The Mahā Chohan’s Letter
By Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
30 Pages | First edition, second reprint 2004 | Paperback | The Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 8170592593.
This ‘letter’, from the Adept known as the Mahā Chohan, to A.P. Sinnett, is in fact an abridged report of an interview with him. Short though it is, it contains practically the charter for the work and development of the Theosophical Society through the ages, according to Mr. Jinarājadāsa. His commentary provides the proper perspective to understand the importance of the letter.
Eminent Theosophists (CD-Rom)
CD Rom | T.P.H. Adyar, India, 2006
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–91) was perhaps the greatest Occultist of the West in recent times, and an outstanding messenger who presented the Ancient Wisdom for the modern age. With little fanfare she brought to bear powerful influences on human affairs, as is exemplified in her life and works. She did not bring anything new to mankind; in fact she succeeded in the great task of communicating wisdom that is as ancient as mankind.
Annie Besant (1847–1933), second President of The Theosophical Society from 1907 to 1933, was described as a ‘Diamond Soul’, for she had many brilliant facets to her character. She was an outstanding orator of her time, a champion of human freedom, educationist, philanthropist, and author with more than three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit.
Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), President-Founder of the Theosophical Society was born on 2 August 1832 at Orange, New Jersey. Olcott came from an old English Puritan family that had been settled for many generations in the United States.
C. Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953), the fourth President of the Theosophical Society, was educated at Cambridge University, England, and was an exceptional linguist, who lectured fluently in many European languages. His wide range of interests and writings included religion, philosophy, literature, art, science and occult chemistry. He made valuable sketches and notes during the clairvoyant investigations of Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater into the structure of matter.
Charles Webster Leadbeater (1847–1934) was a highly developed clairvoyant who unfolded and perfected his psychic faculties under the guidance of his Adept-Teacher. He commenced clairvoyant investigations in 1893, on occasion collaborating with Annie Besant, the second President of The Theosophical Society, and wrote over thirty books on the spiritual life and the psychic nature of man.
N. Sri Ram (1889–1973), fifth President of The Theosophical Society from 1953 to 1973, dedicated himself to Theosophical work as a young assistant of Dr Besant. He was closely associated with her social, political and educational and other activities, and helped her in editing New India, a daily newspaper that was influential in the struggle for India’s freedom.
The Smaller Buddhist Catechism
Compiled by Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854 – 1934) and translated by Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
41 Pages | First edition 1902, first reprint 2004 | Softcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 817059443X.
This work is a translation of a small Sinhalese Catechism of Buddhism in two parts, called Bauddha Sisubodhaya, which was compiled by Mr. C.W. Leadbeater in 1889, when he was working in connection with the Buddhist Theosophical Society. During the work of teaching in Buddhist Sunday Schools and later in the Buddhist English High School of Colombo (now Ananda College), Mr. Leadbeater found Colonel Olcott’s Catechism far above the grasp of most of the children, as that Catechism was not composed for children. A far simpeler work being urgently needed, Mr. Leadbeater with the help of Buddhist friends put together this little publication.
The Secret of the Ages – And Other Theosophical Essays
By Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
69 Pages | First edition 1926, reprint 1927, second edition 1988 | Paperback | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | No ISBN.
‘The first edition was issued under the title The Mediator. Some of the titles of the essays included therein have been altered in this Volume to make them more meaningful. The essay The Mediator does not find a place in this edition; hence the change of the title of the book.
From Chapter 10 – The Secret of the Ages (p. 63):
” If only we will look rightly into our own heart, and listen to the still small voice there, we shall hear where our path lies, and we shall always see visions of our work. At the bottom of our nature we are unselfish, and we hunger to give. Even when we are reckless in selfishness, the soul’s cry at our depths is ‘Let me find how to give’. When, with increasing will, heart and mind are used to subdue the fierce thirst for sensation, then, evitably vistas appear of a work. For Soul and work are interchangeable terms, and the greater the work the more spiritual the Soul . . . “
Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom (Second Series)
By Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
189 Pages | First to fourth reprints 1973 – 2002 | Paperback | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 8170593964.
