ADWAITA PHILOSOPHY.
[As the subjoined letter comes from such a learned source, we do not feel justified in commenting upon it editorially, our personal knowledge of the Adwaita doctorine being unquestionably very meagre when contrasted with that of a Paramahamsa. Yet we felt a strong suspicion that, whether owing to a mistranslation or an "original misconception" there was an error with regard to Tadpada, called heiein the 8th principle. Hence—the foot-notes by our learned brother T. Subba Row, to whom we turned over the MS. for reply. We know of no better authority in India in anything concerning the esotericism of the Adwaita philosophy.—Ed.]
The following few lines are from an Indian Hermit in the Himalayas—and these convey a mere hint which may help to eradicate by means of your valuable journal a very serious error which has been misleading the Western Philosophers for the past (nearly) nineteen hundred years—we mean the historical sense in which the Bible has been accepted by the Orthodox Christians of the day. We are surprised to find that the modern spiritualists in the West have ignored this very important subject and are sitting quite apathetic—while they profess to have pledged themselves to the establishment of truth.
We see that the British Government makes now and then a sudden and spasmodic effort to have the English version of the Bible revised and corrected; and still the good people of Christendom—(we mean that portion which is seeking after truth—and not the selfish and handsomely paid missionaries)—fail to reap the fruit they so long for. Now and again we find some correspondence on this subject in the Theosophist, but it does not seem to end in any tangible result. Up to this time we have been reading and hearing of only the literal Bible, but not a single word of the esoteric spirit to enliven it do we find therein. If the Bible, as interpreted by the bigoted missionaries, is really a book of history, or even of morality, then, it cannot be a book of divine inspiration; hence but little fit to form the foundation of State-religions. Unless a full view be taken of the Bible from different stand-
