Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-08-03
Vedantism Making Powerful
Strides, Says Writer
of Facts

Strange Gods of American Wom
en-" Is the Way in which the Literary
Digest sums up review Of an article
b. one American woman, Mrs. Gross
Alexander, in which some remarkable
facts concerning the subject are Civ
ell. The paper says:
The churches of America are spend
Ing annually more thai $50, 000, 900 for
foreign missions; but from the very
fields where all this money is garner
de, the Eastern religions, agains.
which these efforts are made, are
gathering their harvest also. The
East is sending its emissaries to US,
.Yand today the tlnkIfng temp!e-bells
Of the heatherdom ring out with de-
risive Earring sound, not only in the
Far East, but in many sections OF
Christian America" 1t is the women
who are mainly infected, points out
Mrs. Gross Alexander In The Method
ist Quarterly Review Nashville.
july. "'Yoga' classes, which were
first made fashionable by the society
set, have become In many cities a.
popular as Browning and Shakes
peare classes Placing the Hindu
Scripture above the Bible, many won
en- today are studying these teachings
who were formerly Baptists, Method
lists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Ca.
tholics, and Jewesses." The present
writer quotes from another woman,
Mabel Potter Daggett, who has inves-
tigated certain centers of Eastern
thought, particularly that one located
at Green Acre, N. n, where are held
annual summer meetings.
Most Recruits Among Women.
Although the Swamis' following in
cludes some men OF learning and col
lege Professors who wish to investi
gate a science brought from the roof
OF the world, most of its recruits are
among women. A greater menace than
of image-worship turks in the teach
ings OF the Hindu Mystics. The
casual observer would not discover it.
Only those who reach the inner
circles become acquainted with the
mysteries revealed to the adopts. The
descent from Christianity to heather
ism is by such easy stages that the
novice scarcely realizes she is led. But
il is a dangerous study for Turing any
hut the est-baianced minds. In the
pursuit OF 1t the listening devotee is
Offering sacrifices many times at the
cost OF her mind and soul. Miss Farm
er was familiar figure for years. at
tending the Green Acre School for
which she gave her fortune. But livs
ing In the atmosphere OF that strange
and fmpepetrahle cult -. nphalaneed|
her mind. and she is now an inmate
CT the insane asylum IN Wayeriy.
Mass. Ir Chicago a few years ago.
Miss Reuss, a Jewess of culture and
refinement, was taken screaming. and
rruying from the Magdaznan Temple
OF The Sun. to be incarcerated as .
raving maniac in an Illinois asylum
At the death OF Mrs Ole Bull, of Cam
bridge, Mass. widow of the <world-re-
Eowned violinist, she bequeathed sew
eral hundred thousand dollars to the
Vedanist Society. But 1t was set
aside by the courts on the ground of
mental incapacity and undue infu-
ence. Mrs. May Wright Sewell, the
ciub-woman of national repute, is said
TO be a physical wreck through the
practices of Yoga and the study of
cccultism. Many more examples could
be cited Of wrecked minds lost
through the pursuit of this philoso-
ply"
vedantism The Core.
The core of Hinduism that is stud
led in this country, says Mr.. Robert
r.. Speer, as quoted by the author, lis
the Vedanta philosophy, the old pm
theiSm Of Irdia read full of new mean.
ing through contact wit. Western
thought and Christianity There is
always generous room in its panthe-
on, he adds, for any new god not
already listed. There have been
sc many interpretations and modifica-
tons to suit the peoples Of all sec
tons and countries that there is the
widest range of thought possible, and
nc diviny Objectionable to Western
sensibilities is forced on one One OF
the Hindu priests who came to Ameri,
CO was Bahia Bharati, formerly a hill
hermit from Tibet" After the first
five years of his stay in America he
made preparations to return for a.
time in India, and a farewell meeting
was presided over by a former min
lister. of the Gospel" At this meeting
Baba Bharati said: @. ..
1T has been my privilege these five
years past to preach to you your own
Christ, even as much as my god
Krishna. / came not here to thrust
my religion upon you, but to help you
to understand your own God and your
cwn religion. If have talked of
Krishna and Of the Vedas and Hindu
philosophy, il was only to illuminate
the teachings of your own Christ, to
present him before you in the lime
light Of, the Vedas, and the x-ray of
our scientific philosophers"
The Sun-W prshippers.
This article also deals with another
form of Eastern worship practiced in
many cities of the United States