But you can hardly be expected to enjoy or even understand the above phanerosis49 of our teachings. Pardon me. I write but seldom letters; and whenever compelled to do so follow rather my own thoughts than strictly hold to the subject I ought to have in view. I have laboured for more than a quarter of a century night and day to keep my place within the ranks of that invisible but ever busy army which labours and prepares for a task which can bring no reward but the consciousness that we are doing our duty to humanity; and, meeting you on my way I have tried to — do not fear, — not to enroll you, for that would be impossible, but to simply draw your attention, excite your curiosity if not your better feelings to the one and only truth. You proved faithful and true, and have done your best. If your efforts will teach the world but one single letter from the alphabet of Truth — that Truth which once pervaded the whole world — your reward will not miss you. And now that you have met the "mystics" of Paris and London what do you think of them? . . .
Yours,
K. H.
P.S. — Our hapless "Old Lady" is sick. Liver, kidneys, head, brain, legs, every organ and limb shows fight and snaps its fingers at her efforts to ignore them. One of us will have to "fix her" as our worthy Mr. Olcott says, or it will fare badly with her.
Letter No. 18 (ML-9) Rec. July 5, 1881
This letter marks the beginning of the real teachings from the Mahatma, although a good deal of it is concerned with a prominent English member of the TS.
Sinnett has designated July 8 as the date of receipt of this letter. However, in The Theosophist Supplement of the August 1881 issue, Tookaram Taya, secretary of the Bombay T.S., in a report dated July 7, 1881, states that Sinnett arrived in Bombay on July 4 and, the next evening, July 5, gave a talk in which he said clearly that on that very morning, after breakfast, while he was sitting at a table in full light of day, he received a letter from his "illustrious Friend Koot Hoomi."
Sinnett' s description of how the letter was received is extremely interesting. It is found in The Occult World (pp.154-55, 9th ed.). It is not in the first edition, as that had already been published; it was included in the second edition under the heading "Later Occult Phenomena." In the 9th edition, the chapter is headed "Conclusion."
Sinnett had written to the Mahatma before leaving London and was a little disappointed that no reply was waiting for him in Bombay. However, the morning following his arrival, when he and H.P.B. had finished breakfast, he was sitting talking to her when the letter came. This is his description:
We were sitting at different sides of a large square table in the middle of the room, and the full daylight was shining. There was no one else in the room. Suddenly, down upon the table before me, but to my right hand, Madame Blavatsky being to my left, there fell a thick letter. It fell "out of nothing" so to speak; it was materialized, or reintegrated in the air before my eyes. It was Koot Hoomi' s expected reply — a deeply interesting letter, partly concerned with private matters and replies to questions of mine, and partly with some large, though as yet shadowy, revelations of occult philosophy, the first sketch of this that I had received.
On the next page, he comments that for some time this was the only phenomenon accorded him, as "The Higher authorities of the occult world, indeed had by this time put a very much more stringent prohibition upon such manifestations..." The effect of the events at Simla the previous summer, he mentioned, "was not considered to have been satisfactory on the whole. A good deal of acrimonious discussion and bad feeling had ensued, and I imagine that this was conceived to outweigh, in its injurious effect on the progress of the theosophical movement, the good effect of the phenomena on the few persons who appreciated them." Another point about this letter is that — like some of the others — it was to have repercussions. In this instance, these were due to Sinnett' s indiscretion, or unwisdom, in making copious extracts from it for Stainton Moses, whom the Mahatma discusses confidentially, and at great length, in this letter.
Stainton Moses (1839-92) was a prominent member of the spiritualist group in England. He had a guide called "Imperator" (usually designated in the Mahatma Letters as +). There is considerable speculation as to the identity of this control, and it is intimated that at one time it was one of the Brothers and at other times some other entity and, again, perhaps the Higher Self of Moses. Stainton Moses frequently used the pen name of M.A. Oxon.
From K.H., first letter received on return to India, July 8th, 1881, while staying with Madame B. at Bombay for a few days.
Welcome good friend and brilliant author, welcome back! Your letter at hand, and I am happy to see your personal experience with the "Elect" of London proved so successful. But, I foresee, that more than ever now, you will become an incarnate note of interrogation. Beware! If your questions are found premature by the powers that be, instead of receiving my answers in their pristine purity you may find them transformed into yards of drivel. I am too far gone to feel a hand on my throat whenever trenching on the limits of forbidden topics; not enough to avoid feeling myself — uncomfortably so — like a worm of yesterday before our "Rock of Ages," my Cho-Khan.50 We must all be blindfolded before we can pass onward; or else, we have to remain outside.
And now, what about the book?51 Le quart d'heure de Rabelais is striking, and finds me, if not quite insolvent, yet quasi-trembling at the idea that the first installment offered may be found below the mark; the price claimed — inadequate with my poor resources; myself led pro bono publico to trespass beyond the terrible — "hitherto shalt thou go, and no further," and the angry wave of the Cho-Khan's wrath swamping me blue ink and all! I fondly hope you will not make me lose "my situation."