Quotes:Tukaram Tatya

Zirkoff, Boris

Tukaram Tatya. An outstanding Hindu Theosophist of the early days, Fellow of the Indian Section of the T.S., one of the most devoted and earnest workers in the Movement. He was born in Bombay in 1836, and belonged to a sub-section of the Sudra caste known as the Bhandari class. His parents came from the West coast of India, near Ratnagiri. His mother died when he was seven, and his father when he was ten. After that they were all reduced to poverty as the family’s property was squandered by a relative. At the age of thirteen he was adopted by his cousin’s wife, who worked to support herself and Tukaram. At a mission school he was taught the vernacular, and later went as far as the Third Reader at an English school. As the missionaries thought he would become a Christian, he was allowed a monthly stipend of two rupees. They treated him kindly and he was on the verge of joining their faith, but here was the turning point of his life.

At an auction room he met by “accident” an English gentleman who had been a teacher in a mission school in Bombay, but had resigned because the things he taught were against his conscience, and had taken a Government position. The missionaries persecuted 534 him on this account and ruined his prospects. The disclosures of this man about Christianity as practiced in India shocked Tukaram and changed his plans. The missionaries forthwith began to revile him and withdrew all help, leaving him destitute. His newly-won friend, however, got him a position in a municipal office. Tukaram at the time joined various Hindu societies for reform, but soon left them.

A few years later, while watching the death of his adopted mother, he began speculating as to what it was that left her body. This led to retrospection and to wondering where his destiny would take him. He continued in this state of mind until he “happened” to read an issue of The Theosophist. He found therein ideas which he had been pondering on, and conceived a strong desire to meet the Founders. With an introduction from his friend, Martin Wood of the Times of India, he went to see them, Mr. Wood asking them not to “let Tukaram too deep in the mysteries of the T.S. for fear he might be drawn off from the local politics, in which he had a large share, having already obtained the city municipal franchise.”

Tukaram visited the Founders every Sunday and decided to join the T.S. in order to learn more about them and their work. Becoming a Fellow in Bombay, where the Founders were at the time, he soon was on intimate terms with them and became convinced of their complete innocence in regard to all the vile slanders circulated about them.

When the Founders left Bombay for Madras and the newly acquired Adyar Headquarters, H. P. B. asked Tukaram to try and keep up at least a semblance of a Branch at Bombay, where they had met with many reverses, by hanging a sign on the door of his office, even though no members should assemble for a meeting. Tukaram did so, and with considerable success. Shortly afterward the members hired a room in the Fort and moved the Branch from Crow’s Nest (the Founders’ former residence) to it, and there regular gatherings began to take place. Eventually, this Branch became one of the most active centers in the country.

Tukaram was on the Committee to enquire into the allegations made by the Coulombs and the missionaries at Madras regarding the Mahatmans and the so-called “Shrine,” and became thoroughly convinced that Emma Coulomb, in acting the part she did, was actuated by base motives and had entered into a conspiracy with the Madras missionaries to ruin the T.S. Tukaram was also present in Madras when Richard Hodgson called there to make personal 535 investigations, and “found that he did not at all act with impartiality.”

When the T.S. Branch was established in the Fort at Bombay, Tukaram opened, at his own expense, a charitable center known as The Theosophical Homeopathic Charitable Dispensary, in which he dispensed medicines, mesmeric treatments and other help to a very large number of patients suffering from all sorts of ills. This Dispensary made for itself a name as the years went by.

In course of time, Tukaram conceived the idea of setting up a Theosophical Publishing House, long before a similar idea was decided upon in Europe and America. This was the origin of the Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund, the sole object of which was to popularize among the reading public easily procurable works on ancient philosophies and religions as well as Theosophy. Tukaram’s output became very large and his venture grew in proportion to his devotion. He published a large number of translations of ancient Scriptures, such as the Vedas, the Upanishads, works of Samkaracharya, and others; also collections of valuable articles from The Theosophist.

His work stands as a living testimony to what can be accomplished by one whose devotion and selfless efforts are one-pointed and impersonal. Such an attitude is invariably sustained and strengthened by Those who watch over this Movement and inspire it from behind the scenes.

(Cf. The Path, New York, Vol. IX, May, 1894).

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 3, pp. 533-535