CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON GOD
As we read the Gospels we are attracted at once by the teaching of Jesus. We may begin our study of Him by regarding Him as a great religious teacher (Guru).
His demands from us are the same as the requirements of any Guru, a readiness to learn from Him and to spread His teaching.
This is the idea with which we may well start.
In India it has always been taught that spiritual progress can only be made under the personal instruction of a Guru. Religion cannot be learnt from books; it can only be imbibed from men of deep religious experience.
Only such persons will be able to communicate to others some of their own intense faith in God.
This is a truth of great importance.
It is only through living witnesses to the power of God that religion can spread.
This valuable tradition of the importance of a teacher has often been abused in India.
Men quite unworthy have at times set themselves up as religious teachers and managed by their cleverness to win a large following.
They have made the utmost demands on their followers and have insisted on complete surrender ; such surrender ought never to be made to man but must be made only to God.
But these abuses need not in any way hinder us from recognizing the importance of a Guru in the religious life.
The well-known Tamil book Nannul thus mentions the qualifications necessary for a good teacher:
'" Good ancestry, love of men, knowledge of God, possession of dignity, clearness of thought, gift of speech, power of consistency, understanding of the world's ways and lofty character—these alone qualify a man to teach." * We note that Jesus possessed all these qualifications in full measure.
He had a noble ancestry.
He came of the Jewish race.
His people had produced a splendid line of saints and prophets, to whom God had disclosed Himself and showed that there is only one God and that He should be worshipped with a clean and holy life. The Jews did not accept these profound truths without a struggle.
Like the other nations of the world, they too had believed at first that there were many spirits and gods ruling the * Nannil, 36.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
affairs of men who should be pleased with bloody offerings and elaborate ceremonies.
But gradually they had risen to a lofty conception of God and had learnt to recognize that there is only one God controlling the world and that those who worship Him must be pure and true and good as He is pure and true and good.
Jesus had come of this splendid stock and had inherited the passionate faith of His ancestors in God.
'To Him as to them worship was very real; He loved to pray to God both in public and in private.
He knew as they did that God is righteous and demands from His worshippers a holy life.
Jesus had a great love for men.
He knew their difficulties and troubles and entered into all their problems ; He was anxious to help them to the utmost in their temptations and struggles.
Himself living close to God and experiencing His love and goodness, He enabled others to know something of this love.
He had a real knowledge of God.
He understood the Father's ways with men; He knew His concern for évery living creature ;
He spoke of His perfection; He was aware of His grief over the sins of men, His readiness to forgive them and His anxiety to redeem them.
Jesus possessed also the dignity which is required of a Guru.
He spoke with authority.
Those who heard Him teach were impressed with the certainty and assurance which lay behind
His words.
He knew what He was talking about.
He was so sure of what He said that He claimed for it complete and unhesitating acceptance.
He had also clearness of thought, another qualification essential for a Guru.
Tirumilar teaches thus the need for clearness :
" Seeing a clear Guru, Uttering a clear Guru's name, Hearing a clear Guru's words, Meditating on a clear Guru's character." ?
The clearness of Jesus was the result of a profound knowledge.
It is only the man who knows little who is confused in his thinking.
Even as a boy of twelve the inquiring spirit of Jesus had awakened.
At that early age He was found in the temple engaged in serious religious conversation with the Jewish theologians.
All' through His life Jesus studied carefully the Scriptures of His nation; He was familiar with the writings of the Jewish law-givers, prophets and psalmists which are con- * Tirumiilar, " Telivu Guruvin."
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON GOD
tained in the Old Testament.
To His study, He added His profound capacity for spiritual insight.
He had the gift of exposition and knew how to make even deep things simple and clear to men.
His many parables bear witness to this power; they are so simple that even children can understand them; and yet they contain depths of meaning which become clear to theologians only after long study and meditation and that also not always.
His brief sayings are unforgettable and always linger in the memory; they state concisely what many long books often fail to convey.
He had the quality of consistency which is required of a Guru.
Nannul suggests that a teacher's consistency should be like the firmness of a rock.
The teaching of Jesus was quite firm and coherent.
He taught that it is impossible to serve God and Mammon at the same time.
The man who desires to serve God - fully must give up all worldly desires; only he who renounces the possession of wealth and even the joys of family life will be able to worship God fully.
This may be hard teaching but it is the necessary outcome of, Jesus' fundamental belief that God requires of His devotees full and unconditional surrender.
Most of us are not able to meet this exacting demand, but Jesus Himself literally followed His own precepts.
