Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett - 1923
By A. T. Barker
Letter No LXVI
Received London, Oct. loth, 1884.
For reasons perfectly valid though not necessary for me to enterinto in detail, I could neither answer your letter at Elberfeld, nortransmit it to you through L. C. H. Since it has become impos- sible to utilize the main channel—H.P.B. thro' which I have hitherto reached you, because of your personal and mutual rela- tions with her I employed the common pK>st. Even this required more expenditure of power from a friend than you can imagine.
It would not be the part of a friend to withhold the truth when the speaking of it can do good, so I must tell you that you ought to put a close watch upon yourself, if you would not put an end for ever to my letters. Insensibly to yourself you are encouraging a tendency to dogmatism and unjust misconception of persons and motives. I am well aware of your ideas upyon that which you call the ** goody goody " absurdity; and I feel as painfully confident that since in your world no one is allowed to moralize the other and that you are very likely to resent it, these words are probably written in vain. But I also know your sincere desire that our correspondence should not be broken ; and knowing this, I point out to your notice that which is certain to have that result.
Beware then, of an uncharitable spirit, for it will rise up like a hungry wolf in your path, and devour the better qualities of your nature which have been springing into life. Broaden instead of narrowing your sympathies; try to identify yourself with your fellows, rather than to contract your circle of affinity. However caused—whether by faults at Adyar, or Allahabad, or by way of negligence, or H.P.B.'s viciousness—a crisis is here, and it is the time for the utmost practicable expansion of your moral power. It is not the moment for reproaches or vindictive recriminations, but for united struggle. Whomsoever has sown the seeds of the present tempest, the whirlwind is strong, the whole Society is reaping it and it is rather fanned than weakened from Tchigadze. You laugh at probation—the word seems ridiculous as applied to you? You forget that he who approaches our precincts even in thought, is drawn into the vortex of probation. At any rate your temple totters, and unless you put your strong shoulders against its wall you may share the fate of Samson. Pride and " dignified contempt ' ' will not help you in the present difficulties. There is such a thing when understood allegorically—as treasures guarded by faithful gnomes and fiends. The treasure is our occult knowledge that many of you are after—you foremost of all ; and it may not be H.P.B. or Olcott or anyone else individually who have awakened the guardians thereof, but yourself, more than they and the Society collectively. Such books as the Occult World and Estoric Btiddhism do not pass unnoticed under the eyes of those faithful guardians, and it is absolutely necessary that those who would have that knowledge should be thoroughly tried and tested. Infer from this what you will ; but remember that my Brother and I, are the only among the Brotherhood who have at heart the dissemination (to a certain limit) of our doctrine, and H.P.B. was hitherto our sole machinery, our most docile agent.Granting that she is all you describe her—and I have alreadytold you that the ricketty old body becomes sometimes positivelydangerous—still it does not excuse in you the smallest relaxationof effort to save the situation and push on the work (and especiallyprotect our correspondence) all the faster. Deem it, what it is,a positive advantage to the rest of you that she should have beenwhat she is, since it has thrown upon you the greater stimulustoaccomplish in spite of the difficulties you believe she has created.I do not say we should have preferred her had a more tractableagent been available, still, so far as yourselves are concernedithas been an advantage, yet you have alienated her for a long timeif not for ever and thereby thrown tremendous difficulties in myway. Remember what I said to you some two years ago ** wereH.P.B. to die before we found a substitute " the powers throughwhich we work in our communications with the outside world maypermit the transmission of two or three letters more, then it woulddie out and you would have no more letters from me. Well—sheis virtually dead ; and it is yourself—pardon me this one moretruth—who have killed the rude but faithful agent, one moreoverwho was really devoted to you personally. Let us drop the subject if it is distasteful to you. I have done my best to stop theevil but I have neither jurisdiction or control over her, nor shallIhave any better chance with Mrs. H. She is a magnificent subjectnaturally but so distrustful of herself and others, so apt to takethe real for hallucination and vice versa that it will require a longtime before she becomes thoroughly controllable even by herself.She is far, far from being ready ; moreover she understands neitherherself, nor us. Verily our ways are not your ways, hence thereremains but little hope for us in the West.
