Order of the Star in the East
The Order of the Star in the East ( Order of the Star of the East or Order of the Star in the East ) was a theosophical organization to promote and support Jiddu Krishnamurti as the coming world teacher or Maitreya . It existed from 1911 to 1927. Its predecessor was the Order of the Rising Sun from 1910 to 1911 , its successor from 1927 to 1929 the Order of the Star . The order was the impetus, but not the cause, of Rudolf Steiner's separation from the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG) and the founding of the Anthroposophical Society, and after its dissolution led to a serious crisis for the Adyar-TG.
history
prehistory
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky wrote in 1889 in the closing words of her work The Key to Theosophy about the future of the Theosophical Society. There it said:
“(...) apart from the fact that there is a large literature accessible to all, the next impulse will find a large, united community of people who are ready to welcome the new torchbearer of truth. He will find the minds of the people prepared for his message, a suitable language in which to clothe the new truth that he brings, and an organization that awaits his arrival and that will remove the purely mechanical material obstacles and difficulties from the Will clear away. "
The "impulse" and the "torchbearer of truth" meant Maitreya , the coming world teacher for the Aquarian Age. The “great united community” and the “organization” should represent the Theosophical Society . In a free rendering, the text read: The new world teacher Maitreya will come and find the Theosophical Society. The theosophists have meanwhile prepared mankind for his arrival and are now paving the way for him to fulfill his task of proclaiming the message of truth. Because of these words, a number of theosophists, including Charles Webster Leadbeater and Annie Besant , awaited the arrival of Maitreya.
In May 1909, Leadbeater “discovered” a 14-year-old Indian boy on Adyar Beach , whose aura should be unusually pure - Jiddu Krishnamurti . Leadbeater believed that he had found the disciple in him who could serve the new world teacher Maitreya as a "carrier", in whose body he was to manifest himself . He took him into his and the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG) care. This activity was similar to the Tibetan tradition of finding a new Dalai Lama . A number of theosophists, including Besant - the then president of the Adyar-TG - also subsequently believed that they saw Krishnamurti as the new messiah . In March 1910, Krishnamurti was adopted by Leadbeater and Besant. In the following years Krishnamurti received a thorough education and training from the Theosophists in India and England , which was to prepare him for his task.
Order of the Rising Sun
At a lecture in Madras on December 31, 1909, Annie Besant first mentioned publicly that a "great teacher and guide" had arrived. This aroused enthusiasm among many theosophists, but also a number of people outside of it, which in some places degenerated into fanaticism. During the year 1910 some professors and students founded the Central Hindu College (CHC) in Varanasi a support Order of Krishnamurti, Order of the Rising Sun (Order of the Rising Sun) called. The initially still secret order was under the direction of the theosophist and rector of the CHC, George Arundale , whereby Besant knew of its existence and approved this. After an unauthorized public mention in 1910, Arundale officially proclaimed the foundation of the order on January 11, 1911, which had around 170 members.
Order of the Star in the East
Only three months later, in April 1911, Besant declared that a large number of people in various countries were now ready to support Krishnamurti. The Order of the Rising Sun , which only existed under the CHC, was not suitable for this task, Besant found. She declared this dissolved and founded the Order of the Star in the East as a successor organization (Order of the Star of the East or Order of the Star in the East). Here she installed the now 16-year-old Krishnamurti as President, Besant proclaimed himself “Patroness”, Arundale and other professors of the CHC took on a number of secretary and advisory posts.
At the CHC, tensions arose between the followers of the order and those outside of it in the years that followed, as the latter believed that such a cult had no place in a university. In 1913 there was a scandal: several supporters, including Arundale, had to leave the CHC, while others renounced the order and opted for college.
The purpose of the Order of the Star in the East (OSE) was to remove Krishnamurti "the purely mechanical material obstacles and difficulties," as Blavatsky put it above. A separate, separate organization was founded in addition to the already existing Adyar-TG in order to make it easier for non-theosophists to join and thus to address a larger group of people. In fact, the OSE was a purely theosophical association and the majority of its members were theosophists. Over the years, OSE members have donated large sums of money, extensive lands, homes, and furnishings around the world. These resources should be available for Krishnamurti's future work, enable or facilitate it. In addition, the OSE had the task of making the world aware of the coming of the new world teacher and of preparing his arrival.
The six principles of the order were:
- We believe that a great teacher will soon appear in the world. Let us strive to live in such a way that we will be able to recognize him when he appears.
- We therefore want to endeavor to always think of him, and in his spirit we want to try to fulfill all of our tasks and daily duties to the best of our ability.
- We want to strive for it, as far as our other duties permit, to devote part of our time every day to work that can help pave the way for his coming.
- Let us seek to confirm the main characteristics of character in our daily life: devotion, perseverance, gentleness.