He gave up all that the world considers dear, the joys of family, friendship and wealth.
To Him the greatest bliss was the joy of living with God and of working for Him among men.
He understood the ways of the world, another quality necessary for a Guru.
He taught that men should be as guileless as doves and as wise as serpents.
He was familiar with all the inner workings of the human mind.
He knew that if men generally work longer hours they expect more payment and that when a master delays his coming, his servants begin to sleep.
He realized that people with mediocre gifts (the men with one talent) are apt to be discontented and to bury their gifts, angry that they are not capable of the highest tasks.
He was aware that about half the people in the world are wise, thinking of future needs and getting ready for them, while the other half are like the five foolish virgins who do not begin to prepare until the last moment.
To all these qualifications of a Guru must be added the last and the greatest, namely, the gift of a noble character.
The Guru must live what he preaches; his actions must conform to his words.
If he does not do this, he only cheats people.
Tiruvalluvar has a vivid way 'of stating this truth: "One who
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
puts on the garb of an ascetic while living a wicked life is like a hunter who hides in a bush and traps birds to kill them." *
Jesus was absolutely true to His teaching.
We shall now turn to His teaching, beginning with what He has to say about God.
The Old Testament Doctrine of God Jesus derived many of His religious ideas from the Old
Testament.
The conception of God which is found in it is not quite consistent. We see there both the ideas of primitive religion and the magnificent insights of the great prophets.
God was worshipped at first as a local and tribal deity. He was regarded as the God of the land of Canaan and the children of Israel were considered His chosen people. Only gradually, after several centuries of hard discipline and sustained suffering, they came to think of Him as the Creator of the universe who controls all nature and history and from whose hands no star or nation could escape.
Their first thought of Him was that He was a stern hater demanding exclusively the worship of His chosen people and jealous and vindictive if this worship was offered to any one else.
But gradually they came to believe that He was a merciful lover of His people, that He was afflicted in all their affliction and that He redeemed them in His love and in His pity. Their early belief about Him was that He was a mountain
God of war and storm, exercising His dreadful power in all sorts of mysterious ways, so that His worshippers had to stand in perpetual awe of Him.
This primitive conception was slowly replaced by the idea of a God who is present everywhere ready to help the seeking soul and who requires from His people justice, mercy and humility.* Thus we see in the Old Testament the evidences of a sustained process of spiritual education.
With His supreme insight Jesus chose out of the Old Testament the highest and the noblest ideas of God in it and gave them His own distinctive stamp.
The idea of God as Father is the central conception in the teaching of Jesus which, like the bright sun on a clear day, floods all His utterances with its glorious light.
Some scholars have written as if the idea of the Fatherhood of God is the unique teaching of Jesus. Already in the Old Testament we see glimpses of the belief that God is the Father.
Though the Divine Fatherhood is almost always connected with the nation * Tiruvalluvar, " Tava Marainthu."
*H. E. Fosdick, A Guide to Understanding the Bible, pp. 1-37.
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON GOD
rather than with the individual,' the reference in some passages at least is distinctly personal.
'" A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, Is God in his holy habitation." © "" Like as a father pitieth his children,
So the Lord pitieth them that fear him." 7
In the period between the Old and the New Testaments, the idea of the fatherly love of God is expressed so clearly and beautifully that we are reminded of similar passages in the New
Testament.
In the Book of fubilees, written in Palestine in the second century B.c., we read:
" Their souls will cleave to me and to all my commandments, and they will fulfil my commandments, and I shall be their Father and they will be my children.
And they will all be called children of the living God, and every angel and every spirit will know, yea, they will know that these are my children, and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness, and that I love them." * A modern Jewish scholar goes to the extent of saying that the idea of the Fatherhood of God is a most familiar conception with all Jews.°
The Use of the term" Father" by Jesus Jesus took this term "Father" and used it as His own characteristic name for God.
The suggestion has been made that, according to the Gospel of St. Mark, Jesus used the term
"Father " when speaking of God only after the confession that He was the Christ by Peter at Czsarea Philippi *® and that even after that confession He used it only when speaking of God to His own disciples and not to all the people.**
As the Gospel of St. Mark was the earliest of the Gospels and its historical order
' of the events in the life of Jesus seems to be the most correct, it has been held that Jesus spoke of God as Father only after the disciples had been with Him for a considerable time and had become receptive to His highest thoughts.
The confession at Czsarea Philippi took place about the middle of His ministry.
