HOW "THE SECRET DOCTRINE" WAS WRITTEN.
The epoch-making work known as The Secret Doctrine is the magnum opus of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Its subtitle is: "The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy."
The First Volume of The Secret Doctrine came off the Press on October 20, 1888. This fact is recorded by Richard Harte, then in London, and about to leave for India. In a set of the original edition (first printing), now in the Archives of the present writer, there is on the half-title page a notation in blue pencil, signed by Richard Harte, and which says:
"This is the first copy ever issued. I got it from Printer by special Messenger on the morning of the 20 Oct. '88 as I was leaving the house 17 Lansdowne Road, with Col. Olcott for India (Col. went personally via Naples). The Second Vol. followed me to India."
The Second Volume of H.P.B.'s magnum opus was published either at the end of December, 1888, or in January, 1889.
Both Volumes are bound in light grey. Facing the title page, there appears the statement: "Printed by Allen, Scott and Co., 30 Bouverie Street, E.C."; while the reverse of the title page bears the words: "Entered at Stationers' Hall. All Rights Reserved."
The first steps in the writing of what later became known as The Secret Doctrine were taken much earlier than most students realize.
H.P.B. and Col. Henry S. Olcott had gone to India and had settled for the time being in Bombay. The Colonel was continuing his well-established habit of writing down in his Diary succinct statements about various events taking place from day to day. By consulting at a later date his Diaries for 1879, he noticed:
several entries about helping H.P.B. to write "her new book on Theosophy." On 23rd May, it seems, she" broke ground" for it; on the 24th I" gave her, by request, the skeleton outline of a book embodying such crude ideas as suggested themselves to one who did not intend to be the writer of it"; on the 25th I" helped in preparing the Pre-face"; on 4th of June we finished it; and that seed lay in the mummy's hand five or six years before it sprouted as The Secret Doctrine, for which the only thing I then did was to invent the title and write the original Prospectus. After coming to Bombay I had quite enough common routine work to do without helping to write another book of cyclopaedic bulk.
Nothing else seems to have been done on the production of this work for quite some time, as both Founders were extremely busy establishing their Headquarters in India and launching The Theosophist.
Almost three years later, namely in August, 1882, we find in one of the Letters from Master K.H. written to A.P. Sinnett, a casual remark made by the writer to the effect that ".... it [Iris] really ought to be re-written for the sake of the family honour."
In January, 1884, the Supplement to The Theosophist, which began to be issued then under the name of the Journal of The Theosophical Society (Vol. I, No. 1), published an advertisement announcing The Secret Doctrine and speaking of it as "A New Version of Isis Unveiled'." It read:
Numerous and urgent requests have come from all parts of India, to adopt some plan for bringing the matter contained in Isis Unzeiled, within the reach of those who could not afford to purchase so expensive a work at one time. On the other hand, many, finding the outlines of the doctrine given too hazy, clamoured for " more light," and necessarily misunderstanding the teaching, have erroneously supposed it to be contradictory to later revelations, which in not a few cases, have been entirely misconceived. The author, therefore, under the advice of friends, proposes to issue the work in a better and clearer form, in monthly parts. All that is important in "Isia" for a thorough comprehension of the occult and other philosophical subjects treated of, will be retained, but with such a rearrangement of the text as to group together as closely as possible the materials relating to any given subject. Thus will be avoided needless repetitions, and the scattering of materials of a cognate character throughout the two volumes.
Hindu (1765)
Philosophers (2327)
Aesthetics (317)
Comparative (66)
Dictionary (12)
Ethics (44)
Language (350)
Logic (80)
Mimamsa (58)
Nyaya (134)
Psychology (497)
Samkhya (60)
Shaivism (66)
Shankaracharya (233)
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist