Mahatma Letter to Fadéef - LMW 2 No. 1

Quick Facts
People involved
Written by:	Koot Hoomi
Received by:	Nadyezhda Andreyevna de Fadeyev
Sent via:	unknown
Dates
Written on:	unknown
Received on:	1870
Other dates:	unknown
Places
Sent from:	unknown
Received at:	Odessa
Via:	unknown

This is Letter No. 1 in Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, Second Series, in which Mahatma Koot Hoomi writes to Nadyezhda Andreyevna de Fadeyev to reassure her about the well-being of her niece, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The aunt's name has several variant spellings in English and French: Nadyeda, Nadyéjda, Andréewna, Fadeew, Fadéef.

This letter is reprinted from Letter 51 in Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, First Series.

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Envelope

French address:

A l’Honorable
Très Honorable Dame –
Nadyéjda Andréewna
Fadeew
Odessa.

English translation:

To the Honorable
Very Honorable Dame –
Nadyéjda Andréewna
Fadeew
Odessa.

Russian note below address:

Получила в Одессе
ноября 7, объ Лёлиньки фряюжки
должно из Тибета -
ноября [...], 1870
Надежда Фад.

English translation:

[I've] Received [it] at Odessa,
[on] November 7, about Lelinka-Fryaiuzka,
[I guess it] should be from Tibet.
November [11], 1870.
Nadejda Fad.

1925 glass plate

NOTES:

• Lelinka was a nickname for Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.
• Lelinka-Fryaiuzka (or Flyushka) was a variation of the pet name.

Page 1 transcription, image, and notes

Les nobles parents de Mad. H. Blavatsky n’ont aucune cause de se désoler. Leur fille et nièce n’a point quitté ce monde. Elle vit et désire faire savoir à ceux qu’elle aime, qu’elle se porte bien et se sent fort heureuse dans la retraite lointaine et inconnue qu’elle s’est choisie. Elle a été bien malade, mais, ne l’est plus: car grâce à la protection du Seigneur Sangyas elle a trouvé des amis devoués qui en prennent soin physiquement et spirituellement. Que les dames de sa maison se tranquillisent donc. Avant que 18 lunes nouvelles se lèvent — elle sera revenue dans sa famille.

English translation:

To the Honourable, Most Honourable Lady, Nadyéjda Andréewna Fadeew, Odessa. The noble relation of Madame H. Blavatsky have no cause whatsoever for grief. Their daughter and niece has not left this world at all. She is living, and desires to make known to those whom she loves that she is well and quite happy in the distant and unknown retreat which she has selected for herself. She has been very ill, but is so no longer; for under the protection of the Lord Sangyas she has found devoted friends who guard her physically and spiritually. The ladies of her house should therefore remain tranquil. Before 18 new moons shall have risen, she will return to her family.

1925 glass plate

NOTES:

• Lord Sangyas can be translated as Lord Buddha.

Context and background

Mr. Jinarajadasa provided these notes about this letter:

This is the earliest letter written by any of the Masters, written in 1870, five years before the T.S. was founded. The original, which is in French, is at Adyar. It is in the now well-known handwriting of the Master K.H. to H.P.B.’s aunt, Madame Nadéjda Fedéef. She wrote on 26 June 1884, from Paris, to Colonel Olcott about this letter and, describing the anxiety of H. P.B.’s relations, who had had no news of her for some years, says as follows:

All our researches had ended in nothing. We were ready to believe her dead, when — I think it was about the year 1870, or possibly later — I received a letter from him whom I believe you call ‘K.H.’, which was brought to me in the most incomprehensible and mysterious manner, by a messenger of Asiatic appearance, who then disappeared before my very eyes. This letter, which begged me not to fear anything, and which announced that she was in safety — I have still at Odessa. Immediately upon my return I shall send it to you, and I shall be very pleased if it can be of any use to you. (Report of the Result of an Investigation into the Charges against Madame Blavatsky, 1885, p.94.)

Madame Fadéeff wrote ten days later from Odessa to Colonel Olcott enclosing the original letter. In the lower left-hand corner of the envelope there is written in Russian, in pencil, in the handwriting of Madame Fadéeff, the following: 'Received at Odessa, November 7, about Lelinka, probably from Tibet — November 11, 1870. Nadejda F.' Lelinka was H.P.B.’s pet name. The letter of the Master is signed, not with his initials, K.H., but with a letter in some language not known to me. It seems certain from remarks of the Master M. in one of his letters, that he was the ‘messenger of Asiatic appearance’ who delivered the letter (The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, Letter XXXIX). I have given a reproduction of this letter in the second series of Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom.

Physical description of letter

According to Mr. Jinarājadāsa, the original of this letter is preserved at the Theosophical Society, Adyar, Chennai, India. He described the letter in this way:

First, the material of the paper is unusual [for a letter received in Europe], as it is what is known as "rice paper" in North India and among the Tibetans. The size of the envelope is 15 cm. x 12 1/2 cm. and the writing on the envelope and on the slip of paper inside is in ink. There appears on the envelope a the left bottom corner, and written in pencil, an inscription in Russian by Madame Fadéef. As the envelope has been partly eaten away by the destructive insects common to tropical countries, there are gaps in her handwriting.

Publication history

This 1870 letter was published for the first time in the First Series of Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, and then reproduced with a facsimile in the Second Series.

Commentary about this letter

Mr. Jinarājadāsa wrote:

When the Society for Psychical Research accused H.P.B. of forging the letters of the Masters, this letter was in Russia. It is in the handwriting of Master K. H., which the S.P.R. said was concocted by H.P.B. But H.P.B. was thousands of miles away when her aunt received the letter.

The existence of this letter was helpful in refuting the forgery charges by the S.P.R.