It indicates how gradually, by their close companionship with * Deuteronomy xxxii. 6 ; Isaiah Ixiii. 16 ; Jeremiah iii. 4, 19 ;
Hosea xi. 1-3.
® Psalm Ixviii. 5.
7 Psalm ciii. 13.
® The Book of Fubilees, or The Little Genesis, 1, 24-25, translated by R. H. Charles, p. 7. oi :
°C. G. Montefiore, Some Elements in the Religious Teaching of Fesus According to the Synoptic Gospels, p. 91.
*" Mark viii! 27-31.
E "TW. Manson, Teaching of fesus, pp. 108 f.
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Him and their intimate knowledge of Him, the disciples were coming round to the conclusion that Jesus was not an ordinary rabbi or even a great prophet, but Christ, the Son of the Living
God.
This confession made it clear that the spiritual capacities of His disciples were rapidly maturing.
After they had reached this new stage in their religious life, Jesus felt that they were ready to receive some of His highest teaching and so He began speaking to them about God as His Father.
He did not feel that the multitude who came to listen to Him were as equally well prepared to receive His teaching and He did not employ this term in His sermons addressed to them.
This suggestion, though quite interesting, does not seem to be correct.
As we have already seen, the idea of the Fatherhood of God was not so new or strange to the Jews as this remark would imply.
The Gospels of Luke and Matthew (even if we omit the later Gospel of John where the title occurs constantly) seem to indicate that Jesus used the term " Father" from the days of His childhood to the close of His ministry; He used it on a variety of occasions and in the presence of all sorts of people.
Once as a boy of twelve He was missing; when He was found in the temple in Jerusalem and was taken to task by His parents for not having told them where He would be, He asked them with great surprise:
" Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house?" "
This shows that even as a child He had begun to think and speak of God as His Father.
In the garden of Gethsemane, passing through a tremendous spiritual struggle, He cried " Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." **
As he hung on the Cross He prayed:
" Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," ** and " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." *° Thus we see that even as a boy of twelve He spoke of God as His Father and that He continued to do so to the end of His ministry.
He considered God to be His Father when He was deeply moved by joy. His seventy disciples returned from their mission of preaching and healing and reported the wonderful results which had followed their work.
" In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the * Luke ii. 49.
* Luke xxii. 42.
"Luke xxiii. 34.
* Luke xxiii. 46.
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wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father; for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight." *°
Jesus spoke of God as His Father also while going through tremendous spiritual suffering in Gethsemane and while hanging on the Cross.
Many people are religious when they are prosperous and everything goes well with them; but when they begin to fail in life and are overtaken by defeat and misfortune, they have no use for God.
H.G. Wells makes great fun of this.
He says that his mother was very pious in her days of prosperity and always spoke of God as "' Our Father " but misfortune after misfortune overtook her.
Her husband lost a good job and ran a store for selling sports' goods, which proved to be a precarious method of earning a livelihood.
Children began to arrive and the family had to live in cramped, uncomfortable quarters.
She had to drudge all day long for years on end to feed and clothe the family. A little daughter, whom she loved ardently for her unusual interest in religion, died and the mother's heart broke.
She really could not understand why her dear little girl should have been taken away.
As time went on her piety became more and more formal and lost all its earnestness and reality; the phrase " Our Father" which she continued to use ceased to have any meaning."
The love and tenderness with which Jesus thought of God in His days of success and prosperity remained with Him even when He had to pass through the utmost humiliation and suffering as He hung on the Cross.
Jesus speaks of God as Father when He has in mind His love and tenderness and His willingness to help in all possible ways.
" Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." ** In this context the designation of God as Father seems most appropriate and natural.
But Jesus speaks of God as Father even when. He thinks of Him as a judge, holy and stern, measuring the qualities of people and assigning to them their various dues.
'' Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." ™
Thus we may say that Jesus found on all occasions a peculiar delight in speaking of God as Father.
The Gospels do not: represent to us the catch in His voice and the joy on His face as He thus spoke.
But we may well imagine how His love for %® Luke x. 21.
; 1H. G. Wells, Experiment in Autobiography, Vol. I, pp. 63-75.
% Matthew vi. 8.
Matthew xxv. 34.
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the Father gave a new thrill to His voice and glowed on His face whenever He spoke about Him.
In speaking of God as Father Jesus sometimes calls Him " My Father," indicating a close personal relationship with Him."
But at the same time He does not confine this relationship to Himself.
