THE
LIFE OF
H
P Blavatsky
"Why I Do Not Return to
By
H P Blavatsky
To MY
BROTHERS OF ARYAVARTA,
In April, 1890, five
years elapsed since I left
Great kindness has been
shown to me by many of my Hindu brethren at various times since I left;
especially this year (1890), when, ill almost to death, I have received from
several Indian Branches letters of sympathy, and assurances that they had not
forgotten her to whom India and the Hindus have been most of
her life far dearer than her own Country.
It is, therefore, my
duty to explain why I do not return to India and my attitude with regard to the
new leaf turned in the history of the T.S. by my being formally placed at the
head of the Theosophical Movement in Europe. For it is not solely on account of
bad health that I do not return to
In Europe and America,
during the last three years, I have met with hundreds of men and women who have
the courage to avow their conviction of the real existence of the Masters, and
who are working for Theosophy on Their lines and under Their guidance, given
through my humble self.
In
towards me by several members of the staff. There seems to have
been something strange and uncanny going on at Adyar, during these last years.
No sooner does a European, most Theosophically inclined, most devoted to the Cause, and
the personal friend of myself or the President, set his foot in Headquarters,
than he becomes forthwith a personal enemy to one or other of us, and what is
worse, ends by injuring and deserting the Cause.
Let it be understood at
once that I accuse no one. Knowing what I do of the activity of the forces of
Kali Yuga, at work to impede and ruin the Theosophical Movement, I
do not regard those who have become, one after the other, my enemies--and that
without any fault of my own--as I might regard them, were it otherwise.
One of the chief factors
in the reawakening of Aryavarta which has been part
of the work of the Theosophical
Society, was the ideal of the Masters. But
owing to want of judgment, discretion, and discrimination, and the liberties
taken with
Their names and
Personalities, great misconception arose concerning Them.
I was under the most solemn oath and pledge never to reveal the whole truth to
anyone, excepting to those who, like Damodar, had
been finally selected and called by Them.
All that I was then
permitted to reveal was, that there existed somewhere such great men; that some
of Them were Hindus; that They were learned as none others in all the ancient
wisdom of Gupta Vidya, and had acquired all the Siddhis; not as these are represented in tradition and the
"blinds" of ancient
writings, but as they are in fact and nature; and also that I was a Chela of one of Them. However, in the fancy of some Hindus,
the most wild and ridiculous fancies soon grew up concerning Them.
They were referred to as "Mahatmas" and still some too enthusiastic
friends belittled Them with their strange
fancy-pictures; our opponents, describing a Mahatma as a full Jivanmukta, urged that, as such, He was debarred from
holding any communication whatsoever with persons living in the world. They
also maintained that as this is the Kali Yuga, it was impossible that there
could be any Mahatmas at all in our age.
These early
misconceptions notwithstanding, the idea of the Masters, and belief in Them, has already brought its good fruit in
systematic assaults of the missionaries; and finally to reawaken the
dormant ethical and patriotic spirit in those youths in whom it had almost
disappeared owing to college education. Much of this has been achieved by and
through the Theosophical Society, in
spite of all its mistakes and imperfections.
Had it not been for
Theosophy, would
Aye, my good and
never-to-be-forgotten Hindu Brothers, the name alone of the holy Masters, which
was at one time invoked with prayers for Their
blessings, from one end of
Thus it was that, so
long as I remained at Adyar, things went on smoothly enough, because one or
other of the Masters was almost constantly present among us, and their spirit
ever protected the Theosophical Society from real harm. But in 1884, Colonel
Olcott and myself left for a visit to
What with the
Patterson-Coulomb-Hodgson conspiracy, and the
faint-heartedness of the chief Theosophists, that the Society did not then and
there collapse should be sufficient proof of how it was protected. Shaken in
their belief, the faint-hearted began to ask: "Why, if the Masters are
genuine Mahatmas, have They allowed such things to take place, or why have They
not used Their powers to destroy this plot or that conspiracy, or even this or
that man and woman?" Yet it had been explained numberless times that no
Adept of the Right Path will interfere with the just workings of Karma. Not
even the greatest of Yogis can divert the progress of Karma, or arrest the
natural results of actions for more than a short period, and even in that case,
these results will only reassert themselves later with even tenfold force, for
such is the occult law of Karma and the Nidanas.
