Biography
In his early years, Sri Ram worked under Annie Besant in various capacities. Sri Ram was a teacher at the Besant Theosophical College in Madanapalle, the National School in Bangalore and the National University of India in Chennai.
The twenty years of Sri Ram’s Presidency represented a very important change in the work of the Theosophical Society and also in the perception its members’ had of the nature of Theosophy. His achievement was indeed an outstanding one: a shift from an emphasis on the occult side of things and its related phenomena, to the focus on the lofty ethics of Theosophy, or true occultism, and its role in the transformation of the human consciousness. N. Sri Ram was the last President of the TS to have had contact with the President-Founder, Col. Olcott. He represented a link with the very origins of the Society and its work, not only historically but above all spiritually.
Sri Ram's daughter Radha Burnier was the seventh president of the Theosophical Society Adyar, from 1980 until 2013.
He became president of the TS Adyar in 1953 and stayed in that office till his death in 1973. He was also member of Le Droit Humain.
The Theosophy Society – Adyar is the name of a section of the Theosophical Society founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others in 1882. In that same year, its headquarters moved with Blavatsky and president Henry Steel Olcott from New York to Adyar, an area of Chennai, India. The designation 'Adyar' is added to make it clear that this is the Theosophical Society headquartered there, after the American section and some other lodges separated from it in 1895, under William Quan Judge.
The Theosophical Society is an organization formed in the United States in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky to advance Theosophy. The original organization, after splits and realignments, currently has several successors. Following the death of Blavatsky, competition within the Society between factions emerged, particularly among founding members and the organisation split between the Theosophical Society Adyar (Olcott-Besant) and the Theosophical Society Pasadena (Judge). The former group, headquartered in India, is the most widespread international group holding the name "Theosophical Society" today.
Annie Besant was a British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer, orator, educationist, and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human freedom, she was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule. She was a prolific author with over three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit. As an educationist, her contributions included the founding of the Banaras Hindu University.
The Theosophical Society (Pasadena) is a branch of Theosophy based in Pasadena, California. It claims to be the successor organization to the original Theosophical Society founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others in 1875 in New York City. Currently is the second largest Theosophical group in members and international reach after the Theosophical Society Adyar.
Bhagwan Das was an Indian Theosophist and public figure. For a time he served in the Central Legislative Assembly of British India. He became allied with the Hindustani Culture Society and was active in opposing rioting as a form of protest. As an advocate for national freedom from the British rule, he was often in danger of reprisals from the Colonial government. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1955.
The Theosophical Society in America (TSA) is a member-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the teaching of Theosophy and affiliated with the international Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai, India. The name "Theosophical Society in America" was legally adopted by the American Theosophical Society in 1934. Previously, other organizations had used the same name during the years 1895–98 and 1898–1908.
Rukmini Devi Arundale was an Indian theosophist, dancer and choreographer of the Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam, and an activist for animal rights and welfare.
Morya is one of the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom" within modern Theosophical beliefs. He is one of the Mahatmas who inspired the founding of the Theosophical Society and was engaged in a correspondence with two English Theosophists living in India, A. P. Sinnett and A. O. Hume. The correspondence was published in 1923 by A. Trevor Barker, in the book The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett.
George Sidney Arundale was a Theosophist, Freemason, president of the Theosophical Society Adyar and A bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church. He was the husband of the celebrated Indian dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale.
Radha Burnier was born in Adyar, India. She was president of the Theosophical Society Adyar from 1980 until her death in 2013. She was General Secretary of the Indian Section of the Society between 1960 and 1978, and was previously an actress in Indian films and Jean Renoir's The River.
Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa was a Sri Lankan author, occultist, freemason and theosophist. The fourth president of the Theosophical Society, Jinarajadasa was one of the world's foremost Theosophical authors, having published more than 50 books and more than 1600 articles in periodicals during his life. His interests and writings included religion, philosophy, literature, art, science and occult chemistry. He was also a rare linguist, who had the ability to work in many European languages.
Bahman Pestonji Wadia or Bomanji Pestonji Wadia was an Indian theosophist and labour activist. He was first a member of the TS Adyar, later of the United Lodge of Theosophists. On 13 April 1918, along with V. Kalyanasundaram Mudaliar, Wadia founded the Madras Labour Union, one of India's first organised labour unions.
The Theosophist is the monthly journal of the international Theosophical Society based in Adyar, India. It was founded in India in 1879 by Helena Blavatsky, who was also its editor. The journal is still being published till date. For the year 1930, the journal was published in Hollywood, California by Annie Besant and Marie Russak Hotchener, but it returned to Adyar in 1931. The journal features articles about philosophy, art, literature and occultism.
The term Neo-Theosophy is a term, originally derogatory, used by the followers of Blavatsky to denominate the system of Theosophical ideas expounded by Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater following the death of Madame Blavatsky in 1891. This material differed in major respects from Blavatsky's original presentation, but it is accepted as genuinely Theosophical by many Theosophists around the world.
Ernest Egerton Wood was a noted English yogi, theosophist, Sanskrit scholar, and author of numerous books, including Concentration – An Approach to Meditation, Yoga and The Pinnacle of Indian Thought (1967).
Geoffrey Hodson was an occultist, Theosophist, mystic, Liberal Catholic priest, philosopher and esotericist, and a leading light for over 70 years in the Theosophical Society.
In Theosophy, the Maitreya or Lord Maitreya is an advanced spiritual entity and high-ranking member of a hidden Spiritual Hierarchy, the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom. According to Theosophical doctrine, one of the Hierarchy's functions is to oversee the evolution of humankind; in accord with this function the Maitreya is said to hold the Office of the World Teacher. Theosophical texts posit that the purpose of this Office is to facilitate the transfer of knowledge about the true constitution and workings of Existence to humankind. Humanity is thereby assisted on its presumed cyclical, but ever progressive, evolutionary path. Reputedly, one way the knowledge transfer is accomplished is by Maitreya occasionally manifesting or incarnating in the physical realm; the manifested entity then assumes the role of World Teacher of Humankind.
Mohini Mohun Chatterji was a Bengali attorney and scholar who belonged to a prominent family that for several generations had mediated between Hindu religious traditions and Christianity. He joined the Theosophical Society in 1882 and became Assistant Secretary of the Bengal branch. Later that year he became a chela in probation of the Mahātmā Koot Hoomi, and saw apparitions of Mahatmas on five or six occasions. He eventually failed as a chela, and resigned from the Theosophical Society in 1887, after only five years of membership.
Christianity and Theosophy, for more than a hundred years, have had a "complex and sometimes troubled" relationship. The Christian faith was always the native religion of the great majority of Western Theosophists, but many came to Theosophy through a process of examination or even opposition to Christianity. According to professor Robert S. Ellwood, "the whole matter has been a divisive issue within Theosophy."
New India was an early 20th century daily newspaper published in India by Annie Besant, to highlight issues related to the Indian freedom struggle.
