Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00088)

These passages from  Old Diary Leaves are extremely interesting. It is
a rare reference. It shows how Blavatsky was interested in power and
threatened to split the society unless her desire to become president
of European TS was gratified. 
I feel that things before 1895 were not as holy as many students of
Theosophy believe.
There is one more important thing to note. We read here and there
Besant and Leadbeater praising Blavatsky. But this praise must be
understood in right perspective.
Blavatsky was heavily attacked till her death by people inside and
outside Theosophical Society. Blavatsky was one of the main founders
of the TS. Reputation of the TS depended greatly on reputation of
Blavatsky. That means if people concluded Blavatsky was bad, it
obviously meant, according to them, the TS she started must also be
bad. In order to preserve TS and to raise image of the Theosophical
Society in the world, it was necessary to raise image of Blavatsky.
Because of this reason Besant and Leadbeater sometimes showed positive
things in Blavatsky and refraining from mentioning huge problems
associated with the personality called H.P.Blavatsky.
That is why lopsided praise by Besant and Leadbeater of HPB and her
writings should not  be taken literally. It should be understood in
the context which I mentioned above. 
I am seeing that many serious members and officers in the Theosophical
Society today are not considering these factors and therefore they are
considering Blavatsky more holy and perfect than what the reality was. 
Best
Anand Gholap





--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Morten Nymann Olesen"
<global-theosophy@...> wrote:
>
> Dear friends
> 
> 
> My views are:
> 
> H. S. Olcott wrote something very interesting in his Old Diary
Leaves for July 1890:
> The below words are referring to the need for structural changes
within the TS, because of H. P. Blavatsky's behaviour, which according
to H. S. Olcott was eccentric. As I read it, The consequence was that
H. S. Olcott became President for life, and H. P. Blavatsky leader of
the European Section for life.
> 
> H. P. Blavatsky's views and more on the issue are in part here. Read
carefully:
> [Lucifer, Vol. VII, No. 37, September, 1890, pp. 77-78]
> "It is hoped that the formation of the European Section is the
beginning of the ascending arc of the evolution of the Theosophical
Society in Europe, and that the day may soon dawn when each European
country will have a section of its own. For were such a happy result
to be achieved, and were the units of these sections to work together
for the moulding of European thought, as only those who have a right
conception of Theosophy can work, then should we surely have advanced
a decided step in the direction of that ideal of Universal
Brotherhood, which we have set before us as our first object.
> H. P. BLAVATSKY,
> President of the European Section T.S.
> London, 25th August, 1890"
> http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v12/y1890_037.htm
> 
> 
> Here is the main excerpt from Old Diary Leaves by H. S. Olcott:
> 
> "The reader will easily understand the stress and strain that was
put upon me at this time by the eccentric behavior of H. P. B., in
herself interfering, and allowing her friends to interfere, in the
practical management of Society affairs, a department which, as Master
K. H. had distinctly written, was my own special province. In a
previous chapter I have mentioned her revolutionary threat that she
would break up the Society unless I endorsed their action in
reorganising the movement in Europe with her as permanent
> 
> 
> DEATH OF SUBBA RAO 247
> 
> 
> President; but to make the thing perfectly clear, since the case
embodies a most vital principle, I will enter a little into detail On
the 8th of July I received her letter, backed by some of her friends,
demanding the above-mentioned change, and accompanying it with the
alternative threat. On the 29th of the same month I received an
official copy of a Resolution which had been passed by the then
existing British Section, without having reported their wishes to me
or asked my consent. The Theosophist for August had been printed,
except the Supplement, which was then on the press. On receipt of the
interesting revolutionary document in question, I drove to our
printers, stopped the press order, destroyed 350 copies of the
Supplement already run off, and inserted this Executive Notice: 
> "The following Resolution of the Council of the British Section of
July 2nd, 1890, is hereby cancelled, as contrary, to the Constitution
and By-laws of the Theosophical Society, a usurpation of the
Presidential prerogative, and beyond the competence of any Section or
other fragment of the Society to enact.
