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The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett - 1923
By A. T. Barker
Letter No VIII
Received through Mad. B. About February 20th, i88i.
My dear friend, you are certainly on the right path : the path ofdeeds and actions, not mere words—may you live long and keepon ! ... I hope this will not be regarded by you as anencouragement to be " goody goody "—a happy expression whichmade me laugh—but you indeed step in as a kind of Kalka Avatardispelling the shadows of ** Kali-yug "—the black night of theperishing T. S. and driving away before you the fata morganaofits Rules. I must cause the word fecit to appear after yourname in invisible but indelible characters on the list of the GeneralCouncil, as it may prove some day a secret door to the heart ofthe sternest of Hobligans.
Though a good deal occupied—alas, as usual, I must contriveto send you a somewhat lengthy farewell epistle before you takeup a journey that may have most important results—and not alonefor our cause. . . . You understand, do you not, that it isno fault of mine if I cannot meet you as I would? Nor is it yours,but rather that of your life-long environment and a special delicatetask I have been entrusted with since I knew you. Do not blameme then, if I do not show myself in more tangible shape, as notyou alone, but I myself might desire ! when I am not permitted todo so for Olcott—who has toiled for us these five years, how couldI be for others who have undergone none of his training as yet?This applies equally to the case of the Lord Crawford and Balcarres, an excellent gentleman—imprisoned by the world. His is a sincere and noble, though maybe a little too repressed nature. He asks what hope he may have? I say—every hope. For he has that within himself that so very few possess : an exhaustless source of magnetic fluid which, if he only had the time, he could call out in torrents and need no other master than himself. His own powers would do the work and his own great experience be a sure guide for him. But, he would have to guard against, and avoid every foreign influence—especially those antagonistic to the nobler study of man as an integral Brahm, the microcosm free and entirely independent of either the help or control of the invisible agencies the ** new dispensation " (bombastic word !) calls " Spirits." His Lordship will understand my meaning without any further explanation : he is welcome to read this if he chooses, if the opinions of an obscure Hindoo interests him. Were he a poor man, he might have become an English Dupotet, with the addition of great scientific attainments in exact science. But alas ! what the peerage has gained psychology has lost. And yet it is not too late. But see, even after mastering magnetic science and giving his powerful mind to the study of the noblest branches of exact science, how even he has failed to lift more than a small corner of the veil of mystery. Ah ! that whirling, showy, glittering world, full of insatiable ambition, where family and the State parcel out between them a man's nobler nature, as two tigers a carcase, and leave him without hope or light. How many recruits could we not have from it, if no sacrifice were exacted ! His Lordship's letter to you exhales an influence of sincerity tinged with regret. This is a good man at heart with latent capacity for being a far better and a happier one. Had his lot not been cast as it has, and had his intellectual power all been turned upon Soul-culture, he would have achieved much more than he ever dreamt. Out of such material were adepts made in the days of Aryan glory. But I must dwell no longer upon this case ; and I crave his Lordship's pardon if, in the bitterness of my regret I over-stepped in any way the bounds of propriety, in this too free '* psychometrical delineation of character " as the American mediums would express it . . . full measure only bounds excess " but—I dare go no further. Ah, my too positive and yet impatient friend, if you but had such latent capacities ! The " direct communication " with me of which you write in your supplement note, and the ** enormous advantage " that it would bring " to the book itself if it can be conceded," would be so conceded at once, did it depend but of me alone. Though it is not often judicious to repeat oneself, yet I am so anxious that you should realize the present impracticability of such an arrangement, were it even conceded by our Superiors, that I will indulge in a brief retrospect of principles stated.
