These instances are sufficiently appalling in themselves. But what can we say now that _The Voice_ has elicited a correspondence which is simply a brazen defence of these "teachings"?[18]
What, then, must be the moral condition of this horrible travesty of the old T.S. _now_, fourteen years after Dr. Hiestand-Moore wrote the foregoing? Mrs. Besant is thus seen to have now returned practically to the Neo-Malthusianism of her earlier, pre-theosophic a.s.sociation with the late Charles Bradlaugh. It may not be generally known that H. P. B.
_refused to accept her as a pupil_ until she had published a recantation of all she and Bradlaugh had advocated in _The Fruits of Philosophy_. It is a sinister omen that under C. W. Leadbeater, the s.e.x pervert, Mrs.
Besant has abandoned H. P. Blavatsky"s imperative requirement for becoming a student of _White_ Occultism, and has returned to the essentially materialistic doctrine of "birth-control," in direct contravention of the true Occult teaching. In other words, her a.s.sertion amounts to this:--_Self_-control is not possible (or is "too slow "), therefore we must control _results_. How different is the Occult teaching is well-known to all who have taken the trouble to read H. P.
B."s articles from which I have already quoted (see _ante_ p. 31) and the splendid chapter in Vol. II of _The Secret Doctrine_ ent.i.tled "The Curse from a Philosophical Point of View." And H. P. B. told me herself that she included the following verse in _The Voice of the Silence_ with the express object of combating such teachings and placing the Occult doctrine beyond possibility of misinterpretation:--
"Do not believe that l.u.s.t can ever be killed out if gratified or satiated, for this is an abomination inspired by Mara. It is by feeding vice that it expands and waxes strong, like to the worm that fattens on the blossom"s heart."
In a note H. P. B. explains that Mara is "personified temptation through men"s vices, and translated literally means "that which kills" the Soul." Far from "saving" mankind, therefore, these professed "expanders"
and "expounders" of H. P. B."s doctrines are in reality doing their best to hasten its end. Better far, from the Occult standpoint, that a race should be wiped out by "outraged Nature," as were the Atlanteans for the same sins, than that it should be kept alive only to sink lower and lower until "Mara" kills its Soul.
In the "Watch-Tower" (_Theosophist_, March, 1922,) Editorial mention is made of a display at Adyar of "treasures of the most varied kinds,"
which have just been unearthed from "all the old locked-up boxes" at the headquarters. Why, one may not unreasonably enquire, has Mrs. Besant waited until 1922 to disinter, for instance, a long and valuable letter from H. P. B. herself? Why have such "treasures" been _kept back for over thirty years_; just as "Letters" from the Masters (the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood) were kept hidden away for an even longer period--nearly forty years? The reasons are so ridiculously transparent that they would hardly deceive an intelligent child. Mrs. Besant is becoming seriously discomposed, even alarmed, by the growing strength of the "Back to Blavatsky" movement, which is in itself a reaction against her own neglect. Hence all this "burrowing" (her own word) in order to make a brave show of these "treasures" for which she had no sort of use until, disturbed by alarming rumours, she hastily resorts to them for purposes of camouflage and disguise. For she is a skilful opportunist and clever actress, a.s.suming successive parts with as convincing an air as any "star"; neither does she scruple to employ every device of the party politician.
Does Mrs. Besant seriously believe that this attempt to drag the red herring of an unexplained and suddenly awakened interest in these "treasures" across the trail of Mr. Leadbeater"s infamies will deceive anyone save their blind and infatuated followers? Has she forgotten that when, _only two years_ after H. P. Blavatsky"s death, she came under the direct hypnotic control of Brahmin influence, she threw doubts upon her old Teacher"s _bona fides_ and her occult knowledge; and, in the course of formulating her charges against her fellow-disciple (a _chela_ of many years" standing before she ever even heard of Theosophy) suggested to Mr. Judge that, "_misled by a high example_" (H. P. B.), he had fallen "a victim." For, as she then told him, her "theory was _first_, that H. P. B. had committed several frauds for good ends and made bogus messages; _second_, that [he] was misled by her example; and _third_, that H. P. B. had given [him] permission to do such acts. She then,"
continues Mr. Judge, "asked me to confess thus, and that would clear up all. I peremptorily denied such a horrible lie, and warned her that everywhere I would resist such attack on H. P. B. These are the facts, and the real issue is around H. P. B." (_The Path_, March, 1895.)
