Theos-Talk Archives (October 2009 Message tt00027)

yeah, we know about those dodgy charity schemes!
Cass


>
>From: charles cosimano <Drpsionic@aol.com>
>To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
>Sent: Friday, 2 October, 2009 2:26:13 PM
>Subject: Re: Theos-World Crisis In the TS -- A New Phenomenon or an Ongoing Process?
>
>Â 
>
>Well, I can get into the fund raising part...
>
>Chuck the Heretic
>
>http://www.charlesc osimano.com
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: MKR <mkr777@gmail. com>
>To: theos-talk@yahoogro ups.com
>Sent: Thu, Oct 1, 2009 7:57 pm
>Subject: Re: Theos-World Crisis In the TS -- A New Phenomenon or an Ongoing Process?
>
>It is the money and property which attracts people.
>
>If one is just interested in theosophy or philosophy, they can go off and
>
>create their own following (???) and raise funds from the followers.
>
>Any scholars, philosophers, elders ready for the challenge???
>
>MKR
>
>On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 6:32 PM, Cass Silva <silva_cass@yahoo. com> wrote:
>
>>
>
>>
>
>> I think History repeats itself because new people get into power and they
>
>> like it! lol
>
>>
>
>> Cass
>
>>
>
>>
>
>>
>
>> >
>
>> >From: seeker_preethi <seeker_preethi@ yahoo.com<seeker_preethi% 40yahoo.com>
>
>> >
>
>>
>
>> >To: theos-talk@yahoogro ups.com <theos-talk% 40yahoogroups. com>
>
>> >Sent: Thursday, 1 October, 2009 6:58:24 PM
>
>> >Subject: Theos-World Crisis In the TS -- A New Phenomenon or an Ongoing
>
>> Process?
>
>> >
>
>> >
>
>> >Dear Brothers,
>
>> >
>
>> >They say that history repeats itself. Perhaps it repeats itself because
>
>> humans tend not to learn from past mistakes. Perhaps it repeats itself
>
>> because humans resist change of any sort, preferring to continue in old
>
>> ways, even when these=2
>0have proved invalid and impracticable. In the TS too,
>
>> history is currently repeating itself. Choosing to ignore the warnings of J.
>
>> Krishnamurti when he dissolved the Order of the Star of the East, we have
>
>> now made out of the TS a cult and out of the President a spiritual
>
>> authority. The Theosophical Society has been going through crisis for over
>
>> 80 years since Krishnamurti dissolved the Order of the Star of the East.
>
>> Looking back over its history, one can see that even back then members of
>
>> the TS had begun moving away from the main aim of the founding of the
>
>> Society. Back then, CWL, CJ and GS Arundale, among others, held on to the
>
>> outer form of the organization of the TS, which in those days spelt the
>
>> founding and
>
>> functioning of the Order of the Star of the East as a means for them to (a)
>
>> provide the world with a new World Teacher, whom they promptly rejected when
>
>> he spoke of truths inconvenient to them, and (b) avail of the influence and
>
>> power of the Masters of the Wisdom. There are many instances mentioned in
>
>> Theosophical literature of how CWL and GS Arundale, in particular, took on
>
>> `students' to give initiation to. On TheosTalk and Theosophical Community
>
>> these days, we have had quotations of Annie Besant stating how she
>
>> considered the ES to be the sole vehicle through which the Masters spread
>
>> Their message, thereby giving the head of the ES more power and authority
>
>> than is vali
>d.
>
>> >
>
>> >Reading the Letters from the Masters to early Theosophists is very
>
>> important at this time. But more important than this exercise is for each
>
>> member to interpret rightly the message given in the Letters and to try to
>
>> practise Their exhortations to the best of one's abilities.
>
>> >
>
>> >Perusing the Letters one will find that the Society has degenerated into
>
>> its current form because Their messages of what the TS was meant to be have
>
>> been violated, twisted and misinterpreted over the decades. Studying the
>
>> message of Krishnaji, not only when he dissolved the Order of the Star of
>
>> the East but also his lifetime's teachings and lectures, one finds striking
>
>> similarities between the messages from the Masters as given out in Their
>
>> letters and the teachings and philosophy of J. Krishnamurti. Thus in Letter
>
>> No. 1, one finds that the Masters mention as one of the principal Objects
>
>> for founding the Society to be the freeing of members and people from the
>
>> bonds of the priestly class. I interpret this to mean that between the Truth
>
>> and oneself nothing and no one can exist, and when one chooses to listen to
>
>> the voice or interpretation of another, one has already thereby started to
>
>> engage in the false, the unreal and the illusory. Krishnaji's message
>
>> to the gathered members of the Order of the Star of the East was similar to
>
>> that of the Masters stating that Truth is a Pathless land and no authority
>
>> can lead one to it; whether that authority is a person or a group or an
>
>> organization.
