LETTERS FROM BLAVATSKY TO FRANZ HARTMANN

Context: after the attack by the missionaries with the help of the Coulombs against Blavatsky, the leaders in T.S. Adyar, India (where the headquarters of the Theosophical Society is located) did not want Blavatsky to defend herself and preferred to exile her to Europe.

Dr. Franz Hartmann, who had been living at the Adyar headquarters for sixteen months, accompanied her on her journey; they arrived in Italy and then went to Germany but settled in different cities.

The following letters were written by Blavatsky to Dr. Hartmann in the years 1895 and 1896, and I will explain the issues they address.

--oOo--

Hartmann's preliminary note:

At the request of Mr. and Mrs. Johnston and others, I have permitted these private letters that HP Blavatsky sent me to be published in the magazine 'The Path' because they contain some topics of general interest.

FIRST LETTER

In Germany, Franz Hartmann met a woman with astonishing abilities, so he decided to conduct an experiment on her. Hartmann gave her a letter he had received paranormally from a Trans-Himalayan Masters in India.

Without telling the lady who it was from, he asked her to hold the letter to her forehead and tell him what she saw. She gave him a description of a Buddhist temple and the people inside.

Surprised, Hartmann wrote to Blavatsky to ask her to clarify what had happened, and she replied as follows:

_ _ _

Ostende, December 5

My dear Doctor,

You must really forgive me for my seeming neglect of you, my old friend. I give you my word of honor, I am worried to death with work. Whenever I sit to write a letter all my ideas are scattered, and I cannot go on with the Secret Doctrine that day. But your letter (the last) is so interesting that I must answer it as asked.

You will do an excellent thing to send to the Theosophist this experiment of yours. It has an enormous importance in view of Hodgson's lies and charges, and I am happy you got such an independent corroboration; astral light, at any rate, cannot lie for my benefit. (1)

I will only speak of number 4, as the correctness about the other three letters you know yourself.

1. This looks like the private temple of the Teschu Lama, near Tchigadze — made of the "Madras cement"-like material; it does shine like marble and is called the snowy "Shakang" (temple) — as far as I remember. It has no "sun or cross" on the top, but a kind of algiorna dagoba, triangular, on three pillars, with a dragon of gold and a globe. But the dragon has a swastica on it and this may have appeared a "cross."

I don't remember any "gravel walk" — nor is there one, but it stands on an elevation (artificial) and a stone path leading to it, and it has steps — how many I do not remember (I was never allowed inside); saw from the outside, and the interior was described to me.

The floors of nearly all Buddha's (Songyas) temples are made of a yellow polished stone, found in those mountains of Oural and in northern Tibet toward Russian territory. I do not know the name, but it looks like yellow marble.

The "gentleman" in white may be Master, and the "bald-headed" gentleman I take to be some old "shaven-headed" priest.

The cloak is black or very dark generally — (I brought one to Olcott from Darjeeling), but where the silver buckles and knee-breeches come from I am at a loss. (2)

They wear, as you know, long boots — up high on the calves, made of felt and embroidered often with silver — like that devil of a Babajee had. Perhaps it is a freak of astral vision mixed with a flash of memory (by association of ideas) about some picture she saw previously.

In those temples there are always movable "pictures," on which various geometrical and mathematical problems are placed for the disciples who study astrology and symbolism.

The "vase" must be one of many Chinese queer vases about in temples, for various objects. In the corners of the temples there are numerous statues of various deities (Dhyanis).

The roofs are always (almost always) supported by rows of wooden pillars dividing the roof into three parallelograms, and the mirror "Melong" of burnished steel (round like the sun) is often placed on the top of the Kiosque on the roof. I myself took it once for the sun.

Also on the cupolas of the [dagoba] there is sometimes a graduated pinnacle, and over it a disk of gold placed vertically, and a pear-shaped point and often a crescent supporting a globe and the svastica upon it.

Ask her whether it is this she saw, Om tram ah hri hum, which figures are roughly drawn sometimes on the Melong "mirrors" — (a disk of brass) against evil spirits — for the mob. Or perhaps what she saw was a row of slips (little cubes) on which such things are seen:

If so, then I will know what she saw.

"Pine woods" all round such temples, the latter built expressly where there are such woods, and wild prickly pear, and trees with Chinese fruit on that the priests use for making inks.

A lake is there, surely, and mountains plenty — if where Master is; if near Tchigadze — only little hillocks.

