Majji
Majji (or Maji) was a female ascetic living in retreat near Varanasi (Benares), India. Col. Olcott wrote about this "remarkable woman":
A very well-known female ascetic, learned in Vedânta, who occupied a guhâ (excavated cave) with buildings above ground, on the bank of the Ganges, a mile or two below the city of Benares. She inherited this âshrama from her father, together with a house in town and an extensive and valuable Sanskrit library. It is a delightful spot in the fresh early morning, an ideal place for calm meditation and study. Situated on the edge of a bank forty or fifty feet above the river, and sheltered by some large trees.[1]
On December 16, 1879, The Founders, Damodar K. Mavalankar, Alfred and Patience Sinnett, and Alice Gordon, visited her. Soon after she returned the visit to them. The Col. wrote:
At that time Majji appeared about forty years of age, fair-skinned, with a calm dignity and grace of gesture that commanded respect. Her voice was tender in tone, face and body plump, eyes full of intelligence and fire.[2]
According to Mme. Blavatsky, Damodar lived with Majji for some time at Benares.[3]
On September 25, 1885, in Gooty, India, Col. Olcott received a visit from Master M. and Majji at night.
A Hindu Fakir
It is said that Majji was a Yogi that had been using that female body. Col. Olcott writes:
Speaking always as a Vedântin, she would allude to herself as "this body"; laying a hand on her knee or on the other arm, she would say "this body's" family, studies, residence, pilgrimages, or what not. I finally asked her why she spoke so and who she was. She said that the body we saw was entered at its seventh year by a Sannyâsi and had been occupied by him ever since; he had not completed his study of Yoga and so became reborn.[4]
Damodar K. Mavalankar gave some more details about this:
I then gathered from what she said that she had been first in the body of a Fakir who, upon having his hand disabled by a shot he received while he passed the Fortress of Bhurtpore, had to change his body and choose the one that was now "Maji." A girl about seven years of age was dying at that time and so, before her death, this Fakir had entered her body and taken possession of it. "Maji" is not therefore a woman but a real Hindu Fakir in the body of a woman. It is but one by one that I gathered all these particulars. In his former body, this Fakir had studied the Yog science for 65 years, but his study having been arrested and incomplete at the time his body was disabled and consequently unequal to the task he had to perform, he had to choose this other one. In his present body he is 53 years, and consequently the "Inner Maji" is 118 years old.[5]
Notes
- ↑ Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves Second Series (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 120.
- ↑ Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves Second Series (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 120-121.
- ↑ Letters of H.P.B. to Dr. Hartmann, Letter III published by Blavatsky Study Center.
- ↑ Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves Second Series (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 124.
- ↑ Personal Letters - Letters To W. Q. Judge No. II at Theosophical University Press Online Edition