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Soundings in the Ocean of Aryan Literature.
Puzzles for the Philologists.
A Case of Obsession
Welcome Theosophy!
The Buddhist Idea about the Soul
The "Hindu or Arya" Question
The Nature and Office of Buddha's Religion
The Jain View of Om
The Poona, Exhibition, 1880
How best to become a Theosophist
Mr. Whitworth's Gauntlet. . .
The Theosophical Society
By Nilkant K. Chhatre, B.A., L.C.E.
Brihat Sanhita.
In a previous article it was shown that the syphon was known to the commonest artisan in Aryavarta in the eleventh century. This time I propose to place before my readers some interesting information from the Brihat Sanhita. This work seems to have been written in the sixth century, A. D.; because firstly, the elaborate commentary of Pandit Utpala bears the date 888 Shalivahana, §l, and secondly, the author, Varahamihira, quotes from Aryabhatta, who was born, as is decided by Dr. Bhau Dajee, in the year 470 A.D. §2. We will call the following our second sounding.
(2) Thickness of Walls.
The fifty-third chapter of the work under review is devoted to architecture. The massive architectural buildings, that have outlived the rude handling of destiny, create an impression on the common people that the ancient Aryas were ignorant of those arts that form the triumphs of modern architecture, that economy was unknown to them, and that they did not know what stability of structures is. This impression is heightened by the comparison always made between old massive structures and the new Public Works buildings. However, they forget that the former may have been designed to last for ages, whereas the latter are emphatically not so. The immense thickness of walls, which generally obtains in buildings of old, is at the bottom of this impression. But Varahamihira's rule for the thickness of walls of storied buildings settles the matter at once. I have found out the thickness of walls of the several stories of a building twenty-four feet wide, and thirty-six feet high, divided into three stories. Varahamihira's rule is as follows: — "Let the height of each story be one-twelfth less than that of the one below §3. For the thickness of walls built of burnt bricks take the diagonal length of the cross section of each story and divide it by twelve." §4. This gives thirteen feet, twelve feet and eleven feet as the height of the several stories, and 1'-8 1/4"; 1'-71/2" and 1'-7" nearly for their respective thicknesses.
The rule given in the Roorkee, Vol. II., is well known to every engineer. The thickness obtained by it is two feet nearly; 1'-8.4" and 1'-1" nearly.
The following table will prove that both the results are analogous.
It will thus be seen that structures, that were designed to outlive ages, were as a matter of course massive, but buildings, which had no such pretensions and which were generally used for dwelling purposes, were constructed upon the rules of strict economical engineering.
(3) Pillars.
Pillars are perhaps the best index of the style followed in a particular kind of structure. "Pillar," says Varahamihira, "may be in section square, octagonal, 16-sided, 32-sided, or round. They are respectively called Ruchaka (pleasing); Vajra (strong; Dwivajra (doubly strong; Praleena; Vritta (round)"§ 5. He is very particular in describing the tapering form of the column. "The diameter of the bottom of a pillar is 9/80 of its height and that of its top 1/10 less than that of the former" §6. The Ionic order follows the same rule, though it is otherwise quite distinct. By the bye, I cannot but remark that the double scrolls or volutes of the capital of this order are very like the horns of a figure which, every Hindu knows, is carved on the threshold of the temple of Shiva. The several parts of a pillar are described by Varahamihira as follows: — "Let the pillar be divided into nine parts, the first division being occupied by the figure of an animal (Vahanam — beast of burden) and the second by that of a pot. Five divisions are left out for the shaft, which may be turned out octagonal, square, &c.; of the remaining two, one is to be turned into a lotus and the other to serve as Uttarosta, i. e., the upper portion having a sufficient bearing surface for the superincumbent weight" §7. It will here be seen that the animal, the pot, and the lotus are three distinguishing features of an order which Varahamihira has described on the authority of Hindu writers older than himself. The three feature just enumerated, are so Aryan in conception, that the presence of even a single one of them will suffice to stamp the order as Aryan or Hindu. I think the capitals, surmounted by double elephants in the Karli caves, are examples of the developed condition of the order which is spoken of by Varahamihira.
(To be continued.)
REFERENCES.
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By M. Gracias, Esq.
In a somewhat lengthy article which appears in the March number of the THEOSOPHIST under the above heading, an attempt is made to revive the question which has hitherto been deemed as settled among philologists and ethnologists, viz., that centuries ago, in the dim past, at a period long antecedent to all profane history, there took place at different intervals those emigrations of people from their primeval seats in the great tableau or table-land of Central Asia, which overflowed Europe up to the shores of the Atlantic, and, extending southward, overran Persia and passed beyond the Himalayas into India till they reached the margins of the Indian Ocean. I need hardly say that the subject is an interesting one, and affords a wide field for intelligent and useful discussions. For my part, I should be glad if it were soon taken up by abler hands than mine, and more light thrown upon it, if possible, than has hitherto been done. However, as there are several points in the article referred to, which the writer has contrived to introduce, but for which there appears to be no valid foundation whatever, although a show is made of their being not without support of good authorities by numerous references in foot-notes to Mountstuart Elphinstone's History of India and Pocock's India in Greece, perhaps you will kindly allow me to make a few remarks on some of the most salient of these points, and to endeavour to show that the results of patient and laborious researches of European scholars and others in the matter are not the results of mere speculation and guess-work, but are too well founded upon ascertained facts as brought to light by that branch of exact, though recently developed, science — Comparative Philology — to be swept away by the first vague whisperings of doubt and conjecture. The argument as adduced by the writer in support of his views is in the form of queries to the THEOSOPHIST, and, if I understand it aright, may be resolved and stated as follows: — That if ever the alleged emigration of Aryans took place towards the north-west, i.e., Europe, the European nations would have borne traces of their Aryan origin, i. e., they would have shown traces of Vedic literature and religion, and their oldest extant histories would have contained ample records of their foreign progenitors, as in the case of the Hindus; but as no such traces are forthcoming among either the ancient or the modern European peoples, the allegation that the Aryans ever emigrated into Europe and settled there, must be guarded against, or relegated to the domains of myth and legends. And, looking upon the subject from an historical point of view, he contends that the Aryans were never foreigners who invaded India, but were real aborigines and children of the soil, and refers for authority to a passage in Mountstuart Elphinstone's History mentioned above, which for the benefit of your readers, I feel, I cannot do better than reproduce here in extenso, for it is only one of the many references quoted that has any direct bearing on the point at issue: — "It is opposed to their foreign origin that neither in the code, nor, I believe in the Vedas, nor in any book that is certainly older than the code, is there any allusion to a prior residence, or to a knowledge of more than the name of any country out of India. Even mythology goes no further than the Himalaya chain in which is fixed the habitation of the gods." Mountstuart Elphinstone's History of India, page 97.
