Followers of Krishnamurti to Gather

Jiddu Krishnamurti was a thinker and a teacher--not, he maintained during his lifetime, a religious leader.

But this weekend, students of Krishnamurti’s many books and tapes will meet for their annual get-together under the oak trees of the Ojai Valley.

The Krishnamurti Foundation will host its two-day Annual Gathering on the campus of Oak Grove School. There, participants will discuss Krishnamurti’s life, his views and his books. They will listen to audiotapes, speakers and break bread together.

Krishnamurti’s teachings are an opening to self-inquiry, said Stephen Smith, a publications editor at the foundation in Ojai and a longtime student of Krishnamurti.

“His teachings point out the structure of our thinking and feeling as these operate within the individual, and also at large, in societies and nations,” Smith said.

Thus, for Krishnamurti, there was no difference between what is happening internally and what is happening externally. In other words, according to Krishnamurti, “You are the world.”

*

Born in India in 1895 and educated in England, Krishnamurti came to Ojai as a young man in 1922. He died in his beloved Ojai in 1986.

Krishnamurti wanted all people to conduct a critical inquiry into their lives, an intellectual inquiry, in which people observe themselves, Smith said. Krishnamurti was disturbed by what he saw as a division in the psyche--how people needed to identify with the group.

“Krishnamurti believed people look too much to external authority and hierarchy,” Smith explained.

Krishnamurti never wanted followers; he was not interested in becoming a cult figure or amassing power, Smith said. He said, “Don’t become my follower--look within yourself.”

And such a philosophy made him hard to categorize, a problem that extends to the foundation, said Smith, who talked while sitting on a bench in the oak grove near the school of the same name that Krishnamurti founded.

“We have no services, no rituals,” Smith said. “Krishnamurti abhorred ritual, in the sense of mindlessly repeating what you’ve been taught.”

Krishnamurti’s goal, Smith believes, was to set men totally, unconditionally free.

During the weekend gathering, Krishnamurti’s many books and audio and videotapes will be discussed and played. Raymond Martin of the University of Maryland will talk today on the “Art of Living.” Mary Cadogan, former secretary of the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust in England, will speak Sunday on “Working with Krishnamurti.”

On Sunday night the gathering will wind down with a benefit friends’ dinner at the Ranch House Restaurant.

The restaurant was started 50 years ago by Alan and Helen Hooker, devotees of Krishnamurti’s philosophy who followed him across the country to Ojai in 1949.

“What drew us to Krishnamurti was that he spoke with such clarity,” said Helen Hooker, now 96 and living nearby. “It threw you back on yourself and made you watch everything very closely and carefully.”

Smith agreed that Krishnamurti believed one must make an inquiry into one’s own life, into its structure. Smith himself immigrated to Ojai some years ago from abroad, as have hundreds of others, “to be in community with like-minded people.”

There are several Krishnamurti foundations worldwide and Smith said their work is “fairly clear--to preserve and disseminate the teachings of Krishnamurti worldwide.”

Toward that goal, a 4,200-square-foot archives building is being constructed on McAndrew Road, among the orange groves of Ojai’s east end. Smith says it will be the major archival facility in the world of Krishnamurti’s work.

Archives director Tom Heggestad said he hopes the new library will be open by the end of the year.

Its site is within feet of the house Krishnamurti came to in 1922 and where he died in 1996. Krishnamurti was cremated on the day of his death and his ashes were scattered around the Ojai Valley, in India and at Brockwood Park in England, near another school he founded.

FYI

The Annual Gathering begins at 10 a.m. today with the introduction of guest speakers on the campus of Oak Grove School, 220 W. Lomita Ave., in Meiners Oaks. On both days, lunch will be available at noon, and afternoon events include a full-length video of a Krishnamurti talk. A participatory dialogue from 3:30 to 5 p.m. is open to all each day. Audiotapes by Krishnamurti will be played in the oak grove from 8:30 to 9:30 both mornings. Today’s schedule will conclude at 5:30 p.m. with a musical and play performed by Oak Grove School students. Sunday’s 6 p.m. benefit dinner at the nearby Ranch House Restaurant is $175. Reservations are available by calling 646-2726, Ext. 15. For information in general, ask for extension 20.