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vol. title: Vol Four of The Theosophical Society of The Arya Samaj of Arya-wart vol. period: Sept 1878 – Sept 1879 pages in vol.: 350 |
<Untitled> (The Pall Mall Gazette...)
The Pall Mall Gazette, speaking of the various religious sects among the Hindoo population of India, says:
“Now Juggernaut is at a discount. We have a new religion which has just been evolved from the consciousness of some dwellers in Bombay and at Amritsir. This is termed the Arya Somaj. Few Hindoos as yet appear to have joined the standard of the Arya Somaj.”
It has recently been announced by Col. Olcott, the deeply initiated Hierophant of the Theosophical Society, that an American branch of the Arya Samaja has been established in this city, he himself being its chief. Col. Olcott is a very earnest man. We have no doubt that he is sincere in his belief that this new religiosophic organization, which, judging from the Pall Mall Gazette's account, is making less headway in Bombay than, in the Eighth avenue, aims at the restoration of the pure theism of the primitive Aryans and the abolition of corrupt practices introduced by a sensual priesthood. Is it possible that Col. Olcott has been imposed on? The Pall Mall Gazette, which is usually well informed upon Oriental matters, goes on to say of the Arya Somaj:
“Its tenets comprise a revival of most of the ‘fair humanities of old religion’ which are associated with some of the mysterious rites of which the trustees of the British Museum prudently keep the memorials in a cellar.”
This hints strongly at something in the practices of the Bombay brethren of Hierophant Olcott's new sect, not exactly suitable for family reading. What does it all mean? Hierophant Olcott's charter comes from the Swamee Dya Naud, chief of the Bombay society. Hierophant Olcott says that the Swamee Dya Naud is “one of the profoundest scholars and saintliest characters of our epoch.” Can it be that the Swamee is not really a saintly character but is a bad and crafty Hindoo who has deluded the Hierophant into rendering allegiance to an organization which all respectable citizens ought to keep clear of? Or are there two societies of the same name in Bombay, one saintly and pure in its aims and the other just the reverse?
The Hierophant on the Arya Samaj
To the Editor of The Sun—Sir: Since I am the principal official representative in Christendom of the Hindoo Arya Samaj, and I have endorsed it and its revered chief, Dya Nand, being pure and worthy of respect, I am entitled to reply to your good-natured editorial of to-day.
Quoting from the Pall Mall Gazette of the 9th inst. a calumnious paragraph to the effect that the Arya Samaj practices “some of the mysterious rites of which the Trustees of the British Museum prudently keep the memorials in a cellar,” you ask, “Is it possible that Col. Olcott has been imposed upon?” I answer, it is not possible. In calling the Swamee Dya Nand “one of the profoundest scholars and saintliest characters of our epoch,” I spoke by the book. I am not fool enough to take the public stand I have in favor of the “Heathen” and against Christian theology, without knowing my facts. Send to India (but, of course, neither to missionaries nor orthodox Brahmins) and you will discover that my eulogium was perfectly warranted. Dya Nand has preached pure Vedic philosophy all over India, challenging the idol-worshipping, bigoted priests to refute a single one of the charges of forgery, mistranslation, and polytheistic concoctions he lays at their doors. He has founded forty-seven Samajas, and organized schools in which a code of religion and ethics is taught which would have the approbation of the severest moralist among us. He leads the life of an ascetic, discourses like Plato, and inspires his followers, among whom are many of the most highly educated native scholars, with a fervent reverence. After reading published reports of his public addresses, I affirm that no university professor in this country has given proof that he is capable of like intellectual feats.
The Pall Mall Gazette article was written by a Jesuit, in the interest of his order. Its author was, just previous to its appearance, a Fellow of the Theosophical Society, but upon the intimation that he had verbally uttered such disgusting falsehoods as these about the Arya Samaj and its Chief, he was immediately expelled by unanimous vote of the Council. His slander was, specifically, that the Arya Samaj practised the obscene rites of Linga and Sakti Puja, but, when challenged by the President of our London branch Theosophical Society, could furnish not the slightest proof. By to-day’s English mail I have received from him a cock-and-bull story about Dya Nand’s having visited him several times recently, and talking in so indecent a manner as to compel him to eject the intruder! This is the weakest invention of all, for Dya Nand has been preaching in India for years, without intermission, and when alleged to have been in London was writing to me from Amritsir and other Indian localities.
