Spiritual Discipline by St. John of the Cross

As I went through some of the books of St. John of the Cross, a 16^th century Spanish Monk I was spell-bound. He was a Carmelite priest, contemporary of St. Teresa of Avila to whom I have devoted a blog earlier. He was a major figure in Counter Reformation, a Spanish mystic, a Roman Catholic Saint, a Carmelite Friar and a priest and a poet of acclaim. 

Just to give an outline of his life, he was born in 1542 near Avila in a place called Fontiveros. His father died when he was barely two years old, and his mother, being penniless and not being able to support her two living children with her job in weaving, sent John to a school for the poor, where he started his studies.

He takes the Carmelite habit in 1563 at the age of 21, and is ordained a priest in 1567. He is supposed to have met St. Teresa of Avila at that time, who convinced him to join the order of monks being started by her.

Taking deep interest in the Counter-Reform movement of the Catholic church which came in after the storm of Reformation, St. John starts to found monasteries of the Reform along with St. Teresa, as the Discalced Carmelites, consisting of barefooted monks of Carmelite order.

In a conflict between Discalced and non-discalced Carmelite orders, he was imprisoned in Toledo in 1577, where he was confined to a very small cell in the jail of the monastery, and was fed with just water and bread, and was brought out to be given lashings in the public every week.  

It was here when he was in the prison, he wrote his now famous poems, stanzas which he later expanded and wrote commentaries on. Prison is an infamous place where people of repute have penned their masterpieces. Think of Paul, the Apostle, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime minister and so on, who wrote from their prison cells.

He escaped after 8 months and was nursed back to health by the Carmelite nuns and went ahead to be active in the Reformed church, founding more monasteries of the Discalced order. He at the age of 49 in 1591 at Ubeda. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726 and as declared Doctor of the Church Universal by Pope Pius XI in 1926.

While in prison, St. John composed some 17 stanzas of “Spiritual Canticle,” which are masterpieces of Christian Mysticism. In his writings, he expounds the dark night, the night of doubt, confusion and despair, that the soul passes through in order to receive the Divine light of the perfect union with the love of God.

I tried my luck with the book, “Ascent of Mt. Carmel,” which was the first of the books written by the Saint. It gives an account of the soul from its first determination to seek to rise from the earth and soar upward towards the union with God. It is a systematic study of the ascetical endeavour of a soul looking for perfect union with God.

As I ploughed through the book, which was difficult to read, just to say the least, I was also plagued with doubts whether this is the same concept as the merger and union of a soul, Atma with that of Paramatma, the Absolute Brahman, a Hindu concept codified elaborately in Upanishads of Hinduism.

I broke off reading and restarted it after almost 8 months and completed it, but to my surprise, it wasn’t about a merger like in the Hindu concept. It is about reaching perfection through prayers and meditation leading to transformation in God through love.

Just like Apostle Paul has written in Romans 12: 2, “And do not e conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” The writings are resplendent with the word of God from the Bible strewn throughout the narrative, which is a pleasure to read.  

The next treatise, “Dark Night of the Soul,” which I am reading now, describes what the soul encounters in its journey to seek the ultimate in God, a continuation of the Ascent of Mount Carmel. Here the first stanza of the poem talks of the first night of purgation of the sensual part of the soul. Then comes the spiritual part, the purification which is a night obscure, dark and terrible, the Dark Night.

In the Dark Night, it is God who takes the initiative and purges the soul of its senses and faculties, nudging the soul towards its goal of merger in the love of God and be transformed completely. The treatise talks about the seven deadly sins, including pride, avarice, luxury, wrath, gluttony, envy and sloth and the need to be purged off these.

All these discipline is to ensure the soul will remain in peace and quietness, content with loving attentiveness toward God, depicting the various stages of ascent to the Mount, which culminates in the union with God. St. John also describes the ten steps or degrees of love, which is known as St. Bernard’s mystical ladder.

The other two books of the Saint which I am yet to lay my hands on are The Spiritual Canticle and The Living Flame of Love. I am sure I will do so soon and be delighted in the account of the Saint who had climbed the Mountain himself and has written about his experience.  

Spiritual Canticle is said to be about a bride, the soul, searching for her bridegroom, and is anxious at having lost him. When they find each other, they are filled with joy.

