Chapter 2

Self-Preparation Group
Two other founders of the Theosophical Society behind the
scene, were according to history — the Mahatmas Morya and
Koot Hoomi (Kuthumi) often referred to simply as the Master M
and KH respectively. These two Mahatmas were part of a larger
Brotherhood, called sometimes the Occult Hierarchy or the Great
White Lodge. Many of the Elder Brothers lived in isolated regions
of the Himalayan Mountains. Although the leaders used the word
Masters, as the center of power, the controlling force, They are
Brothers or Mahatmas - “Great Souls”.
It would be noteworthy to reprint what is said in The “K.H.”
Letters to C.W. Leadbeater with a commentary by C. Jinarajadasa that
the Master writes “Masters” when referring to the Adepts:
This in noteworthy as drawing attention to the fact that
the Adepts have never called themselves “Masters” but simply
“Brothers.” Naturally enough, when the communications began
between Messrs. A.P. Sinnett and A.O. Hume and the Adepts, the
word Master was applied to them, perhaps because both H.P.B.
and Colonel Olcott used that word. But the Great Ones are not
teachers, whose primary task is to give instruction in philosophy
and to explain the problem of Liberation. They have made clear
to us that their task is that of helping to diminish human misery,
and that they concern themselves primarily with the millions of
mankind en masse. Indeed one difficulty which arose between
the European Theosophists and the Masters in 1880-4 was
due to the fact that the former seemed constitutionally unable
to realize that the Masters are not teachers to perform occult
phenomena to convince a skeptical Western world, but the purest
of philanthropists whose tireless work is to “lift a little of the heavy
karma of the world.” 01

Since the first proclamation by HPB of the existence and

work of the Brothers, there has continued a controversy as to the
01
Jinarajadasa, C., The “K.H.” Letters to C. W. Leadbeater, Theosophical Publishing House,
1941 pg. 21.

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nature and sufficiency of the evidence. Much has been written about
Them, but the word or description is not the described. In all these
matters of occultism, it is necessary to be vigilant and flexible to
not allow crystallization of procedure. The asserted fact is that there
exists a group of highly evolved beings, advanced beyond the world
of the opposites, working; striving to lift human consciousness
towards the spiritual principles underlying brotherhood and right
human relations. They work to heal the breaches between people,
to evoke the sense of mutual interrelation, interdependence, and
goodwill, and They see no racial, national or religious barriers. They
embrace all religions, all sciences, and all philosophies. They have an
international vision and the ability to work constructively for the
welfare of all bringing the consciousness of mankind into its true
spiritual heritage which leads all beings to perfection.
Blind ignorance is a phrase that Krishnamurti used often to
point out that though the members possess a common belief in the
ideal of Brotherhood for the TS and Star members, they have not yet
sufficiently realized that belief alone in these ideals is not sufficient.
He requested there must be active preparation, an active germ in
each one of them. Krishnamurti began what he called the “Monthly
Message” from The Head of the Order of the Star in the East in
October 1924 to the Self-Preparation Groups with the following
explanation. These groups were started for one purpose, and that
is to train individuals, members of the Star, who were eager to take
themselves in hand and comply with, and mould themselves to, the
requirements. It is not a compulsory body. It is only for those who
wish to enter, and there are no pledges of any kind nor private bonds,
but we wish to have in that Group those people who are absolutely
sincere and who “mean business, and able to cooperate fully with the
Teacher when He comes.” 02
It definitely was known as a world wide religious movement. It
took two years to form the following four groups. Group one, the
first division of the order, Self-Preparation. Group two, Meditation.
Group three, Study. Group four, Action. It was reported that no
02
Krishnamurti, J., Editorial Notes, “An Address”, nd, J.F. Dawarr & Zonen, Amsterdam
(Holland), p. 191.

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superiority one over the other would be considered.
All the below monthly messages are printed and published by
J.R. Aria, at the Vasanta Press, Adyar, Madras, India.
The Self-Preparation group of the Theosophical Society in
1923-1924 was a preparation for understanding what freedom from
all astral disturbance pointed too, as well as to observe the mood
of the mind which enables a man to perform all the duties of life
irrespective of the pleasures or pains they cause to himself. It was a
traditional approach. By 1929, Krishnamurti asked those members
to break away from organizations, from all disciplines. In the work
At the Feet of the Master, shama is translated as control of mind and
dama as control of the body. The word control may be the wrong
word to use for all this involves time, process, from here to there.
The Monthly Message from The Head of the Order of the Star in
the East for October, 1924 to the Self-Preparation Groups.
During the Star Congress held this year at Arnhem in Holland,
when most of the National Representatives were present with
their Group Secretaries, etc., we discussed fully and thoroughly
the whole question of the position of the Self-Preparation
Groups. Naturally we all realized the grave importance of this
vital question, and after hearing the various views of all those
present who have had some experience during the last few years, I
decided to have a definite form of admission, though it is tentative
and may be changed. The reason for this is quite obvious. I do
not wish that we should have, just at present at least, permanent
rules and forms, for we may find that changes are essential; hence
we must, for the next few yeas keep the organization as elastic as
possible, with as few rules as we can manage. We do not wish to
exclude any member from these Self-Preparation Groups who is
really desirous of training himself for the work and thus be able
to progress along the path of spirituality. Nor is it our intention
to bind definitely any member to some organization, such as the
Self-Preparation Group, without giving him or her a chance to
experiment with it, but I do not desire in any way that this matter
should be taken lightly. So I beg all the members to remember that
these Self-Preparation Groups will be carried on permanently, but
the organization of these Groups and the rules of admission are

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tentative; and at the end of the next year or the year after, the
whole organization may be changed and new and special rules
may be introduced. We wish to experiment with these Groups so
as to discover the best and most suitable form that will be found
to be of the greatest help to all members throughout the world.
Though the present form of admission, etc., may not be final,
yet I do not wish the members who join these Self-Preparation
Groups to take the matter lightly, but, on the contrary, they should
investigate it thoroughly and seriously, so that we may discover the
best way to organize the Groups, and to formulate new and more
suitable rules.
I am including in this message the Conditions of Admission
and the Form of Application for the International Self-Preparation
Group. These Groups should be, and must be, as international as
possible, both in character and in form.

Conditions of Admission
1. Candidates must have been members of the Order of the
Star in the East for a period of not less than one year.
2. Candidates must have rendered some definite service
during the period of their membership in the Order of the Star
in the East.
3. Where possible, candidates should obtain the counter-
signature of two members of a Self-Preparation Group, or of a
local or divisional Secretary.
4. Every candidate shall make formal declaration of acceptance
of the teachings in At the Feet of the Master, and of determination
to follow them as far as lies in his or her power.
5. Candidates shall state the nature of the special service
they propose to render as members of the International Self-
Preparation Group.
6. Every candidate shall undertake to repeat daily the following
sentence. (To be given later, see 5. of Application)
The greatest possible discretion is left to the National
Representatives in carrying out these rules.
Note A. A Discipline for members of the International Self-
Preparation Group will, in due course, be issued by the Head of
the Order, and may be followed by those groups or individuals
who so desire. It is recommended that, as far as possible, each

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member of an individual group should fall in with the practice of
the other members. A group should act as a unity — either as a
whole taking the discipline, or not taking it.
Note B. It is understood that the Head delegates his authority
to National Representatives as regards the general management of
their respective Divisions of the International Group, within the
“conditions of Admission.”
National Representatives are responsible to the Head of the
Order as their officers are to them, and shall make their own
financial arrangements with the members in their respective
divisions.
Note C. The above “Conditions of Admission” shall come into
operation on and from October 1st, 1924. Existing members of
the International Self-Preparation Group are doomed to be ipso
facto members of this Group as now reorganized, but they should
fill in paragraphs 2, 4, 5 and 6 in the Form of Application for
Admission, forwarding the form through their local or divisional
Secretary to the National Representative.
National Representatives are requested to send to the Head to
reach him in August, 1925, at the latest, a detailed report on the
working of this tentative organization in their respective countries,
with suggestions as to modification or improvement.
Note D. Candidates under legal age must have the counter-
signature of a parent or guardian on their application forms.

Form of Application
For Admission to the International Self-Preparation Group
1. I… a member of the Order of the Star in the East, with
membership card No. … dated… hereby apply for admission to
the International Self-Preparation Group, Division… Section…
2. I fully accept the teachings given in At the Feet of the Master,
and declare them to be the ideals of my life, towards with I will
earnestly and unceasingly strive.
3. During my… years (s) of membership of the Order of the
Star in the East, I have rendered practical service as follows…
4. I am specially striving to become an efficient worker in
the following way (s) offering it (them) as my special service as a
member of the International Self-Preparation Group…
5. I will repeat daily, striving steadily to feel the underlying

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reality of the One Life, the identity of my inner nature with all
men and all creatures and even with so-called inanimate things
and the life of nature:
Wholly divine
Brahman am I
Not knowing sorrow;
Of Truth the essence,
Of Life the joy,
Of Bliss the fine ecstasy,
In my nature eternally free.
[Brahman is the ancient Hindu term for the One
Immanent Universal Spirit. The disciple herein asserts his
unity with the unchanging Pure Spirit behind the veils of
all perishable forms of matter].
6. I will resign my membership of the International Self-
Preparation Group whenever I feel I am no longer in harmony
with the spirit such membership involves, and I agree that, the
Head of the Order of the Star in the East may at any time, with
no reasons given, remove me from such membership.
Full Name
Address
Recommended by
Date
Admitted on

Requirements for Group Membership

1. I accept the declaration of principles of the order and I
desire to prepare myself to be of service to the Great Teacher when
He comes.
2. I agree to devote fifteen minutes every day to study-
meditation on, At the Feet of the Master.
Note: If very busy or when placed under exceptional
circumstances this time may be lessened to as little as five minutes
each day, but it is not intended that it continue thus lessened.
Method of Study-meditation: Read a sentence or a part of a
sentence in, At the Feet of the Master. Close the book and reproduce
the idea or ideas from memory, think them over, making clear
mental pictures of the bearing of these thoughts on your own
daily life and reflect thoughtfully upon these pictures for a few

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minutes. Under no circumstances examine yourself in a critical
and condemning attitude, nor should you call to mind and brood
over a fault or weakness. When you find such a weakness think of
and mediate on the opposite virtue; imagine yourself as having the
virtue developed to a remarkable degree. With great sincerity see
yourself as being what you want yourself to be. In this manner the
study-meditation should continue throughout the book. When
finished begin again at the beginning. This study-mediation maybe
done whenever and wherever you are not disturbed. Closing the
eyes will help some to concentrate.
3. I agree to do a few kind acts every day and to be of service
to humanity.
The importance of these Self-Preparation Groups throughout
the world can hardly be over-estimated, for, in my opinion, the
growth and strength of the Order depends, very considerably, on
the attitude, and at all times on the persistence of maintaining
that attitude, which these Groups should give us. This was seen
very clearly during the Star Congress at Arnhem, and especially
so during the Camp at Ommen. Members were willing to forget
themselves for the sake of their ideal and for the Coming Teacher.
They were willing to set aside the passing glory of their own petty
self, and adore with utter devotion the real Being that is in us all —
the Mighty Teacher. The work of the Self-Preparation Groups is
slowly becoming visible, but our efforts to change ourselves must
be doubled a thousandfold, unceasingly, and with a mind that
is keen and sharp, which discovers all our unknown depths. By
influencing others and by changing ourselves shall we be able to
see the Teacher in the glory of His Coming. His blessing be with
those who strive and are unconquerable in their efforts.
J. Krishnamurti

International Self-Preparation Group

Message from Krishnaji
These messages are a development of a series of talks which
began first with a small group at Pergine, in 1924. Some of my
friends have felt that to continue such talks, and to write them
down for distribution to a wider circle, might be helpful to the
Order, and it is in this hope that I do what I have been asked to do.
The first thing, however, that I should like to point out, in

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 connection with these Messages, is that I do not pretend to speak
as a great authority; for I am not one. I only wish to put forward
my ideas of things — my idea of the Master, of happiness, of
enlightenment, of being great — on the chance of it being found
helpful by others. Please do not think I am a final authority or
anything of that kind. Just as a painter might paint a given scene
differently from other painters, so shall I give my own point of
view, and I want you always to remember this fact. I have my own
ideas about the Masters, about being happy and so on, and only as
such, and not as claiming any allegiance, do I put them forward.

