Mrs Annie Besant: A modern yoginī
Dr. Franz Hartmann[1]
Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl
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Translator’s note, Robert Hutwohl
Annie Besant, born in London in 1847, was a strong-willed and intellectually curious individual who passionately pursued various philosophical and religious movements throughout her life. Raised in the Protestant faith, she initially embraced Catholicism before marrying a Protestant pastor, whose teachings and treatment led her to reject organized religion entirely. Besant’s journey reflects a relentless pursuit of truth and a rejection of blind obedience.
Annie Besant, initially a writer struggling with poverty, became a prominent figure in the rationalist movement, facing persecution for her views. She later joined the Theosophical Society, collaborating with H.P. Blavatsky until her death. After Blavatsky’s passing, a rift emerged within the Society, leading to a division between the Judgeites and Olcottians, with Besant leading the latter.
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A “yogi” is an Indian ascetic or cleric, and a yoginī is a saint, a woman united with God; for the Sanskrit word “yog” means “to bind” and signifies the connection of the soul with Brahma, the Lord of the world. Such yoginīs can be found in some Indian temples or living solitary in rock caves, usually surrounded by a number of disciples or pupils who idolize them and blindly obey their commands. Some are distinguished by the possession of occult powers, clairvoyance, the gift of prophecy, the art of healing, and the like, and offer advice in difficult cases. They generally do not own property but live on alms, but even rajahs (princes) approach them with reverence and shower them with gifts. There is nothing humanly possible that would not be readily performed by such a guru or master’s chelas [celā-s] or disciples at his request; for the guru is lord over everything, over the conscience, mind, person, and possessions of his followers. The whole world belongs to the yogi. Were he to take everything from his disciples—land, house, money, wife, children, and intellect—he would only be taking what is his by right; for, according to the believers, everything belongs to Brahma; the yogi is one with Brahm, and therefore everything belongs to the yogi. What people possess is lent to them only by his grace. “The Lord gave it, the Lord takes it away.”
Undoubtedly, there are genuine yogis in India, or people who lead a holy life, but, as with us, they are somewhat difficult to find. Most so-called yogis are spiritual mediums of various kinds, and besides them, just as here, there are a multitude of idlers and frauds who, as Jacolliot describes in his book “In the Country of Fakirs,”[2] use the appearance of holiness to live a comfortable life without working, at the expense of the gullible. This type of “yoga” is also known in Europe under the name “Jesuitism,” and here, as there, these “masters” are primarily concerned with suppressing all independent thought and desire in their students so that they become compliant tools in their hands.
Since H. P. Blavatsky introduced Europe to the teachings of the Indians, the desire to practice yoga has spread widely. While much good has been achieved, it has also caused much harm among those who wished to acquire occult powers, and the misconception of “guru nonsense” has been spread. For today, there are “theosophical” schools and societies in Europe and America that demand blind obedience. During her lifetime, H. P. Blavatsky, too, was considered by many to be an infallible guru, although she constantly protested against this, describing one’s own thinking as the first prerequisite for spiritual progress. One’s own free will and thought are the wings with which the soul rises to the light of truth, which is why the “Bhagavad Gita” says: “It is better to do one’s own work, however imperfectly, than to do the work of another, however perfectly.” This means that it is better to act from one’s own inner drive, even if mistakes are made, than to be the will-less and thoughtless slave of another person.
But it is not our intention to speak of the fake yogis, but rather of a true yoginī.
Annie Besant, née Wood, was born in London on October 1, 1847. Her family originated in Ireland, and this circumstance may serve to explain her mystical disposition, somewhat rare among the English race. From an early age, she was strongly drawn to the so-called “night side” of nature, loved to dream and rave and to commune with the “spirits” of nature, and her thirst for inquiry knew no bounds. Her character was distinguished by strength of will, self-esteem, and thirst for knowledge. Whatever she took hold of, she grasped with a zeal bordering on fanaticism, but she abandoned it as soon as she found something better. Thus, she became, successively, the representative of various schools of thought and the soul of various movements, and several times she was in danger of becoming a martyr to her faith. She fought first for churchism, then for atheism and freethinking, socialism, “theosophy,” and Brahmanism, and each of these movements found its best support in it. It is also only praiseworthy if a person clings to his opinions only until he has come to a better conviction.
