Christianity as Bhakti Marga

‘The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things unto his hand.’ Here we find another aspect of the teaching of the Fourth Gospel. There are other passages which teach that Christ has power and authority over everything. ‘The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing; for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner. -For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and greater works than these will he shew him, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom he will: For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgement to the Son; that all may honour the Son even as they honour the Father.’* This insistence on the power of Christ calls for depth and seriousness in our thought about Him. The sphere of Christ’s-authority is not limited. Our spheres of influence are exceedingly narrow. A man of supreme intellectual gifts often fails in the practical problems of politics and social life. Another who has a genius for dealing with practical problems has nothing to contribute to the deeper life of the spirit. In fact, the limited character of human achievement - constantly impresses us and fills us with deep humility. When we believe that Christ has authority over everything, that all human history is shaped by Him, that the very elements do His bidding, we cannot but regard

Him with a deep sense of awe. It will be remembered how when Christ was travelling on the Lake of Galilee a storm burst and the boat was tossed to and fro and the disciples were filled with anxiety. But when He woke He commanded the waters and they obeyed His word and there was peace. So the disciples ‘feared exceedingly, and said one to another, Who then is this, that even the’ wind and the sea obey him?’! This Synoptic incident is told with a slight but significant variation in the Fourth Gospel.” Jesus comes walking on the sea and gets into the boat and the boat reaches the shore straightway, thus implying that the fury of the storm has abated. Does this mean that the Fourth Evangelist thinks that the mere presence of Christ is enough and that it is not necessary for Him even to speak the word of command?

There is an outstanding chapter in the Bhagavad Gita which seeks to express in its own way the tremendous truth that God comprehends everything. After listening to a good deal of Krsna’s teaching, Arjuna wanted to behold his Lord in his universal form, in the form in which he comprehended everything. Krsna, we are told, revealed his universal form. A majestic figure stood before Arjuna blazing with light as of a thousand suns. He had many mouths, hands and breasts. All the universe was found in his tremendous body. Men rushed into him as rivers rush impetuously into the sea and are lost, and as moths hover about a burning flame and are killed. The immediate purpose of this vision was to teach Arjuna that, whether he killed his relations or no, they would all in any case go into the Lord. But the vision has a deeper import just as the whole Gita has a wider message than that which it gave to Arjuna. This vision is meant to teach us that God comprehends everything. All life is derived from Him, exists in Him. In order to impress this great truth vividly before the eyes, it is described in a physical form. This particular form may or may not appeal to us, but we realize that it conveys the teaching that God comprehends everything.

‘He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life, but he that obeyeth not the Son, shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him.’ It is now possible for us to follow the course of thought which has led John to this ultimate conclusion. We have seen already that according to him there is an unchanging moral order in the world in which man’s own choice brings about life and death. God does not arbitrarily give life to one man and impose death on another, but He lovingly places before men the alternatives which lead to life and death, and using their individual judgement they choose either the one or the other. It is also evident that in his own personal life John had realized that Jesus was the source of life. That thought is implicit in the Gospel and in the Epistles of John, From these two facts, the conclusion which John draws is reasonable. John does not teach us that salvation depends on a merely intellectual belief. By believing in the Son it is not meant that we have to accept with our minds and to confess with our lips some creed about

Him, but it is meant rather that we should relate our entire personality to Him. We must entrust all that we have into His keeping. His ideal should be the norm to which our life should approximate and _ his outlook upon the world must be ours. This constant contact with Christ is life but its absence is death. We do not need to imagine that John speaks of a stern God who metes out penalties with unbending Tigour. His mind is too fully saturated with the doctrine of love ‘to believe in such 2n almighty potentate who exercises His authority in relentless fashion. - John’s doctrine of love leads him to speak of a God who controls and directs the manifold forces of men in a spirit of love.

Now we may come back to the interpretation of John’s utterance, ‘ Perfect love casteth out fear.’ Our first idea is that if God is a holy being knowing everything, comprehending everything, ruling over everything, at least those who do not accept Him may be filled with fear, but not those who do. We may think that God has two aspects, one an aspect of love seen and appreciated by His bhaktas, and another an aspect of terror for unbelievers. This idea is found in the legend in the Bhagavata-Purana where Visnu appears to Prahlada, his faithful devotee, with great love, and to Prahlada’s father, an unbeliever, in a terrible form.’ But John teaches that even those who accept Him must revere Him as holy and exalted. We know that Jesus Himself speaks of Him as ‘holy Father.’* The word

‘holy’ has a long and interesting history among the Hebrews.' At first it-meant only separate, aloof but. afterwards pure, righteous, and the phrase ‘ holy Father’ combined both meanings for one who stood in the direct line of Jewish seers. If we can recall to our. memory the attitude which Jesus took to His Father all along, we shall see with what deep reverence and great humility He always regarded Him.’ Unique as Jesus was in His relation to the Father He was ever most humbly conscious of the exalted character of His. Father.

