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Dilatato Corde 6:1
January - June, 2016 
YOGA AND CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY A Theological Appraisal The tremendous euphoria for yoga sadhana [1] that erupted in India on International Yoga Day, January 21, 2015, shows how popular and widespread yoga has become in people’s daily life, not only in India, but throughout the world. When elderly people, youth, and children, without regard to caste, class, religion, or political adherence, massively participated in the yoga sessions organized in every available public space through the length and breadth of India on that day in January, it was indeed a phenomenal spontaneous manifestation of our Indian cultural psyche, social coalition, and political federation. It was one of those rare and auspicious moments when we silently intuited our cultural unconscious, became proud of our shared consciousness, and were empowered from within to spread our cultural riches to others. Yoga, a Cultural Constituent Yoga has now evolved into our cultural narrative and discourse. It is a constituent element of Indian polity, a discipline of civil life, and even a sadhana of holistic training in settings as varied as educational institutions and work sites. It has also become a pan-religious way of life in which Hindus, Muslims, Christians, theists, and atheists can enthusiastically participate. The United Nations now recognizes yoga as a universal science for physical, mental, and social wellbeing, and the World Health Organization approves yoga as a way of holistic health. The logo of International Yoga Day aptly indicates what yoga now stands for: harmony and peace. There are scholars who argue that yoga has nothing to do with any religious tradition, although it should be recognized that yoga is, by and large, associated with the Hindu dharma and way of life. Yoga was a discipline and a way of life for seekers and seers in their quest of the Divine even before organized religions came into existence. We can go so far as to say that it is encrypted in the collective DNA and chemistry of the Indian psyche and is now being accepted globally as a way of life beyond religious bias and geography. Yoga has already become the patrimony of humanity, a unique contribution of India to the whole humanity. The history of human habitation in India spans more than five thousand years.[2] In her long history, she had never been a trans-territorial political power. Rather, hers is a history of invasions, starting with that of Aryan tribes in the second millennium BCE.[3] Eventually, those who invaded India were conquered by her spiritual genius and vision. India is more than a geographical location; it is a collective of seekers, a vision, a pursuit and a pilgrimage. Now it is the turn of yoga to enlighten the pilgrimage of all humanity. The crucial questions for us Christians have to do with the possibility of incorporating yoga and its insights into our religious discipline and vision, and then finding ways to integrate Christianity into the Indian cultural narrative. Yoga, both as a way and as a vision of life, embodies the Indian genius and its understanding of reality. If yoga becomes part and parcel of the life of the faithful, the process of inculturation, which is presently on decline, will naturally acquire popular support, triggering new momentum and renewed confidence in India’s role in theological development. The Indian Church has an opportunity to contribute to the deeper insertion and reception of the Gospel in the Asian context and beyond. No doubt, an appraisal of yoga will serve no purpose if it is exercised in a vacuum, or is the object of inordinate defensive polemics. Engagement with yoga needs to be carried out in an ambience of theological and spiritual enquiry for the purpose of a wider and deeper inculturation of the Christian dispensation in this land of seekers and seers. Situating the Discourse on Yoga in the Cultural Context As we begins our exploration of compatibility of yoga with the Christian dispensation, we can note that biblical revelation is also a cultural process and discourse, and that the incarnational motif that is so central to biblical revelation makes it constitutively inclusive. This incarnational inclusiveness, along with the inherent versatility, creativity, and proactivity of biblical revelation, make the Christian religion naturally and spontaneously open to all cultural dispensations and aspirations. Unlike other religions, Christian faith and life are open to multiple cultural translations and insertions. Mainstream religions—Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism—on the other hand, are mono-cultural, and insist, by and large, on a homogeneous cultural enunciation and exclusive social articulation (the Islamic hijab, the exclusive rites of Judaism, Hindu ways etc.), even when these religions find themselves in different cultural, political, and social contexts. The Christian Church, on the other hand, is a federated cultural collective. We might even say that the culture of Christianity is multi-cultural. The history of the Church shows that as Christianity encounters world cultures at various epochs of its evolution, it endeavours to express the Gospel in the idioms and paradigms of those different cultures. Hence its cultural edifice has become multi-layered and poly-dimensional. The Catholic Church is a federal collective of twenty-three sui generis Churches, each having its own cultural, cultic, and liturgical autonomy and governance. The cultural body of the Christian faith and life includes Hebraic, Hellenistic, Occidental, Oriental, Andean, Asian, and African cultures. Christianity’s identity is evolving as its witness and mission continue to welcome new cultural expressions and new social and political challenges. Even though there are always regressive advocacies for what they believe is an original pure Christian culture, the Church does not succumb to them in the long run. On the Indian scene, tremendous efforts have undoubtedly been made to develop an Indian theology and spirituality, especially after the Second Vatican Council, but the fact remains that Indian culture has not permeated our Christian life and psyche, nor has it filtered down to the faith life of the ordinary people of God. Inculturation remains at the level of academic constructs and the formation programs of some religious orders. However, even in those areas it appears that interest is waning and that inculturation has run out of steam owing to many internal and external factors. In fact, our formation programs and cultic practices are becoming either more Eastern or more Western, and our self-understanding is expressed in theological constructs that are exclusive. In our charismatic renewal centres, even reading the Bhagavad Gita or listening to a Hindu master is seen as a matter for the confessional. This trend is obviously contrary to the incarnational dynamics of Biblical revelation. Our Christian dispensation has yet to be worked out and expressed in terms of the root paradigms and core experience of Asia. It is precisely in this context that the general acceptance of yoga at a popular level and in a secular space offers a new opportunity to revisit and rejuvenate our efforts to integrate Eastern culture into the Biblical dispensation so that Asians may be able to enter the Christic mystery and participate in the “Joy of the Gospel” with their own cultural idioms, archetypes, methods, metaphors, and thought patterns. Our task is not to search for the unknown Christ of Hinduism (as Raimon Panikkar put it[4])—or in other Asian religions, for that matter—but to explore the unknown Christ in Christianity. We need new cultural idioms, archetypes, and insights to fathom the biblical revelation. The mystery of Christ cannot be exhausted by Western and Eastern cultural discourses and narratives alone. God the Father is still engaged in a Christic epiphany through the Spirit of the Risen Christ above and beyond flesh and blood. The Risen is unfettered and unbound, ever inclusive and open. In the era of the Spirit’s dispensation, Christian identity is not to be worked out through cultural exclusions or a priori positions, but through cultural and social inclusions and receptivity