>
>> >
>
>> >We often quote Krishnaji in our talks and lectures, including this
>
>> message; yet have we paused to find out what it means for ourselves? In
>
>> order for one to realize that exhortation, one would have to try to live it,
>
>> to experience it for oneself. In so doing, one would find that the current
>
>> establishment heading the TS, much like the former ones when Krishnaji was
>
>> exiled from the TS, would exile one from the TS. But are the TS and/or the
>
>> ES only their outer forms, which is merely a congregation of like-minded
>
>> individuals? Or are they something more than and beyond whatever their outer
>
>> form might be? The current establishment would have us believe as members of
>
>> the TS that belongingness to the outer form or the physical TS and/or ES is
>
>> all that matters, because the influence and blessing of the Masters of the
>
>> Wisdom are given solely to the Head of the ES and her followers. But this
>
>> interpretation is totally against everything we have known thus far. This
>
>> narrowed interpretation seems to mean that Truth appears only to the
>
>> members of the TS and, especially the ES, and the rest of the world is
>
>> barred from ever reaching the Truth or Enlightenment. Were this notion true,
>
>> the Masters would never have appeared to HPB, because when They first made
>
>> their appearance, there was no Theosophical Society. Yet20there are members
>
>> of the ES who will look down upon members of the TS, as though the mere
>
>> membership of the ES were a privilege beyond compare. There are members of
>
>> the TS consequently who look down upon the rest of humanity as though
>
>> humanity were an ignorant bunch of people. There are members of the TS who
>
>> have no other crutch to stand upon other than their lineage; thus we have in
>
>> the TS many 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation `Theosophists' who have nothing else
>
>> to claim for their commitment to the Cause other than their lineage, or in
>
>> other words, their being born to parents who have been members of the TS
>
>> since
>
>> birth. Often, these generational Theosophists do much more harm to the
>
>> movement by their total lack of commitment to the Cause and the main or
>
>> fundamental Object behind the founding of the Society. This fundamental
>
>> object is not stated in the Three Objects of the TS as given out in our
>
>> Charter, and yet that Object is at the root or base of each of the Three
>
>> Objects stated in the Charter of the TS. The fundamental Object for the
>
>> founding of the Society is as stated in the first letter sent by the Mahatma
>
>> KH to AP Sinnett, which is to free man from his dependence on the priestly
>
>> class (which does not necessarily only include the Brahmins or pastors or
>
>> the like, but any and every one who claims to possess the Truth and seeks to
>
>> coerce others to follow their inte
>rpretation or version of Truth as being
>
>> the only way to it) as the authority on Truth, Enlightenment and
>
>> Evolutionary Progress, or for that matter, as the only way in which to reach
>
>> God or Divine
>
>> Grace.
>
>> >
>
>> >What I am saying here is nothing new. The Upanishads stated it. Krishna
>
>> stated it in the Bhagavadgita. The Buddha stated it when he said: `Be a lamp
>
>> unto your selves'. All the World Teachers said it. The Masters of the Wisdom
>
>> stated it. HPB said it. And so did Krishnamurti while dissolving the Order
>
>> of the Star of the East. The literature we have been given are merely
>
>> pointers to That Beyond. They ought to serve solely as guiding lights to
>
>> when one can fully merge into the Light and become the Light itself. And it
>
>> would seem from whatever is happening in the TS and the ES to this day that
>
>> those who are given the teachings hold on to the words (outer form) and
>
>> forget the inner essence. We prefer to be told what to do, rather than
>
>> finding out for ourselves what we are here in this world to do. That answer
>
>> would be different for each of us, which is why no one can tell us what to
>
>> do on the spiritual journey, which consists mainly of finding out our true
>
>> nature, often termed self-knowledge.
>
>> >
>
>> >Thus in Letter No. 35 of The Mahatma Letters to AP Sinnett (3rd Adyar
>
>> Edition) we find the words: `Second hand testimony never really satisfied
>
>> any but a credulo
>us (or rather sceptical) mind.' In Letter No. 48 of the
>
>> same edition we find: `As we do not "require a passive mind" but on the
>
>> contrary are seeking for those most active, which can put two and two
>
>> together once that they are on the right scent, . . . Let your mind work out
>
>> the problem for itself.' Yet under the current administration of the TS we
>
>> are forbidden from thinking for ourselves what might be the common good and
>
>> are penalized were we ever to dare to think for ourselves, to defend the
>
>> truth as we see it.
