Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 40:160 (Oct 1883)
Article: The Brahma Samaj
Author: Charles W. Park

BSac 40:160 (Oct 1883) p. 714

The Brahma Samaj

Rev. C. W. Park

“The great object of Ram Mahan Rai’s life,” writes an English friend who knew him well, “was to establish a new sect in his native country, of whose creed the keystone should be the pure doctrine taught alike, he contended, by Manu and by Moses, by Jesus Christ and by Muhammad, — the doctrine of the unity of the Deity.” 1 He removed to Calcutta in 1814. It was in 1815 or 1816 that the first attempt at organization was made.

This society may be considered as the beginning of the Brahma Samaj; yet the line of historic descent is not unbroken. The opposition which the little band encountered from orthodox Hindus was so bitter that the society succumbed to it. Ram Mahan Rai was obliged to push his views privately, without the help of any organization committed to their support. But he saw with satisfaction that the number of individuals secretly cherishing a monotheistic faith was slowly gaining size and influence. In 1880 he thought that his principles had taken a sufficiently deep hold on the community to justify another effort at organization. In that year, therefore, a society was established, which, under the name of the Brahma Samaj,2 through various vicissitudes of fortune, has continued to the present day.

BSac 40:160 (Oct 1883) p. 715

The father of the Samaj delayed his departure for Europe until his society should have survived the perils of infancy. Yet no sooner had he gone than the Samaj began to languish. His influence had been sufficient to commend the tenets of monotheism to many, at least as a matter of private belief. What he could not do was to reform the lives of his followers, or to impart to them his own devotion of heart; for no one who is acquainted with the Indian people needs to be told that private beliefs go for very little in determining the outward actions, or the essential character of the man. As soon, therefore, as he was withdrawn from them, so that the constant stimulus of his presence and devotion was no longer felt, they relapsed at once to the lower level of his and their intellectual belief; and the course of the Brahma Samaj, from 1831 until 1841 was inevitably that of languor and decline. It lacked independent vitality.

The man to whom the guidance of the Samaj was committed when its founder left it, in 1831, for that visit to England from which he never returned, was a rich Hindu of Calcutta, named Dwarkanath Tagore. He not only conducted the religious services every Wednesday evening, but also became responsible for the expenses of the society. Neither the money of the wealthy Babu,