The statues of Meilha Gualpo, the androgyne Lord of the Salamanders or the Genii of Air, look like this "sphinx;" but her lower body is lost in clouds, not fish, and she is not beautiful, only symbolical. Fisherwomen do use soles alone, like the sandals, and they all wear fur caps.

That's all; will this do? But do write it out.

Yours ever,

H. P. B.

Observation

Psychometry is the psychic faculty that allows one to observe, simply by touching an object, the person who owns this object, or who made this object, or to see events or places related to this person.

And this woman, having psychometrically interpreted that letter, perceived the temple in Tibet from where the master wrote that letter.

SECOND LETTER

In this letter Blavatsky spoke about various topics.

_ _ _

Wurzburg, December (something), 1885

My dear Conspirator, (3)

Glad to receive from your letter such an emanation of true holiness. I too wanted to write to you; tried several times and — failed. Now I can.

The dear Countess Wachtmeister is with me, and copies for me, and does what she can in helping, and the first five minutes I have of freedom I utilize them by answering your letter.

Now, as you know, I also am occupied with my book. It took possession of me (the epidemic of writing) and crept on "with the silent influence of the itch," as Olcott elegantly expresses it — until it reached the fingers of my right hand, got possession of my brain — carried me off completely into the region of the occult. (4)

I have written in a fortnight more than 200 pages (of the Isis shape and size). I write day and night, and now feel sure that my Secret Doctrine shall be finished this — no, not this — year, but the next.

I have refused your help, I have refused Sinnett's help and that of everyone else. I did not feel like writing — now I do. I am permitted to give out for each chapter a page out of the Book of Dzyan — the oldest document in the world, of that I am sure — and to comment upon and explain its symbology. I think really it shall be worth something, and hardly here and there a few lines of dry facts from Isis. It is a completely new work.

My "satellite," [Babaji] (5) I do not need him. He is plunged to his neck in the fascinations of Elberfeld, and is flirting in the regular style with the Gebhardt family. They are dear people and are very kind to him.

The "darling Mrs. Oakley" has shown herself a brick — unless done to attract attention and as a coup d'etat in the bonnet business. But I shall not slander on mere speculation; I do think she has acted courageously and honorably; I send you the Pall Mall to read and to return if you please; take care of the paper.

Thanks for photo. Shall I send a like one to your "darling"? She is mad with me however. Had a letter from Rodha; she swears she never said to "Darling" or the he Darling either, that I had "abused them to the Hindus."

To have never existed, good friend, is assuredly better. But once we do exist we must not do as the Servian soldiers did before the invincible Bulgarians or our bad Karma, we must not desert the post of honor entrusted to us. A room may be always had at Wurzburg; but shall you find yourself contented for a long time with it?

Now the Countess is with me, and I could not offer you anything like a bed, since we two occupy the bedroom; but even if you were here, do you think you would not go fidgeting again over your fate?

Ah, do keep quiet and wait — and try to feel once in your life — and then do not come at night, as you did two nights ago, to frighten the Countess out of her wits. Now you did materialize very neatly this time, you did. (6)

Quite so.

Yours in the great fear of the year 1886 — nasty number.

H. P. B.

Observation

Blavatsky was very tense because of all the accusations of being a liar that she had received in the previous months, which made it very difficult for her to concentrate on writing her work 'The Secret Doctrine.'

In this letter she says that she was already feeling better, but unfortunately at the end of that month the Hodgson Report was published by the Society for Paranormal Research (SPR) where they accused her of being a charlatan, and Blavatsky's condition deteriorated again.

THIRD LETTER

Damodar was a young boy who had become a disciple with the approval of Master Kuthumi, and he worked so hard that the Maha Chohan, that is Serapis, the chief of Kuthumi and Morya, allowed Damodar to integrate into the Brotherhood of Masters.

And for this reason, Damodar had to go live in Tibet, but when his relatives no longer heard from him, people assumed that Damodar had died on that journey.

Hartmann met Damodar when he lived in Adyar, so, intrigued, he mentioned this matter to Blavatsky, and she replied in this letter as follows:

_ _ _

[No date]

My dear Doctor,

Two words in answer to what the Countess told me. I do myself harm, you say, "in telling everyone that Damodar is in Tibet, when he is only at Benares." You are mistaken. He left Benares toward the middle of May, (ask in Adyar; I cannot say for certain whether it was in May or April) and went off, as everybody knows, to Darjeeling, and thence to the frontier via Sikkhim.

Our Darjeeling Fellows accompanied him a good way. He wrote a last word from there to the office bidding good-bye and saying: "If I am not back by July 21st you may count me as dead."

