II. A Mystic's Creed

A Christocentric Mysticism

It has been remarked of St. Paul that he was one of the world's great mystics, but that, in contrast to those who aspire to union with the Absolute or with Infinite Reality, his is a mysticism centered in Christ. So it is with the Sadhu. In Ecstasy in every vision Christ is the center of the scene. In ordinary life whenever, among friends, he speaks of Christ, the love-light beams from his eyes and his face is transfigured — as sometimes in supreme moments a woman's is, gazing on her beloved. Seeing him one knows why a Christian has been defined as one "who has fallen in love with Christ."

Once grasp the Christocentric character of his mysticism, and you have the key to the understanding of his teaching, his character and his whole way of life> The Divine, apprehended in and as the Eternal Christ, elicits in him a passion and a devotion not possible to the mystic to whose imagination absolute Reality takes on a less vividly concrete and personal form. That is why he is a missionary, although his own natural bent would be towards the hermit's life of contemplation in solitary mountain caves. The love of Christ constrains him.

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"Lovest thou me more than these?"... "Feed my lambs." That, too, is the reason why he so often urges that religion is not of the head but of the heart — not metaphysical comprehension but personal devotion, not the Vision of Reality but the love of One who saves. And it is mainly because of this that we have ventured to assert that some who have known the Sadhu feel that they understand the better the inner life of two greater men, St. Francis and St. Paul.

We quote an article dictated by him, when, having seen with his own eyes London, Oxford, and Paris — famous cities symbolizing to his mind Western thought and civilization in its diverse aspects — he summed up for a Western magazine what he felt to be his special message. If only we had it in his native tongue it would read like a hmn in prose form.

"Christ is my Savior. He is my life. He is everything to me in heaven and earth. Once while traveling in a sandy region I was tired and thirsty. Standing on the top of a mound I looked for water. The sight of a lake at a distance brought joy to me, for now I hoped to quench my thirst. I walked toward it for a long time, but I could never reach it. Afterwards I found out that it was a mirage, only a mere appearance of water caused by the refracted rays of the sun. In reality there was none. In a like manner I was moving about the world in search of the water of life. The things of this world — wealth, position, honor and luxury — looked like a lake by drinking of whose waters I hoped to quench my spiritual thirst. But I could never find a drop of water to quench the thirst of my heart. I was dying of thirst. When my spiritual eyes were opened I saw the rivers iCf. The Foreign Field, June, 1920.

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of living water flowing from His pierced side. I drank of it and was satisfied. Thirst was no more. Ever since I have always drunk of that water of life, and have never been athirst in the sandy desert of this world. My heart is full of praise.

"His presence gives me a Peace which passeth all understanding, no matter in what circumstances I am placed. Amidst persecution I have found peace, joy and happiness. Nothing can take away the joy I have found in my Savior. In home He was there. In prison He was there. In Him the prison was transformed into Heaven, and the cross into a source of blessing. To follow Him and bear His cross is so sweet and precious that, if I find no cross to bear in Heaven, I shall plead before Him to send me as His missionary, if need be to Hell, so that there at least I may have the opportunity to bear His cross. His presence will change even Hell into Heaven. As the dumb man cannot express the sweetness of sweetmeats, even so a saved sinner cannot express the sweetness of His presence in his heart. Only a heavenly language can give adequate expression to this heavenly Peace. Even though I am in the midst of danger, temptation, sin and sorrow of this world, through Him who gave His life I am saved. The sea is salty and the fish lives all its life in it. But it never gets salty, because it has life. Even so if we receive life from Him, though in the world, we are not of the world. Not only here, but also in Heaven we shall find ourselves in Him.

"Now I have no desire for wealth, position and honor. Nor do I desire even Heaven. But I need Him who has made my heart Heaven. His infinite love has expelled the love of all other things. Many Christians cannot realize His precious, life-giving presence, because for

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them Christ lives in their heads or in their Bibles, not in their hearts. Only when a man gives his heart shall he find Him. The heart is the throne for the King of Kings. The capital of Heaven is the heart where that King reigns. "

Obviously the man who can speak and feel like this has little need of a systematical theology with all its metaphysical implications carefully thought out. Besides, he thinks in pictures. For him an analogy or illustration is not merely a means to establish an argument; it is often the argument itself. He does not state a general principle and then buttress it with illustration. He puts first the illustrations and then draws out the general principles implied in them. Nor does he seek afterwards to coordinate these general principles. The illustrations stand out vivid and striking; but no pains are taken to present them so as to cohere into a system, even though the thought which they illustrate has an inner coherence of its own. And the teaching of the Sadhu has such coherence; not because he aims at system, but because his teaching is the spontaneous expression of prolonged meditation on the New Testament by a man whose own personality has attained to inward unity.

