The Pilgrim

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

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. C.S. THOBURN, M.A., Jabalpur. Rev. G.H.C. ANGUS, M.A., Serampore College.

Secretary: Dr. J.E. McELDOWNEY, Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur

Treasurer: Dr. C.H. HAZLETT, A. P. Mission, Mainpuri, U.P.

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

Committee: Mrs. W. STANLEY GOULD, Ewing Christian College, Allahabad Prof. V.E. DUTT, M.A., B.D., Serampore Mr. PAUL DAS, B.A., N.I.C. Tract and Book Society, Allahabad Rev. J.S. MOON, M.A., Ramkatora, Benares

Editorial Board: Bishop Clement D. Rockey, Dr. A.J. Appasamy Mrs. W.S. Gould Rev. C.G. Diehl (Madras) Dr. J.E. McEldowney Prof. V.E. Dutt Rev. A.M. Ward (Bangalore) Mr. R.C. Das Rev. J.S. Moon (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, A.P. Mission, Mainpuri, U.P.

Every member will receive The Pilgrim free.

In order to make up a little for the delay in the issuing of this number we have reduced it in size. The next number will be correspondingly larger.

Editor.

Master C.V.V. of Kumbakonam

BY P. CHENCHIAH, MADRAS (continued)

The positive ideas of the theology of Master C.V.V. may be explained with advantage in contrast to the features of traditional Hinduism. The Master’s conception of life and redemption arise from a radical and revolutionary criticism of the dominant trend of Hinduism. This critique of Hinduism is the key to the Master’s philosophy of life.

1. A careful study of Hinduism will disclose that behind the multitudinous and baffling varieties of forms and thought, of ritual, and mythology there lie two formative conceptions that find expression in the wide range of religious literature and act and give the whole mass shape and coherence. These two great ideas springing from opposite points and moving in directly opposed directions and reaching divergent goals - both relate to the evolution of creation, its status and function. There is no understanding of Hinduism in its manifold expression and moods unless these great ideas are grasped. In the Upanishad literature they are associated with neti (na-iti = not this) and iti (this) ideology, later with Nivriti and Pravriti conceptions. The Neti ideology regards all creation as a fall from the primal purity and sovereignty of the Brahman - a degradation of being that involves the original homogeneity and passivity of the first principle in the limitations of subject and object, of process and personality. Creation, however, grand and majestic obscures the glory of Brahman and cuts us off from the source of our true being. Creation does not and cannot embody Brahman in any sense, and to any extent. Within the ambit of creation Brahman can only be described not this, not this. Of the same antiquity though not of the same status is its (this) ideology which proclaims that Brahman, if he is to be understood at all, has to be understood in terms of creation. He is nature, he is the animated world. He is man and superman progressively. Though no term of creation by itself or in combination with lower and higher terms can completely express God, there is no term of creation which does not in some measures reflect or mirror Him. This line of thought found its culmination in the idea of incarnation. Unfortunately the dominant and all powerful note was the one which denied any ultimate value to creation and regarded it as the obstacle in the way to God. The stream of regression taking away man backwards to the ‘uncreated’ is the main stream in which the theistic forward stream culminating in incarnation had to live and express itself.

In the result the forward stream after brave efforts was caught in the back-wash current and moved backwards. Hence, the deeply embedded idea in Hinduism both in thought and in Yoga that liberation is primarily an escape from the control of creation and that we reach Brahman by progressively discarding the solid layers of creation. We have to reach the rim of creation and vault into the bosom of the ‘uncreated’, to obtain salvation, just as the parachutists walk to the edge of the wings of the aeroplane and take the plunge into space. Even theism has to cede the highest place to Sayujya - when the Jivatma is absorbed in God and ceases to be. The standard yoga of Hinduism is known by the name of Laga Yoga - the yoga of destruction - the destruction of the microcosm which is man. The idea is so deep-rooted that it passed into Buddhism in the conception of salvation as Nirvana.

Master C.V.V. detaches the minor note of Hinduism which finds in creation the fulfilment of God’s Sankalpa and makes it the cornerstone of new theology. Creation is not merely the theatre of God’s revelation. It is progressively the vesture, body, life and soul of God. God does not remain outside creation-sending worlds away from Him as a boy floats soap bubbles in the air. God’s purpose and plan can only be read and understood in the creative process; contact and oneness with Him can only be realised by a progressive development of creation in evolution and not by any effort to jump out of creation into the great flux beyond. Master C.V.V. characterised ‘Neti’ ideology as wrong in conception and impossible to be achieved. It is wrong in conception because there is nothing in matter that rules it out as incompetent to express the freedom and plenitude of the spirit. The spirit without body lacks in richness and is to that extent unreal. Body without spirit is gross and unenlightened and to that extent has not the higher reality in it. God seeks fulfilment, if we may say so. With profound reverence and humility by passing into gradually refined matter. It is not God at the inception of creative process but God at the end of the process that represents the full orbed reality. The effort to dissolve creation in the endeavour to reach the origin is foredoomed as it runs counter to the very movement and expression of God in creation. It is, similar, to the ambition of a fish in the Ganges not only to move up the current but also roll up the Ganges to its source at Haridwar, Such an endeavour is foredoomed alike for fish and men. Moreover, the seven levels of sheaths of which man is composed, even if regarded as seven stages of creative expression are separated from each other by adamantine walls which can never be forced from the side of man. The three last stages, physical astral, mental may yield a little to force from outside, and it may be possible for man with tremendous effort to pass from the one to the other. But all efforts to get any further than mental are blocked by granite walls. Sri Krishna regarded as an incarnation, could not bring back to normal consciousness, what he revealed as Gita in Samadhi state. How is it possible to lesser men however developed to bring the higher into the lower. All that is possible is to bring memories of them back. St. Paul says that he was once transported to the third heaven and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for man to utter (2 Corinthians 12:2 and 4). This is to say that he could not bring to normal consciousness, even the memories of high levels poetically described as heavens The long and short of it is that in creation all doors towards the ‘origin’ close against man and do not open. He cannot regress to God, God alone can open the back-doors of creation and send new forces into it. Our attempts to flow back are doomed to disaster.

This view of the value and function of life leads to radically different conception of Maya and Rebirth and Karma in Kumbakonam theology. Maya is not the deceptive haze that covers and distorts truth but the essential substance and instrument of creative expression of God. Maya is not a term of condemnation as it is in Advaitism. It is on the other hand, progressively the Raiment, body, life and spirit of God in His adventure of realisation. Reality and Maya are not to be contrasted as opposites that cannot be both true, but aspects of one reality engaged in the task of self-expression. It is in the conception of Karma and rebirth that the teachings of Master C.V.V. stand out with clear distinctiveness. Rebirth is not a punishment or calamity nor is salvation effectual escape from it. Modern theories of rebirth stray more and more, into the region of fancy. As a moral process the absence of all-consciousness of previous births, militates against its ethical value. It is suggested that a soul is sent into the world in several births so that, it may acquire different experiences which will be summed up and brought into consciousness at the time of fruition. Such a view rests on pure speculation that finds no support in the facts of life. Re-birth is not a punishment or reward for action. It is an indication that consummation of the evolutionary process is yet due and in order to extend its operation to the dead and not merely to the living at the time, the dead have to be summoned back into life till, the grand climax in history is reached. It is merely a recall and not judgement. Unless a soul is totally unfit for immortal life, it has to participate in the clothing of the spirit with, immortal body. Not even Jesus knew the hour and day of cosmic redemption. The actors, in rebirth, are called from the greenroom to the wings to be ready when the grand change takes place. Some such idea is adumbrated in the belief that dead men will come to life when Christ returns to the world. This simple conception of re-birth is more satisfactory than the theory of moral calculus of traditional Hinduism or the speculative fantasies of those who seek to restate it in acceptable modern terms.

The second basic principle following from the first relates to Master C.V.V.’s attitude to traditional Yoga. Old yoga had its own utility in the development of latent potentialities of man. Its value is purely educative. Master C.V.V. does not accept, any more than Sri Aurobindo, the facile assumption of science and traditional Hinduism, that God dwells in man as Avyakta. In the concrete terminology of Hatha-Yoga, Kundalini is unmanifest God, residing in man. But man as a term in cosmic process does not hold infinite possibilities within Him, Master C.V.V. held that Kundalini is a factor that is strictly under the command of Brahman. So long as you conceive creation as a developing process, a study of the process so far revealed, shows that the prolongation of the creative process depends not in the exploitation of latent energies in Man but in drafting into him what has not entered into his constitution. The existing life of man in its comprehension and depth, in its latent possibilities is known as the chief life in the language of Kumbakonam theology. What enters anew into evolution is something that comes from the origin itself unrestricted and unaffected by the limitations of the process. Christo Samaj, Sri Aurobindo, and Sri C.V.V. all agree that the new life descends on man and is not worked out from out of human potentialities. The Holy Spirit of Christianity supra-mental life of Aurobindo and the Merry life of Master C.V.V. are energies that flow into the creative process for the first time from the very heart of God. In the New Man something which has not entered the evolutionary process comes to him for the first time. One consequence of this view is that traditional yoga is not of much value to the searchers of new life. Old yoga develops the latent powers that are in man, but it could not deal with potentialities that were not there. Moreover, the old yoga was a yoga of annihilation of creation, of regress into the uncreated while the new one is a yoga which drafts into creation the powers that have not yet passed into it. Hence, Master C.V.V. was against Pranayama and samadhi - good for the old objectives but of no use (even detrimental) to new ambition. Old yoga seeks to prevent birth and the new yoga seeks to prevent death. The gift of Merry life is not our achievement - is not what we develop. It is a pure gift of God - an act of undeserved grace. He comes to us in fulfilment of his pre-determined sankalpa. What is revealed in and through Master C.V.V. to the mediums is pure grace and has to be received as such. When the new life comes it may be we have to co-operate with God in developing it.

