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Cardinal Ratzinger, the present Holy Father
Pope Benedict XVI, published his deep
reflections on Christianity and World
Religions in a commendable work titled “Truth
and Tolerance: Christian Belief and world
Religions”.
This book is the result of his continuous
reflections on Christianity and its
relationship with the World Religions
from the very beginning of his life as
theologian – participating in the Vatican
Council as an assistant to his mentor Karl
Rahner – till the very end of his life as
the Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic
Doctrine. From reading the book one
understands how deeply he understood the
Indian religions and the Philosophical works
of the contemporary Indian philosopher
Sarvepally Radhakrishnan and how he deviates
from Rahner’s theological outlook towards
the World Religions. He profusely refers to
the books of Radhakrishnan and understood
the core of his argument and reflects upon
it from a deeply Christian theological
perspective. The human search for truth and
the deposit of truth through revelation and
the truth value of the World religions are
seriously dealt with though the book is a
collection of his articles. He observes that
“monotheism in India is different from that
of Israel, in two ways; firstly, it is
directed toward mysticism, that is to say,
it is open to monistic development and thus
may appear as a mere preliminary stage to
something of more permanence, that
the experiencing of the identity.”
He continues in elucidating this mystery and
the experience of identity in the following
way:
the experience of identity is only the first
on the way of mysticism, although of course
few get beyond it, so that that becomes the
real temptation in mysticism; not until that
stage is past comes the far more painful
step of separating from oneself and of
passing beyond into real transcendence. . .
. . when it is given to him to journey forth
into this mystery of darkness and of faith,
all previous mystery of light and of vision
seems to him but an insignificant
prelude. . ...
Why I quoted the Holy Father in the
beginning of this article is to present a
philosopher, theologian who understood that
though as a Brahmin, he did not have the
fullness of truth and his Hindu religion was
a prelude to truth and tried to preach this
truth he encountered in his own Indian
cultural terminology. Thus Bhabanicaran
Bandopadhyay was a pioneer and luminary who
ventured into a hermeneutically fruitful
interpretation of Christian faith in true
Indian philosophical categories as Justin
the Martyr interpreted. However with great
enthusiasm this Brahmin intellectual became
a catholic as an adult, adored Christ and
explored means to bring the whole of India
to Christ. However, he was severely
misunderstood by the ecclesiastical
authorities and their harsh treatment
towards him and towards his cherished
projects led him astray. Because of this
unfortunate turn of events, the Indian
Christians lost a creative visionary and an
action oriented original thinker who could
have become a much grater personality than
Vivekananda. This disowned prophet’s
method and vision could have transformed the
Christianity in India into an Indian
Christian existence and way of theologizing
as St. Thomas Aquinas had undertaken in the
thirteenth century.
Described by Ravindranath Tagore as “a roman
catholic ascetic yet a Vedantin-spirited,
fearless, self-denying, learned and
uncommonly influential”,
a pioneer who attempted to indigenize
Christianity; but “a prophet disowned”.
He was in the thick of the freedom movement
and fought not only for political freedom
but also for an authentic Indian Christian
Identity. He explored true philosophical and
theological positions that can be
complimented with Christianity. Like
apologetic Justin the martyr, he longed for
an Indian Christian philosophy and
envisioned to integrate the Indian
philosophical systems with that of cardinal
Christian doctrines. To decode the western
garb and to transplant in the Indian soil of
the richness of thought. But his voice was
drowned in the humdrum of dissenting
commotion; a prophet far beyond his time. In
today’s crisis time, his notions and ideas
are to resurrected and to be studied.
Repressive measures were used against him
both by the British Government because he
was a nationalist and by the catholic Church
because he stood for an indigenised Church.
A man in tension – between his patriotism
and his newly found religion – Catholicism –
a prophet ahead of his times. Known as a
Hindu-catholic – his views are radical,
revolutionary, and was rejected prophet.
Upadhyay stands at the crossroads of the
future course of the Indian Christians as a
sign post, to be relevant and to be true
Indians at this crisis time.
Bhabanicaran Bandopadhyay was born on
February 11, in the village of Khannyan in
the revenue district of Hooghly, undivided
Bengal as the son of police officer
Debicaran whose grand father had almost 56
wives. Debicharan was disgustful about such
practices and settled in Jabalpur. He built
a house there and a shrine was erected in
the name of Kali. At home, Durga Puja was
celebrated in style. Bhabani was the
youngest child of Debicaran and he grew
imbibing the western influences of his
father. His mother died while he was a one
year old boy and his grand mother, the
junior wife of his grandfather looked after
him carefully. It was she who instilled in
him the fondness for the traditional Bengali
culture. There were always at home tensions
between tradition and modernity. His
grandmother was a typical Bengali woman. The
Bengali women acted like the Hindu
mythological figures influencing men as
Parvati and Uma, bride and mother
respectively; like Kali and Durga, as
protectors, like Savitri and Sita, as
dutiful wives, and like Lakshmi, as the
harbinger of prosperity. Bhabani was under
the shadow of various mother figures and
this must have moulded his notions about
women. Therefore, he always idealised them.
Kali puja was conducted regular at home and
since his family belonged to the Sakta
tradition, venerated the female deity with a
superhuman power. His uncle Kalicharan was
also an influential figure in his life. He
was an eloquent testimony of the Christian
faith. Kalicharan showed him that one could
be a Christian and a patriot simultaneously.
