Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett - 1923
By A. T. Barker
The Occult World Series- 1880-1881- Letter I
LETTER No. I
Received Simla about October i8th, 1880.
Esteemed Brother and Friend, Precisely because the test of the London newspaper would close the mouths of the skeptics—it is unthinkable. See it in what light you will—the world is yet in its first stage of disenthralment if not development, hence—unprepared. Very true, we work by natural not supernatural means and laws. But, as on the one hand Science would find itself unable (in its present state) to account for the wonders given in its name, and on the other the ignorant masses would still be left to view the phenomenon in the light of a miracle; everyone who would thus be made a witness to the occurrence would be thrown off his balance and the results would be deplorable. Believe me, it would be so—especially for yourself who originated the idea, and the devoted woman who so foolishly rushes into the wide open door leading to notoriety. This door, though opened by so friendly a hand as yours, would prove very soon a trap—and a fatal one indeed for her. And such is not surely your object?
Madmen are they, who, speculating but upon the present, wilfully shut their eyes to the past when made already to remain naturally blind to the future ! Far be it from me, to number you with the latter—therefore will I endeavour to explain. Were we to accede to your desires know you really what consequences would follow in the trail of success? The inexorable shadow which fol- lows all human innovations moves on, yet few are they, who are ever conscious of its approach and dangers. What are then to expect they, who would offer the world an innovation which, owing to human ignorance, if believed in, will surely be attributed to those dark agencies the two-thirds of humanity beHeve in anddread as yet? You say—half London would be converted if youcould deliver them a Pioneer on its day of publication. I beg tosay that if the people believed the thing true they would kill youbefore you could make the round of Hyde Park; if it were notbelieved true, —the least that could happen would be the loss ofyour reputation and good name,—for propagating such ideas.
The success of an attempt of such a kind as the one you propose, must be calculated and based upon a thorough knowledgeof the people around you. It depends entirely upon the social andmoral conditions of the people in their bearing on these deepestand most mysterious questions which can stir the human mind—the deific powers in man and the possibilities contained in nature.How many, even of your best friends, of those who surround you,who are more than superficially interested in these abstruseproblems? You could count them upon the fingers of your righthand. Your race boasts of having liberated in their century, thegenius so long imprisoned in the narrow vase of dogmatism andintolerance—the genius of knowledge, wisdom and freethought.It says that in their turn ignorant prejudice and religious bigotry,bottled up like the wicked Jin of old, and sealed up by theSolomons of science rests at the bottom of the sea and can never,escaping to the surface again, reign over the world as it did indays of old ; that the pubHc mind is quite free, in short, and readyto accept any demonstrated truth. Aye; but is it verily so, myrespected friend? Experimental knowledge does not quite datefrom 1662, when Bacon, Robert Boyle and the Bishop of Chestertransformed under the royal charter their " Invisible College " intoa Society for the promotion of experimental science. Ages beforethe Royal Society found itself becoming a reality upon the plan ofthe ** Prophetic Scheme " an innate longing for the hidden, apassionate love for and the study of nature had led men in everygeneration to try and fathom her secrets deeper than their neighbours did. Roma ante Romulum fuit—is an axiom taught to usin your English schools. Abstract enquiries into the mostpuzzling problems did not arise in the brain of Archimedes as aspontaneous and hitherto untouched subject, but rather as a reflec-tion of prior enquiries in the same direction and by men separatedfrom his days by as long a period—and far longer—than the onewhich separates you from the great Syracusian. The vril of the*' Coming Age " was the common property of races now extinct.And, as the very existence of those gigantic ancestors of ours isnow questioned—though in the Hiniavats, on the very territorybelonging to you we have a cave full of the skeletons of thesegiants—and their huge frames when found are invariably regardedas isolated freaks of nature, so the vril or Akds—as we call it—is looked upon as an impossibility, a myth. And, without a thorough knowledge of Akds, its combinations and properties, how can Science hope to account for such phenomena? We doubt not but the men of your science are open to conviction ; yet facts must be first demonstrated to them, they must first become their own property, have proved amenable to their own modes of investi- gation, before you find them ready to admit them as facts. If you but look into the Preface to the " Micrographia " you will find in Hooke's suggestions that the intimate relations of objects were of less account in his eyes than their external operation on the senses —and Newton's fine discoveries found in him their greatest opponent. The modern Hookeses are many. Like this learned but ignorant man of old your modern men of science are less anxious to suggest a physical connexion of facts which might unlock for them many an occult force in nature, as to provide a convenient ' * classification of scientific experiments " ; so that the most essential quality of an hypothesis is not that it should be true but only plausible—in their opinion.
