Theos-Talk Archives (September 1996 Message tl00122)

Here is a message I picked up. TS and Krishnaji are historically linked
for ever. It might interest some of the recipients.

    M K Ramadoss



> Date: Mon, 09 Sep 1996 09:19:55 EDT
> From: Bruce Morgen <editor@juno.com>
> Subject: Another K article, this one from "Share International" (http://www.shareintl.org/kfirst.html)

THE PATHLESS JOURNEY OF JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI
by Bette Stockbauer

As early as 1889 Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society,
had told certain of her students that the purpose of Theosophy was to
prepare humanity for the coming of the Lord Maitreya,
the World Teacher for the Aquarian Age. After Blavatsky's death, Annie
Besant and C.W. Leadbeater considered it their task to carry on this
work, part of which was the preparation of a disciple who
would serve as a vehicle for the Teacher when He came.

In 1909 at Adyar, India, Leadbeater discovered a boy whose aura he judged
to be completely free of selfishness. This was Jiddu Krishnamurti, who
was 13 years old. Adopted by Besant and
Leadbeater, he received intensive training, then 10 years of schooling in
England. People in many countries were informed of his future role. At
the age of 27, Krishnamurti had a personal vision which
convinced him that the consciousness of Maitreya was beginning to
overshadow him. Theosophists throughout the world had been waiting for
this development.

But when he was 34, Krishnamurti renounced his association with the
Theosophical Society, declaring: "I do not want followers. My only
concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free." He spent
the rest of his years teaching humanity how to achieve that freedom.

Mary Lutyens, a lifelong friend and confidant, wrote the biographical
trilogy which chronicles his life -- _Krishnamurti: The Years of
Awakening_; _The Years of Fulfilment_; and _The Open Door_. The
following article is drawn from this trilogy. It attempts to trace the
evolution of the relationship that developed between Krishnamurti and the
spiritual presence that filled his being. Rarely has such a
relationship been so well-documented -- by his own journals and letters
and by the written accounts of the people who loved him.

Krishnamurti's upbringing was wholly uncommon. Few in history have been
accorded the early status he knew. Thousands around the world knew of his
special mission, and from boyhood, adulation
followed his footsteps. Yet pride was never in his nature, nor any
thought of personal gain. Though the deference he received was a great
source of embarrassment for him, he met it with grace and
dignity. This total lack of self-importance was evident from his earliest
years.

He was born in 1895 in northern India to a high-caste Brahmin family. In
his youth, he was completely generous and knew no distinction between
himself and the servants attending him. Timid and
inward, he could stand by a window for hours, staring into the distance.
Tiny insects, fallen leaves, the rocks, and grass were objects of long
and constant wonder to him. So vague and dreamy was his
nature that many in his village thought him to be backward and
dull-witted.

When he was 10 his mother died, and his father seemed unable to care for
the family. Krishnamurti had always been sickly, at times close to death.
His discovery by Leadbeater almost surely saved his
life. From early on grew his feeling of the special protection that
always surrounded him.

A pliable nature and deep sense of the spiritual encompassed each of the
teachings he met -- of the Buddha, Sri Krishna and the Lord Maitreya --
without resistance or comparison. All of life, it seemed,
flowed through the child in equal measure. With humility and wonder he
bowed his head to the wellspring of Being he sensed in all existence.
This quality of acceptance stayed with K* to adulthood. The
complete fearlessness which became its expression would startle the world
in many ways.

At the age of 15, K was instructing adult students in the principles of
Theosophy. At 16, he headed an international society, "The Order of the
Star in the East" (OSE) formed to create an atmosphere of
welcome and reverence for the coming Teacher. In addition to daily
tutoring in both normal and occult studies, he began to travel with Annie
Besant and spoke to audiences throughout the world.

