Abhishiktananda and the Challenge of Hindu-Christian Experience

Dr. Bettina Baeumer "The Hindu-Christian experience can have many consequences and conclusions, and it can lead to a fresh understanding of Christ. The name Jesus Christ is heavily loaded by 2000 years of history and, according to Panikkar, "perhaps we should change that name because of the historical connotations of the last 2000 years, . . . Yet, it is in and through Jesus that a Christian experiences that mystery which Christians call Christ," (,"Indian Theology and the Third Millennium,").Whether or not we change the name, what is important is to rediscover the experience of "that mystery,", and here the meeting in depth with Hindu and Buddhist spirituality can give an essential impulse. This also because the West has been culturally and religiously emptied and de-sacralized and it is very difficult to recover what has been lost. However, I do not mean that these spiritual traditions should be used by Christians for resolving their crisis. This would be another kind of colonialism where we exploit not the natural riches of another culture, but its spiritual riches. One has to be aware of this danger." - Dr. Bettina Baeumer

Abhishiktananda and the Challenge of Hindu-Christian Experience
Dr. Bettina Baeumer
from Bulletin 64, May 2000

I. Introduction
Following the Indian tradition I will start with a peace prayer—Shantimantra:

May He bless us, may He nourish us, may we together accomplish a powerful work, may our study be full of vigor and light, May we love one another.

And the Indian tradition also pays respect to the Master at the beginning of any spiritual enterprise:

I pay homage to the Master by whose grace the darkness of my ignorance has vanished because he has opened my eyes by his knowledge.

Guru means here the Master in any form, divine or human, who fulfills this role of opening our eyes, irrespective of his or her name or personal identity, and who inspires us and gives us insight.

Swami Abhishiktananda If we take Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux) as model for the "challenge of Hindu-Christian experience,", there are several reasons. For one thing, Abhishiktananda understood from the beginning of his encounter with Hindu spirituality that it is not a question of entering into dialogue with "another,", but that there is an inner challenge within Christianity that is in need of the spiritualities of Asia in order to overcome the deep crisis of Western Christianity.

In the development of Abhishiktananda's life, experience and thought, we can discover a process with different stages—from the convinced missionary with a certain fulfillment theology to the stage of one who was shaken by a real encounter with Hindu spirituality and torn apart by two experiences, two "ultimates,", two identities, two worlds of religious expression, and, in his own words, "two loves," from there to a third stage of relativizing all formulations, all "names-and-forms,", all concretizations of the one, unspeakable, inexpressible Mystery, and, finally, to a stage of re-identifying the "correspondences," which he discovered at both ends of his experience in the light of an "explosion," of all previous concepts. With all his theologizing tendency, Abhishiktananda remained aware of the dangers of re-naming, re-defining the Reality that is beyond all names and forms. He could not completely escape this danger, but the reflections expressed in his spiritual diary, which he often pushed to the extreme, are very helpful for those who have come after him and are trying to trace the stages of this process.

Abhishiktananda remained faithful to his two identities to the end—his belief in Jesus Christ and his acceptance of the Hindu experience of advaita—whatever may have been the final synthesis that he discovered. What I would like to stress in the experience of Abhishiktananda as being of utmost importance for our approach to the future of Christianity and the future of religion in general in the twenty-first century are therefore the following points:

1. One cannot (or should not) throw overboard one's own religious/cultural/spiritual roots when encountering another religion. Even those post-Christians who think that they have no roots cannot deny some hidden identity which has to be integrated in one way or another. At the same time, 2. one has to take the other tradition as seriously as one's own.

3. The dialogue of religions is not a device, not only a way to understand the other, not just an academic exercise or an institutional duty, and certainly not an esoteric trip. Rather, it is the only way to respond to the challenges humanity is facing at this turn to the twenty-first century, within and without. At the same time it is a way to rediscover our own identity and to relativize our false certainties.

