Theos-Talk Archives (November 2009 Message tt00030)

Miss Poutz, a well-known theosophical worker in the USA made a remarkable
statement to some members of TS in 1921.

I think, looking back at how the nomination in the President election was
done by many members of the General Council and the untrue reasons presented
to the membership to defeat the sitting President, and the subsequent
unsubstantiated allegations against the Indian Section, the ultra secret
attempt by a quartet of General Council members to seize control of the
President by disenfranchising members world-wide and the cleavage displayed
by the General Council members in the December 2008 meeting, Poutzâ comments
are worth thinking about and meditating about even after 88 years.

I leave it to the readers to come to his/her own conclusion in the matters
mentioned above which I think has shaken the society to its roots and
perhaps done more harm in the last 100 years than any other development in
TS. The danger to the survival of TS as we know it, is still present.  Those
who subscribe to the principle of Brotherhood and right methods need to be
vigilant to prevent further damage to the cause of theosophy and TS.

Here is an extract from Miss. Poutsâ statement:

+++

Now you see how all along we have had the struggle of two ideals, both
equally splendid. It is no longer the struggle between right and wrong, it
is the struggle between the fundamental keynote, BROTHERHOOD, and some other
ideal which is also very good, but not brotherhood. Now,  if you apply that
key to all the other troubles, the minor troubles in the Society, you will
see that it works; in Groups, in Lodges, in Sections; everywhere you can see
the struggle between two good keynotes â ours, and another one which is
fundamentally not ours.
.
In speaking of BROTHERHOOD I wish to make it clear that I do not mean by
that word a sort of gushy sentimentality. I do not either mean we should
simply sit still and do nothing, allowing everything to go its own way. That
is not at all what BROTHERHOOD means. When we see that things ought to be
changed, and changes have to take place from time to time, then naturally
those who see the new light, the next step ahead, have the duty to work for
that ideal. So you see, I do not mean by brotherhood that nothing should be
done, and to use a quaint phrase, which is very true, that we should become
merely a Society for mutual admiration. But WATCH FOR THE METHODS USED.
Methods will show you whether the work is really done along the lines of
brotherhood or not. When you see that the new ideal is worked for in
kindness and consideration, with an earnest effort to convince, not to
coerce, those who cannot yet see in the same way, when you see friendship
and good fellowship accompany every attempt to remedy conditions and make
swifter growth possible, well and good. But when the methods used are
different, when you see condemnation employed, tearing down, and seeking to
ruin the reputation of brothers, and destroy their work, so as to build on
ruins â when you see such method, you may be sure that brotherhood is not
the motive of those who thus seek to change the order of things. That motive
may be very good â love of our Society, love of some high ideal, but it is
not BROTHERHOOD when such methods as I have described seem necessary to
those who try to bring about changes which they think will be good. Watch
for the methods.
.
That seems a rather topsy-turvy way of putting things. We have been told so
often that motives are really the things that count, that we can disregard
words and actions down here if the motive is good. But, my brothers, in this
work in which we are engaged, this segregation of the new sub-race, we truly
have to LIVE the key-note of that new race. In this work we cannot afford to
disregard methods, for methods are only manifestations of the real motive. I
have not yet found a single theosophist whose motive was not good, but I
have found many whose primary motive was not BROTHERHOOD. So I say WATCH.
.
+++

[Thanks to Joseph E Ross for providing the above in his book Krotona II]

MKR


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