History of Brahmo Samaj(Source: Brahmo Samaj Website) Below is given a chronolgy of the history of the Brahmo Samaj movement. 1772 Rammohun born in Radhanagore, Bengal on 22nd May. 1815 Rammohun settles down in Calcutta. Starts the Atmiya Sabha, translation of Vedanta published. 1816 Translation and publication of the Kena and Isha Upanishads in Bengali and English. Abridgement of Vedanta in English, Hindusthani and Bengali. Translation of Katha and Mandukya Upanishads in Bengali. 1818 A Bengali tract on Suttee. A tract explaining the meaning of Gayatri. English translation of the tract on Suttee. 1819 Celebrated verbal duel between Subrahmanya Sastri and Rammohun at the house of Behari Lal Chaubey in Barrabazar. 1820 English translation of the second tract on Suttee. The Precepts of Jesus, the Guide to Peace and Happiness published. 1823 Establishment of the Calcutta Unitarian Committee by Rammohun Roy, Dwarkanath Tagore, and William Adam 1825 Establishment of the Vedanta College for the teaching of the monotheistic doctrines of the Upansihads 1828 Establishment of the Brahmo Dharma on 20th August, 6th Bhadra 1234 B.E. at the house of Feranghi Kamal Bose which was rented for the occasion 1829 Lord William Bentinck passes the abolition of Sutte act on 4th December 1829. The orthodox Hindus go up in arms against Rammohun and Raja Radhakanta Deb formed a rival association called Dharma Sabha 1830 Rammohun Roy opens the door of the first theistic church on 23rd January 1830 (11th Magh 1236 B.E.). Leaves for Europe on 19th November. 1833 Rammohun Roy breathes his last on 27th September at Beech House in Stapleton Grove in Bristol 1839 Tattwabodhini Sabha, or truth-teaching society, started by Debendranath Tagore to arrest Trinitarian Christian conversions in Bengal. 1 1843 Debendranath and 20 of his associates are formally initiated in the Brahmo Samaj by Ramchandra Vidyabagish on December 21, (7th Paush 1765 B.E.). Birth of Brahmo Samaj when Debendranath institutionalizes Rammohun's ideology of Hindu reform. Vedanta accepted as the authentic scriptural source of Hinduism 1851 Akkhoy Kumar Datta convinces Debendranath to give up Vedanta as the "book" of the Hindus. 1855 Renewal of Unitarian influence on Brahmoism when Charles Dall, American Unitarian missionary arrives in Calcutta. The British India Society established with Rev. James Long and Rev. Charles Dall. Dall was the only non-Indian member of the Brahmo Samaj, to remain in Calcutta to his death in 1885 1857 Keshub Chandra Sen, charismatic theistic reformer, joins the Brahmo Samaj as disciple of Debendranath 1859 Tattwabodhini Sabha abolished after Pt. Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, its famous secularist reformer and secretary, resigns in protest against Keshub. Keshub sets up the Brahmo School where weekly lectures were delivered and these lectures were widely attended. 1860 Keshub begins publishing tracts which were the trumpet call of the new Brahmoism and the first chapter was called,"Young Bengal, this is for you". Establishment of the Sangat Sabha. 1861 Keshub and the younger Brahmos try to convince older Brahmos of the need for practical social reforms and a mission society. Debendranath's eldest daughter Sukumari was married according to the reformed rites of the Brahmo Samaj on 26th July. Keshub starts a fortnightly called The Indian Mirror. 1862 Debendranath elevated Keshub Chandra Sen to the post of Minister or Acharya of the Samaj on 13th April and confers upon him the tite of Brahmanand. 1866 Formal schism between liberal younger Brahmos and conservative older Brahmos leads to creation of the Brahmo Samaj of India under Keshub at a meeting held in the house of the Calcutta College on 11th November. 1867 Brahmo missionaries first propagate the Hindu reformation across the subcontinent, making use of the railway system. Bijoy Krishna Goswami persuades Keshub to use Vaishnavism in the service of Brahmoism 2 1868 Keshub laid the foundation stone of his new church - the Tabernacle of New Dispensation on 24th January. 1869 Keshub consecrates the newly constructed chapel was on 22nd August 1870 Keshub visits England as a spokesman for the Hindu reformation. Keshub establishes the Indian Reform Association on 29th October, primarily to publish cheap literature for the poor, fight against alcoholism and to educate women. 1872 Marital reform among the Brahmo community finally wins approval of the government with the enactment of Act III, the Brahmo Marriage Act. The new tradition of reformed Hinduism is forcefully articulated before orthodox Hindu leaders of Calcutta by Adi Brahmo Samaj president, Rajnarian Bose, in a lecture entitled "The Superiority of Hinduism." 