All religions are pointing towards him, who is the expectation of the peoples

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INTRODUCTION

 

madhye vamanam asinam

visve deva upaste

KathU V, 3

 

The Spirit whom all Gods worship

is seated in the middle.

 

In-between you stands whom

you know not.

John 1:26

 

naiva vaca na manasa praptum sakyo na caksusa

astiti bruvato nyatra katham tadupalabhyate

KathU VI, 12

 

Not by speech, not by mind,

not by sight can He be apprehended,

only by him who says: HE IS

can He be comprehended.

 

In the ages that are past He

let all peoples follow their

own ways, and yet He did not leave

Himself without testimony.

Acts 14:16-17

 

TRADITUM: THE BURDEN OF THE PAST

 

’God who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to

the fathers by the prophets, last of all in these days has spoken to

us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, by whom also he

made the World.’1 From this we may surmise that the Son has inspired

not only the prophets of Israel but also the sages of Hinduism, and

that he has been present in all the endeavours of Man, for we are

certain that ‘upholding all things by the Word of his power’2 he has

never forsaken his World. We believe that the Logos himself is

speaking in that religion which for millennia has been leading and

inspiring hundreds of millions of people. Vac, the Logos, is the

Firstborn of truth3 and was with the Absolute from the beginning.4

 

The present study does not claim to unveil this mystery or to dictate

the language that the believer in Christ is to use, since only the

Holy Spirit inspires the words of living witnesses, and takes care to

tell us not to think beforehand of what we are to say or how we are

to present it.5 In this investigation I propose to examine a few

ideas regarding three particular aspects of my theme.

 

The first chapter describes the Hindu-Christian encounter on its

ontological and existential level, with the intention of showing that

there is in Hinduism a living Presence of that Mystery which

Christians call Christ. Now Presence does not necessarily imply

historical presence. Christians should find no difficulty in

admitting this, for they recognize the same truth in, precisely, the

Eucharist, which celebrates Christ’s real presence without

identifying it with his historical reality. To put it bluntly,

Christians do not eat the proteins of Jesus when they receive the

Eucharist. The Western world is, by and large, influenced by an

exaggerated historicism, as though historicity were the sole

component of reality.

 

Christians in general are well acquainted with the idea that Christ

will come at the end of time and that all religions are pointing

towards him, who is the expectation of the peoples.6 This idea,

however, should not overshadow the complementary and, in a way,

previous truth that Christ is not only at the end but also at the

beginning. He could not be the Omega of everything if he were not

also the Alpha.7 Christ, from a Christian point of view, is not only

the ontological goal of Hinduism, but also its true inspirer, and his

grace is the guiding, though hidden, force impelling Hinduism towards

its full flowering.8 He is the ‘Principle’ that spoke to Men and was

already at work before Abraham.9 He was present in the stone that

Moses struck so unbelievingly, 10 and he acted in Moses himself when

he chose to share the life of his people.11 He may have been called

by many names, but his presence and activity were always there. The

encounter is not an ideological one, but takes place in the deepest

recesses of reality—in what Christian tradition calls the Mystery.

 

The second chapter of this study deals with the complementary

question of the doctrinal relationship between Hinduism and Christian

faith. This means, not that we are comparing two doctrines, but that

we are trying to discern what the Christian attitude should be

towards Hinduism understood as a fully-fledged, legitimate and valid

religion. Now Christianity understands itself as Catholic, i.e., full

and universal, faith or religiousness. In fact, Christianity lived

from within does not consider itself as one religion among others, or

even as prima inter pares. Christianity is convinced that it bears a

message of integral salvation for Man and thus sees itself as the

fullness of all religion and the perfection of each religion. The

relationship of Christians, in so far as they are truly Christians,

to other religions is not one of simple juxtaposition or total

rejection or absolute dominance. It is a sui generic relationship,

which I shall try to describe in the particular case of Hinduism.

