CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
Tue Gospel of St. John has much to say about the teaching of Jesus on a life of communion with God.
It is likely that the Fourth Evangelist understood the teaching of Jesus on this matter more quickly and more clearly than the writers of the Synoptic Gospels; he may have had a special aptitude for grasping it. What he thus came to know from the actual words of Jesus, which he had heard or which had been reported to him, he developed considerably in the light of his own meditation and personal experience.
In this chapter we shall show how at different points the fuller and more developed thoughts of St. John are supported by the record we have in the Synoptic
Gospels of the teaching of Jesus on this subject.
The account we have in the Fourth Gospel of the life and teaching of Jesus is built around the framework of steel which the Synoptic
Gospels provide.
God begins the Fellowship '
God calls us first.
"No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him."
'' No man can come unto me, except it be given unto him of the Father."* "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide."
"If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."?
The initiative comes from Him.
Out of His abundant grace He summons us from our absorption in the things of the world to love Him and to be devoted to Him; from a life of sin and suffering He beckons us to a life of communion and joy with Him.
The call of the twelve disciples by Jesus is like God's choice of us.
Jesus Himself selected these twelve men; He went out of His way to call them from their normal occupations to follow
Him.
They were not a specially choice set of men.
They had not much education or position or influence.
They were not men of any unusual spiritual attainments; in many ways they 7 John vi. 44, 65.
2 John xv. 16, 19.
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were quite ordinary folk, impulsive, dull-witted, ambitious, and one of them had in him the making of a traitor.
And yet Jesus selected them from among all the people whom He met.
He took them into His confidence and allowed them to share His most intimate thoughts and aspirations.
He put before them the highest ideals possible and generously gave to them some of His own spiritual gifts. This was a great and wonderful privilege for them.
They had not done anything to deserve it; it was given to them through the sheer love and generosity of their
Master.
Even after their choice they did not change immediately ;" their weaknesses and failures often showed; they could not grasp the spiritual aspects of the teaching and ministry of their Guru; their perception was still dense and dim.
And yet Jesus bore with them patiently.
He continued to the last to share with them His vision and His power, though they were often quite incapable of profiting by His companionship and all that it meant.
Our call likewise is determined by no special fitness on our part; He calls us because He loves us; we have not done anything to be worthy of His choice.
We live completely disregarding His Presence and from the depths of our soul He summons us to follow Him.
Often we do not respond.
He calls every one; there is no partiality in Him.
But some do not respond at all, others respond only partially and others respond with their whole heart and soul.
We cannot say why some fail completely to respond and others respond but little.
Each soul is a citadel; He enters only when it is willingly thrown open.
Some throw their doors wide open, and others only a little open and yet others not at all.
He does not force any door; that is not His way.
He only enters when He is wanted and welcomed.
We know that the capacity of people to respond to the call of God varies widely, from St. Paul with all his rich intellectual and spiritual gifts to the humble illiterate farmer in a little village church who tries his best to follow God and yet again and again fails because of his drink or his lack of moral control.
We cannot say why there are such immense differences in men's capacity to heed the Divine call, which is issued without any partiality to every one in the world; this seems toe be one of those ultimate questions which we cannot answer fully and clearly.
But this much is clear that it is the duty of every one to respond to the call of God to the full measure of one's ability.
I may not be a saint with extraordinary spiritual gifts for prayer and service and sacrifice but all that I have (however
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
f little it may be) must be given to God.
It is quite clear that each person must heed this wonderful, unmerited choice of God to the very best of his ability, however small or great.
We may note here that many of the saints and seers of India have caught a glimpse of this profound truth.
The Katha Upanishad, written between the fifth and third century B.C., says:
" Not by instruction may this Self be gained, Nor intellect, nor by much Scripture-learning :
Whomso He chooses, by him He may be gained, To him this Self reveals His own true person." *
Nammalvar, the Tamil Vaishnava saint, says:
"I cannot say, I will approach Him and compel Him to dwell in me, He Himself comes, with yearning for me, And dwells in my body and mingles with my life.
Is it possible for Him now to leave me? " * Manikka Vacakar, the Tamil Sazva saint, sings :
"'To-me, mean as I was, with no good thing, Thou didst grant grace, That I, with mind erewhile embruted,—pure one !— should Become commingling love, in soul-subduing rapture melt !
Thou cam'st in grace on this same earth, didst show Thy mighty feet To me who lay mere slave,—meaner than any dog,—
Essential grace more precious than a mother's love! " * Fellowship with God through Knowledge Wherever there is love, the presence of the beloved is necessary.
A child wants his father, a bride her bridegroom and a man his friend.
There may often be love in separation, but love is generally kept alive by the presence of the object of love.
A friend told me that when he was in America his aged father, living in India, wrote to him by every mail, "I cannot stand this separation.
Take the next boat and come back to India."
Whoever loves God wants the Presence of God.
We cannot °J. N. Rawson, The Katha Upanishad, p. 112.
* Nammalvar, Tiru-Voi-Moli, 1, 7, 7.
*G. U. Pope, Tiruvacagam, p. 5.
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love God with our whole heart and mind if we never see Him and if we are always separated from Him.
It is in the immediate Presence of God that love for Him thrives. When we are united with God there is joy and when we are separated from Him there is sorrow.
In our study of the inner life of Jesus we have seen how much the Presence of the Father meant to Him day after day.
Jesus must have been also familiar with the words of the Hebrew Bhaktas:
"* As the hart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:
When shall I come and appear before God? " © " Whom have I in heaven but thee? and having thee there is naught on earth that I desire." '
Christ's beatitude, " Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" * shows how much importance He attached to the direct vision of God.
The glorious privilege of seeing God is reserved for those who are clean of heart.
Inner purity, that highest of virtues, will receive the priceless reward of the vision of God.