We might leave out of the question the most vital point—oneyou would hesitate perhaps to believe—that the refusal con-cerned as much your own salvation (from the standpoint ofyour worldly material considerations) as my enforced compliance with our time-honoured Rules. Again I might cite thecase of Olcott (who, had he not been permitted to communicateface to face—and without any intermediary—with us, might havesubsequently shown less zeal and devotion but more discretion)and his fate up to the present. But, the comparison would doubtless appear to you strained. Olcott—would you say—is anenthusiast, a stubborn, unreasoning mystic, who goes headlongbefore him, blindfolded, and who will not allow himself to lookforward with his own eyes. While you are a sober, matter-offact man of the world, the son of your generation of cool thinkers; ever keeping fancy under the curb, and saying to enthusiasm: ** Thus far shalt thou go and no farther." . . . Perhaps youare right—perhaps not. " No Lama knows where the her-chhinfI will hurt him until he puts it on,'* says a Tibetan proverb. However, let that pass, for I must tell you now that for opening"direct communication" the only possible means would be:(i) For each of us to meet in our own physical bodies. I beingwhere I am, and you in your own quarters, there is a materialimpediment for me. (2) For both to meet in our astral form—which would necessitate your " getting out " of yours, as wellasmy leaving my body. The spiritual impediment to this is on yourpart. (3) To make you hear my voice either within you or nearyou as "the old lady " does. This would be possible in either oftwo ways : (a) My chiefs have but to give me permission to setup the condition—and this for the present they refuse ; or (b) foryou to hear my voice, i.e., my natural voice without any psychophysiological tamasha being employed by me (again as we oftendo among ourselves). But then, to do this, not only have one'sspiritual senses to be abnormally opened, but one must himselfhave mastered the great secret—yet undiscovered by science—of,so to say abolishing all the impediments of space ; of neutralising!for the time being the natural obstacles of intermediary particlesof air and forcing the waves to strike your ear in reflected sounds^or echo. Of the latter you know as yet only enough to regardIthis as an unscientific absurdity. Your physicists, not havinguntil recently mastered acoustics in this direction, any further thanto acquire a perfect (?) knowledge of the vibration of sonorousbodies and of reverberations through tubes, may sneeringly ask: " Where are your indefinitely continued sonorous bodies to con-duct through space the vibrations of the voice? " We answer thatour tubes, though invisible, are indestructible and far more perfect than those of modern physicists, by whom the velocity of the transmission of mechanical force through the air is represented as at the rate of 1,100 feet a second and no more—if I mistake not. But then, may there not be people who have found more perfect and rapid means of transmission, from being somewhat better acquainted with the occult powers of air (dkas) and having plus a more cultivated judgment of sound? But of this we will argue later on.
There is still more serious inconvenience ; and almost insur- mountable obstacle—for the present, and one under which I myself am labouring, while even I do no more than correspond with you, a simple thing that any other mortal could do. It is my utter inability to make you understand my meaning in my ex- planation of even physical phenomena, let alone the spiritual rationale. This is not the first time I mention it. It is, as though a child should ask me to teach him the highest problems of Euclid before he had even begun studying the elementary rules of arithmetic. Only the progress one makes in the study of Arcane knowledge from its rudimental elements, brings him gradually to understand our meaning. Only thus, and not otherwise, does it, strengthening and refining those mysterious links of sympathy between intelligent men—the temporarily isolated fragments of the universal Soul and the cosmic Soul itself—bring them into full rapport. Once this established, then only will these awakened sympathies serve, indeed, to connect Man with—what for the want of a European scientific word more competent to express the idea, I am again compelled to describe as that energetic chain which binds together the material and Immaterial Kosmos,—Past, Present, and Future—and quicken his perceptions so as to clearly grasp, not merely all things of matter but of Spirit also. I feel even irritated at having to use these three clumsy words—past, present and future ! Miserable concepts of the objective phases of the Subjective Whole, they are about as ill adapted for the purpose as an axe for fine carving. Oh, my poor, disappointed friend, that you were already so far advanced on THE PATH, that this simple transmission of ideas should not be encumbered by the conditions of matter, the union of your mind with ours— prevented by its induced incapabilities ! Such is unfortunately the inherited and self-acquired grossness of the Western mind ; and so greatly have the very phrases expressive of modern thoughts been developed in the line of practical materialism, that it is now next to impossible either for them to comprehend or for us to express in their own languages anything of that