Vol 2 Page 443

FOOTNOTE TO “NANGA BÂBÂ OF GWALIOR”

[The Theosophist, Vol. I, No. 12, September, 1880, p. 304]

[In this valuable narrative, the author, “M. B. V.,” gives an instance of the appearance of the Mayâvi-Rûpa, but not being able to understand the rationale of the phenomenon, asks in closing: “What was the person or form that appeared. . . . By what name may we call this wonderful phenomenon?” To this H.P.B. answers:]

By the name Kama-Rupa or Mayâvi-Rupa. An Aryan ought not to need ask that. We know of a case in Europe, related to us by the gentleman himself, where a man was in a trance or semi-trance state for thirty-six hours—one day and two nights. During this interval he appeared—or seemed to appear—at College as usual and continued a lecture

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he had begun the previous day; taking up the thread exactly where it had been dropped. The gentleman would not believe his pupils’ assurances of this fact until they showed him the note-books in which as customary, they had preserved memoranda of the College lectures to which they listened. Who can tell whether the teacher, who lectured while the gentleman was unconscious, was his physical body, animated by another intelligence, or his Mayâvi-Rupa, or “double,” acting independently of the consciousness of his physical brain? And this very gentleman, to whom this number will be sent, will, we promise, be mightily interested in the guard-mounting story of Sobha Singh.