CHAPTER 9
There are times when meditation seems to lag and the one meditating is restless but somehow remains faithful to his or her prayer. There are other times when meditation is deeply absorbing and time passes all too quickly, even though one has lost all concept of time while meditating. The latter was the experience for both travelers that day.
They finished their prayer at the same time, almost as if on cue. When each person opened his eyes, he realized that the temple was now filled with several hundred worshippers, all sitting very comfortably on the floor due to sitting in this fashion all of their lives. No backrests were even necessary.
Both Andre and Brother Francis normally did the practice of metta at the end of their meditations. They filled their minds and bodies with thoughts and feelings of good will for all sentient beings—every created living thing—not only human beings.
A tall brown-skinned man in his forties, wrapped in orange robes, entered the sanctuary area near the image of Lord Shiva. The worshippers stood up out of reverence. The Swami smiled and motioned with his hands for the group to be seated. In the Hindu tradition, a Swami is the equivalent of a Christian monk. Hindu priests have a separate vocation which deals with the fine details of the liturgical life of the Hindu and they are typically married and wear white robes.
The Swami is celibate, his orange robes a symbol of renunciation of the world and the flame of love motivating that state of life. The Swamis are the teachers, sometimes called gurus. “Gu” is the root of the word for darkness and “ru” the root of the word for light. The Swami is one who takes us from darkness into light through his teaching. This state of life is also lived to its fullness by women as well, though they are fewer in number than the men, and the feminine title is “Swamini.” Renunciates in the Hindu tradition are generically called “Sannyasin.”
“Do you feel a kinship with other monastics, Brother, not only Christian ones?”
“Very much so, Andre. Even though my “root guru” is Jesus and this Swami follows the teachings the Hindu scriptures, we are one on a deeper level.”
“Same thing with Buddhists?”
“Yes, the same things with Buddhists, Andre. I know a little bit more about Buddhism than I do about Hinduism so there is more of an emotional connection with Buddhist practitioners, especially their monks and nuns. This is my first trip to India and, building on the foundation of the teachings I learned at the ashram near our monastery in Pennsylvania, I’m ready to learn more.”
“How much time did you spend at the Pennsylvania ashram, Brother Francis?”
“I went there every Sunday to study with the swamis for many years, and continue to use their facilities to host gatherings for that specialty of Chinese medicine called qigong there as well. I hope your own qigong studies are going well.”
Andre nodded happily.
“Ladies and gentlemen, honored guests, it is my pleasure to speak to you on this beautiful morning about one of the foundational concepts of our Hindu tradition—Advaita Vedanta. In order to accomplish this, and in order to help our Western visitors along, I will share in English a little material from A Brief Dictionary of Hinduism published by Vedanta Press in 1962. Vedanta means “the end of the Vedas,” that is, teachings at the end of a part of our scriptures called by that name.
“It is a religious philosophy which has evolved from the teachings of the latter, or knowledge portion of Vedas (the Upanishads). In this sense, it is the common basis of all religious sects of India. From the strictly philosophical standpoint, Vedanta is one of the six Darshans (systems of orthodox Hindu thought) and based upon the Vedanta sutras, which in turn have given rise to various interpretations. Through all its varied shades (dualistic, qualified non-dualistic, pluralistic, realistic, and non-dualistic), Vedanta teaches that the purpose of our life is to realize the ultimate Reality, or Godhead, here and now, through spiritual practice.
“The word Vedanta may refer solely to the non-dualistic aspect of the philosophy, Advaita Vedanta. Advaita Vedanta declares that the manifold universe of name and form is a misreading of the one ultimate Reality. This Reality is called Brahman when regarded as transcendent, and Atman when regarded as immanent. Since it is omnipresent, this Reality must be within every creature and object; humans, therefore, are essentially divine. Direct super-conscious experience of our identity with Atman-Brahman releases us from all worldly bondages we have superimposed on our true nature, granting us spiritual perfection and eternal peace.
“Vedanta accepts all the great spiritual teachers and personal or impersonal aspects of the Godhead worshipped by different religions, considering them as manifestations of one Reality. By demonstrating the essential unity at the source of all religions, Vedanta serves as a framework within which all spiritual truth may be expressed. Vedanta is often, but less correctly, called Hinduism, a word first used by the Persians for the inhabitants of India, because they lived on the far side of the river Sindhu, or Indus.”
The guru paused for effect and to gather his thoughts.
“Boy, that was a mouthful, Bro!”
“Shhh. Do you want to get us thrown out? We would be the first non-Hindus in thousands of years, since their beginning, to get bounced.”
“Oops! It’s really very beautiful. Just reacting a little because there were so many philosophical concepts offered by the Swami. If we could all really live like that the world would be transformed for the better.”
“I agree Andre. While Jesus is my life, I am captivated by the way these folks express their teachings. They seem more focused on God than on themselves or on an institutional structure.”
“This Canadian still can’t grasp the idea of Advaita very well. Hope he can clear that up for me.”
The Swami, drawing upon his earlier cited source and with a calm and soothing voice, continued his teaching:
“There are three main schools of thought in Vedanta, one or more of which are also found in other religions. They are:
“Dualism / Dvaita, qualified non-dualism / Vishishtadvaita, and non-dualism / Advaita Vedanta. These three concepts are not mutually contradictory, but successive steps in spiritual realization—as Sri Ramakrishna pointed out—the third and last being attained when the aspirant loses all consciousness of self in union with the Godhead. To illustrate the three attitudes, Sri Ramakrishna quoted Hanuman’s words addressed to Sri Rama: “When I consider myself as a physical being, thou art the master, I am thy servant. When I consider myself as an individual being, thou art the whole, I am one of thy many parts. And when I realize myself as the Atman, I am one with thee.”
