Give, pray, my best wishes to your lady and the "Morsel." Be certain, that with a few undetectable mistakes and omissions notwithstanding, your Esoteric Buddhism is the only right exposition — however incomplete — of our Occult doctrines. You have made no cardinal, fundamental mistakes; and whatever may be given to you hereafter will not clash with a single sentence in your book but on the contrary will explain away any seeming contradiction. How greatly mistaken was Mr. Hume's theory is shown by the "Chela" in the Theosophist. With all that, you may feel sure that neither M. nor I have contradicted each other in our respective statements. He was speaking of the inner — I, of the outer Round. There are many things that you have not learned but may some day; nor will you be able to ever comprehend the process of the obscurations until you have mastered the mathematical progress of the inner and the outer Rounds and learned more about the specific difference between the seven. And thus according to Mr. Massey's philosophical conclusion we have no God? He is right — since he applies the name to an extracosmic anomaly, and that we, knowing nothing of the latter, find each man his God — within himself in his own personal, and at the same time impersonal Avalokiteswara. And now — farewell. And if it is so decreed that we should correspond no more, remember me with the same sincere good feeling as you will ever be remembered by,
K. H.
Letter No. 114 (ML-83) Rec. October 1883
This letter sounds the death knell of the whole Phoenix venture and closes the discussion concerning it.
Received London, October 8th, 1883.
A temporary absence upon imperative business prevented for a few days my even knowing anything about your affairs, and it was not until to day that I had the leisure to give them a thought. Upon reading your letter, the situation presented itself to me in such colours that I concluded to have you immediately given your freedom and so sent you a cable despatch. This was with the object of removing from your mind any feeling of compulsion, moral or otherwise, and of leaving you to either take or reject the further proposals which may come to you from any part of India, at your option. If any consideration could have prompted a different course, it would have been entirely removed by the tone of your letter of August the 16th. The advocacy of the Bengal measure in the present aspect of affairs you think would ruin every prospect of the commercial success of the proposed journal; "The Phœnix cannot possibly as now designed prove a commercial success. And a paper which is a commercial failure can have very little political weight." To persist then, would as you see it, be to lead a number of persons to fruitlessly waste a large sum of money. For "the project thus crippled is pretty effectually stripped of its grand financial possibilities." Still despite all this, you are disposed to go on if I wish it, cast the moral responsibility on me and "swallow the somewhat repulsive pledge."
My friend, you shall do nothing of the sort. The responsibility, notwithstanding all I could, and am willing to do, would fall upon you since you have been given plainly the option in my last letter to you. If henceforth, you have anything more to do with this unfortunate affair, it must be entirely upon your own judgment and responsibility. You have ill comprehended the Law of Karma — (and my letter) — if you could have imagined that I would dare to provoke its awful retaliations by forcing you or anyone to take up a line of action with such feelings in his heart. Knowing you, it was easy to foresee your — (nay, the feelings of any honourable man having to face such a situation) — repulsion for the work contemplated. Therefore, had I taken great care to impress upon you in my letter that you were entirely and absolutely free in your choice. I blame myself for but one thing, viz., my having hinted at the probable consequence of your refusal, — as implied in my pledge to the Chohan to thenceforward abstain from collaboration with Europeans until some future and more favourable time. It was that which caused you "to swallow the repulsive pledge" more than anything said. This goes to my Karma. But this aside, by referring to my last letter you will perceive that the necessity for independent, unbiased action on your part was strongly urged. I hoped — even against the disheartening moral condition of my countrymen, and forced myself almost to believe it possible to found a journal so obviously necessary at this great crisis, upon a basis thoroughly satisfactory to you and to all who might be concerned. I had forgotten that external appearance is everything in your world and that I was simply subjecting you to be regarded with contempt. But rest assured; had the money been collected as first attempted, and no pressure of working in a certain direction had been offered to you; and had you been left entirely your own master in the line of policy pursued; yet at this hour of bitter hatred, of mutual malice and contempt, the mere fact that you were advocating the cause of the despised, and now more than ever hated and crushed down "nigger" — would have stripped The Phœnix of even a shadow of any "grand financial possibility." Still hardly a month ago I was so confident — from seeing the still deep, strong feelings lurking in the national soul — that I allowed you to grow equally and even more confident than myself. Others, whose intuition and foresight had not been blinded by their superiors, thought differently and some would have dissuaded me; yet, the aim being so worthy, and the possibility really existing, I was permitted to watch the project and use natural external means to aid its consummation. If indefinite waiting were practicable for you, the original scheme could be realized; but this is not so, and I must, therefore, withdraw the last appearance of constraint upon your free judgment, and thank you for having so loyally seconded the attempt to do good to India, even at the cost of your feelings and pecuniary interests. I should be most unwilling, apart from the rule of our Order as regards Karma, to draw you into a position where I could recompense230 you in any way for loss of social prestige or financial disappointments. To do that is beyond my power. I could not look at you, if you were hourly feeling that you were regarded no better than a "blackguard," and had "no political weight with Society at large on the score of Character." If your lot was to be cast in with ours, such considerations would not weigh one moment. To all, whether Chohan or chela, who are obligated workers among us the first and last consideration is whether we can do good to our neighbour, no matter how humble he may be; and we do not permit ourselves to even think of the danger of any contumely, abuse or injustice visited upon ourselves. We are ready to be "spat upon and crucified" daily — not once — if real good to another can come of it. But the case is totally different with you; you have your path to tread in the more "practical" world, and your standing in it must not be jeopardized.