>
>> >
>
>> >Then there is the fallacy of believing that the Masters of the Wisdom will
>
>> somehow save the situation for us. How might they do that when we do not pay
>
>> heed to Their messages?
>
>> >
>
>> >They say God only helps those who want to help themselves. The same can be
>
>> said of the Masters of the Wisdom as well, who are bound by the same laws
>
>> that govern the universe. We have repeatedly proved that we are unwilling to
>
>> listen to them and to pay heed to the warnings given out by Them. We prefer
>
>> rather to twist their words to suit our own conveniences. When faced with
>
>> honesty, we prefer the speaker of these to lie to us, to help us to maintain
>
>> our images of ourselves as the ones doing their best to save the Society. We
>
>> punish the honest, penalize the truthful, excommunicate the ones who dare to
>
>> stand up against our outer authority, tell the warning-alarm- ringer
>to shut
>
>> their mouth and keep quiet. We use our official positions and authority to
>
>> bend others to our will. Can the Masters truly help such a people as members
>
>> of the TS, who prefer grand words to doing something concrete to help the TS
>
>> in crisis? Members of the TS repeatedly prefer to
>
>> pretend that the crisis has nothing to do with them and their actions. In a
>
>> Mahatma Letter the Masters mention that the British TS (of those days) were
>
>> only a bunch of quietists and would suffer the results of their quietism
>
>> which is based on their selfishness. Is the situation any different today?
>
>> Not at all. Eyeing for positions of power and authority within the TS,
>
>> members (whether ordinary ones with no power as yet or General Council ones)
>
>> will do nothing when faced with the honest truth about the corruption
>
>> rampant in Adyar today, solely because the corruption is practised by the
>
>> international President.
>
>> >
>
>> >Today, as for several years now, Adyar is treated by the President as her
>
>> personal property. Thus those who stand up against her are asked to
>
>> immediately vacate the international Headquarters, even though these people
>
>> are working for the TS. If she doesn't like a member when they come and stay
>
>> at Adyar, she won't permit them to visit and stay on campus again. So, the
>
>> TS will eventually die out because there is a lack of openness to allow
>
>> people to explore the teachings. Adyar has as it i
>s become a stranglehold of
>
>> the Nilakanta family, where Nandan Nilakanta will entertain his friends from
>
>> the higher diplomatic circles with drinks, the emptied bottles of which he
>
>> uses to fill and carry his water in and the emptied crates of which are
>
>> found in his backyard garbage bin; where Uma Nilakanta will send bananas,
>
>> bowls of soup and toilet paper to her kith and kin even though these
>
>> articles were bought with TS money for Leadbeater Chambers; where Subha
>
>> Nilakanta
>
>> will work only when she feels like it, but expect on the other hand the
>
>> same treatment that is given to more committed members and workers. But how
>
>> did the President manage to secure all these rights over what happens at the
>
>> international Headquarters of the TS worldwide? We somehow over the decades
>
>> have given her so much power over our lives and livelihood in the TS, that
>
>> as of today she can abuse it all and yet get away with it. There was a time
>
>> when only those who had proved their dedication to the Cause could stay on
>
>> campus. But these days, several other employees stay on campus as well.
>
>> These employees contribute in no way to the growth of the movement. The
>
>> excuse given for them to be allowed to stay on campus is that the physical
>
>> walls of Adyar Estate need to be protected against sandalwood thieves. But
>
>> these employees blare their television sets, radio sets, have countless
>
>> relatives visiting them and staying with=2
>0them on a monthly basis, all of
>
>> these taking away from the ashram-like atmosphere one could see in the TS
>
>> even during the early 1990's. The latest news is that residents on the
>
>> estate will now be allowed to have air-conditioners installed in their
>
>> homes; but what about the cost to the atmosphere and environment, Mrs
>
>> Burnier? As it is, there are more cars and motored vehicles plying on the
>
>> serene byways of Adyar. Add to it the air-conditioning and we have a typical
>
>> city scene within the campus as well. Rather than caring for Nature,
>
>> Theosophists of the future will indulge themselves and participate with the
>
>> consumeristic world by getting in more and more gadgets.
