 |
vol. title: Vol Four of The Theosophical Society of The Arya Samaj of Arya-wart vol. period: Sept 1878 – Sept 1879 pages in vol.: 350 |
Theosophists in India
Our readers will recollect that an article on ‘Modern Theosophy’ appeared in the Indian Spectator nearly ten months ago, and that it drew the attention of the Theosophists in New York is proved by the fact that a letter in reply was sent to us from Colonel Henry S. Olcott, President of the Theosophical Society. We had then hinted that the Theosophists would soon open a campaign in India—and this has actually come to pass. Colonel Olcott, Mme. H. P. Blavatsky, and two more Theosophists, a gentleman and a lady, have arrived in Bombay, and will very probably make a long stay in India. The strangers are sure to create a sensation, if nothing else, throughout India; and we venture to prophesy that they will not make a few converts to their strange but beautiful creed; for we are assured, that on their way from America to Bombay they succeeded in winning over to their cause a very fair number of educated Europeans and Natives.
What Theosophy is and professes to do, what are its motives and means, what it has actually accomplished, and what place it is likely to occupy in the minds of the Indian people, we propose briefly to examine in this article. We believe we do not err in surmising that the founder of modern Theosophy is Mme. Blavatsky, a Russian Countess; and it is in itself a miracle—the fact of a daughter of an enslaved land rising above her surroundings, daring to think and act for herself, renouncing her religion and country, denouncing with unsurpassed eloquence the bigotry of mouldy ages, and evolving out of the chaos of forgotten theories and faiths a systemperfect in symmetry and beautiful in promise. It is from this lady of transcendent genius and rare accomplishments that the President of the Theosophical Society has, according to his own version, learnt to shelve aside the servile bounds of narrow prejudices and to make truth his only search and reward. About five years ago Colonel Olcott's religious life was aimless, purposeless—the last four years have wrought a marvellous change in him—he is beginning to descry the vastness of human energy—he is resolved to wage an uncompromising war against all untruth, whether of science or religion, of the mumbling nonsense of anAugustine or the unlearned platitudes of a Max Muller. The very essence of Theosophy, in fact, consists in its bold utterances of naked Truth, Truth divested of all meretricious robes, Truth divine and eternal. For the search of this Truth, Theosophy does not go where the multitude are wont to repair, to the shrines of Mahommed or of Christ, but to the great fountainhead of all the faiths of the world, to the profound mysteries of Vedic or Wisdom Religion. Here Theosophy has sought and discovered countless treasures, which lay buried for centuries, hidden from the sight of priests and poultroons, princes and pick-pockets. Which Roman Pope or Protestant Arch-bishop ever dared to put to himself the question—“Where, Who, What is God?—Who ever saw the immortal Spirit of man, so as to be able to assure himself of man's immortality?” Which Sciencist has dared to conceive the omnipotence of man's own immortal self? Theosophy adopts the worn-out motto Ex Nihilo nihil fit—and from it deduces the startling conclusion, that the soul of man is proved by its wonderful powers, <... continues on page 8-118 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ Theosophists in India by unknown author, Indian Spectator, The, Sunday, March 2, 1879