(Laura Holloway was an
American Theosophist and in this article she talks about the epistolary
exchange she had in her youth with Master Kuthumi several decades ago.)
THE MAHATMAS AND THEIR INSTRUMENTS
BY L. C. L.
MADAME BLAVATSKY AND THE MASTERS - PRECIPITATED LETTERS AND THEIR RECIPIENTS
Comparatively few of the thousands of Theosophists in the world have
ever been the recipients of letters from Mahatmas, about which they all have
heard so much and known so little. On the other hand, a few individuals have
received these direct testimonials under certain extraordinary conditions, and
have been permitted to write letters which, though they were never posted, were
answered in part or at length.
One long letter well remembered became it was the outpouring of a
turbulent and persistent young soul, was placed in a drawer of a desk in a
London bedroom. A few moments later, the writer, who had not left her seat at
the side of the desk nearest to the drawer, pulled the latter open and the
letter was gone.
How often would such a thing as that happen to anyone, anywhere?
It did happen, and under these circumstances. Madame Blavatsky sat at
that desk, and it was with her permission that the letter was put into that empty
drawer "to go to Mahatma if it could be delivered."
That was many years ago, and time and death have been powerful factors
at work in the lives of those concerned since then. But the memory of the
events of that morning, when the air of England was filled with the warmth of
spring and laden with the perfume of flowers which grew in the beautiful
gardens back of the mansion, is just as fresh as though it had happened today.
And the atmosphere of peace and hospitality pervading that home, is recalled
with a sense so real that its intensity is both painful and pleasurable.
There was no mystery or magic or complex purpose conceived with the
circumstance; the only explanation that was given then and is repeated now, was
the intensest desire, the determined purpose to know the Masters, if they could
be reached through love.
What mattered it that the laws governing the transmission of messages
was not understood?
What fear could be felt when affection alone inspired the writer and
influenced the agent?
Madame Blavatsky was the channel through whom all the Mahatma letters
had come to those of the West, and she it was who knew the fate of the letter
referred to. She must have been aware also of the manner in which its answer
was to come, and did come.
The next morning, while dressing in my room, I had a sudden sense of an
electric signal-; something unexpectedly shocked me, and I put down the hair brush
I held in my hand and turned toward the door. No one had knocked, yet I was in
a state of expectancy and felt that either I should see some one, or hear
something.
The bed was on the side of the room• between the bureau and the door. I
glanced at it or over it, in looking toward the door. Suddenly an impulse moved
me to go to the side of the bed; I did so and for some reason, I cannot clearly
explain, I lifted the small pillow which I had used, and under it lay a sealed
envelope, addressed to me. The contents of the envelope surprised me not more
than finding it where it was found.
Had it been there all night?
I do not know, but I think not. The maid had prepared the bed as usual
at night and I had not changed the position of the pillow, so far as I could
recall, but I did not think then, and I do not now, that I could have slept
with the letter under my face without realizing its presence. Many persons who
were about me at the time saw the letter and heard the statements made
concerning it, and its predecessor. I was closely questioned concerning it by
those who believed me and those who perhaps doubted my story, but no one ever
thought as much about it as I did, or pondered its contents with more sincerity
and perplexity.
Of all who talked with me I recall that Mr. Stainton Moses, the noted
editor of Light, the leading organ of the spiritualists in England, cheerily
explained it to be the work of the spirits, and told me I was a real medium. He
assured me that there was no other possible explanation of the matter, and this
he earnestly believed.
I knew, however, that it was the work of a Great and Living Soul, who
for some reason for so doing, had given me and others through me, this signal
proof of his desire to help us in our effort to learn the spiritual side of
nature, and to understand the laws governing it. Madame Blavatsky vouchsafed no
·explanations, merely corroborated my statements that I had a tremendous wish
to hear from a Mahatma, and took the only method I know of to accomplish that
purpose; saying also that I interrupted her while she was writing her weekly
Russian newspaper article and told her the one wish of my life was to be
recognized and in the one way I had selected.
I remember how she gazed at me as though I had suddenly become demented;
but I, undaunted, had said, "where shall I put it?"
My letter was a bulky one in a square envelope and she laughed when I had
taken it from my bag and placed it before her on the desk. A volley of
reproaches would not have surprised me, but she sat quietly leaning back in her
arm chair looking at me. Then I pulled open the small upper drawer on the side
of the desk and said, "In here?"
