Christianity as Bhakti Marga

Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love. [It ye keep my commandments, ye shail abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled. This ts my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his lite for his friends. Ye are my vetinds, if ye do the things which I command you. 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. Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your truit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

In the last chapter we saw that Bhakti is man’s response to the God who works within the soul. We must now try to understand the nature of this response. In what way do we listen to the voice of

God within and relate ourselves to His divine purpose which He reveals by His being in us?

The words from the Fourth Gospel which form the basis of our meditation in this chapter are put into the mouth of Jesus. When these words as well as any others in the Gospel are spoken of as the words of Jesus, it should always be remembered that they are not necessarily His words reported in the exact form in which they were uttered. In this Gospel it is difficult to say how far we get the actual words of Jesus and how far the interpretation of them by the Evangelist. It the picture of Jesus given in the Synoptic Gospels is like a pencil sketch, the picture given in this Gospel is like a painting. In the first three Gospels we see the lineaments of Jesus sketched slightly, though with plenty of accuracy and feeling, but in the Fourth they are filled out and idealized by the Evangelist who did not hesitate to draw much from his own experience.

Jesus, then, as interpreted by the Evangelist, says: “Abide ye in my love.’ It has been well pointed out that ‘abide in’ represents John’s doctrine about ‘the highest and ultimate relation of the believer to God,’ * that relation which we are describing in this book as the mystical relation. The verses immediately before our passage have spoken of the relation between Christ and His devotees in an impressive picture. Those who believe in Christ are not to remain separate from Him, functioning as best as they can, but are to be organically connected with Him. Just as the stem of a vine is intimately related to its branches, its sap: and energy flowing into them, so is He closely connected with us in order that through such organic relation His life and energy may flow into us. Such a picture of intimate relation leads us to ask how we can attain it: just this question is answered in our passage: ‘If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.’ Again and again we are taught in the Johannine writings to keep the commandnuients.* This means that our will should be directed so as to be in entire harmony with the will of God. Though the Evangelist often speaks of keeping the commandments, “we cannot suppose that he was thinking punctiliously of a moral frame of mind which delights in obeying a law here and enforcing a prohibition there. He was too deeply influenced by Jesus and His new era of freedom and love to be in bondage to the strict legalism of ancient Israel. The Jews often supposed that religion consisted in the careful performance of a great number of duties based upon the Ten Commandments, which had been multiplied scores of times. Even in Jesus’ day, religious teachers were engaged in piling on the consciences of men this immense burden of restrictions and prohibitions. But Jesus took it away and brought men under the light yoke of His own teaching. They were no longer to harass their minds with meaningless restrictions and burdensome duties but to accept His law of love: ‘his commandments 1 John xiv. 15, 21, 23, 24. 1 John ii, 3-6; v. 2.

are not grievous.’ What we need is a renewed will which seeks the things from above. If the ultimate source of our desires and actions—the will—is purified and set in its right relation to the Divine Will, then everything will be right. Thus the keeping of commandments primarily implies a new kind of activity which begins as soon as the willis placed in its right relation. If we seek to abide in God we must release the deepest energies of our soul and let them flow into the sphere of action, for as we do so we shall get nearer ‘God. It is in decisive act and purposeful deed that we can really respond to the stirrings of the God within. But how do we keep His commandments? What are the decisive deeds in which we express our love and loyalty to Christ? ‘If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. Even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.’ We keep the commandments of Jesus by abiding in His love. In other words, it is in words and deeds of love that we keep His commandments. After a digression, which we shall consider in a moment, the passage continues: ‘This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends if ye do the things I command you.’ The love of God, then, is not gushing emotion or rapturous feeling. It is not to be measured by the mental or physical symptoms which may go along with it. As Luther says with characteristic derision: ‘It is sheer hypocrisy for a man to creep 11 John v. 3.

into a corner and think “‘Oh, I will love God, Oh, how dearly I love God, He is my Father. Oh, how affectionate I am to God,” and so forth." Whata slap on the face to the many who have measured the reality and the depth of their experience of God solely in terms of emotion! All over the world there have been ecstatics—particularly are they abundant among Hindu Bhaktas—who have seen signs of the God within mainly in outbursts of extraordinary emotion. If their bodies thrill with joy, their limbs move to the rhythm of music and their eyes shed copious tears, they think that God has really taken possession of them. When Luther was stirring Europe with his powerful teaching, Chaitanya was spreading Vaisnavism in India by his magnetic personality and rapturous. Bhakti. Though an extreme case, his life offers a marked contrast to Luther’s teaching in this respect.