The desire to realize clearly the Presence of God is found again and again in the religious literature of India.
The Bhaktas declare that they want God and God only; not even His highest gifts are desirable.
He is greater than anything He can give.
If we crave for His gifts we may be content with them and not realize Him and His love.
We want to know Him as He is, feel clearly His love and enjoy fully His Presence.
When Swami Vivekananda was about seventeen years old he felt the stirrings in him of an irrepressible urge to find God.
One day he went to Devendranath Tagore who was held in great veneration as a religious teacher and eagerly asked him,
"Have you seen God?"
The answer which he received did not satisfy him and his discontent and anxiety increased.
He heard at that time that Ramakrishna was to be found in the house of one of his disciples at Calcutta.
He went to him and asked him the question he had put to the other religious teachers whom he had met—'' Have you seen God?"
Ramakrishna's reply was quick 'and certain:
''I see Him as I see you, only * Psalm xlii. 1-2.
"Psalm Ixxiii. 25, as translated by J. A. Bewer, The Literature of the Old Testament in its Historical Development, p. 390.
* Matthew v. 8.
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
1 35 far more clearly."
'Can you make me see Him?" said the young spiritual aspirant.
'"' Yes, I can" said Ramakrishna in reply.
From that day Vivekananda put himself under the spiritual instruction of Ramakrishna, learnt from him all that he could and spread his message far and wide.
Utpaladeva says:
'''To me, this, in brief, is the definition of happiness and misery; listen, my Lord: union with you is happiness; and separation from you, misery." ®
Rabindranath Tagore says: "That I want thee, only thee— let my heart repeat without end.
All desires that distract me, day and night, are false and empty to the core..
As the night keeps hidden in its gloom the petition for light, even thus in the depth of my unconsciousness rings the cry—I want thee, only thee.
As the storm still seeks its end in peace when it strikes against peace with all its might, even thus my rebellion strikes against thy love and still its cry is—I want thee, only thee." *
Swami Vivekananda says: "In Bhakti there is also no place for begging or bargaining with God.
The idea of asking God for anything is sacrilege to a Bhakta.
He will not pray for health or wealth or even to go to heaven.
One who wants to love God, to be a Bhakta, must make a bundle of all these desires and leave them outside the door and then enter.
He who wants to enter the realms of light must make a bundle of all 'shopmaking' religion and cast it away before he can pass the gates.
It is not that you do not. get what you pray for; you get everything, but it is too low, vulgar, a beggar's religion.
' Fool indeed, is he, who living on the banks of the Ganges, digs a little well for water.
Fool indeed is the man who, coming to a mine of diamonds, begins to search for glass beads.'
These prayers for health and wealth and material prosperity are not Bhakti.
They are the lowest form of Karma.
Bhakti is a higher thing.
We are striving to get into the presence of the King of kings.
We cannot get there in a beggar's dress." * The desire to realize God clearly is quite natural.
However much we may read about a person or hear about him we are not satisfied.
Our knowledge of him becomes complete only when we see him actually and move with him closely.
This is quite natural and reasonable.
Frequent letters from the beloved °V. Raghavan, Prayers, Praises and Psalms, p. 241.
" Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, p. 29.
"4 Quoted in G. K. Chettur, Ajtars of Silence, p. 103.
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can never take the place of the actual presence of the beloved.
Love is satisfied with nothing less than the real company of the lover.
When Philip spoke to Jesus and said, " Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us," he was giving expression to a passionate longing which many saints have had.
Jesus did not rebuke this longing but on the other hand He proceeded to point out that by actually seeing Himself (the Incarnate One)
Philip saw God."
The vision of God is not vouchsafed to every one and at all times.
So earnest Christians have developed elaborate methods of meditation and have followed them for months and for years with unceasing effort and industry.
The earnestness which is needed on the part of the devotee for a vision of God has been constantly emphasized by the religious teachers of India.
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said :
"The Lord Jesus was one day walking along the sea-shore when a devotee approached Him and asked Him:
' Lord, how can one attain God?'
The Lord directly descended into the sea with the inquirer whom He plunged under the water.
After a short time He released him, and raising him by the arm asked him, ' How didst thou feel?'
The devotee replied, 'I felt as though my last moment were come—the condition was desperate.'
Upon this the Lord said, ' Thou shalt see the Father when thy yearning for Him will be as intense as thy yearning for a breath of air just now.' " 7° I have not been able to trace from what source Ramakrishna got this story.
It does not, of course, occur in the New Testament.
Though not authentic, it is an excellent comment on our Lord's first great commandment, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." * Three objections, generally made against the attainment of a oe of God through mystic experience, may be considered ere.
It may be said that all this effort and striving of the mystics is wasted time and strength.
The elaborate methods of meditation, the time which is needed for following them and the strange experiences of sights and sounds which result from them are all absolutely unnecessary.
Men who pursue these methods of meditation could be doing much better work if they devoted
"John xiv. 8, 9.
* Quoted by G. K. Chettur, Altars of Silence, p. 63.
* Mark xii. 30.
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themselves to the service of the suffering and the needy.
All this endeavour to see God as He is is futile and a vain expenditure of time and energy which could have been devoted to better purposes.
Take the way in which we breathe air.
All of us are breathing air all the time without being aware of it and yet doctors tell us that the best health is maintained only when fresh air is breathed and breathed properly.
Those who aspire after sound health are not content with breathing anywhere and in any way.
They look for places where there is fresh air and by regular and careful breathing exercises try to inhale as much of this fresh air as possible until their lungs get filled with it.
While every earnest devotee knows God and enjoys Him in a sense, the expert in prayer seeks by special methods to know God more
| clearly and to realize Him more fully than the others.
His special methods of prayer and meditation have as much value to him as the breathing exercises have to the aspirant after good health.