Krishnamurti also warns the members, that if the purpose of

the Order of the Star in the East cannot bring about a new era
of spirituality, it will cease if they are incapable of living the ideals
which the organization holds.
We want members who wish, who desire, whose only purpose
in life is to train themselves in order to make themselves better,
and above all, to follow the Teacher when He comes, and to be
able to co-operate fully with Him when He is with us. For that
purpose alone the Self-Preparation Groups exist and for no other,
and there must be no jealousy about them. 03
Order of the Star in the East
Manual
International Self-preparation Group
The Purpose of the Group
The order of the Star in the East is now entering upon quite
a new phase. Since the Star Day of December 28th, 1925, the
Order has come definitely into closer touch with the mighty force
of spirituality which is behind our movement.
When the World-Teacher is with us, humanity will be divided
into two classes, those who will follow rapidly along the mighty
Path which the Teacher will point out, and those who will idle
away the precious years in the slow waters of normal evolution.
This division of the people has occurred whenever a mighty
Teacher has appeared in the world. When the Lord Buddha was
with us. His power and His teachings divided India into two such
03
Ibid. p. 191

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classes. When Christ appeared in Palestine, there were two such
division of the Jews. It is but a natural classification, and when the
World-Teacher is with us once more, this will occur again.
Even within the Order itself there will be such a differentiation.
Hence the members must NOW decide which path they will
follow. For those who will follow the swift and exacting path, we
have established an International Self-Preparation, the purpose of
which is to prepare the members to understand the teachings of
the Lord and to cooperate with Him. Above all, this Group exists
for the sole purpose of training the members to put into practise
the teachings that we have already at our disposal.
Now I want to emphasise one very important point concerning
the Group. It is our intention that it should be, throughout the
world, a magnificent success, worthy of our ideals, and an instrument
suitable for the Teacher to use. To assure ourselves of this, I ask the
members in all sincerity, not to join the Self-Preparation Group
unless they desire earnestly and honestly to help and cooperate
with those who “mean business.” I would therefore earnestly beg
them not to make the Group futile and ineffective.

The Ideal
I intend this group to be entirely composed of those who have
but ONE desire, ONE thought, and ONE purpose in life — to
tread the noble Path that leads to glorious Enlightenment and
perfect Peace. They must be prepared to sacrifice themselves utterly
for their idealism and to attain their goal at all costs, irrespective
of everybody and everything. They must be prepared to give up
their petty personalities for the great work and to carry out in their
daily life the teachings and the knowledge that they may obtain
in years to come. Their purpose in life must be to become perfect
by following the Plan laid down by God for Humanity and to
achieve that perfection as soon as possible. Their whole life, their
entire energy, their utter devotion, however small or great, must be
consecrated at the altar of sacrifice and to the Master.
J. Krishnamurti

103
Order of the Star in the East
Manual
International Self-Preparation Group
The Relation between The Eastern School of Theosophy and the
International Self-preparation Group
We have among the members of the Self-Preparation Group
two distinct classes of individuals; those who belong to the Eastern
School of the Theosophical Society and those who do not. The
former have their own system of mediation to which they must
strictly adhere and to which usually they cannot add any other
system. To this group of people, we do not here give any instruction
with regard to their own special meditation, and we only address
ourselves to that body of people who are Star members and who
do not already practise another system of meditation. But I would
suggest that those members of the Eastern School who belong to
this Group may yet take part in the daily aspiration, as this does
not interfere with their meditation in the Eastern School.
J. Krishnamurti

Hints to Members
It often happens to members, on reading the Messages, get
the mistaken idea that they come straight from the very Highest.
This of course is not so.
When, for instance, I wrote some months ago about diet,
I indicated what I thought was right; I carefully said, that the
suggestions made suited me and were certainly not intended as
hard and fast rules for others. Yet, when I was in America and took
a weak cup of coffee, one of the members said “What! You drink
coffee, when you told us we must not do so?” If people will not use
their common-sense, absurd difficulties are bound to arise.
They should not blindly follow anything that anybody says, it
does not matter who it is. If they think a thing is wrong, let them
not do it, and if they think it is right, let them do it. What the
Teacher requires of us is, that we should be sanely independent,
that we should act on our own judgement and be leaders in our
turn, instead of mere followers.
By following blindly we are apt to create a new religion or sect

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and that is the last thing we desire.
In my Messages I try to express my own ideas, my own
particular way of looking at life, and they may be the Master’s
words or they may not; in this respect members must use their
own judgement.
My Messages are only meant to serve as a guide along the
road, but they are certainly not the Path itself. You must yourselves
become the Path, before you can really tread it.
J. Krishnamurti

The Message from the Head of the Order of the Star in the East
(for Self-preparation Groups Only)
March and April, 1925
The time has come when each of us ought to be trying to
find out why he is here and what is the definite plan which the
Master has in view for him. I am convinced that each one of us
has a definite part to play in the great Plan, and we should be
using our imagination to try and find out that part. This will give
us confidence and strength to change.
For myself I have absolute belief in what the Master wishes
me to be. I am going to play a definite role and to play it properly,
there must be transformation and remoulding. I know that the
Master requires certain definite lines, he wants me to become
a true disciple. I now this because I have thought about it and
worked for it, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously.
It is the same with each one of us, and it is our business to
find out what the Master wants and then to set about preparing
ourselves as quickly as possible.
As a first step we must make our belief stronger and more
definite. If you believe, you may fail for the first year, two years,
ten years, but if your belief is strong enough, no amount of failure
will shake it and you will succeed in the end because you have seen
and known and worked. It is belief which determines the way one
looks, the way one’s mind works, one’s attitude to everything. if
you are a real fanatic in belief, you will become a disciple tomorrow.
So you have to find out how far your belief is real or mere lip-
service, examine yourselves impersonally and find out how far your
strength will carry you and where your weakness lies.

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 It is belief and desire, which give us the capacity to change.
When the wind blows, unless you are properly clothed, you will
catch cold, unless you are strong and your feet firmly planted on
the ground, you will be blown hither and thither. So will be the
breath of the Lord, like a rushing mighty wind. The time is coming
when in the nature of things there must be segregation. If we are
strong, we shall become stronger, if we are noble we shall become
more magnificent; if we are weak we shall go under; if we are
sinners we shall become more sinful. So we must train ourselves
now in order that we may be able to stand in the future when the
Teacher is here.
If we need a particular lesson we are generally thrown
into the world and the world hammers us day and night and
gradually it moulds us through suffering, through failure, through
disappointment till we accumulate experience.
Now we have not got the time for all these things, we have to
sit down and experience through our imagination and arrive at the
fruit of experiences which do not actually take place.
In the world outside we learn to be unselfish, to cooperate, to
be tolerant, shall we do less for the Master?
If we were all disciples, all combining for one purpose, what
a tremendous force we should be in the world. This is the one
thing worth living for, there is nothing else. Do not have the
desire to be great by yourself or to evolve by yourself. Spiritual
growth comes by helping others, by feeling and cooperating with
others, not by evolving alone. If we opened all our windows, our
emotional windows, our intellectual windows, who does not want
to go outside and breathe the fresh air is useless to the Masters.
And most of us I am sure are in that state. We have only got one
or two windows open and we think that it is enough. We have not
the courage to open all the windows and let in the sunshine and
fresh air. The Master needs all our windows to be opened so that
through them we can pour His sunshine on the world.
I feel sure that we have all come to the definite position where
each one of us is under the eyes of the Master. He must love each
one of us as a mother loves her child, and He must know the
definite plan that each should follow, and He must watch us as a
mother watches her child, sometimes encouraging, longing for us
to arrive at the goal where we shall be able to stand by ourselves.
106
On us now rests a great responsibility. The Master has put us in the
world to carry on His work. How far and in what manner shall we
respond to His trust?
J. Krishnamurti

International Self-Preparation Croup

Message from Krishnaji
Important Note

As the birthday of Krishnaji occurs in May, we have decided

to make this month the starting point for all our activities for
the year. The financial year will begin in May, the month will be
devoted specially to Self-Denial, and the issue of the new series of
Messages by Krishnaji will also begin from May.
This New Year’s Message does not form part of the series, but
is the substance of an address delivered by Krishnaji to the Star
Council at Adyar. It will be of special interest to the members of
the International Self-Preparation Group, as it is a record, in his
own words, of his impressions of the great meeting of December
28th 1925, under the Banyan Tree at Adyar.
The attention of members is again drawn to the fact that all
the Messages should be kept strictly private and not shown to any
one not belonging to the Group.
A small book giving all necessary information with regard to
the Organization of the International Self-Preparation Group,
rules and important suggestions has been issued and may be
bought at the Office of the General Secretary, or the National
Representatives.
D. Rajagopalalacharya
General Secretary
B.P.M.

International Self-preparation Group

Message from Krishnaji #1
It was in 1921, during the Theosophical Congress at Paris,
that we decided to start an International Self-Preparation Group
all over the world, and I believe the idea originated in Holland,
Miss Dijkgraaf being greatly responsible for it.
I think that the Self-Preparation Group should always
be a rather indefinite body, but one from which can be chosen
107
individuals who will be really useful to the Order. In other words,
the Self-Preparation Group should be the backbone of the Order,
as the E.S. is to the T.S. It should be, in my opinion, not exactly
vague, because that brings about loose ideas, but it should not be
in any way crystallized. It should not have many rules, because
once we begin to formulate many rules, we shall produce a body
that will soon crystallize and break up. What we need in this
Self-Preparation Group, in my opinion, is members who will
become real apostles, real followers, real disciples of the Teacher.
And from that Group we should choose not only the National
Representatives, but also the other officers of the Order; from it
we should be able to pick out workers throughout the world. The
should come to various Centers (we have the Self-Preparation
Groups all over the world), to any of the four Centers that exist, so
that they may be trained in those Centers along Star lines.

Star Day
My idea of members who belong to the Self-Preparation
Group, is that they shall have but the one desire — that is, to
become true followers of the Teacher. Most of us here, who have
been attending meetings, especially the Star meeting on the 28th,
have realized that a new life, a new storm, has swept through
the world, and, as after a tremendous gale that blows and cleans
everything, all the particles of dust from the trees, the cobwebs
from our minds and from our emotions have been blown away,
leaving us perfectly clean. And now we have to become that gale,
that storm, wherever we go, because we represent — please do
understand this — the Great Teacher. We are His supporters;
we are His followers, and not mere machines. We do not want
to become mere drudges, clerks who do office work. There are
millions in the world who can do that work, but what we want is
to understand and be in ourselves a little storm. When a real gale
comes along, all the little winds disappear, and there is but the one
gale sweeping through the whole world. I think we have all felt, at
least I know that I have felt, quiet different since that day. I feel as
though I have skipped over many pages and turned a new chapter
in a big book, and now I know what the whole book contains.
And that is what we all have to do. We have to find out how much
we can skip of the book of life or of understanding, or whatever

