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Break with the past
Krishnamurti's new vision and consciousness continued to develop and reached a
climax in 1929, when he rebuffed attempts by Leadbeater and Besant to continue
with The Order of the Star. Krishnamurti dissolved the Order at the annual Star
Camp at Ommen, the Netherlands, on August 3rd, 1929 where, in front of Annie
Besant and several thousand members, he gave a speech saying among other things:
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"You may remember the story
of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they
saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground,
look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil,
'What did that man pick up?' 'He picked up a piece of the truth,' said the
devil. 'That is a very bad business for you, then,' said his friend. 'Oh,
not at all,' the devil replied, 'I am going to help him organize it.' 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. Truth, being limitless,
unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized;
nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a
particular path."
and also:
"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 am going to do it with unwavering
concentration. 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 and new
philosophies."
Following the dissolution, Leadbeater and other Theosophists turned against
Krishnamurti and publicly wondered whether "the Coming had gone wrong". Mary
Lutyens states that "...After all the years of proclaiming the Coming, of
stressing over and over again the danger of rejecting the World Teacher when
he came because he was bound to say something wholly new and unexpected,
something contrary to most people’s preconceived ideas and hopes, the
leaders of Theosophy, one after the other, fell into the trap against which
they had so unremittingly warned others."
Krishnamurti had denounced all organized belief, the notion of "gurus", and
the whole teacher-follower relationship, vowing instead to work in setting
man absolutely, totally free. From that time, he began to disassociate
himself from the Society and its teachings/practices, despite being on
cordial terms with some members and ex-members throughout his life. As his
biographer Lutyens notes, he was never to deny being the World Teacher,
telling Lady Emily "You know mum I have never denied it [being the World
Teacher], I have only said it does not matter who or what I am but that they
should examine what I say, which does not mean that I have denied being the
W.T." When a reporter asked him if he was the Christ, he answered "Yes, in
the pure sense but not in the traditional accepted sense of the word."
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Krishnamurti would only refer
to his teachings as "the" teachings and not as "my" teachings. His concern
was always about "the" teachings: the teacher had no importance, and
spiritual authority was denounced.
"All authority of any kind, especially in the field of thought and
understanding, is the most destructive, evil thing. Leaders destroy the
followers and followers destroy the leaders. You have to be your own teacher
and your own disciple. You have to question everything that man has accepted
as valuable, as necessary."
Krishnamurti returned all monies
and properties donated to the Order of the Star - including a castle in Holland
and around 5,000 acres (20 km˛) of land - to their donors. He subsequently spent
the rest of his life holding dialogues and giving public talks across the world
on the nature of belief, truth, sorrow, freedom, death, the apparently eternal
quest for a spiritually-fulfilled life, and related subjects. Following on from
the "pathless land" notion, he accepted neither followers nor worshippers,
seeing the relationship between disciple and guru as encouraging the antithesis
of spiritual emancipation - dependency and exploitation. He constantly urged
people to think independently and clearly and to explore and discuss specific
topics together with him, to "walk as two friends". He accepted gifts and
financial support freely offered to him by people inspired by his work, and
relentlessly continued with lecture tours and the publication of books and talk
transcripts for more than half a century.
Middle
Years
From 1930 through 1944, Krishnamurti engaged in speaking tours and issued
publications under the auspice of the "Star Publishing Trust" (SPT) which he had
founded with his close associate and friend from the Order of the Star, D.
Rajagopal. The base of operations for the new enterprise was in Ojai, where
Krishnamurti, Rajagopal, and Rosalind Williams (now the wife of Rajagopal),
resided in the house known as "Arya Vihara". The business and organizational
aspects of the SPT were administered chiefly by D. Rajagopal as Krishnamurti
devoted his time to speaking and meditation. Throughout the 1930s, Krishnamurti
spoke in Europe, Latin America, India, Australia and the United States.
In 1938, Krishnamurti made the acquaintance of Aldous Huxley, who had arrived
from Europe during 1937.The two began a long friendship which endured for many
years. They held common concerns about the imminent conflict in Europe which
they viewed as the outcome of the pernicious influence of nationalism.
Krishnamurti's stance on World War II was often construed as pacifism and even
subversion during a time of patriotic fervor in the United States and for a time
he came under the surveillance of the FBI.He did not speak publicly for a period
of about four years between 1940 and 1944. During this time he lived and worked
quietly at Arya Vihara, which during the war operated as a largely
self-sustaining farm, its surplus goods donated for relief efforts in Europe.
Krishnamurti broke the hiatus from public speaking in May 1944 with a series of
talks in Ojai. These talks, and subsequent material, was published by "Krishnamurti
Writings Inc" (KWINC), the successor organization to the "Star Publishing
Trust". This was to be the new central Krishnamurti-related entity worldwide,
whose sole purpose was the dissemination of the teaching.
When in India after World War II, many prominent personalities came to meet with
him, including Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. In his meetings with Nehru,
Krishnamurti elaborated at length on the teachings, saying in one instance,
“Understanding of the self only arises in relationship, in watching yourself in
relationship to people, ideas, and things; to trees, the earth, and the world
around you and within you. Relationship is the mirror in which the self is
revealed. Without self-knowledge there is no basis for right thought and
action.” Nehru asked, “How does one start?” to which Krishnamurti replied,
“Begin where you are. Read every word, every phrase, every paragraph of the
mind, as it operates through thought.”
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