Biography

J Krishnamurti was born in India on 11 May 1895. In 1911, at the age of fifteen, he was brought to England by Mrs Annie Besant. He was educated privately over there and was groomed for the role of World Teacher. In 1922 Krishnamurti underwent certain mystical experiences that altered his vision of life completely. He soon disbanded the huge religious organization - Order of the Star in the east - which proclaimed him and of which he was the head, and gave up all the money and property collected for his work. In a historic speech in 1929, he declared that he did not want disciples and that his concern was not to found new religions but to 'set man absolutely, unconditionally free.'

From then on, for more than fifty years, till his passing way in 1986, he travelled ceaselessly all over the world, talking to different audiences about the problems of life - giving public talks and private interviews. The essence of his teachings is that only through a complete change of heart in the individual, and not social and economic reforms, can there come about a change in society and so peace to the world. He tried to help us see ourselves as we really are. But the individual has to undertake a journey of enquiry into himself, by himself. It is in seeing with absolute clarity that the inward revolution takes place and one comes upon 'the sacred dimension'.

He believed that this radical change could take place in every individual, not gradually but instantaneously. Krishnamurti's talks, question-and-answer sessions, discussions with scholars and scientists, and with teachers and children, are available in a wide collections of books, audio and video tapes, and also CDs. Krishnamurti died on 17 February 1986.

The Man and The Message by Madhav Mool & Kumar R Shrestha Ó The Quest

J Krishnamurti was fourteen years old when he was discovered by Leadbeater in Adyar, India in February 1909. Leadbeater, along with Dr Annie Besant, was a member of Theosophical Society and was searching a person in whom Lord Maitreya could manifest. He had noticed a unique aura in Krishnamurti’s face and was impressed by the quality of total innocence in the boy. Krishnamurti was later to undergo an initiation process in order to be a vehicle for Lord Maitreya and to prepare himself as a future World Teacher. At the same time, he was provided a conventional education and was brought up in a modern and advanced environment, a process that wiped out his Hindu belief.

In August 1929, at Ommen in Holland at a gathering of three thousand members of Theosophical Society, the young Krishnamurti was supposed to declare himself the World Teacher. On the contrary, he declared that Truth is a pathless land and dissolved the Order of the Star, of which he was the head. He maintained that Truth, being limitless and unconditional, could not be organised through any religion, sect or authority. He refused to assume the role of a teacher and said that he did not want any followers. He then started a long worldwide journey to hold dialogues and talks with people of all ages and groups. He continued this untiring journey until his death in 1986 at the age of ninety. He died among very few close persons as per his wish to avoid any publicity or to hold a death ceremony. To his last breath, he urged everyone to awaken himself.

Krishnamurti was a very simple person - very humble, shy and ordinary. During public talks, he used to urge his audience in very simple but powerful words, whereas during intimate dialogues, he showed an unusual love and understanding. During one conversation with an anxious person, who was demanding the solution of cancer, he suggested that intelligence plays an important role in such a circumstance and that profound love is true intelligence. Later, in his own life, he laboured for the human good even during his terminal cancer. He believed that the only motive he survived was for the teachings and to deliver the message. Interestingly, he has forbidden his teachings to be interpreted authoritatively by anybody.

Krishnamurti maintained that if his teachings were able to change a single person, it would be a great success. His undying hope for the goodness of mankind never faltered. This alone should be enough to transform the troubled world of ours, if we are any sensitive at all. In fact his teachings underline sensitivity and even the attention of insensitivity itself to bring a significant change in human life. He emphasizes the importance of awareness in human life, from moment to moment. This awareness leads to self-knowledge, which is far more important than any formal academic degree. He requests us not to lose touch with the immensity of Nature, for this receptacle is the ideal one where the bud of our awareness can bloom to its fullest. Indeed a journey within one's self is tougher than a journey to the Antarctic or to the moon, but man has no other choice, if he is to put an end to sorrow.

Man certainly has lived in sorrow from ages since his very beginning. Thousands of years of evolution and progress have not solved his psychological problems. Technologically we may be far ahead, but psychologically we are no better, if not worse. And this is leading us towards suffering and self-destruction. So there arises the question - what is the root cause of human suffering and where lies the solution? Krishnamurti was of the opinion that the dividing nature of mind or fragmentary perception is the sole reason behind all human conflicts. Wholeness of consciousness or a holistic approach to life is the essence of his teachings. Once asked by Dr David Bohm, a noted physicist, in which part of out body the mind lies, he replied that the universe itself is our mind.

Krishnamurti has left dozens of books and numerous audio-video tapes of his talks from all over the world. The book "Freedom From The Known" is succinctly remarkable while the "Notebook Of Krishnamurti" was only the diary written at time when his brain was under acute pain. Another meaningful book is "The Ending Of Time" which is a dialogue with Dr Bohm. In this book it looks as if his Brain, Mind and Heart have mutated completely. In "Krishnamurti to himself - his last journal" he indicates how psychic power silently influenced his inner solitary life. Here he does not miss to give us vivid and beautiful descriptions of nature, transporting the reader directly to the core of his teachings. And lastly, the "Last Talks" is highly touching and serious, and in it one gets a firsthand experience of the urgency that he had always tried to communicate.

In his books, he has tried to explain things in a very simple way. But on the reader's part, there is also the urgent need for a few qualities in order to understand him. Essential qualities are humility, innocence, generosity and simplicity. His only wish, he said, was to set man free, but he was not ambitious to make his teaching yet another cage for the people. He said that his book should only be a mirror for the reader in which to see his image and then understand himself. Once the reader sees his true self through his books, these books are no longer useful.

In course of Krishnamurti's lifetime, there have been doubts if he was an ordinary man transformed rather than a unique being existing in a completely different dimension. When a journalist in Rome asked him if other persons could attain his state of consciousness, he was to say, "Christopher Columbus went to America in a sailing ship; we can go by jet." Indeed in this critical moment of the world history, his teachings have become more vital, more pressing than ever. The man of today needs to change radically, otherwise we shall destroy ourselves. And this change is possible only now, not in the future. One may then ask - how can one person's transformation affect the world? Krishnamurti's own answer to this was: "Change and see what happens."