The second failure was a far worse one when, in 1906, after having publicly endorsed the finding of the Advisory Committee on Leadbeater's crimes ([see footnote ante p. 59]), she suddenly turned round and secured his reinstatement. In thus condoning and even endorsing immorality of the vilest description, she denied one of the strictest occult laws binding upon a chela.
This double failure had far more serious results in her case than in those of which H. P. B. wrote in 1886, because, owing to her commanding position as a leader, the fate of the many thousands of earnest souls in the Society who believed in and followed her implicitly, was involved.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] This Brahmin is the person referred to in the following passage from Mr. T. H. Martyn's letter to Mrs. Besant of May 20th, 1921 ([see ante p. 18]):—"Like many of the older members I have known how you and others for quite a long time regarded —— as a Master in the flesh and later had to repudiate him when certain facts indicated the mistake." Italics mine. This is absolutely new to me. In 1894 none of us (so far as I was then aware) regarded Mr. —— as anything more than a chela, so what Mr. Martyn here states must have been a later development, and explains much.
I suppress the gentleman's name out of regard for his present official position in India and his dissociation from Mrs. Besant.
[12] I did not learn the actual facts of this foolish fable until I came to India in 1918, and found they were common knowledge among leading members of that time. Naturally, when Mrs. Besant transferred her allegiance to Mr. Leadbeater, she had to find another "body" for H. P. B. So, in the Theosophist for January, 1922. she writes the following typical effusion for the benefit of the faithful:—" ... alas! she passed away, and took rebirth in the north of India, and though we have lived for twenty-eight years in the same land so dear to beth of us, we have never met physically face to face. Yet close ties bind us to each other, and may be we shall yet greet each other in the flesh." Observe the suggestion that she has always been in close touch with H. P. B. out of the body, and that later they may meet "in the flesh." This prepares the ground for producing this new "incarnation" when the suitable moment comes; just as the boy Krishnamurti was brought forward as the "body" for the coming "World-Teacher." Mrs. Besant's new version must be amusing reading for those familiar with the earlier theory, as she was certainly "face to face" with the "little daughter" constantly, and even persuaded Countess Wachtmeister to resume her former care of H. P. B. in her new body. Needless to say the poor Countess was sadly disillusioned, and died not long afterwards bitterly bewailing the ruin of the T. S.
[13] As showing the absurdity of such a claim, I may mention that Mrs. Besant actually visited mediums through whom H. P. B. was supposed to communicate. In 1892, only a year after her death, my colleague Mr. Basil Crump, Barrister-at-Law, was investigating the phenomena of a certain trance medium shortly before he joined the T. S. He was present at a private sitting with this medium in the studio of an artist friend, to which Mrs. Besant came with another member of H. P. B.'s Inner Group, Miss Emily Kislingbury, in order to speak with her deceased teacher. An intelligence calling itself "Madame Blavatsky" controlled the medium, and Mrs. Besant held a conversation with it. Later, when Mr. Crump became acquainted with H. P. B.'s explanation of Spiritualistic phenomena, and her express denial that the true immortal Ego ever communicated in this manner, he was naturally astonished that one of her most learned pupils should for a moment entertain such a possibility and waste her valuable time in attending a séance. But now he sees that it was only an early symptom of the astounding credulity and ignorance of occult science she has since exhibited, as shown in these pages. H. P. B.'s explanations of psychic phenomena are rapidly being endorsed and followed by the modern scientific school of investigation, which has succeeded not only in proving the genuineness of the phenomena, but also the important part played by the will and imagination both of the medium and the sitters in their production.
[14] Her latest move, is to draw a distinction between the "Advisory Committee of 1906" which she accuses of "unjust action," and what she calls "the prolonged investigation of 1907-08," which of course was engineered by her after she became President, in order to white-wash Mr. Leadbeater and secure his reinstatement. (See Theosophist, July, 1922). [See Addendum] for the Australian views on this.
[15] The importance of this case lies in the fact that it constituted an absolute vindication of H. P. B., for every slander ever circulated directly or indirectly was covered by it. Although the libel action came to an end with her death, the paper was so impressed by the evidence produced, in rebuttal, by Mr. Judge, that it not only retracted all that it had published, but also invited Mr. Judge to write a long article entitled "The Esoteric She" which they said "disposes of all questions relating to Madame Blavatsky." That Mrs. Asquith and Count Witte should both have seen fit to revive some of these old slanders in their books of reminiscences does not redound to their credit.
[16] Mrs. Besant's "Spiritual Viceroy" has certainly nothing to do with Those who were directing H. P. B. when she founded the Indian T. S. OR U. B. in 1879; for a special clause was included in the Constitution stating that "The Society repudiates all interference on its behalf with the Governmental relations of any nation or community, confining its attention exclusively to the matters set forth in the present document...." H. P. B. also wrote in the Theosophist, for October, 1879—"Unconcerned about politics; hostile to the insane dreams of Socialism and Communism, which it abhors—as both are but disguised conspiracies of brutal force and sluggishness against honest labour; the Society cares but little about the outward human management of the material world. The whole of its aspirations are directed toward the occult truths of the visible and invisible worlds. Whether the physical man be under the rule of an empire or a republic, concerns only the man of matter. His body may be enslaved; as to his Soul, he has the right to give to his rulers the proud answer of Socrates to his Judges. They have no sway over the inner man." There speaks the true Mystic whose "Kingdom is not of this world." Three years later H. P. B. and Colonel Olcott published a further disclaimer, in which they said—"Before we came to India, the word Politics had never been pronounced in connection with our names; for the idea was too absurd to be even entertained, much less expressed...."