The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 23, 1903, Page 14

14 THE SUNDAY CALL. 7] 4, & 4 G o < v of the materialistic Ramk tta was the Swami bo Sri who is the f 18 vears he met that Vedantists believe in one absolute God; they believe in heaven and hell only in their relative sense, and not as ever- lasting: they think men are not born sin- but through spiritual culture may make themselves as holy and happy as God himself; they belleve in reincarnation and transmigration; they held that all re- ligions are but paths leading to one place, and they frown on such psychic powers mesmerism as hindrances to the »wth of the individual soul. Tt i the opinion of Swami Trigunatita hristianity has come down fromn the teachings of the Vedas. In fact, accord- ing to the bellef of the Vedantist all sects religfo in the world to.day are nches of the old religion of the these things has the brown- brigt-eyed Swami come to speak. ellow gown and turbdn of his with the soft speéch and the ing of the Hindu, he s ad- the old thoughts of the nd the newer thoughts and newe . . ears wisdom of the mod ntiem. BY SWAMI TRIGUNATITA. das is the oldest religion in enersy. Wher ves subsidé’ théy £ take ag ] forms with the s of t mentio ed e old ¢ Girl Wife Capti - reunions of old d self-sacrifice o ing the most trying days of the great rebellion—stories the ‘ which have never emanated from eny.awar before or since. Here are some i P e Wiggens, when a child of 10 of age, went with her family from to Kansas, her father dying on the war began her three brothers with the Kansas volunteers, one ervice, and after caring for him tal where he died the devoted ook him home for burial. only 16 she married J. 8. Kelly of Kansas Volunteers, who served ffs of General Blunt and Gen- Lane His health being impaired in the serviee, in May, 1864, they started across the plains in search of heaith, but Ju their train was captured oy the x Indians and all the women and chil. including a lttle niece of Mrs. Kel- murdered, She was taken pris- held for ten months, enduring st terrible suffering. Her husband, who escaped, hearing of her capture, was indefatigable in his efforts to rescue her, > United States troops made every in her behalf. Orders from Presi- @ent Lincoln to effect her rescue at any price reached the command at Fort Sully et the same time that a note from Mrs. Xelly, sent by 2 friendly Indian, informed them that it was the intention of the In- dians to convey her to the fort, and when 1t opened to receive her rush in and over. power the garrison. Owing to her timely warning, however, the Indians were al- Jowed to enter the izclosure to find them- ®elves prisoners. Mre. Kelly was in' a pitiable condition, sieter Wher literature be know that the 4 ve to the JSioux| na form aud er mekes any digti s thing and that thin fferent things in in different dekrées of their course of evolution,. W that this man | 12l hell; ofith g0 to. eter We onix rid are, but ot gay to ete ik and will sr Mfe is but & deatl the previous moment ere we now the sam: thing, but If yoy an e vefy frop % sely, you find quite another bot* 1y, physically, sp!“tusily und ey other way. And, if you g6 on stu ing that way, after seven years—in ever; of your lif: vou will find . yea ro nge. Even iantists admi A thorough change in the course of seven years, even in m So nothing can grow of a sudden, but by a gradual process. It you take n thing, re as a personal som the garment of nature, th the fobe of na time § dress, ure. Nature put on her body the garment of time. Then her body is space, spread over all thi universe. All this universe is the body of pature and on that body is the garment of time. Now the life of nature is.cays- ation. The law of causation is the life and soul of nature. It is by these ‘thre: factors, time, space and the law of caus ation, that the universe is held in order. If we get rid of this idea of time, ti idea of space, this idea of the law of causation, then we are freed altogethe 1f we te all our life and soul to the ) we may not be succe eternal before us. sts know that everything the cr of their evolution. Con equent ing to Vedantism, thers particular religion as an vation. All religlons ter to thie same pl % from a historical religions that _are phets have emanated > grand and essentia] reli- s. If God be in ever cannot be born a sin- very near God spiritual cu man m man 1s by " realize pr that he ng but a part of t versal in- And when the individual soui from the body it mixes with versal intelligence. e severgl theories by which we stand that aft death we c¢on- nection with this world and our physical organism, ends all connection ends. Therefore, ac- cording to the agnostics, therdis no such ure life. We should eat, eory we get the next high- the theory of the skeptics, or the atheists. They say that er theo rathe of certaip things in a peculiar way, is ° produced our consclousness, and we get ur life. That !s material production; and when our body dies there remains noth- felrimimiieiieieieii it 0 { | almost {roz balf-clad, and it was uomai time before