It will be seen, if reference is made to the "Contents" that the letters have
been arranged in 7 Sections and an Appendix. The former contain nothing but
Mahatma letters, while in the latter some letters have been added from three
pupils of The Mahatmas M. and
K. H. --: H. P. Blavatsky, T. Subba Row, and
Damodar K. Mavalankar, not only for their intrinsic merit, but because they help
to make clear questions arising in the main part of the book which would
otherwise be left obscure.
The seven Sections suggest themselves as more or less natural divisions, but it should be remembered that as letters in one section often contain matter which also relates to the other Sections, considerable overlapping is unavoidable. However, an attempt has been made and that is the best that can be said.
The contents of each Section are arranged where possible chronologically, in the order of their receipt. The reader must bear in mind that with only one or two exceptions none of the letters were dated by the writers thereof. On many of them, however, the dates and places of receipt have been noted in Mr. Sinnett's handwriting, and these appear in small type immediately under the Letter Numbers.
It should be understood clearly that unless otherwise stated:
1. Each letter has been transcribed direct from the original.
2. Every letter was written to A. P. Sinnett.
3. All footnotes are copies of notes which appear in and belong to the
letters themselves, unless signed (Ed.) in which case they have been added by
the compiler.
Throughout this volume there are a great many words used which belong to Buddhist, Hindu, and Theosophical terminology. Those who are unfamiliar with such terms are referred to the excellent glossary in H. P. Blavatsky's "Key to Theosophy" and also to "The Theosophical Glossary," a separate publication by the same author. The reader is asked to believe that the greatest care has been taken in the work of transcription; the whole MS. has been checked word for word with the originals, and everything possible done to prevent errors. It is however probably too much to expect that the printed book will contain no mistakes, they are almost inevitable. In case any doubt should arise in the reader's mind as to whether any particular passage has been correctly copied from the original, the compiler wishes to intimate, that he will be happy to deal with any correspondence on the subject addressed to him care of the Publishers.
In conclusion the compiler's thanks are due and most gratefully acknowledged to those who by their assistance have made his task possible of accomplishment. -- A. T. B.
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.
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. X.) And again "Far from
our thoughts may it ever be to erect a new hierarchy for the future oppression
of a priest ridden world." (Letter No. LXXXVII.) 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. XLIX.) 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. LV)
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. LIV) 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. XVII.) 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. LIV.) 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 imputations 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.
LETTER No. I -- London newspaper Test ; . Solomons of Science -- experimental knowledge -- vril of the coming age -- skeletons of giants ; . Hooke -- Newton -- position of Science -- Human nature the same for a million years -- value of occult phenomena. Science and Copernicus -- Robert Recorde -- Wm. Gilbert -- Galileo -- Bacon -- charlatans the shield of the "Adept" -- the rewards of the Goddess Saraswati; the phenomenon of the Ascension.
LETTER No. II -- Methods of research in Occult Science -- the mysteries not for the public -- Conditions of communication with the Mahatmas -- the mode of life demanded. Motives -- the object of the Theos. Society -- significance, of selfishness -- the T.S. and Universal Brotherhood -- the study of occultism -- path of occultism -- Schools -- Teachers, etc. Beneficent powers of knowledge -- seal of the mysteries; the life of the aspirant -- Anglo-Indian Branch T.S. -- conditions for good test phenomena.
LETTER No. IIIA -- "Brooch" phenomenon-- IIIB -- Postal address in N. W. P. --IIIC -- Pillow incidents.
LETTER No. IV -- Crisis in Tibet -- danger of invasion by Russia. Menacing destiny of T.S. -- Avalanche in the Karakorum Mts. -- H.P.B. demands assistance telepathically -- her condition -- the state of K. H.'s countrymen. Accelerated modes of delivery -- Anglo-Indian world -- agitation caused by the Bombay publications. Col. Olcott -- the feelings of the English to the Mahatmas -- O.'s devotion and self-sacrifice unequalled -- independent A. I. Branch an impossibility -- mortal blow to T.S. -- non-interference with Branches by Parent Society -- Arbitrator when specially called upon -- trust in word of honour. Different habits of Tibetans and Hindus -- lack of understanding -- national prejudices -- learned in Yog-Vidya but unfit for drawing-rooms -- essentials and non-essentials. Difficulties of the Mahatmas -- prejudice -- unwashed Christian Saints -- responsibility for Sinnett and Hume -- interference only by the Mahatmas -- policy of A. I. Society to be submitted to Chief. Attitude of Mahatmas to the aspirant -- marriage and Raja Yoga -- different ways of acquiring occult knowledge -- encouragement given to Sinnett -- "Universal Brotherhood" -- not an idle phrase -- the paramount claim of Humanity; only secure foundation for universal morality -- aspiration of the true Adept.
LETTER No. V -- Inaccuracies of H.P.B. -- A. I. Branch -- Hume's letter -- haughtiness of English -- race prejudice -- personal habits. The test of the 27th -- Jhelum despatch -- impossibility of deception. The methods of Hume -- his letter a monument of pride -- further encouragement to Sinnett -- necessity of Universal Brotherhood in Europe. Position of Olcott in relation to the T.S. -- a professor of occultism -- letter to Lord Lindsay -- H.P.B. not to give practical instruction to A. I. Branch.
LETTER No. VI -- Methods of correspondence -- occultists copy nature -- suggestions for group study. Analysis of Hume's character -- truths and mysteries of occultism -- phenomena will prove destructive of bigotry -- but constructive for Brotherhood of Humanity. Planetary spirits -- phenomenal manifestations -- ideas rule the world -- revolutions -- creeds will be crushed -- Man's position in the Universe -- The Eternal Now -- the choice -- highest philosophy or phenomena -- the wish of the Chiefs.
LETTER No. VII -- Sinnett disappointed in expectations of training -- appreciation of his efforts for T.S. -- interest in him of one higher than K. H.
LETTER No. VIII -- Personal observations re Sinnett -- reasons for K. H.'s actions. Lord Crawford -- character and possibilities -- direct communication refused. Methods of establishing communication -- unscientific absurdity. Velocity of mechanical force -- Sinnett's inability to understand explanations of phenomena -- the only way -- Past, Present and Future -- grossness of western mind. The Colour rays beyond visible spectrum -- realities appear absurdities -- insurmountable difficulties. Grades of intelligence -- Superstition -- the world repudiates what it cannot grasp -- the novice in occult science must reach the goal or perish -- to doubt is to risk insanity. The Mahatmas attitude to humanity and the world -- not dried up mummies. K. H.'s personal attachments -- erroneous ideas about Mahatmas -- Yogis -- difference between Hatha and Raja Yoga. Advice regarding Occult World -- manner of dealing with letters. Problems of mystical phenomena -- the Forlorn Hope -- uses of spiritualism. Unity gives strength -- importance of co-operation -- Damodar's letter -- value of concentration. Home, the medium.
LETTER No. IX -- Observations on The Occult World. Criticism of members of T.S. and others. Stainton Moses. Planetary spirits and the Earth -- their mission -- S. M. and occultism -- abundant proof -- new phase of Truth -- explanations re experiences of S. M.; Imperator -- mediumship -- The "Dweller on the Threshold"; and conscious life in spirit -- reply to Fechner. Psychic Communication with spirits an impossibility -- universal laws -- cycle of intelligent existences -- cosmic matter -- Anima mundi. The progress of man -- The Great Cycle -- evolution of the Ego -- the circle of necessity. The world of Causes -- and of Effects -- Self Conscious Egos -- hell and purgatory. The lower world of effects -- a definition of Truth -- Brothers not permitted to control the will of the neophyte -- The Brethren of the Shadow. K. H.'s relations with Sinnett -- observations on the Occult World -- its effect on H.P.B. and others -- Wallace and Crookes. Willingness of Adepts to enlighten mankind -- their mission to reveal Truth.
LETTER No. X -- The philosophy of the Mahatmas with regard to "God" -- the God of the theologians. Dhyan Chohans -- definition of "nothing" -- logical conclusions -- the Universal Mind. The belief in Planetary Spirits -- matter is Eternal -- no-one has ever seen God -- cannot accept an extra-cosmic deity. Phlogiston -- belief in matter alone -- its unceasing motion which is life -- ideas on Evil. The cause of evil is in human intelligence and action -- natural laws and necessary evils -- the sacerdotal caste and churches -- the chief cause of evil. Buddhist priests -- God not worshipped in Buddhist Temples -- the four noble truths -- the 12 Nidanas -- the chain of causation. The words of the Buddha.
LETTER No. XI -- K. H. has misgivings in role of instructor -- the eternal Essence -- Force -- immutability non-existent in Solar System. Inappropriate terms used by Science -- this teaching opposed to all accepted theories -- observations on the fallacies and incompleteness of Science -- energy indestructible -- gravity -- chemical attraction -- electricity. Chelas are magnetised -- only one element in Nature, Akasa -- spirit and matter, one -- the tetracktis -- the sacred seven; the Greek Brother -- necessity of serenity of mind for occult study. Psychical powers of hearing -- our Zoophagous friend -- questions of diet -- transmission of letters. Schopenhauer and the "Arhat" doctrines.
LETTER No. XII -- Explanations re Mahayuga -- Pralaya -- cyclic evolution -- Manvantaras -- dead worlds. An eternity of action -- Ethnographical details -- Esquimaux -- Neolithic age -- the Basks of Spain -- the early traces of man -- Geike, Dawkins, Fiske -- five races -- evolution of speech.
LETTER No. XIII -- Cosmological notes and queries -- esoteric cosmogony. Nature works with positive and negative forces -- the worlds of effects. Man's principles return to their source at death -- the planet and man not created. The seven-headed serpent Ananda of Vishnu -- the musical scale and the planetary chain -- man has potentiality of all 7 principles as a germ. "Life" no responsibility except in man. 7th principle latent in all the principles -- cause of pollution not in the body -- the evolution of animal-man. Man's development follows that of planet -- Biblical analogies -- the anthropoids. Buddhas and Avatars. The object of initiations.
LETTER No. XIV -- 7 objective and 7 subjective globes. The 7 kingdoms -- the descent of the monad -- occult divisions of mineral kingdom -- rounds and rings -- divisions and classifications -- the whole truth not permitted to be given. Numbers the key to knowledge -- rounds, races, and the number of incarnations in each -- the problem of the 777 incarnations -- Plato and Confucius 5th Round men -- Buddha a 6th rounder. Explanatory notes of the diagram "Man on a Planet" -- ascending and descending arcs of evolution -- the Dhyan Chohans -- Devas -- increasing intelligence as the Rounds proceed -- what happens in each Round.
LETTER No. XV -- Germ of future entity -- history of the human foetus the key to the mysteries of nature -- the cosmic atom -- aggregations of atoms becoming man-bearing globes. Their indestructibility and growth -- Adi-Buddhi, Force, or Infinite Life in manifestation. One seven-fold element the permanent cause of all manifestation -- examples -- the five cognisable elements -- the sixth principle. Observations on the "fire" element -- primal igneous principle -- 7 manifestations of fire -- the Tree of Life. A mineral contains a spark of the One -- the Law of formation, birth, etc. of a globe the same as for a child -- the 3 kinds of Manvantaras and Pralayas. Life impulse and formation of Globe "A" -- passage of Essence from one globe to another -- and one kingdom to another. Further observations on the evolution of man -- increased spirituality of the 5th Race man -- kingdoms re-entering Globe "A". Law of equilibrium manifesting -- 6th and 7th senses -- the Lord Buddha a 6th Race man -- his appearance a mystery -- individuals can only outstrip humanity by one Round. Surya Manwantaras and Pralayas -- the Cosmic night. Elementals -- Flammarion a Theosophist -- his splendid intuition. Pernicious influence of the Moon -- the Sun is the first to disintegrate at the Solar Pralaya -- the 6th principle of the Universe and man, the greatest of all mysteries.
LETTER No. XVI -- The Devachan Letter -- Devachan allegorically described by Buddha -- who goes to Devachan. The Ego enjoys perfect bliss -- Karma stands aside -- he is the dreamer and the dream -- souls of the departed unable to descend to those on earth -- pure, loving sensitives can become raised in consciousness to contact those in Devachan -- some Subjective spiritual communications real -- "rapport," identity of molecular vibration. Great varieties in the Devachan state -- the Dhyan-Chohans do not commit mistakes. Degrees of spirituality -- "the planet of Death" -- when man dies his 2nd and 3rd principles die with him -- the gestation state. Elementaries and "angel-guides" -- Kama-Loka -- a torn out page in the Book of Lives -- the 6th and 7th principles, the unconscious and eternal Monad. The ethereal Ego -- the Monad remains untainted by evil for ever -- the karma of evil deeds accrues to the new personality -- varying periods between Death and Devachan depending on spiritual stamina and karma. Devachan not solely for Adepts. A classification of Devas, elementals, sorcerers, etc. The territory of doubt -- things acceptable and non-acceptable to Spiritualists. Post mortem conditions of Suicides and those killed by accident. Psychic vampires -- mediums create new and evil Karma and Skandhas for their victims -- study deeply the doctrines of Karma and Nirvana. The Recording Angel -- meaning of Skandhas -- identity of the Ego. Justice of Karma -- causes producing the new being -- suicide and violent death. How mediums and Spiritualists multiply the causes of human misery -- the reason why the Masters oppose Spiritualism -- indiscriminate mediumship and materialisations especially objectionable. Individual and personal immortality -- divisions of the 7 principles and 7 elements. Hume and Sinnett receive more information than ever given before to non-initiates -- the teaching to be regarded as a trust for the Society. The Chohan forbids H.P.B. to go further than the Black Rock -- Damodar's foolish austerities -- the body of Occultists in Egypt -- K. H. sighs for Nirvana.
LETTER No. XVII -- Natural seers and clairvoyance -- 5th round men -- the Buddha a 6th round man -- his future incarnations -- Buddha overshadowed some chosen individuals -- sex a mere accident of birth, guided by Karma. The superior classes -- course of higher Nature's law -- peoples of India belong to oldest branchlet of the 5th human race -- "Ernests" and "Joeys" and soulless mediums. Subba Row's reverence for H.P.B.
LETTER No. XVIII -- The evolutionary journey of the monad -- 7 ramifications of the 7 races -- man passes through all 7 times -- Manvantaric chains existing in and out of our Solar System. Man's earth cycle the counterpart of great cycle -- mistakes of Anthropologists -- Pritchard nearest the mark -- the test of true progress. The present 5th human race began in Central Asia over one million years ago. Occult Science a jealous mistress -- fatal to ordinary course of marriage.
LETTER No. XIX -- Post mortem conditions of suicides and victims of accidents.
LETTER No. XXA -- From A.O. Hume to K. H. Queries re spiritualistic phenomena -- shells -- suicides and accidents. Death by drink -- over-study -- diseases, etc -- suggestion that phenomena of spiritualism may be produced by spirits, not by shells -- some teach higher morality -- Allan Kardec's books.
LETTER No. XXB -- From A. P. S. to H.P.B. Eliphas Levi's statements re annihilation -- queries in regard to survival of spiritual monad -- obscuration of planets and annihilation.
LETTER No. XXC -- Meaning of the terms God and Christ -- candidates for Devachan --
death and re-birth in Kama-Loka -- love and hatred the only immortal
feelings -- only those we have loved exist for us in Devachan -- the memories
which only affect personality blotted out -- duration of Devachan -- no
perception of time -- Devachan and Avitchi created by
ourselves during life. Importance of predominant feeling at moment of death --
the events of whole life seen in vision at death -- only adepts and sorcerers
know they are dead -- they only are immortal -- co-workers with nature for good
or evil -- definition of Immortality -- self-consciousness -- memory regained by
even good men only in Devachan -- "soul" becomes unconscious at death in all
cases -- faculties of perception, cogitation and volition, become extinct for
ever at death. Apparitions -- no essential difference between doctrines of
Eliphas Levi and those of
K. H. -- what immortality signifies to initiates and
occultists -- several kinds of immortality -- the full adept in relation to
death. Chohans, Planetary spirits and immortality -- E. Levi speaks of personal
not spiritual Egos -- co-workers with nature -- annihilation and the eighth
sphere -- potentiality for evil in man greater than for good -- Sorcerers and
immortality. Suicides separated from higher principles by a gulf -- not so in
victims of accidental death -- Dhyan Chohans do not guide living human Egos but
protect victims of accidental death -- victims sleep but to awake at the hour of
last judgment -- the struggle between the 6th and 7th and 5th and 4th
principles. Reborn on earth immediately if insufficient material for Devachan --
only shells and suicides can be attracted to a Seance -- suicide a question of
motive and responsibility -- effect of suicide during temporary insanity --
Guiteau. Bulk of phenomena of spiritualists due to shells --
unconscious 5th principle (soul) cannot communicate with a living organism --
Allan Kardec not quite immaculate -- even Dugpas capable of teaching the
Highest morality -- preaching with an end in view proves little. The time
for the obscuration of a planet -- a man must love or hate well to be in either
Devachan or Avichi -- "Nature spues the luke warm out of her mouth."
LETTER No. XXI -- From A. P. S. to K. H. Queries in regard to post mortem conditions of accidents and suicides. K. H.'s replies to same -- the teaching given is the rule -- exceptions enforce the rule -- K. H. accused of contradictions and inconsistencies.
LETTER No. XXII -- To A. O. Hume. Dual attributes of Universal and human Mind -- conscious and mechanical functions -- the conscious attribute of Universal Mind a hypothesis only, but scientific fact in finite mind -- the human brain -- voluntary and involuntary nervous systems -- man potentially more powerful than "God" -- contrary to finite, infinite mind exhibits only mechanical functions of Cerebellum. The extent of the knowledge of an adept and of a planetary spirit -- laws of Nature mechanical -- Motion the eternal and uncreated deity. "God" cannot be both intelligent and wholly material -- a God with intelligence would be a fiend in view of the existence of evil. The Mosaic deity, "No Being" -- Vedantic Acosmism -- greatest adepts have not penetrated beyond the Solar System -- but they know with certainty of other Solar Systems -- Motion governs laws of Nature -- no room for a moral Governor of the Universe -- darkness does not comprehend light because it is annihilated by it -- whence the Immutable Laws and their supposed Creator. Nepaulese Swabbhavikas -- Swabbhavat is force -- a force of limitless potentiality, but yet not "God" because man can use it -- the multiform manifestations of life made perceptible by force. Man can become his own creator and ruler -- Immutable Laws eternal and uncreated -- only one law in the Universe -- Nature disproves the theory of an all-loving, omniscient, omnipotent God -- eternal progressions of cycles and evolution -- spirit and matter are one -- only distinct in manifestation -- the Absolute the only reality. Ice, water, and vapour as an illustration of the Trinity -- the Pyramids -- matter indestructible and coeval with Spirit -- matter, force, and motion the Trinity of physical Nature -- Evil -- mental attitude of the pupil -- must learn alphabet in order to read -- the world of occultism is the world of force -- only the initiate can know. The Chela becomes the Master -- mystery and miracle vanish -- occultism an exact science -- its methods laid down in a code as old as humanity.
LETTER No. XXIIIA -- Queries by A. P. S. in numbered paragraphs; (1) cause of rush of modern progress -- (2) civilisation as great as our own -- (3) what was the Fifth Race about for the 998,000 years preceding the last 2,000 -- (4) to what epoch did the Continent of Atlantis belong -- (5) the origin of evil; (6) the use of the whole cyclic process endured by the spirit -- (8) scientific questions -- cause of precipitation of rain -- magnetic conditions -- (9) the composition of the sun's corona -- (10) photometric value of light -- star magnitudes -- (11) atmospheric disturbances in atmosphere of Jupiter -- (12) the Siemen's theory of Solar combustion -- (13) cause of magnetic variation -- (14) the possibility of the discovery of more planets; (15) a moment of the highest bliss -- (16) Devachan and Avitchi -- (17) the effect of the last thought in the mind before death -- (18) full remembrance of all our lives -- (19 & 20) nature of the memory of the "shell" -- (21) the spiritual Ego -- evolution of its personalities -- the shell of A. P. Sinnett and the nature of its consciousness; (22) the Planet of Death -- (23) Mars and Mercury -- (24) is the sun the habitation of spiritualised beings -- (25 & 26) the case of the Ego who has not sufficient material for rebirth in Devachan -- (27) the case of the murderer Guiteau -- (28 & 29) planetary obscurations and the evolution of forms.
LETTER No. XXIIIB -- K. H.'s replies to queries in 23a. End of an important cycle -- cyclic law for race and sub-race -- Cortez -- sub-races of Peru and Mexico. Zodiacal records -- civilization an inheritance -- Europe rejects testimony of antiquity -- the Western Cendrillon -- Eocene Age -- the sinking of Poseidonis -- Lemuria -- our present Continents have been submerged and will be again. Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilisations less than those of the 3rd race -- history all at sea. Copernicus avails himself of a Pythagorean MSS. -- the children of the "Fire Mist" -- ancient civilizations; the Chinese -- Ireland strewn with gigantic bones of mammoths and monsters -- Malayans, Tibetans, Javanese, the Miocene times. Egyptian priests and Atlantis -- the inhabitants of Shamballah -- Baron d'Holbach. Atlantis connected with the origin of evil -- obscurations heralded by cataclysms; the premises of Science wrong -- the future Fate of British Isles, France, etc. Progress towards absolute evil arrested by cataclysmic changes -- Tree of Knowledge in safe keeping of the Mahatmas -- the Planetaries -- every race has its Adepts. The cyclic process -- Spirit an abstraction -- in union with matter it is life -- the mystery and problem of life. To solve the problem one must become an Occultist -- all forms mask but one all-pervading Force -- one life, one law, one element -- the conclusions of greatest scientific minds -- force can be infused into artificial man -- Spirit, life and matter do not exist independently of each other. No phenomenon in Nature disconnected from magnetism and electricity -- phenomena of earth currents due to Akasic magnetism -- rain can be induced artificially -- some calculations for physicists. Magnetic attraction -- atmospheric changes -- meteoric dust. Meteors -- sun little to do with heat and nothing with rain -- Reichenbach's crystals -- the sun's corona -- head of a man in ecstatic condition -- aureoles -- hydrogen. Sun spots -- sun not the central planet of our Universe -- the difficulties confronting Scientists in studying Solar phenomena -- atmospheric tremours -- no obstacle to the Adept -- sun full of iron vapours -- the demonstration by the spectroscope -- comets. "Store-house" of our system -- its blood corpuscles -- its electromagnetic aura -- misconceptions of Science. Forces of which the sun is composed -- it feeds the smallest atom as well as the greatest genius -- the distance of the stars from us -- no trustworthy basis for calculating magnitudes and distances -- observations with Pickering Photometre -- astronomical predictions of Chaldees and Rishis faultless. Light not an independent principle -- every phenomenon the effect of diversified Akasic motion -- velocity of light -- methods adopted by French experimenters. The condition of Jupiter -- the whole Solar System moving in space -- Jupiter hides a Raja-Sun -- disturbances in its atmosphere. Siemen's statements -- matter in all its 7 states -- radiant energy -- absorption of Solar forces -- chemical power lost in transit. Jenkins -- Sir James Ross -- the magnetic theory -- planets not yet discovered -- Edison's tasimeter -- discoverer an F.T.S. The moment of death -- influence of last thoughts and desires -- the whole life seen in memory -- no man dies insane or unconscious. Advice to those assisting at a death-bed -- retributive justice -- the eighth sphere -- Avitchi -- Nirvana -- the consciousness of the "shell." That which becomes for ever extinct at death -- Karma of the personality -- immediate incarnation of children. Nature of remembrance of shell -- animal's memory not perceptive faculty -- shell in aura of medium -- perception through borrowed organs -- challenge to Spiritualists. The "Spirit" of Zollner knows no more than in life -- the recollections of the "Shell" -- complete insanity. The shell of A. P. Sinnett and the nature of its consciousness. Sorcerers -- Mars and 4 other planets. Obscurations not Pralayas -- their duration -- the children 5th round men beget -- questions pertaining to the highest initiations -- men become Gods.
LETTER No. XXIVA -- The famous "Contradictions." Sinnett's questions in regard to supposed contradictions and inconsistencies in the teaching received.
LETTER No. XXIVB -- K. H. states what an Adept is -- his Occult powers. Pleads guilty to an "omission" but not a "contradiction" -- beware of trusting Isis Unveiled too implicitly -- H.P.B. herself not permitted to understand all that is treated of in Isis -- it conceals but does not distort -- reincarnation as treated in Isis -- Astral monad -- personal Ego. Sinnett's chilly mental condition -- G. K. produces a portrait of K. H. phenomenally -- M. prefers to go to sleep. Replies to the contradictions. Accusations of inconsistency unjust -- due to the conditions under which he writes his letters -- K. H. regarded by his colleagues and the Chohans as a lunatic. What happens to every being at death -- the shell -- no two states in Devachan alike. The Ego in Devachan -- Avitcha -- love and hatred the only immortal feelings. Wagner and musicians -- K. H. pleads guilty to one sin. The impossibility of dealing with Hume -- his remarks -- a sentimental Becky Sharp.
LETTER No. XXV -- Devachan -- additional explanations --Bacon -- the fruition of all aspirations. Attempting to describe the indescribable -- requires perceptions of a trained Chela. Time does not exist in Devachan -- disapprobation of a lay Chela. Time sense created by ourselves -- the bliss of Devachan -- woes of Avitchi -- space and time according to Kant. Further explanations of Devachanic existence -- pandering to prejudices of Western readers. Explanations of Devachanic states -- weary round of birth and death -- a colourless personality gets a colourless Devachan -- Avitchi the antithesis of Devachan. Hell and Heaven -- misconception of terms -- Spirit and Soul -- individuality -- personality -- all bliss in Devachan -- no failure or disappointment. The Great Reward, Nirvana -- Rupa-Loka -- Arupa-Loka -- Kama-Loka -- the summer-land of the Spiritualists. From Kama-Loka to Devachan or Avitchi -- infinite differentiation of those states -- reviving consciousness. How to understand the doctrine fully -- the reward of benevolent men -- social status the result of Karma. Lillie's "Buddha and early Buddhism" -- proposed scheme for personal intercourse impracticable. Selfishness of T.S. members -- sacrifices made by H.P.B. and Olcott -- money matters.
LETTER No. XXVI -- Observations regarding H.P.B. and her psychological condition -- reasons causing it -- one principle left behind. K. H. strongly disapproves of their cruelty to H.P.B.
LETTER No. XXVII
-- Necessity of frank speech -- danger threatening Theosophical Society -- Stainton Moses. The mediumship of
S. M. -- inspiration not required from
disembodied Spirits -- truth stands alone. Skeletons in family closets dangerous
to handle -- a cause once created cannot be unmade -- management of the Society
difficult. Translation of the Grand Inquisitor desirable -- Mahatma K. H.
disheartened at the prospect before him -- the brandy atmosphere in the house.
LETTER No. XXVIII -- Englishmen incapable of assimilating Hindu thought -- K. H. speaks frankly to Hume. Erroneous ideas regarding T.S. -- branches of T.S. as harbingers of Universal Brotherhood -- Occult instruction by the Brothers. Attempt to establish secret school of magic in London -- complete failure -- Lord Lytton -- British T.S., of the Universal Brotherhood in name only -- gravitates at best towards Quietism. Observations on the attitude of Sinnett and Hume towards K. H. -- His exposition of truth. Thorough criticisms of statements made in Hume's letter -- distortion of K. H.'s motives -- complete lack of understanding. Patience and courtesy of K. H. in dealing with subject -- a quiet reproof -- Hindus will always be the Masters of the West in Spiritual Sciences. That which they value most highly -- the kind of men the Masters want and do not want -- their characteristics. The keepers of the sacred Light -- their knowledge the gift of the Gods -- the Kantian note -- Hume the type of the Spiritual failure and unconscious egotism of this Age. Observations on mesmerism -- what conscience will and will not do. Imagination as well as will creates -- the monster of suspicion.
LETTER No. XXIX -- M. condones Hume's attitude -- gratitude a sacred debt. No quarrelling among the Adepts -- the value of primary facts -- thoughts before words. K. H. speaks to M. of his pupils before departure -- M.'s promise -- the love of M. for his Brother -- he watches over the work. Hume's feelings -- misunderstood words -- but not by M. Further observations on Hume's statements -- injustice of his treatment of H.P.B. The necessity of knowing oneself -- need of a clear understanding -- Hume the embodiment of pride. The standards of the Mahatmas -- Hume's words to M. and K. H. -- his constant attitude -- will not be contradicted. Hume considers himself slighted and wronged -- his defence of the weak -- M.'s generous estimate of his character -- Mahatmas untouched by personal pain or pleasure -- M.'s Rajput blood resents hurt to a woman's feelings. Hume makes further communication impossible by his attitude -- cannot realise the motives or the actions of the Mahatmas -- blinded by pride. No permission given for phenomena -- their appreciation of both Sinnett and Hume -- hopes for the T.S. -- law is law -- Mahatmas will do their duty. Phenomena will never shake the erroneous beliefs of Western mind -- so long as men doubt there will be curiosity and enquiry -- trying to read the things of the Spirit with the eyes of the flesh. The mark of the Adept.
LETTER No. XXX -- K. H. speaks out -- criticism of Hume's letter re Fern. Hume mistaken from first to last -- Hume's letter to K. H. quoted. Fern endeavours to "humbug" M. -- the ordeals of a Chela -- what probation means. The freedom of the Chela's choice -- his freedom of expression -- methods of training absolutely opposite to those of the Jesuits -- the latter false to truth and to humanity. The searching of a Chela's weak points -- how the Masters regard truth -- examples given -- M.'s method of expressing himself. K. H. makes some observations on Mahatma M. -- also on Hume's faults. A temperate reproof to Hume. What is expected of a Chela -- the true value of a man. The unworthiness of certain friends -- underhand methods -- the sincerity of those who protect Hume -- how a Chela is tested -- Damodar -- H.P.B. -- Olcott -- tests applied to Fern -- nobody humbugged -- H.P.B.'s opinion of Fern -- her advice to him. Words of appreciation to Hume -- his dissatisfaction -- his claims and demands; 2nd class minds -- friendly truths -- not to be resented -- gratitude of the Mahatmas for all H. has done.
LETTER No. XXXI-- From Terich-Mir. The key to the phenomena of Occult Sciences -- reason elevated to supersensuous wisdom -- perfect comprehension of the Adept -- his reward -- the culmination of knowledge and wisdom; K. H.'s years of labour -- the would-be disciple encouraged to pass on the truth to his fellow-creatures -- H.P.B. ill.
LETTER No. XXXII -- Hume puts his foot in a hornet's nest. Unsatisfactory relations between Europeans -- Hume's insulting expressions towards even K. H.'s great Master. Hume's accusations -- the Mahatmas' patience.
LETTER No. XXXIII -- Apparent contradiction between notes from M. and K. H. -- approve of plan to form nucleus of honest scientific enquirers -- no-one works in vain -- requests Sinnett to work in sympathy with A. Besant.
LETTER No. XXXIV -- Mahatmas complain of being constantly misunderstood -- impossibility of satisfying Hume -- the Society will never perish as an Institution.
LETTER No. XXXV -- Observations on phenomena -- Sinnett's disappointment -- methods for development of Occult faculties -- no culture will supply psychic idiosyncrasy if lacking; M. deals with some spooks.
LETTER No. XXXVI -- M. refuses to make puja to Hume.
LETTER No. XXXVII -- Written by the "Disinherited" at K. H.'s bidding -- words of approval and encouragement to Sinnett -- the power of projecting and feeling force. Observations on Hume's work and his unchanged state of selfishness -- his professed love of humanity.
LETTER No. XXXVIII-- Disappointment in store for K. H.-- the libel law -- reflections on female branch and females -- the secret cause of events. The Brothers -- Brotherhood -- the love of humanity -- essential qualifications of a Chela -- selfishness and exclusiveness of all peoples.
LETTER No. XXXIX -- The Arhat vows -- defence of H.P.B. -- M. creates his dinner -- the "Disinherited."
LETTER No. XL -- Nothing can help T.S. while Founders are under a cloud. Incessant attacks -- a devotee of error -- forced psychic vision by Hathayog -- general law of vision determined by grade of man's spirit and soul. A Society whose Guru was no initiate -- idolators -- permission to join them to study -- remembering promise to K. H.
LETTER No. XLI -- H.P.B.'s condition -- only a shell at times -- encouragement to Sinnett.
LETTER No. XLII -- M. repeats that no regular instruction is possible -- much that can be done with K. H.'s help -- Hume disinclined to disabuse public mind. A solitary pearl is soon out-shone in a heap of false diamonds -- the trials of earth life -- their conquest -- "fuller introduction into the mysteries depends on yourself."
LETTER No. XLIII -- "My impatient friend" -- M.'s attitude -- an Adept's duty not controlled by social affections -- Sinnett forced himself on K. H. No right to influence one who is not a Chela -- Sinnett the victim of Maya -- Hume's selfishness -- the personality and the Ego. Bennett superior to many in spite of unpolished exterior -- K. H.'s attitude to Bennett -- Jesus and Magdalene -- the inner man alone counts with the Mahatmas -- friendly confidences. The dangers of phenomena -- wisdom gives all things in time -- food for the mind must be assimilated slowly.
LETTER No. XLIV -- The Septenary trial of the T.S. -- H.P.B. and Olcott begin their work -- their qualifications. Only those who have proved themselves faithful to truth allowed further intercourse with the Mahatmas.
LETTER No. XLV -- K. H. returns from a journey. The "three poisons" -- the five obscurities -- try to cherish less lust and desire -- "a psychic Society is being founded in our midst". One indiscretion ruins work of 7 years -- the danger of such action must be counteracted -- drawing closer to the Masters by purified heart and developing will -- advice and consolation -- Sinnett belongs to the Masters -- the imperishable record of the Master. "Your Karma is ours" -- the man of the world -- the soul searching for the Masters. The "Tathagata" light -- kind advice -- apprehensions must be set aside -- regarding his co-worker's enmity.
LETTER No. XLVI -- M. comments on Hume's behaviour -- neither reverence or common sense in his head -- abominable attitude towards Mahatmas and H.P.B. -- what they desire of him and wish him to know. Further comments on Hume -- M.'s ultimatum -- H.P.B.'s illness caused by Hume's behaviour -- M.'s displeasure.
LETTER No. XLVII -- Work of T.S. secretly linked on to other work throughout the world -- the Greek Brother. Crookes and "radiant matter" -- H.P.B. wrongfully accused of being untruthful -- frank opinions and some advice -- cycles. Martyrdom pleasant to look at, hard to bear.
LETTER No. XLVIII-- Knowledge and the path -- the Adamantine Rocks of Occult Laws -- the heights to be reached before the whole truth can be seen -- the keeping and the breaking of the Law -- the man who would obtain all must be cold -- Oxley has possibilities -- his mistakes. The limitations of the ordinary seers -- incredible statements of Maitland and Mrs. K. Vegetarians and flesh eaters -- the effects of wine on seers -- effect of emanations on Mahatmas -- seers and their revelations -- no two agree -- mediums and clairvoyance. We do not require a passive mind. The journal of the Society worth Sinnett's attention -- its hidden beauties and values -- our ways are the ways of madmen. Sinnett begins his studies at the wrong end -- key to the writing of the ancient Occultists.
LETTER No. XLIX -- Correspondence established for the good of the many -- Eliphas Levi's Haute Magie -- St. Germain. Pythagorean doctrines -- "the limit of the natural" -- the "Spiritualist" -- its fight against Theosophists -- on Adepts. K. H. not annoyed by newspaper ribald notices -- sacrilegious utterances of J. K. -- difficulty of accepting pledges -- Occult Science communicated by degrees. Conditions governing the communication of secrets -- illumination comes from within -- means to this end known publicly for ages -- self sacrifice of Guru. Dangers of giving more knowledge than man is ready for -- like an infernal machine in ignorant hands -- time approaching for Triumph of Truth -- Shammars active in Europe -- Spiritualism -- the Adepts delay progress to Eternal Rest. The price to be paid -- the willingness of K. H. to pay it -- pupils would be more thankful and patient if they knew the true facts -- Lamaism -- power of great Adepts -- Sinnett gropes in the dark. Occult World discussed at Galaring-Tcho Lamasery.
LETTER No. L -- An unreasonable man -- filled with pride -- Mahatma K. H. expresses his mind -- weariness and disheartened feelings.
LETTER No. LI -- Phenomenon for Colonel Chesney. Further remarks on production of this phenomenon -- probations hard all round -- deception a test for those of unclean heart.
LETTER No. LII-- Hume's jealousy and abusiveness. Remarks on his self-satisfaction -- constant accusations -- H.P.B. and C. C. M. -- explanation of teaching given in Isis -- Christians and Spiritualists only mention body and soul. Two "souls" in man -- H.P.B. obeyed orders -- further remarks concerning Hume. Hume's reasons for writing offensive article in Theosophist -- K. H.'s frank criticism of his real and alleged motives. Dishonest methods -- refuses to recognise powers or knowledge of Brotherhood -- the penalty of publicity. Facts to be transmitted to Hume -- in what light he is considered by the Chelas -- the protest of the Chelas -- S. stands far higher in estimation of Mahatmas -- M.'s opinion. Hume's punishment must be complete -- anti-European rules -- Dugpas wrote letters to Fern.
LETTER No. LIII -- An account of a doubtful story and incidents connected with Fern -- his deceptions believed implicitly by Hume. Ways of communication with outer worlds -- M.'s views do not agree with K. H.'s regarding Hume -- refuses to satisfy his whims -- M.'s arguments in detail. Manner in which letters have been transmitted -- Dugpa methods -- Fern's fall -- deceptions practised on Hume. Mahatma K. H.'s likeness -- its delivery. Sinnett is advised not to judge by appearances -- great crisis in November. K. H. never trusts women generally -- his reason.
LETTER No. LIV -- Hume's deposition and abdication -- subsequent events. "good old Swami" -- his tirade against the Mahatmas -- reasons for not wishing his severance from the Society -- Tibetan proverb applied to Hume -- Fern to be watched. Regarding C. C. Massey, his chief fault, weakness -- K. H. objects to his letters being circulated -- Hume disparages their sacred philosophy. The European standpoint -- Western people cannot grasp wisdom -- the wealth of the mind -- Massey -- readiness to learn -- K. H. willing to help him -- much information in S.'s hands, useful to all -- C. C. M. prejudiced against H.P.B. St. Germain -- Cagliostro -- Dr. and Mrs. Hollis-Billing -- traducers of innocent women. Exposure of dishonest enemies -- their unworthy conduct -- wish to ruin H.P.B. The Swami's attack on the Founders -- S. Moses and his suspicions -- H.P.B. and phenomena produced for C. C. M. H.P.B. believed to be arch-plotter -- deceiver, etc. -- Swami was an initiated Yogi -- H. C. a Chela -- preferred left path -- system of the Mahatmas. The experiences by which a Chela becomes efficient -- H.P.B. and her one fault -- C. C. M. shaken, suspicious and lacks self-confidence -- H.P.B.'s phenomena. C. C. M. victim of wicked plot -- how far H.P.B. is really guilty of deceit. H.P.B. over-zealous -- her desire to give credit to the Mahatmas for all phenomena -- her impulsive nature -- creating causes -- her real powers of a very high order. Self-abnegation cannot be called dishonesty -- her generosity -- terribly punished -- her exalted friends traitors and impostors -- true history of so-called deception -- enthusiasm for those she loves -- her description of M.'s beauty makes him swear and break his pipe -- description of meeting between Mahatmas and H.P.B. -- her passionate devotion -- their appreciation of all her splendid qualities. The subject of probation repulsive to Sinnett's mind -- reasons why certain men failed when tested. H.P.B. a helpless, broken-hearted woman -- the testing of Fern -- every postulant thus tested -- the conqueror crowns himself. Reform in which Sinnett's help is desired -- impartiality towards all creeds Eastern and Western. Remodelling of branches -- objects for lodge work -- religious, educational, philosophical -- paper for the Theosophist -- solidarity of thought and action. Independent action in everything which does not clash with the principles of the Society -- Hume condemns the faulty system of the Mahatmas. Theosophist should be made distinctive -- cyclic crisis -- a goat eats Sinnett's letter to K. H. -- amusing incident. The Chohan repairs the letter.
LETTER No. LV -- The ordeal of the aspirant to occult knowledge -- the opposition of the Church and Anglo-Indian officials to the T.S. -- Dugpas in Bhootan and the Vatican -- personal opposition and ridicule -- bogus letters of H.P.B.'s -- the death struggle between Truth and Error -- the light-bearers of preceding generations lost their lives -- necessity for courage -- ultimate success certain. Mediumistic sensitives -- elementaries -- unwholesome influences -- wood and incense burning for fumigation and protection -- clean living the best protection -- talismans -- H.P.B. takes a step -- heavy responsibility of Olcott and Sinnett -- Karma of the Occult World and Esot: Buddhism -- advised to stand by the T.S. -- original policy must be vindicated -- the Society cannot stand based upon phenomena and Thibetan Brothers alone -- the latter should be kept secret -- loyalty to the Idea and not to a personal leader. What a Mahatma is -- not beyond human mistakes -- phenomena of thought transference and precipitations -- Akasic libraries -- the Kiddle case. Christian-mission -- Coulomb conspiracy -- correspondence with the "Inner Circle" -- pledge themselves to K. H. -- the Maha-Chohan -- communication through Damodar -- and H.P.B. -- her phenomena must be disconnected from T.S.
LETTER No. LVI -- Condition of A. O. Hume -- maddened by evil powers -- a fakir. Evil effects of Pranayan -- produces mediumship -- Hume's selfish vanity and combativeness -- danger to the T.S. -- Dayanand S.; "Mr. Isaacs" -- K. H. and "Ram lal."
LETTER No. LVII -- Adepts and their methods not understood; C. C. M. on the list of failures -- not a medium -- the best of men but lacking in intuition; Europeans on probation -- 3 fail -- of societies -- Anna Kingsford's inspirers -- THE PERFECT WAY -- A. K. a fifth rounder -- her vanity -- latent sense of Messiahship -- Reincarnation a la Allan Kardec -- A. K.'s allegiance to Brothers not expected -- danger to the British T.S. -- C. M.'s delusions in regard to K. H. and H.P.B.; Hume and Fern -- probation brings out both virtues and vices -- Fern's characteristics -- western code of honour -- Hume's characteristics. Criterion of a "gentleman" -- vilification of M. and K. H. -- a dangerous "friend" -- the struggle for adeptship -- the delusions of self and vanity. Adepts do nothing without a purpose; Hume opposed to the system of "The Brothers" -- finds Them wicked selfish men -- their message tainted by deception and sorcery -- their chelas slaves and untrustworthy -- their Society a whited sepulchre, etc.; Hume's cunning and diplomacy -- accused of falsification. T. Subba Row -- Hume claims added powers -- practice of Pranayan makes of him a yogi -- serious charge and evidence against Hume; A. P. S. advised to go to England.
LETTER No. LVIII -- D. K.'s personal interest in A. P. S. Apathy of K. H.'s countrymen -- K. H. asks two favours -- is prepared to teach British T.S. through agency of A. P. S. -- but not to give proofs of the existence of the Masters -- ordered to sweep away every vestige of such proof.
LETTER No. LIX -- The altruist of Rothney. Change of "being" in A. P. S. -- difficulty in understanding the doctrines re Devachan -- the fickleness of "Society" -- the Theosophist's duty. Chelas who demand more power -- a necromantic Guru -- the downfall and despair of a Chela -- his condition -- an "animated poison bag." Chelas and lay Chelas in July Theosophist -- William Crookes joins the Society -- his discoveries -- three additional states of matter still to be found by Science -- the word "impossible" not in occultist's vocabulary -- no man living can make claims on Adepts -- their attractions are spiritual not intellectual -- Bacon and Aristotle. Spiritual development -- the Adepts' standard of greatness -- sincere hunger for the truth -- the work of the S. P. R. -- mesmeric cures -- the purity of the psychopathist -- his motives -- a lock of the hair of an Adept. The Buddhistic speculations of Rhys Davids -- unable to understand Esotericism -- his definition of "Avalokiteshvara" an absurdity -- K. H. explains the term fully -- Kwan-shai-yin. The origin of the Christian Trinity, transubstantiation, Immaculate Conception -- Buddhism and personal God -- the meaning of the interlaced triangles -- geometrical synthesis of whole occult doctrine -- contains the squaring of the circle -- problems of Life and Death -- mystery of Evil. The 6 pointed star is the perfect seven -- the number 6 -- the Macrocosm and Microcosm -- the contre of a circle and its circumference -- the three Gunas -- Jivatma the 7th Principle -- Avalokitesvara -- THE GREAT ACTIVE and THE GREAT PASSIVE -- Purusha and Prakriti -- THE PERFECT WAY -- Adonai. Pythagoras and the number 2 -- the dual monad in manifestation -- the perfect square -- the WORD -- The Great Deep -- Maya -- Mulaprakriti the one reality -- Mr. Roden Noel -- The Unmanifested Circle -- Absolute Life non-existent outside the triangle and perfect square -- a Gnostic treatise. No amateur can rival the proficient in occult research -- the pseudo-Saviours of the world are legion -- nothing was ever lost by trying.
LETTER No. LX -- "Our doubts are traitors" Chelas of contrary magnetisms during development -- partrait by Schmiechen -- artist helped by "M."
LETTER No. LXI -- Mohini -- a Chela not a free man -- he suffered from the cold -- his tour through European countries -- Arundales -- justice in the Kingsford row -- personal spite.
LETTER No. LXII -- Unfit for practical occultism -- immutable laws -- an effort to open the intuition -- duty, stronger than friendship or love to the Masters -- the indestructable cement of the Brotherhood -- the delusions of the intellect -- cold spiritually blind reason -- the path to the occult sciences surrounded with pitfalls. The furies to be conquered and destroyed by the aspirant -- the qualities demanded in the disciple --- his freedom for the work -- rigidity of the regulations never relaxed -- the real reason of the failure of the "Phoenix" newspaper venture -- the Ilbert Bill -- the working of Karmic Law -- contempt for the dark races -- no exhibition of psychic or occult powers permitted -- the London Lodge and Anna Kingsford -- A.P.S. finds H.S.O. unfit socially and intellectually for London -- treats him and H.P.B. cruelly -- M.'s natural brusqueness -- carelessness -- A.P.S. not unjustly treated -- his spite against A.K. Unjust suspicion of H.P.B. and H.S.O. -- Mohini and Mrs. Gebhard; H.S.O. accused by A.P.S. of falsehood, slander, etc. -- Olcott's work gives good results -- suspicion -- occult truth must be found in the soul -- Mrs. H. an excellent but untrained clairvoyant; A.P.S. attempts to defy occult laws and gets hurt -- intellect alone not all-powerful -- A.P.S. asked to be present and speak at meeting.
LETTER No. LXIII -- The publication of these letters -- the questions involved -- the real vital errors in Esoteric Buddhism and Man -- much made purposely obscure in the letters -- they were not written for publication or public comment -- neither K.H. or M. would ever consent to the letters being published. Would-be Chelas and dangers of probation.
LETTER No. LXIV -- The mysteries of Chelaship -- the uncharted ocean of occultism -- necessity of full confidence in the Adepts -- beware of a prejudiced mind -- occult laws often seem cruel amid unjust. Cataclysms are necessary -- unselfishness physical and spiritual -- vanity and conceit more serious when harboured in the higher principles -- the shield of the disciple -- the mass of human sin and frailty gathered into one period of the life of a Chela. Selfishness in inner aspirations -- the Lord Buddha. The Chela must not judge on mere appearances.
LETTER No. LXV -- A. Gebhard's accusation -- failure amid success -- distressing incidents -- the attempt to open the eyes of the world fails -- the conspiracy of the Missionaries against theosophy -- "Christ or the Founders" -- the S.P.R. and Mr. Hodgson. Mr. Lane Fox and the T.S. -- Chelas detest European Theosophists -- the end of projected occult instructions -- the refusal of Europeans to receive instruction through Damodar and Subba Row -- Damodar goes to Thibet -- Subba Row suspected -- Count St. Germain and Cagliostro -- current ideas of the Masters and laws of occultism inaccurate -- K.H.'s western education -- Sir C. Grandison -- western etiquette and Thibetan customs. Accused of plagiarism -- the dictionary of Pai-Wouen-Yen-Fu -- works of reference -- Kiddle incident -- "Lal Singh" a nom de plume -- not always infallible Mahatmas -- knowledge of occult forces the fruit of generations of research -- occultists risk their lives -- magic and superstition. The teaching of Devachan criticised -- the keys of Life and Death -- crisis in T.S. a question of perdition or salvation to thousands -- progress or retrogression of human race -- doubts and foul suspicions beset the neophyte -- the old Masonic Lodges -- tests of courage, etc. -- psychological and other tests -- Raj-yog tests -- develop every germ of good and bad. The rule inflexible, no-one escapes -- few Europeans have stood the test -- failure in Europe with few exceptions -- henceforth neutrality of T.S. in occult teaching to be enforced -- instruction will be given only to individuals from individuals -- teachings given must be under pledge of secrecy -- T.S. not to be held responsible or compromised by phenomena -- the ship is sinking -- its precious cargo desecrated by profane handling.
LETTER No. LXVI -- Common post used instead of H.P.B. -- Sinnett's relations with H.P.B. -- necessary to watch himself -- correspondence may have to be broken -- uncharitable spirit -- narrow sympathies -- the crisis fanned from Tchigadze -- A.P.S. laughs at probation -- the guardians of occult knowledge -- M. and K.H. the only Brothers in favour of disseminating their knowledge. H.P.B. sometimes dangerous -- the best agent available -- letters will cease at her death -- "our ways not your ways" -- H.P.B. complains of A.P.S. to her Master -- A.P.S. resents the personal wishes of the Masters. His pride must be protected at all costs -- dugpas and psychic shocks -- pride and egotism -- A.P.S. denies applying to be accepted as a Chela; H.P.B. and H.S.O. not perfect -- adversity discovers the real man -- karma of the group -- sinking the personality -- higher instruction only given to the true Theosophist.
LETTER No. LXVII-- K.H. to H.S. Olcott. Ordered home -- the state of India -- agitations -- Bishenlal's attempt to cross the Himalayas -- the Kingsford Maitland party. Dugpas provoke his vanity -- three cases of insanity among lay Chelas -- few men know themselves -- the ordeal of crude Chelaship.
LETTER No. LXVIII -- Discipline of family life -- conquest of self -- spiritual progress the most important.
LETTER No. LXIX -- The terms Brahma -- Pitri -- Devalokas defined -- Nirvana -- Devachan -- real knowledge a spiritual state -- absolute light and darkness.
LETTER No. LXX -- The probation of A.P.S.
LETTER No. LXXI -- M.'s "tobacco-machine" -- clouds on the horizon.
LETTER No. LXXII -- Chelas never guided. Taught by experience.
LETTER No. LXXIII -- Bad feeling against K.H.
LETTER No. LXXIV -- No-one cares for real objects of the Society -- personal devotion only -- "M." erases a part of one of his letters.
LETTER No. LXXV -- A.P.S. accuses H.P.B. unjustly.
LETTER No. LXXVI -- Subba Row and Chela training -- initiated Brahmin and Hume -- the Genius of Pride ; 376
LETTER No. LXXVII -- Colonel Gordon -- a Howrah Branch -- Eclectic -- K.H. not born for diplomacy and intrigue. Funds for the "Phoenix" -- K.H. loses some of his optimism -- women as angels or furies.
LETTER No. LXXVIII -- The Chohan's views on the "Phoenix" project -- the journal desirable -- effort must be made by outsiders -- Masters not separated from the world of action as long as T.S. exists. May effect the destiny of a nation -- questions of capital and finance -- personal remuneration -- control of the journal. Sir Ashley Eden -- a Sinking Fund -- the Nizam -- Holkar -- Benares -- Baroda. Questions of management -- Hume and dugpas.
LETTER No. LXXIX -- K.H. no business man -- Mr. Dare -- the Brotherhood will help the enterprise -- the attractions of India to the mystic -- A.P.S. wrong in acting for K.H.'s sake -- good actions bring own reward -- a new cycle begins.
LETTER No. LXXX-- Chance a squinting jade -- Hume delineates the true character of the Brothers -- A.P.S. advised to act on his own judgment.
LETTER No. LXXXI -- The condition of the people of India. Govindan Lal -- Olcott sees Baroda and Holkar -- little patriotism -- rekindling the beacon of Aryan occultism -- the task of the T.S. impeded by would-be Chelas -- the breath of the world's furnaces. The Masters first duty of gaining knowledge -- English prejudices -- Massey -- "Ski" -- and the Scotch Brother -- M. sends glove by occult means -- Dr. and Mrs. Billing -- a bogus spook -- a false "Ski." "Suppressio veri suggestis falsi" -- the Masters judge men by their motives -- no respect for the world's standards.
LETTER No. LXXXII -- Le quart d'heure de Rabelais -- the crisis in the affairs of the "Phoenix" -- Sinnett's choice -- asked to oppose the work of the Masters apparently -- the Bengal Rent Bill -- European notions of right and wrong receive a shock -- occult antidotes -- the Jesuitical "end justifies the means" -- the words of the Lord Buddha -- K.H. explains the situation -- "Phoenix" to oppose the Bengal Rent Bill. In the event of refusal a new editor to be found -- the Zemindars -- Lord Cornwallis. The issues at stake -- the future of the "Phoenix" and future relationship of A.P.S. with K.H. -- bringing the national boil to a head -- Lord Cornwallis's mistake -- Mussulman ruler and East India Company. The Ryots -- the Chohan in India -- perpetual agreement -- the real aim of Lord Ripon's reforms -- not meant for India. Protestant England aimed at -- the invisible coils of Rome -- the pledges of the Government -- Khirajee land -- Mussulman laws -- spirit of Khiraj and Ooshr. The brightest jewel in the crown of England -- the Chohan and K.H. -- the real Viceroy of India -- not at Simla but at Rome -- "Esoteric Buddhism" correct, if incomplete. Obscurations -- inner and outer rounds -- Massey concludes the Masters have no God -- each man's God within himself.
LETTER No. LXXXIII -- K.H. gives A.P.S. his freedom of choice -- success of "Phoenix" doubtful -- A.P.S. must take his own responsibility. Misunderstands law of Karma -- the strong feelings in the national soul. The good of humanity the only consideration of the Chela -- personal feelings and reputation not considered -- the financial prospects of the "Phoenix." Black clouds on the political sky -- further correspondence permitted to H.P.B. -- the eighth sphere mystery.
LETTER No. LXXXIV -- Paralytic calm of the L.L. -- C. C. Massey -- Anma Kingsford -- Olcott's visit; 397. Mohini a Chela.
LETTER No. LXXXV -- Addressed to members of the L.L. A.K. to remain President of L.L. -- the Chohan's wish -- A.K.'s personal predilections of no consequence -- dissemination of truth -- Hermetic Philosophy. The boundless ocean of Truth -- three centres of the occult Brotherhood -- H.P.B. and Subba Row pupils of the same Master -- the Chaldean Mage -- West requires different presentation of occult sciences to the East -- the amelioration of man's condition the object -- Truth has no ear-mark; A. Kingsford and Sinnett opposite poles -- both necessary for T.S. in England -- A.K.'s presentation better adapted to Christian ears -- her strife against anti-vivisection -- the teaching of Northern Buddhist Schools. More caution necessary in exposition of secret teachings -- wise toleration of differing opinions and beliefs in Indian T.S. -- harmonious discord -- the key note in Nature -- A.K. loyal to Truth -- "return good for good, for evil -- justice"; A.K. and A.P.S. expectcd to work on parallel lines -- agree to disagree in details.
LETTER No. LXXXVI -- A.K.'s apologetic letter to H.P.B. -- L.L. a tail for her to wag -- her anti-vivisection and vegetarianism win over the Chohan -- personal vanity -- letter contains an occult influence -- to be read at a General Meeting. Devachan -- Nirvana -- the Ego -- space is infinity itself -- the relation of the number of incarnations to the cleverness of an individual -- Darwin's law of heredity. The condition of C.C.M. -- Charles Bradlaugh not immoral -- Mrs. Besant -- the "Fruits of Philosophy" pernicious -- the fruits of Sodom and Gomorrah.
LETTER No. LXXXVII-- The postponement of L.L. election -- the question of personal loyalty and authority of names. Gravest evil neutralised by hastening a crisis -- oppression of a priest-ridden world -- psychic growth accompanies individual effort -- Massey -- Ward -- Kingsford -- A.K.'s mistrust of appeals to authority. Too much talk of the Masters -- disloyalty to principles of the Society would not be tolerated -- usefulness of a Lodge -- largely depends on President and Secretary.
LETTER No. LXXXVIII -- Magnetic conditions necessary for test phenomena.
LETTER No. LXXXIX -- Objections to spiritualistic phenomena and mediums. Occult science the extinguisher of superstitions -- K.H. arranges to appear to the medium Eglinton on the "Vega" -- his reasons.
LETTER No. XC -- From Stainton Moses to Sinnett. S.M. is puzzled -- says Brothers are mistaken in regard to him. His guide Imperator -- documentary evidence of communication, etc. -- Imperator knows nothing of the Lodge or Brotherhood. S.M.'s guide his own sixth principle -- finds spiritualism and occultism incompatible. Comment by K.H. What is a "Brother"? -- can be ignorant of many things -- not so with an omniscient Planetary Spirit -- Russian child medium -- Jesus and John the Baptist -- Jesus a spiritual abstraction -- Mrs. Kingsford converses with "God" -- receives a written communication from a dog. 415
LETTER No. XCIA, Letter No. 91b -- C. C. Massey -- Mrs. Billing.
LETTER No. XCII -- Actions of Founders and Chelas not controlled by the Masters -- Hurrychund -- Wimbridge -- Mrs. Billing a medium. Materialization phenomena -- truth rarely wanted -- a loyal Theosophist -- phenomena the playthings of the tyro -- the Masters offer their knowledge to be accepted or rejected on its merits -- "Ski" used as a mouthpiece by the Brothers. H.P.B. asks an exception for C.C.M. -- "Ski" a medium for 20 years -- her phenomena pass the most crucial tests -- several false "Skis." An occult forger.
LETTER No. XCIII -- Mediums and Spooks permitted to personate the Brothers -- and forge their hand-writing. K.H.'s explanation of the Kiddle incident -- "M. A. Oxon" -- K.H. accused of plagiarism -- the Banner of Light. Woman a calamity in the fifth race. K.H. dictates a letter mentally -- psychic chemistry -- precipitation by a young Chela-American Spiritualists -- experiments of S.P.R. in "mental telegraphy." The modus operandi of precipitation -- psychic printing machine. The medium and the Chela diametrically dissimilar -- discrepancy in "Occult World" -- H.P.B. denies that K.H.'s first letter was written by himself. K.H. born into a new and higher light -- Oniniscience and infallible prevision exist but for the highest Chohans -- the restored version of page 39 Occult World -- Spiritualists and Spiritualism -- the Rosetta Stone of the Kiddle incident. The Kiddlites and the Koothumites -- an Adept does not cease to be a man -- ignorant surmise and personal insult -- distrust and prejudice contagious -- A.K. invokes K.H. in trance. She takes a fruitless ramble through space -- K.H. unaware of search -- move in different astral circles -- too haughty and imperious -- Mrs. Gebhard a genuine sterling nature -- K.H. en route for Madras, Singapore and Burma -- H.P.B. not in disgrace. Subba Row's writings.
LETTER No. XCIV -- Kiddle incident -- poking fun at Occult Science.
LETTER No. XCV -- Preparation and training of Eglinton -- the "Vega experiment" -- bigotry and blindness of the Spiritualists -- professional mediums -- Hume has great possibilities in front of him -- reviewing The Perfect Way -- attracting the Chohan's attention and its significance.
LETTER No. XCVI -- M. smokes his pipe -- Piccadilly spooks -- phenomena -- Karma of the spiritualists -- M. prefers Eglinton's clairvoyance to Mrs. Kingsford's.
LETTER No. XCVII -- The defects of young disciples -- few true to original programme.
LETTER No. XCVIII -- K.H.'s comments on a letter of Hume's -- the people of Tibet untainted by vices of civilization -- A.O.H. a friend of perishing humanity -- General Schoolmaster for Tibet -- the Adept the freest of men.
LETTER No. XCIX -- From A. O. Hume to K.H. Says K.H. does not understand him -- Russia and Tibet. Advocates repeated phenomena -- H. S. Olcott -- Jesuit organisation -- blind obedience.
LETTER No. C -- Hume thinks of going to Tibet -- insane plan -- the Chohans against him -- dangers of every step.
LETTER No. CI -- "Blessed is he who knows and appreciates Koothoomi."
LETTER No. CII -- "Ou tout ou rien."
LETTER No. CIII -- Chelas neglect orders -- Maharajah of Kashmir.
LETTER No. CIV -- Hume annoys K.H. -- New Year Festivals in Tibet -- K.H. goes a journey -- M. takes his place -- "the Disinherited."
LETTER No. CV -- Hume accuses the Masters of being liars -- H.P.B. quarrels with D.K. -- "K.H. no gentleman"; Hume's infallibility.
LETTER No. CVI -- Measures for protecting Tibet -- the priestly King.
LETTER No. CVII -- H.P.B.'s ill-health -- mental anxiety.
LETTER No. CVIII -- A Ladakee Chela.
LETTER No. CIX -- K.H. and a seance.
LETTER No. CX -- Dharbagiri Nath -- the best punishment for an accepted Chela -- dodging the Masters' eye -- young Chelas -- Hume's articles; H.P.B. not safe in Sikkim -- a Chela's indiscretion.
LETTER No. CXI -- K.H.'s two Chelas to A.P.S.
LETTER No. CXII -- Colonel Chesney's letter to K.H. -- Fern a humbug -- endeavours to test the Masters -- lay Chelas -- Hume alienates the Chohan and M.; W. Oxley.
LETTER No. CXIII -- Funny notions about honour -- Fern hallucinated -- Fern's trap for M.
LETTER No. CXIV -- Zenana women of India.
LETTER No. CXV -- A.P.S. advised to act on his own judgment -- Occult influences.
LETTER No. CXVI -- K.H.'s disgust with Hume.
LETTER No. CXVII-- Mohini.
LETTER No. CXVIII -- Fraudulent intrusion. Children's diseases -- K.H. sends a lock of his hair.
LETTER No. CXIX -- Newspaper cutting and K.H.'s comment.
LETTER No. CXX-- Action of hatred.
LETTER No. CXXI -- The Occult World presented to the Chohan's notice.
LETTER No. CXXII -- Eglington at Calcutta.
LETTER No. CXXIII -- K.H.'s difficulties.
LETTER No. CXXIV -- A.P.S. asked to find three coloured pebbles in Venice.
LETTER No. CXXV -- K.H. issues a denial of the claims of W. Oxley medium. He never conversed with K.H. -- three secret words.
LETTER No. CXXVI -- A Post Office address in N.W. Provinces.
LETTER No. CXXVII -- Extracts from letters to A.P.S. and A.O.H. -- 6th and 7th principles never were within man -- Anaxagoras -- the "Nous" -- Pythagoras the permanent and impermanent -- words of Buddha -- lucidity -- too much sugar in diet -- method of developing lucidity.
LETTER No. CXXVIII -- Telegram announcing Damodar's departure.
LETTER No. CXXIX -- Telegram to Damodar.
LETTER No. CXXX--From T. Subba Row. States the conditions on which he will give A.P.S. instruction in Occult Science -- wavering state of mind fatal.
LETTER No. CXXXI-- From T. Subba Row. Sinnett gives qualified consent -- impossible to give him practical instruction -- rules inflexible -- the sacrifices demanded by Occult Science -- acquisition of psychic powers not the object of occult training -- they alone will never secure immortality. The true aim of Occult Science -- prepared to give theoretical instruction only.
LETTER No. CXXXII- T. Subba Row -- the Rishi M.'s system of training -- the first three initiations; K.H.'s comment.
LETTER No. CXXXIII-- From H.P.B. Warns A.P.S. of self-deception -- discusses his attitude to K.H.'s letter -- "Olcott behaved like an ass" -- why the Masters liked Olcott. The S.P.R. and its bugbear Theosophy.
LETTER No. CXXXIV-- A dictated letter from M. All Theosophists endeavour to correspond with him -- do not deserve such privilege. What is expected of them -- thousands of Fakirs, Sannyasis, etc., have never seen or heard of them -- they are on the path of error -- bad physical magnetic emanations not insurmountable -- faith in God and Gods attract the worst influences -- the Chohans of darkness preside at Pralayas. All is contrast in the Universe -- the Gods of the bigoted Hindus, Christians, and Mohammedans -- the work of the Red-caps -- Brothers can prolong life but cannot destroy death or evil -- details about H.P.B.'s identity.
LETTER No. CXXXV -- From H.P.B. Explains what she said about seven objective planets and septenary chains.
LETTER No. CXXXVI -- From H.P.B. Sinnett's invitation to her -- reasons for refusing -- what she endured -- K.H. and M. prepare to work -- H.P.B.'s hour of triumph approaches -- Sinnett does not know the real H.P.B. Her inner real self imprisoned -- prophecies that Sinnett will one day blaspheme against K.H. -- their benevolent contempt for H.P.B.
LETTER No. CXXXVII-- D.K. precipitates a letter phenomenally in H.P.B.'s cabin, 467
LETTER No. CXXXVIII -- From H.P.B. New battle to be fought -- K.H.'s observations on the T.S. -- H.P.B. now accused of fraud -- Mahatmas dragged before the public -- Hodgson's attitude -- hopeless situation -- happy Damodar -- the land of Bliss; Hume wants to save the Society -- meeting called -- his plans -- his suggestions rejected -- phenomena must be prohibited. Her physical condition -- transmission of letters -- Arthur Gebhard -- dying people do not tell lies -- H.P.B. never a deceiver -- explains the methods of occult transmission of letters; H.P.B. "a fraud with excellent qualities" -- explains what happened to Gebhard's letter -- no fraud; T.S. will live in India but seems doomed in Europe -- Hodgson's investigation -- the opposition of the Padris -- her trials -- cannot trust her friends. Propaganda against the Founders -- Oakleys advise H.P.B. to resign -- pledges herself not to mention the Masters' names -- try to deserve personal communication with the Master; Probably her last letter.
LETTER No. CXXXIX -- From H.P.B. She urges Sinnett to develop his intuition -- explains about a letter of K.H. which Sinnett suspected ; 475. S. asked not to be ungrateful and not to misunderstand -- what H.P.B. saw in K.H.'s aura -- Prince's Hall meeting a failure ; 476. Chelas take the left-hand path -- nearing the end -- Gladstone -- the Jesuits ; 477.
LETTER No. CXL-- From H.P.B. The Countess a great clairvoyant -- H.P.B. describes a vision -- K.H. teaches her English -- M. sends her back to Europe -- parting words of K.H. -- she writes Isis Unveiled at K.H.'s dictation -- her English ; 479. The writing of K.H.'s letters -- did he write them himself? -- precipitation -- either H.P.B. invented the Mahatmas or she did not ; 480. The Secret Doctrine -- truth will triumph -- Hume's lies ; 481.
LETTER No. CXLI -- H.P.B. in Sinnett's hands -- Mrs. Leadbeater -- Gladstone a
Roman Catholic ; 482. The condition of the T.S. in Europe -- India -- America -- the
indestructibility of the Society -- the efforts of the dugpas -- the T.S. in
need of quality and not quantity of members -- the two courses before the London
Lodge -- by their fruits shall ye know them ; 483. Worldly society in the L.L. --
A.P.S. incapable of perceiving the truth -- no inner group consecrated to the
truth -- the last trial of a Chela ; 484. The necessity of spiritual discernment --
nothing can kill the London Lodge except passivity -- human dirt never
sticks ; 485. Sinnett urged to develop his
intuition ; 486
LETTER No. CXLIIA -- Memorandum by Damodar. The Theosophical Society considered a religious sect -- if based upon universal Brotherhood the occult study should be secret -- sacred knowledge should not be vulgarised -- unconsciously misleading the public as to management of the Society -- the Adepts do not control the Society -- admission of members -- fees -- phenomena hunters. 486-487.
The MAHATMA LETTERS
SECTION I
" THE OCCULT WORLD SERIES "
1880-1881
Received Simla about October 15th, 1880.
Esteemed Brother and Friend,
Precisely because the test of the London newspaper would close the mouths of the skeptics -- it is unthinkable. See it in what light you will -- the world is yet in its first stage of disenthralment if not development, hence -- unprepared. Very true, we work by natural not supernatural means and laws. But, as on the one hand Science would find itself unable (in its present state) to account for the wonders given in its name, and on the other the ignorant masses would still be left to view the phenomenon in the light of a miracle; everyone who would thus be made a witness to the occurrence would be thrown off his balance and the results would be deplorable. Believe me, it would be so -- especially for yourself who originated the idea, and the devoted woman who so foolishly rushes into the wide open door leading to notoriety. This door, though opened by so friendly a hand as yours, would prove very soon a trap -- and a fatal one indeed for her. And such is not surely your object?
Madmen are they, who, speculating but upon the present, wilfully shut their
eyes to the past when made already to remain naturally blind to the future! Far
be it from me, to number you with the latter -- therefore will I endeavour to
explain. Were we to accede to your desires know you really what consequences
would follow in the trail of success? The inexorable shadow which follows all
human innovations moves on, yet few are they, who are ever conscious of its
approach and dangers. What are then to expect they, who would offer the world an
innovation which, owing to human ignorance, if believed in, will surely be
attributed to
p.2
those dark agencies the two-thirds of humanity believe in and
dread as yet? You say -- half London would be converted if you could deliver
them a Pioneer on its day of publication. I beg to say that if the
people believed the thing true they would kill you before you could make the
round of Hyde Park; if it were not believed true, -- the least that could happen
would be the loss of your reputation and good name, -- for propagating such
ideas.
The success of an attempt of such a kind as the one you propose, must be
calculated and based upon a thorough knowledge of the people around you. It
depends entirely upon the social and moral conditions of the people in their
bearing on these deepest and most mysterious questions which can stir the human
mind -- the deific powers in man and the possibilities contained in
nature. How many, even of your best friends, of those who surround you, who are
more than superficially interested in these abstruse problems? You could count
them upon the fingers of your right hand. Your race boasts of having liberated
in their century, the genius so long imprisoned in the narrow vase of dogmatism
and intolerance -- the genius of knowledge, wisdom and free thought. It says that
in their turn ignorant prejudice and religious bigotry, bottled up like the
wicked Jin of old, and sealed up by the Solomons of science rests at
the bottom of the sea and can never, escaping to the surface again, reign over
the world as it did in days of old; that the public mind is quite free, in
short, and ready to accept any demonstrated truth. Aye; but is it verily so, my
respected friend? Experimental knowledge does not quite date from 1662, when
Bacon, Robert Boyle and the Bishop of Chester transformed under the royal
charter their "Invisible College" into a Society for the promotion of
experimental science. Ages before the Royal Society found itself becoming a
reality upon the plan of the "Prophetic Scheme" an innate longing for the
hidden, a passionate love for and the study of nature had led men in every
generation to try and fathom her secrets deeper than their neighbours did.
Roma ante Romulum fuit -- is an axiom taught to us in your English schools.
Abstract enquiries into the most puzzling problems did not arise in the brain of
Archimedes as a spontaneous and hitherto untouched subject, but rather as a
reflection of prior enquiries in the same direction and by men separated from
his days by as long a period -- and far longer -- than the one which separates
you from the great Syracusian. The vril of the "Coming Race" was the
common property of races now extinct. And, as the very existence of those
gigantic ancestors of ours is now questioned -- though in the Himavats,
on the very territory belonging to you we have a cave full of the skeletons of
these giants -- and their huge frames when found are invariably regarded as
isolated freaks of nature, so the vril or Akas -- as we call
it --
p.3
is looked upon as an impossibility, a myth. And, without a thorough
knowledge of Akas, its combinations and properties, how can Science
hope to account for such phenomena? We doubt not but the men of your science are
open to conviction; yet facts must be first demonstrated to them, they must
first have become their own property, have proved amenable to their own modes of
investigation, before you find them ready to admit them as facts. If
you but look into the Preface to the "Micrographia" you will find
in Hooke's suggestions that the intimate relations of objects were of less
account in his eyes than their external operation on the senses -- and Newton's
fine discoveries found in him their greatest opponent. The modern Hookeses are
many. Like this learned but ignorant man of old your modern men of science are
less anxious to suggest a physical connexion of facts which might unlock for
them many an occult force in nature, as to provide a convenient "classification
of scientific experiments"; so that the most essential quality of an hypothesis
is not that it should be true but only plausible -- in their
opinion.
So far for Science -- as much as we know of it. As for human nature in
general, it is the same now as it was a million of years ago: Prejudice based
upon selfishness; a general unwillingness to give up an established order of
things for new modes of life and thought -- and occult study requires all that
and much more --; pride and stubborn resistance to Truth if it but upsets their
previous notions of things, -- such are the characteristics of your age, and
especially of the middle and lower classes. What then would be the results of
the most astounding phenomena, supposing we consented to have them produced?
However successful, danger would be growing proportionately with success. No
choice would soon remain but to go on, ever crescendo, or to fall in
this endless struggle with prejudice and ignorance killed by your own weapons.
Test after test would be required and would have to be furnished; every
subsequent phenomenon expected to be more marvellous than the preceding one.
Your daily remark is, that one cannot be expected to believe unless he becomes
an eye-witness. Would the lifetime of a man suffice to satisfy the whole world
of skeptics? It may be an easy matter to increase the original number of
believers at Simla to hundreds and thousands. But what of the hundreds of
millions of those who could not be made eye-witnesses? The ignorant -- unable to
grapple with the invisible operators -- might some day vent their rage on the
visible agents at work; the higher and educated classes would go on disbelieving
as ever, tearing you to shreds as before. In common with many, you blame us for
our great secrecy. Yet we know something of human nature for the experience of
long centuries -- aye, ages -- has taught us. And, we know, that so long as
science has anything
p.4
to learn, and a shadow of religious dogmatism lingers in
the hearts of the multitudes, the world's prejudices have to be conquered step
by step, not at a rush. As hoary antiquity had more than one Socrates so the dim
Future will give birth to more than one martyr. Enfranchised science
contemptuously turned away her face from the Copernican opinion renewing the
theories of Aristarchus Samius -- who "affirmeth that the earth moveth
circularly about her own centre" years before the Church sought to sacrifice
Galileo as a holocaust to the Bible. The ablest mathematician at the Court of
Edward VI -- Robert Recorde -- was left to starve in jail by his colleagues, who
laughed at his Castle of Knowledge, declaring his discoveries "vain
phantasies." Wm. Gilbert of Colchester -- Queen Elisabeth's physician -- died
poisoned, only because -- this real founder of experimental science in England
-- has had the audacity of anticipating Galileo; of pointing out Copernican's
fallacy as to the "third movement," which was gravely alleged to account for the
parallelism of the earth's axis of rotation! The enormous learning of the
Paracelsi, of the Agrippas and the Deys was ever doubted. It was science which
laid her sacrilegious hand upon the great work "De Magnete" -- "The Heavenly
White Virgin" (Akas) and others. And it was the illustrious "Chancellor
of England and of Nature" -- Lord Verulam-Bacon -- who having won the name of
the Father of Inductive Philosophy, permitted himself to speak of such men as
the above-named as the "Alchemicians of the Fantastic philosophy."
All this is old history, you will think. Verily so; but the chronicles of our modern days do not differ very essentially from their predecessors. And we have but to bear in mind the recent persecutions of mediums in England, the burning of supposed witches, and sorcerers in South America, Russia and the frontiers of Spain -- to assure ourselves that the only salvation of the genuine proficients in occult sciences lies in the skepticism of the public: the charlatans and the jugglers are the natural shields of the "adepts." The public safety is only ensured by our keeping secret the terrible weapons which might otherwise be used against it, and which, as you have been told became deadly in the hands of the wicked and selfish.
I conclude by reminding you that such phenomena as you crave, have ever been
reserved as a reward for those who have devoted their lives to serve the goddess
Saraswati -- our Aryan Isis. Were they given to the profanes what would
remain for our faithful ones? Many of your suggestions are highly reasonable and
will be attended to. I listened attentively to the conversation which took place
at Mr. Hume's. His arguments are perfect from the standpoint of exoteric wisdom.
But, when the time comes and he is allowed to have a full glimpse into the world
of esoterism,
p.5
with its laws based upon mathematically correct
calculations of the future -- the necessary results of the causes which we are
always at liberty to create and shape at our will but are as unable to control
their consequences which thus become our masters -- then only will, both you and
he understand why to the uninitiated our acts must seem often unwise, if not
actually foolish.
Your forthcoming letter I will not be able to fully answer without taking the
advice of those who generally deal with the European mystics. Moreover the
present letter must satisfy you on many points you have better defined in your
last; but it will no doubt disappoint you as well. In regard to the production
of newly devised and still more startling phenomena demanded of her with our
help, as a man well acquainted with the strategy, you must remain satisfied with
the reflection that there is little use in acquiring new positions until those
that you have already reached are secured, and your Enemies full aware of your
right to their possession. In other words, you had a greater variety of
phenomena produced for yourself and friends than many a regular neophyte has
seen in several years. First, notify the public of the production of the note,
the cup and the sundry experiments with the cigarette papers, and let them
digest these. Get them to work for an explanation. And as except upon the direct
and absurd accusation of deceit they will never be able to account for some of
these, while the skeptics are quite satisfied with their present hypothesis for
the production of the brooch -- you will then have done real good to the cause
of truth and justice to the woman who is made to suffer for it. Isolated as it
is, the case under notice in the Pioneer becomes less than
worthless -- it is positively injurious for all of you -- for yourself as the
Editor of that paper as much as for anyone else, if you pardon me for offering
you that which looks like advice. It is neither fair to yourself nor to her,
that, because the number of eye-witnesses does not seem sufficient to warrant
the public attention, your and your lady's testimony should go for nothing.
Several cases combining to fortify your position as truthful and intelligent
witness to the various occurrences, each of these gives you an additional right
to assert what you know. It imposes upon you the sacred duty to instruct the
public and prepare them for future possibilities by gradually opening their eyes
to the truth. The opportunity should not be lost through a lack of as great
confidence in your own individual right of assertion as that of Sir Donald
Stewart. One witness of well known character outweighs the evidence of ten
strangers; and if, there is anyone in India who is respected for his
trustworthiness it is -- the Editor of the Pioneer. Remember that there
was but one hysterical woman alleged to have been present at the pretended
ascension, and that the phenomenon has never been corroborated
p.6
by repetition.
Yet for nearly 2,000 years countless milliards have pinned their faith upon the
testimony of that one woman -- and she not over trustworthy.
TRY -- and first work upon the material you have and then we will be the
first to help you to get further evidence. Until then, believe me, always your
sincere friend,
KOOT HOOMI LAL SINGH.
Much Esteemed Sir and Brother,
We will be at cross purposes in our correspondence until it has been made
entirely plain that occult science has its own methods of research as fixed and
arbitrary as the methods of its antithesis physical science are in their way. If
the latter has its dicta so also has the former; and he who would cross the
boundary of the unseen world can no more prescribe how he will proceed than the
traveller who tries to penetrate to the inner subterranean recesses of L'Hassa
-- the blessed, could show the way to his guide. The mysteries never were, never
can be, put within the reach of the general public, not, at least, until that
longed for day when our religious philosophy becomes universal. At no time have
more than a scarcely appreciable minority of men possessed nature's secret,
though multitudes have witnessed the practical evidences of the possibility of
their possession. The adept is the rare efflorescence of a generation of
enquirers; and to become one, he must obey the inward impulse of his soul
irrespective of the prudential considerations of worldly science or sagacity.
Your desire is to be brought to communicate with one of us directly, without the
agency of either Mad. B. or any medium. Your idea would be, as I understand it,
to obtain such communications either by letters -- as the present one -- or by
audible words so as to be guided by one of us in the management and principally
in the instruction of the society. You seek all this, and yet, as you say
yourself, hitherto you have not found "sufficient reasons" to even give up your
"modes of life" -- directly hostile to such modes of communications. This is
hardly reasonable. He who would lift up high the banner of mysticism and
proclaim its reign near at hand, must give the example to others. He must be the
first to change his modes of life; and, regarding the study of the
occult mysteries as the upper step in the ladder of Knowledge must loudly
proclaim it such despite exact science and the opposition of society. "The
Kingdom of Heaven is obtained by force" say
p.7
the Christian mystics. It is but
with armed hand, and ready to either conquer or perish that the modern mystic
can hope to achieve his object.
My first answer covered, I believed, most of the questions contained in your second and even third letter. Having then expressed therein my opinion that the world in general was unripe for any too staggering proof of occult power, there but remains to deal with the isolated individuals, who seek like yourself to penetrate behind the veil of matter into the world of primal causes, i.e., we need only consider now the cases of yourself and Mr. Hume. This gentleman also, has done me the great honour to address me by name, offering to me a few questions and stating the conditions upon which he would be willing to work for us seriously. But your motives and aspirations being of diametrically opposite character, and hence -- leading to different results I must reply to each of you separately.
The first and chief consideration in determining us to accept or reject your offer lies in the inner motive which propels you to seek our instructions, and in a certain sense -- our guidance. The latter in all cases under reserve -- as I understand it, and therefore remaining a question independent of aught else. Now, what are your motives? I may try to define them in their general aspect, leaving details for further consideration. They are: (1) The desire to receive positive and unimpeachable proofs that there really are forces in nature of which science knows nothing; (2) The hope to appropriate them some day -- the sooner the better, for you do not like to wait -- so as to enable yourself -- (a) to demonstrate their existence to a few chosen western minds; (b) to contemplate future life as an objective reality built upon the rock of Knowledge -- not of faith; and (c) to finally learn -- most important this, among all your motives, perhaps, though the most occult and the best guarded -- the whole truth about our Lodges and ourselves; to get, in short, the positive assurance that the "Brothers" -- of whom everyone hears so much and sees so little -- are real entities -- not fictions of a disordered hallucinated brain. Such, viewed in their best light appear to us your "motives" for addressing me. And in the same spirit do I answer them, hoping that my sincerity will not be interpreted in a wrong way or attributed to anything like an unfriendly spirit.
To our minds then, these motives, sincere and worthy of every serious
consideration from the worldly standpoint, appear -- selfish. (You have
to pardon me what you might view as crudeness of language, if your desire really
is, that which you profess -- to learn truth and get instruction from us -- who
belong to quite a different world from the one you move in.) They are selfish
because you must be aware that the chief object of the T.S. is not so much to
p.8
gratify individual aspirations as to serve our fellow men: and the real value of
this term "selfish," which may jar upon your ear, has a peculiar significance
with us which it cannot have with you; therefore, and to begin with, you must
not accept it otherwise, than in the former sense. Perhaps you will better
appreciate our meaning when told that in our view the highest aspirations for
the welfare of humanity become tainted with selfishness if, in the mind of the
philanthropist there lurks the shadow of desire for self benefit or a tendency
to do injustice, even when these exist unconsciously to himself. Yet, you have
ever discussed but to put down the idea of a universal Brotherhood, questioned
its usefulness, and advised to remodel the T.S. on the principle of a college
for the special study of occultism. This, my respected and esteemed friend and
Brother -- will never do!
Having disposed of "personal motives," let us analyze your "terms" for helping us to do public good. Broadly stated these terms are -- first: that an independent Anglo-Indian Theosophical Society shall be founded through your kind services, in the management of which neither of our present representatives shall have any voice; and second, that one of us shall take the new body "under his patronage," -- be -- "in free and direct communication with its leaders," and afford them "direct proof that he really possessed that superior knowledge of the forces of nature and the attributes of the human soul which would inspire them with proper confidence in his leadership." I have copied your own words, so as to avoid inaccuracy in defining the position.
From your point of view then, those terms may seem so very reasonable as to
provoke no dissent; and, indeed, a majority of your countrymen -- if not of
Europeans -- might share that opinion. What, will you say, can be more
reasonable than to ask that teacher -- anxious to disseminate his knowledge, and
pupil -- offering him to do so should be brought face to face and the one give
the experimental proofs to the other that his instructions were correct? Man of
the world, living in, and in full sympathy with it -- you are undoubtedly right.
But the men of this other world of ours, untutored in your modes of thought, and
who find very hard at times to follow and appreciate the latter, can hardly be
blamed for not responding as heartily to your suggestions as in your opinion
they deserve. The first and most important of our objections is to be found in
our Rules. True, we have our schools and teachers, our neophytes and
shaberons (superior adepts), and the door is always opened to the right man who
knocks. And, we invariably welcome the new comer; -- only, instead of going over
to him he has to come to us. More than that: unless he has reached that point in
the path of occultism from which return is impossible, by his having irrevocably
pledged himself to our asso-
p.9
ciation, we never -- except in cases of utmost moment
-- visit him or even cross the threshold of his door in visible appearance.
Is any of you so eager for knowledge and the beneficent powers it confers as to be ready to leave your world and come into ours? Then let him come; but he must not think to return until the seal of the mysteries has locked his lips even against the chances of his own weakness or indiscretion. Let him come by all means, as the pupil to the master, and without conditions; or let him wait, as so many others have, and be satisfied with such crumbs of knowledge as may fall in his way.
And supposing you were thus to come -- as two of your own countrymen have already -- as Mad. B. did, and Mr. O. will; supposing you were to abandon all for the truth; to toil wearily for years up the hard steep road, not daunted by obstacles, firm under every temptation; were to faithfully keep within your heart the secrets entrusted to you as a trial; had worked with all your energy and unselfishly to spread the truth and provoke men to correct thinking and a correct life -- would you consider it just, if, after all your efforts, we were to grant to Mad. B. or Mr. O. as "outsiders" the terms you now ask for yourselves? Of these two persons one has already given three-fourths of a life, the other six years of manhood's prime to us, and both will so labour to the close of their days. Though ever working for their merited reward, yet never demanding it, nor murmuring when disappointed. Even though they respectively could accomplish far less than they do, would it not be a palpable injustice to ignore them as proposed in an important field of Theosophical effort? Ingratitude is not among our vices, nor do we imagine you would wish to advise it. . . .
Neither of them has the least inclination to interfere with the management of the contemplated Anglo-Indian Branch, nor dictate its officers. But, the new society, if formed at all, must (though bearing a distinctive title of its own) be, in fact, a Branch of the Parent body as is the British Theosophical Society at London, and contribute to its vitality and usefulness by promoting its leading idea of a Universal Brotherhood, and in other practicable ways.
