Do you realize how you spend your life? Very few of us know how much we can put in our life if we use it properly, rightly, wisely, economically. Economize your time—lifetimes ebb away before we wake up, and that is why we do not realize the value of the immortal time which God has given us. Time is spent in rushing, in racing, in getting nowhere. Very few of us stop, think and find out what life can give unto us. Do you know how may years actually you live? Most people sleep from six to ten hours a day—one-third of their life is gone. Sixty years is the average life. One-third of that, twenty to twenty-five years, is spent in unconsciousness. Thus only forty or thirty-five years are left. About five or ten years are spent in talking about nothing, and amusements. That brings it down to thirty—and out of that thirty years, what else do you do? Eat and do nothing, and of course attend to business. Business is necessary, business is for the purpose of keeping the bodily animal all right. That takes most of your time. Actually scrutinize your life—you live hardly ten years. In the morning you get up, and most of you wake with the consciousness of coffee and toast—first comes the breakfast consciousness—then rush to business. The day passes—hurry, worry, and at noon-time, coffee and doughnuts! You don’t even eat right. Evening comes—movies and dancing. You come back late at night, go to bed, get up in the morning and start in again with the breakfast consciousness. This is the way you spend your life. Sometimes you read those books that are not worth while, and perhaps sickness comes and begins to shorten your life. This world is a vast school, and in your sixty years of life many things are necessary, but if you keep only the body vehicle all right, that is not the sole purpose of life. Don’t think that just in order to be well-clothed and fed you have to have millions—you don’t have to lead a sophisticated life in order to merely feed the bodily animal. Life’s goal is much better. Ask yourself now this question—how many good books have I read in this life? Every day about two dozen new books are being printed in America on ethics, music, literature, botany, logic, science, the scriptures—how are you going to pack all this knowledge into your ten years of life? Then again, sixty years is not the life of every one; just the lucky ones have even that. What hope have you got? And yet you are idling and having bridge parties! I have no objection if you do it for a good cause. But are you going to waste your time standing on the sidewalk, watching the crowds pass by or looking through the windows at many things you don’t need and want to buy?

Are you going to waste your time by the wayside? How are you going to condense your experiences, how are you going to learn all the things you want to learn? The ordinary person does not think at all—just eats, sleeps and dies. Doesn’t your heart throb to learn everything that is going on in the world? How is it possible for the average human being to know them all? How are you going to find time to read of Jesus, or Aristotle, of all the great poets? Life seems hopelessly short when you think of that. You read a few books, and think you know it all. In the cities you have wonderful libraries, but few people go there. Think of all the knowledge of all human beings; how, in these few years, are you going to pack it in your brain? Is it possible? As long as you live on this earth, as long as the power in the eye shall give you strength to see the stars, as long as you enjoy God’s sunshine and breath His air, so long will you yearn for knowledge. Most human beings walk with an empty skull, and they think there is a brain there—they think it, that is all: they walk in emptiness. "Oh, yes, I have a wonderful library at home. Come on, I will show it to you." Beautiful but untouched! Music, poetry, science, everything is there. With all the things you want to learn you don’t want to waste your time. You are filled with unhappiness most of the time because you don’t keep the mind engaged. Think of Aristotle, Shakespeare, Maeterlinck, Lord Shankara and their works. Think of the privilege you have. You can converse with all of them at will through their wonderful books. Instead of that you are wondering all the time what show you are going to see next! It is good once in a while to be entertained, but if you spend your life gossiping about others, or being interested in others’ faults, not your own faults, the loss is yours. You have lots of house-cleaning to do yourself—you are wasting priceless time when the treasures of God are around you, ready to be received. Wisdom comes, knocks at your gate, gently asking, "Let me in," but there is no answer, no thought, no response there. Cheap, sensational novels call you hoarsely with their grossness and your thoughts rush out to receive them with open hearts. You develop a taste for inferior things thus. If you develop a liking for unwholesome cheese, you lose your taste for the good, fresh cheese. As you develop a taste for inferior things you lose taste for better things and you think yourself unable to be otherwise because of bad habit. Cultivate the habit to pick up in this life more worthwhile things. Schedule your life, read the best books in the world, don’t waste time reading this and that—pick up the best books. Read of medicine, astronomy, science, the scriptures. One thing that must be your first concern: you must find out your vocation. By contact with the Cosmic Vibration in meditation you will be led to the goal, you will be led to the thing you ought to do. Concentrate upon that thing, make yourself proficient in that. Many try ten kinds of business without getting really acquainted with any. You can’t get everything of many things—learn everything of one thing.

Still, knowledge is so vast, spiritual wisdom and all things are so vast, and though this world is vast to us, it is but a speck in the universe. How is it possible in this life to know all the wisdom that many human beings have from time to time gathered from the school of life? There are lots of things to know. The world is becoming small—every day it is growing smaller, due to transportation facilities. Soon we will have to take a trip to other planets to have adventure in travels. Electricity goes anywhere in a second—why can’t we? We are the makers of electricity. We are progressing in numerous ways, we are doing things quickly. The adoption of better methods in business and transportation, mass production by huge machinery, have quickened evolution. Think of the time of life used up just in weaving of cloth by hand in the past! That labor has been saved by modern machinery—so evolution has been quickened by the adoption of better methods. Machinery can do that. Machinery gives mass production, saves labor. How are we going to quickly weave lives into all-around success? Why can’t we quicken human evolution as well as world evolution?

How is the human brain going to acquire in a lifetime all knowledge and wisdom? That is my question. When I met Luther Burbank he showed me a walnut tree, and he said, "I took off more than one hundred years form its usual period of growth. I grew that in twelve years." And you could see the tree bearing walnuts! He made almonds have soft shells, made over the tomato and created the Shasta daisy from bulbs, and the cactus without thorns. In primitive times the different animals used to eat the cactus, so the cactus developed thorns. When one life begins to hurt another life, that life develops weapons of defense. Burbank went into the garden, looked at the cactus, and every day began to talk to the cactus. "Please, beloved Cactus, I am Luther Burbank, your friend. I don’t mean to hurt you, I am not going to hurt you at all, so why develop thorns?" And so the thornless cactus was developed by talking, by attention, by his knowledge of nature’s laws. You can impress certain vibrations on protoplasm. If the walnut tree can be made to grow in twelve years instead of one hundred and fifty years, there is a chance for human beings also. How is a human being within sixty years of existence to develop so that he can be the center of all knowledge? That is the point I want to drive home in your mind. I have shown how machinery quickened world evolution. Where did machinery come from? —from the factory of human minds. If man quickened evolution in business, man can quicken his evolution in all branches of life, including his own inner life.

In ordinary study there is a vast difference between the methods applied by teachers in India and in the West. In the West they pump into the brains of children the ideas, "How many books have you read; how many teachers have you had?" A man returned from college with a Ph.D. in making sugar from different fruits. He was asked if sugar could be made from the guava fruit. After some deep thought he said, "I did not study that. It was not in my curriculum." Using common sense was beyond him. It is not pumping from the outside in, that gives you knowledge. It is the power and largeness of receptivity within that determine how much and how quickly you can grasp knowledge. The man who has the power of receptivity quickly sees everything. An intelligent man lives far ahead of the idiot. All your experiences are measured in terms of the cup of your receptivity.

Prof. James of Harvard said that most of our habits come through heredity. Feeble-minded people, science says, cannot be helped. Scientists take measurements and believe in the stamp of heredity too much. They forget this: that by awakening the brain cells, man can quicken his evolution. The power of receptivity of the brain cells can become so great that a man can receive all the things he wants to absorb within himself, in a normal lifetime.

How can you quicken evolution? By consciously condensing all your experiences, by the power of concentration. By concentration you gather your attention, focusing it to a point. By condensation you again use your attention to quickly do a thing which ordinarily would take a long time. I will tell you of such an experience. A friend of mine said I was alright as spiritual man, but that I could not succeed in business. I replied, "I am going to make five thousand dollars in business for you, within two weeks." He said, "You will have to show me. I am from Missouri." I did not rush to invest money on unwise things. I used concentration, disengaged my mind of all disturbances, and focused my attention on one thing. (Most of us have the searchlight of our attention turned outside all the time instead of inside—we should turn the searchlight of the mind on the divine source. Every change in business, every change in the planetary system, in the physical system—everything is recorded there. We are living on one side of the universe; the other side is more tangible than this side.) So I touched that source. Ordinarily men do not concentrate—the mind is restless, and the restless mind jumps at conclusions and races for something that does not belong to it. You must obey the law. Remember, concentrate, and then ask Divine Power. Thus, as soon as I contacted that source, there were shown to me lots of houses. But I did not sit quietly in my room and say, "The Heavenly Father will open the ceiling and drop five thousand dollars in my lap," because I have favored Him with a fervent prayer. I bought the Sunday papers and looked at real estate advertisements. I picked out a few houses, and told my friend to invest his money in them. He said:

"Everything seems pretty shaky," and I said, "Never mind, doubting Thomas, don’t try to spoil success by your doubts." In two weeks there was a real estate boom and prices of houses went way up high. He sold the houses and had a clear profit of five thousand dollars. I showed him that the power of God or mind works wherever we apply it with faith.

Concentration, when directed by Divine Power, does not allow you to ramble through wrong investments—you go straight to success. Hence, if that mind power can be applied in business it can be applied in other things, in music and writing, for example. I always start from within, out, and not from without, in. All the musical instruments I play I learned that way. I was too proud to go to a teacher, and I thought, "Well, the first man that started to study about music, he did not learn from anybody; why can’t I do the same?" Start from within, not from without. That’s how anyone can get the experiences of many years within a short time. You have not to learn all the books in the library. You have not to learn everything. Knowledge, poetry, music and all knowledge come from the inner source, from the soul without limitation. How are you going to find out all the mysteries of the body and all the mystery of divine things in one short span of human life if you do not tap your inner source, which is omniscient?

There was a Hindu devotee. He was puzzled to decide what kind of scriptures he should read, and what kind of idol he should worship. (Idols are used to help fix the mind in concentration, and are kept covered in a temple so that the birds and weather will not destroy them. So he said, "Which god shall I worship?" He bought one idol, and then he would be afraid the others would get angry. He would buy another. He had two big trunks which he used to carry with him, suspended from his shoulders on a pole. Every day somebody would say, "You had better worship this idol god and that idol god, read this or that holy book,"—so heavier and heavier the trunks grew. He thought he would have to buy a third trunk. Then he thought it was not possible to have three trunks and carry those himself, so he sat by the side of a pond and began to weep; "Heavenly Father, tell me which book to read, and which idol to worship. As soon as I worship one god I think the others are getting angry." It so happened that a saint passed by that way, and seeing the crying man, said: "Son, why are you weeping? What is the matter?" "Saint, I don’t know which book to read, and look at these hundreds of idols; I don’t know which one to please." The saint said, "Close your eyes and pick up any book, and follow that book through life, and drop the idols on a rock and break them one by one. The one that does not break, worship that one." So he picked up one book. Most of the idols were made of earth, and all broke except one which was made of solid stone. Then the saint suddenly came back and said, "I forgot to tell you something. Now that you have found your god, go back home. But if you find a more powerful god than this one, worship him. Always worship the more powerful god." So the man went home and on a little altar which he had there, he put the stone idol, worshipping and offering fruits. Every day he discovered the fruit was gone, so he thought, "The saint certainly told me of the right idol god. Since he has eaten the fruits he must be a living god." One day, overcome by curiosity, he thought her would watch how a god eats. He just opened his eyes a little, and while he was praying he saw a great big mouse come and eat the fruit. The he said, ‘Look at that same idol. It cannot eat the fruit, but the mouse can, so it is a more powerful god." No sooner had he thought this than he caught the mouse by the tail and tied it on the altar. His wife said, "You have gone crazy." "No, I have not gone crazy. I am just following the instructions of the saint to worship more and more powerful gods." So he threw the stone away and began to worship the mouse there. One day he was meditating when suddenly he heard a great noise, and opening his eyes he saw a pussycat eating the mouse. He thought, "That is interesting. The pussycat is more powerful than the mouse. So I must worship the cat." Thus he got hold of the cat and put it on the altar. The cat did not have to catch mice any more, and she got fat getting milk every day without any labor of stealing. Day after day the man’s meditation grew deeper and the cat got fatter. Every day when the man waked up he used to drink a bowl of milk. The pussycat was not satisfied with what she got, so she concentrated on the bowl of milk. One day she drank it up and went back and sat on the altar. The wife came in, saw the milk gone, looked at the innocent-looking cat sitting on the altar, and went and got the broom. Her husband’s meditation broke with the noise of the broom-stick falling on the cat. He looked at his wife pounding the cat, and he thought, "That is interesting. My wife is more powerful than the pussycat, so she is a better god than the cat." Then he demanded that his wife sit on the altar. So she sat, and every day he meditated on her. Of course the wife used to cook some food for her husband, and after he finished worshipping her he would eat his meal. It so happened that one day he found a piece of charcoal in the rice. "Why did you put charcoal in the rice? Why did you do that?" the man shouted at his wife. To which the wife promptly replied, "Master, I did not deliberately put charcoal in the rice. Master, forgive me, I am thy servant." Then he said, "Ah, that’s interesting. So you are my servant, you like to serve me. Then I am more powerful than you are. Then I am the most powerful god. God is in me. I have found Him now within myself."

