THE four lectures printed in this volume were delivered to the delegates and members of the Theosophical Society, assembled for the Annual Convention at Adyar, Madras, on December 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 1893. They were intended to show the value of the teachings of H. P. Blavatsky as a guide to the obscurer meanings of the Hindû Sacred books, and so to vindicate at once the usefulness of the Theosophical and the Hindû doctrines. They were intended also to show the identity of these doctrines, and to prove that any one who believes the Theosophical teachings must accept those of the Vedas and the Pur'nas on fundamental matters. That Theosophy is a fragment of the Brahma Vidy' of pre-Vaidic days, that the Shruti are the best exoteric presentment of Brahma Vidy', that the Pur'nas were intended to give to the class excluded from the study of the Vedas the spiritual truths contained in the latter in a concrete form easy of assimilation--such were the ideas which sought expression in these lectures.