Badly as the phenomena may have been shown, there have still been -- as
yourself admit -- certain ones that are unimpeachable. The "raps on the table
when no one touches it," and the "bell sounds in the air" have, you say, "always
been regarded as satisfactory," etc., etc. From this, you reason that good "test
phenomena" may easily be multiplied ad infinitum." So they can -- in
any place where our magnetic and other conditions are constantly offered; and
where we do not have to act with and through an enfeebled female body in which,
as we might say, a vital cyclone is raging much of the time. But, imperfect as
may
p.10
be our visible agent -- and often most unsatisfactory and imperfect she is
-- yet, she is the best available at present, and her phenomena have for about
half a century astounded and baffled some of the cleverest minds of the age. If
ignorant of "journalistic etiquette" and the requirements of physical science,
we still have an intuition of the effects of causes. Since you have written
nothing about the very phenomena you properly regard as so convincing we have
the right to infer that much precious power may be wasted without better
results. By itself the "brooch" affair is -- in the eyes of the world --
completely useless, and time will prove me right. Your kind intention has
entirely failed.
To conclude: we are ready to continue this correspondence if the view given
of occult study as above suits you. Through the ordeal described, each of us,
whatever his country, or race, has passed. Meanwhile, hoping in the best --
yours faithfully as ever
KOOT HOOMI LAL SINGH.
I saw K.H. in astral form on the night of 19th of October, 1880, -- waking up for a moment but immediately afterwards being rendered unconscious again (in the body and conscious out of the body in the adjacent dressing-room where I saw another of the Brothers afterwards identified with one called "Serapis" by Olcott, -- "the youngest of the chohans."
The note about the vision came the following morning, and during that day, the 20th, we went for a picnic to Prospect Hill, when the "pillow incident" occurred.
My Good "Brother,"
In dreams and visions at least, when rightly interpreted there can
hardly be an "element of doubt." . . . . I hope to prove to you my presence near
you last night by something I took away with me. Your lady will receive it back
on the Hill. I keep no pink paper to write upon, but I trust modest white will
do as well for what I have to say.
KOOT HOOMI LAL SINGH.
My "Dear Brother,"
This brooch No. 2 -- is placed in this very strange place simply to show to
you how very easily a real phenomenon is produced and how still easier it is to
suspect its genuineness. Make of it what you like even to classing me with
confederates.
The difficulty you spoke of last night with respect to the interchange of our
letters I will try to remove. One of our pupils will shortly visit Lahore and
the N.W.P. and an address will be sent to you which you can always use; unless,
indeed, you really would
p.11
prefer corresponding through -- pillows. Please to
remark that the present is not dated from a "Lodge" but from a Kashmir valley.
Yours, more than ever,
KOOT HOOMI LAL SINGH.
A few words more: why should you have felt disappointed at not receiving a direct reply to your last note? It was received in my room about half a minute after the currents for the production of the pillow dak had been set ready and in full play. And -- unless I had assured you that a man of your disposition need have little fear of being "fooled" -- there was no necessity for an answer. One favour I will certainly ask of you, and that is, that now that you -- the only party to whom anything was ever promised -- are satisfied that you should endeavour to disabuse the mind of the amorous Major and show to him his great folly and injustice.
Yours faithfully,
KOOT HOOMI LAL SINGH.
Apparently received 5th November.
Madam and Colonel O. arrived at our house, Allahabad, on December the 1st, 1880. Col. O. went to Benares on the 3rd
-- Madam joined him on the 11th. Both returned to Allahabad on 20th and stayed until 28th. A.P.S.
Amrita Saras, Oct. 29.
My Dear Brother,
I could assuredly make no objection to the style which you have kindly
adopted, in addressing me by name, since it is, as you say, the outcome of a
personal regard even greater than I have as yet deserved at your hands. The
conventionalities of the weary world, outside our secluded "Ashrums," trouble us
but little at any time; least of all now, when it is men not ceremony-masters,
we seek, devotion, not mere observances. More and more a dead formalism is
gaining ground, and I am truly happy to find so unexpected an ally in a quarter
where, hitherto there have not been too many -- among the highly educated
classes of English Society. A crisis, in a certain sense, is upon us now, and
must be met. I might say two crises -- one, the Society's, the other for Tibet.
For, I may tell you in confidence, that Russia is gradually massing her forces
for a future invasion of that country under the pretext of a Chinese War. If she
does not succeed it will be due to us; and herein, at least we will deserve your
gratitude. You see then, that we have weightier matters than small societies to
think about; yet, the T.S. must not be neglected. The affair has taken
p.12
an
impulse, which, if not well guided, might beget very evil issues. Recall to mind
the avalanches of your admired Alps, that you have often thought about, and
remember that at first their mass is small and their momentum little. A trite
comparison you may say, but I cannot think of a better illustration, when
viewing the gradual aggregation of trifling events, growing into a menacing
destiny for the Theos. Soc. It came quite forcibly upon me the other day as I
was coming down the defiles of Kouenlun -- Karakorum you call them -- and saw an
avalanche tumble. I had gone personally to our chief to submit Mr. Hume's
important offer, and was crossing over to Lhadak on my way home. What other
speculations might have followed I cannot say. But just as I was taking
advantage of the awful stillness which usually follows such cataclysm, to get a
clearer view of the present situation and the disposition of the "mystics" at
Simla, I was rudely recalled to my senses. A familiar voice, as shrill as the
one attributed to Saraswati's peacock -- which, if we may credit tradition,
frightened off the King of the Nagas -- shouted along the currents "Olcott has
raised the very devil again! . . . The Englishmen are going crazy. . . . Koot
Hoomi, come quicker and help me!" -- and in her excitement forgot she
was speaking English. I must say, that the "Old Lady's" telegrams do strike one
like stones from a catapult!
What could I do but come? Argument through space with one who was in cold despair, and in a state of moral chaos was useless. So I determined to emerge from the seclusion of many years and spend some time with her to comfort her as well as I could. But our friend is not one to cause her mind to reflect the philosophical resignation of Marcus Aurelius. The fates never wrote that she could say: "It is a royal thing, when one is doing good to hear evil spoken of himself." . . . I had come for a few days, but now find that I myself cannot endure for any length of time the stifling magnetism even of my own countrymen. I have seen some of our proud old Sikhs drunk and staggering over the marble pavement of their sacred Temple. I have heard an English-speaking Vakil declaim against Yog Vidya and Theosophy, as a delusion and a lie, declaring that English Science had emancipated them from such "degrading superstitions," and saying that it was an insult to India to maintain that the dirty Yogees and Sunnyasis knew anything about the mysteries of nature; or that any living man can or ever could perform any phenomena! I turn my face homeward to-morrow.
The delivery of this letter may very possibly be delayed for a few days,
owing to causes which it will not interest you for me to specify. Meanwhile,
however, I have telegraphed you my thanks for your obliging compliance with my
wishes in the matters
p.13
you allude to in your letter of the 24th inst. I see with
pleasure, that you have not failed to usher me before the world as a possible
"confederate." That makes our number ten, I believe? But I must say,
that your promise was well and loyally fulfilled. Received at Umritsur on the
27th inst., at 2 p.m., I got your letter about thirty miles beyond Rawul Pindee,
five minutes later, and had an acknowledgment wired to you from Jhelum at 4 p.m.
on the same afternoon. Our modes of accelerated delivery and quick
communications are not then, as you will see, to be despised by the Western
world, or even the Aryan, English-speaking and skeptical Vakils.
I could not ask a more judicial frame of mind in an ally than that in which you are beginning to find yourself. My Brother, you have already changed your attitude toward us in a distinct degree: what is to prevent a perfect mutual understanding one day!
Mr. Hume's proposition has been duly and carefully considered. He will, no
doubt, advise you of the results as expressed in my letter, to him. Whether he
will give our "modes of action" as fair a trial as yourself -- is another
question. Our Maha (the "Chief") has allowed me to correspond with both
of you, and even -- in case an Anglo-Indian Branch is formed -- to come some day
in personal contact with it. It now depends entirely on you. I cannot
tell you more. You are quite right as to the standing of our friends in the
Anglo-Indian world having been materially improved by the Simla visit; and, it
is also true, though you modestly refrain from saying so, that we are mainly
indebted to you for this. But quite apart from the unlucky incidents of the
Bombay publications, it is not possible that there should be much more
at best than a benevolent neutrality shown by your people toward ours. There is
so very minute a point of contact between the two civilisations they
respectively represent, that one might almost say they could not touch at all.
Nor would they but for the few -- shall I say eccentrics? -- who, like you,
dream better and bolder dreams than the rest; and provoking thought, bring the
two together by their own admirable audacity. 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, and, perhaps, of trying the strength of your personal
interest in occultism and theosophy? I do not say it was so; I but
enquire whether the contingency ever presented itself to your mind. I have
already caused it to be intimated to you that if the details given in the stolen
letter had been anticipated in the Pioneer -- a much more
appropriate place, and where they would
p.14
have been handled to better advantage --
that document would not have been worth anyone's while to purloin for the
Times of India, and therefore no names would have appeared.
Colonel Olcott is doubtless "out of time with the feelings of English people"
of both classes; but nevertheless more in time with us than either. Him
we can trust under all circumstances, and his faithful service is
pledged to us come well, come ill. My dear Brother, my voice is the echo of
impartial justice. Where can we find an equal devotion? He is one who never
questions, but obeys; who may make innumerable mistakes out of excessive zeal
but never is unwilling to repair his fault even at the cost of the greatest
self-humiliation; who esteems the sacrifice of comfort and even life something
to be cheerfully risked whenever necessary; who will eat any food, or even go
without; sleep on any bed, work in any place, fraternise with any outcast,
endure any privation for the cause. . . I admit that his connection with an A.
I. Branch would be "an evil" -- hence, he will have no more to do with it than
he has with the British, (London Branch). His connection will be purely nominal,
and may be made more so, by framing your Rules more carefully than
theirs; and giving your organization such a self-acting system of Government as
would seldom if ever require any outside interference. But to make an
independent A.I.B. with the self-same objects, either in whole or apart, as the
Parent Society and with the same directors behind the scenes would be not only
to deal a mortal blow at the Theos. Soc. but also put upon us a double labour
and anxiety without the slightest compensating advantage that any of us can
perceive. The Parent S. has never interfered in the slightest degree with the
British T.S., nor indeed with any other Branch, whether religious or
philosophical. Having formed, or caused to be formed a new branch, the Parent S.
charters it (which it cannot now do without our Sanction and signatures), and
then usually retires behind the scenes, as you would say. Its further connection
with the subject branches is limited to receiving quarterly accounts of their
doings and lists of the new Fellows, ratifying expulsions -- only when specially
called upon as an arbitrator to interfere on account of the Founders' direct
connection with us -- etc., etc.; it never meddles otherwise in their affairs
except when appealed to as a sort of appelate court. And the latter depending on
you, what is there to prevent your Society from remaining virtually independent?
We are, even more generous than you British are to us. We will not force upon,
nor even ask you to sanction a Hindu "Resident" in your Society, to watch the
interests of the Parent Paramount Power when we have once declared you
independent; but will implicitly trust to your loyalty and word of honour. But
if you now so dislike the idea of a purely nominal
p.15
executive supervision by Col.
Olcott -- an American of your own race -- you would surely rebel against
dictation from a Hindu, whose habits and methods are those of his own people,
and whose race, despite your natural benevolence, you have not yet learnt to
tolerate, let alone to love or respect. Think well before you ask for our
guidance. Our best, most learned. and highest adepts are of the races of the
"greasy Tibetans"; and the Penjabi Singhs -- you know the lion is proverbially a
dirty and offensive beast, despite his strength and courage. Is it certain that
your good compatriots would more easily forgive our Hindu solecisms in manners
than those of their own kinsmen of America? If my observations have not misled I
should say this was doubtful. National prejudices are apt to leave one's
spectacles undimmed. You say "how glad we should be, if that one (to guide you)
were yourself," meaning your unworthy correspondent. My good Brother, are you
certain, that the pleasant impression you now may have from our correspondence,
would not instantly be destroyed upon seeing me? And which of our holy
Shaberons has had the benefit of even the little university education and
inkling of European manners that has fallen to my share? An instance: I desired
Mad. B. to select among the two or three Aryan Punjabees who study Yog
Vidya, and our natural mystics, one, whom -- without disclosing myself to
him too much I could designate as an agent between yourself and us, and whom I
was anxious to dispatch to you, with a letter of introduction, and have him
speak to you of Yoga and its practical effects. This young gentleman
who is as pure as purity itself, whose aspirations and thoughts are of the most
spiritual ennobling kind, and who merely through self-exertion is able to
penetrate into the regions of the formless worlds -- this young man is not fit
for -- a drawing-room. Having explained to him that the greatest good might
result for his country if he helped you to organize a Branch of English mystics
by proving to them practically to what wonderful results led the study
of Yog, Mad. B. asked him in guarded and very delicate terms to change his dress
and turban before starting for Allahabad -- for, though she did not give him
this reason, they were very dirty and slovenly. You are to tell Mr.
Sinnett -- she said -- that you bring him a letter from our Brother K., with
whom he corresponds. But, if he asks you anything either of him or the other
Brothers answer him simply and truthfully that you are not allowed to expatiate
upon the subject. Speak of Yog and prove to him what powers you have attained.
This young man who had consented wrote later on the following curious letter:
"Madam," he said, "you who preach the highest standards of morality, of
truthfulness, etc., you would have me play the part of an imposter. You ask me
to change my clothes
p.16
at the risk of giving a false idea of my
personality and mystifying the gentleman you send me to. And what if he asks me
if I personally know Koot Hoomi, am I to keep silent and allow him to think I
do? This would be a tacit falsehood, and guilty of that, I would be thrown back
into the awful whirl of transmigration!" Here is an illustration of the
difficulties under which we have to labour. Powerless to send to you a
neophyte before you have pledged yourself to us -- we have to either keep
back or despatch to you one who at best would shock if not inspire you at once
with disgust! The letter would have been given him by my own hand; he had but to
promise to hold his tongue upon matters he knows nothing about and could give
but a false idea of, and to make himself look cleaner. Prejudice and dead letter
again. For over a thousand years, -- says Michelet, -- the Christian Saints
never washed themselves! For how long will our Saints dread to change their
clothes for fear of being taken for Marmaliks and the neophytes of rival and
cleaner sects!
But these, our difficulties, ought not to prevent you from beginning your work. Colonel O. and Mad. B. seeming willing to become personally responsible for both yourself and Mr. Hume, if you yourself are ready to answer for the fidelity of any man your party may choose as the leader of the A.I.T.S., we are content that the trial shall be made. The field is yours and no one will be allowed to interfere with you except myself on behalf of our Chiefs when you once do me the honour to prefer me to the others. But before one builds the house he makes the plan. Suppose you draft a memorandum as to the constitution and policy of management of the A.I. Society you have in mind and submit it for consideration? If our Chiefs agree to it -- and it is not surely they who would show themselves obstructive in the universal onward march, or retard this movement to a higher goal -- then you will at once be chartered. But they must first see the plan; and I must ask you to remember that the new Society shall not be allowed to disconnect itself with the Parent Body, though you are at liberty to manage your affairs in your own way without fearing the slightest interference from its President so long as you do not violate the general Rules. And upon this point I refer you to Rule 9. This is the first practical suggestion coming from a Cis and Trans-Himalayan "cave-dweller" whom you have honoured with your confidence.
And now about yourself personally. Far be it from me to discourage one so
willing as yourself by setting up impossible barriers to your progress. We never
whine over the inevitable but try to make the best of the worst. And though we
neither push nor draw into the mysterious domain of occult nature those who are
unwilling; never shrink from expressing our opinions freely
p.17
and fearlessly, yet
we are ever as ready to assist those who come to us; even to -- agnostics
who assume the negative position of "knowing nothing but
phenomena and refuse to believe in anything else." It is true that the
married man cannot be an adept, yet without striving to become "a RAGA
YOGI" he can acquire certain powers and do as much good to mankind and often
more, by remaining within the precincts of this world of his. Therefore, shall
we not ask you to precipitately change fixed habits of life, before the full
conviction of its necessity and advantage has possessed you. You are a man to be
left to lead himself, and may be so left with safety. Your resolution is taken
to deserve much: time will effect the rest. There are more ways than one for
acquiring occult knowledge. "Many are the grains of incense destined for one and
the same altar: one falls sooner into the fire, the other later -- the
difference of time is nothing," remarked a great man when he was refused
admission and supreme initiation into the mysteries. There is a tone of
complaint in your question whether there ever will be a renewal of the vision
you had, the night before the picnic day. Methinks, were you to have a vision
nightly, you would soon cease to "treasure" them at all. But there is a far
weightier reason why you should not have a surfeit -- it would be a waste of our
strength. As often as I, or any of us can communicate with you, whether by
dreams, waking impressions, letters (in or out of pillows) or personal visits in
astral form -- it will be done. But remember that Simla is 7,000 feet higher
than Allahabad, and the difficulties to be surmounted at the latter are
tremendous. I abstain from encouraging you to expect too much, for, like
yourself, I am loathe to promise what, for various reasons, I may not be able to
perform.
The term "Universal Brotherhood" is no idle phrase. Humanity in the mass has a paramount claim upon us, as I try to explain in my letter to Mr. Hume, which you had better ask the loan of. It is the only secure foundation for universal morality. If it be a dream, it is at least a noble one for mankind and it is the aspiration of the true adept.
Yours faithfully,
KOOT HOOMI LAL SINGH.
My Dear Friend,
I have your letter of November 19th, abstracted by our special osmosis
from the envelope at Meerut, and yours to our "old lady" in its half empty
registered shell safely sent on to Cawnpore, to make her swear at me. . . . .
But she is too weak to play at the astral postman just now. I am sorry to see
that she has once more
p.18
proved inaccurate and led you into error; but this is
chiefly my own fault, as I often neglect to give her an extra rub over her poor
sick head, now, when she forgets and mixes up things more than usual. I did not
ask her to tell you "to give up the idea of the A.I. Branch as nothing would
come of it," but -- "to give up the idea of the Anglo-Indian Branch in
co-operation with Mr. Hume, as nothing would come of it." I will send you
his answer to my letter and my final epistle and you will judge for yourself.
After reading the latter, you will please seal and send it to him, simply
stating that you do so on my behalf. Unless he asks the question you better not
let him know you have read his letter. He may be proud of it, but --
should not.
My dear, good friend, you must not bear me a grudge for what I say to him of
the English in general. They are haughty. To us especially, so that we
regard it as a national feature. And, you must not confound your own private
views -- especially those you have now -- with those of your countrymen in
general. Few, if any -- (of course with such exceptions as yourself, where
intensity of aspirations makes one disregard all other considerations) -- would
ever consent to have "a nigger" for a guide or leader, no more than a modern
Desdemona would choose an Indian Othello nowadays. The prejudice of race is
intense, and even in free England we are regarded as an "inferior race." And
this same tone vibrates in your own remark about "a man of the people unused to
refined ways" and "a foreigner but a gentleman," the latter being the man to be
preferred. Nor would a Hindu be likely to have such a lack of "refined ways"
disregarded in him were he "an adept" twenty times over again; and this very
same trait appears prominent in Viscount Amberley's criticism on the "underbred
Jesus." Had you paraphrased your sentence and said: -- "a foreigner but no
gentleman" (according to English notions) you could not have added as you did,
that he would be thought the fittest. Hence, I say it again, that the majority
of our Anglo-Indians, among whom the terms "Hindu" or "Asiatic" is generally
coupled with a vague yet actual idea of one who uses his fingers instead of a
bit of cambric, and who abjures soap -- would most certainly prefer an American
to "a greasy Tibetan." But you need not tremble for me. Whenever I make my
appearance -- whether astrally or physically -- before my friend A. P. Sinnett,
I will not forget to invest a certain sum in a square of the finest Chinese silk
to carry in my chogga pocket, nor to create an atmosphere of
sandal-wood and cashmere roses. This is the least I could do in atonement for my
countrymen. But then, you see, I am but a slave of my masters; and if, allowed
to gratify my own friendly feeling for you, and attend to you individually,
I may not be permitted to do as much for others.
P.19
Nay, to tell truth, I know
I am not permitted to do so, and Mr. Hume's unfortunate letter has contributed
much to it. There is a distinct group or section in our fraternity who attend to
our casual and very rare accessions of another race and blood, and who brought
across the threshold Captain Remington and two other Englishmen during this
century. And these "Brothers" -- do not habitually use floral essences.
So the test of the 27th was no test phenomenon? Of course, of course. But did you try to get, as you said you would, the original MSS. of the Jhelum dispatch? Though our hollow but plethoric friend, Mrs. B., were even proved to be my multum in parvo, my letter-writer, and to manufacture my epistles, yet, unless she were ubiquitous or had the gift of flying from Amritsar to Jhelum -- a distance over 200 miles -- in two minutes, how could she have written for me the dispatch in my own hand-writing at Jhelum hardly two hours after your letter was received by her at Amritsar? This is why I was not sorry that you said you would send for it, for, with this dispatch in your possession, no "detractors" would be very strong, nor even the sceptical logic of Mr. Hume prevail.
Naturally you imagine that the "nameless revelation" -- which now re-echoes in England -- would have been pounced upon far more eagerly than even it was, by the Times of India, if it revealed the names. But here again, I will prove you wrong. Had you first printed the account, the T. of I. could never have published "A day with Madame B.," since that nice bit of American "sensationalism" would not have been written by Olcott at all. It would not have had its raison d'etre. Anxious to collect for his Society every proof corroborative of the occult powers of what he terms the 1st Section, and seeing that you remained silent, our gallant Colonel felt his hand itch until it brought everything to light, and -- plunged everything into darkness and consternation! . . . "Et voici pourquoi nous n'irons plus au bois," as the French song goes.
Did you write "tune"? Well, well; I must ask you to buy me a pair of spectacles in London. And yet -- out of "time" or out of "tune" is all one, as it seems. But you ought to adopt my old fashioned habit of "little lines" over the "m's." Those bars are useful, even though "out of tune and time" with modern caligraphy. Besides, bear in mind, that these my letters, are not written but impressed or precipitated and then all mistakes corrected.
We will not discuss, at present, whether your aims and objects are so widely
different from those of Mr. Hume's; but if he may be actuated by "a purer and
broader philanthropy," the way he sets to work to achieve these aims will never
carry him beyond pure theoretical disquisitions upon the subject. No use now in
trying
P.20
to represent him in any other light. His letter that you will soon read
-- is, as I say to himself, "a monument of pride and unconscious selfishness."
He is too just and superior a man to be guilty of petty vanities; but his pride
climbs like that of the mythical Lucifer; and, you may believe me -- if I have
any experience in human nature -- when I say, that this is Hume -- au
naturel. It is no hasty conclusion of mine based upon any personal feeling,
but the decision of the greatest of our living adepts -- the Shaberon of Than --
La. Of whatever question he touches his treatment is the same: a stubborn
determination to make everything either fit his own foregone conclusions or --
sweep it away by a rush of ironical and adverse criticism. Mr. Hume is a very
able man and -- Hume to the core. Such a state of mind offers little attraction,
as you will understand, to any of us who might be willing to come and help him.
No; I do not and never will "despise" any "feeling" however it may
clash with my own principles, when it is expressed as frankly and openly as
yours. You may be, and undoubtedly are, moved by more egotism than broad
benevolence for mankind. Yet as you confess it without mounting any
philanthropical stilts, I tell you candidly that you have far more chances than
Mr. Hume to learn a good bit of occultism. I, for one, will do all I can for
you, under the circumstances and restrained as I am by fresh orders. I
will not tell you to give up this or that, for, unless you exhibit beyond
any doubt the presence in you of the necessary germs it would be
as useless as it would be cruel. But I say -- Try. Do not despair. Unite to
yourself several determined men and women and make experiments in mesmerism and
the usual so-called "spiritual" phenomena. If you act in accordance with
prescribed methods you are sure to ultimately obtain results. Apart from this, I
will do my best and -- who knows! Strong will creates and
sympathy attracts even adepts, whose laws are antagonistic to their mixing with
the uninitiated. If you are willing I will send you an Essay showing
why in Europe more than anywhere else a Universal Brotherhood, i.e., an
association of "affinities" of strong magnetic yet dissimilar forces and
polarities centred around one dominant idea, is necessary for successful
achievements in occult sciences. What one will fail to do -- the combined many
will achieve. Of course you will have -- in case you organise -- to put up with
Olcott at the head of the Parent Society, hence -- nominally the President of
all the existing Branches. But he will be no more your "leader " than he is the
leader of the British Theos. Society, which has its own President, its own
Rules and Bye-laws. You will be chartered by him, and that's all. In some
cases he will have to sign a paper or two -- 4 times a year the accounts sent in
by your Secretary; yet he has
p.21
no right to interfere either with your
administration or modes of action, so long as these do not clash with the
general Rules, and he certainly has neither the ability nor the desire
of being your leader. And, of course, you (meaning the whole Society) will have
besides your own President chosen by yourselves, "a qualified professor of
occultism" to instruct you. But, my good friend, abandon all notion that this
"Professor" can bodily appear and instruct you for years to come. I may
come to you personally -- unless you drive me off, as Mr. Hume did -- I
cannot come to all. You may get phenomena and proofs, but even were you to
fall into the old error and attribute them to "Spirits" we could but show you
your mistake by philosophical and logical explanations; no adept would be
allowed to attend your meetings.
Of course you ought to write your book. I do not see, why in any case it should be impracticable. Do so, by all means, and any help I can give you I will. You ought to put yourself immediately in correspondence with Lord Lindsay, and take the Simla phenomena and your correspondence with me as the subject. He is intensely interested in all such experiments, and being a theosophist and upon the General Council is sure to welcome your overtures. Take the ground that you belong to the T.S., that you are the widely known Editor of the "Pioneer," and that, knowing how great an interest he takes in the "spiritual" phenomena you submit to his consideration the very extraordinary things which took place at Simla, with such additional details as have not been published. The best of the British Spiritualists could, with proper management, be converted into Theosophists. But neither Dr. Wyld, nor Mr. Massey, seem to have the requisite force. I advise you to confer personally with Lord Lindsay upon the theosophical situation at home and in India. Perhaps you two might work together: the correspondence I now suggest will pave the way.
Even if Madame B. might "be induced" to give the A.I. Society any "practical instruction" I am afraid she has remained too long a time outside the adytum to be of much use for practical explanations. However, though it does not depend upon me, I will see what I can do in this direction. But I fear she is sadly in need of a few months of recuperative villagiatura, on the glaciers, with her old Master before she can be entrusted with such a difficult task. Be very cautious with her in case she stops with you on her way down home. Her nervous system is terribly shaken, and she requires every care. Will you please spare me needless trouble by informing me of the year, date, and hour of Mrs. Sinnett's birth?
Ever yours sincerely,
KOOT HOOMI LAL
SINGH
p.22
Received at Allahabad about December 10th, 1880.
No -- you do not "write too much." I am only sorry to have so little time at my disposal; hence -- to find myself unable to answer you as speedily as I otherwise would. Of course I have to read every word you write: otherwise I would make a fine mess of it. And whether it be through my physical or spiritual eyes the time required for it is practically the same. As much may be said of my replies. For, whether I "precipitate" or dictate them or write my answers myself, the difference in time saved is very minute. I have to think it over, to photograph every word and sentence carefully in my brain before it can be repeated by "precipitation." As the fixing on chemically prepared surfaces of the images formed by the camera requires a previous arrangement within the focus of the object to be represented, for otherwise -- as often found in bad photographs -- the legs of the sitter might appear out of all proportion with the head, and so on, so we have to first arrange our sentences and impress every letter to appear on paper in our minds before it becomes fit to be read. For the present, it is all I can tell you. When science will have learned more about the mystery of the lithophyl (or lithobiblion) and how the impress of leaves comes originally to take place on stones, then will I be able to make you better understand the process. But you must know and remember one thing: we but follow and servilely copy nature in her works.
No; we need argue no longer upon the unfortunate question of a "Day with Mad. B." It is the more useless, since you say, you have no right to crush and grind your uncivil and often blackguardly opponents in the "Pioneer" -- even in your own defence -- your proprietors objecting to the mention of occultism altogether. As they are Christians it is no matter of great wonder. Let us be charitable and hope they will get their own reward: die and become angels of right and Truth -- winged paupers of the Christian heaven.
Unless you join several, and organize somehow or other, I am afraid I will prove but of little help for you practically. My dear friend, I have my "proprietors" also. For reasons best known to themselves they have set their foot upon the idea of teaching isolated individuals. I will correspond with you and give you proofs from time to time of my existence and presence. To teach or instruct you -- is altogether another question. Hence to sit with your lady is more than useless. Your magnetisms are too similar and -- you will get nothing.
I will translate my Essay and send it to you as soon as I can.
p.23
Your idea of corresponding with your friends and fellows is the next best thing
to do. But do not fail to write to Lord Lindsay.
I am a little "too hard" upon Hume, you say. Am I? His is a highly intellectual and, I confess, a spiritual nature too. Yet, he is every bit of him "Sir Oracle." It may be that it is the very exuberance of that great intellect which seeks issue through every chink, and never loses an opportunity to relieve the fulness of the brain, which overflows with thought. Finding in his quiet daily life too meagre a field with but "Moggy" and Davison to sow upon -- his intellect bursts the dam and pounces upon every imagined event, every possible though improbable fact his imagination can suggest, to interpret it in his own conjectural way. Nor do I wonder that such a skilled workman in intellectual mosaic as he, finding suddenly, the most fertile of quarries, the most precious of colour-stores in this idea of our Fraternity and the T.S. -- should pick out ingredients from it to daub our faces with. Placing us before a mirror which reflects us as he finds us in his own fertile imagination he says: "Now, you mouldy relics of a mouldy Past, look at yourselves how you really are!" A very, very excellent man our friend Mr. Hume, but utterly unfit for moulding into an adept.
As little, and far less than yourself does he seem to realize our real object
in the formation of an A.I. Branch. The truths and mysteries of occultism
constitute, indeed, a body of the highest spiritual importance, at once profound
and practical for the world at large. Yet, it is not as a mere addition to the
tangled mass of theory or speculation in the world of science that they are
being given to you, but for their practical bearing on the interests of mankind.
The terms "unscientific," "impossible," "hallucination," "impostor," have
hitherto been used in a very loose, careless way, as implying in the occult
phenomena something either mysterious and abnormal, or a premeditated imposture.
And this is why our chiefs have determined to shed upon a few recipient minds
more light upon the subject, and to prove to them that such manifestations are
as reducible to law as the simplest phenomena of the physical universe. The
wiseacres say: "The age of miracles is past," but we answer, "it never existed!"
While not unparalleled, or without their counterpart in universal history, these
phenomena must and will come with an overpowering influence upon the world of
sceptics and bigots. They have to prove both destructive and
constructive -- destructive in the pernicious errors of the past, in
the old creeds and superstitions which suffocate in their poisonous embrace like
the Mexican weed nigh all mankind; but constructive of new institutions
of a genuine, practical Brotherhood of Humanity where all will become co-workers
of nature, will work for the good of mankind with and
p.24
through
the higher planetary Spirits -- the only "Spirits" we believe in.
Phenomenal elements, previously unthought of -- undreamt of -- will soon begin
manifesting themselves day by day with constantly augmented force, and disclose
at last the secrets of their mysterious workings. Plato was right: ideas
rule the world; and, as men's minds will receive new ideas, laying
aside the old and effete, the world will advance: mighty revolutions will spring
from them; creeds and even powers will crumble before their onward march crushed
by the irresistible force. It will be just as impossible to resist their influx,
when the time comes, as to stay the progress of the tide. But all this will come
gradually on, and before it comes we have a duty set before us; that of sweeping
away as much as possible the dross left to us by our pious forefathers. New
ideas have to be planted on clean places, for these ideas touch upon the most
momentous subjects. It is not physical phenomena but these universal ideas that
we study, as to comprehend the former, we have to first understand the latter.
They touch man's true position in the universe, in relation to his previous and
future births; his origin and ultimate destiny; the relation of the mortal to
the immortal; of the temporary to the eternal; of the finite to the infinite;
ideas larger, grander, more comprehensive, recognising the universal reign of
Immutable Law, unchanging and unchangeable in regard to which there is only an
ETERNAL NOW, while to uninitiated mortals time is past or future as related to
their finite existence on this material speck of dirt. This is what we study and
what many have solved.
And now it is your province to decide which will you have: the highest philosophy or simple exhibitions of occult powers. Of course this is by far not the last word between us and -- you will have time to think it over. The Chiefs want a "Brotherhood of Humanity," a real Universal Fraternity started; an institution which would make itself known throughout the world and arrest the attention of the highest minds. I will send you my Essay. Will you be my co-worker and patiently wait for minor phenomena? I think I foresee the answer. At all events the holy lamp of spiritual light burning in you (however dimly) there is hope for you, and -- for me, also. Yes; put yourself in search after natives if there are no English people to be had. But think you, the spirit and power of persecution gone from this enlightened age? Time will prove. Meanwhile, being human I have to rest. I took no sleep for over 60 hours.
Ever yours truly,
KOOT HOOMI.
p.25
Enclosed in Mad. B.'s from Bombay. Received January 30th, 1881.
There is no fault on your part in the whole matter. I am sorry you should think I am imputing any fault to you. If anything, you might almost feel you had to blame me for giving you hopes without having the shadow of such a right. I ought to have been less optimistic and then you would have been less sanguine in your expectations. I really feel as if I had wronged you! Happy, thrice happy and blessed are they, who have never consented to visit the world beyond their snow-capped mountains; whose physical eyes have never lost sight of for one day of the endless ranges of hills, and the long unbroken line of eternal snows! Verily and indeed, do they live in, and have found their Ultima Thule. . . .
Why say, you are a victim of circumstances, since nothing is yet seriously
changed and that much, if not all, depends upon future developments? You were
not asked or expected to revolutionise your life habits, but at the
same time you were warned not to expect too much as you are. If you read between
the lines you must have remarked what I said about the very narrow margin left
to me for doing as I choose in the matter. But despond not, for it is
all but a matter of time. The world was not evolved between two monsoons, my
good friend. If you had come to me as a boy of 17, before the world had put its
heavy hand upon you, your task would have been twenty-fold easier. And now, we
must take you, and you must see yourself as you are, not as the ideal
human image which our emotional fancy always projects for us upon the glass. Be
patient, friend and brother; and I must repeat again -- be our helpful
co-worker; but in your own sphere, and according to your ripest judgment. Since
our venerable Hobilgan has decreed in his wise prevision that I had no right to
encourage you to enter a path, where you would have to roll the stone of
Sisyphus, held back as you surely would be by your previous and most sacred
duties -- we really must wait. I know your motives are sincere and true, and
that a real change, and in the right direction, has come over you, though even
to yourself that change is imperceptible. And -- the chiefs know it too. But,
say they -- motives are vapours, as attenuated as the atmospheric moisture: and,
as the latter develops its dynamic energy for man's use only when concentrated
and applied as steam or hydraulic power, so the practical value of good motives
is best seen when they take the form of deeds. . . . "Yes, we will wait and see"
-- they say. And now I have told you as much as I ever had the right to say. You
have more
p.26
than once already helped this Society, even though you did not care
for it yourself, and these deeds are upon record. Nay -- they are even more
meritorious in you, than they would be in anyone else, considering your well
grounded ideas of that poor organization at present. And, you have thereby won a
friend -- one, far higher and better than myself -- and one who will in future
help me to defend your cause, able as he is, to do it far more effectually than
I can, for he belongs to the "foreign Section."
I believe I have laid down for you the general lines on which we wish the work of organizing -- if possible -- the Anglo-Indian Branch to proceed: the details must be left to you -- if you are still willing to help me.
If you have anything to say or ask any questions, you better write to me and I will always answer your letters. But, ask for no phenomena for a while, as it is but such paltry manifestations which now stand in your way.
Yours ever truly,
K. H.
Received through Mad. B. About February 20th, 1881.
My dear friend, you are certainly on the right path: the path of deeds and actions, not mere words -- may you live long and keep on!. . . I hope this will not be regarded by you as an encouragement to be "goody goody" -- a happy expression which made me laugh -- but you indeed step in as a kind of Kalka Avatar dispelling the shadows of "Kali-yug" -- the black night of the perishing T.S. and driving away before you the fata morgana of its Rules. I must cause the word fecit to appear after your name in invisible but indelible characters on the list of the General Council, as it may prove some day a secret door to the heart of the sternest of Hobilgans. . . .
Though a good deal occupied -- alas, as usual, I must contrive to send you a
somewhat lengthy farewell epistle before you take up a journey that may have
most important results -- and not alone for our cause. . . . You understand, do
you not, that it is no fault of mine if I cannot meet you as I would?
Nor is it yours, but rather that of your life-long environment and a special
delicate task I have been entrusted with since I knew you. Do not
blame me then, if I do not show myself in more tangible shape, as not you alone,
but I myself might desire! When I am not permitted to do so for Olcott -- who
has toiled for us these five years, how could I be for others who have undergone
none of his training as yet? This applies equally to the case of the Lord
Crawford and Balcarres, an excellent gentleman -- imprisoned by the world. His
is
p.27
a sincere and noble, though may be a little too repressed nature. He asks
what hope he may have? I say -- every hope. For he has that within
himself that so very few possess: an exhaustless source of magnetic fluid which,
if he only had the time, he could call out in torrents and need no other master
than himself. His own powers would do the work and his own great experience be a
sure guide for him. But, he would have to guard against, and avoid every
foreign influence -- especially those antagonistic to the nobler study of
man as an integral Brahm, the microcosm free and entirely independent of either
the help or control of the invisible agencies the "new dispensation" (bombastic
word!) calls "Spirits." His Lordship will understand my meaning without any
further explanation: he is welcome to read this if he chooses, if the opinions
of an obscure Hindu interest him. Were he a poor man, he might have become an
English Dupotet, with the addition of great scientific attainments in exact
science. But alas --! what the peerage has gained psychology has lost. . . . And
yet it is not too late. But see, even after mastering magnetic science and
giving his powerful mind to the study of the noblest branches of exact science,
how even he has failed to lift more than a small corner of the veil of mystery.
Ah! that whirling, showy, glittering world, full of insatiable ambition, where
family and the State parcel out between them a man's nobler nature, as two
tigers a carcase, and leave him without hope or light! How many recruits could
we not have from it, if no sacrifice were exacted! His Lordship's letter to you
exhales an influence of sincerity tinged with regret. This is a good man at
heart with latent capacity for being a far better and a happier one. Had his lot
not been cast as it has, and had his intellectual power all been turned upon
Soul-culture, he would have achieved much more than he ever dreamt. Out of such
material were adepts made in the days of Aryan glory. But I must dwell no longer
upon this case; and I crave his Lordship's pardon if, in the bitterness of my
regret I over-stepped in any way the bounds of propriety, in this too free
"psychometrical delineation of character" as the American mediums would express
it . . . full measure only bounds excess" but -- I dare go no further. Ah, my
too positive and yet impatient friend, if you but had such latent
capacities!
The "direct communication" with me of which you write in your supplement
note, and the "enormous advantage" that it would bring "to the book itself, if
it can be conceded," would be so conceded at once, did it depend but of me
alone. Though it is not often judicious to repeat oneself, yet I am so anxious
that you should realize the present impracticability of such an arrangement,
were it even conceded by our Superiors, that I will indulge in a brief
retrospect of principles stated.
p.28
We might leave out of the question the most vital point -- one, you would
hesitate perhaps to believe -- that the refusal concerns as much your own
salvation (from the standpoint of your worldly material considerations) as
my enforced compliance with our time honoured Rules. Again I might cite
the case of Olcott (who, had he not been permitted to communicate face to face
-- and without any intermediary -- with us, might have subsequently shown less
zeal and devotion but more discretion) and his fate up to the present. But, the
comparison would doubtless appear to you strained. Olcott -- would you say -- is
an enthusiast, a stubborn, unreasoning mystic, who goes headlong before him,
blindfolded, and who will not allow himself to look forward with his own eyes.
While you are a sober, matter-of-fact man of the world, the son of your
generation of cool thinkers; ever keeping fancy under the curb, and saying to
enthusiasm: "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." . . . Perhaps you are right
-- perhaps not. "No Lama knows where the ber-chhen will hurt him until
he puts it on," says a Tibetan proverb. However, let that pass, for I must tell
you now that for opening "direct communication" the only possible means would
be: (1) For each of us to meet in our own physical bodies. I being
where I am, and you in your own quarters, there is a material impediment for
me. (2) For both to meet in our astral form -- which would necessitate your
"getting out" of yours, as well as my leaving my body. The spiritual impediment
to this is on your part. (3) To make you hear my voice either within
you or near you as "the old lady" does. This would be feasible in either of two
ways: (a) My chiefs have but to give me permission to set up the conditions --
and this for the present they refuse; or (b) for you to hear my voice, i.e., my
natural voice without any psycho-physiological tamasha being
employed by me (again as we often do among ourselves). But then, to do this, not
only have one's spiritual senses to be abnormally opened, but one must
himself have mastered the great secret -- yet undiscovered by science -- of, so
to say abolishing all the impediments of space; of neutralising for the time
being the natural obstacle of intermediary particles of air and forcing the
waves to strike your ear in reflected sounds or echo. Of the latter you know as
yet only enough to regard this as an unscientific absurdity. Your physicists,
not having until recently mastered acoustics in this direction, any further than
to acquire a perfect (?) knowledge of the vibration of sonorous bodies and of
reverberations through tubes, may sneeringly ask: "Where are your indefinitely
continued sonorous bodies, to conduct through space the vibrations of the
voice?" We answer that our tubes, though invisible, are indestructible and far
more perfect than those of modern physicists, by whom the velocity of the
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transmission of mechanical force through the air is represented as at the rate
of 1,100 feet a second and no more -- if I mistake not. But then, may there not
be people who have found more perfect and rapid means of transmission, from
being somewhat better acquainted with the occult powers of air (akas)
and having plus a more cultivated judgment of sounds? But of this
we will argue later on.
There is still more serious inconvenience; an almost insurmountable obstacle
-- for the present, and one, under which I myself am labouring, while even I do
no more than correspond with you, a simple thing that any other mortal could do.
It is my utter inability to make you understand my meaning in my explanation of
even physical phenomena, let alone the spiritual rationale. This is not the
first time I mention it. It is, as though a child should ask me to teach him the
highest problems of Euclid before he had even begun studying the elementary
rules of arithmetic. Only the progress one makes in the study of Arcane
knowledge from its rudimental elements, brings him gradually to understand our
meaning. Only thus, and not otherwise, does it, strengthening and refining those
mysterious links of sympathy between intelligent men -- the temporarily isolated
fragments of the universal Soul and the cosmic Soul itself -- bring them into
full rapport. Once this established, then only will these awakened sympathies
serve, indeed, to connect Man with -- what for the want of a European scientific
word more competent to express the idea, I am again compelled to describe as
that energetic chain which binds together the material and Immaterial Kosmos, --
Past, Present, and Future -- and quicken his perceptions so as to clearly grasp,
not merely all things of matter, but of Spirit also. I feel even irritated at
having to use these three clumsy words -- past, present and future! Miserable
concepts of the objective phases of the Subjective Whole, they are about as ill
adapted for the purpose as an axe for fine carving. Oh, my poor, disappointed
friend, that you were already so far advanced on THE PATH, that this simple
transmission of ideas should not be encumbered by the conditions of matter, the
union of your mind with ours -- prevented by its induced incapabilities! Such is
unfortunately the inherited and self-acquired grossness of the Western mind; and
so greatly have the very phrases expressive of modern thoughts been developed in
the line of practical materialism, that it is now next to impossible either for
them to comprehend or for us to express in their own languages anything of that
delicate seemingly ideal machinery of the Occult Kosmos. To some little extent
that faculty can be acquired by the Europeans through study and meditation but
-- that's all. And here is the bar which has hitherto prevented a conviction of
the theosophical truths from gaining wider
p.30
currency among Western Nations;
caused theosophical study to be cast aside as useless and fantastic by Western
philosophers. How shall I teach you to read and write or even comprehend a
language of which no alphabet palpable, or words audible to
you have yet been invented! How could the phenomena of our modern electrical
science be explained to -- say, a Greek philosopher of the days of Ptolemy were
he suddenly recalled to life -- with such an unbridged hiatus in
discovery as would exist between his and our age? Would not the very technical
terms be to him an unintelligible jargon, an abracadabra of meaningless sounds,
and the very instruments and apparatuses used, but "miraculous" monstrosities?
And suppose, for one instant, I were to describe to you the hues of those colour
rays that lie beyond the so-called "visible spectrum" -- rays invisible
to all but a very few even among us; to explain, how we can fix in space any one
of the so-called subjective or accidental colours -- the complement,
(to speak mathematically) moreover, of any other given colour of a
dichromatic body (which alone sounds like an absurdity), could you
comprehend, do you think, their optical effect or even my meaning? And, since
you see them not, such rays, nor can know them, nor have you any names for them
as yet in Science, if I were to tell you: -- "My good friend Sinnett, if you
please, without moving from your writing desk, try search for, and produce
before your eyes the whole solar spectrum decomposed into fourteen prismatic
colours (seven being complementary), as it is but with the help of that occult
light that you can see me from a distance as I see you" . . . . what think you,
would be your answer? What would you have to reply? Would you not be likely
enough to retort by telling me in your own quiet, polite way, that as there
never were but seven (now three) primary colours, which, moreover, have never
yet by any known physical process -- been seen decomposed further than the seven
prismatic hues -- my invitation was as "unscientific" as it was "absurd"? Adding
that my offer to search for an imaginary solar "complement" being no compliment
to your knowledge of physical science -- I had better, perhaps, go and search
for my mythical "dichromatic" and solar "pairs" in Thibet, for modern science
has hitherto been unable to bring under any theory even so simple a phenomenon
as the colours of all such dichromatic bodies. And yet -- truth knows --
these colours are objective enough!
So you see, the insurmountable difficulties in the way of attaining not only
Absolute but even primary knowledge in Occult Science, for one situated
as you are. How could you make your self understood -- command in fact,
those semi-intelligent Forces, whose means of communicating with us are not
through spoken words but through sounds and colours, in correlations between the
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vibrations of the two? For sound, light and colours are the main factors in
forming these grades of Intelligences, these beings, of whose very existence you
have no conception, nor are you allowed to believe in them -- Atheists
and Christians, materialists and Spiritualists, all bringing forward their
respective arguments against such a belief -- Science objecting stronger than
either of these to such a "degrading superstition"!
Thus, because they cannot with one leap over the boundary walls attain to the pinnacles of Eternity; because we cannot take a savage from the centre of Africa and make him comprehend at once the Principia of Newton or the "Sociology" of Herbert Spencer; or make an unlettered child write a new Iliad in old Achaian Greek; or an ordinary painter depict scenes in Saturn or sketch the inhabitants of Arcturus -- because of all this our very existence is denied! Yes; for this reason are believers in us pronounced impostors and fools, and the very science which leads to the highest goal of the highest knowledge, to the real tasting of the Tree of Life and Wisdom -- is scouted as a wild flight of Imagination!
Most earnestly do I ask you not to see in the above a mere ventilation of personal feeling. My time is precious and I have none to lose. Still less ought you to see in this an effort to disgust or dissuade you from the noble work you have just begun. Nothing of the kind; for what I now say may avail for as much as it can and no more; but -- vera pro gratis -- I warn you, and will say no more, apart from reminding you in a general way, that the task you are so bravely undertaking, that Missio in partis infidelium -- is the most ungrateful, perhaps, of all tasks! But, if you believe in my friendship for you, if you value the word of honour of one who never -- never during his whole life polluted his lips with an untruth, then do not forget the words I once wrote to you (see my last letter) of those who engage themselves in the occult sciences; he who does it "must either reach the goal or perish. Once fairly started on the way to the great Knowledge, to doubt is to risk insanity; to come to a dead stop is to fall; to recede is to tumble backward, headlong into an abyss." Fear not, -- if you are sincere, and that you are -- now. Are you as sure of yourself, as to future?
But I believe it quite time to turn to less transcendental and what you would
call less gloomy and more mundane matters. Here, no doubt, you will be much more
at home. Your experience, your training, your intellect, your knowledge of the
exterior world, in short, all combine to aid you in the accomplishment of the
task you have undertaken. For, they place you on an infinitely higher level than
myself as regards the consideration of writing a book, after your Society's "own
heart." Though the interest I take
p.32
in it may amaze some who are likely to retort
on me and my colleagues with our own arguments, and to remark that our "boasted
elevation over the common herd" (our friend Mr. Hume's words) -- above the
interests and passions of ordinary humanity, must militate against our having
any conception of the ordinary affairs of life -- yet I confess that I do take
an interest in this book and its success, as great as in the success in life of
its future author.
I hope that at least you will understand that we (or most of us) are
far from being the heartless, morally dried up mummies some would fancy us to
be. "Mejnoor" is very well, where he is -- as an ideal character of a thrilling
-- in many respects truthful story. Yet, believe me, few of us would care to
play the part in life of a dessicated pansy between the leaves of a volume of
solemn poetry. We may not be quite the "boys" -- to quote Olcott's irreverent
expression when speaking of us -- yet none of our degree are like the
stern hero of Bulwer's romance. While the facilities of observation secured to
some of us by our condition certainly give a greater breadth of view, a more
pronounced and impartial, as a more widely spread humaneness -- for answering
Addison, we might justly maintain that it is . . . "the business of
'magic' to humanise our natures with compassion" for the whole mankind as all
living beings, instead of concentrating and limiting our affections to one
predilected race -- yet few of us (except such as have attained the final
negation of Moksha) can so far enfranchise ourselves from the influence of our
earthly connection as to be insusceptible in various degrees to the higher
pleasures, emotions, and interests of the common run of humanity. Until final
emancipation reabsorbs the Ego, it must be conscious of the
purest sympathies called out by the esthetic effects of high art, its tenderest
cords respond to the call of the holier and nobler human attachments.
Of course, the greater the progress towards deliverance, the less this will be
the case, until, to crown all, human and purely individual personal feelings --
blood-ties and friendship, patriotism and race predilection -- all will give
away, to become blended into one universal feeling, the only true and holy, the
only unselfish and Eternal one -- Love, an Immense Love for humanity -- as a
Whole! For it is "Humanity" which is the great Orphan, the only
disinherited one upon this earth, my friend. And it is the duty of every man who
is capable of an unselfish impulse, to do something, however little, for its
welfare. Poor, poor humanity! It reminds me of the old fable of the war between
the Body and its members: here too, each limb of this huge "Orphan" --
fatherless and motherless -- selfishly cares but for itself. The body
uncared for suffers eternally, whether the limbs are at war or at rest. Its
suffering and agony never cease. . . . And who can blame it -- as your
materialistic philosophers
p.33
do -- if, in this everlasting isolation and neglect
it has evolved gods, unto whom "it ever cries for help but is not heard!" . . .
Thus --
"Since there is hope for man only in man
I would not let one cry whom I could save! . . ."
Yet I confess that I, individually, am not yet exempt from some of the terrestrial attachments. I am still attracted toward some men more than toward others, and philanthropy as preached by our Great Patron -- "the Saviour of the World -- the Teacher of Nirvana and the Law . . . ." has never killed in me either individual preferences of friendship, love -- for my next of kin, or the ardent feeling of patriotism for the country -- in which I was last materially individualized. And, in this connection, I may some day, unasked, offer a bit of advice to my friend Mr. Sinnett, to whisper into the ear of the Editor of the PIONEER En attendant -- "May I beg the former to inform Dr. Wyld, the Prest. of the British T.S., of the few truths concerning us as shown above? Will you kindly undertake to persuade this excellent gentleman, that not one of the humble "dew drops" which, assuming under various pretexts the form of vapour, have at various periods disappeared in the space to congeal in the white Himalayan clouds, have ever tried to slip back into the shining Sea of Nirvana through the unhealthy process of hanging by the legs or by making unto themselves another "coat of skin" out of the sacred cow-dung of the thrice "holy cow"! The British President labours under the most original ideas about us, whom he persists in calling "Yogis," without allowing the slightest margin to the enormous differences which exist even between "Hatha and Raj Yog." This mistake must be laid at the door of Mrs. B. -- the able editor of "The Theosophist"; who fills up her volumes with the practices of divers Sannyasis and other "blessed ones" from the plains, without ever troubling herself with a few additional lines of explanation.
And now, to still more important matters. Time is precious and material (I
mean writing material) is still more so. "Precipitation" -- in your case having
become unlawful; lack of -- whether ink or paper -- standing no better chance
for "Tamasha," and I, being far away from home, and at a place where a
stationer's shop is less needed than breathing air, our correspondence threatens
to break very abruptly, unless I manage my stock in hand judiciously. A friend
promises to supply me in case of great need with a few stray sheets, memento
relics of his grandfather's will, by which he disinherited him and thus made his
"fortune." But, as he never wrote one line but
p.34
once, he says -- for the last
eleven years, except on such "double superfin glace" made at
Thibet as you might irreverently mistake for blotting paper in its primitive
days, and that the will is drawn upon a like material -- we might as well turn
to your book at once. Since you do me the favour of asking my opinion, I may
tell you that the idea is an excellent one. Theosophy needs such help, and the
results will be what you anticipate in England as well. It may also help our
friends in Europe -- generally.
I lay no restrictions upon your making use of anything I may have written to
you or Mr. Hume, having full confidence in your tact and judgment as to what
should be printed and how it should be presented. I must only ask you for
reasons upon which I must be silent (and I am sure you will respect that
silence) not to use one single word or passage from my
last letter to you -- the one written after my long silence, no date, and
the first one forwarded to you by our "old lady." I just quoted from it at page
4. Do me the favour, if my poor epistles are worth preserving, to lay it by in a
separate and sealed envelope. You may have to unseal it only after a certain
period of time has elapsed. As to the rest -- I relinquish it to the mangling
tooth of criticism. Nor would I interfere with the plan you have roughly
sketched out in your mind. But I would strongly recommend you in its execution
to lay the greatest stress upon small circumstances -- (could you oblige me with
some receipt for blue ink?!) which tend to show the impossibility of fraud or
conspiracy. Reflect well, how bold a thing it is to endorse phenomena as adeptic
which the Spiritsts. have already stamped as proofs of mediumship and skeptics
as legerdemain. You should not omit one jot or tittle of collateral evidence
that supports your position, something you have neglected doing in your "A"
letter in the Pioneer. For instance, my friend tells me that it was
a thirteenth cup and the pattern unmatchable, in Simla at least. (1
1. So, at least, Mrs. S. says; I myself did not
search the crockery shops; so too, the bottle filled with water I filled with my
own hand -- was one of the four only that the servants had in the baskets, and
these four bottles had but just been brought back empty by these peons from
their fruitless search after water, when you sent them to the little brewery
with a note. Hoping to be excused for the interference and with my most
respectful regards to the lady.
Yours, etc.
The "Disinherited"
The pillow was chosen by yourself -- and
yet the word "pillow" occurs in my note to you, just as the word "tree" or
anything else would have been substituted, had you chosen another depository,
instead of the pillow. You will find all such trifles serving you as the most
powerful shield for yourself against ridicule and sneers. Then you will of
course, aim to show that this Theosophy is no new candidate for the world's
attention, but only the restatement of
p.35
principles which have been recognised
from the very infancy of mankind. The historic sequence ought to be succinctly
yet graphically traced through the successive evolutions of philosophical
schools, and illustrated with accounts of the experimental demonstrations of
occult power ascribed to various thaumaturgists. The alternate breakings-out and
subsidences of mystical phenomena, as well as their shiftings from one centre to
another of population, show the conflicting play of the opposing forces of
spirituality and animalism. And lastly it will appear that the present
tidal-wave of phenomena, with its varied effects upon human thought and feeling,
made the revival of Theosophical enquiry an indispensable necessity. The only
problem to solve is the practical one, of how best to promote the necessary
study, and give to the spiritualistic movement a needed upward impulse. It is a
good beginning to make the inherent capabilities of the inner, living man better
comprehended. To lay down the scientific proposition that since akrshu
(attraction) and Prshu (repulsion) are the law of nature, there can be
no intercourse or relations between clean and unclean Souls -- embodied or
disembodied; and hence, ninety-nine hundredths of supposed spiritual
communications, are, prima facie false. Here is as great a fact to work
upon as you can find, and it cannot be made too plain. So, while a better
selection might have been made for the Theosophist in the way of
illustrative anecdotes, as, for instance, well authenticated historical cases,
yet the theory of turning the minds of phenomenalists into useful and suggestive
channels away from mere mediumistic dogmatism was the correct one.
What I meant by the "Forlorn Hope" was that when one regards the magnitude of
the task to be undertaken by our theosophical volunteers, and especially the
multitudinous agencies arrayed, and to be arrayed, in opposition, we may well
compare it, to one of those desperate efforts against overwhelming odds that the
true soldier glories to attempt. You have done well to see the "large purpose"
in the small beginnings of the T.S. Of course, if we had undertaken to found and
direct it in propria persona very likely it would have accomplished more
and made fewer mistakes, but we could not do this, nor was it the plan: our two
agents are given the task and left -- as you now are -- to do the best they
could under the circumstances. And much has been wrought. Under the surface of
Spiritualism, runs a current that is wearing a broad channel for itself. When it
reappears above ground its effects will be apparent. Already many minds like
yours are pondering the question of occult law -- forced upon the thinking
public by this agitation. Like you, they are dissatisfied with what has been
hitherto attainable and clamour for better. Let this -- encourage you.
p.36
It is not quite accurate that by having such minds in the Society they would
be "under conditions more favourable for observation" for us. Rather put it,
that by the act of joining other sympathisers in this organization they are
stimulated to effort and incite each other to investigate. Unity always gives
strength: and since Occultism in our days resembles a "Forlorn Hope," union and
co-operation are indispensable. Union does indeed imply a concentration of vital
and magnetic force against the hostile currents of prejudice and fanaticism.
I wrote a few words in the Maratha boy's letter, only to show you that he was obeying orders in submitting his views to you. Apart from his exaggerated idea about huge fees, his letter is in a way worth considering. For Damodar is a Hindu -- and knows the mind of his people at Bombay; though the Bombay Hindus are about as unspiritual a group as can be found in all India. But, like the devoted enthusiastic lad he is, he jumped after the misty form of his own ideas even before I could give them the right direction. All quick thinkers are hard to impress -- in a flash they are out and away in "full cry," before half understanding what one wants to have them think. This is our trouble with both Mrs. B. and O. The frequent failure of the latter to carry out the suggestions he sometimes receives -- even when written, is almost wholly due to his own active mentality preventing his distinguishing our impressions from his own conceptions. And Missus B.'s trouble is (apart from physical ailment) that she sometimes listens to two or more of our voices at once; e.g., this morning while the "Disinherited," whom I have accommodated with space for a footnote -- was talking with her on an important matter, she lent an ear to one of ours, who is passing through Bombay from Cyprus, on his way to Thibet -- and so got both in an inextricable confusion. Women do lack the power of concentration.
And now, my good friend and co-worker -- an irremediable paperless condition
obliges me to close. Farewell, until your return, unless you will be content, as
hitherto, to pass our correspondence through the accustomed channel. Neither of
us would prefer this. But until authority is given to change it must be even so.
Were she to die to-day -- and she is really sick -- you would not receive more
than two, or at most three more letters from me (through Damodar or Olcott, or
through already established emergent agencies), and then, that reservoir of
force being exhausted -- our parting would be FINAL. However, I will not
anticipate; events might bring us together somewhere in Europe. But
whether we meet or not, during your trip, be assured that my personal good
wishes will attend you. Should you actually need now and again the help of a
happy thought as your work progresses, it may,
p.37
very likely be, osmosed
into your head -- if sherry bars not the way, as it has already done at
Allahabad.
May the "deep Sea" deal gently with you and your house.
Ever yours,
K. H.
P.S. -- The "friend" of whom the Lord Lindsay speaks in his letter to you, is, I am sorry to say, a true skunk mephitis, who managed to perfume himself with ess-bouquet in his presence during their palmy days of friendship, and so avoided being recognised by his natural stench. It is Home -- the medium, a convert to Roman Catholicism, then to Protestantism, and finally to the Greek Church. He is the bitterest and most cruel enemy O. and Mad. B. have, though he has never met either of them. For a certain time he succeeded in poisoning the Lord's mind, and prejudiced him against them. I do not like saying anything behind a man's back, for it looks like back-biting. Yet in view of some future events I feel it my duty to warn you, for this one is an exceptionally bad man -- hated by the Spiritualists and mediums as much as he is despised by those -- who have learned to know him. Yours is a work which clashes directly with his. Though a poor sickly cripple, a paralysed wretch, his mental faculties are as fresh and as alive as ever to mischief. He is no man to stop before a slanderous accusation -- however vile and lying. So -- beware.
K. H.
SECTION II
PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEORETICAL TEACHINGS
1881-1883
From K. H., first letter received on return to India, July 8th, 1881, while staying with Madame B. at Bombay for a few days.
Welcome good friend and brilliant author, welcome back! Your letter at hand, and I am happy to see your personal experience with the "Elect" of London proved so successful. But, I foresee, that more than ever now, you will become an incarnate note of interrogation. Beware! If your questions are found premature by the powers that be, instead of receiving my answers in their pristine purity you may find them transformed into yards of drivel. I am too far gone to feel a hand on my throat whenever trenching on the limits of forbidden topics; not enough to avoid feeling myself -- uncomfortably so -- like a worm of yesterday before our "Rock of Ages." My Cho-Khan. We must all be blindfolded before we can pass onward; or else, we have to remain outside.
And now, what about the book? Le quart d'heure de Rabelais is striking, and, finds me, if not quite insolvent, yet quasitrembling at the idea that the first instalment offered may be found below the mark; the price claimed -- inadequate with my poor resources; myself led pro bono publico to trespass beyond the terrible -- "hitherto shalt thou go, and no further," and the angry wave of the Cho-Khan's wrath swamping me blue ink and all! I fondly hope you will not make me lose "my situation."
Quite so. For, I have a dim notion that you will be very impatient with me. I
have a very clear notion that you need not be. It is one of the unfortunate
necessities of life that imperial needs do sometimes force one apparently to
ignore the claims of friendship, not to violate one's word, but to put off
and lay aside for a while the too impatient expectations of neophytes as of
inferior importance. One such need that I call imperial is the need of your
future welfare; the realization of the dream dreamt by you in company with S.M.
That dream -- shall we call it a vision? -- was, that you, and Mrs. K. -- why
forget the Theos. Soc.? -- "are all parts of a large plan for the manifestations
of
p.39
occult philosophy to the world." Yes; the time must come, and it is not far
-- when all of you will comprehend aright the apparently contradictory phases of
such manifestations; forced by the evidence to reconcile them. The case not
being so at present, meanwhile -- remember: it is because we are playing a risky
game and the stakes are human souls that I ask you to possess yours in patience.
Bearing in mind that I have to look after your "Soul" and mine too, I propose to
do so at whatever cost, even at the risk of being misunderstood by you as I was
by Mr. Hume. The work is made the more difficult by my being a lonely labourer
in the field, and that, as long as I fail to prove to my superiors that you, at
least -- mean business; that you -- are in right good earnest. As I am refused
higher help, so will you fail to easily find help in that Society in which you
move, and which you try to move. Nor will you find, for a certain time much joy
in those directly concerned. Our old lady is weak and her nerves are worked to a
fiddle string; so is her jaded brain. H.S.O. is far away -- in exile --
fighting his way back to salvation -- compromised more than you imagine
by his Simla indiscretions -- and establishing theosoph. schools. Mr. Hume --
who once promised to become a champion fighter in that Battle of Light against
Darkness -- now preserves a kind of armed neutrality wondrous to behold. Having
made the mirific discovery that we are a body of antidiluvian Jesuits of
fossiles -- self-crowned with oratorial flourishes, he rested but to accuse us
of intercepting his letters to H.P.B.! However, he finds some comfort by
thinking "what a jolly argument he shall have elsewhere (Angel Linnean
ornithological Society, perhaps) with the entity which is represented by the
name "Koothoomi." Verily has our very intellectual, once mutual friend, a flood
of words at his command which would suffice to float a troop ship of oratorious
fallacies. Nevertheless -- I respect him. . . . But who next? C. C. Massey? But
then he is the hapless parent of about half a dozen of illegitimate brats. He is
a most charming, devoted friend; a profound mystic; a generous, noble minded
man, a gentleman -- as they say -- every inch of him; tried as gold; every
requisite for a student of occultism, but none for an adept,
my good friend. Be it as it may, his secret is his own, and I have no right to
divulge it. Dr. Wyld? -- a christian to the back bone. Hood? -- a sweet nature,
as you say; a dreamer, and an idealist in mystic matters, yet -- no worker. S.
Moses? Ah! here we are. S.M. has nearly upset the theosoph. ark set afloat three
years back: and, he will do his level best to do it over again --- our Imperator
notwithstanding. You doubt? Listen.
His is a weird, rare nature. His occult psychical energies are tremendous;
but they have lain dormant, folded up within him
p.40
and unknown to himself, when,
some eight years or so, Imperator threw his eye upon him and bid his spirit
soar. Since then, a new life has been in him, a dual existence, but his nature
could not be changed. Brought up as a theological student, his mind was devoured
by doubts. Earlier, he betook himself to Mount Athos, where, immuring himself in
a monastery, he studied Greek Eastern religion, and it is there that he was
first noticed by his "Spirit guide" (!!) Of course, Greek casuistry
failed to solve his doubts, and he hurried on to Rome, -- popery satisfying him
as little. From thence he wandered to Germany with the same negative results.
Giving up dry christian theology he did not give up its presumable founder with
all that. He needed an ideal and he found it in the latter. For him Jesus is a
reality, a once embodied, now a disembodied Spirit, who, "furnished him
with an evidence of his personal identity" -- he thinks, -- in no less a degree
than other "Spirits" -- Imperator among the rest -- have. Nevertheless, neither
the religions of Jesus nor yet his words, as recorded in the Bible and believed
by S.M. authentic -- are fully accepted by that restless Spirit of his.
Imperator, on whom the same fate devolved later on, fares no better. His
mind is too positive. Once impressed it becomes easier to efface characters
engraved upon titanium than impressions made upon his brain.
Whenever under the influence of Imperator -- he is all alive to the
realities of Occultism, and the superiority of our Science over Spiritualism. As
soon as left alone and under the pernicious guidance of those he firmly believes
having identified with disembodied Souls -- all becomes confusion again! His
mind will yield to no suggestions, no reasonings but his own, and those are all
for Spiritualistic theories. When the old theological fetters had dropped off,
he imagined himself a free man. Some months later, he became the humble slave
and tool of the "Spirits"! It is but when standing face to face with his
inner Self that he realizes the truth that there is something higher and
nobler than the prittle-prattle of pseudo Spirits. It was at such a moment that
he heard for the first the voice of Imperator, and it was, as he
himself puts it: "as the voice of God speaking to his inner Self." That voice
has made itself familiar to him for years, and yet he very often heeds it not. A
simple query: Were Imper. what he believes, nay -- knows him to be, he
thinks, -- would not he have made S.M.'s will completely subservient to his own
by this time? Alone the adepts, i.e. the embodied spirits -- are
forbidden by our wise and intransgressible laws to completely subject to
themselves another and a weaker will, -- that of free born man. The latter mode
of proceeding is the favourite one resorted to by the "Brothers of the Shadow,"
the Sorcerers, the Elementary Spooks, and, as an isolated exception -- by the
highest Planetary
p.41
Spirits, those, who can no longer err. But these
appear on Earth but at the origin of every new human kind; at the
junction of, and close of the two ends of the great cycle. And, they remain with
man no longer than the time required for the eternal truths they teach to
impress themselves so forcibly upon the plastic minds of the new races as to
warrant them from being lost or entirely forgotten in ages hereafter, by the
forthcoming generations. The mission of the planetary Spirit is but to strike
the Key-Note of Truth. Once he has directed the vibration of the latter to run
its course uninterruptedly along the catenation of that race and to the end of
the cycle -- the denizen of the highest inhabited sphere disappears from the
surface of our planet -- till the following "resurrection of flesh." The
vibrations of the Primitive Truth are what your philosophers name "innate
ideas."
Imperator, then, had repeatedly told him that "in occultism alone he should
seek for, and will find a phase of truth not yet known to him." But
that did not prevent S.M. at all from turning his back upon occultism whenever a
theory of it clashed with one of his own preconceived Spiritualistic ideas. To
him mediumship appeared as the Charter of his Soul's freedom, as resurrection
from Spiritual death. He had been allowed to enjoy it only so far as it was
necessary for the confirmation of his faith: promised that the abnormal would
yield to the normal; ordered to prepare for the time when the Self within him
will become conscious of its spiritual, independent existence, will act and talk
face to face with its Instructor, and will lead its life in Spiritual Spheres
normally and without external or internal mediumship at all. And yet once
conscious of what he terms "external Spirit action" he recognised no more
hallucination from truth, the false from the real: confounding at times
Elementals and Elementaries, embodied from disembodied Spirit, though he had
been oft enough told of, and warned against "those spirits that hover about the
Earth's sphere" -- by his "Voice of God." With all that he firmly believes to
have invariably acted under Imper's direction, and that such spirits as have
come to him came by his "guide's" permission. In such a case H.P.B. was there by
Imper's consent? And how do you reconcile the following contradictions. Ever
since 1876, acting under direct orders, she tried to awake him to the reality of
what was going on around and in him. That she must have acted either according
to or against Imper's will -- he must know, as in the latter case she
might boast of being stronger, more powerful than his "guide" who never yet
protested against the intrusion. Now what happens? Writing to her from Isle of
Wight, in 1876, of a vision lasting for over 48 consecutive hours he had, and
during which he walked about, talked as usual, but did not preserve the
slightest remem-
p.42
brance of anything external, he asks her to tell him whether it
was a vision or a hallucination. Why did he not ask + I-R ? "You can tell me
for you were there," he says. . . . "You -- changed, yet yourself -- if you
have a Self. . . . I suppose you have, but into that I do not pry." . .
. At another time he saw her in his own library looking at him, approaching and
giving him some masonic signs of the Lodge he knows. He admits that he "saw her
as clearly as he saw Massey -- who was there." He saw her on several other
occasions, and sometimes knowing it was H.P.B. he could not recognise her. "You
seem to me from your appearance as from your letters so different at times, the
mental attitudes so various, that it is quite conceivable to me, as I am
authoritatively told, that you are a bundle of Entities. . . . I have
absolute faith in you." In every letter of his he clamoured for a "living
Brother" to her unequivocal statement that there was one already having charge
of him, he strongly objected. When helped to get free from his too material
body, absent from it for hours and days sometimes his empty machine run during
that period from afar and by external, living influence, -- as soon as
back, he would begin labouring under the irradicable impression of having been
all that time the vehicle for another intelligence, a disembodied not
embodied Spirit, truth never once flashing across his mind.
"Imperator," he wrote to her, "traverses your idea about mediumship. He says
there should be no real antagonism between the medium and the adept." Had he
used the word "Seer" instead of "medium" the idea would have been rendered more
correctly, for a man becomes rarely an adept without being born a natural Seer.
Then again. In September, 1875, he knew nothing of the Brothers of the Shadow --
our greatest, most cruel, and -- why not confess -- our most potential Enemies.
In that year he actually asked the old lady whether Bulwer had been eating
underdone pork chops and dreaming when he described "that hideous Dweller of the
Threshold." "Make yourself ready," she answered -- "in about twelve months more
you will have to face and fight with them." In October, 1876, they had begun
their work upon him. "I am fighting" -- he wrote -- "a hand to hand battle with
all the legions of the Fiend for the past three weeks. My nights are made
hideous with their torments, temptations and foul suggestions. I see them all
around, glaring at me, gabbling, howling, grinning! Every form of filthy
suggestion, of bewildering doubt, of mad and shuddering fear is upon me . . . I
can understand Zanoni's Dweller now . . . I have not wavered yet . . . and their
temptations are fainter, the presence less near, the horror less. . . ."
One night she had prostrated herself before her Superior, one of the few they
fear, praying him to wave his hand across
p.43
the ocean, lest S.M. should die, and
the Theos. Soc. lose its best subject. "He must be tried" was the answer. He
imagines that + Imper. had sent the tempters because he S.M. was one of
those Thomases who must see; he would not believe that + could
not help their coming. Watch over him he did -- he could not drive them away
unless the victim, the neophyte himself, proved the strongest. But did these
human fiends in league with the Elementaries prepare him for a new life as be
thought they would? Embodiments of those adverse influences which beset the
inner Self struggling to be free and to progress, they would never have returned
had he successfully conquered them by asserting his own independent
WILL, by
giving up his mediumship, his passive will. Yet they did.
You say of -- + -- "Imperator -- is certainly not his (S.M.'s) astral soul, and assuredly, also, he is not from a lower World than our own -- not an earth-bound Spirit." No one ever said he was anything of the kind. H.P.B. never told you he was S.M.'s astral soul, but that what he often mistook for + was his own higher Self, his divine atman -- not linga Sarira or astral Soul, or the Kama rupa the independent doppelganger -- again. + cannot contradict himself; + cannot be ignorant of the truth, so often misrepresented by S.M.; + cannot preach the occult Sciences and then defend mediumship, not even in that highest form described by his pupil. Mediumship is abnormal. When in further development the abnormal has given way to the natural, the controls are shaken off, and passive obedience is no longer required, then the medium learns to use his will, to exercise his own power, and becomes an adept. The process is one of development and the neophyte has to go to the end. As long as he is subject to occasional trance -- he cannot be an adept. S.M. passes the two-thirds of his life in Trance.
To your question -- Is Imperator "a Planetary Spirit" and "may a Planetary
Spirit have been humanly incarnated," I will first say that there can be no
Planetary Spirit that was not once material or what you call human. When our
great Buddha -- the patron of all the adepts, the reformer and the codifier of
the occult system, reached first Nirvana on earth, he became a
Planetary Spirit; i.e. -- his spirit could at one and the same time
rove the interstellar spaces in full consciousness, and continue at
will on Earth in his original and individual body. For the divine Self had so
completely disfranchised itself from matter that it could create at will an
inner substitute for itself, and leaving it in the human form for days, weeks,
sometimes years, affect in no wise by the change either the vital principle or
the physical mind of its body. By the way, that is the highest form of adeptship
man can hope for on our planet. But it is as rare as the Buddahs themselves,
p.44
the
last Khobilgan who reached it being Sang-Ko-Pa of Kokonor (XIV Century), the
reformer of esoteric as well as of vulgar Lamaism. Many are those who "break
through the egg-shell," few who, once out are able to exercise their Nirira
namastaka fully, when completely out of the body. Conscious
life in Spirit is as difficult for some natures as swimming, is for some bodies.
Though the human frame is lighter in its bulk than water, and that every person
is born with the faculty, so few develop in themselves the art of treading water
that death by drowning is the most frequent of accidents. The planetary Spirit
of that kind (the Buddha like) can pass at will into other bodies -- of more or
less etherialised matter, inhabiting other regions of the Universe. There are
many other grades and orders, but there is no separate and eternally
constituted order of Planetary Spirits. Whether Imperator is a "planetary"
embodied or disembodied, whether he is an adept in flesh or out of it, I am not
at liberty to say, any more than he would himself to tell S. M. who I am, or may
be, or even who H.P.B. is. If he himself chooses to be silent on that subject
S. M. has no right to ask me. But then our friend, S. M. ought to know.
Nay: he firmly believes he does. For in his intercourse with that personage
there came a time when not satisfied with + assurances, or content to respect
his wishes that he, Imperator & Co. should remain impersonal and unknown save by
their assumed titles, S. M. wrestled with him, Jacob-like, for months on the
point of that spirit's identity. He was the Biblical flim-flam all over
again. "I pray thee tell me thy name" -- and though answered: "Wherefore is it
that thou dost ask after my name?" -- what's in a name? -- he allowed S. M. to
label him like a portmanteau. And so, he is at rest now, for be has "seen God
face to face"; who, after wrestling, and seeing that he prevailed not, said "let
me go" and was forced to come to the terms offered by Jacob. S. Moses. I
strongly advise you for your own information to put that question to your
friend. Why should he be "anxiously awaiting" my reply, since he knows all about
+ ? Did not that "Spirit" tell him a story one day, -- a queer
story, something what he may not divulge about himself and forbid him
ever mentioning it? What more does he want? That fact, that he seeks to
learn through me the true nature of +, is a pretty good proof in itself that he
is not as sure of his identity as he believes he is, or rather would make
believe he is. Or is the question a blind? -- which?
I may answer you, what I said to G. H. Fechner one day, when he wanted to
know the Hindu view on what he had written -- "You are right; . . . every
diamond, every crystal, every plant and star has its own individual soul,
besides man and animal . . ." and, "there is a hierarchy of souls from the
lowest forms of matter
p.45
up to the World Soul" . . .; but, you are mistaken when
adding to the above the assurance that 'the spirits of the departed hold
direct psychic communication with Souls that are still connected with a
human body' -- for, they do not." The relative position of the inhabited worlds
in our Solar System would alone preclude such a possibility. For I trust you
have given up the queer idea -- a natural result of early Xtian training -- that
there can possibly be human intelligences inhabiting purely
spiritual regions? You will then as readily understand the fallacy of the
christians -- who would burn immaterial souls in a material
physical hell -- as the mistake of the more educated spiritualists, who lullaby
themselves with the thought that any other but the denizens of the two worlds
immediately interlinked with our own can possibly communicate with them? However
etherial and purified of gross matter they may be, the pure Spirits are still
subject to the physical and universal laws of matter. They cannot if
even they would span the abyss that separates their worlds from ours. They
can be visited in Spirit, their Spirit cannot descend and reach
us. They attract, they cannot be attracted, their Spiritual polarity being an
insuperable difficulty in the way. (By-the-bye you must not trust Isis
literally. The book is but a tentative effort to divert the attention of
the Spiritualists from their preconceptions to the true state of things. The
author was made to hint and point out in the true direction, to say what things
are not, not what they are. Proof reader helping, a few real mistakes
have crept in as on page 1, chapter 1, volume 1, where divine Essence is made
emanating from Adam instead of the reverse.)
Once fairly started upon that subject, I will endeavour to explain to you still clearer where lies the impossibility. You will thus be answered in regard to both Planetary Spirits and -- seance room "Spirits."
The cycle of intelligent existences commences at the highest worlds or
planets -- the term "highest" meaning here the most spiritually perfect.
Evoluting from cosmic matter -- which is akasa, the primeval not the
secondary plastic medium, or Ether of Science instinctively suspected, unproven
as the rest -- man first evolutes from this matter in its most
sublimated state, appearing at the threshold of Eternity as a perfectly
Etherial -- not Spiritual Entity, say -- a Planetary Spirit. He is but one
remove from the universal and Spiritual World Essence -- the Anima Mundi
of the Greeks, or that which humanity in its spiritual decadence has
degraded into a mythical personal God. Hence, at that stage, the Spirit -- man
is at best an active Power, an immutable, therefore an
unthinking Principle (the term "immutable" being again used here but to
denote that state for the time being, the immutability applying here but to the
inner
p.46
principle which will vanish and disappear as soon as the speck of the
material in him will start on its cyclic work of Evolution and transformation).
In his subsequent descent, and in proportion of the increase of matter he will
assert more and more his activity. Now, the congeries of the star-worlds
(including our own planet) inhabited by intelligent beings may be likened to an
orb or rather an epicycloid formed of rings like a chain -- worlds inter-linked
together, the totality representing an imaginary endless ring, or circle. The
progress of man throughout the whole -- from its starting to its closing points
meeting on the highest point of its circumference -- is what we call the
Maha Yug or Great Cycle, the Kuklos, whose head is lost in a crown
of absolute Spirit, and its lowest point of circumference in
absolute matter -- to viz. the point of cessation of action of the
active principle. If using a more familiar term we call the Great Cycle the
Macrokosm and its component parts or the inter-linked star worlds
Microkosms, the occultists' meaning in representing each of the latter as
perfect copies of the former will become evident. The Great is the Prototype of
the smaller cycles: and as such, each star world has in its turn its own cycle
of Evolution which starts with a purer and ends with a grosser or more material
nature. As they descend, each world presents itself naturally more and more
shadowy, becoming at the "antipodes" absolute matter. Propelled by the
irresistible cyclic impulse the Planetary Spirit has to descend before he can
reascend. On his way he has to pass through the whole ladder of Evolution,
missing no rung, to halt at every star world as he would at a station; and,
besides the unavoidable cycle of that particular and every respective star world
to perform in it his own "life-cycle" to, viz.: returning and
reincarnating as many times as he fails to complete his round of life in it, as
he dies on it before reaching the age of reason as correctly stated in
Isis. Thus far Mrs. Kingsford's idea that the human Ego is being
reincarnated in several successive human bodies is the true one. As to its being
reborn in animal forms after human incarnation it is the result of her
loose way of expressing things and ideas. Another woman -- all over again. Why,
she confounds "Soul and Spirit," refuses to discriminate between the animal and
the spiritual Egos the Jivatma (or Linga-Sharir) and the Kama-Rupa
(or Atma-Rupa), two as different things as body and mind, and -- mind
and thought are! That is what happens. After circling, so to
say, along the arc of the cycle, circling along and within it (the daily and
yearly rotation of the Earth is as good an illustration as any) when the
Spirit-man reaches our planet, which is one of the lowest, having lost at every
station some of the etherial and acquired an increase of material nature, both
spirit and matter have become pretty much equi-
p.47
librized in him. But then, he has
the Earth's cycle to perform; and, as in the process of involution and evolution
downward, matter is ever striving to stifle spirit, when arrived to the lowest
point of his pilgrimage, the once pure Planetary Spirit will be found dwindled
to -- what Science agrees to call a primitive or Primordial man -- amidst a
nature as primordial -- speaking geologically, for physical nature keeps pace
with the physiological as well as the spiritual man, in her cyclic career. At
that point the great Law begins its work of selection. Matter found entirely
divorced from spirit is thrown over into the still lower worlds -- into the
sixth "GATE" or "way of rebirth" of the vegetable and mineral worlds, and
of the primitive animal forms. From thence, matter ground over in the workshop
of nature proceeds soulless back to its Mother Fount; while the
Egos purified of their dross are enabled to resume their progress once more
onward. It is here, then, that the laggard Egos perish by the millions.
It is the solemn moment of the "survival of the fittest," the annihilation of
those unfit. It is but matter (or material man) which is compelled by its own
weight to descend to the very bottom of the "circle of necessity" to there
assume animal form; as to the winner of that race throughout the worlds -- the
Spiritual Ego, he will ascend from star to star, from one world to another,
circling onward to rebecome the once pure planetary Spirit, then higher still,
to finally reach its first starting point, and from thence -- to merge into
mystery. No adept has ever penetrated beyond the veil of primitive Kosmic
matter. The highest, the most perfect vision is limited to the universe of
Form and Matter.
But my explanation does not end here. You want to know why it is deemed supremely difficult if not utterly impossible for pure disembodied Spirits to communicate with men through mediums or Phantomosophy. I say, because: --
(a) On account of the antagonistic atmospheres respectively
surrounding these worlds;
(b) Of the entire dissimilarity of physiological and spiritual
conditions; and --
(c) Because that chain of worlds I have just been telling you about,
is not only an epicycloid but an elliptical orbit of existences,
having, as every ellipse, not one but two points -- two foci, which can
never approach each other; Man being at one focus of it and pure Spirit at the
other.
To this you might object. I can neither help it, nor change the fact, but
there is still another and far mightier impediment. Like a rosary composed of
white and black beads alternating with each other, so that concatenation of
worlds is made up of worlds of causes and worlds of effects, the latter -- the
direct result produced by the former. Thus it becomes evident that every sphere
p.48
of Causes and our Earth is one -- is not only inter-linked with, and surrounded
by, but actually separated from its nearest neighbour -- the higher sphere of
Causality -- by an impenetrable atmosphere (in its spiritual sense) of effects
bordering on, and even inter-linking, never mixing with -- the next sphere: for
one is active, the other -- passive, the world of causes positive, that
of effects -- negative. This passive resistance can be overcome but
under conditions, of which your most learned Spiritualists have not the faintest
idea. All movement is, so to say polar. It is very difficult to convey my
meaning to you at this point; but I will go to the end. I am aware of my failure
to bring before you these -- to us -- axiomatical truths -- in any other form
but that of a simple logical postulate -- if so much -- they being capable of
absolute and unequivocal demonstration, but to the highest Seers. But, I'll give
you food for thinking if nothing else.
The intermediary spheres, being but the projected shadows of the Worlds of
Causes -- are negatived by the last. They are the great halting places, the
stations in which the new Self-Conscious Egos to be -- the
self-begotten progeny of the old and disembodied Egos of our planet -- are
gestated. Before the new phoenix, re-born of the ashes of its parents can soar
higher, to a better, more spiritual, and perfect world -- still a world of
matter -- it has to pass through the process of a new birth, so to say; and, as
on our earth, where the two-thirds of infants are either still-born or die in
infancy, so in our "world of effects." On earth it is the physiological and
mental defects, the sins of the progenitors which are visited upon the issue: in
that land of shadows, the new and yet unconscious Ego-foetus becomes the just
victim of the transgressions of its old Self, whose karma --
merit and demerit -- will alone weave out its future destiny. In that world, my
good friend, we find but unconscious, self-acting, ex-human machines, souls in
their transition state, whose dormant faculties and individuality lie as a
butterfly in its chrysalis; and Spiritualists would yet have them talk sense!
Caught at times, into the vortex of the abnormal "mediumistic" current,
they become the unconscious echoes of thoughts and ideas crystallized around
those present. Every positive, well-directed mind is capable of
neutralizing such secondary effects in a seance room. The world below ours is
worse yet. The former is harmless at least; it is more sinned against by being
disturbed, than sinning; the latter allowing the retention of full consciousness
as being a hundred-fold more material, is positively dangerous. The notions of
hells and purgatory, of paradises and resurrections are all caricatured,
distorted echoes of the primeval one Truth, taught humanity in the infancy of
its races by every First Messenger -- the Planetary Spirit mentioned on the
reverse of page the third -- and whose
p.49
remembrance lingered in the memory of man
as Elu of the Chaldees, Osiris the Egyptian, Vishnu, the first Buddhas and so
on.
The lower world of effects is the sphere of such distorted Thoughts; of the most sensual conceptions, and pictures; of anthropomorphic deities, the out-creations of their creators, the sensual human minds of people who have never out-grown their brutehood on earth. Remembering thoughts are things -- have tenacity, coherence, and life, -- that they are real entities -- the rest will become plain. Disembodied -- the creator is attracted naturally to its creation and creatures; sucked in -- by the Maelstrom dug out by his own hands. . . . But I must pause, for volumes would hardly suffice to explain all that was said by me in this letter.
