Homi Jehangir Bhabha, FRS (30 October 1909 – 24 January 1966) was an Indian nuclear physicist and the chief architect of the Indian atomic energy program. He was also responsible for the establishment of two well-known research institutions, namely the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), and the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay (which after Bhabha's death was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)). As a scientist, he is remembered for deriving a correct expression for the probability of scattering positrons by electrons, a process now known as Bhabha scattering. For his significant contributions to the development of atomic energy in India, he is known as the father of India's nuclear program. World War II broke out in September 1939 while Bhabha was vacationing in India. He chose to remain in India until the war ended. In the meantime, he accepted a position at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, headed by Nobel laureate C. V. Raman. He established the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the institute, and began to work on the theory of the movement of point particles. In 1945, he established the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay, and the Atomic Energy Commission of India three years later. In the 1950s, Bhabha represented India in International Atomic Energy Forums, and served as President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955. He was awarded Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 1954. He later served as the member of the Indian Cabinet's Scientific Advisory Committee and set up the Indian National Committee for Space Research with Vikram Sarabhai. In January 1966, Bhabha died in a plane crash near Mont Blanc, while heading to Vienna, Austria to attend a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee.
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Higher education and research at Cambridge
3 Return to India
4 Atomic Energy in India
5 Death and legacy
6 References
7 External References
[edit]Early life
Bhabha was born into a wealthy and prominent Parsi family, through which he was related to Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Dorab Tata. He received his early education at Bombay's Cathedral Grammar School and entered Elphinstone College at age 15 after passing his Senior Cambridge Examination with Honors. He then attended the Royal Institute of Science until 1927 before joining Caius College of Cambridge University. This was due to the insistence of his father and his uncle Dorab Tata, who planned for Bhabha to obtain an engineering degree from Cambridge and then return to India, where he would join the Tata Iron and Steel Company in Jamshedpur.
[edit]Higher education and research at Cambridge
At Cambridge Bhabha's interests gradually shifted to theoretical physics. In 1928 Bhabha in a letter to his father. Bhabha's father understood his son's predicament, and he agreed to finance his studies in mathematics provided that he obtain first class on his Mechanical Sciences Tripos exam. Bhabha took the Tripos exam in June 1930 and passed with first class. Afterwards, he embarked on his mathematical studies under Paul Dirac to complete the Mathematics Tripos. Meanwhile, he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory while working towards his doctorate in theoretical physics. At the time, the laboratory was the center of a number of scientific breakthroughs. James Chadwick had discovered the neutron, John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton transmuted lithium with high-energy protons, and Patrick Blackett and Giuseppe Occhialini used cloud chambers to demonstrate the production of electron pairs and showers by gamma radiation. During the 1931–1932 academic year, Bhabha was awarded the Salomons Studentship in Engineering. In 1932, he obtained first class on his Mathematical Tripos and was awarded the Rouse Ball traveling studentship in mathematics.
Research in theoretical physics
In January 1933, Bhabha published his first scientific paper, "The Absorption of Cosmic radition". In the publication, Bhabha offered an explanation of the absorption features and electron shower production in cosmic rays.The paper helped him win the Isaac Newton Studentship in 1934, which he held for the next three years. The following year, he completed his doctoral studies in theoretical physics under Ralph H. Fowler. During his studentship, he split his time working at Cambridge and with Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. In 1935, Bhabha published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which performed the first calculation to determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering. Electron-positron scattering was later named Bhabha scattering, in honor of his contributions in the field[citation needed].
In 1936, the two published a paper, "The Passage of Fast Electrons and the Theory of Cosmic Showers" in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A, in which they used their theory to describe how primary cosmic rays from outer space interact with the upper atmosphere to produce particles observed at the ground level. Bhabha and Heitler then made numerical estimates of the number of electrons in the cascade process at different altitudes for different electron initiation energies. The calculations agreed with the experimental observations of cosmic ray showers made by Bruno Rossi and Pierre Victor Auger a few years before. Bhabha later concluded that observations of the properties of such particles would lead to the straightforward experimental verification of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. In 1937, Bhabha was awarded the Senior Studentship of the 1851 Exhibition, which helped him continue his work at Cambridge until the outbreak of World War II in 1939{{[citation needed]}}.
[edit]Return to India
In September 1939, Bhabha was in India for a brief holiday when World War II broke out, and he decided not to return to England for the time being. He accepted an offer to serve as the Reader in the Physics Department of the Indian Institute of Science, then headed by renowned physicist C. V. Raman. He received a special research grant from the Sir Dorab Tata Trust, which he used to establish the Cosmic Ray Research Unit at the institute. Bhabha selected a few students, including Harish-Chandra, to work with him. Later, on 20 March 1941, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society . With the help of J. R. D. Tata, he played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay. ,,
[edit]Atomic Energy in India
When Bhabha was working at the Indian Institute of Science, there was no institute in India which had the necessary facilities for original work in nuclear physics, cosmic rays, high energy physics, and other frontiers of knowledge in physics. This prompted him to send a proposal in March 1944 to the Sir Dorab J. Tata Trust for establishing 'a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics'. In his proposal he wrote :
“ There is at the moment in India no big school of research in the fundamental problems of physics, both theoretical and experimental. There are, however, scattered all over India competent workers who are not doing as good work as they would do if brought together in one place under proper direction. It is absolutely in the interest of India to have a vigorous school of research in fundamental physics, for such a school forms the spearhead of research not only in less advanced branches of physics but also in problems of immediate practical application in industry. If much of the applied research done in India today is disappointing or of very inferior quality it is entirely due to the absence of sufficient number of outstanding pure research workers who would set the standard of good research and act on the directing boards in an advisory capacity ... Moreover, when nuclear energy has been successfully applied for power production in say a couple of decades from now, India will not have to look abroad for its experts but will find them ready at hand. I do not think that anyone acquainted with scientific development in other countries would deny the need in India for such a school as I propose.
The subjects on which research and advanced teaching would be done would be theoretical physics, especially on fundamental problems and with special reference to cosmic rays and nuclear physics, and experimental research on cosmic rays. It is neither possible nor desirable to separate nuclear physics from cosmic rays since the two are closely connected theoretically.[1]
”
The trustees of Sir Dorab J. Tata Trust decided to accept Bhabha's proposal and financial responsibility for starting the Institute in April 1944. Bombay was chosen as the location for the prosed Institute as the Government of Bombay showed interest in becoming a joint founder of the proposed institute. The institute, named Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, was inaugurated in 1945 in 540 square meters of hired space in an existing building. In 1948 the Institute was moved into the old buildings of the Royal Yacht club. When Bhabha realized that technology development for the atomic energy programme could no longer be carried out within TIFR he proposed to the government to build a new laboratory entirely devoted to this purpose. For this purpose, 1200 acres of land was acquired at Trombay from the Bombay Government. Thus the Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay (AEET) started functioning in 1954. The same year the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was also established.[2] He represented India in International Atomic Energy Forums, and as President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, in Geneva, Switzerland in 1955. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958.[3]
[edit]Death and legacy
He died when Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc on January 24, 1966. Many possible theories have been advanced for the aircrash, including a conspiracy theory in which CIA is involved in order to paralyze Indian nuclear weapon programme[citation needed]. After his death, the Atomic Energy Establishment at Trombay was renamed as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour.
In addition to being an able scientist and administrator, Bhabha was also a painter and a classical music and opera enthusiast, besides being an amateur botanist[citation needed].He is one of the most prominent scientists that India has ever had. Bhabha also encouraged research in electronics, space science, radio astronomy and microbiology[citation needed]. The famed radio telescope at Ooty, India was his initiative, and it became a reality in 1970. The Homi Bhabha Fellowship Council has been giving the Homi Bhabha Fellowships since 1967 Other noted institutions in his name are the Homi Bhabha National Institute, an Indian deemed university and the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Mumbai, India.
[edit]
Friday, December 30, 2011
Helena Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Russian: Еле́на Петро́вна Блава́тская, Ukrainian: Олена Петрівна Блаватська), (born as Helena von Hahn (Russian: Елена Петровна Ган, Ukrainian: Олена Петрівна Ган); 12 August [O.S. 31 July] 1831 – 8 May 1891) was a theosophist, writer and traveler. Between 1848 and 1875 Blavatsky went around the world three times. In 1875 Blavatsky, together with Colonel H. S. Olcott, established the Theosophical Society. One of the main purposes of this Society was “to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color”.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Lineage
1.2 Childhood and Youth
1.3 Travels
1.4 Main Creative Period
2 The Theosophical Society
3 Theosophy
3.1 Definition and Origin
3.2 Overview
3.2.1 Scope
3.2.2 Methodology
3.2.2.1 Law of Correspondences
3.2.3 Applications
3.2.4 Terminology
3.3 Basic Tenets
3.3.1 Three Fundamental Propositions
3.3.2 Karma and Reincarnation
3.3.3 Cycles
3.3.4 Cosmic Evolution
3.3.4.1 Items of Cosmogony
3.3.5 Anthropogenesis
3.3.6 Esotericism and Symbolism
3.3.7 Septenary Systems
3.3.7.1 Seven Cosmic Planes
3.3.7.2 Seven Principles and Bodies
3.3.8 Rounds and Races
3.3.8.1 Racial theories
4 Influence
4.1 Following
4.2 Indian Independence Movement
4.3 Anthroposophy
4.4 Ariosophy
4.5 New Age Movement
4.6 Scholarship
4.7 Art, music and literature
5 Criticism
6 Works
7 Books about Blavatsky
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
[edit]Biography
[edit]Lineage
Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, H.P. Blavatsky’s grandfather
Maternally H.P. Blavatsky’s lineage goes back through Prince Michael of Chernigov to Rurik, Norse founder of the Russian state at Novgorod. Maternally the direct ancestor of H. Blavatsky was Sergey Grigor’yevich Dolgoruky, a well-known diplomat of his time and the brother of Aleksey Grigor’evich Dolgoruky, a member of Supreme Secret Council under Peter the Second. Sergei Grigor’evich was the great grandfather of Helena Pavlovna Fadeyeva-Dolgorukaya (H.P. Blavatsky’s grandmother) and great-great-great-grandfather of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.[2]
H.P. Blavatsky’s grandfather, Prince Pavel Vasilyievich Dolgorukov (1755–1837) was a Major General during the reign of Ekaterina the Great. He was decorated with the highest army award, the Order of St. George [3] and was a companion in arms of Kutuzov.[4] His wife was Henrietta de Bandre Plessy Duc de, a daughter of Adolf Frantcevich, who had command of an army corps during the Crimea campaign and, according to A.M. Fadeyev, was a favorite of Suvorov.[5]
A daughter of Pavel Vasilievich and Henrietta Adolfovna was Princess Helena Pavlovna, H.P. Blavatsky’s grandmother. She received a versatile home education, spoke in five languages, and focused her studies on the fields of archeology, numismatics, and botany. Fadeyev’s herbariums and pictures of various plants aroused the admiration of many scientists. Helena Pavlovna was in scientific correspondence with: well-known German scientist, Alexander Humboldt; English geologist and founder of Geographic Society, R. Merchison; Swedish botanist, Christian Steven, a researcher of Caucasus flora and fauna. According to H.F. Pisareva, botanist Homer de Hel named found by him shell Venus-Fadeyeff in honor of Helena Pavlovna.
Helena Petrovna Dolgorukaya, H.P. Blavatsky’s grandmother
In 1813, Princess married Andrew Mikhailovich Fadeyev who was the state officer and later the Secret Councilor Governor of Saratov and Tiflice. His lineage goes back to Russian hereditary noblemen and the German von Krause lineage. Andrew Mikhailovich’s grandfather, Peter Mikhailovich Fadeyev, was a captain in the army of Peter the Great. Helena Pavlovna and Andrew Mikhailovich had four children. The eldest daughter, Helena Hahn, was a well-known writer; she made a name for herself as a Russian George Sand. She was the mother of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Vera Petrovna Jelihovsky and Leonid Hahn. Their son, Rostislav Fadeyev, was a general, army writer and reformer. Their daughter, Ekaterina Andreevna, was the mother of the well-known Russian statesman, Sergei Witte. Lastly, daughter Nadejda Andreevna became an active member of the Theosophical Society.
Sergei Witte wrote that his grandfather, P.V. Dolgorukov, during his daughter’s marriage had blessed his daughter and new son-in-law with an ancient cross which, according to family legend, belonged to the Grand Prince of Kiev, St. Michael of Chernigov. Later, this cross passed into the hands of Helena Pavlovna and further to Sergei Witte.
According to the lineage of her father, Peter Alekseevich Hahn, Helena Petrovna belongs to the Baltic-German family Hahn. Boris Zirkoff, an editor and active promoter of theosophy, in the introduction to H.P. Blavatsky’s collected works pointed out that Hahn's family (H.P. Blavatsky’s forefathers from father’s side) belonged to the Count von Hahn's family line from Basedov (Mecklenburg). According to information from another source, this family is traceable back to the Carolingian dynasty and German knights and crusaders. Meanwhile, any documents supporting a relationship between H.P. Blavatsky’s family and the Mecklenburg Counts have yet to be located. In the record of service of “Aleksey Fedorov Hahn’s son” (1751–1815) (H.P.Blavatsky’s grandfather, Governor of the fortress Kamenets-Podolsk) is mentioned as descended from “Eastland’s inhabitants." His father had foreign citizenship and was Kraits-Commissioner in the Eastland”. The archives contain the documents supporting the existence of “Kraits-Commissioner” Johann Friedrich (Fyodor) Hahn who was born in 1719 at Narva died May 31, 1803, in the same place. The documents do not contain any information about the lineage or ties of relationship of the family. Note that B. Zirkoff himself belongs to Hahn's family on the female side, not Johann Friedrich but Johann August von Hahn, which is not connected with H.P. Blavatsky’s family by documents.
[edit]Childhood and Youth
Rostislav Andreevich Fadeyev, H.P. Blavatsky’s uncle
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born on July 31 (August 12 for new style) 1831 at Yekaterinoslav (from 1926 Dnepropetrovsk) in the family of well-known writer Helena Andreevna Hahn (Fadeyeva) and an officer of horse-artillery battery Peter Alekseevich Hahn.
Because of her father’s profession, the family often chose the place of abode. A year later after Helena’s birth, the family moved to Romankovo (now it enters Dneprodzerzhinsk), and in 1835 they moved to Odessa, where Helena’s sister, Vera (future writer Jelihovsky), was born. Further the family lived in Tula and Kursk and in spring 1836 arrived to St. Petersburg where lived until May 1837. From Petersburg Helena Petrovna along with her sister, mother and grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev moved to Astrakhan. There, Andrei Mikhailovich worked a main relieving officer over Kalmyk people and local German colonists.[6] In 1838, mother moved with the little girls to Poltava where Helena began to take dance lessons and learned to play the piano, taught by her mother.
In spring 1839, the family moved to Odessa because of Helena’s wealth aggravation.[clarification needed] There Helena Andreevna found the governess for her children which had taught them English.[7] In November, Helena’s Grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich was assigned for a governor of Saratov by approval of Emperor’s Nikolai I. After this, Helena Andreevna and her children moved to live with him. In June 1840, at Saratov her son, Leonid, was born. Helena Petrovna was then nine years old. Nadejda Fadeyeva, Helena’s aunt, wrote to A.Sinnett her memory of her niece:
Helena Andreevna Hahn, H.P. Blavatsky’s mother
“In childhood, all [Helena’s] the likings and interests were concentrated on the people from lower estates. She preferred to play with domestic’s children but not with equals. <…> She always needs for attention to prevent her escape from home and meetings with street ragamuffins. And at mature age she irrepressibly reached out to them whose status was lower than her own, and displayed a marked indifference to the “nobles”, to which she belongs by birth”.[8]
At ten years old, Helena began to study German. Her progress was so appreciable that, according to V. Jelihovsky, her father “complemented her, and in jest called her a worthy heiress of her glorious ancestors, German knights Hahn-Hahn von der Rother Hahn, who knew no another language besides German."
In 1841, the family returned to Ukraine, where Helena contracted Herpes. On July 6, 1842 Helena Andreevna Hahn, Helena’s mother and at that time a well-known writer, died at the age of 28 of galloping consumption.
According to Vera Jelihovsky, Helena's mother, at the time, was worried about the destiny of her elder daughter, “gifted from childhood by outstanding features”.[9] Before her death, her mother said: “Well! Perhaps it is for the better that I am dying: at least, I will not suffer from seeing Helena’s hard lot! I am quite sure that her destiny will be not womanly, that she will suffer much”.[10]
After her mother’s death, Helena’s grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich and Grandmother Helena Pavlovna had taken the children to Saratov, where they had quite a different life. Fadeyev’s house was visited by Saratov’s intellectuals. A known historian, Kostomarov, and writer, Mary Zhukova, were among them.[2] Her grandmother and three teachers were occupied with the children’s upbringing and education, therefore, Blavatsky received a solid home education.[11][12]
Helena’s favorite place in the house was her grandmother’s library which Helena Pavlovna inherited from her father.[12] In this voluminous library, Helena Petrovna paid special attention to the books whose subject was medieval occultism.[13]
“Two Helens (Helena Hahn and Helena Blavatsky)” 1844-1845. According to one of the versions, the picture was drawn by H.P. Blavatsky. Museum centre of H.P. Blavatsky and her family (Ukraine)
In 1847, the family had moved from Saratov to Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia), where Andrei Mikhailovich was invited to work in the Council of Senior Governance of Transcaucasia region.[14] H.F. Pisareva wrote in her biographic essay “Helena Petrovna Blavatsky”:
“They who knew her … in youth remember with delight her inexhaustibly merry, cheerful, sparkling with wit talk. She liked jokes, teasing and to cause a commotion” [26].
Nadejda Andreevna Fadeyeva, Helena’s aunt, remembered the following:
“As a child, as a young woman, as a woman, she always was so higher than her surroundings that she never was could not appreciate its true value. She was trained as a girl from good family … extraordinary wealth in the form of her intellectual faculties, fineness and quickness of thought, amazing understanding and learning of most difficult disciplines, unusually developed mind together with chivalrous, direct, energetic and open character – this is what raised her so high over the level of conventional society and could not help attracting the common attention and therefore the envy and hostility from these who with their nonentity can not stand of luster and gifts of this wonderful nature”.[15]
In youth, Helena had a high life, often was in society, danced at the balls and visited the parties. But when she reached 16, she has experienced sudden inner change, and she began to study the books from great grandfather’s library more deeply.[16]
“Margarita and Mephistopheles”. 1862. Drawing of H.P. Blavatsky made after visiting of the opera “Faustus”
In 1910 H.F.Pisareva, in her essay dedicated to H.P. Blavatsky, cited the reminiscences of Mary Grigor’evna Yermolova, Tiflis governor’s wife: “Simultaneously with Fadeev’s family, in Tiflis lived a relation of the Caucasian Governor-general, prince Golitsin. He often visited Fadeyevs and was greatly interested by an original young woman”. Just due to Golitsin (Yermolova did not cited his name) which, as it was rumored, was “either mason or magician or soothsayer” Blavatsky tried “to come into contact with a mysterious sage of the East where prince Golitsin was going to”.[15] This version was further supported by many biographers of H. Blavatsky.[17] According to A.M.Fadeyev and V.P. Jelihovsky, at the end of 1847, an old friend of Andrei Mikhailovich prince Vladimir Sergeevich Golitsin (1794–1861), Major General, Head of the Caucasian line centre and further privy councilor,[18] arrived to Tiflis and lived there a few months. He almost daily visited Fadeyevs, and often with his young sons Sergei (1823–1873) and Alexander (1825–1864).[19] Therefore, some researchers of H.P. Blavatsky consider the information from M. Yermolova about prince Golitsin improbable because the young Golitsin’s sons did not correspond to Yermolova’s description because of age, and aged prince Golitsin could not be “strongly interested for an original young woman” because of moral reasons. In addition, according to his biographers, prince Golitsin never was going to the East.[18]
Striving for full independence during the winter of 1848/1849 at Tiflis, Helena Petrovna entered into a sham marriage with vice-governor of Erevan Nikifor Vladimirovich Blavatsky, who was much older than Helena. In June 7, 1849 their wedding ceremony took place. Soon after their wedding, Helena escaped from the husband and returned to her relatives.[20] Further, she was going to Odessa and sailed away from Poti to Kerch at English sailboat “Commodore”. Then she moved to Constantinople. There she met a Russian countess Kiseleva, and together they leaved to travel over Egypt, Greece and Eastern Europe.[21]
[edit]Travels
Next period of H.P. Blavatsy’s life is difficult for her biographers as she did not keep diaries and there was nobody with her to tell about these events. In general, a picture of a route and course of the travels is based mainly on Blavatsky’s own memories which sometimes contain the chronological contradictions. N.A. Fadeyeva reported that over all her relatives the father only knows where his daughter is, and from time to time he sent money to her. It is known that Helena Blavatsky met Albert Rawson at Cairo. At that time he was the student learned the art. After H. Blavatsky’s death, A. Rawson, already a doctor of theology and doctor of law in Oxford described their meeting at Cairo. According to her memory, Blavatsky told him about her future participation in the work which some day will serve to liberation of the human mind. Rawson wrote:
“ Her relation to her mission was highly impersonal because she often repeated: "This work is not my but he who sends me." ”
According to H. Blavatsky’s reminiscences, after she left the Middle East, she together with her father began to travel over the Europe. It is known, that at this time she learned to play piano with I. Mosheles, well-known composer and virtuoso pianist. Later she gave several concerts in England and other countries.
