The Future? of the Adyar Theosophical Society

 

Adyar

The Voice of Stagnation

By

Dave Marsland

 

 

As a vehicle for promoting Theosophy, it has been clear

for decades that the Adyar Theosophical Society in its

current form is not fit for purpose.

 

 

 

 

The Fall of Adyar

 

Adyar says nothing to us ordinary folk

Dismisses the members as if they’re a joke

Keeps everything secret and says not a word

With a self importance that is frankly absurd

 

There’s plenty of international swanning about

And mutual appreciation while time’s running out

They will be astounded to learn one sunny day

That the last of their members has just walked away

 

 

 

So the race is on, although many of the members have still to hear who the candidates are and will only be informed at the pleasure of the national leaderships. The real issue in the election is not of course the leadership of the Theosophical Society but the control of the Adyar Headquarters and its administration which operates against a background of secrecy, unaccountability and anonymity. This issue has been simmering for decades but has been kept quiet by an Adyar inner circle who protect their position and collaborators in the national section leaderships who creep to them. Even within the Indian Section itself, concerns over the control of the Adyar Headquarters are now being raised.

 

Have the elite nominated candidates of the elite for the elite? It may not matter as the current form of the Adyar Theosophical Society may be finished anyway as members continue to walk out. The two presidential candidates are little known outside the international Theosophical elite and their own countries, and if either has raised the subject of declining membership or communication with the membership then it has only been within the elite inner circle. The leadership has always appeared to regard any concept of membership involvement as subversive and a threat to its power, and genteel self image. The recent reference to the membership as BALLAST confirms not only the leadership’s indifference but also indicates, as the statement comes so close to the presidential candidate announcement, that those candidates may well have been chosen because they believe in keeping the members in their place. In this case, they will of course be a bit more diplomatic about it than calling the members ballast.

 

 

Rather than ignoring a decline in membership that will eventually prove fatal, the

leadership could have thrown open the subject to members for debate and suggestions.

The ruling elite would rather let the Theosophical Society die out than

involve the members.

 

A Theosophical Society with a remote, secretive and self referential leadership combined with a falling membership fails to meet the challenge of the modern era and Theosophy will soon be moving forward without it. This leadership election, with its secrecy and stodgy procedure, simply highlights 80 years of stagnation and it is yet to be seen if there is a radical agenda for change or even an agenda for change.

If any change was on the way from the top then we would probably have heard about it long before now and there may therefore be nothing better on offer than further stagnation leading to extinction.

 

Certainly the need for the Adyar Headquarters or even any international headquarters is being questioned. But need it stop there? Can the Society dispense with not only an international headquarters but also with an international hierarchy. After all, only representatives of twenty out of about sixty countries bothered to show up at the 2013 Adyar International Convention, so the winding down process must already be well under way with sections allocating resources elsewhere. It is now fair to ask just many sections outside India remain in the Adyar supporters club.

 

 

The majority of members worldwide have access to the internet.

Lodges and National Sections could relay Adyar news on a regular basis

to those who don’t. The Adyar elite feel that the concept of communicating

directly with members is threatening and would open up areas of

debate that they want to keep closed.

 

 

 

Alternative organisational models may have to be considered soon anyway as membership falls and the Adyar Theosophical Society stares extinction in the face. The existing leadership would have done something to reverse the decline if they had the will to do so. Rather than creating a thriving inclusive global society they have preferred to create an exclusive club, resisting new ideas, riddled with nepotism and a hereditary tradition, and able to promote only their own interests rather than Theosophy. There is no point in looking to a leadership that has failed to act since the 1930s and sections must look to themselves to remedy the situation at local level.

 

Local initiative must by implication involve the general membership as the top down Adyar model never has. Energy would be directed where it is most needed by people on the spot and not drained by a moribund centralised hierarchical system that has never taken the membership seriously. This need not preclude international events but these would take place on a co-operation basis between alliances of independent Theosophical groups. Having dispensed with a central authority and international hierarchy, members would feel ownership of the organisation which was really theirs in the first place.

 

While the Society still exists as a single entity, it may yet salvage something from nothing with this election. For those not happy to vote for the status quo by voting for either candidate, it would not be too much trouble to add another option to the ballot paper in the form of a question relating to the separation of their own section from Adyar. This need not affect the election of one of the candidates but it would encourage both candidates to present realistic proposals for reforming and reviving the Adyar Theosophical Society.

