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

The Christian Society for the Study of Hinduism

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

President: Bishop CLEMENT D. ROCKEY, Lucknow.

Vice-Presidents: The BISHOP of LUCKNOW, Allahabad Dr. A.J. APPASAMY, M.A., Ph.D., Palamcottah. Rev. O.L. DAVIS, M.A., Jabalpur. 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 treasurer, Dr. C.H. Hazlett, Holland Hall, Allahabad.

Every member will receive The Pilgrim free.

Christ’s Revelation of God¹

BY THE EDITOR

It has been said that man is an incurably religious animal. There is a great deal of truth in this In all ages, and in all lands men have worshipped God and have sought to please Him. A large body of religious beliefs and sacred books has come into existence as a result of this universal: practice. When we study, the religious history of mankind it becomes evident that there are many beliefs and practices of men of all creeds.

The Area of Common Beliefs

Beliefs and practices which are held in common by the followers of the different religions may now be enumerated:

1. There is one God who is the Creator of the universe and whom men should worship. This belief is held by people with varying degrees of intensity. For some religion is the supreme concern of life. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa described himself as being ‘mad after God’. There have been many saints in different lands who have likewise devoted themselves entirely to the love and service of God.

The worship of God has been the dominating influence in their lives. There have been millions of people for whom religion has not had this compelling influence but in whose life nevertheless it has been a steady, permanent, and determining factor. There have been millions of other people for whom religion has not had even this measure of importance. They have ignored Him; they have been so fully occupied with their work or their amusements that there has been no place for God in their life. But even they feel the need for Him if they have a serious illness or pass through a moral crisis. The man who fights constantly against the temptation to drink and is defeated feels the need for a living God in his moment of utter frustration. Men who do not experience the need for God even in the severest physical or moral crisis of their lives are very few indeed. It may, then, be said that the belief in God and His worship are common to all mankind.

2. There have been prophets in all ages and in all lands like Muhammad, Confucius, Rama and Zoroaster. They have claimed that God has spoken to them and revealed His will to them. Some profound truths have flashed into their minds with a clearness and force which they could not resist, and they have attributed this illumination to the direct action of God in their souls. It is not by their own efforts they have achieved this knowledge, but God has laid hold of them given them His message and bade them proclaim it to others. Such has been the potency of this experience that, often at the risk of their lives, they have declared to men what God has told them so clearly and so forcefully. This again may be regarded as a belief common to all mankind.

3. The claims of such prophets to utter God’s voice to mankind are confirmed by their lives. They have been quite different from other men. Their sincerity, their devotion, their moral purity and their other-worldliness, have substantiated their teaching. It is because their lives are so genuine and show such clear marks of being transformed by a power from on high, that men have accepted their extraordinary claims. If there is complete disparity between the claims of one who says that he has been called of God and his personal life, then his message is not heeded. People simply ignore him. It is only because in some remarkable way his personal life bears testimony to the validity of his inspiration that men follow him.

4. As the result of accepting the words of such prophets, whether in Palestine, in Arabia, in India or in China, the spiritual and moral forces of their followers have been strengthened. They have felt a real awakening in their souls; their view of the world has become clear; their perception of human duties has become distinct; their power to serve others has increased. Bishop Gore says in his Gifford lectures: ‘God has revealed Himself; and of the consciousness of this we find the most conspicuous witnesses in the prophets of mankind and the supreme type in the prophets of Israel and in Jesus. The fact on which I want to concentrate your attention is not only that so the prophets and Jesus believed and spoke, but that their testimony has been believed through the subsequent generations as true, and has been acted upon, and that the best of mankind have found their faith confirmed in experience by the vast enhancement of moral capacity which their faith has generated in them. To refuse to give serious attention to this immense volume of testimony seems to go contrary to what appears to be a fundamental canon of, human reason; namely, that what greatly augments human powers, and lifts mankind permanently to a higher level than it had shown signs of being able to reach before, must be rooted in reality’.²

These, then, are some of the common beliefs and practices which may be considered to constitute the core of man’s religious experience. Men of all creeds can give their assent to them. Their validity does not rest on the authority of Scripture; we do not believe them because they are found in the Bible or in the Quran or in the Vedas. Nor do they rest on the authority of a religious organisation which teaches them; we do not believe such truths because a Church or a Sangha teaches them. We accept them and give our assent to them as rational beings, With our intelligence we note that these facts emerge from the history of the religions of the world.

The Area of Conflicting Beliefs

As we proceed in our study of religions we realise that side by side with the area of common beliefs there is another area of conflicting beliefs. This area of conflicting beliefs is perhaps larger in extent than the area of common beliefs. It is certainly a more difficult region to cross; the path is full of thorns and the way is not always clear. We may briefly mention some of these conflicting beliefs.

Is there only one Supreme God or are there many gods and goddesses? Several religions have taught that in addition to the Supreme God there are gods and goddesses, who are His agents and through whom He works. They depend upon Him for precise directions. They may sometimes be regarded as manifestations of the Supreme God. With regard to this matter of Polytheism there is a violent clash of opinion. Some hold clearly to the belief in the one and only God and others hold equally firmly to the belief in the many gods and goddesses through whom He works.

Is God personal or impersonal? Is He endowed with attributes or not? Here again there is marked difference in thought and practice. There is a clear gulf dividing those who believe in a personal God and those who believe in impersonal Deity.

If God is personal and is endowed with attributes, what are they? Has He the qualities of love and mercy or is He fierce, vindictive and jealous? Here again there is clear conflict in belief and practice. Millions believe fully in a loving God whereas millions more believe with equal tenacity in a fierce God whose anger must be appeased by offerings. How should God be worshipped? Should men worship Him with the help of images or should purely spiritual, worship be offered to Him? “This question raises a wide variety of answers Millions of devotees sincerely believe that it is impossible for human beings to concentrate on the Divine Being without such help as images give. There are others who feel with the utmost certainty that God is a Spirit and that those who worship Him should not use any material symbols to convey to the human mind His real nature.

What is the goal of religion? Here again a wide variety of beliefs is held. Personal communion with a loving Father is the only goal that is worth the name’as far as large sections of mankind are concerned. Multitudes of people, on the other hand, believe that the final destiny of man is absorption in the Divine Being; the human personality with its frailties and imperfections must lose itself in God.

Such then is the immense variety of beliefs and practices with which we are confronted in the sphere of religion.

Jesus the Supreme Revealer

If, we are in difficulty about any particular matter (for, instance, whether we should accept an appointment) we consider every possible aspect of the question. We ask ourselves what is God’s will for us, whether it is the type, of work for which we are specially fitted, whether we will make a success at it, what the difficulties are likely to be what the advantages may be and so forth. It sometimes happens that however carefully we may think about the matter we see no light. We are baffled completely and are unable to make up our mind. Under such circumstances we put the whole matter in the hands of one who is more experienced or in whose judgement we have complete confidence. We tell him frankly all the difficulties which emerge in our mind as we think about the problem and express our willingness to follow his advice. If he is a wise and competent person the decision which he makes is quite acceptable to us, and we fall in line with what he says; our difficulties cease, and we are quite happy. This is what constantly happens in our ordinary life. Confronted with this area of conflicting beliefs, so difficult to traverse, I look for someone to whose guidance I could submit gladly and willingly, and I find him in Jesus. As we study the Gospels the figure of Jesus appeals to us with great power His teaching about God is on an entirely new level? He speaks about the Father, who cares for each one of His creatures and in whose love we must trust fully. The life which Jesus led bore unmistakable testimony to the Divine source of His message. He went about doing good. The sick, the hungry, the distressed and the morally fallen stirred his compassion and He poured out His energy for giving them whatever help they needed. This life of unparalleled service for others was rooted in prayer and devotion to God. He spent hours in the desert or on the hill-side communing with His Father and derived strength and power for the various activities which He carried on. His abundant work for others sprang from His deep love for God. His unremitting service and sacrifice culminated on the Cross. He was crucified like an ordinary culprit and suffered the utmost agony. We can well imagine how His sensitive soul must have shrunk from the shame of the Cross. And yet even in the time of His deepest suffering He practised what he preached and prayed for His enemies, saying, ‘Father, Forgive them for they know not what they do.’ The death on the Cross, however, did not end His life. He rose from the dead and His Resurrection gave an absolutely new meaning to His life and death. Jesus claimed to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God. His teaching, His life, His death and His resurrection substantiate without a shadow of doubt this great claim which He makes on His own behalf. As I study the Gospels Jesus becomes a living person to me and I know that I have found one to whom I can turn with complete confidence for light and guidance. He is indeed the Supreme Revealer of God. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is my standard of judgement. He is the norm of my life. I submit myself entirely to Him.

We may now consider briefly some criticisms which may be made of this view of Jesus.

Conflicting Beliefs or Different Aspects of Truth?

