Mahatman.

1882 Hints on Esoteric Theosophy (ed. 2) (Theosophical Soc.) 126 The English community, as well as some Hindus, entertained doubts as to the existence of the Mahatmas (adepts), and, as to the fact of the Theosophical Society having been formed under their special orders.

1886 Science 22 Jan. 81/1 Madame Blavatsky asserts herself a chela, or disciple of this brotherhood, the members of which are spoken of as mahatmas, who are said to have taken a great interest in the Theosophical society, and to have performed many marvels.

1888 H. P. Blavatsky Secret Doctr. II. 173 The Third Race had thus created the so-called Sons of Will and Yoga, or the ‘ancestors’..of all the subsequent and present Arhats, or Mahatmas, in a truly immaculate way.

1909 H. G. Wells Ann Veronica vi. 124 Jim is up to the neck in Mahatmas and Theosophy and Higher Thought and rot.

1961 A. H. Nethercot First Five Lives A. Besant v. 295 (heading) The Chela of the Mahatmas.

2010 J. Mills Refl. Ageless Wisdom 339 The second point concerns the nature of the Mahatmas' knowledge, which in the letters is referred to as occultism.

c1895 S. S. Baldwin Secrets of Mahatma Land Explained (ed. 2) i. 9 According to the Eastern idea,..a Mahatma is simply one who has so purified his ‘Mahat’, or spiritual mind or inner nature that his higher ego is enabled to act directly upon his lower or brain mind. When this occurs he becomes a Mahatma, or ‘great soul’.

1906 Medico-legal Jrnl. June 441 The Mahatma Sri Agamya Guru Paramahamza, the chief of all the great teachers of the Vedas in India.

1922 Atlantic Monthly July 109 To Mahatma Gandhi and his irreconcilables, liberty is not to be accepted as a gift: it is the birthright of the people.

1931 Manch. Guardian 11 Aug. 8/2 The great soul in the insignificant-looking body is the distinguishing mark of the Mahatma.

1948 C. Leslie Goat to Kali v. 203 His casual mention of great names convinced her that he was an intimate friend of them all: of the Mahatma, of Nehru, of Subhas Bose.

1949 H. N. Brailsford in H. S. L. Polak et al. Mahatma Gandhi viii. 96 On 9 January, 1915,..Gandhi landed in Bombay... Soon after..in a published letter, the poet Rabindranath Tagore conferred on him the title of ‘Mahatma’, of which the literal meaning is ‘great soul’. It is the custom among Indians to bestow such distinctions on leaders whom they love and admire.

1973 J. Ferguson Politics of Love iv. 104 This is why Mahatma Gandhi said ‘If you Christians rely on soldiers for your safety, you are denying your own doctrine of the Cross.’

2004 R. L. Deats Mahatma Gandhi 77 Mohandas Gandhi truly was the Mahatma—the Great Soul—whose political genius was rooted in an authentic spirituality.