Adyar, 1st January 2013

Information board at the Convention Registration

Adyar, 1st January 2013,

We were ill with high fever, for two days and treated by one of the delegates, who happened to be a medical doctor.

On Wednesday the Convention started. The lecture by P. Krishna in the afternoon was a good one.

In the evening we went with a party of  nine to Kalakshetra, where the performance at the occasion of the 60^th Annual Art Festival by one of the best Traditional Indian Dancers, a woman of 60 years old, was impressive. For the non-accustomed ears though, the music was not bearable and for the non-local physical frame the chairs were like torture instruments. We all went out with our party and returned to base in rickshaws, not before having had a good time at a Pizza Restaurant till late in the evening.

On Thursday the short lecture by the International Vice-President was a soft and compassionate one about respect for nature.

The Annie Besant Lecture by Former Chief Justice, Mr J. S. Verma was excellent. He said that we all have to change our behaviour and that the T.S. campus in Adyar is the only place in India, which looks like the ideal place of peace and quietness that the freedom fighters under the colonial occupation thought that all India would be after the liberation. We cannot all be kings with several cars, great mansions and servants. In the old days there were just a few kings looking after their people, now you see the kings everywhere and the people are in distress. The T.S. is the only hope for change for the better in India and the world. For the moment we are at the right time at the right place.

The new T. S. Vocational Training Centre was officially inaugurated. This is a most important initiative for the formation of Construction workers like masons, electricians, plumbers etc.

We bought some books at the bookshop with discount. There was an Indian from Chennai, who lived since eight years in France and was married with a French citizen. They travelled with another Frenchman and were not member of the TS. We spoke in French in front of the shop showed them “The Buddhist Catechism” by Olcott, which made the lady from France go back into the shop to buy the same book.

The lecture by Tim Boyd was a good delivery. At the end he gave a citation from A. Besant: “Let us judge our spirituality by the effect it has on the world hoping that it makes it a better place for us to live in.” When he said this, a black dog crossed before the stage from left to right, then stopped for a while and returned to the left again.

Half way the Christian Easter fasting period of 40 days, there is in Europe a festivity of the Black Dog. This is when our animal nature is discovered by ourselves and we see it for the first time, but it still has to be purify into a white dog during the following 20 days. In China and Japan there are images of how one is looking for the beast, finds it, changes its colour gradually from black to white and dominates it by riding on the white animal. Tim was not yet the knight on the white horse, but he seems to be somewhere half way.

We discussed the citation of A.B. with the roommate and agreed, that spiritual progress is about enlarging one’s consciousness and has not as primary aim the improvement of material conditions in the world of duality. The positive and beneficent effects of the enlarged consciousness on the surroundings are symptomatic and by-products. They are not the aim, because the aim is to help as many as possible to also arrive at enlarged consciousness. If the material effects were the aim, we would be occupied in the practice of black magic, for the present circumstances always give to everybody the best karmic lessons for arriving at human perfection.

A new arrival came to went to check e-mails on our PC. Then we had a nice discussion in the room, because the rain prevented us from going out. It has been raining almost the whole day.

The lectures on Saturday 29 December were not too brilliant. The best performance was from the South-American. He had made a nice composition of citations from different sources, but too many citations left no room for the expression of his opinion. So it was a rather good but dogmatic exposition on theosophy titled “The Means Determine the End”.

The lecture by Dr. E. Sreedharan on the spiritual dimension of the success of the Delhi Metro was interesting, but not very spiritual.

We continue to have nice exchanges of views with old acquaintances and make connections with new ones.  

Short lecture by Dianne K. Kynaston was well prepared and of good quality about a Buddhist sage.

Marcos’ talk was soft spoken and nice, but difficult to follow, because of the accent.

We visited the museum, the archives and the old premises, where H. P. Blavatsky, A. Besant and J. Krisnamurthi had lived and we sat in during the Indian National TOS meeting, where mainly organizational problems were discussed. Money is not the problem, because the Vocational Training centre in Damodar Gardens collected the necessary funds for starting up in no time.

