LIFE AFTER DEATH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 265, 1 August 1908, Page 13

LIFE AFTER DEATH.

■ .. —A MRS. BESANT IN WELLINGTON. , DO "WE LIVE AGAIN? Mrs. Anie Besant, the Well-known exponent of modern Theosophy, arivod in Wellington by tho Manawatu express last night. Sho related the most unusual ' occurrences just as if they were matters of overy-day experience. Mrs. Besant gives one tho impression of being ono of the most talented of women, combining great intellect with marked determination. The visitor was met and welcomed at tho . station by tho, members of the "Wellington branch of tho Society. Unrest in India. " - The unrest in India'was tho first subject touched upon in an interview she accorded a Dominion representative last evening. "Thoro are a' few extremists," she ex- • plained, "but they are really a very small ■ party. Tilak, who has been sentenced for writing seditious articles, tried to stir up a lot of Strife among the students, and bccauso I havo been 1 against it, I have been vigorously abused by him. Those concorned in tho disturbances are mostly hot-headed, lads of between 15 and 21 years ,of age. Thoro is widespread discontent, but if the Government woulcf meet- reasonable aspirations,, thero should be no trouble. The people are kept out of positions in their own country, and they are continually told about English liberty, and naturally, they think< that what is good for the Europeans is good for them. If it wero not in India, every Englishman, would sympathise, and if .the Government met them, however slightly, the trouble, would ond. Reincarnation.: On the subject of tho Atonemonfc, Mrs. Besant said that when a man reached a really spiritual state, in the highest sense of tho term, by-a long series of lives 1 on earth, lie became able to share the spiritual life with his fellow men, but-not to substitute himself for them. ; Christ is regarded as a Man in whom the Divine nature is manifested; to a supreme degree, l and who, therefore, is pe-: cufiarly • able to help His, lesser evolved brothers. He is not regarded as unique ; others being in a similar through a long series of reincarnations. Christ's command to men to be'.perfect could only boi realised' in 1 a number .of lives; perfection could not be . attained in one life. Tho theories of reincarnation' and karma (the: results of . action, not punishment) wero-held by all the great thinkers of the world.. The. belief was a very old one, and it had never, quite gone out of the Christian Church, although submerged " for a time. This view of life, she continued, was making "reat progress, and it . was now commonly believed. Professor Max Mailer, one of the greatest .philosophers',humanity lias produced, believed in it. Tho idea merely meant continuing ovisterice. The process of death and life afterwards had been observed by some of those in the- movement who, had' taken the' necessery steps, and clairvoyance had followed. It was only by living a pure life, individual effort, and having the necessary capacity that tho power oould be cultivated. It was only the few who could obtain this knowledge at first hand, and. the same thin" applied to scientists. People'- were dependent for their science on. the statements, of scientific investigators, arid the thcosophic students wore merely following in their steps, but'in some cases, they went further and ; dealt with finer degrees of matter. A number of wellknown scientists now held these, views. Tha Astral Plane. Asked to describo something she had actually observed on the . Astral Plane, as the. next, stage :of existence 1 is termed, Mrs. Besant referred to the case of a woman who was burned to death near London. The oc- ., cult .investigators came, across her in' the ■ Astral Plane surrounded by flames, purely • imaginary, and created by her thought or belief, but quite real to her. They had considerable difficulty in persuading her of its 'unreality. This, . said Mrs.' Besant, showed tte'' mistake''people made in teaching tho doctrines of hell-fire, etc. She stated that : she'met Charles ' Bradlaugh on • tho Astral ' "Plane; arid he. was doing "what- he "could to help people to do what ho thought right. People on. the other side could influence -.people"'here;''she continued,'by ' suggesting thoughts to the mind, without _ the .knowledge of the living person. Tha Human Aura. ; Mrs. Besant went on to deal with the human aura. She said .that it. was .simply . tho outer part of . the body, but of much finer composition than tho; physical, and tho clairvoyant eye was needed to see it. She lientioned that she noticed a distinctly unpleasant'.anra around ,Chicago; this would bo on account, of tho great slaughtering of 'animals that went on there; she did, not observe anything, peculiar, about tho aura of New Zealand. A Vegetarian. "Vegetarianism" was the .next subject dealt with. "I: 1 have, been a vegetarian _ for nineteen years," she declared, and it is a far healthier; system of living. I came from • . a family in : which gout was hereditary, and I had the first symptoms, but when I gavo up meat it disappeared. My chief reason, however, is on account of .the cruelty inflicted to the animals. Hindu Colleges. -. As to the work of educating the Hindus, Mrs.' Besant. referred : to the society's, three oollegos. In- one, - Buddhism wa.s taught, a.nd, ih tho' others, Hinduism was' tho form of religion taught.- 'Just now- an endeavour was ■ boing made to erect a Parsee College, the .religion 'being Zoroastrianism. The so-dety-recognised the'good in every religion, but on this account, the missionaries wero very t 'hostile. She said that Hindus converted to' Christianity often became terialists, because they went back on their own religion', and' they did not completely accept the new one. This was generally the effect of the missionary propaganda, and it was'this that the Theosophical Society was trying to undo. "Our work," the speaker \ mentioned, "is now being recognised by tho British ; Government, for in' a'"speech'- iih April or May last, Mr. Morley spoke very sympathetically on tho.subject.", Mrs. Besant lectures at the Town Hall to-night, on tho subject of " Man, the Master of his Destiny." -A special notice to members of the Theosophical Society, referring to tho business time-table to be observed , during Mrs'Besant's stay in Wellington, appears in our advertising columns to-day.