I don't know if this play will ever be performed near you, but watch out for it. Here is a review I wrote for an English national newspaper. They didn't use it :(

Mistaken . . . Annie Besant in India
by Rukshana Ahmad
Performed by Vayu Naidu Company
Yvonne Arnaud, Guildford, England
28 April 2007


When visiting India you need to leave behind your preconceptions, so don’t come to Mistaken expecting conventional western theatre. This is Indian story-telling, enhanced by evocative music and a simple but effective set. Annie Besant is a remarkable Englishwoman with a long story to tell, but this play focuses on her love affair with India which culminated in her Presidency of the Indian National Congress Party.

In 1867, aged 20, Annie married a clergyman. Two children later she lost her faith, and with it the desire to share her life with the Reverend Besant. She left, taking her baby daughter, and became involved in social issues, but publishing a tract on contraception proved to the courts that she was an unfit mother and her husband was granted custody of both children. Undeterred, she joined the Fabian Society, went on protest marches, and led the Bryant & May match-girls’ strike.

Now in her prime, and a recent convert to theosophy, Annie Besant went to India in 1893, seeking to educate and liberate, working tirelessly setting up schools and colleges. Controversially, she ‘adopted’ a young Indian boy who she groomed to be a new messiah. Passionate for Home Rule for India she believed that independence would be won in Parliament, but when Ghandi, one of her early admirers, broke away advocating peaceful civil disobedience she was left politically isolated and increasingly frustrated. Eventually, her adopted son Krishnamurti also broke away, refusing to be her messiah. She died in 1933, convinced that she had failed.

Besant believed that she stood for truth and freedom, but she never stopped to question her version of truth, and she tried to impose her vision of freedom on India without asking Indian people what they wanted. If these were mistakes, they have since been repeated many times by other political figures. It took her adopted son to point out that “Truth is a pathless land. Man must find it through understanding.”

Rosalind Stockwell gives a convincing portrayal of a courageous, well-intentioned, arrogant woman. Her exchanges with two strong charismatic men, Rohit Gokani as Ghandi, and Narinder Samra as Krishnamurti, provide the evening’s drama. The story is told by Vayu Naidu as the enigmatic (but fictional) Sidra, looking back on her time serving Annie Besant. Her younger self is played by Ruby Sahota, and Sidra has her own dramatic exchanges with Ranjit Krishnamma as Krishnamurti’s wronged father.

Examining one’s legacy is currently in vogue, but Besant was unable to see hers. Her early influence on Ghandi could have played a part in India’s independence in 1947, but perhaps she should be judged by her work in education. Her actions also had an impact on the Theosophical Society, which even today is still wary of politics and publicity. But the last line comes from the Theosophical Order of Service, still performing unsung charitable work 100 years after she established it in 1908. Its motto: “A union of those who love in the service of those who suffer.”

Hi Harvey--

I enjoyed reading your review. Thanks for notifying me about it. It was well written and certainly brought out the theme of the play.

Annie Besant was such a multifaceted character that it would probably be possible to write several plays about her, each dealing with one of the major conflicts or issues in her life. They would each be true, but limited--which is usually what happens when we lesser mortals try to fathom a Great Soul.

For example Nethercot, the author of the most thorough biography, spends hundreds of pages making snide remarks about Besant, and only gentles a bit when she's in her socialist and Wake Up India periods. As far as Theosophy is concerned, he clearly thinks she's dotty and tries to get as much entertainment value as he can out of that phase. Yet he admits, at the end of the second volume of his biography, that if India had adopted her Commonwealth of India bill, Pakistan would not have been divided off from India and Kashmir would not be perpetually in dispute between them.

It is of course right for a people to look to their own for a national hero, as India does to Ghandi. But I became convinced during my research for the Annie Besant Shrine that much of what he achieved could not have been accomplished within his lifetime if she had not paved the way for it with her tireless lecturing on India's achieving home rule. She covered thousands of miles in India year after year for nearly a decade for the sake of this cause.

You mention that the actress portrayed Besant as arrogant. If I try to consider Besant from the highest possible spiritual or theosophical perspective, the thing I think she could be faulted for would not be arrogance but vanity. Her obsession with the idea of the Coming of the World Teacher seems to demonstrate an unfortunate weakness of many important spiritual teachers, which is to expect the complete transformation of the world within their own lifetimes--as if to say: I'm so important and essential to the process that it has to happen now. I think that may be the basis of her thinking that she failed when it came to achieving home rule for India within her lifetime, as well as the Order of the Star in the East and Krishnamurti.

As I read many of her out of print books, however, I'm constantly impressed by her way with words, how she explained Theosophy, Occultism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, with such flare. Perhaps 90 percent of her spiritual teachings is typical of these traditions--no really new ideas. But how she phrases them is remarkable, a strange kind of pure, yet utterly pragmatic, poetry.

The other 10 percent, in which she diverges from Blavatsky, is highly relevant to my own area of interest and expertise, astral projection. I've been mining this material for the last couple of years and it's truly amazing--though perhaps hard for people who haven't experienced astral projection to evaluate, hence all the controversy about it in theosophical circles.

What brought you to see that play?

All best,
Kurt

Hi Kurt,

Glad you enjoyed the review. My wife and I visit the theatre regularly, and I’m a theosophist from way back, so there was no question about wanting to see this play when I heard about it. To be honest, I didn’t know much about Besant, so although the play only presented part of the story it was informative for me.

