SF Notes #6
I believe it was the first meeting that Krishnaji had with the trustees and at which not all the trustees were present when Krishnaji resigned and where he even said that he wanted his name withdrawn from the Foundation and schools. The meeting took place in his bedroom. Before the meeting took place, Krishnaji had told me what he wanted to say, and he said that he would be saying that he would withdraw from all of the Foundations. However, he was saying this at this time to make it more palatable to the Indians and that he did not intend to resign from either the American Foundation or the Foundation Trust in England. He said that there were certainly legal reasons why he couldn’t resign from the American Foundation with the ongoing court case against Rajagopal and that he was sure that there was some reason why he couldn’t resign from the Foundation Trust (maybe the copyright question—or we would come up with something), so I mustn’t get alarmed. The Indians accepted his resigning since he was going to resign from the others, but they didn’t want his name withdrawn, and they were very adamant about that. After this meeting, I felt I had seen something and I told him that even though, for selfish reasons, I would not want his name to be removed from the trust or from the school, I did see the beauty of disappearing without a trace. He responded with his emphatic “Yes, sir,” but accepted that it probably couldn’t be done.
He obviously had been telling individuals what he was going to tell the trustees in general concerning his wish that all editing be done by the Foundation Trust and that they exclusively had his copyright and that the Indian Foundation concern itself only with the translation of those works into the Indian languages and the distribution of the Foundation Trust’s books. He apparently had encountered some opposition on the grounds that Gollancz, the normal English publisher, could not ensure good quality and inexpensive editions for the Indian market. Therefore, he asked me to call Mary Cadogan, who was to call the head of Gollancz to receive a direct and personal confirmation and reassurance that Gollancz could ensure these good-quality, inexpensive editions for India. This Krishnaji seemed to feel would answer the Indian Foundation’s chief rebuttal to his request. He insisted that Mary not just say what she knew to be true but that she actually talked with the head of Gollancz and then called back so that he could say that he had just been assured that this was so, directly from Gollancz. This obviously had nothing at all to do with the central issue, which was copyright and editing, but it was apparently something that was being presented to Krishnaji as a reason why he couldn’t have what he wanted.
During the first full trustees’ meeting, when Krishnaji made his wishes known to everyone, there was not a great deal of opposition, so presumably they had accepted the argument and swallowed the bitter pill. I believe it was also at the second meeting that Pama and Sunanda’s resignation was announced. (This was obviously going to come as especially difficult to Sunanda, as her intention had been—as she even stated to Krishnaji—that she would write and give lectures and seminars, obviously talking about Krishnaji.) At this meeting and at Pundit Upadhyaya’s suggestion, it was stated that Vasanta Vihar would be used as a place for scholars to do translations of Krishnaji’s work. Asit wanted to turn it into a high-powered school doing the International Baccalaureate, even though it would probably mean that an interest in the teachings would be second. He saw himself as running this school, as he was rather thinking that he would be in charge of whatever happened at Vasanta Vihar.
He was so violent in the meeting when I crossed him about this that Krishnaji—who thought that maybe Asit could be in charge of Vasanta Vihar—began to change his mind. It clinched his changing his mind when Radhika came to Krishnaji after this meeting and said openly that she didn’t think Asit was ready for doing anything like that. He was too violent and too hard in pressing his ideas, which is exactly what he was. Krishnaji agreed completely, and added some other reasons for not wanting to give Asit any responsibility that I knew nothing about, but, of course, I had seen his violence, bullying, and attempts to intimidate people at meetings. Krishnaji seemed quite pleased that Radhika had been so honest and frank with him, even though Asit is her cousin. I believe it was one of several rude awakenings for Asit that, not only was his suggestion not followed up by Krishnaji, but he was not given responsibility for Vasanta Vihar as he thought he would be given. In Ojai, Krishnaji said, let’s see for a year or two how he is as a kind of trial period, and if he’s good during that trial period then maybe he can have some responsibilities. Krishnaji went from being fairly “for” Asit to really feeling that Asit shouldn’t have any large role in the work.