In reference to your wonder that the views of the three mystics "are far from being identical," what does the fact prove? Were they instructed by disembodied, pure, and wise Spirits -- even by those of one remove from our earth on the higher plane -- would not the teachings be identical? The question arising: "May not Spirits as well as men differ in ideas?" Well, then their teaching -- aye, of the highest of them since they are the "guides" of the three great London Seers -- will not be more authoritative than those of mortal men. "But, they may belong to different spheres?" Well; if in the different spheres contradictory doctrines are propounded, these doctrines cannot contain the Truth, for Truth is One, and cannot admit of diametrically opposite views; and pure Spirits who see it as it is, with the veil of matter entirely withdrawn from it -- cannot err. Now, if we allow of different aspects or portions of the Whole Truth being visible to different agencies or intelligences, each under various conditions, as for example various portions of the one landscape develop themselves to various persons, at various distances and from various standpoints -- if we admit the fact of various or different agencies (individual Brothers for instance) endeavouring to develop the Egos of different individuals, without subjecting entirely their wills to their own (as it is forbidden) but by availing themselves of their physical, moral, and intellectual idiosyncracies; if we add to this the countless kosmical influences which distort and deflect all efforts to achieve definite purposes: if we remember, moreover, the direct hostility of the Brethren of the Shadow always on the watch to perplex and haze the neophyte's brain, I think we shall have no difficulty in understanding how even a definite spiritual advance may to a certain extent lead different individuals to apparently different conclusions and theories.
Having confessed to you that I had no right to interfere with Imperator's
secrets and plans, I must say that so far, however,
p.50
he has proved the wisest of
us. Had our policy been the same, had I, for instance allowed you to infer and
then believe (without stating anything positive myself) that I was a
"disembodied angel" -- a Spirit of pellucid electroidal essence, from the
Super-Stellar phantasmatical zone -- we would both be happier. You -- you would
not have worried your head as to "whether agencies of that sort will always
remain necessary" and I -- would not find myself under the disagreeable
necessity of having to refuse a friend a "personal interview and direct
communication." You might have implicitly believed anything coming from me; and
I would have felt less responsible for you before my "GUIDES." However, time
will show what may or may not be done in that direction. The book is out, and we
have to patiently wait for the results of that first serious shot at
the enemy. Art Magic and Isis emanating from
women and as it was believed, Spiritualists -- could never hope for a serious
hearing. Its effects will at first be disastrous enough, for the gun will recoil
and the shot rebounding will strike the author and his humble hero, who are not
likely to flinch. But it will also graze the old lady, reviving in the
Anglo-Indian press last year's outcry. The Hersites and literary Philistines
will go hard to work, the flings, squibs and coups de bec falling thick
upon her -- though aimed at you alone, as the Editor of the Pioneer
is far from being beloved by his colleagues of India. Spiritualistic papers have
already opened the campaign in London and the Yankee editors of the Organs of
"Angels" will follow suit, the heavenly "Controls" ejaculating their choicest
scandalum magnatum. Some men of science -- least of all their admirers
-- the parasites who bask in the sun and dream they are themselves that sun --
are not likely to forgive you the sentence -- really much too flattering --
which ranges the comprehension of a poor, unknown Hindoo "So far beyond the
science and philosophy of Europe, that only the broadest minded representatives
of either will be able to realize the existence of such powers in man, etc." But
what of that? It was all foreseen and was to be expected. When the first hum and
ding-dong of adverse criticism is hushed, thoughtful men will read and ponder
over the book, as they have never pondered over the most scientific efforts of
Wallace and Crookes to reconcile modern science with Spirits, and -- the little
seed will grow and thrive.
In the meantime I do not forget my promises to you. As soon as installed in your sleeping chamber I will try and. . . .Here six lines in the original letter have been completely erased apparently by the writer thereof. -- ED.
I hope to be permitted to do so much for you. If, for generations we have
"shut out the world from the Knowledge of our Knowledge," it is on account of
its absolute unfitness; and if,
p.51
notwithstanding proofs given, it still refuses
yielding to evidence, then will we at the End of this cycle retire into solitude
and our kingdom of silence once more. . . . We have offered to exhume the
primeval strata of man's being, his basic nature, and lay bare the wonderful
complications of his inner Self -- something never to be achieved by physiology
or even psychology in its ultimate expression -- and demonstrate it
scientifically. It matters not to them, if the excavations be so deep, the rocks
so rough and sharp, that in diving into that, to them, fathomless ocean, most of
us perish in the dangerous exploration; for it is we who were the divers and the
pioneers and the men of science have but to reap where we have sown. It is our
mission to plunge and bring the pearls of Truth to the surface; theirs -- to
clean and set them into scientific jewels. And, if they refuse to touch the
ill-shapen, oyster-shell, insisting that there is, nor cannot be any
precious pearl inside it, then shall we once more wash our hands of any
responsibility before human-kind. For countless generations hath the adept
builded a fane of imperishable rocks, a giant's Tower of INFINITE
THOUGHT,
wherein the Titan dwelt, and will yet, if need be, dwell alone, emerging from it
but at the end of every cycle, to invite the elect of mankind to co-operate with
him and help in his turn enlighten superstitious man. And we will go on in that
periodical work of ours; we will not allow ourselves to be baffled in our
philanthropic attempts until that day when the foundations of a new continent of
thought are so firmly built that no amount of opposition and ignorant malice
guided by the Brethren of the Shadow will be found to prevail.
But until that day of final triumph someone has to be sacrificed -- though we accept but voluntary victims. The ungrateful task did lay her low and desolate in the ruins of misery, misapprehension, and isolation: but she will have her reward in the hereafter for we never were ungrateful. As regards the Adept -- not one of my kind, good friend, but far higher -- you might have closed your book with those lines of Tennyson's "Wakeful Dreamer" -- you knew him not --
"How could ye know him? Ye were yet within
The narrower circle; he had well nigh reached
The last, which, with a region of white flame,
Pure without heat, into a larger air
Up-burning, and an ether of black blue,
Invests and ingirds all other lives. . . ."
I'll close. Remember then on the 17th of July and. . . . Here again six
lines in the original have been deleted. -- ED. . . . ., to you will become the
sublimest of realities.
Farewell.
Sincerely yours,
K. H.
p.52
1 Transcribed from a copy in Mr. Sinnett's handwriting. -- ED
NOTES BY K.H. ON A "PRELIMINARY CHAPTER" HEADED "GOD" BY HUME, INTENDED TO PREFACE AN EXPOSITION OF OCCULT PHILOSOPHY (ABRIDGED).
Received at Simla, 1881
Neither our philosophy nor ourselves believe in a God, least of all in one whose pronoun necessitates a capital H. Our philosophy falls under the definition of Hobbes. It is preeminently the science of effects by their causes and of causes by their effects, and since it is also the science of things deduced from first principle, as Bacon defines it, before we admit any such principle we must know it, and have no right to admit even its possibility. Your whole explanation is based upon one solitary admission made simply for argument's sake in October last. You were told that our knowledge was limited to this our solar system: ergo as philosophers who desired to remain worthy of the name we could not either deny or affirm the existence of what you termed a supreme, omnipotent, intelligent being of some sort beyond the limits of that solar system. But if such an existence is not absolutely impossible, yet unless the uniformity of nature's law breaks at those limits we maintain that it is highly improbable. Nevertheless we deny most emphatically the position of agnosticism in this direction, and as regards the solar system. Our doctrine knows no compromises. It either affirms or denies, for it never teaches but that which it knows to be the truth. Therefore, we deny God both as philosophers and as Buddhists. We know there are planetary and other spiritual lives, and we know there is in our system no such thing as God, either personal or impersonal. Parabrahm is not a God, but absolute immutable law, and Iswar is the effect of Avidya and Maya, ignorance based upon the great delusion. The word "God" was invented to designate the unknown cause of those effects which man has either admired or dreaded without understanding them, and since we claim and that we are able to prove what we claim -- i.e. the knowledge of that cause and causes we are in a position to maintain there is no God or Gods behind them.
The idea of God is not an innate but an acquired notion, and we have but one
thing in common with theologies -- we reveal the infinite. But while we assign
to all the phenomena that proceed from the infinite and limitless space,
duration and motion, material, natural, sensible and known (to us at
least) cause, the theists assign them spiritual, super-natural
and unintelligible and
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un-known causes. The God of the Theologians is
simply and imaginary power, un loup garou as d'Holbach
expressed it -- a power which has never yet manifested itself. Our chief aim is
to deliver humanity of this nightmare, to teach man virtue for its own sake, and
to walk in life relying on himself instead of leaning on a theological crutch,
that for countless ages was the direct cause of nearly all human misery.
Pantheistic we may be called -- agnostic never. If people are willing to accept
and to regard as God our ONE Life immutable and unconscious in its eternity they
may do so and thus keep to one more gigantic misnomer. But then they will have
to say with Spinoza that there is not and that we cannot conceive any other
substance than God; or as that famous and unfortunate philosopher says in his
fourteenth proposition, "practer Deum neque dari neque concepi potest
substantia" -- and thus become Pantheists . . . . who but a Theologian nursed on
mystery and the most absurd super-naturalism can imagine a self existent being
of necessity infinite and omnipresent outside the manifested
boundless universe. The word infinite is but a negative which excludes the
idea of bounds. It is evident that a being independent and omnipresent cannot be
limited by anything which is outside of himself; that there can be nothing
exterior to himself -- not even vacuum, then where is there room for matter? for
that manifested universe even though the latter limited. If we ask the theist is
your God vacuum, space or matter, they will reply no. And yet they hold that
their God penetrates matter though he is not himself matter. When we speak of
our One Life we also say that it penetrates, nay is the essence of every atom of
matter; and that therefore it not only has correspondence with matter but has
all its properties likewise, etc. -- hence is material, is matter
itself. How can intelligence proceed or emanate from non-intelligence --
you kept asking last year. How could a highly intelligent humanity, man the
crown of reason, be evolved out of blind unintelligent law or force! But once we
reason on that line, I may ask in my turn, how could congenital idiots,
non-reasoning animals, and the rest of "creation" have been created by or
evoluted from, absolute Wisdom, if the latter is a thinking intelligent being,
the author and ruler of the Universe? How? says Dr. Clarke in his examination of
the proof of the existence of the Divinity. "God who hath made the eye, shall he
not see? God who hath made the ear shall he not hear?" But according to this
mode of reasoning they would have to admit that in creating an idiot God is an
idiot; that he who made so many irrational beings, so many physical and moral
monsters, must be an irrational being.
We are not Adwaitees, but our teaching respecting the one life is
identical with that of the Adwaitee with regard to Parabrahm.
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And no true
philosophically brained Adwaitee will ever call himself an agnostic, for he
knows that he is Parabrahm and identical in every respect with the universal
life and soul -- the macrocosm is the microcosm and he knows that there is no
God apart from himself, no creator as no being. Having found Gnosis we cannot
turn our backs on it and become agnostics.
. . . . Were we to admit that even the highest Dhyan Chohans are liable to err under a delusion, then there would be no reality for us indeed and the occult sciences would be as great a chimera as that God. If there is an absurdity in denying that which we do not know it is still more extravagant to assign to it unknown laws.
According to logic "nothing" is that of which everything can truly be denied and nothing can truly be affirmed. The idea therefore either of a finite or infinite nothing is a contradiction in terms. And yet according to theologians "God, the self existent being is a most simple, unchangeable, incorruptible being; without parts, figure, motion, divisibility, or any other such properties as we find in matter. For all such things so plainly and necessarily imply finiteness in their very notion and are utterly inconsistent with complete infinity." Therefore the God here offered to the adoration of the XIXth century lacks every quality upon which man's mind is capable of fixing any judgment. What is this in fact but a being of whom they can affirm nothing that is not instantly contradicted. Their own Bible their Revelation destroys all the moral perceptions they heap upon him, unless indeed they call those qualities perfections that every other man's reason and common sense call imperfections, odious vices and brutal wickedness. Nay more he who reads our Buddhist scriptures written for the superstitious masses will fail to find in them a demon so vindictive, unjust, so cruel and so stupid as the celestial tyrant upon whom the Christians prodigally lavish their servile worship and on whom their theologians heap those perfections that are contradicted on every page of their Bible. Truly and veritably your theology has created her God but to destroy him piecemeal. Your church is the fabulous Saturn, who begets children but to devour them.
(The Universal Mind) -- A few reflections and arguments ought to support
every new idea -- for instance we are sure to be taken to task for the following
apparent contradictions. (1) We deny the existence of a thinking conscious God,
on the grounds that such a God must either be conditioned, limited and subject
to change, therefore not infinite, or (2) if he is represented to us as
an eternal unchangeable and independent being, with not a particle of matter in
him, then we answer that it is no being but an immutable blind principle, a law.
And yet, they will say, we
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believe in Dyans, or Planetaries ("spirits" also),
and endow them with a universal mind, and this must be explained.
Our reasons may be briefly summed up thus:
(1) We deny the absurd proposition that there can be, even in a boundless and eternal universe -- two infinite eternal and omni-present existences.
(2) Matter we know to be eternal, i.e., having had no beginning (a) because matter is Nature herself (b) because that which cannot annihilate itself and is indestructible exists necessarily -- and therefore it could not begin to be, nor can it cease to be (c) because the accumulated experience of countless ages, and that of exact science show to us matter (or nature) acting by her own peculiar energy, of which not an atom is ever in an absolute state of rest, and therefore it must have always existed, i.e., its materials ever changing form, combinations and properties, but its principles or elements being absolutely indestructible.
(3) As to God -- since no one has ever or at any time seen him or it
-- unless he or it is the very essence and nature of this boundless eternal
matter, its energy and motion, we cannot regard him as either eternal or
infinite or yet self existing. We refuse to admit a being or an existence of
which we know absolutely nothing; because (a) there is no room for him in the
presence of that matter whose undeniable properties and qualities we know
thoroughly well (b) because if he or it is but a part of that matter it is
ridiculous to maintain that he is the mover and ruler of that of which he is but
a dependent part and (c) because if they tell us that God is a self existent
pure spirit independent of matter -- an extra-cosmic deity, we answer that
admitting even the possibility of such an impossibility, i.e., his
existence, we yet hold that a purely immaterial spirit cannot be an intelligent
conscious ruler nor can he have any of the attributes bestowed upon him by
theology and thus such a God becomes again but a blind force. Intelligence as
found in our Dyan Chohans, is a faculty that can appertain but to organized or
animated being -- however imponderable or rather invisible the
materials of their organizations. Intelligence requires the necessity of
thinking; to think one must have ideas; ideas suppose senses which are physical
material, and how can anything material belong to pure spirit? If it be objected
that thought cannot be a property of matter, we will ask the reason why? We must
have an unanswerable proof of this assumption, before we can accept it. Of the
theologian we would enquire what was there to prevent his God, since he is the
alleged creator of all -- to endow matter with the faculty of thought; and when
answered that evidently it has not pleased Him to do so, that it is a mystery as
well as an impossibility, we would insist upon being told why it is more
impossible that matter
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should produce spirit and thought, than spirit or the
thought of God should produce and create matter.
We do not bow our heads in the dust before the mystery of mind -- for we have solved it ages ago. Rejecting with contempt the theistic theory we reject as much the automaton theory, teaching that states of consciousness are produced by the marshalling of the molecules of the brain; and we feel as little respect for that other hypothesis -- the production of molecular motion by consciousness. Then what do we believe in? Well, we believe in the much laughed at phlogiston (see article "What is force and what is matter?" Theosophist, September), and in what some natural philosophers would call nisus the incessant though perfectly imperceptible (to the ordinary senses) motion or efforts one body is making on another -- the pulsations of inert matter -- its life. The bodies of the Planetary spirits are formed of that which Priestley and others called Phlogiston and for which we have another name -- this essence in its highest seventh state forming that matter of which the organisms of the highest and purest Dyans are composed, and in its lowest or densest form (so impalpable yet that science calls it energy and force) serving as a cover to the Planetaries of the 1st or lowest degree. In other words we believe in matter alone, in matter as visible nature and matter in its invisibility as the invisible omnipresent omnipotent Proteus with its unceasing motion which is its life, and which nature draws from herself since she is the great whole outside of which nothing can exist. For as Bellinger truly asserts "motion is a manner of existence that flows necessarily out of the essence of matter; that matter moves by its own peculiar energies; that its motion is due to the force which is inherent in itself; that the variety of motion and the phenomena that result proceed from the diversity of the properties of the qualities and of the combinations which are originally found in the primitive matter" of which nature is the assemblage and of which your science knows less than one of our Tibetan Yak-drivers of Kant's metaphysics.
The existence of matter then is a fact; the existence of motion is another
fact, their self existence and eternity or indestructibility is a third fact.
And the idea of pure spirit as a Being or an Existence -- give it whatever name
you will -- is a chimera, a gigantic absurdity.
Our ideas on Evil. Evil has no existence per se and is but the
absence of good and exists but for him who is made its victim. It proceeds from
two causes, and no more than good is it an independent cause in nature. Nature
is destitute of goodness or malice; she follows only immutable laws when she
either gives life and joy, or sends suffering and death, and destroys what she
has created. Nature has an antidote for every poison and her
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laws a reward for every suffering. The butterfly devoured by a bird becomes
that bird, and the little bird killed by an animal goes into a higher form. It
is the blind law of necessity and the eternal fitness of things, and hence
cannot be called Evil in Nature. The real evil proceeds from human intelligence
and its origin rests entirely with reasoning man who dissociates himself from
Nature. Humanity then alone is the true source of evil. Evil is the exaggeration
of good, the progeny of human selfishness and greediness. Think profoundly and
you will find that save death -- which is no evil but a necessary law, and
accidents which will always find their reward in a future life -- the origin
of every evil whether small or great is in human action, in man whose
intelligence makes him the one free agent in Nature. It is not nature that
creates diseases, but man. The latter's mission and destiny in the economy of
nature is to die his natural death brought by old age; save accident, neither a
savage nor a wild (free) animal die of disease. Food, sexual relations, drink,
are all natural necessities of life; yet excess in them brings on disease,
misery, suffering, mental and physical, and the latter are transmitted as the
greatest evils to future generations, the progeny of the culprits. Ambition, the
desire of securing happiness and comfort for those we love, by obtaining honours
and riches, are praise worthy natural feelings but when they transform man into
an ambitious cruel tyrant, a miser, a selfish egotist they bring untold misery
on those around him; on nations as well as on individuals. All this then --
food, wealth, ambition, and a thousand other things we have to leave
unmentioned, becomes the source and cause of evil whether in its abundance or
through its absence. Become a glutton, a debauchee, a tyrant, and you become the
originator of diseases, of human suffering and misery. Lack all this and you
starve, you are despised as a nobody and the majority of the herd, your
fellow men, make of you a sufferer your whole life. Therefore it is neither
nature nor an imaginary Deity that has to be blamed, but human nature made vile
by selfishness. Think well over these few words; work out every cause
of evil you can think of and trace it to its origin and you will have solved
one-third of the problem of evil. And now, after making due allowance for
evils that are natural and cannot be avoided, -- and so few are they that I
challenge the whole host of Western metaphysicians to call them evils or to
trace them directly to an independent cause -- 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
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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. Look at India and look at Christendom and Islam,
at Judaism and Fetichism. It is priestly imposture that rendered these Gods so
terrible to man; it is religion that makes of him the selfish bigot, the fanatic
that hates all mankind out of his own sect without rendering him any better or
more moral for it. It is belief in God and Gods that makes two-thirds of
humanity the slaves of a handful of those who deceive them under the false
pretence of saving them. Is not man ever ready to commit any kind of evil if
told that his God or Gods demand the crime?; voluntary victim of an illusionary
God, the abject slave of his crafty ministers. The Irish, Italian and Slavonian
peasant will starve himself and see his family starving and naked to feed and
clothe his padre and pope. For two thousand years India groaned under the weight
of caste, Brahmins alone feeding on the fat of the land, and to-day the
followers of Christ and those of Mahomet are cutting each other's throats in the
names of and for the greater glory of their respective myths. Remember the sum
of human misery will never be diminished unto that day when the better portion
of humanity destroys in the name of Truth, morality, and universal charity, the
altars of their false gods.
If it is objected that we too have temples, we too have priests and that our lamas also live on charity . . . let them know that the objects above named have in common with their Western equivalents, but the name. Thus in our temples there is neither a god nor gods worshipped, only the thrice sacred memory of the greatest as the holiest man that ever lived. If our lamas to honour the fraternity of the Bhikkhus established by our blessed master himself, go out to be fed by the laity, the latter often to the number of 5 to 25,000 is fed and taken care of by the Samgha (the fraternity of lamaic monks) the lamassery providing for the wants of the poor, the sick, the afflicted. Our lamas accept food, never money, and it is in those temples that the origin of evil is preached and impressed upon the people. There they are taught the four noble truths -- ariya sakka, and the chain of causation, (the 12 nidanas) gives them a solution of the problem of the origin and destruction of suffering.
Read the Mahavagga and try to understand not with the prejudiced Western mind but the spirit of intuition and truth what the Fully Enlightened one says in the 1st Khandhaka. Allow me to translate it for you.
"At the time the blessed Buddha was at Uruvella on the shores of the river Nerovigara as he rested under the Boddhi tree of wisdom after he had become Sambuddha, at the end
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of the seventh day having his mind fixed on the chain of causation he spake thus: 'from Ignorance spring the samkharas of threefold nature -- productions of body, of speech, of thought. From the samkharas springs consciousness, from consciousness springs name and form, from this spring the six regions (of the six senses the seventh being the property of but the enlightened); from these springs contact from this sensation; from this springs thirst (or desire, Kama, tanha) from thirst attachment, existence, birth, old age and death, grief, lamentation, suffering, dejection and despair. Again by the destruction of ignorance, the Sankharas are destroyed, and their consciousness name and form, the six regions, contact, sensation, thirst, attachment (selfishness), existence, birth, old age, death, grief, lamentation, suffering, dejection, and despair are destroyed. Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering."
Knowing this the blessed one uttered this solemn utterance. "When the real nature of things becomes clear to the meditating Bikshu, then all his doubts fade away since he has learned what is that nature and what its cause. From ignorance spring all the evils. From knowledge comes the cessation of this mass of misery, and then the meditating Brahmana stands dispelling the hosts of Mara like the sun that illuminates the sky."
Meditation here means the superhuman (not supernatural) qualities, or arhatship in its highest of spiritual powers.
Copied out Simla, Sept. 28, 1882.
1 Transcribed from a copy in Mr. Sinnett's handwriting. -- ED.
Received by A.O.H., June 30th, 1882.
Simple prudence misgives me at the thought of entering upon my new role of an
"instructor." If M. satisfied you but little I am afraid of giving you still
less satisfaction since besides being restrained in my explanations, -- for
there are a thousand things I will have to leave unrevealed -- by my vow of
silence I have far less time at my disposal than he has. However, I'll try my
best. Let it not be said that I failed to recognise your present sincere desire
to become useful to the Society, hence to Humanity, for I am deeply alive to the
fact that none better than yourself in India is calculated to disperse the mists
of superstition and popular error by throwing light on the darkest problems. But
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before I answer your questions and explain our doctrine any further, I'll have
to preface my replies with a long introduction. First of all and again I will
draw your attention to the tremendous difficulty of finding appropriate terms in
English which would convey to the educated European mind even an approximately
correct notion about the various subjects we will have to treat upon. To
illustrate my meaning I'll underline in red the technical words adopted and used
by your men of Science and which withal are absolutely misleading not only when
applied to such transcendental subjects as on hand but even when used by
themselves in their own system of thought.
To comprehend my answers you will have first of all to view the eternal
Essence, the Swabavat not as a compound element you call spirit-matter, but
as the one element for which the English has no name. It is both passive and
active, pure Spirit Essence in its absoluteness, and repose,
pure matter in its finite and conditioned state, -- even as an unponderable gas
or that great unknown which science has pleased to call Force. When
poets talk of the "shoreless ocean of immutability" we must regard the term but
as a jocular parodox, since we maintain that there is no such thing as
immutability -- not in our Solar system at least. Immutability say the theists
and Christians "is an attribute of God" and forthwith they endow that God with
every mutable and variable quality and attribute, knowable as unknowable, and
believe that they have solved the unsolvable and squared the circle. To this we
reply if that which the theists call God, and science "Force"
and "Potential Energy," were to become immutable but for one instant
even during the Maha-Pralaya a period when even Brahm the creative architect of
the world is said to have merged into non-being, then there could be no
manwantara, and space alone would reign unconscious and supreme in the eternity
of time. Nevertheless, Theism when speaking of mutable immutability is no more
absurd than materialistic science talking of "latent potential energy,"
and the indestructibility of matter and force. What are we to believe as
indestructible? Is it the invisible something that moves matter or the energy of
moving bodies! What does modern science know of force proper, or say the forces,
-- the cause or causes of motion. How can there be such a thing as potential
energy, i.e., an energy having latent inactive power since it is
energy only while it is moving matter, and that if it ever
ceased to move matter it would cease to be, and with it matter itself would
disappear. Is force any happier term? Some thirty-five years back a Dr. Mayer
offered the hypothesis now accepted as an axiom that force in the sense given it
by modern science, like matter is indestructible namely when it
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ceases
to be manifest in one form it still exists and has only passed into some
other form. And yet your men of science have not found a single instance
where one force is transformed into another, and Mr. Tyndall tells his
opponents that "in no case is the force producing the motion annihilated or
changed into anything else." Moreover we are indebted to modern science for the
novel discovery that there exists a quantitative relation between the dynamic
energy producing something and the "something" produced. Undoubtedly there
exists a quantitive relation between cause and effect, between the amount of
energy used in breaking one's neighbour's nose, and the damage done to that
nose, but this does not solve one bit more the mystery of what they are pleased
to call correlations, since it can be easily proved (and that on the authority
of that same science) that neither motion nor energy is indestructible and that
the physical forces are in no way or manner convertible one into another. I will
cross-examine them in their own phraseology and we will see whether their
theories are calculated to serve as a barrier to our "astounding doctrines."
Preparing as I do to propound a teaching diametrically opposed to their own it
is but just that I should clear the ground of scientific rubbish lest what I
have to say should fall on a too encumbered soil and only bring forth weeds.
"This potential and imaginary materia prima cannot exist without form," says
Raleigh, and he is right in so far that the materia prima of science exists but
in their imagination. Can they say the same quantity of energy has always been
moving the matter of the Universe? Certainly not so long as they teach that when
the elements of the material cosmos, elements which had first to manifest
themselves in their uncombined gaseous state, were uniting the quantity of
matter -- moving energy was a million times greater than it is now when our
globe is cooling off. For where did the heat that was generated by
this tremendous process of building up a universe go to? To the unoccupied
chambers of space they say. Very well, but if it is gone for ever from the
material universe and the energy operative on earth has never and at no
time been the same, then how can they try to maintain the "unchangeable quantity
of energy," that potential energy which a body may sometimes exert, the
force
which passes from one body to another producing motion and which is not yet
"annihilated or changed into anything else." Aye, we are answered, "but we still
hold to its indestructibility; while it remains connected with matter,
it can never cease to be, or less or more." Let us see whether it is so. I throw
a brick up to a mason who is busy building the roof of a temple. He catches it
and cements it in the roof. Gravity overcame the propelling energy which started
the upward motion of the brick, and the
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dynamic energy of the ascending brick
until it ceased to ascend. At that moment it was caught and fastened to
the roof. No natural force could now move it, therefore it possesses no longer
potential energy. The motion and the dynamic energy of the ascending brick are
absolutely annihilated. Another example from their own text books. You
fire a gun upward from the foot of a hill and the ball lodges in a crevice of
the rock on that hill. No natural force can, for an indefinite period
move it, so the ball as much as the brick has lost its potential energy. "All
the motion and energy which was taken from the ascending ball by gravity is
absolutely annihilated, no other motion or energy succeeds and gravity has
received no increase of energy." Is it not true then that energy is
indestructible! How then is it that your great authority teaches the world that
"in no case is the force producing the motion annihilated or changed into
anything else"?
I am perfectly aware of your answer and give you these illustrations but to
show how misleading are the terms used by scientists, how vacillating and
uncertain their theories and finally how incomplete all their
teachings. One more objection and I have done. They teach that all the physical
forces rejoicing in specific names such as gravity, inertia, cohesion, light,
heat, electricity, magnetism, chemical affinity, are convertible one into
another? If so the force producing must cease to be as the force produced
becomes manifest. "A flying cannon ball moves only from its own inherent force
of inertia." When it strikes it produces heat and other effects but its force of
inertia is not the least diminished. It will require as much energy to start it
again at the same velocity as it did at first. We may repeat the process a
thousand times and as long as the quantity of matter remains the same its force
of inertia will remain the same in quantity. The same in the case of gravity. A
meteor falls and produces heat. Gravity is to be held to account for this, but
the force of gravity upon the fallen body is not diminished. Chemical
attraction draws and holds the particles of matter together, their
collision producing heat. Has the former passed into the latter? Not in the
least, since drawing the particles again together whenever these are separated
it proves that it, the chemical affinity is not decreased, for it will
hold them as strongly as ever together. Heat they say generates and produces
electricity yet they find no decrease in the heat in the process. Electricity
produces heat we are told? Electrometers show that the electrical current passes
through some poor conductor, a platinum wire say and heats the latter. Precisely
the same quantity of electricity, there being no loss of electricity, no
decrease. What then has been converted into heat? Again electricity is said
to produce magnetism.
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I have on the table before me primitive electrometers in whose vicinity
chelas come the whole day to recuperate their nascent powers. I do not find the
slightest decrease in the electricity stored. The chelas are magnetized, but
their magnetism or rather that of their rods is not that
electricity under a new mask. No more than the flame of a thousand tapers lit at
the flame of the Fo lamp is the flame of the latter. Therefore if by
the uncertain twilight of modern science it is an axiomatic truth "that during
vital processes the conversion only and never the creation of
matter or force occurs" (Dr. J. R. Mayer's organic motion in its connection with
nutrition) -- it is for us but half a truth. It is neither conversion
nor creation, but something for which science has yet no name.
Perhaps now you will be prepared to better understand the difficulty with
which we will have to contend. Modern science is our best ally. Yet it is
generally that same science which is made the weapon to break our heads with.
However you will have to bear in mind (a) that we recognise but one
element in Nature (whether spiritual or physical) outside which there can be no
Nature since it is Nature itself ( Not in the sense of Natus "born" but Nature as
the sum total of everything visible and invisible, of forms and minds, the
aggregate of the known (and unknown), causes and effects, the universe in short
infinite and uncreated and endless, as it is without a beginning. ),
and which as the Akasa pervades our solar system every atom being part
of itself pervades throughout space and is space in fact,
which pulsates as in profound sleep during the pralayas and the universal
Proteus, the ever active Nature during the Manwantaras; (b) that consequently
spirit and matter are one, being but a differentiation of states not
essences, and that the Greek philosopher who maintained that the
Universe was a huge animal penetrated the symbolical significance of the
Pythagorean monad (which becomes two, then three
Δ and finally having become the tetracktis or the perfect square (thus evolving out of itself four and
involuting three ¨ (
This figure in the original is a triangle within a square.) forms the sacred seven) -- and thus was far in advance of all
the scientific men of the present time; (c) that our notions of "cosmic matter"
are diametrically opposed to those of western science. Perchance if you remember
all this we will succeed in imparting to you at least the elementary axioms of
our esoteric philosophy more correctly than heretofore. Fear not my kind
brother; your life is not ebbing away and it will not be extinct before you have
completed your mission. I can say no more except that the Chohan has
permitted me to devote my spare time to instruct those who are willing to learn,
and you will have work enough to "drop" your Fragments at intervals of two or
three months. My time is very limited yet I will do what I can. Yet I
can
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promise nothing beyond this. I will have to remain silent as to the
Dyan Chohans nor can I impart to you the secrets concerning the men of the
seventh round. The recognition of the higher phases of man's being on this
planet is not to be attained by mere acquirement of knowledge. Volumes of the
most perfectly constructed information cannot reveal to man life in the higher
regions. One has to get a knowledge of spiritual facts by personal experience
and from actual observation, for as Tyndall puts it "facts looked directly at
are vital, when they pass into words half the sap is taken out of them." And
because you recognise this great principle of personal observation, and are not
slow to put into practice what you have acquired in the way of useful
information, is perhaps the reason why the hitherto implacable Chohan my Master
has finally permitted me to devote to a certain extent a portion of my time to
the progress of the Eclectic. But I am but one and you are many, and
none of my Fellow Brothers with the exception of M. will help me in this work,
not even our semi-European Greek Brother who but a few days back remarked that
when "every one of the Eclectics on the Hill will have become a Zetetic then
will he see what he can do for them." And as you are aware there is very little
hope for this. Men seek after knowledge until they weary themselves to death,
but even they do not feel very impatient to help their neighbour with their
knowledge; hence there arises a coldness, a mutual indifference which renders
him who knows inconsistent with himself and inharmonious with his
surroundings. Viewed from our standpoint the evil is far greater on the
spiritual than on the material side of man: hence my sincere thanks to you and
desire to urge your attention to such a course as shall aid a true progression
and achieve wider results by turning your knowledge into a permanent teaching in
the form of articles and pamphlets.
But for the attainment of your proposed object, viz. -- for a clearer comprehension of the extremely abstruse and at first incomprehensible theories of our occult doctrine never allow the serenity of your mind to be disturbed during your hours of literary labour, nor before you set to work. It is upon the serene and placid surface of the unruffled mind that the visions gathered from the invisible find a representation in the visible world. Otherwise you would vainly seek those visions, those flashes of sudden light which have already helped to solve so many of the minor problems and which alone can bring the truth before the eye of the soul. It is with jealous care that we have to guard our mind-plane from all the adverse influences which daily arise in our passage through earth-life.
Many are the questions you ask me in your several letters, I can answer but
few. Concerning Eglinton I will beg you to wait
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for developments. In regard to
your kind lady the question is more serious and I cannot undertake the
responsibility of making her change her diet as abruptly as you suggest. Flesh
and meat she can give up at any time as it can never hurt; as for liquor with
which Mrs. H. has long been sustaining her system, you yourself know the fatal
effects it may produce in an enfeebled constitution were the latter to be
suddenly deprived of its stimulant. Her physical life is not a real existence
backed by a reserve of vital force, but a factitious one fed upon the spirit of
liquor however small the quantity. While a strong constitution might rally after
the first shock of such a change as proposed, the chances are that she would
fall into a decline. So would she if opium or arsenic were her chief sustenance.
Again I promise nothing yet will do in this direction what I can. "Converse with
you and teach you through astral light?" Such a development of your psychical
powers of hearing, as you name, -- the Siddhi of hearing occult sounds would not
be at all the easy matter you imagine. It was never done to any one of us, for
the iron rule is that what powers one gets he must himself acquire. And
when acquired and ready for use the powers lie dumb and dormant in their
potentiality like the wheels and clockwork inside a musical box; and only then
does it become easy to wind up the key and set them in motion. Of course you
have now more chances before you than my zoophagous friend Mr. Sinnett,
who were he even to give up feeding on animals would still feel a craving for
such a food, a craving over which he would have no control and, -- the
impediment would be the same in that case. Yet every earnestly disposed man
may acquire such powers practically. That is the finality of it; there are
no more distinctions of persons in this than there are as to whom the sun shall
shine upon or the air give vitality to. There are the powers of all nature
before you; take what you can.
Your suggestion as to the box I will think over. There would have to be some
contrivance to prevent the discharge of power when once the box was charged,
whether during transit or subsequently: I will consider and take advice or
rather permission. But I must say the idea is utterly repugnant to us as
everything else smacking of spirits and mediumship. We would prefer by far using
natural means as in the last transmission of my letter to you. It was one of M's
chelas who left it for you in the flower-shed, where he entered invisible to all
yet in his natural body, just as he had entered many a time your museum and
other rooms, unknown to you all, during and after the "Old Lady's" stay. But
unless he is told to do so by M. he will never do it, and that is why
your letter to me was left unnoticed. You have an unjust feeling towards my
Brother, kind sir, for he is better and more
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powerful than I -- at least he is
not as bound and restricted as I am -- I have asked H. P. B. to send you a
number of philosophical letters from a Dutch Theosophist at Penang -- one in
whom I take an interest: you ask for more work and here is some. They are
translations, originals of those portions of Schoppenhauer which are most in
affinity with our Arhat doctrines. The English is not idiomatic but the
material is valuable. Should you be disposed to utilise any portion of it, I
would recommend your opening a direct correspondence with Mr. Sanders, F.T.S. --
the translator. Schoppenhauer's philosophical value is so well known in the
western countries that a comparison or connotation of his teachings upon will,
etc., with those you have received from ourselves might be instructive. Yes I am
quite ready to look over your 50 or 60 pages and make notes on the margins: have
them set up by all means and send them to me either through little "Deb" or
Damodar and Djual Kul will transmit them. In a very few days, perhaps to-morrow,
your two questions will be amply answered by me.
Meanwhile
Yours sincerely,
K. H.
P.S. -- The Tibetan translation is not quite ready yet.
Your hypothesis is far nearer the truth than Mr. Hume's. Two factors must be
kept in view -- (a) a fixed period, and (b) a fixed rate of development nicely
adjusted to it. Almost unthinkably long as is a Mahayug, it is still a definite
term, and within it must be accomplished the whole order of development, or to
state it in occult phraseology: the descent of Spirit into matter and its return
to the re-emergence. A chain of beads, and each bead a world -- is an
illustration already made familiar to you. You have already pondered over the
life impulse beginning with each Manvantara to evolve the first of
these worlds; to perfect it; to people it successively with all the aerial forms
of life. And after completing on this first world seven cycles -- or revolutions
of development -- in each kingdom as you know -- passing forward down the arc --
to similarly evolve the next world in the chain, perfect it, and abandon it.
Then to the next and next and next -- until the sevenfold round of
world-evolutions along the chain is run through and the Mahayug comes to its
end. Then chaos again -- the Pralaya. As this life-impulse (at
the seventh and last round from planet to
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planet) moves on it leaves behind it
dying and -- very soon -- "dead planets."
The last seventh round man having passed on to a subsequent world, the precedent one with all its mineral, vegetable and animal life (except man) begins to gradually die out, when with the exit of the last animalcule it is extinguished, or as H.P.B. has it -- snuffed out (minor or partial pralaya). When the Spirit-man reaches the last bead of the chain and passes into final Nirvana, this last world also disappears or passes into subjectivity. Thus are there among the stellar galaxies births and deaths of worlds ever following each other in the orderly procession of natural Law. And -- as said already -- the last bead is strung upon the thread of the "Mahayuga."
When the last cycle of man-bearing has been completed by that last fecund earth; and humanity has reached in a mass the stage of Buddhahood and passed out of the objective existence into the mystery of Nirvana -- then "strikes the hour;" the seen becomes the unseen, the concrete resumes its pre-cyclic state of atomic distribution.
But the dead worlds left behind the on-sweeping impulse do not continue dead. Motion is the eternal order of things and affinity or attraction its handmaid of all works. The thrill of life will again re-unite the atoms, and it will stir again in the inert planet when the time comes. Though all its forces have remained statu quo and are now asleep, yet little by little it will -- when the hour re-strikes -- gather for a new cycle of man-bearing maternity, and give birth to something still higher as moral and physical types than during the preceding manvantara. And its "cosmic atoms already in a differentiated state" (differing -- in the producing force, in the mechanical sense, of motions and effects) remain statu quo as well as globes and everything else in the process of formation." Such is the "hypothesis fully in accordance with (your) (my) note." For, as planetary development is as progressive as human or race evolution, the hour of the Pralaya's coming catches the series of worlds at successive stages of evolution; (i.e.) each has attained to some one of the periods of evolutionary progress -- each stops there, until the outward impulse of the next manvantara sets it going from that very point -- like a stopped time-piece re-wound. Therefore, have I used the word "differentiated."
At the coming of the Pralaya no human, animal, or even vegetable entity will
be alive to see it, but there will be the earth or globes with their mineral
kingdoms; and all these planets will be physically disintegrated in the pralaya,
yet not destroyed; for they have their places in the sequence of evolution and
their "privations" coming again out of the subjective, they will find the exact
point from which they have to move on around the chain
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of "manifested forms."
This, as we know, is repeated endlessly throughout Eternity. Each man of us has
gone this ceaseless round, and will repeat it for ever and ever. The deviation
of each one's course, and his rate of progress from Nirvana to Nirvana is
governed by causes which he himself creates out of the exigencies in which he
finds himself entangled.
This picture of an eternity of action may appal the mind that has been accustomed to look forward to an existence of ceaseless repose. But their concept is not supported by the analogies of nature, nor -- and ignorant though I may be thought of your Western Science, may I not say? -- by the teachings of that Science. We know that periods of action and rest follow each other in everything in nature from the macrocosm with its Solar Systems down to man and its parent-earth, which has its seasons of activity followed by those of sleep; and that in short all nature, like her begotten living forms has her time for recuperation. So with the spiritual individuality, the Monad which starts on its downward and upward cyclic rotation. The periods which intervene between each great manvantarian "round" are proportionately long to reward for the thousands of existences passed on various globes; while the time given between each "race birth" -- or rings as you call them -- is sufficiently lengthy to compensate for any life of strife and misery during that lapse of time passed in conscious bliss after the re-birth of the Ego. To conceive of an eternity of bliss or woe, and to offset it to any conceivable deeds of merit or demerit of a being who may have lived a century or even a millenium in the flesh, can only be proposed by one who has never yet grasped the awful reality of the word Eternity, nor pondered upon the law of perfect justice and equilibrium which pervades nature. Further instructions may be given you, which will show how nicely justice is done not to man only but also his subordinates, and throw some light, I hope, upon the vexed question of good and evil.
And now to crown this effort of mine (of writing) I may as well pay an old debt, and answer an old question of yours concerning earth incarnations. Koot' humi answers some of your queries -- at least began writing yesterday but was called off by duty -- but I may help him anyhow. I trust you will not find much difficulty -- not as much as hitherto -- in making out my letter. I have become a very plain writer since he reproached me with making you lose your valuable time over my scrawlings. His rebuke struck home, and as you see I have amended my evil ways.
Let us see what your Science has to tell us about Ethnography and other
matters. The latest conclusions to which your wise men of the West seem to have
arrived briefly stated are the
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following. The theories even approximately
correct I venture to underline with blue.
(1) The earliest traces of man they can find disappear beyond the close of a period of which the rock-fossils furnish the only clue they possess.
(2) Starting thence they find four races of men who have successively inhabited Europe (a) The race of the river Drift -- mighty hunters (perchance Nimrod?) who dwelt in the then sub-tropical climate of Western Europe, who used chipped stone implements of the most primitive kind and were contemporary with the rhinoceros and the mammoth; (b) the so-called cave-men, a race developed during the glacial period (the Esquimaux being now, they say, its only type) and which possessed finer weapons and tools of chipped stone since they made with wondrous accuracy pictures of various animals they were familiar with, simply with the aid of sharp pointed flints on the antlers of reindeer and on bones and stones; (c) the third race -- the men of the Neolithic age are found already grinding their stone implements, building houses and boats and making pottery, in short -- the lake dwellers of Switzerland; and finally (d) appears the fourth race, coming from Central Asia. These are the fair complexioned Aryans who intermarry with the remnant of the dark Iberians -- now represented by the swarthy Basks of Spain. This is the race which they consider as the progenitors of you modern peoples of Europe.
(3) They add moreover, that the men of the river Drift, preceded the glacial period known in geology as the Pleistocene and originated some 240,000 years ago, while human beings generally (see Geikie, Dawkins, Fiske and others) inhabited Europe at least 100,000 years earlier.
With one solitary exception they are all wrong. They come near enough yet miss the mark in every case. There were not four but five races; and we are that fifth with remnants of the fourth. (A more perfect evolution or race with each mahacyclic round); while the first race appeared on earth not half a million of years ago (Fiske's theory) -- but several millions. The latest scientific theory is that of the German and American professors who say through Fiske: "we see man living on the earth for perhaps half a million years to all intents and purposes dumb."
He is both right and wrong. Right about the race having been "dumb," for long
ages of silence were required, for the evolution and mutual comprehension of
speech, from the moans and mutterings of the first remove of man above the
highest anthropoid (a race now extinct since "nature shuts the door behind her"
as she advances, in more than one sense) -- up to the first monosyllable
uttering man. But he is wrong in saying all the rest.
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By the bye, you ought to come to some agreement as to the terms used when
discussing upon cyclic evolutions. Our terms are untranslateable; and without a
good knowledge of our complete system (which cannot be given but to regular
initiates) would suggest nothing definite to your perceptions but only be a
source of confusion as in the case of the terms "Soul" and "Spirit" with all
your metaphysical writers -- especially the Spiritualists.
You must have patience with Subba Row. Give him time. He is now at his
tapas and will not be disturbed. I will tell him not to neglect you but he
is very jealous and regards teaching an Englishman as a sacrilege.
Yours M.
P.S. -- My writing is good but the paper rather thin for penmanship. Cannot write English with a brush though; would be worse.
1 Mr. Sinnett's Queries in ordinary type with M.'s Replies in bold type. -- ED.
Cosmological Notes and Queries and M.'s Replies. Received January, 1882. Allahabad.
(1) I conceive that at the close of a pralaya the impulse given by the Dhyan Chohans does not develop from chaos, a succession of worlds simultaneously, but seriatim. The comprehension of the manner in which each in succession ensues from its predecessor as the impact of the original impulse might perhaps be better postponed till after I am enabled to realize the working of the whole machine -- the cycle of worlds -- after all its parts have come into existence.
(1) Correctly conceived. Nothing in nature springs into existence
suddenly all being subjected to the same law of gradual evolution. Realize but
once the process of the maha cycle, of one sphere and
you have realized them all. One man is born like another man, one race evolves,
develops, and declines like another and all other races. Nature follows the same
groove from the "creation" of a universe down to that of a mosquito.
In studying esoteric cosmogony, keep a spiritual eye upon the physiological
process of human birth; proceed from cause to effect establishing [The
original letter has a small portion missing at this point, hence the
incompleteness of the following lines. -- ED]
go along, analogies between the. . . . . . . . . . .
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man and that of a world. In our doctrine
. . . . . . . .
will find necessary the synthetic me . . . . .
. . . . .
you will have to embrace the whole . . . . . . . . .
. .
that is to say to blend the macrocosm.
. . . . . . .
-- cosm together -- before you are ena . . . . .
. . . .
to study the parts separately or analyze
them with
profit to your understanding. Cosmology is the
physiology of the universe
spiritualized, for there is but one law.
(2) Taking the middle of a period of activity between two pralayas, i.e., of a manvantara -- what I understand to happen is this. Atoms are polarized in the highest region of spiritual efflux from behind the veil of primitive cosmic matter. The magnetic impulse which has accomplished this result flits from one mineral form to another within the first sphere till having run the round of existence in that kingdom of the first sphere it descends in a current of attraction to the second sphere.
(2) Polarize themselves during the process of motion and propelled by the irresistible Force at work. In Cosmogony and the work of nature the positive and the negative or the active and passive forces correspond to the male and female principles. Your spiritual efflux comes not from "behind the veil" but is the male seed falling into the veil of cosmic matter. The active is attracted by the passive principle and the Great Nag, the serpent emblem of the eternity, attracts its tail to its mouth forming thereby a circle (cycles in the eternity) in that incessant pursuit of the negative by the positive. Hence the emblem of the lingam the phallus and the eteis. The one and chief attribute of the universal spiritual principle -- the unconscious but ever active life-giver -- is to expand and shed; that of the universal material principle to gather in and fecundate. Unconscious and non-existing when separated, they become consciousness and life when brought together. Hence again -- Brahma, from the root "brih" the Sanskrit for "to expand, grow or to fructify. Brahma being but the vivifying expansive force of nature in its eternal evolution.
(3) Do worlds of effects intervene between the worlds of activity in the series of descent?
(3) The worlds of effects are not lokas or localities. They are the
shadow of the world of causes their souls-- worlds
having like men their seven principles which develop and grow simultaneously
with the body. Thus the body of man is wedded to and
remains for ever within the body of his planet; his individual
jivatma life principle that which is called in physiology
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animal spirits returns after death to its source -- Fohat; his
linga shariram will be drawn into Akasa;
his Kamarupa will recommingle with the Universal
Sakti-- the Will-Force, or universal energy; his
"animal soul" borrowed from the breath of Universal Mind
will return to the Dyan Chohans; his sixth principle -- whether drawn
into or ejected from the matrix of the Great Passive Principle must remain in
its own sphere -- either as part of the crude material or as an individualized
entity to be reborn in a higher world of causes. The seventh will carry it from
the Devachan and follow the new Ego
to its place of re-birth. . . .
(4) The magnetic impulse which cannot yet be conceived of as an individuality -- enters the second sphere in the same (the mineral) kingdom as that to which it belonged in sphere I and runs the round of mineral incarnations there passing on to sphere III. Our earth is still a sphere of necessity for it. Hence it passes into the upward series -- and from the highest of these passes into the vegetable kingdom of sphere I.
Without any new impulse of creative force from above, its career round the cycle of worlds as a mineral principle has developed some new attractions or polarization which cause it to assume the lowest vegetable form -- in vegetable forms it passes successively through the cycle of worlds, the whole being still a circle of necessity (as no responsibility can yet have accrued to an unconscious individuality, and therefore it cannot at any stage of its progress do anything to select one or other of divergent paths). Or is there something in the life even of a vegetable which, though not responsibility, may lead it up or down at this critical stage of its progress?
Having completed the whole cycle as a vegetable the growing individuality expands on the next circuit into an animal form.
(4) The evolution of the worlds cannot be considered apart from the
evolution of everything created.
(5) Where does it get the animal soul, its fifth principle, from? Has the
potentiality of this resided from the first in the original magnetic impulse
which constituted the mineral, or at every transition from the last world on the
ascending side to sphere (I) does it, so to speak, pass through an ocean of spirit
and assimilate some new principle?
(5) Thus you see his fifth principle is
evolved from within himself,
man having as you well say "the potentiality" of all the seven principles as a
germ, from the very instant he appears in the first world of causes as a shadowy
breath, which
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coagulates with, and is hardened together with the parent sphere.
Spirit or Life is indivisible. And when we speak of the seventh principle it is neither quality nor quantity nor yet form that are meant, but rather the space occupied in that ocean of spirit by the results or effects -- (beneficent as are all those of a co-worker with nature) -- impressed thereon.
(6) From the highest animal (non-human) form in sphere I -- how does it get to sphere II? It is inconceivable that it can descend to the lowest animal form there, but otherwise how can it go through the whole circle of life on each planet in turn?
If it runs its cycle in a spiral (i.e., from form 1 of sphere I to form 1 of sphere II, etc. -- then to form 2 of sphere I, II, III, etc., and then to form 3 of sphere I. . . . Nth) then it seems to me that the same rule must apply to the mineral and vegetable individualities if they have such, and yet some things I have been told seem to militate against that. (State them and they will be answered and explained.)
For the moment I must work on that hypothesis however.
[Having swept through the cycle in the highest animal form the animal soul in
its next plunge into the ocean of spirit acquires ] *
* All this misconceived.)
the seventh principle which
endows it with a sixth. This determines its future on Earth, and at the close of
the earth life has sufficient vitality to keep an attraction of its own for the
seventh principle, or loses this and ceases to exist as a separate entity.
(6) Why, "inconceivable?" The highest animal form in sphere I or A
being irresponsible, there is no degradation for it to
merge into sphere II or B as the most infinitesimal of that sphere. While on its
upward course, as you were told, man finds even the lowest animal form
there-- higher than he was himself on earth. How do you know
that men and animals and even life in its incipient stage is not a thousand
times higher there, than it is here? Besides which, every kingdom (and we have
seven -- while you have but three) is subdivided into seven
degrees or classes. Man (physically) is a compound of all the kingdoms, and
spiritually -- his individuality is no worse for being shut up within the casing
of an ant than it is for being inside a king. It is not the outward
or physical shape that dishonours and pollutes the fivth principle
-- but the mental perversity. Then it is but at his
fourth round when arrived at the full possession of his Kama-energy
and is completely matured, that
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man becomes fully responsible,
as at the sixth he may become a
Buddha and at the seventh before the Pralaya -- a "Dhyan Chohan."
Mineral, vegetable, animal-man, all of these have to run their
seven rounds during the period of earth's activity -- the
Maha Yug. I will not enter here on the details of mineral and
vegetable evolution, but I will notice only man -- or -- animal-man. He starts
downward as a simply spiritual entity -- an unconscious seventh principle (a
Parabrahm in contradistinction to Para-parabrahm)
-- with the germs of the other six principles lying latent and dormant in him.
Gathering solidity at every sphere -- his six principles when passing through the
worlds of effects, and his outward form in the worlds of causes (for these
worlds or stages on the descending side we have other names) when he touches our
planet he is but a glorious bunch of light upon a sphere itself yet pure and
undefiled (for mankind and every living thing on it increase in their
materiality with the planet). At that stage our globe is like the head of a
newly born babe -- soft, and with undefined features, and man -- an
Adam before the breath of life was breathed into
his nostrils (to quote your own bungled up Scriptures for your
better comprehension). For man and (our planets) nature -- it is day --
the first (see distorted tradition in your Bible). Man No. 1
makes his appearance at the apex of the circle of the spheres on sphere No. 1,
after the completion of the seven rounds or periods of the two kingdoms (known
to you) and thus he is said to be created on the eighth day (see Bible Chapter
11; note verses 5 and 6 and think what is meant there by "mist" -- and verse 7
wherein LAW the Universal great fashioner is termed "God" by Christians and
Jews, and understood as Evolution by Cabalists). During
this first round "animal-man" runs, as you say, his cycle in a spiral. On the
descending arc -- whence he starts after the completion of the
seventh round of animal life on his own individual
seven rounds -- he has to enter every sphere not as a
lower animal as you understand it but as a lower man.
Since during the cycle which preceded his round as a man he performed it as the
highest type of animal. Your "Lord God," says Bible, chapter I, verses 25 and 26
-- after having made all said: "Let us make man in our
image," etc., and creates man -- an androgyne ape! (extinct on our planet) the
highest in intelligence in the animal kingdom and whose descendants you find in
the anthropoids of to-day. Will you deny the possibility of the highest
anthropoid in the next sphere being higher in intelligence than some men down
here -- savages for instance, the African dwarf-race and our own Veddahs of
Ceylon. But man has no such "degradation" to go through as soon as he has
reached the fourth stage of his cyclic round.
p.75
Like the lower lives
and beings during his first, second and third round and while he is
an irresponsible compound of pure matter and
purespirit (none of them as yet defiled by the consciousness of
their possible purposes and applications) from sphere I, where he has performed
his local sevenfold round of evolutionary process from
the lowest class of the highest species of -- say --
anthropoids up to rudimentary man certainly enters No. 2 as an ape
(the last word being used for your better comprehension). At this round or stage
his individuality is as dormant in him as that of a foetus during his period of
gestation. He has no consciousness, no sense, for he begins as a rudimentary
astral man and lands on our planet as a primitive physical man. So far it is a
mere passing on of mechanical motion. Volition and consciousness are at the same
time self-determining and determined by causes, and the volition of man his
intelligence and consciousness will awake but when his fourth principle
Kama is matured and completed by its (seriatim)
contact with the Kamas or energizing forces of all the
forms man has passed through in his previous three rounds. The present mankind
is at its fourth round (mankind as a genus or a kind
not a race nota bene) of the post-pralayan cycle
of evolution; and as its various races, so the individual entities in them are
unconsciously to themselves performing their local
earthly sevenfold cycles -- hence the vast difference in the degrees of their
intelligence, energy and so on. Now every individuality will be followed on its
ascending arc by the Law of retribution -- Karma and death accordingly. The
perfect man or the entity which reached full perfection, (each of his seven
principles being matured) will not be reborn here. His local terrestrial cycle
is completed and he has to either proceed onward or -- be annihilated as an
individuality. (The incomplete entities have to be reborn or reincarnated).
1
1. By-the-bye, I'll re-write for
you pages 345 to 357, Vol. I., of Isis -- much jumbled, and
confused by Olcott, who thought he was improving it!
On their fifth round
after a partial Nirvana when the zenith of the grand cycle is reached, they will
be held responsible
having being on these worlds.
Your
accepted conceptions of cosmogony—whether from the theological or scientific
standpoints—do not enable you to solve a single anthropological or even ethnical
problem and they stand in your way whenever you attempt to solve the problem of
the races on this planet. When a man begins to talk about creation and the
origin of man, he is butting against the facts incessantly. Go on saying, “Our
planet and man were created “—and you will be fighting against hard facts
for ever, analyzing and losing time over
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trifling details—unable to even grasp
the whole. But once admit that our planet and ourselves are no more creations
than the ice-berg now before me (in our K.H.’s home) but that both planets
and man are—states for a given time; that their present appearance—geological
and anthropological—--is transitory and but a condition concomitant of that
stage of evolution at which they have arrived in the descending cycle—and all
will become plain. You will easily understand what is meant by the “one and only
“ element or principle in the universe and that androgynous; the
seven-headed serpent Arianda of Vishnu, the Nag around Buddha, the
great dragon eternity biting with its active head, its passive
tail, from the emanations of which spring worlds, beings and things. You will
comprehend the reason why the first philosopher proclaimed all—maya—but that one
principle, which rests during the maha-pralayas only —the “nights of Brahm.” Now
think: the Nag awakes. He heaves a heavy breath and the latter is sent
like an electric shock all along the wire encircling Space. Go to your
fortepiano and execute upon the lower register of keys the seven notes of the
lower octave—up and down. Begin pianipiano: crescendo from the first key
and having struck fortissimo on the last lower note go back diminuendo
getting out of your last note a hardly perceptible sound—” morendo
pianissimi” (as I luckily for my illustration find it printed in one of the
musick pieces in K.H.’s old portmanteau). The first and the last notes will
represent to you the first and last spheres, in the cycle of evolution the
highest! The one you strike once is our planet. Remember you have to reverse the
order on the fortepiano: begin with the seventh note, not with the first. The
seven vowels chanted by the Egyptian priests to the seven rays of the rising sun
to which Memnon responded, meant but that. The one Life principle when in
action runs in circuits even as known in physical science. It runs the
round in human body, where the head represents and is to the microcosmos (the
physical world 0f matter) what the summit of the cycle is to the macrocosmos
(the world of Universal Spiritual Forces); and so with the formation of worlds
and the great descending and ascending ‘ circle of necessity.” All is one Law.
Man has his seven principles, the germs of which he brings with him at his
birth. So has a planet or a world. From first to last every sphere has its world
of effects, the passing through which will afford a place of final rest to each
of the human principles—the seventh principle excepted. The world No. A is born;
and with it, clinging like barnacles to the bottom of a ship in motion—evolute
from its first breath of life, the living beings of its atmosphere, from the
germs hitherto inert, now
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awaken into life with the first motion of the sphere.
With sphere A, begins the mineral kingdom and runs the round of mineral
evolution. By the time it is completed sphere B, comes into objectivity and
draws to itself the life which has completed its round in sphere A, and
has become a surplus. (The fount of life being inexhaustible, for it is
the true Arachnea doomed to spin out its web eternally—save the period of
pralaya). Then comes vegetable life on sphere A and the same process takes
place. On its downward course life becomes with every state coarser, more
material; on its upward more shadowy. No—there is, nor can there be any
responsibility until the time when matter and spirit are properly equilibrized.
Up to man “life “ has no responsibility in whatever form; no more than
has the foetus who in his mother’s womb passes through all the forms of life—as
a mineral, a vegetable, an animal to become finally Man. Henceforth in their descents from sphere to sphere, as they
will have to appear on this earth as a still more perfect and intellectual race.
This downward course has not yet begun but will soon. Only how many -- oh, how
many will be destroyed on their way!
The above said is the rule. The Buddhas and Avatars form the exception as verily we have yet some Avatars left to us on earth.
Seventh principle always there as a latent force in every one of the principles -- even body. As the macrocosmic Whole it is present even in the lower sphere, but there is nothing there to assimilate it to itself.
(7) The animal soul having in successive passages round the cycle lost, so to
speak, the momentum which previously carried it past the divergent path downward
which strikes off here, falls into the lower world, in the relatively brief
cycle in which its individuality is dissipated.
But this would only be the case with the animal soul which had not, in its
union with spirit, developed a durable sixth principle. If it had done this, and
if the sixth principle drawing to itself the individuality of the complete man,
had withered the interior fifth principle by so doing -- as the aloe's flower,
when thrown up, withers its leaves -- then the animal soul would not have
cohesion enough to enter on another existence in a lower world and would be soon
dissipated in the sphere of this earth's attraction.
(7) Reforming your conceptions on what I gave you above you will
understand now better.
The whole individuality is centred in the three middle or 3rd, 4th
and 5th principles. During earthly life it is all in the fourth
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the centre of
energy, volition -- will. Mr. Hume has perfectly defined the difference between
personality and individuality. The former hardly survives -- the latter, to run
successfully its seven-fold downward and upward course has to assimilate to
itself the eternal life-power residing but in the seventh and then blend the
three (fourth, fifth and seventh) into one -- the sixth. Those who succeed in
doing so become Buddhas, Dhyan Chohans, etc. The chief object of our struggles
and initiations is to achieve this union while yet on
this earth. Those who will be successful have nothing to fear of during the
fifth, sixth and seventh rounds. But this is a mystery. Our beloved K. H. is on
his way to the goal -- the highest of all beyond as on this sphere.
I have to thank you for all you have done for our two friends. It is a debt of gratitude we owe you.
M.
For some short time you will not hear of, or from me -- Prepare.
1 Transcribed from a copy in Mr. Sinnett's handwriting -- ED.
Letter from K.H. Answering Queries. Received by A.O.H., July 9th, 1882.
(1) We understand that the man-bearing cycle of necessity of our solar system consists of thirteen objective globes, of which ours is the lowest, six above it in the ascending, and six in the descending cycle with a fourteenth world lower still than ours. Is this correct?
(1) The number is not quite correct. There are seven objective and seven subjective globes (I have been just permitted for the first time to give you the right figure), the worlds of causes and of effects. The former have our earth occupying the lower turning point where spirit-matter equilibrates. But do not trouble yourself to go into calculations even on this correct basis for it will only puzzle you, since the infinite ramifications of the number seven (which is one of our greatest mysteries) being so closely allied and interdependent with the seven principles of Nature and man -- this figure is the only one I am permitted (so far) to give you. What I can reveal I do so in a letter I am just finishing.
(2) We understand that below man you reckon not three kingdoms as we do
(mineral, vegetable and animal) but seven. Please enumerate and explain these.
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(2) Below man there are three in the objective and three in the
subjective region, with man a septenary. Two of the three former none but an
initiate could conceive of; the third is the Inner kingdom -- below the crust of
the earth which we could name but would feel embarrassed to describe. These
seven kingdoms are preceded by other and numerous septenary stages and
combinations.
(3) We understand that the monad, starting in the highest world of the descending series, appears there in a mineral encasement, and there goes through a series of seven encasements representing the seven classes into which the mineral kingdom is divided, and that this done it passes to the next planet and does likewise (I purposely say nothing of the worlds of results, where it takes on the development the result of what it has gone through in the last world and the necessary preparation for the next) and so on right through the thirteen spheres, making altogether 91 mineral existences. (a) Is this correct? (b) If so, what are the classes we are to reckon in the mineral kingdom? Also (c) How does the monad get out of one encasement into another; in the case of inherbations and incarnations, the plant and animal dies, but so far as we know the mineral does not die, so how does the monad in the first round get out of one into another inmetalliation? (d) And has every separate molecule of the mineral a monad or only those groups of molecules where definite structure is observable such as crystals?
(3) Yes; in our string of worlds it starts at globe "A" of the descending series and passing through all the preliminary evolutions and combinations of the first three kingdoms it finds itself encased in its first mineral form (in what I call race when speaking of man and what we may call class in general) -- of class 1 -- there. Only it passes through seven instead of "through the thirteen spheres" even omitting the intermediate "worlds of results." Having passed through its seven great classes of inmetalliation (a good word this) with their septenary ramifications -- the monad gives birth to the vegetable kingdom and moves on to the next planet "B."
(a) As you now see, except as to the numbers. (b) Your geologists
divide, I believe, stones into three great groups -- of Sandstone, granite and
chalk; or the sedimentary, organic, and igneous, following their physical
characteristics just as the psychologists and spiritualists divide man into the
trinity of body, soul, and spirit. Our method is totally different. We divide
minerals (also the other kingdoms) according to their occult properties, i.e.,
according to the relative proportion of
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the seven universal
principles which they contain. I am sorry to refuse you, but I cannot, am not
permitted to answer your question. To facilitate for you a question of simple
nomenclature, however, I would advise you to study perfectly the seven
principles in man, and thus to divide the seven great classes of the minerals
correspondentially. For instance, the group of the sedimentary would answer to
the compound (chemically speaking) body of man or his first principle; the
organic to the second (some call it third) principle or jiva, etc., etc. You
must exercise your own intuitions in that. Thus you might also intutite certain
truths even as to their properties. I am more than willing to help you but
things have to be divulged gradually. (c)
By occult osmosis. The plant and animal
leave their carcases behind when life is extinct. So does the mineral only at
longer intervals, as its rocky body is more lasting. It dies at the end of every
manwantaric cycle, or at the close of one "Round" as
you would call it. It is explained in the letter I am preparing for you. (d)
Every molecule is part of the Universal Life. Man's soul (his fourth and fifth
principle) is but a compound of the progressed entities of the lower kingdom.
The superabundance or preponderance of one over another compound will often
determine the instincts and passions of a man, unless these are checked by the
soothing and spiritualizing influence of his sixth principle.
(4) Please note, we call the Grand Cycle that the monad has performed in the mineral kingdom a "round" which we understand to contain thirteen (seven) stations, or objective, more or less material worlds. At each of these stations it performs what we call a "world ring," which includes seven inmetalliations, one in each of the seven classes of that kingdom. Is this accepted for nomenclature and correct?
(4) I believe it will lead to a further confusion. A Round we are
agreed to call the passage of a monad from globe "A" to globe "Z" (or "G")
through the encasement in all and each of the four kingdoms, viz., as a mineral,
a vegetable, an animal and man or the Deva kingdom. The "world ring" is correct.
M. advised Mr. Sinnett strongly to agree upon a nomenclature before going any
further. A few stray facts were given to you par contrebande
and on the smuggling principle hitherto. But now since you seem really and
seriously determined to study and utilize our philosophy -- it is time we should
begin to work seriously. Because we are constrained to deny to our friends an
insight into the higher Mathematics it is no reason why we should refuse to
teach them arithmetic. The
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monad performs not only "world rings" or seven major inmetalliations, inherbations, zoonisations (?) and incarnations -- but an
infinitude of sub-rings or subordinate whirls all in series of sevens. As the
geologist divides the crust of the earth into great divisions, sub-divisions,
minor compartments and zones; and the botanist his plants into orders, classes
and species, and the zoologist his subjects into classes, orders and families,
so we have our arbitrary classifications and our nomenclature. But besides all
this being incomprehensible to you, volumes upon volumes out of the Books of
Kiu-te and others would have to be written. Their commentaries are worse still.
They are filled with the most abstruse mathematical calculations the key to most
of which are in the hands of our highest adepts only, since showing as they do
the infinitude of the phenomenal manifestations in the side projections of the
one Force they are again secret. Therefore I doubt
whether I will be allowed to give you for the present anything beyond the mere
unitary or root idea. Anyhow I will do my best.
(5) We understand that in each of your other six kingdoms, a monad similarly performs a complete round, in each round stopping in each of the thirteen stations, and there performing in each a world ring of seven lives, one in each of the seven classes into which each of the 6 said kingdoms are divided. Is this correct, and, if so, will you give us the seven classes of these six kingdoms?
(5) If by kingdoms the seven kingdoms or regions of the earth are meant -- and I do not see how it can mean anything else -- then the query is answered in my reply to your Question (2) and if so then the five out of the seven are already enumerated. The first two are related as well as the third, to the evolution of the elementals and of the Inner kingdom.
(6) If we are right then the total existences prior to the man-period is 637. Is this correct? Or are there seven existences in each class of each kingdom, 4,459? Or what are the total numbers and how divided? One point more. In these lower kingdoms is the number of lives, so to speak, invariable, or does it vary, and, if so, how, why, and within what limits?
(6) Not being permitted to give you the whole truth, or divulge the
number of isolated fractions, I am unable to satisfy you by giving you the total
number. Rest assured my dear Brother, that to one who does not seek to become a
practical occultist these numbers are immaterial. Even our high chelas are
refused these particulars to the moment of their initiation into
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adeptship. These figures as I have already said are so interwoven with
the profoundest psychological mysteries that to divulge the key to such figures,
would be to put the rod of power within the reach of all the clever men who
would read your book. All that I can tell you is that within the Solar
Manwantara the number of existences or vital activities of the monad is fixed,
but there are local variations in number in minor
systems, individual worlds, rounds, and world rings, according to circumstances.
And in this connexion remember also that human personalities
are often blotted out, while the entities whether
single or compound complete all the minor and major circles of necessities under
whatsoever form.
(7) So far we hope we are tolerably correct, but when we come to Man we have got muddled.
(7) And no wonder, since you were not given the correct information.
(7a) Does the monad as Man (ape-man and upwards) make one or seven rounds as above defined? We gathered the latter.
(7a) As a man-ape he performs just as many rounds and rings as every other race or class; i.e., he performs one Round and in every planet from "A" to "Z" has to go through seven chief races of ape-like man, as many sub-races, etc., etc. (See Supplementary Notes) as the above described race.
(7b) At each round does his world circle consist of seven lives in seven races (49) or of only seven lives in one race? We are not certain how you use the word race, whether there is only one race to each station of each round, i.e., one race to each world circle or whether there are seven races (with their seven branchlets and a life in each in either case) in each world circle? Nay, from your use of the words "and through each of these Man has to evolute before he passes on to the next higher race and that seven times," we are not sure that there are not seven lives in each branchlet as you call it, sub-race we will, if you like, say. So now there may be seven rounds each with seven races, each with seven sub-races, each with seven incarnations = 13 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 = 31, = 313 lives, or one round with seven races and seven sub-races and a life in each = 13 x 7 x 7 = 637 lives or again 4,459 lives. Please set us right here stating the normal number of lives (the exact numbers will vary owing to idiots, children, etc., not counting) and how divided.
(7b) As the above described race: i.e., at each planet -- our earth
included -- he has to perform seven rings through seven
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races
(one in each) and seven multiplied by seven offshoots. There are seven
root-races, and seven sub-races or offshoots. Our doctrine treats anthropology
as an absurd empty dream of the religionists and confines itself to ethnology.
It is possible that my nomenclature is faulty: you are at liberty in such a case
to change it. What I call "race" you would perhaps term "stock" though sub-race
expresses better what we mean than the word family or division of the genus
homo. However, to set you right so far I will say -- one life in each of the
seven root-races; seven lives in each of the 49 sub-races -- or 7 x 7 x 7 = 343
and add 7 more. And then a series of lives in offshoot and branchlet races;
making the total incarnations of man in each station or planet 777. The
principle of acceleration and retardation applies itself in such a way, as to
eliminate all the inferior stocks and leave but a single superior one to make
the last ring. Not much to divide over some millions of years that man passes on
one planet. Let us take but one million of years -- suspected and now accepted
by your science -- to represent man's entire term upon our earth in this Round;
and allowing an average of a century for each life, we find that whereas he has
passed in all his lives upon our planet (in this Round) but 77,700 years he has
been in the subjective spheres 922,300 years. Not much encouragement for the
extreme modern re-incarnationists who remember their several previous
existences!
Should you indulge in any calculations do not forget that we have computed above only full average lives of consciousness and responsibility. Nothing has been said as to the failures of Nature in abortions, congenital idiots, death of children in their first septenary cycles, nor of the exceptions of which I cannot speak. No less have you to remember that average human life varies greatly according to the Rounds. Though I am obliged to withhold information about many points yet if you should work out any of the problems by yourself it will be my duty to tell you so. Try to solve the problem of the 777 incarnations.
(8) "M" said all mankind is in the fourth round, the fifth has not yet
commenced but soon will. Was this a slip? If not, then collating this with your
present remarks we gather that all mankind is on the fourth round (though in
another place you seemed to say we are on the fifth round). That the highest
people now on earth belong to the first sub-race of the fifth race, the majority
to the seventh sub-race of the fourth race but with remnants of the other
sub-races of the fourth race and the seventh sub-race of the third race. Pray
set us quite right on this.
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(8) "M "knows very little English and hates
writing. But even I might have used very well the same expression. A few drops
of rain do not make a monsoon though they presage it. The fifth round has not
commenced on our earth and the races and sub-races of one round must not be
confounded with those of another round. The fifth round mankind may be said to
have "commenced" when there shall not be left on the planet which precedes ours
a single man of that round and on our earth not one of the fourth round. You
should know also that the casual fifth round men (and very few and scarce they
are) who come in upon us as avant couriers do not beget on earth fifth round
progeny. Plato and Confucius were fifth round men and our Lord a sixth round man
(the mystery of his avatar is spoken of in my forthcoming letter) and not even
Gautama Buddha's son was anything but a fourth round man.
Our mystic terms in their clumsy re-translation from the Sanskrit into English are as confusing to us as they are to you -- especially to "M" unless in writing to you one of us takes his pen as an adept and uses it from the first word to the last, in this capacity he is quite as liable to "slips" as any other man. No, we are not in the fifth round, but fifth round men have been coming in for the last few thousand years. But what is such a petty stretch of time in comparison with even one million of the several millions of years embraced in man's occupancy of earth in a single round.
K. H.
Please examine carefully the few additional things I give you on the fly-leaves. Damodar has received orders to send you No. 3 of Terry's letters -- a good material for pamphlet No. 3 of Fragments of Occult Truth.
p.85
This figure roughly represents the development of humanity on a planet -- say our earth. Man evolves in seven major or root-races; 49 minor races; and the subordinate races or offshoots, the branchlet races coming from the latter are not shown.
The arrow indicates the direction taken by the evolutionary impulse.
I, II, III, IV, etc., are the seven major or root-races.1, 2, 3, etc., are the minor races.
a, a, a, are the subordinate or offshoot races.N, the initial and terminal point of evolution on the planet.
S, the axial point where the development equilibrates or adjusts itself in each race evolution.E, the equatorial points where in the descending arc intellect overcomes spirituality and in the ascending arc spirituality outstrips intellect.
(N.B. -- The above in D. K.'s hand -- the rest in K. H.'s. -- A. P. S.)
P.S. -- In his hurry D. J. K. has made his figure incline somewhat out
of the perpendicular but it will serve as a rough memorandum. He drew it to
represent development on a single planet; but I have added a word or two to make
it apply as well (which it does) to a whole manwantaric chain of worlds.
K.H.
Supplementary Notes.
Whenever any question of evolution or development in any Kingdom presents itself to you bear constantly in mind that everything comes under the Septenary rule of series in their correspondences and mutual relation throughout nature.
In the evolution of man there is a topmost point, a bottom point, a descending arc, and an ascending arc. As it is "Spirit" which transforms itself into "matter" and (not "matter" which ascends -- but) matter which resolves once more into spirit, of course the first race evolution and the last on a planet (as in each round) must be more etherial, more spiritual, the fourth or lowermost one most physical (progressively of course in each round) and at the same time -- as physical intelligence is the last manifestation of spiritual intelligence -- each evoluted race in the downward arc must be more physically intelligent than its predecessor, and each in the upward arc have a more refined form of mentality commingled with spiritual intuitiveness.
This ( as race or stock) of the first round after a
solar manwantara (kindly wait for my forthcoming letter before you
allow yourself to be repuzzled or remuddled. It will explain a good deal) would
then be a God-man race of an almost im-
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palpable shape, and so it is; but then
comes the difficulty to the student to reconcile this fact with the evolution of
man from the animal-- however high his form among the
anthropoids. And yet it is reconcilable, for whomsoever will hold religiously to
a strict analogy between the works of the two worlds, the visible and the
invisible -- one world, in fact, as one is working within itself so to say. Now
there are -- there must be "failures" in the etherial
races of the many classes of Dyan Chohans or Devas as well as among men. But
still as these failures are too far progressed and spiritualized to be thrown
back forcibly from their Dyan Chohanship into the vortex of a new primordial
evolution through the lower kingdoms -- this then happens. When a new solar
system is to be evolved these Dyan Chohans are (remember the Hindu allegory of
the Fallen Devas hurled by Siva into Andarah who are
allowed by Parabrahm to consider it as an intermediate state where they may
prepare themselves by a series of rebirths in that sphere for a higher state --
a new regeneration) born in by the influx "ahead" of the elementals and remain
as a latent or inactive spiritual force in the aura of the nascent world of a
new system until the stage of human evolution is reached. Then Karma has reached
them and they will have to accept to the last drop in the bitter cup of
retribution. Then they become an active Force, and
commingle with the Elementals, or progressed entities
of the pure animal kingdom to develope little by little the full type of
humanity. In this commingling they lose their high intelligence and spirituality
of Devaship to regain them in the end of the seventh ring in the seventh round.
Thus we have:
1st Round. -- An ethereal being -- non-intelligent, but super-spiritual. In each of the subsequent races and sub-races and minor races of evolution he grows more and more into an encased or incarnate being, but still preponderatingly etherial. And like the animal and vegetable he develops monstrous bodies correspondential with his coarse surroundings.
2nd Round. -- He is still gigantic and etherial, but growing firmer and more condensed in body -- a more physical man, yet still less intelligent than spiritual; for mind is a slower and more difficult evolution than the physical frame and the mind would not develop as rapidly as the body.
3rd Round. -- He has now a perfectly concrete or compacted
body; at first the form of a giant ape, and more intelligent (or rather cunning)
than spiritual. For in the downward arc he has now reached the point where his
primordial spirituality is eclipsed or over-shadowed by nascent mentality. In
the last half of this third round his gigantic stature decreases, his body
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improves in texture (perhaps the microscope might help to demonstrate
this) and he becomes a more rational being -- though still more an ape than a
Deva man.
4th round. -- Intellect has an enormous development in this round. The dumb races will acquire our human speech, on our globe, on which from the 4th race language is perfected and knowledge in physical things increases. At this half-way point of the fourth round, Humanity passes the axial point of the minor manwantaric circle. (Moreover, at the middle point of every major or root race evolution of each round, man passes the equator of his course on that planet, the same rule applying to the whole evolution or the seven rounds of the minor Manwantara -- 7 rounds divided by 2 = 3 1/2 rounds). At this point then the world teems with the results of intellectual activity and spiritual decrease. In the first half of the fourth race, sciences, arts, literature and philosophy were born, eclipsed in one nation, reborn in another. Civilization and intellectual development whirling in septenary cycles as the rest; while it is but in the latter half that the spiritual Ego will begin its real struggle with body and mind to manifest its transcendental powers. Who will help in the forthcoming gigantic struggle? Who? Happy the man who helps a helping hand.
5th Round. -- The same relative development, and the same struggle continues.
6th Round.
7th Round.
Of these we need not speak.
From K.H. to A.O.H. Received July 10th, 1882.
1 Transcribed from a copy in Mr. Sinnett's handwriting. K.H.'s repies are in bold type. -- ED.
(1) Does every mineral form, vegetable, plant, animal, always contain within it that entity which involves the potentiality of development into a planetary spirit? At this present day in this present earth is there such an essence or spirit or soul -- the name is immaterial in every mineral, etc.
(1) Invariably; only rather call it the germ
of a future entity, which it has been for ages.
Take the human foetus. From the moment of its first planting until it completes
its seventh month of gestation it repeats in miniature the mineral, vegetable,
and animal cycles it passed through in its previous
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encasements, and only during
the last two, develops its future human entity. It is completed but towards the
child's seventh year. Yet it existed without any increase
or decrease
aeons on aeons before it worked its way onward,
through and in
the womb of mother nature as it works now in its earthly mother's bosom. Truly
said a learned philosopher who trusts more to his intuitions than the dicta of
modern science. "The stages of man's intra-uterine existence embody a condensed
record of some of the missing pages in Earth's history." Thus you must look back
at the animal, vegetable and mineral entities. You must take each entity at its
starting point in the manvantaric course as the primordial cosmic atom already
differentiated by the first flutter of the manvantaric life breath. For the
potentiality which develops finally in a perfected planetary spirit lurks in,
is in fact that primordial
cosmic atom. Drawn by its "chemical
affinity" (?) to coalesce with other like atoms the aggregate sum of such united
atoms will in time become a man-bearing globe after the stages of the cloud, the
spiral and sphere of fire-mist and of the condensation, consolidation, shrinkage
and cooling of the planet have been successively passed through. But mind, not
every globe becomes a "man
bearer." I simply state the fact without dwelling further upon it in this
connection. The great difficulty in grasping the idea in the above process lies
in the liability to form
more or less incomplete mental conceptions of the working of the
one element, of its inevitable presence
in every imponderable atom, and its subsequent ceaseless and almost illimitable
multiplication of new centres of activity without affecting in the least its own
original quantity. Let us take such an aggregation of atoms destined to form our
globe and then follow, throwing a cursory look at the whole, the special work of
such atoms. We will call the primordial atom A. This being not a circumscribed
centre of activity but the initial point of a manwantaric whirl of evolution,
gives birth to new centres which we may term B, C, D, etc., incomputably. Each
of these capital points gives birth to minor centres, a, b, c, etc. And the
latter in the course of evolution and involution in time develops into A's, B's,
C's, etc., and so form the roots or are the developing causes of new genera,
species, classes, etc., ad infinitum. Now neither the primordial A and its
companion atoms, nor their derived a's, b's, c's, have lost one tittle of their
original force or life-essence by the evolution of their derivatives. The force
there, is not transformed into something else as I have already shown in my
letter, but with each development of a new centre of activity from
within itself
multiplies ad infinitum without ever losing a particle of its nature in quantity
or quality. Yet
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acquiring as it progresses something plus in its
differentiation. This "force" so-called, shows itself truly indestructible but
does not correlate and is
not convertible in the sense
accepted by the Fellows of the R.S., but rather may be said to grow
and expand
into "something else" while neither its own
potentiality nor being are in the least affected by the transformation. Nor can
it well be called force since
the latter is but the attribute of Yin Sin (Yin Sin or the one "Form of
existence" also Adi-Buddhi or Dharmakaya the mystic, universally diffused
essence) when manifesting in the phenomenal world of senses namely only your old
acquaintance Fohat. See in this connexion Subba Row's article "Aryan Arhat
Esoteric Doctrines" on the seven-fold principles in man; his review of your
Fragments, pp. 94 and 95. The initiated Brahmin calls it (Yin Sin and Fohat)
Brahman and Sakti when manifesting as that force. We will perhaps be nearer
correct to call it infinite life
and the source of all life visible and
invisible, an essence inexhaustible ever present, in short Swabhavat. (S. in its
universal application, Fohat when manifesting throughout our phenomenal world or
rather the visible universe hence in its limitations). It is pravritti when
active, nirvritti when passive. Call it the Sakti of Parabrahma, if you like,
and say with the Adwaitees (Subba Row is one) that Parabrahm plus Maya becomes
Iswar the creative principle
-- a power commonly called God which disappears and dies with the rest when
pralaya comes. Or you may hold with the northern Buddhist philosophers and call
it Adi-Buddhi the
all-pervading supreme and absolute intelligence with its periodically
manifesting Divinity -- "Avalokiteshvara" (a manwantaric intelligent nature
crowned with humanity) -- the mystic name given by us to the hosts of the Dyan
Chohans (N.B., the solar Dyan Chohans or the host of only our solar system)
taken collectively, which host represents the mother source, the aggregate
amount of all the intelligences that were are or ever will be whether on our
string of man-bearing planets or on any part or portion of our solar system. And
this will bring you by analogy to see that in its turn Adi-Buddhi (as its very
name translated literally implies) is the aggregate intelligence of the
universal intelligences including that of the Dyan Chohans even of the highest
order. That is all I dare now to tell you on this special subject, as I fear I
have already transcended the limit. Therefore whenever I speak of humanity
without specifying it you must understand that I mean not humanity of our fourth
round as we see it on this speck of mud in space but the whole host already
evoluted.
Yes as described in my letter -- there is but one element and
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it is
impossible to comprehend our system before a correct conception of it is firmly
fixed in one's mind. You must therefore pardon me if I dwell on the subject
longer than really seems necessary. But unless this great primary fact is firmly
grasped the rest will appear unintelligible. This element then is the -- to
speak metaphysically -- one sub-stratum or permanent cause of all manifestations
in the phenomenal universe. The ancients speak of the five cognizable elements
of ether, air, water, fire, earth, and of the one incognizable element (to the uninitiates) the 6th principle of the universe -- call it Purush Sakti, while to
speak of the seventh outside the sanctuary was punishable with death. But these
five are but the differentiated aspects of the one. As man is a seven-fold being
so is the universe -- the septenary microcosm being to the septenary macrocosm
but as the drop of rainwater is to the cloud from whence it dropped and whither
in the course of time it will return. In that one are embraced or included so
many tendencies for the evolution of air, water, fire, etc. (from the purely
abstract down to their concrete condition) and when those latter are called
elements it is to indicate their productive potentialities for numberless form
changes or evolution of being. Let us represent the unknown quantity as X; that
quantity is the one eternal immutable principle -- and A, B, C, D, E, five of
the six minor principles or components of the same; viz., the principles of
earth, water, air, fire and ether (akasa) following the order of their
spirituality and beginning with the lowest. There is a sixth principle answering
to the sixth principle Buddhi,
in man (to avoid confusion remember that in viewing the question from the side
of the descending scale the abstract All or eternal principle would be
numerically designated as the first, and the phenomenal universe as the seventh,
and whether belonging to man or to the universe -- viewed from the other side
the numerical order would be exactly reversed) but we are not permitted to name
it except among the initiates. I may however hint that it is connected with the
process of the highest intellection. Let us call it N. And besides these, there
is under all the activities of the phenomenal universe an energizing impulse
from X, call this Y. Algebraically stated, our equation would therefore read
A+B+C+D+E+N+Y=X. Each of these six letters represents, so to speak, the spirit
or abstraction of what you call elements (your meagre English gives me no other
word). This spirit controls the entire line of evolution, around the whole
manwantaric cycle in its own department. The informing, vivifying, impelling,
evolving cause, behind the countless
phenomenal manifestations in that department of Nature. Let us work out the idea
with a single example. Take
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fire. D -- the primal igneous principle resident in
X -- is the ultimate cause of every phenomenal manifestation of fire on all the
globes of the chain. The proximate causes are the evoluted secondary igneous
agencies which severally control the seven descents
of fire on each planet. (Every element having its seven principles and every
principle its seven sub-principles and these secondary agencies before doing so,
have in turn become primary causes.) D is a septenary compound of which the
highest fraction is pure spirit. As we see it on our globe it is in its
coarsest, most material condition, as gross in its way as is man in his physical
encasement. In the next preceding globe to ours fire was less gross than here:
on the one before that less still. And so the body of flame was more and more
pure and spiritual less and less gross and material on each antecedent planet.
