The History of the German Section of the Theosophical Society 1902-1913
GA 250 — 7 October 1907, Berlin
36. Words for Annie Besant after the Presidential Election
My dear Theosophical friends,
It is with great satisfaction that I greet you again today, after our long break. Hopefully we will be able to start a very good winter campaign with this evening.
It is gratifying to note that we have had to enlarge this room as well by expanding our branch. And above all, it is even more gratifying that we have been able to enlarge it. If, during these winter lodge evenings, the rooms have been made a little more airy and perhaps a little more pleasant, these evenings will also be a little more pleasant, and this is what is most desirable in the interest of our spiritual movement.
Our spiritual movement should indeed penetrate deeper and more intensely into the overall spiritual life of our time with each passing year. And the larger our little groups become, which we are gathered in the various German cities, the more we will also succeed not only in absorbing theosophical ideas into ourselves, but also in letting them flow into the hearts of our contemporaries. All the more will we solve the task that we can recognize as our most beautiful within our spiritual movement.
Today I do not need to speak to you about these tasks. You all know them. It is only a wish that we all have in common that we may succeed in making further progress in our work during this winter.
Before we move on to the subject of our consideration, I would like to briefly touch on a few things from the movement, namely the fact that Mrs. Annie Besant has indeed been elected president of the Theosophical Society, which you will have learned from the “Mitteilungen”. We can combine this announcement with another event related to our current president, Mrs. Besant: On October 1, our current president turned sixty. It may well be said that this celebration of the sixtieth birthday of our esteemed president, after whom our lodge is named, must also be, in a sense, a celebration of our lodge. On this occasion, we recall that Mrs. Besant has taken on the rather heavy burden of the presidential duties of the Theosophical Society at this time and that she, who has always, wherever possible, whole strength anyway, so to speak, has taken on something that was needed at that moment, and which actually requires a great deal of human strength in itself, in order to add to her already considerable efforts.
Nevertheless, we must welcome the fact that it has turned out this way, in line with the remarks I was allowed to make before the election. We can think of the way in which Mrs. Besant has devoted her energy to the Theosophical Society and movement for eighteen years now. We understand this way of working best when we remember what the foundations of this theosophical movement actually are.
When we speak of the foundations of the Theosophical Society, the members naturally first notice the three principles of our Theosophical Society. Firstly, to establish the core of a general brotherhood; secondly, to seek the core of wisdom in the various religions; and finally, thirdly, to contribute to the dissemination of those insights that relate to the higher spiritual worlds.
If we now ask ourselves whether our society has anything special in the cultivation of the first sentence, in the cultivation of universal human brotherhood, compared to other societies, we have to say that anyone who looks around the world with an unbiased eye will know that this cultivation of humanity, in the broadest sense of the word, is an item on the program of many contemporary societies and that, so to speak, today in the very broadest circles this ideal is recognized as such that every noble person must strive for. And if a particular society takes up this ideal as its banner, many people in the world will ask themselves: Why should we join this society when we can satisfy this ideal in a completely different way and in other communities? And the second point, to seek the core of the wisdom teachings in the various religious creeds, is an ideal that is already being cultivated by many circles of scholars and many individual scholars today. If we want to look at the matter from a purely scholarly point of view, then we cannot say otherwise than that at least in the circles with a scholarly education, this ideal is also striven for, and that with the means of scholarly research, which, by the very nature of things, is not supposed to be inherent in the cultivation of a society. Nevertheless, we would fail to recognize the very nerve of our Society if we did not want to hold fast to these two great ideals. If we were not clear about the fact that, in the sense of what we have come to know as esoteric Christianity, the Theosophical Society prescribes for us precisely the all-embracing ideal of brotherhood and, on the other hand, that we, the great, deep, far-reaching peace that should spread throughout the world like an emanation of this universal brotherhood, a new social force, can best be achieved by us making peace right down to the core of our soul, right down to the hearts of human beings. But as long as we cannot make peace in terms of external institutions, in terms of external deeds, in terms of law and morality, we will never seriously achieve this general peace in the world, because what ultimately divides people are their thoughts, their beliefs. So, what we call general brotherhood, will you never achieve if we do not make peace in the beliefs? And how can we make peace if we cannot see what common core of truth is in the most diverse religious beliefs? By finding harmony in our beliefs, we will also bring about world peace. It is therefore clear that this must be our great ideal.
But these ideals are also recognized outside the Theosophical Society. They are recognized by all those who look at life with some degree of impartiality. At least the first principle is recognized in its formulation, as it is also presented to us, by all people today who think more or less nobly. And the second principle is also recognized by those who have emerged from limited fanaticism. What, then, distinguishes us from them, and what entitles us to be a special society if these ideals are not special? The following: It is true that universal brotherhood is the highest humanitarian ideal; it is true that peace and harmony should be established even among the religions. But there is only one means to this great end. This means, this way, this path is what makes the Theosophical Society special. And it is only because it believes that these two great ideals can be achieved with this path alone that it has its right to exist. And this means is to make the secrets of the higher spiritual world accessible to people.
