Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-14
TOLSTOY SUBJECT
OF BABA BHARATI.
PAYS HIGH TRIBUTE TO THE
RUSSIAN SAGE
Says Author Of Resurrection Knows
the Truths of Hlndoo Vedas and
Has Found Them Out
Himself

Himself
Leo Tolstoy, the Russian sage. was
the subject of discourse by Baba Bha-
part he said:
Beside the fact that Count Leo Toll
sloy was great Russian writer, had
no specific information about his life.
his writings and doings while | was
III lhdla. The fact Is, | renounced the
world and my home sixteen years ago
and became a rowing ascetiC. and so
l did not know much of the men and
manners of the western world. having
studied little or nothing of it during
the twelve years of my asceticism.
Hence, ! knew nothing particularly Of
Iolstoy until l came to New York q
llttle over four years ago and opened
my class for teaching religion and phil
osophy. Now and then some of my
students would bring me copy of a
newspaper containing some article en-
bodying Tolstoy's views of life and on
current western topics. They would
bring them to me- finding my views
and opinions so very similar to his.
And when [ read them myself 1 used
to be struck by their wonderful SINH
larity. But what struck me more forci-
bly was the clearness of his expressions
and the wonderfully keen penetration
which he betrayed in discussing the
social and domestic problems of west
ern life. He seemed to me to be q very
much illuminated man, and when L
| heard from my friends a few details
about his life, the simple life that he
| lived though possessed of riches, was
confirmed in the further opinion about
him that he is a real sage who lives
| his faith.
Reads "The Resurrection"
"Once l came across a novel written
| by Tolstoy, The Resurrection and L
read 1T. 1t was a poor translation, but
it showed the genius Of the mind which
wrtoe it, A master mind peeped
| through every page of it. l wanted to
read more of his works. but had little
chance in this strenuous western life
| to think of procuring them and less
time to read them. The other day,
having read and appreciated my arti-
Gle on The White PERIL he wrote me
a kind letter expressive of his appre-
| citation, and sent me a number Of his
books as a generous gift. 1 have had
| as yet little time to read these books,
but have glanced through a few of
| them. These glances gave me, how
ever very clear glimpses into that mas
ter mind. One little pamphlet that in
terested me most was the autobiogra-
ply of his mental development, in
which found the chief facts about his
lie which l have been very anxious
to Know The book Is entitled How T
Came to Believe. 1t is a wonderful
oook-the history of Tolstoy's belief in
God. Dressed in the simplicity of
language, expressions and sentiments
which are the general characteristics
OF an illuminated mind, the book is a
narvei of sincerity, clear reasoning and
} most instructive revelation of human
life and its inner springs.
From this book 1 gathered the facts
that Toistoy, in his boyhood, was in
church; that at the age Of 16 he
gave up that creed, influenced by athe-
lstlc opinions of some of his school,
mates; that thence forward he drifted
INTO deeper stages of atheism and a
purely sensuous life; that not until
aIter "a rev years of his married life
was he disturbed out of that atheistic
complacency by the question that arose
within him as to what was the meaning
of life; that this question grew more
and more persistent for a solution day
by day, and, finding no answer either
from materialistic science or his learned
contemporaries and friends he often
thought of committing suicide; that
besides studying all schools of western
philosophy, he studied Mohammedan-
ism and Buddhism to find that solut-
ION; and that, being disappointed in
every direction, he thought that sui
eide was the only exit from a life which
seemed to him without a meaning and
which some of the best philosophers.
ancient and modern, call an evil.
Finds Solution
"At this stage Of his desperate pes
simism he actually stumbled upon the
most satisfactory solution-not from
the sciences or the PHILOSOPHERS or his
learned contemporaries or from any
religion, but by studying the lives of
the poor and laboring classes What
struck him most in their simple and
yet hard life was their faith in what
they knew. in what they had been
taught to believe In. He found that
these poor laboring people had found
a meaning in life which people of his
own class, Well-to-do and educated
like himself. did not know. He found
that this, their knowledge of life's
meaning, consisted and expressed it
self in their belief in God who treated
them as they deserved. He found out
further that faith was superior to rea-
son in so much as it made life brighter,
full of comparative contentment, and,
above all, furnished it with the essen
tials of more or less harmonious char
acter.
"This lead Tolstoy to go back to his
ancestral religion, Christianity, and ex-
anime its principles. Studying Christ
by what he taught and how he lived,
he found the full solution of his ques-
tion-lifes problem. Faith in God,
who Is love, was Christ's central teach
ing. the teaching that he lived--the
lesson to demonstrate which for all
mankind he suffered himself to be
crucified so that the whole world would
see that his love for God and man
never left him under the severest tor
lures.
And Tolstoy adopted Christ's teach
ing, faith in God. Not the faith that
the modern church inculcates, but faith
in the God that dwells in every human
being, the God whose voice directs the
steps and molds the life of every one
who hears him. And he only can hear
him and be guided by him who lives the
life that Christ lived-a life OF love,
faith and goodwill and unselhshness
Here is the man, the one man in
the west, known all over the world.
who has found out the truth of the
| oil bxFh hu