I think the argument adduced, such as it is, scarcely requires an effort to be upset; for it can hardly be said to be able to stand on its legs. Instead of there being no traces forthcoming, one would think, after witnessing the facts of philology, that there were more than abundant traces and unmistakeable ones too, if not exactly Vedic, to be found, which speak as plainly to the philologists of the once Aryan or eastern origin of the European people, as do the stars to the astronomers, or the rocks to the geologists. In short, the languages of Europe are too full of the fossil relics of the old Sanskrit, the language of the Aryan — and more full perhaps than are the earth's strata of the bones of extinct animals — to admit of a doubt on the subject.
As regards the passage in Mountstuart Elphinstone's History of India above quoted, perhaps I might as well quote, and with advantage, one or two from treatises on modern philology as a set-up against the former, to enable the reader to judge for himself, before proceeding, to show why I consider that distinguished authority's dictum, at least in this particular case, as not entitled to much weight.
"There have been historically two great streams of Aryan overflow: the one southern, including the Brahmanic Aryans of India and the Persian followers of Zarathustra (Zoroaster); the other the northern at the outset, but western in the end, embracing the great families in North-Western Asia and in Europe." — Modern Philology, by Benjamin Dwight, page 31.
Again: "Has the Sanskrit reached India from Europe, or have the Lithuanic, the Slavonic, the Latin, the Greek, and the German reached Europe from India? If historical evidence be wanting, the a priori presumptions must be considered. I submit that history is silent, and that the presumptions are in favour of the smaller class having been deduced from the area of the larger rather than vice versa. If so, the situs of the Sanskrit is in the eastern, or south-
eastern, frontier of the Lithuanic, and its origin is European." — Elements of Comparative Philology, by R. A. Latham, M. A., page 611.
And again: "At the first dawn of traditional history, we see these Aryan tribes migrating across the snows of the Himalayas southward towards the 'Seven Rivers' (the Indus, the five rivers of the Panjab and the Saraswati), and, ever since, India has been called their home. That before this time they had been living in more northern regions, within the same precincts with the ancestors of the Greeks, Italians, Slavonians, Germans, and Celts, is a fact as firmly established, as that the Normans of William the Conqueror were the northmen of Scandinavia. The evidence of language is irrefragable, and it is the only evidence worth listening to with regard to ante-historical periods. It would have been next to impossible to discover any traces of relationship between the swarthy natives of India and their conquerors, whether Alexander or Clive, but for the testimony borne by language. * * There is not an English jury now-a-days, which, after examining the hoary documents of language, would reject the claim of a common descent and a legitimate relationship between the Hindu, Greek and Teuton. Many words still live in India and in England, that have witnessed the first separation of the Northern and Southern Aryans, and these are witnesses not to be shaken by any cross-examination. The terms for God, for house, for father, mother, son, daughter, for dog and cow, for heart and tears, for axe and tree, identical in all the Indo-European idioms, are like the watch-word of soldiers. We challenge the seeming stranger, and whether he answers with the lips of a Greek, a German, or an Indian, we recognise him as one of ourselves. Though the historian may shake his head, though the physiologist may doubt, and the poet scorn the idea, all must yield before the facts furnished by language. There was a time when the ancestors of the Celts, the Germans, the Slavonians, the Greeks and Italians, the Persians and Hindus, were living together beneath the same roof, separate from the ancestors of the Semitic and Turanian races." Max Muller's Chips, Vol. I. — Last Results of Sanskrit Researches in Comparative Philology by Max Muller: — Philosophy of Universal History by Chevalier Bunsen, page 129, Vol. I.
To resume. With all due deference to one who occupies so high a position in the literary world as the author to whom the writer in the article under notice refers for support, when the task before us is one of ascertaining the real origin of any people, we must not allow considerations to bias our minds. A knowledge of the past history of the people might do much to enable us to attain that object, but it is not always the best, or the surest, or the most reliable. Traditions mislead as often as they guide the inquirer, and the indications, afforded by mythology, manners, and customs, not to mention books and codes, which are their depositories, are frequently deceptive and always vague. Language alone is the surest and certain means available for this purpose. It is an enduring memorial, and whatever changes it may undergo in the course of ages, it rarely loses those fundamental elements which proclaim its origin and affinity. If then we conduct our inquiry into the origin of the European people by means of their language, we shall have no difficulty in coming to a satisfactory conclusion. Now if Mountstuart Elphinstone says: "the common origin of the Sanskrit language with those of the West leaves no doubt that there was once a connection between the nations by whom they were used" —* then there is, I submit, little ground for asserting that the Aryans were not foreigners but aborigines of India, and that they had no relationship to their contemporaries of Europe and Persia, but formed au exclusive race among themselves that never went out of, or came into, India. It may be true, as the same authority says, that "neither in the code, nor in the Vedas of the Hindus, nor in any book that is certainly older than the code, is there any allusion made to a prior residence, or to a knowledge of any thing more than the name of any country out of India"; but that fact cannot be entitled to any consideration as the Aryans, like the rest of the ancients, we know, were lamentably deficient in philological knowledge, and had no notion of the affinity of languages. It is too well known now to students of modern philology what an important part a knowledge of Sanskrit plays in the study of the languages of the great Indo-European family, especially with regard to roots and derivatives, and in tracing the identity of primitive ideas. And as regards the unity of the languages of this family, I think, it scarcely remains for me to say that it has been more than amply demonstrated by European philologists and scholars, and, above all, by no less distinguished an Orientalist and Linguist than Professor Max Muller himself, as may be seen from his lectures on the Science of Languages, as well as from those on the same subject, delivered recently in connection with his Hibbert Lectures, in the beginning of last year. I trust, I have here satisfactorily disposed of this part of the objection, and shown that the results of philological researches are but too well founded to be yet controverted.
* Mounstuart Elphinstone's History of India, page 97, Vol. I.
The science of anthropology may also be brought to bear upon the subject. According to it, the various races of the human family are classified into five principal types or divisions, according to the various peculiarities and contour of the cranium, and general physiognomy, viz., the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Malay, the African, and the Indians of the American prairies. It will be seen from this classification, as also from a reference to the ethnological or philological map, that the Hindus are included among, and regarded as a member of, the great Caucasian or Indo European family. Much is not known of this people, except perhaps that they may have belonged to the Neolithic period or the Stone age, and inhabiting the great tableau or table-land of Central Asia, bounded on the east by the Hindu-Koosh ranges, and on the west by the waters of the Black Sea. These regions are supposed by some — not least weighty authorities — to have been the cradle of humanity, at some period long antecedent to all documentary history; and perhaps for the same reasons which political economists in latter days attribute to Irish and German emigrations to America and the Colonies, they issued from their primeval seats and spread over a considerable portion both of Asia and of Europe. In Asia the ancient Aryans who spoke the Sanskrit, and the Medes and the Persians whose language was the Zend, were the two principal branches of these people. In Europe, the Germans, the Pelasgians (the ancestors of the Greeks), the Lettic, the Slavonians and the Celts, were the five chief varieties. The exact period of these emigrations, as I have mentioned above, is not now ascertainable; but if we may accept the Biblical statements, the period would seem distinctly to refer to that immediately following the Noachian deluge, which by Scriptural chronologists is stated to have occurred about 2,343 years before the Christian era; and the separation of the three sons of Noah with their children and families would appear to explain the several emigrations in question,* viz., that Cham went to Africa, and Japhet to Europe, Sem remaining at home in Asia.