1. It may be thought by some that what I have described as the area of conflicting beliefs and the difficulties encountered in dealing with it may well be regarded in another light. Instead of speaking of these beliefs as being in conflict, why should we not consider them as different aspects of reality? Perhaps there is a measure of truth both in Monotheism and in Polytheism. God may be both personal and impersonal. He may be endowed with the qualities of love and goodness as well as of anger and jealousy. The worship of idols may help some and the discarding of idols may be necessary for others. Communion with a loving Father and absorption in Divinity may be different stages of spiritual experience or may be necessary for people of different temperaments. We must, however, remember, that if God is one and is true He cannot very well contradict Himself. There must be a unity and a coherence in all His utterances. Even among our fellowmen, we expect consistency. We are disappointed and distressed if a man contradicts this year what he said last year or if he says in one place something entirely opposed to what he said in another. We expect consistency in all of a man’s utterances wherever made and to whomsoever made. If this is true of man, it certainly must be true of God in whose perfection religious men everywhere and, at all times instinctively believe. Light and darkness are not one and the same thing. If sunlight is streaming into a room, everyone in the room will acknowledge that there is light; anyone who happens to say that in that room there is darkness at that very time will not be considered a reasonable being. Either there is light or there is darkness. Both Polytheism and Monotheism cannot be true; either the one or the other must be a correct representation of reality.

If, as we said in the beginning, there is one God, and He reveals Himself through different prophets it may be well asked why then there is such a wide diversity of beliefs. This is due to the admixture of human error. God is one. He reveals Himself through different prophets. He is willing to give illumination to each sincere seeker. And yet because of human frailty men, even prophets, have mixed up with the revelation of God their own wilful desires and passions. There is plenty of human error in understanding the inspiration of God. This explains the bewildering medley of religious beliefs though they all claim to come from the same: God. The devotee must learn to distinguish what is true from what is false.

A Personal Testimony

2. Some people may think that it is quite natural for me to regard Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life because from my childhood I have been taught thus; as a Christian I have been brought up on this truth, and therefore it may seem that it is reasonable for me to assert that Jesus is the Supreme Revealer, While it is quite true that as a child and early youth I was taught this truth, I do not now hold this belief on the authority of my parents or of my religious teachers. I hold it because I know from my experience that it is true. What was first accepted in childhood on the authority of others has now become an integral part of life as a result of personal experience. The teaching of Jesus about God as the loving Father, who knows all our needs and who provides for them, has been proved true in my life. The example of Jesus, particularly His life, has met my deepest longings. Loving and serving the Father, realising His presence, being led by His spirit has become the goal of my life. In a feeble way I have sought to follow in His footsteps in working for others. His death on the Cross has revealed to me the love of the Father as nothing else has done. God loves us to the utmost and is ready to forgive us whatever our sins may be and take us into His fellowship. The guilt of the past need not stand in the way of my fellowship with Him. The Resurrection of Jesus with its message of hope has become vital to me. I can, therefore, say that I regard Jesus as the Supreme Lord of Life not because I have been born as a Christian or brought up in a Christian home but because I know it in my personal life.

Jesus said, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind’. This means that in the religious sphere also one must use one’s mental powers to the utmost limit. Now here in India there is no problem of greater importance in the field of religion than the comparative significance of the spiritual Values nourished by the various religions. When we are taught to love God with all our mind it no doubt means that, among other things, we must study carefully the various ways in which men have sought to love Him and worship Him, see how much of truth there is in them, appropriate all that is valuable and eliminate whatever is worthless. We are rational beings. We have been endowed with powers of intelligence and judgement. With Jesus as our Supreme Guide we can well wander through the maze of the religious thought and experience of mankind, and appropriate all that is in harmony with His mind. Perhaps my meaning may be brought out clearly with the help of a paragraph from. The Letters by a Modern Mystic by Philip Laubach. He is known widely for the quick methods of teaching literacy to adults which he has devised. He lays bare his soul to us in this book. He expresses in it his longing to surrender himself completely to God and speaks of the joy which has come from such surrender. He says, ‘Living in the atmosphere of Islam is proving - thus far - a tremendous spiritual stimulus. Mohammed is helping me. I have no more intention of giving up Christianity and becoming a Mohammedan than I had twenty years ago, but I find myself richer for the Islamic experience of God Islam stresses the will of God. It is supreme. We cannot alter any of His mighty decrees. To try to do so means annihilation. Submission is the first and last duty of man. That is exactly what I have been needing in my Christian life. Although I have been a minister and a missionary for fifteen years, I have not lived the entire day of every day in minute by minute effort to follow the will of God’.³

This reference to Islam reminds me of some memorable moments I spent in the Mosque of Omar in 1922 on my way back from England I spent several weeks in Palestine visiting the sacred places and shrines mentioned in the Bible. I went to the Mosque of Omar which is built on the ancient site of the Jewish temple. This circular building is extremely beautiful with an austere simplicity; lovely rugs soft to the tread are spread on the floor. The dominating impression of this edifice is that it is a place of worship. As we enter it we feel clearly that it is holy ground and that we must draw nigh to God. I spent some time in prayer there.

The Need for Religious Enquiry

3. The non-Christian may say: ‘Christ is the Supreme Revealer to you. You have found joy and peace in yielding yourself to Him. I have had the same experience in following Buddha or Muhammad or Krishna. Just as it is natural for you as a Christian to follow Christ, so it is natural for me as a non-Christian to follow one or all of these great religious teachers’. The duty of religious enquiry is laid on every man to whatever creed he may belong. We must all try to find out the essential element of truth there is in other religions. As a boy I heard my father often quote couplet from the Tamil classic, Kural:

    Though things diverse from divers sages' lips we learn,
    'Tis wisdom's part in each the true thing to discern.

⁴

No doubt the capacities for enquiry of this kind are different with different people; the opportunities are also different. But it is quite clear, that every devotee, to whatever creed he may belong should know something of the religious thought and experience of other people. In many ways we at the present, are more fortunately placed than those in previous ages. The contacts between different religions are much closer. The sacred books of all the religions have been translated and the person who has a working knowledge of English can acquaint himself with the leading scriptures of mankind easily. Here in India we have the representatives of various creeds and personal and often intimate acquaintance with men of other religions is quite possible. It is my duty as a Christian to bear clear and unmistakable testimony to what Christ has meant in my own life. At the same time I must have the open mind and be prepared to listen and absorb anything that is of value in the religious experience of other people. I would urge that every sincere devotee whether he is Hindu or Muhammadan or Parsee, should likewise examine the claims of Christ and follow the truth. It will be found that Christ insists on complete obedience from His followers and will not agree to share their allegiance with any other prophet or god. Such is the supreme demand which He makes on us and the study of the Gospels and personal experience convince us of its reasonableness.

In this paper I have emphasised the function of reason. This does not mean that reason is the only instrument of spiritual knowledge. There comes a stage in religious experience when, convinced of the impotency of reason, we can only walk with the help of faith. As rational beings it is, however, our duty to walk in the light of reason as far as it will take us and to examine most carefully all the grounds of our faith, even when we are obliged to substitute belief for reason.

The Failings of Christians

4. If Jesus is the Supreme Lord of Life, it may be asked why there are still many religions flourishing and why many worthwhile experiences are found outside the Christian fold? The religion of Jesus has had to spread in the world through the agency of men, and we are so limited in our understanding. We are unable to grasp the full depth in the message of Jesus and when we seek to expound it we: often make grave mistakes. To quote Bishop Gore again: ‘Grievous faults and excesses and exaggerated claims and resultant revolts and conflicts are lamentable facts in the life of the Christian. Church; so much so that the surface of its history does often appear to discredit it, just as the surface of human history discredits any lofty claim of any kind made for mankind. But it is the negation of wisdom to refuse to hunt for the spiritual treasure, because it is hid in a field thick with weeds. It is childish petulance to say one will only welcome truth if it is easily: discovered. It cannot be denied that human unfaithfulness has, in the tradition of the centuries, grievously mishandled Christian ideas, and has often tied them to some transitory phase of human science so that it is a laborious task to disentangle essential Christianity’.⁵

The failings of Christians are not confined to the understanding or the teaching of the Christian religion. There are many failing in our practice of that religion. We confess with shame and sorrow our numerous sins. In spite of Christ’s teaching about love as the supreme thing in life there has been a great lack of brotherliness among the followers of Christ, There has been much, worldliness among us. With deep penitence we must acknowledge these and our other sins, but we would ask our Christian friends not to lay the blame for these at the door of Jesus. A clear distinction must be made between the personality of Jesus and the sins of His followers. It is not reasonable to attribute to Jesus the errors and shortcomings which arise from the human weakness of His followers. The religion of Jesus ought to be considered on its own merits.

