Theos-Talk Archives (March 1995 Message tl00116)

One last message on the anti-theistic views in ML 10, and how
this relates to the historical setting.

It is probably impossible to figure out, at this late date,
just how the letters were written and received, particularly
since there are so many variations among them.  Some were
mailed directly from North Indian locations.  The handwritings
vary somewhat.  HPB later admitted that it was only rarely that
the letters were dictated verbatim to her.  Yet it is clear
that in many cases she wrote them while in a state of
consciousness that connected her to the Master(s).  I have some
ideas about what kinds of practices were involved.

Reading the Hare brothers's Who Wrote the Mahatma Letters?
provides many clues that the language and some of the factual
errors in the letters point to HPB as author.  Yet it is clear
from history that HPB was being supplied information and source
material from her hidden sponsors, and that in large part the
content of the letters' teachings is NOT hers although the
language is.

To the extent that anti-Christian sentiments in the letters are
accurate reflections of the Masters' views (which I believe
they are) rather than just HPB's own attitude, how can this be
explained?  I have no doubt that the Masters were genuinely
devoted to religious brotherhood.  BUT in looking at the three
categories of individuals who dominate my list of Mahatmas in
The Masters Revealed, one sees abundant grievances against
Christianity.  First, the many rajas and maharajas who
supported the TS did so largely because they saw it as an agent
of revivification of Indian national pride and self-respect.
Indeed, in a cartoon that HPB pasted in her scrapbook, she
indicates that she sees India as a lion caught in a net, and
the TS as a mouse that is gnawing at the net so as to free the
lion.  Since Indian philosophy was so refined and profound in
its metaphysics compared to Christianity, to some extent HPB's
anti-Christianity was the flip side of being pro-India.

Second, HPB's allies in the Buddhist priesthoods of Ceylon,
India, and Tibet also saw European domination as a source of
religious and cultural oppression.  When this letter was
written, HPB was planning a trip to Darjeeling and vicinity,
where she spent a few days in the Ghum monastery.  This was two
years after her formal admission to Buddhism, and shows that
she had personal contacts with both Theravadin and Mahayana
leaders.  The former already had felt abused by Christian
Britain; the latter would soon have the same experience with
the 1903 invasion of Tibet.

Third, HPB's secret sponsors among Punjabi Sikhs were appalled
at the amount of conversion to Christianity that was going on
within their ranks.  The TS alliance with Swami Dayananda's
Arya Samaj was also founded on a strong anti-missionary
emphasis.

So, the bottom line is that HPB's work in India was affiliated
with several Hindu rajas and maharajas, Buddhist priests, Sikh
reform leaders, as well as Western occultists she had known
prior to going to Asia.  Every single one of these groups had
some reason to feel threatened by Christianity.  So there is a
sense of singling out the enemy in HPB's works of this period
that seems unbalanced and untheosophical.  But in light of the
pressures under which her sponsors were living, it is
understandable.

Finally, I would suggest that the later you go in HPB's writing
career, the less you find disrespectful attitudes toward any
religion, and the more you find an effort to harmonize them all.