Theos-Talk Archives (May 2000 Message tt00295)

> From Dr Gregory Tillett:
Dear Mr Green: Thank you for your e-mail. I can recall quite
well the contexts in which Mary Lutyens told me that
Krishnamurti had said to her: ³Leadbeater was evil.² I noted he
remark carefully because I considered it then - and now - to be
such an odd comment. There were two occasions, which I condensed
into the statement on page 10 of my biography.

I undertook some of my research for ³The Elder Brother² in
London in 1978 and 1979. Mary was extremely generous in his
assistance to me, giving me access to her mother¹s papers and
her own collection of material. She was, as is generally known,
a devoted disciple of Krishnamurti: it may be that he or she
would consider the world ³disciple² ideologically incorrect, but
I can use no other, having heard Mary talk for many hours about
Krishnamurti. Knowing that Krishnamurti either said he could not
remember his past, or did not want to do so, I had made no
attempt to contact him, and did not raise the matter with Mary.
She, however, raised it with me, and told me that she thought I
should meet Krishnamurti, and offered to ask him if he would
allow me to interview him when he was in England. I do not
recall the date of that conversation (although it will be
recorded in my own research notes somewhere). Then, in August,
1979, I met with Mary for further discussions and she told me
she had made the request to Krishnamurti. Again, I do not recall
whether he was in England or she has spoken or written to him.
She then told me he was happy to speak with me, but that he
would not speak at all about Leadbeater. Mary said Krishnamurti
then stated: ³Leadbeater was evil.² She said he would not
discuss the matter further.

I returned to Australia at the beginning of 1980, undertook
further research, and began work on the biography. I continued
to correspond with Mary and, when I finally completed the
manuscript (which was, alas, some three times the size of the
published book), Mary offered to read the whole work, commenting
on and annotating it. My publisher, Routledge, were of course
delighted, and copied the manuscript for her. Mary read the
manuscript with extraordinary care, and her carefully annotated
work came back to me to assist in revision and reduction. The
book was published in 1982 (I do not recall the exact date) and,
at my request, Routledge sent a copy to Mary. She wrote to me
very soon thereafter, congratulating me on the book. She later
wrote saying she had told Krishnamurti that the biography had
been published and asked if he wished to read he; she wrote to
me that he again said ³Leadbeater was evil² and that even
thinking of him or hearing his name was distasteful to him. Mary
told me that Krishnamurti declined to discuss the matter
further.

Mr Sanat, who seems incapable of rational thought or accurate
quotation when it comes to ³The Elder Brother², alleges in the
e-mail you sent me that Krishnamurti made these comments to Mary
³when she was writing K¹s biography². If he consults page 10 of
³The Elder Brother² he will read: ³To Mary Lutyens, when told
about this biography and asked for his comments.....². Mr Sanat
also ignores the previous two sentences, which recall several
occasions on which Krishnamurti was asked his opinion of Besant,
Leadbeater, Arundale, Jinarajadasa and others, and replied that
³The only sincere one was Mrs Besant.² This has been published,
I believe, in one of Mary¹s books. I also have it in letters
from one of those who was present. I know of no occasion - after
the collapse of The Coming - on which Krishnamurti defended
Leadbeater.

I have no interpretation to offer as to (i) whether Krishnamurti
made the statements to Mary reported to me by Mary (although I
would find it difficult to believe she was dishonest) or (ii) if
he did make the statements, what he meant.

I would note, by way of addition, that there is not a claim or a
statement made in ³The Elder Brother² which was identified as
erroneous or misleading by Mary Lutyens. A number of minor
factual errors identified by her when she read the original
manuscript were corrected prior to publication.


[Forwarded to theos-talk from Dr. Gregory Tillett.]
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