4. Such a dialogue has to take place at the spiritual level, neither at the conceptual/academic nor at the social/institutional levels. The latter are also necessary, but they have to follow. This implies a stripping, an emptying of our cherished beliefs and concepts, a plunge into the depth of the Divine Reality without any support. This may not and cannot be the task of everyone, but just as in other human fields there are a few who perform a certain task for the whole of humanity, so also in this field.

Abhishiktananda used to insist that one should not try to imitate him. His way was unique and yet has a pioneering value for all of us. At his time the very idea of "double belonging," would have amounted to heresy, but it has now become an almost accepted term. Perfect advaiti that he was, he might have made his own the strong words of the Katha Upanishad: "Whoever sees diversity/difference here, only goes from death to death," (4.10-11). And yet he was not for facile reconciliations and compromises. Indeed, this is a path "on a razor's edge,", as the same Katha points out (3.14).

After these general introductory remarks, I want to speak more precisely about Abhishiktananda's experience based on his diary.

II. Abhishiktananda's Experience
We may look at Swami Abhishiktananda's experience as paradigmatic in the context of the four stages of his discovery as we find them documented in his spiritual diary. As Raimon Panikkar writes in the Introduction:(1)

These pages offer a fascinating example of the evolution of a thought-process. They enable us to witness the coming to birth of a conviction, the fruit not of theory but of practice. The intellectual experiments with his ideas, the monk does so with his life. Life itself, and not reflection, is the source of his thoughts and convictions, which are born from and develop out of his lived experience. (p. xv)

The value of the private diary of this monk lies neither in the ideas that it contains (they are expressed better in his books), nor in the evidence of a life (this would better emerge in a biography), but in its revelation of the depths of a human being, in his subconscious levels. We witness the development of a soul's archetypes under the influence of two different cultures. To live at the meeting point of several traditions is the destiny of a large portion of the human race. For very many people it is hardly possible any longer to feel at home in a single culture. To camp out in the workshops of technology does not answer to human aspirations. A new insight is required. This is where Abhishiktananda's experience seems to me to be of great importance. (p. xvi)

We need not stop much at the first phase of Abhishiktananda's conviction, which was very close to that of Abbé Monchanin: the fulfillment phase. As an example we may see his exclamation when celebrating the first Christmas in India in 1948: "The mystery of Christmas, great here! Respond in the name of my people to the Father's call! As Jesus came to respond in the name of the world to the Father's call to the world . . . Be the summit through which my people reaches God," (December 19, 1948, p. 2-3).

His meeting with Sri Ramana Maharshi in 1948 soon shook his fulfillment theology. In the light of this perfect incarnation of the advaitic experience, all the deeply entrenched convictions of Christian superiority seemed to crumble—though Abhishiktananda was always able to distinguish between Christ and his followers (a distinction which brought forth more anguish since he was also a lover of the Church). The Christian fulfillment idea was rather turned around: it was in the heights of Hindu spirituality that he found his expectations fulfilled.

The tensions created by the meeting of Hindu spirituality at its highest and purest level were partly theological, partly psychological and spiritual. A theology of the absoluteness of Christianity that is centuries old cannot easily be overcome. But the real challenge for Abhishiktananda was in the psychological and spiritual realm, where he had to ask himself whether he was up to the mark of such a perfect state of consciousness as he encountered in Sri Ramana Maharshi and later in Sri Gnanananda. This challenge remained with him till the end of his life:

What gnaws away at my body as well as my mind is this: after having found in advaita a peace and a bliss never experienced before, to live with the dread that perhaps, that most probably, all that my latent Christianity suggests to me is nonetheless true, and that therefore advaita must be sacrificed to it . . . In committing myself totally to advaita, if Christianity is true, I risk committing myself to a false path for eternity. All my customary explanations of hell and the rest are powerless against a reality that exists in a way unknown to me. . . . Supposing in advaita I was only finding myself and not God? And yet, it is only since I made the personal discovery of advaita at Arunachala that I have recovered peace and a zest for life.

What guru will enlighten me?

