2019

A belated New Year post after the wifi and alcohol free retreat at Brockwood Park ... wonderful connections, new perspectives, fresh information ...  and the simple, clean, warm Centre a welcome respite from house half finished, albeit habitable for one with low standards ... however, a small room upstairs provides a sanctuary for study between morning and afternoon walks ... Mary Zimbalist's "In the Presence of Krishnamurti" providing fascinating glimpses of the prophet and his teachings ... a detective story in itself, appropriate since K and Mary enjoyed reading novels in that genre, as the life they led, travelling between  California, Switzerland, India and England, giving talks to thousands of devotees ... the following that K explicitly warned against consistently ever since quitting the Theosophical Society in 1929 ... having been discovered by Charles Leadbeater and Annie Besant on a beach in India, recognised as the long awaited World Teacher, surrounded by wealthy aristocrats, educated and groomed for his destiny ... naturally many TS folks were not amused, though some stuck with K and others hedged their bets ... hardly surprising if your whole social circle revolves around that esoteric life ...

Mary Z was a relative latecomer, without TS conditioning, and attracted to K's teachings in California before becoming married to Sam Zimbalist, the film director and producer ... a few years after his death she became closer to K and spent the last 17 years of his life dedicated to taking care of him, as companion, administrator, housekeeper and friend ... herself from a wealthy family, she was able to take up the mission without worrying about money, which was just as well, since K's years with Annie Besant, Emily Lutyens and others left him with expensive tastes in clothes, cars and fine food, albeit vegetarian ... none of which infers ego, since he was just about universally recognised as being without one ... simplicity has various levels ...

Much of the book details the long legal battle with renegade TS folks who had control of K's early writings ... Rajagopal and his estranged wife Rosalind, both living in California ... the virulence of these two towards K is only partly explained by the financial aspects of case - copyright issues and lack of transparency in accounting for charitable funds ... what is not mentioned by Mary is the love affair between K and Rosalind, a startling omission and perhaps an attempt to conceal such carnal matters for the sake of K's reputation ... though he never proclaimed celibacy or promoted it as a necessary element in the spiritual life ...

Anyway, the tale continues, Mary Lutyen's three volume biography of K arrives, internet searches reveal other aspects and the detective story unfolds ... not leading to any particular conclusion, least of all about Rosalind, but fascinating to follow the journey of one sometimes referred to as the reincarnated Buddha ...