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    "name": "Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 5,
    "slug": "06-view-of-the-chohan-on-the-ts",
    "title": "View of the Chohan on the T.S.",
    "of": 10,
    "words": 2175,
    "text": "## View of the Chohan on the T.S.\n\n\n#### View of the Chohan on the T.S. (1)\n\n Editorial Note: The\noriginal of this letter has never been found.  As early as the middle 1880s\nit was circulated privately, in whole or in part, but not published openly\nuntil 1886 when John C. Bundy, F.T.S., editor of the Religio-Philosophical\nJournal and Weekly Occult News, Chicago, Illinois, inserted it in his June\n26 issue (vol. xl, No. 18).  It is also known as the “Letter from the\nMaha-chohan” or “The Great Master’s Letter.” The text here follows what we\nbelieve to be the earliest copy of the letter, that made by A. P. Sinnett to\nwhom it had been addressed.  The penultimate paragraph dates it to 1881, the\nSimla Eclectic T.S. being inaugurated August 21st of that year. Sinnett’s\ntranscription was included by him along with other Mahatma letters (such as\nNo. 11 to Hume) in a notebook now preserved in the British Library (Mahatma\nPapers, Vol. VI, Additional MS. 45289 A). Our title is taken from the\nsubscription at the close; the dots of omission are Sinnett’s.   \n— Grace F. Knoche\n\n—————\n\n{Received Simla, August 27+, 1881}\n\nSeveral good reasons given to K. H. by the Chohan why the T.S. should be a\nBrotherhood of Humanity.\n\n****\n\nfor the Simla Eclectic T.S. \n\nThe doctrine we promulgate being the only true one, must, — supported by\nsuch evidence as we are preparing to give become ultimately triumphant as every\nother truth. Yet it is absolutely necessary to inculcate it gradually enforcing\nits theories, unimpeachable facts for those who know, with direct inferences\ndeducted from and corroborated by the evidence furnished by modern exact science.\nThat is why Col H.S.O. who works but to revive Buddhism may be regarded as one\nwho labours in the true path of Theosophy, far more than any other man who chooses\nas his goal the gratification of his own ardent aspirations for occult knowledge.\nBuddhism stripped of its superstitions is eternal truth, and he who strives\nfor the latter is striving for Theos-sophia, Divine Wisdom, which is a synonym\nof truth.\n\nFor our doctrines to practically react on the so called moral code or the ideas\nof truthfulness, purity, self-denial, charity, etc., we have to preach and popularise\na knowledge of theosophy. It is not the individual and determined purpose of\nattaining oneself Nirvana (the culmination of all knowledge and absolute wisdom)\nwhich is, after all only an exalted and glorious *selfishness,* but the\nself-sacrificing pursuit of the best means to lead on the right path our neighbour,\nto cause as many of our fellow creatures as we possibly can to benefit by it,\nwhich constitutes the true Theosophist.\n\nThe intellectual portions of mankind seem to be fast dividing into two classes,\nthe one unconsciously preparing for itself long periods of temporary annihilation\nor states of non-consciousness owing to the deliberate surrender of their intellect,\nits imprisonment in the narrow grooves of bigotry and superstition, a process\nwhich cannot fail to lead to the utter deformation of the intellectual principle;\nthe other unrestrainedly indulging its animal propensities with the deliberate\nintention of *submitting* to annihilation pure and simple in cases of\nfailure, to millenniums of degradation after physical dissolution. Those \"intellectual\nclasses,\" reacting upon the ignorant masses which they attract and which\nlook up to them as noble and fit examples to follow, degrade and morally ruin\nthose they ought to protect and guide. Between degrading superstition and still\nmore degrading brutal materialism the white dove of truth has hardly room where\nto rest her weary unwelcome foot. . . .\n\nIt's time that Theosophy should enter the arena. The sons of Theosophists are\nmore likely to become in their turn Theosophists than anything else. No messenger\nof truth, no prophet has ever achieved during his life time a complete triumph,\nnot even Buddha; the Theosophical Society was chosen as the corner stone, the\nfoundation of the future religion of humanity. To achieve the proposed object\na greater, wiser, and especially a more benevolent intermingling of the high\nand the low, of the alpha and the omega of society, was determined upon. The\nwhite race must be the first to stretch out the hand of fellowship to the dark\nnations, to call the poor despised \"nigger\" brothers. This prospect\nmay not smile to all. He is *no* Theosophist who objects to this principle.