CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
I sHouLp like to begin this book with a personal statement.
My father was a convert from Hinduism.
He was baptized as a Christian when he was twenty-four years old. He had become a Christian after a good deal of searching inquiry; he practised as a lawyer and was highly successful in his profession. But along with his work as a lawyer he took an active part in religious work and was faithful in his personal habits of prayer and spiritual reading.
Not content with this, he retired from the legal profession in his fifty-fourth year and devoted himself entirely to prayer, meditation and religious work.
He was a keen evangelist.
He was never tired of bearing witness to the power of Christ in his own life.
He did this in personal interviews with Hindus and in small meetings for them which he arranged wherever he went.
He was well known in the district and his words were always listened to with considerable respect.
Because of his social position he was able to reach a great many Hindus who would not ordinarily come to hear a Christian address.
He wrote several pamphlets in Tamil and in English, telling the story of his conversion and giving his many reasons for his continuing to follow Christ.
Both in what he said and in what he wrote, the note of personal testimony was clear and strong.
A convert himself, he had always a warm corner in his heart and in his home for new converts.
There were always two or three converts, generally from the higher castes, whom he supported and for whose spiritual instruction he made careful arrangements.
From the year the Indian Missionary Society was founded in Tinnevelly to the time of his death, he was closely associated with the work of the Society as its President for a period of over twenty years, and took a deep interest in the growing activities of the Society in the diocese of Dornakal.
He was known as a practical man with sound judgment and his advice was often sought about the policy and work of the Society.
When he died he made careful financial provision that much of the evangelistic work which he had been personally carrying on during his life should be continued after his death.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
Throughout his life he was an earnest student of religion. He studied the New Testament daily and pondered deeply on its
4. teaching.
His copy of the New Testament in big type was well thumbed, its pages yellow with time and bearing innumerable pencil marks.
He never seemed to study the Old Testament with the same care; he only occasionally read it.
He also read deeply, though not extensively, Christian theological and devotional books.
He had always on hand at least one good book which he read slowly, making endless marks with pencil, and on which he meditated a good deal, and which he often discussed with his children and his friends.
Along with his study of Christianity he carried on a careful study of Hinduism.
He extended his knowledge of Hinduism by long and frequent conversations with Tamil and Sanskrit
Pandits.
As a boy I remember such Pandits often coming to our house and telling my father what they understood their sacred Scriptures to teach.
In his pamphlets he often quoted from the Hindu Scriptures passages which helped him to understand his own Christian position better.
He also clearly pointed out at what points Christianity was different from Hinduism.
In his sixty-seventh year a strange, new passion began to consume him, the passion to see God.
He came in contact with a Hindu Yogi who taught him a method of meditation. My father followed carefully the instructions given by the Yogi and for a period of twelve years until his death he practised Yoga regularly every morning and evening.
It was his habit to sit with folded legs, gazing on a stretch of grass or a sheet of water, and to be lost in contemplation.
He passed through many mystical experiences, some of which he described to us and to his intimate
- friends.* It is quite possible to criticize some of the things which my father did.
It may be said that he ought not to have desired to see God.
All the great Christian saints have taught us that such a desire is apt to be misleading.
A man ought to aspire only for a life of communion with God, not for a vision of God.
Modern psychology confirms the teachings of the saints, and points out that visions are often simply born of the desire to see God.
Fresh from Oxford with my scientific study of religious experience, I did tell him this but he was not convinced.
He felt sure that he actually saw God in every one of his visions.
I could not but sympathize with his earnest desire to get to know *See his Fifty Years' Pilgrimage of a Convert (C. L. S. Madras).
INTRODUCTION
more clearly and more closely the God whom he had been worshipping through the years and yet who had seemed remote and far away. a It may also be said that he had no business to go to a Hindu
Yogi for instruction in meditation.
There are valuable books in the Christian Church on meditation and some of these he probably knew.
And yet there was no person, among the Christians he knew, who was skilled in meditation and who cculd have guided him.
If he had been a Roman Catholic, he might perhaps have gained some help of this kind.
But certainly as a Protestant there was no Christian who could have guided him when he was engaged in a desperate struggle to come to know
God more clearly and intimately than during all the previous years of his long life.
As a matter of fact, I used to observe that in the deeper things of life he got very little help from Christian teachers during the last years of his life.
He never missed going to church but he always complained that the sermons were all meant only to deepen the sense of sin and to show that God's forgiveness is available for men.
The importance of this he knew well.
It was really the Christian doctrine that in Christ God's justice and mercy were reconciled which had made him take the final step towards Christ.
He had been taught that God's justice required that all men should be punished heavily for their sins and that His mercy demanded their complete forgiveness; on the Cross of Calvary both these claims were satisfied.
But my father felt that there were other things in the Christian life besides penitence, confession and the experience of God's forgiving love.
The Christian saints say that in the religious life there are three stages of progress.
In the first stage, men are penitent, confess their sins and are assured of God's pardon; in the second, they attain a clearer knowledge of God; and in the third, they experience fellowship with Him.*
While no man leaves behind completely one or other of these stages, growth in the spiritual life is gradual movement from penitence and confession to a deeper knowledge of God, and then on again to a closer fellowship with Him.
