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Jiddu Krishnamurti - Biographical notes

"If you are aware of what you are, without trying to change it, what you are undergoes a transformation."

Read more Krishnamurti quotes.

Introductory Notes

Jiddu Krishnamurti was one of the greatest teachers of the age. He was raised as a 'world teacher'and an organization with vast properties and membership was formed to support his future work. But he renounced the organization stressing the fact that organizations are a crutch and hinder freedom. He spent the rest of his life teaching all over the world: lecturing, talking to people and writing inspirational diaries.

His interests included psychological revolution, the nature of mind, meditation, inquiry, human relationships, and bringing about radical change in society. He stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasised that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social.

Early life and Discovery by Leadbeater

Krishnamurti was born on 11 May, 1895 in a Telugu-speaking Brahmin family. His father, Jiddu Narayaniah, was employed as an official of the British colonial administration. Krishnamurti was fond of his mother Sanjeevamma, who died when he was ten. Krishna had a younger brother Nitya of whom he was very fond.

In April 1909, Krishnamurti first met Charles Webster Leadbeater, who was attracted by the boy at first sight. Leadbeater was reported having said that the boy had the most wonderful aura he had ever seen, without a particle of selfishness in it. He predicted that one day the boy would become a great spiritual teacher.

Not long after seeing Krishnamurti, Leadbeater asked his father, Narianiah to bring the boy to his bungalow. This Narianiah did. Leadbeater seated Krishna beside him, put his hand on the boy's head and began to describe his former life. Shortly after these sessions Leadbeater told Wood, his friend, that the boy was to be the vehicle for the Lord Maitreya and that he, Leadbeater, had been directed by the Master Kuthumi to help train him for that destiny.

Before long, Leadbeater induced Narianiah to take Krishna and Nitya away from school and allow them to be educated under his supervision while still living with their father. Four tutors were provided for them. They were deloused and provided with clean clothes every morning. They already knew a certain amount of English but they forgot their native Telugu. Exercise and nourishing food were insisted upon - long bicycle rides, swimming, tennis, and gymnastics.

Leadbeater was even more concerned with the boys' occult training than with their physical well being. One night he took Krishna and Nitya in their astral bodies while asleep to the house of Master Kuthumi, who put them on probation, and thereafter for the next five months before Krishna was accepted, Leadbeater took him in his astral form to the Master for fifteen minutes' instruction. The next morning Krishna would note down what he remembered of the Master's words. It was these notes that were made into a book: At the Feet of the Master which eventually became very popular and has been translated into twenty seven languages.

Order of the Star in the East

Early in 1911 the International Order of the Star in the East was founded, with Krishna as its Head, and Mrs. Besant and Leadbeater as its protectors. The object of the Order was to draw together all those who believed in the near Coming of the World Teacher. Later Mrs. Besant gave three lectures at the Queen's Hall in London on "The Coming of the World Teacher". Lady Emily Lutyens was one of the first to enrol in the organization.

One day Krishna was giving out certificates to new members of the Order when all at once Leadbeater felt "a tremendous power flowing through him" [Krishna] and the next members as they filed past, fell at his feet, some of them with tears pouring down their cheeks. Next day at a meeting of the Esoteric Section, Mrs. Besant said publicly that after "what they had seen and felt", it was no longer possible to make even a pretence of concealing the fact that Krishna's body had been chosen by the Bodhisattva [The Lord Maitreya] and was even now being attuned to him.

Lady Emily was at Varengeville in the summer of 1913, with her five children. The chief activity was planning a new and enlarged Herald of the Star to be published monthly in England with Lady Emily as its editor. She looked upon Krishna as both her son and teacher, and he was equally devoted to her.

Nitya and Krishna

Krishna received a message from Master Kuthumi through Leadbeater in the year 1922 before he left Sydney:

Of you, too, we have the highest hopes. Steady and widen yourself, and try more and more to bring the mind and brain into subservience to the true self within. Be tolerant of divergencies of views, and of method, for each has usually a fragment of truth concealed somewhere within it, although oftentimes it is distorted almost beyond recognition. Seek for that tiniest gleam of light amid the stygian darkness of each ignorant mind, for by recognizing and fostering it you may help a baby brother.