* The able young writer acts prudently in prefacing his Biblical reference with the conjunction "if." That there never was nor could have been a "universal deluge" in 2,343 B. C., is proved beyond any doubt or cavil by geology. Baron Bunsen in "Egypt's place in History" allows a partial deluge more than 10,000 years B. C. "Cham" or Ham is now shown by anthropology to have had nothing to do with the Egyptian race, the skulls of whose mummies have been proved Indo-Caucasian and whose high civilization antedated the Noachian deluge as the waters of the Red Sea antedate the Suez Canal — ED. THEOS.
Of course, further consideration on this subject would lead us to the vexed and unsettled question of the unity and common origin from Adam of the human race. But when doctors disagree, as undoubtedly they do on this head, who shall decide, especially when the theory of "evolution," and the doctrine of "survival of the fittest," with experiments advanced to avouch "spontaneous generation," act like oil poured on raging fire?
Bombay, 12th March, 1880.
The particulars of the case of "obsession," alluded to in the April number of this magazine, are given in the following letter from a respectable English medical man who is in attendance upon the victim: —
"I take the liberty of addressing you in the cause of humanity, with the intention of exciting your sympathies and obtaining all the aid in your power to afford, in a case of 'control.' You will understand that the gentleman is being made a medium against his wish, through having attended a few seances for the purpose of witnessing 'materialization.'
"Ever since he has been more or less subject to a series of persecutions by the 'controlling' spirit and, in spite of every effort of his to throw off the influence, he has been made to suffer most shamefully and painfully in very many ways and under most trying and aggravating circumstances, especially by his thoughts being forced into forbidden channels without external causes being present — the bodily functions overruled, even being caused to bite his tongue and cheeks severely whilst eating, &c., and subjected to every species of petty annoyances which will serve as a means for the 'control' (unknown) to sustain and establish the connexion. The details are in their most painful features not such as I can write to you; but if there be any means known to you whereby the influence can be diverted, and it is thought necessary to be more particular in my description of this case, I will send you all the information I possess."
So little is known in India of the latest and most startling phase of Western mediumistic phenomena — "materialization," — that a few words of explanation are needed to make this case understood. Briefly, then, for several years, in the presence of certain mediums in America and Europe, there have been seen, often under good test conditions, apparitions of the dead, which in every respect seem like living human beings. They walk about, write messages to present and absent friends, speak audibly in the languages familiar to them in life, even though the medium may be unacquainted with them, and are dressed in the garb they wore when alive. Many cases of fraudulent personation of the dead have been detected, pretended mediums have sometimes gone on for years deceiving the credulous, and real ones, whose psychical powers have been apparently proved beyond doubt, have been caught playing tricks in some evil hour when they have yielded to either the love of money or notoriety. Still, making every allowance for all these, there is a residuum of veritable cases of the materialization, or the making visible, tangible and audible of portrait figures of dead people. These wonderful phenomena have been variously regarded by investigators. Most Spiritualists have looked upon them as the most precious proofs of the soul-survival; while Theosophists, acquainted with the views of the ancient Theurgists, and the still more ancient Aryan philosophers, have viewed them as at best misleading deceptions of the senses, fraught with danger to the physical and moral natures of both medium and spectator — if the latter chances to be susceptible to certain psychical influences. These students of 0ccultism have noticed that the mediums for materializations have too often been ruined in health by the drain upon their systems, and wrecked in morals. They have over and again warned the Spiritualistic public that mediummship was a most dangerous gift, one only to be tolerated under great precautions. And for this they have received much abuse and few thanks. Still one's duty most be done at every cost, and the case now before us affords a valuable text for one more bit of friendly counsel.
We need not stop to discuss the question whether the so-called materialized forms above described are or are not those of the deceased they look like. That may be held in reserve until the bottom facts of Oriental psychical science are better understood. Nor need we argue as to whether there has ever been an authentic materialization. The London experiences of Mr. William Crookes F. R. S., and the American ones of Colonel Olcott, both so widely known and of so convincing a character, give us a sufficient basis of fact to argue upon. We assume the reality of materializations, and shall take the instance cited by the English physician as a subject for diagnosis.
The patient then is described as having been "controlled" since attending "circles" where there were materializations, and as having become the bond-slave of some evil powers which force him to say and do painful and even disgusting things, despite his resistance. Why is this? How can a man be compelled to so act against, his will? What is Obsession? Three brief questions these are, but most difficult to explain to an uninitiated public. The laws of Obsession can only be well understood by him who has sounded the depths of Indian philosophy. The only clue to the secret, which the West possesses, is contained in that most beneficent science, Magnetism or Mesmerism. That does teach the existence of a vital fluid within and about the human being; the fact of different human polarities; and the possibility of one person projecting this fluid or force at will, to and upon another person differently polarized. Baron Reichenbach's theory of Odyle or Odic force shows us the existence of this same fluid in the mineral and vegetable as well as the animal kingdoms. To complete the chain of evidence, Buchanan's discovery of the psychometrical faculty in man enables us to prove, by the help of this faculty, that a subtle influence is exerted by people upon the houses and even the localities they live in, the paper they write upon, the clothing they wear, the portion of the Universal Ether (the Aryan Akasa) they exist in — and that this is a permanent influence, perceptible even at the most distant epochs from the time when the individual lived and exerted this influence. In one word, we may say that the discoveries of Western science corroborate most fully the hints thrown out by Greek sages and the more defined theories of certain Indian philosophers.
Indians and Buddhists believe alike that thought and deed are both material, that they survive, that the evil desires and the good ones of a man environ him in a world of his own making, that these desires and thoughts take on shapes that become real to him after death, and that Moksha, in the one case, and Nirvana, in the other, cannot be attained until the disembodied soul has passed quite through this shadow-world of the haunting thoughts, and become divested of the last spot of its earthly taint. The progress of Western discovery in this direction has been and must ever be very gradual. From the phenomena of gross to those of more sublimated matter, and thence on towards the mysteries of spirit is the hard road made necessary by the precepts of Aristotle. Western Science first ascertained that our outcoming breath is charged with carbonic acid and, in excess, becomes fatal to human life; then, that certain dangerous diseases are passed from person to person in the sporules thrown off into the air from the sick body; then, that man projects upon every body and every thing he encounters a magnetic aura, peculiar to himself; and, finally, the physical disturbance set up in the Ether in the process of thought-evolution is now postulated. Another step in advance will be to realize the magical creative power of the human mind, and the fact that moral taint is just as transmissible as physical. The "influence" of bad companions will then be understood to imply a degrading personal magnetism, more subtle than the impressions conveyed to the eye or the ear by the sights and sounds of a vicious company. The latter may be repelled by resolutely avoiding to see or hear what is bad: but the former enwraps the sensitive and penetrates his very being if he but stop where the moral poison is floating in the air. Gregory's "Animal Magnetism," Reichenbach's "Researches," and Denton's "Soul of Things" will make much of this plain to the Western inquirer, though neither of those authors traces the connection of his favourite branch of science with the parent-stock — Indian Psychology.