the surgeon and kind-hearted | ladies at Fort Sully nursed her bick to| bealth. Her husband made her a visit| bere and the reunion was a joyful one. | As soon as her health permitted she en-| listed as a nurse, serving until thé close | of the war, when her husband took Wer| back to Kansas, where he died in 1867, For | her timely information in twice saving the United States troops and property from Yhe Indians Congress by special act gave Mrs. Kelly $5000, and later President Grant appointed her a clerk in the Interior De- partment, which she resigned in 1880 to marry Captain Fitzhugh Gordon, who died in 1893. In 1848 Mr. and Mrs. Farmer removed from Ohio to Nauvoo, IIL., where they be- came involved in trouble with thé Mor- mons and Mrs, Farmer molded bullets with which her husband defended their home. They then went to New Iberia, La., Alice Carcy, their only child, being reared on the beautiful Bayou Teche, the home of Evangeline. Mr. Farmer refusing to vote for seces- sion, was obliged in the spring-of 1862 to seek safety in New Orleans, after which his family were watched and not allowed to send or receive letters. Mrs. Farmer was charged with being a spy and Dick Taylor and his men threatened to hang her. One dark night this helpless woman with her young daughter left their beautiful home and were taken aboard @ steamer some miles down the river and locked in = state- room by the friendly captain, who landed them at Brashear Clty. Then fol- lowed innumerable perils and hardships. Three daye and nights were spent in a =kiff on the river, while the Confederates ‘were scouring the country for them, so that they dared not go ashore for food. Tmhy arrived at New Orleans June 2, In September Mrs. Farmer and her daughter, afterward Alice Risley, took up the work of nursing the sick and wounded in their own home and in the hospitals, using their own means until exhausted, when they were forced to draw rations for themselves. 9 » > from a certain accumulation ! N\ g ing—mnothing because it was the produos tion of the body. When the tree dies I8 dles in every way, nothing remaining; and 50 when the body dies there is no life afterward. The next higher theory is the theory of thought, transmitting thought. When we think, suppose we think of something very intensely that may happen, and afterward we find that does happeny and we come to understand that it is nof . .mind becomds so very fine, we ean know some finer things that cannot be ex- plained by material sclence. Then, when we can understand in this life regarding the futurs, we can understand something of the next life. In that intense love we sometimes say that we will meet again, oven after death You know that is a saying that comes out of intense love. . There can be no other higher reason than ‘llef, than faith. That is the basis of | " wgner scilence, SWAMI TRIGUNATITA. He Is Come to Teach the Mystic Lore of the Orient. Photo by Stantord Studlo. - : fled with the answer; and the next theory all = sclence. - We comes 28 & healing cure. If we love some granted; and those postulates and axioms person very intengely we can send our thought; we can read thought even from #mply the Body that lives, not stmply the effect of accymulation or combination of material things that lives, but something else—it is thought, mind, higher some- thing, that knows something of the fu- ture, that can understand, that can think. But that theory, also, cannot be satid- higher mathematics. al- though we took in the beginning some- thing for granted, yet afterward we find that by that granting, by that simple faith, we have not lost. So with faith of religious, of spiritual things. In the theory of Vedanta there is no death; and when we say that there 1= no death we shodld say, if we are logicians, that there is no life. Life and death are relative. Where there is death, there is understood life. So Vedantists say there is no death nor life. But they say you have eternal life—not life as relative to death; not life under limitations, under conditions, but absolute life, eternal life, and that lifs gannot have death. Noth- ing can burn Yhat life, nothing can bury that life, nothing can finish, put.an end to, that life. That life 1s eternal and infinite. ‘We say, for instance, that a person con- sists of body, senses and the mind. We do not speak of the ego and the soul— they are high terms. We say, practically and materially, body and mind and senses. Now, death comes over the body. Death 1s material. Mind and senses be- ing abstract something, spiritual some- thing—in its literal sense being just like a spirit—cannot end, as body ends, in death; cannot have death—mind and senses. They are abstract something. Abstract things cannot dle; only material things dle. And mind end senses being abstract, they transmigrate from the body to another. All the senses and the mind. Mind is the ruler of the senses; and when they de- part, they go with some treasure. That means some impression that we have ob- tained in this life. Some philosophers will explain that mind and senses are nothing but a collection