On the first of all in the manwantaric chain, it appeared as an almost pure
objective shining -- the Maha Buddhi, sixth principle of the
eternal light. Our globe being at the
bottom of the arc where matter exhibits itself in its grossest form along with
spirit -- when the fire element manifests itself on the globe next succeeding
ours in the ascending arc it will be less dense than as we see it. Its spiritual
quality will be identical with that which fire had on the globe preceding ours
in the descending scale; the second globe of the ascending scale will correspond
in quality with that of the second anterior globe to ours in the descending
scale, etc. On each globe of the chain there are seven manifestations of fire of
which the first in order will compare as to spiritual quality with the last
manifestation on the next preceding planet: the process being reversed, as you
will infer, with the opposite arc. The myriad specific manifestations of these
six universal elements are in their turn but the offshoots, branches or
branchlets of the one single primordial "Tree of Life."
Take Darwin's genealogical tree of life of the human race and others and
bearing ever in mind the wise old adage, "As below so above" -- that is the
universal system of correspondences -- try to understand by analogy. Thus will
you see that in this day on this present earth in every mineral, etc., there is
such a spirit. I will say more. Every grain of sand, every boulder or crag of
granite, is that spirit
crystallized or petrified. You hesitate. Take a primer of geology and see what
science affirms there about the formation and growth of minerals. What is the
origin of all the rocks, whether sedimentary or igneous. Take a piece of granite
or sandstone and you find one composed of crystals, the other of grains of
various stones (organic rocks or stones formed out of the remains of once living
plants and animals, will not serve our present purpose:
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they are the relics of
subsequent evolutions while we are concerned but with the primordial ones). Now
sedimentary and igneous rocks are composed, the former of sand gravel and mud,
the latter of lava. We have then but to trace the origin of the two. What do we
find? We find that one was compounded of three elements or more accurately three
several manifestations of the one
element, -- earth, water and fire, and that the
other was similarly compounded (though under different physical conditions) out
of cosmic matter -- the imaginary materia prima
itself one of the manifestations (6th principle) of the one element. How then
can we doubt that a mineral contains in it a spark of the One as everything else
in this objective nature does?
(2) When the pralaya commences what becomes of the Spirit that has not worked its way up to man?
(2) . . . The period necessary for the completion of the seven local or earthly -- or shall we call it -- globe-rings (not to speak of the seven Rounds in the minor manwantaras followed by their seven minor pralayas) -- the completion of the so-called mineral cycle is immeasurably longer than that of any other kingdom. As you may infer by analogy every globe before it reaches its adult period, has to pass through a formation period -- also septenary. Law in Nature is uniform and the conception, formation, birth, progress and development of the child differs from those of the globe only in magnitude. The globe has two periods of teething and of capillature -- its first rocks which it also sheds to make room for new -- and its ferns and mosses before it gets forest. As the atoms in the body change every seven years so does the globe renew its strata every seven cycles. A section of a part of Cape Breton coalfields shows seven ancient soils with remains of as many forests, and could one dig as deep once more seven other sections would be found following. . . .
There are three kinds of pralayas and manwantara: --
1. The universal or Maha pralaya and manwantara.
2. The solar pralaya and manwantara.
3. The minor pralaya and manwantara.
When the pralaya No. 1 is finished the universal manwantara begins. Then the whole universe must be re-evoluted de novo. When the pralaya of a solar system comes it affects that solar system only. A solar pralaya = 7 minor pralayas. The minor pralayas of No. 3 concern but our little string of globes, whether man-bearing or not. To such a string our Earth belongs.
Besides this within a minor pralaya there is a condition of
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planetary
rest or as the astronomers
say "death," like that of our present moon -- in which the rocky body of the
planet survives but the life impulse has passed out. For example. Let us imagine
that our earth is one of a group of seven planets or man-bearing worlds more or
less eliptically arranged. Our earth being at the exact lower central point of
the orbit of evolution, viz., half way round -- we will call the first globe A,
the last Z. After each solar pralaya there is a complete
destruction of our system and after each solar p. begins the absolute objective
reformation of our system and each time everything is more perfect than before.
Now the life impulse reaches "A" or rather that which is destined to become
"A" and which so far is but cosmic dust. A centre is formed in the nebulous
matter of the condensation of the solar dust disseminated through space and a
series of three evolutions invisible to the eye of flesh occur in succession,
viz., three kingdoms of elementals or nature forces are evoluted: in other words
the animal soul of the future globe is formed; or as a Kabalist will express it,
the gnomes, the salamanders, and the undines are created. The correspondence
between a mother-globe and her child-man may be thus worked out. Both have their
seven principles. In the Globe, the elementals (of which there are in all seven
species) form (a) a gross body, (b) her fluidic double (linga
sariram), (c) her life principle (jiva); (d)
her fourth principle kama rupa is formed by her creative impulse working from
centre to circumference; (e) her fifth principle (animal soul or
Manas, physical intelligence) is embodied
in the vegetable (in germ) and animal kingdoms; (f) her sixth principle (or
spiritual soul, Buddhi) is man (g) and her seventh principle (atma) is in a film
of spiritualized akasa that surrounds her. The three evolutions completed:
palpable globe begins to form. The mineral kingdom fourth in the whole series,
but first in this stage leads the way. Its deposits are at first vaporous soft
and plastic, only becoming hard and concrete in the seventh ring. When this ring
is completed it projects its essence to globe B -- which is already passing
through the preliminary stages of formation and mineral evolution begins on that
globe. At this juncture the evolution of the vegetable kingdom commences on
globe A. When the latter has made its seventh ring its essence passes on to
globe B. At that time the mineral essence moves to globe C and the germs of the
animal kingdom enter A. When the animal has seven rings there, its life
principle goes to globe B, and the essences of vegetable and mineral move on.
Then comes man on A, an ethereal foreshadowing of the compact being he is
destined to become on our earth. Evolving seven parent races
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with many offshoots
of sub-races, he, like the preceding kingdoms completes his seven rings and is
then transferred successively to each of the globes onward to Z. From the first
man has all the seven principles included in him in germ but none are developed.
If we compare him to a baby we will be right; no one has ever, in the thousands
of ghost stories current, seen the ghost of an infant, though the imagination of
a loving mother may have suggested to her the picture of her lost babe in
dreams. And this is very suggestive. In each of the rounds he makes one of the
principles develop fully. In the first round his consciousness on our earth is
dull and but feeble and shadowy, something like that of an infant. When he
reaches our earth in the second round he has become responsible in a degree, in
the third he becomes so entirely. At every stage and every round his development
keeps pace, with the globe on which he is. The descending arc from A to our
earth is called the shadowy, the ascending to Z the "luminous" . . . We men of
the fourth round are already reaching the latter half of the fifth race of our
fourth round humanity, while the men (the few earlier comers) of the fifth
round, though only in their first race (or rather class), are yet immeasurably
higher than we are -- spiritually if not intellectually; since with the
completion or full development of this fifth principle (intellectual soul) they
have come nearer than we have, are closer in contact with their sixth principle
Buddhi. Of course many are the differentiated individuals even in the fourth
race
as germs of principles are not equally developed in all, but such is the rule.
. . . Man comes on globe "A" after the other kingdoms have gone on. (Dividing
our kingdoms into seven, the last four are what exoteric science divides into
three. To this we add the kingdom of man or the Deva kingdom. The respective
entities of these we divide into germinal, instinctive, semi-conscious, and
fully conscious). . . . When all kingdoms have reached globe Z they will not
move forward to re-enter A in precedence of man, but under a law of retardation
operative from the central point -- or earth -- to Z and which equilibrates a
principle of acceleration in the descending arc -- they will have just finished
their respective evolution of genera and species, when man reaches his highest
development on globe Z -- in this or any round. The reason for it is found in
the enormously greater time required by them to develop their infinite varieties
as compared with man; the relative speed of development in the
rings therefore naturally increases as we
go up the scale from the mineral. But these different rates are so adjusted by
man stopping longer in the inter-planetary spheres of rest, for weal or woe --
that all kingdoms finish their work simultaneously on
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the planet Z. For example,
on our globe we see the equilibrating law manifesting. From the first appearance
of man whether speechless or not to his present one as a fourth and the coming
fifth round being the structural intention of his organization has not radically
changed. Ethnological characteristics however varied, affecting in no way man as
a human being. The fossil of
man or his skeleton whether of the period of that mammalian branch of which he
forms the crown, whether cyclop or dwarf can be still recognised at a glance as
a relic of man. Plants and animals meanwhile have become more and more unlike
what they were. . . . The scheme with its septenary details would be
incomprehensible to man had he not the power as the higher Adepts have proved of
prematurely developing his 6th and 7th senses -- those which will be the natural
endowment of all in the corresponding rounds. Our Lord Buddha -- a 6th race man --
would not have appeared in our epoch, great as were his accumulated merits in
previous rebirths but for a mystery.
. . . Individuals cannot outstrip the humanity of their round any further than
by one remove, for it is mathematically impossible -- you say (in effect): if
the fountain of life flows ceaselessly there should be men of all rounds on the
earth at all times, etc. The hint about planetary rest may dispel the
misconception on this head.
When man is perfected qua a given round on Globe A he disappears thence (as had certain vegetables and animals). By degrees this Globe loses its vitality and finally reaches the moon stage, i.e., death, and so remains while man is making his seven rings on Z and passing his inter-cyclic period before starting on his next round. So with each Globe in turn.
And now as man when completing his seventh ring upon A has but begun his
first on Z and as A dies when he leaves it for B, etc., and as he must also
remain in the inter-cyclic sphere after Z, as he has between every two planets,
until the impulse again thrills the chain, clearly no one can be more than one
round ahead of his kind. And Buddha only forms an exception by virtue of the
mystery. We have fifth round
men among us because we are in the latter half of our septenary earth ring. In
the first half this could not have happened. The countless myriads of our fourth
round humanity who have outrun us and completed their seven rings on Z, have had
time to pass their inter-cyclic period begin their new round and work on to
globe D (ours). But how can there be men of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th
rounds? We represent the first three and the sixth can only come at rare
intervals and prematurely like Buddhas (only under prepared conditions) and that
the last-named the
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seventh are not yet evolved! We have traced man out of a
round into the Nirvanic state between Z and A. A was left in the last round
dead. As the new round begins it catches the new influx of life, reawakens to
vitality and begets all its kingdoms of a superior order to the last. After this
has been repeated seven times comes a minor pralaya; the chain of globes are not
destroyed by disintegration and dispersion of their particles but pass
in abscondito. From this they will
re-emerge in their turn during the next septenary period. Within one solar
period (of a p. and m.) occur seven such minor periods, in an ascending scale of
progressive development. To recapitulate there are in the round seven planetary
or earth rings for each kingdom and one obscuration of each planet. The minor
manwantara is composed of seven rounds, 49 rings and 7 obscurations, the solar
period of 49 rounds, etc.
The periods with pralaya and manwantara are called by Dikshita "Surya manwantaras and pralayas." Thought is baffled in speculating how many of our solar pralayas must come before the great Cosmic night -- but that will come.
. . . In the minor pralayas there is no starting de novo -- only resumption of arrested activity. The vegetable and animal kingdoms which at the end of the minor manwantara had reached only a partial development are not destroyed. Their life or vital entities, call some of them nati if you will -- find also their corresponding night and rest -- they also have a Nirvana of their own. And why should they not, these foetal and infant entities. They are all like ourselves begotten of the one element. . . . As we have our Dyan Chohans so have they in their several kingdoms elemental guardians and are as well taken care of in the mass as is humanity in the mass. The one element not only fills space and is space, but interpenetrates every atom of cosmic matter.
When strikes the hour of the solar pralaya -- though the process of man's
advance on his last seventh round is precisely the same, each planet instead of
merely passing out of the visible into the invisible as he quits it in turn is
annihilated. With the beginning of the seventh Round of the seventh minor
manwantara, every kingdom having now reached its last cycle, there remains on
each planet after the exit of man but the maya of once living and existing
forms. With every step he takes on the descending and ascending arcs as he moves
on from Globe to Globe the planet left behind becomes an empty chrysaloidal
case. At his departure there is an outflow from every kingdom of its entities.
Waiting to pass into higher forms in due time they are nevertheless liberated:
for to the day of that evolution they will rest in their lethargic sleep in
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space until again energized into life in the new solar manwantara. The old
elementals -- will rest until they are called to become in their turn the bodies
of mineral, vegetable and animal entities (on another and a higher string of
globes) on their way to become human entities (see Isis) while the germinal
entities of the lowest forms, and in that time of general perfection there will
remain but few of such -- will hang in space like drops of water suddenly turned
to icicles. They will thaw at the first hot breath of a solar manwantara and
form the soul of the future globes. . . . The slow development of the vegetable
kingdom provided for by the longer inter-planetary rest of man. . . . When the
solar pralaya comes the whole purified humanity merges into Nirvana and from
that inter-solar Nirvana will be reborn in higher systems. The string of worlds
is destroyed and vanishes like a shadow from the wall in the extinguishment of
light. We have every indication that at this very moment such a solar pralaya is
taking place while there are two minor ones ending somewhere.
At the beginning of the solar manwantara the hitherto subjective elements of the material world now scattered in cosmic dust -- receiving their impulse from the new Dyan Chohans of the new solar system (the highest of the old ones having gone higher) -- will form into primordial ripples of life and separating into differentiating centres of activity combine in a graduated scale of seven stages of evolution. Like every other orb of space our Earth has before obtaining its ultimate materiality -- and nothing now in this world can give you an idea of what this state of matter is -- to pass through a gamut of seven stages of density. I say gamut advisedly since the diatonic scale best affords an illustration of the perpetual rythmic motion of the descending and ascending cycle of Swabhavat -- graduated as it is by tones and semi-tones.
You have among the learned members of your society one Theosophist who
without familiarity with our occult doctrine, has yet intuitively grasped from
scientific data the idea of a solar pralaya and its manwantara in their
beginnings. I mean the celebrated French astronomer Flammarion -- "La
Resurrection et la Fin des Mondes" (Chapter 4 res.). He speaks like a true seer.
The facts are as he surmises with slight modifications. In consequence of the
secular refrigeration (old age rather and loss of vital power), solidification
and desiccation of the globes, the earth arrives at a point when it begins to be
a relaxed conglomerate. The period of child-bearing is gone by. The progeny are
all nurtured, its term of life is finished. Hence "its constituent masses cease
to obey those laws of cohesion and aggregation which held them together."
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And
becoming like a cadaver which abandoned to the work of destruction would leave
each molecule composing it free to separate itself from the body for ever to
obey in future the sway of new influences. The attraction of the moon (would
that he could know the full extent of its pernicious influence) would itself
undertake the task of demolition by producing a tidal wave of earth particles
instead of an aqueous tide.
His mistake is that he believes a long time must be devoted to the ruin of the solar system: we are told that it occurs in the twinkling of an eye but not without many preliminary warnings. Another error is the supposition that the earth will fall into the sun. The sun itself is first to disintegrate at the solar pralaya.
. . . Fathom the nature and essence of the sixth principle of the universe and man and you will have fathomed the greatest mystery in this our world -- and why not -- are you not surrounded by it? What are its familiar manifestations, mesmerism, Od force, etc. -- all different aspects of one force capable of good and evil applications.
The degrees of an Adept's initiation mark the seven stages at which he discovers the secret of the sevenfold principles in nature and man and awakens his dormant powers.
1 Mr. Sinnett's queries to which K.H. replies in this letter are printed in bold type. -- ED.
(1) The remarks appended to a letter in the last Theosophist, page 226, Col. 1, strike me as very important and as qualifying -- I do not say contradicting -- a good deal of what we have hitherto been told in re Spiritualism.
We had heard already of a spiritual condition of life in which the redeveloped Ego enjoyed a conscious existence for a time before reincarnation in another world; but that branch of the subject has hitherto been slurred over. Now some explicit statements are made about it; and these suggest further enquiries.
In the Deva Chan (I have lent my Theosophist to a friend; and have not got it at hand to refer to but that if I remember rightly is the name given to the state of spiritual beatitude described) the new Ego retains complete recollection of his life on earth apparently. Is that so or is there any misunderstanding on that point on my part?
(1) The Deva-Chan, or land of "Sukhavati," is allegorically
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described by our Lord Buddha himself. What he said may be found in the Shan-Mun-yi-Tung.
Says Tathagata: --
"Many thousand myriads of systems of worlds beyond this (ours) there is a
region of Bliss called Sukhavati . . . . This region is encircled with
seven rows of railings, seven rows of vast curtains, seven
rows of waving trees; this holy abode of Arahats is governed by the Tathagatas
(Dhyan Chohans) and is possessed by the Bodhisatwas. It hath seven
precious lakes, in the midst of which flow crystaline waters having 'seven
and one' properties, or distinctive qualities (the 7 principles emanating
from the ONE). This, O, Sariputra is the 'Deva Chan.' Its divine Udambara
flower casts a root in the shadow of every earth, and blossoms for all
those who reach it. Those born in the blessed region are truly felicitous, there
are no more griefs or sorrows in that cycle for them. . . . Myriads of
Spirits (Lha) resort there for rest and then return to their own regions.
1 Again, O, Sariputra, in that land of joy
many who are born in it are Avaivartyas . . .2
etc., etc.
1. Those who have not ended their earth rings.
2. Literally -- those who will never return -- the
seventh round men, etc.
(2) Now except in the fact that the duration of existence in the Deva Chan is limited, there is a very close resemblance between that condition and the Heaven of ordinary religion (omitting anthropomorphic ideas of God).
(2) Certainly the new Ego once that it is reborn, retains for a
certain time -- proportionate to its Earth-life, a "complete recollection of his
life on earth." 3 (See your preceding
query.) But it can never return on earth, from the Deva Chan, nor has
the latter -- even omitting all "anthropomorphic ideas of God" -- any
resemblance to the paradise or heaven of any religion, and it is H.P.B.'s
literary fancy that suggested to her the wonderful comparison.
3. See back -- ( I ) of your questions.
(3) Now the question of importance -- is who goes to Heaven -- or Deva Chan? Is this condition only attained by the few who are very good, or by the many who are not very bad, -- after the lapse in their case of a longer unconscious incubation or gestation.
(3) "Who goes to Deva Chan?" The personal Ego of course, but beatified,
purified, holy. Every Ego -- the combination of the sixth and seventh principles
-- which, after the period of unconscious gestation is reborn into the
Deva-Chan, is of necessity as innocent and pure as a new-born babe. The fact of
his being
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reborn at all, shows the preponderance of good over evil in his old
personality. And while the Karma (of evil) steps aside for the time being to
follow him in his future earth-reincarnation, he brings along with him but the
Karma of his good deeds, words, and thoughts into this Deva-Chan. "Bad" is a
relative term for us -- as you were told more than once before, -- and the Law
of Retribution is the only law that never errs. Hence all those who have not
slipped down into the mire of unredeemable sin and bestiality -- go to the Deva
Chan. They will have to pay for their sins, voluntary and involuntary, later on.
Meanwhile, they are rewarded; receive the effects of the causes
produced by them.
Of course it is a state, one, so to say, of intense selfishness,
during which an Ego reaps the reward of his unselfishness on
earth. He is completely engrossed in the bliss of all his personal earthly
affections, preferences and thoughts, and gathers in the fruit of his
meritorious actions. No pain, no grief nor even the shadow of a sorrow comes to
darken the bright horizon of his unalloyed happiness: for, it is a state of
perpetual "Maya" . . . Since the conscious perception of one's
personality on earth is but an evanescent dream that sense will be equally
that of a dream in the Deva-Chan -- only a hundred fold intensified. So much so,
indeed, that the happy Ego is unable to see through the veil, the evils, sorrows
and woes to which those it loved on earth may be subjected to. It lives in that
sweet dream with its loved ones -- whether gone before, or yet remaining on
earth; it has them near itself, as happy, as blissful and as innocent as the
disembodied dreamer himself; and yet, apart from rare visions, the denizens of
our gross planet feel it not. It is in this, during such a condition of
complete Maya that the Souls or astral Egos of pure, loving sensitives,
labouring under the same illusion, think their loved ones come down to them on
earth, while it is their own Spirits that are raised towards those in the
Deva-Chan. Many of the subjective spiritual communications -- most of
them when the sensitives are pure minded -- are real; but it is most difficult
for the uninitiated medium to fix in his mind the true and correct
pictures of what he sees and hears. Some of the phenomena called psychography
(though more rarely) are also real. The spirit of the sensitive getting odylised,
so to say, by the aura of the Spirit in the Deva-Chan, becomes for a few minutes
that departed personality, and writes in the hand writing of the
latter, in his language and in his thoughts, as they were during his life time.
The two spirits become blended in one; and, the preponderance of one over the
other during such phenomena determines the preponderance of personality
in the characteristics exhibited in such writings, and "trance speaking." What
you call "rapport" is in plain fact an identity of molecular vibration
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between
the astral part of the incarnate medium and the astral part of the disincarnate
personality. I have just noticed an article on smell by some
English Professor (which I will cause to be reviewed in the Theosophist
and say a few words), and find in it something that applies to our case.
As, in music, two different sounds may be in accord and separately
distinguishable, and this harmony or discord depends upon the synchronous
vibrations and complementary periods; so there is rapport between
medium and "control" when their astral molecules move in accord. And the
question whether the communication shall reflect more of the one personal
idiosyncracy, or the other, is determined by the relative intensity of the two
sets of vibrations in the compound wave of Akasa. The less identical
the vibratory impulses the more mediumistic and less spiritual will be the
message. So then, measure your medium's moral state by that of the alleged
"controlling" Intelligence, and your tests of genuineness leave nothing to be
desired.
(4) Are there great varieties of condition within the limits, so to speak, of Deva Chan, so that an appropriate state is dropped into by all, from which they will be born into lower and higher conditions in the next world of causes. It is no use multiplying hypotheses. We want some information to go upon.
(4) Yes; there are great varieties in the Deva-Chan states, and, it is all as you say. As many varieties of bliss, as on earth there are shades of perception and of capability to appreciate such reward. It is an ideated paradise, in each case of the Ego's own making, and by him filled with the scenery, crowded with the incidents, and thronged with the people he would expect to find in such a sphere of compensative bliss. And it is that variety which guides the temporary personal Ego into the current which will lead him to be reborn in a lower or higher condition in the next world of causes. Everything is so harmoniously adjusted in nature -- especially in the subjective world, that no mistake can be ever committed by the Tathagatas -- or Dhyan Chohans -- who guide the impulses.
(5) On the face of the idea, a purely spiritual state would only be enjoyable to the entities highly spiritualized in this life. But there are myriads of very good people (morally) who are not spiritualized at all. How can they be fitted to pass, with their recollections of this life from a material to a spiritual condition of existence.
(5) It is "a spiritual condition" only as contrasted with our own grossly
"material condition," and, as already stated -- it is
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such degrees of
spirituality that constitute and determine the great "varieties" of conditions
within the limits of Deva-Chan. A mother from a savage tribe is not less happy
than a mother from a regal palace, with her lost child in her arms; and although
as actual Egos, children prematurely dying before the perfection of their
septenary Entity do not find their way to Deva-Chan, yet all the same the
mother's loving fancy finds her children there, without one missing that her
heart yearns for. Say -- it is but a dream, but after all what is objective life
itself but a panorama of vivid unrealities? The pleasures realized by a Red
Indian in his "happy hunting grounds" in that Land of Dreams is not less intense
than the ecstasy felt by a connoisseur who passes aeons in the
wrapt delight of listening to divine Symphonies by imaginary angelic choirs and
orchestras. As it is no fault of the former, if born a "savage" with an instinct
to kill -- though it caused the death of many an innocent animal -- why, if with
it all, he was a loving father, son, husband, why should he not also enjoy
his share of reward? The case would be quite different if the same cruel
acts had been done by an educated and civilized person, from a mere love of
sport. The savage in being reborn would simply take a low place in the scale, by
reason of his imperfect moral development; while the Karma of the other
would be tainted with moral delinquency. . . .
Every one but that ego which, attracted by its gross magnetism, falls into
the current that will draw it into the "planet of Death" -- the mental as well
as physical satellite of our earth -- is fitted to pass into a relative
"spiritual" condition adjusted to his previous condition in life and mode of
thought. To my knowledge and recollection H.P.B. explained to Mr. Hume that
man's sixth principle, as something purely spiritual could not exist, or have
conscious being in the Deva-Chan, unless it assimilated some of the
more abstract and pure of the mental attributes of the fifth principle or animal
Soul: its manas (mind) and memory. When man dies his second and third
principles die with him; the lower triad disappears, and the fourth, fifth,
sixth and seventh principles form the surviving Quaternary. (Read again
page 6 in Fragments of O.T.) 1
. O.T. stands for Occult Truth. -- ED.
Thenceforth it is a "death" struggle between the Upper and Lower dualities. If
the upper wins, the sixth, having attracted to itself the quintessence of
Good from the fifth -- its nobler affections, its saintly (though they be
earthly) aspirations, and the most Spiritualised portions of its mind
-- follows its divine elder (the 7th) into the "Gestation" State; and
the fifth and fourth remain in association as an empty shell -- (the
expression is quite correct) -- to roam in the earth's atmosphere, with half the
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personal memory gone, and the more brutal instincts fully alive for a certain
period -- an "Elementary" in short. This is the "angel guide" of the average
medium. If, on the other hand, it is the Upper Duality which is
defeated, there, it is the fifth principle that assimilates all that there may
be left of personal recollection and perceptions of its personal
individuality in the sixth. But, with all this additional stock, it will not
remain in Kama-Loka -- "the world of Desire" or our Earth's atmosphere.
In a very short time like a straw floating within the attraction of the vortices
and pits of the Maelstrom, it is caught up and drawn into the great whirlpool of
human Egos; while the sixth and seventh -- now a purely Spiritual,
individual monad, with nothing left in it of the late personality, having
no regular "gestation" period to pass through: (since there is no purified
personal Ego to be reborn), after a more or less prolonged period of
unconscious Rest in the boundless Space -- will find itself reborn in another
personality on the next planet. When arrives the period of "Full Individual
Consciousness" -- which precedes that of Absolute Consciousness in the
Pari-Nirvana -- this lost personal life becomes as a torn out
page in the great Book of Lives, without even a disconnected word left
to mark its absence. The purified monad will neither perceive nor remember it in
the series of its past rebirths -- which it would had it gone to the "World of
Forms" (rupa-loka) -- and its retrospective glance will not perceive
even the slightest sign to indicate that it had been. The light of
Samma-Sambuddh --
". . . that light which shines beyond our mortal ken
The line of all the lives in all the worlds " --
throws no ray upon that personal life in the series of lives foregone.
To the credit of mankind, I must say, that such an utter obliteration of an existence from the tablets of Universal Being does not occur often enough to make a great percentage. In fact, like the much mentioned "congenital idiot" such a thing is a lusus naturae -- an exception, not the rule.
(6) And how is a spiritual existence in which everything has merged into the sixth principle, compatible with that consciousness of individual and personal material life which must be attributed to the Ego in Deva-Chan if he retains his earthly consciousness as stated in the Theosophist Note.
(6) The question is now sufficiently explained, I believe: the sixth and
seventh principles apart from the rest constitute the eternal imperishable, but
also unconscious "Monad." To awaken
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in it to life the latent
consciousness, especially that of personal individuality, requires the
monad plus the highest attributes of the fifth -- the "animal Soul"; and it is
that which makes the ethereal Ego that lives and enjoys bliss in the
Deva-Chan. Spirit, or the unalloyed emanations of the One -- the latter forming
with the seventh and sixth principles the highest triad -- neither of the two
emanations are capable of assimilating but that which is good, pure and holy;
hence, no sensual, material or unholy recollection can follow the purified
memory of the Ego to the region of Bliss. The Karma for these
recollections of evil deeds and thought will reach the Ego when it changes its
personality in the following world of causes. The Monad, or
the "Spiritual Individuality," remains untainted in all cases. "No
sorrow or Pain for those born there (in the Rupa-Loka of Deva-Chan);
for this is the Pure-land. All the regions in Space possess such lands (Sakwala),
but this land of Bliss is the most pure." In the Djnana
Prasthâna Shaster, it is said: "by personal purity and earnest meditation,
we overleap the limits of the World of Desire, and enter in the World of Forms."
(7) The period of gestation between Death and Deva-Chan has hitherto been conceived by me at all events as very long. Now it is said to be in some cases only a few days, in no cases (it is implied) more than a few years. This seems plainly stated, but I ask if it can be explicitly confirmed because it is a point on which so much turns.
(7) Another fine example of the habitual disorder in which Mrs. H.P.B.'s
mental furniture is kept. She talks of "Bardo" and does not even say to her
readers what it means! As in her writing room confusion is ten times confounded,
so in her mind are crowded ideas piled in such a chaos that when she wants to
express them the tail peeps out before the head. "Bardo" has nothing to do with
the duration of time in the case you are referring to. "Bardo" is the period
between death and rebirth -- and may last from a few years to a kalpa. It is
divided into three sub-periods (1) when the Ego delivered of its mortal
coil enters into Kama-Loka 1 (the
abode of Elementaries); 1.
Tibetan: Yuh-Kai. (2) when it enters into its "Gestation State"; (3) when
it is reborn in the Rupa-Loka of Deva-Chan. Sub-period (1) may last
from a few minutes to a number of years -- the phrase "a few years"
becoming puzzling and utterly worthless without a more complete explanation;
Sub-period (2) is "very long"; as you say, longer sometimes than you may even
imagine, yet proportionate to the Ego's spiritual stamina; Sub-period
(3) lasts in proportion to the good Karma,
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after which the monad is
again reincarnated. The Agama Sutra saying: -- "in all these
Rupa-Lokas, the Devas (Spirits) are equally subjected to birth, decay, old
age, and death," means only that an Ego is borne thither then begins fading out
and finally "dies," i.e., falls into that unconscious condition which precedes
rebirth; and ends the Sloka with these words -- "As the devas emerge from these
heavens, they enter the lower world again:" i.e, they leave a world of bliss to
be reborn in a world of causes.
(8) In that case, and assuming that Deva-Chan is not solely the heritage of adepts and persons almost as elevated, there is a condition of existence tantamount to Heaven actually going on, from which the life of Earth may be watched by an immense number of those who have gone before! (9) And for how long? Does this state of spiritual beatitude endure for years? for decades? for centuries?
(8) Most emphatically "the Deva-Chan is not solely the heritage of adepts," and most decidedly there is a "heaven" -- if you must use this astro-geographical Christian term -- for "an immense number of those who have gone before." But "the life of Earth" can be watched by none of these, for reasons of the Law of Bliss plus Maya, already given.
(9) For years, decades, centuries and milleniums, oftentimes -- multiplied by
something more. It all depends upon the duration of Karma. Fill with oil Den's
little cup, and a city Reservoir of water, and lighting both see which burns the
longer. The Ego is the wick and Karma the oil: the difference in the
quantity of the latter (in the cup and the reservoir) suggesting to you the
great difference in the duration of various Karmas. Every effect must
be proportionate to the cause. And, as man's terms of incarnate existence bear
but a small proportion to his periods of inter-natal existence in the
manvantaric cycle, so the good thoughts, words, and deeds of any one of these
"lives" on a globe are causative of effects, the working out of which requires
far more time than the evolution of the causes occupied. Therefore, when you
read in the Jats and other fabulous stories of the Buddhist Scriptures
that this or the other good action was rewarded by Kalpas of several figures of
bliss, do not smile at the absurd exaggeration, but bear in mind what I have
said. From a small seed, you know, sprung a tree whose life endures now for 22
centuries; I mean the Aunradha-pura Bo tree. Nor must you laugh, if
ever you come across Pindha-Dhana or any other Buddhist Sutra
and read: "Between the Kama-Loka and the Rupa-Loka there is a
locality,
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the dwelling of 'Mara' (Death). This Mara filled with passion and
lust, destroys all virtuous principles, as a stone grinds corn.
1
1. This Mara, as you may well think, is the allegorical image of the
sphere called the "Planet of Death" -- the whirlpool whither disappear the lives
doomed to destruction. It is between Kama and Rupa-Lokas that the struggle takes
place.
His palace is 7000 yojanas square, and is surrounded by a seven-fold
wall," for you will feel now more prepared to understand the allegory. Also,
when Beal, or Burnouf, or Rhys Davids in the innocence of their Christian and
materialistic souls indulge in such translations as they generally do, we do not
bear them malice for their commentaries, since they cannot know any better. But
what can the following mean: -- "The names of the Heavens" (a mistranslation;
lokas are not heavens but localities or abodes) of Desire,
Kama-Loka -- so called, because the beings who occupy them are subject to
desires of eating, drinking, sleeping and love. They are otherwise called the
abodes of the five (?) orders of sentient creatures -- Devas, men,
asuras, beasts, demons" (Lantan Sutra, trans. by S. Beal). They
mean simply that, had the reverend translator been acquainted with the true
doctrine a little better -- he would have (1) divided the Devas into two classes
-- and called them the "Rupa-devas" and the "Arupa-devas" (the
"form" -- or objective, and the "formless" or subjective
Dhyan Chohans; and (2) -- would have done the same for his class
of "men," since there are shells, and "Mara-rupas" -- i.e. bodies
doomed to annihilation. All these are:
(1) "Rupa-devas" -- Dhyan Chohans
2
having forms;
2. The Planetary Spirits of our
Earth are not of the highest, as you may well imagine -- since, as Subba Row
says in his criticism upon Oxley's work that no Eastern Adept would like to be
compared with an angel or a Deva. See May Theosophist.
(2) "Arupa-devas"-- Dhyan Chohans having no forms
; ( 1&2 Ex-men )
(3) "Pisachas" -- (two-principled) ghosts.
(4) "Mara-rupa" -- Doomed to death (3 principled).
(5) Asuras -- Elementals -- having human form
( 5&6 Future men. )
(6) Beasts -- 2nd class -- animal Elementals
(7) Rakshasas (Demons) Souls or Astral Forms of sorcerers; men who have reached the apex of knowledge in the forbidden art. Dead or alive they have, so to say cheated nature; but it is only temporary -- until our planet goes into obscuration, after which they have nolens volens to be annihilated.
It is these seven groups that form the principal divisions of the
Dwellers of the subjective world around us. It is in stock No. 1, that are the
intelligent Rulers of this world of Matter, and who,
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with all this
intelligence are but the blindly obedient instruments of the One; the active
agents of a Passive Principle.
And thus are misinterpreted and mistranslated nearly all our Sutras; yet even under that confused jumble of doctrines and words, for one who knows even superficially the true doctrine, there is firm ground to stand upon. Thus, for instance in enumerating the seven lokas of the "Kama-Loka" the Avatamsaka Sutra, gives as the seventh, the "Territory of Doubt." I will ask you to remember the name as we will have to speak of it hereafter. Every such "world" within the Sphere of Effects has a Tathagata, or "Dhyan Chohan" -- to protect and watch over, not to interfere with it. Of course, of all men, spiritualists will be the first to reject and throw off our doctrines to "the limbo of exploded superstitions." Were we to assure them that every one of their "Summerlands" had seven boarding houses in it, with the same number of "Spirit Guides" to "boss" in them, and call these "angels," Saint Peters, Johns, and St. Ernests, they would welcome us with open arms. But whoever heard of Tathagats and Dhyan Chohans, Asuras and Elementals? Preposterous! Still, we are happily allowed -- by our friends (Mr. Eglinton, at least) -- to be possessed "of a certain knowledge of Occult Sciences" (Vide "Light"). And thus, even this mite of "Knowledge" is at your service, and is now helping me to answer your following question:
Is there any intermediate condition between the spiritual beatitude of Deva-Chan, and the forlorn shadow life of the only half conscious elementary reliquiae of human beings who have lost their sixth principle. Because if so that might give a locus standi in imagination to the Earnests and Joeys of the spiritual mediums -- the better sort of controlling "spirits." If so surely that must be a very populous world? from which any amount of "spiritual" communications might come.
Alas, no; my friend; not that I know of. From "Sukhavati" down to the
"Territory of Doubt" there is a variety of Spiritual States; but I am not aware
of any such "intermediate condition." I have told you of the Sakwalas (though I
cannot be enumerating them since it would be useless); and even of Avitchi
-- the "Hell" from which there is no return 1
and I have no more to tell about.
1. In Abidharma Shastra
(Metaphysics) we read: -- "Buddha taught that on the outskirts of all the
Sakwalas, there is a black interval, without Sun or moonlight for him who falls
into it. There is no re-birth from it. It is the cold Hell, the great Naraka."
This is Avitchi.
"The forlorn shadow" has to do the best it
can. As soon as it has stepped outside the Kama-Loka, and crossed the
"Golden
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Bridge" leading to the "Seven Golden Mountains" the Ego can
confabulate no more, with easy-going mediums. No "Earnest" or "Joey" has ever
returned from the Rupa Loka -- let alone the Arupa-Loka -- to
hold sweet intercourse with mortals.
Of course there is a "better sort" of reliquiae; and the "shells" or
the "earth-walkers" as they are here called, are not necessarily all
bad. But even those that are good, are made bad for the time being by mediums.
The "shells" may well not care, since they have nothing to lose, anyhow. But
there is another kind of "Spirits," we have lost sight of: the suicides
and those killed by accident. Both kinds can communicate, and both have
to pay dearly for such visits. And now I have again to explain what I mean.
Well, this class is the one that the French Spiritists call -- "les Esprits
Souffrants." They are an exception to the rule, as they have to remain
within the earth's attraction, and in its atmosphere -- the Kama-Loka
-- till the very last moment of what would have been the natural duration of
their lives. In other words, that particular wave of life-evolution must run on
to its shore. But it is a sin and cruelty to revive their memory and intensify
their suffering by giving them a chance of living an artificial life; a chance
to overload their Karma, by tempting them into opened doors, viz.,
mediums and sensitives, for they will have to pay roundly for every such
pleasure. I will explain. The suicides, who, foolishly hoping to escape
life, found themselves still alive, -- have suffering enough in store for them
from that very life. Their punishment is in the intensity of the latter. Having
lost by the rash act their seventh and sixth principles, though not for ever, as
they can regain both -- instead of accepting their punishment, and taking their
chances of redemption, they are often made to regret life and tempted
to regain a hold upon it by sinful means. In the Kama-Loka, the land of
intense desires, they can gratify their earthly yearnings but through a
living proxy; and by so doing, at the expiration of the natural term, they
generally lose their monad for ever. As to the victims of accident --
these fare still worse. Unless they were so good and pure, as to be drawn
immediately within the Akasic Samadhi, i.e. to fall into a state of
quiet slumber, a sleep full of rosy dreams, during which, they have no
recollection of the accident, but move and live among their familiar friends and
scenes, until their natural life-term is finished, when they find themselves
born in the Deva-Chan -- a gloomy fate is theirs. Unhappy shades, if sinful and
sensual they wander about -- (not shells, for their connection with
their two higher principles is not quite broken) -- until their death-hour
comes. Cut off in the full flush of earthly passions which bind them to familiar
scenes, they are enticed by the opportunities which mediums afford, to gratify
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them vicariously. They are the Pisachas, the Incubi, and
Succubi of mediaeval times. The demons of thirst, gluttony, lust and
avarice, -- elementaries of intensified craft, wickedness and cruelty; provoking
their victims to horrid crimes, and revelling in their commission! They not only
ruin their victims, but these psychic vampires, borne along by the torrent of
their hellish impulses, at last, at the fixed close of their natural period of
life -- they are carried out of the earth's aura into regions where for ages
they endure exquisite suffering and end with entire destruction.
But if the victim of accident or violence, be neither very good, nor very bad -- an average person -- then this may happen to him. A medium who attracts him, will create for him the most undesirable of things: a new combination of Skandhas and a new and evil Karma. But let me give you a clearer idea of what I mean by Karma in this case.
In connection with this, let me tell you before, that since you seem so interested with the subject, you can do nothing better than to study the two doctrines -- of Karma and Nirvana -- as profoundly as you can. Unless you are thoroughly well acquainted with the two tenets -- the double key to the metaphysics of Abidharma -- you will always find yourself at sea in trying to comprehend the rest. We have several sorts of Karma and Nirvana in their various applications -- to the Universe, the world, Devas, Buddhas, Bodhisatwas, men and animals -- the second including its seven kingdoms. Karma and Nirvana are but two of the seven great mysteries of Buddhist metaphysics; and but four of the seven are known to the best orientalists, and that very imperfectly.
If you ask a learned Buddhist priest what is Karma? -- he will tell you that
Karma is what a Christian might call Providence (in a certain sense only) and a
Mahomedan -- Kismet, fate or destiny (again in one sense). That it is
that cardinal tenet which teaches that, as soon as any conscious or sentient
being, whether man, deva, or animal dies, a new being is produced and he or it
reappears in another birth, on the same or another planet, under conditions of
his or its own antecedent making. Or, in other words that Karma is the
guiding power, and Trishna (in Pali Tanha) the thirst or
desire to sentiently live -- the proximate force or energy, the resultant of
human (or animal) action, which, out of the old Skandhas
1
produce the new group that form the
1. I remark that in the second
as well as in the first edition of your Occult World the same misprint appears,
and that the word Skandha is spelt Shanba -- on page 130. As it now stands I am
made to express myself in a very original way for a supposed Adept.
p.111
new being and control the nature of the
birth itself.
Or to make it still clearer, the new being, is rewarded
and punished for the meritorious acts and misdeeds of the old one;
Karma representing an Entry Book, in which all the acts of man, good, bad, or
indifferent, are carefully recorded to his debit and credit -- by himself, so to
say, or rather by these very actions of his. There, where Christian poetical
fiction created, and sees a "Recording" Guardian Angel, stern and realistic
Buddhist logic, perceiving the necessity that every cause should have its effect
-- shows its real presence. The opponents of Buddhism have laid great stress
upon the alleged injustice that the doer should escape and an innocent victim be
made to suffer, -- since the doer and the sufferer are different beings. The
fact is, that while in one sense they may be so considered, yet in another
they are identical. The "old being" is the sole parent -- father and mother
at once -- of the "new being." It is the former who is the creator and
fashioner, of the latter, in reality; and far more so in plain truth, than any
father in flesh. And once that you have well mastered the meaning of
Skandhas you will see what I mean.
It is the group of Skandhas, that form and constitute the physical and mental individuality we call man (or any being). This group consists (in the exoteric teaching) of five Skandhas, namely: Rupa -- the material properties or attributes; Vedana -- sensations; Sanna -- abstract ideas; Sankhara -- tendencies both physical and mental; and Vinnana -- mental powers, an amplification of the fourth -- meaning the mental, physical and moral predispositions. We add to them two more, the nature and names of which you may learn hereafter. Suffice for the present to let you know that they are connected with, and productive of Sakkayaditthi, the "heresy or delusion of individuality" and of Attavada "the doctrine of Self," both of which (in the case of the fifth principle the soul) lead to the maya of heresy and belief in the efficacy of vain rites and ceremonies; in prayers and intercession.
Now, returning to the question of identity between the old and the
new "Ego." I may remind you once more, that even your Science has
accepted the old, very old fact distinctly taught by our Lord,
1
viz.
1. See the Abhidharma Kosha Vyakhya, the Sutta Pitaka,
any Northern Buddhist book, all of which show Gautama Buddha saying that none of
these Skandhas is the soul; since the body is constantly changing, and that
neither man, animal, nor plant is ever the same for two consecutive days or even
minutes. "Mendicants! remember that there is within man no abiding principle
whatever, and that only the learned disciple who acquires wisdom, in saying 'I
am' -- knows what he is saying."
-- that a man of any given age, while sentiently the same, is yet
physically not the same as he was a few years earlier (we say seven
years and are prepared to maintain and
p.112
prove it): buddhistically speaking, his
Skandhas have changed.
At the same time they are ever and ceaselessly
at work in preparing the abstract mould, the "privation" of the future new
being. Well then, if it is just that a man of 40 should enjoy or suffer for the
actions of the man of 20, so it is equally just that the being of the new birth,
who is essentially identical with the previous being -- since he is its outcome
and creation -- should feel the consequences of that begetting Self or
personality. Your Western law which punishes the innocent son of a guilty father
by depriving him of his parent, rights and property; your civilized Society
which brands with infamy the guileless daughter of an immoral, criminal mother;
your Christian Church and Scriptures which teach that the "Lord God visits the
sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation" are
not all these far more unjust and cruel than anything done by Karma? Instead of
punishing the innocent together with the culprit, the Karma avenges and
rewards the former, which neither of your three western potentates above
mentioned ever thought of doing. But perhaps, to our physiological remark the
objectors may reply that it is only the body that changes, there is only a
molecular transformation, which has nothing to do with the mental evolution; and
that the Skandhas represent not only a material but also a set of
mental and moral qualities. But is there, I ask, either a sensation, an abstract
idea, a tendency of mind, or a mental power, that one could call an absolutely
non-molecular phenomenon? Can even a sensation or the most abstractive thoughts
which is something, come out of nothing, or be nothing?
Now, the causes producing the "new being" and determining the nature of
Karma are, as already said -- Trishna (or "Tanha") --
thirst, desire for sentient existence and Upadana -- which is the
realization or consummation of Trishna or that desire. And both of
these the medium helps to awaken and to develop nec plus ultra
in an Elementary, be he a suicide or a victim. 1
Alone the Shells and the Elementals are left unhurt, though the
morality of the sensitives can by no means be improved by the intercourse.
The rule is, that a person who dies a natural death, will remain from "a few
hours to several short years," within the earth's attraction, i.e., in the
Kama-Loka. But exceptions are, in the case of suicides and those who die a
violent death in general. Hence, one of such Egos, for instance, who was
destined to live -- say 80 or 90 years, but who either killed himself or was
killed by some accident, let us suppose at the age of 20 -- would have to pass
in the Kama Loka not "a few years," but in his case 60 or 70 years, as
an Elementary, or rather an "earth-walker"; since he is not, unfortunately for
him, even a "shell." Happy, thrice happy, in
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comparison, are those
disembodied entities, who sleep their long slumber and live in dream in the
bosom of Space! And woe to those whose Trishna will attract them to
mediums, and woe to the latter, who tempt them with such an easy Upadana.
For in grasping them, and satisfying their thirst for life, the medium helps to
develop in them -- is in fact the cause of -- a new set of Skandhas, a
new body, with far worse tendencies and passions than was the one they lost. All
the future of this new body will be determined thus, not only by the Karma
of demerit of the previous set or group but also by that of the new set of
the future being. Were the mediums and Spiritualists but to know, as I said,
that with every new "angel guide" they welcome with rapture, they entice the
latter into an Upadana which will be productive of a series of untold
evils for the new Ego that will be born under its nefarious shadow, and that
with every seance -- especially for materialization -- they multiply the causes
for misery, causes that will make the unfortunate Ego fail in his spiritual
birth, or be reborn into a worse existence than ever -- they would, perhaps, be
less lavishing their hospitality.
And now, you may understand why we oppose so strongly Spiritualism and mediumship. And, you will also see, why, to satisfy Mr. Hume, -- at least in one direction, -- I got myself into a scrape with the Chohan, and mirabile dictu! -- with both the sahibs, "the young men by the name of" -- Scott and Banon. To amuse you I will ask H.P.B. to send you with this a page of the "Banon papyrus," an article of his that he winds up with a severe literary thrashing of my humble self. Shadows of the Asuras, in what a passion she flew upon reading this rather disrespectful criticism! I am sorry she does not print it, upon considerations of "family honour" as the "Disinherited" expressed it. As to the Chohan, the matter is more serious; and, he was far from satisfied that I should have allowed Eglinton to believe it was myself. He had permitted this proof of the power in living man to be given to the Spiritualists through a medium of theirs, but had left the programme and its details to ourselves; hence his displeasure at some trifling consequences. I tell you, my dear friend, that I am far less free to do as I like than you are in the matter of the Pioneer. None of us but the highest Chutuktus are their full masters. But I digress.
And now that you have been told much and had explained a good deal, you may
as well read this letter to our irrepressible friend -- Mrs. Gordon. The reasons
given may throw some cold water on her Spiritualistic zeal, though I
have my reasons to doubt it. Anyhow it may show her that it is not against
true Spiritualism that we set ourselves, but only against indiscriminate
mediumship and -- physical manifestations, -- materializations and
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trance-possessions
especially. Could the Spiritualists be only made to understand the
difference between individuality and personality, between
individual and personal immortality and some other truths, they
would be more easily persuaded that Occultists may be fully convinced of the
monad's immortality, and yet deny that of the soul -- the vehicle of the
personal Ego; that they can firmly believe in, and themselves practice
spiritual communications and intercourse with the disembodied Egos of
the Rupa-Loka, and yet laugh at the insane idea of "shaking hands" with
a "Spirit"!; that finally, that as the matter stands, it is the Occultists and
the Theosophists who are true Spiritualists, while the modern sect of that name
is composed simply of materialistic phenomenalists.
And once that we are discussing "individuality" and "personality," it is curious that H.P.B. when subjecting poor Mr. Hume's brain to torture with her muddled explanations, never thought -- until receiving the explanation from himself, of the difference that exists between individuality and personality -- that it was the very same doctrine she had been taught: that of Paccika-Yana, and of Amita-Yana. The two terms as above given by him are the correct and literal translation of the Pali, Sanskrit, and even of the Chino-Tibetan technical names for the many personal entities blended in one Individuality -- the long string of lives emanating from the same Immortal monad. You will have to remember them: --
(I) The Paccika Yana -- (in Sanskrit "Pratyeka") means literally -- the "personal vehicle" or personal Ego, a combination of the five lower principles. While --
(2) The Amita-Yana -- (in Sanskrit "Amrita") is translated: "The
immortal vehicle," or the Individuality, the Spiritual Soul, or the
Immortal monad -- a combination of the fifth, sixth and seventh.
1
1. To avoid a fresh surprise and confusion at the news of the fifth
keeping company with the sixth and seventh, please turn to page 3, et sec. p.
103--ED
It appears to me that one of our great difficulties in trying to understand the progress of affairs turns on our ignorance so far of the divisions of the seven principles. Each has in turn its seven elements we are told: can we be told something more concerning the seven-fold constitution of the fourth and fifth principles especially. It is evidently in the divisibility of these that the secret of the future and of many psychic phenomena here during life, resides.
Quite right. But I must be permitted to doubt whether with the desired
explanations the difficulty will be removed, and you
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will become able to
penetrate "the secret of psychic phenomena." You, my good friend, whom I had
once or twice the pleasure of hearing playing on your piano in the quiet
intervals between dress-coating and a beef-and-claret dinner -- tell me, could
you favour me as readily, as with one of your easy waltzes -- with one
of Beethoven's Grand Sonatas? Pray, pray have patience! Yet, I would not refuse
you by any means. You will find the fourth and the fifth principles, divided
into roots and Branches on a fly-sheet herein enclosed, if I find time.
1 And now, how long do you propose to
abstain from interrogation marks?
1 I did not find time.
Will send it a day or two later.
Faithfully,
K. H.
P.S. -- I hope I have now removed all cause for reproaches -- my delay in answering your queries notwithstanding, -- and that my character is re-established. Yourself and Mr. Hume have received now more information about the A.E. Philosophy than was ever given out to non-initiates within my knowledge. Your sagacity, my kind friend, will have suggested long ago, that it is not so much because of your combined personal virtues -- though Mr. Hume I must confess, has run up a large claim since his conversion -- or my personal preferences for either of you, as for other and very apparent reasons. Of all our semi-chelas you two are the most likely to utilise for the general good the facts given you. You must regard them received in trust for the benefit of the whole Society; to be turned over, and employed and re-employed in many ways and in all ways that are good. If you (Mr. Sinnett) would give pleasure to your trans-Himalayan friend, do not suffer any month to pass without writing a Fragment, long or short for the magazine, and then, issuing it as a pamphlet -- since you so call it. You may sign them as "A Lay-Chela of K.H.," or in any way you choose. I dare not ask the same favour of Mr. Hume, who has already done more than his share in another direction.
I will not answer your query about your Pioneer connection just now: something may be said on both sides. But at least take no rash decision. We are at the end of the cycle, and you are connected with the T.S.
Under favour of my Karma -- I mean to answer to-morrow Mr. Hume's long and
kind personal letter. The abundance of MSS. from me of late shows that I have
found a little leisure, their blotched, patchy and mended appearance also proves
that my leisure has come by snatches, with constant interruptions, and that my
writing has been done in odd places here and there, with such materials as I
could pick up. But for the Rule that forbids our
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using one minim of power until
every ordinary means has been tried and failed, I might, of course, have given
you a lovely "precipitation" as regards chirography and composition. I console
myself for the miserable appearance of my letters with the thought that perhaps,
you may not value them the less, for these marks of my personal subjection to
the way-side annoyances which you English so ingeniously reduce to a minimum
with your appliances of sorts. As your lady once kindly remarked, they take away
most effectually the flavour of miracle, and make us as human beings, more
thinkable entities, -- a wise reflection for which I thank her.
H.P.B. is in despair: the Chohan refused permission to M. to let her come this year further than the Black Rock, and M. very coolly made her unpack her trunks. Try to console her, if you can. Besides, she is really wanted more at Bombay than Penlor. Olcott is on his way to Lanka and Damodar packed up to Poona for a month, his foolish austerities and hard work having broken down his physical constitution. I will have to look after him, and perhaps, to take him away, if it comes to the worst.
Just now I am able to give you a bit of information, which bears upon the so often discussed question of our allowing phenomena. The Egyptian operations of your blessed countrymen involve such local consequences to the body of Occultists still remaining there and to what they are guarding, that two of our adepts are already there, having joined some Druze brethren and three more on their way. I was offered the agreeable privilege of becoming an eye-witness to the human butchery, but -- declined with thanks. For such great emergency is our Force stored up, and hence -- we dare not waste it on fashionable tamasha.
In about a week -- new religious ceremonies, new glittering bubbles to amuse the babes with, and once more I will be busy night and day, morning, noon, and evening. At times I feel a passing regret that the Chohans should not evolute the happy idea of allowing us also a "sumptuary allowance" in the shape of a little spare time. Oh, for the final Rest! for that Nirvana where -- "to be one with Life, yet -- to live not." Alas, alas! having personally realized that: --
". . . the Soul of Things is sweet,
The Heart of Being is celestial Rest,"
one does long for -- eternal Rest!
Yours,
K. H.
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1 K.H.'s Replies to Mr. Sinnett's queries are printed in bold type. -- ED.
(1) Some fifth round men have already begun to appear on earth. In what way are they distinguishable from fourth round men of the seventh earthly incarnation? I suppose they are in the first incarnation of the fifth round that that a tremendous advance will be achieved when the fifth round people get to their seventh incarnation.
(1) The natural-born Seers and clairvoyants of Mrs. A. Kingsford's and Mr. Maitland's types; the great adepts of whatsoever country; the geniuses -- whether in arts, politics or religious reform. No great physical distinction yet: too early and will come later on.
Quite so. If you turn to Appendix No. I 2 you will find it explained.
2 See Letter No. XVII.
-- ED
(2) But if a 1st-5th round man devoted himself to occultism and became an adept, would he escape further earthly incarnations?
(2)No; if we except Buddha -- a sixth round being, as he had run so successfully the race in his previous incarnations as to outrun even his predecessors. But then such a man is to be found in a billion of human creatures. He differed from other men as much in his physical appearance as in spirituality and knowledge. Yet even he escaped further reincarnations but on this earth; and, when the last of the sixth round men of the third ring is gone out of this earth, the Great Teacher will have to get reincarnated on the next planet. Only, and since He sacrificed Nirvanic bliss and Rest for the salvation of his fellow creatures He will be re-born in the highest -- the seventh ring of the upper planet. Till then He will overshadow every decimillenium (let us rather say and add "has overshadowed already" a chosen individual who generally overturned the destinies of nations. See Isis, Vol. I, pp. 34 and 35 last and first para. on the pages).
(3) Is there any essential spiritual difference between a man and a woman, or is sex a mere accident of each birth -- the ultimate future of the individual furnishing the same opportunities?
(3) A mere accident -- as you say. Generally a chance work yet guided by
individual Karma, -- moral aptitudes, characteristics and deeds of a previous
birth.
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(4) The majority of the superior classes of civilized countries on earth now,
I understand to be seventh "ring" people (i.e. of the seventh earthly
incarnation) of the fourth round. The Australian aborigines I understand to be
of a low ring? which? and are the lower and inferior classes of civilized
countries of various rings or of the ring just below the seventh. And are all
seventh ring people born in the superior classes or may not some be found among
the poor?
(4) Not necessarily. Refinement, polishedness, and brilliant education, in your sense of these words have very little to do with the course of higher Nature's Law. Take a seventh ring African or a fifth ring Mongolian and you can educate him -- if taken from the cradle -- save his physical appearance, and transform him into the most brilliant and accomplished English lord. Yet, he will still remain, but an outwardly intellectual parrot. (See Appendix No. 11).
(5) The Old Lady told me that the bulk of the inhabitants of this country are in some respects less advanced than Europeans though more spiritual. Are they on a lower ring of the same round -- or does the difference refer to some principle of national cycles which has nothing to do with individual progress?
(5) Most of the peoples of India belong to the oldest or the earliest branchlet of the fifth human Race. I have desired M. to end his letter to you with a short summary of the last scientific theory of your learned Ethnographers and Naturalists, to save myself work. Read what he writes and then turn to No. III of my Appendix.
What is the explanation of "Ernest" and Eglinton's other guide? Are they elementaries drawing their conscious vitality from him or elementals masquerading? When "Ernest" took that sheet of "Pioneer" notepaper how did he contrive to get it without mediumship at this end?
I can assure you it is not worth your while now to
study the true natures of the "Ernests" and "Joeys" and "other guides" as unless
you become acquainted with the evolution of the corruptions
of elemental dross, and those of the seven principles in man -- you would ever
find yourself at a loss to understand -- what they really
are; there are no written statutes for them, and they can hardly be expected to
pay their friends and admirers the compliment of truth, silence or forbearing.
If some are related to them as some soulless physical
mediums are -- they shall meet. If not -- better leave them alone. They
gravitate but to their likes -- the mediums; and their relation is
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not made but
forced by foolish and sinful phenomena-mongers. They are both elementaries and
elementals -- at best a low, mischievous, degrading jangle. You want to embrace
too much knowledge at once, my dear friend; you cannot attain at a bound all the
mysteries. See however Appendix -- which is in reality a letter.
I do not know Subba Row -- who is a pupil of M. At least -- he knows very
little of me. Yet I know, he will never consent to
come to Simla. But if ordered by Morya will teach from Madras, i.e., correct the
MSS. as M. did, comment upon them, answer questions, and be very,
very useful. He has a perfect reverence and adoration for -- H.P.B.
K. H.
(I) Every Spiritual Individuality has a gigantic evolutionary journey to
perform a tremendous gyratory progress to accomplish. First -- at the very
beginning of the great Mahamanvantaric rotation, from first to last of the
man-bearing planets, as on each of them, the monad has to pass through seven
successive races of man. From the dumb offshoot of the ape (the latter strongly
differentiating from the now known specimens) up to the present fifth
race, or rather variety, and through two more races, before he has done with
this earth only; and then on to the next, higher and higher still. . . . But we
will confine our attention but to this one. Each of the seven races send seven
ramifying branchlets from the Parent Branch: and through each of these in turn
man has to evolute before he passes on to the next higher race; and
that -- seven times. Well may you open wide your eyes, good friend, and
feel puzzled -- it is so. The branchlets typify varying specimens of humanity --
physically and spiritually -- and no one of us can miss one single rung of the
ladder. With all that there is no reincarnation as taught by the London
Seeress -- Mrs. A.K., as the intervals between the re-births are too
immeasurably long to permit of any such fantastic ideas. Please, bear in mind,
that when I say "man," I mean a human being of our type. There are other and
innumerable manvantaric chains of globes bearing intelligent beings -- both in
and out of our solar system -- the crowns or apexes of evolutionary being in
their respective chains, some -- physically and intellectually -- lower, others
immeasurably higher than the man of our chain. But beyond mentioning them we
will not speak of these at present.
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Through every race then, man has to pass making seven successive entrances
and exits and developing intellect to degrees from the lowest to the highest in
succession. In short, his earth-cycle with its rings and sub-rings is
the exact counterpart of the Great Cycle -- only in miniature. Bear in mind
again, that the intervals even between these special "race re-incarnations" are
enormous, as even the dullest of the African Bushmen has to reap the reward of
his Karma, equally with his brother Bushman who may be six times more
intelligent.
Your Ethnographers and anthropologists would do well to ever keep in their minds this, unvarying septenary law which runs throughout the works of nature. From Cuvier -- the late grand master of Protestant Theology -- whose Bible-stuffed brain made him divide mankind into but three distinct varieties of races -- down to Blumenbach who divided them into five -- they were all wrong. Alone Pritchard, who prophetically suggested seven comes near the right mark. I read in the Pioneer of June 12th forwarded to me by H.P.B. a letter on the Ape Theory by A.P.W. which contains a most excellent exposition of the Darwinian hypothesis. The last paragraph page 6 column 1 would be regarded -- barring a few errors -- as a revelation in a millenium or so, were it to be preserved. Reading the nine lines from line 21 (counting from the bottom) you have a fact of which few naturalists are yet prepared to accept the proof. The fifth, sixth and seventh races of the Fifth Round -- each succeeding race evoluting with and keeping pace, so to say with the "Great Cycle" rounds -- and the fifth race of the fifth round, having to exhibit a perceptible physical and intellectual as well as moral differentiation towards its fourth "race" or "earthly incarnation" you are right in saying that a "tremendous advance will be achieved when the fifth round people get to their seventh incarnation."
(II) Nor has wealth nor poverty, high or low birth any influence upon it, for this is all a result of their Karma. Neither has -- what you call -- civilization much to do with the progress. It is the inner man, the spirituality, the illumination of the physical brain by the light of the spiritual or divine intelligence that is the test. The Australian, the Esquimaux, the Bushmen, the Veddahs, etc., are all side-shooting branchlets of that Branch which you call "cave-men" -- the third race (according to your Science -- the second) that evoluted on the globe. They are the remnants of the seventh ring cave-men, remnants "that have ceased to grow and are the arrested forms of life doomed to eventual decay in the struggle of existence" in the words of your correspondent?
See "Isis" Chapter 1, -- " . . . . . the Divine Essence (Purusha) like a
luminous arc" proceeds to form a circle -- the
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mahamanvantaric chain; and having
attained the highest (or its first starting point) bends back again and returns
to earth (the first globe) bringing a higher type of humanity in its vortex --
"thus seven times. Approaching our earth it grows more and more shadowy until
upon touching ground it becomes as black as night --" i.e. it is matter
outwardly, the Spirit or Purusha being concealed under a quintuple armour
of the first five principles. Now see underlined three lines on page 5 for the
word "mankind" read human races, and for that of
"civilization" read Spiritual evolution of that particular race
and you have the truth which had to be concealed at that incipient
tentative stage of the Theosophical Society.
See again pp. 13 last paragraph and 14 first paragraph, and note the underlined lines about Plato. Then see p. 32 remembering the difference between the Manvantaras as therein calculated and the Manvantaras (complete seven round between two Pralayas, -- the four Yugs returning seven times, once for each race. Having done so far take your pen and calculate. This will make you swear -- but this will not hurt your Karma much: lip-profanity finds it deaf. Read attentively in this connection (not with the swearing process but with that of evolution) pp. 301 last line "and now comes a mystery . . ." and continue on to p. 304. "Isis" was not unveiled but rents sufficiently large were made to afford flitting glances to be completed by the student's own intuition. In this curry of quotations from various philosophic and esoteric truths purposely veiled, behold our doctrine, which is now being partially taught to Europeans for the first time.
(III) As said in my answer on your notes, most of the peoples of India --
with the exception of the Semitic (?) Moguls -- belong to the oldest
branchlet of the present fifth Human race, which was evoluted in
Central Asia more than one million of years ago. Western Science finding good
reasons for the theory of human beings having inhabited Europe 400,000 years
before your era -- this cannot so shock you as to prevent your drinking wine
to-night at your dinner. Yet Asia, has as well as Australia, Africa, America and
the most northward regions -- its remnants -- of the fourth -- even of the third
race (cave-men and Iberians). At the same time, we have more of the seventh ring
men of the fourth race than Europe and more of the first ring of the fifth
round, as, older than the European branchlets, our men have naturally come in
earlier. Their being "less advanced" in civilization and refinement trouble
their spirituality but very little, Karma being an animal which remains
indifferent to pumps and white kid gloves. Neither your knives nor forks, operas
and drawing-rooms will any more follow you in your onward progress than will the
dead-leaf coloured robes of the British Esthetics prevent the proprietors
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thereof and wearers from having been born among the ranks of those, who will be
regarded -- do what they may -- by the forthcoming sixth and seventh round men
as flesh-eating and liquor-drinking "savages" of the "Royal Society Period." It
depends on you, to so immortalize your name, as to force the future higher races
to divide our age and call the sub-division -- the "Pleisto-Sinnettic Period"
but this can never be so long as you labour under the impression that "the
purposes we have now in view would be met by reasonable temperance and
self-restraint." Occult Science is a jealous mistress and allows not a shadow of
self-indulgence; and it is "fatal" not only to the ordinary course of
married life but even to flesh and wine drinking. I am afraid that the
archaeologists of the seventh round, when digging out and unearthing the future
Pompeii of Punjab -- Simla, one day, instead of finding the precious relics of
the Theosophical "Eclectic," will fish out but some petrified or vitreous
remains of the "Sumptuary allowance." Such is the latest prophecy current at
Tzigadze.
And now to the last question. Well, as I say, the "guides" are both elementals and elementaries and not even a decent "half and half" but the very froth in the mug of the mediumistic beer. The several "privations" of such sheets of notepaper were evoluted during E's stay in Calcutta in Mrs. G's atmosphere -- since she frequently received letters from you. It was then an easy matter for the creatures in following E's unconscious desire to attract other disintegrated particles from your box, so as to form a double. He is a strong medium, and were it not for an inherent good nature and other good qualities, strongly counteracted by vanity, sloth, selfishness, greediness for money and with other qualities of modern civilization a total absence of will, be would make a superb Dugpa yet, as I said he is "a good fellow" every inch of him; naturally truthful, under control -- the reverse. I would if I could save him from. . . .
NOTE. -- The rest of the original letter is missing. It is in K.H.'s hand writing. -- ED.
Yes; verily known and as confidently affirmed by the adepts from whom --
"No curtain hides the spheres Elysian,
Nor these poor shells of half transparent dust;
For all that blinds the spirit's vision
Is pride and hate and lust."
(Not for publication)
p.123
Exceptional cases, my friend. Suicides can and generally do, but not
so with the others. The good and pure sleep a quiet blissful sleep, full of
happy visions of earth-life and have no consciousness of being already for ever
beyond that life. Those who were neither good nor bad, will sleep a dreamless,
still a quiet sleep; while the wicked will in proportion to their grossness
suffer the pangs of a nightmare lasting years: their thoughts become living
things, their wicked passions -- real substance, and they receive back on their
heads all the misery they have heaped upon others. Reality and fact if
described would yield a far more terrible Inferno than even Dante had
imagined!
1 The original letter of A.O.H. to K.H. has some passages numbered and underlined with blue pencil by K.H. These are printed in bold type. The numbers refer to K.H.'s replies, for which see post Letter No. XXc. -- ED.
My dear Master,
In speaking of Fragments No. III of which you will receive proofs soon, I said it was far from satisfactory though I had done my best. It was necessary to advance the doctrine of the Society another stage, so as gradually to open the eyes of the spiritualists -- so I introduced as the most pressing matter the Suicide etc. view given in your last letter to S.
Well it is this that seems to me most unsatisfactory and it will lead to a number of questions that I shall feel puzzled to reply to.
Our first doctrine is that the majority of objective phenomena were due to shells. 1½ and 2½ principled shells, i.e. principles entirely separated from their sixth and seventh principles.
But as a further (1) development we admit that there are some spirits, i.e. 5th and 4th principles not wholly dissevered from their sixth and seventh which also may be potent in the seance room. These are the spirits of suicides and the victims of accident or violence. Here the doctrine is that each particular wave of life must run on to its appointed shore and with the exception of the very good, that all spirits prematurely divorced from the lower principles, must remain on earth, until the foredestined hour of what would have been the natural death strikes.
Now this is all very well but this being so, it is clear that in
opposition to our former doctrine, shells will be few and spirits many (2).
For what difference can there be to take the case of
suicides,
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whether these be conscious or unconscious, whether the man blows his
brains out, or only drinks or womanizes himself to death, or kills himself by
over-study? In each case equally the normal natural hour of death is anticipated
and a spirit and not a shell the result -- or again what difference does it make
whether a man is hung for murder, killed in battle, in a railway train or a
powder explosion, or drowned or burnt to death, or knocked over by cholera or
plague, or jungle fever or any of the other thousand and one epidemic diseases
of which the seeds were not ab initio, in his constitution, but were introduced
therein in consequence of his happening to visit a particular locality or
undergo a given experience, both of which he might have avoided? Equally in all
cases the normal death hour is anticipated and a spirit instead of a shell the
result.
In England it is calculated that not 15% of the population reach their normal death period -- and what with fevers and famines and their sequels, I fear the percentage is not much larger here even -- where the people are mostly vegetarian and as a rule live under less unfavourable sanitary conditions.
So then the great bulk of all the physical phenomena of spiritualists ought apparently to be due to these spirits and not to shells. I should be glad to have further information on this point.
There is a second point (3) very often as I understand the spirits of very fair average good people dying natural deaths, remain some time in the earth's atmosphere -- from a few days to a few years -- why cannot such as these communicate? And if they can this is a most important point that should not have been overlooked.
(4) And thirdly it is a fact that thousands of spirits do appear in pure circles and teach the highest morality and moreover tell very closely the truths as to the unseen world (witness Alan Kardec's books pages on pages of which are identical with what you yourself teach) and it is unreasonable to suppose that such are either shells or bad spirits. But you have not given us any opening for any large number of pure high spirits -- and until the whole theory is properly set forth and due place made for these which seem to me a thoroughly well established fact, you will never win over the spiritualists. I dare say it is the old story -- only part of the truth being told to us and the rest reserved -- if so it is merely cutting the Society's throat. Better to tell the outside world nothing -- than to tell them half truths the incompleteness of which they detect at once, the result being a contemptuous rejection of what is truth and though they cannot accept it in this fragmentary state.
Yours affectionately,
A. O. Hume.
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1 Letter from Mr. Sinnett to H.P.B. on the backs of the pages of which is part of a long letter from K.H. (No. XXc)
requeries of Hume's. The passages in bold type have been underlined in blue by K.H. -- ED.
Received August 1882.
Simla, July 25th.
My Dear Old Lady,
I began to try to answer N.D.K.'s letter at once so that if K.H. really meant the note to appear in this immediately "next" appearing Theosophist for August it might just be in time. But I soon got into a tangle. Of course we have received no information that distinctly covers the question now raised, though I suppose we ought to be able to combine bits into an answer. The difficulty turns on giving the real explanation of Eliphas Levi's enigma in your note in the October Theosophist.
If he refers to the fate of this, at present existing race of mankind his statement that the intermediate majority of Egos are ejected from nature or annihilated, would be in direct conflict with K.H.'s teaching. ** They do not die without remembrance, if they retain remembrance in Devachan and again recover remembrance (even of past personalities as of a book's pages) at the period of full individual consciousness preceding that of absolute consciousness in Pari-Nirvana.
But it occurred to me that E. L. may have been dealing with humanity as a whole, not merely with the fourth round men. Great numbers of fifth round personalities are destined to perish I understand, and these might be his intermediate useless portion of mankind. But then the individual spiritual monads, as I understand the matter, do not perish whatever happens, and if a monad reaches the fifth round with all his previous personalities preserved in the pages of his book awaiting future perusal, he would not be ejected and annihilated because some of his fifth round pages were "unfit for publication." So again there is a difficulty in reconciling the two statements.
X. But again is it conceivable that a spiritual monad though surviving the rejection of its third and fourth round pages, cannot survive the rejection of fifth and sixth round pages. That failure to lead good lives in these rounds means the annihilation of the whole individual who will never then get to the seventh round at all.
But on the other hand if that were so the Eliphas Levi case would not be met
by such a hypothesis, for long before then the individuals who had
become co-workers with nature for evil would have been themselves annihilated by
the obscuration of the planet
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X. between the fifth and sixth rounds --
if not by the obscuration between the fourth and the fifth, for to every round
there is one obscuration we are told. (5) There is another difficulty here
because some fifth rounders being here already it is not clear when the
obscuration comes on. Will it be behind the avant couriers of the fifth
round, who will not count as commencing the fifth, that epoch only really
beginning after the existing race has totally decayed out -- but this idea will
not work.
Having got so far in my reflections yesterday, I went up to Hume to see if he could make out the puzzle and so enable me to write what was wanted for this post. But on looking into it and looking back to the October Theosophist we came to the conclusion that the only possible explanation was that the October Theosophist note was utterly wrong and totally at variance with all our later teaching. Is that really the solution? I do not think so or K.H. would not have set me to reconcile the two.
But you will see that at present, with the best will in the world I am utterly unable to do the job set me, and if my dear Guardian and Master will kindly look at these remarks he will see the dilemma in which I am placed.
And then in the way which will be the least trouble to himself either through you or directly he will perhaps indicate the line which the required explanation ought to take. Manifestly it cannot be done for the August number, but I am inclined to believe he never intended this as the time is now so short.
We all feel so sorry for you, over-worked amid the heat and the flies. When you have got the August number off your hands you might perhaps be able to take flight for here, and get a little rest amongst us. You know how glad at any time we should be to see you. Meanwhile my own individual plans are a little uncertain. I may have to return to Allahabad, in order to leave Hensman free to go as special correspondent to Egypt. I am fighting my proprietors tooth and nail to avert this result -- but for a few days still the issue of the struggle will be uncertain.
Ever Yours,
A. P. S.
P.S. -- As you may want to print the letter in this number, I return it herewith, but hope that this may not be the case and that you will send it me back again so that I may duly perform my little task with the help of a few words as to the line to be followed.
Except in so far, that he constantly uses the terms "God" and "Christ" which
taken in their esoteric sense simply mean "Good" -- in its dual aspect of the
abstract and the concrete and nothing more dogmatic, Eliphas Levi is
not in any direct conflict with our teachings. It is again a straw
blown out of a hay-stack and accused by the wind to belong to a hay-rick.
Most of those, whom you may call, if you like, candidates for Deva Chan
-- die and are reborn in the Kama-Loka "without remembrance"; though (and just
because) they do get some of it back in the Deva-Chan. Nor can we call it a
full, but only a partial remembrance. You would hardly call
"remembrance" a dream of yours; some particular scene or scenes, within whose
narrow limits you would find enclosed a few persons -- those whom you loved
best, with an undying love, that holy feeling that alone survives, and -- not
the slightest recollection of any other events or scenes? Love and
Hatred are the only immortal feelings, the only survivors from the
wreck of Ye-Damma, or the phenomenal world. Imagine yourself then, in
Deva-Chan with those you may have loved with such immortal love; with the
familiar, shadowy scenes connected with them for a background and -- a perfect
blank for everything else relating to your interior, social, political, literary
and social life. And then, in the face of that spiritual, purely cogitative
existence, of that unalloyed felicity which, in proportion with the intensity of
the feelings that created it, last from a few to several thousand
years, -- call it the "personal remembrance of A. P. Sinnett" -- if you can.
Dreadfully monotonous! -- you may think. -- Not in the least -- I answer. Have
you experienced monotony during -- say -- that moment which you considered
then and now so consider it -- as the moment of the highest bliss
you have ever felt? -- Of course not. -- Well no more will you experience it
there, in that passage through the Eternity in which a million of years is no
longer than a second. There, where there is no consciousness of an external
world there can be no discernment to mark differences, hence, -- no perception
of contrasts of monotony or variety; nothing in short, outside that immortal
feeling of love and sympathetic attraction whose seeds are planted in the fifth,
whose plants blossom luxuriantly in and around the fourth, but whose roots have
to penetrate deep into the sixth principle, if it would survive the lower
groups. (And now I propose to kill two birds with one stone -- to answer your
and Mr. Hume's questions at the same time) -- remember, both, that we create
ourselves our devachan as our avitchi while yet on earth, and
mostly during the latter days and even moments of our intellectual, sentient
lives. That feeling
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which is the strongest in us at that supreme hour; when, as
in a dream, the events of a long life, to their minutest details, are marshalled
in the greatest order in a few seconds in our vision ( That vision takes place when a person is already proclaimed dead. The brain
is the last organ that dies.)
-- that feeling will become the fashioner of our bliss or woe, the life
principle of our future existence. In the latter we have no substantial
being, but only a present and momentary existence, -- whose duration has no
bearing upon, as no effect, or relation to its being -- which as every other
effect of a transitory cause will be as fleeting, and in its turn will vanish
and cease to be. The real full remembrance of our lives will come but at the end
of the minor cycle -- not before. In Kama Loka those who retain their
remembrance, will not enjoy it at the supreme hour of recollection. -- Those who
know they are dead in their physical body -- can only be either adepts
or -- sorcerers; and these two are the exceptions to the general rule.
Both having been "co-workers with nature," the former for good, the
latter -- for bad, in her work of creation and in that of destruction,
they are the only ones who may be called immortal -- in the Kabalistic
and the esoteric sense of course. Complete or true immortality, -- which means
an unlimited sentient existence, can have no breaks and stoppages, no
arrest of Self-consciousness. And even the shells of those
good men whose page will not be found missing in the great Book of Lives at the
threshold of the Great Nirvana, even they will regain their remembrance and an
appearance of Self-consciousness, only after the sixth and seventh principles
with the essence of the 5th (the latter having to furnish the material for even
that partial recollection of personality which is necessary for the object in
Deva Chan) -- have gone to their gestation period, not before. Even in
the case of suicides and those who have perished by violent death, even in their
case, consciousness requires a certain time to establish its new centre of
gravity, and evolve, as Sir W. Hamilton would have it -- its "perception proper"
henceforth to remain distinct from "sensation proper." Thus, when man dies, his
"Soul" (fifth prin.) becomes unconscious and loses all remembrance of things
internal as well as external. Whether his stay in Kama Loka has to last but a
few moments, hours, days, weeks, months or years; whether he died a natural or a
violent death; whether it occurred in his young or old age, and, whether the Ego
was good, bad, or indifferent, -- his consciousness leaves him as suddenly as
the flame leaves the wick, when blown out. When life has retired from the last
particle in the brain matter, his perceptive faculties become extinct forever,
his spiritual powers of cogitation and volition -- (all those faculties in
short, which are neither inherent in, nor acquirable by organic matter) -- for
the time being. His
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Mayavi rupa may be often thrown into objectivity,
as in the cases of apparitions after death; but, unless it is projected with the
knowledge of (whether latent or potential), or, owing to the intensity of the
desire to see or appear to someone, shooting through the dying brain, the
apparition will be simply -- automatical; it will not be due to any sympathetic
attraction, or to any act of volition, and no more than the reflection of a
person passing unconsciously near a mirror, is due to the desire of the latter.
Having thus explained the position, I will sum up and ask again why it should
be maintained that what is given by Eliphas Levi and expounded by H.P.B., is "in
direct conflict" with my teaching? E. L. is an Occultist, and a Kabalist, and
writing for those who are supposed to know the rudiments of the Kabalistic
tenets, uses the peculiar phraseology of his doctrine, and H.P.B. follows suit.
The only omission she was guilty of, was not to add the word "Western" between
the two words "Occult" and doctrine (see third line of Editor's note). She
is a fanatic in her way, and is unable to write with anything like system and
calmness, or to remember that the general public needs all the lucid
explanations that to her may seem superfluous. And, as you are sure to remark --
"but this is also our case; and you too seem to forget it," -- I will
give you a few more explanations. As remarked on the margin of the October
Theosophist -- the word "immortality" has for the initiates and
occultists quite a different meaning. We call "immortal" but the one Life
in its universal collectivity and entire or Absolute Abstraction; that which has
neither beginning nor end, nor any break in its continuity. Does the term apply
to anything else? Certainly it does not. Therefore the earliest Chaldeans had
several prefixes to the word "immortality," one of which is the Greek,
rarely-used term -- pan-aeonic immortality, i.e. beginning with the
manvantara and ending with the pralaya of our Solar Universe. It
lasts the aeon, or "period" of our pan or "all nature."
Immortal then is he, in the pan-aeonic immortality whose distinct
consciousness and perception of Self under whatever form -- undergoes
no disjunction at any time not for one second, during the period of his
Egoship. Those periods are several in number, each having its distinct name
in the secret doctrines of the Chaldeans, Greeks, Egyptians and Aryans, and,
were they but amenable to translation, -- which they are not, at least so long
as the idea involved remains inconceivable to the Western mind -- I could give
them to you. Suffice for you, for the present to know, that a man, an Ego
like yours or mine, may be immortal from one to the other Round. Let us say I
begin my immortality at the present fourth Round, i.e., having become a full
adept (which unhappily I am not) I arrest the hand of Death at will, and
when finally
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obliged to submit to it, my knowledge of the secrets of nature puts
me in a position to retain my consciousness and distinct perception of Self as
an object to my own reflective consciousness and cognition; and thus avoiding
all such dismemberments of principles, that as a rule take place after
the physical death of average humanity, I remain as Koot Hoomi in my Ego
throughout the whole series of births and lives across the seven worlds and
Arupa-lokas until finally I land again on this earth among the fifth race
men of the full fifth Round beings. I would have been, in such a case --
"immortal" for an inconceivable (to you) long period, embracing many milliards
of years. And yet am "I" truly immortal for all that? Unless I make the
same efforts as I do now, to secure for myself another such furlough from
Nature's Law, Koot Hoomi will vanish and may become a Mr. Smith or an innocent
Babu, when his leave expires. There are men who become such mighty beings, there
are men among us who may become immortal during the remainder of the Rounds, and
then take their appointed place among the highest Chohans, the Planetary
conscious "Ego-Spirits." Of course the Monad "never perishes whatever
happens," but Eliphas speaks of the personal not of the Spiritual Egos,
and you have fallen into the same mistake (and very naturally too) as C. C. M.;
though I must confess the passage in Isis was very clumsily
expressed, as I had already remarked to you, about this same paragraph in one of
my letters long ago. I had to "exercise my ingenuity" over it -- as the Yankees
express it, but, succeeded in mending the hole, I believe, -- as I will have to
many times more, I am afraid, before we have done with Isis. It
really ought to be re-written for the sake of the family honour.
X It is certainly inconceivable, therefore, there is no mortal use to discuss the subject.
X You misconceived the teaching, because you were not aware of what you are now told: (a) who are the true co-workers with nature; and (b) that it is by no means all the evil co-workers, who drop into the eighth sphere and are annihilated. ( Annihilated suddenly as human Egos and personalities, lasting in that world of pure matter under various material forms an inconceivable length of time before they can return to primeval matter.)
The potency for evil is as great in man -- aye -- greater -- than
the potentiality for good. An exception to the rule of nature, that
exception, which in the case of adepts and sorcerers becomes in its turn a
rule, has again its own exceptions. Read carefully the passage that C. C. M.
left unquoted -- on pp. 352-353, Isis Volume I, Para. 3. Again she
omits to distinctly state that the case mentioned relates but to those powerful
sorcerers whose co-partnership with nature for evil affords to them the means of
forcing
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her hand, and thus accord them also pan-aeonic immortality. But oh, what
kind of immortality, and how preferable is annihilation to their lives! Don't
you see that everything you find in Isis is delineated, hardly
sketched -- nothing completed or fully revealed. Well the time has come, but
where are the workers for such a tremendous task?
Says Mr. Hume (see affixed letter (See ante Letter No. XXA. -- ED.) marked passages -- and 1, 2, 3). And now when you have read the objections to that most unsatisfactory doctrine -- as Mr. Hume calls it -- a doctrine which you had to learn first as a whole, before proceeding to study it in parts, -- at the risk of satisfying you no better, I will proceed to explain the latter.
(1) Although not "wholly dissevered from their sixth and seventh principles"
and quite "potent" in the seance room, nevertheless to the day when they would
have died a natural death, they are separated from the higher principles by a
gulf. The sixth and seventh remain passive and negative, whereas, in cases of
accidental death the higher and the lower groups mutually attract each
other. In cases of good and innocent Egos, moreover, the latter gravitates
irresistibly toward the sixth and seventh, and thus -- either slumbers
surrounded by happy dreams, or, sleeps a dreamless profound sleep until the hour
strikes. With a little reflection, and an eye to eternal justice and fitness of
things, you will see why. The victim whether good or bad is irresponsible
for his death, even if his death were due to some action in a previous life or
an antecedent birth; was an act, in short, of the Law of Retribution, still, it
was not the direct result of an act deliberately committed by the
personal Ego of that life during which he happened to be killed. Had he
been allowed to live longer he may have atoned for his antecedent sins still
more effectually: and even now, the Ego having been made to pay off the debt of
his maker (the previous Ego) is free from the blows of retributive justice. The
Dhyan Chohans who have no hand in the guidance of the living human Ego,
protect the helpless victim when it is violently thrust out of its element into
a new one, before it is matured and made fit and ready for it. We tell you what
we know, for we are made to learn it through personal
experience. You know what I mean and I CAN SAY NO MORE! Yes; the victims
whether good or bad sleep, to awake but at the hour of the last Judgment,
which is that hour of the supreme struggle between the sixth and seventh,
and the fifth and fourth at the threshold of the gestation state. And even after
that, when the sixth and seventh carrying off a portion of the fifth have gone
into their Akasic Samadhi, even then it may happen that the spiritual spoil from
the fifth will prove too weak to be reborn
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in Deva-Chan; in which case it will
there and then reclothe itself in a new body, the subjective "Being" created
from the Karma of the victim (or no-victim, as the case may be) and enter upon a
new earth-existence whether upon this or any other planet. In no case then, --
with the exception of suicides and shells, is there any possibility for any
other to be attracted to a seance room. And it is clear that "this
teaching is not in opposition to our former doctrine" and that while
"shells" will be many, -- Spirits very few.
(2) There is a great difference in our humble opinion. We, who look at it
from a stand-point which would prove very unacceptable to Life Insurance
Companies, say, that there are very few if any of the men who indulge in the
above enumerated vices, who feel perfectly sure that such a course of action
will lead them eventually to premature death. Such is the penalty of Maya.
The "vices" will not escape their punishment; but it is the cause
not the effect that will be punished, especially an unforeseen though
probable effect. As well call a suicide a man who meets his death in a
storm at sea, as one who kills himself with "over-study." Water is liable to
drown a man, and too much brain-work to produce a softening of the brain which
may carry him away. In such a case no one ought to cross the Kalapani
nor even to take a bath for fear of getting faint in it and drowned (for we all
know of such cases;) nor should a man do his duty, least of all sacrifice
himself for even a laudable and highly-beneficent cause, as many of us --
(H.P.B. for one) -- do. Would Mr. Hume call her a suicide were she to
drop down dead over her present work? Motive is everything and man is
punished in a case of direct responsibility, never otherwise. In the
victim's case the natural hour of death was anticipated accidentally,
while in that of the suicide, death is brought on voluntarily and with a full
and deliberate knowledge of its immediate consequences. Thus a man who causes
his death in a fit of temporary insanity is not a felo de se
to the great grief and often trouble of the Life Insurance Companies. Nor is he
left a prey to the temptations of the Kama Loka but falls asleep like
any other victim. A Guiteau will not remain in the earth's atmosphere with his
higher principles over him -- inactive and paralysed, still there.
