If we are to believe the stenographic report of the Inquiry in 1906, then instead of holding that Mr. Leadbeater denied the charges, we must come to the conclusion that not only did he teach the solitary vice, but further he did things which would have brought him within the pale of the criminal laws for the foulest and most indecent offence which brute man may commit. This is our latter day saint who must be re-admitted, nay, invited back, into the Theosophical Society.
Note that this was written fourteen years ago! The subject is a revolting one, but in the interests of that public whom these people are still misleading and deceiving, and who have no idea of the extreme gravity of the menace, it is necessary to be explicit.
To return to the "Letter" mentioned by Mr. Das; he continues:—
The Trustee and Manager into whose hands a copy of the astonishing document came, with the information that it had been circulated amongst a number of the C. H. C. students, informed the secretaries of the College, and sent the letter with the comments on the same for publication in a daily paper, in order to show the public how the person-worship-creeds of Mrs. Besant's "neo-theosophy" were being sown and grown within the C. H. C. despite the resolutions of the Trustees.
On publication of the rhapsody, a great outcry in the name of "injured innocence" was raised.... As to the "dishonourableness" of the publication, competent judges of such matters have pronounced that it was dishonourable only if it be dishonourable to expose what cannot be called other than gross treason to the Constitution and ideals of the C. H. C., and to bring to light, and the bar of public opinion, underhand or half-concealed or openly defiant efforts to convert students to a grotesque person-worship and demoralizing and soul-stunting blind obedience to Mrs. Besant.... The asking for, and the receiving of the pledges of obedience to herself, etc., is an act of over-weening presumption against the God in every man.... Ever since she encouraged and started them, her mind has worked less and less correctly and confusion has fallen ever worse and worse upon her work, losing to the T. S. many thousands of old members, alienating from her all her old co-workers and co-founders of the C. H. C. and destroying the confidence in her of the Indian public.
Towards the end of his most illuminating pamphlet Mr. Das has occasion to speak of Mrs. Besant's "wildly reckless statements," some of which he quotes. They relate to the C. H. C. and he stigmatises them as "all simply and utterly untrue." "Her mind," he says a little further on, is working "incoherently." Finally, he writes:—
Let us conclude; when a person like Mrs. Besant, with a biography full of remarkable changes, full of fine work as well as bad blunders, having established herself, in her own belief, and that of her pledged band, as the present chief Spiritual Teacher and Saviour of Mankind, as "the God within us" now, and as the future "greatest Ruler of the World of Gods and men," suddenly adds on the role of political saviour of India in particular, and pre-determined martyr in constant danger of assassination [strangely enough, this was also one of Mrs. Tingley's obsessions] by anarchist miscreants ... and proclaims that those who differ from her are in league with those miscreants—when this happens, what explanation can be offered to their own minds by her old friends ...?
The only sad explanation that they can postulate is that she is suffering from mental delusions.
Alas! this lenient and charitable judgment by no means covers the ground as a complete explanation of Mrs. Besant's mischievous and almost irresponsible activities. Mr. Das fails to see as clearly as MM. Lévy and Schuré the sinister influence behind all these manifestations; the source and inspiration of all this evil.