"Yes," she said, "you may put it there and find it there
when you come for it again."
For answer I opened the drawer again instantly and the letter was gone.
So great was my joy that I could not decide what to do, but I had been reading
Edwin Arnold's "Light of Asia" and was prompted to quote the couplet:
"Om Mani Padme Hum; the
sunrise comes,
The dew drop slips into the shining
sea."
Then courtesying low and swiftly to her, I left the room. I was a child
in my spiritual growth then and had the courage of ignorance. But then as now I
loved the Masters — those Beings who had passed the race on its onward march and
had achieved a knowledge of Nature so immensely extended that it seemed to us in
our ignorance, as impossible.
It was intuition that aided me to know these finished products of humanity,
and because they represented my ideals I loved them. And, loving them, it seemed
but natural that I should ask for aid, and offer to serve with their permission
in the order and on the plane to which I belonged.
What amazed me then, however, and amazes me yet after this long lapse of
time, is the confidence I felt in the certainty that my letter would be answered.
There was not a doubt in my mind; and I was not surprised to find my letter
gone from where I had put it not two minutes before. The feeling
I had when I made the discovery was one of exhilaration, of soul
satisfaction, and I went from that room into the beautiful gardens at the rear
of the house in order to be alone. I was in a state of suppressed excitement, but
it was not the common sort of excitement, and was not in the least related to a
feeling of personal vanity or triumph. Even after the lapse of nearly twenty
years, I feel again the spiritual exaltation; the overmastering sense of
gratitude, and humility which possessed me. I walked among the roses and
sweet-scented star jasmine blossoms; listened to the birds singing in the
trees; watched the children at play in the walks-and steadied my nerves and
quieted the beatings of my heart, with the holy joy that pervaded my being.
And the gratitude I felt far in excess of that created by the wonderful
evidence given me of the existence of a power I did not understand and could
not explain-was for the proof I had received of the genuineness of my own
experiences: the correctness of my own visions; the immortality and divinity of
my own soul. Souls cannot be immortal without being a part of Divinity: in that
sense I felt my superior self that sunny June morning to be divine. I never was
so happy in my life before; I may never expect to know a greater sense of joy.
In conversations with Madam Blavatsky regarding the transmission of this
letter and of other manifestations I had witnessed, she made many interesting
observations, some of which I transcribe from my note book for the benefit of
the readers of The Word magazine.
"Western people," she said, "are in their first phase of spiritual
awakening, and want phenomena at every step."
Again she said: "People expect too much from others in psychic
matters. They demand to know about the Mahatmas and, when answered according to
their understandings, they demand that I do just what they tell me by way of proof.
When I refuse, they go away and abuse me. You know enough about the law of
Karma to realize that I can- not interfere with it."
"I tell every one that it is possible for them to learn occult
things; and how little or how big the results obtained will depend upon
themselves, and what they have been in other lives. Because I know the Mahatmas
and try to serve them, it does not follow that I can make others acquainted with
them. It depends entirely upon thinking."
And then she quoted a paragraph from the Master's letter which has been
published by Mr. Sinnett, which is as follows:
"Everyone should try to break through that" great Maya against
which occult students, the world over, have always been warned by their teachers-the
hankering after phenomena. Like the thirst for drink and opium, it grows with
gratification. The spiritualists are drunk with it, they are thaumaturgic sots.
If you cannot be happy without phenomena you will never learn our philosophy."
One day there came a Mahatma letter to one of our number who was a
member of the London Lodge, in which the writer, after reminding her that the
Mahatmas were not public scribes or clerks with time to be continually writing
notes and answers to individual correspondents, said, as to discipleship:
« Time enough to discuss
the terms of chelaship when the aspirant has digested what has already been
given out, and mastered his most palpable vices and weaknesses. This you show or
say to all. The members of the _____ [Esoteric Section?] have such an opportunity
as seldom comes to men. A movement calculated to benefit an English-speaking
world is in their custody. If they do their whole duty, the progress of
materialism, the increase of dangerous self-indulgence and the tendency towards
spiritual suicide, can be checked. The theory of vicarious atonement has
brought about its inevitable re-action: only the knowledge of Karma can offset
it.