These were difficult years for Theosophy. Blavatsky's guidance had ceased
with her death in 1891 and the world had yet to receive the teachings of
Alice Bailey whose books, inspired by the Master
Djwhal Khul, specifically outlined the path of initiation and the proper
relation of humanity to Hierarchy. For the Theosophists of Besant's days,
many details of the evolutionary journey were left to the
imagination, and imaginations often ran rampant.

Undue emphasis was placed on personal contact with the Masters and
competition for higher initiatory status became a disruptive force. These
imbalances were deeply troubling to K, and the years he
spent in England saw his beginning disillusionment with the Society, with
the "Masters", and with spiritual practices. He felt rootless and bereft
of meaning, yet he continued to head The Order of the Star,
out of loyalty to his benefactors and some inner belief in the role he
was to play.

Vision at Ojai

In 1922 he experienced a vision which would redirect the course of his
life. It happened high in a mountain valley south of Los Angeles, named
by the Native Americans "Ojai" or "The Nest." For two
weeks, he had meditated constantly, envisioning the image of the Lord
Maitreya before him. He then began to experience extreme pain in his neck
and spine, and long periods of delirium. Day and night
he struggled, unable to sleep or eat, often leaving his body, often
seeing visionary happenings. On the third evening he was drawn from his
small cottage to sit beneath a pepper tree alive with the
fragrance of spring blossoms. What followed next was recorded in his own
words:

"When I had sat thus for some time, I felt myself going out of my body, I
saw myself sitting down with the delicate tender leaves of the tree over
me. I was facing the east. In front of me was my body
and over my head I saw the Star, bright and clear. Then I could feel the
vibrations of the Lord Buddha; I beheld Lord Maitreya and Master KH. I
was so happy, calm and at peace. I could still see my
body and I was hovering near it. There was such profound calmness both in
the air and within myself, the calmness of the bottom of a deep
unfathomable lake.... The Presence of the mighty Beings was
with me for some time and then They were gone. I was supremely happy, for
I had seen. Nothing could ever be the same. I have drunk at the clear and
pure waters at the source of the fountain of life
and my thirst was appeased.... 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....
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."

To Leadbeater he wrote: "I feel once again in touch with Lord Maitreya
and the Master and there is nothing else for me to do but to serve Them.
My whole life, now, is ... devoted to the work and I am
not likely to change." And to Besant: "I feel as though I am sitting on a
mountain top in adoration and that Lord Maitreya is close to me. I feel
as though I am walking on delicate and perfumed air. The
horizon of my life is clear and the sky-line is beautiful and precise."

"The process"

Another occurrence, connected with his spiritual change, was the
phenomenon he always described as "the process". It had begun in the
three painful days before his vision and would recur, in varying
intensity, throughout his life. Extreme pain and out-of-body experiences
would accompany its advent. In its early manifestation, K would sense a
definite presence, like the Lord Maitreya who came one
evening with this message:

"Learn to serve me, for along that path alone will you find me.
Forget yourself, for then only am I to be found.
Do not look for the Great Ones when they may be very near you.
You are like the blind man who seeks sunshine.
You are like the hungry man who is offered food and will not eat.
The happiness you seek is not far off; it lies in every common stone.
I am there if you will only see. I am the Helper if you will let Me
help."

 From this time in his life, all who knew him could sense his gathering
power. From this point, he spoke from the heart, he spoke without fear,
he seemed to speak from Truth itself.

The "overshadowing"

At a Star gathering in 1925 he began to speak of the World Teacher,
saying: "He comes only to those who want, who desire, who long ..." As
his listeners watched, his face suddenly brightened. His
voice, now speaking in the first person, rang out with resonant power:
"... and I come for those who want sympathy, who want happiness, who are
longing to be released, who are longing to find
happiness in all things. I come to reform and not to tear down, I come
not to destroy but to build."

