Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00019)

If HPB was not a hypocrite, if it is true that almost
two dozens of individuals around that time (1880s),
and independently of her, either saw or corresponded
with her Teachers, then what she wrote on the subject
of their existence could be considered, objectively,
as a testimony of someone who knew. Affiliation to
outer organisations, whatever they are, imo, does not
necessarily entitles one to know the truth about this
subject. 

"A MAHATMA is a personage, who, by special training
and education, has evolved those higher faculties and
has attained that spiritual knowledge, which ordinary
humanity will acquire after passing through numberless
series of re-incarnations during the process of cosmic
evolution, provided, of course, that they do not go,
in the meanwhile, against the purposes of Nature and
thus bring on their own annihilation... The real
MAHATMA is then not his physical body but that higher
Manas which is inseparably linked to the Atma and its
vehicle (the 6th principle) — a union effected by him
in a comparatively very short period by passing
through the process of self-evolution laid down by the
Occult Philosophy. When, therefore, people express a
desire to “see a MAHATMA,” they really do not seem to
understand what it is they ask for. How can they, by
their physical eyes, hope to see that which transcends
that sight? Is it the body—a mere shell or mask—they
crave or hunt after? And supposing they see the body
of a MAHATMA, how can they know that behind that mask
is concealed an exalted entity? By what standard are
they to judge whether the Maya before them reflects
the image of a true MAHATMA or not? And who will say
that the physical is not a Maya? Higher things can be
perceived only by a sense pertaining to those higher
things. And whoever therefore wants to see the real
MAHATMA, must use his intellectual sight. He must so
elevate his Manas that its perception will be clear
and all mists created by Maya must be dispelled. His
vision will then be bright and he will see the MAHATMA
wherever he may be, for, being merged into the sixth
and the seventh principles, which are ubiquitous and
omnipresent, the MAHATMAS may be said to be
everywhere." ("Mahatmas and Chelas", BCW, vol. 6)

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