"After Saint Francis had finished his lecture to the birds on the glories of Christ, they flew up into the sky, in the formation of a cross, and disappeared to the four corners of the earth with his message."

The dictionary meaning of the word "life" as the vital force distinguishing organic from inorganic matter has undergone a gradual change. Life is no longer a monopoly or organic matter. Inorganic substances like chemicals, by their attractions and repulsions, also show the presence of life. According to the experiments of the great scientist, Prof. J. C. Bose of India, even a piece of tin is living and its vibrations can be recorded during its life and death struggles. It can be poisoned and killed.

The old theory of matter as essentially different from spirit is gone. All matter including solids, liquids and gaseous substances can be converted into electronic energy and made to disappear into spirit. The old theory of matter being like a hot furnace, constantly losing heat and life, is exploded by Prof. Millikan of California. This eminent physicist found that not only is matter being disintegrated into energy or radiation, but that energy or radiation is again being reintegrated into matter. The cosmic rays, or "birth-cries" of the atoms, are radiations inundating the earth incessantly from limitless space.

"Matter and energy, time and space, are in a melting pot," declared Prof. Lovett Evans before leading British scientists recently, "and out of it will come we know not what strange relations of one to another. The enormously rapid developments of physics in recent years strike the onlooker dumb with almost religious awe. On further study, lines of separation previously held to be rigid will fade away, and there will be found to be continuity between matter and energy, between the living and the non-living, between the conscious and unconscious."

There is no difference between inorganic and organic life except that they are different manifestations of Life. There is nothing dead—the atoms in the flesh of even a corpse are highly vibrating and constantly moving with life. Different forms of life are manifestations of the same life-force. Just as ice, water, steam, hydrogen, oxygen gases are different forms of the same thing, so also solids, liquids, gases, stones, crystals, plants, animals and human beings both living and dead are manifestations of life. The spirit contained in matter, and matter, are the same, just as hydrogen oxygen gas contained in a closed jar made out of a block of ice is of the same essential composition as the jar itself. The thing contained is made of the same material as the container. If it were otherwise, matter and spirit would have to be the result of two co-existing infinite forces, which is impossible. As the ocean becomes the waves, so does spirit become matter. Spirit and matter are the same as the ocean and the waves. The waves are distorted ocean—so is matter distorted, objectified spirit.

The ocean can exist without the waves, but the latter cannot exist without the ocean. Similarly, spirit can withdraw all creation into itself by converting matter into energy, and can exist without any material manifestation, but matter cannot exist without spirit.

The waves, in addition to form, contain all the essential qualities of the ocean; similarly, matter, organic or inorganic, manifestly or latently, contains all the qualities of the spirit. Thus we can say that Life sleeps in the crude earth; dreams beauty in the flowers; wakes with power in the animals; and in man has consciousness of its infinite possibilities.

What is Life? Life is a wave of electrons and atoms, a wave of protoplasm, a wave of power, a wave of consciousness. Life is intelligent, organized motion. It becomes a clod of earth or melts itself into vapour—becomes a human being or a corpse. Stones, living beings, dead creatures, are waves in the ocean of life. There is no death nor cessation of motion in anything. Everything is living.

A wave is born; it rises to its supreme height, then falls or dies to rise again somewhere. Like everything else, the human body is a combination of three kinds of waves, or three co-existing waves, of electrons, life-force, and intelligence, knit together by a soul, rolling up and down the ocean of life. The birth of the baby is the beginning, the youth the crest, and the death the fall of the wave in the infinite ocean of Life.

Before and after death the soul rolls on as the wave of life and intelligence—but not as the wave of condensed electrons of which the body is composed. The body is shaped after the waves of life and intelligence. It behaves in exact accordance with the quality and measure of their power.

If life is eternal motion—then why does death visit the human body? This is the great question. Death is not cessation nor annihilation—for even matter is indestructible. (At death the life and intelligence waves, with the soul, slip away from the body wave.) The burned-away candle changes—but its weight and constituent ingredients can be found if the carbonic acid gas is held in a jar. Matter is life. Life is matter. Life is intelligence. Matter is sleeping intelligence. Since matter is indestructible, all life is indestructible.

But that does not mean life is not changeable. In fact, Eternal Infinite Life manifests itself through finite forms of flowers and living creatures. The phenomena of death or the illusion of change is reflected in all finite substances—otherwise the infinite would be limited, measured by finite substances. The Infinite would lose its nature by becoming the finite, definite, circumscribed and molded.

That is why the beautiful rose and the glorious youth, after expressing certain qualities of the Infinite, disappear as silent waves into the infinite ocean of life. The body is the froth of Life, of the intelligence and soul waves. The froth is temporary compared to the individualized soul wave.

Life is relative—some waves of life last longer than others, but they all have to express the Infinite variously and fully. They all emerge from and merge into the Infinite Ocean. The speck of star dust, the sun, moon, clouds, rainbow, the gossamer, the nightingale, whippoorwill—all have to express the silent Infinite. Natural death comes when each object, each human being, has done its full share in expressing the Infinite. Untimely death of a youth suggests that he changes his diseased body vehicle and lodges elsewhere for better opportunities.

What is human death, what is its utility, what are its drawbacks?

As children are afraid to go into the dark, and as that fear is aggravated by tales of ghosts and goblins, so is the fear of death instilled into men. One should be consoled, for its is the necessary end of all living bodies. The fear of death is most foolish, for as long as one is not dead he has nothing to worry about; when one is dead it is all over. One cannot die twice in the same body.

Physical pain in long-continued disease and mental suffering are sometimes worse than death. The oft-dreaded natural death or change of the body is a deep sleep earned after a troubled existence or a life full of struggle and activity. Death is the pension earned after a long term of activity in the office of life. Death is cessation of pain. Suicide under any condition is a spiritual crime, because it involves the quitting of the duty or test of life. The person who commits suicide is denied the privilege of peace, which attends the rightly-won pension of death. He who deserts this earth as a coward cannot be granted the pension of rest.

Physical pain and suffering of mind are both mental. The cause of pain which is in the body or the cause of bereavement which is in the mind—both are mental. A man suffers to see his beloved wife being operated upon, more than he would feel if a stranger’s wife were being lanced. He would suffer most when he sees his own body being operated upon. Sensations in one’s own body or in the bodies of others have to be accepted by the mind in order to produce pain or suffering. If a man’s mind is disengaged from the body by superior means, such as meditation, or by artificial means, such as chloroform, and he is operated upon, he does not feel pain. So it is absolutely true that if man’s feelings were rightly trained, he would learn to watch operations on his body without feeling pain. Pain and suffering are more in sensitive people.

The pain and fear of death are due to self-created causes. If we get acquainted with what death is, we would find there is nothing to fear. The soul with its waves of life and intelligence grows attached to the physical wave of the body and fears to leave it, just as a bird, long used to a cage, hesitates to leave it though the doors are opened. The bird thinks, "Where will I go? Let me go back to the cage." Its confinement in the cage makes it forgetful of its free flights in the open skies. So the caged soul used to the limitations, diseases and frailties of the body is sore afraid of the infinite, safe, celestial regions of God, even when it is invited by death to make a change from the limited to the less-limited state.

As the baby is dead when it changes to a youth, so when an aged man dies he changes for something else. If life is lived rightly, death is a reward and a change for a better state. Some quit life, being forced out by failures in health or as victims to their wrong ways of living. But even failure cannot be a permanent stigma on souls—they must have opportunities in other schools of life, if they had to leave this school of life, being expelled by the exacting school-master of death.

Why do we cry when our dear ones die? It is because we sorrow for our own loss—we seldom consider the welfare of those whom we lose. If it be for the good of our loved ones to leave us for better training in other schools of life, we should rejoice instead of being selfishly sad and thus keeping them earthbound, hampering them in their path of progress by the broadcasting of our own selfish wills.

Terrible thought! If there were no death, fifteen hundred million people would monopolize the Infinite. The planets and the universes would trademark God with the sale of finitude. The Infinite would be exhausted. Life and death would lose the taste of charming mystery. Everything would grow old and stale. The Infinite is ever-new—so by His Infinite Magic Wand of renewing death He keeps everything ever expressing, ever remodeling itself into a fitter vehicle for infinite expressions.

Hence this paradox—the dance of death—shattering worlds, pulverizing skulls, crumbling roses, destroying fifteen hundred million people every hundred years, killing billions of fishes, trillions of bacteria and powdering sextillion countless atoms. The life beautiful is evolving, training souls in the factory of mighty death. Death is the cosmic furnace in which the dross of all objects and living souls is purified. Death comes to a dutiful soul as its promotion to a higher state; it comes to a failure soul to give it another chance in a different environment.

The actual phenomena of death is something to be carefully noted. Many Yogis in India can say with St. Paul—"Verily, I protest by the rejoicing which I have in Christ, I die daily." I shall try to describe it just as I have experienced it. It is a voluntary or involuntary switching off of the life current from the bulb of flesh. Those Yogis who know how to operate their switch of the heart or control their heart beats—they quit quickly or stay as long as they want. I like not to overstay here but will merge my life current in the Infinite Electricity when my work is done.

The weight and feeling in the body, the love of sensual pleasures, sunlight, voices of friends, ties of family, love of warmth or cold, dependability on oxygen for life, love of food, dress, automobiles, furniture, houses—these are the common attachments of life and the body-bound soul.

When death comes it is variously experienced by different people according to their earthly mode of living. Just as people have various durations and qualities of sleep, so different people experience death differently. The good, hard-working man in the workshop of life goes to a deep, unconscious but restful sleep for a short while to wake up again in some other region of life. The man who neglects the duties of life or causes confusion often experiences something like nightmares or terrible dreams during death.

The moral man often has delightful dreams at death. The wise man experiences through death an infinitely better, safer haven.

During death the ordinary man finds every part of the body going to sleep. When your leg goes to sleep you see it, but cannot feel it belongs to you. Similarly, the dead man sometimes remembers his body distinctly, but cannot create motion in it. In death the power of touch goes first, then vision, then taste, then smell and last of all, hearing.

A student of mine had a much-loved sister dying in a hospital. The doctor in the room was saying loudly, "No hope for her, it is a question of a few more minutes before she passes on." The brother got angry and told everyone to leave the room. He shut the door and cried aloud: "Sister, come back!" And she came back to life though practically dead—when even her heart had stopped beating. When she was better she told how she heard the undiplomatic doctor discouraging her. It was only her brother’s courage that simulated her will to energize her fast-deadening and rebellious muscles and nerves. This story illustrates the fact that it is highly unwise to discuss the condition of a dying man within reach of his hearing. His body or speech may be paralyzed but not his hearing.