Raised in the Protestant (Calvinist) faith and a zealous follower of this system, she followed its precepts until, through the mystical spell cast upon her youthful mind by the customs of the Catholic Church, she came close to converting to Catholicism. She wanted to become an ascetic, even a martyr, fasted and scourged herself, and devoted herself to the love of the Crucified Christ. But from the sublime to the ridiculous is, as we know, only a step, and so, in the winter of 1867, her zealous ascetic endeavors were followed by her engagement and marriage to a young Protestant pastor. To explain this contradiction, it should be mentioned that she had no conception of the nature or purpose of marriage and would gladly have withdrawn before the wedding if she could have done so.
Even at the time she surrendered herself to the pastor, legitimate doubts arose in her regarding the correctness of his theological teachings, and these doubts were reinforced by the brutal treatment she experienced at the hands of her venerable husband, so that she finally rejected the entire ecclesiastical faith. Self-confident and open-hearted as she was, she would neither submit to treatment that contradicted her sense of human dignity nor feign a faith she did not possess. Since her only options were either to fake dissembling or to leave the pastor’s house, she chose the latter and was happily freed from the yoke of marriage in 1873.
Now she struggled with poverty for a long time, barely supporting herself and her two children by writing. This brought her into contact with Charles Bradlaugh, the well-known representative of “atheism,” or more correctly, “rationalism,” in England, famous for defending his rights in Parliament, whose bigoted majority refused to allow him to take the seat to which he had been elected because he was “an unbeliever.” It wasn’t long before Mrs. Besant became Bradlaugh’s right hand and support, helping him through all the persecutions he suffered, and soon she was known throughout the world as the public representative of atheism. Several times during her lectures, her windows were smashed, and on her way home she was persecuted with “Christian” stones, beatings, and insults. Ministers of religion shoved their clenched fists under her nose, and her children were forcibly taken away by the police, under the pretext that an atheist must necessarily be a morally corrupt person and could only have a detrimental effect on her children’s upbringing. Slanders were spread against her by the church; she was prosecuted, and the judges sided with her. Nevertheless, through her energy and clear mind, she triumphed over all her persecutors.
In fact, Mrs. Besant was not an atheist in the true sense of the word, but, like Bradlaugh, perhaps more Christian than her tormentors, if not ecclesiastically minded. For although she could not admit the existence of a personal God ruling the world from without, she was always a great worshipper of truth, and if, as the Bible says, God is truth itself, there could hardly have been a greater worshipper of God than the atheist Annie Besant. On the other hand, she was a thorn in the side of ecclesiastical narrow-mindedness, bigotry, and intolerance, and they sought to destroy her at all costs. Moreover, her much-misinterpreted views on marriage and Malthusianism did much to damage her reputation among those who were unable, or dared not, to think for themselves.
Mrs. Besant was on good terms with the “freethinkers” for a long time and was actually their leader. But a true freethinker is only one in whom the divine nature has awakened and who, through the light of the knowledge of truth, has become free from all opinions. Where “mine” and “meaning” begin, “you” and tolerance end. The freethinkers of England could not see beyond their limited horizons and could not follow Mrs. Besant in her flight of thought; misunderstandings arose, and their departure came.