On reciting a mystic verse, ‘the Master fell down on the ground in a trance, senseless with the intensity of love. Nityananda hurriedly took Him up in his arms. Chaitanya rose weeping, and ran hither and thither in a transport of devotion, shouting, laughing, dancing and singing. Oft did He repeat the first word of the stanza, His voice choked with emotion and tears running down His cheeks. He trembled, perspired, wept with joy, stood still, changed colour—now showing remorse, now grief, now stupor, now pride or meekness. The stanza opened the gate of His love. The servitors of Gopinath gazed on the Master’s outpour-.

ing of love. But He came back to Himself on seeing a crowd gathering.”*

Such a method of showing one’s love for God is utterly foreign to John. He does value emotion as a means of approach to God, but it should not be of an extravagant character. We need not at present discuss the larger question of the place which emotion occupies in religious experience, nor need we here ask what truth there is in the assertion of ecstatics that they see God in joy, but let us simply try to understand John’s teaching on the subject. It is clear that with John the emotion that we experience in our life with God is not the rapture which is born of ecstatic worship but the. steady joy which is born of devout action. The constant and close connexion in the writings of John between loving Christ and keeping His commandments should be carefully noted. This close connexion determines the character of both the factors. On the one hand, the keeping of commandments ceases to be a heavy and irksome task and is filled with love. And, on the other, love does not remain sheer emotion, as its character and intensity are constantly tested in the deeds of everyday life. The joy that comes from a steady endeavour to carry out the will of God day after day does not show itself always in paroxysms of excitement, but is mostly sober and rational. On occasions there may be great joy in doing something which is felt to be in accordance with God’s will or sorrow at failure to do so. But this joy or sorrow never falls into the chaos of emotion that accompanies ecstatic worship in song and dance.

But are we correct in saying that John was no ecstatic? Our very passage contains in an important digression the words: ‘These things I have spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.’ Let us first recognize the fact that this element of joy is not as prominent in the writings of John as it is in those of Paul and other Christian mystics. ‘There are indeed some passages in the Johannine writings which speak of joy,’ but joy does not hold the important place in them that love does; how often does John come back to his theme of love! Yet passages about joy do occur in his writings and their meaning ought to be grasped.

In India the great Bhakta and philosopher, Ramanuja, likewise did not emphasize joy. The reason for his not doing so seems to be his realization of the difficulties which a life of rapture creates. Bhakti, with Ramanuja, is like a stream of steady flowing oil. ‘There is no rapture, for rapture might later mean depression and gloom. The Bhakta who seeks exaltation of feeling is caught in the whirlpool of emotion. Moments of unutterable ecstacy lifting the soul to heights of bliss are followed by others which cast it down into depths of gloom. A follower of Ramanuja points out that one means of attaining Bhakti is ‘ freedom from paroxysmal joy, for such joy is also a hindrance.’? It is a striking proof of the clear insight of Ramanuja that he and his followers did not encourage the ebullitions of feeling which are so changeful and short-lived. Though John takes up a similar position, his motive seems to be different. He is afraid not so much of the rapid and ever-changing nature of emotion as of its empty character. Joy is indeed a good thing, he would say, but it must be no empty feeling. The joy that wells up in the heart of the devotee is the joy that lies in keeping the Father’s commandments.

There is great delicacy of spiritual analysis in the passage. The joy that is in us is perfected by the joy of God. ‘These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.’ In India the nature of God as joy has been most clearly recognized. He is deep and unutterable joy. The whole of creation is the expression of His joy. As Kabir says:

‘The earth is His joy; His joy is the sky;

His joy is the flashing of the sun and the moon;

His joy is the beginning, the middle and the end;

His joy is eyes, darkness and light.

Oceans and waves are His joy: His joy the Sarasvati, the Jumna, and the Ganges.

The Guru is one: and life and death, union and separation are all His plays of joy.’?

Unlike man’s joy, the joy of God does not depend upon external facts; Then His joy would have to undergo constant change, for external facts do not always remain the same. But His joy is the deep and unutterab'e bliss, like the calm that dwells in the bosom of the ocean, which is unaffected by any change. While external objects do not affect His joy, His joy affects external objects. All the joy which we experience from nature is really derived from Him by nature. It is His joy, so spontaneous and free and surpassing all bonds, even the bonds of karma, which abides in nature and creates endless delight in the hearts of men. The roots of this doctrine are many and cannot be discussed here. But it would be safe to say that the general tendency in Hebrew thought is to think of God as a holy and stern being who carries on the government of the world in perfect righteousness. But even against this severe background we have the idea that the sons of God shouted for joy at creation.+ Again, we are told in Genesis: “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold it was very good.’* And what joy was there in Jesus! Whatever our idea of God’s joy may be: from our study of the Old Testament or New Testament, we cannot but be impressed by the fact that joy was an outstanding characteristic of Jesus. He fully shared in the joys of men and took part in their festivities; He was moved by the beauty of nature and the flowers spread on the Galilean hills filled His heart with poetry; His passion for friendship and His life of continual service must have further increased His joy. In Jesus we understand how the keeping of commandments could be a source of joy. He ever lived in the spirit of oneness with the Father; to do the Father’s will was His meat and drink and His whole being was filled with joy on that account. There was nothing of the ecstatic in Jesus. He was not filled with rapture one moment, struggling to let out the emotion which came in a flood from His inner self and in the next, feeling bitterly the drought which followed such a flood. Neither were longer periods of joy followed by periods of despendency, when His soul sank in the darkness of the night. But a calm and steady joy always lit up His countenance and helped Him to continue every moment His ministry to the men who were suffering in body and soul. Now the joy of Jesus fulfils and perfects man’s joy: ‘That my joy may bein you and that your joy may be fulfilled,’ Jesus is an exalted being who insists on the highest purity and the utmost service from us, but He also dwells in us and if we abide in His love in word and deed, a steady and constant stream of His joy will flow into our hearts from moment to moment. Our own joy will be flooded with this divine joy. *