From the Foreword:
” I AM privileged to introduce to the world this priceless booklet of Letters from the Elder Brothers, who were the true Founders of the Theosophical Society. Many a Pilgrim on the Probationary Path will find in it much of help and inspiration, and it will serve to deepen the sense of the reality of our Teachers, sometimes blurred in the mind of neophytes by the tumultuous happenings in the outer world, as the notes of a vina are drowned if played in the rattle of an engine-shed. May it speak to those who have ears to hear. “ – Annie Besant
In His Name
By Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
64 Pages | Published in 1915 | Paperback | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 8170590159.
‘To the Master Koot Hoomi from his living son’.
From the Foreword:
” We met only for an hour, but I felt from the moment I saw you, that I had a message to give you. What that message is, you will find in the following pages. You have come to a point in your life when you feel you cannot any longer be fully of the world. You are established in an honourable career, and you know that time will bring you success and ease. But you already feel that you cannot work for success alone. You feel you must be an idealist in your profession, and be loyal to the ideal you see, even though it means suffering and humiliation. You are in the position that hundreds are in to-day, but you are different from them, in that you believe that the ideal which compels your obedience is not a thing of your imagination, but the first glimpse of a Personality whom you would like to call the Master. You feel that if this Master really exists and you could know hyim, then you could be utterly true to him in every way, regardless of what comes.
You know further that you cannot seek this Master by retiring into some monastic seclusion, in order that by meditation and contemplation there you might commune with him. You are not free to consider your welfare only, for there are those depending upon you for their needs. For their sakes you know you must engage in a worldly career. But while you are so engaged, you would like, if it be possible, at the same time to serve the Master is some way. It is because there is such a way, that I write these pages for you, and for others who are opening their eyes to those higher human possibilities which you have already seen.
Each human Soul has some message to givr to every other human Soul and what I wrtie is my message to you just now. It is not mine in reality, for it came to me from other human Souls, and I am giving to you as a brother what others as Brothers have given to me. “
C.J. – Taormina 1912.
How We Remember Our Past Lives (Old Edition)
By Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
74 Pages | First Edition 1915, 1st – 6th reprints 1921 – 1970, 7th reprint 1990 | Softcover | The Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 8170591554.
‘To the Captain of our Salvation, in Fulfilment of a Promise, Full Moon of Chaitra, 1912’.
Among the many ideas, which have lightened the burden of men, one of the most serviceable has been of Reincarnation. It not only explains why one man is born in the lap of luxury and another in poverty, why one is a genius and another an idiot, but it holds out the hope that, as men now reap what they have sown in the past, so in future lives the poor and the wretched of today shall have what they lack, if so they work for it, and that the idiot may, life after life, build up a mentality, which in far-off days may flower as a genius.
When the idea of reincarnation is heard of for the first time, the student naturally supposes that it is a Hindu doctrine, for it is known to be a fundamental part of both Hinduism and Buddhism. But the strange fact is that reincarnation is found everywhere as a belief, and its origin cannot be traced to Indian sources.
From Chapter – ‘The Law of Renunciation'(p. 56):
” I saw my Lady weep,
And Sorrow proud to be advanced so
In those fair eyes where all perfections keep.
Her face was full of woe;
But such woe (believe me) wins more hearts
Than Mirth can do with her enticing parts,
Sorrow was there made fair,
Passion wise; tears a delightful thing;
Silence beyond all speech a Wisdom rare.
She made her sighs to sing.
And all things with so sweet a sadness move
As made my heart at once both grieve and love. “
First Principles of Theosophy
By Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
465 Pages | Facsimile reprint published in 1995 | Softcover | Kessinger Publishing, LLC, Montana U.S.A. | ISBN: 1564595358.