- Let us remember to begin and end each day with a brief gathering, asking for his blessings for everything we do for his sake and for his benefit.
- We consider it our special duty to acknowledge and revere majesty wherever it may show itself. We want to endeavor to cooperate with those who are spiritually superior to us.
After Krishnamurti had meditated over a picture of Maitreya for two weeks in Ojai in August 1922 , he said that he saw him for the first time. The news of this event raised hopes for an early breakthrough among OSE members around the world. In the years that followed, the tension continued, and every time Krishnamurti appeared in public, the audience sought signs of Maitreya’s final manifestation in his body. At a lecture on December 28, 1925 in Ommen , those present said that this event had occurred because his facial expression and voice had changed during the speech. This resulted in some hysterical reactions and some OSE members rushed to positions that did not yet exist in a dreamed-up future world order. In 1926 Arundale even appointed ten “ apostles ” as future disciples of Krishnamurti / Maitreya; the two apostles missing out of the dozen were to be appointed later. Arundale publicly claimed that this was commissioned by the Masters of Wisdom . All ten were members of the Adyar TG.
Order of the Star
In June 1927, the members found that the name Order of the Star in the East was no longer up to date, as the words in the East would indicate a "coming" world teacher. But the days of expectation would be over, Krishnamurti would be here, Maitreya would speak through him and he would be her teacher. Therefore, the name of the order was changed to Order of the Star (Order of the Star). Krishnamurti, however, withdrew further and further from the cult around his person, spoke less often of Maitreya and increasingly distanced himself from the Adyar-TG.
On August 3, 1929 in Ommen , in front of an audience of around 3,000, he announced the dissolution of the Order of the Star , which had around 60,000 members . He said:
“I claim that the truth is a pathless land and that there are no paths that lead to it - no religions, no sects. (...) Truth is limitless, it cannot be conditioned, it cannot be reached in predetermined ways and therefore cannot be organized. Faith is an absolutely individual matter and one cannot and must not press it into organizations. If you do, it becomes something dead, rigid. (...) Such organizations cripple the individual, prevent them from growing and living their uniqueness, which lies in the fact that they all alone discover this absolute, unrestricted truth. (...) You can found other organizations and wait for someone else. I have nothing to do with that. I have no interest in building new prisons and creating new decorations for these prisons. My only interest lies in the absolute, unrestricted liberation of people! "
Shortly afterwards, Krishnamurti also resigned from the Adyar-TG and began to return the lands, houses and funds donated to the Order to their previous owners.
The consequences
The Anthroposophical Society
The first adverse effect on the Adyar-TG appeared in December 1912, only about a year and a half after the Order of the Star in the East (OSE) was founded. Rudolf Steiner had been General Secretary of the German Section of the Theosophical Society (DSdTG) since October 20, 1902 . He had only accepted this post on the condition that he could “tie in with occult occultism” (, page 164) and not have to strictly follow the teachings and instructions of the Adyar-TG. Accordingly, from around 1905 Steiner pursued an increasingly independent course, true to the Goethean worldview formulated in his early work, independent of the teachings of the Adyar-TG. He rejected the increasing dominance of Indian religions and philosophies in the teaching building of the Adyar-TG and instead sought connections to the entire occidental tradition . At theosophical congresses such as those in May 1907 in Munich or May / June 1909 in Budapest , the differences came to light. Steiner placed Jesus Christ at the center of his remarks, while the Adyar TG supporters emphasized the synthesis of all religions with a focus on India. An “amicable agreement” between Steiner and Annie Besant , the president of the Adyar-TG, could only be achieved through the admission of the greatest possible autonomy by the DSdTG to the parent company in Adyar .
The inner rifts had meanwhile become insurmountable: This became apparent when a congress planned for September 1911 in Genoa , which Steiner wanted to use as a stage for his teaching, was canceled by Besant. The OSE founded by Besant in April 1911 as a place of worship for Krishnamurti, the new world teacher, completely contradicted Steiner's understanding of Christ; accordingly, he rejected both the OSE and Krishnamurti as "Messiah". On December 16, 1911, Steiner and his supporters founded the Association for Anthroposophical Work as a forerunner of the Anthroposophical Society at the General Assembly of the DSdTG . On December 8, 1912, under Steiner's leadership, the DSdTG board of directors called on its members to resign from the OSE, otherwise they would be excluded from the DSdTG. Subsequently, on December 11, 1912, the board sent Besant a telegram demanding her resignation. Besant then excluded the DSdTG from the Adyar-TG in a letter dated January 14, 1913 by withdrawing the deed of foundation.
