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The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett - 1923

By A. T. Barker

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Letter No CXXXVIII

LETTER No. CXXXVIII 

Adyar, March 17th. 

My dear Mr. Sinnett,

I am ver)' sorry that the Mahatma should have selected metofight this new battle. But since there must be concealed wisdomeven in the act of choosing a half dead individual who just risesfrom eight weeks of sick bed and can hardly gather her scatteredideas to say that which had better be left unsaid—I obey.

You cannot have forgotten what I told you repeatedly at Simlaand what the Master K. H. wrote to you himself namely, that theT.S. is first of all a universal Brotherhood, not a society forphenomena and occultism. The latter must be held secret etc.I know that owing to my great zeal for the cause and your assur-ances that the society would never prosper unless the occultelement was introduced into it and the Masters proclaimed I ammore guilty than any for having listened to this. Still all of youhave now to suffer Karma. Well, the phenomena are nowallfound, on the evidence of padris, and other enemies, frauds (byMr. Hodgson), from the ''brooch " phenomenon downward; andthe Masters are dragged before the public and their namesdesecrated by every rascal in Europe.

The padris have spent thousands for false and other witnesses,and I was not permitted to go to law where at least I could pro-duce my evidence : and now Hodgson, who, unto this day seemedmost friendly and came nearly daily to us changed front. Hewent to Bombay and saw Wimbridge and all my enemies. Returning he assured Hume, (who is here, and also coming daily)that in his opinion the evidence of our boys in office and otherwitnesses is so contradictory that after Bombay he came to theconclusion that all our phenomena were frauds. Amen.

And now what is the use in writing to disabuse Mr. ArthurGebhard's mind? So soon as the P.R.S. oracle will have pro-claimed me a wholesale ** fraud " and all of you my dupes (asHume does here laughingly, and with the greatest unconcern)—Your L.L. Society is sure to collapse. Can even you, the trueand the faithful, stand the storm? Happy Damodar ! He wentto the land of Bliss, to Tibet and must now be far away in theregions of our Masters. No one will ever see him now, I expect.

Well, this is where the accursed phenomena led us to. Olcottis returning from Burma in three days and will find nice things.At first Hume was all friendly. Then came the revelations.Hodgson had traced the brooch ! ! ! I had given an identicalbrooch or pin to mend to Servai before going to Simla, he wastold, and it was that brooch. Does Mrs. Sinnett remember that I spoke at that time of having had a pin very like it with pearls that I sent with another I bought at Simla to my sister's children? I spoke of the likeness even to Mr. Hume. I asked Mr. H. to have his pin sent to the jeweller (unknown but to Servai, Wimbridge's partner and my mortal enemy) who, will or will not identify it. Most probably he will. Why shouldn't he—for a hundred rupees or so?

Mr. Hume wants to save the Society and has found a means. He called yesterday a Council meeting composed of Ragunath Row, Subba Row, Sreenavasa Row, Honourable Subramanya Iyer and Rama Iyer. All leaders of Hindoos. Then having selected Rag : Row Chairman and the audience being composed of the two Oakeleys, Hartmann and the chelas—he gave him a paper. In it he proposed, to save the Society (he imagines and insists that it is falling to pieces after the " revelations " though not one fellow has yet resigned). To force Colonel Alcock its life-President Madame Blavatsky, (ditto) Damodar (absent) Bowaji, Bhavani Row, Ananda, Rama Swami, etc. in all 16 persons to resign as they were all frauds and accomplices since many of them asserted they knew the Masters independently of me and that the Masters did not exist. The headquarters must be sold and on its place a new scientifico-philosophico-humanitarian Theosophical society raised. I was not present at the meeting, I am confined to my room. But the Councillors came to me in a body after the proceedings. Instead of accepting the proposal though and proclaiming the phenomena a fraud as Mr. Hume said they had all done to his knowledge—Raganath Row rejected the paper throwing it aside with disgust. They all believed in the Mahatmas—he said, and the phenomena they had witnessed per- sonally but would have no more their names desecrated. Phe- nomena must be, hereafter, prohibited, and if they did happen independently, must not be talked about under penalty of expulsion. They declined to ask the Founders to resign. They saw no reason for it. Mr. Hume is a queer " saviour !

Ergo, no more phenomena, at least here in India. While Mascul. and Cook produce things far better and are paid for it, we come out second best and are kicked for them.