delicate seemingly ideal machinery of the Occult Kosmos. To some little extent that faculty can be acquired by the Europeans through study and meditation but that's all. And here is the bar which has hitherto pre- vented a conviction of the Theosophical truths from gaining wider currency among- Western Nations ; caused Theosophical studytobe cast aside as useless and fantastic by Western philosophers.How shall I teach you to read and write or even comprehendalanguage of which no alphabet palpable, or words audible to youhave yet been invented ! How could the phenomena of ourmodern electrical science be explained to say a Greek philosopherof the days of Ptolemy were he suddenly recalled to life—withsuch an unbridged hiatus in discovery as would exist betweenhisand our age? Would not the very technical terms be to himanunintelligible jargon, an abracadabra of meaningless sounds, andthe very instruments and apparatuses used, but " miraculous"monstrosities? And suppose, for one instant, I were to describeto you the hues of those colour rays that lie beyond the so-called" visible spectrum "—rays invisible to all but a very few evenamong us ; to explain, how we can fix in space any one of thesocalled subjective or accidental colours—the complement (to speakmathematically) moreover, of any other given colour of a dichromatic body (which alone sounds like an absurdity), could youcomprehend, do you think, their optical effect or even my meaning? And, since you see them not, such rays, nor can know them,nor have you any names for them as yet in Science, if I weretotell you ; —** My good friend, Sinnett, if you please, without moving from your writing desk, try, search for and produce beforeyour eyes the whole solar spectrum decomposed into fourteen prismatic colours (seven being complementary), as it is but withthehelp of that occult light that you can see me from a distance asIsee you." . . . What think you, would be your answer?What would you have to reply ? Would you not be likely enoughto retort by telling me in your own quiet, polite way, that as therenever were but seven (now three) primary colours, which, moreover, have never yet by any known physical process—^been seendecomposed further than the seven prismatic hues—my invitationwas as " unscientific " as it was ** absurd " ? Adding that myoffer to search for an imaginary solar ** complement " beingnocompliment to your knowledge of physical science—I had better,perhaps, go and search for my mythical " dichromatic " and solar" pairs " in Tibet, for modern science has hitherto been unabletobring under any theory even so simple a phenomenon as thecolours of all such dichromatic bodies. And yet—truth knows—1 these colours are objective enough !
So you see, the insurmountable difficulties in the way of attain-ing not only Absolute but even primary knowledge in OccultScience, for one situated as you are. How could you make yourself understood—command in fact those semi-intelligent Forces,whose means of communicating with us are not through spokenwords but through sounds and colours, in correlations betweenthe vibrations of the two? For sound, Hgfht and colours are the main factors in forming^ these g-rades of Intellig-ences, these being-s, of whose very existence you have no conception, nor are you allowed to believe in them—Atheists and Christians, materialists and Spiritualists, all bring-ing- forward their respective arg-uments against such a belief—Science objecting stronger than either of these to such a ** degrading superstition *' !
Thus, because they cannot with one leap over the boundary walls attain to the pinnacles of Eternity ; because we cannot take a savage from the centre of Africa and make him comprehend at once the Principia of Newton or the " Sociology " of Herbert Spencer ; or make an unlettered child write a new Iliad in old Achaian Greek ; or an ordinary painter depict scenes in Saturn or sketch the inhabitants of Arcturus—because of all this our very existence is denied ! Yes ; for this reason are believers in us pro- nounced impostors and fools, and the very science whi^gli leads to the highest goal of the highest knowledge, to the real tasting of the Tree of Life and Wisdom—is scouted as a wild flight of Imagination !
Most earnestly do I ask you not to see in the above a mere ventilation of personal feeling. My time is precious and I have none to lose. Still less ought you to see in this an effort to disgust or dissuade you from the noble work you have just begun. Nothing of the kind ; for what I now say may avail for as much as it can and no more : but—vera pro gratis—I warn you, and will say no more, apart from reminding you in a general way, that the task you are so bravely undertaking, that Missio in partis infidelium— is the most ungrateful, perhaps, of all tasks ! But, if you believe in my friendship for you, if you value the word of honour of one who never—never during his whole life polluted his lips with an untruth, then do not forget the words I once wrote to you (see my last letter) of those who ens^age themselves in the occult sciences ; he who does it " must either reach the goal or perish. Once fairly started on the way to the great Knowledge, to doubt is to risk insanity ; to come to a dead stop is to fall ; to recede is to tumble backward, headlong into an abyss." Fear not, —if you are sincere, and that you are—now. Are you as sure of yourself, as to the future?
