 |
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 |
< Chops and Tomato Sauce (continued from page 8-216) >
… as it might in America or England. I positively never dreamt that British officials would stop letters, listen at key holes, bullyrag our visitors and coadjutors, and look down our throat to see what we had had for dinner. And, strangely enough, even the American Consul, though neither he nor his official superiors care two pins for the subjects that most interest us, but on the contrary abhor and repudiate our religious views, cannot see why “these things should be thusly.” So he has begun by asking an explanation from the nearest responsible authorities, has extended his researches to Calcutta, and is prepared, if necessary, to pay out some of his bloated official perquisites for postage on despatches to Downing Street, via our London Legation. Clearly, somebody in our Government who does not read the papers, has either been duped by some rascally enemy of Theosophy, or is a natural born donkey.
No Society has, for the last four years, lived more in the eye of the public than ours. The American press has chronicled our every doing, and a thousand things we never thought of doing. We have been written about in the London papers, and the Indian press commented upon us long before we landed at Bombay. This very week you reprinted Mr. Keene’s splendid essay on “Religion in India,” wherein is quoted a circular of our Society issued at New York in 1872. But none are so blind as those who will not see. However, Yankees are proverbially inquisitive, and when without cause we find ourselves treated as pickpockets and cracksmen are treated in our country, we want to know the reason why.—I am, &c.
The Theosophists and Their Religion
Colonel H. S. Olcott, U. S. A., and the Baroness Helena P. Blavatsky, the theosophists of New York, have deliberately opened their campaign in India, by issuing a pamphlet containing an address by the Colonel, and the Rules of the Society; the campaign is to turn the world upside down, depose Christianity and enthrone ancient Aryanism. That is, if it can. A list of executive officers for 1879 is published; from what we know of the individuals the names represent, we do not think the revolution will come just yet. In Ceylon there are two Councillors, named respectively “Rev.” H. Sumangala, and “Rev.” Mohiattiwatte Gunande, both Buddhist priests, who look queer, to say the least, when decked in Christian affixes. If the Bishop of Lincoln objects to a Methodist Minister being denominated “Reverend,” what would his right reverendship say to the yellow-robed, shaven-headed, and bare-shouldered priests of Gautama Buddha being so described?
As the Theosophists are making a little noise just now, and as they exhibit a curious phase of the ever-restless intellect of man, a few particulars of them, as described by themselves, may be of interest. We are told that the founders of the society have come to India to settle, or, as put in their own “spread-eagle” phraseology, “more Hindooized than most of the Hindoos born on the soil, enraptured with the ancient learning and philosophy of India, devoted to India, for India they have left their homes and sacrificed all worldly considerations.” They hope “India may appreciate this self-sacrifice, and deserve it.” Amen, say we. But be it observed that these ardent individuals are only imitating, at a long interval, the Christian missionaries, whose work they boast of overturning.
The theosophists make no secret of their belief in what are called the occult sciences. One proof of this we have had in the thaumaturgical story told a week or two since of a glove charged with mesmeric power being sent flying through the air to Great Britain, where it worked a marvellous cure! So the story went. One of the rules of the Society runs thus:—
(d.)—To seek to obtain knowledge of all the laws of Nature, and aid in diffusing it, thus to encourage the study of those laws least understood by modern people, and so termed the Occult Sciences. Popular superstition and folk-lore, however fantastical, when sifted may lead to the discovery of long-lost but important secrets of Nature. The Society therefore aims to pursue this line of inquiry in the hope to widen the field of scientific and philosophical observation.
Such an object being avowed, we may expect to find the theosophists strong in “coincidences,” and so they are. Nobody will be surprised, therefore, at the mixture of “coincidence” and bathos in the following passage from the preface to the pamphlet which has been sent to us:—
For those who note ‘coincidences,’ or who see more than a ‘coincidence’ in some events, it may be remarked that the day on which the address was delivered commenced a new year and a new century according to ‘Sak Salivan,’ or the era of Salivan,—a circumstance quite unthought of and unsuspected by all concerned, and which when brought to notice some time afterwards was as much a matter of surprise as of pleasant feeling to all interested in the cause. This so-called ‘coincidence,’ conjoined with the other one alluded to by Col. Olcott at p. 1 of his address, may have a deeper significance than appears on the surface. Let us see in this a good omen for India—an auspicious beginning holding forth the promise of better days, when the nation waking from the deep sleep of ignorance and the lethargy which have oppressed it for ages may begin the upward march in the cycle to attain once again the glorious eminence—social, intellectual, and spiritual—on which the old Arians stood, and from which we have fallen. This is one aim of the Theosophical Society, whose aim further it is to disseminate over all the world the hidden lore of the mighty sages of the past, restore them to the rank of the unsurpassed teachers and benefactors of mankind, and establish an universal brotherhood. Thus India’s interest and the interest of the Theosophical Society are one. But the first step in the onward march is to realize the ‘brotherhood’ in India. Before the nation can become great, its proud must become humble; and when the Brahmin, flinging away with disdain all caste distinction, shall shake hands with the Mahar, and embrace him with all the cordiality of a brother, that will be an achievement of which the Theosophical Society will really be proud, and that will be the day which will mark the beginning of India’s greatness, making of India a nation in the true sense of the word, giving it one united people. And what power, what dignity is in the name! what is not possible for this great human whole!
Colonel Olcott claims that the Society is a necessary outgrowth of the century. The hour demanded its coming, and it was not born before its appointed time. “I should not wonder,” he says, “if, when you reflect upon the facts I shall present, you, who trace every earthly event to a supernatural cause, will see the indication of Providential purpose in the simultaneous creation of the Theosophical Society at one side of the world, and that of the Arya Samaj of Aryavarta, by Swami Dya Nand, at the other, without the slightest pre-arrangement or understanding between that pious and learned man and ourselves.” The Society points to four years of activity as one proof that there was room for it in the world. And this activity, please observe, was “not in the midst of friendly environments, with no one to question or oppose; but in the enemy’s country, with foes all about, public sentiment hostile, the press scornful and relentless, traitors working with honest opponents to break up our organization and neutralize our labours.”
Colonel Olcott says they throve on opposition. “The more we were abused, the greater interest was created to know what the Theosophical Society really was, how strong, and what were its aims?”
A branch society sprang up in England, under the presidency of a barrister of the highest capabilities, and the conjoint direction of a University professor and medical and other professional men. Other branches were formed in Russia, France, Greece, at Constantinople, and elsewhere. One is now forming in Ceylon under that strong-souled Megittuwatti. Our membership increased to thousands. We received as brothers, with equal cordiality, Hindoos, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, Jews, and free-thinking Christians. At different times the press has described us as specially representing each of those sects; a proof, certainly of our strict impartiality and the general resemblance all these great religions have to each other at their roots. There was room for all upon our platform and none need jostle his neighbour.
And now what is the Theosophical Society, and what are its aims? How much appears upon the surface, and how much is concealed? What is the plan of work? How is the public to be benefited by the Society, and is mutual co-operation practicable? What attitude do we assume toward religious beliefs, and what ideas, if any, does the Society hold about God and His government? Do we believe, in the immortality of the human soul, and, if so, on what grounds? What importance do we attach to the study of the occult sciences, so called? What use has been made by many or few of our fellows, of any knowledge of those sciences? To what highest good do we aspire here or hereafter? What are our ideas of the next world? These questions you have come here to ask, I will answer. I have copied them from written documents, handed to me since this address was announced by the native committee. And here are others propounded by one who wishes to join us:—
On one’s becoming a member, is any course prescribed for him to follow with a view to his continual progression and the acquisition of the mastery over his baser nature? What constitutes the difference between the degrees in the society? Will instruction be imparted to individual members or groups, on what subjects, and how often? Theosophy has been defined (it is Webster’s definition) as “a direct as distinguished from a revealed knowledge of God, supposed to be attained by extraordinary illumination, especially a direct insight into the processes of the Divine mind and the interior relations of Divine nature;” how far does this agree with the doctrines of the Theosophical Society? Is a member of the Arya, Brahmo, or Prarthana Samaj debarred from joining it, and will his joining affect his position in relation to the social rules and duties of his caste? How much time would be required to become proficient in a degree? Will any library be established and accessible to the Fellows? Will there be social gatherings to discuss Oriental philosophy and kindred subjects?