108
you like to call that book, and begin again with renewed vigor,
because we have understood, because we have felt, and because we
have lived.
I personally dislike using words in reference to these things,
because one can never find the proper words, however eloquent one
may be, however much one may be learned in the use of words. But
if we have not felt it, if we have not sensed what has taken place,
I think, that as Star members, we shall have failed. We expected
perhaps that some great miracle would take place. I do not think
He will come in that way: it will be so simple and so human and
so ordinary. I use purposely the word ordinary, otherwise those
of us who are looking for some miraculous thing, for some great
storm, for some tremendous voice of thunder to speak to us, will
miss it; it will pass over our heads and we shall be lost. I assure you
it is going to be so simple, so infinitely natural that those of us who
are looking for something beyond the clouds will lose our heads.
That is why we want Star members, and especially those members
who belong to the Self-Preparation Group, to understand how
simple it is going to be and how natural, when the Teacher comes,
to be able to understand and to follow Him.
I do not know if I have any right to speak of what Bishop
Leadbeater said the other day at a meeting after the 28th, but I
can quote one or two phrases which he used. He said that on the
28th of December, 1911, many years ago, one felt the glory of the
Teacher; it was like lightning and everybody felt it. But this time
as he said, He came as a man speaking to men, and that is what
we have got to understand. He may do great miracles; He may
do a wonderful work of reconstruction; He may make us all feel
really noble, really great in loving others, in feeling for others, in
sympathizing with others, but, above all, He is going to come, I
am more certain than ever, as a friend, who really understands.
And it is as a friend that we have to look for Him, not in me or in
another person, but in everybody in the world, for He is there in
every person.
I have often said it is easy to recognize greatness in our
Protectors, but it is fearfully difficult to recognize greatness in the
coolie or in the servant who washes your dishes, and that is what
we have got to learn. And since that day — I shall call it the day of
miracle, because it was a miracle to me anyhow, because my whole
109
attitude, my whole vision, my whole outlook, has been changed —
the same things which we have seen for the last twenty-five years
or more are not the same now; every tree has a different feeling,
a different meaning, a different understanding. The bridge has a
different meaning, it is more beautiful. It is so difficult to explain
these things in words. I do not want you to feel sentimental over it,
for in that way you will spoil it, but I want to express, and I want
you to feel, what it has meant to me personally, because then you
will understand for yourselves what you have felt.
I feel like a crystal vase that has been cleaned, and now anybody
in the world can put a beautiful flower in it, and that flower shall
live in the vase and never die. That is why I feel so much at a loss
with those people who have not felt this thing, with those people
who have not understood what it means.
You, who are the Representatives of the Star, if you do not
understand it, you cannot make your members understand it, you
cannot be at the head of the Self-Preparation Group or at the
head of the Star in the different countries. As has been said, he
is coming to reform. He is coming to alter, not necessarily to tear
down, but to love and to sympathize. So the work of the Self-
Preparation Group lies along those lines. It has always been so, and
we cannot and must not expect something quite different. When
the Lord Buddha came He wanted to alter the religion of the time,
He wanted to change Hinduism. But the Hindus in their various
schools of philosophy, although they listened, although they know
how wonderful He was, although they thought that He was one
of the Avatars, yet never yielded, and they drove Buddhism out of
India.
The same thing will happen again: He will sing a new song.
We must have ears with which to hear. A new song will be sung,
but we must have such an understanding of that song that we can
interpret it in everyday life. And that, it seems to me, is the first
duty of the members of the Self-Preparation Group and nothing
else in the world. They must take every department of life and
examine it, and work through it, with the one idea of altering it so
that those who hear the song shall understand and not be merely
pacified, not merely become sentimental, not merely adore. This,
to me at least, seems to be the work of the Self-Preparation Group
— to produce followers who will work, who will co-operate, who
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will be the nucleus of the apostles of the future.
Friend, you have been here, and you have seen, and I need not
talk about anything, because talking always spoils the Reality. You
have seen the Star: You have seen His Face and His Glory, and you
do not need any more talks or any more meetings. Only what you
should have is the burning desire to make other people see and feel
what you have seen and felt. If you can make the members of your
Group really happy, really see what it means to live truly, then you
will have succeeded.
J. Krishnamurti
Adyar, January 1926

Self-Preparation Group Discipleship

International Self-Preparation Group
Introductory Note
In 1921, at the Star Congress in Paris, Krishnaji met several
of his National Representatives and discussed with them the work
of the Order. His interest in all that was being done in the various
countries was very great; and many conversations took place in
which he asked for suggestions for future work. The result of these
appeared in the October Herald, 1921, where we read that:
Following a suggestion which had worked well in Holland,
Mr. Krishnamurti urged very strongly that each country should, if
possible, form four different groups:
Propaganda Study and Action
Meditation Self-Preparation

And in his speech given at the Champs-Elysees Theatre on

July 27th, 1921, he speaks very strongly on individual preparation,
saying that we have, to a great extent, been willing to prepare the
outer world, but rarely willing to mould the world that is within
ourselves. We are afraid to do many things, we are afraid to practice
what we believe, we are afraid to face certain realities of life. ‘Why
should we prepare ourselves?’ we ask . . . and in reply I say ‘verily
it needs as arduous preparation, a special understanding to be
able to respond immediately to the noble appeal of the Master of
Compassion.’

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 At the close of his lecture he says:
Try to realize the immensity of life, practice the presence of the
Lord in your daily life, do not try to find happiness in little things,
where you will not find it, but seek happiness in infinity; and then
you will realize the spirituality that knows no compromise.
With those indications of the necessity for self-preparation
and of the goal to be attained, it was left to us to find out the
way that leads to it. Wisely, Krishnaji abstained from giving any
rules, wishing that everyone should find out the most effective
way for himself. And so each National Representative set out
to make experiments — till in 1923 a tentative scheme, evolved
in America, appeared in the Herald, which Krishnaji hoped all
National Representatives would study and follow as far as possible.
And in March of the same year we received his first Message, with
the clearly defined condition “that all who applied for membership
should mean business.” Great enthusiasm was created by the very
close relationship those Messages established between Krishnaji
and the members of the Self-Preparation Group, and the stimulus
they gave to the work can hardly be overestimated.
Of course, some members interpreted these Messages too
literally; for instance, when Krishnaji recommended certain kinds
of diet, they followed them as if their spiritual life depended upon
diet alone. An amusing incident in Ehrwald shows us how little
such members understood what he meant. Once several members
were staying in the village, whilst Krishnaji and a group of his
friends were living in Mr. Steinacker’s lovely châlet. Krishnaji in
his remarks on diet had hinted that he considered chocolates not
very wholesome, and yet many of his young people came down to
the village daily to buy chocolates till they almost exhausted the
supply of the small shop, and this gave rise to shocked surprise and
unreasonable comment.
While their were others who paid very little heed to valuable
advice given in the Messages, they said “Well, Krishnaji does not
make it a hard and fast rule, and he always says, use your common-
sense.” These members were lax in their practice and used their
common-sense, not for what was best for their growth, but for
their convenience.
So things went on till the Vienna Congress in 1923; and
there we met Krishnaji many times to discuss difficulties and
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possibilities. A wonderful sense of power and love was felt by all
at these meetings, when he impressed us strongly with the need
for “honest introspection without morbidness,” and for “action
instead of reposing lazily in our armchairs.”
It was however at the Arnheim-Ommen Congress, 1924, that
for the first time the note was struck, which since then has been so
strongly the predominant one, that Self-Preparation should lead
to Discipleship and that all must, and could, reach the Path, if
only they willed strongly enough. No one who had the privilege of
assisting at the afternoon meetings at Arnheim will ever forget the
deep earnestness and love with which he assured us that he would
give us all the help he could.
Definite conditions of admission were issued as a result of the
opinions gathered from various sources, though the greatest freedom
was given in regard to details. It was announced that a Discipline
for members would, in due course, be issued by Krishnaji, but that
it would be left to the option of members to follow it; and in the
meantime National Representatives were invited to find out what
the majority of their members wished. When the Protector of the
Order presided over a meeting of members of the Self-Preparation
Group in Ommen during the summer of 1925, it was found tat the
desire for a Discipline was certainly not unanimous: some thought
it would be a great help, and others, that it would prove a hindrance.
In consequence of that, no Discipline has been given.
The spirit of Self-Preparation, as understood by Krishnaji, is
expressed in the following words, which he used at Ommen:
For me, Self-Preparation consists of one vital thing: we must
control karma. The purpose of Self-Preparation is to make you
realize that you need capacity, power to change, in order to be able
to serve the Teacher.
And now, here in Adyar in December 1925, where the
realisation has come to so many of what hitherto was perhaps
mere expectation, it is inevitable that this will also apply to Self-
Preparation. And so some of us feel that a new chapter is about to
begin, and that it will be written in characters of Light, shedding
a glory over all who read.

THE MASTER
Let me speak, first of all, of the Masters. I think there is too

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often, in our minds, the idea that a Master is something artificial,
something outside us, a miracle of perfection, who lives away in
the mountains apart from us, a Being alien to us and not one of
ourselves. Certainly in many books, both Theosophical and not-
Theosophical, I find this idea — that the Masters are remote
from us, that They are different from us, that They have different
points of view, that They occupy a different level. In a way, all this
is true; but to me the Master is never limited by the artificiality of
a painted picture or of a book, nor have I the idea that He is far
away. You know how bishop Leadbeater has described the Masters
in minute detail — how They live, where They live, what They look
like, and so on. Now C.W.L., as you know, has always been my
Guru; but, for all that, I want to put the idea of the Masters in
another way. Whenever I myself have seen a Master — and I
have not done so very often — I have always seen Him in rather
a “vague” way. If you asked me to describe Him in minute detail,
I could not do so. I could not tell you the exact color of His eyes
or of His beard, nor could I tell you how He dresses. I have not
the scientific clearness of vision which bishop Leadbeater has, and
which is necessary for such detailed apprehension.
When I see a Master, it is like the flash of a passing bird or the
impression of a passing cloud. You cannot describe these things
afterwards; but you know they have been there, and the memory
remains with you. If you were asked to describe a beautiful tree
or a flower, you would (unless you have a mind which is trained
to observe as minutely as Bishop Leadbeater does) describe the
general color, you would describe the general appearance, the
general beauty of it, but you could not go into details. You could
not tell how many leaves or petals or branches it had. It is in the
same way I am aware of the Masters. I do not say that the one way
is better than the other; but it is difficult for some of us, at least for
me, to adapt ourselves to that other point of view — as when the
Masters are described in minute detail, or when a picture of Them
is placed before you and you are asked to meditate upon it.
The idea that the Master is a separate Being, or that He
lives apart from us, although true in a way, is difficult for me [to]
understand, because I like to feel one with Him. I like to feel that
I can take His arm; I like to feel that I can have Him in my room
as a part of myself. It is like having a flower in the room. You
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can always look at it, and it somehow takes a different aspect, a
different color, every time you do so. You cannot (at least, it is
difficult for me) to describe the flower, as it is, because it is always
changing. At one moment it seems intensely living, at another
time it appears almost dead. I do not say that the Master is ever
“almost dead”; but it is in this kind of every-varying way that I
see Him. There is never a moment when He is not in my room;
whatever I am doing He is beside me. When I am depressed, He is
there. When I am happy, He is there. And when He is there, you
yourself are the Master. Please do not think I am conceited. It is so
difficult to explain what one means in these matters.
When I see, for instance, a fisherman and his boat, or the
way he is throwing his net, I can imagine the Master doing that
and doing it to perfection. The fisherman may be cruel, and the
Master is not cruel, but you can see the beauty of the Master in the
fisherman’s net as he throws it. I hope you see my point of view. It
is that I feel that the Great Ones should not be treated as though
They were remote and alien, as though They were foreign to us, as
though They were strangers.
Again, I, for my part, do not divide the Masters into various
classifications. I do not say that this One belongs to the First Ray
and that One to the Second, and so on. To me They are all one. They
are all part of the same flower, and when each one of us arrives, as we
must arrive at that lofty stage, then we also shall become petals of
that flower. As you know, I have had my own experiences of seeing
the Masters and so on. In a way, they have helped to confirm my
mind; but the mere idea itself that They are there, that They are the
culmination of happiness and enlightenment, is sufficient. If, for
instance, a Master appeared to me physically and showed Himself,
it would not give me any surer proof of His existence than I have
already. It is not because I have seen His face that I believe in
Him, but because it is the natural thing that He should exist. It is
a natural sequence of events. It is a natural thing that They should
be beautiful, that They should be happy, that They should have
all the wonderful qualities of perfected humanity. They are the
realized ideals of man-made-perfect, and there is nothing artificial
about Them, as we are too often inclined to think.
It seems to me that we ought to feel much more as though
They were a part of us, and that we should not wait for visions
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and for the reading of books to convince us, but should think of
Them as belonging to the natural course of evolution — as the
result of a process just as simple as that which makes the river go
to the sea, or the tree grow to its full height. Indeed, as the tree to
the sapling, so does the Master stand to each one of us. He is our
natural consummation, our goal made manifest. He may be miles
ahead of us, but He is natural, and that is why our devotion both to
the Masters and to the activities which They want us to carry out
in the world should be utterly natural and not forced.
And if you look at it from that point of view, if you realize
that the Masters are the outcome of natural processes and that
They are the culmination and the perfection of the world — that
They are the perfect flower, whereas we are still the buds — then
you can understand what it really means to be a disciple. Then, you
can really become disciples instead of merely labeling yourselves
as such, because then you will want to be natural and to achieve.
I feel that we make too much of something which is natural. If
you go out into the sunshine and feel the fullness of life, you do not
want to talk about it; you do not want other people to listen to you.
And if the eventual outcome of our lives is to be perfect, to be like
the Masters, again I want to say that They are not outside us, that
They are not mysterious Beings living in the far regions of earth.
They are near us. They are with us, and we have to grow to be like
Them. Sooner or later we, too, must develop Their capacity, Their
intelligence, Their common sense, Their love, and Their adoration.
For as They are in fulfillment, we are in promise and potentiality.
They are human, but They are divinely human. The feelings
of mankind are Theirs, but They have purified and exalted these
into divinity. And this is what we also, have to do. It is not that we
should not have feeling, it is not that we should not have desires.
It is merely that we should make them divine and beautiful and
wonderful to look at, as They have made Theirs.
And that is why, in a way, I have a kind of shrinking feeling,
when I hear people discussing the qualities and the attitude that
we need, if we are to be great, and saying that to attain these things
we must struggle. That is all artificiality and is never more than
partly true. There is something much more wonderful than all
this much more beautiful than any of us can describe. If you have
felt Their glory you cannot describe that glory to others any more
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than you can describe a wonderful sunset. You can say that there is
such and such a color in the north, and another in the south, but
you can never express in words or in painting, in prose or in poetry,
what the real sunset is; for in the very act of expression the thing
losses its life. What matters is the feeling, the depth of the feeling
that you experience, when you see a sunset, or when you see a
Master; and to develop that depth of feeling seems to me to be the
duty of us all. But to develop it, to enlarge it and make it perfect,
we must have a certain goal, we must have a certain determination,
certain desires and we can only get them if we live in the right way.
It is so difficult to say all these things, to express what one
feels; but I do want, for the moment, to put my own point of view.
I may be wrong — but it seems to me that when you are climbing
a mountain, you do not think of the summit all the time. You
think only of the climbing. You simply go on until you get to the
top. You do not wonder, the whole time, how far you have reached.
You just push ahead until you have arrived at the top. It is the same
way with life itself and with our feelings about life. The idea of the
summit, the idea of the Masters, must become part of our nature.
We must go on and on and on, with the thought of Them, rather
as an unconscious “urge” in our natures, than clearly defined and
separated off as a “goal”.
For instance, if I had a son, I should make him see that the
Master is not a far-away beacon, towards which he must travel,
but is there whenever he does anything perfect, whenever he does
anything beautiful, whenever he is clean, whenever he has the
right attitude of mind; that whenever he looks at a sunset or a
sunrise, whenever he is walking with the head erect and a joyful
heart, the Master is there; that all his actions, if beautiful and done
with right feeling, with fitness and grace, are the actions of the
Master, and not his own. You are each your own Master, if you
do things perfectly; and this is true even of the smallest things,
such as the correct wearing of a coat or the tying of a tie. These
little insignificant things are to me a kind of symbol of the real
thing. You cannot imagine the Master putting off anything in a
ugly fashion. He is the ideal of perfection. He is the apotheosis of
“rightness”, and so everything we do, if we do it beautifully, is done
by the Master, and ceases to be a mere meaningless act of daily life.
So the central thought of this first message to you is simply
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this — that the artificiality of our way of thinking about things
has made the Masters also, artificial for us, causing us to look at
Them as though they were far away, a goal towards which we have
to struggle, instead of something ever present and as near to us as
breathing. Even the way to Them is simple, for it is really no “way”.
The moment you are natural in your beauty, then you yourselves
have found the Masters, for you have become Them.
It is not out of conceit, or from a feeling of superiority, that
I can speak of Them as my Friends, just as many of you are my
friends, and I can go to Them with my ordinary troubles in lief and
know that They would see exactly where They should sympathize
and where They should criticize. For me, it would be just like a
child going to its Mother or its Father. When you get that point
of view, you can never be miserable or lonely or unhappy, when
you suffer.
For instance, when my brother died, I felt utterly lost. You
have no idea how I felt for two or three days — for more than
that, for a week perhaps. I still miss him; I shall always miss him
physically, but I feel that he and I are working together, that we are
walking along the same path, on the same mountain side, seeing
the same flowers, the same creatures, the same blue sky, the same
clouds and trees. That is why I feel as if I were part of him; and
only when I get tired do I begin to say: “My brother is not here”.
But at once my mind pulls me up and tells me how absurd is such
a thought.
So long as our thinking is artificial, so long as we think of
the Masters or of any perfect thing as apart from us, as separate
from our being, we shall always have to struggle. But the moment
we regard Them as natural, as something belonging quite simply
to our every-day life, then the whole thing becomes perfectly
easy. Then do we find real happiness. Then we are on the way to
becoming disciples — nay, on the way to becoming the Masters
Themselves.
J. Krishnamurti