In the school he came to know about Christ
because in the school curriculum Bible study
was an essential component. At 13 he had
undergone the Upanayana, the investiture of
the sacred thread, a ceremony that marks the
coming of age of a Brahmin boy.
In his early years as an adolescent student
he boiled with patriotism After personally
meeting many nationalist leaders and
listening to their talks Bhavani wanted to
throw away the foreign yoke and found that
peaceful means were never a useful one. With
the intention of becoming a warrior, he ran
away to Gwalior, the old citadel of the
Maratha power who fought against the Mugal
and the British Empire. He had a strength
of mind and virulence of a leader and had
always a few friends with unwavering loyalty
ready to follow him whatever be the
endeavour he might take. His mind worked in
an unusual way in comparison with his more
pragmatic peers. His sense of caste and its
obligations were strong. In a mock battle at
the court of Gwalior, he found how
emasculated the soldiers were and gave up
his dream of freeing the country by force.
From a celibate warrior the next move he
made was to become a celibate teacher. He
found that moral and spiritual regeneration
is the precursor of political regeneration.
It was in a nebulous form and became a
strong motivating force in his life ahead.
He became a teacher in a Free Church school
and gave special attention to backward
pupils. By this time he met Narendranath
Datta – the future Vivekananda - and both
became close associates. During this tenure
of his teaching and association with the
Brahma Samaj, he fell under the spell of
Kesabcandra Sen, a protégé of Debendranath
Tagore who saw in him a dynamic leadership
potential. Hinduism was perceived at that
time as a bundle of falsehood and
spiritually debilitating, where as
Christianity was considered spiritually
uplifting and in accord with the emergent
truths of western scientific inquiry.
Scientific and religious knowledge would go
hand in hand. Questioning the traditional
practices of ancestral religion was the
style of the time. In defiance of tradition
youngsters were attracted towards
Christianity which outraged the Hindu
sensibilities. They had a contempt for
conventional Hinduism. A climate of change,
a revivalist reaction and a new Christian
renaissance was blowing in Bengal when
Bhabani fell under the spell of an
influential and intellectual leader, named
Kesab Chandra Sen, who looked for
unconventional wisdom.
Keshab Chandra Sen’s Influence
Kesab Chandra Sen was a member of the Brhma
Samaj founded by the reformist Rabindranath
Tagore. Kesab was annointed as the acharya
or chief religious minister in charge of
conducting religious ceremonies in the Samaj.
The Tagore-Sen axis was guiding the Samaj
with the intention of an egalitarian reform,
leading it to a more liberated orientation.
Soon differences in ideology sprang between
them. For Kesab, Christ was a great man, a
distinctly selfless, sincere, prophetic and
efficacious leader of par excellence. For
Kesab, great men like Christ challenged the
social and moral order in which they found
themselves and became exemplar not only for
their own historical context but
universally, for all human kind. Kesab
considered that the British rule was a
providential dispensation to regenerate
India with Christian values. However, he
distinguished between Christ and
Christianity. Christ, an Asiatic, according
to him, has universal appeal; but never
acknowledged that he has any divine status.
For him Christianity that was offered to
India was in doctrine and in style a western
import, to denationalise the one who adopted
it. This alienating factor of Christianity
was fed into the consciousness of
Bhabanicaran by his mentor, Kesab.
The Upanishad based conservative,
undemonstrative religious consciousness of
Tagore could not digest to the
unconventional ideologies of Kesab and the
Samaj split into two; Tagore founding a new
association, namely, the Adi Brahmo Samaj;
Kesab retaining the older one. However,
Kesab wore the garment of the great men he
preached about, as if one ordained by God to
lead the humanity to spiritual progress. His
observation of the gulf between the
Christian theory and practice struck him
strongly when he visited England. Kesab
“returned convinced that the Christian
vision needed completion by a distinctively
Indian contribution, and then implementation
by an Indian”.
He was fired by the desire of developing a
new dispensation ‘Navanidhan’, an
amalgamation of the value systems he derived
from different religions and Christianity.
In 1872 Kesab organised a missionary
conference to reinvigorate humanity through
spiritual regeneration. Around September
1881, Bhabani and Narendranath, another
idealistic youth who later came to be known
as Swami Vivekanada, the spiritual reformer
of Hinduism, came under the spell of the
vibrant personality of Kesab and dedicated
to spread the new spiritual culture. Both of
them were introduced to the saint
Ramakrishna. Narendranath became the ardent
disciple of Ramakrishna, induced a spiritual
renaissance in Hinduism and spread its
universality. Bhabani was impressed and
attracted to Kesab’s devotion to Christ and
his attempts to integrate the Christian and
Hindu aspects. Bhabani became Kesab’s most
beloved disciple. In 1884 Kesab died and
P.C. Majumdar took over the leadership of
the new dispensation and Bhabani followed
him. In 1893 Majumdar published ‘The
Oriental Christ’ where he stressed
the orientelness of Christ and the role of
Christ as a perfect human being on whose
model every human being has to develop
oneself to become a perfect being. When the
boy Krishna’s picture was placed in the
Concord Club where the group used to
assemble for Bible study, Bhabani placed the
picture of a mutilated and humiliated Christ
who was sentenced to death by crucifixion by
Pilate. This action indicated his affection
and commitment towards Christ. In 1887, in
the faction ridden, conflict studded new
dispensation, Bhabani became a zealous
missionary.