It sounds like the Songs of Solomon in the Bible, where the Shulamite girl, smitten by the love bug, pines for her lover to come and claim her as his bride and the mutual joy they experience once they unite in love.

The Living Flame is supposed to describe the greater intimacy as the soul responds to God’s love, the final Union with God.

Well, it seems to be a tall order in today’s world to lead such a life of not even wearing shoes/sandals and seek the Lord continually, but even without such a rigorous asceticism, it is possible to be in the Lord all the time, continually to remember him, pray for people who are in difficult straits, and ‘be in Christ.’ Writings such as these inspire us to do so, which are achievable for any ordinary human being.

As I write this, Christmas season is on us, and we are celebrating the birth of a child, who gave up everything to take up the human form, to achieve liberation for the human souls, from the captivity of sin and sickness and death. That is love and may we be enveloped by that love that will never leave us or forsake us or abandon us.

Let’s seek refuge in that Love.

Let our Lord’s love and intimacy keep our hearts and souls in love, with him and our fellow-human beings.

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Christmas in the Air!

It is the month of December already and eager anticipation of Christmas and the celebrations abound. Like you can smell the Spring season in the air, with its flowers and scents and the chirping birds, one can feel the excitement about Christmas. It is in the very air!

Programmes after programmes in the churches, musicals and skits by Sunday School students and the choir, cantata, Christmas carols, galore. Not to say the least about the preparations of plum cakes, Christmas puddings, sweets, rose-cookies, mince pies and fritters. Yes, it is the time to celebrate, a time of sharing and rejoicing, for Christ was born that day.  

But what is the significance of Christmas celebration? What are we really celebrating? It is just cakes and wine or is there something more?

Bible tells us that Jesus was born on that day, which we today celebrate as Christmas, may be around 3 BC. Some 2000 and odd years of traditions have become built around that event. At this point of time we are not too sure about the exact date or month or the season or the year of his birth. But we do know that a child was born in Bethlehem in a manger to Mary and Joseph.

Bible also tells us that the child that was being born will ‘save His people from their sins.’ Matthew 1:21. That seems to be the purpose of the birth. The child was born of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God fashioned the child as a human zygote and implanted it in the womb of the virgin Mary, betrothed to Joseph the carpenter. It developed into the embryo and the baby was born in the normal manner.

That was the First Advent – the first coming of Jesus, the Son of God coming as a boy child in to the world. Jews anticipated eagerly the birth of a Messiah, to save them, save them from foreign rule and oppression, including that of Roman’s. They missed the birth of Jesus completely, because he was born not to save them from foreign rule, but to save them from their sins! Of course, he was not born in a palace to a King, but to a carpenter in a manger.

During his life time on earth, the Jews tried to make him a king but he refused and avoided such a role. That angered them. They couldn’t accept Jesus, a mere carpenter as their Messiah. It was blasphemy to them, when Jesus called himself Son of Man and addressed God as his Father, who, he claimed, sent him to earth to fulfill a mission.

When he claimed to be a king, and Son of God and the Messiah, but refused to lift his little finger to fight against the Roman rule, the Jews finished him off on the cross.

While celebrating the birth of Jesus the baby, one’s mind is drawn inevitably to the cross, where Jesus the man died. Without the cross, there is no great significance to the manger. It was on the cross that the price was paid for the sin of mankind.

Jesus was the faultless lamb, lamb without blemish, offered as a sacrifice to ward off the judgement of God. Mankind’s rebellion against God, his life lived independent of God, his disobedience to God’s commandments, deserved penalty, the penalty of death, eternal separation from the goodness of God.

Jesus paid the penalty on the cross with his own life. He effected eternal rapprochement between God and man and restored the broken relationship between them. That was and is the real significance of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Well, it didn’t stop there, did it? The death on the cross was followed by the incredible resurrection, Jesus rose again! That gives hope to all mankind for now we know that we will also rise again after death in our spiritual bodies, and see each other.

This is a great hope that other religions do not offer. Mainly because of the absence of such a hope of being reunited with the loved ones after death, in future, people cling to life in this world. They do not let go of their old mothers and fathers. They are scared. They may not see them again at all!