Only those who have practiced the control of heartbeat and learned to live without oxygen—by eating less carbonized food and preventing the decay of tissues in the body through definite training in meditation—can consciously experience death at will as a rest from constant muscular activity and specially life’s involuntary activity of the heart, lungs, diaphragm, circulation, et cetera. In heaven there are no crackers or soup, no breakfast, lunch or dinner, no water or oxygen or sunshine. Mortals should learn to live more by inner energy, unattached to the body. Those who learn in this life to live by spirit and are unattached to the body quickly realize the freedom of the soul from the bondage of oxygen, food and water after death. Death is a fear to the ignorant human animal—it is a transition to a higher state to the wise. To him it is a promotion in school to higher grades of life.

Even if you do not know the art of living more by energy as the Yogis of India and developed Yogoda students know, you can begin by ceasing to be attached to the duties of the body. Perform them with joy but with unattachment. Attachment is the self-inflicted torture brought on by ignorance. The ignorant dying man suffers through imagination even though he receives freedom from pain and leaves a minor inferior state for a higher one.

That life is not dependent on food or oxygen is proved by verified cases of men living long in a state of suspended animation. Life can exist in a corpse in a different form. A chicken heart can lie 16 years in a chemical syrup—longer than the life of a chicken. A crocodile lives 600 years. Life is vagrant, life a river appearing and disappearing in the desert of life.

Death gives new robes to the soul actors to play new dramas on the stage of life. Death above all else is a transition to a better land—a change of residence. The wise man who has opened his spiritual eye finds that the death of earthly life gives him a new beginning in another supernal life. On this earth seeing we see not—a fluoroscope can show the bones of the fingers which the eye cannot see. We do not see the cores of light—blue, violet, aquamarine, orange, yellow, white, which bind the atoms and the earth together. We hear the gross noise of the world and a few sweet melodies and nothing more.

The wise man beholds in this life and after death with his spiritual eye not a region of chaos and dark sleep which the soul in ignorance after death experiences. Death is very attractive to the former—instead of terror he finds infinite freedom. The soul-bird of paradise finds its freedom from the limitations of the cage of life. The soul appareled in searchlights of multi-hues soars in infinite directions searching, claiming its lost territory of eternity.

In the mellow light of the other world, the wise perceive the inner sides of stars, stones, living beings, corpses, dust, iron, gold, earth, planets, dazzling with Infinite brilliancy. Every object which we perceive has two sides—the gross ugly outer side present before the physical eyes, and the inner, most beautiful side revealed to the eye of wisdom. The crude brick revealed by the physical eyes appears to be like a garden of electrons, when viewed through the spiritual eye. Human beings with skeletons, ugly sinews and red blood appear as beautiful many-hued living beings made of visible mellow materialized love. The rose of the human garden looks like a paper rose before the inner rosy lustre of its whirling atoms. Nothing fades there so quickly. Everything talks there silently. The roses talk to the souls with the language of spirit. The garden of roses lives by the breath of the souls, and the souls breathe the aroma of roses. The gentlest earthly flower—the lily, violet, drunk with gross sunlight—is not allowed to tread the sanctity of that fair garden of the gods. The mortal, enslaved by oxygen and sunlight, gorged with material food, faints at the delicate airless atmosphere of that divine supernal region. Darkness and gross lights equally lose their relative dualities in the darkless dark, lightless but all revealing soul-light of that sphere. The Yogis practice control of life and breathless state to be able to live in airless regions of living light, unburdened by the body.

Souls in that region do not encase themselves in bundles of bones with fleshly covers. They carry no frail, heavy frames to collide and break with other crude solids. There is not war there between the solids, oceans, lightning, disease and man’s frail frame. There are no accidents there, for all things exist in mutual help and not antagonism—all forms of vibration are in harmony. All forces live in peace and conscious helpfulness. The souls, the rays on which they tread, the orange rays which they drink and eat—all are living. They live in mutual cognizance and cooperation, breathing not oxygen but the joy of the spirit. There they live as long as they want, playing like waves on the infinite ocean of light. And there they melt into one another by celestial love as the ocean of light.

No bacteria, no thirst, no selfish desires, no heartaches, no lust, no pain nor sorrow, nor boisterous fleeting joy, no accidents, shattering bones and skulls, and no excruciating pain of parting, can ever visit there.

In that better region where change is not for decay—but where it exists like a cosmic magician to entertain with variety for infinite expression. There the law of change is governed by the wills of souls and is not forced upon them.

Let us not bury the soul in the grave and call death annihilation, but see it as a door through which bravely marching souls of earthly life can enter to find the all-alluring, all-charming region of our ever-luminous, ever-peaceful Common Cosmic Home. Mortal fears, heartaches, dreams, illusions fade—darkness of death changes into another infinitely beautiful universe. Why pity the dead? In wisdom—they pity us. They can see their super-region and us also with their spiritual eye, but we cannot see them with our gross spiritually blind physical eyes.

Insult not me

With your cries of sympathy

When I soar

To the land of eternal light and love.

It is I who should feel for you.

For me disease, shattering of bones,

Sorrow, excruciating heartaches no more.

I dream joy, I glide in joy,

I breath in joy evermore.

You are left behind

Oh, yet Life’s wheels to turn and wind.

I have worked with diligence

In the office of life

And now I have won

My pension of earned peace.

I left the flickering shadows of life’s shores;

I am living by the shoreless shore

Of the Eternal Sea evermore.

From above us and from under,

In the ocean and the thunder,

Thou preludest to the wonder

Of the Paradise to be;

For a moment we may guess Thee

From Thy creatures that confess Thee

When the morn and even bless Thee

And Thy smile is on the sea.

Across the dividing seas, far away,

I had a vision of the Shining, Universal Man

Whose dwelling

Was once the primeval woodlands,

Dancing in the riotous shimmer of summer days,

And dreaming

In the magic light of the changing moon.

Flitting in and out of myriad fleeting homes,

Though the archways of centuries and epochs,

The Vision arose, lingered and then grew dim.

But arose again—a wonder indestructible,

Quintessential as the ether of the endless sky.

And o’er it

Burst the flames of diverse passions,—

The mellow loveliness of love and pity,

The wold splendour of enthralling faiths,

And roseate gleams of many a tremulous hope,

And blinding flash of anger, hate and pride,

Lonely as the farthest star of the Milky Way,

Unfathomable Glory, elemental heart of Man,

I gaze and gaze at your deathless play divine,

Ever unfolding the deepest mystery of all—

The hide and seek of the Spirit and the Flesh.

The Health Aristocrat is but a normal individual, just as each bird of the air and every deer of the forest are but normal; each one being equally strong, equally efficient, equally beautiful and equally happy.

Between the long eternity of the past and the long eternity of the future, the Great Creator has given you and me the boon of life; bodily represented by a living mechanism, the greatest which God Himself ever created; it is placed in our keeping with an individual power for its splendid natural development or for its destruction. The trouble seems to have been in abuse of that power.

The Health Aristocrat will study more about physiology to better understand and appreciate the mechanical workings of the human body that has the power of thinking, seeing, hearing, tasting and feeling.

We may say that the human body is a bound volume illustrating every known and unknown rule of mechanics, every revealed and unrevealed principle of science. We are told how it is capable of more than 1200 motions, performed by muscles and bones in combination; that there are 208 distinct bones and 502 voluntary muscles, each with a name; that in their ramifications and in partnership with the brain, there are over 10,000,000 lines to supply the telegraphic system of nerves; that the heart engine pump beats in health 70 times a minute, 2-1/2 ounces of blood passing through at each heart beat; this means 175 ounces a minute and 7-1/2 tons daily; that in normal vigor, each drop of blood makes the entire circuit of the body in between two and three minutes, a daily trip of about 168 miles through grand canals and endless tributaries. Physiologists also tell us that in order to distribute nutritive matter and carry away effete material, an eighth of a horse power of energy is daily manufactured. How this is chemically accomplished, is a little longer story. What we already know, however, is that in perfect health, all these activities function so accurately and smoothly, that one is unconscious of them, excepting in case of disease.

One would naturally think that reasonable man would appreciate this marvelous work as quite sufficient for all his purposes; but given the power of a certain control, he chooses to abuse his great privilege. For the purpose of coveted forced sensations of life, he often tries to cheat nature. By introducing a poison however small into the divine machinery, we call God to the rescue to expel it; the wonderful telegraphic system of nerves quickly spreads the alarm to all the vital organs; the normally hard worked heart beats faster and every vital organ responds to the call. Man enjoys the commotion. Poor fool! For such a losing game! All physiological sins are paid for from the reserve fund in the bank of life.

Again, for another forced sensation of repose, the poison he introduces is strong enough to paralyze or partially paralyze the telegraph system of nerves. Tobacco, caffeine, alcohol and drugs all have this pernicious effect to some degree.

Emerson thus speaks of it: "A man hardly knows how much he is a machine until he begins to make telegraph, loom, press and locomotive in his own image; but in these, he is forced to leave out his follies and hindrances, so that when we go to the mill, the machine is more moral than we. In the gingham mill, a broken thread or shred spoils the web through a piece of a hundred yards, and is traced back to the girl who wove it and lessens her wages. Are you so cunning, Mr. Profitloss, and do you expect to swindle your Divine Master and employer in the web you weave? A day is a more magnificent cloth than any muslin, and you shall not conceal the sleasy, fraudulent, rotten hours you have slipped into the piece."

Carlyle (on Characteristics) says: "The healthy know not of their health, only the sick. The perfection of bodily well being is, that the collection of bodily activities seem one. The working right or working wrong of the powers, called vital, holds to moral, intellectual, political, poetical, as well as to mere corporeal therapeutics."

For further protection of the human body, the Health Aristocrat must not neglect the study of microbes, real living organic occupants, resident by millions inside our living body.

"God is great in great things and greatest in least."

In the general scheme of nature, there is nothing wasted. A leaf withers, falls and decays only to be transformed into new plant life; the same with the human body, along with other forms of life which continually grow or decay.

For this carrying work of building or destroying, the laboratory of nature has in its service several sets of germs, some animal and some vegetable. Inside our body, there are organized germ builders called leucocytes and an organized army of germ soldiers called phagocytes—our defenders of life. Outside, are organized germ scavengers of death and destruction called pathogenic germs.

Our army of phagocytes are divided into soldier guards, and again in to a flying squadron which in time of danger rushes to the place of attack. Each phagocyte chases for an enemy germ, grasps, swallows and digests him.

Nothing can equal the germ power of reproduction, their disregard of space and cold, and their endurance and longevity. They are diminutive enough to travel through the human body (regardless of flesh and bone) with the same ease and rapidity that light penetrates through transparent glass. Their numbers multiply in millions and billions, enough to suit the occasion necessary for their services.

The true stories of the microbes are more thrilling than those of our childhood, telling of goblins, giants with seven league boots, several-headed dragons belching smoke and fire; and the feats of Jack the giant killer and of Hercules, et cetera, pale in comparison with the true wonders of germ life vitally connected with our own.

Upon my dearest foeman’s face

Your lovely lineaments I trace;

Above the heart o’erfilled with guile

I find the sweetness of Your smile;

And when about me crash and fall

My earthly treasures, one and all,

The remnants in my trembling hand

Shall for Your perfect justice stand.

