B. P. WADIA
A Life of Service to Mankind
By Wane Kell1
Bahman Pestonji Wadia
1881 – 1958
Bahman Pestonji Wadia was born on October 8th 1881, the eldest son of Pestonji Cursetji Wadia and his wife Mithabai. The Wadia family was originally from Siganpore, near Surat, some 230 miles north of Bombay. They were famed as shipbuilders. The frigate TRINCOMALEE2, renamed "FOUDROYANT" which they built, is still preserved in Portsmouth harbor. The British government, in part payment and recognition of their services, deeded large tracts of coastal lands north of Juhu on Salsette Island immediately north of Bombay, to the Wadia family.
HMS Trincomalee — launched from Bombay in 1817. Photo circa 1902.
It was not a large family by the standards of those years and consisted, in addition to a younger brother named Jehanghir, of two sisters: Manijeh (married Sir Rustum Masani) and Jerbai who remained a spinster. Bahman went to the "New High School" conducted by J. D. Bharda and K. B. Marzban in Bombay and took the matriculation examination, but never entered College. Instead, his father arranged for him to learn and have experience in the textile business in a large British textile firm. This relation begun in the year 1900 was short lived as the young Bahman refused, in the course of business to tell any untruth, and this had been demanded of him. He resigned, and joined his father's firm, only four weeks before the latter's sudden death.
BPW's father, Pestonji, engaged in the sale of textiles and was highly thought of in Bombay markets. His premature death when Bahman was only 19 years old placed this young, seemingly inexperienced man, in charge of his father's business. He was now responsible for the maintenance of his widowed mother and his brother and sisters. With the help of a close family friend experienced in textiles he promptly learned to manage it, and prospered at it.
He had earlier made the acquaintance of Mrs. Blavatsky through her writings to which an old family friend, J. D. Mahaluxmiwala, a member of the Bombay Theosophical Society had introduced him. Every day he would travel from the family home in Parel (North Bombay) by tram, to work in the "Fort" district, in South Bombay. Finding Bahman (hereafter BPW) sincerely interested in philosophy and other serious subjects, Mahaluxmiwala "gave" him a 2 volume set of Mrs. H.P. Blavatsky's THE SECRET DOCTRINE (and a bill for forty rupees.) B P Wadia was then 18.
Reading THE SECRET DOCTRINE, he said, was like "coming home". Mrs. Blavatsky opened the doors in this life for him to the innate knowledge from what must have been already acquired in past lives. Like the opening of the flood gates of memory, that past wisdom was awakened by her book. He secured confirmation of the moral sense that was his intrinsically. He resolved that as soon as he could, he would devote his life to sharing Theosophy with all whom he met.
By 1904 BPW had made a great success of the textile firm, and, then sold it to free himself from further business engagements, so that he could devote himself fully to Theosophy thereafter. The capital so acquired was carefully invested so as to take care of his mother, sisters and brother.
Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva Cave, Elephanta. Photo dated March 2024.
He had joined the Bombay Lodge of the Theosophical Society in 1903, and Mr. Mahaluxmiwala initiated him into the secrets of editing, as he was made sub-editor for the periodicals: THE THEOSOPHIC GLEANER and THEOSOPHY AND NEW THOUGHT, edited by him from the Bombay Lodge of the T S.
On April 15th 1904 he offered his services to Col. Olcott, the President-Founder of the T.S., and they were accepted. After the death of Col. Olcott, on February 17th 1907, he made the same offer to Mrs. Annie Besant, who succeeded Olcott in the responsibilities of the Presidency of the TS, and she accepted him. Wadia offered to come to work at Adyar. This was also agreed on.
In 1907 BPW mentioned sailing out 7 miles into the harbor of Bombay to see Elephanta, the famed ancient temple, said to be over 350,000 years old constructed from the living rock of the island when Rama was then the King of India. Ages ago, a gigantic stone statue of the Trimurthi: Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva, had been carved out of the rock of the island and around it a cavern had been chiseled so that a space of about an acre under stone formed the monument, that the Portuguese named Elephanta, probably because of the huge stone elephants that decorated the approaches to the cave. He spoke of this to several friends assembled around his death-bed, saying that it was there that he had a "vision", and held a dialog with the Master at the "Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva Cave".
He left on February 3rd 1908 from Bombay for Adyar. There Mrs. Besant appointed him manager of the Theosophical Publishing House; and later, assistant editor under her, of the daily NEW INDIA. At the headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar he was soon recognized as a powerful and constructive worker. His responsibilities widened to include being the assistant editor of THE THEOSOPHIST under Mrs. Besant. Under her direction he began to work in the Home Rule Movement, and soon was renowned in the political circles of the day, and among the members and leaders of the Indian National Congress (this had been earlier started by Mr. A. O. Hume, a retired Secretary to the Government of India, an early Theosophist of 1880 and a pupil of H.P.B. Later, under Gandhiji, Nehru, and many others, it eventually served to win political independence for India in 1947).
B.P. Wadia's Signature. 18.2.1920.
BPW spoke of being asked, soon after his arrival at Adyar, to speak on May 8th 1909 at the "White Lotus Day" Meeting, commemorating the death anniversary of Mrs. Blavatsky. He said that he had written and memorized his talk, but, on the platform he forgot it completely. He spoke, but did not recall what he said afterwards, yet, the audience was most enthusiastic. He said he had been wearing a new silk kurta (long formal shirt) for the occasion. When he took it off he noticed that it smelt strongly of sandalwood, and retained that odor for many weeks thereafter. He concluded he had been "used" by the Master on that occasion and had spoken "under his influence", so to say.
BPW knew personally all the great figures of India, of his time, both literary and political, and was often visited by them when they came to Bombay. Among these were Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan the first second President of Free India, Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, Dr. Bhagawan Das, Pundit Bhawani Shankar.
When visiting Bombay, they would often stay with him as guests and friends. Valuing his enormous integrity and the instinctive love of the masses for him, which they knew he commanded, they would, from time to time urge him to return to politics, saying that a person of his worth was much needed, especially after Gandhi's murder. He gently but firmly refused, saying that aspect of his life was over, and that he was working on something far wider and deeper reaching: Theosophy, which he urged them to investigate and learn about. Sadly, few took this advice.
His early activities of a political nature, in Madras in the Indian Home Rule Movement, promoted by Mrs. Besant and George Arundale earned all three of them an internment order from the Government of Madras, and accordingly they were deported from Madras city to Ootacamund (a "Hill Station", some 300 miles West of Madras city) and interned (a kind of house arrest) together from June 16th 1917.
[Gulmarg (Rose-garden) was the name of a cottage that Col. Olcott had built on land bought in 1888, in the Nilgiri (Blue Mountains) Hills. He intended it as a place where HPB and he could retire to in their "old age".]
This cottage is located near Snowdon peak reservoir, about 4 miles from Ootacamund, at an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet. The internment lasted till September 7th 1917.
It is in and on these great rounded hills that the mysterious Toda tribe consisting of a group of 550 persons, men and women, (no children) for as long as history records, dwelt for uncounted millennia, served by the equally mysterious tribe called the Badagas — secure and aloof from intrusions by the Indians of the plains — until the British explored and settled there, treating it as a "Summer Capital" away from the stifling heat and humidity of Madras.
[See HPB's THE PEOPLE OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS for further information on the Todas and the other mysterious tribes of those mountains. In THE DREAM OF RAVAN will be found another hint: it speaks there of the self-sacrifice of the pure and saintly tribe of the Todas who gave up their freedom and liberty when Lanka was conquered by King Rama c. 350,000 B.C., to protect the world by closely controlling the evil that incarnated from generation to generation in the vicious and dwarfish Mula-Kurumba tribes-people who were then banished by King Rama to the Nilgiris in their care.]
Mr. Wadia knew more about those mysterious personages than many. He stated one time that the "real Todas" had retired to secluded and secure places shortly after the British started coming there. They had "had themselves replaced" with others who looked like them, but were not Todas.
An incident in 1937-40, when walking in the afternoon (as was usual) between tea-time and dinner, with Mr. Wadia and others of his household, comes to mind.
We saw on one of rough access forest roads on the high hill backing Gurumandir, some distance ahead, a person dressed in the customary white wool, toga-like attire of a Toda. He was apparently waiting for Mr. Wadia. BPW asked us to wait for him and he walked alone up to this personage who was a few hundred yards away. They exchanged some words. The "Toda" turned and left, walking up into the jungle of the mountain above. Mr. Wadia then waved us up, but he did not explain the encounter, nor allay our curiosity until several years had passed.
BPW, after some time spent working in Adyar had realized from his study of HPB's writings in THE SECRET DOCTRINE, ISIS UNVEILED, and the many articles found in early issues of THE THEOSOPHIST, and LUCIFER that the TS was no longer promulgating pure H.P.B. Theosophy. He discussed this with Mrs. Besant, Mr. Leadbeater, and with other friends and coworkers at Adyar, who appreciated his fundamental devotion to H.P.B. and the Masters' teachings.
Many a discussion was held on what could be done to bring the Society out of the then dominance of the psychic proclivities (the 3rd Object) that held the attention of so many members, with a view to encourage the kind of study and work which the Original Impulse of the Movement, (the 1st and 2nd Objects) as defined by the doctrines promulgated by HPB and the MASTERS since 1875 implied.
Later, in conversing with some friends, BPW mentioned that he had a vision in Adyar on November 21st 1918 of H.P.B. He said that vision, and the earlier one in 1907 of the Master (at Elephanta) had inspired and energized his whole life with the certainty of Their reality and continued existence, and the power and worth of Theosophy as a living and practical philosophy of daily life.
It must be remembered that the TS had been inaugurated to help mankind at the juncture of this cycle of its existence, to bring the materialism of the age to an end, and to give as much knowledge as might help bring mankind to a knowledge of and practice of ideals. For this reason The Universal Unity of all Beings, and the brotherhood of Man, Karma and Reincarnation were shown to be provable doctrines and to have an extreme antiquity in the literature of the Ancients. The "Eternal Philosophy", Sanatana Dharma, was to be restored. Universality, Immortality, Law and Brotherhood were to become the standards for the general membership of the TS to know, understand, and aspire to practically. But the modern membership of those days had quite forgotten those objectives.
The value of the Theosophical Movement as refigured, had been found to be almost totally lost for men of those years. These friends of HPB questioned deeply the methods that could be used to institute an internal reform - back to the Original Lines. Then, if this could not be done internally, could it, or would it have to be done from outside?
Many plans were formulated, reviewed and revised. These included:
Gurumandir, Ootacamund
(Ooty, Tamil Nadu)
To have a permanent home for this six pronged plan in India, he began to negotiate for the purchase near Ootacamund, in the Nilgiri mountains of an old estate of 100 acres of eucalyptus, fruit orchards and potato fields, some distance away on the "Old Mysore Road." It was then named "Brookhampton" — and it was renowned for its library, which he also bought. The property was renamed by him later: "Gurumandir", (Temple of the Guru). This is situated 4 miles out of Ooty, municipal electricity was only brought out to it in 1956.
(This is quoted from: T. L. Crombie, Friend of India, by E. Beswick, pp 2 - 4)
Mr. Wadia stated that as time passed and he and his friends tried to bring about some reforms in the TS in Adyar, but the minds and actions of the chief officers and members seemed to become directed more towards psychism and sensationalism. They tried to direct the mind of the leaders of the Society "back to Blavatsky, and her Theosophy, and that of the Masters". It was a continuous gentle pressure, firmly unrelaxed, that was used. In the meantime other events had matured and an alternative opened.
In the course of his political work under Mrs. Besant, BPW became acquainted in 1917 with the plight of the textile workers in the local Madras mills, some of those who labored there came to him at the offices of NEW INDIA. He investigated their working conditions and found them to be oppressive and inhumane: extremely long hours with no reasonable rest periods, low pay, and other conditions of duress. Preliminary meetings were held in the fall of 1917, and in the spring of 1918. The first Labor Union to be started in India: the Madras Textile Workers' Union was then organized on April 27th 1918 and Mr. Wadia was asked to be President and represent the laborers.
The building in which the Madras Labor Union is housed is known as "Wadia House"; it faces "Wadia Park"3. On the parapet at the top of the two storied building, over the front door, a bust of BPW has been installed. On entering the front door one is greeted by a large photograph of BPW as a young man - as he was when he was President of the Union in 1918. His desk and the stationery he used at work are still carefully preserved there, and shown to visitors with great affection and reverence.
The British Parliament had been aware of labor unrest in India, but unable to understand the conditions that had brought this about. In 1919 it summoned Mr. Wadia, as President of the MADRAS TEXTILE WORKERS UNION, and others, to London, to give testimony and answer the questions before a PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION. This Commission was to consider not only the Labor situation, but also various other matters which were to be addressed a year later and embodied in the "Montford Reform Act of 1919".
Wadia left India May 8th 1919, sailing in the company of Mrs. Besant, Mr. P. K. Telang and Mr. Jamnadas Dwarkadas, who were to tour the T. S. Lodges in Europe. This project was to be partly political and partly Theosophical.
BPW's visit to England, and the testimony he gave to the Parliamentary Commission was well received and listened to with attention. A pamphlet embodying his statements was printed and circulated. A White Paper issued officially by Parliament at that time, includes a transcript of his cross-examination and answers.
BPW's visit to England and his well known capacities as a writer and speaker resulted in his being invited to visit and speak at a number of the TS branches in England and on the European Continent.
The Indian Government then appointed him a delegate to attend the FIRST INTERNATIONAL LABOR CONFERENCE under the LEAGUE OF NATIONS to be held at Washington D.C., November - December 1919. After finishing his tour of the European Lodges he sailed for autumnal New York. His position was a technical advisor to the India delegation. Having discharged his responsibilities in Washington, he was asked to tour American and Canadian Branches of the TS, lecturing on THE SECRET DOCTRINE, on H. P. Blavatsky and her message, and on the need for every FTS, as an individual, to acquire for himself knowledge, and then study and apply Theosophy individually.
When in Washington D.C. he paid a visit with Eugene Debbs to the tomb of Abraham Lincoln, one of his heroes, and laid a formal wreath upon it. He then found that his itinerary involved a trip to California where he stayed at Krotona in Hollywood.
The TS in America was then undergoing some difficulties in connection with the establishing of Krotona as a headquarters for the T.S. and there was a change of Presidents. Mr. Wadia recommended a "Back to Blavatsky" effort stressing that in his opinion the T.S. was no longer following the lines laid down by H.P.B. and was in danger of failing in its mission. He interested himself in the outlook of the "Towards Democracy League." Mr. Rogers, the new president of the TS Section in America was disturbed and sent a cable of protest to Mrs. Besant on May 21st 1920. At that time Mr. & Mrs. Bailey, who occupied positions of trust (as respectively, National Secretary, and Editor for the American Section ) were removed from office by Mr. Rogers, on the grounds that they were out of harmony with his administration. On July 12th at the National Convention changes in the administration took place, Mr. Wadia was thanked for his work on the platform, but the protest sent to Mrs. Besant was also endorsed.
While in Los Angeles he came upon a Times news paper advertisement of lectures on Theosophical subjects conducted by THE UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS.
He was then visiting the Krotona Lodge of the TS in Hollywood, a suburb of Los Angeles. He paid a visit to the ULT and listened with attention to the talk given. Earlier, his fame had attracted members of the ULT to visit and attend his talks under the TS auspices.
They appreciated his point of view in regard to HPB and as a result he held a number of talks with these persons and learned at first hand of the aims and objectives of the ULT - that they had been reprinting in THEOSOPHY magazine Mrs. Blavatsky's articles, and, those of Mr. W. Q. Judge - with whom he was unfamiliar. He accepted an assignment to speak from the platform of the ULT on the subject of H.P. Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine.
He obtained Judge's books: THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY, THE EPITOME OF THEOSOPHY, ECHOES FROM THE ORIENT, and read them. He then realized what a gap had been created in the minds and knowledge of those in the TS by not having access to Mr. Judge's writings for nearly 25 years, and in being given a false picture of Mr. Judge as a renegade.
Robert Crosbie (1849—1919)
He attended more meetings of the ULT, then held at the Metropolitan Building, in downtown Los Angeles. There he met with, and held long talks with Mr. John Garrigues, Mr. Westcott and Mrs. Grace Clough, and a number of active ULT associates who had known and worked with Mr. Robert Crosbie, founder and energizer of the "pure Theosophy" program of the impersonal U.L.T.
Mr. Wadia said he was thrilled to read the Declaration of THE UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS, and to realize that a group of students already existed, who had banded together without any political or official structure on the basis of the practical application of HPB's Theosophy. He found that the principles of practical brotherly work and unity survived, and those were being applied impersonally. All ideas of "successorship", of "leadership", of "politics" and "personal" authority had been excluded from this energetic association.
Here, he found established in practice the operations of a group of impersonal students - a basis which he and his friends had so deeply and long discussed in Adyar - a reform of the T S. It now remained to see whether he could bring about an agreement with the present T.S. "leaders", Mrs. Besant in particular, to such a program of internal readjustment, back to the Original Objects and the Original Program of the MASTERS.
It was November 1919 in Los Angeles. Mr. Crosbie had died only five months earlier: June 25th 1919. His loss, BPW observed, seemed to have left some despondency among the workers at the ULT. They felt they were too few, and some had been thinking of perhaps rejoining an existing TS reorganized by Mr. Hargrove out of fragments of the "Point Loma T.S." in New York. Mr. Wadia dissuaded them from this, in view of his intimate knowledge of what the problems of the T.S. were.
He affirmed his belief in the need for the ULT, and the practical application of those principles its Declaration stood for. It was known that Mr. Crosbie had told some of his closest associates just before his death when they spoke of their discouragement, that "they would not have too long to wait" for some help to arrive. From all that was said and understood between them, it seemed clear that this "help" was at hand. Certainly there was a great meeting of the minds.
They began to plan what ought to be done, in all fairness to Mrs. Besant, to the TS in Adyar and elsewhere, and to the defining of Mr. Wadia's future position and the discharge of his continued responsibilities to all of those before he would be free to join the ULT. He promised those at ULT that if he was not successful in instituting a change and a reform in Adyar, he would return in a short while. His duty required that he continue his tour, complete his work in the TS, then return to India and Adyar.
He would in addition work on what he had found and learned; study Judge and Crosbie; and, when in Adyar, he would fight for true Theosophy. He would try to secure from Annie Besant a public reversal of the false attitude maintained against Mr. Judge for so many years. He did try this, as will be seen from Professor A. H. Nethercot's biography of Annie Besant, [Vol. II, p. 328, THE EIGHT LIVES OF ANNIE BESANT, Publisher: University of Chicago Press]; but was unsuccessful in securing a public reversal from her. To him, privately she admitted that Judge had been wronged, just as earlier Col. Olcott had admitted the same to Laura Holloway, but he would not make this public.
In going through some of the older magazines published in Bombay and Adyar, during the period when he was with Col. Olcott and Mrs. Besant (1906-1921) one will come across a number of statements of support made by BPW for the policies of those in charge of the T.S.: Mrs. Besant, Mr. Leadbeater, Mr. Krishnamurti, etc. These appear to be at variance with his later words and actions after his resignation from the T.S. As he explained this, they were sincere statements made by him at the time and within the framework of his knowledge at that time.
BPW now knew that Mr. Judge, one of the original founders, was no longer well known to the general membership of the T.S. and in Adyar between 1897 and 1919. He along with HPB and Col. Olcott had remained faithful to their pledge and to the Masters' Cause. BPW felt compelled to inquire into the reason why such an important and valuable asset to the T.S. had been lost and its memory virtually buried and obliterated so far as the membership at large was then concerned.
BPW saw in the nature of the work that Mr. Judge did for Theosophy in America, a fiery devotion which brought an enormous increase of public interest in, and respect for, Theosophical principles and doctrines for the ten year period between 1886 and 1896, when Judge died. [The membership grew from about 350 to over 4,000, and the number of Branches from about 20 to over 400.] It was similar to the devotion and energy of Col. Olcott, when he and HPB had first came to India; and Theosophy from 1879 had burgeoned and spread over the land, and then to Ceylon, Burma, Japan and other Eastern countries. But there was a difference between Judge and Olcott. Col. Olcott was healthy and became famous in India as a magnetic healer, until warned by the Master to stop. Judge, on the other hand had contracted Chagres fever (back-water fever which attacks the liver) in Columbia or Mexico where he went between 1876 and 1883, as a young man, for some of his New York clients who had mining interests there, and he was frail physically ever afterwards. The lingering disease was known to carry off the person in the course of some 14 years. The last three years of his life were noticeably those of a very sick man.
On the Work of W.Q. Judge, A Founder of the T. S.
As an aside to this narration of the work and life of BPW it becomes necessary to write of the events in 1894-1896 involving Mr. Judge, Mrs. Besant and Col. Olcott after the death of HPB, so that the perspective is clear and some understanding of what Mr. Wadia found out is had as of 1919-1922.
William Q. Judge (1851-1896)
BPW determined that in 1894-6 Mrs. Besant, and Col. Olcott, were the prime cause of a serious problem caused by their misunderstanding of Mr. Judge's stand and function for Theosophy. He was accused by them (Mrs. Besant taking the position of a "prosecutor") of fraudulently imitating or copying the Masters' handwriting when providing them with certain "messages" which came from Them. Mrs. Besant and other recipients admitted that the content of the messages was not being questioned, only the fact that they seemed to be written in scripts that were used before H.P.B. died. She, of course, was no longer there to use them. This was a puzzle. How did Judge figure in this?
Mr. Judge stated openly at that time, that he was in frequent touch with the Masters and that the said messages were Theirs and not his; nor had he written them. He offered to prove this, but none of the accusers took him up on this offer to demonstrate, as history reveals. [Both HPB, WQJ and others had, earlier, published a number of articles in LUCIFER and THE PATH concerning the rationale of letter "precipitation" — how a "matrix" impressed and long established in the electro-magnetic substance of the astral light could be repeatedly used to save psychic energy — in sending new communications. Such a matrix did not extinguish with the "death" of any one person, but could continue to be used, as in these cases, where another person might be used as the focus for that work to be done, as, apparently, Judge was so used. It was the context and the content, as well as an interior code impressed in the "message" by the sender which certified to its authenticity. No "seal" or other external physical appearance could be used by unconcerned parties to make a determination of its authenticity. These criteria alone would not serve an inquirer in verifying the genuineness of the letters, or other artifacts, precipitated from the astral light. It may be recalled that earlier, suspicions had been entertained in HPB' life time of the genuineness of certain letters from the Mahatmas, like the "Prayag letter." She, and Damodar K. Mavalankar had been the targets of such suspicions by Sinnett and Olcott.]
Judge warned Col. Olcott in advance that an attempt in the TS to make a ruling on such a question would establish a "belief in Masters" as a dogma of the T. S. — which specifically disavowed any dogmatism. On this point the "Judicial Committee" convened by Col. Olcott in London in July 1894 agreed; the "charges" were dropped, and amity was ostensibly restored. The membership of the TS were sent a report by Col. Olcott entitled "On the Neutrality of the T S." For some unfortunate reason this setback rankled with those who had become accusers of Mr. Judge, and these accusations were renewed in the beginning of the next year, 1895.
BPW attempted during over two years (1920-21) to bring about, a change in the "leaders" of the T.S. at Adyar and elsewhere, pointing to the true Theosophy of HPB, and the SD; working with Annie Besant, and other leaders of the Theosophical Society in Adyar, trying to secure their understanding of the wrong that had been done to Mr. Judge and to the whole of the Theosophical Society in America, as well as to members everywhere within the TS, between 1894 and 1896.
BPW's innate sense of duty, his honesty and courage compelled in taking this up directly with Mrs. Besant. He asked her about the splitting up of the T.S. in that period, 25 years ago. Col. Olcott had on Sept. 7th 1894 excommunicated, in effect, the whole American Section of the T.S., which had, under his, Col. Olcott's earlier suggestion, [See his letter written in 1893 addressed to W. Q. Judge - quoted in CANADIAN THEOSOPHIST, 1923, Vol. 4, p. 1, and March 15th p. 11] reconstituted itself at its Annual Convention held in April 1894, "The Theosophical Society in America", in full fraternal association with all Theosophical Societies anywhere. This excommunication goes against the first object of the Society: brotherhood. Documents supporting these facts were provided BPW, and these same documents are available for independent verification today. BPW determined to find out if the breach could be repaired, and if the unity of the Theosophical Movement could be restored by Mrs. Besant, joining with him, and others, to mend the misunderstandings that had caused the unbrotherly break of 1894.
After several heart to heart conversations in 1920-21 with Mrs. Annie Besant on his return to India and Adyar, BPW found that while she admitted to him in private that what had then been done against Mr. Judge and the "Theosophical Society in America", 25 years back, was wrong, she refused to make a public retraction and restore Judge's fair name in Theosophical publications and elsewhere.
Wadia determined that the only path that remained to him, personally, was to resign from the T.S. When he left, he sent a pamphlet of information, in July 1922, to those with whom he had become acquainted. He stated there that he would be working thenceforth for Theosophy through the UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS, which of all existing Theosophical bodies in the world, was the one that he had found to be closest in ideal and practice to the original programme of the THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY as started by the Masters, with, Mrs. Blavatsky as Their Agent, Col. H. S. Olcott as President for Life, and with Mr. W. Q. Judge as Counsel to the Society, and later as General Secretary of the American Section T.S.
The thirteen other founders, or, original members of the T.S. in 1875, being more interested in spiritualism, rather than in philosophical and religious investigation; soon dropped away from membership in the T.S. Only the three named remained steadfast until their death to the work of the Masters and to Their Cause.
In terms of time it should be remembered that Mrs. Besant had contacted HPB and Theosophy late in 1888, or 13 years after the T.S. was established. This occurred because after she had been asked to review THE SECRET DOCTRINE she was so struck by the wisdom to be found therein, that she determined to meet Mrs. Blavatsky. Shortly thereafter she joined the T.S. in London (May 1889). As she was an accomplished thinker and writer, and as her sincerity in adopting the Theosophical outlook and life was evident, Mrs. Blavatsky asked her to assist in editing her magazine LUCIFER as co-editor.
Mrs. Besant had only had about two and a half years experience in the T.S. in this incarnation, before HPB, her teacher, "died". Whereas Mr. Judge, and Col. Olcott had been in it, and with HPB since the outset, or 19 years earlier, by 1894, when the accusations against Mr. Judge were made public by Mrs. Besant and Col. Olcott.
BPW stated that he did not "look back", nor did he mention or apologize for what he had written earlier in support of the policies of Mrs. Besant, and others of the leaders of the Theosophical Society in the period when he was a member between 1903 and 1922. That door was closed. He thereafter directed the whole thrust of his energy and work into that body, the UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS, which was effectively using the methods of work and exemplifying the principles outlined in the original programme of the Masters. These are found embodied in the Declaration of the UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS.
In July 1920 BPW attended the CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN SECTION T.S. in Chicago. By this time he had also become a member of the American Section of the T.S. A question arose and resolutions were framed to permit the Administration of the Section to expel members who criticized its officers for "autocratic and underhand methods of administration." Mr. Wadia opposed such a measure which would muzzle free speech. The President of the American Section TS, at that time desired to apply this to suppress and quell criticism of certain actions he had earlier taken without the prior approval of the American Council. [see O.E.LIBRARY CRITIC issues 1919-23 for more details about the thrusting on the TS membership of the LIBERAL [OLD] CATHOLIC CHURCH, STAR OF THE EAST, etc.]
Mr. Wadia's opposition to the apparent high-handed methods of the President of the American Section T. S. galvanized a great measure of opposition to this objective, and the thwarted President then wrote to Mrs. Besant (as the International President T.S., at Adyar) complaining of Mr. Wadia's "interference" in local affairs. Mrs. Besant replied, upholding Mr. Wadia's stand on principles, while deploring his possible "interference" in local affairs. She said that her acquaintance with Mr. Wadia for many years had confirmed her entire trust and respect for him. But, she added, they did not always agree. From Adyar on Sept. 20th 1920, Mr. Wadia wrote a letter and published copies of it to the membership of the TS in America, clearly setting out his views on this matter. He wrote, in summary:
Criticism should never be grounds for expulsion of any member. Majority vote should rule all matters of administration. While in America and staying at KROTONA, Hollywood (now moved to Ojai), he encountered evidence of wrong principles and wrong methods apparently used by certain administrators in the American Section. He was then slandered by those officials, and a complaint had been lodged in Adyar with Mrs. Besant, International President T S. Mr. Wadia proceeded to expose publicly what was going on. He stood for the principles of clear speech and an exposure of such matters, as it concerned all members who were free to vote.
