Chapter (অধ্যায়): PART I : AMERICAN NEWSPAPER REPORTS PAGE-501Page: 501 of 548

know the fundamental reality, because I am that fundamen­tal reality. There is no duality. This is the solution of all questions of metaphysics and ethics. Western civilization has in vain endeavored to find a reason for altruism. Here it is. I am my brother, and his pain is mine. I cannot injure him without injuring myself, or do ill to other beings with­out bringing that ill upon my own soul. When I have real­ized that I myself am the Absolute, for me there is no more death nor life nor pain nor pleasure, nor caste nor sex. How can that which is absolute die or be born? The pages of nature are turned before us like the pages of a book, and we think that we ourselves are turning, while in reality we remain ever the same.

HINDU PHILOSOPHY1

______

CONCEPTION OF THE UNIVERSE IN DISTANT INDIA

[Los Angeles Times, December 13, 1899]

Swami Vivekananda, the Hindu philosopher, addressed the regular monthly meeting of the Southern California Academy of Sciences at Unity Church last evening.2 The audience was large and appreciative, and at the end of the lecture a number of ques­tions were asked by members of the audience and answered by the lecturer. . . .

The speaker began with a reference to the mythological tales of the Hindus in which they attempted to explain the origin of the universe, and he told also of the endeavors of the ancients to explain the mysteries which surrounded them.

According to their belief, he said, man's first idea is of himself. His will moves all his members. A child's idea of power is in its will. All movement of the universe has a will

 



Foot Note:

1       New Discoveries, Vol. 5, pp. 194‑95.

2       Cf. the following December 13, 1899 Los Angeles Herald newspaper report on the same lecture (pp. 502‑4).