The Authentic Letters of
H.P.B., As Edited by One
Of the Main Founders of the
Theosophical Movement
William Q. Judge
H.P.
Blavatsky and W.Q. Judge
Introduction to Chapter 7
of the Present Online Edition:
In
the first paragraph we have a reference to “Captain B.”. Captain Robert Bowen was one of H.P.B.’s
direct students in the final years in London, and he wrote the well-known
“Bowen Notes” on how to study “The Secret Doctrine”. H.P.B. also mentions “K.”, which stands for
“Keightley”, another English student. Charing Cross is a district in central
London, where the railway central station was located.
The reception with 300 distinguished guests in London took place on July
21st, 1884. [1]
H.P.B. refers to “Minister Gladstone”. William E. Gladstone (1809-1898)
was the prime-minister of England for many years. He is considered by the
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1967) the greatest British statesman of the 19h
century. In an extensive private letter to Alfred Sinnett written in January
1887, H.P.B. wrote that Gladstone played in the hands of the Jesuits. She also suggested that Gladstone would lead the
old structure of England to destruction, which was a long-time priority of the
Jesuits.[2]
“Professor Crookes” is William Crookes, the famous scientist mentioned many
a time in theosophical literature. In a 1876 letter to Professor Hiram Corson,
H.P.B. gave evidence that William Crookes was an occultist, and that he had
been a pupil of Eliphas Levi.[3]
In 1884 Vsevolod Solovioff is still behaving as if he were a friend of
H.P.B.’s. She believes he is as loyal as anyone can be. Solovioff would turn
out to be one of the worst enemies of the theosophical movement, alongside with
Alexis and Emma Coulomb.
The chapter closes with H.P.B. sharing her idea as to what to do with
individuals who cause harm to the movement by spreading slanders. The
directness of H.P.B.’s solution to the problem has a Zen-Buddhist flavour:
“Above all it is necessary to show up these rascals.”
(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)
NOTES:
[1] See “HPB - The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder
of the Modern Theosophical Movement”, by Sylvia Cranston, G.P. Putnam’s Sons,
New York, 1994, 648 pp., pp. 260-261.
[2] “The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to A.P.
Sinnett”, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, California, 1973, 404 pp.,
see letter CVI, pp. 230-233. See also references to W.E. Gladstone in “The
Secret Doctrine”, original editions, volume II, pp. 766-767 and 770.
[3] “Some Unpublished
Letters of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky”, with an introduction and commentary by
Eugene Rollin Corson, Rider & Co., Paternost House, London, 1929, 256 pp.,
see p. 177.
Letters of H.P. Blavatsky [1]
Chapter VII
[THE PATH, Volume X, New York, June 1895, pp. 73-78.]
A few days after leaving Paris H.P.B. wrote to
Madame Fadeef from London, where she was staying with Miss Arundale:
“My dear, my precious Nadeja Andreevna! For
many years I have not cried, but now I have cried out all my tears on losing
sight of you two. I thought my heart would burst, I felt so faint. Happily,
some kindly French people in the same compartment as myself brought me some
water at the next station and took care of me as best they could. At Boulogne
Olcott came to meet me, and was nearly ready to cry himself on seeing how ill I
was. He was also greatly put out by the thought that you and Vera might think
him heartless for not having come to fetch me in Paris. But the poor old body
never knew I was so unwell. You know I am always shaky. I spent a night in
Boulogne, and next morning five more of our Theosophists came from England to
look after me. Amongst them two good friends, Captain B. and his sister Lady T.
I was nearly carried to the steamer and off it again, and triumphantly brought
to London. I can hardly breathe, but all the same we have a reception this
evening, to which probably about fifty of our old acquaintances will come.
English people in their totality are not fickle; they have lots of constancy
and loyalty. At Charing Cross, Mohini and K. nearly frightened to death all
kinds of English people by falling down before me as if I had been an idol. It
made me positively angry, this tempting of providence.
“My dear, this new parting from you is so
bitter for me, and yet it is a consolation to have seen each other and to have
learned to know each other better. I tell you, friend, life has nothing better
than the consolation and happiness of the deep affection for things and people
we have loved from childhood. This kind of thing can never die: it will have
eternal life in eternity. Long, long after I had gone I saw you three together
- you, Vera, and Madame de Morsier. She writes me she was with
you until the moment your train left. This woman has a good heart, for the sake
of which we must forgive her moody temper.”
From London, between May and August, 1884:
“I shall never get well here. It’s not life I
lead here, but a sort of mad turmoil from morning till night. Visitors,
dinners, evening callers, and meetings every day. Our Olga X. assures me she
feels a sort of adoration for me, and daily brings some of her friends to see
me. She has already brought me the whole of celebrated London, except the great
Minister Gladstone, who, according to the St. James Gazette, both
fears and admires me - ‘is afraid of as
much as he admires her’! To my mind this is simply a kind of glamour . . . . .