Often He speaks to people and calls Him " Your Father,' thus making them feel clearly that they have an intimate connexion with Him."* In the prayer which He taught as our model"? He also speaks of God as " Our Father," thus bringing out the fact that He shares with His hearers their experience and knowledge of a personal God, who is concerned deeply with the struggles and the difficulties, the triumphs and the successes of all men.
It is significant that all the four Gospels agree in this matter and make it clear that Jesus was constantly in the habit of speaking of God as His Father.
Here we have one evidence of the fact that the report given in the Fourth Gospel of the teaching of Jesus is identical in substance (though not completely in words) with the account in the Synoptic Gospels.
The Meaning of the Fatherhood of God 1. When men speak of God as Father they sometimes mean that He is the Creator of the world and that He has brought into existence the whole world of nature and of man, which He continues to sustain.
This meaning of the Fatherhood of God is not prominent in the thought of Jesus.
Jesus does speak of God's activity in nature.
'That ye may be sons of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." ?°
" Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them." ** "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much
* Matthew vii. 21; Matthew x. 32; Luke ii. 49; John vi. 32; John vi.
40; John x. 29.
™ Matthew v.16; Matthew vi. 1; Matthew xxiii.g; Luke vi. 36; Luke xii. 32; John xx. 17.
* Matthew vi.g; Luke xi. 2.
** Matthew v. 45.
* Matthew vi. 26.
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more clothe you, O ye of little faith? " 2° These verses speak only of God's activity in nature. But we may safely assume that He who is thus active in nature must also have created it. There is no explicit teaching by Jesus about God as Creator.
But from these and other sayings in which the power of God is evident, we may say that Jesus fully believed in the existence of a Creator, at whose command the universe sprang into being and by whom it is sustained from day to day.
Most often when men speak of God as Father they refer to His love and His concern for them rather than of His being their Creator. It is this thought of God taking individual care of men which is most prominent in the teaching of Jesus.
He tells us how in different ways God helps us.
He provides for all our daily needs.
"Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek : for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." *° When we pray, He answers our prayers.
'" Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." *"
He forgives us our sins.
"' And forgive us our sins." ** He reveals Himself to us.
" At that season Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight." 7?
God judges us.
"' Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." *
Thus in all these ways God is our Father.
In the human family, the father provides for his children, helps them when they appeal to him, forgives them when they go wrong, speaks about himself to them and rewards or punishes them when necessary.
Thus the ties which bind a father with his children are many; they are sometimes pleasant and at other times severe.
Whether kind or stern, he is absolutely necessary for the peace and well-being of the family.
His words of reproof are just as important as his embraces of love.
The relationship > Matthew vi. 28-30.
© Matthew vi. 31, 3277 Matthew xviii. 19.
78 Luke xi. 4.
*® Matthew xi. 25, 26.
" Matthew xxv. 34.
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between God and man is likewise close and intimate, covering the most diverse circumstances of life and offering peace, joy and love under a bewildering variety of conditions.
There is an.important passage in which Jesus teaches clearly that the analogy of the human father is not quite adequate to describe God.
'And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone? or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" * The connexion between a human father and his children is one of the noblest relationships known to us.
In all parts of the world and in all ages, the father has played a supremely important part as the head of the family. He loves his children dearly, he cares for them in all possible ways, he rebukes them when they go wrong and he forgives them when they are penitent.
This universal human experience is used by Jesus to portray the love of God for men.
His emphatic teaching about the Fatherhood of God has appealed deeply to the hearts of men.
But Jesus — realized quite clearly (as is evident from this saying) that God's love is far higher and deeper than any human father's love could be.
There is no illustration known in the experience of men which can bring out fully the height and the breadth and the depth of God's love for us.
Even one of the highest manifestations of human love (that of a father for his children) breaks down when applied to God.
There is no human way of giving an adequate idea of His love, which is infinite and beyond description. Nothing that we know in this life can give an effective picture of what quality and extent God's love really is.
The Fatherhood of God in Hindu Thought Popular Hinduism prevails in the villages and is the working faith of most Hindus, except of those who are thoughtful and hold advanced views.
In this Hinduism of the masses there is still terrible fear of gods and goddesses who lurk in every corner prepared to hurt human beings.
Ceremonies should be properly performed.
Any tree which is regarded as the home of a god must not be touched; no villager will cut down a tree under the shadow of which an image is worshipped.
The transplanting must begin, the harvest must commence and a journey must be taken only on auspicious days; if these important functions are
* Luke xi. r1—13.
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begun on undesirable days, tragic disaster is likely to follow.
