Truth is a Pathless Land
by Jiddu Krishnamurti
The Order of the Star in the East was founded in 1911 to
proclaim the coming of the World Teacher. Krishnamurti was made Head of the
Order. On August 3, 1929, the opening day of the annual Star Camp at Ommen,
Holland, Krishnamurti dissolved the Order before 3000 members. Below is the
full text of the talk he gave on that occasion.
Krishnamurti Online: Truth is a Pathless Land
Jiddu Krishnamurti
We are going to discuss this morning the dissolution of the Order of the Star. Many people will be delighted, and others will be rather sad. It is a question neither for rejoicing nor for sadness, because it is inevitable, as I am going to explain. You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, “What did that man pick up?” “He picked up a piece of Truth,” said the devil. “That is a very bad business for you, then,” said his friend. “Oh, not at all,” the devil replied, “I am going to let him organize it."
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot
approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my
point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth,
being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot
be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people
along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how
impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter,
and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead,
crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others.
This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do. Truth is
narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak, for those who are
only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the
individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the
mountain-top to the valley. If you would attain to the mountain-top you must
pass through the valley, climb the steeps, unafraid of the dangerous
precipices.
So that is the first reason, from my point of view, why the
Order of the Star should be dissolved. In spite of this, you will probably form
other Orders, you will continue to belong to other organizations searching for
Truth. I do not want to belong to any organization of a spiritual kind, please
understand this. I would make use of an organization which would take me to
London, for example; this is quite a different kind of organization, merely
mechanical, like the post or the telegraph. I would use a motor car or a
steamship to travel, these are only physical mechanisms which have nothing
whatever to do with spirituality. Again, I maintain that no organization can
lead man to spirituality.
If an organization be created for this purpose, it becomes a
crutch, a weakness, a bondage, and must cripple the individual, and prevent him
from growing, from establishing his uniqueness, which lies in the discovery for
himself of that absolute, unconditioned Truth. So that is another reason why I
have decided, as I happen to be the Head of the Order, to dissolve it. No one
has persuaded me to this decision. This is no magnificent deed, because I do
not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to
follow Truth. I am not concerned whether you pay attention to what I say or
not. I want to do a certain thing in the world and I am going to do it with
unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing:
to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not
to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new
philosophies. Then you will naturally ask me why I go the world over,
continually speaking. I will tell you for what reason I do this: not because I
desire a following, not because I desire a special group of special disciples.
(How men love to be different from their fellow-men, however ridiculous, absurd
and trivial their distinctions may be! I do not want to encourage that absurdity.)
I have no disciples, no apostles, either on earth or in the realm of
spirituality. Nor is it the lure of money, nor the desire to live a comfortable
life, which attracts me. If I wanted to lead a comfortable life I would not
come to a Camp or live in a damp country! I am speaking frankly because I want
this settled once and for all. I do not want these childish discussions year
after year.
One newspaper reporter, who interviewed me, considered it a
magnificent act to dissolve an organization in which there were thousands and
thousands of members. To him it was a great act because, he said: “What will
you do afterwards, how will you live? You will have no following, people will
no longer listen to you.” If there are only five people who will listen, who
will live, who have their faces turned towards eternity, it will be sufficient.
Of what use is it to have thousands who do not understand, who are fully
embalmed in prejudice, who do not want the new, but would rather translate the
new to suit their own sterile, stagnant selves? If I speak strongly, please do
not misunderstand me, it is not through lack of compassion. If you go to a
surgeon for an operation, is it not kindness on his part to operate even if he
cause you pain? So, in like manner, if I speak straightly, it is not through
lack of real affection–on the contrary.
As I have said, I have only one purpose: to make man free,
to urge him towards freedom, to help him to break away from all limitations,
for that alone will give him eternal happiness, will give him the unconditioned
realization of the self.
Because I am free, unconditioned, whole–not the part, not
the relative, but the whole Truth that is eternal–I desire those, who seek to
understand me to be free; not to follow me, not to make out of me a cage which
will become a religion, a sect. Rather should they be free from all fears–from
the fear of religion, from the fear of salvation, from the fear of
spirituality, from the fear of love, from the fear of death, from the fear of
life itself. As an artist paints a picture because he takes delight in that
painting, because it is his self-expression, his glory, his well-being, so I do
this and not because I want anything from anyone. You are accustomed to
authority, or to the atmosphere of authority, which you think will lead you to
spirituality. You think and hope that another can, by his extraordinary
powers--a miracle–transport you to this realm of eternal freedom which is
Happiness. Your whole outlook on life is based on that authority.
You have listened to me for three years now, without any
change taking place except in the few. Now analyze what I am saying, be
critical, so that you may understand thoroughly, fundamentally. When you look
for an authority to lead you to spirituality, you are bound automatically to
build an organization around that authority. By the very creation of that
organization, which, you think, will help this authority to lead you to
spirituality, you are held in a cage.
