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Pri devetnajstih je Annie srečala duhovnika Franka Besanta in pristala na zakon, v katerem je rodila hčerko in fantka, a bila tudi globoko nesrečna, ker se je njen neodvisni duh spopadal s moževimi tradicionalnimi pogledi, kar je nazadnje privedlo do ločitve. Potem ko je zapustila moža, je Annie povsem zavrgla krščanstvo in se 1874 pridružila Secular Society in tesno sodelovala s Charlesom Bradlaughom, urednikom revije National Reformer in voditeljem sekularnega (posvetnega, ne-cerkvenega) gibanja, ter za revijo napisala številne članke o zakonu in pravicah žensk. 1877 je izdala knjigo The Laws of Population, ki je govorila o nadzorovanju rojstev in bila deležna velikega odmeva v javnosti. To delovanje jo je povezalo tudi s socialisti in Georgem Bernardom Shawom. Pridružila se je Social Democratic Federation in zasnovala lasten časopis The Link. Med drugimi je v njem leta 1888 objavila članek White Slavery, v katerem je opozorila na nečloveške razmere in nizke plače žensk v eni izmed tovarn. Naslednjega leta pa je sodelovala pri izdaji vplivne knjige Fabian Essays. Istega leta, 1889, je Annie Besant dobila v roke knjigo The Secret Doctrine in se navdušila za Teozofijo. Poiskala je Heleno Petrovno Blavatsky, postala njena učenka in članica Theosophical Society, kateremu je posvetila svoje nadaljnje življenje. 1891 je nasledila H.P.B. kot voditeljica Esoteric Section, leta 1893 pa odpotovala v Indijo in nato istega leta v Chicagu zastopala društvo na World Parliament of Religions. Na letni Konvenciji društva je imela prvo od svojih mnogih predavanj. Teozofijo in hindujsko filozofijo je predstavila tako blesteče, da si je takoj pridobila naklonjenost hindujske javnosti, ki jo je nato podprla v njenih reformnih prizadevanjih za družbeno, vzgojno in politično prenovo Indije, ki jo je začela leta 1898 z ustanovitvijo Central Hindu College v Benaresu. Leta 1907 je bila po smrti polkovnika Olcotta izvoljena za predsednico društva, naslednje leto pa je zasnovala Theosophical Order of Service. Leta 1910 pa je prevzela skrbništvo nad Krishnamurtijem in njegovim bratom ter navkljub težavam skrbela za njuno izobraževanje. Mahatma Gandhi je rekel, da je Annie Besant prebudila Indijo iz spanja. Tako je leta 1916 ustanovila Home Rule League in bila leta 1917 izvoljena za predsednico Indian National Congress. Poleg tega je bila Annie Besant dejavna tudi v okviru International Co-Freemasonry in Boy Scout Association ter se še nadalje vključevala v boj za pravice žensk in posvečala pisanju, saj je napisala številne teozofske knjige, ki sedaj spadajo med klasična teozofska dela. Umrla je 20. septembra 1933 v Adyarju. |
When nineteen Annie met Rev. Frank Besant, agreed to marry him and soon gave birth to daughter and son. But she was deeply unhappy because her independent spirit clashed with the traditional views of her husband and divorced. After leaving her husband Annie Besant completely rejected Christianity and, in 1874, joined the Secular Society, developed a close relationship with Charles Bradlaugh, editor of the radical National Reformer and leader of the secular movement, and wrote for the magazine many articles on marriage and women's rights. In 1877 she published a book The Laws of Population, wherein she wrote on birth control and which received wide echo in the public. This work drew her near to the socialists such as George Bernard Shaw. She joined the Social Democratic Federation and started her own newspaper called The Link. There she published article White Slavery and drew attention to the unhuman conditions and low wages in one of the factories. Next year she contributed to the influencial book, Fabian Essays. When, in 1889, came to her hands The Secret Doctrine she immediately interested herself for the Theosophy. She sought out Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, became her disciple and joined the Theosophical Society for which she worked for the rest of her life. In 1891 she succeeded H.P.B. as the Head of Esoteric Section and in 1893 departed for India. The same year Annie represented the society at the World Parliament of Religions. At the Annual Convention she gave first of her many lectures. She presented Theosophy and Hindu Philosophy so brilliantly that the Hindu public cordially supported her, and readily joined in promoting the reforms she set in motion for the betterment of India, starting in 1898 with the foundation of the Central Hindu College in Benares. In 1907, on the death of Colonel Olcott, she was elected the President and the following year formed a Theosophical Order of Service. In 1910 she assumed the guardianship of J. Krishnamurti and his brother, and despite all difficulties took care for their education. Mahatma Gandhi said that Annie Besant awoke India from the deep sleep. In 1916 she established the Indian Home Rule League and in 1917 she became the president of the Indian National Congress. Besides her political work Annie Besant worked also for International Co-Freemasonry and the Boy Scout Association. She continued her struggle for women's rights and wrote an enormous number of books and pamphlets on theosophy, now classical theosophical works. Annie Besant died in Adyar on September 20, 1933.
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Annie Besant, hči Williama Wooda in Emily Morris, se je rodila 1.
oktobra leta 1847 v Claphamu, v Londonu. Njen oče je umrl, ko je
bila stara le pet let. Mati je ni bila mogla preživljati, zato je
prosila prijateljico, Ellen Marryat, da prevzame odgovornost za
hčerkino odraščanje.
