Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett - 1923
By A. T. Barker
Letter No XXX
Private,
My dear Brother.
Perhaps, a week ago, I would have hardly failed to embrace thisavailable opportunity and say that your letter concerning- Mr. Fernis as complete a misrepresentation of the spirit, and above all, ofthe attitude of M. towards the said young gentleman, as yourcomplete ignorance of the aims he is pursuing could produce—and I would have said no more. But now, things have changed; and though you have '' come to know " that we '* did not really possess the power of reading minds" as had been pretended,nevertheless, we know enough of the spirit in which my last letterswere received, and of the dissatisfaction produced, to suspect, if not to know that unwelcome as truth may often come, yet the timehas arrived for me to speak frankly and openly with you. Lyingis a refuge to the weak, and we are sufficiently strong, evenwith all the shortcomings you are pleased to discover in us, todread truth very little ; nor are we likely to lie, only because it is to our interest to appear wise concerning matters of which we are ignorant. Thus, perchance it might have been more prudent to remark that you knew that we did not really possess the power of reading minds, unless we brought ourselves thoroughly en rap- port with, and concentrated an undivided attention on, the persons whose thoughts we wanted to know—since that would be an undeniable fact, instead of a gratuitous assumption as it now stands in your letter. However it may be, I now find but two ways before us, with not the smallest path for compromise. Henceforth, if your desire is that we should work together, we must do so on a footing of perfect understanding. You will be at perfect liberty to tell us—since you seem, or rather have brought yourself to sincerely believe it—that most of us, owing to the mystery that enshrouds us, live by getting credit for knowing what we really do not know ; while I, for instance, will be as entitled as you are, to let you know what I may think of you, yourself meanwhile promising, that you will not laugh at it out- wardly, and bear a grudge for it inwardly (something that not- withstanding your efforts you can rarely help) but that, in case I am mistaken you will prove it by some demonstration weightier than a mere denial. Unless you bind yourself by such a promise, it is utterly useless for any of us to be losing our time in controversies and correspondences. Better shake hands astrally, across space, and wait until either you have acquired the gift of discerning truth from falsehood to a greater degree than you now have it ; or, that we are shown to be no better than impostors (or still worse—lying spooks) ; or finally, that some one of us is in a position to demonstrate our existence to yourself or Mr. Sinnett—not astrally, for that might only strengthen the '* Spirit" theory but—by visiting you personally.
Since it becomes quite hopeless to convince you that even we occasionally, do read other people's thoughts, may I hope that you will credit us, at least, with a sufficient knowledge of the English language not to have entirely misunderstood your very plain letter? And, to believe me, when I say, that having perfectly understood it, I answer you as plainly ** My dearest Brother, you are egregiously mistaken from first to last ! " Your whole letter is based upon a misconception, an entire ignorance of " missing links," which alone may have given you a true key to the whole situation. What can you mean by the following?
My dear Master.
