Official Social Network of The Theosophical Society in America
When Winter Refuses to Let Up
Life is inherently cyclical. Mother Nature is inherently cyclical too. The seasons come and go; everything is in a passing state eternally. Spring gives birth to summer, summer to autumn and autumn to winter. When people were wiser, they moved along with these seasons and led their lives attuning themselves to the passing cycles of their lives. Thus we have in the Vedas and the Taoist texts the ideal way of leading our lives. In Spring, when the soul is fresh into birth, one learns of the ways of life and people; in Summer, when the soul has matured a bit, one learns to bear responsibilities for the future, to marry, to have a household, to bring forth fresh life; in Autumn, one begins to give way to the fresh life (one's children) to prepare for their summer; and in Winter, when the soul has been through an entire journey in life and has grown old, feeble and tired, one moves out of activity into contemplation of the divine, of God, and provides guidance for the springs, summers and autumns in one's life.
In Adyar, today, however, the winters are refusing to let up, to let go, to pave and make way for the other seasons to flower and bear fruit; creating thus an unwholesome and unhealthy atmosphere totally against natural law and the cycles of life. This article proposes to look at some of the problems rooted in the unwillingness of older and elderly workers at Adyar to let go of their lust and greed for not only life, but also for position, power and authority.
Having been at Adyar since 1994, I have seen Adyar changing from a green, life- and youth-filled Adyar to the Adyar of 2009, with a drab, dead atmosphere. It is not only the dilapidated buildings, but there is a certain air of sadness or death that permeates the atmosphere in Adyar. The white ants run havoc on buildings and trees, building their anthills wherever it occurs to them to build one. Unoccupied rooms at Leadbeater Chambers – which at one time housed about 7 or 8 workers from around the world throughout the year – has now only Bernice living in it. It is common to find annual visitors complaining about the state of the building and the hike in the rates. And a recent comment from the Superintendent herself indicates the state of affairs. At the end of the February session of the School of the Wisdom, when all the guests had gone, Uma Nilakanta commented that the entire place – not just Chambers – looked and felt so desolate. Most buildings on the Estate are vacant, because there are no workers to fill them. Most departments function with piecemeal staff; some departments have no heads to run them and some people run more than one department.
Looking at the sorry state of affairs at Adyar, one would wonder why in a place that is only 133 years young, and that likes to claim that it is the international headquarters of a worldwide organization, and which had among its membership stalwarts like HPB, HSO and Annie Besant, there is today such a paucity of workers, such a dead, desolate look. The entire place resembles a home for the aged, where those who are too old to go anywhere else have settled in.
And these are the oldies that are permeating the atmosphere of Adyar with their entrenched attitudes to life, to people, to relationships, and perhaps worst of all, to the work of the Society; because even though they are old, they continue to work. The great number of octogenarians is soon going to join the nonagenarians; the septuagenarians will soon make up the octogenarians. And they constitute the majority of the population of Adyar. Being of that physical or chronological age, they are low in energy, high in memory loss, but also stubborn, unwilling to change their gutted ways, preferring to do things the way they were done in days of old. The proverbial generation gap is in large evidence at Adyar today, for the younger workers who worked there in the past will always find when they bring in new and fresh ideas an older person who disapproves of it, and tries to traditionalize these ideas. Thus, Shailendra Agrawal who works as Superintendent of the Garden Department is daily insulted and abused and belittled by Mr Harihara Raghavan, General Manager of the Estate who is about 70 years old, while Shailendra is a little over 40 and the youngest worker on campus today.
Another aged member, Mrs Helen Jamieson, doesn't understand the basics of computers and is dependent on younger workers to help her out with Adyar Newsletter. At one time, before the election results were announced, the President wanted to ease Helen's workload and thought she could share the Newsletter with Preethi, only for Preethi to find that Mrs Jamieson is not open to help. She will not let go of responsibilities because that makes her anxious and insecure. At the Editorial Office, a similar situation exists. Older members are unwilling to learn computer skills, though younger workers are willing to teach these. So they create a web of dependency such that accomplishing work goals is almost always obstacle-filled, because position matters much more to Subha Nilakanta, Sundari Siddhartha, Saraswati Anand than the accomplishment of goals and targets. Old as they are, with failing eyesight, the likelihood of their missing out on errors in text is higher, but being proof readers and copy editors, they will not appreciate a younger worker correcting that error, all because the younger worker works as a typesetter.