to the ever revealing Spirit of the Risen One. The mystery of Christ is yet to be substantially worked out and convincingly expressed in Asian, African, or Andean cultures. A paradigmatic shift from the customary totalizing and essentializing understanding of culture to a globalized cultural scenario of multiple belonging and asymmetries is slowly and surely taking place in the present globalized world of migrations, the media, and cyber-culture. Culture is understood as a creative phenomenon that is constructed and discovered through everyday social, political, and religious encounters and inclusions. Culture is a work in progress, something to shaped in reference to a posteriori informatics rather than a priori absolute ideas and norms. Humans are cultural beings who construct their identities through an ongoing hermeneutics of engagement with an ever innovative brave new world of knowledge and media. The working out of human identity is an on-going phenomenon profoundly rooted in topias rather than distant utopias or forgotten archetypes. At its Chennai conference in 2014, the Indian Theological Association advocated the doing of theology as a cultural process. In its statement, Call for a New Theology of Culture, it says, If our theologizing is not founded on the root paradigms, core experiences, people’s resources and collective dreams we cannot develop credible, relevant and sustainable and life-enhancing theologies” (No.21). “A new theology of culture calls for a shift from the language of essentialism, universalism and absolutism to one of pluralism, diversity, multi-culturality and inter-religiosity. Our mission praxes need to be praxes of proposing and dialoguing rather than claiming and imposing. We need to shift from advising to listening, moralizing to sharing, judging to welcoming and rejecting to accepting the differences in cultures and persons. Thus our mission to cultures becomes mission with cultures” (No.28).[5] It is in this context that we have to engage with the discourses on yoga that are occurring in both secular and religious spaces. The national and international acceptance of yoga as the symbol of Indian culture offers us a new challenge as well as an opportunity to revisit and rejuvenate our forlorn initiative to inculturate our faith into our Indian cultural paradigms and paths. Yoga per se Before taking up the challenge and claim of yoga vis-à-vis Christianity, I believe it would be helpful to offer a brief overview of how yoga has been understood and practiced. First and foremost, it should be stated that there is no monolithic or essentialist interpretation of yoga, even among the Hindus. The way it is understood varies according to the domain or discourse to which it is related, for instance, meditation, biology, physiology, psychology, education, industry, etc. Customarily, six systems of yoga have been identified: hatha, raja, bhakti, jnana, kriya, and karma. Although they are connected, each yoga system has its own specificity and focus with regards to its sadhanas and accomplishments. There are many sub-yoga systems, such as Integral Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Sahaja Yoga, Tantra etc. The Bhagavad Gita gives two definitions of yoga: samatvam yoga ucyate (Equanimity is yoga) and yoga karmasu kausalam (Dexterity in doing one’s duties is yoga). On the other hand, Patanjaly’s renowned definition is yogah cittavrittinirodha (Arresting of the activities of the mind is yoga). This shows that there is a good deal of fluidity and manoeuvrability in the interpretation of yoga. It can be either secular or religious, or both. Since it has now become pan-national, thanks to International Yoga Day, interpreting yoga exclusively within the ambit of certain Indian philosophical systems would appear to be unwarranted. Yoga is explored and experimented in inter-faith spaces, as well as in multi-disciplinary domains where there is no religious underpinning. The immense literature on yoga in the Western world points to the fact that yoga is interpreted in and by itself primarily as a holistic psycho-somatic discipline without any religious reference, although its religious origin is recognized. Yoga is as old as human civilization. There are some who trace its beginnings to the Stone Age and Shamanism. The earliest archaeological evidence of yoga's existence is on stone seals from around 3000 BCE that depict figures in yoga postures. In either case, yoga seems to have been connected to efforts to improve human conditions. Although it started out as a community-oriented and ecological way of life, yoga today is by and large focused on self- realization. During the Vedic period what was emphasized was living in harmony with nature and with the Divine whereas in upanishadic period, what was foremost was an inner vision of reality. Indeed, there is a Buddhist interpretation of yoga that stresses the significance of physical postures and pranayamas for stilling the mind and attaining enlightenment. The Bhagavad Gita (ca. 500 BCE) expanded the concept of yoga when it brought together Bhakti, Jnana and Karma Yoga in a unitive vision and praxis. In the classical period, Patanjali, a sage who may have lived around the second century BCE, standardized Raja Yoga through his well acclaimed Astanga Yoga (eight limbs). As yoga spreads to the Western world its dimensions are expanding and its appeals are ever increasing. By and large, it is being seen primarily as a science that advocates a way of living in harmony with creation and oneself by bringing body, mind, and self into a holistic unity. yoga is thus seen as an experiential mix of spirituality, physiology, psychology, and ecology. Hatha Yoga, the form that is most familiar in the West, focuses on body postures that harmonize the energy flow of the body along with the spirit’s (psychic) movement. For some, yoga is seen as an a-religious spirituality, an integral philosophy of life and discipline that helps one lead a peaceful and meaningful life on earth. Many others regard it as a program of physical exercise that results in better blood circulation and an increased metabolism of the body cells. There are numerous cases in which yoga has healed life-threatening cardiac problems that modern medical treatments cannot solve or cure. There are some who conduct yoga for the enhancement of physical fitness and beauty. In certain business settings, yoga sessions are incorporated into the work day to bring about greater efficiency and increased production. We can therefore make the following observations about the relation of yoga to religion. First, yoga should not be construed as a religion or cult. It is a holistic way of life independent of creed or cult. Second, the evolution of yoga as discipline of life goes beyond religious idioms and concepts. Though its origin can be traced back to Hindu and Eastern thought, yoga cannot now be circumscribed to Hinduism as advocated by some Hindu religious leaders. Third, though yoga may be employed within the domain of religious life, it is not necessarily interpreted as an exclusively religious practice. Fourth, yoga as an integral discipline that insists on bodily and ethical purity primarily leads one to self-knowledge, which is the threshold to God realization. It is more a upaya (expedient means, pedagogy) than a metaphysics. Yoga fosters the integrity and integration of the body, the prana (vital force), and the mind, thereby supporting the inner unity and identity of being. Yogic sadhanas, yama-niyama (ethical precepts), asanas (physical postures), pranayama (regulation of breath), and pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses)are likened to the tuning of a stringed instrument before playing divine music. In sum, yoga is poly-potential and multi-faceted. Though contemporary discourse, especially in the Western world, relativizes the hermeneutics of yoga, it is obvious that Indian philosophical and religious (theological) constructs run through various understandings of yoga and its practice. No one can deny that religious perceptions and yogic practices are intrinsically intertwined. The bone of contention is whether or not yoga can be fostered as a veritable path of Christian meditation. It seems that the following questions have to be answered in a theological