But I believe it quite time to turn to less transcendental and what you would call less gloomy and more mundane matters. Here, no doubt, you will be much more at home. Your experience, your training, your intellect, your knowledge of the exterior world, in short, all combine to aid you in the accomplishment of the task you have undertaken. For they place you on an infinitely higher level than myself as regards the consideration of writing a book, after your Society's own heart. Though the interest I take in it may amaze some who are likely to retort on me and mycol-leagues with our own arguments, and to remark that our " boastedelevation over the common herd " (our friend Mr. Hume's words)—above the interests and passions of ordinary humanity, mustmilitate against our having any conception of the ordinary affairsof life—yet I confess that I do take an interest in this bookandits success, as great as in the success in life of its future author.
I hope that at least you will understand that we (or most of us)are far being the heartless, morally dried up mummies somewould fancy us to be. ** Mejnoor " is very well, where he is—as an ideal character of a thrilling—in many respects truthfulstory. Yet, believe me, few of us would care to play the partinlife of a dessicated pansy between the leaves of a volume of solemnpoetry. We may not be quite the ** boys "—to quote Olcott'sirreverent expression, when speaking of us—yet none of ourdegree are like the stern hero of Bulwer's romance. Whilethefacilities of observation secured to some of us by our conditioncertainly give a greater breadth of view, a more pronounced andimpartial, as a more widely spread humaneness—for answeringAddison, we might justly maintain that it is . . . "thebusiness of magic to humanise our natures with compassion *' forthe whole mankind as all living beings, instead of concentratingand limiting our affections to one predilected race—yet few ofus(except such as have attained the final negation of Moksha)canso far enfranchise ourselves from the influence of our earthly connection as to be insusceptible in various degrees to the higherpleasures, emotions, and interests of the common run of humanity.Until final emancipation reabsorbs the Ego it must be consciousof the purest sympathies called out by the esthetic effects of highart, its tenderest cords to respond to the call of the holier andnobler human attachments. Of course, the greater the progresstowards deliverance, the less this will be the case, until, to crownall, human and purely individual personal feelings—blood-ties andfriendship, patriotism and race predilection—all will give way,tobecome blended into one universal feeling, the only true and holy,the only unselfish and eternal one—Love, an Immense Loveforhumanity—as a Whole! For it is ** humanity " which is thegreat Orphan, the only disinherited one upon this earth, my friend.And it is the duty of every man who is capable of an unselfishimpulse to do something, however little, for its welfare. Poor,poor humanity ! it reminds me of the old fable of the war betweenthe Body and its members : here, too, each limb of this huge" orphan"—fatherless and motherless—selfishly cares but forit-self. The body uncared for suffers internally, whether the limbsare at war or at rest. Its suffering and agony never ceases.. . . And who can blame it—as your materialistic philosophers do—if, in this everlasting isolation and neglect it has evolved gods, unto whom " it ever cries for help but is not heard ! " . . Thus—
" Since there is no hope for man only in man I would not let one cry whom I could save !
Yet I confess that I, individually, am not yet exempt from some of the terrestrial attachments. I am still attracted towards some men more than toward others, and philanthropy as preached by our Great Patron—*' the Saviour of the World—the Teacher of Nirvana and the Law "... has never killed in me either individual preferences of friendship, love—for my next of kin—or the ardent feeling of patriotism for the country—in which I was last materially individualized. And, in this connection I may some day, unasked, offer a bit of advice to my friend, Mr. Sinnett, to whisper into the ear of the Editor of the Pioneer, En attendant—** May I beg the former to inform Dr. Wyld, the Prest. of the British T.S., of the few truths concerning us as shown above? Will you kindly undertake to persuade this excellent gentleman, that not one of the humble "dew drops" which, assuming under various pretexts the form of vapour, have at various periods disappeared in the space to congeal in the white Himalayan clouds, have ever tried to slip back into the shining Sea of Nirvana through the unhealthy process of hanging by the legs or by making unto themselves another ** coat of skin " out of the sacred cow-dung of the " thrice holy cow " ! The British President labours under the most original ideas about us, whom he persists in calling *' Yogis," without allowing the slightest margin to the enormous difference which exists even between ** Hatha and Raj Yog." This mistake must be laid at the door of Mrs. B.—the able editor of " The Theosophisf ; who fills up her volumes with the practices of divers Sannyasis and other *' blessed ones " from the plains, without ever troubling herself with a few additional lines of explanation.
