Sometimes it’s good to look at what’s being written about theosophy
in academic circles and reflect upon the diversity of opinions thereof. The
selected quotations that I propose to present are from the pioneering “The Ordinary
Business of Occultism”, by Gauri Viswanathan (Vol. 27, No. 1 (Critical Inquiry, Autumn, 2000), pp.
1-20 University of Chicago Press) http://www.jstor.org/stable/1344224.
Professor Viswanathan specializes in the field of literary historiography and
has written several award-winning books in the field. I propose to focus on her
views of The Mahatma Letters to A.P.
Sinnett.
Basically,
I think the paper succeeds in describing the underlying dramatic historical reality of the
Mahatma Letters, with their eloquent
descriptions of the socio-political tensions of colonial India and the significant
cultural and spiritual dynamics between Hindu (and South East Asian) and
Western societies, thus successfully arguing for its literary distinctiveness
and historical importance. Yes, the Mahatma
Letters have gained a respectable position in academia – who would have
imagined it? Although the position is, of course, not without considerable
perplexity and skepticism, and so, much more research would be required to
attempt to solve the many unanswered questions.
Just to clarify, of course A.P. Sinnett's Esoteric Buddhism is almost completely based on letters from the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett; and obviously, reincarnation is a central aspect of both works, and was the first major exposition of the theosophical ideas on this question and remains a classic exposition thereof - even Blavatsky's exposition on reincarnation in Key to Theosophy seems based mainly on the Mahatma Letters.
“Reading Theosophy-as one among many so-called fringe spiritual movements of the nineteenth century-poses the sorts of challenges to critical thinking that secular intellectuals would prefer not to contemplate. A cosmopolitan movement that acquired worldwide adherents, Theosophy developed in reaction to orthodox Christianity, as it sought the roots of spiritual life not in dogma but in an experiential religion recapturing a non-deity-centered, pantheistic theology. Its appeal lay in finding a common ground between many world religions, without necessarily subscribing to the tenets of any one particular religion. Although it is sometimes grouped along with other spiritualist cults, it is necessary to distinguish it from the more plebian movements with which spiritualism was often identified.” (p. 4)
Just to clarify, of course A.P. Sinnett's Esoteric Buddhism is almost completely based on letters from the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett; and obviously, reincarnation is a central aspect of both works, and was the first major exposition of the theosophical ideas on this question and remains a classic exposition thereof - even Blavatsky's exposition on reincarnation in Key to Theosophy seems based mainly on the Mahatma Letters.
“Reading Theosophy-as one among many so-called fringe spiritual movements of the nineteenth century-poses the sorts of challenges to critical thinking that secular intellectuals would prefer not to contemplate. A cosmopolitan movement that acquired worldwide adherents, Theosophy developed in reaction to orthodox Christianity, as it sought the roots of spiritual life not in dogma but in an experiential religion recapturing a non-deity-centered, pantheistic theology. Its appeal lay in finding a common ground between many world religions, without necessarily subscribing to the tenets of any one particular religion. Although it is sometimes grouped along with other spiritualist cults, it is necessary to distinguish it from the more plebian movements with which spiritualism was often identified.” (p. 4)
“The Mahatma Letters to A. P
Sinnett is an extraordinary work. Marvelously constructed and richly
textured, it justly deserves much closer attention than it has received,
particularly since it sheds valuable light on the complex dynamics of
colonial relations, as well as on the institutionalization of Eastern
thought and the disenchantment of religion in the modern world.” (p.12)
“At once prophetic and
cautionary, the Mahatmas' communications are designed not so much to disrupt the secular moment
as to pry it open in order to salvage a past that exceeds the past of
European sectarianism. Agents of a new secularism, the Mahatmas conceive
of their role as a tearing away of the mask of legal tolerance to show the
"religious dogmatism [that] lingers in the hearts of the
multitudes" (ML, p. 4). For the Mahatmas it is essential to recognize
this as a starting point for reconstructing a nondogmatic world order. But
in opening up sectarian history to new, frightening contemplation, they
succeed in drawing attention to a long view of history that would
otherwise not be visible. For instance, in a series of letters Koot Hoomi
uncovers the evolution of life forms whose progressive differentiation
results in the fragmentation of a uniform world consciousness. Even as he
shows that such fragmentation is the essence of sectarianism, he also
points to a much larger biological process that is integrative in its
impulses. The revelation of occult secrets thus becomes a mechanism for
imagining a future in which a world consciousness might be recaptured from
its moments of rupture.” (p.16 )
“On another level, however,
an alternative culture of governance is imagined, which would draw upon
the insights of spiritual teachers to cultivate an expansive secularism, a
secularism open to its past. Indeed, the role of the Theosophical Society
is proposed as a narrowing of the chasm between rational secularity and
occult knowledge. This allows the Anglo- Indian officers of the society to
project their organization as oppositional while appropriating the
teachings of the truly anti-colonial masters to construct their own
self-serving version of a secular society, less opposed to religion than
to a present-minded, ahistorical view of life.
Finally, I realize how
complicated it is to write about the Tibetan Masters in The Mahatma
Letters as if they had a reality independent of their interlocutors and
authors. And perhaps that is the whole point of the work, as it challenges
its readers to imagine whose world is being imagined, whose perspective
dominates the disenthralment of the modern world, whose viewpoint
ultimately prevails in the reception of astral secrets, and, most of all,
whose personae the masters assume. Whatever the answers to these
questions, it seems clear the masters are intended to function as agents
of a new secularism that is less present-minded and more open to a long
view of time, as evident in the Theosophists' fondness for genealogies
beginning with primordial matter. The expansiveness of the temporal
framework is also designed to allow for a displacement of religious
teleology by evolutionary history, which by the nineteenth century had
begun to yield new units of scientific analysis such as race and
ethnicity.” (p.20)
ps.
varia: upcoming lecture on theosophy at McGill University https://www.mcgill.ca/creor/files/creor/gauri_viswanathan_poster_2016.pdf
ps.
for an example of further research that has since been done on this question, see:
Mriganka Mukhopadhyay. The
Occult and the Orient: The Theosophical Society and the Socio-Religious Space
in Colonial India - Presidency Historical Review http://presidencyhistoricalreview.com/presijournal/index.php/phr/article/view/18varia: upcoming lecture on theosophy at McGill University https://www.mcgill.ca/creor/files/creor/gauri_viswanathan_poster_2016.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment