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diff --git a/36373-h/36373-h.htm b/36373-h/36373-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7644375 --- /dev/null +++ b/36373-h/36373-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4553 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of H. P. Blavatsky: a Great Betrayal, by Alice Leighton Cleather. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +#toc +{ + width: 80%; + margin: auto; +} + +#toc td +{ + padding: 0.25em; +} + +#toc td.right +{ + text-align: right; + vertical-align: bottom; +} + +#toc1 +{ + width: 80%; + margin: auto; +} + +#toc1 td +{ + padding: 0.25em; +} + +#toc1 td.right +{ + text-align: right; + vertical-align: bottom; +} + +.dropcap +{ + float: left; + padding-right: 3px; + font-size: 250%; + line-height: 83%; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {background:#F5F8EC} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + </style> + </head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of H. P. Blavatsky, by Alice Leighton Cleather + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: H. P. Blavatsky + A Great Betrayal + +Author: Alice Leighton Cleather + +Release Date: June 11, 2011 [EBook #36373] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK H. P. BLAVATSKY *** + + + + +Produced by David E. Brown, Margo Romberg, Bryan Ness and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 366px;"> +<img src="images/cover.png" width="366" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 66%;" /> + +<p class="center">WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</p> + +<p class="center"><b>H. P. Blavatsky:</b>—<i>Her Life and Work for Humanity.</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1922.</span><br /></p> + +<p class="center"><b>In Collaboration with Mrs. Laura Langford:</b>—<br /><i>Helena +Petrovna Blavatsky. Personal Recollections by Old Friends.</i> <br />New York, 1922.</p> + +<p class="center"><b>In Collaboration with Mr. Basil Crump:</b> <br /><i>Richard +Wagner's Music Dramas.</i> <br /> +Embodying Wagner's own interpretations based upon his studies of +Oriental Philosophy.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London: Methuen & Co., 4 Vols.</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 66%;" /> +<p><br /></p> + + +<p class="center">H. P. BLAVATSKY<br /><br /><br /> +</p> +<hr style="width: 66%;" /> + +<p>"Behold the truth before you! a clean life, an open mind, +a pure heart, an eager intellect, an unveiled spiritual perception, +a brotherliness for one's co-disciple, a readiness to give +and receive advice and instruction, a loyal sense of duty to the +Teacher, a willing obedience to the behests of TRUTH, +once we have placed our confidence in, and believe that +Teacher to be in possession of it; a courageous endurance of +personal injustice, a brave declaration of principles, a valiant +defence of those who are unjustly attacked, and a constant +eye to the ideal of human progression and perfection which +the secret science (<i>Gupta Vidya</i>) depicts—these are the +golden stairs up the steps of which the learner may climb to +the Temple of Divine Wisdom. Say this to those who have +volunteered to be taught by you."</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Letter to H. P. B. from her Master</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(concerning her E. S. students.)</span><br /><br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 66%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h1>H. P. BLAVATSKY</h1> + +<h1>A GREAT BETRAYAL<br /><br /></h1> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>ALICE LEIGHTON CLEATHER</h3> + +<h3><i>One of Her Pupils</i><br /><br /><br /></h3> + +<p class="center"><i>Published by</i></p> + +<p class="center">THACKER, SPINK & CO<br /> +CALCUTTA<br /><br /> +1922<br /><br /> +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 66%;" /> + + +<p>"Tell them ...; As pure water poured into the scavenger's +bucket is befouled and unfit for use, so is divine truth when +poured into the consciousness of a Sensualist.... Observe, +that the first of the steps of gold which mount towards the +Temple of Truth is—A CLEAN LIFE. This means a purity +of body, and a still greater purity of mind, heart and spirit."</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Letter to H. P. B. from her Master<br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(concerning her E. S. students.)<br /></span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><br />CONTENTS</h2> + +<table id="toc" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="right smcap">Page</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">Foreword</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#FOREWORD">vii</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">Introductory</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#INTRODUCTORY">1</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">Mr. William Kingsland on the Crisis of 1906</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Kingsland">7</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">M. M. Schuré and Lévy on the Crisis Of 1913</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Crisis">11</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">Mrs. Besant's "Return of the Christ"</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Return">15</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">Fundamental Causes: Some Occult Methods</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Occult">23</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">H. P. Blavatsky on True Occultism</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Occultism">31</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">Mrs. Besant's Responsibility and The Madras Law-suits</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Madras">39</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">The Central Hindu College: an Indian Criticism</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Central">43</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">Mrs. Besant's latest Assertions and Claims examined</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Claims">51</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">Tampering with H. P. Blavatsky's Writings</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Tampering">71</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">"Annie Besant's Corruption of the Secret Doctrine"</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Secret">76</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">The Truth about the E. S. Council and the Inner Group</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Truth">83</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">Conclusion</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Conclusion">89</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<h3>ADDENDUM.</h3> + +<table id="toc1" summary="Table of Contents1"> +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">The Australian Crisis</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Australian">92</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">An Indictment of Mrs. Besant by a Resigning Member of her E. S.</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Indictment">95</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="smcap">Bibliography</td> +<td class="right"><a href="#Bibliography">97</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><br />There is a very very ancient maxim far older than the +time of the Romans or the the Greeks .... It is a maxim all of them +them ought to remember—and live accordingly ... a sound +and pure mind requires a sound and pure body. Bodily +purity every adept takes precautions to keep.... Most of +them know this.... But though they have been repeatedly +told of this <i>sine qua non</i> rule on the Path of Theosophy +and <i>Chelaship</i>, how few of them have given attention to +it.... Behold, how many of them are ... debauchees, GUILTY +OF SECRET IMMORALITY in more than one form.... +Though such a person with any of the faults as above declared +[others are named] should fill the world with his charities, +and make his name known throughout every nation, he would +make no advancement in the practical occult sciences, but +be continually slipping backward. The 'six and ten +transcendental virtues,' the Paramitas<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>, are not for full +grown Yogis and priests alone, but for all those who would +enter the 'Path.'"</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Letter to H. P. B. from her Master</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(concerning her E. S. students.)</span><br /> +<br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>FOOTNOTES:</b></span> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +<i>See</i> "<i>The Voice of the Silence,</i>" <i>by H. P. Blavatsky.</i></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><br /><br /> <a name="FOREWORD" id="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD.</h2> + + +<p>This Protest has been undertaken at the earnest +and repeated requests of Theosophical friends of +long standing. They feel strongly that the time +has come for one of H. P. Blavatsky's old pupils, +who was a member of her Inner Group, to +demonstrate as clearly as possible that the +teachings promulgated for nearly twenty years +past by the present leaders of the "Theosophical +Society" have departed more and more from +H. P. B.'s, and are now their direct antithesis, +particularly on the fundamental question of sex +morality.</p> + +<p>Since Mr. G. R. S. Mead, one of my fellow-members +of the Inner Group, spoke out at the +Leadbeater Inquiry of 1906, and resigned, no +other surviving member, so far as I have been +able to ascertain, has attempted to stem the +awful and ever increasing tide of horror and +delusion, that is, engulfing—one might almost say +<i>has</i> engulfed—Mrs. Besant's Society. If Mr. Mead +could say in 1906;—"We stand on the brink of +an abyss," what is to be said now? The enquiries +and researches I have undertaken to enable me +to write this pamphlet have revealed the present +state of things to be far worse than I could have +imagined possible.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> +From the time I left Mrs. Besant in 1895 +and Mrs. Tingley in 1899, I have been out of +touch with these two movements, each calling +itself "theosophical" and each leader claiming to +be H. P. B.'s "successor." This is the reason +why I have hitherto kept silent; in fact, it was +not until I came to live in India in 1918, after +spending some years on the Continent, and met +some of the members—both Indian and European—who +had left Mrs. Besant in more recent years, +that I learnt of the appalling developments +since she became President and installed the sex +pervert Leadbeater as supreme esoteric teacher.</p> + +<p>I feel that I should be failing in my duty, +and false to the solemn Pledges I have taken, +if I did not now do my utmost to clear H. P. B.'s +name from these horrible associations, and +demonstrate that they have nothing whatever +to do with her Masters (the Trans-Himâlayan +Brotherhood) or Their Esoteric doctrine.</p> + +<p>I therefore <span class="smcap">Protest</span> with all my strength, +and <i>in Their sacred Names</i>, against what is to +me a desecration and a blasphemy.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>September, 1922.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A. L. C.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4><i>Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.</i></h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2> +<br /><br /><a name="INTRODUCTORY" id="INTRODUCTORY"></a>INTRODUCTORY.</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span>OR the past fifteen years, despite repeated scandals, +exposures, and even the damning evidence produced +in various court cases, Mrs. Besant still persists +in her blind and fanatical support of the sex pervert and +pseudo-occultist C. W. Leadbeater, and the promulgation +of his delusive, immoral, and poisonous teachings among +the members of the Theosophical Society she rules, and the +public at large, to whom she is known chiefly as an able +speaker and an astute politician. Goaded by a revival +of the well-known evidence against Mr. Leadbeater, and +a severe criticism of her own actions, Mrs. Besant +published in her official organ (<i>Theosophist</i>, March, 1922.) +an article entitled "Whom Will Ye Serve?" and a long +Supplement addressed to the members, reiterating her +support of Mr. Leadbeater, and making statements in +justification of him and herself that call imperatively +for a dispassionate review of the history of this ill-omened +partnership, and the strongest possible protest +against the complete stultification and perversion of +H. P. Blavatsky's life-work and teaching that it involves.</p> + +<p>I have no personal quarrel with Mrs. Besant, whose +brilliant intellectual gifts we all so much admired in the +early days, and who accomplished such splendid work +for the Cause during H. P. Blavatsky's lifetime. I had +already been a member of the Society for four years when +Mrs. Besant joined in 1889; and as we both subsequently +became members of the Inner Group of H. P. B.'s personal +pupils, I feel I am in a position to review the facts, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +entitled to utter this protest. In fact, I can no longer +remain silent in the face of so much that is abhorrent +to every true Theosophist, to every devoted follower +of H. P. Blavatsky, her Masters, and Their teachings.</p> + +<p>In a private letter to Mr. Judge, in or about 1887, +H. P. B. writes: "I am the mother and creator of the +Society; it has my magnetic fluid.... Therefore I +alone and to a degree ... can serve as a lightning +conductor of Karma for it. I was asked whether I was +willing, when on the point of dying—and I said 'Yes'—for +it was the only means to save it. Therefore I +consented to live...." Obviously, the only possible +conclusion to be drawn from this is that, when in 1891 +H. P. Blavatsky passed away (or rather was "recalled") +nine years before the limit of time within which the +Masters' help could be given,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> it was because They +saw that the T. S. had definitely failed, that it could +no longer be kept alive.</p> + +<p>A long and, in this connection, very important +letter was written by H. P. Blavatsky in 1890 "To my +Brothers in Aryavarta," giving the real reason why she +did not return to India. Among other significant +statements which she makes (<i>Theosophist</i>, January, 1922.), +there is one which shows that she must clearly have +foreseen the ultimate disintegration of the Society, which +occurred in 1895. Writing of the shameful way in which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +she was thrown overboard, like a second Jonah, by +Colonel Olcott and the T. S. Council at Adyar in their +cowardly panic during the crisis of 1884-85, H. P. B. +says: "It was during that time ... that the seeds of +all future strifes, and—let me say at once—<i>disintegration +of the Theosophical Society</i> [Italics mine.—A. L. C.] were +planted by our enemies.... In a letter received from +Damodar in 1886 [He had been called by his Master +to Tibet the previous year.—A. L. C.] he notified me +that the Masters' influence was becoming with every +day weaker at Adyar." Further on in the letter H. P. B. +again refers to Adyar, and to an invitation to return +to India which "came too late ... nor can I, if I +would be true to my life-pledge and vows, now live at +the Headquarters <i>from which the Masters and Their +spirit are virtually banished. The presence of Their +portraits will not help; They are a dead letter.</i>" [Italics +mine. Yet Mrs. Besant asks us to believe that They +returned when she was elected President in 1907, and +even nominated her!—A. L. C.]</p> + +<p>In the same letter H. P. B. says that she was pledged +never to reveal "the whole truth" about the Masters +to anyone, "excepting to those who like Damodar, had +been finally selected and called by Them." She also +speaks of him as "that one future Adept who has now +the prospect of becoming one day a Mahatma, Kali +Yuga notwithstanding." It is he again of whom she +spoke four years earlier, when she wrote: "During the +eleven years of the existence of the Theosophical Society +I have known, out of the seventy-two regularly accepted +<i>chelas</i> on probation and the hundreds of lay candidates—only +<i>three</i> who have not hitherto failed, and <i>one only</i> +who had a full success." ("The Theosophical Mahatmas." +<i>Path</i>, December, 1886.) Damodar is the only <i>chela</i> +she ever spoke of as a "full success" in her lifetime;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +and it is worthy of special note that he was a high caste +Brahmin who did not hesitate to give up caste and +become a Buddhist (so Colonel Olcott states).</p> + +<p>In the late spring Mrs. Besant paid a hasty visit to +Australia, whither her "brother-initiate" had to flee +from India some time since, as previously from London, +Paris, and America. The cause is always the same; +scandals inevitably arise, and Australia has proved no +exception. Mr. Leadbeater is a "Bishop" of the +"Liberal Catholic Church," an anomalous body warmly +supported and encouraged within and without the T. S. +by Mrs. Besant. Other of its bishops have incurred +similar odium and a "priest" has quite recently +confessed in writing and implicated the "Presiding +Bishop" and others. It has been stated that all +these men are being watched by the police, who +are only waiting to secure enough evidence. Matters +cannot go on much longer like this; and a +pamphlet published at New York last February says +that "with difficulty a delay of a few months has been +obtained in a pending arraignment and exposure in the +Public Press in America." When it comes it will be a +far graver indictment than that which precipitated the +'Besant <i>v.</i> Judge' crisis in 1894-95, and rent the T. S. +in twain. <i>Then</i> Mrs. Besant accused her colleague +Mr. Judge of "giving a misleading material form to +messages received psychically from the Master in various +ways ..." (<i>Enquiry</i> at London, July, 1894); but <i>now</i> +she is deliberately condoning, if not actually supporting, +something far worse which was investigated and found +true by a T. S. committee of enquiry in 1906.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>For those unfamiliar with the events succeeding +H. P. Blavatsky's death in 1891, I must add that those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +of us who supported Mr. Judge against Mrs. Besant's +charges came under the sway, after his death a year +later, of an equally masterful, able, and ambitious +woman having very similar characteristics and methods. +This was Mrs. Katherine Tingley, formerly a New York +professional psychic and trance medium, from whose +organisation ("The Universal Brotherhood") I resigned +in 1899. Her activities are now mainly confined to a +colony in California.</p> + +<p>A point to which I think attention has not hitherto +been drawn is the striking similarity in the fate which +befell Mrs. Besant and Mr. Judge respectively after the +death of H. P. Blavatsky. Being left as the most obvious +leaders of the European and American Sections respectively +(neither of them were in England when she died), +the E. S. Council decided that they should carry on the +Esoteric School as joint Outer Heads in place of H. P. B., +oblivious of the fact that one of them (Mrs. Besant) was +untrained, and both were unfit to fill such a high +occult office (<a href="#Page_86">see <i> post</i> p. 86</a>). This soon became evident +when each in turn fell an easy prey to external influences +which first separated them, and then disrupted the +Society and E. S.</p> + +<p>Among the old T. S. and E. S. papers now lying +before me I find not a few which throw a most illuminating +light on Mrs. Besant's activities in recent years. +Before dealing with her latest statements I will quote +extracts from these papers in support and elucidation +of the points I wish to make, <i>viz</i>:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>(<i>a</i>) That under Mrs. Besant's guidance the T. S. +has long ceased to represent H. P. Blavatsky's +teaching, or the thought of its Founders.</p> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) That it is now completely dominated by the +deluded, impure, and poisonous ideas of an +acknowledged sex pervert, to whom this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +unhappy and misguided woman believes and +openly declares herself to be bound by indissoluble +and age-long ties.</p> + +<p>(<i>c</i>) That in adopting and conniving at the promulgation +of the teachings of this man, and allowing +him virtually to control her Society, Mrs. +Besant most impiously gives out that she is +acting under the orders of the Trans-Himã¡yan +Masters of Wisdom, and H. P. Blavatsky's +directions.</p></blockquote> + +<p>This last point (<i>c</i>) is the real gravamen of my Protest. +It would be of relative unimportance—Mrs. Besant +having already wrecked the Society in 1895—that it had +descended to the level of any existing sect, Christian or +other (as much a close corporation as the Adventists or +New Jerusalemites), had its two present leaders dropped +the <i>title</i>, and ceased to claim any connection with the +"real Founders." But, on the contrary, Mrs. Besant +and Mr. Leadbeater use Their sacred names and declare +themselves to be under Their direct guidance. Such +proceedings merit the sternest possible moral condemnation +in view of the facts.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>FOOTNOTES:</b></span> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +" ... there remain but a few years to the last hour of the +term—namely, till December the 31st, 1899. Those who will not +have profited by the opportunity (given to the world in every last +quarter of a century) ... will advance no further than the knowledge +already acquired. No Master of Wisdom from the East will himself +appear or send anyone to Europe or America after that period.... +Such is the law, for we are in <i>Kali-Yuga</i>—the Black Age—and the +restrictions in this cycle, the first 5,000 years of which will expire +in 1897, are great and almost insuperable." (H. P. Blavatsky in the +"Book of Rules, E. S. T." 1888.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +For later and fuller particulars from Australia, <a href="#Australian">see Addendum</a>.<br /><br /></p></div> + +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Kingsland" id="Kingsland"></a>Mr. William Kingsland on the Crisis of 1906</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE first of the old papers I shall quote from is by my old +friend and fellow-Councillor Mr. William Kingsland, +author of <i>The Esoteric Basis of Christianity</i> +and kindred works. He was one of the leading members +in the early days under H. P. B. who, when Mrs. Besant +on securing the Presidency after Colonel Olcott's death +in 1907 reinstated Mr. Leadbeater, resigned their membership. +Mrs. Besant had reviewed a new book by Mr. +Kingsland, and took the opportunity to refer to his +resignation. Replying in "An Open Letter to Annie +Besant" dated December, 1909, he tells her:</p> + +<blockquote><p>You have dragged in a perfectly irrelevant, uncalled-for +and untrue statement which I cannot allow to pass +unchallenged...." The words I refer to are these: +"We have here a very excellent Theosophical book, with +an evasion of all recognition of the source whence the +ideas are drawn. When Theosophy becomes fashionable, +how those who refuse to walk with her in the days of +scorning will crowd to claim her as theirs when she walks +in the sunshine amid applause!" Now these words +convey the implication, in the first place, that there is a connection +between the form in which my book is presented, and +recent events in the Theosophical Society which have led me +as well as many others, to sever our connection with that +Society; and, in the second place, that we now "refuse to +walk with her" because, forsooth, she is not now "fashionable," +but "in the days of scorning." Neither of these statements +is true, and the implication is most unworthy of you.... +That, however, is a small matter compared with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +implication that I and others have turned our backs on Theosophy +for so unworthy a reason.</p> + +<p>Let me ask you to look at the names of the old and tried +workers whom you have forced out of the Society by your +disastrous policy, and then ask yourself in the Great Presence +whether it is true that any of them have deserted Theosophy—or +rather the Theosophical Society—because it is less +"fashionable" now than it was in the old days when you +and I and these others stood side by side and fought the battle +for H. P. Blavatsky. Did any of us shirk obloquy then, +and do you really think we are less ready to face it now? It +is one thing, however, to incur obloquy for the sake of Truth, +and quite another thing to be asked to do it <i>in support of +immoral teachings</i>.... What I want to point out now more +particularly, and in the interest of true Theosophy, is, that +you are now making the grand mistake—one never made by +H. P. Blavatsky—of thinking, writing, and speaking as if +Theosophy and the Theosophical Society were one and the +same thing, absoutely identical; and that there can be no +Theosophy in the world without the Theosophical Society, +and no Theosophists outside of it.... You must know that +in leaving the Theosophical Society, the great majority of us +at all events have not given up Theosophy, even if we may +feel compelled to teach it under another name, and though +we can no longer work with or through the Theosophical +Society, we are none the less carrying on the great work +which H. P. Blavatsky initiated.