It is
necessary to understand some of the Hindu concepts and their significance in
order to understand the power of the Hindu ashram. These key concepts are also important to the
development of a Christian ashram model.
Therefore, in the following section I identify these concepts and their
relevance to the establishment of Christian ashrams in India.
Guru
The idea of a guru in an ashram is an
important concept. The term guru has
become a familiar term in the vocabulary of Westerners and also is listed in
many English dictionaries. According to
Webster's dictionary, the meaning of
guru is a personal religious teacher or a spiritual guide.[1] However, the Sanskrit term "guru"
has several meaning in Hinduism.
Etymologically "Gu" means ignorance and "ru"
means dispeller. Therefore, guru means
dispeller of ignorance. It also means
heavy or weighty.[2] In Hindu tradition, guru refers to a
spiritual person and has no exact counterpart in Western culture.
According to Hinduism, a guru is a religious
teacher with exceptional qualities and is endowed with the power of furnishing
arguments in favor of his ideas. He is
considered to be pure, kind, compassionate, forgiving, helpful, temperate, and
honest. Further, he is free from
partiality, malice, pride, deceit, cunning, manipulation, jealousy, falsehood,
egotism, and attachment. He lives only
with the aim of imparting the knowledge of God to others.[3] Moreover, a guru is viewed by Hindus as the
embodiment of truth and an incarnation of God.
He is reverently addressed by people as "His Holiness,"
"His Divine Grace," "Lord," "Jagad Guru,"
"Maharishi," "Mahayogi," and "Mahatma." He is described as a friend to a friend,
lover to the beloved, father, mother, master, Lord, King, the mighty one and the
beloved in Saiva-siddhanta tradition.[4] He is the main spiritual figure in a Hindu
ashram.
A Hindu ashram is centered around a guru and
cannot exist without one. He holds
complete authority over the ashram and does not receive his authority from an
organization or a committee. First of
all, an individual does not claim to be a guru, but emerges as a guru
spontaneously when others recognize one's spiritual powers and ability to lead
people to God. A guru in the making
lives as a disciple under a guru for a long time, living in austerity and
undergoing discipline in a lengthy apprenticeship. He also practices asceticism, yoga,
meditation, and a life of sexual continence before he is recognized as a guru
by the people.[5]
Further, in
Hinduism one cannot obtain religious knowledge or salvation without the help of
a guru. Gandhi said,
I believe in the Hindu theory of Guru and his importance
in spiritual realization. I think there
is a great deal of truth in the doctrine that true knowledge is impossible
without a guru.[6]
God is not a notion but an experience for many Hindus, and
the religious knowledge taught by a guru is experiential knowledge. The guru leads his disciples to experience
God through his presence and personal guidance.
The guru is the center of attraction in the
ashram. People are attracted to an
ashram not by the programs run by the ashram but by the presence of a
charismatic guru. They come to the
ashram in search of a guru who will dispel darkness from their minds and help
them in their religious striving (i.e., sadhanas).
Sadhanas
The word "sadhana" means method or
way. It refers to the method of
achieving salvation in Hinduism. The
goal of sadhana is God-realization or union with one's personal God. The number of sadhanas followed by the
disciples depend on the sect to which the guru adheres to. Some Hindus use other names such as yoga and marga
for sadhanas. Yoga, which is a cognate
with the English word "yoke," means union with God.[7] Marga means path, and indicates the way of
salvation. Hinduism, in general,
advocates four important sadhanas or margas, Jnana marga,
Karma marga, Bhakti marga and Yoga marga.
Jnana Marga
Jnana marga is the way of knowledge. Jnana does not mean intellectual knowledge,
but spiritual insight, experiential
knowledge, or transcendent knowledge.
According to advaita vedanta, there are two kinds of knowledge: lower
knowledge which is the knowledge of all sciences and arts, and higher knowledge
which is the intuitive knowledge of God
or Ultimate Reality.[8] The term vidya is used by Hindu
philosophers for intellectual knowledge.
The term Jnana is used for liberating knowledge or enlightenment.[9]
Enlightenment is reached in two stages. The first stage is a preparatory stage which
consists of four qualities in the aspirant: (1) discrimination between the
eternal and the non-eternal, (2) detachment from all selfish pursuits, (3)
development of the virtues of calmness, restraint, renunciation, resignation,
concentration, and faith, and (4) an intense longing for liberation. The next stage consists of three steps: (1) Sravana,
the study of the scripture, (2) Manana, reflection on the texts studied
to understand the truth revealed in the scripture, and (3) Nididhyasana, deep
contemplation which gives intuitive experience of the Absolute or God.[10] Advaita philosophers
like Sankara consider Jnana as the principal means to
attain salvation, which is self-realization.