Empty theory was not in accordance with Annie Besant’s taste; she wanted to see action. She joined the Socialists and soon became their leader. She cared for the unemployed, helped the poor obtain their rights wherever she could, protected workers from the exploitation of employers, helped establish societies, libraries, and other institutions for the benefit of the working classes, and was soon generally known as a benefactor of people and animals. She participated in the fight that took place on October 13 in London in Trafalgar Square between the unemployed and the police, in which several people were killed and many wounded, and contributed greatly to the restoration of peace through her energetic actions. Together with W. T. Stead and others, she founded a League for the Defense of Human Rights against the arbitrary rule of the authorities and achieved, without further bloodshed, the overthrow of the Tory government and the removal of Sir Charles Warren.
Around this time, H. P. Blavatsky’s “Secret Doctrine” fell into her hands, and a new world opened up for her. It was in 1889 that she met Blavatsky personally, and she gives an enthusiastic description of this encounter in her autobiography, during which Blavatsky spoke the memorable words to her: “My child, your pride is terrible! You are as proud as Lucifer himself.”[3]
Annie Besant then joined the Theosophical Society and became an enthusiastic collaborator of H. P. Blavatsky, with whom she remained friends until her death.
Up to this point, our account has been largely taken from the biography written by A. Besant himself, and it remains to add what happened after the death of H. P. Blavatsky. Blavatsky had already formed an “inner circle” or “secret school” of chosen individuals who were to be initiated more deeply into the mysteries of the occult sciences, and had entrusted the leadership of this school, in the event of her death, to Mr. W. Q. Judge in America and Mrs. Besant in London. After Blavatsky’s death, everything was harmonious for a while, but then misunderstandings arose between Besant and Judge, leading to an open rift. The reason for this was that the leading figures in America, as well as those in England, received occult letters through spiritualistic “mediums” that were supposedly from the “Mahatmas,” but whose authenticity was doubted by others.[4]
Had the dispute remained confined to the inner circle, where it belonged, it would not have affected the interests of the Theosophical Society; for, as Blavatsky repeatedly stated, this inner circle should have nothing to do with the external organization of the Society. But since this dispute was conducted publicly, and the then President of the Society took sides against Judge, two parties formed within the Theosophical Society: The Judgeites, who, as followers of Judge, formed the overwhelming majority and elected him as their President, and the Olcottians, who had the upper hand in England. After the death of W. Q. Judge, which followed shortly thereafter, Annie Besant sought to restore peace between the two parties, but her efforts met with little success, for reasons we do not intend to discuss here.
Whatever one’s opinions of Annie Besant may be, one thing is certain: She always strove for the truth and always had the courage to vigorously stand up for what she believed to be true. She acted according to the principle: “Test everything and keep the best.” Although she is still, in a sense, the soul of the Theosophical movement in England, she seems to be most comfortable among the Brahmins. She dresses in Indian dress and has taken up residence in Benares, where she is surrounded by a number of disciples who revere and obey her as a Yoginī and as a Guru. The author of this article had the pleasure of meeting her again a few months ago and believes he has observed in her a significant refinement and spiritualization. But as to her occult powers, whether she is capable, as is claimed, of sending her astral body on a journey and of communing spiritually with H. P. Blavatsky’s Masters personally, or whether, as is the case with many others who make the same claims about themselves, her imagination is at play, we cannot give any definite information about this, and even if we were to express our opinion on the matter, no one would know whether it is correct; for each person can only know with certainty what he has experienced, recognized, and experienced in or within himself, and in this self-knowledge lies true Theosophy.
Notes:
[1] Mrs. Annie Besant. A modern yoginī. By Dr. Franz Hartmann [Frau Annie Besant. Eine moderne Yogini. Theosophischer Wegweiser 4, no. 1 (October 1901), 26-33 [Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025]
[2] [R.H.—Possibly: Voyage au pays des fakirs charmeurs, 1881. Dr. Hartmann’s title description is not exact.]
[3] Blavatsky saw correctly this time too, but without this pride or self-confidence, Annie Besant would certainly not have had the courage to accomplish the work that was destined for her.
[4] As far as we know, W. Q. Judge received such messages through the mediumship of Mrs. Catherine Tingley, who took Judge’s place after his death.