Amongst you you are utterly spoiling Fern—it is a thousand pities—for he is really a good fellow at heart and he has an intense desire for Occult knowledge—a strong will and great capacity for self- and he is becoming- a confirmed fabricator of fiction and this is due to you all. He has thoroughly humbugged Morya! ! from the first—and he has gone persistently lying to Sinnett to keep up the delusion he has got Morya to entrust him withsecrets and to accept him as a chela and he now thinks himself a match for anyone. . . . Morya replies quite falling into the trap this fraud . . . no doubt commenced in (y)our interests . . . etc. etc. etc.mortification —he would I am sure be useful for your purposes ; but his self-conceit is growing intolerable It is unnecessary for me to repeat once more what I have said before ; namely, that up to receiving your first letter concerningMr. Fern, I had never given him one moment's attention. Whothen, ** amongst us—spoils that young gentleman? Is it Morya?Well, it is easy to see, that you know still less of him, than heknows, in your conceptions, of what you have in your mind." He has thoroughly humbugged Morya." Has he? I am sorryto be obliged to confess that, in accordance with your westerncode it would look rather the reverse; that it was my belovedBrother who ** humbugged " Mr. Fern—had not the ill-sounding term another meaning with us, as also another name. The latter of course, may appear to you still more '* revolting," since evenMr. Sinnett, who is but the echo in that of every English Societyman, regards it as thoroughly revolting to the feelings of theaverage Englishman. That other name is—probation; somethingevery chela who does not want to remain simply ornamental hasnolens volens to undergo for a more or less prolonged period;something that—for this very reason that it is undoubtedly basedupon what you westerns would ever view as a system of humbugor deception—that I, who knew European ideas better than Morya,have always refused to accept or even to regard any of you twoas—chelas. Thus, what you have now mistaken for ** humbug"as coming from Mr. Fern, you would have charged M. with it, had you only known a little more than you do of our policy ; whereas the truth is, that one is utterly irresponsible for much heis now doing, and that the other is carrying out that of which hehas honestly warned Mr. Fern beforehand; that, which,—if youhave read, as you say, the correspondence—^you must have learnedfrom H.P.B. 's letter to Fern from Madras, that in her jealousyfor M.'s favours, she wrote to him to Simla, hoping she wouldthereby frighten him off. A chela under probation is allowed tothink and do whatever he likes. He is warned and told before-hand : you will be tempted and deceived by appearances ; two pathswill be open before you, both leading to the goal you are trying to attain ; one easy, and that will lead you more rapidly to a fulfil- ment of orders you may receive; the other—more arduous, morelong ; a i>ath full of stones and thorns that will make you stumblemore than once on your way ; and, at the end of which you may, perhaps, find failure after all and be unable to carry out the orders given for some particular small work,—but, whereas the latter will cause the hardships you have undergone on it to be all carried to the side of your credit in the long run, the former, the easy path, can offer you but a momentary gratification, an easy fulfil- ment of the task. The chela is at perfect liberty, and often quite justified from the standpoint of appearances—to suspect his Guru of being *' a fraud " as the elegant word stands. More than that ; the greater, the sincerer his indignation—whether expressed in words or boiling in his heart—^the more fit he is, the better qualified to become an adept. He is free to, and will not be held to account for using the most abusive words and expressions regarding his guru's actions and orders, provided he comes out victorious from the fiery ordeal ; provided he resists all and every temptation ; rejects every allurement, and proves that nothing, not even the promise of that which he holds dearer than life, of that most precious boon, his future adeptship—is unable to make him deviate from the path of truth and honesty, or force him to become a deceiver. My dear Sir, we will hardly ever agree in our ideas of things, even of the value of words. You have once upon a time called us Jesuits ; and, viewing things as you do, perhaps, you were right to a certain extent in so regarding us, since apparently our systems of training do not differ much. But it is only externally. As I once said before, they know that what they teach is a lie; and we know that what we impart is truth, the only truth and nothing but the truth. They work for the greater power and glory ( !) of their Order; we—for the power and final glory of indi- viduals, of isolated units, of humanity in general, and we are content, nay forced—^to leave our order and its chiefs entirely in the shade. They work, and toil, and deceive, for the sake of worldly power in this life; we work and toil, and allow our chelas to he temporarily deceived, to afford