Conversion
Meanwhile, Bhabani was called by his friend
Hiranand to Hyderabad in Sindh to open a
school there. While he was there his father
lay dangerously ill in Multan and he went to
meet him. The search for religious truth was
so intense at that time and hence during a
night vigil, he read Joseph di Bruno’s
Catholic Belief or A short and simple
exposition of Catholic doctrine and
devoured it with at most hunger.
The book was not at all ecumenical in tone
and differentiated Catholics from the
various Protestant groups. After a few days,
his father died and Bhabani took the book
along with him and resumed teaching. Now the
question about the nature of Christ haunted
him. For many years he tried to avoid it
escaping a direct confrontation. He decided
to study deeply on Christ and contemplated
Christ in his own mind’s inner cave. After
intense reflections, Bhabai came to the
conclusion that Christ must be truly human
and truly divine. His reflections over
Christ were poured out in the Church
Missionary Society Mission Hall in Hyderabad
on the 1889 Christmas day. There during the
lecture, he thunderously declared that Jesus
was the Sanatna Sadguru, the fulfilment of
all Hindu spiritual hopes. Bhabani resigned
from the school indicating that “he had
become a convert to Christianity and wanted
to give up secular work in order to work for
that religion”.
Though,
officially he was not converted to
Christianity, the information was sent to
his elder brother that he became a
Christian. In turn his elder brother
requested him not to convert himself
immediately and wait for until things were
clarified directly between them. Bhabani
postponed baptism for six months to know
more about Christ. In an article entitled
“why did not Kesab Chandra Sen accept
Christ’ Bhabani explained that for Kesab
Christ was not divine because he never
accepted Christ as the incarnate Son of God.
Thus, Kesab could not accept Christ as “the
redeemer of the fallen human race”.
Gradually Bhabani moved to orthodox
Christian convictions and commitments. In an
article in his magazine The Harmony,
he distinguished between the popular concept
of Christ and his notion of being a
Christian. “People here understand by the
term, . . ‘Christian’, a man who drinks
liquor and eats beef, who hates the
scriptures of India as lies and her inspired
men as impostors.”
On February 26 Bhabani was baptized by the
Anglican clergyman Rev. Heaton. At this
moment of conversion, Bhabani, was a
believer in the Gospel and a Christian and
did not know to which Church he should
belong. When he was asked by a census
official, to which category he should be
placed, he responded that he was an Indian
catholic.
With his conversion, Bhabani earned the
wrath of the entire Sindhi community; before
conversion he was their centre of
admiration. He gave up the security of his
job as token of sacrifice to express his
religious conviction. He lived entirely like
St. Paul on his own resources. Fr.
Theophilus Perrig S.J., prepared him to be
received into the Catholic Church and
therefore as a mark of respect, he took the
Sanskritised name of Theophilus – lover of
God Brhamabandhab – to be his new name.
Moreover, St. Theophilus was the first
Christian writer used the term ‘Trinity’ and
Bhabani had great devotion to the Trinity.
Due to these two reasons, he took the name
Theophilus. Due to his earnestness to become
a true Indian Christian, he used the
Sanskrit version of it; Brhamabandhab. As
soon as he became a catholic, two of his
close associates, namely, Khemchand and
Paramanand followed him. Untold miseries
they had to undergo due to their conversion
and they withstood those trials with heroic
courage.
Bhabani was accused by Rev. W.J. Abigail in
1892 that forcefully he converted a young
man to Catholic fold who really intended to
become a Protestant. Hearing about it,
Brhamabandhab publicly challenged him.
Bhabani defended Catholic Church vigorously
and the accuser had to retract. Bhabani
started a journal named Sophia
in January 1894 through which he defended
the catholic church and wrote a series of
articles. He wrote an article with the
title, ‘whether Luther a Reformer?’ to
respond to the criticisms of the Protestants
as well as that of the Hindus. Through this
magazine, he campaigned for the Catholic
Church. Thus he became an apologetic. He
elaborated Luther’s position and showed how
the catholic Magisterium was the correct one
profusely quoting from Bible and Church
history. Regarding the sale of indulgence,
sarcastically Brhamabahdhab wrote that
through the new doctrine of ‘sola fide’
through faith alone, Luther “gave to all a
full indulgence’.
For this rebuttal, he studied thoroughly the
fundamental dogma of the Catholic Church,
its official teaching and the underpinning
philosophical thought – Thomism.
Brhamabandhab quoted profusely from St.
Thomas and other philosophers like Hume and
Kant. Thus, he defended the Catholic Church
not just from an emotional point alone, but
as a rational, thinking person
intellectually expressing his beliefs. His
philosophical foundation was strongly
Thomistic. In the context of an analysis of
Hindu and Christian beliefs, he showed that
natural reason led people to God and it was
a preparation for evengalization. Moreover,
he wrote to a Jesuit thinker named Bernard
Boedder (a professor at Sotneyhurst College)
who published the book Natural
Theology (as part of a Thomistic
study series called Stonyhurst Series)
asking clarification on what was to become a
central concern of his theology and
philosophy. The questions like “how an
utterly perfect, self contained Absolute is
also a creator God, that is, produces finite
being, with the saga of cosmic imperfection,
human sin and fallibility this implies”
were discussed by them. Boedder’s reply
indicated the splendid grasp of
Brhamabandhab on these fundamental
questions. “You have done a real service to
me by your candid and clear exposition of
some of the greatest difficulties in Natural
Theology”.