Drawing of H.P. Blavatsky made on August 12, 1851
In 1851, on her birthday (August 12), Blavatsky for the first time met her Teacher in Hyde Park at London. Previously, she saw the Teacher in her dreams. Countess Konstanz Wahtmeister, widow of Sweden ambassador at London, remembered the details of this talk in which Teacher said that he "needs her participation in the work he is going to undertake" and "she will live three years at Tibet to prepare for carrying out of this important mission". After leaving England, H.P. Blavatsky had gone to Canada, then to Mexico and Central and Southern America. In 1852 she arrived to India. Helena Petrovna remembered: "I lived there about two years and monthly received money from unknown person. I honestly followed the pointed route. I received the letters from this Hindu but not once seen him during these two years".
Before leaving India, Blavatsky tried to pass to Tibet through Nepal but Britain representative broken her plans.
From India, H.P. Blavatsky came back to London, where, according to V. Jelihovsky, "acquiring a fame by her music talent. She was a member of philharmonic society". Here, according to H.P. Blavatsky, she met her Teacher another time. After this meeting she came to New York, where resumed to met A. Rawson. Then, according to A.P. Sinnett, H.P. Blavatsky came to Chicago, and further, together with settler caravans, to Far West through the Rocky Mountains. After this, she stayed some time at San Francisco. In 1855 (or 1856), she sailed through the Pacific Ocean to the Far East. Then she via Japan and Singapore arrived to Calcutta.
In 1856, H. Blavatsky’s memories about her living in India were published in the book "From caves and jungles of Hindustan". In that book Blavatsky has displayed an eminent literature talent. The book was composed from essays written from 1879 to 1886 under the pen name "Radda-Bay". In Russian, the essays firstly published in newspaper “Moskovskie vedomosti” which was edited by known publicist M.N. Katkov. The essays attracted a great interest of the readership so Katkov republished them at attachment to "Russkii vestnik" and then published new letters written specially for this journal. In 1892, the book was partially translated into English; in 1975 it was fully translated into English.
The book "From the caves and jungles of Hindustan" in a literature style describes the travels of H. Blavatsky and her Teacher which she named Takhur Gulab-Singh. In spite of that the book was considered as novel, Blavatsky asserted that "the facts and persons that I cited are true. I simply collected to time interval in three-four months the events and cases occurring during several years just like the part of the phenomena that the Teacher has shown".
In 1857, Blavatsky repeatedly tried to pass to Tibet from India via Kashmir but shortly before the Mutiny she got the instructions from her Teacher and sailed at a Holland ship from Madras to Java. Later she returned to Europe.
Further Blavatsky during several months was in France and Germany, and then she moved to Pskov to her relatives. She arrived to him in the Christmas night of 1858. According to V. Jelihovsky, H.P. Blavatsky returned from the travels as "a human gifted by exceptional features and forces amazing all the people around her".
On May, 1859 Blavatsky with her family moved to village Rugodevo of Novorzhev district where Blavatsky lived almost one year. This period finished by her strong illness. On spring 1860, when she got well she, together with her sister, moved to Caucasus to visit her grandparents.
As V. Jelihovsky has reported, on the way to Caucasus, at Zadonsk, Blavatsky met the former exarch of the Georgia Isidor. Further he was the metropolitan of Kiev and then Novgorod, St-Petersburg and Finland. Isidor gave one’s blessing to H.P. Blavatsky. (Details see below). From Russia, Blavatsky began to travel again. Although her further route is not known for certain, probably, she visited Persia, Syria, Lebanon, Jerusalem and more than once was at Egypt, Greece and Italy.
In 1867, she traveled through Hungary and Balkans during a few months. Then she visited Venice, Florence and Mentan. According to N. Fodor’s biography, in November 17, 1867 she took part in the battle near Mentan on Garibaldi’s side. Her left hand was twice broken by saber stabs; in addition, she got two hard missile wounds in right shoulder and leg. Initially, she was considered as killed but further she was picked up at the battlefield. Blavatsky told Olcott that she was a volunteer at Mentan together with other European women.
On the beginning of 1868, when Blavatsky recovered from the wounds she moved to Florence. Then she traveled to North Italy and Balkans and further to Constantinople, India and Tibet.
Later, when she answered to the question why she traveled to Tibet, H.P. Blavatsky wrote:
“ Really, it is quite useless to go to Tibet or India to recover some knowledge or power that are hidden in any human soul; but acquisition of higher knowledge and power requires not only many years of intensive studying under the guidance of higher mind together with a resolution that cannot be shaken by any danger, and as much as years of relative solitude, in communication with disciples only which pursue the same aim, and in such a place where both the nature and the neophyte preserve a perfect and unbroken rest if not the silence! There the air is not poisoned by miasmas around a hundreds miles, and there the atmosphere and human magnetism are quite clear and there the animal’s blood is never shed. ”
Palace of Panchen Lama at monastery Tashilunpo at Shigatse
According to biographers, H.P. Blavatsky’s path laid to Tashilunpo monastery (near Shigatse). A book "The Voice of the Silence", published for the request of Panchen Lama IX in 1927 by Chinese society for Buddhism study at Peking, reports that H. Blavatsky during several years was studied in Tashilunpo and knew well Panchen Lama VIII Tenpay Vangchug. Blavatsky also confirmed her living at Tashilunpo and Shigatse. In a letter, she depicted her correspondent a solitary temple of Tashi Lama near Shigatse.
S. Cranston asserts that, according to H.P. Blavatsky, it is not known would she was at Lhasa in that time, but V. Jelihovsky affirmed the follows: "It is reliably that she (Blavatsky) sometimes was at Lhasa, capital of Tibet, and also at Shigatse, main Tibetan religious centre … and at Karakoram mountains in Kunlun Shan. Her living stories about this proved that for me many times".
According to the biographers, last period of her living at Tibet H.P. Blavatsky has conducted in the home of her Teacher Koot Hoomi (K.H.). He helps Blavatsky to get to several lamaseries where any European was not before her. In the letter from October 2, 1991 she wrote to M. Hillis-Billing that the house of Teacher K.H. "is in the region of Karakoram mountains beyond Ladakh which is at minor Tibet and related now to Kashmir. This is a large wooden building in China style looking like to pagoda located between lake and a nice river".
Researchers believe that just at this time (during living in Tibet) Blavatsky began to study the texts which later will come to the book "The Voice of the Silence".
In 1927, one of the eminent explorers of Tibet and its philosophy W.Y. Evans-Wentz wrote in introduction to his translation of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead": "As concerning an esoteric meaning of forty ninth day of Bardo, please see about this in H.P. Blavatsky’s “The Secret Doctrine” (London, 1888, v.1, P.238, 411; v.2, p. 617,628). Late lama K.D. Samdup believed that in spite of malevolent critics of Blavatsky’s works, this author has undisputable proofs that she was well acquainted with the highest lamaist teaching, and for this she needs to get an initiation". Doctor Malalasekera, founder and President of the World Buddhist brotherhood, wrote about Blavatsky in a monumental "Buddhism Encyclopedia": "Her acquaintance with Tibetan Buddhism and also with esoteric Buddhism practices is indubitable". Thus, Japan philosopher and Buddhologist D. T. Suzuki supposes that
H.P. Blavatsky. 1876-1878
“ "undoubtedly Ms. Blavatsky somehow or other was initiated into deeper propositions of the Mahayana teaching". ”
After almost three years living at Tibet, Blavatsky began to travel through Middle East. Then she visited Cyprus and Greece.
In 1871, during the travel from Piraeus to Egypt at the ship "Evnomia" the powder magazine blew up and the ship was destroyed. Thirty passengers died. H.P. Blavatsky escaped but lost her luggage and money.
In 1871, Blavatsky arrived to Cairo where she has founded a Spiritualistic society (Societe Sirite) aimed on studying of mental phenomena. However, soon the society turned out in centre of financial scandal and was disbanded.
On July 1872, after leaving of Cairo, Blavatsky came to Odessa through Syria, Palestine and Constantinople where she lived during nine months.
S.Yu. Witte remembered that Blavatsky "when settled at Odessa, <…> firstly opened a shop and factory for ink and then a flower shop (for artificial flowers). At this time she often visited my mother. … When I make the acquaintance of her, I was surprised by her colossal talent to grasp any thing very quickly. … Many times before my very eyes she wrote the longest letters to her friends and relatives. … In the main, she was very not unkindly woman. She has so huge blue eyes that I never see in my life".
On April 1873, Blavatsky moved from Odessa to Bucharest to visit her friend. Then she came to Paris where she lived with her first cousin Nikolai Hahn. In the end of July, she purchased a ticket to New York. H. Olcott and Countess K. Vahtmeister reported that when H.P. Blavatsky saw a poor woman with two children which can not to pay the fare, she have changed her first-class ticket for four third-class tickets and traveled through the Pacific Ocean during two weeks under third-class.
[edit]Main Creative Period
Helena Blavatsky
In 1873, Blavatsky moved to Paris and further to USA where she met a colonel Henry Steel Olcott. In 1875, they established the Theosophical Society [100]. In April 3, 1875, in New York, Blavatsky formally has married with a Georgian living in America Michael Betanelly. The marriage had broken after several months [78]. In July 8, 1878 she became an American citizen [101].
In February 1879, Blavatsky and Olcott leaved for Bombay. In 1882, they founded a headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar near Madras [100].
Soon they met Alfred Sinnett, editor of the government Allahabad’s newspaper “The Pioneer”. Sinnett was seriously interested in activity of the Society. Using H. Blavatsky’s mediation, he began to correspond with Mahatmas. Sinnett was against the publication of the letters in total volume. He selected for publication some fragments which, as he believed, reflected the Mahatmas thoughts exactly enough. For all that, the correspondence was published by Alfred Barker in 1923, after the Sinnett’s death. [102].
The Theosophical Society has many followers in India [96].
From 1879 to 1888 Blavatsky edited the magazine “The Theosophist” [96].
In 1885, Blavatsky left India because of the aggravation. After this, she lived some time in Germany and Belgium. Then she moved to London where she was occupied with writing of the books [96]. Then she wrote “The Voice of the Silence” (1889), “The Secret Doctrine” (1888), “The Key to Theosophy” (1889). On May 8, 1891 Blavatsky died after she was down with flu. Her body was burned and the ashes were divided between three centers of the theosophical movement: London, New York and Adyar (near Madras). The day of her death is observed by the followers as “day of the white lotus”.
[edit]The Theosophical Society
Main article: Theosophical Society
Blavatsky helped found the Theosophical Society in New York City in 1875 with the motto, "There is no Religion higher than Truth".[22] Its other principal founding members include Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), and William Quan Judge (1851–1896). After several changes and iterations its declared objectives became the following:[23]
To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color.
To encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Science.
To investigate the unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.
The Society was organized as a non-proselytizing, non-sectarian entity.[24] Blavatsky and Olcott (the first President of the Society) moved from New York to Bombay, India in 1878. The International Headquarters of the Society was eventually established in Adyar, a suburb of Madras. Following Blavatsky’s death, disagreements among prominent Theosophists caused a series of splits and several Theosophical Societies and Organizations emerged. As of 2011 Theosophy remains an active philosophical school with presences in more than 50 countries around the world.[25]
[edit]Theosophy
Blavatsky is most well known for her promulgation of a theosophical system of thought, often referred to under various names, including: The Occult Science, The Esoteric Tradition, The Wisdom of the Ages, etc., or simply as Occultism or Theosophy.
[edit]Definition and Origin
Theosophy was considered by Blavatsky to be “the substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies”[26] In her book “The Key to Theosophy”, she stated the following about the meaning and origin of the term:
ENQUIRER. Theosophy and its doctrines are often referred to as a new-fangled religion. Is it a religion?
THEOSOPHIST. It is not. Theosophy is Divine Knowledge or Science.
ENQUIRER. What is the real meaning of the term?
THEOSOPHIST. "Divine Wisdom," (Theosophia) or Wisdom of the gods, as (theogonia), genealogy of the gods. The word theos means a god in Greek, one of the divine beings, certainly not "God" in the sense attached in our day to the term. Therefore, it is not "Wisdom of God," as translated by some, but Divine Wisdom such as that possessed by the gods. The term is many thousand years old.
ENQUIRER. What is the origin of the name?
THEOSOPHIST. It comes to us from the Alexandrian philosophers, called lovers of truth, Philaletheians, from phil "loving," and aletheia "truth." The name Theosophy dates from the third century of our era, and began with Ammonius Saccas and his disciples, who started the Eclectic Theosophical system.[27]
According to her, all real lovers of divine wisdom and truth had, and have, a right to the name of Theosophist.[28] Blavatsky discussed the major themes of Theosophy in several major works, including The Secret Doctrine, Isis Unveiled, The Key to Theosophy, and The Voice of the Silence. She also wrote over 200 articles in various theosophical magazines and periodicals.[29] Contemporaries of Blavatsky, as well as later theosophists, contributed to the development of this school of theosophical thought, producing works that at times sought to elucidate the ideas she presented (see Gottfried de Purucker), and at times to expand upon them.[30] Since its inception, and through doctrinal assimilation or divergence, Theosophy has also given rise to or influenced the development of other mystical, philosophical, and religious movements.[31]
[edit]Overview
[edit]Scope
Broadly, Theosophy attempts to reconcile humanity's scientific, philosophical, and religious disciplines and practices into a unified worldview. As it largely employs a synthesizing approach, it makes extensive use of the vocabulary and concepts of many philosophical and religious traditions. However these, along with all other fields of knowledge, are investigated, amended, and explained within an esoteric or occult framework. In often elaborate exposition, Theosophy's all-encompassing worldview proposes explanations for the origin, workings and ultimate fate of the universe and humanity; it has therefore also been called a system of "absolutist metaphysics".[32][33]
[edit]Methodology
According to Blavatsky, Theosophy is neither revelation nor speculation.[34] It is portrayed as an attempt at gradual, faithful reintroduction of a hitherto hidden science, which is called in Theosophical literature The Occult Science. According to Blavatsky, this postulated science provides a description of Reality not only at a physical level, but also on a metaphysical one. The Occult Science is said to have been preserved (and practiced) throughout history by carefully selected and trained individuals.[35] Theosophists further assert that Theosophy's precepts and their axiomatic foundation may be verified by following certain prescribed disciplines that develop in the practitioner metaphysical means of knowledge, which transcend the limitations of the senses. It is commonly held by Theosophists that many of the basic Theosophical tenets may in the future be empirically and objectively verified by science, as it develops further. In this sense, the Theosophical literature has predicted some findings which were later corroborated by modern science. For example, the accepted model of the atom in the nineteenth century resembled that of a billiard ball - a small, solid sphere. It was only in 1897 that J. J. Thomson discovered the electron suggesting that the atom was not an "indivisible" particle, as John Dalton had suggested, but a jigsaw puzzle made of smaller pieces. Nine years before, in 1888, Blavatsky had written:
The atom is elastic, ergo, the atom is divisible, and must consist of particles, or of sub-atoms. And these sub-atoms? They are either non-elastic, and in such case they represent no dynamic importance, or, they are elastic also; and in that case, they, too, are subject to divisibility. And thus ad infinitum. But infinite divisibility of atoms resolves matter into simple centers of force, i.e., precludes the possibility of conceiving matter as an objective substance.
—Helena Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine Volume I, p. 519
[edit]Law of Correspondences
In The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky spoke of a basic item of cosmogony reflected in the ancient saying: “as above, so below”. This item is used by many theosophists as a method of study and has been called “The Law of Correspondences”. Briefly, the law of correspondences states that the microcosm is the miniature copy of the macrocosm and therefore what is found “below” can be found, often through analogy, “above”. Examples include the basic structures of microcosmic organisms mirroring the structure of macrocosmic organisms (see septenary systems, below). The lifespan of a human being can be seen to follow, by analogy, the same path as the seasons of the Earth, and in theosophy it is postulated that the same general process is equally applied to the lifespan of a planet, a solar system, a galaxy and to the universe itself. Through the Law of Correspondences, a theosophist seeks to discover the first principles underlying various phenomenon by finding the shared essence or idea, and thus to move from particulars to principles.
[edit]Applications
Applied Theosophy was one of the main reasons for the foundation of the Theosophical Society in 1875 (see below); the practice of Theosophy was considered an integral part of its contemporary incarnation.[36] Theosophical discipline includes the practice of study, meditation, and service, which are traditionally seen as necessary for a holistic development. Also, the acceptance and practical application of the Society's motto and of its three objectives are part of the Theosophical life. Efforts at applying its tenets started early. Study and meditation are normally promoted in the activities of the Theosophical Society, and in 1908 an international charitable organization to promote service, the Theosophical Order of Service, was founded.
[edit]Terminology
Despite extensively using Sanskrit terminology in her works, many Theosophical concepts are expressed differently than in the original scriptures. To provide clarity on her intended meanings, Blavatsky's The Theosophical Glossary was published in 1892, one year after her death. According to the editor, G.R.S. Mead, in his Preface to the Glossary, Blavatsky wished to express her indebtedness to four works: the Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary, the Hindu Classical Dictionary, Vishnu-Purana, and the Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia.[37]
[edit]Basic Tenets
[edit]Three Fundamental Propositions
Blavatsky explained the essential component ideas of her cosmogony in her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine. She began with three fundamental propositions, of which she said: “Before the reader proceeds … it is absolutely necessary that he should be made acquainted with the few fundamental conceptions which underlie and pervade the entire system of thought to which his attention is invited. These basic ideas are few in number, and on their clear apprehension depends the understanding of all that follows…”[38]
The first proposition is that there is one underlying, unconditioned, indivisible Truth, variously called "the Absolute", "the Unknown Root", "the One Reality", etc. It is causeless and timeless, and therefore unknowable and non-describable: "It is 'Be-ness' rather than Being".[39] However, transient states of matter and consciousness are manifested in IT, in an unfolding gradation from the subtlest to the densest, the final of which is physical plane.[40] According to this view, manifest existence is a "change of condition"[41] and therefore neither the result of creation nor a random event.
Everything in the universe is informed by the potentialities present in the "Unknown Root," and manifest with different degrees of Life (or energy), Consciousness, and Matter.[42]
The second proposition is "the absolute universality of that law of periodicity, of flux and reflux, ebb and flow". Accordingly, manifest existence is an eternally re-occurring event on a "boundless plane": "'the playground of numberless Universes incessantly manifesting and disappearing,'"[43] each one "standing in the relation of an effect as regards its predecessor, and being a cause as regards its successor",[44] doing so over vast but finite periods of time.[45]
Related to the above is the third proposition: "The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul... and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul — a spark of the former — through the Cycle of Incarnation (or 'Necessity') in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term." The individual souls are seen as units of consciousness (Monads) that are intrinsic parts of a universal oversoul, just as different sparks are parts of a fire. These Monads undergo a process of evolution where consciousness unfolds and matter develops. This evolution is not random, but informed by intelligence and with a purpose. Evolution follows distinct paths in accord with certain immutable laws, aspects of which are perceivable on the physical level. One such law is the law of periodicity and cyclicity; another is the law of karma or cause and effect.[46]
[edit]Karma and Reincarnation
[edit]Cycles
[edit]Cosmic Evolution
[edit]Items of Cosmogony
In the recapitulation of The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky gave a summary of the central points of her system of cosmogony.[47] These central points are as follows:
The first item reiterates Blavatsky’s position that The Secret Doctrine represents the “accumulated Wisdom of the Ages”, a system of thought that “is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity.”
The second item reiterates the first fundamental proposition (see above), calling the one principle “the fundamental law in that system [of cosmogony]”. Here Blavatsky says of this principle that it is “the One homogeneous divine Substance-Principle, the one radical cause. … It is called “Substance-Principle,” for it becomes “substance” on the plane of the manifested Universe, an illusion, while it remains a “principle” in the beginningless and endless abstract, visible and invisible Space. It is the omnipresent Reality: impersonal, because it contains all and everything. Its impersonality is the fundamental conception of the System. It is latent in every atom in the Universe, and is the Universe itself.”
The third item reiterates the second fundamental proposition (see above), impressing once again that “The Universe is the periodical manifestation of this unknown Absolute Essence.”, while also touching upon the complex sanskrit ideas of Parabrahmam and Mulaprakriti. This item presents the idea that the One unconditioned and absolute principle is covered over by its veil, Mulaprakriti, that the spiritual essence is forever covered by the material essence.
The fourth item is the common eastern idea of Maya (illusion). Blavatsky states that the entire universe is called illusion because everything in it is temporary, i.e. has a beginning and an end, and is therefor unreal in comparison to the eternal changelessness of the One Principle.
