Olcott H.S. - The President-Founders Address

Brothers, Delegates of India, Japan, Ceylon, Europe and America, I bid you heartily welcome to the Thirteenth Annual Convention of the General Council, and declare the Session duly opened.

The work that we shall have before us, you will find extremely important, and demanding your most careful consideration. I rely upon your coming to conclusions respecting it, with a single eye to the paramount interests of the Society and the movement as a whole, regardless of sectional or personal prejudices and predilections. For my part, I wish my existence and personality to merge into the movement, and to do, and to have done, that which is for its greatest good. And this brings me to the vital questions whether I am the best man available for the office of President, and whether I should be left the widest discretion, with proportionate responsibility, or be part of an executive administration, in which I should have but one vote, with a casting vote in case of a tie in the Council. As you know, my powers were practically unrestricted from the beginning, in 1875, to the year 1885, when the Executive Council was formed, with my consent, and with the declared object of testing practically the scheme of joint responsibility which had been urged upon me by certain European colleagues, then resident at Head-quarters. My repeated public declarations – notably my Annual Address before the Decennial Convention, when I strongly urged, to no purpose, the acceptance of my official resignation and the choice of a successor – will prepare you for the statement that I have loyally tried to remove every hindrance in the way of the scheme in question. It is for you who most closely occupy yourselves with our Society’s affairs to say whether the change was an improvement or not. I think it was not. I have not been relieved of the smallest portion of my sense of responsibility for our

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business affairs, everything of grave moment has been left to my discretion, the work has gone on exactly as before, there has been no notable bettering of our prospects or unprecedented quickening of the movement, the expenses have been about as great as ever, without any increase of revenue outside that traceable to my own personal exertions; and all this time I have been oppressed with the feeling that we were giving trouble to the honourable gentlemen of the Executive Council, which might be avoided under the old theory of Presidential responsibility. Perhaps I should have allowed things to go on as they were for a while longer, but the Delegates of the American and British Sections brought up the subject in a recent Session of Council, and it is now imperatively necessary that it should be settled for good and all, one way or the other. I mean that it shall. My offer to retire was rejected by unanimous vote at the Convention of 1885, and I was told I must serve the Society during my life. I yielded my own inclinations to the sense of duty; and the time has come when I should say, most distinctly and unequivocally, that since I am to stay and be responsible for the progress of the work, I shall not consent to any plan or scheme which hinders me in the performance of my official duty. That duty is, first, to the unseen yet real personages, personally known and but recently seen by me and talked with, who taught me the way of knowledge and showed me where my work lay waiting a willing worker; next to my colleague, friend, sister and teacher who, with myself and a few others, founded this Society, and has given her services to it these past thirteen years, without fee or hope of reward; and, thirdly, to my thousands of other associates in all parts of the world, who are counting upon my steadfastness and practical management for keeping the Society moving forward in its chosen line of usefulness. The practical part of its business is my special department: I form and keep alive the body which contains the indwelling spirit called Theosophy. I have never interfered with the esoteric or metaphysical part, nor set myself up as a competent teacher. That is Madame Blavatsky’s speciality; and the better to enunciate that idea, I have just issued an Order in Council, in London, creating an Esoteric Section under her sole direction, as a body, or group entirely separate and distinct from the Society proper, and involving the latter in no responsibilities towards those who might choose to enrol themselves in her list of adherents. With our forces united, each doing the work most congenial and attractive, we two have, under the favour, or rather the benevolent sympathy, of our Teachers, built up this Society, created the first nucleus of its literature, given the first impulse to the now world-interesting movement, which has rallied thousands of sympathizers around our initial nucleus, revived Hinduism in India, reanimated Buddhism in Ceylon, made the principles of Asiatic Philosophy and the names of the Sages known in distant lands, established many religious schools and journals in Asiatic countries, and several high-class Magazines in Europe, America and Australasia, palpably affected the views of the leading Spiritualists, and proved the unity of true Religion with true Science. Am I not speaking within the truth? Have not all these results been accomplished already? Certainly, none can doubt it. Well, then, this is my determination: – to be obedient and loyal to the Teacher we personally know, and a few of us appreciate at her true worth. This is my last word on that subject; but in saying it I do not mean to imply that I shall not freely use my own

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judgment, independently of Madame Blavatsky’s, in every case calling for my personal action, nor that I shall not be ever most willing and anxious to receive and profit by the counsel of every true person who has at heart the interests of the Society. I cannot please all: it is folly to try; the wise man does his duty as he can see it before him.

