Theosophical Society

3. Movements within Hinduism

c) Theosophical Society

The word theosophy came from two Greek words, theos and sophia which means God and wisdom. The main aim of that philosophy was to attain wisdom in order to realize the Godhood. It was a Western concept and a very ancient one. The Theosophical Society was an organization formed in 1875 to advance Theosophy.

Formation: The Theosophical Society was officially formed in New York City, United States, on 17 November 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge, and others. It was self-described as "... an unsecterian body of seekers after Truth, who endeavour to promote Brotherhood and strive to serve humanity." Olcott was its first president, and remained president until his demise in 1907. In the early months of 1875, Olcott and Judge had come to realize that, if Blavatsky was a spiritualist, she was no ordinary one. The society's initial objective was the "study and elucidation of Occultism, the Cabala etc." After a few years Olcott and Blavatsky moved to India and established the International Headquarters at Adyar, in Madras (Chennai). They were also interested in studying Eastern religions, and these were included in the Society's agenda. After several iterations the Society's objectives evolved to be:

1. To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour.

2. To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy, and science.

3. To investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man.

Sympathy with the above objects was the sole condition of admission to the society. The Society was organized as a non-sectarian entity.

Main teachings of Theosophical Society: The main teachings are as follows:

1. There is life beyond everything, which is self existent, eternal, omnipresent and upholds everything. All living beings have received life from it, all live because of it and move towards it.

2. This life is in the world. It is the creator, sustainer and the one who gives new life.

3. This life is ruled by Rishis (saints) who give moral and religious teachings. They are world teachers. They are assisted by angels or devas.

4. Human beings are created beings who are undergoing transformation through many births. Those who are perfected help others who are undergoing transformations.

            The prime objective of Theosophical society was to propound an organization of the people on the basis of brotherhood, to study ancient religion, science and philosophy available to any part of the world and to develop divine powers of men. The Theosophist propounded the revival and strengthening of the ancient religions of Zorastrianism, Hinduism and Buddhism. They believed in the transmigration of the soul, theory of Karma, rebirth and liberation. Liberation can be realized through humanism, duty, devotion and service to humanity. They also preached the universal brotherhood of men.

Madame Blavatsky:  Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was a Russian occultist, spirit medium, and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the leading theoretician of Theosophy, the esoteric religion that the society promoted.

Born into an aristocratic Russian-German family in Yekaterinoslav, Ukraine, Blavatsky traveled widely around the Russian Empire as a child. Largely self-educated, she developed an interest in Western esotericism during her teenage years. According to her later claims, in 1849 she embarked on a series of world travels, visiting Europe, the Americas, and India. She alleged that during this period she encountered a group of spiritual adepts, the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom", who sent her to Shigatse, Tibet, where they trained her to develop her own psychic powers. Both contemporary critics and later biographers have argued that some or all of these foreign visits were fictitious, and that she spent this period in Europe. By the early 1870s, Blavatsky was involved in the Spiritualist movement; although defending the genuine existence of Spiritualist phenomena, she argued against the mainstream Spiritualist idea that the entities contacted were the spirits of the dead. Relocating to the United States in 1873, she befriended Henry Steel Olcott and rose to public attention as a spirit medium, attention that included public accusations of fraudulence.

In New York City, Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society with Olcott and William Quan Judge in 1875. In 1877 she published Isis Unveiled, a book outlining her Theosophical world-view. Associating it closely with the esoteric doctrines of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism, Blavatsky described Theosophy as "the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy", proclaiming that it was reviving an "Ancient Wisdom" which underlay all the world's religions. In 1880 she and Olcott moved to India, where the Society was allied to the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. That same year, while in Ceylon she and Olcott became the first Westerners to officially convert to Buddhism. Although opposed by the British administration, Theosophy spread rapidly in India but experienced internal problems after Blavatsky was accused of producing fraudulent paranormal phenomena. Amid ailing health, in 1885 she returned to Europe, there establishing the Blavatsky Lodge in London. Here she published The Secret Doctrine, a commentary on what she claimed were ancient Tibetan manuscripts, as well as two further books, The Key to Theosophy and The Voice of the Silence. She died of influenza in the home of her disciple and successor, Annie Besant.