Karma Marga
Karma marga is the way of action to attain
salvation. In other words, it is
salvation by works which is done without desire over the results of the
work. This idea of karma marga is called
nishkama karma in Bhagavad-Gita. It
teaches that one should not desist from work, but should do it without
attachment to the result.[11] If good action is done for honor, promotion,
credit, praise, and prestige, salvation is not possible. According to the doctrine of karma marga, one
should do his/her duty for the sake of duty and do good because it is
good. People cannot follow nishkama
karma unless they are spiritually mature.
The concept of nishkama karma is also taught
by Jesus Christ on the Sermon on the Mount.
He said, "Let not the left hand know what the right hand
doeth" (Matt 6:3). Christians call this disinterested benevolence. The basic idea is the same in Gita and in the
teachings of Jesus Christ. However, in
Hinduism it is considered to be a marga.
In Christianity it is not a marga, but a dharma, a moral
principle by which one is called to live in order to bring glory to God. The nishkama karma for a Christian is also an
expression of his bhakti or faith in God.
Bhakti Marga
Bhakti marga is the way of devotional faith
or salvation by faith. Since the meaning
of bhakti was discussed in the previous
chapter, only brief reference is made here.
Bhakti is the attitude of a devotee toward
his God. It begins with an attitude of a
servant to his master. Later on, it
develops into the love of a friend to friend, parent to child, child to parent,
wife to husband, and finally the love of the lover toward his/her beloved. The devotee views himself as a bride and God
as the bridegroom[12]
with the devotee expressing his devotion by singing, dancing, and offering
gifts to God.
According to the doctrine of devotional
Hinduism, these actions are only in response to God's grace. However, many Hindus follow devotional
practices in order to attain salvation.
Therefore, bhakti becomes a means rather than a response. In essence, bhakti marga teaches salvation by
grace through bhakti; it appears to be salvation by works consisting of
singing, dancing, chanting mantras,
worshipping idols with gifts, fasting, feasting, and pilgrimages. While the majority of Hindus follow bhakti to
attain salvation, only a few follow yoga.
Yoga Marga
Yoga marga is the way of mind-control. The word yoga comes from the root Yug
which means unite, join, or yoke. It
refers to a way of uniting oneself with God.[13] It is a mind-training method used to achieve
salvation and can only be practiced with the help of a guru.
The classical form of yoga comes from
Patanjali who did not create yoga, but who systematized the techniques of yoga
in their present form in his text Yoga Sutras.
Yoga has eight steps: yama, niyama, asana,
pranayama, pratyahara, dharna, dhyana, and samadhi. The first step yama (self-control) consists
of five moral principles: non-violence, truthfulness, not stealing, chastity,
and non-possession. The second step
niyama (observance) has five regulations: purity, contentment, austerity,
study, and faith in God. The first two
steps constitute the ethical basis for following further steps. The five yamas and five niyamas are the ten
commandments of yoga.[14]
The next three steps are related to the
disciplining of body, breathing, and senses.
Step 3 is asana (posture), keeping the body in certain postures. Patanjali did not suggest a particular posture
but advised that the posture be steady and easy. Since his time, yogis have devised
over eighty-four asanas and quarrelled over the relative merits of these
postures.[15] The fourth step is pranayama (control over
breathing). Breathing is regulated and
slowed to help in mind-control. The
fifth step is pratyahara (restraint of senses), a discipline related to the
senses where the sense organs are trained to withdraw from and cease their
perception of respective objects.
The last three steps involve different
stages of concentration. Together they
are called samyama, inner-discipline.
The sixth step is dharna, developing ability to fix the mind on one idea
or object. Next is dhyana (meditation),
the continuous and complete flow of thought with reference to the object of
concentration.[16] The last step is samadhi (deep meditation). Here, the true nature of the object is
revealed and the mind temporarily becomes abstract. At this stage, the soul is believed to enjoy
aloneness.
Yoga is practiced by several Hindu sects in
India. Other religions like Sikhism,
Jainism, and Buddhism have also adopted the techniques of yoga to realize their
religious goals. Swami Nikhilananda says
that the techniques of yoga can be followed in varying degrees by all.[17] I have seen even an atheist practicing yoga
to achieve peace within.
