Revelation, faith and reason could be viewed as the Trinity of theology. By faith we respond to the revelation and by reason we reflect upon that response to revelation with faith. While the revelation of god is universal (as one could witness various proofs for this in creation) and the faith response is subjective (personal), yet the reflection of that faith response with reason is always based on one’s worldview which is shaped by various aspects (like cultural, religious, historical and social etc.). But when a Hindu ‘convert’ is denied such reflection based on her worldview, then her faith becomes more of a borrowed idea from others than of her personal experience. Such converts are more ‘programmed’ to imitate the Christians and confess certain creeds than to live naturally as a bhakta of Bhagavan Muktinath (Jesus). Naturally, then her theology is more based on the church dogma and particular denominational doctrine than her own reflection based on the word of god. Tragically this is the story of many ‘converts’ to Christianity in the past and present. Of course there are several exceptions in the past and present, but they are unwanted and unrecognized minority within the body of Muktinath (Christ)—most of the time crucified by the (their own) church when they were alive and latter glorified as pioneers. E.g. Brahmabandab Upadhyay. Additionally the reality is that irrespective of the present appreciation of their thankless efforts, most of their writings and thinking are still remain frozen in scholarly writing than implemented by the common people in the church.
Thanks to god for his mercy that he showed on me. Though not a theologian or a scholar or a pioneer, I am one such unwanted and unrecognized minority [in every sense to every faith community]. But as a reader and listener, this ‘Living Dialogue’ is my personal reflection of my faith on the revelation that I received from god through the Lord Muktinath. Though I too was influenced in the early walk of my faith by some church dogmas and doctrines, my strong tradition and personal reason helped to reflect my faith more based on my Hindu worldview. This happened with several ups and downs. In this process I too committed several mistakes. But both the grace of god and my strong faith in the Lord, who first became my guru to teach, helped me to walk along with Him in this pilgrimage. This is not merely a one man’s endeavor. But for the help of several sincere bhaktas of the Lord Muktinath, well-wishers and friends, I would have never grown in my faith. Along with these friends, some other Hindu bhaktas of the Lord also struggled with me to reflect our common faith in the Lord from our Hindu worldview. So I merely compiled that collective reflection and presenting them in this book.
Considering the vastness of subjects that we collectively reflected and formed our own bhakti theology, it is not possible to present all of them in a systematic way here. I took several common Hindu worldviews and reflected my faith based upon them. Because when I took the first step by faith, it was not easy for my reason to accept it without some challenge. While revelation demands obedience, reason demands conviction. Before I offer to my fellow Hindus about my bhakti to the Lord, I have to convince my reason first. Because, borrowed ideas and information based on others’ reflection that too based upon their particular worldview, may help a convert to survive for some time (within the church and Christian community to which she joined), but never bring personal conviction to share with her own people spontaneously and joyfully. So this Living Dialogue is only a beginning of a continuously transforming dialogue in community.
Apart from my and others’ personal reflection of our bhakti, I also had several meaningful dialogues with few fellow Hindus with various walks of life. Several times these dialogues not only challenged but also strengthened my faith. My obedience to the revelation gave some advantage to me over my fellow Hindus. Because even though they too have some kind of information about the Muktiveda (bible) and Christianity, those information could not help them to get that knowledge ‘of’ god (according to my expectation), which I received by that obedience . This does not mean that they have no obedience to the particular revelation or intuition that they received within Hindu religious/spiritual tradition. Almost every (religious) Hindu knows obedience both in religious rituals and spiritual aspirations.1 In this my Hindu tradition has been a great help. It demands obedience to the guru first, promising later to explain everything. But the difference in the conviction based on reason is not in degree but in kind. My conviction is different, though we share in the same common tradition. I feel that I received some extra grace to allow the word of god to regenerate me adding new values to my tradition, than merely reformed with the same old tradition (about which I will share later).
Several of my reflections are more my response (reaction) to the criticism that was leveled against me from some Christians. Agreeing with Corie Ten Boom, they are my ‘unpaid guardians of my atman’. So, naturally I have included some of my responses (actually reactions) in this Living Dialogue. I thank them, though I disagree with them and also have irritated them by my response.
