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Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Volume 16 Article 8

January 2003

Advaita and Marcus Borg: Opportunities for Hindu- Christian Dialogue

Anantanand Rambachan

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Recommended Citation Rambachan, Anantanand (2003) " and Marcus Borg: Opportunities for Hindu-Christian Dialogue," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 16, Article 8. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1297

The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. - Rambachan: Advaita Vedanta and Marcus Borg: Opportunities for Hindu-Christian Dialogue

Advaita Vedanta and Marcus Borg: Opportunities for Hindu-Christian Dialogue

Anantanand Rambachan Saint Olaf College

DIALOGUE between and doctrine of . l According to Borg, one of Christians in recent times appears to be the "root concepts" of God, present both in dominated by the controversies concerning the Bible and in the wider Christian proselytizing and conversion. While these tradition, envisages the divine as a are important issues and ought not to be "supernatural being "out there," separate overlooked in Hindu-Christian interactions, from the world, who created the world a we ignore, to our mutual deprivation, the long time ago and who may from time to wealth of insight about the nature of God time intervene within it.,,2 This and the meaning of being religious that are "supernatural theism," as Borg terms it, is the fruits of reflection, practice and deeply anthropomorphic in its conception of experience in our traditions. Our exploration God. As a person, God was separate from

of these issues reveal shared convictions, :j the world. Omnipresence meant that God, challenging questions for each other and the from the spatial remoteness of the heavens, recognition that religious growth does not knew everything or could choose to be in occur only through encounters within the any place. The presence of God in the world boundaries of one's own religious world. was not continuous. Borg connects While the Christian scholar, Marcus Borg, supernatural theism with the predominant rarely refers to in his writings, his influence of what he refers to as the interpretations of Christianity suggest "monarchical model of God.,,3 In addition to exciting possibilities for dialogue between being patriarchcal, this model also both traditions. This article is an attempt to emphasizes the distance, in terms of space identify, from an Advaita perspective, some and power, of God from the world. It of the potential issues for dialogue arising prioritizes the role of God as judge and from Borg's work and a few questions that lawgiver and the religious life as consisting may be meaningfully raised and pursued. I in essentially meeting. the requirements of am a listener to Borg's "Christian this remote God. conversation" and offer these thoughts as an The supernatural theism that informed initial response. Borg's childhood image of God seemed In his well-know book, The God We inadequate as Borg encountered an Never Know, historian of religion Marcus enlightenment view that emphasized the Borg undertakes a critical assessment of reality of matter, natural laws, and the certain central features of the Christian enormity of the universe. "The bigger the

Anantanand Rambachan teaches religion and philosophy at Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, U.S.A. His scholarly interests include Advaita Vedanta, interreligious dialogue and Hinduism in the modern: era. Among his books are The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda's Reinterpretation of the (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994) and Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Valid Knowledge in Samkara (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991). He is presently working on a contemporary reconstruction of Advaita.

