133 B2 P5 opy 1 133 A2 P5 opy 1 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY LECTURE BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EYIL Tuxedo Hall, New York, November 19, 1899 Published by the Vedanta Society NEW YORK PRICE 10 CENTS >»% , Copyright, 1900, by Swami Abhed\anda, new york 63900 5590 TWO COPIES RECEIVED. Library of COBfMt* SECOND COPY, Office ©f ttee JUM131900 lB!j>f KegUUr of CopyrtcM* A C> O 9*w*e /J, ^^ " Good and evil of this world of duality are unreal, are spoken of by words, and exist only in the mind." — Bh&gavatam, Book XI, ch. XXVII. '* He who is devoted to higher knowledge rises above both good and evil."— Bhagavad Gita, ch. II, v. 50. THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. Whosoever has made a careful study of the phe- nomena of the universe, has noticed that nature is bisected, as it were, by the inevitable dualism of her opposing forces. The world of phenomena bears testimony to the constant fight of these two sets of contrasting forces, which have a multitude of desig- nations, such as : good and evil, virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance, light and darkness, heat and cold, attraction and repulsion, love and hatred, pleasure and pain, health and disease, life and death. On the one side, we see about us the signs of good- ness, virtue, knowledge, love, self-sacrifice, health and all that makes life sweet and worth living ; on the other side we find the expressions of evil, vice, igno- rance, hatred, selfishness, murder, pestilence, disease, plague, earthquake, and all that makes life bitter, un- happy and miserable. Nature stands before us, as it were, with a benign and loving expression, ever ready to pour on our heads the blessings and com- forts which she holds in one hand, while at the same time she affrights us by showing the sharp, shining 2 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. edge of the drawn sword of destruction and evil which she holds in her other hand. This dual aspect in nature cannot be denied, and we are all bound to experience one or the other of these two sides at every moment of our earthly existence. Whenever we experience the good side of nature, we rejoice and feel ourselves extremely happy; but our heart trem- bles, our breath stops, when we are face to face with the other aspect. Nature has ever been express- ing herself in these two ways. What we see today was seen thousands of years ago and will be seen thousands of years hence. Centuries have gone by, nation after nation has passed away, but has nature ever ceased to follow her course? No. Her laws are perennial; her course is eternal. If we read the his- tories of ancient nations, we see that these two aspects of nature were as clearly manifested in the past as they are now. Constant attempts have been made to trace the causes of these contrasting forces and contradic- tory events of the phenomenal world. The best thinkers and philosophers of every age and clime have devoted their energies most earnestly and enthusias- tically to the solution of the mystery of the good and evil aspects of nature, and to tracing how this dualism began and what was its cause. All the religious sys- tems and philosophies of the world are but so many attempts of the human mind to reach the proper solu- tion of this problem of good and evil, and to discover why such a thing as evil exists, why there is so much misery, suffering, crime and vice about us, and how these can be annihilated. THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. 3 All such attempts and explanations can be classified under three names; first, optimistic; secondly, pessi- mistic; and thirdly, monistic. We find the most an- cient of the optimistic explanations of the dual aspect of nature in the Zendavesta, the scriptures of the an- cient Persians, or Iranians. These ancient Persian optimists looked at the good and evil forces x)f nature as two entities eternally separate from each other, and believed that they were created by two distinct beings, or spirits. The one was called Ahura Mazda, the creator of all good that exists in the universe. The other was called Ahriman, the creator of all evil. The one half of the universe was created by the good God Ahura Mazda, who is omniscient, all-powerful, and governor of all good thoughts and ideas, and of everything that is good in the universe; while the other half, and all that is evil, was created by Ahri- man, the evil spirit. At first these two spirits were friendly and lived together, but afterwards Ahriman separated from Ahura Mazda, rebelled against him, and acted as his constant adversary. When the good God, Ahura Mazda, created the world and made it good in every way, the malicious Ahriman, who is described as a wily serpent, showed his power and tricks by sowing the seeds of sin and evil in the beautiful creation of Ahura Mazda. Although he was punished by Ahura Mazda, he did not stop fighting with his most power- ful enemy. This fight will continue until the day of judgment and the renovation of the world, when the victory of good over evil will be complete; then 4 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. Ahura Mazda will create another and better world, free from sin and evil. Ahura Mazda has several good spirits, or angels under his command ; Ahriman also has many evil spirits as his attendants. Both are working through their attendants. Such is the explanation of the cause of good and evil in the Persian scriptures, the Zendavesta. This Persian idea of the two separate creators of good and evil was adopted by the ancient Jews dur- ing the Babylonian captivity, which lasted from 536 to 333 B.C. The Persian