I am writing this chapter at Kodaikanal, a beautiful hillstation 7,000 feet high, not far from the city of Madura in South
India.
From my window I can see on the loftiest hill in this neighbourhood the buildings of an observatory, with their white movable domes for the free movement of the large telescopes.
This is the only solar observatory in India.
In this place a staff of scientific men are constantly at work, observing the surface of the sun and gathering facts about the various occurrences on it which they are able to note.
The sun is obvious to every one: even a small child can see it; we all know something about it and profit by it daily. And yet'it is necessary that experts should work for years together studying the movements of the sun and adding to the stock of human knowledge about it. We are not content with what all of us see and know of the sun every day.
We want specialists, well-trained and adequately equipped, to devote their whole time to observing it under all circumstances and to record their observations in the most accurate and scientific way possible.
Such time and money and strength as are spent for this purpose are not regarded as wasted; they are considered absolutely necessary for the progress of scientific knowledge.
The mystics likewise who shut themselves off, for longer or shorter periods, from the busy world of human needs and sorrows in order that they might reach a clearer knowledge of God are just as absolutely necessary to the progress of religion and the advance of human welfare.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
It may also be said that all these efforts to see God are futile, for He is Spirit and has no form. When men declare that they see God, they only see something which is in their own mind.
What actually happens is that all they know about God—what they have been taught, what they have read in books, what their conscience has told them, what they have learnt from Nature—appears before their mind in the form of a picture. They are not actually seeing God; they are only seeing what they think God is like.** This may be perfectly true and yet even this is of great value.
Those who have not gone to Europe see a map of Europe and think that they know something about it when they see the mountains and the rivers, the plains and the towns marked on the map.
The idea which millions of people have of Europe is only derived from such maps.
When some of them actually go there they may have quite a different experience.
The large city of London, with its teeming millions, its huge buildings, its heavy traffic, its broad roads, its narrow, winding lanes and its busy life is nothing like the little black square which they saw on their maps.
And yet the little black square did help them to know something of London before they actually reached it; it enabled them to realize where exactly
London was and to know that it was much bigger than all the other cities in England which were indicated by tiny dots.
The visions which men have of God serve the same purpose.
We do not and cannot know Him actually as He is for He is Spirit and has no form but they are of some help in bringing Him clearly before our minds.
Those of us who are artistic by temperament and have strong imaginations have such visions in moments of prayer.
Others may come to know God not through visions but through perception which is as clear as vision.
If God is Spirit, as we believe, our spirits can actually come into touch with Him; in some definite, clear way our spirits can know Him and commune with Him.
Vedanta Desika, the Hindu philosopher, knew clearly that God is a Spirit and that He has no body or form which can become visible to our eyes, physical or spiritual.
So he spoke about a perception (Pratyksha) of God which is as vivid as vision.
He says:
"Steady recollection is therefore specified by the term ' vision.' The equality between recollection and vision is due to the fact that, like vision, recollection is extremely clear.
Recollection becomes the equivalent of vision by brooding thought as in the case of those who are filled with * William Temple, Readings in St. John's Gospet, First Series, pp. 91-93.
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fear, passion and so forth.
For example, 'in every tree I see Ram clothed with bark and deer skin and bearing a bow like the god of Death carrying his noose in his hand.'
Likewise ' she is seen as if inseparably bound and reflected.'" ** In his first illustration Vedanta Desika refers to the experience of Maricha, a servant of Ravana.
Maricha was very much afraid of Rama, having once been fiercely dealt with by him and always saw him everywhere.
The second illustration is taken from Malati Madhava, a drama by Bhava Bhuti, in which the hero Madhava sees his beloved Malati always in his mind; she is, as it is quaintly put, closely sewn up with him by the thread of continuous thought.
Mr. M. Sanjiva Rau, a Brahman convert, says:
" This desire to see God, and to have fellowship with those who have seen God, is deep-seated in the soul of India.
This reminds me of a conversation which my mother had with me twenty-eight years ago when I visited her for the first time after my conversion and baptism in 1902.
Mother asked, ' Child, why did you do this?
What happened?'
And I replied 'God Himself laid hold of me and took me away—I could not resist Him, I had to yield."
Immediately mother asked the question ' Did you see God?'
I replied 'No, but mother, have you ever seen me, or have I ever seen you? You have seen this body wherein I dwell; but the '""I" who speaks with this mouth, who sees with these eyes, you have not seen at all, cannot see at all.
That physical . body of yours which I see, that alone is not you.
You that love me, you that have agonized and cried on my behalf, I cannot see.
You and I though unseen each to the other, yet are very real, very living in our mutual relations which are very intimate.
So also although we cannot see God with these eyes of flesh, God is very real and living to us and we can have intimate relations with Him.' " * Mrs. Lindbergh describes in her book, Listen! the Wind, her flight around the North Atlantic Ocean in 1933.
When going through the air in the plane she and her husband could only keep touch with the rest of the world through a radio.
They got into radio communication with a German ship, Westfalen.
After a message the ship's operator broke off abruptly, saying that he was able to see the plane; when Mrs. Lindbergh looked out of the plane she saw the ship steaming ahead with the men
| on deck.
Her excitement when she saw face to face this ship Vedanta Desika, Tatparya Chandrika.
; 7M. Sanjiva Rau, Types of Religious Consciousness, p. 28.
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with which she had been communicating before, through the radio, was great.
"I held up my arm and waved frantically, conscious of that supreme thrill of communication.
It is the most exciting thing in life anyway, whether you find it in a book or in conversation or in the understanding of two minds.
But this, the momentary synthesis of two kinds of communication, was almost unbreakable in its intensity.
All night and all day I had been able to contact people only through my fingers, and my ears, like someone who is blind.