International Self-Preparation Group

Message from Krishnaji #2
Your remember that, in the first Message, we were talking
of the reality of the Masters; how the Masters exist as a part

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of Nature; and how in all beauty, whether it be the beauty of a
fisherman throwing his net or the spiritual loveliness of the
perfectly evolved soul, there is the same quality, the same tone; so
that we should break down, as far as possible, the artificial barrier
that our mentality creates between the Master and ourselves, and
cease to think of the Master as an anomaly, or as something far
away from us, and we should realize that He is everywhere, in all
moving and non-moving things. That was our general idea.
In the present Message I want to place before you another
idea, which is as old as the hills and has been written about very
often: namely, that the Master is not perfect if He has not a pupil,
and the pupil is not perfect if there is not a Master, so that it is
natural that the Master should exist, and it is equally natural that
there should be a pupil. There is a beautiful saying in Sanskrit:
“Because of the lotus the water is made more beautiful; because of
the water the lotus is made more beautiful Because of the water
and the lotus the lake looks more beautiful.” Exactly in the same
way, you cannot separate the Master from the pupil. They are one;
they must be one, in order to create the beauty. Without the natural
environment of life the beauty of the Master is not revealed: it is
concealed. So it is also with the pupil. Until he has learned what
the world has to teach him, he cannot reveal his own beauty and
approach the Master.
We must have it absolutely clear in our minds that the Master
is the outcome, the apotheosis, of all creative action. We must
realize that it is all natural, just as it is natural for the tree to come
to its full growth, even though, while it is still young, it may need
artificial support in order to keep it straight. So, too, for us who
are trying to become the tree which shall provide shelter, which
shall have scented flowers, which shall give shade, and which shall
bear fruit, there must be, at first, the artificial props of initiation,
acceptance, and so on; but we must always remember that, in
themselves, they are not the vital thing. They are, as it were, the
mere scaffolding of growth. But if you can complete your growth,
unconscious of the scaffolding, so much the better.
Intellectually, too, the idea that the Master exists is quite
natural, quite reasonable. What is the good of life if, at the end
of it, we do not become perfect, something noble, wonderful,
glorious? The idea of Re-incarnation, too, is it not perfectly
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natural, even though it may sometimes seem a little depressing?
For, there are times when the idea that we have to carry on this
unfortunate game all through a whole succession of lives, until we
have conquered and attained, is rather depressing. Yet, the idea
in itself is perfectly natural; it is logical, and it is not something
that has been invented by Theosophists and Hindus to satisfy our
mental cravings. To me it is as natural as the sunrise and the sunset.
I feel the same about Karma. The thing must be true, and it must
be true in a sense which fits in naturally with life as we know it.
If we do not make these truths part of ourselves by interpreting
them in a simple and natural manner, they become outside things
and cease to fit easily and helpfully into our lives. In the same
way, the idea of perfectibility along all lines, of the possibility of a
development of all good qualities to the point which is represented
by the Master, appeals to our imagination tremendously, and that
is why we have to cultivate our imagination, so that mentally,
emotionally and physically, the idea of the culmination of
perfection, the glory of the man as he evolves, becomes quite
natural, and quite comprehensible; above all, a thing of plain
common sense.
If we have this idea of the Master as a Being, human like
ourselves, then He is simply a person, an individual, who has become
perfect. I often think that the Master is Krishnamurti made perfect,
or somebody else made perfect; in that way, He becomes part of
me, part of my very understanding, of my very breath, to whom
I can go with anything, my sorrow, my depression, my jealousies,
or my happiness, my adoration, my glorification. He is in fact
father, mother, son, daughter, wife — everything. And we have to
impress this idea upon our minds, because as I said yesterday, the
mentality always wants something outside to cling to something
against whom we can lean. How can one lean against Him when
He is a part of us, when He is ourselves, when He is the very air
that we breathe? So you lose that sense of depression, loneliness
and other trivial things. How can a leaf feel lonely? It is part of
the tree. You will see sometimes the wind shaking a particular leaf
and the whole tree is perfectly still. That leaf may seem somewhat
separate, somewhat proud of being shaken by the wind, when the
other leaves are not shaken. It is the same with each one of us. We
feel that we are separate, but in reality we are a part of the whole of
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humanity. We are both the lowest and the highest, the stone and
the God, not separate individuals cut off from all the others. Of
course, we are different in many ways, but that does not mean that
we are separate. We have our own temperaments, our own desires.
We have to follow our own special paths, but they all lead to the
same summit. It becomes much more interesting, much finer, to
look at the whole of life in that way.
The Master becomes more beautiful, more glorious, more
divine, more comprehensible if each one of us feels that we have
to make ourselves pupils, in order to make Him more wonderful.
The moon by itself cannot be beautiful; it is the darkness that
makes the beauty of the moonlight. It is exactly the same with
the Master and the pupil. They are one; they are complementary.
They become more beautiful when they are together and no longer
separate. They become more divine, more understandable, more
human, when they are together and can understand each other.
Anybody in the world — it doesn’t matter whether he has
the special label of probationer, or accepted pupil, or initiate —
anybody who has these feelings becomes a pupil; anybody who
desires intensely, who longs intensely, becomes a pupil; and the
feeling that you are a pupil, while somebody else is not, becomes
puerile, childish; and you naturally squash that kind of idea at
once. Many who are in the Theosophical Society and in our Order
only begin to take notice of people when they hear that they bear
certain labels. I have noticed this during the recent Convention.
The moment we know that certain people are on probation, we
greet them very deferentially; when we found out that they have
become Accepted Pupils, the hands go higher still; and when we
hear that they are Initiates — well, you know the rest!
You see how artificial we have made it all, how ridiculous, how
ugly! What does it matter whether you are known as a probationary
pupil or not, if you have the right feeling the right desire? This is
far more interesting, far more beautiful, than the mere labels to
which we attach so much importance.
I do not say these do not help, I do not say that labels have not
a certain value. They may help to bring you to your destination,
like a luggage label; they may prevent you from going wrong,
because then you know you have certain responsibilities. But do
not worship the label.
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 When I see a fisherman or a blade of grass that has been
broken on the road, to me they are as worthy as those who are
labelled. The blade of grass has been broken and the grass has
suffered. Some unfortunate person has trodden on it, and it must
have suffered. Suffering and love and happiness are common to all
things; these are far more valuable, far more interesting, far more
dignified than the mere worship of labels and the contentment it
bring. I cannot put it more strongly than I have done; but I will say
this also — if we do not guard ourselves against all this narrowing
down of life, we shall not approach the Master, even though a
thousand persons say that we are approaching Him; we shall not
realize the Master, even though we may worship in front of Him;
we shall not truly see His face, even though we may be able to
describe the color of His eyes and of His hair.
So long as we can realize that a broken blade of grass, or
an animal which is hurt, or a man who has suffered, are all the
same, are all parts of us, we can approach the Master. Sometimes
I feel wounded when I see a flower on the rock or an ant that
somebody has trodden upon and killed. You cannot help those
things, they happen; but I feel as though somebody had hurt me.
And if you have that sense, that tremendous feeling, that depth of
understanding of the oneness of all, then the beauty of the Master
comes nearer; and every tree, every flower, every drop of water,
every
Cloud, every storm has a different meaning. Then every day
becomes a wonder; every hour becomes more glorious; then you
want to be happy, then you want to be enlightened, because that
is the only natural thing to be. You know that we, all of us feel
sometimes — certainly I have very often felt — the glory of the
Master, the simplicity of it all, the perfection in that simplicity.
But instead of making us simple — so that we become perfect in
our emotions, in our minds, in our bodies-all that we do tends to
make us complicated.
We do not understand that the Master is the embodiment of
simplicity. I am sure the Master is never angry; and yet one can
imagine He can be annoyed, simply because it is a natural thing
to be. Even though now He may be above it, even though He
may have conquered it, yet He must have gone through what we
ourselves are going through. He must once have had all the feelings
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that we have, but now He has arrived at the mountain top. He is as
white as the snow and as cold as the snow. Do not misunderstand
me. I do not mean that He has not affection. But one can see
how the Master can look at things with the tremendous dignity
which comes from absolute detachment, and yet have, within, the
bubbling spring of love. Both can exist, even as snow and living
springs exist in nature. The Masters are as natural and as ordinary
as the sunrise and the sunset. Who cares nowadays for the sunrise
except the few? Who cares to study quietly at sunset? It is the man
who has trained himself to look at the sunset, who has learnt to
still his body and his mind and his emotions at the sunset hour,
who can sit down quietly and worship it.
If you want to become like the Master you must have all these
things, all these qualities, all these movements of the mind under
perfect control, so that they may become part of your very nature
and not something for which you are still struggling.
J. Krishnamurti

