The Hindu : Front Page : Brotherhood of all beings is a fact of nature: Burnier

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Friday, Jul 18, 2008
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Brotherhood of all beings is a fact of nature: Burnier

Staff Reporter

“We need to open our eyes and see without being immersed in ourselves”

Photo: N. Sridharan

ANOTHER TERM: Miss Mary Anderson, international secretary, garlanding Radha Burnier after she was elected international president of the Theosophical Society for a fifth term on Thursday. —

CHENNAI: The brotherhood of all creatures that inhabit this earth is a fact of nature, said Radha Burnier in her address as international president of the Theosophical Society on Thursday. This will be the fifth term for Ms. Burnier, who has been president of the society for 28 years now.

Colonel Henry S. Olcott became the first president of the society in 1875. After his death in 1907, Annie Besant took over. The quality that distinguished those who held the post of president is their commitment to ideals, said Ms. Burnier.

“Brotherhood is a fact of nature. We need to open our eyes and see without being immersed in ourselves. We have to make our minds free,” she said. “We need to serve without concern for self. Then we can learn and realise the great beauty that surrounds us of which we are a part. Only when peace is established, will we look beyond ourselves and understand the aim of life.”

Ms. Burnier said materialism was increasing all around. But, there cannot be any dramatic shift in the way things are. Little by little, people will realise that materialism will not lead to anything satisfactory, she said.

The intent of the Theosophical Society was to assist people to think differently, she said. The younger generation had an inkling of the spiritual and the Theosophical Society tried to reach out to them by speaking at schools and colleges.

Ms. Burnier, who has an M.A. in Sanskrit from the Benares Hindu University and a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Nagarjuna University, has been associated with the Theosophical Society since an early age. Her father N. Sri Ram was the fifth international president of the Society.

She is also the chairman of the Olcott Education Society in Chennai.

A proficient Bharatnatyam dancer, Ms. Burnier was the first student to graduate from Kalakshetra. She has lectured all over the world and has authored several books.

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