Oriental Religious Faiths: Brahmo-Somaj

IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. II. APRIL, 1899. No. 6.

ORffiNTAL RELIGIOUS FAITHS*

BRAHMO-SOMAJ.

BY PROTAB CHUNDER MOZOOMDAR.

From the Daily Reports of the Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893.

[The Editors of the Era are of the opinion that the following article detailing a great reform movement in India will be interesting to the young men of the Church not only on account of the light it throws upon religious affairs in India, but especially because it describes a movement in India that may be said to be contemporaneous with that of "Mormonism" in the western world, and, moreover, was a movement began by a mere lad. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who, after completing the organization of the Brahmo-Somaj, died young. Editors.

Sixty-three years ago the whole land of India— the whole country of Bengal —was full of mighty clamor. The great jarring noise of a heterogeneous polytheism rent the stillness of the sky. The cry of widows; nay, far more lamentable, the cry of those

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miserable women, who had to be burned on the funeral pyre of their dead husbands, desecrated the holiness of God's earth. We had the Buddhist goddess of the country, the mother of the people, ten handed, holding in each hand the weapons for the defense of her children. We had the white goddess of learning, playing on her vena, a stringed instrument of music, the strings of wisdom, because, my friends, all wisdom is musical, where there is a discord there is no deep wisdom. The goddess of good fortune holding in her arms, not the horn, but the basket of plenty, blessing the nations of India, was there, and the god with the head of an elephant, and the — god who rides on a peacock martial men are always fashionable, you know —and the thirty-three million of gods and goddesses besides. Amid the din and clash of this polytheism and so-called evil, amid all the darkness of the times, there arose a man, a Brahman, pure bred and pure born, whose name was Raja Ram Mohan Roy. In his boyhood he had studied the Arabic and Persian; he had studied Sanskrit, and his own mother was a Bengalee. Before he was out of his teens he made a journey to Thibet and learned the wisdom of the Lamas. Before he became a man he wrote a book proving the falsehood of all polytheism and the truth of the existence of the living God. This brought upon his head persecution, nay, even such serious displeasure of his own parents that he had to leave his home for awhile and live the life of a wanderer. In 1830 this man founded a society known as the Brahmo-Somaj Brahma, as;

you know, means God. Brahmo means the worshiper of God, and Somaj means society; therefore Bahmo-Somaj means the society of the worshipers of the one living God. While on the one hand he established the Brahmo-Somaj, on the other hand he co-operated with the British Government to abolish the barbarous custom of suttee, or the burning of widows with their dead husbands. In 1832 he traveled to England, the very first Hindu who ever went to Europe, and in 1833 he died, and his sacred bones are interred in Brisco, the place where every Hindu pilgrim goes to pay his tributes of honor and reverence. This monotheism, the one true living God — this society in the

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name of this great God —what were the underlying principles upon which it was established? The principles were those of the old Hindu scriptures. The Brahmo-Somaj founded this monotheism upon the inspiration of the Vedas and the Upanishads. When Raja Ram Mohan Roy died his followers for awhile found it nearly impossible to maintain the infant association. But the Spirit of God was there. The movement sprang up in the fullness of time. The seed of eternal truth was sown in it; how could it die? Hence in the course of time other men sprang up to preserve it. and contribute toward its growth. Did I say the Spirit of God was there? Did I say the seed of eternal truth was there? There! Where? All societies, all churches, all religious movements have their foundation not without but within the depths of the human soul. Where the basis of a church is outside the iloods shall raise, the rain shall beat, and the storm shall blow, and like a heap of sand it will melt into the sea. Where the basis is within the heart, within the soul, the storm shall rise, and the rain shall beat, and the flood shall come, but like a rock it neither wavers nor falls. So that movement of the Brahmo-Somaj shall never fall. Think for yourselves, my brothers and sisters, upon what foundation your house is laid. In the course of time, as the movement grew, the members began to doubt whether the Hindu scriptures were really infalli-

T3le. In their souls, in the depth of their intelligence, they thought they heard a voice which here and there, at first in feeble accents, contradicted the deliverances of the Vedas and the Upanishads. What shall be our theological principles? Upon what principles shall our religion stand? The small accents in which the question first was asked became louder and louder and were more and more

echoed in the rising religious society until it became the most practical of all problems — upon what book shall true religion stand? Briefly, they found that it was impossible that the Hindu scriptures should be the only records of true religion. They found that the spirit was the great source of confirmation, the voice of God was the great judge, the soul of the indweller was the revealer of truth, and, although there were truths in the Hindu scriptures.