Mr. Hume is more liberal than the Padris. These call Olcott "a credulous fool but undeniably an honest man"; and he declares, that since Olcott swears to have seen the Masters he must be a dishonest man, and since he got his pearl-pin at the pawnbroker's at Bombay he must be (by implication) a thief too, though Hume denies this.

Such is in brief the present situation. It began at Simla opening with the first act and now comes the prologue that will soon finish with my death. For, though, doctors notwithstanding (who proclaimed my four days' agony, and the impossibilityofrecovery) I suddenly got better thanks to Master's protectinghand, I carry two mortal diseases in me which are not curedinheart, and kidneys. At any moment the former may have a rupture, and the latter carry me away in a few days. I will notseeanother year. All this is due to five years of constant anguish,worry and repressed emotion. A Gladstone may be calleda" fraud " and laugh at it. I —can't, say what you may, Mr.Sinnett.

And now to your business. I have never, before beginningtheservice for you and Mr. Hume, transmitted and received lettersto,and from Master except for myself. If you had any idea ofthedifficulties, or the modus operandi you would not have consentedto be in my place. And yet I never refused. The shrine wasthought of to facilitate the transmission, as now dozens andhundreds come to pray and beg to put their letters inside. Asyou know, and is proved to all except Mr. Hodgson, whofindscontradictions, all received answers without my leaving the roomand often in different languages. It is this, that unabletoaccount for, Mr. Hume calls a wholesale collective fraud for,since the Masters, in his ideas, do not exist, and that they havenever written one single of the letters ever received—thenthelogical conclusion is that it is the whole staff—everyone in headquarters—Damodar, Bowaji, Subba Row, all, all who help metowrite the letters and pass them through the hole. Even Hodgsonfinds the idea preposterous.

And now to the deception practised on Mr. Arthur Gebhard,ofwhich, I learned from the Mahatma and A.G. 's own letter senttome. This ** fraud " coupled with the revelations and hints aboutothers insinuated by kitten-like Mrs. Holloway must haveimpressed a figure of H.P.B. of exquisite honourability andhonesty on poor dear Mrs. Gebhard !

Well, persons who are on the eve of their death do not generally fib and say lies. I hope you will give me credit for speakingthe truth. Ar. G. is not the only one to suspect and accuse meoffraud. Say then to the '* friends " who may have receivedletters from the Masters through me that I never was a deceiver;that I never played tricks upon them. I have often facilitatedphenomena of letter transmission by easier but still occult means.Only as none of the Theosophists, except occultsits, knowanything of either difficult or easy means of occult transmission norare they acquainted with occult laws, everything is suspicioustothem. Take for instance this illustration as an instance : trans-mission by mechanical thought transference (in contradistinctionwith the conscious). The former is produced by calling first theattention of a chela or the Mahatma. The letter must be open and every line of it passed over the forehead, holding the breath and never taking- off the part of the letter from the latter until bell notifies it is read and noted. The other mode is to impress every sentence of the letter (consciously of course) still mechanically on the brain, and then send it phrase by phrase to the other person on the other end of the line. This of course if the sender permits you to read it, and believes in your honesty that you read it mechanically only reproducing the form of the words and lines on your brain—and not the meaning. But in both instances the letters must be open and then burnt with what we call virgin fire (lit neither with matches, brimstone nor any preparation but rubbed with a resinous, transparent, little stone, a ball that no naked hand must touch. This is done for the ashes ; which, while the paper burns become immediately invisible, which they would not, if the paper were lit otherwise; because they would remain by their weight and grossness in the surrounding atmosphere, instead of being transferred instantaneously to the receiver. This double process is done for double security : for the words transmitted from one brain to another, or to the akasa near the Mahatma or chela may, some of them, be omitted, whole words slip out etc., and the ashes be not perfectly trans- mitted ; and in this way one corrects the other. I cannot do that and therefore speak of it only as an example how deception can be easily fathered. Fancy A. giving a letter for the Mahatma to B. B. goes into the adjoining room and opening the letter—not one word of which can he remember if he is a true chela and an honest man—transmits it to his brain by one of the two methods sending one sentence after the other on the current and then pro- ceeds to burn the letter; perhaps—he has forgotten the " virgin stone " in his room. Leaving inadvertently the opened letter on the table, he absents himself for a few minutes. During that time A. impatient and probably suspicious enters the room. He sees his letter opened on the table. He will either take it and make an exposd (!) or leave it and then ask B. after he has burnt it whether he sent his letter. Of course B. will answer he has. Then will come the exposd with consequences you may imagine, or A. will hold his tongue and do as many do : hold for ever B. for a fraud. This is one instance out of many, and a real one, given to me as a caution by Master.

