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 Rev. J.S. MOON, 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.

God Is Sat

As a name for God Sacchidananda is quite popular in philosophical circles in India. This term is made up of three Sanskrit words: Sat meaning existence, Chit meaning knowledge and Ananda meaning joy. It will be evident on a careful study of the Gospels that these attributes of God are also found in them, though there they have a distinctive meaning. It will also be observed that existence, knowledge and joy, though they are taught in the Gospels, are not the only or even the most important qualities of God. There are other qualities of God, such as His love and holiness, which stand out far more prominently. But no account of the teaching of Jesus about. God can be complete without an adequate reference to His existence, knowledge and joy. It is worthwhile making a careful study of the Gospels with reference to their teaching about God as Sat.

The Meaning of Sat

At the outset we must inquire what exactly the Sanskrit word Sat indicates. In a rich and varied literature such as Sanskrit the word Sat bears several meanings. But here for our purpose we are correct in saying that in the Hindu systems of philosophy Sat means that which does not change. The world of men and things around us is in a constant state of flux. To-day they are and tomorrow they are not. Newborn children come into being, grow into manhood through the years and then die. God has real existence; He is not subject to the many changes through which we pass.

In his Sri Bhashya (iii. 2. 21) Ramanuja says: ‘The highest Self is the “True of the True” because while the souls undergo, in accordance with their Karma, contractions and expansions of intelligence, the highest Self which is free from all sin knows of no such alternations. He is therefore more eminently TRUE than they are?’.¹

This is how Professor P.N. Srinivasachari, a modern exponent of Ramanuja’s philosophy, sets forth the doctrine of the real existence of God. ‘Matter is not merely what is, but what becomes, and is a series of particular perishing presentations. It is a perpetually fleeting flux without any stability. Each object is fugitive, passes over into different states, and each later state is out of connection with the earlier one. Things in the spatial world come and go in quick succession. Events in the temporal order likewise vary and vanish. The body is subject to mobility, metabolism and catabolism. One form of energy is transformed into another, and the psychic process is a stream of momentary modifications, and no thought repeats itself. Thus, every phenomenon, physical as well as psychical, is happening by way of cause and effect. It combines and dissolves again. It happens and then disappears … Brahman is real reality and the true of the true, as it is free from the mutations of matter and the contractions of Karma. As it is the most real, it is also the most spiritual. Prakrti exists, but its being is identical with becoming and has no ultimate value. The self abides in its being with its essential self-consciousness. But, in the empirical state, its consciousness is limited by the free causality of Karma. Brahman is ever perfect and supremely true as distinguished from the processes of Prakrti and the progressing self with its infinite hazards in the realm of Karma’.²

‘I Am’ in the Teaching of Jesus

When reading the eighth chapter of the Gospel of St. John we are impressed by the phrase ‘I am” which Jesus uses of Himself three times in the course of the chapter. In verse twenty-four he says, ’I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins; for except ye believe that I am ye shall die in your sins’. The word ‘I am’ is used here absolutely; there is no predicate attached to it. Jesus does not say ‘I am God’, or, ‘I am Saviour’ or ‘I am Creator’ or ‘I am Revealer’. He simply says, ‘I am’. This use of the words ‘I am’ is quite significant, and we must make an effort to understand their real meaning. But at this point I may ask the reader to realise the immense importance which Jesus attaches to them. He says, ‘Except ye believe that I am ye shall die in your sins’. This extraordinary emphasis upon the value of the belief in Him as ‘I am’ should be noted. There must be some profound significance in the name ‘I am’ which Jesus Christ thus uses of Himself.

Again in verse twenty-eight we read, ‘Jesus therefore said, when ye have lifted up the Son of man then shall ye know that I am, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things.’ The Cross sheds absolutely new light on God. We are impressed by the teaching of Jesus and by His constant and unwearying service on behalf of men. It is, however at the foot of the Cross that we see a clear revelation of God. The Jesus who is lifted up is not just a good man or a prophet. He is God incarnate in human flesh to redeem us sinful men and to bring us into that close communion with Himself which was broken through our persistent choice of evil. Jesus on the Cross is the fullest manifestation of God’s love and draws us close to Him.

There is yet another saying of Jesus (verse fifty-eight) in this chapter containing the name ‘I am’. This chapter records a controversy which Jesus carried on with the Jews. He said, ‘If a man keep my word he shall never see death’. This was a great claim and the Jews could not accept it; their own great ancestor, Abraham himself, had passed away. Surely this new teacher could not be greater than Abraham. The Jews said this to Jesus in clear and vigorous words. But the answer of Jesus was most emphatic: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am’.

Again, on the fateful evening before His death when He was taking His last meal with His intimate disciples He referred to His betrayal by one of their own number. He had called twelve disciples and had moved with them closely and had sought to instil into them something of His spirit of selflessness and love. And yet one of them that very evening was going to hand Him over to His enemies. All this would seem most strange when it occurred. And yet it was a part of God’s plan for the redemption of mankind. Jesus knew quite clearly that this would happen, and He told His disciples so. ‘I speak not of you all; I know whom I have chosen; but that the scripture may be fulfilled. He that eateth my bread lifted up his heel against me. From henceforth I tell you before it come to pass, that ye may believe that I am’.³

In the Synoptic Gospels also, the phrase ‘I am’ occurs. ‘Many shall come in my name saying, I am, and shall lead many astray’.⁴

‘I Am’ in the Old Testament

Jesus had studied the Old Testament with great care and love and had drawn from it some of His most important ideas. In the Old Testament ‘I am’ is the name often used by God. ‘See how that I, even I, am: he, and there is no God with me: I kill, and I make alive; I have wounded, and I heal. And there is none that can deliver out of my hand’.⁵ ‘Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he; before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me’.⁶ ‘And even to old age I am he and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; yea, I will carry, and will deliver’.⁷

The most significant passage in the Old Testament in which God’s name ‘I am’ occurs is, however, Exodus chapter three, Moses was feeding his flock of sheep on the mount of Horeb. He saw a burning bush which was not consumed. The Lord spoke to him from it and summoned him to lead the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of Canaan. They were being oppressed heavily and their cry for deliverance reached God. Moses realised that he, a poor shepherd, was being called upon to defy the might of Egypt. The wrath of Pharaoh would be poured out upon him. The armies of Egypt would be set against him. His own stubborn countrymen would refuse to follow his leadership. As Moses thought, of the difficulties his heart was filled with diffidence and anxiety. Later events proved that the worst fears of Moses were true. When thus challenged by God to undertake this most arduous and responsible work, Moses said, ‘When I tell my people that the God of our fathers has sent me to you, and they shall say to me what is His name, what shall I tell them?’. ‘And God said unto Moses, I am that I am, and He said. Thus, shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me into you’.⁸ This name was intended to give Moses an idea of God adequate to the great task to which he was called.

The Meaning of ‘I Am’

We are now in a position to try and understand the meaning of ‘I am’ as a name for God. This name for God means that He exists in the most real sense of the word/ There never was a time when He was not. There never shall be a time when He will not be. The world may come to an end; all the living beings in it may perish: civilisations may collapse; but God is. Looking out of the window I see many beautiful trees with abundant leaves and flowers. I know there was a time when these trees did not exist. The seeds were put in, the young plants appeared, and they grew slowly into fine, big trees. After some time these trees will become old and slowly perish. Thus, these trees pass through five different stages: (1) non-existence, (2) origin, (3) growth, (4) decay and (5) death. Everything in the world, including men and animals, goes through these five phases of life. Not so God. There was no time when He was not. He has no origin. There is no growth, decay or death for Him. He is the Eternal One. He is Sat.

The modern commentator, Dr. Bernard, says in his commentary on St. John, about the name ‘I am’: ‘Probably that name did not connote self-existence (which is a later metaphysical conception) so much as changelessness and so uniqueness of being. “He that Is”’.⁹

In an interesting passage St. Augustine thus explains the meaning of the word ‘I am’. ‘For anything, whatever in short be its excellence, if it is changeable, does not truly exist; for there is no true existence wherever non-existence has also a place. For whatever can be changed so far as changed, it is not that which was: if it is no longer what it was, a kind of death has therein taken place; something that was there has been eliminated and exists no more. Blackness has died out in the silvery locks of the patriarch, comeliness in the body of the careworn and crooked old man, strength in the body of the languishing, the (previous) standing posture in the body of one walking, walking in the body of one standing, walking and standing in the body of one reclining, speech in the tongue of the silent; whatever changes, and is what it was not, I see there a kind of life in what which is, and death in that which was. In fine, when we say of one deceased, Where is that person? We are answered, He was. O Truth, it is thou (alone) that truly art! For in all actions and “movements of ours, yea, in every activity of the creature I find two times, the past and the future. I seek for the present, nothing stands still: what I have said is no longer present: what I am going to say is not yet come: what I have done is no longer present; what I am going to do is not yet come: the life I have lived is no longer present: the life I have still to live is not yet come. Past and future I find in every creature movement: in truth, which is abiding, past and future I find not, but the present alone, and that unchangeably, which has no place in the creature. Sift the mutations of things, thou wilt find WAS and WILL BE: think on God, thou wilt find the IS. where WAS and WILL BE cannot exist?’¹⁰

The World Fleeting but Not Illusory

Our belief that God alone is eternal is made clear by the fleeting character of the world. In the Bible there are many passages which dwell upon the contrast between the eternal nature of God and the passing show of human life.

In Psalm ninety the writer piles illustration: upon illustration to make clear this contrast. A thousand years in the sight of God are but as yesterday when it is past (Verse 4). If we try to recall what happened yesterday, the memory of it is already dim. Yesterday may have been particularly busy or comparatively restful; but it generally requires an effort of the will to remember what happened during the day, which has almost passed into oblivion. So quickly do a thousand years of human life pass for God. Again, a thousand years oi men are carried away as with a flood (Verse 5). The thing which most strikes us about a flood is its speed. The quickness with which waters collect during heavy rains, the rapidity with which they flow in their course and the speed with which they subside always impress us. From God’s point of view such is the rapidity with which human life passes. Human life, again, is like a sleep (Verse 5). A person in normal health is not aware of the passage of time during sleep; he goes to bed and quickly the night is spent. Such for the eternal God is the speed with the which the world passes. Again, the world is like grass which grows up in the morning and in the evening is cut down and withers away (Verse 6). In a country like India, where in many areas so little rain falls, the truth of this illustration is vividly brought home to us. Another illustration from this Psalm compares our years to a tale that is told (Verse 9). When we are absorbed in reading a fascinating story we do not notice the quickness with which time flies. So quickly do our years fly for God. Thus, with picture after picture, homely yet effective, the psalmist shows vividly and clearly the wide gulf between the eternal nature of God and the passing character of human life.

