Guest guest Posted November 21, 2002 Report Share Posted November 21, 2002 WHAT WERE THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY MASTERS THE MASTERS OF ? by H H Tridandi Sannyasi Bhakti Ananda Goswami Maharaja Shiksha (instructing) Master, Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya lineage of Vaishnavism TAKING A REAL-WORLD HISTORICAL APPROACH TO THE CONTENT OF THE MAHATMA LETTERS AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AND SUGGESTIONS FOR AN INITIAL VAISHNAVA, PURE LAND BUDDHIST, AND SHIVA-SHAKTI AGAMIC AND TANTRIC REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE, THE "MAHATMA LETTERS", AS COMPILED BY BARKER, AND AVAILABLE TO SEARCH ONLINE FROM THE THEOSOPHICAL UNIVERSITY PRESS An Historical Approach Whether or not God or gods exist, their worship certainly does, and such worship can be studied rigorously in an interdisciplinary way in history, the same as any other real-world phenomenon. In the same way, the innovation and diffusion of Theosophy can be studied. Thoughts, theistic, atheistic and agnostic etc., and the symbols, words and actions which express them have history. While people of equal intelligence and integrity may dispute the existance of God, gods, or the Theosophical Masters, the existence of religion and theosophy is not debated. It is easier to trace the course through time and territory of the popular exoteric 'Great Religions' than it is to trace the innovations and diffusions of the elitist esoteric traditions. Never the less, the esoteric traditions have real-world history too, and with some additional effort, much can be learned about these as well. Paul Johnson has noted the sui generis problem (see below). The historical approach to the study of a religion (or 'spirituality', I might add), is often experienced as threatening by faithful. "kpauljohnson" Wed Nov 20, 2002 7:33 am Synthetic vs. authentic; why genealogical dissociation occurs .."Where authenticity comes in, IMO, is in the frank acknowledgment of the synthetic nature of the teaching. Cayceites who insist that the Readings are direct transcriptions of the Akashic Record; Baha'is who insist that Baha'u'llah's writings are direct words of God; Christians who insist that Jesus is the one and only Son of God whose words are the absolute and ultimate truth; Theosophists who insist that HPB's Theosophy is the ancient wisdom tradition from which everything else devolved; ad nauseum are engaged in what David Lane calls genealogical dissociation. That is, denying the actual, always complex genealogy of the belief system and pretending that it is sui generis, direct truth straight from The Source. I don't think Hinduism or Buddhism are exempt from this behavior pattern, although they do tend to a bit more self-honesty about the history of ideas." BA G : In fact, that "...self-honesty about the history of ideas.",is exactly what the system of sampradaya or parampara and GURU,SHASTRA and SADHU (GSS)is all about in the authentic teaching lineages of Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shakti-ism, Buddhism and Catholicism etc. These exoteric traditions all attempt to preserve their sacred heritage, by systems of initiation and apostolic succession. For example, one cannot just claim to be a Madhvite or Ramanujite Vaishnava master, any more than one could claim to be a Coptic Catholic bishop without the authority of the Coptic rite Patriarch. No one can serve as a bishop in the Roman Rite Catholic Church, without the proper elevation of the Pope. No one can just claim to be the next Dalai Lama or Patriarch of any of the Vaishnava, Shaivite, Shankarite Advaitan, Hasidic Jewish, traditional Sufi or Catholic Rite lineages. All of these 'apostolic' traditions zealously guard their teaching authority, which preserves the guru, shastra and sadhu history of their ideas and practices. The real- world checks and balances system of guru (living teacher in union with the magisterium), shastra (scripture, canonical body of writings) and sadhu (the tradition of the saints, mystics, theologians and commentators), provides exoteric religions with a way to try to safe-guard the historical integrity and continuity of their traditions. Thus the legitimate lineages of Vaishnavsim, Shaivism and Buddhism etc. are extremely strict about properly identifying their history of ideas and practices. No one can speak from the Vyasasana 'ex cathedra' without proper lineage credentials. In practice, this means that I can trace certain ideas in my specific lineage back thousands of years, because each generation has identified its accepted sources, heroes and associations with those of previous generations. I can also trace some of the major and minor branching-out of ideas and practices from the main 'trunk' of my lineage, and identify some groups that are proximately or remotely related to my own today. Because there is such a high value placed on such parampara or sampradaya lineage affiliations in the main Indic traditions, studying these has enormous value for an historian of religion. It is because of this "...self honesty of the history..." of their ideas, that