To explore the mystical spirituality of these two women is to provide a lens through which to view the distinctive ways in which each religion has developed, precisely at a time when globalization threatens. Furthermore, to explore the spirituality of Mira and Teresa is to illuminate the ways in which different traditions can be in mutually enriching dialogue.
Introduction
- Research Problem
- Methodological approach
- Research Method and Literature Review
- Thesis Structure
This dissertation will be in part a textual study of the writings of Mirabai and St. Teresa. I will also attempt to highlight some of the issues that arise when studying cross-cultural experiences of mysticism.
Nature of Mysticism and Comparative
Differing understandings of God and union
- Advaitic Theology
- Dvaitic Theology
14 See Bernard McGinn's discussion of the development of the understanding of theosis within Christian theology in The Foundations of Mysticism (New York: Crossroad, 1991). In the same discourse in verse 15 it goes on to name Brahman as "ruler of the world".
Differing ways of knowing and communicating
- Nirguna/Apophatic tradition
- Saguni/Cataphatic tradition
God is not alive in the way we are: God is not merciful as we understand compassion. Neti Neti means that God is not limited to particular attributes, rather than not possessing any such attributes.
Comparative Issues
In the context of that relationship it is indeed personal, not He, but He or She. When people relate to the Real in the form of non-personal consciousness, they experience it as non-personal, and in the context of this relationship it is non-personal.”
Development of the Bhakti tradition in
- Historical Development
- General characteristics of Bhakti
- Social and theological implications of
- Movement into the vernacular
- Traditional varna distinctions ignored
- Less interest in Vedic scriptures
- Rejection of shruti rituals and ceremonies
- Gender implications within the development
Thus, in the sixth century BC, new movements began to grow out of the needs of the common people. The Bhagavata was the first of the bhakti margas - the first invitation to take refuge in the mercy of a forgiving God (Organ 1974; 163).
Development of the path of devotion in the
Historical Development
The third way to a right relationship with God appears at the beginning of the New Testament. Third, the process of purification of the soul and the wound of love led to the fourth stage of union with God.
The path of devotion
- The shift from the cloister into the world…
- The shift in language from Latin to the vernacular
- The shift from the intellect to affective ways of
- The shift to embodied spirituality
Like many other mystics of the period, the two forms of union seem compatible, and there seems to have been a shift away from traditional distinctions between God and the human soul during this period. 41 See, for example, the writings of the Beguine women, as well as Mirabai and Saint Teresa. With this fundamental shift from the monastery to the world, we begin to notice that piety and mysticism are increasingly expressed in the vernacular by both believers and laymen.44 It was no longer the language of educated, religious, monastic men, but became the diverse language of the poor, women .
The journey to union is no longer a journey of the mind and intellect, but a journey of the senses, emotions, subconscious and heart.
Gender implications
In the early medieval period we find not only the shift towards experience, but a much greater emphasis being placed on visions, in the use of poetry, art and music. This is a mysticism embodied not only in the individual body, but in the collective body. In other words, this mysticism spread to the wider community outside ecclesiastical authority.
It is difficult to overestimate the threat this movement posed to the hierarchy of the church.
The similarities and importance of bhakti and
The place of incarnation and the concept of avatar
- The avatar assumes real physical form
- The avatar takes worldly birth
- The avatar is both human and divine
- The avatar will die
- The is some historicity in certain forms of avatar
- Avatars are repeated
- The example and character of the avatar is crucial…
- The avatar descends with a specific purpose
- The avatar reveals a personal God of love and
In this section I will use some of his categories to show some of the similarities but also the differences between the Christian understanding of incarnation and the Hindu concept of avatar. However, within Hinduism, avatars are not limited to incarnation within human form, and earlier forms of Vishnu appeared in animal form.47 However, it is the forms of Rama and Krishna that are widely more appealing to devotion. How different is it from the appearance of God in the form of a dove in the Jordan River, or from the one who speaks from the burning bush?).
Through the avatar, God is revealed in all its fullness, and enables us to enter into a personal relationship with the Deity.
Comparison of the figure of Krishna and Jesus
Theologians like Parrinder remind us, however, that all avatars are still the one Krishna and that they are the only incarnation for that present age. and the star appears in the middle of the night, while the evil King sleeps. Krishna is the embodiment of Brahman and in the Gita Arjuna calls Krishna the supreme Brahman, the eternal Divine Person, the Lord and the unborn Deity. But Krishna also teaches Arjuna that he is the soul that resides in the heart of all beings.
As told in Bhagavad-Gita Chapter 11, when Arjuna experiences and sees who he really is, he is filled with such awe that he begs for mercy.
Love as mutual self giving between the devotee
It is this distinction that causes much of the pain and tension in her writings. It is against this backdrop that Mira's actions must be understood as striking at the heart of the community. Love for God can never be love separated from our neighbors and the rest of the world.
Here she wrote that the knowledge of the greatness of God remained in her soul. This was considered a deep threat to the religious and political establishment of the time. Part of the scandal of her life and song was because of who she was.
