his understanding of the order, the Theosophical
Society, and his role in each.
Over many months in 1922–23, Krishnamurti
experienced a profound transformation. Begun as
MEDITATION, Krishnamurti’s “process” contained
moments of great beauty and clarity offset by peri-
ods of physical pain, even agony. He would fall
unconscious, converse with nonphysical entities,
and speak from several personas. Krishnamurti’s
account is consistent with other reports of mys-
tical non-dualist transformations. His personal-
ity dissolved into communion with all that lay
beyond him. In his words, “I was in everything,
or rather everything was in me, inanimate and
animate, the mountain, the work and all breath-
ing things.”
After “the process” was complete, he experi-
enced a growing dissatisfaction with the author-
ity structure of the Theosophical Society and
its emphasis on occultism. At the death of his
brother, which the occultists of the Theosophi-
cal Society did not foresee, his dissatisfaction
became overwhelming. He declared himself in
revolt against Theosophy and against all forms of
spiritual authority, advising every person, “Be a
light unto yourselves.” He disbanded the Order of
the Star in the East in 1929, declaring, “Truth is a
pathless land.”
From then until his death in 1986, Krish-
namurti traveled around the world teaching his
insights. He became a champion of freedom and
inquiry and a relentless advocate of the discovery
of truth without the aid of any organization, reli-
gion, or belief system. His teaching emphasized
the necessity of developing awareness of one’s
conditioning and one’s bondage to thought, fear,
and time. His goal was to make people “uncon-
ditionally free” and, to this end, he invited
those who listened to him to observe their inner
selves, including their motives and the functions
of thought. With each audience, Krishnamurti
inquired into the basic nature of humanity and
found that real self-transformation involves an
instantaneous awareness of the psyche and its
workings. Accompanied by simplicity and humil-
ity, this awareness can open a person to the reality
of oneself.
The Krishnamurti Foundation of America
was founded in 1969 to preserve and disseminate
his teachings. Activities include the Oak Grove
School, the Krishnamurti Archives, the Krish-
namurti Study Center, the Krishnamurti Library,
and Krishnamurti Publications of America. The
Krishnamurti Foundation of England, begun in
1968, oversees the Brockwood Park School. The
Krishnamurti Foundation of India sponsors the
Rishi Valley School, the Krishnamurti Study Cen-
tre in Varanasi, Vasanta College of Rajghat, and
other centers.
During his lifetime Krishnamurti created
schools for children and young adults in India,
the United States, England, and Switzerland.
These alternative schools continue today in their
mission to provide a new definition and practice
of education, free of the conditioning and author-
ity structures prevalent in modern educational
institutions.
In his later years, Krishnamurti joined the
physicist David Bohm in an exploration of the
human condition through a series of dialogues.
Both men recognized the limitations of traditional
didactic teaching and sought a way in which truth
and insight might be discovered within individu-
als and small groups. The dialogue process, prac-
ticed today in all Krishnamurti Foundations in
the United States, India, and England, encourages
individual inquiry without didactic formalism
and authority structures. Krishnamurti and Bohm
predicted that the actual structure of the human
brain could change as a result of increased aware-
ness and open inquiry.
Krishnamurti died on February 18, 1986, in
Ojai, California, among his students.Further reading: S. Holroyd, The Quest of the Quiet
Mind: The Philosophy of Krishnamurti (Wellingborough,
England: Aquarian Press, 1980); Pupul Jayakar, J.
Krishnamurti: A Biography (New York: Penguin, 1986);Krishnamurti, Jiddu 243 J