1874 Liberal faction within Brahmo Samaj of India organizes the Samadarshi party to counter Keshub's growing conservatism. Keshub abandons Unitarian gospel of social reform, turning instead to the intellectual study of all major Eurasian religions. He and his disciples begin a series of elaborate seminars known as "Pilgrimages to the Saints." 1876 Political-minded members of the Samadarshi party found the Indian Association in support of the moderate nationalist ideology of Surendranath Banerjee. The movement leads a decade later to the formation of the Indian National Congress. 1878 Marriage of Keshub's eldest daughter, Suniti, to the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, Prince Nripendra Narayan, in violation of the Brahmo Marriage Act of 1872, becomes exciting cause for a second major schism in Brahmo history. Samadarshi party reconstitutes itself as the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. 1879 Keshub and his loyal followers inaugurate the Nava Vidhan, or New Dispensation Church, with Keshub as prophet of a universal religion. 1884 Death of Keshub followed by renewed factionalism within the New Dispensation between the Vaishnava-dominated Durbar and the Christian Unitarian group headed by P C Moozomdar 1886 Resignation of Bijoy Krishna Goswami as Missionary, indicative of factional struggle within the Sadharan Samaj between devout Vaishnava theists and the rationalist Vedantists led by Sitanath Tattvabhusan. Differences are reconciled, however, by Sivanath Shastri, Sadharan Brahmo Samaj spiritual leader. 3 1891 Brahmo philanthropy among Bengal's urban and rural poor considerably extended with the creation of the Das Ashram under the direction of Ramananda Chatterji 1893 P C Moozomdar invited by American Unitarians to help organize the first world Parliament of Religions in Chicago. 1907 Bengali Brahmos start the Society for the Improvement of Backward Classes, which is the earliest pioneering movement in India dedicated to ameliorating the conditions of Hindu untouchables. 1911 Rabindranath Tagore assumes leadership of the Adi Brahmo Samaj, and becomes charismatic hero of younger generation of Brahmos. His action arrests growing tendency of Brahmos to defect to revolutionary nationalism./td> 1912 According to Sivanath Shastri, the peak of Brahmo expansion is reached by this year, when 232 Samajes were reportedly active throughout the subcontinent. 1913 Rabindranath honoured with Nobel Prize in Literature for his work Gitanjali (Song Offerings). 1921 Rabindranath Tagore formally inaugurates Visva Bharati University at Shantineketan as an expression of Brahmo universalism. 1941 Death of Rabindranath on 7th August signifies end of an era and the decline of the Brahmo Samaj per se. But his philosophic program of fusing Hinduism with Brahmo ideas and ideals lives on among the progressive middle-class Hindus of contemporary India. 4 Early life Rammohun Roy 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. He studied the works of great scholars and evolved into a free thinker. This also 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 where he published a Persian treatise with an Arabic preface entitled, "Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin" or "A Gift to Monotheism" in 1805. This book gave a great deal of offence to the orthodox Muslims. During his tenure as the Dewan of Rangpur district under the East India Company he used to hold discussion meetings in the evening with members of Hindus, Muslims and Jains. In addition to a 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. 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. Ancestral House at Radhanagore Atmiya Sabha 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 5 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. Publications & Literary Works 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). Ramohun was also instrumental in setting up the Hindoo College in 1817 in Calcutta, which was 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. Work with Unitarians Mr. William Adam, a young Baptist missionary who had come over from England, mentioned openly in 1821 that he was converted into Unitarian doctrines through the influence of Rammohun Roy. Rammohun wrote in the Brahminical magazine where he assailed the Trinitariansim of Christianity and tried to prove that it was no better than the Hindu polytheism. This gave rise to great scandal amongst the orthodox Christian