Some Aspects of Village Hinduism

BY MISS M.M. FROST, M.A. Vidivelli Ashram, Kalugumalai, Tinnevelly District

“Village Hinduism” is a term inclusive of far too wide a range of miscellaneous ideas and practices to be treated under one head. There may be said to be three contributory streams of tradition. In some rural areas, particularly in the neighbourhood of a large orthodox temple served by a Brahmin community, the type of Hinduism familiar to students of philosophy and of the Hindu scriptures may be found, with its attendant ritual and customs. With this type of worship I do not propose here-to deal. In other parts a type may be found in which non-Aryan gods and goddesses, primitive in origin or local in emergence, have been taken up into the Hindu pantheon and acquired a new status, the worship at such shrines being gradually conformed to the orthodox type, and the god being given some genealogical connection with its central figures. The old local stories and legends connected with these temples often live on, together with some of the old practices related with their ancient form of worship. Many of the shrines of Kali are of this kind, and the local cults at a number of the smaller pilgrim centres. As an example of this may be cited the shrine at Periapalayam. Here the story goes that a Rishi falsely suspecting his wife, of unchastity ordered his son to cut off her head. The boy obeyed trembling, cutting off also in his agitation the head of an outcaste woman who was standing by. For his prompt obedience, the son was told to ask a boon, and begged for his mother’s life. He was told to replace the severed head. In his haste he picked up the head of the outcaste woman and attached it to his mother’s body, the composite being, which thus came to life becoming the goddess of the shrine. Hence, though in virtue of being a Brahmin, she would taste, no flesh, the outcaste head claims its meat-sacrifice, and blood-offerings of fowls and goats are made. Worshippers bound by certain vows clothe themselves in branches of margosssa leaves at this festival. The fusing of ancient cult and Brahminic Hinduism is illustrated here both parabolically and in fact.

But a third branch of village Hinduism is the primitive stuff itself, non-Aryan, older, than the Upanishads, older than Hindu philosophy, the early pagan worship of India’s most ancient peoples, living on still in remote villages that have remained untouched by cosmopolitan culture. Of these three types: orthodox Vedantic Hinduism, Hinduism with Dravidian admixture conformed to the Brahmanic type, and residual primitive paganism, it is the third alone to which I propose to confine this short study.

This type of paganism is of world-wide range, and the Indian form has features in common: with the early cults of other agricultural peoples, witness Frazer’s “Golden Bough”, which hardly touches on South India, but could have been enriched with double its material if it had. The Indian cults have their own peculiarities, their own local characteristics and vary in detail from caste to caste and village to village while preserving certain general traditional lines.

In the dim background of the villager’s religious consciousness is a Supreme Being, Kadavul, to whom frequent ejaculatory reference is made, but who is vaguely conceived and is remote from human affairs, like the gods of the Greeks to whom men’s cries and struggles were but “a lamentation and an ancient, tale of wrong like a tale of little meaning, though the words are strong”. So far is He removed from them in imperturbable serenity. This is the power at the back of Vithi (fate) and the “Writing on the forehead”, a Force rather than a person, from whose decrees there is no escape. The villager firmly believes in the writing on the head; he avers that he has seen it; when a skull has been turned up in his fields, he has observed the jagged sutures of the bones of the cranium to him, they mark out the inevitable destiny of the man’s life. Kadavul is called upon with a kind of pious formality, sometimes even with a shrug of the shoulders. “Kadavul alone is my help” often implies that the situation is desperate. And He is blamed for the misfortunes of life, sometimes even openly (Pavi-Kadavul - all the Lord’s fault) but generally more discreetly and by implication.

It is not with this vast, inaccessible Power that the villager is chiefly concerned to deal, but with the swarming multitudes of minor deities: spirits, demons, ghosts, goblins, influences, hags; whether regarded as subordinates operating by permission of the Supreme Deity or as foraging for themselves at man’s expense, and needing to be fended off or favourably engaged in his interests. With these he feels he has more direct contact; their favour or spite may make or mar his home and business; they are the direct objects of his religious offerings and practices.

Of this material we may consider here three chief divisions: fertility cults, protective practices (especially against sickness), and cults of the spirits of the dead.

The fertility cults are perhaps the most characteristic and certainly the most ancient. India is predominantly an agricultural country, and the livelihood of the peasant is exposed to continual risks, from drought or flood, insect pests or deterioration of soil, failure of labour or fluctuation of markets. When all goes well with him the villager may be immersed in his worldly activities, and not trouble much about religious observances; but if the rains fail, or disease stalks the land, he betakes himself to the old gods and revives the traditional expiatory or compulsive rites. In a dry season, after the local astrologers and wise acres have been consulted as to possible dates of rain, and such dispositions as possible have been made to time crops in accordance with them, if rain still does not come, and the young crops, watered with tireless labour, day and night from the fast-shrinking wells, begin to droop beyond hope of recovery, a rain-summoning ceremony is resorted to. In some communities this takes the form of a Kodai (offering) at the temple of the local goddess, for which a collection is taken from the householders and rice, (Pongal) cooked. A band: of dancers, with drums: and other instrumental accompaniment, is hired, receives certain special dues of food, flowers, incense, sandal-paste etc., and performs in disguised attire, one member generally being dressed as a woman. The rice is then distributed and eaten. In other sections a ‘Rain-Congee’ ceremony takes place. Rice-gruel is cooked in the houses and collected in a large pot and carried outside the village in the direction from which the rain should come (East with us), the crowd following, and at the prescribed spot all set up a loud wailing to the gods; “No rain! No water in the tank! We are suffering!” and the Congee is then distributed, each eating a small share.

If this also fails, in a season of exceptional drought, they have recourse to another ancient ceremony, the beating of the Kodum-Pavi. (Paval means an effigy Pavi, a sinner, the word seems to carry the double meaning; Kodum implies the heinousness of the sin). An effigy is made of rags and straw, dressed as a male or female (the practice varies in different villages) and is treated as a kind of scape-goat, the assumption being that rain is withheld on account of some grievous sin. The dummy culprit, railed upon and beaten, is dragged through the streets; a bier is prepared as for a funeral, and the barber blows the conch before it. Full funeral rites are performed; some member of the community has to take upon himself the office of chief mourner, have his head shaved, receive a new cloth, carry the water-pot to be tapped and broken. Finally, the dummy is buried or burned. His death is supposed to remove the curse and bring the rain.

In time of crop disease a Kodai may be performed at the temple, or a white cock sacrificed at the corner of the affected field, and its blood with some sacred ash sprinkled on the field. At some temples the sacrifice takes the form of a goat or a pig, or an unborn kid or piglet is ripped from its mother’s body and sacrificed. At most of these sacrifices there is dancing with a pot of live coals held in the hand (Thee-chatti); the excited dancer ignores or does not feel the pain. Mattu-pongal is held for cattle, Attu-pongal for sheep, Payittu-pongal for health of grain crops At the planting out of the rice shoots, prayer is made in the direction of the local temple or shrine and Rama-payiru (speckled shoot of grain) brought and placed at the feet of the owner of the field. Then the shrill cry called Kulavai is raised by a group of women and girls. This is a peculiar gurgling call, sent forth also at the birth of a child, at a girl’s attainment of puberty, at a betrothal or a wedding, and is a signal of great joyfulness. At harvest time, a cock may be sacrificed, and first fruits taken to the local temple. A Pillaiyar of cow-dung may be placed on top of the heap of grain at the threshing floor, and taken home on a winnowing fan of grain when the work is over. ’If there is not enough wind for winnowing, a Pillaiyar is made to secure the wind. There is no space here to deal with rites connected with puberty and childbirth, with the woman’s night mysteries, when dumplings are cooked before a flour Pillaiyar and excluded from the house; with rites concerned with air and with cauls, with the substitute marriage of a man with a plantain tree, and many such items of interest to the research student. I have selected a few only of the more significant ceremonies as examples; others abound, and rural readers will be able to cite many from their own experience.

When we come to the study of the protective and propitiatory village cults we find that the gods and goddesses (chiefly the latter) associated with the incidence and control of disease are thought of as dangerous and powerful demons, who may break out upon men in anger or torment them in sport, and who must be propitiated, often with blood-sacrifice. If sickness or disaster is to be averted. They are jealous of man’s activities, and demand a tribute. When a new building is to be erected a cock is sacrificed at the driving of the pegs for measuring foundations, and a goat, at the completion of the building. When the wind blows tiles off our new school, we are told that it is because we failed to placate with blood-sacrifice the Muni (demon) by whom the site was said to be haunted. When a new bridge was being built near here after floods; some parents kept their children away from school on the excuse that they must be concealed, as “a new bridge requires a human victim built into it, and mission school children are considered particularly efficacious”. In time of epidemic the goddess Mari must be propitiated with cows and gifts. Margossa leaves are hung across the streets and over doorways as a protection. Amulets on neck, arm, or wrist are much resorted to, or a metal plate: tied at the waist. For a cough a piece of wood from a tree on which a man has been, hanged is considered potent, A toad is tied in a skin bag and attached to an ailing child’s chest, so that as the toad, shrinks and dies, the child’s distended abdomen may also shrink to normal. The name of a god or goddess may be adopted by a whole family, all the boys and girls alike being called Esaki, Karuppan, Madatti, to secure favour and protection. A child brought to the dispensary appeared under a new name. “Yes,” said the mother, “we called him Senthuran (Trichendur) but he did not thrive on it, so now we are trying Puladaiyar” (a local demon). The ugly names of some girls here have this origin. Peechi, Poochi, Iruli Kuppaichi (she-devil, snake, stupid, slut): they are names of goddesses. These demon-goddesses are capricious and full of malice; Sakkammal (name-goddess of many children here) is so dangerous that her temple has to be surrounded with a thick hedge of thorns, to keep her from sallying forth upon the public. The family deity has certain responsibilities to his clan of worshippers, and is supposed to help maintain a rough justice. After a fire in this village all the men were compelled to attend at the shrine of a special disciplinary god, and take an oath that they had not been guilty of setting the fire; if anyone swore falsely, the god was supposed to smite him with sudden sickness and flies gather about him in sign of death. The whole worship of these gods is a tissue of fear. The number of minor powers needing propitiation is yet further swelled by the tendency to deify anything mysterious.