Sometime before we met Gautama, who is no longer principal of the Krisnamurthi school, but is setting up the new school in the premises outside Chennai. He has there about 40 pupils in different age groups, working and learning together in the same class rooms. It sounded like the Montessori system.

Olande did a very good one man show about “Living Mindfully in the Present”. He said that he had not prepared, but was very present and gave a lot of Buddhist teachings in his own way, while even touching on teachings of J. Krisnamurthi.

In the evening there was a movie about temples in South East Asia, which was very good, but lasted too long.

New Year’s Eve was celebrated in a traditional Indian restaurant. We were with seven people and could all speak the same language. Some went after dinner to the camp fire, where there was a very intimate atmosphere with singing etc.

The first day of the year there were lots of activities with a seminar of the Theosophy and Science group and a beautiful dance and a stage play performance organized by Adyar Lodge and the Adyar Youth Lodge.

Happy New Year to everybody,

Mr Brooder

Adyar, Sunday, 23 December 2012

                    Picture taken at last year's International Convention

Adyar, Sunday, 23 December 2012,

The constructions of poles with palm leaf thatching are almost finished to receive the convention delegates next week. Everybody is very nervous. Some have not slept too well. There is a rather strong wind, which began early on Monday morning.

The boss asked us to revise the procedures and make a proposal for updating them in the form of a handbook (manual) of procedures. Also should we have a look at a policy document and take a position on the proposals for changes of the rules, which are before the General Council of 25 December 2012.

As soon as we were on the way home there was complete relaxation.

Monday afternoon we made a quiet walk through the palm grove and under the bat trees, sat solemnly near the Olcott memorial statue at the river bank and returned along the riverside to the beach, where a movie was being shot, for which even temporary lamppost and an imitation of an old ruin been erected.

The next day we woke up with a sudden stir: “Going to work today!”

This is a welcome proof of motivation from within.

Everybody was there at the secretariat, the general management and the treasury. The computer specialist, who comes voluntarily from time to time, helped several colleagues and could tell us, that the usb-stick, which was not recognized, had come to the end of its life.

Luckily we have another one, on which we can put the documents. The boss asked if we had brought our lap-top, this morning. Tomorrow that shall be necessary, because one of our colleagues is doing a lot of work on the office PC, this week.

Leadbeater’s Chambers is fully booked for the next week, when the Convention takes place.

One afternoon we were invited for tea at the house of a resident, which is an impressive more than hundred years old bungalow.

He told us a little about the history of the place and the TS as well as his family.

The following day, work was short, but very productive.

At meal times, tables become more crowded, but there are not yet dozens of delegates. It is better than eating all alone in an empty dining hall or with only one taciturn local person.

Our study is little by little starting up.

One friend from last year has arrived, since a few days, and we start to communicate in a non-English tongue, because his English is not developed. Other friends will leave this week and after the Convention.

We have been invited for a breakfast meeting organized by the Chennai Chamber of Commerce on Friday 21 December 2012. Very interesting subject of Competition Law in India.

The new usb-sticks cost only some RS 220, so the lesson is not too disastrous for our budget. Anyhow, we printed the documents for our employment visa application

At the beach the film crew is still shooting a movie, for which there are erected an old ruin and lampposts.

Sunday morning we went to the beach, at about 6 a.m., because there was no water in the shower. As we stayed too long at the beach without having had breakfast, we almost fainted on the way back. So Sunday was a day of rest in the morning. We discussed the subjects to be treated in the General Council with our roommate and came to an agreement.

After lunch we took a shower in one of the rooms on the ground floor. Only in the afternoon the water pressure came back.

Our registration number for the Convention is somewhere half way in the 900.

When the official opening of the Indian Restaurant in palm leaf construction had been successfully done by the President, we went together with the roommate to Elloit Beach for shopping.

That's all for now from,
Mr. Brooder

Adyar, Sunday 16 December 2012

Adyar River with ship stranded by cyclone on 31st October 2012

Adyar, Sunday 16 December 2012

This week’s session of the School of the Wisdom was very busy. The director gave ten lectures on different subjects related to the “Science of Life”. After a few days, it seemed as if we had several jig-saw puzzles mixed together in one box and from time to time there miraculously appeared a nice picture, which was not completely coherent, though. Different disciplines use the same words, but these words have different meaning. By mixing them up one becomes confused. The director and the students were doing their very best, but one does not seem to be making a complete image out of the puzzles.