paradise, Aryana Vaejo, be- came the Garden of Eden in the Old Testament; Elohim Yahveh, the tribal god of the house of Israel, became the creator of good and of the universe; while Satan, the old time servant of Yahveh, was en- dowed with the wicked and malicious spirit of Ahri- man, and afterwards became the devil in the New Testament. It was at this time that the ancient He- brews received from the Persians the ideas of heaven and hell, of angels and bright spirits. They accepted the Persian belief in punishment after death and in the resurrection of the spiritual body, as well as in the supernatural Saviour of the world. Thus we can trace the origin of the mythological explanation regarding the cause of good and evil as described in the Scrip- tures of the Hebrews, Christians, and Mahommedans. The same ideas of reward and punishment, of good and evil, prevail -amongst the Mahommedans, who be- . I'eve in the Old Testament as much as do the Chris- tians and Hebrews. The idea that good and evil are the results of two distinct and eternally separate THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. 5 causes pervades many of the sayings of Jesus the Christ, as, for instance, " A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." (Math. vii. 18.) By this simile Jesus the Christ not only separated the cause of good from that of evil, but he indicated that evil can never pro- duce good, nor good, evil. He also described the punishment of evil when he said, " Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." (Math. vii. 19.) According to the synoptic gospels, as they have been handed down to us, Jesus believed that the pun- ishment of evil is the casting of the evil-doer into fire. This idea gradually developed into the hell-fire doc- trine of Christian theology. Jesus also believed in devils, when he cast them out, as well" as in Satan, the creator of all evils, and Beelzebub, the prince of devils, and in their attendants. (See Math. xii. 26, 27.) Moreover, he believed that he cast out devils by the spirit of God, thus proclaiming that God, who is all* good, can never produce any evil. According to the New Testament, all diseases, sor- rows, suffering, misery, crime, sin and all that is evil, are the works of Satan, or the evil spirit. Satan, in the New Testament, is a personage of great im- portance, as he is the cause of the numberless and immeasurable evils which exist in the world. He is the prince, or ruler of this world. (John xii. 31.) In short, he is the pillar of the systems of Mazdaism, Judaism, Christianity and Mahommedanism. If that prominent pillar were taken away the whole world of 6 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. evil would remain causeless and unaccounted for. Al- though, ever since the beginning of the Christian era, the Biblical explanation of the cause of good and evil has been accepted and preached by the priests and theologians of Christendom, yet the majority of minds have never stopped to ask the question, why does the good God, who is the Creator of the world, at once omnipotent, omniscient and all-merciful, per- mit Satan to tempt mankind, to bring evil into the world, and to spoil the goodness and purity of His beautiful creation? That question, however, is of vital importance. The solution of this problem has been sought for again and again, and the Christian theologians, up to this day, have failed to give any satisfactory answer. All their attempts have ended in making the good God either limited in power, par- tial, unjust, or cruel. Some of the Hebrew prophets, however, believed that God was the creator of evil as well as of good. " I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness : I make peace, and create evil : I the Lord do all these things." (Isaiah xlv. 6, 7.) Again Nehemiah said, " Did not our God bring all this evil upon us?" (Nehemiah xiii. 18.) This idea was afterwards accepted by the Calvinists of the seventeenth century. They believed that God was responsible for the good and evil of the world, otherwise He would be limited in power. By attempt- ing to solve the problem in this way they left God partial and unjust. St. Augustine tried to solve the question of good and evil by formulating the dogma THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. *J of predestination and grace. This was no better than the solution offered later by Calvin. Instead of trac- ing the cause of good and evil, it made the great God unjust and merciless in relation to suffering humanity. Why should one man be predestined to suffer and another to enjoy? The doctrine of predestination does not give us any reason. Such explanations have made many a thinker an unbeliever in God and pessi- mistic in his views. Many a soul, saddened by the spectacle of wickedness and suffering in the world has cried aloud in despair, " There is no God who can be called merciful, just and loving." From the time of the Gnostics of the Middle Ages, who believed that this world was originally created, not by the good God, but by a devil, and that it is to be slowly and gradually purified by the power of the merciful God through Jesus the Christ, down to the present day, there have been many free-thinkers who have held that the creator of the world is not an all- merciful and just God, but a being with a diabolical na- ture. August Comte, the most prominent of the mod- ern free-thinkers, after seeing the imperfection of this world, regretted, like Alfonso the King of Castile, that he had not been present at the time of the crea- tion, as he could have given such excellent advice to the creator! Another class of optimists say it is true that this world is full of sorrow, suffering and