Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00590)

Dear Mr. Johnson, 

Below are my comments at > 

From: "kpauljohnson 
Date: Wed Dec 11, 2002 7:21 am
Subject: Kashmiri connections

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. 

> My own historical inquiries began in the 1960s with a comparative 
study of Biblical Greek and Hebrew Deity names and theophoric 
personal names, with those found in other West Semitic, 
Egyptian, 'pagan' Greek and Roman sources. Following these names and 
related symbols, forms, doctrines, practices etc. my inquiries led to 
Assyria, Persia, Sumeria and India. Along the way I kept running 
into academic Aryanism, which seemed to be obscuring peoples' clear 
perception of ancient East-West interactions with a profound Aryan-
versus-Semitic (and dark races) world-view prejudice. Wanting to 
understand the genesis and extent of influence of this racist 
Aryanist world view, I began studying Aryanism itself. My first 
studies into Anglo-Germanic Aryanism led me to investigate 19th 
century esoterica and HPB's books. She and her Theosophical Society 
Friends obviously exerted an important influence on some of the 
thought leaders of an era. Their pseudo-scientific presentation 
of 'root races' and glorification of an imagined superior 'Aryan' 
race supplied an important rationale for Euro-centric imperialism. 
When I first looked at Theosophy-related esotericism, I had no 
preconceived notions about HPB's Theosophy and no bad or any other 
kind of personal experiences with any Theosophists. So I was not 
anti-Theosophical and had no motive to discredit it, or historically 
deconstruct it to understand its genealogy of ideas. What I 
discovered however, made me want to 'unpack' the package of the 
Theosophical thought system, to understand where the Indian-related 
idea of Aryanism was coming from in Theosophy. I also wanted to 
understand the genealogy of the related Anti-Semitism and Anti-
Catholicism/ Christianity in Theosophy. As in your case, I somewhat 
stumbled into a process of inquiry, 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.

>I have become somewhat disappointed at the lack of honest self-
reflective interest shown by native Indologists in the subject of the 
genesis of Indo-Aryanism as related to Euro-centrism in general and 
HPB / Theosophy in particular. That your important work on Theosophy 
has received no critical review from Indian scholars (if I understand 
you correctly) does not surprise me, because I have learned that in 
general they have their own historically dishonest ego-defending 
prejudices as well. For example, while many Indians who identify as 
Aryans are keen to discredit the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT), few 
seem willing to face the indigenous brahminical racism that fed-into 
the formulation of the European Aryanist race theory. Among Indo-
Aryanists the Theosophical Master Annie Besant has achieved the 
status of an Aryan Heroine and national patroness. She is 
practically worshiped by Indo-aryanists, and to look TOO closely at 
her Society and HPB seems to be considered both unpatriotic and 
sacrilegious. Thus there seems to be a pall of silence cast over the 
open and honest discussion of these issues. 

Controversy does not kill intellectual endeavors. It is the silent 
treatment that consigns ideas to the unmarked potters-field of 
history. If able, the operative knowledge-filter of a dominant 
culture / thought system screens-out intolerable ideas by ignoring, 
censuring or suppressing them. Ignoring them is the best option. 
Humans are good at denial of their personal and collective character 
defects, mistakes and sins. So when someone comes along to prick 
them and challenge their conscience, denial and the knowledge-filter 
come into play. You have experienced this denial as a reaction to 
you book coming from Theosophists, but in India, your book is up 
against a force of denial generated by a national sense of Aryan 
historical identity and its veneration of HPB, Annie Besant and other 
Theosophical leaders of Indian Nationalism. Your analysis of the 
genealogy of Theosophical thought may be an uncomfortably too-close 
and too-honest look at the origins of revered Annie Besant's 
Society. 

Therefore it is intriguing to read that:

> Bhakti Ananda Goswami's Conclusion
> 
> I am in general agreement with K. P. Johnson, and the propositions 
> regarding 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?

>I am not an expert of specific Sikh lineages, but there are several 
major influences in Sikhism that I feel are important in this 
consideration. I have forwarded some general information on this to 
Kela and have tried to point out several things.

>1, Punjabi Sikhs have been strongly influenced by Shaivite-related 
Advaita Vedanta.

>2. These Sikhs' thinking tends to be more iconoclastic and Muslim / 
Sufi related. 