India and Tibet etc, have any recorded history to be studied at all. It has been said that Indians wrote no history of India. However, this cannot be said if one is considering the histories of the great religious traditions of India, whose vast libraries were full of detailed accounts of the lives and thought of the generations transmitting their sacred traditions. One of the great tragedies of the Muslim invasion of India, was the vast destruction of Indian religious center monastery-university cities and all their libraries. Unfortunately in our time such destruction of temples and libraries is still going on, but this time it is not just fanatical Muslims doing it. The Sinhalese Buddhist 'Aryans' have recently occupied hundreds of Tamil (principally Shaivite and Devi)temples, and have destroyed about a hundred thousand volumes of priceless Tamil literatures in the last ten years. This campaign for the cultural annihilation of the Dravidian Tamils by the so-called 'Aryan' Sinhalese, is one reason that scholars of religion, such as myself, are concerned about the perpetuation of the 'Aryan' race-myth. Despite such barbarism, and in consideration of the amazing amount of information still available from ancient texts, archeology and the intact living GSS traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism, there is ample evidence available for the study of the "Mahatma Letters" in the historical context of their "...complex genealogy..." Suggestions For an Initial Survey of the Literature Because we have the Theosophical University Library Edition of the "Mahatma Letters" in a searchable format online, one way to approach an understanding of the Mahatmas' mastery from the perspective of the Tibetan Buddhist-related Hindu and Buddhist GSS traditions, is to search the Letters for key terms associated with those GSS traditions. Completing such a search can establish the initial evidentiary parameters of our textual investigation. In assessing what the Mahatmas were the masters of, we can learn much from what is NOT INCLUDED IN THE LETTERS. So let us begin with some of these key terms. The Mahatmas claimed an identity-with and love for India, which they significantly DID NOT CALL BHARATA. The use of European terms, instead of the ones like 'Bha_rata", which real ancient Indian Mahatmas would be expected to use, is one of the most striking things to a real master and lover of that ancient land and culture. Here are some of the Sanskrit terms I have already searched in the over 100 "Mahatma Letters", and the results, which are quite revealing. In my search, I used several variant spellings, and the singular and plural forms of the word. However for brevity, only the main search term or name is given with the totals below. Next to the word is the total number of references in the Mahatma Letters, pulled- up by the Theosophical University search program. There seems to be no reflection of Agamic or Dravidian Vedic spirituality in the "Mahatma Letters". Places / States goloka 0 bhuloka 0 bhumi 0 vrindavan 0 bharata 0 kailasa 1 vaikuntha 0 sukhavati 1 loka 8 swarga 0 vyuha 0 Giver (masculine) Deity Names Vaishnava chrishna 2 vishnu 4 hari 0 purusha 4 narayana 0 avatar 3 devadeva 0 surya 2 indra 0 chandra 1 kama 12 vishvakarman 0 brahma 6 deva(s) 21 Shaivite shiva 2 kala 0 hara 0 maruga(n) 0 kartikeya 0 skanda 0 ganesha 0 ganapati 0 Related Receiver (Feminine) Divine Names Vaishnava radha 0 sakti 2 prakriti 3 ganga 0 ma 2 sarasvati 0 lakshmi 0 sri 1 padma 1 narayani 0 tara 0 gayatri 0 tulasi 0 Shaivite kali 1 uma 0 parvati 0 durga 0 maya 16 devi 0 yogamaya 0 The Tradition of Sita-Rama ramayana 0 valmiki 0 tulsidas 0 rama 1 ramachandra 0 sita 0 janaki 0 hanuman 0 ravana 0 Some Shastra Titles, Important Names and Terms vyasa 1 vyasadeva 0 mahabharata 0 veda 1 upanishads 0 agama 0 tantra 0 shastra 1 samhita 0 sutra (s) 3 sama 0 rig 0 yajur 0 ayurveda 0 saddharma pundarika 0 bhagavadgita 0 bhagavat 1 bhagavatam 0 gita 1 jataka 0 hitopedesha 0 pancatantra 0 Mahatmas Identified themselves as Buddhists buddha 18 buddhism 24 buddhist 13 bodhisattva 0 Aryan and Race Term Search arya 1 aryan 9 aryans 4 race 31 races 16 varna 0 dravidian 0 Material Modes of Nature sattva 0 raja 3 tama 0 guna 0 Some Additional Important Terms bhakti 0 kama 12 jnana 0 vidya 4 dharma 0 karma 38 vishva karman 0 Ages and Cycles kalpa 1 yuga (s)1 sattya treta 0 dvarpara 0 kaliyuga 0 Worship and Sacrifice Related terms mantra 0 japa 0 puja 3 pujari 0 purohita 0 murti 0 soma 0 agni 0 yupa 0 nama 0 rupa 9 yoga 4 Some Great Masters Accepted by the Vaishnavas caraka 0 madhva 0 jayatirtha 0 vyasatirtha 0 ramanuja 0 vallabha 0 vishnuswami 0 nimbarka 0 jayadevagoswami 0 caitanya 0 shankara 0 Some Master Titles and Lineage Words acharya 0 goswami 0 alvars 0 sadhu 0 saddhus 1 sampradaya 0 parampara 0 diksha 0 siksha 0 sannyasi 0 Finite and Supreme Spirit Words atma 5 atman 2 jiva 2 jivatma 4 paramatma 0 parabrahmn 6 brahman 1 brahma 6 Pls join the discussion reg. the above at : IndianCivilization/message/28691 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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