He returned in 1920 to Europe, and traveled to Paris to attend the WORLD CONGRESS OF THE TS there. Thereafter he was asked to visit a number of countries where TS Branches were active; he visited Belgium, lecturing in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Ostend, Liege, Charleroi, Marianwelz. Nineteen lectures were delivered, two at the Universite Internationale. He was enthusiastically received and listened to by those engaged in labour reform and by their members, the workers themselves.
He received, then, an invitation to attend the FIRST WORLD CONGRESS OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, to meet in Copenhagen; and another from the THIRD WORLD BROTHERHOOD CONGRESS, to meet in Prague. As he was not able to go to either of them he sent papers, which were received with satisfaction.
Following Belgium, he visited Holland, where he worked for 2 weeks, 56 meetings were held. Copenhagen was next visited where 4 talks were given to various groups. Then, on to Sweden, Malmo, Goteborg, Gefle, Stockholm; then to Oslo, Norway, where the Annual Convention of the Norwegian TS was held. Next to Helsinki, Finland. A tour which began in Marseilles in the South of France on February 20th ended October 20th 1920 in Finland. He then sailed back to India.
Meanwhile, the Government of India in 1921 appointed Mr. Wadia a member of the Indian Delegation to the SECOND INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE under the LEAGUE OF NATIONS, which was to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, October 25th, 1921 and this was to be continued for a month. This necessitated a second trip to Europe, and In November 1921, after the conference, Mr. Wadia again sailed for America and thereafter he returned to make his final efforts in Adyar — and these being unsuccessful he resigned in mid-1922.
B. P. Wadia resigned from the Theosophical Society on the 18th of July 1922. He broadcast the nature and reasons for his resignation widely to members of the TS. He also advised them of his joining the UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS because of their policy and work. He further spoke of his finding that W. Q. Judge had been wronged in the period of 1894-96 by those in the T.S. who had attacked him on flimsy and insufficient evidence.
After his resignation he returned to Los Angeles. As an associate of the ULT, he worked thereafter for Theosophy in company with that body of students dedicated to the promulgation of original Theosophy as it was to be found in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky and W. Q. Judge.
He issued an 18 page pamphlet entitled "TO ALL MY FELLOW THEOSOPHISTS AND MEMBERS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, A statement by B. P. WADIA". This included:
Pamphlet of "A statement by B. P. WADIA"
In response, the TS, Adyar, issued: "AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. WADIA", by J. Nityananda and J. Krishnamurti. This was reprinted by KROTONA, Hollywood in America, Oct. 1st 1922 and circulated to the American T.S. membership.
Many members of the TS all over the world who were interested in HPB's Theosophy as she taught it, separated themselves from the TS and became associates of the ULT.
This influx of new associates necessitated the formation of a number of new ULT's in the Eastern seaboard of America: New York; Philadelphia, Pa.; Washington, D.C.; and several Study Groups were formed in other towns: Reading, Pa.; Chicago, Ill., some of which later became Lodges. A period of intensive education into the principles and fundamentals of Theosophy ensued. The impersonal practical work of teaching and spreading pure Theosophy, using the ULT methods, began for these new lodges and new associates. Mr. Wadia and other older students of the Los Angeles Lodge threw themselves in to this work, and spent long months in various new centers that had been formed, so the work flourished. But the need for Lodges, so associates could meet for mutual study and work went beyond America and soon Lodges were formed in London, England (1925); Paris, France (1928); Amsterdam and The Hague, Holland; Antwerp, Belgium, and elsewhere.
Those who have known him in those early days felt the power and thrust of his will to work for the Great Lodge through the ULT.
As it was essential to make a clean break with "Adyar Theosophy", he adopted an almost rigid attitude of exclusion to their works and writings. He advised students to concentrate on what Theosophy was, in terms of the actual wording used by HPB, WQJ and the Masters. He used to say that we ought to devote all our energies to that, the rest was unessential and was of interest to "just the present incarnation" and as such it would be "lost" when this personality "died". The other, THEOSOPHY, was for "all time." And, that was where we ought to be placing our efforts.
His work was to consolidate those old students of Judge and of the TS who desired to get back to the study of original THEOSOPHY, and meld them with the new students who desired to learn, and had no background in Theosophy. A series of intensive study classes was started. Exercise and criticism for those who wanted to learn to do platform-work was instituted. He prepared and used for the GUIDANCE OF ULT PLATFORM WORKERS a number of points they had to apply if they wish to work in that way for ULT.
In New York, the U.L.T. used a large auditorium on the ground floor of the HOTEL DES ARTISTES, at 1 West 67th ST., just off the Central Park, and near to Columbia University campus. Meetings were held on Sunday: Theosophy School before noon, and a public lecture in the evening. Wednesday evening Study Class, Question and Answer Meeting; Friday: OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY Study Class and then a Practice Class for new students and those who desired to do platform work. Other meetings were held during the week.
Mr. Wadia conducted one of the Theosophy School Classes. Transcripts of five years of work in such NY T. School classes exist.
Students would meet in the evening, informally, several times a week at individual homes, to discuss Theosophy and various aspects of the work. This developed a large-hearted camaraderie and was an active manifestation of brotherhood in action, gathering all ULT associates together. Mr. Wadia, working at the New York Lodge had an office in the building and a large volume of correspondence was handled. Students from England came over to familiarize themselves with the program ULT had evolved of methods of work in New York, so that they could then take them back for use in the London Lodge that had been planned.
Associates from various European countries visited New York for the same reasons so methods were learned that could be used in their own ULT Lodges being soon were opened in France, Holland and Belgium. It was a whirlwind time when everything seemed to be happening at once, and the great influence spread over all those who served as the "seeds" of future ULT Lodges and ULT work for the next 50 years. One associate contributed $25,000.00 for the photographic plates needed to reprint THE SECRET DOCTRINE. This was one of the most important things done, as it permitted HPB's major work to be studied in its unedited original.
The ULT in London was opened November 17th 1925. Its Bulletin was started in 1930.
Mr. Wadia always said that it was dangerous to approach the study of THE SECRET DOCTRINE through the use of an "abridgment". Any such "filter", however impersonal and good, inevitably held up "barriers" between HPB and the student. He held that ISIS UNVEILED ought to be first studied and read. Its contents formed a valuable introduction to Theosophy and to The Secret Doctrine. The Secret Doctrine then, ought to be approached slowly and following a steadily held determination to read and take the time to comprehend gradually what was read, it ought to be read a few pages a day, notes should be taken of the subjects covered, and gradually one should build up one's own reference book on the subjects covered in various places.
The enthusiasm and the intensity of study and of learning and practicing Theosophy, inspired by Mr. Wadia in the period between 1922 and 1928, probably equaled those of the time of Judge during the years 1886-1896 in New York and the rest of the USA. Margaret Thomas, for instance was inspired to prepare and publish her THEOSOPHY or NEO-THEOSOPHY so students could compare the differences made to Theosophy by writers for the TS, like Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater, after the death of Mrs. Blavatsky.
Many articles for THEOSOPHY magazine were written by BPW, and he used to say that Mr. John Garrigues and he were like two brothers, one could write the first part of an article and the other finish it and no discernible change was noticeable. Or they would share the burden of writing a series of articles, each writing alternating articles. Certainly he had a unique rapport with those in Los Angeles who bore the responsibilities Mr. Crosbie had passed on to them. It is there and in consultation with the Los Angeles students that the plan to return HPB Theosophy to India, and to open a Lodge of the ULT in Bombay was worked out.
In New York most of the Sunday lectures were taken by Mr. Wadia, or by visitors from Los Angeles. He also handled the "Answering of Questions" meetings on Wednesday. As students developed knowledge and capacity, they took over the burden of handling many aspects of the ULT Lodge work, and sound principles were given a secure practical foundation.
A Library was started, and the lending of the more expensive books to students was also undertaken. The conduct of Theosophy School was at first a training ground for those who would be teachers there, and weekly reviews of the work was done by all teachers, co-teachers and reporters in turn. A meticulous and constant attention to all details of the work was supervised and carried out by him, so that within the brief space of 4 years a cadre of capable and knowledgeable volunteer students arose.
Sketch of T.L. Crombie by Mukhul Dey presented to BPW by TLC. Dated March 9th 1919, Madras. Currently in Maitri Bhavan, Bengaluru.
The other Lodges started in the East Coast of the US: Washington, Philadelphia, Reading, and several Study Classes were all attended to; they adopted and used the same patterns of intensive study and application and drew the attention of individuals who were interested in Theosophy to the focus of joint and purposive, constructive work.
Periodically Mr. Wadia used to take trips, visiting Lodges on the East coast and then swing back to the Los Angeles area, visiting San Diego, San Francisco and Lodges clustered in between those.
When Mr. Wadia let some of his more intimate friends know that it was intention to bring the ULT work and method to India and establish in Bombay a basis from which to spread HPB's pure Theosophy, several students became enthusiastic about this. Preparations were made each on their own, but in collaboration with each other to arrange to get to India towards the end of 1928. There they planned to spend the next few months locating a suitable place to hold meetings, and also make residential arrangements for themselves and another group of student workers that was to come with Mr. Wadia early in 1929. Along with BPW, Miss Virginia Beadle and Miss Sophia Camacho, both of New York intended to come. Later on, Mr. T. L. Crombie of London planned to come and help in the editing when the magazines were to be started. Mr. and Mrs. TenBroeck of Los Angeles and Donald Townsend also decided to go.
The two young, unmarried ladies had decided to help in the effort for the revival of HPB's original Theosophy in India, and they planned to travel and live together; chaperoning each other, so to say. Mr. Wadia laid stress on the need for the most correct of personal demeanors by those who would support and work closely with him in India for the ULT effort of bringing HPB's Theosophy there. He made it clear that there would have to be a molding of the private life of the visitors to fit and agree with the cultural mores and customs of the Indians, rather than with those of the "ruling British" and other "whites", including Americans, in business or as missionaries, who, when living in India had adopted an aloofness from the Indians, borrowed from the attitude adopted by the British when in India, as a kind of "privileged group".
A group of students active in Paris wanted to take advantage of Mr. Wadia's presence to establish their own ULT in Paris. Their Lodge was founded and the first meeting held on September 21st 1928. Since 1925, under the inspiration of Mr. Wadia, two members of the TS in France who had left it, feeling dissatisfied, started a monthly magazine named THEOSOPHIE. Mr. Louis Revel took on the duties of editing the monthly, and later on, of books also published translations of HPB and WQJ writings. Mr. M. Girardet assumed and arranged for the necessary financial support. A COMPAGNIE THEOSOPHIQUE SA was started at that time. Mrs. Sophia Wadia was one of the original directors.
[Mrs. Sophia Wadia was fluent in French, Spanish and English, she had a marvelous, almost photographic memory and was a fine speaker. Mr. Wadia used to say that he would write an article or a speech, she would read it, and then could reproduce it almost exactly as prepared.]
B.P. Wadia in London
London saw the inauguration of the ULT Lodge there on November 17th, 1925. Seven of his friends from the Adyar days had resolved on this and established study classes, a library, and a regular monthly BULLETIN of the London ULT began publication (in 1930).
In London some of those prominent in Theosophical work were met, including Mr. Trevor Barker, who had at that time had already published THE MAHATMA LETTERS TO A.P. SINNETT was actively engaged in editing H. P. BLAVATSKY'S LETTERS TO A.P. SINNETT. He and Miss Virginia Beadle fell in love and were married.
This brought about a change in the plans of Miss Sophia Camacho, who was determined to go to India as she had promised. Mr. Wadia and she discussed this matter, and they decided that a "marriage of convenience" would be the best method to employ, it being understood from the outset that working for Theosophy was the sole bond between them, and that Mr. Wadia lent her the protection of his name so that the original plan would go forward, and her valuable help could still be made available in India. On this basis they were married in London in 1928.
In regard to the publishing of THE MAHATMA LETTERS: Mr. Trevor Barker had earlier written Mr. Wadia and told him of his intention of printing those letters. Mr. Wadia replied that he did not think it was advisable to do that. Mr. Barker went ahead anyway, and had them published. Later when he met Mr. Wadia in London, he is said to have again asked: "Did I do right in publishing them?" To this BPW answered: "You should not have published them, but I am glad that you did it."
The year 1928 found Mr. and Mrs. Wadia on their way from London to India, and together with Mr. T. L. Crombie they visited in October the Netherlands staying at the home of Mr. T. F. Vreede near The Hague. He had been instrumental in bringing back pure Theosophy as presented by the ULT to that town and to Amsterdam. BPW gave a number of talks and conducted study classes.
Between January and the end of April 1929, Mr. Wadia lectured for the London ULT at the Victoria Hall, Bloomsbury, to packed audiences. The London Lodge was then housed in rented premises in a building a couple of blocks from Marble Arch.
[During the 2nd World War, that building was bombed, a large number of books were destroyed, and while temporary repairs enabled meetings to be continued, it was apparent that the London Lodge would have to seek for new premises. When a building was purchased at 62 Queen's Gardens, near Paddington Station, the Lodge made its move.]
B.P. Wadia Back In India
The London Branch of the Aryan Path magazine (started in 1930) worked out of the building; and in the floor devoted to the Library, meetings were held for the London Branch of INDIAN INSTITUTE OF WORLD CULTURE (started in 1944 in Bangalore, India by Mr. Wadia).
In March 1929, Mr. and Mrs. Wadia were in London, they also were visited by many students from the European continent. They, in turn, visited a number of the ULT Lodges there before beginning their trip to India. A ULT Study Group was started in Amsterdam under the inspiration received by some of its residents from their visits and talks with him. The Antwerp Lodge was inaugurated on November 17th 1956. Lodges were also started in Amsterdam and The Hague.
Back to India
Bringing original and pure Theosophy back to India, was next. Those students who had gone ahead, had established themselves there, and had found a suitable hall for meetings in the "Fort" of Bombay at 51 Esplanade Rd., Flora Fountain (now the center of the business district). They had located a fine residential complex at 17 Bomanji Petit Rd. in Malabar Hill 4 miles away, where apartments were available for all. The Wadias had a small detached bungalow in the same compound. Mr. and Mrs. Wadia landed in Bombay on May 31st, 1929 just before the monsoon rains arrived.
