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THE SEMITIC AND ORIENTAL RELIGIOUS CONVERGENCE IN UNDERSTANDING OF THE ULTIMATE REALITY
CHAPTER
8
THE SEMITIC AND ORIENTAL RELIGIOUS CONVERGENCE IN
UNDERSTANDING OF THE ULTIMATE REALITY
The Semitic Religions (Christianity and Judaism mainly) live
from the conscious, and, rational level or by the rational level of the soul.
But in Hinduism, Bede Griffiths finds out the other half of it. In oriental
religion we, live by the other dimension of the human existence. Here we
discover the unconscious, the intuitive dimension of the soul. Bede wanted to
experience the marriage of these two dimensions of human existence, the
rational and intuitive, the conscious and unconscious, the masculine and
feminine. After coming to India he said that, "I want to discover the
other half of my soul."1
8.1.The Semitic Religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam)
In Semitic Religion and tradition God is represented as
transcendent, Lord of creation, infinitely ‘Holy’ that is separate from and
above nature and never to be confused with it. In Hebrew-Christian tradition
starting from the infinite transcendence or Yahweh, sees God descending to
earth, manifesting himself through his angels, speaking his word to this
prophets and finally becoming ‘incarnate’- the word becoming flesh-and
communicating his spirit to man. St.John’s Gospel speaks about the incarnation
of God. It says, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with
God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came
into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being."2
Griffiths says that today people look for " is there with Christian
tradition a path to the supreme, not by way of doctrine or ritual but of direct
experience of Reality-Not words or thoughts, but direct experience of God, of
truth, and of Reality.
There is in all Semitic Religion, a profound sense of the
infinite holiness of God, his moral righteousness and refusal to tolerate Sin,
but also of his infinite compassion and willingness to forgive the sinner who
repents. Every form of Semitic Religion has its own serious limitation. Each of
them has a deep sense of the holiness of God, of his moral purity, and
rejection, of sin together with his immense compassion and mercy, which
represents a profound insight into the nature of Reality itself. Yet in each of
them, there is a spirit of tolerance, which has become a serious obstacle to
their acceptance. The Semitic conception of God is that an utterly transcendent
Being set over against the world as its creator and Lord and ruling its destiny
from above. The holy bible depicts it. "God says to Moses in the oldest
testament, speak to the people of Israel I am the Lord Your God."3
" In Christian tradition God is also conceived as
immanent in nature. St. Paul himself quotes the saying, ‘in him we live and
move and have out being.’ The Hebrew starts from the transcendent of God and
gradually discovers his immanence. The Hindu starts from the immanence and
reaches towards his transcendence. It is a difference of point of view. Each is
complementary to the other and opens up a difference perspective."4
When Christian faith is seen from the Oriental perspective,
another aspect of the Truth contained in the original revelation is disclosed.
In the first place the use of the word, ‘God’ come to be questioned. In the
context of Semitic context, ‘God’ is conceived as a Person. But the word
‘Person’ like all other terms applies to the ultimate Reality, is a term of
analogy.
In Christianity the divine Reality manifested itself in the
Person of Jesus, in his life and death and resurrection. This was a unique historical
revelation within a unique historical tradition, with both its values and its
limitation. Jesus came at the end of a long historic process to bring to
fulfilment the hopes of a particular people and to reveal the final purpose of
God in their history and in human history as a whole. The birth of Jesus from a
Virgin was the sign of the birth of a new humanity, born ‘not of the will of
the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God’. His miracles were the sign of
the ‘new creation’. The transformation of matter by the Spirit, that is,
through its penetration by consciousness. His death and resurrection were the
sign of the passage through death to new life in the spirit, which man has to
undergo in order to ‘realize’ God. His ‘descent into hell’ and his ‘ascension
into heaven’ are the signs of the penetration of the Spirit into the depths of
the Unconscious and the passage to the Super conscious state, the ‘fourth’
state of Hindu tradition, which is beyond out present state of consciousness in
space and time. Finally m his Second Coming is the final manifestation of the
Truth of Reality itself, when the whole creation and the whole of humanity
passé out of its present state of being and consciousness into the total
consciousness of Reality- the Being, Knowledge and Bliss of Saccidananda5
8.2. The Oriental Religions (Hinduism)
In oriental tradition God-or the Absolute is immanent in all
creation. The world doesn’t exist without God, but in God. He dwells in the
heart of every creature. The danger of the position is that God is very easily
confused with nature. The transcendent aspect of Being is lost sight of and the
result is pantheism. In the same way, God is conceived as the good, and the
distinction between the good and the evil is easily lost.
