Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett - 1923
By A. T. Barker
Letter No V
My Dear Friend,
I have your letter of November 19th, abstracted by our special osmosis from the envelope at Meerut, and yours to our ** old lady '* in its half empty registered shell safely sent on to Cawnpore, to make her swear at me. But she is too weak to play at the astral postman just now. I am sorry to see that she has once more proved inaccurate and led you into error ; but this is chiefly myown fault, as I often neglect to g-ive her an extra rub over her poorsick head, now, when she forgets and mixes up things more thanusual. I did not ask her to tell you " to give up the idea of theA.I. Branch, as nothing would come of it," but—** to give upthe idea of the Anglo-Indian Branch in co-operation with Mr.Hume, as nothing would come of it. " I will send you his answerto my letter and my final epistle and you will judge for yourself.After reading the latter you will please seal and send it to him,simply stating that you do so on my behalf. Unless he asks thequestion you better not let him know you have read his letter.He may be proud of it, but—should not.
My dear, good friend, you must not bear me a grudge for whatI say to him of the English in general. They are haughty. Tous especially, so that we regard it as a natural feature. And, youmust not confound your own private views—especially those youhave now—with those of your countrymen in general. Few,ifany—(of course with such exceptions as yourself, where intensityof aspiration makes one disregard all other considerations)—wouldever consent to have a *' nigger " for a guide or leader, no morethan a modern Desdemona would choose an Indian Othellonowadays. The prejudice of race is intense, and even in freeEngland we are regarded as an ** inferior race." And this sametone vibrates in your own remark about ** a man of the peopleunused to refined ways " and ** a foreigner but a gentleman,"thelatter being the man to be preferred. Nor would a Hindu be likelyto have such a lack of " refined ways " disregarded in him werehe ** an adept " twenty times over again ; and this very same traitappears prominent in Viscount Amberley's criticism on the** underbred Jesus." Had you paraphrased your sentence andsaid—" a foreigner but no gentleman " (according to Englishnotions) you could not have added as you did, that he wouldbethought the fittest. Hence, I say it again, that the majorityofour Anglo-Indians, among whom the terms ** Hindu " or" Asiatic " is generally coupled with a vague yet actual ideaofone who uses his fingers instead of a bit of cambric, and whoabjures soap—would most certainly prefer an American to ** agreasy Tibetan." But you need not tremble for me. WheneverI make my appearance—whether astrally or physically—before myfriend A. P. Sinnet, I will not forget to invest a certain suminasquare of the finest Chinese silk to carry in my chogga pocket,nor to create an atmosphere of sandal-wood and cashmere roses.This is the least I could do in atonement for my countrymen.But then, you see, I am but a slave of my masters ; and if, allowedto gratify my own friendly feelings for you, and attend to youindividually, I may not be permitted to do as much for others.
Nay, to tell the truth, I know I am not permitted to do so, and Mr. Hume's unfortunate letter has contributed much to it. There is a distinct g"roup or section in our fraternity who attend to our casual and very rare accessions of another race and blood, and who brought across the threshold Captain Remington and two other Englishmen during this century. And these " Brothers "—do not habitually use floral essence.
So the test of the 27th was no test phenomena? Of course, of course. But did you try to get, as you said you would, the original MSS. of the Jhelum dispatch? Though our hollow but plethoric friend, Mrs. B., were even proved to be my multum in parvo, my letter-writer, and to manufacture my epistles, yet, unless she were ubiquitous or had the gift of flying from Amritsar to Jhelum—a distance over 200 miles—in two minutes, how could she have written for me the dispatch in my own hand-writing at Jhelum hardly two hours after your letter was received by her at Amritsar? This is why I was not sorry that you said you would send for it, for, with this dispatch in your possession, no " detractors " would be very strong, nor even the sceptical logic of Mr. Hume prevail.
e very strong, nor even the sceptical logic of Mr. Hume prevail. Naturally you imagine that the ** nameless revelation "—which now re-echoes in England—would have been pounced upon far more easily than even it was, by the Times of India, if it revealed the names. But here again, I will prove you wrong. Had you first printed the account, the T. of L could never have published '* A day with Madame B.,'* since that nice bit of American ** sensationalism " would not have been written by Olcott at all. It would not have had its raison d'etre. Anxious to collect for his Society every proof corroborative of the occult powers of what he terms the ist Section, and seeing that you remained silent, our gallant Colonel felt his hand itch until it brought everything to light, and—plunged everything into darkness and consternation ! —** Voici pourquoi nous n'irons plus au bois," as the French song goes.
Did you write "tune" ? Well, well; I must ask you to buy me a pair of spectacles in London. And yet—out of " time " or out of " tune ** is all one, as it seems. But you ought to adopt my old-fashioned habit of " little lines '* over the ** m's." Those bars are useful, even though " out of tune and time " with modern caligraphy. Besides, bear in mind, that these my letters, are not written but impressed or precipitated and then all mistakes corrected.
