Christmas and Advaita Vedanta

At Christmas, we are confronted again, with the sometimes very difficult task of separating the reality of Christmas from the clutter that surrounds that reality. There is so much confusion that sometimes you feel like the real Christmas story is like a diamond lost in a haystack- it just seems impossible to find. This was illustrated to me the other night as my wife, Elizabeth and my daughter, Prathana decided to drive through the Commercial Street where we saw a lot of lights and displays and Prathana always enjoys it. We came to all kinds of representations of Christmas-everything imaginable: there was the Nativity scene, the Star of David, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus, the reindeer, Rudolph, Christmas trees, presents – the entire stuff. And really, it was just a picture of the chaos of Christmas, all confused so that no one could make any sense out of any of it. Christmas has really become a muddle of confusion. The humility and the poverty of the stable are somehow confused with wealth and indulgence of shopping malls. The quietness of Bethlehem is mingled with the din of commercial complexes. The soberness of the incarnation is in one way or another mixed with the parties of this season. Blinking lights in some way have some connection to the star of Bethlehem. The room in the inn, so obscure, so dirty, somehow embraces the thought of a decorated house and opulent feasting. Santa Claus’ toys are mixed with the true value of the gifts given by the wise men. Salesmen somehow get mixed up with shepherds. Angels are confused with a flying reindeer. The pain of childbirth is mixed with the Festivity. The filth of the stable is confounded with the whiteness of artificial snow. The great reality of Christmas, the glory of the Lord being revealed, is obscured by so much tinsel and commercialism. Even our neighbors of other faiths are speaking as though they in some sense believe in the Incarnation. I had an occasion to hear the views of a close friend of mine, a practicing Hindu.I heard his observation of Christmas and how he intriguingly kept relating it to a school of Hindu philosophy called Advaita Vedanta. Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism he told me are perhaps the most widely-known traditions to employ this concept within the context of their respective belief systems. When he had finished speaking, I shared my perspective of the doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ my belief that the second person in the Godhead, also known as the Son or the Logos (Word), “became flesh” when he was miraculously conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. I told my very knowledgeable friend, that at the Incarnation, the Divine nature of the Son was united with human nature in one divine Person Jesus Christ, who was both “truly God and truly man” We discussed the Chalcedonian Creed. This doctrine is specifically referenced in the Bible in John 1:14 and Colossians 2:9. It is known as the Hypostatic Union. The doctrine is central to the traditional Christian faith as held by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and most Protestants.

Today I seek to write this blog on the development of the spiritual and theological contact between Advaita Vedanta and Christianity. The word “Advaita” essentially refers to the identity of the Self (Atman) and the Whole (Brahman) Advaita Vedanta is a sub-school of the Vedānta (literally, end or the goal of the Vedas, Sanskrit) school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and Viśishṭādvaita. Advaita (literally, non-duality) is often called a monistic system of thought. I seek to give particular weight to the input of two recent Roman Catholic theologians, Richard De Smet, S.J, and Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux), who sought to grapple with the meaning and implication of Hindu philosophy on non-duality for Christian theology and spirituality.

Whereas De Smet attempted to associate Advaita doctrine with Christian teaching on the conceptual level, Abhishiktananda pursued an experiential pre-conceptual advance to the truth of Advaita. My essay advocates the view that both approaches are workable and essential for an in-depth encounter between Advaitins and Christians. It also acknowledges Abhishiktananda of the challenge that new religious experience presents to traditional theologizing. “Non-duality” is a term used variously by Hindus, Buddhists, and Taoists to express some uncomplicated insight about the unity of reality. When employed in such a broad sense, non-duality is an ambiguous and somewhat unclear term. To come to a more precise understanding of what non-duality is or might mean, we must return to the original linguistic and philosophic backgrounds from which the word has been translated into English. If we limit a probe of the meaning of non-duality to Hindu Sanskrit literature, we find that the most frequently used term is “Advaita.” However, even here, when our study is limited to a single tradition and to the examination of a single word, the difficulty of ambiguity recurs to a certain degree. For, the ancient term “Advaita” is not a precise concept; it is to be taken neither as an exact metaphysical characterization nor as an analogical declaration about being. Its meaning is thus initially intangible. Etymologically, “Advaita” does not so much present a clear statement about the nature of being as it attempts to rule out from the start a false understanding of reality. Advaita is basically a denial; it is literally the negation of a duality (a-dvaita) of some unspecified type. Advaita is, therefore, only indirectly and negatively a proposal about the nature of being. Hence, the term leaves itself open to a variety of interpretations as to its exact meaning. As I see it, the interpretations given to Advaita in our time are very broad, indeed. In Hinduism Advaita not only indicates a certain ontological position, but it is also the name of the principal system (darsana) of Hindu metaphysical thinking. This body of Advaita instruction has been conserved by a school founded more than 2,500 years ago in India to defend and disseminate teachings about non-duality and to develop and cultivate attitudes and practices that promote an accurate vision (darsan) of life. The full and proper name of this school is Advaita Vedanta, or the non-dualistic interpretation of Vedanta. “Vedanta” of itself signifies any one of a number of soteriological movements that draw chiefly from the Upanisads (ca. 900-200 B.C.E.). Advaita Vedanta in particular specifies the tradition that attempts faithfully to preserve a non-dualistic understanding of the Upanisads, those revealed scriptures (sruti) that are said to announce the highest truth of reality and the path that overcomes creaturely suffering. Advaita Vedanta – whether regarded in contemporary times as a philosophical system, a theology, or, more accurately, a theology that is essentially exegetical – remains today, as it has since the nineteenth century, the school of Hindu thought that has been the best known to Western students of Indian history religious There is some reason to believe that Advaita Vedanta has been the dominant school of Hindu thought since the time of Sankara or Sankaracarya (ca. 700 C.E.) or soon after. Sankara (”Sankara the Teacher”) is the Advaita tradition’s most important commentator (bhasyakara) of its sacred canon. Little is known about Sankara’s life with certainty other than that he was a monk, a founder of monastic centers (matts) of Advaita learning in various parts of India, and the religious thinker most responsible for the ascension of Advaita or non-dualistic Vedanta to a place of unequaled rank among all those schools seeking a proper interpretation of the Upanisads, a place it holds today after almost thirteen centuries. To me Christmas is all about the Advaita truth that, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word became human to live amongst us. We celebrate that God became a person. God is seeking to be known. God desires to demystify Himself so that humanity can know Him. As a result, God has come to us as a human being.
God made provision to remove the barrier that prevents us from uniting with Him. Depending on our belief system, we either believe that our Karma or Maya (illusion or lack of self knowledge) is the cause for our separation with God. Fortunately, God’s redemption plan librates us from both of these inhibiting factors.
The Karma Factor: How many of us honestly believe that we will receive Moksha in this life? Since none amongst us are free from our Karmic debt, Yeshu became a human to pay for it on our behalf. He did so by bearing our punishment to the point of death. In other words, his death frees us from our karmic debt. Therefore, we are free to live lives in full surrender to God, obeying God’s instructions all the days of our lives.
The Maya Factor: God says we have to die to ourselves and allow Truth (God) to live in us, to dispel Maya. Sometimes we just go halfway; we just die to ourselves (detachment), without inviting God to live in us. Please allow me to explain. We say that God asks us to be detached from ourselves, so that we can be free to be fully attached to Him. So instead of self-realization, God is advocating Yeshu Realization or God-Realization and God has gone further and made a provision to make this a reality in our lives.
Here is where it gets even better! After Yeshu died and was resurrected, He gave us a gift. In fact, without this gift we cannot unite with God. He gave us Himself (as a Gift) in the form of Spirit. This gift revives our spirit, and resides in us, so that we have the capacity to connect with God without barriers. In fact, this gift (God) becomes our internal guru, dispelling Maya (darkness), leading and guiding us to become more like Yeshu.
On this redemption path, God has become the Way, and the Means for us to attain Mukti. Instead of human effort to reach God, can we trust in God’s effort to reach us? Is this sufficient Veda for you to reach to Anta? Are you able to believe this and take a step of faith to connect with God? This is not a call to join a religion or sect. If you are ready to take the step, feel free to express this to God, and unwrap the true Christmas gift. By taking a step of faith, you get on the path God has made for us. All who believe receive this Gift.

I encourage all who read this to reply, and I will gladly discuss this further.

Wesley Jacob