I pray as a Christian, but I am well aware that all those words are external. The only truth is quietas at its actual source, within. The guru comes at the moment when you are ready, says Hindu wisdom. What is the guru, ultimately, but the outward projection of this thirst for the Self? . . . (September 25, 1953)

Being caught in this dilemma, he evidently tried to solve it at all levels, including that of reflection, as for example when he compares the beyond-death experience of St. Paul and of Ramana:

Paul had the experience (anubhava) of Jesus alive, although previously Jesus "had died,", the experience of a dead man who had come back to life, and to a definitive life that "can never be taken away,", by means of a faith in which henceforth everyone could himself attain to life opposed at the same time to death and to evil, for death and evil (sin) went together in Hebrew thought.

Ramana had the experience (anubhava) of "self-being,", not of a dead man come back to life, but of a "so-called," mortal who possessed being in his inmost depths, in the only true way, that which senses that this being "can never be taken away," by any power whatever, whether of nature or of will.(December 10, 1959, pp. 224-225)

The creative and painful tension between the two experiences would stay with him till the end of his life, until it got dissolved at a higher level. But creative it was and remains for us, because only when one takes both traditions seriously can there be tension. And Abhishiktananda took the traditions seriously not only in their peak experience, but also with the whole burden of their cultural, religious, historical and philosophical differences. It was not an easy relativization, not a simple denial of the one in favor of the other. In fact, he did not deny anything of what he previously believed, but everything was elevated to a level where the "names and forms," became insignificant.

The stage of relativization came, therefore, once he penetrated more deeply into the advaitic experience.

Christianity and advaita:

Neither opposition nor incompatibility—two different levels. Advaita is not something that conflicts with anything else at all. It is not a philosophy—but an existential experience [anubhava]. The whole formulation of Christianity is valid in its own order, the order of manifestation [vyavaharika] (and so, provisional), and not of the Absolute [paramarthika]. The Christian darshana [perception] is no doubt opposed to the Vedantin darshana, but this is merely the doctrinal level. No formulation, not even that of advaita, can claim to be paramartha.(October 23, 1970, p. 322)

The solution to the anguish and tension cannot be found at the conceptual level: "And people would like to have conceptual solutions—ready-made formulas like those that come out of a computer—for their problem: Christianity/Vedanta. The solution lies only in the original anguish of the person," (September 7, 1970, p. 319). As he wrote a year and a half later:

Concepts are dualistic and therefore falsify everything that they claim to express about what is beyond dvandas. The dvandva: man/God in Jesus to start with; the dvandva: sin/virtue, salvation/damnation. When Naciketas asks Yama what is beyond religious law and irreligion [dharma/adharma], beyond made and not made [krita/akrita], etc., Yama simply answers with OM! Truth cannot be formulated, at least at the luminous apex where all its splendour is concentrated. It can only be abhiklipta, integrated, experienced, received [upalabdha]—in the sense that the mind is wholly "passive,". No role for the intellect as agent. No mental framework for one's reading. (April 2, 1972, p. 342)

We have seen in Abhishiktananda's own words his first fulfillment phase, the second phase of crisis while encountering Hindu spirituality, and the third phase of relativizing all conceptualization and particularizations. What is fascinating is that there is a moment of "explosion,", of "awakening,", in his own cherished words—but an explosion which amounts to a liberation, which did not destroy his faith in Jesus but transformed it.

Whether I like it or not, I am deeply attached to Christ Jesus and therefore to the koinonia of the Church. It is in him that the "mystery," has been revealed to me ever since my awakening to myself and to the world. It is in his image, his symbol, that I know God and that I know myself and the world of human beings. Since I awoke here [in India] to new depths in myself (depths of the Self, of the Âtman), this symbol was marvelously developed.

Moreover I recognize this mystery, which I have always adored under the symbol of Christ, in the myths of Narayana, Prajapati, Shiva, Purusha, Krishna, Rama, etc. The same mystery. But for me, Jesus is my sadguru. It is in him that God has appeared to me; it is in his mirror that I have recognized myself, in adoring him, loving him, consecrating myself to him. Jesus not the founder-head of a religion; that came later.