With the complete disruption of the Society the Brahmin period of dominance over Mrs. Besant came to an end. Then followed the Leadbeater _regime_, the first phase of which culminated in the crisis of 1906. But on Colonel Olcott"s death in the following year, she contrived the realisation of her great ambition, and became President of the Society.
At this point in her career, however, there were two serious difficulties which she had to meet:--_first_, the Leadbeater scandal which raised a storm of horror and protest from those old and tried members who had remained in the Society up to that time, but who then practically withdrew in a body Deprived of their support, and having reinstated the infamous Leadbeater, Mrs. Besant realised that, as President, she could no longer risk appearing half-hearted over H. P.
Blavatsky; nay more, she _needed_ the support of her venerated name; _second_, as President of the Society created by H. P. B., she must, for the sake of her own prestige, take some definite action which would remove all possibility of suspicion that she was no longer the follower of the Teacher whom she had, _in fact_, already "denied" and "betrayed"
only two years after her death. Mrs. Besant realised, in short, that she had gone too far, and must now retrieve the position. Accordingly, in 1907, she issued a pamphlet ent.i.tled _H. P. Blavatsky and the Masters of the [sic] Wisdom_, in which, with all her accustomed ability, she dealt once more with the famous (or rather infamous) Report of the Society for Psychical Research, published in 1885. But the concluding eulogy strikes a false note, coming from one who, as I have shown, was capable of being persuaded that H. P. B. had concocted messages from those Masters Whom she so faithfully served for two-thirds of her life.
It was at this time also (1907), so Mrs. Besant later declared, that "the T. S. fully regained its original position, with the Masters of the [_sic_] Wisdom as once more the "First Section" of the Society." This bold a.s.sertion was made in 1919, when, under pressure of some fresh scare connected with Mr. Leadbeater, Mrs. Besant published a small volume of the Masters" Letters (most of which had presumably been lying in the archives of the Society at Adyar for nearly forty years!), obviously for no other reason than because among them are two alleged to have been received by Mr. Leadbeater. This she did in order to bolster up the extravagant claims she now makes for him as a "Great Teacher."
But there were many who received Letters in the early days, and there is no reason why similar claims should not be made for all the recipients!
In the article ent.i.tled "Whom will ye Serve?" (_Theosophist_, March, 1922,) Mrs. Besant says that H. P. B. "formed an inner circle of her pupils, that it might bear witness to the truth and reality of the inner side of life." This was the "Inner Group" of which she and I were two of the six women members. But as, unfortunately Mr. Leadbeater was not included, although he had become a member of the T. S. some years before, she adds:--"And behold! ere she pa.s.sed away, she had led others to the Light, and bade them bear witness to it...." Considering that she "pa.s.sed away" _less than a year_ after forming the Inner Group in the summer of 1890, and that we were constantly with her and never heard of these "others," this statement is manifestly untrue. Mrs. Besant also refers to Mr. Leadbeater as "one of H. P. B."s nearest and most trusted pupils [Absolutely untrue.--A. L. C.] whom she had led to his Master of many lives, and in whom she had awakened the powers since so splendidly used in the service of the Society that he might become a great Teacher...."