Who knows in what shape and size and category they will be born in the next incarnation? For a Hindu, it will depend entirely on their Karma! That is scary. No wonder they do not want to let go of them. For an atheist, there is no life after death. That is all there is to it.  

To a believer, a Christian, there are no such fears. He or she will definitely moan the loss of a life, that of a father or mother or any other dear one, but has this great hope that one day we will see each other and meet them all in bodily form in the resurrection. What a great hope for mankind!

Greater hope and joy is that the resurrected Jesus will come back one day, this time in power and glory, to put down His enemies and rule the world in righteousness and justice. That will be the Second Advent. When we celebrate the First Advent, we cannot but be reminded of about the Second Advent, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! Wow!

We are living in exciting times. First Advent is over and we are still celebrating it. And now it is almost time for the Second Advent to happen and the slain, but resurrected Jesus Christ to come back as the Lord and the true King of this world. What wonderful and adventurous times! 

Are you happy? Glad? Yes, Christmas cake and parties bring in excitement, but look beyond it to the resurrected Jesus, our Lord and Savior coming again and our own resurrection and meeting all our loved ones, who died and went ahead of us.

Are you ready for that great event? All set? Have you anchored your faith in Christ Jesus? Or are you still in doubt and debating? Decide fast for the day is almost done and the event is fast approaching.

Do not delay your decision for Jesus any longer. It might be too late. Cast the vote now and live.

Merry Christmas to all of you my dear friends and a very happy New Year.

God’s blessings be on all of you. 

What of Remarriage for women?

We were at Bible study, and I was trying to exegesis Romans chapters 6 and 7:1-6. In these chapters, Paul is raising an argument, whether it is alright to go on sinning, because we are under grace and God would lovingly forgive our sins. He answers by a vehement ‘No,’ and goes on to explain why we shouldn’t sin or couldn’t sin, once we have come to accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour.

To consolidate his point of view he gives three illustrations: one that of Baptism, where we die with Christ, buried in the water and rise again as a new person just like the risen Christ. Second, that of slavery. Once we were slaves to sin, but now that we have been liberated by the blood shed by Jesus Christ on the cross, we are not slaves to sin anymore, but slaves to God through Christ.

The last example is that of marriage. This is what interested me. Paul says the law of marriage holds as long as the husband lives. Once he is dead, the wife is free of the bond and is free to marry whomever she wants or likes. Jesus died for us and set us free from Law, so we can marry Jesus, the new Husband, and follow His law of love and not the old Law of Moses.

When the husband is living, if she marries another person, Paul says, she will be considered as an adulteress; but on husband’s death, if she marries another, that is legitimate.

I was fascinated by this whole argument. That the wife can marry another on the death of her husband, was a very considerate arrangement in the Jewish society in the first century AD, when women were not financially independent and were totally dependent on their husbands for livelihood.

Such a person, when she loses her husband could end in penury or on the streets. So, the Law and custom made allowances that she could marry someone else, who continue to be supported.

Another great provision under Jewish Law and custom was that of Levirate marriage. When a man dies without a son, his widow has the right to marry the brother of the dead man. This ensured that the woman was continued to be looked after by her husband’s family.

Also, the first child of the brother of the dead man and the widow will be considered as the child of the dead man, so that his name was not extinguished but carried on to the next generation. His family line continued. It was seen as an obligation to be performed by the brother to his dead elder brother. Ruth of the Bible is an example of such a levirate marriage, by a near kin.

Romans also permitted their women to marry someone else, if her husband died. Widow remarriage was an accepted fact of life and there was no great fuss made of that. May be that is why we see that even today in the modern society of the West, remarriage, either after divorce or death of a husband is a normal thing.

In the ancient Indian society, widowhood was considered inauspicious and something dreaded. Women were burnt on the funeral pyre of her dead husband, so that she will die with her husband, rather than live the ignominy of a widow’s miserable life. Marrying someone else was not even to be dreamt of by the widow!

Even in the Twentieth century, remarriage of the widows was not common. Stigma was always attached to that. She was seen as a bad omen and someone to be avoided, especially while performing auspicious functions like a marriage.

Up until the turn of the Twentieth century, widowhood meant shaven head, a thin saffron coloured saree to be wound around the body and work like a donkey at the household that supported her. She became the unpaid servant of that household. Today such horrible situations have changed are not there at all.

