(The following article was elaborated by the United
Lodge of Theosophists from England and the original text can be read here.)
Of all the lies and
misrepresentations which abound regarding H.P. Blavatsky, one of the worst is
the ridiculous insinuation that she was a racist and that after her death her
writings and theories strongly influenced Adolf Hitler and Nazism. There could
be little more slanderous, offensive, and downright wrong than such a claim.
We will now present the undeniable facts of the
matter.
The Theosophical Movement was
founded with three chief objects or aims. These continue to be the three chief objects
of the Movement today and are:
1.
To form the nucleus
of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed,
sex, caste or color.
2.
To promote the study
of Aryan and other Eastern literatures, religions and sciences.
3.
A third object –
pursued by a portion only of the members of the Society – is to investigate
unexplained laws of nature and the psychical powers of man.
(See The Key to Theosophy by H.P. Blavatsky,
Appendix)
The theme of Universal
Brotherhood is emphasized constantly throughout all the writings and teachings
of HPB. She stated on more than one occasion that “Theosophy is Universal Brotherhood.”
To quote from The Key to
Theosophy:
« Enquirer: What do you
consider as due to humanity at large?
HPB: Full recognition of equal
rights and privileges for all, and without distinction of race, color, social
position, or birth.
Enquirer: “When would you
consider such due not given?
HPB: When there is the slightest
invasion of another’s right – be that other a man or a nation; when there is
any failure to show him the same justice, kindness, consideration or mercy
which we desire for ourselves. The whole present system of politics is built on
the oblivion of such rights, and the most fierce assertion of national
selfishness. »
(p.230-231)
Does this sound in any way whatsoever like racism or an early form of
Nazism?!?
On p. 233 of the same book, HPB
wrote that “universal Unity and Causation; Human Solidarity; the Law of Karma;
Re-incarnation … are the four links of the golden chain which should bind
humanity into one family, one universal Brotherhood,” and on p. 270-271
expressed her wish that Theosophists would start schools based on the
principles of “self-reliance, love for all men, altruism, mutual charity” which
would serve to help children grow into “free
men and women, free intellectually, free morally, unprejudiced in all respects,
and above all things, unselfish.”
The false accusations of racism
and “Nazism” boil down to an ignorant – or in many cases willfully ignorant –
misunderstanding of three main things. These are:
1)
The Theosophical
teaching about “Root Races”,
2)
The use of the
swastika symbol in the Theosophical logo, and
3)
The usage and meaning
of the word “Aryan” in the writings of H.P. Blavatsky and her colleagues.
The term “Root Race” is used to
refer to specific epochs of civilization. According to the teachings of
Theosophy and HPB, four of these epochs or Root Races have already come and
gone on our globe, each succeeding the other after tens or even hundreds of
thousands of years and each Root Race and its own particular continent
eventually being largely destroyed and wiped out by natural disaster. The first
four Root Races no longer exist, because those epochs have run their course.
They were the Polarian Race, the Hyperborean Race, the Lemurian Race, and the
Atlanteans. Mankind’s evolution requires that there will be seven major epochs
and thus seven Root Races in total. It is the fifth which is currently underway
and this is mainly referred to in Theosophy as the Aryan Root Race.
It is called the Aryan because
the beginnings of its civilization were in the ancient land once known as
Aryavarta but today known as India. All the various races in the world today
descend originally from “Mother India,” according to Theosophy, with the
exception of the Orientals, Africans, and some aboriginals such as the native
Australians. They are considered to be the surviving descendants of older
races, particularly of the last Lemurian and especially Atlantean sub-races.
But this does not mean that those
races or the billions of people belonging to them are in any way inferior. HPB
taught that the real person is the soul within and that the soul reincarnates
in the bodies of various races throughout its long cyclic journey of evolution.
“Thus the reason given for dividing humanity into superior and inferior races
falls to the ground and becomes a fallacy.” (The
Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2 by H.P. Blavatsky, p. 425)
Anyone who takes the time and
effort to do even a little historical research will readily see that the word
“Aryan” was frequently used as a synonym for “Indian” in Victorian times, the
era in which HPB lived and began the Theosophical Movement. “Aryan and other
Eastern literatures, religions, and sciences” in the second object means
exactly “Indian and other Eastern literatures, religions, and sciences.”
H.P. Blavatsky loved the nation
and people of India with an undying love. In 1879 she moved the international
headquarters of the Theosophical Society to India and lived there for around
seven years, during which time she ceaselessly and fearlessly drew attention to
the atrocious prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination that was being shown daily
to the Indian people in their own homeland by the white English “conquerors.”
