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A tree
mysteriously leads its roots deep into the
earth and magnificently spreads its branches
high out into the sky as if it is an
intermediary of the underworld, the earth
and the sky. The fascination of the tree is
in its endurance, its longevity and its
constant upward movement. A great tree might
have witnessed the rise and fall of
different generations of human beings. The
tremendous wonder at the mysterious
magnificence of a tree always fascinated the
symbol making human psyche of all
generations[1]
resulting in: ‘Cosmic Tree’, ‘Tree of
Knowledge’, ‘Tree of Life’.[2]
The human being wanted that the ‘Tree of
Knowledge/ Life’ to mediate him/her to know
the mystery of the underworld of death, to
help him/her to reach out the heights of the
sky and above all to attain immortality.
In the ancient Egypt the tree
of life is pictured as a tall sycamore upon
which the gods sit and obtain immortality
from eating.[3]
The kalpavriksha (kalpataru)
of the Hindu mythology is one of the five
trees of Svarga or Indira’s paradise.[4]
From this tree of life Yama
and the other gods partook of the
life-giving drink, "soma."
[5]
The
gishkin
tree, the mythical tree of
life, in the temple at Eridu in Sumerian
mythology is like a shining stone with roots
reaching to the subterranean ocean.[6]
In the Garden of
Eden the important tree is the tree of life/
knowledge. “Out
of the ground the Lord God made to grow
every tree that is pleasant to the sight and
good for food, the tree of life also in the
midst of the garden, and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil”
(Gen. 2:9. Cf. also Gen.
3:22, 24;
Prov.
3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4.).
The tree of life is also the tree of
knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:1-21).[7]
For all above
mentioned trees of life have their roots in
the earth and the branches in the sky. In
the Upanishads there is a particular tree, a
divine tree, the divine eternal Asvattha.
An ordinary
asvattha is a
pipal tree or the holy fig tree (species
Ficus Religiosa).
The tree may have derived its Sanskrit name
asvattha from asva (horse) -ttha
(-stha)) ‘under which horses stand’.[8]
The tree asvattha is very sacred to
the Hindus.
The antiquity of tree worship in India is
indicated by third millennium B.C. clay
tablet from Mohenjo-daro depicting an aśvattha
and its worshippers.[9]
Asvattha
is also especially sacred to Buddhists as
the bodhi tree under which the Buddha
gained Enlightenment.[10]
Upanishads
mentions about
a very particular divine eternal Asvattha:
‘ñrddhvamñla
avªkśªkha
aśvattha’
‘asvattha with its roots in heaven
and branches in the world’.[11]
Katha Upanishad states:
"Its root is above, its
branches below--
This eternal fig-tree!
That (root) indeed is the
Pure. That is Brahma.
That indeed is called the
Immortal.
On it all the worlds do rest,
And no one soever goes beyond
it.
This, verily, is That!" (Kath
U VI, 1).[12]
Maitri Upanishad tries to
connect Brahman the Asvattha with the
syllable, the word, Om, and admonishes to
worship this Asavattha through the word OM.:
"The three-quartered Brahma
has its root above. Its branches are space,
wind, fire, water, earth, and the like.
This Brahma has the name of 'the Lone
Fig-tree. Belonging to it is the splendor
which is yon sun, and the splendor too of
the syllable
Om.
Therefore one should worship it with
Om
continually. He is the only enlightener of
man." (Mait U VI, 4).[13]
A Christian does neither
believe that the world is an extended part
of the God nor believes that human beings
are immortal because they are part of God.
Their belief is that the world and the human
beings were created by God (Gen. 1:1 ff).
If the surrounding ancient
cultures were stressing on the eating the
fruit from the magical ‘tree of life’ to
have eternal life, the Bible had an entirely
different vision. The message of the Book of
Genesis is that it is not by eating or not
eating the fruit of the magical ‘tree of
life’ one will be getting or loosing the
immortality. It is by obeying or disobeying
God one will get or loose immortality.[14]
In the Letter to Diognetus
(AD 125-200) it is written: “But it is not
the tree of knowledge that destroys; it is
disobedience that brings destruction.”[15]
The first
human beings Adam and Eve were created in
the image of God and were called to share in
the divinity of God by obeying God their
creator’s word, the commandment.
The
Lord God commanded: “You may freely eat of every tree of the
garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for in the
day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Gen.
2:16).
Contrary to God’s command
Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of
life. (cf. Gen. 3:1-7). They disobeyed God,
sinned against God and were driven out of
the paradise, lost the company with God,
lost the immortality (cf. Gen. 3:8-24). “The
story of Gen. 2-3 is a theological etiology
explaining man’s separation from God and the
loss of the full life.”[16]
Ever since, humankind was expecting somebody
from heaven: a Mediator between them and God
and saving them from their predicament and
restoring their lost immortality. And so the
mankind was expecting somebody as a
life-giving Mediator whose roots are in
heaven.
Can a Christian
reflect the mystery of the coming down of
the Logos, the Son of God to the world in
the incarnation of Jesus Christ in the
figurative terms of the Upanishadic divine
Asvattha with roots in heaven and
branches in the world and which should be
worshiped through the word OM? Only basing
on the central mystery of Jesus Christ a
Christian can think Jesus Christ in
figurative terms of the divine Asvattha.
The Christians should be aware of the great
challenge. Presenting Jesus Christ as
incarnated Word of God, the Son of the
Father in the context of another belief that
Brahman is the only reality and the world is
only an extension or manifestation of
Brahman symbolized in the Upanishadic Divine
Asvattha is a great challenge for Christian.
In the face of
the challenge one has to get inspiration
from the early Christians. The early
Christians were also faced challenges as
they confronted with the surrounding ancient
philosophies, religions and cultures. In the
face of all the challenges holding fast to
the central mystery of Jesus Christ they
were able to explain to others the salvation
mystery of Jesus Christ.
Often St Justin the Martyr is
taken as a model to be accepted in
encountering other religions, for: "He is
the first ecclesiastical writer who attempts
to build a bridge between Christianity and
pagan philosophy."[17]
Justin recognizes the universal working of
the Logos.[18]
The Logos is the only Mediator
between God and men, between God the Father
and the world.[19]
In the patristic period the contrast is
clearly drawn.[20]
To Justin the fullness of the manifested
Logos is Jesus Christ.[21]
Not only did Socrates condemn the false gods
among the Greeks 'by true and careful
reasoning [lógos]', "but even among
the barbarians they were condemned by the
Word [Lógos] Himself, who assumed a
form and became man, and was called Jesus
Christ."[22]
This Logos, the Son, "came forth from
Him [the Father] and taught us these
things."[23]
All these things are taught "by our Teacher,
Jesus Christ, who is the Son and Apostle of
God."[24]
Justin the acute philosopher knows very well
the consequences of identifying the Logos,
the Son, with Jesus Christ in the Greek
religious and philosophical world: a great
occasion of misunderstanding, making an
individual into God. Yet he still
proclaimed this identification saying:
“Our Teacher of these things,
born for this end, is Jesus Christ, who was
crucified under Pontius Pilate, the
procurator in Judea in the time of Tiberius
Caesar. We will prove that we worship Him
reasonably; for we have learned that He is
the Son of the True God Himself, that He
holds a second place, and the Spirit of
Prophecy a third. For this they accuse us
of madness, saying that we attribute to a
crucified man a place second to the
unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of
all things: but they are ignorant of
the mystery which lies therein.” [my
emphasis].[25]
The method must
be the same for the Christian today:
Worshipping the undivided mystery of Jesus
Christ, they must try to explain this
mystery to the followers of different
religions. A Christian holds fast to the
mystery of incarnation of Jesus Christ and
explains it in the categories of the people.[26]
Believing
in the incarnation of the Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, a Christian can say that the
divine Asvattha:
‘ñrddhvamñla
avªkśªkha
aśvattha’
‘asvattha with its roots in heaven and
branches in the world’
symbolizes Jesus Christ.
