Theos-Talk Archives (September 2010 Message tt00004)

Preface

It is well and good that finally HPBâs commentaries have been published and
anyone interested can purchase a copy and read it for themselves. While it
took such a long time for it to become available to the theosophists, there
are several aspects that need to be commented on.

Manuscripts

When the transcripts were discovered at the home of Wadia, one wonders why
no one took interest in showing it to other knowledgeable theosophists who
may have instantly recognized the priceless nature of the transcripts. Also
it is quite likely that Wadia himself may have mentioned about the
transcripts to some of his close co-workers and we also do not know if the
information was circulated in his close inner circle.

Discovery of the unpublished nature

When the fact that the transcripts contained never published material, and
when the custodian did not either fully appreciate their priceless nature,
and when the custodian seemed to be dragging his/her feet in taking action
to publish them, I wish more pressure from his co-workers was put on him/her
to move fast. No one could justify any advantage to delaying the release of
the material to theosophists. Nor anyone can argue that the material should
be kept secret for the use of a few theosophists in the close circle of the
custodian. It may be recalled that in one of the Mahatma Letters, there is a
clear statement that occult secrets can never be put in writing and if it
were so, it could be written like a book on Grammar.

Role Internet Could have played

Since the discovery of the material seemed to have taken place in the recent
years, Internet could have helped speed up dissemination of the transcripts.
The custodian could have been impressed that the transcripts could be
scanned and/or converted to electronic files so that every theosophist has
access to them. Each one of us can read them and come up with our own
understanding and even our own personal comments. And then wait for
âscholarsâ come up with their own scholarly discussion of the transcripts.

No one can deny the power of Internet in todayâs world in disseminating
information world-wide. We all have seen that one can find info on
cyberspace which cannot be found anywhere else. Frequently one sees much
discussion on every imaginable topic and the momentum, in due course, yields
results.

When the discovery of the transcripts was made and its uniqueness and
importance to the theosophical literature became clear and when the
custodian was seen dragging his/her feet, all that was needed was a message
on theos-talk revealing the discovery and the need for quick distribution of
the information. Can anyone imagine the furor that would have created the
cyberspace and its spread to theosophists who are not in cyberspace and the
intense and constant pressure that would have been put on the custodian,
would have yielded immediate results.

If I had known about the details of the discovery, you would have seen an
immediate  message on theos-talk and every vocal poster here would have
jumped at it and I can imagine the furor it would have created. I am sorry
we all missed a great opportunity in not using Internet to get the ball
rolling.

Why Internet was not used for disseminating the transcript

Once the custodian(s) of the manuscript made a decision to publish the
material, they could have been made immediately available to theosophists
around the world by scanning them and posting them on the Internet. In
addition, the transcripts could have been converted to electronic files and
made available on the Internet. Both these could have been accomplished in a
very short time and a very low cost. One wonders why this was not done. This
is a valid question because the material is for every one and not reserved
for a few scholars. I hope some light will be thrown on this in the days to
come.

Publishing of the Book

While, after all the delay, a nicely printed book has been published and we
should be thankful to everyone behind this effort. However, the book is
quite expensive for many theosophists, especially in third world countries.
One also wonders what is the segment of theosophists this book tries to
reach. Did anyone think about what should be done to get widest circulation
for the book. Today, theosophists are a very minuscule in numbers relative
to the world population. By keeping the price so high, it comes as a major
stumbling block to reach majority of theosophists.

How the book can reach most theosophists

The only way to reach efficiently and quickly most theosophists is to make
the book available as a PDF file for download. It is a piece of cake. The
book surely is in a word processing file and this is how todayâs books get
printed. In a matter of minutes, this file can be converted to a PDF file
and does not cost anything. Upload it to a site and it is instantly
available to anyone from anywhere in the world and all one needs is an
Internet connection. I hope the owners of the copyright on the book consider
this option if they are keen in getting the material distributed to anyone
interested in it. While this may not appeal to business minded theosophists,
I hope theosophy comes first and business next.

Let us all look forward to next step.

MKR

There is no religion higher than Truth


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