H. P. Blavatsky Part 3

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 _no Devachanic break_, the golden ladder leading to Mahatmaship (the _Arhat_ or _Bodhisattva_ condition), or--he will let himself slide down the ladder at the first false step, and roll down into _Dugpa-ship_....[8]

"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 pa.s.sions can be so sublimated and elevated that their fury, force and fire can, so to speak, be turned inwards ... _until their collective and unexpanded strength enables their possessor to enter the true Sanctuary of the Soul_, and stand therein in the presence of the _Master_--the HIGHER SELF.... Oh, poor blind visionaries!... Strange aberration of the human mind. Can it be so? Let us argue.

"The 'Master' in the Sanctuary of our souls is 'the Higher Self'--the divine spirit whose consciousness 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 _Human Soul_ (the 'Spiritual Soul' being the vehicle of the Spirit.) In its turn the former (the _personal_ 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 pa.s.sions imparted to it by its a.s.sociation with its vehicle, the seat of all these ... the _inner animal_. [It] is the instinctual 'animal soul,' and is the hotbed of those pa.s.sions which ... are lulled instead of being killed, ... And where, on what neutral ground, can they be imprisoned so as not to affect man?

"The fierce pa.s.sions of love and l.u.s.t are still alive, and they are allowed to still remain in the place of their birth--_that same animal soul_.... 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 pa.s.sions, 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 pa.s.sions and the terrestrial desires of the bodily senses, or even of the 'Astral man'?

"For this 'Astral'--the shadowy 'double' (in the animal as in man) is not the companion of the _divine Ego_ but of the _earthly body_. It is the link between the personal self, the lower consciousness of _Manas_, and the Body, and is the vehicle of _transitory, not of immortal life_.... It is only when the power of the pa.s.sions is dead altogether, and when they have been crushed and annihilated in the retort of an unflinching will; when not only all the l.u.s.ts and longings of the flesh are dead, but also the recognition of the personal Self is killed out 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 _Augides_, the divine SELF, can vibrate in conscious harmony with both the poles of the human Ent.i.ty--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.[9]

"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 l.u.s.t, 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 _real_ occultism.... While the heart is full of thoughts for a little group of _selves_, 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 _the whole of Humanity_, without distinction of race, complexion, religion, or social status. It is _altruism,_ not _ego_-ism even in its most legal and n.o.ble conception, that can lead the unit to merge its little Self in the Universal Selves. It is to _these_ needs and to this work that the true disciple of true Occultism has to devote himself if he would obtain _theo_-sophy, divine Wisdom and Knowledge.

"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 _true_ practical Occultism, instead of its _theoretical_ 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, _whoever indulges, after having pledged himself to_ OCCULTISM, _in the gratification of a terrestrial love or l.u.s.t_, 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 pa.s.sions, or _even that of a Dugpa_; the right from wrong; sound morality from mere casuistry. The Dead Sea fruit a.s.sumes the most glorious mystic appearance ... although it is the intention that decides primarily whether _white_ or _black_ magic is exercised, yet the results even of involuntary sorcery cannot fail to be productive of bad Karma.... _Sorcery is any kind of evil influence exercised upon other persons, who suffer, or make other_ persons to suffer, in consequence ... such causes produced have to call forth effects, and these are evidenced in the just laws of Retribution.

"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; _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_." (Italics mine--A. L. C.)

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 _no sort of relation_ to real "Occultism" as here briefly outlined by H. P.

Blavatsky. Their teaching concerning s.e.x is indeed its ant.i.thesis, which inevitably leads to Dugpa-ship, as H. P. B. definitely states. The issue is clear, and cannot be evaded or explained away.

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[10] inspiration, to make serious alterations in H. P. B.'s own works, and even to throw doubt on her occult knowledge (_e.g._, Mrs. Besant's Preface to the so-called Vol. III of _The Secret Doctrine_.) Unfortunately larger and more ambitious works which followed were vitiated by the same influences, and I well remember marking many pa.s.sages in _The Ancient Wisdom_ which were not in accordance with H. P. B.'s teachings. But the radical departure from them began when Mrs. Besant definitely threw in her lot with C. W.

Leadbeater, the s.e.x pervert, and thereby alienated and caused such deep sorrow to her former friends and supporters.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] DUGPAS. (_Tibetan_). 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 _Bhon_ religion--were all Dugpas. From that century, however, and after the rigid laws imposed upon the _Gelukpas_ (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 _Dugpa_ 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.--_The Theosophical Glossary_, by H. P. Blavatsky.