Theosophy is the Wisdom arising from the study of the evolution of life and form. This Wisdom already exists, because the study has been pursued for long ages by properly equipped investigators into nature’s mysteries. The investigators, who are called ’the Masters of Wisdom’, are those Souls, who in the evolutionary process have passed beyond the stage of man to that next higher, that of the ‘Adept’.
As man evolves to Adept, he gains knowledge by investigation and experiment. The knowledge so far gained by an unbroken line of Adepts is Theosophy, the Ancient Wisdom. As man becomes Adept he ceases to be merely an item in the evolutionary process, and appears as a Master and Director of that process, under the supervision of a great Consciousness called in Theosophy the LOGOS. He is enabled, as co/operator with LOGOS, to see nature from His standpoint, and to some extent survey her, not as helpless tool, but with the vision of her Creator. Such a survey is Theosophy to-day.
From Chapter XVI – ‘God’s Plan, Which is Evolution’ (p. 368):
” So the Solar System, as the Logos and His seven great Assistants, who work with Him, appears as a great Flower of many petals, with a great, glowing golden heart at its centre. Whoso can attain to this vision of the work of the Logos can never have a shadow of doubt as to His Love and Might and Beauty. Each vision of the Truth, through religion or philosophy, through science or art, or through philantropy and service, leads the Soul one step nearer to the goal, which is, to live and move and have his being, in full consciousness, and with exceeding joy, in the Logos of our Solar System. “
Fragments – From the World of C. Jinarājadāsa (A Quest Miniature)
By Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
62 Pages | Published in 1980 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835605337.
Carefully culled from the writings of Brother ‘Raj’, here is a gathering together of his reflections on many aspects of life. The keynote is ‘inspiration’ and within this little book you will find the true Wisdom and Beauty, that can flow from the intuïtion of a deeply spiritual man. Brother ‘Raj’ provides a rich and sublime literary mosaic to a variety of universally appealing topics as he comments upon art, beauty, children, mysticism, love, liberation, reïncarnation, truth, unity, wisdom, and the Elder Brothers of Humanity.
Mr. Jinarājadāsa was the International President of the Theosophical Society from 1946 until 1953. Author of many books including The New Humanity of Intuition, How We Remember Our Past Lives and Art As Will and Idea, his intense enthusiasm for life, for the arts, and for theosophy, is strongly reflected in these Fragments of Wisdom.
A Divine Vision of Man, Nature and God
By Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
76 Pages | First Edition 1928, 1st – 3rd reprints 1949-1954, second edition 1986 | Softcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 8170590329.
These three Lectures were delivered by the Author at the Queen’s Hall London in May 1927, and formerly published under the title ‘The Divine Vision’.
It is a true saying, and one experienced and proved by us all, that we rise to higher things on the stepping stones of our dead selves. The life of man is a continual change of vision; as experiences come to him one after another, it is as if he rose from one level to another as he climbs up a mountain side, and therefore his visions steadily changes.
We recognise that there are two kinds of vision possible for us, that of the ordinary man of the world, and that other vision, which is presented to us by the great leaders of humanity, the founders of the religions. But we are apt to imagine that that lofty vision of the great teachers is something reserved for them alone, that we men in these lower levels are not capable of a divine vision. Yet the whole purpose of the message of Theosophy is to show that what the greatest of mankind has achieved shall some day be the achievement of every human being. In the course of these three Lectures, I shall try to show there is possible for us a divine vision of man, of nature and of God.
