Learning at the Feet of the Dead

Brahmabandhav Upadhayay

No this is not a strange sort of disease that you can catch on the sub-continant. He is a dead person. I have been learning at the feet of the dead for many years now and he is one of

them. They become my guru ji's, my master teachers in trying to understand India, Hindu, Christian & Yeshu. Upadhyay is highly complex and interesting person who died in British custody on October 27, 1907. Some have surmised that he was the first martyr of the Indian freedom movement in the 20th Century.

The reason he is so complex is that he was a Brahmin who converted to the Brahmo Samaj in his early 20's, which was under the able leadership of Keshub Chandra Sen, where he surely was indoctrinated by the Naba Vidhan, a Christ centred movement within the Brahmo Samaj that Sen started, Naba Vidhan roughly transelates as the 'Church of the New Dispensation'.

He later was baptised by an anglican and joined the roman catholic church. He advocated a dual identity called 'Hindu-Catholic' and developed amazing redemptive analogies and creative thoughts on Hindu-Christian theology.

Here is a sample of his hymns, or bhajans if you prefer, on the trinity and on the incarnation.

Vande Saccidananda (Hymn to the Trinity)

I bow to Him who is
Being, Consciousness and Bliss. (Vande Vande Saccitananda)

I bow to Him whom worldly minds loathe,
Whom pure minds yearn for,
The Supreme Abode.
He is the Supreme,
The Ancient of days,
The Transcendent,
Indivisible Plenitude,
Immanent yet above all things.
Three-fold relation,
Pure, unrelated knowledge beyond knowledge.
The Father, Sun Supreme Lord, unborn,
The seedless seed of the tree of becoming,
The cause of all,
Creator, Providence, Lord of the Universe.
The infinite and perfect Word,
The Supreme person begotten,
Sharing in the Father's nature,
Conscious by essence,
Giver of true Salvation.
He who proceeds from Being and Consciousness
Replete with the breath of perfect bliss
The purifier, the Swift,
The Revealer of the Word the Life-giver.

Jai Dev Jai Dev Narahari (Hymn of the Incarnation)

The transcendent Image of Brahman,
Blossomed and mirrored in the full-to-overflowing
Eternal Intelligence -
Victory to God, the God-man. (Jai Dev Jai Dev Narahari)
Child of the pure Virgin,
Guide of the Universe, infinite in Being
Yet beauteous with relations,
Victory to God, the God-Man.
Ornament of the Assembly
Of saints and sages, Destroyer of fear,
Chastiser of the Spirit of Evil -
Victory to God, the God-Man.
Dispeller of weakness
Of soul and body, pouring out life for others,
Whose deeds are holy,
Victory to God, the God-Man.
Priest and Offerer
Of his own soul in agony, whose Life is Sacrifice,
Destroyer of sin’s poison, -
Victory to God, the God-Man.
Tender, beloved,
Soother of the human heart, Ointment of the eyes,
Vanquisher of fierce death, -
Victory to God, the God-Man.

Disillusioned with the Church's supression of his ideas in the early part of the 20th century he retreated back within the Hindu community, privitised his faith and to this day is vaguely remembered as a firebrand editor of a Bengali paper during the early days of the 20th Centutury Indian nationalist movement.

Having been a student of Upadhayay for some time I was able to share a paper on my dead guru, Upadhayay, at the 100 year anniversary of his death, this month in Goethals Library, St. Xaviers College, which is a Jesuit institution recognised by the University of Calcutta. Used by permission.

Stop reading here if you are bored already as my paper on Upadhayay will follow...

Brahmabhandav Upadhyay: A Contextual Prophet for
Community Identity in Relation to the Biblical Text of Galatians

By Jai Prakash Veeramani

INTRODUCTION

The Rich Soil of Late 19th Century Bengal

Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyay was born on February 11,1861 in the village of Khannyan located in the Hoogley District about 35 miles outside of Calcutta, located in the present state of West Bengal. 1 His life is sandwiched between the events of the so-called first battle of independence in 1847 and freedom from the British in 1947.