The fear which is cast out by perfect love is not this reverent awe but slavish dread. A slave fears or even dreads his master. Through want of understanding or of ability or through forgetfulness he may incur punishment at any moment. But we learn that our relationship with God is not that of servant to master but of friend to friend,* where love is hallowed by awe. Only thus can we effectively realize His presence:

It is particularly necessary in India to emphasize the element of awe in religion. A comparison of the Fourth Gospel with Hindu Bhakti writings makes this need quite clear. Hindu Bhaktas emphasize the emotion of love so much that they lose sight of the sterner qualities of God. -In their-anxiety to love and be loved they have approached God with a familiarity degenerating into carelessness. Love, that way. of approach which has proved so facinating to the Bhakta, easily lends itself to such development. In some indefinable way, love melts down all barriers, and there seems to be the utmost familiarity between God and the devotee. From fondness the Hindu Bhaktas often play with God and rebuke Him and make fun of Him. Where many instances could be given, one must suffice.

“If we want to quarrel, let us quarrel with God and fix our thoughts on Him. ‘Thus the best of men have told us.

“Why should we hide ourselves from God? If he will not meet us, he is welcome not to meet us.

‘Let him enjoy his love of place in Vaikuntha. He is welcome to keep us moving from land to land.

‘If God has filled His heart with pride, there let Him dwell by Himself.

“As long as we grasp his nature in our minds, we shall live happily here; we shall sing joyfully songs about Govinda.

‘Tuka says: This is God’s way of letting things astray; see we rock ourselves to and fro with joy.’ *

No ancient Hebrew saint would have written such lines. Far be it from us to decry the enthusiasm or the love which Tukaram and the other Bhaktas bore for God. But it is necessary to make it clear that the tendency to forget the sublime aspects of God results in such

The Hindu tendency to neglect the more awful side of God’s character arises often, as has already been said, from the tenderness of theirlove. There are also other reasons. The doctrine of love teaches that God comes into our hearts; such a feeling, borne out by experience, jS apt to emphasize the nearness of God rather than His aloofness and greatness and majesty. An indwelling God, a God who is ready to live in the hearts of men, is more apt to be considered as easily accessible rather than as exalted and awful. There are passages in Hindu literature which emphasize His exalted character, but the general tendency is to speak more often and to realize more clearly the nature of God as a loving Being who lives in the hearts of His servants. Again, the desire to see God in everything, admirable as such a desire is, leads to the attempt to place the material and the spiritual on the same level. If God is all, He is the rock and the river, the tree and the bird as much as He is the eternal Spirit. God not merely dwells in the heart of man but sustains the whole universe; indeed some thinkers go to the extent of saying that He zs the whole universe. Where it is possible to see God everywhere, the temptation is certainly to forget His more exalted character. Once again, the Hindu tendency to ignore sin may explain this attitude towards God. There are indeed passages confessing with poignant shame the sins which have been committed.

“My race is evil, and my nature bad; evil is my outer self as well.

Sin alone have [| in abundance; my very attempt to appear good is evil.

I am altogether bad; I am not wise or friendly with good people.

I am neither a beast nor am I without higher qualities: midway I stand.

But I can talk a great deal about things that should be hated.

Evil is my dwelling place, for I never give but only beg.

Miserable man that I am, why was I ever born?’?

Yet'the tendency to feel the sting and the bitterness of the world and of its fleeting character is stronger... Because of this difference in emphasis, the feeling of unworthiness to hold a relationship with the eternal Spirit does not find as strong and as emphatic an utterance as it does in Hebrew literature. And where there is no such personal feeling of unworthiness making the soul sink in the dust as a mark of its penitence, there is not the saine emphasis on the holiness and purity and exalted character of God.

We have already referred in this chapter to the vision of Krsna in the Gia. This striking vision setting forth impressively an exalted idea of God has given a different outlook to the entire Gita. This vision is the climax of the thought of the Gita. Perhaps it is this which has given, along with other characteristic features, an overwhelming importance to the Gita in all Hindu Bhakti literature. Like a blazing light in the centre, it sheds its illumination both over the chapters which precede and over those which follow. It is important to note that the immediate result of the vision is a prayer for forgiveness.

‘Thou hast been regarded by me as friend and addressed impertinently O Krsna! O Yadava! O friend!

Without knowing this’ thy greatness, I have done so through carelessness or love.

And while playing, lying, sitting, or eating alone, or in company, Oh firm one! thou might have been disregarded in fun.

I crave forgiveness of thee who art immeasurable,

Father art thou of the world, mobile or immobile, the adorable one and venerable preceptor too.

In the three world there is none to equal Thee.

How then could there be anyone surpassing Thee > O Thou of matchless glory!°”

This sense of awe awakened for a moment by the vision of the universal form is not, however, the true awe that follows a realization of man’s own littleness before the over-powering majesty of God’s character, it seems to be only the shrinking from a realization of the flaming abyss of Time, devouring all things; such shrinking is terrific but not moral. The editors of the Mahabharata who give us the story are not ashamed to represent Krsna on several subsequent occasions as an adept in plausible arguments and treacherous devices.

The result of realizing the exalted character of God is always different. It fills us continually with penitence and leads us to the Divine in a mood of shame and sorrow. We continue to love Him but our love is subdued and humbled by a deep feeling of our own unworthiness. The glorious and majestic God is indeed willing to come into our hearts but in order that this tremendous experience may become possible, it is necessary for us to cleanse our hearts with the utmost diligence so that He may enter in with all His majesty and glory.