By B. P. Wadia

Extracts from Unpublished Letters, posthumously published in “The Theosophical Movement” magazine, Vol. XXXII, No. 5, March 1962.

“As to India and spirituality: It may have been comparatively easier for the Asiatic to get at and apply spiritual verities, but Asia is hardly Asia. It has become Europeanized. You see, we have to take into account three Indias – the physical and geographical, the psychic, and the third, moral or spiritual. Religious India (Hindu, Muslim, Parsi or Jewish) is psychic and so sectarian, contrary to Universal Brotherhood. The root of separative creeds is spoken of in S.D., Vol. II, as Black Magic. Note what is said: “Results proceeding from erroneous but sincere beliefs.” Now there is a spiritual India – very, very difficult to touch. You need quietly to ponder over the distinction between religion and spirituality, between the good in man and the spiritual in him.”

“Indian civilization is said to endure because the old seeds of Wisdom still live in India’s astral atmosphere. A few fragments exist. The ideal of soul life persists as a real thing.”

“Indian civilization forces, like a great family tradition, endure when Indian people or the present-day descendants have become unworthy. Who sustains the Vedic and the Avesta culture? Who popularize Sufi teachings? The few minds and hearts of the West. Sanskrit got nearly drowned till the phonetics and grammar search of the Sanskritists revived it. What is true of words is equally true of ideas. A person if he happens to be a real Indian is more capable of osmosing Theosophy, but how many are cosmopolitan Indians, not afflicted with caste, etc.?”

“India is bound to rise when the nadir point is reached, and that will be soon. Only H.P.B.’s Theosophy and the work of Judge would have spared India the saddening experience of Western vulgarization. But Hindu orthodoxy and Adyar Neo-theosophy made India lose her opportunities.”

“India is copying the West – the ugly and not the noble and beautiful West. India has to be served, not because we have been born on its soil but because it is “the Motherland of my MASTER” as H.P.B. put it, and there is more to the words than ordinarily appears.”

“Our India is going West, in more than one sense. Gandhiji and his philosophy are not the guiding powers at New Delhi. India’s Karma as the Mother-Root of this Fifth Root-Race is strong but most peculiar. Whether America will dominate her or she succeed in inspiring the West – that is the question. It remains to be seen. Our masses as also our youths and children are wrongly taught. Not the best of the West but the worst is copied; of the ancient native lore there is the shell of superstition and falsities and no soul. Our Aryan culture survives in this sense: the innae ideas of the old Philosophy live at least as germs – belief in Reincarnation and Karma and therefore in soul and another world along more rational lines than in the Occident still prevails. We have to work to keep these divine intuitions alive in the masses and not only in the classes. For this purpose India needs a class of student-servers and that particular mission our U.L.T. Movement must fulfil.”

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B. P. Wadia (1881-1958) was an influential figure in the United Lodge of Theosophists and greatly responsible for the spread and establishment of the ULT in both his native India and numerous other countries of the world.

He and his wife Sophia (1901-1986) founded and organised The Indian Institute of World Culture, the All-India Centre of the International P.E.N. (Poets, Essayists, Novelists), and edited “The Aryan Path” and “The Indian P.E.N.” magazines, as well as “The Theosophical Movement” magazine which continues to enjoy a worldwide readership.

Friends with Gandhi and other important and influential figures in India, the Wadias faithfully and relentlessly presented and promoted the original and genuine teachings of Theosophy – i.e. those of H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge – and did much to counteract the pseudo-theosophy that had sprung up under the influence of C.W. Leadbeater, Annie Besant, and their followers.

He had initially been a member of “The Theosophical Society – Adyar” and a colleague and supporter of those individuals. The story of his decision to leave the Adyar Society in order to join forces with the ULT can be found in the article B. P. Wadia’s Resignation from The Theosophical Society. The expressed mission statement of the ULT, founded in 1909 by Robert Crosbie, is “To spread broadcast the Teachings of Theosophy as recorded in the writings of H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge.” You can learn more about B. P. Wadia’s life and his own connection with the Masters of Wisdom by reading The Occult Life of B. P. Wadia.

~ BlavatskyTheosophy.com ~

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