Theos-Talk Archives (February 2006 Message tt00527)

Dear Friends,

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ON THE ABILITY TO LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES

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Dear friends,

We should be humble enough to admit and to discuss our failures,  in order 
not to repeat them.

If we accept we don’t know things we don’t know, at least we will have an 
open mind, and this is  the first socratic step for starting to learn a new 
lesson at a higher level.

With an open mind we  can also say what we think. Let us see, then, in this 
spirit, a few examples of self-delusion in the history of the esoteric 
movement.  Occasions when truth was embellished or simply abandoned because 
it did not seem to appear beautiful enough at the eyes of the public. 
Moments when untruthfulness was seen as irresistibly beautiful, elegant,  
even charming.

*During the 1890s, William Q. Judge was accused by the Adyar T.S. (led by  
Henry Olcott and Annie Besant) of forging messages supposedly coming from 
the Mahatmas.  The editors of the book The Theosophical Movement 1875-1950  
received a document signed by Mr. B. P. Wadia, a well-known theosophist. The 
document, signed in December 15, 1947, says:

“Not only Col. Olcott, but also Mrs. Besant came to perceive the error of 
her ways in later years. A respected member of the Adyar Society who had 
fully studied  the Judge Case interviewed Mrs. Besant specially on this 
subject. In course of the serious  conversation,  Mrs. Besant admitted that 
what was presented to her was on the whole accurate and that she had come to 
a conclusion some time previously that Judge did not forge those letters;  
and that the messages received by him were genuine. On being requested to 
say that much only, if not more, to the Theosophical public the world over 
Mrs. Besant demurred and remarked that it was such an old and forgotten 
matter  – ‘Why revive it?’ On permission being sought by the friend to make 
her view public, she flatly refused. This came as a shock to the gentleman 
who was refused this permission, for he fully expected that in the interests 
of historical veracity Mrs. Besant would agree to say in public what she so 
readily admitted to him in private conversation, completely exonerating Mr. 
Judge from manufacturing  bogus Mahatma messages.” [See 'The Judge Case",  
an  important book by Ernest Pelletier, Edmonton Theosophical Society, a 
one-volume edition with 983 pages in two parts. See p. 443, second part.]


*In 1999-2000, while working as an editor in the translation into Portuguese 
language of the Mahatma Letters to A.P.Sinnett, I made an issue-by-issue 
comparative study showing the radical and  irreconcilable differences 
between the HPB/Masters Teachings and the fantastic writings of C. W. 
Leadbeater. I submitted the study  to Ms. Joy Mills, former Internacional 
Vice-President of the Adyar T.S., and a well-known student of  the Mahatma 
Letters. Ms. Joy confirmed my evidences and conclusions. She wrote that 
Leadbeater’s clairvoyant books are mostly “science-fiction”, but recommended 
that I should remain quiet and silent about that.  In July 2002  I submitted 
the same comparative study to the international president of the  Adyar 
T.S., Ms. Radha Burnier. In her answer to me, she carefully avoided taking 
any clear position on the subject. In this particular case too,  it seems 
that Truth was not considered beautiful enough to see the light of the day.

The occult effects and dangers created by this process of departure from 
Truth were clearly pointed out by Master K.H. in the Letter XXX of the 
Mahatma Letters.

Addressed to Mr. Allan O. Hume, the letter makes a vivid comparison between 
the practical methods employed by the Adepts of the Eternal Truth and –  the 
Jesuits. Something to think about and to meditate.  The Mahatma writes:

“My dear Sir, we will hardly ever agree in our ideas of things, and even of 
the value of words. You have once upon a time called us Jesuits; and, 
viewing things as you do, perhaps, you were right to a certain extent in so 
regarding us, since apparently our systems of training do not differ much. 
But it is only externally. As I once said before, they know that what they 
teach is a lie; and we know that what we impart is true, the only truth and 
nothing but the truth. They work for the greater power and glory (!)  of 
their order; we –  for the power and final glory of  individuals,  of 
isolated units, of humanity in general,  and we are content, nay forced – to 
leave our Order and its chiefs entirely in the shade. They work, and toil, 
and deceive, for the sake of  worldly power in this life; we work and toil, 
and allow our chelas to be temporarily deceived, to afford them means never 
to be deceived hereafter, and to see the whole evil of falsity and untruth, 
not alone in this but in many of their after lives. (...) They are trained 
to deceive; we – to undeceive...”  [See 'The Mahatma Letters to A. P. 
Sinnett' , T.U.P., Pasadena, 1992,  493 pp., see Letter XXX, pages 231-232. 
In the Chronological Edition of the Mahatma Letters (TPH-Philippines, 1993), 
 please see Letter 74, pp. 222-223.]

The occult obstacles challenging institutions which call themselves  
theosophical get more serious, then, when they  decide they  prefer 
publishing  things they  know to be  falsehoods and lies, and when they 
decide they prefer not to  publish crucial informations which they know to 
be true.

What do the Masters of  the Truth Eternal expect from us, students of their 
esoteric philosophy? In a purely abstract sense,  perhaps it is not too 
difficult to understand, in part.  In the precise  moment when HPB was 
suffering the most severe attacks coming from those very same persons whose 
untrue words are now “innocently” publicized by  “theosophical” editors,  
one Mahatma  wrote:

“Courage then, you all, who would be warriors of the one divine Verity; keep 
on boldly and confidently; husband your moral strength not wasting it upon 
trifles but keeping it against great occasions like the present one.”  ['The 
Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett', T.U.P., 493 pp., see Letter LV, p. 322  
(Letter 130 in the Chronological Edition)].


Best regards,  Carlos Cardoso Aveline


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