DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0506
496 Modem Theism. Rammohun Roys successors.
pilgrimage is the company of the good, the only true Temple
is the pure heart. There is no distinction of castes.
Yet there can be no doubt that great latitude in regard to
the maintenance of old national customs was still allowed,
and a friendly demeanour towards the national religion
encouraged.
In fact, the Mission of the Calcutta Brahma-Samaj, accord-
ing to its president and most able literary representative Raj
Narain Bose1, was to fulfil or at least to purify the old religion,
not to destroy it.
Such a compromise appeared wholly unsatisfactory to the
more thoughtful members of the Samaj, especially to those
who were beginning to be influenced by the opinions of a
clever eloquent young man, Keshab Chandar Sen, who joined
it in 1858. They felt that a more complete Reform was
needed before the Samaj could deliver itself from all complicity
with degrading social customs.
The youthful Keshab addressed himself to the task of
radical reform with the ardour of a young man full of spirit
and energy, who had his knightly spurs to win.
It must be borne in mind that we in Europe are wholly
unable to realize the difficulties which beset the career of a
radical religious reformer in India. There, religious and social
life are so intimately interwoven—there, the ordinary creed of
the people, their debasing idolatry and demoralizing super-
stitions, are so intertwined with the texture of their daily life,
with their domestic manners and institutions, and even with
the common law of the land, that to strike at the root of the
national faith is to subvert the very foundations of the whole
social fabric. Let a man enter on the path of progress, let
him abandon the ideas inherited from his parents, let him set
1 Raj Narain Bose has rendered good service to the Adi Brahma-
Samaj by his able writings, just as Mr. P. C. Mozoomdar has done to the
later development of Theism about to be described—the Brahma-Samaj
of India.
pilgrimage is the company of the good, the only true Temple
is the pure heart. There is no distinction of castes.
Yet there can be no doubt that great latitude in regard to
the maintenance of old national customs was still allowed,
and a friendly demeanour towards the national religion
encouraged.
In fact, the Mission of the Calcutta Brahma-Samaj, accord-
ing to its president and most able literary representative Raj
Narain Bose1, was to fulfil or at least to purify the old religion,
not to destroy it.
Such a compromise appeared wholly unsatisfactory to the
more thoughtful members of the Samaj, especially to those
who were beginning to be influenced by the opinions of a
clever eloquent young man, Keshab Chandar Sen, who joined
it in 1858. They felt that a more complete Reform was
needed before the Samaj could deliver itself from all complicity
with degrading social customs.
The youthful Keshab addressed himself to the task of
radical reform with the ardour of a young man full of spirit
and energy, who had his knightly spurs to win.
It must be borne in mind that we in Europe are wholly
unable to realize the difficulties which beset the career of a
radical religious reformer in India. There, religious and social
life are so intimately interwoven—there, the ordinary creed of
the people, their debasing idolatry and demoralizing super-
stitions, are so intertwined with the texture of their daily life,
with their domestic manners and institutions, and even with
the common law of the land, that to strike at the root of the
national faith is to subvert the very foundations of the whole
social fabric. Let a man enter on the path of progress, let
him abandon the ideas inherited from his parents, let him set
1 Raj Narain Bose has rendered good service to the Adi Brahma-
Samaj by his able writings, just as Mr. P. C. Mozoomdar has done to the
later development of Theism about to be described—the Brahma-Samaj
of India.