How Hinduism Can Benefit A Christian

In order to discover how Hinduism can complement and deepen the Christian experience, Christians first need to break free from the bonds of adversarial and exclusive thinking. In order to do so, we need to be secure enough in our own faith in Jesus Christ. Then we are free to learn from Hinduism’s profound religious philosophy and apply it to our spiritual lives in Christian terms.

The closest counterpart to Hinduism is Catholic spirituality and mysticism. Some of what Hinduism teaches, for example, has been discovered by Christian mystics such as Meister Eckhart. Eckhart’s Godhead is virtually identical to Hinduism’s Brahman. Brahman is the source and ground of all things, yet is beyond even the attributes of a personal God, because it is beyond human description. Ultimate union with Brahman is the goal of the spiritual life for the Hindu.

As Eckhart’s Godhead manifests itself through the Christian Trinity, Brahman becomes manifested in the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, representing those aspects of God which create, preserve, and dissolve (respectively). These aspects of God can come to earth as divine incarnations, such as Krishna, whose dialog with the warrior and seeker Arjuna is recorded in the pages of the Bhagavad Gita.

The Bhagavad Gita describes three spiritual paths–called yoga–by which we can serve and become closer to God, the ultimate goal being to become united with him. Jnana yoga is the path of knowledge, of understanding the nature of the Atman–the divine spark within us–and its relationship with Brahman. Karma yoga is the path of selfless service and of offering as a sacrifice all the fruits of our work. Bakti yoga is the life of complete devotion to God.

These paths are not exclusive, but allow a person to worship God in the manner that fits his or her aptitudes and temperament. The thoughtful Christian can see how these spiritual paths can be of benefit in our walk with Christ. While we keep in mind that the path of salvation for us Christians is that of faith through Jesus Christ, we can learn from Hinduism ways through which we can better serve him.

God Bless.

Hindu and Christian

As a Christian, I still have a deep interest in the world’s religions. God–the Word–expresses himself in a variety of ancient cultures; and each culture has its own symbols with which to interpret the divine. As for my own faith journey, Jesus Christ is the way to God, but I don’t view other religions as rivals, much less “counterfeit” or “false.”

A “counterfeit” implies that it is trying to pass itself off as an original, but this is not an appropriate description of the major word religions. For example, an ancient religion such as Hinduism is in fact original. Read, for example, the Upanishads.

The word “false” implies that it is somehow designed to draw people away from the true religion, but this word doesn’t fit very well, either. Using Hinduism as an example again, we observe that the great Hindu teachers such as Ramakrishna and Gandhi did not try to convert their Christian devotees to Hinduism, but rather consistently encouraged them to be good Christians. Gandhi sometimes quipped that he was trying to convert Christians to Christianity by making them better followers of Jesus Christ.

I sometimes see an evangelical preacher who gathers quotes from other religions in order to cast a bad light on them and thereby establishing the superiority of Christianity. But this manner of dealing with the world’s religions is like using a blade that cuts on both sides. Besides, it is not fair to compare the lowest expressions of another religion to the highest expressions of our own. It is disengenuous.

I think it is much better to take the high road when preaching the Gospel. Present the message of Jesus Christ in a positive way; it is counterproductive to attack other religions. The message of the Gospel does not need that kind of help; it speaks for itself. Floyd H. Ross, the author of a book called, The Great Religions by Which Men Live, has left us with sage advice,

Attempts at conversion too often become forms of coercion. It is well to try to see the best in the other person’s religion even while by example one is seeking to share his own faith. Pg 188

As Mahatma Gandhi said, “My life is my testimony.” Besides, in terms of interspirituality today, we have examples of people who are Christian and Buddhist, or Christian and Hindu. More on that in future posts.

God Bless.

Meister Eckhart–Christian Mystic

Meister Eckhart is a famous Christian mystic who lived from 1260 to 1327. He enjoyed immensely high status during his career, but one year before his death a bishop from a rival order initiated proceedings against Eckhart for heresy. In 1329, the pope published a bull condemning many of his works. But his works were restored into Catholic theological teaching in the late 20th century.

The source of his difficulties with the Church, according to Ursula King, was “his strong emphasis on the absorption of the self into God in unitive mystical experience.” Pg 107 (King, 2001) According to King, “In his mysticism the ground of God and the ground of the soul are the same ground.” Pg 107 (King, 2001) The soul contains the divine spark of God, and this is why it is possible for humans to have a unitive experience with God.

