Theos-Talk Archives (August 2011 Message tt00063)

Why Indian Section of TS will always be the most active in the world?

When the Inner Founders decided to move TS HQ from NY to India, I am sure
They had the foresight about its long term growth and the vibrancy of the
lodges. While every Section outside India has shown continuing shrinking,
Indian Section has been growing from year to year. Some of the leaders of
Sections outside India may be envious of this fact.

In India, TS has lodges in many many villages and cities and in some large
cities it has multiple lodges. Anyone who has visited lodges in India can
vouch for the vibrancy and commitment of its members. One example is that
all lodges function round the year. They do not close their activities for
âSummerâ as is done in this country. Future of any organization lies in the
commitment of its members to the mission of the organization.

Much of this vibrancy and commitment comes from the members who are members
of ES. I have observed this first hand when I lived in India.

The well known British member, Geoffrey Farthing had been on a mission to
improve the TS. In 1970s he had written a private letter to the Head of the
ES suggesting that it be shut down. The membership figures of ES are hard to
come by. In 1975, it is reported that Sri Ram, who was the Head of ES at
that time, told him that if ES is shut down, 4,000 members in India would
leave TS. One has to draw the conclusion that India at that time had 4,000
members in the ES. It is likely that the number has grown significantly
since that time.

The significance of this number is telling. Today, American Section has less
than 4,000 TS members and the rumor has it that there are very few ES
members in the USA.

In the above circumstances, the West cannot just ignore the facts. It needs
to work on long term development of lodges and the future lies in this. Just
sitting at a desk and putting out theosophical materials, either in print or
on Internet is not going to cut it. One has just to look at the history of
past decades how membership shrunk in spite of the attempts by leaders in
the USA.

MKR

There is no religion higher than Truth


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