Second and Revised Edition
ISBN: 9781557002495
No other book is quite like this private collection of letters. Now preserved in the British Library, they were written between 1880 and 1890 to Alfred Percy Sinnett, editor of a leading Anglo-Indian newspaper, The Pioneer, and to his friend, Allan Octavian Hume, a founder of the Indian National Congress. Their correspondents were two Mahatmas whom H. P. Blavatsky had acknowledged as her teachers and the inspirers of Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. First published in 1923, this important volume is filled with sublime philosophical and ethical instruction, revealing not only far-reaching concepts of religious and scientific thought (since proven in large degree prophetic), but also practicality, warmth of heart, patience, and ripeness of humor. The letters, moreover, yield a clearer understanding of H. P. Blavatsky and of the Mahatmas’ aim in fostering a better understanding of our kinship with all peoples. A core text of the modern theosophical movement, this Second and Revised Edition includes several new appendices as well as a key to reading the Letters in chronological order.
Alfred Trevor Barker (1893-1941) is best known for his transcription and compilation of two essential theosophical publications: The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett and its companion volume The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett. An early student with Maud Hoffman of P. D. Ouspensky and G. I. Gurdjieff, he was also a member of The Theosophical Society (Adyar). He later joined the Theosophical Society, then headquartered at Point Loma, California, of which he was for a number of years President of its English Section. His lectures and writings were compiled into the posthumously-published book, The Hill of Discernment.