The moral order in the world—The

FELLOWSHIP IN SUFFERING

i2l in nature or in history.

Here we are not concerned with understanding these.

But the troubles which come to us in following our Lord are what we have in mind.

When we resolve to seek the fellowship of our Lord we at the same time resolve to walk along a hard path, for He was 'a man of sorrcws and was acquainted with grief.'

Are we drawn to the figure of Christ?

Has His teaching laid hold of us?

Has the spirit which indwelt Him come to abide in us to lead us in the path of love and service?

Then inevitably we shall have to face opposition and trouble as He did, though in a very different measure and form, and men wil! hate us and heap trouble for us.

But this suffering will be turned to joy, for through it our union with Christ will become closer and more intimate.

THe MorAL ORDER IN THE WORLD

To continue the exposition of our passage.

The union with Christ, cemented by participation in His suffering and death, is no transcendental experience ; participation in the death of Christ does not take the bhakta to the serene heights of philosophy or ecstasy but keeps him in this world with its temptations and trials, its obligations and duties.

'Now is the judgement of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

And I, if I be lifted from the earth, will draw all men unto myself.'

What is this judgement?

It cannot be the last judgement described in apocalyptic literature.

For it is said to take place now.

It would be in harmony with the rest of the Johannine teaching to suppose that the judge-

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCHOOL

OF THEOLOGY LIBRARY

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

ment spoken of here is an internal judgement, a greatly modified law of karma, which inevitably brings about certain consequences.

He who beholds the uplifted. Christ and allows himself to be drawn into Him has thereby set out on the path which will lead him away from wrong doing and sin.

Not that he will be incapable of sinning nor even that he will never sin but sin will cease to attract him.

The attraction of the cross will be so powerful that the attraction of sin will cease and the prince of this world will be cast out.

The reference to the prince of the world being cast out seems to imply that there is a certain solidarity in the way in which the death of Christ operates against the sin of the world.

It is not merely a sin here and a sin there that is cast out but the entire power of evil.

So powerful and so tremendous is the efficacy of the death of Christ that the whole mass of evil ceases to be.

This corporate reaction against the whole volume of evil, besides being in consonance with the Johannine teaching about the solidarity of mystic experience, puts out of the question any random and haphazard, and therefore incomplete, operations against evil.

But this result does not come about without man's effort.

The cross of Christ is no talisman.

The multitude, perplexed by the teaching about the lifting up of the Son of Man, raised a question: 'We have heard out of the law that the Christ abideth for ever : and how sayest thou, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?'

'To this Jesus replies ; 1 See above pages 53-55.

FELLOWSHIP IN SUFFERING

"Yet a little while is the light among you.

Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not: and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

While ye have the light, believe on the light, that ye may become sons of light."

This ought to be earnestly taken to heart by every one.

We should not merely comfort ourselves with the thought of the eternal and abiding Christ.

He does live to-day and move among us with power as of old.

But neither He nor His death are of any avail to us unless we strive genuinely to walk in His light.

The life and death of Christ are not meant only for another world.

The eternal now is of tremendous significance and power.

The Christian should constantly walk in the light of Christ as he is a son of light.

We should consider an important passage from the First Epistle of John which supplements and makes. clear the teaching given in these verses.

'God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not speak the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If wé confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness.'

We realize with poignancy the shame and sorrow that have come to us from sin.

Try as we will, our fight for goodness is not always a victorious one.

Again 1-1 John i. 5-9.

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

and again we fall victims to the temptations that come to us.

The frequent and disheartening failures of the moral life continually fill us with grief and there are times when we stand bewildered before the helpless way in which we surrender to evil.

These successive moral tragedies are no matters of passing import.

They accumulate into a terrible burden and oppress the soul by its constantly increasing weight and terror.

We are overwhelmed with the power of the sins of the past and as we contemplate the future we are afraid that we might have to contend, often in a losing battle, with new forms and forces of evil.

But the death of 'Christ reveals clearly that the sins of the past which terrify us and which form a burden are forgiven by our

Father out of His infinite and gracious love and that we are given a new strength to contend with the powers of evil.

The incubus of the past is removed and we are set at liberty to walk in the light free from its oppresSive sense.

THE MEANING OF THE Cross TO GOD In this all too brief exposition of a great theme, no attempt has been made to understand the relation of the cross of Christ to the mind of God, We have found how the sacrifice on Calvary draws men into closer bonds of friendship with Christ imparting to them forgiveness and strength and all the other gifts which love can give.

But we must consider in great humility and reverence what value, according to John, the cross has for God.

That John recognizes the supreme importance of the cross for God is evident from certain profound verses

FELLOWSHIP IN SUFFERING

which occur in the Gospel and Epistles.

John the Baptist points to Jesus and proclaims, ' Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

In his First Epistle, we read: 'If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous : and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.'*

Again:

' Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to ke the propitiation for our sins.' "

Theological controversy has raged around these and other verses in the New Testament which speak of the cross of Calvary asa sacrifice:

What is the sacrifice ?

To whom is it made?

For what purpose?

These and other questions have been endlessly debated.

The sacrifice on Calvary is the uttermost expression of the love of God.

God has always loved man, but love is not complete until it issues in sacrifice, in the uttermost giving up of itself This sacrifice took place on the cross.

There is a peculiarly weighty significance in the words with which the Evangelist opens his account of the last days of Jesus: 'Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.' *

Through this great sacrifice, God has fulfilled ._Himself and, if we may say so with reverence, has realized to the full the riches of His love.

Without some supreme" expression like that on the cross, even the love of God might have been incomplete.

