St. Hildegard of Bingen & Sri Ramakrishna

Mary T. Malone writes in her "Four Women Doctors of the Church" that whereas chastity & celibacy had been strongly recommended to the clergy from the early days of the Church, it was almost universally ignored, so that by the early Middle Ages, most clergy, including bishops & even Popes - not to mention the lower clergy - were legitimately married, according to the norms of the time. Pope Gregory reformed the Church by making marriage out of bounds for the clergy.

St. Hildegard of Bingen was a passionate supporter of the Gregorian Reform, still under way in her lifetime. In the notion of hierarchy as divinely ordered, there was no doubt whatsoever in her mind that those who lived chaste & celibate lives were, in this world, at the peak. All others, especially all the married, were much further down the ladder in God's design.

Sri "M", the authorised recorder of the conversations & teachings of the nineteenth century Indian spiritual teacher, Sri Ramakrishna, writes that on one of his early encounters with the saint, Sri Ramakrishna was horrified to know that 'M' was married & still more horrified to know that he had children. Later the order carrying Sri Ramakrishna's name was set up by his monastic disciples led by Swami Vivekananda.

The same idea was later expressed by Sri Sarada Devi, who said "A celibate person is half liberated even if he/she doesn't pray to God. If such persons are attracted even slightly to God, their further progress will be rapid."

So the 11th Century Christian Saint & the two 19th Century Hindu Saints had remarkable confluence in their views.

Contemporary Saints' "Loss of Faith"

St. Therese of Lisieux (1873 - 1897) has been an influential model of sanctity because of the simplicity & practicality of her approach to spiritual life. She is one of the most popular saints in the history of the Church. 

She felt an early call to religious life, & at 15, became a nun, & joined her two older sisters at the convent. After nine years, having fulfilled various offices, in her last eighteen months, she fell into a "night of faith", in which she is said to have felt Jesus was absent & been tormented by doubts that God existed. She died at 24 due to tuberculosis. The Basilica of Lisieux is the second most visited place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes.

In "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna", the author, 'M', writes about a conversation he had with Narendra (later called Swami Vivekananda) on April 21, 1886. It was during the last days of Sri Ramakrishna, who, it should be noted, had already bestowed many spiritual experiences on Narendra.

Narendra: "There is no such thing as God."

M: "Sri Ramakrishna has seen God."

Narendra: "It may be his hallucination. Sri Ramakrishna told me some people call
him God. I replied, let a thousand people call you God, but I shall not call you so as long as I do not know it to be true."

Later of course, Swami Vivekananda (1863 - 1902) overcame his reservations & brought Hinduism to the world stage in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago.

It is intriguing that these two contemporary saints had a crisis of faith at about the same time.

Zena Hitz & Kashiyatra

"Lost in thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life" by Zena Hitz, Professor of Classical Philosophy (Published by Princeton University Press) examines the supreme delights of an intellectual life. But she posits a preparation of an ascetic way of life, shorn of all modern trappings, to enter this life. The rewards are the fruits of human life flourishing in peace & leisure; study & reflection, art & music, prayer & celebration.

She also celebrates a love of learning for its own sake as opposed to learning to acquire wealth or status. The supposed "uselessness" of the liberal arts education actually make humans truly realise their potential as human beings & not as mere animals.

Interestingly, the same idea of learning as an end in itself, is embodied in the "Kashiyatra" ceremony before a South Indian Marriage. The groom is supposed to travel to Kashi (Varanasi), the centre of Hindu learning to embark on a life precisely similar to that described by Prof. Hitz above! It is to be noted that it was considered a life of learning was the default option for the young man rather than a married life, which is a (necessary?) compromise.

Before dismissing this as an Utopian pipe dream, one can observe the purely spiritual companionship of Yagnavalkya & his two wives, Katyayani & Maitreyi. Nearer our own time, Sri Ramakrishna & Sri Sarada Devi formed an ideal couple. Though they were not of course married, Sri Aurobindo & The Mother complemented each other's spiritual work.