appraisal of yoga vis-à-vis Christian Spirituality: Is yogic awakening monistic? Is yogic realization devoid of the Divine? What is the meaning of the sadhanas? Is Christian Yoga possible? Is Yogic Awakening Monistic? Yoga as a discipline has already become part of the Christian way of life in India, especially in formation centres. For example, yoga classes and yoga meditation are regularly conducted in centres like the National Biblical and Liturgical Centre. Yoga sadhanas, especially yama-asana, niyama-asana, and pranayama, are the vital constituents of such initiatives. Can we speak of a Christian Yoga? Some hold the view that yoga is incompatible with Christianity, whereas many think that yoga is quite useful to enter deeply into the Christian experience of God. However, certain charismatic centres in the state of Kerala, especially Protestant ones, are vehemently against yoga. In sum, the Indian Church’s perceptions and approaches to yoga are both welcoming and adversarial, and its influence is neither deep nor widespread among the laity. Though the Catholic Church has not produced any document dealing specifically with yoga, a letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the Bishops of the Catholic Church in October 15, 1989, entitled “On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation,”[6] does refer to yoga in a footnote. This document dwells mainly upon the Church’s concerns about “forms of meditation associated with some eastern religions and their particular methods of prayer” (1), but it may also be an appropriate backdrop for the on-going discussion regarding Christian Yoga. One of the crucial concerns latent in “Aspects of Christian Meditation” is the underlying theological construct of some new ways of Christian meditation. This concern can be read into the debate on yoga-consciousness in relation to the Christian understanding of the experience of God. Though yoga implies harmony with existence and union with God (its root yuj means to join or yoke), the theological construct latent in yoga is often interpreted in the compass of monistic philosophy, which implies absolute identity between the finite and the infinite, doing so to such an extent that reality is affirmed to be only one, tad-ekam as the Rig Veda puts it. Consequently the manifested world is nothing but an illusion. Looked at in this way, yoga meditation is said to lead to an upanishadic interpretation of the experience of God as espoused in the mahavakhyas (great sayings). According to the upanishadic vision, God is experienced as ekam eva advitī yam (One-without-a-second). As absolute identity with the Absolute dawns, the phenomenal ego disappears. The aphorisms of the Upanishads—aham bramhāsmiti (I am Brahman) or tat tvam asi (Thou art thou)—define awakening as absolute identity with the Absolute. To phrase it differently, awakening to self is awakening to God. This awakening is pure consciousness, pure intelligence, pure bliss. This truth is self-luminous (svayamprakāśa); it is direct and immediate omniscience independent of any source of knowledge external to itself. It is AHAM ASMI (I AM) or rather, simply ASTI (IS), the mystery of advaita.[7] One’s self dissolves in the abyss of the Absolute, which implies that the phenomenal world is illusory (maya) and has no value in itself. Individual identities and entities have only phenomenal and transient worth. This theological monistic construct of the Divine Head is obviously not compatible with the biblical idea of the Divine. When Jesus speaks of his relation with the Father, he speaks of a relational rather than an absolute identity. Jesus never says, “I am the Father.” Rather he states, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30); “ Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:11) The identity of Jesus is not lost in his relationship with the Father; rather, it is transformed into an ecstatic union, a mutual witness or testimony that is pneumatic. The Holy Spirit is the mutual exchange and communion between Father and Son. The Spirit is the advaita of the Triune God. Christian revelation upholds “pluralism in the God-Head.” God is a Communion. The Christian God is not a distant monad indulging solely in itself but a relational God whose identity is constructed through a covenantal engagement with existence through the agency of humans. God is Emmanuel, the host and hostage of humanity through and incarnation that is still continuing through the Spirit of the Risen until “God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28). In the Christian vision, divine life is a communion of beings, whose archetype is the triune God. The whole of creation, including humans, is the outpouring out of this inner communion (agape) of the Trinity. We humans are not accidents but incidents, born out of God’s love, invited to share in the divine life of communion in love. Our identities are inviolable, absolute, and without any substitute or alternative. The root paradigm or core experience of the Christian/biblical dispensation and economy of salvation is the love of God—not a metaphysical a-cosmic knowledge of divine love, but a down-to-earth love of God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16), “life in abundance” (John 10:10). If yogic consciousness is understood in the ambit of upanishadic monistic equations of complete identity with the Absolute without difference, then yoga is incompatible with the Christian understanding of awakening/salvation/experience of God. However, it needs to be expressly stated that yogic awakening is not to be interpreted exclusively within the ambit of monistic absolutism. Yogic consciousness can be interpreted within the ambit of advaita or of vishishtadvaita (literally, advaita with uniqueness; qualifications). The Vedic-Vedantic idea of realization has, for example, variant interpretations, as we see in the advaita of Shankara or the vishishtadvaita of Ramanuja. Advaita is not absolute monism. Advaita is neither one nor two; it is both. Or rather, it is a reality that exists in the middle, the golden-mean that is the configuration or mutual exchange of two poles (ying-yang). Advaita entails communion between one in many and many in one in a continuum of existence or simultaneity of existence. It could be said that yogic consciousness is advaitic, not monistic; it is more a harmony or network of reality. The very etymological meaning of yoga is union. Individual entity is not lost but protected and transformed in the consciousness of a yogi who becomes the bridge and breath. In this line of argument, the Divine Consciousness in the construct of yoga philosophy can be thought of as an Immanent Transcendence in which the harmony and integrity of the many is confirmed and protected. Yogic consciousness resonates with the unifying Divine Consciousness of reality. Such awareness is existential and experiential. Human logic is incapable of understanding this integration and integrity of existence because reason is an outsider that can do no more than analyse and objectify. Only an awakened and alert yogi can have the knowing (not knowledge) of this yogic harmony of existence because he/she is the insider, the seer who observes everything from the within through an inner awakening that can only reveal the unity of being, both within and without. Yogic consciousness is the advaita of being in which the identity of all entities is protected, recognized, and upheld in the communion of beings. A true yogi witnesses this innate harmony (advaita) of beings and indulges in the bliss of communion of being. Such a yogi is not a solitary and aloof hermit preoccupied with his/her salvation, but someone who delights in the exuberance of life here and now and within, celebrating life and being celebrated by life. In the consciousness of the true yogi, life is God and God is life. In this sense, Jesus is a yogi par excellence, the author of life (Acts 3:15) who “gives to all mortals life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:25), and thus brings about reconciliation and harmony among people and in all of life. If we interpret yogic awakening as a communion of being, there is no need for the apprehension expressed in “Some Aspects of Meditation,” where it is said that “the personal self or the nature of a creature [is] being dissolved or disappearing into the sea of the Absolute” (15). The peace and harmony brought about through yoga is a meditative consciousness at the ground of our being where we can truly surrender to the Divine so that Divine can enter our life and uphold our inviolable identity (personhood) in its integrity and uniqueness in the network of existence. A yogi’s prayer will invariably be samasthalokaah sukhino bhavanthu (May all the worlds have peace and prosperity). Yogic Realization, a Gnosis Devoid of Divine? Another important theological concern is whether yogic knowledge is a metaphysics unto itself, without any reference to God. Is it nothing but psychic trickery in which the psyche becomes diffuse and is expanded without boundaries? Is it a fleeting feeling that is therapeutic, but devoid of the Divine? Indeed, it is possible to misinterpret a yoga induced psychic trance as an experience of God. The Church’s Precautions The Church is apprehensive of yogic knowledge because, as “Aspects of Christian Meditation” mentions, in the first centuries of the Church some erroneous gnostic forms of prayer, Pseudognosticism and Messalianism, crept into Christian life (see, 1 Jn 4:3; 1 Tim 1:3-7; 4:3-4) and propounded the view that the autonomy of human knowledge is self-sufficient for human salvation, and that the rejection of this material world is a prerequisite for the attainment of salvation. These false fourth-century charismatics failed to distinguish the psychic from the pneumatic and preferred the former to the latter as our way to perfection. The Fathers of the Church insisted that the soul’s union with God is possible only through the grace of the Holy Spirit and the sacraments. “Aspects of Christian Meditation” makes reference to the teachings of Jan van Ruysbroek and Saint Teresa of Avila when it speaks of the dangers of adopting Eastern methods without discernment. Saint Teresa insists that the separation of the mystery of Christ from Christian meditation is always a form of betrayal(see ftn. 11). “Aspects of Christian Meditation” reminds us that we should learn from the experiences of primitive Christianity when adopting Eastern ways of prayer and meditation and should not mistake esoteric gnosis as Christian wisdom (8). Asian Religious Perceptions vis-à-vis Biblical Theological Constructs At this stage of our discussion, we should briefly consider the Hindu understanding of realization/salvation. This certainly has a bearing on yogic consciousness since yoga is prominently and widely fostered and practiced in Hindu spiritual practice. There are variant renditions of the Hindu theology of salvation. By and large, it is seen as unmediated self-awakening or self-realization. According to Hinduism, we are already awakened; it is the natural state (sahaja) of being. All we need to do is be consciously aware of what is already there. Sri Buddha would say, atmo-deepo-bhava (Awaken to yourself). Salvation is not a past or future reality; it is here and now, within, existential and experiential, ontological and ontic. The Hindu theological stance underlies its conviction that this natural awakened state of being can be experienced profoundly and comprehensively at the ground of our being (the cave of the heart) through an inward journey. The fundamental question is ko’ham? (Who am I?). The Indian quest for the Absolute is carried out in the realm of atmavicarana (self-inquiry). Hence the wise person of India, desirous of immortality turns his/her eyes within and beholds the self (Katha Upanishad 4.1). The seeker (sadahaka) who is caught up with brahmajinjasa (desire for Brahma) turns his/her eyes inward and awakens to the already existing potent atman-brahman consciousness. Eventually, there emerges an equation in which the seeker, seeking, and the sought roll into the seer at the interiority of being. Whether this ultimate realization is monistic or advaitic or unitive is an on-going debate that is beyond the scope of this paper. Semitic religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam hold that the salvation comes from outside through a mediator or divine revelation. Eastern religions hold the view that we are already in an awakened state; it is the sahaja (naturalness) of our being, the immense innate potential of our being. Our engagement with the phenomenal world should be ignited and trigged by an inner awakening so that our life becomes a witness of the Divine. However, external agencies like cult, rites, and devotions are recognized as aids in the initial stages. The guru is prominent in the Hindu marga (path), but not indispensable. The guru is only a taraka (ferry man) who takes us across the river of maya. The real guru is the self, the inner pure consciousness (divine spark/imago Dei/Breath of God). In the Semitic tradition, the guru is the Other who comes from heaven and is revealed as our Saviour, while in the Eastern vision the guru is within, the antariyamin (Inner Presence) to whom surrender/obedience is to be given. What or who is this Inner Presence? What is its nature? Sri Buddha consoled his lifelong disciple Ananda, who was sobbing as the Buddha was about to die, by uttering his well renowned aphorism: atmo deepo bhava (Awaken to the self). Buddha implied that he is only a ferry man who turns out to be dispensable at one stage of the journey of salvation. There is no need to be distraught when he departs since individuals are the very source of their own salvation. The saddhaka (spiritual aspirant) should leave the ferry man and the ferry behind once he/she reaches the further shore, that is, self-awakening. However, according to Buddhism there is only an-atta (no-self, no-atman). If there be any self at all, it is made up of skandhas (heaps of aggregates and identifications), but they are in a constant state of flux. The implication is that there is no permanent abiding self. If that is the case how are we to interpret Buddha’s mahavakhya (Awaken to self)? Before we dwell upon this question, let us revisit what Hinduism says about the self. It will give us a perspective for the further exploration of the mystery of self at this point of our discussion. Advaita Vedanta of Hinduism affirms the coincidence of Brahman and Atman. If our interior journey reaches the ground of our consciousness, we will be able to discover our identity right at the ground of being and will be able to say ayam atma brahman! (I am Brahman!). This is the great experience of sat-cit-ananda, the bliss of being in consciousness.But this does not mean that my self is God; it means that my self (jivatman) has disappeared into the Great Self (paratman), like a drop diffuses in the ocean, or like a ray of light merges with the beam of light, as upanishadic narratives put it. Can we interpret Saint Paul’s statement about himself in the same vein? He says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me (Gal 2:20) and “ For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). These statements imply that there is still a self, but it is totally transformed in a marvellous relationship with the Divine. Likewise Jesus entered a new marvellous relationship in the consciousness of a new life and new light with the Abba when he rose from the tomb of death. Returning again to the discussion of the idea of the self, where shall we strike a balance between the self of Hinduism and the non-self of Buddhism, both of which say that salvation/nirvana is attained through awakening to one’s self? What they mean by self-awakening is not mere psychic knowledge attained through psychoanalysis! It is definitely not conceptual or empirical knowledge attained through human logic. What is implied in the sayings of the Buddha and in the Hindu understanding of self is the ontological subjectivity that is beyond the empirical ego. We might say that it is a yogic consciousness in which the Divine manifests itself unmediated and the humans perceive God without mediation. This self-awareness (self-realization) may not be salvation per se. The aphorism anyatha-saranam nasti (Other than you, refuge there is none) poignantly makes the point that self as self-awareness is the refuge of being, or the threshold of our being, only when we can enter God’s life truly and authentically. As beings endowed with consciousness, an alert and awake self-awareness is the permanent and lasting ground or core of being that is not affected by the impermanence of this ever changing phenomenal world. According to the Bhagavad Gita, this self cannot be known through an external agency: “The self sees the self in the self, by the self” (6:6). Self as the ground of being is the pristine inner-ontological realm beyond the conscious, unconscious, and subconscious layers. It is the seat of the ontological I, devoid of any nama-rupa (mind and matter), the source of our true identity. Only through a profound meditative inward movement can one reach the realm of self-awareness, which is the knowing of knowing, an ever expanding knowledge without a horizon or screen, existing in an infinite and ineffable spaciousness without boundaries. The Bhagavad Gitasays, “Being happy in oneself with oneself alone” (2:55). This conscious awareness of the self or self-awakening (sahaja) is not to be confused with God realization. Rather, it is the threshold of a witnessing consciousness where one awakens to God. J. Krishnamurti, the great twentieth-century Hindu teacher, would say it is choiceless awareness devoid of comparison, conflict, and justification;[8] it is a realm beyond time and space. It is the nudity of being; it is simply the exuberance of being justified in and through and by itself. It is the holy of holies, the holy ground where the burning bush of our being simply basks in purnam (fullness), even though it is embedded in the phenomenal world; it is the pure consciousness that delights in the simultaneity of existence; it is the threshold where we are ontologically born, live, and move. Naturally, it is in this sacred domain that one can really be in harmony with the Unmanifest Intelligence Love of God, Logos, Wisdom, Tao, Dharma, etc.), rendering rhythm and harmony to the whole existence. This witnessing spacious consciousness is ineffable and immensely potential only where one can see one’s own divinity in the Divine, one’s meaning, mission, and witness without meditation in whole scheme of God’s mission and vision. What is needed is to turn within, tune within, and strategize a way of life from within to without. This witnessing consciousness (witnessing subjectivity, the Spectator I) is the only abiding noumenon of our being in the impermanent, ever fluid, transient, and phenomenal world. It is yogic consciousness, and the intent of yoga sadhana is to orient us to this inner space. The questions regarding the interpretation of the experience of God at the interior realm of self-awakening may be monistic, advaitic, vishitadvaitic, unitive, avibhakta-bhakti, etc. The core issue when appraising the theological meaning of yoga is that it is through self-awakening, or rather self-realization, that one enters the divine life. As already stated, self-awareness is only a threshold to the Divine and should not be confused with God or God consciousness. It is true that awakened self-awareness spontaneously and instantly ignites the divine spark. Obviously the logical mind can never comprehend the immediacy between the Divine and the human at this unmanifest realm because it is simply beyond the capability of a logical mind, which is empirical and is inherently constrained from going beyond what is seen and concrete. This witnessing yogic consciousness is the unmanifest inner realm that helps us intuit the yoga (unity/harmony) of existence in the diverse forms of the manifest world—a simultaneity of One-in-Many and Many-in-One. However, the distinction between self-awakening and awakening to God should be kept intact for academic clarity, even though such a division is not experientially possible since the divine and human frequencies mutually inhere and interface seamlessly. This is the realm of ecstasy/intuition that, unlike the logical mind, engages in a dialectical paradox. The movement of the logical mind is linear: A to B. But the movement of intuition, which is spirit-bound, is zigzag; it blows wherever it wills; its ways are mysterious and inscrutable. Only an intuitive intellect can indulge in the mystical world, and such an experience can only be narrated in paradoxical language. Confusion arises when paradoxical statements are scrutinized by the logical mind. The mahavakyas of religious traditions are paradoxical statements, which are beyond the purview of the logical mind. Mystics employ paradoxes and koans to portray their ecstatic experience of self-awakening. Take, for example, some paradoxical expressions in the writings of Kabir, the fifteenth-century Indian mystic poet and saint whose writings influenced Hinduism's bhakti. He tries to express the mutual indwelling of human and divine with expressions such as burning ocean, very cold fire. Some other expressions from Asian literature would be the trees whose roots are in the sky and whose branches come to the earth, the moon rises in the day, the sun rises in the night, the flower devours the heads of fruits. In Christian literature we have iconic paradoxical expression of ecstatic union with the Divine: a burning bush, the cross, the empty tomb. Moreover, God makes use of paradoxes when revealing mysteries. Jesus’ metaphors, such as seed, salt, yeast, light, are paradoxical; they speak of death and birth simultaneously. The eight Beatitudes delight in paradoxical dialectic. Yoga, solely a Way The thesis of this paper is that the yoga sadhanas of yama (respect for others), niyama (respect for yourself); asana (harmony with your body), pranayama (harmony with your energy), dharana (harmony with your thought), pratyahara (harmony with your emotions), dhyana (contemplation), and samadhi (ecstasy) steer the sadhaka to reach out from this inner luminous space of the witnessing-consciousness/witnessing-presence/witnessing-I beyond mind, psyche and its layers of conscious, subconscious and unconscious through the dynamics of cittavrtti-nirotha (arresting the activities of mind). Yoga leads us to the Author of Life through this awakened consciousness. Yoga sadhanas facilitate this radical surrender to the Divine through self-awakening so that Divine that is already within us, can take birth in us. To express this in a Christian category, we can say that there is an on-going incarnation of the Word in the womb of our consciousness here and now as the Glory of the Risen One is the abiding presence (Col 1:27: “Christ in you, the hope of glory”) at the ground of being. All this implies that yoga is more a pedagogy and a path than an end. It is not a philosophy or metaphysics unto itself, but first and foremost, an instrument. However the yogic path is not merely a bodily exercise; it embodies a vision of Reality from within, a vision that nurtures the idea of Immanent Transcendence. God is ubiquitous in the manifest as well as in the unmanifest. In reality, what exists is the coincidence of the Immanent and the Transcendent. Thinking of God as Immanent or Transcendent is but a cultural preference and aptitude. Without doubt, the theological vision of yoga sadhana as stated above is resolved in the construct of an Immanent Presence of the Divine. However it should be admitted that this theological construct per se is not highlighted in yoga as it is practised in yoga exercises and in the on-going discourse on it in the public square. Moreover this yoga vision of an Immanent God resonates with Jesus’ teachings. Hence the relevance, competency, and credibility of yoga can also be brought out in Christian life. Interestingly, many of Jesus’ statements point to the imperative of awakening to self in order to enter the new life he has brought about: “You are the salt of the earth” (Matt 5:13). “You are the light of the world” (Matt 5:14). “The kingdom of God is among [or within] you” (Lk 17:21). “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field” (Mt 13:44). “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water” (Jn 7:38). All these metaphors and similes speak of the Divine dwelling within and here and now. The Christian economy of salvation teaches us that we are redeemed and restored in the mystery of resurrection. For Saint Paul, Christ, the hope of glory, is in us (see Col 1:27). What is required is to recognize this truth and give witness to it. New life and new light are part and parcel of our