What Went Wrong With the Theosophical Society
Dinshaw J. Buxey, a member of the Theosophical Society out of Bombay India, wrote a number of letters to The Canadian Theosophist through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In the March-April issue of 1996, there appeared an essay that he originally wrote in 1991. This essay is centered around the resignation letter that H.P. Blavatsky penned when she left Adyar in the Spring of 1885. Buxey relates to the readers the hatred and animosity directed at HPB at that time by those involved with the Adyar headquarters. We also learn a little more about the cult of the Masters that had risen up in those days and where that cult had come from. Buxey then passes on to look at those who followed HPB. We learn of the regrets of Annie Besant and Colonel Olcott, and of the great missed opportunity that was the political attack on W.Q. Judge.
D.J. Buxey's unique perspective comes from a lifetime of interaction with the movers and shakers of the Theosophical Society. In various letters Buxey writes:
That the T.S. had turned away from the original message. They did not even know what the teachings of H.P.B. were, and that after 100 years, members were woefully ignorant of what the Masters really taught, (Buddhism, Vedanta, etc.), the 2nd Object was changed after H.P.B.'s death. In fact, in 1895 Adyar wrote that she (H.P.B.) was an imposter. Then what was taught? Insane psychism was taught. Note the word "insane".
The leading lights of the T.S. like Bishop Wedgewood and Oscar Kollerstrom (whom I personally met) turned insane - literally! - and from this situation came teachings. But money was made in the name of Masters. H.P.B. resigned on this account. . . . (CT May - June 1996)
Elsewhere he writes:
Once J. Krishnamurti told me . . . to do my darndest best to close it [the Esoteric School]. . . . [F]reedom of thought (T.S.) and absolute obedience (E.S.) cannot work together. . . .
. . . J.K. [Krishnamurti] and I got talking (about Ernest Wood) and this is what Wood said in 1946 or so, which he put in his "Is This Theosophy?". There were democratic elections, but C. Jinarajadasa (a past International President) used the E.S. to say that the Masters wanted him elected.
Need I say more? (CT, Jan - Feb 1977)
And finally when commenting on an article by Gregory Tillet concerning Leadbeater, Buxey writes:
First, why should the Society reconsider its position [with respect to Leadbeater's psychism]? C.W.L. himself reconsidered its position and his own position. He even disowned his own books, saying "I now see things differently". Is it his fault that T.P.H. goes on reprinting them?
Then again, once he was silent when asked for an opinion. When pressed, he gave it, and as told he described the opposite of what H.P.B. had described. Was he abashed? On the contrary, he knew it, so was hesitant. But what could he do? he asked. He had to say as he saw. He said every time he differed from H.P.B. he was proved wrong, and no doubt time will prove him wrong again. (CT, Nov - Dec 1982)
Wedgwood, Leadbeater, Krishnamurti, they all came after. They came after the seeds had been planted in the fertile soil of doubt and superstition that existed at Adyar in the years leading up to 1884. Read Buxey's analysis of H.P. Blavatsky's letter of resignation as printed in The Canadian Theosophist.
IN MEMORY OF H. P. BLAVATSKY (pdf)
For those inerested in the edited version of the letter printed in the May 1885 "Supplement to the Theosophist" see:
RETIREMENT OF MADAME BLAVATSKY (pdf)