community. Rammohun also helped William Adam to set up a Unitarian mission in Calcutta in 1823. Till 1828 Rammohun regularly attended the Unitarian Sunday service of Mr. Adam. In fact he called himself to be a Hindu Unitarian, and he silenced his critics by saying, "Because I feel already weary of the doctrine of Man God or God Man frequently inculcated by the Brahmins in pursuance of their corrupt traditions and the same doctrine of Man God though preached by another body of priests cannot effectually tend to excite my anxiety to listen to it. Because Unitarians believe, profess, inculcate the doctrine of divine unity, a doctrine which I find firmly maintained both by Christian scriptures and by our most ancient writings commonly called the Vedas." 6 Foundation of Brahmo Samaj On 6th Bhadra, 20th August 1828 the first Samaj was opened at the house of Feranghi Kamal Bose which was rented for the occasion. Meetings of the Samaj were held every Saturday. This new theistic service was called Brahma Sabha or "One God Society." This attracted the masses and had a large number of sympathisers. Also during this time Lord William Bentinck declared the abolition of Sutte act on 4th December 1829, due to Rammohun's tireless agitation against this evil practice. The orthodox Hindus under Raja Radhakanta Deb formed a rival association called Dharma Sabha to ridicule and protest against Rammohun's actions. In the midst of this furious party contests Rammohun opened his new church on 11th Magh, or 23rd January 1830. In 1825 he also opened the Vedanta College for the teaching of the monotheistic doctrines of the Upansihads. Visit to Europe Rammohun left the management of his Samaj to his well wishers and left for the shores of England in 1830. His main object was to plead before the authorities of the East India Company the case of the ex - emperor of Delhi who had made Rammohun his ambassador and conferred upon him the title of Raja or king. His other object was to baffle his adversaries who were trying to get Bentinck's Suttee act repealed and also to be present in the Britsh parliament for the deliberations of the renewal of the charter of East India Company. In England he met among others the historian William Roscoe, and the philosopher Jeremy Bentha m. In London he was publicly received at the Annual meeting of the Unitarians of England. He also presented 3 papers on the Revenue System of India, Judicial System of India and the Material Condition of India before a committee of the House of Commons. He was also present at the coronation of George IV and was personally presented to the king. He visited France towards the end of 1832 where he had the honour of dining with the French king more than once. In 1833 he returned to England where he saw that the parliament turn down 7 the appeal of his adversaries against the abolition of Suttee and also the renewal of the charter of the East India Company. He visited Bristol in 1833 at the invitatio n of Miss Mary Carpent er and other Unitarian friends. Rammohun breathed his last on 27th September 1833 in Bristol at the Beech House in Stapleton Grove. He was buried in the garden of Stapleton Grove and ten years later his mortal remains were laid to rest at Arnos Vale cemetery by Prince Dwarkanath Tagore. The design of the mausoleum was done by William Prinsep. The Bristol city council now honours Rammohun with a statue, built in 1997 at the city centre. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in his The India Struggle called Rammohun Roy "the apostle of a religious revival" in India. He writes "...He urged a return to the original principles of Vedantism and for a total rejection of all the religions and social impurities that had crept into Hinduism in later times. He also advocated an all-round regeneration of the social and national life and the acceptance of all that is useful and beneficial in the modern life of Europe. Raja Rammohun Roy therefore stands out against the dawn of the new awakening in India as the prophet of the new age." In his inaugural address read at the Sri Ramkrishna Centenary Parliament of Religion and published in the Modern Review in April 1937, Dr Brajendranath Seal said: "Rammohun Roy, the precursor and in a very real sense the father of Modern India, sought the Universal Religion, the common basis of the Hindu, Moslem, Christian and other faiths. He found that each of the national religions was based on this common faith with a certain distinctive historical and cultural embodiment. "It is fundamental to note that Rammohun Roy played two roles