Theos-Talk Archives (March 2009 Message tt00338)

Wheaton, March 13, 2009

Just received:

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11 -3 -2009

Noted enlightened spiritual thinker & social teacher Vimala Thakar left this world at Mt. Abu today morning at the age of 86. She was unwell for almost a fortnight and she had stopped taking medicines for a week or so.

She was born on April 15, 1923. She was associated with Gandhiji, Vinobha Bhave and J. Krishnamurti in her earlier days had a very large global following. Journalist and social thinker Vishnu Pandya who has been associated with Vimla for long said that there were friends of Vimla groups in 60 countries where people practice her meditation technique.

Vimala had organized over 200 youth camps in Gujarat alone. In 1960, Thakar attended talks given by the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. Later she met this great philosopher. This meeting changed her life. She dedicated herself to teaching meditation and philosophy. 

For the next two decades, she traveled between India, the U.S. and Europe, teaching and giving talks on spirituality. After 1979, she curtailed her travel outside India, and her teachings emphasize balancing 'inner' spiritual development with 'outer' social development. Most of the time lived in Mt. Abu. 

The Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi has expresses grief over her death.

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For a first-person account of someone going through Krishnamurti's mode of transformation read Vimala Thakar's "On an Eternal Voyage." This autobiography is one of the most telling stories which might either confirm or refute the feasibility of K's inner revolution depending on one's assessment of the role played by Krishnamurti himself in that process. Ms. Thakar thought K played an essential role, not unlike a classic guru, who on a crucial point helps the disciple go through a transformation or initiation. As she shared that interpretation with the world through her biography K broke off relations as he explicitly did not agree with that view. Obviously her account challenged his philosophy to the core. 

Govert


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