From Page 26:
” The student of Nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the more conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all the perennial miracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of admiration, is the development of a plant or of an animal from its embryo. Examine the recently laid egg of some common animal, such as the salamander or a newt. It is a minute spheriod in which the best microscope will reveal nothing but a structureless sac, enclosing a glairy fluid holding granules in suspension. But strange possibilities lie dormant in that semi-fluid globe. Let a moderate amount of warmth reach its watery cradle, and the plastic matter undergoes changes so rapid and yet so steady and purposelike in their succession, that one can only compare them to those operated by a skilled modeller upon a formless lump of clay. As with an invisible trowel, the mass is divided and sub-divided into smaller and smaller proportions until it is reduced to an aggregation of granules not too large to build withal the finest fabrics of the nascent organism. And, then, it is as if a delicate finger traced out the line to be occupied by the spinal column, and moulded the contour of the body, pinching up the head at one end, the tail at the other, and fashioning flank and limb into due salamandrine proportions in so artistic a way that, after watching the process hour by hour, one is almost involuntarily possessed by the notion that some more subtle aid to vision than an achromatic microscope would show the hidden artist, with his plan before him, striving with skilful manipulation to perfect his work. ” – Lay Sermons, Chapter – ‘The Origin of Species’.
Collected Poems
By Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
122 Pages | Published in 1953 | Hardcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | No ISBN.
Selected and arranged by E.N.
This Volume of Poems by Jinarājadāsa is presented in fulfilment of a verbal promise made to him in 1949, further enjoined by a clause is his last Will, to the effect that after his death there should be published certain poems written in notebooks carefully preserved by him from 1909, when he first adopted the poetic method for giving expression to his feelings, thoughts and aspirations. Not many of these have previously appeared in print, although from time to time he has quoted a number to illustrate some point in a lecture or a book, and has on several occasions given readings from this poems to Theosophical audiences. I am indebted to the Manager of the Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar Madras, for permission to reproduce here a few poems which have already appeared in one or two of the author’s prose works.
From Page 3:
LACRIMAE RERUM
(To ‘Little Flower’)” This I see – that Nature is but a glass
Before which Form and Formless transient pass.
This I think – that a Hand unseen but kind,
To joys of Life my tranced eyes unbind.
This I feel – that life is a darkened room,
Where yearning I fulfil a weary doom.
This I know – that in inmost heart I cry
From life’s oppressive shadow-show to fly.
For this I AM: my flower-heart unfurled,
Turns to a Sun not of this shadow-world.
And so I cull the perfume of each thing,
And to you, dearest Shadow, tearful bring. “
France, 1913.
H.P.B. Speaks – Volume 2
By Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831 – 1891), edited by Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953)
181 Pages | First edition 1951, reprint 1986 | Hardcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 817059037X.
It is a strange series of events that letters written by H.P.B. to a friend of her youth, Prince Alexander Mihailovich Dondukov-Korsakoff – some of them written from the Adyar Headquarters – should finally find their resting place in the Archives of the Theosophical Society in Adyar.
From page 16:
” My dear prince, you are interested in my life? Yes, you are right, for never has one of your compatriots been led by his mocking destiny into more original and unexpected situations than I have; situations both terrible and grotesque; heights and depths; one day on the level of the stars beyond the solar system, the next day in bottomless abysses. Such is my life and my fate that stake on my rise and fall like drunken stock-brokers. I am now on the rise and by God I will remain there even though I should be obliged to allow my army of Theosophists to crown me Queen-Prophet of Ceylon or Assam- and this under the very nose of the English, of whom half in India adore me and the other half detest me! “
H.P.B. Speaks – Volume 1
By Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831 – 1891), edited by Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953)
248 Pages | First edition 1950, reprint 1986 | Hardcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 8170590361.
There exist in the Archives of the Theosophical Society at Adyar certain manuscripts of H.P.B. Among them all, the most interesting historically is her Diary for 1878, which is published in this work. Furthermore, letters written by H.P. Blavatsky from 1875 onwards and some extracts from Scrapbook No. 1. are included.
From page 105:
” That I was called Heliona (not Helen as people call me) – a Greek name derived from that of the Sun-Helios- because (1st) there was an eclipse of the luminary on that day, who knew prophetically, one must infer, that it would be eclipsed for long years by the newly born babe, and also (2nd) because of the possibility it gave the clergy and missionaries of the 19th century to spell it with a double ‘ll’ (thus – Helliona) and assure the more readily their congregations that I was an imp of Hell . . . “