I did not ask that You should be

Shaped by my own poor artistry,

But recognizing that You are

I strive to find You near and far;

In small, in great, in high, in low,

In every thing You live and flow;

When thus I find You, I can see

Your perfect Heaven encircling me.

A glorious vision of beauty descended upon Broadway recently when the distinguished Shakespearean actor, Walter Hampden, presented his elaborate play, "The Light of Asia," at Hampden’s Theatre in New York. The production, which dealt with the life of Prince Siddartha of India, who afterwards became the Buddha, was in every respect finished, flawless, sustained in interest, a true and most fascinating account of one of the most sublime figures of human history. The scene of Buddha under the Bodhi tree, with dim lights revealing Mara, the alluring one, and other wraiths of temptation; and the final illumination of the Blessed One, was breath-taking in its beauty and inspiration.

An Oriental ballet arranged by Ruth St. Denis, Hindu songs by the eminent Ratan Devi, Hindu dances by the beautiful Ragini, art direction by Claude Bragdon, music on Hindu themes by Elliott Schenck played by an 18-piece orchestra, and a company of 75 supporting the illustrious Mr. Hampden, made up this unusual production.

What was the result? The play closed after three weeks of public indifference, due largely to the most stupidly unfair reviews by the dramatic critics. They can, apparently, sit night after night viewing the crime dramas, sex plays and burlesque shows on Broadway without tiring, but lack appreciation for a work of art like Mr. Hampden’s production. One cannot help thinking sometimes that the chief aim of dramatic critics is to mislead the public, and certainly that is true in this case. A notable exception must be made of the New York American critic, who wrote: "Such imaginative beauty, such atmospheric spaciousness and grandeur, such vividly lovely and spiritually moving scenes as it enfolds, lift the production and make it a fitting monument to one of the world’s five great teachers."

This exceptional production deserves to be revived by some wealthy patron of art, religion or the theatre.

Washington, Oct. 22.—The report of the joint commission of the Episcopal Church on Christian healing, which has spent six years investigating the work of societies concerned with faith healing and tabulating personal experiences, was presented to the House of Deputies today by H. C. Wyckoff. It declared that "Christian healing has passed beyond the stage of experiment and its value cannot be questioned."

Summing up the testimony obtained from physicians, surgeons, pastors and beneficiaries of faith healing, the commission draws the conclusion that "spiritual healing is no longer the hope of a few, but the belief and the practice of a large and rapidly increasing number of persons."

Expressing the conviction that the ministry of healing in the church should be exercised so far as possible in cooperation with medical science and practice, the report recommends that the present Episcopal convention recognize the "deepening of the spiritual life of the church that comes through the growing recognition of the healing power of God."

The commission recommended increased attention to the whole subject in the teaching of the theological schools.—New York Times.

The 13th Annual Meeting of the World Alliance for International Friendship Through the Churches will be a Good Will Congress to be held in New York on November 11-12-13th.

The central theme, to be discussed by a whole host of eminent leaders and educators, is "Must We Have War?" A few of the speakers will be the Hon. Frank B. Kellogg on "The Paris Peace Pact"; Rev. E. Stanley Jones of India on "Oriental Impressions of Occidental Wars"; Mr. Roger W. Babson on "The Economic Implications of War"; and Dr. K. N. Das Gupta on "The Universal Religious Peace Conference."

"Blessed are the peacemakers." May the constructive influence of such beneficent organizations grow until it reaches the farthest ends of the earth!

With the recent passing away of Lord Haldane, England has lost one of her greatest philosophers, jurists and statesmen. He served his country as Lord Chancellor and as State Secretary. In his earlier years he translated Schopenhauer, and later turned to a deep study of the Upanishads and other Hindu scriptures, hearkening "to the sound of the flute of Krishna," as he wrote in one of his articles.

Newspapers recently published articles about some wonderful scientific "miracles" performed by Mr. George Claude, eminent French scientist, a short time ago at Fountainbleau. His "magician’s wand" was simple oxygen, bubbling in a tube on a table before the audience. Their astonishment was aroused when the scientist "turned a handful of sand into precious stones, iron into a state resembling melted chocolate, and, after depriving flowers of their tints, turned them in to the consistency of glass."

M. Claude told of the wonders of oxygen transformations. He explained "how the sea could be turned into many millions of pounds of horse-power; how water which boils is not necessarily burning; how little mounds of sand, by a single whiff of the blowpipe, could be changed into sapphires, rubies and topazes; and he predicted the time when it will be possible for men to walk on the bottom of the ocean minus the diver’s equipment. Finally, the scientist amazed his onlookers by turning their faces black by taking the red out of the sun’s rays."

The "American Society of Greek Arts and Letters" announces that the New York group is rehearsing for production this fall, the Greek masterpiece of Euripides’, "Iphigenia in Aylis" and the modern famous drama, "The Two Helens", by the French poet and playwright, Jules-Bois.

This will be the first performance in America of the well known French play, which was the first to treat the theme of the two Helens, Helen of Troy and Helen of Egypt, the same theme that is now used by Richard Strauss in his new opera, "The Egyptian Helen", which is also coming to New York very soon.

Mr. Paul Prodis, general Secretary of the American Society of Greek Arts and Letters, pointed out the priority of the play of M. Jules-Bois, which was produced fully seventeen years before the lyric drama of the celebrated composer, having been performed August 7th, 1911, at the "Theatre Antique d’Orange", the French Bayreuth, with actors and actresses from the Comedie Francaise and the Odeon, and welcomed by the critics. Prof. Paul Girard of the Institute in his preface to the printed text of the "Deux Helenes" said that "it was imbued with a deep sense of the Greek genius, and was at the same time a powerful drama in the modern spirit."

NEW HAVEN, Sept. 18.—Contrary to popular belief, the papers read during the last week at the sessions of the British Association for the Advancement of Science demonstrated that the mystery of life is deeper than it ever was and that the mystery of death grows deeper, said Prof. James J. Walsh, Medical Director of the Fordham University School of Sociology, in an address tonight before the fourth clinical congress, which opened to-day at Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale University.

The body is made of cells, Dr. Walsh said, but the cell, instead of growing less mysterious as the result of prolonged study, has grown ever so much more mysterious than it used to seem.

He quoted Prof. Donnan’s statement before the association that "The day is nearer when the physiologist will be able to create life, and there is no reason why life on a physio-chemical plane should not be constructed by the creation of living cells," but pointed out that Prof. Donnan at once qualified his statement by the remark that "these cells would be of the most primitive kind and the creation of even so low an organism as the sponge would be unthinkable."

Dr. Walsh spoke on "What the Mind Does to the Body", and said that the mind can produce the symptoms of many diseases and discomforts in the body, and when it does, only the mind can cure such affections. The body, he said, is just as mysterious a the mind, "and while we know a great deal about it, we are only beginning to know how much there is about it that we do not know."

He advanced the theory that the mind and body are not separate things, but are one thing. "The mind," he said, "represents the principle of life in the body, and the two are so intimately associated that there is only a mental distinction between them."

If a man decides something will help him, it usually does, Dr. Walsh said. . . .

"When we hear about magnets and Leyden jars and toy electrical machines and Mesmer’s battery curing lame backs and lame shoulders and lumbago and sciatica and the rest, it is not surprising that we should hear also of chiropractic and osteopathy and Christian Science and New Thought curing people of all sorts of ills and ails and especially pains and aches."—New York World.

Vienna, Feb . 11, 1928—(AP.)—Hundreds of physicians gathered today at headquarters of the Austrian Society for Psychic Research and watched in amazement as Paul Diebel, 30-year-old Silesian miner, had daggers, nails and knives thrust into his body without evincing indication of pain or producing a flow of blood.

This was the first time a group of qualified scientific men had witnessed his astounding exhibition. They pronounced it genuine.

Witnesses said that Diebel thrust a dagger through his forearm so that the instrument protruded on the other side. He showed his arm around the room before he withdrew the dagger. Not once did he wince and he did not shed a drop of blood.

The miner next, "by concentration of will power," caused drops of blood to trickle through the wall of his stomach, following with expulsion of blood from the knee.

His most dramatic act was to make a large cross in blood appear on his back, the blood being forced to the surface apparently by uncanny exercise of will power.

Diebel concluded his exhibition by allowing one of the spectators to shoot a large metal bolt into his chest by means of a catapult. He then calmly withdrew the missile with no show of pain and permitted physicians to examine the bloodless wound produced.—San Francisco Examiner.

An Indian College in Montpelier, founded by Prof. Patrick Geddes, is soon to accommodate Indian students in the fair and friendly land of France, whose hospitality to Indians and all foreigners is well-known. Dr. Rabindranath Tagore, Sir J. C. Bose and other distinguished Indians are on the Advisory Committee. This institution will provide special facilities to Indian students who wish to study abroad.

Dr. Edmond Locard, formerly director of the police laboratory at Lyons and now one of the best-known medico-legal experts in Paris, has interested himself in the strange case of Joany Gaillard, who is reported to possess powers which natural science in its present state fails to explain.

According to Dr. Locard, Gaillard possesses the power to mummify animal tissues by the simple touch of his hands. Among the objects which he produced for the doctor’s inspection were a mutton chop, hard as wood, and showing no signs of decomposition, and mummified bodies of a pigeon, a perch and an eel.

The doctor’s examination of these specimens and of Gaillard has satisfied the scientist that there really lies an extraordinary power in the touch of the man’s hands. Gaillard has for a long time studied hypnotism and magnetism, but it was not until last December that he discovered his gift.

Gaillard claims, and the doctor has not denied this claim, that his gift can arrest the growth of cancer by being applied to the noxious tissues. From the commissary of Police Dr. Locard obtained a cocaine addict, who was submitted to Gaillard’s treatment and immediately lost all desire for the drug. Gaillard declines to treat a patient whose case has not been first submitted to a regular physician.—New York Times.

Death by falling from great heights is pleasant—provided the smash-up at earth is thorough. Professor Heim of Zurich, who stated so recently, once fell off a precipice of Mount Saentis. He lit on his head and distinctly heard the thud. Stout, he recovered; introspective, he recalled his falling sensations. Delicious music soughed by his ears. He was very clam. Only after an hour from his rocky landing did he feel the pain of his broken bones.

The experience set him researching. He questioned Alpinists who had tumbled over precipices. He talked with people fallen with disabled airplanes, with foiled suicides. From all he got a concurrence of testimony; that their thoughts were lucid and followed each other with weird swiftness, that they were fully aware of, and resigned to death, that music sounded. Some felt as if they were passing through rosy clouds. None felt pain immediately upon striking earth.—Time.

BERLIN, October 4.—Two Munich scientists have succeeded in photographing the waves of electric current that flow from the human body. By means of amplification the current was magnified to a point at which pictures could be taken, showing a series of sparks radiating from the fingers of an outstretched hand.

Only when the skin is dry and the fingers move will the current flow into space, the photograph shows, though even a slight movement will then produce electrical sparks.