When first we appeared at night with an electric torch those seeing it in the distance said they saw a Kollivay-pisasu (fire breathing devil). A tree with a parasite on it is regarded as sacred because of its double type of foliage. A stone “growing” out of the ground by erosion of surrounding soil, and taking something of a Pillaiyar shape is given a name (Madasami, Karappasami) and worshipped. A woman carrying milk catches her foot on a stone or root and spills it, evidently some spirit at that spot has asked to be worshipped with milk offerings, - a shrine is erected, and a cult grows up, attracting thousands to worship. A tree blown down by wind has its top foliage looped, but root intact, and subsequently, rights itself, - here is another marvel to be worshipped. The villager is mystified by so many things around him whose causes he cannot explain and spends much effort in attempts to placate the inexplicable.

The third group of cults is that associated with the worship of spirits of the dead. These have a twofold motive to pay due honour to the departed person, and prevent such ills as might be incurred by neglect of posthumous attention to powerful spirits. A neglected spirit tends to “walk”, or to come back in dreams and ask for things. The Dushti (funeral gathering) is the most important occasion of the assembling of clans in a village; however, much a kinsman may have been disregarded while living, he must be honoured at death. The funeral of a family chief is sometimes celebrated with elaborate and costly rites. The male relatives make procession under a stretched cloth round the trussed and seated body, and fall before it with wailing, followed by the women with dishevelled hair; a grandchild performs the ceremony of feeding it with cooked rice, the barber helping; the ritual of breaking the water-pot is carried out, kinsfolk from far and near bring gifts of grain and clothing; there is Kummi-dancing, fencing with long staves and an act with a hobbyhorse (Poy-kuthirai); at the return of the party from the grave their feet are splashed by the women with cotton seed steeped in saffron. Some of these painted and decorated bodies present a ghastly appearance; they are addressed and treated as if still living; in some funerals they are seated on a gaudily adorned wooden car, and taken in procession through the village, and from the car is thrown out fruits, coconuts, and coins to the following crowd. On the third and sixteenth day ritual is, carried out with meticulous care. On the grave various grains and a creeper is planted; according as they sprout or wither, the omens for the family are good or bad. If crows do not come to eat the funeral food put out for them, again the omens are bad. A chief dying on an inauspicious day may demand some company; if a near relative falls ill shortly afterwards it may be interpreted as the dead man’s summons.

More especial regard needs to be paid to those who in life have been noted (or notorious) for deeds of, daring, or who have met with a specially tragic end - snake-bite, hanging, drowning, poison, blood-feud. There is a statue in one village here of a bold robber chief of recent memory. In another is a shrine at which Puja is offered to a certain marauder killed in a sheep-stealing fray. A woman dying in pregnancy and leaving small children had to have her palms scratched with a knife before burial, so that she might not return to carry off children left behind. About a year after a drowning tragedy, the spirit of the deceased appears in a dream, in wet garments, to some members of the family, and demands burial in dry ground. The clan assembles with tom-toms at the scene of the disaster, and after some drumming the spirit of the drowned person descends upon some member of the company who sways and rolls, and then must plunge into the well and bring up a handful of grit or stones and run with it to a spot nearby; where it is deposited and a sort of small tomb built, receiving annual Puja. Once here when this was being done, a young man who could not swim began the swaying and reeling his astute father promptly developed a stronger attack of the spirit and took the plunge instead. Hauntings are chiefly noticeable when the spirit is freshly dead; people fear to pass the scene of a recent tragedy at night and many profess to see and even hold conversations with the ghost. With the passage of time the idea of persistence dies, out, except in the form of “possession”, in which cases the Peyotti (exorcist), has always a good stock of names of victims or personages to draw upon, and can generally procure a reaction to one or other of them from his patient. The communal devil-dance is infectious, especially among suggestible women; one woman here rotated so violently under the influence of this “possession” that she fell and broke her arm. In this state some utter a peculiar high-pitched voice, which is credited with power of prognostication. But except as a method of working off a fit of spleen, or satisfying an instinct for self-display, the phenomena of “possession” seem to have little benefit for the worshippers.

Let us consider a few points connected with the presentation of Christianity to the villager whose religious background is mainly of this type. Religion must “come home to men’s business and bosoms”; the villager is a practical man, and requires, not unreasonably, that religion shall have some concern with the objects and activities that absorb the major portion of his time and care. We see that he realises his own weakness and limitation, his helplessness in face of drought or disease, his need for the aid of a stronger Power than himself. And he feels that to such a Power he should devote a portion of his produce and his flock and pay due worship and reverence. The industrial West often forgets how rural are the interests of the Indian peasant; a study of the religion of the Hebrews may bring us nearer to him. The Old Testament must not be neglected by the Indian Church. The Jew, who sought the Creator’s blessing on his field and flock and family, who brought his first fruits to the Lord with due acknowledgment of his dependence (“A Syrian ready to perish was my father”) who dedicated the first male child and the firstling of cattle to the Lord, made offering of penitence at the threshing-floor that the plague might be stayed, and would not sacrifice to the Lord of that which cost him nothing, who must not glean the fruits of his field too closely at harvest because “the Lord loveth the poor and the stranger” can teach many a lesson understandable by the Indian villager. And in the history of the Jewish people we can trace how a nation may be reclaimed from baser pagan cults of the Canaanite or Babylonian type, and led to the worship of the righteous and merciful Creator, who “left not himself without witness, giving us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons”, who “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust”; who “doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men”, but pitied them “like as a father pitied his children”.

But the villager needs more than the conception of the Creator; he needs a Redeemer to save him from his fears. In his old religion we see him striving after security, some protection against disease and disaster, some stay for the mind in face of the “ills that flesh is heir to”. That the demon gods and goddesses to whom he pays homage in hope of this can give him little help here is evident. Some of the temples and shrines can claim their modicum of cures. But the Christian religion does more; it strikes at the root of his fear. It gives him assurance of a God whose nature and name is Love, of Christ the Healer who himself took our infirmities and bare our sickness”, of a loving Father who is on the side of the cure, not of the disease. At the Christian hospital and rural dispensary the villager is assured, not only that the power of the Lord is present to heal him, but that His loving will seeks our good. Christ says to the leper, “I will; be thou clean”. To those oppressed by a sense of inexorable Fate there is, here a note of release, a voice of hope. And so too in the presence of death. Instead of the passing of member of the family being marked by wailing and tearing of hair, and anxious precautions lest the spirit bring ill upon survivors, is to be found the new spectacle of the Christian firm in his new faith, who can stand up from before his dead with calmness and confidence, (“we sorrow not as those that have no hope”), and look forward to a new and fuller life for himself and his loved ones, in the fellowship of the saints and beyond the gates of death. The good news in Christ can free the villager from the fear of fate and of capricious spirits, of haunting, witchcraft, and malice, plague and ill omen and curse. And in the ultimate place of dire distress, where he is brought up against a consciousness of moral evil, and becomes aware of spiritual sickness that is beyond all human help, and where in the dim light of paganism he sought redemption by blood. Sacrifice or the slaying of the Kodum-Pavi, he finds instead the Cross of Christ, the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”, the “full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction”, with its message of sin forgiven and burdens rolled away. And the voice of Jesus of Nazareth, Himself a villager and lover of the villagers, calls to him, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden … for My yoke is easy … and ye shall find rest unto your souls”.

The Cloud of Unknowing: A Christian Spiritual Classic

BY A MEMBER OF A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY IN INDIA

The Editor of The Pilgrim in his stimulating article in the April number on ‘Christianity and Educated Hindus’ has spoken of the appeal made to these, by Christian Devotional Classics, such as the Confessions of St. Augustine and Thomas a Kempis’ Imitation of Christ. This has made me think that it would not come amiss to introduce Indian, readers to one of the less well known of these classics - a little book which was written in the 14th century by an unknown Englishman. It describes a certain method of prayer. It is not a method that is suited to everybody, and the writer is very anxious that this should be well understood: “I pray thee” he says, “for God’s love, that thou let none see this book, unless it be such a one as thou thinkest apt for the book”. And in his last chapter he gives some signs by which anyone who reads it may test himself whether or no God is calling him to this kind of prayer: “All those that read the matter of this book, and think it is a good and a pleasant thing, be never the rather called by God to work in this work, only for this pleasant stirring that they feel in the time of reading. For perhaps this stirring cometh more from a natural curiosity of mind than from any calling of grace. … If they knew more nearly, let them look if this stirring evermore press in their mind more habitually than any other spiritual exercise. … And if he feels, after a delaying and long lacking of this work, that when it cometh suddenly, as it doth, that he hath then a greater fervour of desire and a greater love-longing to work in this work, than ever he had before. … If it is thus, surely it is a true sign without error that he is called by God to work in this work”. But though it is not for everybody, it is very certain that many people ought to be practising it who perhaps do not yet realise this. For it is a method by which our religious life may become more truly spiritual. Very often our prayers are concerned too much with asking God for benefits for this life - for ourselves and others. This is of course good and necessary prayer, but it should not be the only kind of prayer. This book teaches us how to bring our spiritual life on to a higher level; as St. Paul says, to “covet earnestly the best gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31) The greatest of all possible gifts is God Himself, and this book is written for those who want God more than anything in heaven and earth. That is they want to be completely one with God, so that they no longer feel themselves as separate from Him.

