Theos-Talk Archives (January 2002 Message tt00408)

Hi, Paul:

Well, yes, I was familiar with Dayananda. I was
trying to state a very high level (abstract) outline
of how the SD fitted in and how it might have
motivated her decision to go to India. It is obvious
that after going to India HPB was empowered
intellectually to write a rewrite of Isis which was a
considerable expansion of the original book in certain
directions. Had she not gone to India, the rewrite
would have been more of the same old same old. Isis
is different from Anaclypsis, but not that much
different.

As I recall, the alignment with Dayananda was intended
to achieve the political purpose of linking the TS
with the Arya Samaj. For that purpose, HPB had to
tell everyone Dayananda was an "adept". Then when he
decided he, as a Hindu, wanted nothing to do with
professed Buddhists, he had to be dethroned from his
adept status and the TS had to go its own way. I
suspect HPB's impossible personality had something to
do with his sudden surge of Hindu exclusivism, but
doubt Dayananda had anything to do with the series of
events which led to the writing of the SD. That is
why I did not incorporate him into my outline.

I am also quite sure the Blavatsky personality problem
is the real reason Solovyoff, Babaji, Hume, Chintamon,
and a slew of others left the TS.

It was sister Vera who said HPB told her while in NY
she had restored communication with certain
individuals in India whom she had known years before
and with whom she had lost contact. It is unlikely
this was a reference to Dayananda, for which reason I
was inclined to think it might be a reference to the
hidden WB teachers. If the statement is true, it
makes clear HPB was NOT a chela of Morya before 1875
or thereabouts, or if she was, her chelaship had
lapsed for a time. This makes perfect sense, since
Morya would not want to have to follow his chela on
endless wanderings all over the globe.

The SD can be seen in primitive form in Isis, so it
would appear the desire to write the SD was already
there during the New York period. What was lacking
was the necessary knowledge. That makes sense out of
both the decision to rewrite the book and the decision
to go to India for more info. Anyone who did not know
a northern Buddhist society (which the WB was alleged
to be, however heterodox its character) taught some
form of reincarnation did not spend very long there in
the 1850s and needed a refresher course before
expostulating on its teaching. It is a fact, though,
that she claimed to have been in contact with that
organization several times from 1874 to 1879 and
Olcott claimed to have met Morya in propria persona in
New York. Without, of course, enlightening us
concerning his real name and address. These
statements by Blavatsky and Olcott seem credible
enough to me that we would need compelling reason to
reject them if we were to do so convincingly.

I cannot help noticing that B's system is largely a
combination of northern Buddhist and southern Indian
stuff. People who say it is "not Buddhist" are only
partly right. It is not PURELY Buddhist. Subba Rao
is the obvious source for the southern Indian
material, so it is possible Theosophy is an admixture
of WB material with Subba Rao. If true, SR did not
object to his own material in the SD, but did object
to the (to him) heterodox northern stuff. The SD
therefore does not contain the WB system in its pure
form, but contains a synthesis, as the title page
states and as fundamentalists stridently deny.

One thing which intrigues me: after 1879 the official
TS position was that no one except HPB could practice
yoga or even know how it was done. No ordinary
Theosophist, anyway. They had to be content with
being goody goody and hoping the master would come. 
So when Chintamon, Burgoyne, et al, decided to set up
a new organization to give people what the TS was not
giving them, they (1) called it The Hermetic
Brotherhood of Luxor, after the organization in Isis,
and (2) based it on PB Randolph's stuff, which
suggests they knew Randolph's group was the original B
of L. I doubt they were guessing. HPB or someone
else told them who the B of L was, else they might
have thought it was a lot of B of S. They were trying
to resuscitate the real B of L and even went to the
US, where Randolph's original group was based, to do
it.

Yes, your theory about why you were targeted makes
perfect sense. Reading your post I was reminded of
Salman Rushdie, who went way the hell out of his way
to be offensive, but who nonetheless would have been
ignored had he not originated within the sect he was
attacking. You were not trying to be offensive, but
the psychodynamic was undoubtedly the same.

Also, I was not suggesting anyone should blame Marin
County. What I was commenting on was that John Walker
is regarded very sumpathetically by people in that
area, and yet nobody else in the country seems to
appreciate his aspiration to be a terrorist the way
they do. I was therefore suggesting that perhaps
roadblocks could be set up on all roads leading in and
out of Marin County. Then effluence could be brought
to affluence. The county's hero could be turned
loose, with money from dad, and a phone card so he
could call Osama. Then he could do his little thing
among his admirers. If he tried to leave after doing
Marin County thoroughly he could be shot on sight. 
That way he could be a martyr and go to the moon,
where he would undoubtedly be assigned his very own
crater for the remainder of eternity. That approach
would seem to satisfy everyone, but nobody ever said
sanity can be used as a guide in these matters.

Steve

--- kpauljohnson <kpauljohnson@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hey Steve,
> 
> You asked Brigitte for comment on your theory, and
> not me. But since 
> she hasn't answered I will offer this. I think you
> need to take more 
> into account the figures of Peebles, Dayananda, and
> Chintamon. Yes, 
> HPB had met some people in her pre-1879 Asian
> travels whom she 
> regarded as adepts and from whom she learned some
> things. But when 
> she got to India in 1879, who did she hook up with
> first? Mainly 
> Dayananda and his disciples, whom she had never met
> before and with 
> whom she became acquainted through James Peebles in
> a seemingly 
> chance set of circumstances. Peebles likewise
> played a role as a 
> liaison to the Sinhalese Buddhist community, which
> played such an 
> important role in the TS early years. This suggests
> to me that, 
> whatever the degree to which *former* associates
> survived as a basis 
> for her network in India, her *primary* reference
> group there was 
> *new* acquaintances. 
> 
> Can you incorporate this into your theory?
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
> http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 
> 
> 


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