References to India in Christian, Gnostic, and Hermetic Writings

  

References to India in Christian, Gnostic, and Hermetic Writings  

 

 

 

In the Introduction to her book, The Gnostic Mystery, A Connection Between Ancient and Modern Mysticism, Prof. Andrea Diem Lane writes:

"Nearly two thousand years ago strong parallels between Gnostic thought and Indian thought had been recognized. When the heresiologist Hippolytus (died about 235 C.E.) wrote about his Gnostic opponents, he was quick to include Indian religious thought as a similar source of heresy. He asserted:

"'There is... among the Indians a heresy of those who philosophize among the Brahmins, who live a self-sufficient life, abstaining from eating living creatures and all cooked food... They say that God is Light, not like the Light one sees, nor like the sun nor fire, but to them God is Discourse, not that which finds expression in articulate sounds, but that of knowledge, or gnosis, through which the secret mysteries of nature are perceived by the wise."' [1]

"This particular passage from Hippolytus, which mentions the ideas of 'God is Light' and 'God is Discourse' (or Sound), as well as vegetarianism, brought to my attention the remarkable similarities between aspects of the Gnostic traditions and the Sant tradition of India."

Note 1: Hippolytus, Refutation Omnium Haeresium 1.24. Elaine Pagels briefly discusses the connection between this passage and Indian philosophy in her book The Gnostic Gospels (New York: Vintage Books, 1979), p. xxi.

 

  

Soul Travel According to Hermes in the Corpus Hermeticum

A noteworthy passage from an ancient Western text mentioning India, also affirming the practice of soul travel, be it to India in spirit, heavenly realms above, or indeed even outside the cosmos.

"Consider this for yourself: command your soul to travel to India, and it will be there faster than your command. Command it to cross over to the ocean, and again it will quickly be there, not as having passed from place to place but simply as being there. Command it even to fly up to heaven, and it will not lack wings. Nothing will hinder it, not the fire of the sun, nor the aether, nor the swirl nor the bodies of the other stars. Cutting through them all, it will fly to the utmost body. But if you wish to break through the universe itself and look upon the things outside (if, indeed, there is anything outside the cosmos), it is within your power."

-- Hermes Trismegistus, Corpus Hermeticum, Book XI, Mind (Nous) to Hermes, 19, Brian Copenhaver translation

 

 

 

Inter-Faith Love!

The following passage is from the Recognitions of Clement. This Ebionite Christian author has very nice things to say about those in India who worship One God, follow peaceful customs and laws, and are vegetarian or vegan. Imagine! Clearly he sees parallels between his own religion and that of his brothers and sisters "in the Indian countries." (India was divided into many kingdoms back then.) This is one of the most amazing passages I know of in the extra-canonical scriptures, as it is a rare example of one religion (Ebionite, Hebrew Christianity) recognizing Truth in another religion (Hinduism), a rare inter-faith moment in human history. The Recognitions of Clement, and The Clementine Homilies are surviving Jewish-Christian texts preserving an Ebionite point of view (the original Jesus movement as a sect within Judaism):

"There are likewise amongst the Bactrians, in the Indian countries, immense multitudes of Brahmans, who also themselves, from the tradition of their ancestors, and peaceful customs and laws, neither commit murder nor adultery, nor worship idols, nor have the practice of eating animal food, are never drunk, never do anything maliciously, but always revere God."

-- Recognitions of Clement, Book 9, Chapter 22, Brahmans, Volume Eight, of the, Ante-Nicene Fathers, page 187, T & T Clark Eerdmans edition

 

Didymos Judas Thomas, Thomas the Apostle in the Country of the Indians, and the Acts of Saint Thomas in India

"Among the most intriguing works of ancient Christian literature are those associated with St. Didymus Jude Thomas, apostle of the East. According to ancient tradition Thomas deserves credit for the conversion of northern Mesopotamia and India to Christianity, and had the single honor of being Jesus’ 'double,' that is, identical twin. He is the same apostle to whom the New Testament Epistle of Jude is attributed (there he is called 'brother of James'—thus, since James was Jesus’ brother, the brother of the brother of Jesus). Two of the works included in Part Four—The Gospel According to Thomas (GTh) and The Book of Thomas (BTh)—have Thomas as their central human character. A third, The Hymn of the Pearl (HPrl), is found incorporated in a longer work called The Acts of Thomas; in one episode of the Acts this hymn is chanted by St. Thomas while languishing in an Indian prison.

