Mahatma Letter to Hartmann - LMW 2 No. 73

Quick Facts
People involved
Written by:	Koot Hoomi
Received by:	Franz Hartmann
Sent via:	unknown
Dates
Written on:	early 1884
Received on:	early 1884
Other dates:	unknown
Places
Sent from:	unknown
Received at:	Adyar
Via:	unknown

This letter is Letter No. 73 in Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, Second Series, in which Mahatma Koot Hoomi tells Franz Hartmann and the Board of Control how to work with Emma Coulomb, the Adyar housekeeper, in the absence of Madame Blavatsky.

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Page 1 transcription, image, and notes

So long as one has not developed a perfect sense of justice, he should prefer to err rather on the side of mercy than commit the slightest act of injustice. Mad. Coulomb is a medium and as such irresponsible for many things she may say or do. At the same time she is kind and charitable. One must know how to act towards her to make of her a very good friend. She has her own weaknesses but their bad effects can minimised by exercising on her mind a moral influence by a friendly and kindly feeling. Her mediumistic nature is a help in this direction, if proper advantage be taken of the same. It is my wish therefore that she shall continue in charge of the household business, the Board of Control of course exercising a proper supervisory control and seeing, in consultation with her, that no unnecessary expenditure is incurred. A good deal of reform is necessary and can be made rather with the help than the antagonism of Mme. Coulomb. Damodar would have told you this but his mind was purposely obscured, without his knowledge, to test your intuitions. Show this to Mad. C. so that she may co-operate with you.

K.H.

2019 scan:


1936 publication:

NOTES:

Note about provenance

This note describes the provenance of this letter:

Letter to Fr. Hartmann
Published 2nd Series no 73

Received Bombay July 1945 from A. de Smidt of Donneborne, off Main St. & Windsor Avenue, Diep River, Capetown.

He received it from Mrs. Gowland, who obtained it but it is not known from whom or when.

NOTES:

Context and background

Mr. Jinarajadasa provided this background information:

The Founders left for Europe from Bombay on February 20, 1884. On February 19, Colonel Olcott appointed the Board of Control, to consist of F. Hartmann, St. George Lane-Fox, W. T. Brown, R. Raghunath Row, G. Muttuswamy Chetty, P. Sreenivas Row and T. Subba Row...

At the time of receiving it, Dr. Hartmann was at Adyar, where Madame Coulomb was acting as housekeeper.

Physical description of letter

Mr. Jinarajadasa described the letter in this way in 1925:

THE original of the letter which follows is in Germany, with the followers of the late Dr. Franz Hartmann. My request to see it, and one or more which I believe he received, was refused. However, I received later from a friend in Czecho-Slovakia a photographic reproduction of the letter.

Subsequently the original came to the Adyar headquarters of the Theosophical Society. A note with the letter reads:

Letter to Fr. Hartmann
Published 2nd Series no 73

Received Bombay July 1945 from A. de Smidt of Donneborne, off Main St. & Windsor Avenue, Diep River, Capetown.

He received it from Mrs. Gowland, who obtained it but it is not known from whom or when.

Publication history

This letter was first published in Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, Second Series. The first publication of the 1936 facsimile shown above was in Who Wrote the Mahatma Letters? by William Loftus Hare and Harold Edward Hare (London: Williams & Norgate, 1936).

Additional resources

See the Blavatsky Archives website for more information about this letter.