˛ D- AI. D- AO. TAM KY` PHOˆ D- Oˆ. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF CAODAISM Pham. Xuanˆ Thai´ ˛ ˛ dich. tu` ˛ Phap-Ng´ u˜ sang Anh-Ngu˜ ´ ˛ In Lai. Theo Anˆ Ban Nam˘ 1950 GABRIEL GOBRON GABRIEL GOBRON HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF CAODAISM D- anh´ may´ lai:. H`ongˆ Lan & Tanˆ´ Hung˛ Tr`ınh bay:` H`ongˆ Lan & Tanˆ´ Hung˛ Reformed Buddhism, Xepˆ´ chu:˜ ˛ H&L TypeSetter Vietnamese Spiritism, D- ong´ tap:ˆ. H&L eBooker New Religion in Eurasia. Lam` tai:. Chicago - U.S.A. ****** Translated from the original French by Pham-xu. an-Thˆ ai.´ Published under the auspices of His Excellency Tr`an-quang-Vinh,ˆ Major-General, Commander-in-Chief of the Caodaist Troops, Minister of the Armed Forces of the Government of Vietnam. 4 HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF CAODAISM GABRIEL GOBRON - Pham. Xuanˆ Thai´ dich. 5 accredited initiator of Caosdaism in the West and more par- INTRODUCTION ticularly in France. Lectures, articles and observations succeeded one Gabriel Gobron, author of the present work on another, and with the remaining unpublished texts, they Caodaism, was an ardent and courageous writer, journalist form a copious collection of which the present posthumous and lecturer. Born at Bayonville (Meurthe-et-Moselle), book is one of the main parts. July 5, 1895, he quit the world and its sufferings at Rethel, Thus the present work constitutes an authentic July 8, 1941. With the present work and undoubtedly with message from the Beyond. It was a consoling task to us to others that shall follow, Gabriel Gobron continues his work out this text. literary works in the Beyond. This time, the work far sur- "A Message from Heaven" this posthumous passes literature. work, we are sure, will he particularly honored by the We can speak of the "Message" and with a capital numerous spiritist friends of the author who has done so letter. much, by his pen, speech and experimentation, for spiri- Being an eminent polyglot, an indefatigable tism. inquirer in the world of the Spirit and spirits, novelist, his- His printed worlds number ten volumes and hun- torian, journalist and teacher, Gabriel was a curious man dred articles or published essays everywhere, in the world, and himself a curiosity. A Great soul, by his overflowing in the languages which he spoke and wrote besides French: intellectual generosity, he was an ardent polemicist. English, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. He was curious indeed, but without dilettantism: Gabriel Gobron, being the author of several nov- when he thought to have discovered a spiritual beauty, a els, had written a great many rustic pages about the life of philosophical or religious truth, he liked to make it known the workers in country and city. and shared by others at once. He would not hesitate to Truly, Gabriel Gobron was a delicate, sensitive, fight, always with passion, against those, who, in his eyes, even tender soul, who very often hid himself voluntarily wanted to put the light under a bushel. It is in this way behind this rude aspect in the manner of Leon Bloy. that he discovered Caodaism, and also in this way that he This secret sensibility of the heart and the soul fought to his last breath, praying for his illumination. had more than once inspired pages of remarkable delicacy Gabriel Gobron, a great intellect, was above all a great and finesse. heart. Delicate and modest tenderness, reaction of the After a period of research, study and discovery romantic poet who would not deny the little blue flower of beginning in 1930, Gabriel Gobron became a convinced popular romance or the archaic complaints of a folklore propagator, a well-informed, and before long officially which he loved. 6 HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF CAODAISM GABRIEL GOBRON - Pham. Xuanˆ Thai´ dich. 7 Having exhausted himself writing big books densest materials as much by the style adopted as by the inspired by the petty miseries of daily bourgeois life, like vocabulary employed. Henri Heine, he could write little songs from a wealth of I considered "Notre Dame des Neiges" (1) to be a painful experience. great philosophical document in which a man expresses It is certain that Gabriel Gobron, throughout his himself without constraint, even esthetically, and without lifetime, was a rebel, a non-conformist, an "outsider", like any trace of social hypocrisy. Whether it pleases or not, the Theo Varlet and Macolm Mac-Laren, the poets whom he fact is: the man frees himself by´ writing, and the present liked and had made acquaintance with at the Mercure case, it not only concerns an individual deliberation, but Universel. Along with and in his scholastic, historic and numerous heredities which, tired of being repelled or sub- journalistic works, we