Theos-Talk Archives (July 2009 Message tt00414)

What HPB says about Colombs

Colomb affair shook the TS to its roots. HPB has always mentioned that the
troubles of TS is always not from without but from within. Here is an
interesting quote regarding helping Colomb.


âAnd if I am, then surely I would not have been entrusted with such a
mission unless I had pledged myself irrevocably to the laws of the Ethics,
Sciences, and Philosophy THEY teach. Come whatever may, I have to abide by
these laws and rules even in the face of condemnation
to death. Now, if the law, in common legislature even, holds that no person
should be condemned before his guilt is proven, or becomes manifest, how
much more strict must this law be in our Occult Code? Have I the rightââin
special cases when I see that a person has in him the germs of, or even a
decided proclivity toward, evil doing, deception, ingratitude, or revenge,
that, in short, he is not a reliable man or woman; but that, on the other
hand, he is earnest and sincere, for the time being, in his interest and
sympathy for Theosophy and Occultism; have I the right, I ask, to deny him
the chance of becoming a better man, merely out of fear that he may one day
turn round? I will say more. Knowing, as I do, that no earthly forces
combined can destroy the T.S. and its truths, even if they can and do, in
each case, hurt more or less my outward and miserable personality, that
shell that I am solemnly pledged to use as a buffer of the cause I serve,
have I the right, think you, out of mere personal cowardice and in
self-defence, to refuse anyone the chance of profiting by the truths I can
teach him, and of thereby becoming better? That many are called, but few
chosen, is something I knew from the beginning; that he who speaks the truth
is turned out of nine cities, is an old saying; and that the man (and
especially the woman) who preaches new truths, whether in religion or
science, is stoned and made a martyr by those to whom they are
unwelcomeââall this is what I have bargained for, and no more. Let me give
you an illustration out of real life. When the notorious Madame Coulomb came
to me in Bombay, with her husband, to ask for bread and shelter, though I
had met her in Cairo, and knew her to be a treacherous, wicked, and lying
woman, nevertheless I gave her all she needed, because such was my duty. But
when, in course of time, I saw she hated me, envied my position and
influence, and slandered me to my friends while flattering me to my face, my
human nature revolted. We were very poor then, poorer even in fact than we
are now, both the Society and ourselves, and to keep two enemies at our
expense seemed hard. Then I applied to my Guru and Master, who was then at
three daysâ distance from Bombay, and submitted to his decision whether it
was right and theosophical to keep two such Serpents in the house; for she,
at any rate, if not her husband, threatened the whole Society. Would you
know the answer I received? These are the words verbatim, the reply
beginning with an aphorism from the Book of Precepts:

ââIf thou findest a hungry Serpent creeping into thy house, seeking for
food, and, out of fear it should bite thee, instead of offering it milk thou
turnest it out to suffer and starve, thou turnest away from the Path of
Compassion. Thus acteth the fainthearted and the selfish.â You know,â

went on the message, âthat you are PERSONALLY threatened; you have still to
learn that SO LONG AS THERE ARE THREE MEN WORTHY OF OUR LORDâS BLESSING IN
THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETYââIT CAN NEVER BE DESTROYED. . . . Your two Karmas
[herâs and mine] run in two opposite directions. Shall you, out of abject
fear of that which may come, blend the two [Karmas] and become as she is? .
. . They are homeless and hungry; shelter and feed them, then, if you would
not become participant in her Karma.â

Since then I have acted more than ever on this principle of trying to help
everyone irrespective of what I personally may have to suffer for it. It is
not, therefore, the utter incapacity for right discrimination in me, but
something quite different that compelled me to lay aside all thought of
possible consequencesâ HPB CW pp 586


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