If you find Him in the temple of your soul, you find Him in all temples and churches. Find Him within, you find Him without. You won’t find Him anywhere unless you find Him within.

It is impossible in this life to read all the Vedas and bibles, and to follow all the systems given, to be God-like. How are you going to do it? Search within just as the devotee in the above story did. Everything depends upon the receptivity of your mind, brain cells and spinal column. This body changes every twelve years, and that is why at twelve, twenty-four and thirty-six years we find distinct changes occur. With the change of years and change of body without the obstruction of disease, the mind changes correspondingly. Disease, wrong living, will retard that evolution. In twelve years your brain develops in such a way that it displays a certain kind of mentality. If it takes twelve years of growth and change of tissues to manifest certain thoughts, how are you going to wait indefinitely to make the brain receptive to all wisdom? You cannot have all wisdom unless your brain is evolved accordingly. So there is a method which the master minds of India have taught of revolving certain kinds of vital currents around the spine and brain. By twelve times of practicing this method you can gain the result of one year’s ordinary physical evolution. That is how many saints quickly get their spiritual knowledge, far beyond that of theoretical theologians. Things which they perceive in a second amount to years of ordinary experience. Revolving this current around the spinal column and brain develops their receptivity. Experiences come through the channel of the senses, but he senses don’t give you more than the knowledge of the phenomena or the appearances of the real substance. When by concentration all the fine spinal and brain cells can be turned on to the cosmic source, they become highly magnetized. Your body is made up of 27,000,000,000,000 cells. Every cell is like an intelligent being. You are not alone—you have to educate each cell in order to know all the things that are going on in the world. You never trained those cells. That is why you are all the time full of melancholia and of passing fancies and suffering from lack of understanding.

In twenty minutes of this spinal practice you can attain the result of one solar year’s living on earth, so that in a year of such practices you get the result of many years of evolution. Jesus Christ did not go to college, and not one of all the scientists of the world knows of God and nature’s laws as he knew. Whenever you want to know something don’t start with data—go and retire and concentrate. When the mind is receptive, then bring the data; start the business or mental solution. Don’t be filled with discouragement and say it cannot be done. The world starts with books and outside methods—you should start with increasing the receptivity of your intuition—in you lies the infinite seat of all knowledge. Calmness, concentration, condensation of experiences by intuitional perception, will make you master of all knowledge. Don’t do anything in a haphazard way—do everything with full attention, but don’t do too many things. Pick up the more important things, and do them with all your heart. Don’t swallow useless things. Potentially, all knowledge is within you. Why should you walk in dead men’s shoes? Don’t let yourself act like an intellectual victrola. Everyone represents infinite power and should manifest this in everything. Whenever you want to produce something, do not depend upon the outside source. Go deep and seek the infinite source. All methods of business success, inventions, vibrations of music and inspirational thoughts and writings, are recorded in the office of God. First find out what you want, ask the divine aid to direct you to right action, whereby your want will be fulfilled; then retire within yourself. Act according to the inner direction you receive; you will find what you want. When the mind is calm, how quickly, how smoothly, how beautifully will you perceive everything. Success in everything will come to pass in a short time, for cosmic power can be proved by the application of the right law. Last of all, don’t concentrate without, don’t do things in a haphazard way. Start everything from within, no matter what it is, writing or anything else. Seek guidance within. The scientific man would accomplish more if he concentrates on increasing the receptive quality of his brain cells, instead of just depending on books and college work for his progress. Some say that our brain cells at birth come already saturated with fixed habits, and, therefore, cannot be remoulded. This is false. Since God made us in His image we cannot have limitation, if we probe deeply enough within ourselves.

Even in the feeble-minded, God’s power shines as much as in the greatest man. The sun shines equally on the charcoal and the diamond, but it is the charcoal which is responsible for not reflecting the sunlight like the diamond. All congenital limitations come through man’s own transgression of a law sometime in the past. And what has been done can be undone. If the brain cells of a feeble-minded man are scrubbed with the search light of concentration thrown within, he will display the eclipsed intelligence the same as the intelligent man.

The last great scientific method is to magnetize and to send the current around the brain and spinal column, and thereby secure one year’s health by twenty minutes of this practice. In connection with mentality, when you have cleansed the brain cells, when the divine magnetism touches them, every cell becomes a vibrant brain, and you will find within yourself myriads of awakened brains ready to grasp all knowledge.

With the awakened brains, myriad mentalities will awake and all things will be apprehended by you. You will study the vast book of Nature and Truth with twenty-seven thousand billion awakened and spiritualized microscopic brains and mentalities. Why be satisfied in half-educating a small part of your brain only?

Where are you seeking, my friends? Prayers have been asked, but god has not answered. But with the awakened brain cells for intelligent beings whom you have kept uneducated, vibrant with the joy of God, all knowledge can be had in this life; Eternity realized now; AWAKE!

So long as man or society resists God, the ways of man are not the ways of God. Oftentimes mysterious seem the means which He uses to bring changes on earth, but He is always blazing the path of man forward through new light and knowledge. He sometimes brings about spiritual changes through the soul-cry of the saints and seers, sometimes through the keen perception of scientific minds, and again through the independent thinking of some rebellious souls.

That infidels, by denying God and man-made churches and creeds, have often brought man back to God, is a curious historical fact. Times come in all ages and countries when churches preach blind superstitions that bring man no nearer to God nor to self-knowledge.

Impassioned by the crookedness and corruption of the age, some independently-thinking and powerful minds rebel against churches, rebel against traditions, rebel against religions and even blaspheme against God. They are not "yes" men and women. They attempt to think for themselves and to make others think. They give a mental massage to atrophied minds. To them past traditions are dead, unfit for the expanding present. To their imagination the future is aglow with new hopes. They are uncompromising apostles of liberty; they fight for liberty—liberty for every individual, and for thought. No bond is sacred to them; no time is divine. They break out of the crumbling debris of past superstitions. They scorn the reasons for which most people go to church in a corrupt age—some for social prestige, some because of a fear of torture after death, some for real consolation, some to maintain the habits handed down to them from far generations, some to sing in choirs, some to meet friends, but very few indeed from a desire to know God and to gain real illumination. The infidel, therefore, is the fruit of reaction against hide-bound opinions. He can hardly endure the fossilized thought of his time. In his exuberant love for freedom of thought he denies authority in any form, and even God. He denies everything which to his mind seems to hamper the progress of independent thought. He brings reformation by virtue of his extreme stubbornness.

Take such men as Ingersoll or Bradlaugh, for instance. They created consternation in orthodox minds throughout the world. These men have done tremendous spiritual good in freeing many human minds from crooked thinking and forcing them to think for themselves. Even men like Emerson Theodore Parker and John Wesley, who were anything but infidels yet tried to think in a transcendent way, met opposition and persecution and were branded as disturbers and undesirable heretics. Even great seats of learning like Oxford and Harvard denied them, so that posterity might set their greatness in a bolder relief. You have to think with the mob or vested interests will mob you.

If you have a mind of your own do not think like the mob, think better, even think worse, but think independently. In the long run the world will respect you.

An atheist is one who disbelieves in God because he does not know any better. An infidel generally disbelieves in God, but often works courageously in the bombardment of the trenches of human ignorance. Nevertheless, their work to free the thought of man results ultimately in great things for God, because only a free mind can reach up to God.

Saints as well as infidels are the fruit of homes. They are made, not born. Our homes are manufactories in which the wine of saintship or infidelity is brewed. Infidelity is saintship moving in a different direction. Think of a man like Bradlaugh, a flower of English youth, whom Gladstone opposed, but finally respected. The father of Ingersoll, a minister by profession, used to horsewhip his children. His mother, leaving behind her many children, died at the age of thirty, a complete physical wreck. The father married again, but the stepmother could not live with the children, so they were given to the grandfather. Is there any wonder that a man like Ingersoll turned against the hypocrisy of his father’s religion? The same thing happened to Bradlaugh. He was ousted from his church at the age of eighteen for a derisive remark concerning God. He would not retract, so his parents drove him from home and his sisters were forbidden to talk to him, on the threat of a similar penalty. He left his home forever. He realized the worthlessness of an intolerant religion.

Truth cannot be overthrown. An independent mind need fear no disaster from listening to any sincere and earnest soul who knocks at established beliefs, established morals and established religion, often voicing a needed reform which is sometimes overdue.

Rather be an active infidel than a spiritual crook or a superstition-believer—dormant-minded, inert, ignorant, and full of prejudices. Never take anything for Truth without right criticism and clear discrimination. Then see if it tallies with the intuitive voice that rises from within. Judge the truth irrespective of your past beliefs, church injunctions and social prohibitions; otherwise untruths will deceive as truths, half truths as full truths. That has been the tragedy in all religions and among all religious people.

Infidels, skeptics, "free-thinkers," agnostics and atheists are not without a very constructive value in society. It is often necessary to destroy ....that we may build anew and build more fairly. God is the only Reality and He cannot be destroyed by any amount of skepticism. But false gods must go before Reality appears. The god that atheists deny is a false god, and hence there is not harm in such denial. Atheists, not knowing the true God, at least have the courage to disbelieve in false gods. A free mind, thus unencumbered by false beliefs, will be the more open and ready to receive the truth and see the glory of its Creator when the time is ripe.

Atheism is a transitional state, when false gods are left behind and the glimpse of the true God has not yet dawned. A healthy agnosticism is far to be preferred to a blind, unreasoning belief in formal creeds. Form kills if the spirit has fled, and to understand the spirit of religious observances requires a free and thoughtful mind. An agnostic who is really unprejudiced, really a seeker of truth, will not go far upon his path without encountering those "intimations of immortality" that surround us more intimately than the air we breathe.

It is well-known that a vast number of great souls, gigantic intellects, and devotees of God, did pass through a transitional stage of agnosticism or atheism. This state marked their "declaration of independence," wherein they voiced their dissatisfaction with the blind beliefs that smothered their contemporaries in a smug content. This state of protest in a strong and healthy mind is soon past, however. Further thought and investigation, and a deep love and search for truth, will never fail to bring those proofs of the "divinity that wraps us round" to all earnest minds. True freedom of thought is a much higher state than can be well comprehended. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make ye free."

Fair are the flowers and the children,

But their subtle suggestion is fairer;

Rare is the roseburst of dawn,

But the secret that clasps it is rarer;

Sweet the exultance of song,

But the strain that precedes it is sweeter;

And never was poem yet writ,

But the meaning out-mastered the metre.

Never a daisy that grows,

But a mystery guideth the growing;

Never a river that flows,

But a majesty sceptres the flowing;

Never a Shakespeare that soared,

But a stronger than he did enfold him;

Nor ever a prophet foretells,

But a mightier seer hath foretold him.

Back of the canvas that throbs

The painter is hinted and hidden;

Into the statue that breathes,

The soul of the sculptor is bidden;

Under the joy that is felt

Lie the infinite issues of feeling;

Crowning the glory revealed

Is the glory that crowns the revealing.

Space is nothing to spirit,

The deed is out-done by the doing;

The heart of the wooer is warm,

But warmer the heart of the wooing;

And up from the pits where these shiver,

And up from the heights where those shine,

Twin voices and shadows swim starward,

And the essence of life is divine.

Behold not the sarcastic smiles

Which are born

From the womb of dark hate.

Welcome not the bandit smiles

Which rob thy trueness,

Wear not serpent smiles

Which hide their venom

Behind the sting of laughter.

Banish the volcanic smiles

Of subterranean wrath.

Bedim not the mirror of Soul—

Thy face—with shades of pitying smiles.

Let no witless, noisy, muscle-contorting laughs,

Like rowdies,

Echo the emptiness of thy soul.

A fountain of joy

Must gush out of the soil of thy mind

And spread sprays of fine smiles

Running in all directions,

Spreading their vital veins

Through laugh-thirsty hearts.

Let the lake of thy smiles break its embankment

And spread to territories of Infinitude.

Let thy smiles

Rush thru lonely stars

To brighten their twinkles.

The flood of thy laughter

Will inundate the drought of dry minds

Sweeping away the barriers of cold formalities.

Spread thy smile like the dawn

To vanish the gloom of minds.

Paint thy golden smiles on every dark spot,

Brightening cloudy days.

Command thy smiles to resurrect life

Into the walking dead.

Smile for the dear,

For their grim peace

Bespeaks their victory o’er pain.

Let thy smiles

Pulverize the rocks of sorrow to atoms.

Let thy smiles meander

Thru desert-souls and oasis-hearts alike.

Let the deluge of thy fearless smiles

Sweep thru all minds and every place,

Drowning, washing away

All barriers for miles and miles.

When God laughs thru the soul

And the soul gleams thru the heart

And the heart smiles thru the eyes,

Then that prince of smiles

Is enthroned beneath the canopy

of thycelestial brow.

Protect thy Prince of Smiles

in the Castle of Sincerity,

Let no rebel hypocrisy lurk to destroy it.

