一切宗教皆善
本译文由人工智能辅助工具生成，可能存在不准确之处。如需查阅权威文本，请参考英文原文。
AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
卡南达先生昨日应肯特牧师（该教会牧师）之邀，在人民教会发表演讲。他上午的讲道是一篇正式的布道，完全聚焦于宗教的灵性层面，向正统派别提出了一个颇为新颖的命题：每种宗教的根基中都蕴含着善，所有宗教如同语言一般，同源于一个共同的根株，各宗教在其形体与精神层面皆有其善，只要不受教条主义与僵化思想的侵蚀。下午的演讲则更多地以讲座的形式展开，主题是雅利安民族，通过语言、宗教与习俗，追溯各种亲缘民族自共同的梵文根株而来的渊源。
集会结束后，卡南达先生对《华盛顿邮报》记者说：「我不声称与任何宗教派别有所关联，而是持旁观者的立场，并在力所能及的范围内充当人类的导师。对我而言，一切宗教皆有其善。关于生命与存在的高深奥义，我所能做的，不过是如其他人那般加以推测。轮回[Samsara]在我看来，是对我们在宗教领域所面临诸多问题最接近于合乎逻辑的解释。但我并不将其作为一种教义加以倡导。它充其量不过是一种理论，除个人亲身经历外无从证明，而那种证明也只对亲历其事之人有效。您的经历对我毫无意义，我的经历对您亦然。我不相信奇迹——在宗教事务上，奇迹令我反感。即便天地崩塌于我耳边，那对我来说也无法证明上帝的存在，更无法证明您是借其力量行事，倘若真有上帝的话。
他以盲目的信念信仰此事
「然而，我必须相信过去与未来的存在，视其为当下存在的必要前提。如果我们从此处继续前行，我们必将以其他形式前行，由此便产生了对轮回的某种信念。但我无从证明，任何人都欢迎来剥夺我轮回的理论，只要他们能向我展示某种更好的东西来取而代之。只是迄今为止，我尚未找到任何能对我给出同样令人满意解释的东西。」
卡南达先生是加尔各答人，毕业于当地的政府大学。他能像母语者一样说英语，因为他的大学教育便是以英语进行的。他有充分的机会观察本地人与英国人之间的接触，一位外国传教士工作者若听到他以极为漠然的语气谈论改宗本地人的种种尝试，必会大失所望。就此，有人问他西方的教导对东方思想产生了何种影响。
「当然，」他说，「任何思想进入一个国家都必然会产生影响，但基督教教导对东方思想的影响，即便存在，也小得难以察觉。西方的教义在那里所留下的印象，与东方的教义在这里所留下的相差无几，也许还不及后者。这是就该国的高层思想界而言。传教工作在民众中所产生的影响微乎其微。当有人改宗，他们自然立刻脱离了本土各派别，但总人口如此众多，传教士的改宗者所能产生的可见影响极为有限。」
瑜伽修行者不过是杂耍者
当被问及他是否了解瑜伽修行者与阿底普塔所谓奇迹般表演的情况时，卡南达先生回答说，他对奇迹不感兴趣，尽管这个国家确实有许多技艺高超的杂耍者，但他们的表演不过是把戏。卡南达先生说，他只见过一次芒果戏法，那是一个行脚僧人在小规模场合所为。他对于喇嘛所谓成就的说法也持相同看法。「在所有关于这些现象的记录中，都极度缺乏训练有素的、科学的、不抱成见的观察者，」他说，「因此很难从中甄别真伪。」
English
ALL RELIGIONS ARE GOOD
(Washington Post, October 29, 1894)
Mr. Kananda spoke yesterday at the People's Church on the invitation of Dr. Kent, pastor of the church. His talk in the morning was a regular sermon, dealing entirely with the spiritual side of religion, and presenting the, to orthodox sects, rather original proposition that there is good in the foundation of every religion, that all religions, like languages, are descended from a common stock, and that each is good in its corporal and spiritual aspects so long as it is kept free from dogma and fossilism. The address in the afternoon was more in the form of a lecture on the Aryan race, and traced the descent of the various allied nationalities by their language, religion and customs from the common Sanskrit stock.
After the meeting, to a Post reporter Mr. Kananda said: "I claim no affiliation with any religious sect, but occupy the position of an observer, and so far as I may, of a teacher to mankind. All religion to me is good. About the higher mysteries of life and existence I can do no more than speculate, as others do. Reincarnation seems to me to be the nearest to a logical explanation for many things with which we are confronted in the realm of religion. But I do not advance it as a doctrine. It is no more than a theory at best, and is not susceptible of proof except by personal experience, and that proof is good only for the man who has it. Your experience is nothing to me, nor mine to you. I am not a believer in miracles — they are repugnant to me in matters of religion. You might bring the world tumbling down about my ears, but that would be no proof to me that there was a God, or that you worked by his agency, if there was one.
He Believes It Blindly
"I must, however, believe in a past and a hereafter as necessary to the existence of the present. And if we go on from here, we must go in other forms, and so comes any belief in reincarnation. But I can prove nothing, and any one is welcome to deprive me of the theory of reincarnation provided they will show me something better to replace it. Only up to the present I have found nothing that offers so satisfactory an explanation to me."
Mr. Kananda is a native of Calcutta, and a graduate of the government university there. He speaks English like a native, having received his university training in that tongue. He has had good opportunity to observe the contact between the native and the English, and it would disappoint a foreign missionary worker to hear him speak in very unconcerned style of the attempts to convert the natives. In this connection he was asked what effect the Western teaching was having on the thought of the Orient.
"Of course," he said, "no thought of any sort can come into a country without having its effect, but the effect of Christian teaching on Oriental thought is, if it exists, so small as to be imperceptible. The Western doctrines have made about as much impression there as have the Eastern doctrines here, perhaps not so much. That is, among the higher thinkers of the country. The effect of the missionary work among the masses is imperceptible. When converts are made they of course drop at once out of the native sects, but the mass of the population is so great that the converts of the missionaries have very little effect that can be seen."
The Yogis Are Jugglers
When asked whether he knew anything of the alleged miraculous performances of the yogis and adepts Mr. Kananda replied that he was not interested in miracles, and that while there were of course a great many clever jugglers in the country, their performances were tricks. Mr. Kananda said that he had seen the mango trick but once, and then by a fakir on a small scale. He held the same view about the alleged attainments of the lamas. "There is a great lack of trained, scientific, and unprejudiced observers in all accounts of these phenomena," said he, "so that it is hard to select the false from the true."
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。