(This is the second part of Chapter 10 of Alfred Sinnett book "Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky", with subheadings for ease of reading.)
Summary of this event
A magazine at Madras —an organ of the Christian missionaries at that place— the Christiait College Magazine by name, published a series of letters purporting to have been written by Mme. Blavatsky to a certain Mme. Coulomb, who had lived with her in India for some years, first at Bombay and then at Madras.
Mme. Coulomb and her husband formerly kept a hotel at Cairo, where Mme. Blavatsky had made their acquaintance, to her sorrow, in the days of her abortive Sociele Spirite. Years afterwards, the Coulombs turned up in India in great straits, and were hospitably sheltered by Mme. Blavatsky at Bombay.
They eventually settled down as members of her household, Mme. Coulomb looking after the house-keeping in return for her board and lodging, and her husband being supposed for a long time to be looking out for work. The arrangement was altogether of a very informal kind, but it continued longer than many such arrangements established to begin with on a more permanent basis. In progress of time, however, the kindly feelings on both sides, out of which it may be supposed the arrangement took its rise, gave place, on Mme. Coulomb's part at all events, to sentiments of a very different sort.
The whole matter but for its after consequences would be too ignominious to discuss, but without even now going into details, which could only be treated, if at all, at a length altogether disproportionate to their importance, it may be explained that Mme. Coulomb supplied the editor of the magazine with a series of letters apparently from Mme. Blavatsky to herself, some of which, if genuine, would have shown her to have employed Mme. Coulomb and her husband as confederates in a long succession of fraudulent phenomena.
Blavatsky's Response
When the magazine containing the letters was received in Europe, Mme. Blavatsky wrote the following letter on the subject to the Times. It
appeared on October the 9th [1884]:
« Sir,
With reference to the alleged exposure at Madras of a dishonourable conspiracy between myself and two persons of the name of Coulombs to deceive the public with occult phenomena, I have to say that the letters purporting to have been written by me are certainly not mine.
Sentences here and there I recognise, taken from old notes of mine on different matters, but they are mingled with interpolations that entirely pervert their meaning. With these exceptions the whole of the letters are a fabrication.
The fabricators must have been grossly ignorant of Indian affairs, since they make me speak of a "Maharajah of Lahore," when every Indian schoolboy knows that no such person exists.
With regard to the suggestion that I attempted to promote "the financial prosperity" of the Theosophical Society by means of occult phenomena, I say that I have never at any time received, or attempted to obtain, from any person any money either for myself or for the Society by any such means. I defy anyone to come forward and prove the contrary.
Such money as I have received has been earned by hterary work of my own, and these earnings, and what remained of my inherited property when I went to India, have been devoted to the Theosophical Society.
I am a poorer woman today than I was when, with others, I founded the Society.
Your obedient Servant,
H. P. Blavatsky.
77 Elgin Crescent, Notting Hill, W.,
October 7. »
Mr. Fox's Response
The same paper also contained on the same date a letter from Mr St George Lane Fox:
« Sir,
In the Times of September 20 and September 29 you publish telegrams from your Calcutta correspondent referring to the Theosophical Society. As I have just returned from India, and am a member of the board of control appointed to manage the affairs of the Society during the absence from India of Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky, I hope you will allow me through your columns to add a few words to the news you publish.
First, then, these Coulombs, who, in conjunction with certain missionaries, are now trying to throw discredit on the Theosophical Society, were employed at the Society's headquarters at Adyar as housekeepers, and the board of control, finding that they were thoroughly unprincipled, always trying to extort money from members of the Society, discharged them.
They had meanwhile been constructing all sorts of trap-doors and sliding panels in the private rooms of Madame Blavatsky, who had very indiscreetly given over these rooms to their charge.