</p> + +<p>But in the old days we did at least think that the Theosophical +Society stood for pure Theosophy and pure Morality. +<i>We cannot think or say this any longer.</i> The "Theosophy" +of the Theosophical Society is now a definite creed and dogma +based upon authoritative psychic pronouncements, from +which those who dare to differ are first of all squeezed out of +office by the President, and finally compelled to leave the +Society, being denounced in the strongest language as "persecutors" +and "haters." I am quite aware that all the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +time you are preaching freedom of opinion; but that is one +of the farcical aspects of the <i>régime</i> which you inaugurated.... +Whatever you may preach, it is now notorious that +your practice has been the exact reverse. You commenced +by turning out the Vice-President for daring to hold a different +opinion from your own as to the inception of the Society; +and you then proceeded so to manipulate matters that +several old and tried officials who had been in opposition +to your pronouncements and policy, were ousted from +their positions as General Secretaries of Sections.... Well, +you succeeded in getting your own supporters appointed—and +in losing many hundreds of old members.</p> + +<p>Doubtless you will now have complete control and be +able to mould the Society to your own will and liking, and +train it to "obedience" to your psychic authority and visions. +At what expense and sacrifice of principles you have already +done this, we all know. But let none imagine that this is +the basis on which H. P. Blavatsky founded the Society; or +that it will thus fulfil the mission for which it was intended; +or that it can thereby become other than <i>a narrow and exclusive +sect</i>. And if perchance your statement is true that the +Theosophical Sciety—which you so mistakenly identify with +Theosophy—is now "in the days of scorning," possibly even +more than it was in the old days; What and who is it that +has made it so?</p> + +<p>Is it not because the President and General Council have +set their seal and official condonation to a "theosophy" +<i>which countenances the grossest immorality</i>, and which can +advocate—as a means of "discharging [<i>sic</i>] thought-forms" +(see Van Hook's pamphlet)—a practice which you yourself +once characterised as being "when taught under the name of +Divine Wisdom, essentially earthly, sensual, devilish?" Yet +it is thus taught and justified—with an appeal to the laws of +reincarnation and <i>karma</i>—in Van Hook's pamphlet, which +you and the General Council have refused to repudiate, and +have thereby condoned.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +And now, since you have had your own way, and have +cleared the Society of the elements of the so-called "hatred +and persecution"; can you not at least refrain from hitting +behind our backs? Nothing is sadder for your old friends +and comrades than to see you stoop to veiled insinuations, +and even direct untruths; missing no opportunity—not +even in the review of a book—of striking unjustly and falsely +at those who have recently been your opponents, and who +have now no direct means of answering you, or of refuting +your statements within the Society itself.</p></blockquote> + +<p>I have italicised a few passages which seem to be +of special importance as showing that, <i>thirteen years ago</i>, +Mr. Leadbeater's sinister hand had already grasped +the Society and its infatuated President, and that his +vile and immoral teachings, supported by her, had +driven out some of the oldest and most clear-headed +and clear-sighted of H. P. Blavatsky's friends and +pupils; among them Mr. G. R. S. Mead, one of the +Leadbeater Committee of Inquiry, who also resigned at +the time Mrs. Besant became President for the same +reasons as those stated by Mr. Kingsland. The +"practice" to which he alludes in his Open Letter is +of course now well known to be that taught and advocated +by Mr. Leadbeater, who claims that in so doing he is +acting on the advice and under the authority of one +of the Masters of Wisdom. Could a more terrible +infamy be perpetrated!<br /><br /></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Crisis" id="Crisis"></a>M. M. Schuré and Lévy on the Crisis of 1913</h2> + +<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>ET us see, however, what others have to say seven +years later on the state of the T. S. In 1913 another +violent crisis convulsed this miserable travesty +of a Society that once stood for the highest principles +and ideals, but which even a Lake Harris might blush +now to be associated with. As before, it centred round +the shocking perverter of morals who had obtained +complete ascendancy over Mrs. Besant. A book entitled +<i>Mrs. Besant and the Present Crisis in the Theosophical +Society</i> was published in 1913 by M. Eugène Lévy, +"with a Prefatory Letter by M. Edouard Schuré," the +well-known author of <i>The Great Initiates</i> and other +mystical works. Writing to M. Charles Blech, General +Secretary of the French T. S., M. Schuré states that +he feels "compelled to retire officially from the T. S." +and that it is his "duty" to give his "reasons straightforwardly." +After alluding to the date (1907), when +M. Blech had offered and he had accepted the honorary +membership in the Society, M. Schuré goes on to speak +of Mrs. Besant, as she had then appeared to him, in +high terms, expressing the hope that "the nobility of +her past career" was an augury "that the T. S. would +continue in the broad way of tolerance, impartiality, +<i>and veracity</i> which forms an essential part of its programme." +M. Schuré then continues:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>Unfortunately things turned out otherwise. The primary +cause of this deviation lies in the close alliance of Mrs. Besant +with Mr. Leadbeater, a learned occultist, but of an unsettled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +disposition and doubtful morality. After Mr. Leadbeater +<i>had been found guilty</i> by an advisory Committee of the T.S. +Mrs. Besant publicly announced her reprobation of the +educational methods with which he was charged.... By +an inconceivable change of front she soon afterwards declared +her intention of bringing Mr. Leadbeater into the T.S. again +and she succeeded.... The excuses she gave for this recantation +were charity and pardon. <i>The real reason was that the +President needed Mr. Leadbeater for her occult investigations</i>, +and that this collaboration appeared to her necessary +to her prestige. To those who have followed her words +and acts from that time onwards, it is clearly manifest +<i>that Mrs. Besant has fallen under the formidable suggestive +power of her dangerous collaborator, and can only see, think +and act under his control</i>. The personality henceforward +speaking through her is ... the questionable visionary, +the skilful master of suggestion who no longer dares to show +himself in London, Paris, or America, but in the obscurity +of a summer-house at Adyar governs the T. S. through its +President. The ill-omened consequences of this influence +were soon to appear before the world through the affair of +Alcyone and the founding of the Order of the Star in the +East.... If a real Indian initiate, a Brahmin or otherwise, +of ripe age, had come to Europe on his own responsibility +or in the name of his Masters to teach his doctrines, nothing +would have been more natural or interesting.... But it was +not in this form that we beheld the new apostle from Adyar. +A young Indian, aged thirteen, <i>initiated by Mr. Leadbeater</i> ... +is proclaimed and presented to the European public as the +future teacher of the new era. Krishnamurti, now called +Alcyone, has no other credentials than his master's injunctions +and Mrs. Besant's patronage. His thirty-two previous incarnations +are related at length, the early ones going back to the +Atlantean period. <i>These narrations</i>, given as the result of +Mr. Leadbeater's and Mrs. Besant's visions, <i>are for the most +part grotesquely puerile</i>, and could convince no serious occultist. +They are ostensibly designed to prove that for twenty +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +or thirty thousand years the principal personages in the T. S. +have been preparing for the "Great Work" which is soon +to be accomplished. In the course of <i>their incarnations, +which remind one of a newspaper novel</i>, these personages are +decorated with the great names of Greek mythology, and +with the most brilliant stars in the firmament. During a +meeting at Benares, Krishnamurti presenting certificates to +his followers, received honours like a divine being, many +persons present falling at his feet. He does not, however, +utter a word, but only makes a gesture of benediction, +prompted by Mrs. Besant. In reporting this scene Mr. Leadbeater +likens it to the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.</p> + +<p>For this dumb prophet is founded the Order of the Star +in the East, which the whole world is invited to join, and of +which he is proclaimed the head ... this passive young +prodigy, who has not yet given the world the least proof of +having any mission at all [this is as true in 1922 as it was in +1913.—A. L. C.], becomes henceforth the centre and cynosure +of the T. S., the symbol and sacred ark of <i>the orthodox +faith at Adyar</i>. As to the doctrine preached by Mrs. Besant, +it rests on a perpetual equivocation. She allows the English +public at large, to whom she speaks of the coming Christ, to +believe that he is identical with the Christ of the Gospels, +whereas to her intimates she states what Mr. Leadbeater +teaches, and what he openly proclaims in one of his books, +<i>The Inner Life</i>—namely, that the Christ of the Gospels never +existed, and was an invention of the monks of the second +century. Such facts are difficult to characterise. I will +simply say that they are saddening for all who, like myself, +believed in the future of the T. S., for they can only repel +clear-sighted and sincere minds.... In my eyes, one can no +longer be an actual member of the T. S. without implicitly +approving the deeds and words of the President, which flagrantly +contradict the essential principle of the Society—I +mean <i>scrupulous and absolute respect for truth</i>. For these +reasons I regret that I must send you my resignation as a +member of the Theosophical Society.</p></blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +The italics throughout the foregoing quotations are +mine, and serve again to emphasise essential points; +points almost exactly similar to those raised by Mr. +Kingsland, the most serious being the condonation by +Mrs. Besant of immoral practices in a colleague whose +collaboration, as M. Schuré shrewdly adds, has become +a necessity to her, and under whose "formidable +suggestive power" she has now completely fallen. If +this was true in 1913, what may not be said in 1922, +when the intervening nine years have given time for +the growth and development of this deadly Upas Tree? +I use the simile advisedly, for this teaching <i>is</i> a "deadly" +poison, not only from the ordinary moral standpoint, +but especially from that of the esoteric teaching of +H. P. B. and the Trans-Himâlayan Brotherhood, under +whose authority it is falsely and blasphemously given +out; I do not hesitate to declare it.</p> + +<p>M. Schurélso emphasises an important and vital +point which Mr. Kingsland seems to have felt equally +deeply, <i>viz.</i>—That Mrs. Besant has no use for any but +those who accept everything she says and does with +blind subservience, even when, in the eyes of such men +as M. Schuré, Mr. Mead, Mr. Kingsland, and others, it +merits strong condemnation as "untrue" and "misleading." +In the pages of the recent numbers of the +<i>Theosophist</i> the talk about "freedom of opinion" within +the Society is still repeated, although in actual practice, +as I have shown, the exact opposite obtains. Much that +emanates from this tainted source is so fantastic and +puerile that ridicule ought long since to have killed it, +as it did Oscar Wilde's æsthetic movement.<br /><br /></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Return" id="Return"></a>Mrs. Besant's "return of the Christ."</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>O return to M. Lévy's book; it deals with "Mrs. +Besant's Proceedings" under various headings. +In the one entitled "Mrs. Besant's Return of the +Christ" is to be found some of the most amazing balderdash—given +out as serious teaching!—it has ever been my lot +to encounter. For instance, a book called <i>Man: Whence, +How, and Whither</i>, written by Mrs. Besant and Mr. +Leadbeater in collaboration, is quoted from by M. Lévy +at considerable length. He explains that "the substitution +of a "false Christ" for the "Christ of the Gospels" +is here supported by "<i>a new order of evidence</i>" (Italics +mine). Specimens of this "evidence" follow, and I will +here give some of it in order to show the almost unbelievably +low level of intelligence to which this whole mischievous +movement—miscalled Theosophical—has descended, +and the sort of elements in human nature to +which such an ill-conceived and fantastic production is +designed to appeal. M. Lévy writes:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>In the course of their investigations these two occultists +look up on the one side, the past incarnations of him whom +Mrs. Besant calls the "Master Jesus," that is, of the +"Jesus" born 105 B.C.; and on the other side, the past lives +of the being whom she calls the "Lord Maitreya, the present +Bodhisattva, the Supreme Teacher of the World"; whose +ego at a given moment replaced that of "Jesus," this being +the last incarnation of the Christ whose immediate return +she is announcing.</p> + +<p>Let us first quote from their account of the incarnations +of the "Supreme Teacher" ... In the chapter +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +headed "Early Times on the Moon Chain," p. 34, we +read:—</p> + +<p>"There is a hut in which dwell a Moon-Man, his wife +and children; these we know in later times under the names +of Mars and Mercury, the Mahaguru and Surya. A number +of these monkey-creatures live round the hut, and give to +their owners the devotion of faithful dogs; among them we +notice the future Sirius, Herakles, Alcyone, and Mizar, to +whom we may give their future names for the purpose of +recognition, though they are still non-human."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>In the Fourth Root Race we again find the personage +supposed to be "Maitreya" as the husband of the ego +claimed by these authors as that of "Master K. H." Mrs. +Besant is again incarnated in the family as daughter, the eldest +sister of the "Master M."; "Maitreya," the future World-Teacher, +being at this time the head of the tribe (p. 113)....</p> + +<p>We have thus reached to somewhere about the year +15,000 B.C., and then—incredible as it seems—they give +no further incarnations of him whom they nevertheless claim +to have been the World-Teacher at the beginning of our era.</p> + +<p>They give us his incarnations as husband, as father, as +counsellor and priest, and are silent as to the only incarnation +of fundamental and vital importance to the whole world.</p> + +<p>Let us see if the incarnations of their "Jesus" will fill +this gap in our knowledge, if they will throw light on this +essential point, thus left in obscurity.</p></blockquote> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<blockquote> +<p>We meet this "Jesus" for the first time at the beginning +of the Fifth Root Race, as daughter of Alcyone (Krishnamurti) +and sister of "Maitreya" (p. 252.)</p> + +<p>Then, on p. 328, as the wife of Julius Cæsar 18,878 B.C., +he, or rather she, being at this time the widow of Vulcan +(Known in his last incarnation as Sir Thomas More)....</p> + +<p>He is later identified as daughter of Alcyone-Krishnamurti +(his father) and Fabrizio Ruspoli (his mother),<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> parents +at the same time of the future "World-Teacher, Maitreya," +their young daughter. These incarnations took place 72,000 +B.C., on the shores of the Lake of Gobi, we are told on p. 490.</p> + +<p>In 15,910 B.C., we find "Jesus" as grandson of +"Maitreya," and as father and grandfather of a large family +composed, as in all cases investigated by these two authors, +of <i>present</i> members of the Theosophical Society <i>only</i>, and +including the faithful friends of Adyar <i>to the exclusion of all +others</i>.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>" ... In 12,800 B.C. the "Jesus" of these investigations +again forms part of a very extensive family composed +as usual of the selfsame elements, and including amongst +the names known in the theosophic world that of Mme. Marie +Louise Kirby (an Italian theosophist recently at Adyar) +who was his sister. "Jesus" was then the father of Mrs. +S. Maud Sharpe (General Secretary of the English Section), of +Julius Cæsar, and of T. Subba Rao; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +the Teshu Lama being at that time his daughter, etc., etc. (p. 499)....</p> + +<p>Once more have our hopes been betrayed, for an absolute +silence broods over the Incarnations of "Jesus" later than +this date of 13,500, as it reigned over those of the "World-Teacher"....</p> + +<p>We cannot, however, conceive that this information +gathered from occult investigation will be felt to be indispensable +by anyone. Now that we know that Mrs. Besant's +"World-Teacher" is an ordinary man of the lunar chain (to +whom Mrs. Besant was first domestic animal and then sister, +and who, in the early period of our earth, was daughter of +the young Krishnamurti (or of M. Ruspoli), who could be +found still to imagine that there could be here any question, +save a mad or impious joke"....</p></blockquote> + +<p>Incredible as it may appear to those who know +anything of H. P. Blavatsky's teachings, their comprehensive +grandeur and sublimity, especially as given in +<i>The Secret Doctrine</i>, this extraordinary mixture of clumsy +fairy-tale and extravagant and even malicious mumbo-jumbo +is apparently swallowed whole by the blind and +credulous followers of this grotesque "Neo-Theosophy." +Not so much for them do I write as for those who, +while interested in these subjects, have neither the +inclination nor the leisure to examine, for instance, +such published Records as these from which I quote, +for themselves. Such would naturally accept on +their face value Mrs. Besant's own account of herself +and of her Society, unaware that she is no longer +anything but a "blind leader of the blind," incapable of +distinguishing light from darkness, truth from falsehood. +We have direct testimony to the truth of this statement +in Mr. T. H. Martyn's now famous letter to Mrs. Besant. +<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +In it he tells her:—"You have been relying upon +C. W. L. as <i>sole intermediary between the Hierarchy</i> +[the Trans-Himâlayan Brotherhood, the Masters of +Wisdom. Italics mine.—A. L. C.] and yourself for +many years.... C. W. L.'s word is final and his +seership infallible to you." The quality of this +supposed "seership" bears a very close resemblance to +a stupid and vulgar hoax. This is clearly shown by +Mr. Martyn, who says:—"In 1919 I went to America. +Young Van Hook was in New York. He talked freely +of C. W. L.'s immorality and about <i>faking the 'lives' +of people</i>" (Italics mine.) Mr. Martyn then puts together +various pieces of evidence against this man, and tells +Mrs. Besant that he finds "staring me in the face the +conclusions that <i>Leadbeater is a sex pervert</i>, his mania +taking a particular form which I have—though only +lately—discovered, is a form well known and quite +common in <i>the annals of sex criminology</i>." (Italics mine.) +This sex criminal, then, is the creature whom Mrs. Besant +has accepted "for many years" as "sole intermediary +between" herself and—<i>the Masters of Wisdom</i>!! One +almost hesitates to draw the obvious inference; for this +is the man whom she has for years held up to and imposed +upon their followers as a model of all the virtues—"a +saint"—a person "on the threshold of divinity." +(<a href="#Footnote_11_11">See also footnote <i>post</i>, p. 56</a>.)</p> + +<p>Why has it always been necessary for Mrs. Besant +to have an "intermediary"? Before Mr. Leadbeater +it was her Brahmin guide, and before him it was Mr. +Judge. To each in turn she gave implicit belief in the +matter of "messages" and directions from the Masters, +while outwardly claiming "direct" communication. The +fact is that, as I have come to believe, the plain psychology +of the thing is—sheer femininity. With all her intellectual +talents, her once clear brain, Mrs. Besant is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +(in her personality) just simple <i>woman</i>, relying upon +male guidance and authority as instinctively as any of +her humbler sisters. And what student of human nature +will fail to recognise in her that purely feminine trait +of blind and fanatical "obedience" which loves to receive +and obey "orders" even though the result should be +"a world in ruins"? The existence of this fundamental +and essential quality in female human nature is the real +reason why even the most broad-minded men shrink +from giving women equality of power with themselves +in wordly affairs.</p> + +<p>Let me here declare what I believe to be the real +truth; namely, that after H. P. Blavatsky's death in +1891, neither Mrs. Besant, nor Mr. Judge, nor Colonel +Olcott, nor anyone else, could "communicate," because +<i>H. P. B.'s withdrawal meant the withdrawal of her Masters +as well</i>. It has always seemed strange to me that this +was never realised by anyone, for in this pamphlet I +have quoted quite enough from H. P. B. to make it +perfectly clear. Does she not say in the 1890 letter to +the Indians (<a href="#Page_2">see p. 2</a>) that after she had to leave +India in 1885 the Masters' influence at Adyar became +a dead letter? Did not the Masters Themselves write +as early as 1884 that they could only communicate +through her or in places previously prepared magnetically +by her presence? How, then, could They be expected +to continue to communicate or direct the affairs of the +T. S. (as They did in India until 1885), or the E. S. +(as They did from 1888 to 1891), after They had withdrawn +the Agent They had so carefully prepared and +subjected to the severest trials and initiations in Tibet? +Barely three years after this withdrawal the fatal "Split" +took place owing to Mr. Judge giving out what purported +to be "direct" communications, but which, as I discovered +after working for a time under his inspirer and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +successor, Mrs. Tingley, <i>were obtained from her</i>. Mrs. +Besant, in accusing him, did precisely the same, for +she stated in her <i>Case against W. Q. Judge</i> that she had +received her orders direct from the Master, whereas +(as I relate elsewhere, <a href="#Page_56"><i>post</i>, p. 56</a>) she admitted to the +Inner Group that they came "through" her Brahmin +guide.</p> + +<p>This, then, was the great and fundamental error +committed by the leaders of the movement, after H. P. B. +was withdrawn. It is responsible for all the subsequent +troubles, and the appalling situation with which we are +faced to-day. A great and world-wide organisation is +being used to promulgate blasphemous, poisonous and +absolutely anti-Theosophical and anti-Occult doctrines +as emanating direct from the Masters who definitely +withdrew Their chosen Agent in 1891. (<a href="#Page_2">See <i>ante</i> p. 2.</a>)</p> + +<p>In any case, even had she lived, H. P. B. told the +E. S. that the "last hour of the term" was December +31st, 1899, after which "no Master of Wisdom from the +East will himself appear or send anyone to Europe or +America." (<a href="#Footnote_2_2">See footnote, <i>ante</i> p. 2.</a>) She also said that +the next Messenger would be sent out in 1975. Yet +the fiction that the Masters are still directing the leaders +and the movement is kept up, not only by Mrs. Besant, +but also by Mrs. Tingley, 22 years after "the last hour +of the term."</p> + +<p>It is the same with all this wild talk about the +imminent advent of a "World-Teacher." Is this in the +least probable, in view of the above pronouncements? +H. P. B. definitely states in <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> the +exact opposite; but all the Neo-Theosophists seem to +prefer the Besant and Leadbeater books. H. P. B. says, +with reference to this very Maitreya whose name they so +lightly take in vain, that He is not due until the Seventh +Sub-Race, <i>i.e.</i>, several thousand years hence; and that, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +in any case, "it is not in the <i>Kali Yug</i>, our present +terrifically materialistic age of Darkness, the 'Black +Age,' that a new Saviour of Humanity can ever appear." +(S. D. Third Ed., Vol. I, p. 510 <i>et seq.</i> See also <i>Theosophical +Glossary</i>, "Kalki Avatar" and "Maitreya +Buddha.") If we accept H. P. B.'s authority there is +no evading this issue, and we must reject the Besant-Leadbeater +pretensions <i>in toto</i>, for their absurdity is +patent. Yet they claim to have been specially taught +and prepared by her to carry on her message! (<i>Vide</i> +Mrs. Besant in the <i>Theosophist</i>, March, 1922; and also +<a href="#Page_68"><i>post</i> p. 68</a>.)