Guiteau is gone into a state during the period of which, he will be ever
firing at his President, thereby tossing into confusion and shuffling the
destinies of millions of persons; where he will be ever tried and
ever hung. Bathing in the reflections of his deeds and thoughts --
especially those he indulged in on the scaffold, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . Two lines in original have been deleted here. -- ED. his fate.
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As for
those who were "knocked over by cholera, or plague, or jungle fever" they could
not have succumbed had they not the germs for the development of such diseases
in them from birth.
"So then, the great bulk of the physical phenomena of Spiritualists" my dear brother, are not "due to these Spirits" but indeed -- to "shells."
(3) "The Spirits of very fair average good people dying natural deaths remain . . . in the earth's atmosphere from a few days to a few years," the period depending on their readiness to meet their -- creature not their creator; a very abstruse subject you will learn later on, when you too are more prepared. But why should they "communicate"? Do those you love communicate with you during their sleep objectively? Your Spirits, in hours of danger, or intense sympathy, vibrating on the same current of thought -- which in such cases, creates a kind of telegraphic spiritual wires between your two bodies -- may meet and mutually impress your memories; but then you are living, not dead bodies. But how can an unconscious 5th principle (see supra) impress or communicate with a living organism, unless it has already become a shell? If, for certain reasons they remain in such a state of lethargy for several years, the spirits of the living may ascend to them, as you were already told; and this may take place still easier than in Deva Chan, where the Spirit is too much engrossed in his personal bliss to pay much attention to an intruding element. I say -- they cannot.
(4) I am sorry to contradict your statement. I know of no "thousands of
spirits" who do appear in circles -- and moreover positively do not know of one
"perfectly pure circle" -- and "teach the highest morality." I hope I
may not be classed with slanderers in addition to other names lately bestowed
upon me, but truth compels me to declare that Allan Kardec was not quite
immaculate during his lifetime, nor has become a very pure Spirit
since. As to teaching the "highest morality," we have a Dugpa-Shammar not far
from where I am residing. Quite a remarkable man. Not very powerful as a
sorcerer but excessively so, as a drunkard, a thief, a liar, and -- an orator.
In this latter role he could give points to and beat Messrs. Gladstone,
Bradlaugh, and even the Rev. H. W. Beacher -- than whom, there is no more
eloquent preacher of morality, and no greater breaker of his Lord's Commandments
in the U.S.A. This Shapa-tung Lama, when thirsty, can make an enormous audience
of "yellow-cap" laymen weep all their yearly supply of tears, with the narrative
of his repentance and suffering in the morning, and then get drunk in the
evening and rob the whole village by mesmerising them into a dead sleep.
Preaching and teaching morality with
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an end in view proves very little. Read "J.P.T.'s"
article in Light and what I say will be corroborated.
(To A.P.S. (5).) The "obscuration" comes on only when the last man of whatever Round has passed into the sphere of effects. Nature is too well, too mathematically adjusted to cause mistakes to happen in the exercise of her functions. The obscuration of the planet on which are now evoluting the races of the fifth Round men -- will, of course "be behind the few avant couriers" who are now here. But before that time comes we will have to part, to meet no more, as the Editor of the Pioneer and his humble correspondent.
And now having shewn that the October Number of the Theosophist was not utterly wrong, nor was it at "variance with the later teaching," may K. H. set you to "reconcile the two"?
To reconcile you still more with Eliphas, I will send you a number of his MSS. -- that have never been published, in a large, clear, beautiful handwriting with my comments all through. Nothing better than that can give you a key to Kabalistic puzzles.
I have to write to Mr. Hume this week; to give him consolation, and to show,
that unless he has a strong desire to live, he need not trouble himself about
Deva-Chan. Unless a man loves well or hates as well,
he will be neither in Deva-Chan nor in Avitchi. "Nature spews the luke-warm out
of her mouth" means only that she annihilates their personal Egos (not
the shells, nor yet the sixth principle) in the Kama Loka and the Deva-Chan.
This does not prevent them from being immediately reborn -- and, if their lives
were not very very bad, -- there is no reason why the eternal Monad
should not find the page of that life intact in the Book of Life.
K. H.
1 Letter from Mr. Sinnett to K.H. With K.H.'s Comments printed in bold type. -- ED.
Received back 22.8.82.
August 12th.
My dear Guardian,
I am afraid the present letters on Theosophy are not worth much, for I have
worked on too literal an acceptance of some passages in your long letter about
Deva-Chan. The bearing of that seemed to be that the "accidents" as well as the
suicides, were in danger from the attraction of the seance room. You wrote: --
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"But there is another kind of spirit we have lost sight of, -- the suicides and those killed by accidents. Both kinds can communicate and both have to pay dearly for such visits. . . ." Correct.
And later on after speaking of the case of the suicides in detail you say: --
"As to the victims of accident these fare still worse . . . unhappy shades . . . cut off in the full flush of earthly passions . . . they are the pisachas etc. . . ." They not only ruin their victims etc. . . ." Again correct. Bear in mind that the exceptions enforce the rule.
And if they are neither very good nor very bad the "victims of accident or violence," derive a new set of skandhas from the medium who attracts them. I have explained the situation on the margin of proofs. See note.
It was on this text that I have been working.
If this is not to be maintained or if in some way that as yet I cannot understand the words bear a different signification from that which seems to belong to them, it might be better to cancel these two letters altogether or hold them over for complete alteration. The warning is delivered in too solemn a tone and the danger is made too much of if it is merely to apply to suicides, and in the last slip of the proof the elimination of "the accidents and" makes the rest rather ridiculous because then we are dividing suicides only into the very pure and elevated! and the medium people etc.
It seems to me that it would hardly do to let even letter (1) stand alone, -- though it does not include the mistake, for it would have no raison d'etre unless followed up by letter (2).
Both letters have gone home to Stainton Moses for transmission to Light -- the first by the mail from here of July 21, the second by last mail -- yesterday. Now if you decide that it is better to stop and cancel them I shall just be in time to telegraph home to Stainton Moses to that effect, and will do this directly I receive a telegram from you or from the Old Lady to that effect.
If nothing is done they Will appear in Light as written -- i.e. as the MS. sent with the present proof stood barring a few little mistakes which I see my wife has made in copying them out.
It is altogether a very awkward tangle. I was precipitate apparently in sending them home, but I thought I had followed the statements of your long devachan letter so faithfully. Awaiting orders,
Ever your devoted
A. P. S.
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On margin I said "rarely" but I have not pronounced the word "never." Accidents occur under the most various circumstances; and men are not only killed accidentally, or die as suicides but are also murdered-- something we have not even touched upon. I can well understand your perplexity but can hardly help you. Bear always in mind that there are exceptions to every rule, and to these again and other side exceptions, and be always prepared to learn something new. I can easily understand we are accused of contradictions and inconsistencies -- aye, even to writing one thing to-day and denying it to-morrow. What you were taught is the rule. Good and pure "accidents" sleep in the Akasa, ignorant of their change; very wicked and impure -- suffer all the tortures of a horrible nightmare. The majority -- neither very good nor very bad, the victims of accident or violence (including murder) -- some sleep, others become Nature pisachas, and while a small minority may fall victims to mediums and derive a new set of skandhas from the medium who attracts them. Small as their number may be, their fate is to be the most deplored. What I said in my notes on your MSS. was in reply to Mr. Hume's statistical calculations which led him to infer that "there were more Spirits than shells in the seance rooms" in such a case.
You have much to learn -- and we have much to teach nor do we refuse to go to the very end. But we must really beg that you should not jump at hasty conclusions. I do not blame you, my dear faithful friend, I would rather blame myself, were anyone here to be blamed except our respective modes of thought and habits so diametrically opposed to each other. Accustomed as we are to teach chelas who know enough to find themselves beyond the necessity of "if's " and "but's" during the lessons -- I am but too apt to forget that I am doing the work with you generally entrusted to these chelas. Henceforth, I will take more time when answering your questions. Your letters to London can do no harm, and are sure, on the contrary to do good. They are admirably written and the exceptions may be mentioned and the whole ground covered in one of the future letters.
I have no objection to your making extracts for Colonel Chesney -- except one
-- he is not a Theosophist. Only be careful, and do not forget
your details and exceptions whenever you explain your rules. Remember still:
even in the case of suicides there are many who will never allow themselves to
be drawn into the vortex of mediumship, and pray do not accuse me of
"inconsistency" or contradiction when we come to that point.
Could you but know how I write my letters and the time I am
enabled to give to them, perchance you would feel
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less critical if not exacting.
Well, and how do you like Djual Khool's idea and art?
I have not caught a glimpse of Simla for the last ten days.
Affectionately yours,
K.H.
1 Transcribed from a copy in Mr. Sinnett's handwriting. -- ED.
Extract from Letter by K.H. to Hume. Received for my perusal towards the end of season 1882. (A.P.S.)
Did it ever strike you, -- and now from the standpoint of your Western science and the suggestion of your own Ego which has already seized up the essentials of every truth, prepare to deride the erroneous idea -- did you ever suspect that Universal, like finite, human mind might have two attributes, or a dual power -- one the voluntary and conscious, and the other the involuntary and unconscious or the mechanical power. To reconcile the difficulty of many theistic and anti-theistic propositions, both these powers are a philosophical necessity. The possibility of the first or the voluntary and conscious attribute in reference to the infinite mind, notwithstanding the assertions of all the Egos throughout the living world -- will remain for ever a mere hypothesis, whereas in the finite mind it is a scientific and demonstrated fact. The highest Planetary Spirit is as ignorant of the first as we are, and the hypothesis will remain one even in Nirvana, as it is a mere inferential possibility, whether there or here.
Take the human mind in connexion with the body. Man has two distinct physical
brains; the cerebrum with its two hemispheres at the frontal part of the head --
the source of the voluntary nerves; and the cerebellum, situated at the back
portion of the skull -- the fountain of the involuntary nerves which are the
agents of the unconscious or mechanical powers of the mind to act through. And
weak and uncertain as may be the control of man over his involuntary, such as
the blood circulation, the throbbings of the heart and respiration, especially
during sleep -- yet how far more powerful, how much more potential appears man
as master and ruler over the blind molecular motion -- the laws which
govern his body (a proof of this being afforded by the phenomenal powers of the
Adept and even the common Yogi) than that which you will call God,
shows over the immutable laws of Nature. Contrary in that to the finite, the
"infinite mind," which we name so but for argument's sake, for we call it the
infinite force -- exhibits but the functions of its cerebellum, the existence of
its supposed cerebrum being admitted as above stated, but on the inferential
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hypothesis deduced from the Kabalistic theory (correct in every other relation)
of the Macrocosm being the prototype of the Microcosm. So far as we
know the corroboration of it by modern science receiving but little
consideration -- so far as the highest Planetary Spirits have ascertained (who
remember well have the same relations with the trans-cosmical world, penetrating
behind the primitive veil of cosmic matter as we have to go behind the veil of
this, our gross physical world --) the infinite mind displays to them as to us
no more than the regular unconscious throbbings of the eternal and universal
pulse of Nature, throughout the myriads of worlds within as without the
primitive veil of our solar system.
So far -- we know. Within and to the utmost limit, to the very edge of the cosmic veil we know the fact to be correct -- owing to personal experience; for the information gathered as to what takes place beyond -- we are indebted to the Planetary Spirits, to our blessed Lord Buddha. This of course may be regarded as second-hand information. There are those who rather than to yield to the evidence of fact will prefer regarding even the planetary gods as "erring" disembodied philosophers if not actually liars. Be it so. Everyone is master of his own wisdom -- says a Tibetan proverb and he is at liberty either to honour or degrade his slave --. However I will go on for the benefit of those who may yet seize my explanation of the problem and understand the nature of the solution.
It is the peculiar faculty of the involuntary power of the infinite mind --
which no one could ever think of calling God, -- to be eternally evolving
subjective matter into objective atoms (you will please remember that these two
adjectives are used but in a relative sense) or cosmic matter to be later on
developed into form. And it is likewise that same involuntary mechanical power
that we see so intensely active in all the fixed laws of nature -- which governs
and controls what is called the Universe or the Cosmos. There are some modern
philosophers who would prove the existence of a Creator from motion. We say and
affirm that that motion -- the universal perpetual motion which never ceases
never slackens nor increases its speed not even during the interludes between
the pralayas, or "nights of Brahma" but goes on like a mill set in motion,
whether it has anything to grind or not (for the pralaya means the temporary
loss of every form, but by no means the destruction of cosmic matter which is
eternal) -- we say this perpetual motion is the only eternal and uncreated Deity
we are able to recognise. To regard God as an intelligent spirit, and accept at
the same time his absolute immateriality is to conceive of a nonentity, a blank
void; to regard God as a Being, an Ego and to place his intelligence under a
bushel for some mysterious reasons -- is a most consummate nonsense; to endow
him with intelligence
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in the face of blind brutal Evil is to make of him a fiend
-- a most rascally God. A Being however gigantic, occupying space and having
length breadth and thickness is most certainly the Mosaic deity; "No-being" and
a mere principle lands you directly in the Buddhistic atheism, or the Vedantic
primitive Acosmism. What lies beyond and outside the worlds of form,
and being, in worlds and spheres in their most spiritualized state -- (and you
will perhaps oblige us by telling us where that beyond can be, since the
Universe is infinite and limitless) is useless for anyone to search after since
even Planetary Spirits have no knowledge or perception of it. If our greatest
adepts and Bodhisatvas have never penetrated themselves beyond our solar system,
-- and the idea seems to suit your preconceived theistic theory wonderfully, my
respected Brother -- they still know of the existence of other such solar
systems, with as mathematical a certainty as any western astronomer knows of the
existence of invisible stars which he can never approach or explore. But of that
which lies within the worlds and systems, not in the trans-infinitude -- (a
queer expression to use) -- but in the cis-infinitude rather, in the state of
the purest and inconceivable immateriality, no one ever knew or will ever tell,
hence it is something non-existent for the universe. You are at liberty to place
in this eternal vacuum the intellectual or voluntary powers of your deity -- if
you can conceive of such a thing.
Meanwhile we may say that it is motion that governs the laws of nature; and
that it governs them as the mechanical impulse given to running water which will
propel them either in a direct line or along hundreds of side furrows they may
happen to meet on their way and whether those furrows are natural grooves or
channels prepared artificially by the hand of man. And we maintain that wherever
there is life and being, and in however much spiritualized a form, there is no
room for moral government, much less for a moral Governor -- a Being which at
the same time has no form nor occupies space! Verily if light shineth in
darkness, and darkness comprehends it not, it is because such is the natural
law, but how more suggestive and pregnant with meaning for one who knows,
to say that light can still less comprehend darkness, nor ever know it since it
kills wherever it penetrates and annihilates it instantly. Pure yet a volitional
Spirit is an absurdity for volitional mind. The result of organism cannot exist
independently of an organized brain, and an organized brain made out of nihil is
a still greater fallacy. If you ask me "Whence then the immutable laws? -- laws
cannot make themselves" -- then in my turn I will ask you -- and whence their
supposed Creator? -- a creator cannot create or make himself. If the brain did
not make itself, for this would be affirming that brain acted before it existed,
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how could intelligence, the result of an organized brain, act before its creator
was made.
All this reminds one of wrangling for seniorship. If our doctrines clash too much with your theories then we can easily give up the subject and talk of something else. Study the laws and doctrines of the Nepaulese Swabhavikas, the principal Buddhist philosophical school in India, and you will find them the most learned as the most scientifically logical wranglers in the world. Their plastic, invisible, eternal, omnipresent and unconscious Swabhavat is Force or Motion ever generating its electricity which is life.
Yes: there is a force as limitless as thought, as potent as boundless will,
as subtile as the essence of life so inconceivably awful in its rending force as
to convulse the universe to its centre would it but be used as a lever, but this
Force is not God, since there are men who have learned the secret of
subjecting it to their will when necessary. Look around you and see the myriad
manifestations of life, so infinitely multiform; of life, of motion, of change.
What caused these? From what inexhaustible source came they, by what agency? Out
of the invisible and subjective they have entered our little area of the visible
and objective. Children of Akasa, concrete evolutions from the ether, it was
force which brought them into perceptibility and Force will in time remove them
from the sight of man. Why should this plant in your garden to the right, have
been produced with such a shape and that other one to the left with one totally
dissimilar? Are these not the result of varying action of Force -- unlike
correlations? Given a perfect monotony of activities throughout the world, and
we would have a complete identity of forms, colours, shapes and properties
throughout all the kingdoms of nature. It is the motion with its
resulting conflict, neutralization, equilibration, correlation, to which is due
the infinite variety which prevails. You speak of an intelligent and good --
(the attribute is rather unfortunately chosen) -- Father, a moral guide and
governor of the universe and man. A certain condition of things exists around us
which we call normal. Under this nothing can occur which transcends our
every-day experience "God's immutable laws." But suppose we change this
condition and have the best of him without whom even a hair of your head will
not fall, as they tell you in the West. A current of air brings to me from the
lake near which, with my fingers half frozen I now write to you this letter -- I
change by a certain combination of electrical magnetic odyllic or other
influences the current of air which benumbs my fingers into a warmer breeze; I
have thwarted the intention of the Almighty, and dethroned him at my will! I can
do that, or when I do not want Nature to produce strange and too
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visible
phenomena, I force my nature-seeing, nature-influencing self within me, to
suddenly awake to new perceptions and feelings and thus am my own Creator and
ruler.
But do you think that you are right when saying that "the laws arise." Immutable laws cannot arise, since they are eternal and uncreated, propelled in the Eternity and that God himself if such a thing existed, could never have the power of stopping them. And when did I say that these laws were fortuitous per se. I meant their blind correlations, never the laws, or rather the law -- since we recognise but one law in the Universe, the law of harmony, of perfect equilibrium. Then for a man endowed with so subtle a logic, and such a fine comprehension of the value of ideas in general and that of words especially -- for a man so accurate as you generally are to make tirades upon an "all wise, powerful and love-ful God" seems to say at least strange. I do not protest at all as you seem to think against your theism, or a belief in an abstract ideal of some kind, but I cannot help asking you, how do you or how can you know that your God is all wise, omnipotent and love-ful, when everything in nature, physical and moral, proves such a being, if he does exist to be quite the reverse of all you say of him? Strange delusion and one which seems to overpower your very intellect.
The difficulty of explaining the fact that "unintelligent Forces can give
rise to highly intelligent beings like ourselves," is covered by the eternal
progression of cycles, and the process of evolution ever perfecting its work as
it goes along. Not believing in cycles, it is unnecessary for you to learn that
which will create but a new pretext for you, my dear Brother, to combat the
theory and argue upon it ad infinitum. Nor did I ever become guilty of
the heresy I am accused of -- in reference to spirit and matter. The conception
of matter and spirit as entirely distinct, and both eternal could certainly
never have entered my head, however little I may know of them, for it is one of
the elementary and fundamental doctrines of Occultism that the two are one, and
are distinct but in their respective manifestations, and only in the limited
perceptions of the world of senses. Far from "lacking philosophical breadth"
then, our doctrines show, but one principle in nature, -- spirit-matter or
matter-spirit, the third the ultimate Absolute or the quintessence of the two,
-- if I may be allowed to use an erroneous term in the present application --
losing itself beyond the view and spiritual perceptions of even the "Gods" or
Planetary Spirits. This third principle say the Vedantic Philosophers -- is the
only reality, everything else being Maya, as none of the Protean manifestations
of spirit-matter or Purusha and Prakriti have ever been regarded in any other
light than that of temporary delusions of the senses. Even in the hardly
outlined
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philosophy of Isis this idea is clearly carried out. In
the book of Kiu-te, Spirit is called the ultimate sublimation of matter, and
matter the crystallization of spirit. And no better illustration could be
afforded than in the very simple phenomenon of ice, water, vapour and the final
dispersion of the latter, the phenomenon being reversed in its consecutive
manifestations and called the Spirit falling into generation or matter. This
trinity resolving itself into unity, -- a doctrine as old as the world of
thought -- was seized upon by some early Christians, who had it in the schools
of Alexandria, and made up into the Father, or generative spirit; the Son or
matter, -- man; and into the Holy Ghost, the immaterial essence, or the apex of
the equilateral triangle, an idea found to this day in the pyramids of Egypt.
Thus once more it is proved that you misunderstand my meaning entirely, whenever
for the sake of brevity I use a phraseology habitual with the Western people.
But in my turn I have to remark that your idea that matter is but the temporary
allotropic form of spirit differing from it as charcoal does from diamond is as
unphilosophical as it is unscientific from both the Eastern and the Western
points of view, charcoal being but a form of residue of matter, while matter
per se is indestructible, and as I maintain coeval with spirit -- that
spirit which we know and can conceive of. Bereaved of Prakriti, Purusha (Spirit)
is unable to manifest itself, hence ceases to exist -- becomes nihil.
Without spirit or Force, even that which Science styles as "not living" matter,
the so-called mineral ingredients which feed plants, could never have been
called into form. There is a moment in the existence of every molecule and atom
of matter when, for one cause or another, the last spark of spirit or motion or
life (call it by whatever name) is withdrawn, and in the same instant with the
swiftness which surpasses that of the lightning glance of thought the atom or
molecule or an aggregation of molecules is annihilated to return to its pristine
purity of intra-cosmic matter. It is drawn to the mother fount with the velocity
of a globule of quicksilver to the central mass. Matter, force, and motion are
the trinity of physical objective nature, as the trinitarian unity of
spirit-matter is that of the spiritual or subjective nature. Motion is eternal
because spirit is eternal. But no modes of motion can ever be conceived unless
they be in connection with matter.
And now to your extraordinary hypothesis that Evil with its attendant train
of sin and suffering is not the result of matter, but may be perchance the wise
scheme of the moral Governor of the Universe. Conceivable as the idea may seem
to you trained in the pernicious fallacy of the Christian, -- "the ways of the
Lord are inscrutable" -- it is utterly inconceivable for me. Must I repeat again
that the best Adepts have searched the Universe
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during milleniums and found
nowhere the slightest trace of such a Machiavellian schemer -- but throughout,
the same immutable, inexorable law. You must excuse me therefore if I positively
decline to lose my time over such childish speculations. It is not "the ways of
the Lord" but rather those of some extremely intelligent men in everything but
some particular hobby, that are to me incomprehensible.
As you say this need "make no difference between us" -- personally. But it
does make a world of difference if you propose to learn and offer me to teach.
For the life of me I cannot make out how I could ever impart to you that which I
know since the very A.B.C. of what I know, the rock upon which the secrets of
the occult universe, whether on this or that side of the veil, are encrusted, is
contradicted by you invariably and a priori. My very dear Brother,
either we know something or we do not know anything. In the first case what is
the use of your learning, since you think you know better? In the second case
why should you lose your time? You say it matters nothing whether these laws are
the expression of the will of an intelligent conscious God, as you think, or
constitute the inevitable attributes of an unintelligent, unconscious "God," as
I hold. I say, it matters everything, and since you earnestly believe that these
fundamental questions (of spirit and matter -- of God or no God) "are admittedly
beyond both of us" -- in other words that neither I nor yet our greatest adepts
can know no more than you do, then what is there on earth that I could teach
you? You know that in order to enable you to read you have first to learn your
letters -- yet you want to know the course of events before and after the
Pralayas, of every event here on this globe on the opening of a new cycle,
namely a mystery imparted at one of the last initiations, as Mr. Sinnett was
told, -- for my letter to him upon the Planetary Spirits was simply incidental
-- brought out by a question of his. And now you will say I am evading the
direct issue. I have discoursed upon collateral points, but have not explained
to you all you want to know and asked me to tell you. I "dodge" as I always do.
Pardon me for contradicting you, but it is nothing of the kind. There are a
thousand questions I will never be permitted to answer, and it would be dodging
were I to answer you otherwise than I do. I tell you plainly you are unfit to
learn, for your mind is too full and there is not a corner vacant from whence a
previous occupant would not arise, to struggle with and drive away the newcomer.
Therefore I do not evade, I only give you time to reflect and deduce and first
learn well what was already given you before you seize on something else. The
world of force, is the world of Occultism and the only one whither the highest
initiate goes to probe the secrets of being. Hence no-one but such an initiate
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can know anything of these secrets. Guided by his Guru the chela first discovers
this world, then its laws, then their centrifugal evolutions into the world of
matter. To become a perfect adept takes him long years, but at last he becomes
the master. The hidden things have become patent, and mystery and miracle have
fled from his sight forever. He sees how to guide force in this direction or
that -- to produce desirable effects. The secret chemical, electric or odic
properties of plants, herbs, roots, minerals, animal tissue, are as familiar to
him as the feathers of your birds are to you. No change in the etheric
vibrations can escape him. He applies his knowledge, and behold a miracle! And
he who started with the repudiation of the very idea that miracle is possible,
is straightway classed as a miracle worker and either worshipped by the fools as
a demi-god or repudiated by still greater fools as a charlatan! And to show you
how exact a science is occultism let me tell you that the means we avail
ourselves of are all laid down for us in a code as old as humanity to the
minutest detail, but everyone of us has to begin from the beginning, not from
the end. Our laws are as immutable as those of Nature, and they were known to
man and eternity before this strutting game cock, modern science, was hatched.
If I have not given you the modus operandi or begun by the
wrong end, I have at least shown you that we build our philosophy upon
experiment and deduction -- unless you choose to question and dispute this fact
equally with all others. Learn first our laws and educate your perceptions, dear
Brother. Control your involuntary powers and develop in the right direction your
will and you will become a teacher instead of a learner. I would not refuse what
I have a right to teach. Only I had to study for fifteen years before I came to
the doctrines of cycles and had to learn simpler things at first.
But do what we may, and whatever happens I trust we will have no more arguing which is as profitless as it is painful.
1 K.H.'s Comments etc. appear in bold type. -- ED.
Received at Simla: Oct. 1882.
Herewith -- apologizing for their number, I send a few notes of interrogation. Perhaps you will be so kind as to take them up from time to time and answer them by ones and twos as leisure and time allow.
Memo -- At convenience to send A.P.S. those unpublished notes of Eliphas Levi's with annotations by K.H.
Sent long ago to our "Jacko" friend.
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(1) There is a very interesting allusion in your last, when speaking of Hume
you speak of certain characteristics he brought back with him from his last
incarnation.
(2) Have you the power of looking back to the former lives of persons now living, and identifying them?
(3) In that case would it be improper personal curiosity -- to ask for any particulars of my own?
I
(1) All of us, we bring some characteristics from our previous incarnations. It is unavoidable.
(2) Unfortunately, some of us have. I, for one do not like to exercise it.
(3) "Man know thyself," saith the Delphian oracle. There is nothing "improper" -- certainly in such a curiosity. Only would it not be still more proper to study our own present personality before attempting to learn anything of its creator, -- predecessor, and fashioner, -- the man that was? Well, some day I may treat you to a little story -- no time now -- only I promise no details; a simple sketch, and a hint or two to test your intuitional powers.
II 2
2 For K.H.'s replies to these queries see post Letter XXIIIB. -- ED.
(1) Is there any way of accounting for what seems the curious rush of human progress within the last two thousand years, as compared with the relatively stagnant condition of the fourth round people up to the beginning of modern progress?
(2) Or has there been at any former period during the habitation of the earth by fourth round men, civilizations as great as our own in regard to intellectual development that have utterly passed away?
(3) Even the fifth race (own) of the fourth round began in Asia a million years ago. What was it about for the 998,000 years preceding the last 2,000? During that period have greater civilizations than our own risen and decayed?
(4) To what epoch did the existence of the Continent of Atlantis belong, and did the cataclysmical change which produced its extinction come into any appointed place in the evolution of the round, -- corresponding to the place occupied in the whole manvantaric evolution by obscurations?
(5) I find that the most common question asked about occult philosophy by fairly intelligent people who begin to enquire about it is "Does it give any explanation of the origin of evil?" That is a point on which you have formerly promised to touch, and which it might be worth while to take up before long.
(6) Closely allied to this question would be another often put.
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"What is the
good of the whole cyclic process if spirit only emerges at the end of all things
pure and impersonal as it was at first before its descent into matter?"
(And the portions taken away from the fifth?) My answer is that I am
not at present engaged in excusing, but in investigating the operations of
Nature. But perhaps there may be a better answer available.
(7) Can you, i.e., is it permitted ever to answer any questions relating to matters of physical science? If so -- here are some points, that I should greatly like dealt with.
(8) Have magnetic conditions anything to do with the precipitation of rain, or is that due entirely to atmospheric currents at different temperatures encountering other currents of different humidities, the whole set of motions being established by pressures, expansions, etc., due in the first instance to solar energy? If magnetic conditions are engaged, how do they operate and how could they be tested?
(9) Is the sun's corona, an atmosphere? of any known gases? and why does it assume the rayed shape always observed in eclipses?
(10) Is the photometric value of light emitted by stars a safe guide to their magnitude,* ( * Considered of course in connection with distance as guessed by parallax. ) and is it true as astronomy assumes faute de mieux in the way of a theory, that per square mile the sun's surface emits as much light as can be emitted from any body?
(11) Is Jupiter a hot and still partially luminous body and to what cause, as solar energy has probably nothing to do with the matter, are the violent disturbances of Jupiter's atmosphere due?
(12) Is there any truth in the new Siemens theory of solar combustion, -- i.e., that the sun in its passage through space gathers in at the poles combustible gas (which is diffused through all space in a highly attenuated condition), and throws it off again at the equator after the intense heat of that region has again dispersed the elements which combustion temporarily united?
(13) Could any clue be given to the causes of magnetic variations, -- the daily changes at given places, and the apparently capricious curvature of the isogonic lines which show equal declinations? For example -- why is there a region in Eastern Asia where the needle shows no variation from the true north, though variations are recorded all round that space? (Have your Lordships anything to do with this peculiar condition of things?)
(14) Could any other planets besides those known to modern astronomy (I do not mean mere planetoids) be discovered by physical instruments if properly directed?
(15) When you wrote "Have you experienced monotony during that moment which
you considered then and now so con-
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sider it, -- as the moment of the highest
bliss you have ever felt?"
Did you refer to any specific moment and any specific event in my life, or were you merely referring to an X quantity -- the happiest moment whatever it might have been?
(16) You say: -- "Remember we create ourselves, our Deva Chan, and our Avitchi and mostly during the latter days and even moments of our sentient lives."
(17) But do the thoughts on which the mind may be engaged at the last moment necessarily hinge on to the predominant character of its past life? Otherwise it would seem as if the character of a person's Deva Chan or Avitchi might be capriciously and unjustly determined by the chance which brought some special thought uppermost at last?
(18) "The full remembrance of our lives will come but at the end of the "minor cycle."
Does "minor cycle" here mean one round, or the whole Manvantara of our planetary chain?
That is, do we remember our past lives in the Deva Chan of world Z at the end of each round, or only at the end of the seventh round?
(I9) You say "And even the shells of those good men whose pages will not be found missing in the great book of lives: -- even they will regain their remembrance and an appearance of self consciousness only after the sixth and seventh principles with the essence of the fifth have gone to their gestation period."
(20) A little later on: -- "Whether the personal Ego was good, bad or indifferent, his consciousness leaves him as suddenly as the flame leaves the wick -- his perceptive faculties become extinct for ever." (Well? can a physical brain once dead retain its perceptive faculties: that which will perceive in the shell is something that perceives with a borrowed or reflected light. See notes.)
Then what is the nature of the remembrance and self-consciousness of the shell? This touches on a matter I have often thought about -- wishing for further explanation -- the extent of personal identity in elementaries.
(21) The spiritual Ego goes circling through the worlds, retaining what it
possesses of identity and self-consciousness, always neither more nor less
(a) But it is continually evolving personalities, in which at all events
the sense of identity while it remains united with them is very complete.
(b) Now these personalities I understand to be absolutely new evolutions in
each case. A. P. Sinnett is, for what it is worth, -- absolutely a new
invention. Now it will leave a shell behind which will survive for a time
(c) assuming that the spiritual monad temporarily engaged in this
incarnation will find enough decent material in the fifth to lay hold of.
(d) That shell will have no consciousness directly after death,
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because "it
requires a certain time to establish its new centre of gravity and evolve its
perception proper." (e) But how much consciousness will it have when it
has done this? (f) Will it still be A. P. Sinnett of which the
spiritual Ego, will think, even at the last, as of a person it had known -- or
will it be conscious that the individuality is gone? Will it be able to reason
about itself at all, and to remember anything of its once higher interests. Will
it remember the name it bore? (g) or is it only inflated with
recollections of this sort in mediumistic presence, remaining asleep at other
times? (h) And is it conscious of losing anything that feels like life
as it gradually disintegrates?
(22) What is the nature of the life that goes on in the "Planet of Death?" Is it a physical reincarnation with remembrance of past personality, or an astral existence as in Kama Loka? Is it an existence with birth, maturity and decay, or a uniform prolongation of the old personality of this earth under penal conditions?
(23) What other planets of those known to ordinary science, besides Mercury, belong to our system of worlds?
Are the more spiritual planets -- (A, B & Y, Z) -- visible bodies in the sky or are all those known to astronomy of the more material sort?
(24) Is the Sun (a) as Allan Kardec says: -- a habitation of highly spiritualized beings? (b) Is it the vertex of our Manvantaric chain? and of all the other chains in this solar system also?
(25) You say: -- it may happen -- "that the spiritual spoil from the fifth will prove too weak to be reborn in Deva Chan, in which case it's sixth will then and there reclothe itself in a new body -- and enter upon a new earth existence, whether upon this or any other planet."
(26) This seems to want further elucidation. Are these exceptional cases in which two earth lives of the same spiritual monad may occur closer together than the thousand years indicated by some previous letters as the almost inevitable limit of such successive lives?
(27) The reference to the case of Guiteau is puzzling. I can understand his being in a state in which the crime he committed is ever present to his imagination, but how does he "toss into confusion and shuffle the destinies of millions of persons?"
(28) Obscurations are a subject at present wrapped in obscurity.
They take place after the last man of any given round has passed on to the
next planet. But I want to make out how the next superior round forms are
evolved. When the fifth round spiritual monads arrive what fleshly habitations
are ready for them? Going back to the only former letter in which you have dealt
with obscurations I find: -- (a) "We have traced man out of
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a round
into the Nirvanic state between Z and A. "A" was left in the last round dead.
(See note.) As the new round begins it catches the new influx of life, reawakens
to vitality, and begets all its kingdoms of a superior order to the last."
(29) But has it to begin at the beginning again between each round, and evolve human forms from animal, these last from vegetable, etc. If so to what round do the first imperfectly evolved men belong? Exhypothesi to the fifth; but the fifth should be a more perfect race in all respects.
1 K.H.'s Replies to the Queries in Letter XXIIIA II. -- ED.
II
(I) The latter end of a very important cycle. Each Round, each ring, as every race has its great and its smaller cycles, on every planet that mankind passes through.
Our fourth Round Humanity has its one great cycle, and so have her races and sub-races. The "curious rush" is due to the double effect of the former -- the beginning of its downward course; -- and of the latter (the small cycle of your "sub-race") running on to its apex. Remember, you belong to the fifth Race, yet you are but a Western sub-race. Notwithstanding your efforts, what you call civilization is confined only to the latter and its off-shoots in America. Radiating around, its deceptive light may seem to throw its rays on a greater distance than it does in reality. -- There is no "rush" in China, and of Japan you make but a caricature.
A student of occultism ought not to speak of the "stagnant condition of the
fourth Race people" since history knows next to nothing of that
condition "up to the beginning of modern progress" of other nations but the
Western. What do you know of America, for instance, before the invasion of that
country by the Spaniards? Less than two centuries prior to the arrival of Cortez
there was as great a "rush" towards progress among the sub-races of
Peru and Mexico as there is now in Europe and the U.S.A. Their sub-race ended in
nearly total annihilation through causes generated by itself; so will yours at
the end of its cycle. We may speak only of the "stagnant conditions" into which,
following the law of development, growth, maturity and decline every race and
sub-race falls into during its transition periods. It is that latter condition
your Universal History is acquainted with, while it remains superbly
ignorant of the condition even India was in, some ten centuries back. Your
sub-
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races are now running toward the apex of their respective cycles, and that
History goes no further back than the periods of decline of a few other
sub-races belonging most of them to the preceding fourth Race. And what is the
area and the period of time embraced by its Universal eye? -- At the
utmost stretch -- a few, miserable dozens of centuries. A mighty horizon,
indeed! Beyond -- all is darkness for it, nothing but hypotheses. . . . .
(2) No doubt there was. Egyptian and Aryan records and especially our Zodiacal tables furnish us with every proof of it besides our inner knowledge. Civilization is an inheritance, a patrimony that passes from race to race along the ascending and descending paths of cycles. During the minority of a sub-race, it is preserved for it by its predecessor, which disappears, dies out generally, when the former "comes to age." At first, most of them squander and mismanage their property, or leave it untouched in the ancestral coffers. They reject contemptuously the advices of their elders and prefer, boy-like, playing in the streets to studying and making the most of the untouched wealth stored up for them in the records of the Past. Thus during your transition period -- the middle ages -- Europe rejected the testimony of Antiquity, calling such sages as Herodotus and other learned Greeks -- the Father of Lies, until she knew better and changed the appellation into that of "Father of History." Instead of neglecting, you now accumulate and add to your wealth. As every other race you had your ups and downs, your periods of honour and dishonour, your dark midnight and -- you are now approaching your brilliant noon. The youngest of the fifth race family you were for long ages the unloved and the uncared for, the Cendrillon in your home. And now, when so many of your sisters have died; and others still are dying, while the few of the old survivors, now in their second infancy, wait but for their Messiah -- the sixth race -- to resurrect to a new life and start anew with the coming stronger along the path of a new cycle -- now that the Western Cendrillon has suddenly developed into a proud wealthy Princess, the beauty we all see and admire -- how does she act? Less kind hearted than the Princess in the tale, instead of offering to her elder and less favoured sister, the oldest now, in fact since she is nearly "a million years old" and the only one who has never treated her unkindly, though she may have ignored her, -- instead of offering her, I say, the "Kiss of peace" she applies to her the lex talionis with a vengeance that does not enhance her natural beauty. This, my good friend, and brother, is not a far stretched allegory but -- history.
(3) Yes; the fifth race -- ours -- began in Asia a million years ago. What
was it about for the 998,000 years preceding the last 2,000? A pertinent
question; offered moreover in quite a
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Christian spirit that refuses to believe
that any good could ever have come out from anywhere before and
save Nazareth. What was it about? Well, it was occupying itself pretty well
in the same way as it does now -- craving Mr. Grant Allen's pardon, who would
place our primitive ancestor the "hedgehoggy" man, in the early part of the
Eocene Age! Forsooth, your scientific writers bestride their hypothesis most
fearlessly, I see. It will really be pity to find their fiery steed kicking and
breaking their heads some day; something that is unavoidably in store for them.
In the Eocene Age -- even in its "very first part," the great cycle of the
fourth Race men, the Atlanteans -- had already reached its highest point, and
the great continent, the father of nearly all the present continents -- showed
the first symptoms of sinking -- a process that occupied it down to 11,446 years
ago, when its last island, that, translating its vernacular name, we may call
with propriety Poseidonis -- went down with a crash. By the bye, whoever
wrote the Review of Donnelly's Atlantis is right: Lemuria can no
more be confounded with the Atlantic Continent than Europe with America. Both
sunk and were drowned with their high civilizations and "gods," yet between the
two catastrophes, a short period of about 700,000 years elapsed; "Lemuria"
flourishing and ending her career just at about that trifling lapse of time
before the early part of the Eocene Age, since its race was the third.
Behold, the relics of that once great nation in some of the flat headed
aborigines of your Australia! No less right is the review in rejecting the kind
attempt of the author to people India and Egypt with the refuse of Atlantis. No
doubt your geologists are very learned; but why not bear in mind that, under the
continents explored and fathomed by them, in the bowels of which they have found
the "Eocene Age" and forced it to deliver them its secrets, there may be, hidden
deep in the fathomless, or rather unfathomed ocean beds, other, and far
older continents whose stratums have never been geologically explored; and that
they may some (lay upset entirely their present theories, thus illustrating the
simplicity and sublimity of truth as connected with inductive "generalization"
in opposition to their visionary conjectures. Why not admit -- true no one of
them has ever thought of it -- that our present continents, have --
like "Lemuria" and "Atlantis" -- been several times already, submerged
and had the time to reappear again, and bear their new groups of mankind and
civilization; and that, at the first great geological upheaval, at the next
cataclysm -- in the series of periodical cataclysms that occur from the
beginning to the end of every Round, -- our already autopsized
continents will go down, and the Lemurias and Atlantises come up again. Think of
the future geologists of the sixth and seventh races. Imagine them digging deep
in the bowels of
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what was Ceylon and Simla, and finding implements of the
Veddahs, or of the remote ancestor of the civilized Pahari -- every
object of the civilized portions of humanity that inhabited those regions having
been pulverized to dust by the great masses of travelling glaciers, -- during
the next glacial period -- imagine him finding only such rude implements as now
found among those savage tribes; and forthwith declaring that during that period
primitive man climbed and slept on the trees, and sucked the marrow out
of animal bones after breaking them -- as civilized Europeans no less than the
Veddahs will often do -- hence jumping to the conclusion that in the year 1882
A.D., mankind was composed of "man-like animals," black-faced, and whiskered,
"with prominent prognathous and large pointed canine teeth." True, a Grant Allen
of the sixth race, may be not so far from fact and truth in his conjecture that
during the "Simla period" -- these teeth were used in the combats of
the "males" for grass widows -- but then metaphors has very little to do with
anthropology and geology. Such is your Science. To return to your
questions.
Of course the 4th race had its periods of the highest civilization. Greek and
Roman and even Egyptian civilization are nothing compared to the civilizations
that began with the 3rd race. Those of the second were not savages but
they could not be called civilized. And now, reading one of my first letters on
the races (a question first touched by M.) pray, do not accuse either him or
myself of some new contradiction. Read it over and see, that it leaves out the
question of civilizations altogether and mentions but the degenerate remnants of
the fourth and third races, and gives you as a corroboration the latest
conclusions of your own Science. Do not regard an unavoidable incompleteness
as inconsistency. You now ask me a direct question, and, I answer it.
Greeks and Romans were small sub-races, and Egyptians part and parcel
of our own "Caucasian" stock. Look at the latter and at India. Having reached
the highest civilization and what is more: learning -- both went down.
Egypt as a distinct sub-race disappearing entirely (her Copts are a hybrid
remnant). India -- as one of the first and most powerful off-shoots of the
mother Race, and composed of a number of sub-races -- lasting to these times,
and struggling to take once more her place in history some day. That History
catches but a few stray, hazy glimpses of Egypt, some 12,000 years back; when,
having already reached the apex of its cycle thousands of years before, the
latter had begun going down. What does, or can it know of India 5,000
years ago, or of the Chaldees -- whom it confounds most charmingly with the
Assyrians, making of them one day "Akkadians," at another Turanians and what
not? We say then, that your History is entirely at sea.
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We are refused by the Journal of Science -- words repeated and
quoted by M.A. (Oxon) with a rapture worthy of a great medium -- any claim
whatever for "higher knowledge." Says the reviewer: "Suppose the Brothers were
to say 'point your telescope to such and such a spot in heavens, and you will
find a planet yet unknown to you; or dig into the earth.' . . . etc., and you
will find a mineral,' etc." Very fine, indeed, and suppose that was done, what
would be the result? Why a charge of plagiarism -- since everything of that
kind, every "planet and mineral" that exists in space or inside the earth, are
known and recorded in our books thousands of years ago; more; many a true
hypothesis was timidly brought forward by their own scientific men and as
constantly rejected by the majority with whose preconceptions it interfered.
Your intention is laudable but nothing that I may give you in answer will
ever be accepted from us. Whenever discovered that "it is verily so," the
discovery will be attributed to him who corroborated the evidence -- as in the
case of Copernicus and Galileo, the latter having availed himself but of the
Pythagorean MSS.
But to return to "civilizations." Do you know that the Chaldees were at the
apex of their Occult fame before what you term as the "bronze Age"?
That the "Sons of Ad" or the children of the Fire Mist preceded by hundreds of
centuries the Age of Iron, which was an old age already, when what you now call
the Historical Period -- probably because what is known of it is generally no
history but fiction -- had hardly begun. We hold -- but then what warrant can
you give the world that we are right? -- that far "greater civilizations than
our own have risen and decayed." It is not enough to say as some of your modern
writers do -- that an extinct civilization existed before Rome and Athens were
founded. We affirm that a series of civilizations existed before,
as well as after the Glacial Period, that they existed upon various points, of
the globe, reached the apex of glory and -- died. Every trace and memory had
been lost of the Assyrian and Phoenicean civilizations until discoveries began
to be made a few years ago. And now they open a new, though not by far one of
the earliest pages in the history of mankind. And yet how far back do those
civilizations go in comparison with the oldest? -- and even them, history is shy
to accept. Archaeology has sufficiently demonstrated that the memory of man
runs back vastly further than history has been willing to accept, and the sacred
records of once mighty nations preserved by their heirs are still more worthy of
trust. We speak of civilizations of the anti-glacial period; and (not only in the
minds of the vulgar and the profane but even in the opinion of the highly
learned geologist) the claim sounds preposterous. What would you say then to our
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affirmation that the Chinese -- I now speak of the inland, the true Chinaman,
not of the hybrid mixture between the fourth and the fifth Races now occupying
the throne -- the aborigines, who belong in their unallied nationality wholly to
the highest and last branch of the fourth Race, reached their highest
civilization when the fifth had hardly appeared in Asia, and that its first
off-shoot was yet a thing of the future. When was it? Calculate. You cannot
think that we, who have such tremendous odds against the acceptance of our
doctrine would deliberately go on inventing Races and sub-races (in the
opinion of Mr. Hume) were not they a matter of undeniable fact. The group of
islands off the Siberian coast discovered by Nordeneskjol of the "Vega" was
found strewn with fossils of horses, sheep, oxen, etc., among gigantic bones of
elephants, mammoths, rhinoceroses and other monsters belonging to periods when
man -- says your science -- had not yet made his appearance on earth. How came
horses and sheep to be found in company with the huge "ante-diluvians"? The
horse, we are taught in schools -- is quite a modern invention of nature, and
no man ever saw its pedactyl ancestor. The group of the Siberian
islands may give the lie to the comfortable theory. The region now locked in the
fetters of eternal winter uninhabited by man -- that most fragile of animals, --
will be very soon proved to have had not only a tropical climate -- something
your science knows and does not dispute, -- but having been likewise the seat of
one of the most ancient civilisations of that fourth race, whose highest relics
now we find in the degenerated Chinaman, and whose lowest are hopelessly (for
the profane scientist) intermixed with the remnants of the third. I told you
before now, that the highest people now on earth (spiritually) belong to the
first sub-race of the fifth root Race; and those are the Aryan
Asiatics; the highest race (physical intellectuality) is the last sub-race of
the fifth -- yourselves the white conquerors. The majority of mankind belongs to
the seventh sub-race of the fourth Root race, -- the above mentioned
Chinamen and their off-shoots and branchlets (Malayans, Mongolians, Tibetans,
Javanese, etc., etc., etc.) and remnants of other sub-races of the fourth -- and
the seventh sub-race of the third race. All these, fallen, degraded semblances
of humanity are the direct lineal descendants of highly civilized nations
neither the names nor memory of which have survived except in such books as
Popalvul and a few others unknown to Science.
(4) To the Miocene times. Everything comes in its appointed time and place in
the evolution of Rounds, otherwise it would be impossible for the best seer to
calculate the exact hour and year when such cataclysms great and small have to
occur. All an adept could do would be to predict an approximate time;
whereas now events that result in great geological changes may be predicted
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with
as mathematical a certainty as eclipses and other revolutions in space. The
sinking of Atlantis (the group of continents and isles) begun during the Miocene
period -- as certain of your continents are now observed to be
gradually sinking -- and it culminated -- first, in the final
disappearance of the largest continent an event coincident with the elevation of
the Alps; and second with that of the last of the fair Islands
mentioned by Plato. The Egyptian priests of Sais told his ancestor Solon, that
Atlantis (i.e. the only remaining large island) had perished 9,000 years before
their time. This was not a fancy date, since they had for milleniums preserved
most carefully their records. But then, as I say, they spoke but of the
"Poseidonis" and would not reveal even to the great Greek legislator their
secret chronology. As there are no geological reasons for doubting, but on the
contrary, a mass of evidence for accepting the tradition, Science has finally
accepted the existence of the great continent and Archipelago and thus
vindicated the truth of one more "fable." It now teaches, as you know that
Atlantis, or the remnants of it lingered down to post-tertiary times, its final
submergence occurring within the palaeozoic ages of American history! Well,
truth and fact ought to feel thankful even for such small favours in the
previous absence of any, for so many centuries. The deep sea explorations --
especially those of the Challenger have fully confirmed the reports of
geology and palaeontology. The great event -- the triumph of our "Sons of the
Fire Mist" the inhabitants of "Shambullah" (when yet an island in the
Central Asian Sea) over the selfish but not entirely wicked magicians
of Poseidonis occurred just 11,446 ago. Read in this connection the incomplete
and partially veiled tradition, in Isis, Volume I, p. 588-94, and
some things may become still plainer to you. The corroboration of tradition and
history, brought forward by Donnelly I find in the main correct; but you will
find all this and much more in Isis.
(5) It certainly does, and I have touched upon the subject long ago. In my
notes on Mr. Hume's MSS., "On God" -- that he kindly adds to our Philosophy,
something the latter had never contemplated before -- the subject is mentioned
abundantly. Has he refused you a look into it? For you -- I may enlarge my
explanations, but not before you have read what I say of the origin of good and
evil on those margins. Quite enough was said by me for our present purposes.
Strangely enough I found a European author -- the greatest materialist of his
times, Baron d'Holbach -- whose views coincide entirely with the views of our
philosophy. When reading his Essais sur la Nature, I might have
imagined I had our book of Kiu-ti before me. As a matter of course and of
temperament our Universal Pundit will try to catch at those
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views and pull every
argument to pieces. So far he only threatens me to alter his Preface
and not to publish the philosophy under his own name. Cuneus cuneum,
tradit: I begged him not to publish his essays at all.
M. thinks that for your purposes I better give you a few more details upon Atlantis since it is greatly connected with evil if not with its origin. In the forthcoming Theosophist you will find a note or two appended to Hume's translation of Eliphas Levi's Preface in connection with the lost continent. And now, since I am determined to make of the present answers a volume -- bear your cross with Christian fortitude and then, perhaps, after reading the whole you will ask for no more for some time to come. But what can I add to that already told? I am unable to give you purely scientific information since we can never agree entirely with Western conclusions; and that ours will be rejected as "unscientific." Yet both geology and palaeontology bear witness to much we have to say. Of course your Science is right in many of her generalities, but her premises are wrong, or at any rate -- very faulty. For instance she is right in saying that while the new America was forming the ancient Atlantis was sinking, and gradually washing away; but she is neither right in her given epochs nor in the calculations of the duration of that sinking. The latter -- is the future fate of your British Islands the first on the list of victims that have to be destroyed by fire (submarine volcanos) and water, France and other lands will follow suit. When they reappear again, the last seventh Sub-race of the sixth Root race of present mankind will be flourishing on "Lemuria" and "Atlantis" both of which will have reappeared also (their reappearance following immediately the disappearance of the present isles and continents), and very few seas and great waters will be found then on our globe, waters as well as land appearing and disappearing and shifting periodically and each in turn.
Trembling at the prospect of fresh charges of "contradictions" at some future
incomplete statement I rather explain what I mean by this. The approach of every
new "obscuration" is always signalled by cataclysms -- of either fire or water.
But, apart from this, every "Ring" or Root Race has to be cut in two, so to say,
by either one or the other. Thus, having reached the apex of its development and
glory the fourth Race -- the Atlanteans were destroyed by water; you
find now but their degenerated, fallen remnants, whose sub-races, nevertheless,
aye -- each of them, had its palmy days of glory and relative greatness. What
they are now -- you will be some day the law of cycles being one and immutable.
When your race -- the fifth -- will have reached at its zenith of physical
intellectuality, and developed the highest civilization (remember the
difference we make between material and
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spiritual
civilizations); unable to go any higher in its own cycle -- its progress towards
absolute evil will be arrested (as its predecessors the Lemurians and
Atlanteans, the men of the third and fourth races were arrested in their
progress toward the same) by one of such cataclysmic changes; its great
civilization destroyed, and all the sub-races of that race will be
found going down their respective cycles, after a short period of glory and
learning. See the remnants of the Atlanteans, -- the old Greeks and Romans (the
modern belong all to the fifth Race); see how great and how short, how
evanescent were their days of fame and glory! For, they were but sub-races of
the seven off-shoots of the "root race." No mother Race, any more than her
sub-races and off-shoots, is allowed by the one Reigning Law to trespass upon
the prerogatives of the Race or Sub-race that will follow it; least of all -- to
encroach upon the knowledge and powers in store for its successor. "Thou shalt
not eat of the fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil of the tree that is growing
for thy heirs" we may say with more right than would be willingly conceded us by
the Humes of your Sub-race. This "tree" is in our safe-keeping, entrusted to us
by the Dhyan Chohans, the protectors of our Race and the Trustees for those that
are coming. Try to understand the allegory, and to never lose sight of the hint
given you in my letter upon the Planetaries. *
* The letter in answer to yours, I believe, where
you question me about C.C.M., S.M. and Mrs. K.
At the beginning of each Round, when humanity reappears under quite
different conditions than those afforded for the birth of each new race and its
sub-races, a "Planetary" has to mix with these primitive men, and to refresh
their memories, and reveal to them the truths they knew during the preceding
Round. Hence the confused traditions about Jehovahs, Ormazds, Osirises, Brahms,
and the tutti quanti. But that happens only for the benefit of the
first Race. It is the duty of the latter to choose the fit recipients among
its sons, who are "set apart" to use a Biblical phrase -- as the vessels to
contain the whole stock of knowledge, to be divided among the
future races and generations until the close of that Round. Why should I say
more since you must understand my whole meaning; and that I dare
not reveal it in full. Every race had its adepts; and with every new race, we
are allowed to give them out as much of our knowledge as the men of that race
deserve it. The last seventh Race will have its Buddha as every one of its
predecessors had; but, its adepts will be far higher than any of the present
race, for among them will abide the future Planetary, the Dhyan Chohan whose
duty it will be to instruct or "refresh the memory" of the first race of the
fifth Round men after this planet's future obscuration.
En Passant, to show to you that not only were not the "races"
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invented by us, but that they are a cardinal dogma with the Lama Buddhists
and with all who study our esoteric doctrine, I send you an explanation on a
page or two in Rhys Davids "Buddhism," -- otherwise
incomprehensible, meaningless and absurd. It is written with the special
permission of the Chohan (my Master) and -- for your benefit. No
Orientalist has ever suspected the truths contained in it, and -- you are the
first Western man (outside Tibet) to whom it is now explained.
(6) What emerges at the end of all things is not only "pure and impersonal spirit," but the collective "personal" remembrances skimmed off every new fifth principle in the long series of being. And, if at the end of all things -- say in some million of millions years hence, Spirit will have to rest in its pure, impersonal non-existence, as the One or the absolute, still there must be "some good" in the cyclic process, since every purified Ego has the chance in the long interims between objective being upon the planets to exist as a Dhyan Chohan -- from the lowest "Deva-Chanee" to the highest Planetary, enjoying the fruits of its collective lives.
But what is "Spirit" pure and impersonal per se? Is it possible that
you should not have realized yet our meaning? why, such a Spirit is a
nonentity, a pure abstraction, an absolute blank to our senses -- even to the
most spiritual. It becomes something only in union with matter -- hence
it is always something since matter is infinite and indestructible and
non-existent without Spirit which, in matter is Life.
Separated from matter it becomes the absolute negation of life and
being, whereas matter is inseparable from it. Ask those who offer the
objection, whether they know anything of "life" and "consciousness" beyond what
they now feel on earth. What conception can they have -- unless natural born
seers -- of the state and consciousness of one's individuality after it has
separated itself from gross earthly body? What is the good of
the whole process of life on earth -- you may ask them, in your turn -- if, we
are as good as "pure" unconscious entities before birth, during sleep,
and, at the end of our career? Is not death, according to the teachings of
Science, followed by the same state of unconsciousness as the one before
birth? Does not life when it quits our body become as impersonal
as it was before it animated the foetus? Life, after all, -- the greatest
problem within the ken of human conception is a mystery that the greatest of
your men of Science will never solve. In order to be correctly comprehended, it
has to be studied in the entire series of its manifestations, otherwise it can
never be, not only fathomed, but even comprehended in its easiest form -- life,
as a state of being on this earth. It can never be grasped so long as
it is studied separately and apart from universal life. To solve the great
problem one
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has to become an occultist; to analyze and experience with it
personally, in all its phases, as life on earth, life beyond the limit of
physical death, mineral, vegetable, animal and spiritual life; life in
conjunction with concrete matter as well as life present in the imponderable
atom. Let them try and examine, or analyze life apart from organism, and what
remains of it? Simply a mode of motion; which, unless our doctrine of the
all-Pervading, infinite, omnipresent Life is accepted -- though it be accepted
on no better terms than a hypothesis only a little more reasonable than their
scientific hypotheses which are all absurd -- has to remain unsolved.
Shall they object? Well, we will answer them by using their own weapons. We will say that it is, and will remain for ever demonstrated that since motion is all-pervading and absolute rest inconceivable, that under whatever form or mask motion may appear, whether as light, heat, magnetism, chemical affinity or electricity -- all these must be but phases of One and the same universal omnipotent Force, a Proteus they bow to, as the Great "Unknown" -- (See Herbert Spencer) and we, simply call the "One Life" the "One Law" and the "One Element." The greatest, the most scientific minds on earth, have been keenly pressing forward toward a solution of the mystery, leaving no bye-path unexplored, no thread loose or weak in this darkest of labyrinths for them, and all had to come to the same conclusion -- that of the Occultists when given only partially -- namely, that life in its concrete manifestations is the legitimate result and consequence of chemical affinity; as to life in its abstract sense, life pure and simple -- well, they know no more of it to-day, than they knew in the incipient stage of their Royal Society. They only know that organisms in certain solutions previously free from life will spring up spontaneously (Pasteur and his biblical piety notwithstanding) -- owing to certain chemical compositions of such substances. If, as I hope, in a few years, I am entirely my own master -- I may have the pleasure of demonstrating to you on your own writing table that life as life is not only transformable into other aspects or phases of the all-pervading Force, but that, it can be actually infused into an artificial man. Frankenstein is a myth only so far as he is the hero of a mystic tale; in nature -- he is a possibility; and the physicists and physicians of the last sub-race of the sixth Race will inoculate life and revive corpses, as they now inoculate small-pox, and often less comely diseases. Spirit, life and matter, are not natural principles existing independently of each other, but the effects of combinations produced by eternal motion in Space; and they better learn it.
(7) Most undoubtedly I am so permitted. But then comes the most important
point: how far satisfactory will my answers appear -- even to you? That not
every new law brought to light
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is regarded as adding a link to the chain of
human knowledge is shown by the ill-grace with which every fact unwelcome for
some reasons to science, is received by its professors. Nevertheless,
whenever I can answer you -- I will try to do so, only hoping that
you will not send it as a contribution from my pen to the Journal
of Science.
(8) Most assuredly they have. Rain can be brought on in a small area of space
-- artificially and without any claim to miracle or superhuman powers, though
its secret is no property of mine that I should divulge it. I am now trying to
obtain permission to do so. We know of no phenomenon in nature entirely
unconnected with either magnetism or electricity -- since, where there are
motion, heat, friction, light, there magnetism and its alter ego
(according to our humble opinion) -- electricity will always appear, as
either cause or effect -- or rather both if we but fathom the manifestation to
its origin. All the phenomena of earth currents, terrestrial magnetism and
atmospheric electricity, are due to the fact that the earth is an electrified
conductor, whose potential is ever changing owing to its rotation and its annual
orbital motion, the successive cooling and heating of the air, the formation of
clouds and rain, storms and winds, etc. This you may perhaps, find in some text
book. But then Science would be unwilling to admit that all these changes are
due to akasic magnetism incessantly generating electric currents which
tend to restore the disturbed equilibrium. By directing the most powerful of
electric batteries, -- human frame electrified by a certain process, you can
stop rain on some given point by making "a hole in the rain cloud," as the
occultists term it. By using other strongly magnetized implements within, so to
say, an insulated area -- rain can be produced artificially. I regret my
inability to explain to you the process more clearly. You know the effects
produced by trees and plants on rain clouds; and how their strong magnetic
nature attracts and even feeds those clouds over the tops of the trees. Science
explains it otherwise, maybe. Well, I cannot help it, for such is our knowledge
and the fruits of milleniums of observations and experience. Were the present to
fall into the hands of Hume, he would be sure to remark that I am vindicating
the charge publicly brought by him against us: "Whenever unable to answer your
arguments (?) they (we) calmly reply that their (our) rules do not admit of this
or that." -- Charge notwithstanding, I am compelled to answer that since the
secret is not mine I cannot make of it a marketable commodity. Let some
physicists calculate the amount of heat required to vaporize a certain quantity
of water. Then, let them compute the quantity of rain needed to cover an area --
say, of one square mile to a depth of one inch. For this amount of
vaporization they will require, of course, an amount
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of heat that would be equal
to at least five million tons of coal. Now the amount of energy of heat that
would be equal to at least five million tons of coal. Now the amount of energy
of which this consumption of heat would be the equivalent corresponds (as any
mathematician could tell you) -- to that which would be required to raise a
weight of upwards of ten million tons, one mile high. How can one man
generate such amount of heat and energy? Preposterous, absurd! -- we are all
lunatics, and you who listen to us will be placed in the same category if you
ever venture to repeat this proposition. Yet I say, that one man
alone can do it, and very easily if he is but acquainted with a certain "physico-spiritual"
lever in himself, far more powerful than that of Archimedes. Even simple
muscular contraction is always accompanied with electric and magnetic phenomena,
and there is the strongest connection between the magnetism of the earth, the
changes of weather and man, who is the best barometer living, if he but
knew to decipher it properly; again, the state of the sky can always be
ascertained by the variations shown by magnetic instruments. It is now several
years that I had an opportunity of reading the deductions of science upon this
subject; therefore, unless I go to the trouble of catching up what I may have
remained ignorant of, I do not know the latest conclusions of Science. But with
us, it is an established fact that it is the earth's magnetism that produces
wind, storms, and rain. What science seems to know of it, is but secondary
symptoms always induced by that magnetism and she may very soon find out her
present errors. Earth's magnetic attraction of meteoric dust, and the direct
influence of the latter upon the sudden changes of temperature especially in the
matter of heat and cold, is not a settled question to the present day, I
believe. 1
1 Dr. Phipson in 1867 and Cowper Ranyard in 1879 both urged the
theory but it was rejected then.
It was doubted whether the fact of our earth passing through
a region of space in which there are more or less of meteoric masses has any
bearing upon the height of our atmosphere being increased or decreased, or even
upon the state of weather. But we think we could easily prove it; and since they
accept the fact that the relative distribution and proportion of land and water
on our globe may be due to the great accumulation upon it of meteoric
dust; snow -- especially in our northern regions -- being full of meteoric iron
and magnetic particles; and deposits of the latter being found even at the
bottom of seas and oceans, I wonder how Science has not hitherto understood that
every atmospheric change and disturbance was due to the combined magnetism of
the two great masses between which our atmosphere is compressed! I call this
meteoric dust a "mass" for it is really one. High above our earth's surface the
air is impregnated and space filled with magnetic, or meteoric dust,
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which does not even belong to our solar system. Science having luckily
discovered, that, as our earth with all the other planets is carried along
through space, it receives a greater proportion of that dust matter on its
northern than on its southern hemisphere, knows that to this are due the
preponderating number of the continents in the former hemisphere, and the
greater abundance of snow and moisture. Millions of such meteors and even of the
finest particles reach us yearly and daily and all our temple knives are made of
this "heavenly" iron, which reaches us without having undergone any change --
the magnetism of the earth keeping them in cohesion. Gaseous matter is
continually added to our atmosphere from the never ceasing fall of meteoric
strongly magnetic matter, and yet it seems with them still an open question
whether magnetic conditions have anything to do with the precipitation
of rain or not! I do not know of any "set of motions established by pressures,
expansions, etc., due in the first instance to solar energy." Science
makes too much and too little at the same time of "solar energy" and even of the
Sun itself; and the Sun has nothing to do whatever with rain and very little
with heat. I was under the impression that science was aware that the glacial
periods as well as those periods when temperature is "like that of the
carboniferous age" -- are due to the decrease and increase or rather to the
expansion of our atmosphere, which expansion is itself due to the same meteoric
presence? At any rate, we all know, that the heat that the earth
receives by radiation from the sun is at the utmost one third if not
less of the amount received by her directly from the meteors.
(9) Call it a chromosphere or atmosphere, it can be called neither; for it is
simply the magnetic and ever present aura of the sun, seen by astronomers
only for a brief few moments during the eclipse and by some of our chelas
-- whenever they like -- of course while in a certain induced state. A
counterpart of what the astronomers call the red flames in the "corona" may be
seen in Reichenbach's crystals or in any other strongly magnetic body. The head
of a man -- in a strong ecstatic condition, when all the electricity of his
system is centred around the brain, will represent -- especially in darkness --
a perfect simile of the Sun during such periods. The first artist who drew the
aureoles about the heads of his Gods and Saints, was not inspired, but
represented it on the authority of temple pictures and traditions of the
sanctuary and the chambers of initiation where such phenomena took place. The
closer to the head or to the aura-emitting body -- the stronger and the more
effulgent the emanation (due to hydrogen science tells us, in the case of the
flames); hence -- the irregular red flames around the Sun or the "inner
corona." The fact that these are not always present in equal quantity shows only
the constant fluctua-
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tions of the magnetic matter and its energy, upon which also
depend the variety and number of spots. During periods of magnetic inertia the
spots disappear, or rather remain invisible. The further the emanation shoots
out the more it loses in intensity, until gradually subsiding it fades out;
hence -- the "outer corona," its rayed shape being due entirely to the latter
phenomenon whose effulgence proceeds from the magnetic nature of the matter and
the electric energy and not at all from intensely hot particles as asserted by
some astronomers. All this is terribly unscientific, nevertheless a fact,
to which, I may add another by reminding you that the Sun we see is not at
all the central planet of our little Universe, but only its veil or it's
reflection. Science has tremendous odds against studying that planet which
luckily for us we have not: foremost of all -- the constant tremours of our
atmosphere which prevent them from judging correctly the little they do see.
This impediment was never in the way of the ancient Chaldee and Egyptian
astronomers; nor is it an obstacle to us, for we have means of arresting, or
counteracting such tremours -- acquainted as we are with all the akasic
conditions. No more than the rain secret, would this secret --
supposing we do divulge it -- be of any practical use to your men of Science
unless they become Occultists and sacrifice long years to the acquirement of
powers. Only fancy a Huxley or a Tyndall studying Yog-vidya! hence the
many mistakes into which they fall and the conflicting hypotheses of your best
authorities. For instance: the Sun is full of iron vapours -- a fact that was
demonstrated by the spectroscope showing that the light of the corona consisted
largely of a line in the green part of the spectrum, very nearly coinciding with
an iron line. Yet Professors Young and Lockyer rejected that, under the witty
pretext, if I remember, that, if the corona were composed of minute particles
like a dust cloud (and it is this that we call "magnetic matter") these
particles would (1) fall upon the sun's body, (2) comets were known to pass
through this vapour without any visible effect on them; (3) Professor Young's
spectroscope showed that the coronal line was not identical with the iron one,
etc. Why they should call those objections "scientific" is more than we can
tell.
(1) The reason why the particles -- since they call them so -- do not
fall upon the sun's body, is self-evident. There are forces co-existent with
gravitation of which they know nothing; besides that other fact that there is no
gravitation properly speaking; only attraction and repulsion. (2) How could
comets be affected by the said passage since their "passing through" is simply
an optical illusion; they could not pass within the area of attraction without
being immediately annihilated by that force, of which no vril can give
an adequate idea, since there can be nothing on earth
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that could be compared
with it. Passing as the comets do through a "reflection" no wonder that the said
vapour has "no visible effect on these light bodies." (3) The coronal
line may not seem identical through the best "grating spectroscope,"
nevertheless, the corona contains iron as well as other vapours. To
tell you of what it does consist is idle, since I am unable to translate the
words we use for it, and that no such matter exists (not in our planetary
system, at any rate) -- but in the sun. The fact is, that what you call the Sun
is simply the reflection of the huge "store-house" of our System wherein
all its
forces are generated and preserved; the Sun being the heart and brain of our
pigmy Universe, we might compare its faculae -- those millions of
small, intensely brilliant bodies of which the Sun's surface away from the spots
is made up -- with the blood corpuscles of that luminary -- though some of them
as correctly conjectured by science are as large as Europe. Those blood
corpuscles are the electric and magnetic matter in its sixth and seventh state.
What are those long white filaments twisted like so many ropes, of which the
penumbra of the Sun is made up? What -- the central part that is seen like
a huge flame ending in fiery spires, and the transparent clouds, or rather
vapours formed of delicate threads of silvery light, that hangs over those
flames -- what -- but magneto-electric aura -- the phlogiston of the
Sun? Science may go on speculating for ever, yet so long as she does not
renounce two or three of her cardinal errors she will find herself groping for
ever in the dark. Some of her greatest misconceptions are found in her limited
notions on the law of gravitation; her denial that matter may be
imponderable; her newly invented term "force" and the absurd and tacitly
accepted idea, that force is capable of existing per se, or of acting
any more than life, outside, independent of, or in any other wise than
through matter: in other words that force is anything but matter
in one of her highest states, -- the last three on the ascending scale
being denied because only science knows nothing of them; and her utter ignorance
of the universal Proteus, its functions and importance in the economy of nature
-- magnetism and electricity. Tell Science that even in those days of the
decline of the Roman Empire, when the tatooed Britisher used to offer to the
Emperor Claudius his nazzur of "electron" in the shape of a string of
amber beads that even then, there were yet men remaining aloof from the immoral
masses, who knew more of electricity and magnetism than they, the men of
science, do now, and science will laugh at you as bitterly as she now does over
your kind dedication to me. Verily, when your astronomers speaking of
sun-matter, term those lights and flames as "clouds of vapour" and "gases
unknown to science" (rather!) -- chased by mighty whirlwinds and cyclones --
whereas we know it to be simply
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magnetic matter in its usual state of activity
-- we feel inclined to smile at the expressions. Can one imagine the "Sun's
fires fed with purely mineral matter" -- with meteorites highly charged
with hydrogen giving the "Sun a far-reaching atmosphere of ignited gas"? We
know that the invisible Sun is composed of that which has
neither name, nor can it be compared to anything known by your science -- on
earth; and that its "reflection" contains still less of anything like "gases,"
mineral matter, or fire, though even we when treating of it in your
civilized tongue are compelled to use such expressions as "vapour" and "magnetic
matter." To close the subject, the coronal changes have no effect upon the
earth's climate, though spots have -- and Professor N. Lockyer is
mostly wrong in his deductions. The Sun is neither a solid nor a
liquid, nor yet a gaseous globe; but a gigantic ball of electro-magnetic
Forces, the store-house of universal life and motion, from
which the latter pulsate in all directions, feeding the smallest atom as the
greatest genius with the same material unto the end of the Maha Yug.
(10) I believe not. The stars are distant from us, at least 500,000 times as
far as the Sun and some as many times more. The strong accumulation of meteoric
matter and the atmospheric tremours are always in the way. If your astronomers
could climb on the height of that meteoric dust, with their telescopes
and havanas they might trust more than they can now in their
photometers. How can they? Neither the real degree of intensity of that light
can be known on earth -- hence no trustworthy basis for calculating magnitudes
and distances can be had, -- nor have they hitherto made sure in a single
instance (except in the matter of one star in Cassiopeia) which stars shine by
reflected and which by their own light. The working of the best double star
photometers is deceptive. Of this I have made sure, so far back as in the spring
of 1878 while watching the observations made through a Pickering photometer. The
discrepancy in the observations upon a star (near Gamma Ceti) amounted at times
to half a magnitude. No planets but one have hitherto been discovered outside of
the solar system, with all their photometers, while we know with the sole help
of our spiritual naked eye a number of them; every completely
matured Sun-star having like in our own system several companion planets in
fact. The famous "polarization of light" test is as about trustworthy as all
others. Of course, the mere fact of their starting from a false premise cannot
vitiate either their conclusions or astronomical prophecies, since both are
mathematically correct in their mutual relations, and that it answers the given
object. The Chaldees nor yet our old Rishis had either your telescopes or
photometers; and yet their astronomical predictions were faultless, the
mistakes, very slight ones in
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truth -- fathered upon them by their modern rivals
-- proceeding from the mistakes of the latter.
You must not complain of my too long answers to your very short questions, since I answer you for your instruction as a student of occultism, my "lay" chela, and not at all with a view of answering the Journal of Science. I am no man of science with regard to, or in connection with modern learning. My knowledge of your Western Sciences is very limited in fact; and you will please bear in mind that all my answers are based upon, and derived from, our Eastern occult doctrines regardless of their agreement or disagreement with those of exact science. Hence, I say: --
"The sun's surface emits per square mile, as much light (in proportion)
as can be emitted from any body." But what can you mean in this case by "light"?
The latter is not an independent principle; and, I rejoiced at the introduction,
with a view to facilitate means of observation -- of the "diffraction spectrum;"
since by abolishing all these imaginary independent existences, such as -- heat,
actinism, light, etc., it rendered to Occult Science the greatest service, by
vindicating in the eyes of her modern sister our very ancient theory that every
phenomenon being but the effect of the diversified motions of what we call
Akasha (not your ether) there was in fact, but one element, the causative
Principle of all. But since your question is asked with a view to settling a
disputed point in modern science I will try to answer it in the clearest way I
can. I say then, no, and will give you my reasons why. They cannot know it, for
the simple reason that heretofore they have in reality found no sure means of
measuring the velocity of light. The experiments made by Fizean and Corun known
as the two best investigators of light in the world of science, notwithstanding
the general satisfaction at the results obtained, are not a trustworthy data
neither in respect to the velocity with which sunlight travels nor to its
quantity. The methods adopted by both these Frenchmen are yielding correct
results (at any rate approximately correct, since there is a variation
of 227 miles per second between the result of the observations of both
experimenters albeit made with the same apparatus) -- only as regards the
velocity of light between our earth and the upper regions of its atmosphere.
Their toothed wheel, revolving at a known velocity records, of course,
the strong ray of light which passes through one of the niches of the wheel, and
then has its point of light obscured whenever a tooth passes -- accurately
enough. The instrument is very ingenious and can hardly fail to give splendid
results on a journey of a few thousand metres there and back; there being
between the Paris observatory and its fortifications no atmosphere, no meteoric
masses to impede the ray's progress; and that ray finding quite a different
quality
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of a medium to travel upon than the ether of Space, the ether between
the Sun and the meteoric continent above our heads, the velocity of
light will of course show some 185,000 and odd miles per second, and your
physicists shout "Eureka"! Nor do any of the other devices contrived by science
to measure that velocity since 1887 answer any better. All they can say is that
their calculations are so far correct. Could they measure light
above our atmosphere they would soon find that they were wrong.
(11) It is -- so far; but is fast changing. Your science has a theory, I believe, that if the earth were suddenly placed in extremely cold regions -- for instance where it would exchange places with Jupiter -- all our seas and rivers would be suddenly transformed into solid mountains; the air, -- or rather a portion of the aeriform substances which compose it -- would be metamorphosed from their state of invisible fluid owing to the absence of heat into liquids (which now exist on Jupiter, but of which men have no idea on earth). Realize, or try to imagine the -- reverse condition, and it will be that of Jupiter at the present moment.
The whole of our system is imperceptibly shifting its position in space. The
relative distance between planets remaining ever the same, and being in no wise
affected by the displacement of the whole system; and the distance between the
latter and the stars and other suns being so incommensurable as to produce but
little if any perceptible change for centuries and milleniums to come; -- no
astronomer will perceive it telescopically, until Jupiter and some
other planets, whose little luminous points hide now from our sight millions
upon millions of stars (all but some 5000 or 6000) -- will suddenly let us have
a peep at a few of the Raja-Suns they are now hiding. There is such a
king-star right behind Jupiter, that no mortal physical eye has ever seen during
this, our Round. Could it be so perceived it would appear, through the best
telescope with a power of multiplying its diameter ten thousand times, -- still
a small dimensionless point, thrown into the shadow by the brightness of any
planet; nevertheless -- this world is thousands of times larger than Jupiter.
The violent disturbance of its atmosphere and even its red spot that so
intrigues science lately, are due -- (1) to that shifting and (2) to the
influence of that Raja-Star. In its present position in space imperceptibly
small though it be -- the metallic substances of which it is mainly composed are
expanding and gradually transforming themselves into aeriform fluids -- the
state of our own earth and its six sister globes before the first Round -- and
becoming part of its atmosphere. Draw your inferences and deductions from this,
my dear "lay" chela, but beware lest in doing so you sacrifice your humble
instructor and the occult doctrine itself, on the altar of your wrathful Goddess
-- modern science.
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(12) I am afraid not much, since our Sun is but a reflection. The only great
truth uttered by Siemens is that inter-stellar space is filled with highly
attenuated matter, such as may be put in air vacuum tubes, and which stretches
from planet to planet and from star to star. But this truth has no bearing upon
his main facts. The sun gives all and takes back nothing from
its system. The sun gathers nothing "at the poles" -- which are always free even
from the famous "red flames" at all times, not only during the eclipses. How is
it that with their powerful telescopes they have failed to perceive any such
"gathering" since their glasses show them even the "superlatively fleecy clouds"
on the photosphere? Nothing can reach the sun from without the
boundaries of its own system in the shape of such gross matter as
"attenuated gases." Every bit of matter in all its seven states is
necessary to the vitality of the various and numberless systems -- worlds in
formation, suns awakening anew to life, etc., and they have none to spare even
for their best neighbours and next of kin. They are mothers, not stepmothers,
and would not take away one crumb from the nutrition of their children. The
latest theory of radiant energy which shows that there is no such thing in
nature, properly speaking, as chemical light, or heat ray is the only
approximately correct one. For indeed, there is but one thing -- radiant energy
which is inexhaustible and knows neither increase nor decrease and will
go on with its self-generating work to the end of the Solar manvantara. The
absorption of Solar Forces by the earth is tremendous; yet it is, or may be
demonstrated that the latter receives hardly 25 per cent. of the chemical power
of its rays, for these are despoiled of 75 per cent. during their vertical
passage through the atmosphere at the moment they reach the outer boundary "of
the aerial ocean." And even those rays lose about 20 per cent. in illuminating
and caloric power -- we are told. What with such a waste must then be
the recuperative power of our Father-Mother Sun? Yes; call it "Radiant Energy"
if you will: we call it Life -- all-pervading, omnipresent life, ever at work in
its great laboratory -- the Sun.
(13) None can ever be given by your men of Science, whose "bumptiousness"
makes them declare that only to those for whom the word magnetism is a
mysterious agent the supposition that the Sun is a huge magnet can account for
the production by that body of light, heat and the causes of magnetic variations
as perceived on our earth. They are determined to ignore and thus reject the
theory suggested to them by Jenkins of the R.A.S. of the existence of strong
magnetic poles above the surface of the earth. But the theory, is the
correct one nevertheless, and one of these poles revolves around the north pole
in a periodical cycle of several hundred years. Halley and Handsteen -- besides
Jenkins
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-- were the only scientific men that ever suspected it. Your question is
again answered by reminding you of another exploded supposition.
Jenkins did his best some three years ago to prove that it is the north end of
the compass needle that is the true north pole, and not the reverse as the
current scientific theory maintains. He was informed that the locality in
Boothia where Sir James Ross located the earth's north magnetic pole, was purely
imaginary: it is not there. If he (and we) are wrong, then the
magnetic theory that like poles repel and unlike poles attract, must also be
declared a fallacy; since if the north end of the dipping needle is a south
pole then its pointing to the ground in Boothia -- as you call it --
must be due to attraction? And if there is anything there to attract it,
why is it that the needle in London is attracted neither to the ground in
Boothia nor to the earth's centre? As very correctly argued, if the north pole
of the needle pointed almost perpendicularly to the ground in Boothia, it is
simply because it was repelled by the true north magnetic pole when Sir J. Ross
was there about half a century ago.
No; our "Lordships" have nothing to do with the inertia of the needle. It is due to the presence of certain metals in fusion in that locality. Increase of temperature diminishes magnetic attraction, and a sufficiently high temperature destroys it often altogether. The temperature I am speaking of is, in the present case rather an aura, an emanation than anything science knows of. Of course, this explanation will never hold water with the present knowledge of science. But we can wait and see. Study magnetism with the help of occult doctrines, and then that which now will appear incomprehensible, absurd in the light of physical science, will become all clear.
(14) They must be. Not all of the Intra-Mercurial planets, nor yet those in
the orbit of Neptune are yet discovered, though they are strongly suspected. We
know that such exist and where they exist; and that there are
innumerable planets "burnt out" they say, -- in obscuration we say; --
planets in formation and not yet luminous, etc. But then "we know" is of little
use to science, when the Spiritualists will not admit our knowledge. Edison's
tasimeter adjusted to its utmost degree of sensitiveness and attached to a large
telescope may be of great use when perfected. When so attached the "tasimeter"
will afford the possibility not only to measure the heat of the remotest of
visible stars, but to detect by their invisible radiations stars that are unseen
and otherwise undetectable, hence planets also. The discoverer, an F.T.S., a
good deal protected by M. thinks that if, at any point in a blank space of
heavens -- a space that appears blank even through a telescope of the highest
power -- the tasimeter indicates an accesion of temperature and does so
invariably, this
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will be a regular proof that the instrument is in range with
the stellar body either non-luminous or so distant as to be beyond the reach of
telescopic vision. His tasimeter, he says, "is affected by a wider
range of etheric undulations than the eye can take cognizance of." Science will
hear sounds from certain planets before she sees them. This is
a prophecy. Unfortunately I am not a Planet, -- not even a "planetary."
Otherwise I would advise you to get a tasimeter from him and thus avoid
me the trouble of writing to you. I would manage then to find myself "in range"
with you.
(15) No, good friend; I am not as indiscreet as all that, I left you simply to your own reminiscences. Every mortal creature, even the less favoured by Fortune, has such moments of relative happiness at some time of his life. Why shouldn't you?
Yes, it was an X quantity I referred to.
(16) It is a widely spread belief among all the Hindus that a person's future pre-natal state and birth are moulded by the last desire he may have at the time of death. But this last desire, they say, necessarily hinges on to the shape which the person may have given to his desires, passions, etc., during his past life. It is for this very reason, viz. -- that our last desire may not be unfavourable to our future progress -- that we have to watch our actions and control our passions and desires throughout our whole earthly career.
(17) It cannot be otherwise. The experience of dying men -- by
drowning and other accidents -- brought back to life, has corroborated our
doctrine in almost every case. Such thoughts are involuntary and we
have no more control over them than we would over the eye's retina to prevent it
perceiving that colour which affects it most. At the last moment, the whole life
is reflected in our memory and emerges from all the forgotten nooks and corners
picture after picture, one event after the other. The dying brain dislodges
memory with a strong supreme impulse, and memory restores faithfully
every impression entrusted to it during the period of the brain's activity. That
impression and thought which was the strongest naturally becomes the most vivid
and survives so to say all the rest which now vanish and disappear for ever, to
reappear but in Deva Chan. 1
1 Good gracious! had I forgotten in my hurry to add the last five
words, would not I have caught it as a charge of flat
contradiction!
No man dies insane or unconscious -- as some physiologists assert. Even a
madman, or one in a fit of delirium, tremens will have his instant
of perfect lucidity at the moment of death, though unable to say so to those
present. The man may often appear dead. Yet from the last pulsation, from and
between the last throbbing of his heart and the moment when the last spark of
animal heat
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leaves the body -- the brain thinks and the Ego
lives over in those few brief seconds his whole life over again. Speak in
whispers, ye, who assist at a death-bed and find yourselves in the solemn
presence of Death. Especially have you to keep quiet just after Death has laid
her clammy hand upon the body. Speak in whispers, I say, lest you disturb the
quiet ripple of thought, and hinder the busy work of the Past casting on its
reflection upon the Veil of the Future.
(18) Yes; the "full" remembrance of our lives (collective lives) will return back at the end of all the seven Rounds, at the threshold of the long, long Nirvana that awaits us after we leave Globe Z. At the end of isolated Rounds, we remember but the sum total of our last impressions, those we had selected, or that have rather forced themselves upon us and followed us in Deva Chan. Those are all "probationary" lives with large indulgences and new trials afforded us with every new life. But at the close of the minor cycle, after the completion of all the seven Rounds, there awaits us no other mercy but the cup of good deeds, of merit, outweighing that of evil deeds and demerit in the scales of Retributive Justice. Bad, irretrievably bad must be that Ego that yields no mite from its fifth Principle, and has to be annihilated, to disappear in the Eighth Sphere. A mite, as I say, collected from the Personal Ego suffices to save him from the dreary Fate. Not so after the completion of the great cycle: either a long Nirvana of Bliss (unconscious though it be in the, and according to, your crude conceptions); after which -- life as a Dhyan Chohan for a whole Manvantara, or else "Avitchi Nirvana" and a Manvantara of misery and Horror as a ---- you must not hear the word nor I -- pronounce or write it. But "those" have nought to do with the mortals who pass through the seven spheres. The collective Karma of a future Planetary is as lovely as the collective Karma of a ---- is terrible. Enough. I have said too much already.
(19) Verily so. Until the struggle between the higher and middle duad begins -- (with the exception of suicides who are not dead but have only killed their physical triad, and whose Elemental parasites, therefore, are not naturally separated from the Ego as in real death) -- until that struggle, I say, has not begun and ended, no shell can realize its position. When the sixth and seventh principles are gone, carrying off with them the finer, spiritual portions of that, which once was the personal consciousness of the fifth, then only does the shell gradually develop a kind of hazy consciousness of its own from what remains in the shadow of personality. No contradiction here, my dear friend, -- only haziness in your own perceptions.
