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Vol XV No 1 January - June 2025
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore in Dialogue Note: A video of Tagore's text, sung by Dr. Barua, and Dr. Portilla's response to it can be accessed on Dr. Barua’s YouTube video. INTRODUCTION Ankur Barua, “A Sound of Silence” Project I work on various aspects of comparative theology from Hindu-Christian and Hindu-Muslim perspectives. In particular, I research motifs of love, loss, and longing in Sanskrit, and modern Indian languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and Assamese. In my childhood, I received a training in singing several types of devotional songs composed in these linguistic registers. Over the last five hundred years, these songs have mediated – albeit not without contestation – several types of religious boundaries across the everyday lives of Hindus, Christians, and Muslims in India. For instance, a song used in a Church service on Sunday may creatively work with Sanskritic terminology; likewise, Indo-Islamic Sufi music sometimes recalibrates Indic idioms that would resonate with non-Muslim audiences. Again, many of the common themes of Hindu devotional songs – relating to the pain of separation from the divine beloved, the expression of joy in the sense of the divine presence, and so on – are echoed across Christian and Muslim theological contexts.
I started this project on YouTube to highlight these theo-sonic textures to non-specialist audiences. I invite PhD students, early career researchers, established academics, and laypeople to listen to such a song and share their reflections on it. I am not necessarily looking for “scholarly” responses – rather, a response to the question, “how does this song speak to me?”
Isaac Portilla, “Interfaith Dialogue and Mystical Consciousness” Project Dr. Ankur Barua invited me to engage in a Hindu-Christian exploration as part of his project, “A Sound of Silence.” Dr. Barua interpreted a song of the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, and I prepared a reply in the form of a theopoetic text, combining Tagore’s song with the Beatitudes of Christ, adding short meditative commentaries.
I see this exercise as an example of existential interfaith—a type of interfaith dialogue I am promoting (also known as “interfaith mysticism”). On this occasion, we are using poetical-theological reflection and singing as an alternative to meditation and contemplative practice. The third characteristic of existential interfaith, “Focus on Truest Meaning,” would be the most relevant to this Hindu-Christian exploration.
A detailed explanation of the three characteristics of existential interfaith is available in an article published in Harvard Theological Review.
The larger research project exploring this possibility has been published as a monograph in Routledge Hindu Studies Series.
HINDU SONG AND CHRISTIAN RESPONSE [YouTube video] Step 1) Tagore’s text, sung in Bengali by Dr. Barua My Lord, —Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Step 2) Christo-Tagorean Text, recited by Dr. Portilla 1. My Lord said, And so: 2. My Lord said, And so: 3. My Lord said, And so: 4. My Lord said,
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt 5:11–12). And so:
If someday I place someone else on your great seat My King for all time, Do not turn away! Step 3) Meditative Reflections of Dr. Portilla 1. My Lord said, And so: Reflection God is seen through the heart as the Heart. But the heart sometimes closes, as Tagore says. Not that it really “closes,” though. It is just that our being, otherwise freed by the oceanic sense of the Infinite, becomes dominated by sense perception—the old vision of the world. One may be distracted by thought as well. Old habits die hard. We thus need an infusion of the Divine into our awareness from time to time—both from without, and from within. For, who can say from where the doors of our heart are opened when they are outshined by a reality that ever is, everywhere, and that transforms them into a mirage, a forgotten past? Indeed, God is the shining Heart for whom no door ever existed. 2. My Lord said, And so: Reflection
There is a silence of bliss; and there is a silence of mourning. Both silences ought to be welcomed—they are part of the path. The former refers to an exaltation, a superabundance of the Divine, which leaves us speechless—for the sake of its own expression. The latter refers to a lament, a “descent” to acknowledge the painful realities of life, which need to be felt, quietly, and patiently. And so, there are times for music and prayer and times for silence and mourning. And when the times for silence come, and they do come, the Divine, merciful and comforting, is close—very close. 3. My Lord said, And so: Reflection The kingdom of heaven—the perception of reality in the light of being—does not belong to those who, apparently, do not fail; to those who, outwardly, do not become distracted; to the prideful who keep appearances. These are too self-centered to allow themselves to “fail” and be “distracted.” Truly, who said that failing and becoming distracted are not part of the divine play! Even so, the poor in spirit, to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs, often think of themselves as inadequate, precisely because they see that they are failing and becoming distracted. Just as the apostles fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ asked them to pray. At this difficult moment, they failed. But the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, regardless of their own opinions and shortcomings; and so, they will be awakened (painfully if needed, as Tagore’s song has it) to its reality.
4. My Lord said,
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” And so:
If someday I place someone else on your great seat My King for all time, Do not turn away! Reflection To work spiritually in the world—to spread divine teachings and practices—involves challenges: those who listen may judge you unfairly, insult you gratuitously, say things that are untrue about you. Therefore, it is easy to want to relax a little; going along with the ways of the world for some time; appearing to others as if you have their same desires, fears, and concerns. And little by little, inadvertently, you have placed “someone else on [the] great seat,” as Tagore says. We nonetheless hope that in exhausting these downward phases, which we embrace, at times out of compassion, at times out of delusion, the Lord (our King) will still look at us—straight in the eye—and recognize us.
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 Dr. Barua
 Dr. Portilla Dr. Ankur Barua is a Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He earned a B.Sc. in Physics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and later studied Theology and Religious Studies at Cambridge. His research focuses on Vedantic Hindu philosophical theology, Indo-Islamic sociality, and comparative religion, exploring Hindu traditions in historical and colonial contexts. Dr. Barua has authored several books, including The Hindu Self and Its Muslim Neighbors (2022). He also engages creatively through his YouTube channel and published his debut novel, The Harvest of Time (2023), which examines inter-religious encounters across India and Britain. Dr. Isaac Portilla is a philosopher, theologian, and visiting professor at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He earned his doctorate from St Andrews and developed his academic work at the Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics. His research focuses on interreligious dialogue, mystical consciousness, hermeneutics, and phenomenology, with particular emphasis on Hindu-Christian encounters. Dr. Portilla is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and a member of several academic organizations. He has authored numerous works, including What Christ Said (2022) and Interfaith Dialogue and Mystical Consciousness in India (2025), exploring spirituality and modern mysticism. http://www.isaacportilla.org |