But now, suddenly, I could see.
A veil had dropped away. I could see, face to face.
One of those men waving on deck was the radio operator I had been talking to.
I raised my arm again—wonderful! " * This gives us some idea of the joy which the mystics have in a vision of God and in feeling that they have seen with their own eyes the God of whom they had been thinking a lot, so to speak, in the dark.
Many Western scholars speak as if Samadhi in which all outer experiences drop off is a state of mere vacancy.
The saints of India have always held that in that state they come in contact with God more clearly than in their normal waking life.
Sadhu Sundar Singh relates how when he underwent a long fast (in imitation of our Lord's forty days' fast) all his physical powers practically ceased to function; he could not move his hands, he could not speak, he could not hear properly, his eyes were so dim that he could not see clearly and yet his spirit was most actively engaged in communion with the Spirit of God."
The experience of Helen Keller has some bearing on this point.
She has neither sight nor hearing but she has been trained to use her other avenues of sense-perception such as touch, taste and smell.
Unlike others similarly handicapped, she is able to explain in books and lectures the workings of her mind.
It may be thought that because two of the most important channels of communication with the outer world are closed to her, her life would be less full than the life of other people.
But one who knows her well says of her:
Since she has lived in silence and darkness she has achieved tranquillity of spirit.
She has set her thoughts in order, and I would describe her brain as a magnificent instrument that is controlled by an adept." * 'This shows clearly that even if some of the normal
* Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Listen! the Wind, P. 225.
» B. H. Streeter and A. J. Appasamy, The Sadhu, pp. 25, 26.
" Helen Keller's Fournal, p. 7.
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experiences which reach the mind through the eye and the ear are lacking, the spirit can function just as effectively as, perhaps even more effectively than, when all the sense-avenues are open.
From Helen Keller's experience we may gather that the spirit need not necessarily be hampered by the closing up of any or all of the channels of sense-perception and that the life of the spirit may with some be at its best when the sense-activities are reduced to their minimum.
The desire then to know God clearly is a normal and natural desire.
The time and strength which are involved in following different methods of meditation are not wasted and the results may vary according to the mental make-up of different individuals.
All of us can come to know God, some more clearly than others, some through visions and some through knowledge which is as clear as vision.
Wherever there is real love for God, this desire to see Him and to realize Him will always exist and it cannot be ignored or neglected without the quality of the spiritual life really becoming the poorer.
Fellowship with God through character As a heavy log may block up a stream so that water ceases to flow through it, failure to keep the commandments of God will block up the free flow of God's life into our lives.
There is a great deal about the keeping of commandments in the Gospel of St. John.
" Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." **
The keeping of commandments does not mean the formal observance of laws and regulations: it means the carrying out of the Father's will in love.
He who abides in love keeps the commandments.
A loving son obeys his father not because he is afraid of his father, nor because he forces himself to obey, but because it is a joy for him to do what his father wants him to do,
He does not strive; he does not fret.
There is nothing to compel him.
In a spirit of joy he does whatever is likely to please his father.
So should a Bhakta.
He should abide in the Father's love and keep His commandments.
As his heart is filled with love for God it is a source of great joy to him to make God real to other men and to help them to come close to God.
In fullness of love there is always ethical conformity.
In order that there might be communion between God and man, John xv. 9, 10.
Cf. John xiv. 15, 21, 23, 24.
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there must be complete harmony of will between man and God.
Man must desire the things that God wants him to do.
We know that this is one of the most difficult things in the world.
We know what God wants us to do and yet we are too weak to do it and that erects a barrier between us and God.
Instead of the relationship of love, we stray away from God and are separated from Him.
And so it is necessary that at the very outset we should realize that there should be this complete conformity between our will and the will of God.
In the words of Tulsidas : i "Grant me, O Master, by thy grace To follow all the good and pure:
To be content with simple things:
To use my fellows not as means but ends:
To serve them stalwartly, in thought, word, deed :
Never to utter word of hatred or of shame :
To cast away all selfishness and pride :
To speak ne ill of others:
To have a mind at peace, Set free from care, and led astray from thee Neither by happiness nor woe:
Set thou my feet upon this path, And keep me steadfast in it, Thus only shall I please thee, serve thee right.
39> 22 God calls us, summoning us from our worldly occupations and interests to live with Him, to enjoy His love and to do His will. Having called us He does not leave us to our devices.
He abides in us and we abide in Him.
" Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me." **
"He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him." ** The word " abide" with this meaning is peculiar to St. John; he only uses it to express our fellowship with God.
It shows the enduring nature of our experience.
Our fellowship with God is not momentary; it does not occur to-day and cease to-morrow; it does not occur this year and end the next; it does not occur in youth and cease in old age.
The relationship is permanent.
It lasts through the storm and stress of sorrow as well as through periods of exaltation.
It helps the growing youth; it helps the middle-aged man as he settles down *M. K. Gandhi, Songs from Prison, p. 52.
* John xv. 4.
* John vi. 56.
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to an active life; it helps the old man as his powers of body and mind decay.
The teaching here in the Gospel of St. John: brings out beautifully that both God and man work together.
Man does not merely make an effort, search after God with a passionate longing and make himself as fit as he possibly can to receive the love of God.
If this were all that religion meant, it would not be very different from morality ; it would be simply another way in which man by his own industry seeks to better himself.
But religion is far more than man's effort.
God all the time helps us.
His spirit flows into our life bringing with it knowledge and power.
His love encompasses us giving us a sense of security, peace and joy. There can be real fellowship only when there is such a relationship between God and man, God calling man, continually pouring into him spiritual power and ceaselessly helping him in his daily life and man responding to this willing and ready help of the Father with all his own feeble efforts.