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UnIverse got, the· farther away God Even there your hand shall lead me, seemed." The gap between a remote God And your right hand shall hold me and no God appeared insignificant. At the fast.4 same time, Borg discovered that other Christian thinkers were wrestling with the In Acts (17. 27-28),· we have Paul's inadequacies of supernatural theism. John emphasis on the immediacy of God and his Robinson rejected the view of God "out Tillich-like description, " They would search there" and argued for the encounter with the for God and perhaps grope for God and find divine in the depths of the human being. God - though indeed God is not far from Paul Tillich spoke of God as " the ground of each one of us. For 'In God we live and being" or "ultimate reality" and sought to move and have our being.' " differentiate the nature of God's existence Borg's panentheisitic way of thinking from objects in the world. about God, acknowledging both immanence As an alternative to the intellectual and and transcendence, is heartily endorsed in other difficulties presented by supernatural . the Advaita view of the nature of . theism, Borg recovers what he believes to an The universe is consistently described as alternative model of God, present both in the existing in brahman even as brahman exists Bible and Christian tradition, but unfamiliar equqlly in everything. Taittiriya Upanisad to most Christians. He refers to this way of (II.7.1) describes the bringing forth of the thinking about the divine as panentheism, a world from brahman and the latter's entry model that understands God to be an all­ into everything created. pervasive reality in which all things exist. It emphasizes God to be both immanent and "He desired~ Let me become many; . transcendent. While all things exist in God let me be born. He performed (immanent), panentheism does not . austerity. Having performed simplistically equate the world with God. austerity, he created all this, God is much more than the universe whatever is here. Having created it, (transcendent). God is always here and now. into it, indeed, he entered.',5 Many beautiful Biblical texts are adduced in support of panentheistic theology. Psalm Isa Upanisad (1) opens with the famous 139, for example, speaks of God as the all­ exhortation to see the world clothed in God, encompassing reality outside of which " (Know that) all this, whatever moves in nothing exists. this moving world, is enveloped by God." It speaks of brahman as being within all You have searched me and known things as well as outside of everything. me; The existence of God in all and all in You know when I sit down and God is also a central theme in the when I rise up .... Bhagavadgita, expressed both You go before me and behind me, philosophically as well as poetically in And lay your hand upon me .... similes and metaphors. One of the most Where can I go from your Spirit? striking of these (7:7) likens God to the Or where can I flee from your string in a necklace of jewels. "On me," says presence? , "all this universe is strung like If I ascend to heaven, you are there; jewels on a string.',6 While the gems And if I make my bed in Sheol, you constituting a necklace differ in form and are there. properties, the string that runs through each If I take wings of the morning and is one and the same. In an analogous way, settle God is the comrrion and unifying reality in At the farthest limits of the sea, all creation. Elsewhere (9:6) all beings are

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol16/iss1/8 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1297 2 Rambachan: Advaita Vedanta and Marcus Borg: Opportunities for Hindu-Christian Dialogue 32 Anantanand Rambachan

,I i

described as abiding and moving in God as beings, is not tainted by the defects of the the mighty wind exists and blows about in world as "He is outside." space. The significance of panentheistic The Advaita tradition,. however, does theology in Hinduism may be appreciated not stop with the characterization of the also from the fact that seeing the divine divine-world relationship as one of existing equally in all beings is considered panentheism. While able to agree with to be the hallmark of wisdom and liberation Borg's representation God as "a nonmaterial (13:28). The Bhagavadgita (18:20) layer or level or dimension of reality," commends the knowledge that enables us to pervading all things, the tradition wishes to see "one imperishable Being in all beings, characterize further the relationship between undivided in separate beings." A false and the nonmaterial and material as. not-two inferior way of seeing is to regard things as (cidvaita). Describing the relationship isolated, separate and independent of each between-brahman and the world as advaita other and to see in all beings "separate must, however, also be differentiated from entities of various kinds (18:21).,,7 pantheism. Sankara, it should be noted, does The Advaita Vedanta tradition will also not entirely equate the world with brahman. want, like Borg, to differentiate between For Sankara, the fact that brahman is panenthiesm and pantheism.8 Although the describeGl as the cause and the world as the Hindu doctrine of God is often represented effect implies some difference. If no i I as pantheistic, immanence is never differences obtain, the distinction would be I, emphasized at the expense of transcendence. meaningless. I I The language of paradox is commonly used to remind us of God's mystery and As between cause and effect, some indefinable nature. Isa Upanisad (4-5) is one distinction has got to be admitted as of the finest examples of this method. t:{xisting, as in the case of clay and a pot, for unless some peculiarity (The spirit) is unmoving, one,· exists, it is not possible to swifter than the mind. The senses do distinguish them as cause and not reach It as It is ever ahead of effect.9 them. Though Itself standing still It outstrips those who run. In It the all­ What the characterization of the pervading air supports the activities brahman-world relationship as advaJta does of beings. deny is the independent ontological reality It moves and It moves not; It is far of the world from brahman. The world does and It is near; it is within all this and not have a reality that is independent of It is also outside all this. brahman. The reality of the world is a dependent one, whereas br.ahman's reality Bhagavadgita (13:15-17) echoes the Isa . and nature is independent and originaL Upanisad and describes brahman as "The effect," as Sankara puts it, "has the undivided, though appearing divided, nature of the cause and not vice-versa. 10 outside and inside beings, far away and near. While the world partakes of the nature of Katha Upanisad (11.2.9-11.2.11), after brahman, brahman does not partake of the explaining the existence of brahman within nature of the world. Is an Advaita tradition, all, turns to the example of the sun to constructed along these lines and so clearly underline its transcendence. The sun, which differentiated from pantheism, compatible helps all eyes to see, is not affected by the . with the Christian panentheism of Borg? Is defects of the eyes or external objects. it necessary for the panentheist to clarify Similarly, brahman, existing within all further the relationship between the world and God and, if so, what are the problems ! , I ,