I challenge Mrs. Besant to produce anything in writing by H. P. B. to warrant this audacious a.s.sertion. I was a pupil of H. P. B. (and through her was accepted as "a _chela_ on probation," in 1889) before Mrs. Besant joined the T. S., and saw her expel one of her most gifted and valued workers from the Esoteric Section for offences against the occult and moral law similar to those with which Mr. Leadbeater"s name has now been a.s.sociated for nearly twenty years. H. P. B. was always extremely strict on this particular point, and many would-be aspirants for _chelaship_ were refused on this one ground alone, while others who had been accepted "on probation" failed almost immediately afterwards.
When I joined the T. S. in 1885 my diploma was signed by Colonel Olcott as President and C.W. Leadbeater as Secretary (he was then at Adyar), but I never heard him mentioned by H. P. B. or anyone else at the London Headquarters, as a person of any importance whatever, in the occult sense. Mrs. Besant goes on to say that H. P. B. left "the twain of us [Leadbeater and herself] to bear personal witness to the truth when she had gone"! Where is her _evidence_ that Mr. Leadbeater was ever one of H. P. B."s pupils? There is none, save this bare, unsupported a.s.sertion of a highly interested party. How could these two, to the exclusion of all H. P. B."s pupils--some of them "regularly accepted _chelas_ on probation"--be specially selected, taught, and prepared, (and above all, to promulgate the sort of "teachings" of which I have given a few specimens), without any of us hearing even a hint of it! Moreover, I never saw, or even heard of Mr. Leadbeater at the London Headquarters while H. P. B. was alive. I might just as well claim such a mission for myself, or Mr. Mead, or Dr. Keightley, or any other member of the Inner Group who has remained true to the pledge and the Teacher; and with greater justice, for Mrs. Besant has _not_. The truth is that Mr.
Leadbeater was never heard of in connection with occult teaching until he was taken up and foisted on the unfortunate T. S. and E. S. as a "Great Teacher" by Mrs. Besant who was herself never more than a "_chela_ on probation"--_during H. P. B."s lifetime_.
Let me refer again to H. P. B."s article "The Theosophical Mahatmas"
from which I have already quoted (_ante_ p. 3), in which she deals with the members of the T. S. who were "regularly accepted _chelas_ on probation," and the subsequent failure of nearly all of them. If this was true at that time, it can certainly now be applied to the case of Mrs. Besant, who, in my judgment and that of many others, conspicuously failed under two great tests. The first failure occurred when she went to India in 1893, became an orthodox Hindu, and was induced to entertain those doubts of her Teacher that I have already alluded to. (_ante_ p.
66.) Bound up with this failure--the doubt of the Teacher--was her attack on her fellow _chela_, Mr. Judge.
The second failure was a far worse one when, in 1906, after having publicly endorsed the finding of the Advisory Committee on Leadbeater"s crimes (see footnote _ante_ p. 59), she suddenly turned round and secured his reinstatement. In thus condoning and even endorsing immorality of the vilest description, she denied one of the strictest occult laws binding upon a _chela_.
This double failure had far more serious results in her case than in those of which H. P. B. wrote in 1886, because, owing to her commanding position as a leader, the fate of the many thousands of earnest souls in the Society who believed in and followed her implicitly, was involved.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] This Brahmin is the person referred to in the following pa.s.sage from Mr. T. H. Martyn"s letter to Mrs. Besant of May 20th, 1921 (see _ante_ p. 18):--"Like many of the older members I have known how you and others for quite a long time regarded ---- as _a Master in the flesh_ and later had to repudiate him when certain facts indicated the mistake."
Italics mine. This is absolutely new to me. In 1894 none of us (so far as I was then aware) regarded Mr. ---- as anything more than a _chela_, so what Mr. Martyn here states must have been a later development, and explains much.
I suppress the gentleman"s name out of regard for his present official position in India and his dissociation from Mrs. Besant.
[12] I did not learn the actual facts of this foolish fable until I came to India in 1918, and found they were common knowledge among leading members of that time. Naturally, when Mrs. Besant transferred her allegiance to Mr. Leadbeater, she had to find another "body" for H. P.
