9. Conclusion

The conditioning factors discussed by Krishnamurti have many practical implications in one’s day to day life. To him, conditioning process starts right from birth and continues till death. But all those conditioning factors, in some way or the other, retarded the free psychological state of mind inherent to each and every human being. In this connection, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1788), a renowned social and political philosopher also outlined an important quotation in his ‘Social Contract Theory.’ He said that ‘man is born free, and everywhere is in chain.’^[1] To him, man was naturally good but becomes corrupted by the pernicious influence of human society and institution. He preaches that mankind could improve by returning to nature and living a natural life at peace with each other.

However, they have basic ideological differences in their attempt to solve social problems. While Krishnamurti is more concerned with individual’s internal conditioning or in other words inner/psychological conditioning, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is rather more concerned with the social problems which retarded freedom of an individual. In short, Krishnamurti basically follows inductive forms i.e. individual to society, to let the human being free from conditioning. Jean-Jacques Rousseau however, follows the deductive forms i.e. society to individual, to free us from all conditioning.

In whatever position they are, it is to be noted that human being is a social being and a product of family and society at large. An individual could not live and act according to his/her own wishes like that of a bird in the sky or an animal in the forest. One’s mental attitude and disposition is shaped, nurtured and established in a family by parent, in school by teacher, in religious places by clergyman and so on. That is the order of the family and society. Common sense said that if one goes against all those norms and system society placed before us, there would be more chaos that may even lead to conflict and disorder.

As said earlier, Krishnamurti is however, more concerned with the internal conditioning of an individual. His main contention is that due to inordinate conditioning of an individual from varied forms of elements, one’s psychological understanding power is filled with the issue of the past and the unconscious knowledge one acquired from those past experiences. Filled with thought-process, an individual ceases to be an individual in facticity. This puts an individual in a constant fear of his/her surrounding, of what to do and not to do, to obey and not to obey etc. Krishnamurti suggest that an individual should live with ‘what is’ and not with ‘what should be.’ Conditioning factors result in contradiction, division and separation in a society and the entire human race.

The following chapter makes an attempt to discuss various forms of divisions and contradiction that stand as barrier to freedom and peace in the world.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Bennett, J. (Ed.), (2010). ‘The Social Contract Theory by J.J. Rousseau,’ Retrieved from, http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/rousseau1762.pdf, dated, 16^th Dec. 2015