self-awareness. The new wine is within us, but we have to awaken to it and allow ourselves to be intoxicated by it. Such an awakened self-awareness can be attained through a profound and intense inward journey facilitated by yogic meditation. Knowledge by induction or reflection cannot encompass Being in all its majesty (Chandogya Upanishad 7:24). The relevance and role of yoga is to be primarily sought and explored in the perspective of the inward journey towards the Kingdom of God within. Yogic realization is a harmonious consciousness that is all-inclusive, all-embracing, and all-comprehensive. It embraces the simultaneity of existence in which nothing is excluded. It is an alert, sensitive, sensible, and all-inclusive awareness in which every fibre of existence is incorporated and identity is constructed in a network of existence. Above all, it is a consciousness of purnam in which entities and identities are constructed, ennobled, and transformed. It is like a drop of water, which, when it surrenders to the ocean, becomes oceanic. In this process its entity is not lost but is embraced by a new enhanced identity. The oceanic potential of the drop is realized by becoming the wave of the ocean. Likewise, a true yogi constructs his or her identity not through an epistemology of exclusions, but by an inclusive and relational epistemology. Yogic meditation helps the yogi take part in the ecological continuum and engage in the ecological equity and aesthetics. The Bhagavad Gita aptly says, “A true yogi observes Me in all beings and also sees everything in Me” (6:29). The aphorism from Isha Upanishad is incisive in this regard: “Who sees all beings in his own Self, and his own self in all beings, loses all fear’’ (6). Therefore, yogic knowledge is not esoteric, exclusive, and private; it is a knowledge of the communion of beings,. The yogi is the celebrant of life and he/she proclaims that God is life and life is God. Paraphrasing Saint Paul, the yogi primarily lives, moves, and exists in the God of living (Acts 17:28) within and in the here and now, not in ideas, ideals, and rituals. He is the seer and sees through the lamp of awakened consciousness not only the burning bush (Ex 3:1ff), because the whole of existence is aflame, and the yogi finds himself/herself always and everywhere on holy ground. A Christian yogi is intoxicated by the new wine and the new life and rejoices in the new light. Yoga sadhanas primarily help the yogi keep the lamp of consciousness burning. Meaning of Yoga Sadhanas to Discipline Human Body In yoga, sadhanas are crucial to realize the Divine at the ground of being. First and foremost, the body is positively incorporated into its spiritual path. The body is not seen as a prison but as sareeram khalu dharma sadhanam (an instrument of meditation). Pathanjalis Astanga’s five limbs of yoga (yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara) are for transforming the body into a veritable vehicle for the yogi to enter the inward journey. We shall highlight some crucial insights on the import of our gross body (sthula sarira) in the inward journey. First and foremost we should recognize and accept our body as an integral constituent of our being and proactively appreciate its instrumentality on our spiritual journey. At the outset, we should know that our body is not merely a composite of chemicals but an energy field in which our consciousness dwells. The body is the manifest of the unmanifest. Through its instrumentality, our being (sein) becomes here and now being (dasein). The body is an intricate and complex energy field that is actually composed of five bodies: Sthula sarira (physical, gross), etheric bioplasmic (aura), astral (super-sensible substance, next above the tangible world), sukshma sarira (mental/emotional), karana sarira (causal, genome-map!). The Kundalini Yoga system identifies seven major energy centres (chakras) in our body muladhara (root), swadishthana (sex), nabhi chakra (solar), anahata (heart), vishuddha (throat), ajna (third eye), sahasrara (crown). All these can be taken as metaphors or symbols rather than in the literal sense, although they are increasingly being recognized in today’s holistic medical science. Furthermore, our body is a bundle of five panchabutas [saptabutas] (fundamental elements): (prathvi (earth), ap (water), tejas (fire), vayu (breath), akasa (space).[9] Our gross body has four states: Solid, Liquid, Gas, Bioplasma (or ether). In addition there are four states of brain activity: Beta state 14 -21 cycles per second (active thinking); Alpha state 7 -14 cps (relaxed disposition); Theta 4-7 cps (drowsiness); Delta 0.5 - 4 cps (deep sleep). Above all our body is a package of micro-cosmoi in which the mineral, plant, animal, human, and divine worlds are brought together fluently and coherently. Fundamentally, we are cosmic beings inserted into an ecological continuum. Our consciousness, the divine spark, is embedded in the configuration of subtle-gross bodies, and our spiritual awakening has to come to pass in the body. Unlike Christian (Semitic) traditions in which the dualism of body and soul is deep rooted, Eastern religions have a holistic approach to spiritual life. The ashrama dharma brahmacharya (student), grihastha (householder), vanaprastha (retiree), and sannyasa (renunciate) comprise an integral and holistic system that takes into account our biological, social, cultural, political, and religious dimensions. Whereas the Augustinian aphorism, “My soul is restless until it rests in you,” indicates that the spiritual realm as immaterial, in the yogic spiritual vision, the human body is positively recognized and incorporated into the spiritual path. As mentioned earlier, the yogic path is an inward journey leading to an experience of the Immanent God, while the spiritual vision of the Christian dispensation is directed to the Transcendent One. Both ways are valid and efficacious. After all there is no difference between Transcendence and Immanence at the level of the Absolute. It is only a question of cultural genius and insight. I would venture to say that Indians/Asians, who embody the unconscious archetypes of India, find themselves more at home with the yoga system in their search for the Divine as Immanent Transcendent. The key difference between Eastern and Western approaches to spirituality is to be seen in their approach to our mind. Whereas in Western spirituality the mind is positively employed in meditation, in the East, meditation commences when the mind ceases its activities. According to Pathanjaly, meditation is cittavrtti-nirodha (arresting of the activities of the mind). It should immediately be stated that stilling of mind does not mean killing or suppressing it. Rather, it is brought under the spell of the innate Divine Centre to such a degree that mind becomes a creative agency in our spiritual path. The Bhagavad Gita says, “For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy” (6:6). When the mind is stilled, the energy that is flowing out to the phenomenal world through mental activities naturally flows inwardly, and human consciousness becomes ignited; thereby our being is spontaneously fine-tuned with the Divine. This turning within becomes a creative process that is more or less parallel with the mystery of the Godhead. The Bhagavad Gita speaks thus of the inner dynamics of the Creator God: “Curving back within myself I create again and again” (9:8). This is very much like the Christian understanding of the mystery of the Triune God, out of whose curving inward the Son and the Spirit are born. Creation is but a spontaneous brimming over of this inner Trinitarian Communion. This witnessing to the Divine consciousness is mainly an active passivity or an active receptivity (womb-consciousness). Mary’s Fiat (Let it be done) in response to the angel’s message is what made her the Mother of God. The Bhagavad Gita says, “One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is intelligent among men, and he is in the transcendental position, although engaged in all sorts of activities” (4:18). “Meditation” is not the right word to describe this inward spiritual path. It is rather an awakening, or a witnessing consciousness, a conscious awareness, an impassioned choiceless awareness that is nothing but pure delight or pure