H.P. Blavatsky and Phenomena
To the Editor of the OCCULT REVIEW
by Laura I. Finch
[Reprinted from The Occult Review, June 1927, pp. 404-405.]
[Statement by Bhawani Shankar] 1. "I was staying with Sinnett at Allahabad. H.P.B. was at Bombay. One night, Sinnett asked me to try and get a letter through to ‘Master K.H.’ He gave me the sealed letter. I went to bed, putting the letter under my pillow. I was trying to read, but my curiosity made me look under my pillow once --- the letter was still there --- twice --- the letter was still there --- but the third time I looked it had gone, and I distinctly saw the shadowy outlines of the ‘Master K.H.’Sir, --- With reference to the correspondence concerning H.P.B. appearing in the OCCULT REVIEW, the following information may interest some of your readers:
I have received, from first-hand, several instances of the receipt of Mahatma Letters by others than H.P.B., under conditions which preclude the possibility of fraud or of the intervention, either psychic or otherwise, of H.P.B.
The phenomena which accompanied the foundation of the Theosophical Society ceased, after a time, the Masters themselves explaining that the phenomena they had permitted had been but a means to an end, which had been attained.
Among the original and close workers with Mme. Blavatsky in India was Pandit Bhawani Shankar. It is my privilege to know Panditji, and I have shown him some of this correspondence.
He tells me that not only was that period, 1884-1887, extremely rich in phenomena, and the Masters frequently visible, but that some of those in closest contact with H.P.B. were themselves the centres of psychic manifestations. I select the following four facts which possess a certain importance in view of recent assertions concerning the non-existence of the Masters.
"The next morning, Mr. Sinnett received the answer under my pillow, from ‘K.H.’ (This phenomenon is recorded in The Occult World.)
2. Pundit Bhawani continues:
"I was alone in Berabanki, near Lucknow, Oudh. H.P.B. was in Bombay, when I received a letter from the ‘Master K.H.’ bidding me go and see him in Kashmir. I recognised the Master’s writing. . . . I went to Kashmir, and I saw the Master in his physical body.
3. "H.P.B. again absent. I was in the train with Colonel Olcott and Damodar. A letter from Master K.H. was --- by no normal means --- put inside my leather satchel-purse, the strap of which was around my neck, the bag itself being in a deep pocket of my costume. The letter was not there when we started. The letter was addressed to me.
4. "H.P.B. in Bombay. I was in Bankipur (Behar) with Colonel Olcott. He received a letter, posted in America, which when opened was found to contain a letter from Master M. written in Telugu, a South-Indian language which Colonel Olcott did not know. I translated the letter to him: it contained advice and directions for the work."
"A grand woman she was . . ." says Pandit Bhawani Shankar.
Many Indian scholars, who had gathered around H.P.B. and who left the Theosophical Society after Colonel Olcott’s death, are still with us. I would like to suggest that Mr. Loftus Hare should visit India and seek first-hand information from these learned men.
I am, yours faithfully,LAURA I. FINCH. What is stated in this letter is correct. --- BHAWANI SHANKAR, Benares.