translated by Mary G.Lanford
From: “Iz Pescher I Debrei Hindustana”
Letters Home
FROM THE CAVES AND JUNGLES OF HINDUSTAN
[See Russkii Viestnik No. 11, 1885.]
ΔΔ
Philosophical Research Society, Inc.
3341 Griffith Park Boulevard, Los Angeles 27, California
A NOTE FROM THE TRANSLATOR
H.
P. Blavatsky wrote for the Russian journals of her time
about her travels in India under the pen name of Radda-Bai.
These articles appeared under the general title of "Iz
Pescher I Debrei Hindustana" ("From the Caves
and Jungles of Hindustan") in the
Russian journal, “Russkii Viestnik” (Russian Messenger),
during the years of 1883, 1885-1886.
The narrative about Mr. Peters, the English Collector stationed
at Madura, which follows was translated from the original
Russian as it appeared in Russia Viestnil(, Vol. CLXXXI,
February 1886, pp. 772-792. It consists of the third chapter
in Part II of the series without any deletion and presents
a complete story in itself. To the knowledge of the translator,
this text is now translated into English for the first
time.
Since it is customary for stories or articles to have titles
and since this particular story has none except the general
title of the series in which it appears, it is presented
under a subtitle of its own — "Mr. Peters and
the Goddess."
Mary G. Langford
I pass on what Mulji related to us "about the Anglo-Indian
who loved the Hindus".
Mr. Peters was the Collector for the holy city of Madura,
the Mecca of Southern India. An ardent archaeologist and
venerator of ancient manuscripts, he needed Brahmanas for
the search and translation of such manuscripts; consequently,
though possibly at first he did not quite love them, nevertheless,
as the saying goes, he kept company with the Hindus and he
did not, in imitation of his own colleagues, oppress them.
A materialist of the worst tinge, he only laughed at their
superstitions and prejudices; but his attitude was exactly
the same towards his own Christian religion and so the [Page
2] Brahmanas did not pay much attention to this. "Nastika" (atheist),
they used to say and wave their hand. But soon all this
changed and Mr. Peters surprised both the peoples of
India and his own compatriots.
Here is how it happened.
Once a yogi, unknown to any one, came to him and asked for
a personal appointment. Having obtained permission to appear
before the bright eyes of Mr. Collector, he handed him an
ancient manuscript and explained that he had received it
from the goddess Minakshi herself (one of the comeliest forms
of Kali), who, he said, had ordered it to be given to Mr.
Peters. The manuscript was written on an olla [Olla — palm
leaves which have been dried and prepared for writing] and
its appearance was so archaic that it inspired involuntary
respect , from the antiquary. The Collector, who was
proud of his knowledge in the field of ancient letters,
was delighted and immediately wished to reward the hermit
properly. To his greatest surprise, the yogi refused
with dignity any payment. But he surprised the superior
still more. Like almost all Anglo-Indian officials, Mr.
Peters belonged to the Masonic Lodge. Unexpectedly, the
hermit gave him the most secret Masonic sign and, having
uttered the well-known formula of the Scottish Rite, "I
have not so received it, nor shall I so impart it" [This
footnote gives the formula as rendered in English and
is used above in the text — Translator ]
(that is, the manuscript was not given for money), disappeared
quickly.
Peters became thoughtful. He sent a sepoy in pursuit of the
guest who had vanished, but himself he engaged at once in
the deciphering of the manuscript and in its translation
with the aid of a Brahmana pundit. The yogi, of course, was
not found because, in the opinion of Mulji, the echo in this
instance of the whole city of Madura, that had been a werewolf
of the goddess Minakshi herself. From diligent study of the
olla, the Collector found out much that was interesting about
some things.
According to the assertions of the pundit, the manuscript
was the autobiography of the goddess Minakshi in her
own handwriting, in which there was discourse about
manifestations, power, qualities, and about her character
in general. According to her own statement, the goddess
possessed power (sakti)
[Sakti, literally, "force",
the feminine principle in male gods. But sakti in the ordinary
sense is power ] of the most agreeable variety
and there were few wonders that she would not promise to
her favorites. Too blind a faith in her personal power
was not even demanded: it was sufficient to love devatri
(goddess) sincerely and ardently, as a mother is loved,
and she would extend her patronage to the worshipper, take
care of, love, and help him.
"O you, fish-eyed one!" whistled the incorrigible
materialist Peters upon having heard the above from the
lips of the pundit. [Page 3]
This epithet, however, was not insolence on his part.
Literally translated, "fish-eyed one" is the name of the
goddess, from the words: mina — "fish". and
akshi —"eyes".
"But what or who is the goddess Minakshi?" the
European laity will ask us.
Minakshi is the selfsame Kali, namely, sakti, the creative
power of Siva, his feminine principle and aspect, impregnated
with his spirit, and is one of the numerous manifestations
of his spouse Kali.