Jesus is the guru who announces the mystery. (July 22, 1971, pp. 331-332)

The ultimate experience which helped him to overcome the duality of his Hindu and Christianity experience is in both traditions the final and true "I,", aham.

If God is that Being to whom nothing is either earlier or superior—as the Bible says (or even later or inferior, as the Upanishad says)—then he is in this very I am in which I awaken to myself. And it is not satisfactory to say that he is the "cause,", the substratum. No, nothing can escape this parama, this Supreme Being. This I am, this awakening to myself, is the very awakening of God to himself (paradoxical use here of the 3rd person). This awakening is at once within time and outside time. It is the awakening to a level that is in no way measurable by time.

It is in this word aham heard in the depth of myself that the whole world was made, exists, subsists: the five elements, time, the human senses, the human body, etc . . . (all in view of this awakening. All a means to the awakening, all an ascent towards the awakening). This aham asmi is the light of everything [phos, jyotih], the life of everything [vita, bios, prana]. Beyond all darkness, tamasah parastat.

This I AM [aham asmi] was made flesh [sarx egeneto].

Christ is the total transparency of this aham asmi to which I awaken at the source of my consciousness. Christ—if he has any value for me—is the very mystery of this awakening to myself.

He is the one who is totally awakened, even in his body [deha-jagarita] (deha includes the manas). Christ is the "symbol," par excellence of this awakening—but here are also Krishna, Rama, Shiva, Buddha. . . .

Christ is the revelation of my aham, of my mutual relationship (parspara) with every consciousness, every awakening. Each person is the absolute, singular and unique, and everywhere each one is relative to the other. Each person comes from the other, each person is born of the other. (July 2, 1971, p. 330)

For Abhishiktananda it was certainly not a question of finding a fascinating esoteric Hindu spirituality at the expense of the Christian mystery. In the late stage of his experience he no longer sought theoretical solutions but instead discovered wonderful correspondences, "upanishads,", between the two spiritual experiences, precisely because he could see them from within:

In the depth of the inner cave [guha] there is no name and equally no non-name, neither Shiva nor Jesus….

Jesus is that mystery that "grounds," me, that "sources," me, in the abyss, in the bottomless guha—the mystery (as we say) of the Father—and extends me, pours me out [expendit] into all that is. The Spirit, the prana, who makes me the Self within everything [antaratman, sarvantaratman]—spread out into everything, lost just as truly in this expansion that infinitely multiplies me as agent, as in this "source-action,", that infinitely reduces me, to be ultimately identical to zero. . . .

A being lost in my source, a being lost in my fulfillment. And in this very loss, I am. . . . Jesus is this mystery of advaita in which I can no longer recognize myself separately. Lost as much in the space [akasa] of the heart as in that of the span of the universe, as much in the Source as in the shining, the radiance that empties me.

And I am Fullness, purnam; precisely in this letting-go, of myself everywhere, sarvatra. . . .

And my purnam is precisely this emptiness of all self.

The kenosis of Christ! (December 24, 1971, p. 336-337)

At this stage there is advaita, non-duality, between his Hindu and his Christian experience, a true liberation from the bondages of traditions and concepts. There is a complementarity in the different approaches to the Absolute.

I will close this part on Abhishiktananda's experience with the very last entry in his diary. It makes clear how his "awakening," has made him transcend all the tensions which he had to go through in the earlier stages:

The Awakening at the level of anyone who has consciousness is precisely to lose oneself, to forget oneself. The Awakening is the shining out of the splendour—in splendour—of the non-awakening, of the eternal not-born. The non-Awakening, the not-born is manifested by a—what?—a brilliance, a light, a glory that envelopes everything, that transcends everything, that seizes one and takes one beyond everything, a sense of "Beyond,", of the Beyond . . .

