Seal's Philosophy
Although he was initially inspired by the Hegelian philosophy of the unilinearlity of history, one that resonated well with the official Sadharan Brahmo Samaj doctrine, Seal eventually rejected the Hegelian thesis of the linear flow of historical progress from East to West as being too narrow and parochial. The logical culmination of the Hegelian idea envisioned all human races as being surrogates and appendages to the dominant Greco-Roman-Gothic type, which in its wake resonated perfectly well with the Orientalist doctrine. Seal saw this discourse as being dangerously Eurocentric that in effect precluded the possibility of an equitable cultural dialogue. As he saw it, the philosophy of the subaltern societies or those relegated to the periphery would be seen as being in a state of primitivism when compared to the philosophy of the dominant societies. As he saw it, the Orientalist bias espoused by Hegelianism:
| “ | ...seems to be a mischievous error due to an essentially wrong conception of the philosophy of history and the evolution of culture and an essentially perverse use of the historical-comparative method. | ” |
Seal drew close to what is today called postcolonialism. As contrary to colonial discourse, he argued that in any proper comparative-historical analysis, all societies should be seen as being in similar stages in the development of culture. All cultural traditions could be relatively seen as they evolved parallel patterns wherein
| “ | every code, language, myth or system, has its own history -- its own origin, growth and development -- a study of which is essential to a proper understanding of its function in society, its place, meaning and worth. | ” |
As distinct from the Hegelian world view, Seal espoused that the idea of Western civilization as being the focal point or the culmination of world civilization was fundamentally erroneous, that failed to take into account the myriad richness and complex mosaic of cultural continuum that manifested themselves in Hindu, Islamic, and Chinese civilizations. Human civilization, far from being a centripetal order where the West was to be considered as the center around which other (non Western) cultures revolved was for Seal,
| “ | a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere each culture was diversely embodied, reflected in specific modes and forms. in spite of the diverse ethnic developments all very real, all very special, there has been a general history of human culture and progress, the unfolding of a single ideal, plan, or pattern, a universal movement...the same general historic plan and in obedience to the same general law of progress | ” |
Thus, as he saw it (in Comparative Studies in Vaishnavism and Christianity), Vaishnavism and Christianity were two distinct religious traditions, each with its own uniquely rich tradition of historical exegesis that spanned two millennia and could in no way be seen as being phases in the development of (a Eurocentric) human civilization, as one leading to another in a pattern of cause and effect. Seal's philosophical insights were to be developed by his latter day successor from his college A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada of the ISKCON movement.
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