If man's effort is lacking there cannot be genuine progress; if God's help is not given all man's endeavour will be futile. There should be continual co-operation between God and man.
This is what is meant by the words, " Abide in me and I in you."
In the Gospel of St. John God's relationship to man and man's relationship to God are connected together closely:
'" Abide in me and I in you."
While in the Synoptic Gospels we do not find in any one verse such a linking up of God's love for man and man's love for God, we do find both the ideas emphasized.
The first great commandment of our Lord shows us man's duty to God.?> God's response to man is also set forth with unmistakable clearness.
'"' Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" *°
The recognition of the due necessity for man's effort, in response to God's first call and ceaseless help, lies at the heart of religion.
There can be no real fellowship unless both God and man co-operate.
Without God's help man's strivings after a * Matthew xxii. 37, 38.
6 Matthew vii. 7-11.
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good life are only another method of ethical culture and do not yield the highest results.
If man only depends on God, believes that whatever he thinks and feels and does is God's work and for that reason does not exert himself in any way, then too the results are far from satisfactory.
Many people of weak will and feeble character have led immoral lives claiming Divine right to do so.
Wherever serious moral effort is lacking, licence and immorality are found in the name of piety.
Some of the saints of India have realized that for true religion there should be both God's love for man and man's love for God.
This is one of the central and fundamental truths of spiritual experience.
Ramalinga Swami says:
"Thou hast made me wakeful and possessed me as thy own child.
Thou hast revealed unto me supreme secrets of knowledge divine and hast written in my heart unwritten Vedas.
O Purity-Light!.
Thou art in me, I am in thee ever inseparable in oneness." 7"
Nammalvar says: "In return for thy great and good gift— thy mingling in my spirit—I have wholly yielded up my spirit to thee." "* Fellowship with God through Service Once a little girl of four turned to her mother and said,
"Mother, do you love yourself?" and then the girl went on to say, " I love myself and I love everybody and I love the whole world."
This is a good paraphrase of the second commandment of Jesus:
" Love thy neighbour as thyself."
A Christian ought to love everybody and especially his neighbour, which is indeed very difficult.
Jesus spoke the parable of the good Samaritan *° and explained who a neighbour was.
The Samaritan, who looked after the poor, wounded traveller so lovingly, has been the ideal which Christian social servants have followed through the ages.
The traveller, who had been attacked by robbers and left half-dead, was a perfect stranger. Two religious leaders (a priest and a Levite) took no notice of him.
Their conception of religion was worship of God in the temple according to carefully prescribed ceremonies.
They had no idea that God required that they should look after this poor, lonely
* Shuddhananda Bharati, Mahatma Ramalingam, p. 9.
* Tiru-Voi-Moli, ii. 3, 4.
* Luke x. 25-37.
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
stranger.
But the Samaritan delayed his journey, carefully bandaged up the wounds of the traveller and provided for his immediate needs until he got well.
In describing what would take place on the day of judgment, Jesus laid great stress on the need to help the sick and the suffering.
'" 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: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat:
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me:
I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." *° In the Gospel of St. John the connexion between a Bhakta and God is described as that between a plant and its branches.
He who abides in God must bear fruit.
"JI am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.
Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." * God abides in us only as long as we bear fruit.
If we bear fruit He purges us until we bear more fruit.
If we do not bear fruit at all He casts us off and the fellowship comes to an end.
We must love men if God is to abide in us.
We must love the sick and the suffering and help them.
We must love the poor and the down-trodden and work for their uplift. We must help to reorganize society so that every one has the maximum of happiness and the minimum of suffering.
We must love those who have gone astray and fallen and help them to mend their ways.
We must love those who are troubled by doubts and difficulties and think for them.
Only then God will abide in us.
A branch that does not bear fruit is of no use.
A Christian who does not love men is of no use.
God does not live in him.
His fellowship with God comes to an end.
In this respect Hindu Bhaktas have failed.
They have not, on the whole, realized that love for God involves the unselfish ° Matthew xxv. 34-36.
1 John xv. 1-8.
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devoted service of the suffering and the needy. As long ago as the tenth century a.p. the Bhagavata Purana complained of this failure of Hindu Bhaktas to love men and to minister to their needs as an essential part of their duty to God.
" Not working for the welfare of others, sages generally, O God, desire their own salvation, and practise silent meditation in solitude. Leaving the pitiable folk of the world, I do not desire deliverance for my single self. And for this world, vagrant in misery, I do not see any other refuge except you." * Recently Sir S. Radhakrishnan, who interprets the highest ideals of India in the most attractive light possible, has said that the saints of India have had the weakness of keeping to themselves their spiritual experiences and not sharing them with others who need to be helped. " Some of our holy men are inclined to become creatures set apart, beings who take flight from the temporal in order to cling to the heart of the eternal.
If, in our eagerness to seek after God, we ignore the interests of humanity, we may produce a few giants but we will not elevate the race.
We have shown how high individuals can rise by spiritual culture and how low a race can fall by its one-sidedness." *°
But at the same time we do find in modern India a new stress on the need for service.
There is a beautiful incident in the life of Maharishi Devandranath Tagore (the father of the poet
Rabindranath Tagore); in his autobiography, a book of great value, the Maharishi himself tells the story.
Once he went up to the Himalayas to spend time quietly with God in prayer and meditation.
After about two years as he wandered among the hills he saw a pure and clear mountain stream and he said to himself, '"' What a lovely stream and how pure!"
Then the thought came to him that this stream had to go down to the plains to get muddy and soiled in order to fertilize the earth, and he felt a call within himself.
A voice seemed to speak to him and to say:
" You must also become lowly like this river.
You must go down to the plains and there mingle with men and help them."
The Maharishi resisted this call as much as he could.
With great trouble he had got away from men; he had found the world too difficult to live in; it had continually distracted his communion with God. And now there was an inner call to go into the world and to serve it.
