To turn to the second passage. In his letter to the people of Ephesus (Eph.3: 18-19), Paul prays that God the Father may give to each one "the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; so that knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, you may be filled with the utter fullness of God". Note the paradox: knowledge of love, which is beyond knowledge. Paul conceptualizes Jesus who is the Christ under the strange symbol of a multi-dimensional 'cube' without graspable boundaries of knowledge, love and fullness. Paul and John were Easterners and their approach does not rely on anemic, logical constructions. Once more, then, we are presented with a rich vastness for Indian approaches to work on - advaita, for instance, which is really an experience born of the clarity of inner light and beyond all words. Words, in any case, may draw others to parallel the experience, but by themselves they are incapable of reaching the depth of truth. It is very Indian even to admit that! Advaita and the wonder of Jesus An important feature of the wonder of Jesus is that he discovered alone through his own inner experience, and independently, what we Indians recognize as the non-dual heart of the Upanishads. Even more wonderful is it that this was achieved against his strongly dualistic Jewish background. Hence the speculation (which has no historical foundation) that he must have come to India as an adult before returning to teach in Palestine! In any case, it is abundantly clear that Jesus is as much a mystic as a prophet, shuttling easily in his teachings between the dualistic needs of his Jewish audience and the non-dualistic experiences of his inner life (e.g., "I and the Father are one"; "I am the vine, you are the branches"). And he was put to death because of his mystic utterances… Much of what follows is quoted almost verbatim - and with some quite minor rearrangements - from the work of two famous Christian scholars. The books used are Swami Abhishiktananda's 'Ascent to the Depths of the Heart' and Raimundo Panikkar's 'Myth, Faith and Hermeneutics'. The former is stronger on the inner experience of Jesus, but both adapt advaita to understand Trinity, the relationship of Jesus to the Father, the world and us, and, finally and especially, the advaitic approach to person and to love (human and divine). Obviously all one can provide here is a small taste, a 'pickle - relish' rather than a satisfying meal. So here goes: 1. An Advaitin is established in the supreme and unique I (Aham- Brahman). Yet this I, by the very fact of being the I implies, brings forth, a Thou as its necessary counterpart.The Thou is the consciousness that the I not only has but is. In fact, this I knows Himself, but His Knowledge is none other than the Knower. 2. There is nothing other than the Father, nothing other than the Son, nothing other than the Holy Spirit. Each is Purnam, Sarvam, fullness, totality. Each is a - Dvitiya (without - a - second). This experience of the advaita of the Divine Persons is grounded in the experience of one's own advaita. 3. In discovering the Father, Jesus has not found an 'other' (I and the Father are one, he said). In the only Spirit he has discovered his non-duality with the Father; it is the Spirit that is the link, the non-duality. 4. The Mystery of the Trinity is a revelation of my own depth. Jesus has lived this depth-called 'Divine -Human'- at an intensely deep level. Jesus revealed to the human being what he is, what everyone is. 5. The essence of the person is relationship; my person is nothing but a relation with the I. Properly speaking, the place of my personality is within the single Thou of the unique I. 6. I love you, my beloved, because I am that love of God, which makes you, my beloved, to be. I love you, simply, for in you I discover the Absolute as the very subject loving in me. I love you as you are - i.e., insofar as you really are- the Absolute. There cannot be a more personal love. 7. 'Come' is the call to the Ultimate to love, to Advaita through Bhakti. "Tat Tvam Asi". A Thou you are, Svetaketu. We are in as far as we are the Thou, the Tvam of the One. A Happy Christmas to You This Christmas we can wish each other a happy, holy and really enjoyable Jesus-Birthday celebration. You can do no better than to ascend to the depths of your own heart and discover that you too are a 'son in the Son' (daughters, of course, equally acceptable!). Recognize that you could already begin to enjoy the non-dual existence you have in the womb of a Love beyond all telling. For some this is an awareness (Jnana); for others a grace (as in Bhakti), but does it really matter? The awareness is already a grace. Happy Birthday Awakening! << back - Fr. Lancelot Pereira Archive