Greetings and welcome to the continuation of our program introducing the Theosophical Society with Mr. Daniel J. Noga, the Member Services Coordinator of the Theosophical Society in America. As a relatively recent movement that has strived to embrace the timeless wisdom, the Theosophical Society has no particular practice, nor ceremony nor rite. Rather, it extends to its members the freedom to follow their own traditional religious customs.

Because Theosophy is not incompatible with religions, members are encouraged to take part in their regular religious ceremonies. So, members do things like meditation, or attend church if they happen to be Christian or temple if they’re Jewish, mosque if they’re Muslim.

Theosophy claims that regardless of one’s religion, we should be spiritually aware. Why is spiritual awareness important to our daily lives?

Spiritual awareness sort of brings a recognition of that unity that we have discussed, in distinction to purely religious awareness, whereas spiritual awareness is more open and inclusive in bringing people together.

Meditation and spiritual practice are encouraged by the Theosophical Society. The specific method, however, may vary among individuals.

The attitude of the Society is that its members are to be able to seek for themselves and sort of determine for themselves what the best path is. But most forms of meditation have the effect of expanding our awareness. Even a simple meditation like mindfulness of breathing makes us more aware of our own breath, it makes us more aware of our own actions in general.

And it brings sort of a clarity and a peace of mind. And it’s from this foundation that some of the other consequences flow, a deeper understanding of unity.

So, what is the ultimate message of Theosophy?

The message that comes through most strongly and most often is the emphasis on unity. Unity of all things, that even though we all appear to be separate, we’re really all one. And from that, I would say that the most important object is brotherhood, which is the practical expression of that unity, that way of actually not just saying but demonstrating that we’re all one.

One of the main objectives of the Theosophical Society is to “encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Science.”

The main intention behind that is the idea that truth is something that has to be approached from more than one angle. So in other words, the Theosophical Society recognizes the validity of the scientific, the religious and the philosophical methods of approaching truth, and sort of professes that to arrive at a clearer picture of truth, we need to have a worldview that combines all three of these and sort of takes them all into account.

In accordance with this objective, from 1975 onwards, then president of the Theosophical Society Mrs. Dora Van Gelder Kunz organized yearly science seminars which take place at the Olcott Estate, the American headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Wheaton, Illinois. The seminars explored fascinating topics of science and spirituality, cycles, evolution, and unfolding consciousness. In 1981, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama attended.

The Theosophical Society has had a long history of providing charitable and humanitarian services. The Theosophical Order of Service (TOS) was founded in 1908 by Annie Besant, the second president of the Theosophical Society. TOS’s motto is “to unite all who love in the service of all that suffer.” Some of the early expressed objectives of TOS were: 1. To minimize the sum of misery in the world; 2. To forget self in working for others; 3. To eliminate selfishness and substitute love as the rule of the world; 4. To live to the highest that is within us.

Today, the Theosophical Order of Service is established in many countries around the world and strives to provide medical missions and disaster relief, establish orphanages and schools, provide scholarships, rehabilitate malnourished children, care for the disabled, prevent cruelty to animals, and promote vegetarianism, etc.

Mr. Noga spoke about the environmental and charitable principles that guide the Theosophical Society.

Learn to honor our natural resources for what they are. Recognize that they are limited and that we need to share them rather than to hoard them for ourselves. One of the other core principles of Theosophy is selflessness, service to others and sharing in the wealth of not just the world, but the universe in spirituality and ideas.

The problems that we see in the environment stem from a materialistic attitude, that sort of looks at the world around us as just matter to be played with, dominated or taken over. There’s this attitude by science that we’ll someday dominate nature. Theosophy instead points to the idea that since we’re all connected, we can’t even separate ourselves from the environment around us. And that if we were to recognize that we’re one with our environment and that there’s harmony that exist between us and the environment, then we would reverse the position that we have in relationship to our planet.

When we return, we’ll find out more about the Theosophical Society’s views on vegetarianism and meet some of history’s famous people who were shaped by Theosophy. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms and our program briefly introducing the principles and history of the Theosophical Society. The Theosophical Society has played an important role in the promotion of vegetarianism, based on reasons of universal compassion as well as spiritual well-being.

We do promote vegetarianism on principle. And actually, here at the national center, we don’t allow meat on campus at all, and all of the meals that we serve here are vegetarian.