By way of answer to these seventeen questions the Colonel said:—
We do not say one thing and mean another. We have no mental reservations, nor make any equivocations. What we believe we say—always and everywhere. If we have survived all the battles through which we have passed; if, after a four years’ struggle against Christianity, in the very heart and stronghold of Christendom, we are a strong, compact, successful Society, daily increasing in influence, having daily accessions of able coadjutors; if at this juncture, our outposts are entrenched in the most widely separated countries, and garrisoned by men of the most diverse speech, complexion, and ancestry; if here, upon the threshold of Aryavarta, we find our hands clasped with fraternal warmth by the Hindu, the Parsi, the Jain, and the Buddhist; it is because we have not feared to speak the truth at any cost.
The Society has its secrets, but they harm no one. Composed, as we are, of people who live at the two extremities of the earth, and who speak different tongues, we have the same necessity as Freemasons for some means of mutual identification in special cases. These are afforded in certain signs and tokens which, of course, are withheld from strangers, and are changed as required. Again, operating, as we do, mainly in Christian countries, in some of which, as in France, Spain, and Russia, for instance, religious intolerance prevails, the corporate perpetuity of our branches would be imperiled by allowing our membership to be known, and our plans for religious and scientific agitation might be baffled by exposing them. Our existence threatens no Government, feeds no political cabal, attacks no pillar of social order. We do not concern ourselves in the least with affairs of State, nor lay impious hands upon the marriage, filial, or parental relation. We would not admit man or woman who was in rebellion against the existing laws or government of his country, or engaged in plots and conspiracies against the public peace and safety. In New York we expelled one of our most active charter officers, an Englishman, one of the founders of the Society, in fact—because he allowed himself to be mixed up with a lot of French Communistic refugees in their wicked conspiracies. Judge for yourselves, therefore, how malicious and unfounded are the libels that have been circulated in this country as to our being political spies, and, most ridiculous of all, Russian spies! The only Russian in our party became a citizen of the United States of America last July, for which act, unprecedented among Russian women, she cannot put her foot again on Russian soil without risking transportation to Siberia. Even her book, “Isis Unveiled,” is not allowed to cross the frontiers. As to our conspiring against British rule in India, were we such lunatics as to dream of aiding sedition against the most stable, wise, and just Government, it appears to me, this country ever had since the Mogul conquest; it suffices only to remark that two of our party are English and loyal to the very core. Besides which, we have as many, if not more, real Theosophists in the United Kingdom as in America, and the President of our British branch Society is one of the most loyal of barristers, the son of a Member of Parliament! Nor would we admit into our fellowship any one who taught irreverence to parents or immorality to husbands or wives. Nor have we any room for the drunkard or the debauchee. If Theosophy did not make men better, purer, wiser, more useful to themselves and to society, then this organization of ours had better never have been born. That it lives, and is respected even by those who cannot sympathize with its ideas, is evidence of its beneficent character. This answers one of the above questions, and I have also shown you that our plan of work is to employ existing agencies to create an interest in Eastern philosophies and religions, and make the Press our helper, even when it fancies it is killing us off with its fine sarcasm or abuse.
And now, we are asked, what attitude do we hold to religious beliefs, and what do we believe as to God and His government? The Society, I have already told you, is no Propaganda, formed to dis-<... continues on page 8-218 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ The Theosophists and Their Religion by unknown author, Madras Times, The, Friday, May 2, 1879