Even the maturest saint, to whom fellowship with God is real, must be truly penitent and confess his sins regularly.
But surely there is a difference between the first stage when the sense of sin and of a strenuous fight against it is supreme, and the third stage when the experience of fellow- * Known technically as the purgative, illuminative and unitive stages.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
ship with God is of outstanding importance.
My father's idea was that a great deal of the Christian preaching to which he listened Sunday after Sunday was concerned with the first stage only and had very little to offer by way of guidance for the second and the third stages.
It also used to amuse him a little that the very first words of the Morning Service in the Anglican
Prayer Book are about the wicked and not about God.
I have written at such length about my father as my knowledge of his religious experience has been responsible for some of the convictions which underlie this book.
I have come to believe that there is a rich spiritual heritage in India which we
Christians ought to use.
There has been a profound search for God in India through the ages.
The experiences and the ideals of the Bhaktas of India, which are found in their religious books and also in some of the devout Hindus of to-day, have a great deal that is of value to teach us.
The fact that we recognize that there is much in the higher types of Hindu thought and life which can teach us does not mean that we lose something of our loyalty to Christ.
The passion to win others for Christ need not become less keen for that reason.
A Christian may be a fervent evangelist while at the same time he tries to understand other people's religious experiences and to learn from them.
The knowledge of my father's spiritual struggles and successes has also led me to the conclusion that Christian theology in India should be restated with fellowship with God as the central experience.
In popular Christianity this experience does not occupy - the important place which it has in the New Testament.
A good deal of our Christian thought and practice will be different if it is realized that fellowship with God, resulting in devoted work for Him, is the primary motive of the Christian life.
Another personal experience must be told.
It was my great privilege to come to know Sadhu Sundar Singh intimately.
I was writing at Oxford a thesis on the Gospel of St. John and Hindu Bhakti Literature.
At that time (1920) Sadhu Sundar Singh came to England on a preaching mission and visited Oxford. Though I had read a good deal about him, I had not met him until then.
From that time until his mysterious disappearance in 1929 I saw him several times, often spending many days in his company, and I heard him give several addresses.
I had long and intimate talks with him on spiritual matters.
I studied carefully all his printed sermons and books.
His deep, inner life of communion with Christ, issuing in abundant practical activities, impressed me greatly.
Prayer was very dear to
INTRODUCTION
him and he often preached about it.
During his meditations he saw the Living Christ and had frequent converse with Him.
He did not often speak about these experiences but he spoke about them occasionally and at great length.
He was himself a convert from the Sikh religion and he did not consider that there was anything of value in Sikhism, Hinduism, Islam or any of the other non-Christian religions of the world.
But one felt that his was a characteristically Indian soul, with a really Indian outlook.
He thought and spoke in pictures and his frequent parables were like the stories which the Indian religious teachers always used.
The life of renunciation which he led was a literal following of the Sannyast ideal.
He sought for peace with the same eagerness with which devotees in India have always longed for it. He dwelt much in the immediate Presence of God and he realized clearly that it was not his own spirit but the Spirit of God which guided him and controlled him in all his highest activities.
My contact with Sadhu Sundar Singh strengthened some of the convictions which had been taking shape in my home.
I realized that there is a spiritual heritage of great value in India, and that Christians in India should make the fullest possible use of it.
All the riches of devotion and prayer available in India 'should be offered up to Christ.
The experience of communion with God, resulting in purity of life and in continued efforts to make Him real to men, is of fundamental importance in the Christian life.
What is the Heritage of India?
I am not saying anything in this book about the heritage of Islam.
India has over seventy millions of Muslims; there are more Muslims in this country than in any other.
Islam has been in existence in India for over nine centuries now and its followers play a great and important part in the life of the land.
Thousands of our Christians have come directly from Islam or are the descendants of converts from it. Their spiritual heritage is really from Islam.
Indian Christians with a Muslim background would naturally desire to offer up to Christ anything of special value in their own heritage.
I am afraid they will get no help from this book.
It is impossible to deal here adequately with the contribution of Islam to Christian culture.
That must be done by someone who comes from the Muslim background himself, and who has a practical knowledge of Muslim doctrines and customs.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
Nor am I saying anything in this book about the heritage of the art, literature and social life of India.
There is much of value in them but lack of space forbids my dealing with them.
Here I am wholly concerned with the heritage of India as found in the religious literature and the spiritual experience of Hinduism.
Hinduism is the characteristic religion of India and is followed by the majority.
It is a vast ocean.
There are many types of religious belief and practice included in it. All that can be done here is briefly to indicate the main lines of development.
It is possible to distinguish for our purpose at least five different types of religious life in Hinduism.
Atheism.
Some of the Hindu thinkers are atheists.
In Sankhya Philosophy, for instance, there is no clear and definite teaching about God.
This Philosophy speaks of two realities, Spirit (Purusha) and Matter (Prakriti).
The Purusha is an intelligent principle and has consciousness as its very essence.
It is different from the body, the senses and the mind.
It is beyond all physical objects and sees the various activities going on in the world without itself undergoing change in any way.
