Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) was the son of a maid, who worked at the Indian branch of the Theosophical Society in Adyar, a well-known esoteric group founded by the Russian occultist Madame Blavatsky.

Because of his extraordinary intellectual and spiritual abilities, he attracted the attention of Annie Besant, who became president of the Society after Blavatsky's death.

Besant became convinced that Krishnamurti was the reincarnation of the World Teacher, a figure like Buddha and Jesus, and in 1911 she founded the Order of the Eastern Star, an organization that welcomed all who recognized such qualities in Krishnamurti.

It is known that the Order of the Eastern Star prospered and came to number over one hundred thousand members, even though Rudolf Steiner, a well-known theosophist of the time, left the Society along with others because of Besant's claims, which he considered rather eccentric.

In 1929, Besant decided that the time had come for Krishnamurti, as the messiah, to begin his public ministry. A large gathering of members of the Order was organized in Ommen, Holland.

There, on August 3, Krishnamurti stepped onto the stage, looked down at the thousands of adoring followers in front of him, and uttered a statement of lofty philosophical and spiritual significance: "Truth is a pathless land, and no World Teacher or anyone else can help you reach it."

He concluded his speech by dissolving the Order of the Eastern Star, thus dashing Besant's dreams and hopes.

Despite his claim that he was not the World Master, he had a long career as a teacher of spiritual philosophy.

The Theosophical Society lost the importance and influence it had originally possessed; the cause of this was that, like Spiritualism, it had invested excessively in claims later proven false, and had consequently shrunk to a tiny percentage of its former size.

References

John Michael Greer, The Occult Book: A Chronological Journey from Alchemy to Wicca (Originally published: 2017)