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Web Site Counters Extracted, Developed & Composed by: Ashit Sarkarmostly from: http://www.thebrahmosamaj.org (The official Brahmo Samaj website - which details the Liturgy, Creed & Initiation, the Upashana and the Prayers - and much more, which may be seen to study many such details not shown here)
& from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmo_Samaj,
And with contributions from Sanjoy Chanda, |
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Rammohun Roy was born in an orthodox Brahmin Vaishnav family and his early upbringing made him a follower of the religious practices of his family. He was sent to Patna to learn Persian and Arabic languages, because English was yet to be introduced as the official languge of administration. He studied, among other subjects, the Koran and Islamic theology. He was most impressed by the concept of monotheism of the Koran and was disillusioned by the idolatory and superstitions then prevailing in the Hindu society. Later on Rammohun spent several years in Benaras studying Sanskrit, and also Buddhism in Tibet. He came across the Upanishads, the Brahmasutra and the Gita and was convinced that the concept of Unity of God constituted the essence of Hinduism. During that period the Vedas and the Upanishads had been virtually forgotten in Bengal. Rammohun translated and published Vedantasutra and several Upanishads in Bengali and English to make his countrymen aware of the Vedantic teachings. Rammohun studied the Bible in the original for which he had to learn Hebrew and Greek.
Having made a comprehensive study of Hindu, Islamic and Christian scriptures in their original,he realised that the essence of the teachings of all of them was the same -- the unity of God, immortality of the soul, ethical discipline as the basis of spiritual life. This is the basis of his concept of what he called the 'Universal Religion' and this universal religion is what Rammohun tried to propagate through the establishment of 'Brahmo Sabha' or 'Brahmo samaj'.
Rabindranath Tagore succinctly explained the backdrop for the
movement:
The popularity of the Brahmo Samaj grew as a result of a sense of stagnation in the Hindu social system of castes and the raising of a new class of educated Indians that resulted from the occupation by the British Empire. Its prime belief is that there is only one God. It rejected the infallibility of the Vedas, the caste system, polytheism, idol worship, and the belief in karma and avatars. It had many similarities with the Unitarian movement.
The phrase Brahmo Samaj literally means the society of the
worshippers of the One True God. Brahmo means one who worships
Brahma, the Supreme Spirit of the universe and Samaj means a
community of human beings. The Brahmo Samaj, therefore represents a body of people who want to establish the worship of the Supreme Being in spirit as opposed to the prevailing idolatry of the land. The movement was started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy and his friends by opening a place for public worship on the Chitpore Road in Calcutta, and was duly and publicly inaugurated in January 1830 by the consecration of the first
house of prayer, now known as the Adi Brahmo Samaj.
The main doctrines or principles of Brahmo Samaj are:
Another very interesting, but significant aspect during a Brahmo wedding is that during the ceremony both the bride and groom have to express their willingness to the marriage - like the Christians, but the bride is not given away. No parents have such a right amongst the Brahmos!
In the 'Introduction' to the English translation of the "Brahmo Dharma", the translator, Hem Chandra Sarkar, says,
Some of the Verses in the Brahmo Dharma are pieced together from parts of different slokas in an Upanishad. Some of them were made up of parts of verses from different Upanishads. For example, our common prayer "Asotoma Sadgamaya........" is pieced together by picking up fragments from 3 different places - Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Aiterya Upanishad and Swetaswatara Upanishad.
The second part of Brahmo Dharma consists of the enumeration of the daily duties of the theistic house-holder according to the ideal of Brahmo Dharma. It consists of passages from Manu Samhita, Mahabharat, Gita, Mahanirvan Tantra etc.
History and timeline
The movement was started on 20th August 1828 by Raja Rammohun Roy and his friends when they opened a place for public worship, Brahma Sabha (One God Society) on Chitpore Road (now Rabindra Sarani, Kolkata). It was publicly inaugurated on 11th Magh or 23rd January 1830. The former date is celebrated as BHADROTSAB and the latter as MAGHOTSAB. These are the two main festivals of Brahmo Samaj. The Trust Deed of the Brahmo Samaj was authored by Rammohun on 8th January, 1830. It was a remarkable document, that stated
Of Roy's movement the noted physicist, Jayant Narlikar, writes:
Following the death of Raja Rammohun Roy in 1833, internal management was left entirely in the hands of Pandit Ram Chandra Vidyabagish. In 1839, Debendranath Tagore, son of Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, a friend and active supporter of Raja Rammohun Roy, joined the Sabha. On 7th Pous 1765 Shaka (1843) Debendranath Tagore and twenty others were formally initiated into what was then named Calcutta Brahmo Samaj for the first time with a signed covenant. The
Pous Mela at Santiniketan starts on this day.
