An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

Swami Vivekananda
(1863–1902) was the most famous among 
Ramakrishna’s followers, and made a great impression on the Western 
world at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. It was said 
at the time that the way to fill the main hall was to announce Vivekananda 
as the final speaker. He underpinned Ramakrishna’s experiential side with 
a philosophical approach, which understood God as ultimately without 
qualities, yet known at a lower level in many different forms.

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Mystics
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He set up the Ramakrishna Mission which continued the master’s 
teachings, the main thrust of which was that all have the divine within as 
God is in everything and we live in Him. Social service was an important 
aspect of the mission’s work.
Mysticism with No Religious Tradition
Jiddu Krishnamurti
(1895–1989) had a remarkable life. Born into a poor 
family in South India, he lost his mother, whom he adored, very early in 
life. Krishnamurti and his younger brother, Nityananda were spotted by 
C. W. Leadbeater (1854–1934), who was involved with the Theosophical 
Society. Throughout his life, Krishnamurti had episodes of a psychic or 
spiritual nature, in particular seeing his deceased mother and sister when 
he was young.
This endeared him to the Theosophists and both boys were eventually 
taken to England by Annie Besant, President of the Society. She proclaimed 
Krishnamurti the new World Teacher and Head of the Order of the Star 
in the East. However, Krishnamurti became increasingly uneasy about the 
role imposed upon him, the expectation of psychic powers and the adora-
tion and riches heaped upon him. In 1929 he dissolved the Order and 
turned his back on all that had accumulated around him.
Despite renouncing his position, such was his charisma, that he still 
attracted devotees and was in constant demand as a speaker. He denounced 
all formal religious traditions, advocating that each individual should 
find his or her own path to inner realization. In his speech announcing the 
dissolution of the Order, he said, 
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by 
any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. . . . Truth, being 
limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, 
cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or 
coerce people along a particular path. . . . Truth cannot be brought 
down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You 
cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley. 
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He discouraged followers and forbade any movement to be created in his 
name. His teachings, while simple, are not easy, aiming to bring the indi-
vidual to an honest and self-reliant path of spiritual progress through 
freeing the mind. The mind needs to be clear, to transcend time and reveal 
the silence of truth. Although he recommended meditation, he was against 
mantras, saying one might as well chant ‘Coca Cola’ as the holy sound of 

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Religious and Spiritual Experience
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‘Om’ (pronounced ‘aum’, it is Sanskrit for God and is considered the pri-
mal word). In fact his approach to meditation was to eschew all methods 
as the mind should be free of any authority or control.
Probably you have played with meditation – transcendental medita-
tion, Tibetan meditation, Hindu meditation, Buddhist meditation, Zen 
meditation – seriously or flippantly. As far as one can understand, the 
whole concept of these meditations is that thought must be controlled, 
that you must subjugate your own feelings to something other than 
‘what is’, through control, through constant alertness. . . . There must 
be no authority, because then you depend, you struggle, you imitate 
and conform.
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Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life – perhaps 
the
greatest, 
and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody. That is the beauty of it. 
It has no technique and therefore no authority. When you learn about 
yourself, watch yourself, watch the way you walk, how you eat, what 
you say, the gossip, the hate, the jealousy – if you are aware of all that 
in yourself, without any choice, that is part of meditation.
So meditation can take place even when you are sitting in a bus or 
walking in the woods full of light and shadows, or listening to the sing-
ing of the birds or looking at the face of your wife or child.
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Much of what he taught is recorded in dialogue form. There is a 
retreat and study centre in Brockwood Park in Hampshire dedicated to 
preserving his memory and teachings. Mary Lutyens gives a detailed 
account of Krishnamurti’s life and extraordinary spiritual experiences in
Krishnamurti, The Years of Awakening 
and 
Krishnamurti, The Years of 
Fulfilment.
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