\n. . .\n\nIn view of the ever increasing triumph and at the same time misuse of free-thought\nand *liberty* (the Universal reign of Satan, Eliphas Levi would have\ncalled it), how is the combative *natural* instinct of man to be restrained\nfrom inflicting hitherto unheard of cruelties and enormities, tyranny, injustice,\netc., if not through the soothing influence of a brotherhood and of the practical\napplication of Buddha's esoteric doctrines. For as everyone knows, total emancipation\nfrom authority of the one all-pervading power or law called God by the Theists —\nBuddha, Divine Wisdom and Enlightenment or Theosophy by the philosophers of\nall ages — means also the emancipation from that of human law? Once unfettered\n[and] delivered from their dead weight of dogmatic interpretations, personal\nnames, anthropomorphic conceptions and salaried priests, the fundamental doctrines\nof all religions will be proved identical in their esoteric meaning. Osiris,\nChrishna, Buddha, Christ, will be shown as different means for one and [the]\nsame royal highway to final bliss *Nirvana*. Mystical christianity, that\nis to say that christianity which teaches *self* redemption through one's\nown *seventh* principle — the liberated Para-atma (Augoeides) called\nby the one Christ, by others Buddha, and equivalent to regeneration or rebirth\nin spirit — will be found just the same truth as the Nirvana of mystical\nBuddhism. All of us have to get rid of our own Ego, the illusory apparent\n*self,* to recognise our true self in a transcendental divine life. But\nif we would not be selfish we must strive to make other people see that truth,\nto recognise the reality of that transcendental self, the Buddh, the Christ\nor God of every preacher. This is why even exoteric Buddhism is the surest path\nto lead men toward the one esoteric truth. As we find the world now, whether\nChristian, Mussalman or Pagan, justice is disregarded and honour and mercy both\nflung to the winds.\n\nIn a word, how, once that the main objects of the T.S. are misinterpreted by\nthose who are most willing to serve us *personally,* are we to deal with\nthe rest of mankind, with that curse known as the \"struggle for life,\"\nwhich is the real and most prolific parent of most woes and sorrows and of all\nthe crimes? Why has that struggle become the almost universal scheme of the\nuniverse? We answer, because no religion with the exception of Buddhism has\nhitherto taught a practical contempt for this earthly life, while each of them,\nalways with that one solitary exception, has through its hells and damnations\ninculcated the greatest dread of death. Therefore do we find that struggle for\nlife raging most fiercely in Christian countries, most prevalent in Europe and\nAmerica. It weakens in the Pagan lands and is nearly unknown among Buddhist\npopulations. (In China during famine and where the masses are most ignorant\nof their own or any religion, it was remarked that those mothers who devoured\ntheir children belonged to localities where there were the most of Christian\nmissionaries to be found. Where there were none and the Bonzes alone had the\nfield the population died with the utmost indifference.) Teach the people to\nsee that life on this earth even the happiest is but a burden and an illusion,\nthat it is but our own *Karma*, the cause producing the effect, that\nis our own judge, our Saviour in future lives, and the great struggle for life\nwill soon lose its intensity. There are no penitentiaries in Buddhist lands\nand crime is nearly unknown among the Buddhist Tibetans. (The above is not addressed\nto you, and has nought to do with the work of the Simla Eclectic Society. It\nis meant only as an answer to the erroneous impression in Mr. Hume's mind of\nthe \"Ceylon work\" as no *theosophy*.)