The New Avatara or J. K. Worship
By George F. Enoch
No doubt many of your readers know more or less of Mrs. Anna Besant, the leader of the Theosophists at the present time. She was at one time the wife of a country clergyman, afterwards a rank atheist, and then an ardent disciple of Madame Blavatsky. She is now the head of the Theosophical propaganda, and spends much of her time in India. She is perhaps the most eloquent advocate of neo-Hinduism that has ever come to India from the West; still she has not succeeded in conciliating the great body of Hindu thought. Her propaganda has however made considerable headway, with headquarters in Madras, and a Hindu college in Benares. In this college, which will soon be affiliated with the new Hindu university, we have the strange sight of Hindus carrying with them brass images of Christ meditating on His soon return to the world in another avatar, or incarnation. In fact they have a young man there now, an intelligent looking young Madrasi named Alcyone J. Krishnamurti, who is declared to have the body in which Christ will appear. This Hindu college has been so led away with this false teaching, and so much time spent in meditating on this new incarnation, that study was interfered with, and steps had to be taken to regulate it. Mrs. Besant says that if J. K. is not actually the Reincarnation, he is the Forerunner. To the readers of the “Signs of the Times,” this but reveals the articulate cry that is rising from all the world for the return of the Master. How we should hasten the message of His coming! In his work among the heathen villages in the vernaculars, the writer has found that no doctrine we preach strikes so universal a chord of interest as the preaching of the second advent of our Saviour and its nearness. But in the meantime, Hinduism is not purifying itself very fast, as is shown by the fact that in 1912 on January 14, under British rule in the city of Allahabad, there was a procession of more than 1,000 worshipers who were stark naked, as they had reached that stage of perfection(?) that it was no longer necessary to wear clothing. We appeal to the readers of the “Signs” to help us hasten the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom.