Who Brings the Truth?

By

J. Krishnamurti.

An address delivered at Eerde, the International Headquarters of the Order of the Star, August 2,1927.

WHEN I began to think for myself_, which has been now for some years past I found myself in revolt. I was not satisfied by any teachings, by any authority; I want­ed to find out for myself what the World­-Teacher meant to me and what the Truth was behind the form of the World-Teacher. Before I began to think for myself₁ before I had the capacity to think for myself_, I took it for granted that I, Krishnamurti, was the vehicle of the World-Teacher because many people maintained that it was so. But when I began to think, I wanted to find out what was meant by the World-Teacher, what was meant by the taking of a vehicle by the World-Teacher, and what was meant by His manifestation in the world. I am going to be purposely vague, because although I could quite easily make it definite, it is not my intention to do so, because once you define a thing it becomes dead; if you make a thing definite - at least that is what I maintain -you are trying to give an interpretation which in the minds of others will take a definite form and hence they will be bound by that form from which they will have to liberate them­selves.

What I am going to tell you is not on authority, and you must not obey_, but under­stand. lt is not a question of authority, nor of set lines which you must follow blindly - that is what most of you are wanting - you want me to lay down the law, you want me to say: I am so and so; so that you can say: all right, we will work for you. That is not the reason why I am explaining, but it is in order that we should understand each other, that we should help each other. I would make you see things now which you may see for yourselves, perhaps in this life or in some future life.

Now, when I was a small boy I used to see Shri Krishna, with the flute, as He is pictured by the Hindus, because my mother was a devotee of Shri Krishna. She used to talk to me about Shri Krishna, and hence I created an image in my mind of Shri Krishna, with the flute, with all the devotion, all the love, all the songs, all the delight - you have no idea what a tremendous thing that is for the boys and girls of India. When I grew older and met with Bishop Leadbeater and the Theo­sophical Society. I began to see the Master K. H. - again in the form which was put before me, the reality from their point of view - and hence the Master K. H. was to me the end. Later on, as I grew, I began to see the Lord Maitreya. That was two years ago, and I saw Him then constantly in the form put before me. I am telling you all this, not to obtain authority nor to create belief, but only in order to strengthen your own beliefs, your own hopes, your own minds and your own hearts. It has been a struggle all the time to find the Truth, because I was not satisfied by the authority of another, or the imposition of another, or the enticement of another; I wanted to discover for myself. and naturally I had to go through sufferings to find out. Now lately. it has been the Buddha whom I have been seeing, and it has been my delight and my glory to be with Him. I have been asked what I mean by ^“the Beloved" - I will give a meaning, an explanation, which you will inter­pret as you please. To me it is all; it is Shri Krishna, it is the Master K. H., it is the Lord Maitreya, it is the Buddha, and yet it is beyond all these forms. What does it matter what name you give? You are fighting over the World-Teacher as a name. The world does not know about the World-Teacher; some of us know individually; some of us believe on authority; others have experience of their own, and knowledge of their own. But this is an individual thing and not a question about which the world will worry. What you are troubling about is whether there is such a person as the World-Teacher, who has manifested Himself in the body of a certain person, Krishnamurti; but in the world nobody will trouble about this question. So you will see my point of view when I speak of my Beloved. It is an unfortunate thing that I have to explain, but I must. I want it to be as vague as possible, and I hope I have made it so. My Beloved is the open skies, the flower, every human being.

I said to myself: until I become one with all the Teachers, whether They are the same is not of great importance: whether Shri Krishna, Christ. the Lord Maitreya, are one is again a matter of no great consequence. I said to myself: as long as I see Them outside as in a picture, an objective thing, I am separate, I am away from the centre; but when I have the capacity, when I have the strength, when I have the determination, when I am purified and ennobled, then that barrier, that separation, will disappear. I was not satisfied till that barrier was broken down, till that separate­ness was destroyed. Till I was able to say with certainty, without any undue excitement, or exaggeration in order to convince others, till I was one with my Beloved, I never spoke. I talked of vague generalities which every­body wanted. I never said: I am the World-Teacher: but now that I feel I am one with the Beloved, I say it - not in order to impress my authority on you, nor to convince you of my greatness, nor of the greatness of the World-Teacher, nor even of the beauty of life, the simplicity of life - but merely to awaken the desire in your own hearts and in your own minds to seek out the Truth. if I say, and I will say, that I am one with the Beloved, It is because I feel and know it. I have found what I longed for, I have become united, so that henceforth there will be no separation, because my thoughts, my desires, my longings - those of the individual self - have been destroyed.

Hence I am able to say that I am one with the Beloved - whether you interpret it as the Buddha, the Lord Maitreya, Shri Krishna, or any other name.

