Worshiping Jesus Using Hindu Methods Matej
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Nidān, Volume 4, No. 1, July 2019, pp. 93-103 ISSN 2414-8636 Bharatiya Pooja: Worshiping Jesus Using Hindu Methods Matej Karásek Department of Comparative Religion Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava [email protected] Abstract The paper is dedicated to the Indian Christian Ashram Movement and to the liturgy of Bharatiya Pooja that represents the unique phenomenon of a systematic synthesis between Christianity and other elements of religious theory and practice adapted from Hinduism. Representatives of the movement are mostly Christian monks known as Christian Sannyasis. These Christian Sannyasis live lifestyles that are, in many aspects, similar to their counterparts amongst Hindu renouncers and ascetics. The first part of the paper introduces the historical context that predetermined the birth and development of the movement and the second part presents and interprets the ethnographic data collected during field research at the Kurishumala Ashram in Kerala. The article pays special attention to Bharatya Pooja, the mass held at Kurishumala Ashram, conducted by Christian monks, and discusses its many aspects that as yet retain Hindu ways of religious worship. The final part of the article discusses questions of religious authenticity within Indian Christianity. Keywords: Bharatiya Pooja, Christian Ashram Movements, Christian Sannyasis, Christianity, Hinduism Introduction The aim of this article is to describe a unique form of Christian liturgy called Bharatiya Pooja, conducted in the Kurishumala Ashram in Kerala. The exceptionality of Bharatiya Pooja rests in its synthesis of concepts borrowed from the Christian mass and Hindu Pooja. Its liturgy does not just combine the formal, but also the philosophical and theological elements of both religions. Bharatiya Pooja uses the terminology of Hindu religion and philosophy and the ritual is full of references to Hindu scriptures like Vedas, Upanishads or the Bhagavadgita. The Bharatiya Pooja was developed as a response to the Second Vatican council that encouraged missionaries to adjust their preaching to the cultural needs of local inhabitants of a region that was specific to worship. However, many Catholic authorities condemn Bharatiya Pooja as a spiritual experiment that went too far and exceeded the limits of the Second Vatican Council, claiming that Christianity loses its purity due to such radical adaptions specific to given cultural environments. Purists argue that instead of an “Indianization” of Christianity, we are witnessing its “paganization” (See Kulanday, 1985). Therefore, unsurprisingly, Kurishumala is the only place in the world where performance of the Bharatiya Pooja is allowed by the Catholic 93 Karásek / Bharatiya Pooja authorities. Since discussions about liturgy mentioned above are inseparable from the Christian Ashram Movement and Christian Sannyasis1, monks who adapted the lifestyle of Hindu renouncers, a historical background of this Ashram movement and the approaching of Christian goals through Hindu practical and philosophical methods needs elucidation. The second part of the study draws from ethnographic field research at the Kurishumala Ashram conducted in 2015, describing Bharatiya Pooja, with additional commentaries and explanations of the most intriguing encounter between Christian and Hindu ritual elements. It is necessary to bring to the attention of readers that due to certain limitations I do not claim to provide a “screenplay” of the Bharatiya Pooja. The description of the liturgy is selective, and many details of the mass that are considered irrelevant for detecting influences of Hindu rituals are omitted. My informants consisted of Kurishumala monks, and two visitors to the ashram from India and France, who arrived here for a spiritual retread. The semi-structured interviews I used, addressed all segments of Kurishumala´s hierarchy, from novices to ashram´s abbot. Lastly, I conducted an additional interview with one of the authors of the Malayalam Bharatiya Pooja, who was a professor at the Dharmaram Vidiya Kshetram University in Bangalore. The interviews I conducted were taped, and the Bharatiya Pooja was itself video recorded. Another important tool for data collection about the Bharatiya Pooja consisted of participant observation in addition to the other activities of Kurishumala´s community life. Lastly, the ashram´s internal document that detailed the “scenario” of its liturgy constituted an important source for the study of Bharatiya Pooja. The Historical Background of the Christian Ashram Movement and Bharatiya Pooja The second Vatican council (1962–1965) had introduced profound changes to the approach of the Catholic Church towards non-Christian religions. While