also do;
    the standard he setteth up, by that the people go

— Gita iii. 21

Even the Unbeliever is rid of his sins, on being graced with the eye glances of the Yogin. It has been said:

    On whomsoever fall the eye-glances of the Yogin whose
    mind is directed towards the Truth, with a view, eventually,
    to attain Self-realisation, such are delivered from all their
    sins.

In the same manner, referring, by implication, to the Yogin’s sense of high altruism, it is set forth thus:

“The man, whose mind has, even for a moment, attained firmness in the quest after the Brahman, has verily had a dip in the holy waters of all the sacred rivers; has bestowed the whole earth as a pious gift; has offered a thousand sacrifices; has propitiated all the gone in heaven; has rescued his departed ancestors from the cycle of birth and deaths; and is fit, indeed, to be held in veneration by the three world (upper, mundane and nether)”.

“Through him whose mind is dissolved in that vast ocean of absolute Consciousness and Bliss, the Supreme Brahman, his family derives it sanctity, his mother the fulfilment of her cherished hopes and desires and the earth becomes replete with pious merit of a high order.” (Pages 175-177).

The modern Hindu Sanyasi is moving away from the ideal of renunciation as a more or less negative type of life to the ideal of service. When I was in Benares I noted that along the bank of the Ganges in the various Ghats there were tiny open cells for Sanyasis to sit in meditation and prayer. In days of old many Sanyasis seemed to have lived in these little cells receiving the devotion and love of their followers.

Now all these rooms are practically empty. If, on the other hand, we go into the Ramakrishna Home in the city we find many Sanyasis busily engaged in looking after the sick and in taking care of the orphans. These very men a generation or two ago would have thought that devoting themselves to prayer and meditation in the little cells near the Ghats was the highest possible ideal for them. The Ramakrishna Mission is doing a great deal to put a new content into the Hindu Sanyasi ideal. And we know how much the Ramakrishna Mission owes to Jesus. It was on a Christmas Eve that Swami Vivekananda saw the vision of an order of Hindu Sanyasis for service and sacrifice in India; the Ramakrishna Mission was born then.

Jesus the True Sannyasi

We find in Jesus the noblest example of a true Sanyasi. He was not afraid of action. It is said of Him that He went about doing good. The fatal idea in India that all action, whether good or bad, is sure to involve a man in a cycle of births and deaths was absent from the teaching of Jesus. In His conception of a world ruled by a loving Father there was no room for the fear that action, even good action, will have an inevitable consequence of births and death. No negative emphasis on the ideal of renunciation was found either in the life or in the teaching of Jesus. He lived in constant fellowship with God. He trusted absolutely in the love and goodness of God. The service of God was the source of Supreme Bliss to Him. Therefore, the material enjoyments which draw men had no attraction for him. There was no place which He could call His home if he had relations and friends they took only a second place in his thought and work for the Kingdom of God was his primary interest. He drew no salary and was not interested in making money. His life of utter renunciation arose from hie positive and rich experience: of God. He did not have to stimulate His spirit of detachment by following long methods of reasoning. Jesus has a great deal to reach the Hindu Sanyasi in the matter of renunciation. Would to God Christians here and in other parts of the world could really understand and practise that wonderful spirit of renunciation and service which marked the life and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A.J.A.

Liberal Hinduism

Rao Bahadur D.S. Sarma, sometime Principal, Pachaiyappa’s College, Madras, thus sums up the principles of liberal, non-sectarian Hinduism in his most useful book, ‘What is Hinduism?’ Higginbothams, Madras, Second Edition, Rs. 1-8-0.)

  1. That our ultimate authority in religion is neither a miraculous revelation nor individual reason, neither the teaching of any Founder nor mere tradition, but the spiritual experience of a host of seers which every man can make his own by undergoing the necessary discipline.
  2. That, as there is a law of causation in the physical world, there is a law of consequences called the Law of Karma in the moral world, according to which a man reaps as he sows, his present life being determined by the past and his future by the present.
  3. That out of this region of the Law of Karma there is a way called Yoga which leads man to the ineffable perfection of God and which has three important aspects, namely Karma-yoga or the way of selfless action, Bhakti-yoga or the way of self-forgetting devotion and Jnana-yoga or the way of self-transcending knowledge.
  4. That God is one, though men give Him many names and forms according to their spiritual needs and different degrees of understanding, and that therefore the widest possible tole ration is imperative in matters of religious belief and practice.
  5. That, as the life of the individual, the growth of society, the trend of human history and the evolution: of life in this world should be regarded as only the different aspects of the one spiritual purpose running through all creation, viz., the whole universe returning to God who is its home, it is the duty of every man to utilise his natural endowments and his position in society for the cultivation of spiritual values and thus further the divine purpose. (pp. 172-173).

Printed at the Hilal Press, Tirunelveli 5-1943

The Gospel and India’s Heritage

BY. A.J. Appasamy, M.A. (Harvard), Ph.D. (Oxon.)

Mr. E.R. Richardson writes in The Student Movement (London):

The most significant thing about this excellent book is that it has been written ‘with a view to translation into the chief Indian languages’. When that is done, it will have made a great contribution to the life of the Church in India. Dr. Appasamy has taken the life and teaching of Jesus and placed the within an Indian frame, using Indian religious terms with which to express the truth of God in Christ Jesus. He has prefaced the whole with an introduction that is at once long and fascinating and, if English: readers got no further than that, it would have well repaid them In the minds of those who offer the Gospel in India, there always a difficulty when one meets the highest in Hindu thought. It so often approximates to what has been said and written in our own scriptures and the dividing line between what is truth and what is not is often lost. In his brilliant introduction, Dr. Appasamy deals effectively with the loose idea prevalent often in the minds of those who delve deeply into the deceptive world of Hindu values that fundamentally the revelation of God given in India through its saints and seers is equal to the unique revelation to the world in Jesus. He was some wise words to say concerning new converts, and his use of Hindu sacred books to illustrate the purpose of God in the life of Jesus not only shows his own learning but saves us from too easy a disregard of some of the best writings in Hinduism. It is a refreshing thing to look again at the Gospel and the teaching of Jesus through the eyes of an Indian. Dr. Appasamy does not claim to be original in what he says, and obviously he has learnt a great deal through people well-known to as in the West. But he shows us that both the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus can be set within an Indian frame and spoken with an Indian idiom. For those who would go to India to serve in the Christian Church, it is essential that we realise this, and the writer helps us as very few have done to see how completely true this is. The book is well indexed and well written, and we recommend it with confidence.

CONTENTS Introduction, The Inner Life of Jesus, The Public Ministry of Jesus, The Teaching of Jesus on God, The Teaching of Jesus on the Holy Spirit, The Teaching of Jesus on Sin, The Teaching of Jesus on Forgiveness, The Teaching of Jesus on Fellowship with God, The Teaching of Jesus on Ethics, The Teaching of Jesus on the Church, The Teaching of Jesus on the Future Life, The Death and Resurrection of Jesus, Jesus the Incarnation.

S. P. C. K. Post Box No. 501. PARK TOWN, MADRAS

BOARD Rs. 2-4-0 CLOTH Rs. 3-0-0 ENGLISH EDITION 8sh. 6d.