Theosophical society (January 2011) Number 1

Sometime in January David and I went to the Theosophical Society after attending part of a wedding (another story I probably won’t cover here). I have been fascinated with the Theosophical Society since the very first time I passed it on Sundar’s bike. Every time since then I found it more and more compelling. There really seemed to be something magical behind all those trees in the middle of the city.

If you like being a tourist in the buildings that house religions then the Theosophical society grounds in Chennai is the place for you. A jungle of green: coconut trees, bamboo,bats, tropical flowers, and temples, churches, mosques, libraries ect. devoted to every major religion and more. Kind of a Disney land of world religions, as well as a green, and wild respite from the city. I really don’t mean to mock it (with Disney), but I don’t know what else to compare it to. Imagine wandering down beautiful green paths where much of the native plant and animal life remains in the middle of a big stinky city, and along the way encountering houses of every religion you know as well as ones you don’t know at almost every turn. A Disney of world religions was David’s idea, and it stuck with me, because it was an apt description. Disney world isn’t overtaken by native vegetation, but maybe if it’s theme was world religions it would be. In my opinion the Theosophical society is much more entertaining.

 When we got to the Theosophical society we were a little early for the open hours (they are very specific). We had to sign in, and state our purpose. They only wanted one of us to sign in, and for some reason they asked me to sign instead of David. This is VERY unusual for India. If I am with a man they will usually not ask me to sign. Already the society seemed to be a strange place.

The first thing we saw was a really beautiful stone archway overgrown with flowers, and then pretty red bugs that seemed to be having an orgy (4 of them attached) head to bum, or maybe bum to head in a circle. So much green seemed like paradise after living in such a dirty city. We didn’t see anything “theosophically” oriented for quite some time. We wondered along through a bush of flowers that looked like they had faces, and then off the path were we saw coconut trees sprouting out of coconuts themselves. It was really cool to realize that a coconut is a seed, and to realize that the trees grow up before the seed embeds in the ground!

We walked to the stinky river, and saw the slum across the way with the huge condo’s encroaching. By the river bank water buffalo were grazing. The theosophical society grounds themselves seemed like impossible when thinking about the other side of the river: the need of the people living in the slum, and the greed of the developers.

After contemplating the fate of the theosophical society we stumbled on a beautiful white building with a pond in front of it, and a field of coconut trees behind. Things about it reminded me of Buddhism, but it was certainly not like any of the temples I’d seen in Thailand, or Korea. I actually haven’t seen a Buddhist temple in India so I’m not sure how it would compare to that. We sat for awhile at the temple, and enjoyed the beauty of the pond, and the coconut grove…