Mohini Mohun Chatterji
Mohini Mohun Chatterji was a Bengali attorney and scholar who became a chela of the the Mahâtma Koot Hoomi.
Early life and education
Mr. Chatterji, usually known as Mohini, was born in 1958. He attended university in Calcutta, and was awarded Bachelor of Laws and Master of Arts degrees. His wife was the niece of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.[1]
Theosophical Society involvement
Mohini became a member of the Bengal Theosophical Society on April 16, 1882. He worked as private secretary to Henry Steel Olcott and accompanied the him and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky on their European tour in 1884.
He gave evidence to the Society for Psychical Research concerning the reality of psychic phenomena at Adyar.[2]
Mohini and Koot Hoomi
Mohini was present in London in 1884 when the young German artist Hermann Schmiechen painted portraits of the Mahatmas. He was described by Laura C. Holloway as being “nearer the Master than all others in the room, not even excepting H. P. B.”[3] He and Mrs. Holloway wrote Man: Fragments of a Forgotten History, which was published in 1887 under the pseudonym "Two Chelâs".[4].
Writings
Mohini wrote poetry and prose in both English and his native Bengali. He translated the The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom of Sankaracharya. He worked with G. R. S. Mead in translating the Upanishads in 1896, using the pseudonym J. C. Chattopadhyaya.[5]
Irish poets Æ and W. B. Yeats were acquainted with Mohini, and he was said to have influenced the oriental turn to their writings.
Later years
Mohini died in February, 1936.
Notes
- ↑ ”Chatterji, Mohini Mohun,” The Theosophical Year Book, 1938 (Adyar, Madras, India: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1938), 172.
- ↑ ”Chatterji, Mohini Mohun,” The Theosophical Year Book, 1938 (Adyar, Madras, India: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1938), 172.
- ↑ Laura C. Holloway, “The Mahatmas and Their Instruments Part II,” The Word (New York), July 1912, pp. 200-206, available at The Blavatsky Archives Portraits of the Mahatmas
- ↑ Two Chelas, Man: Fragments of a Forgotten History, 1887. The complete text is available at [1]
- ↑ ”Chatterji, Mohini Mohun,” The Theosophical Year Book, 1938 (Adyar, Madras, India: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1938), 172.