Theos-Talk Archives (May 2005 Message tt00072)

Many passages in Mahatma Letters are touching. I liked this one too.

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "prmoliveira" <prmoliveira@y...> 
wrote:
> (This may be, arguably, one of the most touching and human pasages 
in
> the Mahatma Letters, something even Anand could appreciate had he
> studied them. po)
> 
> 
> "...most undeniably she is given to exaggeration in general, and 
when
> it becomes a question of "puffing up" those she is devoted to, her
> enthusiasm knows no limits. Thus she has made of M. an Apollo of
> Belvedere, the glowing description of whose physical beauty, made 
him
> more than once start in anger, and break his pipe while swearing 
like
> a true -- Christian; and thus, under her eloquent phraseology, I,
> myself had the pleasure of hearing myself metamorphosed into 
an "angel
> of purity and light" -- shorn of his wings. We cannot help feeling 
at
> times angry, with, oftener -- laughing at, her. Yet the feeling that
> dictates all this ridiculous effusion, is too ardent, too sincere 
and
> true, not to be respected or even treated with indifference.
> 
> I do not believe I was ever so profoundly touched by anything I
> witnessed in all my life, as I was with the poor old creature's
> ecstatic rapture, when meeting us recently both in our natural 
bodies,
> one -- after three years, the other -- nearly two years absence and
> separation in flesh. Even our phlegmatic M. was thrown off his
> balance, by such an exhibition -- of which he was chief hero. He had
> to use his power, and plunge her into a profound sleep, otherwise 
she
> would have burst some blood-vessel including kidneys, liver and her
> "interiors" -- to use our friend Oxley's favourite expression -- in
> her delirious attempts to flatten her nose against his riding mantle
> besmeared with the Sikkim mud! We both laughed; yet could we feel
> otherwise but touched? Of course, she is utterly unfit for a true
> adept: her nature is too passionately affectionate and we have no
> right to indulge in personal attachments and feelings. You can never
> know her as we do, therefore -- none of you will ever be able to 
judge
> her impartially or correctly. You see the surface of things; and 
what
> you would term "virtue," holding but to appearances, we -- judge but
> after having fathomed the object to its profoundest depth, and
> generally leave the appearances to take care of themselves. In your
> opinion H.P.B. is, at best, for those who like her despite herself -
-
> a quaint, strange woman, a psychological riddle: impulsive and
> kindhearted, yet not free from the vice of untruth. We, on the other
> hand, under the garb of eccentricity and folly -- we find a 
profounder
> wisdom in her inner Self than you will ever find yourselves able to
> perceive. In the superficial details of her homely, hard-working,
> common-place daily life and affairs, you discern but unpracticality,
> womanly impulses, often absurdity and folly; we, on the contrary,
> light daily upon traits of her inner nature the most delicate and
> refined, and which would cost an uninitiated psychologist years of
> constant and keen observation, and many an hour of close analysis 
and
> efforts to draw out of the depth of that most subtle of mysteries --
> human mind -- and one of her most complicated machines, -- H.P.B.'s
> mind -- and thus learn to know her true inner Self."
> 
> (http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/mahatma/ml-54.htm)