Theos-Talk Archives (November 2009 Message tt00088)

I loved reading this! And am happy to see there are people who care about the true principles of which the TS was founded and are looking for ways to bring the needed reform about.

I am a new member to this yahoo group, I have had a life long interest in Theosophy since a young teenager and its principles are dear to my heart. I am not a member of the Theosophical Society or any of its branches that have split off. I have often thought about joining one of them but have wanted to wait and gather more information about the situation going on with them.

ÂI have researched the original society's history and from reading Olcott's Diary leaves and the Mahatma letters to AP Sinnett and some of HPB's letters, I have gathered a sense of the urgent purpose for which it was founded and a sense of how great and useful its potential had hoped to be. I feel the Society has had far reaching effects and has done enormous good but is currently not living up to its full potential at this time, and has not for perhaps  some time. 

Perhaps a cycle of renewal is approaching and if so members must take advantage of the opportunity to rally for the reforms they see as necessary for the Society to be a greater center of light to humanity, its members and the world. And with increased light will attract also once again the increased blessing of the Masters.

-Rose

--- On Sun, 11/8/09, ramadoss226 <mkr777@gmail.com> wrote:

From: ramadoss226 <mkr777@gmail.com>
Subject: Theos-World Current Situation in TS
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, November 8, 2009, 7:08 AM







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      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





    
     

    
    


 



  






      

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