He did not come back, and Olcott was in great grief and wrote to me about two months ago, to ask me whether I knew anything. News had come by some Tibetan pedlars in Darjeeling that a young man of that description, with very long flowing hair, had been found frozen in the (forget the name) pass, stark dead, with twelve rupees in his pockets and his things and hat a few yards off.

Olcott was in despair, but Maji told him (and he, D. [Damodar], lived with Maji for some time at Benares,) that he was not dead — she knew it through pilgrims who had returned, though Olcott supposes — which may be also — that she knew it clairvoyantly.

Well I know that he is alive, and am almost certain that he is in Tibet — as I am certain also that he will not come back — not for years, at any rate. Who told you he was at Benares?

We want him sorely now to refute all Hodgson's guesses and inferences that I simply call lies, as much as my "spy" business and forging — the blackguard: now mind, I do not give myself out as infallible in this case. But I do know what he told me before going away — and at that moment he would not have said a fib, when he wept like a Magdalen.

He said, "I go for your sake. If the Maha Chohan is satisfied with my services and my devotion, He may permit me to vindicate you by proving that Masters do exist. If I fail no one shall ever see me for years to come, but I will send messages. But I am determined in the meanwhile to make people give up searching for me. I want them to believe I am dead."

This is why I think he must have arranged some trick to spread reports of his death by freezing.

But if the poor boy had indeed met with such an accident — why I think I would commit suicide; for it is out of pure devotion for me that he went. (7)  I would never forgive myself for this, for letting him go. That's the truth and only the truth. Don't be harsh, Doctor — forgive him his faults and mistakes, willing and unwilling.

The poor boy, whether dead or alive, has no happy times now, since he is on probation and this is terrible. I wish you would write to someone at Calcutta to enquire from Darjeeling whether it is so or not. Sinnett will write to you, I think. I wish you would.

Yours ever gratefully,

H. P. B.

FOURTH LETTER

In this letter, Blavatsky corrects some details for Dr. Hartmann and also shows the enormous pain she felt because of all the attacks and betrayals she was receiving.

_ _ _

[No date]

My dear Doctor,

I read your part II — and I found it excellent, except two or three words you ought to change if you care for truth, and not to let people think you have some animus yet against Olcott. (8)

Such are at the end "Presidential orders" and too much assurance about "fictions." I never had "fictions," nor are Masters (as living men) any more a fiction than you and I. But this will do. Thus, I have nothing whatever against your theory, though you do make of me a sort of a tricking medium.

But this does not matter, since as I wrote to Dr. H.S. and will write to all — "Mme. Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society  is dead." I belong no more to the European Society, nor do I regret it.

You, as a psychologist and a man of acute perception, must know that there are situations in this life, when mental agony, despair, disgust, outraged pride and honor, and suffering, become so intense that there are but two possible results — either death from broken heart, or ice-cold indifference and callousness.

Being made to live for purposes I do not know myself — I have arrived at the latter state. The basest ingratitude from one I have loved as my own son, one whom I have shielded and protected from harm, whom I have glorified at the expense of truth and my own dignity, has thrown upon me that 'straw which breaks the camel's back.' It is broken for the Theosophical Society and for ever.

(Cid's note: He is probably referring to Babaji.)

For two or three true friends that remain I will write the Secret Doctrine, and then — depart for some quiet corner to die there.

You have come to the conviction that the "Masters" are "planetary spirits" — that's good; remain in that conviction.

I wish I could hallucinate myself to the same degree. I would feel happier, and throw off from the heart the heavy load, that I have desecrated their names and Occultism by giving out its mysteries and secrets to those unworthy of either.

If I could see you for a few hours, if I could talk to you; I may open your eyes, perhaps, to some truths you have never suspected. I could show you who it was (and give you proofs), who set Olcott against you, who ruined your reputation, and aroused the Hindu Fellows against you, who made me hate and despise you, till the voice of one who is the voice of God to me pronounced those words that made me change my opinion. (9)

I could discover and unveil to you secrets for your future safety and guidance. But I must see you personally for all this, and you have to see the Countess. Otherwise I cannot write. If you can come here, even for a few hours, to say good-bye to me and hear a strange tale, that will prove of benefit to many a Fellow in the future as to yourself, do so. If you cannot, I ask you on your honor to keep this private and confidential.

Ah, Doctor, Karma is a fearful thing; and the more one lives in his inner life, outside this world and in regions of pure spirituality and psychology, the less he knows human hearts.

