INDIA'S NATION BUILDERS Thus the schism grew and permanently divided the Samaj between the Adi Brahma Samaj (i.e., original) and the Sadharana section (i.e., universal). The attitude of the former section towards caste and other Hindu ceremonies is uncertain, much being left to the private judgment and discretion of individual believers, the avowed object of maintaining this neutrality being to get greater support from the orthodox masses and preserve intact the Hindu sanctions behind social phenomena. At the time this controversy arose there were fifty Samajes in B engal, four in North India and one in Madras.
Keshab, soon after, travelled as far as Bombay and Madras and preached his views, the result being that the Vedic Samaj was established in Madras which years later assumed the name of the Madras Brahma Samaj, and the Society founded in Bombay developed in 1867, into the Prarthana Samaj of Bombay, under the distinguished leader ship of such champions of liberal religion as the late Mr. Justice Ranade, Sir Narayan Chandavarkar, Sir R. G. Bhandarkar and others. But the Prarthana Samaj is really the seal of Keshab's apostolate, for he it was who drew the attention of thoughtful men to the great need for liberalising religion and for infusing new fervour and reforming zeal into the minds of those accustomed to caste ridden, dogma-ridden and priest-ridden Hinduism. But Keshab also realised the need of a permanent organisation built round the nucleus of his main ideas.
Keshab's spiritual life derived the mainsprings of its enthusiasm from his unbounded fascination for the person and character of Christ, and from his deep conviction that all religious development must lead to ethical discipline and the cultivation of a high standard of character. He also realised the need for developing a communal consciousness instead of a mere individualistic pursuit of religious ends, apart from the recognition of the obligations of the commonweal. His religious culture was mainly built up through his constant study of the Bible— a duty which he would always enjoin on fellow worshippers—and his familiarity with books like Seeley's " Ecce Homo," Liddon's " Divinity of our Lord," " Theologica Germanica," the numerous publications of the Christian Literature Society, and exposition of Christian doctrine by his professors while at College, assisted no doubt by his religious genius and the sympathetic attitude towards Christi anity bequeathed by the magnanimous leaders that had gone before.
But it is inaccurate and misleading to say that Keshab had, without any exercise of the critical faculty, accepted the doctrinal position as expounded by the missionary pathfinders, of the stamp of Duff, Carey, Marshman and Ward. The Christian position formulated by these noble pioneers was crude, extremely bigoted, and hence chary of any sensible compromise. It is true that Dr. Duff was astonished at Tagore's belief in the infallibity of the Vedas as forming the coping-stone of the Adi Brahma Samaj, but it scarcely occurred to him that equally astonishing to the exponents of progressive religion must have been his own (Dr. Duff's) unquestioning faith in the verbal and plenary inspiration of the Bible, the Genesis story of the Fall, and kindred fossilised teachings current in those days in reference to eternal punishment, salvation through subscription to certain dogmas and the like. But we have to remember that in those days higher criticism had not begun its work and the science of comparative religion had not gathered up the fruits of its elaborate researches.
From the missionary point of view it is a matter for extreme regret that the pioneers of the Christian faith did not then carry to India an evangel, shorn of its grosser elements of orthodoxy and error, for the period in which Keshab developed and propagated his views was the psychological moment when sen sitiveness to Christian influence was at its maximal intensity. The missionaries could not then realise that in India there was no religious vacuum so far as tradition was concerned and the people had a religious past to which they would tenaciously cling. But from the Hindu point of view, the assimilation of the wholesome teachings of Christianity and of its practical and optimistic outlook, coupled with the rejection of what seemed to them its extravagant claims and narrow views, has resulted in a synthesis of ideals that have enriched each other, without destroying the foundations of either faith. This was only to be expected in a country like India with its immemorial religious culture and numerous schools of philosophy.