GOSPEL OF HAPPINESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19417, 27 August 1926, Page 11

GOSPEL OF HAPPINESS.

NEW WORLD TEACHER. YOUNG HINDU IN AMERICA. EXPLANATION OF DOCTRINE. HITCH ABOUT HIS LANDING. By Te'enraph—Pres3 Association— Copyright. A. and N.Z.-Reuler. NEW YORK, Xufe. 25. The young Hindu, Jeddu Krishna Murti, whom Thcosophists acclaim as the new; "Messiah," arrived at New York today from England by the liner.Majestic. He was accompanied by Mrs. Annie Besant. They propose to tour the United States". The unusually handsome young Indian apparently found his reception an ordeal, but he endeavoured to answer the questions asked by interviewers. Ho siud: "I hope for radical changes in the religious life of America. At present it is materialistic and the happiness of the people is sought'in material ways, but is only to be found in spiritual ways." Krishna Murti resented the imputation that he regarded himself as the second "Messiah." Ho said: "I shall not weep over the city. That would be silly. I shall not preach repentanco or the remission of sins. Mine is a doctrine of universal love." The Hindu's white-haired sponsor, Mrs. Besant, said: "The time of waiting is over. The teacher has come." Mrs. Besant and her charge were delayed 111 landing for several hours. An unusually heavy fog made navigation in the harbour slow. Krishna Murti was kept on board the Majestic with other aliens for routine questioning by immigration officers. The New York Herald-Tribune says the enemies of Krishna Murti protested against him entering the country to-day. They alleged that, he had been guilty of "moral turpitude." Neither the specifiqc charges nor the names of those responsible for them have been revealed. The newspaper quotes the Immigration Commissioner, Mr. Day, us having said ho expected to secure further evidence. If there was more than presumptive proof of Krishna Murti's guilt, ho would be held for inquiry. On being shown the statement in the Herald-Tribune, the Hindu said: "It is all untrue. I deny every word of it. All this was cleared up by the Court at Madras more than a year ago. This is the work of mischievous, mad people." Asked to state his views on jazz, lipsticks and the Charleston, Murti said: "This jazz-mad world is materialism based on excitement. There is no real happiness in it." Krishna Murti, the Indian "Messiah,"' was born in 1896, His father was a magistrate's clerk in Madras, In 1910 hn.wjis " discovered" by Mrs. Annie Besant, the president of the International Theosiophical Society, who is now .74 years old. Sliti believed she had found in the youth the long-foretold world-teacher, "a second Christ." Slie adopted Krishna Murti and his brother Nilyananda and entrusted their education to a former Australian cleric named Lcndbeater, who had become chairman of the committee of tho Theosophical Society, but later trouble arose with him in regard to his treatment of his charges. At the ago ■ pf; Krishna Murti produced a brilliantly written brochure, "At the Feet of the Master," and later a book on " Education as a Servico of Love." Ho became a pupil of the Theosophical Society and was soon elected head of the "Order of the. Star of the East, 1 ' prosiding at its congress in Paris. This order gamed so many adherents and fo much influence that at the beginning of this year Krishna Murti was proclaimed with great pomp and ceromony an "the second Messiah." A temple at : Adjair, dedicated to the now faith, was inaugurated by Murti himself. Many leading Hindus and Mahommedans attended tha ceremony. . . The teachings of the new "Messiah" are a mixture of Hinduism and Christianity. The sign of the cross ,is used in thii ritual and the Hindu caste restrictions are dorio away with. His gospel may be summed up in the words: "Be glad." Outwardly Murti cannot be distinguished from a present day. European. He is well dressed and of agreeable, appeai-ance, has studied 'it Oxford and the Sorbonno, in Paris. Some months ago Mrs. Besant took hex. charge to London and until now he has been living in seclusion at Wimbledon. Early in June Mrs. Besant, at the Queen's Hall, London, gave the-fi/st of a sfiries of lectures 011 " The Corning of the World Teacher as Seen by Ancient and Modern Psychology." Describing the lecture the London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian said: One may say that she spoke as the solemn prophet of Krishna Murti in his character of the reappeared Christ. On a stall outside photographs were being sold of "the World Teacher"— a youug Hindu of extreme beauty. Her lecture was really, in spite of its logical form and philosophical argument/ an expression of personal faith, and she tnado it clear that the grounds of that belieif cannot be proved by appeals to history or science. "They would only endorsed by the knowledge of a few'and perhaps by the intuition of many." She compared herself to a traveller come back from an unexplored country stating Vvhat' ho has seen and heard.' If she were asksd why she herself believed she would reply ths.t it was because she had many times seen Him and had heard Him say tjhat Ho would again visit the earth in a mortal body as when He last came in Palestine. The theory 011 which this new religion is based would appear to be, from what Mrs. Besant said, that of the early Christian Gnostics who held that the Christ took the body of a disciple named Jesus. TV Gnostics looked upon Jesus and the Christ as two separate beings, the former being a great disciple, who " lent the use of his body to the World Teacher. Ihe Christ was the tenant of that body during His ministry.' Mrs. Besant affirmed her belief that this theory is true and sho went on to declare her faith that tho World Teacher is about again to occupy a. particular body—a body, she said, which has been' carefully trained in purity of life for the purpose. It was now time to speak more plainly, and the miison for doing so was, she indicated, so that tho suspicion and ridicule with which every World Teacher had been received might be got over before he came out into tho world, " not as the disciple but as the master of masters." Was it strange that the Teacher should again use the body of one of an oppressed nation ? There was a passage toward the end ut Mrs. Besant's address which seemed to explain, although only dimly to :in outsider, the grounds on which she and those who think with her believe in the reality of Krishna Murti's mission. It was the following quotation from a speech made by him to an audience of 6000 people in India two years ago:— . " We are ali expecting Him who is the example, the embodiment of nobilitv. He will be with us soon. He now. He comes to lead us all to that cerfection where there is eternal happiness He comos to load us and comes to those who have not understood, who have suffered, who are unhappy. He comes to those who want who rlpsire who long. I como to thoso who want sympathy, who want happiness, who are longing to be released -who are loncinß to lind happiness in all things. I 1 , come to reform and not to tear down, not to destroy, but to buud. When those words were spoken.. Mrs. Besant said, some saw a grfeat light and some saw the Christ Himself, lhdt wu , to us the birth of the Christ. >