-The sacrifice of Calvary is the perfecting and rounding out of His great love which so graciously forgives and saves.

1 John i. 29, 2 1.John ii. 1,2:

3 1 John iv. 10.

4 John xiii. 1.

5 See William Temple Christus Veritas, London, 1925, p, 280,

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

CONCLUSION

The Christian cannot content himself with merely - contemplating the sufferings of Christ.

'There is indeed much to be gained by reverently directing our mind to realize the profound agony which our Lord experienced during His passion.

Such a devout dwelling upon His agony and sorrow is sure to exert a wholesome influence on us and to change us for the better.

But such contemplation is not enough.

We have rather to unite ourselves with Christ in His suffering.

The supreme example of such identity with the sufferings of Christ is given to us by Paul.

Paul counted all things to be loss in order that he 'may "know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death."* Indeed he actually rejoiced in his sufferings which, as every one who has read about Paul knows, were most abundant and supremely hard, and filled

"up on his part that which was lacking of the afflictions of Christ.'* Paul did not merely realize with a devout imagination the agony of the Lord, nor did he add to his own suffering by purposely and deliberately going out of his way in its quest, but he passionately loved

Christ and sought to spread His message far and wide.

In seeking to make the power of Christ's love effective in himself and in others, he had to face much trouble.

He was misunderstood, criticized, beaten, imprisoned and persecuted.

But he did not flinch or whittle down his message or give up his work because of the persecution.

Through the anguish and pain of it all he knew 1 Phil. iii. 8-11.

2 Coll 4.724,

FELLOWSHIP IN SUFFERING

with joy that if he had to suffer a great deal, his Master had suffered before him and suffered intensely.

This experience made him realize his oneness with Christ in a wonderful way.

He did not achieve any merit by his suffering, but by passing through it gladly, he made himself a partaker of the glorious love that was shown by Christ on Calvary and was united with Him.

Fellowship works from both ends.

While it is true that Paul sought to become united with Christ in His suffering, his efforts would have been futile if Christ

Himself had not out of His great love taken Paul into His fellowship.

This then is the meaning of becoming united with Christ through participation in His suffering.

He has suffered on Calvary showing to us unmistakably the wonder and the depth of the Father's love for us.

As we realize this love for ourselves and set out to make it known to others all sorts of difficulties will come in our way.

The more eager we are to make the spirit and ideal of Christ work in those little spheres over which we may have any influence the greater the difficulties will be.

We ought not by any means to give up our message or its completeness in order to make our path smooth and easy.

But we should proclaim the Gospel with all earnestness and sincerity and in its fulness as far as we understand it.

The trouble which comes to us will be of various kinds and degrees, the mental anguish of choice and failure, the criticism and hostile action of others, the necessity to reduce our wants to a minimum and to live at the point of selfsacrifice and, in these days very rarely, physical pain and

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

suffering.

We should pass through all these kinds and degrees of suffering with joy, realizing that our Lord has suffered before us with greater intensity and with no blame on Himself.

We shall not work our way into union with Him by any particular suffering through which we pass or even by any particular spirit in which we undergo the suffering' that inevitably comes in following Him.

But such a discipline will help us to accept more readily and with clearer understanding the offer of His foregiveness and fellowship with Himself

'which He has made to us once for all on the cross of Calvary with unlimited generosity and supreme love.

CREAT TER: VI

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

Lam the bread ot lite.

Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

This ts the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereot, and not die.

I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: tf any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: yea and the bread which I will give ts. my flesh, for the life of the world.

The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, How can this man give us his tlesh to eat?

Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not lite in yourselves.

He that eateth my tlesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal lite; and [ will raise him up at the last day.

For my tleshis meat indeed, and my blood zs drink indeed.

He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth.in me, and I in him.

As the living Father sent me, and TI live because of the Father ; so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me..

This ts the bread which came down out of heaven: not as the fathers did eat, and died: he that eateth this bread shalt live tor ever.

These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

Many therefore of his dis ciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying > who can hear it? But Jesus knowing in Hiniself that His disciples murmured at this, said unto them, Doth this

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

cause you to stumble? What then tf ye should behold the Son of man ascending where he was betore? It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh protiteth nothing : the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.

John vi. 48-63.

In: the preceding chapters we have studied the different ways in which the man whose Bhakti is awakened by the gracious love of God may seek tu attain oneness with Him.

We have seen how necessary it is for him to place at the feet of God all that he has in a spirit of utter love and we have seen further how this love for God realizes itself in the love of man.

Then, in considering the significance of the cross asa manifestation of God's great love for man, we have found that in our conformity with Christ in His sufferings, our union with Him becomes close and intimate.

In this chapter we shall proceed to consider another important direction along which we should strive to realize our oneness with the Lord.

Foop THE SUPPORT OF LIFE The appetites of hunger and thirst are elemental facts in human life.

They lie at the bottom of all endeavour and profoundly modify all the activities of men.

To quote again, in an abbreviated form, Ramalinga Swami's essay already referred to': 'Even brave warriors who can vanquish their foes in a moment lose their strength when they become hungry.

Ascetics who despise the 1 See page 87,

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

enjoyments of the world and, controlling their senses, are seated in contemplation, leave it and walk towards the next village in search of food.

Men who are ready to give up their lives even if they dream of some insult coming to them complain of their hunger to those to whom they should not do so and lose their dignity.

Orthodox religious teachers forget their orthodoxy when they become hungry and wait expectantly for food.

Learned men, who possess insight and power, lose their judgement in the presence of hunger.

