The Life and Death of Krishnamurti by Mary Lutyens

“Krishnamurti’s teaching has come at a critical moment in the world’s history,” claims Lutyens. The popular Indian spiritual teacher/author, who died in 1986, believed global peace might ensue if children were reared without prejudices, nationalisms, competitiveness–even without organised religious faiths. Hoping to awaken people to the dangerous state of the world, he saw complete self-transformation as a precondition for social or political change. In this insightful biographical study, Lutyens ( Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening ) provides a detailed account of the guru’s mystical experiences, his break with theosophy and his associations with David Bohm and Jacob Needleman. In charting Krishnamurti’s metamorphosis from bewildered, “vacant, childish” youth to mature thinker, she illuminates the sources in his personal life from which his philosophy flowed.