Krishnamurti For Beginners

The best introduction to Krishnamurti is Krishnamurti himself- his books, video and audio recordings- and not interpreters and commentators. It is in this spirit that this book is being presented. As the title itself indicates, the book is meant primarily for those unacquainted with his teachings. The problems of daily living that confront every human being and Krishnamurti's original approach to them, as well as his timeless vision of life and the sacred, form the basis of the selections.

The Anthology comprises a variety of genres that Krishnamurti employed to communicate his message- public talks, answers to questions, writings, interviews, diaries, dictations, letters, dialogues, and discussions- and ranges over the period from 1948 to 1983. An Introduction presents an overview of Krishnamurti's extraordinary life and mission as the World Teacher.

J. Krishnamurti (1895 -1986) is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers and religious teachers of all time. For more than sixty years he travelled the world over, giving talks and holding dialogues, not as a guru but as a friend. His teachings are not based on book knowledge and theories, and therefore they communicate directly to anyone seeking answers to the present world crisis as well to the eternal problems of human existence.

The best introduction to Krishnamurti is Krishnamurti himself-his books, video and audio recordings-and not interpreters and commentators. It is in this spirit that this book is being presented.

As the title of the book itself indicates, Krishnamurti for Beginners is meant primarily for those unacquainted with his teachings. The problems of daily living that confront every human being and Krishnamurti's original approach to them, as well as his timeless vision of life and the sacred, form the basis of the selections. However, no single volume like this can hope to capture the depth and the width of the teachings that he imparted to the world for more than sixty years.

The Anthology comprises a variety of genres that Krishnamurti employed to communicate his message- public talks, answers to questions, writings, interviews, diaries, dictations, letters, dialogues, and discussions- and ranges over the period from 1948 to 1983.

An Introduction presents an overview of Krishnamurti's extraordinary life and mission as the World Teacher.

The life and teachings of J. Krishnamurti, which 1 spanned the greater part of the twentieth century, constitute a most original, and perhaps the longest, chapter in the history of religious philosophy. A legendary figure from boyhood, and hailed variously as Messiah, World Teacher, Buddha, Christ, and so on, Krishnamurti was a sage, philosopher, public speaker, writer, poet, educationist-a solitary pilgrim who went about the world for more than sixty years pointing out, to those willing to listen, the need to be a light to oneself.

Jiddu Krishnamurti was born on 11 May 1895 in the rural town of Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh, south India. His parents Jiddu Narayaniah and Sanjeevamma were Telugu-speaking, middle-class, orthodox people, who were also devoted to Theosophy. When Krishnamurti was about ten years old his mother died, and shortly afterwards his father shifted his family to Madras in order to take up employment in the Theosophical Society at Adyar.

One of the basic tenets of Theosophical Society was that whenever the world came to the brink of a catastrophe, Lord Maitreya, the World Teacher, would appear; and, as he had done in various epochs in the past, he was soon to manifest in a human form to save mankind from its impending doom. In 1909, C. W. Leadbeater, a prominent leader of the Society and a clairvoyant, spotting the 14-year-old Krishnamurti on the beach in Adyar, saw that the boy had a most luminous aura without a particle of selfishness in it. He proclaimed that the boy would be the future Messiah, or the vehicle of Lord Maitreya, that the Thesophists had been waiting for. This surprised many because the boy appeared to be sick and mentally retarded.

**Contents and Sample Pages**