(This article was published in The
Sunday Call journal, on March 24th, 1901.)
« “What is Mahatma?”
That is the question Colonel
OIcott, the famous Theosophic leader, was asked, and here is his reply, in
which he relates his many experiences with these mystic beings:
"A Mahatma is a man who has evolved his spiritual nature and
supreme will, to the point that he is no longer dominated by his lower passions,
or by the constraints of the physical body. He is absolutely pure, devoid of
desire — an exalted being.
I have met many Mahatmas, perhaps fourteen in ail, in every part of the
world. Sometimes they have appeared as Hindus, in graceful native attire;
sometimes as Europeans, in conventional modern dress. I have met them on the
crowded streets of London or on the dreary deserts of India. But wherever you
meet them, whatever language they speak, there is no mistaking the type of the
masters. The divine glory shines In the face of the exalted one, his touch is a
blessing in itself, an all-powerful magnetism surrounds his presence. No one
who has ever seen a Mahatma can be in doubt when they appear.
The first Mahatma I ever met was in New York when Mme. Blavatsky and I
were working hard on the preparation of that great book, “Isis Unveiled.” We were
living in a house on Eighth Avenue constructed on the ordinary plan, and certainly
affording no facilities for supernatural jugglery. Our evening's work finished,
I had gone to my room and was quietly reading. I expected nothing unusual, but
all at once, as I read with my shoulder a little turned from the door, there
came a gleam of something white in the right hand corner of my right eye.
I turned my head, dropped my book in astonishment, and saw towering above
me in his great stature an Oriental clad in white garments and wearing a headcloth
or turban of amber-striped fabric, hand embroidered in yellow floss silk. Long
raven hair hung from under his turban to the shoulders; his black beard, parted
vertically on the chin in the Rajput fashion, was twisted up at the ends and
carried over the ears; his eyes were alive with soul fire; eyes which were at
once benignant and piercing in glance; the eyes of a mentor and a judge, but
softened by the love of a father who gazes on a son needing counsel and
guidance.
He was so grand a man, so imbued with the majesty of moral strength, so
luminously spiritual, so evidently above average humanity, that I felt abashed
in his presence, and bowed my head and bent my knee as one does before a god or
a godlike personage.
A hand was lightly laid on my head a sweet though strong voice bade me
be seated, and when I raised my eyes the presence was seated in the other chair
beyond the table.
He told me he had come at the crisis when I needed him; that my actions
had brought me to this point; that it lay with me alone whether he and should
meet often in this life as co-workers for the good of mankind; that a great
work was to be done for humanity, and I had the right to share in it if I
wished; that a mysterious tie, not now to be explained to me, had drawn my colleague
and myself together; a tie which could not be broken, however strained it might
be at times. He told me things about Madame Blavatsky I may not repeat, as well
as things about myself that do not concern third parties.
How long he was there I cannot tell; it might have been a half hour; or
an hour: it seemed but a minute, so little did I take note of the flight of
time. At last he rose. I wondering at his great height and observing the sort
of splendor in his countenance — not an external shining, but the soft gleam,
as it were of an inner light — that of the spirit.
Suddenly the thought came into my mind:
-
"What if this be
but hallucination? What if Madame
Blavatsky has cast a hypnotic glamour over me?
I wish I had some tangible object to prove to me that he has really been
here— something that I might handle after ho has gone.”
The master smiled kindly as If reading my thought and twisted the fehta from his head, benignantly saluted
me in farewell and was gone; his chair was empty. I was alone with my emotions.
Not quite alone, though, for on the table lay the embroidered headcloth: a
tangible and enduring proof that I had not been 'over-looked' or psychically
befooled, but had been face to face with one of the elder brothers of humanity,
one of the masters of our dull pupil race.
To run and beat at Madame Blavatsky’s door and tell her my experience
was the first natural impulse and she was as glad to hear my story as I was to
tell her. I returned to my room to think and the gray morning found me still
thinking and resolving. Out of those thoughts and those resolves developed all
my subsequent theosophical activities and that loyalty to the masters behind
our movement which the rudest shocks and the cruelest disillusioning have never
shaken. I have been blessed with meetings with this master and others since
then. However others less fortunate may doubt — I KNOW.
Another still more remarkable manifestation occurred to me in the
crowded streets of London, whither Madame Blavatsky and I had gone on our way
to India. We were staying at the house of Dr. Billings at Norwood Park. One day
the doctor and I and some other friends had gone into the city and were making
our way along Cannon street through a dense fog. Suddenly in the little circle
of light cast by a gas lamp we came face to face with a tall gracefully dressed
Hindu. My companions saw the strange presence also, but I alone recognized him
by the light in his face as an exalted one. The master spoke never a word, but
merely bowed politely and vanished noiselessly into the fog.
