brahmo-somaj

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A monotheistic religion in India, which originated with Rajah Ram Mohun Roy, a Hindu reformer, who died in 1833, and received a new impulse and a new direction under his successor, Keshub Chunder Sen, who died in 1885. The mystical theology of the Brahmo-Somaj can only be proximately stated in the language of Occidental philosophy. Its fundamental tenet is the universal presence of the Divine Spirit, who pervades all nature and luspires all who are willing to receive him. Man is equipped for this purpose with a faculty of spiritual insight, a faith-faculty, called Yoga. Inspiration is a universal fact, and all the great world-teachers have been divinely inspired prophets; all the great world-religions contain some divine truth; and in all their great sacraments there is some spiritual benefit. It is not clear whether Christ is regarded as simply the greatest of these inspired prophets, or as something more. Some utterances indicate a recognition of this character as divine. The Brahmo-Somaj differs from Deism is teaching the personal communion of the soul with a personal God, and from Christianity is not teaching any specific revelation of a remedy for sin. It is an aggressively missionary religion, and its preaching has been accompanied by works of practical reformation, such as the abolition among its adherents of polygamy, of caste, and of idolatry in all its forms, the reformation of marriage customs, and the temperance reform.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A modern reforming theistic sect among the Hindus.