Still traces of it are found in the country. For example, the Vrindavan widows, who are dumped by their relatives, including their children, at the temple town of lord Krishna, in Vrindavan to eke their living.

They sing bajans (religious songs) praising the god of that town, Krishna, almost the whole day for two chappaties[1] a day, which the poojaries (priests) of these Krishna temples dole out to them. That is a miserable life, and they are doomed to live like that till they die.[2]

Well, twenty first century girls and women of India need not really worry about these tribulations of yesteryear. They are educated, earn their own living, marry whom they want to and get out, when they don’t want to and call the shots. They might leave a lot of broken hearts on the way, but I suppose their own hearts are broken every time that happens. So, it will definitely not be a pastime they chose to indulge without valid reasons.

We still have female infanticide in the rural areas, abandoned girl babies at the cradles provided for by the government, and horrible dowry deaths, where women are literally burnt by pouring kerosene over them and lit by the in-laws, mutely watched by the husbands.

All the more need for girls to be educated, be self-dependent, stand on their own legs and take control of their lives and be fearless, so that others cannot exploit them physically or torture them mentally.

Brave-hearts do not take things lying down, but fight it out valiantly till the end. I remember the ‘Brave-heart’ in that Delhi bus on that horrible night four years ago, when she went out for a movie with her boyfriend. She did not take it lying down, but fought it until she died and in dying gave hope and courage to many.

A society is known by the respect it shows to its women and how it treats her. I wish India will rise up and be counted as a civilized society at least in the 21^st century.  

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[1] Round and flat unleavened wheat breads common in India.

[2] William Dalrymple gives a succinct description of this City of Widows in his book, “The Age of Kali.”  

Reminiscence of the wild, wild days!

Ahh, what pleasure to just recall those wild wild days! One was young, energetic, full of life, with not a care in the world, play, play and play all the time; father’s pet and mother’s anxiety, brother’s play-mate, what pure joy!

To confess, I was a tomboy while I was young. I used to roam the country side, much to the consternation of my mother, along with my elder brother and his friends, flying kites, in Avadi where we lived, a suburb of the then Madras. It was my elder brother, Kumar, who taught me to ride a bicycle. It was pure exhilaration! My mother had difficult time holding me in her hand to plait my unruly hair, as I would be jumping up to go, and run along.

Then we shifted to Saidapet in Chennai. I had a gang of girls with whom I used to cycle the streets of West CIT Nagar, where we stayed. I played cricket and gilli-danda[1] with the boys of the neighborhood. Ah, those were the days.

But then an end came to all these – I was forced to sit in one corner and was made to behave like a girl, at the age of 12, having come of age! There went my freedom for a toss and all the fun involved in that freedom.

After a long time, only when I went to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie in 1974 as an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) Probationer, at the age of 24, the world opened wide once again. There was a whole new world that opened before me beckoning my inborn wild and adventurous nature.

                                                                           

                                                                                 Crossing the Rothong Pass

I went crazy. I joined Judo, yoga, Transcendental Meditation,[2] horse-riding, trekking in the Himalayas, to Gangotri and Rothong Pass, Rock climbing in Uttarkashi, and so on. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I excelled in all these outdoor activities. Would it be the DNA catching up or the inborn nature showing up or both?

                                 Judo demo in the Academy - me in action (pl. note the audience                                                enjoying it all - a novelty at that time)

The saga continued when in Bangalore I joined Nature Admire and started to go on tracking with them. Remember fondly, sleeping under the sky on Tippu’s Fort, Srirangapatnam, near Mysore, after a day of tiring but exhilarating trek. Went on for rock-climbing near Ramanagaram, near Bangalore and many treks including Anekal and Tumkur areas.

                                                                   With co-participants at the Basic course in                                                                                                          Mountaineering

It almost culminated in going to Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, in 1985 to do the Basic course in Mountaineering. I ended up getting an ‘A’ grading there. We climbed in the Kangchenjunga range of mountains up to 18,000 feet.

                                                

                                                        with Bachendri Pal

At the Mountaineering Institute met the famous Tenzing Norgay, who was still alive and the first woman to conquer Mount Everest, Bachendri Pal. Was I thrilled? Oh yes, as if I had climbed Mt. Everest myself!

