BLAVATSKY LODGE: 7 - French Bridge, Mumbai 400007 Tel: 23685026 (M): 9821459504 (M): 9819334333
DAY
|
TIME-------------
|
DETAILS---------------------------------------------------
|
Fri 3
|
6.00
pm
|
‘Autobiography
of a Yogi’ by ParmahansYogananda’ - conducted by Bro. ArniNarendran
|
Sun 5
|
10.00
am
10.30
am
|
Bharat
SamajPooja
BTF
Council Meeting
|
Wed 8
|
6.00 pm
|
White
Lotus Day Meeting jointly with BTF
|
Fri 10
|
6.00
pm
|
Study
of CWL’s book ‘Inner Life’ conducted by Sis. Aban Patel
|
Fri 17
|
6.00
pm
|
‘Autobiography
of a Yogi’ by ParmahansYogananda’ - conducted by Bro. ArniNarendran
|
Satur18
|
6.00
pm
|
WesakPurnima
Meeting
|
Fri 24
|
4.30
pm
6.00
pm
|
Blavatsky
Lodge MC Meeting
Study
of CWL’s book ‘Inner Life’ conducted by Sis. Aban Patel
|
Sun 26
|
10.45
am
|
Maitreya
Round Table
|
Fri
31
|
6.00 pm
|
Theosophical
Readings
|
Tues
7, 14,21,28,
|
5.45 pm
|
‘Autobiography
of a Yogi’ by ParmahansYogananda’ - conducted by Bro. ArniNarendran
|
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MCM OF MAY 2019
BULLETIN OF MAY 2019
THE BTF BULLETIN - MAY 2019
Editor: The Poem narrating Pulwama Terror echoes bloodshed of Kalinga War. However, Kalinga War had brought change of heart in King Ashoka to spread the Teachings of Lord Buddha even to lands beyond the shores of India. Will the Terrorists realize, which ‘Arms’ are needed?
Does the sea ever shed its tears,
For having to accommodate,
Tonnes and tonnes of waste,
Being dumped constantly in it,
Which slowly keeps accumulating,
Risking the natural habitat,
And eventually the whole ecosystem,
In silently bearing the burden of it all,
Does the sea ever shed its tears.
Does the sea ever shed its tears,
Perhaps more likely than not,
For how else would you explain,
The saltiness in the water,
Which it silently secretes,
Spending days and days,
Silently crying at hours of the day,
When nobody is watching.
Shedding a tear for the whole of mankind,
And when it is being watched,
Sturdily it does stand firm once again,
Holding onto each moment defiantly,
Giving everyone a question to ponder on,
Note: Farhad, during his visit to Adyar was inspired to write this poem while contemplating on seashores of Bay of Bengal.
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MCM OF MAY 2019
BULLETIN OF MAY 2019
THE BTF BULLETIN - MAY 2019
CONTENTS
Quote – White Lotus Day
|
Cover
|
News & Notes
|
2 - 3
|
HPB – A White Lotus (Extracts of Articles of
Uma Bhattacharya and N. Sri Ram)
|
4 - 6
|
Poems by Farhad Dalal
|
7 - 8
|
Truth & Beauty in Our Daily
Life – IssacJauli
|
8 - 10
|
BTF& Lodge Programmes May 2019
|
11 - 12
|
NEWS & NOTES
SHANTI LODGE CELEBRATIONS
Musical Evening
to Herald Year 2019 was held on 31st January 2019. President
Sis. Aban Patel welcomed Sis. FrenyPaghdiwala and Senior & Junior Choirs of
her Crystal Choral. The programme began with their Signature Song ‘We are
the Crystal Choral, with high Morale’. There were Christmas Carols and Solos
& Group Songs like ‘What I will like to teach the World’ & ‘Let there
be Peace’ conveying Joy, Peace & Harmony. AbanRagina was MC. The evening
had ended with song ‘Thank you for the Music’.
Jamshedi Navroze
Celebration to mark Equinox 21st March 2019 was
held on 14th March. The meeting was opened with ‘Hambandagi’ (all praying
together Zoroastrian Manthravani). Sis.Meher Contractor spoke on ‘Mahbokhtar
Ni Nyash’ (Zoroastrian Prayer explaining spiritual significance of Moon).
The prayer says ‘I pray my homage to
Shiny (Spiritual) Moon and not the seen Moon’. Mahbokhtaris bestower of good luck. Sun rays sent
to Moon are showered onEarth through Seven Ameshaspandas.
***********************************************************************
Editor – Bro. Rustom R.