The fifth item reiterates the third fundamental proposition (see above), stating that everything in the universe is conscious, in its own way and on it’s own plane of perception. Because of this, the Occult Philosophy states that there are no unconscious or blind laws of Nature, that all is govered by consciousness and consciousnesses.
The sixth item gives a core idea of theosophical philosophy, that “as above, so below”. This is known as the “law of correspondences”, its basic premise being that everything in the universe is worked and manifested from within outwards, or from the higher to the lower, and that thus the lower, the microcosm, is the copy of the higher, the macrocosm. Just as a human being experiences every action as preceded by an internal impulse of thought, emotion or will, so too the manifested universe is preceded by impulses from divine thought, feeling and will. This item gives rise to the notion of an “almost endless series of hierarchies of sentient beings”, which itself becomes a central idea of many theosophists. The law of correspondences also becomes central to the methodology of many theosophists, as they look for analogous correspondence between various aspects of reality, for instance: the correspondence between the seasons of Earth and the process of a single human life, through birth, growth, adulthood and then decline and death.
[edit]Anthropogenesis
[edit]Esotericism and Symbolism
In the first book of The Secret Doctrine Blavatsky drew an "analogy between the Aryan or Brahmanical and the Egyptian esotericism." She said that the "seven rays of the Chaldean Heptakis or Iao, on the Gnostic stones" represent the seven large stars of the Egyptian "Great Bear" constellation, the seven elemental powers, and the Hindu "seven Rishis." Blavatsky saw the seven rays of the Vedic sun deity Vishnu as representing the same concept as the "astral fluid or 'Light' of the Kabalists," and said that the seven emanations of the lower seven sephiroth are the "primeval seven rays," and "will be found and recognized in every religion."[48]
Theosophy holds that the manifested universe is ordered by the number seven,[49] a common claim among Esoteric and mystical doctrines and religions. Thus, the evolutionary "pilgrimage" proceeds cyclically through seven stages, the three first steps involving an apparent involution, the fourth one being one of equilibrium, and the last three involving a progressive development.
There are seven symbols of particular importance to the Society's symbology: 1) the seal of the Society, 2) a serpent biting its tail, 3) the gnostic cross (near the serpent's head), 4) the interlaced triangles, 5) the cruxansata (in the centre), 6) the pin of the Society, composed of cruxansata and serpent entwined, forming together "T.S.", and, 7) Om (or aum), the sacred syllable of the Vedas. The seal of the Society contains all of these symbols, except aum, and thus contains, in symbolic form, the doctrines its members follow.[50]
[edit]Septenary Systems
Main article: Septenary (Theosophy)
In the Theosophical view all major facets of existence manifest following a seven-fold model: "Our philosophy teaches us that, as there are seven fundamental forces in nature, and seven planes of being, so there are seven states of consciousness in which man can live, think, remember and have his being."[51]
[edit]Seven Cosmic Planes
The Cosmos does not consist only of the physical plane that can be perceived with the five senses, but there is a succession of seven Cosmic planes of existence, composed of increasingly subtler forms of matter-energy, and in which states of consciousness other than the commonly known can manifest. Blavatsky described the planes according to these states of consciousness. In her system, for example, the plane of the material and concrete mind (lower mental plane) is classified as different from the plane of the spiritual and holistic mind (higher mental plane). Later Theosophists like Charles Webster Leadbeater and Annie Besant classified the seven planes according to the kind of subtle matter that compose them. Since both the higher and lower mental planes share the same type of subtle matter, they regard them as one single plane with two subdivisions. In this later view the seven cosmic planes include (from spiritual to material):
- Adi (the supreme, a divine plane not reached by human beings)
- Anupadaka (the parentless, also a divine plane home of the divine spark in human beings, the Monad)
- Atmic (the spiritual plane of Man's Higher Self)
- Buddhic (the spiritual plane of intuition, love, and wisdom)
- Mental (with a higher and lower subdivisions, this plane bridges the spiritual with the personal)
- Emotional (a personal plane that ranges from lower desires to high emotions)
- Physical plane (a personal plane which again has two subdivisions the dense one perceivable by our five senses, and an etheric one that is beyond these senses)
[edit]Seven Principles and Bodies
Just as the Cosmos is not limited to its physical dimension, human beings have also subtler dimensions and bodies. The "Septenary Nature of Man" was described by Blavatsky in, among other works, The Key to Theosophy; in descending order, it ranges from a postulated purely spiritual essence (called a "Ray of the Absolute") to the physical body.[52]
The Theosophical teachings about the constitution of human beings talk about two different, but related, things: principles and bodies. Principles are the seven basic constituents of the universe, usually described by Mme. Blavatsky as follows:
- Physical
- Astral (later called etheric)
- Prana (or vital)
- Kama (animal soul)
- Manas (mind, or human soul)
- Buddhi (spiritual soul)
- Atma (Spirit or Self)
These Principles in Man may or may not form one or more bodies. Mme. Blavatsky's teachings about subtle bodies were few and not very systematic. In an article she described three subtle bodies: [53]
Linga Sharira - the Double or Astral body
Mayavi-rupa - the "Illusion-body."
Causal Body - the vehicle of the higher Mind.
The Linga Sharira is the invisible double of the human body, elsewhere referred to as the etheric body or doppelgänger and serves as a model or matrix of the physical body, which conforms to the shape, appearance and condition of his "double". The linga sarira can be separated or projected a limited distance from the body. When separated from the body it can be wounded by sharp objects. When it returns to the physical frame, the wound will be reflected in the physical counterpart, a phenomenon called "repercussion." At death, it is discarded together with the physical body and eventually disintegrates or decomposes. This can be seen over the graves like a luminous figure of the man that was, during certain atmospheric conditions.
The mayavi-rupa is dual in its functions, being: "...the vehicle both of thought and of the animal passions and desires, drawing at one and the same time from the lowest terrestrial manas (mind) and Kama, the element of desire." [54]
The higher part of this body, containing the spiritual elements gathered during life, merges after death entirely into the causal body; while the lower part, containing the animal elements, forms the Kama-rupa, the source of "spooks" or apparitions of the dead.
Therefore, besides the dense physical body, the subtle bodies in a human being are:
Etheric body (vehicle of prana)
Emotional or astral body (vehicle of desires and emotions)
Mental body (vehicle of the concrete or lower mind)
Causal body (vehicle of the abstract or higher mind)
These bodies go up to the higher mental plane. The two higher spiritual Principles of Buddhi and Atma do not form bodies proper but are something more like "sheaths".
[edit]Rounds and Races
Main articles: Round (Theosophy) and Root race
It follows from the above that to Theosophy, all Evolution is basically the evolution of Consciousness, physical-biological evolution being only a constituent part.[55] All evolutionary paths involve the serial immersion (or reincarnation) of basic units of consciousness called Monads into forms that become gradually denser, and which eventually culminate in gross physical matter. At that point the process reverses towards a respiritualization of consciousness. The experience gained in the previous evolutionary stages is retained; and so consciousness inexorably advances towards greater completeness.[56]
All individuated existence, regardless of stature, apparent animation, or complexity, is thought to be informed by a Monad; in its human phase, the Monad consists of the two highest-ordered (out of seven) constituents or principles of human nature and is connected to the third-highest principle, that of mind and self-consciousness (see Septenary above).
Theosophy describes humanity's evolution on Earth in the doctrine of Root races.[57] These are seven stages of development, during which every human Monad evolves alongside others in stages that last millions of years, each stage occurring mostly in a different super-continent – these continents are actually, according to Theosophy co-evolving geological and climatic stages.[58] At present, humanity's evolution is at the fifth stage, the so-called Aryan Root race, which is developing on its appointed geologic/climatic period.[59] The continuing development of the Aryan stage has been taking place since about the middle of the Calabrian (about 1,000,000 years ago).[60] The previous fourth Root race was at the midpoint of the sevenfold evolutionary cycle, the point in which the "human" Monad became fully vested in the increasingly complex and dense forms that developed for it. A component of that investment was the gradual appearance of contemporary human physiology, which finalized to the form known to early 21st century medical science during the fourth Root race.[61] The current fifth stage is on the ascending arc, signifying the gradual reemergence of spiritualized consciousness (and of the proper forms, or "vehicles", for it) as humanity's dominant characteristic. The appearance of Root races is not strictly serial; they first develop while the preceding Race is still dominant. Older races complete their evolutionary cycle and die out; the present fifth Root race will in time evolve into the more advanced spiritually sixth.[62]
Humanity's evolution is a subset of planetary evolution, which is described in the doctrine of Rounds, itself a subject of Theosophy's Esoteric cosmology. Rounds may last hundreds of millions of years each. Theosophy states that Earth is currently in the fourth Round of the planet's own sevenfold development.[63] Human evolution is tied to the particular Round or planetary stage of evolution – the Monads informing humans in this Round were previously informing the third Round's animal class, and will "migrate" to a different class of entities in the fifth Round.[64]
[edit]Racial theories
Regarding the origin the human races on earth, Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine argued for polygenism —"the simultaneous evolution of seven human groups on seven different portions of our globe".[65]
The Secret Doctrine (II, 610) states:
Mankind did not issue from one solitary couple. Nor was there ever a first man—whether Adam or Yima—but a first mankind. It may, or may not, be "mitigated polygenism." Once that both creation ex nihilo—an absurdity—and a superhuman Creator or creators—a fact—are made away with by science, polygenism presents no more difficulties or inconveniences (rather fewer from a scientific point of view) than monogenism does.
Blavatsky used the compounded word Root-race to describe each of the seven successive stages of human evolution that take place over large time periods in her cosmology. A Root-race is the archetype from which spring all the races that form humanity in a particular evolutionary cycle. She called the current Root-race, the fifth one, "Aryan,".[66]
The present Root-race was preceded by the fourth one, which developed in Atlantis, while the third Root-race is denominated "Lemurian". She described the Aryan Root-race in the following way:
“ The Aryan races, for instance, now varying from dark brown, almost black, red-brown-yellow, down to the whitest creamy colour, are yet all of one and the same stock — the Fifth Root-Race — and spring from one single progenitor, (...) who is said to have lived over 18,000,000 years ago, and also 850,000 years ago — at the time of the sinking of the last remnants of the great continent of Atlantis.[67] ”
Her evolutionary view admits a difference in development between various ethnic groups:
“ The occult doctrine admits of no such divisions as the Aryan and the Semite, accepting even the Turanian [as part of the same language group] with ample reservations. The Semites, especially the Arabs, are later Aryans — degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality."[68] ”
She also states that:
“ There are, or rather still were a few years ago, descendants of these half-animal tribes or races, both of remote Lemurian and Lemuro-Atlantean origin ... Of such semi-animal creatures, the sole remnants known to Ethnology were the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians and a mountain tribe in China, the men and women of which are entirely covered with hair.[69] ”
Blavatsky's teachings talk about three separate levels of evolution: physical, intellectual, and spiritual.[70] Blavatsky states that there are differences in the spiritual evolution of the Monads (the "divine spark" in human beings), in the intellectual development of the souls, and in the physical qualities of the bodies. These levels of evolution are independent. A highly evolved Monad may incarnate, for karmic reasons, in a rather crude personality. Also, a very intellectual person may be less evolved at the spiritual level than an illiterate.
She also states that cultures follow a cycle of rising, development, degeneration, and eventually disappear. Also, according to her there is a fixed number of reincarnating souls evolving, all of which are beyond sex, nationality, religion, and other physical or cultural characteristics. In its evolutionary journey, every soul has to take birth in every culture in the world, where it acquires different skills and learns different lessons.[71]
Even though she declares that at this point of their cultural evolutionary cycle the Semites, especially the Arabs, are "degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality," she also stated that there were wise and initiated teachers among the Jews and the Arabs,[72] some of them were Blavatsky's teachers early in her life.
Blavatsky does not claim that the present Aryan Root-race is the last and highest of them all. The Indo-European races will also eventually degenerate and disappear, as new and more developed races and cultures develop on the planet:
“ Thus will mankind, race after race, perform its appointed cycle-pilgrimage. Climates will, and have already begun, to change, each tropical year after the other dropping one sub-race, but only to beget another higher race on the ascending cycle; while a series of other less favoured groups — the failures of nature — will, like some individual men, vanish from the human family without even leaving a trace behind.
Such is the course of Nature under the sway of KARMIC LAW: of the ever present and the ever-becoming Nature.[73]
”
The first aim of the Theosophical Society she founded is "To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour", and her writings also include references emphasizing the unity of humanity: "all men have spiritually and physically the same origin" and that "mankind is essentially of one and the same essence".[74]
[edit]Influence
[edit]Following
During the 1920s the Theosophical Society Adyar had around 7,000 members in the USA.[75] According to a Theosophical source, the Indian section in 2008 was said to have around 13,000 members while in the US the 2008 membership was reported at around 3,900.[76]
[edit]Indian Independence Movement
Some early members of the Theosophical Society were closely linked to the Indian independence movement, including Allan Octavian Hume, Annie Besant and others. Hume was particularly involved in the founding of the Indian National Congress.
[edit]Anthroposophy
Rudolf Steiner, head of the German branch of the Theosophical Society in the early part of the 20th-century, disagreed with the Adyar-based international leadership of the Society over several doctrinal matters including the so-called World Teacher Project (see above). Steiner left the Theosophical Society in 1913 to promote his own Theosophy-influenced philosophy, which he called Anthroposophy through a new organization, the Anthroposophical Society; the great majority of German-speaking Theosophists joined him in the new group.
[edit]Ariosophy
Austrian/German ultra-nationalist Guido von List and his followers such as Lanz von Liebenfels, selectively mixed Theosophical doctrine on the evolution of Humanity and on Root races with nationalistic and fascist ideas; this system of thought became known as Ariosophy, a precursor of nazism.[77]
[edit]New Age Movement
The present-day New Age movement is said to be based to a considerable extent on the Theosophical tenets and ideas presented by Blavatsky and her contemporaries. "No single organization or movement has contributed so many components to the New Age Movement as the Theosophical Society. ... It has been the major force in the dissemination of occult literature in the West in the twentieth century."[78]
Other organizations loosely based on Theosophical texts and doctrines include the Agni Yoga, and a group of religions based on Theosophy called the Ascended Master Teachings: the "I AM" Activity, The Bridge to Freedom and The Summit Lighthouse, which evolved into the Church Universal and Triumphant.
[edit]Scholarship
Scholar Alvin Boyd Kuhn wrote his thesis, Theosophy: A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom, on the subject – the first instance in which an individual obtained his doctorate with a thesis on Theosophy.[79]
[edit]Art, music and literature
Artists and authors who investigated Theosophy include Talbot Mundy, Charles Howard Hinton, Geoffrey Hodson, James Jones[80], H. P. Lovecraft, and L. Frank Baum. Composer Alexander Scriabin was a Theosophist whose beliefs influenced his music, especially by providing a justification or rationale for his chromatic language. Scriabin devised a quartal synthetic chord, often called his "mystic" chord, and before his death Scriabin planned a multimedia work to be performed in the Himalayas that would bring about the armageddon; "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a new world."[81] This piece, Mysterium, was never realized, due to his death in 1915.
[edit]Criticism
The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
Well-known and controversial during her life, Blavatsky was influential on spiritualism and related subcultures: "The western esoteric tradition has no more important figure in modern times."[82] She wrote prolifically, publishing thousands of pages and debate continues about her work. She taught about very abstract and metaphysical principles, but also sought to denounce and correct superstitions that, in her view, had grown in different esoteric religions. Some of these statements are controversial. For example, she quotes Dr. A. Kingsford’s book "Perfect Way" (section "The Secret of Satan"): "It is Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god" and adds "and this without any allusive metaphor to its wickedness and depravity."[83] In this reference Blavatsky explains that he whom the Christian dogma calls Lucifer was never the representative of the evil in ancient myths but, on the contrary, the light-bringer (which is the literal meaning of the name Lucifer). According to Blavatsky the church turned him into Satan (which means "the opponent") to misrepresent pre-Christian beliefs and fit him into the newly framed Christian dogmas. A similar view is also shared by the Christian Gnostics, ancient and modern.
Throughout much of Blavatsky's public life her work drew harsh criticism from some of the learned authorities of her day, as for example when she said that the atom was divisible,[84] that the Bodhisattvas choose to give up Nirvana in order to help humanity[85] and other controversial statements that were later found true. There are, however, many statements that remain to be verified.
Critics pronounced her claim of the existence of masters of wisdom to be utterly false, and accused her of being a charlatan, a false medium, evil, a spy for the Russians, a smoker of cannabis, a spy for the English, a racist and a falsifier of letters. Most of the accusations remain undocumented.[86][87][88][89]
H. P. Blavatsky herself said, that one of the main reasons for the many attacks on her and on the Theosophical Society, which she was a co-founder of was:
"you must bear in mind how many powerful adversaries we have aroused ever since the formation of our Society. As I just said, if the Theosophical movement were one of those numerous modern crazes, as harmless at the end as they are evanescent, it would be simply laughed at― as it is now by those who still do not understand its real purport ― and left severely alone. But it is nothing of the kind. Intrinsically, Theosophy is the most serious movement of this age; and one, moreover, which threatens the very life of most of the time-honoured humbugs, prejudices, and social evils of the day ― those evils which fatten and make happy the upper ten and their imitators and sycophants, the wealthy dozens of the middle classes, while they positively crush and starve out of existence the millions of the poor. Think of this, and you will easily understand the reason of such a relentless persecution by those others who, more observant and perspicacious, do see the true nature of Theosophy, and therefore dread it." [90]
In The New York Times Edward Hower wrote, "Theosophical writers have defended her sources vehemently. Skeptics have painted her as a great fraud."[91] The authenticity and originality of her writings were questioned. Blavatsky was accused of having plagiarized a number of sources, copying the texts crudely enough to misspell the more difficult words. See: The Sources of Madame Blavatsky's Writings by William Emmette Coleman from Modern Priestess of Isis by Vsevolod Sergyeevich Solovyoff (author), Walter Leaf (translator).[92] However, the cosmogony and anthropogenesis described in her major work, the Secret Doctrine, contains many important elements not to be found in any other philosophy currently known.
In his 1885 report to the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), Richard Hodgson concluded that Blavatsky was a fraud. However, in a 1986 press release to the newspapers and leading magazines in Great Britain, Canada and the USA, the same SPR retracted the Hodgson report, after a re-examination of the case by the Fortean psychic Dr. Vernon Harrison, past president of The Royal Photographic Society and formerly Research Manager to Thomas De La Rue, an expert on forgery, as follows: "Madame Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was unjustly condemned, new study concludes."[93]
[edit]Works
The books written by Madame Blavatsky included:
Blavatsky, H P (1877), Isis unveiled, J.W. Bouton, OCLC 7211493
Blavatsky, H P (1880), From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan, Floating Press, ISBN 1775416038
Blavatsky, H P (1888), The Secret Doctrine, Theosophical Publ. Co, OCLC 61915001
Blavatsky, H P (1933) [1889], The Voice of the Silence, Theosophy Co. (India) Ltd, OCLC 220858481
Blavatsky, H P (1889), The key to theosophy, Theosophical Pub. Co, OCLC 612505
Blavatsky, H P (1892), Nightmare tales, London, Theosophical publishing society, OCLC 454984121
Blavatsky, H P; Neff, Mary Katherine (1937), Personal memoirs, London, OCLC 84938217
Blavatsky, H P; Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2004), Helena Blavatsky, Western esoteric masters series, North Atlantic Books, ISBN 9781556434570
Her many articles have been collected in the Collected Writings of H. P. Blavatsky. An alternative link is: http://collectedwritings.net This series has 15 numbered volumes including the index.