Most who saw the speech assumed the Lord Maitreya had fully entered the
consciousness of K, and at this point K seemed to as well: "The memory of
the 28th (the day of the gathering) should be to
you as if you were guarding some precious jewel and every time you look
at it you must feel a thrill. Then when He comes again, and I am sure
that He will come again very soon, it will be for us a nobler
and far more beautiful occasion than even last time. I feel like a
crystal vase, a jar that has been cleaned and now anybody in the world
can put a beautiful flower in it and that flower shall live in the vase
and never die."

Theosophical reaction

Wide publicity was given to his assumed overshadowing. This,
unfortunately, only served to exaggerate the existing imbalances in the
Society. Some Theosophists were vying for position in the coming
World Order, claiming impossible access to the highest levels of the
spiritual world. Competition increased -- one disciple even claimed to
have advanced three levels of initiation in three days. Public
announcements were issued about the selection of 10 of the 12 "apostles"
for the coming work. All of them were Theosophists.

Sometimes amused and sometimes disheartened, K observed the tumult
surrounding him. In speech after speech he tried to show his fellows a
truer path -- a way of inward direction that refused to
follow anything but the spark of God within the soul. Over time he began
to downplay a personal relationship with the spiritual kingdom. Less and
less did he speak of Maitreya or the Masters or any
other entity. His expression became increasingly abstract, as though
seeking to reach beyond the realm of the physical to touch the essential
source of Being that animates all expression.

"When I was a small boy I used to see Sri Krishna, with the flute, as he
is 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 KH --
again in the form which was put before me... -- and hence the Master KH
was to me the end. Later on, as I grew, I began to
see the Lord Maitreya.... Now lately, it has been 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 explanation, which you will interpret as you please. To me it is all
-- it is Sri Krishna, it is the Master KH, it is the Lord
Maitreya, it is the Buddha, and yet it is beyond all these forms. What
does it matter what name you give?... What you are troubling about is
whether there is such a person as the World Teacher who has
manifested Himself in the body of a certain person, Krishnamurti: but in
the world nobody will trouble about this question.... My Beloved is the
open skies, the flower, every human being.... I have been
united with my Beloved, and my Beloved and I will wander together the
face of the earth ... (and) you will not understand the Beloved until you
are able to see Him in every animal, in every blade of
grass, in every person that is suffering, in every individual."

The renunciation

As he began to distance himself from Theosophical teachings, he predicted
that, "Everyone will give me up." He began to call his experiences of the
Masters "incidents" and described the rites of initiation
as completely irrelevant to the search for Truth. "If you would seek the
Truth you must 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?"

In 1929 he dissolved the Order of the Star. At this point it numbered
60,000 members, managed huge sums of money, and owned tracts of land
throughout the world, many designated for K's future
work. He was 34 years old.

Excerpts from his final speech follow:

"I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by
any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.... I do not want to
belong to any organization of a spiritual kind; please
understand this ... 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....

"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.... For 18
years you have been preparing for this event, for the
Coming of the World Teacher. For 18 years you have organized, you have
looked for someone who would give a new delight to your hearts and minds
.. who would set you free -- and now look what
is happening! Consider, reason with yourselves, and discover in what way
that belief has made you different ... in what way are you freer,
greater, more dangerous to every society which is based on the
false and the unessential?...

"You are all depending for your spirituality on someone else, for your
happiness on someone else, for your enlightenment on someone else.... You
have been accustomed to being told how far you have
advanced, what is your spiritual status. How childish! Who but yourself
can tell you if you are incorruptible?... I desire those, who seek to
understand me, to be free ... from the fear of religion, from the
fear of salvation, from the fear of spirituality, from the fear of love,
from the fear of death, from the fear of life itself.... You can form
other organizations and expect someone else. With that I am not
concerned, nor with creating new cages, new decorations for those cages.
My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free."

Few there were who could grasp this freedom, and, sadly, those who had
warned the world for years that the coming of the Christ would challenge
all existing systems seemed themselves unable to
encompass that challenge when it came. The Theosophical Society was left
in total bewilderment.

