Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/981

 VII.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 935 The pure faith promulgated by Chaitanya was now giving its last flicker. In the lower order of the Vaishnava community men and women mixed promis- cuously and, interpreting the emblematical religion in the light of gross sensualism, preached unres- trained licentiousness ; and the cries of those who were forcibly made to play suttzes,— though subdued and unheard owing to the noisy music deliberately kept to drown them, rose to heaven where the Lord heard them though men would not. The mission- aries drew attention to these matters. Such were some of the superstitions and crimes that per- vaded the whole of our society at the moment we are considering. Young men of the new generation, who had not fathomed the depths of religious life that still pervaded the quiet villages of Bengal inspite of their superstitions, ran to the extreme, and in the general sweep of their reformatory procedures turned their backs upon good and evil alike, indiscri- minately condemning all in their own society. They did not wish to reform but aimed at totally upsetting society, which, though in its lower grades showed Brahminical craft and oppression, had in its great heights—on its topmost pinnacles, an unequalled glory which is conspicuous in the doctrines of love and renunciation inculcated by the Vedanta. Young men saw wrongs onall sides and did not care to hear of the speculative theology of the Hindus or to keep the patience to scale its great height themselves. They felt that Christianity was better than their own religion owing to the moral principles which were a living force amongst its votaries. ‘“ Young Bengal’’ showed a_ decided leaning towards the new creed. Leanings towards Christia- nity.