I proclaim myself in the face of all — the biggest, the most miserable, the stupidest and dullest of all women on the face of the earth. I have been true to all. I have tried to do good to all. I have sacrificed myself for all and a whole nation — and I am and feel as though caught in a circle of flaming coals, surrounded on all sides like an unfortunate fly with torn-off wings — by treachery, hatred, malice, cruelty, lies; by all the iniquities of human nature, and I can see wherever I turn — but one thing — a big, stupid, trusting fool — "H.P.B." — surrounded by a thick crowd circling her (10) of traitors, fiends and tigers in human shape.

Good-bye, if I do not see you, for I will write no more. Thanks for what you have done for me. Thanks, and may you and your dear, kind sister be happy.

Yours,

H. P. B.

Observation

After the publication of the Hodgson Report, many people who had previously been kind to Blavatsky began to despise her, causing her to fall into a deep depression and wish to die.

And this is evident in many of the letters she wrote during those months, and for me this is proof of her innocence because it doesn't make sense that someone who knew she was deceiving people would be so affected when she was accused of being a con artist.

Furthermore, the psychic attacks carried out by black magicians against the Theosophists in Adyar caused much discord among the members working at the Theosophical Society's headquarters. Hartmann himself recounted having perceived one of these dark magicians manipulating him psychically.

In a report he mentioned:

« I can truly say that one night I saw a 'black magician' in my bedroom. I woke up and he was standing there in his astral body, floating in midair about 60 cm off the ground, and he was making magnetic passes over me.

They were a style of magnetic passes that I had never seen before, and instead of seeming to want to send some influence towards me, it seemed more like they were taking something out of me.

The guy was by no means repulsive, but rather seemed like a pleasant sort of person, dressed in a long, colorful robe.

And while I was studying his features, I saw three figures dressed in white in my room, one of which I recognized as the astral form of a disciple of the Master. And I heard a voice telling me to get up and take the amulet that was on my table, the one the Master had given me.

I did that and the black magician left, but on subsequent occasions I felt him again. He would appear suddenly and without provocation, and tempt me to say and do things that went against my better judgment, but I believe that except in minor and insignificant cases I was always able to overcome his temptations. »

(Extract from the report of observations made by Franz Hartmann during his nine-month stay at the headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar, Madras, India. Printed in the Scottish press by Graves, Cookson, and Co., 1884, p. 23)

Dr. Hartmann believed he was able to overcome the evil influence of this black magician, but historical records show that the sorcerer's magnetic passes did have effects, causing Hartmann to provoke more distrust towards Blavatsky, which caused her to hate him; until Mahatma Morya explained to Blavatsky what had happened and recommended that she maintain contact with the few friends she had left.

And many people will wonder why the Masters didn't protect the Theosophists and prevent all those attacks against Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society, but as the Masters themselves stated, everything must be tested (disciples, followers, organizations, etc.). And the Theosophical Society, with its members and leaders, could not be the exception.

Furthermore, according to what Blavatsky mentions, it seems that there were also karmic issues to deal with. 

FIFTH LETTER

In this letter, Blavatsky reflects on the events that have taken place and gives some explanations about esotericism.

_ _ _

[No date]

My dear Doctor,

Every word of your letter shows to me that you are on the right path, and I am mighty glad of it for you. Still, one may be on the right way, and allow his past-self to bring up too forcibly to him the echoes of the past and a little dying-out prejudice to distort them. When one arrives at knowing himself, he must know others also, which becomes easier.

You have made great progress in the former direction; yet, since you cannot help misjudging others a little by the light of old prejudices, I say you have more work to do in this direction.

All is not and never was bad in Adyar. The intentions were all good, and that's why, perhaps, they have led Olcott and others direct to fall, as they had no discrimination. The fault is not theirs, but of circumstances and individual karmas.

The first two pages of your letter only repeat that, word for word, which I taught Olcott and Judge and others in America. This is the right occultism. Arrived at Bombay, we had to drop Western and take to Eastern Rosicrucianism. It turned [out] a failure for the Europeans, as the Western turned [out] a failure for the Hindus.

This is the secret, and the very root of the failure. But, having mixed up the elements in the so-desired Brotherhood — that could not be helped. Please do not misunderstand me. Occultism is one and universal at its root. Its external modes differ only.

I certainly did not want to disturb you to come here only to hear disagreeable things, but [I] do try: (a) to make you see things in their true light, which would only benefit you; and (b) to show you things written in the Secret Doctrine which would prove to you that that which you have lately learned in old Rosicrucian works, I knew years ago, and now have embodied them.

