Tiki for Jai Ram

“How should we advise him?” Santosh asked Shanti. 

“I don’t know,” replied Shanti. “If he keeps the tiki, people will think he is still a good Hindu when, in fact, he has become a Christian and taken baptism. But if he doesn’t keep the traditions, he will alienate his family and the whole village!” 

No part of the Bible had yet been translated into this language of South Asiawhen Santosh and his wife, Shanti, had arrived in the area. After a few years in which they became fluent in the language and built good relationships with local people, they were ready for the task of translation. As they searched for a reliable language assistant, they eventually thought of Jai Ram, a young man who lived in a nearby village. Jai Ram had been born into a highly respected traditional Hindu Brahman family. As a child, he was taught the customs of his family and his parents hoped he would become well settled in life. They made sure he received the best education they could afford, and Jai Ram was a good student who was well liked in his community.

On graduation from the local college, Jai Ram was looking for work and so agreed to help check the first draft of the Gospel of Mark which Santosh and Shanti had translated into his native tongue. It was during this work that the story of Christ gripped him, and he decided to become his disciple. At first, declaring his new path of devotion was not problematic. 

“So long as you continue to follow our customs, babu,” his mother said, “it doesn’t matter who you worship.” 

Three years had passed. Now one of his close relatives had died, and his uncle had just visited his home to tell them. This meant that the Death Feast would soon be held in the deceased relative’s village to honour him. In that Brahman tradition, the family of the deceased hosts large feasts on the eleventh and twelfth days after the family member has died. It is believed that the more people they feed on these days the more spiritual merit accrues to the person who has died and the better the quality of life they experience in their next reincarnation.

Jai Ram was troubled. He would be expected to come to the Death Feast to show respect for his dead relative. Before the feast he would be expected to have his head shaved in the traditional fashion of a relative of the deceased, leaving a tuft of hair at the back of the head - a tiki. Could he do that now that he was a follower of Jesus? Furthermore, what should he do about the feast? Could he miss the feast without it being considered terribly disrespectful? Dishonour would be brought on his family. 

In the morning, the young man walked over to the next village and set to work on the translation as usual. Over lunch he discussed his problem with Santosh and Shanti.

“Why don’t you attend the feast but not shave your head?” suggested Santosh.

“But,” replied Jai Ram respectfully, “that would be even worse than not going at all, as it would be showing disregard for an important part of our traditions.”

“Then why don’t you just have a barber shave your wholehead and not leave a tiki?” asked Shanti. “That way everyone will realize you are not a Hindu anymore because you won’t have a tiki.”

“But there is nothing in the Bible condemning keeping the tiki, is there?” asked Jai Ram.

“True,” said Santosh, “but doesn’t the Bible tell us to avoid even the appearance of wrong? What I am inside should match what I am outside.”

“What about any other rituals?” asked Santosh. “The head shaving is just the preliminary part. Won’t you also be expected to join the others at the ‘holy area’ by the pond, where the priest reads from the Hindu scriptures, and offer flowers, incense and sweets to the gods?” 

“I know,” sighed Jai Ram, “and my family would be very unhappy with me if I bring shame on them by not participating.”

“Could you go along to the feast but skip being involved in any rituals?” asked Shanti.

“Of course, being there and taking part in the feast is the main thing,” replied Jai Ram. “I could try to explain that I can’t take part in the actual religious rituals. But nobody’s done that before. There is bound to be opposition. It will look like I don’t respect my elders.”

“Look, we’ll pray about it tonight and we’ll talk about it again in the morning, Jai Ram brother,” said Santosh.

That evening, as Jai Ram wandered back to the village, he agonized about what he should do. He remembered that even the apostle Paul had shaved his head (Acts 18:18). He wondered what he could do without compromising his own convictions and conscience. To make it more complicated, however, the following week, he was scheduled to give some instruction to a group of new believers from a Hindu background. They would be sure to realize what he had done, when he turned up with just a few days’ hair growth. Maybe they would thinkhe had compromised his faith even if his conscience was clear. Would this cause some of them to stumble in their faith?

Santosh and Shanti also discussed the situation late into the evening. They realized this decision also had repercussions for them. If Jai Ram upset everyone in the village by his actions the villagers would assume they had instructed him that he should not follow their customs. Would this ruin their relationship with the village and discredit their work? On the other hand, if he did indeed shave his head in the traditional way and this became known among believers in the nearby town, would it ruin the relationship and trust they had with other believers and church leaders?

There was no easy answer. Santosh and Shanti agreed that the issue really came down to the significance of the head shaving and tiki, and that of the feast. In the morning, they would walk over to the village, go over the biblical principles with him and see what he did.

Should Raj Accept Kija Puja?

