Spinoza and Krishnamurti's "Amma"

About ten years ago, and for several years, Jeneth and I spent every Thursday night in "Dialogue" with Mary Zimbalist and a number of other close associatesof J. Krishnamurti (whom the Dalai Llama called "the greatest philosopherof our age...)  There is much I understood and recognized in the K. teaching, and I went about investigating whether there might be some influence of Spinozaism on the seminal period of K.'s life when he was groomed by the leaders of Theosophy, particularly Annie Besant, for his mission as a new "World Teacher."  I went to research at the   library on the grounds of Krotona in Ojai (a property ownedand lived on by current day Theosophists) where I did certainly discover that Annie Besant, K.'s guardian whom he called "amma" orMother, was a discriminating and devoted Spinozist. 

She wrote:

"Then Pantheism unveiled its all-alluring beauties, and the inter-
cosmic God shone forth dispelling all the clouds of doubt and fear,
and turning into gardens of delight the erstwhile desert sands. Had
it come in its native garb, it would have won all to itself, but to
intellectual Europe the most generally recognised exponent of this
theory was Spinoza, and while his strong thought fascinated and
compelled the intelligence, presented - as it often was by opponents
- without the ethic based on it, it left the spirit starving and the
heart a-cold. The idea got abroad that “Pantheism” was a chill and
stern philosophy, that its God was unconscious, inaccessible - the
“Father” had disappeared. “God is a being absolutely infinite; a
substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses
His eternal and infinite essence” (Ethics, Book 1, Definition 6.). Of
these attributes man knows but two, extension and mind or will. Mr.
Froude in his Short Studies - from which the quotation from Spinoza
is borrowed - says, summarising Spinoza’s views, that God “is not a
personal [Page 226] being, existing apart from the universe; but
Himself in His own reality, He is expressed in the universe, which is
His living garment” (Page 360). All things exist as He willed them to
be, evil is not positive, there is “an infinite gradation in created
things”, “all in their way obedient”. Two things in Spinoza have
repelled the emotional - his steady logical destructive analysis and
calm acceptance of its results, and his theory of necessitarianism.
The latter has been held fatal to morals, the former to devotion. Yet
Spinoza was so far from being incapable of strenuous devotion that he
was described by his enemies as “a God-intoxicated man”, and his
lofty, serene virtue and calm acquiescence in the law of life as he
saw it were in themselves evidences of the fine fibre of his soul."
-Annie Besant

When K. disbanded the Order of the Star in 1929, he told a story:

"You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were
walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down
and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in
his pocket. The friend said to the devil, "What did that man pick
up?" "He picked up a piece of the truth," said the devil. "That is a
very bad business for you, then," said his friend. "Oh, not at all,"
the devil replied, "I am going to help him organize it."
When K. disbanded the Order of the Star in 1929, he told a story:
You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were
walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down
and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in
his pocket. The friend said to the devil, 'What did that man pick
up?' 'He picked up a piece of the truth,' said the devil. 'That is a
very bad business for you, then,' said his friend. 'Oh, not at all,'
the devil replied, 'I am going to help him organize it.'
You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were
walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down
and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in
his pocket. The friend said to the devil, 'What did that man pick
up?' "He picked up a piece of the truth,' said the devil. 'That is a
very bad business for you, then,' said his friend. 'Oh, not at all,'
the devil replied, 'I am going to help him organize it.'"