nor idols, but worship fire, earth, air, water and sun in a spot prepared for the occasion. These are supposed to be God. They offer fruits and vegetables, and sacrifice certain sweetsmelling substances in fire. He has some half a dozen They use the Bengali literadisciples in Calcutta. They Kali Charan is their leader. chelas, disciples, who assist him. ture published by Sivanārāyaṇa's are aiming at the economic development of the tribe, and therefore are collecting money for the erection of a technical school, shops and such like. They say that there are about two thousand families in the movement, but that is probably an overestimate. In any case it is now losing ground. LITERATURE. - Indian Spirituality or the Travels and Teachings of Śivanārāyaṇa, by M. M. Chatterji. London, Luzac, 1907. Amrita Sāgara (the teaching of Śivanārāyaṇa in Bengali), edited by M. M. Chatterji, Calcutta, Sanyal & Co., 1911, Rs. 2. 3. THE VEDIC MISSION In 1886 a movement called Sādhārana Dharma arose in Madras, and has continued active until to-day. The adherents of Sādhārana Dharma declare their belief in Paramātman, or the Supreme Self, his government of the world and of individuals, and the possibility of realizing him by the development of one's moral or physical powers and the use of them for the good of humanity; and they promise to work for their own progress and the advancement of humanity. The following sentences come from the prospectus of the organization : The Common Path (Sadharana Dharma) is open to people of any creed. Those who profess other faiths need not disclaim them when they adopt Sadharana Dharma. Sadharana Dharma aims not to establish uniformity but unity in variety throughout the different cults and sects of India, and by and by of the whole world. In 1909 this organization was included in a wider body called the Vedic Mission. This new organization has two divisions, Vedic Dharma and Sādhārana Dharma, the former purely Hindu, the later for everybody and anybody. For a time they were affiliated with the Bharata Dharma Mahāmandal,' but its orthodoxy was too stiff for the Vedic Mission. The following sentences allude to that fact: We take this opportunity of informing the public that our Mission has nothing to do with so called Hindu orthodoxy and priesthood. Nothing short of thorough religious reform based on "Vedic monotheism" will satisfy us. We do not want to please those orthodox people that may be indifferent or opposed to the spread of Sanskrit and Religious Education as well as the right kind of spiritual knowledge among the non-Brahmin castes and the depressed Classes. The work is as follows: The Mission has three branches of work, viz., (i) Educational for spreading secular and useful religious knowledge among the masses, (ii) Medical - pertaining to the Ministry of Healing (the sick in body and mind), and (iii) Literary — including the study of comparative Mythology, Theology and Philosophy. The Mission advocates the cause of Vedic Religion and philosophy. They have what they call a Vedic Mission College for training preachers and teachers, and they publish a good deal of literature. The leaders are Pandit G. Krishna Sāstrī and an Australian. There is a branch in Delhi, under Svāmī Śivagaṇāchārya. Work is also being done in Australia. I find it impossible to make out how much is being done. The movement seems to stand nearer the Ārya Samāj and Sivanārāyaṇa's teaching than anything else. 1P. 316, below. 4. A CASTLE IN THE AIR A Muḥammadan, who shall be nameless, has written a little book which it is perhaps kindest to regard as the product of a diseased mind. It is worthy of mention merely as another indication of the present state of affairs in India. Its folly may also serve to relieve my sober narrative. It is an attempt to fuse Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. A pantheistic theology and transmigration are mingled with Muḥammadan ideas and diluted Christian ethics. The writer calls himself the Holy Ghost, the very God and such like. Like Sivanārāyaṇa, he proposes one language and one Scripture for all men, and also a universal religious conference. From that there might emerge a universal religious empire. Constantinople would be the centre of this empire; the English would be its guardians; and the Promoter himself would be the spiritual teacher and head of the whole ! We now turn to a group of movements which have one striking feature in common, namely, their use of the person of Christ. They are a peculiarly interesting and instructive group; for two of them are Muḥammadan in origin, and two are Hindu. 5. THE AḤMADĪYAS OF QADIAN 1. The first is a very successful and combative sect which arose in the Panjab in the eighties, largely as a reaction from the striking success of a Christian mission in the Central Panjab and from the fierce onslaught of Dayananda and his Samāj. In the village of Qadian 1 in the Gurdaspur district of the Panjab, there was born, about 1838, in an ancient Muḥamma 1 I am indebted for most of my information about this sect to Dr. Griswold of Lahore. See his pamphlet, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, and his article in The Moslem World for October, 1912. dan family which had long been known for its attachment to the mysticism of Islam, viz., Sufiism, a boy called Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Very little is known about his youth or education; so that it is not possible to trace the growth of his mind, as may be done in the case of Dayananda. He began to teach about 1879, and died in 1908. 2. The whole movement rests on his personal claims. He declared himself to be the Christian Messiah, the Muḥammadan Mahdi, and the final avatara or "Incarnation " of the Hindus. In one of his latest utterances he said, My advent in this age is not meant for the reformation of the Mohammedans only, but Almighty God has willed to bring about through me a regeneration of three great nations, viz., Hindus, Mohammedans and Christians. As for the last two I am the promised Messiah, so for the first I have been sent as an Avatar.1 The last claim, to be Hindu avatāra, was made for the first time towards the end of his life, and has had no results. He spent his life in trying to prove himself the Mahdi of Islam as well as the Christian Messiah, in seeking to shew that in him Christianity and Islam unite and culminate. The conception is rather an unusual one for a Muslim; for, according to ordinary Muḥammadan belief, the Messiah and the Mahdi are distinct persons;2 and the common expectation is that the Maḥdi will be a man of blood, a character which it would be impossible to combine with Christ. The Mirza gets over this last difficulty by declaring that the traditions which speak of the Maḥdi as a man of blood are all forgeries, that the Guided One (i.e. the Maḥdi) is to be a man of peace. Thus, the controlling idea of his conception of himself as a prophet is the character and work of Christ. It 1 Review of Religions, November, 1904, p. 410. 2 Yet some groups assert that Jesus is the only Maḥdi that will ever come. |