Musings on Diwali, Hinduism, Christianity, Auroville, and “Religionless Christianity"

Over the last five days Hindus have been celebrating Diwali, which is said to be a festival of light. Numerous Hindus I've met likened it to Christians’ Christmas. Diwali has been variously described as the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, a harvest festival, and a new year’s celebration. Hindus celebrate by lighting wicks fueled by oil or butter and by igniting fireworks, as Americans do on July 4th. People also string electric lights around their homes and businesses just as Christians do for Christmas. This is supposed to bring them good luck (when a certain god visits and finds the lights illuminated). Diwali was associated with quite a bit of commercialism and shopping. People exchange gifts. There was much talk about “the happy Diwali season,” especially in print and broadcast advertising. Indian merchants are as opportunistic using Diwali for commercial gain as Western ones are with Christmas. If the reports I heard were true, it seemed no less opportunistic to me, though in a politically savvy way, that Obama would be "celebrating" Diwali in the White House. I affirm the aspiration to overcome darkness with light in a great variety of interpretations, though the news I heard of celebrating Diwali in the White House smacked of contrivance.

In addition to visiting a multitude of churches and cathedrals on my swing through southern India, I’ve found my way to numerous ancient Hindu sites. These include temples and idols of various gods and goddesses that date to the fifth or sixth centuries—chiseled in stone by human hands. I’ve engaged in a number of conversations with Hindus (and Muslims) about their faith. One Hindu man told me that Hinduism really isn’t a religion (I admit that I can’t yet explain that; I’ve heard the same said about Buddhism). On one of many train rides, I sat next to a Hindu who explained that, “In Hinduism we worship idols.” Later, I wondered what exactly that meant. Could one say that Hinduism is on a par with the Canaanite religions the Israelites of the Hebrew Bible were warned to avoid? Do Hindus believe that the idols they worship possess some inherent power themselves, or that they are representations or symbols of particular deities that are themselves manifestations of a single Divine Being. Either way, those experiences, coupled with witnessing devoted Hindus offering pujas (prayers) to the god or goddesses of their choosing and rotating in place 360 degrees or walking clockwise around stone columns any number of times, has got me thinking about a particular New Testament text—Paul in Athens addressing the Jews and Greeks at the Areopagus. The words that wouldn’t, no won’t, stop echoing in my head: “Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you…The God who made the world and everything in it…. does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else” (vv. 23-25). What a powerful speech.

I visited many of these Hindu sites after taking a short excursion from Puducherry to the village of Auroville. It was established in 1968 as a place belonging to no nation or people in particular, the residents of which must renounce any creed, religion, politics, or nationality. The purpose of Auroville is “to realize human unity.” “To live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness” (www.Auroville.org). Auroville is a community of 2,000, populated by people from thirty-five nations. In its center is what is called “the Matrimindar,” a massive sphere that bears some resemblance to the one at Disney’s Epcot, only it is gold, with what appear to be suction cups like those on the underside of an octopus’ tentacles. I think Aurovillians assemble in the Matrimindar to meditate. The place struck me as very “New Age. I got the impression that it’s designers and residents were sincere and quite well intentioned. I can hear people describing Auroville as “a very spiritual place,” though the meaning of such a generic description never fails to elude me. That residents must renounce all creeds and religions seems to imply that Aurovillians believe these are the causes or at least contributors to the disunity and the lack of the “unity through diversity” that they seek, (and which, by the way, followers of Jesus Christ also seek). I’m not sure that the source of such disunity should be laid at the foot of “religion” as such. Is it not sinful human beings who, in their various understandings, misunderstandings, zeal for and ignorance of the deity or deities they worship and or follow in their respective faiths—that it is humans and not “religion” that deepen the fissures in our already broken human relationships and our relationship with God? That said, it is undeniable that actions taken in the name of religion or God can and do obstruct healing and wholeness in our human relationships, and that surely separates us from God. All this got me thinking about the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s concept of “religionless Christianity” and how I’d like to dig deeper to understand what he meant by that, and how one would enflesh this idea. Did Bonhoeffer mean by this a pure way of loving and serving God in obedience to God’s commands and in response to God’s grace—without the human trappings and baggage (whatever they might be and in all their forms) that we in the Church in particular attach to worshiping God? In all candor, I’m sure I can’t articulate what these are, but this is what’s rumbling around in my head. I have an intuition that Bonhoeffer was on to something, but I’ve already said more than enough to further confuse myself, let alone anyone who might happen to read these disjointed musings. If you’ve any idea how to interpret Bonhoeffer on this I’d love to hear it.