(20) All that which pertains to the materio-psychological attri-
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butes and
sensations of the five lower skandhas; all that which will be thrown off as a
refuse by the newly born Ego in the Deva Chan, as unworthy of, and not
sufficiently related to the purely spiritual perceptions, emotions and
feelings of the sixth, strengthened, and so to say, cemented by a
portion of the fifth, that portion which is necessary in the devachan for the
retention of a divine spiritualized notion of the "I" in the Monad --
which would otherwise, have no consciousness in relation to object and subject
at all -- all this "becomes extinct for ever": namely at the moment of
physical death, to return once more, marshalling before the eye of the new Ego
at the threshold of Deva Chan and to be rejected by It. It will return for the
third time fully at the end of the minor cycle, after the
completion of the seven Rounds when the sum total of collective
existences is weighed -- "merit" -- in one cup, "demerit" in the other cup of
the scales. But in that individual, in the Ego -- "good, bad, or indifferent" in
the isolated personality, -- consciousness leaves as suddenly as "the
flame leaves the wick." Blow out your candle, good friend. The flame has left
that candle "for ever"; but are the particles that moved, their motion
producing the objective flame annihilated or dispersed for all that?
Never. Relight the candle and the same particles drawn by mutual
affinity will return to the wick. Place a long row of candles on your table.
Light one and blow it out; then light the other and do the same; a third and
fourth, and so on. The same matter, the same gaseous particles -- representing
in our case the Karma of the personality -- will be called forth by the
conditions given them by your match, to produce a new luminosity; but can we say
that candle No. 1 has not had its flame extinct for ever? Not even in the case
of the "failures of nature," of the immediate reincarnation of children
and congenital idiots, etc., that so provoked the wrath of C. C. M., can we call
them the identical ex-personalities; though the whole of the same
life-principle and identically the same Manas (fifth principle) re-enters
a new body and may be truly called a "reincarnation of the personality"
-- whereas, in the rebirth of the Egos from deva-Chans and avitchis
into Karmic life it is only the spiritual attributes of the Monad and its
Buddhi that are reborn. All we can say of the reincarnated "failures" is, that
they are the reincarnated Manas, the fifth principle of Mr. Smith or
Miss Grey, but not certainly that these are the reincarnations of Mr. S. and
Miss G. Therefore, the explanation, clear and concise (though perhaps less
literary than you might make it) given to C. C. M. in the Theosophist
in answer to his spiteful hit in Light, is not only correct but
candid also; and both yourself and C. C. M. were unjust to Upasika and even
to myself who told her what to write; since even you mistook my wail
and lament at the confused and tor-
p.173
tured explanations in Isis (for
its incompleteness no one but we, her inspirers are responsible) and my
complaint of having had to exercise all my "ingenuity" to make the thing plain,
for an avowal of ingeniousness in the sense of cunning and craft,
whereas ingenuousness -- a sincere desire (though very difficult of
realization) to mend and clear up the misconception -- was meant by me. I do not
know of anything since the very beginning of our correspondence that displeased
the Chohan so much as that. But we must not return to the subject
again.
But what is then "the nature of the remembrance and self-consciousness of the
shell?" you ask. As I said in your note -- no better than a reflected or
borrowed light. "Memory" is one thing, and "perceptive faculties" quite another.
A madman may remember very clearly some portions of his past life; yet he is
unable to perceive anything in its true light for the higher portion of his
Manas and his Buddhi are paralysed in him, have left him. Could an
animal -- a dog, for instance -- speak, he would prove you that his memory in
direct relation to his canine personality, is as fresh as yours; nevertheless
his memory and instinct cannot be called "perceptive faculties." A dog remembers
that his master thrashed him when the latter gets hold of his stick -- at all
other times he has no remembrance of it. Thus with a shell; once in the aura of
a medium, all he perceives through the borrowed organs of the medium and of
those in magnetic sympathy with the latter, he will perceive very clearly -- but
not further than what the shell can find in the perceptive
faculties and memories of circle and medium -- hence often the rational
and at times highly intelligent answers; hence also a complete oblivion of
things known to all but that medium and circle. The shell of a highly
intelligent, learned, but utterly unspiritual man who died natural death, will
last longer and the shadow of his own memory helping -- that shadow
which is the refuse of the sixth principle left in the fifth -- he may deliver
discourses through trance speakers and repeat parrot-like that which he knew of
and thought much over it, during his life-time. But find me one
single instance in the annals of Spiritualism where a returning shell of a
Faraday or a Brewster (for even they were made to fall into the trap of
mediumistic attraction) said one word more than it knew during its life-time.
Where is that scientific shell, that ever gave evidence of that, which is
claimed on behalf of the "disembodied Spirit" -- namely, that a free
Soul, the Spirit disenthralled from its body's fetters perceives and sees that
which is concealed from living mortal eyes? Challenge the Spiritualists
fearlessly, I say! Defy the best, the most reliable of mediums -- Stainton Moses
for one -- to give you through that high disembodied shell, that he mistakes for
the "Imperator" of the
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early days of his mediumship, to tell you what you will
have hidden in your box, if S. M. does not know it; or to repeat to you a line
from a Sanskrit manuscript unknown to his medium, or anything of that kind.
Prohpudor! Spirits they call them? Spirits with personal
remembrances? As well call personal remembrances the sentences screeched out by
a parrot. Why don't you ask C. C. M. to test + ? Why not settle his and your mind
at rest by suggesting to him to ask a friend or an acquaintance unknown
to S. M. -- to select an object the nature of which will remain in its turn
unknown to C. C. M., and then see whether + will be able to name that object --
something possible even to a good clairvoyant. Let the "Spirit" of Zollner --
now that he is in the "fourth dimension of space," and has put up an appearance
already with several mediums -- tell them the last word of his discovery,
complete his astro-physical philosophy. No; Zollner when lecturing through an
intelligent medium, surrounded with persons who read his works, are interested
in them -- will repeat on various tones that which is known to others (not even
that which he alone knew, most probably), the credulous, ignorant
public confounding the post-hoc with the propter-hoc and
firmly convinced of the Spirit's identity. Indeed, it will be worth
your while to stimulate investigation in this direction. Yes; personal
consciousness does leave everyone at death; and when even the centre of memory
is re-established in the shell, it will remember and speak out its recollections
but through the brain of some living human being. Hence --
(21) -- A more or less complete, still dim recollection of its personality, and of its purely physical life. As in the cases of complete insanity the final severance of the two higher duads (7th 6th and 5th 4th) at the moment of the former going into gestation, digs an impassable gulf between the two. It is not even a portion of the fifth that is carried away -- least of all 2 1/2 principles as Mr. Hume crudely puts it in his Fragments that go into Deva Chan leaving but l 1/2 principles behind. The Manas shorn of its finest attributes, becomes like a flower from which all the aroma has suddenly departed, a rose crushed, and having been made to yield all its oil for the attar manufacture purposes; what is left behind is but the smell of decaying grass, earth and rottenness.
(a) Question the second is sufficiently answered, I believe. (Your second
para.) The Spiritual Ego goes on evolving personalities, in which "the
sense of identity" is very complete while living. After their
separation from the physical Ego, that sense returns very dim, and
belongs wholly to the recollections of the physical man. The shell may
be a perfect Sinnett when wholly engrossed in a game of cards at his club, and
when either losing or winning a large sum of money -- or a Babu Smut Murky Dass
p.175
trying to cheat his principal out of a sum of rupees. In both cases -- ex-editor
and Babu will -- as shells, remind anyone who will have the privilege of
enjoying an hour's chat with the illustrious dis-embodied angels, more of the
inmates of a lunatic asylum made to play parts in private theatricals as means
of hygienic recreation, than of the Caesars and Hamlets they would represent.
The slightest shock will throw them off the track and send them off raving.
(b) An error. A. P. Sinnett is not "an absolutely new invention." He is the child and creation of his antecedent personal self; the Karmic progeny for all he knows, of Nonius Asprena, Consul of the Emperor Domitian -- (94 A.D.) together with Arricinius Clementus, and friend of the Flamen Dealis of that day (the high priest of Jupiter and chief of the Flamenes) or of that Flamens himself -- which would account for A. P. Sinnett's suddenly developed love for mysticism. A. P. S. -- the friend and brother of K. H. will go to Deva Chan; and A. P. S., the Editor and the lawn-tennis man; the Don Juan, in a mild way, in the palmy days of "Saints, Sinners and Sceneries," identifying himself by mentioning a usually covered mole or scar, -- will, perhaps, be abusing the Babus through a medium to some old friend in California or London.
(c) It will find "enough decent material" and to spare. A few years of Theosophy will furnish it.
(d) Perfectly correctly defined.
(e) As much as there is of the personality -- in A. P. S.'s reflection in the looking glass -- of the real, living A. P. S.
(f) The Spiritual Ego will not think of the A. P. S. the shell, any more than it will think of the last suit of clothes it wore; nor will it be conscious that the individuality is gone, since that only individuality and Spiritual personality it will then behold in itself alone. Nosce te ipsum is a direct command of the oracle to the Spiritual monad in Deva Chan; and the "heresy of Individuality" is a doctrine propounded by Tathagatha with an eye to the Shell. The latter whose bumptiousness is as proverbial as that of the medium when reminded that it is A. P. S. -- will echo out: "Of course, no doubt, hand me over some preserved peaches I devoured with such an appetite for breakfast, and a glass of claret!" -- and who after this who knew A. P. S. at Allahabad, will dare doubt his identity? And, when left alone for one short instant by some disturbance in the circle, or the thought of the medium wandering for a moment to some other person -- that shell will begin to hesitate in its thoughts whether it is A. P. S., S. Wheeler, or Ratigan; and end by assuring itself it is Julius Caesar. (g) -- and by finally "remaining asleep."
(h) No; it is not conscious of this loss of cohesion. Besides,
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such a feeling
in a shell being quite useless for nature's purposes, it could hardly realize
something that could be never even dreamed by a medium or its affinities. It is
dimly conscious of its own physical death -- after a prolonged period of time
though -- that's all. The few exceptions to this rule -- cases of half
successful sorcerers, of very wicked persons passionately attached to Self --
offer a real danger to the living. These very material shells, whose last dying
thought was Self, -- Self, -- Self -- and to live, to live! will often feel it
instinctively. So do some suicides -- though not all. What happens then is
terrible for it becomes a case of post mortem licanthropy. The shell
will cling so tenaciously to its semblance of life that it will seek refuge in a
new organism in any beast -- in a dog, a hyæna, a bird when no human organism is
close at hand -- rather than submit to annihilation.
(22) A question I have no right to answer.
(23) Mars and four other planets of which astronomy knows yet nothing. Neither A, B, nor Y, Z, are known; nor can they be seen through physical means however perfected.
(24) Most decidedly not. Not even a Dhyan Chohan of the lower orders could approach it without having its body consumed, or rather annihilated. Only the highest "Planetary" can scan it. (b) Not unless we call it the vertex of an angle. But it is the vertex of all the "chains" collectively. All of us dwellers of the chains -- we will have to evolute, live and run the up and down scale in that highest and last of the septenaries chains (on the scale of perfection) before the Solar Pralaya snuffs out our little system.
(25 & 26) . . . "in which case it" -- the "it" relates to the sixth and seventh principles, not to the fifth, for the manas will have to remain a shell in each case; only in the one in hand it will have no time to visit mediums: for it begins sinking down to the eighth sphere almost immediately. "Then and there" in the eternity may be a mighty long period. It means only that the monad having no Karmic body to guide its rebirth falls into non-being for a certain period and then reincarnates -- certainly not earlier than a thousand or two thousand years. No, it is not an "exceptional case." Save a few exceptional cases in the case of the initiated such as our Teshu-Lamas and the Boddhisatwas and a few others, no monad gets ever reincarnated before its appointed cycle.
(27) "How does he toss into confusion." . . . If instead of doing to-day
something you have to do you put it off till the next day -- does not even this
-- invisibly and imperceptibly at first, yet as forcibly -- throw into confusion
many a thing, and in some cases even shuffle the destinies of millions of
persons, for good,
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for evil, or simply in connection with a change, -- may be
unimportant in itself -- still a change? And do you mean to say that
such an unexpected, horrid murder has not influenced the destinies of millions?
(28) Here we are, again. Verily ever since I had the folly of touching upon this subject -- i.e. of harnessing the cart before the horse -- my nights are bereft of their hitherto innocent sleep! For Heaven's sake take into consideration the following facts and put them together, if you can. (1) The individual units of mankind remain 100 times longer in the transitory spheres of effects than on the globes; (2) The few men of the fifth Round do not beget children of the fifth but of your fourth Round. (3) That the "obscurations" are not Pralayas, and that they last in a proportion of 1 to 10, i.e., if a Ring or whatever we call it, the period during which the seven Root races have to develop and reach their last appearance upon a globe during that Round -- lasts say 10 millions of years, (of course it lasts far longer) then the "obscuration" will last no longer than one million. When our globe having got rid of its last fourth Round men and a few, very few of the fifth, goes to sleep, during the period of its rest the fifth Round men will be resting in their Deva Chans and Spiritual lokas -- far longer at any rate than the fourth Round "angels" in theirs since they are far more perfect. A contradiction, and a "lapsus calam of M." -- says Hume; because M. wrote something quite correct though he is no more infallible than I am and might have expressed himself, more than once, very carelessly.
"I want to make out how the next superior Round forms are evolved." My friend, try to understand that you are putting me questions pertaining to the highest initiations. That I can give you a general view, but that I dare not nor will I enter upon details -- though I would if I could satisfy you. Do not you feel that it is one of the highest mysteries than which there is no higher one?
(a) "Dead" but to resurrect in greater glory. Is not what I say, plain?
(29) Of course not, since it is not destroyed, but remains
crystallized, so to say -- statu quo. At each Round there are less and
less animals -- the latter themselves evoluting into higher forms. During the
first Round it is they that were the "kings of creation."
During the seventh men will have become Gods and animals -- intelligent
beings. Draw your inferences. Beginning with the second Round, already evolution
proceeds on quite a different plan. Everything is evolved and has but to proceed
on its cyclic journey and get perfected. It is only the first Round that man
becomes from a human being on Globe B. a mineral, a
p.178
plant, an animal on Planet
C. The method changes entirely from the second Round; but -- I have
learned prudence with you; and will say nothing before the time for
saying it has come. And now, you had a volume; when will you digest it? Of how
many contradictions will I have to be suspected before you understand the whole
correctly?
Yours nevertheless, and very sincerely,
K. H.
THE FAMOUS "CONTRADICTIONS"
Received Simla, Autumn 1882.
1 The numbers in brackets refer to K.H.'s replies, for which see Letter XXIVB. page 185 et seq. -- ED.
I hope you will give me great credit for obedience in having laboriously and against my inclination endeavoured to compile a case for the plaintiff in re the alleged contradictions. As I have said elsewhere these appear to me not much worth worrying about; though for the present they leave me cloudy in my ideas about Deva Chan and the victims of accident. It is because they do not fret me that I have never hitherto acted on your suggestion that I should make notes of them.
(1)
Hume has been inclined to trace contradictions in some letters referring to the evolution of man, but in conversation with him I have always contended that these are not contradictions at all, -- merely due to a confusion about rounds and races -- a matter of language. Then he has pretended to think that you have built up the philosophy as you have gone on, and got out of the difficulty by inventing a great many more races than were contemplated at first, which hypothesis I have always ridiculed as absurd.
(2)
I have not re-copied here the passages about victims of accident quoted in my letter of the 12th August and in apparent conflict with the corrections on the proof of my Letter on Theosophy. You have already said apropos to these quotations, on back of mine dated August 12th: --
(3)
I can easily understand we are accused of contradictions and inconsistencies
aye even to writing one thing to-day and denying it to-morrow. Could you but
know how I write my letters and the time I am enabled to give to them perchance
you would feel less critical if not exacting ----"
p.179
(4)
This passage it was which led me to think it might be that some of the earlier letters had been perhaps the "victim of accident" itself.
But to go on with the case for the plainfiff: --
(5)
Most of those whom you may call, if you like, candidates for Deva Chan die and are reborn in the Kama loka without remembrance. . . . You can hardly call remembrance a dream of yours, some particular scene or scenes within whose narrow limits you would find enclosed a few persons. . . etc., call it the personal remembrance of A. P. Sinnett if you can." Notes on back of mine to Old Lady.
(6)
"Certainly, the new Ego, once that it is reborn in the Deva Chan retains for a certain time proportionate to its Earth life, a 'complete recollection of his spiritual life on Earth.' Long Devachan letter.
(7)
All those who have not slipped down into the mire of unredeemable sin and bestiality -- go to the Deva chan, ibid.
(8)
It (Devachan) is an idealed paradise in each case of the Ego's own making and by him filled with the scenery crowded with the incidents and thronged with the people he would expect to find in such a sphere of compensative bliss. Ibid.
(9)
Nor can we call it a full but only a partial remembrance. X. Love and hatred are the only immortal feelings, the only survivors from the wreck of the Ye-damma or phenomenal world. Imagine yourself in Devachan then, with those you may have loved with such immortal love, with the familiar shadowy scenes connected with them for a background, and a perfect blank for everything else relating to your interior social political and literary life -- Former letter: i.e. Notes.
(10)
Since the conscious perception of one's personality on Earth is but an evanescent dream, that sense will be equally that of a dream in the Devachan -- only a hundred fold intensified." Long Devachan letter.
(11)
". . . . a connoisseur who passes aeons in the rapt delight of listening to divine symphonies by imaginary angelic choirs and orchestras." Long letter. See (9) X ante. See my notes 10 and 11 about Wagner etc.
p.180
You say:
(12A)
"In no case then, with the exception of suicides and shells is there any possibility for any other to be attracted to a seance room." Notes.
(12B)
"On margin I said rarely but I have not pronounced the word never." Appended to mine of 12th Aug.
[A]
At this stage of our correspondence, misunderstood as we generally seem to be, even by yourself, my faithful friend, it may be worth our while and useful for both, that you should be posted on certain facts -- and very important facts -- connected with adept-ship. Bear in mind then, the following points.
(1) An adept -- the highest as the lowest -- is one only during the exercise of his occult powers.
(2) Whenever these powers are needed, the sovereign will unlocks the door to the inner man (the adept,) who can emerge and act freely but on condition that his jailor -- the outer man will be either completely or partially paralyzed -- as the case may require; viz: either (a) mentally and physically; (b) mentally, -- but not physically; (c) physically but not entirely mentally; (d) neither, -- but with an akasic film interposed between the outer and the inner man.
(3) The smallest exercise of occult powers then, as you will now see,
requires an effort. We may compare it to the inner muscular effort of an athlete
preparing to use his physical strength. As no athlete is likely to be always
amusing himself at swelling his veins in anticipation of having to lift a
weight, so no adept can be supposed to keep his will in constant tension and the
inner man in full function, when there is no immediate necessity for
it. When the inner man rests the adept becomes an ordinary man, limited
to his physical senses and the functions of his physical brain. Habit sharpens
the intuitions of the latter, yet is unable to make them supersensuous. The
inner adept is ever ready, ever on the alert, and that suffices for our
purposes. At moments of rest then, his faculties are at rest also. When I sit at
my meals, or when I am dressing, reading or otherwise occupied I am not thinking
even of those near me; and, Djual Khool can easily break his nose to blood, by
running in the dark against a beam, as he did the other night -- (just because
instead of throwing a "film" he had foolishly paralyzed all his outer senses
while
p.181
talking to and with a distant friend) -- and I remained placidly ignorant
of the fact. I was not thinking of him -- hence my ignorance.
From the aforesaid, you may well infer, that an adept is an ordinary mortal, at all the moments of his daily life but those -- when the inner man is acting.
Couple this with the unpleasant fact that we are forbidden to use one particle of our powers in connexion with the Eclectics (for which you have to thank your President and him alone -- ) and that the little that is done, is, so to say, smuggled in -- and then syllogize thusly: --
K. H. when writing to us is not an adept.A non-adept -- is fallible.
Therefore, K. H. may very easily commit mistakes; --Mistakes of punctuation -- that will often change entirely the whole sense of a sentence; idiomatic mistakes -- very likely to occur especially when writing as hurriedly as I do; mistakes arising from occasional confusion of terms that I had to learn from you -- since it is you who are the author of "rounds" -- "rings" -- "earthly rings" -- etc. etc. Now with all this, I beg leave to say, that after having carefully read over and over our "Famous Contradictions" myself; after giving them to be read to M.; and then to a high adept whose powers are not in the Chohan's chancery sequestered by Him to prevent him from squandering them upon the unworthy objects of his personal predilections; after doing all this I was told by the latter the following: "It is all perfectly correct. Knowing what you mean, no more than any other person acquainted with the doctrine, can I find in these detached fragments anything that would really conflict with each other. But, since many sentences are incomplete, and the subjects scattered about without any order, I do not wonder that your "lay chelas" should find fault with them. Yes; they do require a more explicit and clear exposition."
Such is the decree of an adept -- and I abide by it; I will try to complete the information for your sake.
In one and only case -- marked on your pages and my answers (I2A)
and (12B), the last -- is the "plaintiff" entitled to a hearing, but not to
a farthing even -- for damages; since, as in law, no one -- either
plaintiff or defendant -- has a right to plead ignorance of that law, so in
Occult Sciences, the lay chelas ought to be forced to give the benefit of the
doubt to their gurus in cases, in which, owing to their great ignorance of that
science they are likely to misinterpret the meaning -- instead of accusing them
point blank of contradiction! Now I beg to state, that, with regard to
the two sentences -- marked respectively 12A and
12B -- there is a plain
contradiction but for those who are not acquainted with that tenet;
p.182
you
were not, and therefore I plead "guilty" of an omission, but "not guilty" of a
contradiction. And even as regards the former, that omission is so
small that, like the girl accused of infanticide, who when brought before the
Judge said in her excuse that the baby was so very very little that it was not
worth his while calling it a "baby" at all -- I could plead the same for my
omission, had I not before my eyes your terrible definition of my "exercising
ingenuity." Well, read the explanation given in my "Notes and Answers" and
judge.
By the bye, my good Brother, I have not hitherto suspected in you such a capacity for defending and excusing the inexcusable as exhibited by you in my defence, of the now famous "exercise of ingenuity." If the article (reply to C. C. Massey) has been written in the spirit you attribute to me in your letter; and if I, or any one of us has "an inclination to tolerate subtler and more tricksy ways of pursuing an end" than generally admitted as honourable by the truth-loving, straight-forward European (is Mr. Hume included in this category?) -- indeed you have no right to excuse such a mode of dealing, even in me; nor to view it "merely in the nature of spots in the sun," since a spot is a spot whether found in the bright luminary or upon a brass candlestick. But you are mistaken, my dear friend. There was no subtle, no tricky mode of dealing, to get her out of the difficulty created by her ambiguous style and ignorance of English, not her ignorance of the subject -- which is not the same thing and alters entirely the question. Nor was I ignorant of the fact that M. had written to you previously upon the subject since it was in one of his letters (the last but one before I took the business off his hands) in which he touched upon the subject of "races" for the first and spoke of reincarnations. If M. told you to beware trusting Isis too implicitly, it was because he was teaching you truth and fact -- and that at the time the passage was written we had not yet decided upon teaching the public indiscriminately. He gave you several such instances -- if you will but re-read his letter -- adding that were such and such sentences written in such a way they would explain facts now merely hinted upon, far better.
Of course "to C. C. M." the passage must seem wrong and contradictory for it
is "misleading" as M. said. Many are the subjects treated upon in
Isis that even H.P.B. was not allowed to become thoroughly acquainted
with; yet they are not contradictory if -- "misleading." To make her say -- as
she was made by me to say -- that the passage criticized was "incomplete,
chaotic, vague . . . clumsy as many more passages in that work" was a
sufficiently "frank admission" I should think, to satisfy the most crotchetty
critic. To admit "that the passage was wrong," on the other hand, would have
mounted to a timeless falsehood, for
p.183
I maintain that it is not
wrong; since if it conceals the whole truth, it does not distort it in
the fragments of that truth as given in Isis. The point in C. C. M.'s
complaining criticism was not that the whole truth had not been given, but that
the truth and facts of 1877 were represented as errors and contradicted in 1882
and it was that point -- damaging for the whole Society, its "lay" and inner
chelas, and for our doctrine -- that had to be shown under its true colours;
namely that of an entire misconception due to the fact that the "septenary"
doctrine had not yet been divulged to the world at the time when Isis
was written. And thus it was shown. I am sorry you do not find
her answer written under my direct inspiration "very satisfactory," for
it proves to me only that up to this you have not yet grasped very firmly the
difference between the sixth and seventh and the fifth, or the immortal
and the astral or personal "Monads -- Egos." The suspicion is
corroborated by what H -- X gives in his criticism of my explanation at
the end of his "letter" in the September number; your letter before me
completing the evidence thereupon. No doubt the "real Ego inheres in
the higher principles which are reincarnated" periodically every one, two, or
three or more thousands of years. But the immortal Ego the "Individual
Monad," is not the personal monad which is the 5th; and the passage in
Isis did not answer Eastern reincarnationists -- who maintain in
that same Isis -- had you but read the whole of it -- that the
individuality or the immortal "Ego" has to re-appear in every
cycle -- but the Western especially the French reincarnationists,
who teach that it is the personal, or astral monad, the "moi
fluidique" the manas, or the intellectual mind, the 5th principle
in short, that is reincarnated each time. Thus, if you read once more
C. C. M.'s
quoted passage from Isis against the "Reviewer of the Perfect Way,"
you will perhaps find that H.P.B. and myself were perfectly right in maintaining
that in the above passage only the "astral monad" was meant. And, there is a far
more "unsatisfactory shock" to my mind, upon finding that you refuse to
recognise in the astral monad the personal Ego -- whereas, all of us
call it most undoubtedly by that name, and have so called it for millenniums --
than there could ever be in yours when meeting with that monad under its proper
name in E. Levi's Fragment on Death!
The "astral monad" is the "personal Ego," and therefore, it
never reincarnates, as the French Spirites, will have it, but under
"exceptional circumstances;" in which case, reincarnating, it does not
become a shell but, if successful in its second reincarnation will
become one, and then gradually lose its personality, after being so to say
emptied of its best and highest spiritual attributes by the immortal monad
or the "Spiritual Ego," during the last and supreme struggle. The "jar
of feeling" then ought to
p.184
be on my side, as indeed it only "seemed
to be another illustration of the difference between eastern and western
methods," but was not -- not in this case at any rate. I can readily
understand, my dear friend, that in the chilly condition you find yourself
(mentally) in, you are prepared to bask even in the rays of a funereal
pile upon which a living sutti is being performed; but why, why
call it a -- Sun, and excuse its spot -- the corpse?
The letter addressed to me, which your delicacy would not permit you to read, was for your perusal and sent for that purpose. I wanted you to read it.
Your suggestion concerning G. K.'s next trial in art -- is clever, but not sufficiently, as to conceal the white threads of the Jesuitically black insinuation. G. K. was however caught at it: Nous verrons, nous verrons! says the French song.
G. Khool says -- presenting his most humble salaams -- that you have
"incorrectly described the course of events as regards the first portrait."
What he says is this: (1) the day she came" she did not ask you "to
give her a piece of" etc. (page 300) but after you had begun speaking to her of
my portrait, which she doubted much whether you could have. It is but after
half-an-hour's talk over it in the front drawing room -- you two forming the two
upper points of the triangle, near your office door, and your lady the lower one
(he was there he says) that she told you she would try. It was then that she
asked you for "a piece of thick white paper" and that you gave her a
piece of a thin letter paper, which had been touched by some very
anti-magnetic person. However he did, he says, the best he could. On the day
following, as Mrs. S. had looked at it just 27 minutes before he did
it, he accomplished his task. It was not "an hour or two before" as you say for
he had told the "O. L." to let her see it just before breakfast. After
breakfast, she asked you for a piece of Bristol board, and you gave her two
pieces, both marked and not one as you say. The first time she brought it out it
was a failure, he says, "with the eyebrow like a leech," and it was
finished only during the evening, while you were at the Club, at a dinner at
which the old Upasika would not go. And it was he again G. K.
"great artist" who had to make away with the "leech," and to correct cap
and features, and who made it "look like Master" (he will insist giving
me that name though he is no longer my chela in reality), since M. after
spoiling it would not go to the trouble of correcting it but preferred going to
sleep instead. And finally, he tells me, my making fun of the portrait
notwithstanding, the likeness is good but would have been better had M. sahib
not interfered with it, and he, G. K. allowed to have his own "artistic" ways.
Such is his tale, and he therefore, is not satisfied with your description and
so he said to Upasika who told you something quite different. Now to my
notes.
p.185
(1) 1
K.H.'s replies to the "Famous Contradictions"; the numbers
correspond to those which appear in the text of Mr. Sinnett's Queries. See
ante Letter XXIVA. -- ED.
Nor do they fret me -- particularly. But as they furnish our mutual friend with a good handle against us, which he is likely to use any day in that nasty way, so pre-eminently his own, I rather explain them once more -- with your kind permission.
(2)
Of course, of course; it is our usual way of getting out of difficulties. Having been "invented" ourselves, we repay the inventors by inventing imaginary races. There are a good many things more we are charged with having invented. Well, well, well; there's one thing, at any rate, we can never be accused of inventing; and that is Mr. Hume himself. To invent his like transcends the highest Siddhi powers we know of.
And now good friend, before we proceed any further, pray read the appended No. [A]. It is time you should know us as we are. Only, to prove to you, if not to him, that we have not invented those races, I will give out for your benefit that which has never been given out before. I will explain to you a whole chapter out of Rhys Davids work on Buddhism, or rather on Lamaism, which, in his natural ignorance he regards as a corruption of Buddhism! Since those gentlemen -- the Orientalists -- presume to give to the world their soi-disant translations and commentaries on our sacred books, let the theosophists show the great ignorance of those "world" pundits, by giving the public the right doctrines and explanations of what they would regard as an absurd, fancy theory.
(3)
And because I admit the superficial or apparent inconsistency -- and even
that in the case only of one who is so thoroughly unacquainted with our
doctrines as you are -- is that a reason why they should be regarded as
conflicting in reality? Suppose I had written in a previous letter -- "the moon
has no atmosphere" and then went on talking of other things; and told
you in another letter "for the moon has an atmosphere of its own "etc.: no doubt
but that I should stand under the charge of saying to-day black and
to-morrow white. But where could a Kabalist see in the two sentences a
contradiction? I can assure you that he would not. For, a Kabalist who knows
that the moon has no atmosphere answering in any respect to that of our
earth, but one of its own, entirely different from that your men of
science would call one, knows also that like the Westerns we Easterns, and
Occultists especially, have our own ways of expressing thought as plain to us in
their implied meaning as yours are to yourselves. Take for instance into your
head to teach your Bearer astronomy.
p.186
Tell him to-day -- "see, how gloriously the
sun is setting -- see how rapidly it moves, how it rises and sets
etc.;" and to-morrow try to impress him with the fact that the sun is
comparatively motionless and that it is but our earth that loses and then again
catches sight of the sun in her diurnal motion; and ten to one, if your pupil
has any brains in his head, he will accuse you of flatly contradicting yourself.
Would this be a proof of your ignorance of the heliocentric system? And could
you be accused with anything like justice of "writing one thing to-day and
denying it to-morrow," though your sense of fairness should prompt you to admit
that you "can easily understand" the accusation.
Writing my letters, then, as I do, a few lines now and a few words two hours later; having to catch up the thread of the same subject, perhaps with a dozen or more interruptions between the beginning and the end, I cannot promise you anything like western accuracy. Ergo -- the only "victim of accident" in this case is myself. The innocent cross examination to which I am subjected by you -- and that I do not object to -- and the positively pre-determined purpose of catching me tripping whenever he can, on Mr. Hume's part, -- a proceeding regarded as highly legal and honest in western law, but to which we, Asiatic savages, object most emphatically -- has given my colleagues and Brothers a high opinion of my proclivities to martyrdom. In their sight I have become a kind of Indo-Tibetan Simon Stylites. Caught by the lower hook of the Simla interrogation mark and impaled on it, I see myself doomed to equilibrize upon the apex of the semicircle for fear of slipping down at every uncertain motion either backward or forward. -- Such is the present position of your humble friend. Ever since I undertook the extraordinary task of teaching two grown up pupils with brains in which the methods of western science had crystallized for years; one of whom is willing enough to make room for the new iconoclastic teaching, but who, nevertheless, requires a careful handling while the other will receive nothing but on condition of grouping the subjects as he wants them to group, not in their natural order -- I have been regarded by all our Chohans as a lunatic. I am seriously asked whether my early association with Western "Pelings" had not made of me a half-Peling and turned me also into a "dzing-dzing" visionary. All this had been expected. I do not complain; I narrate a fact, and humbly demand credit for the same, only hoping it will not be mistaken again for a subtle and tricky way of getting out of a new difficulty.
(5)
Every just disembodied four-fold entity -- whether it died a natural
or violent death, from suicide or accident, mentally sane or insane, young or
old, good, bad, or indifferent -- loses at the
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instant of death all
recollection, it is mentally -- annihilated; it sleeps it's akasic
sleep in the Kama-loka. This state lasts from a few hours, (rarely less) days,
weeks, months -- sometimes to several years. All this according to the entity,
to its mental status at the moment of death, to the character of its death, etc.
That remembrance will return slowly and gradually toward the end of the
gestation (to the entity or Ego), still more slowly but far more imperfectly and
incompletely to the shell, and fully to the Ego at
the moment of its entrance into the Devachan. And now the latter being a state
determined and brought by its past life, the Ego does not fall headlong but
sinks into it gradually and by easy stages. With the first dawn of that state
appears that life (or rather is once more lived over by the Ego) from
its first day of consciousness to its last. From the most important down to the
most trifling event, all are marshalled before the spiritual eye of the Ego;
only, unlike the events of real life, those of them remain only that are chosen
by the new liver (pardon the word) clinging to certain scenes and
actors, these remain permanently -- while all the others fade away to
disappear for ever, or to return to their creator -- the shell. Now try
to understand this highly important, because so highly just and retributive law,
in its effects. Out of the resurrected Past nothing remains but what
the Ego has felt spiritually -- that was evolved by and through, and
lived over by his spiritual faculties -- they be love or hatred.
All that I am now trying to describe is in truth -- indescribable. As no
two men, not even two photographs of the same person, nor yet two leaves
resemble line for line each other, so no two states in Deva-Chan are like.
Unless he be an adept, who can realize such a state in his periodical
Deva-chan -- how can one be expected to form a correct picture of the same?
(6)
Therefore, there is no contradiction in saying, that the ego once reborn in the Devachan, "retains for a certain time proportionate to its earth life a complete recollection of his (Spiritual) life on earth." Here again the omission of the word "Spiritual" alone, produced a misunderstanding!
(7)
All those that do not slip down into the 8th sphere -- go to the Devachan. Where's the point made or the contradiction?
(8)
The Devachan State, I repeat, can be as little described or
explained, by giving a however minute and graphic description of the state of
one ego taken at random, as all the human lives collectively could be described
by the "Life of Napoleon" or that of any other man. There are millions of
various states of happiness and misery, emotional states having their
source in the physical
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as well as the spiritual faculties and
senses, and only the latter surviving. An honest labourer will feel differently
from an honest millionaire. Miss Nightingale's state will
differ considerably from that of a young bride who dies before the consummation
of what she regards as happiness. The two former love their families; the
philanthropist -- humanity; the girl centres the whole world in her future
husband; the melomanic knows of no higher state of bliss and
happiness than music -- the most divine and spiritual of arts. The
devachan merges from its highest into its lowest degree -- by insensible
gradations; while from the last step of devachan, the Ego will often
find itself in Avitcha's faintest state, which, towards the end of the
"spiritual selection" of events may become a bona fide "Avitcha."
Remember, every feeling is relative. There is neither good nor evil,
happiness nor misery per se. The transcendent, evanescent
bliss of an adulterer, who by his act murders the happiness of a husband,
is no less spiritually born for its criminal nature. If a remorse of
conscience (the latter proceeding always from the Sixth Principle)
has only once been felt during the period of bliss and really spiritual love,
born in the sixth and fifth, however polluted by the desires of the fourth, or
Kamarupa, -- then this remorse must survive and will
accompany incessantly the scenes of pure love. I need not enter
into details, since a physiological expert, as I take you to be, need hardly
have his imagination and intuitions prompted by a psychological observer of my
sort. Search in the depths of your conscience and memory, and try to see what
are the scenes that are likely to take their firm hold upon you; when once more
in their presence you find yourself living them over again; and that,
ensnared, you will have forgotten all the rest -- this letter among other
things, since in the course of events it will come far later on in the panorama
of your resurrected life. I have no right to look into your past
life.
Whenever I may have caught glimpses of it, I have invariably turned my eyes away, for I have to deal with the present A. P. Sinnett -- (also and by far more "a new invention" than the ex A. P. S.) -- not with the ancient man.
Yes; Love and Hatred are the only immortal feelings; but the gradations of tones along the seven by seven scales of the whole key-board of life, are numberless. And, since it is those two feelings -- (or, to be correct, shall I risk being misunderstood again and say those two poles of man's "Soul" which is a unity?) -- that mould the future state of man, whether for devachan or Avitcha then the variety of such states must also be inexhaustible. And this brings us to your complaint or charge, number --
(9)
-- for, having eliminated from your past life the Ratigans and Reeds who with
you have never transcended beyond the
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boundaries of the lower portion of your
fifth principle with its vehicle -- the kama -- what is it but the
"partial remembrance" of a life? The lines marked with your reddest
pencil are also disposed of. For how can you dispute the fact that music and
harmony are for a Wagner, a Paganini, the King of Bavaria and so many other
true artists and melomans, an object of the profoundest spiritual love and
veneration? With your permission I will not change one word in clause 9.
(10)
Pity you have not followed your quotations with personal commentaries. I fail to comprehend in what respect you object to the word "dream"? Of course both bliss and misery are but a dream; and as they are purely spiritual they are "intensified."
(11)
Answered.
(12A & 12B)
Had I but written, -- when answering Mr. Hume's objections, who after statistical calculations made with the evident intention of crushing our teaching, maintained that after all spiritualists were right and the majority of seance rooms spooks were "Spirits" -- "In no case then, with the exception of suicides and shells" -- and those accidents who die full of some engrossing earthly passion -- is there any possibility for any other, etc., etc." I would have been perfectly right and pukka as a "professor"? To think that, eager as you are to accept doctrines that contradict in some most important points physical science from first to last -- you should have consented at Mr. Hume's suggestion to split hairs over a simple omission! My dear friend, permit me to remark that simple common sense ought to have whispered you that one who says one day: "in no case then etc.:" and a few days later denies having ever pronounced the word never -- is not only no adept but must be either suffering from softening of the brain or some other "accident." "On margin I said rarely but I have not pronounced the word never -- refers to the margin of the proof of your letter N. II ; that margin -- or rather to avoid a fresh accusation -- the piece of paper I had written upon some remarks referring to the subject and glued to the margin of your proof -- you have cut out as well as the four lines of poetry. Why you have done so is known better to yourself. But the word never refers to that margin.
To one sin though I do, plead "guilty." That sin, was a very acute
feeling of irritation against Mr. Hume upon receiving his triumphant statistical
letter; the answer to which you found incorporated in yours when I wrote for you
the materials for your answer to Mr. Khandallawala's letter that you had sent
back to H.P.B. Had I not been irritated I would not have become guilty
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of the
omission, perhaps. This now is my Karma. I had no business to feel
irritated, or lose my temper; but that letter of his was I believe the seventh
or the eighth of that kind received by me during that fortnight. And I must say,
that our friend has the most knavish way of using his intellect in raising the
most unexpected sophisms to tickle people's nerves with, that I have ever known!
Under the pretext of strict logical reasoning, he will perform feigned thrusts
at his antagonist -- whenever unable to find a vulnerable spot, and then, caught
and exposed, he will answer in the most innocent way: "Why, it is for your own
good, and you ought to feel grateful! If I were an adept I would always know
what my correspondent really meant," etc. etc. Being an "adept" in some
small matters I do know what he really means; and that his meaning
amounts to this: were we to divulge to him the whole of our philosophy leaving
no inconsistency unexplained, it would still do no good, whatever. For,
as in the observation embodied in the Hudibrasian couplet:
"These fleas have other fleas to bite 'em,
And these -- their fleas ad infinitum . . . ."
-- so with his objections and arguments. Explain him one, and he will find a flaw in the explanation; satisfy him by showing that the latter was after all correct, and he will fly at the opponent for speaking too slow or too rapidly. It is an impossible task -- and I give it up. Let it last until the whole breaks under its own weight. He says "I can kiss no Pope's toe," forgetting that no one has ever asked him to do so; "I can love, but I cannot worship" he tells me. Gush -- he can love no one, and nobody but A. O. Hume, and never has. And that really, one could almost exclaim "Oh Hume, -- gush is thy name!" -- is shown in the following that I transcribe from one of his letters: "If for no other reason, I should love M. for his entire devotion to you -- and you I have always loved (!). Even when most cross with you -- as one always is most sensitive with those one cares most about -- even when I was fully persuaded you were a myth, for even then my heart yearned to you as it often does to an avowedly fictitious character." A sentimental Becky Sharp writing to an imaginary lover, could hardly express her feelings better!
I will see to your scientific questions next week. I am not at home at
present, but quite near to Darjeeling, in the Lamasery, the object of poor
H.P.B.'s longings. I thought of leaving by the end of September but find it
rather difficult on account of Nobin's boy. Most probably, also I will have to
interview in my own skin the Old Lady if M. brings her here. And -- he has to
bring her -- or lose her for ever -- at least, as far as the physical
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triad is
concerned. And now good-bye, I ask you again -- do not frighten my little man;
he may prove useful to you some day -- only do not forget -- he is but an
appearance.
Yours,
K. H.
Devachan Notes Latest Additions. Received Feb. 2nd, 1883.
ANSWERS TO QUERIES
(1) Why should it be supposed that devachan is a monotonous condition only because some one moment of earthly sensation is indefinitely perpetuated -- stretched, so to say, throughout aeons? It is not, it cannot be so. This would be contrary to all analogies and antagonistic to the law of effects under which results are proportioned to antecedent energies. To make it clear you must keep in mind that there are two fields of causal manifestation, to wit: the objective and subjective. So the grosser energies, those which operate in the heavier or denser conditions of matter manifest objectively in physical life, their outcome being the new personality of each birth included within the grand cycle of the evoluting individuality. The moral and spiritual activities find their sphere of effects in "devachan." For example: the vices, physical attractions, etc. -- say, of a philosopher may result in the birth of a new philosopher, a king, a merchant, a rich Epicurean, or any other personality whose make-up was inevitable from the preponderating proclivities of the being in the next preceding birth. Bacon, for inst: whom a poet called --
"The greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind" --
might reappear in his next incarnation as a greedy money-getter, with
extraordinary intellectual capacities. But the moral and spiritual qualities of
the previous Bacon would also have to find a field in which their energies could
expand themselves. Devachan is such field. Hence -- all the great plans of moral
reform of intellectual and spiritual research into abstract principles of
nature, all the divine aspirations, would, in devachan come to fruition, and the
abstract entity previously known as the great Chancellor would occupy itself in
this inner world of its own preparation, living, if not quite what one would
call a conscious existence, at least a dream of such realistic
vividness that none of the life-realities could ever match it. And this "dream"
lasts -- until Karma is satisfied in that direction, the ripple of force reaches
the edge of its cyclic basin, and the being
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moves into the next area of causes.
This, it may find in the same world as before, or another, according to his or
her stage of progression through the necessary rings and rounds of human
development.
Then -- how can you think that "but one moment of earthly sensation only
is selected for perpetuation"? Very true, that "moment" lasts from the first to
last; but then it lasts but as the key-note of the whole harmony, a definite
tone of appreciable pitch, around which cluster and develop in progressive
variations of melody and as endless variations on a theme, all the aspirations,
desires, hopes, dreams, which, in connection with that particular "moment" had
ever crossed the dreamer's brain during his life-time, without having
ever found their realization on earth, and which he now finds fully realized in
all their vividness in devachan, without ever suspecting that all that blissful
reality is but the progeny begotten by his own fancy, the effects of the mental
causes produced by himself. That particular one moment which will be
most intense and uppermost in the thoughts of his dying brain at the time of
dissolution will of course regulate all the other "moments"; still the latter --
minor and less vivid though they be -- will be there also, having their
appointed plan in this phantasmagoric marshalling of past dreams, and must give
variety to the whole. No man on earth, but has some decided predilection if not
a domineering passion; no person, however humble and poor -- and often because
of all that -- but indulges in dreams and desires unsatisfied though these be.
Is this monotony? Would you call such variations ad infinitum on the
one theme, and that theme modelling itself, on, and taking colour and its
definite shape from, that group of desires which was the most intense during
life "a blank destitution of all knowledge in the devachanic mind" -- seeming
"in a measure ignoble"? Then verily, either you have failed, as you
say, to take in my meaning, or it is I who am to blame. I must have sorely
failed to convey the right meaning, and have to confess my inability to describe
the -- indescribable. The latter is a difficult task, good friend.
Unless the intuitive perceptions of a trained chela come to the rescue, no
amount of description -- however graphic -- will help. Indeed, -- no adequate
words to express the difference between a state of mind on earth, and one
outside of its sphere of action; no English terms in existence, equivalent to
ours; nothing -- but unavoidable (as due to early Western education)
preconceptions, hence -- lines of thought in a wrong direction in the learner's
mind to help us in this inoculation of entirely new thoughts! You are right. Not
only "ordinary people" -- your readers -- but even such idealists and highly
intellectual units as Mr. C. C. M. will fail, I am afraid, to seize the true
idea, will
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never fathom it to its very depths. Perhaps, you may some
day, realize better than you do now, one of the chief reasons for our
unwillingness to impart our Knowledge to European candidates. Only read
Mr. Roden Noel's disquisitions and diatribes in Light! Indeed,
indeed, you ought to have answered them as advised by me through H.P.B. Your
silence is a brief triumph to the pious gentleman, and seems like a
desertion of poor Mr. Massey.
"A man in the way to learn something of the mysteries of nature seems in a higher state of existence to begin with on earth than that which nature apparently provides for him as a reward for his best deeds."
Perhaps "apparently" -- not so in reality. When the modus operandus of nature is correctly understood. Then that other misconception: "The more merit, the longer period of devachan. But then in Devachan . . . all sense of the lapse of time is lost: a minute is as a thousand years . . . a quoi bon then, etc."
This remark and such ways of looking at things might as well apply to the whole of Eternity, to Nirvana, Pralaya, and what not. Say, at once that the whole system of being, of existence separate and collective, of nature objective and subjective are but idiotic, aimless facts, a gigantic fraud of that nature, which meeting with little sympathy with Western philosophy, has, moreover, the cruel disapprobation of the best "lay-chela." A quoi bon, in such a case, this preaching of our doctrines, all this uphill work and swimming in adversum flumen? Why should the West be so anxious then to learn anything from the East, since it is evidently unable to digest that which can never meet the requirements of the special tastes of its Esthetics. Sorry outlook for us, since even you fail to take in the whole magnitude of our philosophy, or to even embrace at one scope a small corner -- the devachan -- of those sublime and infinite horizons of "after life." I do not want to discourage you. I would only draw your attention to the formidable difficulties encountered by us in every attempt we make to explain our metaphysics to Western minds, even among the most intelligent. Alas, my friend, you seem as unable to assimilate our mode of thinking, as to digest our food, or enjoy our melodies!
No; there are no clocks, no timepieces in devachan, my esteemed chela, though
the whole Cosmos is a gigantic chronometer in one sense. Nor do we, mortals, --
ici bas meme -- take much, if any, cognizance of time during
periods of happiness and bliss, and find them ever too short; a fact that does
not in the least prevent us from enjoying that happiness all the same -- when it
does come. Have you ever given a thought to this little possibility that,
perhaps, it is because their cup of bliss is full to its brim, that the "devachanee"
loses "all sense of the lapse of
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time" and that it is something that those who
land in Avitchi do not, though as much as the devachanee, the
Avitchee has no cognizance of time -- i.e., of our earthly calculations
of periods of time? I may also remind you in this connection that time is
something created entirely by ourselves; that while one short
second of intense agony may appear, even on earth, as an eternity to one man, to
another, more fortunate, hours, days, and sometimes whole years may seem to flit
like one brief moment; and that finally, of all the sentient and conscious
beings on earth, man is the only animal that takes any cognizance of time,
although it makes him neither happier nor wiser. How then, can I explain to you
that which you cannot feel, since you seem unable to comprehend it?
Finite similes are unfit to express the abstract and the infinite; nor can the
objective ever mirror the subjective. To realize the bliss in devachan,
or the woes in Avitchi, you have to assimilate them -- as we do.
Western critical idealism (as shown in Mr. Roden Noel's attacks) has still to
learn the difference that exists between the real being of
super-sensible objects, and the shadowy subjectivity of the ideas it has reduced
them to. Time is not a predicate conception and can, therefore, neither
be proved nor analysed, according to the methods of superficial philosophy. And,
unless we learn to counteract the negative results of that method of drawing our
conclusions agreeably to the teachings of the so-called "system of pure reason,"
and to distinguish between the matter and the form of our knowledge of sensible
objects, we can never arrive at correct, definite conclusions. The case in hand,
as defended by me against your (very natural) misconception is a good proof of
the shallowness and even fallacy of that "system of pure (materialistic)
reason." Space and time may be -- as Kant has it -- not the product but the
regulators of the sensations, but only so far, as our sensations on earth
are concerned, not those in devachan. There we do not find the a priori
ideas of those "space and time" controlling the perceptions of the denizen of
devachan in respect to the objects of his sense; but, on the contrary,
we discover that it is the devachanee himself who absolutely creates
both and annihilates them at the same time. Thus, the "after states" so called,
can never be correctly judged by practical reason since the latter can have
active being only in the sphere of final causes or ends, and can hardly
be regarded with Kant (with whom it means on one page reason and on the next --
will) as the highest spiritual power in man, having for its sphere that WILL.
The above is not dragged in -- as you may think -- for the sake of an (too far
stretched, perhaps) argument, but with an eye to a future discussion "at home,"
as you express it, with students and admirers of Kant and Plato that you will
have to encounter.
p.195
In a plainer language, I will now tell you the following, and, it will be no
fault of mine if you still fail to comprehend its full meaning. As physical
existence has its cumulative intensity from infancy to prime, and its
diminishing energy thenceforward to dotage and death, so the dream-life of
devachan is lived correspondentially. Hence you are right in saying that the
"Soul" can never awake to its mistake and find itself "cheated by nature" -- the
more so, as strictly speaking, the whole of the human life and its boasted
realities, are no better than such "cheating." But you are wrong in pandering to
the prejudices and preconceptions of the Western readers (no Asiatic will ever
agree with you upon this point) when you add that "there is a sense of
unreality about the whole affair which is painful to the mind," since you
are the first one to feel that, it is no doubt due much more to "an imperfect
grasp of the nature of the existence" in devachan -- than to any defect in our
system. Hence -- my orders to a chela to reproduce in an Appendix to your
article extracts from this letter and explanations calculated to disabuse the
reader, and to obliterate, as far as possible, the painful impression this
confession of yours is sure to produce on him. The whole paragraph is dangerous.
I do not feel myself justified in crossing it out, since it is evidently the
expression of your real feelings, kindly, though -- pardon me for saying so -- a
little clumsily white-washed with an apparent defence of this (to your mind)
weak point of the system. But it is not so, believe me. Nature cheats no
more the devachanee than she does the living, physical man. Nature
provides for him far more real bliss and happiness there, than
she does here, where all the conditions of evil and chance are against
him, and his inherent helplessness -- that of a straw violently blown hither and
thither by every remorseless wind -- has made unalloyed happiness on this earth
an utter impossibility for the human being, whatever his chances and condition
may be. Rather call this life an ugly, horrid nightmare, and you will be right.
To call the devachan existence a "dream" in any other sense but that of a
conventional term, well suited to our languages all full of misnomers -- is to
renounce for ever the knowledge of the esoteric doctrine -- the sole custodian
of truth. Let me then try once more to explain to you a few of the many states
in Devachan and -- Avitchi.
As in actual earth-life, so there is for the Ego in devachan -- the first
flutter of psychic life, the attainment of prime, the gradual exhaustion of
force passing into semi-unconsciousness, gradual oblivion and lethargy, total
oblivion and -- not death but birth: birth into another personality, and the
resumption of action which daily begets new congeries of causes, that must be
worked out in another term of Devachan, and still another physical rebirth as a
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new personality. What the lives in devachan and upon Earth shall be
respectively in each instance is determined by Karma. And this weary round of
birth upon birth must be ever and ever run through, until the being reaches the
end of the seventh round, or -- attains in the interim the wisdom of an Arhat,
then that of a Buddha and thus gets relieved for a round or two, -- having
learned how to burst through the vicious circles -- and to pass periodically
into the Paranirvana.
But suppose it is not a question of a Bacon, a Goethe, a Shelley, a Howard,
but of some hum-drum person, some colourless, flaxless personality, who never
impinged upon the world enough to make himself felt: what then? Simply that his
devachanic state is as colourless and feeble as was his personality. How could
it be otherwise since cause and effect are equal. But suppose a case of a
monster of wickedness, sensuality, ambition, avarice, pride, deceit, etc.: but
who nevertheless has a germ or germs of something better, flashes of a more
divine nature -- where is he to go? The said spark smouldering under a heap of
dirt will counteract, nevertheless, the attraction of the eighth sphere, whither
fall but absolute nonentities; "failures of nature" to be remodelled
entirely, whose divine monad separated itself from the five principles during
their life-time, (whether in the next preceding or several preceding births,
since such cases are also on our records), and who have lived as soulless
human beings. 1
1 See Isis
Vol. 2, pp. 368 and 369 -- the word Soul standing there for "Spiritual"
Soul, of course, which, whenever it leaves a person
"Soulless" becomes the cause of the fifth principle (Animal Soul) sliding down
into the eighth sphere.
These persons whose sixth principle has left them (while the
seventh having lost its vahan (or vehicle) can exist independently
no longer) their fifth or animal Soul of course goes down "the bottomless pit."
This will perhaps make Eliphas Levi's hints still more clear to you, if you read
over what he says, and my remarks on the margin thereon (see Theosophist,
October, 1881, Article "Death") and reflect upon the words used: such as
drones, etc. Well, the first named entity then, cannot, with all its
wickedness go to the eighth sphere -- since his wickedness is of a too
spiritual, refined nature. He is a monster -- not a mere
Soulless brute. He must not be simply annihilated but punished;
for, annihilation, i.e. total oblivion, and the fact of being snuffed
out of conscious existence, constitutes per se no punishment, and as
Voltaire expressed it: "le neant ne laisse pas d'avoir du bon." Here is
no taper-glimmer to be puffed out by a zephyr, but a strong, positive,
maleficent energy, fed and developed by circumstances, some of which may have
really been beyond his control. There must be for such a nature a state
corresponding to Devachan, and this is found in Avitchi -- the perfect
antithesis of deva-
p.197
chan -- vulgarized by the Western nations into Hell
and Heaven, and which you have entirely lost sight of in your "Fragment."
Remember: "To be immortal in good one must identify himself with Good (or God);
to be immortal in evil -- with evil (or Satan)." Misconceptions of the true
value of such terms as "Spirit," "Soul," "individuality," "personality," and
"immortality" (especially) -- provoke wordy wars between a great number of
idealistic debaters, besides Messrs. C. C. M. and Roden Noel. And, to complete
your Fragment without risking to fall again under the mangling tooth of the
latter honourable gentleman's criticism -- I found it necessary to add to
devachan -- Avitchi as its complement and applying to it the same laws as to the
former. This is done, with your permission, in the Appendix.
Having explained the situation sufficiently I may now answer your query No. 1
directly. Yes, certainly there is "a change of occupation," a continual
change in Devachan, just as much -- and far more -- as there is in the life of
any man or woman who happens to follow his or her whole life one sole
occupation whatever it may be; with that difference, that to the Devachanee
his special occupation is always pleasant and fills his life with
rapture. Change then there must be, for that dream-life is but the fruition, the
harvest-time of those psychic seed-germs dropped from the tree of physical
existence in our moments of dreams and hopes, fancy-glimpses of bliss and
happiness stifled in an ungrateful social soil, blooming in the rosy dawn of
Devachan, and ripening under its ever fructifying sky. No failures there,
no disappointments! If man had but one single moment of ideal happiness
and experience during his life -- as you think -- even then, if Devachan exists,
-- it could not be as you erroneously suppose, the indefinite prolongation of
that "single moment," but the infinite developments, the various incidents and
events, based upon, and outflowing from, that one "single moment" or moments, as
the case may be; all in short that would suggest itself to the "dreamer's"
fancy. That one note, as I said, struck from the lyre of life, would form but
the Key-note of the being's subjective state, and work out into numberless
harmonic tones and semi-tones of psychic phantasmagoria. There -- all unrealized
hopes, aspirations, dreams, become fully realized, and the dreams of
the objective become the realities of the subjective existence. And
there behind the curtain of Maya its vapours and deceptive appearances are
perceived by the adept, who has learnt the great secret how to penetrate thus
deeply into the Arcana of being.
Doubtless my question whether you had experienced monotony during what you
consider the happiest moment of your life has entirely misled you. This letter
thus, is the just penance for my laziness to amplify the explanation.
p.198
Query (2) What cycle is meant?
The "minor cycle" meant is, of course, the completion of the seventh Round, as decided upon and explained. Besides that at the end of each of the seven rounds come a less "full" remembrance; only of the devachanic experiences taking place between the numerous births at the end of each personal life. But the complete recollection of all the lives -- (earthly and devachanic) omniscience -- in short -- comes but at the great end of the full seven Rounds (unless one had become in the interim a Bodhisatwa, an Arhat) -- the "threshold" of Nirvana meaning an indefinite period. Naturally a man, a Seventh-rounder (who completes his earthly migrations at the beginning of the last race and ring) will have to wait longer at that threshold than one of the very last of those Rounds. That Life of the Elect between the minor Pralaya and Nirvana -- or rather before the Pralaya is the Great Reward, the grandest, in fact, since it makes of the Ego (though he may never have been an adept, but simply a worthy virtuous man in most of his existences) -- virtually a God, an omniscient, conscious being, a candidate -- for eternities of aeons -- for a Dhyan Chohan . . . Enough -- I am betraying the mysteries of initiation. But what has Nirvana to do with the recollections of objective existences? That is a state still higher and in which all things objective are forgotten. It is a State of absolute Rest and assimilation with Parabrahm -- it is Parabrahm itself. Oh, for the sad ignorance of our philosophical truths in the West, and for the inability of your greatest intellects to seize the true spirit of those teachings. What shall we -- what can we do!
Query (3) You postulate an intercourse of entities in devachan which applies only to the mutual relationship of physical existence. Two sympathetic souls will each work out its own devachanic sensations making the other a sharer in its subjective bliss, but yet each is dissociated from the other as regards actual mutual intercourse. For what companionship could there be between two subjective entities which are not even as material as that ethereal body-shadow -- the Mayavi-rupa?
Query 4. Deva Chan is a state, not a locality. Rupa Loka, Arupa-Loka,
and Kama-Loka are the three spheres of ascending spirituality in which the
several groups of subjective entities find their attractions. In the Kama-Loka
(semi-physical sphere) dwell the shells, the victims and suicides; and this
sphere is divided into innumerable regions and sub-regions corresponding to the
mental states of the comers at their hour of death. This is the glorious
"Summer-land" of the Spiritualists, to whose horizons is limited the vision of
their best seers -- vision imperfect and deceptive because untrained and
non-guided by Alaya Vynyana (hidden
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knowledge). Who in the West knows
anything of true Sahalo-Kadhalu, the mysterious Chiliocosm out of the
many regions of which but three can be given out to the outside world, the
Tribuvana (three worlds) namely: Kama, Rupa, and Arupa-Lokas. Yet see the
sadness produced in the Western minds by the mention of even those three! See
"Light" of January 6th!
Behold your friend (M. A. Oxon) notifying the world of his readers that on your assumption in your "Secret doctrine" -- "no graver indictment could be brought against any man by his bitterest foe" than the one you bring against us -- "these mysterious unknown." It is not such bitter criticisms that are likely to draw out more of our knowledge, or to make the "unknown" more known. And then, the pleasure of teaching a public one of whose great authorities (Roden Noel) says a few pages further on, that, theosophists are endowing "shells" with simulated consciousness. See the difference one word will make. If the word "assimilated" instead of "simulated" had been written the true idea would have been conveyed that the shells' consciousness is assimilated from the medium and living persons present, whereas now ----! But of course, it is not our European critics, but our Asiatic chelas' expositions that "seem absolutely Protean in their ever shifting variety." The man has to be answered and set right anyhow, whether by yourself or Mr. Massey. But alas! the latter knows but little, and you, -- you look at our conception of devachan with more than "discomfort"! But to resume.
From Kama Loka then in the great Chiliocosm, -- once awakened from their post-mortem torpor, the newly translated "Souls" go all (but the shells) according to their attractions, either to Devachan or Avitchi. And those two states are again differentiating ad infinitum -- their ascending degrees of spirituality deriving their names from the lokas in which they are induced. For instance: the sensations, perceptions and ideation of a devachanee in Rupa-Loka, will, of course, be of a less subjective nature than they would be in Arupa-Loka, in both of which the devachanic experiences will vary in their presentation to the subject-entity, not only as regards form, colour, and substance, but also in their formative potentialities. But not even the most exalted experience of a monad in the highest devachanic state in Arupa-Loka (the last of the seven states) -- is comparable to that perfectly subjective condition of pure spirituality from which the monad emerged to "descend into matter," and to which at the completion of the grand cycle it must return. Nor is Nirvana itself comparable to Para Nirvana.
Query 5. Reviving consciousness begins after the struggle in
Kama-Loka at the door of devachan, and only after the "gestation
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period." Please turn to my responses upon the subject in your "Famous
contradictions."
Query 6. Your deductions as to the indefinite prolongation in Devachan of some one moment of earthly bliss having been unwarranted, your question in the last paragraph of this interrogatory need not be considered. The stay in Devachan is proportioned to the unfinished psychic impulses originating in earth-life: those persons whose attractions were preponderatingly material will sooner be drawn back into rebirth by the force of Tanha. As our London opponent truly remarks: these subjects (metaphysical) are only partly for understanding. A higher faculty belonging to the higher life must see, -- and it is truly impossible to force it upon one's understanding -- merely in words. One must see with his spiritual eye, hear with his Dharmakayic ear, feel with the sensations of his Ashta-vijnyâna (spiritual "I") before he can comprehend this doctrine fully; otherwise it may but increase one's "discomfort," and add to his knowledge very little.
Query 7. The "reward provided by nature for men who are benevolent
in a large, systematic way" and who have not focussed their affections upon an
individual or speciality, is that -- if pure -- they pass the quicker for that
through the Kama and Rupa Lokas into the higher sphere of Tribuvana,
since it is one where the formulation of abstract ideas and the consideration of
general principles fill the thought of its occupants. Personality is the synonym
for limitation, and the more contracted the person's ideas, the closer will he
cling to the lower spheres of being, the longer loiter on the plane of selfish
social intercourse. The social status of a being is, of course, a result of
Karma; the law being that "like attracts like." The renascent being is drawn
into the gestative current with which the preponderating attractions coming over
from the last birth make him assimilate. Thus one who died a ryot may be reborn
a king, and the dead sovereign may next see the light in a coolie's tent. This
law of attraction asserts itself in a thousand "accidents of birth" -- than
which there could be no more flagrant misnomer. When you, realize, at least, the
following -- that the skandas are the elements of limited existence
then will you have realized also one of the conditions of Devachan which has now
such a profoundly unsatisfactory outlook for you. Nor are your inferences (as
regards the well-being and enjoyment of the upper classes being due to a better
Karma) quite correct in their general application. They have a eudoemonistic
ring about them which is hardly reconcilable with Karmic Law, since those
"well-being and enjoyment" are oftener the causes of a new and overloaded Karma
than the production or effects of the latter. Even as a "broad rule" poverty and
humble condition in life are less a cause of sorrow than wealth and high
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birth,
but of that -- later on. My answers are once more assuming the shape of a volume
rather than the decent aspect of a letter. "Writing a new book, or for the
Theosophist?" Well do you not think that (since your desire is to reach
not merely the most but also the most receptive minds) you had
better write the former, as well as for the latter? You might put into
Esoteric Buddhism -- an excellent title by the bye -- such matter
as would be a sequel to, or amplification of what has appeared in the
Theosophist, a systematic, thoughtful exposition of what was and will be
given in the Journal in snatched out brief Fragments. I am specially anxious --
on M's account -- that the Journal should be made as much as possible a success;
should be circulated more than it is now in England. Your new book drawing as it
is sure to -- the attention of the most educated, thoughtful portion of the
Western public to the organ of "Esoteric Buddhism" par excellence --
would thus do it a world of good, and both would prove of mutual assistance. Do
not lose sight of Lillie's "Buddha and Early Buddhism" when you write it. With
its host of fallacies, unwarranted assumptions and distortion of facts and even
Sanskrit and Pali words, this snobbish volume had nevertheless the greatest
success with Spiritualists and even mystically inclined Christians. I will have
it slightly reviewed by Subba Row or H.P.B. furnishing them with notes myself,
but of this more in some future letter. You have ample materials to work upon in
my notes and papers. You have given but a few of the many points touched by me
and amplified and re-amplified in heaps of letters, as I do now. You could work
out of them any number of new articles and Fragments for the magazine, and have
enough and to spare -- left over for the book. And these in their turn may be
followed up in a third volume later on. It may be well to always keep this plan
in mind.
Your "wild scheme" with Darjeeling, good friend, as its objective point, is not wild, but simply impracticable. The time has not yet come. But the drift of your energies is carrying you slowly yet steadily in the direction of personal intercourse. I will not say that I desire it as much as you do, for seeing you nearly every day of my life I care very little for objective intercourse; but for your sake I would if I could, precipitate that interview. However ----? Meanwhile, be happy in knowing that you have done more real good to your kind within the two past years than in many previous years. And -- to yourself also.
I am quite sure that you do not sympathize with the selfish feeling that
prompts the London Branch to wish to withhold even their small proportion of
pecuniary support -- amounting to a few guineas a year -- from the Parent
Society. Who of the members would ever think of refusing, or trying to avoid
payment of fees
p.202
to any other Society, Club, or Scientific Association he may
happen to belong to? It is this indifference and selfishness that have permitted
them to stand by idle and calm from the first, and see the two in India giving
their last rupee (and the Upasika actually selling her jewellery -- for the
honour of the Society) -- though many of the British members are far better able
to afford the necessary sacrifices than they. Mr. Olcott's sister is actually
starving in America, and the poor man, loving her dearly as he does, would not
nevertheless spare Rs. 100 from the Society's, or rather the Theosophist's
fund to relieve her with six small children had not H.P.B. insisted upon,
and M. given a small sum for it.
However, I have told Mr. Olcott to send you the necessary official authority to compound the fees or make any other business agreement at London that you may think best. But remember, my very valued brother, that if poor Hindu clerks on Rs. 20 or 30 salaries are expected to help pay the Society's expenses with that fee, it is sheer injustice to totally exempt the far richer London members. Do justice, "though the heavens fall." Yet, if concessions are required to local prejudices, you are certainly better qualified than we, to see, and hence to negotiate according to the fitness of things. By all means put "the money relations on a better footing" than at present, if the financial wind has to be tempered for the shorn Peling-lamb. I have faith in your wisdom my friend, though you would have a certain right to be fast losing yours in mine, considering how tight the negotiations for the Phoenix-capital prove. You must have understood that I am still, and notwithstanding the Chohan's approval of my "Lay-Chela" -- under last year's restrictions, and cannot bring to bear on the parties concerned all the psychic powers that I otherwise could. Besides, our laws and restrictions with regard to money or any financial operations whether within or outside our Association, are extremely severe -- inexorable on some points. We have to proceed very cautiously; hence -- the delay. But I do hope that you yourself think, that something has already been done in that direction.
Yes; "K. H. did" mean that the review of "Mr. Isaacs should appear in the Theosophist," and "By the Author of the Occult World," so do send it before you go. And, for the sake of old "Sam Ward" I would like to see it noticed in the "Pioneer." But that does not matter much, now that you leave it.
Thereupon -- Salaam, and best wishes. I am extremely busy with preparations of initiation. Several of my chelas -- Gjualkhool among others -- are striving to reach "the other shore."
Yours faithfully,
K. H.
p.203
SECTION III
PROBATION, AND CHELASHIP
LETTER No. XXVI
K.H.'s Confidential Memo about Old Lady. Received Simla, Autumn, 1881.
I am painfully aware of the fact that the habitual incoherence of her
statements -- especially when excited -- and her strange ways make her in your
opinion a very undesirable transmitter of our messages. Nevertheless, kind
Brothers, once that you have learned the truth; once told, that this unbalanced
mind, the seeming incongruity of her speeches and ideas, her nervous excitement,
all that in short, which is so calculated to upset the feelings of sober minded
people, whose notions of reserve and manners are shocked by such strange
outbursts of what they regard as her temper, and which so revolt you, -- once
that you know that nothing of it is due to any fault of hers, you may,
perchance, be led to regard her in quite a different light. Notwithstanding that
the time is not quite ripe to let you entirely into the secret; and that you are
hardly yet prepared to understand the great Mystery, even if told of it, owing
to the great injustice and wrong done, I am empowered to allow you a glimpse
behind the veil. This state of hers is intimately connected with her occult
training in Tibet, and due to her being sent out alone into the world to
gradually prepare the way for others. After nearly a century of fruitless
search, our chiefs had to avail themselves of the only opportunity to send out a
European body upon European soil to serve as a connecting link between
that country and our own. You do not understand? Of course not. Please then,
remember, what she tried to explain, and what you gathered tolerably well from
her, namely the fact of the seven principles in the complete
human being. Now, no man or woman, unless he be an initiate of the "fifth
circle," can leave the precincts of Bod-Las and return back into the
world in his integral whole -- if I may use the expression. One, at least of his
seven satellites has to remain behind for two reasons: the first to form the
necessary connecting link, the wire of transmission -- the second as the safest
warranter that certain things will never be divulged. She is no exception to the
rule, and you have seen another
p.204
exemplar -- a highly intellectual man -- who had
to leave one of his skins behind; hence, is considered highly eccentric. The
bearing and status of the remaining six depend upon the inherent
qualities, the psycho-physiological peculiarities of the person, especially upon
the idiosyncracies transmitted by what modern science calls "atavism." Acting in
accordance with my wishes, my brother M. made to you through her a certain
offer, if you remember. You had but to accept it, and at any time you liked, you
would have had for an hour or more, the real baitchooly to converse
with, instead of the psychological cripple you generally have to deal with now.
Yesterday it was his mistake. He ought not to have sent her to deliver the
message to Mr. Sinnett in the state she was in. But to hold her responsible for
her purely physiological excitement, and to let her see your contemptuous smiles
-- was positively sinful. Pardon me, my Brothers and good Sirs, my
plain talk. I act but in accord with what was asked from me by yourself in your
letter. I took the trouble to "ascertain the spirit and meaning" with which
everything in Mr. Sinnett's room was said and done; and though having no right
to "condemn" you -- since you were ignorant of the true state of things -- I
cannot otherwise but strongly disapprove of that, which, however much polished
outwardly would have been even under quite ordinary circumstances -- cruelty
still. Buss!
Received Simla, Autumn, 1881.
I foresaw that which now happens. In my Bombay letter I advised you to be
prudent as to what you allowed S. M. to learn of + and his own mediumship,
suggesting that he should be told merely the substance of what I said. When,
watching you at Allahabad I saw you making instead copious extracts for him from
my letter, I again saw the danger but did not interfere for several reasons. One
of them is, that I believe the time fully come when social and moral safety
demands that someone of the Theos. Soc. should speak the truth though the
Himalaya fall on him. The unveiling of the ugly truth has to be done with the
greatest discretion and caution though; and I see that instead of getting
friends and supporters in the camp of the Philistines -- whether on that or this
side of the Oceans -- many of you -- yourself with the rest -- breed but enemies
by making too much of me and my personal opinions. On that side, the irritation
is great and you will soon find flashes of it in the Light and
elsewhere; and, you "shall lose S. M." The copious extracts have done
their work for they
p.205
were -- much too copious. No powers whether human or
super-human can ever open the eyes of S. M. -- it was useless to tear
them open. On this side -- it is still worse. The good people at Simla are not
very metaphorically inclined and allegory will no more stick to their epidermis
than would water to the feathers of a goose. Besides, -- no one likes to be told
that he "smells bad" and the joke extracted from a remark but too full
of deep psychological meaning has produced incalculable harm in quarters where
otherwise, the S.E.T.S. might have recruited more than one convert. . . . I must
return once more to the letter.
The strongest basis of complaint against me is the fact that my statement implies (a) a kind of challenge to S. M. to prove + a "Spirit" -- (b) I am severely denounced by our friend for making out + -- a liar. Now, I mean to be explanatory but not apologetic. I most certainly meant both; only I meant it for you, who had asked me for the information, by no means for him. He has not proved his case, nor did I expect he would, even if he thought he could, as the claim rests entirely upon his own personal assertion due to his unwavering faith in his own impressions. It would be easy for me, on the other hand, to prove + no disembodied Spirit at all, had I not very good reasons for not doing so at present. I had worded my letter very carefully, so, that, while letting you have a glimpse of the truth, I showed you most clearly that I had no right to divulge the "secret of a Brother." But, my very good friend, I had never told you in so many words who and what he was. I might, perhaps, have advised you to judge + by his alleged writings, for more fortunate in that than Job, our "enemies" "all write books." They are very fond of dictating inspirational gospels and so -- get caught at the glue of their own rhetorics. And who of the most intellectual Spiritts who have read the complete works fathered upon + would dare maintain that with the exception of a few extremely remarkable pages the rest is not below what S. M. could have himself written, and far better? Rest assured that no intelligent, clever and truthful medium needs "inspiration" from a disembodied "Spirit." Truth will stand without inspiration from Gods or Spirits, and better still -- will stand in spite of them all; "angels" whispering generally but falsehoods and adding to the stock of superstition.
It is in view of such little unpleasantnesses that I have to abstain from
satisfying C. C. Massey. I will not avail myself of his "authority," nor fulfil
his "desire," and I refuse most decidedly to "communicate his secret" as it is
of a nature which stands in his way for the attainment of adeptship, but has
nothing whatever to do with his private character. This information again was
meant for you, as an answer to your surprised query whether there could be any
impediments for my communicating with him
p.206
and guiding him to the Light,
but it was never intended for his ears. He may have a page or two in his life's
history which he would rather see obliterated; but, his loyal and faithful
instincts will always give him precedence and place him far above many a man who
remained chaste and virtuous only because he never knew what temptation was. I
will abstain, then, with your kind permission. In the future, my very dear
friend, we will have to limit ourselves entirely to philosophy and avoid --
family gossip. Skeletons in family closets, are at times, more dangerous to
meddle with, than even -- dirty turbans, my illustrious and dear friend. And let
not your too sensitive heart be troubled, or your imagination lead you to
suppose that one single word of what I have now said is meant to convey a
reproach. We, half savage Asiatics judge a man by his motives, and yours were
all that is sincere and good. But you have to remember that you are at a hard
school, and dealing now with a world entirely distinct from your own. Especially
have you to bear in mind that the slightest cause produced, however
unconsciously, and with whatever motive, cannot be unmade, or its effects
crossed in their progress -- by millions of gods, demons, and men combined.
Therefore, you must not think me too hypercritical when I say, that all of you
have been more or less imprudent, when not indiscreet -- the latter word
applying -- so far -- but to one of the members. Hence -- you will perhaps see,
that the mistakes and blunders of H. Steel Olcott, are of a lighter hue than
they at first appear, since even Englishmen, far more intelligent and versed in
the world's ways than he is, are as liable to err. For you have erred,
individually and collectively, as will be made apparent in a very near future;
and the management and success of the Society will prove as a result far more
difficult in your case, since none of you is as ready to admit that he has done
so, nor are you as prepared as he is, to follow any advice offered you, though
in each case, it is based on foresight of impending events, even when
foretold in a phraseology which may not always come "up to the mark" of the
adept -- as he should be in accordance with your own views.
You may tell Massey what I now say of him, and the reasons given. You may --
though I would not advise you -- read this letter to Mr. Hume. But I would
strongly urge upon you the necessity of a greater caution than ever.
Notwithstanding the purity of motives, the Chohan might one day consider but the
results, and these may threaten to become too disastrous for him to overlook.
There should be a constant pressure brought to bear upon the members of the
S. E. S. to keep their tongues and enthusiasm at bay. And yet there is an
increasing concern in the public mind, in regard to your Society and you may
soon be called upon to define your position more clearly. Very soon I
p.207
will have
to leave you to yourselves for the period of three months. Whether it will begin
in October or January will depend on the impulse given to the Society and its
progress.
I would feel personally obliged to you were you to kindly consent to examine a poem written by Padshah, and give your opinion on its merits. I believe it too long for the Theosophical Journal, nor do its literary merits warrant exactly or justify the claim. However, I leave it to your better judgment. I am anxious that the Journal should be more successful this year than it has heretofore been. The suggestion to translate the Grand Inquisitor is mine; for its author, on whom the hand of Death was already pressing when writing it, gave the most forcible and true description of the Society of Jesus than was ever given before. There is a mighty lesson contained in it for many and even you may profit by it.
My dear friend, you must not feel surprised if I tell you, that I really feel weary and disheartened at the prospect I have before me. I am afraid you never will have the patience to wait for the day when I am permitted to satisfy you. Ages ago our people began to make certain rules, according to which they intended to live. All these rules have now become Law. Our predecessors had to learn everything they know by themselves, only the foundation was laid for them. We offer to lay for you such a foundation but you will accept nothing short of the complete edifice, ready for you to take possession of. Do not accuse me of indifference or neglect when not receiving for days any reply from me. Very often I have nothing to say, for you ask questions which I have no right to answer.
But I must conclude here, as my time is limited and I have some other work to do.
Yours sincerely,
K. H.
The brandy atmosphere in the house is dreadful.
K. H. to A. O. Hume written towards final break-off. (1881 ?)
My dear Sir,
If no other good ever came of our correspondence than that of showing us once
more how essentially opposed are our two antagonistic elements -- the English
and the Hindu, our few letters will not have been exchanged in vain. Sooner can
oil and water mingle their particles than an Englishman -- however
p.208
intelligent,
noble-minded and sincere to be made to assimilate even the exoteric Hindu
thought, let alone its esoteric spirit. This will, of course provoke you to a
smile. You will say -- "I expected this." So be it. But if so, it shows no more
than the perspicacity of a man of thought and observation who intuitively
anticipated an event which his own attitude must precipitate. . . .
You will pardon me if I have to speak frankly and sincerely of your long letter. However cogent its logic, noble some of its ideas, ardent its aspiration, it yet lies here before me a very mirror of that spirit of this age, against which we have fought during our whole lives! At best it is the unsuccessful endeavour of an acute intellect trained in the ways of an exoteric world, to throw light on, and judge of the modes of life and thought in which it is unversed, for they belong to quite a different world from that it deals with. You are no man of petty vanities. To you it is safe to say: "My dear friend, apart from all this, study your letter impartially; weigh some of its sentences, and on the whole you will not feel proud of it." Whether or not you will ever fully appreciate my motives, or misconceive the true causes which make me decline for the present any further correspondence, I yet am confident that some day you will confess that this last letter of yours under the garb of a noble humility, of confessions of "weaknesses and failings, shortcomings and follies" was yet -- no doubt quite unconsciously to yourself -- a monument of pride, the loud echo of that haughty and imperative spirit which lurks at the bottom of every Englishman's heart. In your present state of mind, very likely even after reading this answer, you will hardly perceive, that not only have you entirely failed to understand the spirit in which my last letter was written to you, but even, in some instances to catch its evident sense. You were preoccupied by one single, all-absorbing idea: and, failing to detect any direct reply to it in my answer, before taking time to think it over, and see its general not personal applicability, you sat down and accused me right away of giving you a stone when you asked for bread! No need of being "a lawyer" in this or any previous existence to state simple facts. No need to "make the bad appear the better cause" when truth is so very simple and so easily told. My remark -- "you take up the position that unless a proficient in arcane knowledge will waste upon your embryonic Society an energy . . ." etc: -- you applied to yourself, whereas it was never so meant. It related to the expectations of all those who might desire to join the Society under certain conditions exacted before-hand and that were firmly insisted upon, by yourself and Mr. Sinnett. The letter as a whole was meant for you two, and this special sentence applied to all in general.
You say that I have "to a certain extent mistaken" your "posi-
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tion," and that
I "clearly misunderstand" you. This is so evidently incorrect that it will
suffice for me to quote a single paragraph from your letter to show that it is
you who have entirely "mistaken my position" and "clearly
misunderstood me." What else do you do but labour under an erroneous impression,
when, in your eagerness to repudiate the idea of having ever dreamt of
originating a "school" you say of the proposed "Anglo-Indian Branch" -- "it is
no Society of mine. . . . I understood it to be the wish of yourself and chiefs
that the Society should be started and that I should assume a leading position
in it." To this I replied that if it has been constantly our wish to spread on
the Western Continent among the foremost educated classes "Branches" of the T. S.
as the harbingers of a Universal Brotherhood it was not so in your
case. We (the Chiefs and I) entirely repudiate the idea that such was our hope
(however we might wish it) in regard to the projected A. I. Society. The
aspiration for brotherhood between our races met no response -- nay, it was
pooh-poohed from the first -- and so, was abandoned even before I had received
Mr. Sinnett's first letter. On his part and from the start, the idea was solely
to promote the formation of a kind of club or "school of magic." It was then no
"proposal" of ours, nor were we the "designers of the scheme." Why then
such efforts to show us in the wrong? It was Mad. B. -- not we, who
originated the idea; and it was Mr. Sinnett who took it up. Notwithstanding his
frank and honest admission to the effect that being unable to grasp the basic
idea of Universal Brotherhood of the Parent Society, his aim
was but to cultivate the study of occult Sciences, an admission which ought to
have stopped at once every further importunity on her part, she first succeeded
in getting the consent -- a very reluctant one I must say -- of her own direct
chief, and then my promise of co-operation -- as far as I could go. Finally,
through my mediation, she got that of our highest Chief, to whom I submitted the
first letter you honoured me with. But, this consent, you will please bear in
mind, was obtained solely under the express and unalterable
condition that the new Society should be founded as a Branch of the
Universal Brotherhood, and among its members, a few elect men would --
if they chose to submit to our conditions, instead of dictating theirs
-- be allowed to begin the study of the occult sciences under the written
directions of a "Brother." But a "hot-bed of magick" we never dreamt of. Such an
organization as mapped out by Mr. Sinnett and yourself is unthinkable among
Europeans; and, it has become next to impossible even in India -- unless you are
prepared to climb to a height of 18,000 to 20,000 amidst the glaciers of the
Himalayas. The greatest as well as most promising of such schools in Europe, the
last attempt
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in this direction, -- failed most signally some 20 years ago in
London. It was the secret school for the practical teaching of magick, founded
under the name of a club, by a dozen of enthusiasts under the leadership of Lord
Lytton's father. He had collected together for the purpose, the most ardent and
enterprising as well as some of the most advanced scholars in mesmerism and
"ceremonial magick," such as Eliphas Levi, Regazzoni, and the Kopt Zergvan-Bey.
And yet in the pestilent London atmosphere the "Club" came to an untimely end. I
visited it about half a dozen of times, and perceived from the first that there
was and could be nothing in it. And this is also the reason why, the British
T.S. does not progress one step practically. They are of the Universal
Brotherhood but in name, and gravitate at best towards Quietism
-- that utter paralysis of the Soul. They are intensely selfish in their
aspirations and will get but the reward of their selfishness.
Nor did we begin the correspondence upon this subject. It was Mr.
Sinnett who, of his own motion addressed to a "Brother" two long letters, even
before Mad. B. had obtained either permission or promise from any of us to
answer him, or knew to whom of us to deliver his letter. Her own chief having
refused point blank to correspond, it was to me that she applied. Moved by
regard for her, I consented even telling her she might give you all my Thibetan
mystic name, and -- I answered our friend's letter. Then came yours -- as
unexpectedly. You did not even know my name! But your first letter was so
sincere, its spirit so promising, the possibilities it opened for doing general
good seemed so great, that if, I did not shout Eureka after reading it,
and thrown my Diogenes' lantern into the bushes at once, it was only because I
knew too well human and -- you must excuse me -- Western nature. Unable,
nevertheless, to undervalue the importance of this letter I carried it to our
venerable Chief. All I could obtain from Him, though, was the permission to
temporarily correspond, and let you speak your whole mind, before giving any
definite promise. We are not gods, and even they, our chiefs -- they hope. Human
nature is unfathomable, and yours is perhaps, more intensely so than any other
man I know of. Your last favour was certainly if not quite a world of
revelation, at least, a very profitable addition to my store of observation of
the Western character, especially that of the modern, highly intellectual
Anglo-Saxon. But it would be a revelation, indeed, to Mad. B. who did not see
it, (and for various reasons had better not) for it might knock off
much of her presumption and faith in her own powers of observation. It might
prove to her among other things that she was as much mistaken in relation to Mr.
Sinnett's attitude in this matter as your own; and
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that I, who had never had the
privilege of your personal acquaintance as she had, knew you far better than she
did. I had positively foretold to her your letter. Rather than have no Society
at all, she was willing to have it upon any terms at first, and then take her
chances afterwards. I had warned her that you were not a man to submit to any
conditions but your own; or even take one step towards the foundation of an
organization -- however noble and great -- unless you received first such proofs
as we generally give but to those, who by a trial of years have proved
themselves thoroughly trustworthy. She rebelled against the notion and assured
that were I but to give you one unimpeachable test of occult powers you would be
satisfied, whereas Mr. Sinnett never would. And now, that both of you have had
such proofs what are the results? While Mr. Sinnett believes -- and will never
repent of it, you have allowed your mind to become gradually filled with odious
doubts and most insulting suspicions. If you will kindly remember my first short
note from Jhelum you will see to what I then referred in saying that you would
find your mind poisoned. You misunderstood me then as you have ever since; for
in it, I did not refer to C. Olcott's letter in the Bombay Gazette
but to your own state of mind. Was I wrong? You not only doubt the "broach
phenomenon" -- you positively disbelieve it. You say to Mad. B. -- that
she may be one of those who believe that bad means are justified by good ends
and -- instead of crushing her with all the scorn such an action is sure to
awaken in a man of your high principles -- you assure her of your unalterable
friendship. Even your letter to me is full of the same suspicious spirit, and
that which you would never forgive in yourself -- the crime of deception -- you
try to make yourself believe you can forgive in another person. My dear Sir,
these are strange contradictions! Having favoured me with such a series of
priceless moral reflexions, advice, and truly noble sentiments, you may perhaps,
allow me in my turn, to give you the ideas of an humble apostle of Truth, an
obscure Hindu, upon that point. As man is a creature born with a free will and
endowed with reason, whence spring all his notions of right and wrong, he does
not per se represent any definite moral ideal. The conception of
morality in general relates first of all to the object or motive, and only then
to the means or modes of action. Hence, if we do not and would never call a
moral man him, who following the rule of a famous religious schemer uses bad
means for a good object, how much less would we call him moral who uses
seemingly good and noble means to achieve a decidedly wicked or contemptible
object? And according to your logic, and once that you confess to such
suspicions, Mad. B. would have to be placed in the first of these categories,
and I in the second. For, while giving her
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to a certain extent the benefit of
the doubt, with myself you use no such superfluous precautions and, you accuse
me unequivocally of setting up a system of deceit. The argument used in my
letter, in regard to "the approbation of the Home Government" you term as "such
very low motives"; and you add to it the following crushing and direct
accusation: "You do not want this Branch (the Anglo-Indian) for work. . . . You
merely want it as a lure to your native brethren. You know it will
be a sham, but it will look sufficiently like the real thing," etc., etc.