"Perhaps the greatest weakness in the Oriental
tradition is that the material world tends to be regarded as an illusion –as
Maya-the product of ignorance (Avidya). The world of ordinary experience is
held to have only an apparent reality and in the ultimate state of knowledge
(Paravidya) all differences disappear and the one, absolute, reality alone
remains."6 In Hindu or oriental concept of God-or rather of
Ultimate Reality is that of an immanent power in and in man, hidden in the
heart of every nature. "The Hindu temple is itself essentially a
‘sacrament’ a representative of the divine mystery manifested in nature and in
the human soul."7
The authentic Hindu tradition does not deny the reality of
the material world. It sees the whole creation as pervaded by the one eternal
spirit who creates, sustains and finally dissolves the world, and this
all-pervading spirit-the Brahman-is not less transcendent that immanent. It is
unseen inconceivable, unimaginable, indescribable, of every name and form which
may be given, to this Supreme Being, we have to say neti, neti.
"The world is constructed, is constructed in terms of
subjects and predicate, but the Brahman is the one ultimate subject, of which
everything lese, is a predicate."8 In oriental tradition, they
are not guided by any dogmas or doctrine. All oriental doctrine arises from an
experience of God. To address God they use the words likes Brahman, Atman, Tao,
Nirvana or Void. There are all words, which point towards the nameless reality,
which cannot properly be conceived and is as much beyond personality as it is
beyond any human concept. " In Hinduism Brahman is the name given to that
Reality conceived as the source from which everything comes, the Ground in
which everything exists, the Goal to which everything aspires. It is the One,
the Eternal, the infinite, the Transcendent or whatever name we choose to give
to the beyond, of human existence."9 The Brahman according to
Hinduism is experienced only when mind in meditation goes beyond images and
concepts, beyond reason, and will to the ultimate ground of consciousness. It
is experienced in the depth of the soul.
END NOTES
1. Griffiths, Bede. The Marriage
of East and West, (Great Britain; William Collins Sons & Co Ltd, 1982),
P.16.
2. Nelson, Thomas. The Holy
Bible, The New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition for India
(Nashville: Catholic Bible Press, 1993), St.John 1:1-4.
3. Ibid., Exodus 20:1-3.
4. Griffith, Bede. The Marriage
of East and West, PP. 25-26.
5. Ibid., P. 34.
6. Fernando, Albano. The Hindu
Mystical Experience (New Delhi; Intercultural Publishers, 2004.), P.17.
7. Bede, Griffiths. Christian
Ashram, (London: Darton, Longman & Todd 1966), P.99.
8. Griffiths Bede, Vedanta and
Christian Faith (USA: First Dawn Horse Press, 1973), P.37.
9 Ibid., P. 26-27.
Bhakti Cults...... Vaisanavism and Shivism
CHAPTER
7
HINDU
MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE IN THE BHAKTI CULTS; VAISNAVISM AND SAIVISM
7.1.
BHAKTI
Bhakti is a doctrine that implies supreme faith, complete
devotion and utter surrender to a personal God. Bhakti cult started in 7th,
8th and 9th centuries A.D. with advent of 12 Nayanar
(Shivites) and 63 Alvar (Vaishnava) saints from Tamil Nadu (men and women from
all walks of life) who went from place to place singing their devotional hymns
in worship of their respective deities best known of the first group were
Appar, Sambandha Sundaramurti, and Mannik Vachaka, and of the second,
Nammalvar, Kulasekhara, Tirumangi and Godal (or Andal) a woman saint other
famous Bhakti saints who preached and spread the doctrine were Hanadev (d.1608)
and Ramakrishna Pramhanasa (1836-1886) Tukarama (b.1608). Bhakti must be
unremitting and depends on an intimate personal association between devotee and
deity aided by chanting the latter’s praises, hearing its praises remembering
it always and serving it by doing good works in its name. The word Bhakti
derives from the root Bhaj primarily it means to share or participate in Gita.
Krishna is said to have participated with his devotees and reciprocally they
too participated with him. The Bhakti is also very frequently used for sexual
love and sexual union. Bhakti is essentially the attuning of the mind to God.
One of the natural instincts of animate beings is to love. If such love is
directed towards a permanent entity like God, it is Bhakti, which leads to
bliss, or permanent unalloyed happiness, a condition of mind by which it is
constantly drawn to the Lord of creation. It, therefore, requires concentration
of mind. Such concentration has to be cultivated and developed by training.