<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>FOOTNOTES:</b></span> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> In these incarnations such names are used as; Mars for the +"Master M."; Mercury for the "Master K. H."; Surya, the Lord +Maitreya, the present Bodhisattva, the Supreme Teacher of the +World"; Sirius for Mr. Leadbeater; Herakles for Mrs. Besant; +Alcyone for Krishnamurti; Mizar for his young brother, etc. A list +of these names and those to whom they apply is given in the Foreword +of the book. [Italics mine. Here we see the bald and unabashed +appeal to the personality and its ambitions and desires which is +characteristic of this kind of charlatanism.—A. L. C.] We shall +here substitute the names of the real persons as given in this list for +the fancy names used to distinguish them in the body of the book, +<i>Man: Whence, How and Whither</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> M. Ruspoli is an Italian theosophist recently living at Adyar, +with whom Mr. Leadbeater stayed in Italy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It is a remarkable fact that outside this little circle not a +single being in our great world has ever entered into these family +communities to whom the honour is given of being the pioneers of +every civilisation of the past. Even though we are invited to assist +at marriages running into thousands, <i>ever</i> the same names appear +and <i>all</i> the members of <i>all</i> the families are identified. This singular +oligarchy of friends and devotees of Adyar perhaps merited to be +signalised throughout the evolution of our earth, the more so that +Mr. Leadbeater, writing in his bird's-eye view of the twentieth century +and of the pioneers of the future sixth race, remarks maliciously: +"We know who will <i>not</i> be there." He puts in italics the word <i>not</i>; +desirous doubtless to indicate the unworthiness of other theosophists.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> +Mr. Martyn is the President of the Sydney Lodge, Australian +Section T. S., a member of thirty years' standing. <a href="#Australian">See Addendum</a>.<br /><br /></p></div> + +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Occult" id="Occult"></a>Fundamental causes: Some Occult Methods</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">U</span>NDER this heading M. Lévy deals with what he calls +"the pitiful climax of this parody":—</p> + +<blockquote><p>What a contrast to the great traditions of the Theosophical +movement, formulated by H. P. Blavatsky in <i>The Key to +Theosophy</i> (Third Edition, p. 191);—"As for our best +Theosophists, they would also far rather that the names of +the Masters had not been mixed up with our books in any way." +And later, on p. 192;—"I say again, every earnest Theosophist +regrets to-day, from the bottom of his heart, that these sacred +names and things have ever been mentioned before the +public." And this would be the moment to say with Mme. +Blavatsky;—"Great are the desecrations to which the names +of two of the Masters have been subjected." ... But when +all is said and done, what <i>is</i> this occultism which produces +<i>such disregard of truth, such calumny in daily life, such diastrous +confusion in the domain of clairvoyance</i>, and finally, <i>advice +of such a kind as to arouse universal disgust</i>? [Italics +mine.—A. L. C.]</p> + +<p>This occultism has its methods, as all schools of occultism +have; for occultism consists in a methodical training and +the awakening of consciousness to superior worlds; and +where a method produces such results, may we not regard +it as legitimate to ask what is the source of such serious +and such numerous aberrations?... On this question, as +on all those that we have examined, we will cite as witnesses +original documents, the appraisements of those who teach +their own methods. It is well known that Mr. Leadbeater is +the inventor and manipulator of the Adyar occultism. In +the <i>Inner Life</i> (Vol. I, p. 450), in speaking of the centres, the +awakening of which, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +as we know, developes clairvoyance, +he expresses himself in these terms;—"I have heard it +suggested that each of the different petals of these force-centres +represents a moral quality, ... I have not yet met +with any facts which confirm this ... <i>their development +seems to me to have no more connection with morality than has +the development of the biceps</i>." [Italics mine. A little later +I shall quote some very definite pronouncements of H. P. +Blavatsky's which teach the exact opposite.—A. L. C.]</p> + +<p>Further, it is of interest to find Mrs. Besant and Mr. +Leadbeater, in the first lines of the Preface to <i>Man; Whence +How, and Whither</i>, expressing the same view as regards +the connection between morality and clairvoyance—"It +is not generally accepted, nor indeed is it accepted to any +large extent ... [clairvoyance] is a power latent in all men +... it can be developed by any one who is able and willing +to pay the price demanded for its forcing, ahead of the general +evolution."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Besant is no less positive. A price is demanded +for the "forcing" of clairvoyance, but this price is neither +"high spirituality" nor "lofty intelligence," nor even +"purity of character" ... she fully shares the views of Mr. +Leadbeater....</p> + +<p>Thus the calumny, sectarianism, the disregard of truth +in daily life, the increasingly serious aberrations in the spiritual +life, have gradually revealed the main source of all +these facts, <i>i. e.</i>, the defect of the method.</p> + +<p>All becomes clear. Mr. Leadbeater is probably right, +and it may be possible to develop, as he claims, a certain +clairvoyance (an inferior clairvoyance, it must be said) without +the concurrence of a moral and mental training.... But +who will maintain that without moral purification we shall +possess that moral sense that inspires gracious and noble +conduct, and teaches us to hate falsehood?... be +able to distinguish illusions from reality in our astral +visions?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater are most certainly not +ignorant of the dangers of occult development without +morality. But it is quite another matter to profess this +theory, or even to lean towards morality in the course +of occult development, <i>by means of ... generous aspirations +perpetually evoked in eloquent language</i>, from setting to work +on the development of these centres by means of exercises +arranged with the express purpose of bringing in the <i>practice</i> +of morality, of truth, and of logic as powerful factors in +the reorganisation of the subtle bodies—which produces +clairvoyance.... That method which dissociates moral and +intellectual aspiration from occult development, and seeks +to cultivate them separately, will not achieve moral progress +since <i>the inner nature is not transmuted</i>; but this method will +produce a very debauch of phrases invoking these aspirations. +For, instead of penetrating by means of the appropriate +practice into the inner regions of the soul, these aspirations +swirl, so to say, perpetually on the surface of the mind. +Their presence there will produce a kind of psychic intoxication, +sometimes rousing in the occultist thoughts so much +above his own mental and moral standard, that he may come +to regard himself as a saint, while at the same time performing +the most despicable actions. Indeed, during such times the +conduct shows a moral retrogression very noticeable when +compared with the conduct before this occult development +For this latter <i>increases and intensifies all the temptations</i>, as +every occultist will admit. An increase of active morality is +therefore, required if we would avoid this most dangerous lack +of balance....</p> + +<p>We find constantly in Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater, +under a great show of high moral aspirations, the reality of +an actual moral and intellectual fall. Much emphasis +is placed on "liberty of thought" [<a href="#Page_14">see p. 14</a> A. L. C.], and at +the same time the intellectual desertion of this principle is +preached in counselling members to give blind obedience to +"the least hint which falls from the lips of Mrs. Besant," and +to follow her implicitly whether she is understood or not....</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +We see clearly that the fruits are precisely those we +should expect from the seed; the terrible danger of this +method can neither be misunderstood nor denied ... [we +must] never lend ear to the words which in this school quite +naturally take the place of the honest and right +act, and so turn attention from the moral ugliness of the +actions performed.... <i>Acts alone show forth morality, not +attractive formulas flowing from literary or oratorical talent.</i> +The constant declaration of liberty of thought, of human +brotherhood, cannot impress us when the actions of those who +delight in them enslave thought, persecute merit, seek to +poison souls by flimsy and deceptive spiritual pronouncements....</p> + +<p>It is a painful duty to have to press this point with such +insistence. But now that we are facing the consequences of +the Leadbeater method on the mental character of the clairvoyant, +our warnings in reference to still more serious harm +will not appear exaggerated.</p> + +<p>We know that the higher regions of the invisible worlds +are those in which "consciousness" manifests itself principally +in the most intense awareness of moral beauty.</p> + +<p>Since this is so, the cultivation of the non-moral clairvoyance +could only attain results in the lower regions of the +astral world ... the organ of clairvoyant sight, when developed +according to certain methods, will be blind to the moral +outline of subtle worlds, <i>and will thus be cut off from all their +truly spiritual content. The field of their experiences will be +limited to the lower regions of the astral plane.</i></p> + +<p>And it is these lower visions, more frequently experienced +because of <i>their affinity to elements in the vehicles of the investigator +not yet purified, that will be presented as the most sublime +images of the higher worlds</i>. For such a clairvoyant is deprived +of the high morality which is the force leading our "bodies" +by affinity towards truly spiritual Beings [<i>e.g.</i>, the Masters +in Their Mahatmic "bodies".—A. L. C.] Deprived of the +standard of comparison that these provide, <i>he will be the</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +<i>victim of all the illusions of a world that is the veritable motherland +of illusions, for human errors are but the faint reflection of +these</i>. Since the sense of responsibility, which is essentially +moral in origin [H. P. Blavatsky says; "<i>The sense of Responsibility +is the beginning of Wisdom.</i>" A. L. C.] will equally +fail him, <i>he will have no scruple in sharing his illusions with all +in making known his misleading experiences</i>—the less since +the forces, whose sport he is, push him irresistibly to this. +Are they not in truth the adversaries of the divine scheme +of evolution, <i>the servants and sowers of error and immorality +the world over</i>?</p></blockquote> + +<p>In these clear and logical arguments M. Lévy +expresses, even in a translation, so much better than +I could have done, the dangers of the way leading +to the path of "error" which Mrs. Besant is now treading, +that I have quoted at greater length than I originally +intended. Although written nine years ago, they are +more than ever true to-day. M. Lévy then continues:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>We have thus sketched in their broad hypothetical outlines +<i>the incalculable reactions that the defect in the Leadbeater +method brings into the inner life, into the words and actions of +those who yield their souls to him</i>.</p> + +<p>In demonstrating the fatal effects of this method we +have shown the real meaning of the faults and failings of all +kinds as exhibited by Mrs. Besant, who is its most fervent +adherent. The right interpretation of the known facts seems +to us so entirely in conformity with the consequences, as +implied in our hypothesis, as to make it possible to some +extent to foresee these facts with scientific certainty—which +is precisely what has happened....</p> + +<p>We recall the "Leadbeater Case," which in 1906 [this was +the Committee of Inquiry in London, above referred to.—A. L. C] +called forth within the Theosophical Society, no +less than outside, unanimous moral censure.... Resigning +from the Theosophical Society in consequence of this affair, +Mr. Leadbeater has since returned, at the invitation of Mrs. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +Besant.... Have the principles and methods of Mr. Leadbeater +changed since he has returned to his place amongst us? +He himself informs us on this point in a letter written after +the "affair," at the express desire of Mrs. Besant that he +should "define his position" at the time she started the +well-known campaign in favour of his re-admission (<i>Theosophist</i>, +February 1908.)</p> + +<p>"You ask me," says Mr. Leadbeater, "to write you a +clear letter that you may show at need, expressing my real +views on the advice I gave some time ago to certain young +boys. I need hardly say that I keep my promise not to +repeat the advice, for I defer to your opinion that it is dangerous. +I also recognise, as fully as yourself, that it would be +if it were promiscuously given, but I have never thought of +so giving it."</p> + +<p>In this declaration Mr. Leadbeater first recognises the +danger of his advice, then immediately retracts this confession +by reservations which imply its harmlessness in just +those cases for which he is blamed. He has not, as we see +from this letter, then, changed his views; but the important +fact is that he only speaks of "danger," and never of "immorality." +<i>His moral standpoint remains, then, unaltered—is +precisely the same as before the exposé.</i></p> + +<p>And what is this point of view? Mrs. Besant thus gives +it in a letter dated July, 1906 (<i>Theosophic Voice</i>, May, 1908):—</p> + +<p>"Mr. Leadbeater appeared before the Council of the +British Section, representatives from the French and the +American Sections being present and voting. Colonel Olcott +in the chair. <i>He denied none of the charges</i>, but in answer to +questions, very much strengthened them, for he alleged.... +<i>So that the advice ... became advice putting foul ideas into +the minds of boys innocent of all sex impulses.... It was +conceivable that the advice, as supposed to have been given, had +been given with pure intent, and the presumption was so in a +teacher of theosophical morality; anything else seemed incredible. +But such advice as was given in fact, such dealing with boys</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +<i>before sex passion had awakened, could only be given with pure +intent if the giver were, on this point, insane.</i>" [Italics mine. +The details omitted cannot be put in print.—A. L. C.]</p> + +<p>"Let me here place on record my opinion that such +teaching as this, given to men, let alone to innocent boys, is +worthy of the sternest reprobation. It distorts and perverts +the sex impulse ... degrades the ideas of marriage, fatherhood +and motherhood ... befouls the imagination, pollutes +the emotions, and undermines the health. Worst of all that +it should be taught under the name of Divine Wisdom, being +essentially 'earthly', 'sensual', 'devilish.'"</p></blockquote> + +<p>Mrs. Besant's last sentence contains the whole +<i>raison d'être</i> of this my Protest. She has expressed +precisely the views I hold; but in this fervid condemnation +she herself must now be included, since she +condones and thus supports this horror. M. Lévy +graphically portrays for us on what road it is that this +once apparently sane and normal woman, with all her +great gifts, is descending—a road that, as H. P. Blavatsky +puts it in the concluding paragraph of <i>Occultism</i> versus +<i>the Occult Arts</i>, "can lead only to Dugpa-ship." (<a href="#Page_33">see <i>post</i> +p. 33.</a>) He continues:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>Mrs. Besant then deemed Mr. Leadbeater's morality so +defective as to be accounted for only by mental derangement. +Nevertheless, the promise contained in the letter just quoted +and which expresses no shadow of moral repentance whatsoever, +nor anything approaching it, was sufficient, in Mrs. +Besant's eyes, to justify her in bringing back into the +Theosophical Society a teacher she has judged thus. Could +one ask a clearer proof of the anarchy produced by such +occultism?</p> + +<p>A recent suit, instituted by the parent of the young +Krishnamurti, re-claiming the custody of his child, brings +forward again this question of morality ... reminding us +of the exposé. In fact, the present case clearly formulates +the accusation of immoral conduct testified to by witnesses ... +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +In such a discussion, this attempt [by Mrs. Besant] to +play upon the political interests of the judges is unexpected, +amazing,—and, alas! significant. We see clearly that a +mind that shows itself capable of throwing into the balance +political (and racial) appeals in a matter of conduct, is utterly +blind to the question of human consideration [a Brahmin +father re-claiming his young sons] that overshadows this +whole case.</p> + +<p>Clear and unmistakable through all these actions shows the +consistent distortion of the moral outlook, more serious since +the esoteric ethics should be an extension, a purification, an +exaltation of exoteric morality, and in no circumstances its +decline, its degradation, its negation. And if we would +realise to what extent this moral outlook can be warped under +certain influences, we need but to hear Mrs. Besant say of +Mr. Leadbeater:—"By hard, patient work he has won rewards +... until he stands perhaps the most trusted of his Master's +disciples on the threshold of Divinity." (<i>Theosophist</i>, +November, 1911, p. 308.)</p> + +<p>This conception of the "Divinity" that should be the +the final expression of morality has no need of comment other +than that same "deification" by his colleague—who five +years earlier regarded his teaching as so utterly immoral as to +suggest mental derangement as the only explanation.... +Perhaps we shall understand these things a little better if +we remember that this occultist, if he contradicts the Buddha, +on the other hand almost deifies Mrs. Besant. Possibly +taking into consideration this exchange of admiration, the +meaning of the "deifications" will become sufficiently clear.<br /><br /></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Occultism" id="Occultism"></a>H. P. Blavatsky on true Occultism.</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span>EFORE giving some fine passages from M. Lévy's +concluding chapters I will quote from H. P. Blavatsky's +<i>Practical Occultism: Occultism</i> versus <i>the +Occult Arts</i>, mentioned a few pages back. In its original +form it is a booklet containing a reprint of two articles +which she wrote for <i>Lucifer</i> in 1888, shortly before she +founded the Esoteric Section. These extracts will show +the "true" teaching in this matter of Occultism, as +contrasted with the "false," or Mrs. Besant's and Mr. +Leadbeater's. H. P. B. begins by declaring that: "There +are not in the West half-a-dozen among the fervent +hundreds who call themselves 'Occultists' who have +even an approximately correct idea of the nature of the +Science they seek to master. With a few exceptions, +they are all on the highway to sorcery.... Let them +first learn the true relation in which the Occult Sciences +stand to Occultism.... [It] differs from Magic and +other secret sciences as the glorious sun does from a +rush-light, as the immutable and immortal Spirit of +Man—the reflection of the absolute, causeless and +unknowable ALL—differs from the mortal clay—the +human body.... [The word] OCCULTISM is certainly +misleading, translated as it stands from the compound +word <i>Gupta-Vidya</i> (Secret. Knowledge.) But the knowledge +of what? Some of the Sanskrit terms may +help us.</p> + +<p>"There are four (out of the many other) names of +the various kinds of Esoteric Knowledge or Sciences +given, even in the exoteric Pur㯡s. There is (1) <i>Yajna-Vidya</i>, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +knowledge of the occult powers awakened in +Nature by the performance of certain religious ceremonies +and rites. (2) <i>Mahavidya</i>, the 'great knowledge,' the +magic of the Kabalists and of the <i>Tantrika</i> worship, +often Sorcery of the worst description. (3) <i>Guhya-Vidya</i>, +knowledge of the mystic powers residing in Sound +(Ether), hence in the Mantras (chanted prayers or incantations), +and depending on the rhythm and melody used; +in other words, a magical performance based on knowledge +of the Forces of Nature and their correlation; +and (4) <i>Atma-Vidya</i>, a term which is translated simply +'Knowledge of the Soul,' <i>true Wisdom</i> by the Orientalists, +but which means far more.</p> + +<p>"This last is the only kind of Occultism that any +Theosophist who admires 'Light on the Path,' and who +would be wise and unselfish, ought to strive after. All +the rest is some branch of the 'Occult Sciences,' <i>i.e.</i>, +arts based on the knowledge of the ultimate essence +of all things in the kingdoms of Nature—such as minerals, +plants and animals—hence of things pertaining to the +realm of <i>material</i> nature, however invisible that essence +may be, and howsoever much it has hitherto eluded the +grasp of Science.... <i>Siddhis</i> (or the Arhat powers) +are only for those who are able to 'lead the life,' and to +comply with the terrible sacrifices required for such +a training, and to comply with them <i>to the very letter</i>. +Let them know at once and remember always, that true +Occultism or Theosophy is the 'Great Renunciation of +SELF,' unconditionally and absolutely, in thought as in +action. It is ALTRUISM, and it throws him who +practises it out of the ranks of the living altogether. +'Not for himself, but for the world he lives,' as soon as he +has pledged himself to the work. Much is forgiven +during the first years of probation. But, no sooner is +he 'accepted' than his personality must disappear, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +he has to become a <i>mere beneficent force in Nature</i>. There +are two poles for him after that, two paths, and no +midway place of rest. He has either to ascend laboriously +step by step, often through numerous incarnations and +<i>no Devachanic break</i>, the golden ladder leading to +Mahatmaship (the <i>Arhat</i> or <i>Bodhisattva</i> condition), +or—he will let himself slide down the ladder at the first +false step, and roll down into <i>Dugpa-ship</i>....<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>"All this is either unknown or left out of sight +altogether. Indeed, one who is able to follow the silent +evolution of the preliminary aspirations of the candidates +often find strange ideas quietly taking possession of their +minds. There are those whose reasoning powers have +been so distorted by foreign influences that they imagine +that animal passions can be so sublimated and elevated +that their fury, force and fire can, so to speak, be turned +inwards ... <i>until their collective and unexpanded strength +enables their possessor to enter the true Sanctuary of the +Soul</i>, and stand therein in the presence of the <i>Master</i>—the +HIGHER SELF.... Oh, poor blind visionaries!... +Strange aberration of the human mind. Can it be so? +Let us argue.</p> + +<p>"The 'Master' in the Sanctuary of our souls is +'the Higher Self'—the divine spirit whose consciousness +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +is based upon and derived solely (at any rate during the +mortal life of the man in whom it is captive) from the +mind, which we have agreed to call the <i>Human Soul</i> (the +'Spiritual Soul' being the vehicle of the Spirit.) In its +turn the former (the <i>personal</i> or human soul) is a +compound, in its highest form of spiritual aspirations, +volitions and divine love; and in its lower aspect, of +animal desires and terrestrial passions imparted to it +by its association with its vehicle, the seat of all these ... +the <i>inner animal</i>. [It] is the instinctual 'animal soul,' +and is the hotbed of those passions which ... are +lulled instead of being killed, ... And where, on what +neutral ground, can they be imprisoned so as not to +affect man?</p> + +<p>"The fierce passions of love and lust are still alive, +and they are allowed to still remain in the place of their +birth—<i>that same animal soul</i>.... It is thus the mind +alone—the sole link and medium between the man of +earth and the Higher Self—that is the only sufferer, +and which is in incessant danger of being dragged down by +those passions, that may be re-awakened at any moment +and perish in the abyss of matter.... How can harmony +prevail and conquer, when the soul is stained and distracted +with the turmoil of passions and the terrestrial +desires of the bodily senses, or even of the 'Astral man'?</p> + +<p>"For this 'Astral'—the shadowy 'double' (in +the animal as in man) is not the companion of the <i>divine +Ego</i> but of the <i>earthly body</i>. It is the link between the +personal self, the lower consciousness of <i>Manas</i>, and the +Body, and is the vehicle of <i>transitory, not of immortal +life</i>.... It is only when the power of the passions +is dead altogether, and when they have been crushed and +annihilated in the retort of an unflinching will; when not +only all the lusts and longings of the flesh are dead, +but also the recognition of the personal Self is killed out +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +and the 'Astral' has been reduced in consequence to +a cipher, that the Union with the 'Higher Self' can +take place. Then when the 'Astral' reflects only the +conquered man, the still living but no more the longing, +selfish personality, then the brilliant <i>Augœides</i>, the +divine SELF, can vibrate in conscious harmony with +both the poles of the human Entity—the man of +matter purified, and the ever pure Spiritual Soul—and +stand in the presence of the MASTER SELF, the +Christos of the mystic Gnostic, blended, merged into, +and one with IT for ever.