A Biographical note

Krishnamurti was born on 12 May, 1895, at Madanapalle, a small village in south India. Soon after moving to Madras with his family in 1909, Krishnamurti was adopted by Mrs. Annie Besant, President of the Theosophical Society. She was convinced that he was to become a great spiritual teacher. Three years later he was taken to England to be educated.
    In 1929 he disbanded the organisations created for him and returned the assets saying, "I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot appproach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect." From that time until his death in February 1986 he travelled round the world teaching - giving talks and having discussions. He published over 30 books.
    Krishnamurti evolved his unique teaching from his own being and living, for he had read no religious or philosophical literature. His aim was to set people psychologically free so that they might be in harmony with themselves, with nature and with others. He taught that mankind has created the environment in which he lives and that nothing can ever put a stop to the horror of violence that has been going on for thousands of years except a transformation in the human psyche. If only a dozen people are transformed, it could change the world.
    Krishnamurti maintained that there is no path to this transformation, no method for achieving it, no gurus or other spiritual authorities who can help. He pointed to the need for an ever-deepening awareness of one's own mind in which the limitations of the mind could drop away.
    Education had always been one of Krishnamurti's chief concerns. If a young person could learn to see his conditioning of race, nationality, religion, dogma, tradition, opinion etc., which inevitably leads to conflict, then he might become a fully intelligent human being for whom right action would follow. A prejudiced or dogmatic mind can never be free.
    Krishnamurti was a world teacher. Although born of Indian parentage, he stated repeatedly that he had no nationality and belonged to no particular culture or group. What he hoped his audience would learn, he himself lived.