misery, but it is the best world that God could create. Let us shut our eyes to evil, which can never be avoided as long as the present conditions exist, and make the best use 8 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. of our time, because matter, by its inherent nature, possesses a diabolical character of its own. A similar opinion was held by Plato, Leibnitz, Dr. Martineau, and other optimists of this class. There are other optimistic thinkers who deny the existence of evil in the creation of a just, merciful and good God. They say it is all good, there cannot be any evil. They try to see good everywhere and in every act, and declare that all sufferings, misery and hardships are for our good. If any blow comes to us, it is for our good. Everything is for our good, and must be so, because the nature of creation is inherently good. They deny the creation of evil, and explain that good is a posi- tive reality, and that what we call evil is only a nega- tion of good. Good predominates in the world al- though we may not see it at present in all cases. Thus, instead of tracing the cause of evil, they deny it and shut their eyes to it. This kind of optimism is one extreme; pessimistic thinkers, on the contrary, go to another extreme. They make evil a positive reality, and good a negation of evil. They make de- struction, death and misery the goal of the universe and deny the existence of good. They say that suf- fering and misery are the conditions of our existence, that pleasure and happiness come accidentally. The struggle for our existence involves some kind of suf- fering which we cannot avoid. If all our wishes be fulfilled the moment they arise in our minds, then how shall we spend our time? How shall we occupy our lives? There would be no struggle for existence, con- sequently no activity, no life. As the human frame THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. 9 will be rent into pieces if the weight of the atmos- pheric pressure which we are unconsciously carrying all the time be removed, so according to the pessimis- tic theory, the lives of men will fail of their purpose and end if they are relieved from the burden of need, hardship, adversity and evil. There is no way of avoiding this except by death. Life is not worth liv- ing according to these pessimists. They do not see any good in life. They must find evil everywhere. The best way of escaping evil is by committing sui- cide. They do not believe in the idea that a creator who is merciful, just and all-good, created this world of misery, suffering, sorrow and evil. They do not say who created it. Thus the pessimistic explanation leads to another extreme, and does not satisfy any ra- tionalistic mind. A better explanation of the cause of good and evil is needed. But if the optimists are justified in seeing good in everything, and in saying that God created this world for our pleasure and happiness, the pessi- mists are equally justified in seeing evil in everything and in saying that God created this world for the suf- fering and misery of millions. The true explanation lies neither in optimism nor in pessimism. They are the two extremes. As long as the idea of the special creation of the world by an extra-cosmic personal r God is preached, so long the true philosophy of good and evil will not be properly understood. In the West, people are beginning to wake up from the sleep of superstition and prejudice, and to see, through sci- ence and logic, that there can not be two separate ere- IO VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. ators of good and evil who are constantly fighting against each other, nor two forces of nature; but that all the phenomena of nature are but the expres- sions of one eternal Energy. The whole universe is the result of the evolution of that one Energy. Na- ture is one, and not two. The theory of the creators of good and evil is sup- planted by the doctrine of evolution. Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, with their many names, such as Je- hovah, Satan, Devil and others, having played their parts for centuries on the stage of the universe, are now slowly withdrawing themselves into oblivion. The idea of a special creation at a definite time, has been followed by that of a gradual process of evolu- tion extending through millions of years, in which extra-cosmic creators have neither part nor share. To a scientific mind the Garden of Eden has no at- traction of any kind, it has become like a fool's para- dise. The fall of man is no longer a reality, but a mythological story. Thoughtful men and women of Western Countries who believe in the doctrine of evo- lution are just beginning to unlearn the scriptural dogmas. The time has come when people are apply- ing logic and reason in solving the problem of good and evil. The tendency of scientific researches and investigations is to discover the unity of nature, which underlies the apparent duality of the opposing forces, and to explain the variety of phenomena through that underlying unity. In India, this unity of nature was understood by the monistic thinkers and Vedanta philosophers many centuries before the birth of THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. II Christ. These monistic thinkers understood from the beginning that this world was not created at a special time by a special being, and aided by logic and reason they came to believe in the doctrine of evolution. In the voluminous writings of the Hindu sages there is no word which means a creation out of noth- ing. The word they use literally means " projection/' answering to the modern idea of evolution. Unlike the Western people of today, they had nothing to unlearn, as