N.P. Subramania Iyar was a member of the Theosophical Society Adyar and
this text is part of a lecture delivered at the Blavatsky centenary birth
celebration at Adyar, 12 August, 1931.
In 1884 I was a student at the Christian College, Madras. It was Mr. W.T.
Brown who admitted me to the Theosophical Society three or four months before
the Coulomb trouble. When a series of articles against H.P.B. appeared in The Christian College Magazine, some of
us students bound ourselves together to form an association. I was at the head of
the association, and was very near being dismissed by Dr. Miller, the Principal
of the College.
The Colonel returned from Europe a few weeks earlier than H.P.B. I got up
a tremendous demonstration; an address was made. That made me a marked man. When
H.P.B. returned, with Mr. Leadbeater, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper-Oakley, we met her,
escorted her in procession to Pachcheappa’s College, there presented her with
an address, to which I secured 300 signatures from the three Colleges of
Madras. Damodar happened to mention this to H.P.B., then she sent for me. That is
how I was brought to her.
Being a student, I wore a red cap; she called me the Red Cap Devil. Later,
the term being too long, she made it simply Red Cap. The Dugpas of Tibet wore
red caps and the Gelugpas yellow caps. I was her errand boy, ran to town and
made purchases for her.
One day we all gathered here, a small family party,
because she wanted all those who worked in Headquarters to collect there in the
evenings. She used to expect Bhawani and myself to massage her legs. She would
say:
- “My child, mesmerise my leg.”
One day, in the room the Colonel had constructed for her, she asked me
to sleep on her sofa.
- “All
right”, I replied.
-
“Very well,” said
she, “but take care that you don’t turn from side to side, and that you don’t snore!”
What was I to do? I kept awake all night; at 5 o’clock in the morning I
escaped.
She once wanted a particular copy of The Madras Mail. Damodar had thrown it away, and he told me to search
for it. The Colonel went upstairs meanwhile and talked to Madame. When I found
the paper, I took it up to her. When I entered the room, he was talking
seriously. She cried:
- “Red
Cap, what .are you doing here?”
- “Madame,
you wanted this paper.”
- “Go out.” I went downstairs, and sat
brooding over it.
The Colonel said:
- “My
dear fellow, you will get used to it.”
She asked me one day to make purchases in George Town. I asked Babula to
tell Madame I had come. He returned and said
- “Subramania, you are to come
upstairs.”
But she had mistaken me for the Honourable S. Subramania Aiyyar, who was
a member of the Madras Legislative Council. She always kept a formal black gown
handy, to put on if a distinguished visitor came. She had put on that gown,
hearing that Subramania Aiyyar was coming. When she saw me, she exclaimed:
- “What!
You, you dishonourable!”
After that, I was the
dishonourable.
There were so many amusing incidents. I was too young to understand her
greatness, but her motherly kindness was such that she was not at peace in the
evening till she saw each one of us there.
(Theosophist, October 1931, p.52-54)
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