At this time of their (Nitya and Krishna's) life, a pretty fair-haired girl, Rosalind Williams, came into their lives. They both took to her at once. It was understood from the first that she was Nitya's rather than Krishna's friend. Nitya had been ill with tuberculosis for the past few years. Many people urged Nitya to have treatment from an electric machine invented by Dr Abrams which was able to diagnose and cure, from a few drops of blood many diseases, including tuberculosis. THe brothers decided to try this method and drops of Nitya's blood were sent on a piece of blotting paper without any information beyond the name. Two days later, the report was received: TB in the left lung, kidneys and spleen. The brothers were impressed by the diagnosis and decided to try the treatment.

The beginning of the "process"

The Master's message to Krishna in Sydney had greatly influenced him. He wrote to Lady Emily on 12th August of the year 1922 that for the past fortnight he had been meditating on it for half an hour every morning and again before sleeping. "I am going to get back my old touch with the Masters and after all that's the only thing that matters in life." Five days later on the seventeenth, he underwent a three day experience that entirely revolutionized his life. An account of it written by Nitya was sent to Mrs. Besant and Leadbeater. Here is Nitya's account in abridged form:

On the evening of thursday the seventeenth, Krishna felt a little tired and restless and we noticed in the middle of the nape of his neck a painful lump of what seemed to be a contracted muscle about the size of a large marble. The next morning he felt all right, until after breakfast, when he lay down to rest. Rosalind and I were sitting outside and Mr. Warrington and Krishna were inside. Rosalind went in at Mr. Warrington's call and found Krishna apparently very ill, as he was lying on the bed, tossing about and moaning as if he were in great pain. It was exactly the behavior of a malarial patient, except that Krishna complained of frightful heat.

Krishnamurti and Rosalind

Poor Rosalind, who at first was very anxious, raised questioning eyes and Mr. Warrington assured her that all would be well. When I came and sat beside him he complained again of the awful heat, and said that all of us were full of nerves and made him tired. Every few minutes, he would start up in bed and push us away. All this while, he was only half conscious, for he would talk of Adyar and the people there as if they were present. Persistently every few minutes he would push Rosalind away from him when he began to get hot, and again he would want her close to him.

Later as lunch came he quieted down and became apparently all right and fully conscious. Rosalind took him his lunch which he ate, and while we all finished our meal he lay quiet. Then a few minutes afterwards he was groaning again, and presently, he could not keep down the food he had eaten. THe next day, Saturday, it recommenced after his bath and he seemed less conscious than the day before.

But Sunday was the worst day and we saw the glorious climax. Krishna seemed much worse, he seemed to be suffering a great deal, the trembling and the heat seemed intensified and his consciousness became more and more intermittent. When he seemed to be in control of his body, he talked all the time of Adyar and Mrs Besant. If anyone moved in the house he nearly jumped off the bed and every time we entered his room we had to give him warning. Yet towards six o'clock when we had our evening meal he quieted down until we had finished. Then suddenly the whole house seemed full of a terrific force and Krishna was as if possessed. He would have none of us near him and began to complain bitterly of the dirt, the dirt of the bed, the intolerable dirt of the house, the dirt of everyone around, and in a voice full of pain said that he longed to go to the woods.

He announced his intention of going for a walk alone, but from this we managed to dissuage him. Then as he expressed a desire for solitude, we left him and gathered outside on the verandah where in a few minutes he joined us. All our thoughts and emotions were tense with a strangely peaceful expectation of some great event. Then Mr Warrington had a heaven sent inspiration. In front of the house a few yards away stands a young pepper tree with delicate leaves of a tender green, now heavy with scented blossom. He gently urged Krishna to go out under the tree, which he did. Krishna soon began to chant the mantram sung every night at Adyar in the shrine room. Then silence.

The Vision

We sat with eyes fixed upon the tree wondering if all was well, for now there was a perfect silence, and as we looked I saw suddenly a great star shining above the tree. The place seemed to be filled with a great Presence, and a great longing came upon me to go on my knees and adore, for I knew that the Great Lord of all our hearts had come Himself; and though we saw him not, yet all felt the splendour of His Presence. In the distance we heard divine music softly played, all of us heard though hidden from us were the Gandharvas [cosmic angels who make the music of the spheres]. The radiance and the glory of the many Beings present lasted nearly half an hour, and Rosalind, trembling and almost sobbing with joy, saw it all.

