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REMINISCENCES OF BLAVATSKY BY CHARLES LEADBEATER


This text is part of a presentation that was delivered at Adyar, on August 12, 1931, for the celebration of the centenary of Blavatsky's birth, and in purple I added my comments.
 
 
I suppose that the way in which one regards the teacher through whom the light came to him, the person who led him to the feet of the Master, is something different from the way in which he thinks of anyone else. It is an unique relationship. Probably we all feel something of that when we think or speak of our great Founder, Madame Blavatsky. In my own case, the first news of Theosophy came to me [in this incarnation) through Mr. Sinnett’s book, The Occult World; but of course we all knew that it was through Madame Blavatsky that the information was given, that the channel was opened.
 
There are not many of us left now who knew her personally — rather a strange fact, for after all it is only forty years ago that she laid aside her physical body. And yet, out here in her own Headquarters at this moment, I suppose there are not more than five or six who remember her clearly. Those who did know her will speak.
 
What are we to say about her?
 
 
She was a wonderfully many-sided person. It certainly is true of her, as was said poetically of Cleopatra: “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.” But we all join, not only in feelings of gratitude and deep devotion, but also —those of us who knew her— in a very strong, a peculiarly strong, personal affection. She was indeed a most wonderful person in many different ways.
 
(Here Leadbeater is being very hypocritical because in front of the Theosophists he pretended to admire and love Blavatsky a lot, but in private he assured that Blavatsky was insane, see link.)
 
 
As you heard from Mr. Keightley’s paper, her methods with her pupils were strange. The education she gave us was distinctly strenuous; but in spite of that, we loved her very deeply. It was almost curious; for I must admit that some things she used to say to us would have come harshly, hardly, from anyone else. If any other lady had addressed us in the way she did, we should have raised our hats politely, walked away — and not returned. But at the back of our minds was the certainty that she had the knowledge which we intended to have and was the only person from whom we could gain it. Therefore we endured all these outbursts, supposing that they were really intended to help us somehow. And they w ere! The method was strenuous, but most effective.
 
I can personally testify that she changed me absolutely in about six weeks. To upset all a man’s previous attitude in life and make him permanently look at everything quite differently is something of a feat to perform. We are rather conventional people over in England, and the most conventional of all are probably the clergy; and I was then a young curate — a priest of the Church of England. We all have our peculiarities; some no doubt good enough, others less agreeable perhaps.
 
We are a little bit given sometimes to think too much of ourselves; and —at any rate, I can speak for the young generation of my period— the one thing we most detested was to be made to look foolish in public. Well, she played upon that weakness unsparingly, until she brought us into a condition where we absolutely did not care in the least that we were made to look ridiculous. I do not mean that we learnt to conceal our feelings — that we pretended not to care, while suffering horribly internally; naturally, that was a stage through which we passed; but we quickly rose above that and reached a position in which we really did not care. And for myself, I have never cared since; the cure was permanent. It takes a great deal of force to bring a man entirely round in that way.
 
Above all things, she made us see that these things were a Maya [illusion]; it mattered very little what happened to us on the physical plane. It was past karma, and it was useless to worry about it at all. That is the true point of view, but it takes the average man some time to reach it. He accepts it intellectually, but to make him actually not care in the least is difficult; but that was one thing that she did for us, and I have always been thankful for it, though I cannot pretend that I enjoyed the process at the time.
 
You want reminiscences of her?
 
 
A little while ago I wrote a booklet called Hove Theosophy Came to Me. In that I devoted a chapter to Madame Blavatsky; more than I can tell you now is told there. Also, as that book was the history of my connection with Theosophy in those early days, Madame Blavatsky permeates the whole volume. You will find many anecdotes illustrating her methods and character in that little book. A strong character, very unusual, but a wonderful, magnificent character: in many ways unapproachable, I think.
 
The tremendous power she radiated was of course the power of the Masters, or of her Master especially. Remember, she was one of these First-Ray people, and power is their speciality. They pour it out always — strength, courage, determination. She was liable sometimes to be quite upset by an attack upon her Society, but nevertheless she never despaired about it. She always wanted to repudiate any accusation made, to answer immediately and fully. Often we thought it was useless; but reams of paper were covered with her diatribes. Sometimes they were not all published, because many of these attacks were utterly insignificant, and best met with silent contempt.
 
But that was not Madame Blavatsky’s idea. Not that she wanted to hit back, to injure the person, but she wanted to put things right. She had a great sense of justice. She felt that justice was not done to the Theosophical teaching, which was perfectly true. She came before the world with the most wonderful philosophy that exists, and many people just ridiculed it and put it aside, for it was a very materialistic age. It was she who set in motion the forces which rescued us from that, which really changed the mental attitude of Europe and America on these subjects.
 
The work of this Society, her Society, has never received credit from most people for half of the result which it has achieved. It was helped, we know, by the Society that once bitterly attacked it, the Society for Psychical Research; it was helped also by the few really scientific investigators into spiritualistic phenomena; but it was she first, and she only, who gave to the Western world a definite system which solved its problems and explained its difficulties.
 
The attitude of that world has been entirely changed during my own lifetime, and that is due to Madame Blavatsky, who unveiled for us the Ancient Wisdom of the ages, the Secret Doctrine. Sometimes she was, naturally, a little impatient with our stupidity, because the whole thing was so new to us; but wonderful indeed were the results achieved.
 