The gift of wisdom, a deep connaturality, an explosion which one who has "felt," cannot evade. . . . (September 12, 1973, p. 388)

III.Shiva and Christ
Twenty-five years have passed since Abhishiktananda attained Samadhi. To some theologians his ideas seem to be too daring, too revolutionary, while others consider his theological problems outdated. At the existential level, some of the Indian Christians have tried to follow his ideal, with the danger of creating new namarupas, as Abhishiktananda had feared. Others find his obsession with sannyasa one-sided and prefer a Dalit liberation theology. And yet, the liberating and explosive message of his life and experience remains very much valid and necessary. The only condition for making it fruitful is the utmost sincerity and transparency that was his.

What have we done in these twenty-five years since his passing? I do not want to give a history and speak about others who have tread a similar path. But I may dare to say something about my own experience of thirty-two years in a Hindu context. It is not my intention to be too personal, but I remember the reply of a Hindu friend when I had given a slide show about my pilgrimage to the most sacred mountain Kailash and after that told him that I did not want to speak about my personal experience. He said simply: "What is personal? It is all universal.,"But I may extract the more universal aspects of my personal experience.

First of all, not all those who tread a similar path have to pass through the same anguish that Abhishiktananda went through in his experience of two traditions. He has cleared the way for others. Second, though I was inspired by his example and encouraged by him since the beginning of my contact with spiritual India in 1963, I had to find my own way. Though the Upanishads and Ramana Maharshi were and still are fundamental in my plunge into Indian spirituality, it was the mystical tradition of Kashmir Shaivism that brought me the fullness I was longing for. Here is not the place to give an introduction to this spirituality and philosophy which, in a way, is the culmination of Indian thought and mysticism. I can only mention the essential complementary aspects to the spirituality of advaita that was Abhishiktananda's main partner in dialogue.

In Kashmir Shaivism, as in advaita, we find a non-duality between the self and God, but in a theistic context. The difference is that there we have a personal relationship with God, Shiva, who bestows grace on the soul in order to make it recognize its true, original, that is, divine nature. The underlying philosophy is therefore called the school of recognition (pratyabhijna). Another important difference from the spirituality of Vedanta is the positive value of the body in spiritual practice and experience, due to the Tantric background. It is a more incarnated spirituality than the a cosmic sannyasa that was Abhishiktananda's ideal. The cosmos and the body are very much part of the process of liberation—the ideal being liberation during one's lifetime (jivanmukti). This spirituality is thus more sacramental since all the acts of daily life are considered to be sacred and means for spiritual realization.

This is only a brief description of some of the practical aspects of Kashmir Shaiva spirituality complementary to Vedanta. It is impossible to describe its philosophical depths and mystical heights which lead to a state of perfect spontaneity, of Divine consciousness, where ultimately even spiritual practice is to be given up. To quote only one verse of Abhinavagupta's "Hymn to the Absolute or Unsurpassable":

What words can describe the Unsurpassable? In the Absolute can there be any distinction between the worship, the one who worships and the object of worship? How and in whom can there be spiritual progress? What are the degrees of absorption? Illusion itself is ultimately the same as non-dual Consciousness, all being the pure nature of the Self, experienced by oneself—so have no vain anxiety!

The conception of the Divine is so universal that the names Shiva, Bhairava or others are never understood in any limiting, sectarian sense. That is why the great mystic Utpaladeva of the early tenth century can exclaim:

Glory to you, O Shiva, who are the essence of the "righthanded," path, who are the essence of the "lefthanded," path, [two opposing Tantric schools]who belong to every traditionand to no tradition at all. May you be glorified, O God, who can be worshipped in any manner, in any place, in whatever form at all (Shivastotravali 2. 19-20)

But obviously, the reasons for being attracted by a spiritual tradition are not merely theoretical. It is a living tradition in its fullness that attracts and challenges. And the only response possible, as was the response of Abhishiktananda to Ramana Maharshi and Sri Gnanananda, is a total acceptance, respect, and, finally, surrender.

To observe a spiritual tradition from outside, to read its texts, is not sufficient if one wants to enter deeply. One has to accept it, in theory and practice. In the case of most Indian traditions, this also implies initiation. For me it was the meeting with Swami Lakshman Joo of Kashmir and being accepted by him in this tradition which opened the door to this spiritual world.