Krishnamurti's account of The Vision

Krishna himself also wrote an account of this experience to Mrs Besant but since he had largely been unconscious, he remembered very little of it. He ended his account:

I was supremely happy for I had seen. Nothing could ever be the same. I have drunk of the clear and pure waters at the source of the fountain of life and my thirst was appeased. Nevermore could I be thirsty. Nevermore could I be in utter darkness; I have seen the Light. I have touched compassion which heals all sorrow and suffering; it is not for myself but for the world. I have stood on the mountain-top and gazed at the mighty Beings. I have seen the glorious and healing light. The fountain of Truth has been revealed to me and the darkness has been dispersed. Love in all its glory has intoxicated my heart; my heart can never be closed. I have drunk at the fountain of joy and eternal beauty. I am God intoxicated.

Extraordinary Experience

On the first day of the process, Krishnamurti had an extraordinary experience of non-duality which he wrote to Mrs Besant:

On the first day while I was in that state and more conscious of the things around me, I had the first most extraordinary experience. There was a man mending the road; that man was myself; the pickaxe he held was myself; the very stone which he was breaking up was a part of me; the tender blade of grass was my very being, and the tree beside the man was myself. I also could feel and think like the roadmender amd Icould feel. The birds, the dust, and the very noise were a part of me. Just then there was a car passing by at some distance; I was the driver, the engine, and the tyres; as the car went further away from me, I was going away from myself. I was in everything, or rather everything was in me, inanimate and animate, the mountain, the worm and all breathing things. All day long I remained in this happy condition.

The Process continues

After a quiet fortnight, the strange, semi-conscious states began again, this time occuring regularly from 6.30 to 8.30 in the evening after his meditation, and were accompanied by pain in the spine which built up after a few days into agony. The descriptions of the physical torture suffered by the body night after night for the next three months are harrowing. Krishna's ego, as Nitya called it, would withdraw, leaving his body in charge of the "physical elemental" who bore the pain so that Krishna had no recollection of it when he "came back". Nitya and Mr Warrington did not believe that such pain was possible. The "physical elemental" mistook Rosalind, who came to the cottage every evening while "the process" took place, for his dead mother.

At times Krishna had the sensation of being burnt so that he wanted to rush out and immerse himself in the stream and had to be forcibly restrained, for he was apt to fall on his face in a faint with a fearful crash wherever he happened to be. He could not bear too much light. The pain, which affected different parts of the body, would come in long spasms. When there was a slight lull Krishna would converse with certain invisible beings who came every night "to conduct the operations". As the pain intensified he would sob and writhe about and give terrible shrieks and sometimes cry aloud for a respite. The 'physical elemental' would sob, 'O, please, please, I cannot', and then it would break off and Krishna's voice would say, "It's all right. I didnt mean that, please go on". On one very bad evening he groaned, 'O, mother, why did you bear me for this?' He begged for a few minutes rest and the others would hear him talking to his mother or to 'them' to whom he would say, with a great deal of assurance, 'Yes, rather! I can stand a lot more; dont mind the body, I cant stop it from weeping'.

Once they heard the physical elemental calling out, 'Please come back, Krishna'. If Krishna came back, the process would stop. It seemed that a certain amount of work on the body had to be accomplished every evening and if there was an interruption in the middle it was made up in the end. At the beginning of October 'They' began work on his eyes, a more appalling torture than ever. 'They' told Krishna that his eyes were being cleansed so that he might be allowed to see "Him". But this was not the end of Krishna's suffering. 'Thewy' now started opening up something in his head which caused such indescribable torture that he kept on screaming out, 'Please close it, please close it'. This went on for some forty minutes. When it eventually stopped, the body started chattering away in the voice of a child of about four, recalling incidents from his childhood.

Both Mrs Besant and Leadbeater attributed Krishna's experience to the passing of the third initiation, but they could find no explanation for the 'process'. Krishna himself was convinced that it was something he had to go through for the preparation of his body for the reception of the Lord Maitreya. What seems certain is that whatever happened to Krishna's body for the next few years made it poissible for him to become a channel for some super forces or energy that was the source of his later teaching.

To Lady Emily, Krishna was to write at the beginning of 1924 after the "process" had been going on for two months:

Last ten days, it has been really strenuous, my spine and neck have been going very strong and day before yesterday, I had an extraordinary evening.Whatever it is, the source or whatever one calls the bally thing came up my spine, up to the nape of my neck, then it separated into two, one going to the right and the other to the left of my head till they met between the two eyes, just above my nose. And I saw the Lord and Master. I twas a tremendous night. Of coyrse the whole thing was painful in the extreme.

