Theos-Talk Archives (May 2002 Message tt00020)

PART I

May 2, 2002


Dear Friends:

As the important date of WHITE LOTUS DAY approaches, we look back at
the work and help; that H.P.Blavatsky has given to us.

Here are some of her most poignant words:

Best wishes,



Dallas



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THEOSOPHY and HPB


HPB said (or wrote) :


"H.P.B. is loyal to death to the Theosophical CAUSE, and those
great Teachers whose philosophy can alone bind the whole of
Humanity into one Brotherhood. Together with Col. Olcott, she is
the chief Founder and Builder of the Society which was and is
meant to represent that CAUSE... Therefore the degree of her
sympathies with the "Theosophical Society..." depends upon the
degree of the loyalty of that Society to the CAUSE. Let it break
away from the original lines and show disloyalty in its policy to
the CAUSE and the original programme of the Society, and H.P.B.,
calling the T. S. disloyal, will shake it off like dust from her
feet...at the first sign of their disloyalty to the CAUSE--it is
I who will have resigned my office of Corresponding Secretary for
life and left the Society. This will not prevent me from
remaining at the head of those--who will follow me. "
[ A PUZZLE FROM ADYAR, HPB -- HPB Articles I p. 219, 222 ]



"One of the chief factors in the reawakening of Aryavarta which
has been part of the work of the Theosophical Society, was the
ideal of the Masters. But owing to want of judgment, discretion,
and discrimination, and the liberties taken with Their names and
Personalities, great misconception arose concerning Them. I was
under the most solemn oath and pledge never to reveal the whole
truth to anyone... All that I was then permitted to reveal was,
that there existed somewhere such great men; that some of Them
were Hindus; that They were learned as none others in all the
ancient wisdom of Gupta Vidya, and had acquired all the Siddhis;
not as these are represented in tradition and the "blinds" of
ancient writings, but as they are in fact and nature; and also
that I was a Chela of one of Them.

However, in the fancy of some Hindus, the most wild and
ridiculous fancies soon grew up concerning Them. They were
referred to as "Mahatmas" and still some too enthusiastic friends
belittled Them with their strange fancy-pictures; our opponents,
describing a Mahatma as a full Jivanmukta, urged that, as such,
He was debarred from holding any communication whatsoever with
persons living in the world. They also maintained that as this is
the Kali Yuga, it was impossible that there could be any Mahatmas
at all in our age."
[HPB WHY I DO NOT RETURN TO INDIA, HPB Articles I p. 107 ]


" These early misconceptions notwithstanding, the idea of the
Masters, and belief in Them, has already brought its good fruit
in India. Their chief desire was to preserve the true religious
and philosophical spirit of ancient India; to defend the Ancient
Wisdom contained in its Darshanas and Upanishads against the
systematic assaults of the missionaries; and finally to reawaken
the dormant ethical and patriotic spirit in those youths in whom
it had almost disappeared owing to college education. Much of
this has been achieved by and through the Theosophical Society,
in spite of all its mistakes and imperfections.

Had it not been for Theosophy, would India have had her Tukaram
Tatya doing now the priceless work he does, and which no one in
India ever thought of doing before him?

Without the Theosophical Society, would India have ever thought
of wrenching from the hands of learned but unspiritual
Orientalists the duty of reviving, translating and editing the
Sacred Books of the East, of popularizing and selling them at a
far cheaper rate, and at the same time in a far more correct form
than had ever been done at Oxford?

Would our respected and devoted brother Tukaram Tatya himself
have ever thought of doing so, had he not joined the Theosophical
Society? Would your political Congress itself have even been a
possibility, without the Theosophical Society?

Most important of all, one at least among you has fully benefited
by it; and if the Society had never given to India but that one
future Adept (Damodar) who has now the prospect of becoming one
day a Mahatma, Kali Yuga notwithstanding, that alone would be
proof that it was not founded at New York and transplanted to
India in vain.

Finally, if any one among the three hundred millions of India can
demonstrate, proof in hand, that Theosophy, the T.S., or even my
humble self, have been the means of doing the slightest harm,
either to the country or any Hindu, that the Founders have been
guilty of teaching pernicious doctrines, or offering bad
advice--then and then only, can it be imputed to me as a crime
that I have brought forward the ideal of the Masters and founded
the Theosophical Society.

Aye, my good and never-to-be-forgotten Hindu Brothers, the name
alone of the holy Masters, which was at one time invoked with
prayers for Their blessings, from one end of India to the
other--Their name alone has wrought a mighty change for the
better in your land. It is not to Colonel Olcott or to myself
that you owe anything, but verily to these names, which, but a
few years ago, had become a household word in your mouths.

Thus it was that, so long as I remained at Adyar, things went on
smoothly enough, because one or other of the Masters was almost
constantly present among us, and their spirit ever protected the
Theosophical Society from real harm. But in 1884, Colonel Olcott
and myself left for a visit to Europe, and while we were away the
Padri-Coulomb "thunderbolt" descended.