(Picture in the front page depicting Jesus
Christ as divine eternal Asvattha is by Dr.
Sebastian Elavathingal CMI). Jesus Christ is
often viewed as the Tree of Life of the Book
of Revelation: “On
either side of the river is the tree of
life. . . .” (Rev. 22:2; cf. also Rev. 2:7).
St. Jerome considers the tree of life as
Jesus Christ. Pope Bendict
XV
writes (1920):
“Every single page of either
Testament seems to center around Christ;
hence Jerome, commenting on the words of the
Apocalypse about the River and the Tree of
Life, says: ‘One stream flows out from the
throne of God, and that is the Grace of the
Holy Spirit, and that grace of the Holy
Spirit is in the Holy Scriptures, that is in
the stream of the Scriptures. Yet has that
stream twin banks, the Old Testament and the
New, and the Tree planted on either side is
Christ.’ [Jerome, Tract. De Ps. 1.].”[27]
The divine Son, Jesus Christ
has his root in the divinity of His Father.
For, He shares the divine nature with His
Father; He is one in being with the Father.[28]
Rooted in the divine the Word of God, the
Son, descended downwards to the world, took
the human nature, which can be symbolized as
the downward extended branches of a tree. “Rooted
in the divinity, Christ embraced the whole
of history, human and cosmic, in his
humanity (Cf. Phil 2:5-11);[29]
figuratively He is the real
ñrddhvamñla
avªkśªkha
aśvattha.”[30]
There is a practice of
worshipping the Asavttha tree even from the
ancient cultures such as Mohencho-daro.[31]
In the Maitri Upanishad the worship of the
divine Asvattah is through the word OM. (Cf.
Mitri. Up. 6, 4). Christian will not worship
a tree. It is said that seeing error that
the people[32]
of Hesse venerating the Oak tree St.
Boniface chopped down the tree with his own
hands.[33]
Christian worship the Crucified Jesus Christ
on the glorious tree of the cross[34]
(which has no root in the earth!), for Jesus
Christ is the real Asvattha, who is rooted
in heaven came down into the world for the
salvation of the humankind. The significance
of the tree of knowledge of the Book of
Genesis was in connection with the
disobedience and fall of the humankind. The
significance of the glorious tree of cross
is in connection with the obedience of Jesus
Christ and the restoration humankind’s
relation with God. Book of Revelation writes
about sharing in the eternal life: “I will
grant him to eat the tree of life, which is
in the paradise of God.” (Rev. 2:7). Eating
the tree of life (Rev. 2:7) “symbolizes the
sharing in eternal life . . . . The enjoying
of all those blessings that the time to come
has reserved for redeemed humanity The
decree that excluded man from the tree of
life (Gn 3:22f.) is now abrogated by Christ,
. . .”[35]
St. Justin the Martyr interprets Psalmists
singing of the reigning of the Lord as the
prophecy of Jesus Christ’s reigning from the
tree of cross.[36]
St. Irenaeus writes:
“So the Lord now manifestly
came to his own, and, born by his own
created order which he himself bears, he by
his obedience on the tree renewed [and
reversed] what was done by disobedience in
[connection with] a tree; . . .”[37]
Christian worship is not
directed to a tree or to a human body. St
Athansisus beautifully explains:
“We do not worship a
creature. Inconceivable! For such an error
belongs to heathens and Arians. Rather, we
worship the Lord of creation, the Incarnate
Word of God. For if the flesh, too, is in
itself a part of the created world, still,
it had become God's body. Nor, indeed, the
body being such, do we divide it from the
Word and adore it by itself; neither, when
we wish to worship the Word, do we separate
Him from the flesh. Rather...knowing that
the Word was made flesh (John 1: 14), we
recognize Him as God even after He has come
in the flesh. Who, then, is so lacking in
sense that he would say to the Lord: 'Leave
the body, so that I may worship You?’”[38]
With the Athanasian model,
while continuing to seek an adequate
formulation in the context of the
Upanishadic philosophy, let the Christian
worship Jesus Christ and proclaim[39]
to those who are seeking to understand[40]
and worship[41]
that Jesus Christ is true God and true man
without division. And basing on the Book of
Revelation:
“On
either side of the river is the tree of
life. . . .” (Rev. 22:2) “. . . I will grant
to eat of the tree of life, which is in the
paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7), Christian can
say figuratively Jesus Christ is the divine
Asvattha.
