H
P Blavatsky
"A Meeting With H
P Blavatsky"
by
Charles Johnston
I first met dear old
"HPB," as she made all her friends call her, in the spring of 1887.
Some of her disciples had taken a pretty house in
HPB was just finishing
her day's work. My first impression was of her rippled hair as she turned, then
her marvelously potent eyes, as she welcomed me: "My dear fellow! I am so
glad to see you! Come in and talk! You are just in time to have some tea!"
Then a piercing call for "Louise," and her Swiss maid appeared,
to receive a voluble torrent of directions in French.
When we were comfortably
alone, she told me a charming tale of Louise's devotion. HPB had got away from
her base of supplies somewhere, in Belgium I think, and things were rather
tight for a while. A wealthy gentleman called to see the famous Russian witch,
and tipped her maid munificently. As soon as he was gone, Louise appeared,
blushing and apologizing: "Perhaps Madame will not be offended," she
stammered, "but I do not need money"; and she tried to transfer the
douceur to her mistress.
Louise's entry cut short
the story, and HPB turned with a quizzically humorous
smile to another theme: "Of course you have read the SPR Report? -- The Spookical Research Society -- and know that I am a Russian
spy, and the champion impostor of the age?"
Yes, I read the Report.
But I knew its contents already. I was at the meeting when it was first read,
two years ago. But as far as I could see, [Hodgson] had never really
investigated any occult phenomena at all; he simply investigated dim and
confused memories about them in the minds of indifferent witnesses.
[Myers] came down among
us after the meeting, and smilingly asked me what I thought of the Report. I
answered that it was the most unfair and one-sided thing I had ever heard of,
and that if I had not already been a member of your [HPB's]
Society, I should have joined on the strength of that attack. He smiled
a kind of sickly smile, and passed on. . .
"They will never do
much. They go too far on material lines," said HPB, "and they are far
too timid. That was the secret motive that turned them against me.
They were afraid of
raising a storm if they said our phenomena were true. Fancy what it would have
meant! Why it would practically have committed modern science to our mahatmas
and all I have taught about the inhabitants of the occult world and their
tremendous powers.". . .
Then she told me
something about other Masters and adepts she had known -- for she made a
difference, as though the adepts were the captains of the occult world, and the
Masters were the generals. She had known adepts of many races, from Northern
and
European nations, Greek,
Hungarian, Italian, English; of certain races in South America, where she said
there was a Lodge of adepts.
"There are certain
members of the Lodges who pass from centre to centre, keeping the lines of
connection between them unbroken. But they are always connected in other
ways." "In their astral bodies?"
"Yes," she answered, "and in other ways still higher.
They have a common life
and power. As they rise in spirituality, they rise above difference of race, to
our common humanity. The series is unbroken. Adepts are a necessity in nature
and in super-nature. They are the links between men and the gods; these 'gods'
being the souls of great adepts and Masters of bygone races and ages, and so
on, up to the threshold of Nirvana. The continuity is unbroken."
"What do they do?" "You would hardly understand, unless you were
an adept. But they keep alive the spiritual life of mankind."
"How do the adepts
guide the souls of men?"
"In many ways, but
chiefly by teaching their souls direct, in the spiritual world. That is
difficult for you to understand. But this is quite intelligible: At certain
regular periods, they try to give the world at large a right understanding of
spiritual things. One of their number comes forth to
teach the masses, and is handed down to tradition as the founder of a religion.
was such a Master; so was Zoroaster; so were Buddha and Sankaracharya, the great sage of
"Have the adepts
any secret records of his life?"
"They must
have," she answered, "for they have records of the lives of all
Initiates. Once I was in a great cave-temple in the Himalayan mountains, with my Master. There were many statues of adepts
there; pointing to one of them, he said: 'This is he whom you call Jesus. We
count him to be one of the greatest
among us.'"
"But that is not
the only work of the adepts. At much shorter periods, they send forth a
messenger to try to teach the world. Such a period comes in the last quarter of
each century, and the Theosophical Society represents their work for this
epoch."
“How does it benefit
mankind?"
“How does it benefit you
to know the laws of life?”
“Does it not help you to
escape sickness and death?”
Well, there is a
soul-sickness, and a soul-death.
