Theos-Talk Archives (September 2008 Message tt00285)

Anand,

I am going to try to see where the two of us agree and disagree.

I assume that both of us believe in the existence of the Master Koot
Hoomi. Am I right?

But it would appear that our beliefs differ significantly in many 
other aspects concerning Theosophy.

Therefore this posting is Part 1 of a series of postings in which I 
am going to try to ascertain where the two of us agree and disagree 
and more importantly I will try to determine what our thinking
and reasoning on these issues are.

Let me therefore start off with Mr. Sinnett's description of how he
was introduced to the Master Koot Hoomi.

He writes:

--------------------------------------------------
With the arrival of the Founders [H.P. Blavatsky and Henry S. Olcott]
in India the real development of the [Theosophical] Society may be
regarded as beginning. The situation at the time was briefly as
follows: ?

Madame Blavatsky is the central figure to be considered. She was the
one person who knew of her own knowledge, that The Brothers, ? as she
called them in those days ? were Beings, human in aspect, of flesh
and blood, for she had been for a time in company with two of them in
Tibet. She knew they had dazzling powers in dealing with the affairs
of the world. She herself had faculties of a super-physical order
that kept her in touch with them wherever she might be. She knew she
had a mission to fulfil which had for the moment assumed the shape of
the Theosophical Society. She must have been conscious of possessing
wonderful powers the exercise of which was under restriction, to
which she submitted in devotion to the great Brother whom she
regarded as her own Master, in a pre-eminent degree. ?[Early Days of
Theosophy, page 17]

The events attending the presence of Madame Blavatsky at Simla [in
September and October 1880] are described for the most part in my
book The Occult World?. The manifestations of occult power then
freely given [by and through Madame Blavatsky] had a profound effect
on my own mind. I felt that those who exhibited such marvelous power
over natural forces unfamiliar to physical science must possess
knowledge to correspond. ?I wished I could get into communication
with one of the Brothers [Masters] she talked about.?Conversation
showed that she thought this might not be impossible, and I wrote a
letter addressed to A Brother and gave it to Madame Blavatsky for
transmission. In due course I received a reply [from Master Koot
Hoomi], and this was the first of a long series of letters from the
Masters K. H. and M. which led to the preparation of The Occult World
[published June 1881] and afterwards to Esoteric Buddhism [published
June 1883]?. [Early Days of Theosophy, page 27]
--------------------------------------------------------

Anand, the FIRST letter from Master KH received by Mr. Sinnett in
Simla, India around the middle of October 1880 can be found on the
WWW at:

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/mahatma/ml-1.htm

And as far as I can ascertain, the LAST long letter from Master KH
received by Mr. Sinnett in London soon after April 7, 1885 can be
found online at:

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/mahatma/ml-65.htm

Notice what Master KH says at the end of this 1885 letter:

"Once more, accept my blessing and parting greeting if they have to
be my last."

Now it is important to point out here that Mr. Sinnett was NOT able
to communicate directly with Mahatma K.H. He himself --- unlike H.P.
Blavatsky --- had no "faculties of a super-physical order" by which
he could communicate directly with the Master.

Therefore, Mr. Sinnett communicated with the Master KH via
correspondence from October 1880 to April 1885. [I will ignore in
this part 1 the Holloway Affair.]

After this correspondence ceased in 1885, Mr. Sinnett found himself
no longer in communication whatsoever with the Master.

Although I am not aware of any text in which Mr. Sinnett expresses
his state of mind and his thoughts about no longer having a means to
communicate with the Master, I would imagine that he was not "happy"
with this state of affairs. And as far as I know, he never in 1885
admitted at least to the public that his communication via letter
with the Master had ceased.

But the next year -- 1886 -- , we find him trying to REESTABLISH SOME
KIND OF COMMUNICATION with the Master KH.

In "The Autobiography of Alfred Percy Sinnett," he tells us:

"On the 26th of April 1886. . . we went . . . to the Albemarle
Club . . . to meet a lady who was . . . desirous of making my
acquaintance . . . . . I will give her a fictitious name and call her
Mary. . . . shortly afterwards I tried a mesmeric experiment with her
(in accordance with her wish) and obtained remarkable results - she
went very easily into a trance in which she became unequivocally
clairvoyant. . . .I became convinced that she clairvoyantly saw the
mountain region in Tibet where the Master K.H. resided. . . . . It
became obvious that Mary MIGHT BECOME A LINK between myself and the
Master. . . . . Mary came to stay with
us . . . in February 1888 and our regular mesmeric sittings were
resumed almost every evening, the Master [KH] talking to me THROUGH
HER in most cases. In this way I gathered a great deal of
miscellaneous occult information. . . . . Mary left us to go to her
own home in May 1888 having had mesmeric sitting almost every evening
while she was with us, at most of which the Master spoke to me, - or
rather dictated to her what he wished to say. She would pass into a
higher condition in which she could be in touch with him and be
enabled to repeat his words to her in reply to my questions or
remarks." pp 33 & 38-39 caps added

Again Anand, Mr. Sinnett's own words show that he himself was NOT
able to communicate directly with the Master KH through some
telepathic or clairvoyant means.

Instead he "mesmerized" Mary and as a result of this he came to
believe that Mary had somehow established communication with the real
Master KH.

Now the question comes to my mind: Was Mr. Sinnett actually in
communication with the SAME Mahatma Koot Hoomi that he had
corresponded with from 1880 to 1885?

Or could he have been in communication via Mary with some imaginary
Master created in the subconscious mind of Mary?

Did Sinnett ever even seriously consider this latter possibility?

But it would appear that for whatever reason or reasons, Mr. Sinnett
accepted/believed that he had reestablished a link of communication
with the REAL Mahatma Koot Hoomi.

That is, he beleived that he was once again in communication with the
original Koot Hoomi who had been introduced to him by Madame
Blavatsky herself in 1880.

Therefore you can readily imagine his surprise or consternation that
he must have experienced sometime in August/September/October 1888
when Colonel Henry Olcott who had come to London from India showed
Mr. Sinnett the letter from Master Koot Hoomi that Colonel Olcott had
received in August 1888 while on board the SS Shannon in the
Mediterranean. In this letter, Mahatma Koot Hoomi had told Colonel
Olcott:

"Since 1885 I have not written, nor caused to be written save thro'
her [H.P. Blavatsky's] agency, direct or remote, a letter or line to
anybody in Europe or America, nor communicated orally with, or thro'
any third party. Theosophists should learn it. You will understand
later the SIGNIFICANCE of this declaration so keep it in mind." caps
added.

And in this same KH letter we find this warning to Olcott:

"Prepare, however, to have the authenticity of the present [letter]
denied in certain quarters."

So Anand, do you accept what the Master KH says above in this letter 
to Olcott?

Anand, if you accept the above statement in the letter from KH then 
would you not conclude that the oral communications
Sinnett believed he had been receiving during 1886, 1887 and 1888
from "KH" through Mary are not from the real Master Koot Hoomi???

Daniel
http://hpb.cc