There's a funny thing in Mr. A.G.'s letter, very funny and suggestive, for instance recounting in it how he gave me the letter and six hours later I had told him " it was gone " he adds ** four days later Colonel wrote to H.P.B. saying that his Master appeared " and said that K.H. had said : (see original sent back to you) But then the good ** Colonel must also be a fraud," a confederate of mine an accomplice? Or is it my Master who mystifies him Mr. A. G. Arthur Gebhard, or >vhat? And thenagain : '* H.P.B. is a fraud although I will never deny her excellent qualities." "The ' excellent qualities' of a fraud is something startling and original at all events. * *

Thus you will please tell Mr. A. R. Gebhard that we are two** frauds—" if any; and also this : Mahatma K. H. has receivedbut never read his letter, for the simple reason that he was pre-vented by his promise to the Chohan never to read a letter fromany theosophist until his return from his mission to China wherehe then was. This He condescended now to tell me to helptomy justification, as he said. He had forbidden me most strictlyto send him any more letters until further orders. Since Masterat Arthur G. 's urgent prayer took it upon Himself for reasonsbut known to Himself, I had nothing to say but to obey. I tookthe letter and put it in a drawer full of papers. When I lookedfor it, I found it was gone, at least I did not see it, and said soto him. But before going to bed taking out an enevlope I foundhis letter still there, though in the morning it was really gone.Now if my remembrance is right I showed to Madame Gebhard,Olcott's letter in which he speaks of what Master said. / hadnot read Gehhard's letter and may have taken the words as ananswer to this letter. As it is I have not now the faintest recol-lection of the whole of the message. One thing I knowandMadame Geb. will corroborate it : she spoke of the terriblequarrels between Arth. G. and his father to me in London, beforegoing to Paris and to Olcott repeatedly. She had expressed thehope that the Mahatma would interfere on her behalf, and thesewords may have related to this and not at all to the letter.How can I remember? Olcott may have heard imperfectly, orI muddled up the thing. Hundred combinations may have happened. The only fraud is then, in my telling him an unconsciousuntruth about the letter going six hours later when it was takenonly in the morning. To this I plead ** guilty."

But as in the Hume *' pearl-pin " affair there is something moreemployed than mere fraud in the production of phenomena. IfIhave bamboozled in this. Mad. G. and himself then I become rightaway a black leg, a swindler. I have received hospitality attheir house for months : they have nursed me out through mysickness, and even not permitted to pay the doctor, covered mewith rich presents, honours and kindnesses, for all of whichIrepay with deception. Oh powers of heaven. Truth and Justice! May Mr. Arthur Gebhard 's Karma prove light to him. I forgivehim for the sake of his mother and father whom I will love andrespect to my last hour. Please give these my parting wordstoMad. Gebhard ; I have nothing more to say.

It is useless, Mr. Sinnett. The Theosophical Society shall live here, in India, for ever it seems doomed in Europe, because I am doomed. It hangs on your Esoteric Buddhism and the Occult world. And if Mahatmas are myths, I —the author of all those letters, a proclaimed fraud and worse—by the P.R.S. how can the London Lodge live? I told you—for I felt it, as I always feel that this investigation of Mr. Hodgson will be fatal. He is the most excellent, truthful, expert young man. But how can he recognise truth from lies when there is a thick net of conspiracy around him? At first, when he visited the headquarters, and the padris could not well get hold of him, he seemed all right. His accounts were favourable. And then he was caught. We have our informants who followed the missionaries sharply. You in England may laugh—we do not.

We knew that the conspiracy is not one to laugh at. The 30,000 padris of India are all leagued against us. It is their last card they play—either they or we. There was 72,000 rupees col- lected in one week in Bombay—** to conduct investigations against the so called Founders of the T.S." All the judges of the land (think of Sir C. Turner !) are against us. Sceptics and nominal Christians, free thinkers and C.S. snobs—my very name stinks in their nostrils. And now comes the old sleeping beauty again on the scene, I am, after all, a Russian spy ! Last night the Oakleys dined with Hume at the Garstins and were told very seriously that the Government was to over shadow me once more ; that they had information (the Coulombs?) and that I had " to be watched." Vainly did Hume laugh and the Oakleys protest. It was " very serious " in view of the Russians crossing Cabul, Afghanistan, or something of that sort.

