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vii

about occult matters. He was so reticent on this question, that for the whole period he survived, some six years after I became acquainted with him, he never once mentioned to me the Masters or the two Masters connected with our Society. I think he even avoided answering questions regarding their existence. So far as I know, the only persons he would speak to about Occultism were Mr. C. W. Leadbeater and Mr. A. J. Cooper-Oakley, who were both very great friends of his. Cooper-Oakley was a sort of chela to him. Though he would not say anything about the Masters, it was believed that he was a disciple of Master M. Dewan Bahadur R. Raghunatha Row, who was much his senior, and a much respected man, used to call Subba Row jocularly "Master".

In December 1886, his discourses on the Gīțā were delivered on four mornings of the Convention of that year. There was much difficulty in persuading him to deliver the lectures. I was one of the three or four who put pressure upon him to deliver the lectures. A part of the condition of his undertaking to do so was that I should attend the session of the Indian National Congress, which was to take place in Calcutta that year. He persuaded me to go there, and I said I would do so, if he promised to deliver the discourses on the Gīțā. As I expected that the lectures would be most valuable, and as I could not be present, I arranged with a shorthand