The
Jnana marga and yoga marga are introverted forms of spirituality practiced only
by the Hindu elite. In contrast, the
karma marga and bhakti marga are extroverted forms of spirituality followed by
the unreflective masses in India.[18] Many Indian Christians with their orientation
towards Western Christianity practice neither introverted nor extroverted forms
of spirituality. Their religious
experience may be only on the cognitive level, leading to a kind of classroom
religious experience. At the same time, traces of bhakti can be seen in the Christian
spirituality of those who have been converted out of the Indian religious
climate.
Recently, the Christian churches of South
India have begun to see the value of different sadhanas in developing spirituality
in the life of the Christians. They view
yoga as an authentic part of Indian culture which can be adopted to enrich the
prayer life of the Christians in the church.
They consider that yoga is a spiritual treasure that India has to offer
to the world and one that Christians can adopt in order to enrich Christian
spirituality just as the Hindus and others have done.[19] I believe Western Christianity can be greatly
benefitted by adopting yoga and other sadhanas.
We have seen above how the four margas or
sadhanas have shaped Indian spiritual life.
In the following section, I discuss four values Hindus follow in
addition to the four sadhanas mentioned above.
Purusarthas
Purusarthas means human ends or
desires. Hinduism believes in the fourfold
end of human life. They are: artha
(wealth and physical comforts), kama (pleasure, enjoyment, and hedonic
satisfaction), dharma (righteousness, duty, and law of inner growth) and
moksha (freedom, liberation, or salvation).[20]
Artha
Hinduism advocates a legitimate way of
acquiring wealth to maintain the family. Artha includes all material things by
which a person can maintain his family, follow his vocation, and perform his
religious duties.[21] It is the sign of worldly success. It is considered to be important to have
wealth in order to realize two other ends, kama and dharma. Artha is good only as a means to an end and
is not an end in itself.
Kama
The word kama stands for all the desires of
one's senses. However, the pursuit of
pleasure is subject to the moral law.
One should never indulge in an excess of pleasure, but should only
satisfy the legitimate demands of one's body.
Kama not only includes conjugal love, but also the enjoyment of art and
music.[22] Artha and kama are only means to promote
virtue, which is dharma.
Dharma
The word "dharma" derives from the
root "dhri" meaning to sustain or to support. Dharma is translated into English as duty,
law, virtue, righteousness, justice, and morality. Dharma is basically doing the things that
sustain society and the growth of the individual. It is the responsibility of everyone to do
one's duty as required by one's station in life such as being a member of a
caste and being at a stage (asramas) in life. The Indian mind is so conditioned by dharma from childhood that
people naturally act in the way of dharma.
To not follow one's dharma is seldom entertained as a viable
alternative.[23] Like the first two human ends, dharma is also
not an end in itself but a means to liberation (moksha).
Moksha
Moksha is the supreme end (summum bonum) of
life.[24] The first three ends mentioned above belong
to the realm of worldly values which pave the way for moksha.[25] Desire for moksha is a natural desire in all
humans. Hindus believe that all
religions basically try to deal with the question of moksha, liberation or
salvation. For millions of popular
Hindus, it is freedom from karma-samsara which is release from sin and
reincarnation. But for classical Hindus
it is freedom from ignorance and the attainment of self-realization which
normally occurs at sanyasa stage in life.
Sanyasa is explained further in the next section.
Sanyasa
Sanyasa is one of the four stages in life
(see page 83 above). It is the last
stage in which a person renounces all worldly ties, wealth, and family, and
follows a life of asceticism. Although
this ideal is open to all, it is mostly followed by male Brahmins. The person who attains this fourth stage is
called a sanyasin or sanyasi.
A sanyasin is a wanderer who follows a
disciplined lifestyle of fasting, avoidance of meat, alcohol, and sensual
pleasures, and who observes the vows of celibacy, silence, renunciation, and
contemplation. This sanyasa ideal has
been viewed by many Catholics in India as a powerful medium for communicating
the gospel to the Hindus.[26]
The key factors that we have discussed above are concepts closely
related to the Hindu ashrams. They are
not Hindu beliefs, but Hindu religious and cultural forms which are used in
many of the Hindu and Christian ashrams
[26]For
further knowledge on this subject, read Jesu Rajan, Bede Griffiths and
Sannyasa (Banglore: Asian Trading Corporation, 1989); and Klaus
Klostermaier, "Sanyasa--A Christian Way of Life in Today's India?" in
Indian Voices in Today's Theological Debate, ed. H. Burkle and W. M. W.
Roth (Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing House, 1972).
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