Theos-Talk Archives (June 2011 Message tt00058)

I was able to access the first chapter of the book and found the material in
it very valuable and interesting. The author should be congratulated in
coming out with a book which is well put together and excellent editing. It
is a very valuable addition that any historian of Theosophical Society
should read. Here are some of my observations.

The book has been organized by years 1927 to 1931. First chapter deals with
the events in 1927 even though there are references to materials of later
years.

In the introduction, the author says âThis book us written in chronological
order in the format of a diary, using rare archival documents describing
entirely authentic and factual events taking place in Krotona, giving
insight behind the scenes that have never been made public.â

The archival material that the author has used is priceless and should be
congratulated for his efforts in securing them and presenting them in his
books.

We need to remind ourselves that After Annie Besant took over from Olcott,
one notices a gradual lack of transparency in TS which continues even today.
Also, there is a tendency to unnecessarily keep original material secret
even though of great importance to the TS and its members.

The classic example is the famous 1900 letter from Mahatma KH where he
warned Besant about âMisleading secrecy has given the death blow to numerous
organizations.â and this warning was among the material redacted in the
original publication and the full letter was only published in 1987 in the
Eclectic Theosophist which is outside the control of Adyar TS.

The first chapter has a lot of material on the happenings behind the scenes
which led to the purchase of land in Ojai and establishment of Krotona ES
Center.

One of the important accounts contained in the book was George Arundaleâs
conversation with Besant concerning the predictions of the World-Teacherâs
coming. I think this is important and valuable information since there has
been arguments by some theosophists claiming that the World-Teacher project
centered around Krishnamurti had failed because He did not repeat the
sequence of events that took place when Lord Christ made His appearance 2000
years ago. Here is an excerpt:

âIn August 1927 I stayed at Eerde Castle for a month before the Ommen Camp.
It was the first year during which difficulties became serious, or took a
serious tum between
Krishnamurti's teaching and the predictions made for 15 years previously by
the leaders of the T.S. and particularly Dr. Besant and C.W.L. According to
these predictions, a
recurrence was to take place of what had been before, the Lord Christ was to
"occupy" Krishnamurti's body and give out the new message through his lips.
Indeed, some corroboration of these predictions had already taken place at
Benares in 1911, at Adyar in 1925, at Ommen in 1926. For a short time while
Krishnaji was speaking he seemed to lose consciousness, a mighty voice
seemed to speak through his lips and a tremendously powerful influence was
felt by all those who listened, yet in 1927 all was changed. We knew that in
January 1927 important occult events had taken place in Ojai when changes
had been brought about in Krishnaji's physical and inner being, we knew that
he
had reached union with the lord and we could see, and he told us that no
occupation of his body was taking place, nor would take place any more, that
whenever he spoke it was
he, Krishnaji, and no other who experienced the thought and thought out the
words. The turmoil and confusion during that month were great. There were
those who, knowing of the change, resented the faulty description given by
our leaders and expressed their resentment bitterly; there were those who
not perceiving the difference, or uninformed as to changes, spoke high in
their loyalty to the leaders. Endless discussions took place between them
and Krishnaji finally asked me to go to Dr. Besant and tell her definitely
all the truth, such as it was, and therefore of the error made until then.â

In the archival documents, there are discussions about some well known
theosophists put on Probation by the Masters. All them are from the United
States. This raises the question are not theosophists in other parts of the
world put on Probation by the Masters. Logic tells us that many from various
parts of the world would have been put on probation. If any information is
currently available in Adyar archives, disclosure will be of interest to
theosophists.

The market for the book is going to be small, mainly consisting of
theosophists and a few historians. The book is priced at US$30 and this is
very pricey for most theosophists outside the West. There is no easy way to
break even on publishing the book unless it is going to be made available as
print on demand book. The only way to quickly ensure very wide distribution
is to make a pdf file available for download for $1.99 so that even casual
reader would be inclined to download it and by the volume one can make a
profit. This has been demonstrated by the download of songs and Android
programs. Another practical fact of life is that in a short time after
publication, books are scanned and exchanged under the radar.

As the author is a long time theosophist, I am sure he is very much
motivated in getting widest possible distribution around the world.
Hopefully, we will hear from him on this topic.

MKR


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