[edit]Books about Blavatsky
Bleiler, Everett Franklin (1948), The checklist of fantastic literature; a bibliography of fantasy, weird and science fiction books published in the English language, Chicago, Shasta Publishers, OCLC 1113926
Caldwell, Daniel H (2000), The esoteric world of Madame Blavatsky : insights into the life of a modern sphinx, Theosophical Pub. House, ISBN 9780835607940
Cranston, S L (1994) [1993], HPB : the extraordinary life and influence of Helena Blavatsky, founder of the modern Theosophical movement, Putnam, ISBN 9780874777697
Guénon, René (2001), Theosophy : history of a pseudo-religion, Sophia Perennis, ISBN 9780900588808, retrieved 2009-11-26
Hanson, Virginia (1988), H.P. Blavatsky and The secret doctrine, A Quest book, Theosophical Pub. House, ISBN 9780835606301, retrieved 2009-11-26
Harrison, Vernon (1997), H.P. Blavatsky and the SPR : an examination of the Hodgson report of 1885, Theosophical University Press, ISBN 9781557001184, retrieved 2009-11-26
Meade, Marion (1980), Madame Blavatsky, the woman behind the myth, Putnam, ISBN 9780399123764
Ryan, Charles J; Knoche, Grace F (1937), H.P. Blavatsky and the theosophical movement : a brief historical sketch, Theosophical University Press, ISBN 9781557000903
Solovyov, Vsevolod Sergyeevich (1895), A Modern Priestess of Isis London
Symonds, John (2006) [1959], The lady with the magic eyes : Madame Blavatsky, medium and magician, Kessinger Pub, ISBN 9781425487096
Thibaux, Jean-Michel (1992) [1992], Héléna Blavatsky, les sept esprits de la révolte, Edition 1, ISBN 2863915002
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Lineage
1.2 Childhood and Youth
1.3 Travels
1.4 Main Creative Period
2 The Theosophical Society
3 Theosophy
3.1 Definition and Origin
3.2 Overview
3.2.1 Scope
3.2.2 Methodology
3.2.2.1 Law of Correspondences
3.2.3 Applications
3.2.4 Terminology
3.3 Basic Tenets
3.3.1 Three Fundamental Propositions
3.3.2 Karma and Reincarnation
3.3.3 Cycles
3.3.4 Cosmic Evolution
3.3.4.1 Items of Cosmogony
3.3.5 Anthropogenesis
3.3.6 Esotericism and Symbolism
3.3.7 Septenary Systems
3.3.7.1 Seven Cosmic Planes
3.3.7.2 Seven Principles and Bodies
3.3.8 Rounds and Races
3.3.8.1 Racial theories
4 Influence
4.1 Following
4.2 Indian Independence Movement
4.3 Anthroposophy
4.4 Ariosophy
4.5 New Age Movement
4.6 Scholarship
4.7 Art, music and literature
5 Criticism
6 Works
7 Books about Blavatsky
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
[edit]Biography
[edit]Lineage
Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, H.P. Blavatsky’s grandfather
Maternally H.P. Blavatsky’s lineage goes back through Prince Michael of Chernigov to Rurik, Norse founder of the Russian state at Novgorod. Maternally the direct ancestor of H. Blavatsky was Sergey Grigor’yevich Dolgoruky, a well-known diplomat of his time and the brother of Aleksey Grigor’evich Dolgoruky, a member of Supreme Secret Council under Peter the Second. Sergei Grigor’evich was the great grandfather of Helena Pavlovna Fadeyeva-Dolgorukaya (H.P. Blavatsky’s grandmother) and great-great-great-grandfather of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.[2]
H.P. Blavatsky’s grandfather, Prince Pavel Vasilyievich Dolgorukov (1755–1837) was a Major General during the reign of Ekaterina the Great. He was decorated with the highest army award, the Order of St. George [3] and was a companion in arms of Kutuzov.[4] His wife was Henrietta de Bandre Plessy Duc de, a daughter of Adolf Frantcevich, who had command of an army corps during the Crimea campaign and, according to A.M. Fadeyev, was a favorite of Suvorov.[5]
A daughter of Pavel Vasilievich and Henrietta Adolfovna was Princess Helena Pavlovna, H.P. Blavatsky’s grandmother. She received a versatile home education, spoke in five languages, and focused her studies on the fields of archeology, numismatics, and botany. Fadeyev’s herbariums and pictures of various plants aroused the admiration of many scientists. Helena Pavlovna was in scientific correspondence with: well-known German scientist, Alexander Humboldt; English geologist and founder of Geographic Society, R. Merchison; Swedish botanist, Christian Steven, a researcher of Caucasus flora and fauna. According to H.F. Pisareva, botanist Homer de Hel named found by him shell Venus-Fadeyeff in honor of Helena Pavlovna.
Helena Petrovna Dolgorukaya, H.P. Blavatsky’s grandmother
In 1813, Princess married Andrew Mikhailovich Fadeyev who was the state officer and later the Secret Councilor Governor of Saratov and Tiflice. His lineage goes back to Russian hereditary noblemen and the German von Krause lineage. Andrew Mikhailovich’s grandfather, Peter Mikhailovich Fadeyev, was a captain in the army of Peter the Great. Helena Pavlovna and Andrew Mikhailovich had four children. The eldest daughter, Helena Hahn, was a well-known writer; she made a name for herself as a Russian George Sand. She was the mother of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Vera Petrovna Jelihovsky and Leonid Hahn. Their son, Rostislav Fadeyev, was a general, army writer and reformer. Their daughter, Ekaterina Andreevna, was the mother of the well-known Russian statesman, Sergei Witte. Lastly, daughter Nadejda Andreevna became an active member of the Theosophical Society.
Sergei Witte wrote that his grandfather, P.V. Dolgorukov, during his daughter’s marriage had blessed his daughter and new son-in-law with an ancient cross which, according to family legend, belonged to the Grand Prince of Kiev, St. Michael of Chernigov. Later, this cross passed into the hands of Helena Pavlovna and further to Sergei Witte.
According to the lineage of her father, Peter Alekseevich Hahn, Helena Petrovna belongs to the Baltic-German family Hahn. Boris Zirkoff, an editor and active promoter of theosophy, in the introduction to H.P. Blavatsky’s collected works pointed out that Hahn's family (H.P. Blavatsky’s forefathers from father’s side) belonged to the Count von Hahn's family line from Basedov (Mecklenburg). According to information from another source, this family is traceable back to the Carolingian dynasty and German knights and crusaders. Meanwhile, any documents supporting a relationship between H.P. Blavatsky’s family and the Mecklenburg Counts have yet to be located. In the record of service of “Aleksey Fedorov Hahn’s son” (1751–1815) (H.P.Blavatsky’s grandfather, Governor of the fortress Kamenets-Podolsk) is mentioned as descended from “Eastland’s inhabitants." His father had foreign citizenship and was Kraits-Commissioner in the Eastland”. The archives contain the documents supporting the existence of “Kraits-Commissioner” Johann Friedrich (Fyodor) Hahn who was born in 1719 at Narva died May 31, 1803, in the same place. The documents do not contain any information about the lineage or ties of relationship of the family. Note that B. Zirkoff himself belongs to Hahn's family on the female side, not Johann Friedrich but Johann August von Hahn, which is not connected with H.P. Blavatsky’s family by documents.
[edit]Childhood and Youth
Rostislav Andreevich Fadeyev, H.P. Blavatsky’s uncle
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born on July 31 (August 12 for new style) 1831 at Yekaterinoslav (from 1926 Dnepropetrovsk) in the family of well-known writer Helena Andreevna Hahn (Fadeyeva) and an officer of horse-artillery battery Peter Alekseevich Hahn.
Because of her father’s profession, the family often chose the place of abode. A year later after Helena’s birth, the family moved to Romankovo (now it enters Dneprodzerzhinsk), and in 1835 they moved to Odessa, where Helena’s sister, Vera (future writer Jelihovsky), was born. Further the family lived in Tula and Kursk and in spring 1836 arrived to St. Petersburg where lived until May 1837. From Petersburg Helena Petrovna along with her sister, mother and grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev moved to Astrakhan. There, Andrei Mikhailovich worked a main relieving officer over Kalmyk people and local German colonists.[6] In 1838, mother moved with the little girls to Poltava where Helena began to take dance lessons and learned to play the piano, taught by her mother.
In spring 1839, the family moved to Odessa because of Helena’s wealth aggravation.[clarification needed] There Helena Andreevna found the governess for her children which had taught them English.[7] In November, Helena’s Grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich was assigned for a governor of Saratov by approval of Emperor’s Nikolai I. After this, Helena Andreevna and her children moved to live with him. In June 1840, at Saratov her son, Leonid, was born. Helena Petrovna was then nine years old. Nadejda Fadeyeva, Helena’s aunt, wrote to A.Sinnett her memory of her niece:
Helena Andreevna Hahn, H.P. Blavatsky’s mother
“In childhood, all [Helena’s] the likings and interests were concentrated on the people from lower estates. She preferred to play with domestic’s children but not with equals. <…> She always needs for attention to prevent her escape from home and meetings with street ragamuffins. And at mature age she irrepressibly reached out to them whose status was lower than her own, and displayed a marked indifference to the “nobles”, to which she belongs by birth”.[8]
At ten years old, Helena began to study German. Her progress was so appreciable that, according to V. Jelihovsky, her father “complemented her, and in jest called her a worthy heiress of her glorious ancestors, German knights Hahn-Hahn von der Rother Hahn, who knew no another language besides German."
In 1841, the family returned to Ukraine, where Helena contracted Herpes. On July 6, 1842 Helena Andreevna Hahn, Helena’s mother and at that time a well-known writer, died at the age of 28 of galloping consumption.
According to Vera Jelihovsky, Helena's mother, at the time, was worried about the destiny of her elder daughter, “gifted from childhood by outstanding features”.[9] Before her death, her mother said: “Well! Perhaps it is for the better that I am dying: at least, I will not suffer from seeing Helena’s hard lot! I am quite sure that her destiny will be not womanly, that she will suffer much”.[10]
After her mother’s death, Helena’s grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich and Grandmother Helena Pavlovna had taken the children to Saratov, where they had quite a different life. Fadeyev’s house was visited by Saratov’s intellectuals. A known historian, Kostomarov, and writer, Mary Zhukova, were among them.[2] Her grandmother and three teachers were occupied with the children’s upbringing and education, therefore, Blavatsky received a solid home education.[11][12]
Helena’s favorite place in the house was her grandmother’s library which Helena Pavlovna inherited from her father.[12] In this voluminous library, Helena Petrovna paid special attention to the books whose subject was medieval occultism.[13]
“Two Helens (Helena Hahn and Helena Blavatsky)” 1844-1845. According to one of the versions, the picture was drawn by H.P. Blavatsky. Museum centre of H.P. Blavatsky and her family (Ukraine)
In 1847, the family had moved from Saratov to Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia), where Andrei Mikhailovich was invited to work in the Council of Senior Governance of Transcaucasia region.[14] H.F. Pisareva wrote in her biographic essay “Helena Petrovna Blavatsky”:
“They who knew her … in youth remember with delight her inexhaustibly merry, cheerful, sparkling with wit talk. She liked jokes, teasing and to cause a commotion” [26].
Nadejda Andreevna Fadeyeva, Helena’s aunt, remembered the following:
“As a child, as a young woman, as a woman, she always was so higher than her surroundings that she never was could not appreciate its true value. She was trained as a girl from good family … extraordinary wealth in the form of her intellectual faculties, fineness and quickness of thought, amazing understanding and learning of most difficult disciplines, unusually developed mind together with chivalrous, direct, energetic and open character – this is what raised her so high over the level of conventional society and could not help attracting the common attention and therefore the envy and hostility from these who with their nonentity can not stand of luster and gifts of this wonderful nature”.[15]
In youth, Helena had a high life, often was in society, danced at the balls and visited the parties. But when she reached 16, she has experienced sudden inner change, and she began to study the books from great grandfather’s library more deeply.[16]
“Margarita and Mephistopheles”. 1862. Drawing of H.P. Blavatsky made after visiting of the opera “Faustus”
In 1910 H.F.Pisareva, in her essay dedicated to H.P. Blavatsky, cited the reminiscences of Mary Grigor’evna Yermolova, Tiflis governor’s wife: “Simultaneously with Fadeev’s family, in Tiflis lived a relation of the Caucasian Governor-general, prince Golitsin. He often visited Fadeyevs and was greatly interested by an original young woman”. Just due to Golitsin (Yermolova did not cited his name) which, as it was rumored, was “either mason or magician or soothsayer” Blavatsky tried “to come into contact with a mysterious sage of the East where prince Golitsin was going to”.[15] This version was further supported by many biographers of H. Blavatsky.[17] According to A.M.Fadeyev and V.P. Jelihovsky, at the end of 1847, an old friend of Andrei Mikhailovich prince Vladimir Sergeevich Golitsin (1794–1861), Major General, Head of the Caucasian line centre and further privy councilor,[18] arrived to Tiflis and lived there a few months. He almost daily visited Fadeyevs, and often with his young sons Sergei (1823–1873) and Alexander (1825–1864).[19] Therefore, some researchers of H.P. Blavatsky consider the information from M. Yermolova about prince Golitsin improbable because the young Golitsin’s sons did not correspond to Yermolova’s description because of age, and aged prince Golitsin could not be “strongly interested for an original young woman” because of moral reasons. In addition, according to his biographers, prince Golitsin never was going to the East.[18]
Striving for full independence during the winter of 1848/1849 at Tiflis, Helena Petrovna entered into a sham marriage with vice-governor of Erevan Nikifor Vladimirovich Blavatsky, who was much older than Helena. In June 7, 1849 their wedding ceremony took place. Soon after their wedding, Helena escaped from the husband and returned to her relatives.[20] Further, she was going to Odessa and sailed away from Poti to Kerch at English sailboat “Commodore”. Then she moved to Constantinople. There she met a Russian countess Kiseleva, and together they leaved to travel over Egypt, Greece and Eastern Europe.[21]
[edit]Travels
Next period of H.P. Blavatsy’s life is difficult for her biographers as she did not keep diaries and there was nobody with her to tell about these events. In general, a picture of a route and course of the travels is based mainly on Blavatsky’s own memories which sometimes contain the chronological contradictions. N.A. Fadeyeva reported that over all her relatives the father only knows where his daughter is, and from time to time he sent money to her. It is known that Helena Blavatsky met Albert Rawson at Cairo. At that time he was the student learned the art. After H. Blavatsky’s death, A. Rawson, already a doctor of theology and doctor of law in Oxford described their meeting at Cairo. According to her memory, Blavatsky told him about her future participation in the work which some day will serve to liberation of the human mind. Rawson wrote:
“ Her relation to her mission was highly impersonal because she often repeated: "This work is not my but he who sends me." ”
According to H. Blavatsky’s reminiscences, after she left the Middle East, she together with her father began to travel over the Europe. It is known, that at this time she learned to play piano with I. Mosheles, well-known composer and virtuoso pianist. Later she gave several concerts in England and other countries.
Drawing of H.P. Blavatsky made on August 12, 1851
In 1851, on her birthday (August 12), Blavatsky for the first time met her Teacher in Hyde Park at London. Previously, she saw the Teacher in her dreams. Countess Konstanz Wahtmeister, widow of Sweden ambassador at London, remembered the details of this talk in which Teacher said that he "needs her participation in the work he is going to undertake" and "she will live three years at Tibet to prepare for carrying out of this important mission". After leaving England, H.P. Blavatsky had gone to Canada, then to Mexico and Central and Southern America. In 1852 she arrived to India. Helena Petrovna remembered: "I lived there about two years and monthly received money from unknown person. I honestly followed the pointed route. I received the letters from this Hindu but not once seen him during these two years".
Before leaving India, Blavatsky tried to pass to Tibet through Nepal but Britain representative broken her plans.
From India, H.P. Blavatsky came back to London, where, according to V. Jelihovsky, "acquiring a fame by her music talent. She was a member of philharmonic society". Here, according to H.P. Blavatsky, she met her Teacher another time. After this meeting she came to New York, where resumed to met A. Rawson. Then, according to A.P. Sinnett, H.P. Blavatsky came to Chicago, and further, together with settler caravans, to Far West through the Rocky Mountains. After this, she stayed some time at San Francisco. In 1855 (or 1856), she sailed through the Pacific Ocean to the Far East. Then she via Japan and Singapore arrived to Calcutta.
In 1856, H. Blavatsky’s memories about her living in India were published in the book "From caves and jungles of Hindustan". In that book Blavatsky has displayed an eminent literature talent. The book was composed from essays written from 1879 to 1886 under the pen name "Radda-Bay". In Russian, the essays firstly published in newspaper “Moskovskie vedomosti” which was edited by known publicist M.N. Katkov. The essays attracted a great interest of the readership so Katkov republished them at attachment to "Russkii vestnik" and then published new letters written specially for this journal. In 1892, the book was partially translated into English; in 1975 it was fully translated into English.
The book "From the caves and jungles of Hindustan" in a literature style describes the travels of H. Blavatsky and her Teacher which she named Takhur Gulab-Singh. In spite of that the book was considered as novel, Blavatsky asserted that "the facts and persons that I cited are true. I simply collected to time interval in three-four months the events and cases occurring during several years just like the part of the phenomena that the Teacher has shown".
In 1857, Blavatsky repeatedly tried to pass to Tibet from India via Kashmir but shortly before the Mutiny she got the instructions from her Teacher and sailed at a Holland ship from Madras to Java. Later she returned to Europe.
Further Blavatsky during several months was in France and Germany, and then she moved to Pskov to her relatives. She arrived to him in the Christmas night of 1858. According to V. Jelihovsky, H.P. Blavatsky returned from the travels as "a human gifted by exceptional features and forces amazing all the people around her".
On May, 1859 Blavatsky with her family moved to village Rugodevo of Novorzhev district where Blavatsky lived almost one year. This period finished by her strong illness. On spring 1860, when she got well she, together with her sister, moved to Caucasus to visit her grandparents.
As V. Jelihovsky has reported, on the way to Caucasus, at Zadonsk, Blavatsky met the former exarch of the Georgia Isidor. Further he was the metropolitan of Kiev and then Novgorod, St-Petersburg and Finland. Isidor gave one’s blessing to H.P. Blavatsky. (Details see below). From Russia, Blavatsky began to travel again. Although her further route is not known for certain, probably, she visited Persia, Syria, Lebanon, Jerusalem and more than once was at Egypt, Greece and Italy.
In 1867, she traveled through Hungary and Balkans during a few months. Then she visited Venice, Florence and Mentan. According to N. Fodor’s biography, in November 17, 1867 she took part in the battle near Mentan on Garibaldi’s side. Her left hand was twice broken by saber stabs; in addition, she got two hard missile wounds in right shoulder and leg. Initially, she was considered as killed but further she was picked up at the battlefield. Blavatsky told Olcott that she was a volunteer at Mentan together with other European women.
On the beginning of 1868, when Blavatsky recovered from the wounds she moved to Florence. Then she traveled to North Italy and Balkans and further to Constantinople, India and Tibet.
Later, when she answered to the question why she traveled to Tibet, H.P. Blavatsky wrote:
“ Really, it is quite useless to go to Tibet or India to recover some knowledge or power that are hidden in any human soul; but acquisition of higher knowledge and power requires not only many years of intensive studying under the guidance of higher mind together with a resolution that cannot be shaken by any danger, and as much as years of relative solitude, in communication with disciples only which pursue the same aim, and in such a place where both the nature and the neophyte preserve a perfect and unbroken rest if not the silence! There the air is not poisoned by miasmas around a hundreds miles, and there the atmosphere and human magnetism are quite clear and there the animal’s blood is never shed. ”
Palace of Panchen Lama at monastery Tashilunpo at Shigatse
According to biographers, H.P. Blavatsky’s path laid to Tashilunpo monastery (near Shigatse). A book "The Voice of the Silence", published for the request of Panchen Lama IX in 1927 by Chinese society for Buddhism study at Peking, reports that H. Blavatsky during several years was studied in Tashilunpo and knew well Panchen Lama VIII Tenpay Vangchug. Blavatsky also confirmed her living at Tashilunpo and Shigatse. In a letter, she depicted her correspondent a solitary temple of Tashi Lama near Shigatse.
S. Cranston asserts that, according to H.P. Blavatsky, it is not known would she was at Lhasa in that time, but V. Jelihovsky affirmed the follows: "It is reliably that she (Blavatsky) sometimes was at Lhasa, capital of Tibet, and also at Shigatse, main Tibetan religious centre … and at Karakoram mountains in Kunlun Shan. Her living stories about this proved that for me many times".
According to the biographers, last period of her living at Tibet H.P. Blavatsky has conducted in the home of her Teacher Koot Hoomi (K.H.). He helps Blavatsky to get to several lamaseries where any European was not before her. In the letter from October 2, 1991 she wrote to M. Hillis-Billing that the house of Teacher K.H. "is in the region of Karakoram mountains beyond Ladakh which is at minor Tibet and related now to Kashmir. This is a large wooden building in China style looking like to pagoda located between lake and a nice river".
Researchers believe that just at this time (during living in Tibet) Blavatsky began to study the texts which later will come to the book "The Voice of the Silence".
In 1927, one of the eminent explorers of Tibet and its philosophy W.Y. Evans-Wentz wrote in introduction to his translation of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead": "As concerning an esoteric meaning of forty ninth day of Bardo, please see about this in H.P. Blavatsky’s “The Secret Doctrine” (London, 1888, v.1, P.238, 411; v.2, p. 617,628). Late lama K.D. Samdup believed that in spite of malevolent critics of Blavatsky’s works, this author has undisputable proofs that she was well acquainted with the highest lamaist teaching, and for this she needs to get an initiation". Doctor Malalasekera, founder and President of the World Buddhist brotherhood, wrote about Blavatsky in a monumental "Buddhism Encyclopedia": "Her acquaintance with Tibetan Buddhism and also with esoteric Buddhism practices is indubitable". Thus, Japan philosopher and Buddhologist D. T. Suzuki supposes that
H.P. Blavatsky. 1876-1878
“ "undoubtedly Ms. Blavatsky somehow or other was initiated into deeper propositions of the Mahayana teaching". ”
After almost three years living at Tibet, Blavatsky began to travel through Middle East. Then she visited Cyprus and Greece.