Nor again will even the
greatest of phenomena aid real spiritual progress. We have each of us to win
our Moksha or Nirvana by our own merit, not because a
Guru or Deva will help to conceal our shortcomings.
There is no merit in having been created an immaculate Deva
or in being God; but there is the eternal bliss
of Moksha looming forth for the man
who becomes as a God and Deity by his own personal exertions. It is the mission
of Karma to punish the guilty and not the duty of any Master. But those who act
up to Their teaching and live the life of which They are the best exemplars,
will never be abandoned by Them, and will always find Their beneficent help
whenever needed, whether obviously or invisibly. This is of course addressed to
those who have not yet quite lost their faith in Masters; those who have never
believed, or have ceased to believe in Them, are welcome to their own opinions.
No one, except themselves perhaps some day, will be the losers thereby.
As for myself, who can
charge me with having acted like an imposter? with having,
for instance, taken one single pie* from any living soul? with
having ever asked for money, or with having accepted it, notwithstanding that I
was repeatedly offered large sums? Those who, in spite of this, have chosen to
think
otherwise, will have to explain what even my traducers of the Padri class and Psychical Research Society have been unable
to explain to this day, viz., the motive for such fraud. They will have to
explain why, instead of taking and making money, I gave away to the Society
every penny I earned by writing for the papers; why at the same time I nearly
killed myself with overwork and incessant labour year after year, until my
health gave way, so that but for my Master's repeated help, I should have died
long ago from the effects of such voluntary hard labour.
For the absurd Russian
spy theory, if it still finds credit in some idiotic heads, has long ago
disappeared, at any rate from the official brains of the Anglo-Indians.
If, I say, at that
critical moment, the members of the Society, and especially its leaders at
Adyar, Hindu and European, had stood together as one man, firm in their
conviction of the reality and power of the Masters, Theosophy would have come
out more triumphantly than ever, and none of their fears would have ever been
realized, however cunning the legal traps set for me, and whatever mistakes and
errors of judgment I, their humble representative, might have made in the
executive conduct of the matter.
But the loyalty and
courage of the Adyar Authorities, and of the few Europeans who had trusted in
the Masters, were not equal to the trial when it came. In spite of my protests,
I was hurried away from Headquarters. Ill as I was, almost dying in truth, as the
physicians said, yet I protested, and would have battled
for Theosophy in
Well, I left, and
immediately intrigues and rumours began. Even at
Then I was accused of
being, at best, a hallucinated medium, who had mistaken "spooks" for
living Masters; while others declared that the real H. P. Blavatsky was
dead--had died through the injudicious use of Kundalini--and that the form had
been forthwith seized upon by a Dugpa Chela, who was the present H.P.B. Some again held me to be
a witch, a sorceress, who for purposes of her own played the part of a
philanthropist and lover of India, while in reality bent upon the destruction
of all those who had the misfortune to be psychologised
by me.
In fact, the powers of
psychology attributed to me by my enemies, whenever a fact or a
"phenomenon" could not be explained away, are so great that they
alone would have made of me a most remarkable Adept--independently of any
Masters or Mahatmas. In short, up to 1886, when the S.P.R. Report was published
and this soap-bubble burst over our heads, it was one long series of false
charges, every mail bringing something new. I will name no one; or does it matter
who said a thing and who repeated it. One thing is certain; with the exception
of Colonel Olcott, everyone seemed to banish the Masters from their thoughts
and Their spirit from Adyar. Every imaginable
incongruity was connected with these holy names, and I alone was held
responsible for every disagreeable event that took place, every mistake made.
In a letter received from Damodar in 1886, he
notified me that the Masters' influence was becoming with every day weaker at
Adyar; that They were daily represented as less than "second-rate
Yogis," totally denied by some, while even those who believed in, and had
remained loyal to Them, feared even to pronounce Their names.