I have at some length traced the growth of the General Council and Convention, that you may have a succinct view of the evolution of the parliamentary idea. You will observe that it was not a gradual but a sudden “change of base,” and if you will connect it with the advent of certain persons inimical to myself, you will probably be near the truth. I felt my strength so thoroughly, and was on such a perfectly independent footing in the Society, that I was willing to countenance, and even loyally help to make, the experiment which is brought to-day to the bar of our judgment.

It is the subject of constant remark that our Indian Branches are continually showing signs of alternate activity and depression: often a Branch which had been among the most noted for useful work, grows suddenly lifeless, and perhaps shrinks down to a few members. Nothing is easier to explain. Our Indian Branches are largely, sometimes almost exclusively, composed of Government officials, subject to transfer from place to place at the will of their superiors and the exigencies of the public service. Thus, a Fellow who was the heart and soul of a given Branch, and led it easily toward the doing of useful work, may be transferred to another station, and the group without its head lapses into idleness and repinings. If one listens to the doleful complaints of local Jeremiahs, whether in one country or another, he may easily be made to think the Society ready to collapse. To get a correct idea of the state of the movement, a survey of all the fields of its activities is required. And the yearly statistical compilations attached to my official addresses aid in this respect.

But there is an element of natural selection at work in our membership, by which the indifferent, the indolent, the vain, the selfish, the morally timid, the unspiritual, weed themselves out, perhaps turn hostile, and the staunch and true remain. To comprehend Theosophy in its several aspects and relations requires a superior mind; moreover, a spiritually illumined and intuitive one. We may talk as we will of being a Theosophist, but in fact such a superior person is rara avis in terris. It is easy to be sectarian, or materialist, or utilitarian, but not so to be a Theosophist. Yet there are certain elementary and indispensable elements of Theosophy which can be and should be practised by every member of our Society, viz., clean living, high thinking, brave spiritual striving, and the cultivation of tolerance, eclecticism and altruism.

An American journal of local repute (the St. Paul Pioneer Press, of April 22nd, 1888) says of us: –

“But it has to be remembered that Theosophy, as such, has a high and severe moral code of its own. It teaches that the power of the spiritual over the material is conditioned upon the highest spiritual development; that toilsome study and the most patient and consistent practice of the virtues are essential to entrance into the sphere of occultism. It is not a faith for the vulgar, and is peculiarly unsuited to the quack. And it has, among people of high intelligence and noble aims, its numerous devotees. It is in this light, as a new moral force in a social order from which some of the old forces are disappearing, that it becomes of peculiar interest. * * * We must at least give to Theosophy the credit of standing upon a plane very different from that of the old and familiar frauds

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upon the public. It contains the germs of an ethical system of a high order. It attracts intelligence and virtue. It opens a field of spiritual possibilities which may well be subject to consideration and to such examination as can be given it, even though it be proved that we can never enter it with our feet resting upon firm ground.”

You may have come to know that during my recent tour to Europe I had the honour and advantage of becoming acquainted with three renowned Orientalists – Prof. F. Max Müller, and Messrs. Emil Burnouf and Leon de Rosny, of Paris. I heard with some surprise from the last-named authority that there are now not less than 12,000 Buddhistically-inclined Frenchmen, who are in reality full Buddhists save in name. I was presented by him with a small photograph of an Image of Lord Buddha, which was recently erected in Normandy. I found these three gentlemen cordially interested in the branch of our Society’s work represented by the Adyar Library and its learned Director, by the Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund of Mr. Tookaram Tatya, and by the Publication Office of the Theosophist and other of our magazines. The Orientalists of the West have neither patience with our interest in that esoteric interpretation of the Asiatic Scriptures we so prize, nor in our belief (or knowledge, in the case of some of us) in the existence of Sadhus, Sages and Mahatmas, endowed with developed psychic powers. They regard us as an excellent and convenient agency for arousing a taste for Oriental literature and research, and to that extent wish all of us success. You will see in the following list of our books and other publications of the year, that our literary activity has been fully as great as in previous years.