3. It is a characteristic feature of Kumbakonam theology, that Redemption is not of the individual but of the species. An individual cannot be saved in the existing order unless the whole order is changed. The old type of individual salvation involved as its corollary translation into heaven through death, for individuals cannot be saved in life without a total change of nature, animate and inanimate. That is why St. Paul speaks of the redemption of the world. Redemption cannot be a saving of the individual either from the world or in the world. New life cannot flow into man without flowing into humanity. Hence, the saving of man requires a new earth and a new heaven. It is a new order of man, beast and nature, Son of God must inevitably lead to sons of God. Nature does not stop with individuals but always establishes a plurality of species. This is expressed by mediums who are not sometimes, above the primitive pleasure of punning by interpreting C.V.V. as ‘See We’. Salvation is not of ‘I’ but of ‘We’.

(iv). Another point in the teachings of Master C.V.V. deserves mention. In the advaitic valuation Jagartha, Swapna, Sushuptituriya stages are regarded progressively more and more real. Consciousness, with its limitations of subject and object offends against the placid serenity of the origin. In Kumbakonam theology all unconsciousness is a sign of mortality. In the new life of immortality man retains full consciousness in all conditions. There is neither sleep nor forgetfulness for the new man. Consciousness is the light of life. It is heightened and not dimmed or put out in the New life of man. In the folklore of India the immortals never wink, meaning thereby they suffer no lapse from consciousness.

(v). Master C.V.V. indicated that the present mode of biological pro-creation by the coming together of the male and female may not continue in the new life. It is always found in evolution, that a new order brings a new means of pro-creation. The Jataka-story of Jesus previsions a possibility of birth by the spirit of God covering the woman. This means the male parentage may disappear as a means of perpetuating the species; it is possible that birth in the new order may take place by the spirit of man, not his body, operating, on the female. This is a delicate subject which has received very little attention in Christian theology: for the simple reason that the church is really sceptical of the Virgin Birth and Resurrection of Jesus.

I have attempted to give a bare outline of the fundamentals of the movement inaugurated by Master C.V.V. Nothing more is attempted in this article. I was struck with two facts of this group. One, their faith in English. It was decidedly eerie to see orthodox devotees uttering their ‘courses’ in English. Even a more striking feature is intelligent interest taken by this group in some aspects of Christian theology. I have never met a group of Hindus outside Kumbakonam who read with such intelligent appreciation and expectation the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians. That chapter is the golden thread that binds the two groups - Christo Samaj and mediums of Master C.V.V.

Our object in the three articles “Who is Jesus?”, “The Message of Aurobindo”, “The movement of Master C.V.V.” is to draw the attention of the readers to the new ideology that is growing and taking shape among Christians and Hindus. All the three of them stand out from the traditional religion. All of them start with a radical criticism of traditional faith. All of them independently have reached a similar ideology, Is there the finger of God in this?

The common feature of the three schools may be enumerated thus: -

1. Creative process is the progressive revelation of God. God enters more and more into creation till at last in the final term the spirit of God finds perfect expression in a body of glory.
2. It is futile to attempt to go back to God before creation. The Sankalpa of God is that one should realise himself more and more in the creative process.
3. Man is a middle term in evolution. Evolution cannot stop with him. It must move on to its consummation.
4. The consummation is only possible by the entry of new powers of God hitherto withheld from evolution.
5. The body is the temple of the spirit, It is not to be annihilated by death. It is to be made immortal deathless, potent and majestic by the entry of the author of creation into temple of Body. Thus does man become incarnation of God - the word made flesh.

The Gospel of these movements is the renewal of our Lord’s preaching that the Kingdom of God is at hand. They are on tip-toe of expectation, expecting the visit of the Lord any moment. The wise who are sceptical as well will exclaim, “another impossible dream”. The desperate who are the faithful exclaim, “Come O Lord come.” What if the Lord hears our prayer before this article reaches the readers? It is better to live in lovely dreams rather than in the dust and muck which goes by the name of Realism.

Bibliography

1. The Master has left in MSS the messages received through the medium of his wife and his expositions at the annual calls of ‘the courses’. But these are, of the nature of notes on his experiment and could not be published till the experiment succeeds.

