Brief reflections in Hindu-Islam comparative theology using Chandogya Upanishad and

another from Hadith Qudsi: Aiming to arrive at Theology of Clinical Chaplaincy

Reflective-tangents from my readings for the class:
One of the verses in Chandogya Upanishad goes like this:
tau ha prajpatiruvca ya eokii puruo dyata ea tmeti hovca
etadamtamabhayam etadbrahmeti yoya bhagavopsu parikhyyate
yacyamdare katama ea ityea u evaiu sarvepvanteu parikhyyate
iti hovca (chapter 8, verse 4)
(translated as) Prajpati said unto them: The person seen in the eye is
indeed the tman I spoke of, the immortal and fearless
Brahman. [Indra and Virocana ask prajapati] O Revered One, is it the
one perceived in the water, or the one perceived in the mirror? Which
one is it? (Prajpati replied) It is the one that is perceived within all
these.
Compare the above verse with one from Hadith Qudsi which are spoken words of Prophet
Muhammad but as if in Gods first person speech. One of the verses goes like this:
My servant does not cease to come closer to me by means of
supererogatory works and when he approaches me a span, I approach
him a cubit, and if he comes walking I come running, and then I love
him until the ear by which he hears, and the hand by which he grasps and
I become the eye [by] which he sees."
The highlighted portions of the above two verses are worthy of a very close and empathetic
comparative theological study. First, I am pleasantly surprised with the similar tone in which
these two verses speak to me. This statement of Prophet Muhammad belongs to Sufi-mystical
genre of Islamic scriptures that describe and emphasize Union with God as the final goal of
their worship. I see an advaitic strand of thought in that:
If, when I see the world/other and if my eyes become that of the other then I am actually seeing
myself through the eye of the other, isnt it? This is when, in my opinion, the difference between
the other and the self disappears. And, this phenomenological process can be applied to two
individuals that are in deep love and to an individual that is in deep devotional love with his/her
God.
Secondly, the Hadith verse is not without ascribing qualifications to that person whose eye could
become the eye of God. It says he should be a servant and his efforts are not in his
supererogatory works. What does it mean to be a servant and what kinds of works if not
supererogatory that helps an individual transcend the atma-Brahama/Human-God or seer-seen
boundary?
Vivekacudamani describes those qualities. It says one should have desire for liberation and take
refuge in a [guru/a teacher] wise-great man (verse-3). The guru/master should be one that is
established in the experience of the Self and an ocean of compassion (verse 15). To that guru, the
seeker should approach and strive [like a servant] with both his head and heart (verse-5). While
striving with ones head, intellectual striving, is important [and probably required] to become an

erudite scholar and become skilled in performing ritualistic services they are not enough to
qualify for atma-gnyana/Self-knowledge (verse 6).
If we believe that we are made of three bodies, physical, mental and spiritual, and, if physical
striving and intellectual striving does not take us to the final goal as a spiritual seeker then we are
left with only spiritual striving, isnt it? Actually it makes clear sense, if the seeking belongs to
a spiritual field, the effort has to be of the spiritual-body just as, if I want to hit a ball, I have to
make a physical effort and swing the bat with my hands. In a ball-game, spiritual efforts (alone)
will not help me win the game. Now, the need is to understand, what is a spiritual effort?
Vivekacudamani tells us about a quality of a seeker is to be attuned to the words of a good and
generous master [guru] (verse 8). He/she should not only have ascended the path of yoga but,
should continue to strive to achieve the right discrimination (verse 9) that comes through
inquiry on the lines of the advice of his wise master (verse 13). It also tells us that the
inquiry is a Self-[reflective]-inquiry (verses 11, 13). Yogic, meditative practice prepares the
individual for such a Self-inquiry process and he needs to see what is in his mind as clear as what
is in the outside world (snake vs. rope) (verse 12).
When we reach that stage in which we are so comfortable and at ease to see the happenings in
our head/mind the same way as we can see the events around us, in the objective physical world,
then, in my opinion, we are centered in our spiritual-Self. And, in that state the distinction
between the seer and what is seen disappears. This, in my opinion, is how great seers and
prophets come to understand God and present their experiences to this world through scriptures
such as Upanishads and Hadith.
Application in practical life:
I believe something similar to what I had explained above, happens in a clinical chaplains
spiritual care process. Not only that the chaplain needs to come to the visit the patient having
been a great practitioner of meditation, but he would also need to have deep listening skills to
empathize with spoken and unspoken words of his/her patient. Spiritual care process is a
chaplains meditation-in-action in which he/she spends time in deep-Self-inquiry, trying to see in
his/her mind what is seen outside in the painful-stories of a patient. Over the course of that visit,
the chaplain and the patient start to see deep inside each other that what is seen becomes the seer.
This high-point of the spiritual care process that produces the mystical healing of a clinical
chaplaincy process.