Yoga and Christianity

Yoga and Christianity 

By Brother Rolph Fernandes, Europe  Spring  2007

When I was about 25 years old and I was a novice in a Franciscan monastery. We had a monk who worked very hard, slept very little and was always so busy and one day I asked him “what is the secret of your health?”

“Yoga” he said “I practice Yoga”. I asked him to teach me and he lent me a book called “La Voie Du Silence” by Jean Dechanet ( a Benedictine monk) First Edition of this book, published in French, was in 1956.

I cannot speak to you about Yoga and Christianity without mentioning my gratitude to this French Catholic priest who, some 40 years ago gave not only me but many Christians a memorable introduction to Yoga. Up to today, his name is still known, his books are still in their libraries, in many a Catholic monastery and convent because of his rendering accessible the exercises and philosophy of Yoga to Christian contemplative minds.

Jean Dechanet said in the beginning of his book that he came across Yoga because for 20 years he searched ardently to create in himself a harmony between what he calls, the anima,(body) the animus(mind) and spiritus (soul). For him, it’s through the harmony of these three aspects of oneself that the Grace of Redemption flows. Yoga which calms the senses pacifies the soul and liberates in us certain intuitive and loving powers and can render incomparable services to Western society. He claimed too that Yoga, in helping us to become human, can make us true, full-filled, and dynamic Christians. In the preface to his book, (published on the Ist November 1957)  Jean says “I am not trying to Christianize a given practice of Yoga but rather to offer the incontestable advantages of Yogic discipline to Christians, to the Christian life and especially to those who are contemplatives. ……It is a path to go to God, only that, but all of that”.  “Established in Yoga, (Yogasthah kuru karmani) perform actions, having abandoned attachment, Arjuna, and having become indifferent to success or failure it is said that evenness of mind is Yoga.”   Definition by the Lord Krishna in the Bagavad Gita Chap 2, V 48 Again in verse 50 Lord Krishna says “He whose wisdom is established, casts off, here in this world, both good and evil actions; Therefore devote yourself to Yoga. Yoga is skill in action.”  And so, the Lord Krishna defines Yoga as 1) evenness of mind, and 2) skill in action

When I was learning about my Christian faith, I was taught some things which I could never forget; things that have always given me a meaning to life. In the little catechism, book of instructions it is said that we came into this earth for three reasons; to know, to love and to serve. Knowledge, Love and Service; these are the three main principles which I shall examine in the light of Yoga as they are known as Jyana, Karma and Bhakti Yoga.

The Lord Krishna as he teaches Arjuna explains how one obtains wisdom, knowledge and how the mind can become peaceful through meditation. “There is no wisdom in him, who is uncontrolled, and there is likewise no concentration in him who is uncontrolled and in him who does not concentrate, there is no peace. How can there be happiness for him who is not peaceful?”(v.66) In order to obtain knowledge of God, it requires a peaceful mind and the early monks of the Christian communities believed that a peaceful person is a dwelling place for God. The Book of Wisdom says that God seeks among people, a place of rest. After agitation has been left behind, silence of the lips and heart have no other purpose than to lead to this repose. This is the true meaning of Sabbath.

Jean Yves Le Loup in his book on Silence said, “Humanity has received a mission of being ever more intimate with the One who is Being Itself, to the point of union.”  This union the Christian author spoke of, this union with the Divine is the ultimate essence of Yoga.  “Those who are established in this wisdom, those who have abandoned the fruit born of action, and are freed from the bondage of rebirth, go to the place that is free from pain” There are no more rebirths! And so the lord Krishna speaks about knowledge and he also gives instructions as what to do, how to meditate to acquire this state and to where it leads.

Jnana Yoga is the way of knowledge, of wisdom. Fr Bede said “this is the knowledge of the Self, the Atman, the true Being. It is not a knowledge that can be acquired by reason, or by learning, or even through the scriptures. It is a knowledge which comes from above. The path to it is by metanoia, by returning to the source. There must be a radical detachment from the self, that is, from all selfish attachment in this world, the flesh and the ego…… This is a difficult crossing, the passage to the other shore. Unless the grain of wheat dies, it cannot bear fruit. (John 12, 24)He who will lose his life shall save it (Matthew 1625).

