ENCOUNTERS WITH MASTER KUTHUMI AT LAHORE

One of the most important constructions of Lahore is the Badshahi Mosque, which was built in 1673 by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, with a capacity to accommodate more than 55'000 worshipers; it is one of the most beautiful mosques in the World.

At the end of 1883, while the President of the Theosophical Society –Colonel Olcott – was conducting a tour of North India to spread the Theosophical teachings, he was visited by Master Kuthumi, who also visited two others members –Damodar Mavalankar and William Tournay Brown– who formed part of the group of Theosophists who accompanied Colonel Olcott.

It is rare for a Master to appear with his astral body to someone who is not a disciple or another Adept, and it is more rare that he presents himself in person with his physical body. Therefore the testimony of these three members of the Theosophical Society who had the opportunity to be personally visited by Master Kuthumi (K.H.) in the city of Lahore is particularly valuable.

(At that time Lahore was part of British India and now is part of Pakistan.)

And below I transcribe you the stories they gave about this event:

On the morning of November 20, 1883, during his first visit to Colonel Olcott and Mr. Brown, Master Kuthumi left a letter to each one of them.

COLONEL OLCOTT’s TESTIMONY

We find in the Journals of Colonel Olcott the following text on that particular date:

« 1.55 a.m. Kuthumi came in body to my tent. Woke me suddenly out of sleep, pressed a note (wrapped in silk) into my left hand, and laid his hand upon my head. He then passed into Brown’s compartment and integrated another note in his hand (Brown’s). He spoke to me. Was sent by Maha Chohan. »

(Collected Writings VI, p.23)

And in his book “Old Diary Leaves,” Colonel Olcott detailed more about this event:

« My camp was thronged with visitors during the three days of our stay, and I gave two lectures under the largest shamiana to multitudes, with great pots of fire standing along the sides to modify the biting November cold, for the Punjab is the reverse of tropical as to temperature in our winter months.

My kind and most capable interpreter was Pandit Gopinath, F.T.S., a well-educated and most enterprising journalist, a Brahmin of Kashmir, well known to Theosophists for his unshakable loyalty to the two Founders.

I was sleeping in my tent, the night of the 19th, when I rushed back towards external consciousness on feeling a hand laid on me.

The camp being on the open plain, and beyond the protection of the Lahore Police, my first animal instinct was to protect myself from a possible religious fanatical assassin, so I clutched the stranger by the upper arms, and asked him in Hindustani who he was and what he wanted.

It was all done in an instant, and I held the man tight, as would one who might be attacked the next moment and have to defend his life. But the next instant a kind, sweet voice said:

    -   "Do you not know me? Do you not remember me?"

It was the voice of the Master Kuthumi. A swift revulsion of feeling came over me, I relaxed my hold on his arms, joined my palms in reverential salutation [“Namaste”], and wanted to jump out of bed to show him respect, but his hand and voice stayed me.

After a few sentences had been exchanged, be took my left hand in his, gathered the fingers of his right into the palm, and stood quiet beside my cot, from which I could see his divinely benignant face by the light of the lamp that burned on a packing-case at his back.

Presently I felt some soft substance forming in my hand, and the next minute the Master laid his kind hand on my forehead, uttered a blessing, and left my half of the large tent to visit Mr. W.T. Brown, who slept in the other half behind a canvas screen that divided the tent into two rooms.

When I had time to pay attention to myself, I found myself holding in my left hand a folded paper enwrapped in a silken cloth.

To go to the lamp, open and read it, was naturally my first impulse. I found it to be a letter of private counsel, containing prophecies of the death of two undesignated, then active, opponents of the Society, which were realized in the passing away of the Swami Dayânand Saraswati and Babu Keshab Chandra Sen shortly after.

And point very important to notice is that the handwriting of this letter, formed in my own palm by the Master Kuthumi himself, is identical with that of all those others which the “sagacious” Netherclift [Mr. Hodgson’s graphologist] after much dissection of them into their original pothook-and-hanger elements, pronounced to be of Blavatskyan origin! »

(Old Diary Leaves III, chapter 3)

THE MASTER KUTHUMI’s LETTER TO COLONEL OLCOTT

In his “Old Diary Leaves,” Colonel Olcott mentioned a few details about the content of that letter, but later the researcher Boris de Zircoff had access to that letter in the Adyar Archives.

Attached to this letter is a slip of paper with the following notation in Colonel Olcott’s handwriting:

-       "Letter to H.S.O. [Henry Steel Olcott] formed in his own hand by Master K.H. during a night visit to him, in his camp on the Maidan outside Lahore."

The letter is written in black ink. It is on one sheet, and written on both sides.

Facsimile of the front page.

Facsimile of the back page.