In Isaiah chapter forty this contrast is brought out again emphatically and clearly. ‘All flesh is grass and the goodliness is as the flower of the field. The grass withered, the flower fadeth because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withered, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever’.¹¹ In the book of Job, it is said that man fleeth as shadow and continueth not.¹²

It may be noted here that while all these pictures refer to the transient character of life most of them speak of it as a good thing. Sleep is sweet and refreshing and a necessity of life. Under normal circumstances a flood indicating the beginning of a monsoon or the down pour of heavy rain, is a harbinger of plenty. For many more days or months rain will come, perhaps not so heavily, and with it the water which men need for their life. Like an entrancing story to which we listen spell-bound, life is full of interest. The flowers of the field are lovely and there is a wonderful beauty about life. The writers of the Bible are keenly aware of the fact that life is but a passing show, particularly in contrast with the eternal character of God, but they do not despise life. Though human life passes quickly, yet during the short time it lasts it attracts us profoundly.

St. Augustine illustrates thus the fleeting nature of human life. We can only speak of the present as belonging to us. The past is gone beyond our control and the future is dim and uncertain. I am, writing this on the 16th of February 1944. The years that have gone by have passed out of my reach. Even during the present year the month of January has gone out of my control; only February belongs to me; the other ten months of the year to come are uncertain. Even in the month of February the first fifteen days have gone out of my reach. I can only say that I am living today and that today alone belongs to me. It is not certain whether the remaining days of February will be mine. Even on this day I am only sure of this particular moment. The next moment anything may happen. Even the present moment, of which I seem to be sure, has already gone out of my grasp. In this way St. Augustine brings out the transient character of the world.¹³

The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible is one long sermon on the vanity of human life. While this book has never exercised any great influence in the Christian Church the fact that it is authoritatively recognised as a part of Holy Scripture is significant.

There is, however, a world of difference between saying that all life as we know it is transient and saying that it is illusory or Maya. Sankara and his followers hold that the world is Maya. People think that there is a world, that they exist, that other beings exist all because they are enveloped by a veil of illusion. To men of this way of thinking God is Sat in the sense that He has real existence as against the illusory or false existence of the world.

Sir Radbakrishnan, however, interprets the doctrine of Maya as meaning only the fleeting character of the world.

‘Samkara, who is rightly credited with the systematic formulation of the doctrine of Maya, tells us that the highest reality is unchangeable, and therefore that changing existence such as human history has not ultimate reality (Paramarthika Satta). He warns us, however, against the temptation to regard what is not completely real’ as utterly illusory. The world has empirical being (Vyavakarika Satta) which is quite different from: illusory existence (Pratibhasika Satta). Human experience is neither ultimately real nor completely illusory. Simply because the world of experience is not the perfect form of reality, it does not follow that it is a delusion, without any significance. The world is not a phantom, though it is not real. Brahman is said to be the real of the real, Salyasyasatyam. In all objective consciousness, we are in a sense aware of the real.’

Sri Radhakrishnan quotes lines like the following to show that the mutability of things is a common theme in literature.

Milton:

    Then all this earthly grossness quit,
    Attired with stars, we shall forever sit,
    Triumphing over Death and Chance and thee,
    O Time.

Kingsley:

    They drift away - ah, God, they drift forever;
    I watch the stream sweep on ward to the sea.
    ... Ah, God, my God, Thou wilt not drift away.

Faber:

    O Lord, my heart is sick.
    Sick of this everlasting change;
    And life runs tediously quick
    Through its arresting race and varied range.
    Change finds no likeness of itself in Thee
    And makes no echo in Thy mute eternity.

¹⁴

Though this is an interesting view of Maya it is not in line with the traditional account of the doctrine which has been given by orthodox Hindu writers.

Recently Mr. P.N. Menon of Palghat called on me. He is a lawyer who has retired from his professional work and is now engaged in translating into English and himself publishing some of the Sanskrit classics. I bought from him his text and translation of Sankara’s Atma Bodha (Rs. 5). This is how the unreality of the world is interpreted in the book. I quote below six verses from Atma Bodha with a note on each verse by Mr. Menon

1. ‘The Samsara or worldly existence which is full of love, hatred and the like is verily like unto a dream. It appears real in its time (during ignorance) but becomes unreal on awakening (or dawn of true knowledge).’

   ‘In a dream we feel so many pleasures or pains, but on awakening we realise those feelings were only unreal. Likewise, this samsara is a dream of realities. It exists as long as one is involved in ignorance during which period it appears real. But when true knowledge dawns, it disappears and has no real existence.’

2. ‘Like the silver in the mother-of-pearl, the world appears to be real so long as the all-supporting, unique supreme Absolute is not realised.’

   ‘In the mother-of-pearl exposed to light there appears the silver shining as long as it is so exposed. So also as long as there is ignorance in the Self the world appears real. With the destruction of that ignorance and the consequent dawn of blissful Brahma, that Brahma alone becomes real; everything else the world included, then becomes verily unreal and evanescent. As there is no real silver at any time in the mother-of-pearl, so there is never at any time any reality to the world and the like except for the supreme all-pervading, immutable, omniscient Brahma.’

3. ‘Like bubbles in the water, the worlds rise, exist and dissolve in the Supreme Lord who is the material cause and the prop of everything:’

   ‘In the last sloka it was asserted that the world or samsara was unreal. The same that appears real till the dawn of knowledge is nothing but the Supreme Brahma, the instrumental and material cause of everything.’

4. ‘On that Brahma who is Vishnu or all-pervading, eternal, immanent and Reality and Intelligence are superimposed all the diverse individuals, like bangles and the like on gold.’

   ‘When it is suggested that the Supreme Brahma undergoes no modification nor is subject to any change, how can it be maintained that the universe and the like have their origin in that Brahma? The answer is that these manifestations are not real, that Brahma undergoes no change and all these appearances are but the effect of Maya or illusion.’

5. ‘Like unto sky, the Paramatma, who is the Lord of senses all-pervading, appears different when conditioned by the diverse limiting adjuncts on account of difference of these limiting adjuncts. On their destruction, that becomes verily one existing.’

   ‘The sky though all-pervading appears in a limited form within a pitcher and the like adjuncts. This diverse manifestation of the sky in various ways is due to the nature of the limiting adjunct into which it enters and is not of the essential nature of sky which is all-pervading. Likewise, Paramatma appears different when it enters the diverse limiting adjuncts as collective, individual, concrete, subtle or casual on account of the difference of these several forms.’

6. ‘Like the differences of taste, colour and the like are super-imposed on water (on account of its limiting adjuncts), so also the distinctions of caste, name, order of religious life and the like are merely those super-imposed on the Supreme on account of the diverse limiting adjuncts or conditions’.

‘The Supreme is the only one real, the other distinctions are due to the adjuncts super-imposed on the Supreme. Water is in essence without any quality whatsoever. But on account of its contact with other limiting adjuncts such as sugar and the like, it assumes the nature of those adjuncts and appears sweet and so forth. As water is in essence without any quality, so is the Supreme Brahma without any characteristic.’¹⁵

In view of such teaching as this it is difficult to see how Sir Radhakrishnan can hold that in the Advaita philosophy the world is not a phantom or a delusion.

It is the peculiar genius of the Christian religion that it builds up our soul with the perishing things of life which the Advaitin says are Maya. In the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John we read of His interview with a Samaritan woman. He was thirsty and sitting by a well asked her for water to drink. In the course of the conversation which took place at that time, Jesus said, ‘Everyone that drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life’.¹⁶ With the help of the water that perishes Jesus teaches us about the water of life that never perishes. From a knowledge of the world with its passing experience we go on to understand the world of spiritual things which abide. Again, in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John after the multitude had been fed Jesus taught them: ‘Work not for the meat which perisheth but for the meat which abideth unto eternal life which the Son of man shall give unto you’.¹⁷ A Thus, here again Our Lord Jesus uses food which perishes as a means to make us understand spiritual realities which do not die.

In Christian theology the central doctrine is that of the Incarnation which teaches that the Word became flesh. God Himself entered the world, fleeting as it is and draws us close to Himself. Our idea of the eternal God is woven out of the stuff of transient human life. In Christian worship the central rite is that of Holy Communion. Here too, bread and wine, the perishing things of life, are made the channels of grace. Through human life which is but a passing show, we draw nigh to the Eternal God.

A Factor in Spiritual Awakening

A powerful conviction of the transitoriness of human life has sometimes been an effective factor in awakening, men to spiritual life. A striking instance of this is recorded by Maharishi Devendranath Tagore in his Autobiography. As a child he was devoted to his grandmother. He always, slept, sat and ate by her side. When she went to the temple to worship he accompanied her. Sometimes she would take a vow of adoration to the Sun and give offerings to it from day dawn till night fall. On such days he was with her on the terrace all day long in the sun. If she left home for a few days on a pilgrimage he cried bitterly.

When Devendranath was eighteen years old his grandmother was on her deathbed. She was taken and kept in a tiled shed on the banks of the Ganges where she remained living for three nights. Let Devendranath himself describe what happened at that time:

On the night before Didima’s death I was sitting at Nimtola Ghat on a coarse mat near the shed It was the night of the full moon; the moon had risen, the burning ground was near. They were singing the Holy Name to Didima:

Will such a day ever come, that while uttering the name of Hari, life will leave me?

The sounds reached my ears faintly, borne on the night wind; at this opportune moment a strange sense of the unreality of all things suddenly entered my mind. I was as if no longer the same man. A strong aversion to wealth arose within me. The coarse bamboo-mat on which I sat seemed to be my fitting seat, carpets and costly spreadings seemed hateful, in my mind was awakened a joy unfelt before. I was then eighteen years old.

Up to this time. I had been plunged in a life of luxury and pleasure. I had never sought after spiritual truths. What was religion? What was God? I knew nothing, had learnt nothing. My mind could scarcely contain the unworldly joy so simple and natural, which I experienced at the burning ghat. Language is weak in every way: how can I make others understand the joy I felt? It was a spontaneous delight, to which nobody can attain by argument or logic. God Himself seeks for the opportunity of pouring it out. He had vouchsafed it unto me in the fullness of time.¹⁸

Among Hindus the sense of sin is often very weak. It has sometimes been suggested that the strong conviction of the fleeting nature of the world in India has done more or less the same service as the Hebrew feeling of penitence and guilt. It would be an interesting investigation to find out how far this is true-whether many other souls have been actually led to God by a sudden intuition of the transiency of human life, whether the results of such conversions are always satisfactory, how this intuition compares for its value and its effectiveness with a real conviction of sin and whether this intuition of the fleeting nature of the world can be a steady influence for good through life. Without going into these questions here I may say that if it is easier to cultivate in India this idea of the transiency of human life and make it a means to a deeper life in God, let us by all means avail ourselves of it. Whatever helps us to come close to God is to be welcomed, and there may be many like Pattinattar who may feel that:

    One's home town is not eternal, nor neighbours, nor wealth, nor loving parents.
    A wife is not eternal nor are children.
    Prosperity is not eternal nor is wealth, nor anything else, in the world.
    Thy feet alone are eternal, O God.