As to the letters purporting to have been written by Madame Blavatsky, which have recently been published in an Indian "Christian" paper, I, in common with all who are acquainted with the circumstances of the case, have no doubt whatever that, whoever wrote them, they are not written by Madame Blavatsky. I myself attach very little importance to this new scandal, as I do not beheve that the true Theosophic cause suffers in the slightest degree.
The Theosophical movement is now well launched, and must go ahead, in spite of obstacles. Already hundreds, if not thousands, have been led through it to perceive that, for scientific and not merely sentimental reasons, purity of life is advisable, and that honesty of purpose and unselfish activity are necessary for true human progress and the attainment of real happiness.
Your obedient Servant.
St. G. Lane Fox, F.T.S.
London, October 5. »
Reaction of the SPR
A good deal of anxiety was nevertheless felt among some persons who had been greatly interested in the reports of Mme. Blavatsky's occult achievements in India, as to how far the letters might be genuine, and, finally, the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) decided to send out to Madras one of their own members willing to undertake the investigation on the spot of all the transactions to which the letters referred.
Mr Richard Hodgson, the gentleman in question, went out to India in November 1884, and stayed there till the following April.
On his return he gave his Society a report that was altogether unfavourable to Mme. Blavatsky, and the committee of the Society appointed to enquire into the character of the phenomena "connected with the Theosophical Society" reported in their turn to a meeting of the Society held on the 24th of June, that the letters were genuine in the opinion of experts (See Appendix), and that they sufficed to prove that Mme. Blavatsky "has been engaged in a long continued combination with other persons to produce by ordinary means a series of apparent marvels for the support of the Theosophical movement."
Reaction of many Indians
Meanwhile Mme. Blavatsky had returned to India. On the arrival at Madras of the steamer in which she came a delegation of native students of
the Madras colleges went on board to welcome her.
The meaning of the demonstration turned upon the fact that the current charges against her had originated in the letters alleged to be written by her, and published in a magazine professedly identified with one of the colleges. Conducted to a public hall where a large number of natives were assembled, the student delegates read her the following address:
« In according to you this our heartiest of welcomes on your return from the intellectual campaigns which you have so successfully waged in the West, we are conscious we are giving but a feeble expression to the "debt immense of endless gratitude" which India lies under to you.
You have dedicated your life to the disinterested services of disseminating the truths of Occult Philosophy. Upon the sacred mysteries of our hoary Religion and Philosophies you have thrown such a flood of light by sending into the world that marvellous production of yours, the "Isis Unveiled."
By your exposition has our beloved Colonel been induced to undertake that gigantic labour of love — the vivifying on the altars of Aryavarta the dying flames of religion and spirituality.
While at one quarter of the globe you had been with all your heart and soul addressing yourself to the work of propagating eternal Truth, your enemies on this side have been equally industrious. We allude to the recent scandalous events at Madras, in which an expelled domestic of yours has been made a convenient cat's paw of.
While looking upon such futilities with the indignant scorn which they certainly deserve, we beg to assure you that our affection and admiration, earned by the loftiness of your soul, the nobility of your aspirations and the sacrifices you have made, have become too deeply rooted to be shaken by the rude blasts of spite, spleen, and slander, which, however, are no uncommon occurrences in the history of Theosophy.
That the revered Masters whose hearts are overflowing with love for Humanity will continue as ever to help you and our esteemed Colonel in the discovery of Truth and the dissemination of the same, is the earnest prayer of, — Dear and Revered Madame, your affectionate Servants,
Students of the Colleges of Madras. »
The address was signed by more than three hundred students.
Mr. Hodgson's attitude
During a great part of the time spent by Mr. Hodgson at Madras, Mme. Blavatsky lay on a sick bed, dying as her friends believed, and as she her-self supposed, her restoration to comparative health in the end constituting in itself one of the not least surprising "phenomena " connected with the story of her life.
(Cid's note: several witnesses claim that it was Master Morya who miraculously saved Blavatsky.)