And now, to still more important matters. Time is precious and material (I mean writing material) is still more so. *' Precipitation ' ' —in your case having become unlawful ; lack of —whether ink or paper—standing no better chance for * * Tamasha, ' ' and I being far away from home, and at a place where a stationer's shop is less needed than breathing air, our correspondence threatens to break very abruptly, unless I manage my stock in hand judiciously. A friend promises to supply me in case of great need with a few stray sheets, memento relics of his grandfather's will, by which he disinherited him and thus made his " fortune." But, as he never wrote one line but once, he says—for the last eleven years, except on such " doublesuperfin glad " made at Thibet as you might irreverently mistake for blotting paper in its primitive days, and that the will isdrawn upon a like material—we might as well turn to your bookat once. Since you do me the favour of asking my opinion,Imay tell you that the idea is an excellent one. Theosophy needssuch help, and the results will be what you anticipate in Englandas well. It may also help our friends in Europe—generally.
I lay no restrictions upon your making use of anything I mayhave written to you or Mr. Hume, having full confidence in yourtact and judgment as to what should be printed and how it shouldbe presented. I must only ask you for reasons upon whichImust be silent (and I am sure you will respect that silence) not touse one single ivord or passage from my last letter to you—theone written after my long silence, no date, and the first one for-warded to you by our "old lady." I just quoted from it atpage 4. Do me the favour, if my poor epistles are worth preserving, to lay it by in a separate and sealed envelope. You mayhave to unseal it only after a certain period of time has elapsed.As to the rest—I relinquish it to the mangling tooth of criticism.Nor would I interfere with the plan you have roughly sketchedout in your mind. But I would strongly recommend you in itsexecution to lay the greatest stress upon small circumstances—(could you oblige me with some receipt for blue ink?) which tendto show the impossibility of fraud or conspiracy. Reflect well howbold a thing it is to endorse phenomena as adeptic which theSpiritsts. have already stamped as proofs of mediumship andskeptics as legerdemain. You should not omit one jot or tittleof collateral evidence that support your position, something youhave neglected doing in your ** A " letter in the Pioneer. Forinstance, my friend tells me that it was a thirteenth cup and thepattern unmatchable, in Simla at least. ^ The pillow waschosen by yourself—and yet the word ** pillow *' occurs in mynoteto you, just as the word ** tree " or anything else would havebeen substituted, had you chosen another depository, instead ofthe pillow. You will find all such trifles serving you as the mostpowerful shield for yourself against ridicule and sneers. Thenyou will of course, aim to show that this Theosophy is no newcandidate for the world's attention, but only the restatement of principles which have been recognised from the very infancy of manlcind. The historic sequence ought to be succinctly yet graphically traced through the successive evolutions of philosophical schools, and illustrated with accounts of the experimental demonstrations of occult power ascribed to various thaumaturgists. The alternate breakings-out and subsidences of mystical phenomena ; as well as their shifting from one centre to another of population, show the conflicting play of the opposing forces of spirituality and animalism. And lastly it will appear that the present tidal-wave of phenomena, with its varied effects upon human thought and feeling, made the revival of Theosophical enquiry an indispensable necessity. The only problem to solve is the practical one, of how best to promote the necessary study, and give to the spiritualistic movement a needed upward impulse. It is a good beginning to make the inherent capabilities of the inner, living man better comprehended. To lay down the scientific proposition that since akrshu (attraction) and Prshu (repulsion) are the law of nature, there can be no intercourse or relations between clean and unclean Souls—embodied or disembodied ; and hence, ninety-nine hundredths of supposed spiritual communications, are, prima facie false. Here is as great a fact to work upon as you can find, and it cannot be made too plain. So, while a better selection might have been made for the Theosophist in the way of illustrative anecdotes, as, for instance, well authenti- cated historical cases, yet the theory of turning the minds of phenomenalists into useful and suggestive channels away from mere mediumistic dogmatism was the correct one.