in his own person: As an universalist he formulated the creed of what was called Neo-theophilanthropy (a new love of God and man) on positive and constructive lines. He construed the Gayatri on this basis. And, strange to say, this Hindu became one of the forefathers of the Unitarian creed and worship in the West, the other three being Prince, Priestly and Canning. As a Nationalist Reformer, Rammuhun Roy had a three-fold mission: As a Hindu Reformer, he gave a Unitarian reaction of the Hindu Shastras from the Vedanta and the Mahanirvana Tantra As a Moslem defender of he faith, he wrote the Tuhfat-Ul-Muwahhiddin and the Monozeautul Adiyan, which were polemical works, and As a Christian, he gave a Unitarian version of the entire body of scriptures, old and new, in his controversies with the Christian Missionaries 8 Early life Debendranath was the eldest son of Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, who was often referred to as the "Indian Croesus" and was born in Jorasanko, in Calcutta, West Bengal. Being the son of a Prince he was brought up in a lap of luxury surrounded by pomp and power. Yet providence led Debendranath to turn his back upon all pleasures and follies of youth at an early age. The silent observation of the stars one night on the bank of Ganges beside his grandmother's death bed filled his mind with wonder and the thought dawned on him that the grand universe that he saw before him could not have proceeded from any finite being. Thakurbari One day in a state of extreme misery, while pacing up and down he noticed a stray leaf of a book flying past him. It was written in Sanskrit and those that knew better told him it was a page from the Upanishads. Ram Chandra Vidyabasgish who explained the meaning of the sloka to him. It was the opening verse of the Ishaponishad which said "God is immanent in all things, in whatsoever lives and moves in the universe; enjoy therefore without being attached; covet not wealth belonging to the others." From that day his course of life was changed forever. Tattwabodhini Sabha Along with the awakening of the soul and the influence of Raja Rammohun Roy began asserting himself. In October 1839, he along with his friends started the Tattwaranjini Sabha which was later renamed to Tattwabodhini Sabha. Its object was the dissemination of the knowledge of the Upanishads and promotion of religious enquiry. In two years there were 500 members and also attracted rich and influential men of Bengal. Pt. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was for sometime the secretary of this Sabha. It was the largest and most influential cultural organisation of Bengal and it lasted till 1854. It also had a printing press and Debendranath started publishing the Tattwabodhini Patrika. This Patrika became the principal organ of the Samaj for propagating its views. It taught men to think seriously and speak earnestly. It inaugurated the era of earnest journalism in Bengal. It was published in five different languages from five different centres - in Bengali from Calcutta, in Tamil and English from Madras and in Hindi and Urdu from Bareilly. Public Initiation into Brahmoism Debendranath framed a covenant for the adoption of the 9 Church and to introduce a regular form of Church service, including thanks giving, praise and prayer. Having framed this covenant 20 of his young associates joined him on December 21, 1843 (7th Paush, 1765 B.E.). This led the step for converting Brahmo Samaj into a spiritual fraternity. This day is still commemorated by holding the annual Poush Mela at Shantiniketan. The history of the place goes back to the 1860s, when Debendranath was stuck by the beauty of the place. The westernmost corner of Bengal, Birbhum is a red laterite soil zone, watered by the several rain-fed rivulets. Passing through the village commons of Bhuvandanga (an area once avoided by travellers because of dacoits), Maharshi was captivated by the kaleidoscopic beauty of two luxuriantly canopied Chhatim trees, offering shade in that barren, red land. To the Maharshi, this was an idyllic venue for meditating. So he bought a large tract of land along with the two Chhatim trees and built a beautiful prayer hall made from coloured glass. Trees were planted all around to bring the ancient forest-ashram look. In keeping with the spirit of the place, Maharshi named it ‘Shantiniketan’ or the ‘abode of peace’. Brahmo Dharma and its propagation In the year 1845 there was controversy with the Christians regarding the conversion of Umesh Chandra Sarkar and his wife. Debendranath used the Patrika