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PREFACE.
In this book Mr. Hodson discusses the utterances
of Mr. J. Krishnamurti. When he is able to assent
to them he does so. When he dissents he gives his
reasons.
The book should be welcomed by all students of Theosophy;
for here at last a fellow-student replies to Mr. Krishnamurti's
long-continued condemnations of the Ancient Wisdom,
The Theosophical Society, its founders inner and outer,
its prominent workers and its members throughout the
world.
LAWRENCE W. BURT.
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INTRODUCTION.
Krishnamurti has undoubtedly brought a measure of
life and light to the world. He achieves this largely
by concentrating upon one aspect of life and light.
He is obviously inspired with a passion for original
thought and a scorn for the repetition of accepted
formula. For him, tradition is anathema, the wisdom
of the ages a delusion and a snare. He sees truly
that humanity will never be wise, and therefore happy,
until the individual thinks for himself, stands upon
his own intellectual, emotional and physical feet.
His message would appear to be "discover truth
for yourself and by yourself." He seems either
to be unaware of or deliberately to ignore the fact
that without detailed guidance the majority of men
are totally incapable of self-illumination.
Krishnamurti himself is uniquely individual in his
views. He delves deep into his own consciousness in
search of the solution of life's problems. He refuses
to be guided, apparently in order to preserve the
clarity of his own perception. He is an apostle of
the virgin mind, the white mental sheet, the new beginning.
He advocates a ruthless cutting adrift from the past.
He tells us to ignore the future and be acutely focussed
in the present. He wants us to live our own lives
to the full, making the very most of every moment.
We are to accept life's experiences, give ourselves
fully yet impersonally over to them, and so realise
their sublime significance.
Krishnamurti is the personification of simplemindedness.
He is sincerity incarnate, and is clearly inspired
with a selfless desire to lead humanity to its own
light. He concentrates on individual self-knowledge,
individual perfection and enlightenment. Up to now
he has seemed
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to ignore, even to deny, the value of the path of
action, of deliberate self-training, study and ministration
to the world.
Unfortunately, he proclaims his to be the only way
and the equally certain and most glorious path of
selfless service an illusion, a way of cowardice,
of escape from reality. In him, singleness of purpose
has developed into intolerance. Unique individuality
has become a fetish, worship of which produces narrow-mindedness
and causes him to display distinct signs of intellectual
arrogance. He alone is right. Everyone else, from
the Lord Buddha down to the latest teacher of the
Law, is wrong, criminally wrong.
Thus it would appear that Krishnamurti is human,
though in some respects above the majority of men.
He has achieved the heights, and this makes the more
injurious his descents into the vale. Perceiving the
altitudes, those whom he influences do not always
discriminate between them and the valleys, between
truth and error. This is unfortunate, for one of the
marked characteristics of his teaching is its unevenness,
its variability.
Let us be inspired with the hope that Krishnamurti
will ascend to even greater heights as a teacher and
remain thereon. For he is a great man with a great
message as yet but partially delivered. We are in
a most critical period of world-history. We need Krishnamurti
who possesses that genius, those rare qualities which
make a leader and a saviour of the world.
In this series of articles I comment upon Krishnamurti's
teachings. I pay homage to the truth which I have
been able to perceive in them. I challenge those utterances
which appear to be erroneous, and on occasion I advance
certain theosophical ideas.
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