Objects like chairs and beds imply the existence of beings other than themselves for whose enjoyment they have been made.
The entire physical world likewise implies the existence of spirits who enjoy them.
It is a cardinal tenet of the Sankhya system that Prakriti and Purusha are eternal.
Prakriti has not come into existence through Purusha.
Matter has always existed, though it undergoes various transformations from time to time by its association with Purusha.
The Purusha is in itself free and immortal but it confuses itself with the body, the senses and the mind.
Through ignorance the spirit feels injured and unhappy when the body is hurt or indisposed.
The great goal of the Sankhya thinker is to reach a state of existence in which the body does not determine a man's happiness or sorrow.
A Hindu Sadhu said:
'' Every morning I go to one or other of seven houses.
If I get food in the first house, I return to my cell immediately.
If I do not get any food in the first house, I go to the second and if food is given there I return to my cell.
I thus visit one after the other the seven houses.
If in all the seven houses I do not get any food, I fast for the day and the next morning I begin my rounds again."
In this way he seeks to prevent his body from determining his happiness or sorrow.
Polytheism.
The popular religion of the Hindus consists largely in the worship of innumerable gods and goddesses. These
INTRODUCTION
é' yi seem to have come down from ancient times.
The aboriginal peoples of India, like primitive men all over the world, worshipped many gods.
Some of them were the spirits of dead heroes.
Others again were diseases like small-pox or cholera, which also came to be considered as evil gods who had to be worshipped and pleased if their anger was to be avoided.
These old gods have been taken over into Hinduism and are still worshipped ; even men of education occasionally pray to them.
New gods are constantly coming into existence; if a specially holy man dies, a shrine is built for him and his worship is started.
The more thoughtful men are inclined to say that all these many divinities worshipped in India are but the manifestations of the one Supreme God.
Ordinary people believe that there is only one God but are not clear in their own minds as to the relation between all the numerous gods and that one God, nor are they anxious to make that relation clear. They continue their worship without troubling to inquire whether various gods could be followed if the belief in the one God is genuine.
Pantheism.
Many Hindu thinkers are pantheists and regard the world of physical objects as identical with God. The sun, the moon and the stars are God; rivers, trees and flowers are all God; men and women are also God.
These objects do exist.
They are not mere illusions but they are entirely one with the Divine.
The main reason for this doctrine seems to be a real feeling for nature.
The beauty of nature captivates the Hindu thinker so much that he comes to regard it as Divine.
We know that all through the ages the Hindus have been attracted by nature.
All lovely spots—rivers, waterfalls, mountain tops and the seashore—are invariably set apart for worship.
'Wherever there is a commanding view a shrine is built.
The majestic Ganges is considered a sacred river.
The snow-clad Himalayas are adored as a goddess.
In fact the whole world, which in one part or another has charm and beauty, comes to be regarded as Divine.
4. Monism.
Many of the educated Hindus hold the doctrine of Advaita as taught by the great philosopher Sankara and his followers.
According to this doctrine there is only one Reality and that is God (Brahman).
Everything else is unreal (Maya).
The world is unreal; men are unreal; animals, trees and plants are unreal.
We may say that we exist, that there is an actual world in which we live, and that we are surrounded by real things.
To this the Advaitin replies that it is through ignorance (Avid ya) that a man thinks that there is such a person as him-
B. s
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
self, that there are other persons—relations, friends, enemies or strangers—with whom he has dealings, and that there are around him physical objects like houses, chairs, clothes, trees and flowers.
As long as he is ignorant, he will think so.
But when his ignorance is removed, he will know beyond all doubt that God only is Reality and that everything else is unreal.
The path by which he may reach this belief is known as the path of knowledge (fnana Marga).
Such realization is the goal of the religious life.
There is nothing that counts except the clear knowledge that God alone exists, and that everything else is an illusion.
One who has attained this knowledge has climbed the summit of spiritual experience. He is filled with complete peace; nothing disturbs him; no ambitions, no calamities, no successes, no failures have any influence over him.
He is not annoyed or pleased, he does not hate or love and he remains at perfect rest.
He is in no way moved by the varying fortunes which ordinarily occur to men.
5. Theism (Bhakti Religion).
From the earliest times many Hindu thinkers and poets have believed that there is a Supreme
God who has created the universe and everything in it. He is possessed of all the great and noble qualities of which we see glimpses here and there among men.
He has boundless love and mercy for all beings; He is true and just. He knows everything; He understands everything; He feels everything; there is no limit to the powers of His mind.
Men are real, not illusory, beings and they must love Him in return for His love.
They must worship Him, for He loves their worship.
The highest spiritual experience which they can reach is that of communion with Him.
They do not lose themselves in Him; they continue to exist as separate persons and to dwell through eternity in the bliss of His Presence.
There are many differences among the Bhaktas but what I have said may be considered to be, in the main, their teaching.
Through the ages there have been holy men in India who have tried, as best as they know how, to love and serve God.
The lives of such saints which have come down to us, though they are filled with many miraculous stories as in all lands and religions, show us that they were men of deep piety and sincere devotion.
The hymns of undying value, which they have sung, have been carefully treasured and still nourish the spiritual life of multitudes.