Bandyopadhyay is unique in his contextual, or encultural, example as a Hindu follower of Jesus Christ. His life is a prophetic milestone in understanding the issues of community or birth identity and faith in Jesus Christ. 2

PART 1: CONTEXTUAL ADAPTATIONS AMONG THE HINDU COMMUNITY

A Bengali Brahmin Flower Blooms in Christ

On February 25 or 26th, 1891 Bhabanicharan was baptized by an Anglican clergyman and a few months later joined the Catholic Church. His high idealism and indigenous leaning continued to not only remain visible but actually increased since from nearly the day of his ‘conversion’ when Bhabanicharan began his first contextual adaptation by wearing the saffron dress of a sanyassi.

His second contextual adaptation came shortly after he was baptized, when he took on the new name of Brahmabhandav Upadhyay, an indigenous take on Theophilus and shortened version of his surname. Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyay, referred to hereafter as Upadhyay, had developed journalistic skills and continued to take seriously his writing by beginning a monthly journal in 1894 called ‘Sophia’, meaning wisdom in Greek that possibly suggests another Hindu ideal, Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom or knowledge, in Sanskrit.

The Sophia journal was his third contextual adaptation, started with the permission of the Catholic authorities, with a focus to reconcile pure Christianity with pure Hinduism, a lofty ideal but worthy of a zealous evangelist and mystic like Upadhyay, who already had five Hindus to take baptism. A hinge between his faith in Jesus Christ and Hindu identity was securely fastened with the radical step of saffron dress, Sanskrit name and a hyphenated Hindu - Catholic identity, not often emulated by other converts.

Spring Fragrance of a Hindu Flower fills the Church

His contextual adaptations on dharma, maya, karma, incarnation and trinity are refreshing and explained eloquently by both Tennent and Lipner in their books on Upadhyay. The two most interesting are his original Sanskrit hymns, Vande Saccitananda & Jaya Deva Narahari, for which he is most well known. It is the theology contained within these hymns where we see Upadhyay branch out into truly contextual thinking, thinking as a Hindu bhakta of Jesus Christ 3, rather than merely contrast or comparison to Christianity. They are even more insightful considering that they contain two great theological hinges, trinity & incarnation, that differ the Biblical faith from others.

Upadhyay continued his quest for authentic belief in Christ and continually addresses the issue of community or birth identity, which is certainly the most critical in contextual or encultural, thinking. He constantly advocated that he is a Hindu as Lipner alerts us,

Hindus have always believed different things, from monism to various forms of theism, without ceasing to be Hindus. To be Hindu is to be prone to a certain way of thinking and living; it is an orientation in the world. ‘We are more speculative than practical, more given more to synthesis than analysis, more contemplative than active.’ [1]

But nothing sums it up more than his article in Sophia July 1898 entitled ‘Are we Hindus’:

Where religious faith is concerned, answers Upadhyay editorially, we are Catholic. This is a universal faith, proclaiming universal truths, transcending particularities of country and race. But ‘by birth we are Hindu and shall remain Hindu till death.’[2]

At some point in 1898 another contextual adaptation was begun. Upadhyay decided that the ideal of an ‘ashram’ would be most conducive to the good news of Jesus Christ being taught in Hindu forms. He proposed a Kasthalika Matha, a contextual adaptation of the word Catholic, run along a Hindu ashram ideal and Western monastic lines.[3] The squeaky hinge between Hindu identity and faith in Christ was being turned but would it be able to handle the stress of opening so wide and having others try to close it?

PART 2: COMMUNITY TENSIONS IN THE BIBLICAL TEXT: SIX LESSONS FROM GALATIONS

Caring for Flowers in the Community Garden

Let us leave aside the life of Upadhyay’s life for a minute and ask ourselves if what he was advocating finds any precedence in the biblical text? The two main hindrances for Upadhyay were firstly, the extreme Westernisation of Christianity and the second was the struggle among which community to identify with, Hindu or Christian, since in India like nowhere else in the world to be a Christian is to be a member of the minority community both legally and socially by a transfer of communal allegiance through the rite of baptism.