Almost every evening after dinner, we have tea and fruit, like watermelon or papaya in one of the rooms of the student dormitories.

Tuesday, after the afternoon class lasted after 5 pm, we just managed to buy the return flight ticket for one of the students from abroad. That evening we had no tea and fruit, so we could write most of our article for the School of the Wisdom. Many of the students had made their article on “Why to be Vegetarian”. Monday we did one sentence with cover page, Tuesday one page, Wednesday another page and Thursday a third one. It could be printed out at the office of one of the workers here..

We have a usb-stick internet connection in the students’ rooms and can communicate by E-mail and Skype with friends and family as well as with TS sections at home, but we have no printer.

Wednesday afternoon we went to St. Thomas Mountain, where there is a relic of the apostle of Jesus Christ, who came to India and founded a church in the first century AD.

It is nice to exchange experiences with the other students on subjects of the study and the TS. Even with the newcomers the communication during lunch and dinner begins to become more relaxed, once their jet-lag is gone.

The dormitories are  being refreshed and even the hot water distribution (by hand) is re-established. One day, there was no water at all in the morning, when we wanted to take the shower, but in the afternoon the shower was nice and warm.

Thursday we had lunch again in the Boat Club on the other side of the Adyar River. There were about thirty attending the lunch, which was in the form of a self-service banquet in a separate room. All together it was a bit too much for a simple theosophist.

On Friday we had the presentation of the articles of the students during the afternoon session of the School of the Wisdom. There was a rich variety of views on the topics of “Brotherhood of Religions”, “Life is Relationship”, and “Why to be Vegetarian”.

Saturday was a holiday and we were invited to participate in a trip of six of the students to Pondicherry and the Malamalapuram temples. Although the trip was rather fatiguing, we were happy to be in completely different surroundings than the classroom, library and student dormitories, where we have been almost every day during the last six weeks.

We have made a Sunday morning visit to one of the workers at Head Quarters, which was a good social contact and helped us to have a clearer view on the happenings during the oncoming sessions of the General Council and the Convention. It appears that this year there will be coming lesser delegates from abroad than last year.

The president of one of the TS Lodges in Chennai had invited us for lunch, tea or dinner on Sunday, but nobody wanted to come along this afternoon, so we decided not to go. The mobile phone connection was without coverage again and we could not even inform the poor guy. When he shows up, we shall have to present him our apologies. Advantage is that we have been able to make our weekly blog this afternoon.

Good bye for now,

Mr. Brooder

Adyar, 9 December 2012

Photos of Adyar Beach with sea tortoise hatchery, January 2012 

            

                          

 

Adyar, 9 December 2012, 11 H

This week, the School of the Wisdom became more intense, because the students had to present a paper. The preparation of the paper on one of the Yogatatvopanishads or another book which could be related to Yoga usually took us most of the rest of the day. There were about ten students actively participating, of who eight have presented a paper. Some were very short and took only five to ten minutes, while others were longer and took about thirty minutes. The variation was great also in contents, which were based on personal experience, on one specific philosopher, on the Bahagavat Gita or on another Yoga book.  

This week, there was almost no reaction on the subject of the business transactions in our home country. On Monday, a TS member came from abroad, but he stayed only for one night. He had no Internet connection and wanted to continue with the job he has to do on another continent. Because it had rained a lot during the week before, there were many mosquitoes this week and he had been bitten by mosquitoes all night. Another student of the School of the Wisdom, who attended only one or two days, left on Friday. After running around for twelve days in Chennai, the destination was changed to Goa, which seems to be a more appropriate place for a summer vacation at the beach.

Because of the cyclone, which passed here in Chennai a month ago, the Adyar beach has been reduced and even parts of the small dunes have been washed away. What rested was a rather clean beach with smaller strip of sand. The subsequent rainstorms of a few days ago, which have resulted in higher levels of the water in the Adyar River, deposited a lot of debris and plant material on the shore. The fishermen even talked about the danger of being bitten by water snakes.