Only the true teaching
of Life can cure them. The dogmatic churches, with their hell and damnation, their
metal heaven and their fire and brimstone, have made it almost impossible for
thinking people to believe in the immortality of the soul. And if they do not
believe in a life after death, then they have no life
after death. That is the law."
"How can what
people believe possibly affect them? Either it is or it isn't,
whatever they may believe."
"Their belief
affects them in this way. Their life after death is made by their aspirations
and spiritual development unfolding in the spiritual world. According to the
growth of each [in our world] so is his life after death. It is the complement
of his life here. All unsatisfied spiritual longings, all desires for higher
life, all aspirations and dreams of noble things, come to flower in
the spiritual life, and the soul has its day, for life on earth
is its night.
But if you have no
aspirations, no higher longings, no beliefs in any life after death, then there
is nothing for your spiritual life to be made up of; your soul is a
blank."
"What becomes of you
then?"
"You reincarnate
immediately, almost without an interval, and without regaining
consciousness in the other world."
"What else do you
teach, as theosophists?"
"Well, Sir! I am
being cross-examined this evening, it would seem," she answered with a
smile. "We teach something very old, and yet which needs to be taught. We
teach universal brotherhood."
"Don't let us get
vague and general. Tell me exactly what you mean by that." "Let me
take a concrete case," she said. "Take the English. How cruel they
are! How badly they treat my poor Hindus!" "I have always understood
that they had done a good deal for
"But what is the
use of material benefits, if you are despised and trampled down morally all the
time? If your ideals of national honor and glory are crushed in the mud, and
you are made to feel all the time that you are an inferior race -- a lower
order of mortals -- pigs, the English call them, and sincerely believe
it. Well, just the reverse of that would be universal
brotherhood.
No amount of material
benefit can compensate for hurting their souls and crushing out their ideals. Besides there is another side of all that, which we as theosophists
always point out. There are really no 'inferior races,' for all are one
in our common humanity; and as we have all had incarnations in each of these
races, we ought to be more brotherly to them. They are our wards, entrusted to
us; and what do we do? We invade their lands, and shoot them down in sight of
their own homes; we outrage their women, and rob their goods, and then with
smooth-faced hypocrisy we turn round and say we are doing it for their good.
But there is a just law, 'the false tongue dooms its lie; the spoiler robs to
render. Ye shall not come forth, until ye have paid the uttermost
farthing."'
"So that is what
the adepts sent you forth to teach?"
"Yes, that and
other things -- things which are very important, and will soon be far more
important. There is the danger of black magic, into which all the world, and
especially
"How is it going to
guard people against hypnotism?"
"By purifying the
hearts of people who would misuse it. And
universal brotherhood rests upon the common soul. It is because there is one
soul common to all men, that brotherhood, or even common understanding, is
possible.
Bring men to rest on
that, and they will be safe. There is a divine power in every man which is to
rule his life, and which no one can influence for evil, not even the greatest
magician. Let men bring their lives under its guidance, and they have nothing
to fear from man or devil.
"And now, my dear, it
is getting late, and I am getting sleepy. So I must bid you goodnight!"
And the Old Lady
dismissed me with that grand air of hers which never left her, because it was a
part of herself. She was the most perfect aristocrat I
have ever known.
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Tekels Park
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Concerns about the fate of the wildlife as
Tekels Park is to be Sold to a Developer
Concerns are raised about the fate of the wildlife as
The Spiritual Retreat, Tekels Park in Camberley,
Surrey, England is to be sold to a developer.
Tekels Park is a 50 acre woodland park, purchased
for the Adyar Theosophical Society in England in 1929.
In addition to concern about the park, many are
worried about the future of the Tekels Park Deer
as they are not a protected
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Anyone planning a “Spiritual” stay at the
Tekels Park Guest House should be aware of the sale.
Tekels Park & the Loch Ness Monster
A Satirical view of the sale
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What the men in top hats have
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A B C D EFG H IJ KL M N OP QR S T UV WXYZ
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Classic Introductory
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A Text Book of Theosophy By C
What Theosophy Is From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
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The Purpose of Life The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
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Preface to the American Edition Introduction
Occultism and its Adepts The Theosophical Society
First Occult Experiences Teachings of Occult Philosophy
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