The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett from the Mahatmas M. and K. H., transcribed, compiled and with an introduction by A. T. Barker. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1923; second edition, 1926.

Introduction

by A. T. Barker

It is well known, among students of Theosophy and Occultism, that the philosophical doctrines and ethics which were given to the world through the Theosophical Society during the 16 years immediately following its foundation in 1875, emanated from certain Eastern Teachers said to belong to an Occult Brotherhood living in the trans-Himalayan fastnesses of Tibet. H. P. Blavatsky who, together with Colonel Olcott founded the Theosophical Society, acknowledged these Eastern Brothers as her Teachers, stating not only that They existed, but that she herself had received training and instruction at their hands during her sojourn in Tibet, and was therefore able to speak from her own knowledge and personal experience. It was not until 1880 that further testimony became available. In that year the late A. P. Sinnett, then living in India, was enabled through the agency of Madame Blavatsky, to enter into correspondence with her own Teachers, whom she referred to variously under the terms, "The Brothers," "The Mahatmas," and later "The Masters of Wisdom." During the course of this correspondence which extended over the years 1880 to 1884 Mr. Sinnett received many letters from The Mahatmas M. and K.H., the Teachers in question, and it is these original communications which are published in the present volume under the title of "The Mahatma Letters." The circumstances attending their receipt were fully dealt with by Mr. Sinnett in his "Occult World" and they need not therefore be restated here.

They are now published with the permission of the Executrix of the late A. P. Sinnett, to whom they were bequeathed solely and unconditionally; she, in her turn at the suggestion of the writer of this Introduction, allowed him the great privilege of undertaking the whole responsibility for the transcription, arrangement and publication of the Letters in book form.

The writer undertook the task with the fullest sense of the grave responsibility attending his action, convinced that the moment had come when the highest interests of The Theosophical Society demanded the full publication of The Teachings of The Masters given to Mr. Sinnett. He feels the responsibility the more keenly since there is a passage in one of the letters in this volume in which The Master K.H. says that neither he nor his brother M., would ever permit the publication thereof. Though there can be no doubt that these letters were not intended for publication at the time they were written, it may also be fairly assumed that the present impasse in the affairs of the Society was not anticipated either. At a time when there is so much controversy in regard to what was, and what was not the original Teaching of The Masters, the publication of the words of its own Teachers can do nothing less than serve the highest interests of the great movement which claims for its motto that "There is no religion higher than Truth." The Masters are what they are; what they have written — they have written, and neither they nor their doctrines need the acclamation or apology of lesser minds.

It is almost impossible to arrive at the facts, or even to form a trustworthy opinion upon a subject so far reaching, by studying an edited book of extracts. Therefore, that the members of the Theosophical Society and the world at large, should be enabled to study the truth for themselves concerning The Masters and their doctrines as set forth in these letters signed by their own hands, has been the aim of the compiler.* To this end, the whole of the Mahatma Letters left by Mr. Sinnett have been transcribed verbatim from the originals and without omission.

*{See Barker's correction, "The Writing of the Mahatma Letters," next to last paragraph.}

Mr. Sinnett's books The Occult World and Esoteric Buddhism were based almost entirely on the material contained in Sections I. and II. of this volume. A careful study of the exposition of the teaching given in those early works, as in that of more modern Theosophical writers, yields some interesting results when compared with the original teaching as contained in these letters. Many theories which have become the accepted dogmas of modern Theosophical doctrines, are clearly shown to be inaccurate and misleading, and it may therefore be profitable if the principal points of difference are indicated to the reader.

It must be admitted that there has been an increasing tendency in the Society during the last twelve years, to place an undue reliance on ceremonial, orders, Churches, creeds and their equivalent, thereby sacrificing the virility of individual effort and freedom of thought, which was so noticeable in the early days of the movement. The Master K.H. writes in very clear terms on this subject, and it may be well to quote his own words. "And now after making due allowance for evils that are natural and cannot be avoided . . . I will point out the greatest, the chief cause of nearly two-thirds of the evils that pursue humanity ever since that cause became a power. It is religion under whatever form and in whatsoever nation. It is the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the Churches; it is in those illusions that man looks upon as sacred, that he has to search out the source of that multitude of evils which is the great curse of humanity, and that almost overwhelms mankind. Ignorance created Gods, and cunning took advantage of the opportunity." (Letter No. 10.) And again "Far from our thoughts may it ever be to erect a new hierarchy for the future oppression of a priestridden world." (Letter No. 87) The inference and the message of these words in our own times is sufficiently clear.

There has been a noticeable tendency also for sections of the Society to drift towards what Master K.H. calls "that most insane and fatal of superstitions — Spiritualism." (Letter No. 49) In another letter he says "a psychic Society is being founded . . . , it will grow and develop and expand and finally the Theos. Soc. of London will be swamped in it, and lose first its influence then — its name — until Theosophy in its very name becomes a thing of the Past." It is regrettable that these words are as true to-day, as when they were written. The, whole question is thrashed out from every point of view in these letters, so that no misunderstanding is possible to the mind of the impartial student. The mischief lies, then as now, in the misunderstanding of the real nature of spiritualistic phenomena. Those who adhere to the methods of Spiritualism claim that communication can be established with the souls and spirits of the departed by means of properly qualified mediums. That communication of a kind between the living and the dead can be made, is accepted as a demonstrable fact in these letters, and is not challenged in any way. But communication with what? Here lies the crux of the whole matter. Master K.H. states not once, but over and over again, that communication with the souls and spirits of the dead is an impossibility. At death, consciousness which pertains to the seventh, sixth, and fifth principles of man, (and in these are included the soul, and spirit and all that makes man human) withdraws into an unconscious gestation period which precedes re-birth in the Deva Chan or heaven-world. It leaves behind it, the physical corpse, the etheric counterpart or double, and lastly the emotional and mental shell which is the correspondence in subtler matter of the physical body, and which may be termed the vehicle of consciousness on its own plane, just as the physical body is the vehicle of consciousness in the physical world. It must be understood clearly however, that each of these empty shells has a certain illusory awareness or consciousness of its own, which is the collective consciousness of the aggregation of atoms and molecules of which they are composed, and quite distinct from the consciousness of the individual, or real entity, which informed them in life. The physical body has a similar consciousness which is purely animal and instinctive in nature. At death the consciousness of even the shell leaves it for a time, and does not return to it until the withdrawal of 5th, 6th, and 7th principles is complete. Not until after that is accomplished, does a certain awareness of existence return to the empty shells. It is these disintegrating corpses which can be temporarily galvanized into activity by the efforts of a medium; these can and do communicate, but only as it were from memory of what has been, and not from consciousness of present facts. This is the reason for the often stupid, meaningless, unspiritual messages from the other side of death which so disgust the seeker for real knowledge. The brief analysis given above, is the rule for all humanity, with the exception of the victims of accident and suicide on the one hand, and on the other those rare individuals (only the trained occultist knows how rare they are) who have won for themselves immortality.

Those students of "occultism" who believe themselves guided, by disincarnate entities ranging in degree from departed Theosophists to "Adepts who have relinquished the use of physical bodies on earth," (Esoteric Buddhism, p. 133. Eighth Edition) by means of the methods of mediums, ouija boards and their equivalent, will do well to consider their position in the light of these letters. Communication with departed Theosophists (i.e. the real entities) as already shown is an impossibility, for alas! they cannot be included among those who have achieved immortality, the exceptions to the general rule governing humanity being so very few; and with regard to the guidance of disembodied "Adept Spirits" it may be asked, how those who have not deserved individual instruction from Adepts in the flesh, can possibly expect to receive direct help from Their superiors — the Planetary Spirits, the Dhyan Chohanic Host? It cannot be too strongly emphasized that in thus externalizing the source from which he seeks inspiration, the student sacrifices all possibility of the grand realities of spiritual attainment and direct knowledge. "The ever unknowable and incognizable Karana alone, the Causeless Cause of all causes, should have its shrine and altar on the holy and untrodden ground of our heart — invisible, intangible, unmentioned, save through the 'still small voice' of our spiritual consciousness. Those who worship before it, ought to do so in the silence and the sanctified solitude of their Souls, making their Spirit the sole mediator between them and The Universal Spirit, their good actions their only priests, and their sinful intentions the only visible and objective sacrificial victims to the "Presence." (The Secret Doctrine, vol. I, p. 280)

The importance of the correct understanding of the doctrines relating to post mortem conditions, may be judged by the significant phrase of Master K.H. "that he who holds the keys to the Secrets of Death is possessed of the Keys of Life." The dual meaning and application of the theosophical doctrines relating to Death would seem to have been missed — passed by. The entrance to the Mysteries has ever been through the Gate of Death; and as in the Egyptian "Book of The Dead" — under the symbolism of the passage of the Soul from life through Death to Devachan, lies hid the precious teaching which rightly understood will bring to rebirth the aspirant who has passed through the agonies of Death in Life.

The letters in the Section entitled Probation and Chelaship make a profound appeal to the heart of both mystic, and occultist. The wisdom, the instruction, the many intimate details, all combine to throw a new light not only on The Masters themselves, but on the whole question of discipleship. As one reads these pages written 40 years ago, the conviction is reached that the way to The Masters is open to-day as it was then. But the possibility of achievement for the individual lies not in following and pledging loyalty to any personal leader, but by uncompromising devotion to the Idea, — to principles. Master K.H. writes on this subject: — "There is a hero-worshipping tendency clearly showing itself, and you my friend are not quite free from it yourself. . . . If you would go on with your occult studies and literary work, then learn to be loyal to the Idea rather than to my poor self. When something is to be done never think whether I wish it, before acting; . . . I am far from being perfect, hence infallible in all I do. . . . You have seen that even an Adept when acting in his body, is not beyond mistakes due to human carelessness." (Letter No. 55)

In extenuation of the many anomalies created by the unfortunate discrepancy which exists between the principles of the Theosophical Society and their practice by individual members, it must be remembered that as emphasized in these letters, the Masters neither guide nor control the actions of their disciples. By the rules of the Brotherhood, pupils must be given "the fullest liberty and freedom of action, the liberty of creating causes, even if those causes become in time their 'scourge and public pillory.'" "Our chelas are helped but when they are innocent of the Causes which led them into trouble." (Letter No. 54) The path of discipleship leads into the heart of Nature itself; the condition of entrance — an obedience to her laws — complete and absolute. Before those Immutable Laws even the highest Adept must bow in humility. To the candidate for discipleship all things are permitted which are natural to Man. No simple natural act can defile. But "Occult Science is a jealous mistress, which allows not even the shadow of self-indulgence," and if the higher levels of spiritual attainment are to be reached the disciple must be prepared to sacrifice and transcend the natural desires of the body, and lead a life which, in the Master K.H.'s own words "is fatal not only to the ordinary course of married life, but even to flesh and wine drinking." (Letter No. 18) Those who would hope to solve the problem of sex by means of formulae which controvert laws that are obvious and known, dig with their own hands the pit which must ultimately engulf all that is human in them. To dare to suggest that such doctrines could have the sanction of The Masters of Wisdom (who are one with Nature) is to utter not only a blasphemy, but a self-evident absurdity which only a fool or a madman could be guilty of. If this question admits of any doubt in the minds of students of occultism in general, the same cannot be said of those who know anything of the inner mysteries of Astrology. That ancient Science can and will prove that no such formulae exist in the book of Nature, and any theories that are based on them can only be regarded as Sorcery of the most vicious description. That such doctrines exist is one of the reasons for the lack of virility in the Society to-day. The consideration of the inner condition of The Theosophical Society, reminds one irresistibly of all that was written in the Secret Doctrine (vol.II, pp. 409-415) of the sublime allegory of Prometheus — the crucified Titan, gazing in his suffering towards his own "heaven appointed deliverer — Herakles," but so far alas! in vain. At this momentous epoch in the history of the Society, those pages of Madame Blavatsky's have a message full of the profoundest significance for all who are not too blind or too unwilling to see the truth contained in it.

It is remarkable, more than thirty years after her death, how Madame Blavatsky is justified at almost every point in these letters. Few people have been more unjustly reviled, and even some of those who knew her intimately preferred to believe that she had committed every kind of error rather than admit for an instant that they themselves could be in the wrong. How far she was ever the deceiver depicted by Mr. Sinnett in his posthumous publication "The Early Days of Theosophy in Europe," may be judged by the reader if he will study the letter from Master K.H. (Letter No. 54) in which he gives his own opinion on her delinquencies. Those who love the memory of H. P. Blavatsky for her work and the gifts she gave them, cannot but feel after reading that letter that after all she was worthy of their high regard; and those who have tried to blacken that memory and minimise the value of the work she did, will rise to heights indeed if the prayer be granted — that they may never deserve worse condemnation.

In nothing is Madame Blavatsky more completely vindicated than in the explanation and refutation she gave in the Secret Doctrine, of the misconceived theory in regard to Mars and Mercury, which was originally published in Esoteric Buddhism. The details of that old controversy are well-known to Theosophists, and it is fortunate that the publication in this volume of the letter originally so misunderstood by Mr. Sinnett, refutes finally the amputations made against Madame Blavatsky in regard to it. It is indeed amazing that Theosophists have continued to permit the promulgation of the idea that Mars and Mercury belonged to the same planetary chain as The Earth, for the facts are evident that they do not. It is obvious to the eye of the Astrologer, if not to students of other branches of occult science, that such a theory must throw into confusion every system and scale of correspondence in the Solar System a fact which alone is enough to show that it must be false.

But the mere assertion of facts is not sufficient, and it is necessary to examine the whole controversy in detail from the beginning. Those who wish to go further into the matter are referred to the paper which has been included in the Appendix at the end of this volume. There, all the facts have been dealt with fully by the present writer, and he believes conclusively.

In the life of the Theosophical Society a cycle is closing, and ere the reader opens this volume it will have run to its inevitable conclusion. It leaves behind it a legacy of things done which had better have been left undone, and a record of mistaken zeal and wasted opportunity of which few can be proud. The vigorous new life of the dawning cycle which is beginning to course through the veins of the old body, has of necessity objectivised and made apparent, all that was contained in it of a nature subversive of true progress. If Master K.H. has said that, "the Society can never perish, though Branches and individuals in it may," the words of that other Teacher must also be remembered, "that new wine cannot be poured into old bottles and that he who would find his life must first lose it. Be on your guard against hypocrisy, for nothing is hidden that shall not be revealed, and nothing concealed that shall not be made known; and all that has been uttered in darkness shall be heard in the light, and what has been whispered in chambers shall be proclaimed from the house-tops. There are days that are coming when one stone shall not be left upon another without being torn down. Take care that you are not deceived, for many shall come in My Name saying, "I am He, and the time is near" — but do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be scared; these have to come first, but the end is not yet. For these are the days of Divine vengeance. And there will be signs in the Sun and Moon and Stars, while on Earth there will be dismay and bewilderment at the roar of the sea and the waves, men's hearts failing them for fear and foreboding of what is to befall the universe. For the orbs of the heavens will be shaken, and then they will see the Son of Man coming with power and great glory. When these things begin to happen, look up — for your release is not far distant."

Out of the wreck that is inevitable a shape shall arise that may be worthy of immortality. Let those who have climbed the hill and seen the vision, and in that clean, sweet air have heard the key-note of the dawning cycle — hold fast — and remember in the days that are coming — the sweetness, and the beauty, and the truth they have seen.

— A. TREVOR BARKER,

Fellow of the Theosophical Society.* London, September, 1923.

*The state of affairs in the Theosophical Society having become progressively worse, the writer resigned his membership in April, 1925.

Detailed Table of Contents

Quick Links to description of Sections

Section I: The Occult World Series

Section 2: Philosophical and Theoretical Teachings 1881-1883

Section 3: Probation and Chelaship

Section 4: The Phoenix Venture and the Condition of India

Section 5: The London Lodge of The Theosophical Society

Section 6: Spiritualism and Phenomena

Section 7: Miscellaneous Letters

Appendix 1 Mars and Mercury

Sinnett reopens the controversy — implications against H.P.B. — Mrs. Besant's statements in Lucifer on the subject — the facts in the light of K.H.'s letter — the misunderstood passage — Mrs. Besant's "categorical statement that Mars and Mercury belong to Earth Chain" — quotations from The Secret Doctrine — the whole theory proves false.

Appendix 2 Handwriting Samples

A Specimen of M.’s handwriting and signature, which appears in all the letters etiher in red ink, or red pencil.

{Recd. Allahabad, March 10, 1882}

Transcription: Just cleaned out a bunch of “bad magnetism” at Headquarters. Smashed a traitor’s portrait. Examine your writing room for specimen — pull[?] “telegraph wires.” Look out well whether there be fraud —
M⸫

A specimen of the handwriting of “K.H. precipitated in blue ink, beneath a note from Damodar K. Mavalankar {Letter 142b}. The majority of the “K.H.” letters are written either in blue ink or blue pencil.

I Fragment found in the envelope of Letter No. 92. II, III, and IV. Reproductions of the signatures of Letters No. 1, 4 and 132 respectively.

Mars and Mercury

Mr. Sinnett in his posthumous work "The Early Days of Theosophy in Europe" reopens this old controversy, and in the course of his remarks he makes many insinuations of a personal nature against Madame Blavatsky which are as untrue of her, as they are unworthy of her old colleague. In Chapter IX p. 92 of that work after saying that Madame Blavatsky had stated in The Secret Doctrine that he had made a great mistake in representing Mars, Mercury, and the Earth as belonging to the same planetary chain, he continues on the same page —: . . . "The letter from the Master from which she (H.P.B.) professed to give extract was not what she represents it, an answer to enquiries of her own, but a garbled version of a letter originally addressed to me."

Two different letters are in reality here referred to — the first, addressed to Mr. Sinnett, was quoted from on p. 163, Vol. I of The Secret Doctrine; the second, addressed to Mdme. Blavatsky is quoted on p. 165; the former is contained in the present volume, but the latter is not.

On page 94 of the same work appears the following: —

"Eventually when . . . Mrs. Besant, by the expansion of her own knowledge had ascertained definitely that Mars and Mercury did belong to our chain with functions in evolution as I had originally described them, she did publish a statement to that effect in 'Lucifer' vol. XVII. p. 271."

For the convenience of those not having access to the volumes of Lucifer the passage referred to is here quoted in full together with a former statement by Mrs. Besant on the same subject: —

Extract from Lucifer for November, 1893, Vol. XIII., p. 206.

Mars and the Earth.

"The apparent contradiction between the teaching of the Masters as put forward by their direct messenger H. P. Blavatsky, and as understood by Mr. Sinnett, is capable of very easy explanation. The solution turns on the words 'Solar System.' If that term be held to denote the solar system known to Western Science, the sentence given by Mr. Sinnett is meaningless; but reference to the series of letters from which the isolated passage respecting Mars is quoted at once shows the meaning attached to the 'Solar System' in the correspondence. I naturally turned to the letters themselves — copies of which I have — to solve the puzzle, and I found that Master K.H. used the term in a special and quite definite sense.

"He explains three kinds of Manvantaras, Pralayas etc.— universal, solar and minor. A minor Manvantara is composed of seven Rounds i.e. the circuit seven times of a Planetary Chain of seven Globes. To such a chain our Earth belongs. A Solar Period consists of seven of such sevenfold Rounds i.e. forty-nine; seven such Planetary Chains compose a 'Solar System'; in three of such chains, our Earth, Mars and Mercury, form the D Globe. Globe D of the Mars Chain, and Globe D of the Mercury Chain are visible to us, because those chains are sufficiently near our own in evolution, one behind us, one ahead of us, for their matter to affect our senses, while the remaining four chains are too far away in evolution to have enough in common with us for visibility. Mars and Mercury bear a special relation to our Earth in the whole evolution of the Solar System, though not part of the Earth Chain. The other four Planetary Chains belonging to our Solar System are too far behind us or in front of us for even their Globes D to be seen.

"Other planets in the solar system of Science as arranged in the West do not belong to the Solar System of the Esoteric Philosophy; and it is the ignoring of this which has led to the confusion. A western reader naturally gives the term his own sense not knowing that in the teachings it was used in quite a different one. And so, once more we find the Masters' doctrines self-consistent."

Annie Besant.

Extract from Lucifer for December, 1895, Vol. XVII, p. 271.

"The old Mars and Mercury discussion has been lately revived to some extent in Theosophical circles, and an appeal has been made to me to say if any further light has been thrown upon the subject. In Lucifer vol. XIII. p. 206, I wrote an explanation which seemed satisfactory so far as the documents then in my hands were concerned. I was leaving for India when I wrote this paragraph and Mr. Sinnett kept silence, in his generous way, during my absence; but on my return he showed me the original letter on which the statement in Esoteric Buddhism was founded, the letter partially quoted in The Secret Doctrine (i. 187 {163 orig.ed.}); this letter was one of those received in the early days and was not among those of which I had copies. This original letter left no doubt as to the Master's statement on the point, for it said categorically that Mars and Mercury made part of the chain of which our Earth is the fourth globe. As the Society was then disturbed over Mr. Judge's affair, Mr. Sinnett did not wish the question to be revived merely to justify himself, but there is no reason now why the matter should not be put straight. The facts are these; the planetary chain consists of Globes A, B, Mars, Earth, Mercury, F and G, and round these the great life-wave has swept three times and a half, reaching Earth for the fourth time; the mass of humanity passed from Mars to the Earth, and will pass from the Earth to Mercury. But the leading class of humanity — and here is a fact that throws some light on the opposing statements — did not share in this general evolution. It came directly to the earth from another region at a much later period in evolution, and had never been on Mars at all. Another fact, which H.P.B. evidently had in mind, when writing on this question, is that Mars is also concerned in an entirely different evolution, as to which nothing can be publicly said. It is therefore impossible to clear the matter up to the satisfaction of exoteric students, but it is just that it should be publicly stated that Mr. Sinnett's statement is entirely borne out by the original letter."

It will be at once seen that in the first of the above statements Lucifer Vol. XIII, Mrs. Besant in the main supports the explanation given in The Secret Doctrine, while in the second, Vol. XVII she says, that the letter partially quoted on page 163 of The Secret Doctrine Vol. I. categorically states "that Mars and Mercury made part of the chain of which our Earth is the fourth globe."

The letter referred to was among those left by Mr. Sinnett and it is therefore possible to examine the facts in the light of the original document. The passage quoted will be found on page 176 {Letter 23b} of this volume in the paragraph numbered (23), and with due deference to Mrs. Besant, it must be pointed out that there is nothing in that paragraph or the remainder of the letter, which can be construed into a categorical statement "that Mars and Mercury made part of the chain of which our Earth is fourth Globe."

Attention has been drawn to the fact that Mdme. Blavatsky was not accurate in her quotation of the Master's letter to the extent that she added the word "etc." and omitted the word "yet" — and there are some who would like to convince themselves and others that this fact is sufficient to invalidate the whole of H.P.B.'s exposition of the teaching regarding the nature of the septenary planetary chains. It should be evident to every student that in reality, at the worst, this mis-quotation invalidates the hypothesis which Mdme. Blavatsky offered as a possible explanation of Mr. Sinnett's misunderstanding, and it leaves utterly untouched the doctrine of the septenary chain with one physical globe which is implied in every line of The Secret Doctrine and is in fact an integral part of the esoteric philosophy.

As stated over and over again and from every point of view in these pages of The Secret Doctrine (Vol. I., pp. 162-9) . . . "neither Mars nor Mercury belong to our chain. They are, along with other planets, septenary Units in the great host of ‘chains’ of our system, and all are as visible as their upper globes are invisible” (p. 164).*

{*See also Letter 82, pp. 392-3, regarding "a few undetectable mistakes and omissions" in Esoteric Buddhism about inner and outer rounds.}

And again “Moreover, the one eternal Law unfolds everything in the (to be) manifested Nature on a sevenfold principle; among the rest, the countless circular chains of worlds, composed of seven globes, graduated on the four lower planes of the world of formation (the three others belonging to the Archetypal Universe). Out of these seven only one, the lowest and the most material of those globes, is within our plane or means of perception, the six others lying outside of it and being therefore invisible to the terrestrial eye. . . . To make it clearer: we are told of the planets — of which seven only were held as sacred, as being ruled by the highest regents or gods, . . . that each of these, whether known or unknown, is a septenary, as is the chain to which the Earth belongs; . . . while the superior fellow-globes of these planets are on other planes quite outside that of our terrestrial senses. . . . These invisible companions correspond curiously to that which we call ‘The principles in Man.’ The seven are on three material planes and one spiritual plane” . . . and again . . . “but it may be stated that our satellite is only the gross body of its invisible principles. Seeing then that there are 7 Earths, so there are 7 Moons, the last one alone being visible; the same for the Sun, whose visible body is called a Maya, a reflection, just as man’s body is. ‘The real Sun and the real Moon are as invisible as the real man,’ says an occult maxim.”

Could words be plainer? Hardly — and yet for over thirty years the Theosophical Society has permitted itself to spread this misleading superstition, preferring to assume that it was Madame Blavatsky who did not understand what she was writing about. The mystery is after all as clear as it well nigh can be. The septenary chains of Globes about which Theosophical Text Books talk so much, are seven principled Units, each having a physical body and six higher or subtler principles invisible to the ordinary senses, but co-existing and inter-penetrating each other.

Students of Astrology at least are able to prove for themselves that the correspondence between man and a planet is exact; for just as the six invisible principles of a planet correspond to the six invisible principles in man, so do the seven sacred Planets correspond to the whole of the seven principles of our Earth and therefore of man. How then is it possible that the theory, which credits the Earth Chain with three physical planets, can be correct from any point of view? It is manifestly ridiculous, because if it were true, it would mean by the occult law of correspondence, that man also must have three physical bodies which is an absurdity, and proves the whole theory false from beginning to end.

The publication of these letters gives to the student an opportunity to examine the whole range of Theosophic teaching in their light — while adding thereto the faculty of criticism — the highest and most discriminative of which he is capable. That faculty is an impersonal one; it is neither critic nor respecter of persons — for to it persons are without significance. But with ideas — with doctrines, it has everything to do, and if it is inevitable that the use of that faculty by students the world over will reveal many discrepancies in the accepted Theosophical doctrines of the day, it is equally certain that a large part of that teaching will receive a confirmation which cannot be gainsaid.

A. T. B.

APPENDIX 2 First Letter of K. H. to A. O. Hume

The original of this letter is not extant, although the major portion of it did appear in The Occult World. Why it was omitted in The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett is not known. We can only suppose that the copy that Patience Sinnett had made of it was not to hand when Trevor Barker was transcribing the Mahatma letters, otherwise he undoubtedly would have included it in his published volume. It follows K. H.'s letter of October 29, 1880, to Mr. Sinnett (Letter 4).

We reproduce the letter in its entirety, checked against Mrs. Sinnett's handwritten copy in the British Museum (Mahatma Papers, Vol. VII, Additional MS. 45289 B). The copy is liberally blue pencilled, indicating A.P.S.'s editing prior to publication, and in three places several sentences deleted — appropriately so at the time. As stated, the text used here is verbatim with Patience Sinnett's copy.

It is of note that despite later difficulties which ended in the final breach between Mr. Hume and the Brothers, his "first letter was so sincere, its spirit so promising, the possibilities it opened for doing general good seemed so great, that . . . I carried it to our venerable Chief" (K.H. to A.O.H., Letter 28). — Grace F. Knoche.

Amritsur Nov. 1st {1880}

Dear Sir,

Availing of the first moments of leisure to formally answer your letter of the 17th ultimo, I will now report the result of my conference with our chiefs upon the proposition therein contained; trying at the same time to answer all your questions.

I am first to thank you on behalf of the whole section of our fraternity that is especially interested in the welfare of India for an offer of help whose importance and sincerity no one can doubt. Tracing our lineage through the vicissitudes of Indian civilization to a remote past, we have a love for our motherland so deep and passionate, that it has survived even the broadening and cosmopolitanizing (pardon me if this is not an English word) effect of our studies in the hidden laws of nature. And so I and every other Indian patriot feel the strongest gratitude for every kind word or deed that is given in her behalf.

Imagine then, that since we are convinced that the degradation of India is largely due to the suffocation of her ancient spirituality; and that, whatever helps restore that higher standard of thought and morals must be a regenerating national force; every one of us would naturally and without urging be disposed to push forward a Society whose proposed formation is under debate; especially if it really is meant to become a society untainted by selfish motive, and whose object is the revival of ancient science and tendency to rehabilitate our country in the world's estimation. Take this for granted, without further asseverations. But you know, as any man who has read history, that patriots may burst their hearts in vain if circumstances are against them. Sometimes, it has happened that no human power, not even the fury and force of the loftiest patriotism, has been able to bend an iron destiny aside from its fixed course, and nations have gone out like torches dropped into water in the engulfing blackness of ruin. Thus, we who have the sense of our country's fall though not the power to lift her up at once, can not do as we would either as to general affairs or this particular one. And with the readiness but not the right to meet your advances more than half way we are forced to say that the idea entertained by Mr. Sinnett and yourself is impracticable in part. It is in a word impossible for myself or any Brother or even an advanced neophyte, to be specially assigned and set apart as the guiding Spirit or Chief of the Anglo-Indian Branch. We know it would be a good thing to have you and a few of your selected colleagues regularly instructed and shown the phenomena and their rationale. For though none but you few would be convinced, still it would be a decided gain to have even a few Englishmen of first-class ability enlisted as students of Asiatic Psychology. We are aware of all this and much more; hence we do not refuse to correspond with and otherwise help you in various ways. But what we do refuse is to take any other responsibility upon ourselves than this periodical correspondence and assistance with our advice; and, as occasion favours, such tangible, possibly visible proofs as would satisfy you of our presence and interest. To "guide" you we will not consent. However much we may be able to do, yet we can promise only to give you the full measure of your deserts. Deserve much and we will prove honest debtors; little and you need only expect a compensating return. This is not a mere text taken from a school boy's copybook, though it sounds so, but only the clumsy statement of the law of our order; and we can not transcend it. Utterly unacquainted with Western, especially English modes of thought and action, were we to meddle in an organization of such a kind you would find all your fixed habits and traditions incessantly clashing, if not with the new aspirations themselves, at least with their modes of realisation as suggested by us. You could not get unanimous consent to go even the length you might yourself. I have asked Mr. Sinnett to draft a plan embodying your joint ideas for submission to our chiefs, this seeming the shortest way to a mutual agreement. Under our "guidance" your Branch could not live, you not being men to be guided at all in that sense. Hence the Society would be a premature birth and a failure, looking as incongruous as a Paris Daumont drawn by a team of Indian yaks or camels. You ask us to teach you true Science, the occult aspect of the known side of nature: and this you think can be as easily done as asked. You do not seem to realize the tremendous difficulties in the way of imparting even the rudiments of our Science to those who have been trained in the familiar methods of yours. You do not see that the more you have of the one the less capable you are of intuitively comprehending the other, for a man can only think in his worn grooves, and unless he has the courage to fill up these and make new ones for himself he must perforce travel on the old lines. Allow me a few instances.

In conformity with exact modern Science you would define but one cosmic energy, and see no difference between the energy expended by the traveller who pushes aside the bush that obstructs his path, and the scientific experimenter who expends an equal amount of energy in setting a pendulum in motion! We do. For we know there is a world of difference between the two. The one uselessly dissipates or scatters force, the other concentrates and stores it. And here please understand that I do not refer to the relative utility of the two as one might imagine; but only to the fact, that in the one case, there is but brute force flung out without any transmutation of that brute energy into the higher potential form of spiritual dynamics, and, in the other there is just that. Please do not consider me vaguely metaphysical. The idea I wish to convey is, that the result of the highest intellection in the scientifically occupied brain is the evolution of a sublimated form of spiritual energy, which, in the cosmic action, is productive of illimitable results, while the automatically acting brain holds or stores up in itself only a certain quantum of brute force that is unfruitful of benefit for the individual or humanity. The human brain is an exhaustless generator of the most refined quality of cosmic force, out of the low, brute energy of nature; and the complete adept has made himself a centre from which irradiate potentialities that beget correlations upon correlations through Aeons to come. This is the key to the mystery of his being able to project into and materialise in the visible world the forms that his imagination has constructed out of inert cosmic matter in the invisible world. The adept does not create anything new, but only utilises and manipulates materials which nature has in store around him; a material which throughout eternities has passed through all the forms; he has but to choose the one he wants and recall it into objective existence. Would not this sound to one of your "learned" biologists like a madman's dream?