they had slowly and gradually discovered the true cause of good and evil, and afterwards ex- plained their mutual relation as clearly as possible. They said that good and evil are relative terms, one of which cannot exist without the other. What we call " good " depends upon the existence of what we call " evil/' and evil exists only in relation to good. Being interdependent terms they cannot be separated. In trying to separate them and to make each stand by itself as independent of the other, we not only de- stroy their relative and interdependent nature, but we destroy the terms themselves. The moment you try to separate good from evil you find this to be true. Evil cannot exist alone. If you try to make evil stand by itself as entirely separate from good, you can no longer recognize it as evil. Consequently, according to the Vedanta philosophers, the difference between good and evil is not one of kind, but of degree, like the difference between light and darkness. Again, the same thing can appear as good and as evil under different circumstances. That which appears as good in one case, may appear as evil if the conditions 12 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. change and the results be different. The same fire may be called a giver of life and comfort, a bestower of happiness and a producer of good when it saves the life of a half-frozen man or when it gives us warmth in the coldest days of winter, or when it cooks our food, or guides our feet ; but it will be called the pro- ducer of evil and a curse of God when it destroys life, or inflicts injury on man, or on his property. Still, the nature of fire is to burn, and this nature does not change. The great London fire destroyed many lives, brought ruin and destruction to many families, but at the same time it destroyed the germs of a plague which would have done more evil. So it was both good and evil at the same time. The same force of gravitation is called good when it attracts the mole- cules of our bodies and keeps together the atoms of our clothes, gives shape to our houses, our bodies, and this earth where we are now living, but it is the producer of evil when it kills a man who falls from the roof of a house. Electricity is good when it gives light, moves a street car, cures a pain, or relieves a disease, but it is evil when it crushes a man under the shock of its tremendous currents. As electricity, it is neither good nor evil, neither positive nor negative, and the other forces of nature are neither good nor evil, but their expressions may be called good or evil according to the results they produce. The forces of nature are running in the universe with tremendous activity and mad rush, like the currents of a mighty river which brings what we call good and blessings on one shore, and evil and destruction on the other. THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. 1 3 As, standing on one shore where good prevails, we say the river is very good, it is the producer of good, etc., so, standing on the other shore, we call the same river a producer of evil, a creator of destruction. Similarly, we say the forces of nature are good or evil according to our standard, our ideas and our inter- ests. On the one hand, the river fertilizes the country by depositing rich soil and helping the growth of vegetation ; on the other hand, the same river destroys villages and all that stands in its way. Good and evil exist in our minds. That which fulfils our interests is called good, and that which brings to us misery or anything which we do not want, is called evil. When we look at the phenomena of nature by piecemeal, without recognizing their con- nection, we do not get the proper explanation of events. But if we look at the same phenomena as re- lated to one another and to the whole universe, then we discover the true explanation, and we are no longer puzzled. Then the proper cause of good and evil is understood. It is limitation, the inability to recognize the relation of the part to the whole. Ac- cording to the monistic philosophers of India, it is impossible to find anything absolutely good, or ab- solutely evil in this world of relativity. That which we call good is only one phase and the other is evil. When we ignore the one phase, we see the other phase as alone. The same event may produce evil in one country and good in another. The famine in India killed millions by starvation, but it made the Ameri- can farmers richer than ever before. The famine has 14 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. done evil in India, but good in America. This is true in every case. Our life, which is a great blessing to us, depends upon the life of others. The maintenance of our life causes thousands to die. Millions of lower animals are killed every day for our food. Each stomach has become a cemetery and each tooth a tombstone. When one man murders another, his mo- tive is to do good to himself or to his family, or to society, or to fulfil some purpose which he considers good. The murderer may believe that he does some good to somebody, but, as he takes a wrong course of action, he is called a murderer and gets no sym- pathy from anybody, and is punished by society and the State. When a big murderer, however, comes from the battle-field after committing hundreds of murders to possess another's territory, we praise him and honor him and call him the greatest hero, and reward him. But if we analyse the nature of the work he has done, we find that he has committed many murders to serve his country. As the murderer of multitudes is supposed to do good to his country, so possibly the man w T ho kills but one person may do some good somewhere, although we may not rec- ognize it as such. Our intellect is short-sighted, therefore we cannot always see the true results of our actions. As we cannot draw a sharp line of demarca- tion between the good and evil results of the physical forces of nature and cannot say that this is good and good alone, so we cannot separate the good and evil results of our moral acts. That which is morally good in one case may be evil in another. As, for THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. 