The earliest expression of the Bhakti doctrine may be said to occur in the Katha Upanishad, which was probably written somewhere between the sixth and fourth centuries B.c.
God is
INTRODUCTION
regarded in this Upanishad as the Creator of the world and as dealing with His creatures in a spirit of grace :
" Less than an atom, greater than the great, The Self is hid in every creature's heart :
The unstriving man beholds Him, freed from sorrow, Through the Creator's grace he sees the greatness of the Self." *
A knowledge of God cannot be reached by any amount of study.
It can only be reached if God, out of His abundant love, chooses to reveal Himself.
Man is not identical with God; he is separate from Him.
The devotee must discipline all his desires like a chariot driver, who keeps well under control the strong horses which are harnessed to his chariot.
If such a process of spiritual discipline be followed, the God within will manifest
Himself to the devotee.
In this Upanishad we have the central ideas of Bhakti doctrine—the existence of God, the possession by God of such qualities as grace, the separateness of man from God and man's duty to follow after God by disciplining himself.
It ought, however, to be pointed out that the actual word Bhakti does not occur in this U panishad.
In the Bhagavad Gita, written about the beginning of the Christian era, we have a full exposition of the path of Bhakti.
We may surmise that during the centuries which passed between the appearance of the Katha Upanishad and the Bhagavad Gita, the doctrine of Bhakti had grown slowly.
In the Katha U panishad, Bhakti is like a tiny stream; in the Gita, it has become a river in full flood.
The experiences of the devotees which must have occurred in the meanwhile to make such a development possible are all hidden from us in obscurity.
The Bhagavad Gita says:
"' Whosoever devoutly offers to me a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water—I accept the pious offering of that man who is pure of heart.
Whatsoever thou doest, whatsoever thou eatest, whatsoever thou offerest, whatsoever thou givest away and whatsoever of austerities thou dost practise—do that as an offering to me." *
In the Bhagavad Gita two other paths are also spoken of as leading to God—the path of knowledge (fnana) and the path of works (Karma).
The author speaks of all these three paths at great length.
This has led to much difference of interpretation.
Some commentators hold that in the Gita the path of
, . 106. eee ae eet ty D. S. Sarma, The Bhagavad Gita, p. 143.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
knowledge is supreme, others that the path of action is given the first place and yet others that the path of love is of outstanding importance.
It must be confessed that it is rather difficult to say which path the author himself prefers.
He exhorts devotees to pursue all the three paths, though of the three, even in his own judgment, the path of Bhakti seems to be supremely valuable.
The fact that the three methods of approach to God are dealt with in the Gita gives to its teaching about Bhakti a distinctive character.
The feeling of love to God with complete surrender to His will has to be exercised along with an understanding of his character and the active pursuit of duty. Bhakti is not empty feeling; there must be knowledge of the object worshipped ; and this knowledge must gradually grow in clearness. The devotee must exert himself to do all the duties assigned to him in his station in life. Neither the possession of love for God nor a growing clearness of understanding about Him will excuse him from the steady observance of morality.
He must perform sincerely, zealously and persistently all the duties required of him.
Only when he loves God in a spirit of understanding and fulfils his duties can he be regarded as a genuine worshipper.
The next important stage in the growth of Bhakti took place in South India between the sixth and the ninth centuries A.D.
There were several Tamil poets who poured out their devotion in stirring lyrics. Some of them like Manikkavacakar and Appar were the worshippers of Siva, and others like Nammalvar were the devotees of Vishnu.
They wandered from shrine to shrine pouring out their ecstatic devotion to God in lyrics of moving beauty.
Hundreds of these hymns still exist and are sung daily by devotees both in temples and in homes.
While the myths about the gods are fully accepted and believed in, we see wonderful glimpses of the love and goodness of God and of man's supreme duty to love God in return with his whole being.
The hymns make it clear that the poets had a real experience of God and came to know something of His grace and reality and power. It is significant that the Tamil Bhakti poets flourished at a time when Buddhist persecution was active in South India.
As long as men lead a soft life their religion is not deep.
But when they pass through dangerous times and are called upon to suffer for the sake of their religion, it becomes genuine.
The living religion of the Tamil Bhaktas, which is recorded in the hymns, has a real connexion with the persecution and suffering through which the devotees had to pass.
About the beginning of the tenth century a.v. the Bhagavata
- INTRODUCTION
I Purana seems to have been written in South India.
This book marks yet another stage in the growth of Bhakti.
Here Bhakti becomes a thrilling emotional experience.
The devotee's hair stands on end; his body shakes with excitement; tears flow down from his eyes.
Whenever these and similar experiences occur he feels sure that he is having an experience of God. His great desire is to reach such an ecstatic state constantly.
The Bhakti which is spoken of in the Bhagavata Purana is very different from the calm and restrained Bhakti of the Bhagavad
Gita.
In the Gita, as we have seen, the pursuit after a clearer knowledge of God and after the fulfilment of human duties keeps Bhakti from being a mere emotional experience.
The Bhagavata Purana has been of immense importance in India; millions of devotees in all parts of the country have drunk deep of its doctrine.