This desire for God and for union with God, is the mystic’s desire, and the way of prayer which aims at attaining union with God is usually called the mystic way. But there is a right and a wrong way of trying to attain this aim. The wrong way is to try and attain it by something one does oneself, to suppose that one can unite oneself with God by some method of prayer or spiritual exercise: the right way is to realise that it is God’s gift to whom He will, when He will and so to desire it, and keep on desiring it until God is pleased to give it. That may or may not be in this life: but by the very desire our spirits grow greatly, and we can rest confidently on our Lord’s promises: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. … blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. (that is, for God), for they shall be filled”.

This book teaches us how to cherish that holy desire for God, and to enable it to grow. It describes in charming and picturesque language one particular exercise. This is an exercise of the will. That is, it is something we deliberately set ourselves to do, whether we feel like it or not. It is not an exercise in uniting ourselves to God, but an exercise in wanting God. “Lift up thine heart unto, God with a meek stirring of love; and mean Himself, and none of His goods. And thereto see that, thou loathe to think on aught but Himself, so that nought work in thy mind nor in thy will but only Himself. And do that in thee is to forget all the creatures that ever God: made and the works of them, so that thy thought nor thy desire be not directed nor stretched to any of them, neither in general nor in particular. But let them be, and take no heed to them”.

It is not an exercise of the feelings. This is very important. Many people think that their prayer cannot be real and fervent unless it gives them warm and enthusiastic feelings i.e., of God’s presence, of joy and peace, of forgiveness, etc. And there have been ways of mystical prayer which deliberately aim at stirring up the emotions. The most striking example of this in India was the movement started by the Bengali bhakta Chaitanya in the 16th century; the whole aim of this movement was to produce in its devotees a continual overmastering sense of being one with God worshipped under the form of Krishna. This was done primarily by the use of singing and dancing. In Christianity there have been from time to time similar movements: in our day the Pentecostal movement is of this type.

Now mystics are often people of great emotional intensity, and they may have very strong feelings of devotion to God. But all genuine Christian masters of spiritual life agree that these feelings are not the important thing, that they are no test of the reality of our oneness with God, that they may come from bad as well as good sources, and that in any case a Christian should always aim at controlling his feelings. As says St. Paul: “The spirits of the prophets are subject unto the prophets” (1 Corinthians 14:32); that is, the strong impulses they feel within them to preach or break forth into praise are under their own control. Again he tells us that temperance, meaning self-control, is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22, R. V. margin). And experience proves that those who seek habitually to stir up their emotions, in the end unbalance their minds, and, like Chaitanya himself towards the close of his life, become practically insane. The writer of the book gives many warnings against this mistake which he calls conceiving bodily that which is meant spiritually. “In this manner may this deceit fall. A young man or woman, newly set to the school of devotion, heareth how that a man shall lift up his heart unto God, and unceasingly desire to feel the love of his God, and so fast in curiosity of mind they conceive these words not spiritually, as they be meant, but fleshly and bodily; and labour their fleshly hearts outrageously in their breasts. … And yet perhaps, they suppose that it is the fire of love that they feel, got and kindled by the grace and goodness of the Holy Ghost. Truly from this deceit and from the branches thereof, spring much mischief much hypocrisy, much heresy, and much error. For fast after such a false feeling cometh a false knowing in the devil’s school, right as after a true feeling cometh a true knowing in God’s school. For I tell thee truly, that the devil hath his contemplatives as God hath His”.

It is not an exercise of the mind. The kind of prayer in which we use our mind and imagination is called Meditation. In that we try as it were to reason ourselves into doing our duty to God and our neighbour, and stir up our love to them, by thinking about God’s greatness and worthiness, His acts, of goodness and mercy, our own unworthiness and sin, or especially, by picturing to ourselves our Lord’s life and sufferings for us. But in the kind of prayer described in this book we are expressly told not to do that, but to “tread all such thoughts down under a cloud of forgetting”. This is because in this prayer we are aiming at seeking and loving God for Himself alone, and not for anything that He has done for us and will give us. We are to “mean God and none of His goods”. And therefore we are not to use our imaginations or thinking powers, because we cannot imagine God or understand what He is in Himself, and even the deepest and truest and holiest thoughts we may have of Him are something less than Himself, so that what we love is not God Himself, but our own ideas of Him; and even our holy thoughts come between us and complete union with Him. And therefore: we are to leave all such thoughts and go forward into the dark cloud of our ignorance in which God surely is, though we can neither see nor feel Him. “The Lord hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness” (1 Kings 8:12). “At the first time when thou dost it, thou findest but a darkness, and as it were: a ‘cloud of unknowing’, thou knows not what, saving that thou feelest in thy will a bare intention towards God. This darkness and this cloud howsoever thou dost is betwixt thee and thy God, and hinders thee that thou mayest neither see Him clearly by the light of thy understanding, nor feel Him in sweetness of love in thine affection. And therefore set thyself to bide in this darkness as long as thou mayest, evermore crying after Him whom thou loves. For if ever thou shalt feel Him or see Him, as it may be here, it behoveth always be in this cloud and in this darkness”.

When the writer speaks of “feeling” or “seeing” God he does not mean any kind of emotion or vision, but simply the knowledge of God that we have here by faith. That is what he means by his oft-repeated phrase, “as it may be here”, i.e., in this life. So another great English contemplative, Father Baker, writing’three hundred years later, says, “The highest sight we can have of God in this life is but according to the general and confused knowledge of faith”. This is one of the distinctive doctrines of Christian mysticism.

Meditation is a preparation for this kind of prayer. ” The writer makes it very clear that though this kind of prayer is quite different from meditation, yet in order to be able to practise it rightly, we must first, perhaps for many years, have been faithful in practising meditation and spiritual reading and using set forms of prayer; what he calls in chapter 35 “Reading (or Hearing). Thinking and Praying”. “Whatever man or woman thinketh to come to contemplation without many such sweet meditations of their own wretchedness, the Passion, the kindness and the great goodness and the wonderful worthiness, of God”coming before, surely he shall err and fail of his purpose”. This is because although in this prayer we are not to think of any special thing about God, but only to aim our desires at Him; yet it does as a matter of fact make a very great difference what kind of ideas about Him are already lodged in our minds “subconsciously” as a modern psychologist would say, as to whether or no we attain to union with Him. For example, when a Vedantist aims at union with God, he has in his mind, subconsciously the rooted conviction that in reality his soul and the Supreme Spirit, which we call God, are already one, and his aim is to realise this identity. But when a Christian aims at union with God, he has in his mind the firm belief that he is God’s creature and completely dependent on Him for his existence; that it is only by God’s infinite love and mercy that he is drawn to desire union with him and that he can only be truly united with God through His Son Jesus Christ; and, so his aim is to give himself completely to God, so that God may unite him to Himself as and when He will. If then, the Christian thought of God is the true one, we must see that the Hindu who aims at realising his own identity with the Spirit of the universe is not really attaining union with God, as He is in Himself but with something less than God: with the universe that God has created, and filled indeed with His Spirit, but which does not reveal His innermost heart and character. Certainly the realisation that the Hindu attains to often brings him great calmness, joy and peace, which looks or sounds very much like the kind of joy and peace, the Christian mystic claims to enjoy. But our true standard of judging what is God’s way of uniting man with Himself is not the feelings produced, but simply the revelation given by God in Jesus Christ. And so, as this writer says, we are, when we say “God” to “mean Him that made thee, and bought (i.e., redeemed) thee, and graciously called thee to thy, degree” (i.e., to thy particular state of life and grace).