List of Publications during the Year 1888.

Secret Doctrine in 2 Vols., by Madame H. P. Blavatsky.
Discourses on “Bhagavadgita,” by Mr. T. Subba Row.
Buddhist Catechism, in Russian.
Do. in Swedish.
Do. in Canarese.
Do. in Hindi.
Do. in Bengali.
Do. in English (London Edition).
Light on the Path, translated into Sanskrit.
The First Ashtak of the Rig Veda Samhita, with Bhashya.
Compendium of Raja Yoga.
A New Edition of Bhagavadgita, in Sanskrit.
Krishna Yajurveda, in Sanskrit, Devanagari type.
Do. in Sanskrit, Telugu type.
Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, by Dr. F. Hartmann.
Jehoshua, by Dr. F. Hartmann.
Divya Suri Charitram, by A. Govindacharlu.
Magic, White and Black, 3rd Edition, by Dr. F. Hartmann.
Reincarnation, by E. D. Walker.
Sudhanachatushtaya, by R. Jaganathiah.
The Morals of Bharatam, by R. S. Pandiah.
The Destiny of Man, by Dr. Buck.
The Moral Panacea, by Durga Das Roy.
Physical Proofs of Another Life, by F. J. Lippitt.
An Introduction to the Kabala, by A. D. Ezekiel.
The Desatir, by Dhunjibhoy J. Mehta.
Raja Yoga, by Manilal N. Dvivedi.
Sayings of Grecian Sages, Part II.
Fifteen useful pamphlets published by the Theosophical Publishing Co., Limited, London.
Yoga Philosophy, by Dr. N. C. Paul, translated into Urdu.
Selected portions from the Practical Instructions for Students of Occultism, translated into Urdu.
Usool Ilms, Elahee.
Elixir of Life, translated into Urdu.
Ancient Iranian and Zoroastrian Morals, 2nd Edition.
Yoga Vidya and the Ancient Iranians, in Guzerati.
Mesmerism, in Guzerati, Manilal N. Dvivedi.

New Magazines.

The Buddhist.
The Hestia.
L’Initiation.

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Of course, the great event of the year and the most important literary event in our history, is the completion and publication of Madame Blavatsky’s “Secret Doctrine.” I have had the opportunity to look over the proof-sheets of the book, and can promise you such a rare body of esoteric instruction and scientific suggestion as no other book of like character has supplied in modern times.

The Adyar Library.

The Adyar Library issues of the year to the Convention are the Hindi translation of the “Buddhist Catechism,” by Babu Manohara Lal, F.T.S., and the Sanskrit edition of that remarkable monograph “Light on the Path,” translated by the learned Pundit Bhashya Charya into beautifully idiomatic Sanskrit, and destined to be a classic. He will present to you a special report upon his work throughout the year in the province of Mysore, pursuant to an understanding between myself and His Excellency K. Sheshadri Iyer, the Dewan, and with the benevolent concurrence of His Highness the Maharajah Bahadur, G.C.S.I.

As the Treasurer’s Report shows, there is a credit balance of only Rs. 26 in favour of the Adyar Library, after expending the Rs. 700 of Prince Harisinghji (which must be refunded when the entrance-gate is erected, for which it was given), and the special donations of the year, amounting to Rs. 760-3-0. I invite your earnest attention to the subject. There must be money if we would retain the invaluable services of our great Pundit, defray his travelling expenses, purchase books, keep those we have in good order, and sustain the dignity of the Library in the eyes of the great Indian Pundits and Western Orientalists, who are beginning to hear of and appreciate our work. During the past year 51 Sanskrit books have been acquired by the Eastern Section by purchase, and 82 by donation; and the collection of the Western Section enriched by 359 volumes by donation and purchase.