It is mainly to
get to know deeper the mystery of Jesus
Christ, the divine Asvattha, from the
different perspectives of cultures,
philosophies and theologies that the
EJournal Asvattha: an
International Journal of Culture, Philosophy
and Theology starts today on 8th
December 2005, on the feast of the
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. In founding (1831) the religious
congregation Carmelites of Mary Immaculate
(CMI),
first Religious Congregation of India,
one of the visions of Blessed Chavara
Kuriakos Elias,[42]
one of the founding Fathers, was to proclaim
the Word of God through the then up-to-date
medium. He
established the first printing press at
Mannanam in 1844.
The jubilee of the
Bi-centenary year of his birth started on
3rd January 2004.
The members of the congregation following
the charism of the Blessed Chavara Kuriakos,
began numerous publications including the
first
Catholic Daily of India
‘Deepika’ (1887),
and also the international Journal of
Dharma. As a member of the religious
congregation, Carmelites of Mary Immaculate
(CMI) the Editor / Publisher, ordained on 11th
May 1981, with the gratitude at the fast
approaching Sacerdotal Silver Jubilee is
aware of the duty of continuing the vision
of the Blessed Chavara through the medium of
the cyberspace, the EJournal Asvattha.
Fr. Cheriyan Menacherry CMI
Pater Cheriyan Meacherry CMI
On the Feast of the
Immaculate Conception,
8th December 2005.
[1]
Chetwynd, Tom.
“Tree,” in
Dictionary of Symbols:
Language of the Unconscious,
Volume 2,
London: The Aquarian Press, 1993, pp.
404-406.
[2]
Cf. „World Tree,“ Britannica 2003
Ultimate Reference Suite CD-ROM.
[4]
Monier Monier – Williams, Sir. A
Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford:
At The Clarendon Press, 1979, p. 262 cl.
3.
[8]
“Asvattha,” Monier Monier – Williams,
Sir. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary,
Oxford: At The Clarendon Press, 1979, p.
115 cl. 3.
[9]Margaret
and James Stutley, A Dictionary of
Hinduism: Its Mythology, Folklore and
Development 1500 B.C.-A.D. 1500,
(Bombay: Allied Publishers, 1977), p.
27.
[10]
Margaret and James Stutley, A
Dictionary of Hinduism: Its Mythology,
Folklore and Development 1500 B.C.-A.D.
1500, (Bombay: Allied Publishers,
1977), p. 27.
[11]
S. Dasgupta, A History of Indian
Philosophy Vol. I. (Cambridge, 1922;
reprint, Delhi: Montilal Banarsidass,
1975), p. 234.
[12]
As in R. E. Hume, The Thirteen
Principal Upanishads. (Translated
from the Sanskrit), (New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1984), p. 358.
[13]
As in R.E. Hume, The Thirteen
Principal Upanishads. (Translated
from the Sanskrit), (New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1984), pp. 425-426.
Cf. also The Bhagavad Gita
15:1-3, commented by Swami
Chidbhavananda, (Tamil Nadu: Sri
Ramakrishna Tapovanam, 1979) pp.
749-752.
[15]
Letter to Diognetus,
§ 12, In Defense of the Faith, The Text:
(II) A Homily Concerning the Mystery of
Faith, Early Christian Fathers, In
Welcome to Catholic Church, Version 2.0,
CD ROM.
[16]
Childs, B.S. "Tree of Knowledge, Tree of
Life," in The Interpreter's
Dictionary of the Bible, Vol.4,
edtited by George Arthur Buttrick.
Nashville (USA): Abingdon Press, (1962)
1982, p. 697 cl. 1.
[17]J.