In 1871, during the travel from Piraeus to Egypt at the ship "Evnomia" the powder magazine blew up and the ship was destroyed. Thirty passengers died. H.P. Blavatsky escaped but lost her luggage and money.
In 1871, Blavatsky arrived to Cairo where she has founded a Spiritualistic society (Societe Sirite) aimed on studying of mental phenomena. However, soon the society turned out in centre of financial scandal and was disbanded.
On July 1872, after leaving of Cairo, Blavatsky came to Odessa through Syria, Palestine and Constantinople where she lived during nine months.
S.Yu. Witte remembered that Blavatsky "when settled at Odessa, <…> firstly opened a shop and factory for ink and then a flower shop (for artificial flowers). At this time she often visited my mother. … When I make the acquaintance of her, I was surprised by her colossal talent to grasp any thing very quickly. … Many times before my very eyes she wrote the longest letters to her friends and relatives. … In the main, she was very not unkindly woman. She has so huge blue eyes that I never see in my life".
On April 1873, Blavatsky moved from Odessa to Bucharest to visit her friend. Then she came to Paris where she lived with her first cousin Nikolai Hahn. In the end of July, she purchased a ticket to New York. H. Olcott and Countess K. Vahtmeister reported that when H.P. Blavatsky saw a poor woman with two children which can not to pay the fare, she have changed her first-class ticket for four third-class tickets and traveled through the Pacific Ocean during two weeks under third-class.
[edit]Main Creative Period
Helena Blavatsky
In 1873, Blavatsky moved to Paris and further to USA where she met a colonel Henry Steel Olcott. In 1875, they established the Theosophical Society [100]. In April 3, 1875, in New York, Blavatsky formally has married with a Georgian living in America Michael Betanelly. The marriage had broken after several months [78]. In July 8, 1878 she became an American citizen [101].
In February 1879, Blavatsky and Olcott leaved for Bombay. In 1882, they founded a headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar near Madras [100].
Soon they met Alfred Sinnett, editor of the government Allahabad’s newspaper “The Pioneer”. Sinnett was seriously interested in activity of the Society. Using H. Blavatsky’s mediation, he began to correspond with Mahatmas. Sinnett was against the publication of the letters in total volume. He selected for publication some fragments which, as he believed, reflected the Mahatmas thoughts exactly enough. For all that, the correspondence was published by Alfred Barker in 1923, after the Sinnett’s death. [102].
The Theosophical Society has many followers in India [96].
From 1879 to 1888 Blavatsky edited the magazine “The Theosophist” [96].
In 1885, Blavatsky left India because of the aggravation. After this, she lived some time in Germany and Belgium. Then she moved to London where she was occupied with writing of the books [96]. Then she wrote “The Voice of the Silence” (1889), “The Secret Doctrine” (1888), “The Key to Theosophy” (1889). On May 8, 1891 Blavatsky died after she was down with flu. Her body was burned and the ashes were divided between three centers of the theosophical movement: London, New York and Adyar (near Madras). The day of her death is observed by the followers as “day of the white lotus”.
[edit]The Theosophical Society
Main article: Theosophical Society
Blavatsky helped found the Theosophical Society in New York City in 1875 with the motto, "There is no Religion higher than Truth".[22] Its other principal founding members include Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), and William Quan Judge (1851–1896). After several changes and iterations its declared objectives became the following:[23]
To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color.
To encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Science.
To investigate the unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.
The Society was organized as a non-proselytizing, non-sectarian entity.[24] Blavatsky and Olcott (the first President of the Society) moved from New York to Bombay, India in 1878. The International Headquarters of the Society was eventually established in Adyar, a suburb of Madras. Following Blavatsky’s death, disagreements among prominent Theosophists caused a series of splits and several Theosophical Societies and Organizations emerged. As of 2011 Theosophy remains an active philosophical school with presences in more than 50 countries around the world.[25]
[edit]Theosophy
Blavatsky is most well known for her promulgation of a theosophical system of thought, often referred to under various names, including: The Occult Science, The Esoteric Tradition, The Wisdom of the Ages, etc., or simply as Occultism or Theosophy.
[edit]Definition and Origin
Theosophy was considered by Blavatsky to be “the substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies”[26] In her book “The Key to Theosophy”, she stated the following about the meaning and origin of the term:
ENQUIRER. Theosophy and its doctrines are often referred to as a new-fangled religion. Is it a religion?
THEOSOPHIST. It is not. Theosophy is Divine Knowledge or Science.
ENQUIRER. What is the real meaning of the term?
THEOSOPHIST. "Divine Wisdom," (Theosophia) or Wisdom of the gods, as (theogonia), genealogy of the gods. The word theos means a god in Greek, one of the divine beings, certainly not "God" in the sense attached in our day to the term. Therefore, it is not "Wisdom of God," as translated by some, but Divine Wisdom such as that possessed by the gods. The term is many thousand years old.
ENQUIRER. What is the origin of the name?
THEOSOPHIST. It comes to us from the Alexandrian philosophers, called lovers of truth, Philaletheians, from phil "loving," and aletheia "truth." The name Theosophy dates from the third century of our era, and began with Ammonius Saccas and his disciples, who started the Eclectic Theosophical system.[27]
According to her, all real lovers of divine wisdom and truth had, and have, a right to the name of Theosophist.[28] Blavatsky discussed the major themes of Theosophy in several major works, including The Secret Doctrine, Isis Unveiled, The Key to Theosophy, and The Voice of the Silence. She also wrote over 200 articles in various theosophical magazines and periodicals.[29] Contemporaries of Blavatsky, as well as later theosophists, contributed to the development of this school of theosophical thought, producing works that at times sought to elucidate the ideas she presented (see Gottfried de Purucker), and at times to expand upon them.[30] Since its inception, and through doctrinal assimilation or divergence, Theosophy has also given rise to or influenced the development of other mystical, philosophical, and religious movements.[31]
[edit]Overview
[edit]Scope
Broadly, Theosophy attempts to reconcile humanity's scientific, philosophical, and religious disciplines and practices into a unified worldview. As it largely employs a synthesizing approach, it makes extensive use of the vocabulary and concepts of many philosophical and religious traditions. However these, along with all other fields of knowledge, are investigated, amended, and explained within an esoteric or occult framework. In often elaborate exposition, Theosophy's all-encompassing worldview proposes explanations for the origin, workings and ultimate fate of the universe and humanity; it has therefore also been called a system of "absolutist metaphysics".[32][33]
[edit]Methodology
According to Blavatsky, Theosophy is neither revelation nor speculation.[34] It is portrayed as an attempt at gradual, faithful reintroduction of a hitherto hidden science, which is called in Theosophical literature The Occult Science. According to Blavatsky, this postulated science provides a description of Reality not only at a physical level, but also on a metaphysical one. The Occult Science is said to have been preserved (and practiced) throughout history by carefully selected and trained individuals.[35] Theosophists further assert that Theosophy's precepts and their axiomatic foundation may be verified by following certain prescribed disciplines that develop in the practitioner metaphysical means of knowledge, which transcend the limitations of the senses. It is commonly held by Theosophists that many of the basic Theosophical tenets may in the future be empirically and objectively verified by science, as it develops further. In this sense, the Theosophical literature has predicted some findings which were later corroborated by modern science. For example, the accepted model of the atom in the nineteenth century resembled that of a billiard ball - a small, solid sphere. It was only in 1897 that J. J. Thomson discovered the electron suggesting that the atom was not an "indivisible" particle, as John Dalton had suggested, but a jigsaw puzzle made of smaller pieces. Nine years before, in 1888, Blavatsky had written:
The atom is elastic, ergo, the atom is divisible, and must consist of particles, or of sub-atoms. And these sub-atoms? They are either non-elastic, and in such case they represent no dynamic importance, or, they are elastic also; and in that case, they, too, are subject to divisibility. And thus ad infinitum. But infinite divisibility of atoms resolves matter into simple centers of force, i.e., precludes the possibility of conceiving matter as an objective substance.
—Helena Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine Volume I, p. 519
[edit]Law of Correspondences
In The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky spoke of a basic item of cosmogony reflected in the ancient saying: “as above, so below”. This item is used by many theosophists as a method of study and has been called “The Law of Correspondences”. Briefly, the law of correspondences states that the microcosm is the miniature copy of the macrocosm and therefore what is found “below” can be found, often through analogy, “above”. Examples include the basic structures of microcosmic organisms mirroring the structure of macrocosmic organisms (see septenary systems, below). The lifespan of a human being can be seen to follow, by analogy, the same path as the seasons of the Earth, and in theosophy it is postulated that the same general process is equally applied to the lifespan of a planet, a solar system, a galaxy and to the universe itself. Through the Law of Correspondences, a theosophist seeks to discover the first principles underlying various phenomenon by finding the shared essence or idea, and thus to move from particulars to principles.
[edit]Applications
Applied Theosophy was one of the main reasons for the foundation of the Theosophical Society in 1875 (see below); the practice of Theosophy was considered an integral part of its contemporary incarnation.[36] Theosophical discipline includes the practice of study, meditation, and service, which are traditionally seen as necessary for a holistic development. Also, the acceptance and practical application of the Society's motto and of its three objectives are part of the Theosophical life. Efforts at applying its tenets started early. Study and meditation are normally promoted in the activities of the Theosophical Society, and in 1908 an international charitable organization to promote service, the Theosophical Order of Service, was founded.
[edit]Terminology
Despite extensively using Sanskrit terminology in her works, many Theosophical concepts are expressed differently than in the original scriptures. To provide clarity on her intended meanings, Blavatsky's The Theosophical Glossary was published in 1892, one year after her death. According to the editor, G.R.S. Mead, in his Preface to the Glossary, Blavatsky wished to express her indebtedness to four works: the Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary, the Hindu Classical Dictionary, Vishnu-Purana, and the Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia.[37]
[edit]Basic Tenets
[edit]Three Fundamental Propositions
Blavatsky explained the essential component ideas of her cosmogony in her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine. She began with three fundamental propositions, of which she said: “Before the reader proceeds … it is absolutely necessary that he should be made acquainted with the few fundamental conceptions which underlie and pervade the entire system of thought to which his attention is invited. These basic ideas are few in number, and on their clear apprehension depends the understanding of all that follows…”[38]
The first proposition is that there is one underlying, unconditioned, indivisible Truth, variously called "the Absolute", "the Unknown Root", "the One Reality", etc. It is causeless and timeless, and therefore unknowable and non-describable: "It is 'Be-ness' rather than Being".[39] However, transient states of matter and consciousness are manifested in IT, in an unfolding gradation from the subtlest to the densest, the final of which is physical plane.[40] According to this view, manifest existence is a "change of condition"[41] and therefore neither the result of creation nor a random event.
Everything in the universe is informed by the potentialities present in the "Unknown Root," and manifest with different degrees of Life (or energy), Consciousness, and Matter.[42]
The second proposition is "the absolute universality of that law of periodicity, of flux and reflux, ebb and flow". Accordingly, manifest existence is an eternally re-occurring event on a "boundless plane": "'the playground of numberless Universes incessantly manifesting and disappearing,'"[43] each one "standing in the relation of an effect as regards its predecessor, and being a cause as regards its successor",[44] doing so over vast but finite periods of time.[45]
Related to the above is the third proposition: "The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul... and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul — a spark of the former — through the Cycle of Incarnation (or 'Necessity') in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term." The individual souls are seen as units of consciousness (Monads) that are intrinsic parts of a universal oversoul, just as different sparks are parts of a fire. These Monads undergo a process of evolution where consciousness unfolds and matter develops. This evolution is not random, but informed by intelligence and with a purpose. Evolution follows distinct paths in accord with certain immutable laws, aspects of which are perceivable on the physical level. One such law is the law of periodicity and cyclicity; another is the law of karma or cause and effect.[46]
[edit]Karma and Reincarnation
[edit]Cycles
[edit]Cosmic Evolution
[edit]Items of Cosmogony
In the recapitulation of The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky gave a summary of the central points of her system of cosmogony.[47] These central points are as follows:
The first item reiterates Blavatsky’s position that The Secret Doctrine represents the “accumulated Wisdom of the Ages”, a system of thought that “is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity.”
The second item reiterates the first fundamental proposition (see above), calling the one principle “the fundamental law in that system [of cosmogony]”. Here Blavatsky says of this principle that it is “the One homogeneous divine Substance-Principle, the one radical cause. … It is called “Substance-Principle,” for it becomes “substance” on the plane of the manifested Universe, an illusion, while it remains a “principle” in the beginningless and endless abstract, visible and invisible Space. It is the omnipresent Reality: impersonal, because it contains all and everything. Its impersonality is the fundamental conception of the System. It is latent in every atom in the Universe, and is the Universe itself.”
The third item reiterates the second fundamental proposition (see above), impressing once again that “The Universe is the periodical manifestation of this unknown Absolute Essence.”, while also touching upon the complex sanskrit ideas of Parabrahmam and Mulaprakriti. This item presents the idea that the One unconditioned and absolute principle is covered over by its veil, Mulaprakriti, that the spiritual essence is forever covered by the material essence.
The fourth item is the common eastern idea of Maya (illusion). Blavatsky states that the entire universe is called illusion because everything in it is temporary, i.e. has a beginning and an end, and is therefor unreal in comparison to the eternal changelessness of the One Principle.
The fifth item reiterates the third fundamental proposition (see above), stating that everything in the universe is conscious, in its own way and on it’s own plane of perception. Because of this, the Occult Philosophy states that there are no unconscious or blind laws of Nature, that all is govered by consciousness and consciousnesses.
The sixth item gives a core idea of theosophical philosophy, that “as above, so below”. This is known as the “law of correspondences”, its basic premise being that everything in the universe is worked and manifested from within outwards, or from the higher to the lower, and that thus the lower, the microcosm, is the copy of the higher, the macrocosm. Just as a human being experiences every action as preceded by an internal impulse of thought, emotion or will, so too the manifested universe is preceded by impulses from divine thought, feeling and will. This item gives rise to the notion of an “almost endless series of hierarchies of sentient beings”, which itself becomes a central idea of many theosophists. The law of correspondences also becomes central to the methodology of many theosophists, as they look for analogous correspondence between various aspects of reality, for instance: the correspondence between the seasons of Earth and the process of a single human life, through birth, growth, adulthood and then decline and death.
[edit]Anthropogenesis
[edit]Esotericism and Symbolism
In the first book of The Secret Doctrine Blavatsky drew an "analogy between the Aryan or Brahmanical and the Egyptian esotericism." She said that the "seven rays of the Chaldean Heptakis or Iao, on the Gnostic stones" represent the seven large stars of the Egyptian "Great Bear" constellation, the seven elemental powers, and the Hindu "seven Rishis." Blavatsky saw the seven rays of the Vedic sun deity Vishnu as representing the same concept as the "astral fluid or 'Light' of the Kabalists," and said that the seven emanations of the lower seven sephiroth are the "primeval seven rays," and "will be found and recognized in every religion."[48]
Theosophy holds that the manifested universe is ordered by the number seven,[49] a common claim among Esoteric and mystical doctrines and religions. Thus, the evolutionary "pilgrimage" proceeds cyclically through seven stages, the three first steps involving an apparent involution, the fourth one being one of equilibrium, and the last three involving a progressive development.
There are seven symbols of particular importance to the Society's symbology: 1) the seal of the Society, 2) a serpent biting its tail, 3) the gnostic cross (near the serpent's head), 4) the interlaced triangles, 5) the cruxansata (in the centre), 6) the pin of the Society, composed of cruxansata and serpent entwined, forming together "T.S.", and, 7) Om (or aum), the sacred syllable of the Vedas. The seal of the Society contains all of these symbols, except aum, and thus contains, in symbolic form, the doctrines its members follow.[50]
[edit]Septenary Systems
Main article: Septenary (Theosophy)
In the Theosophical view all major facets of existence manifest following a seven-fold model: "Our philosophy teaches us that, as there are seven fundamental forces in nature, and seven planes of being, so there are seven states of consciousness in which man can live, think, remember and have his being."[51]
[edit]Seven Cosmic Planes
The Cosmos does not consist only of the physical plane that can be perceived with the five senses, but there is a succession of seven Cosmic planes of existence, composed of increasingly subtler forms of matter-energy, and in which states of consciousness other than the commonly known can manifest. Blavatsky described the planes according to these states of consciousness. In her system, for example, the plane of the material and concrete mind (lower mental plane) is classified as different from the plane of the spiritual and holistic mind (higher mental plane). Later Theosophists like Charles Webster Leadbeater and Annie Besant classified the seven planes according to the kind of subtle matter that compose them. Since both the higher and lower mental planes share the same type of subtle matter, they regard them as one single plane with two subdivisions. In this later view the seven cosmic planes include (from spiritual to material):
- Adi (the supreme, a divine plane not reached by human beings)
- Anupadaka (the parentless, also a divine plane home of the divine spark in human beings, the Monad)
- Atmic (the spiritual plane of Man's Higher Self)
- Buddhic (the spiritual plane of intuition, love, and wisdom)
- Mental (with a higher and lower subdivisions, this plane bridges the spiritual with the personal)
- Emotional (a personal plane that ranges from lower desires to high emotions)
- Physical plane (a personal plane which again has two subdivisions the dense one perceivable by our five senses, and an etheric one that is beyond these senses)
[edit]Seven Principles and Bodies
Just as the Cosmos is not limited to its physical dimension, human beings have also subtler dimensions and bodies. The "Septenary Nature of Man" was described by Blavatsky in, among other works, The Key to Theosophy; in descending order, it ranges from a postulated purely spiritual essence (called a "Ray of the Absolute") to the physical body.[52]
The Theosophical teachings about the constitution of human beings talk about two different, but related, things: principles and bodies. Principles are the seven basic constituents of the universe, usually described by Mme. Blavatsky as follows:
- Physical
- Astral (later called etheric)
- Prana (or vital)
- Kama (animal soul)
- Manas (mind, or human soul)
- Buddhi (spiritual soul)
- Atma (Spirit or Self)
These Principles in Man may or may not form one or more bodies. Mme. Blavatsky's teachings about subtle bodies were few and not very systematic. In an article she described three subtle bodies: [53]
Linga Sharira - the Double or Astral body
Mayavi-rupa - the "Illusion-body."
Causal Body - the vehicle of the higher Mind.
The Linga Sharira is the invisible double of the human body, elsewhere referred to as the etheric body or doppelgänger and serves as a model or matrix of the physical body, which conforms to the shape, appearance and condition of his "double". The linga sarira can be separated or projected a limited distance from the body. When separated from the body it can be wounded by sharp objects. When it returns to the physical frame, the wound will be reflected in the physical counterpart, a phenomenon called "repercussion." At death, it is discarded together with the physical body and eventually disintegrates or decomposes. This can be seen over the graves like a luminous figure of the man that was, during certain atmospheric conditions.
The mayavi-rupa is dual in its functions, being: "...the vehicle both of thought and of the animal passions and desires, drawing at one and the same time from the lowest terrestrial manas (mind) and Kama, the element of desire." [54]
The higher part of this body, containing the spiritual elements gathered during life, merges after death entirely into the causal body; while the lower part, containing the animal elements, forms the Kama-rupa, the source of "spooks" or apparitions of the dead.
Therefore, besides the dense physical body, the subtle bodies in a human being are:
Etheric body (vehicle of prana)
Emotional or astral body (vehicle of desires and emotions)
Mental body (vehicle of the concrete or lower mind)
Causal body (vehicle of the abstract or higher mind)
These bodies go up to the higher mental plane. The two higher spiritual Principles of Buddhi and Atma do not form bodies proper but are something more like "sheaths".
[edit]Rounds and Races
Main articles: Round (Theosophy) and Root race
It follows from the above that to Theosophy, all Evolution is basically the evolution of Consciousness, physical-biological evolution being only a constituent part.[55] All evolutionary paths involve the serial immersion (or reincarnation) of basic units of consciousness called Monads into forms that become gradually denser, and which eventually culminate in gross physical matter. At that point the process reverses towards a respiritualization of consciousness. The experience gained in the previous evolutionary stages is retained; and so consciousness inexorably advances towards greater completeness.[56]
All individuated existence, regardless of stature, apparent animation, or complexity, is thought to be informed by a Monad; in its human phase, the Monad consists of the two highest-ordered (out of seven) constituents or principles of human nature and is connected to the third-highest principle, that of mind and self-consciousness (see Septenary above).