to condemn such practices and the Christians attacked the Brahmo theology claiming it to be solely dependant on the Vedas. This led to Debendranath questioning the Vedic infallibility and he wanted to keep the religion on the old lines of the Hindu scriptures. Accordingly he made a compilation of the selected passages from the Upanishads inculcating the Truths of monotheism. This was published in the form of a book called the Brahmo Dharma or the Religion of the Worshipper so the One True God. He also laid down certain fundamental principles of Natural Theism for acceptance of the members of the Samaj. The anniversary festival was held in 1850 with new music, new covenant and new prayers, and a marble pulpit was added to the Samaj - this was the Adi Brahmo Samaj, though its present state is in ruins. The Patrika wrote articles supporting female education, widow re-marriage, crying against intemperance, denouncing polygamy, rationalise Brahmo doctrines and run the church on constitutional principles. A noteworthy feature of this period was the establishment of various Samajes in and around Calcutta. During this time Akshay Kumar Datta started a Friends Society - the younger members ventilated their feelings on the need for reforms and finally withdrew themselves from the Samaj only to forma separate samaj of their own. This was soon followed by the great schism in 1866 when the Navavidhan Brahmo Samaj or the Brahmo Samaj of India was born. Debendranath kept himself aloof and 10 retired to hills of Simla in 1856 and occupied himself with prayer and meditation and studied closely the works Kant, Fichte, Victor Cousin etc. as well as writings of Hindu theologians and the Persian poet Hafiz. As a result of his studies he concluded that the broad universal basis of natural theism was that it was religion that explains the scriptures and not the scriptures religion. Debendranath was essentially a Hindu in all his spiritual aims and aspirations. For his ideals of religion he never turned to the West. In matters of spiritual life he never made any visible approach, even of sympathising friendship towards Christ and his church. The Jewish and Christian concept of heaven and salvation seemed to him so anthropo-morphic that he passed them off with silent contempt and turned to the Hindu conception of God as immanent in matter and mind. In his work with the Brahmo Samaj he had two princples - 1) the Brahmo Samaj is a purely Hindu institution intended for Hindus and deals with the highest form of Hinduism and 2) its mission is chiefly religious rather than social. He was one of the first men in Bengal to open the doors of high education to women and indeed in his own family. Early Life Keshub Chandra Sen was the son of Peary Mohan Sen and the grandson of Dewan Ram Kamal Sen. He was born into a deeply religious Vaishnava family and from his childhood he was surrounded by religious influences. From an early part of his life he showed an aptitude for influencing other people's minds and at the age of 17, in 1855 he established "The British India Society" where Rev. James Long and Rev. Dall - the Unitarian missionary took part. The society opened an evening school at the house of Sen. At this age there was an incident during a college examination which left a deep mark on him. He married in 1856 and in his lecture "Am I an Inspired Prophet" he writes "I entered the world with ascetic ideas; and my honeymoon was spent amid auterities in the house of the Lord". Joining Brahmo Samaj He joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1857 by privately signing the Brahmo covenant and took to studying mental and moral philosophy. He developed prayer as means of spiritual illumination and sustenance. He studied the writings of Theodor Parker and developed a society called "Goodwill Fraternity" in his house and developed lectures on moral and religious subjects. Debendranath Tagore gave Keshub a warm welcome and an attachment 11 sprang up between them the like of which has seldom been seen. Hundreds began to flock into the services of the Samaj to hear them speak and the songs composed by Satyendranath, the second son of Maharshi was the talk of the town. This can be regarded as the second great revival of the Brahmo Samaj. In 1859 he set up the Brahmo School where weekly lectures were delivered and was greatly popular with the rising generation. In 1860 he began publishing tracts which was the trumpet call of the new Brahmoism and the first chapter was called,"Young Bengal, this is for you". Sangat Sabha During this time in 1860, the Sangat