International Self-Preparation Group

Message from Krishnaji #3
I think that for those who are Indians, the idea of the
Masters, the idea of Perfect Beings who have been human and
are still human, is quite normal and obvious and natural, while it
is especially difficult for those who have been brought up in the
East really to comprehend this idea. They want convincing; they
want positive proofs. They want a Master to appear and tell them:
“I exist; follow Me.”
I remember, the last time I was crossing from America, one
or two people, Americans, began to talk to me, and I think they
typified the attitude of the West and of America. They notice that
I was different, that I was a vegetarian, that I was better mannered,
that I held myself somewhat aloof — not — necessarily out of
pride and conceit, but merely that I did not do all the things that
it was the fashion to do on the steamer, and one young friend said:
“Why do you not enjoy yourself ? Why do you not behave like
the rest of us? Why don’t you smoke? Why don’t you flirt? Why
don’t you do everything that we are accustomed to do?” When he
asked me that question, it made me wonder why I did not do those
things. I could not reply that it was because I had such wonderful

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ideals that I was above such enjoyment! I had no proper answer
to give on the spur of the moment; but I suppose the fact was
that, because I held certain beliefs, those other things no longer
give me pleasure. It means, of course, a difference in evolution;
it means that one has in a way outgrown the things which other
people enjoy. I am not conceited about it; please do not ever think
that of me, because I am not like that. Then, two or three days
later, he insisted on talking to me again about various things, and
towards the end of our interview, when we had got to the point of
talking quite naturally to one another, I put before him the idea
of the Masters; and the first thing he said to me was: “But how
do you know? You have no positive proof; you might have been
deluded; you might have had hallucinations; you may be wrong.”
Then, for the first time, it struck me that Westerners, Europeans,
people who have been brought up along different lines from ours,
want proofs, they want definite concrete definitions of the Master.
The Master must be endowed with certain qualities, with a certain
environment, before they can recognize him as a Master. And it
is very difficult for anyone, especially for me, to give proofs of the
existence of a Master, to prove that He is a human being, and yet
that He has powers which we have not. For those of us who are
Indians, the conception is a perfectly natural one. We can no more
doubt it that we could doubt that the sun rises and that the sun sets.
Now, of course, in India there is also sometimes skepticism,
and the desire for proof. But there is always in the background
of the Indian mind and imagination the idea that the Masters do
exist and They are attainable; that you can approach Them and
become like Them. I have been brought up in the idea that the
Masters do exist, although naturally I have had my own doubts
like everybody else. But I have conquered my doubts not because
I have had tremendous proofs, not because the Masters have
appeared to me, not because they have done certain things to me
and made me see Them, but because I cannot help it. I cannot
help believing in Them. My whole faith, my whole imagination,
my whole heart, my whole affection and devotion are behind that
belief, because it is in the natural sequence of things; it is more
natural for me to believe than not to believe. To me such an idea
has not got to be proved.
I think the Western mind, and in some few cases the Eastern
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mind also, has a special difficulty with regard to this question. To
my mind it is a form of disease, and I think you can only get over
it if you appreciate the beautiful, the real, the attractive side of life,
and treat the idea of the Masters as something not extraneous
but natural. You do not doubt that the moon, the sunlight and
the stars are really beautiful in themselves. Nobody has to come
and point out to you that starlit night is really wonderful. You feel
it instinctively. You appreciate it; you want to be alone in order
still better to appreciate such beauty. It is the same thing with
the Master. Whenever I see a beautiful thing, a great mountain,
the sea, still water, the sky or the flowers, I try to image to myself
that the Master must embody all those things, that the Master
must have those superficial beauties before He can have the inner
beauty, that He must be the child, that He must be the stars, the
daylight; He must be the embodiment of everything. If you use
your imagination in the right way, I think the idea that the Masters
are different from us becomes rather absurd.
As I said, if you believe in such a Master definitely enough,
you make Him so real that He becomes like one of us. You must
materialize Him and yet not concretize Him. You must draw Him
and yet not paint Him in exact colors. If you are able to do that,
if you have the capacity to do that, then the Masters become real.
To most of us at present They are not real. You may be on the
Probationary Path or High Initiates, but if They are not real to
you, They are not a part of you. We do not enjoy Them, as we enjoy
a real friend, a real brother. We do not feel one with Them. They
are still on the circumference instead of being in the center. And to
make the Masters become a part of us, to make Them become one
with us, is the primary duty of any pupil, of any initiate, or of any
other person in the world who wishes to place his feet on the Path.
I often feel, when people get up and talk about the Master,
that they have nor really grasped the idea — that they are still
searching for Him in the dark, that they are still groping for Him
all over the place, in books, in solitary walks, in love affairs, and
so on. You do not find the Master in that way, any more than
you would find the real beauty of life by sitting in a room and
studying. You must have a certain sense of greatness, a certain
sense of imagination, a certain sense of beauty; in other words, you
must be evolved before you can reach the Master.
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 You can only get the reality of the Master, you can only feel
Him, if you have the appreciation of the beauty of life. I think
sometimes that the people who are real artists, real painters, real
admirers of beauty, are nearer to the Masters than many of their
professed followers, because the artist has the elan, the spring that
will take him to the heart of things.
If you can grasp that fundamental idea that the Masters are not
strangers, not people who live far away, or who are entirely different
from us, then They become real to you. They become more real if
you treat Them as you treat your dearly loved friends, as you treat
your brother or wife or child. You do not show them only one side
of your life and hide the other side. You are never unnatural to
your brother or your wife or your child or your mother. You are just
natural in your home. In the same way must we treat the Masters.
Usually if you go to a meeting where the words “the Masters”
are uttered, people at once put up their hands and bow their heads.
There is a false devotion, a false idea of the Masters. I am urging
this so strongly, because we are getting more and more into this
way of thinking. The moment we are happy, the moment we are
natural, the moment we are really affectionate and appreciate
them, the Masters become real to us.
Of course it does not mean that we must not study, that we
must not meditate on pictures which are centers of force; those are
all helpful, but we must not be satisfied with them. We must find
the real source of the rivers, we must find the real mountain from
which everything flows. Until we have done that, until we have
been able to soar to that height, the Masters and the Path and the
idea of Service are not real.
In my messages I shall explain, if I can, why I do certain things,
why I feel in a certain way, and why I think in a certain way. It is
not as I repeat over and over again, because I am big or different
from everybody else, but because it is my nature to take things
in that way. For example people say to me: “How wonderful of
you to have got over your brother’s death!”, As though I had done
something extraordinary. When we suffer, there is always a sore;
there always will be a sore as long as we are human beings; but the
attitude of mind and emotions which aggravates that sore should
not exist, and that is what we have got to learn. As long as we are
living human beings with ordinary human faults and sufferings, we
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shall always have sores, we shall always feel pain. But the training
begins when you are able to avoid increasing those sores, when you
can avoid aggravating them or making them more hideous than
they are already. If we wish to become pupils of the Master, if we
desire to learn what the Path means, we must understand these
little things. We must not struggle against what is inevitable, but
must be clever enough to yield to it and, by so yielding, to disarm
it of its power to hurt.
Then the Master becomes real. I assure you I have not seen
the Master, as others may have done, or as they so frequently say
they have. But I defy anybody to say that the Master is more real
to him than He is to me. It does not mean that He must appear
before me, that He must show Himself, that He must display His
qualities and His wonderful aura, that He must show Himself in
His physical body. Those things do not make the Master real to
me. It is the idea that the Masters are there, that They are beautiful,
that They are the perfection of myself, that appeals to me. That
They are human, that They can enjoy themselves better than I can,
that They can suffer (if They do suffer), that They know what it
means to climb and to struggle — that is what appeals to me.
That is why to me the Masters are so real. For each one of us
the proof of the reality of the Masters must come from within
ourselves. It becomes unreal when you preach and lecture about it,
for then it becomes at once an artificial thing. It is not necessary
for me to tell you that at such and such a time the sun sets and the
moon comes up and the stars show themselves. You know it, you
see it, for yourselves. You do not need anybody else in the world to
convince you of those ordinary physical things which exist around
you, because you have been brought up with them, you have eyes
to see, you observe, you learn to feel and to think for yourselves.
It is the same about the Masters. They are not something that X
or Y has to explain to you and to paint for you in colors. To each
one of us the very idea itself should be sufficient. Just because my
picture of the Masters satisfies me individually, it does not follow
that it will satisfy each one of you; and I think it should not satisfy
you, because each one of you has to attain these things for yourself.
Then the reality will become so intense that you can no longer
doubt it. I dislike the word “doubt”, because there is an implication
that the thing in question may be real or not. When once you
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have seen and felt its immense power, its potential dignity and
its tremendous strength, you know what it feels like to be the sea;
but if you to a person who has never seen the sea and tell him all
the wonderful things about it, about the life it contains, about its
little ripples and its tremendous waves, of course he will doubt
its reality and it is natural to doubt it. But if you take him to the
sea and show it to him, although he may see it in a different way,
although he may be attracted by things not noticed by you, yet he
now knows what the sea is with its shifting sands.
You must become the sea itself before you can know the
feelings of the sea. You must be the drop of water before you can
understand the greatness and the strength and the immensity of
the ocean. So it is with the Master. Until you become one with the
Master, a part of Him, you cannot comprehend Him. If you can
do this, then life becomes easy and simple and really wonderful. It
does not matter then what happens to you, for you just go on until
you are the ocean, until you become the Master.
J. Krishnamurti

International Self-Preparation Group

Message from Krishnaji #4
In the last three Messages I have tried to explain what I mean
by the Master, and why the ideal of perfection is constant source
of inspiration to all of us.
I often ask myself why I do certain things, why I eat in a
particular way, why I am kind to others, why others are kind to
me, why I am polite — in fact, all the usual questions that one
sometimes asks oneself. And I think that the answer, at least for
myself, is that I want to try to achieve in all that I do during the
day the perfection of the Master. I will tell you what I mean. I
want — and surely everybody in the world wants — to be like
some ideal, for example, to be like the Master, or to be like some
great poet, some great painter or some great musician. Ever since
I was a small boy, I well remember, I have wanted to be something
along spiritual lines. I remember a friend asking me when I was a
small boy what I wanted to do when I was grown up. He said to
me, “I am going to be a shop-keeper, I want to keep a shop.” I do
not remember what I replied, but I know it game me a shock to
think that I might become like him a shop-keeper, because all the

