Let us consider the office of the Holy Spirit, who is a stumbling block to many.
The term “office” would normally mean there is a person in charge. Not a Cosmic Vibration! This is where I have a serious difference with Paramahansa Yogananda, for he repeatedly equates the Holy Ghost (Spirit) to a Cosmic Vibration, as we have seen before (Misc. 58 and Misc. 66).
In front of the redoubtable PY of world renown, it would probably count as refractory to hold any other view. This is where one can take encouragement from Nakeeran’s famous counter to Sivan, that underdogs in Tamil Nadu are never tired of quoting: “நெற்றிக்கண் திறப்பினும் குற்றம் குற்றமே”
Far be it from me to categorize this as fault, but a “vibration” hardly does justice to all that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinitarian God stands for. The Bible of course refers to quite a few functions and gifts of the Holy Spirit, but I think you would rather hear what he means to me personally. Without trying to sound too “spiritual” (almost a derogatory word!) I can clearly say that the Spirit comforts,reminds, convicts, encourages, inspires and emboldens; if you are looking for an instance where some of these functions can be seen at work, you really need go no further than this article. The Spirit also is incredibly creative and at times irrepressibly insistent.
There is a list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit given by St. Paul.(1 Corinthians 12:7-11):
- Word of wisdom.
- Word of knowledge.
- Gift of faith.
- Gift of healing.
- Working of miracles.
- Prophecy.
- Distinguishing between spirits.
- Speaking in tongues.
And there is another list of the fruit of the Spirit (in Galatians 5:22-23) also given by Paul: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. And he adds for good measure “Against such things there is no law”. There are many who would argue that the fruit of the Spirit is more desirable than the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What do you think?
Dr. Gul Kripalani is frequently described as Mr. L.K. Advani’s brother-in-law. His wife’s name is Sheila – which is also the name of Advani’s only sister – and he shares his Sindi, Pakistani (pre-partition) background, but my research shows that that belief is incorrect. But what is true is the fact that Dr. Kripalani is a Christian. Listen to him (it is a bit longish but quiet riveting):
Who do you think convicted Gul? To be sure, the Holy Spirit. Read 1 John 5:7 :”For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one“. The “Word” standing here for the Son (Jesus) is represented by the Bible (Logos) which Gul read through the night in Montreal.
Don’t go away anywhere! The plot is thickening. Do you see that guy sitting in the front row with his beautiful wife next to him. Many of you would recognize him as Rajkumar, a persuasive Christian preacher of our times. Both the husband and wife were my classmates during engineering studies; they started out with varied backgrounds. Raj is basically a Tambrahm and Ragini (who sadly passed away just a few months ago) is of (economically) upper class Marathi descent.
If Raj is today a much sought after international evangelist, the work of transformation from a somewhat shy disposition was carried out by the Holy Spirit, as he (Raj) sat reading the Word, decades ago in Germany. The Holy Spirit, being part of the Godhead is omnipresent – operating everywhere – in the former case Canada, and in the latter, Germany. The Spirit of course is moving all over the world looking for willing souls, softening hard hearts and bending stiff necks.
That Raj went on to form his own Logos ministry (https://www.logos-ministries.com) is part of the contemporary Indian Christian folklore (He preaches regularly and you can tune in at zoom; particulars may be found in his website). Quiet often in India, the word “conversion” is invariably preceded by “forced” in politico-journalism and I am glad that instances cited above cannot be so bracketed. Another stone frequently hurled at Christian evangelical endeavour is the role of American dollars doing their dirty work; that charge too cannot stick in these cases.
Oh, that is not to say that there are no missionary organizations in India making merchandise out of the name of Christ. Abjectly poor people are often the victims of such sham organizations ever willing to peddle false statistics and misleading visuals to naive American Christians eager to pride themselves on their evangelistic conquests, in return for sizable monetary support.