Quasten, Patrology Vo. I: The
beginnings of Patristic Literature. From
the Apostles Creed to Irenaeus,
(Westminster: Christian Classics, Inc.,
1984), p. 198.
[18]"We
have been taught that Christ is the
firstborn of God, and we have declared
that he is the Logos, of whom every
race of man were partakers, and those
who lived according to the Logos are
Christians, even though they have been
thought atheists, as among the Greeks,
Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like
them." St Justin, Apology I, 46,
as quoted by J. Quasten, Patrology
Vo. I:.., (1984), p. 209.
[19]J.
Quasten, Patrology Vo. I:...,
(1984), p. 208.
[20]"Christian
theology has always tried, especially in
more recent centuries (in the
Patristic period things were different)
[underline mine], to accentuate the
differences between Christianity and the
'non-Christian' religions and to
emphasize the newness of the Christian
fact, both as revelation and as an
ontological 'new creation'." Panikkar,
The Unknown...., (1981), p. 164.
[21]"For
whatever either lawgivers or
philosophers uttered well, they
elaborated by finding and contemplating
some part of the Logos. But since they
did not know the entire Logos, which is
Christ, they often contradicted
themselves. And those who by human
birth were more ancient than Christ,
when they tried to consider and prove
things by reason, were brought before
the tribunals, as impious persons and
busybodies." St Justin, Apologia
2, 10, as quoted by J. Quasten,
Patrology Vo. I:..., (1984), p. 210;
cf. also p. 209.
[22]St
Justin the Martyr, First apology
5, in W.A. Jurgens, ...Early Fathers
vol.I., (1970), ? 112 a.
[23]St
Justin the Martyr, First apology
6, in Jurgens, ...Early Fathers
vol.I., (1970), ? 113.
[24]St
Justin the Martyr, First apology
12, in Jurgens, ...Early Fathers
vol.I., (1970), ? 116.
[25]St
Justin the Martyr, First apology
13, in Jurgens, ...Early Fathers
vol.I., (1970), ? 117.
[26]If
the relationship of the individual "to
Jesus were from the outset clearly
understood as a dying with Jesus (in
absolute hope) in a surrender to the
incomprehensibility of the eternal God,
Christoloty would no longer appear to
the other world religions and the other
forms of human desire for God as
compatible only with a particular
religion, which cannot be that of all
human beings." K. Rahner, "Christology
Today," in Concilium: Religion in the
Eighties: Jesus, Son of God? Edts
Edward Schillebeeckx and
Johannes-Baptist Metz, (Edinburgh: T. &
T. Clark LTD; New York: The Seabury
Press, 1982), p. 77.
[27]
Pope Benedict XV, Encyclical Letter,
Spiritus Paraclitus, September 15,
1920, § 12. In Welcome to Catholic
Church, Version 2.0, CD ROM.
[28]
The Council of Nicaea (AD. 325)
confessed that “our one Lord Jesus
Christ the Son of God, the only begotten
born of the Father, that is of the
substance of the Father, God of God,
light of light, true God of true God,
born, not made, of one substance with
the Father (which they call in Greek "homousion").
. . .” The Nicene Creed, Council
of Nicea I 325, In Welcome to Catholic
Church, Version 2.0, CD ROM.
[29]Incarnation
is "God's Revelation, not in mythical
time...but in historic time among a
historic people...." The death and
Resurrection of Jesus, a unique event,
is a sign of God's salvation for the
whole creation and the whole of
humanity. But it is a sign which is
rooted in history." Bede Griffiths,
The Cosmic Revelation, (Bangalore:
ATC, reprint, 1985), p. 125.
[30]Menacherry,
Cheriyan. Christ: the Mystery in
HIstory: A Critical Study on the
Christology of Raymond Panikkar,
Frankfurt am Main, 1996, p. 251.
[31]Cf.
Margaret and James Stutley, A
Dictionary of Hinduism: Its Mythology,
Folklore and Development 1500 B.C.-A.D.
1500, (Bombay: Allied Publishers,
1977), p. 27.
