Brahmo Samaj

The Brahmo Samaj (sanskr.: Brahma Association) is a Hindu reform organization founded by Ram Mohan Roy in Calcutta in 1828.

Although the Brahmo Samaj never had many members, its influence on the intellectual life of Bengal was considerable. One of its concerns, the prohibition of widow burning, was enacted as a law by the then Governor General Bentinck in 1829.

Even Ram Mohan Roy had to defend himself against his opponents who accused him of misunderstanding the Vedic tradition. It was only when Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905), a highly respected Brahmin and thinker (the father of Rabindranath Tagore), took over the leadership that the community blossomed and gained many members among the educated Bengali upper class. Although Tagore was of the opinion that Christianity had nothing to offer to India, the confrontation with Christianity, especially with Unitarianism, in whose vicinity Ram Mohan Roy had moved, played a major role for the Brahmo Samaj. Tagore's conviction developed in a deistic direction. Hence he rejected all the teachings of the Veda which were not compatible with pure deism.

Tagore gave the community an organization and a creed (1843). This stated that God did not incarnate; he heard and listened to human prayers and was to be worshipped only in spirit. The Brahmo Samaj was particularly directed against image worship, asceticism and polytheism, which were increasingly represented in the lower castes. According to the community's view, all castes can reach God through worship. God, in the understanding of the Brahmo Samaj, reveals Himself directly in nature, which is why no scripture is binding. This creed, along with excerpts from the Upanishads and other Hindu scriptures, was incorporated into a manual (Brahmo Dharma).

The principles of Brahmo Samaj are:

• There is only one God, who is the creator and redeemer of the world. He is spirit, infinite in power, wisdom, love, justice and holiness, as well as omnipresent, eternal and blissful.
• The human soul is immortal and capable of unlimited progress. It is responsible before God for its actions.
• Man's happiness in this world and the next is to worship God in spirit and in truth.
• Loving God, holding communion with Him, and doing His will in all the affairs of life constitutes true worship.
• No created object is to be worshipped as God, and God alone is to be regarded as infallible.

Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-1884), who evolved from a rationalist theist to a bhakti believing mystic, strove not only for Hindu reform but for a universal religion encompassing all of India. In 1865 he broke with the more conservative members of the community, who were more philosophically oriented towards religion. These henceforth formed the Adi Brahmo Samaj, while the group around Sen united under the name Brahmo Samaj of India. When Sen married off his minor daughter in 1878, in violation of his own by-laws, there was a new schism in the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj and the Naba-Bidhan Brahmo Samaj. After his death in 1884, the latter branch, which was inclined to meet the needs of wider circles through enthusiastic devotion and religious festivities, lost much of its importance.

The Brahmo Samaj played a considerable role in social discussion in India because of the social standing of its members, especially in the context of the increasingly small number of actual members. Vivekananda too had belonged to the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj for a time before he turned his attention to taking up Hindu traditions and founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897.

Sivnath Shastri, in his book on the history of the Brahmo Samaj, points out that within this association there has been a greater appreciation of Western ideas than Hindu ideas. This has resulted in the general attitude of the Hindu public that the Brahmo Samaj is actually Christianity, but in a different guise. The movement reached its peak in 1912, when 232 congregations were active all over India. The death of Rabindranath Tagore, who had supported the Adi Brahmo Samaj out of reverence for his father Debendranath, also marked the end of the Brahmo Samaj era, especially the Adi Brahmo Samaj. The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, on the other hand, is still active today, promoting its ideas through worship services and social missionary activities (orphanages, widows' asylums, etc.).