The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-04-04
THE CoLoNEL's MAHATMAs.
Some of His Experiences With Them
What is a Mahatna ?''


Some of His Experiences With Them
What is Mahatma?"
That is the question Colonel Olcott
the famous Theosophic leader, was
asked and here is his reply, in which
he relates his many experiences with
{ these mystic beings:
"A Mahatma is a man who has
4 evolved his spiritual nature and SUI
preme will to the point that he is no
longer dominated by his lower passions,
or by the constraints of the physical
body. He is absolutely pure, devoid Of
I desire-an exalted being,
II have met many Mahatmas, per-
haps fourteen in ALL in every part of
the world. Sometimes they have ap-
peared as Hindus, in graceful native at
tire, som times as Europeans, in con-
ventional modern dress. l have met
\ them on the crowded streets of London
or on the dreary deserts of India. But
wherever you meet them, whatever Ian
guage they speak, there is no mistak-
ing the type of the masters. The di-
vine glory shines in the face of the ex-
allied one, his touch is blessing in it,
self an all-powerful magnetism sur
rounds his presence. No one who has
a ever seen a Mahatma can be in doubt
when they appear.
"The first Mahatma I ever met was
in New York when Madame Blavatsky
and were working hard on the prepa-
ration of that great book, isis I'm
veiled.' We were living in a house on
Eighth avenue constructed on the ordi-
1 nary plan, and certainly affording no
facilities for supernatural jugglery
Our evenings work finished I had gone
to my room and was quietly reading.
expected nothing unusual, but all at
once, as I read with my shoulder lit
tie turned from the door, there came a
CLEAN of something white in the right
hand corner of my right eye. I turned
my head, dropped my book in astonish-
ment, and saw towering above me in
his great stature an Oriental clad in
white garments and wearing a head
Clath or turban of amber-striped fab
rio, hand embroidered in yellow floss
silk. Long raven hair hung from I'M
der his turban to the shoulders; his
black beard, parted vertically on the
chin In the Rajput fashion, was twist
ed up at the ends and carried over the
ears; his eyes were alive with soul fire;
eyes which were at once benignant and
piercing in glance; the eyes of men
lfor and a judge, but softened by the
staove of father who gazes ON a son
h needing counsel and guidance.
He was SO grand a man, so imbued
with the majesty Of moral strength, so
UNANIMOUSLY spiritual, so evidently above
average humanity, that I felt abashed
IN his presence, and bowed my head
and bent my knee as one does before
god or a godlike parsonage.
"A hand was lightly laid on my head,
sweet though strong voice bade me be
seated, and when raised my eyes the
presence was seated in the other chair
beyond the table.
n He told me he had come at the crisis
when I needed him; that my actions
had brought me to this point; that it
lay with me alone whether he and l
should meet often in this life as CO.
workers for the good of mankind; that
Ia great work was to be done for hui
manity, and I had the right to share in
1T If 1 wished; that a mysterious tie,
not now to be explained to me, had
drawn my colleague and myself togeth-
fer; b tie which could not be broken,
however strained it might be at times.
He told me things about Madame Bla-
vatsky which / may not repeat, as well
aHs things about myself that do not con-
Germ third parties.
How long he was there I cannot
tell; it might have been half hour or
an hour; it seemed but a minute, so lit
IL +oL of he iobt Of
lat last he rose, I wondering at his
great height, and observing the sort of
splendor in his countenance-not an ex-
ternal shining, but the soft gleam as it
were, of an inner light-that of the spir-
ut.
"Suddenly the thought came into my
mind: ''Whatif this be but hallucina-
ton? What if Madame Blavatsky has
cast a hypnotic glamor over me? I
wish I had some tangible object to
prove to me that he has really been
11ere-something that I might handle af-
ter he has gone The master smiled
kindly as If reading my thought and
twisted the fehta from his head, benig
snantly saluted me in farewell and was
gone; his chair was empty; / was alone
with my emotions. Not quite alone,
though, for on the table lay the en-
broidered headcloth; tangible and en-
during proof that I had not been over
looked or psychically befooled, but had
been face to face with one of the older
brothers Of humanity, one of the mas
tiers of our dull pupil race.
ITO run and beat at Madame Blavat-
sky's door and tell her my experience
was the first natural impulse, and she
was as glad to hear my story as l was
to tell it. I returned to my room to
think and the gray morning found me
still thinking and resolving. Out of
those thoughts and those resolves de- |
veloped all of my subsequent theosoph-
ical activities, and that loyalty to the
masters behind our movement which |
the rudest shocks and the cruelest dis
have never shaken. l have |
been blessed with meetings with this
master and others since then. Howev- |
er others less fortunate may Doubt |
know
"Another still more remarkable man |
Hesitation occurred to me in the crowd |
ed streets of London, whittier Madame |
121a va ts1xv and I had gone on our way |