Keeping the present case in view, we see a man highly susceptible to magnetic impressions, ignorant of the nature of the "materializations" and, therefore, unable to protect himself against bad influences, brought in contact with promiscuous circles where the impressionable medium has long been the unwitting nucleus of evil magnetisms, his system saturated with the emanations of the surviving thoughts and desires of those who are living and those who are dead. The reader is referred to an interesting paper by Judge Gadgil of Baroda, (see our December number) on "Hindu Ideas about Communion with the Dead," for a plain exposition of this question of earth-tied souls, or Pisachas. "It is considered," says that writer, "that in this state, the soul, being deprived of the means of enjoyment of sensual pleasures through its own physical body, is perpetually tormented by hunger, appetite and other bodily desires, and can have only vicarious enjoyment by entering into the living physical bodies of others, or by absorbing the subtlest essences of libations and oblations offered for their own sake." What is there to surprise us in the fact that a negatively polarized man, a man of a susceptible temperament, being suddenly brought into a current of foul emanations from some vicious person, perhaps still living or perhaps dead, absorbs the insidious poison as rapidly as quick lime does moisture, until he is saturated with it? Thus, a susceptible body will absorb the virus of small-pox, or cholera, or typhus, and we need only recall this to draw the analogy which Occult Science affirms to be warranted.
Near the Earth's surface there hangs over us — to use a convenient simile — a steamy moral fog, composed of the undispersed exhalations of human vice and passion. This fog penetrates the sensitive to the very soul's core; his psychic self absorbs it as the sponge does water, or as fresh milk effluvia. It benumbs his moral sense, spurs his baser instincts into activity, overpowers his good resolutions. As the fumes of a wine-vault make the brain reel, or as the choke-damp stifles one's breath in a mine, so this heavy cloud of immoral influences carries away the sensitive beyond the limits of self- control, and he becomes "obsessed," like our English patient.
What remedy is there to suggest? Does not our very diagnosis indicate that? The sensitive must have his sensitiveness destroyed; the negative polarity must be changed to a positive; he must become active instead of passive. He can be helped by a magnetiser who understands the nature of obsession, and who is morally pure and physically healthy; it must be a powerful magnetiser, a man of commanding will-force. But the fight for freedom will, after all, have to be fought by the patient himself. His will-power must be aroused. He must expel the poison from his system. Inch by inch he must win back the lost ground. He must realize that it is a question of life or death, salvation or ruin, and strive for victory, like one who makes a last and heroic effort to save his life. His diet must be of the simplest, he must neither eat animal food, nor touch any stimulant, nor put himself in any company where there is the smallest chance for unclean thoughts to be provoked. He should be alone as little as possible, but his companions should be carefully chosen. He should take exercise and be much in the open air; use wood-fire, instead of coals. Every indication that the bad influence was still working within him should be taken as a challenge to control his thoughts and compel them to dwell upon pure, elevating, spiritual things, at every hazard and with a determination to suffer anything rather than give way. If this man can have such a spirit infused into him, and his physician can secure the benevolent help of a strong, healthy magnetiser, of pure character, he may be saved. A case almost exactly like this one, except that the patient was a lady, came under our notice in America; the same advice as the above was given and followed, and the obsessing "devil" was driven out and has been kept out ever since.
By Narmadashankar Lalshankar, Esq.
(The Gujarathi Poet.)
Composed for, and read at, the Fourth Anniversary of the Theosophical Society.
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[TRANSLATION.]
Hail, happy gathering of happy men!
What friends and what occasion have combined
To bring ye thus together? What seek ye?
2.
Ye come to welcome those who, leaving all
They cherished in their far Columbian home,
Have taken India for their mother-land,
And us, the sons of India, for their friends.
Science and art, and all the past conceals,
In its wide womb, all laws of mind and matter, —
This is the empire where they reign supreme.
By obstacles uncheck'd, with hope elate,
Like pilgrims to old Aryavart they come,
Its monuments of learning to restore,
Its pristine grandeuar and its holy faith.
Wise teachers, yet meek students! they have joined
Into a learned brotherhood to trace
The elemental secrets to their source; —
And New York boasts the honour of its birth,
Yet not their labours to one spot confined,
Bombay, too, shares with them their noble task,
And truths of Aryan Shastras every month
Before their eyes shine pure and beautiful.
3.
Such are the friends, who bring ye thus together:
Long may they live! and may their noble thoughts
For ever such exalted themes pursue!
Blavatsky! Olcott! — Veterans tried and true,
May ye both prove successful in the field
Of knowledge and scientific research!
4.
O, happy day! O, day of jubilee!
Day of rejoicing to all friends sincere!
Day of the sacred Anniversary!
Accept this lay — my Muse's offering!
Rejoice, ye brothers! where so-e'er ye be,
Wherever met to celebrate this day; —
Your labours are rewarded by the smiles,
Th' approving smiles of wise and learned men.
What confidence is theirs, who move within
The circle of your sphere! What privilege
To share the knowledge of the truths occult,
That rule the laws eternal of the mind!
The Vedas, that proclaim the praise of Truth, —
The Shastras of the Brahmins, Buddhists, Jains, —
All these extol the knowledge of the Brahm!
5.
Alas! a change has passed o'er all the world,
And men believe no more their old beliefs:
And the external senses judge between
Their impious cravings and all-holy Truth!
And ye, the sons of Aryavart, who once
Loved from your heart of hearts all ancient lore,
E'en ye have steeped yourselves in disbelief!
What wonder, when Yog Siddhis are denounced
As speculative lies, delusive dreams,
Cob-webs of far-fetched fancies, mixed, absurd?
When the existence of the house-hold gods,
Of ghosts and evil spirits serve no more
Than just to illustrate an idle tale?
When mystic rites and prayers assume the shape
Of slavish bonds, that serve to bind the poor
And the unwise to cunning, greedy men?
What wonder, if this change has undermined
Faith's strong foundations, and destroyed the bloom
From the fair face of science, as it blest,
With vivifying powers, the human soul?
And all the world has felt the blighting touch,
And matter, gross and earthy, life usurped
The god-head of the soul's divinity!