energy or simply witness. It is effortless ease, relaxed and spontaneous. It is a 360-degree awareness rather than a single-pointed concentration. It is like an all-inclusive enveloping presence, like citambaram (consciousness without any clouds). It is seeing without a screen. It is the ineffable happiness (ananda) and immense source of pure energy surging out in virtue of itself and delighting in itself without any external referral. Yoga meditation engenders this inner empowerment and helps us direct our engagement with life through an inner vision. All the layers of our existence—body, emotion, mind, and intellect (annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya) are spontaneously brought under the spell of inner bliss, peace, and harmony (anandamaya). It is saccidananda. It is the Joy of the Holy Spirit. Thus the whole body is transformed into a veritable and efficient instrument of meditation. The first five limbs of Astanga Yoga help the gross body as well our mind to be tuned to the inward movement of the spirit. Yama and niyama look into the purity of the body and the ethical life respectively. Asanas and pranayamas play key roles in disciplining the body and mind for the easy inward flow of energy. With regard to asanas, our body is an energy field, part of cosmic energy. We are living in the confluence of unmanifested energies of electro-magnetic and gravitational frequencies. For the continuous easy flow of meditative energy, our body must wave and weave with this cosmic flow of energies. For example the flow of gravitational attraction is vertical. Our body becomes restful and calm if its posture aligns with the vertical flow of gravitational force. Asanas like padmasana, vajra-asana help us to align our bodies with this vertical flow. When we assume these asanas, our head, neck, backbone, and spinal code (all chakras) form a straight line, and the body naturally vibrates with the energy’s vertical current. Thus, these asanas make the weak body restful and obedient to the willing spirit (see Mark 14:38). As yoga mediation proactively caters to the inward movement of energy, one closes one’s eyes. Psychologists say that eighty to ninety per cent of our energy flows out through the eyes. We spontaneously close our eyes to conserve our energy when confronted with challenging situations (fear, intense prayer, sorrow, love etc.). The expression “Love at first sight” speaks of the power of the eye. When we close our eyes the energy flows are gathered together, and we direct them inward, facilitating inner awakening. In general, asanas make our body malleable so that we can stretch it to the maximum and allow the blood to circulate through every cell of our body, making it subject to meditative energy. Pranayama (breathing) plays a critical role in yogic awakening. Kabir would say, “God is the breath of all breath.” Breath is also the biblical metaphor for God’s own life. “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” (Gen 2:7). Pranayamas help us both physically and mentally. Greater oxygenation increases the metabolic activities of the cells. When animals and humans breathe out, they not only breathe out gases such as carbon dioxide, but also compounds produced by the metabolism of cells. To date, researchers have identified over 1000 different compounds contained in one human breath, compounds such as methylamine, ammonia, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide etc.[10] Breathing is a cleansing process that rejuvenates the body and makes it not only supple, but lucid. Usually our lungs are underutilized.[11] Positive pranayamas increase the oxygenation, thus augmenting the cleansing process of the cells. The body can then overcome its tamas gunas such as inertia, lethargy, sleep, laziness, procrastination etc., and become effortlessly obedient to the spirit movement. The connection between breath and mind-activity is quite revealing. Psychologists would say that mental concentration does not last more than a few minutes. Our mind is like a monkey hopping from one branch to another. Often we speak of peace of mind. That way of speaking is incorrect. Actually we have minds. Psychologists say one can have more than a thousand minds in a day. The crucial element in yoga meditation is arresting the activities of the mind. According to Sri Buddha, these mental activities cannot be controlled directly, but they can be brought under control through rhythmic pranayamas. It was through pranayama centric Vipassana meditation that the Buddha accomplished his nirvana. Arresting the mind is of paramount importance to enter anandamaya (bliss consciousness), which is beyond the grasp of the mind. From the point of view of yoga, real meditation commences when the mind stops its activities. Yoga asanas and pranayamas together transform our body by galvanizing the inward movement of the spirit and making it a vital instrument for awakening to Immanent Presence. Our body postures need to be in harmony with the way we understand the experience of God. If God is Transcendent Presence, prostration is the ideal body posture to bridge the abyss between the finite and the Infinite. Body postures (asanas) of kneeling and prostration are in harmony with the outward meditation movement (pravrtti marga) of obeisance and obedience to the Utterly Other (Father in heaven). If the Divine is conceived as Immanent Presence, we have to turn inward. Yoga asanas and pranayamas are appropriate body disciplines to facilitate this turning inward and to lead us to the awakening of the antariyamin (Indwelling Presence). “Aspects of Christian Meditation” offers important pointers on the role of body postures in prayer and meditation. It states, “In prayer it is the whole man who must enter into relation with God, and so his body should also take up the position most suited to recollection” (26). The document expresses appreciation for the value placed on psychophysical symbolism in Eastern Christian meditation. However, it warns that this symbolism can become an idol, and easily degenerate into a cult (# 27). Moreover, the document warns that certain body postures automatically produce pleasing sensations of quiet and relaxation that can be misconstrued as mystical experience. “Genuine prayer,” the document maintains, “stirs up in the person who prays, an ardent charity which moves him to collaborate in the mission of the Church and to serve his brothers for the greater glory of God” (28). The document does not deny that practices of meditation that come from the Christian East and from the great non-Christian religions can constitute a suitable means of helping the person who prays to come before God with an interior peace, even in the midst of external pressures. What is needed is discretion in adopting new meditation methods. They should be assessed in terms of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (love, peace, joy, understanding, mercy, justice etc.) because it is the Spirit who teaches us to pray. Christian prayer is fundamentally pneumatic. Yoga sadhanas that help one experience the Immanent God cannot naively be transposed to Christian prayer in which one seeks to encounter the Transcendent God. The former entails an inward movement (nivrtti-marga) whereas the latter embraces an outward movement (pravrtti marga). There needs to be compatibility between one’s idea of God and the means one chooses to arrive at an experience of God. For example, a padmasana may not be conducive to pray to a God who is conceptualized as the Transcendent One, for the movement in this case needs to be outward, to the Other. Prostration is a conducive body posture to relate to the Utterly Other (Father) who is in heaven. If yoga is to be adopted as a Christian sadhana, then Christian spirituality needs to shift from the Semitic idea of a Sky God to the Immanent (Incarnate) God (Mother God!) of Eastern religious pursuits. Such a shift is only a question of cultural or theological preference; it does not contradict other paths per se. Christian Yoga Possible? “Aspects of Christian Meditation,” insists that the crux of Christian prayer and meditation is “to know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:18ff.) that Christ “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3). The core experience of the