Godolphin Mitford was
born in Madras, India, on April 16, 1844, his father was a clergyman and he was
a descendant of the English Mitford family. Mr. Godolphin was a very eccentric
man with a peculiar character, he converted to Islam and adopted the oriental
way of dressing and also adopted the name of Mirza Moorad Ali Beg.
In his memoirs Colonel Olcott
related:
« Mr.
Mirza Murad Ali Beg came to us on 20th January, 1881, for the first time. He
was of European birth, a scion of the old Hampshire family of the Mitfords,
which has produced several noted writers, including Mary Russell Mitford,
authoress of Our Village and other
works.
This young man's grandfather had come out to India with some Frenchmen,
and served under Tippoo Sultan. When that cruel and sensual chieftain was
killed, Mr. Mitford took service with the East India Company. His son was born
at Madras, and among other eccentricities turned Mussulman, and, when we met
him, was in the military employ of the Maharajah of Bhavnagar as "Chief
Cavalry Officer" — practically a sinecure.
His had been a wild, adventurous life, more full of misery than the
opposite. He bad dabbled in Black Magic, among other things, and told me that
all the sufferings he had passed through within the preceding few years were
directly traceable to the malign persecutions of certain evil powers which he
had summoned to help him get into his power a virtuous lady whom he coveted.
He had sat, under the instructions of a Muslim black magician guru, in a
closed room, for forty days, with his gaze fixed upon a black spot on the wall,
in which he was told to imagine the face of his intended victim, and repeating,
some hundred thousand times, a prescribed man tram, in half Arabic, half
Sanskrit. He was to continue this until he should actually see the lady's face
as if alive; and when her lips moved as if to speak, she would have been completely
fascinated and would come to him of her own accord.
All this happened as foretold, his nefarious object was gained, the
woman ruined, and he himself fell under the power of the bad spirits whom he
had not the moral strength to dominate after having accepted their compulsory
service. Certainly he was a distressful person to be with. Nervous, excitable,
fixed on nothing, the slave of his caprices, seeing the higher possibilities of
man's nature, yet unable to reach them, he came to us as to a refuge, and
shortly after took up his residence in our house for a few weeks.
A strange-looking creature for an Englishman he was. His dress was that
of a Muslim throughout, save that he had his long light-brown hair tied up in a
Grecian knot behind his head, like a woman. His complexion was fair and his
eyes light blue. In my Diary I say that he looked, more like an actor made up
for a part than anything else. The writing of the Elixir of Life occurred some
time later, but I may as well tell the story while he is under my mind's eye.
From the time that he came to us he seemed to be engaged in a strong
mental and moral conflict within himself. He complained of being dragged hither
and thither, first by good, then by bad influences. He had a fine mind, and had
done a good deal of reading; he wanted to join our Society, but, as I had no
confidence in his moral stamina, I refused him. H.P.B., however, offering to
become responsible for him, I relented and let her take him in. He repaid her
nicely, some months later, by snatching a sword from a sepoy at Wadhwan
station, and trying to kill her, crying out that she and her Mahatmas were all
devils!
In short, he went mad. But to return. While with us he wrote some
articles which were printed in the Theosophist, and one evening after a talk
with us, sat himself down to write on the power of the will to affect
longevity. H.P.B. and I remained in the room, and when he, began his writing
she went and stood behind him, just as she had in New York when Harisse was
making his sketch of one of the Masters, under her thought-transference.
The article of Mirza Saheb attracted deserved attention on its
appearance (see Theosophist, III, 140, 168), and has ever since ranked as one
of the most suggestive and valuable pamphlets in our Theosophical literature.
He was doing well, and there was a good chance for him to retrieve much of his
lost spirituality if he would only stop with us; but after giving his promise
to do so, he obeyed an irresistible impulse and rushed back to Wadhwan and to
destruction. His mind did not recover its equilibrium; he turned Roman
Catholic, then recanted back into Islam, and finally died, and was buried at
Junagadh, where I have seen his humble tomb.
His case has always seemed to me a dreadful instance of the danger one
runs in dabbling with occult science while the animal passions are rampant. »
(Old
Diary Leaves II, p.289-291)
In an
article Damodar also mentioned Mr. Mirza, and in this regard he commented:
« The
first time that Mirza Moorad Alee came to the Headquarters of the Theosophical
Society in Bombay to stop with us a few days, the very first thing he told me
was:
-
"If you ever
want to progress on the right path, beware of sensual appetites dragging you
down, and above all take care of the Brothers of the Shadow, the Sorcerers,
with some of whom I have had personal dealings, to which fact I trace all my
present suffering, struggle, and misery."
These are not his exact words, but this is the idea he conveyed to me,
and confirmed in all his subsequent conversations. I therefore stand aghast now
at reading: — "The Theosophist leaders never 'discouraged' but rather
encouraged me in such practices (of black magic)" — as Mirza Moorad Alee
says in his letter under consideration.
I cannot believe he is wilfully misrepresenting facts, but will fain
attribute his present forgetfulness to mental aberration, caused by nervous
exhaustion brought on by his futile struggle to get over the horrors of black
magic and rise up to the spiritual glories of an Adept. When he joined us he
had already opened the door and was gone too far to be able to shut it against
the workings of the sorcerers with whom he had had "personal dealings."
I only pity his fall and hope he will not have to share the fate of all black
magicians. »
(Supplement
of Theosophist, February 1884, p.42)
And
Blavatsky said about Mr. Mirza:
« He
was a most extraordinary Mystic, of a great learning and remarkable
intelligence. But he left the Right Path and forthwith fell under Karmic
retribution. »
(SD
II, p.514, note)
No comments:
Post a Comment