The unitive experience of God is a state of grace in which the soul participates in the nature of God. (2 Peter 1:4) “But in order to be unified with God, the soul must be purified by practicing asceticism, detachment, silence and withdrawal…” Pg 109 (King, 2001) According to John C. H. Wu, the “Holy Spirit is given to us in such a way that God knows himself in us.” Pg 19 (Wu, 1996) And according to Eckhart, “The eye wherein I see God is the same eye wherein God sees me.” Pg 19 (Wu, 1996)

Although the concept of the Godhead originated in Hinduism, Meister Eckhart introduced it into Western Christian mysticism. Eckhart felt that the true God was beyond every human description and beyond every concept we can think of. When we allow ourselves to go beyond every name and every attribute we can apply to God, that is when we approach the Godhead. To do this, it is almost as if we have to allow ourselves to fall into a “nothingness.” He says,

Do not understand the God who is beyond words. “Then what ought I to do?” You ought to sink down out of all your your-ness, and flow into his his-ness, and your “yours” and his “his” ought to become one “mine,” so completely that you with him perceive forever his uncreated is-ness, and his nothingness, for which there is no name. Pg 99 (O’Donohue, 1981)

Yet at the same time “nothingness” is not accurate either because the Godhead transcends nothingness too. In Eckhart’s words, God is “a being transcending being and a transcending nothingness” Pg 99 (O’Donohue, 1981), which is another way of saying, he is “all in all.”

Works Cited

King, Ursula (2001). Christian Mystics: Their Lives throughout the Ages. Mahwah: HiddenSpring.

O’Donohue, John (1981). Meister Eckhart: Selections from his Essential Writings. New York: HarperCollins.

Wu, John C. H. (1996). The Golden Age of Zen. New York: Doubleday.

Hindu-Christian Synergy

Between Hinduism and Christianity there exists a certain synergy that has been explored by such pioneers in Hindu-Christian dialog such as Henry Le Saux and Bede Griffiths. For example, the Katha Upanishad says of God, “He is the one light that gives life to all”; whereas, the Gospel of John says of the Word, “In him was life, and that life was the light of the world.” (John 1:4, NIV)

Jesus is what Hinduism calls a divine incarnation–”The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14, NIV) Hinduism can accept that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but the difference between Hinduism and Christianity is that it believes there can be more than one incarnation of God–

“In every age I come back

To deliver the holy,

To destroy the sin of the sinner,

To establish righteousness.” (Bhagavad-Gita)

Although Gandhi spoke of their being more than one son of God, it seems metaphysically more accurate to say that–even if there could be different divine incarnations–there is really only one son of God.

In the 20th century, Henry Le Saux and Bede Griffiths went to India as missionaries to forward the cause of Christ. But they took a different path in doing so, inasmuch as they both took the vow to live as an Indian sannyasa: a person in India who is wholly dedicated to God. Bede Griffiths had a strong experience of the Hindu trinitarian Saccidananda–which is a direct mystical experience of the divine in the form of “Being,” “Consciousness,” and “Bliss.”

In that experience, Griffiths felt that he had discovered a connection between Saccidananda and the Christian Trinity. He began explaining the Christian Trinity in terms of the Hindu experience of Saccidananda. For example, the experience of the Father can be identified with “Being,” the Son–the expression of the Father–can be linked with “Consciousness,” and the agency of the Holy Spirit can be identified with “Bliss.”

It is thus that Bede Griffiths and others felt there is a deep existential relationship between Christian and Hindu mysticism that underlies the differences in doctrine. The Christian mystics, along with the Hindu sages, felt that there is a direct experience of God that can transcend theologies.

God Bless.

Christ and Other Religions

After expressing the view that divine truth occurs in religions other than Christianity, I have received comments that I might characterize as being concerned with the sovereignty of Christ in a pluralistic world. This is a very important matter to the interspiritual Christian because–while learning about and experiencing the truth in other religions–he or she remains faithful to Jesus Christ and His message.

I have quoted Wayne Teasdale’s work on Bede Griffiths before, and I think it merits doing so again, as he sheds light on the way forward, proposing that the grace of Christ has a mysterious agency in other religions.

“In all religions God has been at work since the inception of each; they are related to Christ in the interdependent cosmic scheme. These different revelation systems will eventually converge in Christ, in the spiritual understanding of His place in the cosmic drama.” (Pg.174, Wayne Teasdale: Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to his Interspiritual Thought)

Two points become clear. One is that Christ is sovereign in all religions. The other is that there is work yet to be done on behalf of the future to find meeting points between religions.

In order to do that, we will need to discover the divine ground of being that lies beyond all culture, symbols, and forms. This is called the One, or the Word of God that has existed since before the world began. (John.1:1) After encountering the divine ground of being, we can appreciate the diversity of its expression. “In my Father’s house there are many rooms.” (John.14:2)

For Christians, the Word of God finds its perfect expression in the person of Jesus Christ, who reveals to us the loving nature of the Father. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John.14:6) This is the specific calling of Jesus Christ to us as Christians. While the interspiritual Christian seeks to experience and coexist with other religions, in terms of his/her own path, he/she comes to the Father through Jesus Christ, and thus remains faithful to His message. This is the nature of the sovereignty of Christ in a pluralistic world.

If you will stay tuned, I hope to post an article entitled “Original Forgiveness” soon.

God bless.