If I talk frankly, please remember that I do so, not out of
harshness, not out of cruelty, not out of the enthusiasm of my purpose, but
because I want you to understand what I am saying. That is the reason why you
are here, and it would be a waste of time if I did not explain clearly,
decisively, my point of view. For eighteen years you have been preparing for
this event, for the Coming of the World Teacher. For eighteen years you have
organized, you have looked for someone who would give a new delight to your
hearts and minds, who would transform your whole life, who would give you a new
understanding; for someone who would raise you to a new plane of life, who
would give you a new encouragement, who would set you free–and now look what is
happening! Consider, reason with yourselves, and discover in what way that
belief has made you different–not with the superficial difference of the
wearing of a badge, which is trivial, absurd. In what manner has such a belief
swept away all the unessential things of life? That is the only way to judge:
in what way are you freer, greater, more dangerous to every Society which is
based on the false and the unessential? In what way have the members of this
organization of the Star become different? As I said, you have been preparing
for eighteen years for me. I do not care if you believe that I am the
World–Teacher or not. That is of very little importance. Since you belong to
the organization of the Order of the Star, you have given your sympathy, your
energy, acknowledging that Krishnamurti is the World–Teacher– partially or
wholly: wholly for those who are really seeking, only partially for those who
are satisfied with their own half-truths.
You have been preparing for eighteen years, and look how
many difficulties there are in the way of your understanding, how many complications,
how many trivial things. Your prejudices, your fears, your authorities, your
churches new and old–all these, I maintain, are a barrier to understanding. I
cannot make myself clearer than this. I do not want you to agree with me, I do
not want you to follow me, I want you to understand what I am saying. This
understanding is necessary because your belief has not transformed you but only
complicated you, and because you are not willing to face things as they are.
You want to have your own gods–new gods instead of the old, new religions
instead of the old, new forms instead of the old–all equally valueless, all
barriers, all limitations, all crutches. Instead of old spiritual distinctions
you have new spiritual distinctions, instead of old worships you have new
worships. You are all depending for your spirituality on someone else, for your
happiness on someone else, for your enlightenment on someone else; and although
you have been preparing for me for eighteen years, when I say all these things
are unnecessary, when I say that you must put them all away and look within
yourselves for the enlightenment, for the glory, for the purification, and for
the incorruptibility of the self, not one of you is willing to do it. There may
be a few, but very, very few. So why have an organization?
Why have false, hypocritical people following me, the
embodiment of Truth? Please remember that I am not saying something harsh or
unkind, but we have reached a situation when you must face things as they are.
I said last year that I would not compromise. Very few listened to me then.
This year I have made it absolutely clear. I do not know how many thousands
throughout the world–members of the Order–have been preparing for me for
eighteen years, and yet now they are not willing to listen unconditionally,
wholly, to what I say.
As I said before, my purpose is to make men unconditionally
free, for I maintain that the only spirituality is the incorruptibility of the
self which is eternal, is the harmony between reason and love. This is the
absolute, unconditioned Truth which is Life itself. I want therefore to set man
free, rejoicing as the bird in the clear sky, unburdened, independent, ecstatic
in that freedom . And I, for whom you have been preparing for eighteen years, now
say that you must be free of all these things, free from your complications,
your entanglements. For this you need not have an organization based on
spiritual belief. Why have an organization for five or ten people in the world
who understand, who are struggling, who have put aside all trivial things? And
for the weak people, there can be no organization to help them to find the
Truth, because Truth is in everyone; it is not far, it is not near; it is
eternally there.
Organizations cannot make you free. No man from outside can
make you free; nor can organized worship, nor the immolation of yourselves for
a cause, make you free; nor can forming yourselves into an organization, nor
throwing yourselves into works, make you free. You use a typewriter to write
letters, but you do not put it on an altar and worship it. But that is what you
are doing when organizations become your chief concern.
"How many members are there in it?” That is the first
question I am asked by all newspaper reporters. “How many followers have you?
By their number we shall judge whether what you say is true or false.” I do not
know how many there are. I am not concerned with that. As I said, if there were
even one man who had been set free, that were enough.
Again, you have the idea that only certain people hold the
key to the Kingdom of Happiness. No one holds it. No one has the authority to
hold that key. That key is your own self, and in the development and the
purification and in the incorruptibility of that self alone is the Kingdom of
Eternity.
So you will see how absurd is the whole structure that you
have built, looking for external help, depending on others for your comfort,
for your happiness, for your strength. These can only be found within
yourselves.
You are accustomed to being told how far you have advanced,
what is your spiritual status. How childish! Who but yourself can tell you if
you are beautiful or ugly within? Who but yourself can tell you if you are
incorruptible? You are not serious in these things.
But those who really desire to understand, who are looking
to find that which is eternal, without beginning and without an end, will walk
together with a greater intensity, will be a danger to everything that is
unessential, to unrealities, to shadows. And they will concentrate, they will
become the flame, because they understand. Such a body we must create, and that
is my purpose. Because of that real understanding there will be true
friendship. Because of that true friendship–which you do not seem to know–there
will be real cooperation on the part of each one. And this not because of
authority, not because of salvation, not because of immolation for a cause, but
because you really understand, and hence are capable of living in the eternal.
This is a greater thing than all pleasure, than all sacrifice.
So these are some of the reasons why, after careful
consideration for two years, I have made this decision. It is not from a
momentary impulse. I have not been persuaded to it by anyone. I am not persuaded
in such things. For two years I have been thinking about this, slowly,
carefully, patiently, and I have now decided to disband the Order, as I happen
to be its Head. You can form other organizations and expect someone else. With
that I am not concerned, nor with creating new cages, new decorations for those
cages. My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free.