Keshub Chunder Sen joined the Calcutta Brahmo Samaj in 1857. This name it retained till the year of the first schism in 1866, after which it was changed to Adi (original) Brahmo Samaj. The new one was called Brahmo Samaj of India.
Although, the Brahmo Samaj movement was born in Kolkata, the idea soon spread to the rest of India. That happened to be the period when the railways were expanding and communication was becoming easier. Outside Bengal presidency some of the prominent centres of Brahmo activity were: Punjab, Sind, and Bombay and Madras presidencies. Even to this day, there are several active branches outside Bengal. Bangladesh Brahmo Samaj at Dhaka keeps the lamp burning.
Social reform
In all fields of social reform, including abolition of the caste system and of the dowry system, emancipation of women, and improving the educational system, the Brahmo Samaj reflected the ideologies of the Bengal Renaissance. Amongst them, opposition to dowry system was a major thrust. The Brahmo Samaj Marriage Act of 1872 set the age at which girls could be married to 14.
It also initiated and fully supported social reform movements of people not directly attached to the Samaj, such as Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar's movement which promoted widow re-marriage.
Aims of movement
The Brahmo Samaj aimed at developing a universal religion and that has evolved over a period. Bepin Chandra Pal has succinctly summarized the evolution:
One of the major contributions was the study of other religions and
going to their roots. In 1869, Keshub Chunder Sen chose from amongst
his missionaries, four persons and ordained them as adhyapaks or
professors of four old religions of the world - Gour Govinda Ray for
Hinduism, Protap Chandra Mozoomdar for Christianity, Aghore Nath
Gupta for Buddhism and Giris Chandra Sen for Islam. All of them did
adequate justice to the task allotted to them. The efforts of these
four persons were subsequently followed up by others in the Brahmo
Samaj.
The attempt to create a universal religion has been analytically
explained by Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. Speaking in 1917 he said:
Divisions and re-organization
In his own days, Keshub Chunder Sen was severely criticised and
much of his efforts were called into question. One of his severest
critics was Pandit Sivanath Sastri.
The Brahmo Samaj split twice, once when Keshub Chunder Sen came out
of the Calcutta Brahmo Samaj (or Adi Samaj as it was later known) in
1866 and formed the Brahmo Samaj of India. The second split was when
Sadharan Brahmo Samaj was formed in 1878 and Keshub Chunder Sen went
on to developing the Navavidhan or New Dispensation in 1880.
When the bitterness died down, there were efforts at reconciliation
and re-understanding of all that had happened in the past. While
Sadharan Brahmo Samaj and Nava Bidhan Samaj function on their own,
the one in Bhowanipur known as Sammilan Samaj is for all. Many feel
that Rabindranath Tagore contributed substantially towards synthesis
in the Brahmo Samaj.
Spiritualism vs. rationalism
The splits, or schisms as they are called, occupy an important place in the history of the Brahmo Samaj. There were immediate reasons for them; the move against caste symbols in the first case, and the marriage of Keshub Chunder Sen's daughter in the second; but obviously there were deeper reasons for it. First, there was a conflict of opinions amongst people in different generations. Second, there was a clash between authoritarianism and democracy. Third and more importantly, there was divergence between spirituality and rationalism.
Unlike traditional religions, which are based on authority of some
divine revelation or word that cannot be questioned, Brahmo Samaj
was founded on rationalism merged with spiritualism, or of intuition
and reason as some have put it. Therefore, there always was a subtle
conflict about the proportionate mix of the two. Such conflicts did
not always surface but often remained simmering underneath. There
were thorough rationalists such as Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar
(who was one of the earliest secretaries of the Brahmo Samaj),
who were close to the Brahmo Samaj in their approach towards social
reformation but did not agree on spiritualism and hence kept away
from it. Within the samaj, the question played a leading role in
shaping its history. Even as late as 1886 when Bijay Krishna Goswami,
a leading missionary, left the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, the underlying
note was the conflict between spiritualism and rationalism.
