The acceptance of theosophy was far easier for Indians than for Europeans or Eurasians, because of parallels between the movement’s adoption of a quest for truth as the founding principle and what Indian puranic texts, such the Bhagavatham propounded, V. Ramasubramanian, Madras High Court Judge, said on Sunday.
Delivering the Foundation Day lecture at The Theosophical Society, Adyar, he pointed out that the triad of love, beauty and truth that formed the essence of theosophy was also very similar to the concept of karmayoga advocated in the Bhagavad Gita.
In embracing all religions, which it propounded to derive from a common source of divine wisdom, theosophy also explored the connectedness between love, virtue and beauty. For its founders and its guiding lights, theosophy was essentially a body of doctrine separated from the beliefs, ceremonies, rites and customs that marked one religion from the other, Mr. Justice Ramasubramanian pointed out.
If Col. Henry Steel Olcott, who along with Madame Blavatsky, premised the objective of The Theosophical Society they established in 1875 as a conscientious study of truth, Dr. Annie Besant made service to humanity its stem, Mr. Justice Ramasubramanian said.
The supreme duty, for Dr. Annie Besant, was to serve; for only by service to humanity was the fullness of life possible, he pointed out citing excerpts from her address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, 1893.
In his tribute to Madame Blavatsky, M. P. Singhal, International vice-president of the Society, pointed to her advocacy of propagating what the doctrine was and what it was not to others, especially the youth.
S. Harihara Raghavan, general manager of the Society, read out a condolence message for former Society president Radha Burnier who passed away recently.
Later, Mr. Justice Ramasubramanian led the floral tributes to the founders of The Theosophical Society.