You say there are few branches of science with which you do not possess more or less acquaintance, and that you believe you are doing a certain amount of good, having acquired the position to do this by long years of study. Doubtless you do. But will you permit me to sketch for you still more clearly the difference between the modes of — physical called exact — often out of mere politeness — and metaphysical sciences? The latter, as you know, being incapable of verification before mixed audiences, is classed by Mr. Tyndall with the fictions of poetry. The realistic science of fact, on the other hand, is utterly prosaic. Now for us poor and unknown philanthropists, no fact of either of these sciences is interesting except in the degree of its potentiality of moral results, and in the ratio of its usefulness to mankind. And what, in its proud isolation, can be more utterly indifferent to every one and everything, or more bound to nothing, but the selfish requisites for its advancement than this materialistic and realistic science of fact? May I not ask then without being taxed with a vain "display of science" what have the laws of Faraday, Tyndall, or others to do with philanthropy in their abstract relations with humanity viewed as an integral whole? What care they for man as an isolated atom of this great and harmonious Whole, even though they may sometimes be of practical use to him? Cosmic energy is something eternal and incessant, matter is indestructible, and there stand the scientific facts. Doubt them and you are an ignoramus; deny them, a dangerous lunatic, a bigot; pretend to improve upon the theories — an impertinent charlatan. And yet even these scientific facts never suggested any proof to the world of experimenters, that nature consciously prefers that matter should be indestructible under organic rather than under inorganic forms; and that she works slowly but incessantly towards the realisation of this object — the evolution of conscious life out of inert material. Hence their ignorance about the scattering and concretion of cosmic energy in its metaphysical aspects; their division about Darwin's theories; their uncertainty about the degree of conscious life in separate elements; and, as a necessity, the scornful rejection of every phenomenon outside their own stated conditions and the very idea of worlds of semi-intelligent if not intellectual forces at work in hidden corners of nature. To give you another practical illustration. We see a vast difference between the qualities of two equal amounts of energy expended by two men, of whom one, let us suppose, is on his way to his daily quiet work, and another on his way to denounce a fellow creature at the police station, while the men of science see none. And we — not they — see a specific difference between the energy in the motion of the wind and that of a revolving wheel. And why? Because every thought of man upon being evolved passes into the inner world and becomes an active entity by associating itself — coalescing, we might term it — with an elemental; that is to say with one of the semi-intelligent forces of the kingdoms. It survives as an active intelligence, a creature of the mind's begetting, for a longer or shorter period proportionate with the original intensity of the cerebral action which generated it. Thus, a good thought is perpetuated as an active beneficent power; an evil one as a maleficent demon. And so man is continually peopling his current in space with a world of his own, crowded with the offsprings of his fancies, desires, impulses, and passions, a current which reacts upon any sensitive or and nervous organisation which comes in contact with it in proportion to its dynamic intensity. The Buddhist calls this his "Skandha," the Hindu gives it the name of "Karma"; the Adept evolves these shapes consciously, other men throw them off unconsciously.

The adept to be successful and preserve his power must dwell in solitude and more or less within his own soul. Still less does exact science perceive that while the building ant, the busy bee, the nidifacient bird accumulate, each in their own humble way as much cosmic energy in its potential form as a Haydn, a Plato, or a ploughman turning his furrow, in theirs; the hunter who kills game for his pleasure or profit, or the positivist who applies his intellect to proving that + x + = -, are wasting and scattering energy no less than the tiger which springs upon its prey. They all rob nature instead of enriching her, and will all in the degree of their intelligence find themselves accountable.

Exact experimental Science has nothing to do with morality, virtue, philanthropy, therefore can make no claim upon our help, until it blends itself with the metaphysics. Being but a cold classification of facts outside man, and existing before and after him, her domain of usefulness ceases for us at the outer boundary of these facts; and whatever the inferences and results for humanity from the materials acquired by her methods, she little cares. Therefore as our sphere lies entirely outside hers — as far as the path of Uranus is outside the earth's — we distinctly refuse to be broken on any wheel of her construction. Heat is but a mode of motion to her, and motion developes heat; but why the mechanical motion of the revolving wheel should be metaphysically of a higher value than the heat into which it is gradually transformed — she has yet to discover. The philosophical but transcendental (hence absurd?) notion of the mediaeval theosophists that the final progress of human labour aided by the incessant discoveries of man, must one day culminate in a process, which in imitation of the sun's energy — in its capacity of a direct motor — shall result in the evolution of nutritious food out of inorganic matter — is unthinkable for men of science. Were the sun, the great nourishing father of our planetary System, to hatch granite chickens out of a boulder "under test conditions" tomorrow, they (the men of Science) would accept it as a scientific fact, without wasting a regret that the fowls were not alive so as to feed the hungry and the starving. But let a Shaberon cross the Himalayas in a time of famine, and multiply sacks of rice for the perishing multitudes — as he could — and your magistrates and collectors would probably lodge him in jail, to make him confess what granary he had robbed. This is exact science and your realistic world. And though as you say you are impressed by the vast extent of the world's ignorance on every subject, which you pertinently designate as "a few palpable facts collected and roughly generalized and a technical jargon invented to hide man's ignorance of all that lies behind these facts"; and though you speak of your faith in the infinite possibilities of nature — yet you are content to spend your life in a work which aids only that same exact science. You cause a waste of cosmic energy by tons, to accumulate hardly a few ounces in your volumes — to speak figuratively. And despite your intuitive perceptions of the boundless reaches of nature, you take up the position that unless a proficient in arcane knowledge will waste upon your embryonic Society an energy which without moving from his place he can usefully distribute among millions, you, with your great natural powers will refuse to give a helping hand to humanity by beginning the work single handed, and trusting to time and the great Law to reward your labour. (1)

Of your several questions we will first discuss, if you please, the one relating to the presumed failure of the "Fraternity" to "leave any mark upon the history of the world." They ought, you think, to have been able with their extraordinary advantages to have "gathered into their schools a considerable portion of the more enlightened minds of every race." How do you know they have made no such mark? Are you acquainted with their efforts, successes, and failures? Have you any dock upon which to arraign them? How could your world collect proofs of the doings of men who have sedulously kept closed every possible door of approach by which the inquisitive could spy upon them. The prime condition of their success was, that they should never be supervised or obstructed. What they have done they know; all those outside their circle could perceive was results, the causes of which were masked from view. To account for these results, men have in different ages invented theories of the interposition of "Gods," Special providences, fates, and the benign or hostile influences of the stars. There never was a time within or before the so-called historical period when our predecessors were not moulding events and "making history," the facts of which were subsequently and invariably distorted by "historians" to suit contemporary prejudices. Are you quite sure that the visible heroic figures in the successive dramas were not often but their puppets? We never pretended to be able to draw nations in the mass to this or that crisis in spite of the general drift of the world's cosmic relations. The cycles must run their rounds. Periods of mental and moral light and darkness succeed each other, as day does night. The major and minor yugas must be accomplished according to the established order of things. And we, borne along on the mighty tide, can only modify and direct some of its minor currents. If we had the powers of the imaginary Personal God, and the universal and immutable laws were but toys to play with, then indeed might we have created conditions that would have turned this earth into an Arcadia for lofty souls. But having to deal with an immutable Law, being ourselves its creatures, we have had to do what we could and rest thankful. There have been times when "a considerable portion of enlightened minds" were taught in our schools. Such times there were in India, Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. But, as I remarked in a letter to Mr. Sinnett, the adept is the efflorescence of his age, and comparatively few ever appear in a single century. Earth is the battle ground of moral no less than of physical forces; and the boisterousness of animal passions under the stimulus of the rude energies of the lower group of etheric agents, always tends to quench spirituality.

What else could one expect of men so nearly related to the lower kingdom from which they evolved? True also, our numbers are just now diminishing but this is because, as I have said, we are of the human race, subject to its cyclic impulse and powerless to turn that back upon itself. Can you turn the Gunga or the Brahmaputra, back to its sources; can you even dam it so that its piled up waters will not overflow the banks? No, but you may draw the stream partly into canals and utilize its hydraulic power for the good of mankind. So we, who can not stop the world from going in its destined direction, are yet able to divert some part of its energy into useful channels. Think of us as demi-gods and my explanation will not satisfy you; view us as simple men — perhaps a little wiser as the result of special study — and it ought to answer your objection.

"What good," say you, "is to be attained for my fellows and myself (the two are inseparable) by these occult sciences?" When the natives see that an interest is taken by the English and even by some high officials in India in their ancestral science and philosophies, they will themselves take openly to their study. And when they come to realise that the old "divine" phenomena were not miracles, but scientific effects, superstition will abate. Thus the greatest evil that now oppresses and retards the revival of Indian civilisation will in time disappear. The present tendency of education is to make them materialistic and root out spirituality. With a proper understanding of what their ancestors meant by their writings and teachings, education would become a blessing whereas now it is often a curse. At present the non-educated as much as the learned natives regard the English as too prejudiced, because of their Christian religion and modern science, to care to understand them or their traditions. They mutually hate and mistrust each other. This changed attitude toward the older philosophy would influence the native Princes and wealthy men to endow normal schools for the education of pundits; and old MSS. hitherto buried out of the reach of the Europeans would again come to light, and with them the key to much of that which was hidden for ages from the popular understanding; for which your skeptical Sanscritists do not care, which your religious missionaries do not dare, to understand. Science would gain much — humanity every thing. Under the stimulus of the Anglo Indian Theosophical Society, we might in time see another golden age of Sanscrit literature. Such a movement would have the entire approbation of the Home Government as it would act as a preventive against discontent; and the sympathy of European Sanscritists who, in their divisions of opinion need the help of native pundits, now beyond their reach in the present state of mutual misunderstanding. They are even now bidding for such help. At this moment two educated Hindus of Bombay are assisting Max Müller; and a young Pundit of Gu{j}erat a Fellow of the T.S. is aiding Prof. Monier Williams at Oxford and living in his house. The first two are materialists and do harm; the latter single handed can do little, because the man whom he is serving is a prejudiced Christian. (2)

If we look to Ceylon we shall see the most scholarly priests combining under the lead of the Theos. Society in a new exegesis of Buddhistic philosophy and — at Galle on the 15th of September, a secular Theosophical school for the teaching of Singhalese youth opened, with an attendance of over 300 scholars: an example about to be imitated at three other points in that island. If the T.S. "as at present constituted," has indeed no "real vitality" and yet in its modest way has done so much of practical good, how much greater results might not be anticipated from a body organized upon the better plan you could suggest!

The same causes that are materialising the Hindu mind are equally affecting all Western thought. Education enthrones skepticism but imprisons spiritualism. You can do immense good by helping to give the Western nations a secure basis upon which to reconstruct their crumbling faith. What they need is the evidence that Asiatic psychology alone supplies. Give this and you will confer happiness of mind on thousands. The era of blind faith is gone; that of enquiry is here. Enquiry that only unmasks error, without discovering anything upon which the soul can build, will but make iconoclasts. Iconoclasm from its very destructiveness can give nothing, it can only raze. But man can not rest satisfied with bare negation. Agnosticism is but a temporary halt.

This is the moment to guide the recurrent impulse which must soon come, and which will push the age toward extreme atheism, or drag it back to extreme sacerdotalism, if it is not led to the primitive and soul-satisfying philosophy of the Aryans. He who observes what is going on today, on the one hand among the Catholics, who are breeding miracles as fast as the white ants do their young, on the other, among the free thinkers, who are converting by masses into agnostics — will see the drift of things. The age is revelling at a debauch of phenomena. The same marvels that the spiritualists quote in opposition to the dogmas of eternal perdition and atonement, the catholics swarm to witness as the strongest proof of their faith in miracles. The skeptics make game of both. All are blind and there is no one to lead them! You and your colleagues may help furnish the materials for a needed universal religious philosophy; one impregnable to scientific assault because itself the finality of absolute science; and, a religion, that is indeed worthy of the name, since it includes the relations of man physical to man psychical, and of the two to all that is above and below them. Is not this worth a slight sacrifice? And if after reflection you should decide to enter this new career, let it be known that your Society is no miracle-mongering or banqueting club, nor specially given to the study of phenomenalism. Its chief aim is to extirpate current superstitions and skepticism, and, from long sealed ancient fountains to draw the proof that man may shape his own future destiny, and know for a certainty that he can live hereafter, if he only wills; and that all "phenomena" are but manifestations of natural law, to try to comprehend which is the duty of every intelligent being. (3) You have personally devoted many years to a labour benevolently conceived and conscientiously carried out. Give to your fellow creatures half the attention you have bestowed on your 'little birds," and you will round off a useful life with a grand and noble work.

Sincerely your friend

FOOTNOTES:

1. The last several lines of this paragraph [from "You cause a waste . . ."] were omitted in The Occult World. (return to text)

2. The last several lines of this paragraph [from "Such a movement would have . . ."] were omitted in The Occult World. (return to text)

3. In The Occult World, the letter ends here. (return to text)

View of the Chohan on the T.S. (1)

Editorial Note: The original of this letter has never been found. As early as the middle 1880s it was circulated privately, in whole or in part, but not published openly until 1886 when John C. Bundy, F.T.S., editor of the Religio-Philosophical Journal and Weekly Occult News, Chicago, Illinois, inserted it in his June 26 issue (vol. xl, No. 18). It is also known as the “Letter from the Maha-chohan” or “The Great Master’s Letter.” The text here follows what we believe to be the earliest copy of the letter, that made by A. P. Sinnett to whom it had been addressed. The penultimate paragraph dates it to 1881, the Simla Eclectic T.S. being inaugurated August 21st of that year. Sinnett’s transcription was included by him along with other Mahatma letters (such as No. 11 to Hume) in a notebook now preserved in the British Library (Mahatma Papers, Vol. VI, Additional MS. 45289 A). Our title is taken from the subscription at the close; the dots of omission are Sinnett’s. — Grace F. Knoche

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{Received Simla, August 27+, 1881}

Several good reasons given to K. H. by the Chohan why the T.S. should be a Brotherhood of Humanity.

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for the Simla Eclectic T.S.

The doctrine we promulgate being the only true one, must, — supported by such evidence as we are preparing to give become ultimately triumphant as every other truth. Yet it is absolutely necessary to inculcate it gradually enforcing its theories, unimpeachable facts for those who know, with direct inferences deducted from and corroborated by the evidence furnished by modern exact science. That is why Col H.S.O. who works but to revive Buddhism may be regarded as one who labours in the true path of Theosophy, far more than any other man who chooses as his goal the gratification of his own ardent aspirations for occult knowledge. Buddhism stripped of its superstitions is eternal truth, and he who strives for the latter is striving for Theos-sophia, Divine Wisdom, which is a synonym of truth.

For our doctrines to practically react on the so called moral code or the ideas of truthfulness, purity, self-denial, charity, etc., we have to preach and popularise a knowledge of theosophy. It is not the individual and determined purpose of attaining oneself Nirvana (the culmination of all knowledge and absolute wisdom) which is, after all only an exalted and glorious selfishness, but the self-sacrificing pursuit of the best means to lead on the right path our neighbour, to cause as many of our fellow creatures as we possibly can to benefit by it, which constitutes the true Theosophist.

The intellectual portions of mankind seem to be fast dividing into two classes, the one unconsciously preparing for itself long periods of temporary annihilation or states of non-consciousness owing to the deliberate surrender of their intellect, its imprisonment in the narrow grooves of bigotry and superstition, a process which cannot fail to lead to the utter deformation of the intellectual principle; the other unrestrainedly indulging its animal propensities with the deliberate intention of submitting to annihilation pure and simple in cases of failure, to millenniums of degradation after physical dissolution. Those "intellectual classes," reacting upon the ignorant masses which they attract and which look up to them as noble and fit examples to follow, degrade and morally ruin those they ought to protect and guide. Between degrading superstition and still more degrading brutal materialism the white dove of truth has hardly room where to rest her weary unwelcome foot. . . .

It's time that Theosophy should enter the arena. The sons of Theosophists are more likely to become in their turn Theosophists than anything else. No messenger of truth, no prophet has ever achieved during his life time a complete triumph, not even Buddha; the Theosophical Society was chosen as the corner stone, the foundation of the future religion of humanity. To achieve the proposed object a greater, wiser, and especially a more benevolent intermingling of the high and the low, of the alpha and the omega of society, was determined upon. The white race must be the first to stretch out the hand of fellowship to the dark nations, to call the poor despised "nigger" brothers. This prospect may not smile to all. He is no Theosophist who objects to this principle. . . .