Spread the gospel of Smile,

Purify all homes with thy healthy smiles,

Let loose the wild fire of thy smile

And blaze the thickets of melancholia.

Open the long-bottled-up musk of smile.

Unloosen its perfume in all directions,

Intoxicate all with the wine of thy smiles.

Take the rich smiles form every joyous soul,

And from the mine of all true mirth.

North, south, east, west, wherever you go.

Thou smile millionaire,

Scatter thy golden smiles

Freely, freely everywhere.

___________

O Mother Divine!

When this day it happens, I bow

At Thy blue lotus feet in prayer,

I sing, "My Mother is everywhere".

Engrossed is the bee of my mind.

At Thy blue lotus feet I kneel.

Away with the shadows that steal

Between thee and my heart,

O Mother Divine!

My Mother is everywhere—

In the perfume of the rose,

In the eyes of a tiger,

In the pages of a book.

In the food of which we partake,

In the whistling wind of deserts,

In the blazing gems of sunset,

In the crystal light of full moon,

In the opal veils of sunrise.

My Mother is in everything—

In the atoms of this body,

In the wonders of this temple,

In the restless globes of water,

In the caresses of a lover,

In the soul of a child,

In the feet of a slave,

In the brain of a foe,

And in the heart of a friend.

My Mother, O my Divine Mother is everywhere.

At Thy blue lotus feet I sit breathless.

The heart’s lotus shall blossom forth.

Sri Ram Prosad says, "My Mother is formless".

O Mother Divine.

Stilled is the bee of my mind.

Once I was blind. Now I can see.

A thousand Vedas do declare

My Mother Divine is formless.

Some years ago the writer of this article embarked upon an investigation into the characteristics of adolescent psychology in India. The method adopted was that of the questionnaire, upon the insufficiency and disadvantages of which it is quite unnecessary to enlarge; but at the same time certain general results emerged clearly for the examination of the many hundreds of answer-papers received; and as these results have been substantiated in the writer’s subsequent educational experience, it may be of interest to go through them. The use of psychological jargon will, as far as possible, be avoided.

In the first place, with regard to the psychological development of the Indian adolescent mind. The following appeared from the investigation to be the dominant elements in each year of the adolescent’s growth:

At ten.—Fear.

At eleven.—Self-interest.

At twelve.—Materialistic ambition (i.e., for money, power, etc.)

At thirteen.—Intellectual, ethical and religious interests begin to show marked development.

At fourteen.—Conscience is very strong.

At fifteen.—Hero-worship.

At sixteen.—The altruistic and religious elements are at their maximum; patriotism makes a great appeal.

At seventeen.—Intellectual interests are at their maximum (with boys), and the critical faculty is strongly developed; but egotistic and materialistic considerations again begin to show a deep influence, whilst disregard for law and discipline are at their highest point.

At the present time and for many years past, the writer has been in close contact, both educationally and in other ways, with Indian students ranging from small boys of ten or twelve at the bottom of the Middle School up to M.A. students; and his experience goes to show that the general course of psychological development outlined by the investigation quoted above is in the main correct. Especially is this true with regard to the breezes of political ferment which continually ruffle the waters of Indian education. Students round about the age of seventeen are very much more easily swept off their balance by various appeals to their patriotism than students of an earlier or later stage.

But whilst this is true, it is also true that the student at this stage of his development, i.e., about the seventeenth year, is open as never before or after, to religious and ethical idealism. He is ready to resolve to devote his life to his country not only in response to the clamorous cries of political extremism, but also in response to the appeal for unselfish public service amongst the poor and degraded. The stage is rapidly passed, partly under the influence of absorbing intellectual interests—generally expressed in a prolonged bending of all his powers to the effort to pass the Matriculation examination,—and partly because of a revival which seems to take place towards the close of the eighteenth year in motives of personal ambition, especially of ambition for wealth and power, which appeared in a crude form several years before, but became less evident through the four years of idealism from the fourteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth. Whilst it lasts, there can be no question of the supreme importance of this stage of development. It gives the educationalist his golden opportunity of impressing upon his students the necessity that they should live their lives for ends beyond themselves, in unselfish service for their fellow-countrymen. . . .

In the second place, with regard to a comparison between the psychological characteristics of the Indian adolescent and those of the Western adolescent. It was found possible, by means of adopting similar procedure to that carried out in certain psychological investigations conducted both in England and in the United States, to obtain sufficient data for, at any rate, a rough-and-ready comparison of adolescent psychology in West and East. As a result, it appears that the following principles may be enunciated with a certain amount of confidence.

The Indian adolescent shows himself (and herself) to be markedly more susceptible than the Western adolescent to religious and ethical idealism, and markedly less susceptible to materialistic considerations. It is possible to formulate this principle as a result of an investigation into the reasons given in East and West for the choice of vocation in life, for hero-worship, for the naming of desirable possessions, and for personal ambitions. The reasons assigned are strikingly higher in moral tone in the East than in the West. But what has just been said must be qualified by the conclusion that the ethical ideals of Indian adolescents lack definiteness, and their conceptions generally are more abstract and subjective than in the West. Their ambitions are also much vaguer. Their mentality is other-worldly and impractical in comparison with the mentality of Western adolescence.

An inquiry into the attitude towards money—couched in the form of a question as to what would be done with the gift of a certain sum—brought out the fact that Indian adolescents are much more improvident in their attitude to money than Western adolescents. They have less idea of saving, and show less prudence in the uses to which they imagine themselves putting such a gift.

The general results of the investigation show that altruistic considerations make far more appeal in India than in the West. This was brought out in the answers to many of the questions, but most markedly in that concerning the uses to which an imaginary gift of money would be put. The parallel investigation has been conducted in the United States, and showed that the proportion of American adolescents who would spend such an imaginary gift altruistically was amongst girls 46 per cent, and amongst boys 27.Obviously we have here a striking and fundamental dissimilarity.

Yea, when the sense of earth is rapt and gone,—

No dream nor vision nor spirit nor any ghost,

A solemn Presence seems to light upon

The wafer of the Host.

Then surely from her trance she would not fall

Were bolts on thunderbolts about her hurled,

Nor in her ecstasy would heed at all

The blazing of the world.

God, when I see Thee in the radio’s helpful network across the earth and ocean; when I behold Thee soaring as airplane and airship through the skies; when I perceive Thee thundering along the railroad track as power, or serving on the nations’ highways with silent speed; when at all times I find Thee revealed to me in countless conveniences and pleasures of daily life, grant that I shall know myself as part of Thee, as part of the evolving Force everywhere declared in Thy handiwork.

When the day has been long, when nightfall seemingly finds me no farther along the path than morning found me, give me knowledge that I, as part of Thee, have advanced the development of the radio, have extended swift means of transportation, and have contributed to the progress of man in scientific achievement. Help me to realize that in re-payment to Thee for these vast privileges of divine co-partnership—not less real because my mortal consciousness fails to grasp the significance of my part in the Whole—I am only to faithfully render the humble task which comes to my hand. Make me know that I need not maintain an elaborate system of conduct. Strengthen me, instead, to meet each duty with patience. Inspire me to greet opposition with kindness. Give to me a generous impulse when another’s want confronts me. Enable me to be humble at all times. Permit that I shall be courteous in all my contacts. May I declare Thy close relationship by my unselfishness to all. Let my good temper furnish helpful evidence to others of my love for Thee. Rid me of guile in my transaction with my brother. And through all that I do and say, may sincerity weave its gentle magic.

Thus will the I Am of Thee function on its appointed earth plane of daily happenings while the Thou of Me brings into being the marvelous works which everywhere declare Thee-Me to be Lord of creation. And because of my real identity with my brother in the blessed unity which represents all action, help me to rejoice in his accomplishment as one and indivisible with mine. Then each day, as nightfall marks the great progress which began with the rising sun, I shall abide peacefully in the assurance that I have faithfully carried Thy work one golden step farther toward completion.

Do you know that America’s crime bill is ten billion dollars every year? Do you know that it costs us about $3,500.00 every time that we arrest and convict a criminal?

America is not proud of her "Crime Record" and the very fact that the bill has reached such a fabulous sum is proof that crime is increasing and that the system used in trying to check it is a failure.

We do not hesitate to blaze the headlines across our daily papers as each theft or crime is committed; columns are given to the subject and it makes a "good seller." Preachers, teaches and reformers write on crime cure and the sins and suicides of Modern Youth, but how many give us all sides of the story and a sane system to successfully change it? Change it we must, for if our bill is ten billion dollars today, what will it be twenty years from today? If it is costing us ten billion dollars "In cash," how many billion dollars "In Souls" is it taking to make that amount?

Let every thinking man and woman in America awake to the fact that something must be done and if there be any who are not interested in the value of the great mass of human souls, let them at least become interested from the standpoint, that as a tax payer, part of this enormous bill is coming out of their own pockets.

For several hundred years we have tried to stop crime by punishment. We have had houses of correction, reform schools, dungeons, prisons, the hangman’s noose, the electric chair, the chopping block and the whipping post. Have they put an end to crime? Does the fear of such punishment stop men from committing theft or crime, or does it stop any headstrong girl or boy from any act they decide on doing?

We have locked them up and killed them off after they committed a crime, but as soon as we have one bunch disposed of there is another group waiting to be locked up or killed off and the locking up and killing off has continued and increased until today our courts cannot take care of the great stream of this human herd which is being driven into its doors to be locked up or killed.

I have talked to men all over America who are in a position to judge; I have talked to men who would give their hearts and souls to solve the problem, and they all tell the same story—that the cause behind almost every crime is either physical or mental. Whether it be a son of the slums or underworld or the son of the idle rich, his down fall starts with either his physical or mental machinery getting out of order.

I have not found those men who are shouting for longer prison sentences, the hangman’s noose, and the electric chair, to be fathers of a fine group of sons whose hearts thrill at the very name of their Dad. Most of the "knock ‘em down and drag ‘em out" men that I have met, have no sons of their own. Yet it is such men who shout the loudest for severe punishment.

Such men as Judge Ben Lindsay do not take that viewpoint. Judge Lindsay says, "Normal, moral, restrained conduct cannot be had from adolescents suffering from malnutrition, acidosis and auto-intoxication. The first thing I have to look into and correct in the cases of the most incorrigible is their health. In many cases, wrong eating is back of the bad health; bad teeth, bad eye-sight, nervousness, tonsils, anemia and every other evidence of faulty metabolism." Judge Lindsay’s many years in the Juvenile Court of Denver should make him an authority on this subject and anyone who wishes may secure and read his opinion on it.

One of the best eye-openers which has ever been given to the American people was written by Jack Cunard. The following is his view in, "To Curb the Crime you must Cure the Criminal".

"Daylight holdups of banks and jewelry stores, and crime of every imaginable sort have increased tremendously during the past three years. The murder rate has taken a terrible jump. Our prisons are jammed to the limit; we have to build new ones. Our reform schools are loaded with juveniles between the ages of twelve and twenty. Our jails are loaded with underworld ramblers waiting for trial. The course can’t keep up with the procession which passes thru the doors, of the boobs of the country. Our death houses are well populated with murderers who will soon take their last flash at life from the seat of the flame chair or thru the noose of the hangman. Here is an utterly deplorable condition. It has been growing worse year by year for the past ten years or more. The cost to the taxpayers of the country is staggering almost beyond belief. Today your crime bill is around $10,000,000,000. Every time you arrest, try, convict and send a crook to prison, it costs around $3,500.00 and when you consider that some crooks go to prison three, four and five times within the course of their underworld careers, you get some idea of what a tremendous expensive thing your old, unscientific and almost broken down penal system is."

In "Physical Culture", in the September, 1927, issue, is "The Sick Criminal". "Here is the true story of a pathetic little figure of the underworld who gravitated to a life of crime because of the under-nourished and unhealthy physical condition in which he was permitted to grow up. In the future installments you will learn much of what is behind the scenes in the making of a criminal."

Too much cannot be said of the efforts of "Physical Culture" to show the necessity for right living, clean minds and bodies as well as right food. These, together with the right education, will put an end to America’s Ten Billion Dollar Crime Bill.

We have had many years to stop Crime by Punishment; what has it brought us? Only the chance to build more prisons and buy more rope. Clarence Darrow says, "It brutalizes those who inflict it and those who receive it. There is only one motive for it, and that is revenge, in which there can be no justice for it is based on hatred, which is degrading. If scientists were no wiser than legislators we would still be punishing the insane, the idiots, the sick. We have abandoned such magical treatment and some day we shall treat the criminal with as much understanding."

Ye men of now, ye men of yore,

Of every race and clime,

Awake, and know the Gods ye had

Stand not the test of time!

Ye’ve made a God to suit your whims,

Your hopes, your aims, your fears,

But greater far is the God of Gods,

Than these your fancy rears.

He’s not the God of a single race,

He’s not the God of creeds;

He is far more an all-time God

Than one of moment’s needs.

He’s not the God of the reckless crowds,

Nor one of the cultured few—

But a God is He with a world-wide heart

Of men of every hue.

He’s not the God of a single tongue,

Though called by many a name.

A white man’s prayer or a Hottentot’s

To Him is just the same.

He’s not the God of a chosen few,

Who think they know Him best;

For a God confined to a narrow groove

Could never stand the test.

He’s not the God of Ancient Rites,

Nor some new-fangled kind;

He is the one Eternal God—

By no one form confined.

The God of Gods is the God of Love,

No hate is in His plan;

With same concern for the deadliest germ

As that for the noblest man.

The God of Gods is the Spirit Great

That guides each atom’s soul;

The smallest mite, the World’s expanse

All form one mighty whole.

The God of Gods is a thunder God,

As well as one of calm;

The blasts of storms or zephyr’s lull

Form one acclaiming Psalm.

He is the Lord of the despot cruel;

He is the God of the meek;

He is the lord of the rich and poor,

As well as the strong and weak.

Man prints and frames within his brain

This creed-taught God of his;

But Nature’s never-changing laws

Just shows the God that is.

Our pulse, our breath, our birth, our death

One God-fixed law obey;

Who’d dare to prate that Church or State

Could ever change their way?

While scripture of the different creeds

To teach God best each claimed,

They bred but sects and wars and hates

While God remained the same.

’Tis not what script or print or lip

Would make this God to be;

He is the Force and Soul which we

In all His nature see.

It’s nature’s Laws that show God best

In all this world of man;

We thrive or fail, we live or die

According to their plan.

And so we’ll bow to the God of Gods

As seen in His works and laws;

We’ll sigh our sigh and smile our smile

In this our common cause.

With no misgivings, fears or frets

We’ll meet our fellow-men;

For God’s the God of all of us

And all of us His Plan.

___________

"Be ye lamps unto yourselves; be ye a refuge Unto yourselves; go to no external refuge."

—Buddha.

In India there was a king who, being tired of ruling and weary of pleasure, wished to receive the Light.

To this end, he summoned about him all the saints and wise men from the hills and plains, and all the holy hermits from the forests, and addressing them, said—"Is there any among you who is able, in the space of a minute, to give me the Light?" The most hoary among them, a saint from the mountains, replied, "After thirty years of hardship and solitude, in which I strived to reach the Light, I never found in my own soul anything more than a reflection of the light of the Infinite Heavens." And another said, "I once received the Light in a dream as I slept one evening on the banks of the Ganges. It reached me like a storm, and afterwards turned to a soft rain; since then I have ever lived with it, but man alone is helpless to conquer the Light, and all he can do is to wait in faith and hope until it manifests itself. You must pray, Great king! for only by prayer and supplication will the door be opened to you."

"But I desire to see and possess the Light," continued the king, "for I have heard that it is possible to receive it in the brief space of a minute; why then hesitate and discuss? Give me the Light."

"Great king, this is impossible."

"An inner voice, however, tells me the contrary."

"Great king, it is but a dream that you hear speaking, for the voice of Light, which is the pure voice of Truth, is made of silence."

Then the king made a gesture, as if disillusioned, and sent all those whom he had assembled back to their homes in the forests, and in the mountains. Then, sorrow stricken, he wandered along the corridors of his palace.

Between the stately columns, on the marble vaults and through the balustrades of the inner court, the garden glittered with sunshafts of rich and variegated colour. And then, one evening, as the king was pacing here according to his custom, his attendants announced that a great saint, a Yogi, who lived far off in a cavern by the sea, had come to visit him.

"Let him come in," said the king, "and I will explain to him my desire."

At that moment, a tall Yogi entered, with long silver beard, and brilliant eyes. Straight as a sword, and haughty in bearing, though gentle in this thought, the saint saluted the king, saying, "Great King! I have heard that you have asked for the Light. Peace be with you, and may the Eternal be favorable to your wishes."

"I have asked all the saints and wise men from every part of my kingdom to tell me how I may possess the light, but none among them have been able to show me the way. Perhaps you may know."

"What will you give me in exchange for it?"

"I am ready to give my crown."

"That is an easy sacrifice, seeing that you are already tired of wearing it; and why sacrifice what would be useless to me, for your subjects could take it from me at a moment’s notice? Moreover, the crown does not really belong to you, and has only been bequeathed as the sign of a duty to be fulfilled. It is not by giving away what has been confided to your care, that you are likely to receive the Light."

"Then I will give you all the treasures I possess."

"At the fountain head of happiness, money has no value. I have enough for clothes, food and lodging, and I live freely, for the source of my life is bathed in all the wealth of the Universe, in the gold of the sunset, and the diamonds of the night, and in the fountain of youth, from whence springs the Eternal Soul."

"Nevertheless I will give you the whole of my possessions, which will serve for the poor, and for your works of charity."

"But these treasures are not your own, for they belong to your people. Then again only those who have never known the Truth are poor—and there are no works of charity except those of Love."

"Then, I will give you the greatest of all my treasures—the queen, who is softer than a summer’s night, fresher than the morning, more faithful than the dawn."

"What! the mother of your children, the queen of your people, who could never come to desire any other but yourself?"

"Well then, I will give you my own heart, which is the source of all that I possess."

"Excellent! my son," replied the saint, "I accept"; and with that he went away, the king not daring to recall him.

"Have I not given away my heart," he reflected, "how then can I ask for anything now, since I have given away the source of all, and have nothing further left to give? The saint is gone, and I must await his pleasure, and in the meanwhile devote myself to the work that he has chosen for me, and have no other thought, except of the things that he ordains. I will wait for his return, and carry out my duties of a king according to the Truth."

For nearly a year, he acted in this way, and became a model of a king, caring for nothing but the interest of his people, taking no pleasure except in following the will of the saint, for whom he had now an immense affection.

And suddenly as he was walking in his garden one evening, the Yogi returned, and was ushered in. Immediately he saw the king, he began to laugh to himself in a quiet way, for already he saw the dawn of a revelation hovering o’er his transfigured countenance. The way had already been prepared, and after listening to the Yogi for a few seconds, the king received the revelation of the Light.—"The Fount of Life."

These two new little books by the Yogoda leader and teacher will be welcomed as a valuable addition to the libraries of all Yogoda students. "The Teachings of the East" glows with spiritual understanding and inspiration. Most interesting chapters, replete with original thoughts and stirring teachings, are given on "Divine Harmony," "Eloquent Silence,"How to Attract Everlasting Friendship," "Temptation to Power," "The Source of Inspiration" and "Free Will or Divine Will."

"On the Wings of Bliss" contains a score of poems that soar indeed to divine realms, filling the heart with renewed faith and courage. The book, which starts with an inspiring "Hymn to Poverty," ends with the following thoughtful lines:

It is a tale, long-forgotten in the midst of time,

That sometimes comes

As a rainbow color in my dream,

When I was a soft ripple

In the bosom of Cosmic Mind,

Not yet born and not yet clad for mortal realm.

I was then all myself with no encumbrances

Of pleasure and pain.

I had not home of flesh to look after

Or a mortal mind to train.

I rested always in the bed of unending sleep.

Lo! what a difference now, for a tear or smile

I have to sow and reap.

This new animal story will be read with the same breathless interest as was "Gayneck". In it, the author, who has been called the "new Kipling," communicates the thrill of Indian jungle life to his readers. Neither child nor adult will be likely to put down this exciting story until it is finished.

The Vedanta Philosophy—By Sridhar Majumdar, M.A.

Americans anxious to know the principles of the Vedanta philosophy will do well to read this book, which gives the original Sanskrit Sutras with their English translations, and explanatory quotations form the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and other sources. The author’s exposition is clearly, interestingly and understandingly written and has met with favor from Western readers, laymen as well as scholars.

The Truth About Evolution and the Bible—By Dr. and Mrs. F. Homer Curtiss

Evolution in the light of new interpretations of Biblical teachings is the theme of this newest "Curtiss book". Many original and thought-provoking views are here put forth for the benefit of the metaphysical student.

Perfect Health—By W. F. Ries

The author, who favors a raw food diet, but is not entirely against cooking, gives in this book an account of the results of his many years of food experimentation and of scientific findings on dietetics. Valuable information is given on balanced meals, vitamins, mineral salts, proper food combinations, health habits, and daily physical culture exercises.

"Uncle Billy," as the author is familiarly known to many lecture audiences, is 80 years old, but strong and well. "He is a perfect example of the truth of his health teachings" in the opinion of Swami Yogananda, who met Mr. Ries recently in Boston and was glad to know of the good work Mr. Ries is doing in educating the public to a saner diet.

Varieties of Religious Experience—By William James

This 36th edition of the famous classic by America’s best-known pragmatic philosopher is a study of the deep psychological and metaphysical aspects of ordinary and extraordinary human nature. Chapters on "Reality of the Unseen", "Religion of Healthy Mindedness", "The Sick Soul", "The Divided Self", "Conversion", "Saintliness" and "Mysticism" give the student a sympathetic insight into many puzzling psychological problems.

With notes by the compiler, William Kingsland. (Methuen & Co., London. $2.00.)

A valuable contribution to the literature of mysticism, both in its theoretical and experimental aspects. Quotations are given form the works of ancient and modern mystics, philosophers and religious teachers, on the problems of life and death, mind and soul, spirit and matter.

Press dispatches inform us that Rudyard Kipling recently told the Royal Society of Medicine in London that it "should not be too scornful of those ancient scientists who studied the stars for guidance", and intimated that present day science would gradually be forced to admit with Nicholas Culpepper, a physician and astrologer of 300 years ago, that "this creation, although composed of contraries, is one united body of which man is the epitome, and that he, therefore, who would understand the mystery of healing must look as high as the stars." There is no doubt a renewed interest in astrology all over the world and especially in Europe, at the present time.

Two books by Maud Margesson are valuable contributions to astrological literature. "The Brontes and Their Stars" can be read as an absorbing novel of the lives of that extraordinary family of geniuses, or as an astrological study. It is very entertainingly written, and full of interests whether viewed as novel, biography or astrological exposition.

"Astrology in Epigram," containing quotations from great writers which aptly fit the various astrological signs and planets, is the best of all the non-technical text-books; because the epigrams, summing up the main qualities of a sign or planet, are strikingly descriptive and easy to remember.

An inspiring manual of devotion, with a page containing, for each day in the year, a "Salient Thought for the Day", "Lines to Memorize" from the author’s poems, and a daily "Lesson" and "Prayer". The book breathes a high spiritual and devotional message.

My weary soul cries out for solitude,

The calm of early-morning hills that lie

All smooth and still beneath the quiet sky;

There would I lonely sit and bend my ear

To catch the murmur of the "soundless sound",

—The great preliminary hush of Power

Before it has begun to thunder forth

Creative fiats that shall rend its peace

And scatter it abroad, as when to earth

A burning brand is cast from lofty heights

To find itself a million shattered sparks.

My soul cries out to stand alone and find

Within itself reality stripped bare

Of transient guise of externality,—

Solitary, calm, all self unknown,

Placid, hushed, contented and serene,

Reposeful, tranquil, undisturbed, at rest;

Thus would I be absorbed in Peace and Bliss

And sink into the spaceless core of space

There to be merged in that, to ever be

One with the rhythmic throb of Entity.

___________

Oh, could I tell, ye surely would believe it!

Oh, could I only say what I have seen!

How could I tell, or how can ye receive it,

How, till He bringeth you where I have been?

The art of material and spiritual success as outlined in Yogoda is wholesome and practical and we know it to be absolutely true. It does not deal with material success apart from spiritual success, or of spiritual success apart from material success. A material success only or a spiritual success only is in effect no success at all, but failure. To cast our lives solely in material pursuits and desires is to crowd out the higher plane of existence. Sooner or later its barrenness will be felt in ever-increasing desires incapable of being satisfied, and in the things that were once of strong appeal we will find only a loss of charm. Material success without the development of the spiritual side of life to inter-relate one with the other is to build for satiety.

Another of the underlying essentials of Yogoda is the attitude of the individual to the problems of his relationship with God.

"The Divine Spirit is your Father." "Say to yourself, I Will Do Everything Myself With My Own Will, Which is a Reflection of the Divine Will in Me." "The Divine Spirit is our Father and we being the beloved children have a right to possess jointly with Him." These are Yogoda teachings.

There is undoubted efficacy in prayer but even prayer must not be misused. When the situation calls for the heroic exercise of will then we must not take the attitude of beggars or suppliants. "Never beg or pray for anything." The reason is that often-times that attitude is negative and we should be positive and exercise the will, build up the conviction, know that we are sustained by the higher Self within, believing confidently in the promises of the Father. We must make a will that carries on with infinite, natural confidence as the child of God.

This human and spiritual relationship of Father and child is most beautifully told, though briefly, in the Bible story of Caleb and his daughter Achsah.

Caleb, as you will recall, was one of the twelve men selected to investigate and report about the land of Canaan. After the men returned, they reported that the land was rich, flowing with milk and honey. All but Caleb and Joshua were very pessimistic and hopeless of ever taking the land. The ten said that the cities were walled and the people were war-like and of giant stature, but Caleb and Joshua relied upon the promise and insisted that the land could be subdued.