Ordinarily, you are very fair about religious matters. So, inasmuch as the Arya Samaj is one of the largest and most beneficent religio-philosophical fraternities ever organized, I ask you, in justice, since you have printed the Pall Mall Gazette's calumny of Oct. 9, to study its complete refutation, which appeared on the eighth page of the same journal of the 11th—two days later. The truth will not harm us nor lies help our enemies, in the long run.
President of the Theosophical Society of the Arya Samaj.
New York, Oct. 25.
<Untitled> (An "English Member...)
An “English Member of the Arya Somaj,” who considers his to be “the purest religious movement of modern times,” was naturally offended at remarks which describe it in the language of the traveller who wrote on the “Manners and Customs of the Hottentots.” The whole question of the relationship of the branch of the Vedic philosophy inculcated by the Arya Somaj to the opinions of the sect of Vallábhácharyas, will be found in a work entitled “The Sect of Maharajas,” published by Trübner and Co. in 1865, and in two papers whose titles need not be given, by the late Mr. Edward Sellon, in the first and second volumes of the memoirs of the Anthropological Society of London. The circumstance of the isolation of the sexes is referred to in Dr. J. Shortt’s work on the Bayadères of Southern India (privately printed). Of course the writer of our Occasional Note had no intention of inferring that all the members of the Arya Somaj were in any way cognizant of the peculiar faiths which in 1865 were considered by large numbers of Vaishnava Hindoos as compatible with the teachings of the Vedas; and which the late Professor Horace Hayman Wilson did so much to describe. English members, doubtless, have no cognizance of such rites, unless they are “students of Oriental religions, and especially of the Vedas,” and they are quite justified on moral grounds in repudiating the Saktya worship (a clearer word than “Saktism”), which although doubtlessly practised in good faith by the Vallábhácharyas, is alien to the customs of the Western mind.
Again — by C. C. Blake; and what he considers “an amende honorable to Massey”!!
The Arya Samaj
To the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette.
Sir,—Consolatory as it may be to individual Englishmen who have joined the Arya Samáj to be exonerated from the charge of participation in, or knowledge of, the rites of the Vallábhácháryas, allow me to point out that the identity of that sect with, or its similarity to, the Arya Samáj is not exactly proved by the assumed fact that the former considered its abominable doctrines and practices to be consistent with the higher teachings of the Vedas. But how about the fact? The following is from the book, cited in your Occasional Note this evening:—“The Bhagavata Purana is the chief authority of the sect of the Mahárájas, or Vallábhácháryas. It consists of twelve books, in the tenth of which the history of Krishna, as the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, is given in ninety chapters. The tenth book has been translated from Sanskrit into Brija-bháshá, under the name of ‘Prem Ságar,’ or ‘The Ocean of Love;’ and it was this that Vallábháchárya selected on which to found doctrines he designed to teach. To this work we must look as the source whence the Mahárájas deduced originally the ideas which they have gradually expanded into the desecrating libertinism which they practise.” (“Sect of Mahárájas,” p. 48, chapter entitled “Chief Authority of the Sect.”) This authority is not to be found among those I have already enumerated as appealed to by the Ayra Samáj.
I trust you will find space for this, and for the additional fact that the Arya Samáj (I give the society’s own spelling) was founded in November, 1875, the book cited by your contributor, and I believe Mr. Sellon’s paper also, going back to 1865, describing sects and opinions which have existed for several centuries. It requires some effort of patience to enter into this refutation of the suggestions in your Notes, seeing that, as a matter of fact, the Arya Samáj was founded for the express purpose of reforming religion, and of combating as well the degrading superstitions and abuses into which native ignorance and priestcraft had plunged the populace of India, as the attempts of Western zeal to substitute conceptions of religion which are becoming discredited in the best and most reverential minds among ourselves.—Your obedient servant,
An English Member of the Arya Samáj. Charles Massey, the brave and dear fellow
October 15.
Editor's notes
- ↑ The Pall Mall Gazette... by unknown author, The Sun, Friday, October 25, 1878
- ↑ The Hierophant on the Arya Samaj by Olcott H. S., The Sun, Saturday, October 26, 1878
- ↑ image by unknown author
- ↑ An "English Member... by unknown author, Pall Mall Gazette, October 15, 1878
- ↑ image by unknown author
- ↑ The Arya Samaj by unknown author, Pall Mall Gazette, October 17, 1878