Dalal Cover Page By: Sis. Kashmira Khambatta Editorial
Committee –Sis.Mahazaver Dalal (Reporter & in charge of Mailing
List), Sis. Kashmira Khambatta, Sis.
Aban Patel and Ex-Officio: President
Bro. VinayakPandya. Note:
News, Notes and Programmes to be printed in the Bulletin be forwarded by e-mail
to: rrpdalal@hotmail.com or kashmirakhambatta@yahoo.com
latest by 16th each month.
Crescent
is innocence of new born, reaching its helm on Full Moon and slowly waning to
No Moon – it conveys the Cycle of Life. Moon Rays are connected with water
& blood in human body and his mind. Moon has a sacrificing quality to work
for good of His Creations. The Meeting ended with Hambandagi and fellowship
with Refreshment.
PRATHNA SABHA with BHARAT
SAMAJ POOJA
It was a unique
spiritual tribute to Late Shri JatinbhaiMunshi, father
of Bro. TaralMunshi. Shri Jatinbhai in his youth had learnt Bharat SamajPooja,
which he used to perform every day. Even at the age of 84 he used to recite the
prayer by heart. Bharat SamajPooja was performed by Dr. Ajay Hora and Bro.
VinayakPandya. Daughter-in-law Sis.ArchanaTaralMunshi read out from Gujarati
Book ‘Mrtyu’ written by Late
Bro. MohanlalVelji. This book published
by Blavatsky Lodge was given to relations and friends gathered to pay respect
to the departed soul of Shri JatinbhaiMunshi.
BLAVATSKY LODGE BEGINNERS’
MEETING
Bro. Navin Kumar
has initiated Beginners’ Meeting on mornings of First Sundays for
New Members, Prospective Members and Interested Inquirers to acquaint them with
Fundamentals of Theosophy.
OBITUARY: Sis.
Meher D. Desai senior member of VimadalalBilia Lodge with membership of 37 years passed away to Light Eternal on 2nd April
2019. This 102 year young Lady was a dedicated member keenly
interested in study of Theosophy. Sis. Gulbanu Merchant recollects that in
later years she used to have Sis. YasminKapadia at her place to conduct
Theosophical studies. She was very meticulous and encouraged members in their
TS & Masonic work. Generous at heart she used to respond to the needs of
Lodges in Bombay. May her Soul be blessed with Eternal Peace.
HPB
– A WHITE LOTUS
Extracts from Article of
Uma Bhattacharya
President of
KashiTattvaSabha, Varanasi
Courtesy: The Indian Theosophist of August
2017
There
are no ancient symbols without a deep and philosophical meaning attached to
them, their importance and significance increasing with their antiquity. Such
is the Lotus. It is a flower sacred to Nature and her Gods, and represents the
Abstract and the Concrete Universe, standing as the emblem of the productive
powers of both Spiritual and Physical Nature. It was held sacred from the
remotest antiquity by the Aryan Hindus, the Egyptians, and by the Buddhists
after them. It was revered in China and Japan and adopted as a Christian emblem
by the Greek and Latin Churches, who made of it a messenger, as do now the
Christians, who have who have replaced it with the water lily. -The
Secret Doctrine, Vol.I, p. 406**
The
Lotus, or Padma, is moreover, a very ancient and favorite symbol for the Cosmos
itself, and also for man. The popular reasons given are, firstly, the fact just
mentioned, that the Lotus-seed contains within itself a perfect miniature of
the future plant, which typifies the fact that the spiritual prototypes of all
things exists in the immaterial world, before these things become materialized
on earth. Secondly the fact is that the Lotus-plant grows up through the water,
having its roots in the Ilus, or mud, and spreads its flower in the air above.
The Lotus, thus typifies the life of man and also of the Cosmos; for the Secret
Doctrine teaches that the elements of both are the same, and that both are
developing in the same direction. The root of the Lotus sunk in the mud
represents material life, the stalk passing up through the water typifies
existence in the astral world and the flower floating on the water and opening
to the sky is emblematical of spiritual being.
- The Secret Doctrine, Vol.I.p.88**
**Taken from “White Lots Day” by C Jinarajadasa
‘Our
teacher’ HPB was a white lotus in real sense. Her entire life exhibits how her
life started from the worldly mud of crisis and grew ‘through intermediary
region, which is the waters’- existence in the astral world until finally
blossomed out in the air expressing its mysterious beauty in the higher regions
of human consciousness. She expressed the realized perfection of things and
fully manifested the Divine thought embodied in her form. HPB was an
extraordinary person, a detached soul like lotus who presented the ancient
timeless wisdom claiming no conviction and divine abilities. Her purity and
nature of self-sacrifice has been summarized
in one of the earliest letters from one of the Mahatmas as under:
“Chaste and pure soul shut inside an outwardly
coarse
nature…anyone might be
dazzled by the divine Light
concealed under such a bark.
