A copy of the letter hereunder printed was sent me in 1893 by the Brahman gentleman mentioned therein, whose full name is Benee Madhab Battacharya and who was at one time president of the Prayag T.S. at Allahabad. He sent it to me after the publication of my “Letter to the Brahmans” in order to try and show me that the T.S. was in fact a Buddhist propaganda. The original is in the possession of Mr. Sinnett, who informed me not long ago that he thought he had it among his papers, but had no leisure to look for it. I print it now for reasons which will appear. It reads:
“Message which Mr. Sinnett is directed by one of the Brothers writing through Madame B[lavatsky], to convey to the native members of the Prayag Branch of the Theosophical Society.
“The Brothers desire me to inform one and all of you natives that unless a man is prepared to become a thorough theosophist, i.e., to do what D. Mavalankar did—give up entirely caste, his old superstitions, and show himself a true reformer (especially in the case of child-marriage), he will remain simply a member of the Society, with no hope whatever of ever hearing from us. The Society, acting in this directly in accord with our orders, forces no one to become a Theosophist of the Second Section. It is left with himself at his choice. It is useless for a member to argue ‘I am one of a pure life, I am a teetotaller and an abstainer from meat and vice, all my aspirations are for good, etc.’ and he at the same time building by his acts and deeds an impassible barrier on the road between himself and us. What have we, the disciples of the Arhats of Esoteric Buddhism and of Sang-gyas, to do with the Shasters and Orthodox Brahmanism? There are 100 of thousands of Fakirs, Sannyasis, or Sadhus leading the most pure lives and yet being, as they are, on the path of error, never having had an opportunity to meet, see, or even hear of us. Their forefathers have driven the followers of the only true philosophy upon earth away from India, and now it is not for the latter to come to them but for them to come to us, if they want us. Which of them, is ready to become a Budhist, a Nastika, as they call us? None. Those who have believed and followed us have had their reward. Mr. Sinnett and Hume are exceptions. Their beliefs are no barriers to us, for they have none. They may have had influences around them, bad magnetic emanations, the result of drink, society and promiscuous physical associations (resulting even from shaking hands with impure men), but all this is physical and material impediments which with a little effort we could counteract, and even clear away, without much detriment to ourselves. Not so with the magnetic and invisible results proceeding from erroneous and sincere beliefs. Faith in the Gods or God and other superstitions attracts millions of foreign influences, living entities and powerful agents around them, with which we would have to use more than ordinary exercise of power to drive them away. We do not choose to do so. We do not find it either necessary or profitable to lose our time waging war on the unprogressed planetaries who delight in personating gods and sometimes well-know characters who have lived on earth. There are Dhyan-Chohans and Chohans of darkness. Not what they term devils, but imperfect intelligences who have never been born on this or any other earth or sphere no more than the Dhyan-Chohans have, and who will never belong to the ‘Children of the Universe,’ the pure planetary intelligences, who preside at every Manvantara, while the Dark Chohans preside at the Pralaya.”
Now this is a genuine message from the Master, allowing, of course, for any minor errors in copying. Its philosophical and occult references are furthermore confirmed by the manuscript of part of the third volume of The Secret Doctrine, not yet printed. We know also that Master K.H. informed Mr. Sinnett and others that he was an esoteric Budhist; H.P.B. declared herself a Buddhist; on my asking her in 1875 what could the Masters’ belief be called she told me they might be designated “pre-Vedic Budhists,” but that no one would now admit there was any Buddhism before the Vedas, so I had best think of them as Esoteric Buddhists.
But I am informed that Mrs. Besant has several times privately stated that in her opinion the letter first above printed was a “forgery or humbug” gotten up by H.P.B. I know that Mr. Chakravarti has said the same thing, because he said it to me in New York. It is for Mrs. Besant to deny the correctness of my information as to what she said: she can affirm her belief in the genuineness of the letter. If she does so, we shall all be glad to know. If she merely denies that she ever impugned it, then it will be necessary for her to say affirmatively what is her belief, for silence will be assent to its genuineness. I affirm that it is from one of the Masters, and that, if is be shown to be a fraud, then all of H.P.B.’s claims of connection with and teaching from the Master must fall to the ground. It is now time that this important point be cleared up.