When the fist is closed and opened rapidly the oscillations increase proportionately in strength.

The scientists believe their research work will show the body’s nervous system to be an intricate and delicate electrical network with the brain as a semi-automatic switchboard.—New York Times.

Dr. Sudhindra Bose of the University of Iowa and his wife, Mrs. Anne Z. Bose of Lindenwood College, Missouri, have recently returned to America from a trip of several months to India, where they were warmly welcomed by the Indian press and many friends, and honored with many public functions given by various clubs and organizations of India.

In reply to a question asked her by Swami Yogananda, Mrs. Bose wrote: "You would like to know what I think of my Indian sisters. I have a good deal of love, respect and admiration for them, for their sweetness and patience. Surely we in America can learn much from them, and I, for one, did."

The First India Conference of America was held during October in New York City and achieved notable success in its aim to more fully present to American understanding the various aspects of Indian culture and her place in the world of today. The Conference opened with an exhibition of modern Hindu paintings at Corona Mundi Art Center. Among those who contributed to the success of the Conference were Madame Sarojini Naidu, who spoke on "Indian Womanhood," Dhan Gopal Mukerji, whose topic was "What has India to Contribute to Modern Civilization?"; Rev. J. T. Sunderland, on "America’s Interest in India"; Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy, on "Recent Discoveries in Hindu Art and Archaeology"; Hari G. Govil, director of the Conference; Prof. Herbert Adams Gibbons, Prof. Harry F. Ward, Mr. Robert Morss Lovett, Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard, Prof. George O. C. Haas of the International School of Vedic and Allied Research; Mr. Brian Brown, editor of "Wisdom of the Hindus"; Prof. S. L. Joshi of Dartmouth College; Prof. E. R. A. Seligman of Columbia University, Dr. Alfred W. Martin of the Ethical Culture Society; Rev. John Haynes Holmes of Community Church; Sri Ragini, distinguished interpreter of Hindu songs and dances; Mr. Claude Bragdon, noted writer; Dr. V. R. Kokatnur; Mr. H. T. Muzumdar; Swami Gnaneshwarananda; Mr. N. Thakar; Mr. H. K. Rakhit; Bishop Paul Jones, and Swami Yogananda, who will be a guest of honor at a banquet to be given by the India Society of America in New York City in January.

Extracts from a recent dispatch from the Bombay correspondent of the New York Times are given below:

"One of the finest known gems of the Hindu temple-builder’s art is being brought to light near Kidrapore in Kilhapur, one of the native states of the Bombay Presidency. Enough of it has now been laid bare to identify it as a unique jewel among the master creations of Hindu architecture, a dream in stone, dedicated to Siva and enriched with all the lesser gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon. Beneath the cool interlacing branches of the pipal and banyan, at a point where the sacred Krishna River suddenly loops itself into a crescent, this fine achievement of Indian art has proved to be in a remarkable state of preservation. . . It belongs to the Chalukyan period, which dates it somewhere between the years 1000 and 1200. . .

"Hindu sculpture is perhaps without an equal elsewhere in the world. The Kidrapore sculpture is overpowering. A greater ingenuity in intricate design it would hardly be possible to imagine. The roof of the star-shaped shrine is supported by rows of pillars delicately carved with representations of episodes from Hindu mythology and social life. Around the central shrine the scheme of the great temple is far more intricate than usual, for the innumerable geometrical patterns known to the ancient Indian have been worked in numberless involutions into the planning of the outer walls.

"The walls themselves are a revelation even to students of Hindu archaeology. The first tier, just above the base, has been done in a wonderful scroll-work pattern with small figures of Hindu gods and goddesses intricately involved in it, some of them garlanded, others bearing gifts in their outstretched arms, still others playing on musical instruments. . . The dominant note of this tier is its essential humanity. Human figures in ecstasies of joy crowd into niches and corners and onto the backs of elephant and bulls. All the gestures of graceful womankind are exhibited from the foreground and from the deeply shadowed recesses of this remarkable tier. . ."

A new edition, the sixth, of Swami Yogananda’s book, "The Science of Religion," the essence of his Master’s teachings, has just been issued. The first edition was published in India, and all subsequent editions have come out in America. This sixth edition contains a new Preface by the distinguished English poet and philosopher, Douglas Grant Duff Ainslie. Among Mr. Ainslie’s literary activities has been the authorized translation into English of a number of volumes by the eminent Italian philosophers, Benedetto Croce. An autobiography, dealing with Mr. Ainslie’s very interesting diplomatic and literary career, is the latest work from his pen. It is called "Adventures, Social and Literary."

"He who has

No possessions which he would gather

With thoughts of gain;

Who has naught with which he would not have

The strength to part; who thinks firmly

—He possesses

The lasting and beauteous delight."

—Mongol saying

Madame Sarojini Naidu, leading Hindu feminist, orator, writer, poet and stateswoman, former president of the Indian National Congress and former Mayor of Bombay, arrived in New York on October 26th for a lecture tour of America.

Madame Naidu will lecture all over America and part of Canada until probably the beginning of March, 1929, or later. Her lecture subjects will include "Interpretations of Indian Womanhood"; "The Mystic Spinner-An Intimate Study of Mahatma Gandhi"; "Interpretations of the Spiritual Life of India," and recitals from her own published and unpublished poems.

On the day following her arrival in America, the Naidu Reception Committee of the Hindu residents of New York gave a luncheon in honor of Madame Naidu, at the Town Hall. Photographers of the Paramount News were present and took a motion picture news reel of the events of the luncheon, including the presentation of a flower-garland of welcome given, with blessings, to Madame Naidu by Swami Yogananda, on behalf of the Hindus in America.

Those present were Mr. and Mrs. Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Mr. Hari G. Govil, director of the India Conference; Charles D. Isaacson, managing editor of the New York Morning Telegraph and nephew of Lord Reading, former viceroy of India; Felix Valyi, editor "Review of Nations"; Swami Yogananda; Mr. R. L. Bajpai, general secretary of the India Society of America; Mr. Williams Feakins; Mr. Savel Zimand, author of "Living India"; Mr. H. Muzumdar; Miss Premala Shahane; Mr. B. K. Roy, noted writer; Mr. and Mrs. S. N. Ghose, and the musician Ragini.

Among the organizations who have already arranged to have Madame Naidu come to their cities are the following: Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Detroit, Nov. 21st; Poetry House, New York, Nov. 23rd; Emil G. Hirsch Center, Chicago, Dec. 3rd; Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Dec. 7th; Wednesday Club, Rome, N.Y., Dec. 12th; Women’s Canadian Club, Montreal, Dec. 14th; The People’s Forum, Outremont, Canada, Dec. 16th; lectures under the management of Mrs. E. Poehler, Minneapolis, Jan. 15-16th; Kansas League of Women Voters, Topeka, Kansas, Feb. 6th; Women’s City Club, Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 7th; Current Event Lecture Series, Palm Beach, Fla., Feb. 13th; a lecture in Washington, D. C. Feb. 18th; Wellesley College, Mass., Feb. 24th; and Community Church, New York, Feb. 28th. Madame Naidu will make only four exclusive appearances on the Pacific Coast—lecturing once in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Sacramento—during the week of January 20-30th. Other clubs and organizations are arranging to have Madame Naidu come to their cities by getting in touch with her manager, Mr. William Feakins, Times Bldg., New York.

Swami Yogananda urges his 20,000 Yogoda students in America to hear this eminent daughter of india when she comes to their city. Newspapers will announce the dates and details of her local appearances.

Madame Naidu, a member of a very ancient and distinguished Brahmin family of Bengal, speaks and writes most perfect and vivid English. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature of England, and has written four volumes of exquisite poetry, published in

America by Dodd, Mead & Company, called "The Feather of the Dawn"; "The Broken Wing"; "The Bird of Time" and "The Golden Threshold." The poems of the last three volumes are soon to be issued in one volume. One of her beautiful verses, published recently in the Indian Review, is given here:

I ask thee no reward!

Content am I, O Love’s anointed Lord,

Unknown to thee to serve, confirm, fulfill

Thy daily word and will.

My dreams, unknown to thee,

Are thy spread carpet, and thy canopy

To shield from life’s inclement cold or heat,

Thy forehead and thy feet.

How doth my heart transmute,

Itself into a subtle, silver flute,

To lure thy care, to conquer thy distress,

Enchant they weariness.

Tho’ thou are unaware,

The ecstasy and anguish of my prayer

Hourly redeem from the sharp toll of death.

Thy fragile human breath.

Greetings to all Yogoda students everywhere, on the occasion of the coming spiritual Christmas season.

The truth of Yogoda is marching steadily on through the territories of dark ignorance. New regions have been conquered by the armies of divine love. Soldiers of superstition, narrowness, misunderstanding and dogmatism are on the run. Wake, soldiers of Yogoda! Train yourselves in the art of self-control. Drill yourselves by regular meditation. The message of Christ was not of weakness. His message is of power, which can rout the legions of ignorance. His method of battle is more powerful than all the machine guns and bombshells of the world armies. Before the power of love, the asphyxiating gases of international hatred and bigotry, and the colossal ammunition of war, are belittled and strengthless.

To answer war by war, hatred by hatred, wickedness by evil, caste and class prejudice by retaliation, does not solve, but increases, the problem.

Let us make this coming Christmas season an occasion not merely for exchange of gifts and feastings. Let us rise above the plane of candies and gaudy things. Let us learn to hear the command of the Christ-general within us. Let us discipline ourselves to develop our sleeping spiritual powers, that we may conquer the Satan of ignorance, with all his allurements and delusions. Let us establish the Prince of Peace within us that we may meet our crosses and tests of life with power, victory and tranquillity. Let us learn to love those who love us not. Let us give battle to evil only by good. Let us meet religious bigotry by our inner conviction won by realization. Let us influence the error-stricken with our healthy spiritual examples. Let us live Christ in wisdom, love and meditation, and thereby show others how to be true disciples of the Christ they worship.

Let us break all our mental boundaries of color, creed and nationality, and receive all—even our inanimate and animal brothers—in the endless, all-embracing arms of our Christ-consciousness. This will be true celebration of the coming of Christ on earth.

When thirsty for God

I left the portals of parental love

And became a wanderer

(Called by thy magnetic will)

In the sacred city of Benares

Where Ganges laps the feet of saints,

I met thee

—Thou polestar of my shipwrecked thoughts—

And was shown the Limpid Lake

Wherein I and all may quench our thirst.

Thou great bond of Sat-Sanga1

Fellowship’s invisible cord

‘Tween East and West,

‘Tween two poles of boisterous activity

And calm spirituality.

In thy teachings science of matter and of spirit

Forsake their age-old feud

And meet in Yogoda’s balanced realm

Never to part again.

The message of Babaji

And Mahasaya Lahiri

Has come through thee

To link truth and theology,

To bridge religions and realization,

To reach God by meditation,

To crush the walls of darkness

By the flood of wisdom’s light.

Rise, sleeping world, awake!

Sons of God have come to take

The burden of your cries away.

O, awakener of the Christ in me,

With loving reverence I bow to thee.

________

1Sat-Sanga is fellowship of religions and of the good in all.

2Yogoda is the scientific technique for developing body, mind and soul harmoniously.

3Babaji is the Supreme Master of the Yogoda Sat-Sanga movement in America and India. His disciples claim that he is several hundred years old.

4Lahiri Mahasaya was the disciple of Babaji. The former revived the art of realization and practical Yoga on a grand scale in Bengal and India, teaching thousands of disciples. He was an ideal prophet and Christly man, while married and performing the duties of ordinary life. We can picture saints in the forests, but when we find them in the jungles of civilization, then we can hold hopes of spiritual salvation for the worldly man.

His disciple and my Master is Swami Sri Yukteswar Giriji. The inspiration and command for the spread of Yogoda Sat-Sanga in America is due to him. The whole credit belongs to him. He is one of the world’s greatest intellectual and spiritual giants. In him, East and West meet. He came to unite the best in Eastern and Western civilizations. His message combines the necessary lessons of material and spiritual life, bridging the chasm existing between theology and true inner realization.

One of the main causes of arthritis, rheumatism and many other diseases is auto-intoxication, which is due to faulty elimination. Uneliminated, decayed food stays like a paste of glue on the walls of the intestines and is absorbed into the blood. Disease naturally follows.

Progressive doctors are endorsing the plan of a fruit juice or complete fast, one day each week. Another sensible medical recommendation which will improve the health of the average man who lives on the ordinary diet, is to evacuate the intestines and flush the bowels completely once or twice a month by a day of drinking only vegetable juices or two or three quarts of water. This general house-cleaning is helpful. To flush the drains and pipes of the arteries every now and then is to prevent them from becoming clogged with poisons.

A beggar has no choice; he receives whatever is given to him out of kindness. But a son has a perfect right of possession over his father’s treasures.

The inequalities of fortune and so-called luck are due to deeper pre-natal and post-natal causes, which are partly created by begging instead of demanding from God. When we beg, we are limited. We receive then only according to the measure of our merits and the limitations of our environment. But when we demand as heirs of our Universal Father, we have access to perfect health, balanced prosperity and deep wisdom.

We have been beggars long—to become again conscious of our kinship with God requires time, discipline and meditation. All nature’s treasures and forces wait upon and willingly serve those who realize their divine identity. Such people do not seek prosperity—it seeks them. So we should have God first, seeking spiritual prosperity, and all else will be added. Perform your spiritual duties with undivided attention, and your material duties of life with good attention. Keep you feet on the ground and your head above the clouds of ignorance in the realms of the eternal sunshine of wisdom.

Curd is one of the best substitutes for meat. It is made by curdling one quart of milk, heated in a double boiler, by adding the juice of one orange and one-half a lemon at the time the milk begins to boil. When the milk separates, the solid curd will be found floating over slightly green water beneath. Drain the curd through a cheesecloth and let it drip for a half-hour.

A whole-wheat pie-crust filled with Heinz’s peanut butter makes a delicious pie. It is a good substitute for meat and far more wholesome than most pies.

An even better filling is a paste of thoroughly ground-up pecans, or almond butter, to which brown sugar and cinnamon have been added.

Make little balls, imitation egg-yolks, of boiled and mashed yellow split peas, or steamed corn meal, mixed with a pinch of sugar, salt, powdered mustard and onion juice or finely chopped raw onion. Cover the "yolk" with mashed potatoes, rolling it on your palm to make it look like an egg. Dip these vegetable eggs in to a deep pot of hot Crisco. When they are cooked, place them on absorbent paper to drain off the Crisco. A paste of English mustard is sometimes served with these eggs.

Fresh solid curd, mixed with a little dry flour (to hold), is even better than mashed potatoes as a covering for the "yolks." Curd looks like the white of an egg, and corn meal, or especially yellow split peas, look like the yolk, and make a perfect vegetable "egg."

"Remember always that the deepest truth,

The truest of all, is actually unspeakable,

Cannot be argued about, dwells far above

The region of articulate demonstration;

It must be felt by trial

And indubitable direct experience;

Then it is known once and forever."—Goethe.

During your moments of fondest utopian dreams, have you ever pictured such a thing possible as a composite Bible—one containing parallel excerpts from the greatest Sacred Scriptures of the world? Mind you, not a commentary on the Bibles of the world, but a book which contains the most valuable passages from over sixty of the known Bibles of the world, the teaching of the Masters of Wisdom.

This epoch-making book, filled with the essences of the wisdom of all the ages, represents the work of twenty-four years on the part of Dr. Frank L. Riley. He has traced the golden thread of Truth back for more than 11,000 years! The result is that he has linked up passages from the various Bibles with all that is good, true and beautiful in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures and in complete agreement therewith. Absolutely non-sectarian, and equally helpful to the Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jew, Buddhist, Mohammedan, Philosopher or Metaphysician.

What a few sectarian writers have done in this modern day for history, for literature, for philosophy, has at last been done for religion by the author of "The Bible of Bibles." Indeed, it has been done more perfectly, because the exact passages are given. The wisdom of the ages is concentrated in one book.

It requires no abstruse scholarship to understand "The Bibles of Bibles." There is an index which gives the student the key thoughts on every page. Both the learned and the unlearned will gain inspiration and help from its priceless pearls of wisdom—some of the deepest mysteries of time and eternity. The student can study this Bible for a lifetime and not exhaust its treasures, embodying, as it does, a complete philosophy of life.

No earnest Truth-seeker can afford to be without "The Bible of Bibles." Undoubtedly, never in your present life have you had such an opportunity as this: to obtain and have as your own a beautiful book of priceless treasures of wisdom of the ages, gathered together and carefully chosen from the greatest and deepest sources; sources and treasures that have withstood the acid test of time, that have outlived the birth and passing of nations and empires, that no moth or rust could corrupt and which thieves could neither break through nor steal.

As an ideal Christmas gift for a friend or loved one, "The Bible of Bibles" stands supreme.

More fully descriptive literature sent on request, but the publishers are so confident of the rare value of The Bible of Bibles that they are willing to refund your money if not fully satisfied after examining the Book.

J. D. ROWNY PRESS, Publishers

635 Lebanon St. Los Angeles, Calif.

The famed Syrian poet, Kahlil Gibran, has set down in this book his conception of the contemporary opinion about Jesus. Seventy-six characters, among them Pontius Pilate, Mary Magdalen, Caiaphas, John the Baptist, Judas, a Roman soldier, Salome and a Jewish innkeeper, are brought to life again by Mr. Gibran to tell of the reactions made upon them by the gentle Nazarene.

Annas, the high priest, says of him: "He was of the rabble, a brigand, a mountebank and a self-trumpeter."

But John says: "Jesus the man of Nazareth was the host and mouthpiece of the Christ. I pursued his footprints and trod in his path to hear the words of the Christ."

The prose is exquisitely beautiful. Fifteen illustrations by the author enhance the charm of the book.

India: Its Character —By J. A. Chapman.

A most sympathetic, charming and wholly informal presentation of India as seen through the eyes of an Englishman, long resident in India and the librarian of the Imperial Library, Calcutta. The lives of his many Indian friends and acquaintances, with their faults and virtues, are described with brotherly understanding and not a little penetrative humor.

A new and instructive book for the enlightenment of the Westerner on the Life, Teaching and Order of the Blessed One. The four noble truths, the noble eight-fold path and other conceptions of Buddhism, are clearly explained in the form of question and answer.

This illuminating book continues to arouse the most enthusiastic interest, George Dorsey calls it "a masterpiece of humanization." Madame Amelita Galli-Curci and Homer Samuels praise it in superlatives. "It is a text warmed and informed," writes Zona Gale, "by the divination of its remarkable author."

An answer to Miss Mayo’s book, by the eminent Hindu leader, Lala Lajpat Rai, member of the Indian Legislative Assembly, and editor of "The People."

(Vedanta Society, 34 W. 71st St., N.Y.) $2.00.

This new book by the learned leader of the Vedanta Center in New York throws much light on the problems of Karma, reincarnation, Yoga, concentration, worship, evolution and spiritual regeneration. There are very interesting chapters on the Hindu woman’s ideals, the Upanishads, Buddha and the great philosopher Sankara.

Come, Mighty Mother, from the bright abode,

Lift the low heavens and hush the Earth again;

Come when the moon

Throws down a shining load

Across the sea—come back to weary men.

But if the moon throws out across the sea

Too dim a light, too wavering a way,

Come when the sunrise paves a path for Thee

Across the waters brightening into day.

Dead nations saw Thee dimly in release—

In Aphrodite rising from the foam;

Some glimmer of Thy beauty was on Greece,

Some trembling of Thy passion was on Rome.

For ages Thou has been the dim desire

That warmed the bridal chamber of the mind;

Come shining from the heavens with holy fire,

And spread divine contagion on mankind.

Descend, O Mother, to life’s imperilled land,

That we may frame our freedom into fate;

Descend, and on the throne of nations stand,

That we may build Thy beauty in the State.

Shine through the frame of nations for a light,

Move through the hearts of heroes in a song;

It is Thy beauty wilder than the night,

That hush’d the heavens

And keeps the high gods strong.

I know, Supernal Woman, Thou dost seek

No song of man, no worship, and no praise;

But Thou wouldst have dead lips begin to speak,

And dead feet rise to walk immortal ways.

Yet listen, Tender Mother, to the child

Who has no voice but song to tell his pain—

Nothing but broken numbers, faint and wild,

Thin as the music of a woodland rain.

His song is only a little twilight cry,

Less than the whisper of a river reed;

Yet Thou canst hear in it the souls that die—

Feel in its pain the vastness of our need.

I would not mar the mouth of song to tell

My life’s long passion and my heart’s long grief,

But Thou canst hear the ocean in one shell,

And see the whole world’s winter in one leaf.

So here I stand at the world’s weary feet,

And cry the sorrow of the tragic years;

I cry because I hear the world’s heart beat,

Weary of battle and worn by many tears.

For ages Thou hast breathed upon mankind

A faint wild tenderness, a vague desire;

For ages stilled the whirlwind of the mind

And sent on lyric seers the rush of fire.

Some day our homeless cries

Will draw Thee down,

And the old brightness on the ways of men

Will send a hush upon the jangling town,

And broken hearts will learn to love again.

Come with the face

That hush’d the heavens of old—

Come with Thy maidens in a mist of light;

Haste, for the night falls and the shadows fold,

And voices cry and wander on the height.

Come, Bride of God, to fill the vacant throne,

Touch the dim Earth again with sacred feet;

Come build the Holy City of white stone,

And let the whole world feel Thy bosom beat.

___________

To them that watch, this world becomes a shrine,

And every sight they see a messenger divine.

—Isaac Williams.

"Fear not, where Heaven bids ‘Come’;

Heaven’s never deaf

But when man’s heart is dumb."

