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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 organisations
searching for Truth. I do not want to belong to any
organisation of a spiritual kind, please understand
this. I would make use of an organisation which
would take me to London, for example; this is quite
a different kind of organisation, 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 organisation can lead man to
spirituality.
If an organisation 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
organisation 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 realisation 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 organisation around that authority. By the very
creation of that organisation, 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 organised, 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, and more dangerous to every
Society which is based on the false and the
unessential? In what way have the members of this
organisation 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 organisation 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, and how
many trivial things. Your prejudices, your fears,
your authorities, and 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,
and 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 organisation?
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.
So why have an organisation?
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
organisation based on spiritual belief. Why have an
organisation 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 organisation to help them to find
the Truth, because Truth is in everyone; it is not
far, it is not near; it is eternally there.
Organisations cannot make you free. No man from
outside can make you free; nor can organised
worship, nor the immolation of yourselves for a
cause, make you free; nor can forming yourselves
into an organisation, 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
organisations 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.
So why have an organisation?
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.
So why have an organisation?
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
organisations 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.
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