6.
But now behold! Once more the Sun of Truth
Shines radiant, and the mists of ignorance
Vanish before his keen and searching rays!
'Tis thirty summers since America
Gave to the world experimental proof
Of the existence of the spirits of the dead,
And by four summers Time has older grown
Since the votaries of Theosophy combined
To test and to believe the Siddhis' truth.
No more the learned scholars of the West
Refuse to heed the promptings of the soul,
Which tells them of a world within the world
Of matter, and beyond all matter's sway.
Did we not laugh, when not so long ago,
The hermit Vishnu told us of his dream —
The vision of the goddess Sapt-Shyringi?
But now the laugh is turned the other way: —
The thoughtful lay aside their sceptic garb;
For in their hearts the truth of Siddhis shines.
And does he not, the Pandit Dayanand,
The celebrated Swami, prove, beyond
The shadow of a doubt, the human soul
Attains to Yog and highest wonders works,
And reconciles all jarring elements?
And the Theosophists have come to Ind,
And hand-in-hand with th' Aryans work to clear
The mists of ignorance from this fair land.
Yet ignorance sometimes is linked with faith,
And those, to whom the Shastras will not speak,
Still cling to Siddhis with a blind belief.
There are a few, whose wisdom comprehends
All but the truth of Siddhis, and for whom
Philosophy's more common truths have charms.
But let the learned agitate the theme,
And test the truth of this or that belief; —
The world cannot but profit by the search.
Then shall the veil, that hides the face of death,
Be lifted, and the knowledge of the world,
And the religious and the moral truths,
Of the supreme and all-pervading God,
Flash lightning-like into the hearts of men!
Then shall the learned Titans work to solve
Nature's mysterious laws, and utilize
Their knowledge for the good of human kind.
Now ancient learning once more flows amain,
The tide swells on, and soon the time shall come,
When Siddhis shall resume their former sway,
And the soul's hidden powers assert their own!
7.
Now may God's spirit fill our anxious hearts,
And teach us how to recognise the truth —
If Siddhis are acquired by time and nature,
By previous actions or by present thoughts,
By incantations of the sacred Mantras,
Or by the practice of the highest Yog;
Or all these ways must contribute to win
The smiling favour of the Siddhis' Lord!
8.
Glory, Oh glory, to th' Eternal Light!
That shines, and disappears, and shines again!
Before it fades material ignorance
And dies in agony with pallid fear.
Arise Theosophy! The world is thine!
The following errata, due to misprints in the Sanskrit original already noticed, occurred in the translated article in page 144: —
Line 11 — 'Jartukas' read 'Tarkikas.'
Line 14 — 'The animal soul is eternal,' read 'In that system the animal soul is also regarded as eternal.'
Line 27 — 'Sensational' read 'material.'
Line 27 — 'Nominal' read 'perceptional.'
Line 28 — 'Perceptional' read 'mental.'
" — 'Sensationals' read 'materials.'
" 31 — 'Sensational' read 'material.'
" 32 — 'Sensible' read 'material.'
" 31 — 'The nominal aggregates are those that give, names as characterising recognition &c. read 'The perceptional aggregates are those that receive the knowledge of objects by the senses.'
Line 37 — 'Beautiful' read 'good.'
Between lines 40 and 41 Insert 'Of these the four beginning with affectional are called Nama, and material aggregates are called Rupa; except these — Nama and Rupa — there is no soul or person, whatever the living being.'
Line 45 — 'That which knows,' &c., read 'That which is subject to growth and decay is shown to be inserestant (sic)'
Line 54 — 'Budd' read 'bird.'
Line 56 — 'Their' read 'the.'
I beg to say, however, that the translation is admirable. The translator, though learned in Sanskrit and English, must have found it difficult to find appropriate terms for technical words in the Buddhist religion.
H. SUMANGALA.
I doubt not but that almost all the thinking Aryans of India will join with me in voting unanimously their approbation of the recommendation of Mr. B. P. Sankdhar, of Meerut, in the THEOSOPHIST for April, that his Aryan countrymen should discard from their vocabulary the name Hindu by which they have hitherto been wrongly calling themselves, and substitute instead the old appropriate and dignified term "Arya," by which their ancestors were known. I have long been thinking on the subject, and have always laughed in my sleeve, whenever the Hindus, not content, as it were, with their lamentable ignorance in so designating themselves, have shown a sort of pride, to boot, in the assumption of that contemptuous name or rather nickname, as I must call it.
The word Hindu cannot, I think, be traced to any other language than Sanskrit for its first origin, viz., to either Indu, the moon, or Sindhu, the river Indus, giving the name Ind or Hind to the country, Hindi to the language, and Hindu to the people of that country, as so-called by the neighbouring Afghans, Persians, and Arabs. The name was not at first intended as a term of reproach, as Mr. Sankdhar is led to suppose, but as a simple designation derived from the name of the country. But, when, in the course of time, the Mahomedans conquered this country and settled in it, they retained the same name. And as conquerors, full of enthusiasm for the propagation of their new religion, they were often led by pride and arrogance to use it in its derogatory and opprobrious sense to signify a dark and weak race; just as the word nigger is heard applied to all the races of India in our own days by some inconsiderate and low-bred Englishmen — an ignominious fate which every conquered people must always be prepared to meet and to submit to. Dark, no doubt, appeared to the conquerors the bulk of the population as compared to the fair-complexioned Persians and Turks (of Turkestan and Tartary), who comprised the majority of the governing race. In this way the word Hindu soon came to signify dark or black, in the Persian language, as will be clearly seen from the following couplet from the celebrated Persian poet, Hafiz: —
Ager an Turk-i-Shirazi ba-dast arad dil-i-mara,
Bakhal-i-Hindi ash bakhsham Samarkcand-o-Bokharara.
In this couplet Hafiz qualities the noun khal, a mole, on the fair cheek of a damsel whom the lover is seen here courting with the adjective Hindu in the sense of dark or black. I should not, therefore, wonder more at the contemptuous sense in which the name Hindu came to be used by the Mahomedans as the then conquering race, than at the word Native, used in the same sense by some proud sons of Britain; though in the intrinsic sense of neither of these two terms themselves is there anything derogatory. Both words are indispensable in the vocabulary of foreign nations, to distinguish one race or community from the other with respect to either its country or its creed. But this view of the question constitutes no argument at all in favour of the appropriation of a name, apparently contemptuous and derogatory, by a race or community at the expense of its own self-respect and dignity. To continue to call oneself Hindu, only because foreigners call one so, is a most lamentable mistake on the part of our Aryan brother, and the sooner he avoids it the better; especially now that he has been told that there is an appropriate and dignified name by which he may designate himself and his whole community and which was long in vogue amongst his own noble ancestors. Let foreigners call him by whatever name they please, for he cannot control their tongues.
