George Arundale

George Arundale
Annie Besant arrives in Charing Cross Station, London with Jiddu Krishnamurti, his younger brother Nityananda, and George Arundale, prominent Theosophist and tutor to the boys. (Picture and caption appear on page 84 of Krishanmurti: The Years of Awakening by Mary Lutyens)
Personal details
Born	(1878-12-01)1 December 1878 Surrey, England
Died	12 August 1945(1945-08-12) (aged 66) Adyar, India
Nationality	British
Denomination	Liberal Catholic
Spouse	Rukmini Devi Arundale
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge

George Sidney Arundale (1 December 1878 in Surrey, England — 12 August 1945 in Adyar, India) was a Theosophist, Freemason, president of the Theosophical Society Adyar and A bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church. He was the husband of the celebrated Indian dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale.

Arundale lost his mother at a young age and was adopted by his aunt, Francesca Arundale, a wealthy Theosophist. Initially, he was privately tutored by Charles Webster Leadbeater. Later, he moved with Francesca Arundale to Germany, where he went to school. Returning eventually to England, he received a Master's degree from St John's College, Cambridge. His entire childhood was thus spent under the influence of his aunt, who was a committed and active Theosophist. Under her influence he also became one when he was a youth.

Another major centre of the society was Varanasi, a city held holy in Indian spiritualism. In 1902 Arundale and his aunt moved to Varanasi where he took a position as history teacher at the Central Hindu College (CHC). In 1909, he was appointed its principal. In 1912 Arundale gave a speech in Adyar to the Theosophical Society which inspired the founding of St Christopher School in Letchworth Garden City, where it still operates under its founding principles.

During the early 20th-century, many Theosophists believed in the imminent appearance of a messianic entity, the so-called Maitreya or World Teacher. Around this time, a young boy named Jiddu Krishnamurti was identified by a leading Thesophist Charles Leadbeatter as being the probable "vehicle" of the expected Messiah (Krishnamurti later repudiated the idea). Arundale was selected as one of Krishnamurti's private tutors. He was a firm believer in the Coming of the World Teacher, and in late 1910 formed a clandestine society, the Order of the Rising Sun (later renamed Order of the Star in the East), which was intended to further this cause. Most of the recruits were students and staff at the CHC. There was great commotion when the existence and the activities of the society eventually became public; following opposition to the order by the school's Trustees and administrators, in 1913 Arundale and other staff members resigned their positions and left the school.