¹⁹

The Primacy of Sat

In the divine name Sacchidananda the Hindu thinker puts Sat first; is this correct? Is Sat indeed the most essential thing we must realise about God? This question would have to be answered with a clear affirmative. Before we say anything about God’s love or holiness or knowledge we must say that He is. How can we believe that God is gracious or righteous unless we firstly believe that He exists? The conviction of the real existence of God is, as it were, the foundation on which we should build our philosophy of religion. If God does not exist, if His being is not true, we cannot believe anything, else about Him.

I do not hold that the other two qualities of God - knowledge and joy - which are found in this Sanskrit name possess anything like the same importance or value. In the idea of God as it is taught by Jesus His love and holiness are far more prominent. God is indeed knowledge and joy, but these qualities of His are not as vital in our Christian thinking as His love and righteousness.

The teaching in the Gospel of St. John that life and eternal life are one and the same has an important bearing on this point. God is eternal and our life with Him is eternal life. In other words, a vital fact about our fellowship with God is that it is fellowship with an Eternal Being. This teaching brings out very clearly the immense value of the doctrine that God is Sat or eternal.

When I gave a lecture sometime ago on God as Sat someone in the audience raised this question: ’The eternity of God is not a fact within the range of our practical experience. We pray and there is an answer. That convinces us beyond all doubt that God hears prayers. We cannot in the same way realise the truth of the eternity of God. Why then emphasise its value? The eternity of God is one of those profound spiritual intuitions which cannot be demonstrated on logical grounds or in practical experience. Even from the fact that up to the present moment during one’s own life God has been constant and dependable, we cannot easily pass on to the belief that He is always unchanging and unchangeable. Though He may not have changed during the few years of our life when we have known Him we cannot be positive on that basis that He will never change. The eternal nature of God is a profound intuition which the prophets of the human race have felt in some of the clearest moments of their spiritual insight, and we accept it because of the noble character of the prophets who uttered it and also because it falls in line with our own other spiritual convictions and appeals to the deepest instincts in us.

H.A. Krishna Pillai - Part 1

BY SIR DAVID DEVADOSS, MADRAS

(H.A. Krishna Pillai was a distinguished Tamil Christian poet. His books are of great beauty and will probably live as long as the Tamil language is spoken. He was a devout Christian and had a rich religious experience. He was a born personal worker and brought to the feet of Christ about a dozen high-caste young men, one of whom was my father, Dewan Bahadur A.S. Appasamy. Unfortunately there is no complete biography of the poet. In response to my request his nephew, Sir David Devadoss, for sometimes High Court Judge, Madras, has put down his reminiscences of the poet in writing. These will appear in The Pilgrim in instalments. Sir David Devadoss’s father Muthiah Pillai who was himself a convert and a distinguished Tamil scholar and his brother H.A. Krishna Pillai grew together and were intimate all through their life. It is but natural that Sir David Devadoss should often refer to Muthiah Pillai, his father, when telling the story of his uncle. The thanks of the readers of The Pilgrim are due to Sir David Devadoss for the trouble he has taken to prepare this memoir of the poet. Editor, the Pilgrim.)

The Christian missionaries who came out to India in the early years of the past century were of opinion that the imparting of education in English to Indian youth would greatly facilitate the achievement of their supreme object, the evangelisation of India. With this noble purpose in mind wherever they started work, they established schools and taught the students English, the language of the locality, Arithmetic and the elements of History. They encouraged the study of English Literature whenever possible, * The more intelligent students naturally took a liking to Literature and made their reading in it deep and wide, which brought new ideals before their minds and made them contrast their own ideals with the new ones. The Indian mind readily turns to religion and the students’ curiosity about the Christian religion was aroused. Those who had studied their own classics and philosophy made a study of the Christian Scriptures and of Christian theological works. They found that there was a clash between their own ideals and those of the Christian religion. Instead of muttering a few mantras and performing a few ceremonies, the Christian religion insisted upon a personal religion, faith in the Living Saviour, purity in thought, word and deed and inculcated the principles of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. This impact of the principles of the Christian religion upon serious minds and well-educated youth produced a strong ferment. The social and moral standards they learnt were different from those of their own religion.

The result of this reaction was the rise to prominence of men like Rajah Ram Mohan Roy in Bengal. He was a man of great intellect and was well-versed in the Hindu classics and philosophy. His careful study of the Christian religion and its teachings made him feel dissatisfied with the popular Hinduism of the day. Being a deeply religious man he wanted a pure form of worship and yearned for a higher life than that which he found around him and revolted against the social bondage and superstition that were the concomitants of the popular religion. He worked for reform of the Hindu religion and not succeeding as he wished owing to the opposition of the priests and the conservative leaders he resolved to establish what came to be known as the Brahmo Samaj, an organisation for carrying on a form of Christian worship without acknowledging the Divinity of Christ. A person attending Brahmo Samaj worship could not easily distinguish it from a Unitarian service. One of his objects was to free his followers from the cramping superstitions and absurd customs which, though not a part of the Hindu religion, were considered essential by its devotees. He insisted upon the education of women and their coming out of the purdah and aimed at the development of the highest and best in man. His work was continued by men like Keshab Chandra Sen, one of the best products of the English education imparted by the missionaries. In other parts of India this impact of Western ideals upon the Eastern mind produced remarkable men like Nehemiah Goreh (an erudite scholar) Vedanayaga Sastriar of Tanjore (a lyrical poet), and many others, all of them earnest Christians.

Christian Missions in Tinnevelly

In the Tirunelveli District the Protestant missionaries began work in the beginning of the last century. One of the earliest of them was Rhenius, an erudite and talented man who was able to gather many Christians. He got free grants of land from the Government and settled many of the converts in new settlements like Mengnanapuram. He was very successful in inducing whole villages to become Christians by helping them against their landlords and in other material ways. Schaffter, another talented missionary, joined him and they both worked in several parts of the District in connection with the C.M.S. They and those who came after them opened schools, and taught English, Tamil and other subjects. The demand for English education was fast-growing by reason of the well known minute of Lord Macaulay on Education. The need of English clerks was greatly felt. Young men and boys joined the mission: schools for acquiring a knowledge of the English language so that they might get employment under the Government. The missionaries naturally instilled into their minds the truths of the Christian religion. One of the early fruits of their labour was the conversion to Christianity of a young man belonging to a well-to-do high caste family at Sindupundurai, a hamlet near the Tirunelveli Bridge Station. He embraced the Christian religion in the nineteen forties and married the daughter of Rev. John Devasagazam of Palamcottah, the first Indian clergyman. He migrated to Madras, was ordained, became famous as Rev. W.T. Satthianadhan and did very good work in the Zion Church of Chindatripet, where his grandson Canon S.S. Clarke now carries on the family tradition. There were several conversions after Satthianadhan received baptism. The writer does not intend to deal with them in detail as it is his object to confine his attention to the life of H.A. Krishna Pillai, his trials and temptations, his final victory and his devoted life’and service in the cause of his. Lord and Saviour, for whose love he forsook social position, home, mother and dear relations.

About the forties and fifties of the last century besides the two men already mentioned, there were several able and devoted missionaries in the District. Perhaps the most learned and talented of all the Protestant missionaries that came out to South India was Robert Caldwell, afterwards Bishop. He sailed in connection with the Wesleyan Mission but soon joined the S. P. G. He settled at Idayangudi in South Tinnevelly and made that sandy tract bloom like the rose. He mastered the Tamil language, studied Sanskrit and published in the early fifties a monumental work entitled The Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Language in which he proved that Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam. Canarese and Thulu were not derivative dialects of Sanskrit but independent languages with literature and grammar of their own. This work was greatly admired in England and in India and established his reputation as a scholar of the first rank. He was also a profound Greek scholar. Such was his reputation that he was one of the Fellows who constituted the Senate when the Madras University Act was passed in 1857. He was greatly interested in Archaeology and carried out some excavations. He was able to prove that Korkai of the Bible was Korkai near the south of the river Tambaraparani river. He maintained that Ovari, now a fishing village, on the south coast of Tinnevelly was the Ophir of the time of King Solomon whence were exported gold, apes, peacocks and ivory. The names of the last three in Hebrew were Tamil names showing thereby that when a new article was imported its name in the place of its origin was also, imported. Caldwell was selected to deliver the Convocation address of the Madras University in 1876 and his address, is well worth study even today. He was asked to write a history of Tinnevelly which he did with considerable skill, for which the Government paid him Rs. 1,000. It was published in 1879. His profound knowledge as a theologian and Greek scholar was of great help during the revision of the Tamil Bible.

Edward Sargent, afterwards Bishop, was a man strong in mind and body. He was a learned theologian and a good Tamil scholar. Of his physical prowess one incident may be mentioned. Several missionaries went for swimming in the large pool below Kalyana Tirtha in Papanasam. One of them found himself in difficulties and Sargent plunged in and brought him safely to the bank. He took great interest in the physicals sciences and was in the habit of explaining to the intelligent members of his congregation the properties of air, water etc. His physical science apparatus such as air pump, Magdeburg Hemispheres and many other articles were presented to the C. M. S. High School. Palamcottah in the beginning of 1883. He made Palamcottah his headquarters. Thomas, an able man, was at Megnanapuram where he built a beautiful Church, which is a monument to his careful planning and - excellent execution. Ragland, a Senior Wrangler, was a saintly man who took no pay from the C. M. S. but lived on the fellowship granted by his College. He did very successful work in North Tirunelveli. There were other C. M. S. missionaries like Whitchurch of Pannikulam, which is now the head of a circle. Adamson was at Sawyerpuram and did good work in connection with the S. P. G. In numerous places schools were established, and the missionaries endeavoured to do their best to improve the material and moral condition of the converts, who were generally poor and ignorant. Most of them became Christians not from conviction but for obtaining worldly advantage and security from exaction of landlords and petty Government officials.

Childhood and Youth

Krishnan was the son of Sankaranarayana Pillai and was born in 1827. The place of his birth is not known. His father was the middle of the three brothers belonging to a respectable Vellalah family, and he was the most talented of the three. He was a learned man as understood in those days but a bigoted Vaishnavaite. As he was a good businessman and a capable administrator, his services as a manager of estates was in great demand. He was a tall handsome man with a commanding presence and those whom he employed always obeyed him cheerfully, and he managed the estates to the satisfaction and advantage of his employers. He made it a rule in later years not to take his midday meal without reading from the great Tamil classic, Kamban’s Ramayanam. His practice was to read aloud a few stanzas and to explain their meaning to those who came to listen. His wife Deivanayaghee Ammal, being a very intelligent woman, committed to memory the stories, poems, and proverbs she heard when her husband expounded the text of Kamban’s work. She learnt in this way a good many didactic poems and many proverbs, many of which contained the wisdom gained by long experience. Her knowledge of proverbs was such that after Krishna Pillai became a great Tamil scholar he asked his mother many a time for an appropriate proverb, and she readily helped him. Though Sankaranarayana Pillai was a staunch Vaishnavaite yet at times he paid adoration to other deities as well.

