Connecticut western news., 1907-07-11
OF
 VEDANTA SOCIETY
HINDU TELLS OF HIS RELIGION

UlVlne m Man Attaine0 ln ms LiIe Our Acts Bring Reward or Punish
 ment-Heaven and He'll but Mental
 Conditions
 Some weeks ago THE NEWS told the
 fact that a West Cornwall farm had
 been purchased by religious sect with
 beliefs decidedly different from those of
 other religious organizations. This sect
 style themselves the Vedanta Society
 The head of this organization is Swami
 Abhedananda, 8 Hindu.
 In a talk on his religion recently the
 Swami said that the religion of Vedanta does not depend upon any particular
 book but embraces all the scripsures of
 the world It is the most ancient system of philosophy in India.
 ''It is very difficult for me to give you an idea of the philosophy and religion which represent in this country. In fact, it is the philosophy which solves the problem of life and death. It is the oldest philosophy in the world and not a new philosophy as it is sometimes inn properly called. Jesus, the Christ, said in his teaching 'Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free In this teaching we find two words truth and 'free.' What is truth and what is freedom? No movement has ever been started to explain falsehood or untrnth. In fact the worship of God means the worship of eternal truth. Now in what way does the worship. of eternal truth bring freedom? Anything mortal cannot enjoy absolute freedom because it is not eternal and is subject to limita- tions. The soul which is distinct and separate from the body can attain to freedom from the bondage of limitations and imperfections and that freedom is the goal, freedom of soul, absolute free dom. That perfection means being and becoming divine and it comes from the knowledge of truth. Without the knowledge of truth that perfection can- not be reached.
 sTruth is one. All the various sects, denominations. and systems of philosoa- phy, and there are many, have tried to come nearer to the eternal truth. We must march towards the one God, the eternal truth, whether you may call him Allah, or Christ, or Brahman, or Bud aha, and that one truth must be wor- shipped in spirit and by the spirit. Any thing unreal or untrue cannot know the truth. It is the soul that can wor- ship the truth because the soul is eternal. The moment that we can understand that we are souls we become free from the bondage of the flesh and the bon dage of the body, and all passions and desires of the flesh and everything i'm moral vanishes, and we realize the state which cannot be described in words, but the best word can use to describe it is the state of God-consciousness. All acts of the body and mind will be acts of worship where we reach that state of God-consciousness Our salvation does not begin after we have passed to the grave but it begins in this life. The at tainment must be in this life when we are in the flesh and blood
 "Whatever we do in this life and whatever we think in this life will pro- duce results and these results will come back to us. If we live @ moral life we will be happy, but if we live wicked life we will be punished. God doesn't punish the guilty or reward the virtuous, but we punish ourselves and reward our selves by the law of action and re action. are not sent us by Satan nor are punishments sent by God, but they are the results of our own acts. The various religions of the world have taught there is heaven and there is hell, but these are only mental condi- tions. We can enjoy heavenly pleasure in this life and we can endure sufferings of the darkest hell in this life but these | are mental states.
 ''There are no such places as heaven and hell. They are very attractive to those who believe In those things, but | others wouldn't care for any such con- ,eption. We create our own heaven md we create our own hell according to our thoughts and deeds. When we ,ealize that our souls are really separate rom the body then we know ourselves. Then we understand the religion which explains the eternal soul and the infinite being and there are various methods by which this realization can come to us.
 .These methods are known as parts md in Sanskrit are called Vegas, which means method. There is the part through love and devotion. but we must lot think that love and devotion is the 'nly part. Unselfish work is distinct