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We are going to discuss this morning the dissolution of
the Order of the Star. Many people will be delighted, and
others will be rather sad. It is a question neither for
rejoicing nor for sadness, because it is inevitable, as
I am going to explain.
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 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 let 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 to coerce people along any particular path. If you first
understand that, then you will see how impossible it is
to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter,
and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes
dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion,
to be imposed on others. This is what everyone throughout
the world is attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and
made a plaything for those who are weak, for those who are
only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down,
rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to
it. You cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley. If
you would attain to the mountain-top you must pass through
the valley, climb the steeps, unafraid of the dangerous
precipices.
So that is the first reason, from my point of view, why
the Order of the Star should be dissolved. In spite of this,
you will probably form other Orders, you will continue to
belong to other organizations searching for Truth. I do
not want to belong to any organization of a spiritual kind,
please understand this. I would make use of an organization
which would take me to London, for example; this is quite
a different kind of organization, merely mechanical, like
the post or the telegraph. I would use a motor car or a
steamship to travel, these are only physical mechanisms
which have nothing whatever to do with spirituality. Again,
I maintain that no organization can lead man to spirituality.
If an organization be created for this purpose, it becomes
a crutch, a weakness, a bondage, and must cripple the individual,
and prevent him from growing, from establishing his uniqueness,
which lies in the discovery for himself of that absolute,
unconditioned Truth. So that is another reason why I have
decided, as I happen to be the Head of the Order, to dissolve
it. No one has persuaded me to this decision.
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. Then you will
naturally ask me why I go the world over, continually speaking.
I will tell you for what reason I do this: not because I
desire a following, not because I desire a special group
of special disciples. (How men love to be different from
their fellow-men, however ridiculous, absurd and trivial
their distinctions may be! I do not want to encourage that
absurdity.) I have no disciples, no apostles, either on
earth or in the realm of spirituality.
Nor is it the lure of money, nor the desire to live a
comfortable life, which attracts me. If I wanted to lead
a comfortable life I would not come to a Camp or live in
a damp country! I am speaking frankly because I want this
settled once and for all. I do not want these childish discussions
year after year.
One newspaper reporter, who interviewed me, considered
it a magnificent act to dissolve an organization in which
there were thousands and thousands of members. To him it
was a great act because, he said:
What will you do afterwards, how will you live? You will
have no following, people will no longer listen to you.”
If there are only five people who will listen, who will
live, who have their faces turned towards eternity, it will
be sufficient. Of what use is it to have thousands who do
not understand, who are fully embalmed in prejudice, who
do not want the new, but would rather translate the new
to suit their own sterile, stagnant selves? If I speak strongly,
please do not misunderstand me, it is not through lack of
compassion. If you go to a surgeon for an operation, is
it not kindness on his part to operate even if he cause
you pain? So, in like manner, if I speak straightly, it
is not through lack of real affection -- on the contrary.
As I have said, I have only one purpose: to make man free,
to urge him towards freedom, to help him to break away from
all limitations, for that alone will give him eternal happiness,
will give him the unconditioned realization of the self.
Because I am free, unconditioned, whole -- not the part,
not the relative, but the whole Truth that is eternal --
I desire those, who seek to understand me to be free; not
to follow me, not to make out of me a cage which will become
a religion, a sect. Rather should they be free from all
fears -- 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. As an artist
paints a picture because he takes delight in that painting,
because it is his self-expression, his glory, his well-being,
so I do this and not because I want anything from anyone.
You are accustomed to authority, or to the atmosphere
of authority, which you think will lead you to spirituality.
You think and hope that another can, by his extraordinary
powers -- a miracle -- transport you to this realm of eternal
freedom which is Happiness. Your whole outlook on life is
based on that authority.
You have listened to me for three years now, without any
change taking place except in the few. Now analyze what
I am saying, be critical, so that you may understand thoroughly,
fundamentally. When you look for an authority to lead you
to spirituality, you are bound automatically to build an
organization around that authority. By the very creation
of that organization, which, you think, will help this authority
to lead you to spirituality, you are held in a cage.
If I talk frankly, please remember that I do so, not out
of harshness, not out of cruelty, not out of the enthusiasm
of my purpose, but because I want you to understand what
I am saying. That is the reason why you are here, and it
would be a waste of time if I did not explain clearly, decisively,
my point of view.
For eighteen years you have been preparing for this event,
for the Coming of the World Teacher. For eighteen years
you have organized, you have looked for someone who would
give a new delight to your hearts and minds, who would transform
your whole life, who would give you a new understanding;
for someone who would raise you to a new plane of life,
who would give you a new encouragement, who would set you
free -- and now look what is happening! Consider, reason
with yourselves, and discover in what way that belief has
made you different -- not with the superficial difference
of the wearing of a badge, which is trivial, absurd. In
what manner has such a belief swept away all the unessential
things of life? That is the only way to judge: in what way
are you freer, greater, more dangerous to every Society
which is based on the false and the unessential? In what
way have the members of this organization of the Star become
different?