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Advaita Vedanta and Marcus Borg 33

and promises of describing this in Advaita want to inquire further. Sankara evades the terms? Borg's panentheism, it appears to philosophical clutches of Scylla and me, invites further conversation along these CfJIlrybdis by arguing that brahman is not lines, and Advaita will be a willing partner. entirely unknown. It is self-revealing as the The movement from supernatural theism to ground and content of the "I" notion and is panentheism results also, according to Borg, the source of the conviction that one exists. 13 in a different understanding of the fundamental human problem. When Besides, the existence of brahman is supernatural theism is fused with a well known from the fact of Its monarchical image of God, a performance being the Self of all; for everyone model is generated that emphasizes feels that his Self exists, and he "meeting requirements," sin and guilt.ll never feels 'I do not exist.' Had Panentheism, on the other hand, which there been no general recognition of understands God to be a nonmaterial reality, the existence of the Self, everyone present in and transcending the universe, would have felt, 'I do not exist.' sees the human problem in terms of estrangement and separation. In Borg's The religious challenge, therefore, is not words, it is "our blindness to the presence of one of creating or bringing into existence a God, Our separation from the Spirit who is previously non-existent entity, or bridging a all around us and within us and to which we spatial or temporal distance between oneself belong.,,12 Whether we know it or not, we and God. A may be likened to a form exist in and are inseparable from God. We of blindness that prevents us from properly are not spatially, but epistemologically seeing what is right before our eyes and its distant from God. overcoming, which is the attainment of Borg's implicative redefinition of the liberation (), akin to the regaining of human condition presents it in terms that sight. Liberation, to use Borg's words, is the appear to relate closely to the Advaita overcoming of our "epistemic distance" understanding of the human problem as one from God, since no other kind of separation of ignorance (). For Sankara, from an infinite reality is possible. As brahman, as a reality unlimited by space or Sankara puts it in his - (1.1.4) time, is always present and immediately commentary, "Brahman, being all-pervasive available. It is here and now. Sankara, like space, remains ever attained by however, goes beyond this and argues that everybody." the existence of brahman does not have to The Advaita understanding of the nature be established by any means of knowledge of brahman as available here and now and since, as awareness, the ground of all mental of the human condition as essentially one of and perceptual processes, it is self-revealing. ignorance (avidya) leads to an emphasis on In his commentary on Brahma-sutra (1.1.1), liberation (moksha) as a way of being in this Sankara has an objector asking if brahman life. 14 Liberation is not an end that must is known or unknown. The issue here is that await the death of the body since the human if Sankara admits brahman to be known, problem is not synonymous with the fact of there will be no need for any inquiry or a being alive but with ignorance (avidya) of means of knowledge to determine its nature brahman., It is not the absence of a body that and Sankara is, in fact, arguing for both of constitutes liberation, but the overcoming of these. If on the other hand, brahman is ignorance about brahman. The state of unknown ( not even the object of a desire to living liberation is referred to as jivanmukti know), it cannot become the focus of any and the person' is called a jivanmukta. sort of inquiry. One must be aware of an Shankara clearly supports the idea of object, at least in some minimal way, to embodied liberation. 1'1 his remarks on