All through the history of Christianity there has been a continual tendency to confuse these two kinds of Mysticism, Christian and non-Christian, so that many Christian teachers, Martin Luther among them, have denied that the mystic way was a truly Christian way at all. Yet the testimony of the greatest Christian souls is clear that there is a right and wrong way of seeking this union with God; and indeed we all have a sure test in the Bible and the Christian Creed as to what is and what is not in accordance with God’s will manifested in Jesus Christ. This is why it is necessary before taking to this way of prayer to have a thorough grounding in the Christian faith and life, through Bible Study, meditation and faithful performance of the ordinary Christian duties of prayer, church-going, receiving Holy Communion, etc. We must grapple to our minds two great sayings of our Lord in St. John’s Gospel: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” and “Abide in Me and I in you. … for apart from Me ye can do nothing” (John 14:6; 15:4,5). It is this truth that we desire our Hindu friends should understand before they come to approach Christian mystical writings. Otherwise, they will surely mistake what this writer says, for example, about putting all thoughts under “the cloud of forgetting” when we practise this way of prayer, even holy thoughts of the life and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. He himself, for his part, labours to make quite clear that he speaks only of what should be done at the actual time of practising this prayer; and he insists that there is a time for meditation on the truths of the Christian faith and that without a long time spent in it no one should presume to practise contemplative prayer.

This method, then, is an exercise of the will. In it, we try to do one thing; and one thing only, to lift ourselves our inmost self - our heart - to God, with the intention: of seeking Him only, as He is in Himself, behind the thick “Cloud of Unknowing”, of ignorance, from which in this mortal life we can never wholly escape. We are, as it were, to be like tadpoles, still in the water, but meaning with all their souls to be one-day frogs, able to live and breathe in the air. We do not know what strange deep impulse towards a change of life those little creatures may feel; nor do we fully understand the deep impulse to seek God, that comes at times into our own souls, “a secret little stirring of love”, as this writer beautifully calls it. But both we and the tadpoles are fulfilling God’s will for us if we simply obey that impulse without understanding it. And we at least know that we can choose to do this or not. To choose to do it is an act of the will. And to make this act deliberately, again and again, until it becomes habitual, is what this book teaches us how to do.

This exercise is not ’the same as “making one’s mind a blank”. There is a kind of exercise recommended by some religious teachers, which consists in trying to make one’s mind a perfect blank, emptied of all thoughts and images, and then waiting passively until some fresh thought or impulse comes up into it. This is taken as a message from God, as “guidance” for action. This may or may not be a true and wise way of seeking God’s guidance. Certainly there is great danger of its being misunderstood and abused, and those who recommend it often realise this; and try to guard against it. But all I want to say here is that the exercise described in this book is not the same as that. In it, we do not try to make our minds blank, but so to hold them with our wills, that whatever thoughts run in and out of them disturb us no more than flies which we quietly and patiently brush away again and again, because our will is intent on God, and nothing else matters. But, in order to keep our minds and imaginations quiet we may feed them by the simple repetition of a word or phrase: “God” - “Love” “O God, my God” - “My God and my all” - and so on, “the shorter, the better”, says this writer. “If thou likest to have this intention folded and wrapped up in one word, so that thou shouldst have better hold thereupon, take thee but a little word of one syllable. Such a word is this word GOD or this word LOVE. Choose thee which ever thou wilt, or another: whatever word thou likest best of one syllable. And fasten this word to thine heart, so that it never go thence for anything that befalleth. This word shall be thy shield and thy spear, whether thou ridest in peace or in war. With this word shalt thou beat on this cloud and this darkness above thee. With this word thou shalt smite down all manner of thoughts under the cloud of forgetting. In so much that if any thought press upon thee to ask thee what thou wouldest have, answer him with no more words but with this one word”.

The choice of such words as he realises is a purely individual matter. St. Francis of Assisi was once heard to repeat saying the whole night the words “My God, what am I? What art Thou?” The advantage of a phrase over a monosyllable is that it is rhythmic; which for some natures helps the better to keep the imagination quiet. We are not actually thinking these words, but rather letting them say themselves over and over in our minds, simply to keep those minds quiet. Nor are we seeking any special message from God: we are not seeking any immediate result, we are simply seeking God Himself, or rather waiting and wanting until He finds us.

A large part of this book shows how to deal with the thoughts and images that will keep on coming into our mind as long as we live, and the writer says frankly that the real labour of this way of prayer is the continual patient effort to hold down these thoughts and images “under a cloud of forgetting”. The impulse for God, “the meek stirring of love” is not our work; we cannot make it come to our own hearts, and we must not try to do so; it is God’s work. Man’s work is the fixing of his will on God, and the ignoring or beating back of distracting thoughts (Chapter 26) “But wherein then is this labour, I pray thee? Surely this labour is all in treading down of the remembrance of all the creatures that God ever made, and holding them under the cloud of forgetting named before. In this is all the labour; for this is man’s labour with the help of grace. And the other named above-that is to say, the stirring of love - that is the work of only God. And therefore do on thy work, and surely I promise thee He shall not fail of His”

We must come to this prayer with clean consciences. There is another important condition to be fulfilled before, we can set ourselves to this exercise. As the writer says in his heading to chapter 28: “A man should not presume to work in this work before the time: that he be lawfully cleansed in conscience of all his special deeds of sin”. That is, whoever intends to practise this way of prayer should first examine himself honestly as to how he has been obeying God’s will in all the common matters of life, and whether he truly repents of all his faults of pride, selfishness, laziness, impatience, anger, jealousy lust, covetousness, self-will and so on. We must not dare to aspire to union with God until we have learnt to know our own hearts, and what our besetting sins and weaknesses are, and have confessed them humbly and sincerely, and received God’s forgiveness. Then, however black the past has been, we may confidently attempt this way of prayer, if God Himself, is calling us to it. We shall do well however to seek the advice of some wise and spiritual person before we do it, because it is very easy to deceive oneself in these matters. This writer, being a devout Catholic of the Middle Ages: takes it for granted that anyone who practises this way of prayer will be making use of the Sacrament of Confession, and seeking the guidance of some wise priest in his spiritual life. This serves to remind us how mistaken is the idea, which is so frequently met with amongst both Christian and non-Christian: writers, that the mystic way is opposed to, or independent of, the way of humble and faithful “Churchmanship”, that is, making use of external aids, common prayer, sacraments, ceremonial, liturgy etc. and living in obedience to ecclesiastical authority. For it is noteworthy that all the greatest Christian mystics have been Catholic churchmen.

Similarly, this writer makes it very clear that there is no stage to be reached by the mystic at which he may become indifferent to distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil, or may cease to feel contrition and penitence for sin.

“For that pain (i.e., the sense of guilt for one’s share in the general ineradicable sinfulness of mankind) shall always last thee till thy death day, be thou never so busy. For out of this original sin will every day spring new and fresh stirrings of sin: the which thou must every day smite down, and be busy to cut away with a sharp double-edged sword of discretion. And hereby mayest thou see and learn that there is no certain security nor yet no true rest in this life”.

This again goes back to the fundamental truth of Christian philosophy, that man in respect of God is a creature, mere nothing, who exists only by the will of God, and for whom independence is sin. The knowledge and acceptance of this truth is humility, about which this writer has much to say: -

“Humility is nought else in itself but a true knowing and feeling of a man’s self as he is … Two things there be, the which because of this humility, the which be these: one is the filth, the wretchedness, and the frailty of man; into the which he is fallen by sin, and the which he must always feel in some part the while he lives in this life, be he never so holy. The other is the over abundant love and worthiness: of God in Himself; in beholding of which all nature tremble, learned men be fools, and all saints and angels be blind”,

The desire for God expressed in this book may be called a kind of holy ambition. Now we know that ambition may be good or bad. What makes it bad? Simply if it is a desire to get something for oneself, either high position, or power, or fame or honour or pleasure - what ever it may be - if it is Self-satisfaction we are seeking we are wrong. True ambition seeks to lose itself in some greater object. Thus, the true scientist, who is ambitious to know all that is to be known of the ways of nature, loves this knowledge for itself, or for the good it may bring to humanity, and not for any fame or wealth it may bring himself. Similarly, the true statesman is ambitious not to win power for himself, but to serve his country, or the whole world. Many people have a selfish ambition even in their religious life. They want for themselves peace, comfort in trouble, pleasant feelings, exciting experiences, the joys of heaven. But true spiritual ambition wants only God for Himself: that is, it wants His Name to be hallowed, His Kingdom to come, His Will to be done, His Glory to be manifested. The soul which is inflamed by this holy ambition seeks to lose itself in God: and so it does not pay much attention to its own feelings of pain or pleasures it denies itself, and disciplines all its natural instincts and affections, in order that it may be perfectly subject to the will of God. If this is our aim we cannot be too ambitious.

