Brahmo Samaj

Mrs. Messmore writes me that the work begun by him in Lucknow continues.

The conversion of a leader of the Brahmo Samaj has created great excitement among his people.

He is an educated man and has great influence among his sect.

Six months ago, he secured the closing of all the zenanas in Lucknow against the missionaries, and now he is the first to open his own to them.

I do not care for anybody who cannot love my Beloved.

And then he makes a remark about the Brahmo Samaj people who had been criticizing him terribly and even spreading lies about him in India.

And he didn't get too concerned about it.

Why? He says, "They were only children in religion.

168.

Vijay Krishna Goswami, who was a very devout person, a spiritual practitioner, a teacher in the Brahma Samaj.

So he has come to visit Sri Ramakrishna, and he is having this conversation with Sri Ramakrishna.

A lot of subjects, yoga, devotion, Jnana, the path of knowledge, all of them come up, uh, for discussion.

Come here now and then.

I like to see you very much.

Vijay: I have to do my duties, various duties in the Brahma Samaj.

That is why I can't always come here.

Like who is that guy? Like we don't really- You know, and plus if we have churches, they are societies.

The whole idea of Samaj, like this Hindu response to religion to create communities around religion, that's fucking foreign, by the way.

Like Hinduism has always been arguably an empowering of that individual to pursue his or her or their own liberation on their own terms and, and that's a solitary journey.

Like as, as early as Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, you don't go to a society or go to a church to learn religion.

That's distinctly British.

And look how the Indians learnt it very quickly.

They very quickly formed Samaj around religious ideas.

Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj are just British organizational projects inspired by British organizational models.