Page:Bengal Celebrities.djvu/111

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[ It, ] After his return to India his energies were not consumed in the advancement of his creed, but flowed to other useful channels. He made the Indian Mirror which had been started as a fortnightly, a daily paper. In addition to the daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror he started a pice newspaper with marvellous success. He also established a training school for ladies, and an Industrial school for young men. He gave a great impetus to the Temperance movement. But as years went on, Keshab became more and more of a mystic, and again there was a split in the camp. Keshab inherited* from his family strong Vaishnava instincts, which grew in him as years went on. He was all along a Vaishnava in his diet ; but now he became something of a Vaishnava in his creed. In 1876 he divided his disciples into 4 classes : — viz., Fol- lowers of yoga, bhaktijnan and sheba — Yoga being union with God by meditation ; Bhakti, union by intense love ;/nana, union by deep knowledge ; and Sheba, union by serving fellow-men. The majority of his followers became dissatisfied with his tenets ; and when he married bis daughter to the Maharaja of Kuch Behar, according to Semi-orthodox rites, they openly rebelled, and founded the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj in 1878. In 1 88 1 Keshab proclaimed his New Dispensation, combining elements of Hinduism and Christianity. But be could not live long enough to give a wide currency to his new faith. He passed away on the 8tb January, 1884. Keshab was a born orator ; and he was equally successful in using both the English and the Bengali tongues in bis speeches. He . could hold his audience spell-bound by his magnificent oratorical powers ; and even those who differed from his views flocked to listen to him. What made his speeches specially effective was the sincerity of his character and the depth of his piety ; and the moderate amount of success which he had achieved in converting people to his new creed was solely due to his eloquence and personal in- fluence.