The reader of current Western literature, especially fiction, is impressed with the fact of the very strong taste for occultism which prevails, and which is no doubt largely due to the rapid growth of Theosophical literature.

Japan.

My expectation to be called in the beginning of this year to Japan was not realized, the local Committee in charge of the matter having changed their plans. They have at last perfected their arrangements for my tour, and we have the pleasure to-day of seeing, as special agent of the Japanese Buddhist Committee and Delegate from the Kioto Theosophical Society, Mr. Zenshiro Nogouchi, who has come to escort me to his country, whither I expect to sail next month. This Japanese tour seems likely to become one of the most dramatic and important episodes in the strange history of our Society, and I bespeak all your good wishes for my success.

The Movement to Date.

The increase in the number of Branches is this year mainly confined to the United States of America, where, under the conservative yet enlightened management of Mr. Judge, and his Executive Committee and the General Council of his Section, public interest in our work is rapidly growing and spreading. Up to the present time, there are but twenty-five American Branches, it

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is true, yet from what I know of my native country and fellow countrymen, I should not be surprised if the time were near at hand when there will be more Branches in that country than there are at present in India. Theosophical ideas are new to Americans, but there has been for years a gradual inclination of the American mind towards the line of thought represented in Asiatic Esoteric Philosophy. Our statistics of growth show the following figures: –

Year	1875	1876	1877	1878	1879	1880	1881	1882	1883	1884	1885	1886	1887	1888
Charters issued up to close of year	…	1	2	2	4	11	27	51	93	104	121	136	158	179

Deducting 6 charters extinguished, we have 173 living charters at the close of the year 1888. Geographically, the year’s new Branches are distributed as follows: Asia (India) 3; Europe 4; U. S. America 13; New Zealand 1. Our Indian Branches are now established in the following Presidencies: Bengal 26; Behar 8; N. W. P., Oude and Punjab 23; Central Provinces 4; Bombay 7; Kathiawar 2; Madras 46; Ceylon 10; Burma 3. In other parts of the world we have, in England 4; Scotland 2; Ireland 1; France 2; Austria 1; U. S. America 25; Greece 1; Holland 1; Russia 1; West Indies 2; Africa 1; Australasia 2; Japan 1. Total, 173 Branches throughout the world on the 27th day of December, 1888.

Financial.

As very misleading ideas are current with the respect to the income and assets of our Society, I have thought it expedient to lay before the Convention a condensed summary of our entire receipts from all sources and for all objects, since 1878, the year in which the founders left New York for Bombay. In a recent American paper I read the statement that we had over 100,000 Fellows in that country alone! Now, as any one may see in our published Rules, the Entrance Fee is £1 or $5, which would imply that the Society had realised about fifteen lakhs of rupees from that source alone! The wild absurdity of such fairy-tales is not its worst feature: they tend to alienate the benevolent sympathy of many good people who would be quick to help us if they knew the true state of things. Following, I give you a careful calculation of the Society’s receipts during the ten years 1878 to 1887, inclusive:

Income.

Year	From donations (Rs. a. p.)	From entrance fees (Rs. a. p.)
1887 to April 1881	1,060 0 0	4,200 0 0
Rest of 1881	100 0 0	1,838 0 0
1882	190 0 0	4,163 0 0
1883	12,582 0 0	9,432 0 0
1884	12,754 0 0	5,696 0 0
1885	8,682 0 0	3,895 0 0
1886	9,895 0 0	1,954 0 0
1887	9,050 0 0	3,649 0 0
Total	54,313 0 0	34,827 0 0

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Our expenses of all kinds, including the purchase, up-keep, and furnishing of the Head-quarters estate; the building of the Adyar Library, its furnishing and purchase of books; construction of new buildings; repairs; travelling; and all other sundry expenses, have been about Rs. 30,000 or 40,000 more than the receipts; which deficit has been made up by the Founders from private resources under their personal control. To show for the major part of this outlay, we have the moveable and immoveable property of the Head-quarters, worth perhaps 35 to 40 thousand rupees; the sum of Rs. 9,267-8-3 in Government securities, and cash in Savings Bank, constituting together the Permanent Fund; and Rs. 3,000 to the credit of the Anniversary, Head-quarters, Subba Row Medal, and Library Funds.