But, allow me to speak here more fairly and candidly than I have already done to my countrymen. Anarya (not Arya, or opposite to Arya as they now really appear in the sight of more enlightened and civilized nations, on account of their many self-derogatory practices to which they still cling under the guidance of an ignorant and selfish priesthood, as an essential part of their present creed — that unless they become really Arya in the true sense of the word, as were their ancestors of old, by their moral courage and magnanimity, I would not lay any great stress on the mere assumption or bearing of a name, however high-sounding and proud it may be. Let them, therefore, first strive to deserve the name before they begin to wear it.
As to the term Native, to which many of my countrymen seem to object, as will be seen from another column (page 166) of the THEOSOPHIST, I quite agree in the observation on this point of the Editor of that journal.
Equally, if not more objectionable is another practice into which almost all the English-educated Natives of India appear to be inadvertently and thoughtlessly falling fast, in imitation of the custom peculiar to Europeans. I shall advert to it in my next communication.
BOMBAY, 8th April, 1880.
By The Rt. Rev. H. Sumangala, F. T. S.
Samma Sanmadhi.
RIGHT MEDITATION.
I propose to treat briefly on Samma Sanmadhi, the subject of this paper. This is the last (anga) member of the Arya astangikamarga. In religion Samadhis are of various natures, but I shall here confine myself to one particular Samadhi and shall endeavour to offer a few remarks, explaining the process by which that state should be attained.
Samadhi is that state of the mind in which dispersed thoughts are brought together and concentrated on one particular object. The chief feature in Samadhi is composure of the mind and its essential characteristic is the restriction of thoughts from dispersion. Stability aids its sustentation and undisrurbed happiness is its natural result. The mind being thus calm and reconciled attains the state of Samadhi. The primary stage of this state of the mind is known as Upachara Samadhi, which simply restrains thoughts from being dispersed. The second or the advanced stage is Uppana Samadhi, which effects a complete reconciliation and composure of the mind.
Again, Samadhi is divided into two classes — Lokiya and Lokuttara. Lokiya (worldly) Samadhi is a state into which any one may enter, if he is so disposed, whereas Lokuttara (superhuman) Samadhi can be entered into only by those who are free from worldly desires. Lokiya Samadhi is a preliminary step to the attainment of Lokuttara. The devotee who is desirous of entering into Lokiya Samadhi should be guided by the directions laid down in Pannabhawana, a process of meditation. In order to reach this state the devotee should, as a primary step, entirely give himself up to devotion, and this is to be done in the manner prescribed in the third, fourth, and fifth angas of the Arya astangikamarga chatuparisuddhi silas. Next he should proceed to free himself from the ten worldly troubles. They are —
1. Awasapalibodha — trouble arising from building houses.
2. Kulapalibodha — trouble arising from the connection with a family, its happiness and sorrows.
3. Labhapalibodha — from excessive gains.
4. Ganapalibodha — from duties incumbent on a teacher.
5. Kammapalibodha — from any manualwork, such as carpentry, &c.
6. Addhanapalibodha — trouble arising from a person having to undertaken a long journey in connexion with the affairs of another or for his own gains.
7. Natipalibodha — trouble arising from having to attend to the sickness of one's own teacher, pupils and parents.
8. Abadhapalibodha — trouble caused by one's own bodily sufferings.
9. Gannthapalibodha — from constant study.
10. Iddhipalibodha — from worldly power and its loss.
Freed from these annoyances, the devotee should then be acquainted with the systematic process of meditation and should receive instructions from a worthy friend or an eminent preceptor.
Meditation is of two classes — Subbhathhakammatthanam and Parihariyakammatthanam. Subbathhakammatthanam is that process of meditation wherein the devotee exercises universal love of mankind, reflects that death is close at hand, and that the human body and all its component parts are liable to decay, and that, therefore, they are to be abhorred. Parihariyakammatthanam is that process of meditation which applies to a man according to his moral nature.
These are forty in number, but I shall take up one of them and show how abstract meditation should be practised.
The moral nature of man is divided into six classes, viz. . .
1. Ragacharito — Sensuous.
2. Dosacharito — Irascible.
3. Mohacharito — Ignorant.
4. Saddhacharito — Faithful.
5. Buddhicharito — Discreet.
6. Vitakkacharito — Reflective.
The first three of these are evil qualities and the last three are virtues. If in one man's nature an evil and virtue combine, that which predominates will influence his moral character. The process of meditation is to be decided by the preceptor according to the tendency of the candidate's moral character. The devotee should then seek retirement and seclusion where he can be free from cares and troubles, considering himself resigned to either his preceptor or Buddha.
By Rao Bahadur Gopalrao Hari Deshmukh,
Vice-President of the Theosophical Society.
In continuation of the explanation of the word "Om," given by the learned Rao Bahadur Dadoba Pandurang, I beg to state that there is an "Upanishat" called "Pranavopanishat" to be found in the first chapter of the Gopatha Brahman of the Atharva Veda. It begins with the words, ![[image]](theos8i.gif){kind=small}
There are thirty-six questions asked and answered in connection with the sacred word "Om," which is a "Bija" according to the Tantric phraseology. Manu in his digest of laws says as follows: —
![[image]](theos8j.gif)
It means "whoever knows the Pranava, knows all the Vedas."
The Padma Puran has the following verse on the subject:
![[image]](theos8k.gif)
Translation.
The syllable "Om" — the mysterious name of Brahma — is the leader of all prayers. Let it, therefore, O Lovely-Faced (Shiva addresses Durga), be employed in the beginning of all prayers.
According to this command the word "Om" is always pronounced before any sacred recitation begins.
Vayu Puran has one chapter on the subject. The two following verses are extracted from it: —
![[image]](theos8l.gif)
The Bhagwat Gita has the following verse: —
![[image]](theos8m.gif)
The Maudukya Upanishat contains a long eulogy upon the word "Om."
The Jains say that the word is the most sacred according to their books. They divide it into five letters,![[image]](theos8n.gif){kind=small}
.
The first indicates ![[image]](theos8o.gif){kind=small}
i. e., a man who has obtained salvation of soul and has attained the degree of ![[image]](theos8p.gif){kind=small}
The second shows ![[image]](theos8q.gif){kind=small}
, a saved soul which has left the mortal body.
The third letter denotes ![[image]](theos8r.gif){kind=small}
or superior teacher.
The fourth means ![[image]](theos8s.gif){kind=small}
or subordinate teacher.
The fifth shows ![[image]](theos8t.gif){kind=small}
or saint.
These five together are called ![[image]](theos8u.gif){kind=small}
and the word "Om" is equal to five persons to whom adoration is due and is daily offered.
The following magadhi lines express all that is written above: —
![[image]](theos8v.gif){kind=small}
Each of these five persons is described as endowed with several virtues. The first with twelve, the second with eight, the third with thirty-six, the fourth with twenty-five, and the fifth with twenty-seven, equal to 108. In commemoration of these virtues, they make a rosary of 108 beads and repeat the word "Om"' in the morning and evening.