We saw two dead tortoises on the beach and the person, who manages the sanctuary where each year he reburies the turtle eggs, which he has dug out, in a place protected by a fence, said that he had counted three this year and that it was a normal number. The turtles would be coming ashore and lay their eggs in December and January.

Tomorrow, we shall have the opening of the School of the Wisdom again, which shall be on “The Science of Life”. Advised literature is “The Key to Theosophy” by H. P. Blavatsky, “The Theosophic life” by A. Besant and “At the Feet of the Master” by Alcyone.

We are looking forward to meet the new students and the director.

Mr. Brooder

Adyar, 1 December 2012

Study at Leadbeater's Chambers appartment,

Anno 2012

Adyar, Saturday, 1 December 2012.

Last Sunday there were lots of activities at TS Adyar: the Annual Conference of the Madras Theosophical Federation, meetings of the Theosophical Order of Service and of the Adyar Lodge, and a lunch in the Indian restaurant. The day started with a panel on “The continuing relevance of the Perennial Philosophy.”  There appear to be many old workers and a few newcomers. The TOS does social work and is active to help the locals with medical service and has had 127 check-ups done for the workers at the TS compound here. It has also organized a homeopathic clinic, a drinking water project, an eye-screening action for some 14.000 people since 2007 and beach cleanings.

On Monday the School of the Wisdom started on the Yoga Sutra’s of Patanjali, which represent the most comprehensive exposition on Yoga practice. The teacher is one of the older national lecturers of the Indian Section and a TS member since he was 20 years of age. He is very well prepared and keeps the students actively involved, with the restult that almost all of them do try not to skip classes. For next week the students have to prepare a paper on the subject of one of the Yoga Upanishads, of which there are 20 out of the 108 Upanishads. 

Monday afternoon we were invited for lunch again by a TS member who left for Europe and afterwards we went into town to the Big Bazar and to Fab-India. At the Bazar there were all kinds of shops with eastern and western articles. This Bazar is an enormous air-conditioned shopping mall as big as a football stadium and as a consequence prices tend to be higher than normal. The Fab-India shop had local products, which could be bought at reasonable prices.

Wednesday afternoon two of the students made a visit to the TS Adyar Library to find the book on the Yoga Upanisads. A membership card of last year was lost, but it showed up in the register of the library, so we could have a look at the textbook.

After some discussion, we decided to buy the book at Theosophical Publishing House in Besant Gardens on the other side of the Besant Avenue. This is the road, which was constructed straight through the TS compounds, a long time ago.

The Theosophical Library and research Centre has edited the book with all the 20 Yoga Upanishads in the year 1938, and the Theosophical Publishing House has reprinted it very handsomely in the year 2008. In this book the Yogattvopanisad, has a lot of references to the subjects treated in the Sutra's of Patanjali. A major difficulty for western students though is that there are many Sanskrit words used in this book and also in  I.K.Taimni's textbook on the Yogasutra's. Frequently referring to Internet translations during study and writing of the paper would be the best way to cope with this linguistic problem.

Wednesday evening there was a lecture at Headquarters Hall by the director of the school of the Wisdom on The future of the Theosophical Movement. He held an inspired talk, at the end of which he read the statement in the “Key to Theosophy” where H.P. Blavatsky says, that Theosophy is synonymous with Everlasting Truth and that the future of the TS will depend on the quality of the members, who will carry on the work and direct the Society, and notably their degree of selflessness, earnestness, devotion and last but not least the amount of wisdom they possess. Thus it is not so much numbers, but mainly quality that counts.

Yesterday we had tea with the students in one of their rooms and this time together with the husband of a local TS worker, who had been busy helping us to move one of us to another room, because a water pipe in the bathroom had come loose and there was an inundation in the apartment spilling water into the garden while making a sweet, heavenly noise like that of a natural waterfall, until the water tank on the roof was empty. Repair could only be done during the day time. This minor disaster has eventually led to a surprise tea party, but has left no time for study and work.