the Vatican document titled Nostra Aetate recognized spiritual truth to also be present in non- Christian religions, which contained the “seeds of gospel”, the document anticipated salvation through Jesus at the same time, in a manner that was similar to the Old Testament. The inculturation, the formal adaptation of Christian missions to local cultural traditions and regional customs became the legitimate methods of evangelization for missionaries. In reality, attempts to “Indianize” Christianity had preceded the council by centuries. The first pioneer of the formal adaptation of Christianity to Indian culture, was the 17th century Italian Jesuit, Roberto de Nobili. As a strategy of convincing Hindus to convert to the Christian faith, De Nobili decided to adapt to certain Brahmin customs. He became a vegetarian; he wore the yajnopavita, the sacred thread of twice born dvijas; and he wore the sikha, a long lock of hair on the top of one’s head. He founded a missionary center at Madurai, which is considered the first Christian ashram in India (See Cronin, 1959). The next important personality who synthetized Christianity with Hinduism was Bhavani Charan Banerjee (1861–1907). After his conversion from Hinduism to 1 The term Sannyasi is derived from the term Sannyasa which means „the life state of renounciation of the mundane world“. 94 Nidān, Volume 4, No. 1, July 2019, pp. 92-103 ISSN 2414-8636 Catholicism (although he converted initially to the Anglican Church), he began introducing himself as Brahmabandhav Upadhyay. Banerjee also published a magazine titled Sophia, in which he presented his vision of Indian Christianity, focusing on the Indian philosophic system of Advaita Vedanta. The Advaita Vedanta represents a monistic, non-dualistic approach to reality that is constituted by one essence, or one principle. Differences between objects are illusory, and the human beings should not view objects as divided, different or as individual entities. Probably his most important contribution to the discourse of the Christian-Hindu synthesis was the Advaitic interpretation of Trinitarian theology. Upadhyay considered the Holy Trinity as the perfect illustration of the teachings of Advaita, since it expresses different entities that actually share the same essence. Upadhyay identified the Holy Trinity within Indian philosophical concepts as sat (being), chit (consciousness) and ananda (bliss). In Upadhyay´s view, while sat represented the Father; chit represented the Son and ananda was the Holy Spirit (Nayak 2008: 107–125). Upadhyay´s vision of Indian Christianity resonated with the institution of Christian Sannyasis, who would, similarly to their Hindu counterparts, renounce the mundane world and live in constant prayer and meditation. In accordance with the Bengal renaissance trend, of founding (neo)Hindu ashrams, Upadhyay expected the Christian Sannyasis to be concentrated in ashrams (See Thomas 1969). And it is due to this idea that Upadhyay is considered the father of the official 20th century Movement of Christian Ashrams. The pioneers of the Movement also consisted of European Catholic monks, Jules Monchanin and Henry Le Saux. In 1950 they fulfilled their common vision of founding the Saccitananda ashram (known also as Shantivanam) in Tamil Nadu, where they planned to develop a community of Christian Sannyasis (renouncers). Mirroring Hindu Sannyasis, they adapted new Sannyasi-like names. Monchanin became Swami Paramarupyananda and Le Saux took the name Swami Abhishiktananda. However, Abhishiktanda was so deeply fascinated with the life and teaching of Hindu sadhus and gurus, that he started to prefer the lifestyle of the wandering sadhus, accompanied by his Hindu counterparts. There is not enough space to introduce the breath-taking story of this man2, but let me note that he considered Hindu Advaitin sadhu Swami Gnanananda Giri as his guru, accepting initiation (diksha) from him (Abhishiktananda, 2012: 95). In 1955 the Saccidananda Ashram was visited by Cistercian monk Francis Mahieu, who has later proved as crucially important for the development of the Christian Ashram Movement. Mahieu shared his profound intellectual interest in Hindu religion and philosophy with Monchanin and Le Saux, but he had a different idea about the organization of the ashram community. In 1958 they founded the Kurishumala (“the Mountain of the Cross” in Malayalam language) Ashram in the mountains of Western Ghats in the state of Kerala. Mahieu became the abbot and started to use the title achariya which refers to the founder of the spiritual lineage sampradaya or religious school (See Mahieu-De Praetere, 2008). 2 For a reader interested in the life of Swami Abhishiktananda I recommend Oldmeadow´s publication focusing on this personality (2008). 95 Karásek / Bharatiya Pooja As