Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-06-12
RELIGIONS Of
|. EAST AND West
ARE COMP AIRED

Il
| In the lecture room on the roof
/ garden of the Young Hotel the Rev,
! Anagarlka Dharmapala, delegate 10
1.-THE parliament of religion, gave his
first public lecture to Honolulans on
/ religion and philosophy Saturday
night. Being the only address he
! plans 10 deliver here, quite a number
took advantage of the opportunity to
hear him. Judged by the majority.
they were delighted with him, both in
what he said and how he said it; Yet
perhaps, not agreeing with his phil
| osophy.
| Though he is never eloquent, and
his English vocabulary is not copious
and the words he uses are hard
to understand because of his peculiar
accent, the phrases which do reach
| the ear are not easily forgotten. That
may be because of the tone of his
voice, or his facial expression at the
time, but whatever be the cause, 1t
seems to be true that one of his gifts
| is to have his words remembered.
On his face there is always IN ey-
preston of serene assurance and in
defeasible conviction that what he
says is true-'the underlying, funda-
mental truth" using his worLs.
The majority listened to hin with
deep interest and respect, ard though
they undoubtedly strongly disagreed
with him in several instances, they
heard him out and shook his hand
after the lecture. Those who careful
~ followed his lecture were sub
jected 10 few surprises, and heard
their religion-that is the religion OF
the western world-made light of and
called insufficient and "unsc.entific,'
unsuited to the needs of mar, and
destined, If it lives. to be remolded in
the crucible of eastern philosophy.
occident and Orient
They were told that the walking
of Christ on the water was a trifling
incident, more of a feat than a
miracle. and that in doing so he had
merely emulated one of the acts
the ancients. And Christ's ascension
into heaven was spoken of In the
same tone, saying that the descend
ants of Kuru had not only done that.
but much more.
Whether one agreed with him or
not did not seem Il to be- of consn-
quence to the speaker, and nothing
during the evening, not forgetting the
fainting of the women, disturbed the
equipoise of his manner. AS he
stood talking with the audience, the
breeze played with his loose orange
colored serape-like raiment, his i'm
pregnable serene smile flashed hack
and forth across his dark face as be-
forced home some crystallized pre-.
cept of the ancients.
The philosopher had mainly In mind
during his lecture to contrast the phil
osophy-religion of the western world
with the eastern. This he did, In one
way, by comparing the doctrines of
Christianity with those of his people
set down in the Book of the Golden
Precepts and the Bhagavad-Gita. The
doctor made his case out very COM
plete and gave no quarter to the
western religion
Your religion cannot spread over
the world, or long endure, as 1t is, be-
cause 1t is not sufficient. 1t is not
sufficient" he said, "and 1t is not scien-
tific. 1t will never be taken up by q
people as philosophic as we are. 1t is
not based on the wisdom which is
back of ours, and therefore we have
little respect for it. 1t is little use
for you to send your missionaries 20
us, telling us we will go to hell If we
don't come in and be saved by your
faith, and that our great-grandfathe
is in hell already. We are not suscept-
ible to such foolishness; and your re-
ligion does not stand our test
Believe Through Doubt.
In another part he spoke of "inher.
tied beliefs" and declared skepticism
to be the awakening of true reiigion
sensibility.
only by first doubling can one at
tain the reward Of sincere belief he
asserted. Three lanoos once APP
preached great guru, saying that
they were in doubt about the many
creeds, and the master, putting his
hands on the disciples, declaring that
their skeptieism had brought them
many steps nearer Niryana So it IS
with us in our religion: we learn to
believe by first doubling
He then gave description OF a re-
ligion which he believes to be the only
true one, and which he says is based
on scientific principles and the wisdom
of ages.
1t embraces many of the precepts
taken from the ancients by the Great
School, which is established III the
Himalayas, and to which Mrs. Eddy
was probably grateful for many of her
thical-metaphysica re-
ligious ideas While he spoke at
length on the subject, he really
summed up the whole of his concep
lions of religion in a phrase-"the sub
linafinn of the senses BY that he OK