After Krishnan two or three children were born, but they died in infancy. To prevent such calamities Sankaranarayana Pillai made a pilgrimage with his wife and others to Sori Muthayyan’s temple, which is prettily situated on the banks of the Tambaraparani river on the hill below Vana Tirtha, one of the largest waterfalls in South India. As a child born after this visit to the temple lived, he was named Muthayyan, in the belief that the deity (Sori Muthayyan) granted the prayer of Sankaranarayana Pillai and that therefore the child did not die in infancy. Krishnan and Muthayyan, being the only surviving children of their parents, were greatly attached to one another.

Krishnan went to a school kept by a village school master and was diligent and studious. The custom then was for the village school master to beat the boys in the order in which they came to school. He who came first got no beating, but the cane simply touched his palm. The boy who came to school after him got two cuts and so on and if there were ten boys the last one got as many as ten cuts. They had to sit on the floor and write the letters of the alphabet on the sand spread before them. There were no slates. They had to learn to write on Palmyrah leaf with an iron style. The schoolmaster was not given any salary nor did the pupils pay any fee. At the time of harvest he was given quantities of grain according to the capacity of the parents. On festive and other occasions the pupils used to supply him with oil, ghee, curry stuff and other necessities of life. The schoolmaster was held in great reverence by his pupils and others. The profession of teaching was regarded with much veneration. The boys had no holidays except on festival days. They sometimes wished the teacher’s death so that they might have a holiday. When Muthiah Pillai in later life gave these details, he was asked by his son, ‘Why did you expect only one holiday if the teacher died? There would be no school till another was found’ He said, ‘Our young minds did not think of all that.’ The prospect of one day’s holiday was alluring enough. The village schoolmaster had no assistant. He was the sole teacher, and he taught the three R’s. The senior boy was called Sattam Pillai or monitor and had to keep order in the teacher’s absence. The day began with a song in praise of Ganapathy or Saraswathi, the goddess of learning, and before the school closed the boys sang another song, the purpose of which was that they might go home and pursue their studies and not waste their time. There were no school games. The boys had to amuse themselves in the best way they could. They played village games without any apparatus or implements. Krishnan, being a very intelligent boy, soon acquired an excellent knowledge of the Tamil language and was able by his twelfth year to read aloud Kamban’s Ramayanam to his father before his midday meal, who explained the meaning to those who were assembled.

Sankaranarayana Pillai, being a man of means, arranged for the marriage of Krishnan when he was only fourteen years of age to a girl aged nine named Muthammal belonging to a respectable, family at Trichendore. The wedding was celebrated with great pomp and at considerable expense. When the marriage party was returning from Trichendore a number of robbers came near Alwartirunagari to attack it and finding that it was guarded by a strong escort they did not attack it but said loudly, ‘What a loot we have lost!’

The Death of Krishna Pillai’s Father

While the family was in the midst of affluence and pleasant surroundings, misfortune suddenly overtook it. Sankaranarayana Pillai had an attack of high fever with a splitting headache. There were no qualified physicians then. In most places the village barber was the physician or one belonging to a family which had practised medicine for generations. The saying was, ‘He who killed a thousand Persons was half a physician’. One physician who was called in to see the patient prescribed an application of leeches to the head to draw off the blood in order to relieve the headache. Too many leeches were applied, and they drew a large quantity of blood which brought on a collapse and Sankaranarayana Pillai died in his forty-ninth year.

Krishnan was only sixteen years of age and Muthayyan only nine. The family was plunged in the deepest of grief for Sankaranarayana Pillai was the mainstay of his brothers and other relations. The mother was completely heartbroken. Great was the mourning of the countryside as he was a just and wise man who had settled their disputes and helped them in their difficulties. There was a dispute between two women as to the yarn spun by them, and they came before Sankaranarayana Pillai to settle it. He told them to bring their respective spinning wheels and when they brought them he told them to put the spindles in the hole in the spinning wheel and decided that the yarn and the spindle that filled the spinning wheel belonged to the owner of it. This decision was received in the same way as Solomon’s decision between two women as to who was the mother of the living child. His reputation as a wise man was very great and all sought his help to settle their disputes. Sankaranarayana Pillai was well-known for his generosity and subscribed to the building of the bridge on the Tambaraparani river near Ambasamudram; his name is inscribed on the pillar erected to commemorate the names of the donors. His sudden death was deeply lamented by all who had known him or had heard of him.

While the family was in the deepest mourning the proprietors of the estate who were in Madras did a very generous thing. They appointed Krishnan manager of the estate in consideration of the father’s service to them. Krishnan managed the estate with great prudence and ability with the help of his father’s servants. While the family was in a way getting reconciled to the loss of the father, an event happened which completely upset the fortunes of the family and made it quit the village with all the advantages of country life in addition to the loss of a lucrative employment with its attendant influence and position and settle down at Palamoottah which was the home of the mother.

The Persecution of Christians by Krishna Pillai

For about a decade before this time Christianity began to spread among the lower orders of society in and around Nalloor. The cultivators of the lands who became Christians adopted a defiant attitude towards their landlords and often defaulted to pay their dues regularly. When pressed to pay, they complained to the European Missionary at Nalloor of oppression by the landlords who, not caring to find out the pros and cons of the matter, sided with Christian tenants and used his influence with the authorities in their favour and often personally interfered in the disputes between landlords and tenants. This gave great offence to the landlords and others and caused irritation among the upper classes. As long as Sankaranarayana Pillai was alive he managed matters very tactfully and his influence and prestige prevented any clash between the land-owning classes and the Christian cultivators. After his death many hotheads wanted to teach the Christians a good lesson.

Several land-owning men of the locality with the help of the marva kavalgars (watchmen) and others arranged a punitive expedition against the Christians. In order to give it weight and influence they prevailed upon young Krishnan to lead them. Being a bigoted Vaishnava with a strong bias against the Christians he readily consented to lead them, A large body of men went one night to a neighbouring village of the Christians and mercilessly thrashed them, while the bad elements in the crowd committed looting and broke the earthen pots and pans and caused considerable damage to property. The matter was brought to the notice of the district authorities by the European missionary at Nalloor Information leaked out that warrants had been issued for the arrest of those who took part in the raid. That very night a faithful servant named. Muthusami almost carried Krishnan as far as Setbaparpaneliur, a distance of nearly eighteen miles and insisted upon his escaping to Palamcottah to avoid arrest.

Next morning the Police Officers arrived and arrested many persons including Krishna Pillai’s maternal uncle, and they were tried and punished with various terms of imprisonment. Before the Police came the servants emptied into the fresh water well in the compound several bags of common salt, the proceeds of the loot, and this did away with the material evidence. The water of the well became undrinkable for many years and when Muthiah Pillai visited the place more than twenty years after to show his young son the house in which he was born and spent his early years, the water of the well was only then becoming drinkable. This Krishnan who persecuted the Christians in his teens became the St. Paul of Tinnevelly and led many to the feet of his Lord and Master whom he loved with all his mind, soul and strength and devoted his whole life and great talents to singing His praise and glorifying His name.

Early Studies

At Palamcottah the family was in reduced circumstances as they had to depend upon the income of a few acres of paddy lands near Palameottah. Owing to the vagaries of the monsoon a good crop was not often available and paddy had to be bought. When there was a good crop there was no market for the paddy as many people had paddy to sell and money for paying the Government revenue could not be found; the family jewels had to be sold for the purpose. The mother, a very capable woman, managed to make both ends meet. Krishnan would not take up any employment as he considered it beneath his dignity to work in a retail dealer’s business. Muthayyan consented to be employed in order to help the family. A trader engaged him on a small salary and as he was asked to sprinkle cooling water in front of the bazaar he threw up the employment and came home. Krishnan spent most of his time in games and gymnastics. The mother was obliged to sell the paddy fields bit by bit to keep the family going.

As family affairs were in this unsatisfactory condition, the brothers had the good fortune to live near the house of a rich man who had collected a large library of Tamil classics and literature. This Vengu Mudaliar (for that was his name) was a native of Madras and had settled at Palamcottah after making a large fortune by trade, mostly in cotton. He was a very charitable man and had built a temple to Siva and had dug a teppakulam (a tank for floating festivals). He had also established a chatham at Vannarpet in the name of his deceased daughter Gnanamani Ammal and had well-endowed it. He was a patron of learning. He took a liking to the brothers and allowed them to borrow books from his library. In those days all Tamil books were in palm leaf manuscripts. There were no printed classics. Books could not be had at any house. To read a book students had to go to the man who owned it and had to read it there. Krishnan took out a copy of Nannul (Tamil Grammar) with an elaborate commentary and told his younger brother to copy it so that he might study it at leisure. Young Muthayyan copied the whole of the work with his own hand on palm leaves with the result that he knew Tamil Grammar well before his elder brother began to read it. Both of them read the Tamil classics and all the philosophical and didactic works they could lay their hands on.

It was deemed necessary that they should study Tamil Grammar under some well-known scholar versed in Grammar. Such a person lived at Vannarpet and his name was Tirupalkadaluatha Kavirayar. He did not take any fee for tuition but exacted service from his pupils. He was a widower with an only son named Kasinadhan. When the brothers went to study with the Kavirayar two other brothers joined them - Alaganathan and Vallinayagam. The four pupils had to do all the work of the house. They had also to water the garden and do all other outdoor work. Alaganathan had to attend to the cooking. Vallinayagam had to go out shopping and do other errands. Muthayyan, the youngest of the lot, was to see that the fire was kept burning under the cooking pot. After the pupils had worked for two or three days the pandit would begin to teach them. He sat on his cot. The pupils had to sit on the floor with legs folded and hands on the knees, and they had to be all attention. Sometimes when the lesson was halfway through, the son Kasinadhan scratched his legs or his head or yawned and at once the Kavirayar threw down his book and cried out that Satan had come and told the boys to get out. This happened several times. All the two or three days work went for nothing. In this manner the two attended his tuition for nearly two years. During this time they read the Tamil classics, general literature and didactic poems and became proficient in Tamil. The Kavirayar said more than once that the little chap (meaning Muthayyan) near the fire was a remarkably intelligent fellow.