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>"How, then, can it be thought possible for a man to +enter the 'strait gate' of occultism when his daily and +hourly thoughts are bound up with worldly things, +desires of possession and power, with lust, ambition, +and duties which, however honourable, are still of the +earth, earthy? Even the love for wife and family—the +purest as the most unselfish of human affections—is a +barrier to <i>real</i> occultism.... While the heart is full of +thoughts for a little group of <i>selves</i>, near and dear to us, +how shall the rest of mankind fare in our souls? What +percentage of love and care will there remain to bestow +on the 'great orphan' [Humanity]? And how shall the +'still small voice' make itself heard in a soul entirely +occupied with its own privileged tenants?... yet, +he who would profit by the wisdom of the universal +mind, has to reach it through <i>the whole of Humanity</i>, +without distinction of race, complexion, religion, +or social status. It is <i>altruism,</i> not <i>ego</i>-ism even in +its most legal and noble conception, that can lead the +unit to merge its little Self in the Universal Selves. It +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +is to <i>these</i> needs and to this work that the true disciple +of true Occultism has to devote himself if he would +obtain <i>theo</i>-sophy, divine Wisdom and Knowledge.</p> + +<p>"The aspirant has to choose absolutely between the +life of the world and the life of Occultism.... It would +be a ceaseless, a maddening struggle for almost any +married man, who would pursue <i>true</i> practical Occultism, +instead of its <i>theoretical</i> philosophy. For he would +find himself ever hesitating between the voice of the +impersonal divine love of Humanity, and that of the +personal, terrestrial love.... Worse than this. For, +<i>whoever indulges, after having pledged himself to</i> OCCULTISM, +<i>in the gratification of a terrestrial love or lust</i>, +must feel an almost immediate result—that of being +irresistibly dragged from the impersonal divine state +down to the lower plane of matter. Sensual, or even +mental, self-gratification involves the immediate loss +of the powers of spiritual discernment; the voice of the +MASTER can no longer be distinguished from that of +one's passions, or <i>even that of a Dugpa</i>; the right from +wrong; sound morality from mere casuistry. The Dead +Sea fruit assumes the most glorious mystic appearance ... +although it is the intention that decides primarily whether +<i>white</i> or <i>black</i> magic is exercised, yet the results even of +involuntary sorcery cannot fail to be productive of bad +Karma.... <i>Sorcery is any kind of evil influence exercised +upon other persons, who suffer, or make other</i> persons to +suffer, in consequence ... such causes produced have to +call forth effects, and these are evidenced in the just laws +of Retribution.</p> + +<p>"Much of this may be avoided if people will only +abstain from rushing into practices neither the nature +nor importance of which they understand.... We are +in the Kali-Yuga and its fatal influence is a thousand-fold +more powerful in the West than it is in the East; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +<i>hence the easy preys made by the Powers of the Age of +Darkness in this cyclic struggle, and the many delusions +under which the world is now labouring</i>." (Italics mine—A. +L. C.)</p> + +<p>Applying this high and absolutely uncompromising +moral standard, these grand and stern words, to the two +pseudo-occultists under discussion, it is not difficult—even +in the light of the little I have already given—to see +that they themselves, and their actions, bear <i>no sort of +relation</i> to real "Occultism" as here briefly outlined by +H. P. Blavatsky. Their teaching concerning sex is +indeed its antithesis, which inevitably leads to Dugpa-ship, +as H. P. B. definitely states. The issue is clear, and +cannot be evaded or explained away.</p> + +<p>It is true that Mrs. Besant started well, even splendidly, +in H. P. B.'s lifetime, and just after her death wrote +a series of simple explanatory manuals which were of +great value to beginners and enquirers. But only two +years later she began, under Brahmin<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> inspiration, to +make serious alterations in H. P. B.'s own works, and +even to throw doubt on her occult knowledge (<i>e.g.</i>, Mrs. +Besant's Preface to the so-called Vol. III of <i>The Secret +Doctrine</i>.) Unfortunately larger and more ambitious +works which followed were vitiated by the same influences, +and I well remember marking many passages in <i>The +Ancient Wisdom</i> which were not in accordance with H. P. +B.'s teachings. But the radical departure from them +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +began when Mrs. Besant definitely threw in her lot with +C. W. Leadbeater, the sex pervert, and thereby alienated +and caused such deep sorrow to her former friends and +supporters.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>FOOTNOTES:</b></span> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Dugpas.</span> (<i>Tibetan</i>). Lit., "Red Caps," a sect in Tibet. +Before the advent of Tsong-ka-pa in the fourteenth century, the +Tibetans, whose Buddhism had deteriorated and been dreadfully +adulterated with the tenets of the old <i>Bhon</i> religion—were all Dugpas. +From that century, however, and after the rigid laws imposed upon +the <i>Gelukpas</i> (Yellow Caps) and the general reform and purification +of Buddhism (or Lamaism), the Dugpas have given themselves over +more than ever to sorcery, immorality, and drunkenness. Since then +the word <i>Dugpa</i> has become a synonym of "sorcerer", "adept of +black magic" and everything vile. There are few, if any, Dugpas +in Eastern Tibet, but they congregate in Bhutan, Sikkim, and the +borderlands generally.—<i>The Theosophical Glossary</i>, by H. P. +Blavatsky.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Man is a trinity composed of Body, Soul, and Spirit; but +<i>man</i> is nevertheless <i>one</i>, <i>and</i> is surely not his body. The three 'Egos' +are <span class="smcap">MAN</span> in his three aspects on the astral, intellectual or psychic, and +Spiritual planes, or states.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> In making use of the word "Brahmin" in this connection, +I mean only to indicate that "sacerdotal" spirit of the Brahmin +caste which has always resisted (and quite reasonably, <i>from their +point of view</i>) any revealing of esoteric teaching to the multitude, +and especially to the West. The particular Brahmin whom Mrs. +Besant followed at that period (<a href="#Footnote_11_11">see <i>post</i> p. 56 Footnote</a>) induced +her to adopt a line of action which disrupted the Society created by +H. P. B., and diverted attention from her works.<br /><br /></p></div> + +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Madras" id="Madras"></a>Mrs. Besant's responsibility and the Madras Law-suits.</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">M.</span> Lévy's concluding chapter, from which I will +now quote, is obviously written from the heart. He +says that it is his "imperative duty" to resign his +membership in Mrs. Besant's Society, referring to the +pain caused to her old friends by the opinion expressed +by the police court magistrate in the defamation cases ... +for he considered that the facts before him, and the +documentary evidence, supported the view that Mrs. +Besant had known of and even countenanced the practices +of Mr. Leadbeater....</p> + +<blockquote><p>"In restoring to Mr. Leadbeater his influence over +herself and over the destinies of the Theosophical Society +[she] has proved her failure in moral vigilance and her lack +of intellectual discrimination as regards methods to which +she thus fails the first victim. And the sorry contradictions +that this brings into her spiritual message, the utter disregard +of truth resulting from this, impel her to words and actions +that now involve an incalculable number of victims, misled +by their devoted trust in her. Her responsibility is in truth +a very terrible one.... I have come to regard the actions +of Mrs. Besant—and of Mr. Leadbeater equally, of course—as +the <i>leaven of destruction, of disintegration in the Theosophical +Society</i>.</p> + +<p>We cannot rid ourselves of a growing disquiet in seeing +Mrs. Besant, in her monthly articles in the <i>Theosophist</i>, +entitled "On the Watch-Tower," so tirelessly expressing +such great and manifest satisfaction in every smallest material +increase, improvement and enrichment of the Adyar Headquarters.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +Mr. Leadbeater shares in this joy. Speaking of Mrs. +Besant in the <i>Adyar Album</i>, p. 7, he praises at great length +the material improvements of the Headquarters:—"In her +reign have been added to the estate no less than six valuable +pieces of property." Thus temporal power would clearly +seem to be the main concern of Adyar. And we involuntarily +turn to the words of Christ, who so well described the spiritual +splendours:—"My kingdom is not of this world." <i>Not thus +does Mrs. Besant understand spirituality</i> since she "reigns" +as a prince of this world, over a kingdom that grows by her +conquests.... A like concern follows Mr. Leadbeater even +into his occult investigations into the twenty-eighth century, +in which he sees "a kind of gorgeous palace with an enormous +dome, the central part of which must be an imitation of the +Taj Mahal at Agra, but on a much larger scale. In this +great building they mark as memorials certain spots by +pillars and inscriptions, such as ... here such and such a +book was written ... they even have statues of <i>some of us</i> +[<i>sic!!</i>] ...—<i>Man; Whence, How, and Whither.</i></p></blockquote> + +<p>Truly may one here repeat the somewhat banal phrase +"Comment is needless"; indeed one might add, +"impossible," in the face of such an amazing manifestation +of megalomania. But this is not the most serious +disease from which C. W. Leadbeater and his colleague +are suffering. As M. Lévy has already shown, there is +much worse behind of which this megalomania is only +one symptom. In an "Addendum" given at, the end +of his book, M. Lévy says that since the publication +of his brochure judgment has been pronounced on the +case he mentions (<a href="#Page_29">see p. 29</a>), the judge ruling that the +children should be removed from the care of Mrs. Besant +and given back to the father within a fixed time." He +then continues:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>Further legal proceedings have confirmed, with yet +more precision, the infamous immorality of which Mr. Leadbeater +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +stands accused. (see report in <i>The Hindu</i>, Madras, +May 9th, 1913.) A Madras medical review called <i>The Antiseptic</i> +had pubished an article in which apprehension of the +establishment of a 'Temple of Onanism" ["unnatural sin." +See Dr. Hartmann's <i>Paracelsus</i>, p. 90] at Adyar was expressed. +<i>The Hindu</i> newspaper reprinted the scandal. Mrs. Besant +took proceedings aga nst the author of the article and the +publisher of <i>The Antiseptic</i>; and the Treasurer of the +Theosophical Society was moved at the same time to action +against <i>The Hindu</i>. <i>All three cases were dismissed.</i> The +gravity of the position is evident. Mr. Leadbeater's methods +have been proved by his own admissions as well as by documents +before the Court to be subversive of morality....</p> + +<p>These facts [I omit the worst details that M. Lévy feels +obliged to quote] condemn Mr. Leadbeater without possibility +of appeal; they reveal to us, with regard to Mrs. Besant, +a truly degrading complaisance, by reason of her desire to +hide a crime as patent as it is abominable ... the members +of the Theosophical Society are not only kept in complete +ignorance regarding these facts, but the administration of +Adyar, through its extensive propaganda, has a great influence +over new members in all conditions, while concealing and +perverting the truth.... The existence of persons like Mr. +Leadbeater, who admit and practise the worst perversities, +is a sad reminder of the darker side of human nature; yet +the attitude of simply ignoring that such things exist +seems indefensible when these persons pretend to the highest +morality and represent themselves as guides towards spiritual +development ... claiming to stand "on the threshold of +divinity.".. The danger that such persons may continue +to extend their empire over the souls of others is an increasing +one....</p></blockquote> + +<p>In view of these "facts" M. Lévy's restraint of +language is remarkable, his condemnation hardly sufficiently +scathing. His concluding words, however, explain +much; he has evidently greatly admired Mrs. Besant +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +in earlier years, and the last paragraph of his book +eloquently attests his personal grief:—"The feeling +which here arrests my pen, and prevents me from saying +more on the matter, will be understood by those who +have followed me so far, and they may hear across my +silence the voice of their own sorrow." I deeply respect +M. Lévy's feelings; but for me—who have never had +any illusions regarding Mrs. Besant from the time of the +disruption of the Society in 1894-5—the matter assumes +a more sinister aspect. His pages have rendered me +most invaluable help in putting before the general public +matter not personally known to my own experience. +I left Colonel Olcott's Society in 1895, M. Lévy left Mrs. +Besant's in 1913; and when we remember that this was +its condition nine years ago, my previous remarks +(<a href="#Page_14">see p. 14</a>) may be better appreciated now that more +evidence has been adduced<br /><br /></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Central" id="Central"></a>The Central Hindu College. An Indian Criticism.</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>n a pamphlet published at Benares about the same date +(1913) by Pandit Bhagavan Das, "a former General +Secretary of the Indian Section T. S." we possess still +further evidence of Mrs. Besant's extraordinary aberrations +under C. W. Leadbeater's guidance and control. +Mr. Das's pamphlet is addressed to the editor of the +London <i>Christian Commonwealth</i>, and is entitled "The +Central Hindu College and Mrs. Besant." It is a reply +to some "remarks" by her on this College, which +appeared in that paper in June, 1913. Mr. Das writes:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>[Mrs. Besant's] remarks on the Central Hindu College +[Benares] in your paper are illustrations of this sad change +in her. This Institution, for which she has done more than +anyone else perhaps, she now openly and obviously tries to +injure most deeply in the minds of the public by wild suggestions +that it and the Hindu University, into which it is +proposed to be expanded, are mixed up with political seditionists +and extremists ... that such an educational movement +is in any way mixed up with seditionism and extremism +is an idea ... fatuously ludicrous.... The reckless, incoherent, +self-contradictory, incorrect and misleading statements +that Mrs. Besant has been freely making latterly in +the public press, have only injured her own reputation.... +The C. H. C. was founded in July, 1898, in order to do for +the numerous sects and sub-divisions of Hinduism what the +T. S. was endeavouring to do for all views and religions.... +The College grew and prospered year by year, under the +Presidentship of Mrs. Besant, and won the confidence ... +of Hindus of almost all shades of opinion.... But with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +the transfer of Mrs. Besant from Benares to Adyar in 1907, +as President of the T. S., elected <i>under very peculiar circumstances</i> +[as I learnt recently from a very old member present +in Adyar when Colonel Olcott was on his deathbed. Italics +mine.—A. L. C.] foreshadowing the coming policies, a change +began to come over the spirit of all her work and surroundings. +Despite the suggestions, advice, entreaties, expostulations, +and warnings of her old colleagues and counsellors <i>who had +made her work in India possible</i> [Italics mine.—A. L. C.], +she developed more and more and beyond all due bounds, +the germ of person-worship so long held in restraint. Entirely +proofless claims to superphysical powers and experiences, to +being an Initiate, an Arhat, a Mukta and what not; claims +to read Mars and Mercury and the whole Solar System, past, +present and future (but with careful avoidance of even the +most easy test, such as reading a given page of a closed book) +claims to be the authorised agent of "the Great White +Brotherhood which guides Evolution on earth" and to be +in communication with the Supreme Director of the world +and with "the World-Teacher," etc., in short, all the +elements of sensationalism and emotionalism—which were +subdominant and private (confined mostly to the "inner" +E. S. T. organisation within the T. S.) now began to be +predominant and public.... In the spring of 1909, a +"brother Initiate" of Mrs. Besant's "discovered" the boy, +now nicknamed Alcyone, as the future vehicle of the Coming +Christ ... <i>"neo-theosophy" was started more or less definitely</i> +[Italics mine.—A. L. C.]....</p> + +<p>In January 1911 was started publicly by the then +Principal of the C. H. C., as the chief member of the "Group" +an "Order" called The Order of the Rising Sun, with the +idea of "preparing for a coming World-Teacher "as its +publicly avowed central idea, and the creed that the boy +J. K. (Alcyone) would be the "vehicle" of the "Coming +Christ—Maitreya-Bodhisattva," etc., as its privately understood +creed, to spread which amongst the students was the +duty of the inner "pledged group.' ... [<a href="#Page_21">See <i>ante</i> p. 21</a>.</p></blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +In short, Mrs. Besant cleverly utilised an already +existing organisation, founded for quite other objects +and aims, to spread this crazy and pernicious "neo-theosophy," +under cover of secrecy, pledges, etc., which +she and C. W. Leadbeater—the real inspirer—well +knew to be almost irresistible baits for sensitive and +imaginative youths at a highly impressionable age.</p> + +<p>In April, 1911, on remonstrance by the older members +of the Managing Committee, Mrs. Besant arranged that the +Order of the Rising Sun should be disbanded. But this was +mere show. When the disbandment was announced to the +managers, it had already been arranged to replace the +O. R. S. on a larger scale by <i>The Order of the Star in the East</i> +with the Principal, Head Master, and various Professors of +the C. H. C. as the Private and other secretaries, of the boy +J. K. as Head of the Order, and Mrs. Besant as Protectress +of the whole....</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1911, side by side with this public +activity, there was started by Mrs. Besant <i>within</i> the E. S. T. +<span class="smcap"> ... A WRITTEN PLEDGE OF ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE TO HERSELF.</span> +This fact, "private and confidential" at the time, is now +public property since the Madras law suits....</p> + +<p>In August, 1911, the Trustees of the C. H. C., to allay +the apprehension in the public mind that the C. H. C. was +being diverted from its constitutional broad and liberal +Hinduism into a bizarre and unhealthy personal-cult and +bigoted Second-Adventism, passed formal resolutions to the +effect that the Institution had nothing to do with any such +Orders as those of the <i>Rising Sun</i> or the <i>Star in the East</i>.</p> + +<p>On December 24th, 1911, resolutions were passed by +the Trustees, agreeing that the C. H. C. should become part +of the Hindu University.... The neo-theosophic propagandism +within (as without) the C. H. C. continued ... +in a score of evasive and elusive forms. Inner "Groups" +and "Esoteric Section Groups" of persons formally pledged +to obedience to Mrs. Besant, "Leagues of Service" of various +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +kinds, "Orders of S. E." and "S. I." and "I. L.," "Co-Masonry +Lodges," "Temple of the R. C.," and corresponding +badges, bands, "regalia," "jewels,"and "pink," and "blue," +and "yellow" scarves; "magnetized ribbons," and "stars" +in pin, brooch, and button forms, etc. [for all the world like +the Kindergarten games for developing infant intelligences!—A. +L. C.] multiplied and replaced one another in interest +like mushrooms in the rain time, a very fever of restless +sound and movement hiding lack of substance and of wise +purpose. Fuss of the most absurd and mischievous kind +became rampant. Lectures, meetings, night classes, outside +the college rooms and buildings, took place perpetually in +the neighbouring T. S. premises and private residences, for +expounding the doctrines of neo-theosophy and especially the +book called <i>At the Feet of the Master</i> alleged to have been +written down by Alcyone (J. Krishnamurti), as the embryonic +scriptures and revelation of "the Embryo of a New Religion," +as Mrs. Besant declares the O. S. E. to be. Resident students +were advised, and a number of them began to keep photos +of Alcyone, as the "vehicle" of the "Coming Christ" and +himself an "Initiate of the Great White Brotherhood" (and +Mrs. Besant and one or two other living persons) "on the +threshold of divinity," and to worship them with flowers, +incense, etc. Old and young believers prostrating and genuflecting, +literally, at the feet of the living original when +within reach.... The then Principal of the College (who had +founded the O. R. S.) proclaimed in his lectures in the +neighbouring T. S. Hall, and elsewhere, that he was a "High +Disciple of the Master"; and that the C. H. C. was "founded +to prepare for the Advent of the World-Teacher"....</p> + +<p>[Mrs. Besant] has publicly stated [that] all of the members +of the General Council of the T. S. now belong, with one or +two exceptions perhaps, to the "Esoteric Section," prime +condition of membership of which is, <span class="smcap">the formal written +pledge of absolute obedience to Mrs. Besant</span>; and so +while the loud profession is freedom of thought "for all" +the practice is sedulously "for herself," and her pledged +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +votaries only; while the theory is that the O. S. E. "must +not be identified with the T. S.," the practice is that the +T. S. must be merged in the O. S. E.</p> + +<p>Let us turn to the C. H. C. to bring the narrative up to +date. In March and April 1913 there came into the hands +of another Manager and Trustee, a printed "letter," covering +some three foolscap pages, bearing the signature of the +gentleman who was then Principal of the C. H. C., the date +October 25th, 1912, and the imprint of Mrs. Besant's <i>Vasanta +Press</i>, Adyar, Madras, and not bearing any word like "private" +or "personal," or "confidential." In this "letter" amazingly +extravagant and fantastic statements are made as +regards Mrs. Besant; she is hailed repeatedly as one who is +"<i>to become one of the greatest Rulers of the World of Gods and +men</i>" [This is sheer insanity.—A. L. C.]; mention is made +of the "recognition of the God without us, which made us +members of this Group from which we draw our life to-day"; +it is said "that her light to ours was and is as the rays of +the sun at noon-time to the rays of a lamp at night, and we +did not desire to examine the Sun to see under what conditions +it might possibly ray forth a more dazzling brilliance." +The members of the Group are reminded that "we pledged +ourselves in our hearts that we should strive to become +<i>her true and loyal servants ...,</i>" etc.</p> + +<p>Thus complete was the hypnosis and surrender of reason +which was sought to be effected amongst the votaries. It +was a case of emotionalism run amuck...."</p> + +<p>It is, unfortunately, "a case" of something infinitely +more mischievous; of evil "magic" and "sorcery" +(cf. H. P. B.'s definition, <a href="#Page_36"><i>ante</i> p. 36</a>.) Whether Mrs. +Besant knows it or not, Mr. Leadbeater undoubtedly +must be well aware that life and strength can be drawn, +on inner planes of being, from the blind devotion of a +solid body of fanatical votaries. "Magicians" of a +certain school—I need hardly specify which—thus +prolong their lives through the magnetic and vita +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +emanations of their nearest and most devoted followers. +In a word, it is <i>Vampirism</i>, pure and simple, on the +psychic plane. (I found that Mrs. Tingley well understood +this form of Sorcery.) This, if true in Mrs. +Besant's case is probably unconscious; but in Mr. +Leadbeater's it is done consciously and with knowledge. +That the secret acts and teachings of this man are far +worse than most people have ever suspected is confirmed +in a "Letter in reply to Mrs. Besant" by "Dreamer" +which appeared in <i>The Theosophic Voice</i> (Chicago), +November, 1908, under the title "India Speaks." This +scholarly Hindu Theosophist writes:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>If we are to believe the stenographic report of the +Inquiry in 1906, then instead of holding that Mr. Leadbeater +denied the charges, we must come to the conclusion that not +only did he teach the solitary vice, but further he did things +which would have brought him within the pale of the criminal +laws for the foulest and most indecent offence which brute +man may commit. This is our latter day saint who must +be re-admitted, nay, invited back, into the Theosophical +Society.