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Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
The Concept of
Universal Religion
in Modern Hindu
Thought
Arvind Sharma
Birks Professor of Comparative Religion
McGill University
Montreal
££ First published in Great Britain 1998 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-333-72584-0
f& First published in the United States of America 1998 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0-312-21647-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sharma, Arvind.
The concept of universal religion in modern Hindu thought / Arvind
Sharma.
p. cm. — (Library of philosophy and religion)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-312-21647-5 (hardcover)
1. Hinduism—History—20th century. 2. Hinduism—Relations.
3. Religions (Proposed, universal, etc.) I. Tide. n. Series:
Library of philosophy and religion (St. Martin's Press)
BL1151.3.S53 1998
294.5'2—dc21 98-22843
CIP
© Arvind Sharma 1998
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
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with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by
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For
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Contents
1 Universal Religion: What Does it Mean? 1
2 Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of
Rammohuii Roy
(1772/4-1833) 10
3 Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of
Debendranath Tagore
(1817-1905) 25
4 Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of
Keshub Chunder Sen
(1838-84) 33
5 Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of
Ramakrsna Paramahamsa
(1836-86)' 42
6 Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of
Swami Vivekananda
(1863-1902) 54
7 Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of
Svami Dayananda Sarasvati
(1824-83) 73
8 Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of
Rabindranath Tagore
(1861-1941) 88
9 Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of
Mahatma Gandhi (1868-1948) 103
10 Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of
Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) 117
Vll
Vlll Contents
11 Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of
S. Radhakiishnan (1888-1975) 124
12 Universal Religion in Modern Hindu Thought:
Some Conclusions 135
Notes 137
Index 168
1
Universal Religion:
What Does it Mean?
The concept of universal religion has been much in vogue in recent
times.1 In fact it has been used so often and in such diverse contexts
that one begins to wonder whether it means the same thing all the
time, or different things at different times. What follows is an attempt
to determine its various usages and the intellectual roots of these
usages.
One can approach the question from several points of view. These
may be classified, for convenience, at the very outset, as (1) the philo
sophical approach; (2) the History of Religions approach; (3) the defini
tional approach; (4) the denominational approach; (5) the missiological
approach; and (6) the dialogical approach. The meaning of these
descriptions should become clear as the discussion progresses.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH
The philosophical approach to the question of universal religion nat
urally turns on the nature of the universal - a matter of considerable
philosophical debate.2 At least three positions can be distinguished
on the issue, particularly on the relation of the universal to the par
ticulars: (1) nominalism; (2) conceptualism; and (3) realism. According
to the nominalist position, the 'existence of a general word does not
imply the existence of a general thing named by it'. Thus the fact that
religion as a general word is used for particular religions does not
mean that a universal or general entity like religion exists. On this
view there would not only be no universal religion, but no 'religion',
apart from the particular religions. Conceptualism holds that we do
have concepts or general ideas which are both abstract as well as
abstracted; abstracted, that is, as the common element from the par
ticulars of a given class. On this view one could legitimately, if not
concretely, talk about both religion as a general word and universal
religion as that general property which each individual religion
1
A. Sharma, The Concept of Universal Religion in Modern Hindu Thought
© Arvind Sharma 1998
