own feet, to trust themselves and to play the man; and his words were not without fruit. It is striking to note the harvest that appeared in Vivekananda from the seed sown by his master Rāmakrishņa. The latter dropped every moral restriction when thinking of God and his manifestations. Vivekananda frankly drew the natural inference: "sin is impossible; there is no such thing as human responsibility; man can do no wrong.” Rāmakrishna's indiscriminate acceptance and uncritical defence of everything Hindu expanded in his disciple into unbounded laudation of everything Indian; and, while Vivekananda himself bears witness that his master was genial and kindly, and condemned no one, the disciple, not unnaturally, was led by his unmixed praise of everything Hindu to the most violent and unjust condemnation of everything Western. The final outcome of Vivekananda's teaching will be discussed in another connection.1 7. Vivekananda's English disciple, Sister Nivedită, settled in a small Hindu house in the northern part of Calcutta, and lived there a life of simple service for several years, visiting the Hindu homes around about her, conducting a school for girls in her own house, and leading young Hindus into practical service. She was a woman of deep romantic feeling and of considerable literary power. She readily picked up her master's method of glorifying Hinduism and Hindu life, and far exceeded him. Her chief work, The Web of Indian Life, shows, on the one hand, most remarkable sympathy with both the ideals and the actualities of Hindu life, and proves to every capable reader what a priceless help towards interpretation sympathy is, but, on the other hand, contains such exaggerated language in praise of Hindu customs and institutions, that many orthodox Hindus have protested against the book as altogether untrustworthy and as thoroughly unhealthy read1 Below, pp. 357-8. ing for young Hindus themselves. Yet Sister Nivedita had her reward. Though her book is unwise, she loved the Hindu people and served them; and they gave her their love. At her death, in October, 1911, there was an extraordinary outburst of feeling in the Hindu community of Bengal. 8. The work of the Rāmakrishna Mission 1 has grown slowly since Vivekananda's death. There have been no such results as one would have expected to spring from the unbounded enthusiasm with which the Svāmi was welcomed, when he returned from America. He summoned his countrymen to practical service, to self-sacrificing work for India. Had the myriads who acclaimed him really responded to his call, the work would soon have attained very great dimensions; but the truth is that ancient Hinduism does not teach the duty of service at all, and that all that the average educated Hindu wants is to get somebody to assure him that Hinduism is as good as Christianity, and that he does not need to become a Christian. Having heard this, amidst the flare of trumpets with which Vivekananda returned from America, the average man gave a sigh of relief, and returned to his vegetating life as an ordinary Hindu. Vivekānanda's call to self-sacrificing service was just another of those troublesome appeals which they had heard over and over again from the missionaries and the Brahma leaders; and they paid no more attention to it. Only a few responded; and these continue to carry on the work. There are now five monasteries, Belur, near Calcutta, Benares, Allahabad, Mayavati, on the Himalayas, and Bangalore. These institutions are meant for the residence and training of sannyāsīs. The whole mission is governed from the Belur monastery. At Benares, Hardwar, Allahabad and Brindaban, the four chief centres of Hindu pilgrimage, permanent charitable institutions, called SevdSrams, Homes of Service, have grown up. Care for the poor 1 It is described in the Hindoo Patriot, October 14, 1912. and medical relief are their chief activities. Educational work is also attempted in a few places; and the mission is sensitive to need and ready to help, when distress arises through famine, plague or flood. There is a desire in the mission to build up a large educational activity, but this has not yet been found possible. Vivekananda wished to combine Western and Hindu education. The founder of the Ramakrishna Mission, Svāmī Vivekānanda, had his own ideal of national education. For, to him, as is evident from his Indian utterances, the national ideal was a thing already realized within. It is claimed by many, like the late Sister Nivedita, that he was the first representative of the synthetic culture which India must evolve, if she is to live.1 Vivekananda's influence still lives in America. There are societies that teach Hinduism in various ways in New York, Boston, Washington, Pittsburg and San Francisco. His influence seems to be far stronger in San Francisco than anywhere else. There