At The Feet Of The Master
Authorship debate (Wikipedia)
The identity of the author has been the subject of debate, starting with the appearance
of the first edition. It has been proposed that Leadbeater was the actual
producer of the work; this proposition has had opponents as well as supporters.
Shortly after the original publication, the matter found its way to court in
India. It was brought up during a custody battle over Krishnamurti between
Besant and Jiddu Narayaniah, Krishnamurti's father.
Narayaniah claimed the book
was "fathered" on Krishnamurti in order to promote his messianic
credentials, citing as one proof the boy's poor prior knowledge of English. In
related litigation, Besant alleged The Hindu newspaper was in contempt
over the "publication of certain correspondence ... relating to the
authorship of the book 'At the feet of the Master'".
Since the original publication,
statements reputedly made by Krishnamurti have appeared in a variety of
sources, implying he accepted or rejected authorship.
His own recorded
statements on the matter have been subject to interpretation. Decades
after the original publication, he stated that he had no memory of writing it,
although he did not discount the possibility.
As the original notes by
Krishnamurti are missing, the extent of any differences with Leadbeater’s
typescript and with the original published edition is not clear. The debate
regarding the role of Krishnamurti in the production and promotion of this work
persisted, a century after its original publication.
Reception (Wikipedia)
The book was enthusiastically
received by Theosophists and members of the Order of the Star in the East, a
worldwide organization established by the Theosophical leadership to promote
the World Teacher Project. The extraordinary publicity surrounding Krishnamurti
and the World Teacher Project brought increased attention to the book.
(Some) have found the book
"simple ... though not platitudinous ... draws on the pious morality that
underlies ... all religions". It has also been pointed out that the main
body's themes, and four-part layout, bear close resemblance to Advaita Vedanta
treatises by, or attributed to, the 8th century Indian philosopher and theologian
Adi Shankara.
Despite the demise of the World
Teacher Project in 1929, and the subsequent dismantling of the infrastructure
supporting it (which included the book), millions of copies had been sold as of
c. 2004 ; in addition, the book became a frequent subject of lectures, a
practice that continued past the Project's ending, and into the early 21st
century.
About the work
The following is stated in the
book's foreword: "These are not my words; they are the words of the Master
who taught me."
This statement is related to Leadbeater's claim that over
a period of about five months during 1909 - 10, the so-called Master Kuthumi
(Koot Hoomi) - a postulated embodied spiritual entity - was releasing to
Krishnamurti, through a mystical process and while the boy was asleep, the
spiritual instruction that makes up the work.
Upon waking, Krishnamurti
"with great laboriousness" put the instructions into notes;
afterwards, the notes were checked for spelling and grammar, and then arranged
and typed by Leadbeater.
The resulting typescript formed the basis for the
book's original edition; Krishnamurti's handwritten notes were lost sometime
after the book's publication.
K's English tutor:
“I have written in
my earlier writing an account of his initiation and of the meeting with the
Master and so on which were all told me by Mr. Leadbeater and by Krishnamurti
himself.
I was told that he
had been put on probation by the Master along with his little brother, on a
certain date. And then it was that Krishna used to sit in the early morning and
write something very laboriously in his early English, which turned out to be the
little book At the Feet of the Master.
And the writing in the book was in
pencil and Krishnaji used to ponder and then write and then ponder. And
Leadbeater told me that he was bringing back into his physical brain in the
morning what he had experienced and learned and heard during the night before
from the Master Kuthumi.
I never looked at the details of that little book but
I did see the book and I saw Krishnaji writing.”
Interview with Russell B. Clarke, Krishnamurti’s first English tutor