Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00298)

Dear Ali,

Pardon me for an explanation lacking in citations to the best 
source, but I'm at work and don't have access to Tillett's book 
here. He tells the story but his conclusions about CWL's birth and 
family are corroborated by Lilian Storey of the London TS HQ who is 
a genealogical researcher. Leadbeater became infatuated with 
Jinarajadasa in Sri Lanka and demanded to be allowed to take him 
back to England with him as a companion when he returned to tutor 
Sinnett's son. He told Jinarajadasa, and later Annie Besant, that 
the boy was the reincarnation of his younger brother Gerald who had 
died in an encounter with bandits in South America in 1862 when CWL 
was 15. He also told the same story in print although I don't 
recall the title in which it appeared. Problems with the story: CWL 
had no brother Gerald, had never been to South America, and was only 
8 in 1862. (He added 7 years to his age in order to be the same age 
as Besant which supposedly indicated some occult kinship between 
them and which he used to gain her confidence.) Here's a passage 
from p. 444 of Meade's bio of HPB:

Leadbeater must have realized he had 
captured Sinnett's interest because he felt 
confident enough to demand a condition for his 
return; he wanted to bring with him a fourteen-
year-old Cingalese boy, C. Jinarajadasa, whom he 
described as his protege, but who, as he would 
later confide to Annie, was actually his 
reincarnated younger brother Gerald, who had been 
murdered by bandits in South America in 1862. It 
was rumored that Leadbeater practically kidnapped 
the boy, whose father had pursued him to the 
steamer, took him home at gun point, then relented 
and allowed him to sail. Although Jinarajadasa 
himself described the story as ridiculous and 
implausible, the rumor persisted.

Note that Krishnamurti denied an eyewitness account of his being 
abused by CWL, when his father sued AB for custody. If you can 
imagine the shame that contemporary victims of sexual abuse feel, 
and then translate that into the context of society a century ago, 
that gives some context in which to weigh the plausibility of such 
denials. While we cannot know at this late date what the nature of 
CWL's relationship with Jinarajada actually was, we certainly know 
that CWL invented a fictitious personal history and used lies to 
gain trust and intimacy with a young teenager. Damning in itself 
IMO.

Paul