The author feels that it may be important to examine what is meant by the word religion in the statement, “the Theosophical Society is to be a cornerstone of a new religion.” Is religion a matter of churches, temples, rituals and beliefs? Or is it the moment-to- moment discovery of Life’s movement? A movement which may have any name, or no name at all.

As the author understands it, the great purpose of the Theosophical Society, as originated by H.P. Blavatsky, is to exemplify and foster Brotherhood. She brought from the storehouse of the past the great teachings of the Wisdom-Religion, Theosophy, that man is divine in essence. Life is that which binds not only all men, but all beings, all things in the entire Universe into one great whole, an essential divine wholeness, differing in form as expressed in plants, animals, human beings, planets and stars.

So, is a religious life one that is lived fragmented by organizations and beliefs, or a life, a movement, that is integral, not fragmented and so whole, holy, sacred? What does Theosophy foster?

The first Theosophical magazine in America was William Quan Judge’s The Path, begun in 1886. In 1894, W.J. Walters of San Francisco began a magazine for children called Mercury. Mercury was adopted and remodeled as the Section Journal with its second volume in August 1895 after the Judge Secession. By October 1899, it was replaced by The Theosophic Messenger. In January 1913, the title of the Section’s Journal was expanded to The American Theosophist and Theosophic Messenger continuing for five issues, so that by June 1913, the journal was split into two periodicals, The American Theosophist, which continued the volume numbering of the old title, and The Messenger, which began a new series of volume numbers. Seventeen months later, The American Theosophist, was discontinued and combined with The Messenger beginning in October 1914. The Messenger was renamed The Theosophical Messenger in December 1927, and kept that title until January 1933, when it returned to the title of The American Theosophist. From 1933 onward, The American Theosophist kept the title, although the volume numbering continued that of The Messenger and The Theosophical Messenger, not that of the earlier American Theosophist.*

By November 1961, The American Theosophist began to publish two special thematic issues a year. In the middle of 1988, the two special issues were converted into a new journal, The Quest.

What is the quest behind Theosophy, and how is it best fulfilled by Krotona?


Krotona Institute as a Study Center
Krishnamurti held that study centers should be beacons of light in the years to come. He raised many issues in that light, such as: “How do they become truly religious places? How does a physical place become sacred space? What is the ambience that will hold the sacred?”

Krishnamurti said in 1983, regarding Brockwood, that today and in the future a Study Center must be more than a school. (And why can this statement not apply to the Krotona Institute?)

"It must be a centre for those who are deeply interested in the Teachings, a place where they can stay and study. In the very old days an ashrama — which means retreat — was a place where people came to gather their energies, to dwell and to explore deeper religious aspects of life. Modern places of this kind generally have some sort of leader, guru, abbot or patriarch who guides, interprets and dominates. Brockwood must have no such leader or guru, for the Teachings themselves are the expression of that truth which serious people must find for themselves. Personal cult has no place in this."

Krishnamurti felt that the very word 'ashrama' had traditional connotations, for it was too much a part of the Hindu consciousness, although Dr. George Arundale used the name for his organization at Adyar, and published pamphlets under that heading. Let’s read what Krishnamurti dictated to Sunanda Patwardhan at Vasanta Vihar on January 26/27, 1984 regarding his insights on study centers:

"They [these centers] must last a thousand years unpolluted, like a river that has the capacity to cleanse itself; which means no authority whatsoever for the inhabitants. And the teaching in themselves have the authority of the truth. It is a place for the flowering of goodness, where there is a communication and cooperation not based on work, an ideal, or personal authority. Cooperation implies not around some object or principle, belief, and so on, but a sharing of insights. As one comes to the place, each one is his work, working in the garden or doing something [else], may discover something as he is working. He communicates and has a dialogue with the other inhabitants, to be questioned and doubted in order to see the weight of the truth of his discovery. So there is a constant communication and not a solitary achievement, a solitary enlightenment or understanding. It is the responsibility of each one to bring about this sense—that if each one of us discovers something basic anew, I is not personal but it is for a all people who are there to share.

"It is not a community. The very word ‘community’ or ‘commune’ is an aggressive or separative movement [away] from the whole of humanity. But it does not mean that the whole of humanity comes into this place. It is essentially a religious center according to what K has said about religion. It is a place where not only is one physically active but there is a sustained and continuous inward watching. So there is a movement of learning where each one becomes the teacher and the disciple. It is not a place for one’s own illumination or one’s own goal of fulfillment, artistically, religiously, or in any other way, but rather a place for sustaining and nourishing one another to flower in goodness.

"This is not a place for romanticists or sentimentalists. This requires a good brain, which does not mean an intellectual [brain] but a brain that is objective, is fundamentally honest to itself, and has integrity in word and deed.
This place must be of great beauty, with trees, birds, and quiet, for beauty is truth, and truth is goodness and love. The external beauty, external tranquility, and silence may affect the inner tranquility, but the environment must in no way influence the inner beauty. Beauty can only be when the self is not; the environment, which must have great wonder, must in on way be an absorbing factor like a child’s toy. Here, there are no toys but inner depths, substance, and integrity that is not put together by thought." **

And, I would like to remind fellow theosophists, that no organization, including Krotona, can be religious; only people in an organization can be religious. Throughout history, religious organizations have been sectarian, divisive, and hierarchical. If Krotona is to be a place of deep honesty, the awakening of intelligence in the midst of confusion and conflict that is taking place in the world today, it depends on the people of Krotona, their awareness, attention and affection.

Patwardhan relates that when there were strained working relations between some colleagues at Krotona, Krishnamurti wrote to him: **

"You should all work together, help each other to grow, to flower. If there are any misunderstandings among you, as here are sure to be, they should be dissolved immediately by talking things over, and not postponed to the next day or even the next hour. If postponed, the misunderstandings will grow and become barriers between you. I would most strongly urge you, if I may, not to keep each other’s work in separate, watertight compartments. We are all working together, either externally or inwardly."

*Algeo, John, “What’s in a Name: The Quest”, The Quest, Vol.85/number 1, January 1997, p.2. History by John Algeo, National President of the Theosophical Society in America in 1977, and then editor of The Quest, the official journal of the Theosophical Society in America.

** Patwardhan, Sunanda, A Vision of the Sacred; My Personal Journey with Krishnamurti, Edwin House Publishing, 1999, pp.110-111.