The place of Contemplation in Christian Life. One other thing must be said. The author of this book writes for a specialist, that is, one who is devoting his whole life to the pursuit of spiritual perfection. In his day it was a fairly common thing for men and women to do this, and in order to do it, they withdrew themselves from the ordinary life of the world and lived either in cloisters, (enclosed monasteries) or in solitary hermitages, at that time usually called “anchorholds”. This way of life was called “contemplative”, and it was widely held that to retire thus from the world was necessary for anyone who desired to live a high spiritual life. Those who remained in the world, and tried to be good Christians in ordinary life, were called “Actives” and it was held that their life was of a lower order than that of the “Contemplatives”. “Thou shalt well understand that there be two manner of lives in the Holy Church. The one is active life, and the other is contemplative life. Active is the lower and contemplative is the higher. Active life hath two degrees, a higher and a lower; and also contemplative life hath two degrees, a lower, and a higher. Also, these two lives be so coupled together that although they be different in some part, yet neither of them may be had fully without some part of the other. For why? That part that is the higher part of active life that same part is the lower part of contemplative life … The lower part of active life standeth in good and honest bodily works of mercy and charity. The higher part of active life, and the lower part of contemplative life lieth in good spiritual meditations, and busy considerations of a man’s own wretched ness, with sorrow and contrition, of the Passion of Christ and of His servants with pity and compassion and of the wonderful gifts, kindness and works of God in all His creatures, bodily and spiritual, with thanking and praising. But the higher part of contemplation, as it may be had here, hangeth all wholly in this darkness and in this cloud of unknowing, with a loving stirring and blind beholding unto the naked being of God Himself only”.

It seems to us in these days that this sharp division between actives and contemplatives was an error, and that the fully Christian life would show like our Lord’s, a balance between active works of service to men in the world, and the work of prayer and loving communion with God that the contemplatives were engaged in. So that we should rather say that these three degrees of Action, Meditation, Contemplation represent the religious life as all men are called to live it in the three realms of Body, Mind and Spirit; not all in the same degree or in the same proportion, but as God calls them. But the writer’s insistence that we cannot practise any two of them properly at the same moment, is true and wise. Moreover, it is surely true that our age as a whole has swung too far in the direction of the opposite error from that of the Middle Ages. We tend to think of the Christian life almost entirely in terms of service and moral conduct; prayer is occupied almost entirely with petitions for ourselves and others, and far too little time is given to worship, adoration and loving communion with God. So that it seems there is still need of “specialists” in spiritual life to help redress the balance; and actually we find that God, is still calling men and women to devote themselves wholly to the “Contemplative life” in Cistercian Carmelite and other religious Orders. These people remain continually in their own convents and walled compound and do no outside works of service for others, though they may have gardens and farms within their enclosure. Others live a more “mixed” life, doing such works as may be carried on without going outside the monastery, or without interfering with their life of prayer. Others again are being called to a solitary life of prayer us “anchorites” and “anchoresses”.

But one thing we have certainly learnt to grasp more clearly than our medieval forefathers, and that is that it is not necessary to be an enclosed “specialist” in order to practise contemplative prayer nor is it necessary to make it one’s only form of prayer. We may practise it as one among other methods, according as we feel drawn to it by God. And each of us, according to our capacity and our faithfulness, may advance in spiritual life. To take a simple illustration: the chemist is not a doctor, and he would be very foolish and presumptuous if he pretended to be one: yet he may truly claim to be a humble member of the medical profession; and according to his knowledge he may be able to help many sick people for: whom a doctor is not available. In the same way, all who are drawn to practise contemplative prayer are not mystics, and it would be folly and presumption for them to think they are; yet they are truly called in their degrees to follow the mystic way, and they may according to their knowledge, be able to help other souls in spiritual things, in the absence of a better qualified guide. One of the most cheering things that this writer says is that in this method of prayer we are not only helping our own souls to grow, but are truly profiting others, for all men living in earth be wonderfully helped by this work, thou knows not how”.

The Idea of Sin in the Saiva Sidabanta

By W. J.N. SNELL

The Sidabanta philosophy presents the truth contained in the Vedas and Saiva Agamas. The meaning of the term Siddhanta is true end. The Siddhanta sastras in Tamil are fourteen and the subjects dealt with in them are Pathi, Pasu and Pasam. Pathi is God, Pasu is soul and Pasam is sin. All these three are eternal.

‘Of the three entities Pathi, Pasu and Pasam, Pasu and Pasam are eternal just like Pathi. Pasu without Pathi is sinful. If Pasu reaches Pathi then Pasam ceases to be’.

‘He is a saint who is able to distinguish between Pathi, Pasu and Pasam. Pathi is independent of everything whereas Pasu is dependent. That which veils the face of Pathi is Pasam. When God becomes Guru, Pasam leaves the soul’.

The first chapter of Siva Jnana Botham deals with the existence of these three categories. Therefore, the teaching about sin in Saiva Siddhanta is central and fundamental. It is because of sin that the soul takes a body. Sin is the root cause for the cycle of births; it is the reason for the different lots that befall human beings. Moreover, the means or methods established to attain bliss, viz. the way of worship, the way of works, the way of meditation and the way of knowledge show clearly the reality of sin.

It is very essential to know something about the soul before we go any further. Vallalar in his treatise about Pasu says:

‘Because it is covered with impurity or Pasam its name is Pasu. Pasu is that which is bound by Pasam. But when Pasu gets rid of Pasam, it is Pathi.’

Further in Tirumular’s Tirumantram we find:

‘The soul which, in its real condition is in the form of Siva is confined by its connection with sin. Because the soul is covered with sin from eternity it takes a material body. When the sin is removed the soul attains its original condition of being in the form of Siva’.

As a material body, is necessary so that the soul may become cleansed, creation, preservation and destruction become essential. The soul of its own never takes a material body nor does the body take a soul. But Siva gives the soul a body, the senses etc. Just as a mango tree cannot grow out of a seed without the help of the soil, so cannot the soul without the help of God take a body.

Pasam or Malam mean the same thing, sin. The word Pasam suggests fetters or bondage, Malam indicates dirt or dross. Pasam is of three kinds: (1) Anava Malam (2) Kanma Malam, (3) Maya Malam.

Souls are of three kinds: (1) Vignanahalar - the highest order of souls; they have only Anava Malam. (2) Pralayahalar - the souls with the fetters of Kanma and Anava Malam, (3) Sahalar - the souls of the last order possessing all the three Malams.

Anava Malam

The word Anava Malam comes from the root anu meaning the minutest particle. Anavam is the egoism that asserts itself against God. It is because of the ignorance or darkness caused by Anava Malam, that is individuality, that the soul is not able to have a fore-knowledge of the consequences of its actions. Hence, man’s ignorance is the root of all sins. What we can safely infer is that the soul of its own is incomplete. It is covered with Anava Malam. It is the imperfection or ignorance or impurity that covers the light of the soul. It is the presence of this imperfection or impurity in the soul which necessitates its successive births. It can only be removed by such evolution. Anava Malam is with the soul from eternity.

Siddhantists compare the soul and its eternally co-existent Anava Malam to copper and the inseparable dross that is with it. The poet Arumuga Navalar of Jaffna in speaking of Anava Malam uses the same analogy. Again in the sixty-fourth stanza of Thiru Perunthurai Charkam in Thiru Vathavrar Puranam we note that the dark Malam taints the soul even as the dross obscures the bright lustre of the copper and that because of that tainted condition the soul takes births endlessly. Furthermore, Taymanavar says:

‘Copper as we find it embedded in the bosom of the rock is a darksome ugly thing. What is it that makes it ugly or hides its real lustre? It is its rust. Even so does Anava Malam to the soul.’

Now to the question that might normally arise as to where the soul acquired this Malam we find the answer in Siva Jnana Botham II 2. The husk of the paddy and the dross of the copper are not new but co-existed with the grain and copper; even so the three Malams (Anava, Kanma and Maya) co-existed with the soul and were not acquired by it at any intermediate time. These undergo change in the presence of God just as one lotus opens and another closes under the sun’s rays. Again, even as copper after innumerable processes of refining would (as the alchemists believe) reach a certain stage when at a touch of the alchemist’s stone it would (though so far not realised) turn into gold, the soul too, as the Siddhantists say, would after a series of births attain the stage of becoming divine.

Kanma Malam

The good or bad that follows actions is called the Kanma Malam. It is also called the appendix because it pursues the soul and prevents it from attaining bliss till it has experienced the fruits of its actions in various births. The fruits of the previous Kanma eaten in this life form Prarptha Kanma. In the process of eating, other acts are performed which form the seed for a future crop. These acts form the Akamia Kanma. The seeds gathered, for a future crop when sown become Sanchitha Kanma. What is Akamia Kanma in this life is Sanchitha for the next. In brief, the law of Kanma is the law of conservation of energy - as a man soweth, so shall he reap. This is the never failing principle of cause and effect. Nothing could happen without a previous cause. A man’s birth in this world and all his experience in it are the direct results of his previous Kanma. His life and experience are not accidental. God does not merely by His will alone give a material body to the soul. If He does so He becomes a partial God. The cycle of births happens according to the unchangeable laws of God. Siva Jnana Botham II 2 says:

    What existed before appears now.

To use a brief analogy, the soul with its accumulated Kanma is the seed which, with the help of God, takes a material body or grows to a tree, bringing forth again fruits of evil and good. Even as the soil is very essential for the seed to yield its fruits, so is the help of God necessary for the accumulated Kauma to bring about its fruits.

Maya Malam

Maya Malam is that which limits the omnipresence of the soul and confines it to a particular body. The material body which the soul takes is itself of an evil nature. How then could Anava Malam and Karma Malam be got rid of by Maya Malam? The answer to this question is found in Siva Jnana Siddhiar II 52.