This interaction showed his commitment to
Catholic faith and his devotion to truth.
Like an intellectual campaign, he went
beyond an instrumentalist faith, always
cleared his doubts and attempted to
integrate his reason with faith into a
coherent whole and expressed them for his
fellow travellers who were in search of
truth. With this rationale, he approached
the rich philosophical traditions of India
and the foundations of the revealed truth in
the Catholic faith. In short he was of the
view that if Hinduism was properly
interpreted, it must lead to God. He
commented that the evangelical crusade by
the sectarian missionaries finding nothing
positive in the scriptures of India, made
“educated Indians thoroughly estranged and
she looks upon Christianity as a destroyer
and not a fulfiller and perfecter of what is
true and good in the country”.
He concluded that Christian faith must
fulfil, not destroy ‘what is true and good’
in India. Brahmabandhab considered that
“with the possible exception of ancient
Greece, it is in Hindu thought that human
philosophy, or insight into the invisible
things of God, has reached its acme”. He
continued that
the religion of Christ is supernatural. All
the doctrines of Christ, the Holy Trinity,
the Atonement, the Resurrection, from
beginning to end, are beyond the domain of
reason.. . The truths in Hinduism are of
pure of reason illuminated in the order of
nature by the light of the Holy Spirit. ..
But though the religion of Christ is beyond
the grasp of nature and reason, still its
foundation rests upon the truths of nature
and reason. . .hence a true missionary of
Christ, instead of vilifying Hinduism,
should find out truths from it by study and
research. It is on account of the close
connection between the natural and the
supernatural that we have taken upon
ourselves the task. . . to form, as it were,
a natural platform upon which the Hindus
taking their stand may have a view of
glorious supernatural edifice of the
Catholic religion of Christ.
In order to become a true Indian Christian,
he changed his name from Bhabani to the
Sanskrit of Theophilus and dropped the
suffix, the venerable and declared that he
would be known as Brhamabandhab Upadhyaya.
He changed not only his name but also his
style. He wore swadeshi saffron clothes like
the other Hindu monks and went barefoot. He
also hung an ebony cross from the neck. He
set forth to indigenise Christianity, to
bring educated Indians to Christ and to
synthesise East and West in a new
spirituality.
Uncompromising commitment to the Catholic
doctrine
Problems with ecclesiastical authorities
arose when he sought to reconstruct Catholic
commitment in terms of Hindu categories for
the reception of the Gospel. When this new
approach became evident, opposition mounted
and the ecclesiastical authorities
intervened. However, it is to be said that
Brahmabandhab was in search for a dialogue
partner with Christianity and the religious
authorities failed to understand his aim
because of their western bend and suspicion
towards anything Indian. Brhamabandhab
targeted his piercing pen and tong against
anything that he found objecting the
reception of Christ as the universal
saviour. He fought against the image worship
and the ideas of the theosophical society.
He made a lecture tour and everywhere he was
well appreciated and his position in the
Church was so high. His exposition of
Christian faith with a combative programme
was to prepare the educated Hindus for the
reception of the Gospel.
He also attacked the ‘Neo-Hinduism” called
theosophy. It was also well received among
the educated, secular minded Hindus.
According to him, Theosophy was an eclectic
combination of Christian, Hindu, Occult and
Gnostic elements and terminology. With scant
respect for the intellectual content of the
theosophists, Brahmabandhab attacked
theosophy with a gladiatorial style because
of its ‘process pantheism’ an evolving
principle that acted as the basis for an
altruistic life negating a self-fulfilling
and immutable God. At times, with the
fervour of St. Paul who defended Christ and
Christianity against the attacks of the
Jewish zealots, Brhamabandhab also declared
that he was a Brhamin and rejected Hinduism
because of being understood of its folly.
He looked back at the Brahma Samaj which led
him to Christ and reflected that it
contained superstition and sectarianism. He
also did not spare his companion of ester
years from critical investigation. According
to Brahamabandhab Vivekananda’s “brand of
pantheism undermined the propaedeutic truths
of Vedic theism”.
Swami Dayananda and the Arya Samaj also
received the intellectual thunder bolts from
Brahmabandhab. This anti-Christian and
pro-Hindu Swamiji was attacked and praised.
The monotheistic teaching of the Swamiji was
praised by him; but attacked his Vedic
interpretation of theism. The Arya Samaj
teaching about the ultimate destiny of human
being was also under the scrutiny of
Brahmabandhab. In this aspect he compared it
with the Catholic Thomistic concept of the
destiny of man so vividly that for him the
destiny of man lied “in the beatific
contemplation of God, in the possession of
the universal good, consists the everlasting
happiness of man”.