But precisely because the Sadhu is not a systematic theologian but a man who thinks in pictures, it will be of considerable interest to see the vivid and effective way in which the cardinal doctrines of Christianity present themselves to his mind. What we shall find is, in effect, the Johannine theology translated into parable.

The Trinity — A Vision

"At one time I was a good deal perplexed about the doctrine of the Trinity. I had thought of three separate

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Persons sitting as it were on three thrones but it was all made plain to me in a Vision. I entered in an Ecstasy into the third heaven. I was told that it was the same to which St. Paul was caught up. And there I saw Christ in a glorious spiritual body sitting on a throne. Whenever I go there it is the same. Christ is always in the center, a figure ineffable and indescribable. His face shining like the sun, but in no way dazzling, and so sweet that without any difficulty I can gaze at it — always smiling a loving glorious smile. I felt when first I saw Him as if there were some old and forgotten connection between us, as though He had said, but not in words, 'I am He, through whom you were created.' I felt something the same, only far more intensely, as I felt when I met my father again after an interval of many years. My old love came back to me; I knew I had been his before.

" ' The first time I entered Heaven I looked round about and I asked, 'But where is God?' And they told me, ' God is not to be seen here any more than on earth, for God is Infinite. But there is Christ, He is God, He is the Image of the Invisible God, and it is only in Him that we can see God, in Heaven as on earth.' And streaming out from Christ I saw, as it were, waves shining and peace-giving, and going through and among the Saints and Angels, and everywhere bringing refreshment, just as in hot weather water refreshes trees. And this I understood to be the Holy Spirit."

The Incarnation "The Word of Life was made flesh; the Word came

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into flesh. I used to think: Where is the need that God should become incarnate and take the form of man? When I was not a Christian I used to criticize this doctrine. There are many thousands who do not find any intellectual difficulty in believing in the Incarnation but who yet cannot understand its need. Often, however, they find in their hearts a great desire to see God; man has a natural desire to see God. We want to see Him whom we are trying to worship; but He is infinite. I say to idol worshipers: 'Why do you worship these idols?' They say, 'God is infinite and these idols are only meant to help us concentrate our minds; by means of these symbols we can worship, we can understand something.' Him we love we want to talk to, we want to see Him. The difficulty is, we cannot see God because He is infinite. If ever some time we should become infinite, we may then see the infinite God. Here and now we are unable to see Him, our Creator, our Father, the Giver of Life. That is why He became incarnate. He took human form, limited form, that in this way men might see Him. "

In the address in Balliol College Hall, from the opening words of which the preceding paragraph is taken, there followed two homely illustrations from Indian life.

"When I was in the Himalayas once I wanted to cross the River Sutlej, but there was no bridge. I could not swim over. I was thinking of what I should do when I saw a man and I said to him: 'I would like to go to the other side of the river but there is no bridge or boat.' He said, 'That is all right, air will take you over.' I was surprised. I could breathe air, but air could not bear me up and take me to the other side. But he took a skin and filled it with air, and then asked

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me to support myself on it. I did so and got safely across. As the air could only carry me by being confined in the skin, so God to help man had to become incarnate. The Word of Life was made flesh. He will carry those who want to cross the river of this world to heaven. 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' We can see the living Father in that Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

"On another occasion, I remember, in Kashmir, there was a man who owned several hundred sheep. His servants used to take these sheep out for feeding, and each evening as they brought them back they found two or three missing. He asked his servants to go and look for them, but for fear of wild beasts they did not trouble themselves about them. The owner had a love for them and wanted to save them. 'If I go myself searching for these sheep they will not recognize me, as they have not seen me before. They would recognize my servants but the servants will not go. So I must become like a sheep.' He took a sheep's skin and put it on himself and looked like a sheep. He went out and found some that had gone astray and some that had been wounded. They readily followed him thinking that he was a sheep like one of themselves." He brought them in and sat with them and fed them. When he had saved all the

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sheep and brought them home, then he took off the sheep skin. He was not sheep but man. He became a sheep in order to save those lost sheep. So God is not man, He became man in order to save men. "

In the Tamil addresses we find this parable.

