EDITOR’S CLOSING NOTE TO
“BRAHMA, ISWARA AND MAYA”

[The Theosophist, Vol. I, No. 4, January, 1880, p. 88]

[Advertising to an article of identical title, published by Prof. Pramada Dasa Mittra in The Theosophist, Vol. I, October, 1879, the author, Vara Guru, makes a number of observations from the standpoint of a Vedântist, and closes by saying that “before . . . the Theosophists extend their researches to one and all of the above specified Bhashyas, and discover by which of them these mighty problems are clearly solved, it is too premature to up hold the doctrine laid down by Pramada Dasa Mittra.”
Commenting on this and introducing a reply by Prof. Mittra himself, H.P.B. says:]

The Theosophists not having as yet studied all these Bhashyas, have no intention to uphold any particular sectarian school. They leave this to the pandits, for whose especial benefit, among others, this journal was founded. A great American quarterly—the North American Review—adopts the plan of submitting some famous contributor’s manuscript to one or more equally famous writers of very antagonistic views, and then printing all of the criticisms together. By this wise device, the reader of the magazine is able to see what can be said of a given subject from every point of view. We will do likewise; and, as a beginning, here is Professor Pramada Dasa Mittra’s criticism upon his critic, after reading the above. “Du choc des opinions jaillit la vérité,”—said a great French philosopher.