Glocal Christianity

Hare Jesus?

Cody Lorance has written some interesting comments at The Ramblings defending his "Hare Jesus" language in contextualizing the good news for Hindus. 

What's your view? Do you get where he is coming from or do you find it too extreme?

Best Sellers in Hinduism

Every now and then I find it helpful to take a wider look at the spiritual currents moving through our culture, beyond my direct experience of it. In that respect I sometimes find it informative to look at what's selling in bookstore like Amazon. So tonight I thought I'd take a look at the best sellers in Hinduism.  Here they are:

1. The Bhagavad-Gita by Barbara Stoler Miller
2. The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran
3. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Sri S. Satchidananda
4. The Subtle Body by Cyndi Dale
5. Bhagavad Gita by Stephen Mitchell
6. Darsan by Diana L. Eck
7. Remember, Be Here Now by Ram Dass
8. Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
9. The Four Desires by Rod Stryker
10. Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anodea Judith

Looking very "traditional" don't you think? Get's me wondering how much Kindle sales are distorting the normal picture, with people stocking up on cheap classics.

Ganesh feeling less than omnipotent

I'm wondering if I should explore some of the art of other religions as a counterpoint to the alternative Christian art. 

This is "Ganesh Grows Impatient!" by Steve Nazar 

Sai Baba and the Christ question

I was talking to one of our Sri Lankan members the other day when he revealed that Sai Baba was a much bigger influence amongst the Hindus of western Sydney than I'd realised. 

For the uninitiated Sai Baba is an popular Indian guru who considers himself greater than Christ:

"Buddha, Christ, Mohammed and others were not Avathars. They had some divine power. Only in India are Avathars born, because only in India are the Sastras understood." (Dr. John Hislop. Conversations with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Ch. XL, p. 133)

This gives me much to ponder.

Christocentric Satsang: Baj Pawaantam

Came across this demonstration of how to play and sing the Hindi-langugage bhajan (devotional song) called "Bhaj Paawantam". This song is written by Anil Dev and frequently performed by the musical group Aradhana. Check out the rest at The Ramblings.

Mythology, Media and the Future of Hinduism

Huffington Post launched an interesting article on Mythology, Media and the Future of Hinduism yesterday. Here's an extract:

"At present, Hindu mythology is under strain from two opposite tendencies that are not entirely unrelated to broader debates about religion and politics in India and the diaspora. There seems to be a "didactic" extreme and an "experimental" extreme in present approaches to the tales of the gods. The didactic tendency views mythology as a litany of facts about history and geography. It shows up in some of the recent animated mythological movies. The gods are depicted like pop culture superhero figures while a pedantic voice lists facts about them. The experimental tendency, on the other hand, sees mythology as open to virtually any sort of reinterpretation without regard to virtue or intent. Some artists and intellectuals espouse this view, and end up assuming that any imputation of sanctity to mythology is inherently fundamentalist."

Remind you of anything?

Related articles on Hinduism

The Spirit of Hinduism
Folk Hinduism and Philosophical Hinduism

Making disciples amongst Hindus

Trinity International Baptist Mission have just embarked on a series of articles on contextualized discipleship amongst Hindus. The first article is on obedience versus pragmatism. The image alone grabbed my attention. 

Do the Hindu roots of yoga matter?

If you are interested in yoga, I highly recommend you check out Lisa Miller's article on The Clash of the Yogis. It seems secular spirituality author Deepak Chopra has been clashing with others on the Hindu roots of yoga and Miller makes some interesting observations about American culture in the process.

Personally, I think Chopra is being disingeneous. It's long been my observation that the hardest core of Hindu teaching is dharma, karma and reincarnation, not the gods of its pantheon, and since Deepak Chopra teaches dharma, karma and reincarnation his approach hardly qualifies as religiously neutral.

Parramatta goes Indian

Well, I've been saying for years that the Pendle Hill / Parramatta area is fast becoming the Hindu epicentre of Australia, but if there were any lingering doubts to what I've been saying they should have been squashed over the last two weeks.

Firstly, it has been announced that next November a new festival dubbed "Parramasala" is to be held in Parramatta to coincide with Dwali, the Indian Festival of Lights. David Borger, our local MP has said:

“Parramatta is the centre of Sydney’s cultural diversity, including the biggest population of Indian and South Asian communities in Australia, and is the perfect location for this colourful Bollywood style festival.”

For more see the Parramasala video and Parramatta to be transformed by Indian festival, Parramasala.

Secondly, last night Indian superstar A.R. Rahman staged a free outdoor spectacular in Parramatta Park where crowds of up to 80,000 people were expected.

"A.R. Rahman is one of the highest selling composers in the world and won two Academy Awards for composing music for the hit film Slumdog Millionaire. He specifically chose Parramatta as the venue for his only Australian appearance as a way of building community relations and fostering goodwill."

The obvious question I'm struggling with though is, are we, the local Christian communities, up to the task of taking a lead in Hindu-Christian relations in Australia?

Yoga Body, Yoga Spirit

I have been looking back over what I've written on Yoga over the years, and have how people have commented in response, and what stands out for me is the need for Christians to clearly articulate how they understand the mind, body, soul and Spirit.

Yoga, given its Hindu origins, tends to be grounded in pantheistic (God is all) pneumatology where no meaningful distinction is recognized between soul and Spirit, humanity and divinity. Christianity, on the other hand, teaches a monotheistic (God is one) pneumatology, where a significant distinction is recognized between humanity and divinity, soul and Spirit, which has consequences for how we understand union / yoga with God. The hurdles to union are not just perceptual and mechanical, they are also ethical and relational. Thus, genuine union goes beyond experience, beyond what we can perceive. And yet, experience of God is not unimportant or inconsequential. It is a blessing to experience. So, how to move forward? For me it is a matter of faith seeking experience.

Authentic yoga, authentic union, begins with faith, begins with entrusting your self, your soul to God, to Spirit. The soul is not essentially equivalent to Spirit, but it is radically dependant on Spirit (see previous comments on mysticism), a subtle but important difference. Thus, contra Hinduism, authentic yoga is more about soul realignment or attunement than soul deconstruction or denial. Its about entrusting ourselves to Spirit, the Spirit most deeply known through Christ. Christian yoga begins with Christ faith.

Going deeper, from a Hebraic understanding the soul is a mind and body unity, it is the self understood holistically. So there is no mind / body split, but there is a soul / Spirit split. Christian yoga, union with Christ, heals this split through the karmic transferrence he achieved through his death and resurrection.

So what then of experience? Well, faith needs to be exercised. We are called to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, body and soul, so what are we waiting for? Use your body as God intended it, worship the Lord with your whole self. Let go. Trust. Listen. Listen to yourself, listen to your environment, listen to your God, listen with your whole self and not just your ears. It is said the sacred / secular split is a false one, well, what of the split between physical discipline and spiritual discipline? Stretch yourself. Why not explore as you exercise?

Related posts on Christianity and Yoga:

How (not) to Christianize Yoga
Christian Yoga
The Yoga Sutras of Sri Paul
Jesus Yoga
Stretching for Jesus