At every point the villager is hedged in with superstition and fear.
The message of the love of God, especially such profound love as has resulted in the death on the Cross, is badly needed for rural India which lives in the complete thraldom of fear.
Only when men realize that God is filled with the utmost love for us and provides for all our needs will this fear disappear.
It is absolutely necessary to preach in India the Gospel of Jesus Christ with its clear message of the unbounded love of God for mankind.
Qnly such a message will be an effective remedy for the many fears and anxieties under which the vast majority of Hindus live every day of their lives.
The doctrine of Karma casts a blight upon the more thoughtful and better educated Hindu.
The system of Karma, by which the deeds of men bring forth their inevitable consequences in future births, works on relentlessly.
Whatever men do must be either rewarded or punished.
The spiritually-minded Hindu stands in utmost fear of the many births and deaths which may be in store for him. He trembles with dread as he thinks of the ocean of Samsara, into which he is plunged.
The Christian message of the love of God is quite necessary as an antidote to the harmful and depressing effect of the doctrine of Karma,
Belief in the love of a heavenly Father who forgives us when we repent and helps us in our spiritual quest must replace a belief in Karma.
When men hold firmly to the doctrine of a loving God, as manifested in the life of Jesus and especially in His death on the Cross, no such fear as many devout Hindus have about the doctrine of Karma will remain.
The most effective way of emancipating the Hindu mind from its subjection to the system
' of Karma is to make the Christian doctrine of God's Fatherhood absolutely clear and real.
Unless the knowledge of the fatherly love of God sinks deep into the Hindu soul, the fear of the future consequences of actions in an endless cycle of births and deaths will remain.
The Christian doctrine of the love of God is also necessary to counteract the consequences of an impersonal conception of the Divine Being in India.
Sankara holds that God is an impersonal Being who neither loves nor hates, who neither enjoys nor suffers and who neither acts Himself nor is affected by the actions of others. He has made the conception of God as Nirguna Brahman central to his system. He is the only Reality and all else is unreal.
There are no real beings apart from Him.
As He is impersonal even worship is not necessary,, for He neither desires nor enjoys
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
the worship of His devotees who, after all, have no reality of their own.
The best method of attaining Him is not the method of love (for human love can only respond when there is God's love) but the method of knowledge by which His true nature must be grasped.
Such a knowledge is clearest only in the state of Samadhi in which the soul is above all feeling and thought and comes in real contact with Him who is beyond every kind of human experience.
Sankara tells a story to illustrate his teaching that Brahman is wholly unknown.
He narrates how an inquirer once came to the seer Bahva to learn from him about the Brahman.
Bahva said:
' Learn Brahman, O friend,' and became silent.
Bahva was asked a second and a third time to explain the Brahman and finally he replied: "I am teaching you, indeed, but you do not understand.
Silent is that Self." * The attraction of the doctrine of Nirguna Brahman for the educated Hindu may now be considered.
The conflict of feelings in the human mind is often severe and turbulent.
We are helpless when fierce passions such as love, hatred, jealousy or ambition gain control over us; their sway is so strong that we are wholly unable to combat them.
Stories like the Ramayana in which these fundamental human passions strive for mastery are so popular because they are so true to life.
History is full of murders, conspiracies, revolts and wars on account of such powerful feelings in the minds of men.
We need not go either to fiction or to history to convince ourselves of the conflict of emotions and of the havoc which they cause in human life.
If only we could see clearly into our own minds, how much ill-will and_ bitterness, often provoking harsh words or base actions, could we discover!
The religious thinker in India, distressed by all this trouble and ruin caused around him by feeling, thinks of God as a Being who is completely beyond all such emotional struggles.
While it is quite true that when they are not kept under control the feelings of man work incalculable harm, we need to remember that.they are the source of endless joy in life when they are held under restraint. We may go through life thoroughly enjoying what is good and true and pure.
The wonderful sights of nature, the charm of books, the innocence of children, the lure of music, the attraction of beauty—all these are desired by men with a passion which cannot be completely subdued.
Some of the higher forms of Hinduism have indeed taught that such ® Sankara's Commentary on Vedanta Siitras, III, ii. 17, quoted by Sydney Cave, Hinduism or Christianity? p. 100.
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joys do not belong to God and may not be pursued by His worshippers.
Regarding God as devoid of all the feelings which give meaning and interest to life goes completely against some of the deeply rooted and really valuable impulses of the human mind.
