Page:Philosophy of bhagawad-gita.pdf/19

xv render that service, for the simple reason of his extreme disinclination to put pen to paper and write on such a subject. As a proof of this disinclination, I may refer to what Bhavani Shankar told me in relation to Subba Row's paper on the Idyll of the White Lotus. Bhavani was a great friend of Subba Row, and used to be sent by H. P. B. to Subba Row to get him to write articles for The Theosophist.

Bhavani got Subba Row to promise to write a review of the Idyll, copies of which had just then come to this country. Bhavani paid a number of visits to Subba Row to obtain this promised review. But every time he was put off with some excuse or other and was told to come later on. On the occasion of his visit, the last but one in connection with this matter, Subba Row attempted to send him away without the paper, as he had done often before. But Bhavani told him that he was determined to sit in the house and that he would not leave, until he got what had been promised. Subba Row was incapable of being unkind or rude to anyone, and so got pen and paper and wrote the first part of it straight away, without a scratch or a correction from beginning to end. The second part was written on a subsequent day.

His memory was most remarkable, and he could repeat passages from some of the sacred books, as if he had committed them to memory, though he had but read them once or twice. Of course, his study of them