Devoted to the great cause
of Truth, she sacrificed for
it her very heart’s blood”
**************
Extracts from Article of N.
Sri Ram
The Fifth International
President
Courtesy: The Indian Theosophist of May 2017
The
White Lotus Day is one of the three or four days which are celebrated all over
the Theosophical world, from New Zealand in the Far East to the United States
and the other countries in the West. We hold this commemoration following the
wish of H.P.B. who desired that on the day of her passing, the Theosophists who
care for her should meet and there should be readings from the Bhagavad
Gita and The Light of Asia. In many places there is also a reading from
her work, The Voice of the Silence.
It was Colonel Olcott who
named this “The White Lotus Day”, possibly because there are, or used to be, plenty of white lotuses
in the various pools and tanks on the Adyar estate, which in those days
comprised only the Headquarters area oftwenty six acres. I remember certain
occasions when whole platform in the Headquarters hall at Adyar was completely
covered with white lotuses and there were even garlands of lotuses hanging from
the beams. Today we have white lotuses, but only in the brass bowl in front of
the Founders’ statues. There could not have been a more beautiful name given to
this day.
We could not have a better
symbol to associate with H.P.B. I say this because
it makes this day a happy one to contemplate with all these beautiful
associations. It is right that there should be one day in the year dedicated to
the memory of her, who founded the Theosophical Society and gave to the modern
world the magnificent presentation of the ageless Wisdom, which we call
Theosophy. We do not think of her passing with any tinge of sadness. It is only
for a time that one feels sorrow over the departure of anyone; afterwards the
recollection of all that the person was and did becomes a cause for joy and
happiness.
*************************************************************
Statement of Ownership and
other Particulars
FORM IV
Place of
Publication Mumbai
Periodicity of
Publication Monthly
Printer’s Name Vijay Copy Centre
Whether citizen of
India Yes
Address 48/A,
Saidunnisa Building, Sleater Rd.
Opp.
Grant Road Station (West), Mumbai 400007
Publishers Name Rustom R. Dalal,
The Editor of
The Bombay Theosophical Federation
Whether Citizen of
India Yes
Address 7, French Bridge, Chowpatty,
Mumbai 400007
Editor’s
Name Rustom R. Dalal
Whether Citizen of
India Yes
Address C/o. Bombay Theosophical
Federation
7, French Bridge,
Mumbai 400 007
Name & Address
of individuals who own the newspaper and Partners of
shareholders
holding more than 1% total capital
N.A.
I, Rustom R.
Dalal, the Editor of The Bombay Theosophical Bulletin, hereby declare that the particulars given
above are true to the best of my knowledge & belief.
Dated
31-3-2019
Sd. R. R. Dalal ( Publisher )
POEMS BY FARHAD DALAL
Unity Youth
Lodge Member
Before the bombs go off,
And the bodies are reduced to pieces,
With the land reduced to a rubble,
And streams of blood flowing through,
Learn to unlearn the reality,
And spread your arms,
Embracing all in Oneness,
And expand the magic,
And the bodies are reduced to pieces,
With the land reduced to a rubble,
And streams of blood flowing through,
Learn to unlearn the reality,
And spread your arms,
Embracing all in Oneness,
And expand the magic,
Of Love and Universal
Brotherhood.
Editor: The Poem narrating Pulwama Terror echoes bloodshed of Kalinga War. However, Kalinga War had brought change of heart in King Ashoka to spread the Teachings of Lord Buddha even to lands beyond the shores of India. Will the Terrorists realize, which ‘Arms’ are needed?
Does the sea ever shed its tears,
For having to accommodate,
Tonnes and tonnes of waste,
Being dumped constantly in it,
Which slowly keeps accumulating,
Risking the natural habitat,
And eventually the whole ecosystem,
In silently bearing the burden of it all,
Does the sea ever shed its tears.
Does the sea ever shed its tears,
Perhaps more likely than not,
For how else would you explain,
The saltiness in the water,
Which it silently secretes,
Spending days and days,
Silently crying at hours of the day,
When nobody is watching.
Shedding a tear for the whole of mankind,
And when it is being watched,
Sturdily it does stand firm once again,
Holding onto each moment defiantly,
Giving everyone a question to ponder on,
Does the sea ever shed
its tears.
