Theos-Talk Archives (January 1998 Message tt00342)

At 12:49 AM 1/25/1998 EST, you wrote:
>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.
>

The reason why I asked if it happened here in the US is because if this
standard is applied to members in India, half of them would not qualify,
unless as I said the rules have been changed in the last 20 years. The more
likely scenario is the lady was misinformed and mistaken even though she
may have met Annie Besant and CWL and even one of the Adepts.

In the case of Sai Baba, Shankaracharya, Ramana Maharishi etc., they are
not in the business of prescribing what you should and should not do and
what kind of yogic or meditational practices are recommended and are not in
the business of guiding followers. As a matter of fact Ramana Maharishi
rarely spoke. So the analogy of riding two horses is not appropriate in
this situation.

In the extremely rare book by Ernest Wood -- "Is This Theosophy?" he
discusses how he had developed his own system of meditational practices and
when he joined ES and tried the system that was suggested to him, he found
his earlier method suited him better. In discussing this he was not
revealing any ES secret -- many times people confuse between what is secret
and what is not -- since he is not disclosing the details of the specific
method.

I hope someone who has access to specific information on this issue
clarifies it. It would help to clear the fog on the issue.


Ramadoss