B. So, in the _Theosophist_ for January, 1922. she writes the following typical effusion for the benefit of the faithful:--" ... alas! she pa.s.sed away, and took rebirth in the north of India, and though we have lived for twenty-eight years in the same land so dear to beth of us, we have never met physically face to face. Yet close ties bind us to each other, and may be we shall yet greet each other in the flesh." Observe the suggestion that she has always been in close touch with H. P. B.
_out of the body_, and that later they may meet "in the flesh." This prepares the ground for producing this new "incarnation" when the suitable moment comes; just as the boy Krishnamurti was brought forward as the "body" for the coming "World-Teacher." Mrs. Besant"s new version must be amusing reading for those familiar with the earlier theory, as she was certainly "face to face" with the "little daughter" constantly, and even persuaded Countess Wachtmeister to resume her former care of H.
P. B. in her new body. Needless to say the poor Countess was sadly disillusioned, and died not long afterwards bitterly bewailing the ruin of the T. S.
[13] As showing the absurdity of such a claim, I may mention that Mrs.
Besant actually visited mediums through whom H. P. B. was supposed to communicate. In 1892, only a year after her death, my colleague Mr.
Basil Crump, Barrister-at-Law, was investigating the phenomena of a certain trance medium shortly before he joined the T. S. He was present at a private sitting with this medium in the studio of an artist friend, to which Mrs. Besant came with another member of H. P. B."s Inner Group, Miss Emily Kislingbury, in order to speak with her deceased teacher. An intelligence calling itself "Madame Blavatsky" controlled the medium, and Mrs. Besant held a conversation with it. Later, when Mr. Crump became acquainted with H. P. B."s explanation of Spiritualistic phenomena, and her express denial that the true immortal Ego ever communicated in this manner, he was naturally astonished that one of her most learned pupils should for a moment entertain such a possibility and waste her valuable time in attending a seance. But now he sees that it was only an early symptom of the astounding credulity and ignorance of occult science she has since exhibited, as shown in these pages. H. P.
B."s explanations of psychic phenomena are rapidly being endorsed and followed by the modern scientific school of investigation, which has succeeded not only in proving the genuineness of the phenomena, but also the important part played by the _will and imagination_ both of the medium and the sitters in their production.
[14] Her latest move, is to draw a distinction between the "Advisory Committee of 1906" which she accuses of "unjust action," and what she calls "the prolonged investigation of 1907-08," which of course was engineered by her after she became President, in order to white-wash Mr.
Leadbeater and secure his reinstatement. (See _Theosophist_, July, 1922). See Addendum for the Australian views on this.
[15] The importance of this case lies in the fact that it const.i.tuted an absolute vindication of H. P. B., for every slander ever circulated directly or indirectly was covered by it. Although the libel action came to an end with her death, the paper was so impressed by the evidence produced, in reb.u.t.tal, by Mr. Judge, that it not only retracted all that it had published, but also invited Mr. Judge to write a long article ent.i.tled "The Esoteric She" which they said "disposes of all questions relating to Madame Blavatsky." That Mrs. Asquith and Count Witte should both have seen fit to revive some of these old slanders in their books of reminiscences does not redound to their credit.
[16] Mrs. Besant"s "Spiritual Viceroy" has certainly nothing to do with Those who were directing H. P. B. when she founded the Indian T. S. OR U. B. in 1879; for a special clause was included in the Const.i.tution stating that "The Society repudiates all interference on its behalf with the Governmental relations of any nation or community, confining its attention exclusively to the matters set forth in the present doc.u.ment...." H. P. B. also wrote in the _Theosophist_, for October, 1879--"Unconcerned about politics; hostile to the insane dreams of Socialism and Communism, which it abhors--as both are but disguised conspiracies of brutal force and sluggishness against honest labour; the Society cares but little about the outward human management of the material world. The whole of its aspirations are directed toward the occult truths of the visible and invisible worlds. Whether the physical man be under the rule of an empire or a republic, concerns only the man of matter. His body may be enslaved; as to his Soul, he has the right to give to his rulers the proud answer of Socrates to his Judges. They have no sway over the _inner_ man." There speaks the true Mystic whose "Kingdom is not of this world." Three years later H. P. B. and Colonel Olcott published a further disclaimer, in which they said--"Before we came to India, the word Politics had never been p.r.o.nounced in connection with our names; for the idea was too absurd to be even entertained, much less expressed...."