. On the 21st July there was a meeting -
conversazione as they are called here - in honor of Madame
Blavatsky and Col. Olcott, held in the Prince’s Hall. At first they printed
five hundred invitation cards, and then there was such a rush for them that
they had to add nearly as many again. Madame X. wrote asking for two tickets in
the name of our Ambassador, and personally brought the Ambassadors of France,
Holland, Germany, Turkey, Prince H. of Roumania, and nearly the whole of the
staff of her devoted friend Gladstone. Lastly, Hitrovo, our Consul General in
Egypt, who came here on business . . . . . . I leave it to your own imagination
to fancy the following picture: a huge hall, ladies in low dresses, costumes
de gala of all nations - and I sitting in the place of honor, a kind
of kingly throne out of a ballet performance, in my black velvet dress with a
tail three yards long (which I hate), and Sinnett and Lord B. and Finch, the
President of the London Lodge T.S., bringing and introducing to me, one by one,
all who want to make my personal acquaintance. And of such there happened to be
- I am trying not to exaggerate - about three hundred people. Just fancy,
smiling and shaking hands with three hundred ladies and gentlemen during two
hours. Oof!! Lord and Lady H. asked me to dine with them next day. After such
an evening: just think of it! Cross, the Secretary for India, sat down beside
me and complimented me to such an extent on the love of the Hindus for me that
I simply got frightened: they might put a political coloring even on this!
Besides all sorts of European notabilities, they introduced to me a heap of black
and yellow Princes, Maori, Javanese, Malay - I don’t know who. Professor
Crookes and his wife sat behind my arm-chair like a pair of adjutants, pointing
out to me no end of their colleagues of the Royal Society, celebrated savants
in physics, astronomy, and all kinds of ‘Dark Sciences’. Now, darling, do
you see, do you feel, the working of Karma? English Science, intelligence, and
aristocracy paying honors to me which I do not deserve in the least. Master
declared to me beforehand it would be so, and now I am perfectly miserable
getting lots of visits and invitations, especially after Sinnett’s speech in
Prince’s Hall. He struck an attitude and began to oratorise: ‘Ladies and
gentlemen! Before you you see a woman who has accomplished a world-wide work.
She alone thought out and executed a colossal plan, the creation of a whole
army of cultured people whose duty it is to fight against Materialism and
Atheism as much as against superstition and an ignorant interpretation of the
teaching of Christ (that is to say, against the one hundred and thirty-seven
sects, Shakers, Quakers, howling Salvationists revelling in darkness) which is
the shame of the Christian world . . . . . . Ladies and gentlemen of cultured England,
behold the woman who has shown the world what can be accomplished by the power
of will, steadfastly pursuing a certain aim, and by a strongly realized ideal.
All alone, ill, without means, without patronage, without help of any kind,
with the sole exception of Col. Olcott, her first convert and apostle, Madame
Blavatsky has planned to unite into one intellectual whole a universal
brotherhood of all nations and of all races. She has accomplished this
undertaking; she has overcome animosity, calumny, the opposition of fanatics,
and the indifference of ignorant people. . . . . . Even our liberal
Anglo-Indian government mistakenly arose against her humanitarian mission. But
happily it realized its mistake and stopped in time.’ And so on and on in the
same strain. The applause was deafening. I tried to blush for modesty's sake,
but got pale instead for want of air. I nearly fainted, for I am still very
weak; though my legs from that moment in the railway station have stopped
aching altogether.
“What am I to do with all these letters,
evidently intended to arouse my pity, from all these admirers who are so very
much in love with me? Half of them I can answer only in thought. But amongst
them are many whom I really love and pity, as for instance our poor Solovioff.
It’s not long since I have come to London, but I have already got two such
pitiful letters. The only thing he asks of me is to care for him and not forget
him. He says he has never loved anyone outside of his family as he loves poor
old me. Also our dear J. D. Glinka: do you know what she has done? She has
printed five hundred copies of the document and the letter of Prince Dondukoff
clearing me from the calumny of Mdlle. Smirnoff, and has sent them to all who
are doubtful about the matter . . . . . But, God bless my enemies! Now listen
to a curious story: M. A. Hitrovo, our Consul in Egypt, called on me and asked
me among other things: ‘By the way, did you get our telegram, signed
collectively by all the crew of the frigate Strelok? We sent
from Suez to Port Said an expression of our gratitude to Radha Bai [2] for her kindly affection and
remembrance of her compatriots’. I listened silently without understanding a
word. ‘But don’t you remember’, he says, ‘I, as Consul, had to see off the
Ambassador to China, and so was on board the frigate which you met in the Suez
Canal’. Only then I remembered. Don’t you recollect I told you in Paris about a
joke I played in Suez, on the 3rd of March if I am not mistaken. Our steamer of
the Messagerie had to tie up in order that a big Russian
frigate might pass on its way to China. So I took my visiting-card and wrote on
it, ‘A Russian woman who during many years never saw a Russian face sends a
hearty greeting and deep salutations and her wishes for a pleasant voyage to
all the Russians, beginning with the Commander and the officers and ending with
the Marines. God protect Russia and her Czar!’ - signed Radha Bai. And on the
other side I wrote my real name and my Adyar address. We put this card into a
tin box and flattened it. Then when the frigate was in line with us, Olcott
very deftly threw the tin over into a group of officers and soldiers, and I
shouted ‘A letter to the Commander’. It
was handed to him immediately, and under our very eyes he read it out. All the
officers took off their caps to me, waving them to my address, and the crew
shouted ‘Hurrah!’ I was awfully pleased. ‘We were all very much amused by your
invention’, said Hitrovo, ‘and very much touched by your note. The Ambassador
and all the officers immediately agreed to wire you their gratitude to Port
Said’. And fancy, isn’t it vexing, it was never delivered to me . . . . . . . I told Hitrovo I should insist upon its
delivery, as a souvenir.”