He tried to talk toLeadbeater asbout the 'process' but the latter had nothing helpful to say; it was quite outside his range of experience.

False intiations and ridiculous claims by Arundale

Meanwhile in Europe, George Arundale and Wedgwood, prominent members of the Theosophical Society, claimed to have established a direct channel of communication with the occult hierarchy and to have been accepted as disciples by the Mahachohan. THe atmosphere was charged with excitement as a number of new initiations were announced by Arundale. Having been ordained Bishops of the Liberal Catholic Church, the purple clad Arundale and Wedgwood were in rapid succession to attain Arhathood by passing through their third and fourth initiations. Arundale's wife Rukmini passed three intiations in three days. Krishnamurti, in Ojai nursing his seriously ill brother Nitya, was unaware of the occult ferment taking place in the Netherlands at Huizen and later at the Star camp in Ommen, an annual convention attended by members of the Order of the Star. Without his knowledge an announcement was made that his astral body from Ojai had traveled and appeared before the magnificence of the gathered occult hierarchy to receive his fourth initiation.

Later when the camp was over, Mrs Besant at Huizen called Lady Emily, Miss Bright and Shiva Rao to her room and told them that she and Leadbeater, Krishnaji, Arundale and Wedgwood had passed their fifth and final initiation. All of them were now not only Arhats but Adepts. A report that appeared in the Theosophical journal Herald of the Star published Mrs Besant's words:

The new World Teacher will choose, as before, his twelve Apostles. I have only the command to mention seven who have reached the stage of Arhatship. THe first two, my brother Charles Leadbeater, and myself, passed that great initiation at the same time. The other Arhats are C. Jinarajadasa, George Arundale, whose consecration as Bishop was necessary as the last step of his preparation for the great fourth step of initiation, Oscar Kollerstrom, Mrs Rukmini Arundale, Krishnaji and Bishop Wedgwood.

Later realizing that she had made a major error by including the name of Krishnamurti, who was the vehicle, in the list of Apostles, she corrected her statement. Various other lists existed in which the names of Lady Emily, Nitya, Rajagopal and Theodore St. John. Krishna, hearing reports of Apostles and Arhats, rapid initiations, world religion and world universities, was bewildered and deeply distressed. He refused to accept the initiations and the Apostles. He was deeply skeptical of the World Religion and the World University. Mrs Besant was shattered by Krishnamurti's rejection of the initiations and Apostles.

Nitya's illness and Death

Meanwhile, Nitya's illness had taken a turn for the worse. On February 10, 1925, Krishnamurti wrote a letter to Mrs Besant describing a dream in which he had visited the Great Brotherhood and pleaded with them for his brother's life:

I remember going to the Master's house and asking and begging to let Nitya get well and to let him live. The Master said that I was to go to the Lord Maitreya and I went there and I implored there, but I got the impression that it was not His business and that I should go to the Mahachohan. So I went there. I remember all this so clearly. `He was seated in His chair with great dignity and magnificent understanding, with grave and kindly eyes. I told Him that I would sacrifice my happiness or anything that was required to let Nitya live, for I felt this thing was being decided. He listened to me and answered "He will be well". It was such a relief that all my anxiety was relieved and I was glad.

This direct meeting with the Masters had convinced Krishnaji of the powers of the Great Beings to prolong Nitya's life. If we pause an instant to examine Krishnaji's contact with the Masters, their manifestations, and Krishnaji's communication with them, it becomes evident that his encounters with Master K.H., the Mahachohan, Maitreya, and the Buddha were visions often in the dream state. Later he was to say that all images and manifestations, however profound, were projections of the mind. With the death of Nitya, and the explosive sorrow that brought him face to face with the actual, all physical references to the Masters ceased. Even before that, on board ship back to India, Arundale started bringing through messages from the Mahachohan chiding Krishnamurti on his scepticism and subtly implying that unless he accepted the revelations brought through by Arundale at Huizen and Ommen and confirmed the names of the people who had been made adepts, Nitya would die. Krishnamurti refused.

Krishnamurti, faith unshaken, told Shiva Rao that the Masters would not have let him leave Ojai if his brother was destined to die. On November 13, in the midst of a thunderstorm, they received a cable announcing Nitya's death. Writing after his brother's death, Krishnaji was to say: 'An old dream is dead and a new one is being born. A new vision is coming into being, and a new consciousness is being unfolded. I have wept but I do not want others to weep; but if they do, I know what it means. Now I know, now we are inseparable. He and I will work together, for I and my brother are one.' By the time Krishnamurti reached Adyar, he had emerged from his encounter with sorrow immensely quiet, radiant, and free of all sentiment and emotion. But his belief in the Masters and the occult hierarchy had undergone a total revolution.