When Max Muller and Romain Rolland, both highly respected and
knowledgeable about India, analysed the Indian religious scenario,
they heaped substantial praise upon both Raja Rammohun Roy and Keshub
Chunder Sen but they seem to suggest that the movement had ended with
them. It was left to David Kopf who emphasized the valuable role
played by Sadharan Brahmo Samaj in social reform particularly women's
education and the role of Rabindranath Tagore as a great synthesiser
in the Brahmo Samaj.
Jayant Narlikar has viewed the entire scenario from a completely
different angle. Being a scientist, he has noted with considerable
apprehension the growing gap between India and the West. He felt
that Raja Rammohun Roy had initiated steps for reformation of
Indian society and that could assist in reducing the gap, but by
and large, Indian society has remained unchanged. The point evidently
is that social reformation of Indian society has to be undertaken
if we are to attempt a reduction in its backwardness. Whether it
is done along the lines of the Brahmo Samaj or in some other fashion
is a moot point. This brings us to a question where it is being
doubted whether economic development with high rates of growth,
which is essential and welcome, alone would be able to assist India
in emerging from its backwardness.
We are living in a world where religion itself is losing its
relevance and value. In the developed countries, many people are
declaring themselves as not belonging to any religion. In such a
scenario the future of an organization such as the Brahmo Samaj is
doubtful, to say the least, but the sad part of the story is that
the glorious task it had undertaken remains unfulfilled.
Contributions
In order to understand the contribution of the Brahmo Samaj, it is
worth recalling what Maharaja Manindra Chandra Nandi, a noted
philanthropist not belonging to the Samaj, said more than a century
ago. He said,
In a way, the efforts of the Brahmo Samaj led to awakening of the
Indian consciousness and paved the way for its regaining its self
respect that was so essential for the country to win back its freedom.
For more than a century, members of the Brahmo Samaj, as individuals
as well as members of a community were the leading thinkers and
activists in almost all fields of activity, including religious
reform. Even in recent times, members of the Brahmo Samaj or those
influenced by it have been the leading lights in many areas.
Going by numbers, Brahmos form a very small community, a few thousand
at best. Considered against the billion Indians, it is a drop in the
ocean. However, its thinking and contribution far outweighs its
numerical insignificance.
While the idea of universal religion did not have many takers, most
of the social ideas of Brahmo Samaj have been finding a quiet
acceptance in society at large. Indeed, such ideas as women's
emancipation, education, equality of human beings, and removal of
casteism and so on are so much on the general social agenda that the
pioneering role of Brahmo Samaj in all these matters is often
overlooked or missed.
Two examples will suffice:
Indian society, particularly Bengali society, has progressed through such a vast transformation that it is at times difficult to comprehend and it is still more difficult to appreciate some of what has happened in the past. When Raja Rammohun Roy succeeded in getting the Sati Act, banning immolation of widows on the pyres of their husbands passed in 1829, he wanted to thank Lord William Bentinck but he could gather the signature of only a few of his friends, his opponents gathered the signatures of hundreds of citizens on an appeal to repeal the same. The counter move launched by Raja Rammohun Roy had the signatures of lesser number of people. When Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar launched his widow remarriage proposals, petitions mostly against the proposed reform poured in from far and near, from Poona and Deccan and from the different districts of Bengal. Although polygamy and child marriages generated large numbers of child widows, and formed the core of the reformation, people opposed the progressive move. Today, it is difficult to believe that such a strong opposition to social progress flourished in what many think of as educated and enlightened sections of society, and that too not in such a distant past.
NOTE: You may go through a simple and brief write up by Sanjoy Chanda about the
He was born in the village called Radhanagore of Khanakul, Hooghly a district in West Bengal on May 22, 1772. His father Ramakanta Roy was an orthodox Brahmin and his mother was Tarini Devi. Rammohun was educated in Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit & Bengali, as was common in those days, and later learnt English, Hebrew & Greek. He studied the works of great scholars and evolved into a free thinker. He also improved his knowledge of English with private study and took a keen interest in European politics and followed the cause of the French Revolution.
