Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00027)

In 1890, Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

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...Thus it was that, so long as I remained at Adyar, things went on 
smoothly enough, because one or other of the Masters was almost 
constantly present among us, and their spirit ever protected the 
Theosophical Society from real harm. But in 1884, Colonel Olcott and 
myself left for a visit to Europe, and while we were away the Padri-
Coulomb "thunderbolt" descended. I returned in November, and was 
taken most dangerously ill. It was during that time and Colonel 
Olcott's absence in Burma, that the seeds of all future strifes, and ?
 let me say at once ? disintegration of the Theosophical Society, 
were planted by our enemies. What with the Patterson-Coulomb-Hodgson 
conspiracy, and the faint-heartedness of the chief Theosophists, that 
the Society did not then and there collapse should be sufficient 
proof of how it was protected....

    If, I say, at that critical moment, the members of the Society, 
and especially its leaders at Adyar, Hindu and European, had stood 
together as one man, firm in their conviction of the reality and 
power of the Masters, Theosophy would have come out more triumphantly 
than ever, and none of their fears would have ever been realized, 
however cunning the legal traps set for me, and whatever mistakes and 
errors of judgment I, their humble representative, might have made in 
the executive conduct of the matter.

    But the loyalty and courage of the Adyar Authorities, and of the 
few Europeans who had trusted in the Masters, were not equal to the 
trial when it came. In spite of my protests, I was hurried away from 
Headquarters. Ill as I was, almost dying in truth, as the physicians 
said, yet I protested, and would have battled for Theosophy in India 
to my last breath, had I found loyal support. But some feared legal 
entanglements, some the Government, while my best friends believed in 
the doctors' threats that I must die if I remained in India. So I was 
sent to Europe to regain my strength, with a promise of speedy return 
to my beloved Aryavarta.

    Well, I left, and immediately intrigues and rumours began. Even 
at Naples already, I learnt that I was reported to be meditating to 
start in Europe "a rival Society" and "burst up Adyar" (!!) . At this 
I laughed. Then it was rumoured that I had been abandoned by the 
Masters, been disloyal to Them, done this or the other. None of it 
had the slightest truth or foundation in fact. Then I was accused of 
being, at best, a hallucinated medium, who had mistaken "spooks" for 
living Masters; while others declared that the real H. P. Blavatsky 
was dead ? had died through the injudicious use of Kundalini ? and 
that the form had been forthwith seized upon by a Dugpa Chela, who 
was the present H.P.B. Some again held me to be a witch, a sorceress, 
who for purposes of her own played the part of a philanthropist and 
lover of India, while in reality bent upon the destruction of all 
those who had the misfortune to be psychologised by me. In fact, the 
powers of psychology attributed to me by my enemies, whenever a fact 
or a "phenomenon" could not be explained away, are so great that they 
alone would have made of me a most remarkable Adept ? independently 
of any Masters or Mahatmas. In short, up to 1886, when the S.P.R. 
Report was published and this soap-bubble burst over our heads, it 
was one long series of false charges, every mail bringing something 
new. I will name no one; or does it matter who said a thing and who 
repeated it. One thing is certain; with the exception of Colonel 
Olcott, everyone seemed to banish the Masters from their thoughts and 
Their spirit from Adyar. Every imaginable incongruity was connected 
with these holy names, and I alone was held responsible for every 
disagreeable event that took place, every mistake made. In a letter 
received from Damodar in 1886, he notified me that the Masters' 
influence was becoming with every day weaker at Adyar; that They were 
daily represented as less than "second-rate Yogis," totally denied by 
some, while even those who believed in, and had remained loyal to 
Them, feared even to pronounce Their names. Finally, he urged me very 
strongly to return, saying that of course the Masters would see that 
my health should not suffer from it. I wrote to that effect to 
Colonel Olcott, imploring him to let me return, and promising that I 
would live at Pondicherry, if needed, should my presence not be 
desirable at Adyar. To this I received the ridiculous answer that no 
sooner should I return, than I should be sent to the Andaman Islands 
as a Russian spy, which of course Colonel Olcott subsequently found 
out to be absolutely untrue. The readiness with which such a futile 
pretext for keeping me from Adyar was seized upon, shows in clear 
colours the ingratitude of those to whom I had given my life and 
health. Nay more, urged on, as I understood, by the Executive 
Council, under the entirely absurd pretext that, in case of my death, 
my heirs might claim a share in the Adyar property, the President 
sent me a legal paper to sign, by which I formally renounced any 
right to the Headquarters or even to live there without the Council's 
permission. This, although I had spent several thousand rupees of my 
own private money, and had devoted my share of the profits of The 
Theosophist to the purchase of the house and its furniture. 
Nevertheless I signed the renunciation without one word of protest. I 
saw I was not wanted, and remained in Europe in spite of my ardent 
desire to return to India. How could I do otherwise than feel that 
all my labours had been rewarded with ingratitude, when my most 
urgent wishes to return were met with flimsy excuses and answers 
inspired by those who were hostile to me?

...Acting under the Master's orders I began a new movement in the 
West on the original lines; I founded Lucifer, and the Lodge which 
bears my name. Recognizing the splendid work done at Adyar by Colonel 
Olcott and others to carry out the second of the three objects of the 
T.S., viz., to promote the study of Oriental Literature, I was 
determined to carry out here the two others. All know with what 
success this had been attended. Twice Colonel Olcott was asked to 
come over, and then I learned that I was once more wanted in India ? 
at any rate by some. But the invitation came too late; neither would 
my doctor permit it, nor can I, if I would be true to my life-pledge 
and vows, now live at the Headquarters from which the Masters and 
Their spirit are virtually banished. The presence of Their portraits 
will not help; They are a dead letter. The truth is that I can never 
return to India in any other capacity than as Their faithful agent. 
And as, unless They appear among the Council in propria persona 
(which They will certainly never do now), no advice of mine on occult 
lines seems likely to be accepted, as the fact of my relations with 
the Masters is doubted, even totally denied by some; and I myself 
having no right to the Headquarters, what reason is there, therefore, 
for me to live at Adyar?

    The fact is this: In my position, half-measures are worse than 
none. People have either to believe entirely in me, or to honestly 
disbelieve. No one, no Theosophist, is compelled to believe, but it 
is worse than useless for people to ask me to help them, if they do 
not believe in me. Here in Europe and America are many who have never 
flinched in their devotion to Theosophy; consequently the spread of 
Theosophy and of the T.S., in the West, during the last three years, 
has been extraordinary. The chief reason for this is that I was 
enabled and encouraged by the devotion of an ever-increasing number 
of members to the Cause and to Those who guide it, to establish an 
Esoteric Section, in which I can teach something of what I have 
learned to those who have confidence in me, and who prove this 
confidence by their disinterested work for Theosophy and the T.S. For 
the future, then, it is my intention to devote my life and energy to 
the E.S., and to the teaching of those whose confidence I retain. It 
is useless that I should use the little time I have before me to 
justify myself before those who do not feel sure about the real 
existence of the Masters, only because, misunderstanding me, it 
therefore suits them to suspect me....
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Quoted from:
http://theosophytrust.org/tlodocs/hpb/WhyIDoNotReturnToIndia.htm

Daniel
http://hpb.cc