Tradition
Brahmo Samaj
Overview
Brahmo Samaj is the societal component of Brahmoism, which began as a monotheistic reformist movement during the Bengal Renaissance.
It was one of the most influential religious movements in India and made a significant contribution to the making of modern India. It was started at Calcutta (Kolkata) on 20 August 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Dwarkanath Tagore as reformation of the prevailing customs of the time (specifically Kulin practices) and began the Bengal Renaissance of the 19th century pioneering all religious, social and educational advance of the Bengali community in the 19th century. Its Trust Deed was made in 1830 formalising its inception and it was duly and publicly inaugurated in January 1830 by the consecration of the first house of prayer, now known as the Adi Brahmo Samaj. From the Brahmo Samaj springs Brahmoism, the most recent of legally recognised religions in India and Bangladesh, reflecting its foundation on reformed spiritual Hinduism with vital elements of Christian-Islamic faith and practice.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Other methods of deliverance from evil are in the excessive acts of penance performed by the Indians, to which a retreat within themselves is added. Now when the Indian thus internally collects himself, and retreats within his own thoughts, the moment of such pure concentration is called Brahma, the one and the clearly supersensuous state, which the understanding calls the highest possible existence. When this is so…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Brahmo Samaj is.
The first Brahmins must either have experienced violent discords, or at least have seen them in heaven. It is a very astonishing phenomenon for a society of men who have never made war to have invented a species of war made in the imaginary spaces, or in a globe distant from ours, or in what is called the "firmament," the "empyrean." But it must be carefully observed that in this revolt of celestial beings against…
Voltaire, Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary
States what Brahmo Samaj is.
Every father and mother is witness to what I am about to say, viz., that every father and mother have shown in the domestic affairs matchless power of suffering. And if we have only developed national consciousness, if we have developed sufficient regard for our religion, we shall have developed power of suffering in the national and religious field. Considered in these terms the first stage in Non-co-operation is…
Mahatma Gandhi, Freedom's Battle Being a Comprehensive Collection of Writings and Speeches on the Present Situation
States what Brahmo Samaj is.
Philosophers who discussed Brahmo Samaj
Related ideas
- Avatar
- Karma
- Brahman
- Bengali language
- Uttar Pradesh
- Punjab
- Sanskrit
- Katha Upanishad
- Ramakrishna
- Raja Ram Mohan Roy
- Upanishads
- Debendranath Tagore
Place in the tradition
Part of Neo-Vedanta.