Note: Farhad, during his visit to Adyar was inspired to write this poem while contemplating on seashores of Bay of Bengal.
*************************************************************
TRUTH and BEAUTY in OUR DAILY LIFE
IssacJauli
Former General Secretary of TS in Mexico
Courtesy: The Theosophist of April 2019
H.P. Blavatsky states in The Key to Theosophy: “If Eastern comparisons may be permitted; Theosophy is the
shoreless ocean of universal truth, love and wisdom, reflecting its radiance on
the Earth, while the Theosophical Society is only a visible bubble on that
reflection’.
This invisible bubble of wisdom is available
to human beings when they decide to apply it to daily life.As Master KH asserts in Letter No.68 (Mahatma Letters to A. P.
Sinnett):Does it seem to you a small thing that the past year has
been spent only in your ‘family duties’?Nay, but what better cause for reward,
what better discipline, than the daily and hourly performance of duty? Believe
me my “pupil”, the man or woman who is placed by Karma in the midst of small
plain duties and sacrifices and loving-kindness, will, through these faithfully
fulfilled, rise to the larger measure of Duty, Sacrifice and Charity to all
Humanity – what better path towards the enlightenment you are striving after
than the daily conquest of self, the perseverance in spite of want of visible
psychic progress, the bearing of ill-fortune with that serene fortitudewhich
turns it to spiritual advantage – since good and evil are not to be measured by
events on the lower or physical plane.
This common life is endowed
with sufficient spiritual weight to be studied as a frame of real reference of
personal and social growth. Here we ask ourselves the existential question
which directly concerns almost every woman and man: Can Daily Life, the
ordinary everyday life, that of the common citizen, the housewife, the employee,
the businessman, and so on, be the type of life that deserves to be fully
lived, make people happy, and be, if we may say so, a practice to discover
beauty and truth?
We think it can be the
beginning, that daily life is the best path to travel on everyday, where we
find our way and follow our destiny to fully realize ourselves. Time and time
again, it is suggested that our ordinary actions in daily life are the heart of
the field where our personality develops and improves itself.
Already in ancient Greece,
the philosopher Plato proposed three concepts that would be assumed in future
centuries as the greatest values of humanity: Truth, Beauty and Kindness. He took the definition of beauty
to the metaphysical level, that is, elevating it to spiritual beauty. In this
way, he deduced that beauty is what everybody wants, identifying it with
kindness and truth. This was the ideal ‘Platonic’ beauty.
Plato’s concept about beauty includes both physical and spiritual, of
bodies and artistic objects, both colours and sounds, and also laws and moral
attitudes. Therefore, beauty is good
and true, goodness is true and beautiful, and truth is good and beautiful.
Later, Plotinus (AD 205-270 Roman philosopher, born in Egypt) affirms, as Plato did,
that beauty is in life, not only in its forms, but also in something that hides
behind forms and is identified as ‘soul’. Beauty
is not found in forms, but in its ‘radiance’. The soul is what makes us
perceive that radiance in all things. All forms have a light of beauty, truth
and goodness.
Only through daily life, with an orientation
towards beauty, truth and goodness, can we find the path to improving ourselves
and deriving a new Theosophical Philosophy of daily life, at our stage of
development, which turns our attention to life. We need to get to the point
where our Divine Self or “I” is the guide of every daily act and thought, in
ordinary life.
As HPB affirmed:
I have just told you that the ideal efflorescence of all the
abstract, therefore undying and eternal qualities or attributes, such as love
and mercy, the love of the good, the true and the beautiful, that ever spoke in
the heart of the living “personality”, clung after death to the Ego, and
therefore followed it to Devachan.
*******************************************************
Knowledge has not
helped human beings to be more happy, peaceful or loving. Therefore there is no
point in our seeking another form of knowledge, which we call Theosophical.
Theosophy must not be made into a theory, a set of concepts. It must be the
truth which transforms, makes us loving, caring, tender in our relationships,
as we are when we look at the hidden beauty of the flower. A flower is not a good
illustration because it is too easy to feel the beauty of a flower, at least at
the superficial level. It is much more difficult to see the beauty that is
everywhere else – in the maimed, in the deprived, in all kinds of people, and
all things which we treat with callousness or indifference. Our concern is with
the truth that transforms, frees the mind of its self-centeredness, and not
with sterile knowledge.
