Theos-Talk Archives (January 1998 Message tt00338)

In a message dated 98-01-24 20:13:29 EST, you write:

<< I am very shocked to hear this. This is the first time I hear someone being
 asked about their present beliefs and if you are not willing to give up one
 of them up, then you cannot be admitted to ES. This is what all the
 (exclusive) religions want and demand -- except perhaps Buddhism. Did this
 incident happen in the US or in what part of the World?. >>

The incident occurred in a Lodge on the East Coast in 1982. I don't want to be
too specific about naming the Lodge in an open forum on the Internet. The
warden had been a lady who joined the TS back in the 1920's, had met Annie
Besant, CWL and that lot, and was an old-timer. She lived into her Nineties.
She was something of a consistent thorn in the side of the Lodge because she
had the annoying habit of always saying no to everything, particularly at
Board meetings when proposals were being made. When the incident occurred, I
was at first distressed and felt rejected (the old ego thing) but then I
realized that this particular individual was rather aged, fixed in her ways
and opinions and not very well informed. There was already something of an
anti-Baba bias among some members there because they didn't quite know what to
make of Him.

A bit later on at some gathering, I ran into John Coker of the Pasadena TS
Lodge from Frederick, MD (he was living on the East Coast at the time). I
related the incident as I described it here and he said that "you can't cross
the river riding two horses at the same time" which is what Eldon is saying
also. This I can understand. Yet I still find it curious that this lady could
have so completely misunderstood the guru/chela relationship that is so common
among Hindus in India, many of whom are also theosophists. Could the Vedanta
philosophy of Shankaracharya, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Ramana Maharshi,
Shirdi Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, Aurobindo, etc.,etc. be so different from
theosophy (brahma-vidya) ?. If for instance, I had said that I had indeed
belonged to Alice Bailey's Arcane School or the Rosicrucian Fellowship or Dion
Fortune's Fraternity of the Inner Light, then I could have understood her
rejection of my application. But pardon me, Vedanta (as presented by Baba)? An
"arcane school"? I don't think so. In the January, 1998 issue of THEOSOPHY
magazine (page 80)  it says that "of all systems, Buddhism is the most akin to
Theosophy". So while I know that Buddhism is the TS's favored religion, it's
still supposed to be open to all religions. Yet somehow I think that if I had
suggested that I was a follower of the Dalai Lama or some high Rinpoche
(instead of Baba), my request would have been treated quite differently.