Vedic Theism as a Prelude for Christian
Revelation
As denoted by the Holy Father Brhamabandhb
understood the Vedic Religion as a prelude
to the revelation of God in history. As many
Apologetic fathers considered Greek
Philosophy as a prelude to Christianity,
Brhamabandhb tried to integrate the theistic
concepts into the Indian philosophical
categories. According to him, the more
ancient the scriptures were, the purer the
theistic concept. “In the Vedas we do not
find any trace of the immoral legends of the
Puranas. . . . still we find them (Vedas)
full of sublime conceptions of the Supreme
Being, the creator and Ruler of heaven and
earth.”
He considered that “We are Hindus so far as
our physical and mental constitution is
concerned, but in regard to our immortal
souls we are catholic.”
In the article “The Clothes of Catholic
Faith” written in 1898 August he stated that
“in our humble opinion it is the foreign
clothes of Catholic faith that have chiefly
prevented our countrymen from perceiving its
universal nature. . Our Hindu brethren
cannot see the sublimity and sanctity of our
divine religion because of its coating of
Europeanism.”
He lamented at the method of teaching Christ
as “our missionary experiences have shown us
how unintelligible the Catholic doctrines
appear to the Hindus when presented in the
Scholastic garb. The Hindu mind. . is
opposed to the Greco-Scholastic method of
thinking. We must fall back upon the
Vedantic method in formulating the Catholic
religion to our countrymen. The Vedanta must
be purged of its errors, no doubt, but this
can be done. Were not Plato and Aristotle
also guilty of monumental error.”
BRHAMABANDHB’S THEOLOGY
Vedic Theism
Through the four articles published in the
first issue of Sophia
Brahmabandhab argued that the human nature
is naturally inclined to monotheistic
concept of God, the moral character of human
person and the law of retribution according
to ones merit or demerit.
According to Brahmabandhab, though
polytheistic and naturalistic aberrations
are in the Vedas, pure monotheistic
orientations are also clearly exposed. “Even
if physiolatry in the Vedas cannot be
explained away, still we find them full of
sublime conceptions of the Supreme Being,
the creator of heaven and earth. . Hindus
must become theists before they can . .
adopt the means appointed by God (catholic
faith) to raise man above his created nature
to the rank of being heir “.
Taking example from the Rigvedic Hymn “Kyom”
(10.121)he elucidates this point. Each
mantra of this hymn ends with the question,
Who is that Deva (God) whom we should
worship with oblation? Basing on some
ancient (13th century commentator
Durga) Brahmabandhab explains that
Hiranyagarbha – golden germ as “begotten of
wisdom”. Even Christians, along with the
ancient Rishi’s, according to him, can chant
the mantra because Kyom refers to the word
of God is pervading everywhere. Quoting
Psalm 2.7 – The Lord said to me, ‘thou art
my son, this day I have begotten thee” and
John 1.1-3 argues that the allusion in the
Rigveda is to Christ. Moreover, another
striking allusion in the hymn is the
sacrificing of the only begotten. So he
argued that there was sublime conception of
one supreme being, referring to the
Christian conception of the divine sonship
and the sacrifice of the only begotten. He
also discovered Vedic reference to the human
sinfulness and divine forgiveness in
7.86.3-5 and 1.25. Thus as ardent Christian
and true Indian, Brahmabandhab could relate
his faith with the ancient traditions of his
culture and religion.
Vedantic Theism
In a systematic study on the comparison
between the Christian faith and Vedanta,
Brahmabandhab elucidates that there are many
similarities between the principal doctrines
of Christianity and Vedanta and Christianity
could be interpreted in terms of Vedantic
categories. “In representing the Vedantic
doctrines we shall take the great Sankara as
our guide and authority.”
However, according to him Sankara has
to be interpreted with the aid of post-Sankarite
traditions, namely Panchadasi
and Yoga-vasistha. “Our humble
opinion that religious scriptures cannot be
understood without the help of traditions.
The Upanishds without the interpretation of
Vysa and Sankara are a mere
jumble of mystic statements and Sankara
without Yogavasistha and
Panchadasi is almost unintelligible.”
Creation –Out of Superabundance
From the Upanishads, Brahamabandhab took the
concept of creation as the overflow from
superabundance.
From the Aitereya Up 1.1.1 “in the
beginning, the Self, indeed, was this;
nothing else whatsoever blinked. He thought,
Let me produce worlds”. He interprets this
passage as real reference to the one eternal
God, the creative and intelligent cause of
all beings in whom the world existed
ideally. The Platonic concepts that were so
methodically integrated into the Christian
faith by St. Augustine was vividly expressed
in Brahmabandhab’s interpretation.
Trinity as Sat-cit-ananda
The nature of Prabrahman – Supreme Being,
His relation with the finite beings, the
destiny of human person, sin and salvation
are interpreted in Vedantic terms by
Brahmabandhab.
Moreover he identifies the concept of
Satcitananda, of classical Vedanta
as a description of the ultimate reality
corresponding to the Catholic teaching in
terms of scholasticism. Sat as Positive
Being, Cit as intelligence and Ananda as
bliss refers to God as Positive Being,
eternal, one, intelligent and supreme bliss.
So he indentifies Parabrahman as sat-cit-ananda.
Brhamabandhab’s mentor Kesab Candra Sen
expressed the Absolute Being or the Trinity,
as sat-cit-ananda almost sixteen years
before him. However, he is the one who
identified and showed that the Christian
belief of the Trinity and Satcitanand are
identical. That is his greatest
contribution.
