India's Problem, Krishna or Christ. John P. Jones
idea of sacrifice, both as to its import [pg 074] and object, was different from ours or from that of the Israelites; and indeed their own ideas also varied at different times. Under the influence of Buddhism, sacrifice, as such, was practically abandoned; but the idea of atonement for sin, which was underlying them, they practically carried over into the doctrine of transmigration. For, however stiffly they contend that, through metempsychosis, the doctrine of karma is realized and every soul atones for its own sin, it nevertheless remains true that the element of consciousness separates the person who sinned from him who suffers; and one becomes the involuntary atoner and the other the atoned for.
(c) Spirituality.
It may, to some, seem absurd to bring the two faiths into anything but the relationship of contrast in this particular, when it is remembered that we are confronted daily by a Hinduism which is as grossly formal, materialistic and sensual as any religion known in any land. But it is unnecessary to remind us of the fact that the literature of the faith of this people is, in some respects, far removed from the low life and ritual of the present day; and in no greater respect than in this which we are now considering. All students recognize in many writings, vedic and post-vedic, profound seriousness and a sometimes strange depth of spiritual apprehension coupled with an other-worldliness which, to the western mind, seems absurdly impractical. Indeed, the naturally mystical bent of the Hindu mind has been regarded, and, doubtless, rightly regarded, as one of the chief obstacles to a true and easy understanding of much [pg 075] that is in their sacred writings by the too practical Westerner. We should not be blind to the lofty height of spiritual thought which we occasionally, and the deep spiritual yearning which we frequently, are permitted to witness in their books. In evidence of this we need only to refer to the powerful hold which the yoga system of philosophy and life has upon them. An intense meditativeness, a devotional ecstasy and an insight of true heavenly wisdom is the ideal of life to which the Hindu has been called from time very remote.
(d) Eschatology.
In Hinduism, as in Christianity, man is directed to look to a judgment-seat and a system of rewards and punishments in the world to come. While this doctrine again, in its development and detail, differs essentially from that of the Christian faith, it is well to call attention to it as a point of contact. It breathes the spirit of karma, which, in its retributive power, has been compared by some to the doctrine of heredity, and by others, to that of fate. Karma demands the full future fruition of every act done in the body; and many re-births, with intervals of keener suffering and bliss in numerous hells and heavens, are the countless steps in the doleful fugue of emancipation—a process which is enough to appall any but the patient, stolid soul of a Hindu. And yet this weary detail of a very long and sisyphean effort to shake off this mortal coil and to enter into rest is worthy of the missionary's attention, as it represents, perhaps, the most elaborate system of eschatology outside of the New Testament. It is [pg 076] also ethical in its character, and in its fundamental principles has chords which harmonize with those of the Christian doctrine.
(e) The Doctrine of Faith.
This doctrine maintains that, by devotion to a personal god, salvation is achieved. This idea separates this doctrine from, and apparently antagonizes, the prevailing philosophy of the land—Vedantism. This cult of Bhakti is connected with Krishnaolatry, which is the worship of the most unworthy and licentious god of the Hindu pantheon.
Of Vaishnavism, or the worship of Vishnu, in which the bhakti, or faith, doctrine prevails, Sir Monier Williams remarks:—“Notwithstanding the gross polytheistic superstitions and hideous idolatry to which it gives rise, it is the only Hindu system worthy of being called a religion. At all events it must be admitted that it has more common ground with Christianity than any other form of non-Christian faiths.” The basal truth of bhakti—that of supreme attachment to, or faith in, a personal god—could not fail of rousing within the devout lofty and stirring emotion. Bhaktar, i.e., those who have given themselves absolutely to this doctrine and make it the motive and inspiration of their lives, are oblivious to all other bonds, abjuring among themselves even caste and all its demands, and proclaiming the true oneness of the brotherhood of the faith among all the devotees of the same god.
Rock-Cut Temple, South India.
Thus we have today a large and vigorous class of Hindus who have subordinated every doctrine and practice of their religion to that of faith, or bhakti. [pg 077] I believe, with not a few illustrious scholars, that this doctrine traces its origin to Christianity. Like everything else which Hinduism had absorbed, it has been considerably transmuted in the process. It has been necessarily and greatly affected and degraded by the character of the gods who have been its objects. It has been debased by contact with idolatry and error, with superstition and sensuality. And yet we trace its lineaments to its lofty, divine origin, and hesitate not to say that it furnishes a common ground of a fundamental truth of which Christian missionaries have not yet sufficiently availed themselves in their work for this people.
Hindus have also done not a little thinking in the elaboration of the doctrine of salvation. In their discussion as to the relative potency of divine grace and human agency in the salvation of man they became divided into two antagonistic schools, corresponding, very closely, to the Calvinistic and Arminian, among Christians—the Tengaliar maintaining the “cat theory” and the Vadagaliar the “monkey theory”; so called because one party holds that, just as the cat saves her kitten by seizing and carrying it away bodily, so God seizes and saves man without his own effort. This is the doctrine of absolute grace. The other party insists that the relation of the young monkey to its mother, whereby its rescue from trouble depends upon its own grasp, best represents the process of salvation in which man's coöperation is necessary.
They have also developed the doctrine of growth in grace sometimes in a very instructive way. The spiritual development from saloka (in the same world [pg 078] with God) to sāmīpa (in the divine presence) thence to sārūpa (in the divine image) and finally to sāyujya (complete identity with the divine Being) bears, in some respects, a striking resemblance to the teaching of St. Paul, where he writes that Jesus was “made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).
In like manner they teach that, for the attainment of beatitude, it is necessary to pass through five stages—(1) that of sānti, quiet repose or calm and contemplative piety; (2) that of dāsya, the slave state—the surrender of the whole will to God; (3) that of sakhya, or friendship; (4) that of vātsalya, or filial affection; and (5) that of mādhurya, or supreme, all-absorbing love.
I must refer briefly to only one other illustration of the probable influence of our religion upon the faith of India, and that is in its teaching on eschatology. The illustration is drawn from the tenth incarnation, Kalki avatār, of Vishnu. This incarnation is to take place hereafter, when Vishnu will come, at the close of the present Kali yuga, or iron age, and put an end to these growing evil times, destroying with them all the wicked and ushering in the new era of righteousness (Satya yuga) upon the earth. For this great work of the restoration and the renovation of all creation, he is to come seated upon a white horse with a drawn sword, blazing like a comet. Hindus at present look forward to this new incarnation as their future deliverer, when the sorrows and the depravity of this present, shall be swallowed up in the glories and joys of the future, age. The striking thing about this teaching is not the hope [pg 079] which it inculcates for the future; for that is practically a part of the Hindu conception of the succession of the ages of their time system. According to this the present era must yield to the coming good