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Get acquainted with J Krishnamurti
Much beyond words and thoughts, J Krishnamurti’s philosophy leads us to our essential nature as he represents a new way of feeling, experiencing, and being
J Krishnamurti is a name less familiar to the youth of today than it was when I was growing up. Decades ago, when I was just 16, I encountered this extraordinary and solitary genius at Vasanta Vihar, Chennai. I was also fortunate to listen to his last talks at Ojai, California in 1985, just when I was submitting my PhD on Mysticism in Indian English Poetry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Who is Krishnamurti? Beyond a person or presence, he represents a new way of feeling, experiencing, and being. A new consciousness, even. It is up to us to change the world we live in to make it a better place for the entire human race and for generations to come, whether it is through being more responsible environmentally or more equitable socially.
Away and beyond all jargons and “isms,” Krishnamurti shows us how: through the awakening of intelligence that is not imprisoned in the past. Seeing afresh without being stuck in conventions and conditioning, we can encounter the simplicity of truth, love, beauty, and compassion.
Freeing humanity
Born in 1895 in Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh, J Krishnamurti was “discovered” on Adyar beach when he was 14 by the Theosophical Society and hailed as a world teacher. Annie Besant, twice president of the Indian National Congress, and one of the most famous nationalists and leaders of her time, “adopted” him, grooming him for his new role.
He had castles in Switzerland and mansions in Hollywood, with an international organisation, ‘The Order of the Star’, to promote and propagate his teachings. He was considered Maitreya Buddha, the avatar of the future, the saviour of mankind. In 1911, he was sent to England to be educated and trained. He travelled the continent and was already financially independent, thanks to a large bequest by an American heiress and millionaire, Mary Melissa Hoadley Dodge.
So much was expected of Krishnamurti, but in 1929, he suddenly gave it all up with this radical disavowal: “I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organised; nor should any organisation be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path.”
Since then, till his death in 1986, Krishnamurti travelled the world, gave talks, and transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. He dedicated himself to freeing humanity from all forms of conditioning and obstacles to the discovery of truth, beauty, love, and the peace that passeth understanding.
Force of nature
Those who knew him, even those who came in brief contact with him, could not but help being affected, even transformed, in his presence. He was a man so simple, so gentle, so original that he was like a force of nature, pure being both in action and contemplation. It would be erroneous to call him a philosopher or his offering to the world ‘teaching’.
Much beyond words and thoughts, he led us to our essential nature, which we can discover only if our heart is full of fellow-feeling, compassion, love, and our minds are completely emptied of all preconceptions: “There is no path to truth: it must come to you. Truth can come to you only when your mind and heart are simple, clear… Then it will come without invitation.”
The Book of Life, a book of “daily meditations with J. Krishnamurti,” is a volume made with excerpts from his talks and writings, one for each day of the year. Covering topics as diverse as self-knowledge, action, good and evil, fear, desire, sex, marriage, intelligence, happiness, sorrow, dying, and rebirth, it is really a book to read, cherish, and grow with.
To me, it was the means of reconnecting with his extraordinary genius.
Krishnamurti reminds us that only a mind that is totally silent, totally purged of its self-centric compulsions and emptied of the burdens of society, can apprehend reality, which is infinite and beyond all mental constructs. Only such a mind is capable of finding love and creating a new world.
While the new year is still young, a volume of daily readings so filled with promise would be a welcome addition to our bedside bookshelves.
Makarand R Paranjape, former director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, is a professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University
From HT Brunch, January 30, 2022
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