As I said, you have been preparing for eighteen years
for me. I do not care if you believe that I am the World-Teacher
or not. That is of very little importance. Since you belong
to the organization of the Order of the Star, you have given
your sympathy, your energy, acknowledging that Krishnamurti
is the World-Teacher -- partially or wholly: wholly for
those who are really seeking, only partially for those who
are satisfied with their own half-truths.
You have been preparing for eighteen years, and look how
many difficulties there are in the way of your understanding,
how many complications, how many trivial things. Your prejudices,
your fears, your authorities, your churches new and old
-- all these, I maintain, are a barrier to understanding.
I cannot make myself clearer than this. I do not want you
to agree with me, I do not want you to follow me, I want
you to understand what I am saying.
This understanding is necessary because your belief has
not transformed you but only complicated you, and because
you are not willing to face things as they are. You want
to have your own gods -- new gods instead of the old, new
religions instead of the old, new forms instead of the old
-- all equally valueless, all barriers, all limitations,
all crutches. Instead of old spiritual distinctions you
have new spiritual distinctions, instead of old worships
you have new worships. You are all depending for your spirituality
on someone else, for your happiness on someone else, for
your enlightenment on someone else; and although you have
been preparing for me for eighteen years, when I say all
these things are unnecessary, when I say that you must put
them all away and look within yourselves for the enlightenment,
for the glory, for the purification, and for the incorruptibility
of the self, not one of you is willing to do it. There may
be a few, but very, very few.
So why have an organization?
Why have false, hypocritical people following me, the
embodiment of Truth? Please remember that I am not saying
something harsh or unkind, but we have reached a situation
when you must face things as they are. I said last year
that I would not compromise. Very few listened to me then.
This year I have made it absolutely clear. I do not know
how many thousands throughout the world -- members of the
Order -- have been preparing for me for eighteen years,
and yet now they are not willing to listen unconditionally,
wholly, to what I say.
As I said before, my purpose is to make men unconditionally
free, for I maintain that the only spirituality is the incorruptibility
of the self which is eternal, is the harmony between reason
and love. This is the absolute, unconditioned Truth which
is Life itself. I want therefore to set man free, rejoicing
as the bird in the clear sky, unburdened, independent, ecstatic
in that freedom . And I, for whom you have been preparing
for eighteen years, now say that you must be free of all
these things, free from your complications, your entanglements.
For this you need not have an organization based on spiritual
belief. Why have an organization for five or ten people
in the world who understand, who are struggling, who have
put aside all trivial things? And for the weak people, there
can be no organization to help them to find the Truth, because
Truth is in everyone; it is not far, it is not near; it
is eternally there.
Organizations cannot make you free. No man from outside
can make you free; nor can organized worship, nor the immolation
of yourselves for a cause, make you free; nor can forming
yourselves into an organization, nor throwing yourselves
into works, make you free. You use a typewriter to write
letters, but you do not put it on an altar and worship it.
But that is what you are doing when organizations become
your chief concern.
How many members are there in it?” That is the first
question I am asked by all newspaper reporters.
How many followers have you? By their number we shall
judge whether what you say is true or false.” I do
not know how many there are. I am not concerned with that.
As I said, if there were even one man who had been set free,
that were enough.
Again, you have the idea that only certain people hold
the key to the Kingdom of Happiness. No one holds it. No
one has the authority to hold that key. That key is your
own self, and in the development and the purification and
in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the Kingdom
of Eternity.
So you will see how absurd is the whole structure that
you have built, looking for external help, depending on
others for your comfort, for your happiness, for your strength.
These can only be found within yourselves.
You are accustomed to being told how far you have advanced,
what is your spiritual status. How childish! Who but yourself
can tell you if you are beautiful or ugly within? Who but
yourself can tell you if you are incorruptible? You are
not serious in these things.
But those who really desire to understand, who are looking
to find that which is eternal, without beginning and without
an end, will walk together with a greater intensity, will
be a danger to everything that is unessential, to unrealities,
to shadows. And they will concentrate, they will become
the flame, because they understand. Such a body we must
create, and that is my purpose. Because of that real understanding
there will be true friendship. Because of that true friendship
-- which you do not seem to know -- there will be real cooperation
on the part of each one. And this not because of authority,
not because of salvation, not because of immolation for
a cause, but because you really understand, and hence are
capable of living in the eternal. This is a greater thing
than all pleasure, than all sacrifice.
So these are some of the reasons why, after careful consideration
for two years, I have made this decision. It is not from
a momentary impulse. I have not been persuaded to it by
anyone. I am not persuaded in such things. For two years
I have been thinking about this, slowly, carefully, patiently,
and I have now decided to disband the Order, as I happen
to be its Head. You can form other organizations and expect
someone else. With that I am not concerned, nor with creating
new cages, new decorations for those cages. My only concern
is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free.”
Source
This is the full text of the talk Krishnamurti gave when
he dissolved the Order of the Star in Ommen, Holland, August
3, 1929. The title now often used for this statement is
"Truth is a Pathless Land."
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