Theos-Talk Archives (January 1997 Message tl00621)

        More and more we see situations like what Alan has described (a
resident indigent member was thrown out of the lodge premises on to the
streets and being taken care of by Salvation Army Shelter), one wonders if
along the way the "Leadbeater Theosophy Model" may have put honest,
intelligent, highly educated and well meaning members on the wrong
track/direction/priorities.

        Let me what I have witnessed:

        Almost 30 years ago, when I used to go to a Lodge in India, we had
the lodge meetings at 9.00 AM every Sunday. Myself and several other
"unwashed" and "unanointed" ordinary rookie members used to attend the
meeting. Usually we discussed some topic of interest and the meetings lasted
till 12:00 Noon.

        In the same lodge, the ES members used to meet at 8:00 AM and their
meetings would be over by 9:00 AM. There were some members who were in ES
and attended the ES meeting. The interesting thing was there were a couple
of members who after the ES meeting, just took off and never ever bothered
to attend the TS meeting that followed nor even made any attempt to meet
with non-ES members who showed up.

        There were two cases I distinctly remember. One was a man in his
sixties who had been a member for a long time and had even lived in Adyar
for several years. The other was a younger man and his wife. The latter was
then a mid level government official.  But if there was a TS meeting which
was addressed by the International President or some other dignitary from
Adyar, these three individuals would be in the front row of seats.

        From the viewpoint of us the ordinary rookie members, it appeared
that these individuals felt it is more important to participate in the ES
meeting than stay and support and participate in the regular TS meetings.
They seems to have forgotten that but for the TS, ES would not be there.

        The great irony was that the younger man referred to above,  in his
later years occupied one of the high International positions in TS at Adyar.

        While these folks are honest, trustworthy, dependable and honorable
people, in my opinion, their priorities relative to TS seems to have gotten
topsy turvy. It is quite likely that there may be other similar cases that
others may be aware of.

        It may do a lot of good to all members of TS -- both rookies and
veterans alike, to revisit and remember the prime objective of the Real
Founders was to help the Humanity and not to start a school of psychology or
occultism etc. It may be a cry in the wilderness, if so let it be so.

        My 2 cents worth. Your mileage and direction may vary.

        MK Ramadoss