                                                                                       Leading the Dasara procession along with the                                                                                           Police Commissioner and the Mayor, Mysore

In my Mysore posting as the Divisional Commissioner in 1992, the bonus came in the form of Police Academy, which had a Horse Riding School. My son Shawn was quite young then, may be 11 years old. We both were regulars early in the mornings for horse riding. That was great fun, catching up with Mussoorie days.

By 1983, I had started with Jane Fonda's workout and had a whale of a time. I had become conscious of the right food to eat and the right time to eat and the benefit in building up muscles, which are like power houses, burning the food you eat even when you are asleep. 

My son started on body building in a local gym near BTM where we stay when he was around 17 years old. This time I followed him and went on to do Resistant training with weights in the gym. Ever since it is I who am following him, literally, either in week-end phone calls or trips to visit him in US!

The day I retired, I bid goodbye to weight lifting. May be a wrong move, I don’t know. But the club in my colony had just started a swimming pool and the first to jump in was me! Oh, how I loved swimming! I would spend hours perfecting my strokes by watching videos of Michael Phelps and his every move. Hmm, those were the days.

As I turned 67 this year, I pulled my sciatic nerve and had to slacken my pace. Still recovering from that pain and muscle degeneration. It is nice to recall the yester-years that have gone by full of activities. It sort of boosts you up! I really need to pull myself by the boot-straps, as they say, and recover and be on my way to higher grounds. Nothing exhilarating like a good physical exercise to energize the body, relieve the mind of any tension and boost up one’s energy levels.

How can I not thank God for all the opportunities He keeps throwing in front of me and for the guts and interest He has given me to grab and engage in all these activities as and when I came across them. 

God be praised and all glory to Him alone.

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[1] A game with two sticks, one small and one big. The small stick has pointed ends and with the big stick, one strikes the edge of the small stick so that it flips in the air. Then the player strikes the airborne small stick with the big stick, to send it flying, just as a cricket ball would.

[2] Both Yoga and Transcendental Meditation I gave up once I became a serious Christian, in 1993, as these are not biblical. 

3. Unfortunately I lost my elder brother in an accident in 1972 when he was very young

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Demonetization or demonization?

This is the hottest topic of the day, just sizzling down a bit, but the tamasha is still on, with un-abating long queues in front of the ATMs and Bank branches.

Today, just 15 minutes back, as I went out I saw a few people standing near an ATM and quickly got on to the line. Luckily, I was the 8^th person in the queue and got my first new Rs.2000 very fast. That was amazing. By the time I got out of the ATM, the queue had become serpentine.

I walked on to buy some fruits from the cart-fellow from whom I usually buy. He was so down-hearted, saying people ask for less price while in the whole sale Market he is not getting any such concessions. I wanted to help him and bought some over ripe bananas and sapottas for a hundred rupee note and walked back home, ruminating.

What really was the reason for the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi to bring out this demonetization move? What a lot of suffering for the common man! Did he think about it all, as he is busy flying around the world, seemingly signing important deals and treaties.

To give some background, it is well known that corruption is endemic in India. India, as per Transparency International’s ranking on Corruption Perception Index, stands 76 out of 165 countries. The World Bank’s survey of ease of doing business places India at 130 in the list of 190 countries. Quite a bad show.

India’s shadow economy or parallel economy fueled by black money is supposed to be 19-20%of the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Only 2.5% of Indians ever pay Income Tax to the government! The rest are all outside the nation’s tax net.

This is precisely what the black money is all about. It is the money that is not accounted for, for which no income tax has been paid and which gets spent on lavish lifestyles, to fund illegal activities like smuggling, drug dealing, arms transactions, and to support terrorist activities.

More statistics. It is figured that 86% of the money that is in circulation in India is in the higher denominations of Rs.1000 and Rs.500 notes. Obviously, it is these currencies that circulate as black money. It is easier to deal with bigger currencies, for example, while paying a bribe, as these could be stacked neatly in a small suitcase!

So, Modi struck on the higher denominations of Rs.1000 and Rs.500 while demonetizing currencies on 8^th November 2016. So far so good. But can black money be removed from the country by this measure alone? Definitely not.

The rich and the tax-evaders are not going to keep their ill-gotten wealth stacked in their houses. They would have invested in real estate, land and houses, and gold and jewelry.