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time I wanted to become something else.
Now, I want to be like the Master, but my idea of the Master
is not a very individualistic one. As I said at the beginning, to
me the Master is like myself, but much more wonderful, much
more beautiful. All the things that I can attribute to Him are not
enough to describe Him. For I, Krishnamurti, do not always see
the Master as He is, and I do not always have Him in my mind,
because I know that clouds of my own making come between me
and the Master. On a cloudy day there are shadows, and certain
trees are darkened by the shadows, but others remain lit up. There
are clouds in the sky, but the sun is always shining. It is the clouds
that intervene, it is the clouds that come between the sun and the
trees. And it is the same with us. I know that I shall be a Master,
that I can be a Master if only the clear space of the sky was ever
between me and the Master, with nothing to obstruct, or to make
false shadows, nothing to move or come between us.
But it does not depress me to know that the clouds are
sometimes there, for I feel my Master must once have had His
shadows and clouds, and He will understand my shadows and
clouds. It is very difficult to explain all this because I have never
thought about these things very precisely; I do not like to think
too precisely about the Master, for thereby I feel the ideal becomes
rather common, loses its serenity, its dignity, its distinction. That is
my personal opinion.
I do not have the ideal of the Master consciously and
purposely with me throughout the day, and yet unconsciously
the ideal is always there in front of me. I have not read books
about the Masters, probably because I have been brought up in
Theosophy and therefore, perhaps, my instinct has been to keep
off these subjects. But to me the Master is just as real as to anyone
else. I have not striven consciously, I have not said to myself, “To-
day or tomorrow I am going to acquire certain qualities, the day
after tomorrow I am going to try to develop others.” I have grown
naturally. I am not setting myself up as an ideal for you. I am not
putting myself upon a pedestal for you to worship. That would be
absurd. But I want you to see my point of view, and perhaps it may
help some of you. If it does not, it does not much matter.
You know, if you have a brother who is always correcting you
when you do what is wrong, your instinct when he is not there is to
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think, “Am I doing the right thing?” If you have a certain thought,
immediately you find yourself thinking the opposite thought. If
you are angry, you say, “How absurd to be angry.” If you are jealous
you think immediately of the opposite of jealousy. I have watched
people and when I see people angry, I say, “must not do that.”
When I see people really nice, I say, “must copy certain things
those people do.” So all day long one is adjusting oneself quickly
and steadily.
You have a determination to go along a certain path, and you
can only do that if you can keep the sky clear in front of you —
absolutely cloudless blue sky which is the Master. And if each one
of us feels the nearness of the Master in the beautiful things around
us, in pictures, in individuals, in trees, in clouds, or in anything we
see, at once there is the immediate response. Instead of waiting for
the Master to come and open us up, we open ourselves up and we
become like those beautiful things. This has been my experience.
Why do we all want to be happy? Because happiness is the
only thing worth achieving in the world. I receive knocks, I
struggle, I have difficulties of every kind, but I do not think I have
ever been deeply depressed, except on the day when I heard that
my brother had passed away. My natural instinct is always to be
happy. I always cultivate that, because if we are not happy, nothing
in the world is worth while. There is nothing in the world to be
miserable about, really; not even in the death of someone who
means everything to us, nor in all the little things which we think
matter so much. And that is why the moment you feel happy, you
really see beauty in all things. The moment you are enthusiastic
in your happiness, you will see the real Master, but not otherwise.
We are all struggling to be happy, and that is why we do not see
the Master. In a way, unhappiness always brings ugliness. It is not
beautiful; it is not natural. But if you are happy, in the real sense of
the word, if you are joyous, then you will see everything in a new
light. Then you will want to create this happiness for others, and
it is by bringing it to them that the Master comes nearer to you.
Happiness is a thing which should be second nature to us; it
should be as easy to be happy as to be depressed. Watch people’s
faces. They get depressed so quickly. I do not see why it should
not be easier to be happy than to be depressed. I am talking about
something which I have experienced personally, because I too have
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had to struggle. My nature is not unhappy or depressing but I have
experienced certain things in my life which have made me say,
“Am I really happy?” “Have I really conquered?” And I think I can
honestly say that I am happy and that I have really conquered. Now
I am not struggling to be wonderful or to become a great disciple.
Joy is in my nature, I cannot help being happy. If I am depressed,
I see at once how absurd it is to be depressed, so immediately I
change. If we have the sunshine, at once we notice the shadows.
So I am able to keep my balance over things. This happiness
is a really quiet happiness; it does not mean that we should be
skipping about the place like young gazelles, or that we should go
up and pat everyone on the shoulder, but it is a kind of dignified
happiness; and I should say that it is the first requirement for the
comprehension of the Master or of anything beautiful.
If you are feeling depressed and with that feeling of misery
you approach anything beautiful, you will never see its real beauty.
It will be superficial; just the outside may appeal to you, but you
will not perceive the real inner beauty. And that is why most of
us do not understand what we are talking about when we get
up on platforms and talk about the Masters. We have just seen
the superficial dignity and greatness and we think that we have
understood it and are capable of explaining it to others. But if you
are happy, if you are really intensely joyous, then you will see and
feel and know the reality. Perhaps you will not talk so much about
it, but you will know what it means. You will gain every quality
in the world if you are happy in this way. For this happiness is
the source of true happiness to others; it is the stream that will
go through every land, that will bring new life to all living things,
refresh all creation, and ultimately merge itself in the eternal sea.
Nothing can stop us if we have that attitude. For if we are
happy, we shall be able to take so many more along with us, we
shall make others see what it means to be happy, we shall be able to
enjoy life and make others enjoy it. You can take away my Master,
you can take away everything I prize in life, but if I thought you
were going to take away from me this sense of happiness, I should
feel really lost. When I am happy, the idea of being separate, of
being individualistic, of being proud and conceited disappears,
because I want to make others happy, I want to make everything
right and help to put everything in its proper position and place.
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 I think, for those of us who are struggling, who are learning
to walk, it takes years and years and years to learn these things.
We are just beginning to discover what shadows and lines mean,
what the whole world means, what little things mean, and what
big things mean. And if you do not have clearly in front of you
this view of happiness and possess it yourselves, you may study for
centuries and yet you will not get the right attitude, the right sense
of proportion in life. Happiness brings you to the goal. Happiness
makes you enlightened, makes you big, makes you really one with
the Master, one with beauty. Without it you cannot really help
others when they get depressed. You may have sympathy, you may
want to put your arms round them, but you will not have the real
sympathy that can truly help.
And for me the Master not only embodies all these things, but
He is a kind of friend with whom I can go out for a walk and to
whom I can explain my point of view. Not that I actually go out
for a walk with the Master, but that is my attitude towards Him.
I do not put Him on a pedestal merely and go on my knees and
worship Him, but I take Him as my real friend. I dislike the word
‘Brother’, because it has been so much misused; for me, anyhow,
it has lost its beauty. The idea of a ‘friend’ is to me much more
beautiful. That is why I treat the Master as though He were a real
friend of mine.
If we treat the Master in that way, how simple it becomes,
how dignified, how distinctive and how real, instead of something
superficial, something artificial. The Master will become part of
us, one with us, instead of a separate someone to whom we give
and from whom we receive. If you think of it, you do not receive
anything really, from the sun; you are surrounded by the sun, you
are part of the sun. There is his life in every part of the solar system,
and it is the same with the Master. Try to realize what a drop
of water must feel in the sea. Its sense of separation is lost; it is
absolutely one with the sea and there is no idea of “here I am,
a drop of water, and there is the huge sea”. By identifying itself
with the sea, it enjoys the power, the strength, the beauty and the
dignity of the sea, because it is part of it, and not simply a separate
drop of water. That idea to me is inspiring. I want to be like the sea,
I want to be like the Master, because then I feel so much happier.
That is why; not because I want to help so and so. I will naturally
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help if I am happy.
That is why I lay so much stress on being happy. The idea that
we must go out and help and serve and work, out of a forced and
artificial sense of duty, is appalling to me. It is depressing. But look
at it from the other point of view. Because you are happy, because
you are clean, because you are really big and feel things, you will
want to bring others to be as you are and feel as you do. Do not
think that by going and working in slums and by worrying other
people with work that you are going to obtain happiness. That
may come later on, or it may come at the end of life, but if you are
instinctively happy, naturally happy, then you will go and work in
the slums far better, and you will make other people really like you.
Other people will want to be your friends because they feel and
know you are happy, because they know you are really different.
You are an example instead of being merely like them, and yet you
are one of them.
That is why those people who get depressed, who feel weak
or sentimental or anything of that sort, miss the real beauty and
fun of life, and cannot come near the Master. They cannot come
near the beauty of life. You see, if you are happy, then your attitude,
your desires, the way you act, your gestures, your life, everything
changes. These things become real, they become natural, and
therefore they become really beautiful. At present we are trying to
do things, to simulate things that we do not understand. We are
trying to mould ourselves into something, and we do not know
what it is we are trying to achieve. We have read about it, we have
thought about it, but it is not part of us, and that is why it is not
real to us, and that is why it is on no permanent value in our lives.
You may meditate and read, but if you are not natural, if you are
not instinctively beautiful, you will not achieve your goal, you will
not come near the Master.
J. Krishnamurti

International Self-Preparation Group

Message from Krishnaji #5
I think that we have now got an idea, at least a general
conception, of what the Master is, and we can perceive the beauty
of that idea, and I know we also have the desire, the longing to
become part of that beauty. But before we can achieve, before we