Theosophy describes humanity's evolution on Earth in the doctrine of Root races.[57] These are seven stages of development, during which every human Monad evolves alongside others in stages that last millions of years, each stage occurring mostly in a different super-continent – these continents are actually, according to Theosophy co-evolving geological and climatic stages.[58] At present, humanity's evolution is at the fifth stage, the so-called Aryan Root race, which is developing on its appointed geologic/climatic period.[59] The continuing development of the Aryan stage has been taking place since about the middle of the Calabrian (about 1,000,000 years ago).[60] The previous fourth Root race was at the midpoint of the sevenfold evolutionary cycle, the point in which the "human" Monad became fully vested in the increasingly complex and dense forms that developed for it. A component of that investment was the gradual appearance of contemporary human physiology, which finalized to the form known to early 21st century medical science during the fourth Root race.[61] The current fifth stage is on the ascending arc, signifying the gradual reemergence of spiritualized consciousness (and of the proper forms, or "vehicles", for it) as humanity's dominant characteristic. The appearance of Root races is not strictly serial; they first develop while the preceding Race is still dominant. Older races complete their evolutionary cycle and die out; the present fifth Root race will in time evolve into the more advanced spiritually sixth.[62]
Humanity's evolution is a subset of planetary evolution, which is described in the doctrine of Rounds, itself a subject of Theosophy's Esoteric cosmology. Rounds may last hundreds of millions of years each. Theosophy states that Earth is currently in the fourth Round of the planet's own sevenfold development.[63] Human evolution is tied to the particular Round or planetary stage of evolution – the Monads informing humans in this Round were previously informing the third Round's animal class, and will "migrate" to a different class of entities in the fifth Round.[64]
[edit]Racial theories
Regarding the origin the human races on earth, Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine argued for polygenism —"the simultaneous evolution of seven human groups on seven different portions of our globe".[65]
The Secret Doctrine (II, 610) states:
Mankind did not issue from one solitary couple. Nor was there ever a first man—whether Adam or Yima—but a first mankind. It may, or may not, be "mitigated polygenism." Once that both creation ex nihilo—an absurdity—and a superhuman Creator or creators—a fact—are made away with by science, polygenism presents no more difficulties or inconveniences (rather fewer from a scientific point of view) than monogenism does.
Blavatsky used the compounded word Root-race to describe each of the seven successive stages of human evolution that take place over large time periods in her cosmology. A Root-race is the archetype from which spring all the races that form humanity in a particular evolutionary cycle. She called the current Root-race, the fifth one, "Aryan,".[66]
The present Root-race was preceded by the fourth one, which developed in Atlantis, while the third Root-race is denominated "Lemurian". She described the Aryan Root-race in the following way:
“ The Aryan races, for instance, now varying from dark brown, almost black, red-brown-yellow, down to the whitest creamy colour, are yet all of one and the same stock — the Fifth Root-Race — and spring from one single progenitor, (...) who is said to have lived over 18,000,000 years ago, and also 850,000 years ago — at the time of the sinking of the last remnants of the great continent of Atlantis.[67] ”
Her evolutionary view admits a difference in development between various ethnic groups:
“ The occult doctrine admits of no such divisions as the Aryan and the Semite, accepting even the Turanian [as part of the same language group] with ample reservations. The Semites, especially the Arabs, are later Aryans — degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality."[68] ”
She also states that:
“ There are, or rather still were a few years ago, descendants of these half-animal tribes or races, both of remote Lemurian and Lemuro-Atlantean origin ... Of such semi-animal creatures, the sole remnants known to Ethnology were the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians and a mountain tribe in China, the men and women of which are entirely covered with hair.[69] ”
Blavatsky's teachings talk about three separate levels of evolution: physical, intellectual, and spiritual.[70] Blavatsky states that there are differences in the spiritual evolution of the Monads (the "divine spark" in human beings), in the intellectual development of the souls, and in the physical qualities of the bodies. These levels of evolution are independent. A highly evolved Monad may incarnate, for karmic reasons, in a rather crude personality. Also, a very intellectual person may be less evolved at the spiritual level than an illiterate.
She also states that cultures follow a cycle of rising, development, degeneration, and eventually disappear. Also, according to her there is a fixed number of reincarnating souls evolving, all of which are beyond sex, nationality, religion, and other physical or cultural characteristics. In its evolutionary journey, every soul has to take birth in every culture in the world, where it acquires different skills and learns different lessons.[71]
Even though she declares that at this point of their cultural evolutionary cycle the Semites, especially the Arabs, are "degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality," she also stated that there were wise and initiated teachers among the Jews and the Arabs,[72] some of them were Blavatsky's teachers early in her life.
Blavatsky does not claim that the present Aryan Root-race is the last and highest of them all. The Indo-European races will also eventually degenerate and disappear, as new and more developed races and cultures develop on the planet:
“ Thus will mankind, race after race, perform its appointed cycle-pilgrimage. Climates will, and have already begun, to change, each tropical year after the other dropping one sub-race, but only to beget another higher race on the ascending cycle; while a series of other less favoured groups — the failures of nature — will, like some individual men, vanish from the human family without even leaving a trace behind.
Such is the course of Nature under the sway of KARMIC LAW: of the ever present and the ever-becoming Nature.[73]
”
The first aim of the Theosophical Society she founded is "To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour", and her writings also include references emphasizing the unity of humanity: "all men have spiritually and physically the same origin" and that "mankind is essentially of one and the same essence".[74]
[edit]Influence
[edit]Following
During the 1920s the Theosophical Society Adyar had around 7,000 members in the USA.[75] According to a Theosophical source, the Indian section in 2008 was said to have around 13,000 members while in the US the 2008 membership was reported at around 3,900.[76]
[edit]Indian Independence Movement
Some early members of the Theosophical Society were closely linked to the Indian independence movement, including Allan Octavian Hume, Annie Besant and others. Hume was particularly involved in the founding of the Indian National Congress.
[edit]Anthroposophy
Rudolf Steiner, head of the German branch of the Theosophical Society in the early part of the 20th-century, disagreed with the Adyar-based international leadership of the Society over several doctrinal matters including the so-called World Teacher Project (see above). Steiner left the Theosophical Society in 1913 to promote his own Theosophy-influenced philosophy, which he called Anthroposophy through a new organization, the Anthroposophical Society; the great majority of German-speaking Theosophists joined him in the new group.
[edit]Ariosophy
Austrian/German ultra-nationalist Guido von List and his followers such as Lanz von Liebenfels, selectively mixed Theosophical doctrine on the evolution of Humanity and on Root races with nationalistic and fascist ideas; this system of thought became known as Ariosophy, a precursor of nazism.[77]
[edit]New Age Movement
The present-day New Age movement is said to be based to a considerable extent on the Theosophical tenets and ideas presented by Blavatsky and her contemporaries. "No single organization or movement has contributed so many components to the New Age Movement as the Theosophical Society. ... It has been the major force in the dissemination of occult literature in the West in the twentieth century."[78]
Other organizations loosely based on Theosophical texts and doctrines include the Agni Yoga, and a group of religions based on Theosophy called the Ascended Master Teachings: the "I AM" Activity, The Bridge to Freedom and The Summit Lighthouse, which evolved into the Church Universal and Triumphant.
[edit]Scholarship
Scholar Alvin Boyd Kuhn wrote his thesis, Theosophy: A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom, on the subject – the first instance in which an individual obtained his doctorate with a thesis on Theosophy.[79]
[edit]Art, music and literature
Artists and authors who investigated Theosophy include Talbot Mundy, Charles Howard Hinton, Geoffrey Hodson, James Jones[80], H. P. Lovecraft, and L. Frank Baum. Composer Alexander Scriabin was a Theosophist whose beliefs influenced his music, especially by providing a justification or rationale for his chromatic language. Scriabin devised a quartal synthetic chord, often called his "mystic" chord, and before his death Scriabin planned a multimedia work to be performed in the Himalayas that would bring about the armageddon; "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a new world."[81] This piece, Mysterium, was never realized, due to his death in 1915.
[edit]Criticism
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Well-known and controversial during her life, Blavatsky was influential on spiritualism and related subcultures: "The western esoteric tradition has no more important figure in modern times."[82] She wrote prolifically, publishing thousands of pages and debate continues about her work. She taught about very abstract and metaphysical principles, but also sought to denounce and correct superstitions that, in her view, had grown in different esoteric religions. Some of these statements are controversial. For example, she quotes Dr. A. Kingsford’s book "Perfect Way" (section "The Secret of Satan"): "It is Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god" and adds "and this without any allusive metaphor to its wickedness and depravity."[83] In this reference Blavatsky explains that he whom the Christian dogma calls Lucifer was never the representative of the evil in ancient myths but, on the contrary, the light-bringer (which is the literal meaning of the name Lucifer). According to Blavatsky the church turned him into Satan (which means "the opponent") to misrepresent pre-Christian beliefs and fit him into the newly framed Christian dogmas. A similar view is also shared by the Christian Gnostics, ancient and modern.
Throughout much of Blavatsky's public life her work drew harsh criticism from some of the learned authorities of her day, as for example when she said that the atom was divisible,[84] that the Bodhisattvas choose to give up Nirvana in order to help humanity[85] and other controversial statements that were later found true. There are, however, many statements that remain to be verified.
Critics pronounced her claim of the existence of masters of wisdom to be utterly false, and accused her of being a charlatan, a false medium, evil, a spy for the Russians, a smoker of cannabis, a spy for the English, a racist and a falsifier of letters. Most of the accusations remain undocumented.[86][87][88][89]
H. P. Blavatsky herself said, that one of the main reasons for the many attacks on her and on the Theosophical Society, which she was a co-founder of was:
"you must bear in mind how many powerful adversaries we have aroused ever since the formation of our Society. As I just said, if the Theosophical movement were one of those numerous modern crazes, as harmless at the end as they are evanescent, it would be simply laughed at― as it is now by those who still do not understand its real purport ― and left severely alone. But it is nothing of the kind. Intrinsically, Theosophy is the most serious movement of this age; and one, moreover, which threatens the very life of most of the time-honoured humbugs, prejudices, and social evils of the day ― those evils which fatten and make happy the upper ten and their imitators and sycophants, the wealthy dozens of the middle classes, while they positively crush and starve out of existence the millions of the poor. Think of this, and you will easily understand the reason of such a relentless persecution by those others who, more observant and perspicacious, do see the true nature of Theosophy, and therefore dread it." [90]
In The New York Times Edward Hower wrote, "Theosophical writers have defended her sources vehemently. Skeptics have painted her as a great fraud."[91] The authenticity and originality of her writings were questioned. Blavatsky was accused of having plagiarized a number of sources, copying the texts crudely enough to misspell the more difficult words. See: The Sources of Madame Blavatsky's Writings by William Emmette Coleman from Modern Priestess of Isis by Vsevolod Sergyeevich Solovyoff (author), Walter Leaf (translator).[92] However, the cosmogony and anthropogenesis described in her major work, the Secret Doctrine, contains many important elements not to be found in any other philosophy currently known.
In his 1885 report to the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), Richard Hodgson concluded that Blavatsky was a fraud. However, in a 1986 press release to the newspapers and leading magazines in Great Britain, Canada and the USA, the same SPR retracted the Hodgson report, after a re-examination of the case by the Fortean psychic Dr. Vernon Harrison, past president of The Royal Photographic Society and formerly Research Manager to Thomas De La Rue, an expert on forgery, as follows: "Madame Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was unjustly condemned, new study concludes."[93]
[edit]Works
The books written by Madame Blavatsky included:
Blavatsky, H P (1877), Isis unveiled, J.W. Bouton, OCLC 7211493
Blavatsky, H P (1880), From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan, Floating Press, ISBN 1775416038
Blavatsky, H P (1888), The Secret Doctrine, Theosophical Publ. Co, OCLC 61915001
Blavatsky, H P (1933) [1889], The Voice of the Silence, Theosophy Co. (India) Ltd, OCLC 220858481
Blavatsky, H P (1889), The key to theosophy, Theosophical Pub. Co, OCLC 612505
Blavatsky, H P (1892), Nightmare tales, London, Theosophical publishing society, OCLC 454984121
Blavatsky, H P; Neff, Mary Katherine (1937), Personal memoirs, London, OCLC 84938217
Blavatsky, H P; Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2004), Helena Blavatsky, Western esoteric masters series, North Atlantic Books, ISBN 9781556434570
Her many articles have been collected in the Collected Writings of H. P. Blavatsky. An alternative link is: http://collectedwritings.net This series has 15 numbered volumes including the index.
[edit]Books about Blavatsky
Bleiler, Everett Franklin (1948), The checklist of fantastic literature; a bibliography of fantasy, weird and science fiction books published in the English language, Chicago, Shasta Publishers, OCLC 1113926
Caldwell, Daniel H (2000), The esoteric world of Madame Blavatsky : insights into the life of a modern sphinx, Theosophical Pub. House, ISBN 9780835607940
Cranston, S L (1994) [1993], HPB : the extraordinary life and influence of Helena Blavatsky, founder of the modern Theosophical movement, Putnam, ISBN 9780874777697
Guénon, René (2001), Theosophy : history of a pseudo-religion, Sophia Perennis, ISBN 9780900588808, retrieved 2009-11-26
Hanson, Virginia (1988), H.P. Blavatsky and The secret doctrine, A Quest book, Theosophical Pub. House, ISBN 9780835606301, retrieved 2009-11-26
Harrison, Vernon (1997), H.P. Blavatsky and the SPR : an examination of the Hodgson report of 1885, Theosophical University Press, ISBN 9781557001184, retrieved 2009-11-26
Meade, Marion (1980), Madame Blavatsky, the woman behind the myth, Putnam, ISBN 9780399123764
Ryan, Charles J; Knoche, Grace F (1937), H.P. Blavatsky and the theosophical movement : a brief historical sketch, Theosophical University Press, ISBN 9781557000903
Solovyov, Vsevolod Sergyeevich (1895), A Modern Priestess of Isis London
Symonds, John (2006) [1959], The lady with the magic eyes : Madame Blavatsky, medium and magician, Kessinger Pub, ISBN 9781425487096
Thibaux, Jean-Michel (1992) [1992], Héléna Blavatsky, les sept esprits de la révolte, Edition 1, ISBN 2863915002
Sister Nivedita
"The mother's heart, the hero's will The sweetness of the southern breeze, The sacred charm and strength that dwell On Aryan altars, flaming, free; All these be yours and many more No ancient soul could dream before- Be thou to India's future son The mistress, servant, friend in one."
”
- A benediction to Sister Nivedita by Swami Vivekananda [1]
Sister Nivedita ( Sister Niːbediiːt̪a (help·info)); (Bengali: সিস্টার নিবেদিতা); (1867–1911), born as Margaret Elizabeth Noble, was a Scots-Irish social worker, author, teacher and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She met Vivekananda in 1895 in London and travelled to Calcutta, India (present-day Kolkata) in 1898. Swami Vivekananda gave her the name Nivedita (meaning "Dedicated to God") when he initiated her into the vow of Brahmacharya on March 25, 1898. She had close associations with the newly established Ramakrishna Mission. However because of her active contribution in the field of Indian Nationalism, she had to publicly dissociate herself from the activities of the Ramakrishna Mission under the then president Swami Brahmananda. She was very intimate with Sarada Devi, the spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna and one of the major influences behind Ramakrishna Mission and also with all brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda. Her epitaph aptly reads, Here reposes Sister Nivedita who gave her all to India
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Meeting Swami Vivekananda
3 Travels
4 Relationship with Sarada Devi
5 Her works
6 Contribution towards Indian nationalism
7 Death
8 Books
9 Complete Works of Sister Nivedita
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
[edit]Early life
Margaret Elizabeth Noble was born on October 28, 1867 in the town of Dungannon in County Tyrone, Ireland to Mary Isabel and Samuel Richmond Noble. The Nobles were of Scottish descent, settled in Ireland for about five centuries.[2] Her father, who a priest, gave the valuable lesson that service to mankind is the true service to God. Margaret lost her father at the age of ten, and was brought up by her maternal grandfather Hamilton. Hamilton was one of the first-ranking leaders of the freedom movement of Ireland.[3] Margaret got her education from Church boarding school in London. She extensively studied various subjects, including physics, arts, music, literature. She embraced teaching at the age of seventeen. She first worked in Keswick as a teacher of children. Subsequently she established a school in Wimbledon and followed her own unique methods of teaching. She also participated in Church sponsored activities, being religious in nature. She was also a prolific writer and wrote in the paper and periodicals. In this way she soon became a known names among the intellectuals of London. She was engaged to be married to a Welsh youth who died soon after engagement.[4] The regulated religious life could not give her the necessary peace and she began to study various books on religion.
[edit]Meeting Swami Vivekananda
Nivedita wrote in 1904 to a friend about her decision to follow swami Vivekananada as a result of her meeting him in England in November 1895:
"Suppose he had not come to London that time! Life would have been like a headless dream, for I always knew that I was waiting for something. I always said that a call would come. And it did. But if I had known more of life, I doubt whether, when the time came, I should certainly have recognized it.
Fortunately, I knew little and was spared that torture....Always I had this burning voice within, but nothing to utter. How often and often I sat down, pen in hand, to speak, and there was no speech! And now there is no end to it! As surely I am fitted to my world, so surely is my world in need of me, waiting — ready. The arrow has found its place in the bow. But if he had not come! If he had meditated, on the Himalayan peaks!...I, for one, had never been here." [5]
She started taking interest in the teachings of Buddha as alternate source of peace and benediction. It is during this time that she met Swami Vivekananda. On a cold afternoon in November 1895, Swami Vivekananda, who had come from America to visit London on an invitation, was explaining Vedanta philosophy in the drawing room of an aristocratic family in London. Lady Isabel Margesson, a friend of Margaret, invited her for this meeting. Margaret described her experience on the occasion. A majestic personage, clad in a saffron gown and wearing a red waist-band, sat there on the floor, cross-legged. As he spoke to the company, he recited Sanskrit verses in his deep, sonorous voice. Margaret being already delved deep into the teachings of the East, found nothing quite new in what she heard on this occasion. What was new to her was the personality of the swamiji himself. She attended several other lectures of Swami Vivekananda. She raised a lot of questions whose answers dispelled her doubts and established deep faith and reverence for the speaker.
Vivekananda's principles and teachings influenced her and this brought about a visible change in her. Seeing the fire and passion in her, Swami Vivekananda could foresee her future role in India. Swami Vivekananda narrated to her the pitiable condition of the women in India prevailing at that time and wrote to her in a letter, "Let me tell you frankly that I am now convinced that you have a great future in the work for India. What was wanted was not a man, but a woman—a real lioness—to work for Indians, women especially. India cannot yet produce great women, she must borrow them from other nations. Your education, sincerity, purity, immense love, determination and above all, the Celtic blood make you just the woman wanted."[6]
Swami Vivekananda felt extreme pain by the wretchedness and misery of the people of India under the British rule and his opinion was that education was the panacea for all evils plaguing the contemporary Indian society, especially that of Indian women. Margaret was chosen for the role of educating Indian women.
Responding to the call, Margaret visited India for the first time on 28 January 1898, leaving behind her family and friends, including her mother. Swami Vivekananda devoted the initial few days in building her character and developing her love for India and its people. He explained to her India’s history, philosophy, literature, life of the common mass, social traditions, and also the lives of great personalities, both ancient and modern. A few weeks later, two of Swami Vivekananda's women disciples in America, Sara C. Bull, wife of famous Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull and Josphine MacLeod arrived in India. The three became lifelong friends.
On 25 March 1898, Swami Vivekananda formally initiated Margaret in the vow of Brahmacharya (lifelong celibacy) and gave her the name of "Nivedita", the dedicated one. She became the first Western woman to be received into an Indian monastic order.[7] She later recorded some of her experiences with her master in the book The Master As I Saw Him. She often used to refer to Swami Vivekananda as "The King" and considered herself as the spiritual daughter (Manaskanya in Bengali) of Swami.[8]
On 18 March 1898, Swami Vivekananda organized a public meeting at Star Theatre to introduce Sister Nivedita to the people of Calcutta. There she expressed her desire to serve India and its people.
[edit]Travels
She travelled a lot of places in India, including Kashmir, with Swami Vivekananda, Josephine Mcleod and Sara Bull and this helped her in connecting to Indian masses, Indian culture and its history. She also went to United States to raise awareness and get help for her cause. On 11 May 1898 Nivedita, along with Swami Vivekananda, Mrs. Sara Bull, Josephine Mcleod and Swami Turiyananda, set foot for the Himalayas. From Nainital they travelled to Almora. On 5 June 1898, she wrote a letter to her friend Nell Hammond exclaiming, Oh Nell, Nell, India is indeed the Holy Land.[9] In Almora she first learned the art of meditation. She wrote about this experience, "A mind must be brought to change its centre of gravity...again open and disinterested state of mind welcomes truth." [10] She also started learning Bengali from Swami Swarupananda. From Almora they went to Kashmir valley where they stayed in houseboats. Nivedita travelled to Amarnath with Swami Vivekananda. Later in 1899 she travelled to America with Swami Vivekananda and stayed in Ridgely Manor.
[edit]Relationship with Sarada Devi
Sarada Devi (left) and Sister Nivedita
Within a few days of arrival in India, Margaret met Sarada Devi, wife and spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna, who, surpassing all language and cultural barriers, embraced her as "khooki" or "baby" in Bengali. This, recounted Nivedita, was her "day of days."[11] Till her death in 1911, Nivedita remained one of the closest associates of Sarada Devi. On 13 November 1898 the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi came to open the school of Nivedita. After worshiping Sri Ramakrishna she consecrated the school and blessed it, saying: ‘I pray that the blessings of the Divine Mother may be upon the school and the girls; and the girls trained from the school may become ideal girls.’ Nivedita became extremely delighted and recorded her feelings later as ‘I cannot imagine a grander omen than her blessings, spoken over the educated Hindu womanhood of the future.’[12] The first photograph of Sarada Devi was taken at Nivedita's house.