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Note that this was written fourteen years ago! +The subject is a revolting one, but in the interests of that +public whom these people are still misleading and deceiving, +and who have no idea of the extreme gravity of +the menace, it is necessary to be explicit.</p> + +<p>To return to the "Letter" mentioned by Mr. Das; +he continues:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>The Trustee and Manager into whose hands a copy of +the astonishing document came, with the information that +<i>it had been circulated</i> amongst a number of the C. H. C. +students, informed the secretaries of the College, and sent +the letter with the comments on the same for publication +in a daily paper, in order to show the public how the person-worship-creeds +of Mrs. Besant's "neo-theosophy" were being +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +sown and grown within the C. H. C. despite the resolutions +of the Trustees.</p> + +<p>On publication of the rhapsody, a great outcry in the +name of "injured innocence" was raised.... As to the +"dishonourableness" of the publication, competent judges of +such matters have pronounced that it was dishonourable +only if it be dishonourable to expose what cannot be called +other than <i>gross treason</i> to the Constitution and ideals of +the C. H. C., and to bring to light, and the bar of public +opinion, underhand or half-concealed or openly defiant efforts +to convert students to a grotesque person-worship and +demoralizing and soul-stunting blind obedience to Mrs. +Besant.... The asking for, and the receiving of the pledges +of obedience to herself, etc., is an act of over-weening presumption +against the God in every man.... Ever since she +encouraged and started them, her mind has worked less +and less correctly and confusion has fallen ever worse and +worse upon her work, losing to the T. S. many thousands +of old members, alienating from her all her old co-workers +and co-founders of the C. H. C. and destroying the confidence +in her of the Indian public.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Towards the end of his most illuminating pamphlet +Mr. Das has occasion to speak of Mrs. Besant's "wildly +reckless statements," some of which he quotes. They +relate to the C. H. C. and he stigmatises them as "<i>all +simply and utterly untrue</i>." "Her mind," he says a +little further on, is working "incoherently." Finally, he +writes:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>Let us conclude; when a person like Mrs. Besant, with +a biography full of remarkable changes, full of fine work +as well as bad blunders, having established herself, in her +own belief, and that of her pledged band, as the present +chief Spiritual Teacher and Saviour of Mankind, as "the +God within us" now, and as the future "greatest Ruler of +the World of Gods and men," suddenly adds on the role of +political saviour of India in particular, and pre-determined +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +martyr in constant danger of assassination [strangely enough, +this was also one of Mrs. Tingley's obsessions] by anarchist +miscreants ... and proclaims that those who differ from +her are in league with those miscreants—when this happens, +what explanation can be offered to their own minds by her +old friends ...?</p> + +<p>The only sad explanation that they can postulate is +that she is suffering from mental delusions.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Alas! this lenient and charitable judgment by no +means covers the ground as a complete explanation of +Mrs. Besant's mischievous and almost irresponsible +activities. Mr. Das fails to see as clearly as MM. Lévy +and Schuré the sinister influence behind all these manifestations; +the source and inspiration of all this evil.<br /><br /></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Claims" id="Claims"></a>Mrs. Besant's latest Assertions and claims examined.</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>E now come to the examination of two articles +in the <i>Theosophist</i> for March, 1922, in which the +President of the T. S. makes some attempt to deal +with recent criticism. One is a Supplement, or Manifesto, +addressed "To all Members of the Theosophical Society," +and couched in Mrs. Besant's present style—flamboyant, +a trifle bombastic, often Biblical in phraseology, and +running throughout it, her usual fervid and disingenuous +appeal to sentimental emotionalism, instead of the +instinctive sense of justice latent in all beings. This +latter, a feature of her best days, she has entirely +abandoned; it no longer serves her ends. What those +"ends" are one almost hesitates to formulate, +so impious and almost insane do they appear. Even +taking into consideration the tangled mass of evasions, +misstatements and hypocritical equivocations presented +in this manifesto, these "ends" emerge with sufficient +clearness. But, in the first place, and before going +further, one must ask on what basis this amazing claim +to almost deific powers and knowledge rests. Let me +here call M. Lévy into the witness box once more; for +he also had put the same question to himself nine years +ago, and will provide the answer. It occurs in his +chapter on "Mrs. Besant's 'Return of the Christ,'" +where he is dealing with her position and actions in regard +to Dr. Steiner, the German occultist and Christian +Theosophist—with whose ideas, I should add, I am not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +in personal agreement. My teacher is H. P. Blavatsky +and she alone: I follow no lesser light. M. Lévy +says:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>Our reason forces us to confess that all goes to suggest +that Mrs. Besant, having herself ceased to believe in the +identity of her Jesus with the Christ [of the Gospels.—A. L. C.], +would still continue to make others believe it.... Her pride +... her dominating mind, have driven her on this crusade +of extermination of Dr. Steiner's teachings; it has induced +her to collect, <i>without the least regard for truth, justice, or +theosophic principles, no matter what weapons if they do but +serve against her opponent; calumny, abuse of power, misstatement +of facts, all combined in a subtle strategy</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Italics are mine; for we find Mrs. Besant using +precisely the same methods to-day, only in a form +fortunately neither so "subtle" nor so Jesuitically +plausible. Her powers are failing, as the manifesto +under consideration clearly proves. M. Lévy proceeds:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>And when she falls victim of some error in the course +of her occult investigations—of which in theory she is always +proclaiming the fallibility—it is again her pride that bars +the way to admission, and makes her the slave of the most +pitiful machinations ... which ... will shatter to fragments +in all directions the confidence she had formerly +inspired. For if she is not consciously defending her mistake, +then what kind of a break-up of all her faculties are we +witnessing?... The more deeply we study this [<i>i.e.</i>, the +"neo-theosophy" already described by M. Lévy and Pandit +Bhagavan Das.—A. L. C.], the more terrible appear the +responsibilities of Adyar in this deplorable scheme; for we +would still seek the origin of such fearless confidence [in +Mrs. Besant's followers.—A. L. C.] refusing, as it does, to +be shaken by the eloquent appeal of the facts here set forth, +and of which some, if not all, have been within the reach +and open to examination of those members who profess such +an enthusiastic confidence in Mrs. Besant. The result of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +our search is a yet further culpability, as overwhelming as +it is unexpected.</p> + +<p>For this confidence is not in the case of all the victims +the result of the free use of their own inner faculties. It is +in the case of the greater number, due to the influence of a +strong suggestion <i>deliberately organised and cleverly carried out +by the authors of this mystification themselves; by Mr. Leadbeater +who wrote, and by Mrs. Besant who published</i>, the following +lines in the <i>Adyar Album</i>, p. 45: "What can I say to you +of your President that you do not know already? Her +colossal [<i>sic</i>] intellect, her unfailing wisdom, her unrivalled +eloquence, her splendid forgetfulness of self, her untiring +devotion to work for others—all these are familiar to you. +Yet these qualities, these powers, are but a small part of +her greatness; they are on the surface, they may be seen +by all, they leap to the eyes. But there are other qualities, +other powers, of which you cannot know, because they +pertain to the secrets of Initiation. She is a pupil of our +Masters; from the fount of Their archaic wisdom she derives +her own, the plans which she is carrying out are Their plans +for the welfare of the world. Think, therefore, how great an +honour it is for you that you should be permitted to work +under her, for in doing so you are virtually working under +Them. Think how watchful you should be to miss no hint +which falls from her lips, to carry out exactly whatever +instructions she may give you. Remember that because of +her position as an Initiate she knows far more than you do; +and precisely because her knowledge is occult, given under +the seal of Initiation, she cannot share it with you. Therefore +her actions must certainly be governed by considerations of +which you have no conception. There will be times when +you cannot understand her motives, for she is taking into +account many things which you cannot see and of which +she must not tell you. But whether you understand or not, +you will be wise to follow her implicitly, just because she +knows. This is no mere supposition on my part, no mere +flight of the imagination; I have stood beside your President +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +in the presence of the Supreme Director of evolution on this +globe, and I know whereof I speak. Let the wise hear my +words, and act accordingly."</p> + +<p>It is easy to see how minds not gifted with a highly +developed critical faculty, or the instinctive sense that +discriminates the true from the false, would yield hopelessly +to such a formidable assault. They cannot see that he who +thus guarantees the infallibility of Mrs. Besant has himself +need of guarantee.... <i>I do not think that any religion or +man-made cult, even in the earliest ages, has ever promulgated +superstition in its grossest form so openly and boldly as this ...</i> +[Italics mine.—A.L.C.]. Mr. Leadbeater ... demands +<i>deliberate</i> suppression of thought.... And having extolled +such a deliberately induced mental torpor for Mrs. Besant's +benefit, he immediately demands it for himself when he +speaks of the "Supreme Director of evolution on this globe." +Who is this administrative person? With whom is he to +be identified in the scheme of evolution as it has been given +to us by Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater themselves?... +What avenging God will come to confound this impious +prophet who seeks to reduce humanity to the level of a +troop of obedient automata!... A gentle and winning +voice, infinitely reassuring, rises out of the depths of my +being ... a great light breaks forth, triumphant. Mr. +Leadbeater hears the words of a judgment immediate and +without appeal, pronounced by the Buddha himself:—</p> + +<p>"Believe not what you have heard said; believe not in +traditions merely because they have been transmitted through +many generations; believe not merely because a thing is +repeated by many persons; ... believe not conjectures ... +<i>believe not solely upon the authority of your Masters and elders</i>. +<span class="smcap">When upon observation and analysis a principle conforms +to reason and leads to the benefit and welfare of +all, accept it and hold it.</span>"—(Buddha, <i>Anguttura Nikaya</i>.)</p> + +<p>What a royal refuge, what a noble support are the words +of those who are the truly great! They are the perpetual +safeguard of humanity.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +We have seen that upon "observation and analysis" +the "unfailing" wisdom of Mrs. Besant is no more than +a mass of inconsistencies, injustices, sectarian tactics in +administration, error and mystification in esoteric announcements. +Far from leading to "the benefit and welfare of all," +this "unfailing" wisdom is leading to the ... most miserable +slavery of souls, the emasculation of minds, the creation +of a terrible heresy. And at the present time we are all +feeling that we shall not be living up to the wise exhortations +of that great Being who was the Buddha, unless we clearly +denounce the lamentable aberrations of these two occultists +in the hope of drawing all the souls we possibly can away +from their pernicious influence. With this end in view, and +faithful to this duty, we shall calmly and firmly continue +our investigation of facts.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, the assertions of Mrs. Besant and Mr. +Leadbeater have lately reached to such a pitch of extravagance +and have so utterly defied common sense that they will +rouse even the least critical minds and the most compliant +hearts.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Then follows the section of M. Lévy's book in which +he quotes from <i>Man; Whence, How, and Whither</i>; +much of this I have given earlier in this pamphlet. And +M. Lévy, one must remember, wrote all this <i>nine years +ago</i>!</p> + +<p>At this point it may serve a useful purpose if I +specifically define my own position in regard to Mrs. +Besant's claims. <i>I entirely and most emphatically reject +them all.</i> Mr. Leadbeater's I was not even aware of, +until I came to collect and examine the material for this +pamphlet. They are so monstrous as not even to merit a +specific "rejection"—it goes without saying. I practically +lost all faith in Mrs. Besant when she dissimulated +and tried to mislead the Inner Group Council on her +return from her first visit to India in 1894. She then +informed us that she had been "ordered by the Master to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +accuse Judge." On being closely cross-examined, +however, she finally admitted that she had not received +this "Order" <i>direct</i>, as she would have had us believe, +but <i>through</i> the Brahmin whom she then followed +blindly<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>, exactly as she now follows Leadbeater. +But later, when taxed with this in public, she pretended +that he had had nothing whatever to do with it! This +is a typical example of Mrs. Besant's idea of a 'truthful' +statement in a matter of the most vital importance +involving the fate of a leader and many thousands of +members. What confidence can be placed in such a +woman—one whose mental processes are so warped, and +whose ideas of 'truth' and 'honesty' are so peculiar? +To inspire confidence a leader must be the very soul of +truth and uprightness. Mrs. Besant has always been +remarkable for asserting herself to be this, and people +have believed her. But a truly upright and honest +person (even if aware of it, as in Occultism he has to be) +would never draw attention to it—and that publicly +and in print.</p> + +<p>Because, for Mrs. Besant, Mr. —— was <i>at +this period</i> her mouthpiece for the Master, she expected +her colleagues to take the same view without question. +This attitude is typical, and can be applied to all that she +now says about Leadbeater (<a href="#Page_19">see <i>ante</i> p. 19</a>.) From +this time I found it impossible to believe in her or her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +statements; such, for instance, as that H. P. B. had +reincarnated in Mr. ——'s little daughter!!<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>—or +in anyone else for that matter. H. P. B. herself, +when someone asked her about reincarnating, jokingly +replied—"Yes, in some mild Hindu youth with half a +lobe to his brain!" <i>H. P. B. has not reincarnated.</i> On +the ridiculous belief above mentioned Mrs. Besant based +her "authority" for doing things in H. P. B.'s name after +her death (<a href="#Tampering">see <i>post</i> p. 71 for examples</a>). It follows also +that I absolutely reject her claim to be an "agent" +of the Masters (<i>i.e.</i>, the Trans-Himâlayan Brotherhood), +neither do I believe that she has had any communication +whatsoever with Them since H. P. B.'s death.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Finally, +I reject her most presumptuous claim that she +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +is able, or in anyway fitted, to "expand," "verify," +or "check" by psychic faculties H. P. B.'s statements +and teachings; still less to carry on independent occult +investigations on the same, or any similar plane of +consciousness. Whether Mrs. Besant, in making these +claims, is acting under the glamour of Mr. Leadbeater's +"clairvoyant" delusions, as MM. Lévy and Schuré suggest, or is fully conscious and responsible, is not my +part to judge, nor does it really matter. For me, her +life may be summed up in some words she applied +recently to Mr. Gandhi (<i>Theosophist</i>, April, 1922). It is +"the tragedy of a soul." Her criticisms on what she calls +his "failure" apply fully and literally to <i>her own</i>.</p> + +<p>There is really very little in the Manifesto (<i>Theosophist</i>, +March, 1922), that is not sufficiently answered +by the various extracts I have quoted from previous +critics. Mrs. Besant opens with the usual disingenuous +statements about the "Liberal Catholic Church." Her +argument that all religions are on an equal footing in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +T. S. carries no weight when it is widely known that +L. C. C. agents are everywhere at work pushing its +interests.</p> + +<p>Coming next to Mr. Leadbeater, Mrs. Besant states +that he was "cleared by a Committee in England"! +But it is really a little too much, and altogether too +brazen,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> when she dares to compare his case with that +of H. P. B. in the matter of slander. <i>There can be no +possible comparison.</i> The worst ever suggested against +H. P. B. was what has been said of many other women, +including Mrs. Besant herself, who have had to work +in the glare of publicity and champion an unpopular +cause. No evidence was ever brought forward, and the +New York <i>Sun</i> promptly apologised for publishing +such statements on being shown that they were +unfounded.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> The grave charges against Mr. Leadbeater +were supported by documentary evidence <i>which has +never been rebutted</i>, and they have to do with something +far worse than personal moral laxity, as we have seen. +Mrs. Besant knows she cannot meet these charges, +and so seeks to brush them aside by voluble talk about +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +"hatred," "defamation," and "vilification." The only +<i>justification</i> she offers for having reinstated him in 1907 +is that she had discovered that it was "a cruel lie +that he had confessed to wrongdoing"! This is to +argue that the "accused" should be "acquitted" +because he refused to confess—in the face of evidence +of no matter how damning a nature! Did Mrs. Besant +follow this procedure in her "Case against W. Q. Judge"? +Not at all; far from "acquitting" him when he refused +to "confess to wrongdoing" and asked for production +of the incriminating documents, she calmly confessed +that she had destroyed them! But <i>now</i> that it is a +case of her own guide and "intermediary" in the dock, +her attitude is entirely different, and it is quite enough +for her that the "accused" did not "confess" his +crime!</p> + +<p>As Dr. Stokes, Editor of the <i>O. E. Critic</i> (Washington, +D.C.) has been fearlessly stating the facts and encouraging +the "Back to Blavatsky" movement for some time past, +she next devotes a paragraph to an attempt to discredit +him by suggesting his connection with an old enemy +of H. P. B.'s. Dr. Stokes's championship of H. P. B., +and relentless exposure of the Besant-Leadbeater imposture +is the more effective since he persists in retaining +his membership in the T. S.</p> + +<p>The next to be dealt with is Pandit Bhagavan Das, +and his criticisms about the Central Hindu College. +Here again, all I have quoted from his pamphlet about +the secret sections, underhand work, pledges, etc., are +entirely ignored.</p> + +<p>Mr. T. H. Martyn's letter, which has caused such a +sensation in the Society (Holland alone asking for 500 +copies) is dismissed as full of "untrue" statements. +Truly a very simple method of dealing with matter +which Mrs. Besant finds compromising or unpleasant +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +(<a href="#Page_18">see <i>ante</i> p. 18</a>); but she can hardly believe it to be +convincing.</p> + +<p>It is when this profoundly disingenuous woman +comes to an explanation of the motive behind her political +work in India, that we find a typical specimen of the +peculiar form of megalomania already so ably demonstrated +by M. Lévy. What must be the mental condition +of a person who can sit down and solemnly write the +following?</p> + +<blockquote><p>The work entrusted to me directly by the great Rishi +who is—as one may say [<i>sic</i>]—the spiritual Viceroy<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> for +India of the King of Kings of our world—is the bringing +about of Home Rule in India, in close union with Great +Britain, as part of a great Federation of Free Nations, a +model of the future World Commonwealth...."</p></blockquote> + + +<p>Why such a very mundane and political idea should +need an order from a Rishi is not explained. The patent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +appeal both to the Government and the Indian people +in this portentous announcement is not very happily +conceived.</p> + +<p>It is unfortunate for Mrs. Besant that her indignant +denial that another of the notorious "Bishops" +(Wedgwood) is "wanted" by the police was +immediately followed by a priest's confession and the +Bishop's resignation from the L. C. C., the T. S., and the +Co-masons!<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + + +<p>Finally we come to the most ominous part of the +whole document, where Mrs. Besant refers to the present +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +condition of the sex problem, and indicates that Mr. +Leadbeater's vile teachings to, and practices with boys—trying +"to wean lads from evil practices" is her version +of it—are part of a process necessary "to save mankind +in the near future." The "lessening of the sex impulse" +on the "line of higher mental evolution" is "too slow." +"Early marriage and birth-control"—preceded, one +must assume, by Leadbeaterism—are now Mrs. Besant's +inspired panaceas.</p> + +<p>The appalling menace to <i>the evolution of the spiritual +nature in man</i>, of the secret Leadbeater teaching known +as the "X-system," is shown by the evidence of +Dr. Eleanor M. Hiestand-Moore (M.D.), Editor of the +<i>Theosophic Voice</i> (Chicago), in which all the Leadbeater +proceedings of 1906 were reported and discussed. +In the August number, 1908, Dr. Hiestand-Moore +writes:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>During the winter of 1906-7 the Editor [herself] was +in Chicago and in order to combat the widespread tendency +to uphold self-abuse on the lines indicated by Mr. Leadbeater, +a series of lectures on the psychology of sex was given. There +were members in the E. S., and out of it who upheld the +X-system. One person declared ... that <i>this system would, +before many years, be taught in our public schools</i>. Still +another insisted that <i>by self-abuse humanity was to return to +the hermaphroditic type</i> and that <i>this practice would be universal +among Fifth Round Humanity</i>. A number declared that, +while they did not pretend to know anything about such +matters, they had understood this was <i>a highly occult teaching +given to would-be disciples</i>! We could lay hands on a letter +setting forth the claim that this teaching is purely "esoteric" +and not to be estimated by exoteric standards—this, too, +from a Branch president! [Italics mine.—A. L. C.].</p> + +<p>These instances are sufficiently appalling in themselves. +But what can we say now that <i>The Voice</i> has elicited a correspondence +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +which is simply a brazen defence of these +"teachings"?