I returned in November, and was taken most dangerously ill. It
was during that time and Colonel Olcott's absence in Burma, that
the seeds of all future strifes, and--let me say at
once--disintegration of the Theosophical Society, were planted by
our enemies. What with the Patterson-Coulomb-Hodgson conspiracy,
and the faint-heartedness of the chief Theosophists, that the
Society did not then and there collapse should be sufficient
proof of how it was protected. Shaken in their belief, the
faint-hearted began to ask: "Why, if the Masters are genuine
Mahatmas, have They allowed such things to take place, or why
have They not used Their powers to destroy this plot or that
conspiracy, or even this or that man and woman?" Yet it had been
explained numberless times that no Adept of the Right Path will
interfere with the just workings of Karma. Not even the greatest
of Yogis can divert the progress of Karma, or arrest the natural
results of actions for more than a short period, and even in that
case, these results will only reassert themselves later with even
tenfold force, for such is the occult law of Karma and the
Nidanas." [ Idem. I p. 108-9 ]



"Acting under the Master's orders I began a new movement in the
West on the original lines; I founded Lucifer, and the Lodge
which bears my name.

Recognizing the splendid work done at Adyar by Colonel Olcott and
others to carry out the second of the three objects of the T.S.,
viz., to promote the study of Oriental Literature, I was
determined to carry out here the two others. All know with what
success this had been attended.

Twice Colonel Olcott was asked to come over, and then I learned
that I was once more wanted in India --at any rate by some. But
the invitation came too late; neither would my doctor permit it,
nor can I, if I would be true to my life-pledge and vows, now
live at the Headquarters from which the Masters and Their spirit
are virtually banished. The presence of Their portraits will not
help; They are a dead letter. The truth is that I can never
return to India in any other capacity than as Their faithful
agent. And as, unless They appear among the Council in propria
persona (which They will certainly never do now), no advice of
mine on occult lines seems likely to be accepted, as the fact of
my relations with the Masters is doubted, even totally denied by
some; and I myself having no right to the Headquarters, what
reason is there, therefore, for me to live at Adyar?

The fact is this: In my position, half-measures are worse than
none. People have either to believe entirely in me, or to
honestly disbelieve. No one, no Theosophist, is compelled to
believe, but it is worse than useless for people to ask me to
help them, if they do not believe in me.

Here in Europe and America are many who have never flinched in
their devotion to Theosophy; consequently the spread of Theosophy
and of the T.S., in the West, during the last three years, has
been extraordinary.

The chief reason for this is that I was enabled and encouraged by
the devotion of an ever-increasing number of members to the Cause
and to Those who guide it, to establish an Esoteric Section, in
which I can teach something of what I have learned to those who
have confidence in me, and who prove this confidence by their
disinterested work for Theosophy and the T.S.

For the future, then, it is my intention to devote my life and
energy to the E.S., and to the teaching of those whose confidence
I retain. It is useless that I should use the little time I have
before me to justify myself before those who do not feel sure
about the real existence of the Masters, only because,
misunderstanding me, it therefore suits them to suspect me.

And let me say at once, to avoid misconception, that my only
reason for accepting the exoteric direction of European affairs,
was to save those who really have Theosophy at heart and work for
it and the Society, from being hampered by those who not only do
not care for Theosophy, as laid out by the Masters, but are
entirely working against both, endeavouring to undermine and
counteract the influence of the good work done, both by open
denial of the existence of the Masters, by declared and bitter
hostility to myself, and also by joining forces with the most
desperate enemies of our Society.

Half-measures, I repeat, are no longer possible. Either I have
stated the truth as I know it about the Masters, and teach what I
have been taught by them, or I have invented both Them and the
Esoteric Philosophy. There are those among the Esotericists of
the inner group who say that if I have done the latter, then I
must myself be a "Master." However it may be, there is no
alternative to this dilemma.

The only claim, therefore, which India could ever have upon me
would be strong only in proportion to the activity of the Fellows
there for Theosophy and their loyalty to the Masters. You should
not need my presence among you to convince you of the truth of
Theosophy, any more than your American brothers need it. A
conviction that wanes when any particular personality is absent
is no conviction at all.

Know, moreover, that any further proof and teaching I can give
only to the Esoteric Section, and this for the following reason:
its members are the only ones whom I have the right to expel for
open disloyalty to their pledge (not to me, H.P.B., but to their
Higher Self and the Mahatmic aspect of the Masters), a privilege
1 cannot exercise with F.T.S.'s at large, yet one which is the
only means of cutting off a diseased limb from the healthy body
of the Tree, and thus save it from infection. I can care only for
those who cannot be swayed by every breath of calumny, and every
sneer, suspicion, or criticism, whoever it may emanate from.

Thenceforth let it be clearly understood that the rest of my life
is devoted only to those who believe in the Masters, and are
willing to work for Theosophy as They understand it, and for the
T.S. on the lines upon which They originally established it.

If, then, my Hindu brothers really and earnestly desire to bring
about the regeneration of India, if they wish to ever bring back
the days when the Masters, in the ages of India's ancient glory,
came freely among them, guiding and teaching the people; then let
them cast aside all fear and hesitation, and turn a new leaf in
the history of the Theosophical Movement.

Let them bravely rally around the President-Founder, whether I am
in India or not, as around those few true Theosophists who have
remained loyal throughout, and bid defiance to all calumniators
and ambitious malcontents--both without and within the
Theosophical Society." [ H P B Articles I pp. 112 -114 ]

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CONTINUED IN PART II

DTB