The generous offer of H. H. the Maharajah of Durbangha of a donation of Rs. 25,000, which he telegraphed to me during last year’s Convention, has not been paid.

Lo, the vast accumulations of this active Society, with its 173 Branches in all parts of the globe! Of the Rs. 54,000 of donations, it is but fair to say that Rs. 40,000 have been contributed by Indian friends; Rs. 7,000 by Europeans, of which almost all has been given by a dozen individuals; and the magnificent rest and residue, amounting to some Rs. 700, by American sympathisers. Calculate the Rupee at 15 to the £-sterling, and you observe that the Society has drawn in donations from the benevolent public an average of £360 per annum – as much perhaps, as many of our rich Fellows spend on their stables and coachmen! That we have not had anything like our fair share of the voluntary contributions of the public towards learned and philanthropic Societies is, no doubt, solely due to the fact that we have never begged for help, nor thrust our necessities upon public notice. If we had ten times our average income, we could find twenty times the uses to apply it to for the public good. At least, the Founders are glad to have it known that their support, and even any extravagances of which they may have been charged or suspected, have been no drain upon the Society’s meagre pecuniary resources.

The American and British Delegates are instructed to lay before you a suggestion for a radical change in our financial policy, viz., the abrogation of the fee payable upon acquiring membership and the annual dues. I have exposed before you our exact financial situation, and shall expect you to decide this grave question in a spirit of enlightened discretion. There is much to be said, no doubt, on both sides, and I am not sure but that the weight of reasons is on the side of theory of voluntary donations. Whichever policy is now determined upon, I shall do my best to carry out.

European and American Affairs.

It was found expedient by the Executive Council that I should proceed to Europe and attempt to bring our affairs into order. We saw the Continental Branches languishing for lack of superintendence and reciprocal work, although there was reason to hope that the movement might be greatly strengthened and expanded under a proper organization; while in the United Kingdom a strong desire had recently shown itself for an active propaganda, similar to the American and Indian ones, which could only be effected by the organization of a section of the General Council to act as a Local Committee of supervision and

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administration. Accordingly, I sailed from Bombay for Brindisi on the 7th August, visited London, Liverpool, Cambridge, Glasgow, Paris and Bologna, on Society business, and returned to Head-quarters on the 15th November. I formed new Branches at Liverpool, Glasgow and Cambridge; dischartered the old “Isis” Branch at Paris, and chartered a new one, the “Hermes”; called two Conventions in London of representatives of the British Branches; organized and chartered a British Section of the Theosophical Society; and issued an Order in Council forming an Esoteric Section of the Society, with Madame Blavatsky as its responsible Head. The trouble in the Paris Branch was solely due – as we have almost invariably found to be the case – to personal jealousies and disagreements. The landmarks of the Society had been obliterated and forgotten, there had arisen a strife for supremacy, and, instead of setting the public the example of zealous fraternal union for the propagation of our ideas, the members had fallen to mutual abuse, oral and printed. Both parties were to blame, as I found, after a patient examination of the documents, and so, without exonerating either, I first tried to get the dissentients to work harmoniously under the old charter; and then, this failing, dissolved the Branch completely, cancelled the charter, and offered charters to both parties and every facility for organization of two Branches. Only one was accepted, and so one new Branch, “Hermes,” came into existence, under officers for whom I feel great respect and of whom I expect much. I firmly believe that, with means at my command to employ necessary help, we should soon see several French Branches spring up. The French mind is, in my opinion, almost as ripe for the reception of the sound philosophy of India, as the American mind. Before concluding this brief notice of my observations and acts in France, I have pleasure in giving thanks on your behalf to a very sincere and devoted lady member, Madame d’Adhemar, for throwing open her drawing-room to all Theosophists for a weekly social gathering. It is in the great Western capital a very strong support to any movement to have such social centres, where members and enquiring friends of a Society can meet on neutral ground for the exchange of ideas. I shall leave the Delegate of the British Section to acquaint you with the details of the new organization and the views of his colleagues, which he is expected to lay before the Convention.

