A RENAISSANCE.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19357, 9 July 1928, Page 10

A RENAISSANCE.

QUEST FOR HAPPINESS. TEACHING OF KRISHNAMURTI. '' The world's great age begins anew The golden years return." These lines express the essence of the vision conjured up by Dr. Van Der Leeuw, of the University of Leyden, last evening, when lecturing to a crowded audience in the Theosophical Hall. He depicted the present and near future as the birth of a new age—a renaissance—where man would be guided from externals back to the pursuit of his happiness within himself by a world teacher—and that teacher the young Hindu, Krishnamurti. Dr. Van Der Leeuw warned his audience at the outset that he was not trying to win them to a belief in thjs world-teacher. Krishnamurti did not claim to be a Christ or a Messiah. Life wa3 the only teacher, and people could never learn except through life and experience. Man was in an ago of materialism where there was much misery. He was drifting on the outside of the shafts of light without being aware of the burning heat which existed at the origin of this light. But always there was change. The present century bore much resemblance to' the state of Rome in the century before the advent of the Christian era. It was then that men had lost their sense of values. They yearned for better things and the coming of Christ was their salvation.

Evidence of History. Again the Middle Ages were a period of darkness and doubt which blossomed into light with the Renaissance. Iu the nineteenth century man was again lost in the world forms and had travelled so far that the very stones at his feet were more real than his own inner consciousness. Materialism aiid international strife were everywhere, and the result was the recent world upheaval. Man could not deny the law of life without paying the consequences. Even in the nineteenth century there were prophets crying in the wilderness. He instanced Shelley in his "Prometheus Unbound," and later, Emerson and Buskin all crying to an age loath to respond.

Signs of Change. A revolution in art was always the true sign of a now age. Modern painting, though sometimes landing in excess, was striving to get away and give a new interpretation of life. Another sign was the movement towards a confederation of nations. "What we want is not a League of Nations without power, but a League with power," added Dr. Van der Leeuw. "When you meet a cynic who cries, 'I can see no signs of progress or betterment in the world," jnint out to him the great world confederation for unity and mutual cooperation.

Slaves to Achievement. "Is there anything nearer to us than our soul or consciousness—whatever you call it—and is there anything more foreign to most men?" asked the lecturer. "We gloried in our technical achievement, but we were ' bound captive to that very achievement. We wero crystallised in our prejudices. Most of us hated war, yet we would calmly look on and see war being manufactured without stirring . ourselves from our prejudices to prevent it. The way to happiness was through the liberation of that which bound' us." At -such a stage in our civilisation came the great world preacher, Krishnamurti. It was not so because he said it, not because of his teaching or because he was a prophet, but because of what he was. The lecturer had known , greater orators, greater philosophers, greater social leaders, but never a man who was more free from the trammels of life. Such a teacher showed the real value of life. He did not say, "Follow me, take my gospel," but sent every one back to himself to find the true teacher there within him. It was a most pathetic thing that man could not find himself.

. "Find Yourself." Unrest was not always a bad thing. There was a kind that was divine. It would not let a inan sit comfortably in his armchair, but bade him be up and doing in the great journey of life, as in a stream flowing surely onward to the ocean of all life. The lecturer concluded: "Seek to know yourself. Then you will find your centre of gravity of life shift. Do not withdraw from life and be a hermit, but_seek solitude where you can find yourself. You will not find another life, but the same one, where happiness is worth seeking and freedom cannot, he bound. There the light shines brightly no matter how great the wind without. Your world becomes not one of forms, but one of happiness."