Jiddu Krishnamurti [ May 12, 1895 – February 17, 1986] or J. Krishnamurti was an Indian writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society. He constantly stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasized that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social.
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| 1895 - 1986 |
Krishnamurti was born into a Telugu Brahmin family in what was then colonial India. In early adolescence, he had a chance encounter with prominent occulist and high-ranking theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater in the grounds of the Theosophical Society headquarters at Adyar in Madras (now Chennai ]. He was subsequently raised under the tutelage of Annie Besant and Leadbeater, leaders of the Society at the time, who believed him to be a "vehicle" for an expected World Teacher.
As a young man, he disavowed this idea and dissolved the worldwide organization [the Order of the Star] established to support it. He claimed allegiance to no nationality, caste, religion, or philosophy, and spent the rest of his life traveling the world, speaking to large and small groups and individuals. He authored many books, among them The First and Last Freedom, The Only Revolution, and Krishnamuti's Notebook. Many of his talks and discussions have been published. His last public talk was in Madras, India, in January 1986, a month before his death at his home in Ojai, California.
His supporters, working through non-profit foundations in India, Great Britian and the United States, oversee several independent schools based on his views on education. They continue to transcribe and distribute his thousands of talks, group and individual discussions, and writings by use of a variety of media formats and languages.
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| Jiddu Krishnamurti during one of His Talks |
Jiddu Krishnamurti, whose life and teachings spanned the greater part of the 20th Century, is regarded by many as one who has had the most profound impact on human consciousness in modern times.
Sage, philosopher and thinker, he illumined the lives of millions the world over – intellectuals and laymen, young and old. Breaking away from all organized religions and denying his role as a Guru, he spelt out his mission: to set man absolutely and unconditionally free.
He travelled round the world till the age of 90, giving talks, writing, holding discussions.
He talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday life; the problems of living in modern society, the individual’s search for security, and the need for human beings to free themselves from from their inner burdens of violence, fear and sorrow.
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| Jiddu Krishnamurti with Annie Besant - 1926 |
Born on 11th May 1895 as the eighth child of a pious couple in the small town of Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh, Krishnamurti was adopted at the age of 14 by Annie Besant, the President of the Theosophical Society, and was brought up and groomed to be the World Teacher.
It was the Adyar Branch of Theosophy, and more specifically Leadbeater, who in 1909 discovered the young Krishnamurti [then fourteen years old], and made the unfortunate claim that he was to be the body of the World Teacher, the Christ.
The Order of the Star in the East was founded in 1911, and was a great success, with badges, newspapers, and heraldry, to welcome in the new Messiah. Mrs. Besant was very enthusiastic about the whole thing, but Leadbeater eventually lost interest in his dis-covery, concentrating more on his Liberal Catholic Church, which he and a certain James Wedgwood [who was secretary of the Society in England] promulgated in Australia. Finally, the maturing Krishnamurti could stand no more of the adulation and expectation heaped upon him,
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| The Star of the East Debacle |
In 1929, however, he renounced that role and dissolved The Order of the Star- a large world-wide organization that had been built up around him to fulfill that mission and repudated all religious sects and organisations. From then on he taught his own personal philosophy, and in spite all of his anti-guru and anit-authority statements still found himself the guru to many devoted followers. This action was the culmination of the deep spiritual awakening undergone by him and his insight that religious organizations cannot lead human beings to truth.
The dissolving of the Order of the Star in the East, together with new revelations concerning Leadbeater's paedophilia, had a disastrous effect on the Theosophical Society, which shrunk from 45,000 members in 1928 to 30,800 in 1933 [Gregory Tillett, The Elder Brother, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1982] and has never really recovered since.
Yet in spite of everything, it was this Adyar Theosophical form of metaphysics that had a strong formative influence on other important esoteric writers and schools, such as Rudolph Steiner [Anthroposophy], Alice Bailey [Arcane School], White Eagle Lodge [a Spiritualist group], Paul Twitchell [Eckankar], Robert and Earlyne Chaney [Astara Foundation], Mark and Elizabeth Prophet [Summit Lighthouse], and innumerable others. These Theosophical teachings and concepts have also had a strong influence on certain forms of Spiritualism, Occultism, and Neo-Paganism, and also on many Channeled teachings [probably via the Medium's subconscious mind].
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| Imparting to his audiences/individuals of the need for radical change in Mankind |
A comprehensive repository of Krishnamurti's teachings are available online at http://jkrishnamurti.org/. The teachings are available in text, audio and video formats.