The Bombay branch of the ULT was opened on November 17th 1929. The inaugural meeting found the ULT hall full and overflowing. Mr. Wadia was well known and soon Sophia Wadia's oratory was appreciated. Speaking engagements from various social and communal groups poured in, asking them to lecture on Theosophy or on some aspect or other of the ancient tenets of that faith. As the reputation of the ULT grew, so did the regular membership, and Study Classes, Question and Answer Meetings, a Theosophy School for children on Saturday afternoon kept everyone busy most of the week. The Library was kept open for the public every day except Sunday from 10.00 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.
The Aryan Path
Theosophical Movement Magazine
January 1930 saw the first issue of THE ARYAN PATH (the noble path) magazine, supported by articles and editorials, by Mr. Wadia and Mr. T. L. Crombie, who acted as sub-editor. Mrs. Wadia allowed her name to used as "Editor". Mr. Wadia was of the opinion that the future of Theosophy in its presentation to the world would be, in one way, through the writers and poets of the world. Accordingly he and Sophia became members of the INTERNATIONAL P.E.N. CLUB. They served the P.E.N. in organizing its Indian chapter and maintaining its offices and a monthly magazine called THE INDIAN P.E.N.
The Theosophical Movement Magazine
November 17th 1930 saw the issuing of the first number of THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT magazine. All articles were unsigned therein, except those that had been written by H.P.B., W.Q.J. or others who had made signed contributions in the older Theosophical magazines.
Dr. Eleanor M. Hough, a ULT student from the Washington D.C., Lodge came to Bombay in March 1931. [She was the author of THE HISTORY OF THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN INDIA, published by Oxford University Press.] She became active as its sub-editor, under Mr. Wadia. After Mr. Wadia's death, Miss Dastoor took on the full responsibility of Editor, and since 1957 has been solely responsible for continuing this work up until the present (1995).
An active publishing program was started in Bombay, and reprints of articles and the shorter texts written by HPB and WQJ, in both book and pamphlet form, have been issued.
A large, older house had been purchased for the Wadias and several other active families to live in. It was located right on the Arabian Sea facing the West at Malabar Hill. Some 20 ULTers in various families lived in "Aryasangha" for nearly 25 years in great harmony and friendliness. The Wadias occupied the upper floor of the main building, and whenever some visitor came, or some event of theosophical significance presented itself, associates from all over the area were always invited to come. Many important persons were thus met, and important events occurred in which Mr. Wadia arranged that we could participate. The ARYASANGHA property was eventually sold in 1957 to partly defray the cost of erecting THEOSOPHY HALL, for the ULT activities and some residential arrangements for active members: [this is] a seven storied building in the "Fort" at 40 New Marine Lines.
In 1938 a sister Lodge of the Bombay ULT was opened in Matunga, about 11 miles to the north of the original Bombay ULT. The reason for this was that a number of students living there desired a permanent Study Class and meeting hall. Mr. Wadia gave the inaugural talk there. Two weekly meetings and a public library were maintained there.
Sophia Wadia, B.P. Wadia, Mabel Lithander and Charlotte TenBroeck4
After the death of Mr. Crombie, the original co-editor of THE ARYAN PATH, Dr. Eleanor M. Hough and others assisted Mr. Wadia in his editing task for this magazine. Mme. Wadia continued to lend her name to it as its "Editor" until it ceased publication, soon after Mr. Wadia's death. [See THEODORE L. CROMBIE - Friend of India by Ethel Beswick, publisher: INTERNATIONAL BOOK HOUSE PVT. LTD., Bombay, November 1958. ]
In 1941 equipment was bought to set up a printing press for the Bombay U.L.T. One of the students, an experienced printer, who lived in Baroda, some 260 miles North of Bombay, offered to equip the "SADHANA (responsibility) PRESS" there, so that the three magazines and other theosophical books could be printed reliably and without strain.
Miss Mabel Lithander, one of the senior associates of the Bombay ULT established herself in Baroda to assist in this work. From the month of May 1941 the magazines were published from that address. The Baroda Study Group of the ULT began its work at that time. Work continued there until February 1954 when the W. Q. JUDGE PRESS was opened in Bangalore. The magazines were published from the new address thereafter. Sadhana Press in Baroda was ultimately sold to Baroda University to become the base for Baroda University Press. Miss Lithander, retired to the Nilgiri summer home of the Wadias: GURUMANDIR, in Ootacamund. She died there May 5th 1958.
Maitri Bhavan, Bengaluru. Photo circa 2014.
During the second World War, students of ULT suddenly found themselves transferred by their offices to new locations. A number of them drew to themselves others who became in their turn students of Theosophy, and Study Groups were formed in their homes in New Delhi (which in 1960 became a Lodge ), Calcutta, Poona, Baroda, and Madras.
On the 12th of August 1942, the Bangalore Lodge of ULT was opened in response to the needs of students there. A building was purchased for this purpose: "Maitri Bhavan" (Abode of Friends)7 at 15, Sir Krishna Rao Rd., Basavangudi, Bangalore 4. It houses a central hall for regular meetings, lectures, and study classes; a library devoted to Theosophical reference books; and also residential quarters for visiting students. It conducts a publishing program that is complementary to, and in harmony with that which the Bombay Lodge runs. In this work it has reprinted the many pamphlets that make the articles of HPB and WQJ available to students at low cost following the pattern adopted earlier by the Los Angeles Lodge.
Wadia Hall at IIWC, Bengaluru. Photo dated October 2024.
In 1945 on August 11th, the INDIAN INSTITUTE OF CULTURE was started by Mr. Wadia, with Dr. L. S. Doraiswamy as its first Secretary. This was to be an extension of Theosophical work, in line with the 2nd Object of the modern Theosophical Movement. This brought to Bangalore to lecture persons from many countries who were visiting India; and it also served as a forum for prominent Indian specialists to lecture on their investigations and findings. Later the name of this institution was changed to THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF WORLD CULTURE (I.I.W.C.). It houses a large library, sponsors many regular programs of talks, musical recitals, seminars. And, it has a substantial publishing program of books, transactions and pamphlets in addition to its regular monthly BULLETIN. The inaugural meeting and many subsequent meetings were held at No. 1, North Public Square Rd. which Mr. TenBroeck had bought as his home and to be used for that purpose. This building later became used as the home of the Montessori classes of the EAST-WEST SCHOOL5 - a school that Mrs. E. P. TenBroeck and Miss Sophia TenBroeck started in 1961. The school, with an enrollment of over 700 pupils in classes spanning 12 years, from the Montessori to Matriculation classes, has flourished since then.
Some years later over an acre of land was acquired at No. 6, North Public Square Rd. for the I.I.W.C., and buildings were erected. These include a lecture hall, the Wm. Q. JUDGE HOSTEL for students, a LIBRARY, and other buildings. All activities of the I.I.W.C. were thereafter conducted from there. In 1959, following Mr. Wadia's death (Aug. 20, 1958), North Public Square Road was renamed by the Bangalore Municipality and citizenry: B. P. WADIA ROAD.
The WILLIAM QUAN JUDGE COSMOPOLITAN HOME was opened - a place where students could live inexpensively while studying at local educational institutions. The chief aim in this regard, was to promote intercultural exchange and universal brotherhood with no distinctions of any kind being made. Every evening in the main hall of the Hostel a devotional meeting was held with readings from the texts of the great world philosophers and prophets.
Theosophy Hall, Mumbai. Photo dated March 2024.
On the 18th of February 1955 Mr. Wadia laid the corner stone for the present home (THEOSOPHY HALL) of the ULT in Bombay at 40 New Marine Lines. 328 persons were in attendance. In doing this, he used this invocation:
"We lay this Foundation Stone to the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe, VishwaKarman, whose Hidden Light is vibrant in every speck of Matter making each a shining spark. May His Blessings be upon it."
"We invoke the Power of His Wise Master Builders, Their Cunning Craftsmen, and Their Obedient Servants."
"May the Blessing of the Holy Ones and of Their Servant H. P. Blavatsky, her colleague William Q. Judge and his devotee Robert Crosbie, Founder of the U.L.T., be upon it and upon the Temple to rise above it."
"We declare this Foundation Stone well and truly laid."
IIWC on B.P. Wadia Road, Basavanagudi, Bengaluru. Photo dated October 2024.
November 9th 1957, in Bangalore, saw the opening of the New Hall of the INDIAN INSTITUTE OF CULTURE by the Maharajah of Mysore, (he was also Mysore State's first Governor in Independent India) at 6 North Pubic Square Rd. in the Basavangudi quarter of Bangalore. At that time Mr. Wadia, who welcomed the Maharajah, renamed the INSTITUTE so that it now included the word: "WORLD": - "THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF WORLD CULTURE".
On November 17th 1957 THEOSOPHY HALL in Bombay was inaugurated at 6.15 p.m. by Mr. Wadia. The auditorium and balcony built to accommodate 500 was overflowing and people stood in the aisles. Over 700 were counted. ULT associates from all over India and several foreign countries came for the event.
The building houses on two floors the main auditorium, above are two floors devoted to the ULT offices and the Reference Library — (over 100,000 books and pamphlets available). The INDIAN P.E.N. has a floor devoted to its offices. On the top two floors are apartments for active students who work constantly at the Lodge.
August 11, 1958, was to be the Foundation Day lecture at the IIWC. It was to be given by Mr. Wadia, who had been ill for some days. He had prepared a magnificent talk under the title: OUR SOUL'S NEED (later reprinted). He began reading it, but his voice grew weaker, and he turned the reading over to Mrs. Sophia Wadia, who finished reading it, while he waited in a chair at the back of the auditorium. A typed copy of this had earlier been mailed to Bombay, where on the same day at 4.30 p.m. a number of students gathered in the Library to read it. (The Library room at the Bombay Lodge is used for meetings of the Bombay Branch of the IIWC.)
August 20th 1958 early in the pre-dawn of Bangalore, the intimate friends of Mr. Wadia were called in an emergency. The time was 2.20 a.m. He knew that he was approaching death and desired to speak to them of the future. He spoke of the changes that the cycles had brought to him. He reviewed some past incidents in his life. His first meeting with the Master in the "Brahma-Vishnu-Siva Cave" in 1907; his vision of HPB early during his stay in Adyar (November 18th 1918), which two events he said had inspired his life. He indicated that there would be changes now, and that responsibility had henceforth to be shared among those who had been near to him, and who would survive him. After this meeting, a number of students left reports on what they remembered hearing, differing somewhat as to actual content. The main ideas are reported here.
It was not until that evening, that he actually passed away. The time of the death of his body was 7.17 p.m. His friends met immediately after the event and read from the devotional books he loved: the BHAGAVAD GITA, VOICE OF THE SILENCE, and LIGHT OF ASIA.
Cremation was the next morning at Chamrajpet, a suburb of Bangalore.
As is customary, in the early dawn of the morning following a cremation, two ULT students went to the cremation ground to collect the ashes in earthen jars so that they could be later scattered in the Cauvery river, some 80 miles away. They both stated, that they had noticed on arrival, that there was a very distinct and penetrating odor of sandalwood in and around the ashes of Mr. Wadia's pyre. These were collected in jars and taken by car to the banks of the Cauvery river, some 80 miles West of Bangalore. There at the southern tip of the island of Srirangapatna6 those ashes were poured into the great river.
August 28th 1958 there was a Memorial Meeting at the IIWC at which a number of his friends and admirers made speeches in his honor. His death was noticed in all the major newspapers of the country.
The Indian Institute of World Culture in Bangalore, and its branches in Bombay and elsewhere, hold Memorial Meetings each year in honor of Mr. B. P. Wadia, at which his work is recalled and reviewed.
The End
Addendum
Memorandum from Wane Kell (EXTRACTS from a letter sent to an inquirer in 1992):
B. P. Wadia was a friend of my parents when I was born (Dec. 1922). I have lived near Mr. Wadia, and worked with, and for him, directly and indirectly, until his death in 1958. I hold him in the highest respect, and have studied his life and his works for all these years; also, comparing them with the writings of HPB and WQJ on THEOSOPHY. Here was a man who lived to help others. In the sense that Tom Paine wrote: "His country was the World, and 'to do good' was his religion."
Among Mr. Wadia's papers, I came across some mention of his visiting KROTONA TS in Hollywood (1919), and also of the stir that he made among the membership of the TS in the US, when, in 1919/1920, he publicly upheld the right of the TS members to democratically run their elections and resist any pressures (from their E S or whatever source), that might impair their individual right to decide how they would vote, or what they would investigate. He was a member of the American Section of the TS and spoke and wrote as such, not as a visitor, or an "import" from Adyar. His opposition was complained of to Mrs. A. Besant in Adyar. He did write a lengthy letter of explanation circulated generally to the American membership in which he explained his position in the light of Theosophical principles and again stated that he was actually a member of the American Section of the TS and had a right to his opinion, and to expressing it to other American members.
Common-sense and decency demand that no one person, or cabal dominate others for whatever pretext through coercive means, especially in the TS where Brotherhood is the only object that all members have subscribed to. Also, if one cannot tolerate emergent abuse of principle, the first and only recourse of a "pledged" person is resignation. This can only be done individually, not as a group. A "group" is not essential for the kind of help and support that the world needs, but there is no reason why any student who is devoted to Masters, to HPB, and to Their Theosophy, cannot start where he is and organize a study center with whatever persons Karma may bring him. It is all in the will, the motive, and a matter of sincerity, of an inner devotion to HPB, to the Masters, and to THEOSOPHY, and above all, a grand, embracing and all-inclusive love for Humanity as a whole.
If reference is made to H.P.B.'s original papers it will be found that it, the "esoteric body" cannot and may not influence or have anything to do with the exoteric T.S. This principle has been violated many times after Her death, by those who chose to elevate themselves and made claim to be Her "successor". If, they were, in turn, accepted as such by the membership who were unprepared to assume the responsibility of independent decision, which HPB had indicated they should exercise in this regard, the results proved disastrous in time to the exoteric TS.
Mr. Judge, in the expansion of Theosophy in America, after 1886, took advantage of the wave of interest that arose, and which, in many places, he stated was the result of Adept influence felt all over the country by those individuals whose karma made them sensitive to it.
Recently a fine biography of HPB bearing that title, by Sylvia Cranston has been issued, the first printing sold out in 6 weeks time, with little advertisement.
[By November 1993, over 10,000 copies had been sold. Over 1800 were distributed to University Libraries in the USA. A 6th printing is being made and 1994 will find that a paperback edition is to be issued in 1995. French, German, Dutch, Italian, and Russian translations are being arranged for.]