Nivedita wrote in a letter to Nell Hammond about Sarada Devi after her first few meetings with her, "She really is, under the simplest, most unassuming guise, one of the strongest and greatest of women."[13]
An excerpt is taken here from the Gospel of Holy Mother, where Sarada Devi's impressions about Nivedita are captured vividly:
Referring to Nivedita, she [Sarada Devi] said, "What sincere devotion Nivedita had! She never considered anything too much that she might do for me. She would often come to see me at night. Once seeing that light struck my eyes, she put a shade of paper around the lamp. She would prostrate herself before me and, with great tenderness, take the dust of my feet with her handkerchief. I felt that she even hesitated to touch my feet." The thought of Nivedita opened the floodgate of her mind and she suddenly became grave... The Mother now and then expressed her feelings towards the Sister. She said at last, "The inner soul feels for a sincere devotee."[14]
[edit]Her works
House in Baghbazar where Sister Nivedita started her school in 1898
House in Baghbazar where Sister Nivedita started her school in 1898
In November 1898 she started a school for girls[15] who were deprived of even basic education, in Bosepara lane in the Bagbazar area of Calcutta. She went from home to home in educate girls, many of whom were in pitiable condition owing to the socioeconomic condition of early 20th century India. In many cases she encountered refusal from the male members of the girl's family. Nivedita had widows and adult women among her students. She taught sewing, elementary rules of hygiene, nursing, etc., apart from regular courses.
She took part in altruistic activities. She worked to improve the lives of Indian women of all castes.
During the outbreak of plague epidemic in Calcutta in 1899 Nivedita nursed and took care of the patients, cleaned rubbish from the area, and inspired and motivated many youths to render voluntary service. She inserted appeals for help in the English newspapers, organized the day-to-day activities, inspected the work and personally handed over the written instructions for the preventive measures by moving around.
She was a prolific orator and writer and extensively toured India to deliver lectures, especially on India's culture and religion. She appealed to the Indian youth to work selflessly for the cause of the motherland along the ideals of Swami Vivekananda.
She was friend to many intellectuals and artists in the Bengali community, including Rabindranath Tagore, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Abala Bose, and Abanindranath Tagore. Later she took up the cause of Indian independence. Sri Aurobindo was one of her friends as well.[citation needed]
She took active interest in promoting Indian history, culture and science. She actively encouraged Dr. Jagadish Chandra Bose, the renowned Indian scientist who is credited to have discovered the wireless radio along with Marconi, to pursue original scientific research and helped him financially as well in getting due recognition when he was faced by an indifferent attitude of the British Government. Bose, who was called by her as "khoka" or the "little one" in Bengali, and his wife lady Abala Bose, were in very close terms with her. Keeping in view Nivedita’s contribution to the scientific research work of Jagadish Chandra, Rabindranath Tagore said: ‘In the day of his success, Jagadish gained an invaluable energizer and helper in Sister Nivedita, and in any record of his life’s work her name must be given a place of honour.’
Her identity as both a westerner by birth and a disciple of Swami Vivekananda enabled her to do several things that might have been difficult for Indians. She promoted pan-Indian nationalism.[citation needed]
[edit]Contribution towards Indian nationalism
Initially Nivedita, like contemporary intellectuals from Europe, was optimistic about British rule in India and believed that it was possible for India and England to love each other. However, in the course of her stay, she came to witness the brutal side of the British rule, the repression and oppression and the division between the ruling elite and the ruled plebians; she concluded that it was necessary for India to gain independence to prosper. Therefore she devoted herself wholeheartedly to the cause of opposing the British rule. After Swami's death, she, being acutely aware of the inconvenience of the newly formed Ramakrishna Mission on account of her political activities, publicly dissociated herself from it. However, till her last days she had very cordial relationship with the brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda like Swami Brahmananda, Swami Premananda and Swami Saradananda, who helped her in her charitable and education activities in every possible way; she was very close to the holy mother, Sri Sarada Devi.
Nivedita had initially worked with Okakura of Japan and Sarala Ghoshal who was related to the Tagore family. She later started working on her own and maintained direct relationship with many of the young revolutionaries of Bengal, including those of Anushilan Samity, a secret organization. She inspired many youths in taking up the cause of freeing India through her lectures. She also exposed Lord Curzon after his speech in the University of Calcutta in 1905 where he mentioned that truth was given a higher place in the moral codes of the West, than in East. She undertook her own research and made it public that in the book Problems of The Far East by Curzon he had proudly described how he had given false statements about his age and marriage to the president of the Korean Foreign Office to win his favour. This statement when published in newspapers like Amrita Bazar Patrika and The Statesman caused a furor and forced Curzon to apologize.
In 1905 the British Government under Curzon initiated the partition of Bengal which was a major turning point in the Indian independence movement. Nivedita played a pioneering role in organizing the movement. She provided financial and logistical support and leveraged her contacts to get information from government agencies and forewarn the revolutionaries.
She met Indian artists like Abanindranath Tagore, Anand Coomaraswami and Havell and inspired them to develop pure Indian school of art. She always inspired and guided the talented students of the Calcutta Art School to move along the forgotten tracks of ancient Indian art like Nandalal Bose, Asit Kumar Haldar and Surendranath Gangopadhyay. She exerted great influence on famous Tamil poet, Subrahmanya Bharati, who met her only briefly in 1906. Nivedita designed the national flag of India with the thunderbolt as the emblem against a red background.
Nivedita tried her utmost to inculcate the nationalist spirit in the minds of her students through all their daily activities. She introduced singing of the song Vande Màtaram in her school as a prayer.
Nivedita provided guarded support to Annie Besant, and was very close to Aurobindo Ghosh (later Sri Aurobindo), on of the major contributors towards early nationalist movement. She edited Karma Yogin, the nationalist newspaper of Aurobindo.
The following piece is from an editorial in Karma Yogin, written by Nivedita, which depicts her intense respect for India:
"The whole history of the world shows that the Indian intellect is second to none. This must be proved by the performance of a task beyond the power of others, the seizing of the first place in the intellectual advance of the world. Is there any inherent weakness that would make it impossible for us to do this? Are the countrymen of Bhaskaracharya and Shankaracharya inferior to the countrymen of Newton and Darwin? We trust not. It is for us, by the power of our thought, to break down the iron walls of opposition that confront us, and to seize and enjoy the intellectual sovereignty of the world."[16]
[edit]Death
She died on October 13, 1911, age 43, in Darjeeling. Her epitaph reads "Here reposes Sister Nivedita who gave her all to India".
A benediction[17] written for Nivedita by Swami Vivekananda is available from wiki quotes: Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
[edit]Books
Her works included The Web of Indian Life, which sought to rectify many myths in the Western world about Indian culture and customs, Kali the mother, The Master as I saw him on Swami Vivekananda, Notes of Some Wanderings with the Swami Vivekananda on her travels in Kashmir and other places with Swamiji, The Cradle Tales of Hindusim on the stories from Puranas, Ramayana and Mahabharata, Studies from an Eastern Home, Civil Ideal and Indian Nationality, Hints on National Education in India, Glimpses of Famine and Flood in East Bengal—1906.
Kali the Mother. Swan Sonnenschein & Co.,. 1900.
The Web of Indian Life. W. Heinemann. 1904.
Cradle Tales of Hinduism. Longmans,. 1907.
An Indian study of love and death. Longmans, Green & Co.,. 1908.
The master as I saw Him. Longmans, Green & Co.,. 1910.
Select essays of Sister Nivedita. Ganesh & Co.,. 1911.
Studies from an Eastern Home. 1913.
Myths of Hindus and Buddhists.. London : George G. Harrap & Co.,. 1913.
Footfalls of Indian history. Longmans, Green & Co.,. 1915.
Religion and Dharma. Longmans, Green, and Co.,. 1915.
Civic & national ideals.. Udbodhan Office. 1929.
A newly annotated edition of The Ancient Abbey of Ajanta, that was serialized in The Modern Review during 1910 and 1911, was published in 2009 by Lalmati, Kolkata, with annotations, additions and photographs by Prasenjit Dasgupta and Soumen Paul.
[edit]Complete Works of Sister Nivedita
Volume 1: The Master as I Saw Him; Notes of Some Wanderings; Kedar Nath and Bhadri Narayan; Kali the Mother. ISBN 978-8180404580
Volume 2: The Web of Indian Life; An Indian Study of Love and Death; Studies from an Eastern Home; Lectures and Articles. ASIN B003XGBYHG
Volume 3: Indian Art; Cradle Tales of Hinduism; Religion and Dharma; Aggressive Hinduism. ISBN 978-1177782470
Volume 4: Footfalls of Indian History; Civic Ideal and Indian Nationality; Hints on National Education in India; Lambs Among Wolves. ASIN: B0010HSR48
Volume 5: On Education; On Hindu Life, Thought and Religion; On Political, Economic and Social Problems; Biographical Sketches and Reviews. ASIN: B0000D5LXI
Sister Nivedita
"The mother's heart, the hero's will The sweetness of the southern breeze, The sacred charm and strength that dwell On Aryan altars, flaming, free; All these be yours and many more No ancient soul could dream before- Be thou to India's future son The mistress, servant, friend in one."
”
- A benediction to Sister Nivedita by Swami Vivekananda [1]
Sister Nivedita ( Sister Niːbediiːt̪a (help·info)); (Bengali: সিস্টার নিবেদিতা); (1867–1911), born as Margaret Elizabeth Noble, was a Scots-Irish social worker, author, teacher and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She met Vivekananda in 1895 in London and travelled to Calcutta, India (present-day Kolkata) in 1898. Swami Vivekananda gave her the name Nivedita (meaning "Dedicated to God") when he initiated her into the vow of Brahmacharya on March 25, 1898. She had close associations with the newly established Ramakrishna Mission. However because of her active contribution in the field of Indian Nationalism, she had to publicly dissociate herself from the activities of the Ramakrishna Mission under the then president Swami Brahmananda. She was very intimate with Sarada Devi, the spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna and one of the major influences behind Ramakrishna Mission and also with all brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda. Her epitaph aptly reads, Here reposes Sister Nivedita who gave her all to India
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Meeting Swami Vivekananda
3 Travels
4 Relationship with Sarada Devi
5 Her works
6 Contribution towards Indian nationalism
7 Death
8 Books
9 Complete Works of Sister Nivedita
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
[edit]Early life
Margaret Elizabeth Noble was born on October 28, 1867 in the town of Dungannon in County Tyrone, Ireland to Mary Isabel and Samuel Richmond Noble. The Nobles were of Scottish descent, settled in Ireland for about five centuries.[2] Her father, who a priest, gave the valuable lesson that service to mankind is the true service to God. Margaret lost her father at the age of ten, and was brought up by her maternal grandfather Hamilton. Hamilton was one of the first-ranking leaders of the freedom movement of Ireland.[3] Margaret got her education from Church boarding school in London. She extensively studied various subjects, including physics, arts, music, literature. She embraced teaching at the age of seventeen. She first worked in Keswick as a teacher of children. Subsequently she established a school in Wimbledon and followed her own unique methods of teaching. She also participated in Church sponsored activities, being religious in nature. She was also a prolific writer and wrote in the paper and periodicals. In this way she soon became a known names among the intellectuals of London. She was engaged to be married to a Welsh youth who died soon after engagement.[4] The regulated religious life could not give her the necessary peace and she began to study various books on religion.
[edit]Meeting Swami Vivekananda
Nivedita wrote in 1904 to a friend about her decision to follow swami Vivekananada as a result of her meeting him in England in November 1895:
"Suppose he had not come to London that time! Life would have been like a headless dream, for I always knew that I was waiting for something. I always said that a call would come. And it did. But if I had known more of life, I doubt whether, when the time came, I should certainly have recognized it.
Fortunately, I knew little and was spared that torture....Always I had this burning voice within, but nothing to utter. How often and often I sat down, pen in hand, to speak, and there was no speech! And now there is no end to it! As surely I am fitted to my world, so surely is my world in need of me, waiting — ready. The arrow has found its place in the bow. But if he had not come! If he had meditated, on the Himalayan peaks!...I, for one, had never been here." [5]
She started taking interest in the teachings of Buddha as alternate source of peace and benediction. It is during this time that she met Swami Vivekananda. On a cold afternoon in November 1895, Swami Vivekananda, who had come from America to visit London on an invitation, was explaining Vedanta philosophy in the drawing room of an aristocratic family in London. Lady Isabel Margesson, a friend of Margaret, invited her for this meeting. Margaret described her experience on the occasion. A majestic personage, clad in a saffron gown and wearing a red waist-band, sat there on the floor, cross-legged. As he spoke to the company, he recited Sanskrit verses in his deep, sonorous voice. Margaret being already delved deep into the teachings of the East, found nothing quite new in what she heard on this occasion. What was new to her was the personality of the swamiji himself. She attended several other lectures of Swami Vivekananda. She raised a lot of questions whose answers dispelled her doubts and established deep faith and reverence for the speaker.
Vivekananda's principles and teachings influenced her and this brought about a visible change in her. Seeing the fire and passion in her, Swami Vivekananda could foresee her future role in India. Swami Vivekananda narrated to her the pitiable condition of the women in India prevailing at that time and wrote to her in a letter, "Let me tell you frankly that I am now convinced that you have a great future in the work for India. What was wanted was not a man, but a woman—a real lioness—to work for Indians, women especially. India cannot yet produce great women, she must borrow them from other nations. Your education, sincerity, purity, immense love, determination and above all, the Celtic blood make you just the woman wanted."[6]
Swami Vivekananda felt extreme pain by the wretchedness and misery of the people of India under the British rule and his opinion was that education was the panacea for all evils plaguing the contemporary Indian society, especially that of Indian women. Margaret was chosen for the role of educating Indian women.
Responding to the call, Margaret visited India for the first time on 28 January 1898, leaving behind her family and friends, including her mother. Swami Vivekananda devoted the initial few days in building her character and developing her love for India and its people. He explained to her India’s history, philosophy, literature, life of the common mass, social traditions, and also the lives of great personalities, both ancient and modern. A few weeks later, two of Swami Vivekananda's women disciples in America, Sara C. Bull, wife of famous Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull and Josphine MacLeod arrived in India. The three became lifelong friends.
On 25 March 1898, Swami Vivekananda formally initiated Margaret in the vow of Brahmacharya (lifelong celibacy) and gave her the name of "Nivedita", the dedicated one. She became the first Western woman to be received into an Indian monastic order.[7] She later recorded some of her experiences with her master in the book The Master As I Saw Him. She often used to refer to Swami Vivekananda as "The King" and considered herself as the spiritual daughter (Manaskanya in Bengali) of Swami.[8]
On 18 March 1898, Swami Vivekananda organized a public meeting at Star Theatre to introduce Sister Nivedita to the people of Calcutta. There she expressed her desire to serve India and its people.
[edit]Travels
She travelled a lot of places in India, including Kashmir, with Swami Vivekananda, Josephine Mcleod and Sara Bull and this helped her in connecting to Indian masses, Indian culture and its history. She also went to United States to raise awareness and get help for her cause. On 11 May 1898 Nivedita, along with Swami Vivekananda, Mrs. Sara Bull, Josephine Mcleod and Swami Turiyananda, set foot for the Himalayas. From Nainital they travelled to Almora. On 5 June 1898, she wrote a letter to her friend Nell Hammond exclaiming, Oh Nell, Nell, India is indeed the Holy Land.[9] In Almora she first learned the art of meditation. She wrote about this experience, "A mind must be brought to change its centre of gravity...again open and disinterested state of mind welcomes truth." [10] She also started learning Bengali from Swami Swarupananda. From Almora they went to Kashmir valley where they stayed in houseboats. Nivedita travelled to Amarnath with Swami Vivekananda. Later in 1899 she travelled to America with Swami Vivekananda and stayed in Ridgely Manor.
[edit]Relationship with Sarada Devi
Sarada Devi (left) and Sister Nivedita
Within a few days of arrival in India, Margaret met Sarada Devi, wife and spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna, who, surpassing all language and cultural barriers, embraced her as "khooki" or "baby" in Bengali. This, recounted Nivedita, was her "day of days."[11] Till her death in 1911, Nivedita remained one of the closest associates of Sarada Devi. On 13 November 1898 the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi came to open the school of Nivedita. After worshiping Sri Ramakrishna she consecrated the school and blessed it, saying: ‘I pray that the blessings of the Divine Mother may be upon the school and the girls; and the girls trained from the school may become ideal girls.’ Nivedita became extremely delighted and recorded her feelings later as ‘I cannot imagine a grander omen than her blessings, spoken over the educated Hindu womanhood of the future.’[12] The first photograph of Sarada Devi was taken at Nivedita's house.
Nivedita wrote in a letter to Nell Hammond about Sarada Devi after her first few meetings with her, "She really is, under the simplest, most unassuming guise, one of the strongest and greatest of women."[13]
An excerpt is taken here from the Gospel of Holy Mother, where Sarada Devi's impressions about Nivedita are captured vividly:
Referring to Nivedita, she [Sarada Devi] said, "What sincere devotion Nivedita had! She never considered anything too much that she might do for me. She would often come to see me at night. Once seeing that light struck my eyes, she put a shade of paper around the lamp. She would prostrate herself before me and, with great tenderness, take the dust of my feet with her handkerchief. I felt that she even hesitated to touch my feet." The thought of Nivedita opened the floodgate of her mind and she suddenly became grave... The Mother now and then expressed her feelings towards the Sister. She said at last, "The inner soul feels for a sincere devotee."[14]
[edit]Her works
House in Baghbazar where Sister Nivedita started her school in 1898
House in Baghbazar where Sister Nivedita started her school in 1898
In November 1898 she started a school for girls[15] who were deprived of even basic education, in Bosepara lane in the Bagbazar area of Calcutta. She went from home to home in educate girls, many of whom were in pitiable condition owing to the socioeconomic condition of early 20th century India. In many cases she encountered refusal from the male members of the girl's family. Nivedita had widows and adult women among her students. She taught sewing, elementary rules of hygiene, nursing, etc., apart from regular courses.
She took part in altruistic activities. She worked to improve the lives of Indian women of all castes.
During the outbreak of plague epidemic in Calcutta in 1899 Nivedita nursed and took care of the patients, cleaned rubbish from the area, and inspired and motivated many youths to render voluntary service. She inserted appeals for help in the English newspapers, organized the day-to-day activities, inspected the work and personally handed over the written instructions for the preventive measures by moving around.
She was a prolific orator and writer and extensively toured India to deliver lectures, especially on India's culture and religion. She appealed to the Indian youth to work selflessly for the cause of the motherland along the ideals of Swami Vivekananda.
She was friend to many intellectuals and artists in the Bengali community, including Rabindranath Tagore, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Abala Bose, and Abanindranath Tagore. Later she took up the cause of Indian independence. Sri Aurobindo was one of her friends as well.[citation needed]
She took active interest in promoting Indian history, culture and science. She actively encouraged Dr. Jagadish Chandra Bose, the renowned Indian scientist who is credited to have discovered the wireless radio along with Marconi, to pursue original scientific research and helped him financially as well in getting due recognition when he was faced by an indifferent attitude of the British Government. Bose, who was called by her as "khoka" or the "little one" in Bengali, and his wife lady Abala Bose, were in very close terms with her. Keeping in view Nivedita’s contribution to the scientific research work of Jagadish Chandra, Rabindranath Tagore said: ‘In the day of his success, Jagadish gained an invaluable energizer and helper in Sister Nivedita, and in any record of his life’s work her name must be given a place of honour.’
Her identity as both a westerner by birth and a disciple of Swami Vivekananda enabled her to do several things that might have been difficult for Indians. She promoted pan-Indian nationalism.[citation needed]
[edit]Contribution towards Indian nationalism
Initially Nivedita, like contemporary intellectuals from Europe, was optimistic about British rule in India and believed that it was possible for India and England to love each other. However, in the course of her stay, she came to witness the brutal side of the British rule, the repression and oppression and the division between the ruling elite and the ruled plebians; she concluded that it was necessary for India to gain independence to prosper. Therefore she devoted herself wholeheartedly to the cause of opposing the British rule. After Swami's death, she, being acutely aware of the inconvenience of the newly formed Ramakrishna Mission on account of her political activities, publicly dissociated herself from it. However, till her last days she had very cordial relationship with the brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda like Swami Brahmananda, Swami Premananda and Swami Saradananda, who helped her in her charitable and education activities in every possible way; she was very close to the holy mother, Sri Sarada Devi.
