Lives in the Shadow with J. Krishnamurti [Paperback]

Radha Rajagopal Sloss's unique book is something of an unofficial biography of 20th century philosopher J. Krishnamurti and the events surrounding his career as a religious/philosophical teacher. The daughter of Rosalind Williams Rajagopal and husband D. Rajagopal, Radha Rajagopal Sloss's book is not a sordid expose, it is not graphic or insulting. It is simply a sincere account of her very real experiences growing up in amazing circumstances among amazing people. There is a lot of information here which isn't included in "official" biographies of philosopher J. Krishnamurti, which helps the reader get a better idea of the politics and humanness which even great men may be affected by. Author Sloss in fact, mentioned this tendancy of official biographies to ignore or excuse certain parts of Krishnamurti's life as a reason for penning this work.

Some of the controversy this book generated is due to the fact that certain students and followers of Krishnamurti believe that he was a living example of a perfect human. This volume disspells that myth, indeed, he looks quite human throughout this writing. It was interesting to find how Krishnamurti dealt with some of his biggest stressors, including financial disagreements with friend D. Rajagopal, and the pregnancy (by him) of his dear lover Rosalind Williams Rajagopal. Radha describes her love of "Krinsh" (Krishnamurti), who was like a second father to her, and how his increasing unwillingness to deal with problems damaged many relationships and people. Included are numerous letters to and from Krishnamurti, D. Rajagopal and Rosaling Rajagopal, and numerous other individuals who were active on the Theosophical movement or Krishnamurti's teachings. A very worthwhile read for anyone with an interest in history, philosophy, or the full history of J. Krishnamurti.

Actualy I would give this only 2-and-a-half-stars. I've read several K biographies, including this one and the response to this book by Mary Lutyens, "Krishnamurti and the Rajagopals." Like all the other biographies, this one, too, is helpful yet biased and highly incomplete. Sloss essentially gets almost all her facts (apparently) from her mother's version of the story, who obviously has a highly biased viewpoint. Sloss makes no attempts to get independent verification of most of her claims, although Lutyens and others admit to the basic fact that K *did* have a several-decade-long love (including sexual) relationship with Sloss's mother. But it's the details of that relationship that are in dispute. I'm very familiar with K's teaching on sexuality. He *never* claimed to be chaste nor taught *sexual* chastity, but rather a 'chastity" (purity) of mind. For him, sex was like any other desire--it's not a problem until we "make it a problem" such as by craving it, needing it, obsessing over it, demanding exclusivity with possessiveness, etc. So I see absolutely no inconsistency between his teachings and him having a sexual relationship with someone (or more than one person for that matter). As for the dispute between K and Sloss's father, Sloss's bias is blatant, such as she leaves out any explanation why her father insisted on bringing new lawsuits against K (such as a multi-million dollar defamation suit), she offers no explanation as to why her father was trying to keep control for himself over the recording of what were K's own teachings, and she doesn't offer any explanations for the allegations of embezzled funds which is why K and his new foundations were sueing Rajagopal to begin with (to recover the moneys). This book cannot be read without also reading Lutyen's book in response to this one "Krishnamurti and the Rajagopals" which shows, I think effectively, that Rajagopal had some serious emotional issues such as intense jealousy over K, which led to his obssessive attempts at controlling both the monies and the teachings themselves. So it's important for me to emphasize that when one looks at the best available evidence, from piecemealing together the facts from this book and others, that there seems to be *no* inconsistency yet that has been clearly shown between K's teachings and his life. Which is to say, looking at all the available evidence objectively as one can, it seems that K *did* live the teachings. *However*, unfortunately, one who wishes to understand K's life must do this sleuth work oneself. The biographies of K's "followers" like Lutyens and others are equally or even more biased as their biographies include almost no mention, let alone discussion, of the relationship between K and the Rajagopals, which clearly were some of the most major and important relationships K had during his lifetime. This would be like a biography of Lincoln that leaves out the civil war and it's impact on the man! It's inexcusable that anyone claiming to writee a biography of K would leave out all this major information shedding insight on Krisnahmurti and his life, especially when they themselves admit they knew much of this information at the time they wrote his biography! So the world still awaits a biography that gives a full, complete, detailed, honest and objective account of the entirety of K's life, rather than merely one person's limited recollection and perspective. Such a book would, I believe, clearly and unbiasedly show that a decades-long love affair and numerous lawsuits with Rajagopal in no way demonstrated a lack of K living his own teachings. I anxiously await such a biography.

I read this book many years ago and was quite shattered by it. It paints a vastly different picture of Krishnamurti the man than the one we are presented in the comparitively hagiographical accounts of Lutyens et al. However over time my view has changed. Krishnamurti never encouraged followers or worshippers of himself or anyone else. He never extolled chastity as an ideal and had a relatively liberal attitude to sexual relations. So I no longer feel that this account makes him a hypocrite. Also the author is plainly, clearly biased. She has an ax to grind and a score to settle. This, obviously, affects the entire account. Finally, however, the lesson is - don't project your ideal of perfection on ANYONE. It is reassuring for us to have a hero, someone we can tell ourselves has 'made it' and whose accomplishments we can hope to emulate. Well, don't! Krishnamurti himself always deprecated this. Much or even most of what he taught still stands. Just don't expect anything from it - which is a major part of the teaching. The hard part of modern spirituality is NOT to have beliefs WITHOUT falling into nihilism or materialism. This book is part of that hard teaching. There is the 'middle way' between the extremes of adulation, on one hand, and cynicism, on the other. This is what we must find. [If that sounds Buddhist, it is.]

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 29 reviews  3.0 out of 5 stars