Entrance to the headquarter of the Theosophical Society in Bombay
Martundrow
Babaji Nagnath was one of the early Indian members of the Theosophical Society
when its headquarters were in Bombay, and about the occult phenomena occurred
there, he related the following:
«
Statement of Martandrao Babaji
Nagnath, a Brahmin.
As a member of the Parent
Theosophical Society, I have had constant occasions to visit its headquarters
at Breach Candy, Bombay. My connection with the Founders of the Society has
been close, and my opportunity good for studying Theosophy. I am therefore
inclined, for my satisfaction and for the information of students of Nature, to
record here my experiences of certain phenomena, which came under my
observation on several occasions in the presence of Brother Theosophists and
strangers. I have also had the rare privilege to see the so-called and
generally unseen Brothers [Masters] of the 1st section of the Theosophical
Society.
On one night in the year 1879, I, in
company with Brother Theosophists and some strangers, was enjoying conversation
with the Founders of the Society. At about midnight, when we were leaving the
premises and were in the open compound, Madame Blavatsky on a sudden held me
back with one of her hands on my shoulder, near a tree in the compound, and to
our great surprise, a sound of sweet music was heard coming from the tree.
In the month of September 1880, when
Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott were about to leave for Simla, we found one
evening the Naib Dewan of Cochin States, Mr. Shunkeraya, talking with them at
their headquarters in Girgaum. In the course of conversation he happened to ask
for a card bearing Madame’s name and address. Madame then gave him a visiting
card which she had with her, but the Karbhari asked for one more, upon which
Madame said “there is coming,” and so a card came down from above, fluttering
through the air like a bit of down, and fell to the ground. Neither Madame nor
any one else had stirred from their place.
In the month of April 1881, on one
dark night, while talking in company with other Theosophists with Madame
Blavatsky about 10 p.m. in the open verandah of the upper bungalow, a man, six
feet in height, clad in a white robe, with a white roomal or phetta [turban]
on the head, made his appearance on a sudden, walking towards us through the
garden adjacent to the bungalow from a point—a precipice—where there is no path
for any one to tread. Madame then rose up and told us to go inside the
bungalow. So we went in, but we heard Madame and he talking for a minute with
each other in an Eastern language unknown to us. Immediately after, we again
went out into the verandah, as we were called, but the Brother had disappeared.
On the next occasion, when we were
chatting in the above verandah as usual, another Brother, clothed in a white
dress, was suddenly seen as if standing on a branch of a tree. We saw him then
descending as though through the air, and standing on a corner edge of a thin
wall. Madame then rose up from her seat and stood looking at him for about two
minutes, and—as if it seemed—talking inaudibly with him. Immediately after, in
our presence, the figure of the man disappeared, but was afterwards seen again
walking in the air through space, then right through the tree, and again
disappearing.
Similarly, in a strong moonlight on another night, I, in company with
three Brother
Theosophists, was conversing with Madame Blavatsky. Madame Coulomb was also present.
About eight or ten yards distant from the open verandah in which we were
sitting, we saw a Brother known to us as Koot Hoomi Lal Sing. He was wearing a
white loose gown or robe, with long wavy hair and a beard; and was gradually
forming, as it were, in front of a shrub or number of shrubs some twenty or
thirty yards away from us, until he stood to a full height.
Madame Coulomb was asked in our presence to Madame Blavatsky:
-
“Is this good Brother
a devil?” as she used to think and say so when seeing the Brothers, and was
afraid.
Madame Blavatsky then answered:
-
“No; this one is a
man.”
He then showed his full figure
for about two or three minutes, then gradually disappeared, melting away into
the shrub.
On the same night again, at about 11 p.m., we, about seven or eight in
number, were hearing a letter read to us, addressed to the London Spiritualist about our having seen Brothers, which one of our
number had drafted, and which we were ready to sign. At this instant Mr. and
Mrs. Coulomb called out and said:
-
“Here is again the
Brother.”
This Brother (Koot Hoomi Lal Sing) was sometimes standing and walking
in the garden here and there, at other times floating in the air. He soon passed
into and was heard in Madame Blavatsky’s room talking wit her. On this account
after we had signed the letter to the London Spiritualist we added a postscript
that we had just seen him again while signed the letter. Koot Hoomi was in his Mayavi-rupa* on that evening.
(A Sanskrit word for what is called by Western people the “double,” “Doppelganger,”
“corps fluidique,” or “perisprit”, etc. It means a form will-created, or
desire-created. — H.S.O.)
On another night a Brother came in his own physical body, walking
through the lower garden (attached to Colonel Olcott’s bungalow) and stood
quite. Madame Blavatsky then went down the wooden staircase leading into the
garden. He shook hands with her and gave her a packet. After a short time the
Brother disappeared on the stop, and
Madame Blavatsky coming up the stairs opened the packet and found in it a
letter from Allahabad. We saw the envelope was quite blank, i.e., unaddressed, but it bore a
triangular stamp of Allahabad Post Office of December the 3rd, 1881,
and also a circular postal stamp of the Bombay Post Office of the same date, viz., 3rd December. But the two cities are 860 miles
apart!
I have seen letters, or rather envelopes containing letters, coming or
falling from the air in different places, without anybody’s contact, in
presence of both: Theosophists and strangers. Their contents related to
subjects that had been the topics of our conversation at the moment.
Now I aver in good faith I saw the Brothers of the 1st section
and phenomena in such places and times, and under such circumstances, that
there could be no possibility of anybody’s playing a trick.
MARTANDRAO BABAJI NAGNATH
Bombay
14th February 1882. »
(Source:
this testimony was published in Alan Hume’s book: “Hints on Esoteric Theosophy,
No.1: Is Theosophy a Delusion? Do the Brothers Exist?” edited by Calcutta
Central Press, 1882, p.103-106)
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