Word: besant
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...finally found her stimulus in Theosophy. In the cult's early exciting days its devotees expected that a great spirit was about to be reincarnated. Mrs. Annie Besant-Socialist, organizer of the Theosophical Society, and pal of Bernard Shaw -undertook to conjure up the great spirit. He was an Indian named Krishnamurti. When Emy met him, it was a case of love at first sight-and of mistaken identity. She can write today: "I who am not in the least clairvoyant could see the face of the Lord through the face of Krishna...
Paradoxically, it was a Westerner who first brought Nehru to Hinduism: his Irish tutor was a Theosophist, and such an influence that at the age of 13 Nehru was inducted into the Theosophical Society by Mrs. Annie Besant* in person...
...Born Annie Wood, in London (1847), Mrs. Besant was a Suffragette, a Fabian Socialist, a fighter for birth control and companionate mar riage. When George Bernard Shaw took a brief romantic interest in her, she drew up a "contract of cohabitation" which caused Shaw to beat a hasty retreat. "Good God," he exclaimed, "this is worse than all the vows of all the churches on earth! I had rather be legally married to you ten times over!" She was converted to Theosophy (a watered-down Western copy of Hinduism) while reviewing a book by its founder, Mme. Blavatsky, went...
Among the great fads of the 1920s were Dr. Emile Coué, mah-jongg, and Jiddu Krishnamurti. The most serious of these was Krishnamurti, a long-haired young Indian seer whom Bernard Shaw once called the most beautiful human being he had ever seen. The Theosophist Annie Besant* had adopted Krishnamurti, and was freely predicting that he would be a new messiah. He was more modest. "I may or may not be the second Christ-I don't know," he once said. "I don't want people to look up to me, to worship me. Most people...
...Krishnamurti days, Mrs. Besant was converted to socialism by Bernard Shaw. A warm friendship on the lecture platform and over piano duets led to talk of marriage, but since Mrs. Besant was still legally married, she suggested instead a detailed, written contract of cohabitation, which Shaw rejected with "Good God! This is worse than all the vows of all the churches on earth. I had rather be legally married to you ten times over...