 

 

 

Dave Marsland

 

Posted January 14th 2014

 

Dave’s Theosophy News Board

 

Contact Dave Marsland

 

 

 

 

 

Theosophical Society Issues

 

 

 

The Tekels Park Family Eviction

A family has been evicted from their home at Tekels Park because

a Tekels Park Estate Limited director wanted to live in their house.

 

 

 

The Future ? of

The Adyar Theosophical Society

 

 

Will there be an Adyar Free Future?

 

 

Adyar’s Slightly International Convention

 

 

President of Nothing

Membership Decline – The Elephant in the Room

 

 

Ballast

The True Status of the

Adyar Theosophical Society Members

 

 

Open Election?

How Inconvenient

 

 

Adyar

The Voice of Stagnation

 

 

Tekels Park & Dead Animals

 

 

An Extra Box on the Ballot Paper

Suggestion for the 2014 Adyar Theosophical Society

International Presidential Election

 

 

A Society Without Members

 

 

Is the 2014 Adyar Presidential Election Invalid?

 

 

Radha Burnier Employment Services

Radha Burnier’s policy of allocating jobs to members of her own

family turned the Adyar Headquarters into the family firm.

How many suitable applicants were discounted so that

Radha Burnier could give a job to a family member?

 

 

Don’t Just Do Nothing

Stand There

Despite decades of decline and stagnation leading the

Adyar Theosophical Society to the verge of evaporation

or disintegration, the leadership have so far shown no

sign of coming up with a strategy for ensuring the

continuation of the Society as a unified body.

 

 

Adyar, the Sole Purpose of Adyar

 

 

Western President

Or

They’ll Knock Adyar Down?

 

 

Save Radha’s House

Revealing that the Adyar elite’s stately home is under threat

of compulsory land purchase and can be saved by convincing the

authorities that it is in fact an international headquarters (if true)

may have given the Theosophical Society members a brilliant

opportunity to get Adyar off their backs.

If not true then it looks like blackmail

 

 

Ignore the Voters

and Get Elected

An overview of the Adyar Theosophical Society

Presidential Election System

 

 

What an Insult to Members

Expecting members to vote for candidates while withholding

highly relevant information indicates an utter contempt by

the leadership for the general membership

 

 

Film of the Tekels Park Deer

Here is a link to a short film of the Tekels Park Deer

posted by a Camberley resident.

Everyone opposed to the killing of the Tekels Park animals

will want to see this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fkfw8amMps

 

 

International Election Protocol

This is only an idea for consideration but if the Theosophical elite

continue to treat the members with the current levels of indifference and

contempt for the duration of this election then the Adyar Theosophical

Society will be an empty shell by the time it is completed.

 

 

The Secrecy

The secrecy with which the Adyar Theosophical Society

leadership conducts the Society’s affairs is legendary.

Is this secrecy for its own sake or are some serious

issues being suppressed and kept beyond discussion?

 

 

Banging the Drum for Theosophy

Looking forward to the post Adyar era

 

 

Burnier Town Hall

Family control of Adyar has reduced the members

of the General Council to the status of town hall officials.

 

 

The Great Election

Rip-Off

Silence by elected management cheats

the members out of participating in the

running of their own organisation

 

 

Keeping the International Headquarters at Adyar

It may not be that easy

 

 

 

ABOLISH

The International President

ABOLISH

The General Council

An idea for consideration

 

 

What is Behind the

Attitude

of the

Theosophical Elite?

The Adyar Theosophical Society ruling elite denies

members the right to be consulted on issues and the

ability to convey their views directly to the leadership.

Why does the leadership of an organisation

treat its members like this in the modern era?

 

 

Towards a New Model for Theosophy

The Adyar Theosophical Society Leadership

now isolates itself within a cult of superiority

while the Society evaporates around it.

A Theosophical Society can survive but not

in the current format.

 

 

Choose a Stooge

When the Issues are Huge

Is this what is on offer to the Adyar Theosophical

Society's paying members from a ruling elite

that has a different agenda from that of the Society?

 

 

SHUT UP & VOTE

This election is really inconvenient for the leadership, isn’t it?