The reason for the title ‘Living Dialogue’ is that this is not some abstract, academic, intellectual theological writings removed from the concrete life situation. Both my friends and I who involved in such dialogue, first wrestled with the practical issues of life based on our bhakti in the Lord. This struggle helped us to go back to the word of god as well as intellectual reflection based on reason within us first. We individually and collectively tried to articulate such reflection to help each other to encourage and grow in our bhakti. Thankfully to most of us our own particular (Hindu) tradition also helped a lot to resolve the issues and tensions remaining faithful both to the Lord and to our tradition. Then such reflection never remained as absolute dogmas or creeds merely to confess in some gatherings but began as an ongoing process, a never ending process of further reflection and new insights. So as long as we are going to live, this inner dialogue will continue. That is why this is a LIVING DIALOGUE and not some frozen creeds or dogmas to be repeated endlessly, but lived out in every day concrete life.
One reason for writing this book is not only to share my reflection on my bhakti in Bhagavan Muktinath by remaining a Hindu, but also help those converts from Hinduism to Christianity to seriously reconsider their identity within their family, community and society in India. In the name of ‘conversion’ what the church and mission (though there are few exceptions to this rule) are doing is to expand their particular denominational Christianity. And in this process the damage that they do not only to the pluralistic fabric of our county but also to the individual converts is serious issue. Several converts, not having minimum understanding about the teaching of Muktiveda, accepting the interpretation given by their Christian mentors (church or mission) remain alienated from their birth family, causing pain and suffering both for them and also to their family. But they are encouraged to do this in the name of ‘witnessing’ for the Lord and persecution. Whereas, what they do has no sanction in Muktiveda. As they don’t have that much time and knowledge to understand the teaching of Muktiveda, which never encourages such alienation of individuals from their birth family and community, they continue to remain as mere victim of the church and mission agendas of converting other community people to ‘Christian communities’.
My aim is not any hidden agenda either to converts naïve Hindus using contextualization or destroy the church and mission as an agent of Right wing Hindus. I was accused by some fanatic Hindus using my dress and life to convert Hindus indirectly to Christianity. Similarly few Christians accuse me as a secret agent of Right Wing Hindus to destroy the church and Mission by my method.
But my only sincere purpose of this book is to help those Hindu converts to reconsider their changed identity as Christian and to return back to their birth identity as Hindus which the Muktiveda completely endorses. Also to encourage the church and mission not to target other communities for their ‘enterprise’. Of course most of them may not listen. But there are several sincere people among them who can influence the church and mission by reading this book. One another purpose of this book is to the Hindu bhaktas of the Lord to influence their family and community to remove the wrong impression that one need not become a Christian to worship and follow the Lord as His bhakta. For this they too need to have some understanding about various Hindu worldviews and also Muktiveda on these issues. As they may not have time and resource to do such studies, through this elementary work, I want to do my seva to them to be a natural witness for their bhakti in the Lord.
So I thank to all my friends, other Hindu bhaktas of the Lord and my critics for helping me to compile this book.
- ‘…the disciple should possess certain qualifications such as implicit faith in the guru, respect for matters spiritual, some knowledge of the tenets and the basic scriptures and readiness to devote time and energy to the study and practice of the teachings of the guru….’—P.V.Kane, History of Dharmasastra, Five volumes, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1968-77 (1930-62) vol. V, part II, p. 1454
The following is the comment from a by a Hindu bhakta of the Lord
This is very true not only of Hindu ‘converts’ but also of most people that come to have faith. What happens in most cases of ‘conversion’ is they hear an idea, it appeals to them and they ‘borrow’ that idea. This is not a bad thing really. However, many choose to live with the borrowed idea and do not work towards drawing from their own thinking process and drawing from the Scriptures and personalizing the idea. The result is they are always dependent on others to interpret the Scripture for them and are susceptible to any teaching that is given to them.
The reason this could be is because there is no conducive atmosphere prevalent in most churches where they are encouraged to ‘go back and check the Scriptures.’ Also, may be because many are content as they are spoon-fed.
This more so a problem for ‘converts’ from other faith as they are not encouraged to explore following Jesus in their own religious and cultural settings.