|
Bhavāni
Charan Bānerji (1861-1907). The Bengali
Brāhman boy came under the influence of Keshab Chandra. Banerji
became a teacher
in a school at Hydrabad in Sind. He became an Anglican at the age of
30, and before the end of 1891 he had become a Roman Catholic, had
chosen the name Theophilus. He translated it 'Brahmabandhab', 'the
friend of Brahman'. In 1894, a Catholic sanyasin in saffron cloths,
assumed the name, Upadhyaya (Teacher): Brahmabandhab Upādhyāya
Not
the Sun-god but God of the Sun
Bahrmabandab
Upadhyaya perceives in the apparent polytheism of the Vedas the
hidden monotheism. There are so many gods spoken of, e. g. the
Thunder-god, the Dawn-god, the sun-god etc. Does the Vedas inculcate
the worship of subordinate deities?[*i] No. Upadhyaya writes: “Vedas teach Theism, not Polytheism. The
Vedic Rishis did not Chant hymns in praise of the Thunder-god, the
Usha [viz. Dawn]-god and the Sun-god, but the God of Thunder and of
the Dawn and of the Sun.” [*ii]
Powers
of the Nature (gods), force of the One Absolute
The
theism of the Vedic sages is ‘natural theism’ not the
modern abstract and more refined theism. The Vedic sages saw the one
Supreme God at times as thunder, dawn etc. „the
Usha (dawn) descending from the skies clad in her russet mantle, the
thunder-bolt tearing asunder the mountain cliffs with deafening roar,
the sun ascending in heavens seated in his fiery chariot - . . . “.[*iii] The experience of the power of natural phenomena led them to the
natural/sensual (not abstract) awesome experience of the might of God
in an immediate and personal way. The Vedic Seers began to see the
different forces that animate the nature, symbolised in the Gods, as the force of the One Absolute.[*iv]
God’s
power reflects in the Nature as if many (gods)
When
the one sun shines it is reflected in the oceans, rivers, lakes and
ponds as many. God’s powers reflects in all the nature as gods.
“The sun and the moon, the dawn and the twilight, the seas and
mountains were to them real reflections of the Divinity. The
splendour of the orbs was God‘s splendour. It was His immensity
that appeared in the shoreless ocean, His invisible majesty that was
made visible in the Himalayan heights, His holiness that shone in the
fire. It was He who assumed in their Vision these various modes of
being. Just as the name sun reproduces its countless images in the
bosom of rivers, lakes and pools below, so the infinite Beauty has
multiplied itself in the lights and shades, unities and varieties,
harmonies and divisions of this universe. He remains one and
undivided and still he becomes many through reflection or
communication.”[*v]
Not
personal gods, but personal experiences of God’s powers
Whenever
the sages saw any striking natural phenomena[*vi] they “immediately realised the Free Agency causing them to come into being. . . . Their Theism
was natural and vigorous, which did not allow an indefinite chain to
stand between the creature and the Creator. The
glorious break of day at once led them to the vision of a personal
Being whom they called the Dawn-God, because He manifested himself in the
rosy streaks of the dawn. They
worshipped the Supreme under the name of Thunder-God because they
felt his awful presence in the flash of lightning and the clap of
thunder.”[*vii]
The
natural powers (gods), apertures to see the Author
The
Rishis saw a deeper connection between the manifest and the
unmanifest.[*viii] Upadhyaya writes: “Vedic Rishis in their rapturous apostrophies invoked the sun to open his golden
gates and show the Person of Glory residing in the womb of splendour.
They saw in the enveloping vapour the mysterious Varuna - the Pervading One. The genial rains which
soothe the thirst of the parched soil revealed to them the Rain-God -
Indra. Every remarkable phenomenon of nature was an aperture through
which they saw the Author of nature.”[*ix]
Worshipping
gods: touching the ‘Untouchable’
The
Supreme Being for the sages was neither an abstraction nor a person
who lived far, far away isolated.[*x] Whenever they touched the nature they touched the ultimate mystery
behind the nature then and there without going through a process of
abstraction: “They
touched Him in the zephyr they embraced Him in the effulgence of the
sun; they were immersed in Him in the waters of the Indus.”[*xi]
Upadyaya
sees the nascent natural theism of Vedas inspiring the development of
the transcendental idea of God in the Upanishads. In the Vedas in
general there is a spirit of theism which was later developed into
the Upanishads’ transcendent conception of the metaphysical
unity of the Godhead.[*xii]
---------------------
i
Cf. Upadhyaya, B. “Questions and Answers [Vedic Theism],” Sophia: (16 June 1900), in Lipner, J., and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II), p. 281.
ii
Cf. Upadhyaya, B. “Questions and Answers [Vedic Theism],” Sophia: (16 June 1900), in Lipner, J., and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II), p. 282.
iii
Upadhyaya, B. “Questions and Answers [Vedic Theism],” Sophia: (16 June 1900), in Lipner, J., and
Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II),
p. 282.
iv
Cf. Upadhyaya, B. “Questions and Answers [Vedic Theism],” Sophia: (16 June 1900), in Lipner, J., and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II), p. 282.
v Upadhyaya, B. “Vedic Worship,” Sophia: (15
July 1900), in Lipner, J., and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab
Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II), p. 286.
vi
Upadhyaya, B. “Questions and Answers [Vedic Theism],” Sophia: (16 June 1900), in Lipner, J., and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II), p. 282.
viiUpadhyaya,
B. “Questions and Answers [Vedic Theism],” Sophia:
(16 June 1900), in Lipner, J., and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab
Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II), p. 282.
viii
“The Rishis saw a deeper connection between the manifest and
the unmanifest The sun and the moon, the dawn and the twilight, the
sees and mountains were to them real reflections of the
Divinity.”Upadhyaya, B. “Vedic Worship,” Sophia: (15 July 1900), in Lipner, J., and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II), p. 286.
ix
Upadhyaya, B. “Vedic Worship,” Sophia: (15 July
1900), in Lipner, J., and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab
Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II), p. 286.
x
“To the Rishis this world was the expression of the divine
nature. They beheld Him everywhere and their beholding was
worshipping. The supreme Being was neither an abstraction nor a
person who lived far, far away isolated by his regal dignity.”
Upadhyaya, B. “Vedic Worship,” Sophia: (15 July
1900), in Lipner, J., and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab
Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II), p. 286.
xi
Upadhyaya, B. “Vedic Worship,” Sophia: (15 July
1900), in Lipner, J., and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab
Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol. II), p. 286.
xii Upadyaya says that one can safely affirm “that
the Vedas are imbued will, the spirit of Theism, though we must
admit that we do not find in them that transcendent conception of
the metaphysical unity of the Godhead which we meet with in the
Upanishads.” Upadhyaya, B. “Questions and Answers
[Vedic Theism],” Sophia: (16 June 1900), in Lipner, J.,
and Gispert-Sauch, ed. Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya, 2002. (Vol.
II), p. 283.
|