>3. In Kashmir the Vaishnavism at the historical core of Sikhism 
seems more evident. I have met Sikhs from Kashmir who worshiped in 
Vishnu temples, singing and dancing before the Murtis (the 
iconoclasts would call 'idols') of Vishnu, and partaking of the 
sacramental PRASADAM (consecrated food) there. Such 'Hindu' Bhakti 
Tradition activities would be unacceptable to the more iconoclastic 
Sufi-Muslim related Advaitan Sikhs of the Punjab. There is a 
controversy in Sikhism with one side promoting the reported Vaishnava 
Bhakti connections between Guru Nanak (the Sikh Founder) and Bhakti 
Yogins such as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, a great Madhva lineage 
Vaishnava revivalist. This side looks at the obvious influences of 
the Bhakti traditions of both Krishna and Rama on Guru Nanak. This 
side promotes inter Sikh and Vaishnava relations, inter-communion 
(accepting and honoring Prasadam together) and the Bhakti Yoga 
practices of temple Murti or Archana (Icon) worship, singing and 
dancing and other such things. Those on the other side of the 
controversy reject Murti worship as Hindu 'idolatry', prefer to think 
of the Ultimate as formless and impersonal, do not eat 
foodstuffs 'offered to idols', consider devotional dancing and other 
such Bhakti Yoga practices as degraded and idolatrous, and tend to 
ignore or minimize the Vaishnava genealogy of Sikhism. These are 
the 'protestants' of Sikhism, just as the extreme iconoclastic and 
impersonal Mayavadi Advaita Vedantists are the 
iconoclastic 'protestants' of so-called Hinduism. In both cases, 
the intelligentsia of the Punjabi Sikhs and the Mayavadi Hindus (who 
are more related historically to Shaivism not Vaishnavism) consider 
their iconoclasm and impersonalism superior to that of the ignorant 
idolatrous masses of the dominant Indian Bhakti Traditions. The 
Advaitan Sufis also consider their esoteric impersonal understanding 
of Allah to be the 'higher' hidden treasure of the Koranic 
revelation. It is clear from the Advaitan perspective of the 
Theosophical Society Writings that the dominant Hindu and Sikh 
influence was Advaiti, but there are also elements of the Kashmiri 
Mix pervading Theosophy as well. Thus the Vaishnava Puranas like 
Srimad Bhagavatam and the Vaishnava Epic, the Mahabharata (and its 
central revelation in the Bhagavad-gita) also figure into the 
Theosophical thought-system. Furthermore, there is no overt Sikh 
agenda in the Theosophy of HPB and friends. She never reveals any 
real living masters, and such masters never publicly owned her. The 
actual Sikh Scriptures etc. have no prominence in the Mahatma Letters 
or the other writings of HPB, so what does it all mean ? To me it 
means that HPB's real Masters were syncretists in the Kashmiri Mix 
style, or that taking inspiration from the esoteric Kashmiri Mix, HPB 
pieced her Mahatmas together out of some real Sikhs, Advaita 
Vedantist Hindus and others, and their writings. In this composite 
the dominant element is the personality of some real charismatic 
characters, who I believe are well identified as the Kashmiri 
Rajas. Since she never identified them, and they never publicly 
owned any relationship to her, I doubt if there was actually a master-
disciple relationship between them. Instead she imagined these 
charismatic leaders as her Gurus. There was some kind of 
involvement between them, more likely political, because she was 
trying to get close to them by offering politics-related services. 
She and her associates had the spy-network and diplomat cards to play 
in the 
colonial fight for dominance in the region of Kashmir. This no-
doubt would have given them access to the Rajas, as it is apparently 
did. 

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.


> Well someone should do it. Regrettably my health is quite frail 
and I am very behind in my primary projects, so I don't think that I 
will be at all able to do it. However I hope that some native 
indologists will take an interest in studying the internal evidence 
of the Theosophical writings to ascertain the origins of the Eastern 
elements in Theosophical thought. 

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?


>To me this is the key question. Politics was the key to HPB and 
friends access to the royals and leaders of the region. Secret 
societies are common is Western esoteric, Eastern Sufi traditions, 
and Left-hand Tantrica Hinduism, but are not part of Sattvic Indian 
traditions, and certainly Sikhism was an 'IN-YOUR-FACE' exoteric 
challenge to both Islamic and Hindu elitism and exclusivism from the 
beginning. It just doesn't make any sense that if HPB was an actual 
disciple of the Rajas as masters, that we would never know it for 
sure, or that their ashram would not be well known through her 
writings. My conclusion so far is that she had to build 'plausible 
deniability' into her scheme about the Mahatmas, because they were a 
composite, and she had no such actual surrendered guru-disciple 
relationship with the central inspiration of her literary creation, 
her idealized Kashmiri Rajas. 

> 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.

>The political sub-text of the whole adventure was very important. 
That there was some relationship between HPB and friends and the 
Kashmiri Rajas is quite evident to me. What that relationship was is 
not clear, except to say that it was not a classical exoteric guru-
disciple relationship, which in Sikhism or Sattvic Hinduism would 
have been open, honest and known to all. If the Rajas identified more 
as esotericists, then it is possible that they had occult disciples 
in some secret society. But, examining what is known about them, 
does this seem likely ? No. 
Thus to me it seems more plausible that HPB invented her relationship 
to them, and they tolerated it because they were interested in both 
the political favors Europeans could offer them, and in the Gnostic, 
Hermetic and other ideas that HPB and her friends brought into their 
orbit. HPB used them, and they used her. She did not publicly 
acknowledge them, and they did not publicly acknowledge her. It was 
an illicit affair, not a marriage. Both parties to the relationship 
were getting something out of it, were 'enabling' each other in some 
way, but did not want the exoteric commitment of a marriage or vowed 
guru-disciple relationship. 

>On a final note in this regard, if one goes to India one might 
observe all sorts of religious persons reciting pranam (bowing on the 
ground) prayers or salutations upon meeting. These are a short 
statement of one's initiated status. In the prayer / salutation, 
one's immediate guru and lineage is commonly honored. This is done 
by Vaishnavas, Shavites, Shakti Worshipers, Advaitis, Sikhs, and 
exoteric Sufis. Muslims will oftem say "asalamalikim", Jews 
say "Shalom" and practically speaking initiated persons of all the 
exoteric traditions have there 'pranam' greetings. Sometimes the 
pranam is reduced to a single word, but in this case it is openly 
known what this means. For example some Sikhs often utter "Sat 
Nam !" upon meeting. Vaishnavas might say "Hari Bol !" or 
Shaivites "Om Namah Shivaya!". With or without their guru's name, 
this common practice of religious Indians speaks volumes, as these 
identifying greetings are given before one even reveals one's own 
name ! Among such people, to hide one's guru or religious 
affiliation would be unthinkable. In fact, among the sattvic (mode 
of goodness or pietistic traditions) if one bows or salutes but does 
not speak their pranam prayer quite audibly, they are to be regarded 
as someone with something to hide. They are suspected as a Left Hand 
Tantrist, or member of a Muslim (Sufi) secret society or organized 
crime lineage. Thus it is not a good thing to hide one's guru, 
lineage or initiated status in a society based on honoring one's guru 
and religious heritage. In a culture where one identifies one's guru 
before even introducing oneself, it is extremely strange for HPB to 
have kept her guru(s) a secret all those years. Her Theosophical 
moral teachings were not tamasic / Left-hand Tantric, so why all the 
secrecy ? Were her Rajas Masons? Were they Sufi occultists? I 
doubt it. She didn't produce them and they never came forward to 
acknowledge her as their disciple, because 'they' did not exist. Her 
Mahatmas were BASED ON real people, but they were composites. Like 
the Stanzas of Dzyan, her Mahatmas were complied from bits and pieces 
of real literatures / real people, but could not be produced in-the-
flesh or in-the-text, because they were not real people or real 
literatures. The Mahatmas and the Stanzas were HPB and friends' 
creation. In the case of the Kashmiri Rajas, these real and unique 
persons clearly provided a model on which the grand Punjabi or 
Kashmiri ARYAN Mahatmas were fashioned. They Kashmiri Rajas were 
also part of that unique religious Kashmiri Mix, and could very well 
have supplied HPB and friends with a vast amount of information. The 
fact that the Kashmiri Singh Dynasty Rajas were involved in an 
enormous library project is extremely important when we consider what 
information came to HPB and friends through their contacts with them. 

> 
> 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.


