G. Muthuswamy Chetty
Grandhi Muthuswamy Chetty was Judge of the Small Cause Court, Madras, India, and an early member of the Theosophical Society.
When Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott visited Madras in 1882 and lectured in the Georgetown area, Grandhi Muthuswami Chetty who was a judge, listened to them. Though he was a rich man, he was spiritually dissatisfied, and though a Hindu desired to be converted to another religion. Muthuswami's enquiring mind was kindled by the two foreign lecturers. He wrote down several questions about whether he should opt for another religion and left those papers in a cupboard in his house before he went to sleep in the right. Next morning when he woke up and looked in the cupboard, to his amazement he found that all his questions had been answered. Muthuswami was convinced by the answers and never became a convert, for he joined the Theosophical Society.[1]
Purchase of Adyar estate
The judge's sons G. Soobiah Chetty and G. Narasimhulu Chetty helped Madame Blavaatsky and Colonel Olcott in finding a property where a headquarters could be established for the Theosophical Society. Soobiah urged his father to load funds needed to finalize the purchase.
He said, how could they loan such a large amount to foreigners, even though they were nice persons; he should have behaved like a youngster and not interfered in the business of elders! Soobiah was even then insistent that his father should help the Founders! Both the father and son retired for the night to separate rooms, in a cross mood. But in the middle of the night the father knocked at Soobiah's door and in ecstasy related to him the wonderful dream he had just had. Master Morya had appeared and told Muthuswami to lend the money to the Colonel. Their money would be returned to them and the work the Founders were doing would benefit India and the world. Muthuswami felt blessed to have seen the Master whose eyes had overpowered him. In happiness he ordered Soobiah to inform the Founders of his wish to loan the money... Soobiah was impatient for daybreak and early in the morning went to the Founders with the good news. Soobiah then made his rounds seeing the Huddlestone property owners, lawyers, etc. and arranged for the purchase of the twenty-six acres property and its registration.[2]
On November 17, 1882, exactly seven years after the founding of the Theosophical Society, he paid the final balance of Rs. 7,000 on the purchase of the Huddlestone's Gardens estate that became the headquarters of the Theosophical Society.
Other Theosophical Society activities
Mr. Chetty served as Vice-President of the Madras Theosophical Society.