Work as a Munshi

Both the brothers looked for work as Munshis. Persons who’d a good knowledge of Tamil were called Munshis as the Europeans (civilians, military officers as well as missionaries) employed them to learn from them the Tamil language. A Munshi was wanted for the Sawyerpuram Seminary and the appointment was to be given to the best candidate who came out first in a competitive examination. Krishna Pillai had become a learned man and was induced to apply for it; he easily came out first as he was probably a better Tamil scholar than his examiners. One of the examiners was John Avinanandham Pillai who was afterwards a leading lawyer at Trichinopoly. He had adopted the European mode of dress and was known then as John Dubai (i.e., John Sahib). Krishna Pillai accepted the appointment and went to live at Sawyerpuram. As he was an orthodox Hindu he could not take water from any well-used by the Christians. For a time he had to bring water from a distance. Mr. Adamson, the missionary in charge of the Seminary, seeing that the Munshi was put to great inconvenience had a well dug for his sole use and built him a cottage as well. Krishna Pillai’s proficiency in Tamil and his method of teaching greatly impressed Adamson and commanded the respect of the students. Krishna Pillai’s high character, scrupulous regard for truth and exceedingly simple life drew forth the admiration of those who came in contact with him. He always took great personal interest in the welfare of his students both in school and out of school so much so that after they became grown up and were employed in various walks of life, they regarded him as their Guru and treated him with considerable respect.

Shortly after Krishna Pillai left for Sawyerpuram a Munshi was wanted by Mr. Schaffter who was then at Nalloor and young Muthiah Pillai who was then only seventeen years of age was sent there by the missionary at Palamcottah. Muthiah Pillai’s ready answers and quotation of authorities for any position he took up or any assertion he made and his proficiency in Tamil grammar and literature soon won the regard of Mr. Schaffter. His son, Rev. H. S. Schaffter, the well-known educationist and Principal of the C. M. S. College, Tinnevelly for nearly forty years, was a very young boy then and attempted many a time to rub off the Vaishnava mark on the forehead of young Muthiah Pillai. In a few months he earned such a reputation for scholarship and ready application that Mr. Sargent requisitioned his services for work in the Preparandah Institution at Palamcottah which was under his charge.

Mutbiah Pillai was younger in age to many of the students whom he had to teach and Mr. Sargent, who was a strict disciplinarian, told the students that if any of them showed the least disrespect to the Munshi he would be sent away from the Institution and could not be readmitted. Young Muthiah Pillai’s scholarship and his way of teaching the Tamil subjects so impressed the students that they readily followed his lessons and behaved very respectfully towards him, Mr. Sargent, who was a Tamil scholar himself, soon discerned that the Munshi’s scholarship was of a high order without the pedantry of the ordinary Kavirayar or pandit, and began to indent upon his services to help him in his work connected with the Tamil language. His scholarship was not only profound but also exact. Mutbiah Pillai’s becoming a Munshi and earning a good salary relieved the mother of all anxiety about household expenses. He began to save a little money and the first thing he did was to improve the family house at Palamoottah. He had his own ideas of lighting and sanitation. At that time the houses in Tinnevelly as a rule had low doorways and hardly any windows, for it was considered improper, if not unlucky, for private houses to have high doorways or windows at the sides. The Tamil poetess Avvai has said ‘Build not a big house’. In improving the house Muthiah Pillai wanted to have a doorway at least six feet high and directed the carpenter to make one for the first entrance and went to his work in the Institution. Shortly after he left the house a neighbour and friend, India Pillai, turned up and saw the high door frame and found fault with the carpenter for making it. On the carpenter replying that it was Muthiah Pillai who had ordered him to make the frame, he stormed at him saying, ‘What does that young boy know?’ and insisted upon his cutting it down to the approved height and building it in. When Muthiah Pillai returned home in the evening he found that his plan had been frustrated by an elderly neighbour and friend. Such was the force of public opinion then.

When Krishna Pillai’s child was born at Palamcottah, Muthiah Pillai, who was eighteen years of age, was sent to inform the wife’s relations of the happy event. Muthiah Pillai started in the morning and reached Trichendore, a distance of thirty-three miles, in the evening. He walked all the distance in about nine hours.

Sasta Worship in South India

BY Rev. H.C. LEFEVER, B.D., Ph.D., Trivandrum

India is proverbially a land where “longen folk to goon on pilgrimages”. A pilgrimage which has greatly increased in popularity of recent years is that to the Sasta Temple at Sabarimala in the Travancore High Range. In every part of Travancore, for many weeks before the festival which takes place at Sabarimals in the middle of January, little groups of people can be seen and heard as they walk in procession along the roads near their homes, with their cry “Ayyappo Swamiye” (O Lord Ayyappan) or “Ayyappo Saranam” (O Ayyappan my Refuge). For forty-one days from the middle of November the pilgrims will prepare themselves in mind and body for the journey. During this period they will be under a vow to lead celibate lives and to abstain from meat and intoxicants. In the fellowship of the little group under leader or Periaswami the Sasta devotee will experience something of the Divine Love. The pilgrimage is essentially democratic, all castes from Brahmins down to the jungle tribes and all social classes being represented among the pilgrims. Round about Christmas-time it is interesting to observe the number of new beards growing up around one - indications that their wearers are contemplating the pilgrimage to Sabarimala. They are found on the faces of shop-keepers, bus drivers, peons, students, Government officials - in fact of men of all trades and professions.

What is it that draws these widely differing types to Sabarimala? I cannot think that it is just the scenery, although that is certainly some of the finest in India, for other beauty spots much more easily accessible go unvisited except by a very few. Nor is the attraction simply the semi-political one of enthusiasm for one’s own religion or community. Undoubtedly the chief element in the attraction of Sabarimala is a sense of the “numinous”. This may find itself chiefly in the feeling of change from the ordinary way of life - the beard, the abstinence the special life of the small “separated community” and finally the adventurous journey into the jungle, never without definite risk even in these days when cars and buses can take the pilgrims to within a comparatively short distance from the shrine. But above this, there is obviously an attraction about the deity worshipped at Sabarimala which must be given as the chief factor in the popularity of the pilgrimage.

Unfortunately very little research has been made into the origins of Sasta worship, of which the Sabarimals cult is a part. This is doubtless due to the over emphasis laid, especially by Western scholars, on Vedic Hinduism, Village Hinduism hardly yet claiming the respect of scholars and appealing to them as worthy of serious study. Because of this lack we must welcome a little book recently published in Trivandrum, “Sasta Worship in, South India” by Mr. L.K. Balaratnam (Available from the Travancore University Co-operative Society, Trivandrum, price Rupees Three). It does not go very deeply into the subject, the author’s claim in his preface that this is the “first comprehensive work on Sasta worship” being a little presumptuous. It does not ask all the questions that need to be asked, nor does it answer satisfactorily all that it does ask. Nevertheless, we can be grateful to the author for bringing together several of the facts of Sasta worship previously described only in scattered papers and newspaper articles. I will not attempt here to deal with small slips either in the presentation of the subject or in the English style - though these are fairly numerous and should be more carefully avoided by the author in any future work as they mar his case, but will deal with the main thesis as given by Mr. Balaratnam.

First as to the origin of Sasta, to which subject three chapters are devoted, in spite of the surprising statement on p. 31, that “the origin of the gods ought not to be gone into for the enquiry may often lead to undesirable conclusions”. Mr. Balaratnam first deals with the traditions as given in the Puranas. According to these traditions, Siva had a craving to see Vishnu in the guise of a woman. When Vishnu reluctantly agreed and appeared in the form of an attractive damsel Mohini, Siva fell in love with the damsel and from their union a son was born. This son was Sasta or as he is more popularly called, Hari-hara-suta or Hari-hara-putra. According to one tradition, the child was left in the forest where he was born and was discovered some days afterwards by the Pandyan Raja who was on a hunting expedition. Hari-hara-putra is said to have become the King’s Minister and to have won renown especially by marching to Madara with a retinue of tigers on an occasion when tiger’s milk was prescribed for the Queen’s illness. (Aiyyappan, the form in which Sasta is worshipped at Sabarimala, is often depicted riding on a tiger). After spending twelve years as the King’s servant, Saata returned to the forest. There he still has his dwelling place, being especially associated with the temples at Sabarimala, Acchankoil, Arienkavu and Cheruppulasseri. As Mr. Balaratnam says, “different parts of Kerala have different romantic traditional accounts of the advent of Sasta. We find myth opposing myth”. All accounts agree, however, in identifying Sasta with Hari-hara-putra, the son of Vishnu and Siva.

This union of Vishnu and Siva is Of great practical importance for the development of Hinduism in South India. It is true, of course, that Saivism and Vaishnavism are not in their essence antagonistic systems, but it must be admitted, as Monier Williams pointed out over fifty years ago, that they are two quite distinct systems, each sect inclining to lay an exaggerated stress on its own particular doctrines. In ancient times these differences “not infrequently led to rancorous antagonism and sometimes even to violent conflicts”. None of this opposition is found, however, in those areas where the worship of Sasta is important. The carvings on the Sri Padmanabhaswami temple in Trivandrum, for instance, show an interesting juxtaposition and even blending of the symbols of both sects, and it may be that the Sasta worship of South India has been of real influence in preserving this intersectarian amity. Perhaps this accounts in part for the popularity of this type of worship in a state like Travancore, So famous for its record of religious toleration. Again, we have in this interesting religious figure a symbol, even of interracial unity, Vaishnavism being Aryan and Saivism almost certainly non-Aryan in origin. It is interesting to speculate on what may be the future significance of Sasta worship in the promotion of a wider than merely sectarian amity.

There is, however, another theory of the origin of Sasta worship, different from that supported by the Puranas; that is the view that Sasta is but an apotheosis of Buddha into the Hindu pantheon and that the pilgrimage to Sabarimala with the sing-song repetition of the words “Saranam Ayyappo”, reminiscent of the triple saranam, formula of the Buddhists, is a relic of the Buddhist pilgrimage in Travancore. As Mr. Balaratnam admits, Jainism and Buddhism were once widely prevalent in Kerala. Images, thought to be representations of Buddha, are found in several places in Travancore. It is therefore likely that the Sabarimala temples, like many others in the forest parts of the State, were originally Buddhist. The name Sasta itself is frequently given to Buddha in Buddhist scriptures, while the name Ayyan, so commonly used in Malayalam and Tamil in connection with Sasta (as in Aiyyappan, Aiyyanar) is itself a Pali word, corresponding to the Sanskrit Arya. The names Ayyan and Acchan are, furthermore, often used to denote non-Hindu deities, Hindu deities being denoted by the term Appen. There are many features in the Sabarimala cult which suggest corresponding features in Buddhism, e.g., the period of abstinence on the part of those under the vow, and the triple saranam formula already mentioned. Mr. Balaratnam quotes Mr. Raja Varma as claiming that there is a “striking resemblance between the figures of Sasta and Buddha, in posture as well as in form”. Mr. Balaratnam denies the existence of any such similarity but as he gives no description of a Sasta image (other than s purely symbolic one in the Puthenchanthai Temple In Trivandrum and one In the Trivandrum Thycaud temple) it is not easy to understand his reasons for stating that “the images of Sasta found in Kerala do not exhibit any similarity to the Buddha images”. It is true that this theory of a Buddhistic origin of Sasta worship is losing ground today, but it seems to me that it has still not been sufficiently studied. While we should certainly be careful not to lay too much stress on “resemblances” which are only common features of many religions, the resemblances both religious and philological between Sasta Ayyappan worship and Buddhism still, to my mind, deserve more careful study than they have yet received For instance, there is a pilgrimage in Mysore to “Baba Buddhan’s” shrine. This Muslim saint Baba appears as Vavar in the story of Sasta of Sabarimala Is it too fantastic to quote this as further evidence of Buddhist influence? Mr. Balaratnam suggests that the worship of Vavar (who appears in the traditions as the friend of Sasta and his companion in the forest) indicates the very early association of a Muhammadan Saint with Sasta: “a fine exemplar to all lovers of Hindu-Muslim unity”.