—Francis Quarles.

There have been so many thrilling and inspiring events taking place recently at the Mount Washington Center, Los Angeles headquarters of the Yogoda Sat-sanga Society of America, that only the high-lights can be mentioned in this brief account.

On September 23rd, the regular monthly Hindu-American dinner took place and was attended by many notable members and friends. The dinner was preceded by the Sunday services, conducted by the residential Swami, Swami Dhirananda, who spoke on "A master of the Prehistoric Age". Several hundred people attended. About 160 of them stayed for the dinner. Among those present at the dinner and services were the following:

Mrs. H. Maybury, former president of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the present California State Chaplain of that organization. Mrs. Maybury, who is a prominent Baptist, gave a short talk, saying that she was deeply touched by the wonderful spirit of friendliness at the mount Washington Center. "The message which I have received here," she said, "will linger with me for many, many a day."

W. E. Alborta Delasco, consul of Bolivia and president of the Pan-American Consular Corps, voiced his deep appreciation of the Swami and his message. This was his first visit to the Center, and he said he was eager to come often.

Madame Leoffler de Zaruba, former prima donna of the Metropolitan and Manhattan Grand Opera Companies of New York and of the Carl Rose Grand Opera Company of Europe, was a special guest and soloist at the dinner. She said that it was always an inspiration for her to be present at the Mount Washington Center and that she would be happy to sing there often.

The Hon. James McLachlan spoke very inspiringly. Mr. J. E. Roache, a psychologist from Hawaii, gave a talk full of fire and ardor, saying that the Mount Washington Center should be known all over the world, and that he would like to bring his four children to the Center to receive its true Christian inspiration. He said he had come to scoff but remained to pray.

Frank Doud, author of "The Evolution of the Individual", spoke also.

Among others who were present were Mrs. Richard Louis Hargreaves, prominent society matron of Beverly Hills; Beatrice Irwin, author and poet; Mr. and Mrs. Frank C. Wamsley of the Wamsley Studios of Hollywood; Franciska Berg of New York, child specialist and noted surgical masseuse; Countess Ilya Tolstoy, the tireless worker for the supporter of the Yogoda message; Mr. and Mrs. Z. Souniza, electrical engineers; and Mr. and Mrs. Otto Carque, writers and owners of the Carque Pure Food Stores. The latter, who have devoted their lives to the spread of the pure food gospel for the betterment of humanity, presented Swami Dhirananda with copies of their very helpful recipe books and their "Natural Foods—The Safe Way to Health", for the Center library.

Delightful music was furnished on this festive occasion by the Jose Arias Mexican Orchestra, popular radio artists.

"A Vedantic missionary from India spoke to a Protestant Christian church gathering for the first time in the history of Los Angeles yesterday when Swami Dhirananda of the Mount Washington Center addressed the Women’s Guild of Plymouth Congregational Church". The Swami spoke on India, pointing out that that vast land with its many languages and customs and peoples, cannot be understood by the casual tourist or superficial observer. "It is good to know," said the Swami, "that broad-minded American missionaries, working in India, have entered their public and official protest against the false picture of India presented to the western world by some sensational and unworthy writers."

On September 25th, Swami Dhirananda spoke at the Blackstone Hotel, Long Beach, on "Universal Aspects of Yoga", to a large and enthusiastic audience. On August 17th, he spoke at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Churchwell of San Bernardino. The interest was so great that the Swami spoke to his eager audience for three hours. One member of the audience was anxious to have the Swami come to San Bernardino once a month to form a class in which the children of the parents present, could be taught. The members suggested that the Swami teach their children by correspondence, if he could not personally come for a class. He is considering this suggestion.

The Swami’s Sunday subjects at Mount Washington during September and October were: "Inner Alchemy", "The Universal Religion", "St. Peter and Our Times", "The Power of Suggestion", "The Mystic Moment", "The Ancient Way" and "Kabir—A Divine Bard of India".

Interest in Swami Dhirananda’s inspiring addresses is increasing by leaps and bounds, and the Sunday audiences are growing larger and larger. One very noticeable feature, worth mentioning because rare in religious and spiritual fields, is that more men than women are attending and becoming interested in the message of Yogoda Sat-Sanga, the non-sectarian all-embracing philosophy of India.

During September, six professors from one of the local universities attended in a body. Two weeks later, twelve university students came together to hear the Swami speak on "The Ancient Way".

A new class, open to the public without charge, on Yoga philosophy, is being conducted by Swami Dhirananda on Thursdays. About eighty students attend each week. This class is preceded by a review class in Yogoda exercises for Yogoda students only.

About 450 people attended the third anniversary celebration of the Mount Washington Center, on October 28th. This Center was founded by Swami Yogananda in October, 1925, as the American headquarters for the Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society. After three years of disinterested and loving service to all who have cared to receive, the Center has established itself in the hearts of thousands in Los Angeles and all over the country. Swami Yogananda, unavoidably absent for the birthday party of his beloved Center by reason of lecture engagements in Boston, was happy to learn of the tremendous enthusiasm and loyalty shown by the old and new members.

Swami Dhirananda spoke on "The Growing Mind". He preceded his address by a short history of the Yogoda Sat-Sanga work, telling of his life-long association with Swami Yogananda, their spiritual relationship in India, their starting out, first in India and then in America, with the sole motive of giving out to humanity that priceless spiritual knowledge that had been given so generously to them, the step-by-step progress of the work in this country, the founding of the Mount Washington Center, the lectures of Swami Yogananda for the last five years in many of the large American cities, the founding of many branch Centers in various cities, and the activities and progress of the non-sectarian work in general.

Mr. James McLachlan, former U. S. congressman and former district attorney of Los Angeles, who has rendered inestimable services to the Yogoda cause during the last four years by his kind heart and wise mind, was Master of Ceremonies. He gave a short talk, telling of his meeting Swami Yogananda in Los Angeles in January, 1925, of the early struggles and triumphs of the Center in Los Angeles and of the inspiring growth of the Yogoda movement at the present time.

Mr. McLachlan then introduced Mr. J. H. MacDowell, internationally known architect, and a member of the National Committee of the Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society of America. This was Mr. MacDowell’s first visit to the Mount Washington Center and he voiced his surprise and pleasure at the large gatherings and the inspiring services at the Center, stating that he wished the Yogoda Centers in the eastern part of America could see the wonderful work being done at their Mother Center in Los Angeles.

Professor Karl T. Waugh, dean of the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Southern California, gave a talk on India. Professor Waugh, although an American, was born in India. He spoke of the deeply satisfying and enlightening philosophy of India and the impress it had made on his own life, adding that he believes that Los Angeles is going to be a Mecca for people who are sincerely interested in India and its ancient civilization.

Mr. James Warnack, church editor of the Los Angeles Times, gave a short talk of appreciation for the work of the Center. Miss Sita LePage gave a very fine interpretation of Swami Dhirananda’s "An Invocation to Lord Buddha."

Leslie Brigham of the Los Angeles Grand Opera Association sang "God Shall Wipe Away all Tears," by Sullivan. The entire audience sang the Om Song.

A half hour was devoted to a showing of moving pictures of various famous places in India.

This program was followed by the monthly Hindu-American dinner, attended by 275 members and their guests. A score more wished to attend, but could not be accommodated, as the committee in charge of the dinner arrangements had not expected such a large number of people.

Many distinguished members and guests were present at the services and dinner. Countess Ilya Tolstoy had as her guests: Professor de Morandini of the University of Southern California; Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Coulter of Pasadena; Elizabeth Eaton Burton, President of the French Salon of Hollywood, writer and artist; Dr. and Mrs. P. Pildio from Finland; Mrs. Mabel A. Luther, mother of the famous film star, Irene Rich; Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Jackson with three friends; Mr. and Mrs. Huber of Hollywood with three friends; Miss Mary Sackett; Miss Lillian Lewis, daughter of Col. F. Lewis of San Francisco; Mr. and Mrs. Frank Wamsley of Hollywood with five friends; Mrs. Gemming, poet, with several friends; Mrs. Overton and guest from Philadelphia; Mrs. Shambaugh, Mrs. M. Pierson, Mrs. Erickson, and Professor George Day of Occidental College, with his wife and two guests.

Mrs. H. Maybury, California State Chaplain of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was a guest at the table of Mr. James McLachlan.

A delegation of twelve people from San Bernardino was present; also students and friends from Long Beach and other parts of California.

An empty chair was reserved in honor of Swami Yogananda, founder and head of the Institution, with a large plaque picture of him on the table.

Madame Alma Real, famous Mexican prima donna, sang two beautiful numbers. Leslie Brigham delighted the dinner guests with the songs, "Heav’n, Heav’n" by Burleigh and "Il Lacerato Spirito" from Verdi’s opera, "Simon Boccanegra."

The Jose Arias Mexican Orchestra played very beautiful music all during the dinner. The patio was attractively lighted with colored lights, and over the patio bridge the musicians, dressed in Spanish costumes, played in serenade fashion. The French windows of the banquet hall were opened into the patio and the effect was very charming.

A new glass-roofed patio was finished in time for the anniversary celebration. The soil there has been piled up like little hills and planted with maiden hair, Australian and mountain ferns, begonias, moss, many tropical plants and banana trees. Amidst it all, a little crooked stream has been made, running under the bridge and finally emptying into a pool, with little brownies fishing all around its edges. There is a fountain, and large embankments covered with moss, ferns and tropical plants. Spotlights under the bridge throw streams of light on the running water, making beautiful shadows through the ferns. It looks like the woods and smells like it, too.

Just outside the patio, a very large circular water-lily pool has been made. Trees, ferns and many plants, including two rare ones for South America, are planted nearby. Everyone was delighted with these new additions to the scenic beauty of the Mount Washington Center grounds.

The Center was a mass of flowers for the anniversary festivities. Scores of students brought them. The lawn and entrance to the Center from Mount Washington Drive were decorated with American flags, bunting and wreaths of flowers.

A picture is given in this issue, of the new pulpit appointments—all anniversary gifts of members—in the main lecture hall of the Center. New rose-tan velour drapes, artistically arranged under the direction of the Misses Helen and Jeanette Dunlap, hang from the ceiling on the wall behind the pulpit.

The Yogoda emblem, with the star of the spiritual eye, embossed in gold, blue and silver by Mrs. Ethel Faus and Miss Nina Parshall, is hung beneath the drapes. Lighting effect and spotlights on the emblem and drapes are the work of Mr. K. Kristell, Mr. J. Goldspring and Mr. W. Kauffman. A beautiful massive lectern, to hold the Bible, Gita and other sacred books on the pulpit, was the gift of Mr. and Mrs. W. Rudert. A chair to go with it, of hand-carved birch, imported from Belgium, was presented by Mrs. Ada Day and Mrs. R. P. Rogers. Two large Italian terra cotta jars with ferns complete the new appointments of the pulpit.

