Pratapchandra Mazumdar

[Guest guest]

greetings. what follows are excerpts from the writings of pratapchandra

mazumdar (1840-1905). i believe they are, except the first, in english

originally. these are cited in the out-of-print book << the brahmo samaj

movement and its leaders >>.

 

these writings are interesting to me, and i consulted them after reading the

enlightening discussions of guru and of j krishnamurti. it's very nice to

compare mazumdar on theism and on prophets to j krishnamurti. the second

excerpt reminds me of william wordsworth's prelude: "invisible writing on the

wall." the excerpt from ashish is very beautiful.

 

since i have little of value to contribute besides hard-to-find writings, i hope

this is interesting to the list.

 

maxwell.

* * *

 

[From Ashish originally in Bengali language]

 

44:--Pre-existence:--O Inner Self, tell me why it happens to me again and again

that I am obliged to think that before coming to this world I was with thee

somewhere, in some form ; and again why it is that it is only in the highest and

best moments of life, and not at any other moment, that I have this

consciousness? It seems as if some half-revealed recollection, some piece of

self-knowledge hidden in the soul, comes out suddenly before the mind and soon

disappears. I often think it to be a fancy and a delusion and for the moment

cease to think of it ; but again during moments of deep communion with thee, it

appears again and I cannot resist it. I did not learn it from the Bhagavadgita,

neither from Wordsworth's or Tennyson's poems, nor from the Gospel of John. I

indeed get a confirmation of this feeling from these writers, but it rises in my

mind independently and disappears in the same manner. O Blissful One, who

knowest the inmost parts of my being! I do not know whether I existed apart

from thee or in unity with thee ; it seems I existed in unity and yet in

difference. As a ray in a radiant orb, as form in the sea, one and yet

different, so I seem to have existed in thee.--I cannot exactly say, and I do

not wish to say, for it does not seem to be capable of being expressed. I am

afraid lest in the act of expressing it this consciousness should get dimmed.

Thou art ever perfect and I am imperfect. Thou art my support, and I am

supported by thee. Thou art my Father and I am thy son bowing down under thy

feet. Thou Consciousness and Bliss, I am forced to believe that I existed and

do exist in thee in some shape. What was dim and unexpressed before, has become

clear and known through the various troubles and trials of life. I do not know

what other devotees think, but it is a great blessing to me, for it removes all

my doubts about immortality. If I existed before, I shall exist after also--the

body seems only a temporary habitation, only an instrument for spiritual

culture. This thought leads me to wish to live, as much as possible,

independently of the body, it makes the future life clear ; past, present and

future seem parts of an undivided life ; the special preparations for the future

life are not suspended ; a great ardour for those preparations is rather kindled

in the heart. Much hast thou taught me, teach me more, teach me more.

 

[On Childhood Experiences]

 

Nor do I ever get tired of reflection on these infant experiences. Like some

invisible writing on the wall, which fades and re-kindles, and fades away again,

the sense of infancy clings to me. It revives in the purest moments of my

being. It is lost when I fall away. The faith is in me that the lustreful

joyousness, free-born innocence, and fearless safety of infancy are recoverable,

partly here, wholly elsewhere. Of true life, in any stage of its growth,

nothing dies ; whether of joy or wisdom, of love or purity, all that is true is

put into the man from the Eternal who surrounds him.

 

[On Prophets]

 

Spiritual life would be a trackless ocean, full of insidious dangers, without

the loadstar and compass of prophetic guidance. We have to cultivate everyday

help from them, make constant communion with them in our daily devotions. All

genuine spiritual life is the resurrection of the prophets. Prophetic character

never dies, but is perpetually reproduced in the character of the faithful

servants of God. The Spirit of spirits lives in each soul as the essence and

embodiment of every form of spirituality which his Messiahs lived to establish.