Mr. Balaratnam himself holds that Sasta Aiyyappan is neither Buddhist nor Aryan in origin, but that the God is an “importation from the Tamil Nadu”. I think there is a good case to be made out for identifying Sasta-Ayyappan, as Mr. Balaratnam does, with the popular God Aiyyanar of the Tamil Nadu, but it is not demonstrated that this theory necessarily contradicts that of a Buddhist origin of Sasta, for Aiyyanar also may be Buddhistic in origin. The whole subject is still obscure, however, and the various Malayalam papers that have been written in the last few years about Aiyyappan content themselves for the most part with relating Puranic traditions - or even with inventing new ones, relating to the exploits of Hari-hara-putra. A Hindu friend recently suggested to me that Aiyyappan was not originally a deity at all, but a hero who raised up the Sasta temples destroyed by the Pandyan invaders from the Tamil Nadu. Aiyyappan, who had according to this theory some connection with the Tamil Nadu in the service of the Pandyan King, restored the image of Sasta at Sabarimala and is venerated there today along with the god. Like so many similar theories, however, this is almost if not entirely without any support from ancient sources. Another local scholar has suggested to me that Sasta may have been an importation from the Middle-East, brought to Malabar by merchant and others from Arabia, Phoenicia and other countries in that region. If this is true, it might account for the fact that Sasta worship is found only in South India where the influence from these countries was strongest in olden times. The Middle-Eastern origin of some Indian deities has been hinted at by Elliot Smith and others. Is there any connection between Sasta, who appears in the form of the Aiyyanar of the Tamil Nadu as pre-eminently the “Lord of ghosts and evil spirits”, and the Satan of the Old Testament? In Malayalam the name “Chattan” is used of an evil spirit and is a synonym for Sasta who is also known as “Bhuta-Sasta or Bhuta natha - Lord of Spirits.” It can easily be understood how the “Lord and Leader of the demon host” as Monier Williams calls Aiyyanar, should be feared as well as revered by the people who pray to him for protection against demons. This double character is found even in connection with Satan who appears in the Book of Job as one of the sons of God. (Job 1:6)

It would however be almost certainly idle to attempt to add to the already existing galaxy of legends and traditions concerning the origin of Sasta-Aiyyappan. Perhaps the most valuable part of Mr. Balaratnam’s book is the detailed description which he gives - as far as I know the only one in such detail in English - of the annual pilgrimage to Sabarimala for the “Makaravilakku” festival. Each day of the orthodox form of the pilgrimage through the forest is described. Of especial interest is what is called the “admirable pantheism, eminently practical” which characterises the pilgrimage. Thus, “there is no objection at all to devotees entering the temple premises without the usual purificatory ablutions, or with shirts, coats and knickers on. For people with a pantheistic or rather pancreatic outlook there will of course be no invidious distinction between man and man or between man and shirt, or shirt and Sasta. Sarvam Khalvidam Sasta - all this is verily Sasta - is their creed”.

Tukaram’s Life and Autobiography

BY REV. J.F. EDWARDS, POONA

We are deeply sensible of the honour done to us by the Editor in requesting us to follow up our January article with further information about Tukaram for readers of The Pilgrim. Tukaram Bolhoba Ambile was born, according to tradition, in 1608, the same year, as the English poet John Milton. Tukaram first comes before us as a Shudra grain-seller in his own native Dehu, eighteen miles north-west of Poona. Many stories are told of his early struggles which illustrate his honesty, simple-mindedness and spiritual devotion his Hindu god Vithoba being represented as his helper on all occasions. A sack of grain fell from his ox on a dark stormy night and sympathetic stranger is described as suddenly giving a helping hand, leading him over the Indrayani river which was high in flood. He set out with bags of chillies to trade in, the Konkan and as the people were duping him by getting wares without payment, this same stranger is said to have intervened and made every one pay for what he had taken. Many other such stories there are Tukaram’s wife Rakhmabai being constitutionally asthmatic he had been married to another Jijabai or Avalibai, daughter of a well-to-do Poona merchant, and her credit came to be very useful in helping him out of straits. One rogue deceived him by selling to him as gold bracelets what were mere brass gilded over. Two hundred rupees which Avali gave him to trade with in salt vanished through his paying the debts of a Brahmin beggar he came across.

Unworldliness

A great famine in 1629, during which his elder wife died crying for bread, was the last in a succession of sorrows which led him to give up all business and worldly attachment. Sitting on the river bank with his younger brother Kanhoba, he threw into the stream most of his own half of the business papers, thus absolving long-standing debtors, and handed over the remainder, with full responsibility for the business affairs, to Kanhoba while he dedicated himself wholly to Vithoba. In a 1935 Marathi book by Mr. M.S. Kelkar this failure in business is doubted, but on what seem inadequate grounds. Tukaram’s utter unworldliness is also known by his pity for the birds he was engaged to keep away from the rising grain in a cornfield near the place of his meditations. ‘They are God’s creatures and are hungry,’ said he to himself. So he let them come in flocks, and the owner came and found every ear in his field was empty. When Tukaram was dragged before the village jury to compensate the owner for the loss, he was promptly vindicated, according to tradition, by every ear of grain quickly yielding a richer harvest than ever before. Distressed, at a later period, that birds flew away at his approach, he would practise such stillness that they would come to perch on him and remain unstartled. Not quite so serene was the life of Tukaram’s wife. While respecting her husband and ministering to his needs, she laid all the blame for his eccentric ways on Vithoba to whom he daily gave milk. Once indeed Avali became so angry as to take a stone to the temple with the intention, of breaking the image And certainly her bitterness was not without cause. One day, having left her one and only robe on the wall while she went for a bath, she returned to find the precious thing missing; Tukaram had taken pity on a poor old Brahmin woman who passed that way. True, his eccentricities sprang from a deep devotion, as for example when, to ensure wakeful meditation, he tied his shensi (tuft of hair) to a nail above him and for four days banished all thought of sleep.

Dealings With Brahmins

A series of events setting forth Tukaram’s dealings with Brahmins constitutes one of the most important parts of his life-narrative. A Chinchwad Brahmin, Chintamani Dev, had invited Tukaram to dine with him. The plate of the Shudra poet having been fixed the usual distance from the Brahmin’s Tukaram made the strange request that two more be laid, one for his own god and another for the god Ganapati worshipped by his host. His explanation is in one of his poems ‘If at every mouthful a man has faith, then God dines with him.’ How haughtily the Brahmins of the time acted towards him is shown by the conduct of one named Deshpande, who, refusing both a number of poems Tukaram had composed for him and a coconut accompanying them, lost also a set of costly pearls which an admiring banker friend had secreted inside the coconut when presenting it to the poet. One of the most critical events in Tukaram’s life demonstrates his reverence for Brahmins, even at the height of his renown. Rameshwar Bhat, a Brahmin scholar jealous of the Shudra’s fame, had not only moved the public authorities against him but had personally enjoined silence upon him. ‘But what of the poems already written?’ asked their docile author. ‘Throw them into the river’ was the cruel reply, and into the river the whole bundle went covered with a stone. It was Tukaram’s darkest hour, but to the astonishment of all, several days later the sheets were seen floating on the river and were taken out unharmed. Rameshwar’s deep repentance followed, the poet replying in gentle verse; ‘If your mind is pure, your enemies will be your friends.’

And it was true in this case, for Rameshwar became his lifelong disciple. Another jealous Brahmin, Mumbaji by name, evoked a striking manifestation of this shining quality of forgiveness. Avali’s buffalo had damaged the garden of Mumbaji whose reply was to close the road round the temple. When Tukaram opened it again, the Brahmin seized and beat him so hard as to disable himself from attending temple worship; his body was aching all over. On hearing of this, Tukaram went to Mumbaji’s house, gently rubbed the parts more painful than the rest and brought him to the service. No wonder Tukaram won the love of all around. His fame reached the ear of the future Marathi King Shivaji, then a popular and rising prince, who desired to attend one of his kirtans. If with scholars like Dr. Sir R.G. Bhandarkar, we accept the historicity of an event sometimes questioned, then Shivaji sent messengers with torches, umbrella and horses. ‘Do not even talk of seeing me,’ was Tukaram’s reply; ‘there is no happiness like the beggar’s.’ The prince however, came and brought with him a plate of gold coins which Tukaram got distributed among Brahmins. The message of the kirtan so deeply moved Shivaji, that he resolved on renouncing his claim to the kingdom but when his mother interceded with Tukaram, the poet gave another kirtan whose message was the sacredness of every calling, including the calling of a king.

His Religious Views

On the many incidents illustrating Tukaram’a religious views, one is of a Vedantist Brahmin who persisted in reading to this Vaishnava bhakta the pantheistic treatise, Vivet Sindhu by Mukundraj. Tukaram agreed to listen only on condition that he might be covered with a blanket, as the sight of the world distracted him. When the blanket was lifted after an hour’s reading, Tukaram was found seated with his fingers in his ears. His defence was that he could not listen to the pantheistic doctrine that God and His worshippers were one and the same. Another story popular in the Maratha country tells of some of his devotees who were setting off on pilgrimage to whom he gave a bitter gourd that they might bathe it in the Ganges and other sacred streams. When they brought it back just as bitter as before, he drew the moral that all external means would fail just as miserably in effecting their salvation.

His End

Included in the biographical material which some Hindu scholars regard as legendary is an account of what is called Tukaram’s ‘ascension,’ embodying the Hindu belief that Tukaram was carried away to Vaikuntha (Heaven) in Vishnu’s Viman (chariot). When we visited Dehu in 1920 we noted that opposite the spot where Tukaram is said to have ‘ascended’ to Vaikuntha, a spot visited every Phalgun by thousands of Hindus is one of the deepest parts of the Indrayani, a part which always has deep water according to our guide, a temple priest of Dehu itself. The probability is accepted by some modern Hindu writers therefore that Tukaram met his death by drowning in the holy river of his own village; whether by Jalasamadh (prearranged drowning), or whether as suggested by Dr. Prabhazarrao Bhandarkar, ‘the constant expectation of God’s coming to fetch him away produced an illusion, and in obeying fancied call from the opposite bank he ran into the river and was drowned,’ it is very difficult to say. Students of Maratha history remember parallel instances of Maratha saints who have ended their lives by Jalasamadhi, e.g., Eknath in 1599 (or 1609), Nijanand the guru and father of Ranganath in 1642, Brahmanand in 1775, and the case of Dnyaneshwar who took sthalasamadhi (getting oneself buried alive) in 1296. In favour of the theory of drowning is the discovery of Tukaram’s blanket and cymbals few days later. The usually accepted date for Tukaram’s end is 1649.

