Krishnamurti
1) His Biography:
One of the most influential thinkers and spiritual leaders of the 20th century, Jiddu Krishnamurti lived from 1895 to 1986. Krishnamurti asserted that he had no ties to any caste, country, religion, or culture. His goal was to completely free humankind from the damaging constraints of conditioning. He spent nearly sixty years travelling and giving impromptu speeches to enormous crowds until passing away in 1986 at the age of 90.
He didn’t have a regular residence, but when he wasn’t travelling, he frequently resided at Chennai- India, Brockwood Park – England, and Ojai – California. In his lectures, he made clear that people must change themselves through self-knowledge, awareness of the complexities of their daily thoughts and feelings, and the ability to see this movement in the mirror of relationships.
On May 11, 1895, Jiddu Krishnamurti was born in the small southern Indian village of Madanapalle. In his early years, Dr. Annie Besant, then-president of the Theosophical Society, adopted him and his brother. Krishnamurti would be a global teacher, as promised by the Theosophists, according to Dr. Besant and others. A global organisation named the Order of the Star in the East was established, and the young Krishnamurti was appointed its leader, to help the world get ready for this impending arrival.
However, Krishnamurti disbanded the Order, with its sizable following, and returned all the funds and assets that had been contributed for this cause in 1929. He also abandoned the position that he was supposed to play. He abandoned all links to any idea of a religious or spiritual organisation and resigned from his role as the Theosophists’ symbolic leader.
The phrase “truth is a pathless land,” which might be summed up as “man cannot come to it by any organisation, through any faith, through any dogma, priest, or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge, or psychological skill,” was immediately stated as the next “fundamental” assertion. Instead of using intellectual analysis or introspective dissection, he must discover it via the mirror of relationships, through understanding the thoughts that go through his own head, and through observation (Jiddu Krishnamurti).
For the remainder of his lengthy life, he challenged his audience to question their own presumptions in order to examine life’s essential questions as an investigator rather than as an authority. The vast amount of Krishnamurti’s writings—some estimate it to be more than 100 million words—results from his more or less uninterrupted 60 years of international appearances.
At the time of his death in 1986, he gave the Foundations the mission of disseminating his unadulterated, original body of work. More than sixty volumes featuring his presentations and conversations have been written, published, and translated into a similar number of languages. His writings also include Commentaries on Living, Education and the Significance of Life, The Awakening of Intelligence, and The First and Last Freedom. His publications include The Ending of Time and Freedom from the Known.
2) Main Works:
At the Feet of the Master (1910):
“These are not my words; they are the words of the Master who taught me. Without Him I could have done nothing, but through His help I have set my feet upon the Path.” Here begins Jiddu Krishnamurti’s 14-year-old book At the Feet of the Master. It was initially released in 1910 and was written under the pen name Alcyone. It was his first public statement on record. A selection of his midlife wisdom-representing comments from his 1960s speeches are included in this selection.
On January 4, 1986, he gave his final and last speech in Madras, India. The beginning and finish of The Master’s speech flow have been marked by the inclusion of this concluding discourse. He starts off as the master and ends up at the feet of the master with the disciples.
The First and Last Freedom (1954):
In The First and Last Freedom, Krishnamurti makes the case that neither formal organisations nor organised religions with their dogmas, nor any guru or outside authority, will lead us to the truth since, in Krishnamurti’s view, the only way to realise the truth is via one’s own awareness.
Commentaries on Living (1956–1960):
These succinct chapters mix descriptions of the natural world with an analysis of fundamental psychological issues as they are raised in conversations with the numerous individuals who came to privately meet with Krishnamurti.
Krishnamurti’s Notebook (1976):
The diary offers a “panorama of the terrain of Krishnamurti’s daily consciousness,” according to a commentator. It depicts Krishnamurti’s universe from the inside out. The diary focuses on Krishnamurti’s experience of the process, a practically lifelong condition that was frequently excruciatingly painful, as well as the manifestations of the otherness, a state that frequently but not always manifested alongside the process.
Krishnamurti’s Journal (1982):
One of our generation’s greatest spiritual teachers, Krishnamurti, shares his own ideas in his journal. In this diary, which he kept from 1973 to 1975, Krishnamurti recorded his observations and musings. He then delivers them in straightforward, lyrical prose.