Please treat the previous paragraph as only parenthetical as there are many examples we can give of the Spirit’s life changing ministry right here in South India -Ashok Mahadevan, Jaya Abraham, Krish Dhanam and Anand Pillai to name a few. You can google these names strung together with the word “Christian”, and you will simply be amazed at their journey. I am reminded of the verse in the book of Hebrews that begins “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses“…… (Heb. 12:1).
You will recall that I said the Spirit “reminds”. Yes, he has this uncanny knack of bringing to mind Bible verses you learnt in Sunday School at the most inopportune time when you are just reaching out for the fruit in the devil’s hand (Genesis 3:6). On the positive side, he can bring to your mind numerous Bible verses in different versions complete with punctuation. Check out my friend Raj, as he preaches; his explanation is that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Since God is the author, you can trust him to quote himself right! When you get the chance try this out and see if you can keep up with Raj as he reels out verse after verse without a Bible in hand.
For all the good work that the Christian missionaries did in the area of education (remember Paramahansa Yogananda went to the Scottish Church College in Calcutta, the same institution Swami Vivekananda attended years later) , health care ( notably Leprosy work pioneered in Nagerkoil at the Catherine Booth hospital by the Salvation Army), destitute rescue ( Mother Teresa), abolition of Sati (Lord Bentick), women’s higher education (in the name of Sarah Tucker), printing press ( Johannes Gutenberg), etc.,etc, today’s Christians in India are best looked at askance and their legitimacy loudly questioned. Though there is a suburban railway station in Chennai (Madras) in memory of St.Thomas who brought the gospel to these shores way back in the first century AD, Christianity is regarded as Western and fashionably despised by the ironically western influenced native elite. It is also put to scorn by the rabble rousing, slogan shouting, ill educated masses mobilized by rath riding netas from the former group.
Didn’t Jesus say “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake” (Matthew 10:22) and that “and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake”(Matthew 10:18). There are several news reports that this is playing out in real life particularly in North India.
I assume that at the end of her or his life, every person wants Motcha (whatever way you call it) and to be with God eternally. ( obviously this cuts at the root of reincarnation and the cycle of rebirth; so be it). For the Bible says “a time to be born and a time to die” (Ecclesiastes 3:2) and then again : “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment“(Heb. 9:27). The book of Revelation tells me that there is going to be a motley crowd in heaven. Will you be there?
Reading chapter 7, beginning verse 9 “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
We have already seen that Paramahansa Yoganda’s aim is to proclaim the oneness of eternal truth uniting the teachings of Jesus Christ and India’s ancient science of religion ; he later clarifies this to be Kriya Yoga. Wikipedia reveals (and I quote) that “The process of performing Kriya Yoga is claimed to lead to a certain purification of the blood which frees up the life force to withdraw into the spine. “Kriya Yoga is a simple, psycho-physiological method by which the human blood is decarbonized and recharged with oxygen. The atoms of this extra oxygen are transmuted into life current to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centers. By stopping the accumulation of venous blood, the yogi is able to lessen or prevent the decay of tissues; the advanced yogi transmutes his cells into pure energy. Elijah, Jesus, Kabir and other prophets were past masters in the use of Kriya or a similar technique, by which they caused their bodies to materialize and dematerialize at will.”
I don’t quite know whence come the names of Elijah and Jesus in the Kiriya Yoga honours list. As far as I know, the Bible doesn’t talk about it at all. In fact what the Bible lays down as prerequisite for seeing God, is holiness; “holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrew 12;14). Kiriya Yoga might give you the ability to do some extraordinary things – fight with tigers, levitate (ref. the Autobiography of a Yogi), purify your blood and so on but holiness? It is a different kettle of fish altogether. And as we in the book of John (I John 1:7), it is the “blood of Jesus Christ his Son (that) cleanseth us from all sin“. Have you heard anywhere that Kiriya Yoga can make you white as snow?
Listen to this beautiful and meaningful song about what the blood of Jesus can do. And what a captivating arrangement !
(by permission from Cathrine Ebenesar)
Have You Been to Jesus for the Cleansing Power?
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