of those impressions sim- ply; and those impressions transmigrats and they go into another new body that will act out its temperament, its impres- sions. But all theories ars simply general or individual, in some respects. To me some laws may be applicable; to others, some other laws. So, if I do some great things, some very high things, I may not come back to earth as a human person, but go to a higher plane, higher world, such as heaven; or some planet, higher planet than earth; or I may come to be born again as & man; or I may go to a lower animal kingdom. If we give rise to some satvic qualities in ourselves—satvic qualities, meaning righteous, virtuous things—and if in that period we die, we will go to a higher plane. And if we die while {n our rahas quality—rahas meaning activity, active quality—then we may come back again as men; and if we die in the state of tamas, or when the dark qualities, the sinful things predominate, then we go to lower animals. There are many, several kinds of death; and from these kinds of death we may get glimpees to what kingdom, to what reglon, the departed soul may go. If some persons dle in bed, they have a good chance; but dying at night, they have not 80 good a chance. And then somse persons who dle during the northern solstice— then they go to the higher plane; and dur- ing the southern, to the lower, stc. It has some reference to the time, also. Owing to some Karma we may die in the night, or unfavorable time; but owing to other Karma, which is higher, I may supersede that law. The idea of the absolute God in Ve- dantism is expressed In three little words —Sat, Chit and Ananda. BSat means abso- lute existence; Chit means absolute intel- ligence, and Ananda means absolute bliss. So the absoluts God means the absolute existence of one blissful Intelligence. Everything on the face of the earth is es- sentially nothing but an absolute exist- ence. Apparently we see a variety of things; essentially there is no variety, but only unity in everything. Vedantism teaches that as a matter of fact we are divine, and not mortal. Mat- ter may be mortal in a limited sense, but spirit can never be zo. It is always unlim- ited—that is to say, infinite—and absolute. If we try to know the real essence and the meaning of our existence by our spir- ftual culture we can understand that we are all eternal and one. Our bodies may perish, but our souls can never perish. ‘When soch forms as body and the other external things of this world cease to exist as such, the eternal essence meets us with the all-pervading and ever-exist- - [T VEDAR iy SWAMI TREGUNATITA where there are more things than one, then there is misery. The highest aim of man and of every being !s happiness. And the real-happiness lies in the real — of one universal th In this way Ve- dantism teaches that every man, from any position, can rise to godhead As a last word: Vedanta is a system that embraces, that in thought, of sect, of religion phy, of anything and ever kinds, whether they be mat spiritual. of philoso- falistic or So the Vedantists say only, be simply a lttle thoughtful. Think over things, think over affairs; think over things that you see, that you de and that will lead you to your goal, te Yyour salvation, by way of natural pro- c Be sincere and thoughtful. De not ed, do not be irrational. We can- see our eternal life before us; we cannot ses that we are gods, that we are divine powers; but we should not deny that, we should not neglect that When some philosophers and sages say so, we may take that theory for granted, and we may continue some practice as they pre- scribe. And if we go through that prac- tice, that training, then we may arrive at some stage, some state of the mind, mhen we can know everything and can at lase realize fully that we are divinities. ature les two phases of charmotes, one evolved nature and the other in. voived. In a more sclentific way, you will understand If I call it evolution and tne volution; evolution, meaning expression, and involution meaning destruction. Na- ture by the one phase of character ax- presses everything on the face of the earth or in this universe. Owing to the existence of the laws of nature we have come up from the lowest animal to the human nature. We have grown up by means of the law of nature, which is called the law of evolution. First, the acientists will tell you, the life germ is in the form of & mineral, then a vegetable, then animal, then afterward, in the form of a man. It finds its highest expresaion in man. The life germ becomes very wall expressed In man. You do not find In & beast the kind affection, the human qual- itles. Why don’t you find them In a beast? Because the germ is not yet ex- pressed very well. It will afterward be very well expressed when that life germy will come to be in the form of a man. In every man, even, It Is not very well ex- pressed. A man can be a beast in human form. You will not find the human qual- ification very well expressed in that beast- ly man. When will it be expressed? When that man becomes a little more moral. You will find