Raja Rammohun Roy and Mahatma Gandhi

Raja Rammohan Roy and Mahatma Gandhi – A Study

(22^nd May is the 230^th Birth Anniversary of Raja Rammohan Roy, Father of the New Age)

“Death of a nation is loss of creative energy, dignity and self-respect; death is inability to stand on its own feet, physical and mental slavery, and helpless dependence on others.  At such times great men appear on the scene, revitalise and rejuvenate the nation.  ‘Man’s necessity is God’s opportunity.’  Raja Rammohan Roy awakened the soul of India – the Kundalini Shakti.” – Acharya P. Sitaramabrahmam

So did Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in the twentieth century.

Raja Rammohan Roy and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the two great luminaries that passed across the horizon of our country at a distance of a century have very much in common from a spiritual view point.  Both of them came to fill a need, to fulfill a mission, to lift the nation from a state of decadence and lead it to its destination. The message of Rammohan Roy, it appears, was put into practical application and to a political end by Mahatma Gandhi.

Raja Rammohan Roy is hailed as the Father of Modern India and the Father of the New Age.  Life sought to unite mankind on a religious platform, as the greatest reformer of his times and harbinger of unity and universal humanism.  He was the first to work for the uplift of women in society; for the uplift of the depressed, downtrodden and ward classes, and was the first to work for reforms in the educational field.

All these words apply very aptly to Mahatma Gandhi who is hailed as the Father of the Nation.  And he is the last in our memory who worked in our country for the same ends with a sincerity of purpose and steadfastness in devotion.  The Greatest humanist of our times, he not only preached the message of humanism, but showed through his life that it is a practicable one. Rammohan Roy used religion as the basis for his mission and Gandhiji used politics as his basis.  The ultimate goal of both is man-making work by bringing out the latent Divinity in man.

Before these great men were born the country was in chaos.  Rammohan Roy was born at a time when the country was passing through the darkest period in its history.  Muslim rule was crumbling; East India Company was getting stronger and increasing its grip on the country and the masses. Christianity was taking roots and converting people into its fold.  People were groaning under the tyranny of the heads of the religious institutions who controlled the fabric of the society and manipulated it to their ulterior ends.  Many saints and religious personalities preceded Rammohan Roy and tried to salvage the race and unite mankind which was hopelessly divided into many quarrelling religious groups.

Gandhiji was born at a time when the country was groaning under the rule of the British and the tyrannical grip of the rulers of the independent states. Their tyranny was oppressive, there was no self-respect of the individual, and the common man’s life was miserable.  Prior to Gandhiji many abortive attempts were made for freedom of the country.  The nation was paying heavily for the internal disunity and praying ardently for a saviour.

Great men are the concentrated focal points of the creative energy of Time-force.  The invisible hand of the Supreme Divine stretches forth through these great men for the uplift of the down trodden and struggling humanity.  Be it a Moses, or a Jesus, or a Buddha, or a Rammohan, or a Gandhi, the appearance of a Messiah is in conformity to the need.  It is in tune with the progress and evolution of the human race. This happened at all times and in all countries.  “YADA YADAHI DHARMASYA GLANIRBHAVATHI BHARATHA, ABHYUDDHANA MADHARMASYA,” and is not a freak instance or an unusual Divine gesture.  It is the highest human personality bursting forth and manifesting as a Messiah to lead the nation to the promised goal.  It is the heroic resolve of the race to fulfill the task; the determination of the soul to progress inspite of many odds and hurdles. In this process the human personality manifests as both intensely personal and impersonal form – a strange mixture of the opposites – personal in the sense that the ‘Ideal’ is a physical reality as the man.  His teachings and life itself are practical personification of the Ideal proclaimed. It is impersonal in the sense that not a trace of the Ego or the self stains or sullies the ideal and its activity.

These great men are instruments of history, agents of the Divine.  They have descended to earth to raise man out of the mire of ignorance and creaturliness.   They come to lift the nation out of the despondency and lead it to its destination.  They are God’s answers to the prayers of the nation craving to be uplifted; prayers of the human soul long suffering under oppression, craving, pining for truth amidst all the prevailing deception and falsehood; for light amidst the engulfing gloom and darkness; for immortality amidst the never ending death and destruction.