As a youngster, were you to try to meet the President with suggestions, she most likely will tell you that there is no need for change because after all, things have been going on like this for 133 years. She refused to let Elvira make a map of the Estate for visitors to have easy access to the different places on the huge estate of Adyar. That was on the pretext of making it difficult for sandalwood thieves to enter the Estate. Who can explain to the President the unreasonableness of such thinking? For the sandalwood thieves have not stopped coming into the Estate; in fact, most of them come at night and are most probably not literate enough to read a map with its different points indicating buildings on the Estate. Yet to date, no map of the Estate exists and most members who come to visit go about asking for one so that they can get from place to place on the campus. But of course, one can suggest nothing to the President if she is not open to those suggestions.
But one will notice that there are those who can suggest even the silliest of things and those get accepted by the President. So what decides whether one's suggestions will be heard or not? One factor is the willingness of the other to play the President's game. Like, for example, Shailendra once suggested getting a golf cart to take aged members from place to place on the campus. According to Shailendra, the President approved of the suggestion. Pedro Oliveira, Keshwar Dastur and Radha Muthiah can almost always get what they want from the President. Uma and Subha Nilakanta can get away with almost anything on campus. But even these are not fixed.
After you have worked with the President for a while, you will have to admit that she is rather whimsical. Today, if she is in a good mood, you can get away with murder. If she is, on the other hand, in a bad mood, even the best you can do will meet with criticism of the worst kind. If she likes you, you are God. If she doesn't like you, you are the Devil incarnate. And once you have entered her bad books – does not matter at all whether due to your fault or not – she will not forgive you easily. In fact, she never forgives. She will constantly remind you – either directly or through her pets – of your past mistakes. She will keep it in the back of her mind every time you meet her face to face. She will also use that information to initiate gossip and an entire coterie of `enemies' around you. And this is a President who will call you immature when you go to her with the sword of honesty and truth. She will call you and shout at you, berate you and denigrate you.
One of the toughest things about Adyar is for one to recognize that in order for everyone to live in peace at Adyar, one has to give a lot of leeway to the President, even though she is older than most of us, we must adjust to her, we must understand her, we must obey her, we must forgive her, we must overlook her flaws; for she will never do any of these with us. She will speak about compassion, but that is what you have to give her; not the other way around. In fact, it is never the other way around. So we have essentially a taking President, not a giving one. The only thing that freely flows out of her is criticism of your ways and anger that you don't speak her language.
But coming back to the topic of seasons and cycles, let us look at what the unwillingness of the President to let go of position, power and authority does to the younger members and workers. Over the years, an abundance of elderly workers on the Estate of Adyar has meant that the younger generations feel a lack of expression in their need to do something for the Cause. And if they do, then they must of a necessity compete. Thus, greedy Helen, Harihara Raghavan, N. Muthuswamy or possessive Radha Burnier have given birth to competitive (though not necessarily competent and efficient) Uma Nilakanta, Subha Nilakanta, Radha Muthiah, Keshwar Dastur and such others. Competitive 55-70 year olds like the ones mentioned here and many others have given birth to competitive Maithreya, Pedro Oliveira, Jaishree, Geetha Jaikumar, and younger still, competitive Sushama, Juliana, Pablo. That is where all this competition being so talked about these days springs from – an entire older generation (the elders of Adyar) unwilling to let go of power, position and authority, unwilling to work in an entirely advisory capacity rather than heading departments that need younger and fresher ideas and energies. Instead of spending time preparing for death, or contemplating their lives thus far, these elderly spend time doing that which the youngsters ought to be doing.
