Theosophy Adyar 2014 Election:- Does Silence Mean Game Over for the Adyar Theosophical Society

The Future? of the Adyar Theosophical Society

Does Silence Mean

Game Over

For The

Adyar Theosophical Society?

CVK Maithreya presented plans for the future, in

defiance of General Council instructions.

Does suppression of discussion mean that the

Adyar Theosophical Society doesn’t have a future?

Dave Marsland

Less spectacular than the Titanic and with no band, the Adyar

Theosophical Society may be winding down for closure.

In the business world, good news is usually shouted from the roof tops while bad news is carefully suppressed and sneaked out at a time, and in a way, that will cause least damage. In many instances, it proves impossible to bury bad news. Silence and lack of information usually indicate serious problems within an organisation, and sometimes the first piece of real news is the collapse of the concern, with the management making the transformation from silent to invisible.

The Adyar Theosophical Society’s General Council has led the Society to a point where hardly anybody has heard of the Society, and within the Society, the General Council deliberately keeps the dwindling number of members deprived of information about the management’s activities and the Society’s affairs. Already, some national sections have deteriorated to consisting of contact details with no actual activity, and a some sections have adopted a position of semi-independence in anticipation of fundamental change. The General Council still expects the members to pay up anyway despite the indifference and contempt with which it treats them, and more and more are refusing to pay up.

The next phase in this mistrusted management strategy may be to render the Society defunct with the objective of protecting the interests of the ruling elite, and planned closure may be the reason for the General Council’s silence policy. Are things now so bad that the General Council cannot reveal the true situation and its strategy for dealing with it?

An open communicative leadership should

have nothing to fear from the members.

In a couple of months, a new president will emerge from the silence, although the silence will probably continue with the President being just as much a victim of it as the members. There will be so much resentment against the leadership and the election process that the new President will have no credibility or authority and will be President of a much reduced Society. Unhappy national sections may refuse to recognise the new President causing new Theosophical Societies to emerge.

None of this inspires confidence in a management that only acts to protect its own interests, and dismisses the interests of the Theosophical Society and its members as unimportant. A blockbuster piece of bad news is clearly indicated by the General Council’s silence and we may soon learn from outside sources that something disastrous has happened, or that somebody has done something that the General Council wants to keep quiet.

There was a noticeable lack of international representation at the 2013 Adyar convention and this may have been a result of national leaders wishing to distance themselves from real reason behind the General Council’s policy of silence. The non-attending General Council members are maintaining group loyalty by adhering to the silence rule along with the attendees. The General Council may in fact consider it to be easier to hide in the bunker and allow the Society to collapse than to present the bad news to the members.

The General council is clearly not fulfilling its purpose as it adopts a policy of concealing information from those it represents, and an election conducted under these conditions is invalid. Requesting a postponement of the electoral process, on the grounds that the voters cannot make an informed decision without adequate information, would be a reasonable request, and a simple one for national sections or Lodges to make. Direct communication with the General Council from Lodges and individuals seems to be the only course of action left to a disempowered membership, and this would be most effective if presented in the form of well publicised open letters.

Questions on the precise status of the Adyar Headquarters, and the control that a part convened General Council still has over the Estate, are now relevant questions. Does the Adyar Headquarters play any part in future plans and if it is to be discarded then what or where is the alternative? The game may be up for Adyar as a headquarters but if a presidential candidate wants to move HQ to another location then this should be made clear to all members before the election. If a future president presents a previously unrevealed plan to move the headquarters after being elected then the members will be right to demand another election.

Lists of highly appropriate questions have been publicly put to candidates on a regular basis since the nominations, and the General Council have made it clear that they will not be answered. By their continuing silence, it is clear that the General Council doesn't want to do the job of representing the interests of either the Society or members, and should stand aside and allow others to see what can be salvaged. The reality is that the General Council regards itself as beyond accountability, and will cling to power to protect its interests.

Even if the Society can continue, the silence of the General Council indicates stagnation by a leadership that cannot admit that it is capable of nothing more that presiding over the Society’s continued decline. Creation of alternative management structures within the Society, to generate new strategies and obtain information, will reintroduce the opportunity for the remaining members to participate in their own organisation. Exclusion from participation by the General Council now means that paying members are no longer really members of the Adyar Theosophical Society, and electing new officials with new roles will help them get their Society back. For those who wish to stay in the Society, this can be the only response to a leadership which has taken the Theosophical Society from its members and appears to be winding it down for closure.