In an article published on the Alpheus website, Bill Keidan, writes tht he received information from a very close pupil of Geoffrey Hodson that Geoffrey's understanding of the rejection of the Masters post Nitya's death was as follows:

At a certain stage in the initiation process a pupil has the right to ask a boon from the Master, such a request is normally granted. Krishnamurti asked for the life of his brother Nityananda, who at the time was dying of tuberculosis. Unfortunately, Nityananda had already agreed to endure his terminal illness so that a karmic debt could be cleared in preparation for a fortunate rebirth; in such circumstances the boon could not be granted. Apparently Krishnamurti could not accept this decision with equanimity and became very antagonistic towards the Masters, resulting in what is so well documented about the change in his direction accompanied by many iconoclastic comments,some even suggesting that the Masters are irrelevant.

The Star Camp in 1927

At the opening of the Star Camp in Ommen in 1927, Krishnamurti spoke a language diametrically opposed to Theosophical teaching. He gave his first public answer to the question troubling so many: did he or did he not believe in the Masters and the occult hierarchy ?

When I was a small boy I used to see Sri Krishna, with the flute, as he was pictured by the Hindus, because my mother was a devotee of Sri Krishna. When I grew older and met with Bishop Leadbeater and the Theosophical Society, I began to see the Master K. H., again in the form that was put before me, the reality from their point of view, and so to me the Master K.H. was everything. Later on, as I grew I saw the Lord Maitreya. That was two years ago, and I saw him constantly in the form put before me. Now lately it is the Buddha whom I have been seeing, and it has been my delight and my glory to be with Him. I have been asked what I mean by the Beloved. I will give a meaning, an estimation. To me, it is all - it is Sri Krishna, it is the Master K.H., it is the Lord Maitreya, it is the Lord Buddha, and yet it is beyond all these forms. What does it matter what name you give? It is an unfortunate thing that I have to explain, but I must. My Beloved is the open skies, the flower, every human being. Till I was able to say with certainty, without any undue excitement, or exaggeration in order to convince others, that I was one with my Beloved I never spoke. I talked of vague generalities which everyone wanted. I never said I am the World teacher, but now that I feel that I am one with my Beloved, I say it, not in order to impress my authority on you, not to convince you of my greatness, nor of the greatness of the World Teacher, nor even of the beauty of life, but merely to awaken a desire in your hearts and in your own minds to seek out the truth. It is no good asking me who is the Beloved. Of what use is explanation ? For you will not understand the Beloved until you are able to see Him in every animal, every blade of grass, in every person that is suffering, in every individual.

The Ommen Camp in 1928

Mrs Besant had intended to be at the Ommen Camp at Krishnamurti's special request, but illness prevented it. Her absence enabled him to say what he wanted at the camp fire talks without fear of hurting her. During the meetings, he was asked questions such as: 'Is it true that you do not want disciples?'; 'Why do you tell us that there are no stages along the path?'; 'Are you the Christ come back?'; Krishnamurti's answers are included below:

I say again that I have no disciples. Every one of you is a disciple of the Truth if you understand the truth and do not follow the individuals... Truth does not give hope, it gives understanding. There is no understanding in the worship of personality. I still maintain that all ceremonies are unnecessary for spiritual growth. If you would seek the truth, you should go out, far away from the limitations of the human mind and heart and there discover it - and that truth is within yourself. Is it not much simpler to make Life itself the goal, than to have mediators, gurus, who must inevitably step down the truth and hence betray it? Do not quote me afterwards as an authority. I refuse to be your crutch. I am not going to be brought into a cage for your worship. I have never said there is no God. I have said that there is only God as manifested in you. But I am not going to use the word God. I prefer to call this Life. When you are in love with Life, and you place that love before all things, and judge by that love, and not by your fear, then this stagnation called morality will disappear. Friends, do not concern yourself with who I am. You will never know... Do you think Truth has anything to do with what you think I am ? You are not concerned with the Truth, but you are concerned with the vessel that contains the truth.