3) Main Themes:
Truth:
Truth is a pathless land, which Krishnamurti declared in 1929, contains the essence of his philosophy. There is no organisation, creed, doctrine, priest, ritual, knowledge of philosophy, or psychological approach that will enable man to reach it. Instead of using intellectual analysis or introspective dissection, he must discover it via the mirror of relationships, through understanding the thoughts that go through his own head, and through observation.
Man’s Thinking:
Man has created security fences within himself, whether they are religious, political, or personal. These appear as icons, notions, and convictions. These images weigh heavily on man’s thoughts, interpersonal interactions, and daily living. These images, which separate man from man, are the root of our troubles. His understanding of the world is shaped by the ideas he has previously formed. His entire being is the substance of his consciousness. The entire human race shares this information. His name, appearance, and surface culture are what define him as a person, which he derives from environment and tradition. Man’s distinction does not lay in his outward appearance, but rather in his complete freedom from the aspects of his consciousness that are shared by all people. Thus, he is not an individual.
Freedom:
Freedom is neither a response, nor is it a decision. Man pretends to be free because he has a choice. Pure observation without guidance or concern for rewards or penalties is what freedom is. Freedom is the absence of motive; it comes before man’s evolution, at the very beginning of his life. One can see the lack of freedom through observation. The choiceless knowledge of our everyday existence is where we find freedom.
Thought:
Time is in thought. Experience and knowledge, which are inextricably linked to time, give rise to thought. The adversary of man psychologically is time. Man is a slave to history since our actions are based on knowledge, which is dependent on time.
Division is an illusion:
Man will recognise the separation between the thinker and the thought, the observer and the observed, and the perceiver and the experience when he becomes cognizant of the movement of his own awareness. He will learn that this division is a misunderstanding. Only then can there be pure observation, which is insight free of all baggage from the past. This timeless realisation causes a profound, fundamental change in the mind. The core of the positive is complete negation. Love, with its compassion and intellect, emerges when all that is not love – desire, pleasure – is negated.
4) His contribution to education philosophy:
In addition to the Brockwood Park School in England and the Oak Grove School in California, Krishnamurti created five schools in India. He listed the following as his educational goals when questioned. First and foremost, have a global perspective: See the whole as different from the parts; never have a sectarian perspective; always have a holistic perspective free of all prejudice.
Second, concern for both people and the environment: People are a part of nature, and if nature is not protected, man would suffer as a result. Only the proper education and genuine love shared by all people would be able to tackle many issues, including the problems with the environment.
Last but not least, the religious spirit encompasses the scientific temperament: The religious mind is not isolated; it is alone. It enjoys harmony with both people and nature. Six schools are run by the Krishnamurti Foundation, which he and Annie Besant founded in 1928. The Indian mainstream religious establishment became interested in Krishnamurti. He had conversations with a number of eminent Buddhist and Hindu intellectuals, including the Dalai Lama. Many of these conversations were ultimately made available as chapters in other Krishnamurti publications. George Bernard Shaw, David Bohm, Jawaharlal Nehru, the Dalai Lama, Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, Henry Miller, Bruce Lee, Terence Stamp, Jackson Pollock,
Toni Packer, Achyut Patwardhan, Dada Dharmadhikari, and Eckhart Tolle are notable figures who were influenced by Krishnamurti. In the years following Krishnamurti’s passing, interest in him and his writings has remained strong. Major online and offline merchants carry a wide variety of books, music, video, and computer-related items that are still in print. The four official Foundations continue to organise meetings and dialogues of interested people throughout the world, manage archives, spread the teachings in an ever-increasing number of languages, convert print to digital and other media, establish websites, and support television shows.
5) Some Quotes:
“You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti
“It is truth that liberates, not your effort to be free.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti, The First and Last Freedom
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
― J. Krishnamurti
“Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to governments – and to organized religions as well. That is why governments and religious organizations seek to control education.”
― J. Krishnamurti, Education and the Significance of Life
“To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”
― J. Krishnamurti
“If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.”
― J. Krishnamurti