For sixteen years you have worshipped the picture which has not spoken, which you have interpreted as you pleased, which has inspired you, given you tranquility, given you inspi­ration in moments of depression. You were able to hold to that picture because that picture did not speak. it was not alive, there was nothing to be kept alive; but now that the picture, which you have worshipped, which you have created for yourselves, which has inspired you, becomes alive and speaks, you say: Can that picture, which I worshipped, be right? Can it speak? Has it any authority? Has it the power to represent the World-Teacher? Has it the magnitude of His wisdom, the great­ness of His compassion, fully developed and can It be manifest in one individual? These of course are questions which you must solve for your­selves. You remember the well-known story by Dostoievsky in which the Christ reappears? He had been preaching and He went at last to Rome, and the Pope invited Him, and in secrecy fell on his knees and worshipped and adored Him, but kept Him imprisoned. He said: "We worship you in secrecy; we admit that you are the Christ; but if you go outside, you will cause so much trouble; you will create doubts, when we have tried to quell them."

Now that picture is beginning to get alive, and you cannot have anything real, you cannot have anything true, which is not alive. You may worship a tree in the winter-time, but it is much more beautiful in the spring, when the buds, when the bees and the birds, when all the worlds, begin to be alive. Through the years of winter you have been silent and not questioning yourselves very sincerely, it has been comparatively easy; but now you must decide for yourselves what it all means. Before, It was easy to say that you expected a World-Teacher and it meant very little; but now you are face to face with the problem of that picture coming to life. Whether you are going to worship continually a mere pic­ture, or worship the reality of that picture, must. of course, be left to the individual. But do not, please, try to use your authority to persuade another, as I do not use mine to convince you of the truth of that picture being alive. To me It Is alive. Though I used to worship that picture. I was not satisfied in the mere worshipping; I wanted to find out, to get behind the frame of that picture, to look through the eyes, think through the mind, feel through the heart of that picture. I was not satisfied, and because of my dissatisfac­tion, because of my discontentment, because of my sorrows, I was able to identify myself with the picture and hence I am the picture. There is nothing very complicated about it, nothing very mysterious, nothing to be exci­ted about in order to convince others. It is when you are willing to put yourself under some authority that you will be broken -and quite rightly - because authority varies from day to day. One day it will be one person, another day it will be another, and woe to the man that bends to any or all of them. That is the very thing that we must not have, and that. Is what you are trying to bring about. You want an authority that will give you courage, that will make you develop more-fully; but no external authority will ever give you the power to develop. Whether the truth which the picture speaks. when it has come to life, is of importance or not must be examined by yourselves.

It has been my practice to listen to everybody, always. I desired to learn, from the gardener, from the pariah, from the untouch­able, from my neighbour, from my friend, from everything that could teach, in order to become one with the Beloved. When I had listened to all, and gathered the Truth wher­ever I found it, I was able to develop myself fully. Now you are waiting for the Truth to come - out of one person; you are waiting for that Truth to be developed, to be forced upon you by authority, and you are worshipping that person instead of the Truth. When Krishnamurti dies, which is inevitable, you will make a religion, you will set about forming rules in your minds, because the individual, Krishnamurti, has represented to you the Truth; so you will build a temple, you will then begin to have ceremonies, to invent phrases.,dogmas, systems of beliefs, creeds, and to create philos­ophies. If you build great foundations upon me, the individual, you will be caught in that house, in that temple, and so you will have to have another Teacher to come and extricate you from that temple, pull you out of that narrowness in order to liberate you; but the human mind is such that you will build another temple round Him, and so it will go on and on. But those who understand, who do not depend on authority, who hold all peoples in their hearts, will not build temples - they will really understand. It is because a few have truly desired to help other people, that they have found it simple. Others who have not understood, although they talk a great deal about it, and of how they will interpret the teaching, will have difficulties. It is perfectly simple for me to go out into the world and teach. The people of the world art not concerned with whether it is a manifes­tation, or an in-dwelling, or a visitation into the tabernacle prepared for many years, or Krishnamurti himself. What they are going to say is: I am suffering, I have my passing pleasures and changing sorrows; have you anything lasting to give? You say you have found Happiness and Liberation; can you give me of that, so that I can enter into your kingdom, into your world? That is all they are concerned about and not the badges, the orders, the regulations, the books. They want to see the living waters that flow under the bridge of human beings, so that they can swim with those waters into the vast ocean. And what you are concerned with all the time is how you are going to interpret. You have not found the Truth for yourselves, you are limited, and yet you are trying to set other people free. How are you going to do it? How are you going to discover what is true, what is false, what is the World-Teacher, what is reality, if you have not cleared the stagnation from the pool so that it will reflect the Truth?

I have always in this life, and perhaps in past lives, desired one thing: to escape, to be beyond sorrow, beyond limitations, to dis­cover my Guru or my Beloved - which is your Guru and your Beloved, the Guru, the Beloved who exists In everybody, who exists under every common stone, every blade of grass that is trodden upon. It has been my desire, my longing, to become united with Him so that I should no longer feel that I was separate, no longer be a different entity with a separate self; and when I was able to destroy that self utterly, I was able to unite myself with my Beloved. Hence, because I have found my Beloved, my Truth, I want to give it to you.