The prophets can never be comprehended apart from God and God can never be

comprehended apart from the prophets. He makes his abode within the mysterious

circle of his kindred spirits. Every prophet is a spiritual phase. Every

prophet is a stage in the onward path to the Eternal. Every prophet is an

everlasting consolation, an attained home, a sure promise of eternal life. Each

prophet is different from the rest, yet not one of them can be disregarded with

impunity. All of them together make up the heaven in which the human soul lives

here, and hopes to live hereafter.

 

[On Theism]

 

More than ten years ago the Samaj sought to place before the public, in

sufficiently strong light, the universally recognised fact that religion, in its

essential reality, is intuitive and natural to the human mind. Religion is an

irrepressible instinct of human nature, which necessarily finds its embodiment

in formal beliefs and principles, in ceremonial rules and observances, in

external evidences and authorities, which, however divergent and erroneous,

agree, when carefully analysed, in their original essence. This instinct

involves certain necessary relations between the percipient mind of man and the

divine realities that surround him within and without. The relations take shape

among mankind in those elementary ideas about God, immortality, and human duty

which are everywhere found. The very groundwork of religion is possible on

certain primary and germinal convictions, more or less fully developed--nay

sometime *very* undeveloped indeed--to which all religious teachings, to be

effective, must make their final appeal. Thus all religion, to guard itself in

these days against the dogmatic denials and possible sophistries of prevalent

scientific scepticism, against the conflicts and discrepancies of critical and

historical evidence, has ultimately to establish itself on the supreme

necessities of the human spirit. So far as its relations with mankind in

general are concerned, apart from its exclusive authorities and testimonies,

every religion must, in some measure, hold the ground common to all men, the

ground of fundamental instinct and conviction which remains unshaken even when

external evidence and authority are found to fail. . . . What, in short, is

the meaning of the internal evidence of religion if there is not a secret but

real fitness between the truths it teaches and the spontaneous spiritual

perceptions of men? The religion of all the Brahma Samaj is founded on these .

.. . The germs only, and the germs not merely of the religion of the Brahma

Samaj, but of Christianity, Hinduism, Muhammadanism alike, are intuitions ; the

peculiarity of the Brahmas being that they build their faith thereon without the

supernatural and historical ground-work which belongs distinctively to each of

the rest.

 

[On His Mother's Death]

 

She often over-worked and tired herself and seemed anxious for nothing except

her death. That death at last came. It came on the night of her fortnightly

fast, in July 1858. I returned rather late from Kesav [Chandra Sen]'s house,

found she had gone to bed, complaining that she had a slight disorder of the

stomach. As she was subject to such complaints, I did not think much about it.

Later, at about 1 o'clock, I was called up and learned she was very ill.

Hastening to her side, I found her voiceless, deaf, and livid. She had got the

worst type of cholera. Everybody in the house was up except my uncle, who was

the Karta (Head). Nobody seemed to care to call in a doctor : everybody was

evidently prepared for her death. My perplexity and distress may be imagined.

Rushing to speak to my uncles, I was not admitted to their rooms ; and no one,

not even a servant, would go for a medical man. I rushed into the streets,

tried to call up Kesav and other friends ; but every gate was shut for the

night. I ran to a doctor's house in the neighborhood, but his servant turned me

out. I don't know how many places I went and pleaded my poor, dying mother's

case, but could get no medical help. Returning home by about dawn, I found her

in a state of collapse, but still conscious. On seeing me, she struck her

forehead with her hand to show that all hope was gone. A doctor came, not long

after, but it was too late. She ceased to breathe by about 8 A.M. I was

motherless at nineteen. What need to bewail the world's hard-heartedness? What

need to curse the selfish cruelty of men and women to the wretched, forsaken

Hindu widow? To them she was a widow only : to me, my dear mother, the sole

guardian and friend I had in all the world. . . . I do not care whether all or

many widows remarry : but I do feel they should be more loved, nursed, and cared

for, more humanity shown to them. It is not true that they were always

persecuted, not true at least in Bengal. They willingly court the miseries

under which so many, like my loved and honoured mother, die. But if men were

more compassionate, and society recognised their right to the commonest

necessaries of life, perhaps they would be less hard on themselves, and many a

heart-stricken son would be spared the misery I felt when I found my mother's

beloved life sink under the load of the world's neglect and indifference.