So far for Science—as much as we know of it. As for human nature in general, it is the same now as it was a million of years ago : Prejudice based upon selfishness ; a general unwillingness to give up an established order of things for new modes of life and thought—and occult study requires all that and much more—; pride and stubborn resistance to Truth if it but upsets their pre- vious notions of things,—such are the characteristics of your age, and especially of the middle and lower classes. What then would be the results of the most astounding phenomena, supposing we consented to have them produced? However successful, danger would be growing proportionately with success. No choice would soon remain but to go on, ever crescendo, or to fall in this endless struggle with prejudice and ignorance killed by your own weapons. Test after test would be required and would have to be furnished ; every subsequent phenomenon expected to be more marvellous than the preceding one. Your daily remark is, that one cannot be expected to believe unless he becomes an eye-witness. Would the lifetime of a man suffice to satisfy the whole world of skeptics? It may be an easy matter to increase the original number of believers at Simla to hundreds and thousands. But what of the hundreds of millions of those who could not be made eye-wit- nesses? The ignorant—unable to grapple with the invisible operators—might some day vent their rage on the visible agents at work ; the higher and educated classes would go on disbelieving as ever, tearing you to shreds as before. In common with many, you blame us for our great secrecy. Yet we know something of human nature for the experience of long centuries—aye, ages—has taught us. And, we know, that so long as science has anything to learn, and a shadow of religious dogmatism lingers in the heartsof the multitudes, the world's prejudices have to be conqueredstep by step, not at a rush. As hoary antiquity had more thanone Socrates so the dim Future will give birth to more than onemartyr. Enfranchised science contemptuously turned away herface from the Copernian opinion renewing the theories of Aristarchus Samius—who " affirmeth that the earth moveth circularly about her own centre " years before the Church sought to sacrifice Galileo as a holocaust to the Bible. The ablest mathematician at the Court of Edward VI—Robert Recorde—was left to starve in jail by his colleagues, who laughed at his Castle of Knowledge,declaring his discoveries "vain phantasies." Wm. Gilbert ofColchester—Queen Elisabeth's physician—died poisoned, only be-cause this—real founder of experimental science in England—hashad the audacity of anticipating Galileo ; of pointing out Copernican's fallacy as to the " third movement," which was gravelyalleged to account for the parallelism of the earth's axis of rota-tion ! The enormous learning of the Paracelsi, of the Agrippasand the Deys was ever doubted. It was science which laid hersacrilegious hand upon the great work '* De Magnete "—'* TheHeavenly White Virgin " (Akds) and others. And it was theillustrious "Chancellor of England and of Nature"—LordVerulam-Bacon—who having won the name of the Father of In-ductive Philosophy, permitted himself to speak of such men as theabove-named as the " Alchemicians of the Fantastic philosophy."
All this is old history, you will think. Verily so ; but thechronicles of our modern days do not differ very essentially fromtheir predecessors. And we have but to bear in mind the recentpersecutions of mediums in England, the burning of supposedwitches, and sorcerors in South America, Russia and the frontiersof Spain—to assure ourselves that the only salvation of thegenuine proficients in occult sciences lies in the skepticism of thepublic : the charlatans and the jugglers are the natural shields ofthe " adepts." The public safety is only ensured by our keepingsecret the terrible weapons which might otherwise be used againstit, and which, as you have been told became deadly in the handsof the wicked and selfish.
I conclude by reminding you that such phenomena as you crave,have ever been reserved as a reward for those who have devotedtheir lives to serve the goddess Saraswati—our Aryan Isis. Werethey given to the profanes what would remain for our faithfulones? Many of your suggestions are highly reasonable and willbe attended to. I listened attentively to the conversation whichtook place at Mr. Hume's. His arguments are perfect from thestandpoint of exoteric wisdom. But, when the time comes andhe is allowed to have a full glimpse into the world of esotericism, with its laws based upon mathematically correct calculations of the future—the necessary results of the causes which we are always at liberty to create and shape at our will but are as unable to control their consequences which thus become our masters—then only will, both you and he understand why to the uninitiated our acts must seem often unwise, if not actually foolish.
Your forthcoming letter I will not be able to fully answer with- out taking the advice of those who generally deal with the European mystics. Moreover the present letter must satisfy you on many points you have, better defined in your last; but it will no doubt disappoint you as well. In regard to the production of newly devised and still more startling phenomena demanded of her with our help, as a man well acquainted with the strategy you must remain satisfied with the reflection that there is little use in acquiring new positions until those that you have already reached are secured, and your Enemies full aware of your right to their possession. In other words you had a greater variety of phenomena produced for yourself and friends than many a regular neophyte has seen in several years. First, notify the public of the production of the note, the cup and the sundry experiments with the cigarette papers, and let them digest these. Get them to work for an explanation. And as except upon the direct and absurd accusation of deceit they will never be able to account for some of these, while the skeptics are quite satisfied with their present hypothesis for the production of the brooch—you will then have done real good to the cause of truth and justice to the woman who is made to suffer for it. Isolated as it is, the case under notice in the Pioneer becomes less than worthless—it is positively injurious for all of you—for yourself as the Editor of that paper as much as for anyone else, if you pardon me for offering you that which looks like advice. It is neither fair to yourself nor to her, that, because the number of eye-witnesses does not seem sufficient to warrant the public attention your and your lady's testimony should go for nothing. Several cases combining to fortify your position as truthful and intelligent witness to the various occurrences, each of these gives you an additional right to assert what you know. It imposes upon you the sacred duty to instruct the public and prepare them for future possibilities by gradually opening their eyes to the truth. The opportunity should not be lost through a lack of as great confidence in your own individual right of assertion as that of Sir Donald Stewart. One witness of well known character outweighs the evidence of ten strangers, and if, there is anyone in India who is respected for his trustworthiness it is—the Editor of the Pioneer. Remember that there was but one hysterical woman alleged to have been present at the pretended ascension, and that the phenomenon has never been corroborated by repetition. Yet for nearly 2,000 years countless milliards havepinned their faith upon the testimony of that one woman—and shenot over trustworthy. Try—and first work upon the material you have and then wewill be the first to help you to get further evidence. Until then, believe me, always your sincere friend,
KooT HooMi Lal Singh.
