And now that I have seen the Mahatma in the flesh, and heard his living voice, let no one dare say to me that the Brothers do not exist.  Come now whatever will, death has no fear for me, nor the vengeance of enemies; for what I know, I know!

—­S.  Ramaswamier, F.T.S.

The Sages of the Himavat

While on my tour with Col.  Olcott several phenomena occurred, in his presence as well as in his absence, such as immediate answers to questions in my Master’s handwriting, and over his signature, put by a number of our Fellows.  These occurrences took place before we reached Lahore, where we expected to meet in the body my Master.  There I was visited by him in the body, for three nights consecutively, for about three hours every time, while I myself retained full consciousness, and, in one case, even went to meet him outside the house.  To my knowledge there is no case on the Spiritualist records of a medium remaining perfectly conscious, and meeting, by previous arrangement, his spirit-visitor in the compound, re-entering the house with him, offering him a seat, and then holding a long converse with the “disembodied spirit” in a way to give him the impression that he is in personal contact with an embodied entity.  Moreover, him whom I saw in person at Lahore was the same I had seen in astral form at the Headquarters of the Theosophical Society, and again, the same whom I had seen in visions and trances at his house, thousands of miles off, which I reached in my astral Ego by his direct help and protection.  In those instances, with my psychic powers hardly yet developed, I had always seen him as a rather hazy form, although his features were perfectly distinct and their remembrance was profoundly graven on my soul’s eye and memory, while now at Lahore, Jummoo, and elsewhere, the impression was utterly different.  In the former cases, when making Pranam (salutation) my hands passed through his form, while on the latter occasions they met solid garments and flesh.  Here I saw a living man before me, the original of the portraits in Madame Blavatsky’s possession and in Mr. Sinnett’s, though far more imposing in his general appearance and bearing.  I shall not here dwell upon the fact of his having been corporeally seen by both Col.  Olcott and Mr. Brown separately for two nights at Lahore, as they can do so better, each for himself, if they so choose.  At Jummoo again, where we proceeded from Lahore, Mr. Brown saw him on the evening of the third day of our arrival there, and from him received a letter in his familiar handwriting, not to speak of his visits to me almost every day.  And what happened the next morning almost every one in Jummoo is aware of.  The fact is, that I had the good fortune of being sent for, and permitted to visit a sacred Ashrum, where I remained for a few days in the blessed company of several of the Mahatmas of Himavat and their disciples.