Finally, he urged me
very strongly to return, saying that of course the Masters would see that my
health should not suffer from it. I wrote to that effect to Colonel Olcott,
imploring him to let me return, and promising that I would live at
This, although I had
spent several thousand rupees of my own private money, and had devoted my share
of the profits of The Theosophist to the purchase of the house and its
furniture. Nevertheless I signed
the renunciation without one word of protest. I saw I was not wanted, and
remained in
The result of this is
too apparent. You know too well the state of affairs in
Acting under the
Master's orders I began a new movement in the West on the original lines; I
founded Lucifer, and the Lodge which bears my name. Recognizing the splendid
work done at Adyar by Colonel Olcott and others to carry out the second of the
three objects of the T.S., viz., to promote the study of Oriental Literature, I
was determined to carry out here the two others.
All know with what
success this had been attended. Twice Colonel Olcott was asked to come over,
and then I learned that I was once more wanted in
the Headquarters from which the Masters and Their spirit are
virtually banished.
The presence of Their portraits will not help; They are a dead letter. The
truth is that I can never return to
They will certainly
never do now), no advice of mine on occult lines seems likely to be accepted,
as the fact of my relations with the Masters is doubted, even totally denied by
some; and I myself having no right to the Headquarters, what reason is there,
therefore, for me to live at Adyar?
The fact is this: In my
position, half-measures are worse than none. People have either to believe
entirely in me, or to honestly disbelieve. No one, no Theosophist, is compelled
to believe, but it is worse than useless for people to ask me to help them, if
they do not believe in me. Here in
the spread of Theosophy and of the T.S., in the West, during
the last three years, has been extraordinary. The chief reason for this is that
I was enabled and encouraged by the devotion of an ever-increasing number of
members to the Cause and to Those who guide it, to establish an Esoteric
Section, in which I
can teach something of what I have learned to those who have confidence
in me, and who prove this confidence by their disinterested work for Theosophy
and the T.S. For the future, then, it is my intention to devote my life and
energy to the E.S., and to the teaching of those whose confidence I retain. It
is useless that I should use the little time I have before me to justify myself
before those who do not feel sure about the real existence of the Masters, only
because, misunderstanding me, it therefore suits them to suspect me.
And let me say at once,
to avoid misconception, that my only reason for accepting the exoteric
direction of European affairs, was to save those who really have Theosophy at
heart and work for it and the Society, from being hampered by those who not
only do not care for Theosophy, as laid out by the Masters, but are entirely
working against both, endeavouring to undermine and counteract
the influence of the good work done, both by open denial of the existence of
the Masters, by declared and bitter hostility to myself, and also by joining
forces with the most desperate enemies of our Society.
Half-measures, I repeat,
are no longer possible. Either I have stated the truth as I know it about the
Masters, and teach what I have been taught by them, or I have invented both Them and the Esoteric Philosophy. There are those among the Esotericists of the inner group who say that if I have done
the latter, then I
must myself be a "Master." However it may be, there is no alternative to this dilemma.
The only claim,
therefore, which
Masters), a privilege 1
cannot exercise with F.T.S.'s at large, yet one which
is the only means of cutting off a diseased limb from the healthy body of the
Tree, and thus save it from infection. I can care only for those who cannot be
swayed by every breath of calumny, and every sneer, suspicion, or criticism,
whoever it
may emanate from.
Thenceforth let it be
clearly understood that the rest of my life is devoted only to those who
believe in the Masters, and are willing to work for Theosophy as They understand it, and for the T.S. on the lines upon which
They originally established it.
If, then, my Hindu
brothers really and earnestly desire to bring about the regeneration of India,
if they wish to ever bring back the days when the Masters, in the ages of
India's ancient glory, came freely among them, guiding and teaching the people;
then let them cast aside all fear and hesitation, and turn a new leaf in the
history of the Theosophical Movement. Let them bravely
rally around the
President-Founder, whether I am in
Written
April, 1890
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