" " There was a King. His Grand Vizier was a learned and saintly man. When traveling in Palestine, the Vizier was deeply moved as he heard about Christ and became a Christian. When he returned home he told the people that he was a Christian and that he believed in the Savior who came to this world to save sinners. The King said to him: ' If I want anything to be done, I tell my servant and it is done. Then why should the King of Kings who is able to save men by a word come to this world Himself and become incarnate?' The Vizier asked for a day of grace before giving his answer to the question. He sent for a skilled carpenter and asked him to make a doll and dress it up exactly like the one-year-old son of the King and to bring it to him the next day. The next day the King and his Minister were in a boat together and the King asked him for an answer to his question. At the same time the carpenter came and stood on the shore with his doll. The King stretched out his arm to receive the child who, he thought, was his own child. According to instructions previously given by the Vizier, the carpenter let the doll fall into the water. The King at once jumped into the water to rescue the drowning child. After a while the Vizier said: "O King, you needed not to leap into the water. Was it not enough to bid me do it? Why should you yourself jump in?' The King reflected: 'It was a father's love.' The Vizier said: 'Love was also the

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reason why in order to save the world the all-powerful God became incarnate instead of doing it by His mere word. "'

The Atonement

One day we asked the Sadhu how he understood the language of the New Testament about our being saved by the blood of Christ. He replied with a story. 'Once, in Burma, preaching the Gospel of Christ, I said, 'He died to save sinners. " How T they said. But there was a young man present who said, ' It is true. ' I thought this man must be a Christian, but when I spoke to him he said he had never heard of Christ. He said, 'It is quite true. By the death of this Man others could be saved.' I said, 'How?' He said, 'By the death of my father I have been saved. One day on these mountains I slipped and fell down and lost my blood through the wound. When my father heard about it he took me to the hospital.

' "He is at the point of death," said the doctor.

' "He is my only son," said my father.

' "It is impossible to save him, his life is going. He has lost too much blood — nothing can be done," continued the doctor.

' " If there is anything that can be done I am willing to do it, " said my father.

' "If anybody is willing to give his blood I can save him, " said the doctor.

' "I am willing to give my life and blood," said my father.

'It was done, I lived and my father died, and by the death of my father I have been saved.'

"Just so," continued the Sadhu, "I had fallen on

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the mountain; I had lost my spiritual blood. Life had gone and I was on the point of death. The Savior injected His own blood into me — He poured out His life and I was saved. Those who are willing to give their hearts will understand how true it is that by the death of Jesus Christ they can be saved. I have found it to be true in my experience. If you want to save life you have to give life. "

A most quaint illustration followed which, we understood him to say, was communicated to him in a vision. " There was a case in South India where, under similar circumstances, the blood of a cat was introduced into a man's veins, with the result that he subsequently showed many of the qualities of the cat, such as spitefulness. This illustrates the way in which the infusion of life from another being can change the character of the person into whom it is infused."

"They told me also in the same vision that it is only by being grafted into Christ that we produce good fruit. Other religions say, 'Do good and you will become good.' Christianity says, 'Be in Christ, and you will do good.' The meaning of the Atonement and the Blood that washes away our sins is that we are grafted into Christ, I in Him, and He in me. It is a bitter sprig which is grafted into the tree, but, once it is grafted in, the sweet juice of the tree flows through the bitter sprig and makes it sweet. "

The preceding illustrations are along the line of the conception so prominent in St. John's Gospel that salvation is by participation in the divine life. The parable which follows illustrates the somewhat different conception of ransom applied in the Gospels to the death of Christ.

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"Two young men were gambling. It was a law of their land that those who gambled were liable to a fine of five hundred rupees. The Government officers found them gambling and made them prisoners. Of these two, one was the son of a wealthy man; the other was the son of a poor peasant. Five hundred rupees were immediately paid for the wealthy boy — he was released from prison. What could the poor boy do? As he could not pay the fine, he remained in prison. To get enough money to pay the fine, his mother toiled all day long, carrying stones. Stones would fall upon her hands and cut her and make the blood flow. Through the window of his prison the young man saw his mother's hands and asked: " Mother, what is this wound in your hand? "What is this blood on your finger V " I am working like this to save you,' said the mother, and explained in detail the work she did. At last she saved five hundred rupees and freed her son from the prison. Then one day the rich young man saw him and invited him to a game of dice. 'I can never do that hereafter. Your release came easily, but I was saved by my mother 's hard work, by her toil, by the wounds on her body, by her blood. In the future I shall not even look at this game which has brought such suffering to my mother.' Those who, like the rich young man, think that salvation from sin will come easily have no strength to abandon sin. But those who realize that God became incarnate and shed His precious blood to save us from our sins, will not like to commit the sin which gives such suffering to their God. "

Here is a parable suggesting rather the Abelardian conception of the appeal of self-sacrificing love. " ' There was a young man who led a bad life, he rebelled against

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his father and ran away from home, and finally joined a gang of dacoits. At home he had a brother who loved him very much. His father expressed the wish, if it were possible, to convey to the erring brother his willingness to forgive him. Nobody ventured on account of the danger of the jungle. At last the brother offered to do so, and the father gave him as message the fact of his continued love for his erring child, and also sent him some presents to convince him of his fatherly love and goodwill. On the way he fell into the hands of dacoits, who robbed him of the money and valuables, and mortally wounded him. He said to them, 'I don't mind your seizing all I have; only take me to your leader,' which they did. His brother recognized him by his voice, and when he saw his wounds he was 'smitten to the heart.' "I have,' said the wounded brother, 'brought you a message from your father; he loves you still; he has never ceased to love you; if you return now, he will forgive you. This is the object of my coming, and now I am prepared to die. ' And so he gave his life for his brother. The dacoit repented and went back to his father, and ever remembered and mourned over the brother who had given his life for him. So has Jesus done for us. Many do not understand all that this means for us. Has it really got as far as your hearts yet?"