Students of Theosophy could take advantage of this. The participation of Theosophical bodies at the Centenary commemoration of the Parliament of Religions in Chicago (Aug/Sept. 1993) underlines the significance of Theosophy, now, as it was in 1893. I enclose a "bio-chronology" on Mr. Judge, showing the enormous value of his contribution to the Movement, if you will review the synopsis of annual REPORTS he reported on as "General Secretary, Amer. Sec. T. S." which is included therein, you will see how he caused the work to expand, employing many fine ideas, and the energies of many volunteers.
There is early evidence of a type of misunderstanding in TS history in Adyar, that which relates to "authority", to an expectation that individual members and Branches of the T.S. would accept and comply with, in docile conformity and acceptance, to such "orders" as the President, Col. Olcott, PTS might issue from "Adyar". HPB will be found to have been one of the first to protest and resist this authoritarianism. In her article: A PUZZLE FROM ADYAR, (HPB ARTICLES, Vol. II, p 217; U.L.T.) she points to the ethical and personal principles of Theosophical application every member should employ.
These she declares are transcendent to any "orders" issued from Adyar, whether by the president, or any other person or body that claimed authority to direct the activities and thought of the membership. She claimed that the essence of Theosophical application was the self-induced and self-devised decisions made by individual members. It was a putting into effect the ethics of Theosophy based on the independent understanding and choice of each member. This is how Karma operates. This is how all mankind and every being in the Universe progresses: on their own independent decisions at whatever their level of intelligence or consciousness.
Along with this article: A PUZZLE FROM ADYAR, two more articles by HPB could be read with great profit, if one desires to understand the extreme importance of this principle: WHY I DO NOT RETURN TO INDIA (a letter sent with Bertram Keightley in 1890 to the Indian members, and not published until January 1922 and July 1929 in THE THEOSOPHIST.) HPB ARTICLES, Vol. I, p 106, ULT; CWB XII, 156, and SHE BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH extracts from private letters of HPB read to members by Jasper Niemand; THE PATH VII, p. 121; ULT, HPB ARTICLES, Vol. I, p. 115).
The first "sin against Brotherhood" openly done after HPB's death was Olcott's precipitous action in declaring the American Section as a whole had seceded, when, in April 1895, it elected to become an affiliated, but independently administered T.S. IN AMERICA. In seeming retaliation for his loss of direct control he refused to have any consideration for the further actions of the T. S. in AMERICA, which, had registered its desire to remain in fraternal affiliation with the T.S. Sections, Branches and Fellows in Adyar and elsewhere.
He then presented at a General Meeting of the European Section T.S. resolutions (in 1895) excommunicating the membership of the T.S.IN A, naming Mr. Judge, its President, and all other seceding members. The principle of local autonomy had been agreed to years earlier by him. First, Mr. Sinnett insisted since 1883 that the LONDON LODGE of the T.S. should remain entirely independent of his control, to which he agreed. Later, he wrote to Mr. Judge and to HPB that he had no objection to the formation of independent Sections. The implementation of local independence had been arranged by the formation, in turn of the "American Section", the "British Section", and the "European Section" of the T.S.
The reason for the creation of these several "sections" was the rapid expansion of the membership of the TS, and, so as to avoid the delays and the slowness in administrative matters of detail, when those were concentrated in the President's office in Adyar, India - also, because he was frequently absent on tours of duty. Mail was slow and thus detail suffered, as correspondence with Judge and HPB reveals. Certain problems had also arisen in Adyar among the staff there which led to inaccuracy and delays.
Legally, it could be treated as a secession of the T.S. outside of America, as a whole, led by its President: Col. Olcott, from its original and legal source and center, which had never changed: in New York. This is a fact in History! To explain:
When, in 1878 December, Col. Olcott and HPB left New York for England first, then on to India, they did so as a COMMITTEE on behalf of the Parent T.S., that remained in New York. Resolutions in the original Minute Book of the TS (now in the archives of the TS in Pasadena) show this. From later notes (not Resolutions), Col. Olcott attempted to show (in 1895) that legally there were Resolutions framed (but not formally passed) which gave him, as P.T.S. (President of the T.S.) the right to create or do anything for the TS that he pleased, no matter where he was. Thereafter, the rules of the T. S. were from time to time changed by him, in India, to suit emerging problems of administration. So long as these claims and rules were not made onerous or "authoritative" the various Branches and later, the Sections, went along with them. They were accepted de facto not de jure.
In New York, the Parent TS continued under the management of Gen. Abner Doubleday, who was appointed in 1879 its President pro tem, and Mr. W. Q. Judge, its Recording Secretary. Later still, Gen. A. Doubleday resigned and Judge as General Secretary suggested a "Board of Control" be established to speed up administrative matters, review applications for membership, admissions, etc. This was implemented.
Later (1889-90), Mr. Harte, temporarily assistant Editor of THE THEOSOPHIST, while Col. Olcott was absent on tour in Japan, made the claim that the "Headquarters of the T.S. were, wherever he, the PTS, happened to be located!" And further, stated that all members and Branches owed "loyalty" to Adyar.
(A similar action seems to have also occurred, after the death of Mr. Judge. Mrs. Katherine Tingley, in 1896, had been elected Judge's "successor". She had gradually acquired ascendancy over the membership of American Theosophists, both exoteric and esoteric. In 1898 she "ordered" certain changes. This was protested by several of the prominent members, Hargrove, the Keightleys and others, who had been working under Mr. Judge and who had then elected her to be "leader", and "succeed" him. This protest resulted in a split between her UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND THEOSOPHY Society — which the T.S. IN AMERICA had renamed itself — and a new body, which resumed the old appellation, THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA, was brought into being. This new T. S. In A. continued in existence under the presidentship of Mr. E. T. Hargrove until the mid 1930s.)
In every case, the imposition of "authoritarian" rule coupled with the failure to apply fair ethical principles in administration has led to ill feelings among members, and a failure in the moral/ethical integrity of those involved became apparent. Both the enforcers and those who accepted enforcement, without insisting that common-sense ethical principles be rigidly upheld, have caused the debasing of the esoteric and the exoteric bodies. Most struggles have revolved around money and power, which True Theosophy has nothing to do with. The Masters, and both HPB and WQJ made this clear.
The matter became further complicated by the unexpected, and wholly illegal, imposition of force from the so-called "Outer Head" of an "Esoteric Section" that operated within the ranks of the TS membership. A "pledge" said to be made by members of the E S who entered this "esoteric" body, to "obey" the "orders" of an "O.H." related solely to occult study and work, and to self-control and self-reform, and not to exoteric matters, such as administration and finances. This is demonstrable from existing records during the time when HPB, WQJ and Col. Olcott were alive, and had also some say as simple members in the administration of the "exoteric" body the T S.
The political maneuvers of the exoteric T. Mvt. have nothing to do with the promulgating and the exemplifying of THEOSOPHY as a philosophy or the practice of those tenets as a self-adopted discipline. They waste time and energy, and they detract from the important work of spreading the message of Theosophy, or BROTHERHOOD in the world.
Clear speech on sound principles is the only way that any TS organization / association / group, etc. can run. The "conference method" is the only one in which a reasonable consensus can be gained. We are long past the era of authoritarianism, or rule by right of royal, or of "apostolic succession," the laying on of hands, etc. All those things open the doors to some form of sectarianism, and generally an abuse of power for personal benefit. Pity the future of those people who follow blindly self-seekers and claimants of various stripes. We need to apply our knowledge of Karma, reincarnation and derive from Theosophy such moral and ethical bases for our decisions as will revolutionize the world in a true sense. Brotherhood in practice will alone do this.
Essentially, administration in a truly Theosophical body, ought to be a form of practical, cooperative "anarchy". Local units establish a bond of mutual trust, based on common-sense principles that are universal and impartial. It is a total elimination of any personal or "partisan" interest. If such a situation is not possible, then the eventual spiritual and material failure of any TS organization can be predicted with invariable accuracy.
It is for this reason that Mr. Wadia in 1919-20, after finding how Judge had been treated by the conspirators (Olcott, A. Besant, B. Keightley, Olds, Edge, and others) of 1893-6, on his return to India and Adyar, first protested directly to Mrs. Annie Besant (who privately agreed that he was right. But, she said to him that although Mr. Judge had been unfairly treated she was unwilling at that time to make any further public redress beyond what she had already written in her article THEOSOPHICAL WORTHIES in 1909 in the THEOSOPHIST. If one refers to the book entitled THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT (1875-1925), and 25 years later, an updated edition covering the period (1875-1950), all the documents issued, and the sequence of events will be found given. There are no mysteries left. Most of what has been written pro- and con- the doings of the individuals involved in the TS can be independently reviewed using documents. It now becomes the responsibility of those who read these statements to verify them for themselves and then to decide how to act individually.
One might be led to conclude that when individuals abandon the impersonal application of the philosophy of THEOSOPHY for the sake of an ORGANIZATION, they get nothing but a seared and dried-up shell. Thereafter, they may be assuming the dangerous Karma of misguiding their contemporaries and misleading millions of people still unborn. A heavy Karma rests on even minor decisions made by any student of Theosophy at a time such as this. If we take it to be true, as the Great Master stated, that the "TS was chosen to be the corner-stone for the future religion of humanity". We are now living hardly 125 years since the repromulgation of Theosophy and therefore are privileged to be involved in this formative, foundational work. We may assume that the tests and the decisions that rest on us are of great magnitude and we should be most careful. Whatever we are, and however we may rate ourselves, it is a Karmic opportunity for us.
Loyal adherence to a "power group" is like backing the Church Fathers of the early centuries of Christianity, as they went cutting, paring, twisting, interpolating and adjusting their selections from current, and from ancient scriptures, and the Gospels, to fashion a Credo, and a Church that would serve the needs of black magic to enslave the masses for many centuries into the future, right up to about 300 years ago, when the Reformation began in various centers of Europe. They were so clever that they succeeded in almost entirely concealing their work. In preventing their descendants by taboos, from discovering the traces of their malefactions, they condemned millions of faithful but ignorant adherents to be duped by impossible and absurd explanations, rites, ceremonies and promises which are entirely illogical and certainly not verifiable - the creeds and beliefs (so called rites and sacraments) of the Christian Churches.
[Similar to that is] the publication, in 1896, of the "THIRD AND REVISED EDITION OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE" with over 40,000 alterations from the "Original Edition" of 1888 - which, needless to say, HPB had not authorized or supervised, and the addition to that of an entirely spurious "THIRD VOLUME".
This third volume contrary to HPB statements made in THE SECRET DOCTRINE, volumes I and II, gives adequate indication of the seriousness of the disease.
A careful reading of the second volume of ISIS UNVEILED will show so many parallels, historically, to this creedal trend, that one should not be surprised, but only feel deep sorrow, that so many have failed to abide by their pledged "word of honor". How can anyone who breaks that, be thereafter trusted?
If one desires to write a biographical aperçu of Mr. Wadia's life and work, with emphasis on his work in the US and Canada, the CANADIAN THEOSOPHIST for the months of 1919/20 carried the most detailed reports of his lectures. When in America, the AMERICAN THEOSOPHIST did the same. As soon as his resignation from the TS became known, they dropped further mention of him.
Miss Jeanne Sims of Los Angeles might know more of Mr. Wadia's life and work. She was helpful in providing copies of her work compiled from Mr. Wadia's writings. I would say, by and large, that the record left us, in writing, is the most reliable of those of individual worth. We have, fortunately had some great personages who have supported and worked for THEOSOPHY in those remnants of the TS that ought to be vigorously pursuing the work that HPB died to give to us. In the ranks of the anonymous ULT students who have patiently and perseveringly carried on the work of preservation, of study, and of promulgation of the original teachings of Theosophy very little is known or referred to. Emphasis is given to those teachings, not to the people who have made U.L.T. successful, so far.
If you have not seriously studied the work of the ULT, you ought to do that. It gives no eminence to anyone. It responds to the need of those who wish to study and to work for THEOSOPHY. Those who seek no recompense or personal stature, and who are moved only by a sense of the debt they owe to HPB, to WQJ, and, behind them, stand the Masters, and to their brother men - humanity. They are especially grateful to all the Great Ones who have kept the grand ideals alive. And, understanding Their love for Humanity as a whole, are those who support and work for it. They abandon (while not being ignorant of) any "official" considerations such as those offered by organizations like the various T.S.'s or their offshoots.
In that impersonal principle and its strict application lies ULT's inherent strength. Its DECLARATION, and the implication of self-discipline and of cooperation with ones' fellows as embodied there, preclude any personal aggrandizement. It enshrines a self-cleansing nature which combs out those who prove to be unfit to keep its vitality alive. If this is applied successfully by our descendants, then it will continue constructively for a while. But I can anticipate that eventually it may fail. From 1909 up to now (1995) is 86 years. The greatest barrier to those who might desire to "join" the ULT is the lack of recognition of a personal nature that they will receive. They will have all the responsibilities and none of the advertising! But consider the fact that we are all immortals - they will have to pick up from where they left off in the next life - we always do.
There is a real power in a strenuous life for THEOSOPHY. But this cannot be bottled up by anyone. It has to be diffused, and the wider, the better. So long as the ULT retains its independent-dependence it will serve as the "Voice of Conscience" for Theosophists in the world. The hot flame of truth in action burns away all useless chaff from the "golden grain" of duty. Its main purpose is to see that the original teachings of Theosophy are faithfully made available to inquirers. When this task was first entrusted to the other "societies", it was soon noticed that "Editorial changes, emendations, deletions and alterations" crept in, so as to obscure those originals, and make more difficult to find those instructions which those who are innately esotericists seek. This is a great danger. It is, in effect, the arrogation to ones' self a knowledge that pretends to transcend that of HPB and the Masters.
Even the ULT has, and will undergo "shocks". There are constant attempts to cause minor and major disruptions. Only the DECLARATION (and its constant use and study) provides a "shield" for these to glance off of relatively harmlessly. Now consider with me the action that Mr. Wadia chose to take, and make of his capacities a part of the supportive understructure of this "shield", and add to the penetrating work of "true Theosophy".
This does not mean that an independent TS - as all Branches were deemed to be, and as, for instance, the Edmonton Lodge in Canada is - cannot use and apply identical principles. It was originally intended that the individual Theosophical Societies would be exactly like the free and independent but confederated states that entered into the same Union as the USA did. No one state could rule another and the Federation was intended as administrative expediency and coordination, not rule. This has been the source of abuse of all democratic states where the central federation has made of itself, and of some of its more powerfully conniving units (persons) rulers. Unfortunately Olcott in his zeal to administer problems fairly, made it autocratic.
