KARL JASPERS FORUM

Short Note 45

THOUGHTS OF A HINDU ON CHRISTMAS DAY
by V.V. Raman
25 December 2002, posted 7 January 2003

This is the date that has for long been regarded (in Western Christianity) as the one when the Christ-child was born. For the devout who accept him as the Savior, it is a day of supreme rejoicing. With silent prayers and joyous singing, with spruced up trees and mistletoe, with fruit-cake and wrapped gifts, with midnight mass and Christmas carols, the day of Christmas is celebrated all over the world in various ways. It is the season which we have come to associate with peace, joy and hope.

The songs of Christmas proclaim the arrival of Christ, call for decking the halls with boughs of holly, pray for peace on earth, recall the three kings who brought gifts, and evoke a hundred other happy associations.

Christ was born during the Roman occupation of Judea when the corrupt Herod was in power. reminding one of Krishna's declaration in the Gita that when order and righteousness are suppressed, the Divine manifests itself in human form.

Baptized by his cousin John, he became an itinerant rabbi, first preached in Galilee where his charisma was powerful. He sympathized with the poor and the downtrodden. They called him Joshua (Savior) which became Jesus in English. His name and fame spread through the country. But his message and condemnation of money-changers of Jerusalem did not sit well with the establishment. When he went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray, he was arrested, tried, and condemned to die for claiming to be the Messiah (the anointed one).

Scholars have argued about the historicity of Christ, as they have done about Rama and Krishna, theologians have interpreted Biblical statements, as they have done with the Vedas and the Upanishads, physicists have tested the authenticity of the shroud of Turin, secularists have complained about Christmas trees in public places as they object to Om and Yakundedu in India, skeptics have questioned immaculate conception as they haved wondered about the emergence of Sita from the ground, atheists have scoffed at the idea of God having a Son.

But to Christians, Jesus is God incarnate who came to save us all, and died to redeem us all of Sin, very much as Hindus feel about the avataras.

To others, he was an inspired Jew, regarded by the people of the region as the Messiah, whose coming had been prophesied in the Judaic tradition. To yet others, he was an extraordinary preacher who taught his followers to live up to the highest potential of the human spirit.

As for me, I simply take the symbol of Jesus to be all that is best in the human spirit - love, kindness, charity, good cheer, jollity, and the like.

There have been a thousand sculptures and paintings on the Christ theme, as of the Hindu visions of the divine. Not just in Bellini's, but in every Madonna and the Child one can see a symbol of love supreme. Not just in El Greco's eerie painting, but in every Christ on the Cross, one can see the visage of supreme sacrifice. Not just in Vivaldi's Gloria or Handel's Messiah, but every hymn in Church and choir raises the blessed ones to ecstasy.

Whether Christian or not, one can respect the story Christ, for his spirit shines in the hearts of millions. Filtered through the tunnel of time and casting aside dogma, doctrine, and questionable claims, Christ, like Rama of Hindu lore, is a capsule concept for everything grand and glorious that each one of us is capable of. When Christ said, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor …," I take this to mean that he was telling us this should be the purpose of a life worth living: to bring smiles to the faces of the poor and to feel compassion for them. Such have been the truly enlightened ones in all great faiths. Ideas and ideals not only transform the human condition, they also enrich the human experience

So, I join people of the Christian faith on this joyous day of celebration, to reflect on the mission and message of Christ for Peace and Goodwill between neighbors and among nations, races, and peoples. Sharing in their hope for peace and goodwill among the peoples of the world, I convey as a Hindu to all my Christian friends the best wishes for a Merry Christmas.

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V. V. Raman