Conversion: An Intellectual Transformation (Part II

traditional age into the age of science. The truth is that the human mind is a treasure-house of unlimited power. In normal situations the human brain remains in a dormant state. It is only external shocks which awaken it and the greater they are the greater the intellectual revolution within man. This shock treatment produces in man what psychologists call brain storming. This brings about a fresh intellectual outlook, a transformation which elevates a normal man to the level of a superman, who is then able to perform great feats. Religious conversion is only a small part of this whole process. When the dialogue-conversion process is set in motion, it cannot have limits set to it. It is not possible to allow one kind of conversion and to prohibit another. Being a stormy process, it is boundless. It must be appreciated that there are two major kinds of religious conversion—inner faith conversion and inter faith conversion. Now let us take an example of inter faith conversion. There was a multi-lingual Bengali Doctor of Philosophy, Nishi Kant Chattopadhyaye, who, having first studied philosophy, then all major religions, faced intellectual confrontation with different faiths. Finally he made an intellectual discovery in consequence of which he left his ancestral religion, Hinduism, in favour of Islam. His Muslim name was Azizuddin. He delivered a lecture, published later under the title, Why I Have Embraced Islam, which describes in detail the story of his intellectual development. This lecture has been reproduced in one of the chapters of this book. There have also been instances of men and women who were born in Muslim families, who later cast off their family religion in order to turn into secularists, or even atheists in some