Annie Besant, daughter of William Wood and Emily Morris, was born
in 1847, at Clapham, London. Her father died when she was only five
years old. Annie's mother was unable to care for Annie, so she asked
a friend, Ellen Marryat, to take responsibility for her daughter's
upbringing. | Njena dela in internetni viri |
Her works and online resources |
| Svetišče Annie Besant - bibliografija Annie Besant | Annie Besant Shrine - Bibliography of Annie Besant |
Prastara Modrost |
Ancient
Wisdom |
| A. Besantove ocena druge knjige Tajnega Nauka | Annie Besant's Second book Review of The Secret Doctrine |
Prva uporaba jasnovidnosti dr. Besantove |
Dr.
Besant's First Use of Clairvoyance |
Vzhodna šola teozofije |
Eastern
School of Theosophy |
Mnoga življenja Annie Besant, Kumari Jayawardena |
Annie
Besant's many lives by Kumari Jayawardena |
Društvo se ponuja kot jedro Univerzalnega Bratstva, in posebnost tega jedra nakazuje njegovo ime - teozofsko. Njegov namen je, da predaja in širi Teozofijo, božansko Modrost, Brahma Vidyo, Gnozo, Luč vseh luči, dejstvo, da človek lahko spozna Boga, da lahko pridobi znanje, ki je večno Življenje, ker je on sam po svoji naravi to, kar si prizadeva spoznati. Na tem dejstvu, tej vse-prežemajoči istovetnosti narave, tej Združenosti, počiva Univerzalno Bratstvo; in, da bi o njej pridobil zunanje dokaze, človek išče v vseh religijah in filozofijah ter se potaplja v tajne skrivnosti narave in človeka. |
The Society asserts itself as a nucleus of Universal Brotherhood, and its speciality as such a nucleus is indicated by its name - theosophical. It is its function to proclaim and spread abroad Theosophy, the divine Wisdom, the Brahma Vidya, the Gnosis, the Light of all lights, that man may know God, may attain the knowledge which is eternal Life, because he is himself of that nature which he seeks to know. On this fact, this all-pervading identity of nature, this Unity, is based the Universal Brotherhood; and, to bring the outer proofs of it, it searches through all religions and philosophies, and dives into the hidden secrets of nature and of man. |
Better remain silent, better not even think, if you are not prepared to act. Liberty is a great celestial Goddess, strong, beneficent, and austere, and she can never descend upon a nation by the shouting of crowds, nor by arguments of unbridled passion, nor by the hatred of class against class. No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism. Not out of right practice comes right thinking, but out of right thinking comes right practice. It matters enormously what you think. If you think falsely, you will act mistakenly; if you think basely, your conduct will suit your thinking. ... those who can serve best, those who help most, those who sacrifice most, those are the people who will be loved in life and honoured in death, when all questions of colour are swept away and when in a free country free citizens shall meet on equal grounds. For centuries the leaders of Christian thought spoke of women as a necessary evil, and the greatest saints of the Church are those who despise women the most. I will suggest that the great aim of our education is to bring out of the child who comes into our hands every faculty that he brings with him, and then to try to win that child to turn all his abilities, his powers, his capacities, to the helping and serving of the community which is a part. Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to face many a danger, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle. No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism. Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position; denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd. We find amongst animals, as amongst men, power of feeling pleasure, power of feeling pain: we see them moved by love and by hate; we see them feeling terror and attraction; we recognize in them power of sensation closely akin to our own ... We know that when they feel terror, that terror means suffering. We know that when a wound is inflicted, that wound means pain to them. In our relations to the animal kingdom a duty arises which all thoughtful and compassionate minds should recognize - the duty that because we are stronger in mind than the animals, we are or ought to be their guardians and helpers, not their tyrants and oppressors, and we have no right to cause them suffering and terror... What of our duties to our fellow men? ... No one can eat the flesh of a slaughtered animal without having used the hand of a man as slaughterer. Suppose that we had to kill for ourselves the creatures whose bodies we would fain have upon our table, is there one woman in a hundred who would go to the slaughter-house to slay the bullock, the calf, the sheep or the pig? - Dare we call ourselves refined, if we purchase our refinement by the brutalization of others, and demand that some should be brutal in order that we may eat the results of their brutality? Benediction May the Holy Ones, whose pupils we aspire to become, show us the Light we seek, give us the strong aid of Their Compassion and Their Wisdom. There is a Peace that passeth understanding; it abides in the hearts of those who live in the Eternal. There is a Power that maketh all things new; it lives and moves in those who know the Self as One. May that Peace brood over us, that Power uplift us till we stand where the One Initiator is invoked, till we see His Star shine forth. Invocation generally used in the Order of the Star in the East O Master of the great White Lodge, Lord of the religions of the world, come down again to the earth that needs Thee, and help the nations that are longing for Thy presence. Speak the Word of Peace, which shall make the peoples to cease from their quarrellings; speak the Word of Brotherhood, which shall make the warring classes and castes to know themselves as one. Come with the might of Thy love, come in the splendour of Thy power, and save the world which is longing for Thy coming, Thou who art the Teacher alike of gods and men. Convention 1917 The Theosophical Society must be ready to suffer for it, be ready to struggle for … liberty of speech, freedom of debate, in matters religious, intellectual, moral, political … When The Theosophical Society fears to stand by Freedom, then shall it be cut down and left to wither away; better a prison for the body than a dungeon for the mind. Why I became a Theosophist? An imperious necessity forces me to speak the Truth, as I see it, whether the speech please or displease, whether it bring praise or blame. That one loyalty to Truth I must keep stainless, whatever friendships fail me or human ties be broken. She may lead me into the wilderness yet must I follow her; she may strip me of all I love, yet I must pursue her; though she slay me yet will I trust in her; and I ask no other epitaph on my tomb but ‘She tried to Follow Truth’. |
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