This led him to leave home on more than once occasion and finally be
driven away from his home by his father. On one of these occasions
he landed up in Tibet to study Buddhism but again incurred the wrath
of the teacher and his disciples owing to his radical free thinking
and protests against Lama worshipping and idolatry.
After the death of his father in 1803 he moved down to Murshidabad.
He was employed from 1803 to 1814 by the British East India Company,
as Dewan of Rangpur district. He used to hold discussion meetings in
the evening with members of Hindus, Muslims and Jains. In addition
to knowledge of the ancient Vedantic literature he also studied the
Tantric works with the aid of Hariharananda Tirthaswami. He also
mastered the Kalpa Sutra and other Jain texts.
In 1814 Rammohun came and settled in Calcutta and in 1815 founded the Atmiya Sabha - an association for the dissemination of the religious truth and the promotion of free discussions of theological subjects. Amongst the rich and influential who gathered around him at that time were Prince Dwarkanath Tagore of Jorasanko, Prasanna Kumar Tagore of Pathuriaghata, Kali Nath and Baikuntha Nath Munshi of Taki, Raja Kali Shankar Ghoshal of Bhukailash etc. But the meetings of the Sabha were not the only means to propagate his doctrines. Here recital and expounding of Hindu scriptures were done and Govinda Mala would sing songs composed by Rammohun. In 1819 there took place a celebrated debate between Rammohun and Subrahmanya Sastri on the subject of idol worship in presence of the leading citizens of Calcutta including Raja Radhakanta Deb and Rammohun vanquished his adversary.
During the course of his researches into the domain of Sanskrit
literature Rammohun was struck by the purity of the monotheistic
doctrines of the Upanishads which were in sharp contrast with the
prevailing corruptions of Hindu idolatry. He decided to publish the
Upansihads with his own preface and translations. These books
produced an intense and wide spread agitation in the Indian society.
He published the Vedanta (1815), Ishopanishad (1816), Kathopanishad
(1817), Moonduk Upanishad (1819), The Precepts of Jesus - Guide to
Peace and Happiness (1820), Sambad Kaumudi - a Bengali newspaper
(1821), Mirat-ul-Akbar - Persian journal (1822), Bengali Grammar
(1826), Brahmapasona (1828), Brahmasangeet (1829) and The Universal
Religion (1829). He was also instrumental in setting up the Hindoo
College in 1817 in Calcutta, which was later renamed as Presidency
College in 1856 when it was taken over by the government. He also
tried his utmost to repeal the Press Censorship Act of 1823, and
even appealed to the King of England. Though his efforts proved
fruitless at that time - the Act was finally repealed in 1835. Rammohun was the first to compose Dhrupad songs in Bengali in 1828. He
felt the need of Dhrupad songs - noted for their depth, grandeur,
simplicity and absence of decorative tonal effusion - for his Brahmo
Sabha meetings. Tappa and Thungri, he felt, were much too frolicsome
for such occasions. He composed thirty-two songs in Dhrupad style
and introduced them in Brahmo Sabha gatherings.
In the history of social reform in India, his name will always be
remembered in connection with the abolition of sati (the forced
immolation of widows). Rammohun Roy also made people aware of the
fact that polygamy, which was extremely prevalent in his day, was in
fact contrary to Hindu law. On the authority of Hindu lawgivers he
pointed out that it was only under specific circumstances (e.g. if a
woman is barren or has an incurable disease) that a man was permitted
to take a second wife while the first was still alive.
In the social, legal and religious reforms that he advocated, Rammohun Roy was moved primarily by considerations of humanity. He
took pains to show that he was not out to destroy the best
traditions of the country, but was merely brushing away some of the
impurities that had gathered on them in the days of decadence. He
repeatedly declared that he had no intention of breaking away from
the religion of his ancestors. He only wished to restore it to its
original purity. Accordingly, he insisted on the authority of the
Vedas, Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras. He condemned idolatry in
the strongest terms. He stated that according to the Hindu scriptures,
the best means of achieving bliss was through pure spiritual
contemplation on and worship of the Supreme Being, and that
sacrificial rites were intended only for persons of less subtle
intellect.
Rammohun Roy campaigned for rights for women, including the right
for widows to remarry, and the right for women to hold property.
As mentioned above, he actively opposed polygamy, a system in which
he had grown up.
He also supported education, particularly education of women. It was his efforts that made Bengali prose popular amongst the masses, from earlier emphasis mostly on poetry amongst the educated Bengalis. He foresaw and believed that English language education was essential for the nation to be able to benefit from learning science and technology from the developed Western world for the benefit of the future generations, and was therefore more useful than the traditional Indian education system. He opposed the use of government funds only to support schools teaching Sanskrit. In 1822, he founded a school based on English education, and it was as a result of his lone efforts that English started being taught in Indian Schools so that benefits of the huge mass of available scientific literature could be utilized - which today forms the major cause of our nation's success in the international scenario - a fact generally unrecognized and unknown by the majority.
In 1831 Rammohun Roy traveled to the United Kingdom as an
ambassador of the Mogul emperor. He also visited France. He died at Stapleton near Bristol in 1833 and is buried in Arno's Vale Cemetery in Bristol. A statue of him was erected in central Bristol in 1997. The Rt Hon. The Lord Mayor of the City and the County of Bristol, Royston Alan Griffey commented: "Of course, he was a great man, benefactor, linguist, ahead of his time with human rights. I am a lawyer so I know how difficult battles can be to achieve civil liberties and human rights."
Not long after the death of Rammohun Roy, the Brahmo Samaj split
into two groups because of the differing ideologies of its leaders.
Debendranath Tagore became the leader of the Adi Brahmo Samaj and
Keshub Chunder Sen the leader of the Brahmo Samaj of India. However,
both groups failed to win large-scale popular support, and today
their force is almost spent. It should be noted, however, that the
Brahmo Samaj undoubtedly heralded the beginning of the Hindu
renaissance, paving the way for other movements.
While many biographies of Raja Rammohun Roy abound, a very balanced "RAMMOHUN ROY: A Study" by the well known historian and author Sri Nirmalya Bagchi - translated into English by Sri Kalyan Kumar Das, (Published by Blue Pencil) is well worth reading - to learn about the amazingly divergent interests and involvement of this extraordinary great man. He was not only an extremely erudite scholar of so many languages, who deeply studied and understood the significance of the different religions and being able to synthesize the goodness from all to propagate the Brahmo credo and being a great social reformer - which are generally well known, but was a 'many splendoured genius' according to the author and the translator! His faith was based on intellectual foundation, and his participation and support for causes of Human Rights, strongly upholding secularism, spreading education and uplifting of women, pursuing national reform issues with a tremendous vision for the future of Indian nation has been well described and analyzed in the book, along with the views of his many detractors and opposers. It is a real wonder how he managed his business so successfully along with his charitable work, and simultaneously being so actively involved in the religious, social and political reforms, along with his extensive and remarkable travels in those difficult days to support the causes of the Irish, the French, the Vietnamese or even Gautemala, and still achieve so much in his limited lifetime during an environment of general oppression of 'the natives' by their then 'masters & rulers'!
"Unfortunately, when Englishmen alighted at our doorsteps with their material power, science and philosophy, our hearts were immobile. The religious asceticism, which had assisted the positioning of India as a preceptor in the world, had withered away. At that time, we were occasionally drying our ancient manuscripts in the sun, collecting them back and storing them in our houses. We were really doing nothing. The days of our glory were visible as a shadow on the horizon far behind. Even the banks of the nearby pond appeared to be more realistic and higher than those distant hill ranges."
Additionally, Brahmos do not believe in heaven and hell as eternal, unchanging conditions of reward or punishment. Instead, they see heaven as the state of being filled with divine revelation and hell as the state of being filled with sinful thoughts.