Someone may acknowledge the general ideal of brotherhood. But if he does not stand on the ground of the study of the spiritual secrets of the world, he tries to introduce it into the world with inadequate means, and he also studies the inadequacies in the religious creeds if he does not see what underlies them in the spiritual worlds as the basis, let us say, of the very right in the formulation of these ideals. But you would be convinced, if you could only follow the course of time, how the means used outside the theosophical current will never achieve this ideal. On the other hand, through the study of the spiritual world itself, the fulfillment of the first two ideals will arise as a matter of course.
Therefore, the history of our movement since 1875 has shown that those who have joined it have essentially always done so because they knew that within this society they could find something of the facts of the spiritual worlds in their true form. This exploration of the occult world was at the cradle of the Theosophical Society. It is the thing that will always keep the members united. If we were to lose this exploration of the supersensible world, then we would have no reason for the Theosophical Society to exist. Therefore, our main task must be the cultivation of occultism. A great many occult truths have come into the world through the Theosophical Society and are still coming into the world.
The theosophical movement is properly understood only by those who work in this spirit. Whether he follows this or that path or method in detail, those who consider the cultivation of occultism in society to be the main thing are of the same nature. That alone could be the point of view from which Mrs. Besant's presidency was justified. They have had this point of view from the beginning, and it will be a matter of learning within society that occultism itself is something that unites us. All the various objections that could be raised against Mrs. Besant's presidency were swept aside by the only sentence that she wrote in the various documents she sent to the public before the election. This sentence was so genuinely written in the sense of the occultist's attitude that one can see – whatever one may otherwise think of her – this sentence is written from the heart and from the attitude of an occultist. And that was the sentence, which of course today can only be understood by people with an occult mind-set, that she can refer to the approval of her master and that she prefers this single approval of her master to the vote of the entire majority, which might result from a vote in the democratic sense. That is the occultist's attitude, that is standing on the ground of truth. Truth is recognized and not found by voting on it.
While this is difficult in our time for the great masses outside - who must go the opposite way - it must increasingly become the attitude of the occultist. What we have recognized as truth, we have recognized, even if the whole world opposes us. Therefore, by appealing to the spiritual powers that stand above us, our own judgment must count for more than any other. At the same time, professing this attitude requires a certain courage, a great courage, especially today. It also takes courage within the Theosophical Society. Those who do not have this courage cannot be true occultists. However, those who have this attitude in the background know very clearly that, no matter what obstacles may stand in the way of our movement, no matter what may be done to us, this movement must find and follow its path.
Therefore, it is best for us to work on our current, which we recognize as the right one, to work properly. What we are able to advance is more important to us than what we are supposed to fight against, even within society. That Mrs. Besant stands precisely on this ground, which characterizes her as an occultist, is shown by a small example, which may nevertheless be symptomatic. Just at the last annual meeting in London, Mrs. Besant, who was presiding, was strongly attacked from various sides.
It might seem strange that only her opponents spoke at this meeting and that none of her friends stood up to try to defend her. That might seem a little strange. It no longer seems strange when it becomes clear that Mrs. Besant had asked her friends not to defend her at this meeting, whatever might happen. This is a symptom of an occultist gathering. In short, we can summarize ourselves: in the fact that Mrs. Besant stood on solid ground when she entered society, that gave society a firm basis when it was founded; that she never left that ground and that she will therefore be a guarantee that she will not leave this ground as a leading figure, that is important. Therefore, we can only welcome with great satisfaction that Mrs. Besant, so close to her sixtieth birthday, has taken on the burden of the presidency, in addition to all her other work. We can only hope that the Theosophical movement will continue to be maintained in the ways in which it must be maintained if it is to contribute to the further development of the spiritual life of humanity.
In this sense, we will celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Mrs. Annie Besant. And we are clear in such moments that the occultist knows that thoughts, feelings and sensations are not something unreal, but something real, that they are forces and that each of us can work through our thoughts, sensations and feelings. Let us resolve, from this moment on, to direct the thoughts and feelings we have for our President, thoughts of love, devotion and friendship, to him. Then we, each in our own place, will be able to be the helpers that this President needs. That is the best way to celebrate the festival, by making the thoughts that are otherwise only expressed at such festivals the basis of our actions. Let us say to ourselves: We want to send our thoughts, feelings and sensations of help. This is something we had to remind ourselves of in the Besant Lodge.