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Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa
Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa (16 December 1875, Sri Lanka – 18 June 1953, United States) was a Sri Lankan Sinhalese author, occultist, freemason and theosophist. The fourth president of the Theosophical Society, Jinarajadasa was one of the world's foremost Theosophical authors, having published more than 50 books and more than 1600 articles in periodicals during his life. His interests and writings included religion, philosophy, literature, art, science and occult chemistry. He was also a rare linguist, who had the ability to work in many European languages. Early life Jinarajadasa was born on 16 December 1875 in Sri Lanka to a family of Sinhalese parents. He was one of the first students of Ananda College, Colombo. In 1889, when Charles Webster Leadbeater, the first principal of Ananda College was asked by A.P. Sinnett to come back to England to tutor his son, Leadbeater agreed and also brought one of his pupils, Jinarajadasa, to England with him. Thanks to Leadbeater, Jinaraj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, and southeast of the Arabian Sea; it is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with India and Maldives. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is its legislative capital, and Colombo is its largest city and financial centre. Sri Lanka has a population of around 22 million (2020) and is a multinational state, home to diverse cultures, languages, and ethnicities. The Sinhalese are the majority of the nation's population. The Tamils, who are a large minority group, have also played an influential role in the island's history. Other long established groups include the Moors, the Burghers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portuguese Language
Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe, while having co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, and Macau. A Portuguese-speaking person or nation is referred to as " Lusophone" (). As the result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese speakers is also found around the world. Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia and the County of Portugal, and has kept some Celtic phonology in its lexicon. With approximately 250 million native speakers and 24 million L2 (second language) speakers, Portuguese has approximately 274 million total speakers. It is usually listed as the sixth-most spoken language, the third-most sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art As A Factor In The Soul's Evolution
''Art as a factor in the soul's evolution'' is a book written by Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa and was first published in 1915. It is based on a theosophical framework and describes how humans evolve through art. Following the publication of this book, Jinarajadasa held important positions in the Theosophical Society and greatly contributed to the spreading of theosophical ideas through his writings. He even won the Subba Row Medal, which is granted to writers who significantly contributed to theosophical literature, in 1913. Context Jinarajadasa lived in Sri Lanka and was raised by Buddhist parents until, at the age of thirteen, he met the theosophical worker Charles Leadbeater who traveled there for Buddhist education. Leadbeater, who was a member of the Theosophical Society (TS) was looking for a boy reincarnating his brother who had been killed years earlier. He recognized his brother in the young Jinarajadasa and convinced him to follow him to England by saying that Jinaraja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Occult Chemistry
''Occult Chemistry:'' ''Investigations by Clairvoyant Magnification into the Structure of the Atoms of the Periodic Table and Some Compounds'' (originally subtitled ''A Series of Clairvoyant Observations on the Chemical Elements'') is a book written by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, who were both members of the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, India. Besant was at the time the President of the Society having succeeded Henry Olcott after his death in 1907. Overview The first edition reprinting articles from ''The Theosophist'' was published in 1908, followed by a second edition edited by Alfred Percy Sinnett in 1919, and a third edition edited by Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa in 1951. Since the first edition was published in 1908, the book is in the public domain, and available in whole or in excerpts, on many sites on the internet. ''Occult Chemistry'' states that the structure of chemical elements can be assessed through clairvoyant observation with the microscopic vision ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment, and can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoir, letters, and the essay. Within its broad definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles or other printed information on a particular subject.''OED'' Etymologically, the term derives from Latin ''literatura/litteratura'' "learning, a writing, grammar," originally "writing formed with letters," from ''litera/littera'' "letter". In spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some sources claim the term was coined by Pythagoras ( BCE), although this theory is disputed by some. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation. in . Historically, ''philosophy'' encompassed all bodies of knowledge and a practitioner was known as a ''philosopher''."The English word "philosophy" is first attested to , meaning "knowledge, body of knowledge." "natural philosophy," which began as a discipline in ancient India and Ancient Greece, encompasses astronomy, medicine, and physics. For example, Newton's 1687 ''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy'' later became classified as a book of physics. In the 19th century, the growth of modern research universiti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural, but also deals with religious epistemology, asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God, gods, or deities, as not only transcendent or above the natural world, but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and, in particular, to reveal themselves to humankind. While theology has turned into a secular field , religious adherents still consider theology to be a discipline that helps them live and understand concepts such as life and love and that helps them lead lives of obedience to the deities they follow or worship. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument ( experiential, philosophical, ethnographic, historical, and others) to help understa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nilakanta Sri Ram
Nilakanta Sri Ram or Nilakantha Sri Ram (N. Sri Ram) (* 15 December 1889 in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India; died 8 April 1973 in Adyar, India) was a freemason, theosophist and president of the Theosophical Society Adyar during twenty years. Biography In his early years, Sri Ram worked under Annie Besant in various capacities. Sri Ram was a teacher at the ''Besant Theosophical College'' in Madanapalle, the ''National School'' in Bangalore and the ''National University of India'' in Chennai. The twenty years of Sri Ram’s Presidency represented a very important change in the work of the Theosophical Society and also in the perception its members had of the nature of Theosophy. His achievement was indeed an outstanding one: a shift from an emphasis on the occult side of things and its related phenomena, to the focus on the lofty ethics of Theosophy, or true occultism, and its role in the transformation of the human consciousness. N. Sri Ram was the last President of the TS to h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annie Besant
Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human freedom, she was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule. She was also a prolific author with over three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit. As an educationist, her contributions included being one of the founders of the Banaras Hindu University. For fifteen years, Besant was a public proponent in England of atheism and scientific materialism. Besant's goal was to provide employment, better living conditions, and proper education for the poor. Besant then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NSS), as well as a writer, and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. The scandal made them famous, and Bradla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Co-Masonry
Co-Freemasonry is a form of Freemasonry which admits both men and women. It began in France in the 1890s with the forming of Le Droit Humain, and is now an international movement represented by several Co-Freemasonic administrations throughout the world. Most male-only Masonic Lodges do not recognise Co-Freemasonry, holding it to be '' irregular''. Organisations ''Le Droit Humain'' The International Order of Freemasonry for Men and Women ''Le Droit Humain'' was founded in France in the late nineteenth century, during a period of strong feminist and women's suffrage campaigning. It was the first Co-Masonic Order, and also the first truly international Masonic Order. Today it has approximately 32,000 members from over 60 countries worldwide on all 5 continents. Geographically it is organized into 41 federations, 8 jurisdictions and 20 pioneer lodges. French Masonry had long attempted to include women, the Grand Orient de France having allowed Rites of Adoption as early as 1774 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Le Droit Humain
The International Order of Freemasonry ''Le Droit Humain'' is a global Masonic Order, membership of which is available to men and women on equal terms, regardless of nationality, religion or ethnicity. History The Order is founded on the ancient teachings and traditions of Freemasonry, using Masonic ritual and symbolism as its tools in the search for truth. On the individual level, the Order aims "to promote the progress of individual worth, without the imposition of dogma, or exacting the abandonment of cultural or religious ideas". On a collective level it works "to unite men and women who agree on a humanist spirituality whilst respecting individual and cultural differences". In contrast with other Masonic organisations which operate in national or state jurisdiction only, ''Le Droit Humain'' is a global fraternity with many Federations and Jurisdictions worldwide, each of which work the Scottish Rite from the 1st to the 33rd degree. The Order is administered by the Supr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
