THE BASIS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

By Annie Besant February 1907

RECENT events have caused much discussion and searchings of heart as regards the true basis of the Theo sophical Society, and it is clear that there is a division of opinion among the thoughtful members ; this division is natural, for there is much to be said on the question : ” Should a nucleus of Universal Brotherhood be, or not be, all-inclusive ? ” It may be well that members should consider what is to be said on each side, and that each should make up his mind as to the ground he occupies. Those who, on either side, airily dismiss the matter as though their own view were indisputably true, and the only one which any rational person can hold, show more prejudice than wisdom. To this question the words of the Lord Buddha may be said to apply : ” You did right to doubt, for it was a doubtful matter.”

The one side starts with the statement : ” This is a Universal Brotherhood and is founded on a spiritual unity ; spirit is inclusive all-embracing, and a Universal Brotherhood founded on the spirit can exclude none ; hence no one should be expelled from the Theosophical Society.” This argument appeals to a very large number of people, and it has a convincing ring about But as convincing as sounds Is not founded on an error The Theosophical Society not Universal Brotherhood, but nucleus thereof, and nucleus and its cell are not co-extensive. The Universal Brotherhood of humanity not made by the Theosophical Society man does not enter when he becomes member of the T.S. nor leave when he ceases to be T.S. member. The Universal Brotherhood fact in nature, beyond our creating or our destroying the purest saint and the vilest criminal are brothers in fact, in truth. Nor would there be any sense or object in making ” Society ” which should be co-extensive with humanity. The mere fact that the Society has objects, of which the applicant for membership must approve, differentiates from humanity at large and makes limitation. man who denies Universal Brotherhood cannot be member of the T.S., but he and must ever remain, human-brother. then, not the fact of brotherhood but the recognition of which entitles man to membership in the T.S., to become part of the ” nucleus,” and the further guarantee demanded from two members, that the candidate ” fit and proper person to become member of the Theosophical Society,” implies that the recognition believed to be not merely lip but also life—recognition. these facts are so and that they are so surely undeniable— follows that member may be expelled he ceases to be fit and proper person ” to be part of the nucleus conditions of admission imply the corresponding right to exclude when the condi tions cease to exist. Admission and exclusion are correlative one who admitted may be excluded. The fact that man cannot be excluded from the Universal Brotherhood of humanity goes with the fact that he cannot be admitted into it. Hence the fundamental statement put forward by those who deny all right of exclusion from the T.S., founded on confusion of thought, false identification of Society which nucleus, with the Universal Brotherhood within which lives.

It may be urged that while this so, would be better for the Society to have different basis, and to abandon the power expulsion. That is arguable, though it is difficult to see how such a society could formulate its conditions of membership ; it would seem that it could have no conditions and no definite membership. How ever that may be, such a society would have a different basis from the actual Theosophical Society, and we are concerned with the Society as it is. Those who wish to have a society on a different basis are surely at liberty to form one, but it should be understood that it would be a new society.

The next question is: ” What constitutes fitness and propriety for membership in the nucleus called the Theosophical Society ? ” A nucleus is a centre of vital forces, a centre from which they radiate, causing organisation and growth in the surrounding body. Through this particular nucleus play forces which spiritualise humanity, and lead it towards the realisation of Universal Brotherhood ; when that is realised by every one, the use of the affirmation of Universal Brotherhood will be over, and the Society as a nucleus in that Brotherhood will cease to be ; if it is to continue to live, it will have to be reincarnated with new objects.

The first, and perhaps we may find the only, fitness and propriety necessary to membership is a recognition of the Truth of Brotherhood, the wish to help it to emerge from latency into activity. The desire to help in bringing about the general realisation of Universal Brotherhood is the primary fitness and propriety which are sought. This makes a man a vehicle through which can work the forces that make for the realisation of Brotherhood. The Love- force in him makes him one through whom the Love-forces without him can play. And I think that this desire to help, evidenced by work which does help others towards the realisation of Brotherhood, is the only fitness and propriety that our Society can rightly demand.