"The Brahmo Dharma is not a digest or compilation of the texts of the Upanishads. It is an original work on the principles of Brahmoism in the language of the Upanishads. Maharshi took such passages from different parts of the Upanishads as best expressed the ideas of Brahmoism as he conceived them."................"The entire contents of the first part of the Brahmo Dharma are from the Upanishads. But he (Debendranath) has taken them from different places and in the process he has frequently torn them away from their contexts......and pieced them together to suit his purpose. Verses have been taken from Taittiriya, Brihadaranyaka, Katha, Mundaka, Kena, Swetaswatara, Prasna, Mandukya, Chhandogya, as well as Isha Upanishads".
"the Mandir is for the worship of and adoration of the Eternal, Unsearchable and Immutable being who is the Author and Preserver of the universe........And.....for the promotion of charity, piety, benevolence, virtue and strengthening of the bonds of union between men of all religious persuasion and creeds".
"Roy understood that the emerging
knowledge from the West could not be ignored. He was deeply appreciative of the liberal philosophical traditions of India, and he founded the Brahmo Samaj, a religious movement to popularize those enlightened ideas. Since religion played a dominant role in the public life of his times, he went on
to reform religion itself. His criticism of the existing religion and its rigid practices and caste barriers was inspired by his desire to make religion consistent with the changing world of his times"
"Raja Rammohun Roy had given us a philosophy of universal religion. But philosophy was not religion. It is only when philosophy becomes organized in ethical exercises and disciplines and spiritual sacraments that it becomes a religion. Devendranath gave us a national religion, on the foundations of the Raja's philosophy of universal religion. To Keshub, however, was left the work of organizing the Raja's philosophy into a real universal religion through new rituals, liturgies, sacraments and disciplines, wherein were sought to be brought together not only the theories and doctrines of the different world religions but also their outer vehicles and formularies to the extent that these were real vehicles
of their religious or spiritual life, divested, however, through a process of spiritual sifting, of their imperfections and errors and superstitions."
"The earlier religion of his (Keshub Chunder Sen's) life was
perhaps somewhat abstract. But his religion in developed form, as we
find it, in his Navavidhan, is full of concrete symbols of all
religions. This brings me to another predominant note of Bengali
culture. This is the note of universality. The different sects into
which our country is apparently divided, all point to this
universalism. The differences are deceptive. They deceive those that
are strangers to our thought and culture. Every Hindu is conscious
of the underlying unity of this universalism. Read the devotional
poems of the Vaishnavas, read the devotional poems of the Shaktas
and the other sects, you will find they were identical in this
character. The life and work of Keshub Chunder Sen also point to
attempt after attempt at this very universalism. The earlier attempt
was abstract in its character, brought about by what is called the
universal of subtractions. It was based on this, that there is truth
in every religion! Thus in discarding what it conceived to be false in
every religion, and accepting what it conceived to be true build up
a sort of an abstract universal religion. From Hinduism it took the
Upanishads discarding the subsequent scriptures and systems. From
Christianity it took the ideal of the son ship of man and the
Fatherhood of God divorced from it scriptures and its traditions.
From Mohammedanism it took the idea of equality of man without the
characteristic traditions in which that idea lived and moved and had
its being. Similarly, from all known systems of religion. But as the
spiritual experience of Keshub Chunder Sen deepened, he could not
remain satisfied with abstract ideas thus taken and formulated. He
wanted flesh and blood for the life of his religion. It was then
that he formulated what I regard, as one of the grandest attempts at
universal religion. The result may or may not be considered
satisfactory. But I refuse to judge it by the results. I rejoice in
the glory of the attempt."
"Brahmo Samaj has progressed so much along the path
of female education. It is at the base of the enormous progress of
Bengali literature that is visible to everybody. The cultivation of
music in our country that had declined to a despicable and degraded
situation, has been presented to Mother Bengal by the Brahmo Samaj
clothed so beautifully in wisdom, love and devotion. Brahmo Samaj
has recovered the Upanishads and other valuable religious scriptures
composed by the Arya Rishis of this country, which were on the verge
of being lost. In these ways, Brahmo Samaj has contributed so much to
the welfare of the country."
In today's context the significance of these path breaking
changes then is lost.
BRAHMO WAY of LIFE - by clicking here.
Raja Rammohun Roy 
Please also do see Gopa Chanda's tribute in her 2007 article - by Clicking here 
Statue of Raja Rammohun Roy at Bristol
A stamp issued in 1964 to honour him!