7.2.
God Vishnu
"Vishnu, in Hinduism, second deity in the Trimurti
(divine trinity, including Brahma, the creator, and Shiva, the destroyer),
representing the preserving and protecting aspect of the Godhead. The ancient
Vishnu Purana text describes him as the primal god, as do his followers
(Vishnavas), who also worship his many avatars, such as Rama, Buddha, and
Krishna. Vishnu is often represented dark blue in colour, holding in his 4
hands a lotus, mace, discus, and, conch. His consort is Lakshmi."1
She is said to be the Goddess of fortune
Vishnu is considered as the God of protection in Hindu
Trinity. He is the embodiment of Satavaguna is the pervader from the root VISH
(to pervade). He is associated with the watery element and is called NARAYANA
moving in the water; and is represented as slumbering in SESHA king of serpents
floating on the waters. He has a thousand names. His abode is Vaikunth and his
vehicle Garuda. Vishnu is the highest among Gods. Vishnu is thus represented
reposing on the thousand-headed serpent Ananta and floating of the ocean.
Vishnu irrespective of his incarnations has a material character and an
individuality of his own. He is described as living in Vaikunth (heaven).
Vishnu’s separate personality as distinct from his avatara has been described
in the PURANAS. Accordingly he has a peculiar auspicious mark on his breast. He
has four arms and holds a symbol in each of his four hands; via a wheel or
circular weapon (charka) called SUDARSHANA, a conch shell called PANCHANJAANYA,
Gada called KAMAHI and a lotus PADMA. Considering Vishnu’s connection with sun
the wheel (discuss) may be regarded as emblematical of the sun’s circular
course in the heavens. In the later mythology it is supposed to represent a
missile weapon hurled by Vishnu like a quoits at the demons that are ever
potting against Gods and men and with whom he is always at war. He blows the
conch shell like a trumpet in his battles; its miraculous sound filling his
enemies with terror and helping him to secure victory. The mace also used in
battles but he is also armed with a wonderful bow called SARANA and a sword
NANDAKA. He has a jewel on his wrist named SYSMANTAKA and another on his breast
called KAUSTUBHA.
In Rig-Veda Vishnu is a form of the ever-moving solar orb.
He is striding through the seven worlds consisting of seven lower regions
(Atala, Vitala Bhuvar, Svaar, Mahab, Janab, Tapab, and B’rhma, or Sateye). Bhur
(earth) Bhuvr (atmosphere) and svr (heaven) are supposed to comprehend the
entire world. Though Vishnu existed as a God in Vedic times, his role as
preserver is essentially a late development. Vishnu is a God who is equal with
Prajapti the creator and supreme God. As Prajapti he encompassed Brahma. As the
preserver he is the embodiment of the quality of mercy and goodness. He
preserves and maintains the universe and the cosmic order and Dharma. Vishnu is
the God, who evinced his sympathy for the suffering human. His activity is
confined to the welfare of all created thing by frequent descents (avatara) on
earth not only in the form of men but also of animals and even of plants and
stones.
In Hinduism Vishnu is regarded as the Para Brahman. He is
higher than the highest. He is self-existing, immutable, predicate less, and
pure being. He is the supreme reality, devoid of origin, growth, modification and
destruction. He is the attribute less or devoid of sensible qualities. He
abides in himself. He abides in all things of the universe. So he is called
‘Vasudeva’. He is the supreme self. Para Brahman is infinite knowledge. He is
devoid of difference. He is infinite eternal pure consciousness. Pure
consciousness constitutes his nature. He is indeterminate being and
self-awareness. He has three powers of being, consciousness and bliss. He
cannot be known through any predicate or attribute. Vishnu is pure infinite,
eternal and, omnipresent.
7.3.
GOD SIVA
Siva is partly developed from the Bedi Rudra. He is equally
reminiscent of Praryna yogic Lord of the beasts, while his consort resembles
the sacrifice-exacting mother Goddesses of the same period. Rudra or Siva is
early identified with Fire, from its role as God of red lightening and can take
the place of AGANI. Siva as Lord of Beasts, and at the same times the idea of
violence present in Rudra. Siva Bhairava, the destroyer is thus by extension
Siva, the bringer of fertility, the creator, the auspicious, thus Brahman
becomes inferior to Siva. So Siva is called MHADEVA or ISWARA. His supreme
creative power is celebrated in worship of LINGAM.
