Christianity as Bhakti Marga

In what sense was there a preparation for the coming of Christ? How were the chosen people disciplined to recognize and to proclaim the incarnate God when He appeared among them? According to the passage at the head of this chapter, even Moses has written of Him: ‘Think not that I wili accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, on whom ye have set your hope. For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?’ Biblical scholarship used to maintain that the very first books of the Bible contain definite promises of the coming of Christ. For instance, the third chapter of Genesis contains the words ‘I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between ~ thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.’* Biblical scholarship used also to maintain that a great deal of the history that is recorded in the Bible is definitely symbolical of the advent and work of Christ. The feast of the Passover in which the Paschal lamb was slain and offered was a continuous and yearly prophecy of the sacrifice on Calvary. The lifting up ofthe serpent in the wilderness symbolized the lifting up of Christ 6n_ the cross.* Moéern scholarship questions these and similar interpretations of definite events, It is being debated at the present day whether these events and ceremonies were purposely instituted in order to foretell the sacrifice of Christ or whether the devout piety of a later generation has read new meanings into ancient history. Whatever may be their particular significance the point to note is that through ceremony and ritual, through prophetic teaching and priestly exhortation, the children of Israel were led slowly and by degrees to accept those truths and doctrines which prepared the way for the coming of Christ and found their highest fulfilment and consummation in Him. By degrees they were taught that there is only one God and that He is high and pure and exalted and demands righteous service from his worshippers. This doctrine provided a fitting environment for the advent of the incarnate Christ. If anywhere people were at all ready to recognize in Jesus an expression of the Divine, it was on this Jewish soil which had been so carefully prepared for centuries. If this was not the object of the Mosaic dispensation we cannot understand the severity of Jesus’ rebuke. The words attributed to Moses do not warrant it. But the Mosaic 1 Numbers xxi, 8, 9.

discipline had imposed on His contemzporaries a special obligation to recognize Him and He therefore says:

Think not that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, on whom ye

have set your hope.’ Jesus judges them by the criterion which they themselves accept and points out that Moses Cas will blame them for not coming to Him.

If the interpretation here offered is correct, namely, that it is not any particular saying or action attributed to Moses which points to Christ but rather the spirit developed by his teachings and laws, then there is a lesson of profound significance for us in India. In India also there have been prophets and teachers who have prepared the way for Christ, not in the sense that anything they have written refers prophetically to any particular word or deed of His, but in the sense that they have trained the people in noble ways of living and taught them by word and example receptiveness to the ministry of Jesus. The Rsis, Bhaktas and Yogins of India have striven hard to make the people respond to the summons of Christ when it is uttered. It may. be asked in what sense the people of India have been prepared for the coming of Christ.. There are many utterances of the seers of India which dwell upon the necessity for a teacher to lead and guide us. They point out that real progress in religion is possible only with the help of a spiritual teacher which is far more effective than reading. Though these utterances refer only to human teachers, their insistence on the necessity of personal guidance finds its highest fulfilment in the supreme religious teacher, Jesus Christ. He Himself comes to us with a unique authority claiming to unfold the highest truths concerning God whom no man has seen but with whom He Himself has been intimate. The whole trend of this book. is intended to point out the several other directions in which the Hindu soul has been trained to come to Christ. We have recognized that the very longing in our souls for God is His own work. This truth has found remarkable expression in some ot the hymns quoted above * though such passages are not as common as one could have wished. We have next been led to the conviction that there is nothing in the world, not wealth, nor prosperity, nor even the fruits of the spiritual life which are of such paramount importance as the Lord himself. Union with Him stands far above all the gifts which men desire. In order to attain this union we have to come to Him offering to Him with utmost love all that we can call ours, body, mind and soul. This devotion is a continual attitude of love. The following of God is not an irksome task but a great joy. There is no higher delight in the world than to seek after and to experience the Eternal every moment of our lives. In comparison with this joy all the pleasures of the world are as nothing. In these and in many other ways the Indian soul has been prepared by the doctrine of Bhakti to recognize the truth and supreme grandeur of the message of Jesus. An Indian Bhakta cannot but recognize in Jesus a_ perfect expression of Bhakti. The deep love of Jesus for the 1 See p. 50.

Father, the completeness with which His consciousness of the Father controlled all His thought and life, the zeal with which He carried out the will of the Father and the eagerness with which He sacrificéd all that men consider dear for the love which He bore His Father—all these combined to make Him a supreme Bhakta carrying to its highest expression the ideal of Bhakti which has been taking shape also in our country slowly and gradually through the centuries.

