Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/192

168 Samhita be a new fetish' he wrote. 'It is no infallible Gospel. It is only the national law of the Aryans of the new Faith in its application to social life. It contains the essence of God's moral law adapted to the peculiar needs and character of reformed Hinduism and based upon their national instinct and traditions. We should not therefore bow to its letter but accept its spirit and its essence for our guidance.'

Adjoining his house in Upper Circular Road he built the new Sanctuary, the Nava Devalaya, and the consecration ceremony on January the 1st 1884 to which he was carried from his sickbed, was his final effort. He died seven days later in the midst of his sorrowing family and friends, sustained during the great physical agony of his last days by their love and veneration. The funeral procession that followed his body to the grave was one of the most imposing that Calcutta had ever seen, and it was especially remarkable for the presence of all classes and all creeds, Europeans, Hindus and Muhammadans mingling with his followers of the new faith. Condolences poured in from all quarters, from Her Majesty the Queen-Empress and a host of English friends down to the humblest who had known and appreciated the great man's worth. However much men might differ from him on many points, there were few who did not recognise his earnestness and sincerity.