CONTINUITY WITH RENEWED VITALITY

As friends are aware, the J Krishnamurti Self Study Centre inKolkata has recently moved from Deodar Street to Jatin Das Road.We would like to rededicate ourselves to the vision that created the study centre in Kolkata. Many friends may not be aware that the Centre owes its very existence to an amazing human being and a visionary. So, no matter where the centre goes, we will always draw inspiration from that visionary.

Jaya Kishore Patnaik. He was born on 11 November 1925 to an educated and reputed family of Cuttack. He was also a first cousin of Sri Biju Patnaik, builder of modern Odisha. Theosophy appealed to Jaya Kishore and he became a member of the Theosophical Society. With his knowledge of occult subjects, he was soon admitted to the Esoteric Section of the Society. He gave up his lecturer’s job in India and went to live in England in 1959, where he lived till a few years before his death. He took up teaching Physics in London to earn a living and that allowed him to pursue his interest in Theosophy.

Jaya Kishore lived frugally in a shared apartment in London. He could have easily afforded better but he saved all his money for his books and for an undisclosed life. mission. Money, he would say was important in life, but its real worth comes when it can be used for humanity. He remained a bachelor. Though he never persuaded anyone against marriage, he held on to an extreme view that life was an opportunity for spiritual progress alone and family entanglements were a hurdle. He was a holy person but he did not have a guru, nor was he religious in a ritualistic way. He was neither a wandering ascetic nor an Indian yogi.

Jaya Kishore had inherited a share of his parental property in Cuttack, in a family partition in 1974. He had planned long before to convert his inherited property into a public charitable trust and a library, and he constructed a building for it. This is where the KFI Cuttack Centre is located today. He soon turned the entire property together with the building into a public charitable Trust-cum-Library, registering it as the Self Education Trust (SET),Cuttack. This became the final destination for his books from England. The two brothers and a sister bequeathed their shares and retained just a legal right to live in the house until their death.

Kolkata is the largest city in East India and Jaya Kishore also wished to set up a similar charitable trust and library at Kolkata. The two brothers, Jaya Kishore and Bhakta Kishore, purchased some land at Deodar Street. A building was constructed there and he set it up as a Trust, registering it as the Self Education Centre (SEC), Kolkata. SEC Kolkata was also a Trust-cum-Library, just like SET Cuttack, with copies of all books that were at SET, Cuttack.

For many years, his friends and relatives were under an impression that SET Cuttack and SEC Kolkata were libraries for
Theosophical books. In this context, once Jaya Kishore was asked if the books of Krishnamurti were thus not misfits in the library? “That’s the jewel in the crown, the pinnacle of wisdom,” he said. “The purpose of the Self Education Trust at Cuttack, and the Self Education Centre at Kolkata, is to draw earnest seekers of Truth to discover the beauty of Krishnamurti by themselves.” Then he added, “That is what self-education is all about. No one preaches, no one influences, no one tells a reader what to read, what not to read.”

Both the Trusts had the purpose of disseminating the teachings, without imposing on or influencing anyone in any way.
“People who deserve will soon discover where the real worth lies,” he would say. While he had great devotion towards Krishnamurti and enormous respect for the teachings, he also had an unusual respect for Theosophy and considered it sacred. His study of Theosophy had led him to Krishnamurti and his life mission was to work for disseminating the teachings.

In the later half of 2001 and in early 2002, Jaya Kishore fulfilled a life-long dream by handing over SET Cuttack and SEC
Kolkata, together with all its property, books and tapes, to Krishnamurti Foundation India (KFI). SET Cuttack became the KFI Cuttack Centre (KFICC) and SEC Kolkata became KFI Kolkata Centre (KFIKC).

On his part, Jaya Kishore believed in purity of purpose to such an extent, he never wanted anything to be left behind as a memory after his death. He did not even allow his photo or painting to be kept at the KFICC or at the KFIKC premises. On the morning of 26 January 2011, Jaya Kishore fell from his bed, soon losing consciousness. He came back to his senses at around 5.00 pm and for some time he was fully alert and conscious. He had barely  more hours to live. On the morning of 27 January 2011, he breathed his last. It was the end of life of an unknown and unsung Yogi.

People wish to be recognised in life and remembered after their death. Jaya Kishore knew how meaningless these desires
were and how much binding were its karmic effects. He did not want to be remembered, not even for being the founder of the Cuttack and Kolkata Centres.

The pictures below were taken during a new year interaction on 2 January 2019 at Deodar Street when we were so happy to have had Nandini Patnaik (niece of Jaya Kishore Patnaik) and Shomitra Das (of our Cuttack Centre) with us.