All about J. Krishnamurti-An Enlightened One
By Students’ Academy
Copyright@2011Students’ Academy
Smashwords Edition
Chapter 1
Introduction
J. Krishnamurti is one of the most admired and reverred philosophers, teachers, and the enlightened gurus from India. Jiddu Krishnamurti was born on 12 May, 1895, in the small town of Madanapalle in Chittoor District in Andhra Pradesh. Krishnamurti spoke and wrote extensively and very thoughtfully on philosophical and spiritual issues. His subject matter included psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society. Maintaining that society is ultimately the product of the interactions of individuals, he held that fundamental societal change can emerge only through freely undertaken radical change in the individual. 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.
At the time when Krishnamurti was born in a Telugu Brahmin family, India was under the rule of the British Empire. In early adolescence, while living next to the Theosophical Society headquarters at Adyar in Madras, he encountered prominent occultist and high-ranking Theosophist Charles Webster Lead beater. He was subsequently raised under the tutelage of Lead beater and Annie Besant, leaders of the Society at the time, who believed him to be the likely "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. Denouncing the concept of saviors, spiritual leaders, or any other intermediaries to reality, he urged people to directly discover the underlying causes of the problems facing individuals and society. Such discovery he considered as being within reach of everyone, irrespective of background, ability, or disposition. He declared allegiance to no nationality, caste, religion, or philosophy, and spent the rest of his life traveling the world as an independent individual speaker, speaking to large and small groups, as well as with interested individuals. He authored a number of books, among them The First and Last Freedom, The Only Revolution, and Krishnamurti's Notebook. In addition, a large collection 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.
There are hundreds of schools which are centered on his views on education in India, Great Britain, and the United States of America. Krishnamurti’s supporters, working through several non-profit foundations, oversee these independent schools and continue to transcribe and distribute many of his thousands of talks, group and individual discussions, and other writings, publishing them in a variety of formats including print, audio, video and digital media as well as online, in many languages.
Chapter 2
Family and Childhood
Krishnamurti was born in a devout Telugu Hindu family. His father, Jiddu Narainiah, was employed as an official of the then colonial British Administration. Krishnamurti was very fond of his mother Sanjeevamma, who died when he was ten. His parents were second cousins, having a total of eleven children, only six of whom survived childhood. They were strict vegetarians, shunning eggs, and throwing away any food that the "shadow of a European" had crossed.
Since he was the eighth child, following the ancient Hindu tradition, he was named after Lord Krishna. This practice still continues in South India.
When Krishnamurti was around eight years, in the year 1903, the family settled in Cudappah, where Krishnamurti during a previous stay had contracted malaria, a disease with which he would suffer recurrent bouts over many years. He was a sensitive and sickly child; "vague and dreamy", he was often taken to be mentally retarded, and was beaten regularly at school by his teachers and at home by his father.
After about five or six decades, J. Krishnamurti described his state of mind in the following words:
"Ever since he was a boy it had been like that, no thought entered his mind. He was watching and listening and nothing else. Thought with its associations never arose. There was no image-making...He attempted often to think but no thought would come."