[9] Man is a trinity composed of Body, Soul, and Spirit; but _man_ is nevertheless _one_, _and_ is surely not his body. The three 'Egos' are MAN in his three aspects on the astral, intellectual or psychic, and Spiritual planes, or states.

[10] 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, _from their point of view_) any revealing of esoteric teaching to the mult.i.tude, and especially to the West. The particular Brahmin whom Mrs. Besant followed at that period (see _post_ p. 56 Footnote) induced her to adopt a line of action which disrupted the Society created by H. P. B., and diverted attention from her works.

Mrs. Besant's responsibility and the Madras Law-suits.

M. Levy'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 doc.u.mentary evidence, supported the view that Mrs.

Besant had known of and even countenanced the practices of Mr.

Leadbeater....

"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 _leaven of destruction, of disintegration in the Theosophical Society_.

We cannot rid ourselves of a growing disquiet in seeing Mrs.

Besant, in her monthly articles in the _Theosophist_, ent.i.tled "On the Watch-Tower," so tirelessly expressing such great and manifest satisfaction in every smallest material increase, improvement and enrichment of the Adyar Headquarters.

Mr. Leadbeater shares in this joy. Speaking of Mrs. Besant in the _Adyar Alb.u.m_, 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." _Not thus does Mrs. Besant understand spirituality_ 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 _some of us_ [_sic!!_] ...--_Man; Whence, How, and Whither._

Truly may one here repeat the somewhat ba.n.a.l 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. Levy 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. Levy says that since the publication of his brochure judgment has been p.r.o.nounced on the case he mentions (see p. 29), 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:--

Further legal proceedings have confirmed, with yet more precision, the infamous immorality of which Mr. Leadbeater stands accused. (see report in _The Hindu_, Madras, May 9th, 1913.) A Madras medical review called _The Antiseptic_ had pubished an article in which apprehension of the establishment of a 'Temple of Onanism" ["unnatural sin." See Dr. Hartmann's _Paracelsus_, p. 90] at Adyar was expressed. _The Hindu_ newspaper reprinted the scandal. Mrs. Besant took proceedings aga nst the author of the article and the publisher of _The Antiseptic_; and the Treasurer of the Theosophical Society was moved at the same time to action against _The Hindu_. _All three cases were dismissed._ The gravity of the position is evident. Mr. Leadbeater's methods have been proved by his own admissions as well as by doc.u.ments before the Court to be subversive of morality....

These facts [I omit the worst details that M. Levy 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 att.i.tude 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....

In view of these "facts" M. Levy's restraint of language is remarkable, his condemnation hardly sufficiently scathing. His concluding words, however, explain much; he has evidently greatly admired Mrs. Besant 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. Levy'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 a.s.sumes 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. Levy left Mrs.

Besant's in 1913; and when we remember that this was its condition nine years ago, my previous remarks (see p. 14) may be better appreciated now that more evidence has been adduced

The Central Hindu College. An Indian Criticism.

In 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 _Christian Commonwealth_, and is ent.i.tled "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:--

[Mrs. Besant's] remarks on the Central Hindu College [Benares]

in your paper are ill.u.s.trations of this sad change in her. This Inst.i.tution, 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 the transfer of Mrs. Besant from Benares to Adyar in 1907, as President of the T. S., elected _under very peculiar circ.u.mstances_ [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 _who had made her work in India possible_ [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 ... _"neo-theosophy"

was started more or less definitely_ [Italics mine.--A. L.

C.]....

In January 1911 was started publicly by the then Princ.i.p.al 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.' ... [See _ante_ p. 21.

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.

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 _The Order of the Star in the East_ with the Princ.i.p.al, 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....

In the summer of 1911, side by side with this public activity, there was started by Mrs. Besant _within_ the E. S. T. ... A WRITTEN PLEDGE OF ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE TO HERSELF. This fact, "private and confidential" at the time, is now public property since the Madras law suits....

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 const.i.tutional broad and liberal Hinduism into a bizarre and unhealthy personal-cult and bigoted Second-Adventism, pa.s.sed formal resolutions to the effect that the Inst.i.tution had nothing to do with any such Orders as those of the _Rising Sun_ or the _Star in the East_.

On December 24th, 1911, resolutions were pa.s.sed 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 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 b.u.t.ton 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 cla.s.ses, 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 _At the Feet of the Master_ 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 Princ.i.p.al 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"....

[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, THE FORMAL WRITTEN PLEDGE OF ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE TO MRS.

BESANT; and so while the loud profession is freedom of thought "for all"

the practice is sedulously "for herself," and her pledged 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.