[17] The original doc.u.ments appear in the _O. E. Critic_ for June 21st, 1922, and include a confession signed by a priest of the L. C. C. who states that he was "led astray by those whom I considered to be my superiors both morally and spiritually" adding "Wedgwood absolutely declines to give up the mal-practice." Wedgwood fled to Algeria at the end of March. A cable from Sydney dated May 30th states that "Mrs.
Besant refused to answer any enquiry in reference to Wedgwood. Police now holding an enquiry into the charges against Leadbeater." Dr. Stokes concludes his comments on the doc.u.ments as follows:--"And Annie Besant, having repeatedly been informed of the facts, not only refused to look into them, but launched her anathemas against those who criticised, even threatening them with expulsion from the E. S., and even very recently cabling to Wedgwood that he made a mistake in resigning!--It is on Annie Besant, more than on any other one person, that the responsibility for the present scandalous condition in the T. S. rests. The best of societies may have its black sheep and it is not to be blamed if it does its best to purge itself. But it is Annie Besant, with her tools and sycophants, who has ever concealed and denied the palpable facts, or, where they could not be denied, has palliated, excused and even defended them, throwing over them a veil of esoteric glamour, supporting such scoundrels as Leadbeater and Wedgwood, apparently in order the better to serve her ambitions. A vote of confidence in Annie Besant to-day either betrays total ignorance of the facts, or a.s.sociates those who give it with the grossest forms of moral rottenness." See Addendum for Mr.
Piddington, K. C"s opinion on Mrs Besant"s conduct in Australia last May; also Mr. Hugh Gillespie"s evidence of her use of the Esoteric School as a "_political machine_" to secure her "ascendancy in the various bodies to which E. S. members have gained access."
[18] As to the methods employed to suppress criticism, Dr.
Hiestand-Moore says in the same issue:--"Slander, falsehood, deceit, treachery, all have been summoned to the support of Mr. Leadbeater"s cause. Anonymous communications have been written to confound the prosecution, letters have been stolen and threats made. The Editor of _The Voice_ has been compelled to call upon the Secret Service to protect her mails." [An entire issue in proof with copy and unset matter disappeared, and had to be rewritten!] Again, the Editor of the _O. E.
Critic_ writes:--"It is understood, and I have the direct testimony of the publisher to the fact, that the entire edition of the Brooks" books [_Esoteric Bogeydom_ and _Neo-Theosophy Exposed_] was corralled by Mrs.
Besant in order to suppress their circulation. They tell too much about her."
Tampering with H. P. Blavatsky"s writings.
The result of Mrs. Besant"s first failure, through harbouring doubts of her Teacher"s _bona fides_ and esoteric knowledge, was soon manifested when she began to publish new editions of H. P. B."s works. The first noteworthy example was her excision from _The Voice of the Silence_ of pa.s.sages and notes, presumably out of deference to Brahmin sentiment, which then governed her actions. One of the last verses in "The Two Paths" (the second of the "Three Fragments" forming the little book) in the original edition (1889) begins thus:--"He who becomes Pratyeka Buddha, makes his obeisance but to his Self." In a footnote H. P. B.
explains that "Pratyeka Buddhas are those Bodhisattvas who strive after and often reach the Dharmakaya robe after a series of lives. Caring nothing for the woes of mankind or to help it, but only for their own _bliss_, they enter Nirvana and--disappear from the sight and the hearts of men. In Northern Buddhism a "Pratyeka Buddha" is a synonym of spiritual Selfishness."
