Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00629)

At 08:00 AM 12/24/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Tom Robertson writes:
>>At 04:03 AM 12/24/96 +0000, M K Ramadoss <ramadoss@eden.com> wrote:
>>
>>>   The study centers and lodges are put on *probation* and are watched
>>>to see if their activities conform to *Theosophy* as interpreted by
>>>whoever sits in judgment over what Theosophy is or is not. Once the
>>>probationary period is over, only then the lodges/study centers are
>>>given a permanent status.
>>
>>Someone, or some group of people, has to define "Theosophy."
>>
>>
>>>   What a change over a period of a century. When Olcott visited a city
>>>in India where I used to live, during his visit he chartered not one but
>>>two lodges in one single day in two parts of the city. These lodges were
>>>not in any way or form put under *probation* neither by Olcott nor by
>>>HPB, nor my the Real Founders.
>>
>>You seem to be implying that having no control over lodges is optimal.  But
>>there would be no reason for the founders to found lodges if they did not
>>care what those lodges would study.
>>
>
>Not having any "lodge" experience, I have to ask:  Do the founders of these
>lodges put a probation period on their OWN lodge?  That doesn't seem very
>intelligent to me.  I must deduce that they don't for now.
>
>If that is the case, then it seems that the implications you recieved were
>misconceived.  From mkr's particular words, I think he was arguing against the
>fact that, in the past, there was no elite group who decided who could and who
>couldn't found a lodge and what you could or could not teach within it.  I'll
>stop here, for I have absolutely NO idea about what a lodge is supposed to
>accomplish.  I always thought that it was simply a place which provided
>resources and companions for developing Theosophists.  The more that I read
>about them, however, the more they seem to be churches.
>My $.02.
>---
>The Triaist

          All throught the history of TS world-wide, Lodges were allowed to
carry on any activity that the members wanted to further the Three Objects.
Since the range of things that can be done by the lodges are so wide, such
freedom provided opportunity for members to be very creative.

          This trend to become like churches, is a very serious one, IMHO.
It looks like it is time to re-post the famous 1900 letter to Annie Besant
in which one of the Real Founders warned her about.

MKR