We will not discuss, at present, whether your aims and objects are so widely different from those of Mr. Hume ; but if he may be actuated by ** a purer and broader philanthropy," the way he sets to work to achieve these aims will never carry him beyond pure theoretical disquisitions upon the subject. No use now in trying to represent him in any other light. His letter that you will soonread—is, as I say to himself, " a monument of pride and unconscious selfishness." He is too just and superior a man to be guiltyof petty vanity; but his pride climbs like that of the mythicalLucifer; and, you may believe me—if I have any experience inhuman nature—when I say, that this is Hume—au naturel. It is no hasty conclusion of mine based upon any personal feeling, butthe decision of the greatest of our living adepts—the Shaberon ofThan—La. Of whatever question he touches his treatment is thesame : a stubborn determination to make everything either fit hisown foregone conclusions or—sweep it away by a rush of ironicaland adverse criticism. Mr. Hume is a very able man and—Humeto the core. Such a state of mind offers little attraction, as youwill understand, to any of us who might be willing to come andhelp him.
No; I do not and never will "despise" any "feeling" however it may clash with my own principles, when it is expressed asfrankly and openly as yours. You may be, and undoubtedly are,moved by more egotism than broad benevolence for mankind.Yet as you confess it without mounting any philanthropical stilts,I tell you candidly that you have far more chances than Mr. Humeto learn a good bit of occultism. I, for one, will do all I can foryou, under the circumstances and restrained as 1 am by freshorders. I will not tell you to give up this or that, for, unless youexhibit beyond any doubt the presence in you of the necessarygerms it would be as useless as it would be cruel. But I say—Try. Do not despair. Unite to yourself several determined menand women and make experiments in mesmerism and the usualso-called " spiritual " phenomena. If you act in accordance withprescribed methods you are sure to ultimately obtain results.Apart from this, I will do my best and—who knows ! Strong willcreates and sympathy attracts even adepts, whose laws arcantagonistic to their mixing with the uninitiated. If you are will-ing I will send you an Essay showing why in Europe more thananywhere else a Universal Brotherhood, i.e., an Association of" affinities " of strong magnetic yet dissimilar forces and polaritiescentred around one dominant idea, is necessary for successfulachievements in occult sciences. What one will fail to do—thecombined many will achieve. Of course you will have—in caseyou organise—to put up with Olcott as the head of the ParentSociety, hence—nominally the President of all the existingBranches. But he will be no more your " leader " than he is theleader of the British Theos. Society, which has its own President,its own Rules and Bye-laws. You will be chartered by him, andthat*s all. In some cases he will have to sign a paper or two—4 times a year the accounts sent in by your Secretary ; yet he has no right to interfere either with your administration or mode of action, so long* as these do not clash with the general Rules, and he certainly has neither the ability nor the desire of being your leader. And, of course, you (measuring the whole Society) will have besides your own President chosen by yourselves, ** a qualified professor of occultism " to instruct you. But, my good friend, abandon all notion that this ** Professor " can bodily appear and instruct you for years to come. / may come to you personally—unless you drive me off, as Mr. Hume did—I cannot come to all. You may get phenomena and proofs, but even were you to fall into the old error and attribute them to '* Spirits " we could but show you your mistake by philosophical and logical explanations ; no adept would be allowed to attend your meetings.
Of course you ought to write your book. I do not see, why in any case it should be impracticable. Do so, by all means, and any help I can give you I will. You ought to put yourself immediately in correspondence with Lord Lindsay, and take the Simla phenomena and your correspondence with me as the subject. He is intensely interested in all such experiments, and being a theosophist and upon the General Council is sure to welcome your overtures. Take the ground that you belong to the T.S., that you are the widely known Editor of the " Pioneer/' and that knowing how great an interest he takes in the ** spiritual " phenomena you submit to his consideration the very extraordinary things which took place at Simla, with such additional details as have not been published. The best of the British Spiritualists could, with proper management, be converted into Theosophists. But neither Dr. Wyld, nor Mr. Massey, seem to have the requisite force. I advise you to confer personally with Lord Lindsay upon the theosophical situation at home and in India. Perhaps you, too, might work together : the correspondence I now suggest will pave the way.
Even if Madame B. might " be induced " to give the A.L Society any *' practical instruction " I am afraid she has remained too long a time outside the adytum to be of much use for practical explanations. However, though it does not depend upon me, I will see what I can do in this direction. But I fear she is sadly in need of a few months of recuperative villagiatura on the glaciers, with her old master before she can be entrusted with such a difficult task. Be very cautious with her in case she stops with you on her way down home. Her nervous system is terribly shaken and she requires every care. Will you please spare me needless trouble by informing me of the year, date, and hour of Mrs. Sinnett's birth? Ever
yours sincerely,
KooT HooMi Lal Singh