And the letter says, the following:

« Since the commencement of your probationary term in America, you have had much to do with me, though’ your imperfect development has often made you mistake me for Atrya, and often to fancy your own mind at work when it was mine trying to influence and to talk with yours.

Of course, by your own canons of evidence you have not until now been a thoroughly qualified witness, since we have never previously — to your knowledge — met in the flesh. But at last you are, and one object in view in my making the journey from the Ashram to Lahore was to give you this last substantial proof.

You have not only seen and conversed with, but touched me, my hand has pressed yours, and the K.H. of fancy becomes the K.·. of fact.

Your skeptical action, often running into extreme conservatism—perhaps the very last trait that the careless would suspect you of—has seriously and constantly impeded your inner unfolding. It has made you suspicious—sometimes cruelly so—of Upâsika, of Borg, of Djwal-K., even of Damodar and D. Nath, whom you love as sons.

This meeting of ours should radically change the state of your mind. Should it not, so much the worse for your future: truth never comes, burglar-like, thro’ barred windows & iron-sheathed doors.

I come to you not alone of my own accord and wish, but also by order of the Maha Chohan, to whose insight the future lies like an open page.

At New York you demanded of Morya an objective proof that his visit to you was not an illusion — and he gave it; unasked, I give you the present one: though I pass out of your sight this note will be to you the reminder of our conferences.

I now go to young Mr. Brown to try his intuitiveness. Tomorrow night when the camp is quiet & the worst of the emanations from your audience have passed away, I shall visit you again, for a longer conversation, as you must be forewarned against certain things in the future.

Fear not and doubt not as you have feared & doubted at supper last night: the first month of the coming year of your era will have hardly dawned when two more of the “enemies” will have passed away.

Ever be vigilant, zealous and judicious; for remember that the usefulness of the Theosophical Society largely depends upon your exertions, and that our blessings follow its suffering ‘Founders’ and all who help on their work.

K.H. »

Observations

In this letter, “D. Nath” stands for Dharbagiri Nath, known also as “Bawaji,” whose actual name was S. Krishnamachâri or Krishnamaswami. Bawaji went with Blavatsky to Europe in 1884 and 1885, but turned later against her.

His name of Dharbagiri Nath gave rise to a lot of unnecessary confusion. It was originally the name of a very high Chela of Master K.H. Bawaji stood in some special occult relationship to this high Chela, being allowed to take his name as a “mystery name” when Bawaji became a probationary chela.

It is probable that the high Chela of that name took possession of Bawaji’s body upon occasion until the latter failed. (Cf. The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett, p.173-174.)

The term “Upâsika” has reference to Blavatsky herself.

“Djwal-K.” stands for Djwal-Khool, the favorite disciple of Master Kuthumi, who since those days has himself reached the state of Mahatmaship.

The “objective proof” spoken of in the latter was the Morya’s turban, now in the Archives at Adyar, which Master Morya left with Colonel Olcott as a proof that his visit to him in New York was a reality (Cf. Old Diary Leaves, I, p.379-80).

A photograph of the left part of this turban has been published in The Theosophist, Vol. LIII, August, 1932, p.496.

Note the Master Morya monogram on the upper right-hand corner.

Detail of the Master Morya monogram.

WILLIAM TOURNAY BROWN’s TESTIMONY

About what happened to Mr. Brown, Colonel Olcott wrote the following:

« What happened in young Brown's end of the tent he related orally to a great many still living witnesses, and published in his pamphlet, “Some Experiences in India,” my copy of which I cannot lay my hand upon at this moment. But in his other pamphlet, “The Theosophical Society an Explanatory Treatise,” published at Madras, he says:

-       "It will be sufficient here to remark that Master Kuthumi is a living Adept, and that the writer had the honor of seeing him personally at Lahore and of being spoken to by him and even touched. Letters have been received by the writer at Madras, Lahore, Jammu (Kashmir), and again at Madras, all being in the same handwriting." (p.11)

The foundation having been thus laid, and Mr. Brown's other pamphlet available after a little search, I may say that on hearing an exclamation from his side of the screen, I went in there and he showed me a silk-wrapped letter of like appearance to mine though of different contents, which he said had been given him much as mine had been to me, and which we read together. »

(Old Diary Leaves III, chapter 3)

This meeting that Mr. Brown had with Master Kuthumi was also narrated by Mr. Brown in an autobiographical pamphlet entitled “My Life” (printed by D. Lauber, Freiburg, Baden, Germany) which appeared in the Fall of 1885.

He states on the title page that “the following pamphlet has been prepared for the writer’s acquaintances, especially in Scotland.” This pamphlet is extremely rare nowadays; we know of no other copy of it than the one on file at the Adyar Library.

