J Krishnamurti

J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) was born in Madanapalle, a small town west of Chennai, to Brahmin parents. In 1909, at the age of fourteen, he was proclaimed as a saviour and subsequently taken to England by Annie Besant. There, he was educated privately and groomed for the role of World Teacher. In 1929, however, he rejected the mantle and disbanded the organization of which he was the head, declaring that he did not want disciples, thereby unleashing a storm of controversy.

A gentle, unassuming teacher, over the next half-century Krishnamurti would travel the world giving public talks and private interviews, inspiring the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru, Aldous Huxley, George Bernard Shaw and the Dalai Lama. The essence of his teaching is that only through a complete change of heart in the individual can there come about a change in society and so peace to the world.

He believed that this radical change could take place in every individual, not gradually but instantaneously. He helps us to see ourselves as we really are, for it is in seeing with absolute clarity that the inward revolution takes place.