Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00340)

   Hi

   Here is a quote from Sylvia Cranston's book. Some of you may
   enjoy reading it. I have a few comments.

   1. We have been talking about the Universal Brotherhood and how
   it is *the* key to Theosophy and Theosophical Society. We may
   have to go back to the roots.

   2. The idea of Mahatmas is taken for granted in India for a
   number of centuries.

   	...Doss
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       It is interesting to note that in the nineteenth century the
   Theosophical Society was not the first to hold aloft in India the
   idea of universal brotherhood. An experiment along these lines
   was begun in 1867 by a celebrated yogi in southern India,
   Ramalingam. He attracted thousands of followers, but they were
   more interested in the purported miracles he produced. One of his
   disciples, Pandit Vellayu, of Presidency College in Madras, in a
   witnessed statement made in 1882, reported that his teacher
   repeatedly told his followers before he died in 1874:

        You are not fit to become members of this Society of
        Universal Brotherhood. *The real members of that Brotherhood
        are living far away, towards the North of India*. You do not
        listen to me. You do not follow the principles of my
        teachings. You seemed to be determined not to be convinced
        by me. YET THE TIME IS NOT FAR OFF, WHEN PERSONS FROM
        RUSSIA, AMERICA (these two countries were always mentioned),
        and other foreign lands WILL COME TO INDIA AND PREACH TO YOU
        THE SAME DOCTRINE OF UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD. Then only, will
        you know and appreciate the grand truths that I am now
        vainly trying to make you accept. You will soon find that
        THE BROTHERS WHO LIVE IN FAR OFF NORTH will work a great
        many wonders in India, and thus confer incalculable benefits
        upon this our country.

       Pandit Vellayu adds: "This prophecy has, in my opinion, just
   been literally fulfilled. The fact that the Mahatmas in the North
   exist is no new idea to us Hindus; and the strange fact that the
   advent of Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott from Russia and
   America was foretold several [in 1874, five] years before they
   came to India, is an incontrovertible proof that my Guru was in
   communication with those Mahatmas under whose directions the
   Theosophical Society was subsequently founded.

   pp: 198 - HPB by Sylvia Cranston

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