Dans cette période troublée où nous ne savons plus à quels saints nous fier, Krishnamurti nous rappelle combien il est important, indispensable de rester notre propre maître. Voici le discours qu'il fit le 2 Août 1929 pour dissoudre l'Ordre de l'Etoile dont il était le Chef. C'est certainement le seul exemple dans l'histoire des religions qu'un être renonce à gouverner un mouvement tout à lui dévoué pour annoncer que la Vérité n'est pas dans les religions, dans les mouvements spirituels traditionnels, dans les sectes. Une telle révolution était de surcroît incroyable à cette époque, on était pas en 1968 à Paris!
Tel est cet homme simple et exceptionnel! Mais sans plus attendre, goûtez à ce texte révolutionnaire, laissé dans sa version d'origine. GO !
The Order of the Star in the East was founded in
1911 to proclaim the coming of the World Teacher. Krishnamurti was
made Head of the Order. On August 2, 1929, the opening day of the
annual Star Camp at Ommen, Holland, Krishnamurti dissolved the Order
before 3000 members. Below is the full text of the talk he gave on
that occasion. What he said then is equally valid today.
We are going to discuss this morning the dissolution of
the Order of the Star. Many people will be delighted, and others will be
rather sad. It is a question neither for rejoicing nor for sadness,
because it is inevitable, as I am going to explain.
You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend
of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man
stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it
away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, "What did that man
pick up?" "He picked up a piece of Truth," said the devil. "That is a
very bad business for you, then," said his friend. "Oh, not at all," the
devil replied, "I am going to let him organize it."
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot
approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That
is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and
unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable
by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization
be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you
first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to
organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you
cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead,
crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on
others. This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do.
Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak, for
those who are only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought
down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You
cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley. If you would attain to the
mountain-top you must pass through the valley, climb the steeps,
unafraid of the dangerous precipices. You must climb towards the Truth,
it cannot be "stepped down" or organized for you. Interest in ideas is
mainly sustained by organizations, but organizations only awaken
interest from without. Interest, which is not born out of love of Truth
for its own sake, but aroused by an organization, is of no value. The
organization becomes a framework into which its members can conveniently
fit. They no longer strive after Truth or the mountain-top, but rather
carve for themselves a convenient niche in which they put themselves, or
let the organization place them, and consider that the organization will
thereby lead them to Truth.
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
organizations searching for Truth. I do not want to belong to any
organization of a spiritual kind, please understand this. I would make
use of an organization which would take me to London, for example; this
is quite a different kind of organization, 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 organization can lead man
to spirituality.
If an organization 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 organization 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 realization 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 any thing 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 organization around that authority. By the
very creation of that organization, 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 organized, 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, more dangerous to every Society which is based on the false and the unessential? In what way have the members of this organization 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 organization
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, how many trivial things. Your prejudices, your fears,
your authorities, 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,
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 organization?
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 organization?
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 1,
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 organization based on
spiritual belief. Why have an organization 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 organization to help
them to find the Truth, because Truth is in everyone; it is not far, it
is not near; it is eternally there.
Organizations cannot make you free. No man from outside
can make you free; nor can organized worship, nor the immolation of
yourselves for a cause, make you free; nor can forming yourselves into
an organization, nor throwing yourselves into works, make you free. You
use a typewriterto write letters, but you do not put it on an altar and
worship it. But that is what you are doing when organizations 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 organization?
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 organization?
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 organizations 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.
Jiddhu Krishnamurti.
go on ? >>> Talks in
Poona in 1958 !
Krishnamurti's quotes
Another talk : A Dialogue with
oneself 1977
Vous préférez le français, finalement
? (Dernier journal)
Vous pouvez également découvrir un groupement
d'étude de Krishnamurti,