In spite of the age-long teaching about such lack of emotion both in God and in the devotee, India has gone on rejoicing in her aesthetic pleasures even in the religious sphere.
The Bhakta, with his song and dance, has given the lie to such a doctrine of the negation of all feeling. The temples, with their rich sculpture, have done the same service.
Feelings lead to actions and actions lead to births and deaths.
If God feels He must also act and if He acts His deeds will inevitably bring about their consequence of rebirths.
He will then be caught in the wheel of Samsara and be just like the rest of us.
To suppose that God can possibly be subjected to the cycle of transmigration is to bring Him down completely to our level. We cannot believe that He has to go through numerous lives as we have to.
The doctrine of Karma needs careful consideration and the reader is referred to the chapter in this book in which it is discussed at some length.** We cannot accept the doctrine of Karma as applying even to the lives of men; still less can we accept it as holding true of God.
There are glimpses of the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God in the religious literature of India as in the Old Testament.
This doctrine never attained in India the importance which it has in the teaching of Jesus. The supreme conception of God in the Gospels is that of His Fatherhood.
All fragmentary knowledge found in India of God as Father must be welcomed and treasured by the Christian.
A prayer in the Rig Veda says:
" Be of easy approach to us, even as a father to his son.
Do thou, O self-effulgent Lord, abide with us and bring blessings to us."' ** In the Yajur Veda occurs another prayer:
"O Lord, thou art our Father; do thou instruct us like a father:
We offer our salutations to thee.
Do thou not destroy us; do thou protect us ever."
The Mahabharata, a vast epic which gradually took shape through a long stretch of time, probably from about the fourth century B.c. to the fourth century a.D., contains the prayer:
8 See Chapter VII.
F s :
* Rig Veda, I, i. 9, translated by Swami Yatiswarananda, Universal Prayers,
ey :
: t © Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita, xxxvii. 20, translated by Swami Yatiswarananda, Universal Prayers, p. 19.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
" Save me and protect me always as a father would his own son ; protect me, I need your protection; obeisance to you, O pure
Lord In the Naradiya Purana occurs a prayer :. " Compassionate Lord! the wrong which we did you in the past in our ignorance, put up with all that and look after us, like a father his sons." *
The eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita (written about the beginning of the Christian era) may be regarded as a crucial passage in that book.
In response to an urgent petition from Arjuna, Krishna manifests his form to him.
The chapter gives a detailed account of this strange and powerful form and then goes on to describe the effect of the vision on the mind and soul of Arjuna.
When Arjuna saw Krishna standing before him in a glorious blaze of light, he realized his own utter insignificance and sinful nature and prayed to Krishna thus:
"Thou art the Father of all the world—of all that move and all that do not move.
Thou art the object of its worship and its greatest Teacher.
There is no one equal to Thee. How then could there be in the three worlds one greater than Thee, O
Thou of incomparable power?
Therefore I bow down and prostrate myself before Thee, adorable Lord, and seek Thy grace.
Bear with me as a father with a son, as a friend with a friend, and as a lover with his beloved." ** An interesting poem entitled "The child's great petition" is found in the collected works of Ramalinga Swami, the Tamil devotional poet who lived in the nineteenth century.
He constantly addresses God as his Father in the poem and occasionally also as his Mother.
The frequency with which the term "Father" is applied to God in this long poem of over five hundred lines is impressive.
A note of universal compassion rings through the poem.
Ramalinga Swami speaks of his deep suffering when he sees much that is wrong in the world.
His thoughts may be summed up thus:
"Thou knowest my weak pity. I cannot bear to see fatigue, distress or sorrow in my relatives and in others.
I cannot stand the hunger, disease or poverty that afflicts others. When friends, young and old, relate to me the woes of life and speak to me
* Mahabharata, Santiparvan, ccxc. 74-185, translated by V. Raghavan Prayers, Praises and Psalms, p. 107.
% * Naradiya Purana, ii. 73, translated by V. Raghavan, Prayers, Praises and Psalms, p. 171.
* Bhagavad Gita, xi. 43, 44, translated by D. S. Sarma, The Bhagavad Gita, p. 172.
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON GOD
about their family feuds, I burst into tears.
When the bereaved weep for the dead, I tremble with sorrow.
My heart shudders at the mention of the wretched sinners who mercilessly kill innocent, dumb creatures to satisfy their greed under the pretext of religion.
In the name of a hundred false deities people kill. oxen, goats and hens.
O, I cannot bear this!
I cannot see angling and hunting.