\n\nThe world in general and Christendom especially, left for two thousand years\nto the regime of a personal God as well as its political and social systems\nbased on that idea, has now proved a failure. If the Theosophists say, we have\nnothing to do with all this, the lower classes and the inferior races (those\nof India for instance in the conception of the British) cannot concern us and\nmust manage as they can, what becomes of our fine professions of benevolence,\nphilanthropy, reform, etc. Are these professions a mockery? And if a mockery,\ncan ours be the true path? Shall we devote our selves to teaching a few Europeans\nfed on the fat of the land, many of them loaded with the gifts of blind fortune,\nthe *rationale* of bell ringing, cup growing, of the spiritual telephone\nand astral body formation, and leave the teeming millions of the ignorant, of\nthe poor and despised, the lowly and the oppressed, to take care of themselves\nand of their hereafter the best they know how? Never. Perish rather the Theosophical\nSociety with both its hapless founders than that we should permit it to become\nno better than an academy of magic and a hall of occultism. That\nwe, the devoted followers of that spirit incarnate\nof absolute self sacrifice, of philanthropy, divine kindness, as of all the\nhighest virtues attainable on this earth of sorrow, the man of men, Gautama\nBuddha, should ever allow the Theosophical Society to represent the *embodiment\nof selfishness,* the refuge of the few with no thought in them for the many,\nis a strange idea, my brothers.\n\nAmong the few glimpses obtained by Europeans of Tibet and its mystical hierarchy\nof \"perfect lamas,\" there is one which was correctly understood and\ndescribed. \"The incarnations of the Boddisatwa Padma Pani or Avalo-Kiteswara\nand of Tsong Kapa, that of Amitabha, relinquish at their death the attainment\nof Buddhahood — *i.e.* the summum bonum of bliss, and of individual\n*personal* felicity — that they might be born again and again for the\nbenefit of mankind.\"* In other words, that they might be again and again subjected\nto misery, imprisonment in flesh and all the sorrows of life, provided that\nby such a self sacrifice repeated throughout long and dreary centuries they\nmight become the means of securing salvation and bliss in the hereafter for\na handful of men chosen among but one of the many races of mankind. And it is\nwe, the humble disciples of these perfect lamas, who are expected to allow the\nT. S. to drop its noblest title, that of the Brotherhood of Humanity to become\na simple school of psychology? No, no, good brothers, you have been labouring\nunder the mistake too long already. Let us understand each other. He who does\nnot feel competent enough to grasp the noble idea sufficiently to work for it,\nneed not undertake a task too heavy for him. But there is hardly a theosophist\nin the whole society unable to effectually help it by correcting the erroneous\nimpressions of the outsiders, if not by actually propagating himself the idea.\nOh, for the noble and unselfish man to help us effectually\nin India in that divine task. All our knowledge past and present would not be\nsufficient to repay him. . . . Having explained our views and aspirations I\nhave but a few words more to add.\n\n *{Cf. Clements R. Markham, ed., *Narratives of the Mission\nof George Bogle to Tibet and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa*,\n1876, p. xlvii.}\n\nTo be *true*, religion and philosophy must offer the solution of every\nproblem. That the world is in such a bad condition morally is a conclusive evidence\nthat none of its religions and philosophies, those of the *civilised*\nraces less than any other, have ever possessed the truth.\nThe right and logical explanations on the subject of the problems of the great\ndual principles — right and wrong, good and evil, liberty and despotism,\npain and pleasure, egotism and altruism — are as impossible to them now\nas they were 1881 years ago. They are as far from the solution as they ever\nwere but, —\n\nTo these there *must* be somewhere a consistent solution, and if our doctrines\nwill show their competence to offer it, then the world will be the first one\nto confess *that must* be the true philosophy, the true religion, the\ntrue light, which gives *truth* and nothing but the\ntruth.\n\n———————\n\nAn abridged version of the view of the Chohan on the T.S. from his own words\nas given last night. My own letter, the answer to your last will shortly follow.\n{K.H.}\n\n---\n\nCosmological Notes\n\nChronological Order\n\n\nor Mahatma Letter\n27\n\n\n---\n\n####### Theosophical University Press Online Edition",
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