Comparison of social and theological significance…75
A short biography
With this end in view, Mira's family tried to forge a political alliance with one of the other royal clans by arranging her marriage with the politically stronger family of Sisodiya Rajputs of Mewar and Chittor. 53 Mira's great-grandfather, Jodhaji, had founded the city of Jodhpur, which remains one of the most important centers of crafts and trade in Rajasthan. Her grandfather Dudaji later conquered Merta along with 360 surrounding villages, and gave twelve of them to Mira's father, Ratnasingh, including Kudki, where Mira was born.
In the morning, all that remained was Mira's garment and hair, draped over the feet of God.
Mira and her understanding of God
- That of the beloved
- That of a saviour
- Krishna as jogi
Much of Teresa's biography can be found in her own autobiographical writings entitled Life. This very human experience came to be one of the primary ways in which she encountered God. But Teresa's primary allegiance was not to her lineage and family history, but to the church family.
We still need to create communities, even in the church, that reflect the vision of these two women.
Mira‟s understanding of the way to union with
- The path of love
- Dying to self and the world
- Holiness
- Grace versus human effort
Mirabai‟s experience of union with God
In her life she notices that it is very easy to deceive yourself and others about the reality of the inner life. Teresa spoke of the "wounding of the soul" of God and the tremendous pain it causes; yet she was clear that in this pain lies such joy. They attracted large followings and, in the eyes of the Inquisition, gained much power and influence.
What is required is a meeting of the different religious traditions at the deepest level of their experience of God.
The effects of Mirabai‟s experience of union with
- The effects on Rajput political authority
- The effect on the caste system
- The effect on those who suffer or are oppressed
- The effect on herself
St Teresa of Avila
A short biography
One of the earliest stories of Teresa's childhood tells how she and her brother Rodrigo tried to flee to the land of the Moors, in search of martyrdom. The Incarnation in particular seems to have been a fashionable place to be seen, and its salons were the meeting places of the wealthy, where gossip and flirtation abounded. Many of the sisters feared her return, having known her before and were aware of the harshness of her rule.
John of the Cross, one of her closest friends and a collaborator in the Carmelite reform, was kidnapped by non-reformed monks and imprisoned in Toledo for nine months in brutal conditions.
Teresa and her understanding of God
- God as Divine Majesty
- God as friend
- That of her beloved spouse
Teresa and Catherine of Siena were the first women to be awarded the title "Doctor of the Church". This was bestowed upon her in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. Although on occasion Teresa spoke of the transcendence of God and the resurrection and glorification of Christ, her primary experience of God was the incarnation of Christ. God remained the King of the whole world, the one through whose mercy and compassion alone connection was possible.
She never shied away from speaking of the crucified God, who knew what it meant to be despised, rejected and to suffer.
Her understanding of the way to union with God…
- The path of love
- Detachment
- Humility and grace
- Holiness
It is God's grace and mercy that she experienced to call her back to God. She wrote: "it is impossible without a powerful love to give up everything just to please God" (Life 39.13). In short, the process of transformation into holiness is a process made possible and driven by God's grace.
Teresa begged God to grant these gifts to someone who could better use them for God's glory.
Her experience of union with God
- Desire and courage
- Recognition of her own powerlessness
- Wound of love
- Between heaven and earth
- Union with God
The pain was so great that it made me moan, and the sweetness which this greater pain caused me was so excessive that there is no desire that can remove it; neither is the soul satisfied with less than God" (Life 29:13). It is this knowledge that led her to desire the suffering of that wound of love of God's revelation to her. And so she wrote that she "dies wanting to die" and again that it's like being suspended between heaven and earth.
Teresa was clear: there is no difference between her soul and that of God; both are one.
Effects of her teaching on union with God
- Effect on the political and religious context
- Conversos
- Alumbrados
- Theology in the vernacular
- Effect on the patriarchal and religious norms
- Effect on the contemplative life
- Effect on herself
In her writings, she repeatedly upheld the authority of the church and her own devotion to it. She developed relationships with members of the Inquisition and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, as well as with civil authorities. Obedience became the critical tool for their survival in a church that placed all power in the hands of the clergy.
Remaining a 'daughter of the church' was perhaps the most difficult thing Teresa accomplished” (Ahlgren 1996; 1).
Comparison of the thinking and experiences of
- Similarities of experience
- Concept of God
- Way to union with God
- Similarities in their writings
- Similarities in context
- Similarities in the effects of their lives and
- Relevance for us today
This awareness of the surrounding presence of God in everyone sometimes bombards the senses of both women. And yet, without denying the awareness of the transcendence of God, the primary experience of Mira and Teresa is the incarnate form of God. Both Mira and Teresa lived in a time of political instability, where the enforcement of unity in culture, politics and faith was at the forefront of the agendas of the powerful.
It is not, as Marx claimed, because it is the "opium of the masses". The poor and the marginalized and displaced have less interest in the values of this world; there is so much less to give up.
Conclusion
Idolatry remains one of the greatest pitfalls in religious life and in our religious journeys today. Rhadhakrishnan writes that "The qualities of intuitive knowledge, non-dogmatic tolerance, as well as insistence on non-aggressive virtues and universalistic ethics mark Jesus as a typical Eastern seer" (Rhadhakrishnan 1933; 58). In such systems, there is no basis for dialogue, let alone community, and there is no room for genuine love for another.
It is about those who strive not only to know "about" God, but to "know" God, who experience the reality of God in the depths of their souls.