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol16/iss1/8 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1297 4 Rambachan: Advaita Vedanta and Marcus Borg: Opportunities for Hindu-Christian Dialogue 34 Anantanand Rambachan

Katha Upanisad (2.1.2), for example, he of brahman must be differentiated from the comments on the fearlessness of the post-mortem journey to another world. liberated person. "How can there be any Borg's ability to speak of salvation as a vision of fear, since there is no occasion for way of being in the present life and " not sorrow after the attainment of fearlessness about believing now or being good now for from His realization? Even here, (while still the sake of heaven later," enables him to living), he becomes vimuktah, free." He . identify what he calls "the gifts of interprets Katha Upanisad (2.2.14), ("He salvation." Citing Paul, Borg identifies attains brahman here') to mean the freedom, peace, joy and love as four of the discovery of one's non-difference with central gifts. Borg describes salvation as an brahman while still living. 15 experience "of the sheer joy of being, just It is interesting that Borg's description as we experience the sheer joy of being of the human condition as an reconciled to ourselves, to each other, and to epistemological separation from God leads life itself. We experience the joy of being also to an emphasis on salvation as a loved and the ability to love in the freedom concern of life in this world and not as an and self-forgetfulness of faith.,,18 exclusive post-mortem hope or state. Similarly, while the Upanisads are Commenting on John (17:3) "This is eternal hesitant to characterize the actual state of life: to know God," Borg notes that "eternal moksha, which being identical with life" is not simply or primarily in the future brahman, defies all definition, the texts are but is a present reality. To know God is not as reticent about the liberated person already an experience of "eternal life.,,16 (jivanmukta). Positively, liberation is the Salvation implies an awakening to the attainment of bliss since bliss constitutes the reality of God in oneself, the world and very nature of brahman.. When Bhrgu, in others. The gain of eternal life, in this the Taittiriya Upanisad (3.6.1) finally world, through the attainment of moksha, is understood brahman, he understood it as the a constant theme of the and the bliss from which all things are born, by Advaita tradition. Brhadaranyaka Upanisad which they are sustained and into which (4.4.6-7), for example, speaks of attaining they return. Commenting on this verse, immortality in this world: Sankara explains that one who comes to know brahman as bliss, "gets similarly fixed On this there is the following in bliss that is the supreme brahman; that is verse: "When all the desires that to say, be becomes brahman itself." dwell in the heart are cast away, Brahman, states Brhadaranyana Upanisad then does the mortal become (4.3.32) is supreme bliss. "On a particle of immortal, then he attains brahman this very bliss other creatures live." In the here (in this very body)." Chandogya Upanisad (7.1.13) Narada goes to his teacher, Sanatkumara, for knowledge Sankara, while conceding that the word of the self that frees from sorrow and learns svarga is generally used to indicate a that the infinite alone is bliss; there is no heavenly region or place, notes that there are bliss in the finite. contexts when svarga refers to liberation. 17 Liberation is also equated, especially, in Commenting on the reference to svarge lake the Bhagavadgita with the attainment of in Kena Upanisad (4.9) Sankara interprets it peace (shanti). It is the person who as referring to brahman. Being qualified by overcomes greed and not the one who is a the words ananta (infinite) and jyeye victim of greed who obtains peace (2:70- (highest), svarga does not refer to heaven, 71). The attainment of brahman is possible but to brahman that is infinite and higher for the person with faith (shraddha) and the than all else. In other words, the attainment consequence of understanding is the

