DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0485
CHAPTER XIX.
Modern Hindu Theism'1. Rammohun Roy.
It is a mistake to suppose that the first introduction of
Theism into India was due to the founders of the Brahma-
Samaj (in Bengal written Brahmo-Somaj), or modern Theistic
Churches of Bengal. Some of the oldest hymns of the Rig-
veda are monotheistic, and all the most pronounced forms of
Indian pantheism rest on the fundamental doctrine of God's
unity. ' There is one Being and no second,'' Nothing really
exists but the one eternal omnipresent Spirit,' was the dogma
enunciated by ancient Hindu thinkers. It was a dogma
accepted by the philosophical Brahman with all its con-
sequences and corollaries. He firmly believed himself and
the Universe to be parts of the one eternal Essence, and
wrapped himself up accordingly in a kind of serene indiffer-
ence to all external phenomena and circumstances. Again
even the ordinary Hindu who practises the most corrupt
forms of polytheism is never found to deny the doctrine of
God's unity. On the contrary, he will always maintain that
God is essentially one, though he holds that the one God
exhibits Himself variously, and that He is to be worshipped
1 Although my account of modern Hindu Theism—which appeared
first in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society—is principally the result
of my own researches in India, yet I am indebted to Miss S. G. Collet for
much information. Her Brahma Year-book, published at the end of every
year, gives a lucid and impartial account of the progress of the Indian
theistical movement, and it is to her able and disinterested labours that
the interest felt by the British public in that movement is mainly due.
Modern Hindu Theism'1. Rammohun Roy.
It is a mistake to suppose that the first introduction of
Theism into India was due to the founders of the Brahma-
Samaj (in Bengal written Brahmo-Somaj), or modern Theistic
Churches of Bengal. Some of the oldest hymns of the Rig-
veda are monotheistic, and all the most pronounced forms of
Indian pantheism rest on the fundamental doctrine of God's
unity. ' There is one Being and no second,'' Nothing really
exists but the one eternal omnipresent Spirit,' was the dogma
enunciated by ancient Hindu thinkers. It was a dogma
accepted by the philosophical Brahman with all its con-
sequences and corollaries. He firmly believed himself and
the Universe to be parts of the one eternal Essence, and
wrapped himself up accordingly in a kind of serene indiffer-
ence to all external phenomena and circumstances. Again
even the ordinary Hindu who practises the most corrupt
forms of polytheism is never found to deny the doctrine of
God's unity. On the contrary, he will always maintain that
God is essentially one, though he holds that the one God
exhibits Himself variously, and that He is to be worshipped
1 Although my account of modern Hindu Theism—which appeared
first in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society—is principally the result
of my own researches in India, yet I am indebted to Miss S. G. Collet for
much information. Her Brahma Year-book, published at the end of every
year, gives a lucid and impartial account of the progress of the Indian
theistical movement, and it is to her able and disinterested labours that
the interest felt by the British public in that movement is mainly due.