The pendulum has swung from the extreme of blind faith towards the
extreme of materialistic skepticism, and nothing can stop it save Theosophy. Is
not this a thing worth working for, to save those nations from the doom their
ignorance is preparing for them?
Think you the truth has been shown to you for your sole advantage? That we
have broken the silence of centuries for the profit of a handful of dreamers
only. The converging lines of your Karma have drawn each and all of you into
this Society as to a common focus that you may each help to work out the
results of your interrupted beginnings in the last birth. None of you can be so
blind as to suppose that this is your first dealing with Theosophy. You surely
must realize that this would be the same as to say that effects come without
causes.
Know, then, that it depends now upon each of you whether you shall
henceforth struggle alone after spiritual wisdom through this and the next
incarnate life or in the company of your present associates, and greatly helped
by the mutual sympathy and aspiration. Blessings to all deserving them. »
This letter was signed "K.H.," as is the following one, selected
from a collection addressed to me, by the same Great Teacher. As a sacred
treasure I value it, and have preserved it with loving care until this time,
when I am told to share my possessions with those "who love the Masters
and their love of men." Let the reader bear in mind that it was written for
the benefit of a very young, wholly inexperienced and very ignorant
"chela," whose exceptional advantages she did not then realize or appreciate.
It is as follows:
« When you are
older in your chela life you will not be surprised if no notice is taken of your
wishes, and even birthdays and other feasts and fasts. For you will have then learned
to put a proper value on the carcass-sheath of the Self and all its relations. To
the profane a birthday is but a twelve-month-stride toward the grave. When each
new year marks for you a step of evolution all will be ready with their congratulations:
there will be something real to felicitate you upon.
But, so far, you are not even one year old-and you would be treated as an
adult! Try to learn to stand firm on your legs, child, before you venture
walking. It is because you are so young and ignorant in the ways of occult life
that you are so easily forgiven. But you have to attend your ways and put ......
and her caprices and whims far in the background before the expiration of the first
year of your life as a chela if you would see the dawn of the second year.
Now, the lake in the mountain heights of your being is one day a tossing
waste of waters, as the gust of caprice or temper sweeps through your soul; the
next a mirror as they subside, and peace reigns in the "house of
life." One day you win a step forward; the next you fall two back.
Chelaship admits none of these transitions; its prime and constant
qualification is a calm, even, contemplative state of mind (not the mediumistic
passivity) fitted to receive psychic ·impressions from without, and to transmit
one's own from within. The mind can be made to work with electric swiftness in
a high excitement; but the Buddhi-never. To its clear region, calm must ever
reign. It is foolish to be thinking of outward Upasika (Blavatsky) in this
connection. She is not a '”chela”.
. . .
You cannot acquire psychic power until the causes of psychic debility
are removed. You have scarcely learned the elements of self-control in psychism;
your vivid creative imagination evokes illusive creatures, coined the instant
before in the mint of your mind, unknown to yourself. As yet you have not
acquired the exact method of detecting the false from the true, since you have
not yet comprehended the doctrine of shells.
How can you know the real from the unreal, the true from the false?
Only by self-development.
How get that?
By first carefully guarding yourself against the causes of
self-deception. And this you can do by spending a certain fixed hour or hours
each day all alone in self-contemplation, writing, reading, the purification of
your motives, the study and correction of your faults, the planning of your
work in the external life. These hours should be sacredly reserved for this
purpose, and no one, not even your most intimate friend or friends, should be
with you then. Little by little your sight will clear, you will find the mists
pass away, your interior faculties strengthen, your attraction towards us gain;
force, and certainty replace doubts.
But beware of seeking or leaning too much upon direct authority. Our ways
are not your ways. We rarely show any outward signs by which to be recognized
or sensed. Do you think . . . . and . . . . and . . . . have been counseling
you entirely without prompting from us.
As for U. [Upasika], you love her more than you respect her advice. You
do not realize that when speaking of, or as from us she dares not m\x: up her
own personal opinions with those she tells you are ours. None of us would dare
do so, for we have a code that is not to be transgressed. Learn, child, to catch
at a hint through whatever agency it may be given. “Sermons may be preached
even through stones. . . .” Do not be too eager for 'instructions.' You will
always get what you need as you shall deserve them, but no more than you deserve
or are able to assimilate. . . .