Do not, I pray you, attribute the above to any influence fromH.P.B. She has doubtless complained bitterly to her Masterand says so openly, but this does not alter his opinion nor affectmy own attitude towards you in the least. Not alone we two,but even she knows how impK>rtant to the Society's welfare areyour services, and no personal grievance of hers would be allowedto stand in the way of your receiving strict justice ; or to preventour according it to her either. Her Master and I directed her todo and say all that she did concerning Mrs. H. Any unpleasant-ness resulting, was due to the execution of her orders. Wehadfound Mrs. H. in America, we impressed her to prepare for thewriting of the book she has produced with the aid of Mohini. Hadshe consented to stop at Paris, as requested, a few days longerand come over to England with H.P.B. the later complicationcould have been averted. The effect of her coming to your househas been described to you by her before; and in resenting what Mohini and H.P.B. were saying to you and Mrs. H. you have been simply resenting our personal wishes. You will resent my words even now when I tell you that you have been—unconsciously, I agree—in my way, in her development. Yet you would have been the first one to profit thereby. But not understanding our ways and the occult methods you insisted upon knowing the cause and reason for everj'thing done—especially things that did not suit you. You even demanded that the reason why you have been asked to come to Elberfield should be thoroughly explained to you. This is unreasonable from the occult point of view, good friend. You either trust in me, or do not. And I must frankly tell you that my friendly regard suffered a shock from the hearing of your ** ultimatum " which may be condensed thus : —" Either Mrs. H., passes a week or so at our house, or I (you) leave the L.L. to get on as best it can." It almost meant this; ** Masters " or no Masters to the contrary notwithstanding, I must and shall show the L.L. that anything they may have heard about this affair was false, and that the " Masters" would never consent to any action hurtful to my pride : that must be protected in any event. ' ' My friend, this is treading upon dangerous ground. In our mountains here, the Dugpas lay at dangerous points, in paths frequented by our Chelas, bits of old rag, and other articles best calculated to attract the attention of the unwary, which have been impregnated with their evil magnetism. If one be stepped upon a tremendous psychic shock may be communicated to the wayfarer so that he may lose his footing and fall down the precipice before he can recover himself. Friend, beware of Pride and Egoism, two of the worst snares for the feet of him who aspires to climb the high paths of Knowledge and Spirituality. You have opened a joint of your armour for the Dugpas—do not complain if they have found it out and wounded you there. Mrs. H. did not really want to go to your house, for, as she said to you very truthfully I had told her not to do so for reasons that you must know yourself by this time ; you also should have known, that if we were worth anything in our individuality, and not mere powerless puppets, we were not to be influenced by H.P.B., nor driven by threats to do anything contrary to our light and the necessities of Karma. I am sorry that you did not recall these facts before speaking, as this makes my position still more embarrassing before my chief, who, of course has had the ** ultimatum " put on record. You deny, having ever applied to be accepted as a chela : Ah ! my friend, with such failings smouldering in your heart, you could not be even a ** lay chela." But once more I say let us drop the subject. Words will not obliterate deeds, and what is done is done. My brother M. who has more authority than I, has just written the promised letter to the " Inner Circle." Your *' honour " good friend, is saved—at what price—read and youshall see.
You do not find certain recent letters and notes of mine—includ-ing the one to the treasurer of the L.L. '* philosophical " and inmy usual style. It could scarcely be helped : I wrote but on thebusiness of the moment—as I am doing now—and had no timefor philosophy. With the L.L. and most of the other WesternBranches of the T.S. in a deplorable state,* philosophy may beinvoked to restrain one's impatience, but the chief thing called forat present, is some practical scheme for dealing with the situation.Some, most unjustly, try to make H.S.O. and H.P.B., solelyresponsible for the state of things, those two are, say, far fromperfect—in some respects, quite the opposite. But they havethat in them (pardon the eternal repetition but it is being as constantly overlooked) which we have but too rarely found elsewhere—Unselfishness, and an eager readiness for self-sacrifice for thegood of others; what a ** multitude of sins " does not this cover! It is but a truism, yet I say it, that in adversity alone can wediscover the real man. It is a true manhood when one boldlyaccepts one's share of the collective Karma of the group oneworks with, and does not permit oneself to be embittered, and tosee others in blacker colours than reality, or to throw all blameupon some one " black sheep," a victim, specially selected. Sucha true man as that we will ever protect and despite his short-comings, assist to develop the good he has in him. Such an oneis sublimely unselfish; he sinks his personalty in his cause, andtakes no heed of discomforts or personal obloquy unjustlyfastened upon him.
I have done, my good friend, and have nothing more to say.You have too much intelligence not to see clearly, as the Americanswould say—the fix / am in, and that I, personally can do verylittle. The present situation, as you will find from M's letterhas been gradually created by all of you as much as by thewretched ** Founder." Yet without at least one of them we canhardly do, for several years more to come. You have treated theold body too cruelly and it now has its day. You will never agreein this fully w4th me—but it is a fact, nevertheless. All I can dofor you personally—^I will do it, unless you make the situationstill worse by not changing your policy. One who would havehigher instruction given to him has to be a true theosophist, inheart and soul, not merely in appearance.
Meanwhile, receive my poor blessing.
K. H.