As we can see, the research into Neo-Platonists, announced last week, has quickly been replaced by Yoga Upanishads study. This was to be expected, but does not mean, that the work on the European Theosophists will come to a standstill. The Theosophical Society is meant to bring together East and West, so both have to be equally emphasized. It just happens that the School of the Wisdom has such interesting subjects as The Secret Doctrine, The Science of Yoga, The Science of Life and The Bhagavat Gita.

Tomorrow there is work to be done on the Yogattvopanishad paper.

Bye for now,

Mr. Brooder

Adyar, 24 November 2012

Monument near Head Quarters Building at the Compound of the Theosophical Society in Adyar, Chennai, India

 

Adyar, 24 November 2012

The School of The Wisdom on The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky ended today with a farewell lunch in a restaurant at the other side of the Adyar River.

The next School will start on Monday 26 November and will be for two weeks on the subject of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with commentaries by I. K. Taimni.

On Wednesday 24th November, the festival of the 544^th birthday celebration of the Sikh Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Radha Burnier, International President of the Theosophical Society received the Developers India’s “Vibrant Indian Award” for her life’s work. A T.S. member and film maker, was one of the speakers. He said that he had written a film script for a movie on Indira Ghandi, during a two months stay at Leadbeater’s Chambers. This may encourage those who hesitate to come to the T.S. in Adyar, because they might think, that study and writing of papers would not be possible.

On Sunday we shall have a lunch organised by the Madras Theosophical Federation. That whole day there will be activities organized by the Theosophical Order of Service, the Federation and the Adyar Lodge. A panel is organized on "The continuing relevance of the perennial philosophy."

Very sweaty weather with rainclouds in the sky makes one wonder how to survive the heat in summer. We have to take life one day at a time and expect the best of it. To be at this beautiful place is really a privilege and invites to do the best one can in working for theosophy. Plato will have to be studied, for the Neo-Platonists are considered to be theosophists. Plotinus also, who explained the teaching of Plato in his Enneades.

Next week we shall go and visit the library and tell all about it.

That's all for now from,
Mr. Brooder

Adyar, 17 November 2012

Photo of the more than one century old student dormitory at the Theosophical Society in Adyar, which is said to have been the first reinforced concrete building constructed in India

Today was the 137th anniversary of the Foundation Day of the Theosophical Society, which was founded in 1875 in New York.
Guest of honour was Mr T. S. Krishnamurthy, the Indian National Election Commissioner, who gave an inspired talk on democracy. He said, that well organised elections are only the first step to democracy. There is the fear, that the Indian State might be at risk for its existence, if the climate of intolerance and violence continues and the speaker urged the T.S. to go out into the world and convince people of the necessity to become more altruistic.

Yesterday Mr. Blogger should have made his second blog, but he was taken to the Indian Institute of Technology, where the Madras Federation of the Theosophical Society organised a competition for some five teams of students, who gave presentations on Tolerance and Integrity. About a dozen students made a rich variety of opinions on the pros and cons of the imposition or inculcation of these items. It became clear, that tolerance should only be imposed in a most tolerant way. If the imposer has not himself integrated the different cultures and religions, he is not capable of tolerance and cannot give the necessary example.

The School of The Wisdom on the Secret Doctrine arrived today at Stanza one of Book one:

"The eternal parent, wrapped in her ever-invisible robes, had slumbered once again for seven eternities."

Then after the tea-break, we had the luxury of attending an English literature class on Mac Beth. The hero at first is perfect, but in the end is tempted to commit all kinds of murderous crimes.
When he is about to be defeated, he says :

"Tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow. All of our yesterdays have lead us fools with petty pace to dusty death."

All the seven stanzas of cosmology zipped together into a one liner!

Shakespeare learned his English only at school and did not go to college, but produced over 36 drama's, while his contemporary writers, who went to university, produced at the maximum three or four drama's.

The 15th November was the 89th birthday of the International President of the T.S., which was celebrated here at Bojansala with a lunch for some 60 members of the staff. Blogger has been eating with his hand again.
This and many other details form part of the process of integration of European into Indian life style. The local supermarkets are called "Life-Style" and appear rather occidental. For the moment I do my shopping in small toko's on the avenues, where from time to time somebody, including the all-brassed-up policeman, asks me where I am from.

We are the world,
Brooder