There are defining moments in one’s life which call for a leap of faith. The All-India Brahmo Conference that took place in Bangalore from the 28th to the 30th of December, 2007 was one such occasion.

Bangalore played host to the conference after a gap of nearly 40 years, so for all Brahmos who have less than a 40-year association with the city, this was one momentous occasion.

For someone like me who could well be called a ‘Maghotsav Brahmo’ (a term used by Ashish Basu, one of the speakers at the conference to describe many Brahmos who make annual appearances for the Foundation Day celebrations in the last week of January to atone for a year of absenteeism), the conference was certainly a kind of spiritual awakening where one was forced to look seriously at the religion that one was born into and understand it with all its successes and failings.

At the inaugural session, S K Dey, Secretary of the Conference, touched upon the need for the Brahmo religion to take a strong position at a time when communalism and terrorism had given a different dimension to the term ‘religion’.

Conformists
As the conference unfolded, it was clear to me that though the religion started as a questioning one, there were those who preferred to stay on the beaten track when it came to issues like offering worship called the Brahmopasana.

But the consensus on the subject was that the religion’s questioning spirit was its greatest strength and even when it came to matters of worship, this flexibility had to be permitted. This was a great relief for one like me who has just taken fledgling steps in offering Divine Worship.

What really gave me a wonderful insight into the religion and made me proud to be associated with it, was a Power Point presentation on a session called, ‘Strengthening the Brahmo Way of Life’.

Since the message that all of us largely inherit from our parents is that Brahmos do not believe in idol worship, we are often embarrassed about our religion and at a loss to explain its beliefs.

Basu’s presentation was enlightening and offered many of us an opportunity to understand the religion better. Ram Mohan Roy had delved into and studied all the major religions of the country before he evolved his own beliefs that became the tenets of the Brahmo faith.

Basu’s talk summed up the essence of what Ram Mohan wanted Brahmos to subscribe to— they are the three Mantras of Bhakti (belief in teachers and scriptures), Yukti (constantly questioning these beliefs) and Shakti (confidently asserting one’s own value system and faith and not being embarrassed to explain that one subscribes to the Brahmo faith).

The refrain that the Brahmo Samaj is antediluvian in its desire to glorify the past, was heard again before the session on ‘Remembering Past Brahmo Leaders’. And yet this session had me enthralled as I learnt about the many reformers who were influenced by the teachings of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and benefited society in many progressive ways in the 19th Century.

Going to seed?
My fascination with the contributions of such role models could have had something to do with the knowledge that the Brahmo movement and the country at large is reeling from a paucity of such altruism. 

A session pertaining to the ‘Role of Youth and Women in Strengthening the Brahmo Movement’ started late and had to be curtailed just when the discussion was getting to be meaningful. This could be a reflection on what ails the Samaj today. It is tragic that a religion that gave a clarion call to the youth of the 19th Century is unable to attract the young.

Could the failing of the religion have something to do with a human being’s innate desire to look up to demi-Gods or a God with some form? Is it a religion of the intelligentsia, too esoteric in its formless worship; difficult for a man on the street or a person in a village to fathom? 

Could the religion have lived up to its tradition of socialist reform had it raised a collective voice against the ills of society? Ram Mohan Roy is best known for protesting against social ills like Sati and dowry and yet there was no collective voice from the Samaj to protest against the self-immolation of Roop Kanwar at Deorala in 1987.

Then again on January 31, 2004, when the 11 accused in the Kanwar case were acquitted for lack of evidence, there were no protests from any Samaj or its members. And now with the resurgence of the horrific practice of female foeticide, the Brahmo Samaj has remained completely silent. 

As one of the speakers at the conference suggested, perhaps the Brahmo movement could reinvent itself.
There is much that the Brahmo religion can contribute to the well-being of the State both by learning from its Golden Age as well as by reinventing itself for the present one.
Are the Brahmos ready for the challenge?