“Brother John, what should I do? All my life I have received Kija Puja (‘brother offering’) from my sisters on this special day. If I stop now I will offend my sisters and may even be ostracized by my whole family.” Raj had come to John for advice and was in quite an agitated state. Today was Kija Puja, one of the great feast days of the year for the people of Nepal. It was the high point of the festival of Swanti (called Tihar or Diwali among other communities of South Asia). On previous days, successive animals and deities had been worshipped in the homes and courtyards across the Valley: the crow, the dog, the cow, and then one’s own self. Now it was the day for sisters to give an offering to their brothers. Involvement in the rituals of the previous days was to some extent optional, but on this day everyone was expected to be involved.

In common with many communities across South Asia, all married Newar daughters visit the home they grew up in, and where their parents and brothers still live, for this important ritual. Three mandala designs are drawn on the floor in a prepared space in the room, symbolic of the gods Ganesh (the elephant headed god of good luck), Janmaraj (the god of birth), and Yamaraj (the god of death) and a short puja (ritual offering) is given to the deities. The brothers sit on mats along the wall of the room and the sisters draw another mandala in front of each of them, symbolic of the brother himself. The sisters then offer the brothers flowers and fruits as well as bright red vermilion paste (sinha) applied to the forehead as a way of bringing the blessing of the gods to them. The ritual is an elaborate plea to the god Yamaraja to prolong the lives of their brothers. The brothers then give gifts to their sisters in return, usually in the form of new saris and money. When the ritual is complete the whole family sits down and enjoys a feast. The festival is overwhelmingly a family event. In the days that follow Kija Puja the family calls its married-out daughters and nieces and their children to another more elaborate feast.

Raj and his wife Sharmila had been meeting with John for nearly two years and a few months earlier had declared that they were now devotees of Jesus. John had been careful to introduce them to Jesus in the Bible without imposing on them foreign expectations of what discipleship to Christ might look like. As much as possible he wanted Raj and Sharmila to remain in their community so that they would be able to witness to Christ among them.

John was puzzled, however, by this apparent conundrum: to what extent may believers in Christ, living within their community participate in the festivals? Involvement in a festival can take place in different ways. Often a person will participate in the rituals in a merely perfunctory way because he is not religiously minded. Others, however, may take the ritual more seriously. Whatever their motivations and attitudes the important thing was to do the rituals.

John knew that other Christ-followers in the Valley separated themselves from their family during festival times so as not to compromise their new faith. The men never returned to their parents’ home during Kija Puja to honour their sisters. To the sisters it felt as if they did not have a brother anymore, and it caused much grief to the family. Consequently, apart from the many church members who had migrated into the Valley from the countryside, the churches were made up of individual local believers who had broken their family ties.

“Raj, you know the first commandment, not to have any other gods before the Lord,” said John. “Yes, Johnji,” replied Raj (using the suffix ‘ji’ to show honour to his teacher), “but I also want to obey the fifth commandment, to honour my father and mother. Surely I would dishonour my parents and my sisters if I do not participate in the festival!” As they discussed Raj’s options they went over the various rituals that were involved. The puja ritual was not required of the brother but of the sister so he would not have to worship idols, but if he accepted the offering from his sisters was he not condoning their false worship and thereby leading them further into sin? John also knew that other followers of Christ would doubt Raj’s credentials as a disciple if he went along. He might even be disciplined by his church. But the church was made up largely of outsiders who had migrated to the Valley and had no idea about the local festivals and the sort of struggles that believers like Raj went through. Was there anything actually wrong in just participating fully in the whole ritual? It was the heart that was important wasn’t it?

“What if I departed from tradition,” asked Raj, “and rather than receive sinha that had first been offered to the deities, request that a separate sinha paste be made and offered to me as a token of love rather than as an offering of worship? After all, people offer sinha to others on many special occasions, not just at times of worship.”  “But wouldn’t your sisters just think you’ve taken leave of your senses?” replied John. “The Bible says that we must keep ourselves from idols,” he added, quoting from 1 John 5:21. “I won’t be worshipping idols, Johnji,” responded Raj. Then John had another thought. “What about the risk of being afflicted by demons, brother,” he said. “Paul tells us that ‘the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons,’” he added, quoting 1 Corinthians 10:20. “Yes, but he also said that ‘an idol is nothing’” (1 Cor 8:4), Raj replied. “Oh, what should I do, Johnji? It is giving me such a headache.”

John thought very carefully, and then gave his suggestion...

Yoga for the Glory of God

An interesting article on yoga (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25006926) has set me thinking. In it the writer reports on how people of different religious traditions are struggling with whether yoga is compatible with their beliefs. Apparently last year a yoga class was banned from a church hall in the UK, because it was said, "Yoga is a Hindu spiritual exercise". Among others the writer quotes from a so-called Christian exercise programme called PraiseMoves. So I have had a look at the PraiseMoves web site and here is my take on this.

It is true that many Hindus hold to beliefs that are contradictory to the Bible. So do many Christians. But I have never yet met a Hindu whose beliefs are in complete antipathy to the Bible. So let’s stop this simplistic nonsense of contrasting these two civilizations we call Hinduism and Christianity.