Tukaram’s Autobiography

From Tukaram’s own poems we have no difficulty in drawing a portrait of his character which is probably quite trustworthy. His own account of himself is frank and simple. Though as yet there is no reliable critical edition of Tukaram’s abhangs (verses) such as scholars can agree upon, yet his autobiographical poems are generally accepted and his self-revelations give the impression of being sincere and genuine. Of his kindness and unselfish service for others, on Which his Marathi biographer Mahipati dwells so often, he himself tells us very little, his autobiographical verses being Wholly concerned with the personal and religious side of things. The abhangs that may be classified as autobiography number hundreds, and a large proportion are given up to confession, invocation and aspiration. He tells us very little of his life in the world, though he often dwells on his guilt and misery. The poems of self-accusation, at least three hundred and possibly more, reveal a deep sense of sin, though his relation to God is personal and pantheistic by turns. This conviction of sin is often closely associated with extreme mental depression, False is “mine”, false is “Thine”. False is Tuka, false is his faith. He speaks falsehood to the false Sorrow resulting from the death of parents, favourite wife and eldest son, and from business failures clearly led him to his self-dedication: ‘It is well, O God, that I became a bankrupt and was crushed by the famine; this is how I repented and turned to Thee.’ And his dedication to Vithoba was complete: ‘Rank, race, colour, creed and caste all are gone.’

Quest for Inward Purity and Peace

Tukaram’s life would seem to have been a long inward struggle after heart purity and peace of mind. Inward purity became for Tukaram a prime necessity in order to achieve his quest for salvation. ‘I heed not ascetics and preachers of Hari, their views are many and diverse. I may salute them out of courtesy, says Tuka, but what I delight in is purity of heart.’ ‘Let this be your renunciation, to expel the sense of self … what you need, says Tuka, is a clean heart and spirit at peace.’ ‘Blessed are the pious for their heart is pure hearts are filled with devoted love.’ But how shall his need of purity be found is a recurring question with Taka. Not by ceremonies nor yet by pilgrimage. ‘What hast thou done by going to a holy river? Thou hast only outwardly washed thy skin. In what way has the interior been purified … If peace, forgiveness and sympathy do not come in, why should you take any trouble?’ ‘Do not give up food; do not betake yourself to a forest-dwelling … Dedicate everything you do to God, and have done with it; nothing else is to be taught but this.’ ‘We cannot reach this God by hypocritical words; He knows the smallest thing that keeps you from him.’ ‘When I look for some means of escape, I am caught in such a strait that my intellect and force are reft away … I am held as in a cleft by rules and prohibitions … I am tortured by the desires that pursue me; now set me free; I am altogether feeble, O God!’ For Tukaram has full confidence that God can somehow satisfy His child’s desire: ‘Tuka say When God assists He makes the Incomplete complete.’

Tukaram’s Religious Conversion

Very much in Madhavarao Sadashiv Kelkar’s 1935 book entitled The Spiritual Life And Teachings of Saint Tukaram, illustrates the wide and earnest religious discussion taking place nowadays in Marathi books, showing how necessary it is that missionaries and Indian Christian workers should keep in touch with these vernacular books, in order to help the India of today in its earnest quest after God. One position, basic to Mr. Kelkar’s entire book, is his certainty, almost dogmatic in character, with which he argues that Tukaram had a well-ordered religious development, almost without any setbacks (after a point). Mr. Kelkar states: ‘The three stages in Tukaram’s spiritual life were; First, worshipping Vithal’s idol; secondly, psychical visions while practising Yoga; and thirdly, seeing God everywhere as he worshipped Him by serving man as well as beast.’ If a critical edition of Tukaram’s own poems could determine the crucial dates and developments in his experience, Mr. Kelkar’s diagnosis would be highly attractive. There is much that is of fascinating interest in Mr. M.S. Kelkar’s book, but Mr. Kelkar himself would regard the pivot of his interpretation of Tukaram as the episode when Tukaram’s Brahmin critic compelled him to throw his bundle of precious poems into the river Indrayani at Dehu. For to Mr. Kelkar, as to Tukaram himself, the recovery of the poems from the river all unharmed after several days was a miracle of divine intervention; though for us today it is possible to argue that if any cloth wrapped around the manuscripts got washed away, thereby causing the bulk of papers to become swollen, they might then of themselves rise to the river’s surface. An interesting parallel occurred in 1917 when the late Archdeacon Dennis was returning to England from the Niger Mission in Africa on the S. S. Karima which got sunk by a German submarine. The bulky typescript and linguistic notes of the manuscript for an English-Ibo dictionary went down with the ship and were washed up some time after on the Welsh coast and are now at the missionary headquarters in Salisbury Square in London. But the seventeenth century Tukaram knew nothing of such possibilities. He only knew that Brahmin hatred of him and of his teaching had led to the throwing into the river of the poems written in years of toil. The subsequent recovery of the entire manuscript is, however, made by Mr. Kelkar the great turning point in Tukaram’s religious life. In brief, Mr. Kelkar works out his idea by saying that at the time of pleading with God to save his hymns, Tukaram thought he had reached the pinnacle of devotion, but after his hymns were restored to him, he came to see how he really needed to begin his religious life all over again.

A Humbling Theory for Tukaram’s Worshippers

In truth this is a somewhat humbling theory for those millions in Maharashtra who worship Tukaram but Mr. Kelkar is remorseless in what he himself regards as ‘facts’ in Tukaram’s religions ‘development’. The poems which Tukaram composed up to that point were monistic or pantheistic, says Mr. Kelkar and those he wrote after that event were of the devotional character which differentiates between God and His worshipper; for this moving experience had convinced Tukaram of the utter futility of all his previous experiences which, affirms Mr. Kelkar, were of a yogic nature For a time he had wavered between monism and dualism, but now the loss and recovery of his hymns settled this problem forever; according to Mr. Kelkar’s view, a view which, let us remind the reader, has no critical or chronological basis. Tukaram’s teaching about his own oneness with Brahma had roused that hatred and opposition of the Brahmins which led to the hymns being consigned to the river, but now God’s goodness had given him back his hymns and had thereby delivered him from the net of yoga and monism. Hence, the event becomes, in Mr. Kelkar’s theorising the turning point in Tukaram’s entire religious experience. Other important points are involved when Mr. Kelkar says, ‘It is highly probable that during his early youth Tukaram had fallen a prey to bad company.’ This view he adopts on the basis of such verses in Tukaram’s own poetry as the following: - ‘Censuring, hating and ruining people, I also committed adultery. Puffed up with pride of riches I committed great sins, treated my two wives unequally, and disobeyed my father.’ This is a new line for Indian biographers of Tukaram. Mr. Kelkar’s first chapter on ‘Before Tukaram’s Religious Awakening’ is worthy of careful study by all those among Tukaram’s present-day followers who are in danger of deifying him. So also is the second chapter entitled ‘On The Path Of Spiritual Progress,’ where Mr. Kelkar emphasises such discoveries as Tukaram disclosed in the words, ‘One who aspires after worldly things as well as after spiritual happiness will achieve neither’ and again Tukaram’s forceful teaching in his simile, ‘Just as a piece of cloth does not receive another dye unless the former dye and dirt are first washed away, so the soul cannot think aright of God unless the effects of worldly pleasure have been removed’ and this rich idea Tukaram compresses into a moving prayer in another poem, ‘Oh dye, me with Thy purity.’

Tukaram’s Sense of Sin

Such moving prayers supply a final answer to those Western students of Hinduism who say Hindus have no sense of sin. This question of Tukaram’s sense of sin is worth looking at for a moment. So remorseless was Tukaram’s introspection that even in his _kirtans__ and in the popularity resulting therefrom he saw ‘the snare of pride’ within. Abhang 1858 in Fraser and Marathe’s three volume edition of the poems has been rendered by Di. Macnicol as follows: -

    I proud became from honour that men paid
    To me, and thus my upward growth was stayed
    Alas! the way of truth I cannot see,
    Held fast by self in dark captivity

In a sermon on this _abhang__preached at the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Poona Prarthana Samaj, the late Hon. Dr. Sir Narayana Chandavarkar said: ‘In this_abhang_, Tukaram warns us against the danger of self or conceit, showing how every moment of our life we are apt to be victimised by it … He says, I started with the idea of conquering myself but in the very process people come and praise me which is apt to swell my head … They call me saint, but they do not know how much of sinfulness there is in me. They do not know how I have to struggle with myself.’ Meditation brought Tukaram a deep conviction of sin. His numerous and earnest poems that speak of self-accusation refer chiefly to sloth that wastes time, or desire that longs for pleasures. We need not think that Tukaram, any more than John Bunyan, was worse than his neighbours: but he has learned to reproach himself. We cannot date these poems, and neither psychological nor chronological principles justify the supposition that they must have been written in the first days of spiritual struggle. How utterly overwhelming was Tukaram’s sense of sin the following lines show: - ‘O God, protect me and still my agitated soul. Cast no reproach on me; receive within Thyself, says Tuka, the million offences I have committed’. ‘Regard not my mountainous guilt’. ‘I see that my own heart is not pure; I have fallen into the destructive power of the senses. O Hari, do thou swiftly cut off this evil that clings to me. Other evils, too, why need I count up? Sinful illusions, evil affections. I am tortured by lust and rage; who but Thou can set me free?’ ‘Though I speak gentle words, yet lust and rage flourish within me, my spirit is not pure, as the saints describe purity.’ In view of these facts, the present writer had always felt unable to agree with Dr. Macnicol in his exquisite Psalms of Maratha Saints (p. 33) where he wrote that in the Bible there is a profounder sense of human sin and the alienation that it brings than there is in Tukaram nor have we ever been able to agree to his observation that Tukaram was a stranger to the truth ‘that the sacrifices of God are a broken heart’ (P.M.S. p. 33). For if ever there was ‘a broken heart,’ broken because so deeply conscious of its wrong and plague, it was the heart of Tukaram. Hundreds of his abhangs on the subject are sufficient proof of this. It was therefore with special interest that we read Dr. Macnicol’s luminous article in The International Review Of Missions for July 1943 where (p. 251) our Poona friend of years ago writes; ‘Of all the bhakti poets, none, so far as my knowledge goes, experiences so fully the sense of sin and the longing that Vithoba should forgive his sin, as this poet does.’ It is difficult to select from the many examples of this that one could quote. Here is one:

“Fallen of fallen thrice fallen am I; but do thou raise me by thy power. I have neither purity of heart nor a faith firmly set at thy feet. I am created out of sin. How often shall I repeat it? Says Tuka.”

