Transcript The Theosophical Order of Service

The Theosophical Order of
Service:
the ideal of altruistic service
History
Founded by Annie Besant in February
1908
Response to members wanting to actively
promote the first object of the Theosophical
Society – to form a nucleus for the
universal brotherhood of humanity
The focus is on service through a sense of
oneness with all life.
The only law of living is the law that
helps others; to the extent that you
forget yourself, you are free to help
the world.
N. Sri Ram
The purpose of the TOS
The TOS offers a framework in which:
individuals may work along self-selected
lines of service for the uplifting of humanity
and the protection of the planet;
the practical application of theosophical
principles to issues of contemporary
concern may be explored;
social action as spiritual practice is
honoured and nurtured.
The TOS today
The TOS currently has branches in
some 30 countries.
Work is carried out in such areas as:
Peace
Social welfare and education
Animal welfare
The environment
Healing
Emergency relief
The TOS and the UN
The United Nations was built on
spiritual principles and universal
values such as peace, human rights,
human dignity and worth, justice,
respect, good neighbourliness,
freedom, respect for nature and
shared responsibility.
TOS groups connect with many UN
designated International Days.
Service activities around the world
Providing vocational training programs for
rural women
Funding and supporting childcare centres
and orphanages
Establishing and funding schools
Providing educational scholarships
Providing medical and dental health-care
Providing mobility aids, spectacles and
hearing aids
Holding meditations for world peace and
healing
Providing blankets, clothing and food in
emergencies
Service activities around the world
Promoting non-violence
Funding and supporting veterinary care and
animal shelters
Conducting talks and seminars to raise
awareness of environmental, health, animal
welfare and social issues
Working with communities on sustainability
projects
Working in soup kitchens for the homeless
Adopting and supporting women’s refuges
Campaigning on contemporary issues such as
violence against women.
The ideal of altruistic service
It is that kind of caring that constitutes a
constant and continual radiation of love,
without judgement and without irritation. It is
a willingness to give of oneself, doing
whatever the moment requires. Joy Mills
Qandeel home-schools in Pakistan
symbolising the light of learning
spreading out from a lantern.
Children should above all be taught selfreliance, love for all men, altruism,
mutual charity, and, more than anything
else, to think and reason for themselves.
We would… devote time to the
development and training of the inner
senses, faculties
and latent capacities. …
We should aim at
creating free men and
women, free intellectually,
free morally, unprejudiced in all respects,
and, above all things, unselfish.
H.P. Blavatsky in “Key to Theosophy”
Golden Link College in the Philippines
Lumen School on the island of Negros
in Central Philippines
We help others, not by interfering with
their lives nor by imposing our ideas on
them, but always by acting in a spirit of
sympathy and self-identification with
them in their troubles and joys.
N. Sri Ram
Famine relief in Kenya – sustaining a
village
Forming a cooperative
Putting in a water bore
Providing fruit trees and seeds
Teaching skills
for earning a
living.
Supporting a flooded village in Hungary
Promoting independence through
providing mobility aids in Assam &
Arunachal Region, India
Promoting independence through
providing vocational training in India
Of all the
qualifications, Love
is the most
important. In daily
life this means two
things – first, that
you shall be careful
to do no harm to any
living thing; second,
that you shall
always be watching
for an opportunity to
help.
At the Feet of the Master
The aim of the TOS is altruistic
service
Inner spiritual work
Outer action:
service in thought, word and deed
service with no intention of benefit to
oneself or of one’s own agenda.
There can be no
greater purpose in
life than to serve
— service to the
One in many
forms.
It must not be socalled, limited
service, but real
service, which is
direct and sincere,
in which the
consciousness of
self is forgotten.
N. Sri Ram