>Not only is supportive evidence available from a study of general 
Vaishnava elements in the Mahatma Letters, Secret Doctrine etc., but 
I am sure that experts on Kashmiri Shaivite Advaita, Tibetan Buddhism 
and both Shaivite (Punjabi) and Vaishnava influenced Sikhism could 
provide information of tremendous value in support of your thesis. 
These experts could analyze from their perspectives both what is 
contained in and absent from the foundational Theosophical writings. 
What is needed is the involvement of such specialists, and 
particularly some who are located in Kashmir and who are intimately 
familiar with these historical elements of the unique religious mix 
there. I am not such an expert. All I can contribute to the 
discussion is some rather general information. My perspective, as an 
expert on Vaishnavism, allowed me to recognize the significant use of 
Vaishnava Shastras in the formation of the Theosophical thought 
system. Any English reader can now read the Puranic sources of some 
of the Theosophical ideas for themselves, in the texts and chapters I 
have mentioned. 

>My own special field is the interdisciplinary study of ancient 
connections between the great Bhakti Traditions of the East and those 
of the Jewish and Proto-Catholic related Heliopolitan Asyla 
Federations of the Mediterranean Region. I have been collecting 
evidence of these connections since the 1960s and have raw data for 
an enormous multi volume series. I successfully completed the oral 
presentation of my graduate degree studies on this in the mid 1980s, 
but nearly died and was unable to complete the editing and 
publication of my work and receive my degree. Now my health has 
improved a little, and I have a computer installed on my bed, so I 
need to focus my attention on trying to get at least one introductory 
volume to my work summarized, out of my immense and ever-growing 
graduate work data base. This is going to take all of my efforts, 
and so I have to restrict my writing on other subjects. 

>Still I do not regret the time and energy I have recently spent on 
the modern phenomenon of Theosophy. The imaginative historical world-
view promulgated by the Theosophists, Masons, Rosicrucians, 
Spiritualists, and other esoteric groups utterly polluted the waters 
of inquiry into actual East-West connections in ancient history. So 
now in order for the truth of these connections to be known, all of 
the Euro-centric Aryanist disinformation about East-West interactions 
must first be overcome. The influence of Aryanism on the Western 
Humanities must be exposed and dismantled for the real history of 
Eastern and Mediterranean civilizations to be considered. No one 
can hope to understand the ancient history of India while still 
laboring under the delusion of the Aryan Invasion Theory. In the 
same way, high civilization in Egypt was once described by the 
Aryanists as a product of their white ancestors' invasion there. 
The anti-Semite Aryanists have also obscured the truth about European 
and Semitic interaction in the building of Mediterranean high 
civilization. However, now the tide is beginning to turn, and black 
studies scholars like Martin Bernal (Bernal, Martin G. Black Athena: 
The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization) and the Heleno-
Semiticists, like C. Gordan and Michael Astour (Astour C. Michael, 
Hellenosemitica: An ethnic and cultural study in West Semitic Impact 
on Mycenaean Greece, Leiden: EJ Brill, 1965. ... ) have challenged 
the racist Euro-Aryanists' previous model of the development of 
Western Civilization. 

>There is a sea change occurring in the Western Humanities as 
Aryanism is finally being exposed and exorcised. As 
interdisciplinary evidence for the development of 'Western' 
civilization is considered anew, without the burden of Aryanist 
racism and anti-Semitism contexting or even denying it, my 
discoveries from the 1960s are being supported. Scores of assertions 
I made in the 1960s have now been independently validated by other 
researchists, simply because they looked at the evidence without the 
distortions of Aryanism in the way. So I remain intensely 
interested in the global fortunes of Aryanism, and in the need for 
humanity to understand its origins, diffusion and influences in the 
last century-plus. To me this is not a dry academic issue or 
something to be studied only by those interested in the history of 
theosophy, Aryanism is not by accident at the heart of problems 
identified by black-studies Afro-centric scholars like Prof. Bernal, 
or by Hellenosemiticists like those of the school of Cyrus Gordon. 
Aryanism is the colonial mega myth that created our 
present 'Western' world-view, and supported the 'white' race's 
campaign for global conquest. HPB did not invent racism, She did not 
want to see dark people abused, and it is clear that what she 
imagined Aryanism to be was NOT what it became. She cannot be held 
responsible for the crimes committed by later Aryanists. However if 
we honestly pulled the historical threads of Euro-Aryanism, they do 
go back to an involvement with HPB and Theosophy. Therefore I 
applaud any historians who are willing to take a close look at the 
genealogy of Theosophical thought. Theosophy was a powerful force 
in its early days, and its ideas diffused through esoteric channels 
into an even more powerful derivative force that continues on today. 
Thus it deserves to be studied at very close-range, by specialists in 
the various fields involved. 


>Best Wishes,

>Bhakti Ananda Goswami 

Best wishes,

Paul Johnson