For the first time in the history of Bhakti thought, Ramanuja in the twelfth century A.D. gives a philosophic exposition of the doctrine.
With great learning and profound insight, Ramanuja seeks to show that the Bhakti doctrines are found in the ancient
Vedas and Upanishads, which are the authoritative sources for the Hindu religion.
He builds up a systematic doctrine of God who is regarded as being full of the auspicious qualities of love, goodness, truth, 'mercy, justice and power.
Men are different from Him; they are not identical with Him.
They wholly depend upon Him as the body depends upon the soul.
They must worship Him with love and devotion.
In the future life the highest bliss which is in store for them is the knowledge and enjoyment of God.
They are not merged in God; they have their own separate existence but dwell in the bliss of God's
Presence and devote themselves to His service.
The work of Ramanuja is important as it gives the teaching about Bhakti a great place among the philosophic systems of India.
Ramanuja makes it perfectly clear that the position which he takes up is not a simple faith, fit only for the man with little or no education.
The doctrines of Bhakti, when fully worked out, form a complete and elaborate system of Theology.
Thus Ramanuja brings out still another important aspect of Bhakti, its capacity to appeal to the most critical and inquiring among men.
The Middle Ages saw the widespread activity of the Bhakt: poets and thinkers. Kabir flourished in Benares in the fourteenth century. In the sixteenth century Chaitanya was active in Bengal and Tulsidas wrote his immortal Ramayana, full of the spirit of Bhakti, on the banks of the Ganges in Benares.
In the seven-
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
teenth century Tukaram led an active Bhakti Movement in the western part of India.
These are only a few among the many prominent men and women who actively devoted themselves to the service of God and spread far and wide the religion of Bhakti.
It may be pointed out that here again the active propaganda of Islam may have had something to do with the vigorous development of Bhakti.
During these centuries Muslims were busy propagating their religion in India, often at the point of the sword.
The threat and experience of constant persecution brought out all that was vital in the Hindu soul. A real experience of God was the outcome of the persecution through which it was called upon to pass.
The spirit of Bhakti is alive in India even to-day.
Perhaps the most prominent Bhakta of recent times is Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who flourished in the nineteenth century.
He was a man with little or no learning but he had an unquenchable thirst for the Living God; as he himself said, he was mad after God.
He lived in an old Hindu temple not far from Calcutta, spending his days in prayer and meditation and in teaching the many disciples who began to gather around him.
He attracted men*and women of all types and many educated people from Calcutta flocked to hear his teaching.
He did not write any books but he spoke at great length and his discourses were full of striking sayings and parables. His greatest disciple was Swami
Vivekananda, who carried his message to the ends of the earth.
Ramakrishna's firm belief in God, his sincere devotion, his selfless love and his utter renunciation have won for him a growing number of followers.
His influence in India to-day is steadily on the increase.
The Sannyasis of the Ramakrishna Mission are scattered all over the country and are busily engaged in innumerable practical activities such as education, medical work, flood relief and spiritual instruction.
This all too brief account of the Bhakti saints, poets and thinkers shows that the movement dates back to the time of the Upanishads and is of ancient origin.
Bhakti is of many types; sometimes the emotional aspect is most prominent; at other times insight into the nature of God is emphasized; at other times yet the fulfilment of duties attached to one's station in life is all important. The Bhakti Granthas are also of different types—popular hymns, brief and pithy sayings or deep and learned philosophical treatises.
The Bhakti Movement is spread all over India and its books are found in practically all the important vernaculars. In virtue of the fact that the vernaculars
INTRODUCTION
Bo have been used by the Bhakti writers, their teaching has reached millions of men and women who are unable to understand the many learned books written only in Sanskrit.
The question of Christian influence on Bhakti Literature has been often discussed.
Some scholars have held that as the Christian Church has been in Travancore in the south of India from the early centuries of the Christian era, Christianity is probably responsible for all distinctively Bhakti doctrines.
The genius of Hinduism, it is said, is not at all of the Bhakti type; it is more of the Advaita type; only Christian influence can explain many of the characteristic features of Bhakti thought and experience.
While it is true that the Christian Church has existed in India for many centuries, it has been shut off from the rest of the country by high ranges of hills and the Syrian Church in Travancore has tended to live its own life in isolation.
We have no historical evidence that it actively propagated the Christian Faith in other parts of India.
The early growth of Bhakti in India seems to have been an independent movement.
But it is quite likely that from the sixteenth century onwards Christian ideas began to influence Bhakti thought.
Roman Catholic missionaries were busy spreading Christian doctrines and no doubt many Hindus were influenced by them.
It is important to notice that even if the Hindus borrowed some ideas from Christian sources, they adapted them very skilfully and made them their own.
This is true also of the modern religious movements in India, which are obviously largely shaped by Christian influences.
In view of the fact that all Bhakiz movements in India, including the most modern ones, are in many directions wholly Hindu in their spirit and outlook, they may be regarded as a part of the heritage of India.
In this book for the sake of clearness I speak only of the significance of the Bhakti heritage.
Other schools of Hindu thought and experience have also lessons of great value to teach us.
I have not concerned myself with them for the reason that it is better to concentrate on one more or less unified system of thought than to attempt to deal with the many conflicting doctrines and practices of Hinduism.