Krishnamurti never looked back. What he did he did with love and no trace
of bitterness. The Truth that was growing in him was his only concern;
the Presence that filled his being was his only guide.  From 
that Truth came compassion for every living thing. From that
guidance would emerge a teaching that cut to the root of the attachments
that have crippled humanity for thousands of years.

K would live another 56 years. During all of these years he would teach
-- through his lectures, through his books, and through the schools he
founded. Surprisingly, though most of his old friends fell
away just as he had predicted, attendance at his talks did not diminish.
In practically every year of his life, he toured the world. Rather than
lecture he would "enter into inquiry" with his audiences,
warning them not to blindly accept what he said but to look deep into
their own hearts and discover the truth of their own being.

Teachings

All of his teachings reverberate to the themes of freedom and
self-awareness. Fear, death, love, thought, security, and time -- each
can be a cage, and humanity can choose either to move beyond its
limitation or remain a tortured prisoner. His insights are startling
because totally honest. He shows that experience, when not based on pure
observation, easily becomes distorted when thought introduces
either the past, with its accumulated guilt and pain, or the future, with
its vested interests to maintain.

Utopias and visions of personal perfection, the promised heaven of the
sanyasi and saint -- all rob the present of its power. Each forms an
avenue of escape from the pain of the world. This pain was not
invented by some careless God, but by each human being who occupies the
earth. As such, each one is responsible for its resolution.

In pure self-awareness is born the solution. K calls it choiceless
awareness -- an acceptance that views life without resistance or
prejudice, without offering itself any possible means of escape. This
complete "honesty of mind" becomes a total penetration into the heart of
_what is_. A humanity which can discriminate between the true and the
false, that can face itself in all its glory, and all its shame,
has begun to set itself free.

The presence

Many people would remark on the energy surrounding K wherever he went. In
moments of intimacy, when sharing with close friends, K would suddenly
stop and look around saying: "Can you feel it in
the room?" Lutyens once asked him: "What is _this thing_? I know you have
always felt protected, but what or who is it that protects you?" "It's
there, as if it were behind a curtain," he replied, stretching
out his hand. "I _could_ lift it but I don't feel it is my business to."

In 1961 and again 12 years later K kept notes of "this thing" which he
called by many names -- the "immensity", the "other", the "sacredness",
the "benediction". The visitations of the "other" were always
connected with his "process", and accompanied by pain, which he never
resisted. The notes were written in pencil with hardly any erasures and
were published as _Krishnamurti's Notebook_, and
_Krishnamurti's Journal_. They are poetry of the highest order, the
privileged sharing of a great soul's communion with the infinite.

"The room became full of that benediction.... It was the centre of all
creation; it was a purifying seriousness that cleansed the brain of every
thought, and feeling; its seriousness was as lightning which
destroys and burns up; the profundity of it was not measurable, it was
there immovable, impenetrable, a solidity that was as light as the
heavens.... There was impenetrable dignity and a peace that was
the essence of all movement, action. No virtue touched it for it was ...
utterly perishable and so it had the delicacy of all new things,
vulnerable, destructible and yet it was beyond all this.... It was
'pure',
untouched so ever dyingly beautiful. "... of a sudden that unknowable
immensity was there, not only in the room and beyond but also deep, in
the innermost recesses, which was once the mind ... that
immensity left no mark, it was there, clear, strong, impenetrable and
unapproachable whose intensity was fire which left no ash. With it was
bliss."

The following he wrote when he was 85, describing the culmination of a
meditation that had come to him in the depth of night for many years:
"One night in the strange stillness ... he woke up to find
something totally different and new. The movement had reached the source
of all energy. This must in no way be confused with, or even thought of,
as god or the highest principle, the Brahman, which
are the projections of the human mind out of fear and longing, the
unyielding desire for total security. It is none of those things. Desire
cannot possibly reach it, words cannot fathom it nor can the string of
thought wind itself around it. One may ask with what assurance do you
state that it is the source of all energy? One can only reply with
complete humility that it is so."