The particular section that had been under the investigation of Caleb was the fertile lands round about Mount Hebron, and it was Moses’ promise to him that when they entered the promised land, Caleb should have the section that his feet had trodden upon. When the entrance into the land was finally made years after, Caleb took possession of this promised section. There was some choice in this territory. The lands upon the east of the mountain received the early sunlight, but remained in the shadows of the mountain for a goodly part of the day, while the lands directly to the west of the mountain hung in its morning shadows until the sun was many hours high. But the land on the south got all of the sun’s beneficence throughout the entire day, receiving none of the mountain’s shadows. It was the choicest land, and to his daughter Achsah, Caleb gave a part of this south-land. Later, like a child, she went with her husband Othineal to her father to ask for an additional field, but the story shows that he was a modest man and that he preferred that his wife do the asking. They were met by a father impatient to know what it was that they wished. Achsah said, "Father, give me a blessing. You have given me a south-land. Give me also springs of water," and Caleb gave her the upper* and the nether+ springs.

Since my boyhood days, this story has been with me as a kind of monitor, always questioning me as to whether I had chosen to dwell in the best part of my nature, in the fullness of life.

This Biblical story has its literal or material meaning, but there is the inescapable interior and greater meaning that, as with the earthly father, so in greater degree with the Heavenly Father. One cannot read the words and not feel that they breathe with poetry and promise and that the Universal Father is always whispering to us, for He is within and so near, "Come ye into the southland and I will give you the upper and the nether springs".

*Surface streams from mountains.

+Water coming from below the surface.

"We must be brave enough to say:

We are reaching God here in this very spot,

Now at this very moment."—Tagore.

And often idly hopeless, often bent

On some tumultuous deed and vehement,

Because his spirit he can nowise fit

To the world’s ways and settled rule of it,

But thru contented thousands travels on

Like a sad heir in disinherison,

And rarely by great thoughts or brave emprise

Comes out about his life’s perplexities,

Looks through the rifted cloudland,

And sees clear ....fate at his feet

And the high God near.

Ah, let him tarry on those heights, nor dream

Of other founts than that Aonian stream!

Since short and fierce,

Then hated, drown’d and dim

Shall most men’s chosen pleasures

Come to him,—

Not made for such things, nor for long content

With the poor toys of this imprisonment.

Aye, should he sit one afternoon beguil’d

By some such joy as makes the wise a child,

Yet, if a twilight to his ears shall come

A distant music thru the city’s hum,

So slight a thing as this shall wake again

The incommunicable hopeless pain,

Until his soul so yearns to reunite

With her Prime Source, her Master and Delight,

As if some loadstone draw her,

And brain and limb

Ached with her struggle to get thru to Him.

___________

"Certain German scientists," writes the New York Times, "have expressed the belief that the significance of the new theory lies in a possible mathematical demonstration that matter is of electro-magnetic origin. . . . the ‘New Field of Theory’ and the hypothesis of relativity taken together, are expected by some to indicate that electricity, or electrical energy, is the original source of all matter."

That matter in its final analysis is nothing else but energy has been the claim of Indian sages for long ages. The science of Yogoda is based on that principle, maintaining that man is an electrical battery which can be recharged for omnipresent cosmic energy. In this connection, the following news item form the New York Times of January 16, 1929, will be found of great interest:

"Human beings have no existence ‘in reality,’ but are made up of waves, Dr. H. H. Sheldon, professor of physics of New York University, declared last night in a lecture at Cooper Union, sponsored by the American Institute of the City of New York.

"‘We are living in a world of waves,’ he said. ‘the further we delve into the ultimate structure of matter the more obvious it becomes that nothing exists except in wave form. Electrons, long thought to be the ultimate particles of which all matter was formed, have now been shown rather conclusively to have a reality only as a wave form, and an atom consists of a bundle of such waves.

"‘We as individuals undoubtedly have no existence in reality other than as waves—multidinous and complicated knots—perhaps in what we call the ether. We are analogous in a sense to the sounds which issue from a grand piano when a chord is struck or when a symphony orchestra sounds.

"‘The effect of outside radiations on us is just beginning to be understood. Ultra-violet light is coming rapidly into therapeutic use; X-rays can produce mutation of species; radium is used to control cancer. Can we not look forward to the increasing use of radiation in medical treatment, when we ourselves are wave phenomena?’"

An original tribute to L. Adams Beck, drawn for EAST-WEST by the noted New York artist, A. Garfield Learned. Mrs. Beck has been widely acclaimed as the "Bridge Builder" between East and West because of her famous and inspiring book, "The Story of Oriental Philosophy".

Anandamayi Devi, a 33-year old Indian woman of Bengal, has recently been acclaimed by numerous disciples as having received spiritual illumination. She is married and leading a family life, but her whole being is consecrated to spiritual things. Illiterate, yet she has stunned the intellectuals with her wisdom. Unlearned in Sanskrit, she has written verses in that tongue that have filled scholars with wonderment. She has effected wonderful cures and brought consolation to bereaved persons merely by sight. Although of an orthodox Brahmin family, yet she is equally accessible to members of all castes. After days spent in meditation, she comes out with the courage of a Luther to reform society, and has traveled widely in India. As America is the land of scientific miracles, so has India been, since the dawn of history, the land of spiritual miracles and saints whose devotion to the lord has transcended all limitations of birth, education and circumstance.

Actions represent thoughts. Thoughts manifest themselves in actions. Ceremonies represent some spiritual or disciplinary actions. Religious ceremonies are symbols of wisdom. To idolize the symbol by the mechanical performance of ceremonies without understanding their significance is of little use. Mechanical ceremonies, worship of forms without understanding their spiritual essence, is idol worship and creates ignorance. That is why the worship of symbols and the performance of religious ceremonies must be done with perfect spiritual understanding and devotion.

The holy observances during Lent, spiritually understood and practiced, will certainly produce many good results. Just as Jesus prepared his divinely and humanly struggling mind for ultimate union with God, so all people should also prepare their minds and bodies by discipline and sacrifice during Lent in order to understand its spiritual significance. The body overgorged with meat and the mind engrossed in short-lasting frivolities cannot be a fit receptacle to receive the deep message for which Jesus prepared himself and ultimately died to glorify.

So every year, Lent is a good reminder of the duties of mankind so that they may keep themselves in readiness by disciplining their bodies and minds by prayer, fasting and service to receive the Divine Christ wisdom.

To the man of deep discipline Lenten ceremonies are a part of his life; to the forgetful they are a spiritual reminder.

Let us celebrate Lent with a full realization of its significance and spirit.

Two little frogs exploring

And feeling as fine as silk

Soon wandered from the straight path

And fell in a pail of milk.

The larger frog was frightened

And tried to climb the side.

He soon gave up the struggle

And laid him down and died.

Quoth the little frog, "I’ll paddle—

It’s an easy thing to die.

I cannot see my way out

But I am going to try."

So he paddled and he churned

Till, his heart all aflutter,

He leaped to his freedom from

A pyramid of butter.

It seems that making money honestly is the most difficult of all life’s undertakings, next to finding God. Those who inherit vast fortunes never know this. Making money to support your family or to maintain your God’s family of a spiritual organization, is full of trials and romance. It is not the man who is over-eager for success who succeeds. Many want success, a few act for it, and a very few perseveringly and wisely act to find it. Mental laziness, lack of initiative, lack of perseverance are the greatest enemies of success. The poor want money, the rich feel safe in prosperity, only to find they often die poor.

If the poor win victories by satisfying the demands of real necessities, they receive contentment and may live and die rich. That is real prosperity. But to live in poor contentment and die spiritually poor in spite of material riches, is real poverty. Be prosperous by smiling, no matter what happens. Do not be afraid to sell the bonds of smiles when the market of happiness is low. Keep smiling while planning and acting for success, and your smiles will fetch priceless treasures in the end. Wise, persevering activity with unfading smiles bring sure success.

Earn rightly, spend less than your income, invest your money in absolutely secure things, and prosperity will seek you.

Everyone likes to think he can understand the minds of others. Since Mr. John, an average intelligent man, can understand the mind of his inferior, he thinks he can likewise measure everyone’s intelligence. He forgets that another more intelligent man can measure his intelligence just as he can that of his inferior. Thus in an endless way the more intelligent discover the boundaries of the less intelligent ones. To be wise is not to be self-sufficient nor all-knowing. To know, you must be receptive. The humbler, attentive person quickly drinks in knowledge from everyone, everything.

There are two kinds of learned men. The one is a moving library, always collecting books on the shelf of memory. The other is always busy expanding his powers of introspection and of assimilating ideas into his own wisdom. One should never read without assimilation. If you can assimilate, you will know much with little reading. Read every day some good book and keep busy and thus free from getting into mischief. Good books are your most civil, silent friends. Don’t forget them in the moments of your adversity. They will never forsake you when other worldly friends may.

The two new books by Brahmacharee Nerode, reviewed in this issue, are very inspiring and full of spiritual food for the hungry.

We read about God in the various Scriptures differently described. Of His presence and praise we hear in the sermons of professional religious men or in the voices of saints. We imagine His presence behind the veil of beautiful Nature. We think about His existence through the logic within us. All these windows through which we try to look into God are fitted with opaque glass of uncertain inferences drawn from untested, unscrutinized data.

The greatest proof of the existence of God can only be found within by deeply, daily practising some right method of meditation learnt from a competent Guru or preceptor. Salvation, self-realization, will never come through unexamined beliefs. God’s light never can shine through the closed doors of blind sentiments. Through the open windows of logical seeking, God can manifest. Satisfaction in a belief about God without actually contacting Him is the death of wisdom and divine acquaintanceship. Remember your outward satisfaction and religious trade-mark of being a Christian or a Hindu Brahmin will not redeem you. Do not remain idle and hidden behind the cloak of a denominational religion and thus stop from making a real unceasing effort to know God in this life. Do not die ignorant, but die in wisdom to live forever in God. Right meditation balanced with activity must be the cry of Christians, Hindus and all religionists, all churches, as the only saviour. Your question of redemption from the self-created prison of ignorance must be settled directly by yourself with God. If you mean business with God, He will surely answer you. Only be persistent, deep, unbaffled in your demands from God.

Find Him in the grotto of your heart’s silent craving and you will find Him in the jungles of Hindustan or the jungles of a modern city where the roaring, death-dealing tigers of automobiles and fierce trucks prowl.

Find Him not within and you will find Him not in the holiest of holy places. Find him within and you will find Him everywhere.

One hour’s deep meditation will make you directly feel Truth more than a lifetime’s theoretical study of scriptures. Churches and ministers should hold their people not just for big donations nor for erecting big edifices merely, but for their own real good. The religious institutions should hold their followers not by dances and festivities only, but by their own self-realizations won by deep meditation.

Seek until you find the real technique of salvation, but when you find it, stick to it. Do not spend your life in listening about spiritual menus through lectures, but rather get busy practicing the real method of meditation. Remember, you cannot join five universities at the same time nor skip from one university to another every day. So do not skip from one religion to another all the time to find Truth. With reason be loyal to the path you have taken, and above all keep traveling, running, racing in it until you have reached the goal of peace.

The surest sign that God exists is felt through the increasing heart-bursting Joy felt in meditation. When your mind is free from prejudice, when little narrow-mindednesses vanish, when you unreservedly sympathize with everybody, when your tears flow when others weep, when you hear the one voice of God in the chorus of churches, tabernacles, temples and mosques, when you realize life is a joyous battle of duty and at the same time a passing dream or a temporary motion picture performance, and above all, when you become increasingly intoxicated with the joy of meditation and in making others happy by giving them God-peace, then you will know God is with you always and you in Him.

"The Hindu of the period between 1500 B.C. and 1000 B.C. contributed a peculiarly valuable mass of information on medical subjects, especially in the branch of operative surgery. They were probably the first users of an anaesthetic. . . . Without antiseptic or aseptic technique they performed practically all of the types of major surgical operations now known. Abdominal incisions for hernia, Caesarian operation, and the removal of tumors were made, and their surgical instruments were well constructed and of distinctly useful types. We are inclined to view with no little pride and conceit our surgery of today, as a thing of modern beauty; but, owing to the factor of pain to the patient, it is not at all unlikely that the ancient Hindu surgeon was fully as deft, and of a necessity a more rapid operator. Indeed, it has been said that ‘we have improved on ancient Hindu surgery in only three regards’."—From "the Science of Health" by Winfred M. Barton, M.D., Georgetown University.

1. Create a little temple in your home. Either convert a little well-ventilated closet into a temple or screen off a corner of your bed room, with a straight chair and a little altar on a table. Burn incense; keep the christian Bible and Hindu Bible—Bhagavad Gita, or other Scriptures also, if you wish. Hold a regular service morning and evening, with yourself as the minister and your thoughts as your audience and congregation. Your restless thoughts need discipline—they must congregate in the temple of silence you have made for them. Here there will be no advertising for followers, no church up-keep, no catching of rich people, no necessity of preparing sermons, no necessity of becoming a hypocrite. Preach to yourself in your own church. Meditate in your own church. Concentrate in your own church. Take up a collection from your own pocket. Give to your own cause of helping yourself liberally, spontaneously. No more slugs in the collection basket, nor desire to get more for collection. Just take collection from yourself of your own church and do some good with it.