them means never to be deceived hereafter, and to see the whole evil of falsity and untruth, not alone in this but in many of their after-lives. They—the Jesuits sacrifice the inner principle, the Spiritual brain of the ego, to feed and develop the better the physical brain of the personal evanescent man, sacrificing the whole humanity to offer it as a holocaust to their Society—^the insatiable monster feeding on the brain and marrow of humanity,—and developing an incurable cancer on every spot of healthy flesh it touches. We—the criticized and misunderstood Brothers—we seek to bring men to sacrifice their personality —a passing flash—for the welfare of the whole humanity, hence for their own immortal Egos, a part of the latter, as humanity is a fraction of the integral whole, that it will one day become. They are trained to deceive; we—to undeceive; they do the scavenger's work themselves—barring a few poor sincere tools of theirs—con amore, and for selfish ends ; we—leave it to ourmenials—the dugpas at our service, by g^iving them carte blanchefor the time being-, and with the sole object of drawing out thewhole inner nature of the chela, most of the nooks and corners ofwhich, would remain dark and concealed for ever, were not anopportunity afforded to test each of these corners in turn. Whetherthe chela wins or loses the prize—depends solely of himself. Only,you have to remember that our eastern ideas about ** motives "and " truthfulness " and '* honesty " differ considerably from yourideas in the West. Both we believe that it is moral to tell thetruth and immoral to lie; but here every analogy stops and ournotions diverge in a very remarkable degree. For instance it would be a most difficult thing for you to tell me, how it is thatyour civilized Western Society, Church and State, politics andcommerce have ever come to assume a virtue that it is quite impossible for either a man of education, a statesman, a trader, or any-one else living in the world—^to practice in an unrestricted sense?Can any one of the above-mentioned classes—the flower of England's chivalry, her proudest peers and most distinguished commoners, her most virtuous and truth-speaking ladies—can any ofthem speak the truth, I ask, whether at home, or in Society,during their public functions or in the family circle? What wouldyou think of a gentleman, or a lady, whose affable politeness ofmanner and suavity of language would cover no falseness; who,in meeting you would tell you plainly and abruptly what he thinksof you, or of anyone else? And where can you find that pearl ofhonest tradesmen or that god-fearing patriot, or politician, or asimple casual visitor of yours, but conceals his thoughts the wholewhile, and is obliged under the penalty of being regarded as abrute, a madman—to lie deliberately, and with a bold face, nosooner he is forced to tell you what he thinks of you ; unless for awonder his real feelings demand no concealment? All is lie, aUfalsehood, around and in us, my brother; and that is why youseemed so surprised, if not affected, whenever you find a person,who will tell you bluntly truth to your face; and also whyit seems impossible for you to realize that a man may have no ill feelings against you, nay even like and respect you for somethings, and yet tell you to your face what he honestly and sincerelythinks of you. In noticing M's opinion of yourself expressed insome of his letters—(you must not feel altogether so sure thatbecause they are in his handwriting-, they are written by him,though of course every word is sanctioned by him to serve certainends)—You say he has ** a peculiar mode of expressing himself tosay the least." Now, that '* way " is simply the bare truth, whichhe is ready to write to yourself, or even say and repeat to yourface, without the least concealment or change—(unless he has pur- posely allowed the expression;* to be exaggerated for the same purposes as mentioned above) ; and he is—of all the men I know just the one to do it without the least hesitation ! And for this, you call him '* an imperious sort of chap very angry if he is opposed," but add, that you ** bear him for it no malice, and like him none the less for that." Now this is not so, my brother, and you know it. However, I am prepared to concede the definition in a limited sense, and to admit and repeat with you (and himself at my elbow) that he is a very imperious sort of chap, and certainly very apt sometimes to become angry, especially if he is opposed in what he knows to be right. Would you think more of him, were he to conceal his anger; to lie to himself and the outsiders, and so permit them to credit him with a virtue he has not? If it is a meritorious act to extirpate with the roots all feelings of anger, so as to never feel the slightest paroxysm of a passion we all consider sinful, it is a still greater sin with us to pretend that it is so extirpated. Please read over the ** Elixir of Life " No. 2 (April, p. 169 col. I, paras. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6). And yet in the ideas of the West, everything is brought down to appearances even in religion. A confessor does not inquire of his penitent whether he felt anger, but whether he has shown anger to anyone. ** Thou shalt in lying, stealing, killing, etc. avoid being detected '' —seems to be the chief commandment of the Lord gods of civiliza- tion—Society and Public opinion. That is the sole reason why you, who belong to it, will hardly if ever be able to appreciate such characters as Morya's : a man as stern for himself, as severe for his own shortcomings, as he is indulgent for the defects of other f>eople, not in words but in the innermost feelings of his heart ; for, while ever ready to tell you to your face anything he may think of you, he yet was ever a stauncher friend to you than myself, who may often hesitate to hurt anyone's feelings, even in speaking the strictest truth. Thus, were M. one to ever descend to an explanation he could have told you : ** My Brother, in my opinion you are intensely egotistical and haughty. In your appreciation and self-adulation you generally lose sight of the rest of mankind, and I verily believe that you regard the whole universe created for man, and that man—yourself. If I cannot bear to be opposed when I know I am right, you can bear contradiction still less, even when your conscience plainly tells you that you are wrong. You are unable to forget—though I admit that you are one to forgive—the smallest slight. And, sincerely believing yourself to have been so slighted, by me (sat upon—as you once expressed it) to this day the supposed offence exercises a silent influence over all your thoughts in connexion with my humble individual. And though your great intellect will ever prevent any vindictive feelings from asserting themselves and thus over-ruling your better nature, yet they are not without a certain influenceeven over your reasoning- faculties, since you find pleasure (thoughyou will hardly admit it to yourself)—in devising^ means to catchme tripping to the length of representing me in your imaginationa fool, a credulous ignoramus capable of falling into the trap ofa—Fern ! Let us reason, my Brother. Let us put entirely asidethe fact of my being an initiate, an adept—and reason out theposition your imaginative faculties have created for me, like twocommon mortals with a certain dose of common sense in mine,and a great dose of the same in your head. If you are preparedto concede me even so little, I am prepared to prove to you thatit is absurd to think that I could have been taken in in the meshesof so poor a scheme ! You write that in order to test me. Fernwanted to know ** if Morya wished it (his vision) published—andMorya replied quite falling into the trap that he did wish it."Now, to credit the last assertion is rather hard ; and it needsaman of but moderate good sense and reasoning powers to p>erceivethat there are two insuperable difficulties in the way of reconcilingyour foregoing opinion of myself and the belief that I was actuallycaught in the trap. ist : The substance and text of the vision.In that vision there are three mysterious beings—the ** guru "—the ''Mighty one" and the "Father";—^the latter one beingyour humble servant. Now it is hard to believe—that unless I amcredited with faculties of a hallucinated medium—^that I, knowingwell that I had never approached, until then, the young gentle-man from within a mile's distance, nor had I ever visited him inhis dreams—that I should believe the reality of the visiondescribed, or that, at least, my suspicions should not have beenaroused by such a strange assertion. 2nd. The difficulty of reconciling the double fact of my beingan ** imperious chap " who gets very angry when opposed, and,my quiet submission to the disobedience, the rebellion of a chelaunder probation, who upon learning that " Morya did wish it—i.e. to have his vision published and had actually promised to re-write it, never thought of obeying the wish after that, nor hadthe poor fatuous guru and " Father " thought any more of thematter. Now the whole of the foregoing would be madfe quiteplain even to a man of an average intellect. The reverse havinghapf>ened, and a man of undoubtedly great intellectual and stillgreater reasoning powers, having been caught in the poorest cob-web of falsehood ever imagined—the conclusion is imperative andno other can be formed : that man allowed unknown to himselfto have his little vindictive feelings gratified at the expense ofhis logic and good sense. Buss, and we will talk no more of it. With all that, and while openly expressing my dislike for yourhaughtiness and selfishness in many things, I frankly recognize and express my admiration for your many other admirable qualities, for your sterling merits, and good sense in everything unconnected directly with yourself, —in which cases you become as imperious as myself, only far more impatient—and heartily hope you will pardon me for my blunt—and according to your western code of manners riuie talk. At the same time, like yourself, I will say, that not only do I not bear you malice, and like you none the less for that—but that what I say is a strict reality, the expression of my genuine feelings not merely words written to satisfy a sense of assumed duty."
