Jiddu Krishnamurti, the model of a modern-day philosopher king and once proclaimed Messiah, spoke in Lowell House yesterday about the necessity of "a total mutation of the mind" to cope with the challenge and misery of today.

Krishnamurti, who had been identified as the Messiah by a Mrs. Annie Besant, has repudiated the distinction.

The gaunt face with silver, brutus-cut hair at once impressed the gathering of some 150 persons with the solemnity and weight of the occasion.

In the beginning he was silent; looking down at his neatly folded hands, Krishnamurti was in no rush to break the silence. Finally he spoke, haltingly, concentrating on every word: "I am not the advertised expert on yoga, nor am I a philosopher, nor am I a representative of Indian thought--I don't really know what I am."

No one in the audience believed him--he was all of those things and was just being modest. They waited for the Word from their prophet.

"What we need is a total revolution in the psyche and in our consciousness," he continued," but the question remains 'is change possible'?" Many people try to escape the decision to change, Krishnamurti said. "Either they take LSD, submerge themselves in politics, or get lost in the world of technology, money and jobs." When they fail to escape they are faced with the misery of life.

Objecting to LSD on the grounds that it leaves you where you began after it wears off, Krishnamurti said "one takes LSD or has beliefs and theories--like Catholicism and Communism--these are all escapes."

Sitting in the second row, the wide eyed Orphilia with streaming long hair, until now hypnotized by his words, nodded vigorously in agreement. A girl with flowerleaves behind her ear squirmed on the floor.

The gathering was a happening and not a lecture: "have you ever looked at a tree?" Krishnamurti asked and inquisitive truth-seeker. All his questions were rhetorical and it was embarrassing when people broke in to answer them.

Questions from the audience usually came from two different kinds of people: the mystics and the reasoners. Both of them fared poorly. Krishnamurti would respond rationally to the mystics and impressionistically to the advocates of reason.