And what does competition have to do with Theosophy, or with Brotherhood? Virtually nothing. In fact, competition is opposed to the ideal of realizing a nucleus of Universal Brotherhood. This is one of the reasons why there is no longer any fresh life in Adyar, because the older ones have not learned to or are unwilling to learn how to let go. So one of the things that I would suggest to readers of this article is to bring in a rule in the Constitution of the TS regarding the maximum age limit at which a person can be working at Adyar and limit it to 75. Anyone above that age ought to work at Adyar solely in an advisory capacity, rather than working as a head of a department. This anyone also includes the President of the TS.
What Adyar and the TS movement worldwide need urgently is fresh ideas, fresh ways of looking at and practising Brotherhood, because the current leadership and her assistants at Adyar are not capable any more of practising the First Object of the TS. We need elders willing to understand, rather than all the time seeking to be understood and obeyed. We need a leader who is rooted in life, has a deep insight and understanding into causes of events or happenings, is empathetic rather than whimsical, someone who is morally strong and can lead and guide those who work with her or below her upwards on the Path.
Preethi
In Adyar, today, however, the winters are refusing to let up, to let go, to pave and make way for the other seasons to flower and bear fruit; creating thus an unwholesome and unhealthy atmosphere totally against natural law and the cycles of life. This article proposes to look at some of the problems rooted in the unwillingness of older and elderly workers at Adyar to let go of their lust and greed for not only life, but also for position, power and authority.
Having been at Adyar since 1994, I have seen Adyar changing from a green, life- and youth-filled Adyar to the Adyar of 2009, with a drab, dead atmosphere. It is not only the dilapidated buildings, but there is a certain air of sadness or death that permeates the atmosphere in Adyar. The white ants run havoc on buildings and trees, building their anthills wherever it occurs to them to build one. Unoccupied rooms at Leadbeater Chambers – which at one time housed about 7 or 8 workers from around the world throughout the year – has now only Bernice living in it. It is common to find annual visitors complaining about the state of the building and the hike in the rates. And a recent comment from the Superintendent herself indicates the state of affairs. At the end of the February session of the School of the Wisdom, when all the guests had gone, Uma Nilakanta commented that the entire place – not just Chambers – looked and felt so desolate. Most buildings on the Estate are vacant, because there are no workers to fill them. Most departments function with piecemeal staff; some departments have no heads to run them and some people run more than one department.
Looking at the sorry state of affairs at Adyar, one would wonder why in a place that is only 133 years young, and that likes to claim that it is the international headquarters of a worldwide organization, and which had among its membership stalwarts like HPB, HSO and Annie Besant, there is today such a paucity of workers, such a dead, desolate look. The entire place resembles a home for the aged, where those who are too old to go anywhere else have settled in.
And these are the oldies that are permeating the atmosphere of Adyar with their entrenched attitudes to life, to people, to relationships, and perhaps worst of all, to the work of the Society; because even though they are old, they continue to work. The great number of octogenarians is soon going to join the nonagenarians; the septuagenarians will soon make up the octogenarians. And they constitute the majority of the population of Adyar. Being of that physical or chronological age, they are low in energy, high in memory loss, but also stubborn, unwilling to change their gutted ways, preferring to do things the way they were done in days of old. The proverbial generation gap is in large evidence at Adyar today, for the younger workers who worked there in the past will always find when they bring in new and fresh ideas an older person who disapproves of it, and tries to traditionalize these ideas. Thus, Shailendra Agrawal who works as Superintendent of the Garden Department is daily insulted and abused and belittled by Mr Harihara Raghavan, General Manager of the Estate who is about 70 years old, while Shailendra is a little over 40 and the youngest worker on campus today.
Another aged member, Mrs Helen Jamieson, doesn't understand the basics of computers and is dependent on younger workers to help her out with Adyar Newsletter. At one time, before the election results were announced, the President wanted to ease Helen's workload and thought she could share the Newsletter with Preethi, only for Preethi to find that Mrs Jamieson is not open to help. She will not let go of responsibilities because that makes her anxious and insecure. At the Editorial Office, a similar situation exists. Older members are unwilling to learn computer skills, though younger workers are willing to teach these. So they create a web of dependency such that accomplishing work goals is almost always obstacle-filled, because position matters much more to Subha Nilakanta, Sundari Siddhartha, Saraswati Anand than the accomplishment of goals and targets. Old as they are, with failing eyesight, the likelihood of their missing out on errors in text is higher, but being proof readers and copy editors, they will not appreciate a younger worker correcting that error, all because the younger worker works as a typesetter.