Brahmabandhab explains that Prabrahman means
the necessary being, being whose nature is
to exist in and for itself. Such being must
be immutable, one, eternal, infinite,
conscious, blissful and the first cause.
Moreover, he identified the sat with Father,
cit as son and ananda with the Holy Spirit
or Force, Wisdom, Holiness or The True, Good
and Beautiful relating the Indian categories
to the scholastic categories. He also
explained that the Parabrahaman as the
plenitude of Being. He further elaborates
the nature of God in terms of sat-cit-ananda
and Parabrahaman. Moreover he expressed that
Jesus Christ as the further clarification
and affirmation of God as Sat-cit-ananda.
Since the Vedantins could not explain the
inner life of God and that could not be
solved by human reason. He brought up the
cause of this failure as the limitation of
human reason and thundered that only the
revelation of Jesus Christ completes and
culminates the revelation.
Maya – Doctrine of Creation.
According to Brahmabandhab Maya
in Vedanta could be explained as St. Thomas
creatio passiva or passive creation
or existential dependence, the divine power
that creates multiplicity, illusion,
abundance etc.Maya
concept was introduced by Vyasa and
Sankara to refute the Buddhist school
which denied the objectivity of the world
and held that this world is a passing dream.
Brahmabandhab quotes from Sankara to
eradicate the wrong notion of Maya as
illusion. Brahama Sutra Bhasya
2.2.28, 29 affirmed the objectivity of the
world.
Creation is a derived being, receiving its
existence from the Parabrahman. According to
him, Maya expressed a much more rich meaning
that the Thomistic equivalent – cratio
passiva. He elucidates that creation has
three explicit factors, namely, there is no
necessity on God’s part to create, the
coming into being of the objects with the
implication that they are created out of
nothingness, the finite perfections are
contained in the infinite in a pre-eminent
way. “Now the term creation expressed only
the second significance, while maya conveys
all the three.”
He quotes from St. Thomas while elucidating
these concepts. Brhamabandhab de-feminized
and firmly subordinated the concepts such as
prakriti, maya and sakti
to accommodate them with catholic
categories.
Christology
Holy Father in his exhortation and
encyclical stressed to develop a meaningful
Christology when the faith is encountering
new cultures. Due to the intensity of his
love towards Christ, Brahmabandhab created a
full-fledged Christology integrating the
divine and human nature of Jesus the Christ.
Jesus who is both God and human is expressed
as Nara-hari, man-God. Christ is also
interpreted as cit, Wisdom and Logos.
So the Western scholars’ much popularised
world denying life negating interpretation
of Hinduism is transformed into a creative
interpretation of Christianity. His life
world of Sanskrit and Hindu rituals helped
him to perceive the deeper meaning of the
Indian categories and his intense desire to
link them with the Christian categories is
really commendable. Felix Wilfred, one of
the prominent theologians of India states
that “Indian theology of today is very much
indebted to Upadhyaya. In spite of the many
limitations imposed by his time and the
circumstances of his conflict-ridden
personal history, Upadyaya stands out as an
original, creative thinker in the history of
Indian theology. . .. he gave shape to a new
way of thinking for Indian Christians’.
Meaningful Hymns
In India the Hindu religion is propagated
not because of the strength of its
philosophy; but the celebrative life of
great saints like Sankara, Ramanuja, Alwars,
Meerabhai, Ramdas, Tukkaram etc. They
popularised the religion by their enchanting
and rhythmic songs and meaningful lyrics and
lived like a Bhikshu. All of them are
considered as saints and the stories and the
songs have an infectious appeal on the
people; these songs were in the lips of the
common people and they hummed the tune
wherever they went and whatever they did.
Brahmabandhab understood this ethos of India
and wanted to turn himself to such a saint
singing the melodies of the Lord and living
like a mendicant. He and his followers
chanted the songs on the streets of Kalkotta
like Caitanaya and wrote beautiful and
meaningful songs about the Trinity and Mary.
For unfolding the Christian revelation, he
wanted to use the expressions emerged out of
the religious consciousness of India. The
style and the language are typical of the
spiritual song-traditions of India. To the
Hindu ears they are no alien; but nectar
because the lyrics are pregnant with deep
theology and philosophy.
Song in Praise of Saccitananda
I adore thee O, Saccidananda
Highest goal
Scorned by the worldly
Yearned for by the saintly
Thou art the Supreme, the Etrenal, the one
beyond all
Fullness undivided, Distant yet near
Holy in thy treble bond, All consciousness
yet unbound
The Mystery
Father, Unborn source of life, Supreme Lord
Unsown Seed of the tree of Existence
Maker of all, wise creator
Our Shepherd
Word eternal, yet unheard
Begotte, yet Person unexcelled
Image of the father, subsisting Thought
Our good Saviour
Proceeding from the union of Sat and cit
Gracious spirit, pure Ananda
Sanctifier, Inspirer, revealing the Word
Our Life-giver
Hymn to the Word Incarnate – Nara- Hari
Victory to you, Lord, the God-man
Flowering of the eternal Wisdom
The reflection of Brhaman
With beauty far-transcending
Victory to you, Lord, the God-man
Child of the fair Virgin
Yet Ruler of the Universe,
with your qualities enchanting, yet beyond
qualities
Victory to you, Lord, the God-man
Radiant gem in the assembly of the learned
The vanquisher of temptation,
The Chastier of the evil one!