Difficulties connected with the Christian Use of India's Hentage The vastness of the subject frightens us.
In a city like Benares one is impressed with the magnitude and diversity of the Hindu heritage. I visited the Gowenka Sanskrit School and was told that the course there occupied twelve years and that during this long period only an introduction was given to the main
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
branches of Hindu sacred learning.
There are hundreds of scholars in the city who are devoting their whole life to the careful study of one or other of the Hindu schools of thought.
The books are often written in an extremely subtle form.
The arguments and illustrations have to be read over and over again before their significance is grasped.
Even if attention is concentrated, as in this book, only on one part of the Hindu heritage
(Bhakti Literature), there are so many different developments of it with their varying importance that it requires much study and thought to realize their true value.
Even now there are Christians who believe that Hinduism and all the non-Christian religions are purely human in their origin. Some of them go further.
Once I spoke at a missionary gathering and pleaded that in our approach to Hindus we must use everything of value in their own thought and experience.
The chairman of the meeting, who was quite conservative in his outlook, remarked that though there were some beautiful things in Hinduism, it was his firm belief that they had been put there by Satan to mislead people.
This is no doubt an extreme position.
There may not be many missionaries to-day of this way of thinking.
But there are certainly many who are strongly convinced that Hinduism is entirely human in its origin, that God has never revealed Himself in India, that all the Hindu doctrines are the result of men's own thinking, and that there is no religious experience in India in the sense that God has revealed Himself to them.
Not only missionaries but also Indian Christians are much opposed to any use by Christians of the heritage of India.
There are thousands of Christians in India who have no use whatsoever for Hindu culture in any form.
They want the Christians in India to form a distinctive community by themselves.
They must sing only Western hymns.
They must worship in buildings which look like Christian churches in Europe.
They must wear European clothes and follow European manners and customs.
They must use English at home.
In this way they must seek to mark themselves off clearly from the Hindus among whom they live and from whose midst they have come.
I may, however, say here that both among missionaries and Indian Christians a new attitude is coming into existence.
Many missionaries themselves are now beginning to teach that the music, the architecture, the theology and the methods of government of the Indian Church must be really indigenous in its character.
The view that the Church in India should be as far
INTRODUCTION
as possible Indian is gaining ground though slowly. The younger men realize the importance of making as full a use as possible of the heritage of India.
We must never forget the danger, always present in India, of yielding to the many attractions of Hinduism.
The subtle doctrines of Hindu thinkers, the vigorous arguments with which they support them, the picturesque illustrations which they bring forward in such abundance and the courage with which they carry their ideas to their logical conclusions, even though they are quite contrary to practical experience, are greatly attractive to people who take delight in thinking out things for themselves.
The doctrine of Advaita, for instance, that the whole world is unreal is quite contrary to ordinary experience.
We all think that the world is real and we always act as if it were.
But the Advaita thinker holds firmly that the world is unreal; he proves this by careful arguments and vivid examples.
Never for a moment does he hesitate in his belief that the world is Maya; he applies his belief consistently to all spheres of life and says that everything that we know is Maya. He brings forward many different proofs in support of his theory; they are often ingenious and require much thought before they can even be understood.
It is not surprising that many intellectual people find the philosophy of Hinduism of absorbing interest. If they have no extensive knowledge of Christian Theology and if they have no deeply Christian life of their own, they come to believe that all that Hinduism teaches is true, and that there is really not very much difference between Christianity and Hinduism.
I have myself come across two men who are Christians in name but who spend their entire time in studying the philosophical books of the Hindus.
They believe that Hinduism and Christianity teach practically the same thing; the intellectual power of Hinduism has supreme influence over them.
Probably there are many others like them in the country.
I am not thinking here of those who say that Hinduism is true, without taking any trouble at all to find out what it teaches.
I am rather referring to those who begin to study Hinduism carefully and who end by losing the distinctive character of their own Christian belief. When we seek to find out the real value of the spiritual heritage of India, it is as well to bear in mind this constant danger which is found on the path of such study.
Why should we use the Heritage of India?
Because God has been at' work in India through the ages.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
Not long ago Christian scholars were inclined to say that all the religions of the world could be roughly classified as Christian and heathen; in the Christian religion God has spoken and in the other religions He has not.
The growing knowledge of all religions, the numerous translations which have appeared of their sacred books, the appointment of professors in the great universities of the world to teach the history of religions and the abundant contacts now established between the different countries have brought about a new attitude.
It is now felt that all the non-Christian religions cannot be simply dismissed as heathen.
'The growing science of religions has made it quite clear that there is much truth in all the religions of the world.
Christian scholars, therefore, are coming to the conclusion that we should classify religions as those containing a general or a special revelation.
In all the religions of the world there is a general revelation of God.
He has been at work inspiring all the great prophets and seers of mankind.
But in Christianity He has revealed Himself through Jesus Christ.
The revelation through Jesus Christ is quite unique.
It contains a clear manifestation of God's purpose for mankind.
But this is not to say that all the other religions are merely men's blind gropings in the dark.
To them also God has shown Himself, though not so clearly.
