A response to a question sent to me:
The Hindu identity is sociological first and not religious. When one says that she is a Hindu, the natural question then asked implicitly or explicitly is about her caste or community to which she belongs. Rarely, one will ask about her faith.
When it comes to Christian, the natural question is which church she belongs to: Catholic or Protestant. And if she is a Protestant, then which denominational church she belongs—though her caste is the next important issue.
But Mukti Veda never talks about these issues and there is no concept of conversion in this sense of changing one’s community or even religion. And Sevanand (Paul) vehemently opposed it and encouraged each one to retain the station in which God has called her. (I Cor. 7:17 ff.)
Now regarding your question of participating in religious activities and attitude to OUR Hindu deities my response is this:
We cannot put a Hindu’s life in water-tight compartments. It overlaps with so many aspects like culture, religion, tradition etc. So what is culture and what is religion cannot be decided by any outsider and even a Hindu is not sure where to draw a clear line. In a few contexts, what is culture becomes religious, and what is religious becomes culture. [Read my article ‘where to draw the line’ in the blog]
Keeping Bindi is the best example. Although putting on makeup is purely cultural, when she goes to a temple and receives Kumkum, then it becomes religious. Celebrations of so many festivals, though religious in nature, are but more cultural in their scope. Pongal and Holi are more cultural and traditional than religious. Is Christmas a religious or cultural (or even commercial) festival? And what about the Easter egg? I need not to mention Santa Claus.
So no outsider can draw any line for a Hindu bhakta and say which one is culture and which one is religious and present any lists of ‘dos and don’ts’ for her.
It is easy for any convert who is separated from her family and community through ‘extracting evangelism’ and has joined a Church and has become a Christian to avoid them all in the name of ‘taking a stand for the Lord’. But for a Hindu bhakta of the Lord, who lives with her family and within her community, it is not easy and what all she is expected to do in so many rituals by her family and community should be decided based on ‘concession’ rather than ‘compromise’.
If she is very clear about her bhakti in the Lord, she can participate in all those rituals with a clear conviction that she is not compromising with her bhakti, but all that she does by going the extra mile in helping and even participating in all those rituals and religious activities are nothing but a mere ‘concession’ to accommodate the religious sentiment of her own family members and community sensitivity of them. Her absence will get more attention than her participation. In fact, her participation will be treated as a natural part of her normal life as a Hindu and even would be ignored by others. But her absence will get the focus and become a talking point and confrontation which might even embarrass her family members. But even I would rather question the word ‘concession’ shown by us as if our family members are begging for that. Who we are to show any concession to them for what they are doing as part of their culture and tradition. In fact, even after knowing your bhakti in the Lord, if they still allow you to participate, that is the concession they show to you.
As a digression I would like to point out another fact. This is one area where I am seriously criticized and condemned for promoting idol worship and misguiding the new bhaktas. At Patna [also recently in Varanasi1 during my visit in March 2023] in a meeting among them, when the topic again came, I responded to a Hindu convert who opposed my view: when you want your family title and caste identity and your share in your ancestral property—which are earned by the blessing of their deities–why not some rituals and festivals which are part of your family tradition and heritage? If you cannot forsake your share and even demand your right and are ready to fight and go to court for that, when it comes to the family tradition why do you say “no” to them. Then give up all your rights with your family and completely walk away from them. Yes, all these Hindu deities are part of my tradition and all the festivals and rituals related to them are part of my worldview. But I don’t believe in them. This does not mean that I can deny them. Can you deny your parents who do not accept the Lord? For me demanding your right in your ancestor property is nothing but another kind of idol worship, which you don’t recognize or want to accept.
Any outsider (here Christians) will condemn this as ‘compromise’ and ‘syncretism’. But what looks to others as compromise and syncretism should not decide the life of a Hindu bhakta within her family and community, provided she is clear in her faith and bhakti in the Lord. Her participation is part of her cultural and social identity with her family and community in which religious activities are celebrated with both cultural and ritual traditions. How to separate and where to separate is her own business and others cannot either understand or interfere. But if she is disturbed by outsider’s views and comments, then she has no other option but to desert her family and community and join the Christian community and church.