“Bro, I think Sri Ramakrishna was a Hindu teacher. We studied him a little in philosophy class. He experienced his union with God by following various Hindu paths, along with Christianity and Islam. It’s all too complicated for me. My question is, who is this Hanuman person?”
“I wish they had a cry room here like they do in Catholic churches. At the risk of setting back the last forty years of monastic Interreligious dialogue I’ll whisper it to you.”
“Based on the little I know, Hanuman is revered as a great devotee of God when God is manifested in the form of Rama. That’s different from Sri Ramakrishna. In general, there is one God in the Hindu tradition but God is manifested in a multitude of different forms, Rama being one. In the Hindu scriptures one can read about the great devotion Hanuman, who had a face like a monkey, displayed toward Lord Rama.”
“These names are killing me. They either contain all the letters of the alphabet or they are so similar that I find it difficult to keep one person, or name of God, distinct from the other.”
“I understand Andre, but I find that my captivation and respect for the Hindu devotion to the Sacred overrides all of that and that is where I choose to focus my attention. We’d better do some of that now before we get a penance.”
The teacher concluded without the temple bouncers having to evict the two Western pilgrims. Everyone made his or her way outside where a smiling man placed little white paper containers with what appeared to be oatmeal into a hand of each worshipper.
The man explained that this custom, called the giving of prasad, the Sanskrit word for gift, takes place at the end of a service or teaching. The prasad can be nuts, raisins, or any other little treat.
“The listeners were now chatting about the spiritual conference which had just taken place and happily nibbling away at their treat.
“Brother Francis, they are eating with their hands again. I can’t do it. I even saved my plastic spoon from the plane to avoid it. They slipped this one in on us.”
“We can do it Andre. Just watch me.
“Ouch, this stuff is still hot. I burnt my fingertips!”
“How are you gentlemen making out? I hope you enjoyed my conference more than you seem to be enjoying your prasad!”
“I’m sure it is delicious Swami,” responded Brother Francis apologetically. “It’s just that we are not used to eating with our hands.”
“Don’t give it another thought. I’ll show you where the secret stash of spoons is in the dining room. I studied in the West and had to make a few adjustments there too, so I completely understand what you must be going through.”
“You are every bit as compassionate as your beautiful Hindu theology teaches you to be,” said Andre, now on his best behavior.
“It looked like you had a few questions during the talk, my young friend. Can I be of help?”
“Well yes, Swami, it’s just hard for me to wrap my mind around the concept of Advaita.”
“Understandably, and it’s Andre, isn’t it?” Andre nodded and his black pony tail bounced.
“Advaita is simply the belief that there is really no distinction between God and humanity. The image of a wave and the ocean is one typically used to help illustrate the teaching.
“Is the wave a separate entity from the ocean or the ocean a separate entity from the wave, Andre?”
“No, not really, they are both of the same substance,” responded the student pensively.
“And so it is with the Godhead and us in Advaita. We have the experience of being separate from God but we are not, and enlightenment, so to speak, is coming to experience that.”
“It sounds like Christian theology, but I think there is a subtle twist somewhere. Brother Francis, can you help me out?” asked Andre.
“I’m not a professional theologian. My focus, as you know Andre, is much more on spirituality and meditation, not so much on dogma. We need some dogma, but I leave that up to the intellectuals.
“Anyway, in Christianity we believe that we strive for union with God and yet already have it. We believe that we will experience it in fullness in the life to come. In the meanwhile we try to live a spiritual life here on earth, enjoy it wherever possible, and nourish our spiritual lives through prayer and meditation.
“When we die, we do not loose our individuality, but it is brought to its fullness in Christ. We will even have bodies, but they will be “glorified” bodies. No one has explained to my satisfaction, what that will be like. As the great mystic of the middle-ages, Julian of Norwich, used to say: “All will be well; and all manner of things will be well.” I don’t know exactly how this will all happen, or what form it will all take, but do believe that.”
“Swami, can you help us with the ‘subtle twist’ Andre senses in all of this?”
“Certainly, Brother, anything for a fellow monastic!
“For Hindus there is eventually and ultimately only the Godhead. All will be subsumed into the Godhead. There will be no more Swami, me, only the Godhead.
“For Christians, as Brother Francis said so well, individual identity continues, thus there is still some form of duality—difference between God and you.” For us, there is only the non-dual—one Godhead.”
“Wow, that really helps. Thanks to you both. What I find especially wonderful is that even though there are some theological differences between you two, there is a common bond that is very deep and respectful. That is the sort of attitude which could end wars!”
“Nicely put, Andre,” said the young man’s friend. “So many of the Hindu and Christian saints, along with wonderful people from many other religions, spent their lives trying to bridge that gap. We will be visiting the ashram of a Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths, and see a wonderful example of that being lived out among us today.”
The Swami beamed. “Yes, this is the way religion is supposed to be, I believe.” None of our founders wanted conflict. They all strove for peace and harmony. Of course, there will always be some misunderstanding, but it does not have to lead to hate and war.
“Our problems come largely from an attachment to form—something the wave and the ocean does not have. Attachment to anything limits our freedom. The Christian mystics speak quite a bit about this. They even caution us not to become attached to our experiences in prayer and meditation. But then, your monk friend knows more about that than I do.”