And now the battle is set in array; fight a good fight and may you win
the day. »
Another, and far too personal a letter to be quoted in print, contains
the following valued statements.
"The fundamental principle of occultism is that every idle word is recorded
as well as one full of earnest meaning."
"I can do .nothing unless you help me by helping your- self. Try to
realize that in occultism one can neither go back nor stop. An abyss opens
behind every step taken forward. . . ."
One day· there came to me from the Master, in a letter addressed to Madam
Blavatsky, these messages:
« Tell -- from Mahatma
-- that spiritual faculties demand instruction and regulation even more than our
mental gifts, for intellect imbibes wrong far more easily than good. -- ought to
bear always in mind these lines of Tennyson:
-
"Self reverence,
self knowledge, self control, these three alone lead life to sovereign
power."
But to remember at the same time the extreme danger of self will when it
is not regulated by the three above mentioned qualities, especially in a
question of spiritual development.
. . .
Let her obtain self-control over self-will and a too great sensibility,
and she thus may become the most perfect as the strongest pillar of the
Theosophical Society. »
_ _ _
From old note books dated over a quarter of a century ago are taken the
following extracts from letters written by the Mahatmas K. H., and M. to various
chelas of .the Theosophical Society. Some of them are taken from letters
already made public, others are from personal letters and notes received during
the Spring and Summer of the year 1884.
The book referred to in some of the extracts given below is "Man; Fragments of Forgotten History,"
then in course of preparation.
From K. H.
« You want a
definition, Child, of "Spirit." Inflowing
force will define it as well as any other term. »
From K. H.
« Why must you be
so faint-hearted in the performance of your duty? Friendship, personal feelings
and gratitude are no doubt noble feelings, but duty alone leads to the
development you so crave for. Try to show them the truth for the last time. I
desire you to go to ____; I desire you to change magnetisms as little as you
can. »
From K .H.
« The feeble
efforts of a life are contemptible indeed when compared to the results of an eternity
(a word of which you hardly have a conception) and the sum total of all actions
is of no account compared to the future. But shall you, because you have this
future, in which to act and to create, refuse to go forward now? Divided nature
— hesitate before acting.
The book is a project undertaken; why not complete it? Its existence
will depend upon you for you alone can create it, and the materials are in no other
hands. But should you refuse to go on — do not deceive yourself with the false
idea that you are unable to do what you have done.
The real reason is loss of confidence and you are responsible for the
influence that you permit others to exert over you. Shall you be tried in the
balance and be found wanting? Will you go back to the old conditions of things in
America? It is our wish to take you out of them. »
From K .H.
« The greatest
consolation in and the foremost duty of life, child, is not to give pain, and
avoid causing suffering to man or beast. It requires no acute intelligence to put
two and two in the present situation and see it makes four. On the one hand we
have one who has suffered greatly to serve ourselves and cause; one even
suspected, ever condemned, and who is now being crucified by Public Opinion on the
tree of infamy.
Right at her side stands one of those for whom she has so suffered; the
indirect cause of it, yet one who at the first glimpse of false appearance
would not hesitate to suspect her himself. Nevertheless, this man also has
suffered, he merits consideration, and ought to have his doubts solved. To satisfy
him and thus help the cause in its present very complicated situation, we who
are forbidden to use our powers with Europeans can act but thro' our chelas or
one like H.P.B. We can get at him but thro' those two channels. Where are the
chelas strong enough to help us without the aid of our own powers?
One is many thousand miles away, the other, the adept, is here. An answer
through the former would necessitate two months. But she (H.P.B.) refuses most
positively to lend herself henceforth to such services. She is right. She
demands it in the name of her Karma and therefore not to be ordered against her
will. Her self sacrifices were so ill requited and it would be cruelty and
abuse of power to subject her to new persecutions. »
From K .H.
(From a letter to Col. Olcott from K. H.)
« Should find in
her own intuitions all the proof needed that we (the Mahatmas) are satisfied
with her book, her first attempt at expounding occult doctrine. Be kind and
brotherly to her always. She is honest, candid, noble-minded and full of zeal.
Do not criticize; her faults are those of her, and your country.
