Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00960)

In the 1900 and the last letter from Master KH, it was mentioned that
unnecessary secrecy has killed may organizations. When you read it, you
marvel at the directness, brevity and simplicity of the statement. It is so
simple that even those whose first language is not English can understand it
without the help of scholars or dictionaries. I am reminded of the simple
language used in At the Feet of the Master! I hope all of us in our
discussions can learn something from it so we do not use convoluted and
confusing language and vocabulary which sometimes makes one to find out what
one is saying and what one is not saying. Sometimes, when I read some of the
messages, I wonder what is hidden between the lines.

The letter has been around for 108 years. In, Indian tradition, 108 is a
very auspicious number. So our now trying to discuss the statement in
relation to what is going on in the TS, I hope it has some deep
significance.

Much of the discussion we are having since December 2007 would have been
minimized if there was more transparency. The GC operates in great secrecy.
While we know it meets before the International Convention, we do not know
what are the issues that are on the Agenda and who are behind what and the
reasons behind the Agenda or details of the decisions taken.

We have been discussing the GC, its members and the way issues are handled
because of the great secrecy surrounding the plan to quickly disenfranchise
members in the election of the International President and other radical
changes to ultimately make a small group of GC members to seize the power
and make the President a puppet beholden to the group. The proposed plan was
so secret that none of the workers and members either at Wheaton or Adyar
(except the International Secretary and GC members) knew about it and had to
learn about it from the Internet. What a sad state of affairs?

This brings up several questions. Firstly why such secrecy? When the GC
members take up the office, do they take a serious oath of secrecy that they
will never under any circumstances disclose anything to outside world
relative to the GC? Even if it is so, if driven by intent of the welfare of
members, at least one of them should have had the courage to come out and
discuss them even at the personal risk of being ostracised by all other
members of GC. No body did it. We all knew because of Internet. (Just
imagine what would be the situation today, if we did not have Internet.)

Apart from the lifting of the veil on this one plan, we do not know what
else is being cooked by the GC members behind the secrecy and we all should
be very watchful and vigilant because members have lost the trust in the
leaders and in this atmosphere more transparency is needed to rebuild
members' trust. This is not going to be easy or quick.

Total transparency of the GC is urgently needed now. It will enable general
membership to quickly spot any unwise moves by one or more members to tweak
matters to their own personal advantage or ambition and to the detriment of
the membership. While, the motivation may be good from the individual's
point of view, the actions may be misdirected and may hurt members and
damage the organization.

On the issue of secrecy, I am reminded of the famous story from India. A
monk was taught some important information by his teacher and was told that
if he were to disclose to anyone, he will die immediately. The monk realized
that the information can help a lot of people and hence he was not afraid of
dying. So he announced that on a certain day and time, in the temple square
he will reveal the ultra secret so that everyone can benefit by it and that
immediately thereafter he will die. So on that day and time, entire town
assembled in the temple square and the monk climbed on the minaret of the
temple and spoke to those assembled and disclosed the secret information.
Monk was happy because he though it is going to help a lot of people.
Everyone, including the monk was expecting the monk to die. Lo and behold,
nothing happened and everyone was surprised. The moral of the story is, if
one is convinced of public good, then one should have the courage to break
the rules and be willing to face the consequences, however severe they are.

If anyone comes across any information, that they think is important that
members should know, it can be posted here. If posting may cause problems to
the informant, then the info may be e-mailed to me.



MKR777@GMAIL.COM

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