Why are the members being hustled into blind voting?

What are the leadership’s post-election plans?

 

 

Members No Longer Members

of their Own Society

An inter-regnum in the presidency, during which

matters are discussed, is the only course of action

with a chance of saving the Adyar Theosophical

Society as a unified body.

 

 

Now Here’s Something Worth

Keeping Quiet About

Are there plans to sell Adyar without

consulting the members?

 

 

Is There Hidden

Bad News?

A leadership shutdown combined with a total

news blackout suggests a serious hidden issue

and an intense fear of revealing it.

 

 

Control Adyar or

You Control Nothing

Is the self imposed isolation of the General Council effectively

a mass resignation as they have found, after the death of

Radha Burnier, that establishing control of Adyar is too difficult?

 

 

A Manifesto

Well Done! CVK Maithreya

 

 

Elected Representation

Not Representing

Silence is Killing the Adyar Theosophical Society.

The presidential candidates are as much victims of the

General Council’s silence rule as are the members.

The silence rule also seeks to establish General Council

control over the future president.

 

 

Make Way for the Messiahs

Have the Esoteric Section and the

General Council merged into one body?

 

 

Does Silence Mean

Game Over

for the Adyar Theosophical Society?

CVK Maithreya presented plans for the future, in

defiance of General Council instructions.

Does suppression of discussion mean that the

Adyar Theosophical Society doesn’t have a future?

 

 

Accountable Leadership Urgently Required

The General Council has abused its power

by putting itself beyond accountability.

A new leadership is needed, and fast.

 

 

Anybody There?

No Information,

Discussion forbidden,

No replies to questions.

Do the members still have a Society?

 

 

Can’t Change

Won’t Change

Those who have kept the Society time warped

in the 1930s now have the task of introducing

reform and they obviously don’t want to do it.

 

 

Beggars at the Door

Left sitting out in the cold and starved of information,

members now realise how the General Council regards them

 

Why not include this picture in any information request to General Council

officers as an indication of how members feel they are being treated.

Or just send the picture anyway.

 

 

From The Top Down

The Adyar Theosophical Society is decades

out of date and desperately in need of reform

starting with getting rid of a leadership that

refuses to be accountable to the members.

 

 

Who Owns Adyar?

 

 

 

The Royal Court of Radha Burnier

 

 

General Council Meeting 2013 Minutes

 

 

Adyar

Theosophical Society

International Rules

 

 

Something Wrong?

Making it a bit obvious aren’t you?

 

 

Publicly Denounced

The Australian Section made a formal complaint to

Radha Burnier about her victimisation of the Australian

General Secretary at the 2011 General Council meeting.

 

 

Disgraceful Treatment of an Adyar Employee

A woman sacked and evicted for complaining.

Given 13 days to get out of her home.

 

 

The Preethi Muthiah Letters

Tell A Very Sad Tale

 

 

Concerns Raised

About General Council Meetings

Looks like there has been some attempt

by a General Council member to promote

reform within the Theosophical Society

 

 

General Council

2012 Meeting Minutes

 

 

New Committee?

Make Your Wife The Chairperson

 

 

Adyar Internal Problems

that the General Council

Should Investigate

 

 

Is Adyar Still The Headquarters?

 

 

Creep On!

General Council

Or why don’t you do something

to recover Adyar for the members?

 

 

Good Campaign Pitch, Mr Singhal

 

 

Adyar Prepares for the Break-Up

 

 

Profile of Adyar

From a Victim

 

 

Adyar Family Appointment

A Job for Your Daughter

 

 

 

 

Another Family Power Appointment

For your Daughter

 

 

Bold Initiative

By Singapore Lodge

 

 

 

 

Triumph of the Weak

Don’t expect the General Council

to do anything if the election is bent

 

 

Adyar Job News

You don’t need a plan

You don’t need a degree

If your name’s Raghavan

It’s job number three

 

 

No Stand For Democracy

An appraisal of the General Council’s commitment

to maintaining the Adyar Theosophical Society

as a democratic body

 

 

Bent election?

But Vote Anyway

 

 

A Society Without Leadership

Nobody sees it, Nobody hears from it

Is it hiding somewhere? Does it exist?

 

 

Who will Believe It?