I cannot hear the pitiable cries of birds and animals and the suffering of any creature on any account.
I grow thin with misery when I see people eating flesh.
When I hear how in this world man cuts the throat of his fellow-man, I am filled with surprise and sorrow.
I shudder to think of the terrible suffering of people from lust.
I tremble to see, O Lord, how people lose themselves in drink, steal other people's goods and set fire to their habitations.
The sufferings of the poor rend my heart.
I tremble much at the ways of the world." "
This poem is significant, for it brings out the important truth that where there is a real belief in the love of God as the Father of the world, sympathy for the suffering of all creatures whom
He has created along with us necessarily follows.
If God loves all the beings in the world and we truly love Him, we cannot but feel one with the affliction which prevails everywhere.
Ramalinga Swami not only felt in his own heart the suffering but through his teaching tried to arouse such sympathy in the hearts of others and led them to take the action necessary to remedy the suffering.
There is one striking difference between the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God in Christianity and the same doctrine in Hinduism.
In Christianity, the Father's love for mankind goes to the uttermost extent of self-sacrifice and death on the Cross.
To redeem men from their sin God Himself became incarnate, lived as a man, identified Himself completely with their sorrows and was crucified on the Cross.
There can be no greater love than the love of one who is prepared to die for others.
The message of the Cross is lacking in Hinduism.
It is the Cross which proves clearly the wonderful love of God.
Even in the highest insights of the Hindu thinkers, we do not see anything of the readiness of God to suffer for men and to endure for their sake the shame of the Cross.
The love of God which is spoken of in the Christian religion as manifesting itself on the Cross has, therefore, a quality and depth which is missing in Hinduism, even at its best.
*° Ramalinga Swami, poem entitled " Pillai Peru Vinnappam,"' adapted from Suddhananda Bharati, Mahatma Ramalingam, pp. 28-31.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
The Motherhood of God I once heard a very interesting sermon on the Motherhood of God preached in India by a distinguished bishop.
He said—I write from memory—that the idea of the Motherhood of God was popular in India, that it was a valuable doctrine and that we Christians would do well to take it over into our thinking.
We may consider here briefly the doctrine of the Motherhood of God in its relation to the teaching of Jesus.
The roots of the idea of the Motherhood of God go far down into the ancient history of India.
Even as early as the age of the Indus Valley Civilization (the third millennium B.c.) we gather from recent discoveries that God was worshipped under the form of Mother.
"' With the upper classes the worship of the Mother Goddess, the goddess of fertility and crops, must have been the central point round which other religious practices and beliefs were interwoven." *° In the Rig Veda, the earliest religious document in India, we read of the Goddess Aditi:
"By her grace she saves from sin the souls of those who worship her.
She gives unto her children everything that is worth giving.
She dwells in the forms of all Devas or bright spirits; she is all that is born and all that will be born.
She is all in all." ** Again we read in the Rig Veda: "I am the Queen of the universe, the giver of all wealth and fruits of works. I am intelligent and omniscient.
Although I am one, by my powers I appear as manifold.
I cause war for protecting men, I kill the enemy and bring peace on earth.
I stretch out heaven and earth.
. As the wind blows by itself, so I produce all phenomena by my own will, I am independent and responsible to none.
I am beyond the sky, beyond this earth.
My glory is the phenomenal universe; such am I by my power." "
Down to the present day the idea of God as Mother is very attractive to Hindu devotees.
In recent years Ramakrishna Paramahamsa worshipped God regularly as the Mother of the Universe.
He used to pray: "O, my Mother, thou art all in all.
Thou art my guide, my leader and my strength."
When he sang the praises of the Divine Mother, there was such real feeling in what he uttered that those who heard him were sure
"K. N. Dikshit, Prehistoric Civilization of the Indus Valley, p. 33.
"Rig Veda, Il, vi. 17, Swami Abhedananda, Divine Heritage of Man, . 93.
"Rig Veda, X, cxxv., Swami Abhedananda, Divine Heritage of Man, p. 102.
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON GOD
that he was enjoying real communion with his Divine Mother.
He revered all women young and old, and said to them:
'" You are the living representatives of my Divine Mother on earth."
Once he was asked:
"If we are the children of your Divine Mother, why does she not take care of us?
Why does she not come to us and take us up in her arms?"
He said:
'"' A mother has several children. To one she has given a doll, to another some candy, to the third a music box, according as each one likes.
'Thus when they begin to play and are absorbed, they forget their mother; she in the meanwhile looks after her household work.
