Grace

The notion of divine grace has been and
remains vitally important in Hindu devotional religiosity (bhakti), although it is
perceived differently among the various
devotional movements in Hinduism. In
the Tamil devotionalism that marked the
earliest articulation of the bhakti movement, the two major religious groups, the
Alvars and the Nayanars, both stressed
the utter transcendence of their chosen
god and the gulf between God and human
beings. In this understanding, grace
became something only God could give
freely. Only God had the power to transform human beings and bring their souls
to final liberation—a notion of grace not
far removed from Christian ideas. Within
the Shrivaishnavas, a later southern
260
Govardhan Math
Indian religious community, there was a
debate whether liberation was primarily
achieved through one’s faith or one’s
works. The Tengalai school favored faith
and argued that liberation came from God
alone. In contrast, the Vadagalai school
favored a person’s works and countered
that humans had to respond to divine
grace in order for their souls to gain final
liberation. The importance of divine transcendence and omnipotence, as articulated by Tamil devotionalism, has remained
an important part of Hindu piety, even to
the present time.
Southern Indian bhakti tended to
express the deity-devotee (bhakta) relationship using images of master and servant. Northern Indian bhakti,
particularly that which focused on the
gods Rama and Krishna, stressed other
images of this relationship: friend and
friend, parent and child, lover and
beloved. These differing conceptions
necessarily influenced the notion of
grace, ranging from the idea of God as
other and saving power to the sacred
quality coming from sharing everyday
interactions. In the latter, grace is manifested through being able to take part in
God’s divine play (lila), to play with God,
and thus take part in the divine world. In
this model, God is immanent rather
than transcendent, and divine activity
comes in the guise of sharing the ordinary activities of human life. All of these
models can be found in modern Hindu
religious life, although certain ones are
more strongly associated with particular
groups or religious communities.