> "ADYAR, 29th July, 1890. H. S. OLCOTT, P.T.S." 
> "Extract from Minutes of the British Section, T.S.
> "At a meeting of the Council of the British Section held on July
2nd, 1890, at 17 Lansdowne Road, London, W., summoned for the special
purpose of considering the advisability of vesting permanently the
Presidential authority for the whole of Europe in 
> 
> 
> 248 OLD DIARY LEAVES
> 
> 
> H. P. Blavatsky, it was unanimously resolved that this should be
done from this date, and that the British Section should unite
herewith with the Continental Lodges for this purpose, and that the
Headquarters of the Society in London should in future be the
Headquarters for all administrative purposes for the whole of Europe.
> 
> "W. R. OLD,
> "General Secretary."
> 
> Who wonders that, after the note in my Diary mentioning what I had
done, I added: "That may mean a split, but it does- not mean that I
shall be a slave." What charming autocracy! Not one word about the
provisions of the Society's Constitution, the lawful methods to
follow, or the necessity of referring the matter to the President;
nothing but just revolt. It only made my own duty the plainer. I must
be true to my trust, even though it had to come to a break between H.
P. B. and myself; for though we had to be loyal to each other, we both
owed a superior loyalty to Those who had chosen us out of our
generation to do this mighty service to mankind as part of Their
comprehensive scheme.
> I leave this on record for the benefit of my successor, that he may
know that, if he would be the real guardian and father of the Society,
he must be ready, at a crisis like this, to act so as to defend its
Constitution at all costs. But this will require more than mere
courage-that far greater thing, faith; faith in the inevitable
> 
> 
> 
> DEATH OF SUBBA RAO 249
> 
> 
> success of one's cause, faith in the correctness of one's judgment;
above all, faith that, under the guidance of the Great Ones, no petty
cabals, conspiracies, or unwise schemes can possibly stand against the
divine impulse that gathers behind one whose only ambition is the
performance of duty."
> http://www.theosophy.ph/onlinebooks/odl/odl413.html
> 
> 
> What I can conclude from reading the content of the above two
mentioned links are, that the the TS of today needs a more
organisational and administrativly skilled President and perfereably a
more spiritually devleoped Secretary. If one goes against the above
views by Olcott and Blavatsky analogically speaking, when comparing
with today's organisational structure, - one aught in the name of the
search for TRUTH to CLEARLY inform the TS members about WHY such steps
are so very necessary and important.
> What are your views?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The old magazine "Lucifer" is rotating in its grave.
> :-)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> M. Sufilight
> 
> 
> 
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Anand 
>   To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com 
>   Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 6:29 PM
>   Subject: Re: Theos-World Anand Gholap formula for General Council
composition
> 
> 
>   Efforts are being made by few individuals in present General Council
>   to hijack the TS. They also want to remove members' right to vote in
>   the election of President. I am totally against such a change. I want
>   members to elect the President directly as they did earlier.
>   Right now the present constitution is such that it might enable some
>   officers in the GC to unethically remove voting rights of people. I
>   want to ensure that such attempts don't succeed now and in future.
>   Amendments in the General Council were suggested by me for two
reasons.
>   1) To make constitution just. Each country should have representatives
>   only in proportion to the membership that country has. In GC if one
>   vote is given to a country with 13000 members and one vote is given to
>   country with 90 members, then that is unjust. If we are to preach
>   justice in the world, our own TS constitution must be just. That is
>   why voting rights to each country according to proportion of members
>   in that country are necessary.
>   2) Another reason why I suggested proportional representation is this
>   new system will stop any future attempts by few individuals to remove
>   voting rights of people and hijack the TS. You can see that there are
>   few General Secretaries elected by just a few hundred members. And
>   these few General Secretaries venture to hijack TS because they are
>   given too much rights as compared to membership they represent. So by
>   proportional representation and by increasing the size of the General
>   Council we want to ensure that such attempts by few officers to hijack
>   TS won't succeed in future.
>   Best
>   Anand Gholap
> 
> 
> 
>    
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>