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can attain, we must develop naturally certain essential qualities. In
some cases we may have to spend years and in others only a few
months at this work. You may have to spend only a few weeks in
acquiring the necessary qualities, if you are sufficiently observant
and have the capacity and the desire to adapt yourselves quickly
and to change. But the first thing above all else as I said in my
last message, is to be happy. We must be so supremely happy that
the qualifications, desires, and everything else comes as a natural
consequence of that happiness.
A friend of mine told me that when I was a small boy I used
to be very miserable and often got upset and unhappy. I am sure
I was often depressed and easily made unhappy, but now I have
utterly forgotten that I could ever be depressed. Now I am happy,
and the happiness which I have gained has produced so strong an
effect that it is impossible for me to revert to that earlier stage.
We all tend to get depressed occasionally — that is to be expected
— but that depression should not be a prominent feature in us,
and should not conquer us. Happiness and joyousness should be
our dominant note. When once you have tasted something really
nice, something that gives you real physical pleasure, then if you
taste anything bitter you instinctively make a comparison with
what you enjoyed on a former occasion. It should be like that with
us when once we have tasted real happiness. We should always
revert to it, and the reversion should come quickly, and not take
weeks or months. It is the satisfaction and the after-effect of that
satisfaction that matters, and that is why to me happiness is the
first requisite for a disciple, or for anyone in the world who is
striving. Do not let us think that this is limited to those who are
labelled as initiates or anything of that kind. For anyone who wants
to be beautiful, who wants to enjoy himself in life, who wants to
create, the first thing he must acquire is happiness. He must be
happy and then, as I said, the other necessary qualities will come
naturally, without struggle.
To me then happiness is the first quality. Then comes desire...
desire of the right kind. I am not an exception; I know I have
innumerable desires all day long. I have the desire to go away
sometimes and not see anybody... and also other ordinary desires
that all of us have. I think we should have those desires, but we
should use them, to change the quality of our desires. It is no
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use crushing out all desires and being desireless. To be desireless
is certainly the final stage of perfection, but we have none of us
reached it yet, and if we, at our stage, have the idea that we must
become desireless, that we must kill out all desire, we become
vaguely nebulous and weak. Then we have no will to drive us on,
and that is why, we must have desires even if, for the time being,
they happen to be of the wrong kind. But the nobler and the purer
the desire, the nobler will be our attitude towards life.
In India there is the idea that if you are to be a spiritual man
or woman you must be absolutely desireless, that nothing must
affect you, neither likes nor dislikes. But you can only come to
that stage when you have tasted what the desires bring you in
their fruition, when you have gone through the various results of
desire, when you know what each desire brings. You cannot arrive
at perfection in a day. If you have desires, you can use them to
get the right desires, but if you have not any desire, you will not
arrive anywhere, because it simply means, unless you are quite an
exceptional person, that your mentality, your will, cannot stand up
against things.
You generally find that a person who has no desires is weak.
I am referring to the ordinary sort of person who is in the world
and loves the world. When such a person says he has no desires, I
do not believe it. He is not what he pretends to be. He has desires,
but he thinks that he has conquered them all. It is like some of
us saying, “I should like to give up everything to the Masters.”
If such a person can do so it is because he has nothing to give,
neither money, nor wealth, nor capacity of any kind, so naturally
he can give up everything. But when a rich man like Henry Ford
gives up, it means something. For such people it means that they
have conquered so much of the physical desires, and that they have
realized what it is to conquer, and what it is to sacrifice. You see
so many sannyasis, so many people in the world profession that
they have given up everything. They can do it easily because they
have nothing to give up! They have not got the capacity to lead,
or to follow, to admire, to worship or to adore. It is these many
weak followers that hamper every cause. This sort of giving up
is all based on a wrong conception. If you are really willing to
give up everything to the Master, you must first be sure you have
something to give. You have your body, your mind, your capacities,
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your devotion, but they must be tested in the fire of experience.
You must have suffered, you must have evolved, you must have
created before you can be worthy to give. But the “giving up” of
most people is no better than it would be if I were to go to one
of these Orders which has plenty of money behind it, and offer
myself up, knowing I should then live comfortably all the rest of
my life. That is not the proper desire, the proper motive. We may
camouflage our motive, we may hide it in whatever way we like,
but if we are weak and have no real capacities, we have nothing to
give. I assure you there are thousands in the Theosophical Society
like that, as well as in the Star and other organizations.
That is why it is so essential to have desires of the right kind,
desires that produce, that create, that give you energy to act. Then
you can do things; then you can give qualities that are worth while,
even though you have nothing else to give. Then your gift will
be welcome, for the Master does need each one of us. He needs
us with the qualities we have evolved, the things that we have
experienced, for He knows then that we are capable of a certain
definite usefulness to Him.
Just imagine a man of the world, one who has really conquered,
who has mastered the world, who has gained all that the world can
give of honor, of glory, of university degrees, and of distinction. If
such a person gives it all up it really means something. I do not
say that you should chase after those glories and wait till you have
acquired them, before you can give yourselves up to the Master;
but I do say this: We must have capacities, a right sort of devotion,
and a right attitude of mind before we can give up ourselves or the
world.
It is so much easier to give up the world than to live in it. I
often want to retire into the mountains, for that would be much
nicer, much more pleasant, than getting tired out in trying to
adjust oneself to one’s environment, or being tactful when one is
surrounded by a number of people. When one gives is all up and
retires, one has not to face any of these things. It is much the
easiest path, but through the easiest path one does not evolve. It is
through knocks, through suffering, through being uncomfortable
in mind and emotion that we evolve. It is the constant friction
that matters in life, and the moment we seek a comfortable path of
self-satisfaction or contentment we make no further headway. You
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know what happens to a river which is a side branch or backwater.
It just goes in there and stagnates. It has no outlets. There it breeds
mosquitoes and collects green slime and there it remains for ever
and ever until an outlet is dug by somebody. And this is what
happens to all of us unless we have the right sort of desire, the
constant urge to go and hurl ourselves against things.
That is why desire is so essential, not the wrong kind of desire,
not the commoner desires, the usual physical desires, desires
of passion and all that kind of thing. Those also we have to go
through and get them over as soon as possible. For most of us they
are over — at least I hope so. When you have experienced those
desires you know that they are useless, for they can never give you
real and lasting satisfaction. Most of you know that; hence you
must have gone through those desires and passed beyond them.
But to have experienced and conquered them develops your will
and gives you a certain amount of understanding and sympathy
with other people.
To have no desires, to be utterly desireless, is an ideal which
we shall attain the more quickly because we have gone through so
many desires. For my part, I feel that the physical desires do not
attract me any more, that they no longer cling to me, but there are
other and subtler desires too which I shall soon overcome. But
I am very glad I have had those desires for I know now what it
means to struggle, what it means to avoid them; I have learned by
experience how to be clever in avoiding them in what to do and
what not to do. That experience gives me strength and when I see
those desires coming along, they leave me absolutely unaffected.
I am not saying this to put myself on a pedestal or to pose as a
big person; on the contrary, these things are supremely easy if we
but exercise our will: We can leave all these desires behind us and
forget them.
Another thing which we should all have is common sense.
You have read over and over again in Bishop Leadbeater’s and Dr.
Besant’s books about common sense and how you should use your
own intelligence and your own judgement and never be carried
away by anything that happens, and how you should not accept
anything until your mind and your intuition, until your whole
being accepts it. We think — I don’t know why — that if certain
people make statements that we must accept them or else our souls
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will go to perdition. Yes: They will go to perdition if we accept
them without reason, without feeling convinced about them. It
does not matter who makes the statements, they may even come
from the very highest source. If you do not agree, be honest. Use
your common sense and try to understand the meaning before you
accept anything.
Spirituality does not mean that you should accept anything or
admit anything before your mind and your emotions have accepted
it. The explanation of this is simple. Until a statement becomes
a part of your very nature, acceptance of it is mere hypocrisy
and that is the last thing the Master wants from us, for it is an
unbeautiful thing. You are beautiful when you are natural, and you
are certainly not natural when you are hypocritical, when you just
follow blindly something which you do not feel, which you do not
understand, which does not really appeal to you. I assure you it
does not matter who says it, what messenger or what writer gives
it out, you must use your own common sense and your judgement
before accepting it. Blind obedience or blind following, no Master,
no Teacher has ever asked. One can see why; it is because He
wants beauty: He demands that you should evolve; that you
shall develop yourselves so that you shall become creators of the
beautiful; that you may be examples and not mere copes. You must
develop; that is the fundamental thing; and when you accept and
swallow ideas blindly, you do not develop; you just stagnate; you
become narrow; and that is why is so essential to have and to stand
by common sense. It does not mean that when you do not accept
you should create trouble, that you should shout from housetops
that you think everybody is wrong! No: You should just keep quiet
until you are convinced for yourself. Everything will come right,
nothing can go wrong; even though we all think everything will
go wrong, I assure you nothing will go wrong if we have the right
attitude. A river may go through filthy soil, yet in the end it will
reach the sea. So that is why I say that we all need to use common
sense. And using common sense does not mean that we should
become obstinate, that we should become dogged or aggressive. It
simply means that we must not throw ourselves into anything that
we do not accept or change ourselves into something of which we
cannot see the object and meaning.
If someone tells you to do a certain thing against your
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conscience, (and you know and I know that the Masters never
do that) please take it for granted he is not a Master. No Master
would every say, “If you do not do this, you will go to damnation.”
An another thing is, we should never accept any labels, unless we
feel that they represent a reality for ourselves. But if you do not
accept them, keep quiet. Give the other person every opportunity
to prove himself worthy of the label attached to him. You will see
as time goes on, there will be more and more of this sort of thing,
of these distinctions, and these segregation. In a way, it is natural;
they are bound to be, and they are right. Even if you dislike labels
or consider those that have them, unworthy, keep quiet and do not
make trouble. It is so much better to keep quiet about things with
which you do not agree; it is so much more beautiful, and all will
come out right in the end — things always do, I assure you.
And that is how we must learn to use our common sense. We
must train our minds not to accept anything passively or blindly,
no matter how great the person who speaks to us. You cannot work
effectively, you cannot become spiritual if you merely walk blindly
by the instructions of another. You must be able to trace the road
by the river, you must be able to see the signposts, you must be
able to see the path for yourself before you can tread it properly.
And we must use our minds, not to stir up discontent in others,
but to produce an inner dissatisfaction in ourselves, so that we may
become eager to change of our own accord. That is where our work
lies. Reformation must come from the intimate knowledge which
each one of us possesses and from the desire to change, to become
more beautiful, more glorious and more noble. And you can only
do this if you use common sense all the time.
Occultism or spirituality is the essence of common sense,
and the simplicity of it is so natural. A thing is beautiful because
it is simple and not complicated; a complicated thing is rarely
beautiful. The simplest method, the direct method is the quickest
method of taking us to the heights of spirituality and we can only
find it through common sense and not by high-sounding words,
or extraordinary labels.
I do not want to make you put your hands to your heads and
feel that you should get discontented with things as they are. But
if you are discontented, then find out the quickest means to get
out of that state. If you are contented, go ahead. But mind that
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your contentment is natural, that you have solved the problem, and
that you have got on top of the difficulties and not merely shirked
them. Contentment should not mean that you just shut your eyes
to the difficulties. The mind that is always questioning, though
it is dangerous to do so, has its value, because it means that you
will find, you will know for yourself what perfection means. That
is why you have got to note these things with a mind that is the
ultimate perfection of common sense. And you must have desires
of the right kind, so that through desires you can train your will
which must be like steel, literally like steel, so that it does not bend
to anything. I do not mean that you should develop obstinacy;
anyone in the world can easily develop that. But you must have a
will of the right type, that will carry you forward the moment you
have seen your goal, that will put aside everything that stands in
the way. Then you will attain the ideal.
J. Krishnamurti

International Self-Preparation Group

Message from Krishnaji #6
People have often asked me to define the Path. They have
asked me if I have found it, if it is something definite, something
concrete; if I could point it out to them in some definite country,
up some known mountain.
I think we have to guard ourselves against making the Path
into something concrete, something tangible. To me the Path is
myself, it is the embodiment of myself. I sometimes sit in front of
a beautiful picture or a statue, or a great tree, and looking at it, I
imagine the essence of the beauty of all these as the Path. Once
morning with the picture of the Lord Buddha before me, I was
thinking of this; and looking long enough in His eyes, I could
see through them the Path; I could see all humanity, the whole
essence of the Path through Him. I could see it stretching mile
upon mile, never ending, with innumerable shades.
The Path is evolution. It is not something outside of us, an
artificial ladder which we have to climb to reach a height. It is
natural like the mountain path. We go on ascending and we get
at each step a different view, a different aspect of the valley below;
and we may stay for years examining each step, each view. We are
evolving, humanity is evolving, all creation is evolving, so there is

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constant variation, constant change. The Path is never the same, it
is infinitely varied, beautiful, and dignified. It is above the Master,
above everything. The Masters are the shrines along the Path at
which you can stay and offer your devotion, your flower, your
life, everything; but the Path, though it is the embodiment of the
Masters, is above them, stretches far beyond Them.
Imagine the Path as a road, an ordinary road; at the wayside are
shrines, and worshippers wait at these shrines, enjoying the shade
of the trees, and feeling the immensity of life with its constant
struggle and its happiness. At every step on the road there is a
shrine, and at every shrine there is a different feeling, a different
devotion, a different appeal. Steps and stages are there, but they
are not the Path; they are but the milestones. Our attention if fixed
all the time, not on the milestones, not on the shrines — though
they must be there — but on the final end, the final goal. And
thus viewing the Path, we have imagination, feelings, devotion,
admiration, and adoration, boundless within us. The Path is ever
fresh and immense, and can never be narrowed down.
The more we advance, the greater must be the immensities of
the shrines, the immensities of the images in the shrines; but yet
the Path goes on. Evolution is the Path. When we begin to evolve,
when we are capable of thinking, of feeling and of acting, then
we are on the Path. It has no beginning and no end. On it you
see people — some near, some fare ahead of you — struggling or
walking happily. Such is the Path which we all must tread.
To me, as I said, the Path is myself; the Path is happiness, the
Path is sorrow, pleasure, the sense of enjoyment, and the sense of
perfection and well being in the physical body. The Path is nobility
of character, it is dignity, distinction, beauty and love; everything
pure and great that human beings have, is the Path. It is the essence
of all these things. You may study books, but if you have no real
conception of this idea of the Path, no book, no Teacher, will ever
satisfy you by their explanations of what it is. And that is what
we have to get before we can tread it; and that is what we have to
grasp with all our understanding, with our soul.
So if you have that understanding of the Path, you become
yourself the Path; and thus, through you, others can achieve the
same happiness. It is not the Path of the individual, the Path of the
separated self, the Path of qualities, the Path of shrines or of idols;
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but it is above all these. To me, the Path is the embodiment of all
that is beautiful or ugly, evil or good.
The Path demands of you every qualification, every experience,
all the thoughts and imagination that you possess. There is not
limit, there is no end to perfection, not even to the perfection of
a Master. His perfection may be our ideal, our longing, our glory;
but you can imagine that beyond Him there must be greater
perfection, greater understanding and greater knowledge. Thus,
the idea of the Hierarchy is very simple. You have trodden the
Path a certain distance; and if a person ahead of you is willing
to help you onwards, to tell you of shades and of the dangerous
precipices ahead of you, you can but be grateful for his guidance.
There is no essential difference between the person who is
ahead of you and the person who is far behind you. We are all
walking on the same Path, the same never ending, ever changing
Path. But you want to make everyone in the world understand
this. You want everyone to see for himself the glory of the Path.
There should be no idea that we must struggle to help, struggle to
cooperate, struggle to be happy. If you are natural, if your feelings
are natural, if your enthusiasm is natural, you will come to that
perfection, that glory.
I do not say that this Path is only that which I have described. I
may understand it myself, after ten years, after ten days, differently;
because I may then get a different view of it. I am still at a stage
where I only see the landscape around me, but in a few years’ time
I may have walked a little ahead and seen different views of it.
I want to insist on this, because we must not narrow down, nor
must we invent and introduce dogmas for the understanding of
the Path. It is ever open and you can never close it.
J. Krishnamurti
P.S. With many apologies for the delay, due to the fact that
Krishnaji is now traveling in the United States. G.S.T.