Also in offshore tax-haven countries, including Mauritius, where they could hide their money, and from where it returns to the country as Foreign Investment, undergoing a transformation from black to white money in the process. 

There could be medium rich business people, who have kept money in gunny bags and sacks in their houses and such money would be rendered valueless with this demonetization move, unless they declare and pay the penalty and the tax due to government.

In this process, Government would garner some money as tax and this could go to fund the projects to spend on the poor.

It is also said that the across the border terrorism from Pakistan, from where fake and counterfeit Indian money are smuggled into India and used to fuel strife in Kashmir valley, will end, as it is mostly composed of higher denominations. 

But restrictions on withdrawals and exchange of old notes for new have shrunk money supply in the market. Every seller of a type is facing the brunt. People do not have money to buy things and so shops and malls are losing out on their business.

Contractors are not able to pay and keep the workers, with the result workers are returning to their homes in villages in different States. Small business men like fish-vender, vegetable venders and small grocery shop owners suffer the most.

Government had kept the withdrawal of notes a well-guarded secret from the public and hoarders, but failed to make adequate arrangements for exchange of old notes to the new.

After 12 days, people are still standing in queues. Daily-wage earners are wasting their precious time, when they would otherwise be earning their livelihood. It took more than 10 days for the ATM machines to be calibrated to supply the new notes.

Bringing out the new Rs.2000 note first was another disaster, for who is to give change for the Rs.2000, with Rs.500 notes withdrawn and Rs.100 being in short supply? You have to buy vegetables and fruits for full Rs.100, even if your requirement was only for Rs.50.

I am still wondering what to do with the Rs.2000 I just drew, for who is going to give me change for that in 100s? The new note is as good as useless.

The GDP growth of the country itself is assessed by some to be reduced by 1 to 3 %. In the long run the move might be beneficial and the public might move towards cashless economy, which will bring down corruption.

But I am wondering how will the politicians, including that of BJP, the PM’s party, get money to fight their elections! An impossible scenario, for in Indian elections money power plays a major role.

I am also wondering how did the government allow a politician in Karnataka, Janardhan Reddy, to celebrate his daughter’s wedding on 16^th November 2016, spending Rs.500 crores over five days? PM’s talk about the sacrifices the common man must make to make the country corruption-free, does it not apply to rich and influential politicians?

I am afraid, no demonetization move will really cure the malady of corruption in India, unless the demon inside, that of not considering corruption as a wrong thing, is evicted and banned.

And I am not so sure that this mind set of Indian people can be changed by any demonetization move. It will only turn out to be what it has turned out to be now, a demonization move, for the poor and the needy and the common man. The rich and the wealthy seem to have escaped it all.    

Are all Christians non-corrupt?

The daunting question always is, if Christians have the Bible and the example of Christ and his teachings, then how come some of the Christians are so corrupt? The other way to put it across is, are the Christians always honest and forthright? This is an embarrassing question to answer.

One might continue to ask, how will you justify Christian nations fleecing another country under colonialism and denying human rights to that country under imperialism? For example, how could the British, a Christian nation, suck India’s wealth dry and leave her as a Third world country, a country, which in the 18^th century was at the peak of its prosperity? These are indeed some troublesome questions.

To take first the case of a colonial power of twentieth century, economic exploitation of another country is not a right or a blessing given by God to these Christian countries. However, it is true that such colonialism brought innumerable benefits to the colony.

In case of India, horrible crimes against women and humanity like Sati, where widows were burnt alive on the funeral pyre of the dead husband and female infanticide, where female babies were either starved to death or poisoned to death to mitigate the suffering of her parents to find a suitable husband for her when she grew up paying a huge dowry and jewels, were abolished by the British rulers.

English education was introduced and the minds of Indian middle class and upper class opened under such a cultural impact and fruits of such an impact were great leaders like Gandhi and Nehru, who shaped the independent and modern India.

The lower castes and the out-castes (Dalits) of India found a new voice and livelihood in that education and government jobs were thrown open to them and their status improved. Equality before law was introduced in the courts of law in the country. Christ was introduced to India, which came as a fresh breath to many.

