Krishnamurti Speech: "Dissolution of the Order of the Star

Dissolution of the Order of the Star

The Order of the Star of the East was founded in 1911 to proclaim the advent of the World Teacher. Krishnamurti was appointed Chief of the Order. On August 2, 1929, the opening day of the Annual Star Camp, held in Ommen, the Netherlands, Krishnamurti dissolved the Order before three thousand members. This is the complete translation of the words he pronounced on that occasion based on the text that was published in the Star Bulletin of September 1929.

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We will discuss this morning the dissolution of the Order of the Star. Many will be glad and others will feel rather sad. This is not a matter of joy or sadness, because it is inevitable, as I will explain.

You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking along the street when they saw in front of them a man who was lifting something from the ground and, after looking at it, kept it in his pocket. The friend asked the devil:

"What did that man pick up?" "He picked up a piece of Truth, " the devil replied. "That is very bad business for you, then, " said his friend. "Oh, no, not at all, " replied the devil, "I will let him organize it."

I maintain that the Truth is a land without roads, and it is not possible to approach it by any path, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view and I adhere to it absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being unlimited, unconditioned, unapproachable by any means, cannot be organized; nor can any organization be formed to lead or force people along any particular path. If from the beginning you understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is a purely individual matter, and cannot and should not organize it. If they do, it becomes something dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion that must be imposed on others. This is what everyone tries to do. Truth dwarfs and becomes a toy for the weak, for those who are only momentarily unhappy. The Truth cannot be lowered, it is rather the individual who must make the effort to rise towards it.

You cannot bring the summit of the mountain to the valley. If they want to reach the top of the mountain, they have to cross the valley and climb the slopes without fear of dangerous precipices. You have to ascend to the Truth, it cannot "descend" or organize for you. Interest in ideas is sustained mainly by organizations, but organizations only arouse interest from outside. The interest that is not born from the love of the Truth itself, but is awakened by an organization, has no value. The organization becomes a structure within which its members can fit conveniently. They no longer strive to reach the Truth or the summit of the mountain, but rather carve for themselves a convenient niche where they are placed, or let the organization place them, and consider that, because of that, the organization has of leading them to the Truth.

So this is the first reason, from my point of view, why the Order of the Star must be dissolved. In spite of this you will probably form other Orders, you will continue to belong to other organizations that seek the Truth. I do not want to belong to any spiritual organization; please understand this.

I would use an organization that would take me from here to London, for example; This is a completely different kind of organization, merely mechanical, such as the mail or the telegraph. I would use a car or a steamship to travel, these are just physical mechanisms that have nothing to do with spirituality. On the other hand, I argue that no organization can lead man to spirituality.

If an organization is created for this purpose, it becomes a crutch, a weakness, a servitude that by force mutilates the individual and prevents him from growing, establishing his uniqueness that rests on the discovery he makes, by himself, of This absolute and unconditional truth. Therefore, that is another reason why I have decided, since I am the Head of the Order, to dissolve it. No one has persuaded me to make this decision.

This is no magnificent feat, because I do not want followers, and this is what I want to mean. The moment they follow someone, they stop following the Truth. I don't care if they pay attention or don't pay attention to what I say, I want to do something in the world and I will do it with determined concentration. I am only interested in one essential thing: Making man free. I wish to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not found religions, new sects, nor establish new theories and new philosophies. Then, naturally, they will ask me why I travel the world talking continuously. I will tell you why I do it. It is not because I want to be followed or because I want a special group of select disciples. (How men like to be different from their peers, no matter how ridiculous, absurd or trivial their distinctions may be! I don't want to encourage that absurdity). I have no disciples or apostles, whether on earth or in the realm of spirituality.

Nor is it the temptation of money, nor is it the desire to live a comfortable life that attracts me. If I wanted to lead a comfortable life I would not come to a Camp or live in a country! I am speaking frankly because I want this to be established once and for all. I do not want these children's discussions to be repeated year after year.

A journalist who interviewed me considered a great act to dissolve an organization in which there were thousands and thousands of members. For him this was a great action, because he said: What will you do next, how will you live? He will not have followers, people will not listen to him. So that there are only five people who listen, who live, who have their faces turned to eternity, will be enough. It is useful to have thousands who do not understand, who are completely embalmed in their prejudices, who do not want the new, but rather want to translate the new so that it fits their own sterile personalities, stagnant? If I speak strongly, do not misunderstand me, please, it is not for lack of compassion. If you go to a surgeon for an operation, is it not good for you to operate even if it causes you pain? Thus, in the same way, if I speak frankly it is not for lack of true affection; Unlike.

As I said, I have only one purpose: to make man free, to propel him towards freedom, to help him break with all his limitations, because only that will give him eternal happiness, the realization Unconditional being.

Because I am free, unconditional, total — not a part, not the relative, but the total Truth that is eternal — desire that those who seek to understand me be free; Do not follow me, do not make me a cage that will become a religion, a sect. Rather, they should free themselves from all fears: from the fear of religion, from the fear of salvation, from the fear of spirituality, from the fear of love, from the fear of death, from the fear of life itself. This is how an artist paints a picture because he delights in that painting, because she is the expression of his being, his well-being, his glory, so I do this, and not because he wants anything from anyone.

You are accustomed to authority, or to the atmosphere of authority, which you believe will lead you to spirituality. They believe and hope that another, by their extraordinary powers - a miracle - will be able to transport them to that realm of eternal freedom that is Happiness. All their perspective on life is based on that authority.

You have listened to me for three years without any change taking place in you, except for a few. Now, analyze what I am saying, be critical so that you can reach a deep, fundamental understanding. When they seek an authority that leads them to the spiritual, they automatically force themselves to create an organization around that authority. Because of the very creation of that organization that they suppose, this authority must be helped to guide them towards the spiritual life, they are imprisoned in a cage.