15 instance, the commandment of God is supposed to be a moral good, and beneficial to all. Think of the command which God gave to Saul; "Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox, sheep, camel and ass." (1 Samuel xv. 3.) We call it a good act because God did it, but if one man commands another to do such a horrible deed what will you "call him? Such is our judgment. We say many things without knowing why we say them. Let us open our eyes and see how far good goes and how it is mixed with evil. Every act which we do must be backed by a motive, that motive again is for the good of some or for the evil of some. We may, or may not, understand it, but the results of our acts are always mixed with good and evil. Take, for instance, the nearest ex- ample. I am talking to you. Perhaps I am doing some good. At least, I intend to do so. But at the same time I am causing the death of millions of mi- crobes. It may be good to me, or to you, but the poor animalculae would not call it good. When we see the results of this act from our standpoint we call it good, but if we were to look at it from the mi- crobes' standpoint it would appear quite different, they would doubtless call it evil. If we judge every- thing from our standpoint, we can never know whether it is really good or evil, because our stand- ard is limited and imperfect. Those who do not rec- ognize the results of acts from different standpoints are liable to all kinds of error. If I judge the whole l6 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. universe by my standard, my judgment will be very poor. But when I look at things from the various standpoints, I can understand how the same event can produce good and evil in relation to different con- ditions. Every mistake we make becomes a great teacher in the long run. Thus evil has its good, and good has its evil side. Therefore good and evil go hand in hand. But ordinarily, wherever we find a preponderance of good over evil we designate it good, and the opposite as evil. Again, that which is sinful to one may be virtuous to another. Consider the dif- ferent standards of sin among the Mahommedans, the Mormons and the Christians. Compare the scrip- tures of the world and see how what is a virtue in the Old Testament is a. vice to men who believe in other scriptures. If polygamy is a sin according to the Christians, it is a virtue with the Mahommedans and Mormons, and was such with the ancient Jews. That which is good for some persons, as inculcated by their religion, may be evil to others living under a different dispensation. Thus, we cannot draw a sharp line between good and evil. Punishment and reward, according to the Vedanta philosophy, are but the reactions of our own actions. It says that every action must have a similar reaction. If the action be good, the reaction must be the same. Vedanta philosophy says " Every action, whether backed by good or bad motives is covered with its opposite, as fire is enveloped with smoke. ,, If we examine our own lives we will notice that good often comes out of evil. If the greater THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. 1 7 number of personal misfortunes have their good side, hardly any good fortune ever befell any one which did not give, either to the same or to some other person, something to regret. The Vedanta philosophers try to explain the so- called punishment and reward by referring to the law of cause and sequence, the law of action and reaction. Action and reaction are opposite and equal, says physical law. When we do certain acts we are sure to reap certain results. But, if the results come before we have forgotten the causes which brought them, we call them either rewards, or punishments. If a good act is done today, the result may come at once, or after many years. God never punishes the wicked, nor rewards the virtuous. He shines like the im- partial sun equally upon the heads of sages and sin- ners. It is our own acts that bring the results, either in the form of reward or punishment. When we un- derstand clearly the law of cause and sequence, and of action and reaction, then we cease to blame God or any other extra-cosmic creator of evil. Then we do not say that evil has been interpolated from with- out. If we know that all the forces of nature, both physical and mental, are but so many expressions of one eternal Energy or Divine Will, which is far be- yond the relative good and evil, then we do not see good and evil in the universe, but on the contrary, we find everywhere the expression of that Divine Will. The nature of an effect must be the same as that of the cause, because effect is nothing but the manifested state of the cause, and if the cause of the 1 8 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. universe be one eternal, divine Energy, then the uni- verse, as a whole, can be neither good nor evil. When we can throw aside the narrow, limited glass of our relative standard, through which we are now looking at the events of life and put on our mental eye the glass of divine energy or universal will, then we shall no longer see good and evil, virtue and vice, or reward and punishment. But we shall see the ex- pression of