Paul’s message to the Galatians sheds some light on this issue that Upadhyay struggled against. In the book of Galatians we have a powerful example of Paul’s protection of the new believers from Jewish forms and the perceived need to enter into Jewish community by circumcision in order to follow Jesus Christ.

We will contrast Upadhyay’s life with that of Paul and his message to the Galatians and religious authorities of his time hoping to see if any principles of adaptation, or encultralisation, will surface between Biblical text and Hindu context.

1. Advocating Extra-Biblical Commands Confuses New Believers

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. – which is really no gospel at all…
Galatians chapter 1:6 – 8

This is evidently a major contention regarding circumcision, which the Jews practiced as a socially identifying custom, not followed by the other communities within the Roman Empire. The ‘uncircumcised pagans’ could easily tell who was from their community and who was not as they interacted in the gymnasium (gymnos meaning naked in Greek) for business and leisure, and they kept the foreskin on. 4

This true gospel is the same gospel that Upadhyay accepted 1800+ years later. Upadhyay found himself in the same situation, struggling against being circumcised by a culture & community, in this case the Westernised Indian Christianity.

2. Extra-Biblical Commands Placed on New Believers Create Social Community Tension

‘Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also… yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek…
Galatians 2:1- 4

Paul worked for 14 years among the Gentiles and had most likely learned quite a bit about their culture and customs. He obviously advocated that they remain as they are, in the pagan Greek community, and not undergo the Jewish community entrance rite of circumcision. Paul knew that whether they were circumcised or not it didn’t matter since God did not judge by external appearances, yet there were some who considered that very important and wanted to add an extra-biblical command to those who followed Christ!

Can you imagine Upadhyay trying to make a case for Hindus to become Christ followers in the Hindu – Catholicism that he espoused, following their own Hindu culture? Is that so different from Paul advocating that Gentiles can become Christ followers and need not enter the Jewish culture and community by the rite of circumcision?

3. Do Not Be Bullied by the Stronger Community in Christ

When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group...’
Galatians 2: 11 - 13

Paul ends by saying we cannot observe even the whole of Mosaic Law and we are only justified by the grace of God, so too the gentiles without the law are justified by grace! If you circumcise Gentiles you might as well forget Jesus. There was an older established group who followed Jesus Christ, a distinct community that had it’s established forms and customs. Now people from another community, gentile sinners, are becoming followers of Jesus Christ, yet they are not joining the circumcised group or following the customs of that community. Can an analogy be made between the established Christian community in India (and it’s antecedents in Europe) and the new believers from the Hindu community?

Certainly this was the issue of tension in Upadhyay. Was he allowed to express himself in Hindu forms? Was he able to be a member of the Hindu community and be a devotee of Christ?

4. Different Social Community Members Are One Through Christ Supernaturally.

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3: 26 - 28

It remains a command of Christ to take his baptism, i.e. a guru diksha (teachers initiation) or a jal sanskar (water sacrament), which is not a change in social identity but a spiritual command to be obeyed! Do you really believe physically there is no difference in male and female? Take of your clothes and take a good look and you will see the difference right away! This is a physical observation that there are external differences, but in terms of spiritual value, all are one in Christ Jesus. However there are external differences. There are different food choices, clothing styles, holidays, and social identity.

It would appear here that Paul is saying that the gentiles (including Hindus), need not worry about becoming Jews (or Christians) through circumcision or any physical rite of initiation with social consequences (such as baptism in the Indian context). Can a Hindu throw away his idols, started to live a life of devotion to Jesus Christ as a bhakta of Jesus Christ?

Upadhyay realized this earlier on in his Hindu – Catholic endeavor with his Hindu Catholic identity. He did not want to socially and legally transfer his allegiance to another community through a baptismal circumcision and start calling himself a Christian, Isai or Masihi? Perhaps assumed too much catholicity on the part of the Church in this regard and in the end faced incredible opposition to his radical ideas.