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they could not recognize them as the only infallible standard of spiritual reality. So twenty-one years after the foundation of the Brahmo-Somaj the doctrine of the infallibility of the Hindu scriptures was given up. Then a further question came. The Hindu scriptures only not infallible! Are there not other scriptures also? Did I not tell you the other day, that on the imperial throne of India Christianity now sat with the Gospel of Peace in one hand and the sceptre of civilization in the other? The Bible had penetrated into India; its pages were unfolded, its truths were read and taught. The Bible is the book which mankind shall not ignore. Recognizing, therefore, on the one hand the great inspiration of the Hindu scriptures, we could not but on the other hand recognize the inspiration and the authority of the Bible. And in 1861 we published a book in which extracts from all scriptures were given as the book which was to be read in the course of our devotions. Our monotheism, therefore, stands upon all Scriptures. That is our theological principle, and that principle did not emanate from the depths of our own consciousness, as the donkey was delivered out of the depths of the German consciousness; it came out as the natural result of the indwelling of God's Spirit within our fellow believers. No, it was not the Christian missionary that drew our attention to the Bible; it was not the Mohammedan priest who showed us the excellent passages in the Koran; it was no Zoroastrian who preached to us the greatness of his Zend-Avesta; but there was in our hearts the God of infinite reality, the source of inspiration of all the books, of the Bible, of the Koran, of the Zend-Avesta, who drew our attention to his excellences as revealed in the record of holy experience everywhere. By his leading and by his light it was that we recognized these facts, and upon the rock of everlasting and eternal reality our theological basis, was laid. What is theology without morality? What is the inspiration of this book or the authority of that prophet without personal holiness —the cleanliness of this God-made temple and the cleanliness of the deeper temple within. Soon after we had got through our theology the question stared us in the face that we were not good men, pure-minded, holy men, and that there were innumerable evils

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around us, in our houses, in our national usages, in the organization of our society. The Brahmo-Somaj, therefore, next laid its hand upon the reformation of society. In 1851 the first intermarriage was celebrated. Intermarriage in India means the marriage of persons belonging to different castes. Caste is a sort of Chinese wall that surrounds every household and every little community, and beyond the limits of which no audacious man or woman shall stray. In the Brahmo-Somaj we asked, "Shall this Chinese wall disgrace the freedom of God's children forever?" Break it down; down with it, and away! Next, my honored leader and friend, Keshub Chunder Sen, so arranged that marriage between different castes should take place. The Nrahmans were offended. Wiseacres shook their heads; even leaders of the Bramo-Somaj shrugged up their shoulders and put their hands into their pockets. "These young firebrands," they said, "are going to set fire to the whole of society." But intermarriage took place, and the widow marriage took place. Do you know what the widows of India are? A little girl of ten or twelve years happens to lose her husband before she knows his features very well, and from that tender age to her dying day she shall go through penances and austerities and miseries and loneliness and disgrace which you tremble to hear of. I do not

approve of or understand the conduct of a woman who marries a first time and then a second time and then a third time and a fourth

time —who marries as many times as there are seasons in the year. I do not understand the conduct of such men and women. But I do think that when a little girl of eleven loses what man called her husband, and who has never been a wife for a single day of her life, to put her to the wretchedness of a live-long widowhood, and inflict upon her miseries which would disgrace a criminal, is a piece of inhumanity which cannot too soon be done away with. Hence intermarriages and widow marriages. Our hands were thus laid upon the problem of social and domestic improvement, and the result of that was that very soon a rupture took place in the Brahmo-Somaj. — We young men had to go we, with all our social reform and — shift for ourselves as best we might. When these social reforms were partially completed there came another question.

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We had married the vddow; we had prevented the burning of widows; what about our personal purity, the sanctification of our own consciences, the regeneration of our own souls? What about our acceptance before the awful tribunal of the God of infinite justice? Social reform and the doing of public good is itself only legitimate when it develops into the all-embracing principle of personal purity and the holiness of the soul. My friends, I am often afraid, I confess, when I contemplate the condition of European and American society, where your activities are so manifold, your work is so extensive, that you are drowned in it and you have little time to consider the great questions of regeneration, of personal sanctification, of trial and judgment, and of acceptance before God. That is the question of all questions. A right theological basis may lead to social reform but a right line of public activity and the doing of good is bound ta lead to the salvation of the doer's soul and the regeneration of public men. After the end of the work of our social reform we were therefore led into this great subject. How shall this unregenerate nature be regenerated; this defiled temple, what waters shall wash it into a new and pure condition? All these motives and desires and evil impulses, the animal inspirations, what will put an end to them all, and make man what he was, the immaculate child of God, as Christ was, as all regenerated men were? Theological principle first,