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Advaita Vedanta and Marcus Borg 35 I

realization of peace (4:93). Katha Upanisad and abstention froJU causing harm to others I' (1.3.13) speaks of the as peaceful rather than love and engagement in action (shanta) and of eternal peace for those who for the alleviation of suffering. The discover the self within (2.2.13).19 implications of the truth of the unity of self Liberation for Borg is also the are interpreted passively. He ,seems also to overcoming of estrangement and reunion limit the Bhagavadgita doctrine of laka "with the world and with the one in whom samgraha (the welfare of the world) to the we and the world live and move and have teaching role of the jivanmukta, who acts out our being. ,,20 Although the language of of for the suffering of the estrangement is not employed in traditional student. Sankara's emphasis on the teaching Advaita discourse, liberation as the role of the jivanmukta ought to be seen in overcoming of estrangement is clearly the light of the Advaita emphasis on self­ implied in the Advaitta understanding that ignorance as the root of suffering and on the the knower of brahman apprehends it, not assumption that jivanmuktas may be few in merely as her own self, but as the self of all. number. If, however, the jivanmuk:ta is The knower of the self, according to the motivated to teach because of compassion Bhagavadgita (6:29) sees the self in all for the suffering of the student, there is no beings and all beings in the self. Isa good reason why other kinds of action, Upanisad (6) relates the knowledge of the similarly, motivated by compassion for the oneness of the self to freedom from hate. suffering, are not possible. While the social involvement of the jivanmukta in activities One who sees all beings in the self that go beyond teaching is not a traditional alone and the self in all beings, feels Advaita position, the question today is no hatred by virtue of that whether such involvement is desirable and if understanding. the Advaita understanding of liberation allows for. My position is affirmative on For Marcus Borg, the most important both questions, but the scope of this study fruit of awakening to God is compassion. It only allows me to present elements of it in is the "central test for discerning whether brief form. something is 'of God.' 2J" Compassion, Although the Hindu scriptures, because however, is not merely a private, individual of veneration for the jivanmukta, do not virtue. It is not about "how to be good and prescribe any obligatory actions, there is how to behave within the framework of a nothing inherent in the liberated state that domination system. ,,22 Compassion is the makes actions for the well being of others concern and effort to replace unjust and impossible. On the contrary, the oppressive sbcial structures with a understanding of the self and reality that is "domination-free order." Its focus is on the synonymous with the attainment of removal of suffering arising from liberation provide a powerful justification exploitative political, economic and social and impetus for a life of compassion and structures. It is here that Borg's social engagement. Freedom from avidya-' understanding of the meaning of liberation generated desires does not eradicate every presents its most radical challenge to form of motivation to engage in action. traditional Advaita Vedanta. Liberation from self-centered desires frees It is indeed true, as Andrew Fort has one to dedicate one's energies to the service observed, that traditional Advaita has not of others. This may be the point of concerned itself with equality in the social Bhagavadgita (3:22-24) where Krishna uses spheres.23 Sankara's comments on himself as an example of a liberated being Bhagavadgita (6:32) and Isa Upanisad (6), with no personal desires who engages in for example, emphasize freedom from hate action for the benefit of others. He suggests i I

https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol16/iss1/8 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1297 6 Rambachan: Advaita Vedanta and Marcus Borg: Opportunities for Hindu-Christian Dialogue 36 Anantanand Rambachan