The Jain opinion about God as the creator is that he does not exist. They believe that the universe is without beginning and without end. They hold that matter is eternal in one shape or other. The book called ![[image]](theos8w.gif){kind=small}
printed at Bombay by Sha Bhimjee Manuk at the Nirnaya Sagar Press, states at the beginning of page 743, ![[image]](theos8x.gif){kind=small}
and maintains that if it is necessary to suppose that there is a creator, then there must be a creator of the creator. Every result must have a cause and by analogy there must be a God for God. The soul is stated to be immortal, without beginning, but capable of highest virtue, improvement and salvation. This is the Jain view of the Creator. The above is one of the many arguments which the Jains give for disproving the existence of a creator. They have no creator nor any prayer. They believe that each act produces its result which is either punishment or reward, pain or pleasure. Some Bengali writer in your magazine said that the Jains believed in the existence of a creator, but this does not appear to be correct according to the Ratnakar cited above.
Bombay, 15th April 1880.
We have received from the Secretaries of the Poona Exhibition Committee, Messrs. Chintaman S. Chitnis and M. B. Namjoshi, the official circular and premium-list just issued. The Exhibition will open in the month of May in Hirabag, and doubtless include a large and important display of specimens of Native Industrial Art.
Prizes of Rs. 100 each are offered by His Highness the Mahaharajah Holkar for cotton grown in the Deccan or Malua; by His Excellency Rajah Sir T. Madhav Rao, K.C.S.I., for large or small locks in imitation of Chubb locks; by the Poona Museum Committee for specimens of useful earths, with articles made from them; for useful stones for lithographic, tool-sharpening, and other purposes; for woods of all kinds; for grasses and leaves of trees that can be employed in the arts; for glass bangles; and for roshel and linseed oils — specimens and a written description to accompany each exhibit.
As the competitors were required to hand in their essays and specimens by the last day of April, we can only announce the prizes and add our earnest hope that there has been a full response to the Committee's liberal offers. Every attempt to revive Indian art is entitled to the opprobation and support of the whole country.
By Dr. George Wyld,
President, British Theosophical Society.
London, 19th March, 1880.
DEAR COLONEL OLCOTT,
The Theosophist for March has just come to hand, and in order to catch the post, I sit down to write to you at once a few hurried lines.
I thank you for the kind and flattering words you use in speaking of my Presidential address, but at the same time I think you somewhat fail to appreciate the full meaning of the position I take.
When I speak of an Oriental adept, I distinctly declare that I do so with all deference, confessing my imperfect information and even my ignorance. When, for instance, I say that "the adept obtains magical powers which he uses for his own ends and over spirits," you misinterpret me by implying selfish ends and consorting with spirits.
This is the reverse of what I meant. I meant that his ends were more private than public, and that he commanded but did not consort with weaker spirits than himself.
As I intend shortly to reprint six of my papers which have during the last two years appeared in the Spiritualist, I will take care to express myself so as to correct the words on which you inadvertently misinterpret my meaning.
I suppose you at once admit that the adept works chiefly in secret, and that so far he differs from those Christians who, in the history of the church, obtained divine powers.
I will also note what you say about female adepts, although we in London are under the belief that H. P. B. led us to understand that no fully initiated female adept existed.
You say, your "fifty years' experience forces you to conclude that Christianity is a bad religion, and fosters every sin and vice against which its ethical code inveighs."
Surely you have not pondered your words — for how can a perfect ethical code foster every sin and vice?
What you mean is that — so-called Christian churches and priesthoods have been guilty of every sin and vice.
I might with equal logic say, Buddhism must be an abominable religion, because I find the most degrading ignorance and vice is to be found in many of the lamaseries of Thibet.
But, instead of reasoning thus, I, in my address, speak of esoteric Buddhism with the greatest reverence and respect, and I assert that esoteric Christianity and esoteric Buddhism are in their central spirit identical.
I hope you may be able to insert this short letter in the Theosophist, because I wish my Oriental brothers to understand that, in all I write, I desire truth only, and I am prepared now and always to stand thereby at whatever cost.
Moreover, I feel this, as a conviction of my soul, that, were I admitted to intimate conversation with a truly spiritual adept, we should find our views on religion, in their central essence, identical.
Believe me, dear Brother,
Yours sincerely,
GEORGE WYLD, M. D.
Notes on the above.
My explanations of the real motive of the Indian ascetic's severe course of self-spiritualization, as given in the article to which. Dr. Wyld adverts, were so clear that, upon a second reading, I do not see that further elucidation is called for. I think I showed that the acquisition of divine powers, to use them for good of mankind and not for private benefit of any kind, was what is sought. The ascetic of India "works in secret" while developing his powers, only because contact with the filthy selfishness and sensualism of the world would prevent the development. And if the full adept, after becoming such, lives apart, it is because he can thus best work for humanity. Though unseen, he is nevertheless ever doing good. I recall no instances of Christian "adepts," or, indeed, any of another faith — who did not at least gain their powers by fasting, meditation, and seclusion; nor any who afterward freely lived and mingled with the gluttonous and vicious crowd. The long list of untrained religious ecstatics we will not take into account. Whether epileptics, mediums, natural clairvoyants, or mesmerized neurotics, they are not to be mentioned in the same breath with the instructed, powerful initiate of Esoteric Science, to whom nature's secrets are known and her laws his auxiliaries.
I re-affirm that I have met some female ascetics possessed of magical powers, and know of more. But I did not say that either of these or any female had reached the highest possible degree of power in occult science: there are many stages, and all persons do not reach the same.
Dr. Wyld should not make me appear to call the Christian ethical code "perfect." If it were perfect, then it certainly would not lend itself to a double interpretation and so foster every vice and sin. In my judgment, the doctrine of vicarious atonement, the very basis of Christianity, neutralizes all its lofty moralities, since it pretends that faith, not merit, secures salvation. In this respect, Buddhism is vastly superior. As to the degrading ignorance and vice in the lamaseries of Thibet, if Dr. Wyld has "found" them there, it must have been through the eyes of some imaginative bookmaker; for no real traveller — the Abbe Huc not excepted — has had the chance to make such a discovery. However, let us offset the lamasery, which we do not know to be a nest of sensualistic recluses, against the Christian monastery and nunnery which we do know to have so often been such, and confine ourselves to the main subject. The author of a very recent essay, speaking in an Australian magazine from the stand-point of personal observation says: — "On the other hand, savage and uncivilized races may be found, whose domestic life is in the highest degree moral, as the Zulus, among whom crimes, such as we regard them, do not exist, and a more honest, truthful, and chaste race is not to be found, as I can affirm from years' residence among them. And that this morality arises from intuition is proved by the fact that, when they are educated and taught 'Bible truths,' they immediately become immoral; and, like the English mistress who puts into her advertisement, 'No Irish need apply,' the Natal mistress says, 'No Christian Kaffir need apply,' for, when Christianised, the men are thieves and the women unchaste."
