Mahatma Letter to W T Brown - LMW 1 No. 22

Quick Facts
People involved
Written by:	Koot Hoomi
Received by:	William Tournay Brown
Sent via:	unknown
Dates
Written on:	unknown
Received on:	17 December 1883
Other dates:	unknown
Places
Sent from:	unknown
Received at:	unknown
Via:	unknown

This letter is Letter No. 22 in Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, First Series. Mahatma Koot Hoomi advises William Tournay Brown to be patient and not to expect a personal consultation with any of the Masters of the Wisdom in the near future.

< Prev letter in LMW 1  Next letter in LMW 1 >  

Page 1 transcription, image, and notes

I HAVE told you through D. to have patience for the fulfilment of your desire. From this you ought to understand that it cannot be complied with for various reasons. First of all it would be a great injustice to Mr S. who, after three years’ devoted work for the Society, loyalty to myself and to the cause, begged for a personal interview and was refused. Then I have left Mysore a week ago, and where I am you cannot come since I am on my journey and will cross over at end of my travels to China and thence home. On your last tour you have been given so many chances for various reasons—we do not do so much (or so little if you prefer) even for our chelas, until they reach a certain stage of development necessitating no more use and abuse of power to communicate with them. If an Eastern, especially a Hindu, had even half a glimpse but once of what you had, he would have considered himself blessed the whole of his life.

Your present request mainly rests upon the complaint that you are not able to write with a full heart, although perfectly convinced yourself, so as to leave no room in the minds of your countrymen for doubt. Pray, can you propose any test which will be a thorough and perfect proof for all? Do you know what results would follow from your being permitted to see me here in the manner suggested by you and your reporting that event to the English Press? Believe me they would be disastrous for yourself. All the evil effects and bad feelings which this step would cause would recoil upon you and throw back your own progress for a considerable time and no good will ensure. If all that you saw was imperfect in itself it was due to previous causes. You saw and recognized me twice at a distance, you knew it was I and no other; what more do you desire? If when after visiting Col. Olcott I passed over to your room and my voice and words pronounced – ‘Now you see me before you in flesh, look and assure yourself that it is I’ – failed to impress you, and when the letter put into your hand awoke you at last but failed again to make you turn your face, your nervousness paralysing you for a moment, the fault is surely yours, not mine. I had no right to act upon you phenomenally or to psychologize you. You are not ready, that is all. If you are earnest in your aspirations, if you have the least spark of intuition in you, if your education of a lawyer is complete enough to enable you to put facts in their proper sequence and to present your case as strongly as you in your innermost heart believe it to be, then you have material enough to appeal to any intellect capable of perceiving the continuous thread underneath the series of your facts. For the benefit of such people only you have to write, not for those who are unwilling to part with their prejudices and preconceptions for the attainment of truth from whatever source it may come It is not our desire to convince the latter, for no fact or explanation can make a blind man see. Moreover our existence would become extremely intolerable, if not impossible, were all persons indiscriminately convinced. If you cannot do even this much from what you know, then no amount of evidence will ever enable you to do so. You can say truthfully and as a man of honour: ‘I have seen and recognized my Master, was approached by him and even touched.’ What more would you want? Anything more is impossible for the present.

Young friend, study and prepare and especially master your nervousness. One who becomes a slave to any physical weakness never becomes the master of even the lower powers of nature. Be patient, content with little and—never ask for more if you would hope to ever get it. My influence will be over you and this ought to make you calm and resolute.

K.H.

IMAGES NOT
AVAILABLE

NOTES:

Context and background

Mr. Jinarajadasa provided these notes about this letter:

Received by Mr W.T. Brown on 17 December 1883, as narrated in his pamphlet. From a copy in the possession of Pandit Pran Nath of Gwalior. Following the advice given, Mr Brown wrote of his experiences in the pamphlet mentioned above.

His pamphlet My Life relates that upon returning to Adyar after he accompanied Col. Olcott for a lecture-tour, Mr. Brown wrote a letter to Master KH, who he then believed to be in the neighboring state of Mysore, asking for a personal interview. His letter is put into "the shrine" at Adyar by Damodar K. Mavalankar in his presence. Damodar shuts the door of the shrine and in less than half a minute opens it. The letter is gone, with no trace of it. Damodar says he heard clairaudiently the Master requesting Mr. Brown to be patient. On the next day, when in the presence of Blavatsky and some visitors, Mr Brown finds his letter on a ledge behind his chair. The envelope seems not to have been opened, although the addressed had been altered from "Koot Hoomi Lal Singh" to "W. Brown F.T.S." On cutting the envelop open, he finds the present Mahatma letter, giving the reasons why an interview was not possible.

Physical description of letter

The location of the original of this letter is not known.

Publication history

This letter was published in 1919 as Letter 22 in the first edition of Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, 1881-1888, later known as the First Series. It has kept this designation as Letter 22 throughout all editions.

Commentary about this letter

C. Jinarājadāsa pointed out that "The Masters are not anxious that all in the world should be convinced of their existence."

Additional resources

• Beechey, Katherine A. "W. T. Brown and Two Less Known Letters of the Master K. H." The Theosophist 109.3 (December, 1987), 87-90.
• Brown, William T. Some Experiences in India. London: London Lodge of the Theosophical Society, 1884, 5–7, 10–11, 12, 13, 15–17. See A Casebook of Encounters with the Theosophical Mahatmas Case 37, compiled and edited by Daniel H. Caldwell.