Mrs. Besant's responsibility and the Madras Law-suits.
M. Lévy's concluding chapter, from which I will now quote, is obviously written from the heart. He says that it is his "imperative duty" to resign his membership in Mrs. Besant's Society, referring to the pain caused to her old friends by the opinion expressed by the police court magistrate in the defamation cases ... for he considered that the facts before him, and the documentary evidence, supported the view that Mrs. Besant had known of and even countenanced the practices of Mr. Leadbeater....
"In restoring to Mr. Leadbeater his influence over herself and over the destinies of the Theosophical Society [she] has proved her failure in moral vigilance and her lack of intellectual discrimination as regards methods to which she thus fails the first victim. And the sorry contradictions that this brings into her spiritual message, the utter disregard of truth resulting from this, impel her to words and actions that now involve an incalculable number of victims, misled by their devoted trust in her. Her responsibility is in truth a very terrible one.... I have come to regard the actions of Mrs. Besant—and of Mr. Leadbeater equally, of course—as the leaven of destruction, of disintegration in the Theosophical Society.
We cannot rid ourselves of a growing disquiet in seeing Mrs. Besant, in her monthly articles in the Theosophist, entitled "On the Watch-Tower," so tirelessly expressing such great and manifest satisfaction in every smallest material increase, improvement and enrichment of the Adyar Headquarters.
Mr. Leadbeater shares in this joy. Speaking of Mrs. Besant in the Adyar Album, p. 7, he praises at great length the material improvements of the Headquarters:—"In her reign have been added to the estate no less than six valuable pieces of property." Thus temporal power would clearly seem to be the main concern of Adyar. And we involuntarily turn to the words of Christ, who so well described the spiritual splendours:—"My kingdom is not of this world." Not thus does Mrs. Besant understand spirituality since she "reigns" as a prince of this world, over a kingdom that grows by her conquests.... A like concern follows Mr. Leadbeater even into his occult investigations into the twenty-eighth century, in which he sees "a kind of gorgeous palace with an enormous dome, the central part of which must be an imitation of the Taj Mahal at Agra, but on a much larger scale. In this great building they mark as memorials certain spots by pillars and inscriptions, such as ... here such and such a book was written ... they even have statues of some of us [sic!!] ...—Man; Whence, How, and Whither.
Truly may one here repeat the somewhat banal phrase "Comment is needless"; indeed one might add, "impossible," in the face of such an amazing manifestation of megalomania. But this is not the most serious disease from which C. W. Leadbeater and his colleague are suffering. As M. Lévy has already shown, there is much worse behind of which this megalomania is only one symptom. In an "Addendum" given at, the end of his book, M. Lévy says that since the publication of his brochure judgment has been pronounced on the case he mentions ([see p. 29]), the judge ruling that the children should be removed from the care of Mrs. Besant and given back to the father within a fixed time." He then continues:—
Further legal proceedings have confirmed, with yet more precision, the infamous immorality of which Mr. Leadbeater stands accused. (see report in The Hindu, Madras, May 9th, 1913.) A Madras medical review called The Antiseptic had pubished an article in which apprehension of the establishment of a 'Temple of Onanism" ["unnatural sin." See Dr. Hartmann's Paracelsus, p. 90] at Adyar was expressed. The Hindu newspaper reprinted the scandal. Mrs. Besant took proceedings aga nst the author of the article and the publisher of The Antiseptic; and the Treasurer of the Theosophical Society was moved at the same time to action against The Hindu. All three cases were dismissed. The gravity of the position is evident. Mr. Leadbeater's methods have been proved by his own admissions as well as by documents before the Court to be subversive of morality....
These facts [I omit the worst details that M. Lévy feels obliged to quote] condemn Mr. Leadbeater without possibility of appeal; they reveal to us, with regard to Mrs. Besant, a truly degrading complaisance, by reason of her desire to hide a crime as patent as it is abominable ... the members of the Theosophical Society are not only kept in complete ignorance regarding these facts, but the administration of Adyar, through its extensive propaganda, has a great influence over new members in all conditions, while concealing and perverting the truth.... The existence of persons like Mr. Leadbeater, who admit and practise the worst perversities, is a sad reminder of the darker side of human nature; yet the attitude of simply ignoring that such things exist seems indefensible when these persons pretend to the highest morality and represent themselves as guides towards spiritual development ... claiming to stand "on the threshold of divinity.".. The danger that such persons may continue to extend their empire over the souls of others is an increasing one....
In view of these "facts" M. Lévy's restraint of language is remarkable, his condemnation hardly sufficiently scathing. His concluding words, however, explain much; he has evidently greatly admired Mrs. Besant in earlier years, and the last paragraph of his book eloquently attests his personal grief:—"The feeling which here arrests my pen, and prevents me from saying more on the matter, will be understood by those who have followed me so far, and they may hear across my silence the voice of their own sorrow." I deeply respect M. Lévy's feelings; but for me—who have never had any illusions regarding Mrs. Besant from the time of the disruption of the Society in 1894-5—the matter assumes a more sinister aspect. His pages have rendered me most invaluable help in putting before the general public matter not personally known to my own experience. I left Colonel Olcott's Society in 1895, M. Lévy left Mrs. Besant's in 1913; and when we remember that this was its condition nine years ago, my previous remarks ([see p. 14]) may be better appreciated now that more evidence has been adduced
The Central Hindu College. An Indian Criticism.
In a pamphlet published at Benares about the same date (1913) by Pandit Bhagavan Das, "a former General Secretary of the Indian Section T. S." we possess still further evidence of Mrs. Besant's extraordinary aberrations under C. W. Leadbeater's guidance and control. Mr. Das's pamphlet is addressed to the editor of the London Christian Commonwealth, and is entitled "The Central Hindu College and Mrs. Besant." It is a reply to some "remarks" by her on this College, which appeared in that paper in June, 1913. Mr. Das writes:—