“The dhoby in washing adds more dirt to the already dirty clothes by dipping them in fuller’s earth and washes them clean. Even so God removes our sins with Maya Malam.’

To describe more clearly the soul and its three Malam the Siddhantists resort to the illustration found in Siva Jnana Siddhiar II 86.

‘A paddy grain appears as one; still it is composed of husk, bran, rice and the sprout (or the power, to grow); all these are united together in the same thing. The physical covering of man (Maya Malam) completely hides the real self. So the husk conceals the rice. The bran covers the purity of the rice. So does Anava Malam hide the purity of the soul. Then there is the sprout (Kanma), but for which the grain will not germinate’

Therefore, when Kanma Malam ceases Maya Malam also ceases and once Anava Malam is got rid of the pure Self is realised.

Release From Pasam

In Siva Jnana Botham in section VIII we have a beautiful analogy showing how the soul becomes a slave to sin; this is set forth more clearly in Siva Janna Siddhiar. The human soul is compared to the son: of a king stolen by savages at his very birth and living among them. He can never understand his identity until he is recognised by the king himself. The soul in its nature is of pristine purity and develops itself only as its cosmic covering also evolves and will recover itself with the grace of the Divine Guru. Therefore, that which has separated the soul from God is ignorance. Its original state is that of purity but being made a victim to the five senses it has become evil.

In Siva Jnana Siddhiar VIII 38, it is said that the nature of the soul is like a mirror reflecting various colours and that it reflects in itself all the actions of the internal and external senses. In Siva Jnana Botham the soul that has got entangled in the snare of the senses is compared to a painted mirror in which the identity of the mirror is lost and will not be recovered unless the paint is washed away. Hence, what the soul must do to realise its identity is to overcome this bondage to the senses. This has been the yearning cry of most of the Tamil saints. In Tirukural we find the same:

‘He lives long who follows the path of the one who has overcome the senses.’

Again in Tirukural:

‘Indra, the king of the Devas, who dwells in the wide heavens, bears witness to the power of the one who has overcome the senses’.

Later Tayamahavar says:

‘It is quite a difficult thing to overcome the senses and be free.’

Appar cries over his inability:

‘I have neither overcome the senses nor have I followed those who have done so’.

What, then, is the way of destroying Pasam? This can be done only by the soul becoming one with the Lord. In Siva Jnana Botham we have a reference to this effect.

‘As the Lord becomes one with the soul in its human conditions, so let the soul become one with Him and perceive all its actions to be His. Then will it lose all its Malam’ We find again the same thing said in Siva Jnana Siddhiar, second chapter.

‘The soul should become one with the Supreme God as He had been one with it. When it does so, it joins His feet by losing its self-pride and self-knowledge. Then the soul should perceive its actions to be those of the Lord’s unceasingly, as it will not act except with His grace and in consequence, ignorance and Kanma will not enter it’.

If the soul determines that the senses are not itself and that their actions are not its own and that the perceived objects are also not itself and that it is the servant of God and finally arrives at the conclusion that everything is His work, then none of the actions of the soul will affect it in whatever body it may be encased.

The Hindu believes that either he is incapable of sin or if his conscience pricks him, he strives to pacify his Deity with his offerings or austerities. But he knows no definite method of gaining forgiveness. A Hindu is religious, but he does not see the necessity of being moral. But in the Christian, religion and morality are bound together. The aim of a true follower of Christ is that sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14) and his standard is nothing less than ‘to be perfect as His heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48).

A Day of Expiation for Sins

For some months past I have been reading with a devout Brahman friend the Bhagavata Purana in Sanskrit. He is a highly educated lawyer who has retired from his profession and is now devoting the greater part of his time to meditation, prayer and religious study. I had to go out camping in the district for a few days, and we had made an appointment to meet again on a certain date to continue our study. While in camp I received a post card from him saying that he could not keep the appointment on the day we had fixed as he expected to perform on that day Upakarma⁶ and when making the engagement he had forgotten this fact. After my return from camp I asked him what this ceremony meant, and he took an hour to explain fully its nature, and significance. I should like to give here briefly the gist of what he said.

Upakarma is the ceremony of expiation performed every year by Brahmans for the sins of commission and omission which they have done during the year. Upa means near; by this ceremony the devotee is cleansed and taken near to God. It has to be performed on that day in the year when the full moon and the star called Thirvonam (one of the twenty-eight stars generally mentioned in the Hindu Scriptures) combine; this conjunction generally takes place sometime in the month of July or August.

    After a bath at dawn the Mantra,
        Desire did it (Kaman akarshit)
        Anger did it (Manyuh akarshit)

Has to be repeated one thousand and eight hundred times. The meaning of this Mantra is that desire and anger did whatever was amiss and by implication the devotee did not do it. The Mantra is recited with a view to impress the truth that the soul is different from the body, senses and mind.

When the Mantra is uttered the different parts of the body are touched to show that they and not the soul are responsible for the sins committed. The repetition of the Mantra is done fasting to make it easier for the mind to concentrate. This is followed by a light breakfast.

After a second bath the ceremony of pleasing Devas and Rishis (Devarishi Tarpanam) is performed by making libations of water to Devas and Rishis. Water is used as it is easily available everywhere and to everyone. Ghee, milk or other things are not used. It may not be possible for one to use them. The Bhagavad Gita says:

‘Whosoever devoutly offers to me a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I accept the pious offering of that man who is pure of heart’ (ix. 26).

The meaning of these words is that the simplest things could be offered, and they will be acceptable to God if they are given in a spirit of love. The mention of water means that even if a man is not able to get leaves, flowers or fruits, water will serve the purpose. Flowers or fruits may be expensive or may need at least some money for their purchase but not water.

After this the kindling of the sacred fire with ghee takes place. At that time certain Mantras in invocation of various gods are pronounced. This is followed by a recital of verses from the philosophical books like Purva Mimamsa or Uttara Mimamsa or grammatical books like Panini’s Grammar. The Brahman who is performing the ceremony of expiation may have failed in the course of the past year to carry on the study of these subjects. On the day of Upakarma he therefore recites at least the opening verse of these books to make up for his sin of omission. The introductory verse of Purva Mimamsa says that one should have the desire to know about Karma. The introductory verse of Uttara Mimamsa which is also recited on this occasion says that the desire to know Brahman is the beginning of all philosophical learning.

The following day Gayatri Mantra is recited one thousand and eight hundred times with the special intention to get expiation. This intention is revealed in the opening word with which the recital of Gayatri Mantra begins. These opening words say that the Mantra is recited as expiation (Prayaschitta) for the sins of one year. Prayaschitta means ‘Let the mind be on God and you will be pure’. The Gayatri Mantra itself has been translated thus: ‘We meditate on that excellent light of the Divine Sun; may he guide our minds’.

This ceremony of Upakarma is not found in the Vedas and is probably of later origin. It is used by the Advaitins, Vishishtadvaita and Dvaitins. My friend does not know of any books in Sanskrit or English which describe this ceremony, He himself has received the necessary instructions by word of mouth.

A.J. A.

A Request

The stock of The Gospel and India’s Heritage which was sent from England is sold out. A few second hand copies are needed for the use of those who are not able to buy the book now. Will friends who would like to sell their copies please write to me and let me know their price?

A.J. APPASAMY MANORAMA PALAMOOTTAH

Printed at the Hilal Press, Tirunelveli 9-1943

A Letter to the Editor

WESLEY HOUSE SECUNDERABAD 18th August 1943

Dear Dr. Appasamy,

I have just had passed on to me the July issue of The Pilgrim, and want to say how grateful I am for this timely publication of a Quarterly Bulletin which will enable us to understand our faith against the background of India’s culture and heritage.

I would like to suggest that wherever possible small groups should be formed to discuss subjects sent to the Group Leaders from your Committee The findings of the Groups can then be gone through by you and made available to all through the Bulletin.

I wish the venture every success.

With kind regards, Yours very sincerely, J.P. COTELINGAM

The Gospel and India’s Heritage

The Bishop of Nasik writes in the Nasik Diocesan Gazette: ‘As I have begun to write about books, let me go on to mention some more. And first among them must be placed Dr. A.J. Appasamy’s important new book The Gospel and India’s Heritage (Price Rs. 3-4-0). It has been written at the request of the National Christian Council, and “has a dual purpose: first, to present the Gospel story in a form which will appeal to Indian readers; secondly, to bring it into relationship with the best traditions of Indian religion”. Dr. Appasamy has certainly achieved this purpose, but he has done much more. This is the work of a scholar and of a man with vision; and as a result we have not only a book which we need to have no hesitation in putting into the hands of a non-Christian, but it also throws a fresh and illuminating light upon the best Hindu belief and practice which ought to help us in our task of presenting the Gospel truth with sympathy and understanding to thoughtful Hindus. At the same time, he has much to suggest concerning the way in which we should endeavour to develop the Christian life in this country, if the Church is to fulfil its task in India and Asia. This is a great book, and one which cannot fail to mould and enlarge the minds of those who will study it; and therefore I hope that it will be widely read’.