Later on, when I returned home, I learned that the same presence had
called at the house and asked, in a strange tongue for Madame Blavatsky. He
held converse with her for a long time, and she seemed, in some marvelous way,
to have greatly strengthened her psychical powers.
That evening, at dinner, Madame laughingly produced an exquisite little
Japanese teapot from under the table, as a present for Doctor Billings. She
also presented another gentleman with a beautiful silver card case, which he
found in his overcoat pocket. The coat had been hanging in the hall all the,
time, and Madame Blavatsky had never been near it.
Later on the same Mahatma instructed us to go to Madame Tussaud's
waxworks exhibition and look under the feet of a certain statue. We did so, and
found there a letter giving us important instructions as to the work of the
Theosophical Society.
When we arrived in India I saw still more of the masters. At Bombay a
Hindu stranger appeared and dictated a long letter to Madame Blavatsky,
addressed to a friend in Paris, and giving important instructions about the
management of certain society affairs. Another time, as we were driving in. the
park one evening, a majestic figure stopped our carriage. Clad in flowing
Oriental robes, he was plainly visible in the glare of the electric light.
After a few kindly words he disappeared, leaving behind him, however a splendid
gold embroidered head-covering or turban, of peculiar shape. I kept the turban,
and it is still one of my most treasured possessions.
This circumstance is important as proving that the Mahatmas are not mere
illusionary visions, conjured up by one's imagination, or, as some suggest, by
hypnotic suggestion. The clothing worn by them is at the time absolutely real;
it has been transferred bodily, along with the astral form of the Mahatma, to
the spot where the appearance takes place. The real or astral body of the
Mahatma might at the time be asleep in far away Tibet, or anywhere, else, while
his double appeared in the park at Bombay.
In this case, as the turban was not transferred back to its owner the
Mahatma, on awakening from his trance, would find himself bareheaded. Every
particle of physical matter surrounding the master had been projected through
space and returned again, with the exception of the atoms which went to make up
the turban. And doubtless this was left behind intentionally, in order that our
duller senses might have proof of its reality.
All Mahatmas have this power of transferring their double or astral body
from place to place; they can appear just where they are most needed and remain
as long as may be necessary for the work in hand.
When one of the masters has instructions to give he does not, however,
choose always to appear in the actual presence. Often they adopt impersonal
methods and merely inspire one's brain. But at crucial periods, when a vital decision
is to be arrived at, I often hear voices speaking quite plainly and telling me
the proper course to pursue. I always feel that I am under the direct guidance
and instruction of the masters.
I will show you a practical illustration of the passage of matter
through matter. Here is a gold ring which I always carry with me. It has three
small diamonds set in it in the form of an isosceles triangle, but when I got it,
it was merely a plain gold hoop. I came into its possession in a very peculiar
manner. Long before I knew Madame Blavatsky, I was at séance in New York. I
held a rose in my hand, and was told by the medium to close my fingers tightly on
it for a few moments. I did so, and when I reopened them I found this ring in
the center of the flower. Needless to say I treasured the ring and ever after wore
it as a charm on my watch chain.
Some years later, during Madame Blavatsky's first tour through India,
when she gave so many wonderful manifestations of psychic power, we were at
Simla. I told the history of the ring to a lady friend who happened to be visiting
us, and moved by feminine curiosity, she slipped the ring on her finger. She
was about to remove again, when Madame Blavatsky suddenly exclaimed:
- “No,
don't' do that. Give me your hand."
Madame Blavatsky took the lady's hand between both of hers and held it
tightly pressed for a minute or so. When she removed her grasp, the ring was
still there, but these three diamonds had been set in it.
This was only one of the high priestess marvelous feats. She was in every
way a strange woman. One of her great peculiarities was that her hair was constantly
changing in form and color. Naturally it was fluffy and light brown, clustering
around her head like a mop. But at times, under some psychic influence, it
would change to black and become perfectly straight. Or, again, it would
increase in length till it reached her shoulders.
I have not yet reached the stage of astral development which enables me
to recall my previous incarnations on this earth; but I have been informed of
many things about them. All that I am at liberty to mention, however, is that
my last incarnation took place 2000 years ago, in India. I was then a Hindu." »
(You can download the facsimile here.)
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