The famous and highly revered
Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) has been described as “the leading Buddhist missionary of
our time” and “a towering figure in the work for the spiritual resurgence of
Asia.”
Dharmapala himself attributed all this to Madame Blavatsky, who he said
encouraged him to begin his work for Buddhism.
Amongst many references to her in his articles and letters, he wrote:
« HPB helped me much in my effort. … Until the day of
her departure from Adyar, HPB took care of me. She wrote to me to follow the
light that is within me. I have strictly followed her advice, and am glad to
testify to her wonderful powers of mystic illumination.
. . .
Love to all living beings, small and great, the desire to renounce
sensual pleasures that impede the progress in the realm of spirituality and the
strenuous effort to do meritorious deeds for the betterment of humanity,
forgetting self, have been to me a kind of spiritual pabulum which I have
partaken since I came in touch with the wonderful personality of H.P. Blavatsky. »
Dharmapala having known and studied the true Masters teachings which Blavatsky
gave out to the world, he was understandably far less appreciative about Annie
Besant and Charles Leadbeater, who ruled the Adyar Theosophical Society from
the early 1900s to the mid 1930s, and who blackened the name, public image, and
reputation of Theosophy to an almost unimaginable extent, whilst completely
rewriting its teachings by replacing them with Leadbeater’s self-proclaimed
“clairvoyant discoveries.”
Dharmapala became aware
of Leadbeater's dark activities early on, as he being a native of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), was
personally familiar with Leadbeater’s short-lived work there in the mid 1880s,
which was ostensibly for the furtherance of Buddhism and begun at the
instigation of Col. Olcott. In a letter to “The Buddhist Chronicle” published
in September 1922, he wrote:
« The Buddhist English School, founded by C.W.
Leadbeater, has a history. Mr Leadbeater showed his fondness to a number of
boys, and he started the school to teach them. The school became the centre of
scandal, and Mr Leadbeater had to be sent away for a time to Adyar and the
school was left in the hands of Sinhalese teachers.
On his return from Adyar, it was found that he had not undergone any
change, and he began holding seances with the few boys until midnight in a darkened
room. I was one of the sitters. Mr Leadbeater made us lay our hands on the
tea-table, and we observed that it began to move. Then he talked to the spirit
and established a code of raps to get the answers. The first thing he did was
to get the record of our past lives. Each one got a name and one boy was told
that he was the wife of Leadbeater in a past birth.
We continued on for some weeks and gave it up because of the scandal. »
Later Dharmapala
perceived how Leadbeater and Annie Besant were increasingly deforming the Adyar
Theosophical Society.
In 1922, writing to Alice Leighton Cleather (who had been one of the 12
specially chosen members of H.P. Blavatsky’s esoteric Inner Group in London at
the end of her life), he remarked:
“Charles Leadbeater and Annie Besant are spiritualistic acrobats. They
know the diplomacy of necromancy; but they succeed. In 1907, I attacked them
furiously; but as I say they are diplomats and they know what way to go to get
hold of the people who desire for occult studies. … Col. Olcott loved power more
than truth. He feared Annie Besant.
. . .
Theosophy of Leadbeater and Besant is a travesty of the doctrine taught
by H.P. Blavatsky. In 1900 I wrote in my diary that the 3rd Vol. of the Secret Doctrine
was a fabrication of Annie Besant. She is clever and managed to do what she
willed. … Every attempt should be made to warn true Theosophists of Annie
Besant’s and Charles Leadbeater’s writings. The latter is a necromancer and a
diabolical liar. »
A 1925 letter from Dharmapala to the English Buddhist and Theosophist
Christmas Humphreys shows the former’s increasing concern and despair over what
was happening in the Theosophical Society:
« Mrs Besant. I am afraid will eventually destroy the
work of H.P. Blavatsky and the Masters. The Theosophical Society will become
under her management a Christian sect, and bishops, deacons etc. will rule the Theosophical
Society Brotherhood will disappear. Ambition, pride, the desire to rule will
control the minds of those members and they will degenerate. »
And as any unbiased history of the Theosophical Movement
clearly shows, that is exactly what ended up happening.
(Source:
blavatskytheosophy.com/dharmapala-on-besant-and-leadbeater)
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