Theos-Talk Archives (February 1998 Message tl00201)

I have always felt that Internet is going to have a very far reaching
effect on the everyone. Its effect is already being felt by those who are
interested in Theosophy. Whether this is recognized by the organizations
and their leaders is still unclear.

A case in point. When I lived in a large city in India, there was a ULT
Lodge and three TS Adyar lodges. The largest TS Lodge and the ULT were
within two miles of each other. Both were quite active. In spite of this,
the active members of either were not familiar with each others. Much less
in all the 13 years I lived, I did not see a single instance they had any
joint effort or joint program. I had attended meetings of both the Lodges -
TS Adyar and ULT, as a novice not familiar with territorial issues of the
organizations.

Lo and behold, after two decades I got interested in Internet e-mail lists.
And what do we find? Those interested in Theosophy, belonging to any of the
organizations as or none interacting and exchanging ideas, discussing
various issues and each one is having Theosophy in their hearts. Of course,
the leadership, especially the TS Adyar is following the old model. Have we
seen any of the elected officials here or on any other non censored
maillists or newsgroups? Let us be charitable, in that most of them belong
to the old generation and grew up in pre-computer culture and it is
difficult to make cultural adjustment and deal with the new medium.

On a personal level, each one of us is dealing with others without the
walls of organizations that tend to separate. Today if I were to visit the
city in India, it is very easy for me to visit the lodges of both TS Adyar
and ULT and the membership there would welcome me as a fellow T/theosophist
rather than as a T/theosophist belonging to the one or the other
organization. This breakthrough is something that is stunning and that has
been accomplished by Internet in a short time.

>From this example, I see immense potential of Internet to spread Theosophy
as well as unify all of us who are interested in Theosophy.

My 0.02

MKR