The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-09-29


 by the Hindu priests into the A homes of American women Is dis cassed in an interesting article entitled, "The Heather Invasion," by Mabel Pot ter Daggett, in the October Hampton Columbian Magazine.
 The writer declares that American women are losing their fortunes and their reason in seeking the eternal youth prom ised by the swarthy priests of the far east.
 While the churches of America are spending s2O,OOo,OOO annually" says the writer, 'in the case of foreign missions, the pagans have executed an amazing flank movement; they have sent their. em- issaries to us. Today the tinkling tenn pie bells ring out with derisive. jarring nctc in a Christian land
 Seattle has it's Buddist temple; San Francisco has it's Hindu temple; Los An gcles has it's Krishna temple.
 ''The Vedanta society of New York has laid at West Cornwall, Conn, the corner stone of a greater temple than these. It is marked, as are stones and trees set arart for worship in India, with red paint, the sacred vermilion. And graved deep in New England granite is set the most holy word of the Vedantists-'Om
 Chicago. Ill, and Lowell, Mass, have their Zorastrian temples to the sun, an other of which is to be erected at Mon- treal. At Chicago also the Bahais, a modern Mohammedan cult, are building their great Mashrak- -el-Azkar to repre- sent their sect in the west.
 "The yoga class is becoming as popular as the Browning class or the Shakespeare class. It is the direct means by which Swami reaches the public. Through its aid, the eastern teaching is gathering a wider clientele than it formerly mum bered among the society set that first made 1t fashionable Placing the Hindu scriptures, the Bhagavadota, or the Per sian scriptures, the Zend Avesta, above their Bibles are many women who were formerly predestined Baptists and Pres byterians, Methodists saved by grace, es. | tablished Episcopalians, Catholics who | said their rosaries, and daughters of Alb. | raham from an unbroken line of tht Jewish faith.
 1 'It is the promise of eternal youth tha attracts woman to yoga, the promise which is found entertwined with most O. the pagan religions. This yoga philosophy opens the door to subtle mysteries. Tn, | Yogi, as the student who masters i 1 Is termed, is promised the dominance O natural law. Incidentally there is offered also health and long life and the powe t, stay the ravages of time. Is it no enough to tempt the feminine mind iron paradise itself?
 | "Small wonder that a Swanli's follow l ing, while it includes notably here ant there college professors and men O | learning come to investigate a scienc brought from the roof of the world re cruits it's largest numbers among women | But yoga is a dangerous knowledge t. lure any but the best balancer brain In the pursuit of it, too often the lis tening dovotee is offering her sacrifice even at the altar of her soul.
 ''The imported religions of the orIen that SOW the subtle seeds of destruction are offered to the uninitiate as beautiful rhilosophies. On the surface they ar that. But they are inevitably sprun from the soil of organism and are tine tured with its practices.
 "It is not that the Swamis bring wit them the hideous images worshiper a every roadside shrine in India. Here an there. it is true, a little brown so Buddha or a green jade Krishna ha areared in an American home; but 1t 1 undoubtedly used merely, so It's owne will tell you, as an aid to concentration in the worship of the ideal that it repre- sents.
 "A greater menace than that of imag worship turks in the teachings of tn Hindu mystics. The casual observer wi not discover it. Only those who reac the inner circles become acquainted wit the mysteries revealed to the adopts. An the descent from Christianity to heather ism is by such easy stages that the movie } scarcely realizes she is led.
 "How many are followers of the ne gods it is difficult to estimate with exac ness. It is known, however. that the numbers are in the thousands Tn yedanta society established in Americ , by the Swami Vivekenanda of popula memory. has its headquarters at l35 Wes | EHhf4etIs4sstrUUtr- 9e0>es Npx.lr;; x3aexn.slu