Yogis and Mahatmas

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Confusing Words Series · 6 pages

A reader's letter and its answer, from The Theosophist of June 1883 and reprinted in the Collected Writings under the heading Pertinent Questions. H.N. Vakil of Malabar Hill, Bombay, put eight numbered questions: what is a Yogi; can he be classed with a Mahatma; can Vishvamitra, Valmiki, Vasishtha and the other Rishis be classed with the Yogis and the Mahatmas, or with the Mahatmas only, or with the Yogis only; did the Yogis know occult science; is vegetarianism necessary to the study and development of occult science; and did our Rishis know the occult sciences.

Blavatsky answers them in order, and the first answer sets the tone for the rest. A Yogi in India, she writes, is a very elastic word: it now serves generally to designate a very dirty, dung-covered and naked individual who never cuts nor combs his hair, covers himself from forehead to heels in wet ashes, performs pranayama without realising its true meaning, and lives upon alms — and only occasionally is the name applied to someone worthy of it. Her method throughout is the same one the whole series uses: to take the word back to what it means when analysed etymologically, and to show how far the current usage has drifted from it. The distinction from Mahatma follows from that recovered sense rather than from any ranking of the two.

Read the full text (PDF, 0.6 MB, 6 pages)