Theos-Talk Archives (November 2012 Message tt00122)

 TSR-2

He gave One
plus Four talks to the Theosophical Convention on Bhagavad-gita in 1885 &
1886.

At the very beginning
of his Lectures on Bhagavad-Gita (1886), he made a clear stand thus:

 Every great system
of philosophy is brought before us for the purpose of investigation. At the
present time we are not all agreed upon any particular philosophy which would
be preached as the philosophy of our Society. This is no doubt a very safe
position to take at the commencement. But from all this it does not follow that
we are to be enquirers and enquirers only. We shall, no doubt, be able to find
out the fundamental principles of all philosophy and base upon them a system
which is likely to satisfy our wants and aspirations. [Collected writings, ii,
p.450]

 First of all, I
have to point out that any system of practical instruction for spiritual
guidance will have to be judged, first with reference to the nature and
condition of man and the capacities that are locked up in him; secondly, with
reference to the cosmos and the forces to which man is subject and the
circumstances under which he has to progress. [ibid. p.452]

After elaborating his propositions on Cosmology in his four
lectures, he concludes thus:

 Our Society stands upon an altogether
unsectarian basis; we sympathize with every religion, but not with every abuse
that exists under the guise of religion; and while sympathizing with every
religion and making the best efforts we can for the purpose of recovering the
common foundations that underlie all religious beliefs, it ought to be the duty
of every one of us to try to enlighten our own countrymen on the philosophy of
religion, and endeavor to lead them back to a purer faith â a faith which, no
doubt, did exist in former times, but which now lives but in name or in pages
of forgotten books.

We have to remember that TSR was
the first theosophical author to lecture on the philosophy of Bhagavad-Gita;
and HPB uses many excerpts from his lectures in her monumental work The Secret Doctrine. 







Literature is for Portrayal of Philosophic Ideas.







Dr N C Ramanujachary(Srivirinchi)

Besant Gardens, The Theosophical Society, Adyar, Chennai 600 020 

Phone: 044/24913584, Mobile: 9444963584


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