When he went home his conflict continued.
No song would come to his lips; his soul ™ Bhagavata Purana, VII, ix. 49, translated by V. Raghavan, Prayers,
Praises and Psalms, p. 135.
#8, Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 57.
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
lost its nner peace.
The next day he still found himself in that condition and finally decided to leave Simla.
At once the clouds lifted and he found himself settling down to his usual state of serenity.'
It must be said, however, that this has not been. the characteristic attitude of all Hindu saints.
Most of them have preferred to live on the mountain top, there enjoying undisturbed fellowship with God.
They have regarded the world as something to be avoided.
Whatever may have been the attitude of the other great saints of India, this beautiful episode in the life of Maharishi Devandranath Tagore brings before us an important point: it is that our devotion to God must find an outlet in practical service of man.
His son Rabindranath Tagore has made a powerful plea for service :
*" Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?
Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones.
He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust.
Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!
Deliverance?
Where is this deliverance to be found?
Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; he is bound with us for ever.
| Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense!
What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained?
Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow." * Perhaps the greatest social servant in the world to-day is
Mahatma Gandhi.
The burden of the seventy millions of outcastes in India lies heavily on him.
To break down the barriers, which keep them separated in dirty quarters allowed to do only menial work, he has taken some of them into his Ashrama.
He and his co-workers often do the work of scavenging so as to show to people that there is nothing degrading about such work.
He himself lives in the simplest style and is clad with only a loin cloth like one of them.
Seeing that drink ruins millions of outcaste families, prohibition is in the forefront of the reforms which he advocates.
To supplement their meagre income he * Devandranath Tagore, Autobiography, pp. 261-263.
* Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjalt, p. 8.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
has emphasized the need for reviving the cottage industries of India.
He has pleaded that all the Hindu temples should be thrown open for their worship.
Because of his enormous influence these reforms which he has advocated such as prohibition, the revival of cottage industries and Temple-Entry are being introduced on a wide scale all over India.
Hundreds of workers have caught the inspiration of his ideals and are working selflessly and faithfully in all parts of the country.
In 1930 when he was imprisoned in Yervada Jail, Poona, he translated into English for the sake of his English friends some of the hymns which he constantly uses in his prayer and meditation.
'These hymns have been adapted for the press by Mr.
John S. Hoyland and published under the title, Songs from Prison.
Many of these hymns, drawn from old Indian sources, hold up the ideal of service.
We may quote here one or' two specimens :
"What words, what speech, Can tell the joy of those who know our God?
Their life is lived Not for themselves, but for the need of men:
In others' service They suffer arduous adversity :
Mercy towards all that lives— This is their special substance :
They give no second thought To what may benefit themselves :
Their bliss they find in others' bliss alone :
And all unknowingly They hand to other men the draught immortal." * "This and this alone Is true religion— To serve thy brethren:
This is sin above all other sin, To harm thy brethren :
In such a faith is happiness, In lack of it is misery and pain:
*™M. K. Gandhi, Songs from Prison, p. 143.
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Blessed is he who swerveth not aside From this strait path:
Blessed is he whose life is lived Thus ceaselessly in serving God :
By bearing others' burdens, And so alone, Is life, true life, to be attained :
Nothing is hard to him who, casting self aside, Thinks only this— How may I serve my fellow-men? " * Once a young man looking troubled came to Swami Vivekananda and said:
'"' Swamiji, I find it very difficult to meditate.
I shut my room, and close my eyes.
But still the mind is not able to concentrate."
The Swami sharply replied, " Young man, what right have you to shut yourself in a room, when the land is stricken with famine and suffering?
Open your eyes and heart to the misery of the poor.
That alone will lead to salvation." ** The Ramakrishna Mission, which Swami Vivekananda started, has now become a powerful organization with its branches all over India.
The unselfish and devoted service which the Sannyasis of this mission are rendering wherever there is distress and suffering is worthy of our highest respect and admiration.
But the philosophical basis of their service is quite curious.
We fail to understand how on this basis there could be such a wide and devoted ministry.
The basis is explained by Swami Vivekananda with characteristic vigour.
'' We have always heard it preached, ' Love one another.'
What for?
That doctrine was preached, but the explanation is here.
Why should I love every one?
Because they and I are one. Why should I love my brother?
Because he and I are one.
There is this oneness, the solidarity of the whole universe.
From the lowest worm that crawls under our feet to the highest beings that ever lived, all have various bodies, but are the one soul.
Through all mouths, you eat; through all hands, you work; through all eyes, you see.
You enjoy health in millions of bodies, you are suffering diseases in millions of bodies." *° This is the application of the Advaita doctrine to social service.
It reduces finally the motive *M. K. Gandhi, Songs from Prison, p. 66.
*® Quoted in G. K. Chettur, Altars of Silence, p. 119.
*° Quoted in G. K. Chettur, Altars of Silence, p. 75.
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of social service to be the love of oneself.
Can the highest social service be possible from such motive?
Only when man forgets himself entirely can his ministry of others be truly helpful.
Here Swami Vivekananda pleads that others should be helped because they are really identical with ourselves.
In other words, selflove and not self-denial is urged as the motive for social work.
Such work becomes tainted at its source and its moral quality suffers accordingly.
Fellowship with God through Suffering The willingness to suffer is always implicit in love.
Suppose a man says I love God and yet is not willing to suffer for Him, then that claim to love is not real.
Suppose a mother says I love my child and yet does not look after it in illness, then that claim to love is not true.
A friend of Sadhu Sundar Singh tells this 'about him:
'' We had been some hundreds of miles back into the interior, and had been forced to pass through some very unhealthy country.
Sundar Singh was attacked by fever day after day and also by acute indigestion.
