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A Christian Vedanta? Bede Griffiths and the Hindu-Christian Encounter

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A Christian Vedanta? Bede Griffiths and the Hindu-Christian Encounter A Christian Vedanta? Bede Griffiths and the Hindu-Christian Encounter Pål W. Thorbjørnsen Dissertation for the degree of Cand. Philol. in History of Religion at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo Submitted during the Spring semester of 2007 Contents: Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 5 Bede Griffiths and the Task of Ecumenism 5 Sources 11 1. Dom Bede Griffiths: A Biographical Sketch 14 2. Early Attempts: The Golden String and Christ in India 19 2.1. Fulfilment in Christianity: The Golden String 19 2.2. A Closer Analysis of Hinduism: Christ in India 20 2.3. Bede’s Sources for the Study of Hinduism 22 2.4. Shankara: Early Observations 23 2.5. Bede’s Approach to Vedanta 25 3. A Different Approach: Vedanta and Christian Faith 28 3.1. Bede Griffiths: Catholic Theologian 28 3.2. Bede’s Precursors in the Hindu-Christian Dialogue 29 3.3. Hindu and Christian Orthodoxy 31 3.4. The Three Major Schools of Vedanta 32 3.5. The Importance of Shankara 34 3.6. The Danger of Syncretism 36 4. The Eternal Religion: Return to the Centre 37 4.1. Religion Reconsidered 37 4.2. Religion as Symbol 39 4.3. Shankara: New Perspectives 40 4.4. Christ and Krishna 42 4.5. A Theology at Change 43 5. The Cosmic Revelation: Attempts at a Christian Vedanta 45 5.1. “Cosmic Religion” and its Limitations 45 5.2. Theism in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita 47 5.3. A Catholic Interpretation of advaita 48 6. Unification: The Marriage of East and West 51 6.1. Hinduism and Christianity: East and West 51 1 6.2. Common Roots: A Perennial Philosophy 53 6.3. Man, Scripture and the Value of Symbolism 55 6.4. Hindu Terminology 56 7. River of Compassion: A Detailed Analysis of Hindu Beliefs 61 7.1. A Commented Edition of the Bhagavad Gita 61 7.2. The Significance of the Bhagavad Gita for a Christian Audience 62 7.3. The Avatara Doctrine 64 7.4. Bhagavad Gita and the Notion of Transmigration 66 7.5. Theism, advaita and the Bhagavad Gita 72 7.6. Bede’s Criticism of R.C. Zaehner’s Commentary 73 8. A Wider Perspective: A New Vision of Reality 77 8.1. A New Science 77 8.2. Bede Griffiths and tantra 78 8.3. The Importance of Religion: A New Approach 81 8.4. A New Age 84 8.5. The Uniqueness of Christian Faith 86 9. Christ, Trinity and Syncretism: The New Creation in Christ 89 9.1. Syncretism 89 9.2. Hinduism and Buddhism reconsidered 90 9.3. Trinity and Advaita: Further Elaborations 93 9.4. The Cosmic Christ 94 Conclusion 97 The Structure of Bede’s Presentation of Hinduism 97 Bede Under Scrutiny 101 Religious Unity? 102 Bede’s Vedantic Position 103 The Context of Bede’s Vedanta 104 The Consistency of Bede’s Approach to advaita 105 The Paradox of Bede’s Approach to advaita 107 Concluding Remarks 113 Bibliography 118 2 Abstract Bede Griffiths (1906-1993) was an English convert to Catholicism who spent almost half his life as a monk in India. Like many other prominent Christian writers of the twentieth century he was influenced by Indian religions; yet while others primarily sought to compare Christianity to these traditions, Bede Griffiths even implemented notions from Hinduism into his own theology, and desired to express Christian doctrines in the terminology of Vedanta, which is one of the most prominent traditions within Hinduism. Bede Griffiths’ exposition on Hinduism is part of his theological project, and I will discuss to what degree his exposition on Hinduism is influenced by the development of his theological understanding at large, and how his evaluation of different Hindu traditions changes throughout his work. Interestingly, of all the different systems of Vedanta, Bede Griffiths was particularly fascinated by the school of Advaita, which is perhaps more dissimilar to conventional Christian theology than any other system of Vedanta. I will explore how his evaluation of Advaita Vedanta and other Hindu traditions is not only based on, but also affected by how he chooses to present Hinduism. My dissertation will show how Bede Griffiths may serve as an example of interreligious encounter, and how interreligious ecumenism is affected not only by the participants’ outlook, but also by their description of the religious traditions with which they seek to engage. While Bede Griffiths considered his conclusions to be in line with his Catholicism, I will discuss to what extent notions found in his writings are actually representative of the beliefs of Christianity and Hinduism as they are normally understood. My survey of Bede Griffiths’ writings will show that while he was taken with the idea of interreligious dialogue, his engagement with Hinduism may rather be described as an encounter with Hindu beliefs than with Hindu believers. I will also show that his theology is based on the understanding of a common mystery referred to by all the world religions, a notion which may be at odds with the very premises of Vedanta. 