Theos-Talk Archives (March 2006 Message tt00695)

robert, how did you have acess to this article by basil crump?!!!
there are some articles of his and of Mrs. Alice Cleather i long to
read but since they are from ol theosophical magazines... i can't find
them
how did you do?!
please , informe me!




--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "robert_b_macd"
<robert.b.macdonald@...> wrote:
>
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "krsanna" <timestar@> wrote:
> >
> > Bruce & All -- "The Compiler" may be of help on this reference.  I 
> > first read the letter in "The Theosophical Movement," with an 
> > explanation of the context in which the letter was written.  As I 
> > recall, the lodge to which the letter was directed had refused to 
> > accept the first object.  Lodges were asked to accept at least one 
> > object and the Prayag lodge had declined to accept the first 
> > object.  The Prayag lodge assumed a die-hard Brahman position that 
> > embraced the caste system.
> > 
> > Members of the Prayag Lodge had complained that many other lodges 
> > had received letters from the Mahatmas, but they still had received 
> > nothing.  If my memory is correct, this is the situation at the 
> > Prayag lodge when the letter was written.  
> > 
> I think the Prayag Lodge's biggest concern was that the Masters were
> dealing with Westeners, specifically Sinnet and Hume, who ate beef and
> used alcohol, while the Prayag group was comprised of orthodox
> Brahmans who observed all the proper rituals.  The Prayag Lodge felt
> that they were clean and these Westerners were dirty (this is unspoken
> but I think the implication is that they keep their auras clean
> through the practice of all their rituals whereas the Westerners do
> nothing, hence why are the Westerners deserving).  It is not generally
> realized today, but for Brahmans, and indeed Indians in general, the
> Americas were Patala at this time.  They were in virtue of being on
> the other side of the world from Indian unclean, Patala having the
> connotation of below the feet.  It was a huge deal for Chakravarti to
> come to North America, the Brahmans could easily have ostracized him.
>  It was probaably this demonstration of courage, of going beyond
> orthodoxy that had Judge musing for a short while that Chakravarti
> might make a good president of the Indian Section.
> 
> > It must be noted that many Mahatma letters were precipitated, 
> > including the one to Olcott on the Shannon, that affirmed that 
> > Blavatsky was their agent and that no other communication had been 
> > given to anyone in Europe or America since 1885, except through HPB.
> > 
> > The first line of the Prayag letters indicates that Blavatsky was 
> > writing on behalf of "The Brothers." No fraud can be construed from 
> > that introduction.    
> > 
> > "The Brothers desire me to inform one and all of you natives..."
> > 
> > The Prayag lodge's complaint appears to have been that the TS was 
> > Buddhist propoganda.  Olcott was very active in the Buddhist world 
> > and his courage in the face of opposition was never extolled by 
> > anyone.  HPB praised Olcott's hard work and dedication, but his 
> > courage was not mentioned as a notable character trait.  
> > 
> Therefore, because it was Buddhist propoganda, Blavatsky must have
> forged the contents of the letter, it could not be genuine.
> 
> > Krsanna
> > 
> 
> For John and others interested, this would be a good place to include
> Basil Crumps article from the "Irish Theosophist."
> 
> ADEPTS AND MEDIUMS.
> 
> In The Theosophist for April appears a "postscript" by Colonel Olcott,
> repudiating the letter sent by one of the Masters through H.P.B. to
> certain Brahmans, which was published by Mr. Judge in the April Path
> and declared by him to be genuine.  Colonel Olcott asserts that the
> communication contains "palpable proof of fraudulency" in that he
> thinks it to be "an ill-tempered attack" on Brahman orthodoxy, and
> that, moreover, it "grossly violates that basic principle of
> neutrality and eclecticism on which the Theosophical Society has built
> itself from the beginning." There are many, however, who differ
> absolutely from the Colonel in their opinion of this letter, and
> consider it to be one of the finest of the series.  It is reprinted in
> a recent pamphlet issued to many members of the T.S., who will be able
> to judge for themselves.  It is a candid but just criticism, not of
> the spirit of the Brahmanic philosophy, but of the hard forms, castes
> and creeds which have grown up around it, and which it was H.P.B.'s
> mission to break up and sweep away from all religions.
> 
> Colonel Olcott twice misquotes from the letter a very important word.
>  He says that it asks the Brahman to "repudiate his religious beliefs,
> cast aside his splendid Scriptures and turn Buddhist" !  Italics are
> mine.  And again he quotes a passage thus: "which of them is ready to
> become a Buddhist, a Nâstika, as they call us." The word used in the
> letter is "Budhist," not "Buddhist." Why, does he so misquote it when
> H. P. B. has so carefully explained the radical difference between the
> two words?  Owing to the impression conveyed by the title of Mr.
> Sinnett's book, Esoteric Buddhism, that Theosophy was only a form of
> Buddhism, she explained in her Introduction to The Secret Doctrine
> that Buddhism is the religious system of ethics preached by the Lord
> Gautama, and named after his title of Buddha, "the Enlightened," while
> Budha means "wisdom" or knowledge (Vidya), the faculty of cognizing,
> front the Sanskrit root "budh," to know.  She further said that
> Buddhism is not correctly spelt or pronounced in English, and should
> be Buddhaïsm.  The word Nâstika means, according to The Theosophical
> Glossary, one who does not worship or recognize the gods and idols.
