Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00726)

Correction:

In Part I, in typing HPB's letter of Feb., 1875, I left out some of the text!

It should read:

"I am here in this country [America] sent by my Lodge on behalf of Truth in
modern spiritualism, and it is my most sacred duty to unveil what is,
and expose what is not....When I became a spiritualist, it was not
through the agency of the ever-lying, cheating mediums, miserable
instruments of the undeveloped Spirits of the lower Sphere, the
ancient Hades. My belief is based on something older than the
Rochester knockings, and springs out from the same source of
information that was used by Raymond Lully, Picus della Mirandola,
Cornelius Agrippa, Robert Fludd, Henry More...etc., all of whom have ever been
searching for a system that should disclose to them the `deepest depths' of
the Divine nature, and show them the real tie which binds all things together.
I found at last, and many years ago, the cravings of my mind satisfied by
this theosophy taught by the Angels...."

Sorry that I made part I and II so long. I was not intending to put an
outline of HPB's life in this essay but I wanted to show the output of HPB's
writings and point out that Olcott, Judge, Damodar, Sinnett, Subba Row,
Leadbeater, Besant (as well as other individuals) had their lives changed
and transformed by their meetings with H.P. Blavatsky. All of them (with
the possible exception of Subba Row) acknowledged HPB as their Teacher and
Guide (as Judge and Besant said in 1891 of her: "the Messenger of the
Masters of Wisdom). They considered themselves HPB's students.

As such, H.P.B. was the channel, the source through which the Esoteric
teachings of her Masters flowed. Therefore, it seems to me that the 10,000
plus pages of the Blavatsky corpus represent the "source teachings" of
modern Theosophy. Of course, the letters of the Mahatmas also belong to
these "source teachings." In this sense (as defined above in Part I, II and
III) HPB's writings and the Masters' letters alone belong to the "source
teachings.

In the American Heritage Dictionary, the word "source" is defined as
follows: "The point at which something springs into being or from which it
derives or is obtained. The point or origin, such as a spring, of a stream
or river. See Synonyms at *origin*."

The synonyms are: "origin, inception, source, root. These nouns signify
the point at which something originates."

Now, of course, each student of Theosophy must decide what value they place
upon HPB's writings and the Masters' letters. Does the student accept
HPB's claims? etc. etc.

But from a historical perspective, it should be fairly obvious that the
"original teachings" of modern Theosophy emanate *from* and *through*
HPB who claimed that she was transmitting those teachings from her Masters.
Furthermore, the Masters used her as their "instrument" through which they
worked.

For example, William Judge in a letter of 1881 to A.P. Sinnett recounts:

"While H.P.B. was here [in New York City], they [the Masters] came many and
many a time and spoke with Olcott and myself. But their identity was
secure because neither of us at that time could pierce the wall of matter
[i.e. HPB's physical body] and see the true occupant. We had to depend
entirely upon changes of expression." See Henry Olcott's *Old Diary Leaves*
Volume I for similar accounts.

And even in 1886, Mr. Judge would write HPB and ask:

"Now as to me will you ask [here is the triangle of three dots standing for
Master Morya] if there be anythign to say to me. I work all the time. How
does he [Morya] explain the meaning of his message through you that I `showed
intuition by leaving India'?...."

And later that same year, HPB writing from Ostende, Belgium to Judge says:

"The trouble with you is *that you do not know the great change* that came to
pass in you a few years ago. Others have occasionally their *astrals* changed
and replaced by those of Adepts (as of Elementaries) & they influence the
*outer*, & the *higher* man. With you, it is the NIRMANAKAYA not the `astral'
that blended with your astral. Hence the dual nature & fighting. Fakir?
Fakir be damned. The man knows not the difference between a *Nirmanakaya*
of an Adept & his *astral*."

And in a later letter to W.Q. Judge, Blavatsky writes:

"Yes, there are `two persons' in me. But what of that? So there are two in
you; only mine is conscious and responsible---and yours is not...."

And in another letter to WQJ, Madame Blavatsky writes:

"Affairs and events may be turned off by unseen hands into such a groove that
you will be unanimously elected for life---just as Olcott and I were--- to
go on with the work after our deaths. Do you understand what it means? It
means that, unless you consent, you force me to a miserable life and a
MISERABLE DEATH, with the idea preying upon my mind that there is an end
of Theosophy. That for several years I will not be able to help it on, and
steer its course, because I will have to act in a body which will have to be
assimilated to the *Nirmanakaya*, because even in occultism there are such
things as a failure and a retardment and a misfit...."

HPB's references to "Nirmanakaya" may be better understood by what Judge
himself says in two letters:

Sept. 3, 1889: "My dear [James] Pryse, ...Your vision that when you looked
at HPB and saw no old woman but a *God* is correct. You were privileged
to see the Truth---For the Being in that old body called HP Blavatsky is a
mighty Adept working on his own plan in the world...."

Sept. 9, 1889: "But as to HPB you cannot judge her by any rule. There is
a great Adept there and he uses that body for His own purposes , both
for use and for trial of others."

James Pryse's vision of HPB is described in great detail by Pryse himself
in an article entitled "Memorabilia of H.P.B." published in *The Canadian
Theosophist*, March, 1935.

William Judge knew that a "Nirmanakaya" used the HPB *body* to channel, among
other things, the original Theosophical Source Teachings for the benefit
of the world. I am using the word "channel" in the since HPB uses the word
"mediatorship" in *Isis Unveiled*. [Correction: "since" should be "sense"!]

Continued in Part IV

Daniel Caldwell