2. Mr. P. Narasimha, M.A., L.T., Professor of Philosophy Madras Educational Service (Retired) has brought out three books. (I). The Gita A Critique, Huxley Press, Madras. A Radical Critique of Gita from the standpoint of Kumbakonam Theology. (II). Dr. Miller Lectures (1939-40) of the University of Madras on the Individual in Progress. (III). Sex and Spirituality - Though none of these books purport to deal expressly with Master’s teachings, they contain in fact an exposition of the standpoint of Master C.V.V.

3. Mr. T.S. Ramanujam, M.A., LL.B. (London) Managing Director, All-India Tutorial College; Madras, formerly member of League of Nations Secretariat is publishing the World Friendship series; the first two books of the series are devoted to an exposition, of the principles of the psychology of Master C.V.V. The first book, “Kundalini” or “Universal Love Refound,” is a drama in which the dramatic personae expound the principles of Kumbakonam school. The second book Athitha Kaya Kalpa gives in a compendious form all the information available about the Kumbakonam Yoga School with special reference to that experiment relating to physical immortality.

4. Sri S. Narayana Iyer has recently composed in Tamil twelve Hymns under the name Brahma Gnana Geetam - praising the Master. In the introduction to the hymns he gives a clear succinct sketch of the basic principles of master C.V.V.’s. Tharaka Yoga. An English edition is just issued by Ongole Branch of Tarakamandali. Mr. Narayana Iyer has been with the master from the early days and the Master used to refer Madras mediums to him for exposition of his teachings. This book may therefore be taken as authoritative.

5. There are some reputedly ancient astrological works called Nadis in South India which have become popular of late. It is said that in the section called Dharma Khanda, prophetic and anticipatory descriptions of the Master and his yoga are given. Kaka Bhujander and Druva Nadis may be mentioned in this connection.

The Approach

(Being a part of a thesis entitled “Evangelisation of the High Caste Hindus” by Rev. N.T. Jacob. Trichur, Cochin State.)

To present the Gospel to the High Caste learned Hindus in an intelligent way has been a recurring problem. In recent years comparative studies in religions have been going on and scholars have given much thought to the question of an approach to Hinduism, There is no cut and dried method, for the relation of Christianity to other religions, especially to Hinduism, is still an unsolved problem. It seems very unlikely that one particular kind of approach will be evolved in the near future because Hinduism is so amorphous. But until Christian thought invades and captures the Hindu mind, the evangel may be regarded as one of many gospels.

But in our approach to Hinduism we must bear in mind certain general guiding principles lest we go astray. Dr. Macnicol in his ‘Living Religions of the Indian people’ says - “The Christian who sets out across the unplumbed, salt estranging sea of Hinduism on a quest of parallelism between Christianity and it, must have before him always the chart which will secure him against shipwreck.” The experience of evangelists in presenting the Gospel to Hindus has shown that “truth must be expressed to, India in the language of the Indian books, but it must be Christian truth, pure and undefiled, the full revelation of God in Christ.” (Bishop Neill - Builders of the Indian Church). This means that only thought forms, and words can and should be borrowed, and they must be Christianised to convey the Christian truth.

‘The World Mission of the Church’ of the ‘Tambaram Series’ lays down the following general principles. “The connection between Christianity and a foreign civilisation may at one time have attracted primitive people, but today it often repels them. They feel the need to save those forms of life which have been their cultural home. The Church needs a better knowledge of the social ‘milieu’ so that it may rightly distinguish between good and evil elements, and cleanse the communal life of its converts without becoming a party to its destruction.

“No less intelligent understanding is needed in approaching religions which form a part of ancient civilisations. Often offence is needlessly given by a blundering and unsympathetic approach, so that the Christian community fails to extend and achieve its purpose. There are valuable cultural elements which ought to be preserved and integrated into the life of the new Christian community from the very beginning. An adequate understanding of the religions will recognise in them the presence of such valuable elements side by side with other elements which are wholly opposed to the Christian revelation.

“This interest in the religious heritage of nations must not however lead us to assume, as has sometimes been suggested, that the Scriptures of these religions could take the place of the Old Testament as introduction to the Christian Gospel. The Old Testament was Jesus’ Bible to which He constantly referred, and it gives an indispensable background to the Gospel, by showing the early stages of God’s preparation for the sending of our Lord. Yet this presentation should not be made in an aggressive attitude, but in a persuasive and winning manner, respecting the wills of others. Men and women must be for us in the first place, human-beings and fellow-men and not merely non-Christians. Christian truth being vitally related to all spheres and problems of life, the most common and the most trivial as well as the most elevated, the daily life offers countless opportunities for manifesting Christian, love and Christian truth.

