What then does this mean for us as we approach and interact with other faith traditions? It is thus not just about debate and dialogue of knowledge or even about shared action over peace and justice issues. It must lead to love. A deep love for one another and God in one another and a recognition that as we surrender to inner change, that we must open ourselves to the depth of other people and their lived love for God, even as we remain firmly rooted, but no longer stuck, in our own traditions. Swami Siddheswarananda, when asked how he could subordinate doctrine to religious experience and transformation of character would reply that:
..it is never by insisting on questions of principle and doctrine that one augments love and understanding in anyone. Those principles, by setting up boundaries, have much more tended to exclude and divide.
They have created neither love nor mutual comprehension. If, on the other hand, we consider the lives of the great mystics, we see in them a kind of spiritual realization which makes them all brothers in the same outpouring of sympathy for humanity. Forgetting doctrinal barriers and theoretical divergences, they are in love only with Truth under whatever form they have discovered it; and this love shines forth and attracts as no dogma ever will (Siddheswarananda 1998; 4).
The reality is that all religions are in a state of continual evolution, and no forms remain fixed. They are continually developing from both external and internal influences, and at times certain aspects of religion have to undergo a death in order to embrace the challenge of new life. We need humility and courage to acknowledge that in our traditions which is imperfect and flawed, and to allow these to die. This can be very painful, as we are often emotionally attached to these outer forms, and yet the danger is that we become devoted to the forms and not to that which they symbolize. Idolatry remains one of the greatest pitfalls in religious life and in our faith journeys today. What within Christianity will we be called to renounce? What will
Hinduism be called to renounce? For there is no mystical journey without renunciation.
Jesus‟ faith was one of love, compassion and tolerance. He did not found an organization, nor teach a new religion, but sought only to deepen the spiritual life of all. He was indifferent to labels, and made no distinction between Jew and Gentile, male or female, slave or free. He didn‟t formulate doctrines, but instead proclaimed the love of God, knew complete unity with God and was prepared to give his life for others. Rhadhakrishnan writes that “The characteristics of intuitive realization, non-dogmatic toleration, as well as insistence on the non-aggressive virtues and universalist ethics, mark Jesus out as a typical Eastern seer” (Rhadhakrishnan 1933; 58). Religious cultures of separation have clung too often to exclusive perspectives that have left no room for other traditions. This attitude of exclusivity is both distrustful of other faiths and disrespectful of their insights and experiences. In such systems there is no basis for dialogue, let alone community and certainly no space for authentic love of the other. What is required is a meeting of the different religious traditions at the deepest level of their experience of God. It is about those who seek not simply to know „about‟ God, but to „know‟ God, that experience the reality of God in the depths of the soul. It is in the ground of the soul that Christian and Hindu have to meet, to discover in their experience of God, what is really common and where the real differences arise, beyond images and concepts. This becomes therefore a journey where we have so much more to learn than to teach.
Just as the Christian faith has been forever shaped by Greek philosophy and German thought, is it not be possible that certain aspects of the gospel will only be brought to light through eastern understandings? We have incorporated truth from other perspectives before, do we have the humility to still do so today?
Rumi writes that someone had an elephant which they kept in a dark shed. As seeing it with the eye was impossible, every one who came felt it with the palm of their hand. The hand of one fell on its trunk and he said, “This animal is like a water-pipe”. Another touched its ear and to him the creature seemed like a fan. Another handled its leg and described the elephant as having the shape of a pillar. Another stroked its back. “Truly,” said he, “this elephant resembles a throne.” However, had each of them held a lighted candle, there would have been no contradiction in their words
Bede Griffiths beautifully observes that “While we remain in this world of shadows and images, where the truth is always hidden under a veil, we have each to follow the light of truth which is given us, while we strive to open our minds to that truth wherever it may be found, confident that truth cannot contradict itself, even though it‟s final reconciliation may not be found in this world” (Griffiths 1994; 37).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abishiktananda. Hindu-Christian Meeting Point. Delhi: ISPCK, 1966.
____________. Prayer. London: SPCK, 1967.
____________. Saccidananda: A Christian approach to advatic experience.
Delhi: ISPCK, 1974.
____________. In Spirit and Truth. Delhi: ISPCK, 1989.
Abraham, William J., Jason E. Vickers, Natalie B. Van Kirk, eds. Canonical Theism: a proposal for theological and the church. Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans, 2008.
Ahlgren, G. Teresa of Avila and the politics of sanctity. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 1996.
Alston, AJ. (trans.). The devotional poems of Mirabai. Delhi: Motilal Barnasidass, 1989.
Appasamy, AJ. The Theology of Hindu Bhakti. Bangalore: The Christian literature society Press, 1970
Bailey, G. and Watson, I. Bhakti Studies. Sterling Publishers, 1992.
Balsham, AL. The origins and development of classical Hinduism. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1989.
Bhandarkar. Vaisnavism, Saivism and minor religious systems. New York:
Garland Publishing Inc, 1980.
Bielecki, T. Teresa of Avila : Mystical writings. New York : Crossroad, 1997.
Blakney, Raymond Bernard (trans.). Meister Eckhard, a modern translation.
1941.
