Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00356)

Dear Bhakti Ananda Goswami,

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts about HPB and her 
Masters. As is probably apparent, I approached the subject as an 
amateur Theosophical historian with little background in Indian 
history and religion. Beginning without any intention to "reveal the 
Masters," I stumbled into the process which then took on a life of 
its own. Simply following the clues in the Theosophical literature 
and juxtaposing them with standard secondary sources on 19th century 
India was the process that led to the identifications of her Indian 
sponsors. Hence the opinion of experts like yourself who know vastly 
more about India is very valuable to me, in correcting, revising, and 
expanding my ideas. The Masters Revealed was published 5 years ago 
by an Indian scholarly press, and no negative criticisms have been 
received-- but no positive ones either. So I remain unclear on how 
differently someone better grounded in area studies might have 
interpreted the same evidence.

Therefore it is intriguing to read that:

> Bhakti Ananda Goswami's Conclusion
> 
> I am in general agreement with K. P. Johnson, and the propositions 
> reagrding the Kashmiri Rajas, put forth on the Esoteric and Science 
> News website.... 
> 
> "...some lineages within Sikhism combine both Hindu/ Buddhist and 
> Sufi cosmological elements in a way that closely resembles the 
> cosmology of HPB (see also the article about Theosophy and Ismaili 
on 
> this web site). "

This would appear to make it possible to do a much more precise 
analysis of Blavatsky's writings in terms of internal evidence. My 
approach relied mainly on external evidence, that is with whom she 
was associating at the time of the writing, since I lacked the 
knowledge referred to above. Can you provide any further explanation 
of these particular Sikh lineages that would seem to have close 
correlations to HPB's teachings?
> 
snip
> ANALYZING ALL OF THE ABOVE, I HAVE CONCLUDED THAT MOTIVE, MEANS, 
> OPPORTUNITY AND ALL OTHER REQUIREMENTS ARE SATISFIED BY THE 
EVIDENCE 
> FOR AN INVOLVEMENT BETWEEN HPB AND THE KASHMIRI LEADERS AS 
POSTULATED 
> IN THE POSTING ABOUT THE KASHMIRI MAHARAJAS. THIS WAS MY OWN 
> INDEPENDENT CONCLUSION FROM THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE IN THE MAHATAMA 
> LETTERS AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE, WHICH CONVINCED ME THAT THERE WAS 
A 
> STRANGELY KASHMIRI MIX OF VAISHNAVA PURANIC AND OTHER DOCTRINES IN 
> THE THEOSOPHICAL THOUGHT SYSTEM. 

Is this something that you might develop for publication in print? 
There has been a deafening silence on the subject of HPB's sources 
since the mid-90s, in journals as well as books. You would seem to 
have the skills and connections to do this work in print rather than 
on the Internet.

THERE ARE SUFI-VAISHNAVA GROUPS IN 
> KASHMIR, AND THE SIKHS THEMSELVES ARE A MUSLIM-VAISHNAVA HYBRID 
> GROUP. THE SIKH GURU NANAK WAS TRADITIONALLY ASSOCIATED WITH MY 
OWN 
> LINEAGE OF VAISHNAVISM, AND SIKHS WORSHIP AT VISHNU TEMPLES WHEN 
THEY 
> ARE NOT NEAR THEIR OWN PLACES OF WORSHIP. THERE ARE VAISHNAVA-
> MAHAYANA BUDDHIST, VAISHNAVA-BON AND VAISHNAVA-ZOROASTRIAN 
> CONNECTIONS TOO, AND ALL OF THESE HYBRID GROUPS EXIST IN THE REGION 
> OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR. 
> 
It has always been a wide open question to me how much the content of 
the Mahatma Letters and Secret Doctrine and Voice of the Silence was 
derived from authentic Indic sources, and how much the tutelage of 
Ranbir Singh and Thakar Singh et al was spiritual rather than 
political. Your para above would suggest to me that, for example, 
the mysterious disappearance of Damodar Mavalankar from Ranbir 
Singh's palace in Jammu, and the claim upon returning that he had 
been at an ashram of HPB's Masters, might be tracked to a particular 
location in J&K and a particular order?

> WHAT
> WHAT HAPPENED...A SYNTHESIS OF VARIOUS THOUGHT-SYSTEMS WAS FORMED 
> WITH AN OBSCURE GENEALOGY. IT WAS DOCTRINALIZED AND PROMOTED BY AN 
> ORGANIZATION FORMED FOR THAT PURPOSE. THE ORGANIZATION SUCCUMBED 
TO 
> THE USUAL SCHISM DYNAMICS,

compounded by some highly unusual ones-- all the chaos of the Dalip 
Singh conspiracy and aftermath disrupting the behind-the-scenes 
Mahatmic sponsorship.

> 
> THIS KASHMIRI SYNTHESIS WITH WESTERN OCCULT TEACHINGS WAS WHAT THE 
> THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY MAHATMAS AND HPB HAD MASTERED. THIS IS WHAT 
> THEY WERE THE MASTERS OF. Case Closed.
> 
> Bhakti Ananda Goswami 
> 
Much as I would like to see my work vindicated with a verdict 
of "case closed," that seems like a pipe dream. However, if you can 
provide more solid support for what you have asserted above, "case 
strengthened considerably" would seem to be quite possible.

Best wishes,

Paul Johnson