Theos-Talk Archives (November 2006 Message tt01355)

What happened to the original manuscript of ?At The Feet of the Master??

There was no ?original manuscript? of ?At The Feet of The Master? in the
strict sense. Krishnamurti is said to have ?laboriously? (because his
English was not good) written down notes each morning of what he recalled
of the Master?s teachings on the astral plane the previous night.
Eventually, Leadbeater typed these out, and (he said) took them to the
Master for ?editing?, and to the Lord Maitreya for approval. It was then
printed as a book at Mrs Besant?s direction in December, 1910. A specially
bound edition was sent to the Master KH to be placed in the ?Occult
Museum?: it was placed under Krishnamurti?s pillow one night before he
went to sleep, and by the morning it has disappeared.

As to the authorship of the book, Krishnamurti (Alcyone) never claimed it;
at most he claimed to have written down the words, in note form, of his
Master. Leadbeater compiled the notes and the Master edited them. However,
in real terms, I think there is little doubt that the book was the work of
Leadbeater. This was the opinion of Ernest Wood (who had been present when
it was produced), Lady Emily Lutyens (probably Krishnamurti?s closest
friend) and Dick Balfour-Clarke (one of Krishnamurti?s companions at the
time the book was supposedly written). Balfour-Clarke believed that
Leadbeater had based the book on the ?Viveka-Chudamani? (?Crest-Jewel of
Wisdom?) of Samkaracarya (788-838). This had been translated by Mohini
Chatterji in the early days of the TS, and the translation was published
in ?The Theosophist? between 1885 and 1888. It was only published in book
form in 1932.

Dr Gregory Tillett