The testimonies of converts from Hinduism to Christianity as to the relationship between the two religions have been conflicting. “Some looking back on their pre-Christian experience see in it elements which have prepared them for, and have been forerunner to some at least of the riches which are now theirs in Christ; in some real sense they see their whole religious history as having lain within the grasp of the good God who has now finally and fully disclosed Himself to them in Christ.” (Dr. Farmer in ‘The Authority of Faith - Tambaram Series’). To take one example, “the Brahmin N.V. Tilak journeyed to Christ, he tells us, over the Bridge of the Marathi poet-saint, Tukaram.” (Dr. Macnicol). He adds “Bhakti, indeed, in many of its expressions is a prophecy and a forecast, of the Christian revelation.” “Others on the contrary, feel that Christ has shattered completely their pre-Christian world; they see in their former experience only darkness and evil, from which God in His mercy has now rescued them, (Dr. Farmer). Our approach to Hinduism must account for these two conflicting views.

The Roman Catholic Church’s Approach to Hinduism especially through the work of Jesuit fathers is well-defined. Dr. Macnicol writes on the subject as follows: - “The policy that Robert de Nobili initiated has not been wholly abandoned though it has been purged of the objectionable features that are usually associated with his name. While some of the Jesuit colleges have obtained honourable distinction for the researches in various departments of science other missionaries of the same order have been giving much study to the points of contact between the Hindu and the Christian philosophical constructions. These scholars maintain and seek to prove that the Vedanta systems of Sankara and Ramanuja move in the same direction as the Catholic Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. Referring to the work which these Jesuit fathers have done through their magazine,”The Light of the East” published in Calcutta, M. de la Valle Poussin, the Belgian Sanskritist writes: “Without adopting, like Robert de Nobili in former days, the Brahmin dress these very modern apologists have made for themselves a very modern psychology, thoroughly Thomist and yet Bengali. While their brothers are civilising the totems of Chhota Nagpur they win over this intellectual aristocracy that found Buddhism irrational and Allah too simple.” They are seeking to lead India ‘towards Christ by way of the Vedanta.’ It would appear that in the last quarter of a century the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church has become more favourable to attempts to convert India through Hinduism, for the adventures of the Jesuits of Calcutta in the region of a Hindu-Christian syncretism bear papal imprimatur.”

But the opinion of Protestant Scholars and theologians about the point of contact between Christianity and Hinduism has been varied. There are four main points of view expressed and none of them is wholly convincing.

The first point of view is the one expressed in the American Layman’s Report entitled, “Rethinking Missions.” “The aim of missions is to seek with people of other lands a true knowledge and love of God, expressing in life and word what we have learned through Jesus Christ, and endeavouring to give effect to His Spirit in the life of the world.” The emphasis is on co-operation and not on proclamation of a distinctive message. (G.E. Philips - “The Gospel in the World”) Is it not want of sincerity to seek with people of other lands a true knowledge and love of God, when once the messenger is convinced that it is revealed in Jesus Christ who is the one, whole, and final revelation of God, Instead of proclaiming the vital message? Thus, an approach to Hinduism on such a basis of co-operation will be more a farce than real evangelism/ This view does inadequate Justice to the truth of special revelation.

The second is the other extreme view expressed by Dr. Kraemer in his epoch-making book, “The Christian Message in a non-Christian World.” His Statement is not entirely free of ambiguity. He writes: “To be sure in many men and in the religions of mankind there stir up deep aspirations and intuitions which find their fulfilment in Christ … Because of that many a convert to Christianity has had this liberating fulfilment.” But on the other hand he says: “The Cross and its real meaning is antagonistic to all human religious aspirations and ends.” Further in his article on “Continuity or Discontinuity in the Tambaram” Series Vol. 1 he writes: “… He (Christ) is the crisis of all religions. In this we recognise that God as He is revealed in Jesus Christ is contrary to the sublimest pictures we made of Him before we knew him in Jesus Christ.” We can very well understand why Dr. Kraemer takes this extreme uncompromising View when we take notice of the cheap religious syncretism that has arisen in recent years. Some are under the impression that, some ‘addition’ and ‘elimination’ will turn Hinduism into Christianity. We can understand when Dr. Kraemer says that Christ is the crisis of all religions, but somehow rebels within us when he says that “God as He is revealed in Jesus Christ is contrary to the sublimest pictures we made of Him before we knew Him in ‘Christ.” Apart from denying the fact that God, “left not Himself without witness” in the so-called natural religions, his sweeping generalisation places an Animist, a Vedantist, one who holds the Bhakti religion or even a Zoroastrian on the same level. Also, if what he holds is true, everything connected with any religion other than Christianity must be of the devil, and we cannot take even terms from their religious literature convey the Christian message! As he holds the above view his approach to Hinduism is not through the ’primary plane’ of ‘ultimate truth’, ‘Vedanta’, ‘Bhakti’, or ‘Avatar’. He says:”The Christian approach as a practical problem … lies on the secondary plane of the Indian religious heritage … These vehicles are dhyana, ahimsa, yoga, shanti, ashram, sannyasi, or sadhu, kirtan, the chanting of Puranas, etc.” Dr. Kraemer acknowledges the dangers involved in these even, but goes on to say that it must be done for the sake of vigorous Christianity. One wonders why it is not worth attempting to Christianise the “primary plane’ of Indian religious heritage if possible, Kraemer like all Barthians does inadequate justice to the truth of general revelation.