It is said that the Mission, the work of HPB was to "change the Manas and the Buddhi of the Race". [W.Q.J., "LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME", p. 72] This is a peculiar phrase, but one which is vibrant with the effort of the spiritual will — how best to move millions of minds and psyches to a consciousness of their own worth, to the sense of the independence that an immortal, eternal Being has inherently? That, destroys ignorance and "blind servitude" to any personal authority. We are now watching the unfolding of this process all around us, and all over the world.
How can we best help? Precept and example do this. Keeping the purity of THEOSOPHY alive and active in the world is the most essential thing that anyone can do. Reviving old corpses, is an exercise in wasting good energy. In effect it is an attempt to reverse the past; whereas a fresh beginning usually, under Karma, attracts those minds and hearts that are searching for THEOSOPHY. The old group, if they wanted THEOSOPHY would not have let the organization founder! The failure to apply brotherhood is that which has caused all the failures in the recent revival of the Theosophical Movement. It is time now for self-healing, if possible. Establishing new bodies for work takes time, but if the old cannot be brought back to the original lines, then that is what has to be done. Hence the establishment and support of the ULT activity, where such delays ought to be precluded.
Mr. Wadia made a personal change to devote life-work and energy to the ULT method - for those strong reasons. Did he submerge himself in it? Yes he did, and he always kept himself behind the ULT, pushing it, its purposes (THEOSOPHY, BROTHERHOOD, PROMULGATION), and the wider work in the world that the Theosophical Movement entails: The P.E.N., The INDIAN INSTITUTE OF WORLD CULTURE, and The ARYAN (noble) PATH magazine.
You could well ask why he did so. If you consider the various TS organizations around the world, then, and today (1994) you will realize that the ULT affords a totally free and responsible environment where independent study, cooperation, and non-authoritarian interdependence flourishes. So long as the ULT remains true to its DECLARATION it will offer a safe harbor to all who desire to truly work for humanity in brotherhood without any selfish motives of their own. The masthead of the monthly Program of Activities published by the ULT says it in brief: TO SPREAD BROADCAST THE TEACHINGS OF THEOSOPHY AS RECORDED IN THE WRITINGS OF H.P. Blavatsky AND WILLIAM Q. JUDGE.
In America, as another example of this kind of strenuous, impersonal, and wholly devoted work for the betterment of humanity, you have had MANAS magazine, edited up to the time of his death by Henry Geiger - another ULT student for whom THEOSOPHY represented the beaconlight of the Supreme Goal. He was its anonymous editor for over 40 years of devoted, disinterested but intensely practical service [1948-1988]. This magazine complemented and supplemented the work of the older already established magazine THE ARYAN (noble) PATH, which was started by Wadia and edited from Bombay from 1929, till his death in 1958 for 30 years.
For a moment, let me ask you to suppose that an Adept, or "HPB", returned, (and Mr. Judge wrote that She would, as soon as it was possible - see WQJ's THEOSOPHICL ARTICLES, Theosophy Co., volume II, p. 214), and desired to work for THEOSOPHY through the existing Theosophical SOCIETIES, bodies or groups.
Do you think THEY (around 1920), would struggle with all the "political" posturing, and all the "contorted mind-sets" that currently exist, are partisan, and have the least to do with real THEOSOPHY? Or would they try to work through some body which was non-political, nonstructured, and which insisted on perpetuating the work in original of both HPB and WQJ? And, at the same time, held the personal nature of each individual student to the lowest possible point of interference in actual work. [Read, for instance, Mr. Judge's article: ON FUNDS AND PROPERTY, PATH magazine, Vol. 8, p. 354.]
In THEOSOPHY, work is always available for those who want to work. Many hear the call, and in their hearts they respond, but when it comes to doing they find reasons why they should refrain or abstain. It is this inner barrier that each has to study, because our success or failure for the present incarnation is there. Do we work for it, or do we hinder it by rejection, by distortion, or through tamasic indifference and inaction? Each answers this to himself. The personality that we are, is placed by our karma directly into the Hall of the Two Truths. This is to be found in ancient Egyptian symbology of the after-death state of Amenti, where it is judged, by the "heart" of the defunct being placed in the pan of the scales opposite the "feather" of TRUTH. Here, we judge ourselves: the Lower Self is that personal self. It is now judging itself in the LIGHT that streams from the ATMAN our HIGHER PERMANENT SELF. Mr. Judge in "LETTERS" uses the symbology of a glove, as representing that Lower Self. Some meditation about that word and idea produce interesting results.
The cycle that begins around 1975 has come and is almost passed, as this is written at the very end of 1993, the evidence of power and change for the better surrounds us. How could the political, Theosophical, and human changes in Russia and Eastern Europe have come about virtually bloodlessly - the great revolution in physics towards a use of mysticism and philosophy in describing inter-related disciplines such as chemistry, astronomy, physics and mathematics? Do we need new and sweeping religious brooms? We have Theosophy. But, are we making the best use of it? It is the duty of the "companions", Judge said, to rediscover and to employ it. Both HPB and Judge prophesied that she might return. Are we sure she hasn't? She as EGO SUM is just as immortal as we are in our inner essence, so why presume She is dead, or has abandoned those who work in the movement that she and The Masters commenced? We are all under Her eye, whether we know it or not, or like it or not.
You ask about Mr. Wadia and his function. Do you not think that it was one of sustaining and lending strength in the only area (1919-29) where THEOSOPHY could be still broadcast? The reprinting of the original texts: SECRET DOCTRINE, ISIS UNVEILED, KEY, VOICE, THEOS. GLOSSARY, MODERN PANARION, 5 YEARS OF THEOSOPHY, HPB AND JUDGE'S MAGAZINE ARTICLES — this was a responsibility assumed by the ULT as those pioneer texts went out-of-print, and when the light of original effort seemed to have waned and paled to a great low for the original T S.
ULT thus served to keep that "beacon light" - the "phare de l'inconnu" - alive and vibrant with some of the original energy. Since then, others, active in the theosophical societies, have picked up their torches, lit them, and are carrying on as best they can. It is always and for ever the self-effort that counts.
This work of reprinting the "original teachings" was started under Robert Crosbie in THEOSOPHY magazine, which began its publication in November 1912. It was dedicated to reprint the articles of HPB and Judge that were, by then, out-of-print and unknown to the majority of those that formed the new generation of Theosophists.
Another of its functions was to clear away the confusion and vagueness as to what had happened in Theosophical chronology, and make the history of the Theosophical Society and its chief actors a matter of public and visible record to students and all other inquirers, and thus to strip away false secrecy, innuendo, hearsay, calumny and other confusions, such as false "authority," by quoting from original documents available to all inquirers.
When Mr. Wadia broadcast his resignation from the TS and gave there his reasons, he combed a large number of sincere students and devotees of HPB and WQJ out of the T.S. into centers where the ULT and its "straight HPB THEOSOPHY" would be used and studied by them. It was determined by him and those others who had responsibility for the guidance of the ULT work, that an intensive study of what Theosophy actually was, would be the first and most valuable tool to be used by all students. The promulgation and publishing work of the ULT was then tailored to that objective, and continues to be. The study of the "Three Fundamentals" (Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, pp. 13-19), of the "Ancient Source of Theosophy" (Secret Doctrine, I, p. 272, # 1) and of the "Ten Propositions of Oriental Psychology" (Isis Unveiled, Vol. II, pp. 587-8) was done at all study-class meetings as a preliminary. The intensive study of THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY by HPB, and of THE OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY by WQJ was then pursued; and the special study of the BHAGAVAD GITA was undertaken.
The republishing in photographic format of HPB's larger books was then taken up. The rest of the theosophical societies have since then tagged along, eventually, when they found that what they were then serving was not nourishing the deeper aspirations of their membership; and, further, they were accused of distortion and obscuration of HPB's teachings, when their offerings were compared with the originals, they reprinted the originals themselves.
This has proved a real blessing to inquirers, as everyone now has easy access to those important books and facts through their wider diffusion. A further indication of Theosophy having "arrived" in the circles of Academia is the fact that a number of "graduate students" are found to be studying various aspects of theosophical history and the development of the applications of theosophical principles through the literature available, such as work with and for children. In the departments of Religious Studies in a number of Universities a Professorial Chair has been set up for the study and preservation of Theosophical material, and this has been done all around the world.
It is amazing how many minds and hands try to "improve" on HPB. Or say, casually, "Well, if HPB were here now, she would say - this, or that", and seek to modernize and up-date her, while unconsciously, perhaps, putting themselves forward. Fortunately, science and good scientists know the value of the S.D., and use it. Those who are in the forefront of mathematics, physics, astronomy and philosophy (not to mention the social sciences, and the sciences that involve the mind, psychology and consciousness) are using it, and are familiar with its teachings and ideas.
Unfortunately, there are still many who cannot distinguish Leadbeater divagations from the Esoteric Philosophy of the Ages. But that is another story. Do you have a copy of Margaret Thomas' THEOSOPHY OR NEO-THEOSOPHY? If you can get a copy you will soon see how much Leadbeater and Annie Besant have departed from the sources of pure Theosophy.
DTB
In regard to your question about instituting the practice of providing a "Summer retreat for students of Theosophy".
I can only think of the instance of Mr. Wadia, who owned, before he joined the ULT, a property in Ootacamund in the Nilgiri Mountains of South India.
I think that the history of this place is adequately given in my bio-chronological notes on Mr. Wadia.
The summer climate in Madras, of daily over 100 degrees and almost 100 per cent humidity, and little or no air-conditioning available, makes this a most punitive climate. The Nilgiris are over 7,000 feet high and the climate there is "an eternal Spring" - average 55/75 degrees F. This explains why the property was bought by him. Earlier, HPB and Olcott had purchased near the "Snowdon" mountain a small cottage. Olcott named it "Gulmarg", and he said he would eventually retire to it, but, he never did.
[During World War I, when Mrs. A. Besant and Mr. Wadia were interned by the Govt. of Madras for about 3 months, they were confined to the use of this cottage.]
When the active season of the ULT in Bombay came to a close (usually after May 8th) and the pre-monsoon heat and humidity was heavy there, Mr. Wadia would go to Ooty and stay there for several months, and from time to time he would invite other students to visit and stay for a while. He used to say that he could do twice as much writing in Ooty than in Bombay - articles, letters, poured out under his hands. All the correspondence of the Bombay U.L.T. and the I.I.W.C (other than routine) was sent to him daily. This he returned daily, with instructions on handling, or with fully written answers. In other words, his self-assumed burdens did not lessen when he went there.
After the opening of the Bangalore Lodge, which was only about 190 miles away from Ooty, he generally cut short his stay in Ooty to come and work intensively with the Bangalore Lodge until the active season brought him back to Bombay again around mid August. Bombay is about 800 miles North West of Bangalore.
Even then, there was no such thing as a general invitation to associates to come for a joint vacation, joint study, etc. as the TS seems to do in America (Krotona, Ojai. England, and other countries.)
So I have had some doubts about the practice, as it is seems to me to be physically and psychically "pleasing" to the personality, but lacks a certain feeling of the intensive work and discipline directed to perfecting the personality connected with it.
If you read WQ's PRACTICAL THEOSOPHY (JUDGE'S THEOSOPHICAL ARTICLES, Theosophy Company, Vol. II, p. 395) you will see that Mr. Judge recommends the promulgation of Karma and Reincarnation as being our primary tasks. That is active, not passive. If you study Mr. Judge's work, he was constantly encouraging his friends to work, to promulgate, to seek for those souls who might be interested in the message of Theosophy. All of Mr. Judge's time and all the money that came to him for Theosophical use was employed in this. The funds of the TS in America were spent right away in this work of promulgation, and they provided great results. In letters written to Col. Olcott, Judge states that the money received ought to be translated into active work for Theosophy immediately, and not "laid up" in a "fund" for some future use. [see WQJ – "ON FUNDS AND PROPERTY", THE PATH, Vol. 8, p. 354 ]
"Was Mr. Wadia beginning a revolution in Adyar in the period around 1918/20? This you say has been rumored and where there is a fire there is smoke, etc...?"
ANSWER by WK:
In November 1958, Miss Ethel Beswick, who had been working with Mr. Wadia and Mr. T. L. Crombie in Adyar during the period around 1918-1920 wrote a short biographical sketch of the late Mr. T. L. Crombie's life. From this we read:
...As the years passed he (Crombie) became increasingly dissatisfied with the part played by the T.S. in the world, for he realized more and more that Theosophy pure and simple was not being taught and the great mission of the Theosophical Movement of our century was being lost sight of. The psychic pronouncement of Mr. Leadbeater were ousting the works of Madame Blavatsky, and the great ideal of the Masters of Wisdom was being degraded. Living in Adyar itself he continued his friendship with B. P. Wadia and his respect grew. He recognized Shri Wadia's integrity of character and devotion to H. P. Blavatsky and Theosophy, and they discussed what could be done to bring the Society once again in line with the Original Impulse of the Movement...
Could a change be brought about within the Society? If not, then it would have to be done from outside. Plans began to be made so that if all efforts to bring the change from within the Society failed another effort could be made which would bring Theosophy pure and simple back into the world.
These plans included the founding of an international magazine in which writers of the world would be free to express the their views, in which Theosophical principles could be expounded, and where writers who were struggling to pierce through the ordinary levels of thought into the universal could find expression.
Further, H. P. Blavatsky had said that it was the duty of the Society to see that its members were kept in touch with the organization, and a magazine THE VAHAN had been started in her time and sent free, at first, to members. Something along this line would be needed for those Theosophical students who wished to study Theosophy, and though it would not be sent free to all, the cost would be kept down to the minimum.
One other very important thing had to be done. One of the Founders of the Theosophical Society in 1875, Mr. William Quan Judge, the faithful pupil and co-worker with H.P.B., who had died in 1896, had to be brought from the disgrace into which he had been thrust to his true position in the Theosophic world. If, as H.P.B. had stated in her first book ISIS UNVEILED it is the duty of a Theosophist to remove the slur on "calumniated reputations," then it was surely a Theosophic duty to clear up the position as regards Mr. Judge. If this could not be done, after strenuous efforts, within the Society, then it would have to be done outside.
To have a permanent home in India the present house [originally named "Brookhampton", renamed: "Guru Mandir" by Mr. Wadia] in Ootacamund was bought.