Christian dispensation is the love of God manifested in the person of Jesus. We must therefore ask if yoga and its meditation methods can lead us to the mystery of Christ in an Asian way? The mystery of Christ is explored on two levels, usually referred to as the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith. The historical Jesus is primarily the domain of biblical studies; the Christ of faith is the object of systematic theology and official Church definitions. Should it not be possible to fashion a third version of Christ after the pattern of an Enlightened One in the purview of the Indian/Asian mystical tradition? Enlightenment and the raising of consciousness are traditional Eastern pursuits. In many of his identity statements, Jesus appears typically Asian, as when he says “I am the Light” (Jn 9:5) to refer to his inner enlightenment. When he says “You are the light” (Mt.5:12), his intention is to raise others to the same status. Jesus continuously reminds his followers that they are in darkness and have to wake up: “I am the light of the world. No follower of mine shall wander in the dark; he shall have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). When Jesus’ testimony is challenged he confidently says, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards” (Jn 8:14f). He then goes on to say: “I testify on my own behalf” (8:18) Only a person of awakened consciousness can make such a bold statement. When Jesus says “You are the light,” he is describing our destiny as equal to his own. He is not saying “Become the light” but “You are the light.” There is no need of searching for your identity outside or elsewhere. It is only a question of re-cognition, awakening to the reality that you are already a Christ (a Buddha). That reality is the inner sanctum of your own being. Dig deep into the well-springs that are already within; explore the treasure hidden within. Light is a powerful metaphor of self-awakening in all religious traditions. In India the sun is the ultimate symbol of awakening. The sun’s tremendous energy is generated through insourcing; it shines by burning itself up. The metaphor of salt is also powerful. When Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth,” he is also referring to himself. When he asserts, “The Kingdom of God is within you,” he encourages an inward journey to the ground of being. The Kingdom of God among us can truly be fostered only through the Kingdom of God within, as is the case with Jesus, whose Kingdom of God was his Abba Consciousness that supported his inner identity. The Gospel stories show that Jesus’ Kingdom ministry was to witness to and foster the mercy and love of the Father in which he had always lived and moved and had his being. Can we not therefore say that he was truly Asian, both in substance and style, because he was moored in the consciousness of “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” at the ground of his being? In the story of Jesus, this self-awakening is fully realized in the event of Resurrection. He has become the paradigm of new life and new light in which the whole creation is redeemed through reconciliation. The glory of the Risen is now the inner core of existence. Awakening to this hidden glory at the ground our being would be the Asian way of witnessing to the Risen Christ, who is buried in our interiority. Abhishiktananda, who bracketed out his Christian faith in his attempt to encounter advaita face to face, claimed that he witnessed the Risen Christ in the fire of advaita at the interior core.[12] Perhaps Christian Yoga offers a new methodology for exploring an Asian version of Christ. It is all the more important for the Church in India to explore the promise of yoga since our attempts at inculturation have lost momentum. If the initiative for Indianization comes from the people at the rank and file, it will be more likely to be accepted and to endure. There can be no doubt that yoga has immense potential for being an Indic expression of the “Joy of the Gospel.” The promise of yoga is that it would indeed help us live out the identity Jesus ascribes to us when he says, “You are [already] the light of the world,” words that are so reminiscent of the Buddha, who says, atma deepo bhava (Be a light unto yourself)! It is precisely along these lines that we can present the role of yoga in Christian spirituality as a veritable way (sadhana) to the inner sanctum of our being—the Kingdom of God Within. [1] An ego-transcending spiritual practice; lliterally, “a means of accomplishing something.” [2] Based on the archaeological excavations, modern historians trace the pre-history of India to the Indus Valley Civilization, 3000-1500 BCE. [3] Persians (Pactys, Pathans, Sakas, Marathas, Yuech Kushans) 521-485 BCE; Greeks, 180 BCE – 10 CD; Huns 454 CE; Arabs 712; Mongols 1230; Turks 1398; Portuguese 1505; viii. French 1664; British 1639. [4] The Unknown Christ Of Hinduism: Towards An Ecumenical Christophany (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1981). [5] Antony Kalliath & Roy Lazar, Call for A New Theology of Culture (Bangalore: ITA & ITC 2015), 151, 153 [6] Available on the website of the Holy See: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19891015_meditazione-cristiana_en.html [7].See S. Dasagupta, A History of Indian Philosophy, vol. I, pp. 439-440, 474. A. Coomaraswamy, Volume II, Selected Papers (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978) pp. 10-12; R. Panikkar, Myth, Faith, and Hermeneutics (Bangalore: Indian Trading Corporation, 1983), pp. 304-305. [8] See, J. Krishnamurti, Choiceless Awareness: Meditation without Practice, rev. ed. (Ojai, CA: Krishnamurti Publications of America, 2007). [9] One could also add time and mind. Mind is matter according to Indian philosophy. [10] “Laser Breath Test for Cancer, Asthma.” “The device bounces laser light back and forth until it has touched every molecule a patient exhales in a single breath. This can help detect minute traces of compounds that can point to various diseases, including Cancer, Asthma, Diabetics, Kidney malfunction. The Device’s name: Cavity Enhanced Direct Optical Frequency Comb Spectroscopy. When animals and humans breathe out they not only breathe out the gases such as carbon dioxide but also compounds that result from the metabolism of cells. To date, researchers have identified over 1000 different compounds contained in one human breath, e.g., Methylamine produced excessively by liver, Ammonia by kidney when it fails, elevated acetones caused by Diabetics. Asthma people produce too much Nitric Oxide. Smokers have high level of carbon monoxide.” The Hindu 21.2.2008. p.24. [11] We breathe about 23000 times a day. The average volume taken in a single breath is half a litre to one litre. Potentially this volume can be increased up to four to six litres. This means we can increase fivefold the intake of oxygen; thereby five times more cleansing is possible. See Acharya Mahpajna, Preksa Dhyana Perception of Breathing, trans. Muni Mahendra Kumar, Jethalal S. Zaveri (Jodhpur: Jain Vishva Bharati, 1994). [12] See Antony Kalliath, The Word in the Cave (Delhi: Inter-Cultural Publications, 1996). |
 Antony Kalliath, CMI, born in Kerala, India, is a Carmelite Catholic priest . He holds a PhD in Systematic Theology from the Gregorian University, Rome, where he wrote his thesis on Abhishiktananda. He was the Dean of Theology, Pontifical Athenaeum Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, Bangalore, India, and Director of the Centre for World Religions at Dharmaram, Faculty at the National Biblical, Catechetical Liturgical Centre, a research institute of the Indian Bishops Conference of India, Executive Secretary as well as the President of the Indian Theological Association. Presently he is the director of Divyodaya, Inter-Faith Centre, Coimbatore, and a Board Member of the Christian Chair, Madras University, India. He has published several theological articles both in international and national journals and authored the Word in the Cave, and edited a number of volumes, the recent ones –Retelling the Story of Jesus through the Stories of People; Indian Secularism, A Theological Response; Mission in Asia, Paths and Paradigms; Inclusive Development; Call for a Theology of Culture. Email: antonykalliath@gmail.co |