We would agree that the sense of sin is not so constant a feature as the Christian Scriptures show, probably due to the sense of the stainless purity of God in the latter, but in our view the Bible itself has no more poignant cries of shame than those which escape Tukaram’s lips. For ourselves the essential difference between this Maratha saint and the saints of the Bible lies in another direction. We should place him in the school of St. Paul when he wrote Romans 7:7-24. The self-analysis there fits Tukaram’s case perfectly; for he realised most painfully his ‘moral impotence.’ What is missing from Tukaram is the song of complete deliverance in the last verse of that seventh chapter of Romans and in chapter viii with its experience of a final moral and inward emancipation. The Christian’s deep sense of sin is what the theologians call ‘a saving sense’, while that of Tukaram was nearly always a cry of despair: ‘My heart testifies to me that I am not redeemed!’ ‘Whosoever I meet on this road I inquire of him. Will God be merciful to me?’ Here are two of Dr. Macnicol’s beautiful translations:

  Thy nature is beyond the grasp
    Of human speech or thought
  So love I've made the measure-rod,
    By which I can be taught.

  Thus, with the measure-rod of love
    I mete the infinite.
  In sooth, to measure him there is
    None other means so fit.
  Not Yoga's power, nor sacrifice,
    Nor fierce austerity.
  Nor yet the strength of thought profound,
    Hath ever found out thee.

  Here tower the hills of passion and of lust,
    Far off the Infinite!
  No path I find and all impassable
    Fronts me the hostile height.
  Ah, God is lost, my friend. Narayan now
    How can I ever attain?
  Thus, it appears that all my life, so dear,
    I have spent, alas in vain.

‘Unsatisfied’

If we are called upon for a verdict about Tukaram’s religious experience we would say he was at the end ‘unsatisfied.’ Stimulated in his inward conflict by the examples of the saints and buoyed up by his own personal faith, Tukaram would appear to have gained fleeting glimpses of the goal in his soul’s great quest. The more exalted of the passing moods of this ‘lover of God’ are hinted in hymns like the following: ‘I feel an inward sweetness, as I gaze upon my treasure of faith; God is my bosom-friend, the bosom-friend of this helpless creature; according to His glorious might, let him adorn us with purity. Tuka says, God eats with us, to give us a share in his love’. ‘If I praise any other than thee, let my tongue rot away. If I care for. Any others, let my head be crushed. If I find pleasure in others, surely it is sinful that very instant. If the ears drink no nectar of God’s glory, what use are they? Taka says, if I forget thee for one moment, what purpose can life serve?’ How in these ecstatic moods he solved that other problem of his haunting guilt the following stanzas in Dr. Macnicol’s rendering show:

    Guard me, O God, and O, control
    The tumult of my restless soul.
    Ah do not, do not cast on me
    The guilt of mine iniquity.
    My countless sins, I, Tuka says,
    Upon thy loving heart I lay.

Students of Tukaram find themselves longing that the above might be regarded as describing the final haven of rest reached by our ‘wrestler with the troubled sea,’ but we cannot be sure that they express more than a passing phase of emotional ecstasy, not uncommon with devotees of bhakti, such ecstasy, indeed, as that during which Gora the potter all unconsciously trod his own child to death. If so, we have to fall back upon Dr. Wilson’s diagnosis of Tukaram’s highest attainment as having been one of ‘unsatisfied religious anxiety.’ That there is real ground for this view is shown by the following considerations: - First, the lofty abhang just quoted beginning. If I praise, is addressed to his favourite Hari, that name of Vishnu which characterises him as ‘sin remover’. Secondly, the three couplets quoted above may be regarded as a bitter cry arising from his poignant sense of sin. Fraser and Marathe render them: ‘Still my agitated soul; cast no reproach on me; receive within Thyself, O God, the million offences I have committed’ Thus our bhakta seems not to have discovered any sure inward stay, but advanced and receded by turns, suffering as a victim of bhakti’s moods possibly to the end. All these possibilities are indicated in his words: ‘Such faith (bhava) as once I had I have not now … I see a loss of my capital before me; I think of the faults of others whom I see around me to exalt myself thereby; I am like a cock, says Tuka, who goes on scratching the dung hill and knows not if he is gaining anything or not.’ By the very honesty of his introspection Tukaram here enables us to draw three inferences: First, that his faith was no abiding refuge probably because it had no sure basis; secondly, his inward life suffered from a corrupt environment, leading to self-comparison with imperfect standards; thirdly, he was still far from the goal of final spiritual assurance, for he ‘knows not if he is gaining anything! As we leave him, his heart is all agitated’ with deep: dissatisfaction concerning his own inward life and concerning his god: what these meant ‘once’ to him, they mean ‘not now.’

The Christian Enterprise in India

By. R.C. DAS, M. A, Benares

1. The writer of these notes, in company with another evangelist, visited Haridwar in the month of June Haridwar (Gateway to God) is one of the most strategic Hindu religious centres in the whole of India just at the foot of the Western Himalayas. It provides access to the famous Himalayan shrines - Badrinath, Kadarnath, Joshimuth. The urgency of a permanent and effective Christian approach there is being realised by many Christian students of Hinduism.

2. Another centre that he visited in the summer for a fortnight is Almora. In and around the hills of Kamaon and Garhwal lie the above-mentioned pilgrim centres as well as the Mount Kailash and “the Heavenly Lake” - Mangorobar. A feature in the life and culture of these hills significant for the Christian cause is the fact that most of the Hindu Sadhus, Sanyasis and Sadbakas (seekers and saints) live in caves and hermitages in the jungles meditating praying, studying and some of them carrying on aggressive missionary activities and engaged in the production of literature. The Ramakrishna Mission is in full force both in the town with their fine order of monks and a nucleus of social service and in that idealistic and mystic spot, Mayabati, which is their spiritual and intellectual power-house. In and around Almora town are Hindu saints, some of them women, such as the well-known Mataji (the mother) living with her Western disciples. It has been discovered that one or two of these European and American so-called Hindus are Christian in their essential loyalty, but they have been tremendously attracted and influenced by the mystical, contemplative and non-violent aspects of Hinduism as much as by the grandeur and awful beauty of the Himalayas. The Christian congregations in these hills are fairly scattered: numerous and alive. But to meet the situation they are not sufficiently endowed with the graces of the spirit or powers of the intellect. In this centre a well-to-do Christian possesses an estate where some spiritual effort has been put forth by, and, later in memory of, his saintly and evangelical wife. It is earnestly hoped and believed that on this foundation a Christian Ashram with the twofold object of comparative study of religion and direct evangelistic effort on the principles of dynamic living and creative thinking will be reared.

3. A movement has been set on foot for some time and now a definite proposal has been made to the effect that all, or as many as possible, of the Christian Ashrams of various types in North India on this side of the Vindhyas including Orissa, Bengal and Rajputana be loosely organised on definite spiritual basis into a Fellowship or Brotherhood of Ashrams. The problem is that these institutions are growing like mushrooms and sometimes men who have not the spiritual and mental qualifications nor the background of the knowledge and understanding of the heritage of India have started so-called Ashrams with any and every, and sometimes no, object other than collection of money. We must hold up the ancient Indian ideal of Ashram life and activity and the fundamental Christian principles upon which they must be based.

4. A Retreat-Conference of Christian Sadhus and itinerant independent evangelists was held at Benares under the auspices of the Bihar and U. P. Christian Councils and the Sadhu Sundar Singh Trust. The object was to organise them so far as possible in consultation with such workers themselves and to make more effective and acceptable to the Church their witness and service. It was realised that the conservation and development of this type of Christian ministry is important for the enrichment of the Church’s own life and for its approach to the non-Christian, communities in India.

The writer of these notes will be grateful for prayer Suggestions and material support for all these new activities.

Printed at the Hilal Press, Tirunelveli 3-1944

India and the Faith - The Gospel and India’s Heritage

BY A.J. Appasamy, S.P. C. K. Madras (Rs. 7/7)

IT IS A COMMONPLACE OF MODERN missionary thought that the Mystical Body of Christ cannot reach its completion till all the nations have brought their honour and glory into it. Each race has its own particular contribution to make, without which the Church will inevitably lack something essential to her perfection. If this is true in general, as it most certainly is, e.g., of the Chinese and Japanese contributions and of those of the child-races of Africa, and even of the Australian aborigines, it must be emphatically true of the peoples of India, who have shown through countless centuries a genius for religion and particularly for religious contemplation. For that reason every thoughtful fellow Christian will welcome a statement of the Faith by a learned Indian who is steeped, not only in the doctrines of the Christian Faith, but also in those of his Hindu forebears, and who, while deeply convinced that in Christ alone can man find salvation, values highly and reverences the heritage of India as such.

There is yet another reason why this book is to be welcomed. The familiar truths acquire a new freshness when we have them viewed from an unfamiliar angle. This freshness the book certainly has. Readers of The Guardian found a special attraction in Mr. C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters because they gave an approach to moral theology an entirely new angle Dr. Appasamy’s book does not, like Mr. Lewis’s show us Christianity upside-down; but it does throw new light upon the doctrines we know so well by its constant comparisons and contrasts with gems of Hindu lore. And the new light has all the glow and fervour of Bhakti.

Again and again we are brought face to face with broken lights of the Eternal Radiance, and it is brought home to us that in India, through the ages the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, has not left Himself without witness. With all his love for the racial heritage. Dr. Appasamy does not fail to point out its defects. Again and again we see how the keen and selfless search for the truth has just failed of its goal; but we see, also, how the best Indian soul is an anima naturaliter Christiana, and countless practical suggestions for sympathetic approach by missionaries from the West add very much to the value of the volume.

With so wide a range and so daring a technique, it would be impossible that the author should not give out expressions liable to discussion and criticism. In his interpretation of the text, I and the Father are one (p. 36), he finds a difficulty in regarding it as an assertion of His Deity, because the oneness of His followers is said to be of the same pattern. ‘Then’, says Dr. Appasamy, ‘the followers of Christ would possess Deity, which is against all Christian doctrine.’ Yes; but how about St. Peter’s partakers of the Divine Nature?

Again, has he fully thought out the implications of his statement on p. 217, which seems to make Creation necessary to God, and therefore eternal? There is one place where the sense of the passage is turned into nonsense by misplaced capital letters. On p. 31 we read: “The thoughts of Jesus are there stated by the Fourth Evangelist in His own words, often with His characteristic explanations”. But the context shows that the Evangelist, and not the Lord Himself, is meant.

Dr. Appasamy’s eloquence is equal to his clarity. He accepts the assured results of Biblical criticism, but rejects extravagances. Here also are points which leave room for discussion. But we wholeheartedly commend the book as a whole, and hope it will see many editions.

THE GUARDIAN, LONDON.