This investigation will shed light, I hope, not only on the

particular subject of inquiry, but also on the question of

the ‘salvation’ of ‘non-Christians’ and on the missionary approach

to ‘non-Christian’ religions. I shall let the reader, however, draw

most of the conclusions himself. An analogous inverse relationship,

i.e., of Hindus to Christianity, also suggests itself, but as it lies

beyond the scope of this study to develop the idea mere mention of it

must suffice. It should however be clear from the very beginning that

the Christian attitude not only does not contradict the corresponding

Hindu attitude, but elicits it in a homeomorphic way,12 for, just as

if I really love you I will have to allow you to love me, so if I

want to communicate the best I have to you—even if I want to convert

you—I will have to let you also communicate your best to me—even to

the point of converting me.

 

The differences between the two religions, however, are very often

complementary. To put it succinctly, if Hinduism claims to be the

religion of truth, Christianity claims to be the truth if religion.

Hinduism is ready to absorb any authentic religious truth;

Christianity is ready to embrace any authentic religious value. The

genuinely Christian attitude is to call forth that truth of Hinduism

without destroying the latter’s identity. To Christianity, Hinduism

in turn offers the authentically Hindu gift of a new experience and

interpretation—a new dimension in fact—of the Mystery.

The ‘catholicity’ of Hinduism calls forth the true ‘catholicity’ of

Christianity, while the truth of Christianity calls forth the truth

of Hinduism. The passage from a narrow catholicity and an

exclusive ‘truth’ to a full catholicity and to recognition of the

fact that Truth can be neither limited nor monopolized is the Paschal

adventure of every religion. A growing Christianity is also a

Christianity moving towards greater fullness. This is the mystery of

the Cross...

 

It should be made clear from the outset that when we speak of Hindu

and Christian faith, we do not refer to a rivalry between two

religions, but to the relationship between the deepest faith of the

followers of the Vedic tradition and a faith which Christians cannot

help but call ‘Christian’...

 

The third part of this book deals with a concrete example, namely the

encounter of a Vedantic tenet and a Christian dogma. It endeavours to

show, in one particular case, what could well be shown in many

others: the presence of a religious truth within more than one

religion, and how the unveiling of that truth may be to the mutual

enlightenment of all concerned. Now, when a religious truth is

recognized by both parties and thus belong to both traditions, it

will be called in each case by the vocabulary proper to the

particular tradition recognizing it. If Christians, believing in the

truth of their own religion, recognize truth outside it, they will be

inclined to say that a ‘Christian’ truth has been discovered there.

In this sense the third part of this book will discover a ‘Christian’

truth in the Hindu tradition. Similarly, when a Hindu discovers a

positive value outside his own religion, he will either try to

incorporate it without any ‘copyright’ qualms or recognize that it

was also present, although perhaps dormant, in his own tradition.”

 

The unknown Christ of Hinduism, pp. 1-7

Darton,Longman & Todd Ltd; Revised ed edition (February 1981)

ISBN-10: 0232514968

ISBN-13: 978-0232514964

 

Notes:

1. Heb. 1:1-2

2. Heb. 1:3

3. Cf. TB II, 8, 8, 5; RV I, 164, 37.

4. Cf. TMB XX, 14, 2: ‘This (in the beginning) was only the Lord

of the Universe. His Word was with him. This word was his second. He

contemplated. He said, “I will deliver this world so that she will

produce and bring into being all this world.” ‘ Cf. also BU I, 2, 4-

5; I, 3, 21.

5. Cf. Matt. 10:19-20.

6. Cf. Gen. 49:10; Isa. 2:2, 11:10, 42:4, 49:6, 55:5, 60:3-5;

Luke 2:30-2; Matt. 12:21; Rom. 15:12, etc. It is well known that

similar prophecies are to be found in almost all world-religions: of

the Coming One, the Centre, the Symbol.

7. Cf. Rev. 1:8, 21:6, etc.

8. Cf. John 1:1, 1:9-10, etc.

9. Cf. the Vulgate rendering of John 8:25, though it does not

correspond to the Greek. See also John 8:58.

10. Cf. 1 Cor. 10:4; Exod. 17:6; Ps. 18:2, etc.

11. Cf. Heb. 11:24-6. Though ‘Christos’ here may mean

the ‘anointed’, the author of Hebrews undoubtedly meant Christ.

12. By homeomorphism, we understand the ‘topologically’

corresponding (analogous) function (a functional equivalent) within

another setting, Hinduism in this case. Cf. R. Panikar, The

Intrareligious Dialogue, p. xxii.