DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0521
Modern Theism. Rammohun Roy's successors. 511
honours. This, of course, he denied, and his followers have
always indignantly repelled the charge, but his old Vaishnava
training was not without its influence on his own estimate
of his own mission and office. He certainly supposed himself
to be in some special manner a partaker of divine gifts. Even
in his address, delivered so recently as January, 1879, though
he answers the question, 'Am I an inspired prophet?' in the
negative, he lays claim to a kind of direct inspiration. He
declares that he has had visions1 of John the Baptist, Jesus
Christ, and St. Paul, who all favoured him with personal
communications, that the Lord said he was to have perennial
inspiration from heaven, that all his actions were regulated by
divine command (adesa), and that men should remember that
to protest against the cause which he upheld was to protest
against the dispensations of God Almighty.
Then, again, Keshab Chandar Sen was not merely an
autocrat among his own people in matters of faith and
doctrine. He was the sole administrator of the affairs of
the Society, and ruled it with the rod of an irresponsible
dictator. People began to complain that the Progressive
Brahma-Samaj was without a constitutional government. It
had no freedom of discussion in the management of its own
affairs. Keshab Chandar Sen was not only its Bishop, Priest,
and Deacon all in one. He was a kind of Pope2, from whose
decision there was no appeal.
1 A great part of the matter in this chapter was delivered by me before
the Royal Asiatic Society and printed in the Journal of that Society.
A Brahma Missionary Conference held on Dec. 22, 1880, commissioned
the brother of Mr. Sen to write me a letter calling in question some of
my statements. In that letter the members of the Conference object to
the expression ' visions,' and declare that on the occasion here alluded
to Mr. Sen only meant to use metaphorical expressions. Further, they
assert that Mr. Sen is not regarded by them as a Pope, but only as an
inspired apostle commissioned by God.
2 Raj Narain Bose considers that Mr. Sen is justly amenable to this
charge, as he (Mr. Sen) brought the same charge against Debendra-nath
at the time of the schism.
honours. This, of course, he denied, and his followers have
always indignantly repelled the charge, but his old Vaishnava
training was not without its influence on his own estimate
of his own mission and office. He certainly supposed himself
to be in some special manner a partaker of divine gifts. Even
in his address, delivered so recently as January, 1879, though
he answers the question, 'Am I an inspired prophet?' in the
negative, he lays claim to a kind of direct inspiration. He
declares that he has had visions1 of John the Baptist, Jesus
Christ, and St. Paul, who all favoured him with personal
communications, that the Lord said he was to have perennial
inspiration from heaven, that all his actions were regulated by
divine command (adesa), and that men should remember that
to protest against the cause which he upheld was to protest
against the dispensations of God Almighty.
Then, again, Keshab Chandar Sen was not merely an
autocrat among his own people in matters of faith and
doctrine. He was the sole administrator of the affairs of
the Society, and ruled it with the rod of an irresponsible
dictator. People began to complain that the Progressive
Brahma-Samaj was without a constitutional government. It
had no freedom of discussion in the management of its own
affairs. Keshab Chandar Sen was not only its Bishop, Priest,
and Deacon all in one. He was a kind of Pope2, from whose
decision there was no appeal.
1 A great part of the matter in this chapter was delivered by me before
the Royal Asiatic Society and printed in the Journal of that Society.
A Brahma Missionary Conference held on Dec. 22, 1880, commissioned
the brother of Mr. Sen to write me a letter calling in question some of
my statements. In that letter the members of the Conference object to
the expression ' visions,' and declare that on the occasion here alluded
to Mr. Sen only meant to use metaphorical expressions. Further, they
assert that Mr. Sen is not regarded by them as a Pope, but only as an
inspired apostle commissioned by God.
2 Raj Narain Bose considers that Mr. Sen is justly amenable to this
charge, as he (Mr. Sen) brought the same charge against Debendra-nath
at the time of the schism.