VEDANTA LECTURE

Evening Star, Issue 14519, 20 March 1911, Page 7

VEDANTA LECTURE

A very large and interested audience heard Sister Avabamia, representative of Vedanta, now on her farowell visit to New Zealand, on her way to India, lecture last night at the Victoria Hall on 'Vedanta and Its Teaching.' The lecturer spoke at some length upon its origin and relation to other teachings. She said that Vedanta, like the Vedas of India, was taught thousands of years before a book was writen on the subject. It is the mother of religions, and » was taught many yoars before Christ was born. " You find \ edanta in the Bible, in the Koran, in Spiritualism, in Theosophy, and the various cults and teachings. Its ideas and precepts have crept into every literature. Professor Max Muller, one of tho greatest of philosophers, savs Vedanta is tho most sublime of philosophies and the most comforting of religions." Vedanta cannot be learned from books, but through daily application of its ideas and principles. There is not another teaching so liberal or tolerant. It insists upon the Golden Rule. It does not draw a line between man and .man; when a person does so he is a poor, struggling, fettered soul. Books open the door to solving problems, but to realise the beauty of Vedanta and its teaching you j must put it into daily practice. • In j India they do not ask you what books] you have read, as tho Hindoos know it | cannot be realised through books alone, I but they judge you by your daily life. Swami Vivekananda told his students not to go out and tell the world that they were Vedantins because they had studied with him, but to live Vedanta.

Tho word Vedanta (Veda and Anta) means tho goal of highest wisdom. It is tho basic principle of all religions and philosophies. Its characteristic features are universality, practicality, impersonality, and rationality. No religion lias shown the path by which man may attain to God-consciousness in so clear, rational, and practical a way as Vodanta. It antagonises with none, but harmonises with all. It is in strict accord with the conclusions of science, preaches the doctrine of evolution, aci cepts the teaching of all tho great spiritual teachors of tho world, and leaves room for those who are yet to conic for | the good of tho uplifting of humanity. I Narrowness, bigotry, and intolerance ! vanish for over when Vedanta is prac- | tised. Vedanta has room for almost all religions—nay, it embraces thorn I all." A hearty welcome and hand-shaki-I was oxtended the Sister, after the lecI ture, by hor many friends.