International Self-Preparation Group

Message from Krishnaji #7
The principal requirement for the Path, with its many
variations and constant changes, is discrimination. If you would
assimilate every experience and understand every step, you must
develop discrimination, and you have to use this faculty constantly

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in guiding yourself along the Path. You must gain judgement
and common sense, by learning to distinguish between right and
wrong, between the true and the false; by developing a sane balance
between your feelings, your thoughts and your actions.
On the Path you must have a balanced mind, able to distinguish
right from wrong, the beautiful from the ugly, the useful from the
useless. All the time, as you follow the Path, there are new views,
new appearances, new ideas presenting themselves to the mind;
and you must be able to choose rightly between them all.
That man cannot walk swiftly on the Path who makes
the wrong choice, either on the physical plane with regard to
material things, or on the spiritual plane with regard to teachings
and teachers whom he follows. If he chooses wrongly in lesser
things, he will choose the wrong shrine to worship. Everything is
important in life, but discrimination comes first; and if we use it
properly, it becomes very simple and we develop common sense.
Even when people take a walk, their attitude differs. Some
people are attracted by the right thing, by beauty of form or color,
by a beautiful view, by the lovely trees, by the flowers and the sky.
Another person’s attention will be attracted by something else, and
the beauty disappears and he sees only small ugly things. It is all a
question of training.
You often hear the phrase used of a person: “He has got good
taste.” This does not only mean that he has got good taste in
clothes, but in his feelings and general outlook; he may be trusted
to behave in a certain manner under difficult circumstances, he
is not easily upset by flattery, by admiration, by the glories of the
world, to the Path and to the Masters. If, on the contrary, a man
of bad taste is placed in a certain position, he is easily upset, his
imagination is captured by the world, and he forgets the demands
of the Path.
You cannot imagine a Master having bad taste. Whatever
He does, whether He takes a step in the mere exercise of His
body or whether He lectures or talks, there will be perfect dignity,
absolute command of Himself; whatever He does will be done
in the most perfect taste, with the Highest beauty. Whereas with
us, there is always the doubt as to whether we shall do the right
thing, whether we shall appreciate beauty or not, whether we shall
discriminate rightly between the ugly and the beautiful. These
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things may seem trivial, and yet they are the biggest things in life.
It is the power of discrimination which constitutes the difference
between the aristocrat and the boor. Personally, I believe a great
deal in the idea of aristocracy, that is, in the true aristocracy; not
in the person who possesses a title and gives himself airs, but in
the aristocrat who instinctively has the right feeling at any given
moment and in any circumstances. In the ordinary phrase, he is a
gentleman. If we make that idea into a bigger thing, carried on
to another plane, the gentleman becomes spiritual. The aristocrat
has been trained for ages, not only in this life, but in past lives. He
has submitted to restrictions here, made efforts there, till it has
become instinctive with him to do the right thing wherever he is,
whether he be in a cottage or in a palace, whether he be in the poor
man’s house or in the ashram of the Master. Years of training have
taught him to maintain certain standards, whereas the boor will
be clumsy and by his clumsiness he will upset others. Because he
has not had the training, he is incapable of discrimination between
right and wrong, between the beautiful and the ugly, and to him
it is all a mass of confused ideas. It is these things which stamp a
person for what he is.
On the Path both can exist, the bourgeois and the aristocrat,
but the aristocrat always goes ahead because he feels that he has
a duty to perform as an example, and this gives him an essential
nobility. It should make him eager to turn round and help others
and not feel that his nobility makes him proudly distinctive or
superior. After all, that feeling of superiority only comes from
ignorance and will vanish when he learns that the Path is endless,
that there are millions ahead of him on that Path as there are
millions behind him.
In this manner we have to create a new aristocracy. The
distinctions will be between those who know and those who do not
know, those who doubt and those who believe. When the Teacher
comes, as He has come, and when He speaks, certain people will
understand at once and others will not, some will misjudge and
others will recognize the Truth.
If you have practiced discrimination rightly, you will know
what it is to be superior to everything that happens, in the right
sense of the word. Events pass you by and leave you untouched.
If they are great, you go along with them; if they are noble, you
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feel more nobly. If they are small, you let them pass you by. If you
are excited, it is only in a balanced way. You use your excitement
to make yourself big, to walk a little further. It is the power of
discrimination which distinguishes the saint and the sage from
the savage. When the savage has to make his choice between
two ugly things, he will probably choose the uglier one; but the
sage chooses between the beautiful and the still more beautiful,
because his power of perception and of discrimination has grown
by exercise. He no longer has to make his choice between little
things; he is detached from them, he is above them.
You should be striding from mountain top to mountain top, not
keeping at the same level, but always climbing higher and higher
and never slipping back. When you are walking up a mountain,
if you slip it means that you have to make a greater effort to gain
the level which you had reached before. If you want to get to the
top, you must continue, you must not rest, you must not relax your
efforts. You may take time, but you must not slip back.
To gain discrimination, you must take time and work at it
deliberately and with patience. You can act swiftly and suddenly
when you have reached a certain stage, because you have been
trained to right action; but in the early stages you must take time
and weigh your motives, your actions, your feelings. Take the case
of a musician; for many years he practices in private before he dares
to come out before the public. It is the same with those who are
treading the Path; they must have training, and show meticulous
care in the choice of the things which are set before them; because
the further you go along, the greater will be the demand for
common sense, the greater the demand for discrimination of the
right kind.
Do not narrow down this particular quality, because if you
have acquired this, you will also attain all other qualities. If you are
the embodiment, the essence, of discrimination, you need have no
other quality in the world, because in that all is included. If you
have this quality in its perfect essence, you use your intelligence,
your emotions, your whole body, to create a new atmosphere. It is
because we do not have it that we are continually struggling. Once
you have gained it, nothing in the world can touch you. And then
begins the real happiness, the real glory of thinking, feeling, acting,
and living. J. Krishnamurti
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International Self-Preparation Group
Message from Krishnaji #8
We were discussing not long ago the value and necessity of
discrimination in order to understand the Path and human life
generally. I want to go more into detail so as to make the idea of
discrimination clearer.
It is quite obvious that to be able to discriminate in the right
way you must have mind, you must have intelligence. It would be
impossible for an idiot to tread the Path. You must not be cranky,
you must be sane; and to be sane you must have an intelligent mind
and a right outlook. We are not concerned for the moment with
the higher mind; we are concerned with the mind functioning on
the physical plane, and which needs to be well trained; able to read,
to understand, to grasp the various meanings of life. That lower
mind is essential, though full of danger. It is the lower mind which
gives us a clear perception of things on the physical plane. We
must have that clear perception, as also the capacity to understand
and to assimilate, because without a mind, without intelligence,
without intellectual criticism and judgment of the right kind, it
is impossible to advance. I dislike that word “advance,” because it
has been so misused. “Advance”, to me, means going about your
ordinary daily life with intelligence. If you are walking along an
ordinary road towards the goal, you are bound to advance. It is the
same thing with the Path. If you want to reach another shrine, you
do not worry as to whether you are progressing or taking steps, or
acquiring labels; you just go on.
If you are to grasp the various opportunities which present
themselves along the Path, you must be able to judge for yourself,
you must have this lower mind well developed. You cannot be
purely devotional, for that means that you are not perfectly
balanced; neither can you be purely intellectual. You must have
the combination of both intellect and devotion, and not aim at
being merely an intellectual giant or an absolute devotee. This
means that you must study, study everything, not only along one
particular line. The lower mind, if it is properly trained, does not
make you merely critical; we can all criticize. It means that you
are able to exercise right judgment, and by the practice of this
judgment you grow big.
You cannot train the lower mind simply by shutting your
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eyes and becoming a devotee. You must observe; you must put
out mental tentacles in all directions, because you must acquire
the result of all experiences without necessarily indulging in those
experiences.
You must learn to use the lower mind to create new thoughts,
new ideas, new ways of thinking, and not just follow the old ruts;
because then you will be able to judge for yourselves, and not
merely follow in the footsteps of another. We all have the instinct
to follow, we want to be led, we want to be a follower of X, Y, or
Z, instead of making ourselves into X, Y, or Z. why do we want
to follow? Because we do not trust our minds, our judgment, our
intuition; we are willing to remain small people instead of standing
on our own feet and making our own decisions and acting for
ourselves in the right sense and without conceit. That is why it is
so important, so essential, to understand what this Path requires,
because then you can lead, you can train others, you can make
them feel differently about the things that really matter in life.
We all want to create; that is the instinct both of the animal
and of the human being; but in creation, especially in mental
creation, we must be individualistic — in the sense that we must
follow our own particular dharma. But it does not mean that we
should be separate or conceited.
If you have a mind that is always judging and balancing and
weighing things, then there is no question of ever being unnatural,
hypocritical, or unreal about things. We all pretend to some extent.
This pretending has its value; but pretension of the wrong kind
becomes hypocrisy, and hypocrisy will gradually grow into our
being if we are not careful. If we do not like a thing, let us be
honest and say so. It is not possible for us all to like the same
things. The Path is so wide, so incredibly extensive, that there is
room on it for millions of people with different points of view.
They will all arrive at the same shrine, however they come. We
must use our own minds, our own eyes, and judge for ourselves;
and not swallow anything and everything that other people put
before us, whether we like it or not. If we like it, let us dissect it
and see why we like it. If we do not like it, let us equally examine it,
and find out if our dislike is well founded or the result of prejudice.
Mind is Brahman; it is the essence of God, and not something
to be despised and put aside. But like everything else in the world,
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you must train the mind, you must carefully guard it and shield it.
The mind has its potential value; and it is absurd for any of us to
set it aside and not to use it, and shut our eyes to the realities and
the unrealities of life.
If you have such a trained mind, you will be able to distinguish
between the desires of the elemental of the body and the mind
itself, between the emotions and the real Self. The body has its
own feelings, its own instincts and desires. If you leave it alone, it
will act in a certain fashion and make tremendous efforts to get its
desires satisfied.
Most of us do not know how to distinguish between the body
and the real Self; we are in a state of complete confusion. It needs
much training to distinguish between the mind, the emotions, and
the body. There are so many varieties of desire; and you can only
distinguish between those varieties if your mind, if the real Self, is
able to exert itself and assert itself.
You can see how a child is swayed by his natural instincts, how
he is at one moment noisy and hilarious, and at the next moment
depressed. That is because the real Self has not yet entered, has not
yet taken control of the body; and so the body has a good time on
its own account. It is much the same with us all. We think we are
far superior to the child, but we are still childish in many ways,
but when we have learned to use this capacity of discrimination
to distinguish the real Self from its physical vehicle, then the
irritations, the petty desires, the jealousies and dislikes and hatreds
will disappear.
There is so much ugliness all around — in ourselves, in others,
in our circumstances, in our feelings and in our minds. It is the
lower expression, the lower consciousness of the Supreme; and
through these small things, you can grow to understand the higher
expression of the Supreme, the real God. To me there is nothing
which is intrinsically evil, nothing which smacks of the devil;
the black magician himself must be a part of the same divinity,
although he may be of a lower stratum.
The mind is the highest thing that we have in us, because
the mind, it is properly trained, becomes the intuition. We have
to work so as to arrive at that perfect knowledge, that perfect
intuition, which we can trust without the least hesitation. The
lower mind must become one with the buddhic mind, which is the
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 essence of intuition.
Until you have gained this perfect balance, you do not tread
the Path in the right way. When you have gained it, you acquire a
certain independence, a certain poise, and you will never be carried
away by outer circumstances. You become impersonal, and nothing
really affects you except as you desire it. Then you also develop a
tremendous will to accomplish things.
You must use the lower mind as a link with the higher. You
cannot possible do without it, but it is dangerous to exaggerate
the lower mind, because then it becomes unbalanced. To me,
spirituality is perfect balance, it is the apotheosis of common
sense. If you put some beautiful thing before a lunatic, he will not
be able to appreciate its beauty. We do not appreciate real beauty,
real greatness, until we have a spark of beauty or a spark of divinity
or greatness in ourselves. We must have the essence of all qualities
before we can really understand, before we can really enjoy the
seeing, the march on the Path. We must learn, though our feet may
be bleeding, though we may suffer, though we may be really happy.
We must have the desire, the determination, to know for ourselves.
We must reach the stage where knowledge becomes certainty
instead of a second-hand belief, where knowledge becomes a part
of us, where knowledge is ourselves. Then we shall know the real
joy of living, we shall find the essence of happiness.
J. Krishnamurti

There are several different sets of messages written by

Krishnamurti according to the records. This is only one set the
author has in his collection.

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