Brojendra Nath Seal

Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal was an outstanding teacher and a philosopher of international renown. Since he was an emblem of an ideal teacher he was addressed as acarya. He had a brilliant academic career. He stood first with first class in philosophy from the University of Calcutta in 1883. After serving different colleges for a few years, he joined the Calcutta University and headed the department of Philosophy between 1912 and 1921. In 1921, Brojendra Nath became the Vice chancellor of Mysore University where he remained till 1930. Rabindranath Tagore invited him to be the President of the inaugural ceremony of the Visva-Bharati University in 1921. He knew ten different European and Indian languages. Brojendra Nath was also adorn with the Knighthood. The highest civilian honour, Rajaratna Prabin was conferred upon him by the Mysore dynasty. People admired him as a ‘Moving University’. Few of his remarkable publications are : Neo-Romantic Movement in Bengali Literature 1890-91, A Comparative Study of Christianity and Vaisnavism, Introduction to Hindu Chemistry, Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus, Rammohan : the Universal Man, The Quest Eternal.

He [Sri Ramakrishna] sought to experience each religion in its entirety in sadhana or spiritual discipline. …Here was an individual soul who would enrich himself all human experience in religious life and history. And precious elements were thus added to his Hindu heritage — the sense of human brotherhood and equality from the Muslim faith, and the need of salvation from sin from Christianity. In the same way, Vaisnava sankirtana and music were added to his religious exercises. These became elements (angas) of his sadhana.

What we want is not merely Universal Religion in its quintessence, as Rammohun sought it in his earlier days — not merely an eclectic religion by compounding the distinctive essences, theoretical as well as practical, of the different religions, as Keshub Chandra sought it, but experience as a whole as it has unfolded itself in the history of man, and this can be realized by us, Ramakrishna taught, by syncretic practice of Religion by being a Hindu with the Hindu, a Moslem with the Moslem, a Christian with the Christian, and a Universalist with the Universalist, and all this as a stepping stone to the Ultimate realization of God-in-Man and Man-in-God.