Krishnamurti - The Pathless Path

Ivan Frimmel

KRISHNAMURTI – THE PATHLESS PATH

Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, prophesised just before her death in 1891 that humanity is on the verge of a new age and that this new age is going to see a new World Teacher. Two of her successors in the leadership of the Theosophical Society, Annie Bessant and Charles Webster Leadbeater became convinced through some psychic revelations that the youngest son, Jiddu Krishnamurti, of one of the workers in their Madras office was destined for this role. Thus, Jiddu Krishnamurti, who was born in a small Indian town near Madras on May 22, 1895, was taken from an early age under the patronage of the Theosophical Society and slowly prepared for the role of the new Messiah. After his adoption by Annie Bessant he was sent to study in England, where Lady Emily Luytens became his devoted foster mother. The cult of the new Messiah was fostered by the Order of The Star in the East, with young Krishnamurti at its head. However, Krishnamurti refused to remain in the role that the eager members of the Theosophical Society prepared him to play, and in 1929 he dissolved the Order of the Star in The East. “Truth is a pathless land” — he explained to his shocked followers — “you cannot approach it by any religion, any sect. You must look within for the incorruptibility of the self… desire those who seek to understand me to be free, not to follow me… they should be free from all fear: 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…” After this event, Krishnamurti was speaking to audiences large and small, and consulting individuals and groups all over the world, until his death in 1986, at the age of 91. His lectures, talks, dialogues and writings on subjects such as: awareness, suffering, truth, the meaning of life, confusion of the mind, fear, death, love, inner transformation, true meditation, freedom from ignorance & fear, etc. inspired and enlightened millions of people all over the globe. These talks were usually recorded on audio and video-tapes and later transcribed into books with titles such as: The First and Last Freedom (1954), Freedom From the Known (1969), The Urgency of Change (1971), The Impossible Question (1972), Beyond Violence (1973), The Awakening of Intelligence (1973), The Book of Life (1995), etc. George Bernard Shaw once described Krishnamurti as the most beautiful person he has ever seen. Aldous Huxley compared listening to Krishnamurti to hearing a discourse by the Buddha. Talking about life, death, love, time and eternity, Krishnamurti was most eloquent in The Awakening of Intelligence: “How does one find about this strange thing (death) that we all have to meet one day or another…? To die to your pleasures, to your attachments, your dependence, to end it all without rationalising, without trying to find ways and means of avoiding it… to put an end to that which has continuity; to put an end to your ambition, because that’s what is going to happen when you die, isn’t it? When you actually die, you have to end so many things without an argument. You can’t say to death: ‘Let me finish my job, my book…’ — you have no time. So, can you find out how to live a life now, today, in which there is always ending to everything you began… to end all the knowledge you have gathered… your experiences, your memories, your hurts… To end all that every day, so that the next day your mind is fresh and young. Such a mind cannot be hurt, and that is innocence… that is eternity... in that there is love.” On the subject of knowing oneself, in The First and Last Freedom Krishnamurti says: “So long as I am ignorant of myself, so long as I am unaware of the total process of myself, I have no basis for thought, for affection, for action... Self knowledge is the beginning of transformation or regeneration. To know oneself as one is requires extraordinary alertness of mind, because what IS is constantly undergoing transformation, change…” Does this not remind us of Buddha’s teaching about impermanence of all phenomena (Anicca) and insubstantiality of the self, ego (Anatta)? There are many such similarities between Krishnamurti’s teachings and those of other world’s teachers, mystics and philosophers. Krishnamurti left with us a wealth of subtle wisdom that may only be truly appreciated by those who are keen to listen — not just with their minds, but also with their hearts.