2. Observe a right diet—more raw food and ground nuts.

3. Exercise daily; use moderation in all things.

4. Attend the local Yogoda Center for meditation and self-realization classes.

5. Get others interested in meditation. Find God not by proxy but by yourself within yourself in meditation.

6. Harmonious development of body, mind and soul through Yogoda.

7. It is a spiritual duty and privilege to be self-elected evangelist of God. Spread the all-round Yogoda work by getting the EAST-WEST magazine and Yogoda booklet and presenting them to your dear friends. Every good which you do to others you do that unto yourself, for it expands your consciousness from the boundaries of your body to the Universal Spirit which binds you to all others.

"At your Sunday night healing meeting a very marvelous change was wrought in my eyesight. The next morning I read fine print in my Bible without my glasses, a feat which it was impossible for me to do before, as I have worn eyeglasses to read and sew by now for twenty-five years. I astonished myself beyond words when I found I not only could read the finest print, but beheld the real beauty in the texture of flowers, as I did when a young lady—such a delight to my soul, too blissful to describe. I thanked my heavenly Father from the depths of my heart for making me such a gift on my 70th birthday as the restoration of my eyesight. I received such a revelation of the Cosmic Light in your class lesson—something I can never forget. The instruction and privilege is beyond words. If I follow out the Yogoda teaching, as I most surely shall try to, I feel it will add years of life and joy in this life and fit me for the future as no other spiritual teaching I have had could do."—Harriet Blackstone C. Butler, 50 St. Stephen St., Boston.

"I received back my eyesight at your healing meeting at Symphony Hall, and was helped in many other ways."—D. Wallens. 3 Acorn St., Boston.

"From the first lesson, Yogoda taught me how to overcome fatigue. I have suffered from mental nervousness and fear all my life. I cannot express how grateful I am for the great calmness Yogoda has made me feel."—I. Bosworth, 26 Exeter St., Wollaston, Mass.

"I took both of Swami Yogananda’s courses, under high pressure—rising at six, working daily from nine to five, and getting into bed at midnight or later. However, throughout it all, instead of feeling tired or exhausted, as might have been expected, I was remarkably refreshed and invigorated. By constant practice of the exercises I am assured I shall be immeasurably benefitted."—E. F. shaw, 1200 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, Mass.

"Yogoda has opened a new door to me of knowledge, wisdom and divine love; of realization in daily life. Yogoda is the sun of the East; the real cultivation of body, mind and soul, leading to a closer contact with God."—E. G. Sjoman, 86 Buckingham St., Cambridge, Mass.

"Yogoda has given me all that I hoped for in realization of my ‘contact with God’. It has healed my spine, which was injured when I fell downstairs at three years of age. I can now keep my back straight with comfort and can do all the exercises, which I found difficult at first. From my earliest childhood I have had but one great desire—to know about God, and who and what I am. I have searched in many directions and can now know that Yogoda gives me the real truth."—C. E. S. Ballard, 33 Kenwood St., Brookline, Mass.

"The outstanding appeal made to me by Yogoda as an aid in either spiritual or metaphysical work is its usableness. Any person whosoever, by a faithful practice and obedience to a few simple and easily followed directions, cannot but find himself on the path of growth, of improvement physically, mentally and spiritually. God has long been known to me as Principle, but only through Yogoda have I united that consciousness of Him with the satisfying childhood consciousness of God as Father."—F. M. Aldrich, 10 Warren Sq., Jamaica Plain, Mass.

"Thru Yogoda exercises and the healing meetings I have been cured of a trouble which I thought was the starting of a cancer. It has troubled me about six months. I am lame, one leg being shorter than the other. The leg was stiff and the ankle larger than the other one. The ankle has now gone down to the size of the other one and the stiffness has gone."—I. R. Etheridge, 20 Lee St., Cambridge, Mass.

"I had catarrh for many years, but since joining the Yogoda class, the symptoms have been gradually disappearing. My memory is improving, my whole body feels light and supple. No words can express my appreciation of the spiritual teachings! They are a gold mine of wisdom and they are what the world most needs today."—N. I.Shaw, Sutie 56, Whittier Hall, cambridge, Mass.

"Through Yogoda I have been cured of chronic stomach trouble entirely, also of the desire to smoke. Through practicing the Yogoda lessons I have found that my feet, which sometimes I could not use without suffering due to fourteen years of rheumatism, are free from all pain and the wornout muscles are coming back to life. My happy state of mind is even more wonderful. Yogoda has given me new life and happiness."—M. M. Wilson, 466 Parker St., Roxbury, Mass.

"Yogoda means harmony in religions. We need it."—J. A. Thuston, 70 Batonia Street, Boston.

MEANING OF "YOGODA" AND "SAT-SANGA." "Yogoda" means the system and Technique for perfect development of body, mind and soul. "Sat-Sanga" means "fellowship with truth."

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE YOGODA MOVEMENT. The first school to teach the methods of Yogoda was a Residential School for Boys founded by Swami Yogananda in 1917 at Ranchi, India. It has as its patron the Maharajah of Kasimbazar, Sir Manindra Chandra Nundy, Member of the Imperial Council Government of India. In 1920, Swami Yogananda, founder of the Yogoda system, came to America as the delegate from India to the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston. Since that time, he has established Yogoda Sat-Sanga Centers in many American cities, with national Headquarters at the Mount Washington Center, Los Angeles, California. Branch Centers at Detroit, Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

DIVINE HEALING PRAYER SERVICE FOR ALL. Every morning at seven o’clock Swami Yogananda sends a Divine healing Prayer Vibration to his students and all who ask his help in healing and liberating themselves from physical or mental disease or the spiritual suffering of ignorance. Any one who wishes to avail himself of this help, which Swami Yogananda is happy to extend to all, may write to the Los Angeles headquarters, briefly stating the nature of his or her trouble.

MONTHLY DONATIONS AND LOVE-OFFERINGS. These offerings by students and friends of Yogoda form one of the chief means of support of the work and enable the message to spread for the benefit of all humanity. Books and other gifts for the Yogoda headquarters in America and for Swami Yogananda’s schools in India are also welcome.

A thanksgiving Hindu-American dinner was given at the Mount Washington Center, national headquarters of the Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society, on November 25th. A lecture on "The Urge of Opposites" by Swami Dhirananda, which preceded the dinner, was heard by an audience of several hundred people. Mme. Catharine Newsome Jewell, noted operatic soprano, sang at the Sunday services. Music at the dinner was furnished by three members of the Los Angeles Women’s Symphony Orchestra. A charming Christmas Bazaar, offering hand-made articles, was opened on this occasion. The Bazaar, dinners and other similar activities are given under the auspices of the Mt. Washington Helpers’ Association, a group of efficient Yogoda students, who have recently paid from the profits from their activities, bills for the center for taxes and street bonds, amounting to over a thousand dollars.

A Yuletide Diner was given at the Center of December 30th, with an attendance of over 150. Several hundreds heard the preceding address given by Swami Dhirananda on "The Doctrine of the Self." The soloist at the services was Leslie Brigham, basso-cantante, exclusive staff artist of radio KHJ.

Huston Ray, distinguished concert pianist, and an enthusiastic Yogoda member, was the guest speaker at the dinner. Mr. Ray, known as the "music healer," played a number of beautiful selections and explained to the guests his ideas on healing through music. Miss Mona Rico, leading lady of John Barrymore, was Mr. Ray’s guest at the dinner. Another artist who delighted the dinner guests with his music was Raimundo Marquez, Jr., 11-year-old Mexican concert pianist, who has already won widespread acclamation. Among others who were present at the dinner were Mr. Menzing, president of the Benares League, who brought with him many members of his League, who expressed their appreciative interest in the Mt. Washington Center, and Dr. and Mrs. Edward J. Smith, visitors from the Boston branch of the Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society.

Professor Robert Taylor, in charge of the Department of Religious Education at Pomoma College, Claremont, brought his new class of students, as he did last year, to hear Swami Dhirananda speak at the Mount Washington Center, on January 20th. The Swami’s subject was "Healing Moments of the Gospels." After the services the Swami conducted an open forum for about an hour, when the university students asked questions on Indian and other philosophies and religions.

On January 27th the regular monthly Hindu-American dinner was served at the Center and attended by about 140 guests. Professor D. M. DeMorandini, mechanical and electrical engineer, formerly professor of mathematics and physics, Prince Albert Institute, Budapest, was the main speaker. His subject was "Hungary"; its history and present desire for peace and international goodwill. Other speakers at the dinner included Dr. George M. Day, professor of economics at Occidental College, los Angeles; Mrs. George M. Day, professor of German at the University of Southern California; Captain Dudley Corlette, playwright, one of the Governors of the California Botanical Gardens, and a traveler for twenty years in India and the Orient; Mrs. V. B. Richardson, daughter of the well-known writer on occultism, and Mr. N. Chrisander, moving picture producer from Berlin. All spoke on peace and expressed their appreciation of the good work being done at the Center. Dr. Bruce Gordon Kingsley, prominent in Los Angeles musical circles, gave a short talk in which he contrasted the beauty of the Mt. Washington Center now with the deserted barrenness of the place before the Yogoda headquarters was established there in 1925. "The magic touch of loving human hands," he said, "has accomplished all these changes." Leslie Brigham sang at the dinner and the little musical prodigy, Raimundo Marquez, Jr., played piano selections.

Professor George M. Day of Occidental College, Los Angeles, will be the guest speaker at the February 24th Hindu-American Dinner at the Mount Washington Center.

Swami Dhirananda addressed the Liberal Catholic Church on December 2nd at their headquarters established a year ago by Mrs. Miriam A. Clark on West Adams Street. Father Hooper and a large audience welcomed the Swami’s address on "Yogic Interpretation of the Book of Revelation", and asked that the lecture be printed for them.

The swami spoke on "Practical Vedanta" on February 1st for the San Bernardino Women’s Club. He spoke on "The Heart of Hinduism" for the Walmsley Studio, Hollywood, on February 8th.

Subjects discussed by Swami Dhirananda at the Mount Washington Center Sunday services during December, January and February were: "Immortal Words of Sanatsujata," "The Spirit of Renunciation," "Powers of the Mind," "The Living Christ," "New Concepts of the Age," "Rabbi Ben Ezra," "Reincarnation and Evolution", "Denial", "Will and Imagination," "Philosophy of the ‘In Memoriam’," and "Essentials of Bhakti-Yoga."

Swami Yogananda and the Boston branch of the Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society of America, in cooperation with the Massachusetts branch of the Hindustan Association of America, presented the 1400-year old Hindu tragic comedy, "The Little Clay Cart", at Jordan Hall in Boston on January 5th. Governor Alvan Tufts Fuller of Massachusetts sent a cordial note, agreeing to be a patron of the presentation. Among other patrons were President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University, President Samuel W. Stratton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor J. H. Woods, Professor D. C. Jackson. President and Mrs. Henry Lawrence Southwick of the Emerson College of Oratory, swami Paramananda, Mr. and Mrs. A. Farwell Bemis and Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks H. whitman.

The play was a huge success—"the talk of the town", in fact. A large picture of the cast appeared in the Boston Evening Transcript. The proceeds of the play were given to the Hindu Students’ Loan Fund.

A Health Dinner in honor of Swami Yogananda was given by his Boston students at the Church of the Redemption on November 17th. The dinner was catered by Rose Millen of the Health Products Centre. The speakers were the Rev. Dr. Grover Mills, Professor R. G. Tyler, Dr. Bitzer, Dr. Edward Worcester and Swami Yogananda.

A successful Christmas Bazaar and benefit sale for the Boston Yogoda Society was held on December 14th and 15th at the home of Mrs. William Bacon.

Swami Yogananda addressed the men of the Harvard Church of Brookline in late November. Rev. Dr. Ashley Day Leavitt, minister of the church, writing later to the Swami thanking him for his talk, said: "Best of all was the background of fine understanding which made all feel in the same human brotherhood with you."

On January 12th, the Swami addressed the Boston Y. M. C. A. on "My Mother India", a talk which won enthusiastic appreciation from all present. The Swami also spoke before the Church of the Redemption on the same subject on January 9th.

At the invitation of Rabbi Harry Levi, Swami Yogananda addressed the Sisterhood of Temple Israel in Boston on January 15th. "I think you realized yourself how very welcome you were and how very enthusiastically your address was received", Rabbi Levi wrote later. Swami will speak again at the Temple Israel in March.

Swami spoke for the Square and Compass Club, a Boston Masonic organization, on November 24th. "At the expiration of your address," the president of the club wrote Swami later, "I was approached by many who made the remark that ‘this was the best affair of its kind that we have given in the Club for many a year’."

The Canadian Club of Boston heard Swami Yogananda speak on December 8th on "India’s Contribution to World Civilization". The Swami was a guest at the Sportsmen’s Luncheon of the New Brusnwick Guides in Boston, where Governor Hugh Maclean of New Brusnwick, Lieutenant-Governor Youngman of Massachusetts and Mr. Curley, ex-mayor of Boston, were present, on January 22nd.

While in Boston, Swami Yogananda enjoyed a visit with Swami Paramananda of the Vedanta Centers of Boston and California, and greatly appreciated his spirit of cooperation and friendliness.