My particular interest is getting theosophical ideas into the mainstream, and this was mainstream theatre in a conservative English town. I’d like to see the TS doing more in this area. There’s an appetite for all things paranormal (films and TV dramas) and we could educate while we entertain. I reckon astral projection would be a good theme for a TV series.

Is there controversy about astral projection? I didn’t think there could be any doubt about it in theosophical circles. How else did HPB write the SD? Or is that another subject . . .?

Hi Harvey--

I like your ideas about bringing Theosophy back into the mainstream by cultural means. I think there was a lot of that going on in the early 20th century, with Yeats and Forester, for example, using theosophical ideas in their literary works.

No, there's no controversy about astral projection per se. But Besant and Leadbeater instituted a radical revision of HPB's material on the seven principles of human consciousness. They put forward their own ideas on the energy bodies and planes, which Besant renamed several times during her tenure as president of the TS. Some of the impetus behind the Back to Blavatsky movement seems to arise from such "meddling."

I find the Besant/Leadbeater terminology immensely useful as a practicing astral projector (been doing it for 35 years). I'm not sure that the HPB material on the principles would have had the same effect for me, though I understand how essential they are to the larger spiritual system expounded in The Secret Doctrine.

The problem may be one of construing the same nonphysically received and understood information in different ways, using different terms--maybe something like light behaving as a particle (principle) or a wave (energy body) under different circumstances.

But I fear that this may be more than you wanted to hear on the subject.

Kurt

Hi Kurt,

No, this is not more than I want to hear. I used to be fascinated by astral projection. As a teenager, it was my aim to travel in the astral and visit the Akashic Record, and then I would re-write the history of the world as it really happened. Unfortunately, being a teenager, I had a tendency to lust after women, and so I knew that I would not be allowed to engage in astral projection until I had curbed my desires. I’m still waiting. :(

Meanwhile, thirty years later, I wrote an easy-to-read version of the Book of Dzyan, so I guess I managed to write the history of the world without any astral insights. Pity. I reckon that looking at the Akashic Record would have been a lot easier than trying to work my way through HPB’s convoluted commentaries and explanations. ;)

Harvey

Aha! So you're the author of O Lanoo! I bought it last year from a local (Boston) new age bookstore as a gift for a friend in Germany when I went there to speak at an international Seth conference. I thought the poetic presentation highly effective and the artwork tasteful and inspiring. Congratulations!

I visited the Akashic records once a couple of years ago. The account is too long to post here. I'm in the process of transferring material between an old and a new version of my website. I'll get to work on that item and post a link to it here when it's available, probably within the next 24 hours.

I enjoyed your jokes in the other threads. Here's one from me:

Two trekkers and a guide were slowly making their way through the Himalayas toward Tibet when they were surprised by a raging snowstorm. They took refuge in a cave that had been the retreat of a Holy Adept, whose remains were buried there. They were tired, cold, and hungry. There was no way to build a fire.

The spirit of the Adept, looking down on them from a higher plane, took pity and materialized himself. He offered them three wishes, one per man.

The first trekker said, "I'm tired, cold, hungry, and lonely. I wish I was back in that wonderful hostel in Kathmandu where it was warm and the food was so good."

Whoosh! He was gone.

The second trekker said, "I'm tired, cold, hungry, and lonely. I wish I was back at that hostel too, where I could be in touch with my partner on the other side of the world through the Internet."

Whoosh! He was gone.

Then the guide did obeisance to the Holy Adept and said, "Yes, we're all suffering terribly down here in physical reality. I'm as tired, and cold, and hungry as the others. But most of all, I'm lonely. I wish those two trekkers were back here again to keep me company."

Hi Harvey--

Here's the link I mentioned:

http://www.kurtleland.com/content/view/94/120/

Enjoy!

Kurt

Kurt,

That is a great website you have put together. Thanks for mentioning this Forum on your website!

I have started a new thread:

Psychic abilities and Theosophy

http://theosophy-forum.com/index.php?showtopic=757&hl=

I would very much like to hear your reactions to this new thread. You are in the minority here, in terms of your experience and attitude towards astral projection, etc. Please add your input to this new thread.

Hi Kurt,

Interesting website, and interesting story. You must have good recall to be able to write about the experience in that way.

Thanks for your kind words about O Lanoo! It’s good to know that the book is still doing the rounds.

Nice joke. It reminds us that we are all connected.

Your account of the Gatekeeper reminded me of a fictional story I wrote a few years ago. A ‘wise person’ is in dialogue with the ‘I’ of the story, revealing truths that ‘I’ already knew. For me, the wise person was the higher self, the main link between life on earth and the higher planes. I didn’t have any obvious out of body experiences in writing it, but the story just flowed even though I didn’t know where it was headed, so perhaps I had a bit of help. It’s online at:
http://www.esolibris.com/articles/inspirational/the_monk.php

I agree with Nick. You have a rare ability coupled with great skill in writing about it. I hope you will add comments to the other thread.

Harvey

Hi Harvey and Nick--

Thanks for your positive comments about my website and work.

Harvey--no time to check out your story this morning, but will do so soon.

Nick, I'm glad you opened the discussion about psychic abilities. I'm going to transfer the focus of my attention from this strand to that one.

Funny how in forums the on-topic discussions often get off topic. Here's a case in which an intentionally off-topic discussion led back to Theosophy as the main focus.

Some spiritual law probably lies behind this waywardness. Too bad the theosophical authorities who could have enlightened us about it pre-existed the Internet by a hundred years and more!

Kurt