Theos-Talk Archives (February 1994 Message tl00029)

Jerry H-E,

I have been rather busy with my other duties today and have
not been able to write what I had thought of writing to you
over the weekend.  Mainly I was quite concerned that I may
have come across as perhaps too stern in my last message to
you.  If I did manage to 'mess up your weekend', now I am
asking you for your foregiveness in the spirit of
brotherhood.  After all we have undertaken this 'project'
in the spirit of uncovering the 'truth' about true teaching
and at least one teaching that both AAB and HPB agree
on is our interconnectedness with everything else in this
universe and the idea of universal brotherhood.  If I may,
I'd like to quote from AAB ('Problems of Humanity'):

"That is truly spiritual which properly relates man to man,
and man to God.  Spirituality is essentially the establishing
of right human relations, the promotion of goodwill, and finally,
the establishing of a true peace on earth".

If I hurt you (even inadvertently), I am hurting myself!  It is
good to keep everything in perspective and let us resolve to keep
the idea of 'seeking to help (not hurt), to love (not hate), to
serve (and not exact due service)' in mind as we write these
messages.  Perhaps we will be discussing sensitive areas again
soon enough, let us see if we can become dispassionate, detached
and discriminative (I donot know about you but I know I am
working on all these three at this time!) through this process.

>      Wow!  Obviously, my message to you concerning FB was
> entirely mis-understood.  What distresses me the most is that I'm
> not sure why.  May I ask if English is your second language?  If
> so, this may explain a lot.  I know from personal experience that
> when reading in French, I often completely miss the point because
> of not being familiar with a word, or not familiar with a
> particular meaning of a word in a certain context.  Sometimes I
> will miss the point of a whole article because of unfamiliarity
> with an underlying meaning, that would have been obvious if I had
> grown up in the French culture.

English was my second language and I may be somewhat handicapped
by the fact that I was not born here (I consider it to be my
first language now, having lived here in the US for over 17 yrs).
It may help you (for future use) to know the real reason for my
'outburst' on the subject of FB's lie, even if you did it as
part of a joke.  I feel, nay I know, that I owe a great deal to
AAB, and because of what FB did for AAB, to FB as well.
Whatever anyone may say of AAB's books, I know what they have
done to me, and that is why it is hard for me to accept, even
in a joke, anyone suggesting that AAB or FB lied, without a
substantial proof thereof.

Another idea that occurred to me is that FB may have referred to
TSD instead of SD in the same way that people used to talk of
'xeroxing' instead of 'copying' in the early days of copier
machines.  For the vast population of theosophists out their,
the two (SD and TSD) are one and the same thing.

Also, about the occult status of FB, many people think that
he was very highly evolved (a third degree initiate or higher).
Are you familiar with this system of gradations for people
on the path?  In any case, only the Masters are perhaps
not amenable to make mistakes; most of us are not that
precise in our communications.  One of the things I did
learn from AAB/AS is that we all need to be extremely
precise in our communication.  I have tried to observe myself
and have noticed improvements in general, but what has
happenned in my messages to you in many cases is 'the sacrifice
of precision in favor of speed of delivery of the message',
if you know what I mean!  I'd like to hear your views on how
effective my communication is regularly!

>      If AAB was basing her decision to name her ES the AS upon
> the letter you cited that was published in ~Lucifer~ (which was
> not written to Olcott, but was a public notice, directed to
> pledged members) then I would have to say that she mis-understood
> HPB's intent.  If it is based upon some private paper that no one
> seems to have seen other than her, then we will just have to wait
> and see whether Lucis Trust will be willing to make it public--at
> which time we will be able to evaluate it.  The same thing goes
> for the "psychological key."  So far we have found the term was
> not used by HPB in any of her writings.  Or at least no one has
> come up with an instance--not even in Eldon's and Brenda's
> computer search.  But anything is possible.  By the way, how are
> we coming on your request.  Any response yet?

I have not sent the formal request as yet!  Hope to do that soon
though.

In Brotherhood,

Arvind