If I speak frankly to you, remember, please, that I do not do so because of hardness or cruelty or because of my enthusiasm for my purpose, but because I want you to understand what I am saying. That is why they are here, and it would be a waste of time if I did not explain clearly, decisively, my point of view.

For eighteen years they have been preparing for this event, for the Coming of the World Teacher. For eighteen years they have organized themselves, have waited for someone to come to give a new delight to their hearts and minds, to completely transform their lives by granting them a new understanding; to someone who will elevate them to a new plane of existence, to give them a new stimulus, to set them free, and now see what is happening! Think, reason with yourself and discover how that belief has made you different, not with the superficial difference of wearing a badge, which is trivial, absurd. How has such a belief swept through all the non-essential things in life? This is the only way to judge: In what way are they freer, bigger, more dangerous for any Society that is based on the false and the non-essential? How have the members of this Star Organization become different? As I said, you have been preparing for me for eighteen years. I don't care if they believe or don't believe that I am the Instructor of the World. That is of very little importance. Since they belong to the Organization of the Order of the Star, they have given their sympathy, their energy, accepting that Krishnamurti is the Instructor of the World - partially or totally; totally for those who are really looking, only partially with those who are satisfied with their own half-truths.

You have been preparing for eighteen years, and look at how many difficulties you have on your way to understanding, how many complications, how many trivial things. Their prejudices, their fears, their authorities, their new and old churches ... All these things, I argue, are a barrier to understanding. I can't be clearer than this. I don't want them to agree with me, I don't want them to follow me, I want them to understand what I'm saying.

This understanding is necessary because your belief has not transformed you, but has only complicated you, and because you are not willing to face things as they are. What they want is to have their own gods, new gods instead of the old, new religions instead of the old, new forms instead of the old, all useless things, barriers, imitations, crutches. Instead of the old spiritual distinctions, you have new spiritual distinctions, instead of the old cults, you have new cults. Everyone depends on someone else for their spirituality, for their happiness, for their enlightenment; and although they have been preparing for me for eighteen years, when I say that all these things are unnecessary, when I say that they must discard them all and look within oneself for enlightenment, for glory, for purification and incorruptibility of being, None of you want to do it. There may be a few, but they are very, very few.

Why, then, have an organization?

Why have false people, hypocrites, followed me, the embodiment of the Truth? Remember, please, that I am not saying hard or cruel things, but that we have reached a situation in which you must face things as they are. Last year I said I would not compromise. Very few listened to me then. This year I have made that absolutely clear. I don't know how many thousands in the world - members of the Order - have been preparing for me for eighteen years; however, now they are not willing to listen unconditionally, totally, what I say.

Why, then, have an organization? As I said before, my purpose is to make men unconditionally free, because I maintain that the only spirituality is the incorruptibility of one's being, which is eternal, which is the harmony between reason and love. This is the absolute unconditioned Truth that is Life itself. I wish, therefore, that man be free, rejoice like the bird in the clear sky; free of all charge, independent, ecstatic in that freedom. And I, for whom you have been preparing for eighteen years, I say now, that you must free yourself from all these things, free yourself from your complications, from your entanglements. For this they do not need to have an organization based on spiritual belief. Why have an organization for five or ten people in the world, who understand, who fight, who have thrown away all the trivial things? And for the weak there can be no organization that helps them find the Truth, because the Truth is in each one of us; It is not far or near; It is eternally there.

Organizations cannot make them free. No man can, from the outside, set them free; neither an organized cult nor the immolation itself to a cause can set them free. You use a typewriter for your correspondence, but you don't put it on an altar to worship it. However, that is what you are doing when organizations become your main concern. “How many members are in it?” This is the first question that all reporters ask me. “How many followers do you have? By your number we will judge whether what you say is true or false. ” I don't know how many they are. I'm not interested in that. Even if there was only one man who was able to break free, it would be enough.

In addition, you have the idea that only certain people have the key to enter the Kingdom of Happiness. No one owns it. No one has the authority to own it. That key is one's own being, and only in the development and purification and incorruptibility of that being, is the Kingdom of Eternity.

You will see, then, how absurd is the whole structure that they have created seeking external help, depending on others for their own well-being, for their own happiness, for their own strength. These things can only find them within themselves.

Why, then, have an organization?

They have become accustomed to being told how much they have advanced, what is the spiritual degree they possess. What a babysitter! Who but you can tell if they are beautiful or ugly inside? Who but you can tell if they are incorruptible? You are not serious in these things.

Why, then, have an organization?

But those who really want to understand, who try to discover what is eternal, without beginning and without end, will march together with greater intensity and will be a danger to everything that is not essential, for unrealities, for shadows. And they will gather and become the flame, because they will have understood. Such a body is what we must create and such is my purpose. Thanks to that true understanding there will be a
true friendship. Because of that true friendship - which apparently you do not know - there will be true cooperation from each one. And this is not because of authority, or because of salvation, or because of immolation to a cause, but because they have really understood and, consequently, are capable of living in the eternal. This is something greater than all pleasure and all sacrifice.

These are, then, some of the reasons why, after carefully considering it for two years, I have made this decision. It does not come from a momentary impulse. I have not been persuaded to it by anyone - I am not persuaded in such things. For two years I have been thinking about this, slowly, carefully, patiently, and I have now decided to dissolve the Order, since I am its Chief. They can form other organizations and wait for someone else. This does not concern me, nor does it concern me to create new cages and new decorations for those cages. My only interest is to make men absolutely, unconditionally free.

-> Seen at: www.fkla.org/elhombre/

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