Men who are always under the power of lust turn away from lust with bitter minds when attacked by hunger.

The proud and the independent give up — their egotism and speak in flattering terms of those who give them food.

And spendthrifts lose all their extravagance when they are brought face to face with hunger.'* 'This passage is quoted here not because it says any thing that is new, but because it expresses certain perfectly familiar facts in forceful language, accumulating numerous instances.

People who go on -hunger-strikes display, it is true, a marvellous capacity to endure hunger, but do not their very strikes indicate the importance of the appetite ? They want to appeal dramatically and impressively to an instinct, of the presence of which all men are overwhelmingly conscious.

If hunger is so elemental and so profoundly determinative of man's. activities, there must be some peculiar significance in the food which satisfies this hunger.

Whatever importance we attach to the 1 Jiva-Karuniya-Olukkam, op. cit., pp. 29-30.

132.

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

function of hunger in life must reflect itself on food.

This idea must have inspired the ancient seer of the:

Taittiriya Upanisad who says: 'Food is Brahman : for from food creatures are born; by food the creatures: thus born live; and into food they enter and perish.' *

This verse which has deeply affected the course of Hindu thought, embodies an important idea, however much we may differ from its particular formulation.

The Fourth Gospel teaches us that Jesus uses this familiar connexion between hunger and food to bring home to our minds the strength of the connexion between Him, and those who iove Him.

Jesus speaks. of the life that He gives as water : ' Whosoever drinketh the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but: the water that I shall give him shall become in him 2 well of water springing up into eternal life.'*

Again > 'He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.'*

Here He uses an illustration which has been rendered, immortal by the Old Testament prophets.*

But he goes much farther in our present passage: "I am the bread of life.

Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat there-. of, and not die.

I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: yea and the bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.' ®

A Taittiriya Upanisad, iii. 2.

2 John iv. 14.:

3 John vii. 38.

; '

» 4 Jet. ii. 13 ; xvii. 43; Isa. lv. 1 ;*Zech. xiv. 8; Ezek. xvii. 1. ° 5 John vi, 48-51, , yer

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

According to the Fourth Gospel the words which _ form the subject of our study in this chapter were uttered by Jesus the day after He had miraculously fed the five thousand people who had gathered together to hear His teaching.

The effect of this manifestation of His power was immediate and rather strange.

Attracted by this power, the people wanted to take Him by force and make Him king.

Apparently they felt that: with a person of such supernatural gifts at the head of the realm they would not lack anything.

Jesus, of course, could not yield to such a materialistic impulse and withdrew from them probably to meditate on the strange ways: of men and to hold converse with God.

But on the following day He was in Capernaum .and the multitude came to Him again, still obviously under the influence of the ideas which the miracle had given rise to.

John tells us that on this occasion Jesus delivered a long discourse in which the words which we are studying occur.

There are four other places in the New Testament where somewhat similar words are reported as having been spoken by Jesus:'

All these four accounts describe an incident which took place on the night in which Jesus was betrayed.

The account given in Mark, being the earliest and therefore likely to be the most accurate, may be quoted here.

'And as they were eating, he took bread, and when he had blessed, he brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take ye: this is my body.

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he 1 Mark xiv. 22-24; Luke xxii. 17-20; Matt. xxvi. 26-28 ;

1 Cor, xi 24-26,

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

gave to them: and they all drank of it.

And he said unto them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for many.'

These words are practically repeated in the other accounts.

We should compare these accounts with that in the Fourth Gospel.

These four accounts refer in language of varying emphasis to the fact that His blood is shed for many unto remission of sins.

In the discourse in the Fourth Gospel there is © no phrase pointing to stich an interpretation.

It is significant that in the long discourse given in the Fourth Gospel there is no reference to an idea so important in the much shorter accounts of the Synoptic

Gospels and the Pauline Epistle.

It is wholly concerned with the teaching that the body and blood of Christ become the food and drink of men.

With much repetition and considerable emphasis the body and blood of Christ are taught as.being the source of life.

There is another feature of the discourse which calls for thought.

Why does John put this teaching not in the context of the last supper but here? Either Jesus. spoke these words at the last supper and John has deliberately taken them from that context and put them here; or He spoke more or less the same words after the feeding of the five thousand and on the occasion of the last supper and John has emphasized. the former occasion.

Spoken at the last supper the words would seem to be closely related to the sacrifice which was to take place immediately on Calvary but spoken after the feeding of the five thousand, they would appear naturally enough as an exposition of the mportance of spiritual food in human life.

The whole

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

setting of the discourse in the Fourth Gospel as well as the line along which it moves show that John understood the teaching of Jesus in some such sense.

What has impressed him most is the fact that Christ is the heavenly food of His bhaktas.

It is quite likely that John was influenced in the formulation of his thought by the rites of the mystery religions which prevailed in his day.

He was seeking to express in words the influence of the living Christ, particularly as it was felt in the act of partaking of His table.

That there was a definite influx of spiritual power he knew from his own experience and the experience of his fellow-Christians.

Somehow the reverent worshipper had partaken of a new spiritual energy in this act of exalted communion.

This was, of course, the fundamental fact.

In giving expression to this fact it is not at all improbable that at least in some dim way John's language was affected by that used in the contemporary religions of his day.

In the earlier stages of the mystery religions there was a strong belief that it. was possible to partake of the life of a God by eating him inaholy meal.

In the ThracianDionysiac Mysteries the worshippers were called Saboi or Sabazioi after the name of their god as they partook of his divine life in such a meal.

