Ross Scott

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Ross Scott met the Founders aboard the ship "Speke Hall" in February 1879, as they were sailing to Bombay. He was a young Irishman and British civil servant who was on his way to his post in North India.[1] Col. Olcott called him "a noble fellow and an Irishman of the better sort".[2] A. P. Sinnett, however, considered him coarse fibered.

Master K.H. asked Mr. Sinnett: "I have a favour to ask of you: try and make friends with Ross Scott. I need him".[3] On August 21, 1881, he was chosen as secretary of the newly fromed Simla Eclectic Theosophical Society.

Mr. Scott received some letters from the Masters, saw one of them, and was put on probation, although eventually failed. Later, he became a magistrate in the Central Provinces.[4]

Marriage

Ross Scott married Minnie Hume, only daughter of A. O. Hume, on December 28, 1881. This marriage seems to have been a request from the Masters. The Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett states:

HPB was told by the Mahatmas to try to find a suitable wife for him - certainly one of the strangest things in the Letters.[5]

This is confirmed in a letter from Mme. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett. She asked the Masters to help Mr. Scott and "... was told to provide him with a wife — 'Miss Hume would do first rate for him'."[6]

It was seen later that this was part of Mr. Scott's probation.

Master M. appears

Mahatma M. "projected himself" to Ross Scott on January 5, 1882.[7] This was confirmed by Master K.H. who in October 1882 told Mr. Sinnett that Mr. Scott had received a visit from Master M. "in astral shape".[8]

Josephine Ransom writes:

Early in January [1882], Ross Scott and his wife (Miss M. Hume, only daughter of A. O. Hume) were in Bombay on their honeymoon and spent most of their time at the Crow's Nest. One evening, when a group had gathered at the house, the Master M. appeared and was distinctly seen by Ross Scott, Bhavani Shankar, Damodar and others.[9]

Probation

Scott's marriage was part of his probation, to see if he remained true to his convictions despite the influence of his wife. Mme. Blavatsky wrote in a letter to A. P. Sinnett:

His very marriage was to serve a lesson hereafter for both of us, to show how human nature was variable. When I bothered them repeatedly to make R. Scott happy to cure him of his leg, I was told to provide him with a wife — "Miss Hume would do first rate for him" — and then said K. H. — "if he proves faithful and true and the influence of his wife leaves him unshaken in his beliefs and true to his old friends then we will attend to his leg." Six months Probation was allowed to Scott. Only six months — though he knew it not — and now behold the fruit! Did not M. write to him before his marriage that he would not correspond with him until after his marriage for reasons he could not tell him and which he did not divulge, even to me until their departure from here Jan. 12th.[10]

Mrs. Scott eventually became jealous of the influence Mme. Blavatsky and the Masters had on her husband and Ross Scott finally turned against them. In HPB's words:

She owes her husband to the Brothers and me. What more natural than that she should traduce both the "Brothers" and myself! She is afraid in her little petty jealousy lest they or I should retain our hold upon her husband — hence the policy -- des finesses comme de fil blanc![11]

Eventually, Master M. told Mme. Blavatsky "that Scott had been tested and found shaky".[12]

Notes

  1. ↑ George E. Linton and Virginia Hanson, eds., Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (Adyar, Chennai, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 244.
  2. ↑ Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves Second Series (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 16.
  3. ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 20 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 76.
  4. ↑ George E. Linton and Virginia Hanson, eds., Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (Adyar, Chennai, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 244.
  5. ↑ George E. Linton and Virginia Hanson, eds., Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (Adyar, Chennai, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 244.
  6. ↑ A. Trevor Barker, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett Letter No. 10c, (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1973), ???.
  7. ↑ A. Trevor Barker, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett Letter No. CLVI, (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1973), 310.
  8. ↑ Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 92 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 299.
  9. ↑ Josephine Ransom, A Short History of The Theosophical Society (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 165.
  10. ↑ A. Trevor Barker, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett Letter No. 10c, (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1973), ???.
  11. ↑ A. Trevor Barker, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett Letter No. 10c, (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1973), ???.
  12. ↑ A. Trevor Barker, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett Letter No. 10c, (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1973), ???.
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