Victory to you, Lord the God-man
The Destroyer of all infirmities,
Love in brotherly service,
Sanctifying the marvellous works!
Victory to you, Lord the God-man
Lifting yourself up in self-offering,
The sacrifice of your life
Destroying the poison of our sin!
Victory to You, Lord, the God-man
Beloved, gentle, the joy of our heart,
Ointment of delight to our eyes,
Victorious Crusher of cruel death.
Hail Mary
Hail Mary, full of grace, illumined by the
Lord
And blessed among women
Blessed is Jesus born of your womb.
Holy Mary, mother of the child of the
Gracious One
Make of us an offering and save us sinners,
now and at the end-time, Amen.
Way of Life:- Bhikshu: Vision of a Christian
Ashram
In India a spiritual person is
always determined by his way of life and the
outward expressions. When people thirst for
spirituality, they go to meet a Swami and to
have his darsan. More than listening to him,
it is through the vision of the spiritual
person. Hinduism thrives through such saints
through out the centuries; Thukaram, Meera
Bhai, Alwars, Hari Katha speakers, Sri Sri
Ravi Sankar, Mata Amrutanadamayi etc. The
Indian Christianity has fewer expressions
like these powerful witnesses and has more
verbosity with concrete fortifications and
mansions. The spiritual men and women live
in Ashrams and not in concrete
fortifications. Brahamabandhab understood
this underpinning philosophy and hence as
soon as he converted to Catholicism, he
changed his name, assumed a new name and
tried to start an ashram.
However, he was wholly misunderstood and
blocked from all such innovative but true
Indian way of living. Even today many did
not understand the value of living as a
Bhiksu. As an example, Swami Isanad was
living as a Bhiksu for all most 25 years and
developed a beautiful ashram in Raipur in
the sate of Chattisghat. However, so
unfortunate to say that the local ordinary
asked him to be a parish priest and snatched
his ashram. Since Swami Isanad could not
digest this folly, moved to Nagapur
developed another ashram with the support of
Archbishop of Nagapur Abraham
Viruthukulangara.
Trials and tribulation
In order
to propagate the Christian message and to
develop an Indian Christian Philosphy, he
started a magazine named Sophia
that lasted for almost five years and many
articles were written by Brhamabandhab.
There were also many Jesuit intellectuals
who contributed articles to the magazine.
The readers were not only Christians but
also educated Hindus. Later this
philosophical magazine became a weekly and
had high reputation. Soon the ecclesiastical
authorities prohibited Catholics from
reading it. In the beginning the Bombay
Catholic Examiner supported the magazine and
made the following comment taken from the
Ceylone Messenger “that excellent journal,
Sophia edited by a Brahmin
convert .. shows . . admirable grasp of
Catholic philosophy and theology . . It
deserves to be ranked among the best
philosophical magazines of the day”. Several
Archbishops and bishops gave financial
assistance as well as moral support to the
magazine. Though Brahmabandhab claimed that
there was no political objective, the
magazine had the aim of purging the Hindu
community of moral and religious errors and
to establish rational theism keeping with
the Catholic teaching.
Brahmabandhab sharply criticised the
European in ability in discovering the true
spirit of
India.
According to him when they preached about
poverty, the people of India could not
understand it because their life
contradicted their message. A life with
boots, trousers and hats, with spoon and
fork, meat and wine were incompatible with
the supernatural virtue of poverty. “These
are objects of luxury to the Hindu”.
For him, poverty should be practised like De
Nobili, “in Hindu clothing, poverty
synonymous with abstinence from meat and
drink, living as mendicants in humble
dwellings.” Such sharp criticisms and the
introduction of Vedic theism and Vedantic
theism and the attack on the
Graeco-thomistic method of thinking began to
ring alarm bells in the ecclesiastical
circles. On
12th June 1898
Archbishop Theodore Dalhoff S.J of Bombay
wrote to Mon. Ladislaus Michael Zaleski, the
Apostolic delegate to India, and the highest
ecclesiastical authority in India drawing
his attention on the projects of
Brhamabandhab and requesting his advice on
handling him. The Archbishop wanted to know
the mind of the Papal delegate on the much
publicised actions and writings of
Brahmabandhab. Mon. Zaleski was very
negative to the innovative methods of
Brhamabandhab and wrongly thought that
christianising meant Europeanising. Carlos
Merces de Melo in his doctoral dissertation
at the
Gregorian
University, Rome on the theme “The
Recruitment and Formation of the Native
Clergy in
India (16th –19th
century): An Historico-Canonical Study”
observed that “Zaleski had kept much of the
self-assurance of a medieval autocrat.
Rather a ruler than a diplomat or a
theologian, he would easily consider views
different from his own as heresies and any
criticism of ecclesiastical authority as
schism . . he was .. entirely out of touch
with India’s mind and thought.”