This is the great paradox behind all life. All methods of meditation are intended to lead to this point. The mind must die to itself, to its concepts, its reason. The surface mind must cease its activity, all thought must cease. Then in the silence, in the stillness, beyond thought, a deeper mind becomes known, the true Self begins to emerge. This is the Para-Bhraman, the Supreme Self, the light of the Word, shining in the heart. By this Light all is enlightened, by this everything is known. This is the end of the journey; beyond this it is impossible to go. For there the human passes into the divine, the temporal into the eternal, and the finite into the infinite. What words can describe this state? What thought penetrate it? It is the ultimate mystery.”

And Paul, in his teachings to the early Christian communities tried to emphasize the importance of this union through the inner experience. It is this experience which comes from the inner life; a life of prayer and grace. St Paul prays in his letter to the Ephesians (1 vs. 17) “I pray that the father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His Power for us who believe, according to the working of His great power……and in  chap 3……I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breath and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (1 Corinthians 2 vs10)

Concerning action, service, Karma Yoga, St Paul said 1 Cor, 10 vs. 31 “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God….just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of the many.” In V4 of chap 3, the Lord Krishna says, “Not by mere abstention from work is a man liberated from action; nor by mere renunciation does he attain to perfection. He who sits restraining his organs of action, but in his mind recalls the objects of sense,- that deluded man is truly to be called a hypocrite and in vs. 7 “But he who rules with his mind the senses, and without attachment, O Arjuna, applies his organs of action to work, he verily excels”.

In other words, it’s the interior disposition that really matters. We find the same teaching in the teaching of the Christ. In the Gospel of St Matthew chap. 6, Jesus even warns…”Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then, you have no reward from your father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues or in the streets, so that they may be praised by others….when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret...”

Many a time Jesus healed someone and he told them not to say who did so. As in the case of two blind men in St Matthew 9 v28 “When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” and they said to him, “Yes Lord”. Then he touched their eyes and said “According to your faith let it be done to you”. And their eyes were opened.

The second great principle of the Bhagavad-Gita is the Yoga of bhakti, of devotion, of love for a personal God. “It is a total surrender of the intellect and will to the Infinite Transcendence. It is an experience of personal relationship; the intellect is illuminated by the eternal light and the will transfigured by Infinite Love. This is the experience of the mystics of all religions…to realize this relationship of knowledge and love in one’s self by total surrender to the divine love is the way of Bhakti. ” (Return To The Center: by Fr. Bede Griffiths, Chap 19. Pg.141-142)  In Chap.7 V 2 of the Gita, The Lord tells Arjuna…”To you I shall explain this knowledge, along with realization, which having been understood, nothing further remains to be known here in this world.” And in Verse 8...”I am the pure fragrance of the earth and the brilliance of the fire, the life in all beings, and the austerity in ascetics.” The Lord goes on to explain himself to Arjuna and Arjuna’s heart desires to know the Lord even more and so he asks in Vs 3 “Thus, as You have described Yourself O Supreme Lord, I desire to see Your Divine form, O Supreme Spirit.” And the sage Jnaneshwar puts it in these words.”O Lord, my mind is eager to see that unfathomable form of which I have heard. Now that You have dispelled my fear, if in Your love for me You were to ask what I wish, then I would say this is my greatest desire; that You should show me Your cosmic form. This is the deepest longing of my heart”

And so the Lord Krishna tells Arjuna in Chap X1 vs.  5 “Behold Arjuna, My forms a hundredfold, a thousandfold, various, Divine and of various colours and shapes.” These forms are infinite in shape and variety, and brilliant with light explains Jnaneshwar. V 12 says “If a thousand suns should rise all at once in the sky, such splendor would resemble the splendor of that great Being”. In fact, the spectacle is so dazzling that Arjuna cannot endure it and he trembles with fear, prostrates himself and begs Krishna to return to his human form..Vs 45 “show me that form O God in which You originally appeared. Have mercy on me, O Lord of Lords, dwelling in the universe...”  After taking back on his human form, Krishna explains to Arjuna that (vs. 54) “By undistracted devotion alone can I be known, and be truly seen in this form, and be entered into, Arjuna”. In the Gospel of St John 14 Vs 23…Jesus says.” If a man loves Me. He will keep My word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”