Theos-Talk Archives (October 1997 Message tl00105)

At 04:19 PM 10/7/97 -0400, Jerry Schueler wrote:
>>Hardly a fault or a virtue; I was subtly [failed] attempting to bring
>>attention the the fact that the earlier Theosophists, who were
>>relatively few per head of population, were mostly of the class who
>>could *afford* to play croquet - very much an "upper-crust" pusuit in
>>those days, not to mention the time involved. It was these people (such
>>as the famous Miss Dodge) who poured funds into the TS, fed and clothed
>>Krishnamurti, bought large amounts of real estate for the Society, etc.
>>"Humanity" in the shape of the great mass of working people hardly got a
>>look in.
>>
>>Oh well.
>>
>>Alan
>
>Alan, you are touching on a sensitive and tricky subject here as I
>am sure you are aware of Maslow's famous Hierarchy of Needs. Although
>considered a theory, it does seem to work well with society. If true,
>then only the "upper-crust" will ever pursue theosophy because
>only the upper classes (who have their lower needs already met) will
>ever have time.  Maslow did a lot of research and discovered that
>Peak Experiences and Self-Actualization pursuits such as Theosophy
>will only occur to those in the highest level of his hierarchy of needs
>which is only a few percent of the population. This brings up the 
>infamous question of just how do we go about bringing the "masses" 
>into the theosophical fold?  According to modern psychology, we never 
>will.
>
>Jerry S.

I think the issue of Theosophy and the masses is a very timely and
appropriate one.

It was the same argument and question that APS addressed to the Mahatmas and
was fully responded to in the famous letter of Maha Chohan which every
leader starting from HPB had considered to be the charter of the TS.

Of course there are a lot of theosophical doctrines/theories which a humble
average man or woman on the street will find it very demanding mentally to
understand. On the other hand there is the most important object of the TS
-- brotherhood/sisterhood/siblinghood  and its application in daily life and
helping our fellow humans. The latter is highly practical and does not
require any great IQ, education or other mental abilities.

In the early days of TS, Olcott started the first school for the
untouchables in Madras and worked hard to revive Buddhism and the network of
natively supported schools in Ceylon. Later when Annie Besant went to India,
she was immersed in multitudes of projects directly affecting the common man
and woman and even today the institutions which she was instrumental in
starting are standing testimony of how Theosophy can be applied.

Very rarely one finds any one of the theosophical scholars (who may have
high achievements in having passed all sorts of examinations at higher
educational institutions) exploring the most fundamental question of how do
we use Theosophy to affect and improve the lives of human beings. It looks
like there is more emphasis in the personal growth (and pursing the real or
imagined "occult" progress towards initiations and adeptship -- of course
when one becomes an initiate or adept one can brag about it to all our
fellow beings how far one has advanced). Such lack of focus on the practical
help to our fellow humans may be the root cause of the lackluster response
from the public to theosophy these days.

It also may be recalled that when London Lodge members complained to the
Adepts about the lack of progress, one of the Adepts commented that when
everyone was pursuing selfish ends, what else one should expect.

It looks like until and unless there is clear recognition and positive
organized efforts to connect to rest of the humanity, it is very likely we
may see all the theosophical organizations shut down during our life time,
with a lot of valuable property in the hands of a few who can and may have a
very good time. At least one organization (TSA) has already got a legal
framework setup for this eventuality.

Just my 2 cents worth.

........doss