As a youngster, were you to try to meet the President with suggestions, she most likely will tell you that there is no need for change because after all, things have been going on like this for 133 years. She refused to let Elvira make a map of the Estate for visitors to have easy access to the different places on the huge estate of Adyar. That was on the pretext of making it difficult for sandalwood thieves to enter the Estate. Who can explain to the President the unreasonableness of such thinking? For the sandalwood thieves have not stopped coming into the Estate; in fact, most of them come at night and are most probably not literate enough to read a map with its different points indicating buildings on the Estate. Yet to date, no map of the Estate exists and most members who come to visit go about asking for one so that they can get from place to place on the campus. But of course, one can suggest nothing to the President if she is not open to those suggestions.
But one will notice that there are those who can suggest even the silliest of things and those get accepted by the President. So what decides whether one's suggestions will be heard or not? One factor is the willingness of the other to play the President's game. Like, for example, Shailendra once suggested getting a golf cart to take aged members from place to place on the campus. According to Shailendra, the President approved of the suggestion. Pedro Oliveira, Keshwar Dastur and Radha Muthiah can almost always get what they want from the President. Uma and Subha Nilakanta can get away with almost anything on campus. But even these are not fixed.
After you have worked with the President for a while, you will have to admit that she is rather whimsical. Today, if she is in a good mood, you can get away with murder. If she is, on the other hand, in a bad mood, even the best you can do will meet with criticism of the worst kind. If she likes you, you are God. If she doesn't like you, you are the Devil incarnate. And once you have entered her bad books – does not matter at all whether due to your fault or not – she will not forgive you easily. In fact, she never forgives. She will constantly remind you – either directly or through her pets – of your past mistakes. She will keep it in the back of her mind every time you meet her face to face. She will also use that information to initiate gossip and an entire coterie of `enemies' around you. And this is a President who will call you immature when you go to her with the sword of honesty and truth. She will call you and shout at you, berate you and denigrate you.
One of the toughest things about Adyar is for one to recognize that in order for everyone to live in peace at Adyar, one has to give a lot of leeway to the President, even though she is older than most of us, we must adjust to her, we must understand her, we must obey her, we must forgive her, we must overlook her flaws; for she will never do any of these with us. She will speak about compassion, but that is what you have to give her; not the other way around. In fact, it is never the other way around. So we have essentially a taking President, not a giving one. The only thing that freely flows out of her is criticism of your ways and anger that you don't speak her language.
But coming back to the topic of seasons and cycles, let us look at what the unwillingness of the President to let go of position, power and authority does to the younger members and workers. Over the years, an abundance of elderly workers on the Estate of Adyar has meant that the younger generations feel a lack of expression in their need to do something for the Cause. And if they do, then they must of a necessity compete. Thus, greedy Helen, Harihara Raghavan, N. Muthuswamy or possessive Radha Burnier have given birth to competitive (though not necessarily competent and efficient) Uma Nilakanta, Subha Nilakanta, Radha Muthiah, Keshwar Dastur and such others. Competitive 55-70 year olds like the ones mentioned here and many others have given birth to competitive Maithreya, Pedro Oliveira, Jaishree, Geetha Jaikumar, and younger still, competitive Sushama, Juliana, Pablo. That is where all this competition being so talked about these days springs from – an entire older generation (the elders of Adyar) unwilling to let go of power, position and authority, unwilling to work in an entirely advisory capacity rather than heading departments that need younger and fresher ideas and energies. Instead of spending time preparing for death, or contemplating their lives thus far, these elderly spend time doing that which the youngsters ought to be doing.
And what does competition have to do with Theosophy, or with Brotherhood? Virtually nothing. In fact, competition is opposed to the ideal of realizing a nucleus of Universal Brotherhood. This is one of the reasons why there is no longer any fresh life in Adyar, because the older ones have not learned to or are unwilling to learn how to let go. So one of the things that I would suggest to readers of this article is to bring in a rule in the Constitution of the TS regarding the maximum age limit at which a person can be working at Adyar and limit it to 75. Anyone above that age ought to work at Adyar solely in an advisory capacity, rather than working as a head of a department. This anyone also includes the President of the TS.
What Adyar and the TS movement worldwide need urgently is fresh ideas, fresh ways of looking at and practising Brotherhood, because the current leadership and her assistants at Adyar are not capable any more of practising the First Object of the TS. We need elders willing to understand, rather than all the time seeking to be understood and obeyed. We need a leader who is rooted in life, has a deep insight and understanding into causes of events or happenings, is empathetic rather than whimsical, someone who is morally strong and can lead and guide those who work with her or below her upwards on the Path.
Preethi
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Anand Gholap on -
Can you tell us more about how this "bullying gang" operates, what are it's objects and who are it's members?
-
Permalink Reply by Juliana on -
I agree with Pablo’s perception of and experience at Adyar. I don’t want to repeat what he said, so I will try to add another aspect on the subject.
Wherever we go there will be something we can improve. Part of our work is to be alert or sensible enough to perceive what is missing and try to work on that direction. But there are many ways of doing this and the difference in how we approach the task lies in how much we have grown as human beings.
As students of theosophy we talk about karma, but as human beings we don’t trust in that infallible order of the universe. I have met only a few truly earnest theosophists but I have seen that their spotless sincerity and maturity have been the only reason of many open doors and possibilities to do and change whatever is established. Life, or I should say, their own impersonal work, has put them in the position to give and to do freely because there has never been a condition in their giving. Whenever we start measuring what we do, what we want in return (at any level) and we overlook our selfish motives we are missing the most important part of our action. The most invisible for us, the most visible for the law of karma.
Each of us has the colossal task of producing a radical change in our own nature, however, we prefer to spend enormous amounts of energy and time in talking about other people’s actions which really pushes us so much further away from the task. I have experienced as a fact in my own life, that the only thing we can really change is ourselves, other efforts just keep creating the illusion that the problem is outside us.
When we feed our ego with conflict we will never be a free and fluent channel used by nature to pour loving forces into the world, and doors will be closed for us. Only when we are sincerely interested in serving, in giving without conditions, we become a channel worthy to be used by better forces than our own resentment.
With every thought, every word, and every action, we define who we are and, further more, we chose to be either a center of harmony and love or a center of conflict and hate. Every moment is a choice and we can’t blame anybody for that choice.
May we all have the strength to be centers of peace, love and understanding. That’s the greatest challenge we have in front of us, and the only real problem the TS is facing.
-
Permalink Reply by Jon Knebel on -
Thank you Juli. Miss you!
-
Permalink Reply by Janeth on -
►"..As students of theosophy we talk about karma, but as human beings we don’t trust in that infallible order of the universe."<---Juliana, does your understanding of this means that we should just tolerate TS members getting hurt because of TS leaders inappropriate, irrational and anti-Theosophical behavior, actions and decisions?
Understanding the infallible law of cause and effect/karma is one of the biggest challenges human beings have. Every single human being will interpret it according to his/her own intuition/perception, his/her own personal/particular level of mental, emotional and spiritual evolution.
To pretend that ignoring real pain and suffering caused by ineptness and ignorance of the Law (divine law), and wait for karma to fix everything is not only irrational but ignorant.
►"..Wherever we go there will be something we can improve."<---True, What do you suggest should be done when those in position of authority are unwilling to do the right thing, Juliana?
►"..Whenever we start measuring what we do, what we want in return (at any level) and we overlook our selfish motives we are missing the most important part of our action.<---Some one please send this to Mr. Radha Burnier and the over one-third of GC members she has elected all on her on, will you? To have in-experienced students of Theosophy doing this is understandable, but having old people/old students of Theosophy/second/third generation Theosophist doing this is unacceptable!!
►"..Each of us has the colossal task of producing a radical change in our own nature,.<---More so those in positions of authority. Again, someone send this to RB and her GC members, will you?