The Boston Yogoda students of Swami Yogananda are banded together under the leadership of Dr. M. W. Lewis, a Yogoda student for many years. The Boston students meet regularly at the studio of Pauline H. Clark at 543 Boylston Street, and the Brookline students meet at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Goldsmith at 43 Garrison Road.

The Swami’s talk on India at Harvard University on November 11th aroused a great deal of interest. Mr. Davidson Simmers of the Harvard Union wrote Swami as follows: "On behalf of the Governing Board I wish to thank you for your kindness in addressing the students of the Harvard Union last Sunday evening. So many favorable reports have come in from the lecture that I could not refrain from saying a word of appreciation."

Swami Yogananda gave a series of three lectures during January under the auspices of the Fellowship of Faiths and the Dharma Mandal at the Union Auditorium in New York. His first lecture was on "Metaphysical Unity of Hinduism and Christianity". Rev. Elliot White presided at this meeting. "Points of Similarity in Hinduism and Judaism" was discussed by the Swami on January 21st, when Dr. Joseph Silverman presided. The final talk of the series was on "Points of Similarity in Hinduism and Roman Catholicism". These three lectures aroused much enthusiastic comment and interest.

Swami Yogananda attended the India-America Friendship Dinner of the Vedanta Society of New York in celebration of the Birthday of Swami Vivekananda on January 20th.

An India Dinner under the auspice of the India Society of America will be given on March 2nd at International House in New York in honor of Dr. and Mrs. James H. Cousins and Rev. C. F. Andrews, pioneers of the Renaissance movement in India.

While in New York recently, Swami Yogananda had the pleasure of meeting the Rev. John T. Prout several times. Father Prout, who is the founder and first pastor of the Roman Catholic Church of St. John the Martyr in New York, is the author of the stirring poem, "The God of Gods," which appears in this issue.

Swami Yogananda discussed Hinduism for the Fellowship of Faiths, of which the Rev. Dr. Robert Norwood of St. Bartholomew Church is the New York president, on December 17th. Other speakers on the same program discussed Christianity, Islam and Judaism. The New York Times gave a summary of the talks by the four speakers, as follows:

"The purpose of human life for the Christian, as discussed by Dr. Frederick Lynch, secretary of the World Alliance for International Friendship Through the churches, is twofold. ‘The first purpose of the Christian life,’ said Dr. Lynch, ‘is the perfection of the soul and the enrichment of human life by taking into the soul the beauty which is in the world. In this respect Christianity generally differs from other religions only in the means which it uses as an attainment of this end.’ The second purpose of the Christian life is the impartation of greater richness of soul to others, said Dr. Lynch.

"Dr. Sidney E. Goldstein, assistant rabbi of the Free Synagogue, speaking on the Judaistic conception of human life, pointed out as fundamental the ideas of brotherhood, social justice and peace. ‘The vision of human brotherhood in a world of misunderstanding and prejudice and a realization of social justice in which the resources of life are utilized for the good of all instead of the enrichment of the few, are primary in Judaism,’ said Dr. Goldstein. ‘But the centre of the Jewish aim is universal peace.’

"The fundamental precept of Mohammedanism is an acknowledgment of unity,said G. M. Ahmad-Abdoullah. ‘The Koran is the greatest book teaching brotherly love,’ said Ahmad-Abdoullah. ‘Man’s duty to God is to love his neighbor as himself. It is useless to seek a master until you see your fellow as yourself,’ he said. ‘Religion, the one true religion, is love.’

"Swami Yogananda, Indian philosopher, defined Hinduism as a great source of power making for the eternal existence and happiness of the human soul. ‘Hinduism is like the electricity which lights a great sign,’ he said. ‘The many-colored bulbs are like many parts of humanity, but the fundamental power motivates all. Thus does Hinduism attempt to merge all consciences into one mass cosmic conscience.’"

At the invitation of Mr. K. N. Das Gupta of the Fellowship of Faiths and Rabbi Sidney E. Goldstein, Swami Yogananda addressed a meeting of the Free Synagogue in New York on February 5th. The meeting was devoted to a discussion of the problems in the field of Racial Relationships. Dr. W. E. B. DuBois spoke for the Negro group and Mr. E. K. Moy for the Chinese.

Swami Yogananda addressed the Aesculapius Society of Philadelphia, with a membership of 250 physicians, on December 20th. His talk on "Evolution of Healing Methods" was received very cordially by the medical men, who afterward entered into a lengthy and interesting discussion with the Swami about the ideas presented in his lecture.

Swami addressed a Fellowship of Faiths meeting at the Universalist Church of the Messiah in Philadelphia on January 31st. Swami discussed Hinduism: Dr. John A. MacCallum spoke on Christianity, and an exposition of Confucianism was given by Dr. Sum Nung Au-Young of China. Dr. Herbert E. Benton presided at this meeting, which was attended by many hundreds of Philadelphians.

A Sankirtan (evening devoted to religious music) was given at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Sieber on February 23rd, attended by Swami Yogananda and about 100 of his Philadelphia students. Brahmacharis Jotin and Nerode were also present. Swami, thus with his "family" about him, was moved to tears, the occasion recalling similar happy evenings spent in India with his own Guru Deva, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giriji, and his Sat-Sanga brothers. As on those nights of long ago, this glorious evening in Philadelphia was devoted to meditation and singing beautiful songs to the Lord, accompanied by music of cymbals and mridanga (Indian drum used only for religious music). A never-to-be-forgotten evening!

While in Philadelphia, Swami Yogananda had the great pleasure of meeting Rev. C. F. Andrews, co-worker of Mahatma Gandhi and often called "the best-loved white man in India". Dr. Andrews is touring this country at present in behalf of better understanding between America, Great Britain and India.

Swami Yogananda was a speaker at a meeting held in Philadelphia on February 3rd under the auspices of the Fellowship of Faiths and the Philadelphia Ethical Culture Society, on the subject, "What is Human Life For?" Over 2000 people attended the meeting. A summary of the speakers’ talks was given by the Philadelphia Enquirer as follows:

Dr. Jesse H. Holmes, of Swarthmore College, spoke of the Christian answer to the problem; Rabbi Louis Wolsey, of the Judaistic solution; Swami Yogananda, Hindu poet, of the Hinduist’s viewpoint, while Dr. Golding spoke of the Ethical Culture movement.

"The supreme purpose of human life, the purpose to which all other aims must be made subservient, is the raising of mankind to a new order of power and spiritual grandeur," Dr. Golding said. "It is the release in men and women of their nobler potentialities, the liberation of powers, now obscured and stunted by mutual ignorance and strife. It is to make supreme the wonderful and unique power of man to seek truth because it is truth; wisdom because it is wisdom, and to discover and create beauty not for selfish profit, or even fame, but for the beauty itself. It is a quality and an ability that, so far as we know, is not present in any other creature.

"This is the best testimony of the value of human life. In it we can see the very quintessence of religion. It is not dependent upon special revelations or dogmas, but has evolved in the very nature of man. All faiths must be tested by it and re-examined because of it. All churches and synagogues stand or fall upon that authority.

"We honor all the great religions, but not any of them completely to the exclusion of the rest. They have all of them contributed to the truth, but the ultimate truth is yet in the future. Situations are arising that are not met by the teachings of any of the codes of the past, including the Golden Rule. We must seek for the moral perfection of mankind, and whatever the discoveries of the future may disclose about human survival, our business here and now is to do the best that is within us."

Dr. Holmes said that the danger of "having thing done for us" in the way of numerous modern-day conveniences, interferes with the creative side of human life, and, by that degree, interferes with the participation in the creation of higher social values.

Rabbi Wolsey declared that the present day needed the moral messages of all the faiths. Man, to him, is "not a logic chopping machine, but a divine creation set to fulfill its destiny and impelled by the divine command ‘Thou shalt be holy’."

To Swami Yogananda, the Hindu, man is seeking moral perfection and intelligence because of his immortal nature. "We are immortal, with some great link with both the life before us on this earth and the life that is to come," he said. "If it should not be so, then all moral law, all justice and all idealism would be viciously cut off at the end of life. This cannot be the case. We are pervaded by the infinite calm that is excluded from us by ignorance. This we can remove by meditation and service through both of which we come to higher understanding of the eternal truths."

Brahmacharee Nerode, authorized national Yogoda lecturer and teacher, leader of the Detroit and Pittsburgh Yogoda Sat-Sanga Centers, was invited by the Philadelphia Yogoda Group to visit their city and spread the Yogoda teachings. He gave a series of 18 lectures during January, 1929, which were attended each night by several hundred Philadelphians. Several classes were held by the Brahmachareeji during January and February and great interest and enthusiasm were displayed. Grateful appreciation is due to Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Letoriere, Dr. A. D. Williams and Mr. and Mrs. Harry Sieber for invaluable assistance during Brahamchareeji’s visit. Some testimonials given by grateful Philadelphia yogoda students in Brahmacharee Nerode’s classes are as follows:

"Immediately after doing the physical exercises there was a noticeable improvement in the eyesight and a pronounced toning of the whole body. This of itself is invaluable. Greatest of all, Yogoda has enabled me to differentiate body, mind and my Real Self, and to realize one’s limitless power."—I. Wrighton Bradley, 3361 Bowman St.

"Brahmacharee Nerode is a shining example of Yogoda teachings. To see him and to hear him will show you by his dynamic personality that Yogoda can do for you what it has done for him. Yogoda not only tells you to go into the silence, but will teach you how to go into the silence. From my own experience of Hindu teachings with the aid of the Yogoda system, sincere practice and strict adherence, I am firmly convinced that Yogoda will show you the God within yourself, and make you rise to heights unknown, where you will ever taste eternal Bliss."—B. A. Kirk, 1137 Silver St.

"After only one lesson of the Yogoda system (which is a synthesis of the trinity of body, mind and Spirit), I found myself entirely free from a partial deafness in my left ear, for which, according to the law, I acknowledge myself grateful indeed—deeply so. What may be accomplished from a full understanding and a patient practice of the principles so clearly taught, is a joy to anticipate. The difference between Yogoda and some other systems speaking for health alone is that it energizes the cells of the body and mind through concentration and spiritual understanding and meditation; thus rendering our physical temple of the Holy Spirit immune from disease. It is thus obvious that it goes to the cause rather than to the effect; although, as my case shows, it also heals the effects which one has, through ignorance of the law, brought upon one’s self. All humanity should hail a system which enables each one of us to become his own savior, for that is what Yogoda teaches."—J. P. Grant, 918 Spruce St.

"Brahmacharee is such an earnest, enthusiastic and spiritual teacher that I am certain each person will feel the benefit of having been a student in his Yogoda class."—T. M. Farrell, 336 So. 43rd Street.

"The Yogoda class exercises under Brahmacharee Nerode have been most beneficial to me."—Chas. Dilks, 1202 Arch Street.

"Last week a friend persuaded me to go to the Yogoda classes with her. I was not anxious to do it. There are so many different courses offered, claiming to make their students health, wealthy and wise. However, to my great surprise, I find that in little more than a week this course, under Brahmacharee Nerode’s kindly guidance, has given me a new outlook on life. Through Yogoda one regains the calm and poise so essential for health and happiness but so easily lost under the pressure of modern life. My success so far is an incentive to continue faithfully the ‘harmonious development of body, mind and soul.’ I am most grateful for the inspiration Yogoda has given me."—C. K. Lowensen, 2039 Cherry St.

Brahmacharee Nerode gave seven lectures and a Yogoda class in Pittsburgh during November and December, 1928. Great enthusiasm prevailed and the Pittsburgh Center received new impetus from the visit of Brahmacharee. "For his size," said Mr. George B. Hill, chairman of the Pittsburgh Yogoda Center, "Brahmacharee Nerode is the most dynamic person in the world." Among other leading citizens of Pittsburgh who took Brahmachareeji’s class were Dr. H. F. Pfahl, instructor of chemistry and mathematics at the Pittsburgh Academy, and Mr. George W. Remensnyder, manager of the Franklin Refining company. Dr. Pfahl gave the following testimonial of benefits received from the classwork:

"I have entirely recovered from that attack of sickness and feel stronger in every way since I took up Yogoda. It seems that I face life with more confidence. The teachings of Yogoda conquer fear because they reveal the mysteries of life."

Brahmacharee also conducted two Pittsburgh healing meetings, on request, where many reported healings. The students gave a banquet in honor of Brahmacharee at the conclusion of his visit.

The Cleveland Yogoda Center, under the leadership of Upadeshak Panditji, enjoyed a series of talks on "The Contribution of India to the World Ideal" during January. During February, Panditji will give a series of lectures on "Occultism and Mysticism" at the Hotel Winton.

Mr. R. K. Das, former leader of the Pittsburgh Center, is now the permanent leader of the Cincinnati Yogoda Center. A Yogoda Banquet of welcome was given him by the Cincinnati students on February 8th at which about 185 students were guests. Enthusiastic interest was shown. A musical program was given, and short talks by Dr. Stewart, Mr. Whitacre and Mr. Tallentire. Mr. Das conducts open meetings every other Sunday night, with class reviews each Monday night at the Hotel Sinton. On February 3rd, Dr. Thomas Stewart gave an illustrated lecture before the Cincinnati Yogoda students on "The Great Pyramid and Its Meaning".

