Kristu Bhakti and Krishna Bhakti (A Christian-Hindu Dialogue Contributing to Comparative Theology)

What does the popular Sanskrit term bhakti mean? Is it a self-evident concept? With an acknowledgment of complexity and variety this book helps to grasp the essential meaning and various dimensions of a God- experience and its implication for a transformed and transforming life. Taking the famous figures Jesus and Kṛṣṇa, as presented by two popular texts (St. John's Gospel and the Rasalila section), two distinctive bhakti frameworks are analysed and compared. Any bhakti experience does not happen in a vacuum and Jesus and Kṛṣṇa were not only multifaceted figures but also they went through a long process of ascendency to divine supremacy. For those who want to understand bhakti this book might prove to be an engaging guide.

Dr. Israel Selvanayagam from Tamilnadu has taught Religions (Hinduism) and Interfaith Relations at Tamilnadu Theological Seminary- Madurai, Wesley College-Bristol, Queen' College and United College of the Ascension-Birmingham, United Theological College-Bangalore and Gurukul Theological College and Research Institute-Chennai. He has widely published both in English and Tamil. Currently he lives in the United Kingdom.

A source of substantial satisfaction for any mentor is the significant success of his or her mentee. Indeed, Dr. Selvanayagam does me honour by asking me to write a foreword for this critical and innovative piece of interreligious dialogue, a comparative examination of devotional theism in the Christian and Hindu religious traditions by examining two texts, one Christian and the other Hindu.

There have, of course, been numerous explorations of Christian bhakti, the religious tradition that Rudolph Otto defined as "faith in salvation through an eternal God and through saving fellowship with Him (sic)." For the beginnings of Christian bhakti one has to go back to the early 19th century when Ram Mohan Roy was attempting to interpret Christianity through his own brand of unitarian non-dualism. At the same time, convert Tamil Christian poets such as H.A. Krishna Pillai, deeply steeped in the Hindu bhakti tradition from which they had come, were already writing Christian lyrics which laid the offering of bhakti at the feet of the Christ. Here there is love and personal devotion; here there is experience of God's grace; here there is self-abandonment to the love and power of God which has distinguished so many bhaktas, devotees Hindu and Christian. Small wonder, then, that to so many, as to the Christian poet from Maharashtra, Narayan Vaman Tilak,' there has seemed to be a direct bridge linking the world of Hindu bhakti with that of Christian faith, a bridge over which the bhakta may cross, and still feel that s/he has not strayed from home.

And yet in the midst of all this surfeit of complex richness, I know of no discussion quite like the present one. In and through it Dr. Selvanayagam, fully cognizant of all that has gone before, has launched out into previously unchartered waters, i.e., "a dialogical study of Kristu bhakti and Krishna bhakti in comparison with the limited scope of taking two texts with a probing approach to find new aspects to be added to the already existing views and definitions of bhakti and suggesting if hybridization is possible or not, or an alternative may be possible." Further, one does not often find a comparative study such as this which takes seriously the methodological issues attendant on a recognition that the Christian materials are typically reckoned to deal with a historical person, Jesus, while the Hindu materials relating to Krishna are commonly considered to be mythic, narratives of gods and superhuman beings.

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901), a famous Professor of Divinity in Cambridge, New Testament scholar, writer on the fourth Gospel, guide to the formation of Cambridge-Delhi Mission-Brotherhood and bishop, 'believed that the most profound commentary on the Fourth Gospel was still to be written, and that it could not be written until an Indian theologian would undertake the task.' It is agreed that Bishop A.J. Appasamy (1891-1975) partially fulfilled the task. His successful Oxford doctorate was titled 'The Mysticism of the Fourth Gospel in Relation to Hindu Bhakti Literature.' The best fruits of this research were his books Christianity as Bhakti Marga (1928) and What is Moksha? (1931). Later, he wrote a book on the theology of Hindu Bhakti. In this book he quotes the missionary scholar J.N. Farquar's excellent summery of bhakti in Bhagavata Purana, the finest of the six major Vaisnava Puranas:

Bhakti in this work is a surging emotion which chokes the speech, makes the tears flow and the hair with thrill with pleasurable excitement, and often leads to hysterical laughing and weeping by turns, to sudden fainting fits and to long trances of unconsciousness. We are told that it is produced by gazing at the images of Krishna, singing his praises, remembering him in meditation, keeping company with his devotees, touching their bodies, serving them lovingly, hearing them tell the mighty deeds of Krishna, and talking with them about his glory and his love. All this rouses the passionate bhakti which will lead to self-consecration to Krishna and life-long devotion to his service.

However, there is no attempt to work out the possibility of a hybridization that would have helped Christians have greater appreciation for not only Hindu bhakti in general but also Krsna bhakti in particular. In turn, such possibility would help Hindu partners in dialogue to understand the unique Jewish tradition on which Kristu bhakti is built, thus moving away from the superficial slogan that the (undefined) essence of both (and even all) the religions are the same. Today, with the revival of studies of Hindu bhakti and of Krsna bhakti and its globalization, and that of fundamentalist-conservative obsession of the churches in India, there is a need to critically analyse the hitherto studies and to make concrete suggestion for mutual enrichment as well as being together in the experiential dimension of religious life however limited it might be.

St John's Gospel, apart from the stories and teachings of Jesus, presents moments of his talk about the intimate union with God the Father on the one hand and his disciples on the other. The Holy Spirit as the 'Go between God' joins the union of the Father and the Son, thus completing the Trinitarian bond. Earlier, Jesus' 'I am sayings' which are similar to the 'I am sayings' of Krsna in the Gitä, portray his supremacy and accessibility. His sayings I and my Father are one' and 'My Father is greater than me' seem to suggest the centrifugal and centripetal rhythm in his relationship with God and humanity.

**Contents and Sample Pages**