>
>> >
>
>> >So the Adyar of today is threatened not so much by the politicians who
>
>> seek to build a flyover just across the Adyar beach, as it is threatened by
>
>> all the corruption, materialism and consumerism that are being allowed into
>
>> the campus by the President herself. The future of the Theosophical Society
>
>> is threatened by the lack of care members feel towards the world in which we
>
>> live, because `Theosophists' prefer to indulge themselves in luxuries rather
>
>> than face a bit of discomfort by opting for environmentally- friendly and
>
>> viable options that ensure the longevity of the earth and the universe,
>
>> starting locally from what they like to call their home, Adyar. The Masters
>
>> behoved us to be co-workers with Nature, but `Theosophists' have now beco
>me
>
>> Her enemies. Amazing isn't it, that we still expect the Masters to save us
>
>> from this situation. Krishnaji often spoke against the human tendency of
>
>> taking things for granted. Have we as members of the TS and those
>
>> who love calling themselves Theosophists begun to take the TS, Theosophy
>
>> and the Masters of the Wisdom for granted? The current administrative head
>
>> of the TS has set up all those uncommitted employees of Adyar to protect the
>
>> physical walls of the Estate, but has forgotten or omitted to see that the
>
>> inner walls of the TS are filled with cracks and are crumbling today. What
>
>> remains of Adyar today is merely a faÃade, while the inner essence has been
>
>> hollowed out; slowly but steadily it is being sucked out of all its health
>
>> and spirituality.
>
>> >
>
>> >My fight for the future of the Theosophical Society, especially of Adyar
>
>> as its international Headquarters and against the corrupt ways and
>
>> partialities of Mrs Radha Burnier is now 4 months old. Mrs Burnier kept
>
>> silent through the entire fight, choosing not to do anything about the
>
>> nature of the complaints. At the moment, Adyar is run by Mrs Linda and Mr
>
>> Pedro Oliveira, who seek to maintain the older order, whether or not it has
>
>> proved to be viable. Since 24 May 2009 I have not met the President, Mrs
>
>> Radha Burnier, even once.
>
>> >
>
>> >She chose to ignore the initial letter to the General Manager of the
>
>> Estate stating the20instances of corruption followed by her relative and
>
>> Superintendent of Leadbeater Chambers, Mrs Uma Nilakanta. She chose to
>
>> contest for the post of the international President, even though she is
>
>> frail and of that age when she ought to retire and take life easy, and allow
>
>> those younger than her to find their footing before she has passed on to
>
>> other planes of existence. Perhaps like many other people the world over,
>
>> she believes that if she ignored a problem, the problem will solve itself
>
>> out. But those with more wisdom would know that ignoring a problem does not
>
>> solve the problem. It is dealing with a problem that solves it. Accepting
>
>> that a problem exists within the TS even today is ensuring that the problem
>
>> will not continue in the future. That is what it means to become responsible
>
>> â to accept one's part in this whole mess we call the Theosophical Society.
>
>> >
>
>> >But Mrs Burnier continues to twist the truth, the facts to suit her own
>
>> images. That is what her followers also do. Take, for instance, the letter
>
>> Prof. RC Tampi sent me when I resigned from the ES in May 2009, stating as
>
>> my main reason Mrs Burnier's moral ineptitude and consequently her inability
>
>> to lead me or the movement to a Higher state. In his email to me he stated
>
>> that he expels me from the ES totally ignoring the fact that I resigned from
>
>> it much before he sent me an expulsion email. Who do Mrs Burnier and20Prof.
>
>> Tampi think they are cheating by such twisting of facts and events that
>
>> happen everyday in the TS? Yet this cheating goes on; facts and events are
>
>> twisted to suit the conveniences of the international President. During the
>
>> international Convention, visiting delegates and members were told that
>
>> Sushama Sreenath (who is now Sushama Webber) was responsible for the
>
>> quitting of Mr G. Naganathan from the Editorial Office. Subha Nilakanta's
>
>> name was totally omitted from the incident; yet Subha played a key role in
>
>> agreeing with Sushama's version and blamed Mr Naganathan for doing something
>
>> he had not done. Subha Nilakanta has been responsible for the mess the
>
>> Editorial Office was in when Pedro Oliveira took charge of the Department in
>
>> March 2009, but no one in the Radha Burnier administration will address this
>
>> issue and look at it to sort it out. One would assume that the Theosophical
>
>> Society was founded with the purpose of giving honest, caring, sensitive,
>
>> and evolving people a forum where they could express their evolving
>
>> intuitions and states of being. One would assume that the TS, which was
>
>> founded towards the close of the nineteenth century, would serve as a
>
>> vehicle for those who would lead humanity forward during the Kali Yuga. But
>
>> the Burnier administration disproves both these assumptions and everything
>
>> that is part of the degenerating Kali Yuga is encouraged by Mrs Burnier,
>
>> whether that degeneration be l
>oss of value systems, lack of morality, greed
>
>> for more and more material wealth and status, greed for power, or lack of
>
>> care for the future of humanity and the universe.