Even if the presidential election is correct and above board,

the confidence in the General Council has fallen so low

that members won’t believe it.

 

 

Supporting Adyar?

Haven’t members been cheated for long enough?

 

 

 

 

 

Long Tradition of

Bullying

at Adyar

Preethi Muthiah has highlighted an endemic problem at Adyar,

which the General Council has ignored for many years.

There are still no plans implement a grievance procedure and

Anti-bullying policy at Adyar.

 

 

Summary Dismissal

Of lady over 70 from her job at Adyar

 

 

True Purpose of the

2014 Election

What the paying members want has little to do with

this election, as the silence and lack of information show.

The real purpose of this election is for the General Council

to deliver the candidate that the Adyar ruling elite wants.

 

 

What Makes this Election Invalid?

 

 

Trouble

After the Election

 

 

Was Your Vote Counted?

Was your vote forwarded to Adyar?

Was the election actually held?

Against a background of silence, a court case and

allegations of irregularities, these are fair questions.

 

 

Not Being at Adyar

Well, it’s much easier than being a real president

 

 

Democracy in the Adyar Theosophical Society

R.I.P.

 

 

11,432 Votes

Is That All?

 

 

No Right To Complain

Well, what can you expect in an organisation where

the leadership regards the membership as ballast

Doubts about the integrity of the election

are left unresolved, rendering the result invalid.

 

 

 

 

President’s Inauguration

A Private Function

Elite Welcome

The Ballast now know their true status

 

 

Pray Silence

While the President Creeps into Office

 

 

It’s Silence as Usual

By the Adyar Theosophical Society ruling elite.

No hurry to prove the election result

But a real hurry to get the president installed

 

 

Who Can Support

The Leadership Now?

 

 

Shut Up & Pay Up

The Adyar Theosophical Society has become

a multi-level marketing operation

 

 

President?

Really?

Doubts about the election result will

make the President’s job impossible.

 

 

Adyar & the US each have

Half a President

 

 

The White Lotus Hi-Jack

President uses White Lotus Day

as a personal platform.

What was the inauguration for?

 

 

Don’t Anybody

Ask Me Anything

That’s the clear message from the

International President to the members.

 

 

 

 

 

Is this the

Great Wheaton Rip-Off?

Questions now arise over allocation of Wheaton

resources by a two job president

 

 

Master of the Small Event

Launches New Presidency

 

 

 

 

The Adyar Payments Scam

 

 

Why Did

The 2014 Election

Go Ahead?

The General Council was confronted with considerable

evidence that the election was bent but just stood there

and let it go ahead.

 

 

The Great Giveaway

What right did the General Council have to give away

control of the Adyar Theosophical Society?

 

 

______________________________

 

 

Links to other News Boards

 

 

The Future of the Adyar Theosophical Society

Institutional Issues

 

 

Theosophy Forum

InvisionFree

 

 

Theosophy Nexus

 

 

www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com

 

 

www.TheosophyOnline.com

 

 

www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com

 

 

Theos-Talk

 

 

Теософическое Сообщество

"Нет религии выше истины!"

The Theosophical Community
"There is no religion higher than truth!"

 

 

_____________________________

 

 

Contact Dave Marsland

 

 

/another-family-job-at-adyar.htm  /cvk-maithreya-manifesto.htm  /singapore-initiative.htm  /control-adyar-or-control-nothing.htm

/good-reason-for-silence.htm  /triumph-of-the-weak.htm  /preethi-muthiah-adyar-profile.htm  /abolitionofpresident.htm

/lack-of-representation.htm  /carry-on-creeping.htm  /preethi-muthiah-letters.htm  /attitude-of-the-theosophical-elite.htm

/international-rules.htm  /members-disqualified.htm  /does-silence-mean-game-over.htm  /gc-concerns-raised.htm

/make-way-for-the-messiahs.htm  /hidden-bad-news.htm  /something-wrong.htm  /gc-2012-minutes.htm

/adyar-internal-problems.htm  /beggars-at-the-door.htm  /cannot-change-will-not-change.htm  /new-committee-nov-7.htm

/victimisation-of-gc-member.htm  /hey-look-a-job-for-his-daughter.htm  /cvk-maithreya-manifesto.htm

/accountable-leadership-urgently-required.htm