I fully recognise and frankly confess that the acceptance of this view would occasionally keep among us members who would discredit the Society in the eyes of the ordinary man of the world, either by falling below the accepted morality of the time and place, or by rising so much above it as to be unintelligible, and therefore hated and suspected by the masses of average people. But I think that this temporary disadvantage is less than the introduction of the disintegrating forces of self-righteousness and contempt, which find their channels in the prosecution and expulsion of a member for a moral lapse. The presence in the Society of a man who falls below the accepted standard of morality in any respect can do little harm when it is generally understood that the Society seeks to raise the level of morality by right argument and by the noble examples of its best members, rather than by the infliction of penalties on its worst. A man may do most evil things, things that deserve and that meet with sternest moral condemnation, and yet, having the root of the matter in him, “in desire and effort to help, may remain a ” fit and proper person to be a member of the T.S. If penalty is to be inflicted on wrong-doing, it is difficult to draw the line between wrong-doing which is permissible and wrong-doing which is not permissible in the Society. If profligacy be penalised, at what level of profligacy must the Society begin to exclude ? An occasional lapse from virtue ? Fairly constant unclean living ? ” Sowing wild oats,” to the ruin of many a wife and maiden ? Will it authorise inquisition into the private lives of its members, encourage secret accusations or only punish those who break the eleventh commandment : ” Thou shall not be found out ? “

A member may hold any theological opinions he pleases ; he cannot be excluded for teaching everlasting torture, or the perpetual cremation of miraculously-preserved unbaptised infants, or the pre destined damnation of souls presently to be created, or the small number of the saved, or the literal golden and bejewelled gates of the New Jerusalem, or the physical immortality of Mrs. Eddy or of Hiram Butler, etc., etc. All these matters are left to reason and argument, and no penalty may be inflicted on a theosophist for his religious views however bizarre or erroneous. It is rightly held that error is better combated by reason than by penalty, and although it may be said in a way that this policy of tolerance opens the door to every form of theological licentiousness, it is yet felt that this risk is a small one compared with the introduction of a principle the logical end of which is the stake or the Inquisition. Our religious liberty of opinion —irreligious license, say dogmatists —is secure.

But may we not have religious liberty and the enforcement of a common level of conduct, above which members may rise but below which they may not sink ? Shall we give liberty of opinion on moral as well as on religious questions ? Here some members call a halt. They would not allow a member to hold opinions leading to murder, theft, adultery, any sexual irregularity, or other evil ways. Does the Theosophical Society enforce on its members a moral code, the transgression of which is punishable with expulsion ? I do not consider that the Theosophical Society has any moral code binding on its members. That such a code does not exist in fact is clear, for no written nor printed copy thereof can be produced. Does it consist in a common consensus of opinions ? though that would not be a code. If so, what are the opinions ? Is polygamy moral or immoral ? But many of our good members in the East are polygamists. Is polyandry moral or immoral ? We have members who belong to a community where polyandry is practised. Is prostitution moral or immoral ? I fear that the record of some of our members is not quite clean on this point ; shall they be expelled ? On matters connected with the relation of the sexes some very great Initi ates have taught most peculiar and to our minds, outrageous doctrines in the past ; should we expel Socrates, Plato, Moses, Vyasa ? We have no code ; we hold up lofty ideals, inspiring examples, and we trust to these for the compelling power to lift our members to a high moral level, but we have no code with penalties for the infringement of its provisions.

Can we take the average social opinion of any time and place for a code ? eg., in the West a polygamist should be expelled, and in the East should “be regarded as fit and proper for membership ? ” Public opinion would then become our moral code. But would this be satisfactory ? It means stagnation, not progress ; it means death not life. Such a principle would exclude from our ranks the greatest martyrs of the past, the pioneers of every race and time. Is the Theosophical Society to be of those who kill the prophets in every age, and build their tombs long afterwards when the age has risen to the level of the martyred prophets ? While it is easy for every age to be sure that it only kills and persecutes evil men, posterity often reverses the verdict and apotheosises those whom its ancestors branded. Never a Jew who, on the evening of the first Good Friday, congratu lated himself and his friends for having purged Jewish Society by slaying a blasphemer, a deceiver of the people, and a stirrer-up of trouble, dreamed that a later society would regard the martyred evildoer as its Savior from evil. Such revenges has history, and wise men who study the lesson do not readily pick up the stones to slay.

