Christianity as Bhakti Marga

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me If ye had known mé, ye would have known my Father also: trom henceforth ye known him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sutticeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father: how sayest thou, Shew us the Father? Beltevest thou not that Iam in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you I speak not trom myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unio the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Tf ye shall ask me anything in my name, that will Ido. If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you tor ever, even the Spirtt of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him, for he abideth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you. Yet a litile while,

and the world beholdeth me no more; but ye behold me: because I live, ye shall live also. In that day ye shall know that [am in my Father, and ye in me, and lin you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manttest myself unto him. Judas (not Iscariot) saith unto him, Lord, what is come to pass that thou will manttest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John xiv. 6-23.

If Bhakti is the true pathway to God what should be our estimate of Jhana, regarded by many in India as the way of approaching God? Some have sincerely felt that the most effective means of reaching God is Bhakti but others have just as strongly been convinced that it is Jnana, meaning by Jhana a clear understanding of reality. The relation between Bhakti and Jhana has been variously stated by various Bhaktas. In his Tiruvacakam, Manikkavacakar has no hesitation in saying that Siva’s gracious dealings with him have in no way been conditioned by his having insight.

‘Wise One! Ambrosia! Didst thou consider thy servile dog wise when thou mad’st me thine? Thou didst see my ignorance when thou mad’st me thine that day. Was I wise or not wise? Do thou tell me, Olord |" *

Appar states his own position frankly: ‘Some sages worship thee with Jhana. I worship thee not with Jnana. I see others worship thee with Jnana. I too shall worship thee with Jhana.’*

These words seem to recall an inner struggle in the mind of the poet.

The problem of Jhana and its place in religious life is historically weighty as well as vital in practice. How can we most effectively experience God, by love or by knowledge? Is the heart or the head the seat of religion? If our choice rests on love, shall we neglect knowledge or shall we keep it in a lower place? The meaning and value of Jnana is of significance to all men who seek God, particularly to those who, as in India, have been dealing with this problem for centuries.

“To know’ is a characteristic Johannine expression. It will be observed that it occurs often in the passage which forms the basis of this study. If we know Jesus we know the Father. The world does not know the Spirit of truth. In that day they shall know that He is in His Father and they in Him and He in them. The classic saying about the importance of knowledge however occurs in the seventeenth chapter. ‘This is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and Him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.’* In this great saying is concentrated all John’s emphasis upon the importance of knowledge. Even if no other passage existed, this forceful utterance would convince us how much weight the Gospel attaches to knowledge. It is necessary to understand what this knowledge is and how it is attained.

There might well have been certain external circumstances which led John to lay stress on knowledge. In his day there were Mystery religions on the one hand and Gnostic systems of thought on the other which assigned to it a place of supreme importance. This is not to say that contemporary religion supplied the only reason for John’s attitude. He has spoken so fully and frequently of knowledge because of elements in his own religious experience which call for such emphasis. But he might well have used some of the thought-forms of his time to express these inner facts of his personal life. Nor does he attach to knowledge the same content as did the Mystery religions and the Gnostic systems. The Mystery cults range through the whole gamut of human experience. In some the secret knowledge given to the initiate seems to have been of an elementary character merely explaining the nature of the rites or the details of the myth lying behind the rites. These are the peculiar property of the worshippers of the cult and are not revealed by them to outsiders. In some, as we have already seen,* crude rites such as the eating of flesh were considered the means of union with the God, this union securing knowledge. In the higher stages such as. those recorded by Apuleius, the worshipper realizes the deity through a vision. By all these means knowledge was sought. And this sammum bonum of the religious life was given from heaven and appropriated by man not through intellectual processes but by emotional experiences. Myths, rites, sacraments and visions tnade their primary appeal to the emotional nature of man. ‘The Gnostics differed widely among themselves and it is extremely difficult to sum up their diverse beliefs and practices in any general statement. The soul on its way to the heavenly realm must know the rites and the passwords. Redemption is a gift of divine activity passed on by a saviour but man appropriates that saving activity through his knowledge of how the upward journey might be accomplished. The primary concern of knowledge is the redemption of the individual soul and the light by which that redemption is completed is the knowledge given from above to man. The idea otf knowledge held among Gnostics is fundamentally the same as that held in the Mystery religions though it is less emotional in its processes and more magical in its content than in them.’