Every god of the vast pantheon of India, be it female
or male, in its first-begotten aspect — that is,
at its first separation from "the One Impersonal One", the
purely abstract principle which they denominate Parabrahman — is
always neuter. But in its earthly manifestation it appears
twofold like the first-begotten Adam and Eve, and the
feminine half, separating from the masculine, becomes
a goddess while the other half remains a god. The universal
divinity, Parabrahman, is It, but its twofold
energy, which afterwards begets a countless number of
gods and goddesses, is he and she, that is, bisexual.
From the principal gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, and
their saktis, other gods are begotten in their turn.
These latter are not direct descendants, as one might
think, of the divine spouses, descendants which have
in the pantheon of the Brahmanas a completely separate
and distinct place from others; but they are simply the
same first-begotten gods and goddesses which masquerade
and present innumerable "aspects" or
countenances out of themselves.
Therefore even the sanguinary goddess Kali, the mightiest
of all saktis, appearing under one of her own aspects,
such as Minakshi for example, changes her personal attributes
completely and becomes unrecognisable. It would be untimely
and too boring to explain here the idea of such a transformation.
It will be sufficient to say that Kali, in transforming
into Minakshi of Madura, becomes the most peace-loving
of goddesses, who possesses all the best qualities: meekness,
long-suffering, generosity, etc.
Minakshi is the patroness-goddess of the City of Madura,
which is built to resemble the plan of die temple Srirangam — a
square divided into a great number of inner squares,
or enclosures, and in the center of which appears the famous
Temple of Minakshi. The goddess, in spite of her inner
qualities and, possibly, as proof that she has no vanity
nor pride, is far from beautiful in her outer image.
Her eyes resemble two fishes, from whence the appellation "fish-eyed
one". But then, in the
understanding of her worshippers, she possesses extraordinary
power, of course. The unfortunate ones who are possessed
by pisachas, "demons", are brought to her in
throngs for cure. There are many such possessed ones
in India because the pious Brahmanas include in the category
of "those
who are possessed" also those whom we, in Europe,
designate as "mediums". In India, the right
of citizenship is [Page 4] permitted
to phenomenal manifestations only in the presence of
the yogis, sadhus, and other miracle workers initiated
into the "secret sciences". Everything
which occurs without the will of the person and which
we call demoniacal is attributed by the Brahmanas to
the indecent behaviour of the pisachas.
But what is a pisacha?
Pisachas are the very same "spirits", esprits
frappeurs,
of the spiritualists, only not in the complete structure
of their divested personality. Only that part of a human
soul becomes a bhuta (earthly spirit),
or a pisacha, which, upon separating from the
immortal spirit after death, usually remains in an invisible form,
but which frequently is sensed by the living,
in the atmosphere where it moved and had existence during
the life of the body. After the death of a human being,
everything that is divine in
him departs into a higher, cleaner and better world. Only
the dregs of the soul which are held back by this
atmosphere remain — the soul's earthly passions which
find temporary welcome for themselves in the semi-material "double" of
the deceased, which has been expelled from its habitat
by the decomposition and complete destruction of the
physical envelope; and the final disappearance of "the
double" is
delayed because of this, causing it torment. A case such
as this after death is sad for die family of the deceased
and is looked upon by the Brahmanas as a great misfortune.
The Hindus take all-possible measures to avert such an
unwelcome event. It happens most frequently, so they
think, as the result of a sinful thirst for life,
or of a particular passion of the deceased for somebody
or something with whom or with which he did not, and
even after death does not, wish to part. Therefore, the
Hindus try to remain indifferent to everything, not to
allow any passion in themselves at all, fearing more
than anything in the world to die with an unsatisfied desire and, consequently, of becoming a pisacha. Natives
of all castes and sects detest "spirits" and,
seeing in them pisachas, the very demons, they try to
exorcise such as quickly as possible.
And so, nevertheless,
the respect for Minakshi! Daily, in the courtyard of
her pagoda, it is possible to see throngs of Hindus who
are possessed. There are such among them that crow like
cocks and bark like dogs, as they do in our Russia. But
there are yet more mediums among them: these are, quite
candidly, ghost-seers and foretellers, in the presence
of which various phenomena and all sorts of devilry take
place. Just as soon as the ailing one who is possessed
by the pisachas is brought before the fish-eyes
of the goddess, the demon begins to shout (through the
mouth of the possessed, of course) that he will immediately
vacate die lodging occupied by him, if only the goddess
gives him time. The sick person is led away and the
pisacha, true to his word and as a token of his
having kept it, throws [Page 5]
a tuft of hair, always plucked by him from the head of his
victim, in front of Minakshi as a farewell. According to
the stories, such bunches of hair constantly fly around in
the temple before the eyes of the amazed people, from morning
till night, unknown from whence. It would be possible to
make superb mattresses from them if the Brahmanas did
not burn them with great ceremony. [ If we are to
believe the stories, it is very dangerous to touch this hair.
Mulji, during the time of his chaste youth, stole such
a tuft of hair from the Temple of Minakshi, and the pisacha immediately
took possession of the boy. "Thanks to devatri,
at long last I got rid of the devil", related the general ]
Flocking by thousands and hundreds of thousands, the pilgrims
bring huge revenues to the temple, and its officiating Brahman-oracles
are considered the richest in India. Besides the Temple of
Minakshi, there are only five such lucrative pagodas in
the entire Madras Presidency, namely: the renowned temples
Tirupati, Aligarh, Vaidesvaran, Kovil, and Swamimalai. The
first two are consecrated to the god Vishnu, and the last
three to Siva. On ordinary week days, from 3,000 to 10,000
rupees are collected in the pagodas daily, but during
holidays, the daily sums of revenue surpass all belief. They
frequently reach from 25,000 to 50,000, and even to 75,000
rupees a
day! These figures are not exaggerated, but are a well-known
fact to the Anglo-Indian government. Not in vain have the
Madras authorities been gnashing their little teeth for a
long time at the colossal pagoda fund of Southern
India.
Malicious tongues assure us that this celebrated "fund" escaped
for a time the bitter fate which threatened to land it under
the complete management of the administrators of Madras only
through compromise. It occurred to the richest of all the
demon-curing pagodas, Tirupati, to present in the
nick of time 40 lakhs of rupees (4 million rubles) to the
above-mentioned administrators after having apportioned the
amount according to rank among the members of the legislative
council, through which it spared the other pagodas for several
years. But it is somehow awkward even to relate such a rumour.
Spare us, Englishmen — and suddenly a bribe! Who in
Europe now does not know, chiefly from the London papers,
that only in barbarous, semi-Asiatic Russia there are still
such monstrous anomalies in our century like bribe-taking
officials (Pioneer and Bombay Gazette).
But is it possible to believe that any of the Anglo-Indians — those
sober, temperate warriors and officials, the foremost of
which must be reputed from now to the end of centuries to
be the "Spartans
of the Afghan Thermopolae" — could have decided
to take a bribe! And could Englishmen pur sang,
the Englishmen of London, the worthy sons of a nation, the
representatives of which punish so severely in Parliament "greediness
for usurpation" in their neighbor and the smallest departure
from truth and honesty in other nations, have even permitted
this in their own Anglo-Indians! Unthinkable, [Page
6] simply absurd. We must not believe this because such
a sensible nation would not express so much ardent indignation
in the press and Parliament at "Russian extortioners" if
it had kept company with like transgressions. As a result
of this reflection, we have decided to consider the accusation
from the Brahmanas an abominable slander coming from ungrateful
heathens and to return to the story about Mr. Peters.
Alas, this "story" cannot be attributed to slander
as was the "bribe of the forty lakhs of rupees offered
by the Temple of Tirupati" to the instigators of the
celebrated bill. The heathen grave of the honourable Collector,
with its heathen symbols, is seen to this day at the gates
of Madura, and at the sight of it the cultured officials,
successors to the deceased, blush.
They blush because Mr. Peters, also, belonged to the very
same cultured class of officials (only not in relation to
bribes), and also because he not only never looked askance
at the pagoda funds but even added to them from his own pocket.
This was the result of the fact that, after having read the
manuscript about Minakshi, for some reason he was moved in
his soul in the presence of such great virtue, and he decided
to get a little better acquainted with the goddess. Up to
that time, though he had studied the philosophy of the Hindus
a great deal, he did not share their views on "obsession",
and the feminine healer of it he did not include in the province
of philosophy; on the contrary, he amused himself and made
fun of such beliefs of the natives. But from the day he received
the manuscripts, he began visiting the Temple and made an
effort to collect all the existing legends about the goddess.
One among such legends gathered by the scholarly Collector
proved to be unusually interesting and, though the British
geologic ethnographers do not render it due attention, Mr.
Peters classified it among fully historical events. Moreover,
it was set forth by the goddess herself in her "autobiography",
which afterwards, upon Peters' own wish, was buried in the
tomb where his ashes repose.
The river Vaigai, on the southern shore of which the City
of Madura is situated, belongs to the number of so-called
antarvahini nadi, that is, to the rivers which flow underground from
their source to their outlet into the sea; in short, to the
subterranean streams. Even during the season of the monsoons,
when the environs are flooded with torrential rains and the
river overflows its banks, the river bed dries up in three
or four days and only its rocky bottom remains. But it is
well worth digging at any time of the year an arshine
[Arshine — former Russian unit of measurement
equal to .77 yards — Translator ] or two underground
in order to obtain superb water, which is not only indispensable
for the city but also sufficient for the irrigation of the
fields of the entire district. [Page
7]
Such recluse rivers are very few in India and, consequently,
they are considered very sacred. As is known to all, and
possibly to only a few, every temple and hill, every mountain
and wood in India, in short, every locality and every building
which is considered sacred for some reason or other has its
own Purana (history or chronicles). [Purana — literally, "ancient",
but this word is also a synonym for history. ] Written
on ancient palm leaves, it is always carefully preserved
by the officiating Brahmana of one or the other of the pagodas.
Sometimes, the Sanscrit original is translated into the vernaculars
and both texts are preserved with equal reverence. On the
anniversary of holy days, in honor of such "river-goddesses" and "hill-gods" (to
them a river is always a goddess, and a hill, a god),
the manuscripts are brought out, and these local Puranas
are read to the people by the Brahmana at night with great
ritual and the necessary commentaries pertaining to them.