The official founding of the Anthroposophical Society followed on February 3, 1913, around 2,400 DSdTG members turned their backs on the Adyar-TG and joined Steiner. Only around 320 people stayed with the re-established DSdTG. At that time (1912/1913) the Adyar-TG, which had around 16,000 members worldwide, lost around 15 percent of its members. In the following years several hundred members fell away from the Adyar-TG in other European countries, especially England , France and the Netherlands , and joined the anthroposophists. In the German-speaking area, the Adyar-TG has not been able to recover from this split and, compared to anthroposophy, only ekes out a shadowy existence.
In numerous works, the facts are presented in a simplistic way, such that the cult of Krishnamurti or the OSE was the reason for Steiner's departure from the Adyar-TG. In fact, this was only the last impetus for a separation that had been going on for years. From what has been said above, the conclusion can be drawn that it would have come to this sooner or later even without OSE / Krishnamurti.
The dissolution of the Order of the Star
Even if the splitting off of the anthroposophists had serious consequences for the Adyar-TG in the German-speaking area, the worldwide consequences were minor. As early as 1920, the membership had more than doubled to around 36,000 and in 1928 the Adyar-TG reached its highest level with around 45,000 people. The OSE or Order of the Star was a key factor behind this rapid growth, and numerous members of the order also joined the Adyar-TG at the same time.
The dissolution of the order by Krishnamurti on August 3, 1929 was like an earthquake for the Adyar-TG. Most of the people connected with the order saw themselves cheated of their hopes and dreams, doubts spread everywhere, sometimes degenerating into despair. Many of those who felt disappointed in their trust left the Adyar-TG. Between some theosophists there were disputes and arguments that ended in mutual accusations and led to further withdrawals. The number of members of the Adyar-TG fell to well below 30,000, the entire organization was paralyzed for years. The situation was made more difficult by the declining health and strength of President Annie Besant, who in 1929 was 82 years old. She could no longer muster the dynamism necessary to overcome the crisis, but remained personally connected to Krishnamurti and thus blocked the departure and realignment of the Adyar-TG. Only after her death on September 20, 1933 did Adyar-TG slowly recover under her successor George Arundale and regain internal stability; In 1939 the membership was around 33,000.
The damage to reputation for the Adyar-TG was enormous and continues to this day. Through the OSE, theosophy was and is connected with deceitful redeeming figures, false promises of salvation and dubious esoteric practices.
For clarification and to avoid confusion: The Theosophical Society split into two competing organizations in 1895, on the one hand the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG) and on the other hand the Theosophical Society in America (today Theosophical Society Pasadena ). This schism was followed by a number of further divisions in the following years, which led to a myriad of different Theosophical Societies. Often, in a simplistic way, only the Theosophical Society (TG) is used; but that is incorrect because the TG in the singular has not existed since 1895 . The events described above only concerned the Adyar-TG; other TGs were not involved.
swell
- ↑ a b Norbert Lauppert (transl.): Helena Petrowna Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy . Adyar-Verlag, Graz 1969.
- ↑ a b c d Jiddu Krishnamurti - a journey without any path: Archived copy ( memento of the original from 23 August 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d e Krishnamurti and the World Teacher Project: http://www.alpheus.org/html/articles/thopv/kandwt.html#krishnamurti1
- ^ The Future of the Theosophical Society: http://www.alpheus.org/html/source_materials/theosophy/futurets.html
- ↑ a b c d e f g False apparitions of Christ in the 20th century: http://www.lohengrin-verlag.de/Artikel/eshabenvielekommen.htm
- ↑ a b c Jiddu Krishnamurti resources on the Web: Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Rudolf Steiner - Wegen naar Christ: Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c The Central Hindu College and Mrs. Besant: Archived copy ( Memento of the original from June 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Presidents - George S. Arundale. Theosophical Society in Greece, 2005, archived from the original on August 13, 2007 ; accessed on August 24, 2014 .
- ↑ Horst E. Miers : Lexicon of secret knowledge . Goldmann, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-442-11708-9
- ^ The Order of the Star in the East: http://www.katinkahesselink.net/his/stareas1.html
- ↑ The Christian Party: http://christianparty.net/wm/wm0019b.html
- ↑ a b Philosopher of Freedom: Archived Copy ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The full text of the speech was first published in the International Star Bulletin , September 1929 edition. A longer excerpt in a (slightly different) German version is printed in: Mary Luytens, Krishnamurti. The biography . Aquamarin, Grafing 1991, pp. 101-103.
- ↑ a b c d Gerhard Wehr: Rudolf Steiner, Life - Knowledge - Culture Impulse . Diogenes, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-257-22615-2 .
- ↑ Günther Wachsmuth: Rudolf Steiner's earthly life and work, from the turn of the century to death, the birth of spiritual science . Philosophical-Anthroposophical Publishing House at the Goetheanum, Dornach 1964.
- ^ Adelaide Gardner: Introduction to Theosophy . Adyar-Verlag, Graz 1952.