In view of the ever increasing triumph and at the same time misuse of free-thought and liberty (the Universal reign of Satan, Eliphas Levi would have called it), how is the combative natural instinct of man to be restrained from inflicting hitherto unheard of cruelties and enormities, tyranny, injustice, etc., if not through the soothing influence of a brotherhood and of the practical application of Buddha's esoteric doctrines. For as everyone knows, total emancipation from authority of the one all-pervading power or law called God by the Theists — Buddha, Divine Wisdom and Enlightenment or Theosophy by the philosophers of all ages — means also the emancipation from that of human law? Once unfettered [and] delivered from their dead weight of dogmatic interpretations, personal names, anthropomorphic conceptions and salaried priests, the fundamental doctrines of all religions will be proved identical in their esoteric meaning. Osiris, Chrishna, Buddha, Christ, will be shown as different means for one and [the] same royal highway to final bliss Nirvana. Mystical christianity, that is to say that christianity which teaches self redemption through one's own seventh principle — the liberated Para-atma (Augoeides) called by the one Christ, by others Buddha, and equivalent to regeneration or rebirth in spirit — will be found just the same truth as the Nirvana of mystical Buddhism. All of us have to get rid of our own Ego, the illusory apparent self, to recognise our true self in a transcendental divine life. But if we would not be selfish we must strive to make other people see that truth, to recognise the reality of that transcendental self, the Buddh, the Christ or God of every preacher. This is why even exoteric Buddhism is the surest path to lead men toward the one esoteric truth. As we find the world now, whether Christian, Mussalman or Pagan, justice is disregarded and honour and mercy both flung to the winds.

In a word, how, once that the main objects of the T.S. are misinterpreted by those who are most willing to serve us personally, are we to deal with the rest of mankind, with that curse known as the "struggle for life," which is the real and most prolific parent of most woes and sorrows and of all the crimes? Why has that struggle become the almost universal scheme of the universe? We answer, because no religion with the exception of Buddhism has hitherto taught a practical contempt for this earthly life, while each of them, always with that one solitary exception, has through its hells and damnations inculcated the greatest dread of death. Therefore do we find that struggle for life raging most fiercely in Christian countries, most prevalent in Europe and America. It weakens in the Pagan lands and is nearly unknown among Buddhist populations. (In China during famine and where the masses are most ignorant of their own or any religion, it was remarked that those mothers who devoured their children belonged to localities where there were the most of Christian missionaries to be found. Where there were none and the Bonzes alone had the field the population died with the utmost indifference.) Teach the people to see that life on this earth even the happiest is but a burden and an illusion, that it is but our own Karma, the cause producing the effect, that is our own judge, our Saviour in future lives, and the great struggle for life will soon lose its intensity. There are no penitentiaries in Buddhist lands and crime is nearly unknown among the Buddhist Tibetans. (The above is not addressed to you, and has nought to do with the work of the Simla Eclectic Society. It is meant only as an answer to the erroneous impression in Mr. Hume's mind of the "Ceylon work" as no theosophy.)

The world in general and Christendom especially, left for two thousand years to the regime of a personal God as well as its political and social systems based on that idea, has now proved a failure. If the Theosophists say, we have nothing to do with all this, the lower classes and the inferior races (those of India for instance in the conception of the British) cannot concern us and must manage as they can, what becomes of our fine professions of benevolence, philanthropy, reform, etc. Are these professions a mockery? And if a mockery, can ours be the true path? Shall we devote our selves to teaching a few Europeans fed on the fat of the land, many of them loaded with the gifts of blind fortune, the rationale of bell ringing, cup growing, of the spiritual telephone and astral body formation, and leave the teeming millions of the ignorant, of the poor and despised, the lowly and the oppressed, to take care of themselves and of their hereafter the best they know how? Never. Perish rather the Theosophical Society with both its hapless founders than that we should permit it to become no better than an academy of magic and a hall of occultism. That we, the devoted followers of that spirit incarnate of absolute self sacrifice, of philanthropy, divine kindness, as of all the highest virtues attainable on this earth of sorrow, the man of men, Gautama Buddha, should ever allow the Theosophical Society to represent the embodiment of selfishness, the refuge of the few with no thought in them for the many, is a strange idea, my brothers.

Among the few glimpses obtained by Europeans of Tibet and its mystical hierarchy of "perfect lamas," there is one which was correctly understood and described. "The incarnations of the Boddisatwa Padma Pani or Avalo-Kiteswara and of Tsong Kapa, that of Amitabha, relinquish at their death the attainment of Buddhahood — i.e. the summum bonum of bliss, and of individual personal felicity — that they might be born again and again for the benefit of mankind."* In other words, that they might be again and again subjected to misery, imprisonment in flesh and all the sorrows of life, provided that by such a self sacrifice repeated throughout long and dreary centuries they might become the means of securing salvation and bliss in the hereafter for a handful of men chosen among but one of the many races of mankind. And it is we, the humble disciples of these perfect lamas, who are expected to allow the T. S. to drop its noblest title, that of the Brotherhood of Humanity to become a simple school of psychology? No, no, good brothers, you have been labouring under the mistake too long already. Let us understand each other. He who does not feel competent enough to grasp the noble idea sufficiently to work for it, need not undertake a task too heavy for him. But there is hardly a theosophist in the whole society unable to effectually help it by correcting the erroneous impressions of the outsiders, if not by actually propagating himself the idea. Oh, for the noble and unselfish man to help us effectually in India in that divine task. All our knowledge past and present would not be sufficient to repay him. . . . Having explained our views and aspirations I have but a few words more to add.

*{Cf. Clements R. Markham, ed., Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa, 1876, p. xlvii.}

To be true, religion and philosophy must offer the solution of every problem. That the world is in such a bad condition morally is a conclusive evidence that none of its religions and philosophies, those of the civilised races less than any other, have ever possessed the truth. The right and logical explanations on the subject of the problems of the great dual principles — right and wrong, good and evil, liberty and despotism, pain and pleasure, egotism and altruism — are as impossible to them now as they were 1881 years ago. They are as far from the solution as they ever were but, —

To these there must be somewhere a consistent solution, and if our doctrines will show their competence to offer it, then the world will be the first one to confess that must be the true philosophy, the true religion, the true light, which gives truth and nothing but the truth.

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An abridged version of the view of the Chohan on the T.S. from his own words as given last night. My own letter, the answer to your last will shortly follow. {K.H.}

COSMOLOGICAL NOTES

From A. P. Sinnett's MS. Book

{Reproduced from The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett, Appendix II, and corrected against Sinnett’s transcriptions of M.’s notes to A. O. Hume. Transliterations of technical terms have been standardized. Sinnett's Early Days of Theosophy in Europe (pp. 33-5) and Blavatsky Letter 4 indicate these teachings were given from August to October 1881.}

Regular type indicates Questions put by A. P. Sinnett or A. O. Hume to their Teachers, and bold type the Answers received. Indented regular type has been used to indicate where the pupils have stated their own ideas in order to obtain comments upon them. — Ed.

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(1) What are the different kinds of knowledge?

The real (Dzyu) and the unreal (Dzyu-mi).
Dzyu becomes Fohat when in its activity — active agent of will — electricity — no other name.

(2) What is the difference between the two kinds of knowledge?

Real knowledge deals with eternal verities and primal causes. The unreal only with illusory effects.
Dzyu stands independent of the belief or unbelief of man. Dzyu-mi requires faith: rests on authority.

(3) Who possesses the real knowledge?

The Lha or adept alone possesses the real, his mind being en rapport with the universal mind.
The Lha has made the perfect junction of his soul with the Universal Mind in its fulness, which makes him for the time a divine being existing in the region of absolute intelligence, knowledge of natural laws or dzyu. The profane cannot become a Dang-ma (purified soul), for he lacks means of perceiving Chhag, genesis or the beginning of things.

(4) Is there any difference between what produces primal causes and their ultimate effects?

None — Everything in the occult Universe which embraces all the primal causes is based upon two principles, Kosmic energy (Fohat or breath of wisdom) and Kosmic ideation.
Thyan Kam (= the knowledge of bringing about) giving the impulse to Kosmic energy in the right direction.
In Fohat all that exists on Earth as ultimates exists as primates.

(5) What is the one eternal thing in the universe independent of every other thing?

Space.

(6) What things are coexistent with space?

(1) Duration.
(2) Matter.
(3) Motion, for this is the imperishable life (conscious or unconscious as the case may be) of matter even during the pralaya, or night of mind.

When Chyang, or omniscience, and Chyang-mi-shi-khon, ignorance, both sleep, this latent unconscious life still maintains the matter it animates in sleepless unceasing motion.

(4) The Akasa (Bar-nang) or Kosmic atmosphere, or Astral light, or celestial ether, which whether in its latent or active condition, surrounds and interpenetrates all matter in motion of which it is at once a result and the medium by which the Kosmic energy acts on its source.

(5) The Purush or 7th principle of the universe.

Linga sharir is composed of the ethereal elements of its (? body's) organism, never leaves body but at death and remains near.

(7) Are we to understand Purush as another name for space, or as a different thing occupying every part of space?

Same. Swayambu occupies every part of space which itself is boundless and eternal, hence must be space in one sense. Swayambu becomes Purush when coming in contact with matter.

(8) The universal mind is the aggregate of all the minds of the Dyan-chohans or Planetaries, the result of the action of Purush on matter, just as the spiritual soul in man is the action of spirit on matter?

Yes.

(9) Are we to look upon the seven principles as all matter and all spirit — one thing, with spirit as it were at one pole, and matter at the other?

Yes, just so.

(10) If so, are we to view them as different states of matter or spirit, or how?

States, conditions, call it whatever you please. I call it Kyen — cause; itself a result of a previous or some primary cause.

(11) All matter consists of ultimate molecules. How may we conceive the different states of matter?

As the molecules go on rarifying, so in proportion they become attenuated and the greater the distance between our globe and them — I do not mean here the region within the reach of your science — the greater the change in their polarity, the negative pole acquiring a stronger property of repulsion, and the positive losing gradually its power of attraction. (And now is the time for your men of dzyu to set me down as a Thibetan ass, and for me to return the compliment.)

(12)

MAN
Thibetan	Sanscrit	English
1. A-ku	Rupa	Body
2. Zer (vital ray)	Prana Jivatma	Life principle
3. Chhu-lung (one of the 3 aims)	Linga sharir	Astral body
4. Nga-zhi (essence of action)	Kama-rupa	Will form
5. Ngë (Physical ego)	Linga deha Bhut	Animal soul
6. Lana Sem-nyed (spiritual soul)	AtmanMayava-rupa	Spiritual soul
7. Hlün-dhüb	Mahatma	Spirit

UNIVERSE
Thibetan	Sanscrit	English
1. Sem-chan (animated universe) Ssa — earth as an element	Brahm — the universe Prakrit = matter Idam (Earth)	Organized matter
2. Zhima (vital soul)	Purush	Vivifying, universal spirit
3. Yor Wa (Illusion)	(Maya) Akasa	Astral or cosmic atmosphere
4. Od (light, the shining active Astral light)	Vach (the Kam-akasa)	Cosmic will
5. Nam Kha ({?}tur passive)	Yajna (latent form in Brahma-purush determined by activity of No. 4)	Viradji (?) Universal illusion
6. Kon-chhog	Narayan — spirit brooding over the waters and reflecting in itself the universe	Universal mind
7. Nyug (Duration in {?}ring, or space)	Swayambuva in {?} (space)	Latent spirit Ensoph

(13) Sem-chan, animated universe: Ssa, earth as an element. Where then does cosmic or unorganised matter class?

Zhi gyu (cosmic matter), Thog (space), Nyug (duration), Khor wa (motion), all one.
Fire, as everything else, has seven principles. Od, one, but not the most material — sixth.

(14) All matter cosmic or organised has inherent motion. What then does Zhima, vital soul or vivifying principle, do to it?

There you see. As well ask what vital principle does for human body when it comes into it in conjunction with the other five. A dead body is composed of molecules full of life, is it? Yet when vital soul has deserted the whole, what is it but a dead body. Give up your pansophy and come down to our Dgyu. We believe in spontaneous generation and you do not. We say that Zhima being positive, and Zhi-gyu [gyu (material) earth in this sense] negative, it is only when the two come in contact as the former is brought to act upon the latter that organised, living, self-acting matter is produced. Everything invisible, imponderable (the spirit of a thing) is positive, for it belongs to the world of reality; as everything solid, visible, is negative. Primate and ultimate, positive and negative. So much in our manifested world. As the forces move on and the distance between organised and unorganised matter becomes greater, a tendency towards the reverse begins to take place. The powers of attraction and repulsion become gradually weaker. Then a complete exchange of properties takes place, and for a time equilibrium is restored in an opposite order. At every grade further onward, or away toward their primary chaotic state, shifts no more mutually its property, but weakens gradually until it reaches the world of non-being, where exists the eternal mechanical motion, the uncreated cause from whence proceeds in a kind of incessant downward and upward rotation, the founts of being from non-being, the latter, the reality, the former maya, the temporary from the everlasting, the effect from its cause, the effect becoming in its turn cause ad infinitum. During the pralaya, that upward and downward motion ceases, inherent unconscious life alone remaining — all creative forces paralysed, and everything resting in the night of mind.

(15) Are we to consider any of the principles as non-molecular?

There comes a time when polarity ceases to exist or act as everything else. In the night of mind, all is equilibrised in the boundless cosmos in a state of non-action or non-being.

(16) And is cosmic matter non-molecular?

Cosmic matter can no more be non-molecular than organised matter. — 7th principle is molecular as well as the 1st one, but the former differentiates from the latter not only by its molecules getting wider apart and becoming more attenuated, but also by losing its polarity. Try to understand and realise this idea and the rest will become easy.

The panspermic and theospermic conceptions will both be in our way as taught by your schools. You will never be able to realise the latter as an absurdity, so long as you comprehend but imperfectly the incessant work of what is called by Occult Science the Central Point in both its active and passive states. As I said, we believe in spontaneous generation in the independent origin of matter whether living or dead, and we prove it, which is more than your Pasteurs and Wymans and Huxleys can say. Did they but know that Zhima cannot be shut out or pumped out from a glass vessel like air, and that hence, wherever there is purush there can be no thermal limit of organic life, they would have bak-baked less and told the world less absurdities than they have. In short, motion, cosmic matter, duration, space, are everywhere and for perspicuity's sake, let us place or fancy this multiplicity in or at the top of a circle, (boundless). They are passive, negative, unconscious, yet ever propelled by their inherent latent life or force. During the day of activity, that cyclic force ejecting from the causative latent principle, cosmic matter, like the wheel of a water mill ejects showers of water dust around its rotating circle, put it in contact with the same principles (but whose condition owing to their finding themselves outside the state of primitive passivity of the eternal immutability has already changed). Thus the same principles begin to acquire so to speak the germs of polarity. Then coming within the Universal mind Dyan Kam develops these germs, conceives, and giving the impulse communicates it to Fohat, who, vibrating along Akasa, Od (a state of cosmic matter, motion, force, etc.) runs along the lines of cosmic manifestations and frames all and everything, blindly, agreed, yet as faithfully in accordance with the prototypes as conceived in the eternal mind as a good mirror reflects your face.

———————

(17) On the hypothetical Absolute and infinite final cause.

The absolute and infinite is composed of the conditioned and finite. Causes are conditioned in their modes of existence and attributes, and as individual aggregates — unconditioned and eternal in their sum or as a collective aggregate.

(18) If the Absolute is a blind law, how can it give birth to intelligence?

But passive latent intelligence, or that principle diffused throughout the universe which in its pure immateriality is non-intelligence and non-consciousness, and which as soon as it becomes imprisoned in matter is transformed into both — can.

(19) The Absolute, if intelligent, must be omnipotent, omniscient, and all-good?

Please give your reasons why!

In the East the Absolute, itself non-conscious, is linked to intelligence by emanations, supposed to be conditioned. "How far this hypothesis satisfies the mind as to the possibility of intelligence evolving out of non-intelligence . . . ," depends on the mind addressed.

What do you know of the gradual development of brain ever since the Silurian period?