In many temples, on the Hindu New Year's Eve, [In
March and April, depending on the sect. ] the
almanac for the following year is also read to the people
by the Brahman-astrologer.
These almanacs indicate accurately the position of the
planets and stars; distinguish the fortunate from
the unfortunate hours of each of the 365 days of
the forthcoming year; predict the day, date, and even the
hour of that day when there will
be rains, winds, hurricanes, eclipses of the planets or the
sun, and various other manifestations of nature. [Our
astronomers also predict the hour and minute of eclipses
no worse, we take it, than the Brahman-astrologers. But it
is strange that the latter seldom make mistakes in frequently
foretelling for a whole year ahead the dates and even the
hours of chance hurricanes and rains, which (particularly
the latter) very rarely, occur out of the rainy season period.
Here is what the Maha-raja of Travancore writes about these
Brahman-astrologers in his article, "The Borderland
Between Matter and Spirit": "Astrology, so much
scouted by moderns, has still its hold upon mankind, and
belief in it may often be seen in the most unexpected quarters.
A European friend told us the other day that some years ago
he was going to a timber depot in the heart of forests and
situated on an islet formed by two branches of a large river.
It was perfectly dry weather and the streams were quite
dry. Happening to meet an astrologer on the way, he was warned
that three days hence there would be heavy rain and a terrible
flood in the river. There was not a speck of rain-cloud in
the sky; and pooh-poohing the prediction he went on to the
timber depot. The result was, rain came in torrents on the
predicted day, the river was inundated, shutting out all
passage and washing away much valuable timber, and compelled
him to live most miserably in an improvised log-hut on the
most elevated part of the islet for several days. He, for
one, professes belief in astrology, however much astrologers may
be impostors in many cases. We have known instances in which
the date of child-birth and the sex of the child have been
foretold with perfect correctness." (See
the journal, The Theosophist, Vol. VI, No. 2, November 1884,
page 41, 2nd column.)] All
this is read in front of the patron-god or patron-goddess
of the temple. The crowd listens reverently to the
prophecies of the idol, who speaks through the lips of his
Brahmana about famine, wars, and other national calamities;
after which die astrologer and the Brahmana bless the crowd
and, upon dividing the rice, fruit, and other edible offerings
brought to the idols, give it leave to go home.
Collector Peters found a similar Purana about antarvahini
nadi in the "autobiography" of Minakshi. With
the aid of his pundit, he [Page 8]
translated it from the Sanskrit into Telugu, and it
is read to this day in the temple of the kindhearted goddess.
Here is a brief summary of it in several sentences. This
sthula-Purana explains the cause of the subterranean
streams of the river Vaigai and, in addition, gives proof
of the deep trust of the goddess Minakshi in Mr. Peters,
to whom she chose to confide the episode of her early youth
and love for her spouse Siva.
Kulasekhara, [Literal translation of this name: "the
head of the family jewels" ] the valiant King
of Madura during the adolescent days of the chief gods,
and his spouse (whose name has not come down [Page
9]
in history) found themselves rewarded for long years of continual
tapas[Tapas — ceremonial prayers in
various postures ] and of pious works by the birth
of a charming daughter.
That was the fruit of hundreds of their past janmans (reincarnations)
in the forms of other outer personalities, for this daughter
was die celebrated and fish-eyed Minakshi. The goddess did
not become a goddess at once, but also as the result of piety
in many of her former existences, during the course of which
she supplicated Siva and Kali — the first, to honor
her by selecting her into the rank of his spouses, and the
other, to make the supplicant one of her aspects. Finally,
Sundaresvara[Sundaresvara — "the Magnificent
Lord", a name of Siva and one of the ekadasa Rudras] fulfilled
her ardent prayer and announced to Minakshi that he would
marry her.
The king, Kulasekhara, started magnificent preparations for
the wedding feast. Overflowing with pride at the thought
that he was being honored with such a divine son-in-law,
he beseeched Siva to bring a large retinue with him from
the most eminent lords of Kailasa. [ Kailasa is that
part of heaven which is the favorite abode of Siva and his
domicile]Bhumi-devi (the
earth goddess), he said, though her fecundity and innate
patience were proverbial, would not have time to give birth
to enough devas for the wedding over and above the mass of
sinners (not to mention the animal and other kingdoms) which
she has to bring forth daily into die world; therefore if
Siva did not take pity, the wedding feast would be lacking
in splendor and there would be no one to eat the prepared
provisions.
The bridegroom promised to satisfy die ambition of his father-in-law,
but when he descended from Kailasa to "sweet
earth", [Madura
denotes "sweet earth" ] instead
of the expected resplendent retinue, he brought with him
only one misshapen dwarf, by name Kundadara. [Kundadara — "large
belly" ] The
chosen father-in-law took this action as mockery and became
very vexed. But what can the anger of a mortal mean in die
eyes of a god? Siva, upon reading the thoughts of Kulasekhara,
smiled and only said: "King, feed my little courtier". The
Raja, very grieved by the fact that there would be no one
to eat his provisions, ordered his pradhana mantri (prime
minister) to see that the dwarf was well fed. But, when the
latter began to eat, he devoured not only the delicacies which
had been prepared at the palace, but also the supplies, and
even the entire year's reserve of the town of Madura; and
therereupon, also swallowed all of the reserve water in the
wells and fountains. The dwarf, still crying for more water,
was then led to the shore of the river Vaigai. All of its
water proved to be insufficient for quenching Kundadara's
thirst. In one gulp he drained the river to the bottom, following
which the river-goddess had to save herself by flight into
the bowels of the earth. [Page 10]
That was a lesson given by Siva to his father-in-law, who
had not thought of the many poor whom he could have fed with
the food prepared for the wedding, but who had preferred
that the nobles of the court should eat it. Since that time,
the dwarf, under the guise of his barrel-bellied stone
idol, has been sitting on the bank of the dry river and awaiting
its annual appearance during the rainy season. But kind Minakshi,
having taken pity on the fate of the Madurans, prevailed
upon the goddess Vaigai to return from the bowels of the
earth and to flow toward the sea one yard underground, and
she permitted the dwarf to drink up all the water of the
river just once a year. Since then she has been the patroness
of the city.
In a short time, upon visiting the temple frequently, Peters,
who had become immersed in the study of the glorious deeds
of the mighty deva and astounded by her virtues, began
finding something engaging in the expression of the fish-eyes
of Minakshi. It seemed that her Ethiopian mouth would spread
into a benign smile upon the approach of the Collector. He
began getting used to her ugliness. A bachelor and with simple
tastes like all scholars, Peters, who at first had begun
to study the religion of the Hindus for the sake of science
and, possibly, from boredom as well, started being drawn
in, little by little, into the complicated, head-splitting
philosophy and soon became an actual Sastri [ A theologian
who has learned by heart all the "sastras", theological
treatises ] He
ceased making fun of the pious Brahmanas and started fraternizing
and surrounding himself with them.
Among the latter there was one mantrika, a Brahmana
of the Temple of Minakshi, whose duty consisted of uttering
mantras and other conjuring prayers before the goddess.
In a short time, he became the alter ego of the Collector.
Finally, one fine day he brought the Collector an idol of
Minakshi, and the bronze image was placed in the bedroom
of the host. Knowing him as an archeologist, the few Anglo-Indians
who lived in Madura paid no particular attention to this.
But now, Mr. Peters, who always slept-very soundly, saw his
goddess in a dream one night. The fish-eyed apparition tried
to waken him hastily, bidding him "to get up and get
dressed". But even such summons could not have an effect
on the sound sleep of the Collector. Then in his dream it
appeared as if the goddess herself began dressing him in
haste; the holy hands of Minakshi were not even squeamish
about pulling his boots over his legs, boots which were made
from sacred cow hide. (This is the reason that in
the eyes of the Brahmanas boots are the most defiled article
of European apparel.) Having dressed her admirer, she touched
his forehead, saying, "Save yourself through the window.
Jump down, else you will perish!" She vanished and Mr.
Peters awakened. [Page 11]
The Collector's house was all afire. The blaze was already
licking the walls of his bedchamber with its greedy tongues
and the sole door leading out of the room was blazing. Without
deliberating, he jumped out of the window and thus saved
his life. The house was built on the bank of the river, but
at the time of the fire, as usual, the Vaigai was absolutely
dry. Suddenly and to the amazement of all, before the eyes
of the gathered crowd, the water began to ooze through
the river bed and to rise rapidly to the very veranda of
the burning house. Thanks to this unexpected help, the fire
was soon put out and many objects of Mr. Peters' priceless
collection were saved. Only papers and documents of great
importance to the government were burned.
This fact is stated in the Collector's own handwriting and
signed by him, and confirmed by the testimony of his assistant,
of his clerks, and many of those present at the scene of
the huge fire; furthermore, it is entered in the corded book
of the city archives, where the curious document is found
even to this day.
Strangest of all was the fact that Mr. Peters, according
to the testimony of both his valet and his own recollections,
went to bed on the eve of the conflagration undressed and
unshod and then, upon jumping out of the window, he found
himself dressed and with his boots on. In addition to all
this, he did not jump from the first story alone, but
with the heavy bronze idol of Minakshi under his arm.
This inexplicable fact, which he related himself hundreds
of times, caused everybody to smile and shake his head. "The
honourable Peters", they said, "was simply drunk
that eve and probably fell asleep as he was and with his
boots on". But
the Brahmanas and the native population triumphed and were
firmly convinced that he had been dressed and saved by
the Maha-devatri, "great goddess", herself.
It is evident that Mr. Peters, also, was fully of this opinion,
judging by the unforeseen results of this event: he suddenly
became extremely devout, if it is at all possible to use
this word in connection with a subject of such piety, and
from a complete materialist he actually "was transformed
into a pujist", in the words of Mulji. Peters began
honouring the goddess Minakshi no worse than any Brahmana.
He gave up his service and, upon resignation, clothed himself
in the attire of the Bairagas and daily performed
the religious rites prescribed by the sastras, and
finally gained the reputation of "the holy white one" among
the populace. He grew fond of the Hindus and became such
an ardent defender of theirs that his memory still lives
in the hearts of the grateful natives, and his name is uttered
with greatest respect by all pilgrims who come to worship.
In consequence of such an unusual "occurrence",
the government proclaimed him insane and appointed a commission
of psychiatrists to despatch him to England for cure. But
even here "the goddess" did not betray her admirer.
The doctors and experts, evidently, fell [Page
12] under the influence of tharana (magnetic
influence) of Minakshi, for instead of a testimonial of his
mental derangement, they gave him a clean slate which stated
that the ex-Collector's reason was found completely sane.
Thereupon, having returned to Madras, they again affirmed
their testimony. Peters had influential friends in England,
also independent means: he was left in peace. When he died
many years later, it was his wish that his ashes be buried
in a place from which it would be possible to see the temple
of his goddess. And so it was done. He was buried, after
cremation, on a hillock from which the golden stupa (cupola)
of the eastern tower of the temple was seen as clearly as
if it lay in the palm of one's hand. The granite mausoleum
still towers to this day and pilgrims come to visit the grave
of "the holy
white one". Peters Tomb is one of the curiosities
of Madura, and the tourist who wishes to gaze upon a view
of the city and temple sets out for the very well-known hillock.
The latter is located on land belonging to the Temple of
Minakshi, otherwise the grave and monument would have been
taken down and leveled to the ground long ago.
But Anglo-Indians "who were not fond" of the Hindus
would have found their own work too much for them had they
been forced to proclaim as insane all the Anglo-Indians who,
though they did not love the natives, still believed in the
power of their gods and goddesses, no matter how strange
this might have appeared. All these eccentric people — upon
inquiry — appear to have left the ranks of the materialists.
All of them are (ex - atheists and positivists! For
example, here is what the Maha-raja of Travancore, the most
educated of all the Indian princes, wrote about another Collector
whose name he did not wish to reveal:
"A certain Collector of a certain district in the Madras
Presidency had a family of several daughters but not a single
son. Having had, in the course of his official life, to associate
with Native gentlemen of all shades of faith, he was advised
by several natives to take sea-baths at Ramesvaram to get
a son! Of course, he derided the proposal, but thinking that
a sea-bath could do no harm he did bathe at Dhavamkoti.[The
Temple of Ramesvaram at Dhavamkoti is a place of pilgrimage
visited by the natives
under vow in order to have sons]And he had a son shortly after!" [See
journal, The Theosophist, Vol. VI, No. 2, Nov. 1884,
page 41]
Some Anglo-Indians turned to Mohammedanism; others, who were
not accepted into Hinduism by the Brahmanas, became either
Vallabhacharyas[The Vallabhacharya sect is.
the most immoral. It recognizes as its sole head, the pontiff,
who enjoys absolute connubial rights with the wives and daughters
of all Vallabhacharyas without exception] or
devil-worshippers from grief.
Madura is no distance from Madras. When we went there about
two years later and thereupon settled on the river of Adyar,
one of the [Page
13] old Brahmanas who had known Peters personally told us much
about him.
"The goddess revealed herself to him", he said
among other things, "in her actual primordial essence;
otherwise he would never have worshipped her so".
In answer to our comment that even though they, the Vedantins,
speak a great deal about the Oneness of Parabrahman, their
worship of idols disproves and contradicts this Oneness in
their comprehension, he replied:
"Devatri (goddess) is an idol only in die eyes of the
ignorant sudra (lower caste); for the initiated sastris,
Minakshi, as well as other divinities, is simply one
of the bricks of the common edifice, the name of which is Sat,
Be-ness."
This explanation
and the expression, "brick", seemed
at the time very unsatisfactory to us and, to me, exceedingly
ludicrous. Later, however, I better understood its significance.
Prior to my serious study of the Vedas and, in general, of
the symbolism of the Brahman beliefs, I frequently asked
myself the question: by virtue of what could such intelligent
people and such thinkers as the authors of these, in the
highest degree remarkable and original, systems appear to
be (to him who has studied the six main philosophies of India),
themselves have fallen for polytheism and its outer expression
of idols, or even allowed it in the masses no matter how
ignorant the latter might be? For a long time I could not
account for this strange predilection. I could not explain
to myself, even superficially, why, for example, Keshub Chunder-Sen,
the well-known, highly educated Bengal reformer, a man who
at one time had charmed Queen Victoria [ Keshub Chunder-Sen
always called the Queen his "mother". The members
of the Brahmo-Samaj sect are considered to be and are called
the Indian "Unitarians", semi-Christians ] by
his conversation and his views, and all London high society
by his unusual, enchanting eloquence — why also this
mystic, the head and leader of Brahmo-Samaj, could not reject
while he lived his goddess Durga. At times it seemed
simply disgusting to listen to him and to read in the press
how, in his mystical semi-delirium, he jumbled together Mohamed,
Buddha, Chaitanya, and Durga! But I have understood now and
sincerely regret my vociferous censure of this reformer who
is now deceased. He was an ardent monotheist, but he was
born a Hindu and remained one unto death. Possibly the following
explanation of the riddle will prove to be not without benefit.
In the strange mythology of the Brahmanas — which at
first glance is still more legendary than Greek mythology — and,
generally, in their still stranger conception of the world,
a profound philosophy is concealed, nonetheless. The outer
form of idolatry is but a curtain which hides the truth
like the veil of Isis. But this truth is not given to all.
For some the curtain hides not the countenance of Isis, but
only empty [Page 14] space disappearing
into the impenetrable, for them, darkness; for others light
pours forth from there. For those not endowed by nature
with that innate, inner sense possessed by some, which the
Hindus so rightly call "the third eye" or "the
eye of Siva", it is by far better to be content with
the fantastic patterns on the curtain: for such there is
no penetrating into the depth of the impenetrable darkness,
no filling of empty space. But he who has the "third
eye" or, speaking more clearly, who is capable of transferring
his vision from the grossly objective on to the purely inner
ground, that one shall see light within the darkness, and
in the seeming emptiness discern the Universe ..... Inner
self-awareness will show him infallibly that the presence
of God is perceived here, but cannot be communicated,
and that wishing to express this in concrete form finds its
excuse in the very ardency of the desire to convey this experience
to the masses. And thus, though still censuring in his soul
the form of worship, he will no longer laugh openly at idols
and at the belief in them of that one who, unable to penetrate
beyond the curtain, is satisfied with the exterior only because
it is difficult for him, if not completely impossible, to
receive any kind of suitable presentation about the "Unknown
God".
In order to demonstrate descriptively that all the 330 million
gods of India taken together indicate One Unknown God, I
shall try to speak more plainly. For this it will be sufficient
to present one of the allegorical stories of the ancient
Brahmanas from the Puranas, a story which has not yet, apparently,
reached our Orientalists. It is quickly told.
Toward the very end of the last pralaya (that is, the
intervening period between two creations of our world), the
Great Raja who abides in the eternity of endless space, wishing
to give to the coming people some means of knowing him, built
a palace upon Mt. Meru out of qualities inherent
to him and established
residence therein. But when people again inhabited the world,
this palace, one end of which leaned upon the right and the
other upon the left boundlessness, proved to be so vast that
the little folks did not even surmise its existence: for
them the palace was a celestial firmament, for which they
had no comprehension. Then the Great Raja, having perceived
the inconvenience and taking pity on the little folks, desired
to reveal himself to them, not in entirety, but in parts.
He demolished the palace created out of his qualities and
started throwing one brick after another down to earth. Each
of the bricks turned into an idol: a red brick, into a god
and a gray, into a goddess, and each of the devatas and devatris who
had embodied into an idol received one of the innumerable
qualities of the Maha-Raja. At first the entire pantheon
consisted of only superior qualities. But the people, taking
advantage of impunity, proceeded to become more depraved
and more evil. Then the Great Raja sent karma (the law of
retribution) down to earth. Karma, which spares [Page
15] not even the gods, changed many of the qualities into instruments of punishment: thus destroyer-gods and avenger-gods
appeared among the all-forgiving benevolent divinities.
This story, which was related to us by a Brahmana from Madura,
explains why he called the goddess Minakshi "a brick" and,
in addition to this, indicates the unity at the bottom of
all of this polytheism. Between dii majores of the
holy Mountain Meru — the Olympus of India — and dii
minores,
the difference in their essence is not great. The first are
direct rays and the second are dismembered pieces, which
are the broken rays of the same luminary. What in reality
is Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva? The threefold ray issuing directly
from "the
light of the universe", Swayambhu, that is, from
the power or the spirit that gives life to
and fecundates matter, which has been personified in Sarasvati,
Lakshmi, and Kali, which are the three representations of
prakriti (matter), the three goddesses of the three gods.
These three pairs, which have been synthesized in Swayambhu, "The
Unmanifested Deity", are the symbols that personify
his unseen presence in all the manifestations of nature.
In short, Brahma and Sarasvati, Vishnu and Lakshmi, Siva
and Kali represent in their totality spirit and matter in
their threefold quality — creation,
preservation, and destruction
.
Vishnu is one, but he has 1,008 names. Each one of these
names is the name of one of the qualities of the One. The
personal qualities of Vishnu are embodied in their turn in
secondary gods of the Hindu pantheon. Having thus become
a separate personality from Vishnu (while Vishnu himself
is only a personification of one of the seven main qualities
or attributes of Swayambhu), each personification is called
one of the aspects or "appearances" of Vishnu,
Brahma, or Siva — in short, of one or the other of
the main gods and goddesses. All of them have so many names
which the officiating Brahmana of this or that sect repeats
in our time like a parrot, but each of which had deep significance
in the days of antiquity. Swayambhu is the first emanation
or ray of Parabrahman, Attribute-less Divinity, the first
breath of its spirit: it is Trimurti, the synthesis of the
three spiritual powers in union with the three material powers.
From the qualities of these three pairs are born lesser gods,
dii minores, who in their turn represent qualities of the
greater gods.
Thus the seven primary colors of the prism into which the
colorless ray is decomposed, upon further blending, form
secondary composite colors and are diversified ad infinitum.
