English
He sent out missionaries to Britain and to America ; and, before his early death, founded several monasteries in India in which work still continues. He and his followers defend the whole of Hinduism. (d) By 1890 these three movements had stirred the educated classes of India very deeply, and there arose a whole army of lecturers, monks, and teachers, who went from town to town, delivering apologetic lectures, expounding the sacred books, holding classes for their study, and founding societies for the defence of Hinduism. Out of these there sprang the fourth organization, the most orthodox of all, the Bharat Dharma Mahamandal, under the leadership of the Maharaja of Darbhariga, branches of which have been formed far and wide and have proved very influential. The Brahma Samaj has continued to work steadily through out the years, but since the death of Keshab in 1884 it has had much less influence. The Prarthana Samaj, which arose in the Bombay presidency in 1867, as a result of the work of the Brahma Samaj, was long led by a very remark able man, Mr. Justice Ranade. The main difference be tween the two is this, that full membership in the Brahma Samaj places a man outside Hindu society, while members of the Prarthana Samaj continue in the old religion. From the Prarthana Samaj and Mr. Justice Ranade there sprang the Social Reform Movement, which has gradually attained influence all over the country and is a most healthy leaven. Its organ is the Indian Social Reformer. With the smaller movements we cannot deal in detail. Each of the sects has now its defence association and annual conference. All the organizations have a great deal in common. To be thoroughly Hindu, and at the same time to introduce WESTERN INFLUENCE 159 just as much reform as is necessary to make the religion practically efficient in these modern days, and so to prove that Christianity is unnecessary — this is the ideal. Each section opposes Christianity ; yet each copies missionary methods down to the last detail, and endeavours to prove that its theology is as strictly monotheistic as Christianity and its morality as lofty and practical. It is most noteworthy that movements in all essentials similar to the revival of Hinduism have taken place among the Jains, the Parsees, and the Muhammadans of India, and amongst the Buddhists of Burma and Ceylon, not to mention China and Japan. 96. Literature. The literature of our period cannot com pare with that of earlier periods in value or in literary power, but its interest is very great. The literature of the Brahma Samaj is perhaps higher in quality than any other. Raja Ram Mohan Rai published translations in English and Bengali of the leading Upanishads, but his most remarkable work was The Precepts of Jesus, being a catena of passages from the Gospels. Devendra Nath Tagore prepared Brahma Dharma, a volume of extracts from the Upanishads, meant to be used both as a service- book and as a manual of devotion. Keshab published a remarkable service-book called Sloka Sahgraha, containing texts from Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jewish, Christian, Muham- madan, Parsee, and Chinese Scriptures. His volumes ot lectures are interesting and illuminating. The only other work of genius written by a Brahma is Mozoomdar's Oriental Christ. The founder of the Arya Samaj was no modern scholar, and so his works on the Hindu Scriptures are of no value, but, for the theology and organization of the Samaj, his Satydrtha Frakasa is of great importance, Ramakrishna Paramaharhsa left nothing written, but Max Miiller published a volume containing a brief account of his life and a large 160 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY number of his sayings as reported by disciples. Svami Vivekananda's writings show a manly independence and a national spirit which are altogether admirable, but they are marred by distortion of history and extreme exaggeration. Theosophy has produced a large literature, and Mrs. Besant has published many works on Hinduism, some of which one must read in order to understand her influence. Mr. Justice Ranade's writings are full of ethical and intellectual force. A vast Hindu literature has kept falling from the Indian press in all the chief cities during the last thirty years, editions of the sacred books, above all of the Gi/a, com mentaries and translations both in English and the verna culars, and defences of the teaching of the various Hindu sects. The earliest and most noteworthy of this latter group is probably the Neo-Krishna literature of Bengal, the leading writer being Bankim Chandra Chatterji. The protagonist of the Vaishnavism of South India is Mr. Govindacharya Svami of Mysore ; of the Saiva-Siddhanta, Mr. Nallasvami Pillai ; and of Madhvism, Mr. Padmana- bhachar of Coimbatore ; while Mr. Sundararaman of Kumbakonam stands almost alone as the defender of the whole of ancient ritualistic Hinduism. NOTE. — The text below in Bengali is by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. ' As some people come to this House of Kali by boat, some by carriage and some on foot— various people by various means at last reaching the same spot ; so, though men are various and their creeds are various, yet the God whom they find by them is in all cases the same.' Jit ? f WESTERN INFLUENCE 161 ILLUSTRATIVE READINGS 26. The Folly of Idolatry NOTE. — This is a passage from the autobiography of Dayananda Sarasvatl. It refers to a time in his boyhood, when his father insisted on initiating him into the worship of Siva. As a preparation for this solemn act I was made to fast, and I had then to follow my father for a night's vigil in the temple of S*iva. The vigil is divided into four parts or praharas, consisting of three hours each. When I had watched six hours I observed about midnight that the Piijaris, the temple-servants, and some of the devotees, after having left the inner temple, had fallen asleep. Knowing that this would destroy all the good effects of the service, I kept awake myself, when I observed that even my father had fallen asleep. While I was thus left alone I began to meditate. Is it possible, I asked myself, that this idol I see bestriding his bull before me, and who, according to all accounts, walks about, eats, sleeps, drinks, holds a trident in his hand, beats the drum, and can pro nounce curses on men, can be the great Deity, the Mahadeva, the Supreme Being ? Unable to resist such thoughts any longer I roused my father, asking him to tell me whether this hideous idol was the great god of the scriptures. ' Why do you ask ? ' said my father. ' Because ', I answered, ' I feel it impossible to reconcile the idea of an omnipotent living God with this idol, which allows the mice to run over his body and thus suffers himself to be polluted without the slightest protest.' Max Miiller, Biographical Essays, p. \^2i. 162 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY 27. A New Reading of History Before even the Buddhists were born, there are evidences accumulating every day that Indian thought penetrated the world. Vedanta, before Buddhism, had penetrated into China, into Persia, and the Islands of the Eastern Archi pelago. Again, when the mighty mind of the Greek had linked the different parts of the eastern world together, there came Indian thought ; and Christianity with all its boasted civilization is a collection of little bits of Indian thought. Ours is the religion of which Buddhism, with all its great ness, is the rebel child and Christianity a very patchy imitation. One of these cycles has again arrived. There is the tremendous power of England which has linked the different parts of the world together. English roads no more are content like Roman roads to run over lands, but they have ploughed the deep in every one of its parts. From ocean to ocean run the roads of England. Every part of the world has been linked to every other part, and electricity plays a most marvellous part as the new messenger. Under all these circumstances we find again India reviving and ready to give her own quota for the progress and civilization of the world. . . . Everything looks propitious, and Indian thought, philosophical and spiritual, must once more go over and conquer the world. ... I am an imaginative man, and my idea is the conquest of the whole world by the Hindu race. . . . Up, India, and conquer the world with your spirituality ! . . . The world wants it ; without it the world will be destroyed. The whole of the western world is on a volcano which may burst to-morrow. Svam!