Charities.

It is a pleasant thing to say that the charitable institutions connected with the Society are kept up as heretofore. In various quarters medicine is given to the sick poor, food and clothing to the needy, and schools maintained for the teaching of Sanskrit and other languages and of religion. Our great Bombay Charity, the Homœopathic Charitable Dispensary, has increased its benefactions over those of last year. Mr. Tookaram Tatya, its Founder and Director, reports that an average of 90 patients are now daily receiving medicines as compared with an average of 75 in 1887. There is to the credit of the Dispensary Fund about Rs. 5,000, made up of donations and collections from the Charity Box, kept in the Dispensary. Our hope is to get money in time to buy or erect a suitable building, and our numerous Parsi members, especially the all-accomplishing Mr. K. M. Shroff, may succeed in this by taking sufficient trouble.

My visits to Bologna and Rioli, were to see Count Cæsar Mattei, the founder

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of the new school of Homœopathy, great accounts of whose efficacy had reached me. The benevolent gentleman kindly ordered a large supply of his medicines to be sent gratis to Mr. Tookaram for experiment.

Conclusion.

You will observe than an unusually small number of Delegates are here to-day and will share in my regret that there could not have been a full representation of the Branches when such important changes in the Rules are to be proposed. It is useless to deceive ourselves as to the main cause. This is the political upheaval in Indian society which has produced the National Congress, and drawn all Indian thought into the vortex of politics. The first effect of the theosophical movement was to arouse an intense interest in the ancient religions and philosophies, and a great curiosity to learn if the claims of the school of ancient occultists would stand the test of scientific inquiry. A tidal wave of patriotic emotion rushed over India, as it grew more and more clear that the sages of Aryavarta were sages in the best sense of the word, and that the probabilities were great that the practical Yogi knew, in fact, more about the laws of nature than the best modern professor. The Indian heart swelled with emotion as these long-smouldering fires of self-respect, patriotism, and spiritual conviction blazed up from the ashes. Wherever we foreigners went we were met with benedictions, with fervent expressions of love and joy. Sanskrit and Hindu religious schools sprang into being, the roster of our local Branches rapidly extended itself, and Theosophy became a household and dear word in every Hindu home. The addresses presented to us teemed with expressions of the belief that the iron rule of Kali Yuga was broken and the dawn of the revived Golden Age had come. All this was natural, but it was unhealthy and feverish. A re-action was inevitable, but how or when it was to come was not clear. We now perceive it, for it is upon us. The wreaths once woven for us are now being hung around the necks of the political leaders who are thought to be laying the basis of the future Indian Empire, greater than Akbar’s or Chandragupta’s, enduring as adamant! And the national emotion is flowing in the channel Inter armas silent leges, traced by the projectors of the Congress. Politics stifle Religion, as a toothache or a bankruptcy makes one forget Nirvana! Another reaction is inevitable, for we must not forget that the Hindu is the most deeply and absolutely religious nature in the world. When it comes, the old blood will assert itself and attention be again given to those master problems of human life and destiny beside which all temporal concerns are vulgar and insignificant. Let us not try to hasten the day, for the present agitation is useful and healthy in being a force to arouse the Indian mind from its fatal habit of indolence and dormancy, the greatest curse and calamity which can befall a race. Let us only keep on in the line of our altruistic activity, free from discouragement, steadfast in purpose true to the behests of conscience. Gentlemen, the Convention is now declared open for business.

Footnotes