Hindu Wisdom on the Birth of Christ
Posted at: 2009-12-22 17:39:00.0
Author: Francis X. Clooney, S.J.
Cambridge, MA. Some of you may remember that I marked the Triduum 2009
by drawing on Paramahamsa Yogananda’s The Second Coming of Christ,
reflecting on how he explained the meaning of Holy Thursday, Good
Friday, and the Resurrection. Take a look. My point was in part that
we do well to listen carefully to how people who are not Christian see
Christ, since we can learn from their wisdom. I close the year
similarly, with attention to how Yogananda values the birth of Christ
in Volume I (pages 54-56) of The Second Coming.
Yogananda first comments on how it was appropriate that the birth
of Jesus was seen by peasants who were simple — and more importantly,
pure of heart, and bereft of large egos. (He mentions having
personally met one such simple and clear-eyed person, the mystic
Therese Neumann, famed for her meditations on the crucifixion and her
bearing the stigmata.) The whole scene of the Nativity, he says, makes
this point: “As with the shepherds on the hillside, the shepherds of
man’s faith, devotion, and meditation will be bathed in the light of
realization and lead those devotees who are humble in spirit to behold
the infinite presence of Christ newborn within them.”
In the face of the crass materialism surrounding Christmas —
Yogananda speaks in the first part of the 20th century — he says that
he initiated for his followers a daylong meditation service to the
worship of Christ: “The ideal is to honor Christ in spiritual
meditation from morning till evening, absorbed in feeling in one’s own
consciousness the Infinite Christ that was born in Jesus.” This
meditation, he says, is the doorway to profound peace and joy.
He concludes that the peace of Christ, which is the gift of
Christmas, “is found in the interiorized state of one’s God-communion
in meditation. Then, like an ever full reservoir, it pours out freely
to one’s family, friends, community, nation, and the world.” In
Yogananda’s view, he pleads that we take all this to heart: if we live
this way, rooted in the ideals of the life of Jesus, “a millennium of
peace and brotherhood would come on earth.”
Indeed, we need to see anew our own lives and possibilities in
light of Christ’s birth: “A person who is imbued with God’s peace can
feel naught but goodwill toward all. The crib of ordinary
consciousness is very small, filled to capacity with self-love. The
cradle of goodwill of Christ-love holds the Infinite Consciousness
that includes all beings, all nations, all races and faiths as one.”
Yogananda has more to say on the Gospel accounts, but the
preceding paragraphs suffice for this year. I recommend getting a copy
of his Second Coming — two volumes, over one thousand pages — or
asking for it in your library, since it really is a book from which we
have much to learn.
In particular, his own Christmas practice is one we would do well
to embrace: however busy we are in church or with family and friends,
we are still called to contemplate in still silence and simple light
the birth of Jesus, thus setting time aside in which we can absorb the
light of Christ into our lives. In and through the familiar Christmas
events, we too should be able to see the light of God shining in our
darkness. Perhaps then we — you, me — can rise to Yogananda’s level of
hope too, not letting sin and cynicism too heavily darken our view of
the world. I can be more confident that my own personal, interior
illumination will be my first, maybe best contribution to the
transformation of our world, local and global.
If you have other good examples of how Christ’s birth has been
appreciated by people of other religious traditions, please add them,
or links to them, by way of comment!
Merry Christmas!