Truth is a Pathless Land

The Ojai Camp began on 27th May, 1929. Krishnamurti pronounced in one of his talks: 'I say now, I say without conceit, with proper understanding, with fullness of mind and heart, that I am that full flame which is the glory of life, to which all human beings, individuals and the whole world, must come.' It wa rumoured during the camp that he was soon to dissolve the Order of the Star. This he did some weeks later. Part of what he said on that occasion is given below:

I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by an sect. That is my point of view and I adhere to it absolutely and unconditionally. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If an organization be created for this purpose, it becomes a crutch, a weakness, a bondage and must cripple the individual, and prevent him from growing, from establishing his uniqueness, which lies in the discovery for himself, of that absolute unconditioned truth. So that is another reason why I have decided, as I happen to be the Head of the Order, to dissolve it.

This is no magnificent deed, because I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow truth. I am not concerned whether you pay attention to what I say or not. I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I'm going to do it with unwavering comncentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories, new philosophies. For eighteen years you have been preparing for this event, for the Coming of the World Teacher. For eighteen years, you have organized, you have looked for someone who would give a new delight to your hearts and minds, who would transform your whole life, who would give you a new understanding; for someone who would raise you to a new plane of life; who would set you free - and now look what is happening. Consider, reason with yourselves, and discover in what way has that belief made you different. In what manner has that belief swept away all unessential things of life? That is the only way to judge: in what way are you freer, greater, more dangerous to every society which is based on the false and the unessential?

You are depending on your spirituality on someone else, for your happiness on someone else, for your enlightenment on someone else... when I say look within yourselves for enlightenment, for the glory, for the purification and for the incorruptibility of the self, not one of you is willing to do it. So why have an orhganization?

After the dissolution of the Order

After the dissolution of the Order, Castle Eerde and all it's land were returned to baron van Pallandt, while all those parcels of land in Australia, and the amphitheatre on the edhge of Sydney harbour, were given back to their donors. Krishnamurti resigned from the Theosophical Society in 1930. Writing in the International Star Bulletin in that year, he had said, "My teaching is neither occult nor mystic for I hold both as limitations placed on man in his search for Truth.".

Between 1933 and 1939 Krishnamurti traveled several times to India, giving talks to fairly large audiences. The world and the media had lost interest in the "World Teacher" after his rejection of the role the Theosophical Society had conceived for him.

Krishnamurti had occasional visitors, while in Ojai. Aldous Huxley, who had settled in California, and who was losing his eyesight, walked with Krishnamurti for long hours. At times they spoke of the senses and blindness. Krishnamurti helped Huxley; the power to heal was alive. He used it sparingly and in secret, was rather shy of it, and apologized before he even spoke of it. There are also hints taht he experimented at this time with many of the rigid austerities of yoga - fasting for long periods; observing complete silence for days; closing the sense organs with two hands to shut out sight, sound and breath; and awakening to vast reverbertaions of sound within. But he dismissed these yogic stances as play, peripheral, and of no account.

Krishnamurti in India 1947-1949

Krishnamurti's arrival in India, two months after independence, could not have been at a more propitious moment. An old age in India was dying, and the birth of the new was beset by travail and disillusionment. The massacres that had erupted with freedom and the partition of India had been traumatic for minds nurtured on theories of nonviolence. For India's leaders and builders, action based on immediacy had overtaken the possibility of action born of long vision. Pupul Jayakar, in her biography of Krishnamurti, says:

Vast resources of energy were held in abeyance in the startlingly young body and mind of Krishnamurti. It was evident that the long period of withdrawal in Ojai, brought about by forces beyond his control, had provided the spaces in which exploding energies could converge. An intelligence was coming into being, a perfection of mind, heart and body that was supremely majestic. The young men and women who gathered round Krishnaji in Bombay, were drawn from various disciplines- political, literary, academic and social. Filled with horror by the events that followed the partition of India, they lacked the prophetic vision to see the chaos that was to face the India of the future. They had glimpsed the wasteland of ambition, bitterness and greed that lay behind their slogans and grandiose words. They gathered because of the radiance and compassion that emanated from Krishnamurti's presence. Buddha had ordained his monks with the call "Ehi Etha," Come ye. Krishnamurti's silent call was of the same nature.

Pupul Jayakar's meeting with Krishnamurti

Pupul first met Krishnamurti in January 1948. India had been independent for five months and Pupul's entry into politics was imminent. With freedom the aftermath of partition saw her at the center of the main relief organization set up in Bombay for refugees who were pouring into the country from Pakistan. She became very active in organizational matters related to village women's welfare and cottage industries. It was a tough and rigorous initiation. Her work covered many aspects of nation building, particularly those aspects that were related to village India.