This is a direct and positive accusation. I am shown guilty of the pursuit of a
wicked, mean object through low and contemptible means, i.e., false
pretences. . . .
In penning these accusations did you stop to think, that as the projected
organization had something grander, nobler and far more important in view than
the mere gratification of the desires of one solitary person -- however worthy
-- namely in case of success to promote the security and welfare of a whole
conquered nation -- it is just barely possible that that which to your
individual pride may appear a "low motive" is after all but the anxious search
for means which would be the salvation of a whole country ever distrusted and
suspected, the protection by the conqueror of the conquered! You pride yourself
upon not being a "patriot" -- I do not; for, in learning to
love one's country one but learns to love humanity the more. The lack of that
you term "low motives" in 1857 caused my country-men to be
blown by yours from the mouths of their guns. Why then should I not fancy that a
real philanthropist would regard the aspiration for a better understanding
between the Govt. and people of India as a most commendable instead of an
ignoble one? "A fig" say you "for the knowledge and the philosophy on which it
is based," if -- "it would not be of any good to mankind," would not "enable me
to be more useful to my generation," etc. etc. But when you are offered the
means of doing such good you turn away in scorn and taunt us with a "lure" and a
"sham"! Truly wonderful are the contradictions contained in your remarkable
letter. . . . And then, you laugh so heartily at the idea of a "reward" or the
approval "of your fellow-creatures." The reward to which I shall look will be,"
you say -- "in earning my own self-approval." "Self-approval"
which cares so little for the corroborative verdict of the better part of the
world at large, to which the good and noble deeds of one serve as high ideals
and the most powerful stimulants to emulation, is little else than proud and
arrogant egotism. It is Himself against all criticsm; "apres moi -- le deluge"!
-- exclaims the Frenchman with his usual flippancy. "Before Jehovah was,
I am"! says Man -- the ideal of every modern intellectual Englishman.
Gratified as I feel at the idea
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of being the means of affording you so much
merriment, namely in asking you to draft a general plan for the formation of the A. I. Branch, I yet am bound to say again that your laugh was premature in as
much you once more misunderstood entirely my meaning. Had I asked for your help
in the organization of a system for teaching the occult sciences, or a plan for
a "school of magick" the instance brought by you of an ignorant boy asked to
work out "an abstruse problem regarding the motion of a fluid inside another
fluid" might be a happy one. As it is, your comparison falls short of the mark
and the bit of irony hits no one; for my mentioning the subject related merely
to the general plan and outward administration of the projected Society and not
in the least to its esoteric studies; to the Branch of the Universal
Brotherhood not to the "School of Magick" -- the formation of the
former being the sine qua non for the latter. Most assuredly in such
matter as this one -- the organization of an A. I. Branch, to be composed of
Englishmen and meant to serve as a link between the British and the natives --
(the condition being that they who want to share in the secret knowledge, the
inheritance of the children of the soil, must be prepared to accord at least
some privileges hitherto refused to these natives) -- you English people are far
more competent than we to draft a general plan. You know the conditions you
would be likely to accept or reject as we might not. I asked for a skeleton
plan, and you imagined I clamoured for co-operation in the instructions to be
given in spiritual sciences! Most unfortunate qui pro quo -- and yet
Mr. Sinnett seems to have understood my wish at a glance.
Again you seem to show an unfamiliarity with the Hindu mind when you say: "not one in ten thousand native minds is as well prepared to realize and assimilate transcendental truths as mine." However much you may be right in thinking that "amongst English men of Science there are not half a dozen even whose minds are more capable of receiving these rudiments (of occult knowledge) than mine" (yours) -- you are mistaken as to the natives. The Hindu mind is pre-eminently open to the quick and clear perception of the most transcendental, the most abstruse metaphysical truths. Some of the most unlettered ones will seize at a glance that which would often escape the best Western metaphysician. You may be, and most assuredly are our superiors in every branch of physical knowledge; in spiritual sciences we were, are and always will be your -- Masters.
But let me ask you, what can I, a half civilized native, -- think of the
charity, modesty and kindness of one belonging to a superior race; one, whom I
know as a noble minded, just, and kind hearted man in most circumstances, of his
life, when, with all ill-disguised scorn he exclaims: "if you want men to rush
on blind-fold, heed-
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less of ulterior results 1
-- stick to your Olcotts -- (
1 I never said -- I did!) if
you want men of a higher class, whose brains are to work effectually in
your cause, remember . . ." etc. My dear Sir, we neither want men to rush on
blind-fold, nor are we prepared to abandon tried friends -- who
rather pass for fools, than reveal what they may have learnt under a solemn
pledge of never revealing it unless permitted -- even for the chance of getting
men of the very highest class, -- nor are we especially anxious to have
anyone work for us except with entire spontaneity. We want true and unselfish
hearts; fearless and confiding souls, and are quite willing to leave the men of
the "higher class" and far higher intellects to grope their own way to the
light. Such will only look upon us as subordinates.
I believe that these few quotations from your letter and the frank answers
they have called forth, are sufficient to show how far we are from anything like
an entente cordiale. You show a spirit of fierce combativeness and a
desire -- pardon me -- to fight shadows evoked by your own imagination. I had
the honour of receiving three long letters from you even before I had barely
time to answer in general terms your first one. I had never positively
refused to comply with your wishes, never had answered as yet one single
question of yours. How did you know what Future held in store for you, had you
but waited one week? You invite me to a conference only, as it would seem, that
you may show me the defects and weaknesses in our modes of action, and the
causes for our supposed failure to convert humanity from their evil ways. And in
your letter you show plainly that you are the beginning, the middle and the end
of the law to yourself. Then why trouble yourself to write to me at all? Even
that, which you call a "Parthian arrow" was never meant as such. It is not I,
who, unable to get the absolute will depreciate or undervalue the
relative good. Your "little birds" have, no doubt, since you so believe, done
much good in their way and I certainly never dreamt of giving offence by my
remark that the human race and its welfare, were at least as noble a study, and
the latter as desirable an occupation as ornithology. But, I am not quite sure
that your parting remark as to our not being invulnerable as a body is
quite free of that spirit which animated the retreating Parthians. Be it as it
may, we are content to live as we do -- unknown and undisturbed by a
civilization which rests so exclusively upon intellect. Nor do we feel in any
way concerned about the revival of our ancient arts and high civilization, for
these are as sure to come back in their time, and in a higher form as the
Plesiosaurus and the Megatherium in theirs. We have the weakness to believe in
ever recurrent cycles and hope to quicken the resurrection of
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what is
past and gone. We could not impede it even if we would. The "new
civilization" will be but the child of the old one, and we have but to leave the
eternal law to take its own course to have our dead ones come out of their
graves; yet, we are certainly anxious to hasten the welcome event. Fear not;
although we do "cling superstitiously to the relics of the Past" our knowledge
will not pass away from the sight of man. It is the "gift of the gods" and the
most precious relic of all. The keepers of the sacred Light did not safely cross
so many ages but to find themselves wrecked on the rocks of modern scepticism.
Our pilots are too experienced sailors to allow us to fear any such disaster.
We will always find volunteers to replace the tired sentries, and the world, bad
as it is in its present state of transitory period, can yet furnish us with a
few men now and then. You "do not propose moving further in the matter" unless
we make "some further sign"? My dear sir, we have done our duty: we have
responded to your appeal, and now propose to take no further step. We, who have
studied a little Kant's moral teachings, analyzed them somewhat carefully, have
come to the conclusion that even this great thinker's views on that form of duty
(das Sollen) which defines the methods of moral action --
notwithstanding his one-sided affirmation to the contrary -- falls short of a
full definition of an unconditional absolute principle of morality -- as we
understand it. And this Kantian note sounds throughout your letter. You so love
mankind, you say, that were not your generation to benefit by it, you would
reject "Knowledge" itself. And yet, this philanthropic feeling does not even
seem to inspire you with charity towards those you regard as of an inferior
intelligence. Why? Simply because the philanthropy you Western thinkers boast
of, having no character of universality; i.e. never having been established on
the firm footing of a moral, universal principle; never having risen higher than
theoretical talk; and that chiefly among the ubiquitous Protestant preachers, it
is but a mere accidental manifestation but no recognised Law. The most
superficial analysis will show, that, no more than any other empirical
phenomenon in human nature, can it be taken as an absolute standard of moral
activity; i.e. one productive of efficient action. Since, in its empirical
nature this kind of philanthropy is like love, but something accidental,
exceptional, and like that has its selfish preferences and affinities; it
necessarily is unable to warm all mankind with its beneficent rays. This, I
think is, the secret of the spiritual failure and unconscious egotism of this
age. And you, otherwise a good and a wise man, being unconsciously to yourself
the type of its spirit, are unable to understand our ideas upon the Society as a
Universal Brotherhood, and hence -- turn away your face from it.
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Your conscience revolts you say to be made "a stalking horse; the puppet of a
score or more of hidden wire-pullers." What do you know of us since you cannot
see us; what do you know of our aims and objects; of us, of whom you cannot
judge? . . . you ask. Strange arguments. And do you really suppose you would
"know" us, or penetrate any better our "aims and objects" were you to see me
personally? I am afraid, that with no past experience of this kind, even
your natural powers of observation -- however acute -- would have to be
confessed more than useless. Why, my dear Sir, even our Baharoopias can
prove a match any day for the acutest political Resident; and never yet one was
detected or even recognised; and their mesmeric powers are not of the
highest order. However suspicious you might ever feel about the details of
the "brooch" there is one prime feature in the case which your astuteness has
already told you can only be accounted for on the theory of a stronger will
influencing Mrs. Hume to think after that particular object and no other. And if
Mad. B., a sickly woman, must be credited with such powers, are you quite sure
that you yourself would not also be made to succumb to a trained will, ten times
stronger than hers? I could come to you to-morrow, and installing myself in your
house -- as invited -- get an entire domination over your whole mind and body in
24 hours, and you never aware of it for one moment. I may be a good man, but so
I may, for all you know, as easily be a wicked, plotting schemer, hating
profoundly your white race which subjugated and daily humiliates mine, and --
take revenge on you -- one of the best representatives of that race. If the
power of exoteric mesmerism alone were employed -- a power acquired with equal
ease by the bad as by the good man -- even then you could hardly escape the
snares laid out for you, were the man you invited but a good mesmeriser, for --
you are a remarkably easy subject -- from the physical stand-point. "But my
conscience my intuition!" you may argue. Poor help in such a case as mine.
Your intuition would make you feel but that which really was
-- for the time being; and as to your conscience -- you then accept Kant's
definition of it? You, perhaps, believe with him that under all circumstances,
and even with the full absence of definite religious notions, and occasionally
even with no firm notions about right and wrong at all, man has ever a sure
guide in his own inner moral perceptions or -- conscience? The greatest
of mistakes! With all the formidable importance of this moral factor, it has one
radical defect. Conscience as it was already remarked may be well compared to
that demon, whose dictates were so zealously listened to and so promptly obeyed
by Socrates. Like that demon, conscience, may perchance, tell us what we must
not do; yet, it never guides us as to what we ought to perform, nor
gives any
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definite object to our activity. And -- nothing can be more easily
lulled to sleep and even completely paralyzed, as this same conscience by a
trained will stronger than that of its possessor. Your conscience will never
show you whether the mesmeriser is a true adept or a very clever juggler, if he
once has passed your threshold and got control of the aura surrounding your
person. You speak of abstaining from any but an innocent work like
bird-collecting, lest there be danger of creating another Frankenstein's
monster. . . . Imagination as well as will -- creates. Suspicion is the most
powerful provocative agent of imagination. . . . Beware! You have already
begotten in you the germ of a future hideous monster, and instead of the
realization of your purest and highest ideals you may one day evoke a phantom,
which, barring every passage of light will leave you in worse darkness than
before, and, will harass you to the end of your days.
Again expressing the hope that my candour may not give offence, I am, dear Sir, as ever,
Your most obedient Servant,
KOOT HOOMI LAL
SING
A. O. Hume, Esq.
In answer to yours I will have to reply by a rather lengthy letter. To begin with I can say the following: Mr. Hume thinks and speaks of me in a way which need only be noticed so far as it affects the frame of mind in which he proposes to apply to me for philosophical instruction. For his respect I care as little as he for my displeasure. But passing over his superficial disagreeableness I recognize fully his goodness of motive, his abilities, his potential usefulness. We had better get to work again without further parley, and while he perseveres, he will find me ready to help -- but not to flatter, nor to dispute.
So utterly has he misunderstood the spirit in which both the Memo and P.S.
were written, that had he not placed me during the three last days under a debt
of profound gratitude for what he is doing for my poor old chela, I would have
never gone to the trouble of doing what might seem as an excuse, or an
explanation, or both. However that may be, that debt of gratitude is so sacred,
that I now do for her sake, what I might have refused doing even for the
Society: I crave the Sahibs' permission to acquaint them with some facts. With
our Indo-Tibetan ways the most sagacious English official is not yet
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acquainted.
The information now offered may be found useful in our future transactions. I
will have to be sincere and out-spoken and Mr. Hume will have to excuse me. If I
once am forced to speak I must say all, or say -- nothing.
I am not a fine scholar, Sahibs, like my blessed Brother; but nevertheless, I believe, I understand the value of words. And if I do, then am I at a loss to understand, what in my P.S. could have so provoked the ironical displeasure against me of Mr. Hume? We of the Indo-Tibetan hovels never quarrel (this in answer to some expressed thoughts in relation to the subject). Quarrels and even discussions we leave to those, who unable to take in a situation at a glance are thereby forced before making up their final decision to anything to analyse and weigh one by one, and over and over again every detail. Whenever we -- at least those of us who are dikshita -- seem, therefore to an European not "quite sure of our facts" it may be often due to the following peculiarity. That which is regarded by most men as a "fact" to us may seem but a simple result, an after thought unworthy of our attention, generally attracted but to primary facts. Life, esteemed Sahibs, when even indefinitely prolonged, is too short to burden our brains with flitting details -- mere shadows. When watching the progress of a storm we fix our gaze upon the producing Cause and leave the clouds to the whims of the breaze which shapes them. Having always the means on hand -- whenever absolutely needed -- of bringing to our knowledge minor details we concern ourselves but with the main facts. Hence we can hardly be absolutely wrong -- as we are often accused by you, for our conclusions are never drawn from secondary data but from the situation as a whole.
On the other hand, the average man -- even among the most intellectual --
giving all their attention to the testimony of appearance and outward form, and
disabled as they are from penetrating a priori to the core of things
are but too apt to misjudge of the whole situation left to find out their
mistake but when too late. Owing to complicated politics, to debates and what
you term, if I mistake not, -- social talk and drawing-room controversies and
discussions, sophistry has now become in Europe (hence among the Anglo-Indians)
"the logical exercise of the intellectual faculties," while with us it has never
outgrown its pristine stage of "fallacious reasoning," the shaky, insecure
premises from which most of the conclusions and opinions are drawn, formed and
forthwith jumped at. Again, we ignorant Asiatics of Tibet, accustomed to rather
follow the thought of our interlocutor or correspondent than the words he
clothes it in -- concern ourselves generally but little with the accuracy of
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his
expressions. Now this preface will seem as unintelligible as useless to you, and
you may well ask: what is he driving at. Patience, pray, for I have something
more to say before our final explanation.
A few days before leaving us, Koot Hoomi speaking of you said to me as follows: "I feel tired and weary of these never ending disputations. The more I try to explain to both of them the circumstances that control us and that interpose between us so many obstacles to free intercourse, the less they understand me! Under the most favourable aspects this correspondence must always be unsatisfactory, even exasperatingly so, at times; for nothing short of personal interviews, at which there could be discussion and the instant solution of intellectual difficulties as they arise, would satisfy them fully. It is as though we were hallooing to each other across an impassable ravine and only one of us seeing his interlocutor. In point of fact, there is nowhere in physical nature a mountain abyss so hopelessly impassable and obstructive to the traveller as that spiritual one, which keeps them back from me."
Two days later when his "retreat" was decided upon in parting he asked me: "Will you watch over my work, will you see it falls not into ruins?" I promised. What is there I would not have promised him at that hour! At a certain spot not to be mentioned to outsiders, there is a chasm spanned by a frail bridge of woven grasses and with a raging torrent beneath. The bravest member of your Alpine clubs would scarcely dare to venture the passage, for it hangs like a spider's web and seems to be rotten and impassable. Yet it is not; and he who dares the trial and succeeds -- as he will if it is right that he should be permitted -- comes into a gorge of surpassing beauty of scenery -- to one of our places and to some of our people, of which and whom there is no note or minute among European geographers. At a stone's throw from the old Lamasery stands the old tower, within whose bosom have gestated generations of Bodhisatwas. It is there, where now rests your lifeless friend -- my brother, the light of my soul, to whom I made a faithful promise to watch during his absence over his work. And is it likely, I ask you, that but two days after his retirement I, his faithful friend and brother would have gratuitously shown disrespect to his European friends? What reason was there, and what could have caused such an idea in Mr. Hume's and even in your mind? Why a word or two entirely misunderstood and misapplied by him. I'll prove it.
Don't you think that had the expression used "coming to hate the sut-phana"
been changed into and made to read "coming to feel again flashes of dislike" or
of temporary
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irritation this sentence alone would have wonderfully changed the
results? Had it been so phrased Mr. Hume would hardly have
found an opportunity for denying the fact as vigorously as he did. For
there he is right and the word is wrong. It is a perfectly correct statement
when saying that such a feeling as hatred has never existed in him.
Whether he will be as able to protest against the statement in general remains
to be seen. He confessed to the fact that he was "irritated," and to a "feeling
of distrust" created by H.P.B. That "irritation", as he will no longer deny,
lasted for several days? Where does he then find the misstatement? Let
us moreover admit, that the word to use was an incorrect one. Then,
since he is so particular in the choice of words, so desirous that they should
always convey the correct meaning, why not apply the same rule of action to
himself? What might be well excused in an Asiatic ignorant of English and one,
moreover, who never was in the habit of choosing his expressions, for reasons
given above, and because among his people he cannot be
misunderstood ought to -- become inexcusable in an educated, highly
literary Englishman. In his letter to Olcott he writes: "He (I) or she (H.P.B.),
or both between them, so muddled and misunderstood a letter written by Sinnett
and myself as to lead to our receiving a message wholly inapplicable to the
circumstances and such as necessarily to create distrust." Humbly
soliciting permission to put a question -- when did either I, or
she or both of us, see, read and hence "muddled and misunderstood" the
letter in question? How could she, or I, have muddled that, which
she had never seen, and I, having neither inclination nor right to look
into and mix myself in an affair concerning but the Chohan and K. H. -- never
paid the slightest attention to? Did she inform you on the day in question, that
it was in consequence of that letter of yours that I had sent her into Mr.
Sinnett's room with the message? I was there respected Sahibs, and can repeat to
you every word she said: "What is it?. . . What have you been doing, or saying
to K. H." -- she shouted in her usual excited nervous way to Mr. Sinnett who was
alone in the room -- "that M., (naming me) that he should be so angry -- should
tell me to prepare to go and settle our headquarters at Ceylon?" were the first
words she said, thus showing that she knew nothing certain, was
told still less, and simply surmised from what I had told her. And what I
had told her, was simply that she had better prepare for the worse and depart to
settle in Ceylon than make a fool of herself, trembling so over every letter
given to her to forward to K. H.; that unless she learned to control herself
better than she did, I would put a stop to that dak business. These
words
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were said by me to her not because I had anything to do with your
or any letter, nor in consequence of any letter sent, but because I
happened to see the aura all around the new Eclectic and herself, black
and pregnant with future mischief, and I sent her to say so to Mr. Sinnett
not to Mr. Hume. My remark and message upsetting her (owing to that
unfortunate disposition and shattered nerves) in the most ridiculous way, the
well known scene ensued. Is it because of the phantoms of theosophical ruin
evoked by her unbalanced brain that she is now accused -- in my company -- to
have muddled and misunderstood a letter she had never seen? Whether there is in
Mr. Hume's statement one single word that might be called correct -- the term
"correct" being now applied by me to the actual meaning of the whole sentence,
not merely to isolated words -- I leave to the judgment of minds superior to
those of Asiatics. And if I am permitted to question the correctness of opinion
in one, so vastly superior to myself in education, intelligence and acuteness in
the perception of the eternal fitness of things -- in view of the above
explanation, why should I be held as "absolutely wrong" for the following
statement: "I have also seen the growing up of a sudden dislike (say irritation)
begotten of distrust (Mr. Hume confessing to, and using the
identical expression in his answer to Olcott -- please compare quotation from
his letter as given above) on the day I sent her with a message to Mr. Sinnett's
room." Is this incorrect? And further: "they know how excitable and ill balanced
she is, and this hostile feeling on his part was almost cruel. For days he
barely looked at her let alone speaking to her -- and inflicted upon her
supersensitive nature severe and unnecessary pain! And when told of
it by Mr. Sinnett he denied the fact! . . ." This last sentence, continued
on page 7 with many other like truths, I tore out with the rest (as
upon enquiry you can ascertain from Olcott, who will tell you that originally
there were 12 pages, not 10, and that he had sent the letter with far more
details than you now find in it, for he is unaware of what I have done, and
why it was done. Unwilling to remind Mr. Hume of details long forgotten by
him and irrelevant to the case in hand, I tore out the page and obliterated much
of the rest. His feelings had already changed and I was satisfied.)
Now the question is not whether Mr. Hume "cares a two pence" if his feelings
are pleasing to me or not, but rather whether he was warranted by
facts to write to Olcott as he did, i.e., that I had entirely
misunderstood his real feelings. I say he was not. He can no more
prevent me from being "displeased," than I can go to the trouble of making him
feel otherwise than what he now feels, namely, that he does "not care
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a two pence
whether his feelings are pleasing to me or not." All this is childishness; and
he who is desirous to learn how to benefit humanity, and believes himself able
to read the characters of other people, must begin first of all, to learn to
know himself, to appreciate his own character at its true value.
And this, I venture to say, he has never learned yet. And he has also to learn
in what particular cases results may in their turn become important and
primary causes, when the result becomes a Kyen. Had he
hated her with the most bitter hatred, he could not have tortured her
foolishly sensitive nerves more effectually than he has, while "still loving the
dear old woman." He has done so with those he loved best, and, unconsciously to
himself, he will do so more than once in the hereafter; and yet his first
impulse will be always to deny it, for he is indeed fully unconscious
of the fact, the extreme kindness of his heart, being in such cases entirely
blinded and paralyzed by another feeling, which, if told of, he will also deny.
Undismayed by his epithets of "goose" and "Don Quichote," true to my promise to
my Blessed Brother, I will tell him of it whether he likes it or not; for now
that he has openly given expression to his feelings, we have either to
understand each other or break off. This is "no half veiled threat" as he
expresses it for "a threat in a man is like the bark in a dog" -- it means
nothing. I say, that unless he understands how utterly inapplicable to us is the
standard according to which he is accustomed to judge Western people of his own
society, it would simply be a loss of time for me or K. H. to teach and for him
to learn. We never regard a friendly warning as a "threat," nor do we feel
irritated when it is offered to us. He says that personally he does not care in
the least, "were the Brothers to break with him to-morrow," the more reason then
that we should come to an understanding. Mr. Hume prides himself in the thought
that he never had "a spirit of veneration" for anything but his own abstract
ideals. We are perfectly aware of it. Nor could he possibly have any veneration
for anyone or anything, as all the veneration his nature is capable of is --
concentrated upon himself. This is a fact and the cause of all his
life-troubles. When his numerous official "friends" and his own family say that
it is conceit -- they misstate and say a very foolish thing. He is too
highly intellectual to be conceited: he is simply and unconsciously to himself
the embodiment of pride. He would have no veneration for even his
God, were not that God -- of his own creation and making; and that
is why he could neither be made amenable to any established doctrine, nor would
he ever submit to a philosophy that did not come all armed, like the Grecian
Saraswati or Minerva, out of his own
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-- her father's -- brain. This may
throw light upon the fact why I refused giving him during the short period of my
instruction -- anything but half problems, hints and puzzles to solve for
himself. For only then would he believe, when his own extraordinary capacity for
grasping at the nature of things, would clearly show him that it must be so,
since it dovetails with what he conceives to be mathematically correct. If he
accused -- and so unjustly! -- K. H. whom he really affections -- of feeling
"huffish" at his lack of reverence for him -- it is because he built his ideal
of my brother in his own image -- Mr. Hume accuses us of treating him de
haut en bas! If he but knew that in our sight an honest boot-black was as
good as an honest king, and an immoral sweeper far higher and more
excusable than an immoral Emperor -- he would have never uttered such a
fallacy. Mr. Hume complains (thousand pardons -- "laughs" is the correct term)
that we show a desire of sitting upon him. I venture to suggest most
respectfully that it is absolutely vice versa. It is Mr. Hume who
(again unconsciously and yielding but to a life-long habit) tried that most
uncomfortable posture with my brother in every letter he wrote to Koot Hoomi. And
when certain expressions denoting a fierce spirit of self-approbation and
confidence which reached the apex of human pride, were noticed and mildly
contradicted by my brother, Mr. Hume forthwith gave them another meaning and
accusing K. H. of having misunderstood them, called him to himself puffed up and
"huffish." Do I accuse him then, of unfairness, injustice or worse?
Most decidedly not. A more honest, sincere or a kinder man never
breathed on the Himalayas. I know actions of his of which his own family and
lady are utterly ignorant of -- so noble, so kind and grand, that even his own
pride remains blind to their full worth. So that anything he might do or say, is
unable to diminish my respect for him; but with all this, I am forced
to tell him the truth; and while that side of his character has all my
admiration, his pride will never win my approbation, -- for which once more, Mr.
Hume will not care one two pence, but that matters very little, indeed. The most
sincere and outspoken man in India, Mr. Hume is unable to tolerate a
contradiction; and, be that person Dev or mortal, he cannot
appreciate or even permit without protest the same qualities of sincerity in any
other than himself. Nor can he be brought to confess that anyone in this world
can know better than himself anything that he has studied and formed his
opinion thereupon. "They will not set about the joint work in what seems to
me
the best way," he complains of us in his letter to Olcott, and that sentence
alone gives to us the key to his whole character; it gives us the clearest
insight into the
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working of his inner feelings. Having a right -- he thinks --
to regard himself as slighted and wronged, in consequence of such an
"ungenerous," "selfish" refusal to work under his guidance, he cannot
help thinking himself at the bottom of his heart, as a most forgiving,
generous man, who, instead of resenting our refusal is nevertheless
"willing to go on in their (our) way." And this irreverence of ours for his
opinions cannot be pleasing to him; and thus the feeling of this great wrong we
do him rises, and becomes proportional to the magnitude of our "selfishness" and
"huffishness." Hence his disenchantment, and the sincere pain he feels at
finding the Lodge and all of us so much below the mark of his ideal. He
laughs, for my defending H.P.B.; and giving way to a feeling unworthy of his
nature, very unfortunately forgets that his is just the disposition to warrant
friends and foes at calling him "protector of the poor" and like names, and that
his enemies among others, never fail to apply such epithets to himself; and yet,
far from falling upon him as an insult, that chivalrous feeling which has ever
prompted him to take the defence of the weak and the oppressed and to redress
the wrongs done by his colleagues -- as in the last instance of the Simla
municipality row -- it covers him with a garment of undying glory spun out of
the gratitude and affection for him of the people he so fearlessly defends. Both
of you labour under the strange impression that we can, and even do
care for anything that may be said or thought of us. Disabuse your minds, and
remember that the first requisite in even a simple fakir, is that he should have
trained himself to remain as indifferent to moral pain as to physical suffering.
Nothing can give us personal pain or pleasure. And what I now say is,
rather to bring you to understand us than yourselves which is the most
difficult science to learn. That Mr. Hume's intention -- prompted by a feeling
as transient as it was hasty, and due to a sense of growing irritation against
me whom he accused of a desire "to sit upon him" -- was to revenge himself by an
ironical, hence (to the European mind) an insulting fling at me -- is as certain
as that he missed the mark. Ignorant, or rather forgetful of the fact that we
Asiatics, are utterly devoid of that sense of the ridiculous which prompts the
Western mind to caricature the best, the noblest aspirations of mankind -- could
I yet feel offended or flattered by the world's opinion I would have felt rather
complimented than otherwise. My Rajput blood will never permit me to see a woman
hurt in her feelings -- though she be a "visionary," and the now called
"imaginary" wrong but another of her "fancies" -- without defending her; and Mr.
Hume knows enough of our traditions and customs
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to be sufficiently aware of that
remnant of chivalrous feeling for our women in our otherwise degenerated race.
Therefore do I say, that whether hoping that the satirical epithets would reach
and hurt me, or aware of the fact that he was apostrophizeing a granite pillar
-- the feeling that prompted him was unworthy of his nobler and better nature,
as in the first case it was to be regarded as a petty feeling of revenge, and in
the second as childishness. Then in his letter to O. he complains of or
denounces (you must forgive the limited number of English words I have at my
command) the attitude of "half threat" to break with you that he imagines he
finds in our letters. Nothing could be more erroneous. We have no more the
intention of breaking with him, than an orthodox Hindu has of leaving the house
he is visiting until told that his company is no more wanted. But when the
latter is hinted to him he leaves. So with us. Mr. Hume quite prides himself at
repeating that personally he has no desire to see us, no curiosity to meet us;
that our philosophy and teaching cannot benefit him in the least,
him who has learnt and knows all that can be learnt; that he cares not a
snap whether we break with him or not, nor is he in the least concerned whether
we are pleased with him or not. Qui bono then? Between the (by him)
imagined reverence we expect from him, and that uncalled for combativeness,
which may degenerate at any day with him, into unexpressed yet real hostility,
there is an abyss and no middle ground that even the Chohan can see. Though he
cannot now be accused of not making, as in the past, any allowance for
circumstances and our own peculiar rules and laws, yet he is always hurrying
towards that black borderland of amity, where trust is obscured and dark
suspicions and erroneous impressions cloud the whole horizon. I, am as I was;
and, as I was and am, so am I likely always to be -- the slave of my duty to the
Lodge and mankind, not only taught, but desirous to subordinate every preference
for individuals to a love for the human race. It is gratuitous, therefore, to
accuse me or any one of us of selfishness, and desire to regard or treat you as
"paltry Pelingis" and to "ride donkeys," only because we are unable to find
convenient horses. Neither the Chohan, nor K. H., nor myself ever under valued
Mr. Hume's worth. He has done invaluable service to the Th. Soc. and to H.P.B.
and is alone capable of making the Society an efficient agent for good. When the
spiritual soul is left to guide him, no purer, no better, nor kinder man can be
found. But, when his fifth principle rises in irrepressible pride, we
will always confront and challenge it. Unmoved by his excellent worldly counsel
as to how you should be armed with proofs
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of our reality, or how you should set
about the joint work in the way that seems the best to him, I will remain so
unmoved, till I receive contrary orders. Referring to your last letter (Mr.
Sinnett's) clothe your ideas as you may, in the pleasantest of phrases, you are
nevertheless surprised and as regards Mr. Sinnett disappointed, that I should
neither accord permission for phenomena nor yet any of us make one step towards
you. I cannot help it, and whatever the consequences there will be no change in
my attitude until my Brother's return among the living. You know both of us love
our country and our race; that we regard the Theos. Society as a great
potentiality for their good in proper hands; that he has joyfully welcomed Mr.
Hume's identification with the cause and that I have placed a high -- but only a
proper -- value upon it. And so you ought to realize that whatever we could
do to bind you and him closer to us we would do with all our heart. But still if
the choice lies between our disobeying the lightest injunction of our Chohan as
to when we may see either of you, or what we may write, or how, or where, and
the loss of your good opinion, even the feeling of your strong animosity and the
disruption of the Society, we should not hesitate a single instant. It may be
considered unreasonable, selfish, huffish and ridiculous, denounced as
jesuitical and the blame all lain at our door, but law is law with us, and no
power can make us abate one jot or tittle of our duty. We have given you a
chance to obtain all you desired by improving your magnetism, by pointing you to
a nobler ideal to work up to and Mr. Hume has been shown what he already knew
how he may benefit immensely some millions of his fellow men. Choose according
to your best light. Your choice is made I know -- but Mr. Hume may yet change
his ideas more than once; I shall be the same to my group and promise whatever
he may determine. Nor, do we fail to appreciate the great concessions made
already by him; concessions the more great in our sight, as he becomes less
interested in our existence, and makes a violence to his feelings solely in the
hope of benefitting humanity. No one in his place would have accommodated
himself to his situation with such a good grace as he has, or stood more
strictly upon the declaration "of primary objects" at the meeting of 21st Aug.;
while "proving to the native community that members of the ruling class" also
are desirous of promoting the commendable projects of the T.S., he bides his
time, for even the obtaining of our metaphysical truths. He has already done an
immense good and has yet received nothing in return. Nor does he expect
anything. Reminding you that the present is an answer to all your
letters, and to all your ob-
p.227
jections and suggestions, I may add that you are
right and that in spite of all "your earthiness" my blessed Brother certainly
entertains a real regard for you, and Mr. Hume, who I am happy to find has some
good feeling for him, though he is not like you and really is "too
proud to look for his reward in our protection." Only where you are and will be
ever wrong, my dear sir, it is in entertaining the idea that phenomena can ever
become "a powerful engine" to shake the foundations of erroneous beliefs in the
Western mind. None but those who see for themselves will ever believe do what
you may. "Satisfy us and then we will satisfy the world," you once said. You
were satisfied and what are the results? And I wish I could impress upon your
minds the deep conviction that we do not wish Mr. Hume or you to prove
conclusively to the public that we really exist. Please realize the fact that so
long as men doubt there will be curiosity and enquiry, and that enquiry
stimulates reflection which begets effort; but let our secret be once thoroughly
vulgarized and not only will sceptical society derive no great good but our
privacy would be constantly endangered and have to be continually guarded at an
unreasonable cost of power. Have patience, friend of my friend. It took Mr. Hume
years to kill enough birds to make up his book; and he did not command them to
leave their leafy retreats, but had to wait for them to come and let him stuff
and label them: so must you be patient with us. Ah, Sahibs, Sahibs! if you could
only catalogue and label us and set us up in the British Museum, then
indeed might your world have the absolute, the dessicated truth.
And so it all comes around again as usual to the starting point. You have been chasing us around your own shadows, just catching a vanishing glimpse of us now and again, but never coming near enough to escape the gaunt skeleton of suspicion that is at your heel and stares you in the future. So I fear may be to the end of the chapter, as you not have the patience to read the volume to its end. For you are trying to penetrate the things of the spirit with the eyes of the flesh, to bend the inflexible to your own crude model of what should be, and finding it will not bend, you are as likely as not to break that model and -- bid good-bye for ever to the dream.
And now for a few parting words of explanation. O's memo, which produced such
disastrous results and a most unique qui proquo, was written
on the 27th. On the night of the 25th, my beloved Brother told me, that having
heard Mr. Hume say in H.P.B.'s room that he had never himself heard O. state to
him that, he, O., had personally seen us, and also had heard add, that were
Olcott to tell him so, he had confidence enough
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in the man to believe in what he
said, -- he, K. H. thought of asking me to go and tell O. to do so; believing it
might please Mr. Hume to learn some of the details. K. H. wishes are -- law to
me. And that is why Mr. Hume received that letter from O., at a time when his
doubts were already settled. At the same time as I delivered my message to O., I
satisfied his curiosity as to your Society and told what I thought of it. O.
asked my permission to send to you these notes which I accorded. Now, that is
the whole secret. For reasons of my own I desired you should know what
I thought of the situation, a few hours after my beloved Brother, went out of
this world. When the letter reached you my feelings were somewhat changed and I
altered, as said before, the memo a good deal. As O's style had made me laugh, I
added my postcriptum which related solely to Olcott, but was
nevertheless applied wholly by Mr. Hume to himself!
Let us drop it. I close the longest letter I have ever written in my life; but as I do it for K. H. -- I am satisfied. Though Mr. Hume may not think it, the "mark of the adept" is kept at --- ---- not at Simla, and I try to keep up to it, however poor I may be as a writer and a correspondent.
M.
1 Written to A. O. Hume-- ED.
Private.
My dear Brother.
Perhaps, a week ago, I would have hardly failed to embrace this available
opportunity and say that your letter concerning Mr. Fern is as complete a
misrepresentation of the spirit, and above all, of the attitude of M. towards
the said young gentleman, as your complete ignorance of the aim he is pursuing
could produce -- and I would have said no more. But now, things have changed;
and though you have "come to know that we" did not really possess the
power of reading minds as had been pretended, nevertheless, we know
enough of the spirit in which my last letters were received, and of the
dissatisfaction produced, -- to suspect, if not to know that unwelcome as truth
may often come, yet the time has arrived for me to speak frankly and openly with
you. Lying is a refuge to the weak, and we are sufficiently strong, even with
all the shortcomings you are pleased to discover in us, to dread truth very
little; nor are we likely to lie, only because it is
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to our interest to
appear wise concerning matters of which we are ignorant. Thus, perchance it
might have been more prudent to remark that you knew that we did not really
possess the power of reading minds, unless we brought ourselves thoroughly
en rapport with, and concentrated an undivided attention on, the person
whose thoughts we wanted to know -- since that would be an undeniable fact,
instead of a gratuitous assumption as it now stands in your letter. However it
may be, I now find but two ways before us, with not the smallest path for
compromise. Henceforth, if your desire is that we should work together, we must
do so on a footing of perfect understanding. You will be at perfect liberty to
tell us -- since you seem, or rather have brought yourself to sincerely believe
it -- that most of us, owing to the mystery that enshrouds us, live by getting
credit for knowing what we really do not know; while I, for instance,
will be as entitled as you are, to let you know what I may think of you,
yourself meanwhile promising, that you will not laugh at it outwardly,
and bear a grudge for it inwardly (something that notwithstanding your
efforts you can rarely help) but that, in case I am mistaken you will prove it
by some demonstration weightier than a mere denial. Unless you bind yourself by
such a promise, it is utterly useless for any of us to be losing our time in
controversies and correspondences. Better shake hands astrally, across space,
and wait until either you have acquired the gift of discerning truth from
falsehood to a greater degree than you now have it; or, that we are shown to be
no better than impostors (or still worse -- lying spooks); or finally, that some
one of us is in a position to demonstrate our existence to yourself or Mr.
Sinnett -- not astrally, for that might only strengthen the "Spirit" theory but
-- by visiting you personally.
Since it becomes quite hopeless to convince you that even we occasionally, do read other people's thoughts, may I hope that you will credit us, at least, with a sufficient knowledge of the English language not to have entirely misunderstood your very plain letter? And, to believe me, when I say, that having perfectly understood it, I answer you as plainly "as My dearest Brother, you are egregiously mistaken from first to last!" Your whole letter is based upon a misconception, an entire ignorance of "missing links," which alone may have given you a true key to the whole situation. What can you mean by the following?
My dear Master.
Amongst you you are utterly spoiling Fern -- it is a thousand pities -- for he is really a good fellow at heart and he has an intense desire for occult knowledge -- and strong will and a great capacity for self-mortification -- he would I am sure be useful for your purposes; but his self-conceit is growing intolerable
p.230
and he is becoming a confirmed fabricator of fiction and this is due to you all. He has thoroughly humbugged Morya!! from the first -- and he has gone persistently lying to Sinnett to keep up the delusion he has got Morya to entrust him with secrets and to accept him as a chela and he now thinks himself a match for anyone. . . .Morya replies quite falling into the trap . . . this fraud no doubt commenced in (y)our interests . . . etc. etc. etc.
It is unnecessary for me to repeat once more what I have said before; namely,
that up to receiving your first letter concerning Mr. Fern, I had never given
him one moment's attention. Who then, amongst us -- spoils
that young gentleman? Is it Morya? Well, it is easy to see, that you know still
less of him, than he knows, in your conceptions, of what you have in your mind.
"He has thoroughly humbugged Morya." Has he? I am sorry to be obliged
to confess that, in accordance with your Western code it would look rather the
reverse; that it was my beloved Brother who "humbugged" Mr. Fern -- had not the
ill-sounding term another meaning with us, as also another name. The latter of
course, may appear to you still more "revolting," since even Mr. Sinnett, who is
but the echo in that of every English Society man, regards it as thoroughly
revolting to the feelings of the average Englishman. That other name is --
probation; something every chela who does not want to remain simply ornamental,
has nolens volens to undergo for a more or less prolonged period;
something that -- for this very reason that it is undoubtedly based upon what
you Westerns would ever view as a system of humbug or deception -- that
I, who knew European ideas better than Morya, have always refused to accept or
even to regard any of you two as -- chelas. Thus, what you have now
mistaken for "humbug" as coming from Mr. Fern, you would have charged M. with
it, had you only known a little more than you do of our policy; whereas the
truth is, that one is utterly irresponsible for much he is now doing, and that
the other is carrying out that of which he has honestly warned Mr. Fern
beforehand; that, which, -- if you have read, as you say, the correspondence --
you must have learned from H.P.B.'s letter to Fern from Madras, that in her
jealousy for M.'s favours, she wrote to him to Simla, hoping she would thereby
frighten him off. A chela under probation is allowed to think and do whatever he
likes. He is warned and told beforehand: you will be tempted and deceived by
appearances; two paths will be open before you, both leading to the goal you are
trying to attain; one easy, and that will lead you more rapidly to the
fulfilment of orders you may receive; the other -- more arduous, more long; a
path full of stones and thorns that will make you stumble more than once on your
way; and, at the end of which you may,
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perhaps, find failure after all and be
unable to carry out the orders given for some particular small work, -- but,
whereas the latter will cause the hardships you have undergone on it to be all
carried to the side of your credit in the long run, the former, the easy path,
can offer you but a momentary gratification, an easy fulfilment of the task. The
chela is at perfect liberty, and often quite justified from the
standpoint of appearances -- to suspect his Guru of being "a fraud" as the
elegant word stands. More than that: the greater, the sincerer his indignation
-- whether expressed in words or boiling in his heart -- the more fit he is, the
better qualified to become an adept. He is free to, and will not be
held to account for using the most abusive words and expressions regarding his
guru's actions and orders, provided he comes out victorious from the fiery
ordeal; provided he resists all and every temptation; rejects every allurement,
and proves that nothing, not even the promise of that which he holds dearer than
life, of that most precious boon, his future adeptship -- is unable to make him
deviate from the path of truth and honesty, or force him to become a
deceiver. My dear Sir, we will hardly ever agree in our ideas of things,
and even of the value of words. You have once upon a time called us Jesuits;
and, viewing things as you do, perhaps, you were right to a certain extent
in so regarding us, since apparently our systems of training do not
differ much. But it is only externally. As I once said before, they
know that what they teach is a lie; and we know that what we
impart is truth, the only truth and nothing but the truth. They work
for the greater power and glory (!) of their order; we -- for the power
and final glory of individuals, of isolated units, of humanity in general, and
we are content, nay forced -- to leave our Order and its
chiefs entirely in the shade. They work, and toil, and deceive, for the
sake of worldly power in this life; we work and toil, and allow our
chelas to be temporarily deceived, to afford them means never
to be deceived hereafter, and to see the whole evil of falsity and untruth, not
alone in this but in many of their after lives. They -- the Jesuits
sacrifice the inner principle, the Spiritual brain of the ego, to feed and
develop the better the physical brain of the personal evanescent man,
sacrificing the whole humanity to offer it as a holocaust to their Society --
the insatiable monster feeding on the brain and marrow of humanity, and
developing an incurable cancer on every spot of healthy flesh it touches. We --
the criticized and misunderstood Brothers -- we seek to bring men to sacrifice
their personality -- a passing flash -- for the welfare of the whole humanity,
hence for their own immortal Egos, a part of the latter, as humanity is
a fraction of the integral whole, that it will one day become. They are
trained to deceive; we -- to undeceive; they do the scavenger's work
themselves -- barring a few poor sincere tools of
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theirs -- con amore,
and for selfish ends; we -- leave it to our menials -- the dugpas at
our service, by giving them carte blanche for the time being, and with
the sole object of drawing out the whole inner nature of the chela,
most of the nooks and corners of which, would remain dark and concealed for
ever, were not an opportunity afforded to test each of these corners in turn.
Whether the chela wins or loses the prize -- depends solely of himself. Only,
you have to remember that our Eastern ideas about "motives" and "truthfulness"
and "honesty" differ considerably from your ideas in the West. Both we believe
that it is moral to tell the truth and immoral to lie; but here every analogy
stops and our notions diverge in a very remarkable degree. For instance it would
be a most difficult thing for you to tell me, how it is that your civilized
Western Society, Church and State, politics and commerce have ever come to
assume a virtue that it is quite impossible for either a man of education, a
statesman, a trader, or anyone else living in the world -- to practice in an
unrestricted sense? Can any one of the above mentioned classes -- the flower of
England's chivalry, her proudest peers and most distinguished commoners, her
most virtuous and truth speaking ladies -- can any of them speak the truth, I
ask, whether at home, or in Society, during their public functions or in the
family circle? What would you think of a gentleman, or a lady, whose affable
politeness of manner and suavity of language would cover no falsehood; who, in
meeting you would tell you plainly and abruptly what he thinks of you, or of
anyone else? And where can you find that pearl of honest tradesmen or that
god-fearing patriot, or politician, or a simple casual visitor of yours, but
conceals his thoughts the whole while, and is obliged under the penalty of
being regarded as a brute, a madman -- to lie deliberately, and with a
bold face, no sooner he is forced to tell you what he thinks of you; unless for
a wonder his real feelings demand no concealment? All is lie, all
falsehood, around and in us, my brother; and that is why you seemed so
surprised, if not affected, whenever you find a person, who will tell you
bluntly truth to your face; and also why it seems impossible for you to realize
that a man may have no ill feelings against you, nay even like and
respect you for some things, and yet tell you to your face what he honestly and
sincerely thinks of you. 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) -- you say he has "a peculiar mode
of expressing himself to say the least." Now, that "way" is simply the bare
truth, which he is ready to write to yourself, or even say and repeat to your
face, without the least concealment or change -- (unless he has pur-
p.233
posely
allowed the expressions to be exaggerated for the same purposes as mentioned
above); and he is -- of all the men I know just the one to do it without the
least hesitation! And for this, you call him "an imperious sort of chap very
angry if he is opposed," but add, that you "bear him for it no malice, and like
him none the less for that." Now this is not so, my brother, and
you know it.
However, I am prepared to concede the definition in a limited sense, and to
admit and repeat with you (and himself at my elbow) that he is a very
imperious sort of chap, and certainly very apt sometimes to become
angry, especially if he is opposed in what he knows to be right. Would you think
more of him, were he to conceal his anger; to lie to himself
and the outsiders, and so permit them to credit him with a virtue he has not? If
it is a meritorious act to extirpate with the roots all feelings of anger, so as
to never feel the slightest paroxysm of a passion we all consider sinful, it is
a still greater sin with us to pretend that it is so extirpated. Please
read over the "Elixir of Life" No. 2 (April, p. 169 col. 1, paras. 2, 3, 4, 5,
and 6). And yet in the ideas of the West, everything is brought down to
appearances even in religion. A confessor does not inquire of his penitent
whether he felt anger, but whether he has shown anger to
anyone. "Thou shalt in lying, stealing, killing, etc. avoid being detected"
-- seems to be the chief commandment of the Lord gods of civilization -- Society
and Public opinion. That is the sole reason why you, who belong to it, will
hardly if ever be able to appreciate such characters as Morya's: a man as stern
for himself, as severe for his own shortcomings, as he is indulgent for the
defects of other people, not in words but in the innermost feelings of
his heart; for, while ever ready to tell you to your face anything he may think
of you, he yet was ever a stauncher friend to you than myself, who may often
hesitate to hurt anyone's feelings, even in speaking the strictest truth. Thus,
were M. one to ever descend to an explanation he could have told you: "My
Brother, in my opinion you are intensely egotistical and haughty. In your
appreciation and self-adulation you generally lose sight of the rest of mankind,
and I verily believe that you regard the whole universe created for man, and
that man -- yourself. If I cannot bear to be opposed when I know I am
right, you can bear contradiction still less, even when your conscience plainly
tells you that you are wrong. You are unable to forget -- though I
admit that you are one to forgive -- the smallest slight. And,
sincerely believing yourself to have been so slighted, by me (sat upon
-- as you once expressed it) to this day the supposed offence exercises a silent
influence over all your thoughts in connexion with my humble individual. And
though your great intellect will ever prevent any vindictive feelings from
asserting themselves and thus over-ruling
p.234
your better nature, yet they are not
without a certain influence even over your reasoning faculties, since you find
pleasure (though you will hardly admit it to yourself) -- in devising means to
catch me tripping to the length of representing me in your imagination a
fool, a credulous ignoramus capable of falling into the traps of a -- Fern!
Let us reason, my Brother. Let us put entirely aside the fact of my being an
initiate, an adept -- and reason out the position your imaginative faculties
have created for me, like two common mortals with a certain dose of common sense
in mine, and a great dose of the same in your head. If you are prepared to
concede me even so little, I am prepared to prove to you that it is absurd to
think that I could have been taken in in the meshes of so poor a
scheme! You write that in order to test me, Fern wanted to know "if
Morya wished it (his vision) published -- and Morya replies quite falling into
the trap that he did wish it." Now, to credit the last assertion is rather hard;
and it needs a man of but moderate good sense and reasoning powers to perceive
that there are two insuperable difficulties in the way of reconciling your
foregoing opinion of myself and the belief that I was actually caught in the
trap. 1st: The substance and text of the vision. In that vision there are
three mysterious beings -- the "guru" -- the "Mighty one" and the "Father"; --
the latter one being your humble servant. Now it is hard to believe -- unless I
am credited with faculties of a hallucinated medium -- that I, knowing
well that I had never approached, until then, the young gentleman from within a
mile's distance, nor had I ever visited him in his dreams -- that I should
believe the reality of the vision described, or that, at least, my suspicions
should not have been aroused by such a strange assertion.
2nd. The difficulty of reconciling the double fact of my being "an imperious
chap" who gets very angry when opposed, and, my quiet submission to the
disobedience, the rebellion of a chela under probation, who upon
learning that "Morya did wish it -- i.e. to have his vision published
-- and had actually promised to rewrite it, never thought of obeying the wish
after that, nor had the poor fatuous guru and "Father" thought any more
of the matter. Now the whole of the foregoing would be made quite plain even to
a man of an average intellect. The reverse having happened, and a man of
undoubtedly great intellectual and still greater reasoning powers,
having been caught in the poorest cobweb of falsehoods ever imagined -- the
conclusion is imperative and no other can be formed: that man allowed, unknown
to himself, to have his little vindictive feeling gratified at the expense of
his logic and good sense. Buss, and we will talk no more of it. With
all that, and while openly expressing my dislike for your haughtiness and
selfishness in many things, I frankly recognise
p.235
and express my admiration for
your many other admirable qualities, for your sterling merits, and good sense in
everything unconnected directly with yourself, -- in which cases you become as
imperious as myself, only far more impatient -- and heartily hope you will
pardon me for my blunt -- and according to your western code of manners --
rude talk. At the same time, like yourself, I will say, that not only do I
not bear you malice, and like you none the less for that -- but that what I say
is a strict reality, the expression of my genuine feelings, not merely words
written to satisfy a sense of assumed duty."
And now, that I have made myself the spokesman unto you for Morya, I may,
perhaps be permitted to say a few words for myself. I will begin by reminding
you, that at different times, especially during the last two months, you have
repeatedly offered yourself as a chela, and the first duty of one is to
hear without anger or malice anything the guru may say. How can we ever
teach or you learn if we have to maintain an attitude utterly
foreign to us and our methods: -- that of two Society men? If you really want to
be a chela i.e. to become the recipient of our mysteries, you
have to adapt yourself to our ways, not we to yours. Until you
do so, it is useless for you to expect any more than we can give under ordinary
circumstances. You wanted to teach Morya, and you may find out, (and will
if I am allowed by M. to have my own way) that he has taught you one, which will
either make us friends and brothers for ever, or, -- if there is more of the
Western gentleman in you, than of the Eastern chela and future adept
you will break with us in disgust and perhaps proclaim it all over the world.
For this we are all prepared and are trying to hurry on the crisis one way or
the other. November is fast approaching and by that time everything has to be
settled. The second question: do not you think good Brother, that the
uncivilized, imperious chap who would tell you his mind, honestly and for your
own good, and, at the same time would be carefully though unseen -- protecting
yourself, family and reputation from any possible harm -- aye, brother, to the
length of watching for nights and days a ruffian Mussulman menial bent upon
having his revenge of you and actually destroying his evil plans -- do not you
think him worth ten times his weight in gold, a British Resident, a
gentleman, who tears down your reputation to shreds behind your back and
will smile upon and heartily shake hands with you whenever he meets you? Do not
you think that it is far nobler to say what one thinks, and having said -- that
even which you will naturally regard as an impertinence -- and then render to
the person so treated all manner of services of which he is never likely to hear
not only to find them out -- than to do what the highly civilized Colonel or
General Watson and especially his lady have done, when upon seeing for
p.236
the first
time in their lives the two strangers in their house -- Olcott and a native
judge in Baroda -- took a pretext to disparage the Society -- because you
were in it! I will not repeat to you the lies they were guilty of,
the exaggerations and slanders directed against you by Mrs. Watson, and
corroborated by her husband -- the gallant soldier, so struck and unruffled was
poor Olcott, by the unexpected attack -- he who feels so proud of your belonging
to the Society that he appealed in his dismay to M. Had you heard what was told
by the latter of you, how much he appreciated your present work and frame of
mind you would have willingly conceded him the right of being occasionally
apparently rude. He forbade him telling any more than what he had already
told to H.P.B. and which -- woman-like -- she immediately imparted to Mr.
Sinnett -- though angry as she was with you at the time even she resented the
insult and offence done to you deeply -- and went actually to the trouble of
looking back into that past when as Mrs. Watson said you were receiving the
hospitality at their house. Such is then, the difference between alleged well
wishers and friends of Western superior origin, and the as alleged-ill-wishers
of the Eastern inferior race. Apart from this I concede to you the
right of feeling angry with M.; for he has done something that though it is in
strict accordance with our rules and methods, will, when known be deeply
resented by a Western mind, and, had I known it in time to stop it, I would have
certainly prevented it from being done. It is certainly very kind of Mr. Fern to
express his intention "to catch" us -- "not of course to expose the Old Lady,"
for what has the poor "Old Lady" to do with all this? But he is quite welcome to
catch us and even to expose us, not only for his and your
protection but for that of the whole world if it can in any way console him for
his failure. And fail he will, that's certain, if he goes on in that
way playing a double game. The option of receiving him or not as a regular chela
-- remains with the Chohan. M. has simply to have him tested, tempted and
examined by all and every means, so as to have his real nature drawn out. This
is a rule with us as inexorable as it is disgusting in your Western sight, and I
could not prevent it even if I would. It is not enough to know thoroughly what
the chela is capable of doing or not doing at the time and under the
circumstances during the period of probation. We have to know of what he may
become capable under different and every kind of opportunities. Our precautions
are all taken. None of our Upasika or Yu-posah, neither H.P.B.
nor O., nor even Damodar, nor any of them can be incriminated. He is welcome to
show every letter in his possession, and to divulge that, which was offered to
him to do, (the choice between the two paths being left at his option)
and that which he has actually done, or rather
p.237
not done. When
the time comes -- if it ever comes to his misfortune -- we have the means to
show how much of it is true, and how much wrong and invented by him. In the
meanwhile, I have an advice to offer. Watch and do not say a word. He
was, is, and will be tempted to do all manner of wrong things. As I
say, I knew nothing of what was going on till the other day; when learning that
even my name was indirectly mixed in the probation, I warned whom I had
to warn, and forbid strictly my own business being mixed up with it. Yet, he is
a magnificent subject for clairvoyance, and not at all as bad as you think him.
He is conceited -- but who is not? Who of us is entirely free from this defect.
He may imagine and say what he likes, but that you should allow
yourself to be so carried away with a prejudice the existence of which you are
not even prepared to admit, is surpassingly strange! You sincerely crediting the
statement that M. was humbugged and caught into the trap by
Mr. Fern is something really too ludicrous, when even O. not only the "Old Lady"
never believed in it, since they knew he was to be under probation, and also
knew what the thing meant. M. took pains a few days ago, to prove to you that he
was never taken in, as you hoped, and that he laughed at the very idea;
and most certainly Olcott will give you a good proof of it, albeit he is in the
interior of Ceylon at this moment, where no letters let alone telegrams can
reach. Nor was this "fraud" -- if you will call it so, ever commenced in our
interests, for the simple reason that we have no interest in it -- but
in that of Mr. Fern and the Society, in the ideas of H P.B. But why call it
fraud? He asked her advice, he worried and supplicated her, and she told
him -- "Work for the cause; try to enquire and search and so to obtain every
evidence you can of the existence of the Brothers. You see they will not come
this year, but there are plenty of Lamas descending every year to Simla and the
neighbourhood, and so, get all the evidence you can for yourself and Mr. Hume,
etc." Is there anything wrong in this? When she received the MSS containing his
vision, she asked M. and he who is called in it "the mighty One" and the
"Father" and what not, told her the truth and then ordered her to ask
Mr. Fern whether he would publish it, telling her and O. beforehand that he
would not. What Morya knows of this and other visions, he alone knows
and even I will never interfere in his ways of training, however
distasteful they may be to me personally. The "Old Lady" since you ask me, will
of course know nothing. But you must know that since she went to Baroda, she has
a worse opinion of Fern than even yourself. She learned there certain things of
him and of Brookes, and heard others from the latter, he being as you know the
Baroda Mejnoor of Fern's. She is a woman though she be an
p.238
Upasika
(female disciple) and except on occult matters can hardly hold her tongue.
I believe we had enough of this. Whatever has or will yet happen it will affect
but Fern -- no one else.
I hear of the projected grand theosophical Conversazione -- and if,
at that time you are still theosophists, of course it is better that it
should be in your house. And now, I would like to say to you a few parting
words. Notwithstanding the painful knowledge I have of your chief and almost one
defect -- one that you have yourself confessed to in your letter to me, I wish
you to believe me, my dearest Brother, when I say that my regard and respect for
you in all other things is great and very sincere. Nor, am I likely to forget,
whatever happens, that for many months past, without expecting or asking for any
reward or advantage for yourself you have worked and toiled, day after day, for
the good of the Society and of humanity at large in the only hope of doing good.
And, I pray you, good Brother, not to regard as "reproaches" any simple remarks
of mine. If, I have argued with you, it was because I was forced to do so, since
the Chohan regarded them (your suggestions) as something quite
unprecedented; claims, in his position, not to be listened to for one moment.
Though you may now regard the arguments directed against you in the light of
"undeserved reproaches," yet you may recognise some day, that you were really
"wanting unreasonable concessions." The fact that, your pressing proposals, that
you -- (not anyone else) -- should, if possible be allowed to acquire
some phenomenal gift, which would be used in convincing others, -- though it may
be accepted as standing simply, in its dead letter sense "as a
suggestion for (my) consideration" and that it, "in no way constituted a
claim" -- yet for anyone who could read beneath the surface of the lines,
it appeared as a definite claim, indeed. I have all your letters, and there is
hardly one that does not breathe the spirit of a determined claim, a
deserved request, i.e., a demand of that which is due and the
rejection of which gives you a right to feel yourself wronged. I doubt not, that
such was not your intention in penning them. But such was your secret
thought and that innermost feeling was always detected by the Chohan, whose name
you several times used, and who took note of it. You undervalue what you got so
far on the ground of inconsistency and incompleteness? I have asked
you: take notes of the former, beginning with the inconsistencies -- as you
regard them -- in our first arguments pro and con the
existence of God and ending with the supposed contradictions in respect to
"accidents" and "suicides." Send then to me and I will prove to you that there
is not one for him who knows well the whole doctrine. It is strange to accuse
one, in the full possession of his brains that on Wednesday he wrote one thing,
and on Saturday or Sunday next had all
forgotten
p.239
about it and contradicted
himself point blank! I do not think even our H.P.B. with her ridiculously
impaired memory could be guilty of such a complete oblivion. In your opinion "it
is not worth while to be working merely for the second class minds," and you
propose following out the line of such an argument, either to get all,
or leave of the work entirely if you cannot get out immediately "a
scheme of philosophy, which will bear the scrutiny and criticism of such men as
Herbert Spencer." To this I reply that you sin against the multitudes. It is not
among the Herbert Spencers and Darwins or the John Stuart Mills that the
millions of Spiritualists now going intellectually to the dogs are to be found,
but it is they who form the majority of the "second class minds." If you had but
patience, you would have received all that you would like to get out of our
speculative philosophy -- meaning by "speculative" that it would have to
remain such, of course, to all but adepts. But really, my dear brother you are
not overloaded with that virtue. However I still fail to see, why you should be
disheartened with the situation.
Whatever happens, I hope you may not resent the friendly truths you have
heard from us. Why should you? Would you resent the voice of your conscience
whispering to you that you are at times unreasonably impatient, and not at all
as forbearing as you yourself should like to be? True, you have been labouring
for the cause without remission for many months and in many directions; but you
must not think that because we have never shown any knowledge of
what you have been doing, nor that, because we have never acknowledged or
thanked you for it in our letters -- that we are either ungrateful for, or
ignore purposely or otherwise what you have done, for it is really not so. For,
though no one ought to be expecting thanks, for doing his duty by humanity and
the cause of truth, -- since, after all, he who labours for others, labours but
for himself -- nevertheless, my Brother I feel deeply grateful to you for what
you have done. I am not very demonstrative by nature but I do hope to prove to
you some day, that I am not an ingrate, as you think. And you yourself, though
you have been, indeed, forbearing in your letters to me, in not complaining
about what you call the flaws and inconsistencies in our letters, yet, you have
not carried so far that forbearance, as to leave to time and further
explanations the task of deciding whether such flaws were real or only
apparently so upon their surface. You have always complained to Sinnett and
even, in the beginning, to Fern. If you but consented for five minutes or so to
fancy yourself in the position of a native guru and a European
chela, you would soon perceive how monstrous must appear any such relations
as ours to a native mind; and you would blame no one for disrespect. Now, pray,
understand me;
p.240
I do not complain; but the bare fact of your addressing
me as "Master" in your letters -- makes me the laughing-stock of all our
Tchutukhus who know anything of our mutual relations. I would never have
mentioned this fact, but that I am in a position to demonstrate to you by
enclosing here a letter from Subba Row to myself -- full of excuses,
and another to H.P.B. -- as full of sincere truths, -- since they are
both chelas, or rather disciples. I hope I am not committing an indiscretion --
in the Western sense. You will please return to me both after reading them and
noting what they say. This is sent to you in strict confidence and only for your
personal instructions. You will perceive therein, how much you English have to
undo in India, before you can hope to do anything good in the
country. Meanwhile, I must close, reiterating to you once more the assurance of
my sincere regards and esteem.
Yours
K. H.
Believe me you are too severe upon and -- unjust to Fern.
Received London, March 26th, 1881.
It is from the depths of an unknown valley, amid the steep crags and glaciers of Terich-Mir -- a vale never trodden by European foot since the day its parent mount was itself breathed out from within our Mother Earth's bosom -- that your friend sends you these lines. For, it is there K. H. received your "Affectionate homages," and there he intends passing his "summer vacations." A letter "from the abodes of eternal snow and purity" sent to and received -- "At the abodes of vice"! . . . Queer, n'est-ce pas? Would, or rather could I be with you at those "abodes"? No; but I was at several different times, elsewhere, though neither in "astral" nor in any other tangible form, but simply in thought. Does not satisfy you? Well, well, you know the limitations I am subjected to in your case, and you must have patience.
Your future book is a little jewel; and, small and tiny as it is, it may, one
day, be found to soar as high as Mount Everest over your Simla hills. Among all
other works of that class, in the wild jungle of Spiritualistic literature, it
shall undoubtedly prove the Redeemer, offered as a sacrifice for the sin of the
world of Spiritualists. They will begin by rejecting -- nay -- vilifying it;
but, it will find its faithful twelve and -- the seed thrown by your hand into
the soil of speculation will not grow up as a weed. So
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far may be promised. You
are oft too cautious. You remind too often the reader of your ignorance; and
presenting but as a modest theory, that, which at the bottom of your heart you
know and feel to be an axiom, a primary truth -- instead of helping,
you but perplex him and -- create doubt. But it is a spirited and discriminative
little memoir, and, as a critical estimate of the phenomena witnessed by you
personally far more useful than Mr. Wallace's work. It is at this sort of
springs that Spiritualists ought to be compelled to slake their thirst for
phenomena and mystic knowledge instead of being left to swallow the idiotic gush
they find in the Banners of Light and others. The world -- meaning
that of individual existences -- is full of those latent meanings and deep
purposes which underlie all the phenomena of the Universe, and Occult Sciences
-- i.e., reason elevated to super-sensuous Wisdom -- can alone furnish
the key wherewith to unlock them to the intellect. Believe me, there comes a
moment in the life of an adept, when the hardships he has passed through are a
thousand fold rewarded. In order to acquire further knowledge, he has no more to
go through a minute and slow process of investigation and comparison of various
objects, but is accorded an instantaneous, implicit insight into every first
truth. Having passed that stage of philosophy which maintains that all
fundamental truths have sprung from a blind impulse -- it is the philosophy of
your Sensationalists or Positivists; and left far behind him that other class of
thinkers -- the Intellectualists or Skeptics -- who hold that fundamental truths
are derived from the intellect alone, and that we, ourselves, are their only
originating causes; the adept sees and feels and lives in the very source of all
fundamental truths -- the Universal Spiritual Essence of Nature, shiva the
Creator, the Destroyer, and the Regenerator. As Spiritualists of to-day have
degraded "Spirit," so have the Hindus degraded Nature by their anthropormorphistic conceptions of it. Nature alone can incarnate the Spirit of
limitless contemplation. "Absorbed in the absolute self-unconsciousness of
physical Self, plunged in the depths of true Being, which is no being but
eternal, universal Life," his whole form as immoveable and white as the eternal
summits of snow in Kailasa where he sits, above care, above sorrow, above sin
and worldliness, a mendicant, a sage, a healer, the King of Kings, the Yogi of
Yogis," such is the ideal Shiva of Yoga Shastras the culmination of
Spiritual Wisdom. . . . Oh, ye Max Mullers and Monier Williams, what have ye done with our Philosophy!
But you can hardly be expected to enjoy or even understand the above
phanerosis of our teachings. Pardon me. I write but seldom letters; and
whenever compelled to do so follow rather my own thoughts than strictly hold to
the subject I ought to
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have in view. I have laboured for more than a quarter of
a century night and day to keep my place within the ranks of that invisible but
ever busy army which labours and prepares for a task which can bring no reward
but the consciousness that we are doing our duty to humanity; and, meeting you
on my way I have tried to -- do not fear, -- not to enroll you, for that would
be impossible, but to simply draw your attention, excite your curiosity if not
your better feelings to the one and only truth. You proved faithful and true,
and have done your best. If your efforts will teach the world but one single
letter from the alphabet of Truth -- that Truth which once pervaded the whole
world -- your reward will not miss you. And now that you have met the "mystics"
of Paris and London what do you think of them? . . .
Yours,
K. H.
P.S. -- Our hapless "Old Lady" is sick. Liver, kidneys, head, brain, legs, every organ and limb shows fight and snaps its fingers at her efforts to ignore them. One of us will have to "fix her" as our worthy Mr. Olcott says, or it will fare bad with her.
I am sorry for all that has happened, but it was to be expected. Mr. Hume has
put his foot in a hornet's nest and must not complain. If my confession
has not altered your feelings -- I am determined not to influence you
and therefore will not look your way to find out how the matter stands with you,
my friend -- and if you are not entirely disgusted with our system and ways; if
in short it is still your desire to carry on a correspondence and learn,
something must be done to check the irresponsible "Benefactor." I prevented her
sending to Hume a worse letter than she wrote to yourself. I cannot
force her to transmit his letters to me nor mine to him; and since it is no
longer possible for me to trust Fern, and that G. K. can hardly be sacrificed
with any sense of justice, to a man who is utterly unable to appreciate any
service rendered except his own, -- what shall we do about it? Since we have
mixed ourselves with the outside world, we have no right to suppress the
personal opinion of its individual members, nor eschew their criticisms, however
unfavourable to us -- hence the positive order to H.P.B. to publish Mr. Hume's
article. Only, as we would have the world see both sides of the question, we
have also allowed the joint protest of Deb, Subba Row, Damodar and
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a few other
chelas -- to follow his criticism of ourselves and our System in the
Theosophist.
I gave you but hints of what at some other time I will write more at length. Think in the meantime of the difficulties that lie naturally in our way, and let us not, if your friendship for me is sincere, -- by struggling with our chains, make them straiter and heavier. For my part I will run willingly the hazard of being thought a self-contradicting ignoramus, and criticized in unmeasured terms by Mr. Hume in print, provided you really profit by the tuition, and share from time to time your knowledge with the world. But to give you my thoughts without disguise I am never like to risk myself again with any other European but yourself. As you now see, connection with the outside world, can bring but sorrow to those who so faithfully serve us, and discredit to our Brotherhood. No Asiatic is ever likely to be affected by Mr. Hume's egotistical thrusts against us (the result of my last letter, and of the promise exacted that he will write to me more rarely and less than he has done) but these thrusts and criticisms that the European readers will accept as a revelation and a confession, without ever suspecting from whence they have arisen and by what a deeply egotistical feeling they have been generated -- these thrusts are calculated to do a great harm -- in a direction you have not hitherto dreamt of. Resolved not to lose so useful a tool (useful in one direction, of course) the Chohan permitted himself to be over-persuaded by us, into giving sanction to my intercourse with Mr. Hume. I had pledged my word to him that he had repented, -- was a changed man. And now how shall I ever face my Great Master, who is laughed at, made the object of Mr. Hume's wit, called Rameses the Great, and such like indecent remarks? And he used terms in his letters, the brutal grossness of which prevents me from repeating them, which have revolted my soul when I read them; words so filthy as to pollute the very air that touched them, and that I hastened to send to you with the letter that contained it, so as not to have those pages in my house, full of young and innocent chelas, that I would prevent from ever hearing such terms.
Then you yourself, my friend influenced in this by him more than you know or suspect of -- you yourself deduce but too readily from incompleteness "contradiction." The novelty or inexplicable aspect of any asserted fact in our science is not a sufficient reason for setting it immediately down as a contradiction, and proclaim as Hume does in his article that he could teach in one week that which he succeeded in drawing out of us in eighteen months, for your knowledge is as yet so limited that it would be difficult for him to say how much we do or do not know.
But I have lingered too long over this irrational, unphilosophi-
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cal and
illogical attack upon ourselves and System. One day we will show the invalidity
of the objections preferred by Mr. H. He may be regarded as a sapient councillor
in the municipality, but he could hardly be regarded in such a light by us. He
accuses me of giving through him "false ideas and facts" to the world; and adds
that he would willingly keep aloof from -- break with us but for his desire of
benefitting the world! Verily a most easy method of burking all the sciences,
for there is not one in which "false facts" and wild theories do not abound.
Only while the Western Sciences make confusion still more confused our Science
explains all the seeming discrepancies and reconciles the wildest theories.
However, if you do not bring him to his senses there will be soon an end to
all -- this time irrevocable. I need not assure you of my sincere regard for you
and our gratitude for what you have for the Society here -- indirectly
for us two. Whatever happens, I am at your service. I would, could I but see my
way, do all that can be done for your friend Colonel Chesney. For your
sake, if the crisis is avoided and the black cloud blows off -- I will instruct
him as far as I can. But -- may it not be too late?
Yours in good faith,
K. H.
LETTER No. XXXIII
I am sincerely afraid that you may have been perplexed by the apparent contradiction between the notes received by you from my Brother M. -- and myself. Know my friend that in our world though we may differ in methods we can never be opposed in principles of action and the broadest and most practical application of the idea of the Brotherhood of Humanity is not incompatible with your dream of establishing a nucleus of honest scientific enquirers of good repute, who would give weight to the T.S. organization in the eyes of the multitude, and serve as a shield against the ferocious and idiotic attack of sceptics and materialists.
There are -- even among English men of Science -- those who are already
prepared to find our teachings in harmony with the results and progress of their
own researches, and who are not indifferent to their application to the
spiritual needs of humanity at large. Amongst these it may be your task to throw
the seeds of Truth and point out the path. Yet as my brother reminded you, not
one of those who have only tried to help on the work of the Society, however
imperfect and faulty their ways and means, will have done
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so in vain. The
situation shall be more fully explained to you by and by.
Meanwhile use every effort to develop such relations with A. Besant that your
work may run on parallel lines and in full sympathy; an easier request than some
of mine with which you have ever loyally complied. You may, if you see fit --
show this note to her, only. In travelling your own thorny path I say
again courage and hope. This is not an answer to your
letter.
Yours ever truly,
K. H.
It is positively distressing to find oneself so systematically misunderstood, one's intentions misconceived, and the whole plan imperilled by this endless hurrying on. Are we never then to be granted any credit for knowing what we are about, or allowed the benefit of the doubt in the absence of any reasonable proof whatever that we have determined to "bar the progress" of the Theos: Society? Mr. Hume maintains that he does not say -- "K. H. or any other brother is wrong" -- withal every line of his numerous letters to myself and H.P.B. breathes the spirit of complaint and bitter accusation. I tell you, my good friend, he will never be satisfied do what we may! And as, we cannot consent to over flood the world at the risk of drowning them, with a doctrine that has to be cautiously given out, and bit by bit like a too powerful tonic which can kill as well as cure -- the result will be a reaction in that insatiable craving of his, and then -- well you yourself know the consequences. Enclosed two letters written and addressed to her with an eye to myself. Well, we can do no better for the present. The Society will never perish as an institution, although branches and individuals in it may. I have done to humour him lately more than I have ever done for you; and you may judge of the situation in the chaotic but on the whole reasonable remarks that H.P.B. addresses to-day to Mr. H.
We must be left to judge for ourselves and be permitted to be the best judges. Everything will be explained and given out, in good time if we are but allowed our own ways. Otherwise, rather give up the Eclectic. I had volumes from him during the past week! I send you a few notes through her. Keep this confidential.
Yours,
K. H.
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Letter from K.H. Received Allahabad, March 18th, 1882.
You did not quite apprehend the meaning of my note, good friend, of March 11th. I said it was easy to produce phenomena, when the necessary conditions were given, but not that even the presence of Olcott and Mallapura at your house brought such an accession of force as would suffice for the tests you propose.
These latter were reasonable enough from your point of view, I do not at all blame you for asking them. I, myself, would perhaps wish you to have them -- for your personal gratification, not that of the public for, as you know, conviction in these cases must be reached by individual experience. Secondhand testimony never really satisfied any but a credulous (or rather non-sceptical) mind. No Spiritualist who should read in your second edition even a narrative of the very tests you have named to me, would for one moment ascribe the facts to aught but mediumship: and your lady and yourself would probably be included by them in the sum of the mediumistic factors. Fancy that! No -- bide your time; you are slowly gathering together the materials for what we here call, as you know, real dgin, make the best of it. It is not physical phenomena that will ever bring conviction to the hearts of the unbelievers in the "Brotherhood" but rather phenomena of intellectuality, philosophy and logic, if I may so express it. See "Spirit teachings" by + as given out by Oxon -- the most intellectual as the best educated of all mediums. Read and -- pity! Do you not see then where we are "driving at" as O. says? Do you not realize that were it not for your exceptional intellect and the help to be derived therefrom the Chohan would have long ago closed every door of communication between us? Yes, read and study, my friend; for there is an object. You seemed annoyed, disappointed, when reading the words, "Impossible: no power here, will write through Bombay." Those eight words will have cost me eight days recuperative work -- in the state I am in at present. But You know not what I mean; you are absolved.
You will not disguise from yourself the difficulties of working out your
scheme of "Degrees." I wanted you to develop it at your leisure, "as the spirit
moved you." For even though you should not quite succeed in forming a scheme
that would fit the needs of Asia and Europe, you might hit upon something that
would be good for either the one or the other, and another hand might then
supply the lacking portion. Asiatics are so poor, as a rule, and books are so
inaccessible to them in these de-
p247
generate days, that you can see plainly how
different a plan of intellectual culture -- in preparation for practical
experiments to unfold psychic power in themselves -- must be thought. In the
olden time, this want was supplied by the Guru, who guided the chela through the
difficulties of childhood and youth, and afforded him in oral teaching as much
as, or more than through books the food for mental and psychic growth. The want
of such a "guide, philosopher and friend," (and who so well deserves the
tripartite title?) can never be supplied, try as you may. All you can do is to
prepare the intellect: the impulse toward "soul-culture" must be furnished by
the individual. Thrice fortunate they who can break through the vicious circle
of modern influence and come up above the vapours!
To recur to your Degrees: Are you not drawing the lines too vaguely between the first three or four groups? What test do you apply to decide their respective mental states. How guard against mere "cramming? and copying? and substitute writing?" Many clever Jesuits might pass all your Degrees, even up to the 6th and 7th: would you, then, admit him into the second section? Remember the lessons of the past and Carter Black. It is quite possible -- as Moorad Ali Bey said and Olcott confirmed to you -- for one who had passed the first five stages to acquire "occult faculties" in the 6th. Nay, it can be done without the help of either -- by adopting either the method of the Arhats, the Dasturs, the Yogis, or the Sufis; among each of which groups of mystics there have been many who did not even read or write. If the psychic idiosyncracy is lacking, no culture will supply it. And the highest theoretical as also practical school of this kind, is that one in which we associates -- your interested correspondents -- were taught.
All that precedes has been said not for your discouragement but as a stimulus. If you are a true Anglo-Saxon, no obstacle will daunt your zeal; and unless my Eye has been dimmed this is your character -- au fond. We have one word for all aspirants: Try.
And now, to your laugh in September last as to the imaginary dangers to him
who produces phenomena, dangers growing in size in proportion to the magnitude
of the phenomena -- so produced, and the impossibility to refute them. Remember
the proposed test of the Times to be brought here. My good friend,
if the trifling phenomena (for they are trifling in comparison with what could
and might be done) shown by Eglington provoked such bitter hatred evoking before
him scenes of imprisonment owing to false witnesses what would not be
the fate of the poor "Old Lady"! You are yet barbarians with all your boasted
civilization.
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And now to Morya. (This strictly between us and you must not
breathe it even to Mrs. Gordon). Eglington was preparing to depart leaving
on poor Mrs. G. mind the fear that she had been deceived; that there were no
"Brothers" since Eglington had denied their existence and that the
"Spirits" were silent as to that problem. Last week then M., stalking in, into
the motley crowd took the spooks by the skin of their throats and, -- the result
was the unexpected admission of the Brothers, the actual existence and the
honour claimed of a personal acquaintance with the "Illustrious." The lesson for
you and others, derived from the above, may be useful in future -- events having
to grow and to develop.
Yours faithfully,
K.H.
Received about January, 1882.
My impatient friend -- allow me, as one having some authority in your theosophical mella, to empower you to "ignore the rules" for a short time. Make them fill up the forms and initiate the candidates right away. Only whatever you do, do it without delay. Remember, you are the only one now. Mr. Hume is fully engrossed in his index and expects me to write to him and make puja first. I am rather too tall for him to reach so easily as that my head -- if he has any intention to cover it with the ashes of contrition. Nor will I put a sack-cloth to show repentance for what I have done. If he writes and puts questions all well and good I'll answer them if not -- I will keep my lectures for someone else. Time is no object with me.
Had your letter. I know your difficulties. Will see to them. Great will be
the disappointment of K. H. if upon returning to us he finds so little progress
done. You -- you are sincere, others -- put their pride above all. Then those
Prayag theosophists -- the Pundits and Babus! They do naught and expect
us to correspond with them. Fools and arrogant men.
M.
Received at Allahabad, January, 1882.
Private.
Honoured Sir,
The Master has awaked and bids me write. To his great regret for certain
reasons He will not be able until a fixed period has
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passed to expose Himself to
the thought currents inflowing so strongly from beyond the Himavat. I am
therefore, commanded to be the hand to indite His message. I am to tell you that
He is "quite as friendly to you as heretofore and well satisfied with both your
good intentions and even their execution so far as it lay in your power. You
have proved your affection and sincerity by your zeal. The impulse you have
personally given to the Cause we love, will not be checked; therefore the fruits
of it (the word "reward" is avoided being used but for the "goody-goody") will
not be withheld when your balance of causes and effects -- your Karma
is adjusted. In unselfishly and at personal risk labouring for your neighbour,
you have most effectually worked for yourself. One year has wrought a great
change in your heart. The man of 1880 would scarcely recognise the man of 1881
were they confronted. Compare them, then, good friend and Brother, that you may
fully realize what time has done, or rather what you have done with time. To do
this meditate -- alone, with the magic mirror of memory to gaze into. Thus shall
you not only see the lights and shadows of the Past, but the possible brightness
of the Future, as well. Thus, in time, will you come to see the Ego of aforetime
in its naked reality. And thus also you shall hear from me direct at
the earliest, practicable opportunity, for we are not ungrateful and even
Nirvana cannot obliterate good."
These are the Master's words, as with His help I am enabled to frame them in your language, honoured Sir. I am personally permitted, at the same time to thank you very warmly for the genuine sympathy which you felt for me at the time when a slight accident due to my forgetfulness laid me on my bed of sickness.
Though you may have read in the modern works on mesmerism how, that which we call "Will-Essence" and you "fluid" -- is transmitted from the operator to his objective point, you perhaps scarcely realize how everyone is practically, albeit unconsciously, demonstrating this law every day and every moment. Nor, can you quite realize how the training for adeptship increases both one's capacity to emit and to feel this forme of force. I assure you that I, though but a humble chela as yet, felt your good wishes flowing to me as the convalescent in the cold mountains feels from the gentle breeze that blows upon him from the plains below.
I have also to tell you that in a certain Mr. Bennett of America who will
shortly arrive at Bombay, you may recognise one, who, in spite of his national
provincialism, that you so detest, and his too infidelistic bias, is one of our
agents (unknown to himself) to carry out the scheme for the enfranchisement of
Western thoughts from superstitious creeds. If you can see your way towards
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giving him a correct idea of the actual present and potential future state of
Asiatic but more particularly of Indian thought, it will be gratifying to my
Master. He desires me to let you know, at the same time, that you should not
feel such an exaggerated delicacy about taking out the work left undone from Mr.
Hume's hands. That gentleman chooses to do but what suits his personal fancy
without any regard whatever to the feelings of other people. His present work
also -- a pyramid of intellectual energy misspent -- his objections and reasons,
are all calculated but to exonerate himself only. Master regrets to find in him
the same spirit of utter, unconscious selfishness with no view to the good of
the Cause he represents. If he seems interested in it at all, it is because he
is opposed and finds himself roused to combativeness. Thus the answer to Mr.
Terry's letter sent to him from Bombay ought to have been published in the
January number. Will you kindly to see to it -- Master asks? Master thinks you
can do it as well as Mr. Hume if you but tried, as the metaphysical faculty in
you, is only dormant but would fully develop were you but to awake it to its
full action by constant use. As to our reverenced M: he desires me to assure you
that the secret of Mr. Hume's professed love for Humanity lies in, and is based
upon, the chance presence in that word of the first syllable; as for "mankind"
-- he has no sympathy for it.
Since Master will not be able to write to you himself for a month or two longer (though you will always hear of him) -- He begs you to proceed for his sake with your metaphysical studies; and not to be giving up the task in despair whenever you meet with incomprehensible ideas in M. Sahib's notes, the more so, as M. Sahib's only hatred in his life, is for writing. In conclusion Master sends you His best wishes and praying you may not forget Him, orders me to sign myself, your obedient servant,
THE "DISINHERITED."
P.S. Should you desire to write to Him though unable to answer
Himself Master will receive your letters with pleasure; you can do so through D.
K. Mavalankar.
"DD".
Received Allahabad. About February, 1882.
Your "illustrious" friend did not mean to be "satirical," whatever other
construction might be put on his words. Your "illustrious" friend was simply
feeling sad at the thought of the great disappointment K. H. is sure to
experience when he
P.251
returns among us. The first retrospective glance at the work
he has so much at heart, will show him such samples of mutual feeling exchanged
as the two herein enclosed. The undignified, bitter, sarcastic tone of one will
give him as little cause to rejoice as the undignified, foolish and childish
tone of the other. I would have left the subject untouched had you not so
misunderstood the feeling that dictated my last. It is better I should be frank
with you. The term "Highness" to which I am not in the least entitled is far
more suggestive of satire than anything I have hitherto said. Yet as
"no epithet will hang to the shirt-collar of a Bod-pa" I heed it not advising
you to do the same and see no satire where none is meant and which is but
frankness in speech, and the correct definition of the general state of your
feelings toward the natives.
Your solicitor knows better -- of course. If the paragraph in question is not libellous then all I can say is, that a complete re-codification of your libel law is very much needed.
You will certainly have trouble with her about the "female branch." Her scorn for the sex -- has no bounds and she can hardly be persuaded that any good can ever come from that quarter. I will be frank with you again. Neither myself nor any of us -- K. H. being entirely left out of the question -- would consent to become the founders, let alone the conductors of a female branch -- we all having had enough of our anis. Yet we confess that a great good may result of such a movement, the females having such an influence over their children and the men in the houses, you being such an old and experienced hand in that direction could with Mr. Hume's help be of immense use to K. H., from within the area of whose "loveable nature," with the exception of his sister -- females were always excluded and love for his country and humanity reigned alone. He knows nothing of the creatures -- you do. He always felt the need of enrolling women -- yet would never meddle with them. There's a chance for you to help him.