the very life germ which you previously found In a mineral, in a vegetable, In a beast, mors fully ex- pressed in an ethical, moral life germ. In that moral man, even, you will not find it fully expressed yet. When that moral man will become spiritual, you will find & little more expressed the very life germ which you have previously found in the lowest form of beast. Now, in the spir- ftual man, even, it is not found in its perfection. When that spiritual man rises high above everything, every relative idea; when that spiritual man becomes s god; when humanity is transformed into divinity itself, then you will find that germ in perfection. his is the law of nature, the law of evolution. This is one phase of character in nature. There is another phase of character te be observed In nature. That is involu- tion, going backward; as a seed grows te a tree and agaln that tree becomes in- volved in the sesd that is produced by that same tree. That seed Is called the involution .of the future tree, & future tree being involved In that seed. Now, when a man becomes divine, becomes God, that same principle will again come after a good many cycles, to be formed into a germ, from which again all the phases of evolution will come. It is by nature that we have become invelved, and it !s by the samie nature that we will g0 back to the cause. Now, going baclk to the cause is not a had thing. De net think that is retrogression. That means going to Brahman, going to, and becom- ing mixed up with the absoluts. From the absolute we have come and to the abso- lute we will go. When we come from the absolute we say we are evolved by the laws of nature; and when we say we go back to the absoluts the higher sclentists may say we are going to be inveolved be del not ing substance. Vedantism says that again into the same primary cause. “Mother” Bickerdyke's Cow Review Mrs. Mary A. Bickerdyke, a widow with two little sons, was living in Galesburg, I, when she went to the front, in No- vember, 1861. After caring for the wound- ed at Belmont she was appointed matron of the United States hospital at Cairo. She was the authorized agent of the Chi- cago Sanitary Commission, with author- ity to draw all needed supplies, while Generals Grant and Sherman gave her passes everywhere, ordering all military roads and boats to give her free trans- portation. Mrs. Bickerdyke was a practicing physi- clan when she entered the service, and this was of great advantage to her as a nurse. Always resourceful and econom- ical, she baked fresh bread for the hos- pital, and it was sald, “Mother Bicker- dyke could bake bread on horseback,” as she often carried the set sponge in this way, baking it as soon as her portable oven could be set up when camp was reached. At Memphis the milk and eggs were so bad that “Mother” Bickerdyke obtained a turlough, hastened to Chicago, where she made her wants known, and soon had 100 cows and 1000 hens, donated by the pa- triotic people of Illinols, whose Governor had them shipped to Memphis. General Hurlburt, commanding the de- partment, gave her an island opposite the city, where contrabands took charge of her stock. Some of these cows traveled long distances with the army and saved many a soldier’s life. Just at the close of the war some of her boys invited her to & review. Donning her sunbonnet, she was seated on an ele- vated seat and was amazed to see her old cows flle pest, each with coats curried until they shone, horns polished and hoofs blackened and bright as patent leather. No general ever enjoyed a review of his troops more than did ‘“Mother” Bicker- dyke her “cows’ review.” She remained in the service un.tfl l:uc:s. 1866, “One day President Lincoln visited the it Georgetown with two men car- battle with the Third Vermont Infantry in 1861. “When noticing a small red flag at the foot of some of the sheds he sald: “‘May I ask, nurse, what those flags mean? ey mean low diet, sir. *“ “What is low dist? “ ‘Wine, whey, milk and water, gruel-always something light,’ swered. “Walking with President Lincelm through the ward to the door, he sald: “‘Well, nurse, we often hear the re- mark that these are days that try mem's souls—I think they try women's souls, too. I shall remember you and all the noble women of the North when this land rom I an DR. CHARLES FLESH FOOD For the Form and Complexion. Has been success- fuily used by leade Ing sctresses, singe ers and women of fashion for mere than 25 years. Wherever appited 13 is instantly absorbed through the pores of the skin, and its wonderful putrition feeds the wasting tiseues. As it by application oftea showing & remarie = le_improvement. DR. CHARLES FLESH FOOD is positively the only preparation und out hollows in the neck and that will ro ‘cheeks, o and Dands ro= n:vmx:m THE BUST reasts shrunken from nursing it has 2;‘(:0“ indorsement of physicians. Two the are often sufficient to make the bust ."~ and beautiful, send a"one dollar we will send two () bomes plain_wrapper. —A_sample box and cur besk, ted, witt ‘be sent Tres o sny By Sece e oS el A DR, CHARLES CO, 19 Park Plass, New York, ¥