Cross and such symbols are world-old. Every symbol must yield three fundamental truths and four implied ones, otherwise the symbol is false. You gave me only one, but so far it is a very correct one.

In Adyar you have learned many of such implied truths, because you were not ready; now you may have the rest through self-effort. But don't be ungrateful, whatever you do. Do not feel squeamish and spit on the path — however unclean in some of its corners — that led you to the Adytum at the threshold of which you now stand.

Had it not been for Adyar and its trials you never would have been where you are now, but in America married to some new wife who would either have knocked the last spark of mysticism out of your head, or confirmed you in your spiritualism, or what is worse, one of you would have murdered the other.

When you find another man who, like poor, foolish Olcott, will love and admire you as he did — sincerely and honestly — take him, I say, to your bosom and try to correct his faults by kindness, not by venomous satire and chaff.

We have all erred and we have all been punished, and now we have learned better.

I never gave myself out for a full-blown occultist, but only for a student of Occultism for the last thirty-five or forty years. Yet I am enough of an occultist to know that before we find the Master within our own hearts and seventh principle — we need an outside Master. As the Chinese Alchemist says, speaking of the necessity of a living teacher:

"Every one seeks long life (spiritual), but the secret is not easy to find. If you covet the precious things of Heaven you must reject the treasures of the earth. You must kindle the fire that springs from the water and evolve the Om contained within the Tong: One word from a wise Master and you possess a draught of the golden water."

I got my drop from my Master (the living one); you, because you went to Adyar. He is a Saviour, he who leads you to finding the Master within yourself. It is ten years already that I preach the inner Master and God and never represented our Masters as Saviours in the Christian sense. Nor has Olcott, gushing as he is. I did think for one moment that you had got into the epidemic of a "Heavenly Master and Father God," and glad I am to find my mistake.

This was only natural. You are just one of those with whom such surprises may be expected at any moment. Commit one mistake, and turn for one moment out of the right path you are now pursuing, and you will land in the arms of the Pope.

Olcott does not teach what you say, Doctor. He teaches the Hindus to rely upon themselves (11), and that there is no Saviour save their own Karma. I want you to be just and impartial; otherwise you will not progress. Well, if you do not come and have a talk — I will feel sorry, for I will never see you again. If you do, the Countess and I will welcome you.

Yours ever truly,

H. P. B.

Observation

I agree that it is difficult to listen to the teacher within us (that is, our "higher self") and that is why many require an external master who initially guides us and helps us to achieve that communication with our higher triad.

And it is also true that the true esoteric teachings are the same, regardless of the place in the world where they are taught, and only the way of expressing them changes.

SIXTH LETTER

In this letter Blavatsky delves further into what happened and expresses her explanations for the behavior of several people who were involved (especially Olcott).

_ _ _

April 3, 1886.

My dear Doctor,

I had given up all hope of ever hearing from you again, and was glad to receive today your letter. What you say in it seems to me like an echo of my own thoughts in many a way; only knowing the truth and the real state of things in the "occult world" better than you do, I am perhaps able to see better also where the real mischief was and lies.

Well, I say honestly and impartially now — you are unjust to Olcott more than to anyone else; because you had no means to ascertain hitherto in what direction the evil blew from.

Mind you, Doctor, my dear friend, I do not justify Olcott in what he did and how he acted toward yourself — nor do I justify him in anything else. What I say is: he was led on blindly by people as blind as himself to see you in quite a false light, and there was a time, for a month or two, when I myself — notwithstanding my inner voice, and to the day Master's voice told me I was mistaken in you and had to keep friends — shared his blindness. (12)

This with regard to some people at Adyar; but there is another side to the question, of which you seem quite ignorant; and that I wanted to show to you, by furnishing you with documents, had you only come when I asked you. But you did not — and the result is, this letter of yours, that will also go against you in the eyes of Karma, whether you believe in the Cross empty of any particular entity on it — or in the Kwan-Shi-Yin of the Tibetans.

To dispose of this question for once, I propose to you to come between now and May the 10th, when I leave Wurzburg to go elsewhere. So you have plenty of time to think over it, and to come and go as you like.

The Countess is with me. You know her; she is no woman of gush or impulse. During the four months we have passed together, and the three months of utter solitude, we have had time to talk things over; and I will ask you to believe her, not me, when and if you come, which I hope you will. (13)

As to the other side of the question, that portion of your letter where you speak of the "army" of the deluded — and the "imaginary" Mahatmas of Olcott — you are absolutely and sadly right. Have I not seen the thing for nearly eight years?