Sabha was established - which was a society of fellow believers to promote mutual spiritual intercourse amongst its members. This sabha sowed the seeds of new Brahmoism. Keshub broke away from the mere intellectual assent and imbibed a new inspiration from the Western sources. A careful study of the Bible, works of Theodor Parker and Prof. Newman brought about the Christian spirit of repentance and prayer. Brahmananda On 13th April, 1862, Debendranath elevated Keshub Chandra Sen to the post of Minister or Acharya of the Samaj. After the divine service he presented him with a Brahmo Dharma and a formal appointment letter and conferred upon him the title of Brahmananda - meaning one whose delight is God. However this was not looked upon well by the older members of the Samaj and some of them ceased to attend the services. On 26th July 1861, the eldest daughter of Debendranath, Sukumari was married according to the reformed rites of the Brahmo Samaj. Debendranath followed the ritual of the orthodox Hindu marriages but excluded the idolatrous bits. This was hailed as a great step towards social reform. The Schism The flames of the conflict between the young and the old were heightened further with the young protesting against the custom of allowing sacred thread - bearing Brahmins to occupy its pulpits. This led to Debendranath removing them from all office and power of the Samaj. To counter the Tattwabodhini Patrika, the young started the Dharmatattwa. He started the 'Indian Mirror' as a fortnightly in 1861 and made it into a daily in 1871. In 1862 Keshub undertook the ministry of one of its branches. In the same year he helped to found the Albert College and started the Indian Mirror, a weekly journal in which social and moral subjects were discussed. In 1863 he wrote The Brahma Samaj Vindicated. He also travelled about the country lecturing and preaching. In 1865 Keshub delivered a lecture on Struggle for Religious Independence where he condemned the high - handed feelings of the Calcutta (Adi) Brahmo Samaj and a representation was sent to Debendranath signed by Keshub, P C Mozoomdar and others. On 11th November 1866 a meeting was held in the house of the Calcutta College and the Brahmo Samaj of India was formally established. At this time there were 54 Samajes in 12 India, 50 in Bengal, 2 in North Western Province, one in Punjab and the other in Madras. After the schism, the Adi Brahmo Samaj quietly retreated to its position of Hindu monotheism - and Debendranath remained silent and never replied to any of the accusations. He also retired from active work of the Samaj and spent most of his time travelling and occasionally visiting Calcutta. The tenets of the Brahmo Samaj of India at ths time were the following: (1) The wide universe is the temple of God. (2) Wisdom is the pure land of pilgrimage. (3) Truth is the everlasting scripture. (4) Faith is the root of all religions. (5) Love is the true spiritual culture. (6) The destruction of selfishness is the true asceticism. In 1866 he delivered an address on - Jesus Christ, Europe and Asia, which led to the false impression that he was about to embrace Christianity. New Dispensation On 24th January 1868, Keshub laid the foundation stone of his new church, the Tabernacle of New Dispensation and the newly constructed chapel was consecrated on 22nd August 1869. He declared, "we believe in the Church Universal, which is the respiratory of all ancient wisdom and the receptacle of all modern science, which recognise in all prophets and saints a harmony, in all scriptures a unity and though all dispensations a continuity, which abjures all that separates and divides and always magnifies unity and peace, which harmonises reason, faith and Bhakti, asceticism and social duty in their highest forms and which shall make of all nations and sects one kingdom and one family in the fullness of time." In the anniversary festival of 1879, Keshub announced the birth of the New Dispensation. He introduced into the church the Pilgrimage to saints, the Homa ceremony, the Baptismal ceremony, the Lord's supper, the Flag ceremony, the Arati, the vow of Poverty, the Savitri Vrata, the Nightingale Vrata, and other innovations. He mentions that this New Dispensation is "...a Divine message sent to India... It comes not to destroy but to fulfil the law and the prophets." His most important contribution is the habit of daily devotion. He felt the necessity of daily domestic devotion and laid down the essential condition of domestic life in his Nava Samhita In 1869, universalism was further strengthened