In Mrs. Besant"s edition both the pa.s.sage and the footnote I have quoted are omitted. Her reason for this unscrupulous proceeding is given in a footnote on p. 416 of the so-called "third volume" of _The Secret Doctrine_. In this note Mrs. Besant, from the heights of her then newly-acquired Brahmanical wisdom, adopts the following dictatorial and censorious tone towards her late Teacher:--
The Pratyeka Buddha stands on the level of the Buddha [!], but His work for the world has nothing to do with its teaching, and His office has always been surrounded with mystery. The preposterous [_sic_] view that He, at such superhuman height of power, wisdom and love could be selfish, is found in the exoteric books, though it is hard to see how it can have arisen. H. P. B. _charged me to correct the mistake, as she had, in a careless moment, copied such a statement elsewhere_.--A. B.
Observe the a.s.sumption of superior knowledge to H. P. B."s, and the use of the words "preposterous" and "careless." To any real Oriental _chela_ such an att.i.tude towards his _Guru_ would be simply unthinkable; but we have seen how very quickly Mrs. Besant believed herself to have soared far above the "chela on probation" state of her H. P. B. days into that of an "Initiate" and future "Supreme Ruler of the World of G.o.ds and men." To such vanity and self-delusion everything is possible. How different was the att.i.tude of the _real_ Occultist who was spoken of by the Masters as "Our Brother H. P. B.," yet called herself "a Chela of one of Them"!
The pa.s.sage I have italicised in the above footnote by Mrs. Besant is untrue on the face of it to anyone who knew, as I did, the loving care with which H. P. B. prepared this unique little book of "Golden Precepts." Moreover, she states in her Preface that the verses given are selected from a much larger number which she "learnt by heart." Further, H. P. B. _not only repeated but greatly amplified_ this statement about the Pratyeka Buddha in her _Theosophical Glossary_, a fact which Mrs.
Besant had evidently forgotten when she concocted the footnote quoted above.[19] The Pratyeka Buddha is doubtless much that Mrs. Besant claims for him, but she does not seem to know, or has probably forgotten, that there are _two_ cla.s.ses of Masters, _two_ "Paths" (as this very section of _The Voice of the Silence_ shows); that the "Pairs of Opposites"
obtain on all planes of Manifestation and Being, right up to the threshold of the _Un_manifested--the ONE; that, while there are _Masters of_ COMPa.s.sION, there must of necessity exist also the opposite pole--the wearers of the "Dharmakaya robe," with all the power and knowledge which that state implies, but without that _Compa.s.sion_ which alone makes a Master of the "Right Hand Path."[20]
It was a great and valuable feature of H. P. B."s, method that she taught us to reason on these lines, checking everything by the Law of Correspondences. But Mrs. Besant has evidently long since abandoned this, and prefers the sacerdotal plan of accepting everything on "authority," which in her present phase means Leadbeater or her own psychic delusions. The "World Teacher" dogma is a case in point. She a.s.serts it as a fact to be accepted because she says it; whereas, as I have shown, it is untenable in the light of _The Secret Doctrine_ (see _ante_ p. 2), which endorses Oriental tradition and cyclic law.
Mrs. Besant"s partiality for the Pratyeka Buddha, however, may possibly be explained by some words that H. P. B. once wrote of her to Mr.
Judge:--"She is not psychic or spiritual in the least--all intellect."
For H. P. B. opens her paragraph in the _Theosophical Glossary_ on the Pratyeka Buddha with these words:-- "The Pratyeka Buddha is a degree which belongs exclusively to the Yogacharya school ... one of _high intellectual development with no true spirituality_". (Italics mine.) Moreover, we have the authority of the Maha Chohan Himself (the Head of the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood) for the statement that even Nirvana is, "after all, but an exalted and glorious selfishness."