Theos-Talk Archives (May 2011 Message tt00092)

If you scan theosophical discussions world-wide, whether on Internet or in
print, more often you find they all deal with issues of the unseen world.

The priority of the average man or woman who has to work a full day to make
a living and take care of his family and dependents, is not these unseen
matters. They are day to day problems that impinge on him/her and those
around him/her. It is time that theosophists start paying some attention to
some of the problems facing human beings everyday. Unless theosophy connects
with the welfare of the world, rather than nit picking on the details of the
unseen world, future impact of theosophy on Humanity is not going to be what
the Founders hoped for.

In the West, one of the sensitive issues people do not want to talk about is
alcoholism.

Everyone knows the devastation brought about by alcoholism. The famous
verse:

You take a drink
Drink takes a drink
Then, drink takes you

Daily families are getting ruined and people killed due to alcoholism.
Anytime there is an auto accident late in the night, first cause is always
alcohol.

Geoffrey Hodson, the well known theosophical writer and lecturer, in a very
interesting article âWeapons of the Dark Forcesâ published in the
Theosophist, Vol 65, October 1943, writes:

Alcohol.

Alcohol has long been known to cause more social degeneracy than any other
agency, to make always for wastefulness and inefficiency, to weaken the
manhood of a race, to bring in its train dishonour and degradation, the
ruination of women, divorces, poverty, innumerable diseases, and generally
to spread misery and shame wherever it is found.

Alcohol is one of the great weapons used by the powers of darkness and evil.
With their usual demoniacal skill and ruthless efficiency, most successfully
have those powers, and their human agents, employed alcohol to produce in
the human race demoralisation, degradation, misery and decay.

It would do a lot of good if theosophists talk about issues like alcoholism
and sensitize our fellow beings about the devastation it causes to everyone.
While we do not need to run Alcoholics Anonymous, it would do a lot of good
if we talk about the issue of alcoholism whenever an opportunity arises.

I hope theosophists abandon the idea held by some, that song and dance will
solve Human problems or produce spiritual progress and get on with something
more concrete and addresses the needs and problems of human beings.

MKR


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