In John’s day—as in ours—there were those who gave pre-eminence to knowledge. It is clear even to one who reads the Gospel for the first time, that he realized the importance of knowledge in religious experience. It comes directly from God. Because God loves us and we love Him He reveals Himself. ‘He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall

1 Mary Redington Ely, Knowledge of God in Johannine Thought, New York, 1925; pp. 78=100.

be loved of my father, and I will love him, and will thanifest myself unto him.’ Again, ‘ No longer do I call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends: for all things that I heard from my father I have made known unto you.’* Out of the fulness of His love, He lays open to us the depths of His being and helps us in our arduous search for Him. The Father in his dealings. with the Son follows the same principle. He reveals Himself fully to the Son, because of the love which He bears to the Son. ‘ For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth Him all things that himself doeth.’

By knowledge is not meant an understanding of the whole field of reality but the intimate knowledge of God’s person. The profound need in human life is union between man and God. For this man needs to understand God; he does not need to understand the entire world nor the whole range of existence. In understanding God, he also comes to understand in a measure the meaning of life. If a teacher teaches mathematics in an impersonal way his pupils are grateful to him for his. instruction and if he is a man of charm they may even feel drawn to him by his personality. No teacher can wholly avoid being read and understood by his students however aloof he may be and yet what a different man that teacher is, say, to his own wife to whom he reveals himself. His wife understands him and is able to enter into intimate sympathy with him as others cannot. When there is readiness to lay bare the ultimate springs of life, the knowledge that is possible has wonderful clearness and richness. ‘To compare great things with small, our knowledge of God is this kind of personal, intimate knowledge that is given to us by God Himself.

John and the Hindu Bhaktas are at one in their conviction that love is the supreme revealer. Men want to know God and in their anxiety try different methods. But all these are of no avail. God, however, in the fulness of His love unveils Himself before His loving children and reveals to them the wonder and the depth of His personality.

The idea that God’s love is the supreme revealer is frequently found in Hindu Bhakti literature.

“This Supreme Soul cannot be attained by the teaching of others, nor by knowledge nor by much study. Only he who is elected by this One can attain Him. Only to him does He manifest His own form.’?

A remarkable passage occurs in 7ivuvacakam:

‘From them who toiled with mystic scrolls didst hide Thyself!

From those who in their homes practised virtue, Thou didst hide Thyself!

From those who, in union with ‘Thee, fixed their contemplative soul

With painful effort; Thou didst hide Thyself!

From those who boasted to see Thee by some rare device,

By that same device, there,—didst Thou hide

Benign, regarding all, receiving with abundant grace,

As male appearing Thou dost change to neutral form,

And in a bright-browed female form dost hide Thyself far off.

Bidding the senses five depart,—passing over every trackless hill

With frames scarce living, spurning all delights,

Ascetic saints in contemplation dwell;—in their souls Thou fitly hid’st Thyself!

Seeming one thing, then not, eluding knowledge, Thou dost hide Thyself!

When e’en of old I strove to find Thee, when to-day I strive,

Thou hid’st Thyself, Deceiver! But we've found Thee now! ’?

Behind these words we seem to hear much of the lament and tragic cry of India’s fervent devotees, a cry not without echoes from other parts of the world. They have pored over the Scriptures; they have lived pious and devout lives in the sanctity of the home; they have concentrated their minds and practised meditation; they have endured austerities, but all this has been of no avail. God has hidden Himself from them. But He manifests Himself now to the men who follow the path of love, the path of Bhakti. Not

Vedic lore, not well-ordered meditation, not asceticism, but love unveils the Divine in all its beauty and wonder.

Is the knowledge that is given to us appropriated by our intellect, by our will, or by our emotion? In approaching this question we must remember that John did not analyze the mind into thought, feeling and will as modern psychology does. But that in a general way he understood the diverse elements in man’s thinking and that he was more or less aware of the fundamental distinction between the different activities of the mind may well be assumed.

John was no believer in ecstasy but he was full of the warmth of personal love. His teaching that action is the essential complement of love gives strength and stability to this emotion. As he takes love out ot the realm of emotion and links it with action, so also he takes knowledge out of the realm of speculation and links it with action. Knowledge with John is not speculation but rather the result of the will and the intellect working together. Everyday experience proves how different knowledge is when it is tested in action. The knowledge that comes from constant doing is indeed different from the knowledge which comes in a moment of intense feeling. Our passage declares: ‘He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him.’ Elsewhere we read still more clearly: ‘For every one that doeth ill hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved. But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God.’