In the DionysusZagreus cult the devotees rushed together in sacred frenzy towards the sacrificial animal and ate it raw in the belief that the god dwelt in the offering.

Sucha crude semi-physical idea of communion gave place in ,course of time to a more spiritual understanding.

The average communicant in the mystery religions

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

came to believe that in some real sense he obtained a share of the divine life by participating in a common meal consecrated to the god.

He was not particularly. concerned to explain how this took place but he knew that in some détfinite way he had become one with the deity as the result of such participation.,

Familiar as John is likely to have been with this phraseology, he had no difficulty in developing the teaching of Jesus along these lines.

Is THERE ENMITY BETWEEN THE FLESH

AND THE SPIRIT?

The question forces itself upon us:

Is it right to convey something so essentially spiritual as our relation to Christ in terms of the flesh? Is not the flesh the source of sin?

'The Hindu Bhaktas have often sung of the degrading power of the flesh.

Tukaram asks:

'The body given us by God is excellent for his service ; Yet it has become a field fruitful in error and confusion, When a man stiffens and straightens his neck through self conceit, there is no bending it.

Such a man cannot frame his tongue to call himself a servant of God, but he opens wide his throat for wanton speech.

"1, Aneus, The Mystery Religions and Christianity, London 1925 ; pp. 127-138.

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

Tuka says, Where shall I go to leave this filth behind me, and purify myself by ablution ?' *

The Bengali poet Ramprasad Sen complains :

Tara, my mother, listen to the story of my woe.

Thou who art all supreme, behold this house of mine, how poor a thing it is.

Thus do these live, my mother, with whom I share the house!

Five of them are there with five different wills, and all seek nothing but to please themselves.

Eight million houses have I lived in heretofore, and now am come again to occupy the house of Man.

A fool's part doI play upon the stage of life, the cup of sorrow brimming over.

That is reality for me, my mother!

Heed then, O mother, the word of Ramprasad.

My mind is not at rest.

No longer would I live here in this house; those six, the masters of the house, have made an end of me.'?

The idea that the flesh is the source of evil is found in other countries besides India.

When John was writing there were many Gnostics who taught that matter was evil and believed that Jesus did not really

1 J. Nelson Fraser and K.

Marathe, Zhe Poems of Tukardm, Madras 1913 ; vol. iii. p. 231.

2 E. J. Thompson and A. M. Spencer, Bengali Religious Lyrics, Sakta, Calcutta, 1923; p. 58.

The five fellow tenants in this poem are the five senses ; the eight million houses are the bodies occupied in previous incarnations ; and the six masters of the house are the six passions.

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

have a human body.

'They supposed that if He had one it would have contaminated Him.

But from the vigour with which he bears testimony to having seen the actual Jesus it is clear that John did not agree with them:

'That which was. from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handied, concerning the Word of life.

(And the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us) ; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us.'* These emphatic words reflect the strong conviction of the Fourth Evangelist that the Jesus with whom he had come into contact was no phantom but a real human being.

In fact it is often thought that one of his chief aims in writing the book was to oppose Docetism. John's idea was that the Logos had become flesh.

As has been pointed out, this conception ran counter to much philosophic thinking in John's day."

Contemporary thinkers would have been shocked at the way in which John taught that the Logos became flesh. 'lhis startling conclusion was the result of his familiarity with the life and death of Jesus and of the thoughts which were forced upon his mind by them.

The daring assertion of the Evangelist that the Logos became flesh shows how the incarnation of Jesus had illumined for him the whole process of human life and history.

The body of man is no. base thing to be despised. If it has been the medium <1 John 3.1=3; 2 Pp, 44,

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

for revealing the Divine, its capacities are indeed of an infinitely high order.

The flesh therefore possesses in the mind of the Evangelist a different value from that which it has for others.

Another characteristic idea of John is that life with Christ can begin now.* There is no hard and fast distinction between life and eternal life, Death does not introduce any violent change into the character of our fellowship with Christ. The implication of this teaching is that life here is_not as low as might be imagined. — If we can enter into fellowship with Christ. even now, there must be some inherent capacity of goodness in the flesh ; it cannot be altogether evil.

But the heart of the Johannine teaching on the subject is not yet reached.

We come to it only when we consider John's further teaching about life.

We are in the habit of speaking and thinking of life in physical as well as in spiritual terms.

Life in its physical aspects, we think, is the special subject of study of the biologist.

Life in its spiritual aspects, we think, comes more within the range of the religious teacher's knowledge and work.

Life of these two kinds, we consider, are absolutely different.

We therefore ask in what sense John uses life.

Does he refer to physical or to spiritual life?

But John seems to have no such distinction in his mind.

Life to him is all one.

It is we who are in the habit of marking off physical from spiritual life.

But he regards them as cohering in a larger unity.

It is perhaps not difficult to see the facts from which 1 John y. 24; 1 John iii. 14.

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

the Fourth Evangelist drew his conclusion that the physical and the spiritual are not so widely-sundered as they are ordinarily taken to be.

To. begin with, the very importance attributed to food in the Gospel shows us that the physical and the spiritual lie close to each other.

The same food which creates in one man the brutal strength which leads him to do all kinds of wild deeds gives to another the vitality that spends itself in love and devotion and service.

The one man develops with the food which he takes nothing but the muscular power which is capable of mischief and violence.

The other transmutes the physical food that he takes into the energy that sustains him in a course of noble living.

Again it is the same instinct which under certain circumstances shows itself as lust and under certain other circumstances as love,

The passion which draws men and women together may witha man dominated by the physical become nothing else than savage lust, whereas in another it may be refined and spiritualized into the highest kind of love purged of all that is base.

Again the strongly embedded instinct of self-preservation which renders many a person narrow and unmindful of others often becomes the devoted love of the mother, who, exercising the instinct of self-preservation in a nobler way, forgets her own self but guards and protects her children.

The instinct of self-preservation we consider as belonging to a purely physical category but its refinement as the love of the mother we exalt to the lofty sphere of the spiritual.

There is then no chasm between the physical and the spiritual.

The. two indeed are not one

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

~-—s—-(142 and yet the transition from the one to the other is not impossible.

That with John and the early Christian thinkers there was no clear and marked distinction, such as we are apt to draw, between the physical and the spiritual, is evident from, among other things, the narratives of the resurrection of Jesus.* The Fourth Evangelist tells more clearly than the Synoptic writers of the wonderful body of Jesus which was at once physical and hyperphysical."

The disciples were together and the doors were shut; yet Jesus came and stood in their midst and showed unto them His hands and His side..

One of the disciples, Thomas, was absent and doubted the report of the other disciples who told him that they had seen the Lord.

But he said unto them, ' Except I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side I will not believe.'

So eight days later Jesus. appeared again in the same way and said to Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger and put into my side and be. not faithless but believing.'

Apparently the body of Jesus after His resurrection was not subject to the limitations of the ordinary physical body and yet it was within the reach of the senses.

In some way the boundary line between the physical and the spiritual became obliterated.

This record of the resurrection experience shows us that it would not have been as. hard for the Fourth Evangelist as for the modern man to make the transition in thought from the physical, to the spiritual.

1S. Angus, op. cit., 133.

2 John xx. 19-29.

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

The course which Johannine thought on the subject is likely to have taken may now be suggested.

John was no doubt an earnest observer of men who saw clearly the importance which the deeply-rooted instincts of hunger and thirst have for them.

It needs no philosopher to understand how firmly these. appetites form the basis of human. life.

But to the. keenly spiritual mind of John they were not merely low appetites to be considered as inevitable necessities and to be treated with scant attention but were indication of certain vital needs which held as true of the soul as of the body.

In fact he conceived of life springing from these appetites as one.

And therefore it was most natural, particularly in view of contemporary religious phraseology, that he should have stated our close connexion with Christ through these means in language more clear and more emphatic than anywhere else in the New Testament.

Behold, the living Christ enters into us and forms a part of our inmost self in the same organic way in which food and drink become a part of our being.

Through Him all our life is sustained and without Him our energy wanes and droops in a moment.

His activities are interwoven with our life-processes and at every moment both of them occur together.

Our argument has made it evident that there is no reason why the vital relation which food and drink bear to our life need be despised.

On the other hand, it may show unmistakably to every one the vitality and closeness of the connexion between man and God.

''- THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

EXAMPLES FROM Hinpu Buaxti LITERATURE Some realization of the close connexion between the physical and the spiritual might have lain behind the utterance of Krsna in the Gita:

'Becoming fire, I inhabit the bodies of creatures, and mingling with the life-breaths, I digest the four kinds of food.' + Would it be wrong to suppose that to the seer who wrote these words the thought of the food that we take sustaining merely our physical existence was difficult and that therefore he taught that the food we take does not result merely in a physical process but that the physical process itself is indwelt and energised by the Divine.

The food that we eat is, therefore, assimilated not only by the body but also by the inner spirit.

_ There is a well-known Tamil legend of a saint, often referred to by the Saiva poets.

He was called Siru Thondar or 'the lowly devotee' and it was his habit never to take any food until he had fed that day a Saiva devotee.

One day Siva himself came to his door disguised as a mendicant.

On Siru Thondar urging him 'to take a meal in the house, Siva pointed out that he ate only once in six months and on that occasion only a meal prepared of a human being, five years old, faultless in limb and the only child of his parents.

With joy the mother must hold the child and the father must cut it up.

'Siru Thondar and his wife had a child answering to that description and gladly killed him and prepared

'a meal from his flesh.

The guest sat down and insisted 1 Bhaghavad-Gita, xv. 14,

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

on the father joining him.

Then he demanded that the son also should be invited.

Siru Thondar went out and called out the name of his son and the child came running as if he were coming back from school as usual.

By this time, the strange guest had disappeared leaving the meal uneaten.

He appeared in the sky seated on a bull and took Siru-Thondar, his wife, his son, and his son's nurse to heaven.

It is rather strange that the meal remains uneaten and the participation in the flesh and blood, though it be not that of the Lord," but that of the offering, never takes place.

The immense popularity of this legend shows clearly how participation in flesh and blood, strange as it may appear at first sight to the Hindu mind, may yet appeal to it and stir in it a genuine response.

Tayumanavar gives a striking exhortation :

'The experience of Siva is an all pervading flood of infinite joy.

It foams and overflows and is one whole mass of water.

Before our mortal bodies fall off, come, O ye of the world, let us taste it together to gain future bliss.' ° At this point we must note a striking contrast between Hindu Bhakti Literature and the Fourth Gospel.

For the Bhaktas, the God within is infinite joy.

He is milk, sugar-cane, nectar, luscious fruit, the finest of delicacies.

1 Arumuga-Navalar, Peria Purana Vacanam, Madras ; pp.

192-198.

2 Tayumanavar, 'Kakamurayu.'

The first line of this stanza has not been translated.

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

Bhakti hymns use'these terms again and again to describe the immanent God.

Ramalinga-Swami piles idea upon idea to bring out the sweetness of the Lord :

'One by one squeeze and strain three kinds of fruit. eat Mix weil with sugar and powdered candy.

