Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt00411)

Anand, you write:

> After Krishnamurti left TS, if all policies and focus had kept as it
> was under leadership of Annie Besant then lost members would have
> been replaced by new members and TS would have remained vibrant
> organization.
You may be right on this. I see no way to test it one way or the 
other. I have talked to a lot of people who lived through those times 
and they have offered many different speculations concerning why the TS 
declined. The two I believe to be the most feasible are: 1. the war 2. 
television. Membership in all fellowship organizations declined during 
the war years. When television came into every living room, fellowship 
organizations declined further. I remember one person who said that in 
the 1950s, whenever they had a lecture on the night that "Uncle Miltie" 
was on television, almost no one showed up. 
I concluded from this that the failing of the TS had more to do with 
their failure to adapt to the changing times. This happens to be a 
favorite subject of mine--communicating Theosophy to the modern world. 
But have seen little interest in the subject here. That also makes me 
sad. 
> My lodge has very young membership of very qualified people, total
> 110 members. This despite management's policy of not advertizing.
> Apart from that we have displayed Krishnamurti's photo in the Lodge.
> Most members respect both Theosophy and consider Krishnamurti as
> World-Teacher. They study mostly AB and CWL's books and like them
> very much.
Where is your Lodge located? What is the average age of your members? 
What have you done to attract them?

Jerry






Anand Gholap wrote:

> > Jerry,
> > After Krishnamurti left TS, if all policies and focus had kept as it
> > was under leadership of Annie Besant then lost members would have
> > been replaced by new members and TS would have remained vibrant
> > organization.
> > My opinion is Krishnamuti's leaving could have only temporary
> > setback. Policies and focus should have been kept as they were
> > earlier.
> > My lodge has very young membership of very qualified people, total
> > 110 members. This despite management's policy of not advertizing.
> > Apart from that we have displayed Krishnamurti's photo in the Lodge.
> > Most members respect both Theosophy and consider Krishnamurti as
> > World-Teacher. They study mostly AB and CWL's books and like them
> > very much.
> > Fear that Krishnamurti's references in books and elsewhere cause
> > problems for Theosophical movement is not right. There are lot of
> > things to learn from how K was found, raised and how he later became
> > a great teacher as predicted almost twenty years in advance by Mr.
> > Leadbeater and Besant.
> > In entire history of TS golden days for the Theosophical Society 
> were
>
>
> > when Annie Besant was President.AB and CWL wrote very high quality
> > literature. That was received around the world very well. Result was
> > membership was all time high of more than 45000. If we continue to
> > focus on same literature it will again produce very positive 
> results,
>
>
> > this time on much greater scale because other conditions have become
> > much more favorable.
> > Anand Gholap
> >
> >
> > --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Anand Gholap"