There’s something particularly great watching Jiddu in the first part of this video. He’s so young! While you can hear his “pathless path” ideas starting to form, he’s still very stiff. He’s definitely assured of his message, very much so for such a young buck, but the whole thing is staged so his demeanor reads differently than the “chats” he began to give later in life.

Back then spirituality often came in a suit, and what he’s reading is definitely suit-worthy, as it’s a section from the speech he gave at the Ommen Camp on August 3, 1929 when he dissolved the Order of the Star, an organization of Theosophists set up around Krishnamurti, positioning him as a sort of John the Baptist figure who would usher in the coming messiah. Krishnamurti had all sorts of problems with this and ultimately broke up the whole thing, making some people angry and some people stoked.

To me, much of Krishnamurti’s teachings (ideas of self discovery, pathless paths, his critical stance on religion and sects, etc.) can be traced back to his experiences in that Order.