On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
" 18 « O illuminating fire , ( continues he , J observing- all our religious practices , cany us by the right path to the enjoyment of the consequence of our deeds ; and put an end to our sins ; we being' now unable to perform thy various rites , offer to thee our last salutation . " *—Pp . 6—8 .
Such a mau as Rammohun Roy must every where attract the admiration of the wise and the censure of bigots . The apologist for the present system of Hindoo worship resembles those in all countries and churches ,
who without regard to right or wrong stand up for things as they are . He boasts of his orthodoxy , ( using this very convenient term , ) and cries out upon Rainniohun Boy ' s rashness , selfconceit , arrogance and impiety ; vices laid to the door of all reformers . He
warns men , as if he were delivering a visitation charge , against «• marketplace theology . " He magnifies legitimate and ** hereditary faith , " And he proves himself qualified to be a
defender of the established religion of Hindoostan by his aptitude for mystification : " when he cannot explain a subject or answer an argument he puzzles it . We know not whether the Hindoo
Reformer have thought it worth while to answer this thorough-going * ' Apologist ;' but the pamphlet which precedes his in our catalogue contains a reply to . all the material
points of his defence . The " Advocate for Idolatry , at Madras , " is " B . Senkara Sastri , head English master in the College of Fort St . George , " who published a letter against Rammohun Roy in the Madras Courier . This Letter , with the answer ,
constitutes the c * Defence of Hindoo Theism . " Rammohun Roy suspects that the Letter is the production of an English gentleman . It is , however , worthy of an orthodox idolater . The Letter-writer flourishes on the
subject ofthte " due punishment" formerly inflicted on " Heretics" by the maintainers of the religion 4 i established throughout India , " and lashes
* ** This example from the Veds , of the unhappy og-itation aud wavering of an idolater on tlhc approach of death ,, oug-ht to make men reflect seriously on the miserahlf ? consequence of fixing their mind on any other object of adoration but the one Supreme Beirig \"
Untitled Article
pretended u reformers and discoverers / 7 BUhop Burgess could not have managed the attack better . In
reply , Rammohun Roy says , " In none of my writings , nor in any verbal discussion , have I ever pretended to reform or to discover the doctrines of the unity of Cod , nor have I ever
assumed the title of reformer or discoverer : so far from such an assumption , 1 have urged in every work that I have hitherto published , that the doctrines of the unity of God
are real Hindooism , as that religion was practised by our ancestors , and as it is well-known even at the present age to many learned Brahmins . " ( Defence , p . 3 . )
The Letter-writer , in the true orthodox way , censures " the translations of the Scripture into the vulgar language . " This his opponent sh ^ ws is only a plea for ignorance , and is besides inconsistent with the doctrine of the Hindoo sacred books .
The Letter-writer contends for the ^ spiritual efficacy of ceremonies , which the answerer , on the authority of the Vedas , &c . denies . The Letter-writer pleads that the doctrine of the Divine Nature is a
mystery : Rammohun Roy allows that the attainment of perfect knowledge of the nature of the Godhead is certainly difficult or rather impossible ; but , he retorts , "To read the existence of the Almighty Being , in his works of nature , is hot , I will dare to say , so difficult to the mind of a man possessed of common sense and unfettered
by prejudice , as to conceive artificial images to be possessed , at once , of the opposite natures of human and divine beings , which idolaters constantly ascribe to their idols , —strangely believing that things so constructed can be converted by ceremonies into constructors of the universe , " ( Id . pp . 13 , 14 . )
T he Letter-writer objects to the Hindoo Unitarians , their introducing songs in their meetings ; th * ir leader acknowledges their use of " monotheistical songs in the divine worship , * and after referring to a Hindoo sacred
writer as an authority for " scriptural music in divine contemplation / ' says , with a just knowledge of human nature , " that any interesting idea is calculated to make more impression upon the mind , when coavcyed in
Untitled Article
568 Review *—^ Hindoo Unitarianism .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 568, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/44/
-