"Although ancient literature often refers to him simply as Thomas, the central component of the apostle’s name is Jude (or Judas, for the two names are different English translations of the same Greek form). 'Didymus' and 'Thomas,' though eventually used as proper names, also had the ordinary meaning of 'twin,' the one in Greek, the other in Syriac (Aramaic). In the Thomas tradition, Thomas is explicitly called Jesus’ 'brother' and 'double'" (BTh 138:7f, 138:19f)."

--  Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures, page 535, School of Saint Thomas section

A good translation of The Acts of Judas Thomas (or the Twin) from the Syriac-Aramaic, including the Hymn of the Pearl, is found in, The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, by William Wright:

https://archive.org/details/apocryphalactsa00wriggoog/page/n156/mode/2up

Origins of the Sant Tradition and Saints of the South, by James Bean

Origins of the Sant Tradition and Saints of the South, by James Bean

Referring to Sant Tulsi Sahib's origins: "He came from the south, and was popularly known as Dakhani Baba, which means 'Sage from the South'". (Tulsi Sahib, Saint of Hathras, J. R. Puri and V. K. Sethi, page 3, second edition, 1981)

With the Sant tradition of India the most famous Sants by far are the northern ones like Kabir, Nanak, Goswami Tulsi Das, Mirabai, etc... Lesser-known is the Sant tradition of Maharashtra as represented by Eknath, Namdev, Tukarama, Jnanadeva, and Samartha Ramadasa. There is however an even more obscure history of Sants in south India. The book, Saints of South India, Part One: Karnataka, by Dr. N. Subrahmanyam, P. Aravinda Rao, and K. G. Ramaprakash, published by the Beas satsang, features three prominent Sants of the south: Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa, and Shishunala Sharif Sahib. These were part of the Haridasas, the Haridasa branch of the Bhakti movement. More about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haridasa 

 

I've always been curious about when the Path of the Sants emerged in Indian history. Often people assume the Sants or Sant Mat began with poet-mystics such as Kabir or Nanak but clearly they were not the first Sants. Kabir is believed to have been born in 1440, Nanak 1469. Previous to the 15th century Sants and much earlier in the Sant tradition was Sant Jayadeva, born in east India during 1170, author of the Gita Govinda. Some of his compositions were also eventually included in the Sikh scriptures, the Adi Granth compiled in 1604. In Maharashtra were significant Bhakti Sants such as Jnaneshwar (1275-1296). A disciple and spiritual successor of Jnaneshwar was Visoba Khechar (unknown - 1309 CE), and Sant Namdev (1270-1350) was a famous disciple of Visoba Khechar.

Tracing the Sant tradition much further back in time I am rather intrigued by this statement in this book about the Saints of south India: "The Bhakti movement is thought to have originated in Tamil Nadu during the seventh century and eventually spread through Karnataka, Maharashtra, and then across India during the sixteenth-century." (Saints of South India, page 2) Tamil Nadu is the southernmost state of India.

This Wikipedia entry for the Bhakti movement pushes the date back to the 6th century: "The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism[1] that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation.[2] Originating in Tamilakam during 6th century CE,[3][4] it gained prominence through the poems and teachings of the Vaishnava Alvars and Shaiva Nayanars in early medieval South India, before spreading northwards.[1] It swept over east and north India from the 15th century onwards, reaching its zenith between the 15th and 17th century CE." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakti_movement 

The above paragraph at Wikipedia cites some credible sources that one may consult for further exploration of the history of Nirguna Bhakti Sants (devotees of the Formless Supreme Being) including: A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement, John Hawley, Harvard University Press, 2015; Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action, David Lorenzen, State University of New York Press, 1995; and, The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, Karine Schomer, W.H. McLeod, Motilal Banarsidass, 1987)

I will have to research possible poet-Saints of the Tamil Nadu Sant tradition and explore what might be published in English from this earlier period.