There are many things in the teachings of the Indian seers which have to be thrown away just as there are many things about Moses which have to be thrown away. We know from this and the other Gospels that Jesus was ready to eliminate from the ancient Scriptures what was undesirable though He was second to none in recognizing their supreme importance as a whole. ‘Jesus therefore said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you. It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread out of heaven. ’* ‘The Fourth Evangelist declares: ‘The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. ’?

The modern Christian in India has to take up a similar attitude. There are elements in the ancient ‘Scriptures of India which have to be fearlessly given up. But there are also many doctrines and ideals in them which have to be as zealously assimilated and carried on to their natural culmination in Christ. [f Jesus blamed His contemporaries for not listening to the voice of Moses, with equal power and vehemence will He condemn us for not listening to Ramanuja, Manikkavacakar, Tukaram, Kabir and Chaitanya who: -have left behind them teaching of such undying value, ‘pointing the way to Christ.

This is not to say that the scriptures of India will.be to the Christian in, India what the Old Testament now is. To the Jew the Old Testament contains the _ entire revelation of God to mankind. The Christian does not accept that position. He feels that the Old Testament is only the background for the New. But this background forms such an integral part of the ‘picture that it cannot be separated from it in any way..To understand the New Testament aright it is therefore necessary to understand the Old Testament as well. There are parts of the Old Testament which may have to be discarded, but the entire Old Testament has a profound significance as leading up to, and as preparing the way for, the New. ‘The attitude of the Indian Christian to the scriptures of India would be very different. He will learn fromthem. Fresh light will be thrown by them on different parts of the Bible. New emphasis on different truths of the Christian religion may be suggested by them. But they will not take the place of the Old. Testament. Ina word, they will supplement, not supplant, the Old Testament.

This passage certainly implies a strong criticism of ‘the Jewish devotion to the Scriptures. The Jews were attached to their ancient and sacred writings with an almost fanatic zeal and spent infinite skill and care in interpreting and applying them to the needs of their daily life. Jesus condemns a blind faith in them. He realizes their value; He knows, according to the Evangelist, that the Scripture cannot be broken; and yet He has no sympathy with a fanatic devotion to it, There have been Hindu Bhaktas who have likewise boldly revolted. against any fanatic zeal for the scriptures of India. Appar asks vehemently:

“What though you teach scripture and offer sciences?

What though you study ethics day after day?

What’ though you read and understand the six services?

These avail nought except to those who think on God.’?

‘If you have not drunk of the nectar of that One Love, what boots it though you should purge yourself of all stains?

The Kazi is searching the words of the Koran, and instructing others: but if his heart be not steeped in that love, what does it avail, though he be a teacher of men?

The Yogi dyes his garments with red: but if he knows naught of that colour of love, what does

_ it avail though his garments be tinted? *

- Chaitanya quoted with approval this passage from the Haribhaktivilasa which is put into the mouth of Krsna:

‘One cannot become my disciple merely by being a reader of the Védas. Even aCandala is loved by me if he only has faith. I bestow love on my devotee and accept his love.’ *

The Scriptures have an important function in that they prepare the heart to love God wholly. But to suppose that they form an irrevocable standard of morals and religion which holds true for aJl time and for ° all men whatever might happen is to go too far. The letter kills but the spirit quickens. It is then the spirit of the Scriptures which we should seek with all eagerness to understand and practice and not the letter. To follow the letter of the Scriptures at any cost is to go into slavery.

This Gospel speaks emphatically of the guidance of the Spirit who shall guide us into all truth. There are occasions when we are tempted to live on the past. In the difficult task of interpreting the historic revelation we have to depend on the help which the Holy Spirit alone can give us. What is meant by saying, ‘I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things so ever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come’?* What are these ‘many things’? Are they merely interpreta- tions of what is already recorded in the historical revelation? Or are they the logical consequences of truths already set down in revelation but not worked out fully? Or are they absolutely new truths not found at all in the Scriptures? If they are absolutely new truths, what reason have we to suppose that they may not supersede some of those which have already been embodied in the Scriptures? These words of Jesus give to our conception of revelation a spaciousness like the immeasurable expanse of the open sky, and our spiritual horizon gains. illimitable breadth. As we follow this course of thought, the heavens seem to move along with us and we are impressed by their vastness. Our feet must be firmly planted on a historical revelation as on solid earth, but our eyes must wander over the boundless spaces here opened to us. We must not be limited by the past, but inspired and guided by it to realms of infinite grandeur. The Holy Spirit, with whom we may directly commune, not only interprets.the ancient Scriptures but leads us to unexplored realms of thouxht, enabling us to deal with new problems in new ways.and opening up vistas of endless beauty.