And now, that I have made myself the spokesman unto you for Morya, I may, perhaps permitted to say a few words for myself. I will begin by reminding you, that at different times especially during the last two months, you have repeatedly offered yourself as a chela, and the first duty of one is to hear without anger or malice anything the guru may say. How can we ever teach or you learn if we have to maintain an attitude utterly foreign to us and our methods : —that of two Society men ? // you really want to be a chela i.e. to become the recipient of our mysteries you have to adapt yourself to our ways, not we to yours. Until you do so, it is useless for you to expect any more than we can give under ordinary circumstances. You wanted to teach Morya, and you may find out (and will if I am allowed by M. to have my own way) that he has taught you one, which will either make us friends and brothers for ever, or, —if there is more of the Western gentleman than of the Eastern chela and future adept you will break with us in disgust and perhaps proclaim it all over the world. For this we are all prepared and are trying to hurry on the crisis one way or the other. November is fast approaching and by that time everything has to be settled. The second question : do not you think good Brother, that the uncivilized, imperious chap who would tell you his mind, honestly and for your own good, and, at the same time would be carefully though unseen—protecting yourself, family and reputation from any possible harm—aye, brother, to the length of watching for nights and days a ruffian Mussulman menial bent upon having his revenge of you and actually destroying his evil plans—do not you think him worth ten times his weight in gold, a British Resident, a gentleman, who tears down your reputation to shreds behind your back and will smile upon and heartily shake hands with you whenever he meets you? Do not you think it is far nobler to say what one thinks, and having said—that even which you naturally regard as an impertinence—and then render to the person so treated all manner of services of which he is never likely to hear not only to find them out—than to do what the highly civilized Colonel or General Watson and especially his lady have done, when upon seeing for the first time in their lives the two strangers in their house—Olcott and a native judge in Baroda—took a pretext to disparagethe Society—because you were in it I I will not repeat to you thelies they were guilty of, the exaggerations and slanders directedagainst you by Mrs. Watson, and corroborated by her husband—the gallant soldier, so struck and unruffled was poor Olcott, bythe unexpected attack—he who feels so proud of your belongingto the Society that he appealed in his dismay to M. Had youheard what was told by the latter of you, how much he appreciated your present work and frame of mind you would havewillingly conceded him the right of being occasionally apparentlyrude. He forbade him telling any more than what he had alreadytold H.P.B. and which—^woman-like—she immediately impartedto Mr. Sinnett—though angry as she was with you at the timeeven she resented the insult and offence done to you deeply—andwent actually to the trouble of looking back into that past whenasMrs. Watson said you were receiving the hospitality at their house.Such is then, the difference between alleged well wishers andfriends of Western superior origin, and the as alleged—ill-wishersof the Eastern inferior race. Apart from this I concede to youthe right of feeling angry with M. ; for he has done somethingthat though it is in strict accordance with our rules and methods,will, when known be deeply resented by a Western mind, and,had I known it in time to stop it, I would have certainly preventedit from being done. It is certainly very kind of Mr. Fern toexpress his intention " to catch" us—** not of course to exposethe Old Lady," for what has the poor ** Old Lady " to do withall this ? But he is quite welcome to catch us and even to exposeus, not only for his and your protection but for that of the wholeworld if it can in any way console him for his failure. Andjail he will, that's certain, if he goes on in that way playing adouble game. The option of receiving him or not as a regularchela—remains with the Chohan. M. has simply to have himtested, tempted and examined by all and every means, so as tohave his real nature drawn out. This is a rule with us as inexor-able as it is disgusting in your western sight, and I could notprevent it even if I would. It is not enough to know thoroughlywhat the chela is capable of doing or not doing at the time andunder the circumstances during the period of probation. Wehave to know of what he may become capable under different andevery kind of opportunities. Our precautions are all taken. Noneof our Upasika or Yuposah, neither H.P.B. nor O., nor evenDamodar, nor any of