Pour fresh clear honey with milk and pure coconut juice.

Then add sweet pulse dod melted fraaia ghee and cook it over a slow fire.

Thou aS finer than such a sweet, Thou tverise Pure.'

On the other hand, the Fourth Evangelist speaks ot the Christ within as water, bread, the staple of ' human food.

What the Bhaktas desire is rapture, écstacy- : flights of emotion reserved for the few and that in extraordinary hours.

What the Fourth Evangelist emphasizes is the moral strength which all men and women need to exercise every day of their lives.

The Bhaktas would sing and dance, using highly aesthetic means for expressing their emotion.

According to the Fourth' Evangelist, the Christian brings forth " fruits '"— deeds of love and help.

In the Fourth Gospel, mystic. union is union' with Christ, dominating dur normal moments 'and providing us with the strength and peace necessary for our daily life.

The in dwelling Christ means enhanced energy for ordinary tasks, increased vitality for daily work.

Mystic union for the Bhaktas spells sweetness, joy, all those pea Lets z Ramalinga Swami, ' Tanittani.'

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

and thoughts and activities which belong to the realm of emotion.

Tur Bopy AND BLocpD or CHRIST We may now resume our study of the passage at the head of this chapter.

If the line of thought here suggested is followed to its conclusion, it will be found to mean that a// food is not merely the source of physical life but after being transmuted by various fine processes passes into spiritual energy.

But this conclusion is not by any means intended by the Fourth Evangelist.

If there is anything which is more clear than any other in the passage which we are studying, itis that there is a fundamental difference between Christ the living bread and all other kinds of bread.

The Jews were deeply impressed with the story of the miraculous manna which their fathers ate in the wilderness.1

The manna was no ordinary food according to the ancient accounts.

It came down from heaven to supply the special need of the people.

But the Gospel makes it quite clear that Christ as the living bread is infinitely superior to even the manna.

'Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness and they died.

This is the bread (i.e., Christ) which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.'

It is absolutely important that this distinction should be carefully grasped.

Why is it wrong to say that every time we take food Christ enters into our being to energise all the activities which take place in it?

This question is answered in the words, ' He that eateth my 1 Exodus xvi.

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

flesh and drinketh my biood abideth in me, and I in him.

As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me.'

We cannot suppose that the Johannine formula about Christ abiding in the Christian and the Christian abiding in Christ occurs in this context also without some special significance.

There zs a difference between ordinary food and the food of the soul.

This difference is not due merely to the believer's attitude.

It is not because the Christian kneels reverently along with other devout persons in a place and in a manner that are hallowed by every means devised by the piety of man that the bread and wine have a different value from ordinary bread and wine.

But it is because Christ himself comes into our souls through the elements and abiding in us endows us with His spiritual energy.

Through faith we abide in Him.

We turn our thoughts to Him in prayer surrendering all we have into His sacred keeping and He comes unto us and directs us from our inner self.

Just as Jesus Himself lives because of the Father, so we also shall live because of Christ.

He will take possession of our souls and, using any power of thought and love which we may have, infuse into us

His own spirit.

It is important to note that this passage lays stress on the personal element in religious experience.

'He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me and I in Him.'

Here the experience of the living Christ is stated in most intimate and personal language.

The value of the common meai js not due to priestly

1483.

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

mediation or sacred fellowship but to Christ abiding in usSome, at the one extreme, have seen its importance in the consecration' of -the - elements by the accredited priests of the Church; and some, at the other extréme, in the fellowship of believers who devoutly join in it together.

This passage has nothing to say about these but lays all the stress on the Lord's gift of Himself in direct response to the love and faith of the bhakta.

The difference between this and other. meals then is that in some special. measure the Lord comes into our souls through this.

It may be asked why. He should. make this a special channel 'of His grace and not every meal that we take.

Here we enter the region of mystery in which we can walk but with faltering steps.

That in the divine over-ruling of the universe the law of choice obtains everywhere, eliminating, this and favouring that, isan experience with whichvall of us are familiar.

-Some men, for instance, are chosen to be teachers and prophets so that they might lead their fellowmen into a fuller understanding of the Divine Will and a greater readiness to carry it out in their lives.

It would not be right to ask as to why these only should have the privilege.

In the same way Christ imparts Himself to His followers in a special measure while they participate in the act of eating His flesh and drinking His blood.

We have endeavoured to understand in what sense we eat the flesh and drink the blood of our Lord:

We have found a probable reason for such strange language in the close connexion of the physical and the spiritual.

But in doing this we have gone beyond the

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT'

purport of this passage.

According to the account we have here, the Jews themselves strove one with anothér 'saying, 'How can this man give us-his flesh to eat?"

'In arresting language Jesus had declared that He was 'the bread which man ought to eat in order to get eternal life.

The Jews found it exceedingly hard to understand Him.

When, Jesus saw their perplexity He. said unto them, ' Verily, verily; I say unto you, Except -ye

'eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood; ye -have not life in yourselves.'

This is quite-strange.

He does not care to answer the question which they have raised, It seems as if he tells them not to trouble

'themselves about the explanation but to accept the fact.

In the history of the Christian Church the question -of the Jews has. been asked again and again by other men.

A great .deal of theological controversy has centred around this very question. Christian denominations are separated because they insist on the acceptance of this or that particular explanation of the doctrine.

.But this passage seems to teach us that it is less important to understand the reason behind the fact than to accept the fact itself.

Atter all an explanation is not so important as the fact which it explains.

