The Hindu Business Line : Mystical abode

Celebrating 75 years of Vasanta Vihar, home of the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurthi who believed a relationship with nature is the first step towards self-knowledge.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

S. Ramachander

Greenways Road on the northern bank of the Adyar river is the perfect name for a leafy garden suburb. And Vasanta Vihar, meaning the abode of spring, the perfect setting for the home of the Krishnamurti Foundation India.

Dr Annie Besant, as President of the Theosophical Society, bought the bungalow as the permanent residence of the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. Diagonally across is the headquarters of the Society, on the opposite bank of the river, where the clairvoyant C.W. Leadbeater discovered Krishnamurti a century ago. Concerned that the unworldly young man should have a roof over his head, Dr Besant bought the property — despite his having formally rejected the role of a World Teacher which the Theosophists had conferred on him. It stands, 75 years later, as testimony to the bond between the spiritual son and caring mother.

In the first week of January, Vasanta Vihar saw a special Open House, a quiet, dignified event, in marked contrast to the rising promotional cacophony of competing events of the season that dominates the city air. As one entered the spacious compound, the sheer abundance of old and sprawling evergreen trees and a lawn, around a wide pond, calmed the mind to a slower, measured beat. The two-day event captured the history of the man in wonderful visuals, as well as his message and went beyond them.

There were short video-screenings of his many talks and dialogues, a photo-exhibition and display of his books and recorded tapes. The photographs were accompanied by carefully selected quotations both from and about K (as he used to refer to himself) reaching back across nine decades. Born in 1895, an eight child, in the obscurity of small-town Madanapalle, Krishnamurti’s unusual destiny was foretold by astrologers.

He would have remained unknown but for his father moving to Madras to the Theosophical Society. The period of grooming in Europe as a future Messiah, the breakthrough to an independent path for himself and the varied travels and meetings all over the world for the next six decades are all captured in well-produced and candid photographs.

Master to sage

Some of them show the young master, and later the mature sage seated on the dais addressing mass audiences who followed him wherever he went. Many of the words and pictures were drawn from the archives, and various books written by many of his close associates. Besides the fascinating chronology of an unusual life, never very far from the mysterious and the mystic, there are pictures of a day in the life of a sage. Watering the garden, playing with children, carrying the breakfast tray, writing letters, or sitting or standing alone in the characteristic stance of un-posed awareness, not so much lost in thought, as in its blissful absence. Some show him in private moments of candid intimacy with children, friends and above all with Nature — amidst the mountains and trees that he loved so much.

Nature first

To a man who said that to live was to be related, the beginning of all self-knowledge was to be in touch with Nature first. To have a feeling for the tree, the river, the stream, the blade of grass or flower is the beginning. When you can have a relationship with a tree, seeing it without the word or description, then you can learn to have such a relationship with another human being.

The Foundation is certainly charged with an almost impossible question: how to open up the teachings of the great religious philosopher whose very essence was the negation of all authority and proselytising in matters concerning the sacred. “I am not your guru, you are not my followers” was a favourite and emphatic statement of his.

And yet, to the person who wants to seek an end to his sorrow, to go to the roots of it and to set himself “absolutely, unconditionally free” from the past and the limitations of self-centred thought and action, there is a bounty here that defies all classification.

Novel attempt

To make the treasure available to those who genuinely want to partake of it, the event was a novel attempt — and was very enthusiastically received, especially by the younger, professional age group who are seeking a way of life that brings some sense and order into an otherwise frenzied drive for material and money.

To each of us, as we wandered through the dappled light of a pleasantly sunny January day following two days of unusual downpour, the verdure and serenity pointed the way to the task that too is evergreen and never quite done.