On the other hand we claim to know more of the secret cause of events than
you men of the world do. I say then that it is the vilification and abuse of the
founders, the general misconception of the aims and objects of the Society that
paralyses its progress -- nothing else. There's no want of definitiveness in
these objects were they but properly explained. The members would have plenty to
do were they to pursue reality with half the fervour they do mirage. I
am sorry to find you comparing Theosophy to a painted house on the stage whereas
in the hands of true philanthropists and theosophists it might become as strong
as an impregnable fort. The situation is this: men who join the Society with the
one selfish object of reaching power making occult
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science their only or even
chief aim may as well not join it -- they are doomed to disappointment as much
as those who commit the mistake of letting them believe that the Society is
nothing else. It is just because they preach too much "the Brothers" and too
little if at all Brotherhood that they fail. How many times had we to
repeat, that he who joins the Society with the sole object of coming in contact
with us and if not of acquiring at least of assuring himself of the reality of
such powers and of our objective existence -- was pursuing a mirage? I say again
then. It is he alone who has the love of humanity at heart, who is capable of
grasping thoroughly the idea of a regenerating practical Brotherhood who is
entitled to the possession of our secrets. He alone, such a man -- will never
misuse his powers, as there will be no fear that he should turn them to selfish
ends. A man who places not the good of mankind above his own good is not worthy
of becoming our chela -- he is not worthy of becoming higher in
knowledge than his neighbour. If he craves for phenomena let him be satisfied
with the pranks of spiritualism. Such is the real state of things. There was a
time, when from sea to sea, from the mountains and deserts of the north to the
grand woods and downs of Ceylon, there was but one faith, one rallying cry -- to
save humanity from the miseries of ignorance in the name of Him who taught first
the solidarity of all men. How is it now? Where is the grandeur of our people
and of the one Truth? These, you may say, are beautiful visions which were once
realities on earth, but had flitted away like the light of a summer's evening.
Yes; and now we are in the midst of a conflicting people, of an obstinate,
ignorant people seeking to know the truth, yet not able to find it for each
seeks it only for his own private benefit and gratification, without giving one
thought to others. Will you, or rather they, never see the true meaning and
explanation of that great wreck and desolation which has come to our land and
threatens all lands -- yours first of all? It is selfishness and
exclusiveness that killed ours, and it is selfishness and exclusiveness
that will kill yours -- which has in addition some other defects which I will
not name. The world has clouded the light of true knowledge, and selfishness
will not allow its resurrection, for it excludes and will not recognise the
whole fellowship of all those who were born under the same immutable natural
law.
You are mistaken again. I may blame your "curiosity" when I know it to be
profitless. I am unable to regard as an "impertinence" that which is but the
free use of intellectual capacities for reasoning. You may see things in a false
light and you do often so see them. But you do not concentrate all the light in
yourself as some do, and that's one superior quality you
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possess over
other Europeans we know. Your affection for K. H. is sincere and warm and that is
your redeeming quality in my eyes. Why should you then await my reply with any
"nervousness" at all. Whatever happens we two will ever remain your friends, as
we would not blame sincerity even when it is manifested under the
somewhat objectionable form of trampling upon a prostrated chela -- the hapless
Babu.
Yours,
M.
Received Allahabad, about February, 1882.
If my advice is sought and asked, then first of all the real and true situation has to be defined. My "Arhat" vows are pronounced, and I can neither seek revenge nor help others to obtain it. I can help her with cash only when I know that not a mace, not a fraction of a tael will be spent upon any unholy purpose: and revenge is unholy. But we have defence and she has a right to it. Defence and full vindication she must have, and that is why I telegraphed to offer option before proceeding to file a suit. Demand retraction and threaten with a law suit she has a right; and she can also institute proceedings -- for he will retract. For that reason have I laid a stress upon the necessity of an article touching upon no other subject but that of the alleged "debt." This alone will prove sufficient to frighten the traducer for it will reveal him before the public as a "slanderer" and show to himself that he was in the wrong box. The mistake is due to the very illegible and ugly handwriting of Macoliffe (a caligrapher and scribe of my kind) who sent in the information to Statesman. This was a lucky mistake for on that may be built the whole vindication if you act wisely. But the most has to be made of it now -- or you will lose the opportunity. So, if you condescend once more to take my advice -- since you have opened the first shot in Pioneer, seek out the accounts in Theosophist and on that data and the Tuesday article write for her a nice pungent letter signed with her name and Olcott's. This can be published first in the Pioneer or, if you object to it in some other paper -- but at all events they will have to print it in the form of a circular letter and send it to every paper in the land. Demand retraction in it from Statesman and threaten with law suit. If you do that I promise success.
The Odessa Old Lady -- the Nadijda -- is quite anxious for your
autograph -- that of "a great and celebrated writer" she says she
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was very undisposed to part with your letter to the General but had to send you a proof
of her own identity. Tell her I -- the "Khosyayin" (her niece's
Khosyayin she called me as I went to see her thrice) gossiped the thing to
you advising you to write to her furnishing her thus with your autograph -- also
send back through H.P.B. her portraits as soon as shown to your lady, for she at
Odessa is very anxious to have them back especially the young face. . . . That's
her, as I knew her first "the lovely maiden."
I'm a little busy just now -- but will furnish you with explanatory appendix as soon as at leisure -- say in two three days. The "Illustrious" will look to all that needs watching. What about Mr. Hume's superb address? Can't you have it ready for your January Number? Ditto your editorial answer to Spiritualist's editorial. Hope y'll not accuse me of any desire to sit upon you -- nor will you view my humble request in any other light than the true one. My object is twofold -- to develop your metaphysical intuitions and help the journal by infusing into it a few drops of real literary good blood. Your three articles are certainly praise-worthy, the points well taken and as far as I can judge -- calculated to arrest the attention of every scholar and metaphysician especially the 1st. Later on you will learn more about creation.
Meanwhile I have to create my dinner -- you would scarcely like it -- I'm afraid.
M.
Your young friend the Disinherited is on his legs again. Would you really care
for his writing to you? In such case, better ventilate in Pioneer
the question as to the advisability of coming to terms with China in regard to
the establishment of a regular postal service between Prayag and Tzigadzi.
Received about February, 1882.
To your first -- there's little to answer: "Can you do anything to help on
the Society?" Want me to speak frankly? Well I say so: neither yourself nor the
Lord Sang-yias Himself -- so long as the equivocal position of the Founders is
not perfectly and undeniably proved due to fiendish malice and a systematic
intrigue -- could help it on. That's the situation as I found it, as ordered by
the chiefs. Watch the papers -- all except two or three; the "dear old lady"
ridiculed when not positively libelled, Olcott attacked by all the hell-hounds
of the press and missions. A
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pamphlet headed "Theosophy" printed and circulated
by the Christians at Tinevelly October 23rd on the day of O.'s arrival there
with the Buddhist delegates -- a pamphlet containing the Saturday Review
article and another filthy, heavy attack by an American paper. The
C. and M. of Lahore hardly missing a day without having some
attack and other papers reprinting them, etc., etc. You English have your
notions -- we have our own upon the subject. If you keep the clean
kerchief in your pocket and throw but the soiled one into the crowd -- who will
pick it up? Enough. We must have patience and do what, meanwhile, we can. My
opinion is, that if your Rattigan is not quite a scoundrel, one of his papers
having thrown and throwing daily dishonour upon an innocent woman, he would be
the first to suggest you the idea of translating and publishing her uncle's
letters (to you and herself) in the Pioneer; with a few words in a
leader, to say, that a still more substantial official proof is shortly
expected from the Prince D. which will settle the vexed question as to her
identity for ever at rest. But you know best. This idea may have struck you;
but will it ever be seen in such a light by others?
Suby Ram -- a truly good man -- yet a devotee of another error. Not his guru's voice -- his own. The voice of a pure, unselfish, earnest soul, absorbed in misguided, misdirected mysticism. Add to it a chronic disorder in that portion of the brain which responds to clear vision and the secret is soon told: that disorder was developed by forced visions; by hatha yog and prolonged asceticism. S. Ram is the chief medium and at same time the principal magnetic factor, who spreads his disease by infection -- unconsciously to himself; who innoculates with his vision all the other disciples. There is one general law of vision (physical and mental or spiritual) but there is a qualifying special law proving that all vision must be determined by the quality or grade of man's spirit and soul, and also by the ability to translate divers qualities of waves of astral light into consciousness. There is but one general law of life, but innumerable laws qualify and determine the myriads of forms perceived and of sounds heard. There are those who are willingly and others who are unwillingly -- blind. Mediums belong to the former, sensitives to the latter. Unless regularly initiated and trained -- concerning the spiritual insight of things and the supposed revelations made unto man in all ages from Socrates down to Swedenborg and "Fern" -- no self-tutored seer or clairaudient ever saw or heard quite correctly.
No harm and much instruction may come to you by joining his Society. Go on
until he demands what you will be obliged to refuse. Learn and study.
You are right: they say and affirm that the one and only God of the
Universe was incarnated in their
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guru, and were such an individual to exist he
would certainly be higher than any "planetary." But they are idolators, my
friend. Their guru was no initiate only a man of extraordinary purity of life
and powers of endurance. He had never consented to give up his notions of a
personal god and even gods though offered more than once. He was born an
orthodox Hindu and died a self-reformed Hindu, something like
Rechub-Ch-Sen but higher purer and with no ambition to taint his bright soul.
Many of us have regretted his self-delusion but he was too good to be forcibly
interfered with. Join them and learn -- but remember your sacred promise to K. H.
Two months more and he will be with us. I think of sending her to you. I believe
you could persuade her for I do not wish to use my authority in this case.
M.
LETTER No. XLI
Received about February, 1882.
I believe verily I am unfit to express my ideas clearly in your language. I never thought of giving any importance to the circular letter -- I had asked you to draft for them -- appearing in the Pioneer, or ever meant to imply that it should so appear. I had asked you to compose it for them, send your drafted copy to Bombay and make them issue it as a circular letter; which, once out, and on its round in India might be copied in your journal as other papers would be sure to copy it. Her letter B. G. was foolish, childish and silly. I have overlooked it. But you must not so labour under the impression that it will undo all the good yours has done. There are a few sensitive persons on whose nerves it will jar, but the rest will never appreciate its true spirit; nor is it in any way libellous -- only vulgar and foolish. I will force her to stop.
At the same time I must say she suffers acutely and I am unable to help her for all this is effect from causes which cannot be undone -- occultism in theosophy. She has now to either conquer or die. When the hour comes she will be taken back to Tibet. Do not blame the poor woman, blame me. She is but a "shell" at times and I, often careless in watching her. If the laugh is not turned on the Statesman the ball will be caught up by other papers and flung at her again.
Do not feel despondent. Courage my good friend and remember you are working
off by helping her your own law of retribution for more than one cruel fling she
receives is due to K. H.'s
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friendship for you, for his using her as the means of
communication. But -- Courage.
I saw the lawyer's papers and perceive he is averse to taking up the case. But for the little he is needed for, he will do. No law suit will help -- but publicity in the matter of vindication as much as in the question of accusation -- 10,000 circular letters sent throughout to prove the accusations false.
Yours till the morrow.
M.
1 This letter is unsigned but is in M.'s handwriting. -- ED.
Received about February, 1882.
I say again what you like me not to say, namely that no regular
instruction, no regular communication is possible between us before our mutual
path is cleared of its many impediments. The greatest being the public
misconception about the Founders. For your impatience you cannot nor will you be
blamed. But if you fail to make a profitable use of your newly-acquired
privileges, you would indeed be unworthy, friend. Three, four weeks more -- and
I will retire to give room with you all, to him to whom that room belongs, and
whose place I could but very unadequately occupy, for I am neither a scribe nor
a Western scholar. Whether the Chohan finds yourself and Mr. Hume more qualified
than he did before to receive instructions through us -- is another question.
But you ought to prepare for it. For much remains yet to break forth. You
perceived, hitherto but the light of a new day -- you may, if you try, see with
K. H.'s help the sun of full noon-day when it reaches its meridian. But you have
to work for it, work for the shedding of light upon other minds through yours.
How, will you say? Hitherto of you two, Mr. H. was positively antagonistic to
our advice, you -- passively resisting it at times often yielding against what
you conceived your better judgment -- such is my answer. The results were --
what they had to be expected. No good or very little came out of a kind of
spasmodic defence -- the solitary defence of a friend presumably
prejudiced in favour of those whose champion he had come out and a member of the
Society. Mr. Hume would never listen to K. H.'s suggestion of a lecture in his
house during which he might have well disabused the public mind of a part of the
prejudice at least, if not entirely. You thought it was unnecessary to publish
and spread among the readers as to who she was.
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Think ye, Prinrose and Rattigan are likely to spread the knowledge and give
out reports of what they know to be the case? And so on. Hints are all
sufficient to an intelligence like yours. I tell you this for I know how
profound and sincere is your feeling for K. H.
I know how bad y'll feel, if when
among us again you find that communication between you has not improved. And its
sure to pass when the Chohan finds no progress since he made him have
you. See what the Fragments -- the most superb of articles -- has
done; how little effect it will produce unless the opposition is stirred up,
discussion provoked and spiritualists forced to defend their foolish claims.
Read editorial in Spiritualist November 18, "Speculation-Spinning"
-- she cannot answer it as either he or you might and the result will be that
the most precious hints will fail to reach the minds of those craving for truth
for a solitary pearl is soon outshone in the midst of a heap of false diamonds,
when there's no jeweller to point out its worth. So on again. What can
we do! I hear already
K. H. exclaiming.
It is so, friend. The pathway through earth-life leads through many conflicts and trials, but he who does naught to conquer them can expect no triumph. Let then the anticipation of a fuller introduction into our mysteries under more congenial circumstances the creation of which depends entirely upon yourself inspire you with patience to wait for, perseverance to press on to, and full preparation to receive the blissful consummation of all your desires. And for that you have to remember that when K. H. shall say to you, Come up hither -- you should be ready. Otherwise the all powerful hand of our Chohan will appear once more between you and Him.
Send both portraits sent to you from Odessa back to H.P.B., the O. L. when you done with them. Write a few lines to the old Generaless to Odessa -- for she sorely wants your autograph -- I know. Remind her that both you belong to one Society and are -- Brothers and promise help for her niece.
Received Allahabad, February, 1882.
Before another line passes between us we must come to an agreement, my
impulsive friend. You will have first to promise me faithfully never to judge of
either of us, nor of the situation, nor of anything else bearing any relation to
the "mythical Brothers" -- tall or short -- thick or thin -- by your worldly
experience or you will never come at the truth. By doing so until now you have
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only disturbed the solemn quiet of my evening meals several nights running and
made my snake-like signature what with your writing it and thinking about it to
haunt me even in my sleep -- as by sympathy I felt it being pulled by the tail
at the other side of the hills. Why will you be so impatient? You have a life
time before you for our correspondence; though while the dark clouds of the
Deva-Lok "Eclectic" are lowering on the horizon of the "Parent" it has to
be a spasmodic and an uncertain one. It may even suddenly break off owing to the
tension given it by our too intellectual friend. Oy-hai, Ram Ram! To think that
our very mild criticism upon the pamphlet, a criticism reported by you to Hume
Sahib -- should have brought the latter to kill us at a blow! to destroy,
without giving us one moment to call a Padri in or even time to repent; to find
ourselves alive, and yet so cruelly deprived of our existence is truly sad, tho'
not quite unexpected. But it is all our own fault. Had we -- instead prudently
sent a laudatory hymn to his address we might now have been alive and well,
waxing in health and strength -- if not in wisdom -- for long years to come and
finding in him our Ved-Vyasa to sing the occult prowess of the Krishna and
Arjuna on the desolate shores of Tsam-pa. Now that we are dead and dessicated
tho', I may as well occupy a few minutes of my time to write as a bhut
to you, in the best English I find lying idle in my friend's brain; where also I
find in the cells of memory the phosphorescent thought of a short letter to be
sent by himself to the Editor of the Pioneer to soothe his English
impatience. My friend's friend -- K. H. has not forgotten you; K. H. does not
intend breaking off with you -- unless Hume Sahib should spoil the situation
beyond mending. And why should he? You have done all you could, and that is as
much as we ever intend asking of any one. And now we will talk.
You must thoroughly put aside the personal element if you would get on with
occult study and -- for a certain time -- even with himself. Realize, my friend,
that the social affections have little, if any, control over any true adept in
the performance of his duty. In proportion as he rises towards perfect adeptship
the fancies and antipathies of his former self are weakened: (as K. H. in
substance explained to you) he takes all mankind into his heart and regards them
in the mass. Your case is an exceptional one. You have forced yourself
upon him, and stormed the position, by the very violence and intensity of your
feeling for him -- and once he accepted he has to bear the consequences in the
future. Yet it cannot be a question with him what the visible Sinnett may be --
what his impulses, his failures or successes in his world, his diminished or
undiminished regard for him. With the "visible" one we have nothing to do.
It is
to us only a veil that hides
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from profane eyes that other ego with
whose evolution we are concerned. In the external rupa do what you
like, think what you like: only when the effects of that voluntary action are
seen on the body of our correspondent -- is it incumbent upon us to notice it.
We are neither pleased nor displeased because you did not attend the Bombay meeting. If you had gone, it would have been better for your "merit": as you did not go you lost that little point. I could and had no right to influence you any way -- precisely because you are no chela. It was a trial, a very little one, tho' it seemed important enough to you to make you think of "wife and child's interests." You will have many such; for though you should never be a chela, still we do not give confidences even to correspondents and "proteges" whose discretion and moral pluck have not been well tested. You are the victim of maya. It will be a long struggle for you to tear away the "cataracts" and see things as they are. Hume Sahib is a maya to you as great as any. You see only his mounds of flesh and bones, his official personality, his intellect and influences. What are these, pray, to his true self that you cannot see, do what you may? What has his ability to shine in a Durbar or as the leader of a scientific society to do with his fitness for occult research, or his trustworthiness to keep our secrets? If we wanted anything about our lives and work to be known is not the Theosophist columns open to us? Why should we dribble facts thro' him, to be dressed for the public meal with a currie of nauseous doubts and biting sarcasm fit to throw the public stomach into confusion. To him there is nothing sacred, either within, or without occultism. His is a bird-killing and a faith-killing temperament; he would sacrifice his own flesh and blood as remorselessly as a singing bulbul; and would dessicate yourself and us, K. H. and the "dear Old Lady" and make us all bleed to death under his scalpel -- if he could -- with as much ease as he would an owl, to put us away in his "museum" with appropriate labels outside and then recount our necrologies in "Stray Feathers" to the amateurs. No Sahib; the outside Hume is as different (and superior) from the inside Hume, as the outside Sinnett is different (and inferior) to the nascent inside "protege." Learn that and sit the latter to watching the editor, least he play him a bad trick some day. Our greatest trouble is to teach pupils not to be befooled by appearances.
As you have already been notified by Damodar thro' the D---, I did not call
you a chela -- examine your letter to assure yourself of it -- I but jokingly
asked O. the question whether he recognised in you the stuff of which chelas are
made. You saw only that Bennett had unwashed hands, uncleaned nails and used
coarse
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language and had -- to you -- a generally unsavoury aspect. But if
that sort of thing is your criterion of moral excellence or potential
power, how many adepts or wonder producing lamas would pass your
muster? This is part of your blindness. Were he to die this minute -- and I'll
use a Christian phraseology to make you comprehend me the better -- few hotter
tears would drop from the eye of the recording Angel of Death over other such
ill-used men, as the tear Bennett would receive for his share. Few men have
suffered -- and unjustly suffered -- as he has; and as few have a more kind,
unselfish and truthful a heart. That's all: and the unwashed Bennett is
morally as far superior to the gentlemanly Hume as you are superior to your
Bearer.
What H.P.B. repeated to you is correct: "the natives do not see Bennett's coarseness and K.H. is also a native." What did I mean? Why -- simply that our Buddha-like friend can see thro' the varnish, the grain of the wood beneath and inside the slimy, stinking oyster -- the "priceless pearl within!" B---- is an honest man and of a sincere heart, besides being one of tremendous moral courage and a martyr to boot. Such our K.H. loves -- whereas he would have only scorn for a Chesterfield and a Grandison. I suppose that the stooping of the finished "gentleman" K.H., to the coarse fibred infidel Bennett is no more surprising than the alleged stooping of the "gentleman" Jesus to the prostitute Magdalene: There's a moral smell as well as a physical one good friend. See how well K.H. read your character when he would not send the Lahore youth to talk with you without a change of dress. The sweet pulp of the orange is inside the skin -- Sahib: try to look inside boxes for jewels and do not trust to those lying in the lid. I say again: the man is an honest man and a very earnest one; not exactly an angel -- they must be hunted for in fashionable churches, parties at aristocratical mansions, theatres and clubs and such other sanctums -- but as angels are outside our cosmogony we are glad of the help of even honest and plucky tho' dirty men.
All this I say to you without any malice or bitterness, as you erroneously
imagine. You have made progress during the past year -- and therefore nearer to
us -- hence I talk with you as with a friend, whom I hope of finally converting
to some of our ways of thinking. Your enthusiasm for our study has a tinge of
selfishness in it; even your feeling for K. H. has a mixed character: still
you are nearer. Only you trusted Hume too much, and mistrusted him too
late, and now his bad karma reacts upon yours, to your detriment. Your friendly
indiscretions as to things confided to you alone by H.P.B. -- the cause --
produces his rash publicities -- the effect. This I am afraid must count against
you. Be wiser hereafter. If our rule is to be chary of confidences it is
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because
we are taught from the first that each man is personally responsible to the Law
of Compensation for every word of his voluntary production. Mr. Hume would of
course call it jesuitry.
Also try to break thro' that great maya against which occult students, the world over, have always been warned by their teachers -- the hankering after phenomena. Like the thirst for drink and opium, it grows with gratification. The Spiritualists are drunken with it; they are thaumaturgic sots. If you cannot be happy without phenomena you will never learn our philosophy. If you want healthy, philosophic thought, and can be satisfied with such -- let us correspond. I tell you a profound truth in saying that if you (like your fabled Shloma) but choose wisdom all other things will be added unto it -- in time. It adds no force to our metaphysical truths that our letters are dropped from space on to your lap or come under your pillow. If our philosophy is wrong a wonder will not set it right. Put that conviction into your consciousness and let us talk like sensible men. Why should we play with Jack-in-the-box; are not our beards grown.
And now it is time to put a stop to my abominable penmanship and so relieve you from the task. Yes -- your "cosmogony"! Well, good friend, your cosmology is -- between the leaves of my Khuddaka Patha -- (my family Bible) and making a supreme effort I will try to answer it as soon as I am relieved, for just now I am on duty. It is a life long task you have chosen, and somehow instead of generalizing you manage always to rest upon those details that prove the most difficult to a beginner. Take warning my good Sahib. The task is difficult and K. H. in remembrance of old times, when he loved to quote poetry, asks me to close my letter with the following to your address:
"Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
"Yes to the very end."
"Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
"From morn to night, my friend."
Knowledge for the mind, like food for the body, is intended to feed and help to growth, but it requires to be well digested and the more thoroughly and slowly the process is carried out the better both for body and mind.
I saw Olcott and instructed him what to say to our Simla Sage. If the O. L. rushes into epistolary explanations with him, stop her -- as O. covered all the ground. I have no time to look after her, but I made her promise never to write to him without showing her letter first to you.
Namascar.
Yours M.
p.263
Received Allahabad, February, 1882.
Your letter was addressed to me, as you were not aware that K. H. had again put himself in relations with you. Nevertheless, as I am addressed I will answer. "Do so; by all means: go ahead." The result may be disastrous to Spiritualism, though the reality of the phenomena be proved; hence beneficial to Theosophy. It does seem cruel to allow the poor sensitive lad to risk himself inside the lion's den; but as the acceptance or rejection of the kind invitation is with the medium under the counsel and inspiration of his mighty and far-seeing "Ernest" why should others worry themselves!
As we are not likely, worthy sir, to correspond very often now -- I will tell
you something you should know, and may derive profit from. On the 17th of
November next the Septenary term of trial given the Society at its foundation in
which to discreetly "preach us" will expire. One or two of us hoped that the
world had so far advanced intellectually, if not intuitionally, that the Occult
doctrine might gain an intellectual acceptance, and the impulse given for a new
cycle of occult research. Others -- wiser as it would now seem -- held
differently, but consent was given for the trial. It was stipulated, however,
that the experiment should be made independently of our personal management;
that there should be no abnormal interference by ourselves. So casting about we
found in America the man to stand as leader -- a man of great moral courage,
unselfish, and having other good qualities. He was far from being the best, but
(as Mr. Hume speaks in H.P.B.'s case) -- he was the best one available. With him
we associated a woman of most exceptional and wonderful endowments. Combined
with them she had strong personal defects, but just as she was, there was no
second to her living fit for this work. We sent her to America, brought them
together -- and the trial began. From the first both she and he were given to
clearly understand that the issue lay entirely with themselves. And both offered
themselves for the trial for certain remuneration in the far distant future as
-- as K. H. would say -- soldiers volunteer for a Forlorn Hope. For the 6½ years
they have been struggling against such odds as would have driven off any one who
was not working with the desperation of one who stakes life and all he prizes on
some desperate supreme effort. Their success has not equalled the hopes of their
original backers, phenomenal as it has been in certain directions. In a few more
months the term of probation will end. If by that time the status of the Society
as regards ourselves -- the question of the "Brothers" be not
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definitely settled
(either dropped out of the Society's programme or accepted on our own terms)
that will be the last of the "Brothers" of all shapes and colours, sizes or
degrees. We will subside out of public view like a vapour into the ocean. Only
those who have proved faithful to themselves and to Truth through everything,
will be allowed further intercourse with us. And not even they, unless, from the
President downward they bind themselves by the most solemn pledges of honour to
keep an inviolable silence thenceforth about us, the Lodge, Tibetan affairs. Not
even answering questions of their nearest friends, though silence might seem
likely to throw the appearance of "humbug" upon all that has transpired. In such
a case effort would be suspended until the beginning of another septenary cycle
when, if circumstances should be more auspicious, another attempt might be made,
under the same or another direction.
My own humble impression is that Hume Sahib's present pamphlet, highly intellectual as it is, might be improved so as to help enormously in giving the needed turn to Society affairs. And if he would trust more to his personal intuitions -- which when he heeds them are strong -- and less to the voice of one who neither represents entirely -- as you seem to think -- public opinion nor would he believe though he were to have a 1000 proofs -- the pamphlet would be converted into one of the most powerful works that this modern movement has evolved.
Your cosmological questions will be attended to when I am not harassed with mightier business. Health and prosperity.
M.
First received after revival in February, 1882.
My Brother -- I have been on a long journey after supreme knowledge, I took a long time to rest. Then, upon coming back, I had to give all my time to duty, and all my thoughts to the Great Problem. It is all over now: the New Year's festivities are at an end and I am "Self" once more. But what is Self? Only a passing guest, whose concerns are all like a mirage of the great desert. . . .
Anyhow -- this is my first moment of leisure. I offer it to you, whose inner
Self reconciles me to the outer man who but too often forgets that great man is
he who is strongest in the exercise of patience. Look around you, my friend: see
the "three poisons"
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raging within the heart of men -- anger, greed, delusion,
and the five obscurities -- envy, passion, vacillation, sloth, and unbelief --
ever preventing them seeing truth. They will never get rid of the pollution of
their vain, wicked hearts, nor perceive the spiritual portion of themselves.
Will you not try -- for the sake of shortening the distance between us -- to
disentangle yourself from the net of life and death in which they are all
caught, to cherish less -- lust and desire? Young Portman is seriously
meditating to leave all, to come over to us, and "become a Tibetan monk" as he
puts it. His ideas are singularly mixed upon the two entirely different
characteristics and qualifications of the "Monk" or Lama and the living
"Lha," or Brother: but let him try by all means.
Aye -- I am only now able to correspond with you. At the same time let me
tell you that it is more difficult than before to exchange letters with you,
though my regard for you has sensibly increased, instead of being lessened -- as
you feared -- and will not diminish unless -- but as the consequence of your own
acts. That you will try to avoid in raising any such obstacle, I know well; but
man, after all, is the victim of his surroundings while he lives in the
atmosphere of society. We may be anxious to befriend such as we have an interest
in, and yet be as helpless to do so, as is one who sees a friend engulfed in a
stormy sea when no boat is near to be launched and his personal strength is
paralysed by a stronger hand that keeps him back. Yes, I see your thought . . .
but you are wrong. Blame not the holy man for strictly doing his duty by
humanity. Had it not been for the Chohan and his restraining influence you would
not be reading now again a letter from your trans-Himalayan correspondent. The
world of the Plains is antagonistic to that of the mountains, that you know; but
what you do not know is the great harm produced by your own unconscious
indiscretions. Shall I give you an instance? Remember the wrath produced on
Stainton Moses by your too imprudent letter quoting ad libitum and with
a freedom pregnant with the most disastrous results from my letter to you about
him. . . . The cause generated at that time has now developed its results: not
only has S. M. completely estranged himself from the Society some of whose
members believe in us, but he has determined in his heart the utter annihilation
of the British Branch. A psychic Society is being founded and he has
succeeded in bringing over to it Wyld, Massey and others. Shall I also tell you
the future of that new body? 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
you alone, the simple action of your swift pen which will have produced the
nidana and the
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ten-del, the "cause" and its "effect" and thus the work of
seven years, the constant untiring efforts of the builders of the Theos. Society
will perish -- killed by the wounded vanity of a medium.
This simple act on your part is silently digging out a chasm between us. The evil may yet be averted -- let the Society exist but in name till the day it can get members with whom we can work de facto -- and by the creation of another counteracting cause we may save the situation. The hand of the Chohan alone can bridge it, but it must be yours that places the first stone for the work. How will you do it? How can you do it? Think of it well, if you care for further intercourse. They want something new. A Ritual to amuse them. Consult with Subba Row, with San Kariah the Dewan Naib of Cochin, read attentively his pamphlet extracts from which you will find in the last Theosophist (see, "A Flash of Light upon Occult Free Masonry." Page 35). I can come nearer to you, but you must draw me by a purified heart and a gradually developing will. Like the needle the adept follows his attractions. Is this not the law of the disembodied Principles? Why then not of the living also? As the social ties of the carnal man are too weak to call back the "Soul" of the deceased except where there is a mutual affinity which survives as a force in the region within the terrestrial region, so the calls of mere friendship or even enthusiastic regard are too feeble to draw the "Lha" who has passed on a stage of the journey to him he has left behind, unless a parallel development goes on. M. spoke well and truthfully when saying that a love of collective humanity is his increasing inspiration; and if any one individual should wish to divert his regards to himself, he must overpower the diffusive tendency by a stronger force.
All this I say, not because its substance has not been told you before, but
because I read your heart and detect in it a shade of sadness, not to say
disappointment, that hovers there. You have had other correspondents but are not
perfectly satisfied. To gratify, I write you therefore with some effort to bid
you keep a cheerful frame of mind. Your strivings, perplexities and forebodings
are equally noticed, good and faithful friend. In the imperishable Record of the
Masters you have written them all. There are registered your every deed
and thought; for, though not a chela, as you say to my Brother Morya, nor even a
"protege" -- as you understand the term -- still, you have stepped within the
circle of our work, you have crossed the mystic line which separates your world
from ours, and now whether you persevere or not; whether we become later on, in
your sight, still more living real entities or vanish out of your mind
like so many dream fictions -- perchance an ugly night-mare -- you are virtually
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ours. Your hidden Self has mirrored itself in our Akasa; your
nature is -- yours, your essence is -- ours. The flame is distinct from the log
of wood which serves it temporarily as fuel; at the end of your apparitional
birth -- and whether we two, meet face to face in our grosser rupas --
you cannot avoid meeting us in Real Existence. Yea, verily
good friend your Karma is ours, for you imprinted it daily and hourly
upon the pages of that book where the minutest particulars of the individuals
stepping inside our circle -- are preserved; and that your Karma is
your only personality to be when you step beyond. In thought and deed,
by day, in soul-struggles by nights, you have been writing the story of your
desires and your spiritual development. This, every one does who approaches us
with any earnestness of desire to become our co-worker, he himself
"precipitates" the written entries by the identical process used by us when we
write inside your closed letters and uncut pages of books and pamphlets in
transit. (See pp. 32, 35 Report sent by Olcott, once more.) I tell
you this for your private information and it must not figure in the next
pamphlet from Simla. During the past few months, especially, when your weary
brain was plunged in the torpor of sleep, your eager soul has often been
searching after me, and the current of your thought been beating against my
protecting barriers of Akas as the lapping wavelets against a rocky shore. What
that "inner Self," impatient, anxious -- has longed to bind itself to, the
carnal man, the worldlings' master has not ratified: the ties of life are still
as strong as chains of steel. Sacred, indeed, some of them are, and no one would
ask you to rupture them. There below, lies your long-cherished field of
enterprise and usefulness. Ours can never be more than a bright phantom-world to
the man of thorough "practical sense"; and if your case be in some degree
exceptional, it is because your nature has deeper inspirations than those of
others, who are still more "business-like" and the fountain-head of whose
eloquence is in the brain not in the heart, which never was in contact with the
mysteriously effulgent, and pure heart of Tathagata.
If you hear seldom from me, never feel disappointed, my Brother, but say --
"It is my fault." Nature has linked all parts of her Empire together by
subtle threads of magnetic sympathy, and, there is a mutual correlation even
between a star and a man; thought runs swifter than the electric fluid, and your
thought will find me if projected by a pure impulse, as mine will find,
has found, and often impressed your mind. We may move in cycles of activity
divided -- not entirely separated from each other. Like the light in the sombre
valley seen by the mountaineer from his peaks, every bright thought in your
mind, my Brother, will sparkle and attract the attention of your distant
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friend
and correspondent. If thus we discover our natural Allies in the Shadow-world
-- your world and ours outside the precincts -- and it is our law to approach
every such an one if even there be but the feeblest glimmer of the true "Tathăgata"
light within him -- then how far easier for you to attract us. Understand this
and the admission into the Society of persons often distasteful to you will no
longer amaze you. "They that be whole need not the physician, but they that be
sick" -- is an axiom, whoever may have spoken it.
And now, let me bid you farewell for the present until the next. Indulge not in apprehensions of what evil might happen if things should not go as your worldly wisdom thinks they ought; doubt not, for this complexion of doubt unnerves and pushes back one's progress. To have cheerful confidence and hope is quite another thing from giving way to the fool's blind optimism: the wise man never fights misfortune in advance. A cloud does lower over your path -- it gathers about the hill of Jakko. He whom you made your confidant -- I advised you to become but his co-worker, not to divulge things to him that you should have kept locked within your bosom -- is under a baneful influence, and may become your enemy. You do right to try to rescue him from it, for it bodes ill to him, to you and to the Society. His greater mind fumed by vanity and charmed by the piping of a weaker but more cunning one, is for the time under a spell of fascination. You will easily detect the malign power that stands behind both and uses them as tools for the execution of its own nefarious plans. The intended catastrophe can be averted by redoubled vigilance and increased fervour of pure will on the part of the friends of S. B. L. Work then, if you still will, to turn the blow aside; for if it falls you will not escape unhurt however great my Brothers' efforts. The cause will never be ruined though albeit the Sisyphus' rock may crush a good many toes. Farewell, again, my friend -- for longer or shorter, as you may determine. I am called to duty.
Yours faithfully,
K. H.
Received Simla, 1882.
I will thank you, my dear Sinnett Sahib, for a personal favour. Since K. H. is
too much of a perfect Yogi-Arhat, to stop the hand that undaunted by
failure keeps on trying to catch the Tibetan yak by the neck to bend it under
its yoke, then all that remains
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for me to do is to make once more my appearance
on the nataka-shala to put a stop to a performance that threatens to
become monotonous even to us -- well trained in patience. I cannot avail myself
of your kind advice to write to Mr. Hume in my brightest red since it
would be opening a new door for an endless correspondence, an honour I would
rather decline. But I write to you instead, and send you a telegram and answer
on back on't, for your perusal. What talk of his is this? Reverence may not be
in his nature, nor does any one claim or care for it any way! But I should have
thought that his head, that is capacious enough to hold anything, had a corner
in it for some common sense. And that sense might have told him that either we
are what we claim, or we are not. That in the former case, however exaggerated
the claims made on behalf of our powers still if our knowledge and
foresight do not transcend his, then we are no better than shams and
impostors and the quicker he parts company with us -- the better for him.
But if we are in any degree what we claim to be, then he acts like a wild ass.
Let him remember, that we are not Indian Rajahs in need of and compelled to
accept political Ayahs, and nurses to lead us on by the string. That
the Society was founded, went on and will go on with or without him let
him suit himself as to the latter.
So far his help, that he thrusts on us, much after the fashion of Spanish mendicant hidalgos, who offer their sword to protect the traveller with one hand and clutch him by the throat with the other, has not -- as far as I can find very beneficial to the Society so far. Not to one of its founders, at any rate, whom he has nigh killed last year at Simla and whom he now harasses, sticking to her like grim death turning her blood into water and eating her liver out.
Therefore I expect you to impress upon his mind that all we should "give
thanks for," would be to see him take care of his Eclectic and to leave
the Parent Society to take care of itself. His advice and help to the editor of
the Theosophist has no doubt been very advantageous to the editor,
and she does feel grateful to him for it after deducting the large share she
owes to yourself. But we beg leave to state, that some line ought to be drawn
somewhere -- between said editor and ourselves; for we are not quite the
Tibetan triplets he takes us to be. Therefore, whether we be the ignorant
savages and Orientals of his making -- every wolf being master in his own den --
we claim the right to know our own business best, and respectfully decline his
services as a captain to steer our Theosophical ship even on "the ocean of
worldly life" as he metaphorizes in his sloka. We have allowed
him, under the good pretext of saving the situation with the British
theosophists to ventilate his animosity against us in the organ of our own
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Society and to draw our portrait-likenesses, with a brush dipped in haughty bile
-- what more does he want? As I ordered the old woman to telegraph him back --
he is not the only skilful navigator in the world; he seeks to avoid Western
breakers, and we to steer our canoe clear off Eastern sandbanks. Does he mean in
addition to this to dictate from the Chohan down to Juala Khool and Deb what we
shall and what we shall not do? Ram, Ram and the holy Nagas! is it after
centuries of independent existence that we have to fall under a foreign
influence, to become the puppets of a Simla Nawab? Are we school boys, or what,
in his fancy to submit to the rod of a Peling schoolmaster. . . .
Notwithstanding his sulks I beg you will tell him that you heard from me -- and that I have asked you to let him know my ultimatum: if he would not break with the whole shop altogether, and for ever I will not suffer him to interfere with his wisdom between our ignorance and the Parent Society. Nor shall he ease his bad humour on one who is not responsible for anything we may do or say -- a woman so sick that as in 1877 I am again forced to carry her away -- when she is so needed where she now is, at Headquarters -- for fear she will fall all to pieces. And that this state of hers was brought on lately by him owing to constant anxiety for the Society, and partially if not wholly by his behaviour at Simla -- you can take my word for it. The whole situation and future of the Eclectic hangs on Koothumi if you will not help him. If notwithstanding my advice and the Chohan's evident displeasure he will persist making a fool of himself sacrificing himself for a man who is the evil genius of the Society in one direction -- well it's his own business, only I will have nothing to do with it. Your true friend I will ever remain though you turn against me one of these days. Fern was tested and found a thorough Dugpa in his moral nature. We will see, we will see; but very little hope left notwithstanding his splendid capacities. Had I hinted to him to deceive his own father and mother he would have thrown in their fathers and mothers in the bargain. Vile, vile nature -- yet irresponsible. Oh ye Westerns, who boast of your morality! May the bright Chohans keep you and all yours from the approaching harm is the sincere wish of your friend M.
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Received Allahabad, 3rd March, 1882.
Reply to my remonstrance (Through Damodar) against treatment of Europe.
Well, say I am an
ignoramus in your English ways, and I'll say you
are one in our Tibetan customs and we will split the difference and shake our
astral hands over Barnaway and square the discussion. The old woman? Of course she will be frantic -- but who cares? It's
kept from her however secret. No use making her more miserable than what she is.
Cook is a pump of filth, with perpetually working pistons and the
sooner he screws them up -- the better for him. Your last letter to me is less a
"petition" than a protest, my respected Sahib. It's voice is that of the war
sankh of my Rajput ancestors, rather than the cooing of a friend. And I
like it all the more I promise you. It has the right ring of honest frankness.
So let us talk -- for sharp as your voice may be, your heart is warm and you end
by saying "Whether you decree that what seems to me right be done or not" you
are ever ours faithfully etc. Europe is a large place but the world is bigger
yet. The sun of Theosophy must shine for all, not for a part. There is more of
this movement than you have yet had an inkling of, and the work of the T.S. is
linked in with similar work that is secretly going on in all parts of the world.
Even in the T.S. there is a division, managed by a Greek Brother about which not
a person in the Society has a suspicion excepting the old woman and Olcott; and
even he only knows it is progressing, and occasionally executes an order I send
him in connection with it. The cycle I spoke of refers to the whole movement.
Europe will not be overlooked, never fear; but perhaps you even may not
anticipate how the light will be shed there. Ask your Seraph
-- K. H. to let you have details thereof. You speak of Massey and Crookes: do you
not recollect that Massey was offered 4 years ago, the chance to head the
English movement and -- declined? In his place was set up that old grim
idol of the Jewish Sinai -- Wild, who with his Christian rant and fanatical rot
shut us out of the movement altogether. Our Chohan forbade us
absolutely to take any part in it. Massey has to thank but himself for
it, and you may tell him so. You ought to have learned by this time our ways. We
advise -- and never order. But we do influence
individuals. Ransack the Spiritualistic literature if you will till the year
1877. Search and find in it -- if you can, one single word about occult
philosophy, or esotericism or anything of that element now so largely infused in
the spiritual movement. Ask and enquire whether the very word of "occultism" was
not so completely unknown in America, that
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we find Cora of the 7
husbands, the Zappan woman and talking medium inspired in her lectures
to say that the word was one just coined by the Theosophists -- then
dawning --; that no one ever heard of elementary spirits and "astral" light --
save the petroleum manufacturers and so on and on. Well ascertain this
and compare. This was the first war cry, and the battle kept raging hot
and fierce to the very day of the departure for India. To say and point out to
Edison and Crookes and Massey -- would sound much like boasting of that which
can never be proven. And Crookes -- has he not brought science within
our hail in his "radiant matter" discovery? What but occult research was it that
led him first to that. You know K. H. and me -- buss ! know you anything
of the whole Brotherhood and its ramifications? The Old Woman is
accused of untruthfulness, inaccuracy in her statements. "Ask no
questions and you will receive no lies." She is forbidden to
say what she knows. You may cut her to pieces and she will not tell. Nay -- she
is ordered in cases of need to mislead people; and, were she
more of a natural born liar -- she might be happier and won her day
long since by this time. But that's just where the shoe pinches, Sahib. She is
too truthful, too outspoken, too incapable of
dissimulation: and now she is being daily crucified for it. Try not to be
hasty, respected Sir. The world was not made in a day; nor has the tail of the
yak developed in one year. Let evolution take its course naturally -- lest we
make it deviate and produce monsters by presuming to guide it. Massey talks of
coming to India -- does he not? And supposing that after coming here and doing
what is right and spending the needed time for disciplinary training he should
be sent back with a message? And supposing that Crookes and Edison and others
have other things to discover? So I say, "Wait." Who knows what may be the
situation in November? You might think it such as to justify us in carrying out
our "threat" to "lock the door," while it might seem very different to us. Let
us all do our best. There are cycles of 7, 11, 21, 77, 107, 700, 11,000, 21,000
etc.; so many cycles will make a major and so on. Bide your time the record
book is well kept. Only, look out sharp: the Dugpas and the
Gelupkas are not fighting but in Tibet alone, see their vile work in
England among the "Occultists and seers!" Hear -- your acquaintance
Wallace preaching like a true "Hierophant" of the "left hand" the marriage of
"soul with the spirit" and getting the true definition topsy-turvy seek to prove
that every practicing Hierophant must at least be spiritually
married -- if for some reasons he cannot do so physically there being
otherwise a great danger of Adulteration of God and Devil! I tell you the
Shammars are there already and their pernicious work is everywhere in our way.
Do not regard
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this as metaphorical but as a real fact, which may be demonstrated
to you some day.
Its quite useless to say anything more about Olcott's eccentricity and the inferiority of America to England; all that is real in your point we recognise and knew long ago; but you do not know how much that is mere superficial prejudice glares in your eyes like the reflection of a thin taper on deep water. Take care lest we should some day take you at your thought and put you in Olcott's place, after taking him to our own, as he has longed to have us do these several years. Martyrdom is pleasant to look at and criticise, but harder to suffer. There never was a woman more unjustly abused than H. B. See the infamous insulting letters she was sent from England for publication against herself and us and the Society. You may find them undignified perhaps. But the "Answers to Correspondents" in Supplement are written by myself. So do not blame her. I'm curious to know your frank opinion on them. Perchance you might think she might have done herself better.
M.
Received Allahabad, March 3rd, 1882.
Good friend, I "know" -- of course. And knowing, without your
telling me I would, were I but authorized to influence you in any one direction
-- answer most gladly: "that knowledge thou shalt share with me some day." When,
or how -- "is not for me to say, nor for myself to know," as you, aye, you
alone, have to weave your destiny. Perhaps soon and perchance -- never: but
why feel "despairing," or even doubting? Believe me: we may yet walk along the
arduous path together. We may yet meet: but if at all, it has to be along and
on -- those "adamantine rocks with which our occult rules surround us"
-- never outside them, however bitterly we may complain. No, never
can we pursue our further journey -- if hand in hand -- along that
high-way, crowded thoroughfare, which encircles them, and on which Spiritualists
and mystics, prophets and seers elbow each other now-a-day. Yea, verily, the
motley crowd of candidates may shout for an eternity to come, for the Sesame
to open. It never will, so long as they keep outside those rules. Vainly do
your modern seers and their prophetesses, creep into every cleft and crevice
without outlet or continuity they chance to see; and still more vainly, when
once within do they lift up their voices and loudly cry: "Eureka! We
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have gotten
a Revelation from the Lord!" -- for verily have they nothing of the kind. They
have disturbed but bats, less blind than their intruders; who, feeling them
flying about, mistake them as often for angels -- as they too, have wings! Doubt
not, my friend: it is but from the very top of those "adamantine rocks" of ours,
not at their foot, that one is ever enabled to perceive the whole
Truth, by embracing the whole limitless horizon. And though they may seem to you
to be standing in your way, it is simply because you have hitherto failed to
discover or even so much as suspect the reason and the operation of those laws;
hence they appear so cold and merciless and selfish in your sight; although
yourself have intuitionally recognised in them the outcome of ages of wisdom.
Nevertheless, were one but to obediently follow them out, they could be made to
gradually yield to one's desire and give to him all he asks of them.
But no one could ever violently break them, without becoming the first victim to
his guilt; yea, to the extent of risking to lose his own, his hard won share of
immortality, here and there. Remember: too anxious expectation
is not only tedious, but dangerous too. Each warmer and quicker throb of the
heart wears so much of life away. The passions, the affections are not to be
indulged in by him, who seeks to KNOW; for they "wear out the earthly body with
their own secret power; and he, who would gain his aim -- must be
cold." He must not even desire too earnestly or too passionately the object
he would reach: else, the very wish will prevent the possibility of its
fulfilment, at best -- retard and throw it back. . . .
You will find in the forth-coming number, two articles which you must read, I
need not tell you why, as I leave it with your intuitions. As usual, it is an
indiscretion, which however, I have allowed to remain as there are few, if any,
who will understand the hint contained -- but you. There are more than one such
hint though; hence your attention is asked to the "Elixir of Life" and W.
Oxley's "Philosophy of Spirit." The former contains references and explanations,
the haziness of which, may remind you of a man who stealthily approaching one
gives him a hit upon his back, and then runs away; as they most undeniably
belong to the genus of those "Fortunes" that come to one like the thief by night
and during one's sleep, and go back, finding no one to respond to the offer --
of which you complain in your letter to Brother. This time, you are warned, good
friend, so complain no more. Article No. 2, is penned by the Manchester Seer --
Oxley. Having received no reply to his summons to K. H., he criticises -- mildly
so far -- The utterances of that "Internal Power" -- for which new title I feel
rather obliged to him. At the sight of the gentle rebuke, our blunderbuss Editor
failed not to explode. Nor would she be soothed, until Djwal-
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Khul, with whom the
famous review was concocted -- (one by-the-bye, which seen by, ought to have
never been permitted to see the day by you) -- was authorized, under the safe
nom-de-plume of "Reviewer" to answer (by correcting some of his
blunders) the Seer, in a few innocent foot-notes. Yet, I must say, that of all
the present English "prophets," W. Oxley is the only one who has an
inkling of truth; hence the only one calculated to effectually help our
movement. The man runs constantly in and out of the straight road, deviating
from it every time he thinks he perceives a new path; but finding himself in a
cul-de-sac as invariably returns to the right direction. I must admit,
there is much sound philosophy here and there in what he writes; and, though his
story of "Busiris" in its anthropomorphic presentation is ridiculous nonsense,
and, his rendering of Sanskrit names is mostly wrong; and though he seems to
have but very hazy notions about what he calls the "astro-masonic basis of
Bhagavat Gita " and -- Mahabharata to both of which he
evidently attributes the same author -- yet he is positively and absolutely the
only one, whose general comprehension of Spirit, and its capabilities
and functions after the first separation, we call death, are on the
whole if not quite correct, at least approximating very nearly Truth. Read it,
when it comes out, especially Par. 3, Col. I, page 152 et seq,
where you will find them. You may then understand, why, instead of answering
your direct question I go into a subject, so far, perfectly indifferent to you.
Follow, for instance his definition of the term "Angel" (it will be on line 30,)
and try to follow and comprehend his thought, so clumsily yet withal so
correctly expressed and then, compare it with the Tibetan teaching. Poor, poor
Humanity, when shalt thou have the whole and unadulterated Truth! Behold, each
of the "privileged ones saying: "I alone am right! There is no lacuna.
. . ." No; none: -- not on that one special page opened before him, and which he
alone is reading in the endless volume of "Spirit Revelation," called
Seership. But why such stubborn oblivion of the important fact that there
are other and innumerable pages before and after that one solitary page that
each of the "Seers" has so far hardly learnt to decipher? Why is it, that every
one of those "Seers" believes himself the Alpha and the Omega of Truth? Thus --
S. M. is taught that there are no such "Beings" as Brothers, and to
reject the doctrine of frequent annihilation and that of the Elementary
and of the non-human Spirits. Maitland and Mrs. K. have revealed
to them -- by Jesus and God themselves (that alone would beat
+) that
many of the supposed "Spirits" which control mediums and converse with visitors
-- Spiritualists, are no "disembodied" spirits at all, but only "flames," -- and
the reliquiae of dogs, cats and pigs, helped to
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communicate with
mortals by the spirits of "trees," vegetables and minerals. Though more hazy
than the human, cautious discourses of the alleged + those teachings
are nearer to the mark than anything uttered so far by the mediums, and I will
tell you why. When the "Seeress" is made to reveal that "immortality is by no
means a matter of course for all" . . . that "souls shrink away and expire," it
being the nature of them to burn out and expand themselves" . . . etc.,
she is delivering herself of actual, incontrovertible facts.
And why? Because both Maitland and herself as well as their circle --
are strict vegetarians, while S. M. is a flesh-eater and a wine and
liquor drinker. Never will the Spiritualists find reliable, trustworthy mediums
and Seers (not even to a degree) so long as the latter and their "circle" will
saturate themselves with animal blood, and the millions of infusoria of
the fermented fluids. Since my return I found it impossible for me to
breathe -- even in the atmosphere of the Headquarters! M. had to
interfere, and to force the whole household to give up meat; and they had, all
of them, to be purified and thoroughly cleansed with various disinfecting drugs
before I could even help myself to my letters. And I am not, as you may imagine,
half as sensitive to the loathsome emanations as a tolerably respectable
disembodied shell would be, -- leaving out of question a real
Presence,
though but a "projecting" one. In a year or so, perchance earlier, I may find
myself hardened again. At present I find it impossible -- do
what I may.
And now, with such a Preface instead of answering I will put you a
question. You know, S. Moses, and you know Maitland and Mrs. K. personally. And,
you have heard of and read about a good many Seers, in the past and present
centuries, such as Swedenborg, Boehme, and others. Not one among the number but
thoroughly honest, sincere, and as intelligent, as well educated; aye,
even learned. Each of them in addition to these qualities, has or had an
+ of
his own; a "Guardian" and a Revelator -- under whatever "mystery" and
"mystic name" -- whose mission it is -- or has been to spin out to his spiritual
ward -- a new system embracing all the details of the world of Spirit. Tell me,
my friend, do you know of two that agree? And why, since truth is one, and that
putting entirely the question of discrepancies in details aside -- we do not
find them agreeing even upon the most vital problems -- those that have either "to
be, or not to be" -- and of which there can be no two
solutions? Summed up, it comes to the following: -- All the "Rosicrucians,"
all the mediæval mystics, Swedenborg, P. B. Randolf, Oxley, etc., etc.:
"there are secret Brotherhoods of Initiates in the East, especially in
Tibet and Tartary; there only can the Lost Word
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(which is no Word) be
found"; and, there are Spirits of the Elements, and Spirit-Flames, that were
never incarnated (in this cycle), and immortality is conditional.
Mediums and clairvoyants, (of the type of S. Moses;) there are no Brothers in Tibet or India, and the 'Lost Word' is in the sole keeping of my 'Guardian' who knows the word but knows of no Brothers. And, immortality is for all and unconditional, there being no Spirits but the human and the disembodied, etc. etc." -- a system of radical denial of the first one and in complete antagonism with it. While Oxley and Mrs. H. Billing are in direct communication with the "Brothers," S. M. rejects the very idea of one. While "Busiris" is an "angel" au pluriel, or the Spirit of a congeries of Spirits (Dhyan Chohans) the + is the soul of a disembodied Sage solo. His teachings are authoritative, yet we always find a ring of uncertainty and hesitation in them: "We are not able to say now" . . . "It is doubtful" . . . "We do not understand whether it is pretended" . . . it "seems that" . . . "we do not feel sure," etc. Thus speaketh a man, conditioned and limited in his means of obtaining absolute knowledge; but why should a "Soul within the Universal Soul" a "Spirit Sage" use such a cautious, uncertain phraseology if the truth is known to him? Why not, in answer to her direct, fearless, and challenging remark: "You want objective proof of the Lodge? Have you not +? and can you not ask him whether I speak the truth?" -- why not answer -- (if it is + who answers) -- either one way or the other, and say: -- "the poor wench is hallucinated"; or, (as there cannot be another or a third alternative if S. M. is right) "she lies intentionally, with such and such an object, beware of her! "Why so hazy? -- Aye, verily, because "he (+) knows," and "his name be blessed," -- but he (S. M.) knoweth not; for, as his "spirits," + he thinks -- repeatedly remind him: "You do not appear to have gathered rightly what we said . . ." controversy stirs up your mind and feeling, and in place of a transparent medium, gives us one that is turpid. . . . we require a passive mind, and cannot act without it" . . . (see Light February 4th).
As we do not "require a passive mind" but on the contrary are seeking for those most active, which can put two and two together once that they are on the right scent, we will, if you please, drop the subject. Let your mind work out the problem for itself.
Yes; I am indeed, satisfied with your last article, though it will satisfy no
Spiritualist. Yet there is more philosophy and sound logic in it than in a dozen
of their most pretentious publications. Facts -- will come later on.
Thus, little by little, the now incomprehensible will become the self-evident;
and many a sentence of mystic meaning, will shine yet out before your Soul-
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eye,
like a transparency, illuminating the darkness of your mind. Such is the course
of gradual progress; a year or two back you might have written a more brilliant,
never a more profound article. Neglect then, not, my good Brother, the humble,
the derided Journal of your Society, and mind not either its quaint, pretentious
cover, nor the "heaps of manure" contained in it -- to repeat the charitable,
and to yourself the too familiar remark used often at Simla. But let your
attention be rather drawn to the few pearls of wisdom and occult truths
to be occasionally discovered under that "manure." Our own ways and manners are,
perchance, as quaint and as uncouth -- nay more so. Subba Rao is right; he who
knows aught of the ways of the Siddhas shall concur with the views
expressed on the third page of his incomplete letter: many of us would be
mistaken for Madmen, by you English gentlemen. But he, who would become
a son of Wisdom can always see beneath the rugged surface. So, with the poor old
Journal. Behold, its mystically bumptious clothing!, its numerous blemishes and
literary defects, and with all that cover the most perfect symbol of its
contents: the main portion of its original ground, thickly veiled, all smutty
and as black as night, through which peep out grey dots, and lines, and words,
and even -- sentences. To the truly wise those breaks of grey, may suggest an
allegory full of meaning, such as the streaks of twilight, upon the Eastern sky,
at morning's early dawn, after a night of intense darkness; the aurora of a more
"spiritually intellectual" cycle. And who knows, how many of those, who,
undismayed by its unprepossessing appearance, the hideous intricacies of its
style, and the other many failures of the unpopular magazine will keep
on turning its pages, who may find themselves rewarded some day for their
perseverance! Illuminated sentences may gleam out upon them, at some time or
other, shedding a bright light upon some old puzzling problems. Yourself, some
fine morning, while poring over its crooked columns with the sharpened wits of a
well rested brain, peering into what you now view as hazy, impalpable
speculations, having only the consistency of vapour, -- yourself you may,
perchance, perceive in them the unexpected solution of an old, blurred,
forgotten "dream" of yours, which once recalled will impress itself in
an indelible image upon your outer from your inner memory, to never
fade out from it again. All this is possible and may happen; for our
ways are the ways of "Madmen" . . .
Then why feel "unhappy" and "disappointed"? My good, my faithful
friend, remember that hope deferred is no hope lost. "Conditions" may change for
the better -- for we too -- spook-like need our conditions, and can
hardly work without them; and then, the vague depression of Spirit, which is now
settling down
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upon you like a heavy cloud on a landscape may be blown away at
the first favourable breeze. Bhavani Shanker is with O., and he is stronger and
fitter in many a way more than Damodar or even our mutual "female" friend.
No; you will not be snatched away from your study before you have thoroughly
mastered the alphabet, so as to learn to read by yourself; and, it depends but
on you alone to nail for ever "the too attractive vision" that seems to
you now to be fading away. . . . . . [One whole page of the
original letter is missing here. -- ED].. . . .whole situation. That I am not a "Seraph" yet, is
shown in the fact of my writing to you this endless letter. When it is proved
that you have not misunderstood my meaning, I may say more. Morya, to enable you
as he says to confront your enemies, the believers in the materialisation of
"individual souls," wanted me, to acquaint you with the totality of the subtile
bodies and their collective aggregate, as well as with the distributive
aggregate or the sheaths. I believe it is premature. Before the world
can be made to understand the difference between the "Sutratma" (thread-soul)
and "Taijasa," (the brilliant or the luminous) they have to be taught the nature
of the grosser elements. What I blame him for, is that he allowed you to begin
from the wrong end -- the most difficult unless one has thoroughly mastered the
preparatory ground. I have looked over you(r) MS. to him; and more than once
have I detected on the white margin the shadow of your face, with its earnest,
enquiring gaze in the eyes: your thought having projected your image on the spot
you had on your mind, and which you longed to receive back filled --
"thirsting" as you say -- for more notes and information. Well, if his laziness
overcomes his good intentions much longer, I will have to do it myself, though
my time is limited. At all events to write for you is no ungrateful
task, as you make the best use of the little you may pick up here and there.
Indeed, when you complain of being unable to comprehend the meaning of Eliphas
Levi, it is only because you failed like so many other readers to find the key
to their way of writing. On close observation, you will find that it was never
the intention of the Occultists really to conceal what they had been writing
from the earnest determined students, but rather to lock up their information
for safety-sake, in a secure safe-box, the key to which is -- intuition. The
degree of diligence and zeal with which the hidden meaning is sought by the
student, is generally the test -- how far he is entitled to the possession of
the so buried treasure. And certainly if you were able to make out that which
was concealed under the red ink of M. -- you need despair of nothing. I believe,
it is time now to bid you farewell, hoping
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you will find less trouble to read
the blue than the red hieroglyphics. O. will be with you shortly, and you ought
to make the best of this opportunity which may be the last for both. And now,
need I remind you that this letter is strictly private?
Yours, whatever may come of it,
K. H.
From K.H. Received at Umballa on the way to Simla, August 5, 1881.
Just home. Received more letters than I care to answer -- yours excepted. Having nothing particular to say, I will simply attend to your questions; a task which may seem an easy one, but is not so, in reality, if we but remember that similar in that to the deity described in Upanishad "Sokâmayata bahuh syâm prajâye yeti" -- they "love to be many and to multiply." At any rate, thirst for knowledge was never regarded as a sin and you will always find me prompt to answer such queries -- that can be answered.
Certainly I am of opinion that since our correspondence was established for
the good of the many it would prove very little profitable to the world at large
unless you do recast the teachings and ideas contained therein "in the form of
an essay," not only on the occult philosophical view of creation but upon every
other question. The sooner you begin your "future book" the better; for who can
answer for unexpected incidents? Our correspondence may break off suddenly the
obstacle coming from those who know best. Their mind -- as you know, is
a sealed book for many of us, and which no amount of "art magic" can break open.
Further "aids to reflection" will however come in good time; and the little I am
permitted to explain, may, I hope, prove more comprehensive than Eliphas Levi's
Haute Magie. No wonder you find it cloudy, for it was never meant
for the uninitiated reader. Eliphas studied from the Rosicrucian MSS. (now
reduced to three copies in Europe). These expound our eastern doctrines from the
teachings of Rosencrauz, who, upon his return from Asia dressed
them up in a semi-Christian garb intended as a shield for his pupils, against
clerical revenge. One must have the key to it and that key is a science per
se. Rosencrauz taught orally. Saint Germain recorded the good
doctrines in figures and his only cyphered MS. remained with his staunch friend
and patron the benevolent German Prince from whose house and in whose presence
he made his last exit -- Home Failure, dead failure! Speaking of "figures" and
"numbers" Eliphas addresses those
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who know something of the Pythagorean
doctrines. Yes; some of them do sum up all philosophy and include all doctrines.
Isaac Newton understood them well; but withheld his knowledge very prudently for
his own reputation, and very unfortunately for the writers of Saturday
Review and its contemporaries. You seem to admire it -- I do not. However
talented from the literary point of view, a paper which gives vent to such
unprogressive and dogmatic ideas as the one I came across in it, lately, ought
to lose caste among its more liberal confreres. Scientific men, it thinks -- "do
not make at all good observers" at exhibitions of modern magic, spiritism and
other "nine days wonders." This is certainly not as it should be, it adds for, "knowing
as well as they do the limits of the natural (?!!) they should
begin by assuming that what they see, or what they think they see, cannot
be done, and should next look for the fallacy" etc. etc. Circulation of
the blood, electric telegraph, railway and steamer argument all over again.
They know "the limits of the natural"!! Oh, century of conceit and mental
obscuration! And we are invited to, London among these academical rags whose
predecessors persecuted Mesmer and branded St. Germain as an impostor! All is
secret for them as yet in nature. Of man -- they know but the
skeleton and form; hardly are they able to outline the paths through which the
invisible messengers they call "senses" pass on their way to man's perceptions;
their school science is a hot-bed of doubts and conjectures; it teaches but for
its own sophistry, infects with its emasculation, its scorn for truth, its false
morality and dogmatism, and its representatives would boast knowing "the
limits of the natural." Bus -- my good friend; I would forget you belonged
to this generation, and are an admirer of your "modern Science." Her behests and
oracular verdicts are on a level with the papal -- non possumus.
Yes; the Saturday Review has let us off easily enough to be sure.
Not so the Spiritualist. Poor perplexed, wee paper! You gave it a
tremendous blow. Losing its footing on mediumistic ground, it fights its death
struggle for supremacy of English adeptship over Eastern knowledge. I almost
hear its sub rosa cry: "If we Spiritualists are shown to be in the
wrong box so are you -- theosophists." The great "Adept," the formidable J. K. is
certainly a dangerous enemy; and I am afraid, our Boddhisatwas will have to
confess some day their profound ignorance before his mighty learning. "Real
Adepts like Gautama Buddha or Jesus Christ did not shroud themselves in mystery,
but came and taught openly," quoth our oracle. If they did it's news to us --
the humble followers of the former. Gautama is qualified the "Divine Teacher"
and at the same time "God's messenger"!! (See Spt., July
8th, p. 21. para 2.) Buddha has now become the
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messenger of one, whom He, Sankia
K'houtchoo, the precious wisdom, has dethroned 2,500 years back, by unveiling
the Tabernacle and showing its emptiness. Where did that cockney adept learn his
Buddhism, I wonder? You really ought to advise your friend Mr. C. C. Massey to
study with that London Jewel who so despises Indian occult knowledge "The
Lotus of the Good Law," and "Atma Boddha" -- in the light of
Jewish Kabalism.
I, "annoyed at newspaper ribald notices?" Certainly not. But I do feel a little wrathful at the sacrilegious utterances of J. K.; that I confess. I felt like answering the conceited fool -- but "so far shalt thou go and no further" -- again. The Hobilghan to whom I showed the passage laughed till the tears streamed down his old cheeks. I wish I could. When the "Old Lady" reads it, there will be a cedar or two damaged at Simla. Thanks indeed for your kind offer to let me have possession of the Review scraps; but I rather you should preserve them yourself, as these notices may prove unexpectedly valuable to you in a few years hence.
To your offer to give a solemn pledge never to divulge anything without permission, I can give no answer, at present. Neither its acceptance nor rejection depend of me, to tell you the truth, since it would be quite an unprecedented event to pledge an outsider to our own particular form of oath or promise, and that no other would hold good in my Superior's opinion. Unfortunately for both of us, once -- or rather twice -- upon a time you made use of an expression which was recorded, and but three days ago, when pleading for some privileges for you, it was brought out before me very unexpectedly, I must say. Upon hearing it repeated and seeing it recorded, I had but to turn, as gently as I could, the other cheek to still more unexpected buffets of fortune dealt out by the respected hand of him whom I so revere. Cruel as the reminder seemed to me it was just, for you have pronounced these words at Simla: "I am a member of the Theosophical Society but in no way a Theosophist," you said. I am not breaking confidence in revealing this result of my plai doyer to you, as I am even advised to do so. We have to travel then, at the same slow rate at which we have hitherto gone, or -- halt at once and write Finis at the bottom of our letters. I hope you will give preference to the former.
Once we are upon the topic, I wish you would impress upon your London friends
some wholesome truths that they are but too apt to forget, even, when they have
been told of them over and over again. The Occult Science is not one,
in which secrets can be communicated of a sudden, by a written or even verbal
communication. If so, all the "Brothers" should have to do, would be to publish
a Hand-book of the art which might be taught in schools
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as grammar is.
It is the common mistake of people that we willingly wrap ourselves and our
powers in mystery -- that we wish to keep our knowledge to ourselves, and of our
own will refuse -- "wantonly and deliberately" to communicate it. The truth is
that till the neophyte attains to the condition necessary for that degree of
Illumination to which, and for which, he is entitled and fitted, most if not
all of the Secrets are incommunicable. The receptivity must be
equal to the desire to instruct. The illumination must come from within.
Till then no hocus pocus of incantations, or mummery of appliances, no
metaphysical lectures or discussions, no self-imposed penance can give it. All
these are but means to an end, and all we can do is to direct the use of such
means as have been empirically found by the experience of ages to conduce to the
required object. And this was and has been no secret for thousands of
years. Fasting, meditation, chastity of thought, word, and deed; silence for
certain periods of time to enable nature herself to speak to him who comes to
her for information; government of the animal passions and impulses; utter
unselfishness of intention, the use of certain incense and fumigations for
physiological purposes, have been published as the means since the days of Plato
and Iamblichus in the West, and since the far earlier times of our Indian
Rishis. How these must be complied with to suit each individual temperament
is of course a matter for his own experiment and the watchful care of his tutor
or Guru. Such is in fact part of his course of discipline, and his Guru
or initiator can but assist him with his experience and will power but can do no
more until the last and Supreme initiation. I am also of
opinion that few candidates imagine the degree of inconvenience -- nay suffering
and harm to himself -- the said initiator submits to for the sake of his pupil.
The peculiar physical, moral, and intellectual conditions of neophytes and
Adepts alike vary much, as anyone will easily understand; thus, in each case,
the instructor has to adapt his conditions to those of the pupil, and the strain
is terrible for to achieve success we have to bring ourselves into a full
rapport with the subject under training. And as, the greater the powers of the
Adept the less he is in sympathy with the natures of the profane who often come
to him saturated with the emanations of the outside world, those animal
emanations of the selfish, brutal, crowd that we so dread -- the longer he was
separated from that world and the purer he has himself become, the more
difficult the self-imposed task. Then -- knowledge, can only be communicated
gradually; and some of the highest secrets -- if actually formulated even in
your well prepared ear -- might sound to you as insane gibberish,
notwithstanding all the sincerity of your present assurance that "absolute trust
defies misunderstanding." This is the real cause of our reticence.
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This is why people so often complain with a plausible show of reason that no
new knowledge is communicated to them, though they have toiled for it for two,
three or more years. Let those who really desire to learn abandon all
and come to us, instead of asking or expecting us to go to them. But how is this
to be done in your world, and atmosphere? "Woke up sad on the morning of the
18th." Did you? Well, well, patience, my good brother, patience. Something
has occurred, though you have preserved no consciousness of the event; but
let this rest. Only what more can I do? How am I to give expression to ideas for
which you have as yet no language? The finer and more susceptible heads get like
yourself, more than others do, and even when they get a little extra
dose it is lost for want of words and images to fix the floating ideas. Perhaps,
and undoubtedly you know not to what I now refer to. You will know it
one day -- Patience. To give more knowledge to a man than he is yet fitted to
receive is a dangerous experiment; and furthermore, other considerations go to
restrain me. The sudden communication of facts, so transcending the ordinary, is
in many instances fatal not only to the neophyte but to those directly about
him. It is like delivering an infernal machine or a cocked and loaded revolver
into the hands of one who had never seen such a thing. Our case is exactly
analogous. We feel that the time is approaching, and that we are bound to choose
between the triumph of Truth or the Reign of Error and -- Terror. We have to let
in a few chosen ones into the great secret, or -- allow the infamous
Shammars to lead Europe's best minds into the most insane and fatal of
superstitions -- Spiritualism; and we do feel as if we were delivering
a whole cargo of dynamite into the hands of those, we are anxious to see
defending themselves against the Red Capped Brothers of the Shadow. You are
curious to know where I am travelling about; to learn more of my great work and
mission? Were I to tell you, you could hardly make anything of it. To test your
knowledge and patience, I may answer you though -- this once. I now come from
Sakkya-Jung. To you the name will remain meaningless. Repeat it before
the "Old Lady" and -- observe the result. But to return. Having then, to deliver
with one hand the much needed yet dangerous weapon to the world, and with the
other to keep off the Shammars (the havoc produced by them already being
immense) do you not think we have a right to hesitate, to pause and feel the
necessity of caution, as we never did before? To sum up: the misuse of knowledge
by the pupil always reacts upon the initiator; nor, do I believe you know yet,
that in sharing his secrets with another, the Adept by an immutable Law, is
delaying his own progress to the Eternal Rest. Perhaps, what I now tell you, may
help you to a truer conception of things, and to appreciate
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our mutual position
the better. Loitering on the way, does not conduce to a speedy arrival at the
journey's end. And, it must strike you as a truism, that a Price must
be paid for everything and every truth by somebody and in this case --
we pay it. Fear not; I am willing to pay my share, and I told so those who put
me the question. I will not desert you; nor will I show myself less
self-sacrificing than the poor, worn out mortality we know as the "Old Lady."
The above must remain between us two. I expect you to regard this letter as
strictly confidential for it is neither for publication nor your friends. I want
you alone to know it. Only, if all this was more generally known to candidates
for initiation, I feel certain they would be both more thankful and more patient
as well as less inclined to be irritated at what they consider our reticence and
vacillations. Few possess your discretion; fewer still know to appreciate at
their true value the results obtained. . . . Your two letters to S. M. will lead
to no result whatever. He will remain as immovable and your trouble will have
been taken in vain. You will receive a letter from him full of suspicion and
with no few unkind remarks. You cannot persuade him that + is a living Brother
for that was tried and -- failed; unless, indeed, you convert him to popular
exoteric Lamaism; which regards our "Byang-tzyoobs" and "Tchang-chubs" --
the Brothers who pass from the body of one great Lama to that of another -- as
Lhas or disembodied Spirits. Remember what I said in my last
of Planetary Spirits. The Tchang-chub (an adept who has, by the power
of his knowledge and soul enlightenment, become exempt from the curse of
unconscious transmigration) -- may, at his will and desire, and instead of
reincarnating himself only after bodily death, do so, and repeatedly -- during
his life if he chooses. He holds the power of choosing for himself new bodies --
whether on this or any other planet -- while in possession of his old form, that
he generally preserves for purposes of his own. Read the book of Khintee
and you will find in it these laws. She might translate for you some
paras, as she knows them by rote. To her you may read the present.
Do I often laugh at "the helpless way in which you grope in the dark?" Most
decidedly not. That would be as unkind and about as foolish for me to do as for
you to laugh at a Hindu for his pidgin English, in a district, where your
Government will not teach people English. Whence such a thought? And
whence that other to have my portrait? Never had but one taken, in my whole
life; a poor ferrotype produced in the days of the "Gaudeamus" by a travelling
female artist -- (some relative, I suppose, of the Munich beer hall beauties
that you have interviewed of late) -- and from whose hands I had to rescue it.
The ferrotype is there, but the image itself has vanished: the nose
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peeled off
and one of the eyes gone. No other to offer. I dare not promise for I never
break my word. Yet -- I may try -- some day to get you one.
Quotation from Tennyson? Really cannot say. Some stray lines picked up in the astral light or in somebody's brain and remembered, I never forget what I once see or read. A bad habit. So much so, that often and unconsciously to myself I string together sentences of stray words and phrases, before my eyes and which may have been used hundred years ago or will be hundred years hence, in relation to quite a different subject. Laziness and real lack of time. The "Old Lady" called me a "brain pirate" and a plagiarist, the other day for using a whole sentence of five lines, which, she is firmly convinced, I must have pilfered from Dr. Wilder's brain as three months later, he reproduced it in an essay of his on prophetic intuition. Never had a look into the old philosopher's brain cells. Got it somewhere in a northern current -- don't know. Write this for your information as something new for you, I suppose. Thus a child may be born bearing the greatest resemblance and features to another person, thousands of miles off, no connexion to the mother, never seen by her, but whose floating image was impressed upon her soul-memory, during sleep or even waking hours, and reproduced upon the sensitized plate of living flesh she carries in her. Yet, I believe, the lines quoted, were written by Tennyson years ago, and they are published. I hope these disjointed reflections and explanations may be pardoned in one, who, remained for over nine days in his stirrups without dismounting. From Ghalaring-Tcho Lamasery (where your Occult World was discussed and commented upon) -- Heaven save the mark! will you think. I crossed to the Horpa Pa La territory, -- "the unexplored regions of Turki tribes" -- say your maps ignorant of the fact that there are no tribes there at all -- and thence -- home. Yes; I am tired, and therefore will close.
Yours faithfully,
K. H.
In October I will be in Bhutan. I have a favour to ask of you: try and make
friends with Ross Scott. I need him.
Received August, 1882.
My dear friend,
I feel terribly pulled down (mentally) with this unceasing attitude
of unavoidable opposition, and so continual attacks on our strongholds! During
the whole of my quiet, contemplative life, I
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have never met with a man more
tenacious and unreasonable! I cannot go on like that, passing my life in useless
protest; and if you cannot bring to bear upon him your friendly influence, we
will have all of us to part company, at some not distant day. I was with the
Chohan when I received the letter I now enclose, and -- the Chohan was perfectly
disgusted, and called the whole thing the Tibetan name for "comedy." It is not
that he is anxious to "do good" or "help the progress of the T.S." It is simply,
believe me or not -- insatiable pride in him; a ferocious, intense
desire to feel and show to others that he is the "one elect," that he knows
that which all others are barely allowed to suspect. Do not protest for it is
useless. We know, and you do not. The Chohan heard the other day the
idiotic but painfully sincere lamentations of the "wife" and -- took note of
them. Such is not a man who aims at becoming a "perfect soul" and he, who would
write of a brother Theosophist what he has written to me of Fern -- is no
theosophist. Let this be strictly private, and do not let him know but
what he will read himself in my letter. I want you to read the two letters
before you take them to him, and I beg of you to be present when he
reads them.
I will see what can be done for Colonel Chesney and I believe Djual Khool is after him. For the first time during my life I think I feel really disheartened. Yet for the sake of the Society, I would not lose him. Well I will do all I can, but I am seriously afraid, that he will spoil the broth himself some day.
Yours with sincere affection,
K. H.
LETTER No. LI
Received 22-8-82.
Private.
My good friend,
Remember that in the phenomenon intended for Colonel Chesney there was, is, and will be but one real phenomenal thing, or rather -- an act of occultism -- the likeness of your humble servant the best of the two productions of D. Khool, I am sorry to say -- for you. The rest of the performance is, notwithstanding its mysterious character, something but too natural, and, of which I do not at all approve. But I have no right to go against the traditional policy however much I would like to avoid its practical application.
Keep this strictly within your own friendly heart until the day comes to let
several persons know that you were warned of it. I
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dare not say more.
The probations are hard all round and are sure not to meet your European notions
of truthfulness and sincerity. But reluctant as I do feel to use such means or
even to permit them to be used in connection with my chelas, yet I must
say that the deception, the lack of good faith, and the traps (!!)
intended to inveigle the Brothers, have multiplied so much of late; and there is
so little time left to that day that will decide the selection of the
chelas, that I cannot help thinking that our chiefs and especially M. may
be after all right. With an enemy one has to use either equal or better weapons.
But do not be deceived by appearance. Were that I could be as frank with Mr.
Hume whom I as sincerely respect for some of his genuine, sterling, qualities as
I cannot help blaming for some others. When will any of you know and understand
what we really are, instead of indulging in a world of fiction!
In case Col. Chesney speaks to you of certain things tell him not to trust to appearances. He is a gentleman, and ought not to be allowed to labour under a deception, never meant for him but only as a test for those who would impose themselves upon us with an unclean heart. The crisis is near at hand. Who will win the day!
K. H.
Received Simla, Autumn, 1882.
There is nothing "below the surface," my faithful friend -- absolutely nothing. Hume is simply furiously jealous of anyone who received, or is likely to receive any information, favours (?) attention, or anything of the sort, emanating from us. The word "jealous" is ridiculous, but correct unless we call it envious, which is still worse. He believes himself wronged, because he fails to become our sole centre of attraction; he attitudinises before himself and feels maddened to fury in finding no one who would admire him; writes out a Hebrew passage which means in Eliphas Levi's book as I have rendered it, and failing to catch me in a new contradiction, for the purpose of which he went to the trouble of quoting it, he impresses himself with the illusion that he is "far more of an Adwaitee" than either M. or myself ever were (an easy thing to prove since we never were Adwaitees). And writes an abusive letter directed against our system and ourselves to the O. L. by way of soothing his feelings.
Are you really so generous as not to have suspected long ago the whole truth?
Did I not warn you; and is it possible that you should not have perceived that
he will never allow even an
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adept to know more or better than himself!;
that his was a false humility; that he is an actor, who enacts a part
for his own benefit, regardless of the pleasure or displeasure of his audience
though when the latter is manifested to the slightest degree, he turns round,
concealing admirably his rage and hisses and spits internally. Every
time I contradict and prove him wrong, -- whether in a question of Tibetan
terms, or in any other trifle, the record he keeps against me swells, and he
comes out with some new accusation. It is idle, my dear brother, to be always
repeating that there are, nor can there be any contradictions in what was given
to you. There may be inaccuracy of expression, or incompleteness of detail; but
to accuse us of blundering is really too funny. I have asked you several times
to make notes and to send them to me, but neither Mr. Hume nor you have thought
of doing it; and indeed, I have very little time to explore back letters,
compare notes, look into your heads, etc.
I confess my ignorance, in one thing at any rate. I am perfectly at a loss to
understand why the expression used by me with regard to H.P.B.'s answer to C. C. M.
should have so shocked you; and why you should object to my "exercising my
ingenuity"? If, perchance, you give it another meaning than I do, then we are
again both at sea -- faut de s'entendre. Put yourself for a moment in
my place, and see whether you would not have to exercise all the ingenuity you
had at your command, in a case like that between C. C. M. and H.P.B. In
reality, there is no contradiction between that passage in Isis
and our later teaching; to anyone, who never heard of the seven
principles -- constantly referred to in Isis as a trinity, without
any more explanation -- there certainly appeared to be as good a contradiction
as could be. "You will write so and so, give so far, and no more" --
she was constantly told by us, when writing her book. It was at the very
beginning of a new cycle, in days when neither Christians nor Spiritualists ever
thought of, let alone mentioned, more than two principles in man -- body
and Soul, which they called Spirit. If you had time to refer to the
spiritualistic literature of that day, you would find that with the
phenomenalists as with the Christians, Soul and Spirit were
synonymous. It was H.P.B., who, acting under the orders of Atrya (one whom you
do not know) was the first to explain in the Spiritualist the
difference there was between psyche and nous, nefesh and
ruach -- Soul and Spirit. She had to bring the whole arsenal of proofs with
her, quotations from Paul and Plato, from Plutarch and James, etc.
before the Spiritualists admitted that the theosophists were right. It was then
that she was ordered to write Isis -- just a year after the Society
had been founded. And, as there happened such a war over it, endless polemics
and objections to the effect that
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there could not be in man two souls
-- we thought it was premature to give the public more than they could possibly
assimilate, and before they had digested the "two souls"; -- and thus the
further sub-division of the trinity into 7 principles was left unmentioned in
Isis. And is it because she obeyed our orders, and wrote, purposely
veiling some of her facts -- that now, when we think the time has
arrived to give most of, if not the whole truth -- that she has to be
left in the lurch? Would I, or any of us, ever leave her as a target for the
Spiritualists to shoot at, and laugh at the contradictions when these were
entirely apparent, and proceeded but from their own ignorance of the whole
truth; a truth they would not listen to, nor will they accept it even now,
except under protest and with the greatest reservations? Certainly not. And when
I use the word "ingenuity" -- that may be an American slang expression for all I
know, and that I suspect has with the English another meaning -- I meant neither
"cunning" nor anything like a "dodge," but simply to show the difficulty I had
to labour under, to explain the right meaning with an endless and clumsy
paragraph before me, that insisted upon non-reincarnation without
inserting one word in it to show that the latter had reference but to the
animal soul, not Spirit, to the astral, not the Spiritual monad.
Will you kindly explain to me at the first opportunity what you mean by
referring to my expression as "an unhappy phrase"? If you asked a friend to draw
for the Pioneer a cow, and that friend starting with the intention
of reproducing a cow would owing to his inability in drawing sketch instead an
ox or a buffalo, and the engraving would so appear -- perhaps, because you were
crowded with other work, and had no time to perceive the short-comings -- would
you not "exercise your ingenuity" and try your best to set the readers
right, to prove to them that in truth a cow was meant by the artist: and
confessing your friend's inability, do whatever you could, at the same time, to
screen him from unmerited humiliation? Yes, you are right. H. has neither
delicacy of perception and feeling, nor any real, genuine kindness of heart. He
is one to sacrifice his own family, those nearest and dearest to him (if there
are such for him, something I doubt) -- for any whim of his own; and he would be
the first to allow a hecatomb of victims if he needed one drop of blood; to
insist upon the advisability of Sutee if it were the only thing that
would keep him warm, help his benumbed fingers to do their work, and he
diligently writing a treatise upon some philanthropic subject during that time
and sing sincerely "Hosanna" to himself in his own thought.
Exaggeration, you think? Not so; for you have no conception of the potential
selfishness there is in him; of the cruel, remorseless egotism he brought back
with
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him from his last incarnation -- a selfishness and egotism which remained
latent only owing to the uncongenial soil of the sphere he is in, of his social
status and education -- and we have. Can you believe he wrote his
famous article in the Theosophist simply for the reason he gives
you -- to help breaking the unavoidable fall? to save the situation,
and by answering Davidson and C. C. M., etc. to make the work -- of answering in
the future and reconciling the contradictions in the past -- easier? Not at all.
If, he sacrifices in it remorselessly H.P.B., and the author of the Review of
the "Perfect Way," and shows the "Brothers" as inferior in intelligence
to the "educated European gentlemen," and devoid of any correct notions about
honesty or right and wrong -- in the European sense -- selfish and
cold, stubborn and domineering -- it is not at all because he cares one button
for either of you, least of all for the Society; but simply because in view of
certain possible events, that he is too highly intelligent not to have
fore-shadowed in his mind -- he wants to screen himself; to be the only
one to come out unscarred if not immaculate in case of a crush, and to dance, if
need be, the "death dance" of the Maccabreans over the prostrate body of the
T.S. rather than risk one little finger of the great Simla "I am" to be sneered
at. Knowing him as we do, we say that Mr. Hume is at perfect liberty to quote
the "unhappy phrase" as many times a day as his breath will allow him to, if it
can in any way soothe his ruffled feelings. And, it is just because Morya saw
through him as plainly as I see my writing before me, that he allowed the "sell"
as you call it. Nay more; for the things are so prepared, that in the case the
"Eclectic" has to sink, -- he will be the only one to go down with
it; the only one laughed at, and thus his selfishness and carefully
prepared plans will prove of no avail. Believing he knew better than I did, he
was kind and considerate enough to add his explanations to mine in H.P.B.'s
answer to C. C. M -- and with the exception of Karma -- that he explained
correctly enough -- made a mess of the rest. And now, the first time I
contradict what he says in his article, he will turn round in fury and express
his disgust at what he will call my (not his) contradictions. I am
sorry to have to -- what will appear to you -- denounce him. But I must draw
your attention to the fact, that nine times out of ten, when he accuses me of
having entirely misconceived his meaning -- he says, what anyone has a
right to regard as a deliberate falsehood. The instance of E. Levi's
1_________ A phrase in Hebrew characters appears here
in the original, which translated means "I am that I am." -- ED.]
-- is a good instance. In order to prove me at fault, he had to become an
Adwaitee and deny his "moral Governor and Ruler of the Universe," by
throwing him over-
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board "for the last 20 years." This is not honest, my
friend, and I do not see any help for it. For who can prove -- when he says that
the arguments embodied in his letters to me were not the expressions of his own
personal belief and opinions, but brought forward simply to answer the probable
objections of a theistic public -- that it is no better than cheating?
With such an intellectual acrobat, ever ready to perform the "grand trapeze"
whether in reference to what he states verbally,