them can be incriminated. He is welcometo show every letter in his possession, and to divulge that, whichwas offered to him to do, (the choice between the two paths beingleft at his option) and that which he has actually done, or rathei not done. When the time comes—if it ever comes to his misfortune—we have the means to show how much of it is true, and how much wrong- and invented by him. In the meanwhile, I have an advice to offer. Watch and do not say a word He was, is, and will be tempted to do all manner of wrong things. As 1 say, I knew nothing of what was going on till the other day ; when learning that even my name was indirectly mixed in the probation, I warned whom I had to warn, and forbid strictly my own business being mixed up with it. Yet, he is a magnificent subject for clairvoyance, and not at all as bad as you think him. He is conceited—but who is not? Who of us is entirely free from this defect. He may imagine and say what he likes, but that you should allow yourself to be so carried away with a prejudice the existence of which you are not even prepared to admit, is sur- passingly strange ! You sincerely crediting the statement that M. was humbugged and caught into the trap by Mr. Fern is something really too ludicrous, when even O. not only the ** Old Lady " never believed in it, since they knew he was to be under probation and also knew w^hat the thing meant. M. took pains a few days ago, to prove to you that he was never taken in, as you hoped, and that he laughed at the very idea; and most certainly Olcott will give you a good proof of it, albeit he is in the interior of Ceylon at this moment, where no letters let alone telegrams can reach. Nor was this ** fraud "—if you will call it so, ever commenced in our interest, for the simple reason that we have no interest in it—but in that of Mr. Fern and the Society, in the ideas of H.P.B. But why call it fraud? He asked her advice, he worried and supplicated her, and she told him—** Work for the cause; try to enquire and search and so to obtain every evidence you can of the existence of the Brothers. You see they will not come this year, but there are plenty of Lamas descending every year to Simla and the neighbourhood, and so, get all the evidence you can for yourself and Mr. Hume, etc." Is there anything wrong in this? When she received the MSS containing his vision, she asked M. and he who is called in it ** the mighty One " and the " Father " and what-not, told her the truth and then ordered her to ask Mr. Fern whether he would publish it, telling her and O. beforehand that he woidd not. What Morya knows of this and other visions, he alone knows and even I will never interfere in his ways of training, however distasteful they may be to me personally. The ** Old Lady " since you ask me, will of course know nothing. But you must know that since she went to Baroda, she has a worse opinion of Fern than even yourself. She learned there certain things of him and of Brookes, and heard others from the latter, he being as you know the Baroda Mejnoor of Fern's. She is a woman though she be an Upasika (female disciple) and except on Occult matters can hardlyhold her tongue. I believe we had enough of this. Whateverhas or will yet hapf>en it will aftect but Fern—no one else.
I hear of the projected grand theosophical Conversazione—andif, at that time you are still theosophists, of course it is better thatit should be in your house. And now, I would like to say to youa few parting words, notwithstanding the painful knowledgeI have of your chief and almost one defect—one that you have yourself confessed to in your letter to me, I wish you to believe me,my dearest Brother, when I say that my regard and respect foryou in all other things is great and very sincere. Nor, am I likelyto forget, whatever happens, that for many months past, with-out expecting or asking for any reward or advantage for yourselfyou have worked and toiled, day after day, for the good of theSociety and of humanity at large in the only hope of doing good.And, I pray you, good Brother, not to regard as ** reproaches"any simple remarks of mine. If, I have argued with you, it wasbecause I was forced to do so, since the Chohan regarded them^your suggestions) as something quite unprecedented; claims, inhis position, not to be listened to for one moment. Though youmay now regard the arguments directed against you in the lightof " undeserved reproaches," yet you may recognise some day,that you were really ** wanting unreasonable concessions." Thefact that, your pressing proposals that you—(not anyone else)—should, if f>ossible be allowed to acquire some phenomenal gift,which would be used in convincing others,—though it maybeaccepted as standing simply, in its dead letter sense " as a suggestion for (my) consideration " and that "in no way constituteda claim "—yet for anyone who could read beneath the surface