Theos-Talk Archives (March 2011 Message tt00038)

Dear Friends,
Today we celebrate the life of the great theosophist Boris de Zirkoff
Boris was born March 7, 1902. See below a note we published at our
website www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com <http://www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com>
.
Regards, Joaquim

The Life of Boris de Zirkoff

The Editor Who Compiled the Writings of Helena
Blavatsky Never Went to School and Never Had a Job  Carlos Cardoso
Aveline

"Let us try our best to get alongwith others. It can be done in an
easierand more dignified way if we look uponothers as fragments of the
One Universal Life."  (Boris de Zirkoff)   One of the leading
theosophists in the 20th century, Boris de Zirkoff was the
great-grandnephew of Helena P. Blavatsky and edited her "Collected
Writings".    Born in Russia on March 7, 1902, Boris felt an early
inclination towards theosophy. He wrote about it in his Autobiographical
notes: "About nine years of age I distinctly saw my mother's worried
look when I told her that a little man about one foot tall in a
multi-colored dress and night-cap was coming out of the fireplace and
played with me. We talked about the fire and the twigs in the fireplace.
I was interested in whether I could meet some other gnomes or
salamanders, but he never brought any." [1] During the first World War,
Boris was 14 years old when the Karma of Russia accelerated in an
unusual way. He writes: "On the 16th of December, 1916, Rasputin was
murdered, and this event seemed to precipitate all sorts of changes.
Very soon afterwards the Revolutionary engaged in various violent
actions (?).  Eventually, the Czar had to abdicate to meet the
demands for a constitutional change, and the power passed into the hands
of a Provisional Government." [2] In 1917, Boris and his family left
Russia. In 1923 he lived in Stockholm when he first came in contact with
Theosophy. After a meeting with Katherine Tingley, he transferred his
residence to Point Loma, California. He joined the Point Loma
Theosophical Society in January 1924 and in the same year, at 22, he saw
what his lifetime task would be and began working on it.  He wrote:
"? I took a resolution to compile H.P.B.'s works into one uniform
edition of many volumes as source material for future work. Knowing well
what H.P.B.'s published volumes were at the time, I realized very soon
that there was a great deal more material available, and that it would
take much time and effort to put it together in chronological order.
Only then could it be said what was the scope of her writings, and what
they contained. I believe it was sometime in December 1924 that I
started compiling her writings." [3] In Point Loma, he accomplished
various tasks: "Sometimes I ushered visitors into the Temple, or
attended to their seating; taking my shift in serving at the cafeteria
counter and also at washing the dishes; trimming with a curved saw dead
leaves off the palm trees on a high ladder, gathering everything that
was cut and burning it up at a special location. (?.) The most
pleasant period was when I was helping in the forestry with most of my
day occupied trimming, cutting, burning, and irrigating." [4] Boris went
to Los Angeles during the 1940s.   On December 12, 2005, an experienced
theosophist from California wrote a few lines on Boris' life: "?
Boris lived with Sven Eek's family in Los Angeles for at least ten
years. Boris's life was unusual, in that he never attended a school,
never had a job, driver's license, insurance, house, credit card, social
security number, never paid taxes. A sort of non-entity, officially. His
whole life was theosophy, and he lived at various apartments starting
1958, existing entirely on donations, and living extremely frugally."[5]
Besides editing HPB's Collected Writings, Boris de Zirkoff edited
"Theosophia" magazine, which he started in 1943. He produced many
important texts of his own about theosophy and the esoteric movement. 
In one of them, published in 1962, he examines the duty of practicing 
universal brotherhood, always a challenge for theosophists everywhere:  
"Let us try our best to get along with others. It can be done in an
easier and more dignified way if we look upon others as fragments of the
One Universal Life." And he goes on: "We should also remember that what
we see in others is quite often what others see in us. We are mirrors to
each other. Though differing outwardly, we all partake of the same
fundamental consciousness - the consciousness of the One Universal Self.
Viewed in this light, men are but life-atoms of a vast evolutionary
current that flows from age to age." Boris closes the article saying:
"Above all else, let us stand for Principles and not for personalities!
The latter are but the shimmering waves on the ocean of life, while the
former are the deep currents of life itself, bearing toward distant
goals. If we wish to grow inwardly and to become nobler and stronger, we
will of necessity be tested. There is no other way. Life is a series of
awakenings, and each awakening is a birth into a larger sphere of life.
Each birth has its pangs; therefore growth is often painful. The
chrysalis of the lower, personal self must be broken through before the
butterfly - the Soul reborn - can emerge into the boundless freedom of
the sky."  [6] Having made an enormous contribution to the theosophical
literature, Boris de Zirkoff died in the United States in 1981, at 79.
His work helps students in many countries around the world, who talk in
different languages and belong to every sector of the esoteric movement.
NOTES: [1] "The Dream That Never Dies", Boris de Zirkoff, Compiled and
Edited by W. Emmet Small, Point Loma Publications, Inc., San Diego,
California, USA, copyright 1983, 232 pp., see p. 209. Boris was born on
March 7 according to the present calendar; in the old Russian calendar
of the Orthodox Church, it was February 22. ("The Dream That Never
Dies", p. 205.) [2] "The Dream That Never Dies", pp. 213-214. [3] "The
Dream That Never Dies", p. 221. [4] "The Dream That Never Dies", p. 222.
[5] The theosophist said that while most of the short testimony could be
used in an article, its author should not be identified. The message is
in a postcard covered by words typewritten in small letters. The present
article is written five years after the testimony was included in our
archives. [6] "The Dream That Never Dies", p. 11.  000000000 Always
visit the websites www.TheosophyOnline.com
<http://www.theosophyonline.com/> , www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com
<http://www.esoteric-philosophy.com/>  and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com
<http://www.filosofiaesoterica.com/>  . 00000000000000000


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