Upasika (H.P.B.) is sick, so you must do as I tell you. Read them aloud to
her (the chapters of "Man" already finished), or, have Mohini do so, successfully,
to relieve you, and to H.S.O. "M" will follow it with D.K. ( Dwjal
KhooI), and stop you through her when correction is needed. You have done a
good work, child. I am satisfied. Be strong; do not think of home; all is well
that ends well. Trust to the future and be hopeful. »
From the Master K.H. to H.P.B.
« Leave her strictly alone. You have no right to influence her either way.
Whether she goes, or remains, her subsequent fate is in her own hands. I cannot
answer the same questions over and over again. I said to her, Try — and shall
say no more. You may tell her this — that for one so emphatically determined in
some of her moods; one who asserted so often that she was ready at a moments
notice to go to Tibet in search of me, saying "Here I am — will you teach
me Master" — if only she knew she would thereby gain the knowledge sought.
She acts with remarkable inconsistency. It is ____’s a magnetism — the coming
letter and the one received — that upsets her. I did not want to seem too hard to
forbid all intercourse for the time — and these are the results.
If she has not learnt yet the fundamental principle in occultism that
every idle word is recorded as well as one full of earnest meaning, she ought to
be told as much, before being allowed to take one step further. I will not tell
you her future; nor should you try to see. You know it is against the rules.
Anyhow you must not regret the three months lost, your and our own
efforts, and M's time wasted in the case, if it all ends in a failure. You will
have help; the only sufferer will be herself. I regret it deeply. I would if I
could develop this richly gifted nature, quiet and soothe in the bosom of the
eternal Truth the sensitive soul ever suffering from self inflicted wounds. I
can do nothing, if she does not help me by helping herself. Try to make her
realize that in occultism we can neither go back nor stop. That an abyss opens behind
every step taken forward. Be kind and gentle with her, whatever happens. She
suffers, and patience was never a word for her. She would be made a regular
Chela before she showed herself fit even for a probationary candidate.
"I am not a chela," she keeps on saying — ignorant of having pledged
herself as one unconsciously and when out of the body. Oh, if I could have the
assurance only that the book will be finished I Indeed? Thus while fretting
over the short period before her in the future, she loses hour after hour, day after
day, instead of working at it in the present and thus finish it. »
Mahatma M. to H.P.B.
« It is
impossible for K. H. to trouble every moment for the most unimportant matters. This
must stop. Why should she not have confidence in what you say, but must needs
have autographs from Masters. She was told to publish it simultaneously here
and across water, but has still less confidence in herself. Had she been docile
to advice given her; had she avoided to fall daily under magnetic influence
that, after first experiment, dragged her down from the lofty plane of seership
to the low level of mediumship, she would have developed by this time
sufficiently to trust in herself with her visions. All you women are "Zin Zin"
fools to yourselves and to please a kind and affectionate friend, ready to
sacrifice your own salvation.
The house-Upasika will find that reverential friendship does not exclude
pig-headedness, envy and jealousy. The Patal-Upasika will soon ascertain the
dangers during development of mixing a western magnetism. Warn her once more,
and if she does not heed-no — more. If advice is asked — then it ought to be followed.
You may tell her that if she stops for some time with you then I can help her on
behalf of K. He surely has no time just now. Did not she, herself, feel that after
she had sat near —— for half and hour or so her visions began changing
character? Ought this not be a warning for her? Of course she is serving a
purpose and knew it in — but was made to forget by the other two magnetisms.
Take her with you to Schmiechen and tell her to see. Yes, she is good
and pure and chela-like; only terribly flabby in kindness of heart. Say to Schmiechen
that he will be helped. I myself will guide his hands with brush for K.'s portrait. »
From
K. H.
« Courage
and fidelity, truthfulness and sincerity, always win our regard. Keep on child,
as you have been doing. Fight for the persecuted and the wrong; those who thro'
self sacrifice have made themselves helpless whether in Europe or China. I will
correspond with you thro' her, but not unless you keep to yourself faithfully
the secret. You may show the letters but never reveal the way they come to you.
You will have to pledge yourself solemnly to that effect before I begin.
Blessings
on you, Child, and keep off shells. »
(The
Word, May 1912, p.69-76, and July 1912, p. 200-203)
OBSERVATION
Laura
Holloway had great clairvoyance abilities, but the above letters show the
importance that is required in these cases to lead an extremely pure life to
prevent the low magnetisms of others from disturbing that faculty and causing
the person to fall in mediumship.
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