The Brahmanas say that the god Surya (the sun) has seven
sons, whose offspring comprise a good third of the pantheon
of devas; and the god of air, Vayu, is the father of the
seven primordial syllables and of the seven musical tones
in which are generated and from which issue all-possible
combinations of sounds in the harmony of nature. [Page 16]
In ancient India, religion was closely tied with the contemplation
of nature. Universal truths and the very essence of Truth were personified in Deity. Every manifest truth, no matter
what it consisted of, had a direct relationship, to divinity
or self-existent truth. In the pantheism of the Hindu religion,
only the outer method of expression is really crude and,
usually, has a repellent and caricatured form.
The natural inference from all this, is that the pantheism
of India, which obviously has deified all the crude forces
of nature as if personifying only the outer forms, is tied
in with the realm of physical knowledge, of chemistry, particularly
of astronomy, and presents in itself something in the nature
of poetised materialism — a continuation of Chaldean
Sabaism. But if after casting away its outer form, which
has led the ignorant masses to the most repugnant worship
of idols, we penetrate to the primordial source of the myths
of the pantheism, we shall then find in them neither gods
nor even outer worship of various objects from the kingdoms
of nature in their ordinary forms, but a worship of the Omnipresent
Spirit, therefore, equally present in the smallest blade
of grass as in the power that begot and grew it.
Such appears to be the simple and natural explanation of
the 33 krores[ Krore —100 lakhs
or 10 million] (330 million) gods of India.
These gods were begotten and endowed with being as a result
of the blind endeavor to personify that which cannot be personified,
creating by that very means an "idol". In the course
of time, the cornerstone of the philosophic and religious
world conception of their wise men found itself in the hands
of the ambitious, coldly calculating Brahmanas, who broke
the stone into chips and ground it into dust for the convenient
assimilation by the masses. But for the thinker, as well
as for every unprejudiced Orientalist, these distorted
chips, as also their finely crushed gravel, are, nonetheless,
from that very stone — the attributes of the manifested
energy of Parabrahman, the One that Is without beginning
and without end.
The Brahman-Vedantists postulate three
kinds of existence: para-marthika — the real,
the true; vyavaharika — the
conditioned practical; and pratibhasika — the
illusory. Parabrahman is the only manifestation of die
first and, therefore, is called Sat, "the One
that truly Is" or
the One-Existent; to the second class belong the gods
which have been embodied in diverse forms, the personal souls [ Personal
soul or earth consciousness, in the teachings of the Brahmanas,
is distinguished from
our "immortal spirit" ] of mortals
and everything that is manifested and phenomenal in the world
of subjective feeling. This class, having received existence
in the imagination of the ignorant masses, has a foundation
no firmer than all that which we see in dreams; but in view
of the realness of the practical relations of the people
to these gods, their existence is allowed conditionally.
The third class includes in itself such objects like mirage — the
mother-of-
pearl [Page 17] which is taken
for silver, the coiled serpent which is taken for rope — and
in its subdivision, also man. People think, imagine that
they see one or the other: consequently, for him who sees
this and imagines it as such, it actually exists.
But since this actuality is only temporary and the very substance
of the objects is ephemeral, therefore conditional, then
in the last analysis it appears that all this actuality is
only
illusion.
All of these conceptions not only do not interfere with the
belief in the personality and oneness of deity, but also
serve as an impassable barrier to atheism. In India there
are no atheists in the sense in which we Europeans use this
term. Nastika is an atheist in the sense of non-belief in
gods and idols. This is known to everyone in India, and
we have become completely convinced of that. The atheists of
the West, and even the agnostics of the West, have a long
way to go to the philosophy of the Nastikas of the East.
The former grossly deny everything except matter; the latter,
that is, the Hindu materialists, the Nastikas, do not at all
deny the possibility of the existence of that which they do
not understand. The true philosopher will understand the
spirit and not the letter of their denial. He will be
easily convinced of the fact that if they, in referring to
the abstraction called Parabrahman, teach that the principle
is "without
will and without activity, without sensation as without consciousness",
then they do this, namely, because according to their understanding,
The One under this name is unconditioned will,
activity without beginning and without end
, self-existent,
self-consciousness, self-contemplation, and self-awareness.
It appears that the pantheists of India, in retaining their
gods, sin simply through the profusion of religious, even
badly applied, feeling. And in addition, after the all-shattering
and equally non-creative animal materialism of Europe, such
pantheism appears as a moral and spiritual refreshment, a
blossoming oasis in the midst of a barren, sandy desert.
Better to believe even in one of the qualities of divinity after having personified it and worshipped it under that
guise which represents to each, according to the power of
his understanding, the most convenient representation and
symbol of The All, than, while denying this All under the
pretext that It is not provable by scientific paths, not
to believe in anything, as our learned materialists, and
even fashionable agnostics, do.
From the point of view of the aforesaid, and even though
we may be surprised and even sincerely laugh at the originality
of his selection for the object of divine worship, we shall
understand why Mr. Peters was converted, so unexpectedly
and unforeseenly for all, from an ardent materialist of the
school of Mill and Clifford to a pantheist and even a pujist [ From
the word puja — worship of gods by established precepts;
not prayer, but ritual.]
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