What I meant by the '* Forlorn Hope" was that where one re- gards the magnitude of the task to be undertaken by our theo- sophical volunteers, and especially the multitudinous agencies arrayed, and to be arrayed, in opposition, we may well compare it to one of those desperate efforts against overwhelming odds that the true soldier glories to attempt. You have done well to see the ** large purpose " in the small beginning of the T.S. Of course if we had undertaken to found and erect it in propria persona very likely it would have accomplished more and made fewer mistakes, but we could not do this nor was it the plan : our two agents are given the task and left—as you now are—to do the best they could under the circumstances. And much has been wrought. Under the surface of Spiritualism runs a current that is wearing a broad channel for itself. When it reappears above ground its effects will be apparent. Already, many minds like yours are pondering the question of occult law—forced upon the thinking public by this agitation. Like you, they are dissatisfied with what has been hitherto attainable and clamour for better. Let this—encourage you.
It is not quite accurate that by having such minds in the Societythey would be " under conditions more favourable for observation " for us. Rather put it, that by the act of joining othersympathisers in this organization they are stimulated to effort andincite each other to investigate. Unity always gives strength.And since occultism in our day resembles a '' Forlorn Hope,*'union and co-operation are indispensable. Union does indeedimply a concentration of vital and magnetic force against thehostile currents of prejudice and fanaticism.
ostile currents of prejudice and fanaticism. I wrote a few words in the Maratha boy's letter, only to showyou that he was obeying orders in submitting his views to you.Apart from his exaggerated idea about huge fees, his letter is ina way worth considering. For Damodar is a Hindoo—and knowsthe mind of his people at Bombay ; though the Bombay Hindoosare about as unspiritual a group as can be found in all India.But, like the devoted enthusiastic lad he is, he jumped after themisty form of his own ideas even before I could give themtheright direction. All quick thinkers are hard to impress—in a flashthey are out and away in " full cry," before half understandingwhat one wants to have them think. This is our trouble withboth Mrs. B. and O. The frequent failure of the latter to carryout the suggestions he sometimes receives—even when written,isalmost wholly due to his own active mentality preventing his dis-tinguishing our impressions from his own conceptions. AndMissus B.'s trouble is (apart from physical ailments) that shesometimes listens to two or more of our voices at once; e.g., thismorning while the ** Disinherited," whom I have accommodatedwith space for a footnote—was talking with her on an importantmatter, she lent an ear to one of ours, who is passing throughBombay from Cyprus, on his way to Thibet—and so got bothinan inextricable confusion. Women do lack the power of concentration.
And now, my good friend and co-worker—an irremediable paperless condition obliges me to close. Farewell, until you return,unless you will be content as hitherto to pass our correspondencethrough the accustomed channel. Neither of us would prefer this.But until authority is given to change it must be even so. Wereshe to die to-day—and she is really sick—you would not receivemore than two, or at most three more letters from me (throughDamodar or Olcott, or through already established emergentagencies), and then, that reservoir of force being exhausted—ourparting would be final. However, I will not anticipate; eventsmight bring us together somewhere in Europe. But whetherwemeet or not, during your trip, be assured that my personal goodwishes will attend you. Should you actually need now and againthe help of a happy thought as your work progresses, it may, very likely be, osmosed into your head—if sherry bars not the way, as it has already done at Allahabad. May the " deep Sea " deal gently with you and your house.
Ever yours, K. H.
P.S. —The ** friend " of whom the Lord Lindsay speaks in his letter to you, is, I am sorry to say, a true skunk mephitis, who managed to perfume himself with ess-bouquet in his presence during their palmy days of friendship, and so avoided being recognised by his natural stench. It is Home—the medium, a convert to Roman Catholicism, then to Protestantism, and finally to the Greek Church. He is the bitterest and most cruel enemy O. and Mad. B. have, though he has never met either of them. For a certain time he succeeded in poisoning the Lord's mind, and prejudiced him against them. I do not like saying anything be- hind a man's back, for it looks like back-biting. Yet in view ot some future events I feel it my duty to warn you, for this one is an exceptionally bad man—hated by the Spiritualists and mediums as much as he is despised by those—who have learned to know him. Yours is a work which clashes directly with his. Though a poor sickly cripple, a paralysed wretch, his mental faculties are as fresh and as alive as ever to mischief. He is no man to stop before a slanderous accusation—however vile and lying. So— beware. K. H.
