KESHTJB CHANDRA SEN

1838 - 1884

Keshub Chandra Sen was a member of the SamaJ. He was a speaker of tremendous power* with thousands listening to his lectureso He appealed to both and Europeanso In 1866 he founded a branch of the called the Brahmo Samaj of India in which elements from many were introducedo He taught concerning the "New Dispensation of the " and sought to esta­ blish the "Church of the New Dispensation*" Many regarded him as a Christian because of his high regard for Christ, but he remained a conservative Hindu* In his later yeairs he was considerably influenced by Paramahamsa* Many were ready to accept him as a prophet, but he refused the honour*

14 Keshub Chandra Sen* i^om the discussion given, it vrould seem that had Keshub Chandra Sen proclaimed himself to be a prophet, multi- 1 tudes would have followed him* Thousands thronged his lectures; men from all walks of life listened as he proclaimed his concepts of truth which he called * Most of his teaching would compare favorably 'l with Christian , particularly in regard to union with * j

Keshub believed that immortality was a fact, to be accepted by , and to be lived for*^ The "living" consists of worshipping 2 the living God, and serving men with self-denying love* He would be classed as a dualist in a qualified sense. He did not teach union in the sense of absorption into the divine essence, but a union of will, where, by surrender to the divine w ill, man's will becomes one with it to the extent that man vreuld ever declare "Lord, Thy will be done*"^ So important is this experience that he declares that it is a necessary part of the experience of all who vrould be saved!

Verily in the h ip est state of absorbing love, the distinction between mine and thine vanishes; not a trace of self is left behind and the believer exclaims, All is Thine* God*s power then becomes our vitality. His wisdom our inspiration, His purity our salvation, His joy our heaven. Such love as this which elimi­ nates self and implants Divinity upon man's life, we must all acquire if we wish to be saved*4

Sen taugjit that a in immortality was bound up in a belief in the * To believe in the Living God is to believe in living beyond the present* A belief in the Infinite Father implies the belief in a future home to share with Him. Without a future

1* Keshub 2* Ibid. 3. Ibid., pp. 144, 145. 4. Ib id ., "The Light of Heaven in India", p. 168* 15 world it would be impossible to truly believe in God’ s divinity, A belief in Immortality implies belief in God’ s divinity. First, the by intuition comprehends the existence of the divine, and then the eye of faith looks forward to behold the future home in the next world. Without God thefe could not be a home, without a home, God could scarcely be comprehended as a Father, Even faith in its in­ fancy looks to God as the one in whom **we live and move and have our being,” This idea Sen sets forth as containing the root idea of immortality, as the soul feels that its life is in God, and will continue to be in Him, That continuing of life in Him is the center of belief in immortality. To reject the doctrine of immortality is to deny the fundamental attributes of divinity, such as eternity, and hence is a denial of the true God.^

Sen felt that to teach that death is the end of man was to put God out of the picture. He was certain that belief in immortality and belief in divinity cannot be separated. When God enters the heart of the devout believer, heaven begins in His soul,^

Though he taught that heaven may begin nov/ in the soul, he nevertheless also clearly referred to a future heaven that awaited those who live righteously here. His three chief concepts of he called God, duty, and immortality, These were inseparably inter­ linked} a belief in God implied the belief in immortality, since eter­ nity is an attribute of deity. The life is in Gk>d, and will continue to be in Him, We have no life apart from Him, He felt that the here­ after was necessary ”to supplement and perfect our life here*""^ The

5. Keshub 6, Ib id ., 7. Ib id ,,

1 "doctrines of divinity and immortality" he held to be "parts of one in­ divisible truth." Duty, meaning righteous living, was necessary "to g worthily enter" hereafter the future heaven. He summarized the most important parts of his*teaching ast

Vforship the Spirit-God, believe in immor­ tality, and live ri^teously,--this is all that the of our church t e a c h e s *9

Heaven was to be a place where the persecuted would at last be Justified* "God's servants and faithful ambassadors, though reviled and hated by men" would "receive the crown of glory in heaven.He did not feel that God's followers were simply to avoid crimes or gain a "few worldly virtues, but to live as beings destined for immortality, whose object should be to follow strictly the absolute standard of truth, and whose best interests were the interests of eternity." He addressed his hearers as

those who have immortal to care for, and whose h ip est concern is to secure the approbation of conscience here, and a blessed eternity hereafter.il

Though he clearly taught a heaven hereafter, he also plainly said that we may be in heaven here. To those whose soul dwelt in God he declared!

...You may occasionally feel around you an encompassing heaven if the heart is with Godo Wherever you may be, if the soul dwells in the All-Soul, you are in heaven! Say not of heaven it is lo! here, or lo! there, for it is within. If you keep near your God, you cainnot be far from heaven, for your God is your heaven. You need not repair to heaven.

8. Keshub Chandra Sen, Lectures in India, p. 203. 9. Ibid.. p. 204. 10. TH 3., pp. 216, 217. 11. Ibid., "Europe and Asia", p. 28.

17 there to meet the Heavenly Father, for wherever the Heavenly Father is, there surely is heaven, and where is He not?^2

As the believer draws nesir to the Eternal Spirit, the whole cosmos becomes for him transformed!

The universe is to him a veritable garden, redolent of sweet ambrosial odors, because God is everywhere. His presence makes the earth heavenly* All nat\xre is aglow with divine radiance# This, this is paradise-- exclaims inspired madness

He felt that though man was made of dust, there was another part of man, something *hiot of this earth," "immortal and holy, born of heaven and destined for heaven.

The great goal of life for man was not to become a part of God, which man could not, but to become one in heart and will with Gode In his belief, which he called theism, he saidt

...Th e human will is purified and so tuned to the ntvine will as to become one with it . The theist's heaven is not absorption into the divine essense, but the nirva^ia of abankar. — -or the annihilation of ego­ tism. In the highest state of inspiration man's oiily creed is, "Lord, Thy will be done."15

Thus Sen believed that selfishness, egotism, was to be aban­ doned, but the individual existence would remain separate. Hie life would be in harmony with Godj his highest delight and joy would be in doing God*s will. This action, however, would be by his own delibe­ rate choice, the choice of conscious submission to the Infinite.

12. Keshub Chandra Sen, "Our Faith & Experiences", Lectures in India, p. 206. 15. Ibid. . "Philosophy and Madness in Religion", p. 234» 14. Ibid., "Great Men", p. 49« 15c Ib id .. "Inspiration", pp. 144# 145«

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