 
Not many days ago I met her in her new manifestation, and spoke to her about this Centenary. I am afraid she does not appreciate it quite as we do. She appreciates the affection and good intention of it, but she is just a little contemptuous about “all this fuss,” as she calls it.
 
-      “I told you to celebrate the day I left the physical body,” she remarked.
 
-      “Well,” I said, “you must let us be a little human, and celebrate also your arrival on the physical plane.”
 
I then ventured to ask him whether he would attend.
 
-      “No, not as yet.”
 
(Here Leadbeater continues with the falsehood he invented that he was in contact with Blavatsky —which according to him— just after her death in 1891, she transferred her consciousness to the body of an Indian boy.)
 
 
He must go his own way in that. Assuredly she earned the right to a life of repose this time, for that last life was very terrible; there was very great suffering, because she was more sensitive than almost any other person, and yet had to live in the world and bear the brunt of many most brutal and malicious attacks.
 
Things utterly impossible to her character were said of her. Men accused her of being a Russian spy, for instance. Nobody in the world was less fitted to act as a spy. She was excessively outspoken; she could not keep back anything for ten minutes, and she never hesitated to express her feelings with the utmost frankness. And as to her views, I have heard her tell an Indian audience that if Russia were to take the place of England in India, things would be much worse even than they are now.
 
-      “I am a Russian,” she said, “and I know whereof I speak; therefore I warn you; you would be going out of the frying-pan into the fire.”
 
 
You cannot realize, you who were born in India, what Theosophy meant to us in Europe — what was to us the value of the knowledge she gave us. It seemed that the whole of life was explained to us, as though a great light had blazed out in the darkness, and our enthusiasm was equally great. She spent her life and strength in giving that knowledge; so it is indeed well that Theosophists all over the world should be meeting to celebrate this centenary, and exchange these kindly greetings and good wishes.
 
You all heard the article by Mr. Bertram Keightley; I should like to bear witness that it really does give exactly the atmosphere that was surrounding us in those days, though naturally he saw much more of it than I did, as he resided in the same house as our great Founder. He tells you of the first time he saw Madame Blavatsky; it was on that very same occasion that I also had the honour of meeting her for the first time. I happened to be sitting near the door, because I came in late; and she burst upon us just in the way which he describes. When his article comes out in print, I hope you will all read it, and try to understand the curious position over there in Europe in the beginning of things — on the one hand the little difficulties with which we had to struggle, and on the other the tremendous help and power that lay behind Madame Blavatsky all the time.
 
Even if she did sometimes abuse us, we loved her and shall continue to do so through the ages, because that deep affection lies between the egos and not the personalities. I wish I could convey to you an idea of all she was to us, but one cannot put these things into words. W e did everything we could to follow her, and we shall continue to follow her, whatever other people may say. We are quite indifferent to all the scandalous and malevolent attacks on her; we knew her; we still know her.
 
(Here Leadbeater is still very hypocritical because he pretended to have been a Blavatsky’s disciple and knew her very well, when in reality he was never her student and only knew her very little; and below he returns with the lie that Blavatsky had already reincarnated.)
 
 
It is not true to say that she takes no interest in the affairs of her Society, although she does repudiate any responsibility for what happened in that life. Indeed, on one occasion, fourteen years ago, she actually condescended to send a message to one of our Lodges on White Lotus Day.
 
(If you read that note you will realize that it was actually produced by Leadbeater himself.)
 
We sometimes say to him (for she has a male body now):
 
-      “Tell us this or chat; there are points here in The Secret Doctrine that are rather difficult to reconcile.”
 
He replies:
 
-      “I have nothing to do with that now; that belongs to my past life, and I am not going to take it up again.”
 
Study her Secret Doctrine, brethren. It is very hard reading, but still it is the foundation and the beginning of all this great movement, and this centenary celebration over all the world is one small part of the results produced.
 
(That advice Leadbeater himself did not follow, since in the Secret Doctrine it is specified that Maitreya will only come to earth at the end of the fourth round, and not in a few years as Leadbeater claimed.)
 
 
That she was brave, forceful, one-pointed, these were prominent and permanent characteristics, and her devotion to her Master was something very wonderful. She was not what would be called a reverential person, by any means.
 
She had a great hatred of hypocrisy, and therefore much that she saw among religious people in general annoyed her. Against all their manifest inconsistencies she spoke with vigour and decision, and she was not always polite in her choice of language, and sometimes rather too indiscriminate in her denunciations. So on the whole, she could not be regarded as at all a reverentially-disposed person. But when she spoke of her Master, her very voice changed; she fell at once into an attitude of the deepest reverence.
 
I remember an occasion when she was in the midst of a violent tirade, and a very startling phenomenon occurred which she took to be of the nature of a call. In a moment her whole aspect and attitude completely changed. She started up at once:
 
     -   “What is it? I am ready.”
 
Wonderful one-pointedness! I only wish we could all have half as much of that quality as she had; it would make the work of our Society flourish in a way that we can hardly imagine now. Let us follow her as far as we can — humbly and at a distance, of course, because she was far more highly evolved than we are as yet. Let us not only remember her with gratitude, but obey the instructions which she gave us, and live the Theosophic life. In that we shall be raising a true monument to her memory, in the way she would most have desired.
 
(Theosophist, October 1931, p.41-47)
 
 
 
 
 
 
OBSERVATION
 
This is yet another example of the big cynicism of Charles Leadbeater who flattered Blavatsky in public and made up the lies that she had already reincarnated and that he was in contact with her, in order to continue manipulating the members of the Theosophical Society Adyar.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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