We should look at them as historic necessities and a step in the evolution of man in the direction of the Divine.  This strengthens our faith in the Divine and the Divine scheme of life. It is the Grace of the Divine ever watching its children and stretching its hand to help and protect them when they stray wayward, like a cow keeping a watch on its calf, like the shepherd bringing the strayed lamb to its fold.

We should also understand them from another angle for our benefit and inspiration.  They represent the high level to which man can rise with honest effort and sincerity of purpose.  These great men are ordinary men born in ordinary surroundings and brought up in the average pattern like any body else. They all faced the same difficulties and disturbing influences in their life like any other mortal of the times. But they represent the innate capacity of man to overcome hurdles and influence and rise to a high level of development and spiritual evolution and personality.  They represent man’s struggle to evolve from human to the Divine. They show in relief the sleeping potential in man, which when properly awakened, can bring out the right nature and quality.

Through them God sends His message, His answer to the prayers of men and prayers of the nation’s soul.  Through them man represents to God his aspirations and his efforts to reach the Divine.  They bring home to us the spiritual greatness of man.  They proclaim, “YOU ARE AMRUTASYA PUTRAH”, and if you make a sincere and honest effort to raise yourself, Divine help is always available to you in your endeavour.

To understand these great men we must study their writings too.  To fully comprehend their writings we must study their lives.  Their writings project the message of their lives.  Their lives are a visual picturisation of the message of their writings.

Both Rammohan Roy and Mahatma Gandhi were intensely religious in their approach to life.  Rammohan Roy’s last day was a remarkable one.  Miss Colette writes: “His utterance of the sacred ‘AUM’ – one of the last words he was heard to utter – suggested that at the solitary gate of Death as well as in the crowded thorough-rare of life, the contemplation of the Deity was the chief pre-occupation of his soul.”  The last words of the Mahatma when the fatal bullet struck him, the mesmeric ‘HEY RAM’ shows how aptly these very same words epitomise his life.

The spiritual revolution and rejuvenation of society dreamt by Raja Rammohan Roy was perfected and made practical through the life of Mahatma Gandhi. Both are complementary to each other and between them gave the world the message of love, universalism, humanism and universal brotherhood.  These two gigantic personalities transformed India by their undaunted and unstinted labour, labour of love.  One evolved a new era in the spiritual history of the world; the other evolved a new era in the political history of the world.  They rose to heights of contemplation without for an instant losing the balance of everyday life.

A study of the life and message of these two luminaries gives us an inkling into the secret by which we can nurture and maintain the Divine culture in us and enjoy the melody of human existence.  When we look at them from this distance of time with sufficient poise we realise the truth that religion is a practical way of life and religion is to be lived.  And the greatest quality of man is to be able to say, ‘What I believe is true.’

Today, half a century after Gandhiji left us and as we enter the twenty-second century, we painfully realise the country has again degenerated to the lowest level of human nature and existence.  The values and standards of life are crumbling.  The nation is groaning under the weight of oppression, violence, dishonesty, lack of respect for the individual, tyranny of the haves on the havenots, and tyranny of the enemies of social life.  The soul of the common man is pining for Divine Grace. The atrocities committed in the name of religion, the cry of the molested women and the tortured man, governmental apathy against the brutal power of the anti-social forces all have made us like dry leaves or bits of waste paper with no inner strength of our own and being tossed about by every passing breeze to be thrown into any gutter round about to sink into a wretched state of oblivion.  What is the way out?  What is our responsibility in this situation?  The message of Brahmo Samaj, the message of humanism and love, the message of the Upanishads, that God is One and All Men are Brothers, is the only answer that can provide the correct perspective and give a positive lead towards a solution.  The vision or Raja Rammohan Roy and the practical philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, will transform the society.  A study of the lives of these great men shows us the light that illumines our path to make progress in life’s pilgrimage.