Burrows, R. Interior castle explored : St. Teresa's teaching on the life of deep union with God. London: Sheed & Ward, 1989.
Butterworth, G.W. trans. & ed. Origen on first principles, being Koetschau’s text of the De principiis. London: SPCK, 1936.
Chaves, Mark. Ordaining Women: culture and conflict in religious organizations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
Dayanandan, T(ed). The Christian Bhakti of AJ Appasamy. Madras: CLS Press, 1992.
Dollen, Charles J., ed. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, On the love of God and other selected writings. Staten Island: Alba House, 1996.
D‟Souza, R. Awareness and union with God– the Gita and Christian Perspective. Gujurat Sahitya Prakash, 2002
Englen, R. “Desire and Symbol: Two aspects of the cloud of unknowing” The Way January 2001, Pg 52, Vol. 41
Flood, G. An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres, 1996
Green, D. Gold in the Crucible. Element books Ltd, 1989.
Griffiths, B. Christ in India. London: Templegate Publishers, 1966.
_________. Return to the Centre. New York: Harper Collins, 1976.
_________. A new Vision of Reality. New York: Harper Collins, 1989.
_________. Universal Wisdom. New York: Harper Collins, 1994.
Halter, Deborah. Papal “No”: a comprehensive guide to the Vatican’s rejection of women’s ordination. New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 2004.
Hardy, F. Viraha-Bhakti: The early history of Krsna devotion in South India.
Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1983.
Harpur, James. Love burning in the soul: the story of Christian mystics, from Saint Paul to Thomas Merton. Boston: New Seeds Books, 2005.
Hick, J. and Askari, H. (ed.) The Experience of Religious Diversity. Vermont:
Gower Publishing Company, 1985.
Jantzen, G. Power, gender and Christian mysticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Jaoudi, M. Christian Mysticism East and West. New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1998.
Johnston, W. The inner eye of love. London: Harper Collins, 1978.
Kakar, S. The analyst and the mystic: Psychoanalytic reflections on religion and mysticism. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1991.
Katz, S(ed). Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis. London: Sheldon Press, 1978.
Kavanaugh, K. and Rodriguez, O.(trans.) The Collected Works of St Teresa of Avila Volume One. Washington, D.C: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1976.
___________. The Collected Works of St Teresa of Avila Volume Two.
Washington, D.C: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1980.
___________. The Collected Works of St Teresa of Avila Volume Three.
Washington, D.C: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1985.
Kishwar, M. and Vanita, R. “The burning of Roop Kanwar,” in Manushi No.
42 – 43 Sept – Dec 1987.
Kishwar, M. and Vanita, R. “Poison to Nectar: The life of Mirabai,” in Manushi No. 50 – 52 Jan - June 1987.
Klostermaier, K. A Short Introduction to Hinduism. Oneworld Publications, 1998
____________. A Survey of Hinduism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.
Lorenzen, DN. (ed.) Bhakti Religion in North India. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.
Lewis, David. (trans.). Book of the foundations of S. Teresa of Jesus of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel, with the visitation of nunneries, the rule and constitutions, written by Herself. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1913.
Luti, M. Teresa of Avila's Way. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991.
McIntosh, M. Mystical Theology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998.
McGinn, B. The foundations of mysticism. London: SCM, 1991.
_____________. The presence of God: a history of Western Christian Mysticism. New York: Crossroad, 1991.
_____________. Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics: Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechtild of Magdaburg, and Marguerite of Porete. New York:
Continuum, 1994.
Melton, J. Gordon and Gary L. Ward, eds. The Churches speak on women’s ordination: official statements from religious bodies and ecumenical organizations. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991.
Mukta, P. Upholding the common life, the community of Mirabai; Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 1999.
Noble, David F. A World Without Women: The Christian Clerical Culture of Western Science. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1992.
Nyssa, Gregory of. Nature of Human Knowledge. Weiswurm: Alcuin, 1952.
Organ, TW. Hinduism: It’s Historical Development. New York: Barons Educational Series, 1974.
Otto, R. Mysticism East and West. New York: Meridian, 1957.
Parrinder, G. The World’s Living Religions. London: Pan Books, 1964.
__________. Avatar and Incarnation. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1970.
Peers, E. Allison (trans. and ed.). The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, doctor of the Church. Westminster, MD.: Newman Press, 1964.
Pelikan, J. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Volume Three. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Prabhu, Joseph, ed. The Intercultural Challenge of Raimon Panikkar.
Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996.
Pushparajan, A. From Conversion to Fellowship: The Hindu Christian encounter in the Ghandian perspective. Allahabad: St Paul Press, 1990.
Rajan, J. Bede Griffiths and Sannyasa. Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 1989.
Rakoczy, S “Discernment and Desire” The Way July 1999, Pg 269, Vol 39.
Ranade, RD. Mysticism in Maharashtra. Delhi: Motilal Barnasidass, 1988.
Roebuck, V. The Upanisads. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
Rosen, S. (ed.) Vaisnavism – Women and the worship of Krsna. Delhi:
Motilal Barnasidass, 1996.
Siddheswarananda. Hindu Thought and Carmelite mysticism. Delhi: Motilal Barnasidass, 1998.