Possibilities of a change in India looked poor in 1921 when Shri B. P. Wadia left India for Europe and America - his second visit. By July 1922 he had lost all hope of any such change and resigned his membership...Some months later Mr. Crombie left Adyar and resigned from the Society...
From 1922 to 1928 Shri B. P. Wadia was in the United States working with the United Lodge of Theosophists, a body of students of Theosophy devoted to studying the works of Madame Blavatsky and Mr. Judge, without officials, dues or regulations.
In collaboration with the parent Lodge at Los Angeles, founded by Mr. Robert Crosbie in 1909, he founded Lodges in New York, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. Plans were made for republishing the writings of H.P.B. and W.Q.J., and in 1925, the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Theosophical Movement of this century, an edition was published of THE SECRET DOCTRINE...unaltered in any way...
Mr. Crombie visited Mr. Wadia in New York and the plans already formulated took firmer shape...
In 1928 Shri Wadia's work in the U.S.A. being finished he left for India via London...the U.L.T. was founded in Paris and plans were made for one in Amsterdam...
[The above is quoted from pp 2-4 of THEODORE LESLIE CROMBIE, Friend of India, by Ethel Beswick — Nov. 1958, INTERNATIONAL BOOK HOUSE LTD., 9 Ash Lane, Bombay 1, India.]
...similarly, the work of Mr. Wadia. His faithfulness to HPB, WQJ, and to the ideals of Theosophy, and function of the ULT are all reflected in his writings.
Originally, when he knew only of the TS and made himself into a student of HPB through his study of The Secret Doctrine, and of Isis Unveiled , he followed faithfully the policies of the T S, so long as he was in it and had responsibility to it.
When he entered Adyar to work there, Col. Olcott was still alive. He gave his pledge then to that venerable (though often mistaken) man to work for Theosophy under him. Olcott accepted this offer. After Olcott' death, he gave the same pledge to Annie Besant, believing her to be the one primarily responsible for carrying on the work of HPB. [He knew nothing at that time of W. Q. Judge, or of the history of the split in the TS in America after HPB's death. Those matters had been, by then, covered over and largely forgotten in the TS in Adyar, in India.]
When, in 1919, he went to America and learned of the work and the principles of WQJ through associates of the ULT, and of the true history of the modern Theosophical Movement, he realized that a change was to be made by him to be true to his primary vow: to HPB, and to the support of her work and of the Objects of The Work in the World that the Masters had instituted through Her.
It had been made clear to him how the T S had failed. He knew that the T S ought to be restored to its original objectives and work, but he did not know if Annie Besant would agree to do that. In any case he was faced with a trial: whether to stay on with the T S, which he now knew to be false to its origins, or whether he should try to redress it, by going directly to Annie Besant, and asking her to publicly redress the wrongs done to Mr. Judge, and thus begin the hard process of swinging the whole T S back into the channels that HPB and the Masters had originally designed it should follow.
When he returned to India in 1921-22, after his work in Europe and America, he told Annie Besant what he had discovered about Judge, and about the band of students in the ULT who were following the Original Program. He asked her to make it public that the wrong done to Judge was to be redressed as she agreed had been done, to him, privately. But, Annie Besant refused to do this publicly, or to start altering the course of the TS. He then resigned, and, getting out of the TS, wrote a magnificent open letter to all Theosophists where he exposed the situation, his own decision, and advised them of his joining the ULT and his reasons for that: to "spread broadcast the writings of HPB and WQJ."
[The following is from the pen of Mr. Wadia's long time friend and devoted companion: Winifred E. Whiteman of the London, U.K., U.L.T. Miss Whiteman served as his literary "agent" in Europe, securing articles for The Aryan Path magazine (1930-1960); and also serving as European representative for The Indian Institute of World Culture, which he had launched in Bangalore, India, in 1945, and for which she organized a London branch. ]
B. P. Wadia and the Theosophical Movement
"The mighty Theosophical Movement" was a phrase that 'B.P.' often used, and the adjective seems to match him also — even to his sense of humor. We owe the creative and inspiring guidelines, that reinforce and augment those of Robert Crosbie, the founder of the United Lodge of Theosophists [U.L.T.], to the breadth as well as the depth of his outlook.
In the opening Editorial of Volume I of The Theosophical Movement, 17th November 1930, (exactly a year after the Bombay Lodge had started up the U.L.T. work in India) appeared the following, that echoed the idea that 'B.P.' had himself expressed.
There are two aspects to the Theosophical Movement, the abstract and the concrete.
The first is diffused and expansive. Wherever thought has struggled to be free, wherever spiritual ideas, as opposed to forms and dogmatism, have been promulgated, there the great Movement is to be discerned. This aspect can rightly be named the Republic of Conscience; for, wherever human conscience is active, in honesty and sincerity, there the potency of Theosophy is present. The Aryan Path (founded January 1930) is the vehicle of this aspect of the Movement, while it also presents teachings of practical value to the aspirant for the Higher Life and to the students of the esoteric science.
The other, the concrete and visible aspect of the Movement revolves round the Teachings of H.P.B. known to the world as H. P. Blavatsky. Accepting the cooperation of others she founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 in the city of New York, under the direct guidance and inspiration of the Masters, who by birth and affiliation are Indians.
The U.L.T. activities, and the magazine Theosophy (started November 1912) and The Theosophical Movement were founded to serve the needs of student-servers of 'Theosophy pure and simple.' The Aryan Path brought in contributors, many of them prominent in their own fields, whose writings and general outlook were significantly part of the more diffused aspect of the Movement, so much so that The Theosophical Movement, in its section 'Theosophical Activities' gave it equal mention with those of more specific Theosophical import.
The same ideal and purpose were behind the founding of the Indian Institute of Culture (as it was named at first) at Bangalore on 11th August 1945 (H.P.B.'s birthday) thus affirming again the link between the two aspects of the Movement. The word "World" was included later in its title to emphasize the breadth of the ideal.
The need to recognize the relationship between the two fields of Theosophical service continued to be referred to periodically in The Theosophical Movement. An article published in its 17th of December 1935 issue entitled "The Aryan Path" emphasized its dual purpose. It was to make the East and the West aware of the beauty and value of each other's culture, and also to give help to the "very large body of aspirants to the higher life outside of Theosophical circles" in avoiding the dangers of sectarianism and psychism. Secondly, that purpose included Theosophists also, for, as a Master wrote:
"The sun of Theosophy must shine for all, not for a part. There is more of this movement than you have had an inkling of, and the work of the T.S. is linked in with similar work that is secretly going on in all parts of the world."
The article further warned:
"The Theosophical student of this generation has to guard himself against two extremes: one is to limit the freedom of thought and to live like a frog who looks upon his pond as the world, with nothing outside; the other is to expand and embrace indiscriminately — in the name of brotherhood and fraternization — falsehood, ignorance and humbug."
The Aryan Path enables the Theosophical student to learn what able minds in East and West alike are thinking and how many among them understand propositions of the philosophy of Theosophy even better than himself and his companions. It will also show him how the race-mind is unfolding and in what ways humanity is getting ready for the cycle of 1975. If The Aryan path takes Theosophy to the thinking public, it brings in a compact form to the Theosophical student from the world of science, philosophy and art, ideas and views and even inspiration which he sorely needs and so helps him to live and to labor for his Cause in a better fashion.
A further article "Local Theosophists" (The Theosophical Movement, 17th Nov. 1938) quoted from H.P.B.'s Five Messages that "although there must be local Branches...there can be no local Theosophists."
The world is wider than any Theosophical organization, and if we would be universal in character, we must fight against narrowness and keep our interest in what is going on in the outside world. And we shall find that there we have our friends and allies...is the "local Theosophist" going to pass by unheeded a book like Mr. Aldous Huxley's Ends and Means, simply because H.P.B. is not quoted from or mentioned, therein? Is the power of the Spirit in man to be limited to "Theosophical organizations" only? Perish the thought! We have to look for Theosophical ideas, ideas which, largely owing to the life of sacrifice of H.P.B. have percolated (albeit unconsciously to themselves) into the minds of our great thinkers and welcome them whenever and wherever we find them.
The magazine, however, was only the starting point, for, once the last World War was over, the same aim and purpose was further developed, spreading out into the broader field of the Indian Institute of World Culture. This, in addition to its publications, offers a wide range of talks, exhibitions, drama, dance, film shows and other demonstrations, in furtherance of its objectives. In his Inaugural Address at the opening of the William Quan Judge Hostel for students (the Institute's first unit) B.P. declared that "in the great and immemorial records of the thoughts of Sages and Seers certain definite principles of fundamental value are to be found."
Poets are better social builders than politicians, and the thoughts of philosophers make a deeper impress and last longer in influence than deeds of social reformers. Ideas rule the world and they primarily emanate from poets and philosophers, from mystics and occultists. These great ideas make most suitable foundations. Once their efficacy is experienced in application by an individual he leaves behind the world of chaos and strife and begins to glimpse a world of order, understanding and peace...the Hostel is part of a larger plan, through which the Ancient Culture which is neither of the East nor of the West but is universal, will, it is hope, become manifest. In the spirit of fraternity and brotherhood men and women must learn to live in freedom and liberty.
But the heart of B.P.'s efforts was his 'concern' (in the Quaker sense of the word) for those student-strivers who sought more ardently for greater power to help the Movement. Only those who know fully the range of his personal contacts and widespread correspondence could evaluate the measure of the effects on these of his advice, encouragement and profound heart wisdom. The bringing together of some of his articles from The Theosophical Movement in the little book Living the Life can be summed up in a sentence from the ending of the first article, a mantram that B.P.'s own life embodied: The living Power of Theosophy must become the power by which we live.
W . E. Whiteman
B. P. Wadia information is unique to me, my sister Sophia and a few others, mainly in India, who lived near him. There are now few of these as he died in 1958 and it is now 1994. My sister Sophia TenBroeck lives in Bangalore, Mysore State, South India, at 1, Sri B. P. Wadia Rd. She, and my mother, funded, started and managed the EAST-WEST SCHOOL5 in Bangalore from 1961 onward. Sophia continues this very successful and highly appreciated work in Bangalore. (1994)
EAST-WEST SCHOOL is fairly close to the ULT Lodge in Basavangudi, Bangalore. It has a yearly enrollment of over 700 pupils for the last 25 years or so. She is also the Vice-President of the INDIAN INSTITUTE OF WORLD CULTURE, which Mr. Wadia started in 1945 so as to bring the larger sphere of Theosophical influence in the World to the attention of Bangalorians, and vice versa.
Sophia has been in Theosophy, like I have, working with and through the ULT, since our early years in this incarnation. Mr. Wadia was a friend of my parents for as long as I can remember, and we lived in an apartment located immediately below his own residence in "Aryasangha," 22 Narayan Dabholkar Rd., Malabar Hill, Bombay for over 20 years.
So I had every opportunity to participate in, and observe events as they unrolled: with him, the ULT in Bombay, Matunga (Bombay North), and Bangalore; also, in the rest of India, as ULT Theosophy Study Classes were established from Calcutta in the East, and Delhi in the North, to Madras in the South.
[Other members of the TenBroeck family in India were: Mrs. Elizabeth P. TenBroeck - my mother, who went to Bombay, India with my father and myself in 1927, was very active in the Lodge work and the editing of the magazines, and died in Bangalore in 1982, age 87. My father: William Davis TenBroeck (better known to all friends as "Bill TenBroeck") died in Bangalore in 1958 March almost 6 months after Mr. Wadia died. He came in 1927 to Bombay as the first American sub-manager in India for the National City Bank of New York (now CITICORP). Later he established and managed the DENABANK for his friend: Sri Pranlal Devkaran Nanjee. He owned and ran the Henry Davis Company Ltd. named after his mother's father, who had been Governor of Massachusetts. Concurrently, he was Far-Eastern Agent for the Western Union Telegraph Company in India, Burma, and Ceylon. I am William Dallas TenBroeck, and use the name "Dallas" to distinguish myself from my father, while he was alive, as we both have the same first name: William, and have continued to do so. My wife is Valerie TenBroeck.4]
The "back to Blavatsky" urge in the TS of the 1918/1922 period in Adyar and elsewhere, was not resented by "the powers that be" then, as I was given to understand by Mr. Wadia. This was because it was handled quite openly and naturally, Secret Doctrine in hand. This can be seen from the articles by Wadia that are published in those years in THE THEOSOPHIST. He did not hide his admiration of HPB, or of the SD, but that study and one-pointedness lent to his work and writing a depth which Mrs. Besant recognized and appreciated.
His conversations with Crombie, and others who felt that this was valuable, and who were present in Adyar and elsewhere in India, were sure that restoring increased prominence to HPB's teachings was valuable if the TS was to be continued, and was to do the original work set out for it. This could not be opposed or objected to, as the members and leaders of the TS, Annie Besant, Leadbeater, Jinarajadasa and others at Adyar, constantly referred to her, although they no longer studied them, or taught them in their pristine purity.
Mr. Wadia always dealt with Besant openly and fairly. He did not set himself up overtly or covertly as competition for her, since he had given her his fealty upon the death of Col. Olcott. He was trying to see how it would be possible to swing the whole TS back to a closer, a more vital alignment with HPB's pure and original teachings of Theosophy, as they were transmitted to her for FTS by the Masters.
No, I did not know that the Baileys attributed some of their support to Wadia. In 1921, I believe, Alice Bailey wrote several articles for THE THEOSOPHIST. I never heard him speak of them or their writings in complimentary terms. Wadia was not political. He was for HPB's THEOSOPHY. He remained steadfastly a devotee of HPB all his life. Having found the ULT, and rediscovered for himself the value of Judge as the link (antaskarana) to HPB, and having carefully observed, analyzed it, and studied its policy, he adopted it as offering him the widest field, established on the original programme of the Masters, in which he could work.
He never put himself forward as an individual or a person, but stayed in the background as a kind of 'reserve energy', as the great hidden motor, a power that encouraged others to grow, fit themselves to the work and proceed. He served as a "safety net" for such as might need assistance when their own short-sightedness got them into difficulties. He approved of ULT's policy and method, and lending his shoulder to the "wheel of the cart" of U.L.T. and Theosophy, proceeded to help move them along. And he encouraged all his friends and the friends of HPB to do likewise. I narrate in the [above] Wadia's Bio-Chronology the work that was then done under his enthusiastic leadership of spirit, energy and inspiration, as he fitted right in with the principles of the ULT Declaration and the pattern already set by R. Crosbie (which he had adopted from the writings of HPB and WQJ) and adopted by those who remained active in ULT, Los Angeles, after Mr. Robert Crosbie's death in June 1919.