►"however, we prefer to spend enormous amounts of energy and time in talking about other people’s actions which really pushes us so much further away from the task.<---Although nicely said, do you consider it is in the best interests of the Society, its members and the world for people/students of Theosophy/members of the Society to remain silent, as they have been for decades, and allow the abuse of authority, the irrational decisions made by TS members in high positions of authority which have caused terrible mental, emotional, spiritual and thus physical pain to so many already, to go on as if nothing?
►"..When we feed our ego with conflict we will never be a free and fluent channel used by nature to pour loving forces into the world, and doors will be closed for us.<---To pretend we can learn to be like Gandhi over night is utopical. As there is war here in the physical plane, there is war also in other planes. To resolve conflicts, there is always a need for the egos you mentioned to step aside of their own comfort and fight for what is just and fair. Some people use prayer; some other use meditation; others use intangible/tangible weapons; each human being will contribute to it in the manner in which he/she is capable and qualified to do so.
►"..Every moment is a choice and we can’t blame anybody for that choice."<---So we should choose to be blind and deaf and continue to condone the irrational behavior, actions and reactions of TS leaders in positions of authority to continue to cause pain and suffering to so many people, and to continue dragging our Society down the tubes?
►"..That’s the greatest challenge we have in front of us, and the only real problem the TS is facing.<---The only real problem the TS is facing is the ineptness and irresponsibility of TS leaders in positions of authority unwilling to do the right thing by the Society and either make the necessary changes and transformation or quit their managerial positions.
May we all have the strength to do the right thing at all costs, as Alcione's Master told him and he in turn told us in ATFOTM (At The Feet Of The Master). The only way to do this by being centers of peace, love and understanding is if we were dealing with TS leaders with the proper inner strength, honesty, integrity, unselfishness, ethics and high standards, but as evidence has shown us, unfortunately, that is not what we have at present. The selfishness, egotistic, immature and short-mindedness of TS leaders in high positions of authority are the ones who have created the conflict we are facing, not the people who had had the courage to speak up. The internet was not invented yesterday. Yet it is just in the last couple of years that TS members have become aware of what is, and has been, happening in the Society for too long already. Deep disappointment as the one being felt is not created overnight, either.
-
Permalink Reply by Janeth on
-
►"agree with Pablo’s perception of and experience at Adyar."<---For the record and in the interest of objectivity, and for those who do not know, Juliana is Pablo's wife.
-
Permalink Reply by Juliana on
-
Only when we aproach things with impersonality we can be closer to truth.
On the other hand, the personal life of each of us is private, and should be respected. Only to show that it is very easy to change the reality of things, I will clarify that I'm not Pablo's wife.
-
Permalink Reply by Janeth on
-
►"I will clarify that I'm not Pablo's wife."<---Thank you for clarifying this. That was my understanding from a slide presentation you two gave at Olcott two years ago.
►"On the other hand, the personal life of each of us is private, and should be respected."<---There is nothing disrespectful about mentioning that a person is legally or otherwise married to another, especially when dealing with issues like the ones we are dealing here where personal feelings and/or perceptions are involved, which may affect how we respond and how others may perceive comments and replies.
-
Permalink Reply by Konstantin Zaitzev on -
> I will clarify that I'm not Pablo's wife.
Oh, then he loses much...
-
Permalink Reply by Preethi Muthiah on -
Juliana, I agree with the karma thing. But I would also like to add that there is no law in the universe that says that Mrs Burnier and her followers are exempt from that law. Karma works for both Preethi and Radha Burnier. And perhaps it is time that Mrs Burnier learned to face the karma of sadness and misery she has caused to many in her regime of 29 years.
Perhaps we also need to understand what peace means. Often for many people peace means not talking about things that are likely to become or be issues. But is that truly peace? When we see a wrong being done, and in Adyar today there are many wrongs being done, we as members of the TS have the right and freedom to bring those up. I brought them up first locally and my complaint was ignored. Now I have chosen to come out into the public -- to all members of the TS to tell them openly about the wrongs being committed at Adyar by the President.
-
Permalink Reply by Nick the Pilot on -
Hi everybody!