>
>> >
>
>> >So what might be the purpose of the `continuation' of the Theosophical
>
>> Society? Are we capable of learning from the mistakes that have led to the
>
>> present situation and the degeneration of the very vehicle that was meant to
>
>> serve as a driving moral and spiritual force for the future humanity? The
>
>> rest of this article will concentrate on providing some suggestions which
>
>> are based on an analysis of the crisis recurrent in the TS today.
>
>> >
>
>> >There was a time when the President of the TS was a person who knew and
>
>> understood the Laws governing the universe, a person who placed his/her
>
>> priorities in the good of the TS and of humankind and in the common good.
>
>> But our current international President is not of that ilk. She has
>
>> repeatedly over the years shown her inability to be fair, to judge with
>
>> wisdom, to lead us forward into the next century. By her (mis)conduct, she
>
>> has proved that she prefers gossip to directness, lies to honesty,
>
>> partiality to fairness and justice. It was alright back then to have a
>
>> President for life, but now the times are changing and we must, as
>
>> Theosophists, learn to change with the changing times. The practice of
>
>> continuing to have a President for life has proved to be a big mistake with0A
>> the example of Mrs Radha Burnier. In our Kali Yuga, would it be possible for
>
>> us to change the Rules of the Constitution of the TS and elect a President
>
>> for one term of seven years?
>
>> Additionally, for the next election neither the President nor any of
>
>> his/her nominees can stand for the post. Doing this will ensure that there
>
>> will be fairness in the election of a President of the TS. Additionally, it
>
>> will provide the opportunity for more members to participate in building a
>
>> future for the TS.
>
>> >
>
>> >While a member is President of the TS, his/her relatives shall hold no
>
>> posts of importance in the TS, especially at Adyar. We have seen from the
>
>> example of both Subha and Uma Nilakanta that their kinship with the
>
>> President allows them both to misbehave with members and visitors, and, on
>
>> the other hand, to practise corruption in various forms. Relatives of the
>
>> President might help out with the work of the TS but hold no posts of
>
>> authority, power and recognition. This will prohibit the misuse of power and
>
>> authority by relatives of the President and additionally ensure that there
>
>> can be no scope for any partiality to be practised.
>
>> >
>
>> >As Adyar is the international Headquarters, the say of all the members of
>
>> the General Council ought to be valid and made necessary in its
>
>> administration. This will ensure that what happened to countless
>
>> worker-residents at Adyar at the mouth of Ms Subha N
>ilakanta does not recur.
>
>> Also, what happened to Elvira and Preethi does not happen either. In other
>
>> words, the power and authority which lie solely in the hands of the
>
>> international President ought to be shared and distributed among all the
>
>> members of the Council. A member-worker- resident at Adyar ought to be able
>
>> to approach any member of the General Council, Executive Committee of the
>
>> Estate and/or the international President with problems and issues regarding
>
>> the benefit and future of the TS. The international Headquarters of the TS
>
>> was never meant to be the sole property of the international President, but
>
>> that is how it has become over the years, and especially under the
>
>> dictatorship of Mrs Radha
>
>> Burnier.
>
>> >
>
>> >It is time for us to learn from our mistakes. It is time for us to make a
>
>> change for the better. It is time for us to ensure that the work of our
>
>> Founders (both physical and superphysical) is not wasted because of our own
>
>> inner inertia and resistance to what Krishnaji would have called the
>
>> `urgency of change'. We have dallied for over 80 years, postponing the
>
>> moment for change to happen; but change can happen only in the present, in
>
>> the now. Were we to tarry longer, Life will give us no choice but to perish
>
>> as Theosophists, as a Society. The crisis of over 80 years is now at its
>
>> head and it is up to each of us, as members of the TS, to head it off and
>
>> a
>way from irreparable and irrevocable doom.
>
>> >
>
>> >Fraternally
>
>> >
>
>> >Preethi
>
>> >
>
>> >
>
>> >
>
>>
>
>> ____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _
>
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>
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>>
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>> 
>
>>
>
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>
>
>


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