At length one night as we were trudging along, he became so bad that he could no longer walk and fell almost fainting on the road.
Our way ran through the mountains and there was a bank by the side of it. To this I dragged him and set him against it in such a way that his head might be higher than his feet.
He was trembling with the chill which precedes the fever, and his face was drawn with the pain caused by his stomach trouble.
I was anxious because we were alone and on foot and the weather was very cold.
Bending close to his ears, I asked him how he was feeling.
I knew that he would never complain, but I was unprepared for the answer which I received.
He opened his eyes and smiled absently, then in a voice almost too low to be heard said:
'I am very happy: how sweet it is to suffer for His sake!'
This spirit is the key-note of his life and the dominating influence in all he does." *° Fellowship with God, then, takes place through knowledge, through character, through service and through suffering.
I will give an illustration.
I know a father and his son between whom there is almost an ideal relation of fellowship.
The son is a highly trained medical man but as his father is very old, he has practically given up all ideas of his own career and has devoted himself wholly to looking after his father during the last years of his life. They both live and sleep in the same room
"C. F. Andrews, Sadhu Sundar Singh, pp. 104, 105.
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
and the son is near his father both day and night.
The son does not like to be separated from his father.
He does not think primarily of his own comfort or convenience.
He is always ready to serve his father even though it may at times mean considerable sacrifice to himself.
Here we have fellowship between two persons maintained in the immediate presence of each other through service and sacrifice.
Fellowship with God but not Identity Communion with God is not the same as the realization of. the identity of the human soul with God.
Many Hindu saints following the way of Advaita have aspired to reach the state of Ecstasy (Samadhi) in which they lose the sense of their own separate existence and realize themselves as one with the Divine.
Such experience is not Christian.
The highest bliss of the Christian life consists in communion between the human spirit and the Divine spirit.
Christian saints often experience Ecstasy (Samadhi).
They lose all touch with the outer world; for hours they are absorbed in their vision.
They do not know what happens to them; even if people prick them with a sharp point of a knife they are not aware of it; they forget the need for food and drink; so deeply are they immersed in their experience of God.
They are not merely in a state of blank.
Their physical powers and activities are, it is true, in abeyance. They do not see what happens around them; they do not hear the sounds which are heard where they are.
But their spirits are active and alert and they are closely in communion with the Eternal Spirit.
We note that some Hindu Bhaktas also have not been content with the sense of identity between themselves and God.
They have realized that such experience of identity is futile.
The Divine Spirit is so much higher and nobler than the human spirit that it is impossible to speak of the Divine Spirit and the human spirit as being entirely one and the same.
In the hymn entitled " Siva Panchastavi," Halayudha says:
" If that identity with you which is said to follow the breaking away of bondage, for men, is liberation, what is it for, O Siva?
Let it be thrown into the desolate well.
You are my Master and, if I am your servant for all time, that is indeed laudable, O Siva.
Servants do not desire their Masters' state." * In the teaching of Jesus there is no room whatever for saying that the human soul is identical with the Divine Soul.
Again and again Jesus states clearly and emphatically that the Father "V. Raghavan, Prayers, Praises and Psalms, p. 301.
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is greater than Himself.
"Ye heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you.
If ye loved me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I."* "Jesus therefore answered and said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner." **
" For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." ** "No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him: and I will raise him up in the last day." ** " Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things." *° "My Father, which hath given them unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." *"
It is significant that in the Fourth Gospel, which holds up such an exalted idea of Jesus, there should occur so many statements of Jesus to indicate that God is far greater than Himself.
It is not likely that a thought which occurs so frequently in the Fourth Gospel is only one of the comments of the Evangelist.
We may regard it as quite certain that Jesus thus considered Himself as only an instrument in the Father's hand.
It was His joy and His duty to submit Himself to the Father.
From the prayer which He offered during the critical hour in the garden of Gethsemane on the eve of His crucifixion, we know how He struggled to get into line with the Father's will.
In the Synoptic Gospels we see many evidences of His submission, heartfelt and entire, to the will of His Father.
To understand aright the attitude of Jesus to God we must know something of the Hebrew conception of God on which He had been brought up.
From the earliest days God was considered by the writers of the Old Testament as a holy God.
At first the word "holy" meant dangerous and unapproachable.
Sinai was regarded as a holy mountain and careful arrangements were made that the people should not touch it.
The Sabbath was regarded as holy; any one who profaned it had to be put to death.** Consecrated bread could be eaten only * John x. 29.
" Exodus xxxi. 14.
THE TEACHING OF JESUS ON FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
by the priests at the appointed time; because it was holy it could not be eaten by others.
All these holy objects were held in great fear.
They were considered as dangerous to ordinary people as the switch board of a modern electrical power-house might be to a child.
When God was considered holy it was meant that He was aloof and inviolable and that no one could
-approach Him without risk and danger.
As Joshua said, " Ye cannot serve the Lord; for he is an holy God; he is a jealous
God; he will not forgive your transgression nor your sins." *° Gradually the meaning of the word "holy" changed.
It began to indicate majesty and grandeur and power.
When God was described as holy it did not mean that He was a dangerous Being but it meant that He was full of majesty and glory.
He was not unapproachable but He was great in power and righteous in character.
"Thy way, O God, is holiness :
Who is a great God like unto God?" * This meaning is well illustrated in the '' Holiness Code" in Leviticus, Chapters xvii to xxvi.
This code seems to have been prepared in Babylon from 597 B.c. to 444 B.c. when Israel was in exile. It sets forth various moral and ritual rules for the Jews.
The reason for all these regulations is repeatedly stated to be this: "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy." ** There are moral commands prohibiting child-sacrifice, adultery and sexual perversion; along with these are also found ceremonial rules reminding us of the old regulations connected with holy objects.
