Theos-Talk Archives (November 2004 Message tt00371)

Dear friends,

I was reading an article and I thought would be interesting to 
reproduce part of it here, as it mentions about the prophecy of a 
great yogi Ramalingam Swami about the establishment of the T.S. in 
India.

Erica

A Yogis Prophecy

Extracted from the article The Progressive Founding of the T.S. 
written by J.L. Davidge published in The Theosophist July 1939.

What appears to have been a forerunner of The Theosophical Society 
in India was the Samarasa Veda Sanmarga Sangham, founded in 1867 by 
Ramalingam Swami a famous South Indian Yogi, to spread the principle 
of Universal Brotherhood and propagate the true doctrine of the 
Vedas. The lofty ethics of this teachings were not popular, mostly 
because he preached against caste, saying that the distinction 
between races and castes would eventually cease and Universal 
Brotherhood would be accepted. Towards the end of his life 
Ramalingam Yogi made the following astonishing prophecy, and made it 
repeatedly:

You are not ready to become members of this Society of Universal 
Brotherhood. The real members of that Brotherhood are living far 
away, towards the North of India. You do not listen to me. Yet the 
time is not far off when persons from Russia, America and other 
foreign lands will come to India and preach to you the same doctrine 
of Universal Brotherhood. Then only will you know and appreciate the 
grand truths that I am vainly trying to make you to accept. You will 
soon find that the Brothers who live in the far North will work a 
great many wonders in India, and thus confer incalculable benefits 
upon this our country. 

These facts are recorded in " Hints on Esoteric Theosophy: by Pandit 
Velayudam, a pupil of Ramalingam and Tamil Professor of the 
Presidency college, Madras, who adds the note:
This prophecy has in my opinion just been literally fulfilled. The 
facts that the Mahatmas in the North exist is no new idea to us 
Hindus; and the strange fact that the advent of Madame Blavatsky and 
Colonel Olcott from Russia and America was foretold several years 
before they came to India is an incontrovertible proof that my guru 
was in contact with those Mahatmas under whose direction the 
Theosophical Society was subsequently founded. 

H.P. Blavatsky comments on these remarks of Pandit Velayudam:

This is one of those cases of previous foretelling of a coming 
event, which is least of all open to suspicious of bad faith. The 
honorable character of the witness, the wide publicity of his Guru's 
announcements, and the impossibility that he could have got from 
public rumor, or the journals of the day, any intimation that the 
Theosophical Society would operate in India – all these conspire to 
support the inference that Ramalingam Yogi was verily in the 
counsels of Those who ordered us to found the Society. In March 1873 
we were directed to proceed from Russia to Paris. In june we were 
told to proceed to the United States where we arrived July 6th . 
This was the very time when Ramalingam was most forcibly prefiguring 
the events that should happen. In October 1874 we received an 
intimation to do to Chittenden, Vermont, where, at the famous 
homestead of the Eddy family, Colonel Olcott was engaged in making 
his investigations – now so celebrated in the annals of 
Spiritualism – of the so called "materialization of Spirits."   
November 1975 the Theosophical Society was founded, and it was not 
until 1878 that the correspondence began with friends in India which 
resulted in the transfer of the Society's Headquarter's to Bombay in 
February 1879.

Note. Ramalingam Yogi died or rather "disappeared", in 1874, at 
Valadur near Chidambaram his birthplace. At Valadur he built a 
dharmasala, or mission house, where the poor were given and are 
still given, food and shelter free. He is credited with occult 
powers which enable him to perform what are called miracles, 
quenching fire, turning water into oil, changing carnivorous people 
into vegetarians. His Tiru Arutpa (Path of Light) is among the 
masterpieces of the Tamil literature.

Extracted from the article The Progressive Founding of the T.S. 
written by J.L. Davidge published in The Theosophist July 1939.


Erica