Theos-Talk Archives (November 2009 Message tt00080)

Current Situation in TS


WHAT A POTENTIAL MEMBER AND NEW MEMBER LOOKS FOR?

When considering joining and becoming active in any organization, a
potential and an existing new member researches at the objects,
philosophy, leaders - present and past, and more importantly, its recent
history. With modern tools, it is very easy to research such
information. And this would lead to a decision by the potential
candidate and new member. Let us look at some facts.

OBJECTS AND MOTTO OF TS

The key note of TS is Universal Brotherhood and the motto is There is No
Religion Higher than Truth. Brotherhood and Truth are the two pillars on
which the TS stands. This is backdrop from which everything relating to
TS and its leaders have to be viewed.

RECENT EVENTS

The chronology and details of the events starting with nomination for
the International President, election, the aftermath earth-shaking ultra
secret attempt by a handful of leaders to seize control of the President
and in turn control of the organization through backdoor
disenfranchisement of members world-wide can be found on Internet by
Binging or Googling. Let us look at some key elements in them.

PLAYERS INVOLVED

The nomination for the office of President is indirect by the General
Council Members. While they are supposed to consult with their Section
Boards, due to the secrecy surrounding the process no one knows how much
consultation goes on the process. It is more reasonable to assume it is
done according to the whims of the Section leaders.

LONG TIME MEMBERS

Historical facts demonstrate that no one can reach the position of head
of a Section or nominated members of the General Council without being a
long-time dedicated member including active participation in the
unrelated organizations such as Co-Masonry, LCC and ES.

99% SURE THEY OCCUPY HIGH OFFICES IN THE OTHER THREE LEGS OF THE STOOL

Most leaders also occupy high positions/offices in the three officially
unconnected but interlinked organizations, Co-Masonry, LCC and ES. From
a practical standpoint, we can even say that without achieving a high
position in them, it is impossible to get elected to the top positions
in the organization.

ES

ES has been called the heart of the TS. I have personally known some
outstanding dedicated members whose devotion to the TS and practical
application of Brotherhood that I admire.

New members in due course find out about the existence of ES and its
mission, even though scant details are available due it being a secret
organization.

KROTONA

While talking about ES I think I need to mention about Krotona and its
residents because most members do not know much about it and its
residents because it is independent of TS.

When Krotona was established by Besant, she stated that:

+++

The ownership is vested in the OH of ES through a Board of which OH is
the President and the members belong to the Third Degree... There will
be rooms and cottages, which can be rented to students and workers. They
must be members of TS and ES.

It is hoped that the work carried on at Krotona will create there a
center of Peace and Strength, not only for the ES itself, but also for
the whole TS in the USA and those who live there will remember that
their lives are dedicated to the Service of the Hierarchy and through
Its help to the Service of the Humanity. Hence they must be worthy of
their high calling.

+++

Several well-known long time scholars, leaders and members reside there.
When the nomination process started for the election and an attempt was
made to defeat sitting president by distributing information which was
untrue, and subsequently unsustained allegations were made against the
Indian Section, and finally a clever backdoor ultra secret attempt was
made to seize control of the President and thus the TS by
disenfranchisement of members world-wide, there was a deafening silence
from the scholars, leaders and members resident there. Even as simple
ordinary members, when one sees actions going on hurting TS, one expects
dedicated members to speak up without fear or favor. Members looking
from outside at these scholars and leaders, are at a loss to understand
what is going on and does not speak well at all either for the TS or
these individuals.

DUGPAS AND THEIR TECHNIQUE

Those of us who are interested in the well-being of TS and its future
need to understand the issue of Dugpas. It is well known that Dugpas
have been behind all the troubles that TS ran into since its founding.
Dugpas are very cunning and clever and hence do not resort to frontal
attack. They find active members of TS and use glamour to reach their
destructive objectives. Besant mentioned about this Glamour issue.
Use of deluded surrogates is well known. In this age of Internet, it
very likely that use of pseudonyms and disguises help pulling strings
from the back. It is really pitiful that the deluded victims whose feel
good about their apparent self-importance willingly oblige the Dugpas.

DARING ATTEMPT TO SEIZE CONTROL THROUGH BACK DOOR

Since the founding of the TS, the most daring ultra secret attempt to
seize control of TS by a handful of General Council members by
disenfranchising members world-wide, even a rookie member would not even
dream of. I leave it to the reader to come to their own conclusion about
the motivation of the players involved and the timing of the attempt and
ultra secrecy surrounding it.

WHOM WE CAN TRUST?