A characteristic word in John’s writings is ‘ truth.’ The teaching about truth is given in different ways, The reference is now to the believer doing or knowing the truth, now to Christ who is the truth and now to the Comforter whom He will send and who is also the Spirit of truth. In the passage at the head of this chapter occurs the great utterance of Jesus, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one cometh unto the Father but by me.’ Again, ‘I will pray the Father, © and he shall give you the Comforter that he may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you and shall be in you.’ The important point is that Jesus and the Comforter who comes to carry on His work are both true and that the relation which exists between them and the believers should be true.

It is necessary that we should seek to understand clearly the meaning of the Johannine writer when He speaks of God as truth, The meaning we attach to his words will depend upon whether we think that he was more affected by Hebrew or by Hellenic influences, The Hebrew idea of truth is ethical. The Hellenic idea of truth 1s metaphysical. The difference between the ethical and metaphysical interpretations of truth may be brought out by a passage from the Bhagavata-Purana and the comment made on it by a leading Hindu commentator. ‘This passage is given here only as an illustration that is likely to help students of Hindu religious thought. It is not meant that the ethical and the metaphysical interpretations suggested here exactly correspond to the Hebrew and the Hellenic ideas of truth.

Ina hymn of praise given in the Bhagavata-Purana occur the following words:

‘Thou art the efficient truth, the supreme truth, the three-fold truth, the origin of truth and the truth of truth.

Thou hast truth and justice as thy eyes.

Thou hast truth as thy soul.

To thee, our refuge, we surrender ourselves.’

In explaining this passage the commentator suggests two different meanings, one ethical and the other metaphysical. Sometimes truth is interpreted as the resolute capacity of God to save those who have approached Him and as justice to all and at other times as including all that exists, as the origin of the five elements which are true and as being the source of nature, man and time. In other words, according to the one view, God is true because He is faithful to* His devotees, saving them according to His word and dealing out justice to them impartially. Integrity is His distinguishing mark. What He says will come to pass. The promises which He makes will receive their fulfilment in due course. And according to the other view, He is true because the entire universe exists in Him. He is the ultimate ground of all the worlds. From Him even the elements have come forth and in Him all nature and time continue to have their existence.

This passage with its comment is given by way of illustration. Apart from the important question it raises as to what significance should be attached to it in comparison with the words of Jesus, it enables us to see what possible meanings Jesus might have meant by describing Himself as the truth. A natural interpretation might well be that when Christ is spoken of as the truth, it is meant that He is the ultimate reality and that there is a certain soundness and plausibility in our worship of Him. This would be in line with the Hellenic strain in John’s thought. But the emphasis of John throughout his writings is so largely on ethical issues that we are led to interpret the word ‘truth’ in an ethical sense. Early in the Gospel occur the words, ‘The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we behind his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth,’ * _ Almost immediately afterwards, ‘Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’* The close connexion between grace and truth here implied suggests that truth is understood ethically. Grace is primarily a characteristic of God in His dealings with men. When therefore truth is so closely linked with grace, we suppose that truth too is understood in the same way and not as an ultimate attribute. Again we are taught to worship God ‘in spirit and truth.’* From this it is quite obvious that truth cannot be meant in any metaphysical sense. What is given us is an injunction as to the way in which we should worship God. Truth is here an attitude of mind on the part of the worshipper, not a metaphysical attribute. We may then say that Christ is described as the truth in the sense that He is capable of carrying out and fulfilling His word. We have no reason to suppose that truth is used in a philosophical sense with regard to Christ and in an ethical sense with regard to man. While such a distinction in thought is inherently possible, there is no ground for us except that of conjecture to say that John has made it. The more natural theory is that he uses the word throughout in one sense only, though with such slight modifications as the context may require.

Thus understood, the frequent teaching of. John about truth shows that in his idea of knowledge too the ethical element holds an important place. Knowledge is knowledge of truth. Knowledge of truth, in the sense of metaphysical reality, is apt to be largely an intellectual apprehension: knowledge of truth, in the sense of ethical sincerity, is apt to be largely an ethical fact. As John seems to use truth in an ethical sense, the mode of understanding that truth mast also be held to be largely ethical.