In reviewing Dr. Kraemer’s book, Mr. Chenchiah, in ‘Rethinking Christianity in India’, puts forward his own point of view which is wholly unconvincing and partly illogical. He says: - “… Nor can we grade religions, according to Christianity the highest place. Every religion is a circle complete and perfect in itself.” If every religion is perfect, I wonder what is the necessity of preaching the Gospel. Is it only the opinion of man? What are comparative merits and demerits in religion from God’s point of view? Mr. Chenchiah, further remarks about the satisfaction Christ offers The supreme longing of the Hindu is to escape Samsara. Christ does not satisfy (this longing) and the Lord’s gift of rebirth does not appeal to the Hindu. Thus, the correspondence of longing and satisfaction fails. It is by no means easy to discover elements, in other faiths which find fulfilment in Jesus.” But in this fulfilment and satisfaction theory he seems to be under a delusion. Christ fills and satisfies the noblest aspirations and sublimest longings of every man, as they ought to be, in a unique sense. Also, He puts into them new aspirations and longings which He can satisfy. There is no realm of man’s activity or nature which He cannot redeem or transform. Mr. Chenchiah also adds: “Jesus stands in definite relation to the residuary problems of other religions rather than to satisfied longings of man. In other words the relationship of Christ to the non-Christian heart and hope lies in the unexplored regions of our Lord’s life and not in the region already mapped out.” This View is entirely contrary to the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and to the Church as the possessor of the whole truth, being Christ’s Body, Also Mr. Chenchiah objects to the idea of the Church and the Christian Community. If the Church is the Body of Christ, created by the creative will of God, then there can be no objection to her existence as God’s instrument for the saving of the world. Mr. Chenchiah wants the Church to be as amorphous as Hinduism, resulting in her final absorption there, which was the fate of Buddhism. The Church of Christ cannot but regard this as heresy.

The fourth point of view is expressed by Mr. Cumarasamy in the ‘Ceylon Centenary Book’. He is of course anticipated by Dr. Miller and Dr. Farquhar. He maintains that “there are two conflicting streams of ‘theology’ in Hinduism, one philosophical, the other devotional and both exist side by side unharmonised”. He adds that Hindu devotees have transcended the philosophic theologian. His conclusion as to the relation of Christianity to Hinduism is as follows: - “The crown of Hinduism is to be found in Jesus Christ our Lord, who fulfils, as India is coming to see clearly every day, the Law and the prophets of Hinduism, no less than the Mosaic Law and the Hebrew prophets. India as a whole would see and the Catholic Church gladly admit what now is perceived by scattered individuals of whom it may be said, ‘This one and that one was born of her’ - the fact that Hinduism is a tutor that leads people to Christ.” This is an extreme view and the Christian Church cannot take such an attitude without incurring great danger. To place the Hindu scriptures on an equal level with the Law and the prophets of the Old Testament, which was our Lord’s Bible, is wholly unwarranted. The Old Testament is in a unique sense the tutor that leads, people to Christ. This approach too is not wholly acceptable.

Indeed, we cannot indicate a ready-made way of approach. The Church has already borrowed words like ‘avatar’, ‘bhakti’, ‘dhyana’ etc., to convey Christian truth. There is a possibility of a contact, as Godfrey E. Philips argues in his book, ‘The Gospel in the World’ (p. 316 ff.) where he takes the ideas of ‘One reality’, ‘avatar’, ‘bhakti’ etc. and dwells on the desirability of Christianising and transforming them to convey the Christian message. However, to fit Christ into any system or category is impossible. He is unique, and the Church should not be satisfied until the Hindus to whom the Gospel is presented accept Him as God’s only incarnate Son. To work out a convincing point of approach, God must raise up an Indian Christian who is a first-rate theologian and also a saint. Until then the problem will remain unsolved.

The Epistle of Pilgrimage

THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS AND RESTATEMENT

By the Editor.

