Did he really go "on the books" as early as the 1970s or 80s?
Do they keep books?
All I can say is in the time I knew him, he barely ever had a job. I know he did take a few menial jobs in the early years, in London, Greece and Italy but I think once things were established, he didn’t.
Do you know for a fact Adriana Huffington was financially sponsoring him? (Sorry, but we have to be sure of your facts here otherwise they will use the smallest of blots on our record to discredit us).
The word ”sponsored” is not meant to mean "continual" or "ongoing". She was in contact with BKs around that time - late 70s and early 80s, and she organised (paid for) at least one major event in Greece for BKs through Anthony, on one of the islands near Athens frequented by the "creative classes", maybe Hydra?
Other programs were also run there but who was behind them I don't know. I know there was intermittent contact between them over those years, and that his articles were in the Huffington Post says something. Being featured in one of the world’s most popular news sites would not hurt his book sales in the slightest.
Given the lack of transparency, no submission of direct "services in kind", gifts or pecuniary interests - who’s to know which BKs have what paid for? If a rich local person pays for trip to the Greek islands, supplies a few days accommodation, given it is all in the "line of duty" and nominally not for personal gain, are they being "sponsored" or merely receiving co-operation or is it a donation to the "yugya"?
I don't think he quite made it into the ranks as a "Bishop" of the BKWSU's Vatican. I'd say more like a slightly oily courtesan good at flattering (read 'not questioning') the local Dons, and feeding them quality lines to bolster their status.
He proudly took on his role as ”travelling disciple” spreading the Gyan gospel to the the barbarians - as has been said, he had a conditioned romantic view of living sparsely and suffering for one’s faith a la St Francis, or Socrates.
He liked to relate how he ate only bananas for months as that was all he could afford due to unemployment and poverty. Referencing the self-serving Gyan that all new religions are founded by two souls incarnate together - eg
Jesus + Christ= Christianity therefore
Bap + Dada = Adi Sanatan baloney, Strano once said to me that if Socrates and Plato had been "in combined form" they would have started a new religion. I’d argue that they did, without hocus pocus but through intellectual clarity - it was "the combined form", the fusion of pagan Hellenic philosophy & Jewish monotheism that gave Christianity clout ... but that’s another topic.
Staying in London HQ made him a small fish in a big pond, whereas going to Italy, Greece etc made him a big fish, the leader of the pack. I think he was held in very high regard by Seniors, who were probably glad he was willing to do the hard yards in "unploughed fields" and not take any of the local spotlight. He could then be "guest star" and add variety to the show whenever he was in town.
Therefore, he saw where his bread was buttered ... and sucked up to it unquestioningly.
Indubitably. Time creates inertia and vested interest.
Intellectually, a very small fish in the even smaller goldfish bowl that the BKWSU world is. And it says a lot he has no challengers or heirs to follow him.
Relative to the BK bowl, he was a moderate size fish.
I can remember when reading other philosophies or religious works was forbidden for BKs. He must have been deeply bored by The Knowledge™ on an intellectual level. I had no insights into his relationship with the Kirpalani Klan elite. Did you? What I've read of his work it was vague and cloudy, poetic and misleading rather than clear and defined. It was typically misleading as is the BK habit.
People who are well known by BKs as being "good churners" are really those who can take infantile Gyan and relate it to the broader world - or really, it's vice versa - they discover what is there, mature and developed, in other philosophies & religions and assimilate it or relate it to the Gyan. Masters at convincing other BKs that correlation/similarity is causation. Like a boy who discovers wanking and thinks he invented it, then when he sees chimpanzees doing the same at the zoo, is amazed that they have copied him!
I have never read any of Strano’s books. I think his main speciality of thought was morality & meditation, for which he received his major training as a serious student of Roman Catholicism before he encountered BKs. Most moral philosophy from a religious viewpoint starts from a desired end and works back from that to prove itself. Gyan generally does that too. I am guessing that’s what we'd find in any of Strano's pieces.