ofthe lines, it appeared as a definite claim, indeed. I have all yourletters, and there is hardly one that does not breathe the spirit ofadetermined claim, a deserved request, i.e., a demand of that whichis due and the rejection of which gives you the right to feel yourself wronged. I doubt not, that such was not your intention inpenning them. But such w^as your secret thought and that inner-most feeling was always detected by the Chohan, whose nameyou several times use, and who took note of it. You undervaluewhat you got so far on the ground of inconsistency and incompleteness? I have asked you : take notes of the former, beginningwith the inconsistencies—as you regard them—in our first arguments pro and con, the existence of God; and ending with the suf>-posed contradiction in respect to accidents and suicides." Sendthen to me and I will prove to you that there is not one for himwho knows weU the whole doctrine. It is strange to accuse one,in the full possession of his brains that on Wednesday he wroteone thing, and on the Saturday or Sunday next had all forgotten about it and contradicted himself point blank ! I do not think even our H.P.B. with her ridiculously impaired memory could be guilty of such a complete oblivion. In your opinion "it is not worth while to be working" merely for the second class minds and you propose following out the lines of such an argument either get all or leave of the work entirely if you cannot get out immediately ** a Scheme of philosophy, which will bear the scrutiny and criticism of such men as Herbert Spencer." To this I reply that you sin against the multitudes. It is not among the Herbert Spencers and Darwins or the John Stuart Mills that the millions of Spiritualists now going intellectually to the dogs are to be found, but it is they who form the majority of the " second class minds." If you had but patience, you would have received all that you would like to get out of our speculative philosophy—meaning by "speculative" that it would have to remain such, of course, to all but adepts. But really, my dear brother you are not overloaded with that virtue. However I still fail to see, why you should be disheartened with the situation.
Whatever happens, I hope you may not resent the friendly truths you have heard from us. Why should you? Would you resent the voice of your conscience whispering to you that you are at times unreasonably impatient, and not at all as forbearing as you yourself would like to be ? True, you have been labouring for the cause without intermission for many months and in many directions ; but you must not think that because we have never shown any knowledge of what yoti have been doing, nor that, because we have never acknowledged or thanked you for it in our letters—that we are either ungrateful for, or ignore purposely or otherwise what you have done, for it is really not so. For, though no one ought to be expecting thanks, for doing his duty by humanity and the cause of truth,—since, after all, he who labours for others, labours but for himself—nevertheless, my Brother I feel deeply grateful to you for what you have done. I am not very demonstrative by nature but I do hope to prove to you some day, that I am not an ingrate, as you think. And you yourself, though you have been, indeed, forbearing in your letters to me, in not complaining about what you call flaws and inconsistencies in our letters, yet, you have not carried so far that forbearance, as to leave to time and further explanations the task of deciding whether such flaws were real or only apparently so upon their surface. You have always complained to Sinnett and even, in the beginning, to Fern. If you but consented for five minutes or so to fancy yourself in the position of a native guru and a European chela, you would soon perceive how monstrous must appear any such relations as ours to a native mind ; and you would blame no one for disrespect. Now, pray, understand me; / do not complain ; but the bare fact of your addressing meas** Master *' in your letters—makes me the laughing-stock of allour Tchutukhis who know anything of our mutual relation. I would never have mentioned this fact, but I am in a position todemonstrate to you by enclosing here a letter from Subba Rowto myself full of excuses, and another to H.P.B. —as full of sinceretruths, since they are both chelas, or rather disciples. I hopeI am not committing an indiscretion in the Western sense. Youwill please return to me both after reading them and noting whatthey say. This is sent to you in strict confidence and only foryour personal instruction. You will perceive therein, how muchyou English have to undo in India, before you can hope to do anything good in the country. Meanwhile, I must close, reiteratingto you once more the assurance of my sincere regards and esteem.
Yours
K. H.Believe me you are too severe upon and—iinjust to Fern.