find irritated, nervous and bitter limated, express themselves. pages, to the point of crying out and invective. They have Thus, the "beings" which exist in man, free them- been called "quibbling and rancor", but the truth is that: selves from constraints, injustices imposed by life: social, all Gabriel Gobron s works imbued with truth and suffer- individual, collective, economic injustices, etc... And at ing life, belong to the literary class which is so rightly bottom, in the very depths, but real, animated, tenacious named Dolorism of which Julien Teppe is the founder. and captivating, the mystic torture of the soul which needs The style and the rhythm of the sentences of the God and justice, cries out: "Blessed are they which do writer, Gabriel Gobron, adapt themselves spontaneously to hunger and thirst, after righteousness, for they shall be the subject treated. filled" (2). The style and the form adapt themselves to the The "Messages" received by certain attentive and sentiments to such a point as to appear unequal and dif- receptive mediums, prove that Gabriel Gobron is now ferent, and the general impression given is that no profes- among those who are satisfied. sional machinery has presided over the composition of this The social and economic injustices, the oppres- work, tohich grew up freely and courageously, like nature sions of the rich against the poor, and the wrongs of one in its liberty, with thick copses and fine glades. and the other, are rudely handled in the various worlds of Gabriel Gobron seems to be aided in the comple- Gabriel Gobron among others, in "Les Couarrails de Pont- tion of his work, by one of those sorceresses painted by a-Mousson"` published by Berger-Levrault and in "Barban- Brenghel-le-Jeune, who mix and blend the best with the douille" Mercure Universel and in "Tournemol", a novel worst, the most diverse and repulsive ingredients. The pot about a bad professor. boils, the lid is lifted, and Gabriel. Gobron, the writer, is In these works, Gabriel Gobron does not proceed not satisfied with the veracity of the facts simply recounted: by allusion; his style is direct, loaded with invective. He he must pose in the most direct terms, he delights in the insists rigorously on the facts that he has exposed, hut he 8 HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF CAODAISM GABRIEL GOBRON - Pham. Xuanˆ Thai´ dich. 9 also speaks frankly about the reforms and transformations incomprehension of some, the dogmatics, as of others, the of present society, of which he anticipates the corruption rationalists. The "House of God" and the "Cosmic Home" and degeneration to mediocrity. will still be opposed to each other for a long time to come. Let me cite anew the preface of the study of 1938, They are, however, the fraternal and permanent expression which exposes the "case" of Gabriel Gobron. of the "ad Deum" which is in the heart of all human It is the "case", because Gabriel Gobron is a gen- beings, living tabernacles of the divine. tle lamb, who endeavours in vain to become enraged, The book of Gabriel Gobron is crammed with just, whence the attitude of vituperation, which makes us think interesting, and elevated ideas on education to be given, on of (as I have mentioned above) Leon Bloy and of the Old liberty to be respected, and on spirituality, etc... His Testament prophets. literary form is then more serene, sober and harmonious; it Gabriel Gobron is a mild man and his dreams are is an immense sheet of. water, limpid and fresh before the magnificent: dam and torrential rapids arid the overflowing of the crude And we were dreaming, since our primary school polemic style. days, to learn how to teach the little people of the world, to We must defend "Jean Peuple", we must protect create a "Cosmis Home" by the side of the "House of God". the exploited from exploitation, but we must not let "Jean Do not make teaching an immediate, utilitarian business Peuple" think that he is a little saint, for as soon as a "Jean and materialistic matter, but make education bio-cosmic to Peuple" happens to be on the other side... we quickly find show the students that we are as much the glorious sons of that power corrupts. the Universe as the obscure children of the hamlets! Reveal Therefore, while he defends him, at the same time the divine that slumber in us, the subconscious by which Gabriel Gobron exposes the manias, vices and misunder- we are in relation with the most improbable and mysterious standings of this good "Jean Peuple". entities and occult faculties, and which assures the triumph And it’s too bad for the too fond ears, for which of the Spirit over animality, over the brute that growls the "ostendite testes" of Saint Bernard must be translated within us! into "Be Men" for fear of a literal translation.