<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p></blockquote> + +<p>What, then, must be the moral condition of this +horrible travesty of the old T.S. <i>now</i>, fourteen years after +Dr. Hiestand-Moore wrote the foregoing? Mrs. Besant +is thus seen to have now returned practically to the Neo-Malthusianism +of her earlier, pre-theosophic association +with the late Charles Bradlaugh. It may not be generally +known that H. P. B. <i>refused to accept her as a pupil</i> until +she had published a recantation of all she and Bradlaugh +had advocated in <i>The Fruits of Philosophy</i>. It is a +sinister omen that under C. W. Leadbeater, the sex +pervert, Mrs. Besant has abandoned H. P. Blavatsky's +imperative requirement for becoming a student of <i>White</i> +Occultism, and has returned to the essentially materialistic +doctrine of "birth-control," in direct contravention of +the true Occult teaching. In other words, her assertion +amounts to this:—<i>Self</i>-control is not possible (or is +"too slow "), therefore we must control <i>results</i>. How +different is the Occult teaching is well-known to all +who have taken the trouble to read H. P. B.'s articles +from which I have already quoted (<a href="#Occultism">see <i>ante</i> p. 31</a>) and +the splendid chapter in Vol. II of <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> +entitled "The Curse from a Philosophical Point of View." +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +And H. P. B. told me herself that she included the +following verse in <i>The Voice of the Silence</i> with the +express object of combating such teachings and placing +the Occult doctrine beyond possibility of misinterpretation:—</p> + +<p>"Do not believe that lust can ever be killed out if +gratified or satiated, for this is an abomination inspired +by Mâra. It is by feeding vice that it expands and +waxes strong, like to the worm that fattens on the +blossom's heart."</p> + +<p>In a note H. P. B. explains that Mâraacirc;ra is "personified +temptation through men's vices, and translated literally +means 'that which kills' the Soul." Far from "saving" +mankind, therefore, these professed 'expanders' and +'expounders' of H. P. B.'s doctrines are in reality doing +their best to hasten its end. Better far, from the Occult +standpoint, that a race should be wiped out by "outraged +Nature," as were the Atlanteans for the same sins, than +that it should be kept alive only to sink lower and lower +until "Mâra" kills its Soul.</p> + +<p>In the "Watch-Tower" (<i>Theosophist</i>, March, 1922,) +Editorial mention is made of a display at Adyar of +"treasures of the most varied kinds," which have just +been unearthed from "all the old locked-up boxes" +at the headquarters. Why, one may not unreasonably +enquire, has Mrs. Besant waited until 1922 to disinter, +for instance, a long and valuable letter from H. P. B. +herself? Why have such "treasures" been <i>kept back +for over thirty years</i>; just as "Letters" from the Masters +(the Trans-Himâlayan Brotherhood) were kept hidden +away for an even longer period—nearly forty years? +The reasons are so ridiculously transparent that they +would hardly deceive an intelligent child. Mrs. Besant +is becoming seriously discomposed, even alarmed, by the +growing strength of the "Back to Blavatsky" movement, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +which is in itself a reaction against her own neglect. +Hence all this "burrowing" (her own word) +in order to make a brave show of these "treasures" +for which she had no sort of use until, disturbed by +alarming rumours, she hastily resorts to them for +purposes of camouflage and disguise. For she is a +skilful opportunist and clever actress, assuming successive +parts with as convincing an air as any "star"; +neither does she scruple to employ every device of the +party politician.</p> + +<p>Does Mrs. Besant seriously believe that this attempt +to drag the red herring of an unexplained and suddenly +awakened interest in these "treasures" across the trail +of Mr. Leadbeater's infamies will deceive anyone save +their blind and infatuated followers? Has she forgotten +that when, <i>only two years</i> after H. P. Blavatsky's death, +she came under the direct hypnotic control of Brahmin +influence, she threw doubts upon her old Teacher's <i>bona +fides</i> and her occult knowledge; and, in the course of +formulating her charges against her fellow-disciple (a +<i>chela</i> of many years' standing before she ever even heard +of Theosophy) suggested to Mr. Judge that, "<i>misled by +a high example</i>" (H. P. B.), he had fallen "a victim." +For, as she then told him, her "theory was <i>first</i>, that +H. P. B. had committed several frauds for good ends and +made bogus messages; <i>second</i>, that [he] was misled by +her example; and <i>third</i>, that H. P. B. had given [him] +permission to do such acts. She then," continues Mr. +Judge, "asked me to confess thus, and that would +clear up all. I peremptorily denied such a horrible lie, +and warned her that everywhere I would resist such +attack on H. P. B. These are the facts, and the real +issue is around H. P. B." (<i>The Path</i>, March, 1895.)</p> + +<p>With the complete disruption of the Society the +Brahmin period of dominance over Mrs. Besant came +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +to an end. Then followed the Leadbeater <i>régime</i>, the +first phase of which culminated in the crisis of 1906. +But on Colonel Olcott's death in the following year, she +contrived the realisation of her great ambition, and +became President of the Society. At this point in her +career, however, there were two serious difficulties which +she had to meet:—<i>first</i>, the Leadbeater scandal which +raised a storm of horror and protest from those old and +tried members who had remained in the Society up to +that time, but who then practically withdrew in a body +Deprived of their support, and having reinstated the +infamous Leadbeater, Mrs. Besant realised that, as +President, she could no longer risk appearing half-hearted +over H. P. Blavatsky; nay more, she <i>needed</i> +the support of her venerated name; <i>second</i>, as President +of the Society created by H. P. B., she must, for the sake +of her own prestige, take some definite action which +would remove all possibility of suspicion that she was +no longer the follower of the Teacher whom she had, +<i>in fact</i>, already "denied" and "betrayed" only two +years after her death. Mrs. Besant realised, in short, +that she had gone too far, and must now retrieve the +position. Accordingly, in 1907, she issued a pamphlet +entitled <i>H. P. Blavatsky and the Masters of the [sic] +Wisdom</i>, in which, with all her accustomed ability, she +dealt once more with the famous (or rather infamous) +Report of the Society for Psychical Research, published +in 1885. But the concluding eulogy strikes a false note, +coming from one who, as I have shown, was capable of +being persuaded that H. P. B. had concocted messages +from those Masters Whom she so faithfully served for +two-thirds of her life.</p> + +<p>It was at this time also (1907), so Mrs. Besant later +declared, that "the T. S. fully regained its original +position, with the Masters of the [<i>sic</i>] Wisdom as once +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +more the 'First Section' of the Society." This +bold assertion was made in 1919, when, under +pressure of some fresh scare connected with Mr. Leadbeater, +Mrs. Besant published a small volume of the +Masters' Letters (most of which had presumably been +lying in the archives of the Society at Adyar for nearly +forty years!), obviously for no other reason than because +among them are two alleged to have been received by +Mr. Leadbeater. This she did in order to bolster up +the extravagant claims she now makes for him as a +"Great Teacher." But there were many who received +Letters in the early days, and there is no reason why +similar claims should not be made for all the recipients!</p> + +<p>In the article entitled "Whom will ye Serve?" +(<i>Theosophist</i>, March, 1922,) Mrs. Besant says that H. P. +B. "formed an inner circle of her pupils, that it might +bear witness to the truth and reality of the inner side +of life." This was the "Inner Group" of which she +and I were two of the six women members. But as, +unfortunately Mr. Leadbeater was not included, although +he had become a member of the T. S. some years before, +she adds:—"And behold! ere she passed away, she had +led others to the Light, and bade them bear witness +to it...." Considering that she "passed away" <i>less +than a year</i> after forming the Inner Group in the summer +of 1890, and that we were constantly with her and +never heard of these "others," this statement is manifestly +untrue. Mrs. Besant also refers to Mr. Leadbeater +as "one of H. P. B.'s nearest and most trusted pupils +[Absolutely untrue.—A. L. C.] whom she had led to +his Master of many lives, and in whom she had awakened +the powers since so splendidly used in the service of the +Society that he might become a great Teacher...."</p> + +<p>I challenge Mrs. Besant to produce anything in +writing by H. P. B. to warrant this audacious assertion. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +I was a pupil of H. P. B. (and through her was accepted +as "a <i>chela</i> on probation," in 1889) before Mrs. Besant +joined the T. S., and saw her expel one of her most +gifted and valued workers from the Esoteric Section for +offences against the occult and moral law similar to +those with which Mr. Leadbeater's name has now been +associated for nearly twenty years. H. P. B. was +always extremely strict on this particular point, and +many would-be aspirants for <i>chelaship</i> were refused on +this one ground alone, while others who had been +accepted "on probation" failed almost immediately +afterwards.</p> + +<p>When I joined the T. S. in 1885 my diploma was +signed by Colonel Olcott as President and C.W. Leadbeater +as Secretary (he was then at Adyar), but I never +heard him mentioned by H. P. B. or anyone else at +the London Headquarters, as a person of any importance +whatever, in the occult sense. Mrs. Besant goes on to +say that H. P. B. left "the twain of us [Leadbeater +and herself] to bear personal witness to the truth when +she had gone"! Where is her <i>evidence</i> that Mr. Leadbeater +was ever one of H. P. B.'s pupils? There is +none, save this bare, unsupported assertion of a highly +interested party. How could these two, to the exclusion +of all H. P. B.'s pupils—some of them "regularly +accepted <i>chelas</i> on probation"—be specially selected, +taught, and prepared, (and above all, to promulgate +the sort of "teachings" of which I have given a few +specimens), without any of us hearing even a hint +of it! Moreover, I never saw, or even heard of Mr. +Leadbeater at the London Headquarters while H. P. B. +was alive. I might just as well claim such a mission for +myself, or Mr. Mead, or Dr. Keightley, or any other +member of the Inner Group who has remained true to +the pledge and the Teacher; and with greater justice, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +for Mrs. Besant has <i>not</i>. The truth is that Mr. Leadbeater +was never heard of in connection with occult +teaching until he was taken up and foisted on the +unfortunate T. S. and E. S. as a "Great Teacher" by +Mrs. Besant who was herself never more than a "<i>chela</i> +on probation"—<i>during H. P. B.'s lifetime</i>.</p> + +<p>Let me refer again to H. P. B.'s article "The +Theosophical Mahatmas" from which I have already +quoted (<a href="#Page_3"><i>ante</i> p. 3</a>), in which she deals with the members +of the T. S. who were "regularly accepted <i>chelas</i> on +probation," and the subsequent failure of nearly all of +them. If this was true at that time, it can certainly +now be applied to the case of Mrs. Besant, who, in my +judgment and that of many others, conspicuously failed +under two great tests. The first failure occurred when +she went to India in 1893, became an orthodox Hindu, +and was induced to entertain those doubts of her Teacher +that I have already alluded to. (<a href="#Page_66"><i>ante</i> p. 66</a>.) Bound up +with this failure—the doubt of the Teacher—was her +attack on her fellow <i>chela</i>, Mr. Judge.</p> + +<p>The second failure was a far worse one when, in +1906, after having publicly endorsed the finding of the +Advisory Committee on Leadbeater's crimes (<a href="#Footnote_14_14">see footnote +<i>ante</i> p. 59</a>), she suddenly turned round and secured his +reinstatement. In thus condoning and even endorsing +immorality of the vilest description, she denied one of +the strictest occult laws binding upon a <i>chela</i>.</p> + +<p>This double failure had far more serious results in +her case than in those of which H. P. B. wrote in 1886, +because, owing to her commanding position as a leader, +the fate of the many thousands of earnest souls in the +Society who believed in and followed her implicitly, +was involved.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>FOOTNOTES:</b></span> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> This Brahmin is the person referred to in the following passage +from Mr. T. H. Martyn's letter to Mrs. Besant of May 20th, 1921 +(<a href="#Page_18">see <i>ante</i> p. 18</a>):—"Like many of the older members I have known +how you and others for quite a long time regarded —— as +<i>a Master in the flesh</i> and later had to repudiate him when certain +facts indicated the mistake." Italics mine. This is absolutely new +to me. In 1894 none of us (so far as I was then aware) regarded +Mr. —— as anything more than a <i>chela</i>, so what Mr. Martyn +here states must have been a later development, and explains much. +</p><p> +I suppress the gentleman's name out of regard for his present +official position in India and his dissociation from Mrs. Besant.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> I did not learn the actual facts of this foolish fable until I +came to India in 1918, and found they were common knowledge +among leading members of that time. Naturally, when Mrs. Besant +transferred her allegiance to Mr. Leadbeater, she had to find another +"body" for H. P. B. So, in the <i>Theosophist</i> for January, 1922. she +writes the following typical effusion for the benefit of the faithful:—" ... alas! +she passed away, and took rebirth in the north of India, +and though we have lived for twenty-eight years in the same land +so dear to beth of us, we have never met physically face to face. Yet +close ties bind us to each other, and may be we shall yet greet each +other in the flesh." Observe the suggestion that she has always +been in close touch with H. P. B. <i>out of the body</i>, and that later they +may meet "in the flesh." This prepares the ground for producing +this new "incarnation" when the suitable moment comes; just as +the boy Krishnamurti was brought forward as the "body" for the +coming "World-Teacher." Mrs. Besant's new version must be +amusing reading for those familiar with the earlier theory, as she +was certainly "face to face" with the "little daughter" constantly, +and even persuaded Countess Wachtmeister to resume her former +care of H. P. B. in her new body. Needless to say the poor Countess +was sadly disillusioned, and died not long afterwards bitterly bewailing +the ruin of the T. S.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> As showing the absurdity of such a claim, I may mention +that Mrs. Besant actually visited mediums through whom H. P. B. +was supposed to communicate. In 1892, only a year after her death, +my colleague Mr. Basil Crump, Barrister-at-Law, was investigating +the phenomena of a certain trance medium shortly before he joined +the T. S. He was present at a private sitting with this medium in +the studio of an artist friend, to which Mrs. Besant came with another +member of H. P. B.'s Inner Group, Miss Emily Kislingbury, +in order to speak with her deceased teacher. An intelligence calling +itself "Madame Blavatsky" controlled the medium, and Mrs. Besant +held a conversation with it. Later, when Mr. Crump became acquainted +with H. P. B.'s explanation of Spiritualistic phenomena, and her +express denial that the true immortal Ego ever communicated in this +manner, he was naturally astonished that one of her most learned +pupils should for a moment entertain such a possibility and waste +her valuable time in attending a séance. But now he sees that it +was only an early symptom of the astounding credulity and ignorance +of occult science she has since exhibited, as shown in these pages. +H. P. B.'s explanations of psychic phenomena are rapidly being +endorsed and followed by the modern scientific school of investigation, +which has succeeded not only in proving the genuineness of the +phenomena, but also the important part played by the <i>will and +imagination</i> both of the medium and the sitters in their production.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Her latest move, is to draw a distinction between the "Advisory +Committee of 1906" which she accuses of "unjust action," and what +she calls "the prolonged investigation of 1907-08," which of course +was engineered by her after she became President, in order to white-wash +Mr. Leadbeater and secure his reinstatement. (See <i>Theosophist</i>, +July, 1922). <a href="#Australian">See Addendum</a> for the Australian views on this.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> The importance of this case lies in the fact that it constituted +an absolute vindication of H. P. B., for every slander ever circulated +directly or indirectly was covered by it. Although the libel action +came to an end with her death, the paper was so impressed by the +evidence produced, in rebuttal, by Mr. Judge, that it not only +retracted all that it had published, but also invited Mr. Judge to +write a long article entitled "The Esoteric She" which they said +"disposes of all questions relating to Madame Blavatsky." That +Mrs. Asquith and Count Witte should both have seen fit to revive +some of these old slanders in their books of reminiscences does not +redound to their credit.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Mrs. Besant's "Spiritual Viceroy" has certainly nothing to +do with Those who were directing H. P. B. when she founded the +Indian T. S. <span class="smcap">OR</span> U. B. in 1879; for a special clause was included in +the Constitution stating that "The Society repudiates all interference +on its behalf with the Governmental relations of any nation or community, +confining its attention exclusively to the matters set forth +in the present document...." H. P. B. also wrote in the <i>Theosophist</i>, +for October, 1879—"Unconcerned about politics; hostile to the +insane dreams of Socialism and Communism, which it abhors—as +both are but disguised conspiracies of brutal force and sluggishness +against honest labour; the Society cares but little about the outward +human management of the material world. The whole of its aspirations +are directed toward the occult truths of the visible and invisible +worlds. Whether the physical man be under the rule of an empire +or a republic, concerns only the man of matter. His body may be +enslaved; as to his Soul, he has the right to give to his rulers the +proud answer of Socrates to his Judges. They have no sway over +the <i>inner</i> man." There speaks the true Mystic whose "Kingdom +is not of this world." Three years later H. P. B. and Colonel Olcott +published a further disclaimer, in which they said—"Before we came +to India, the word Politics had never been pronounced in connection +with our names; for the idea was too absurd to be even entertained, +much less expressed...."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The original documents appear in the <i>O. E. Critic</i> for June +21st, 1922, and include a confession signed by a priest of the L. C. C. +who states that he was "led astray by those whom I considered to +be my superiors both morally and spiritually" adding "Wedgwood +absolutely declines to give up the mal-practice." Wedgwood fled to +Algeria at the end of March. A cable from Sydney dated May 30th +states that "Mrs. Besant refused to answer any enquiry in reference +to Wedgwood. Police now holding an enquiry into the charges against +Leadbeater." Dr. Stokes concludes his comments on the documents +as follows:—"And Annie Besant, having repeatedly been informed +of the facts, not only refused to look into them, but launched her +anathemas against those who criticised, even threatening them with +expulsion from the E. S., and even very recently cabling to Wedgwood +that he made a mistake in resigning!—It is on Annie Besant, more +than on any other one person, that the responsibility for the present +scandalous condition in the T. S. rests. The best of societies may +have its black sheep and it is not to be blamed if it does its best to +purge itself. But it is Annie Besant, with her tools and sycophants, +who has ever concealed and denied the palpable facts, or, where they +could not be denied, has palliated, excused and even defended them, +throwing over them a veil of esoteric glamour, supporting such +scoundrels as Leadbeater and Wedgwood, apparently in order the +better to serve her ambitions. A vote of confidence in Annie Besant +to-day either betrays total ignorance of the facts, or associates those +who give it with the grossest forms of moral rottenness." <a href="#Piddington">See +Addendum</a> for Mr. Piddington, K. C's opinion on Mrs Besant's +conduct in Australia last May; also Mr. Hugh Gillespie's evidence +of her use of the Esoteric School as a "<i>political machine</i>" to secure +her "ascendancy in the various bodies to which E. S. members have +gained access."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> As to the methods employed to suppress criticism, Dr. +Hiestand-Moore says in the same issue:—"Slander, falsehood, deceit, +treachery, all have been summoned to the support of Mr. Leadbeater's +cause. Anonymous communications have been written to confound +the prosecution, letters have been stolen and threats made. The +Editor of <i>The Voice</i> has been compelled to call upon the Secret Service +to protect her mails." [An entire issue in proof with copy and unset +matter disappeared, and had to be rewritten!] Again, the Editor +of the <i>O. E. Critic</i> writes:—"It is understood, and I have the direct +testimony of the publisher to the fact, that the entire edition of the +Brooks' books [<i>Esoteric Bogeydom</i> and <i>Neo-Theosophy Exposed</i>] was +corralled by Mrs. Besant in order to suppress their circulation. They +tell too much about her."<br /><br /></p></div> + +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Tampering" id="Tampering"></a>Tampering with H. P. Blavatsky's writings.</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE result of Mrs. Besant's first failure, through +harbouring doubts of her Teacher's <i>bona fides</i> and +esoteric knowledge, was soon manifested when she +began to publish new editions of H. P. B.'s works. The +first noteworthy example was her excision from <i>The Voice +of the Silence</i> of passages and notes, presumably out of +deference to Brahmin sentiment, which then governed +her actions. One of the last verses in "The Two Paths" +(the second of the "Three Fragments" forming the +little book) in the original edition (1889) begins thus:— +"He who becomes Pratyeka Buddha, makes his obeisance +but to his Self." In a footnote H. P. B. explains that +"Pratyeka Buddhas are those Bodhisattvas who strive +after and often reach the Dharmakaya robe after a +series of lives. Caring nothing for the woes of mankind +or to help it, but only for their own <i>bliss</i>, they enter +Nirvana and—disappear from the sight and the hearts +of men. In Northern Buddhism a 'Pratyeka Buddha' +is a synonym of spiritual Selfishness."</p> + +<p>In Mrs. Besant's edition both the passage and the +footnote I have quoted are omitted. Her reason for this +unscrupulous proceeding is given in a footnote on p. 416 +of the so-called "third volume" of <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>. +In this note Mrs. Besant, from the heights of her then +newly-acquired Brahmanical wisdom, adopts the following +dictatorial and censorious tone towards her late +Teacher:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>The Pratyeka Buddha stands on the level of the Buddha [!], +but His work for the world has nothing to do with its teaching, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +and His office has always been surrounded with +mystery. The preposterous [<i>sic</i>] view that He, at such +superhuman height of power, wisdom and love could be +selfish, is found in the exoteric books, though it is hard to +see how it can have arisen. H. P. B. <i>charged me to correct +the mistake, as she had, in a careless moment, copied such a +statement elsewhere</i>.—A. B.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Observe the assumption of superior knowledge to +H. P. B.'s, and the use of the words "preposterous" +and "careless." To any real Oriental <i>chela</i> such an +attitude towards his <i>Guru</i> would be simply unthinkable; +but we have seen how very quickly Mrs. Besant believed +herself to have soared far above the "chela on probation" +state of her H. P. B. days into that of an "Initiate" +and future "Supreme Ruler of the World of Gods and +men." To such vanity and self-delusion everything is +possible. How different was the attitude of the <i>real</i> +Occultist who was spoken of by the Masters as "Our +Brother H. P. B.," yet called herself "a Chela of one +of Them"!</p> + +<p>The passage I have italicised in the above footnote +by Mrs. Besant is untrue on the face of it to anyone +who knew, as I did, the loving care with which H. P. +B. prepared this unique little book of "Golden Precepts." +Moreover, she states in her Preface that the verses given +are selected from a much larger number which she +"learnt by heart." Further, H. P. B. <i>not only repeated +but greatly amplified</i> this statement about the Pratyeka +Buddha in her <i>Theosophical Glossary</i>, a fact which Mrs. +Besant had evidently forgotten when she concocted the +footnote quoted above.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> The Pratyeka Buddha is +doubtless much that Mrs. Besant claims for him, but +she does not seem to know, or has probably forgotten, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +that there are <i>two</i> classes of Masters, <i>two</i> "Paths" +(as this very section of <i>The Voice of the Silence</i> shows); +that the "Pairs of Opposites" obtain on all planes of +Manifestation and Being, right up to the threshold of +the <i>Un</i>manifested—the ONE; that, while there are +<i>Masters of</i> <span class="smcap">Compassion</span>, there must of necessity exist +also the opposite pole—the wearers of the "Dharmakâya +robe," with all the power and knowledge which that +state implies, but without that <i>Compassion</i> which alone +makes a Master of the "Right Hand Path."