Theos-Talk Archives (May 1997 Message tl00140)

At 04:05 AM 5/15/97 -0400, Thoa Tran wrote:
>Some thoughts on this topic:

>6.  Lack of openness for whatever reason only causes more apathy.  Maybe
>for my own good, I'm not supposed to know certain things.  Or, it could
>be that for my own good, I'm supposed to figure it out on my own.
>Chances are, if I do not receive any feedback, I'm not going to care.
>Period.

    Let me repeat the famous anecdote.

        In India there was a very well know religious reformer, who some say
is a high initiate -- Shri Ramanujacharya. His Guru told him that he is
going to reveal some great secret which will help him in his spiritual
process, but the downside was that Ramanujacharya cannot reveal it to any
one. If he does, he will instantaneously die by his head exploding. He was a
great humanitarian and did not care much about his own death, but wanted to
share the great secret with everyone so that everyone can benefit by it. So
as soon as his Guru communicated the secret, he ran up to the minaret of the
Temple, which is the highest point in the city and shouted asking everyone
to assemble. Soon the residents assembled to hear him, he told them how he
is going die soon he discloses the secret, everyone was waiting with
anticipation when he made the secret public. Guess what happened. He did not
die. The moral of the story is that there is very little to the need for
secrecy.

        In this connection, I would also like to bring attention of everyone
to the famous 1900 letter from KH where Annie Besant was told that
unnecessary secrecy killed many organizations. (I am posting the 1900 letter
again for the benefit of those who have not seen it.)

        Is there anyone from Theosophical Organizations listening? I hope
so. But I have not seen any feedback on this so far. Who can ignore the
warning contained inthe above letter at the same time claim great reverence
to the writer of the letter.

MKR