One of the questions that frequently comes up is the views of
Krishnaji about theosophy, Theosophical Society and Masters. Some
information has come out in a recently published book by Sunanda
Patwardhan. I am excerpting/quoting some of it, which some will find
interesting.
During a discussion on December 25, 1980,
the question was "What does it mean to say that Krishnaji went through
the Theosophical phrase without being affected? Was he really untouched
by Theosophy, although he used idioms, ideas, and definitions similar
to those of Theosophists? Is it correct to say that what is
Theosophical is not just Theosophical, because it is equally Buddhist,
Christian, and so on, and so no denominational conditioning went with
it? When Krishnaji wrote *At the Feet of the Master*, was he
conditioned by his Theosophical training?"
Krishnaji responded:
"I am not conditioned by the teaching, I mean this, it came in
and it came out. Sir, I would say that they tried to condition me; they
tried to say that this is the line you are going to take. They tried to
induce me to accept their church, canons, and all that." Then he added
after a moment of reflection "K had that original thing in Ojai, but he
was still within the idiom of Theosophy. I would not call that
conditioning. He was learning the languages. I can assure you that none
of that mattered. All that thing never touched that boy."
To the question that he never denied there are Masters, he
replied
"What you think of the Master is not what it is. They
personalized something immense into personalities." When one questioner
insisted that the belief in Masters was a fundamental part of
Theosophy, K responded:
"Listen to what he (K) was saying. He says C W Leadbeater and
H P Blavatsky made Masters into something personal. There was certainly
a Master here, a Master there, and so on. That was part of Theosophy.
But they reduced that immensity to this shoddy little affair."
A questioner again posed "It is one thing to say, Don't deny
immensity,' but it is another thing to say you accept the immensity in
Theosophical terms."
K's reply was "Just a minute, Would you grant that the boy
was vague, vacant, totally lost, not there? You came along CWL or
Besant. You came along and saw the boy had something, you picked the
boy up, put him between the two leaders with his brother, and they pour
this thing into him every night meditation, going to the Masters. The
boy repeats all that. It was poured in and poured out."
K continued "Now, I would say a totally independent experience
took place at Ojai, you follow? That was original, independent, away
from the ambience, away from the influence, away from everything that
they put into him. Right? But he was still within the idiom of
Theosophy, he broke away ultimately. That's all."