Countless benefits followed by way of introducing railways, public transport, factories, telegraph and so on. Though the benefits primarily went to the British, it transformed India. It woke her up from her deep slumber and she modernized herself. If India is becoming an economic power to reckon with in today’s world, the seed of such greatness were sown during her colonial times.  

Coming back to the individual ethics, especially of Christians, we do find that many Christians are corrupt. There are many who tell lies, cheat in business, destroy other families trying to climb up the ladder of success, deal dishonestly with the neighbor, take bribes, make illegal profits in purchases and so on.

It must be said in defense of the Christians that the percentage of such people among Christians is not very high. Overall the whole community is looked upon as having better morals and ethics than the other religious communities in India.

It must be recognized that in the Bible, the Holy Scripture of the Christians, it is written very clearly that God of the Bible hates bribery, He does not like His people telling lies, cheating in measurements in business or taking advantage of widows, orphans and strangers and showing injustice to the poor or partiality to the rich. Even then some Christians, His people, stumble and go against such commands.

What happens when in the Holy Scriptures it is written one can tell lies to feed his family or tell a thousand lies to get a daughter married, or to save the life of a Brahmin? How will a population behave, when it is written in their Holy Scriptures that a businessman’s karma or dharma (his birth right?) is to cheat so that he can make money?[1]

In India corruption is a way of life. It was never seen as something morally wrong that should be eradicated. It was a discomfort with which one must put up. The only moral code written clearly and practiced for centuries was the Manusmriti, which is nothing but a code protecting the values of the higher castes, and notifying the code of conduct of the lower most caste, Sudra and that of the Dalits, as that of rendering service to the other three upper castes.

Servility and inability to forge loyalty except to those who offer monetary benefits or food, reinforced by centuries of such moral codes, had led India to be trodden by foreign conquerors, one after the other as she lay supine under their feet for centuries.

By 900 AD, Muslim conquerors were knocking at her doors and by the turn of 18^th century AD the British, who had come as traders, were well established as rulers in India. Brahmins, the brain power behind India, were busy studying German so that they can be gainfully employed in the service of the Germans, in case they won the World War II and become rulers of India! So much for their loyalty to India.

There were powerful leaders in countries like England and America, who fought against corruption and succeeded in such efforts. These individuals were infused with ‘a certain amount of idealism, courage and intense hatred for injustice.’[2]

A steady supply of such individuals in a society is necessary to cleanse a system or a country’s morals. This was available in the Western societies of England and America, whereas in countries like India it was not available.

The influences of Enlightened Evangelicalism rooted in Biblical values and Rationalistic Humanitarianism on their social moral thought were the twin forces that brought forth such great leaders in these two countries.[3] It was absent in India.

What about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetization effort announced on 8^th November 2016? Will it not curb corruption? Hasn’t India produced a great leader of such a caliber in India?

Rumors are already afloat that Modi had indicated that such a measure will be brought in to his friends in his State Gujarat, his party leaders and his biggest supporters in the business world, Ambanis and Adanis.

Safeguarding their own and their supporter’s money and letting loose these measures on the unsuspecting population and the opposition parties, is not an ethics that would be followed by a great leader, Indian or otherwise.

After all, didn’t Modi cleanse his State Gujarat of Muslim population in orchestrated riots in 2002? Great leader? I don’t think so.

It is difficult for a nation that believes in Scriptures that advocate cheating and lying and killing and in egalitarian injustice based on caste, to produce a leader of great caliber.

Yes, individually some Christians might have failed to live up to the standards of the Bible, but on the whole Bible and its teachings have had salutary effect on the people who believe in it and follow it, anywhere in the world.  

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[1] Prabhupada, “Bhagavad-Gita, As it is,” Complete Edition: Mumbai, 1986, Verse 18.47, p.831

[2] Alatas, “Corruption and the Destiny of Asia,” Rev.ed., Simon and Schuster, 1999, p. 35.

[3] Sunder, L.S., “Values and Influence of Religion in Public Administration,” SAGE, India, 2011, p. 244

Christ and the Transformation of a Society

I have been dealing with corruption and how in some societies this malice has been tackled headlong and successfully curbed. The historical influences that enabled England to achieve this feat, spanning over 5-6 centuries, starting from 13^th to the 19^th century were gone through in the previous blog.

Now the time has come to learn a bit more about the world-view that enabled these monumental changes in their society, that is Christianity or simply the teachings of Christ and the ‘Word,’ the Bible.