Scary Stuff!

 

The PraiseMoves web site quotes from a number of Hindus who assert that yoga is incompatible with Christianity. It quotes from “An Open Letter to Evangelicals” that appeared in the January 1991 issue of Hinduism Today in which a Swami Sivasiva Palani writes:

“A small army of yoga missionaries ...beautifully trained in the last 10 years, is about to set upon the western world. They may not call themselves Hindu, but Hindus know where yoga came from and where it goes.”

To the credulous this would sound scary indeed. That was clearly the point of the letter. It would be interesting to learn more about this army of yoga missionaries. Could it be, I wonder, an idle boast that consciously reflects the sort of triumphalistic language that Christian mission magazines and web sites often use? Here is an example of the sort of language we see in Christian literature sometimes: “We are going to conquer the nation with the gospel.” Are we then an army? Is it any wonder that nationals feel under threat here? Here is another: “Our vision is for India to become a Christian country.” Really? Do you mean like America with its racism, pornography and rampant materialism? The rhetoric of Hindu revivalists is well known in India. Why are Western Christians so naive?

The website also quotes from a Dr Alexander: “Many Westerners who practice yoga today are unaware that the physical positions assumed in yoga symbolize a spiritual act: worshiping one of the many Hindu gods”. Alexander goes on: “To a Hindu, yoga is the outward physical expression of a deep spiritual belief. You cannot separate one from the other.” Cannot or should not? Clearly the writer must mean should not as there are plenty of Muslims, Christians and atheists who do, in fact, practise yoga without holding these deep spiritual beliefs. So he is not saying, surely that it is impossible to separate the movement from the belief (is there such a thing as an ‘unspiritual belief’?). He is saying, therefore, I take it, that it is unnatural to separate them, that the one naturally goes with the other.

The meaning of symbols

But we do this sort of thing all the time. Take, for example, the custom of having bridesmaids walk down the aisle before the bride. I am led to believe the origin of this custom is to avert the evil eye from the bride. The bridesmaids are decoys. Sorry if I have spoiled your wedding preparations. Before you go and cancel that order for bridesmaid dresses let me ask you how many brides are aware of the origins of this custom? And if you were still in blissful ignorance would you not have gone ahead without any qualms, innocently enjoying a good Christian custom? So it is possible to take a custom (a form if you like) and separate it from its referent (meaning). And in so doing the symbol changes.

Likewise yoga. The idea that by doing the exercises you are buying into all the possible interpretations that any yoga teacher ever suggested is quite a stretch! This is precisely what PraiseMoves is, in fact, doing. The web site asserts that “PraiseMoves is NOT so-called ‘Christian yoga,’ which we consider an oxymoron/contradiction in terms since ‘Yoga IS Hinduism’ according to many Christians and most Hindus.” 

Apparently ‘many Christians and most Hindus’ believe that ‘yoga is Hinduism’. But we are not given the precise statistics or the research that this assertion is based on so I think we can safely cast doubt on its credibility. So going on the opinions of a few people PraiseMoves has concluded that ‘yoga is Hinduism’ which is indeed astonishing considering that no one can agree either on what yoga is or what Hinduism is. This is a big topic so let me simply assert here that Hinduism is best understood as a civilization or culture area that includes within it a plurality of mutually contradictory religious traditions (see major works by Gavin Flood, Klaus Klostermaier, Henry Pressler, C. J. Fuller and Julius Lipner).  So saying yoga is Hindu is much the same as saying pasta is Italian or, more analogously, lacrosse is Native American. 

Christian synchronized swimming?

Christian yoga is then, not an oxymoron. Rather the phrase is nonsense. It makes no more sense than Christian wrestling or Christian synchronized swimming. Not that you can’t do synchronized swimming to the glory of God. It just won’t be done in a different idiom. Sure, yoga is traditionally taught with elements of Hindu philosophy, but clearly not always. 

PraiseMoves again: “But wait a second, these postures sure look a lot like yoga poses.” Indeed, they reply, “The body can only move in a finite number of ways – not an infinite number of ways. Some of the PraiseMoves postures resemble yoga poses while others do not." It is no coincidence that the creator taught yoga for 22 years. But to try to demonstrate how distinctly Christian this exercise routine is they have created 22 PraiseMoves Alphabetics postures based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (such as Lamed, above). How convenient Hebrew is. Challenge: try Chinese!

I have nothing against meditating on Scripture while stretching. We would all do with more of both - my colleagues at WEST are well used to me getting down on the carpet during our staff prayer times. But let's not make a business out of denigrating another tradition.Would PraiseMoves please publicly repent of belittling their local Hindu gathering place? Calling it Ramalama-Ding-Dong Ashram is like talking about the Hokey-Kokey Pentecostal Church. Do they want to alienate Hindus from themselves? Perhaps they really believe there is an army of yoga missionaries out to get them. Get a life!