At the time of her meeting with Krishnamurti, Pupul Jayakar had a sister, Nandini, and an aged mother. Pupul's mother was in great sorrow at her father's death, even after several years of mourning. Sanjeeva Rao, who had studied with Pupul's father in King's college, Cambridge, suggested that she might be helped by meeting Krishnamurti. Pupul accompanied her mother to Ratansi Morarji's house where Krishnamurti was staying, and awaited Krishnamurti in the sitting room. What happened next is best described in Pupul's own words:

Krishnamurti entered the room silently, and my senses exploded; I had a sudden intense perception of immensity and radiance. He filled the room with his presence, and for an instant I was devastated. I could do nothing but gaze at him. With some hesitation, my mother began to speak of my father, her love for him, and of her tremendous loss, which she seemed unable to accept. She asked Krishnamurti whether she would meet my father in the next world. I sat back to hear what I expected to be a comforting reply.

Abruptly, he spoke. "I am sorry, Madam. You have come to the wrong man. I cannot give you the comfort you seek." I sat up, bewildered. "You want me to tell you that you will meet your husband after death, but which husband do you want to meet? The man who married you, the man who was with you when you were young or the man who died? Because, surely the man who died was not the same man who married you." I felt my mind spring to attention; I had heard something extraordinarily challenging. My mother seemed very perturbed. Krishnamurti said, "Why do you want to meet him? What you miss is not your husband, but the memory of your husband." He paused again, allowing the words to sink deep.

"Madam, forgive me". He folded his hands and I grew aware of the perfection of his gestures. "Why do you keep his memory alive? Why do you want to recreate him in your mind?" I felt a quickening of my senses: His refusal to be kind in the accepted sense was shattering. My mind leapt to meet the clarity and precision of his words. Though the words sounded harsh, there was gentleness in his eyes and a quality of healing flowed from him. My sister, Nandini, saw that my mother was disturbed and changed the conversation. She told him that I was a social worker interested in politics. He was grave and asked me why I did social work. He was looking at me without intruding. He said, "What is it you are trying to run away from? Social work, pleasure, living in sorrow- are these not all escapes, attempts to fill the void within?" I found his words very disturbing, and felt they had to be explored. I had the feeling that I was not meeting him at the level at which he was speaking. After a few days I asked for an interview. For two days before our interview I planned what I would say to him and how I would say it. When I walked into theroom I found him sitting straight-backed and cross-legged on the floor. He saw that I was nervous and asked me to sit quietly.

After a while I began to talk. I spoke of the fullness of my life and work, of my concern for the underprivileged, my desire to enter politics, my interest in art. After a few moments, however, I had the uncomfortable feeling that he was not listening. I looked up and saw he ws gazing at me. After a pause, he said, "I have noticed you at the discussions. When you are in repose, there is a great sadness on your face." I forgot what I had intended to say, forgot everything, but the sorrow within me. I had refused to allow the pain to come through. So deep was it buried that it rarely impinged on my conscious mind. I had covered up my sorrow with layers of aggression. I had never spoken of this to anyone, but before this silent stranger all masks were swept away. I looked into his eyes, and it was my own face I saw reflected.

Like a torrent long held in check, the words came. I spoke of the many scars of living, te struggle to survive, the growing ruthlessness, the sklow hardening, the aggression and ambition. In his preesence, the past, hidden in the darkness of the long forgotten found form and awakened. He was as a mirror that reflected. There was an absence of personality, of the evaluator to weigh and distort. I kept trying to keep back something of my past, but he would not let me. Now in the compassionate field, there was a quality of immense strength. I had been with Krishnaji for two hours. AS I left the room, my body felt shattered, and yet a healing had flowed through me. While I was speaking, he was aware not only of what was being said - the expressions, gestures, attitudes, but also of what was happening around him. In the midts of my outcry, he said to me: Did you see that flower fall? My mind had stopped bewildered.

After some time, I went to see him again. He asked me if I had noticed anything different in my thought process. I said I was not getting as many thoughts as I did before. He said "Try working out each thought to it's completion, carry it right through to the end. Thought can only come to an end when the thinker understands himself, when he sees that the thinker and the thought are not two separate processes. That the thinker is the thought, and the thinker separates himself from thought for his self protection and continuance. So the thinker is continually producing thought which is transforming and changing."