Another lovely anniversary present, from Mrs. Stoy, was a large white square of wood, in which the following passage from the Upanishads has been burned by hand in old English letters: "Lead me from the unreal to the real; Lead me from darkness to light; Lead me from death to immortality."

Other gifts in honor of the third birthday of the Center included a beautiful picture of Christ walking on the water, from Mrs. Ada Day; thirty dollars in gold from one student; forty dollars for water-lilies for the pool from another student; and three large birthday cakes from Miss Winifred Bugbee. These were served at the end of the anniversary banquet, by the waitresses, all dressed in Hindu costumes.

The decorating, which was carried out principally in ferns and yellow chrysanthemums, was in charge of Miss M. Windberg. The committee in charge of the anniversary dinner consisted of Misses Helen and Jeanette Dunlap, Miss I. Young, Miss W. Bugbee, Miss Nina Parshall, Miss N. Beede, Mrs. Schramm, Miss M. Windberg, Mrs. Windberg, Mrs. Saunders, Miss Cavasaz, Miss Rookwood, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Law, Mrs. Fernandez, Miss Perry, Miss Dunham, Mrs. MacNeal and Miss A. Parisia.

The new pool was the work of Mr. U. R. Sells, Mr. Al Crossman, Mr. L. Bryant and Mr. George Selix.

A Hallowe’en Party was given at the Mount Washington Center on November 3rd, attended by about 100 people. Masks were worn and many joyous games played. Pumpkin pies, apply cider and other typical Hallowe’en refreshments were served. The famous mule, Spark Plug, put in an appearance.

The Mount Washington Helpers’ Association are very busy making hand-painted Christmas cards with various beautiful designs of spiritual significance.

A magazine reading-room at the Center has recently been opened to the public.

George Liebling, celebrated composer and pianist, and a distinguished Yogoda member, will be the guest of honor at the next Hindu-American dinner at the Mount Washington Center on December 9th. Mr. Liebling, who was a pupil of the immortal Lizst, will play his own composition, "The Voices of the Wind," for the guests at the dinner. The Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society possess the copyright to this song, through the gift of Mr. Liebling. It was first published by Mr. Liebling and Sir Edwin Arnold in London in 1900 and had a remarkable sale. The Center is expecting a large attendance to greet Mr. Liebling. He will be the soloist for the Philharmonic Society Orchestra in Los Angeles on December 6th and 7th.

An American opera in English, "The Texas Rose," with music by Mr. Liebling and the libretto by his equally famous wife, Alice Liebling, will be produced next spring in New York. This composition, in the opinion of Baroness Katharine Evans von Klenner, president of the National Opera Club of America, is "the long looked for Great American Opera."

"I believe in prayer, and I conceive

That prayer should be addressed

To the Highest Being,

Leaving to Him the way it is to be answered.

Agents may be employed to carry it out,

But it is not necessary to pray

To any but the Highest,

Always subject to the limitation

That not our will, but His, should be done.

We have nothing to do with deciding

As to how and what should be done."

The Buffalo Yogoda Center has an open meeting each Sunday night at the Statler Hotel, with a students’ meeting on Tuesday nights. Fine lectures have been given recently by Dr. William Gall, and Mr. Wilson, a prominent Buffalo attorney. Extracts from the writings of Swami Yogananda are read by Mrs. Anna Krantz, leader. The Center recently enjoyed a lecture by Dr. Bhagat Thind.

The Yogoda students of Swami Yogananda’s recent classes in Philadelphia have been meeting at Palmer School Auditorium, twice a week, for further study. Brahmachari Jotin of Washington visited this Philadelphia Center on September 26th and addressed over 200 students on "Religion and love." Dr. A. D. Williams, Philadelphia physician and secretary of the new Center, gave a talk on October 3rd on "The Law of Self-Development." The healing exercises are used at all meetings, and many fine testimonials of benefits received have been reported.

Professor S. L. Joshi of Dartmouth College visited Washington recently and addressed the Yogoda Center there at the invitation of Swami Yogananda and Mr. Louis E. van Norman. Professor Joshi gave a very interesting talk which was much appreciated by the Center members.

Brahmachari Jotin, leader, continues his Sunday evening lectures at Stoneleigh Court, and has several small study classes during the week for Biblical interpretation. An interesting new feature of the Washington Center is the junior Yogoda study group each Sunday morning.

The Afro-American Yogoda Center in Washington invited Brahmachari Jotin to open its autumn program on October 21st. He spoke to them on "Religion and How to apply it." Mrs. M. Mayo, leader, continues her regular Sunday vesper services and Wednesday student groups each week.

The Detroit Yogoda Center holds open meetings on Wednesday and Sunday nights. Brahmachari Nerode, leader is giving a series of lectures on the philosophy of the great thinkers of the world. An anniversary party in honor of Brahmachariji’s completion of two years of service at the Detroit Center was given on October 7th, when he was presented with a gift of $100 from the students. The Center held its annual summer picnic sometime ago on beautiful Belle Isle. During the summer months a Sunday Sunrise meeting was held in various quiet parks each week. A series of fortnightly suppers and entertainments are being planned by this Center. Mrs. G. Russell and Prof. G. H. Carr, musician, donated the funds for the purchase of a Center piano, and another student has given the Center a stove for the preparation of the Hindu suppers. Through the efforts of Miss S. Lewis, various social activities, including a party on Halllowe’en, have been very successful. There will be a Bazaar held by the energetic Detroit Yogoda Center during late November.

The Cincinnati Yogoda Center held its second Rummage Sale on October 27th, with a profit of $133.00. The following day, Brahmachari Nerode arrived from Detroit, and addressed a large and enthusiastic gathering of Cincinnati students and guests. The next evening he was the guest of honor at an informal social. During his visit he held a class review of the Yogoda exercises. He will pay a monthly visit to Cincinnati this winter. The Cincinnati group holds two Sunday meetings and two class reviews each month. Many wonderful results are being reported by various students through their faithfulness to the Yogoda teachings.

The Pittsburgh Yogoda Center, under the leadership of Mr. R. K. Das, reports two enjoyable picnics held this summer at beautiful Schenley Park. A social was held in September, with a fine musical program by several gifted students. Mrs. Emma N. Brierly, a Pittsburgh student who has recently returned from a visit to the Yogoda headquarters in California, gave a talk to the Pittsburgh Center, describing the beautiful Mount Washington Center and the inspiring services held there.

The Carnegie Public Library has recently given permission to the Pittsburgh Yogoda Center students to hold their Thursday evening meetings in the Committee Room of the Library. This courtesy is much appreciated. Open meetings are held by the Center each Sunday night at 3414 Fifth Avenue.

The Minneapolis Yogoda Center opened its autumn program on October 7th, with Sri Sukul as guest speaker, at the Hotel Radisson. About 400 members were present. Dr. J. S. Riley addressed several hundred Minneapolis students on November 4th. At this meeting a picture of Swami Yogananda was shown on the screen and received a great ovation from his beloved students. This Center announces a banquet to be given on December 4th to celebrate its first birthday since it was formed a year ago by Swami Yogananda. The Yogoda Board elected Mrs. Jenova Martin as leader and Mr. Nicolai Husted as president of their Center for the coming year. The students gave an enthusiastic ovation to Mr. Stanley Staring, past leader, and many other devoted Yogoda students, for the good work they performed during the past year in building up the Minneapolis Center.

The St. Paul Center opened its fall program on October 16th at Unity Truth Center rooms, and meets there each Tuesday night. This Center has opened a rental circulating library with books donated by the students.

Boston was the first city in America to receive and welcome the Yogoda Sat-Sanga message, in 1920, when Swami Yogananda arrived in that city as the delegate from India to the International Congress of Religious Liberals. The first Yogoda Sat-Sanga Center in America was established in Boston, under the local leadership of Dr. M. W. Lewis of West Somerville, who still continues in charge. For these reasons, Boston occupies a special place in the heart of Swami Yogananda. It was with great joy that he returned there in September of this year to give another series of Boston lectures.

The series was given at Symphony Hall from September 23rd to October 7th, 1928. A capacity audience of over twenty-five hundred people, an exceptional gathering for conservative Boston, was present on the opening night to greet the Swami. A Committee of Welcome for Swami Yogananda included the following Bostonians:

Professor Clarence W. Skinner of Tufts College; Dr. Raymond Phelan of Tufts College; Philip Hale, music critic of the Boston Herald; Mrs. E. Wilson Lincoln, president of the Brookline Women’s Club; Mrs. Jessie E. Southwick of the Emerson College of Oratory; John Orth, famed composer and pianist; Mrs. Fred L. Pigeon and Mrs. H. Addington Bruce, former presidents of the Boston Federation of Women’s Clubs; Mrs. Alfred Winsor, Dr. M. W. Lewis, Mrs. Carl T. Keller, Mr. Frank Beebe, Mrs. Clarence R. Edwards and Percy Lee Atherton.

Many famous musicians lent the beauty of their art to add to the interest of the Swami’s Yogoda lectures in Boston. Among them were Einar Hansen, a first violinist of the renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra; Madame Alice Baschi, noted operatic contralto soloist who has just completed a concert tour of forty-two states, and who sang at two of the Swami’s lectures; Dorothy George, famed mezzo-soprano, who sang beautifully at the opening lecture; John Orth, eminent pianist and a student for many years of Hindu philosophy; Betty Burgess, distinguished dramatic soprano; Franklin G. McManus, basso - cantate, well-known Boston concert singer and a member of the staff of the Boston Herald; Elizabeth Shaw, violinist, pupil of Kneisel and Winternitz, and Mlle. Berthe Hebert, French dramatic contralto, who sang some charming French and Creole songs in costume at one of the lectures.

Professor William Sandoz exhibited his artistic and instructive true-color pictures of Europe and the Orient during the Symphony Hall lecture series. He assisted the Yogoda work in many ways.

Swami Yogananda was a guest at a reception in honor of Mrs. Herbert Hoover given at the Copley-Plaza Hotel by Mrs. Alvan T. Fuller, wife of the Governor of Massachusetts, on October 15th.

Many clubs and organizations invited Swami Yogananda to address their members during his visit to their city. Among those for whom he spoke during October were the following:

Boston Lions Club at the Copley-Plaza; the Kiwanis Club of Cambridge on "How the Business Man can Achieve Success"; The Wallaston Men’s Club; the boston Club of Applied Psychology, and the Massachusetts College of Osteopathy on "Yogoda Methods and Osteopathic Treatment." The swami was a guest of the League of American Pen Women’s meeting at the home of Mrs. Charles H. Bond on October 29th. He addressed the New Thought Forum on September 30th on "The Relation between Yogoda and New Thought." He spoke for the League of Neighbors luncheon conference on September 27th, and again on Armistice Day. Mrs. Charles Weller, organizer of the League, extended very cordial cooperation to the Yogoda cause in Boston.