(20) The origin of Evil difficulty, dealt with by means of the sugar refinery simile.

And the more the sugar refined the greater the fermentation produced in the stomach and the more worms.

It is useless . . .

Show me the philosopher who would prove it useless!

. . . to say that evil is as necessary to make good apparent as darkness is to make light cognizable. To the conditioned it may be — to the omnipotent nothing is necessary.

Prove him first.

But clearly a conditioned agency is not the final cause. Above it is the law or principle that conditions it. . . .

How's this? Where? not unless you create something outside the absolute and limitless.

Problems lying behind the veil that separates the non-manifested final cause from the manifested universe are beyond the grasp of minds conditioned in that universe.

Indeed they are not!

. . . The absolute infinite is unthinkable and we can neither comprehend it nor justify its ways to man.

Then why lose time over it? Who commissioned you to do so?
Your all-pervading supreme power exists, but it is exactly matter, whose life is motion, will, and nerve power, electricity. Purush can think but through Prakriti.

———————

(21) What you would say would be: —

"Whether this be so or not (as regards the hypothesis of an Absolute beyond the conditioned) it is and must ever remain a pure hypothesis. The highest intelligences in the universe know nothing of it — so far as they can explore, the manifested universe is boundless and infinite. Our philosophy admits only of what is known and knowable — This is admittedly unknowable even to Planetaries, and it is ex-hypothese non-existent — why then consider it. . . .

"Even were this conception correct, how does it concern us? For thousands of years the highest planetaries have explored the universe — they have found no limits to it, and nothing in it guided or governed by any external impulse, everything on the contrary proceeding from internal impulses which they understand and which suffice to explain everything they have ever had cognizance of. A quoi bon {to what good] then to introduce this unnecessary conception of a something (which as non-existent for us is a nothing) outside and beyond what for us is limitless and eternal, when whether it exists or not it plays no discoverable part in anything that concerns us.

"The fact is your western philosophical conceptions are monarchical; ours democratic. You are only able to think of the universe as governed by a king, while we know it to be a republic in which the aggregate indwelling intelligence rules."

We might say more — never better. That is just what we would say.

———————

(22) Who are the artificers of the world?

Dyan Chohans — Planetaries.

———————

(Pinned to next essay)

Gyu-thog — Phenomenal or Material Universe (secret name) Aja-sakti. Viswarn Zigten-jas — cosmogony, from Zigten = living world, and jas, to make. Chh-rab — genesis.

The universe may primarily be conceived as space pervaded by an infinite and eternal and homogeneous congery of molecules, in which motion, their latent unconscious life, is inherent.
In this its passive unmanifested state it may be regarded as chaos?

Yes; if only people were capable of conceiving what real chaos is, which they are not.

Though truly an unity it may be conceived in its various aspects as (Thog) space, in regard to its boundless extension coexisting with (Nyng) eternity, in regard to its endless duration (Zhi-gyu), cosmic matter in regard to its molecules, and Khori wa, — cosmic force in regard to its all pervading motion.

But these four conceptions must be held to indicate not four elements composing a compound, but rather four properties or attributes of one single thing, just as on earth one thing may be hot, luminous, heavy, and in motion. This universe one and indivisible in its passive unmanifested form, this chaos is for us non-existent —

For you, but why speak for others?

but throughout it are scattered centres of activity or evolution, and wherever and whenever activity prevails, there portions of the whole differentiate, and where this occurs, homogeneity ceases. Thus differentiation is due

(1) To the greater or less proximity of the molecules.
(2) To their greater or less attenuation.

What does (2) mean? How can the primal molecules grow thinner or fatter — ex-nihil, etc.?

I was not aware that atoms were considered by you as something nihil. Are not the molecules considered in science as compound atoms? Your science knows only of such compound molecules, and a primal atom is and will remain for ever as a hypothetical abstraction for it. Science can know nothing of the nature of atoms outside the region of effects on her globe and even that atom she calls indivisible, which we do not, for we know of the existence and properties of the universal solvent — the essence of the Panchamahabutam — the five elements. Even the existence of the atoms which compose the unseen medium through which the power which magnetises instantly a short iron rod placed across the centre of a hoop two yards in diameter around which a wire thickly covered with india rubber is coiled — even the existence of such atoms I say, remains an open question and science remains puzzled and embarrassed to decide whether it is an action at a distance without, or with some mysterious medium — or what?

(3) To changes in their polarity.

This differentiation in activity is manifestation, and everything so differentiated comes into existence or becomes conceivable for us. Each centre of activity (and these centres are countless) marks a solar system, but these are still rari nantes in gurgite vasto {few swimmers in a vast sea}, hanging in the all-pervading ocean of the unmanifested universe, out of which new manifestations are perpetually evolving, and into the oblivion of which others whose cycle has been completed are ever returning.

Alternations of activity and passivity constitute the cyclic law of the universe. As the microcosm man has his days and nights, his waking and his sleeping hours, so has the earth, which, a macrocosm to him is a microcosm to the solar system, and so has this latter, which, a macrocosm to a single globe, is itself a microcosm to the universe.

That the universe itself must similarly have its days and nights of activity and passivity, is probable by analogy, but if so these cover periods unthinkable, and the fact remains unknowable by the highest intelligences conditioned in the universe.

Is this correct? If not when the entire universe goes into pralaya (what is your Tibetan word?) how can anyone know anything about it!

Maha-bar-do — the period between death and regeneration of man is so called — also Chhe-bar-do.
They can know for this is but our scan, or as you say by analogy.

The night of the solar system, the pralaya of the Hindus, the Maha-bar-do or great night of mind of the Thibetans, involves the disintegration of all form and the return of that portion of the universe occupied by that system, to its passive unmanifested condition, space pervaded by atoms in motion. Everything else passes away for the time, but matter which these ultimate atoms represent (though at times objective, at times potential or subjective, now organised, now unorganised) is eternal and indestructible, and motion is the imperishable life (conscious or unconscious as the case may be) of matter. Even therefore during the night of mind, when all other forces are paralysed, when Chyang, omniscience, and Chyang mi shi kon, ignorance, both sleep, and everything else rests, this latent unconscious life unceasingly maintains the molecules in which it is inherent in blind resultless and purposeless motion inter se.

Why should it be more purposeless and resultless than the unconscious blind motion of the atoms in any foetus preparing for rebirth?

The solar system has disappeared even to the highest intelligences in other solar systems.

Is this correct? Can the planetaries in any way cognise the passive non-being portions of the universe?

They can.

Adepts can at will I know create forms out of cosmic matter, but probably this cosmic matter is many degrees from matter as it exists in the passive latent universe, which perhaps should rather be called potential rather than cosmic matter.

Potentiality is a possibility not an actuality. Find a better word.

but nothing has been annihilated any more than anything has been ever created; only, this recently active, organised, manifested and existing portion of the universe losing all differentiation of its parts, has passed into its primordial passive homogeneous unmanifested, and quoad {with respect to] all intelligences, non-existent or inconceivable state. It has resettled into chaos.

If it is asked whence these alternations of activity and passivity the reply is that they [are] the law inherent in the universe.

Here as a footnote would come the purport of the argument approved by you against the unnecessary creation of an intelligence outside the self-governed universe.

If you can show me one being or object in the universe which does not originate and develop through, and in accordance with blind law, then only will your argument hold good and footnote be necessary. The doctrine of evolution is an eternal protest. Evolution means unfolding of the evolute from the involute, a process of gradual growth. The only thing that could have possibly been spontaneously created is cosmic matter, and primordium with us means not only primogenitureship but eternalism, for matter is eternal and one of the Hlun dhub not a Kyen — a cause, itself the result of some primary cause. Were it so, at the end of every Maha pralaya when the whole cosmos moves into collective perfection and every atom (that you call primordial, and we eternal) emanates from itself a still finer atom — every individual atom containing in itself the actual potentiality of evoluting milliards of worlds each more perfect and more ethereal — how is it that there is no sign of such an intelligence outside the self-governed universe? You take a last hypothesis — a portion of your god sits in every atom. He is divided ad infinitum, he remains concealed in abscondito and the logical conclusion we arrive at is that as the Infinite mind of the Dyan chohans knows that the newly emanated atoms are incapable of any conscious or unconscious action unless they receive the intellectual impulse from them. Ergo your god is no better than blind matter's ever propelled by as blind eternal force or law, which is that matter god — Perchance. Well, well we shall not lose time over such talk.

The period of passivity ends, the night of mind ceases, the solar system awakes and reemerges into manifestation and existence, and everything throughout it is once more as it was when the night set in. Though a period inconceivable to human minds has passed, it has passed but as a sound and dreamless sleep. The law of activity comes again into operation, the centre of evolution resumes its work, the fount of being commences to flow again.

I conclude this must be so or otherwise the matter ejected from the vortex or central point would find none in a differentiated state from which to acquire its own impulse of differentiation.

When the hour strikes, the cosmic atoms already in a differentiated state remain statu quo, as well as globes and everything else in the process of formation. Therefore you have seized the idea.

In the still passive portion of the universe in which, and interpenetrated by which, hangs the remanifested solar system; in the non-being where subsists the eternal mechanical motion, its uncreated cause, a vortex is formed which in its ceaseless rotation perpetually ejects into the polarised active manifested conscious universe, the unpolarised passive unmanifested and unconscious universal element.

Call it motion, cosmic matter, duration, or space, for it is all these and yet one, this the Universe manifested and unmanifested and there is nothing else in the Universe. But the moment it passes out of passivity (or non-being) into activity (or being), it begins to change its state and differentiate, from contact with what had formerly changed, and so the eternal wheel rolls on, the effect of to-day becoming the cause of tomorrow for ever and ever. But it must ever be remembered that the non-being, the passive, is the eternal, the real; the being, the active, the transitory and the unreal. For longer or shorter as its career may be according to the impulses it receives, sooner or later the manifested disintegrates into the unmanifested, and being fades into non-being.

But how about the highest Planetaries? They surely do not return into non-being, but pass on to higher or at any rate different solar systems.

The highest state of Nirvana is the highest state of non-being. There comes a time when the whole infinitude sleeps or rests, when All is reimmersed in the one eternal and uncreated sum of all. The sum of the latent unconscious potentiality.

It has been stated that a differentiation of the primordial element is the basis of the manifested universe, and we must now consider the seven different principles that constitute and govern that Universe or in other words the seven different states or conditions in which this element exists in it.

There is no finite or primordial design but in conjunction with organised matter. Design is Kyen, a cause arising from a primary one. The latent design exists from the eternity in the one unborn eternal atom or the central point which is everywhere and nowhere, called —-— (our most secret incommunicable name given at the initiation to the highest adepts). So I can give you the six names of the principles of our solar system, but have to withhold the rest and even the name of the seventh. Call it the unknown and explain why. A Dam-ze (Brahman) will not give you the name of even the crown of the Akasa, but will speak of the six primary forces in nature represented by the Astral light. I'll give you the principles by and bye. Study this well first.

The Writing of the Mahatma Letters

Table of Contents

A. O. Hume’s Reply To K.H.’s 1st Letter

{Unedited text of Letter 99. K.H.’s # and numbers in boldface refer to his comments in Letter 98. Most, but not all of Hume’s end-of-sentence periods appear as small dashes.

Simla
20-11-80

My dear Koot Humi

I have sent Sinnett your letter to me & he has kindly sent me yours to him – I want to make some remarks on this not by way of cavil, but because I am so anxious that you should understand me – Very likely it is my conceit – but whether or no I have a deep rooted conviction that I could work effectually if I only saw my way & I cannot bear the idea of your throwing me over under any misconception of my views – And yet every letter I see of yours, shows me that you do not as yet realize what I think & feel – # To explain this I venture to jot down a few comments on your letter to Sinnett –

You say that if Russia does not succeed in taking Tibet, it will be due to you & herein at least you will deserve our gratitude – I do not agree to this in the sense in which you mean it – (1) If I thought that Russia would on the whole govern, Tibet or India, in such wise as to make the inhabitants on the whole happier than they are under the existing Gov^ts, I would myself welcome & work for her advent. But so far as I can judge the Russian Gov^t is a corrupt despotism, hostile to individual liberty of action & therefore to real progress – & it would only be in common with all well wishers of mankind & not as an English man (& indeed I have no nationality) that I should feel gratitude to you or any one else who by legitimate means (& what are under different sets of circumstances legitimate & illegitimate means may be a matter open to argument) prevented the further extension of a power, which is essentially hostile to the highest interests of humanity.

Then about the English speaking Vaquil – Was the man so much to blame? – You & yours have never taught him that there was any thing in Yog-vidya – The only people who have taken the trouble to educate him at all have in so doing taught him materialism – You are disgusted with him, but who is to blame? he who having no teaching but a materialistic one, rejects as dreams, the vague rumours that have reached him as to spiritual possibilities, or you (I mean your brotherhood) who knowing all about these have failed to popularize the knowledge, have in fact failed to teach him better? I judge perhaps as an outsider but it does seem to me, that the impenetrable veil of secresy by which you surround yourselves, the enormous difficulties which you oppose to the communication of your spiritual knowledge, are the main causes of the rampant materialism which you so much deplore – You are the only people who possess any real, experimental knowledge of things spiritual – doubtless millions upon millions possess a sort of knowledge of these thro faith, pure life, meditation & in fact the higher discipline of all religions worthy of the name – But this knowledge of theirs tho sufficing to their own souls, is not of a character to produce objective results, or tangible arguments, that they can appeal to in order to lead others by nature less spiritually minded to similar convictions to their own – You alone do possess the means of bringing home to the ordinary run of men, convictions of this nature but you, apparently bound by ancient rules, so far from zealously disseminating this knowledge, envelop it in such a dense cloud of mystery, that naturally the mass of mankind, disbelieve in its existence.

And this veil of secresy is I submit an anachronism – It may have been very necessary in former days when the exhibition of the powers possessed by adepts might have led to prosecutions & persecutions, but now when in the most highly civilized countries, such exhibitions would at worst entail ridicule & abuse, (both of which the inexorable logic of facts would surely even tho slowly strangle) there can be no justification for not giving clearly to the world the more important features of your philosophy, accompanying the teaching with such a series of demonstrations as should ensure the attention of all sincere minds.