> 
> Colonel Olcott advances the theory, which both he and Mrs. Besant have
> already applied to the case of Mr. Judge, that H.P.B. was a medium not
> always responsible for what was given through her.  He is driven to
> invent this miserable and insulting excuse in order to avoid accusing
> her of conscious fraud.  This theory is untenable, and to prove it I
> cannot do better than quote from an article by Jasper Niemand,
> entitled, "Judge the Act, Not the Person," which appeared in The Path
> of July, 1889.  The writer there says:
> 
> What difference is there between the instrumentality of H.P.B. and
> that of any transmitting medium?  There is that radical difference
> which exists between the two extremes called by its poles.  H.P.B. is
> an Adept; the other not.  The Adept is such by virtue of the active
> principle.  The medium is such by virtue of the passive principle. . .
> . H.P.B. is an active, conscious agent, acting through will power,
> having attained the power of perfect registration and trained
> concentration, able at all times  to give a full account of all she
> knows, and one fitted to the development of the questioner, one
> responding to his physical, astral or spiritual sense.  She is
> learned, acute, profound; disease of the body has not impaired her
> work, its quality, quantity, or her fidelity to it.  The great proof
> is thorough comprehension, to the fullest depth, of all she has taken
> or received, and the body of H.P.B. is her own instrument; she even
> holds it back from dissolution.  [Capitals mine.&#8210;&#8210; B. C.]
> 
> The medium theory being disposed of, a second question arises out of
> the position taken up by Mrs. Besant, Colonel Olcott and others.
> 
> Granting that H.P.B. was a Messenger front the Masters, would those
> Masters Whose name had once been taken in vain ever use the same
> instrument again?
> 
> The answer is undoubtedly No.  All that has been written by H.P.B., by
> W. Q. Judge, by Jasper Niemand and others on the rules of occult
> training, on the qualifications necessary for real chelaship, on the
> sacred relations between Master and chela, prove that such a thing is
> utterly impossible.  H.P.B. has written that all the so-called
> "occult" letters must stand together or fall together.  Yet it is
> sought to get rid of what is not approved by inventing theories which
> throw mud at the Masters and Their Messenger, and which violate the
> cardinal rules of Occultism.  This is a question for those to whom the
> existence of Mahâtmas is a fact or a matter of personal belief, and
> that is why the charges against Mr. Judge can never be tried without
> fixing the dogma upon the T.S.  Those who take teaching and advice
> from one whom they believe to be a Messenger of The Lodge cannot say
> that some is true and some false.  They may test by their intuition
> and assimilate what they can, but they may not attempt to put the seal
> of their paltry condemnation upon that which does not see in to them
> to be good.  H.P.B. once wrote in Lucifer that "a member of the E.S.
> who receives instructions, emanating from the Masters of the Occult
> Philosophy, and doubts at the same time the genuineness of the source,
> or the honesty of the humble transmitter of the old esoteric doctrines
> &#8210;&#8210;lies to his own soul, and is untrue to his pledge." 
[Capitals
> mine.&#8210;&#8210;B. C.]
> 
> Hear also this extract from "the words of great Teachers," given by H.
> P. B. to her pupils as "the golden stairs up which the learner may
> climb to the Temple of Divine Wisdom":
> . . . . A loyal sense of duty to the Teacher, a willing obedience to
> the behest of TRUTH, once we have placed our confidence in, and
> believe that Teacher to be in possession of it. . . .
> 
> We have, then, these definite facts before us at last&#8210;&#8210;I
speak to
> those only who believe in Mahâtmas and that they communicate through
> chosen disciples.
> 
> 1. That both H.P.B. and Mr. Judge are accused of making bogus messages.
> 2. That it is admitted that genuine messages were delivered by H.P.B.
> and Mr. Judge after those which are alleged to be false.
> 3. That the charges cannot be gone into before the T.S. without fixing
> the dogma of the Mahâtmas upon it.
> 
> Finally Colonel Olcott asserts that the question of this letter to the
> Brahmans does not bear upon the issues which [he thinks] he will have
> to judicially dispose of in London.  I say that it is the fundamental
> and only issue, the complaint in both cases being identical at the
> root, and the step that the President has now definitely taken shows
> more clearly than ever that H.P.B. is the real centre of attack, and
> through her the movement she sacrificed so much to call into being. 
> Once let her image be dimmed, once let her integrity be shaken, and it
> will be but the beginning of the end.  For remember that Esoteric
> Buddhism was built on some of the "occult" letters, and that The
> Secret Doctrine will lose its foundation stones if H.P.B. was not true
> as steel to her trust.
> 
> So let the indomitable loyalty of William Q. Judge to his Teacher and
> ours be the keynote to our action, and let us help him to keep
> unbroken the links which bind us to the Head and Heart of our
> movement, without whom it would not exist to-day.
> Basil Crump.
>