[33]
“In 722 St. Boniface returned directly
to Hesse where he found his work
hindered at the outset by Hessian
veneration for the "Thunder Oak," an
ancient tree sacred to Thor and
reputedly guarded by thunderbolts.
Since the Hessians-no brighter then than
at Trenton-were fully convinced of all
this, St. Boniface felt that he must
remove this obstacle before obtaining a
hearing. In a scene reminiscent of
Elias and the priests of Baal, he
demonstrated Hessian error by chopping
down the Thunder Oak with his own
hands.” Catholic Church History,
Feudal Dyarchy: 565-843, VIII.
Conversion of the west (590-754), 60.
Carolingian Frankland (687-754), In
Welcome to Catholic Church, Version 2.0,
CD ROM.
[34]
“Looking at "the spectacle" of the
Cross (cf. Lk 23.48) we shall discover
in this glorious tree the fulfillment
and the complete revelation of the whole
Gospel of life.” Pope John Paul II,
Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae,
§ 50, March 25, 1995, In Welcome to
Catholic Church, Version 2.0, CD ROM.
[35]D’Aragon,
Jean-Louis “The Apocalypse,” in Brown,
R. E., J. A. Fitzmyer And R. E. Murphy (edts)
The Jerome Biblical Commentary.
London: Geoffrey Chapman, (1969) 1984.
p. 473 cl. 2.
[36]
“And again in another prophecy the
prophetic Spirit, testifying through the
same David that after being crucified
Christ would reign, said: ‘O sing to the
Lord, all the earth, and proclaim his
salvation from day to day; for great is
the Lord and highly to be praised,
terrible beyond all the gods. For all
the gods of the nations are images of
demons, but God made the heavens. Glory
and praise are before him, and strength
and pride in the place of his
sanctification. Give glory to the Lord,
the Father of the ages. Receive favor
and go in before his face and worship in
his holy courts. Let all the earth fear
before him, and be set upright and not
shaken. Let them exult among the
nations; the Lord has reigned from the
tree.’ 25 (Ps 96 (95)) 1-10.” Justin the
Martyr, In Defense of the Faith §
41 First Apology of Justin, Early
Christian Fathers, In Welcome to
Catholic Church, Version 2.0, CD ROM.
[37]Irenaeus,
Doctrine Of Redemption In Reply To
The Gnostics, § 19, An Exposition of
the Faith - Irenaeus' Against Heresies,
The Text (Book V) Redemption and the
World to Come, Early Christian Fathers,
In Welcome to Catholic Church, Version
2.0, CD ROM.
[38]St.
Athanasius, Sermon to the Newly
Baptized, 3. , in Jurgens,
...Early Fathers Vol. I, (1970), ?
795. Pope St. Leo the Great also hints
at the cosmic dimension of Jesus
Christ. He took upon Himself all that
pertains to ours which He had created:
"...one and the same Mediator of God and
men, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim.
2:5.), was able to die in one nature and
not in the other. In the whole and
perfect nature of true man, therefore,
the true God was born, complete in what
pertains to his own nature and complete
in what pertains to ours. But by what
pertains to ours we mean that which the
creator formed in us at the beginning
and that which He took upon Himself in
order to redeem it." Pope St. Leo the
Great, The Tome of Leo: Letter of
Pope Leo I To Flavian, Bishop of
Constantinople.
June 13, 449 A.D. 28,3., in Jurgens,
...Early Fathers Vol. III, (1979),
pp. 2182a.
[40]"That
from which truly all beings are born, by
which when born they live and into which
they all return: that seek to
understand." TU III, 1, as quoted by
Panikkar, The Unknown....,
(1981), p. 97.
[41]"What
God shall we adore with our oblation?"
RV.x, 121, as quoted by Panikkar, The
Unknown...., (1981), p. 168.
[42]
For more about Blessed Chavara Kuriakos
Elias, and also about the religious
congregation CMI, cf. Mathew
Kaniamparampil, “Blessed Chavara: A
Luminous Star Of India,” Asvattha: an
International Journal of Culture,
Philosophy and Theology (Panorama
section), 8th Dec. 2005.
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