That you should hesitate to confer hastily great powers too likely to be abused, I quite understand – but this in no way bars a dogmatic enunciation of the results of your psychical investigations, accompanied by phenomena, sufficiently clear & often repeated to prove that you really did know more of the subjects with which you dealt than Western Science does. (2)

Perhaps you will retort “How about Slades case?” but do not forget that he was taking money for what he did; making a living out of it – Very different would be the position of a man, who came forward to teach gratuitously, manifestly at the sacrifice of his own time, comfort & convenience what he believed it to be for the good of mankind to know –

At first no doubt every one would say the man was mad or an imposter – but then when phenomenon, on phenomenon was repeated & repeated they would have to admit that there was something in it, & within three years, you would have all the foremost minds in any civilized country intent upon the question & tens of thousands of anxious enquirers out of whom ten percent might prove useful workers, & one in a thousand perhaps develop the necessary qualifications for becoming ultimately an adept – If you desire to react on the native thro’ the European mind that is the way to work it – Of course I speak under correction & in ignorance of conditions, possibilities &c, but for this ignorance at any rate “I am not to blame –

Then you say – “It is not possible that there should be much more at best than a benevolent neutrality shown by your people towards ours – There is so very minute a point of contact between the two civilizations they respectively represent that one might almost say they could not touch at all” Now is this correct? – Is it not in the first place misleading to talk of two civilizations? All civilizations have the same necessary ingredients, mental & moral (or if you prefer it, spiritual) culture – The one element may predominate here, the other there, but in both cases there must be a vast amt in common – Essential to every civilization in any way deserving of the name is the intellectual culture necessary for the discrimination of the good, the true & the beautiful & the moral culture essential to the adherence at all cost to these in preference to their opposites –

In the one country there may be less intellectual capacity & a purer devotion to the more dimly perceived truths, in the other it may be more of “Meliora videon proboque, deteriora sequor” {"I see and approve of the better, but I follow the worse"} but in both the essentials are the same & it appears to me to be a contradiction in terms to talk of the two civilizations which may almost be said not to touch at all – Nor is this a mere matter of words, for starting with such idea’s failure is a certainty, whereas if the vast amt that is common to both be realized & recognized & if we seek to build on this common foundation, an active cooperation in lieu of a benevolent neutrality becomes not only a possibility, but a thing that may be commanded – (3)

Then I come to the passage – “Has it occurred to you that the two Bombay publications if not influenced may at least have not been prevented by those who might have done so because they saw the necessity for that much agitation to effect the double result of making a needed diversion after the brooch grenade & perhaps of trying the strength of your personal interest in occultism & theosophy? I do not say it was I but enquire whether the contingency ever presented itself to your mind.” Now of course this was addressed to Sinnett, but still I wish to answer it in my fashion – First I should say, cui bono throwing out such a hint? You must know whether it was so or not – If it was not, why set us speculating as to whether it may have been, when you know it was not – But if it was so, then I submit, that in the first place, an idiotic business like this could be no test of any mans (there are of course lots of human beings who are only a sort of educated monkey,) personal interest in any thing – Would any man, who felt even the slightest interest in any thing, suffer this interest to be affected by the fact that some other person made themselves ridiculous in connection therewith? In the second place if the brothers did deliberately allow the publication of those letters, I can only say that from my worldly non initiated standpoint, I think they made a sad mistake – a cause may involve murder & robbery & yet not be wholly discredited, but make it ridiculous & you may write its epitaph. Mind I do not for one moment defend this – it is monstrous that it should be so – but it is unfortunately a fact, & the object of the Brothers being avowedly to make the T.S. respected, they could hardly have selected any worse means than the publication of these foolish letters – I do not of course attach any very great importance to them – if there be a real vital [breath?] underlying the T.S. (& it is this I am vainly trying to arrive at), it will outlive & smother a hundred such bévues – Magna est veritas et prevalebit {"blunders – Great is the truth and it will prevail"} – but still when the question is broadly put, did you ever consider whether the brothers allowed this publication, I cannot avoid replying, if they did not, it is futile wasting consideration on the matter & if they did, it seems to me that they were unwise in so doing – (4)

Then come your remarks about Col. Olcott – Dear old Olcott, whom everyone who knows must love – I fully sympathise in all you say in his favour – but I cannot but take exception to the terms in which you praise him, the whole burthen of which is that he never questions but always obeys – This is the Jesuit organization over again – & this renunciation of private judgement, this abnegation of ones own personal responsibility, this accepting the dictates of outside voices as a substitute for ones own conscience, is to my mind a sin of no ordinary magnitude; & involves a principle inimical to all true civilization – Moreover I venture to predict that such a system of passive obedience will never obtain the cooperation of the highest minds in any society – Nay further I feel bound to say that if as I seem to gather from many incidental passages in your letters, this doctrine of blind obedience is an essential one in your system, I greatly doubt whether any spiritual light it may confer, can compensate mankind for the loss of that private freedom of action, that sense of personal individual responsibility of which it would deprive them – Nay further state, unless I wholly misread the teachings of history & the spirit of the age, any organization, which has for its key note passive obedience is itself doomed – (5)

Now for the first time I begin to get a glimpse of what you probably mean by what you so often allude to as the irreconcilable nature of Eastern & Western Ideas – Truly despotism is of the East, Freedom of the West – but I confess that I have hitherto been unable to conceive of the possibility of a brotherhood like yours accepting as a tenet the principle that underlies all despotisms – Yet when your highest praise is bestowed, not on someone who wisely & cleverly works out a good end but on one who amidst innumerable errors “always obeys & never questions” what else can I conclude?

And here I must take my stand – as for physical matters, when where or what one eats or sucks, where or how one lives or sleeps, these are all accidentals – matters of no earthly consequence provided my health did not seriously suffer, I would as soon live on herbs & water & sleep & live in a cave or a mud hut if any good was to come of it, as in any other ways. But if it be intended that I shall ever, get instructions to do this or that & without understanding the why or the wherefore, without scrutinizing consequences, blind & heedless, straightway go & do it – then frankly the matter for me is at an end – I am no military machine – I am an avowed enemy of the military organization – a friend & advocate of the industrial or cooperative system & I will join no society or no body which purports to limit or control my right of private judgement. Of course I am not a hukum e,!? & do not desire to ride any principle as a Hobby Horse – Where a matter is immaterial, i.e. so far as my unaided judgement enables me to discern can do no harm – then if the persons who asked me to do it were persons in whose good faith & capacity I had confidence I should like Olcott be quite willing to obey & ask no questions. But if the thing was material, & either involved consequences which I could not clearly forsee, or appeared to me wrong or unwise, then I should most distinctly refuse to obey unless the “hakims” {"rulers"} were willing to explain to me the reasons for their “hukum” {"ruling"} & make it clear to me that despite any previous doubts, it was really the right thing to do –

To return to Olcott – I do not think his connection with the proposed Society would be any evil – Sinnett thinks this I believe – I do not – given any real vital principle as a basis to the Society & nobody’s connections with it could do any very permanent harm – So I quite agree in all you say about this but when you go on to say “But if you now so dislike the idea of a purely nominal executive supervision by Col Olcott – an american of your own race – you would surely rebel against dictation from a Hindoo” you must entirely mistake my feelings at any rate –

In the first place I should not object in any way to dear Old Olcotts supervision, because I know it would be nominal as even if he tried to make it otherwise, Sinnett & I are both quite capable of shutting him up if he interfered needlessly – But neither of us could accept him as our real guide, (6) because we both know that we are intellectually his superiors – This is a brutal way as the French would say of putting it, but que voulez vous? Without perfect frankness there is no coming to an understanding –

Truly I should object to the dictation not only of a Hindoo but of any human being – I allow no man to dictate to me – But if a Hindoo comes to me & gives me good advice, & shows me reasons why I should do this or should not do the other, I should be as readily guided by that advice as tho it had come from an English man or a French man –

So far as I am concerned the words “whose race you have not yet learnt even to tolerate let alone to love or respect” have no application – I do not love the low lying Mookhtears, & vaquils, the khitmatgars & the bulk of the lower class officials & employe’s, Hindoo's or Mahomedans – Nor do I love any more the similar classes in Germany France or England – Nor do I love the self seeking, fawning, money lenders & the like, who constitute the majority of those who crowd about us official Englishmen – I am civil to them, I try, to be kind to them, but I do not like or respect them, not because they are Hindoo’s or Sikhs or Mahomedans, but because they are self seekers – mean, base, – & because their presence sets on me like a nightmare & weighs down my own thoughts – But there have been natives Hindoo’s & Mahomedans, whom I have loved & respected as much as I could have loved & respected any European – There is no question of race or colour or creed at all – it is a mere question of intrinsic qualities – “sifaten” –

When you say that your highest adepts are “greasy Tibetans & Punjabi Singhs” & that “the lion is proverbially a dirty & offensive beast”, I presume you are joking – If not, tho a diamond is a diamond, & I should prize it equally however badly set – I should prefer to get it suitably set – & tho purity of soul is the one great first requisite, & all other things comparatively insignificant yet in its way purity & cleanliness of body is not to be despised & I confess that I think the perfect jewel, the pure soul set in the pure clean body, the thing to aim at – Old, mean, clothes, are one thing (tho when a man can dress in good plain ones I cannot see why he should not), but dirtiness of body is another & I do not believe that where this can be avoided, it should be permitted – And in fact I am unable to believe that any high adept can be really dirty or offensive – But even were this so, this would not in the smallest degree repel me, once I knew that it was really an adept I was dealing with & that foul as the exterior husk might be, the true good seed was within –

I am quite sure that if you are true & genuine, as I believe you to be the kindly feelings that this correspondence has engendered toward you would be in no way weakened, but rather strengthened by personal intercourse with you – I hardly see peoples outsides – I often know & care for people without hardly knowing what they are like in body – Men mostly think a great deal of womens looks – & I have been some times surprised when promising a woman to a man, at being told “look she may be very good but she is awfully plain” & then again on looking carefully at my lady friend to discover, tho I had never known it that she was awfully plain – So I am quite certain that nothing in your external personal appearance could in the smallest degree affect my sentiments.

As for your dear dirty neophyte, I wish he had been sent to me, dirty pagri & all, & it would have gone hard with me, if while learning from him higher things, I had not been able to convert him to my views of the beauty & goodness of cleanliness –

The most important point of your letter to me is that where in you say “Powerless to send to you a neophyte before you have pledged yourself to us” Here perhaps is the real Crux – What is the pledge you require? all seems to turn upon this – If it is merely to preserve entire secresy as to all that we may learn, & as to yourselves, & your followers, never without permission to utilize any knowledge gained from you, & always to act in accordance with your wishes in all cases in which it did not seem to us wrong to do so, I at least think that if satisfied on the points refer'd to in former letters, I could give it – & if I did give it I would abide by it come what might; but if it is the old surrender of “dhun, man, Fan,” proposed to me twenty years ago, then I for one will never give it – I feel that I am responsible to higher than earthly intelligences – I don't pretend to know what they are – but I know that they exist, as certainly as I know that sugar is sweet to my taste, tho I can prove neither fact to anyone else – & I will resign that responsibility into no earthly hands

On the other hand, I do not care to play at Theosophy – Either I go in for it in real earnest or not at all – if my retention of the right of private judgement renders the real earnest impossible under your rules – well & good – the thing must be at an end for me –

It seems to me useless to discuss articles of association & the like unless these fundamental questions are first settled –

Sinnett is deeply interested in the phenomena as such, I am not he thinks it marvellous that things should be done which can not be accounted for by any laws known to Western Science – I, as I have explained in former letters do not – perhaps I realize more acutely the vastness of our ignorance.

I do not care two straws for the powers or the phenomena, except as a means – I do not see the slightest prospect of any good coming of the Society, unless it is to be a real & certain stepping stone to higher spiritual knowledge – He does – each man must judge for himself – he I know will wholly disagree with me on many points – but this letter I send thro’ him & he will speak for himself –

I am almost sorry that I have wearied you with these long letters for I seem to feel, that I am too essentially a radical at heart, to be acceptable to your naturally conservative order – but you will forgive me in that I am in earnest & tho' nothing further ever come of our interchange of thoughts, think kindly of me as I always shall of you as being fellow workers in the same cause, albeit under different flags, & you an officer & engineer & I a mere day labourer,

Yours sincerely,

A O Hume

The Writing of the Mahatma Letters

By A. Trevor Barker

{The following article by A. Trevor Barker originally appeared in the January 1938 issue of The English Theosophical Forum, London, England. It is included herein because of its intrinsic value to students of The Mahatma Letters.}

I have received a number of requests to publish a reply to two questions that are asked by students over and over again, and these questions may be formulated as follows:

In your Introduction to The Mahatma Letters you refer to the letters as having been signed by the Masters with their own hands. You may or may not have intended this to be taken literally, but a careful study of the letters in the opinion of many intelligent people reveals that some of the letters seem to drop below the standard that one would attribute to a supramundane or Mahatmic intelligence. What is the explanation for this if the Mahatmas M. and K.H. were actually responsible for them?

The only satisfactory way of answering these very important questions is to see what H.P.B. and the Masters themselves had to say upon the subject. As a matter of fact the Mahatmas M. and K.H. did not use their high intelligence to supervise the whole process of transmitting quite a number of these letters. This H.P.B. states quite clearly on page 480 {Letter 140}of The Mahatma Letters in these words:

Has Master K.H. written himself all His letters? How many chelas have been precipitating and writing them — heaven only knows.

The Master himself writes on page 232 {Letter 30}:

In noticing M⸫’s opinion of yourself expressed in some of his letters — (you must not feel altogether so sure that because they are in his handwriting, they are written by him, though of course every word is sanctioned by him to serve certain ends) — . . .

To understand the problem properly the whole of Letter 140 (pp. 478-81) should be read carefully and in addition pp. 470-1 and 422-6 {Letters 138 and 93}. In order to save space we only print the more important passages, and draw the reader’s attention particularly to the following on page 422 {Letter 93}:

The letter in question was framed by me while on a journey and on horseback. It was dictated mentally, in the direction of, and “precipitated” by, a young chela not yet expert at this branch of Psychic chemistry, and who had to transcribe it from the hardly visible imprint. Half of it, therefore, was omitted and the other half more or less distorted by the “artist.” When asked by him at the time, whether I would look it over and correct I answered, imprudently, I confess — “anyhow will do, my boy — it is of no great importance if you skip a few words.” I was physically very tired by a ride of 48 hours consecutively, and (physically again) — half asleep. Besides this I had very important business to attend to psychically and therefore little remained of me to devote to that letter. It was doomed, I suppose. When I awoke I found it had already been sent on, and, as I was not then anticipating its publication, I never gave it from that time a thought.

Then:

Two factors are needed to produce a perfect and instantaneous mental telegraphy — close concentration in the operator, and complete receptive passivity in the “reader”-subject. Given a disturbance of either condition, and the result is proportionately imperfect. The “reader” does not see the image as in the “telegrapher’s” brain, but as arising in his own. When the latter’s thought wanders, the psychic current becomes broken, the communication disjointed and incoherent. In a case such as mine, the chela had, as it were, to pick up what he could from the current I was sending him and, as above remarked, patch the broken bits together as best he might. . . .

Well, as soon as I heard of the charge — the commotion among my defenders having reached me across the eternal snows — I ordered an investigation into the original scraps of the impression. At the first glance I saw that it was I, the only and most guilty party, — the poor little boy having done but that which he was told.

and later on the same page:

I transcribe them with my own hand this once, whereas the letter in your possession was written by the chela. I ask you also to compare this handwriting with that of some of the earlier letters you received from me. Bear in mind, also the “O.L.’s” emphatic denial at Simla that my first letter had ever been written by myself. I felt annoyed at her gossip and remarks then; it may serve a good purpose now.

These passages from The Mahatma Letters prove and confirm H.P.B.'s statement in the letter quoted above from Letter 140.

In a letter to me on this subject Dr. de Purucker expressed himself as follows:

H.P.B. stated specifically, and more than once, that it was the rarest thing in the world for any one of the Mahatmans, or even for a high chela, personally to write a letter, i.e. indite any communication with his own hand. There are very, very few, very rare exceptions, such as one or two, it may be three, cases of direct precipitation from the Master or from a high chela, and possibly one or two brief notes, maybe a telegram or two, written by the Master's own hand. H.P.B. states positively that not only was such writing in the Master's own hand the rarest thing, but that practically in every case, with the few exceptions named, the Master impressed mentally his chela or amanuensis, or chelas or amanuenses, to write thus or so, to such or another person. Then the chela, if the receptivity was good, would get the message clearly from the Master's mind along the etheric currents, and in writing it down, if the receptivity was perfect the resulting production would be practically the Master's own words, and actually his own handwriting, real or adopted — whichever Master it might be who was the source, K.H. or M. or some other. If receptivity on the part of the chela or amanuenses was less perfect, there would be the immediate entrance into the psychology of the receiving chela of more or less, usually less, of the chela's own mental idiosyncrasies, ways of phrasing, what Hodgson and the Hare brothers call Americanisms or Gallicisms, etc., etc.

The writing of these letters was a mystery and must remain so for all but the initiates. The last passage we quote however could hardly be more definite.

Another of our customs, when corresponding with the outside world, is to entrust a chela with the task of delivering the letter or any other message; and if not absolutely necessary — to never give it a thought. Very often our very letters — unless something very important and secret — are written in our handwritings by our chelas. Thus, last year, some of my letters to you were precipitated, and when sweet and easy precipitation was stopped — well I had but to compose my mind, assume an easy position, and — think, and my faithful "Disinherited" had but to copy my thoughts, making only occasioally a blunder. — p. 296

In conclusion if it is contended that it would have been better if I had not stated in the Introduction that the letters were written by the Masters in their own hands, I agree. When I wrote that sentence I had not had time to assimilate fully the whole content of the letters, and therefore this particular aspect of the matter had not clearly taken shape in my consciousness. One of these days, when a new issue is being printed, it can be corrected.

The above explanation should be sufficient to clear up this problem, for any serious student who will take the trouble to read carefully the page references given to The Mahatma Letters.

A. O. Hume's Full Reply to K.H.'s 1st Letter

Table of Contents

Foreign Words & Phrases in Mahatma Letters

(Sanskrit and Tibetan philosophical terms, and reference terms, have not been included)

Key: Foreign phrase {Correct spelling} Page (Language) Definition

À la lettre 411 (French) to the letter

A priori 143, 194, 218, 304, 362 (Latin) from the former. Presupposed independent of experience.

À quoi bon, A quoi bon 193, 517 (French) to what good

Ab initio 124 (Latin) from the beginning

Ad infinitum 9, 89, 141, 190, 192, 199, 514, 520 (Latin) to infinity. Forevemore

Ad libitum 265 (Latin) to pleasure. According to what pleases

Adversum flumen 193 (Latin) against the stream

Al piaccere {piacere} 345 (Italian) to pleasure

Alter ego 160, 296, 309 (Latin) other self

Anak 339 possibly (Indonesian) child, or (Hebrew) biblical father of a Canaanite race of giants

Après moi – le déluge 212 (French) after me – the deluge

Argumentum ad hominem 440 (Latin) fallacious personal "argument at the man"

Assirvadam {Asirvadam} 398 (Telegu) blessings

Atmânam, âtmanâ paśya 339 (Sanskrit) See the self by the self

Au fond 247 (French) basically ("to the foundation")

Au naturel 20 (French) natural

Au pluriel 277 (French) in the plural

Avant couriers 84, 126, 134 (French) before couriers

Bakbak 439 (Hindi) incoherent talk, gibberish

Beau valseur 339 (French) handsome waltzer, charmer

Ber-chhén 28 (Tibetan) cloak, garment

Bona fide 188,300 (Latin) in good faith, genuinely

Braggadocios 442 (English-Italian) boastful or arrogant behavior; braggart

Bulbul 260 (Persian, from Arabic) songbird

Carte blanche 232, 299, 420 (French) blank document, full discretionary power

Cause célèbre, 324 (French) famous case, controversial issue

Censor elegantiarum 335 (Latin) censor of tastes

Con amore 232 (Italian) with love

Consummatum est 292 (Latin) it is completed

Conversazione 238 (Italian) A gathering for discussion, especially of literature or arts

Cooloted 374 (possibly from French culotte, shorts or pants resembling a divided skirt) adapted?

Coups d’état 390 (French) "blows" or overthrow(s) of state,

Coups de bec 50 (French) pecks, taps or bites with a beak

Cuneus cuneum trudit 156 (Latin) wedge drives wedge

Das Sollen 215 (German) moral duty

De facto 266, 415, 474 (Latin) from the fact, in reality

De haut en bas 223 (French) from top to bottom, in a condescending manner

De lunatico 339 (Italian) insane

De novo 93, 97 (Latin) anew

Delirium tremens 170 (Latin) A psychotic condition typical of withdrawal, involving tremors, hallucination, anxiety, and disorientation

Deus omnium 455 (Latin) God of all

Diminuendo 73 (Italian) Gradual decrease in loudness

Doppleganger {Doppelgänger} 43 (German) "double-walker," an apparition or double of a living person

Durbar 260 (Urdu) the court of an Indian ruler

En attendant 33 (French) waiting

En herbe 447 (French) budding

En passant 157, 311 (French) in passing, by the way

En relief 426 (French) in relief, embossed

Entente cordiale 214 (French) cordial agreement, friendly understanding

Entrée en matière 331 (French) entry into a matter, a way in

Et voici pourquoi nous n’irons plus au bois 19 (French) And here is why we will no longer go to the woods

Faculæ 164 (Latin) torch

Fata morgana 26 (Latin) A mirage

Faut de s’entendre 289 (French) need to agree or get along

Faute de mieux 146 (French) for lack of better

Fecit 26 (Latin) He/she made it

Felo de se 132 (Latin) felon from himself, suicide

Festina lente 329 (Latin) make haste slowly

Fiat 396 (Latin) "let there be," a command

Finis 282 (Latin) the end

Fortissimo 73 (Italian) Very loud

Glacé 34 (French) smooth, glossy, or highly polished surface like ice

Hakim 531 (Urdu) judge, ruler, or governor in India

Haute Magie 280 (French) High Magic

Havanas 165 (Spanish) famous cigars from Havana, Cuba

Hidalgos 269 (Spanish) a gentleman

Hukum 531 (Urdu) a ruling

Ici bas même 193 (French) even here

In abscondito 97, 520 (Latin) concealed, hidden

In actu 412 (Latin) in the very act, in reality

Inst. {Instante mense} 13 (Latin) date of the current month

Inter se 519 (Latin) Between or among themselves

Interregnum 351 (Latin) interval between two reigns or governments

Jeremiades 294 (French) lamentations

Jusqu’à nouvel ordre 403 (French) until further (new) notice

Kam mi ts’har 321 (Tibetan) sentence fragment implying the KH should "not complete this" — the Chohan would do it

Kin-t-an, Na-lan-da, Dha-ra-ni 419 (Chinese & Sanskrit) codewords translated as "Gautama — ancient Buddhist university —'holder,' (i.e. a short sutra similar to but longer than a mantra)"

Lakh 380, 381, 383, 387 (fr Sanskrit lakṣa) a hundred thousand

Lapsus calami 177, 480 (Latin) a slip of the pen

Le néant ne laisse pas d’avoir du bon 196 (French) Nothingness doesn't stop having the good – Voltaire

Le quart d’heure de Rabelais 38, 387 (French) the quarter hour of Rabelais

Les esprits souffrants 109 (French) suffering spirits

Lex talionis 150 (Latin) law of retaliation; retributive justice, "an eye for an eye"

Literati 324 (Latin) the educated class, intelligentsia

Locus standi 108 (Latin) right to stand or be heard

Lusus naturae 104 (Latin) sport of nature, a freak

Mace 253 (Malay-Dutch) former Chinese monetary unit equal to 1/10th of a tael, approximately 3.78 grams of silver

Mage 399 (Chaldean) magician or learned person

Mala fides 313 (Latin) bad faith, intent to deceive or defraud

Materia prima 61, 93 (Latin) first matter, formless primeval substance regarded as the original material of the universe

Mea culpa 302, 460 (Latin) through my fault, acknowledgement of one’s errors

Mella 248 {melā}(Hindi) meeting, assembly

Mephitis 37 (Latin) poisonous stench

Mirabile dictu 113 (Latin) wonderful to relate

Missio in partis infidelium 31 (Latin) mission of the infidels

Modus operandi, Modus operandus 144, 193, 318, 470 (Latin) mode of operation

Moi fluidique 183 (French) fluidic me

Morendo pianissimo 73 (Italian) dying very slowly, decreasing soft volume

Multum in parvo 19 (Latin) much in little

N’est-ce pas 240 (French) Isn’t it so

Nati 97 (Latin) son, child, children, young of pasture animals

Nazzur {Nazar} of "electron" (Arabic and Greek) 164 amulet made amber

Nec plus ultra 112 (Latin) nothing more beyond, the acme, best, or most extreme example of something

Nihil 139, 142, 518 (Latin) nil; nothing

Nisus 56 (Latin) effort(s), to attain an end

Nolens volens 107, 230 (Latin) whether unwillingly or willingly

Nom de plume 275, 364 (French) pen name

Non possumus 281 (Latin) not possible, we cannot

Nosce te ipsum 175 (Latin) Know thyself

Nota bene 77 (Italian) note well, observe carefully or take special notice

Νους αυτοκρατης (Nous autokrates) 455 (Greek) the self-ruling Mind (Nous)

Nous verrons, nous verrons 184 (French) We shall see what we shall see

Padri(s’) 259, 318, 362, 468, 469, 473 (Spanish) Father(s’)

Pagri 533 (Hindi & Urdu) turban (variant of pugaree)

Par consequence 318 (French) consequently, therefore

Par contrebande 80 (French ) by smuggling

Par excellence 201 (French) ultimate, better than all others of the same kind

Pari passu 407 (Latin) with equal step, moving together, on equal footing

Per se 56, 141, 142, 158, 164, 196, 280 (Latin) intrinsically

Phanerosis 241 (fr. Greek) attaining visibility, shining forth of manifestation

Phlogiston 56, 164 (Greek) a substance said to exist in all combustible bodies, and to be released in combustion

Pianissimo 73 (Italian) very quiet

Plât 339 (French) a plate, dish

Post mortem xvii, 176, 199 (Latin) occurring or performed after death

Post nubila Phœbus 325 (Latin) after the clouds, the sun

Post scriptum (P.S.) 228 (Latin) written after; an afterthought added to a letter

Poste restante 467 (French) remaining post; general delivery

Pour mes beaux yeux 465 (French) for my beautiful eyes

Præter Deum nulla dari neque concipi potest substantia 53 (Latin) Besides God no substance can be granted or conceived (Spinoza’s Proposition XIV)

Pranams 431 (Hindi) Greetings

Prima facie 35 (Latin) at first sight, accepted as correct until proven otherwise

Pro bono publico 38, 417 (Latin) for the public good

Propria persona 35, 412 (Latin) for one’s self

Proteges {protogés} 260 (French) persons who are guided and supported by an older, more experienced, or influential person

Pucka {Pukka} 189, 297, 298, 299, 300 (Hindi) genuine; authentic, first-class

Pumo 315 (Tibetan bu-mo) girl, daughter, female human being

Qua 96 (Latin) in the capacity of; as being

Quart d’heure de Rabelais. SeeLe quart d’heure de Rabelais

Que voulez vous 438, 532 (French) what do you want

Qui bono {Cui bono} 225, 529 (Latin) who benefits?

Quiproquo, Qui proquo {Quid pro quo} 213, 227, 297 (Latin) this for that, a favor exchanged for a favor

Quoad 520 (Latin) regarding, with respect to

Quondam 331, 372 (Latin) that once was; former

Raison d’être 19, 135, 389 (French) the reason for being

Rapport, En rapport 29,101, 102,229, 283, 509 (French) en harmony; in a state of accord

Rari nantes in gurgite vasto 518 (Latin) few swimmers (survivors) in a vast sea

Reliquiæ 108, 109, 275 (Latin) relics, remains of the dead

Roma ante Romulum fuit 2 (Latin) Rome existed before Romulus

Salams {salaams} 202, 349, 374, 451 (Arabic) (Muslim) greetings, act of deference

Sancta simplicitas 295 (Latin) holy innocence, sacred simplicity

Scandalum magnatum 50 (Latin) the slander of a great man

Sifaten 533 (Indonesian) characteristics, qualities, attributes

Scin-lecca {Scín-læca} 476 (Anglo-Saxon) shining body; mayavi rûpa, astral or spiritual double

Sequelæ 124 (Latin) a secondary result, usually of a disease or injury

Seriatim 70, 77 (Latin) in a series, one subject after another in regular order

Sesam {Open Sesame} 273 (???) to open with a word, to bring about a desired end

Sin qua non {Sine qua non} 213 (Latin) 'without which not," an essential or necessary part of the whole

Soi-disant 185 (French) self-styled; so-called

Statu quo 67, 177 (Latin) the existing state of affairs

Sub rosa 281 (Latin) 'under the rose,' in secret, privately, confidentially, or covertly

Summum bonum 507 (Latin) the highest or supreme good

Suppressio veri, suggestis falsi {Suppressio veri, suggestio falsi} 386 (Latin) Suppression of the truth, suggestion of an untruth

Sutee {satī, often anglicized suttee } 290 (Sanskrit) "chaste wife," the Hindu practice of a widow throwing herself on her husband’s funeral pyre

Tael 253 (Malay) Chinese monetary unit equal to approximately 50 grams of silver. See also Mace

Terra incognita 390 (Latin) unknown or unexplored territory

Tout chemin est bon qui mène à Rome 387 (French) every road is good which leads to Rome

Tout ou rien 439 (French) all or nothing

Tutti quanti 157 (Italian) all of them, everyone

Ultimo 495 (Latin) of last month (date) [here October 17, 1880]

Un loup garou 53 (French) q werewolf

Vakil, Vaquil 12, 13, 435, 527 (Hindi) legal counsel; lawyer

Vera pro gratis 31 (Latin) truly for free, truly given for thanks only

Vieille garde 485 (French) old guard

Ye-damma 127, 179 (Pali Ye-dhammā, Sanskrit Ye-dharmāḥ) generally the laws or established procedures in nature, meaning by extension the phenomenal world

Zemindars {Zamindar} 378, 388, 389, 390, 391, 395 (Persian) landowner or autonomous ruler of a state in India, especially one who leases land to tenant farmers

Foreword to the Combined Chronology of Margaret Conger

By Grace F. Knoche

In December 1923, the theosophical world was electrified by the publication of The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett — over 120 letters purportedly written between 1880 and 1886 by two Eastern adepts, M. and K.H., to A. P. Sinnett of Allahabad, editor of The Pioneer, a leading Anglo-Indian newspaper, and to his friend A. O. Hume, C.B., in the service of Her Majesty's Government in India, and an ornithologist of note. Until then, extracts only from this remarkable correspondence had been available for study, chiefly those portions which Mr. Sinnett had quoted in his book, The Occult World, in 1881. Now the original letters, without deletions, had been transcribed and compiled by A. Trevor Barker.

Two years later, a companion volume was issued: The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett — written not only to Mr. Sinnett, but many of them to his wife Patience, whom H.P.B. held in lasting and affectionate regard.

It is of record that the Mahatma as well as the Blavatsky letters had been bequeathed by Mr. Sinnett "solely and unconditionally" to Miss Maud Hoffman, and that she in turn gave Trevor Barker the "great privilege of undertaking the whole responsibility" for their transcription and publication in book form. That he was keenly sensible of the "grave responsibility attending his action" is eloquently set forth in his Introduction to The Mahatma Letters (2nd edition), the more so as he was well aware that K.H., while encouraging Sinnett (ML 49) to "recast teachings and ideas" for his "future book" which became Esoteric Buddhism, had later on reminded him that the letters "were not written for publication or public comment upon them, but for private use, and neither M. nor I will ever give our consent to see them thus handled" (ML 63).

That was in 1884. By the 1920s the situation had greatly altered. The original message had in certain quarters become marred by intrusions of neo-theosophy, ideas counter to the teachings of H.P.B. and her teachers. So convinced was Trevor Barker that "the highest interests of The Theosophical Society demanded the full publication" of these documents in order that the members and the world at large could "study the truth for themselves concerning The Masters and their doctrines as set forth in these letters signed by their own hands,"(1) that he determined to publish the whole of the Mahatma letters "verbatim from the originals and without omission" (ML Introduction).

Incredible as it may seem, publication of the letters roused a good deal of antagonism, mainly among those whom one would have thought would be the first to rejoice that at long last the direct words of H.P.B.'s teachers could be studied at first hand. Some went so far as to ban the book, for reasons of their own. A few believed sincerely that no good could come from "raking out of a desirable oblivion the faults and failures of early workers," forgetting that the penetrating analyses of character were compassionately motivated and, moreover, were not pointed to the individuals involved so much as to human frailties that all of us share in common. Others protested because of the final section in the Appendix in which Mr. Barker had outlined the facts of the "Mars and Mercury controversy" — a divergence of interpretation between A.P.S. and H.P.B. of the Master's teaching regarding the planetary chains (cf. "Mars and Mercury").

Most theosophists, of course, immediately recognized the book's intrinsic worth. Not least among these was Dr. H. N. Stokes, brilliant editor of the O. E. Library Critic, whose fearless reporting at the periscope of the theosophic ship was to earn him the title of 'watchdog' of the movement. To him The Mahatma Letters was "the most authoritative work of a theosophical nature ever made accessible to the public. It is simply transcendent in its importance" (March 12, 1924). Now the actual letters, telegrams, and memoranda from M. and K.H. in the possession of Mr. Sinnett at the time of his death could be read by all. In a word, the general public had access to the wellspring of inspiration, training and instruction on which H. P. Blavatsky herself had drawn. There was no further doubt as to authenticity of source or inner purpose.

Then in 1925, with the issuance of The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett, covering the years 1880-87, students were given a glimpse into the innermost heart of H.P.B. as she valiantly battled to save the T.S., scarcely a decade old, and now reeling from the shock of the Coulomb treachery and the subsequent Report of the Society for Psychical Research, which had infamously branded her "as one of the most accomplished, ingenious, and interesting impostors in history" (cf. Proceedings, December 1885, London). {See also H. P. Blavatsky and the SPR: An Examination of the Hodgson Report, by Vernon Harrison PhD, TUP 1997}

To read her letters, especially those to Patience Sinnett written in the summer of 1885, is to come profoundly close to the reality of sacrifice. Of that memorable night when H.P.B. was shown the future and what she would have to endure if she chose to remain their instrument, she writes: "Death was so welcome at that hour, rest so needed, so desired; life like the one that stared me in the face, and that is realised now — so miserable; yet how could I say No to Him who wanted me to live!" (BL 45).

The world is vastly in debt to the karma surrounding these letters, first, to Trevor Barker for the courage and tenacity of purpose to consummate their publication. Secondly, to A. P. Sinnett for his faithful care of these priceless documents, all the more because in his latter days he wrote disparagingly of his old friend H.P.B., casting a slur on her role as intermediary between himself and the Brothers. And thirdly to Maud Hoffman who held the safeguarding of this bequest as a most sacred trust. A fact that is amply attested by her foresight in arranging with Mr. Barker to present the entire collection of Mahatma and Blavatsky papers to the British Museum {now British Library} in 1939, where they are housed in the Department of Manuscripts, beautifully bound in several volumes, and protected under the most favorable conditions for future generations of students.

Having myself had the inestimable privilege in 1951 of examining the originals, it doesn't take much imagination to sense the enormous challenge that must have faced Trevor Barker on receiving into his hands the wooden box which Mr. Sinnett had had made to hold the letters. Here were hundreds of loose letters, of every size, shape and color, some of them written on fragile rice paper, others on heavier grained stock, with the writing at times startlingly clear, but again, in places almost indecipherable, and with the style of handwriting varying nearly as greatly as the quality of ink, pencil or crayon used. What is more, most of the letters are undated, or only sketchily identified by the recipient as to date or place of receipt. Inevitably, as in the swift momentum of history in the making, too much is coursing through the consciousness to stop for minutiae. To the historian decades (or centuries) later, the lack of documentation looms large.

Trevor Barker, at once recognizing the impossibility of accurately arranging the Mahatma letters in chronological order, did the next best thing: he assembled the material under several major categories, starting with those letters from Sinnett's Occult World. Not only were they already well known to students, but were obviously the earliest received. Then came those majestic epistles on philosophical themes, dealing with the grand evolutionary pilgrimage through the kalpas of man and the kingdoms both below and above the human; next, the section on Probation and Chelaship, to read which is to be immeasurably chastened, and strengthened also, through identifying with those who sought then, as does the earnest aspirant of every age, to purify the heart of selfish motive.

Naturally it would have been preferable if Mr. Sinnett and Mr. Hume had conscientiously jotted down the date and circumstance surrounding the receipt of each communication, for then the moving force behind the sequence of events during those formative years of the theosophical effort might now be more clearly revealed. To compensate for this lack, Margaret Conger in 1939, after years of careful, painstaking examination of the early documents and periodicals of the Society, published her Combined Chronology for use with both the Mahatma and the Blavatsky letters — this being designed as a table of dates, with explanatory notes, giving the order (in certain instances approximate only) of the letters as they were written and received, and by whom. Mrs. Conger brought to her research a lifetime's study of and dedication to theosophical principles, having joined the Society and also its esoteric section under H.P.B. in 1890. From 1927-1939 she had the added advantage of testing her findings in her Mahatma Letters Class, in which her husband, Colonel Arthur L. Conger, and Dr. H. N. Stokes were active participants.

The next year, Mary K. Neff, author of Personal Memoirs of H. P. Blavatsky, published two small pamphlets, giving a chronological order of the letters of each volume separately. Other suggested arrangements by different scholars were made over the years, but to our knowledge never publicly shared. Then in 1972, George E. Linton and Virginia Hanson issued a Reader's Guide to the Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett {Second Edition, 1988}, an important contribution inasmuch as it gives for each letter not only its physical description,(2) approximate date when received, but the circumstances as far as known, with references in the literature to support their research. They also indicate where they consider some of the Blavatsky letters fit in to the Mahatma series. No one claims to provide the definitive order, but it is useful to compare doubtful points with the conclusions of others.(3)

The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett is again available, after being out of print for more than thirty years, and the reissuance now of Margaret Conger's work is therefore welcome and valuable. Her arrangement of order is just what the title says it is, a combined chronology. Simple and direct, there is nothing extraneous to detract from the full impact of H.P.B.'s or the Master's thought.(4)

To be able to follow letter by letter, first in the Mahatma series, and then in the Blavatsky book, to find an illuminating sidelight by H.P.B. on the very event or person just alluded to by M. or K.H., is to get a feel, an atmosphere; it is to sense the flow not only of developments, but of relationships between the teachers and H.P.B., and between them and Olcott and Sinnett and Hume, and Damodar too, and, indeed, all who came within the circle of their compassionate interest.

It is a tremendously inspiring experience, even at this late date, to participate in the behind-the-scenes doings of those momentous years that finally persuaded the Chief to permit K.H. and his brother M. to enter into correspondence, through H.P.B., with those proud Englishmen, in order to instruct them in some of the laws of natural being. Unfortunately, these gentlemen, with all their amazing intellectual and moral endowments, and even their philanthropic urgings (which, alas, had "no character of universality"), never seemed able to grasp the simple fact that the "truths and mysteries of occultism," while of the "highest spiritual importance . . . for the world at large," would not be imparted for the delectation of a select group, a few "enlightened minds," but solely that they might "work for the good of mankind" (ML 6).

This is not to belittle Sinnett or Hume. Had it not been for their unique karma, humanity may well have had to wait a good deal longer before this mighty philosophy could have been given to the world as fully as it has. Indeed, who knows but that they, by their eagerness to learn, may have pushed the door sufficiently ajar so that H.P.B., far better equipped by training and innate soul-quality, could sweep through and unfold in master strokes the cosmic grandeur of the Stanzas of Dzyan on which her Secret Doctrine is based. From the perspective of the errors and successes of several generations of theosophists, of the decades of service given without thought of self, dare we be prideful? How would we have fared so close to the Flame, to the primal source of Power?

—————

Today, after nearly a hundred years of theosophic ideas in circulation, the current generations of earnest seekers find them as natural and inevitable as they were shocking and revolutionary to those of a century ago. But there is danger here as well. Along with an inrush of light, always deep shadows form. With the outpouring of spiritual vitality, the wave of psychic interest has been steadily cresting, and nowadays more and more people, untutored in discrimination, self-discipline and awareness of their own dual nature, are being caught in its wake. Knowledge of who man is, and of the perils of wantonly opening the door into the astral realms, is needed if the tide toward psychic experimentation is to be controlled.

To read the letters of H.P.B.'s teachers and of their teacher is to remind ourselves that benevolence, compassion, generosity of soul, are not intellectual theories with them; they are profound realities born from the dedication of ages.

Grace F. Knoche

November, 1973

FOOTNOTES:

1. In 1938, in response to a number of inquiries, Mr. Barker explained that at the time of publication he had not had the opportunity "to assimilate fully the whole content of the letters," and therefore it might have been better not to have implied that the Mahatmas wrote the letters with "their own hands." He called especial attention to several wonderful passages (Letters 53, 93, 140) that deal with the transmission of teaching, i.e. by precipitation, impressing the minds of young chelas or trained amanuenses, by mental dictation or mental telegraphy (cf. "The Writing of the Mahatma Letters"). (return to text)

2. Further detail on the physical characteristics of the letters, their calligraphy and methods of transmission, as well as historic background, will be found in The Mahatmas and their Letters (1973), by Geoffrey A. Barborka (Theosophical Publishing House, 1973).(return to text)

3. {In 2021, utilizing far greater access to primary sources, some of which was unavailable in the 1930s, TUP published a Second & Revised Edition of The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett with an updated chronological order.}(return to text)

4. {Most but not all of the Blavatsky letters were dated and, with some exceptions, this made re-synchronizing the two volumes a simpler task. However, because of the changed dating sequences, the print version of the Combined Chronology is no longer published, Mrs. Conger's inestimable contribution being embedded in these online editions of the two volumes.}(return to text)

Preface and Introduction to the Combined Chronology

By Margaret Conger

The decision to publish this chronological table for use with letters from the Mahatmas and H. P. Blavatsky has been made at the repeated requests of those who have felt it to be helpful — its accuracy improving over the last twelve years.

Mr. A. Trevor Barker's grouping of The Mahatma Letters has a very distinct value of its own, and one can only marvel at the work he has accomplished. Yet, as he himself says in his very modest preface, there is bound to be "some overlapping" and, necessarily, a lack of continuity. The present table of dates is the effort of one earnest student to achieve as far as possible both continuity in the teachings and a more exact sequence in the events of the epic period which the two volumes cover.

The original impulse to work out such a sequence was greatly stimulated by the loan in 1927 from Dr. J. H. Fussell, of Point Loma, of the first four volumes of H.P.B.'s first magazine, The Theosophist. These soon made it evident that Mr. Sinnett's own dating was not merely often indefinite but sometimes quite wrong. Mahatma M.'s letter 40, for example, is grouped with those received "about February, 1882." But we find Mr. Sinnett had printed the article mentioned in his daily paper The Pioneer, on December 10, 1881. In letter 42, he is asked to write a certain answer and we see he did this in time for the February Theosophist. Since that magazine normally went to press on the 15th of the month preceding its issue, it is allowable to presume that the request was received at least in the early part of January. Again Mr. Sinnett dates Mahatma Letter 65, "Summer of 1884," although in it K.H. says "Damodar went to Tibet," which did not happen till February 25, 1885. Mr. Sinnett has here given not the date of the receipt of the letter but that of the period when the so-called "distressing event" occurred, the event which H.P.B. explains, as ordered, in Mahatma Letter 138.

Those letters to Mr. Hume which appear in this collection — for we by no means have them all — have been entered, not at the date when they were given to Mr. Sinnett to copy, sometimes months later, but at the approximate date of their receipt as evidenced by their content and connection with then current events. As the two volumes of Letters form really a unit, the items from both have been entered in sequence on a single list. While this has been found not to interfere with its usefulness when reading The Mahatma Letters only, it has served to impress those students who are so fortunate as to own both volumes with the wondrous way in which they complete, corroborate and explain each other.

No arrangement, of course, could make The Mahatma Letters easy to understand. Hard work and intuition will always be required; yet those who have used this Table have felt it wipe out many seeming contradictions, clear up many small perplexities and, what is more important, it has shown that what in a few instances might perhaps appear to be a vacillating estimate by the Masters of some of the early members of the T. S. was a profound, patient, sympathetic understanding, of which subsequent events proved the correctness. The gradual coming to the surface of both light and dark qualities under the stress of discipleship, even in those who have only touched its outer fringe, becomes startlingly exampled, and provides a vivid lesson in occultism. Further, the many prophecies as to men and events, made sometimes months and even years before their fulfillment, gain in impressiveness when given their proper place in time.

In all cases when it has seemed necessary, either to justify a date or to give a clearer understanding of events, explanatory notes have been written. The one absolutely reliable and uncolored record of the period is to be found in the early volumes of The Theosophist. After 1884 H.P.B. was no longer in charge. Up to that time we have not only the extraordinary articles which we owe to her pen and editorial genius, but also accurate, official monthly reports of Theosophical events and of the movements of the two Founders, as well as of the more prominent of the early T. S. members. H.P.B., during the first years of her stay in India, traveled nearly as much as did Colonel Olcott, sometimes with him, sometimes alone, visiting and establishing Branches, initiating members and holding informal question-meetings, though there is no record of her ever having lectured.

The earlier volumes of Old Diary Leaves make of course absorbing reading and are in general reliable, but even Olcott sometimes errs in retrospect when giving dates and, naturally, while on those long tours when H.P.B. did not accompany him, he could record only his own experiences.

That resounding trumpet call The Occult World, by A. P. Sinnett, is still without a rival in its field, especially in the 4th English and 6th American editions. On the other hand, his posthumously published little book The Early Days of Theosophy in Europe written in his 80th year is unreliable as to dates and sometimes even as to events. Doubtless had he lived to edit the book himself he would have corrected many of its inaccuracies. Yet, such as it is, it is well worth reading for its revealing portrayal of many early T. S. members, and is especially intriguing because of its unconscious disclosure of Mr. Sinnett's own psychology, that of a sincere and gallant, if somewhat snobbish, gentleman who appears to have been woefully without any power of self-analysis.

The two slender volumes of Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, edited by Mr. Jinarajadasa, are arresting and of much spiritual value. They need to be read with discrimination, for taken as the letters sometimes are, not merely from copies but from copies of copies, and differing in some instances from H.P.B.'s reproductions from the original, they cannot always be considered as fully authentic material.

The difficulties which have been encountered during the years of arranging this chronology have steadily increased the compiler's already deep appreciation of Mr. Barker's success in surmounting what must have seemed at times insuperable obstacles. Theosophists everywhere must remain deeply in his debt for his devoted and meticulous labors in giving to the world those two epoch-making volumes of letters from the Mahatmas and from H. P. Blavatsky.

Margaret Conger

810 Jackson Avenue, Takoma Park, D.C.

Introduction to the Combined Chronology

By Margaret Conger

Mme. Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott landed at Bombay February 16, 1879. Because both had been much publicized, in both the United States and England, their arrival, as journalists say, "made news." Consequently, February 25, a letter arrived from A. P. Sinnett, Editor of The Pioneer, a leading English daily of India, expressing interest and a willingness to publish any facts.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett had been much interested in Spiritualism and Mesmerism and, during the brisk correspondence which developed, they became curious to see demonstrations of Mme. Blavatsky's powers, and therefore soon invited the two newcomers to visit them. Much to Colonel Olcott's surprise H.P.B. accepted, but, owing to a long tour through the south of India, they reached Allahabad only on December 4, 1879.

In the matter of the phenomena which Mr. Sinnett had hoped for, the visit does not appear to have been entirely satisfactory, as far as the host was concerned. But, from the point of view of H.P.B.'s mission, it was of very great subsequent value in the lasting friendships which she then formed with a number of influential English people.

H.P.B.'s previous visits to India had not made her acquainted with the social customs of Anglo-India where the newcomer makes the first calls. It had not occurred to her to make advances to the English and, thus far, her contacts had been entirely with the natives of the various races, religions and creeds, some of them very high personages indeed, and rulers of kingdoms, but "natives" nevertheless.

An unfortunate result of this was that her apparent catering to the native elements, in combination with her nationality, inevitably aroused the suspicion that she was a Russian agent or spy and that Colonel Olcott was in some way her assistant. It must indeed have seemed a novel form of spying, but England had good reason at that period to be warily watching "the bear that walks like a man." Olcott's work for the American government, to report on extending commercial interests in Asia, took them into all sorts of out-of-the-way places, this, with their praise to the natives of their ancient religions and literatures, naturally lent color to the suspicion that they were fomenting unrest and discontent among the people. As a consequence they found themselves constantly watched and followed and subjected to a species of espionage so clumsy and so increasingly annoying that, as the months went by, it became necessary to set themselves right with the central government. Their efforts to do so through local British authorities had been of no avail.

At this juncture a second invitation came from Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett, this time to visit them at their summer home in Simla, the summer capital of British India. It was gladly accepted in the hope that there where was the seat of government, and properly introduced this time, they might have better success. Accordingly, armed with all necessary credentials, they arrived there on September 8, 1880, and, between then and their departure on October 20, everything had been satisfactorily adjusted.

Some fifty pages of The Occult World are taken up with a description of this remarkable visit, notable not only because of the phenomena which took place, but because it saw the inception of the most extraordinary correspondence of which there is any record.

Mr. Sinnett, who was growing to feel that back of the phenomena which H.P.B. produced at will, and without any of the "conditions" required by mediums, there must indeed be real power and knowledge and a science which, though still occult, should not be unfathomable. He one day asked H.P.B. whether, should he write a letter stating some of his questions, it would be possible for her to forward it to one of the "Brothers" and receive an answer from him.

She promised to try and, a few days later, said she succeeded in contacting a "Brother" who had consented, and she told Mr. Sinnett to write his letter. In it, in addition to his questions, Mr. Sinnett suggested that the very best "test phenomenon" would be the production "in our presence" of a copy of the Times, on the very day of its publication in London.

Not many days later he one evening found on his writing table, the first of the Mahatma Letters.

Cite this text

The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett. London, 1923; the text of the second edition, 1926. Hermetic Cloud, https://hermeticcloud.com/library/mahatma-letters/. Public-domain text reproduced in full; markup only.

Transcription

The Theosophical University Press online edition; its title block, contents links and footer are not reproduced.