by publishing of four books - Gour Govinda Roys' work on the Gita, P C Mozoomdar's book The Oriental Christ, Aghor Nath Gupta's study on Buddha and Girish Chandra Sen's Tapasmala - life of Muslim saints and his Bengali translation of Koran and Hadis. There was also a Pilgrimage to the Saints - special service held in the memory of great men like Moses, Socrates, Sakya, The Rishis, Christ, Muhammad, Chaitanya, Scientific men. Visit to England 1870 he paid a visit to England. The Hindu preacher was warmly welcomed by almost all denominations, particularly by the Unitarians, with whose creed the new Brahma Samaj had most in common, and it was the committee of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association that organised the welcome soire at Hanover Square Rooms on the 12th of 13 April. Ministers of ten different denominations were on the platform, and among those who officially bade him welcome were Lord Lawrence and Dean Stanley. He remained for six months in England, visiting most of the chief towns. His eloquence, delivery and command of the language won universal admiration. His own impression of England was somewhat disappointing. Christianity in England appeared to him too sectarian and narrow, too muscular and hard, and Christian life in England more materialistic and outward than spiritual and inward. He said, "I came here an Indian, I go back a confirmed Indian; I came here a Theist, I go back a confirmed Theist. I have learnt to love my own country more and more". These words spoken at the farewell soire may furnish the key to the change in him which so greatly puzzled many of his English friends. Cooch Behar Marriage and the schism In 1877 there was a strong rumour that Keshub was giving his eldest daughter, Suniti, in marriage to the young Maharaja of Cooch Behar. The main reason for the controversy was Suniti was not yet 14, the minimum age according to Marriage Act, 1872 and the Raja a lad of fifteen. By 1878 the information received by the Brahmos was 1) The marriage was to take place immediately prior to departure of the prince to England, 2)It will be celebrated according to the Cooch Behar rituals with idolatrous portions expunged 3)Keshub's brother Krishna Behari Sen was to give away the bride as Keshub having lost caste would be excluded from the function and 4) Cooch Behar priests will be officiating the service and no Brahmo service or Brahmo ministers will have anything to do with the ceremony. 23 Brahmos signed a letter of protest but Keshub did not even read the letter far less reply to it. As per the official records of Cooch Behar, "The rites observed were Hindu in all esential features though in deference to the religious principles of the bride's father, idolatrous mantras were ommitted and the presence of an idol was dispensed with. Care was, however taken to retain whatever the Brahmins considered essential to the validity of the marriage". The constitutionalists had organised themselves in to a party called Samadarshi or Liberal in 1874 and started a paper called Samadarshi to voice their opinion. A lot of Brahmos and provincial Samajes voiced their concerns and as a result of the meeting held in the Town Hall on 15th May 1878, the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj was born. David Kopf mentions in his book, "The indictment of Keshub for having married off his eldest daughter in violation of every Brahmo precept has generally been accepted in historical surveys, which treat the marriage as a disaster from every point of view and ignore the aftermath of the event." A fact that is often overlooked is that the marriage was not consummated until 1880 when Prince Nripendra Narayan and Suniti Devi were 18 and 16 respectively. It was an experiment under the guidance of the British officials (who arranged the marriage in the first place) opening the remote kingdom to the enlightening influences from Calcutta. Kopf writes "...Thus whether the marriage was not performed strictly according to Brahmo rites seems insignificant from a historical perspective than the question about the subsequent career of the Maharaja, whom 14 Keshub sought to inspire as a Brahmo. The answer in large part can be found in the qualitative difference between the town of Cooch Behar before the accession of Nripendra Narayan to the throne in 1882, and the town Brajendranath Seal came to live in 1896 when he was hired at Victoria College. In those fourteen years alone, through increasing the annual revenue of state by 300,000 rupees, the king regularised the administration, established the first railway link to Bengal, improved communication throughout the kingdom with the construction of innumerable roads and bridges, created for the first time a city with a planned sanitation and drainage system, constructed the earliest buildings in the country dedicated to the principles of modern justice and administration, started a 1arge fully equipped hospital in the capital and public dispensaries in the countryside, and founded Cooch Behar's first public library, public parks and gardens, a girls' school, college, and a public marketplace. He also abolished polygamy in the royal family and capital punishment throughout the kingdom". "Moreover, some years before Brajendranath's arrival in Cooch Behar, the king and his wife constructed the largest Brahmo Mandir in South Asia, primarily with government funds, and they provided an annual grant of 5,000 rupees to help maintain it. In 1888, the king declared Brahmoism of the New Dispensation as the state religion, and though it had no practical effect in spreading the faith beyond the small community of Bengali elite, it did suggest that the promise of the young man to Keshub was fulfilled. Not well known, either, is that Maharaja Nripendra Narayan, whom the critics of Keshub had looked upon as a jungly Hindu raja, left three wishes behind him shortly before his death at forty-nine years of age. The king asked first that he be cremated according to the New Dispensation Brahmo rites; second, that his ashes be put in the same garden in Cooch Behar where he had first learned to read and write; and third, he provided that "his casket be placed in a monument of stone similar to the one which had been placed over the ashes of the late Keshub Chandra Sen." Relation with Ramakrishna Paramhansa After the Cooch Behar marriage Keshub took an important line of departure by entering upon a system of spiritual interpretation o fthe idol deity and her attendants. He also started visting the mystic saint Ramakrishna and it was Keshub and his party who were instrumental in bringing him to public notice. Ramakrishna was present in many Brahmo gatherings. David Kopf gives three reasons for this attraction which deserve attention. First, Ramakrishna was not susceptible to formal education, English or indigenous; this separated him from other Brahmos of whatever ideological bent. Secondly, Ramakrishna's Tantric way of sublimating the sensual drive for women into a spiritual drive for the Divine Mother appealed to Keshub Chandra. Third, Ramakrishna claimed to have experienced direct, intuitive contact with all major religious leaders in history. "In this sense, the Hindu Ramakrishna was perhaps more universalist and Brahmo than most of the Brahmo ascetics, who were narrowly Vaishnava." These three aspects of Ramakrishna's career as a mystic were probably strong influences on Keshub from March 1875 onwards, when the two men presumably first met at the Kali temple at Dakshineshwar. Keshub was intrigued by the religious experiments performed by Ramakrishna, and wished to adapt them to his own use, especially those elements of the Sakto tradition in Bengal that emphasised the 15 motherhood of God. The idea of differentiating the good and bad features within Saktism, and incorporating the good into Brahmoism, probably came to Keshub after his acquaintance with Ramakrishna. For, in the early 1860s, Ramakrishna had already performed experiments to purify Saktism and Tantrism. Contribution to Brahmoism There were many important contribution to the Brahmo movement by Keshub Chandra Sen. These can be briefly stated as follows. The first noteworthy contribution is the enunciation and accentuation of the doctrine of God in conscience. The second great contribution was bringing of man's social life within the domain of his religious duty. The third was imbibing into the spiritual life of the Brahmo Samaj - the spirit of repentance and prayer. Next was his infusion of the bhakti or devitional fervour into the movement. Another was his sense of universalism of theism - he found that all the religious teachers were bound together by a common bond. Next was his faith in the Divine mission of the Brahmo Samaj. Another important contribution was the emphasis of the principle laid down by Rammohun Roy - service of man was the service of God. In 1883 soon after his arrival from Simla, with failing health, Keshub caused the foundation of his Nava Devalaya (his domestic chapel). The work was completed on 1st January 1884 and he was carried on the shoulders from his death bed to take part in the consecration ceremony. 16