Unlike the Christians who live three or four hours as Christians on Sundays inside their church and rest of the hours in the week like other people, a Hindu bhakta cannot separate her life in water tight compartments. She cannot become all things to all men here, by remaining Christians to the Christians and Hindu to the Hindus. As she knows well about the various views about each ritual and tradition, she must make the decision how far she can go and where to draw the line. In those bhaktas, whose bhakti is visible and known to her family and community, she can negotiate on some aspects where there is scope for it. But where there is no scope, going along with the family and community is not a compromise, but only a concession on her part to do her dharma or duty as the natural member of the family and community. The story of Naaman in 2 Kings Chapter 5 is the best example here. In the case of those secret believers whose faith remains hidden either from her family or only to the family and not to the community, then she has no other option but to go along with her family and community, knowing well that God knows her situation better than others.
I don’t want to compare this with the compromise that the Christians do in all their walks of life with their faith in the Lord. There is no point in such a comparison and I don’t like to do it. There is no point in quoting a few verses from Mukti Veda either for or against to both these positions (of compromise or concession) out of their context. Even if one tries to prove that we are wrong quoting the verses within the context, our situation never allows us to imitate the ‘pattern’ given by the Mukti Veda, but to take only the principles and interpret them according to our need and context. Mukti Veda never gives any pattern for us to imitate but only principles for us to understand and interpret according to their context and apply according to our context. All that we claim to be biblical (Mukti Vedic) is nothing but our own interpretation rather than the literary reading of the text in its context.
It is worth quoting one interesting incident shared by one person in one of the Rethinking Conference. When he visited Africa, he was much disturbed to notice that in the tribal village where all become ‘Christians’ they kept a small toy house in front of their houses and placed some favorite foods which their deceased elders liked very much as part of their respect to them. It is like doing sraddha in India to the ancestors in Hindu homes. When he questioned about it to the leader of that community, with a smile he responded, ‘do you keep a beautiful bouquet with nice flowers in the cemetery of your family members’? The missionary said ‘yes’. Then do you mean or think that they will come out from the grave to enjoy it or are you doing it to worship them? ‘No’ was the answer from the missionary. ‘Then, the same is with us. This is part of showing our respect to our ancestors’. The local African culture looks like a religious ritual to the outside missionary.
Here there is no scope also for us to set an example by quoting a few case studies or even that of an any of Hindu bhaktas. By Hindu bhakta I mean those followers of the Lord remain culturally and socially as Hindus never leaving their Hindu community to join Christian community. It is a scattered movement (though movement is the wrong word to use even for it) where both individual bhaktas of a few families are keeping their bhakti as Hindus within their family and community. It will take several centuries even to emerge some solid Mukti Nath bhaktas community within Hindu society—or according to my opinion and understanding, this might never even emerge, considering the dynamic nature of Hindu society and I don’t see any need for it. While taking others critiquing seriously, we should ignore any criticism just for the sake of criticism, done by their standards. At the same time, no individual Hindu bhakta or family can imagine that she or they can keep her/their bhakti in the Lord without having fellowship with other Hindu bhaktas—as Mukti Veda never promotes such private bhakti or private God.
We need teaching, encouragement, and correction among ourselves. That is the main challenge that we are facing in this early phase of this movement (sorry again to use this word). Due to the pressure of life, demands of so much commitment and temperamental and other hurdles often put severe limitations on many bhaktas’ life to keep in touch with each other. Even the loose communication which we try to keep with each other through various forums by using modern technology like social media, no one is accepted as the leader or can guide all. Each one does what she thinks is the best and correct. No authority is recognized, accepted, respected, or earned. Each one becomes her own authority when it comes
The same is the case with each family. So we are now walking a tightrope. But we should not give up out of frustration, because if this is the right way to expand the Kingdom of God among us (viz. Hindus or any other community in India and the world), then God will guide us, despite various shortcomings. Otherwise, within the span of a few decades this also will disappear like so many other attempts in the past. Few Hindu bhaktas like me can go with this satisfaction that at least we tried what we thought is the correct thing, leaving a good lesson for the future generation to learn from our experience. If we are wrong and failed, at least we will leave a message at our cost to the future generation neither to imitate nor promote this—though future generations might not even remember or hear about us. In the vast ocean of history, we are not even a bubble that appears and remains for a fraction of a second. In the future, some might say or write that I am a heretic who tried to promote a new cult, which faced its natural destiny. One time, a Hindu convert said that what I am promoting is nothing but ‘Christo paganism’. In response, I said that ‘it is better than your western paganism. At least my paganism is Christ centered. Whereas your paganism is westernized church centered’. But I don’t think that ‘conversion’ to Christianity or joining any Church is the best alternative to this, though Christianity as a religion will grow or at least survive through this conversion but never succeed in establishing the Kingdom of God among Hindus.
