Theos-Talk Archives (June 2009 Message tt00376)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Anand" <AnandGholap@...> wrote:
>
> Mrs. Annie Besant wrote in  The Theosophist of October 1907:
> "In the T.S. we have a curious mixture. The Exoteric Society is purely democratic - it is only fair to admit this fully. On the other side we have an Esoteric body which is practically autocratic in its constitution ... The existence of a secret body to rule the outer Society made the constitution of the T.S. a mere farce, for it was at the mercy of the inner ? All the differences that arose between the Colonel and myself were on this point; he could not believe that I was serious in saying that I would not use the E.S. against him, but slowly he came to understand it ... The greatest power will always be in the hands of the E.S., and not in the head of the Society ... I know that I exercise a quite unwarrantable power. This is what makes some people say there should not be an E.S.T. ? We must recognize the danger and try to neutralize it. At any time during the last fifteen years I could have checkmated the Colonel on any point if I had chosen ..."
>

Both Annie Besant and Leadbeater were geniuses. I wonder why they kept such contradictory organizational structure. Is it that there was no solution, even when they realized that policies of these two organizations work against each other?
There is also another big problem. If you study pledge drafted by Blavatsky for ES members, you will find that she is exacting obedience from ES members, which undermines free thinking and freedom to act according to person's judgment. That means it acts against the another principle of TS, the freedom of thought and freedom to act according to that thought. 
After observing ES members for long time, I did find that something is holding them back from performing freely, lack of initiative (as if they can not do anything without somebody's permission)  etc.