We are not, claiming that in Hebrews we find a conscious missionary apologetic. The question whether the epistle was really addressed to Jewish Christians is much disputed, but no one has argued that it is addressed to non-Christians. Yet in the thought of the epistle there is something relevant for those who are occupied with the question of a Christian approach to Hinduism. That ‘something’ is perhaps brought out in a sentence of the late Canon O.C. Quick regarding Hebrews. “The author imperfectly reconciles a Hebraic or Pauline philosophy of history with a Platonism for which history is irrelevant.”¹ Let us leave aside for a moment the nature of the two points of view, the interesting thing in the first place is that there should be some attempt to reconcile two points of view.² We need to realise how early the Church in its statement of the Gospel became involved in restatement, especially in terms of. Greek thought. An Indian who holds that Western Christianity is unduly Jewish may be surprised at the remark of Father Lev Gillet: - “A re-thinking of Christology in Jewish terms i.e., not only in Hebrew words, but in Hebrew categories of thought, constitutes the first task of the Christian who wishes to interpret his own belief to the Jews.”³ And the first elements of Greek influence can be discerned long before the Nicene period.

One value of considering an epistle like Hebrews from this point of view is that we realise that any process of restatement in those, early days was not a matter of personal whim or fancy, there was no intellectual trifling. It was a matter of urgency. The restatement was carried out as it were under pressure. So the writer of Hebrews may be seeking to win back waverers, or he may be seeking to awaken Christians to a fuller sense of what is implied in their religion. In either case the sternness of his language shows how seriously he viewed his task. His attitude is what one school of thought today would call ‘existential’ born of crisis, not of a calm leisurely attempt to appraise relative values. And in passing we may note one point. The writer of Hebrews under a sense of urgency in order to confirm and strengthen his brethren makes use of terms and arguments which did not belong purely to the Jewish or the Christian world. But he is using those terms among fellow Christians and is not in the first place addressing them to the outer world. And it may well be that the soundest restatement and rethinking will be done in coming days within the Church in India in order firstly to strengthen and confirm professing Christians in their faith.

Where there is talk of rethinking or restating so often the word ‘culture’ is introduced, and often the issue is thereby confused. For ‘culture’ in its fullest sense is the flowering of a particular religious impulse. And once those flowers or fruits are plucked from their stem they lose their vitality, But language if not literature is meant for purpose of exchange, and it is in its language that a culture is most accessible. Its words and phrases are transferable, though the process has its dangers. Otto, in his ‘India’s Religion of Grace’, points out that Pandita Ramabai after her conversion to Christianity attempted to produce a translation of the Bible of her own, studiously avoiding a vocabulary of Indian religious terms. But in truth such an attempt can hardly succeed. Spontaneous restatement springs from the desire to understand and be understood, and that means that we must needs use one another’s terms. Now, as regards the writer of Hebrews, quite apart from any interest which he himself might have in Greek thought, by his very use of the Septuagint he was involved in a thought process in which Jewish and Platonic elements were intermingled. The Septuagint (LXX) was the Alexandrian Greek translation of the Old Testament. The production of the LXX not only crystallised the thought process to which we have-just referred, but also was itself an incentive to Jewish proselytising movements and to the rethinking of Judaism in Greek Platonic terms. Of the terms used in the Septuagint we may say that they are ‘Jewish with a difference.’ Here as regards the author’s use of the LXX we need only say that he is obviously restrained in his use of allegory - the device adopted by Alexandrian writers to soften Jewish anthropomorphisms and to make them more acceptable to an outlook which was philosophical rather than historical.

As regards our author indeed we may say that whilst he is wholeheartedly on the side of the historical he is prepared to recognise the philosophical point of view. Only he never lets it master him. It is this sympathy which gives us, our point of contact. We have to present the gospel in a land than which there has been none more philosophically minded. And by the philosophical attitude we mean especially the dealing in ‘universals’. Beneath the particular event is sought a substratum which shall be of universal interest and validity. Local entanglements of time and space must be minimised or abolished. It follows then that to present to such an outlook a historical revelation is to present something which is ipso facto suspect. “Can any good come out of Nazareth?” there is perhaps something of the philosopher in Nathaniel. He is perhaps not just concerned with the low prestige of Nazareth but with the whole ‘scandal’ of the local and particular. And again it is doubtless because the writer of Hebrews is aware of such sensitiveness that he especially deals with the problem of Christ’s humiliation.