one law of causation everywhere. Then we shall not blame our parents, or Satan, or God or anybody, but shall understand that all our misery is but the result of our own acts which we did in this life or in a past incarnation. If we understand that as electricity is neither positive nor negative, but appears as positive or negative when manifested through a magnet, we can apprehend that the laws of nature only appear to us as good or evil when they express themselves through the gigantic magnet of the phenomenal universe. If we realize that the eter- nal Energy, or the Divine Will, appears as good or evil only as related to our minds and lives, then we can say, as the great Sages in India said, " God does not create good or evil, nor does He take the virtue or sin of anybody. He does not punish the wicked nor reward the virtuous. Our intelligence being cov- ered, as it were, with the cloud of ignorance and rela- tivity, deluded as we are, we imagine, on account of our imperfect understanding, that God creates good or evil, that His creation is good or evil, that He punishes or rewards." It is through our ignorance of Truth that we do not recognize the divinity which THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. 1 9 pervades the universe, standing high above the reach of our conception of good and evil. Let us strive to see that divinity, by going behind the phenomenal appearances of good and evil. Let us go to the Eternal Source of all phenomena. Let us first reach the highest plane of spiritual oneness, and standing on that plane of Divine Will, let us un- derstand that good and evil are two aspects of One which is neither good nor evil, but Absolute. Then, and then alone, we shall transcend good and evil and enjoy eternal bliss in this life. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS AFTER THE LECTURE. Is Vedanta optimistic or pessimistic? Vedanta philosophy is neither optimistic nor pessi- mistic. It enquires into the true nature of good and evil, describes their interdependent relation, and ulti- mately leads human minds to the realization of Divinity as the life and soul of all phenomenal objects. Is not the Creator of evil separate from the Creator of good? Vedanta teaches evolution and not special creation; consequently it has no need of the unscientific concep- tion of two extra-cosmic creators, the one of good and the other of evil. How do you explain good and evil by the theory of evolution? 20 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. In the process of evolution that which appears bene- ficial to us under certain conditions is called good; and that which is injurious to us in any way is called evil. What does Vedanta say regarding the inheritance of original sin? Vedanta does not recognize any such thing as orig- inal sin, which one is bound or destined to inherit. What is the meaning and cause of sin? Sin means selfishness. It is the result of ignorance of one's true nature, or Divine Self. Does your philosophy teach Vicarious atonement? No. But it teaches how to attain at-one-ment, or oneness with the Supreme Spirit through the realiza- tion of the Divinity within. Can a sinner reach perfection? Yes. When a sinner realizes spiritual oneness with his true Self which is pure, sinless and divine, that very moment he becomes free from all sins and im- perfections; and he remains so for ever. Are we responsible for our deeds, good or evil ? Yes. We are responsible for every action, both mental and physical. Moreover we are bound to reap the results, the deed will surely return to the doer. How do you differentiate good from evil actions ? By the motives that prompt them. An evil action may result in benefit to others, but is not on that ac- count a good action, nor can it bless the doer of it. THE MOTHERHOOD OF GOD LECTURE BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA TUXEDO HALL NEW YORK, NOVEMBER J2, 1899 The lecture by the Swami Abhedananda on "The Mother- hood of God" is serious, logical, awakening, and one can hardly help feeling that only use and wont prevent us from recognizing that the phrase, "The Fatherhood of God," is really assailable. * * * * * Says Swami Abhedananda, "We live and move and have our existence in that Divine Mother." At present we are, as a rule, not much beyond the old Israelitish notion of Jehovah ; and here we find this enlightened Indian's teaching specially rational and whole- some. The Hebrew religion gave us the picture of a Jeho- vah, stern, arbitrary, and exacting as an Eastern autocrat. Says the Swami, "The same Jehovah, when considered as the Father of the universe by Jesus and His followers, did not lose this extra-cosmic nature. Even to-day the majority of the Christians cannot go beyond this idea of an extra-cosmic God." And that is where we are to-day for the most part. What if the profound Eastern idea of the Motherhood of God, allied to our already fruitful idea of the immanent (in- stead of transcendent) God, should turn out to be the prac- tical emancipation of the Western mind, delivering it from the anthropomorphic images that cluster about this "extra- cosmic" God, and introducing it to a thought of God which will bring Him absolutely near? ***** We have long needed a little more of this "superstition" and senti- ment in "this happy English isle." Let us be hospitable to all who bring out from the treasury "things new and old," the "pearl of great price." Especially let us be hospitable to the interesting thinkers who increasingly remind us of the ancient proverb that wisdom comes from the East. — Extracts from the leading editorial of "Light," London, July 8th, i8c?9. 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