But the moment any one of them gets tired of the play, and, throwing aside the plaything, cries for the mother,
'Mamma, mamma dear!' she runs quickly to him, takes him up in her arms, kisses him often and often and caresses him.
So, O man! being absorbed with the playthings of the world you have forgotten your Divine Mother; when you get tired of your play and, throwing aside the toys, you cry for her sincerely and with the simplicity of a child, she will come at once and take you up in her arms.
Now you want to play and she has given you all that you need at present." ** It is evident, then, that from the earliest days down to the present time the idea of the Motherhood of God has exercised great attraction over the Hindu mind.
In the Bible itself there is very little to support the idea that we may think of God as Mother.
There is an isolated verse in Isaiah where the Lord says:
" As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." ** Though Jesus had a wonderful mother, He speaks only of the Fatherhood of God.
Canon Quick suggests that there is something selfish and possessive about the love of a mother for her child and that she is devoted to the child because she needs him; without him there would be a real gap in her life which it would be difficult to fill, A father, on the other hand, is devoted to the child not so much for what he can get out of him as for what he can do for him; there is nothing selfish and possessive about the father's love.
He is primarily interested in taking care of him and in giving him what he needs.
Canon Quick suggests that God is conceived of as Father for some such reason as this.
He is our Father and loves us and gives us what we need not because He * Swami Abhedananda, Divine Heritage of Man, pp. 114-17.
" Isaiah Ixvi. 13.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S. HERITAGE
gets some joy out of us but because we need His love.*° This suggestion will not be accepted by most people, for they will say that a mother's love is fundamentally unselfish; often mothers take the utmost trouble for their children without expecting any reward whatsoever.
The selfless character of maternal love is a fact of human experience the world over. Also we believe, in all reverence, that God needs us almost as much as we need Him. There cannot be real love between two persons unless each has a longing for the other.
The love between God and the human soul is only complete when it is realized that God is just as anxious to love man as man is eager to love Him.
Among Christians generally there is much unwillingness to speak of God as Mother.
This unwillingness may be due to three reasons :
Jesus' conception of God had in it a strong sense of the stern righteousness of God.
The Old Testament idea of God, generally speaking, was that He is quite severe in His dealings with His people, mercilessly punishing the wicked and lovingly rewarding the righteous.
In the teaching of Jesus the love of God is far more prominent.
But even so, the recognition that God is great, that His judgments are severe and that His demands are exacting is quite clear.
Though Jesus loved God with passionate fervour, He would never have addressed Him with some of the freedom with which Hindu Bhaktas spoke of God.
Such light, jovial and flippant methods of addressing God were far from Jesus because He realized the sternness in the character of God. This sternness is responsible for the conception of God as Father rather than as Mother.
In human experience generally the mother's love is far more tender than the father's, which has in it a measure of severity. So God is always described by Jesus as Father.
2. Among the Roman Catholics the adoration of the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God is carried to extravagant lengths.
A great deal of the reverence which ought really to be given to God is given to her. Her saintliness is described in glowing terms, her influence with Jesus is extolled, prayers are continually offered to her and her blessing is sought on a wide variety of occasions.
Protestant Christians, remembering all this extreme devotion, are unwilling to speak of God as Mother; they think that if they do so it is too much like the Roman worship of the Virgin Mary.
3. The worship of God as Mother in India as well as in "O. C. Quick, Doctrines of the Creed, pp. 54, 55.
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON GOD
other countries has had clear connexion with the importance of the generative process in human life. One of the most important things which makes the world go is the reproductive function of sex.
Men and animals are born and lead their lives here on earth.
If there were no reproduction, there would be no human or animal life and the world would be empty of all activity and interest.
For this reason the reproductive process has been personified as a goddess and worshipped, often with obscene rites and songs.
The idea of God as Mother takes its origin from such ancient conceptions.
Because of the often immoral accompaniments of such worship (of which there is plenty of evidence in India in the Sakiz cults) strong objection is taken in many quarters to the doctrine of God as Mother.
Probably as Christianity becomes naturalized in India the idea of God as Mother will find a rapid entrance into Christian thought, as it is so deeply rooted in the soil of India.
It is a beautiful way of thinking of the tender, devoted and unselfish love of God.
Provided we realize some of the dangers to which the doctrine has led in the past and are on our guard against them, there is no reason why we should not think of God as Mother.
While Jesus does not speak of God as Mother, the doctrine is not in any way opposed to the spirit or the letter of His teaching and life.