<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>It was a great and valuable feature of H. P. B.'s, +method that she taught us to reason on these lines, +checking everything by the Law of Correspondences. +But Mrs. Besant has evidently long since abandoned +this, and prefers the sacerdotal plan of accepting everything +on "authority," which in her present phase means +Leadbeater or her own psychic delusions. The "World +Teacher" dogma is a case in point. She asserts it as +a fact to be accepted because she says it; whereas, as +I have shown, it is untenable in the light of <i>The Secret +Doctrine</i> (<a href="#Page_2">see <i>ante</i> p. 2</a>), which endorses Oriental tradition +and cyclic law.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Besant's partiality for the Pratyeka Buddha, +however, may possibly be explained by some words +that H. P. B. once wrote of her to Mr. Judge:—"She +is not psychic or spiritual in the least—all intellect." +For H. P. B. opens her paragraph in the <i>Theosophical +Glossary</i> on the Pratyeka Buddha with these words: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>— +"The Pratyeka Buddha is a degree which belongs +exclusively to the Yog㤨㳹a school ... one of <i>high +intellectual development with no true spirituality</i>". (Italics +mine.) Moreover, we have the authority of the Maha +Chohan Himself (the Head of the Trans-Himâlayan +Brotherhood) for the statement that even Nirv㯡 is, +"after all, but an exalted and glorious selfishness."</p> + +<p>In the <i>Theosophist</i> for March, 1922, Mrs. Besant +says, in her "Watch-Tower" notes:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>A wild theory has just been started in the U. S. A. that +<i>The Secret Doctrine</i>, brought out by the London T. P. H. +after H. P. B.'s death, was not as H. P. B. wanted it. The +<i>insinuation</i> is made that <i>H. P. B.</i> was "edited" by those +in charge of <i>the second edition</i>. The <i>trustees</i> to whom she +left <i>the safeguarding of her printed books and unpublished +manuscripts</i> were all her own pupils who had <i>lived with her +for years</i>, and they made only <i>such changes as she had herself +directed</i>, which consist mainly in the correction of verbal and +grammatical errors, and the <i>arrangement of the material of +Vol.</i> III.</p></blockquote> + +<p>I have italicised the statements requiring explanation +or correction. The "second edition," as Mrs. Besant +must be well aware, was merely a re-print to meet an +unexpected demand, and bears the same date as the +original edition, <i>viz.</i>, 1888. But as Mrs. Besant only +joined the T. S. early in 1889, and was led to seek an +interview with H. P. Blavatsky <i>after</i> reviewing <i>The +Secret Doctrine</i> for the late Mr. W. T. Stead, then Editor +of the <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, clearly she can know absolutely +nothing of the preparation of its first <i>or</i> of its "second +edition"! As to the alleged "trustees," I can only say +that I never heard of their existence. <i>Mrs. Besant</i> only +"lived with" H. P. B. for rather more than eighteen +months. H. P. B. left 17, Lansdowne Road, London, W., in +the summer of 1889, the Headquarters being moved to Mrs. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +Besant's house in Avenue Road, N.W., where she died +in May 1891, <i>while Mrs. Besant was on her way back +from a lecture tour in America</i>.</p> + +<p>Take next the alleged "safeguarding" of H. P. +B.'s "unpublished manuscripts." Those who were +responsible for the so-called Volume III, had a strange +and unusual conception of the meaning of the word +"safeguarding." It so happens that while it was being +set up I was able actually to peruse one or two of the +familiar long foolscap sheets which H. P. B. always +covered with her small fine handwriting. They were +mutilated almost beyond recognition, few of her sentences +remaining intact; and there were "corrections" not +only in the handwritings of the editors, Mrs. Besant +and Mr. Mead, but also in that of others which I was +able to identify. More than this I cannot say without +abusing confidence; but the wrong done to my Teacher +compels me to say this much.</p> + +<p>Those who were H. P. B.'s untiring and unfailing +helpers in the preparation of <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> for +the press in 1887-88, Dr. Archibald and Mr. Bertram +Keightley, have, fortunately for posterity, put on record +their experiences of those days. They have made statements +of the utmost value in connection with the facts +I am here dealing with, which they wrote specially for +Countess Wachtmeister's <i>Reminiscences of H. P. Blavatsky +and "The Secret Doctrine,"</i> published in 1893. Moreover, +Dr. Keightley wrote an account of H. P. B.'s manifold +literary activities at this time, which appeared in the +<i>Theosophist</i> for July 1889, in which he states that "<i>the +Third Volume of The Secret Doctrine is in MS. ready to +be given to the printers</i>. [Italics mine.—A. L. C.] It +will consist mainly of a series of sketches of the great +Occultists of all ages, and is a most wonderful and +fascinating work."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +In the face of this clear and definite statement, +made by one whose word I know to be unimpeachable, +and who lived and worked with H. P. B. at that time, +what becomes of H. P. B.'s alleged "directions" for +the "arrangement of the material of Vol. III" which Mrs. +Besant speaks of above, and the statement in the Preface +to <i>her</i> version of Vol. III:—"The task of preparing +this volume for the press has been a difficult and anxious +one.... The papers given to me by H. P. B. were +quite unarranged, and had no obvious order...."? This +volume, given by Mrs. Besant to the world in 1897, is +most certainly <i>not</i> the one Dr. Keightley speaks of as +"ready" for "the printers" in 1889, as I will prove. +<span class="smcap">What then became of that volume?</span></p> + +<p>But first I will quote Dr. Stokes, Editor of the +<i>O. E. Critic</i>, whose most specific charges and plain +statements of fact hardly come under the purposely +misleading term "insinuations," used by Mrs. Besant! +Dr. Stokes "<i>insinuates</i>" nothing; he heads his most +damaging accusation as follows:—</p> + + +<p class="center"><a name="Secret" id="Secret"></a>"<span class="smcap">Annie Besant's Corruption of the Secret +Doctrine.</span>"</p> + +<blockquote><p>In all probability Annie Besant's "revision" of H. P. +Blavatsky's original edition of <i>The Secret Doctrine</i> constitutes +the most colossal case of corruption of an original text +to be found in history. A group of students is comparing the +original edition with the "third and revised edition," edited +by Annie Besant and G. R. S. Mead, after the author's +death.... I am informed by those making the comparison +[that] ... the actual changes will be far more than twenty +thousand. Many of these changes are trivial and one wonders +at the impertinence or conceit which inspired them. Some +of the changes—those which might have put students on +their guard against the so-called Third Volume—can only be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +construed as deliberate and intentional suppressions and +corruptions of the original text. And this in a work of which +the Master K. H. wrote: "Every mistake or erroneous notion +corrected and explained by her from the works of other Theosophists +was corrected by me or under my instruction." The true +title of the "third and revised edition" should be "<i>The +Secret Doctrine</i>, written by H. P. Blavatsky, corrected and +approved by the Master K. H., and corrupted by Annie +Besant." It is almost impossible to comprehend the colossal +conceit, the limitless contempt for common literary decency +which could have inspired such an act of vandalism, to say +nothing of such disrespect for the Master whom she professes +to venerate. And all of this is put forth as the work of +H. P. Blavatsky herself, with the mere apology in the +preface that "Had H. P. Blavatsky lived to issue the new +edition, she would doubtless have corrected and enlarged it +to a very considerable extent." What a specious excuse? +[Repeated in the preface to the alleged Vol. III.—A. L. C.] +Had H. P. B. "corrected and enlarged it" it would without +doubt have been done under the same guidance and authority +which directed and corrected the first edition. It is enough +to cast suspicion on each and every quotation of original +sources made by Mrs. Besant, and her emendation of the +Theosophy of H. P. B. as well. (October 12th, 1921.)</p> + +<p>As for the third volume, edited and published after the +death of H. P. B. from manuscripts left by her, nobody +knows, in the absence of a previous edition issued by her, +how much of it is H. P. B.'s and how much is not, but there +is good evidence that much of it is not, which is the more +likely in view of the vandalisms the same editors perpetrated +in the first two volumes. In no sense can the "third and +revised edition" be said to be a re-print of the original <i>Secret +Doctrine</i> of H. P. Blavatsky. (December 21st, 1921.)</p></blockquote> + +<p>I most fully endorse all that Dr. Stokes so ably +demonstrates, and I can quite believe that, in regard +to Vol. III, some of the contents are not by H. P. B. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>— +the style in places is not hers at all. But I can enlighten +him as to those portions of the contents of which I have +actual knowledge. I may here add that, when my own +group of students were checking the "third and revised +edition" of the first and second volumes of <i>The Secret +Doctrine</i> by the original edition of 1888, they came +across no less than four specific references by H. P. B. +to Vols. III and IV as being practically completed, <i>viz.</i>, +Vol. I, Preface, and p. 11; Vol. II, pp. 437, 798, 1st +Ed., 1888. Mrs. Besant coolly deleted all these without +a word of explanation!</p> + +<p>How unnecessary nearly all of this so-called +"revision" was, can be realised in the Keightleys' +accounts (see Countess Wachtmeister's book) of the care +taken over the proofs of the first edition. Mr. Bertram +Keightley says they first "read the whole mass of MSS.—a +pile over three feet high—most carefully through, +correcting the English and punctuation where absolutely +indispensable." (Contrast this modesty and respect for +the author with the spirit that perpetrated the thirty +thousand corrections in the "third edition"!) It was +then arranged under H. P. B.'s supervision in Sections, +etc., and professionally typewritten. This first copy was +again revised and any obscurities explained. It should +be noted here that Mr. Keightley says they laid before +H. P. B. "a plan, suggested by the character of the +matter itself, <i>viz.</i>, to make the work consist of four +volumes ... to follow the natural order of exposition +and begin with the Evolution of Cosmos, to pass from +that to the Evolution of Man, then to deal with the +historical part in a third volume treating of the lives +of some great Occultists, and of 'Practical Occultism' +in a fourth." This proves that at least the whole of +the material for Vol. III was actually there (Dr. Keightley +elsewhere states that it was <i>ready for the printer</i>.) Finally +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +the Keightleys themselves set to work to type out a +fair copy of Vols. I and II for the printer. "H. P. B. +read and corrected two sets of galley proofs, then a +page proof, and finally a revise in sheet, correcting, +adding, and altering up to the very last moment."</p> + +<p>Dr. A. Keightley says:—" ... no work and no +trouble, no suffering or pain could daunt her from her +task. Crippled with rheumatism, suffering from a +disease which had several times nearly proved fatal, +she still worked on unflaggingly, writing at her desk +the moment her eyes and fingers could guide the pen.... +We had to carry on the general scheme ... to +act as watch-dogs and help her to make the meaning +as clear as possible. But all the work was hers ... +it went through three or four other hands besides H. +P. B.'s in galley proof, as well as in revise. She was +her own most severe corrector...."</p> + +<p>Another able helper was Mr. E. Douglas Fawcett, +the well-known author of <i>The Riddle of the Universe</i>, +of whom both the Keightleys speak in terms of high +praise. His profound knowledge of science, philosophy, +and metaphysics was invaluable. "He supplied many +of the quotations from scientific works, as well as many +confirmations of the occult doctrines derived from +similar sources."</p> + +<p>And this monumental work, produced with such +meticulous care and precautions against errors, is +subjected to some thirty thousand corrections by its +subsequent "editors"! In all my study of the original +edition I have never found more than a few errors that +matter in the least, and these are mostly typographical +and quite obvious to any person of average intelligence. +The marvel is that there are so few in a work of such +magnitude and scope. Those of my students who +possess only the "third and revised edition" (the first +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +and second now being scarce), have re-corrected it to +agree with the first; and to look at the pages covered +with these re-corrections brings home to one, as nothing +else can, the force and justice of Dr. Stokes's indictment. +Let us hope that when H. P. B.'s great work is understood +and accepted seriously at its true worth, an indignant +posterity will pass judgment on one of the worst +examples of literary vandalism in the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>In her Preface to Vol. III, Mrs. Besant boldly states +that, in regard to the Sections entitled "The Mystery +of Buddha," there are "very numerous errors of fact, +and many statements based on exoteric writings, not +on esoteric knowledge"! If her own statement with +which I have dealt, regarding the Pratyeka Buddha is +to be taken as the measure of her capacity to judge of +the merit or demerit of H. P. B.'s work, all that Mrs. +Besant says, or skilfully suggests, in this Preface can be +dismissed as absolutely worthless. But in view of the +fact that she then believed herself to be acting under +the direction of "a Master in the flesh" (<a href="#Page_18">see Mr. Martyn's +letter, <i>ante</i> pp. 18-19</a> and <a href="#Footnote_11_11">footnote p. 56</a>), who happened +to be <i>an orthodox Brahmin</i>, these unfounded pronouncements +which I quote with regard to the Sections on the +Lord Buddha are perhaps not so surprising. I use the +word "unfounded" advisedly, for she makes two +separate statements as to the way in which she obtained +the material for this so-called Vol. III. She opens the +Preface with the first one:—"The task of preparing +this volume for the press has been a difficult and anxious +one, and it is necessary to state clearly what has been +done." This is one of her usual formulas, after which +she proceeds to do the exact opposite. She thus +continues, in fact:—"The papers given to me by +H. P. B...." But Mrs. Besant was not in England +when H. P. B. died, <i>quite unexpectedly</i>, and with only +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +three of her pupils present, namely, Mr. Claude Wright, +Mr. Walter Old and Miss Laura Cooper (now Mrs. G. R. +S. Mead.) We were all summoned by telegram, and I +was at Avenue Road within a few hours. I never heard +of any evidence that she gave Mrs. Besant papers, or +directions about papers, before the latter left for America +on a lecture tour; and most certainly H. P. B. never +formally "appointed" her, or anyone else, as her +"successor," for the very good reason that I have +given elsewhere—that the movement had definitely +failed, and she was "recalled." (<a href="#Page_2">see <i>ante</i> p. 2</a>.)</p> + +<p>To return to Mrs. Besant's Preface. Her second +statement is that the papers for the Sections on "The +Mystery of the Buddha" were "given into my hands +to publish, as part of the Third Volume of <i>The Secret +Doctrine</i>...." <i>By whom</i> were they "given"? Certainly +not by H. P. B.; and why does Mrs. Besant speak of +these Sections on the Buddha as if they were something +apart from the "papers" she alleges she received <i>from +H. P. B.</i>? Clearly any further analysis is useless, for +in all probability the truth about what really happened +to all H. P. B.'s MSS. after her death <i>will never be known</i>, +since the few who do know will, naturally, never speak.</p> + +<p>Brushing aside, therefore, Mrs. Besant's "explanatory" +Preface, Volume III, as given to the public in +1897, appears to be simply a collection of fugitive articles +which, as I have shown, were obviously freely edited. +To pad out the volume (the MSS. spoken of by H. P. B. +in Vols. I and II, as already existing, having mysteriously +vanished) Mrs. Besant prints both the <i>E. S. T.</i> and the +<i>Inner Group Instructions</i>, despite the pledge of secrecy +taken by her and all other recipients of these teachings. +In justification of this she states—<i>six years after H. P. +B.'s death</i>—that H. P. B. instructed her to do so! The +worthlessness of such "instructions" is palpable in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +light of her naïve belief in the alleged reincarnation of her +Teacher in Mr. ——'s little daughter. (Needless to add that, +under Leadbeater, she has another version of this idea!) +We have the usual misleading and disingenuous statement +in a "Note" which is prefixed to these Instructions. Mrs. +Besant says:—"Papers I, II and III ... were written by +H. P. B. and were circulated privately during her lifetime"</p> + +<p><i>These</i> "<i>Papers</i>" <i>are the E. S. Instructions.</i> She +calls those given to the Inner Group "Notes of some +Oral Teaching." But, with two exceptions, almost <i>every +word of both E. S. and I. G. Instructions are given intact</i>, +just as we received them; I possess them all. The +two exceptions are, first, the practical teachings, given +at the first meeting of the <i>I. G.</i>, for Yoga development, +which even Mrs. Besant had not the hardihood to +publish; and, second, a very long "Preliminary Memorandum" +to Instructions III.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>FOOTNOTES:</b></span> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> +See also <i>An Introduction to Mahayâna Buddhism</i>, by W. M. +McGovern, 1922. Kegan Paul. He confirms H. P. B.'s definition.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> It was ... during the highest point of civilisation and knowledge, +as also of human intellectuality, of ... the Atlantean Race +that ... humanity branched off into its two diametrically opposite +paths; the Right and the Left-hand paths of knowledge or of +Vidya. "<i>Thus were the germs of the White and the Black Magic sown +in those days. The seeds lay latent for some time, to sprout only during +the early period of the Fifth (our Race).</i>" (<i>Commentary</i>).—<i>The Secret +Doctrine.</i> First Edition, Vol. I, p. 192.<br /><br /></p></div> + +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Truth" id="Truth"></a>The Truth about the E. S. Council, and the Inner Group.</h2> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE E. S. Instructions were written by H. P. B. +during the winter of 1888-89. The I. G. Teachings +were given orally by H. P. B. at its meetings in +1890-91. It was the duty of the two secretaries, +Mrs. Besant and Mr. Mead, to write these Teachings up, +from notes sent in by <i>all of us</i>, after each meeting, and +record them in a book. This record was dealt with at +each succeeding meeting, corrected and often amplified by +H. P. B. All these <i>might</i>, therefore, have been included +in Vol. IV of <i>The Secret Doctrine</i>, according to the +general plan of the work adopted by H. P. B., if she +had lived and had permitted it. Mrs. Besant's statement +that they were written with that in view is incorrect, +and was obviously made to justify her action in using +them for her version of Vol. III.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Theosophist</i> for March, 1922, Mrs. Besant +published an article in which several false statements +are made concerning the history of the E. S. The +writer, a Mr. Fritz Kunz, quotes Colonel Olcott's <i>Old +Diary Leaves</i> as authority for saying that "the first +move towards founding the E. S. was made in 1881," +that it was "organised steadily through the trials of +1884-85," and merely "announced" in 1888. The +actual facts (see <i>Theosophist</i>, April, 1880) are, that when +H. P. B. established the real <span class="smcap">Theosophical Society or +Universal Brotherhood</span> at Benares in 1879 (the T. S. +founded at New York in 1875 was only a "Miracle +Club," as Colonel Olcott says, with no "brotherhood +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +plank"), it was on a purely esoteric basis. It was under +the direct guidance of the Trans-Himã¡yan Brotherhood, +Who formed the First Section; the second and third +being for "accepted" and "probationary" <i>chelas</i> +respectively. When I joined the T. S. in 1885, these +rules were still in force in the London Lodge. But +Colonel Olcott insisted on an exoteric organisation with +"the occultism more in the background"; and the +crisis of 1884-85, which drove H. P. B. from India (<a href="#Page_2">see +her letter of 1890, <i>ante</i> p. 2</a>), was the natural result +of this policy. Far from the E. S. being "organised +steadily" at that time, as Mr. Kunz asserts, H. P. B. +makes it clear in her letter that the Master's influence +was "virtually banished" from Adyar through lack of +faith in Them, and failure to support her, and that she +had been ordered to "establish the Esoteric Section," +at London, which she did in 1888, because the necessary +faith in the Masters still existed there and in America.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kunz then makes the astonishing assertion that the +E. S. was "transferred to Mrs. Annie Besant in due course +by H. P. B. in 1891." As I was a member of H. P. B.'s +Inner Council which was responsible for what was done +after her death, I am in a position to state the true +facts as known to me, and as they appear in the E. S. +documents in my possession. These <i>facts</i> are:—When +H. P. B. died—suddenly and unexpectedly, on May 8th, +1891<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>., Mr. Judge at once came over from New York, +and after much consultation and informal meetings of the +E. S. Council (composed of the I. G. members) and two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +others, Mr. Wm. Kingsland and Dr. W. Wynn Westcott), a +formal and "full meeting of the Council" was held at +Headquarters on May 27th, 1891, when "Bro. Wm. Q. +Judge attended <i>as the representative of H. P. B.</i> under a +general power given as below." (Italics mine.—A. L. C.)</p> + +<p>"As Head of the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical +Society, I hereby declare that William Q. Judge, of +New York, U.S., in virtue of his character as a <i>chela</i> +of thirteen years' standing, and of the trust and confidence +reposed in him, is my only representative for said +Section in America, and he is the sole channel through +whom will be sent and received all communications +between the members of said Section and myself, and +to him full faith, confidence and credit in that regard +are to be given, ⁂ Done at London this fourteenth +day of December, 1888, and in the fourteenth +year of the Theosophical Society.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">[Seal] H. P. Blavatsky, ∴</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>" ... The Council passed the following minute....</p> + +<p>That it was resolved and recorded that the highest +officials in the School for the present are Annie Besant +and William Q. Judge, in accordance with the above-quoted +order to William Q. Judge of December, 1888, +and with the order of April 1st, 1891, to Annie Besant, +as well as with the written declaration of H. P. B. in +a letter to William Q. Judge dated March 27th, 1891, +which we now here have read, in which she wrote that +Annie Besant should be so considered. The order of +April 1st, 1891, is as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>I hereby appoint, in the name of the Master, Annie Besant +Chief Secretary of the Inner Group of the Esoteric Section and +Recorder of the Teachings.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p> +H. P. B., ∴<br /> +</p> + +</blockquote> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>Finally, we—the Council—declared over our signatures +that "from henceforth with Annie Besant and +William Q. Judge rest the full charge and management +of the School."</p> + +<p>Thus did <i>the Council</i> establish the "Dual Headship," +and until her meeting with Mr. ——, two years +later, and her subsequent visit to India, Mrs. Besant +continued to work harmoniously with Mr. Judge in the +management of the School.</p> + +<p>A full report of this Council meeting was immediately +sent out to the whole E. S., bearing the date May 27th, +1891. Attached to it was an "Address" signed by +Mrs. Besant and Mr. Judge as joint "Outer Heads," +declaring that these "changes in the Constitution of +the School" having been "made <i>by the joint Councils +of the</i> E. S. T." (Italics mine.—A. L. C.), they considered +it their "duty" to issue this address to each member.