Who is Krishnamurti?

Mary Lutyens had known K since she was three years old. Her family had a
deep and intimate connection with his life. Yet even she could never
fully understand the essence of his strength. At the end
of _Krishnamurti: The Years of Fulfilment_, she records an inquiry into
"the phenomenon of K".

How, she asked, could such a dreamy boy, sometimes considered retarded,
produce such original and insightful teachings? Was there a universal
pool of knowledge he had learned to tap? Was he the
product of an evolutionary process -- developed through many lives? Or
was it true that Maitreya had inhabited part or all of his consciousness
for these many years?

K thought there was probably no way that he himself could give an answer,
for, "Water can never find out what water is," but he encouraged others
to explore. "If you find out," he said, "I'll corroborate
it." Two aspects, he thought, were vital -- the vacant mind that had been
his since childhood, and the sense of protection he had always known.

Referring to himself, K said: "How is it that the vacant mind was not
filled with Theosophy etc?... Why didn't he become an abomination with
all that adulation? Why didn't he become cynical, bitter?...
Right through life (this vacuity) has been guarded, protected. When I get
into an airplane I know nothing will happen.... It is extraordinary....
That thing must have said: 'There must be vacancy or I -- it --
cannot function.'

"It would be simple if we said that the Lord Maitreya prepared this body
and kept it vacant. That would be the simplest explanation but the
simplest is suspect. Another explanation is that K's ego might
have been in touch with the Lord Maitreya and the Buddha and said, 'I
withdraw: _that_ is more important than my beastly self.' But I suspect
this too. It implies a lot of superstition. It doesn't feel clean,
right, somehow. The Lord Maitreya saw this body with the least ego,
wanted to manifest through it and so it was kept uncontaminated.... So
what is the truth? I don't know. I really don't know. Another
peculiar thing in all this is that K has always been attracted to the
Buddha.... Is that reservoir the Buddha?, the Lord Maitreya?"

Lutyens asked about his teachings. Were they made by him, or the
mysterious power? He answered: "Let us be clear. If I deliberately sat
down to write it, I doubt if I could produce it.... Here there is
this phenomenon of this chap who isn't trained, who has had no
discipline. How did he get all this?... It is like -- what is the
biblical term? -- revelation. It happens all the time when I'm
talking.... There is
a sense of vacuity and then something happens."

"There is an element in all this which is not man-made, thought-made, not
self-induced.... If you ask it what it is, it wouldn't answer. It would
say: 'You are too small'.... Are we trying to touch a mystery?
The moment you understand it, it is no longer a mystery. But the
sacredness is not a mystery. So we are trying to remove the mystery
leading to the source."

Lutyens was inclined to think that K had indeed been used by something
from the outside since 1922, but K himself had often said that thought
could never explain that which lay beyond it. Perhaps the
freedom and the mystery of K lies in his venture to that realm beyond,
not only of aspects of thought, but of time and space as well. Perhaps
his journey was through that "pathless land" of the intuition
wherein reside both eternal beauty and communion with all existence. When
that land is found, then perhaps his mystery will be understood.

The death

Krishnamurti died in 1986 at the age of 90, at Ojai, the place where his
vision was born. He was surrounded by only a handful of friends. His
body, in death, was wrapped in silk; a white camellia lay at
his feet. His ashes were scattered in his most loved places so that no
one would erect a temple to worship his remains.

Often he had wondered if his life had made a difference in the still
suffering world that surrounded him. But until the end he never ceased to
teach, like all of the others -- the Great Ones and Watchers of
our evolution -- who silently witness and go on with their work,
endlessly reaching out to a humanity often too blind to see.