3 Acknowledgments First of all I would like to thank Professor Per Kværne, my supervisor who provided valuable guidance during the writing of this dissertation, and to Professor Georg von Simson (now retired), who patiently introduced me to the study of Sanskrit grammar. I am also indebted to Wilhelm Konrad and Mike Marchetti, Ph.D. for sharing their own experiences on the Hindu-Christian encounter. Finally, my gratitude to Swami B.S. Govinda for his observations on Christianity, as seen from the perspective of Vaishnava Vedanta. 4 Introduction Bede Griffiths and the Task of Ecumenism In March 1955, the Benedictine monk Dom Bede Griffiths (hereafter simply referred to under his monastic name, Bede, following the usage of Wayne Teasdale and Shirley du Boulay1), aged 48, departed from Britain by boat, travelling to Bombay in order to help establish the contemplative life within the Catholic Church in India, and to “discover the other half” of his soul.2 He soon received the kavi dress traditionally worn by Hindu samnyasins and lead an austere monastic life in Catholic ashrams until his death in 1993. Originally an Oxford student, Bede studied Hinduism and other Asian religious traditions for decades. He called for an interreligious dialogue years before the Second Vatican Council; yet even though he spent almost half his life in India, he only rarely interacted with Hindu leaders, and he found most Hindus to be uninterested in dialogue. From his Indian ashram he produced hundreds of articles and a variety of books on the Hindu-Christian encounter that were aimed not at Indian Hindus but at a Christian audience in the industrialised world. Bede is one of several noteworthy twentieth-century Catholic thinkers who considered the study of Hinduism and Buddhism as rewarding for Christian spirituality and theology. Many of them proceeded to write insightful studies on Hinduism and Buddhism, including Thomas Merton, John Main, Basil Pennington, Thomas Keating, William Johnston and Klaus Klostermaier, whose experiences as a priest in Vrindavan in the 1960’s we shall return to in the conclusion. In some ways Bede went further than most Christians in his engagement with Hinduism: not only did he wear the kavi, but he even developed a liturgy that included elements from Hindu rituals; he established the reading of non-Christian scriptures and the recital of Hindu hymns as part of the daily programme followed at his ashram, and he developed a theology in which Vedantic terms were incorporated. He published a 300-page Christian commentary on the Bhagavad Gita and wrote extensively on the various systems of Vedanta. Bede not only related to Hinduism on a comparative level: he also included elements from Hinduism both in his theology, his liturgy and his monastic practices. From the 1970’s onwards Bede gradually achieved renown as a spiritual teacher. He travelled internationally to give lectures, and more than a hundred visitors might stay at his 1 For details on these two authors, see ‘Sources’ below, p. 11. 2 This expression (which is also the title of a tributary volume dedicated to Bede, described below) is found in 5 ashram at any given time. Yet towards the end of his life, he would confess to members of his ashram community that he felt “left all alone”, and that he felt that he had not conveyed his message successfully.3 Indeed, while Bede was criticised by Catholic theologians, local Church authorities in India as well as by Hindus, his writings have received little attention both within the fields of theology and religious studies. To my knowledge the only major studies published on Bede so far are written from a theological perspective. Neither have any doctoral theses or MA dissertations been written specifically on Bede by students of religious studies, as opposed to several such works by theologians.4 While Bede’s attempt to analyse Hinduism from the perspective of Catholic theology is certainly not unique, he gradually became so familiar with Hinduism that he would shift freely between Hindu and Christian terms when elaborating on a particular topic; similarly, he gradually understood Hindu Vedanta and Christian theology as relating to a single, transcendent reality, even if this reality was expressed and experienced differently within the two traditions. Yet while the fascination for Hinduism remained fixed throughout Bede’s writings, his approach changed substantially: both his understanding of the complexity of Hinduism, the significance allotted to various Hindu traditions and their significance in the context of his own theology and Christianity at large underwent significant changes, a fact Bede would readily acknowledge.
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