Star in the East: Krishnamurti--The Invention of a Messiah

Rating:
Summary: A paradox explained.
Review: I believe that this book could not have come about except for the history of other writings on Krishnamurti. The Lutyens books were written by a friend and follower and acknowledged to be so, it is therefore understandable that they were not unbiased. The Sloss book was in some senses a reaction to all the other stuff written on Krishnamurti and perhaps felt to be an overdue exposé of many facts conveniently hidden from the general public. It was because of the existence of the Sloss book that Vernon could get such open access to the people who knew Krishnamurti. People no longer had anything to hide and everything to gain by being as open as possible. Also an unbiased book is the only book that Vernon could write because the market for the other two extremes was already full.

Vernon draws clues from the huge amount of material and presents the main arguments for all the significant events in Krishnamurti's life. But where this book excels is in differentiating the two sides of Krishnamurti, the private person and the teacher. This is Vernon's point as far as I can see, there are two sides (well at least two), but many people did not realise this while Krishnamurti was living and teaching. The cause of this incomplete view according to Vernon appears to be largely due to Krishnamurti's control of his public image. It seems inevitable that the effect of the revelations would be in proportion to the original investment in the image of someone so special. Therefore we have the irony, Krishnamurti would not have been be so popular without the image but in the end the image did huge damage to all the previous work.

I also enjoyed Vernon's insights into all the other characters in the story, for example Leadbeater "slipped like an eel beneath the waters of Theosophy".

Overall I believe that Vernons sympathies fall in the Krishnamurti camp, a respect for the teachings and a respect for the man. I would hope that Krishnamurti would find this is a worthy biography and also find it an open intelligent look at the facts which seemed to be Krishnamurti's message throughout his life.

Rating:
Summary: Krishnamurti was a hypocrite
Review: It was quite disappointing to read that the man who claimed to live an unconditioned life without inner conflict did anything but. K once said 'If we could,and we must, establish a deep,long, abiding relationship with nature, with the actual trees, the bushes, the flowers, the grass and the fast-moving clouds, then we would never slaughter another human being for any reason whatsoever'. He had no compunction, however, in persuading Rosalind to have two abortions - this from a man who supposedly believed in the sanctity of all life and had a strict vegetarian diet. K supporters might argue that the teachings are more important than the teacher but I think these revalations are devastating. K claimed to have 'seen' and therefore had freed himself of his conditioning, but the facts of his life do not bear this out. He did not 'see', he was conditioned, and therefore when he spoke about the 'immeasurable' and 'that which is most real'etc. he was speaking about something he had never really come in to contact with.I feel the author could have gone into some aspects of K's life a bit more,particularly Rosalind's abortions which only receive one paragraph on page 203. However, this book is well worth reading and shows, regardless of what the authors intentions might be, that Krishnamurti was a liar and a hypocrite.

Rating:
Summary: A Truly Balanced Critical Assessment
Review: True believers in K-talk are not going to like this book, but as someone who is an alumnus of years of going to Krishnamurti talks and living the life as best I could, and can, I am truly glad that someone has done a good critical assessment of Krishnamurti, who he is, where he came from, and how he fits into the world. This is not a hagiography any more than Krishnamurti is a saint. I was fascinated with the detail and the research and the amplifications the author presented. I found myself checkings the references and notes constantly because Mr.Vernon seems to have read everything on K.--and I am envious of his indulging himself so much in the material. He is obviously a closet devotee, who has kept his own center of balance, and maintained his own independent critical mind and a soulful interest in Krishnamurti as a teacher of our times. Vernon revivified my interest in Krishnamurti's thought, simply because Krishnamurti is so compelling, so simple,and so straighforward, yet so complex and paradoxical. Vernon presents the philosophy by presenting Krishnamurti himself. We learn of the man, what he has to say, how it developed, and the context in which it is said. This book stimulated me to turn again to the path or yoga of knowledge which Krishnamurti followed even while he denied he was following any path at all. In some sense Krishnamurti even denied that he had anything to teach. Vernon helps us make sense of this so that we can actually discuss Krishnamurti in a western philosophy class and not have to consign Krisnamurti to "The wisdom of the East" or "mystical philosophy" dustbin. Krishnamurti is relevent, and necessary not only for modern psychology but also for the philosophy of mind as taught in our contemporary universities. Krishnamurti has great psychological technique which ought to be the envey of any depth psychologist. The paradox is that we must live our own lives even while we are studying life itself as K. demonstrated, and Vernon grasps. Krishnamurti's genius was that he could do this in his teachings,and it worked for him, but now we each have to live a life of our own, and K. cannot tell us how to do this. Vernon has provided the context of the life which produced this teaching and he does it convincingly and with scholarship. The whole picture of the man and his philosophy is much greater than the parts. For those of us who struggle with authority, there is no greater authority than Krishnamurti, and even he must be overthrown to attain the liberation that he so throughly castigates as "mere thought". With Vernon's insightful study we can put Krishnamurti on the shelf where he belongs--with Socrates,Plato, Nietzsche, perhaps Descartes,and maybe even St. Augustine. If there ever was a romantic and spiritual idealist, it was Krishnamurti. We need to free ourselves from him, even while we immerse ourselves in him. Vernon's book frees us from the ideal state he promulgated and proposed. We are human, and Vernon has written a very readable, if tame, assessment of a very human philosopher.