He said that the "Presence" was with him at all times in the last few
years of his life. The curtain which had hidden its view must have
become, by then, a thin veil. One senses that his death was but a tiny
step beyond that veil, and his entry into the life beyond an almost
imperceptible departure from the life that he had given to the world.

* Krishnamurti preferred to be called K. He spoke and wrote of himself in
the third person.

_Share International_ gratefully thanks the Krishnamurti Foundation of
America for permission to quote the words of K. We also thank the
Krishnamurti Foundation of America and the Krishnamurti
Foundation Holland for the use of the photographs reproduced in this
issue. In no way should it be assumed, however, that either the
Krishnamurti Foundation or Mary Lutyens supports the
philosophical ideas published in Share International magazine.

The following information has been published in the pages of _Share
International_:

 From Maitreya's Teachings: "When Krishnamurti was asked to take up
certain positions, he declined, saying he was not a guru of anything. He
was a true disciple of Maitreya. The teachings of
Krishnamurti are the teachings of Maitreya. Madame Blavatsky and Alice
Bailey had glimpses of the teaching, but they became involved in the
processes of teaching. In Maitreya's view, everyone in the
Theosophical Society except Krishnamurti failed in the sense that they
got more involved in the mechanism of the forces of evolution and the
search for their sources instead of realizing the teachings of
the Lord. Krishnamurti wanted no one to write about him. Those who were
interested could listen to his taped talks." September, 1988, p.10.

Once you 'eat' knowledge (a possessive act) rather than facing knowledge
with awareness, whereby you understand that you must not 'grab', you are
no longer free. When Krishnamurti became aware
in this way, he declined the role of guru: the true Lord is in the heart.
If you want to know Him, try to understand the voice of silence. In
silence there is freedom from _prakritis_, from conditioning.
Silence is that space which is free from conditioning. What is important
is the Lord within you." November 1988, p.10.

Compilation from Questions and Answers, by Benjamin Creme:

J.Krishnamurti (Soul 2; personality 2, sub-ray 6; mental body 4, sub-ray
4; astral body 6, sub-ray 2; physical body 7, sub-ray 7) was born a 3rd
degree initiate and took the 4th initiation at the age of 49
(1944). At one time he was being prepared, along with a few others, by
overshadowing**, as a possible vehicle for the World Teacher. This
overshadowing, which K called "the process", caused him
terrible pain and agony. His double 7th ray body, oversensitive and not
very adaptable or resilient, may have been the reason for his suffering.

When the Lord Maitreya decided to manifest Himself by means of the
self-created body (mayavirupa) K began his teaching work. I would say
that K is preparing the way for the Christ's work. He is
only one, one of many ... but in his particular manner, is preparing
people psychologically ... for the first and second initiations. He is
expected to take incarnation again by the end of the century.

In _Discipleship in the New Age II_, by Alice A Bailey, pp.171-172, the
Master DK states:

"... through this overshadowing of disciples in all lands, He (the
Christ) will duplicate Himself repeatedly.... One of the first
experiments He made as He prepared for this form of activity was in
connection with Krishnamurti. It was only partially successful. The power
used by Him was distorted and misapplied by the devotee type*** of which
the Theosophical Society is largely composed, and
the experiment was brought to an end; it served, however, a most useful
purpose. As a result of the war (WWII), mankind has been disillusioned:
devotion is no longer regarded as adequate or
necessary to the spiritual life or its effectiveness. The war was won,
not through devotion or the attachment of millions of men to some prized
ideal: it was won by the simple performance of duty, and the
desire to safeguard human rights.... When Christ again seeks to
overshadow His disciples, a different reaction will be looked for.... No
devotee is independent; he is a prisoner of an idea or a person."

**For information on overshadowing see _A Treatise on Cosmic Fire_,
pp.747-760, also by Alice A. Bailey.

***For commentary on the 6th ray of devotion see: _Esoteric Psychology
II_, by Alice A Bailey, pp.371-375, 456-457, 596-606, and 713-714.