India is a deeply religious country.
The pursuit of religion has been of absorbing interest to our people.
We have a vast and ancient literature dealing with all the problems raised by religion.
There are thousands of devotees who even to-day are earnestly engaged in the spiritual quest and who declare that God has spoken to them.
If we believe in a general revelation, we cannot but accept that the religious books and the spiritual experience of India have much to teach us as they have been inspired of God.
We do not regard the heritage of India as precious simply because we are Indians.
As Indians we are proud of everything that is great in India.
It is but natural that we should value highly our motherland and be devoted to it.
We do not, however, value India's heritage simply because it is our national culture but we value it because we believe that God has been at work in this ancient land and that He has really helped the millions of earnest and sincere souls who have sought after Him with all the fervour of which they were capable.
We must use the heritage of India as we can be better Christians by such use.. An Indian may spend his lifetime in the study of the English language.
He may be in a position
INTRODUCTION
to express his thoughts more easily, fluently and correctly in English than in his own mother tongue.
But even so he rarely seems capable of writing English with the same grace as an Englishman does.
In some such way, the experience of the Christian religion will be much more effective when it is pursued along lines congenial to the Indian soul.
The people of India have always had an earnest longing to realize the Indwelling
God, a passionate desire for intimate fellowship with Him and a strong urge for the attainment of inner peace and joy.
These longings are not the whole of the Christian religion but they are a vital part of it.
If Christians in India cultivate such longings, we would probably reach higher levels of spirituality than we do now, for in many ways efforts along these lines are congenial to us and it is easier to achieve greatness in virtues native to the soul.
Modern teachers lay stress on the fact that education should commence with what the pupils actually know and understand.
We must start from where they are and gradually lead them up to where we want them to go. The soundest method of education is to begin with the pupils as they are.
It is interesting to note that the distinguished Hindu scholar, Sir S. Radhakrishnan, Professor of Eastern Religions at Oxford
University, makes the remark that a convert is like an illegitimate child without any heritage.
"A convert to a new religion feels an utter stranger to himself.
He feels like an illegitimate child with no heritage, no link with the men who preceded him. What in other people is a habit or an instinct seems to be with him a pose or an affectation.
There is no inner development or natural progress to the new religion.
It does not arise out of the old, but falls from one knows not where." ° Radhakrishnan's idea is that any one who changes his religion loses his spiritual heritage altogether; he is not really at home in the new religion.
People who have followed Christianity for generations have learnt, for instance, to sing certain hymns and these are quite natural to them. A new convert seeks immediately to follow them, though many of the sentiments are quite strange to his former beliefs, and therefore his acceptance of them is not quite real. He has not grown up in them as the other Christians have, and so there is hypocrisy in his spiritual life.
He seeks to believe and to follow what he has hastily accepted, and this is not grounded in a prolonged experience lasting over several generations.
From this Radhakrishnan argues that there should be no conversions from one religion to another.
While I do not 5S. Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 329.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S .HERITAGE
accept that all conversions are bad, I do think that there is some truth in what Radhakrishnan says about the unreality and lack of depth in the religious experiences of many new converts.
They seek to follow new ideals for which they have not in any way been prepared.
The best way to avoid this danger is to let the new converts follow Christ along the noblest lines of their own spiritual heritage.
While everything which is not true to the mind of Christ should be given up, everything that He can approve of must be retained and developed.
The use of the heritage available in India will really make possible a richer and deeper spiritual life in the Indian Church.
3. We must use the heritage of India for by doing so we shall make Christianity more attractive to the people of this land.
Recently I was talking to a Buddhist monk.
In the course of the conversation he said that he had been a Hindu, that he had seriously thought of becoming a Christian and that he had finally become a Buddhist.
I asked him why he had done so.
He said:
"I feel there are many abuses among the Hindus such as caste and idolatry.
I am anxious to correct them and to help my Hindu brethren.
But I feel that if I become a Christian or a Muslim I cannot help them, for they will immediately regard me as an alien and I will have no influence over them.
Both Christianity and Islam are considered as foreign religions in this country."
I was surprised at this answer and asked him a further question:
'You say Christians in India are foreign.
What exactly is foreign about them, their theology, their methods of Church government, their ecclesiastical architecture, their social institutions or their personal habits?"
And he said:
"Everything about them is foreign." This criticism is often made of Indian Christians and with a good deal of justification.
A Hindu speaker in a public address spoke thus of the late Sir A. T. Pannirselvam, a Roman Catholic leader in South India.
"Does he read Kamban's Ramayana, the masterpiece of Tamil Literature?
Does he reverence the Kurral which contains the quintessence of all wisdom?
What right has he to call himself a Dravidian, he who has cut himself off from Dravidian ideas, literature and culture and believes in an alien religion, culture and civilization?" ° If Christians.in India could learn to use all that is valuable in the heritage of the country, such criticisms would cease to be made.
There is much in the music, the literature, the architecture and the social institutions of India which is in keeping
° The Hindu, August 30, 1939.
INTRODUCTION
with the spirit of Christ's teaching and example and which ought to be preserved in the Christian Church in India.