The Society’s founder, Helena Blavatsky, was a vegetarian and explicitly advised Theosophy members to abstain from eating meat for the following reason:

“When the flesh of animals is assimilated by man as food, it imparts to him, physiologically, some of the characteristics of the animal it came from... We advise really earnest students to eat such food as will least clog and weigh their brains and bodies, and will have the smallest effect in hampering and retarding the development of their intuition, their inner faculties and powers.”

Other prominent members of the Theosophical Society who advocated a vegetarian diet were Dr. George Arundale and his wife Mrs. Rukmini Devi Arandale. Dr. Arundale, who was a bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church in India and the third president of the Theosophical Society, said this about the value of the cruelty-free living:

“One way leads to destruction. It is the way of the tolerance to cruelty, if not the active engagement in it. It is the way of hunting for sport, the way of vivesection, the way of killing for self-adornment, the way of killing animals for food, the way of making slaves of animals without thought for their happiness and well-being. This is the way the world has been treading. The other way leads to salvation. It is the way of harmlessness, the way of the recognition of brotherhood with all creatures, the way of tenderness and compassion, the way of service and not of selfishness.”

Dr. George Arundale’s wife, Rukmini Devi Arundale, was a classical dancer of Bharatnayam and founder of the famous Kalakshetra Academy of Indian Dance and Music in Chennai, India. She was also the vice president of the International Vegetarian Union for 31 years.

The Theosophical Society has had a deep influence on many distinguished individuals who shared the ideals of inclusiveness, unity, and brotherhood among all.

There are some pretty big historical figures who have professed to be influenced by Theosophy. Mohandas Gandhi was one. It’s very clear that his actions had a wide effect on the world, and as did the effects of some of the early Theosophical members, like Annie Besant, who was once the president of the Theosophical Society. She actually worked with Gandhi in India towards the liberation of the Indian people.

And there are other examples: Maria Montessori, the educator, spent some time living at the Society’s international headquarters in India, at Adyar, and it’s certain that Theosophy influenced her teaching methods. And the same with Rudolf Steiner and his Waldorf education.

Austrian-born Dr. Rudolf Steiner was the General Secretary of the German section of the Theosophical Society.

He later founded the Anthroposophical Society which brought forth the Waldorf schools, a new method of organic vegetable farming, the Camphill movement assisting people with special needs, and a new holistic medicine approach.

Other influential individuals who were deeply influenced by Theosophical thoughts include Irish poet and Nobel Prize winner William Butler Yeats, American author of children’s books L. Frank Baum, Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, and accomplished painters Paul Gauguin from France, Piet Mondrian from the Netherlands, and Wassily Kandinsky of Russia.

Today, the ideals of the Theosophical Society continue to appeal to the open-minded. Keeping pace with current issues, its members carry on the work of their predecessors to bring greater fellowship, peace, and tolerance in our world.

What does the Society view as some of the most prevalent problems today and how should these issues be resolved?

One of the issues that the Theosophical Society in America has recently been paying close attention to is interfaith and dialogue. The society, not just now, but in the past, has been active in the promotion of interfaith dialogue.

In this day and age there are many different religions, philosophies. Theosophy calls for unification of people and ideas. How can this be done and what would be a good starting point?

I think a very good starting point is simple open-minded inquiry, to lay ourselves open to different possibilities and even to possibly seek out different possibilities. Occasionally make a special effort to step outside of our own personal comfort zones; get some exposure to different experiences and different ideas and really try to understand where other people are coming from.

Some would argue that we have been created differently from one another and achieving unity or oneness is an ideal and not a reality. How would you respond to this?

Many of the realities that we see around us started out as ideals. There was a time in history, when the idea that people could be free individuals, was not very popular and now it’s something that we really sort of take for granted. So, whenever we have an ideal that doesn’t exist, I think that becomes a challenge for us to make that ideal happen, and it’s something that we need to carry out in our everyday lives.

We thank Mr. Noga and the Theosophical Society in America for explaining the noble minded principles and past and present endeavors of the Theosophical Society. By joining together, may our shared dream of a harmonious planet be realized soon.

Thank you, gentle viewers, for your presence on A Journey through Aesthetic Realms. Coming up next is Our Noble Lineage, right after Noteworthy News. Blessed be the Divine spirit in everyone.