Theos-Talk Archives (August 2001 Message tt00161)

At 02:50 AM 8/13/01 -0700, Katinka Hesselink wrote:
> In 1882 HPB's Master Morya wrote:
>
> >> A constant sense of abject dependence upon a Deity which
> he regards as the sole source of power makes a man lose all
> self-reliance and the spurs to activity and initiative.
> Having begun by creating a father and guide unto himself,
> he becomes like a boy and remains so to his old age,
> expecting to be led by the hand on the smallest as well as
> the greatest events of life... The Founders (31) prayed to
> no Deity in beginning the Theosophical Society, nor asked
> his help since. Are we expected to become ... nursing
> mothers...? Did we help the Founders? No; they were helped
> by the inspiration of self-reliance, and sustained by their
> reverence for the rights of man, and their love for a
> country [India]... Your sins? The greatest of them is your
> fathering upon your God the task of purging you of them.
> This is no creditable piety, but an indolent and selfish
> weakness. Though vanity would whisper to the contrary,
> heed only your common sense. >>{Letters From the Masters of
> the Wisdom, First Series, 107.}
When one looks at what Krishnamurti has been talked about over 60 years, 
one wonders if he is not talking about the same thing discussed above.

It appears to me, that too much emphasis on the minutiae details about the 
constitution of man and universe and their past and future and the 
"occult" training based on the hierarchical top-down approach where at the 
grass roots level one may find "a slumbering army of churchgoers" could 
have been causing the lack of growth of interest among the public in theosophy.

It appears that Krishnamurti's books and videos and audios are catching the 
interest of the public in an undramatic way as seen by two symptoms. 
One, in every large book store one finds the ratio of Krishnamurti's books 
to that of theosophy about 10:1 and secondly, the success that Krishnamurti 
Foundation is having in their annual fundraising. I just noticed that for 
the current year, the Krishnamurti Foundation in America has a goal of 
annual fund raising of $500,000 of which they already have met $450,000 by 
the side of which the annual fund raising target of TS in America looks 
very small.

It may be time to re-examine if the overall emphasis of theosophy needs to 
be reevaluated with no preconceived biases and let the chips fall where 
they may.

My 0.02

mkr