[Guest guest]

Some parts are delated.

 

since i have little of value to contribute besides hard-to-find writings, i

hope this is interesting to the list.

 

maxwell.

* * *

 

[From Ashish originally in Bengali language]

I do not know what other devotees think, but it is a great blessing to me,

for it removes all my doubts about immortality. If I existed before, I shall

exist after also--the body seems only a temporary habitation, only an

instrument for spiritual culture. This thought !

leads me to wish to live, as much as possible, independently of the body, it

makes the future life clear ; past, present and future seem parts of an

undivided life ; the special preparations for the future life are not

suspended ; a great ardour for those preparations is rather kindled in the

heart. Much hast thou taught me, teach me more, teach me more.

 

[On Childhood Experiences]

 

Nor do I ever get tired of reflection on these infant experiences. Like some

invisible writing on the wall, which fades and re-kindles, and fades away

again, the sense of infancy clings to me. It revives in the purest moments of

my being. It is lost when I fall away. The faith is in me that the lustreful

joyousness, free-born innocence, and fearless safety of infancy are

recoverable, partly here, wholly elsewhere. Of true life, in any stage of its

growth, nothing dies ; whether of joy or wisdom, of love or purity, all that

is true is put into the man from the Eternal who surrounds him.

 

[On Prophets]

The prophets can never be comprehended apart from God and God can never be

comprehended apart from the prophets. He makes his abode within the

mysterious circle of his kindred spirits. Every prophet is a spiritual phase.

Every prophet is a stage in the onward path to the Eternal. Every prophet is

an everlasting consolation, an attained home, a sure promise of eternal life.

Each prophet is different from the rest, yet not one of them can be

disregarded with impunity. All of them together make up the heaven in which

the human soul lives here, and hopes to live hereafter.

 

[On Theism]

 

[On His Mother's Death]

 

She often over-worked and tired herself and seemed anxious for nothing except

her death. That death at last came. It came on the night of her fortnightly

fast, in July 1858. I returned rather late from Kesav [Chandra Sen]'s house,

found she had gone to bed, complaining that she had a slight disorder of the

stomach. As she was subject to such complaints, I did not think much about

it. Later, at about 1 o'clock, I was called up and learned she was very ill.

Hastening to her side, I found her voiceless, deaf, and livid. She had got

the worst type of cholera. Everybody in the house was up except my uncle, who

was the Karta (Head). Nobody seemed to care to call in a doctor : everybody

was evidently prepared for her death. My perplexity and distress may be

imagined. Rushing to speak to my uncles, I was not admitted to their rooms ;

and no one, not even a servant, would go for a medical man. I rushed into the

streets, tried to call up Kesav and other friends ; but every gate was shut

for the night. I ran to a doctor's house in the neighborhood, but his servant

turned me out. I don't know how many places I went and pleaded my poor, dying

mother's case, but could get no medical help. Returning home by about dawn, I

found her in a state of collapse, but still conscious. On seeing me, she

struck her forehead with her hand to show that all hope was gone. A doctor

came, not long after, but it was too late. She ceased to breathe by about 8

A.M. I was motherless at nineteen. What need to bewail the world's hard-

heartedness? What need to curse the selfish cruelty of men and women to the

wretched, forsaken Hindu widow? To them she was a widow only : to me, my dear

mother, the sole guardian and friend I had in all the world. . . . I do not

care whether all or many widows remarry : but I do feel they should be more

loved, nursed, and cared for, more humanity shown to them. It is not true

that they were always persecuted, not true at least in Bengal. They willingly

court the miseries under which so ma!

ny, like my loved and honoured mother, die. But if men were more

compassionate, and society recognised their right to the commonest necessaries

of life, perhaps they would be less hard on themselves, and many a heart-

stricken son would be spared the misery I felt when I found my mother's

beloved life sink under the load of the world's neglect and indifference.

 

>>

Thankyou Maxwell for taking your time to share this beautifull articals.

Raju