Have I not struggled and fought against Olcott's ardent and gushing imagination, and tried to stop him every day of my life? Was he not told by me (from a letter I received through a Yogi just returned from Lake Mansarovara) in 1881 (when he was preparing to go to Ceylon) that if he did not see the Masters in their true light, and did not cease speaking and enflaming people's imaginations, that he would be held responsible for all the evil the Society might come to? (14)

Was he not told that there were no such Mahatmas, who Rishi-like could hold the Mount Meru on the tip of their finger and fly to and fro in their bodies (!!) at their will, and who were (or were imagined by fools) more gods on earth than a God in Heaven could be, etc., etc., etc.?

All this I saw, foresaw, despaired, fought against; and, finally, gave up the struggle in utter helplessness.

If Sinnett has remained true and devoted to them to this day, it is because he never allowed his fancy to run away with his judgment and reason. Because he followed his common-sense and discerned the truth, without sacrificing it to his ardent imagination. I told him the whole truth from the first, as I had told Olcott, and Hume also.

Hume knows that Mahatma K. H. exists, and holds to it to this day. But, angry and vexed with my Master, who spoke to him as though he (Hume) had never been a Secretary for the Indian Government and the great Hume of Simla — he denied him through pure viciousness and revenge.

Ah, if by some psychological process you could be made to see the whole truth! If, in a dream or vision, you could be made to see the panorama of the last ten years, from the first year at New York to the last at Adyar, you would be made happy and strong and just to the end of your life. I was sent to America on purpose and sent to the Eddies. There I found Olcott in love with spirits, as he became in love with the Masters later on.

I was ordered to let him know that spiritual phenomena without the philosophy of Occultism were dangerous and misleading. I proved to him that all that mediums could do through spirits others could do at will without any spirits at all; that bells and thought-reading, raps and physical phenomena, could be achieved by anyone who had a faculty of acting in his physical body through the organs of his astral body; and I had that faculty ever since I was four years old, as all my family know. I could make furniture move and objects fly apparently, and my astral arms that supported them remained invisible; all this ever before I knew even of Masters.

Well, I told him the whole truth. I said to him that I had known Adepts, the "Brothers," not only in India and beyond Ladakh, but in Egypt and Syria, — for there are "Brothers" there to this day. The names of the "Mahatmas" were not even known at the time, since they are called so only in India. (15)

That, whether they were called Rosicrucians, Kabalists, or Yogis — Adepts were everywhere Adepts — silent, secret, retiring, and who would never divulge themselves entirely to anyone, unless one did as I did — passed seven and ten years probation and given proofs of absolute devotion, and that he, or she, would keep silent even before a prospect and a threat of death.

I fulfilled the requirements and am what I am; and this no Hodgson, no Coulombs, no Sellin, can take away from me. All I was allowed to say was — the truth: There is beyond the Himalayas a nucleus of Adepts, of various nationalities; and the Teschu Lama knows them, and they act together, and some of them are with him and yet remain unknown in their true character even to the average lamas — who are ignorant fools mostly.

My Master and K. H. and several others I know personally are there, coming and going, and they are all in communication with Adepts in Egypt and Syria, and even Europe. I said and proved that they could perform marvellous phenomena; but I also said that it was rarely they would condescend to do so to satisfy enquirers.

You were one of the few who had genuine communications with them; and if you doubt it now, I pity you, my poor friend, for you may repent one day for having lost your chance. (16)

Well, in New York already, Olcott and Judge went mad over the thing; but they kept it secret enough then. When we went to India, their very names were never pronounced in London or on the way (one of the supposed proofs — that I had invented the Mahatmas after I had come to India — of Mr. A.O. Hume!)

When we arrived, and Master coming to Bombay bodily, paid a visit to us at Girgaum, and several persons saw him, Wimbridge for one — Olcott became crazy. He was like Balaam's she-ass when she saw the angel!

Then came Damodar, Servai, and several other fanatics, who began calling them "Mahatmas"; and, little by little, the Adepts were transformed into Gods on earth. They began to be appealed to, and made puja to, and were becoming with every day more legendary and miraculous.

Now, if I tell you the answer I received from Keshow Pillai you will laugh, but it characterizes the thing. "But what is your idea of you Hindus about the Masters?" — I asked him one day when he prostrated himself flat before the picture in my golden locket.