It was interesting for me to note in conversations I have had with "old-timers" from the days of Crosbie, and shortly thereafter at the Los Angeles ULT, that some of them were apprehensive of the ability of the ULT to survive the passing of Crosbie, who must have known of his approaching death as he told several of his friends. When they expressed this, he consoled them saying that they would receive "help" - "soon". Mr. Wadia arrived in Los Angeles some 4 months later! Seeing an advertisement of the ULT Sunday lecture to be held in down-town Los Angeles at the Metropolitan Building, near the Biltmore Hotel, he attended. There was almost immediate recognition of congruent ideals and motives between him and Mr. John Garrigues, and Mrs. and Mr. Clough, and others who had been closest to Mr. Crosbie and the ULT work.
Now, writing in 1994, and looking backward, the ULT has worked, following the principles of its "DECLARATION" for some 90 years. The work, stresses, and tests felt by students now, are of levels which seem to be different from those in the beginning years, although, analogous. At least some are, and for those of the past that recur, there is a record of precedent that is valuable to use in conference and consultation, and the decision making process. The ULT method of consultation and conference excludes all autocrats.
DTB.
[Given at the Indian Institute of World Culture by Jehandir M. Tijoriwalla, Bar-at-Law, of Bombay & Bangalore, October 16, 1981.]
This day marks the birth-centenary of Bahman Pestonji Wadia.
He worked in the cause of labor and the Home Rule Movement of India, leaving plain Theosophical traces on all causes he espoused. This he did through the Theosophical Society, then for thirty years thereafter he lived and labored for the Cause of Those whom Theosophists call The MASTERS, and in whom they recognize the successors of the ancient and far-distant Rishis.
B.P.'s student days took him up to the "matriculation examination." Thereafter, for a short time the young B.P. worked for an English firm, but resigned when he found that service in its business house meant at times a deliberate departure from the Truth, on occasions when business interest demanded it.
Sometime, during the ninety of the last century, he received a present of the two volumes of THE SECRET DOCTRINE written by Mme. H.P. Blavatsky. The fates act sometimes thus. This birthday present gave his life a fresh and more profound orientation. As he read and studied his soul awakened to deeper purposes for living. He deliberately chose H.P.B. as his guru. His daily contact with THE SECRET DOCTRINE remained unbroken throughout his life. Did She not speak to him, guide and admonish him through the pages of her book? Her body had died in 1891, but to him, She lived, She was a Living Force.
Looking around for a suitable organization through which he might channel his efforts he could find none better than the Theosophical Society. To its venerable President Founder: Col. H. S. Olcott he made application, was accepted and worked thereafter in the Bombay Branch of the T.S. Shortly after Col. Olcott's death he went to work at Adyar.
The plight of the laborers in the Buckingham and Karnatic Mills textile mills came to his attention when a delegation of these called upon Mrs. Annie Besant, asking for assistance. She asked him to attend to that for her, as her delegate. Having espoused with success the cause of the laborer, B.P. observed India now found itself involved in the fortunes of Britain engaged in World War I. India had been promised a gradual increment in political responsibility by the English rulers. When this was shelved, Mrs. Besant indignantly launched the Theosophical Society behind the Home Rule Movement in an effort to secure the implementation of those promises. B.P. now stepped forward to pour the force and fervor of his zeal into a movement for the betterment and freedom of a whole nation.
For almost eighteen years B.P. was a member of the T.S. — lecturing, writing, editing, managing the Theosophical Publishing House and serving as sub-editor to Annie Besant for Young India newspaper. The soul of B.P. was unsatisfied. He began to realize that those with whom he had forged bonds of love and loyalty were themselves no longer true to the Cause and the Message of H.P. Blavatsky. A craze for psychism and a pandering to the glorification of the personality of individuals had taken root. However, his own sense of loyalty and justice demanded that he verify the accuracy of his own estimate by comparison with that formed by others. Opportunity arose, when in 1919 he undertook a lecture tour to some of the foreign centers of the T.S. This was done in conjunction with a request from the British parliament that he make a deposition to them on labour conditions in India, as President of the Labour Union of Madras.
To his dismay he discovered that in the several centers of the T.S. which he visited the power of the Original Impulse was ebbing and the force of Brotherhood was fast becoming lip-service.
He searched for ways in which to emerge from this impasse. His desire to be of real service to humanity — to all men of whatever race or creed — gnawed at his heart and mind. He longed to find that avenue where it would be possible to work without personal recognition, and to efface himself in true work: that of effecting a change in the thinking and motivation of the race. To achieve this it had to be weaned from credulity and blind belief in leaders who offered partial truths, and the slowly creeping up of an overwhelming materialism that closed minds and eyes to the value of the soul-satisfying philosophy of the ancient Aryans, the Nobles of the Soul of ancient India. He realized that the time for the sowing of a harvest for the future had come.
It was in America that B.P.W. found an answer. While visiting Los Angeles he became acquainted with the work and conduct of THE UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS. There he met like-minded souls and rejoiced in their company. In discharge of his responsibilities to Mrs. Besant, and the positions he occupied in Adyar, he returned to seek from her a public redress of the life, work and character of Mr. Wm. Q. Judge, who was one of the original founders of the T.S., but whose work and efforts had been first calumniated, and latterly deliberately obscured and forgotten. This not being forthcoming, he resigned on July 18th 1922 from the T.S. This resignation was made public to the membership of the T.S.
B.P. felt that the Cause of Theosophy and of the Masters had a paramount claim upon him, his time and work. This resignation brought about a rent in long-established friendships and associations extending back to those days in which we worked for justice for labour and for country. He returned to America to work with the UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS as an "associate" for seven years. He adopted those bonds of "similarity of aim, purpose and teaching" which form the basis for U L T activities. This consists in "spreading broadcast the teachings of Theosophy as recorded in the writings of H.P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge." It suited him that the fundamental principle of impersonality which unites all true students of Theosophy into a whole gave that strength to all doctrines and teachings offered by the anonymity of its presentation. Let the statement stand on it own merit, and not on any authority which a name or a source may give to it.
1929 brought about the return of B.P. to India. Embodying the ideals of impersonality, loyalty to the Message, and service, he translated them openly through a new center: the Bombay ULT. The 17th of November 1929 saw the founding of this Lodge at 51 Esplanade Rd. (later: Mahatma Gandhi Rd.). A year later THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT magazine was launched. (It is now in its 64th volume.) It is dedicated to "the living of the higher life." Again, anonymity was observed in its publishing policy, a principle not fully grasped by contemporary readers. Similarly at the ULT, the names of lecturers were never published. Emphasis was laid on the value of the doctrines offered.
1930 January saw the issue of the first number of THE ARYAN PATH. This monthly magazine was designed to carry to a wider public the influence of the Theosophical philosophy, and to present to students the views of the world which represented the best developments of modern thinking. With the help of Mr. Theodore L. Crombie, his companion and co-worker for many years serving as sub-editor, this project was launched. Mme. Sophia Wadia lent her name as the Editor. Contributors to the ARYAN PATH included such names as John Middleton Murray, R.A.V. Morris, Wm. Jackson, Kazutomo Takehashi, Lionel Hawthorn, Dr. Haddi Hassan Saheb, H.H. Raja K.P. Bahadur Singh, A.R. Wadia, and many others.
Later, to further serve the area of South India, in the city of Bangalore the INDIAN INSTITUTE OF CULTURE was established. The objective of this Institute was to bring thinkers of importance to the world together and to have them present to the Bangalorians their views and dreams. Here spoke such as the Panchen Lama, Martin Luther King Jr., Sir C.P. Ramaswami, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Professor Haldane, and Dr. Ralph Bunche, Sir C.V. Raman, the Maharaja of Mysore, Dr. Masti Venkatesh Iyengar, Dr. V. Raghavan, and H.R. Bhabha. Through all these activities ran a single string of purpose: to awaken in the Soul of man an awareness of their divine potential, and of their responsibility for assisting others.
Numerous unsigned articles poured from the pen of B.P.: in the Editorials of THE ARYAN PATH, signed Shravaka (Student); in lead articles in THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT, and elsewhere in press of the country. His correspondence with luminaries of the world was constant and voluminous. His management of the many affairs at hand and elsewhere was constant, consistent and prompt. He was always responsive to the call of the humblest person who asked for his help. He gave unstintingly of his time and effort to those who deserved his regard and who helped in the furthering of the Cause of the Great Masters, the Elder Brothers of Humanity, the Rishis of Old. The true spiritual devotion of B.P. WADIA has brightened and heightened many a life during the many years of his selfless and unassuming service.
Jehanghir Tijoriwalla,
Bar-at-Law
Portrait of Pandit Bhawani Shankar from Maitri Bhavan.
Pandit Bhawani Shankar was a direct pupil of HPB, became a friend of BPW in his early Adyar days.
Not long after HPB landed in Bombay in February 1879, Bhawani Shankar, then 20 years old, put himself under her guidance. On several occasions he was among those who recorded they had seen the Masters visiting her at the T. S. Headquarters, at "Crow's Nest", Cumballa Hill, in Bombay.
When, later, doubts arose concerning the existence of the Masters, he declared openly that he had seen them numerous times at the Bombay Headquarters of the TS, speaking or delivering messages of instruction to HPB in connection with its work.
"They are not disembodied spirits, as the Spiritualists would force us to believe, but living men. I was on seeing them neither hallucinated nor entranced ... I as a Theosophist and Hindu Brahmin give to disbelievers...that these Brothers are not mere fictions of our respectable Madame Blavatsky's imagination, but real personages, whose existence to us, is not a matter of mere belief, but of actual knowledge." — THE THEOSOPHIST
Bhawani Shankar — one of H.P.B.'s direct pupils from the early days, 1879-84, was living temporarily at Versova (north of Bombay, near Juhu beach, (where the Wadias had been given land in part payment for their services as ship-builders many years before, by the British East India Company). BPW was invited to come and to attend the Pandit's "morning puja"- a period which he spent in meditation and devotion with thought centered on HPB and the Masters.
This, BPW said, began at 4.00 a.m. and would continue for a period of 4 to 5 hours. Bhawani Shankar used at that time a special bell. It had a "peculiar, a curious ring to it" which "produced a deep psychological effect on those who heard it". [Mr. B. R. Shenoy, who in his youth had been a direct pupil of Bhawani Shankar, also spoke of this. He lived in New Delhi in the 1960s, and was at that time one of the Governors of the Reserve Bank of India. Earlier, he had spent several years in Washington, D.C., as one of the Directors of the World Bank. He had been professor of Economics for many years at Gujerat University in Ahmedabad.]
After the departure of HPB and Damodar from India in 1885 he took earnestly to the study of the Bhagavad Gita which became his text-book for Theosophical exposition. Up and down the vast peninsula he traveled from 1891 to 1909. In 1907 Col. Olcott, the President Founder of the TS died. He was succeeded as President by Mrs. Annie Besant. During that time, on visits to Adyar, Bhawani Shankar had become friends with BPW.
Serious differences developed with the new group of Adyar "leaders". This resulted in his limiting his services to small groups of independent students who needed and welcomed him.
After the formation of the ULT in Bombay he quickly recognized that the real Theosophical work was being carried on there. Under its auspices he gave a series of talks on the Gita in October 1931, September 1933 and September 1934. — THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT Vol. VI, p. 146
At the time of his death, Bhawani Shankar asked B. P. Wadia to come and visit him. He apparently delayed that event until his arrival. They had a private talk, after which he expired. The date was the Full Moon of the month of Ashadha — the 4th of July 1936. Born in 1859, Bhawani Shankar was 77 years old, and, active to the last, was ever ready to help and instruct his fellows. — THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT Vol. VI, p. 146
Regarding Dion Fortune, I simply have no recollection of Mr. Wadia mentioning that name. The following two extracts from her [Dion Fortune] sundry papers may be of assistance:
"When Mr. Wadia, once a worker at Adyar and later founder of the United Lodge of Theosophists, was in England shortly after the War [1st World War], trying to make a start with his scheme, he gathered together a small group of people of whom I was one, and put us in touch with the Himalayan Masters. For what my testimony is worth, I can vouch for the genuineness of those contacts..."
"I remember, many years ago, when I did not know as much about occultism as I do now, that I met a certain Indian Theosophist, and he offered to put me in touch with the Master K.H. I am quite satisfied that he did what he undertook to do, and that the Master KH was of the Right-Hand Path and of a high grade...".
(Mr. Buxton's letter of 3/7/94)
Of course the ULT was founded in 1909 by Mr. Crosbie and the others of his friends who had become students. In 1919, Mr. Wadia encountered it, as I narrate in the bio-notes. He had apparently, earlier, in Adyar, with Ettie Beswick, T.L. Crombie, and others, discussed the question of how to get the TS back on to the track of real Theosophy.
I imagine that the Karma of his making a trip in 1919 to Europe, then to the U S, was so that he might come into contact with the ULT - and so he did. It also gave him a base from which he could attempt to bring on the reform he envisaged, if possible inside the T.S. with Mrs. Besant's approval, and if that were refused, then he decided to resign and work in the same direction through the ULT now that he could see that there was already established a base through which this could be done. That is why it took 3 more years for him to make this attempt and when it failed, and Mrs. Besant refused, he resigned and joined the U.L.T.
I recall him saying fairly often how important was HPB's plea, found If one reads the last two or three pages of THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY; there one may see how she hoped that when the "next Messenger" from the Lodge of Adepts came, he would receive a cordial welcome.
The T.S. had changed drastically in direction and in teachings since her "death", and since that in 1896 of Mr. Judge in America. HPB's writings had been changed by editing, and were going "out-of-print". Mr. Judge was unknown.
ULT offered those conditions which she had hoped would be available. I would say that the increase in ULT work and centers is a result of that.
DTB
2 More information about HMS Trincomalee can be found here. And the following additional information from history of Chennai:
The beginning of the Wadias' shipbuilding empire can be traced back to 1736, when it obtained a contract from the East India Company for building warships, of which they built a hundred. These vessels created history all over the world. The poem, the words of which would later become "The Star Spangled banner" – the national anthem of the United States – was written on board a Wadia-built British Royal Navy Ship, HMS Minden, in 1812.
3 Now dilapidated Madras Labor Union building in Chennai, Tamil Nadu:
There is no Religion Higher Than Truth - सत्यान् नास्ति परो धर्मः