Can we date the Sant tradition even earlier in the history of India? It's certainly the case that some ancient Upanishads taught about a Formless Purusha (Supreme Being), and have references to inner Light and Sound (Nada Yoga) meditation practices. In the Wiki entry cited above on the Bhakti movement is this paragraph: "Klaus Witz, in contrast, traces the history and nature of the Bhakti movement to the Upanishadic and the Vedanta foundations of Hinduism. He writes that in virtually every Bhakti movement poet, 'the Upanishadic teachings form an all-pervasive substratum, if not a basis.'"

As I wrote in my paper, The Origins Of Sant Mat, there are a few rare tantalizing references to Sants of antiquity:  

 

Seeing references in Krishna/Vaishnava Hindu scriptures, Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras was of the opinion that the Sant movement dates back to the time of Krishna thousands of years ago, that Krishna knew of Sants during his day.

An Example of Sants Mentioned in a Hindu Scripture Called the Bhagavad Purana

"Such individuals who have achieved the unity of atman (soul) and Param-atman (Supreme Soul, God) are known as Sants. According to the Bhagavad Purana there is no one greater than a Sant in the eyes of the Divine. Lord Krishna says to his disciple Uddhava Ji: 'All devotees like you are very dear to me. They are dearer to me than Lord Brahma, Lord Shankara, my brother Bal Ram, Goddess Lakshmi and even my own soul. Therefore, I walk behind these Sants hoping that the dust arising from their holy feet would touch my body and purify me.'" (Hindu scripture quoted by Swami Vyasanand of the Tulsi Sahib/Maharshi Mehi Sant Mat lineage in his book, The Inward Journey of the Soul, Amazon Kindle e-book)

Some poetry from a biography of Dadu Dayal: "There is no end to the number of Sants who appeared in the Yugas [Epochs] of Sat, Treta, Dvapar, and Kali [Yuga]. I sing of the celebrated one I have heard of, and bow my head to all the others." (Jan Gopal, disciple of Sant Dadu Dayal of Rajasthan in, The Life Story of Dadu Dayal -- The Book of Janma Lila, translated into English by the scholar Winand M. Callewaert, in, The Hindi Biography of Dadu Dayal, Motilal Banarsidass)

For more see, The Origins of Sant Mat:   

https://archive.org/details/the-origins-of-sant-mat/page/n1/mode/2up 

Back to the recently published book on Sants of south India: "Purandara Dasa and Kanaka Dasa, lived in the sixteenth century, and are quite well known all over South India... Shishunala Sharif [19th century Sant], is not as well-known as the other two, but his teachings are nevertheless very profound. His background and poetry reminds one of Kabir." (Saints of South India - Part 1- Karnataka, 2024:  https://scienceofthesoul.org/books-EN-279-1.html  )

And, as the title implies, there likely will be a Part 2 volume exploring more southern Sants.

Baba Somanath of South India

A recent Sant based in south India was Baba Somanath (1885-1976) of the Radhasoami Satsang. "Baba Sawan Singhji was very pleased with Somanathji’s seva and behaviour and initiated him into the path of Surat Shabd Yoga in January 1928. He stayed at Beas for three and a half years, practicing Surat Shabd Yoga and achieved his cherished goal. In 1932, He sought the gracious permission of his Satguru to return to Mumbai. Sawan Singhji blessed him and commanded him to propagate the principles of Santmat in South India, where it was almost unknown." (from the Gurus section of the Sawan Durbar Ashram website: http://sdakengeri.org/Gurus.htm  )

For the details of this see, The Life of Baba Somanath - Saint and Sage of South India, by Christopher McMahon, 2023:  https://babasomanathji.org/biography/baba-jis-life-story 

PDF: 

https://babasomanathji.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Life-Story-of-Baba-Somanath-Ji.pdf 

And this biography is also available as a 323 page hardcover book by Christopher McMahon:

https://babasomanathji.org/for-further-information-contact

 

Baba Somanath was also one of the greatest bhajan singers of the 20th Century. You can hear recordings of many of his rather moving hymns here: 

https://babasomanathji.org/bhajans