"Siva, Hindu deity representing that aspect of the
Godhead connected with the destruction necessary for renewal of life. He is
sometimes depicted as an ascetic youth. In the role of re-creator he called the
happy one His phallic emblem is worshipped."2
Hindus (shivites) believe that, " Shiva is the
efficient cause of the world. Shakti, his conscious energy, is its instrumental
cause. Maya is its material cause. Shakti is conscious energy. It constitutes
the body of God. It is not independent of him. Maya is the unconscious primal
matter. It is omnipresent, indestructible, and possessed of manifold
powers."3 Siva has his abode on mount Kailasa, where He lives
with his family, where his worshippers hope to be transferred. Another
remarkable aspect of Siva is as a being ‘half male and half female’. It
symbolises both the duality and unity of the generative act and the production
of the universe from the union of the two eternal principles.
Siva is considered as indeterminate, attribute less, pure,
and eternal. Siva has the Shakti, or power of conscious and power and bliss,
which in non-different from him. Siva is the Lord of creation, preservation,
and, destruction of the world. Siva is also the ruler of the individual souls.
He is also calm, part less, imperishable, supreme light of consciousness. He is
pure, spotless, ungrounded, formless enlightened and free from appearance.
END NOTES
1. Harkavy, D. Michael, The New
Webster’s International Encyclopaedia (USA: R.R Donnelley & Sons
Company, 1991), P.1148.
2. Ibid., P.992.
3. Sinha Jadunath, India Philosophy,
Vol.II (Calcutta: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited), P733
Hndu Mystical Experience in the Vedanta School
CHAPTER
6
Hindu
Mystical Experience In the Vedanta School
6.1
MYSTICISM
"Mysticism is an experience of a transcendental union
in this life with God, the divine, through meditation and other disciplines.
Cleansing away of physical desires, purification of will, and other
enlightenment of mind are the stages along the path of unification. Mystics
suggest that God’s indwelling can be reached by delving within, or by the
soul’s rise in successive stages."1 Mysticism is more
practical, helping people towards an experience of the divine Reality. Genuine
mystical experience is the experience of an Absolute Transcendent, Reality
beyond word, thought, image and concept. This experience may be interpreted and
expressed indifferent terms. But the reality, which is experience, is always
conceived as beyond name and form. It is called as Brahman, Nirvana, Tao, Al
Haqq or God the Almighty in different religions.
Hinduism has been engaged over a period of four thousand
years in a continuous quest for a right understanding of the nature of God, the
Supreme Being, and of man’s relation to him. Vedanta means the orthodox
tradition of the Hinduism. "The Vedanta is the system of philosophy which
has grown up from the original revelation of the Vedas and constitutes, as its name
implies the end of the Vedas."2 This philosophical doctrine was
first developed in the Upanishad in the sixth century. This tradition has been
grown over the succeeding centuries being enriched by different sources,
especially by Bhakti, the devotion to personal God, which produced the
Bhagavad-Gita. It has developed various systems of philosophy, notably the
Advaita, or non-dualist, doctrine of Sankara, the Vishtadvaita, or the
qualified non-dualism, of Ramanuja and the Dvaita, or dualism, of Madhava.
Still today all these systems have their own adherents. Thus the Vedanta
presents us with a complex system of thought, which has grown up over three
thousand years and is still alive at the present day.
In the theory of the Vedanta, there have been different
answers to the question the nature of the universe and its relation to the
ultimate Reality. But Vedanta has never found a completely satisfying answer to
this problem. According to Griffiths, the mysticism of the Vedanta school is
responsible for shaping and preserving the fundamental elements of the Hindu
traditions. It is followed by majority of the Hindu today.
6.1.1. Advaita Vedanta
Griffiths maintains that Sankara was not "monist and
that his doctrine is to be understood as non-dualism. Sankara’s non-dualism is
not to be understood in the monistic sense, where by Brahman is the sole
reality while the world is an illusion. But Brahman and the world are not two.
They are not two equal and competing realties. Brahman is the absolute reality,
and the world and human being are considered as having relative reality. The
individual soul of the human being is identical with the Brahman.
To Griffiths, Sankara’s view the ultimate reality is
‘without duality’-it is an absolute simple identity of being-and in the highest
state of consciousness, that of paravidya, the human being is conscious
of this identity of being. He realizes the absolute, unchanging state of being
in pure consciousness, and realizes at the same time that all the apparent
multiplicity of this world with its ‘name and form’ is a superimposition on
this pure identity of being. The world has the reality of an appearance of
being to out present mode of consciousness but when we awake to a higher
consciousness, we discover that it is a mere appearance like a dream of the
illusion created by a juggler, or according to his favourite simile, like the
form of a snake which is ‘superimposed’ on that of a rope. When we see the
world, as it really is we see it as Brahman as the absolute being, and now
ourselves in identity with this being. We then realize the meaning of the great
saying of the Upanishads: I am Brahman, ‘thou are that.3
Griffiths maintains that Sankara was not a monist and that
his doctrine is to be understood as non-dualism.
