Theos-Talk Archives (March 2007 Message tt00195)

MKR wrote in part:

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, IMHO. The ML 
were written to the APS & AOH and were personal 
correspondence and was not meant for public
consumption as stated in one of the letters. A 
lot of good came out of it. APS published Esoteric 
Buddhism and it did a lot to publicise Theosophy in
the English speaking world....
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It is true that the Master Koot Hoomi wrote the following concerning 
the publication of his own letters and notes to Sinnett:

"The letters, in short, were not written for publication or public 
comment upon them, but for private use, and neither M. nor I would 
ever give our consent to see them thus handled." ? Mahatma Letter
No. 63

But one should read the whole letter from which I have quoted in 
order to see the context in which those words were made.

But this K.H. quotation should ALSO be viewed in light of another 
letter from the Mahatma K.H. which throws additional light on the 
issue of publishing the letters from the Masters. 

In the summer of 1884, Mohini Chatterji and Laura C. Holloway were 
writing a book on Theosophy entitled "Man: Fragments of Forgotten 
History." Both Mohini and Laura were chelas of K.H. In a letter 
addressed to Mohini, Master K.H. wrote:

"You may, if you choose so, or find necessity for it, use in Man [the 
above titled book] or in any other book you may chance to be 
collaborating for, anything I may have said in relation to our secret 
doctrines in any of my letters to Messrs. Hume or Sinnett. Those 
portions that were private have never been allowed by them to be 
copied by anyone; and those which are so copied have by the very fact 
become theosophical property. Besides, copies of my letters ? at
any rate those that contained my teachings ? have always been
sent by my  order to Damodar and Upasika [H.P.B.], and some of the 
portions even used in 'The Theosophist.' You are at liberty to even 
copy them verbatim and without quotation marks. ... Thus not only 
you, a chela of mine, but anyone else is at liberty to take anything, 
whole pages, if thought proper, from any of my "copied" letters and 
convert their 'dross' into pure ore of gold, provided they have well 
grasped the thought. Show this to L.C.H. who was already told the 
same."? Letter 39 in "Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom,"
First Series.

It should also be pointed out that a great deal of the teaching 
letters from K.H. and M. were quoted in the following books published 
in the 1880s and 1890s: 

? "The Occult World" by A.P. Sinnett. (First edition published 1881)

? "Esoteric Buddhism" by A.P. Sinnett. (First edition published 1883)

? "The Occult World" by A.P.S. See 4th English edition, 1884, 
Appendix, pp. 145-149 for an additional KH letter.

? "Man: Fragments of Forgotten History" by Two Chelas [Chatterji and 
Holloway) (First edition, published 1885)

? "The Secret Doctrine" by H.P. Blavatsky. (First published 1888). 
See especially Vol. I where H.P.B. quotes from several of KH's 
letters to Sinnett.

? In additional to the above books, excerpts from the Masters' 
letters were published in various articles in "The Theosophist" (1881-
1883).

? Also W.J. Judge published lengthy extracts from K.H.'s letters to 
Sinnett dealing with Kamaloka and Devachan. See "The Path," August, 
1889, Nov., 1889, May, 1890 and June, 1890. These articles have been 
reprinted by The Theosophy Company, Los Angeles, in their 
compilation "Theosophical Articles and Notes," 1985, pp. 236-247.

? H.P.B. also quoted extracts from KH's Letters to Sinnett in the 
pages of "Lucifer."

? Judge published the Prayag Letter [also contained in "The Mahatma 
Letters to A. P. Sinnett"] in "The Path" in the early 1890s.
And there are more . . . . 

It would be an interesting exercise to take a copy of "The Mahatma 
Letters to A. P. Sinnett" and underline in red all the passages that 
have been published in the above sources.

Directing attention back to KH's letter to Mohini in which mention is 
made of the "copied letters" which have "become theosophical 
property", Francesca Arundale, an early Theosophist, had "three 
manuscript books" of "these early teachings" from the Masters. 

Evidence indicates that Sinnett copied these "teachings" from the 
letters of the Masters and sent them to London for the benefit of 
Arundale and other students of Theosophy. These "teaching letters" as 
found in Arundale"s manuscript books were eventually published by C. 
Jinarajadasa in 1923 under the title "The Early Teachings of the 
Masters 1881 to 1883." 

Early Teachings of the Masters 1881-1883 
Compiled and edited by C. Jinarajadasa.

Contents: Planetary Chain; Conditions After Death; Races and Sub-
Races; Cosmic Origins; Science; Ethics and Philosophy; The Universal 
Mind; Avalokitesvara; Our Ideas on Evil; Planetary Spirits; Principle 
of Life. 

This book by Jinarajadasa was published some months before A. Trevor 
Barker published the complete collection of letters from the Masters 
K.H. and M. in London in Dec. 1923.

One can buy a copy of this book at Amazon.com:

http://tinyurl.com/yxsbj9

The book is also online at:

http://www.theosophical.ca/EarlyTeachings.htm

And an excellent introduction and overview of the Mahatma Letters can 
be found in the following book:

An Introduction to The Mahatma Letters
Virginia Hanson
97 pages
Order from Quest Books:  

http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=187

More information and material on the Mahatmas Letters can always be 
found at:

http://mahatmaletters.net

Hope some of this helps.

Daniel
Blavatsky Study Center
http://hpb.cc