-
RadhaBurnier
-
Human Regeneration
Courtesy: The Theosophist of March
2019
BTF & LODGE PROGRAMMES MAY 2019
WHITE LOTUS DAY MEETING jointly by BTF and
Blavatsky Lodge on Wednesday 8th May 2019 at 6.00 p.m. in Besant Hall
ANANDA LODGE: Theosophical Colony, Juhu, Mumbai 400049. Contact
Ananda Lodge Secretary Sis. ZenobiaKhodaiji (M): 9820308163 for Meeting of May 2019
2. BLAVATSKY LODGE: 7 - French Bridge, Mumbai 400007 Tel: 23685026 (M): 9821459504 (M): 9819334333
DAY
|
TIME
|
DETAILS
|
Fri 3
|
6.00
pm
|
‘Autobiography
of a Yogi’ by ParmahansYogananda’ - conducted by Bro. ArniNarendran
|
Sun 5
|
10.00
am
10.30
am
|
Bharat
SamajPooja
BTF
Council Meeting
|
Wed 8
|
6.00 pm
|
White
Lotus Day Meeting jointly with BTF
|
Fri 10
|
6.00
pm
|
Study
of CWL’s book ‘Inner Life’ conducted by Sis. Aban Patel
|
Fri 17
|
6.00
pm
|
‘Autobiography
of a Yogi’ by ParmahansYogananda’ - conducted by Bro. ArniNarendran
|
Satur18
|
6.00
pm
|
WesakPurnima
Meeting
|
Fri 24
|
4.30
pm
6.00
pm
|
Blavatsky
Lodge MC Meeting
Study
of CWL’s book ‘Inner Life’ conducted by Sis. Aban Patel
|
Sun 26
|
10.45
am
|
Maitreya
Round Table
|
Fri
31
|
6.00 pm
|
Theosophical
Readings
|
Tues
7, 14,21,28,
|
5.45 pm
|
‘Autobiography
of a Yogi’ by ParmahansYogananda’ - conducted by Bro. ArniNarendran
|
3. CENTENARY LODGE:
Please contact
Sis. NajmaDewan (M): 9987204038 for meetings
4. JYOTI LODGE: Contact Bro. TaralMunshi, C/101, Building
No.19, New Mhada, Garden Hill C.H.S., New Mhada Colony, Behind N.P.A., Goregaon
(East), Mumbai 400065 (M): 9820187317
5. SHANTI
LODGE:
C/o Bro. Rustom Dalal, Vijay Niwas, 2nd Floor, Plot 5, Sleater Road, Mumbai 400007 Tel: 23800422 (M): 9833131216 Time: 6.15 p.m.
Thurs
2
|
Study of ‘Thought Power’ by Dr. Annie
Besant
|
Thurs
9
|
Study of ‘Thought Power’ by Dr. Annie
Besant
|
Thurs
16
|
Study of ‘Thought Power’ by Dr. Annie
Besant
|
Thurs
23
|
Study of ‘Thought Power’ by Dr. Annie
Besant
|
Thurs
30
|
Study of ‘Thought Power’ by Dr. Annie
Besant
|
6. UNITY YOUTH LODGE: Sis.
SoonooVesuna (M): 9619339787
Wed 15
|
5.30 pm
|
Theosophical
readings guided by Sis. SoonooVesuna at her residence Vijay Niwas, 4th Floor,
Sleater Road
|
7 & 8 VASANTA LODGE & GANESH LODGE:C/O Mrs. Gita S. Parikh, GokulAnand
Building, 4th Floor, Dattatraya Cross Road (M):9920384140
Wednesday 1 (Bank Holiday - Lodge Closed),
8 – White Lotus Day Meeting, 15, 22 & 29 Meetings at 6.30 pm.
9. VIMADALAL BILIA LODGE:
Family House, Parsi
Colony, Dadar, Mumbai 400014
Thurs 2
|
5.45
|
Healing Ritual
and White Lotus
Day Meeting
|
Thurs 9
|
6.00
|
Lodge Members’
Meeting
|
Thurs
16
|
6.00
|
Celebration of WesakPurnima
|
Thurs
23
|
6.00
|
Study of ‘Thought Forms’
|
Thurs
30
|
6.00
|
Lodge Members’ Meeting
|
*************************************************************
Price: Rs. 1/-
Annual Subscription: Rs. 10/-
*************************************************************
******************************************************************
Bombay Theosophical Federation, c/o Blavatsky Lodge, 7 – French Bridge,
Chowpatty, Mumbai – 400 007. (Tel: 23685026) and Printed at Vijay Copy Centre,
48/A, Saidunnisa Building, Sleater Road, Opposite Grant Road Station (West),
Mumbai-400 007.
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