Esoteric Frauds Use Vows to Obtain
Political Control Over Sincere People
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
The decision to search for truth
has many a challenging result and consequence, since all that glitters is not gold.
There
is for instance a complex relationship between truthfulness and brotherhood,
along the path to wisdom.
A “brotherly
hypocrisy” leads no one to spiritual liberation. Friendship and brotherhood cannot
be put above truthfulness. An “ugly” truth is better than a “beautiful”
lie. However, choosing truth in every occasion and under whatever form implies
a degree of sacrifice. We shall see that
in the next few paragraphs.
The Vow of an Aspirant
In the
esoteric school founded by H.P. Blavatsky in 1888, every new member made a vow
with seven clauses, the seventh and unnumbered clause being an appeal to one’s
own higher self, or immortal soul.
The
vow said:
1. I pledge myself to endeavour to make Theosophy a living factor in my
life.
2. I pledge myself to support, before the world, the Theosophical
movement, its leaders and its members.
3. I pledge myself never to listen without protest to any evil thing
spoken of a Brother Theosophist and to abstain from condemning others.
4. I pledge myself to maintain a constant struggle against my lower
nature, and to be charitable to the weaknesses of others.
5. I pledge myself to do all in my power, by study or otherwise, to fit
myself to help and teach others.
6. I pledge myself to give what support I can to the movement in time,
money, and work.
“So Help Me, My Higher Self.” [1]
Loyalty
is of great importance in theosophy, and a few questions should be examined, regarding
points 2 and 3 above.
* How
can one who made such a pledge denounce the fabrication of phony Masters, or
criticize the invention of false portraits of Masters and the creation of
imaginary dialogues with Mahatmas, all of which was done by well-known
“theosophists” and leaders of the esoteric movement?
* Could
that be an unbrotherly attitude towards Mrs. Annie Besant and her associates,
among them the Catholic priest Geoffrey Hodson?
* Is
not the protection of lies and frauds the inevitable result of such a brotherly
vow, as long as the wrongdoing is committed by our own best leaders and
friends?
* Is
it not correct to piously cheat, lie and act in a dishonest way, as long as we
tell ourselves that we are doing that for a noble
cause and to serve the theosophical
Mahatmas?
Higher Self the Final
Authority
The matter
of fact is that fraud, pious or not, leads one away from theosophy and from any
wise teachers.
And -
true vows can never lead to blind obedience. However, one must admit that esoteric frauds
use Vows to obtain political control over sincere people.
Two main
things must therefore be acknowledged with regard to the pledge reproduced above.
1) The first one is that the
pledge in the esoteric school created by H.P. Blavatsky is something whose
expression is not for the others - “authorities” or otherwise - to judge. It is
a commitment made by each one before his or her conscience, above all. No bishop,
priest, formal leader, or public opinion is entitled to say whether anyone
broke or not his commitment to his own higher self. The authority is the wordless
voice of one’s conscience.
2) The second point is that no
pledge is ever valid, if interpreted as an obligation to protect fraud, lies,
or treason.
A mafia (or a priestly organization) can
induce people to promote and to protect lies in the name of loyalty. This does not apply to a sacred
pledge involving one’s own higher self.
No
pledged member of a theosophical movement or association has the obligation to
protect what he considers falsehood or wrongdoing.
In
2002, I presented to Mrs. Radha Burnier - the leader of the Adyar Esoteric
School - documented evidence that Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater had
created a fraudulent version of discipleship. Mrs. Burnier answered in writing and
said that everyone is entitled to think according to his conscience. She then washed
her hands. I was a Pledged or Senior member of the Adyar Esoteric School by
then. Various Adyar friends and colleagues invited me to keep silent as to the
evidence I had gathered. However, that was
not acceptable: I did not believe in blind belief.
Another
example of the same principle of individual responsibility as to pledges made can
be useful, and it does not involve the Adyar Theosophical Society.
Robert
Crosbie (1849-1919) is often accused of having
broken his pledge of allegiance to Katherine Tingley’s Esoteric School (in the Point
Loma Society) when he walked away from it in 1904 and formally founded the
United Lodge of Theosophists, ULT, in February 1909.
In
this case, too, as in several others, people should understand that the authentic
pledge is made to no outer
authority. It is a commitment of oneself to his own higher self. Crosbie would
have broken his Vow to his higher self only if he had remained in an Esoteric
School which had lost his confidence. [2]
The Adyar
Esoteric School pledge of obedience to the Outer Head (made and signed in paper
by its “Pledged” or Senior members) has therefore no real value, and, if taken
seriously, is phony.
Mrs.
Radha Burnier, the Outer Head of Adyar School between 1978 and her death in
2013, implicitly showed she understood that.
Following
Krishnamurti’s ideas into a large extent, she had no firm faith in the esoteric
fraud fabricated by Annie Besant. Since Mrs. Burnier did not appoint anyone to
succeed her in the Esoteric School, the present and future of this school is at
least uncertain and basically irrelevant.
One must
admit that the problems of the Adyar Esoteric School are not recent. Starting
in 1895, it was totally distorted by Annie Besant and made to serve the parody
of the Return of the Christ (1911-1930). Even now, the Adyar School members are
seldom invited to study any text of real theosophy. It is due to the good law of karma that the
Besantian version of HPB’s esoteric school has been seriously debilitated since
the end of 20th century. Many of its members do not take its pledges seriously:
the international elections of 2007-2008 clearly showed that. [3] The death of Radha Burnier in 2013
opened a new page in the process of Adyar’s decadence.
The
Adyar School is not the only example of an unrealistic approach to the challenge
of aspiration for lay discipleship.
There
are several of them, all of which are based on blind belief. They must be
re-examined in the present century from the point of view of the law of self-renewal
that guides all life.
The
true, non-bureaucratic approach to lay discipleship is available through
classic theosophy and its timeless ethics; but it needs researching minds, and
no lazy brain will be able to attain to it in the next few centuries.
NOTES:
[1] From the text “The Meaning of a Pledge”, by “One Who
Is Pledged”, which is available at our associated websites.
[2] See in our associated
websites the article “Whether Crosbie Broke His Vows”.
[3] Readers are invited to
examine the text “The 2007-2008 Events in Adyar”, by Pedro R. M. de Oliveira,
in our associated websites.
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In September 2016, after a
careful analysis of the state of the esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students
decided to form the Independent Lodge of
Theosophists, whose priorities include the building of a better future in
the different dimensions of life.
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