Blavatsky was a controversial figure during her lifetime, championed by supporters as an enlightened guru and derided as a fraudulent charlatan and plagiarist by critics. Her Theosophical doctrines influenced the spread of Hindu and Buddhist ideas in the West as well as the development of Western esoteric currents like Ariosophy, Anthroposophy, and the New Age Movement.

Annie Besant: Annie Besant was a British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self-rule.

In 1867, Annie at age 20, married Frank Besant, a clergyman, and they had two children, but Annie's increasingly anti-religious views led to a legal separation in 1873. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NSS) and writer and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. The scandal made them famous, and Bradlaugh was elected M.P. for Northampton in 1880.

She became involved with union actions including the Bloody Sunday demonstration and the London matchgirls strike of 1888. She was a leading speaker for the Fabian Society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). She was elected to the London School Board for Tower Hamlets, topping the poll even though few women were qualified to vote at that time.

In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky and over the next few years her interest in theosophy grew while her interest in secular matters waned. She became a member of the Theosophical Society and a prominent lecturer on the subject. As part of her theosophy-related work, she travelled to India. In 1898 she helped establish the Central Hindu College and in 1922 she helped establish the Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board in Mumbai, India. In 1902, she established the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain. Over the next few years she established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1907 she became president of the Theosophical Society, whose international headquarters were in Adyar, Madras, (Chennai).

She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress. When World War I broke out in 1914, she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India and dominion status within the Empire. This led to her election as president of the India National Congress in late 1917. In the late 1920s, Besant travelled to the United States with her protégé and adopted son Jiddu Krishnamurti, who she claimed was the new Messiah and incarnation of Buddha. Krishnamurti rejected these claims in 1929. After the war, she continued to campaign for Indian independence and for the causes of theosophy, until her death in 1933.

Impacts of the Theosophical Society: The Theosophical society immensely contributed to the socio-cultural, socio-political and socio religious life of the nation. It afforded a revival to Hinduism by providing scientific basis to all those principles which were so far accepted by the Hindus not the basis of conservatism and superstition.

The Theosophical society had its branches all over the world and through these centers the world recognized the spiritual greatness of India and the value of the Hidden Treasures of the Eastern religions-Hinduism and Buddhism, Annis Besant had remarked. "After studying different religions of the world for forty years, I have reached the conclusion, I did not find any religion so complete, Scientific, Philosophical and spiritual than Hinduism.

The Theosophical Society also contributed to the spread of Home Rule Agitation, the preaching of Swadeshi, the propagation of social reforms like abolition of child marriage, Purdah, illiteracy and drinking, elevation of the downtrodden, introduction of moral and religious instructions in schools and campaigning for female education. At time when colour prejudice ran high, it deliberately set its face against it and did its best to bring together men from East and West in terms of equality and brotherhood.

This new awakening generated by the Theosophical Society also influenced the Indian Muslims to a great extent. In 1889 Mirza Gulam Ahmad united some likeminded Muslims under the banner of Ahmadiya Movement. This movement preached the gospel of universal religion for all men based on national principles. Mirza Gulam Ahmad strongly criticized the theory of holy war (jihad) against non-Muslims and advocated for universal brotherhood.

Critical Evaluation: In spite of the positive impacts upon Hinduism, the Theosophical Society and its prominent leaders were blatantly anti-Christian in their views and teachings. Besant opined that for centuries the leaders of Christian thought spoke of women as a necessary evil, and that the greatest saints of the Church were those who despised women the most, "Against the teachings of eternal torture, of the vicarious atonement, of the infallibility of the Bible, I leveled all the strength of my brain and tongue, and I exposed the history of the Christian Church with unsparing hand, its persecutions, its religious wars, its cruelties, its oppressions. Besant believed that the Gospels were unauthentic. She used to say that a man can become a Theosophist and yet remain a true Christian. However, this is impossible on carefully studying the teachings of the Society.

            The scholar of religion Olav Hammer noted that "on rare occasions" Blavatsky's writings are "overtly racist". She wrote that Africans, aboriginal Australians, and South Sea Islanders as inferior to Europeans. She also referred to aboriginal Australians as "half-animal". It is claimed that, Theosophists believed in equality of human-kind, fraternity among humankind, comparative scientific and rational study of religion, philosophy and science and building up of a social order free from vices and superstition. However, the views and opinions of its two most prominent leaders points otherwise.

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