All of the above leads us to the question whom we can trust? Those who
want to disenfranchise us and seize the power, those who profess to work
for brotherhood and the humanity but keep stony silence when the above
activities were being perpetrated by long time leaders?

CURRENT DISPUTES AND NON-UNITY

The membership situation in countries outside India is in a sorry state
of affairs. The leaders in these countries never talk about the this hot
potato. Having thus failed at home, attempts are made to change the
rules at Adyar arbitrarily in secrecy. None of the changes in Adyar
after their candidate failing to get elected is going change anything at
home as far as the growth of theosophy.

The last meeting of the General Council clearly demonstrated the
disunity and cleavage that exists as shown by voting pattern when we
have never seen since the founding of TS. No one is willing to tell the
world how they voted in a particular issue. Why? Because it is bound to
hurt them personally and their credibility among members in their
countries and world-wide.

SECRECY AND EXPLOITATION OF SECRECY

Too long, everything relating to the General Council deliberations and
decisions is shrouded in greatest secrecy. TS is not a secret
organization. But such secrecy allowed them to keep their national
members in the dark. The events since last year has shown that lack of
transparency is at the root cause of all the troubles of TS. Master KH
warned Annie Besant how unnecessary secrecy has dealt a death blow to
many organizations and I hope some one is paying some attention to his
warning.

In democratic institutions, the pitfalls of secrecy is well recognized
and that is why these institutions demand activities to take place in
the open and not behind closed doors. It is high time that we all wake
up and open up at all levels of the TS. Failing which, we are in for
more serious trouble in the days to come.

NON-RECOGNITION AND INACTION TO QUICKLY BRING ABOUT UNITY

Unity is essential for any constructive progress and well being of the
society. One has first recognize the lack of unity to start working to
bring about unity. I do not see any leader coming out with plans for
quick action to bring about unity and thus help TS progress in the
coming decades.

DAMAGE - HOW FATAL AND HOW LONG IT IS GOING TO TAKE TO REBUILD TRUST

A lot of long term damage has been done to TS by the events since the
start of last year election. It continues because of the disunity that
is obvious and the cleavage that exists in the General Council as shows
by the divided voting tally in the approval of the GC members nominated
by the president.

INTERNET

Partly due to much of leadership belonging to the octo and
septuagenarian age group, there is no appreciation and understanding of
the newest communication tool that the world has at its disposal. It is
being avoided by the leadership and the sheepish and scared followers
follow them. Instead of tapping into the power of Internet for multi-way
interactive communication that Internet makes it feasible, and possible
use of this tool to bring about unity world-wide, a great opportunity is
missed. No wonder that even in developed countries outside India, this
tool is not being used by the leadership and it is hurting the growth of
TS.

On the other hand, it has to be recognized that Internet played a very
key role in preventing catastrophic developments in the TS due to the
self serving moves by some members of the General Council. The
irreversible disenfranchisement of members would have been a fait
accompli but for the help of Internet maillists such as theos-talk,
which are out side the control of the organization and its leaders. In
addition, the permanent archiving of the messages and discussions on
Internet provide very useful information for any newbee or a prospective
candidate for membership. All one needs to do is either Google or Bing
the topic.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Symbolically, we can consider as if the house is on fire. We can just
keep idle and let the house burn down and try to explore the Karmic
causes which started the fire. That is not a very intelligent thing to
do. Our normal reaction should be that we should do something about it,
however little our efforts may be. All I can say is that members should
spring into immediate action.

WHAT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MEMBER - NEW AND LONG TIME?

What are the responsibilites of members, young and old, new and
long-time, smart and dumb? Due to the democratic setup of the Sections,
we all can call and write to our leaders that we are all upset about the
current situation which was the result of actions and non-actions of the
leaders and they need to wake up and start doing something radical and
dramatic to draw the attention world-wide and attempt to bring about
more unity world-wide. This can be done only if we cast aside our
personal agenda and ambitions and self-interest and think of the welfare
and future growth of TS. If enough of us wake up and do it, I am sure we
will see results which would shock even the most pessimistic members.

SILENCE AND COMING STORM.

After the last GC meeting, apart from a few unsustained complaints and
allegations from a few members, what we have seen is silence. We have no
way of knowing what machinations are in the works behind the scenes and
considering the past events and the key players involved and intents
demonstrated by the past events, one has to be very vigilant because,
any trust that members had in their leaders have been shattered after
seeing how they secrectly tried to disenfranchise members and seize
control through backdoor without telling any members.

It is time for all of us put our heads together and do something about
the dire situation TS is facing today. Being silent witnesses is not
acceptable.


MKR