Recalling Annie Besant

Annie Besant was born on this day in 1847. Certainly one of the more remarkable people I’m aware of. A prominent political figure in England, as a journalist she was assigned to review a new book by the equally remarkable spiritualist medium and now founder of the Theosophical Society, Madame Helena Blavatsky. It looks she intended to expose the controversial figure. However, repeating more or less what had happened earlier with another journalist, instead of exposing Blavatsky, she converted and became Blavatsky’s disciple. Besant would eventually succeed her teacher as head of the Theosophical Society.

Her long life was filled with fascinating and surprising turns. For instance she was a leader of the London Match Girl’s Strike, public advocate for birth control, and eventually one of the early leaders of the India National Congress Party.

But for her, her most important work was as a Theosophist.

While I have no taste for Theosophy which I find largely a silly Victorian mishmash of spiritualism and Hinduism, I am impressed with several of its leaders. And through them, in particular Jiddu Krishnamurti, who was supposed to be the Theosophist world teacher, the reincarnation of Buddha and Jesus. Besant adopted Krishnamurti and was his principal teacher. The leaders of the Society, including Besant, would prophecy that this teacher, who was discovered by a clairvoyant as a boy, would grow to preach doctrines that would be very hard to hear, but were critical to the way.

They probably were shocked when as Krishnamurti grew up he rejected Theosophy, proclaiming instead of the arcane cosmic bureaucracy found in Blavatsky’s and her follower’s writings, a trackless path…

Her epitaph reads “She tried to follow the truth.”

I believe that was so…

And I believe Annie Besant is someone who should be remembered…

(If you have a half an hour, or so, this is a great video outlining Annie Besant’s life.)