Embodied God In Indian Eco-Vision - Engaging With Sri Ramanuja's Theology

There is a growing concern globally for our environment and the complex world of nature which is our human home. Also, a sense of greater mutual understanding is needed between communities with differing cultural traditions. In particular we need to probe more deeply into India's rich spiritual heritage.

These three pressing human concerns come together in this timely book by Eric J. Lott. The author, in particular, argues how crucial it is, in responding to all these concerns, to engage with the richly suggestive theology of the great Vaishnava theologian, Sri Ramanuja.

The Revd Dr. Eric J. Lott (born UK 1934) has taught Indian and Christian religious traditions in Indian theological colleges for over 30 years. He has authored numerous books including Vedantic Approaches to God (Macmillan, Oxford), Vision, Tradition, Interpretation (Mouton De Gruyter. Berlin).

Few will feel humbler than a student being asked by his own teacher to write a foreword to his masterly book. I first saw Dr. Eric J Lott in a conference on Hindu influence on Christianity in 1978 at the Tamilnadu Theological Seminary, Madurai. After completing my basic theological education and ministerial training, I had just started venturing into a new and challenging journey of interreligious dialogue and was badly in need of clarity, direction and encouragement. It was not a coincidence that I joined the United Theological College, Bangalore in 1981 for my Masters with specialisation in Hindu Religious Traditions. Eric Lott was the head of the department of Religions, Culture and Society. He was openly acknowledged as a great resource person especially for those students who came from villages with little competency in the English language.

Also, his special area of 'Vedantic Approaches to God' could be quite intimidating for learners if not handled with encouragement and pastoral care, which he was able to. At the time we were three 'scholars in the making', and could notice that he gave great importance to Ramanuja, particularly his scriptural hermeneutics and the central vision of God-Visnu seen as having the whole world as his body. This vision made ideas such as avatara and bhakti much more meaningful. Lott's publications and engagement with experts of the Sri Vaisnava tradition were evident of this shift, even though inadequately appreciated either by the college community or by the church. Memorably, he organised a study tour to Melkote (in Karnataka), an exclusively Śrī Vaisnava village with a Brahmanic ethos. There we met his friend M.A.Thathachar, a most impressive teacher-priest with erudite knowledge of the Vaisnava faith and tradition. The temple there too had special features with Ramanuja as the central image.

Two years ago the 1,000 anniversary year (2017) of the birth of that remarkable Indian theologian, Ramanuja, was celebrated. The essays in this collection are offered in appreciation of his teaching. Perhaps. I can be forgiven brief reference to some of the personal background lying behind this concern. It was at theological college in London in 1958 that I first heard about this Vaisnava community leader from South India. Both R.C. Zachner at Oxford and Ninian Smart, then at London, had pointed to his significance for our understanding of God and the universe. In India, Bishop A.J. Appasamy long before had been urging Christian theologians as well as others to take note of Ramanuja's thought about God and world and I was privileged to meet the Bishop in 1960 and talk about these issues. Then, very recently the penetrating study at Oxford of Appasamy and Ramanuja by Brian Dunn (see bibliography) makes their importance very clear.

For me, three emphases by Ramanuja attracted:

(a) The vision that cosmic life is animated by and dependent on the Lord and inner Self of all, as a body is to its animating soul;

(b) The insistence that the binding heart of this cosmic life is mutual Love God's compassion for all, and the heart's response of love for God;

(c) Then came Ramanuja's bold insistence that all life, material and spiritual (even our mis-perceptions!) - everything is quite real, not a vain illusion, which seemed to me an equally crucial position to hold.

The appeal for me in this threefold vision in turn reflects both my organic farming background and the religious life in which I was nurtured. As a Methodist, that early experience was infused by the 18th century Wesleys' emphasis on divine love. Love was all-important. These founders of my spiritual tradition focussed on the 'heart', a centre of personal being that was to be under the sway of that divine love. In other words, theirs was a form of what Indian tradition has called 'love-devotion', or prema-bhakti.