Page:The Autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore.djvu/61

 DEVENDRANATH TAGORE 13

Achârya of the Samaj, and conferred on him the title of Brahmananda. From that time my father was known as the Pradhân Achârya (chief minister) of the Samaj. But this harmony was not to last. The temperaments of the two men differed too widely to allow of a permanent co-operation. My father, though an uncompromising enemy of idolatrous worship, was essentially conservative in his instincts. While endeavouring to revive the lofty Theism of the Upanishads, he was not prepared for measures calculated, as it seemed, to subvert the social fabric of modern Hinduism. He cherished an ideal differing greatly from that of the bulk of the educated young men of his day. To him ancient India was the cradle of all that was pure in morals and religion. He was a man more deeply imbued than any one in modern times with the genuine spirit of the ancient Rishis. It is singular that the one field of religious inspiration which was foreign to him was the Hebrew Scriptures. He was never known to quote the Bible, nor do we find any allusion to Christ or His teachings in his sermons. For him the Indian Scriptures sufficed. His religion was Indian in origin and expression, it was Indian in ideas and in spirit. The late Rev. Pratap Chandra Mozumdar wrote in a recent article: "To the most straitlaced evangelical the Protestant Bible"