This was of course before India gained her independence from British rule. In
Theosophical terminology, all Europeans are also Aryans because of their being
an offshoot from the Root Race which had its beginnings in old Aryavarta. To
make the matter clearer, HPB also suggested the use of the term “Indo-European
Root Race.” Although inhabiting a European body, she made no secret of the fact
that she felt Indian in her heart.
There is not the slightest trace
or faintest allusion to anything even mildly approaching “white supremacy” in
any of her writings. Quite the opposite in fact, since she never failed to
expose the prejudices, ignorance, hypocrisy, and viciousness which were at the
time so prevalent amongst those races who nevertheless naively believed
themselves to be the most superior, cultured, and civilized people in the
world.
Considering the Indian religions
of Hinduism and Buddhism to be the two which hold the most precious of
spiritual truths, HPB wrote that one of the aims of the Theosophical Movement
was to Indian-ise the thought life of the West (see Five Messages from H.P. Blavatsky to the American
Theosophists, Fourth Message).
In Adolf Hitler’s use of the term
“Aryan” he applied to it a completely different meaning from that used in
Theosophy. Hitler’s theory was that the Aryans were a so-called “perfect race”
of blonde haired, blue eyed people and that the Jews, who he sought to
exterminate, were not Aryans. This ridiculous concept was unique to Hitler and
prior to this the usage of the terms “Aryan” and “Aryan Root Race” caused
neither concern nor fear for anyone, Theosophist or otherwise. It is only
because of his gross misuse of this term, as well as his misuse of the ancient Indian spiritual symbol of
the swastika, that some people – those who prefer jumping to conclusions rather
than doing independent and unbiased research into FACTS – have mistakenly
thought there to be some type of connection between Blavatsky and Hitler.
The fact that Theosophists in
Germany, Austria, and elsewhere were persecuted unsparingly by the Nazis during
the Second World War and protested with all their might against Nazism, just
serves as additional proof – as if any were needed – that neither HPB nor the
followers of her philosophy could ever be sympathetic with such unspeakably
evil ideologies and policies as those of the Nazis.
The translated text of an
official document by the Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler, declaring the
compulsory dissolution of all Theosophical Societies in Germany, can be found
on p. 607 of the extensive and excellently researched and referenced biography
by Sylvia Cranston.
« What Theosophical
teaching so aroused Hitler that Theosophists were among the first to be sent to
concentration camps?
The first object of the
Theosophical movement; to form a nucleus of universal brotherhood, naturally
including all human beings, was an alarming concept for a tyrant planning to
dominate by eliminating races and groups through genocide. The Secret Doctrine has
one sentence (2:266) that would inflame the Nazi mentality: “The Aryan and
their Semitic Branch are of the Fifth Race.”
. . .
Two teachers, Mary Linne and Emmi
Haerter were imprisoned in Germany because of Theosophical literature found in
their house – all of which was burned, including their own translation of The Secret Doctrine. This
was also the fate of the letters from the Masters to Dr Hubbe-Schleiden. »
(The Extraordinary Life and Influence
of Helena Blavatsky, p.607-608)
According to H.P. Blavatsky, all
the Middle Eastern peoples, including the Jews, are just as much Aryans as the
Anglo-Saxons and white Europeans. Particularly important to our topic are her
words on p. 200 of the second volume of The
Secret Doctrine where she says, “The occult doctrine admits of no
such divisions as the Aryan and the Semite … The Semites, especially the Arabs,
are later Aryans … To these belong all the Jews and the Arabs.”
We also read there that the
Jewish people “are a tribe descended from the Tchandalas of India, the
outcasts, many of them ex-Brahmins, who sought refuge in Chaldea, in Scinde,
and Aria (Iran), and were truly from their father A-bram (No Brahmin) some
8,000 years B.C.” The same idea is also expressed on p. 471 of that volume.
As for the swastika symbol which
adorns the official logo or seal of the Theosophical Movement, it is an ancient
Indian spiritual symbol with inherent good and pure meaning. Just because many
centuries after the design or invention of the English flag it came to be used
as a symbol of hate and intolerance in the rallies of such racist idiots as the
misleadingly named “English Defence League,” that is no reason for the English
flag to be denounced as an intrinsically evil or demonic sign.
