Theos-Talk Archives (December 2009 Message tt00094)

yes, the Theosophical Society was seriously entangled in politics during  
the Besant/Leadbeater madness and that is why it is avoided like the plague  
now.
 
Chuck the Heretic
 
www.charlescosimano.com  

 
In a message dated 12/21/2009 1:40:44 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
global-theosophy@stofanet.dk writes:

 
 
 
Dear friends

My views are:

I have learned that is one does  not ask any questions...I have learned 
that is one does  not

So  now I will ask this our forum with all its members, among which at 
least some  can be called Seekers After Truth and Wisdom, aiming for an 
Universal  Brotherhood and Sisterhood.

1.
I will ask about where is the stance  on politics today in the Theosophical 
Society, and to what extend are members  and the President of the 
Theosophical Society allowed to involve himself or  herself with political activities 
and political  dispuites?

2.
Second.

...Was The Theosophical Society  entangled with politics when Annie Besant 
was leader of the Theosophical  Society, leader of The Esoteric Section, and 
President of The Indian National  Congress in 1917?

I will say, that the following speech perhaos would  be a good idea to keep 
in mind, before answering this question. I give a minor  excerpt of it in 
the below.

The Preidential Address Delivered  By
ANNIE BESANT 
At The Thirty Second Indian
National  Congress
Held At Calcutta
26th December 1917
"The Great War, into the  whirlpool of which Nation after Nation has been 
drawn, has entered on its  fourth year. The rigid censorship which has been 
established makes it  impossible for any outside the circle of Governments to 
forecast its duration,  but to me, speaking for a moment not as a 
politician but as a student of  spiritual laws, to me its end is sure. For the true 
object of this War is to  prove the evil of, and to destroy, autocracy and 
the enslavement of one Nation  by another, and to place on sure foundations 
the God-given Right to Self-Rule  and Self-Development of every Nation, and 
the similar right of the Individual,  of the smaller Self, so far as is 
consistent with the welfare of the larger  Self of the Nation. The forces which 
make for the prolongation of  autocracy-the rule of one-and the even deadlier 
bureaucracy-"The Great War, into the  whirlpool of which Nation after Nation 
has been drawn, has entered on its  fourth year. The rigid censorship which 
has been established makes it  impossible for any outside the circle of 
Governments to forecast its duration,  but to me, speaking for a moment not as 
a politician but as a student of  spiritual laws, to me its end is sure. For 
the true object of this War is to  prove the evil of, and to destroy, 
autocracy and the enslavement of one Nation  by another, and to place on sure 
foundations the God-given Right to Self-Rule  and Self-Development of every 
Nation, and the similar right of the I
Autocracy and bureaucracy must perish utterly, in East and West, and, in  
order that their germs may not re-sprout in the future, they must be  
discredited in the minds of men. They must be proved to be less efficient than  the 
Governments of Free Peoples, even in their favourite work of War, and  
their iron machinery-which at first brings outer prosperity and success-must  be 
shown to be less lasting and effective than the living and flexible  
organisations of democratic Peoples. They must be proved failures before the  
world, so that the glamour of superficial successes may be destroyed for ever.  
They have had their day and their place in evolution, and have done their  
educative work. Now they are out-of-date, unfit for survival, and must vanish 
 away."
.......
"Since 1885, the Congress has constantly protested  against the 
ever-increasing military expenditure, but the voice of the  Congress was supposed to be 
the voice of sedition and of class ambition,  instead of being, as it was 
the voice of educated Indians, the most truly  patriotic and loyal class of 
the population."
.......
"LOSS OF BELIEF IN  THE SUPERIORITY OF WHITE RACES

The undermining of this belief dates  from the spreading of the Arya Samaj 
and the Theosophical Society. Both bodies  sought to lead the Indian people 
to a sense of the value of their own  civilisation, to pride in their past, 
creating self-respect in the present,  and self-confidence in the future. 
They destroyed the unhealthy inclination to  imitate the West in all things, 
and taught discrimination, the using only of  what was valuable in western 
thought and culture, instead of a mere slavish  copying of everything. Another 
great force was that of Swami Vivekananda,  alike in his passionate love 
and admiration for India, and his exposure of the  evils resulting from 
Materialism in the West. "
.......
"In the adapted  words of a Christian Scripture, it passionately cries: 
"What shall it profit a  Nation if it gain the whole world and lose its own 
Soul? What shall a Nation  give in exchange for its Soul?" "
.......
"This may seem strong  language, because the plain truth is not usually put 
in India. But this is  what every Briton feels in Britain for his own 
country, and what every Indian  should feel in India for his. This is the Freedom 
for which the Allies are  fighting; this is Democracy, the Spirit of the 
Age. "
.......
"And from_  that union shall arise the mightiest Empire, or rather 
Commonwealth, that the  world has ever known, a Commonwealth that, in God's good 
time, shall put an  end to War."





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3.
Third.
Is it fair to  say that The Theosophical Society today year 2009 still is 
entangled with  politics because it still highlights Annie Besant as a great 
spiritual  leader?

Seeking the Truth

M. Sufilight

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_ (http://www.charlescosimano.com/) 



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