She wrote to me towards the close of this period:
« I am compelled to write to you once more. My own reputation and honour I have made a sacrifice of, and for the few months I have yet to live I care little what becomes of me. But I cannot leave the reputation of poor Olcott to be attacked as it is by Hume and Mr. Hodgson, who have become suddenly mad with their hypotheses of fraud more phenomenal than phenomena them-selves.
I, with a thousand other Theosophists, protest against the manner and way the investigations are carried on by Mr. Hodgson. He examines only our greatest enemies — thieves and robbers like, and being shown by him some letters received by him, as he assures Hodgson, seven years ago from America, Hodgson copies some paragraphs from them that he behaves the most damaging, and builds on that the theory of my being a Russian spy.
. . .
Vote, know how I tried to conciliate the Hindus with the Enghsh. How I did all in my power to make them realise that this government, bad as it seemed to them, was the best they could ever have.
I defy to find a respectable, trustworthy Hindu who will say that I ever breathed a disloyal word to them. And yet, because of a certain paper stolen from me by , and that the missionaries have shown to him, a paper partially or wholly written in cipher, Mr. Hodgson has publicly proclaimed me a Russian spy. »
Recurring to this a little further on, she says:
« They (meaning the missionaries) took it to the Police Commissioner, had the best experts examine it, sent it to Calcutta for five months, moved heaven and earth to find out what the cipher meant, and now — gave it up in despair. It is one of my Zenzar MSS. I am perfectly confident of it, for one of the sheets of my book, with numbered pages, is missing. »
Zenzar is a mystic language, with a peculiar character of its own, used by the initiated occultists of Tibet.
The consequences this had on Blavatsky
[Madame Blavatsky was exiled to Europe]. Mme. Blavatsky remained for a time at a hotel near Naples, when she reached Europe on her return after her illness, and thence wrote to my wife on the 21st of June [1885], in reply to a letter of sympathy.
« The sight of your familiar handwriting was a welcome one indeed, and the contents of your letter still more so. No. ... I never thought that you could have believed that I played the tricks I am now accused of, neither you nor any one of those who have Masters in their hearts, not on their brains.
Nevertheless here I am, and stand accused without any means to prove the contrary, of the most dirty villainous deceptions ever practised by a half-starved medium. What can I do, and what shall I do?
Useless to either write to persuade, or try to argue with people who are bound to believe me guilty, to change their opinions. Let it be. The fuel in my heart is burnt to the last atom. Henceforth, nothing is to found in it but cold ashes. I have so suffered that I can suffer no more. I simply laugh at every new accusation.
"Notwithstanding the experts," you say. Ah! they must be famous those experts who found all the Coulombs' letters genuine. The whole world may
bow before their decision and acuteness, but there is one person at least in this wide world whom they can never convince that those stupid letters were written by me, and it is H.P. Blavatsky.
Now look here, and I want you to know^these facts. To this day I have never been allowed to see one single line of those letters. Why could not Mr. Hodgson come and show me one of them at least ?
. . .
Pray tell me, is it the legal thing in England to accuse publicly even a street sweeper in his absence without giving him the chance of saying one single word in his defence; without letting him know even of what he is precisely accused, and who it is who accuses him, and is brought forward as chief evidence?
For I do not know the first word of all this. Hodgson came to Adyar, was received as a friend, examined and cross-examined all whom he wanted to; the boys (the Hindus) at Adyar gave him all the information he needed.
If he now finds discrepancies and contradictions in their statements, it only shows that, feeling as they all did, that it was (in their sight) pure tomfoolery to doubt the phenomena of the Masters, they had not prepared themselves for the scientific cross-examination, may have forgotten many of the circumstances.
. . .
Here I am. Where I shall go next, I know no more than the man in the moon. Why they should want to keep me still in life, is something too strange for me to comprehend; but their ways are, and always have been, incomprehensible. What good am I now for the cause?
Doubted and suspected by the whole creation except a few, would I not do
more good to the Theosophical Society by dying than by living? »
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