Nilakanta Sri Ram

Nilakanta Sri Ram or Nilakantha Sri Ram (N. Sri Ram) (* 15 December 1889 in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India; † 8 April 1973 in Adyar, India) was a freemason, theosophist and president of the Theosophical Society Adyar.

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 N. 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 have had contact with the President-Founder, Col. Olcott. He represented a link with the very origins of the Society and its work, not only historically but above all spiritually.

Sri Ram's daughter Radha Burnier is a prominent theosophist and currently president of the TS Adyar.

He became president of the TS Adyar in 1953 and stayed in that office till his death in 1973. He was also member of Le Droit Humain.

Works (selection)

• An approach to reality. Theosophical Publishing House, Madras 1968
• On the watch tower, selected editorial notes from The Theosophist, 1953-1966. Theosophical Publishing House, Madras 1966
• The human interest and other addresses and short essays. Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton 1968

External links

• Bio
• Bio
• articles by Nilakanta Sri Ram

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Name	Ram, Nilakanta Sri
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Date of death	1973
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