moral principle next, and in the third place the spiritual of the Brahmo-Somaj. Devotions, repentance, prayer, praise, faith; throwing ourselves entirely and absolutely upon the Spirit of God and upon his saving love. Moral aspirations do not mean holiness; a desire of being good does not mean to be good. The bullock that carries on his back hundredweights of sugar does not taste a grain of sweetness because of its unbearable load. And all our aspirations, and all our fine wishes, and all our fine dreams, and fine sermons, either hearing or speaking them — going to sleep over them or listening to them intently — these will never make a life perfect. Devotion only, prayer, direct perception of God's Spirit, communion with him, absolute self-abasement before his majesty; devotional fervor

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devotional excitement, spiritual absorption, living and moving in God— that is the secret of personal holiness. And in the third stage of our career, therefore, spiritual excitement, long devotions, intense fervor, contemplation, endless self-abasement, not merely before God but before man, became the rule of our lives. God is unseen; it does not harm anybody or make him appear less respectable if he says to God: "I am a sinner; forgive me." But to make your confessions before man, to abase yourselves before your brothers and sisters, to take the dust off the feet of holy men, to feel that you are a miserable wretched object in God's holy congregation —that requires a little

self-humiliation, a little Our devotional life, moral courage. therefore, is twofold, bearing reverence and trust for God and reverence and trust for man, and in our infant and apostolical church we have, therefore, often immersed ourselves into spiritual practices which would seem absurd to you if I were to relate them in your hearing. The last principle I have to take up is the progressiveness of the Brahmo-Somaj. Theology is good; moral resolutions are good; devotional fervor is good. The problem is, how shall we go on ever and ever in an onward way, in the upward path of progress and approach toward divine perfection? God is infinite; what limit is there to his goodness, or his wisdom, or his righteousness? All the scriptures sing his glory; all the prophets in the heaven declare his majesty; all the martyrs have reddened the world with

their blood in order that his holiness might be known. God is the one infinite good; and, after we have made our three attempts of theological, moral and spiritual principle, the question came that God is the one eternal and infinite, the inspirer of all human kind. The part of our progress then lay toward allying ourselves, toward affiliating ourselves with the faith and the righteousness and the

wisdom of all religions and all mankind. Christianity declares the glory of God; Hinduism speaks about his infinite and eternal excellence; Mohammedanism, with fire and sword, proves the almightiness of his will; Buddhism says how joyful and peaceful he is. He is the God of all religions, of all denominations, of all lands, of all scriptures, and our progress lay

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in harmonizing these various systems, these various prophecies and developments into one great system. Hence the new system of religion in the Brahmo-Somaj is called "new dispensation." The Christian speaks in terms of admiration of Christianity; so does the Hebrew of Judaism; so does the Mohammedan of the Koran, so does the Zoroastrian of the Zend-Avesta. The Christian admires his principles of spiritual culture; the Hindu does the same; the Mohammedan does the same. But the Brahmo-Somaj accepts and harmonizes all these precepts, systems, principles, teachings, and disciplines, and makes them into one system, and that is his religion. For a whole decade my friend, Keshub Chunder Sen, myself and other apostles of the Brahmo-Somaj have traveled from village to village, from province to province, from continent to continent, declaring this new dispensation and the harmony of all religious prophesies and systems into the glory of the one true, living God. But we are a subject race; we are uneducated; we are incapable; we have not the resources of money to get men to listen to our message. In the fullness of time you have called this august parliament of religions, and the message that we could not propagate you have taken into your hands to propagate. We have made that the gospel of our lives, the ideal of our very being. I do not come to the sessions of this Parliament as a mere student, not as one who has to justify his own system. I come as a disciple, as a follower, as a brother. May your labors be blessed with prosperity, and not only shall your Christianity and your America be exalted, but the Brahmo-Somaj will feel most exalted; and this poor man who has come such a long distance to crave your sympathy and your kindness shall feel himself amply rewarded. May the spread of the new dispensation rest with you and make you our brothers and sisters. Representatives of all religions, may all your religions merge into the Fatherhood of God and in the brotherhood of man, that Christ's prophecy may be fulfilled, the world's hope may be fulfilled and mankind may become

one kingdom with God our Father.