Nivedita had initially worked with Okakura of Japan and Sarala Ghoshal who was related to the Tagore family. She later started working on her own and maintained direct relationship with many of the young revolutionaries of Bengal, including those of Anushilan Samity, a secret organization. She inspired many youths in taking up the cause of freeing India through her lectures. She also exposed Lord Curzon after his speech in the University of Calcutta in 1905 where he mentioned that truth was given a higher place in the moral codes of the West, than in East. She undertook her own research and made it public that in the book Problems of The Far East by Curzon he had proudly described how he had given false statements about his age and marriage to the president of the Korean Foreign Office to win his favour. This statement when published in newspapers like Amrita Bazar Patrika and The Statesman caused a furor and forced Curzon to apologize.
In 1905 the British Government under Curzon initiated the partition of Bengal which was a major turning point in the Indian independence movement. Nivedita played a pioneering role in organizing the movement. She provided financial and logistical support and leveraged her contacts to get information from government agencies and forewarn the revolutionaries.
She met Indian artists like Abanindranath Tagore, Anand Coomaraswami and Havell and inspired them to develop pure Indian school of art. She always inspired and guided the talented students of the Calcutta Art School to move along the forgotten tracks of ancient Indian art like Nandalal Bose, Asit Kumar Haldar and Surendranath Gangopadhyay. She exerted great influence on famous Tamil poet, Subrahmanya Bharati, who met her only briefly in 1906. Nivedita designed the national flag of India with the thunderbolt as the emblem against a red background.
Nivedita tried her utmost to inculcate the nationalist spirit in the minds of her students through all their daily activities. She introduced singing of the song Vande Màtaram in her school as a prayer.
Nivedita provided guarded support to Annie Besant, and was very close to Aurobindo Ghosh (later Sri Aurobindo), on of the major contributors towards early nationalist movement. She edited Karma Yogin, the nationalist newspaper of Aurobindo.
The following piece is from an editorial in Karma Yogin, written by Nivedita, which depicts her intense respect for India:
"The whole history of the world shows that the Indian intellect is second to none. This must be proved by the performance of a task beyond the power of others, the seizing of the first place in the intellectual advance of the world. Is there any inherent weakness that would make it impossible for us to do this? Are the countrymen of Bhaskaracharya and Shankaracharya inferior to the countrymen of Newton and Darwin? We trust not. It is for us, by the power of our thought, to break down the iron walls of opposition that confront us, and to seize and enjoy the intellectual sovereignty of the world."[16]
[edit]Death
She died on October 13, 1911, age 43, in Darjeeling. Her epitaph reads "Here reposes Sister Nivedita who gave her all to India".
A benediction[17] written for Nivedita by Swami Vivekananda is available from wiki quotes: Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
[edit]Books
Her works included The Web of Indian Life, which sought to rectify many myths in the Western world about Indian culture and customs, Kali the mother, The Master as I saw him on Swami Vivekananda, Notes of Some Wanderings with the Swami Vivekananda on her travels in Kashmir and other places with Swamiji, The Cradle Tales of Hindusim on the stories from Puranas, Ramayana and Mahabharata, Studies from an Eastern Home, Civil Ideal and Indian Nationality, Hints on National Education in India, Glimpses of Famine and Flood in East Bengal—1906.
Kali the Mother. Swan Sonnenschein & Co.,. 1900.
The Web of Indian Life. W. Heinemann. 1904.
Cradle Tales of Hinduism. Longmans,. 1907.
An Indian study of love and death. Longmans, Green & Co.,. 1908.
The master as I saw Him. Longmans, Green & Co.,. 1910.
Select essays of Sister Nivedita. Ganesh & Co.,. 1911.
Studies from an Eastern Home. 1913.
Myths of Hindus and Buddhists.. London : George G. Harrap & Co.,. 1913.
Footfalls of Indian history. Longmans, Green & Co.,. 1915.
Religion and Dharma. Longmans, Green, and Co.,. 1915.
Civic & national ideals.. Udbodhan Office. 1929.
A newly annotated edition of The Ancient Abbey of Ajanta, that was serialized in The Modern Review during 1910 and 1911, was published in 2009 by Lalmati, Kolkata, with annotations, additions and photographs by Prasenjit Dasgupta and Soumen Paul.
[edit]Complete Works of Sister Nivedita
Volume 1: The Master as I Saw Him; Notes of Some Wanderings; Kedar Nath and Bhadri Narayan; Kali the Mother. ISBN 978-8180404580
Volume 2: The Web of Indian Life; An Indian Study of Love and Death; Studies from an Eastern Home; Lectures and Articles. ASIN B003XGBYHG
Volume 3: Indian Art; Cradle Tales of Hinduism; Religion and Dharma; Aggressive Hinduism. ISBN 978-1177782470
Volume 4: Footfalls of Indian History; Civic Ideal and Indian Nationality; Hints on National Education in India; Lambs Among Wolves. ASIN: B0010HSR48
Volume 5: On Education; On Hindu Life, Thought and Religion; On Political, Economic and Social Problems; Biographical Sketches and Reviews. ASIN: B0000D5LXI
”
- A benediction to Sister Nivedita by Swami Vivekananda [1]
Sister Nivedita ( Sister Niːbediiːt̪a (help·info)); (Bengali: সিস্টার নিবেদিতা); (1867–1911), born as Margaret Elizabeth Noble, was a Scots-Irish social worker, author, teacher and disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She met Vivekananda in 1895 in London and travelled to Calcutta, India (present-day Kolkata) in 1898. Swami Vivekananda gave her the name Nivedita (meaning "Dedicated to God") when he initiated her into the vow of Brahmacharya on March 25, 1898. She had close associations with the newly established Ramakrishna Mission. However because of her active contribution in the field of Indian Nationalism, she had to publicly dissociate herself from the activities of the Ramakrishna Mission under the then president Swami Brahmananda. She was very intimate with Sarada Devi, the spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna and one of the major influences behind Ramakrishna Mission and also with all brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda. Her epitaph aptly reads, Here reposes Sister Nivedita who gave her all to India
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Meeting Swami Vivekananda
3 Travels
4 Relationship with Sarada Devi
5 Her works
6 Contribution towards Indian nationalism
7 Death
8 Books
9 Complete Works of Sister Nivedita
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
[edit]Early life
Margaret Elizabeth Noble was born on October 28, 1867 in the town of Dungannon in County Tyrone, Ireland to Mary Isabel and Samuel Richmond Noble. The Nobles were of Scottish descent, settled in Ireland for about five centuries.[2] Her father, who a priest, gave the valuable lesson that service to mankind is the true service to God. Margaret lost her father at the age of ten, and was brought up by her maternal grandfather Hamilton. Hamilton was one of the first-ranking leaders of the freedom movement of Ireland.[3] Margaret got her education from Church boarding school in London. She extensively studied various subjects, including physics, arts, music, literature. She embraced teaching at the age of seventeen. She first worked in Keswick as a teacher of children. Subsequently she established a school in Wimbledon and followed her own unique methods of teaching. She also participated in Church sponsored activities, being religious in nature. She was also a prolific writer and wrote in the paper and periodicals. In this way she soon became a known names among the intellectuals of London. She was engaged to be married to a Welsh youth who died soon after engagement.[4] The regulated religious life could not give her the necessary peace and she began to study various books on religion.
[edit]Meeting Swami Vivekananda
Nivedita wrote in 1904 to a friend about her decision to follow swami Vivekananada as a result of her meeting him in England in November 1895:
"Suppose he had not come to London that time! Life would have been like a headless dream, for I always knew that I was waiting for something. I always said that a call would come. And it did. But if I had known more of life, I doubt whether, when the time came, I should certainly have recognized it.
Fortunately, I knew little and was spared that torture....Always I had this burning voice within, but nothing to utter. How often and often I sat down, pen in hand, to speak, and there was no speech! And now there is no end to it! As surely I am fitted to my world, so surely is my world in need of me, waiting — ready. The arrow has found its place in the bow. But if he had not come! If he had meditated, on the Himalayan peaks!...I, for one, had never been here." [5]
She started taking interest in the teachings of Buddha as alternate source of peace and benediction. It is during this time that she met Swami Vivekananda. On a cold afternoon in November 1895, Swami Vivekananda, who had come from America to visit London on an invitation, was explaining Vedanta philosophy in the drawing room of an aristocratic family in London. Lady Isabel Margesson, a friend of Margaret, invited her for this meeting. Margaret described her experience on the occasion. A majestic personage, clad in a saffron gown and wearing a red waist-band, sat there on the floor, cross-legged. As he spoke to the company, he recited Sanskrit verses in his deep, sonorous voice. Margaret being already delved deep into the teachings of the East, found nothing quite new in what she heard on this occasion. What was new to her was the personality of the swamiji himself. She attended several other lectures of Swami Vivekananda. She raised a lot of questions whose answers dispelled her doubts and established deep faith and reverence for the speaker.
Vivekananda's principles and teachings influenced her and this brought about a visible change in her. Seeing the fire and passion in her, Swami Vivekananda could foresee her future role in India. Swami Vivekananda narrated to her the pitiable condition of the women in India prevailing at that time and wrote to her in a letter, "Let me tell you frankly that I am now convinced that you have a great future in the work for India. What was wanted was not a man, but a woman—a real lioness—to work for Indians, women especially. India cannot yet produce great women, she must borrow them from other nations. Your education, sincerity, purity, immense love, determination and above all, the Celtic blood make you just the woman wanted."[6]
Swami Vivekananda felt extreme pain by the wretchedness and misery of the people of India under the British rule and his opinion was that education was the panacea for all evils plaguing the contemporary Indian society, especially that of Indian women. Margaret was chosen for the role of educating Indian women.
Responding to the call, Margaret visited India for the first time on 28 January 1898, leaving behind her family and friends, including her mother. Swami Vivekananda devoted the initial few days in building her character and developing her love for India and its people. He explained to her India’s history, philosophy, literature, life of the common mass, social traditions, and also the lives of great personalities, both ancient and modern. A few weeks later, two of Swami Vivekananda's women disciples in America, Sara C. Bull, wife of famous Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull and Josphine MacLeod arrived in India. The three became lifelong friends.
On 25 March 1898, Swami Vivekananda formally initiated Margaret in the vow of Brahmacharya (lifelong celibacy) and gave her the name of "Nivedita", the dedicated one. She became the first Western woman to be received into an Indian monastic order.[7] She later recorded some of her experiences with her master in the book The Master As I Saw Him. She often used to refer to Swami Vivekananda as "The King" and considered herself as the spiritual daughter (Manaskanya in Bengali) of Swami.[8]
On 18 March 1898, Swami Vivekananda organized a public meeting at Star Theatre to introduce Sister Nivedita to the people of Calcutta. There she expressed her desire to serve India and its people.
[edit]Travels
She travelled a lot of places in India, including Kashmir, with Swami Vivekananda, Josephine Mcleod and Sara Bull and this helped her in connecting to Indian masses, Indian culture and its history. She also went to United States to raise awareness and get help for her cause. On 11 May 1898 Nivedita, along with Swami Vivekananda, Mrs. Sara Bull, Josephine Mcleod and Swami Turiyananda, set foot for the Himalayas. From Nainital they travelled to Almora. On 5 June 1898, she wrote a letter to her friend Nell Hammond exclaiming, Oh Nell, Nell, India is indeed the Holy Land.[9] In Almora she first learned the art of meditation. She wrote about this experience, "A mind must be brought to change its centre of gravity...again open and disinterested state of mind welcomes truth." [10] She also started learning Bengali from Swami Swarupananda. From Almora they went to Kashmir valley where they stayed in houseboats. Nivedita travelled to Amarnath with Swami Vivekananda. Later in 1899 she travelled to America with Swami Vivekananda and stayed in Ridgely Manor.
[edit]Relationship with Sarada Devi
Sarada Devi (left) and Sister Nivedita
Within a few days of arrival in India, Margaret met Sarada Devi, wife and spiritual consort of Sri Ramakrishna, who, surpassing all language and cultural barriers, embraced her as "khooki" or "baby" in Bengali. This, recounted Nivedita, was her "day of days."[11] Till her death in 1911, Nivedita remained one of the closest associates of Sarada Devi. On 13 November 1898 the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi came to open the school of Nivedita. After worshiping Sri Ramakrishna she consecrated the school and blessed it, saying: ‘I pray that the blessings of the Divine Mother may be upon the school and the girls; and the girls trained from the school may become ideal girls.’ Nivedita became extremely delighted and recorded her feelings later as ‘I cannot imagine a grander omen than her blessings, spoken over the educated Hindu womanhood of the future.’[12] The first photograph of Sarada Devi was taken at Nivedita's house.
Nivedita wrote in a letter to Nell Hammond about Sarada Devi after her first few meetings with her, "She really is, under the simplest, most unassuming guise, one of the strongest and greatest of women."[13]
An excerpt is taken here from the Gospel of Holy Mother, where Sarada Devi's impressions about Nivedita are captured vividly:
Referring to Nivedita, she [Sarada Devi] said, "What sincere devotion Nivedita had! She never considered anything too much that she might do for me. She would often come to see me at night. Once seeing that light struck my eyes, she put a shade of paper around the lamp. She would prostrate herself before me and, with great tenderness, take the dust of my feet with her handkerchief. I felt that she even hesitated to touch my feet." The thought of Nivedita opened the floodgate of her mind and she suddenly became grave... The Mother now and then expressed her feelings towards the Sister. She said at last, "The inner soul feels for a sincere devotee."[14]
[edit]Her works
House in Baghbazar where Sister Nivedita started her school in 1898
House in Baghbazar where Sister Nivedita started her school in 1898
In November 1898 she started a school for girls[15] who were deprived of even basic education, in Bosepara lane in the Bagbazar area of Calcutta. She went from home to home in educate girls, many of whom were in pitiable condition owing to the socioeconomic condition of early 20th century India. In many cases she encountered refusal from the male members of the girl's family. Nivedita had widows and adult women among her students. She taught sewing, elementary rules of hygiene, nursing, etc., apart from regular courses.
She took part in altruistic activities. She worked to improve the lives of Indian women of all castes.
During the outbreak of plague epidemic in Calcutta in 1899 Nivedita nursed and took care of the patients, cleaned rubbish from the area, and inspired and motivated many youths to render voluntary service. She inserted appeals for help in the English newspapers, organized the day-to-day activities, inspected the work and personally handed over the written instructions for the preventive measures by moving around.
She was a prolific orator and writer and extensively toured India to deliver lectures, especially on India's culture and religion. She appealed to the Indian youth to work selflessly for the cause of the motherland along the ideals of Swami Vivekananda.
She was friend to many intellectuals and artists in the Bengali community, including Rabindranath Tagore, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Abala Bose, and Abanindranath Tagore. Later she took up the cause of Indian independence. Sri Aurobindo was one of her friends as well.[citation needed]
She took active interest in promoting Indian history, culture and science. She actively encouraged Dr. Jagadish Chandra Bose, the renowned Indian scientist who is credited to have discovered the wireless radio along with Marconi, to pursue original scientific research and helped him financially as well in getting due recognition when he was faced by an indifferent attitude of the British Government. Bose, who was called by her as "khoka" or the "little one" in Bengali, and his wife lady Abala Bose, were in very close terms with her. Keeping in view Nivedita’s contribution to the scientific research work of Jagadish Chandra, Rabindranath Tagore said: ‘In the day of his success, Jagadish gained an invaluable energizer and helper in Sister Nivedita, and in any record of his life’s work her name must be given a place of honour.’
Her identity as both a westerner by birth and a disciple of Swami Vivekananda enabled her to do several things that might have been difficult for Indians. She promoted pan-Indian nationalism.[citation needed]
[edit]Contribution towards Indian nationalism
Initially Nivedita, like contemporary intellectuals from Europe, was optimistic about British rule in India and believed that it was possible for India and England to love each other. However, in the course of her stay, she came to witness the brutal side of the British rule, the repression and oppression and the division between the ruling elite and the ruled plebians; she concluded that it was necessary for India to gain independence to prosper. Therefore she devoted herself wholeheartedly to the cause of opposing the British rule. After Swami's death, she, being acutely aware of the inconvenience of the newly formed Ramakrishna Mission on account of her political activities, publicly dissociated herself from it. However, till her last days she had very cordial relationship with the brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda like Swami Brahmananda, Swami Premananda and Swami Saradananda, who helped her in her charitable and education activities in every possible way; she was very close to the holy mother, Sri Sarada Devi.
Nivedita had initially worked with Okakura of Japan and Sarala Ghoshal who was related to the Tagore family. She later started working on her own and maintained direct relationship with many of the young revolutionaries of Bengal, including those of Anushilan Samity, a secret organization. She inspired many youths in taking up the cause of freeing India through her lectures. She also exposed Lord Curzon after his speech in the University of Calcutta in 1905 where he mentioned that truth was given a higher place in the moral codes of the West, than in East. She undertook her own research and made it public that in the book Problems of The Far East by Curzon he had proudly described how he had given false statements about his age and marriage to the president of the Korean Foreign Office to win his favour. This statement when published in newspapers like Amrita Bazar Patrika and The Statesman caused a furor and forced Curzon to apologize.
In 1905 the British Government under Curzon initiated the partition of Bengal which was a major turning point in the Indian independence movement. Nivedita played a pioneering role in organizing the movement. She provided financial and logistical support and leveraged her contacts to get information from government agencies and forewarn the revolutionaries.
She met Indian artists like Abanindranath Tagore, Anand Coomaraswami and Havell and inspired them to develop pure Indian school of art. She always inspired and guided the talented students of the Calcutta Art School to move along the forgotten tracks of ancient Indian art like Nandalal Bose, Asit Kumar Haldar and Surendranath Gangopadhyay. She exerted great influence on famous Tamil poet, Subrahmanya Bharati, who met her only briefly in 1906. Nivedita designed the national flag of India with the thunderbolt as the emblem against a red background.
Nivedita tried her utmost to inculcate the nationalist spirit in the minds of her students through all their daily activities. She introduced singing of the song Vande Màtaram in her school as a prayer.
Nivedita provided guarded support to Annie Besant, and was very close to Aurobindo Ghosh (later Sri Aurobindo), on of the major contributors towards early nationalist movement. She edited Karma Yogin, the nationalist newspaper of Aurobindo.
The following piece is from an editorial in Karma Yogin, written by Nivedita, which depicts her intense respect for India:
"The whole history of the world shows that the Indian intellect is second to none. This must be proved by the performance of a task beyond the power of others, the seizing of the first place in the intellectual advance of the world. Is there any inherent weakness that would make it impossible for us to do this? Are the countrymen of Bhaskaracharya and Shankaracharya inferior to the countrymen of Newton and Darwin? We trust not. It is for us, by the power of our thought, to break down the iron walls of opposition that confront us, and to seize and enjoy the intellectual sovereignty of the world."[16]
[edit]Death
She died on October 13, 1911, age 43, in Darjeeling. Her epitaph reads "Here reposes Sister Nivedita who gave her all to India".
A benediction[17] written for Nivedita by Swami Vivekananda is available from wiki quotes: Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
[edit]Books
Her works included The Web of Indian Life, which sought to rectify many myths in the Western world about Indian culture and customs, Kali the mother, The Master as I saw him on Swami Vivekananda, Notes of Some Wanderings with the Swami Vivekananda on her travels in Kashmir and other places with Swamiji, The Cradle Tales of Hindusim on the stories from Puranas, Ramayana and Mahabharata, Studies from an Eastern Home, Civil Ideal and Indian Nationality, Hints on National Education in India, Glimpses of Famine and Flood in East Bengal—1906.
Kali the Mother. Swan Sonnenschein & Co.,. 1900.
The Web of Indian Life. W. Heinemann. 1904.
Cradle Tales of Hinduism. Longmans,. 1907.
An Indian study of love and death. Longmans, Green & Co.,. 1908.
The master as I saw Him. Longmans, Green & Co.,. 1910.
Select essays of Sister Nivedita. Ganesh & Co.,. 1911.
Studies from an Eastern Home. 1913.
Myths of Hindus and Buddhists.. London : George G. Harrap & Co.,. 1913.
Footfalls of Indian history. Longmans, Green & Co.,. 1915.
Religion and Dharma. Longmans, Green, and Co.,. 1915.
Civic & national ideals.. Udbodhan Office. 1929.
A newly annotated edition of The Ancient Abbey of Ajanta, that was serialized in The Modern Review during 1910 and 1911, was published in 2009 by Lalmati, Kolkata, with annotations, additions and photographs by Prasenjit Dasgupta and Soumen Paul.
[edit]Complete Works of Sister Nivedita
Volume 1: The Master as I Saw Him; Notes of Some Wanderings; Kedar Nath and Bhadri Narayan; Kali the Mother. ISBN 978-8180404580
Volume 2: The Web of Indian Life; An Indian Study of Love and Death; Studies from an Eastern Home; Lectures and Articles. ASIN B003XGBYHG
Volume 3: Indian Art; Cradle Tales of Hinduism; Religion and Dharma; Aggressive Hinduism. ISBN 978-1177782470
Volume 4: Footfalls of Indian History; Civic Ideal and Indian Nationality; Hints on National Education in India; Lambs Among Wolves. ASIN: B0010HSR48
Volume 5: On Education; On Hindu Life, Thought and Religion; On Political, Economic and Social Problems; Biographical Sketches and Reviews. ASIN: B0000D5LXI
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