And below, I put what Mr. Brown said about the meeting he had with Master Kuthumi at Lahore:

« On the 19th of Nov. 1883, for instance, at Lahore I see a man who impresses me as being Kuthumi and on the morning of the 20th I am awakened by the presence of someone in my tent. A voice speaks to me and I find a letter and silk handkerchief within my hand.

I am conscious that the letter and silk handkerchief are not placed in my hand in the customary manner. They grow “out of nothing.” I feel a stream of magnetism and lo! It is materialized.

I rise to read my letter and examine the handkerchief. My visitor is gone. The handkerchief is a white one of the finest silk, with the initials K. H. marked in blue. The letter is also in blue in a bold hand. The matter of it is as follows: »

MASTER KUHUMI’s LETTER TO MR. BROWN

« What Damodar told you at Poona is true. We approach nearer and nearer to a person as he goes on preparing himself for the same.

You first saw us in visions, then in astral forms, though very often not recognized, then in body at a short distance from you.

Now you see me in my own physical body’ (that is to say I would have seen him if I had turned my head) ‘so close to you as to enable you to give to your countrymen the assurance that you are from personal knowledge as sure of our existence as you are of your own.

Whatever may happen, remember that you will be watched and rewarded in proportion to your zeal and work for the cause of Humanity which the Founders of the Theosophical Society have imposed upon themselves. The handkerchief is left as a token of this visit. Damodar is competent enough to tell you about the Rawal Pindi Member.

K. H. »

(Collected Writings VI, p.29-30)

COLONEL OLCOTT’s TESTIMONY OF THE SECOND NIGHT

Prior to his second visit, on the evening of November 20th, 1883, Master Kuthumi sent the following note:

-       "Watch for the signal: prepare to follow the messenger who will come for you. – K.H."

This second brief communication, facsimile of which is appended herewith, is also in the Adyar Archives, and has an explanatory note of Colonel Olcott’s attached to it, which reads:

-       "Note to H.S.O. from Master K.H. to prepare him for a visit in the physical body in his tent at Lahore."

(Observation: The text of the Kuthumi’s letter and note to Colonel Olcott can be also found in the book “Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom,” First Series, Transcribed and Compiled by C. Jinarâjadâsa, Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras, India; 4th ed., 1948, p.44-46. And the facsimiles are from The Theosophist, August 1932, p.567-570, 573.)

And in his “Old Diary Leaves,” Colonel Olcott related what happened that night:

« The next evening, after the visits to Mr. Brown and myself, we two and Damodar sat in my tent, at 10, o'clock, waiting for an expected visit from Master Kuthumi.

The camp was quiet, the rest of our party dispersed through the city of Lahore. We sat on chairs at the back of the tent so as not to be observed from the camp: the moon was in its last quarter and had not risen.

After some waiting we heard and saw a tall Hindu approaching from the side of the: open plain. He came to within a few yards of us and beckoned Damodar to come to him, which he did. He told him that the Master would appear within a few minutes, and that he had some business with Damodar. It was a pupil of Master Kuthumi.

Presently we saw the latter coming from the same direction, pass his pupil—who had withdrawn to a little distance—and stop in front of our group, now standing and saluting in the Indian fashion, some yards away. Brown and I kept our places, and Damodar went and conversed for a few minutes with the Teacher, after which he returned to us and the king-like visitor walked away.

I heard his footsteps on the ground, so it was no wraith, but the man in his external body. Observe that it could not have been Damodar masquerading, for he himself formed one of our group of three. Then there are the distinguished personal peculiarities of the two, as unlike as possible, to account for, and the chela, whom I had had to do with for years.

Still further proof was given me before retiring, when I was writing my Diary: the pupil lifted the portiere, beckoned to me, and pointed to the figure of his Master, waiting for me out on the plain in the starlight. I went to him, he walked off to a safe place at some distance where intruders need not be expected, and then for about a half-hour told me what I had to know, and what does not concern third parties, since that chapter of Theosophical Society history was long since closed.

Needless to say I slept very little on either of those two nights. The august visitor told me, however, that he had not come to me of his own motion entirely, although glad to come to me in person; but had been sent by the Authority higher than himself, who was satisfied with my fidelity and wished me to never lose confidence. »

(Old Diary Leaves III, chapter 4)

MR. BROWN´s TESTIMONY OF THESE TWO MEETINGS

All these events that happened at Lahore, Mr. Brown summarized them in his pamphlet “Some Experiences in India,” where he wrote:

« After a railway journey [from Madras] of six and twenty hours, I joined Colonel Olcott at the town of Sholapur.

We arrived at Jubbulpore [and] on the evening of the lecture, Colonel Olcott, Damodar, several fellows of the Society, and I drove together to the place of the public meeting. There the Colonel delivered an impressive address to a large audience.

During the lecture some three or four majestic figures had attracted my particular attention. They did not seem to hang upon the lips of the speaker, as did the rest of the audience, but remained calmly dignified, occasionally only exchanging pleasant glances.

