J. Krishnamurti
In a world, much traversed by gurus, preachers, philosophers and their followers, J. Krishnamurti is a stand-alone figure.
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) was born on May 11 1895 in Madanapalle, in Andhra Pradesh, India. It was the time when the Theosophical Society was seriously looking out for the birth or human manifestation of the next World Teacher to step up mankind one leap forward in the scheme of evolution of the psyche. The search was initiated by a prophesy, conveyed to the spearhead clairvoyants of the organization. The search was accomplished when one of the eminent clairvoyants, C.W. Leadbeater, came upon Krishnamurti on the Adyar beach (India) in 1909. On seeing him, Leadbeater was heard commenting that the aura of Krishnamurti did not have ‘one trace of selfishness in it’ ( Years of Awakening by Mary Lutyens). Soon, Anne Besant took charge of the overall upbringing of Krishnamurti and his younger brother, Nityananda (Nitya) and took them to England. She was then the President of the Theosophical Society.
Krishnamurti was particularly fond of his younger brother Nitya and wouldn’t do anything without him. Annie Besant and Leadbeater believed then that Nitya too had a role to play in the life of Krishnamurti as the World Teacher. Krishnamurti’s education continued in England and he was also inducted into the inner esoteric section of the Theosophical Society and initiated as per theosophical guidelines.
When he was around twenty-eight, Krishnamurti began to experience a spiritual process that continued with him almost until the end of his life. The nature of this experience was so unique that it could not be defined by any name. For sometime, people ascribed it to be the Kundalini but soon that was ruled out by spiritual experts owing to certain never-before-known phenomena involved in it. In the absence of any confirmed terminology, the experience was referred to as ‘the process’ in all Krishnamurti’s books and biographies.
Krishnamurti’s association with the Theosophical Society was short-lived. A special theosophical organization, the Order of the Star, meanwhile had been founded by the stalwart Theosophists of which Krishnamurti was made the head. It had received plenty of wealth and property through donators’ magnanimity. When the Order of the Star was in its prime, Krishnamurti felt the redundancy, or rather the danger of any such organized bodies in advocating spirituality. On August 3, 1929, startling the members of the Theosophical Society and hundreds of donors to the Order of the Star, he dissolved the organization along with his role in it. Disbanding it and withdrawing from it by all means, he said at the Camp in Ommen, Holland:
“I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally.”
In the time that followed, Krishnamurti severed his association with any organized belief, including the Theosophical Society. His life had changed substantially that his beloved brother Nitya had died of tuberculosis in 1925 and most of his friends and associates of theosophical days parted ways with him.
After breaking away from all organizations and affiliations, Krishnamurti lived as a free man devoting his entire life to travelling and to talking to the world. He spoke to people for nearly sixty years until his death in Ojai, California (USA) on February 17, 1986. He left behind an enormous body of teaching in textual and digital formats.
Krishnamurti Foundation India (KFI), Krishnamurti Foundation America (KFA), and Krishnamurti Foundation Trust (KFT, situated in the United Kingdom) are entrusted with the task of maintaining their archives as well as publishing Krishnamurti books and digital materials.
People often ask who Krishnamurti was! It is difficult to describe. Most people who try to explain who he was and what he taught, have often ended in interpreting him. Krishnamurti wrote, addressing people’s curiosity as to who he was and what his responsibility to the world was, “Friend, do not concern yourself with who I am; you will never know. I do not want you to accept anything I say. I do not want anything from any of you; I do not desire popularity; I do not want your flattery, your following. Because I am in love with life, I do not want anything. These questions are not of very great importance; what is of importance is the fact that you obey and allow your judgment to be perverted by authority. Your judgment, your mind, your affection, your life are being perverted by things, which have no value, and herein lies sorrow”.
In most of his talks and discussions, he took for subject: man – the consciousness of man – and showed its nature and structure in all bareness. He showed the human consciousness as a fact. A fact is not a matter of judgment and opinion, he pointed out. He had the responsibility of exposing that fact of human consciousness to such exposition that self knowledge was a reality to man, not an ideal. He said,
“And my concern is that the consciousness of a human being must be changed in order to bring about a different structure and nature, function in the world. I am consumed with that responsibility, it is not just words. And I see that human beings are very little aware.…”
More than about thirty years have passed since Krishnamurti last spoke. The man has gone but the teaching is still alive and preserved in the hands of Krishnamurti Foundations and thousands of independent individuals who do not allow the essence to be corrupt by interpreters who flood the world with psychological exploits, comparisons, and conclusions.
The only way to understand Krishnamurti’s teachings is to approach them directly, first-hand. All else is an illusion of the common man’s interpretation.
