Star in the East: Krishnamurti

J. Krishnamurti was ‘discovered’ as a young boy on a beach in India by members of the Theosophical Society who were convinced that they had found the new World Leader. By the 1920s he was attracting worldwide press attention, and idealists, spiritual adventurers, progressive politicians, intellectuals and romantics alike flocked to his talks in thousands, eager to embrace a new Christ from the Orient. But in a dramatic act of renunciation he bewildered his disciples by abandoning the Theosophical Society that had moulded him, setting out on a teaching mission of his own, as a secular philosopher of spirituality with no affiliation to sects or dogmas. Krishnamurti’s career spanned six decades in which he founded seven schools, published fifty books and gave thousands of talks around the world. Rejecting claims to being a messiah or even a guru, and subsequently proving himself as human as any in his relationships, loves and weaknesses, he continued until his death to fulfil the role of world teacher. His extraordinary story is told here in the light of a century of changing spiritual attitudes. It is a tale of mysticism, sexual scandals, religious fervour and chicanery out of which emerged one of the most influential thinkers of modern times.