5. You Return to Slavery if you Join a New Social Community by Following Extra-Biblical Commands

Formerly when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? …I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you.
Galatians 4:8 – 12

New believers, Roman Galatians, are becoming Jews by getting circumcised, observing special days of the Jewish community calendar, getting farther away from their own people and culture, which begun by them cutting off their foreskin, so they can have relationship with 5Jesus Christ! Paul begs them to become like him now, not a Jew, but as a Jew who lives like a Gentile, a Jew who became a slave to the Gentiles, and a Jew who became like one without Jewish law to win those without the law.

Is that not the situation in India, where many Hindus would gladly follow Jesus Christ if they were not alienated from their family and social community? 6 One wonders what Upadhyay would have thought of this exegesis of the biblical text? Certainly he viewed the Westernised Christian forms as slavery and actively spoke out against them. He obviously struggled with the same tensions as Paul communicates so vividly to us.

6. Stand Firm in Advocacy to Remain in Your Social Community as a Follower of Christ

It is for freedoms sake that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery…
Galatians 5: 1 – 3 & 6: 12 – 13

Paul is not finished yet, he has the circumcisers in his sights, a particular one who is throwing the new believers (i.e. in our analogy, the Hindu bhaktas of Jesus Christ) into confusion, and gives an ominous sounding threat! He wishes those ‘agitators would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

Certainly Upadhyay would have resonated with these verses and been encouraged. Perhaps this is why he stood firm against Christian agitators who wanted Hindus to come under the yoke of the Westernised Christian community. He certainly advocated that it was never necessary to embrace Westernised Christian forms or socially identity with the Christian community.

Jewish, Roman & Hindu Flowers in the Garden

It is interesting that the word Christian is not used in Galatians. It is also important to remind ourselves that Western Christianity sprung from the interpretations of the same biblical text and it’s rejection of the form of Jewish ‘Christianity’. Western Christianity or Indian Christian community, in its present avatar, may also not be the last word on the subject.

Upadhyay unconsciously lived a life right out of the biblical text. He had no guide to help him pass through the labyrinth of contextualization, or inculturalisation like the new believers of Galatia had in Paul, someone who could easily pass between cultures. In the end Upadhyay was forced to a hyphenated fate of Hindu - Catholic. Had this oil of the biblical text been applied to the hinge would it have swung open easier and faster for Upadhyay?

PART 3: UPADHYAY AS A HINDU DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST

Withering Beauty in the Oppressive Heat

It is hard to take up any cudgels, let alone even suggest errors on his part, since he faced opposition from both the Hindu and the Christian community. But we must agree that Upadhyay also harboured a few shortcomings. As Rao rightly suggests;

‘Perhaps Western Christian friends of India hesitate to criticize a giant figure like BU. As one who identifies deeply with BU and his struggle, and as one who shares a common culture as well as a common faith with him, I feel it is an injustice not to point out his failings and weaknesses and especially the fact of the overall failure of his life and work. This to the constructive end that we learn and improve and truly esteem BU as one of our master teachers.’ 6

It would seem that his failure lies not in the endeavors themselves, but in his hyphenated allegiance to both, or rather neither, community and the social pressure he faced living between two worlds and two communities. Where did Upadhyay fail due to the tensions?

1. The Failed Christian Ashram

Upadhyay as usual moved full steam ahead without waiting for official permission. He made a temporary setup in Jabalpur but the ashram proposal was defeated and he was not allowed to move forward.

2. The Failed Christian Journals

When he arrived back to Calcutta browbeaten and frustrated it was this year in 1899 and the battered Upadhyay shut down the monthly journal, Sophia, himself. The reasons mentioned were his personal struggles and disillusionment with the church. The Catholic authorities banned his successive journals. 7

3. The Failed Christian Yatra

After these oppositions it is amazing that Upadhyay makes one last attempt to gain official sanction to contextualise his faith with the Hindu community by a trip to England & Rome in 1902. While he received some acclaim in Oxford for his lectures on Vedanta, he met with rejection in Rome, unable to see the pope, and returned quietly back to Calcutta a far different person. 8

4. The Failed Christian School

Upadhyay had become involved in education before his trip abroad and had started a school, Saraswat Ayatan, with Rewachand, known as Animananda, his close friend and another Hindu-Catholic. This school was closed over a disagreement with Upadhyay in 1904, on whether or not the children would be allowed to venerate Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom. The school finally closed in 1906. 9