Christians inherited the Old Testament (OT) from the Jews. What was once the exclusive treasure of Jews was taken by the followers of Christ and made known world-wide. The Judeo-Christian worldview had been the basis for the legal, political and administrative systems world over today.

There has been no other book like the OT especially in ethical teachings and no wonder the Jews are considered to be the most ethical people in the world even today.  

I will quote a few passages from OT, to sample biblical teaching on corruption. “Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. Use honest scales and honest weights, and honest ephah and an honest hin.”[1]                                         Leviticus 19: 35-36                                 

 “Do not have two differing weights in your bag - one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house – one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, and anyone who deals dishonestly.”                                                                         Deuteronomy (Deut.) 25:13-16

“Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town …and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice to show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe binds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Follow justice and justice alone…”                                                                                                  Deut. 16:18-20

“Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.”                                                                     Deut.24:17

“Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy … Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it.”                                                                                           Deut.24:14-15

Any number of such verses could be quoted from the OT, commandments given by God Himself though His prophet Moses. This God of the OT, whom Jesus called his Father, declared in Isaiah 61:8,

“For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity.” He desires His people to “let justice roll on like river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.”                                                                                          Amos 5:24

Following such a God led people to be fair in their dealings; show justice to the poor, fatherless, widows and strangers; be honest in their business dealings and fear the Lord God, who had given all these commands, because for them, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”                                                                                                      Proverb 1:7

No wonder the countries listed by Transparency International 2015 as most clean without much corruption, are all in the West, the once strong Christian countries. The first 10 countries being Denmark, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg and United Kingdom. The only Asian country to be found among these squeaky-clean countries is Singapore.

Jesus and His teachings, which are written in the New Testament (NT) portion of the Bible, reiterate all these principles and commandments given in the OT and take these to a higher standard. Jesus mingled with the marginalized in society, gave them a sense of dignity and self-worth. He died for them, the out-castes, Samaritans, lepers, the poor, the widows, the prostitutes and the tax-collectors.

The conducts condemned in the NT are “sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witch-craft, hatred, discord, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”

The desired traits are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,” towards which every Christian is urged to grow, with the help of the Holy Spirit, without which it will be simply impossible to be such a person.

God of the Bible, whom Jesus Christ came to represent on earth, demands a high level of integrity and ethics in whatever we do in this world, secular or sacred. That Jesus died as a sacrificial lamb to take away our sins, introduced a major concept into the world, that of forgiveness.

Forgiveness, loving neighbors as ourselves, caring for the poor and the needy and the marginalized in society, working to improve society, dealing honestly even in business, giving people a clean administration, of justice and mercy, equality, all became the hallmarks of Christian countries.

The world became a better place to live in because of the teachings of Christ and the One whom He called Father, which are laid down in the NT and OT respectively. These had a major influence in the world through the British Empire, especially in India. Despite all the ills and exploitation of the colonial power, British rule brought in enormous benefits to the people of India.[2]

Today the very same Christian countries have become god-less countries, having thrown away the baby with the bath water. Having rejected Christ and His teachings, the West is groping for spiritual solace from Hinduism and Buddhism, developing a new religion, New Age Spirituality. Is it any wonder morality in the Western countries is on a downward spiral?

It is urgent that we, “Repent and return,” to Christ and His teachings, His life and His example. Nothing is greater in this world, nothing can bring real happiness, peace and spiritual maturity.

Hinduism and Buddhism couldn’t bring any values in the country of their origin. Only in-egalitarian caste system, corruption, dishonesty in business, cruelty to the marginalized, dirt and filth, superstition, false philosophies, gods and goddesses abound.

After tasting the clean waters of the Bible and knowing from history how biblical teachings transformed a society for the better, how is it possible for people to go to murky and muddy waters of Hinduism or Buddhism, expecting health and strength? Any nation and any society so foolish to do that, will only end up like these very countries, where these religions are practiced.

Only Christ and Christ alone can bring in the desired transformation for the better in any individual, society and country.

Let us repent and return to Him.

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[1] Ancient Israelite measurements of dry and liquid food items

[2] Please refer for details my book on the subject, “Values and Influence of Religion in Public Administration,” SAGE, 2011.