The same is true for the
swastika. Prior to Hitler, it was never thought of by anyone as being a symbol
of evil or hate. Although originating in India and today predominantly the
property of Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists, it was throughout history used all
over the world, even by the early Christians, who used to accompany this
archaic symbol with the inscription “Vitalis vitalia” – “Life of life.” The
literal meaning of the Sanskrit word “svastika” is “all is well.”
For further details and
explanation regarding the swastika and the other symbols found in the
Theosophical logo, please see the articles The Swastika – A Pure Spiritual Symbol and Esoteric Symbolism.
H.P. Blavatsky wrote that the
coming sixth Root Race will owe its unique and special qualities in part to the
fact of interracial marriage and free mixing of the existing races during our
time. Theosophy is against all racism, all discrimination, all prejudice, and
all ignorance. As said at the start, its first and fundamental aim is to help
bring about the actualization of Universal Brotherhood in this world. According
to HPB, Universal Brotherhood is eternally “a fact in Nature” because all life is the ONE Life
and all life is sacred, precious, and divine.
As she once informed Charles
Johnston:
“There are really no “inferior
races,” for all are one in our common humanity; and as we have all had
incarnations in each of these races, we ought to be more brotherly to them.”
(See H.P. Blavatsky
Collected Writings, Vol. 8)
Being labeled a forerunner of
Nazism is not the only downright deceitful and thoroughly false accusation to
be arraigned against this much misrepresented and maligned woman, whose only
intent and purpose was to help humanity. Some have assumed her to be a satanist
and a devil worshipper; this is dealt with in our articles Lucifer the Lightbringer and What do we mean by Occult? Others have accused her, and still do, of plagiarism, apparently
unaware that the person who started the whole plagiarism accusation in the
first place was found to be a major plagiarist himself! Our article Was Blavatsky a Plagiarist? deals with this.
Others have said that she was a
fraud; that she made up the sources (such as the “Secret Book of Dzyan” and
“Book of the Golden Precepts”) upon which she based some of her most
influential writings, that she invented the Masters or Mahatmas who she said
were her Initiate-Teachers and the custodians of the Secret Doctrine, and that
she forged hundreds of letters to people around the world to trick them into
thinking they were in correspondence with those Masters.
Anyone who cares about fact
rather than fiction is advised to read such articles on our site as The Secret Book of Dzyan, The Masters and Madame Blavatsky, Who wrote “The Secret Doctrine”?, and also the article
“A Casebook of Encounters with the Theosophical Mahatmas” which can be read on
the “Blavatsky Archives” website by clicking here.
They may also like to read Prof.
Vernon Harrison’s 1986 and 1997 report and critique on the false accusations of
forgery and fraud which were mainly first leveled against Blavatsky in the
first place by what became known as the “Hodgson Report” published in 1885 by
the Society for Psychical Research. Harrison, a trained expert in forgery and
counterfeit himself, has shown that the Hodgson Report was by no means “the
model of impartial investigation so often claimed for it over the past century.
It is flawed and untrustworthy; and Hodgson’s observations and conclusions need
to be taken with a considerable port of salt. The case of Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky needs re-examination in this light. She deserves no less.”
Prof. Harrison’s report and
findings are so conclusive that the Society for Psychical Research was forced
to publish and acknowledge them in their own journal. Today all except the
uninformed and the bigoted cannot but agree with Harrison’s remarks that the
Hodgson Report was “riddled with slanted statements and downright falsity.”
Many people also confidently
state – and genuinely seem to believe – that “Blavatsky has no credibility and
no-one takes her seriously.” This too is simply nonsense, as can be ascertained
by reading Gandhi on Blavatsky and Theosophy and particularly Praise for H.P. Blavatsky and Theosophy. Sylvia Cranston’s
highly regarded and extensive biography of HPB, already referred to
above, also shows in depth just how influential and highly regarded are
her work and teachings, both during her lifetime and in the present day.
“It is well known that the first
rule of the society is to carry out the object of forming the nucleus of a
universal brotherhood. The practical working of this rule was explained by
those who laid it down, to the following effect:
« He who does not
practice altruism; he who is not prepared to share his last morsel with a
weaker or poorer than himself; he who neglects to help his brother man, of
whatever race, nation, or creed, whenever and wherever he meets suffering, and
who turns a deaf ear to the cry of human misery; he who hears an innocent
person slandered, whether a brother theosophist or not, and does not undertake
his defense as he would undertake his own – is no theosophist. »
(H.P. Blavatsky, “Let Every Man Prove His Own Work”)
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