'This writer regards God as the one God, omnipresent and righteous.
He is holy in an ethical sense and He demands from men absolutely righteous living.
He is no longer content with merely ceremonial purity; He requires of them cleanliness of heart and purity of action.
The prophets were mainly responsible for this new conception of God.
They took the old word "holy" which the people knew and put into it an altogether different content.
Isaiah of Jerusalem, who wrote the first part of Isaiah about 738 B.c., said, " Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly: they have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward." * "But the Lord of hosts is * Joshua xxiv. 19.
® Psalm Ixxvii. 13 (marginal translation).
™ Leviticus xix. 2.
= Isaiah i. 4.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
exalted in judgement, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness." ** He thus connected up the idea of God with personal morality and social righteousness.
Isaiah of Babylon, who wrote the latter part of Isaiah between 546 and 539 B.c., carried still further this interpretation of the word " holy" along ethical lines.
"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." °* The idea which Jesus had of God was that of a righteous God, ssed of majesty, power and grandeur. He is far above men and His thoughts are not as men's thoughts.
His knowledge is not circumscribed like the knowledge of men.
He knows the past, the present and the future.
There is no limit to His power.
The whole universe is under His control.
Man is but a tiny, limited and weak creature, dependent wholly upon God for his daily sustenance, for his intellectual knowledge and for his moral achievement.
There can be no question, then, of there being any identity between God and man.
Man can never, by even the highest stretch of his spiritual effort, become one with God.
There is a real spiritual and moral gulf between God and man.
Though man is-of the image of God, possessing some of His qualities, he can never rise to complete oneness with Him in His grandeur, majesty, purity and righteousness.
Fellowship with God and the Indian Church It is a great pity that in preaching the Gospel in India the doctrine of communion with God has not received the emphasis which it has in the New Testament and which the Indian understands so readily and from which he profits so willingly.
I speak about this doctrine to audiences of Hindus and of Christians at different times.
I have been impressed by the ease with which Hindu audiences understand it and the interest which they take in it, whereas most Christian audiences respond but little as they have been brought up altogether on a different
Theology.
The doctrine of fellowship with God is of primary importance not only in the Gospels but also in the history of the Christian
Church.
Many of the greatest Christian saints like St. Paul, *, Isaiah v. 16.
Isaiah lvii.15.
H. E. Fosdick, A Guide to Understanding the Bible, Pp. 209-213.
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St. John, St. Augustine, St. Francis, St. Theresa, St. John of the Cross and others lived for and in God.
Their experience of such fellowship has inspired millions of others to follow their example with varyirig degrees of success.
It may be asked why the experience of fellowship with God has not been emphasized in India as much as it ought to have been.
If it is found abundantly described in the New Testament and many of the great Christian saints have had it, it is but natural to expect that in preaching the Gospel in India considerable attention would have been given to it. As the devout
Indian is particularly eager to attain this kind of experience, it is even more natural that such attention would have been given.
Some reasons may be suggested to show why missionaries and Christian workers in India have failed to emphasize the idea of fellowship with God as much as they should have.
In European Christianity as a whole the idea of communion with God has not been the central doctrine or experience.
The stream of such doctrine has now never ceased to flow in the Christian Church from the time of Jesus, John and Paul to the modern day. Though a deep stream, it has flowed not so much through the main fields as in out-of-the-way places.
The bulk of religious people in the Christian Church in Europe have not profited by this rich, deep stream.
Some of the highest mystical ideas are found in sermons which Meister Eckhart and Tauler preached, probably to large congregations.
As to whether all the people in the congregations understood what the preachers said is questionable.
The Society of Friends have built their Theology around such ideas as that of God dwelling in the depths of the soul and guiding it as the inner light.
But their numbers have never been large, though many of them have been men and women of remarkable piety and power.
It is safe to say that the bulk of Christian people in Europe have not given the central place to communion with God and Christ.
Christian missionaries naturally taught in India the doctrines which they themselves had learnt in the West.
Again, the majority of missionaries have not had the type of mind which enables them to have such experience or to appreciate it.
I remember a conversation with Dr. Farquhar at Oxford during the last years of his life.
I had taken a' distinguished English writer, who had made a special study of the mystical experience of the Christian saints, to see him.
In my presence he expressed to this writer his regret that personally he had not been able to understand much that was written and
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spoken in India about union with God.
His remark made it quite clear that he felt that the usefulness of his own work had been quite limited by this lack in him.
Yet again, most missionaries are busy helping Christians who have come out from among the Harijans.
Such Christians are not far advanced intellectually or spiritually.
The deeper aspirations about realizing God's Presence are not so easily understood by them and they want teaching which is quite simple and practical.
One further reason may be mentioned to show why the doctrine of fellowship with God has not been taught in India.
Some missionaries have been actually afraid that such teaching may lead the Christian devotee to think that the end of the religious life is absorption in God.
As a student at Oxford I wrote to a distinguished missionary in India about my plan to study the doctrine of communion with God as found in the Gospel and Epistles of St. John.
He wrote back to me saying that the monistic doctrine (Tat tvam asi) which holds that God and the individual soul are one has nothing in common with Christianity.
Some Christian saints have indeed found it in the New Testament; though they were men of the highest piety they were wrong on this point.
Jesus and the Apostles had no such experience of identity with God.
There is a real danger of Indian thinkers finding such a doctrine of identity in the pages of the New Testament.
Thus argued the missionary friend who wrote tome.
The reply to this fear is this. Many Christian saints have realized the Presence of God and lived in His company without thinking that they are one with Him.
It is quite possible to seek to live in the Presence of God, to enjoy Him, and to be filled with His Spirit without necessarily saying or thinking that man and God are one, and that there is no difference between them.
* See my Christianity as Bhakti Marga, p. 5.