What happens then to one's Christian roots and convictions? There is an entirely inner process of encountering, absorbing, letting the two traditions lead an internal dialogue without too much interference of the mind. It all happens at the level of pure consciousness, where the names "Shiva," or "Christ," are not important, but the reality lived and experienced behind those names. In any authentic experience nothing can be lost.

We know that most Westerners who accept a spiritual tradition such as Buddhism or who embrace Hindu forms have been disappointed by Christianity and have thrown overboard their Christian faith. This requires another form of dialogue than with the authentic representatives of the original traditions. Both are necessary, because we are more and more confronted with a kind of secondary tradition. But I am convinced that the discovery of the original living traditions is most essential for our Christian understanding and dialogue. It is pioneers like Abhishiktananda, who have experienced the other tradition from within, who are the best mediators, because they have undergone a process of transformation—a personal spiritual process which has wide repercussions.

IV. Conclusion
The Hindu-Christian experience can have many consequences and conclusions, and it can lead to a fresh understanding of Christ. The name Jesus Christ is heavily loaded by 2000 years of history and, according to Panikkar, "perhaps we should change that name because of the historical connotations of the last 2000 years, . . . Yet, it is in and through Jesus that a Christian experiences that mystery which Christians call Christ," (,"Indian Theology and the Third Millennium,").Whether or not we change the name, what is important is to rediscover the experience of "that mystery,", and here the meeting in depth with Hindu and Buddhist spirituality can give an essential impulse. This also because the West has been culturally and religiously emptied and de-sacralized and it is very difficult to recover what has been lost. However, I do not mean that these spiritual traditions should be used by Christians for resolving their crisis. This would be another kind of colonialism where we exploit not the natural riches of another culture, but its spiritual riches. One has to be aware of this danger.

This meeting still remains a challenge, and we should have the humility of disciples learning and receiving, the intellectual honesty to accept the differences, and the deep respect for these traditions in their own right. But with these precautions the meeting with Hindu spirituality can open a wide horizon, and it can also help us in rediscovering our own Christ. I shall mention a few points and concepts.

Abhishiktananda had developed the correspondences with the Vedic-Upanishadic purusha, the cosmic and inner Person, the Divine presence within:

The mythos of the Purusha is wider than that of Christos; not only does it include the cosmic and metacosmic aspect of the mystery, but it is also free from attachment to time entailed by the mythos of Christ. Rather it recognizes all the symbolic value contained in the mystery of Time, but refuses to compress the absolute separately into a particular point of time. (February 17, 1973, p. 372)

Jesus could also be described as the perfect jivanmukta, the one "liberated while living,", the greatest ideal of Hindu spirituality, especially of its advaitic or non-dualistic forms. The jivamukta incorporates the divine perfection in his or her very body, by being transparent to the Spirit, the Atman. Sri Ramana Maharshi and Swami Lakshman Joo were perfect examples in our lifetime.

Another important spiritual and theological approach to Christ is the Guru, the Sadguru or true Master. Contrary to the misunderstanding and misuses of the importance of the Guru in the West, in the Indian tradition he is the personal face of the transcendent Reality, he is the visible form of the Ultimate: guruh saksat parabrahman. As every Hindu recites almost daily: tasmai srigurave namah, "to that Master be adoration,". The Guru is only recognized as such if he is transparent to the Divine Reality. The great mystic Kabir therefore expressed what most Hindus feel: that if he were to meet his Guru and God at the same time, he would fall at the feet of his Guru first, because it is through him that he has seen and experienced God. What could be more close to a christology where Christ is the visible form of the invisible Father, and the Master?

If Abhishiktananda were with us at this workshop he would be happy that we are now talking about Christ consciousness, not Christology. At the same time he would caution us to be careful that it remain at the level of a living experience and not become another concept! In Hinduism we find a variety of living spiritual traditions, but with all the embeddedness in tradition, the Hindu is aware that ultimately he has to go beyond them, once he or she has come to the realization of the Self, of God.