On behalf of Buddhist, Vedaist, Jain and Parsi, I am quite satisfied to let the moral code of either of these faiths, which alike teach that merit can alone save, be compared with the code of Christianity, which teaches that the sinner may be saved from the natural consequences of his sin by faith in the vicarious efficacy of the blood of one named Jesus. As was remarked in my previous article, if my respected friend and brother, Dr. Wy1d, were to steady Eastern philosophies under Eastern masters, his opinions would certainly change.
H. S. OLCOTT.
Bombay, April, 1880.
To such as do not know the reluctance of the Christian church and its bullies to attack a strong and manly foe (except by inuendo), the silence in which Mr. G. C. Whitworth's "Personal Statement of Religious Belief" has been received, must seem strange. This brave pamphlet deserves the thoughtful attention of not only every Christian, but every man of any faith who cares for the approval of conscience. It is a clarion call to honest speech and useful living. Most unfortunately, our extended notice of the work (see p. 189 of the Theosophist for April) was so cramped in between the article on "Cremation in America" and the crowded matter in the last page, that it may have escaped the notice of many; which the printer's aggravating omission of its title from the Table of Contents makes more probable still. If any have passed it over, let them read it and take its lesson to heart.
THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
Important events in the Society's history occurred during the month of April. Among these were the selection of officers for the current year; the issue of a Charter to Signor Pasquale Menelao and associates, of Corfu, Greece, to regularly organize the IONIAN THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY; and the foundation of the BOMBAY THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, which will be under a special charter and have jurisdiction over Theosophical affairs throughout the Bombay Presidency. Increasing demands upon the time of the executive officers of the Parent Society made the latter step necessary, and the effect will doubtless be most salutary. Another highly encouraging circumstance was the adhesion to the Parent Society of a considerable number of eminent Frenchmen, among them M. Rene Caille, the engineer associate of de Lesseps in building the Suez Canal, and President of the Paris Psychological Society; M. Camille Flammarion, the distinguished astronomer; M. Fauvety, the philosopher and author; M. Tremeschini; Eugene Nus, the well-known author; Charles de Rappard, founder of the journal Licht Mehr Licht; Camille Chaigneau, the poet; Georges Cochety, the magnetist, and others. And now that the "Russian spy" scare about the Theosophists has blown over and we can afford a good-natured laugh with the detectives who at great cost "shadowed" us throughout India, their attention is invited to the names of our British Members of Council, among which is that of a nobleman whose rank as a man of science is very great, since he is one of the Council of the Royal Society of England, and President of the Astronomical Society. Such Englishmen are not commonly supposed to consort with Russian spies!
The next step to be taken by the Society is one of the most important possible. On the 6th instant, the President and Corresponding Secretary, accompanied by a Special Committee of the Bombay Society, will sail for Ceylon to inaugurate the long-contemplated Buddhist Branch. Full particulars of the voyage will appear next month.
Following are the —
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS FOR 1880.
President:
COL. HENRY S. OLCOTT.
Vice-Presidents:
Rt. Rev. H. Sumangala (Buddhist High Priest) Ceylon.
Baron Jules Denis du Potet France.
Raja Shyama Shankar Roy Bengal.
Rao Badadur Gopalrao Hari Deshmukh Bombay.
Pandit Adityaram Bhattacharya N. Provinces.
Major-Genl. Abner Doubleday U. S. America.
C. C. Massey, Esq. England.
The Hon. Alexandre Aksakof Russia.
Signor Pasquale Menelao Corfu.
Corresponding Secretary:
H. P. BLAVATSKY.
Assistants to the Corresponding Secretary:
Rustamji D. Sethna, Sanskrit.
Damodar K. Mavalankar, marathi & English.
Mme. E. Coulomb, French & Italian.
Panachand Anandji Parekh, Hindi.
Kallianji Narananji, Gujurathi.
Narayan Lakshmaya Bhatka, Kanarese.
K. Venkatrao Narasayya , Telugu.
JOINT RECORDING SECRETARIES:
William Q. Judge — Kharsedji N. Seervai
ASSISTANT RECORDING SECRETARY:
Sorabji Jamaspji Padshah
TREASURER:
George Valentine Maynard
LIBRARIAN:
August Gustam — Sorabji Jamaspji Padshah
THE GENERAL COUNCIL
Prof. Alexander Wilder, M.D., New York, U. S. A.
J. H. D. Buck, Esq., Cincinnati, U. S. A.
E. Wimbridge, Esq., G.R.I.B.A. New York, U. S. A.
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The Rt. Hon. The Lord Lindsay London, England.
George Wyld, Esq., M.D. London, England.
Monsieur Camille Flammarion, Paris, France.
Rev. Mohattiwatti Gunanande, (Buddhist Priest) Ceylon.
Baron Odon von Vay, Buda Pesth, Hun.
Dr. Nicolas Count de Gonemys, Corfu.
The Hon. N. A. Fadeew, Odessa, Russia.
Roberto B. Allen, Esq., Venezuela, S. A.
David E. Dudley, Esq., M.D. Manila, Phl. Islands.
Count de Nichichievich de Nichea, Mansoura, Egyypt.
Lt. Col. W. Gordon, Staff Corps. Mannbhoom, Bengal.
Rao Bahadur Janardan Sakharam Gadgil, Baroda, Bombay.
Babu Jwala Sahaie, Oodeypore, Rajput.
Keshow Narsing Mavalankar, Esq., Bombay.
Vinayek R. Patwardhan, Esq., B.A. LLB., Bombay
Pandit JaswantRoy Bhojapatra, Multan, Panjab
Kavasji Merwanji Shroff Esq., Multan, Panjab.
Kavasji Merwanji Shroff, Esq., Bombay.
Moolji Thackersey, Esq., Bombay.
Pandit Mohunlal Vishnulal Pamdea, Nathdwara, Rajput.
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SUPREME CHIEF OF THE THEOSOPHIST OF THE ARYA SAMAJ
Pandit Dayand Saraswati, Swami.
[This is a distinct branch of the Theosophical Society and of the Arya Samaj of India. It is composed of Western and Eastern Theosophists who accept Swamiji Dayanand as their leader.]
THE BOMBAY THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,
OFFICERS AND COUNCIL. — 1880.
President: Keshowrao Narsing Mavalankar; Vice-Presidents: K. N. Seervai and Rao Bahadur Gopalrao Hari Deshmukh; Secretary: Framroz Rastamji Joshi; Treasurer: Krishnarao Narsing Mavalankar; Council: Edward Wimbridge, Mooljee Thackersey, V. R. Patwardhan, Sorabji Edulji Warden and Rastainji Cowasji Jabooli.