Then he told me that they (the Mahatmas) were their ancient Rishis, who had never died, and were some 700,000 years old. That they were represented as living invisibly in sacred trees, and when showing themselves were found to have long green hair, and their bodies shining like the moon, etc., etc.

Well, between this idea of the Mahatmas and Olcott's rhapsodies, what could I do?

I saw with terror and anger the false track they were all pursuing. The "Masters," as all thought, must be omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. If a Hindu or Parsi sighed for a son, or a Government office, or was in trouble, and the Mahatmas never gave a sign of life — the good and faithful Parsi, the devoted Hindu, was unjustly treated.

The Masters knew all; why did they not help the devotee?

If a mistake or a flapdoodle was committed in the Society — "How could the Masters allow you or Olcott to do so?" we were asked in amazement. (17)

The idea that the Masters were mortal men, limited even in their great powers, never crossed anyone's mind, though they wrote this themselves repeatedly. It was "modesty and secretiveness" — people thought "How is it possible," the fools argued, "that the Mahatmas should not know all that was in every Theosophist's mind, and hear every word pronounced by each member?"

That to do so, and find out what the people thought, and hear what they said, the Masters had to use special psychological means, to take great trouble for it at the cost of labor and time — was something out of the range of the perceptions of their devotees.

Is it Olcott's fault? Perhaps, to a degree.

Is it mine? I absolutely deny it, and protest against the accusation.

It is no one's fault. Human nature alone, and the failure of modern society and religions to furnish people with something higher and nobler than craving after money and honors — is at the bottom of it.

Place this failure on one side, and the mischief and havoc produced in people's brains by modern spiritualism, and you have the enigma solved.

Olcott to this day is sincere, true and devoted to the cause. He does and acts the best he knows how, and the mistakes and absurdities he has committed and commits to this day are due to something he lacks in the psychological portion of his brain, and he is not responsible for it.

Loaded and heavy is his Karma, poor man, but much must be forgiven to him, for he has always erred through lack of right judgment, not from any vicious propensity. Olcott is thoroughly honest; he is as true as gold to his friends; he is as impersonal for himself as he is selfish and grasping for the Society; and his devotion and love for the Masters is such that he is ready to lay down his life any day for them if he thinks it will be agreeable to them and benefit the Society.

Be just, above all, whatever you do or say. If anyone is to be blamed, it is I. I have desecrated the holy Truth by remaining too passive in the face of all this desecration, brought on by too much zeal and false ideas.

My only justification is that I had work to do that would have been too much for four men, as you know. I was always occupied with the Theosophist and ever in my room, shut up, having hardly time to see even the office Hindus.

All was left to Olcott and Damodar, two fanatics. How I protested and tried to swim against the current, only Mr. Sinnett knows, and the Masters.

Brown was crazy before he came to us, unasked and unexpected. C. Oakley was an occultist two years before he joined us.

You speak of hundreds that have been made "cowards" by Olcott. (18)  I can show you several hundreds who have been saved through Theosophy from drunkenness, dissolute life, etc.

Those who believed in a personal God believe in him now as they did before. Those who did not — are all the better in believing in the soul's immortality, if in nothing else.

It is Sellin's thought, not yours — "the men and women ruined mentally and physically" by me and Olcott.

Hubbe Schleiden is ruined only and solely by Sellin (19) aided by his own weakness.

No, dear Doctor, you are wrong and unjust; for Olcott never taught anyone "to sit down and expect favors from Mahatmas." On the contrary, he has always taught, verbally and in print, that no one was to expect favors from Mahatmas or God unless his own actions and merit forced Karma to do him justice in the end.

Where has Sellin heard Col. Olcott's Theosophy? Sellin had and has his head full of spiritualism and spiritual phenomena; he believes in spirits and their agency, which is worse even than believing too much in Mahatmas.

We all of us have made mistakes, and are all more or less to blame. Why should you be so hard on poor Olcott, except what he has done personally against you, for which I am the first to blame him?

But even here, it is not his fault. I have twenty pages of manuscript giving a detailed daily account of your supposed crimes and falseness, to prove to you that no flesh and blood could resist the proofs and insinuations. I know you now, since Torre del Greco; I feared and dreaded you at Adyar — just because of those proofs. If you come, I will let you read the secret history of your life for two years, and you will recognize the handwriting. (20)  And such manuscripts, as I have learned, have been sent all over the branches, and Olcott was the last to learn of it. What I have to tell you will show to you human nature and your own discernment in another light.

There are things it is impossible for me to write; and unless you come here — they will die with me. Olcott has nothing to do with all this. You are ignorant, it seems, of what took place since Christmas. Good-bye, then, and may your intuitions lead you to the Truth.

