VII.] BENGALI LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 937 who feeds the beasts, and birds, fishes and men, how absurd it is to think of feeding him! The Deity who pervades the whole universe, with what pro- priety can you say to him ‘stay here’ (refers to the mantra 2% {5% &c.) “Tt is vain, if you do not accept the truth ; it is like taking food through the nose when you are endowed with a mouth.’’* When half a century before, Rama Prasada had composed songs in this strain, there had been. a sincerity in his utterances, and there was no pole- mic spirit in them ; he was actually engaged in all the multifarious ritual of Hindu worship, and passing through them as an orthodox Hindu, he only re- freshed his consciousness of the clay image as an emblem by referring to the monotheistic views which he really held and realised through all the rites to which he had to conform outwardly. But Raja Rama Mohana had given up all such Hindu practices and declared them idolatrous. His hymn to the Deity in the passages quoted above
- “মন একি ভ্রান্তি তোমার
আবাহন বিসঙ্জন কর তুমি কার ?
(
Bengali characters) যত,
যে চালায় অবিরত,
তারে দোলাইতে কত করুহু যতন ।
পশুপক্ষী FAST, যে আহার দেয় নরে,
চাহ সেই পরাতপর করাতে ভোজন ।
যে বিভু সর্বত্র থাকে
ইহ তিষ্ঠ বল তাকে ।”
“ সত্য সুচনা বিন! সকলি বৃথায়
ধেমন বদন থাকিতে অদন কর! নাসিকায় ।”
118