5. The Failed Christian Community Member

Since 1904 he had retreated from public life as a Christian, living a constant battle for him to not throw his lot in with either community and be seen as to have finally crossed over by the other. As Dayanand Bharati delightfully puts it in the apt Hindi proverb;

‘… dhobi ka kuta na raha garka na ghatka, which has no equivalent in any other language but can be roughly translated as: Washerman’s dog neither belongs to his house nor to the riverside where he washes clothes. Upadhyay’s Hindu-Catholic identity caused him to be disowned both by the Christians and Hindus, each seeing him only from their point of view.’ 10

Upadhyay continued to invite criticism on himself as he privatized his faith and publicized his political leanings with articles against British rule and extremely confusing statements and articles on Saraswati, Krishna, Durga, Ramakrishna Paramhans, and Shivaji. It is hard to understand his actions and unless we view Upadhyay as having lost his devotion to Christ, then we must agree with Tennent who explains them as,

(He) rejects a religious or theological interpretation of Sarasvati and Durga and, instead, views them both within the larger social context of Indian culture… Upadhyay was able to utilize them as symbols of Indian nationalism and reinforce the context in which indigenous Christianity, divorced from European cultural forms, could thrive in India. 11

Two months before Upadhyay was to be arrested for sedition by the British government he chose to do something that would sever him, in the eyes of most, from the Christian community forever. He underwent a prayschitta ceremony, which was effectively a repentance ceremony for incurring social sin. He replaced the dwija cord across his chest that most Brahmins wear, long since discarded when he became a Brahmo, even before his conversion to Christianity.

How Upadhyay viewed this sanskar, whether it signaled to him an official return to the Hindu community or was done for the sake of his identification with Hindu relationships in the nationalistic movement, it is not entirely known. Either way the hinge that held his Hindu identity and biblical faith had rusted fast and was in danger of snapping off.

CONCLUSION

The Flower Grows Brittle, Fades & Petals Fill the Air

Were all of his contextual adaptations strategic? Most likely not, it seems to be the frustrations and confusion of a deeply committed disciple of Christ in a pitched battle between Hindu and Christian worldview, practice and social identity. Someone caught in the situation where his love for country, melded with devotion to Christ, living in a colonized country as a highly intelligent and nationalistic newspaper editor.

Perhaps he felt the events in later days had taken a turn of their own, for in his last meeting with him Tagore recounts in his preface to Car Adhyay first edition,

…one day as I sat alone in my third-floor room in Jorasanko, Upadhyay suddenly arrived… When we had finished conversing, Upadhyay rose to take his leave. He reached the door and turned to look at me. He said, ‘Rabibabu, I have fallen grievously’… After he said this, he did not wait; he just left… By then the net of his activities had closed tightly around him; there was no chance of escape. 12

After Upadhyay was arrested by the British authorities for sedition and put in the dock, he fell sick and died in the hospital. His body was taken by Hindu crowds to the funeral pyre before Christians could reach him. This is perhaps as it should have been. However, Lipner encourages us in the end with a tidbit of his last days of freedom, a story of where he stealthily makes his way to confessional in the Catholic church, showing that indeed this Hindu also remained a Catholic till the end. So that is how we must view him, a Hindu-Catholic forced to travel in secret between communities.

As we celebrate 100 years since BU death anniversary this October 27th, 1907 we can say certainly he was a contextual prophet of Jesus Christ, truly having died in the Hindu community as a bhakta of Jesus Christ. But his prophetic life was not so much by choice rather instead by necessity! Will the dried petals of Upadhyay’s life and principles live again when steeped in the pot of a new generation? Certainly the answer could be yes, but only if they are placed in the Hindu community and the aroma of Christ is allowed to infuse within it.

Jai Dev Jai Dev Narahari!