Herr Gebhardt came to fetch H. P. B. from
London, and took her over to Elberfeldt, anxious that she should have proper
care and rest, as well as tonic waters and massage, which had been ordered by
many doctors who had agreed that her brain was the only sound organ in her
body. H.P.B writes:
“I travelled as if I had been a queen.
Everywhere I had cabins and railway carriages all to myself, and Gebhardt, who
came to fetch me in London, never allowed me to pay a penny for anything. We
were about fifteen Theosophists travelling together, and here I have also found
a large party of German Theosophists waiting for me. The President of the new
German Branch, Dr. Hubbe Schleiden, Baron von Hoffman and his wife, du Prel, a
certain dignified Countess Spreti with her husband and Aide-de-Camp - for he is
a General - Captain U. I may well say with Madame Kourdukoff [3] that I have found here a company ‘of
lords, counts, and princes, all of them very decent people’ - and all
Theosophists of ours. Besides them there was the celebrated painter, Gabriel
Max (don’t you know?), with his wife and his sister-in-law, and Madame Hammerlé
from Odessa; and Solovioff writes that he will not fail to come. What if you
come also?”
Next came the Coulomb disturbance. In regard to
this Madame Jelihovsky writes:
“H.P.B. stayed nearly two months in Germany and
was thinking of settling in Europe for good - a step greatly recommended by the
doctors. But at this time began a tragi-comedy, preparations for which had been
made long previously by the enemies of her work. The Christian College
Magazine of Madras issued a series of letters purporting to be signed
by her and to be written to a certain French woman, Madame Coulomb. This Madame
Coulomb, with her husband, had kept a hotel in Cairo some years before, and
Helena Petrovna had stayed in it during the existence of her Spiritualistic
Society which never succeeded. Unfortunately for her, she met them again, many
years later, in India, when they were in abject misery and want, and
kind-heartedly sheltered them in her house. In H.P.B.’s absence Madame Coulomb
quarrelled with all the occupants of the house, and consequently thought of
finding some other situation for herself. Then Madame Coulomb was offered a
very profitable transaction. Someone was sent to them by a certain missionary,
explaining to them that in destroying this heretical Society they would act as
good Christians - and besides would earn a goodly sum of money.”
This the Coulombs tried to earn as all now
know. H.P.B. writes:
“Everything has changed. A hostile wind is
blowing on us. What cure, what health is possible for me? I have to go back
quickly to the climate that is fatal to me. It can’t be helped. Were I to pay
for it with death, I must clear up these schemes and calumnies because it is
not me alone they harm: they shake the confidence of people in our work, and in
the Society, to which I have given the whole of my soul. So how can I care for
my life? . . . . . . They write to us that in Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta all
the street walls are covered with thousands of placards: ‘Fall of Madame
Blavatsky; her Intrigues and Deceits Discovered’ - and so on and so on. But on
the other hand there are more than a thousand people who have arisen in my
defence. Not letters alone, but telegrams costing thousands of rupees have been
sent to the Times of London. As to India, the war there is
more than a newspaper war. About two hundred native students have crossed out
their names from the registers of this Christian College whose journal has
printed these wonderful letters of mine. To be fair to truth, I must say that
with the exception of two or three government papers in India, everyone is on
my side. Even here some people have shown themselves real friends to me. Madame
N. brought Mackenzie Wallace to see me; he has lived in Russia, and has written
such an excellent book about Russia and speaks Russian so well. He is going to
be sent as a Secretary to the Viceroy, Lord Dufferin. He gave me a letter of
introduction to Nubar Pasha of Cairo, requesting him to help me in finding
information about the Coulombs. Above all it is necessary to show up these
rascals.”
NOTES:
[1] Copyright,
1895.
[2] “Radha Bai” was
H.P.B.’s Russian nom-de-plume. (W.Q.J.)
[3] Madame
Kourdukoff is the heroine of a well-known Russian comic poem, a mixture of
Russian, French, German, and English. (W.Q.J.)
000
000
On the role of the esoteric movement in the
ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire
and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in 2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist, the volume has 255 pages and can be
obtained through Amazon Books.
000
