A genuine, Unitarian mantra recalled
Last week, following the Sunday morning service of mindful meditation, music and conversation, and our very pleasant bring and share picnic afterwards, I slowly wandered back to the new manse on New Square and suddenly found myself in the midst of Cambridge’s bright, colourful, joyous and noisy Rathayatra festival.
[You can find a set of photographs I took on the day at this link.]
As some of you will know, this is a festival held for Lord Krishna and his devotees which began in Puri on the east coast of India some 2,000 years ago. Although, by the time I arrived it was in its stationary phase, it’s as much a processional festival as it is one held in a single place, because it begins with Krishna, in his most merciful form of Jagannatha, being pulled though the streets on a huge cart with everyone involved chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra (or Great Mantra) whilst being accompanied by various musical instruments, drums and, of course, dancing.
And, for those of you who don’t know it, the mantra (from the Kali-Santarana Upanisad) is as follows:
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Perhaps, like many British and American people of my generation, I first came to know this mantra thanks to George Harrison’s big hit, “My Sweet Lord.” The mantra is composed of the names of three Hindu deities and their energies: Hare, Krishna and Rama and, essentially, it is a petition to God, meaning something like, “Oh Lord, oh energy of the Lord, please engage me in your service.”
Anyway, it was a genuinely lovely, colourful occasion, and as I watched the dancing and enjoyed the music, I fell into conversation about the festival with someone who turned out to be the father of one of the dancers. He seemed pleased that I knew something about Hindu religion and, after telling me about his understanding of the Maha Mantra, he asked me why I knew anything at all about all this. I assured him that I was no expert, but what little I did know was connected to the fact that I was a Unitarian minister and the Unitarian tradition has a long and rich relationship with the Hindu faith since the early 19th century beginning with Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833) who was an Indian reformer and one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the precursor of the Brahmo Samaj, an important, Unitarian influenced, social-religious reform movement. He was also delighted to discover that Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975), the Indian philosopher and statesman who served as the second president of India from 1962 to 1967, had preached in the Cambridge Unitarian Church in 1930 on the subject of the “Hindu View of Life.” And that, the following year, Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), also addressed the Cambridge Indian Majlis (Community Association) here. Additionally, of course, there is the fact that a key figure in the foundation of the Cambridge church was Joseph Estlin Carpenter (1844–1927), the principal of Manchester College, Oxford and an expert in Sanskrit and Pali, as well as a pioneer in the study of comparative religion. And in all this neither must we forget our congregation’s important connection with the Indian Unitarians of the Khasi Hills thanks to Margaret Barr (1899-1973) who was a member of this church during the 1930s. Anyway, it’s a rich and complex history which I’ll happilly expand upon another time.
But as I wandered away from the festivities, and with the Maha Mantra still running around my head, I began to recall reading, long ago, that there had once been a mantra connected with the Unitarian movement in India. It seemed most likely that I’d come across it in the writings of a key nineteenth-century figure who conjoined aspects of the Unitarian and Hindu traditions, namely, Keshub Chundra Sen (1838–1884). Indeed, in 1870 he made a high-profile, six month long visit to the UK, and a considerable number of his talks took place in Unitarian & Free Christian churches.
In 1857 Sen became a member of the aforementioned Brahmo Samaj but, later in his life — one not without a few significant religious, social and ethical controversies — he came under the influence of Sri Ramakrishna and then, in January 1891, founded the syncretic “New Dispensation” which was inspired by aspects of Hinduism, Christianity, Vaishnavism (which has a history of also showing devotion to Krishna), Saktism (in which the godhead or metaphysical reality is considered metaphorically to be a woman), Buddhism, and Unitarianism. And, remember here that I use the adjective “syncretic” to describe the “New Dispensation” with approval and not disdain!
So, what about this Unitarian mantra? Alas, the books I’d last looked at 25 years ago and which I wanted to consult now were in my college library, back in Oxford, but one of the great benefits of this digital age through which we are currently living is that many out of copyright texts have been archived on the wonderful website archive.org, and there I found the two books I thought might most likely contain the mantra, “Keshub Chunder Sen’s English visit”, published in 1871, and “The New Dispensation: Or, the Religion of Harmony, compiled from Keshub Chunder Sen’s Writings”, published in 1903.
In the first of these, although there is a great deal of interesting stuff about the Unitarian movement, there was nothing about the mantra, but in the second, “The New Dispensation,” I found what I was looking for. It’s in a very short section called “Christ’s Mantra in Sanskrit” and, to conclude this thought for the day, I will simply read it to you. I don’t imagine it will be a mantra amenable to many of you, but at the very least, I hope it, and Sen’s introductory and concluding words, will help serve as a reminder that the wider Unitarian understanding of, and devotion towards Jesus, becomes, in South and East Asian contexts anyway, not a Christian path per se but, instead another example of the creative, free religious and spiritual path that can help lead a person to an affirmation of — and, indeed, an experiencing of — the underlying unity of all people, all religions and all things with the divine which, without doubt, is one of the central leitmotivs of the Unitarian movement in all its forms, both East and West.
But, before I leave you with Sen’s own words, a quick note about a few of the terms he uses.
Firstly, “rishi” which means sage or seer; and, secondly, “yogi” which refers to a person who practices one or more paths of yoga with the aim of achieving spiritual enlightenment, self-realization, and inner peace. A “Mahayogi” is a “Great Yogi” and “Param Yogi” means “Supreme Yogi.” Sen applies all these terms to Jesus.
Sen also briefly mentions “adhyatma yoga,” the ultimate aim of which is to achieve moksha (or liberation) by transcending the ego and realising one’s true nature as pure consciousness, leading to a state of inner peace, bliss, and unity with the divine.
CHRIST’S MANTRA IN SANSKRIT
by Keshub Chunder Sen
We dislike the Christian’s sectarianism and his cold dogmatism, but we prostrate ourselves with profound reverence before the transcendental yoga of the Lord Jesus. So exalted and godly was his soul, so deeply absorbed in Divinity, so thoroughly identified with the All-Holy Spirit in truth, love, communion and will, so truly Rishi-like, a Mahayogi among yogis, who will not sit at his feet and learn and admire ? The Hindu cannot but love and honor this excellent picture of yogi absorption. That face, glowing with Divine effulgence and breathing yoga serenity, captivates the Hindu heart. Not to love, not to revere that face, would be a treason against our national instincts and traditions. For centuries we have bowed before rishis and yogis. To disclaim or deny that arch-yogi is impossible. Whatever the ideas and feelings of European nations may be, to us Hindus such a course seems absolutely impossible. Param Yogi Jesus! we love thee through our national instincts. Thy yoga mantra is our yoga mantra! We have already evolved and expounded this mantra, and shown its pre-eminently exalted and deep character. To show best how it tallies with our national ideal of adhyatma yoga, we shall divest it of its foreign garb and place it before our readers in a truly Hindu form. Here is the Vija [or seed] Mantra of Christ the Prophet-yogi of Nazareth : —
Uváchemam Maharshis áh
Pitaryyasmi pitá mayi
Yúyam mayyasmi yushmasu
Púrna yoga manum purá.
Literally translated it would stand thus : —
Said Maharshi Isha [i.e. Jesus],
“I am in the Father, the Father in me;”
“Ye in me, I in you.”
This perfect yoga mantra, in times past.
Do not these sacred words embody the substance of the highest and the deepest communion inculcated in the Hindu scriptures? Let our countrymen constantly utter this Sanskrit couplet, and in it may the East and the West be at one!
(Keshub Chunder Sen, New Dispensation, pp. 40-41)
Comments