For nearly half a century the charismatic,
strikingly handsome spiritual teacher J. Krishnamurti gathered
an enormous following throughout Europe, India, Australia and
North America. From the age of eighteen he was the forerunner
of the type of iconoclasm that would bring immediate fame to cult
figures in the late twentieth century. Yet recent biographies
have left large areas of his life in mystifying darkness.
This, however, is no ordinary study of Krishnamurti, for it is written by one whose earliest memories are dominated by his presence as a doting second father - tolerant of pranks and pets, playful and diligent. For over two idyllic decades in their Ojai Californian haven, where Aldous Huxley and other pacifists found respite during the war years, 'Krinsh', as young Radha called him, developed his philosophical message. He also placed himself at the centre of her parents', Rosalind and Rajagopal's, marriage. Yet no one at the time would have doubted the chaste public image of Krishnamurti. Only when the harmony of Ojai fragmented into acrimony and litigation over other painful issues did it become inevitable that one day the historical record should be set straight.
In a spirit of tenderness, fairness, objective inquiry and no little remorse, the author traces the rise of Krishnamurti from obscurity in India by selection of the Theosophical Society to be the vehicle of a new incarnation of their world teacher. Breaking from Theosophy, Krishnamurti inspired his own following, retaining the dedication of his longtime friend Rajagopal, himself highly educated, to oversee all practicalities and the editing and publication of his writings.
How this bond of trust was breached and became clouded in confusion with a new wave of devoteeism lies at the heart of this extraordinary story. So does a portrait of intense romantic intimacy and the conundrum of Krishnamurti's own complex character.
Radha Rajagopal Sloss was born in Hollywood. She and her husband James now live in Santa Barbara. The author is presently at work on a novel about the Logan family of Pennsylvania.
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"Sloss's achievement in Lives in the Shadow with J. Krishnamurti is to have made him interesting without embalming him in flattery; she is able to do this at least partly because she grew up in his menage in California's Ojai valley, so she saw him every day at his most ordinary. She brings us insights and information that help to flesh out someone who has been projected as a spiritual skeleton by too many biographies....Without ever losing sight of her huge affection for her subject, Sloss is able to look beyond the myth." Times Literary Supplement, London "Radha Sloss has a distinctive voice, which is exactly suited to her material. It is a tone of gentle skepticism that never quite becomes sardonic." London Review of Books "Radha is a uniquely privileged biographer....What she has produced is a riveting, well-written tale of the triangle between Krishnamurti, Rosalind, and Rajagopal, with all the secret passion and jealousy of such triangles." India Today "A moving and illuminating book." London Literay Times "An absorbing, well-written biography...an honest account...the facts it reveals are stranger and more fascinating than any fiction I have read in a long time." Khushwant Singh, The Sunday Magazine, Calcutta |
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