Abhishiktananda, who had carried the burden of the tradition and at the end liberated himself from the same burden, would have surely rejoiced at the following verse from the Yoga Vasistha, a highly mystical text of Advaita:

The sacred scriptures are a burden for one who has no discrimination, knowledge is a burden for one who is attached, the mind is a burden for one who has no peace, and the body itself is a burden if one has not realized the Self.

http://monasticdialog.com/a.php?id=305&cn=1

Hindu spirituality: Postclassical and Modern

As Upadhyay has stated, "The negative plate of Jesus, developed in a solution of Hinduism, brings out hitherto unknown features of the portrait."

"In chapter 26, "Indian Christian Spirituality," J. Valiamangalam identifies different forms of Christian presence in India. According to Thomas Christians, the message of Christianity entered India in the first century of the Common Era through the preaching of St. Thomas, one of the apostles of Jesus. The various Christian denominations have been active in the Indian scene from early times. Valiamangalam points out that in course of time, the Christians have changed their attitude with regard to their missionary work in India. The works and writings of persons like Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, and Mahatma Gandhi have greatly helped the Christians to appreciate the spiritual wealth of Hindu and other religions of Indian origin. "However, this change towards openness is yet to grow fully in depth and width in order to become the general character of Christian presence in India." In order to do so, Christian spirituality needs to have serious and sincere encounters with Indian spiritual traditions. Valiamangalam points out that, except in Kerela, generally Christianity has been looked upon as a foreign religion. The reason is that the major portions of Thomas Christians in Kerela came from the high castes in the Hindu society. In addition, Thomas Christians retained the native customs in their daily life and actively interacted with the Hindu community in their social religious lives. This was, however, before the Synod of Diamper, which, as it were, transplanted a Syrian or European church to India and placed restrictions on religious interaction with the Hindus. There are, however, attempts in the present time to recover the Christian spirituality of the pre-Diamper period, and the "Christian Ashram" movement reflects the Christian openness to Hindu spirituality. Christianity, in its turn, has greatly influenced Hinduism, particularly the modern Hindu religious movements like Brahmo Samaj, and also persons like Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, and Swami Vivekananda. Gandhi stands as one of the prime examples of enrichment through Hindu and Christian interaction. Gandhi's confession, "It was the New Testament which really awakened me to the rightness and value of passive resistance. The Bhagavad Gita deepened the impression," is to the point. Valiamangalam feels that it is this enrichment gained by deepest contact with Hindu spirituality that should mold the spirituality of Indian Christianity. As Upadhyay has stated, "The negative plate of Jesus, developed in a solution of Hinduism, brings out hitherto unknown features of the portrait." It is in the directions given by persons like Abhisiktananda, a Catholic priest, who reflect deeply the spirit of interactions between Christianity and Hinduism and their mutual enrichment, that the future of Indian Christianity seems to lie. The author concludes that a church without rigid institutional formalities is perhaps the best basis for a genuine Indian Christianity or even for a world religious culture."

Hindu spirituality: Postclassical and Modern
K. R. Sundararajan, Bithika Mukerji, pages xxxiv-xxxv
Motilal Banarsidass, (Jan 30 2004)

NOTE: If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the sites listed below where this topic or related issues are discussed in detail to promote global peace, religious harmony, and spiritual development of humanity:

www.adishakti.org/
www.al-qiyamah.org/
www.adi-shakti.org/  — Divine Feminine (Hinduism)
www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/  — Divine Feminine (Christianity)
www.ruach-elohim.org/  — Divine Feminine (Judaism)
www.ruh-allah.org/  — Divine Feminine (Islam)
www.tao-mother.org/  — Divine Feminine (Taoism)
www.prajnaaparamita.org/  — Divine Feminine (Buddhism)
www.aykaa-mayee.org/  — Divine Feminine (Sikhism)
www.great-spirit-mother.org/  — Divine Feminine (Native Traditions)

"Now, the principle of Mother is in every, every scripture - has to be there." Shri Mataji, Radio Interview 1983 Oct 01, Santa Cruz, USA

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