The Detroit Yogoda Sat-Sanga Center held a Social Gathering on November 17th at their new headquarters at 4210 Woodward Avenue. Their Annual Bazaar was given on December 6th, 7th and 8th, closing with a party and raffle sale. Another Yogoda party was held on January 19th. Brahmacharee Nerode will visit his Detroit students in March.

The Washington Center held a Christmas celebration on December 23rd, at which the students presented their leader, Brahmachari Jotin, with gifts in token of the affection he has won from them all. Open meetings conducted by Brahmachariji are held each Sunday night at Stoneleigh Court, with weekly class reviews. He also lectures often before the Afro-American Yogoda group in Washington.

The Minneapolis Yogoda Center held its first anniversary dinner on December 4th where about 100 students were served. The speakers on this most enjoyable occasion were Mrs. Jenova Martin, leader of the Center, Mr. Nicolai Husted, president of the Center, Mr. M. R. Keith, president of the St. Paul Yogoda Center, Mr. Storlie, president of the Riley Health Club, Mr. J. S. Garns, leader of the Mozumdar Fellowship and Mrs. J. C. Nash, president of the Benares League. A message from Swami Yogananda was read and received with great appreciation by his students.

A lecture by Mr. Charles Lowder, president of the Minneapolis Theosophical Society, was given recently before the Yogoda Center in Minneapolis. Sunday evening meetings, attended by several hundred Yogoda students, are held each week at the Hotel Radisson.

The Honorable Mr. V. J. Patel, eminent Indian leader and president of the Imperial Legislative Assembly, India, recently paid a visit to the Ranchi Brahmacharya Residential School for Boys, established by Swami Yogananda and the Maharaja of Kasimbazar. Mr. Patel was given a fitting reception by the citizens of Ranchi and the students of the Ranchi school. Mr. Patel expressed his appreciation of the tone of plain living and high living that prevails at the Ranchi school and expressed high hopes for its future.

The Annual Reunion of the students and alumni of the Ranchi school was held in Calcutta on October 16, 1928. Songs, demonstration of physical feats and Yogoda exercises, speeches and a dinner were included in the program. The Maharaja Bahadur of Kasimbazar, with his son, the Maharaj-Kumar Srish Chandra Nandy, M.A., M. L. C., honored the occasion with their presence. The well-beloved Maharaja, in a happy mood on this reunion day, addressed the workers of the school and lauded their efforts on behalf of right education.

O how far removed,

Predestination! is thy foot from such

As see not the First Cause entire; and ye,

O mortal men! be wary how ye judge;

For we, who see the Maker, know not yet

The number of the chosen; and esteem

Such scantiness of knowledge our delight:

For all our good is, in that primal good.

Concentrate and God’s will and ours are one.

A Yogoda Center of Progress has been opened in Scotland at 14 Devon Square, Alloa, by Mr. R. J. Calder, where Yogoda books and Correspondence Courses may be obtained. Thru Mr. Calder’s enthusiastic interest and efforts, many editors and metaphysical centers of the British Isles are becoming interested in Yogoda. Special thanks are due Mr. H. Bridgeman, editor of the inspiring little magazine, "The Rally" (London) for his sympathetic cooperation.

A poem on "My Mother India" by Swami Yogananda appeared in the December, 1928 issue of the eminent Indian monthly, "Modern Review", of Calcutta.

An article on "Health Recipes" by Swami Yogananda appeared in the February, 1929 issue of Dr. Benedict Lust’s inspiring health magazine, "Nature’s Path".

Copies of January-February and March-April, 1926, issues of EAST-WEST are needed by the editors, who will be very grateful to any subscribers who will return those copies to the EAST-WEST office.

The article by Swami Yogananda on "The Mystery of Life and death," which appeared in the November-December 1928 issue of EAST-WEST, has aroused more interest and comment from all parts of the country than anything he has written recently. Scores of subscribers wrote in for extra copies to send to friends. Mr. R. J. Cromie, owner and publisher of the eminent Canadian daily, the Vancouver Sun, reprinted the essay in full, as a feature article, in the Sunday editions of the Sun for December 9th. The following editorial comment appeared in the Sun on December 10th:

"That remarkable article by Swami Yogananda dealing with the mysteries of life and death which the Vancouver Sun published yesterday should add a new philosophical tone to the dinner table discussions of thinking Vancouver.

"As an explanation of the world we live in, this article reduces the riddle of life to such simple terms that a child can read and understand.

"Swami Yogananda pictures spirit as the ocean. Matter is only a manifestation of spirit as a wave is a manifestation of the ocean. Happiness, contentment and prosperity depend upon our ability to tune in on the harmonious rhythm of the great spirit force.

"If the progress of science has introduced us to some of the astounding laws of physics, it has also taught us something of the even more astounding laws of the psychic world. Forty years ago when Alexander Graham Bell proposed to project his voice over telephone wires, critics said he was crazy. Yet today the telephone is an accomplished and commonplace fact.

"Wireless, too, was magic. And radio was an even more mysterious subject.

"Yet, compared with the subtle niceties of the human mind, this apparatus that will project the sound of the voice over ten thousand miles of space is only a piece of gross steel.

"If the radio can pick up sound and music, what is the human system capable of picking up as it learns to tune in on the vibrations of the universe?

"We are standing on the shore of a vast ocean of knowledge. As Swami Yogananda shows, our relations with the infinite are only bounded by our ability to open our minds and souls and listen."

The Vancouver Sun also published the following editorial comment in its February 19th, 1929, editions:

"Great truths are essentially simple. Great delusions are essentially complex.

"There is nothing in true religion to harass and destroy the mind. There is nothing in true science to bewilder and confuse the intellect. Indeed, the deeper one digs into mortal, religious, psychological and scientific matters, the more plain and simple those matters become.

"The greatest contribution to health mechanics made in the past 25 years on this continent has been by a dietitian whose rules and formulas are so plain and obvious as to anger the mystery-loving doctors.

"And some of the finest contributions to metaphysical thought have been made by such men as Swami Yogananda, the essential simplicity of whose doctrine will be evident to those who read the article by the Swami which appeared in the Vancouver Sun some weeks back.

"Those who endeavor to consume mental fare that gives them mental and spiritual biliousness should be warned that they are on the wrong track.

"Insanity and confusion lie in the way of false thinking. Peace lies in the way of truth."

Three Brahmacharya Residential Schools for Boys at Ranchi, Puri and Bankura, Bengal, India. The Maharajah of Kasimbazar is the patron of the Ranchi School.

Mount Washington Center, National Headquarters, Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society of America, 3880 San Rafael Avenue, Los Angeles, Calif. Phone Garfield 6406. Swami Dhirananda, M. A., in charge.

Leader, Upadeshak Panditji. Sunday evening meetings at Hotel Winton.

Leader, Dr. M. W. Lewis, 543 Boylston Street, Boston. Brookline meetings at 43 Garrison Road.

Leader, Mr. Ranendra K. Das. Sunday meetings twice monthly at Walnut Hills Masonic Temple.

Leader, Brahmacharee Nerode, A.B. All meetings at 4210 Woodward Avenue.

Leader, Mrs. Jenova Martin. Sunday evening meetings at Hotel Radisson.

Leader, Mr. George A. Young. Business address, 344 Minnesota St. Tuesday evening meetings at 901 Globe Bldg.

Leader, Brahmachari Nerode. Sunday evening meetings at 3414—5th Avenue. Student meetings, Thursday evenings, at Carnegie Public Library, Committee Room.

Leader, Brahmachari Jotin, A.B. 2032 Belmont Rd., Apt. 414. Sunday meetings at 8 p.m. at Stoneleigh Court.

Afro-American Yogoda Sat-Sanga Association. Leader, Mrs. Minnie C. Mayo. Office, 123 T. St. N.W., phone Decatur 3628.

Leader, Mrs. Anna Krantz, 419 Wohlers Avenue. Weekly meetings at Hotel Statler.

A. D. Williams, M.D., Secretary, 608 Horn Bldg. Sunday evening meetings at Palmer School Auditorium.

Swami Yogananda is at present devoting his attention to the training of new teachers who can spread the Yogoda message in different parts of the country. Those interested should address the Swami at 509 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

For the purpose of advancing the Yogoda work and maintaining the organization a donation of $2.00 a year is asked of all Yogoda students. This donation will make each student a member of the national Yogoda Society. Checks should be made out to the National Yogoda Fund and mailed to Yogoda, c/o Mr. J. H. MacDowell, treasurer, 509 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

The Swami plans to devote his time to looking after the whole spiritual welfare of the work, depending on God and the Yogoda students for their financial and spiritual support in spreading the light of Yogoda over the land. At present he is engaged in writing a universal prayer book, which he calls "Sacred Demands," and is also writing a Yogoda Bible.

If you receive a renewal notice and order blank enclosed with this issue of EAST-WEST, please renew promptly. No other notice will be sent.

With this first 1929 issue, EAST-WEST starts the fourth year of its existence. The editors thank all subscribers for their support, interest and encouragement.

AN Inspiring Poem on Spiritual Realization by Swami Yogananda. Cardboard, suitable for framing. 15c postpaid.

By Swami Yogananda. Reprinted from the "Modern Review" of India. 10c postpaid.

STATEMENT OF THE OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, CIRCULATION, ETC., REQUIRED BY THE ACT OF CONGRESS OF AUGUST 24, 1912, of EAST-WEST, published bi-monthly at New York, for October 1, 1928. State of New York, County of New York. Before me, a notary public in and for the State and county aforesaid, personally appeared Swami Yogananda, who having been duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that he is the owner of East-West, and that the following is, to the best of his knowledge and belief, a true statement of the ownership, management, etc., of the aforesaid publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by the Act of August 24, 1912, embodied in section 411, Postal Laws and Regulations, printed on the reverse of this form, to wit: 1. That the names and addresses of the publisher, editor, managing editor, and business manager are: Publisher, Yogoda and Sat-Sanga society, 509 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Editor, Swami Yogananda, 509 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Managing Editor, Swami Yogananda, 509 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. Business Manager, None. 2. That the owner is: Swami Yogananda, 509 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 3. That the known bondholders, mortgagees,and other security holders owing or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities are: none. 4. That the two paragraphs next above, giving the names of the owners, stockholders, and security holders, if any, contain not only the list of stockholders and security holders as they appear upon the books of the company but also, in cases where the stockholder or security holder appears upon the books of the company as trustee or in any other fiduciary relation, the name of the person or corporation for whom such trustee is acting, is given; also, that the said two paragraphs contain statements embracing affiant’s full knowledge and belief as to the circumstances and conditions under which stockholders and security holders who do not appear upon the books of the company as trustees, hold stock and securities in a capacity other than that of a bone fide owner; and this affiant has no reason to believe that any other person, association or corporation has any interest direct or indirect in the said stock, bonds, or other securities than as so stated by him. (Signed) Swami Yogananda, Owner. Sworn to and subscribed before me this 24th day of October, 1928. Isabelle Neary, Notary Public.

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SCIENTIFIC HEALING AFFIRMATIONS. This book has become a world-wide inspiration. Swami has used these affirmations at Healing Meetings in many of the large American cities, and thousands have been liberated and healed of disease of the body, mind and soul. This book gives not only many beautiful and inspiring Affirmations to use for awakening your inner powers and thus free yourself from the consciousness of sickness, poverty, bad habits and mental sloth, but it also EXPLAINS the scientific reason for healing thru the power of thought, will, feeling and prayer. Unique methods of healing for different types of mind. How to Contact the Curative Life Principle and Cosmic Energy. 50c.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CHART. Ninth Edition. This book gives a Chart for Analyzing Human Nature and Conduct. Practical understanding of inherent and acquired natures. A Psychological Mirror for Self-Knowledge and Self-Discipline, highly recommended by University professors. Used with great practical success at Swami’s Residential Schools in India. 50c.

SCIENCE OF RELIGION. Fifth Edition, with Frontispiece of the Swami. Preface by the English poet and philosopher, Douglas Grant Duff Ainslie, who writes: "This small book is the clue to the universe. Its value is beyond estimation in words, since between these narrow covers is to be found the flower of the Vedas and Upanishads, the essence of Patanjali—foremost exponent of the Yoga philosophy and method—and the thought of Sankara—greatest mind that ever dwelt in human body—placed for the first time within reach of the multitude. This is the deliberate statement of one who has at last found in the East, after many wanderings, the solution of the riddles of the West." $1.50 (Postage 10c extra.)

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EAST-WEST MAGAZINE, $1.50 yearly, postpaid. 25c per copy.

SONGS FOR PIANO, (Sheet Music). "SONG OF BRAHMA," ancient Hindu Temple melody. 35c. "MY SOUL IS MARCHING ON," words by Swami Yogananda, 20c. OM SONG—Beautiful, inspiring. 35c.

YOGODA EMBLEMS. Pins and Lapel Buttons for Yogoda students. Gold plated, in orange and blue enamel. $1.00 postpaid.

PHOTOGRAPHS of Swami Yogananda. Mounted. $2.00.

YOGODA CORRESPONDENCE COURSE. Send 10c for descriptive pamphlet.