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A Casebook of Encounters with the Theosophical Mahatmas

By H.P. Blavatsky

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Case 12

Henry S. Olcott
Oct. 26, 1880
The Golden Temple
Amritsar, India

At a shrine where the swords, sharp steel discs, coats of mail, and other warlike weapons of the Sikh warrior priests are exposed to view in charge of the akalis, I was greeted, to my surprise and joy, with a loving smile by one of the Masters, who for the moment was figuring among the guardians, and who gave each of us a fresh rose, with a blessing in his eyes.

[In Olcott's own handwritten diary, the entry for October 26, 1880 reads:

"...In the afternoon we went to the Golden Temple again & found it as lovely as before. Saw some hundreds of fakirs & gossains more or less ill-favored. A Brother there saluted H.P.B. and me & gave us each a rose."  DHC.]

Source:  Olcott, Henry S.  Old Diary Leaves, Volume III, pp. 254-255