Along with this consideration and bound up with it is another which commends the Epistle to the Hebrews to our notice. The author insists upon the continuity of the relation from the Old Testament to Christianity and yet at the same time asserts that Judaism is but the shadow of the reality. He has something to say on the problem of the Old Testament which is such a vital one in the presentation of Christianity to Hindus,

First let us note his emphasis on continuity. The great opening words are as it were a text for the whole epistle. God having of old times spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son. Progressive revelation; and throughout the epistle there is a philosophy of what we may call ‘triumph through disappointment and loss’, this being especially worked out in the eleventh chapter. But we shall return to this later. We next note the writer’s emphasis on the Living God … not on the Absolute or the idea of God.” … falling away from the living God,“.”for the word of God is living …“,”it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”, “for our God is a consuming fire.” The general impression may be one of awe and fear, but the writer does not shrink from ascribing attributes to God. (And although it is true that there is no use of the word ‘love’ with regard to God in this epistle, yet it is well to remember that true love is indeed ‘a consuming fire’.)

Even if God is not spoken of as a God of love, how much indeed is implied in the fact of God’s covenant with man! In the thought of God’s bargaining with man there is something especially repugnant to the philosophical temperament. I remember how once … outside India … a young Jain friend took me to task for speaking of God’s promises. “If God is himself truth; is it not blasphemous to suggest that he needs to make a promise?” Yet despite various objections to the anthropomorphism of the covenant idea, the fact remains that the Jews came to a knowledge of the One living God along with a conviction of being a special people to whom promises had been made. It was a simultaneous knowledge of God and of self which philosophy with all its greatness could not have evoked. A sense of personality and a sense of history both spring from this revelation, and this fact has recently been well stated by a writer, Thomas Mann⁴, who is not in the first place a religious writer. He is speaking of Jacob’s meditations as he is about to go down into Egypt to meet Joseph once more, and he adds this comment: - “The claim of the human ego to central importance was the precondition for the discovery of God; and only together, with the consequence of the utter destruction of a humanity which does not take itself seriously can both discoveries be lost sight of again.”

The old covenant, was important to the author of Hebrews. Even more so was the new covenant, as spoken of by Jeremiah, which is twice quoted in the epistle. “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt; For they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and on their hearts also will I write them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more,” No wonder our author repeats these words for there can be no greater description of spontaneity in religion. And once again we may remark that the tenderness which is lacking in the description of the living God is abundantly manifest here. The special point for the writer of Hebrews in contrasting the two covenants is the inwardness of the second, the thought of laws written on the heart. So he makes his contrast between the two worlds, the spiritual world and the world of phenomena and shadows.

(To be continued)

Benares Institute of Hinduism

(Oct 2nd to Oct. 26th, 1946)

A Brief Report.

The eighth session of the Institute was held for four weeks - during the above-mentioned dates on the premises of Ramkatora. The institute started and ended punctually according to previous announcements. Regular and good work was done. Unfortunately, for certain unforeseen causes the number of students this year, was smaller than we have had previously. Seven regular students have stayed continuously. There were several visitors for short periods. There was one missionary and one woman evangelist. The students came from North India covering Bengal, U.P., C.P. and Bombay. Correspondence has revealed that in some cases the report of the closing of the Benares United City Mission was a discouragement and produced doubts whether the session would be held. In other cases in which registration had been made fears of disturbances and travel difficulties prevented them from coming. Weather and health were excellent. The students represented various church affiliations such as the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon, the Assembly of God, Methodist, and Syrian, It was an encouragement to have a batch of four intelligent students from Leonard Theological College, Jabalpur and a few from Serampore College in their private capacity.

It was a matter of regret that, the South Indian teacher of Veer Saivism failed to come. So it was between Rev. A.C. Chakravarty and myself that the work had to be carried on. But there was no lack of material to teach. The time was too short even to touch all the vital elements in Hinduism. Our aim has always been in these institutions to create enough interest in the students so that they may themselves continue their studies. Some of the non-Christian scholars of Benares took their part as usual. The names of Bhikku Jagadish Kashyap M.A. of the Mahabodhi Society, Sarnath (Buddhist) and Swami Adidevananda (Ramkrishna Mission) should be particularly mentioned as deserving our special thanks. Rev. A.C. Chakravarty according to notification dealt with Bhakti, its nature and characteristics. Mr. Das treated subjects like the Background of Hinduism, gods and goddesses, strength of Hinduism, Ashram life and ideal, uniqueness of Christianity etc. The proper Christian approach to Hinduism in each case was fully discussed.

The morning devotions were mostly led by the Convener. Passages from Scriptures bearing on, the relation of Christianity to other faiths and cultures formed subjects for meditation. Excursions were undertaken to all important cultural, religious and educational centres. As on previous occasions this time also our experiences and life were mutually enriched by new contacts, and it is hoped that under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit the knowledge thus gained may be fruitful. Before I finish I should like to add one word for the Christian public that it is expected, whatever changes might happen, that this study of Hinduism in Benares will continue.

R.C. DAS, (Convener)

Edited and published by Rev. J.S. Moon, Bankura

Printed by The Oriental Art Press, 1 Newul Rishere Road (Hazratgani), Lucknow