St. Paul's metaphor of "the wall of partition" has evidently suggested the following:

"Some time ago I saw on the Himalayas two villages that had been separated by a very high and inaccessible mountain. The direct distance from one village to the other was not great, but as travelers had to go round the mountain, walking over it being impossible, the journey took a week. A man lived in one of those villages who resolved that, if a road could not be made over the mountain, then it ought to be made through it. He resolved to lay down even his life in an attempt to cut a way through. He set to work; but, alas, before it was finished he was killed. He laid down his life in an attempt to unite the two villages. I thought of this as an illustration of the wall of sin, and of how Jesus Christ has made a way through it by giving His life —as St. Paul says, 'Ye who were sometimes afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ'."

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The idea of the death of Christ as being merely or mainly a propitiatory sacrifice seems not to occur in the Sadhu's preaching; or, if it does, to have little organic connection with his deepest thought on the subject. To him Hell and Judgment await the unrepentant as the result of an automatic internal process, they are not an expression of the Divine wrath. For he thinks of God only in terms of Christ and "Jesus Christ is never annoyed with any one. "

Mystical Union with Christ

" India," reiterates the Sadhu with passionate conviction, "has no need of missionaries to teach a Christ who is merely a great moral teacher and not also the Lord of life. " To most of us the name Christ suggests primarily the historic Jesus — in and through whom we see, as it were, the face of God invisible. But in all ages the Christocentric Mystic is one who thinks first of an Eternal Divine Being whom now he knows and loves, and only in the second place of the Man who ate and drank and taught in Galilee.

"There are those who speak of Christ as the Supreme

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Mystic; what, " he was asked, " would you say to that? " "That is the tendency of those who are not inclined to accept the divinity of Christ. Christ is not the supreme mystic; He is the Master of mystics, the Savior of mystics. "

"Christ is not only an historical figure but one who lives and works to-day. He lives not merely in the Bible but in our hearts." "An Indian Christian, who had traveled widely, said once: 'I saw Muhammad's tomb. It was very splendid, decorated with diamonds and all manner of precious things. And they told me: 'Here are Muhammad's bones.' I saw Napoleon's tomb and they said: 'Here are Napoleon's bones.' But when I saw Christ's tomb, it was open. No bones lay there.' Christ is the Living Christ. The tomb has been open thus for nearly two thousand years. My heart is also open to the Lord. He lives in me. He is the living Christ because He lives in the lives of Christians. Real Christians are not those who profess, but those who possess, Christ.

"Some say that salvation consists in being absorbed in God. We Christians say that to live in Christ is already heaven. "We are to live in Him and He in us. How can this be? When a ball of iron is thrown into

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the fire it becomes red-hot. The iron is in the fire and the fire is in the iron, and yet the iron is not the fire and the fire is not the iron. In the same way we live in Christ and He lives in us and yet we do not become gods.

" Consider the air we breathe. The air is our life, yet man is not the air, nor the air man. In like manner we breathe God's spirit, but we are not God. Just as we draw in the air by breathing, we can inhale the Blessed Spirit by prayer. Not only do we draw near to God, but we are united with Him. This is not only union but life, and when we have this life we see the marvelous love of God.

" ' The planets have no light in themselves. They shine with light which they have borrowed from the sun. Christians are like them. In themselves they have no light, but they shine with light borrowed from the Sun of Righteousness.

"The Church is called "the body of Christ' because the relation between Christ and Christians is not that between a master and his servants. It is more than that. Christians are Christ's own parts. They are not only friends of Christ, they are Christ Himself. He breathes through them.

"Christ is always present in the Church, but unseen. Wherever men feel in their hearts a feeling of reverence, this is a dim recognition of His presence. But Christ never interferes with our freedom so as to compel us to feel His presence. He allows us to do so according to our capacity. Indeed He never interferes with us here in any way by compulsion, only by attraction.

"We see medicine for the eye. We see it so long as it is before us. But when it is dropped in the eye, it cools the eye and cleanses it, but we cannot see it with

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the eye. In the same way we cannot see the Savior who cleanses our heart and makes it rejoice with His presence.

"The Christian has eternal life because the God to whom he is united is Eternal."