is a picturesque Hindu Temple there, in which classes are held and addresses given, and the literature of the mission sold. They have a little monthly magazine, called the Voice of Freedom. Two Svāmīs are in charge. There are three lectures every Sunday; and classes for the study of the Gitā, the Upanishads and Yoga are held on week days. Vivekananda started several magazines, which are still published in India. The Brahmavādin, which is published in Madras, and the Prabuddha Bhārata, which is published at Mayavati in the Himalayas, are both in English, and contain a good deal of useful matter on Hindu philosophy. A Bengali monthly, named Udbodhan, is published in Calcutta. Books written by Vivekānanda during his lifetime, and a few others, published by other members of the mission since then, are sold in the various centres. 1 The Hindoo Patriot, October 14, 1912, p. 7. LITERATURE. LIFE: Rāmakrishna, His Life and Sayings, by F. Max Müller, London, Longmans, 1910, 55. (This book contains the best biography, and also a collection of his sayings.) Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, according to M. (i.e. Prof. M. N. Gupta), Part I, Madras, Ramakrishna Mission, 1912, Rs. 2-8. (A picture of Rāmakrishna's life with his disciples and his teaching: see above, p. 194.) My Master (a lecture), by Swami Vivekananda, Calcutta, Udbodhan Office, 1911, 8 as. VIVEKANANDA : Swami Vivekananda, His Life and Teachings, Madras, Natesan, 4 as. Speeches and Writings of Swami Vivekananda. Madras, Natesan, Rs. 2. NIVEDITA: Sister Nivedita, A Sketch of her Life and Her Services to India, Madras, Natesan, 4 as. The Web of Indian Life, by Sister Nivedita, London, Heinemann, 5s. An account of the Rāmakrishna Mission appeared in the Hindu Patriot of October, 1912. 3. THEOSOPHY Theosophy is a system of religion, science and practical life, first taught by Madame Blavatsky, and incorporated in a society founded by her and Colonel Olcott in New York in 1875, but carried much farther by Mrs. Besant and C. W. Leadbeater in recent years. It purports to be the final truth of the universe, taught in different lands and at different times by various founders of religion and teachers of philosophy, but revealed anew to Madame Blavatsky by certain Masters, or Mahātmas (i.e. Great Souls), said to live in Tibet and elsewhere. The system and the society are both of great interest because of the large literature which has sprung from the movement, and the very remarkable growth of the society in many parts of the world. The attempt to write an unvarnished account of Theosophy is beset by a number of tantalizing difficulties. No trustworthy history of the movement, no reliable biography of the foundress, is in existence. Theosophic accounts both of Madame Blavatsky's life and of the history of the society are extremely unreliable.1 Colonel Olcott and other leaders 1 See Appendix, p. 447 ff. of the movement themselves tell us with the utmost frankness that Madame Blavatsky was a liar, that she told lies at any time, both in fun and in earnest.1 This habit of hers issued in two extraordinary myths, the story of the pretended Mahātmas in Tibet and their communications to her,2 and the legend of her own virginity.3 Since 1879 and 1885, respectively, these two myths have very seriously contaminated Theosophic literature. Every statement has to be checked by reference to other documents and authorities. Fortunately, after her death, a number of letters, which she had written to two well-known Russian men of letters between 1874 and 1886, were published in Russia, and shortly afterwards were translated into English. These give us a great many peeps into her life. The first of these correspondents was M. A. N. Aksakoff, editor of the Leipzig Psychische Studien, who had long taken an interest in every kind of psychical question. Her letters to him run from the 28th of October, 1874, to the 6th of November, 1877, and there are a few from 1879 also. Her second Russian correspondent was M. V. S. Solovyoff, whose acquaintance she made in Paris in May, 1884. Her numerous letters to him all fall between that date and the spring of 1886. There is not the slightest question about the genuineness of these letters. They appeared originally in a series of articles, entitled A Modern Priestess of Isis, by M. Solovyoff in a Russian magazine. Madame Blavatsky's sister, Madame Jelihovsky, denied several of M. Solovyoff's own statements, but she did not challenge the authenticity of any of the documents which he had reproduced. The articles were published in book-form in Russia; and the book was then translated into English by Mr. Walter Leaf. Whoever wishes to understand Madame Blavatsky ought to read this brilliant and reliable work. We shall not use anything chal 1 Hints on Esoteric Theosophy, No. 1; ODL., I, 264-5. P |