THE SUPREMACY OF THE SPIRIT

Jesus, as interpreted by the Fourth Evangelist, has been describing His relation to His devotees in terms of the flesh.

With considerable emphasis and in striking phrase He has brought before His hearers this great idea that they must accept Him as a part of their inmost self: _He then concludes with the words -

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

'It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.'

The conclusion of this remarkable discourse provokes thought even more than the body of the discourse.

At first sight it looks as if in the conclusion He gives away His entire teaching and starts an absolutely different line of thought.

But on deeper reflection it will be evident that He is uttering in the conclusion a warning which profoundly modifies

| its meaning.

The conclusion dees not contradict the discourse but like a blaze of light at the end of a long road illumines it. The radiance which it throws spreads far and wide.

It is with the help of its powerful light; cleat and penetrating, that we must find our way through the entire discourse.

According to the Fourth Evangelist, Jesus seems to say:

'All that I have been telling you akout the importance of the flesh of the Son of Man and of its relation to man is true.

You have indeed to eat His flesh and to drink His blood But do not be misled.

The flesh profiteth nothing.

The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and life.'

In the light of subsequent history these remarkable words gain in significance.

There have been millions of Christians who have dwelt so exclusively on the thought that they participate in the life of Christ that they have been ready to emphasize its importance at the expense of everything else.

To them the flesh has seemed to profit.

They have forgotten that the spirit quickeneth.

The Fourth Evangelist's attitude towards baptism is the same.

A _ detailed consideration of the value

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

which he attributes to it is not necessary as the idea which underlies it has been sketched in this chapter.

Jesus says:

'Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.'* Water and the Spirit are brought together here as if they are of equal importance.

The physical and the spiritual are not so different as we make them out to be. And yet the next verse goes on to correct any wrong impression which this teaching may give: 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.'

Here again Jesus insists upon everything having its own character while not forgetful of the wonderful unity that pervades life.

Many have regarded the Fourth Evangelist as an ecclesiastic with a bias for ritual and cult.

The interpretation which has been suggested in this chapter of two important passages from his writings would seem to show that his view of the Christian life is profoundly ritualistic.

While it is clear that participation at the Lord's table and baptism with water are with him no mere symbols, yet he does not attach any magical efficacy to them.

With Jesus he sees clearly that the physical and the spiritual keep close company.

That is why he attaches to them something more than a symbolic value.

That is also why he does not attach to them any magical efficacy that operates by itself without involving the higher laws of the spirit.

We find in another passage a remarkable confirmation of this idea.

The Jews and the Samaritans had for a long 2 Join) 11155.

2 John iii. 6.

152.

CHRISTIANITY AS' BHAKTI MARGA

time disputed over the right place of worship.

The Jews, proud of their cult and temple, insisted upon Jerusalem with all its ancient history and all its rich and carefully maintained 'ritual as the place of worship.

'The Samaritans preferred Mount Gerizim.

When. this controversy was referred to Jesus by a Samaritan woman, Jesus said unto her: 'Woman, believe me; the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know: for salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers.

God is a Spirit: and ney that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.'

It is fitting we should close a-consideration of the teaching of Jesus on worship as recorded in the Fourth

Gospel with these words.

A more profound or more inspiring utterance has not been made.

We. are here led away from all controversy about temple and ritual into the very heart of religion.

Over every church and temple these words should be inscribed in large letters:

Every.man seeking to approach the Divine and to realize His presence must treasure them in his heart.

No idolatry of any sort, whether it be that of image or rite or liturgy, is permissible in the holy shrine in which we meet God face to face.

- 1 John iv, 21-24.

CHAPTER VII

THE WITNESS OF SCRIPTURE

— » And the Father which sent me, hath borne witness of me.

Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his torm.

And ye have not his word abiding in you : for whom he sent, him ye believe not.

Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life ; and these are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me, that ye may have lite.

I receive not glory trom men.

But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in yourselves.

I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not : tf another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.

How can ye believe, which receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh trom the only God ye seek not?

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.

For it ye believed Moses, ye would believe'me ; tor he wrote of me.

But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words ?

John v. 37-47.

There are different ways of loving God and of enjoying His fellowship.

We have already considered the way of devotion along which we may seek Him, surrendering ourselves entirely to Him.

Love for God is a mere phrase unless it expresses itself in concrete

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

deeds of love directed towards men.

Such love finds its supreme expression in its readiness and eagerness to suffer with the Loved One.

Through such suffering the love itself is ennobled and filled with a new content.

After speaking of the love we should have for God, all the time remembering fully that the very capacity to love is given to us and stirred in us by God Himself, we went on to consider one of the means of giving expression to this love.

We saw that we should draw nigh to Christ and become one with Him by participating in His body and blood.

In this chapter we shall proceed to study yet another means of realizing our oneness with Christ, namely, the study of the Christian scriptures which speak of His life and death.

We shall see how the written word of God helps us to understand and realize the Divine presence and to enter into the fulness of joy.

THE VALUR oF Direct Contact witH Gop In this context Jesus is speaking of different kinds of witness.

John the Baptist, His forerunner, has borne witness to Him.

He has recognized in Jesus a greater than himself who has come to the world as the Sacrificial Lamb.

But his witness, Jesus declares, is not of such great importance as the witness of the Father Himself.

The works which the Father has given Jesus to accomplish, and the Father Himself bear witness of Him:

Who has heard the Father bearing witness?

No one.

'Ye have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen his form?'

What then is the meaning of saying that the Father hath borne

THE WITNESS OF SCRIPTURE

155. witness?