I was not surprised to learn afterwards that some Mahatmas had been present at the meeting in astral form.

And now let us proceed to Allahabad. At this ancient city a most stirring lecture was delivered. Here I saw and recognized the Master Kuthumi. Although I was enabled to look at him but for a minute, I knew that it was he and recognized him by his portrait, which I had scrutinized some weeks before.

On our return to the bungalow at which we were being entertained, my impression was corroborated by Damodar, who volunteered the remark that his master had been there. Damodar, I may remark, had not been at the lecture.

The place to which our narrative really next pertains is the city of Lahore. Here, as elsewhere, Colonel Olcott delivered stirring addresses to large audiences; but Lahore has a special interest, because there we saw, in his own physical body, Master Kuthumi himself.

On the afternoon of the 19th November, I saw the Master in broad daylight, and recognized him, and on the morning of the 20th he came to my tent, and said, "Now you see me before you in the flesh; look and assure yourself that it is I," and left a letter of instructions and silk handkerchief.

On the evening of the 21st, after the lecture was over, Colonel Olcott, Damodar, and I were sitting outside the shamiana (pavilion or pandal [temporary, open-sided shelter roofed with bamboo matting], when we were visited by Djwal Khool, the Master's head disciple, who informed us that the Master was about to come.

The Master then came near to us, gave instructions to Damodar, and walked away. »

(Some Experiences in India, London Lodge of the Theosophical Society, 1884, extracts)

BLAVATSKY’s EDITORIAL NOTE

And as expected, Colonel Olcott and Mr. Brown mentioned to the other people of that meeting they had with Master Kuthumi and also telegraphed to the Headquarters to inform them about what had happened to them.

And that is why Blavatsky in the next issue of The Theosophist magazine added a note in which she said:

« Editor’s Note. — Secondary evidence is no longer necessary. On November the 20th at 10 a.m. two telegrams were received by us, dated Lahore, one from Colonel Olcott, who notified us that he had been visited in person by Mahatma “K.H.” on the preceding night; and the other — from Mr. W.T. Brown, F.T.S. of the London Lodge, Theosophical Society, in these words:

-       "Visited early this morning by Mahatma Kuthumi who left me a silk handkerchief as a memorial."

And today 22nd having telegraphed to both those gentlemen for permission to announce the long expected event in The Theosophist, we received an answer that not only could “Master’s visit be mentioned,” but that our President, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Damodar “had another call last night near their tent, the Master being accompanied in flesh and body by brother Djwal Khool.”

Unless Mr. W.T. Brown, to complete the trio, be classed by our Spiritualistic friends also among the “Occidental Humorists,” the question as to real existence of the Mahatma, is pretty well settled now.

One witness may be mistaken as to facts, and even a doubt may be cast upon the evidence of two witnesses. But when it comes to the testimony of three or more witnesses speaking to a fact that occurred in their presence doubt would become absurd even in a Court of Justice.

We have not yet received the particulars, but since we have been notified that Mahatma Kuthumi on his way to Siam would most likely pass via Madras in a week or so, we have every reason to suppose that our President and Mr. Brown saw the real, living body, not merely as before — the astral form of the Master. »

(The Theosophist, December, 1883, p.85-86)

BLAVATSKY’s LETTER TO MR. SINNETT

And also this whole thing, Blavatsky told to her friend the journalist Alfred Sinnett in a letter she wrote him shortly after, and below I transcribe the part that concerns this topic:

« Adyar, November 21, 1883.

Brown wrote to me a crazy letter from Jubolpore and Allahabad about having seen K. H. and recognized him too — at a lecture! Most extraordinary phenomena took place among the travelers — Olcott, Brown, Damodar and two Madrassee secretaries.

Damodar has so developed that he can get out of his body at will. They sent him on the 10th to me, giving him a message and asking him to tell me to telegraph to them the message back as a sure sign he was indeed in his astral body.

At the same hour Coulomb heard his voice in my room and I saw and heard him, and telegraphed what he had asked me immediately. You will find it in the Supplement [of The Theosophical magazine].

Then Brown puts letters and questions under Damodar's pillow and receives answers a few minutes later, in Kuthumi's handwriting and his usual paper and from my Boss too [Morya].

Now they will say that it is Damodar the third humorist an "Oriental" one this once. Olcott saw K. H. at last and so will Brown at Lahore.

D.K. says. Now ask Brown to write down what he sees for if you have not seen Kuthumi there then you will have one English witness at least that he is no myth — the lining of two Occidental Humorists. »

(The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett, Letter N°29)

_ _ _

And after leaving Lahore, the Theosophical delegation went to the city of Jammu where they were again visited by Master Kuthumi, and the stories they gave in this regard, you can read them in this other article (link).