It is a great pity that the Christians of India have tended to isolate themselves in every possible way from their countrymen. Such separation is good neither for them nor for India.
I hope the time will soon come when Christians in India will identify themselves ne all that is highest and noblest in the life and culture of the and.
4. We must use the heritage of India for only then can we learn to make our contribution to the Church Universal.
Towards the end of 1938 a great Conference was held at Tambaram near Madras.
Over 450 delegates from various parts of the world came, some of them travelling several thousand miles, to attend the Conference.
There were representatives from the Older Christian Churches in Europe and America; there were also representatives from the Younger Churches in Africa, India,
China and Japan.
This remarkable gathering showed to the Christian world the wide appeal of the Gospel.
People were impressed by the fact that the Christian Church included among its numbers men and women speaking many different languages, following many different customs and possessing many different cultures.
It was felt that if all these different representatives preserved whatever was best in their own spiritual heritage, the Church of Christ would certainly be all the richer.
Through the ages different nations in different countries have followed different ideals.
Some of these are valuable and others are not of much importance.
If all those which are acceptable to Christ were preserved in His Church, there would be a much greater wealth of spiritual life and power in it than there is to-day.
So the Tambaram Conference said:
" When churches grow up in the environment of non-Christian religions and cultures, it is necessary that they should become firmly rooted in the Christian heritage and fellowship of the Church Universal. They have their place in the great Christian brotherhood of all ages and races.
But they should also be rooted in the soil of their own country.
Therefore we strongly affirm that the Gospel should be expressed and interpreted in indigenous forms, and that in methods of worship, institutions, literature, architecture, etc. the spiritual heritage of the nation and country should be taken into use.
The Gospel is not necessarily bound up with forms and methods brought in from the older churches.
The endeavour to give Christ His rightful place in the heart of people who have not previously known Him—-so that He will neither be
THE GOSPEL AND
INDIA'S. HERITAGE
a foreigner, nor be distorted by pre-Christian patterns of thought —is a great and exacting spiritual task in the fulfilling of which a young church can bring a rich contribution of her own to the Church Universal." * Sir S. Radhakrishnan has gone a little further:
'" Perhaps Christianity, which arose out of an Eastern background and early in its career got wedded to Graeco-Roman culture, may find her rebirth to-day in the heritage of India." *
This hope has been expressed by other writers also.
If it is to be realized, it can only be if some of the fervent piety and profound insight, which mark the Hindu thinkers, is applied to an understanding of the problems of life and death with which Christian theologians have dealt.
This new birth of the Christian religion, through contact with the best thought and life in India, cannot take place in a day.
It is only slowly and gradually as men live the Christian life, sincerely following Christ in the light of the best ideals in India, that such a renaissance of Christianity will take place.
Any new power of the Christian religion which may result will in the first place be felt in the Indian Church and through the Indian Church it may then spread to other parts of the world.
All of us should pray and work earnestly that the deepest spiritual longings of India may find a new fruition in Christ.
The Purpose of this Book We are now in @ position to state the purpose of this book.
It is my object in writing it to study afresh the life and teaching of Fesus as they are recorded in the Gospels and to explain them in relation to the spiritual heritage of India.
What is known as Christian Theology is an exposition of the teaching of Christ by Christian thinkers of the West who brought to their task their own natural aptitudes and the peculiarities of their own philosophy and culture. In the early Christian Church, to mention but one instance, Greek Philosophy was studied by many Christians and in understanding the mind of Christ they used the ideas of Greek Philosophy with which they were familiar.
This was inevitable.
Every man understands Christ in the light of his own experience and culture.
So long as this experience and culture are in harmony with the mind of Christ, this method of knowledge is quite legitimate.
When we become the followers of Christ we need not empty ourselves of all our national and cultural peculiarities, nor need we absorb Christian
"The World Mission of the Church, p. 25.
*S. Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 305.
INTRODUCTION
doctrines which are connected more with Greek or other systems of Philosophy than with the mind of Christ.
An effort must be made to separate genuine Christian experience from the doctrines which the Christian theologians have expounded, and to state this same experience in terms which could be easily grasped by the Indian mind.
One or two more remarks are necessary to bring this chapter to a close.
I have used throughout the book many Hindu words such as Moksha, Karma, fnana, Bhakti, Saguna and Dharma.
Any careful student of Hindu Literature will know that these words are frequently used in India but do not always have the same meaning.
They are used in different books with quite different meanings.
Unless we know who wrote a particular book, when he wrote it, and to what sect he belonged, we cannot understand their correct meaning in that book.
Christians in India can use these old religious words putting into them a distinctively Christian meaning; it will be quite different from the meaning which they have in their Hindu contexts.
But by the use of the old religious terms we show that we are thinking out the same problems, experiencing the same difficulties, dealing with the same facts as our people did, though not always coming to the same conclusions.
In this way we convince ourselves and others that Christianity is not a foreign religion which has come from some other country and which does not meet our national needs.
For the same reason I have also used plenty of illustrations and quotations from Hindu books.
This does not mean that Hinduism and Christianity are the same, but it means that whatever is true and good and noble in Hinduism, whatever is in harmony with the mind of Christ, can be used by the Christian and made a living part of his religious experience.