Mahatma Letter to H. S. Olcott - LMW 1 No. 29

Quick Facts
People involved
Written by:	Koot Hoomi
Received by:	Henry Steel Olcott
Sent via:	unknown
Dates
Written on:	unknown
Received on:	7 June 1886
Other dates:	unknown
Places
Sent from:	unknown
Received at:	Adyar
Via:	unknown

This letter is Letter No. 29 in Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, First Series. Mahatma Koot Hoomi adds a note on a letter from Tookaram Tatya to Henry Steel Olcott about Damodar K. Mavalankar.

This letter is reprinted as Letter 2, in Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, Second Series.

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Envelope

Col. H. S. Olcott Esq.
c/o Theosophical Society
Adyar
Madras

NOTES:

• The original envelope was found misfiled with letter 19, but the postmark clearly places it with this letter sent by T. Tatya.

Page 1 of T. Tatya letter transcription, image, and notes

Bombay 5th Jun 1886

My respected Brother Sir

I have received yours of the 1st Inst. There is no doubt that these [??] references to you for improving matters must have tired your patience. You have enough to do and I hope in a few months more we shall find ourselves in a very satisfactory position.

I am not sufficiently learned neither have I the time to prepare a note book which would be universally approved. But I am trying to collect some materials and after arranging them I shall forward them to you.

In regard to the verses from the Oriental Library I wish you quickly to let me know, what should be the substance of the verses you want Mr [Goorhaki??] Das to write. We shall have to assure him that that there are satisfactory reason to show

NOTES:

Page 2 of T. Tatya letter

that the Society has the means of raising up such a grand and universally useful library as you expect it to be.

Our respected Brother Mr. Shri Niwas Rao was living with me for two days and I had some interesting conversations with him.

I am sorry to say that I am unable at present to go to Madras. How long will you be staying at Adyar. I have received a letter from Pandit [Gopinalte??] of Lahore saying if you were again to visit Punjab many good branched could be opened there.

I have constantly been thinking of poor brother Damodar. It is nearly a year & a half since he left and we have hitherto had no authentic news about him. If you have any recent information about him please communicate it to me.

Yours Sincerely

Tookaram Tatya

NOTES:

Page 3 - back of T. Tatya letter

Seen
June 7th 1886
T. Subbarow
[illegible]

NOTES:

K.H. Note

Note by K.H. on the back of the letter:

The poor boy has had his fall. Before he could stand in the presence of the ‘Masters’ he had to undergo the severest trials that a neophyte ever passed through, to atone for the many questionable doings in which he had over-zealously taken part, bringing disgrace upon the sacred science and its adepts. The mental and physical suffering was too much for his weak frame, which has been quite prostrated, but he will recover in course of time. This ought to be a warning to you all. You have believed ‘not wisely but too well’. To unlock the gates of the mystery you must not only lead a life of the strictest probity, but learn to discriminate truth from falsehood. You have talked a great deal about karma but have hardly realized the true significance of that doctrine. The time is come when you must lay the foundation of that strict conduct — in the individual as well as in the collective body — which, ever wakeful, guards against conscious as well as unconscious deception.

K.H.

Note by H. S. Olcott: Received and opened by me
this 7th June 1886

H. W. Olcott

NOTES:

• The poor boy is Damodar K. Mavalankar.

Note by H. S. Olcott

Phenomenon
Message of Mahatma K.H. written
inside a letter of Tookaram Tatya's
of June 6th 1886 to H.S.O while passing
through the post.

N.B. This upsets Hodgson's theory, as HPB is
now in Germany, & Damodar in Tibet.

NOTES:

• N.B. is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase "nota bene," meaning "note well."
• Hodgson's theory was the suggestion by Richard Hodgson] that H. P. Blavatsky forged all letters from the Mahatmas.

Context and background

Mr. Jinarajadasa provided these notes about this letter:

Transcribed from the original at Adyar. I have given a photographic reproduction of the letter in Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, Second Series. It is precipitated in blue ink on the last blank page of a letter written on thin paper by Mr Tookaram Tatya of Bombay on 5 June 1886. The letter was folded in three. Among other matters, it contained the following:

I have constantly been thinking of poor brother Damodar. It is nearly a year since he left and we have hitherto had no authentic news about him. If you have any recent information about him please communicate it to me.

When Colonel Olcott received Mr Tookaram Tatya’s letter at Adyar on June 7, he found precipitated on the blank page, crosswise, this letter. The letter refers to Damodar K. Mavalankar who, after many hardships and privations, crossed to Tibet and reached the home of his Master.

Physical description of letter

According to Mr. Jinarajadasa, the original letter is at the Adyar headquarters of the Theosophical Society. He wrote, "it is precipitated in blue ink on the last blank page of a letter written on thin paper by Mr Tookaram Tatya of Bombay on 5 June 1886. The letter was folded in three."

Publication history

This letter was published in 1919 as Letter 29 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 29 throughout all editions.

Commentary about this letter

As Colonel Olcott points out, this contradicts Hodgson's theory of fraudulent production of the Mahatma Letters. Neither Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, was known to be in Germany at this time, nor Damodar, who was in Tibet, could have added the note from K. H.