Because of the reprimanding letter, the
philosophico-theological magazine
Sophia was closed down. The
Archbishop of Madras prohibited Catholics
from reading Sophia because of
the direct intervention of Mgr. Zaleski. In
the letter to the Archbishop of Madras which
was cited in the
Bombay
catholic Examiner,
stated that the author – Brhamabandhab –
“has but an imperfect knowledge of Christian
philosophy and theology . . Your grace will
easily understand the danger of . . the
Christian creed itself being misrepresented
when it is done by unqualified persons, and
more so, when writers who are not Catholics,
treat these questions ex professio
and presume to supply a new garb to the
religion of Christ.”
Mgr. Zaleski left nothing to chance and on
October 27, 1900 officially declared that no catholic should subscribe to the
magazine. Brhamabandhab asked for an
ecclesiastical censor which was also flatly
refused by Mgr. Zaleski fearing that the
censor might support Brahmabandhab. The
matter was reported to
Rome by Mgr. Zaleski and the Congregation
for the Propagation of Faith supported his
stance. Thus not only the magazine was
closed down, another idea of starting an
Indian Christian Ashram was also blocked by
Mgr. Zaleski. Though the bishop of Nagapur,
Mgr Charles Pelvat appeared to be positive
towards the Ashram life, the displeasure of
Mgr. Zaleski outweighed the granting and the
starting of Ashram life. Brhamabandhab
mooted the idea of starting another magazine
named The Twentieth Century.
The first issue came out on
31 January 1901 with Brhamabandhb as one of its
editors. Two years later Mgr. Zaleski banned
the magazine stating that “all catholics
residing in the limits of our Delegation (British
India) are forbidden to read, to subscribe
to, and to have any connection with the
above said monthly review, The
Twentieth Century.”.
As last resort, Brhamabandhab made a journey
to Europe and went to Rome to meet the Holy
Father and to appraise him of his ideas and
intentions. He met the Pope’s Chamberlain
with great difficulty, but was unable to
meet the Pope. He wrote back
as soon
as I got down from the train I kissed the
soil of
Rome
.. I prayed at the tomb of St. peter, the
Rock, the Holder of the Keys, for India, for
you all, . While kneeling down at the tomb
of St. Peter, I thought of the Holy Father,
the living St. Peter. Oh! How I longed to
kneel at his feet and plead for India. I was
shown from a distance the window of his
apartments. I was tempted to procure an
interview . . but I restrained my desire for
I felt that the time had not yet come . . I
am walking the streets of
Rome,
free and easy, full of fire for our Holy
Faith
As man
fired with the Christian faith, a Christian
who wanted to bring the whole of India to
Christ, became disillusioned, became
provocative and fell into nationalist
politics because of his agenda for
Christianising India was utterly rejected
and punished. He jumped into the freedom
struggle and started another political
newspaper, named The Sandhya.
The first issue came out in December 1904
and it became very popular. The British
Government divided Bengal and Sandhya
protested and this incident intensified
Brhamabandhab’s reactions against the
foreign rule. He organised meetings and
conferences and also brought out another
Bengali weekly Svaraj. Though
he had a very busy schedule, he was ready at
the Sandhya office at
5.30 A.M every morning. On August 7,
August 30, 1907 Sandhya’s
office was searched and the office manager
was arrested and summons were given to
Brhamabandhab. On September 3 he was
arrested and the trial began on September
23. During the trial he neither wore his
saffron clothes nor his wooden cross. He
wore his sacred thread once again and when
asked in the court to which religion he
belonged, he said nothing. Though he had
severe pain in the stomach, he did not ask
for a chair. The trial continued till
October 21 and he could not stand any more
and was admitted in the Campbell Hospital –
now Nilratan Sircar Hospital – and was
operated for hernia. During intense pain he
used to call “O, Thakur” meaning Christ. But
on
Sunday, 27th October 1907, at
8.30 a.m he died neither as a Christian nor
as a Hindu. Since there was no proof that he
died as a Catholic, his body was not given
for a Christian burial by his Hindu
followers and friends when the Jesuit Parish
Priest and his friend and follower Animannda
claimed his body. He was cremated at 4 p.m
amidst a huge gathering and he turned into
ashes like many of his ambitions. Thus, his
spiritual odyssey was controversial through
out his life and it did not spare him, even
at death. His contributions and methodology
are to be reassessed in the new
cross-cultural pluralistic religious
understanding. As Lipner concluded he is a
prophet for today when India and Indian
Christians are accused as foreigners and
passing through a crisis.“As India and the
world look to the future through the
turbulent past of its nationalist history
and post-independence years, may
Brhamabandhab Upadhyay ‘friend of God’ and
‘teacher’of the people, stand out as a
salient marker-religiously, socially and
politically – of battles still to be fought
and victories yet to be won”.
He was like
the seed that decayed, sprouted and waiting
to bear fruit.
Conclusion
The life and theology of Brhamabandhab was thus a real search for truth and to
express this truth in a true Christian
perspective, not alien to his culture so
that the whole of
India
could be gained for Christ. He was a man of
conviction, commitment, extreme brilliance,
dynamism and above all devoted to Christ.
Though like Peter, at the end of his life,
due to the extreme amount of problems heaped
upon him due to authoritarianism and
misunderstanding by the Church leaders, he
drifted away from the official Christianity.
However I strongly believe that he could not
negate his conviction of the truth for which
he had worked hard through out his life. He
is standing as beacon in the horizon of
Indian Christianity, showing the path in
understanding and expressing Christ in
indigenous ways. Let the truth make him and
all of us free.
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