I recently read Radha Rajagopal Sloss's book -'Lives in the shadow with J. Krishanmurti'. The book talks of the author's very pleasant childhood at the Ojai Valley, growing up amidst nature and the father like 'Krinsh'. It gets disturbing when it reveals that K had a 25 years old affair with Rosalind Rajagopal, the author's mother, who was the wife of K's close associate Rajagopal. The marriage of Rajagopal and Rosalind was a little strange with Rajagopal deciding to abstain from sex after their daughter's birth and thereafter completely immersed in K's work, almost never sharing time with his small family.
K steps into this unhappy marriage. Rosalind even has three abortions over those years. Everything would have remained a secret between two individuals hadn't K fallen in love again. This time it was with a beautiful but unhappy wife of a Mumbai businessman, Nandini Mehta, whose more famous sister, Pupul Jayakar has written a biography of K too. On discovering K's 'infidelty', Rosalind is heart broken and reveals all to her husband, who then is completely stricken with hurt and grief. Subsequently a lot of ugliness issues between the trio with K taking Rajagopal to court and after long and expensive trials Rajagopal is exonerated without blame.
Indeed the book makes one see the 'Shadow' side of K. His need for intimacy, of wanting a family, of using persons when he needed them and discarding them later. It shows moral imbalance.
While personally I have always been impressed by K's writings and the assiduous clarity he seeks, clearing himself of conflict- its pretty obvious that his personal life had all the conflicts in the same time.
Obviously K was never a true messiah as he himself kept claiming but no one ever accepted that in his circle. K was quite human with his flaws and inconsistencies, his fears and his need for support. He himself did not deny that. The theosophical society had given him the title of the 'World Teacher', though he never accepted such a personality cult status. Yet all his life, subtly he cultivated friends and followers, established school, wrote books and lectured ceaselessly. Perhaps in his own conflicted life and through it, he was able to think of solutions which were applicable in other's lives too.
Much of what K says is today being tauted in a different language in the psychotherapy world. Conditioned thinking is nothing but a neural pathway formed in the brain which the mind conveniently accepts without questioning. Meditation as a means of entering what is present in one self now. Seeing what is, these are ideas that have caught the world's thinkers, ideas suggested by K.
For my part, after seeing the dis-functional ways of the Theosophical Society with their blind and fearful following of traditions, slowly becoming a cult and almost the same happening with the Krishnamurti foundation, it is strange to be left without the anchor of reliable support systems. To be left with one's own meager supply of what is true and beautiful in life. From early school days when i read Ayn Rand and loved her clarity albeit Neitzche inspired philosophy, i seem to need an anchoring of exalted people inside my head. I guess part of growing up is to see that human beings are always flawed. Its only a matter of degree.
K steps into this unhappy marriage. Rosalind even has three abortions over those years. Everything would have remained a secret between two individuals hadn't K fallen in love again. This time it was with a beautiful but unhappy wife of a Mumbai businessman, Nandini Mehta, whose more famous sister, Pupul Jayakar has written a biography of K too. On discovering K's 'infidelty', Rosalind is heart broken and reveals all to her husband, who then is completely stricken with hurt and grief. Subsequently a lot of ugliness issues between the trio with K taking Rajagopal to court and after long and expensive trials Rajagopal is exonerated without blame.
Indeed the book makes one see the 'Shadow' side of K. His need for intimacy, of wanting a family, of using persons when he needed them and discarding them later. It shows moral imbalance.
While personally I have always been impressed by K's writings and the assiduous clarity he seeks, clearing himself of conflict- its pretty obvious that his personal life had all the conflicts in the same time.
Obviously K was never a true messiah as he himself kept claiming but no one ever accepted that in his circle. K was quite human with his flaws and inconsistencies, his fears and his need for support. He himself did not deny that. The theosophical society had given him the title of the 'World Teacher', though he never accepted such a personality cult status. Yet all his life, subtly he cultivated friends and followers, established school, wrote books and lectured ceaselessly. Perhaps in his own conflicted life and through it, he was able to think of solutions which were applicable in other's lives too.
Much of what K says is today being tauted in a different language in the psychotherapy world. Conditioned thinking is nothing but a neural pathway formed in the brain which the mind conveniently accepts without questioning. Meditation as a means of entering what is present in one self now. Seeing what is, these are ideas that have caught the world's thinkers, ideas suggested by K.
For my part, after seeing the dis-functional ways of the Theosophical Society with their blind and fearful following of traditions, slowly becoming a cult and almost the same happening with the Krishnamurti foundation, it is strange to be left without the anchor of reliable support systems. To be left with one's own meager supply of what is true and beautiful in life. From early school days when i read Ayn Rand and loved her clarity albeit Neitzche inspired philosophy, i seem to need an anchoring of exalted people inside my head. I guess part of growing up is to see that human beings are always flawed. Its only a matter of degree.