I am as the flower that gives scent to the morning air; it does not concern itself with who Is passing by. It gives its scent, and those who are happy, who are suffering, will breathe that scent; but those who are contented, who are not longing, who do not care, who have no idea of the delights of the scent, will pass by unheed­ing. Are you going to compel them to stop and breathe that scent? You are concerned with how you are going to convince them. Why should you convince them? You will only con­vince those who are really searching. It is because you are doubting in your own search, that you are not searching truly; you are satis­fied with your little knowledge, your little authorities. You want those authorities to speak. to save you from your doubts. Suppose a certain person was able to tell you that I am the World-Teacher, in what way would It help, in what way would it alter the Truth? In what way would understanding come to your heart and knowledge come to your mind? If you depend on authority, you will be build­ing your foundations on the sands, and the wave of sorrow will come and wash them away; but if you build your foundations in stone, the stone of your own experience, of your own knowledge, of your own sorrows and your own sufferings. if you are able to build your house on that, brick by brick, experience upon experience, then you will be able to convince others. Up till now you have been depending on the two Protectors of the Order for authority, on someone else to tell you the Truth, whereas the Truth lies within you. In your own hearts, in your own ex­perience, you will find the Truth, and that is the only thing of value. That alone will satisfy your afflictions, that alone will clear away your sorrows, and that is why I feel I have got to speak of these things. I could not have said last year, as I can say now, that I am the Teacher; for had I said it then it would have been insincere, it would have been untrue. Because I had not then united the Source and the Goal, I was not able to say that I was the Teacher. But now I can say it. I have become one with the Beloved, I have been made simple. I have become glorified because of Him, and because of Him I can help. My purpose is not to create dis­cussions on authority, on manifestations in the personality of Krishnamurti, but to give the waters that shall wash away your sorrows, your petty tyrannies, your limitations, so that you will be free, so that you will eventually join that ocean where there, is no limitation, where there is the Beloved.

I hope I have made it clear; and to the minds that will understand, it should be clear. The minds and the hearts that have groped, that have searched, that have longed to find the Truth - they will find it. You are not going to convince, to alter the mode of life in those who do not desire to alter; but as I have changed and become one with the Beloved, as I have found my end, which is the end for all, and as I have become united with the end, because I have affection - and without affec­tion you cannot attain the end - because I bear love, because I have suffered and seen and found all, naturally it is my. duty, it is my pleasure, my dharma, to give it to those who have not. Whether I give it through the Order of the Star, or through any other body, that is of no value. People are not going to be concerned through what body it comes; they are only going to be satisfied if their sorrows, their pleasures, their passing vanities, their fleeting desires, can be killed and a greater thing than these established.

When once you understand the truth of this Liberation and of this Happiness. it will set you free from yourselves, from all your vani­ties, pleasures, afflictions and sorrows. As I have attained Liberation, I want to give of it; but you say: You must give it in a certain fashion; you must be able to give it in a certain phraseology, in a certain fashion of language. Does it really matter out of what glass you drink the water, so long as that water is able to quench your thirst? Does it really matter who feeds you, so long as by that food you are satisfied and strengthened? Because you have been accustomed for centuries to labels, you want life to be labelled. You want Krishnamurti to be labelled, and in a definite manner, so that you can say: Now I can under-stand - and then there will be peace within you. I am afraid it is not going to be that way. Can you bind the waters of the sea? People have tried, but there is always disaster. I do not want to be bound, because that means limitation. You cannot bind the air; you can hold it, you can pollute it, you can put poison in that air, but the air which is outside, which is for all, you can never control. I am not going to be bound by anyone; I am going on my way, because that is the only way. I have found what I wanted; I have been united with my Beloved, and my Beloved arid I will wander together the face of the earth.

You will never be able to force people, whatever authority, whatever dread, whatever threats of damnation you may use. That age is past; this is an age of revolution and of turmoil; there is a desire to know everything for oneself, and because you have not that desire inside you, you are being kept in the world of limitation. You think you have found, but you have not found. Because you have been made certain in your little uncertainties, you think you can convert the world.

When the Eiffel Tower was built, it thought itself the most beautiful, the most wonderful, the highest thing in the world, till a small aeroplane came flying over it. You are all thinking that you can run with the deer and roar with the lion, but you can only run with the deer and roar with the lion when you have become united with the Beloved. It is no good asking me who is the Beloved. Of what use is expla­nation? For you will not understand the Be­loved until you are able to see Him in every animal, in every blade of grass, in every per­son that is suffering, in every individual.

So, friends, the only thing that matters is that you should give the waters that will quench the thirst of the people - the people who are not here, who are in the world. And the water that will give satisfaction, that will purify their hearts, ennoble their minds. is this: the finding of the Truth, and the establishing in their own minds and in their own hearts of Liberation and Happiness.