Yours ever,

H. P. B.

Observation

Colonel Olcott and many Hindus made the mistake of transforming the Masters into "superheroes" endowed with all powers. And later, Westerners also distorted the Masters, transforming them into "the Ascended Masters."

Mr. Allan Hume was tremendously proud, and when he realized that the Masters did not treat him in a special way, it caused him to become angry and repudiate them.

Mr. Alfred Sinnett remained faithful for a longer time, but later he too went astray by becoming involved in spiritualism and believing that the deceitful astral entity with which he communicated was Master Kuthumi.

Hubbe Schleiden was the leader of the Theosophical Society in Germany, but when the Hodgson Report was published, Professor Sellin (one of its members) became an enemy of Blavatsky and convinced Schleiden that it had all been a hoax. Initially, Schleiden believed him, but later reconsidered and began to think again that the Masters might indeed be real.

According to Blavatsky, Sellin was also very confused because of his sympathy for spiritualism.

And this shows them how important it is to maintain discernment so as not to fall into mistakes and fantasies.

(These letters were published in the magazine 'The Path' in January, February and March 1896.)

FOOTNOTES ADDED BY DR. HARTMANN

1. This refers to the clairvoyant (psychometric) examination of an "occult letter," which was printed, together with the picture, in the Theosophist of 1886. The psychometer was a German peasant woman, entirely uninformed in regard to such things; but gave as it appears a correct description of a Buddhist temple in Tibet, with its surroundings and the inscriptions within; also of the lamas or priests and of the Master, and also of some people working in the neighborhood of the temple. The picture could not have been read from my own mind, as I have never seen such a temple, or if I have been there in the spirit, that visit has left no trace in my personal memory.

2. The explanation of seeing the gentleman in knee-breeches may be that I was just then very much occupied with the spirit of the well-known occultist, Carl von Eckertshausen.

3. H.P.B. used to call me in fun her "conspirator" or "confederate" because the stupidity of certain persons went so far as to accuse me of having entered into a league with her for the purpose of cheating myself.

4. This was in answer to a letter in which I complained of the irresistible impulse that caused me to write books, very much against my inclination, as I would have preferred to devote more time to "self-development."

5. Babaji was an Indian man who begged Blavatsky to take him with her when she was expelled from India by the rulers of Adyar. Shortly after arriving in Germany, he went to live with the Gebhard family, who treated him very well. However, after a while, he became Blavatsky's enemy and caused her many problems. — Cid's Note

6. I know nothing about it.

7. The fact is that Damodar was never asked to go to Tibet, but begged to be permitted to go there, and at last went with permission of H.P.B., on which occasion I accompanied him to the steamer.

8. This refers to my Report of Observations at the Headquarters at Adyar.

9. Babajee, whose Brahmanical conceit caused him to turn against H.P.B. when he be came convinced that he could not make her a tool for the propaganda of his creed.

10. This explains the letter printed in the notorious book of V. S. Solovyoff, page 124. The intrigue was acted by Babajee, who, while professing great friendship for me, acted; as a traitor and spy.

11. The reputed "Postscript" in No. 7, vol. xvi, of the Theosophist, goes to show that in this case H P.B. was wrong.

12. This refers to a certain intrigue, owing to which Col. Olcott was made to believe that I wanted to oust him from the presidential chair.

13. When I went to Wiirzburg I found that the whole trouble resulted from foolish gossip, started by Babajee, concerning my relations with a certain lady member of the Theosophical Society

14. The great increase in numbers of the members of the Theosophical Society was undoubtedly due to the fact that, attracted by the false glamor of phenomena, fools rushed in "where angels fear to tread."

15. In Ceylon everybody of high standing is called "Mahatma"; the title seems to correspond to what in England is called "Esquire."

16. I could not doubt the existence of the Adepts after having been in communication with them; but I denied the existence of such beings as the Mahatmas were misrepresented to be.

17. The representative of the Society for Psychic Research was awfully angry because the "Mahatmas" could not see the importance of appearing before him with their certificates and producing a few miracles for his gratification. See The Talking Image of Urur.

18. In many minds the misconceptions regarding the "Mahatmas" gave rise to a superstitious fear and a false reliance upon unknown superiors.

19. A certain German professor and spiritualistic miracle-monger, who never could see a forest on account of the number of trees.

20. These papers, filled with the most absurd denunciations against me, were concocted by Babajee out of jealousy and national hatred.