Franz Hartmann was a German medical doctor, Theosophist, occultist, astrologer, and author. His works include several books on esoteric studies and biographies of Jakob Böhme and Paracelsus. He translated the Bhagavad Gita into German and was the editor of the journal Lotusblüten. He was at one time a co-worker of Helena Blavatsky and Col. Olcott at Adyar. In 1896 he founded a German Theosophical Society.
Hartmann was one of the most prolific writers on occultism of his time. Hartmann inspired many members and gave hundreds of lectures in Germany. He wrote both in German and English. The Theosophical work was forbidden during the Nazi-regime and many of Hartmann’s German books were destroyed by the Nazis but have been reprinted after 1945. Hartmann published in the magazine The Theosophist several articles published under the pseudonym “American Buddhist” or “AB.” Among these is the series “Practical Instructions for Students of Occultism,” which formed the basis for his book, Magic, White and Black.
The instructions for yoga in the Indian Vedas and Upanishads, especially in the Bhagavad Gītā, the sublime dialogue between the master of heaven and the son of earth, offer the highest and deepest wisdom ever taught on earth. This teaching has also been spreading recently in the Western World, but it is not new. Franz Hartmann, a great German mystic of the 19th century, argues that what has been taught in the Bhagavad Gītā, which we have known for 600 years in Christianity, has been taught especially emphatically and convincingly by the great mystic of the 13th century, Meister Eckhart. Hartmann proves that the path to the realization of “Christ in us” and the yoga teachings in the Bhagavad Gītā is almost identical. Contrasting these two proves many congruent points in Eckhart’s writings.
We find at the beginning of the book a short biography of the author and at the end his autobiography. The author then provides a short biography of Meister Eckhart before diving into specifics.
For Hartmann there is no higher science that that which encompasses the truth in the entire universe and explains that this truth cannot be taught but has to be found within.
Step by step Hartmann demonstrates by using excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita and Meister Eckhart’s work that the true Christian doctrine is, in essence, identical to the Yoga system of India. He emphasizes that in order to grasp the truth humans have to discern between the lasting Self (God) and the impermanent self (the personality attached to the earthly plane. Too many humans are attached to the external ideas and to an external savior.
Hartman also addresses reincarnation pointing out that it takes many, many lives for a person to master the illusionary self and find the true savior within.