The witness of the Father is not so much in any direct and immediate revelation which He gives from time to time as in the historic revelation which has been embodied in the scriptures; When we turn to the scriptures, however, we find the seers who wrote them declaring that they have heard the voice of God and seen His form.

They do not speak for themselves but definitely assert that the Lord has spoken to them

"Thus saith the Lord.'

Then have we to depend upon a second-hand revelation of God, a revelation given to seers of old and passed on to us and not wait expectantly to hear day by day for ourselves the voice of the Lord?

If the scriptures contain an authoritative and final revelation of God and we are taught to accept it, then are we in no danger of ceasing to expect immediate and direct communion with God ?

Let us acknowledge frankly that there are occasions when we are most eager to hear some immediate pronouncement of the Lord on the questions before us.

Every man is placed in peculiar circumstances which force upon him from time to time acutely specific and individual problems.

The difficulties which he feels no one else feels or perhaps has felt.

Face to face with problems, so vital and yet so elusive tecause of theil individual character, we are asked to look for help from ancient writings which themselves are full of problemsWritten in languages which all cannot read, and surrounded by numerous conflicting interpretations which have already been offered, the scriptures often raise a great many difficulties.

How much more satisfactory would it be if we could hear directly the pronounce-

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

ment of the Lord on the particular issue before us without having to seek for a clue from such: difficult ancient writings!

If God could speak to us now and directly, all these difficulties would disappear and we could have aclear verdict, exactly suited to the particular situation in which we are placed.

Instead of seeking, sometimes in vain, to find our way among the mazes of an ancient revelation, we should be experiencing God directly and seeing His form.

' Again such an immediate and direct revelation imparted to us by the Father would not only prove quite suited to the particular occasion which we might be called upon to meet but would come to us with an impressiveness which no study, however earnest and reverent, of the revelation already given to others and permanently written down in books, can possess.

One's own experience has a force of conviction which no other man's will ever give.

The voice of the Lord heard by us in the inner sanctuary of our souls will have a clearness which it cannot have coming to us through another person.

THE FUNCTION OF A HISTORICAL REVELATION

What then is the object of reading the scriptures ?

"Ye search the scriptures because ye think that in .them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life.'

The fundamental import of the Christian scriptures is that they record the story of Jesus.

They enable us to get in touch with the historic manifestation of the Divine.

It is true only the four

' THE WITNESS'OF SCRIPTURE

Gospels narrate the life of Jesus.

But these Gospels are to the Bible what the keystone is to the arch.

The whole structure rests upon the keystone.

Take the Gospels away and the massive edifice of Christian revelation tumbles down immediately.

We know from the prologue what a secure place the idea of the eternal God appearing in time has held 'in the mind of the Fourth Evangelist.

To him the fact of profound importance is that the Logos,' who was with God and.was God, began His work of creation and after manifesting Himself through the' processes of nature and of history, finally took human flesh and dwelt among men. This is the very starting point of Johannine thought. How thoroughly the entire argument of the Gospel is affected by the initial idea that Christ existed. before all time is evident from several verses.

Speaking to the Jews, Jesus says, 'Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad. .The Jews therefore said unto him, Thou are not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ?

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I. am.'* In the great prayer, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel, He says: 'And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.' * And again:

' Father, that which thou hast given me, I will that, where [ am, they also may be with me; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.'* 'The First Epistle of John 2 John viii. 56-58.

2 John xvii.5.

| * Johm xvii. 24,

CHRISTIANITY AS BHAKTI MARGA

begins with the same note: 'That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life.' *

According to the Fourth Evangelist, it is not possible to see the eternal, ineffable and transcendent God.

If we attempt to see Him we shall only fail.

This thought has often found noble expression in the religious literature of India; noble because it reveals the thinker in all his sincerity and humility.

Kabir, who lived in the fifteenth century, has a poem which may be considered a good specimen of such utterances:

'There within Him creation goes forward, which is beyond all philosophy ; for philosophy cannot attain to Him:

There is an endless world, O my Brother! and there is the Nameless Being, of whom naught can be said.

Only he knows it who has reached that region: it is other than all that is heard and said.

No form, no body, no length, no breadth is seen there: how can I tell you that which it is ?

He comes to the Path of the Infinite on whom the grace of the Lord descends: he is freed from births and deaths who attains to Him.

Kabir says: "It cannot be told by the words of the mouth, it cannot be written on paper :

It is like a dumb person who tastes a sweet thing— how shall it be explained ?".'? f.¢ 1 Jobin de * Songs of Kabir, tr. by Rabindranath Tagore, p. 121.

THE WITNESS OF SCRIPTURE

Who can know the eternal Being as He is in Himself ?

John teaches us that it is only through the world which He has made and through the movements of men whom He guides that we can obtain a glimpse of His personality.

And even this can only be tantalizing and vague, enabling us to see but partially and as through a veil the majesty and love that are His.

It is only when we realize that the Eternal has become flesh and dwelt among us that we can behold His glory, ' glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."

We cannot see or know the Father but we can see Jesus and through Him we can know the Father.

How emphatically and frequently is this thought reiterated in the Gospel and in the Epistles of John.

'No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.'* 'Philip saith unto him, Lord show us the Father, and it sufficeth 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? '* 'No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us.'* As the appearance of Jesus on earth is the supreme moment in history, all the movements of men before and after find their real meaning in His life and teaching.

History is important as it prepares the way for this supreme manifestation of the Divine.

If God is 1 John i. 18.

2 John xiv. 8, 9.

3 1 John iv, 12.