Regarding our attitude towards our own deities—yes, our own deities as Hindus, we must keep in mind that our own Hindu tradition gives space both for pluralism and exclusivism.
Several deities are nothing but elevated ancestors who are now worshiped as gods. Several families or communities began to worship those heroes or people who poured down their lives to protect them. The stone was erected on their grave known as ‘Nadukal’ in Tamil. Later they became not merely the family deity of that family, but to the entire community and even to the village. Later, when they migrated to other areas, they carried that worship there also. And later, so many folk stories, songs, dances, and arts were developed. One good example is ‘Madurai Veeran’ who was executed by the king as his daughter fell in love with him and insisted on marrying him, though he was put to guard her residence only. He belonged to the lowest caste. However, when he was executed, the princes (I think her name is Vellayamma) along with another lady love from his own caste (I think her name is Bommi) also died. Then all the three were elevated as deities and one can see their worship scattered in almost all the parts of Tamilnadhu. Transcending his caste identity, they all become deities to so many other caste groups. Even Kannaki, the heroine of Silappadikaram by Ilangovadigal (whose husband Kovalan was executed by the king accused by his gold smith that he has stolen the anklet of the queen) has a temple in Tamil Nādu.
Of course, some are nothing but mythological characters and it is very difficult to clearly separate which ones are historical and which ones are mythological. But for me what is more important is that they are part of our Indian culture and tradition. I cannot think of an India without Ramayana and Mahabharata which inspired so many people on pan-India level (even Asian level I would say) to develop so many fine arts. Naturally, all those who have some aesthetic interest cannot simply throw them away as if created by the devil to deceive people.
For me, I don’t have faith in them and I am not worshiping them. But for me, as I am interested in listening to nice (both Carnatic and Hindustani) music, I enjoy all those songs written by various poets in different languages taking several incidents from those stores. I wish you too were a Tamilian or know Telugu to enjoy some of those beautiful songs composed by various Vagyakaras (one who wrote the poem and composed the music is called vagyakara). But as you speak Hindi, you can enjoy several Abangas by Tukaram, dohas by Tulsidas, Kabirdas, Surdas, Meerabai and so many other poet saints. Who cannot enjoy Meera’s song: Gunguru bandi Meera naachire?
So for me they are part of my cultural heritage. But why did I say that they are ‘our gods’? Because they are gods for so many Hindus. So I must give that recognition to them, though they are not ‘god’ for me to worship. As I said in one of my articles, the god-hood of other deities does not depend upon my faith in them. They are not god(s) for me, but they are gods of my fellow Hindus, so naturally they are ‘our gods’. The exclusvistic pluralism of Hinduism gives space and hope for us to recognize other deities as their gods at the same time having exclusive bhakti only on a chosen deity.
I wish we too could have so many beautiful art forms based on the Mukti Vedic themes. Though some tried and even wrote so many beautiful poems like that we have about other deities (Vedanayagam Sastriar has written so many such songs), they remain unpopular and completely ignored by the Church. I know one Catholic Father who wrote and composed so many beautiful Sanskrit poems and performed Bharat Natyam. Recently I heard one Carnatic song sung by one secular artist about the Lord which was very nice.
Note
1.. One Hindu convert asked in the class, ‘we left everything and came out from them. Now you ask us to go back to them’. In response I asked, ‘tell me what are the things that you left? You keep your caste identity, even Hindu identity to receive social benefits through reservation in your certificate, you keep drees, food and keep your relationship with your parents and others, even want to have your share in their wealth which they consider as the blessing from Goddess Lakshmi. Tell what are the things you left. First stop such hypocrisy’. Later one young man, who is not yet married, while taking me to another place said, ‘now I have so many families, brothers and sisters and parents in the Lord’. With a smile I said, ‘get married and settle down with your own family and then see how many ‘NEW’ brothers, sisters, parents you got. Then I told him what happened in Tamil Nadu. One elderly couple came to know the Lord through the ‘ministry’ of some local church. But they don’t have children and the wife also died. When the old man told them that now he finds it difficult to manage alone to take care of his land and house, the only answer he received was ‘go and live wherever you feel comfortable’. No one from the church asked him to come and stay with them as part of their family or even come forward to make some alternative arrangements. Of course they invited him to come and stay with them for a few days in case of any emergency, but to take care of him permanently, he must find his own ‘comfortable place’. Finally he must move to stay with his niece of his second cousin, who remains Hindu. Blood will always remain thicker than water though we can pollute both but never can dilute them further.
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