An old and a dying woman, confined to her room ; forbidden to mount a few steps lest her heart bursts ; never reading a paper for fear of finding there the most vile personal abuse; receiving letters from Russia but from relatives—a spy, a dangerous character ! Oh Britishers of India where is your valour.

Notwithstanding Hume, their friend Hodgson and all the evidence, the Oakleys do not believe me a fraud. They have full confidence in the Masters, nothing they say, will make them doubt their existence—apart some little unpleasantness due to gossip upon private affairs, they are staunch theosophists and as they say my best friends. Well, and good. I believe Oh Lord, help thou my unbelief. How can I believe anyone my friends at such a moment? It is only he who knows, as he knows that he lives and breathes, that our Mahatmas exist and phenomena are real, who do sympathise with me, and look upon me as a martyr. Pamphlets by reverends, books and articles exposing me from top to foot appear every day. ** Theosophy Unveiled—" " Madame Blavatsky Exposed—" " The Theosophical Humbug Before the World—" " Christ against Mahatmas " etc. etc. : you whoknewIndia well, Mr. Sinnett, you think it difficult to get false witnesseshere? They have all the advantages over us. They (the enemies)work night and day, flooding the country with literature againstus and we sit motionless and only quarrel within the Theos : headquarters. Olcott is held finally a fool, detested by the Oakleys(for some mistakes that really he could not help,) and adoredbythe Hindoos. And now after the arrival of Hume I come formyshare. Though my friends, the Oakleys, advise me to resignwhile the Hindoos say they will all leave if I do. / must resignbecause being thought a ** Russian spy " I endanger the Society.Such is my life during my convalescence when every emotion,says the doctor, may prove fatal. So much the better. I willthen resign de facta. But then they forget that so far I amtheonly link between the Europeans and the Mahatmas. TheHindoos do not care. Dozens of them are chelas hundreds knowThem, but as in the case of Subba Row they will sooner die thanspeak of their Masters. Hume could get nothing from SubbaRow, though everyone knows what he is. The other nighthereceived a long letter from my Master in the meeting room whenHume voted my resignation. They had just voted there shouldbe no phenomena any more and Mahatmas never spoken about;the letter was in Telugu, they say. Though they stand bymeand will stand to the last, they accuse me of having desecratedthe Truth and the Masters by having been the means of the Occultworld and Esoteric Buddhism. Do not count upon the Hindoos,you of the L.L. I —dead, say Society good bye to the Masters.Say even now—all perhaps with one exception—for I have pledgedmy word to my Hindoo Brothers the occultists, never to mentionexcept among ourselves Their names, and that I will keep it.

This, will probably be my last letter to you, dear Mr. Sinnett.It took me a week nearly to write this one—I am so feeble;andthen I do not think I will have an oppK>rtunity. I cannottellyou why : most probably, you will not regret it. You cannotremain faithful much longer, living as you do in the world. Myersand P.R.S. will laugh you to scorn. Hume who goes to Londonin April will set all against the Mahatmas and me. It takesadifferent kind of man and woman than you have in L.L. withtheexception of Miss Arundale and two or three others—to withstandsuch a persecution and storm. And all this because wehaveprofaned Truth by giving it out indiscriminately—and forgotthemotto of the true Occultist : To know, to dare, and to keep silent.

Good-bye then, dear Mr. Sinnett and Mrs. Sinnett. WhetherI die in a few months or remain two or three years in solitudeI am as good as dead—already. Forget me, and try to deservepersonal communication with the Master. Then you shallbe able to preach him, and if you succeed as I succeeded you shall be hooted and insulted as I was, and see whether you can stand it. The Oakleys urge me to write to my aunt and sister and ask her to send me the design of the i>earl brooch I sent them in 1880. I refuse. Why, should I ? The brooch phenomenon proven then will come out, some other proved fraudulent by false witnesses. I am tired, tired, tired and so disgusted that Death herself with her first hours of horror is preferable to this. Let the whole world, with the exception of a few friends and my Hindoo Occultists, believe me a fraud. I will not deny it—even to their faces. Say so to Mr. Myers and others.

Good-bye, again. May your life be happy and prosperous and Mrs. S.'s old age more healthy than her youth. Forgive me the annoyances I may have caused you and—forget. 

Yours to the end 
H. P. Blavatsky.