Supposing a man oppose a triumphant majority, and seek to gather round him those who think like himself, thus undoubtedly causing ” agitation ” and disturbance in a Branch or Section ; what should be done with him ? My answer would be : ” Leave him alone for a time ; if he force himself on Branch meetings, or behave in a way to make the Branch rooms unusable by the majority, then he may rightly be excluded from Branch premises, and compelled to carry on his agitation outside, but he should not be expelled from the Society. At the most, he might be expelled from the Branch, where in physical contact is inevitable, and where one may disturb a hundred.” Every reform begins with a few, and if valuable extends till it becomes a majority. The workers against slavery in the United States were regarded as pestilent agitators, were tarred and feathered and carried outside the limits of the townships. Yet in the long run, those abused agitators abolished slavery. That which a majority brands as ” causing agitation,” a minority regards as the defence of a great principle. Time alone can judge, not the number of the moment Better a temporary inconvenience than the violent stifling of opinion. If the opinion be wrong, time will destroy it. ” Truth alone conquers,

not falsehood.” If it be right, time will crown and great the reward of those who saw in its uncrowned days. ” Let truth and falsehood grapple who ever knew truth put to the worse in fair” coming sect. Above all other things, therefore,should we guard liberty of thought and speech, and most zealously of all when the thought and speech are antagonistic to our own. Truth pure gold can not be burned up in the fire of discussion, only the dross can be burn ed away. ” The fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort is.” The outcome of this argument evidently reiterates the view that the fitness and propriety of man for membership in the Theosophi- cal Society depends upon his desire to help in bringing about the general realisation of Universal Brotherhood and this desire be questioned in any particular case on the ground that he teaches wrong doctrines or wrong ways, and therefore hindering, not helping, then would be cogent to enquire whether, as matter of fact, he has helped any to realise brotherhood, and the testimony that he has thus helped would be final encounter?

HPB warned us that the great danger of the society lay in its becoming a sect. Above all other things, therefore, should we guard liberty of thought and speech, and most zealously of all when the thought and speech are antagonistic to our own. Truth pure gold can not be burned up in the fire of discussion, only the dross can be burn ed away. ” The fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort is.” The outcome of this argument evidently reiterates the view that the fitness and propriety of man for membership in the Theosophi- cal Society depends upon his desire to help in bringing about the general realisation of Universal Brotherhood and this desire be questioned in any particular case on the ground that he teaches wrong doctrines or wrong ways, and therefore hindering, not helping, then would be cogent to enquire whether, as matter of fact, he has helped any to realise brotherhood, and the testimony that he has this helped would be final. 

I do not question the right of any Branch to exclude from its platform any person ; it can choose as speakers on its platform such people only who voice the views of the majority on religion, philoso phy, and ethics ; this is within its right, whether its policy be wise or not. But it should not wish to exclude from all platforms of all Branches those with whom it disagrees.

I know that there are many in the Society, good people whom I respect, who will think that this’ article embodies a most dangerous doctrine, and who will ask : ” Should not we shut out polluting influences from our families ? Should we not keep the nucleus pure, so that spiritual life may play through it ? ” To the first question I answer : ” Yes ; because in the family there are children, who should be guarded, until strong enough to guard themselves ; but the Theo- sophical Society does not consist of children, but of grown men and women, and it does not need the shelter rightly given to the young.” To the second question I answer : The purer the nucleus the more will the spiritual life pour through but the nucleus rendered pure by expelling one here and one there whom we may manage to convict of some evil teaching or practice We leave within hund reds who are guilty of other evils, and we cannot extrude every one whose absence would make the nucleus purer, until we come down to the old man who said of community that hunted out heretics There only Jamie and me left, and I’m not so sure about Jamie.”

I earnestly believe that we best do our share of purifying the nucleus by purifying ourselves, and not by expelling our brothers that we can prevent wrong better by holding up lofty ideals, than by separating ourselves disdainfully from those we condemn that the Society lives by the splendour of its ideals, not by the rigidity of its lines of exclusion that will endure in proportion to the spirituality unfolded in its members and not according to the plaudits or censures of the world that we strengthen in proportion as we love and pardon, and weaken as we condemn and ostracise. Thus believe i.  I can no other.

Besant, A. (1907), “The Great Pyramid,” The Theosophist Vol. XXVIII No. 5 February 1907. pp: 327- 333.