“According to the fundamental principles of Brahmo Samaj, the word, Brahmo, has a very wide signification. It, in fact, inciudes all men who believe in the essential doctrines of the Brahmo Samaj, namely, the existence and infinite perfections of the One True God, the duty of worshipping Him in spirit, the existence of a future state and the duty of abstaining from the worship of every created object.
“The next essential feature of Brahmoism is its extremely spiritual character. It does not believe that a particular time or particular place is necessary for the worship of God. It believes whenever the mind is concentrated upon God, in that place, should He be worshipped. It believes that there is no particular place of pilgrimage upon the earth. The company of the righteous is its only place of pilgrimage. It does not believe that the offering of flowers and fruits is necessary for the worship of God. The flowers of love and veneration and the fruits of good works are its only offerings to God. It does not believe in the especial efficacy of rites and ceremonies' its rites and ceremonies are actions promoting the good of mankind. Although it does not believe in the especial efficacy of rites and ceremo nies, it does not at once dispense with them. It does not believe that lawlessness is religion. It does not believe that austerities and severe mortifications of the flesh are necessary for gaining the favour of God. The restraint of the passions is its only austerity. It does not believe that hard penances are necessary for the expiation of sin. Sincere repentance is its only expiation. It acknowledges no sacrifices. Its only sacrifice is that of selfishness at the altar of divine love.”
“Brahmoism is the religion of harmony. It is neither a religion of frenzy on the one hand nor a religion of dull quietism on the other. It is neither a religion of faith at the expense of works on the one hand, nor a religion of works at the expense of faith on the other. It is neither a religion of meditation at the expense of action on the one hand, nor the religion of action at the expense of meditation on the other. It is neither a religion of asceticism on the one hand, nor a religion of worldliness on the other. It is neither a religion of hard penance and bodily mortification on the one hand, nor a religion of voluptuous ease on the other. it is neither a religion of pure knowledge on reason on the one hand, nor a religion of blind unregulated faith on the other. It is neither a: religion of forms and ceremonies on the one hand, nor a religion of unfettered licence without any forms at all on the other. It is neither a religion of teaching men to depend only upon divine grace on the one hand, nor religion of instructing them to rely upon self-exertion only on the other, for the attainment of eternal bliss. It is neither a religion inculcating undue reverence to religious teachers on the one hand, nor a religion teaching total want of the same on the other.
“It considers religious blessedness consist in a harmonious operation of all our faculties and the hamonions discharge of all our duties. It does not consider any quality, faculty, feeling passion or appetite given by God to us as unnecessary but mainatins that it requires only proper regulation to subserve the temporal and eternal interests of man. From divine communion down to the practice of common prudence and the enjoyment of innocent recreation, it considers the exercise of every human faculty under proper regulation and a harmonious discharge of all our duties, duly subordinated for the sake of harmony itself, to be true religion. This law of harmony is the test by which we should examine whether any religious doctrine or practice really agrees with Brahmoism. Any doctrine or practice, that cannot stand this test, should be rejected as un-Brahmic.”
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- 1. “The knowledge of, something superworldly is the basis of all religion;
- 2. The contemplation of the unity of design, prevailing in. the universe,, is the occasion for the dovelopment of the intuition that there is a first cause of all things;
- 3. Men, who have no' capacity to understand religion, and are, as it were, born atheists or scepties, can: be compared to those born blind.
- 4. The human spirit is finite and imperfect, the Divine spirit is. infinite and perfect.
- 5. The contemplation of the unity of design prevailing in the universe mentioned above merely serves as an occasion for the development. of the intuition that there is One God, the first, cause of all things.
- 6. The existence and power of worldly objects do not depend upon His mete will but upon His presence in them. In God they live, move, and have their being. He is immanent to nature and soul. All live and act through him. If he separate himself from the world, it is reduced to nothing.
- 7. Be is the life and the soul of the soul, or the Being in whom we live move, and have our being. True happiness can be attained only by such disinterested worship of God.
- 8. Morality like religion is corrected, improved, and refined by reasoning.
- 9. We should adopt a national form of divine worship, a national theistic text book and national ritual as far as all this could be done consistently with the dictates of. conscience. We should denounce marked foreign customs and manners that we might have without much thought or reflection but innocently, adopted from Europeans, but which are repugnant to the general feeling of the nation and by renouncing which do not act against Brahmoism.
- 10. We should conduct our reformatory movements in a national way so as to suit the tastes and ideas of the nation without compromising our Brohmo principles.
- 11. As our ideas of Brahmo are substantially the same with the Hindoos in general and specially with those of the writers of the Upanishads, which every Hindoo regards with veneration, we are Hindoos in religious belief.
- 12. Brahmoism is Hindooisrn and Brahmos are emphatically Hindoos.
- 13. Amidst the thousand mutation of all Hindoo religious opinion, the essence of Hindooism remains the same.
- 14. The Ocean of Hindoo society remains the same as before, English educated natives being but a drop in the ocean, although they may fancy that whole India has been anglicized, ,and is basking in the sunshine of western know- ledge and refinement.
- 15. From this it is evident that the Brahmo movement is a superficial one, and has not penetrated into the very depths of Hindoo society. What is the cause of this? The cause is we do not knew how to move Hindoo society. Hindoo society must be moved in a Hindoo way.
- 16. A national religious movement is highly needed, embracing all the different sects and creeds existing in Hindoosthan and discarding none.
- 17.I am a Hindoo like yourself. I pride myself in the, name. I do not consider Brahmoism to be different from Hindooism. I am fired ‘with indignation when 1 see religionists classified in this way ;—Christians, Mohamedans, Brahmos, Hindoos, as if Brahmoism is different from Hindooism.
- 18. He is the best politician who doth not bid adieu to religion ‘and morality as soon as he entereth the council room but introduceth religion and morality into politics under the conviction that righteousness exalth a nation. As nature gradually improveth the race of man, better and better classes of politicians will appear in the world.
- 19. As the creeper, though unconscious of the tree situated near it, instinctively grows in its direction to climate, and twine itself around the same, so ‘the human soul, though ignorant os the unknown God, instintively seeks after him to descend upon him for support.
- 20. First, Hinduism is superior to all other religions, because it owes the name to no man: because it acknowledges no mediator between God and man: because the Hindu worships God as the as the soul of the soul and can worship in every act of life in business, in pleasure, and in social intercourse; because while other scriptures inculcate worship for the rewards it may bring or the punishment it may avert, the Hindu is taught to worship God and practice virtue for the love of God and of virtue alone, because, being unsectarian and believing in the good of all religions, Hinduism is non-proselytising and tolerant, as it also is devotional to an entire abstraction of the mind from time and sense, and posseses an antiquity which carries it back to the fountain-head of all thought .
- 21. Let us be pure and holy in our lives. Let us make sacrifices for our religion,
- 22. Love is the life of spiritual communion, Love in the life of benevolent deeds and Love the only way of preaching religion.
- 23. To my mind character is superior to- ideology.
- 24. Spiritual world is our real abode. This earth is but an inn. Therefore, we should never be separated from our own land, the spiritual world, by being obedient to our inferior propensities. This world is not our permanent residence,—keeping this truth in mind we should keep ourselves free from test, anger and other animal propensities ia every respect
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