"Happy is the man who is nothing"

Between 1948 and the early 1960s, Krishnaji was easily accessible and many people came to him. On walks, in personal meetings, through letters, the relationships blossomed. He wrote a series of letters between 1948 and 1960 to a young friend, excerpts of which are presented here.

Be alert to all your thoughts and feelings, dont let one feeling or thought slip by without being aware of it and absorbing all it's content. Absorbing is not the word, but seeing the whole content of the thought-feeling. It is like entering a room and seeing the whole content of the room at once, its atmosphere and its spaces.To see and to be aware of one's thoughts makes one intensely sensitive, pliable, and alert. Dont condemn or judge, but be very alert. One must doubt, ever search, see the false as the false. One gets power to see clearly through the intensity of attention. One may be worldly even though one has few things. The desire for power in any form, the power of the ascetic, the power of a big financier or the politician or the pope is worldly. The craving for power breeds ruthlessness and reemphasizes the importance of oneself; the self expansive aggressiveness is in essence worldliness.

Things may not be easy but the more one asks of life, the more fearful and painful it becomes. To live simply uninfluenced, though everything and everyone is trying to influence, to be without varying moods and demands is not easy, but without a deep, quiet life, all things are futile. Happy is the man who is nothing.

There is the unlimited richness of a life without struggle, without will, without choice. But that life is impossibly difficult when our whole culture isthe outcome of struggle and the action of will. Without the action of will, for almost everyone living, there is death. Without some kind of ambition, for almost everyone, life has no meaning. There is a life without will, without choice.

Later Years

Krishnamurti continued giving public lectures, and holding group discussions with concerned individuals around the world. In the early 1960s, he made the acquaintance of physicist David Bohm, whose philosophical and scientific concerns regarding the essence of the physical world, and the psychological and sociological state of mankind, found parallels in Krishnamurti's philosophy. The two men soon became close friends and started a common inquiry, in the form of personal dialogues and occasionally in group discussions with other participants.

In 1984 and 1985, Krishnamurti spoke to an invited audience at the United Nations in New York, under the auspices of the Pacem in Terris Society chapter at the United Nations. In October 1985, he visited India for the last time, holding a number of what came to be known as "farewell" talks and discussions between then and January 1986. These last talks included the fundamental questions he had been asking through the years, as well as newer concerns about advances in science and technology, and their effect on humankind.

Krishnamurti was also concerned about his legacy, about being unwittingly turned into some personage whose teachings had been handed down to special individuals, rather than the world at large. He did not want anybody to pose as an interpreter of the teaching. A few days before his death, in a final statement, he declared that nobody among either his associates or the general public had understood what had happened to him (as the conduit of the teaching). He added that the "supreme intelligence" operating in his body would be gone with his death, again implying the impossibility of successors. However, he stated that people could perhaps get into touch with that somewhat "if they live the teachings".

Concluding Remarks

Krishnamurti attracted the interest of the mainstream religious establishment in India. He engaged in discussions with several well known Hindu and Buddhist scholars and leaders, including the Dalai Lama. Several of these discussions were later published as chapters in various Krishnamurti books. Interest in Krishnamurti and his work has persisted in the years since his death. Many books, audio, video, and computer materials, remain in print and are carried by major online and traditional retailers. The four official Foundations continue to maintain archives, disseminate the teachings in an increasing number of languages, convert print to digital and other media, develop websites, sponsor television programs, and organise meetings and dialogues of interested persons around the world.

Books of Krishnamurti

The book of life Freedom from the Known The First and Last Freedom The Ending of Time (with Bohm) Think on These Things

Krishnamurti's Notebook On Love and Loneliness Commentaries on Living Awakening of Intelligence Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti

Teachings and Dialogues

• On Awareness
  
• On Desire
  
• On Effort
  
• On Fear
  
• Self-centred activity
  
• Self knowledge
  
• The thinker and the thought
  
• What is the self?
  

[More teachings and dialogues]

"Without love and right thinking, oppression and cruelty will ever be on the increase. The problem of man's antagonism to man can be solved, not by pursuing the ideal of peace, but by understanding the causes of war which lie in our attitude towards life, towards our fellow-beings; and this understanding can come about only through the right kind of education. Without a change of heart, without goodwill, without the inward transformation which is born of self-awareness, there can be no peace, no happiness for men."