Bibliography

Bharati, Dayanand 2001 edition, Living Water Indian Bowl, ISPCK, Kashmere Gate, Delhi
------ 1999, To All Men All Things, Vol. 9 No. 3 (Internet)

Lipner, Julius 1999 edition, Brahmabandhav Upadhyay: The Life & Thought of a Revolutionary, Oxford India, New Delhi

Peterson, Brian 2007, ‘The Possibility of Hindu Christ Followers: The Theology of Fr. Hans Staffner’ International Journal of Frontier Missions pp 87 - 97

Tennent, Timothy C. 2000 edition, Building Christianity on Indian Foundations: The Legacy of Brahmabandhav Upadhyay, ISPCK, Kashmere Gate, New Delhi

Rao, Madhusudhan 2001, ‘Brahmabandhab Upadhyay and the Failure of Hindu Christianity’, International Journal of Frontier Missions 18:4 Winter pp. 195 – 200.

Richard, H.L. 2000, ‘Rethinking Community’, Dharma Deepika, July -December (no. 2), pp. 51-58.

Staffner, S.J. Fr. Hans 19?? Jesus Christ and the Hindu Community, Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, Anand, Gujarat.
[1] Brahmabandav Upadhyay: The Life and thought of a Revolutionary by Julius Lipner pg. 209
[2] ibid pg. 209
[3] ibid pg 211 - 216
1 Brahmabhandab Upadhyay: The Life & Thought of a Revolutionary by Julius Lipner pg 30. Lipners meticulously researched book is the best source for understanding Upadhyay and where I have taken most of the facts regarding his life.
2 Rethinking Community by H.L. Richard Dharma Deepika, July -December 2000 (no. 2), pp. 51-58. Richard’s numerous articles on contextualisation, including this one, give an excellent overview of the issue of community identity, being a Hindu follower of Jesus Christ and where I personally have learned the most about this complex issue.
3 Living Water Indian Bowl by Dayanand Bharati. Bharati identifies himself as a Hindu Christ bhakta, advocates the same, and outlines failing of the Christian church in understanding Hindus in this excellent work.
4 The Possibility of Hindu Christ Followers: The Theology of Fr. Hans Staffner by B. Peterson IJFM 2007. Peterson discusses the circumcision and community issues in the context of Acts 10 and Cornelious.
5 The Bible, 1 Corinthians 9: 19 – 23. This is where Paul outlines his great strategy to reach all communities with the gospel of Jesus Christ by contextual identification.
6 Jesus Christ and the Hindu Community by Fr. Hans Staffner S.J. pg. 31. Staffner was a staunch believer in Hindus identifying with their birth community socially and the Church spiritually. He also advocated one unified personal law rather than separate Christian & Hindu personal laws.
6 Madhusudhan Rao 18:4 Winter 2001 IJFM. A fabulous and succinct overview of Upadhyay by a Hindu Christ follower.
7 Brahmabhandab Upadhyay: The Life & Thought of a Revolutionary by Julius Lipner pg. 276. Upadhyay began a weekly installment of Sophia, then a journal called the 20th Century, both had heavy political overtones and were banned by Catholic authorities.
8 ibid pg. 294 – 316. It is here that you can see the seam between two communities ripping him in two, with his writings to the Christians in Calcutta saying one thing and his writings to the Hindu readers quite another!
9 ibid pg. 325. The school also had an interesting controversy with Rabindranath Tagore. Upadhyay had moved all his students onto the Shantiniketan property before Tagores well known school had begun, but shortly afterwards he removed them!
10 Brahmabhandab Upadhayay book review by Dayanand Bharati in To All Men All Thing (Vol. 9 No. 3, Dec. 1999). Bharati’s own comments are educating, like this clever insight.
11 Building Christianity on Indian Foundations: The Legacy of Brahmabandhav Upadhyay by Timothy C. Tennent pg 347. Tennent’s comprehensive overview of Upadhyay’s theology show the depth of his contextual thinking on many different subjects.
12 Brahmabhandab Upadhyay: The Life & Thought of a Revolutionary by Julius Lipner
p. 379. Whether this had to do with his earlier ‘fallout’ with Tagore, or was a faith statement regarding images is unknown (Tagore being from a Brahmo background and therefore anti-image worship), but it certainly solicits that Upadhyay was being moved by events before he could think them through!