On November 6th, Swami Yogananda was the speaker from the first meeting of the season of the Professional Women’s Club. He gave his lecture on "My Mother India" by request. Madame Alice Baschi sang a group of Indian melodies. During November the Swami will also speak for the Square and Compass Club, a Boston Masonic organization; for the West Somerville’s Mother’s Club, and for the Boston Metaphysical Club. On November 20th he will be a luncheon and reception guest of the Professional Women’s Club at the Statler Hotel.

The Swami spoke over radio station WNAC on "the Art of Living" on October 19th. He also spoke on two occasions during October over station WBZ. On November 14th, he will speak over WLOE.

The various series of Yogoda lectures and classes in Boston, during September, October and November, met with great enthusiasm. The Boston Post wrote about them as follows:

"Swami Yogananda . . . recently gave a series of lectures at Symphony Hall, culminating in a class in Yogoda which has been taken advantage of by hundreds . . . Swami Yogananda has devoted his life to education. . . . His teaching is non-sectarian. He calls it Yogoda, or the technique of harmoniously developing body, mind and soul. He shows how to work fatiguelessly for long hours and how to contact cosmic consciousness by the power of super-concentration. . . . He first came to Boston in 1920. . . . Since that time he has lectured to capacity houses in most of the large cities in the United States and while in Washington was presented by the British Embassy to President Coolidge. The enthusiasm with which Yogananda was greeted here in Boston during his first series of lectures was so great that he has been pressed into giving another series of free lectures at Convention and Jordan Halls."

Among the hundreds of students in the Yogoda classes under Swami Yogananda were the following prominent Bostonians: Mrs. Joseph A. Mahoney, Boston writer and lecturer under the name of Bangs Burgess, regent of the John Paul Jones Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and founder of the International Seed Scatters, who opened her studio for the sessions of an afternoon Yogoda class; Mrs. Jessie A. Southwick of the Emerson College of Oratory, a Yogoda member since Swami’s first Boston visit in 1920, and many distinguished Boston musicians, among them Einar Hansen, Betty Burgess, Madame Alice Baschi and Marjorie Posselt.

Mrs. Ernest Thompson Seton, member of the Washington, D. C., branch of the Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society, was present at one of the sessions of the Boston Yogoda classes.

A vegetarian dinner and entertainment in honor of Swami Yogananda will be given at the Church of the redemption, Boston, on November 17th. Among the artists assisting will be Einar Hansen, Madame Alberti, Marjorie Posselt, Elizabeth Shaw, Gertrude Croft and Eleanor Pomeroy.

Governor Alvan T. Fuller of Massachusetts greeted Swami Yogananda at the State House on the latter’s arrival in Boston on September 19th.

The picture shown above, which appeared in the Boston American and the Boston Daily Advertiser, was taken on that occasion. The Governor and the Swami discussed various educational affairs of India and America.

Governor Fuller is a strong advocate of freedom of worship. During the recent presidential campaign activities, in a speech before the Massachusetts American Legion Convention, he pointed out the duty that everyone owes to himself, "to hold himself free from bigotry, intolerance and lust for persecution, which unhappily still linger. . . ."

Swami Yogananda addressed the Harvard University students at the Harvard Union Club on the evening of Armistice Day, November 11th. His lecture on "India" was received with deafening applause and sustained cheering. Large groups of collegiates gathered around the Swami after the lecture, inquiring about the ideals and practical philosophy of India.

This was the Swami’s second lecture at Harvard University. He spoke there several years ago on his first visit to Boston.

The September-October, 1928, issue of EAST-WEST had to be omitted, owing to various unforeseen delays and difficulties. All subscribers will receive an extra copy, after the expiration of their subscription, to compensate them for the loss of the September-October, 1928, issue.

The January-February, 1929, issue of EAST-WEST will appear early in January.

The editors of EAST-WEST announce with pleasure that Mr. Paul Prodis of Columbia University is writing an article for EAST-WEST on the work of Professor Jules-Bois, who is an authority in scientific circles on the super-conscious mind, its awakening and practical uses. His investigations in this field, in French laboratories associated with the Sorbonne, and elsewhere in Europe, are of exceptional interest.

Phineas Fletcher, a poet of the seventeenth century, sang of the interior splendors of man in his allegorical poem "The Purple Island" and lamented that the spirit of adventure will take man to the most distant lands:

"Yet this far Isle, sited so nearly near

That from our sides

Nor place nor time may sever;

Though to yourselves

Yourselves are not more dear,

Yet with strange carelessness you travel never."

"From Yogoda I have learned the underlying cause of my life-long nervousness, and it has given me a most helpful method of correcting it. Through Yogoda training, quiet has come to my mind."—F. M. Aldrich, 10 Warren Sq., Jamaica Plain, Mass.

"After wearing glasses for 30 years, always prescribed by a specialist, I can find no words to describe the joy I experienced in removing them at Swami Yogananda’s Healing Meeting. I have done everything that my professional and private needs call for, without glasses since that time and I thank God for the wonderful healing."—Mrs. Emma Sheehy, 344 Harvard Street, Brookline, Mass.

"Yogoda has healed me of pains in my abdomen. The pains have all gone since doing the exercises. I also wore glasses for 12 years but have now discarded them and my vision is improving and my eyes growing stronger each day. I would not part with the knowledge I have received form Yogoda for any amount of money. I also received a wonderful state of mind thru Yogoda, which I never expected to find in this life. I feel better than I ever felt in all my life."—B. Piper, 2 Alleyne Terrace, Quincy, Mass.

"I am writing this without glasses, which I have been able to do without since your Healing Meeting Sunday. On my return home, I was able to read the finest print, and am happy to find my eyes strong again, after wearing glasses for several years."—M. E. Benjamin, Fenwood Rd., Boston.

"An arm which I injured in a fall more than a year ago, and which developed a condition of neuritis, was completely healed after practicing the Yogoda exercises. Nervous condition, and ability to work under nervous tension, have greatly improved. A sense of renewed power to cope with business difficulties has come through the spiritual exercises. I should call it, Power through Peace."—Edith Burnham, Hotel Mayflower, Boston.

"I am middle-aged. Yogoda has taught me how to control and re-energize my body, which was supposed to be on the ‘down-hill’ side of life; so that now old age and tissue degeneration will be postponed, and my religious life will be, is being, deepened and more definitely expressed."—Sarah Bates (teacher), Perkins Institution for Blind, Watertown, Mass.

The following four testimonials are from a family of four students who took the Boston Yogoda class:

"I am among those individuals who think they require a great deal of sleep, and, if they do not get it, will most surely be exhausted mentally and physically the next day. During the time of Swami’s class, I was up every night until two o’clock, but I felt more rested than when, previously, I got to bed at ten."—H. B. Stanley, 312 Centre Street, Newton, Mass.

"Am pleased to be able to say that Yogoda has helped me as no other teaching. Because of retouching photo negatives eight hours or more per day, my eyes felt weak, and my nerves ‘on edge’. My head felt as though cased in iron. Since I have had the good fortune of studying under the Swami, I no longer feel tired, the pressure has been removed, and I feel like another person."—Reginald J. Stanley, 312 Centre Street, newton, Mass.

"I consider I have had a complete healing through Yogoda. Before it came to this city, I was a good as carrying a dead body around with me. Now my body is becoming more alive, as each day comes. I am getting a firm belief in my possibilities."—D. M. Stanley, 312 Centre Street, Newton, Mass.

"I am fifty-five years old. I have always been accustomed to early hours at night and a rest in the afternoon. During the week of the Yogoda class I walked many hours in the morning, had no rest in the afternoon, went to the class in the evening, did not get to bed until two in the morning, and was not one bit tired."—Mrs. C. A. M. Stanley, 312 Centre Street, Newton, Mass.

"My husband was healed of insomnia of over two years’ standing, after attending the Sunday evening healing service. We both have gained much knowledge of spiritual things, and intend to follow the teachings."—Mrs. M. S. Perry, 48 Magnolia Street, Boston, Mass.

"Have been studying along these lines for about ten years, but just seemed to be going around and around, never arriving any place. Yogoda came, and has given me the Technique I needed."—E. S. Favier, 88 Brayton Road, Brighton, Mass.

"Yogoda has meant everything to me. I have been healed of taking cold easily. I am well and have more knowledge of the true God within me through Yogoda teachings."—Rev. A. A. Gauld, 7 Essex Street, Boston, Mass.

"Five years ago, I fell, causing a compound fracture of the right ankle. It has been stiff and I could not bend it to walk naturally since that time. Have had medical attention, which only helped for a time. After your Sunday Healing Service, I was able to leave the hall, walking naturally for the first time, and have done so ever since. I feel this is only one of the blessings I shall receive from faithful study of Yogoda."—Bella Carter, 21 Quint Avenue, Allston, Mass.

"I cannot speak too highly in praise of what the Yogoda system has done for me—my health has much improved and I have a better insight into all matter of which it treats."—C. A. Frothingham, 458 Huntington Avenue, Boston.

The following testimonial of benefits received through the practice of Yogoda is given by Marjorie Posselt, Boston violinist, noted here and abroad, and teacher and sister of Ruth Posselt, phenomenal child violinist. Miss Posselt writes:

"After eight years of chronic constipation, I am now cured, after having followed the Yogoda lessons daily for three weeks. I am healed also of neuritis in the arms and shoulders, I am eternally grateful to this great system and I shall do all in my power to spread the message to others."

Swami Yogananda enjoyed the great pleasure of meeting America’s famed poet, Edwin Markham, in Boston recently and having a most delightful talk with him. "Our souls met and we rejoiced at the expansion of our feelings and deep perceptions," the Swami said later. "Mr. Markham impressed me as a divine child who, due to his simplicity and spiritual intuition, is a true singer of divine songs. His conception of Divine Womanhood is similar to that of our great Hindu poets."

Mr. Markham’s beautiful poem, "A Song to the Divine Mother," appears in this issue. Of it, Mr. Markham says:

"This song should be read in the light of the deep and comforting truth that the Divine Feminine as well as the Divine Masculine Principle is in God—that He is Father-Mother, Two-in-One. It follows from this truth that the dignity of womanhood is grounded in the Divine Nature itself. The fact that the Deity is Man-Woman was known to the ancient poets and sages, and was grafted into the nobler religions of mankind. The idea is implied in the doctrine of the Divine Father, taught by our Lord in the Gospels; and it is declared in the first chapter of Genesis in the words: ‘God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. . . . So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.’"

With wide-embracing love

Thy spirit animates eternal years,

Pervades and broods above,

Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.

Though earth and man were gone,

And suns and universes ceas’d to be,

And Thou wert left alone,

Every existence would exist in Thee.

There is not room for Death,

Nor atom that his might could render void;

Thou—Thou art Being and Breath,

And what Thou art can never be destroy’d.

5 Hand-painted Types, Original Designs — "Christmas Star,"; "Lotus of Christmas Tide,"; "Christmas Dawn,"; "Devotee at River of Life,"; "Mystic Fire,". 2 other Types—"Descending Dove" (Spiritual Baptismal Concept). Pictured Above (size greatly reduced). "Sacred Heart and Manger,"

Beautiful design in gilt and orange.