6.1.2. Sankara As Monist
Sankara is acknowledged to be a theologian basing himself on
Sruti. He is known as the St. Thomas of Hinduism. According to Sankara,
the knowledge the Ultimate truth was gained not by direct intuition or not by
senses or reason, but by revelation. Griffiths says that, "the reason
helps to lead the soul by means of negation and analogy (lakshana) to the
experience of this ultimate Reality which Sruti reveals in which both
sense and reason are transcended and the soul remains in a state of pure
consciousness, of simple awareness, in which no object is superimposed."4
This state of consciousness is known as ‘Advaita’ or non-duality. It is at the
experience of Being without a second. "To Sankara, consciousness always
exists; because of the ignorance (avidya) the human soul is not aware of it. So
we consider that the world has no distinct reality at all. Sankara beliefs that
the one reality is the Brahman, the eternal, the infinite: that alone
remain"5
6.1.3. Sankara as non-dualist
The world is woven on Brahman, meaning that Brahman is its
support and foundation. Brahman is the absolute essence from which this entire
world derives. Number of scholars who studies Sankara misunderstood Sankara and
his doctrine of Advaita. So Griffiths began to reinterpret Sankara and came to
the non-dualist conclusion on Sankara. According to Griffiths Sankara never
denied completely the reality of this world. He only affirmed that though the
external world has no absolute reality, as such it had a relative reality.
6.2. Visistadvaita
According to Griffiths, Ramanuja is the one who maintained
the distinction in the Ultimate experience and accepted the idea of a personal
God. Ramanuja maintained a distinction between God, the world and, the human.
Ramanuja held that the supreme Reality is not simply a kind of impersonal or
super-personal. It is a persona God. For Ramanuja God is a personal being,
above all imperfections. The world of nature and the world of souls, all become
his attributes. The personal God is called as the Lord, the omnipotent and
omniscient, possessing the fullness of Being, knowledge and bliss, grace and
love.
6.3. Dvaita
Dvaita is also a doctrine by Madhava, which upholds a
radical distinction between God and nature. For Madhava God, the world and, the
soul are distinct realties, and they are eternally different. For Madhava,
"There is a fundamental diversity in the universe, between God, man and
nature and between man and the world, and different beings in the world." 5
According to Madhava God alone exists absolutely and
independently of himself nature and man exist in dependence on God, and human
beings are also like God. But their difference lies only in their radical
dependence of on God. Soul’s bliss depends on its dependent of God.
6.4. Advaita Vedanta
The Advaita Doctrine of Sankara is the most commonly
accepted the theory of the universe by the Hindus. It remains one of the most
fascinating theories of human genius and one, which does not cease to attract
even when one may disagree. Sankara was deeply aware of the mysterious
character of the Brahman- the Ultimate. Sankara affirmed about the world that
though the external world has no absolute reality, yet it has a certain
reality. He says, "It is an appearance of being, without origin, in
expressible in terms of being, as of not being."6 Sankara
acknowledged the mysterious character of the world. It is neither being nor not
being, nether completely real nor completely unreal, and its origin cannot be
explained. Sankara says that the world in its ultimate reality is identical
with the Brahman, with the absolute reality.
About knowledge he says that the highest mode of knowledge
above sense and reason is Paravidya and not aparividya. There is Sankara’s
Advaita speaks about the Ultimate Reality without duality, which is simple
identity of being, in the highest state of consciousness. For Sankara the
Supreme Being was Nirguna Brahman that is Brahma without qualities or
attributes.
END NOTES
1. Harkavy, D. Michael, The New Webster’s International
Encyclopaedia (USA: R.R Donnelley & Sons company, 1991), P.739.
2. Grifiths Bede, Vedanta and Christian Faith (USA:
First Dawn Horse Press, 1973), P.2.
3. Ibid., P.33.
4. Fernando Albano, The Hindu Mystical Experience
(New Delhi: Intercultural Publications, 2003), P.159.
5. Griffiths Bede, Vedanta and Christian Faith P. 43.
6. Ibid.,P.33.
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