</p> + +<p><i>The one error</i>, and the foundation of all subsequent +ones, as I subsequently realised, was that of speaking +of themselves as H. P. B.'s "agents and representatives +after her departure"; for there is nothing whatever in +the wording of the abovementioned official appointments +which even suggests such a contingency. <i>Both</i> obviously +could refer to the holders of them only <i>during</i> H. P. B.'s +<i>life-time</i>. Indeed, Mr. Judge's was made when the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +School was founded, and had been operative ever since; +while Mrs. Besant's was merely an official confirmation +of a secretarial office she had filled since the formation +of the I. G. scarcely nine months previously (thus giving +her the precedence of Mr. Mead.) It will be seen, however, +that Mr. Judge's appointment was a far more +important one than Mrs. Besant's, and was conferred on +him "in virtue of his character as <i>a chela of thirteen +years' standing</i>"; whereas Mrs. Besant had been "on +probation" <i>only</i>, for barely a year. Moreover, when +Mr. Judge became the object of attacks in 1889, H. P. +B. issued the following very significant notice:—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> +"<span class="smcap">London</span>,<br /> +<i>October 23rd, 1889</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"The Esoteric Section and its life in the U. S. A. +depends upon W. Q. J. remaining its agent and what +he is now. The day W. Q. J. resigns H. P. B. will be +virtually dead for the Americans. W. Q. J. is the +Antaskarana between the two <i>Manas(es)</i>, the American +thought and the Indian—or rather the trans-Himâlayan +esoteric knowledge. <i>Dixi.</i></p> + +<p> +H. P. B. ∴<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<i>P. S.</i>—W. Q. J. had better show and impress <i>this</i> +on the mind of <i>all those it may concern</i>."</p></blockquote> + +<p>This notice appeared in an E. S. paper issued by +Mrs. Besant and Mr. Judge, dated July 18th, 1894, +when Mrs. Besant was already implicated in the plot +against Mr. Judge.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Besant's appointment, given above, was the +only official one she ever received from H. P. B. in +either the E. S. or T. S. Certainly I never heard of +anything else. The absolutely Jesuitical nature of her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +methods is patent, in that she <i>completely ignores</i> the +documentary facts set forth above. To read the present +statements it might be imagined that Mr. Judge hardly +existed at that time, except as an obscure person who, +as Mr. Kunz tactfully (!) puts it, made an "unfortunate +blunder." As I have shown elsewhere (<a href="#Page_5">see <i>ante</i> pp 5</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>); +it is the fact that "blunders"—and worse than blunders—were +made after H. P. B.'s death (<a href="#Page_86">see <i>ante</i> p. 86</a>); +but Mrs. Besant's "blunders" were far more serious +than Mr. Judge's; though both of them were, in the +first instance, misled by others, whose real aim was to +disrupt the Society and defeat H. P. B.'s work.</p> + +<p>I possess a copy of the previously mentioned most +valuable "Preliminary Memorandum" to Instructions +III, as issued by H. P. B. to her students; and a prefatory +note states:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>The following "Preliminary Memorandum" was written +by H. P. B. at the time of a grave crisis, or rather series +of crises, through which the T. S. passed in 1889-90. +Treachery within the E. S. itself, and persistent and relentless +attacks on the T. S. from without, especially in America +necessitated the striking of a fresh keynote and giving +directions for the closing up of the ranks of the E. S. At +the time of reprinting the Instructions in London in 1890-91, +certain portions of this "Preliminary Memorandum" dealing +with the details of the matter were purposely omitted by +those of H. P. B.'s pupils who were constituted the editors +[Mrs. Besant and Mr. Mead], these portions being deemed by +them of too personal a character to remain. This was done +when H. P. B. was too ill to supervise, without her sanction, +and, as she afterwards said, much against her wishes. [Some +of the details omitted related to attacks on Mr. Judge, and +the duty of defending him "when the time comes."]</p></blockquote> + +<p>Similarly, Mr. Mead omitted from his "third and +revised edition" of H. P. B.'s <i>Key to Theosophy</i>, published +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +in 1893, most of the part in which the author deals with +the Report of the Society for Psychical Research, classing +it with "passages of a controversial nature, which are +no longer of general interest." Yet the public at large +still accept this Report as a proof that H. P. B. was +a fraud, a charlatan, and a Russian spy!</p> + +<p>Another feature of this edition, as of others of her +works produced after her death, is what he calls "a +systematic use of italics and capitals." This means that +he abandons H. P. B.'s extremely effective use of large +and small capitals and italics to emphasise the importance +of words like MYSTERIES, OCCULTISM, WISDOM-RELIGION, +etc., or SELF, <span class="smcap">Self</span>, and <i>Self</i> to indicate +the three different selves in man, and so robs her text +of much of its emphasis and meaning. One has to +compare her editions with these posthumos ounes to +realise the extent to which this has been done. It is +particularly noticeable in <i>The Voice of the Silence</i>, where +the exact meaning often depends on the distinctions +H. P. B. thus makes. (<a href="#Occultism">See her article on Occultism +quoted <i>ante</i> p. 31</a>).<br /><br /></p> + + +<p class="center"><a name="Conclusion" id="Conclusion"></a><span class="smcap">Conclusion.</span></p> + +<p>If the "Back to Blavatsky" movement accomplishes +nothing else, let us hope it may succeed in getting rid +of all this vandalism and re-establishing H. P. B.'s works +on their original basis, that she may go down to posterity +on her own merits and not altered and distorted by the +brain-mind notions of her followers. Some of this work +is already being done by organisations or private enterprise, +but it needs to be systematised and co-ordinated.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +Although the "door" had to be "shut" at the end +of 1899, H. P. B. in her last paragraph of the <i>Key to +Theosophy</i> expressed the hope that, "when the time +comes for the effort of the twentieth century [<i>i.e.</i>, in +1975], besides a large and accessible literature ready +to men's hands, the next impulse will find a numerous +and <i>united</i> body of people ready to welcome the new +Torch-bearer of Truth."</p> + +<p>It has been my painful task to show how lamentably +we have failed to realise her hopes. The "<i>united</i> body" +she sacrificed so much to create and hold together, was +disrupted barely four years after her death; the main +body under the Besant-Leadbeater <i>régime</i> is following +strange gods; while the great literary legacy left by +H. P. B. has not only been seriously tampered with, +but even largely superseded and obscured by books +which will certainly not be of any assistance to the +next "Torch-Bearer."</p> + +<p>Some years ago I founded an H. P. B. Lending +Library with my original editions of her works, and +others that are reliable and in line with her teaching. +It has already done much good, especially among those +who have been misled and kept in ignorance of them. +If others would do the same we can in time hope to +stem the tide of evil and error, and preserve H. P. B.'s +message untainted until 1975. It is now within the +life-span of our younger students, many of whom, as +the children of Theosophists, have been brought up on +the teachings and will bridge the gap for us.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +The bridging of this gap, however, has been rendered +more difficult than it should have been; first, by the +failure of the T. S. as <i>a living spiritual force in the world</i>; +and second, by the sinister activities of this "ill-omened +partnership" which almost immediately followed. The +whole tragic and dreadful history, fragments only of +which I have been able to give in this brief examination, +proves what incalculable harm "Leadbeaterism" is +working on the minds of the rising generation. Not only +is he the virtual director of Mrs. Besant's Society, but +he has completely infected <i>her</i> mind with his soul-destroying +teachings. Hers is the real responsibility, +therefore<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a>; and hers the <i>karma</i> of ruining H. P. B.'s +life-work, and carrying with her in her fall thousands +upon thousands of honest, but too credulous and easily +deceived souls along the broad and flowery road "leading +to destruction."</p> + +<p>As H. P. B. says in concluding her "Occultism +<i>versus</i> the Occult Arts":—"If, while turning their +backs on the narrow gate, they are dragged by their +desire for the Occult one step in the direction of the +broad and more inviting Gates of that golden mystery +which glitters in the light of illusion, woe to them! +It can lead only to Dugpa-ship, and they will be sure +to find themselves very soon landed on that <i>Via Fatale</i> of +the <i>Inferno</i>, over whose portal Dante read the words:—</p> + + +<p><span style="margin-left: 5em;">"<i>Per me si va nella cittᡤolente</i><br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;"><i>Per me si va nell'eterno dolore</i><br /></span> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;"><i>Per me si va tra la perduta gente.</i>"<br /><br /></span></p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><b>FOOTNOTES:</b></span> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>How</i> "unexpected" was the manner of her passing may be +gathered from the fact that she was, at that very time, building a +little "occult" room next to her own, of a particular shape and +structure, in which each of her pupils was to "sit"—alone—"for +development," under special conditions and "under observation." +The tiny roof was to be of dark blue glass, of which I still possess a +small piece of the colour H. P. B. had finally selected.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> These orders are here reproduced exactly as printed in the +E. S. paper. It should be noted that the one relating to Mr. Judge +is in larger type than the other. The triangle formed of asterisks ⁂ +after the words "regard are to be given" indicates that H. P. B. is +there endorsed by an Initiate of a higher grade. It will also be +noticed that the dots forming the triangle after her signature differ +in size in the two orders. In a note in the <i>Voice of the Silence</i> to the +words "Thyself and mind, like twins upon a line, the star which +is thy goal burns overhead" H. P. B. says "Every stage of development +in <i>Raja-Yoga</i> is symbolised by a geometrical figure. This one +is the sacred <i>Triangle</i> [<i>i.e.</i>,∴] and precedes Dharana. The Δ is +the sign of the high <i>chelas</i>, while another kind of triangle is that of +high Initiates." The ∴ is also used in Freemasonry to denote certain +high degrees.]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> It is only fair to give Mrs. Tingley's Organisation credit for +the good work it is doing in publishing accurate reprints of H. P. B.'s +works with all the references carefully checked, but none of her own +writing tampered with. Now that the 1888 edition of <i>The Secret +Doctrine</i> is so scarce, students will be glad to know that an unaltered +reprint can now be had instead of the Besant corruption. The +reprint of <i>Isis Unveiled</i>, with the addition of an excellent Index, has +long been wanted; and the original paging has been preserved, so +that the Index also serves for the original edition. It is to be regretted +that these reprints are prefaced by an account of the Theosophical +Movement from Mrs. Tingley's point of view, which is inaccurate +and misleading. However, this is easily removed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> In a letter from a Master to a friend occur these words:—"You +are responsible for the influence that you permit others to +exert over you."<br /><br /></p></div> + +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> +<h2><br /><br /><a name="Australian" id="Australian"></a><i>ADDENDUM.</i></h2> + +<p class="center"><b>The Australian Crisis.</b></p> + + +<p>The official account of the events in Australia last spring +reached me too late to include in its proper place (<a href="#Page_4"><i>ante</i>, p. 4</a>), +but its importance as the latest phase of the Leadbeater +scandal demands quotation of the principal details. Australia +has been the scene of Mr. Leadbeater's activities since the +Madras lawsuits (<a href="#Madras"><i>ante</i>, p. 39</a>) made India too hot for him +in 1913. Needless to say, the same scandals were repeated +there, and finally brought about a crisis at the T. S. Convention +last Easter in Sydney. Two of Mr. Leadbeater's Indian +"pupils," Krishnamurti (<a href="#Page_12">see <i>ante</i>, p. 12</a>) and Jinarajadasa, +secured a vote of confidence in Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater +which roused strong opposition. I quote from a long +circular letter issued to the members by one of the opposition, +Mr. J. M. Prentice, of Hobart, who is evidently a +leading officer. It is dated May 28, 1922.<br /><br /></p> + + +<blockquote> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Besant Refuses an Enquiry.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Soon after Convention Mrs. Besant arrived in Sydney [from India] +a very worried and angry woman. At the Sydney Lodge she spoke on +the lines of "Judge not that ye be not judged," and made it thoroughly +apparent that she was not in favour of anything in the nature of an +Enquiry. During the Convention Leadbeater had issued a special +statement to the E. S. T. which led to its expulsion from the Sydney +Lodge building. It was this that had finally angered Mrs. Besant to +boiling point.... She expressed a wish to meet the Lodge Committee +and talk over the difficulties. There was a three-hour conference that +led nowhere. I am told that she was helpless to a point of pathos. She +denied everything as far as Leadbeater and Wedgwood [<a href="#Page_62">see <i>ante</i>, p. 62</a>] +were, concerned, and refused to consider anything in the nature of an +Enquiry. She read from old files of the <i>Theosophist</i> how Leadbeater +had been rehabilitated, but a member of the Executive challenged her +with more recent happenings, to which she could only reply that she +did "not believe them."<br /><br /></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">A Terrific Press Criticism</span>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> + +<p>Two days later the <i>Daily Telegraph</i> came out with a tremendous +attack on the "Liberal Catholic Church." The result was terrific. At +the members' meeting that night feeling ran very high. The <i>Telegraph</i> +had a reporter present and came out with six or seven columns under +heavily leaded headlines. Moreover this information was disseminated +to all the papers the <i>Telegraph</i> is correspondent for. The result is that +irreparable damage has been done to Theosophy and the Society; +although the ablest papers are willing to admit that there is still a +minority genuinely fighting for sanity and cleanness in the T. S.<br /><br /></p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Government Enquiry Instituted</span>.</p> + +<p>The Government has now instituted an Enquiry, but so far I do not +know the scope of its intention. I have been told by telegram that the +Leadbeater boys have been examined or interrogated.... One of the +latest developments was when Mr. A. B. Piddington, a leading barrister +and K. C. of Sydney, resigned from the Presidency of the Public +Questions Society of Sydney University rather than meet Mrs. +Besant at a public address which she proposed to give to the members. +He has addressed a scathing letter to the <i>Telegraph</i>, or rather released for +publication his letter of resignation, which is a remarkable summing-up +of the position.<br /><br /></p></blockquote> + + +<p class="center"><a name="Piddington" id="Piddington"></a><span class="smcap">Mr. Piddington, K. C.'s Opinion</span>.</p> + +<p>The following are the chief points made by this gentleman, +who is not a member of the T. S., and therefore represents +an impartial legal and public view of the moral issue at +stake:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>My resignation is based on the ground that the Society ought to +withdraw its invitation to Mrs. Besant until the matters involved in her +defence of Mr. C. W. Leadbeater have been settled by a trustworthy +tribunal.</p> + +<p>Grave allegations were recently made against Mr. Leadbeater by Mr. +Martyn [<a href="#Page_18">see <i>ante</i>, p. 18</a>,] for his letter to Mrs. Besant, and Mr. Leadbeater's +precept and practice in the training of boys have been quoted. +Mr. Martyn is supported by other reputable Australians.</p> + +<p>Before landing here, and since, Mrs. Besant has refused any inquiry +into these matters, and taken up positions which, in a teacher of morals +disentitle her to be heard by an undergraduate society which exists for +the pursuit of truth. These positions are:—</p> + +<p>1. That there is a class of beings so high in the religious order that to +accuse them is presumption on the part of the common people. Indeed +accusations are 'persecution,' which proves the sanctity of these higher +beings, and is (in Mrs. Besant's words) the "seal of their apostolate."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>2. Mrs. Besant refers Mr. Leadbeater's challengers to the courts, +though to propagate in private the abominable tenet held by him does +not constitute an offence against any law, but only against common +decency as understood by ordinary men.</p> + +<p>3. She writes that she does not believe, and will not discuss Mr. +Martyn's allegations, though she writes from India of what Mr. +Martyn says happened in his own home in Sydney.</p> + +<p>If these are good reasons for refusing to hold an inquiry, then immorality +can be safely taught and practised in high places so long as the +teacher belongs to Mrs. Besant's way of thinking. From the public +point of view such a claim cuts the ground from all morals.</p> + +<p>In her letter to the <i>Daily Telegraph</i> [of Sydney] for May 18, Mrs. +Besant asks the public to believe that Mr. Leadbeater has to meet +charges relating to 1906 [<a href="#Page_27">see <i>ante</i>, p. 27</a>], and disposed of [?] by some +private investigation in 1908. The fact is ignored that Mr. Martyn's +accusations relate to conduct since 1914, Worse than this, the fact is +suppressed that Mrs. Besant in 1913 was herself ordered by the Madras +High Court to return to their father two boys whom she insisted in +placing in Mr. Leadbeater's care, in spite of the father's protest. +[<a href="#Page_40">See <i>ante</i>, p. 40</a>] ... Mr. Justice Bakewell said that, from +Leadbeater's evidence, he was "certainly an immoral person, and +highly unfit to be in charge of the boys." He also found that Mrs. +Besant had violated her stipulation made with the father before +parting with the boys, that they should have nothing to do with Mr. +Leadbeater. (London <i>Times</i>, March 8, 1913.)</p> + +<p>In the following year Mr. Leadbeater came to Australia and now +"trains" Australian boys.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Besant lent herself and her oratory to the acquittal, without +evidence, of Mr. Leadbeater at a public meeting ... In my view it is +as bad to rescue a man from public justice (which is a wider term than +criminal law) by the exercise of a dominating personal veto, as it is to do +it by money or social or any other 'influence'—'influence' which is the +bane of any system of justice.... She may effect a master-stroke of +salvage, but she offends every canon of fairplay, let alone of that ordinary +morality by which all men, high or humble, must be content to be +judged. These sombre facts stand out:—</p> + +<p>1. Mrs. Besant's chief colleague has stated as late as 1913 in open +court that he still believed in teaching a detestable vice to boys, which +he had previously taught them.</p> + +<p>2. An English Judge for this reason declared him to be an immoral +person.</p> + +<p>3. Mr. Martyn accused Mr. Leadbeater of being still what the +English judge said of him, and alleged fact upon fact in support of this.</p> + +<p>4. Mrs. Besant has shielded Mr. Leadbeater from inquiry.</p> + +<p>5. Mr. Leadbeater says nothing.<br /><br /></p></blockquote> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center"><a name="Indictment" id="Indictment"></a><span class="smcap">An Indictment of Mrs. Besant by a Resigning Member +Of Her E. S.</span></p> + +<p>Further very recent testimony and criticism is furnished +by a letter of resignation from Mrs. Besant's Esoteric School +by Mr. Hugh R. Gillespie, of Krotona, California, one of the +strongholds of the "Liberal Catholic Church." The letter, +dated May 29, is printed in the <i>O. E. Critic</i> of August 16, +and the Editor in a prefatory note says:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>The writer ... is well-known to Theosophists of three continents +as a lecturer and as a fearless, persistent and uncompromising fighter for +honesty and cleanness in the T. S. For almost three years he was +attached to Adyar as architect and sanitary engineer.... He was at +Adyar during the trial of the "Cases" in the Madras courts and saw +the whole sordid drama in action. During this period he had abundant +opportunity for getting light, as well as sidelights, on the working of the +Adyar machine and on the personal peculiarities of the gods and +demigods of the Theosophical Olympus. Later he was resident three +years at Krotona, where similar opportunities were not lacking.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Mr. Gillespie writes that he resigns as a protest against +the actions and utterances of Mrs. Besant as "Outer Head" +of the E. S. and President of the T. S., and continues:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>These actions and utterances have, since her assumption of the +above mentioned positions, been of such a character that, to use the +words of H. P. B., the Theosophical Society is</p> + +<p>" ... being made a spectacle to the world through the exaggerations +of some fanatics, and the attempt of various charlatans to profit +by a ready-made programme. These, by disfiguring and adapting +Occultism to their own filthy and immoral ends bring disgrace on the +whole movement."</p> + +<p>As a result of Mrs. Besant's methods we learn that the T. S. and +E. S. in almost every section is seething with dissension. England, +Australia and America are racked and torn; Germany is split; Finland +is shattered, and the closing of the E. S. for some four years in +Switzerland indicates the conditions there.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Besant's arrogance and vanity in office and her lack of dignity, +as exemplified in her ridiculous "Whom will ye serve?" tirade, and her +letter of March, 1922, have drawn the attention of the great London +weekly <i>Truth</i>, and in its pages the T. S. is held up to the scorn and +ridicule of the world. [I have dealt with these under the heading of +"Mrs Besant's Latest Assertions and Claims Examined."—A. L. C.]</p> + +<p>So far as the E. S. is concerned, my experience of its working under +Mrs. Besant in Australia, Adyar, England, and America enable me to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +assert that it is nothing but a political machine used for the purpose of +securing the ascendancy of Mrs. Besant in the various bodies to which +E. S. members have gained access. [I would draw particular attention +to this important statement. It is especially true of India, which is +the principal scene of her political activities.—A. L. C.]</p> + +<p>... Mrs. Besant's parade of thrusting the L. C. C. out of the +T. S. door while bringing it in by the E. S. window, added to her condonement +of the vile practices of the L. C. C. bishops and priests, fall +little short of a betrayal of the T S. and could only be adequately met +by her resignation from all office....<br /><br /></p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><br /><a name="Bibliography" id="Bibliography"></a>BIBLIOGRAPHY.</h2> + + +<p><i>The Secret Doctrine.</i> London, 1888. <i>The Key to Theosophy +and The Voice of the Silence.</i> London 1889. <i>The +Theosophical Glossary.</i> London, 1892. <i>Practical Occultism</i> +Reprint, London, 1921.—H. P. Blavatsky.</p> + +<p><i>Mrs. Besant and the Present Crisis in the Theosophical +Society.</i> With a Prefatory Letter by M. Edouard Schuré, +London, 1913.—Eugène Lévy.</p> + +<p><i>The Central Hindu College and Mrs. Besant. (The Rise +of the Alcyone Cult.)</i> Chicago, 1913.—Bhagavan Das.</p> + +<p><i>Reminiscences of H. P. Blavatsky and "The Secret +Doctrine."</i> London, 1893—Countess Constance Wachtmeister.<br /><br /><br /></p> + + +<hr style="width: 60%;" /> + + +<h6><br /><br />PRINTED BY</h6> + +<h5>THACKER, SPINK & CO</h5> + +<h6>CALCUTTA<br /><br /></h6> + + +<hr style="width: 60%;" /> + +<p class="center"><br /><b>TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</b></p> + +<p>This text is full of typographical errors (wrong spelling and unmatched +brackets and quotation marks, reference to italics when there are none). +Since these are really a characteristic of the text, I have left them +unchanged.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's H. P. 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