(3:25) that the liberated person can bring the suffering, one ought not to ignore the same energy and enthusiasm to working for suffering that human beings experience others that the unliberated person brings to when they lack the opportunities to attain the quest for personal goals. Sankara the necessities for decent living such as concurs with Krishna's views that freedom food, housing, clean water, health care· and from personal desires makes actions on literacy or when suffering is inflicted behalf of others possible and paraphrases through injustice and oppression based on Krishna's meaning in 3:25 as follows: "For gender, caste or race. We need to question Me or for any other person who, knowing the broad significance and meaning of the the Self, thus seeks the welfare of the world, ideal of moksa for human relationships and there is nothing to do except it be with the a for social, economic and political view to the welfare of the world at large." relationships. It should not be acceptable to The knowledge of the indivisibility of affirm truths about the unity of the self and the self, properly understood, awakens a discerning one's self in all while tolerating deeper identity and affinity with all. Moksha injustice and indignity at the social level. does not alienate one from the community of The vision of brahman in all beings is a other beings, but awakens one to the truth of truth with the potential to help us overcome life's unity and interrelatedness. While the alienation and estrangement in a world in Upanisads and the classical Advaita which technology has made us aware of tradition do not pursue the implications of each other as never before. It enables us to this understanding for the life. of the identify with others beyond tl;1e boundaries jivanmukta in society, there is no reason of our nationality, ethnicity, tribe and why we should not do so today. In the religion, to share their suffering and rejoice Bhagavadgita, the discussion on the identity in their successes. It helps us to see human of the self in everything is followed by a beings as constituting a single community verse (6:32) that praises the highest as and provides a philosophical basis for a the one who, because of knowing the truth compassionate and inclusive community of brahman, owns the pain and suffering of where the worth and dignity of every human others as her own. In his comment on this being is affirmed and where justice, at all verse, Sankara writes that this person "sees levels, is sought. This will not occur, that whatever is pleasant to himself is however, until the Advaita tradition pleasant to all creatures and whatever is positively asserts the value of the world and painful to himself is painful to all beings. human existence within it, the importance of Thus seeing that what is pleasure or pain to reconciling religious claims and social himself is alike pleasure and pain to all reality and the necessity of working to beings, he causes pain to no being; he is transform the latter in the light of the harmless. Doing no harm and devoted to former. Dialogue with Christia:o.ity and other right knowledge, he is regarded as the religions can be a great asset to Advaita in highest among all yogins.,,24 becoming aware of and in responding If knowledge of the identity of the self creatively to these challenges. in all leads, as the Bhagavadgita puts it, to seeing the suffering of another as one's own, Notes undertaking actions for the alleviation of suffering, whenever possible, becomes 1. See· Marcus Borg, The God We necessary. Seeing the suffering of the other Never Knew (New York, NY: as one's own seems rather meaningless if HarperCollins, 1997). this insight does not instigate action on 2. Ibid., p. 11. , behalf of the other. While recognizing 3. Ibid., pp. 62-71. avidya to be the fundamental cause of

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4. Quoted in The God We Never 15. Eight Upanisads: with the Knew, pp. 35-36. commentary of Sankaracarya, 5. The Principal Upanisads, ed. trans. Swami Gambhirananda and trans. S. Radhakrishnan [Isa, Kena, Katha, and Taittiriya (London, England: Allen and In voLl; Aitareya, Mundaka, Unwin, 1953). Mandukya and Karika, and 6. The Bhagavadgita, trans. Prasna in vol.m (Calcutta: Winthrop Sargeant (Albany, Advaita , 1965-66). NY: State University of New 16. The God We Never Knew, pp. York Press, 1993). 165. 7. See also 6:30-32; 18:6l. 17. Brahma-sutra bhasya 4.4.8. 8. The God We Never Knew, pp. 18. The God We Never Knew, pp. 32-33. 167. 9. Brahma-sutra-bhasya of 19. See also Taittiriya Upanisad Sankaracarya, trans. Swami (1.6.2) that speaks of brahman Gambhirananda (Calcutta: as abounding in peace. Advaita Ashrama, 1977) 2.2.44. 20. The God We Never Knew, p. 10. Ibid., 2.1.9 167 11. The God We Never Knew, pp. 21. Ibid., p. 129. 65-68. 22. Ibid., p. 142 12. Ibid., p. 77. 23. See Andrew O.Fort, livanmukti 13. For a discussion of the in Transformation (Albany, NY: relationship between the nature State University of New York of the self and the appropriate Press, 1998), p. 174. means of knowledge see, 24. The Bhagavadgita with the Anantanand Rambachan, Commentary of Sankaracarya, Accomplishing the trans. A. Mahadeva Sastry Acomplished: The Vedas as a (Madras: Samata Books, 1977). Source of Valid KrLOwledge in Sankara (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1991). 14. Moksha does have postmortem implications in Advaita, such as freedom from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth (samsara). These consequences, however, flow from its attainment in life. https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol16/iss1/8 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1297 8