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by Uditha H. Palihakkara, National Secretary of the Theosophical Society in Sri Lanka.

The Golden Stairs

'A clean life, an open mind, a pure heart, an eager intellect, an unveiled spiritual perception, a brotherliness for all, a readiness to give and receive advice and instruction, a loyal sense of duty to the teacher, a willing obedience to the behests of truth, once we have placed our confidence in, and believe that teacher to be in possession of it; a courageous endurance of personal injustice, a brave declaration of principles, a valiant defence of those who are unjustly attacked, and a constant eye to the ideal of human progression and perfection which the Sacred Science Depicts - these are the Golden Stairs up the steps of which the learner may climb to the 'Temple of Divine Wisdom'.

H.P. Blavatsky

"Saying - Madame Blavatsky, 'that extraordinary woman', was co-founder with Colonel H.S. Olcott of the Theosophical Society. She was born at Ekaterinoslav in Russia at midnight between July 30 and 31, 1831. Her father, Colonel Peter Hahn, came of a noble family originally of Mecklenburg, Germany, but which had been settled in Russia for some 300 years. Her mother's family, also of noble lineage, traced its origins to a ninth century ancestor.

H.P.B.'s clairvoyant faculty was such that, even as a child, she was 'consulted.... by ... (the)... nobility about their private affairs and by the Police regarding crimes committed'. She was a talented pianist, and as a young girl, played in London with Clara Schumann and Arabelle Goddard in a three piano work of Schumann's.

In 1848, when she was 17, she married General Blavatsky, a very elderly man, from whom she soon separated. During 1848 and '49, she studied magic in Egypt with an aged copt; she joined 'The Druses of Lebanon', a secret society. She was present with Garibaldi at the Battle of Nentana in 1849; she 'was picked out of a ditch for dead with the left arm broken in two places, musket balls embedded in right shoulder and leg, and a stiletto wound in the heart'.

When walking with her father in London in 1851, she saw a tall and stately Rajput whom she recognised as a protector known in her visions from childhood. He spoke to her of a future work she was to do under His direction after preparation in the East. In 1852-1854 she attempted to enter Tibet, however, she was not successful until 1867-70.

During the intervening period, she contacted spiritualism, she learned to 'bring under her control her marvellous power to produce phenomena at will', and she engaged in 'several commercial enterprises' (a trade in high class woods, head of an artificial flower factory, etc.). In Tibet, she learned, we are told, to manipulate occult forces.

In Cairo in 1871 she made an unsuccessful attempt to found a Spiritual Society upon the basis of phenomena. Then, as 'Madame Laura', came concert tours in Italy and Russia. In 1873 she lived with her brother in Paris, painting and writing (in addition to her other accomplishments she was "a fine artist and a very clever caricaturist"). Whilst in Paris she received peremptory orders from 'the Brothers' to go to New York to await instructions.

She landed on July 7, 1873, without personal funds, having exchanged her first class passage to steerage class (the cheapest class) in order to give steerage class tickets to a poor woman and children who had been swindled.

Although she had in her trunk 23,000 francs entrusted to her by her Master, she earned her living by working for a maker of cravats. Still acting under orders she finally took the money to the town of Buffalo and gave it to an unknown man just in time to prevent him from committing suicide! An unsuccessful business venture in a Long Island Farm, used up the 1,000 roubles legacy she had received on the death of her father.

In 1874 she was ordered to go to the Eddy homestead in Chittenden.

This had been the scene of various occult phenomena already being investigated by Colonel H.S. Olcott. With him in 1875, in New York, she founded the Theosophical Society. Isis Unveiled, a magnificent attack upon the materialism of religion and science, was published in 1877.

She sent the first proceeds together with money received for her various articles published by Russian newspapers and journals, to the Red Cross in Russia to help her compatriots wounded in the Russo-Turkish war. November 24, 1877 is the date of her Masonic Diploma, Rite of Memphis, received, together with a rose-cross in rubies, as a tribute to the inner Masonic knowledge displayed in Isis. Another tribute was a diploma, accompanied by a valuable and ancient copy of the Bhagavad Gita, from the Sat-Bhai Society of Benares. Both societies recognised her rights to the superior grades of their orders.

On July 8, 1878, she became an American citizen. later that year, acting 'under orders', she and Olcott sailed for India; they landed in Bombay in february 1879. In 1880, the two founders toured Sri Lanka on behalf of Buddhism, themselves becoming Buddhists on 19 May, 1881. In 1882, the headquarters of the Society was moved to its present site in Adyar, Madras.

She made various tours of India between her arrival in 1879 and her visit to Europe in 1884. In the absence of the founders, came the 'Coulomb plot' and the one sided report of The Society for Psychical Research, in an attempt to show her up as an impostor.

Despite the intervention of her Guru to restore her health, it deteriorated and she was unable to remain at Adyar for more than a short visit paid later that year. In Wurzburg she worked at The Secret Doctrine, whose real authors, according to Countess Wachtmeister, were the Adept Brothers.

As with Isis, the Brothers collected the material and passed it before the inner gaze of H.P.B. In 1887 at Ostend, H.P.B. fell very ill but made another strange recovery explaining that she had 'elected' to work for a few more years in her suffering body. By invitation, she moved to London which then became the centre of the Theosophical work in Europe, in this she was assisted by occasional visits of the President Founder (Colonel Olcott). In 1888, she founded the Esoteric School, naming Annie Besant as her successor. Also in 1888, the first two volumes of the Secret Doctrine were published.

She died on 8 May, 1891, in London. Her ashes were divided between New York, India and London, the latter two portions being interred under her statue in Adyar. In her will she requested that each year, on the anniversary of her death, some of her friends should assemble and read one chapter of The Light of Asia and one of the Bhagavad Gita. By Colonel Olcott's wish, this anniversary is known as 'White Lotus Day'. the secret of H.P.B.'s remarkable power in producing swift changes in the lives of those about her was summed up by Colonel Olcott as due to:

Her amazing occult knowledge and phenomena working powers, together with her relation to the hidden masters.

Her sparkling talents, especially as a conversationist with her social accomplishments, wide travels, and extraordinary adventures.

Her insight into problems of philology, racial origins, fundamental bases of religions, and keys to old mysteries and symbols.

Unflinching self-consecration to the Great Ones irradiated the life of H.P.B. and she will ever be known as the 'Light-Bringer' of the Nineteenth Century.

Source: Theosophical Literature

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