The opposing arguemnts are now well-defined. It is now time for both sides to reach out, and try to see things from the other persons' point of view.
(1) Those who think there is a "bullying gang" need to look at this from the other point of view, which is that the leaders are trying to do the best that they can.
(2) Those who think there is no "bullying gang" need to look at this from the other point of view, which is that the leaders may have done things that come across as bullying.
Concrete examples from both viewpoints (as opposed to simple name-calling) would help a lot.
If these two steps cannot be taken, then this will merely continue to deteriorate into useless arguing.
C'mon, folks, reach out! Try to show you are willing to look at it from the other person's point of view!
-
Permalink Reply by Pablo Sender on -
Yes, I agree Nick. Now, communication is a matter of two sides. We all must respect people's feelings, but when it comes to communication, this is not possible unless there is honesty and good will.
Personally, I am not a hero worshipper. I don't think Radha or John (or anybody else for that matter) are infallible. I won't blindly defend or justify any person. In fact, I was accussed at the same time of being on the side of John by some people and being on the side of Radha by others. Thinking about sides seems to me so immature. What I am doing here is simply rectifying certain things I know by direct experience to be untrue. Now each person has to make his/her own mind up.
The other question to be asked is if online communication about these subjects is possible at all. We have several examples of unmoderated forums where people interact discussing things like this, and I don't see they are of any real use (in this area).
Online discussions are fueled by controversy. They many time become a space for people to complain. I'm not saying this is right or wrong. It is just a fact. Take any online discussion, add conflict to it, and you will see increased the number of contributions and contributors. In my experience these discussions don't change anything. They just spread ill feelings.
I am a person who is very critical about the TS work, and anybody who knows me closely will agree on that. Now, I think that just criticizing is such an unhealthy habit. We all theoretically know about the artificial elementals we create when we talk or write in an uncharitable spirit. We can read about this everywhere: in the Mahatma Letters, in Blavatsky's writings, in At the Feet of the Master, in the literature of Annie Besant and Leadbeater, etc. However, sometimes our our pain seems to be stronger than our knowledge. Just think about the amount of ill feelings (and therefore of artificial elementals of that kind) generated by a "theosophical forum" where people are attacking and accusing each other, many times using lies and scorn, being disrespectful, etc.
So, are we going to change anything by criticizing? It is never the case. We can talk and analyse things. But there is a huge difference between talking and criticizing, isn't there? If something is missing in the theosophical work the best way to change it is by doing what is needed. Our doing will have, in time, more impact than we think. Now, that doing, should be full with love, not with severity. It should be done with humility, without thinking we are the only person who knows what is right and how everybody around must behave. We should be flexible. Otherwise we generate conflict, and nobody who generates conflict will get much space to work. And once we are left aside because our action generates conflict, we enter in a vicious circle of resentment very difficult to break.
I learned this by experience. I argued many times with TS members. I tried to impose my will, thinking it was the best that could happen to the TS. And I still find myself doing it in many instances. In any issue we may be right or we may be wrong. But the way we do things matters a lot. It matters much more than if we are right or not. The feelings behind our actions, the way we do things, the respect for other people regardless their opinion, all this will determine whether an action is truly theosophical or not. And it will determine the results of our action. If we don't respect people, if we are intolerant, if we are aggressive, if we are not honest and bend facts to get our way, how can we expect to be heard?
I completely agree with Juli that the real challenge the TS is facing is at this level. Organizational issues are things to be solved, not problems. The problem is how we deal with them.
Anyway, by reading these discussions one may get the idea that most TS members are unhappy and resentful. This is not true. Most TS members (in the circle I act, anyway) are committed to do their best for the TS, in order to improve our institution so that the message of Theosophy may reach humanity and help a little to elevate all of us.
Read our Guide to Community Features to learn your way around!
Also, check out our Guidelines for Community Conduct to review our rules.
Have a question or issue to report? Send a message to the moderators and let them know.
Do you enjoy using this site and other online resources provided by the Theosophical Society in America? Would you like to contribute to these efforts? Click below to make a monetary donation. Your support is appreciated and will help us to add to the resources we offer online.
Events
© 2009 Created by The Theosophical Society
