9. Conclusion

The present chapter has discussed the ending of conflict. It is obvious that, one would not be free if one is in constant conflict. Common sense also said that conflict is an obstacle to one’s freedom and liberty. That is, to be free and independent one has to end or stop conflict whatever the causes may be. The premise is that, put an end to conflict and get freedom. By freedom Krishnamurti means to say, freedom to see, look, listen, observe and understand ‘what is’ that is, freedom to be integrally intelligent. The literal meaning of intelligence is the capacity to understand, store, remember, and to act in an appropriate manner under various situations in life. But Krishnamurti ascribes the meaning of intelligence in a different way. He uses the word to mean the freedom to see directly, without the interference of the past and the known. It faces life afresh and sees ‘what is’ as it actually is.

He says,

‘Understanding the false as false, seeing the true in the false and seeing the true as the true, is the beginning of intelligence.’^[1]

He however, thinks that, conflict and war is inevitable with the acquisitive character of modern civilization for all its industrialization and social organization with its preparedness for war and the invention of deadly weapons of mass destruction. Even the whole machinery of the governments is geared for the outbreak of conflict and war. The political revolutionaries are only concerned with the outer structure of man and not his inner constitution. According to Krishnamurti, the outer cannot be changed without changing the inner. There is no hope in reformation in the present acquisitive society and it must be entirely abandoned. To him mere industrialization encourages sensate value, better comfort, amusement and all the rest of it. External and temporal values take precedence over eternal values. Happiness is sought through manmade possession. One wants to be preoccupied, amused and taken away from oneself because of poverty, emptiness and sorrows. Krishnamurti therefore, asserts that modern technology and industrialization may temporarily solve the economic and social problems. However, in the long run, it breeds wars, revolutions, oppression and exploitation.

Besides, every individual is conditioned to all varieties of human invention. Human beings are being conditioned from time immemorial with all forms of religious, cultural and socio-economic factors and accordingly establish belief, faith, dogma, ideology etc. This conditioning is one’s consciousness, which is the acquired knowledge and experience of faith, ritual, fear, pleasure, sorrow and pain. Conditioning is therefore acquired knowledge. One’s consciousness and the whole capacity of the brain is always limited and conditioned, because knowledge in itself is limited, ever changing, and there can be no complete knowledge about anything. So thought, which is a product of knowledge, and stored in the brain as memory is also limited. Whatever one thinks is always limited–whether it is political, economic or religions.

Therefore, to Krishnamurti nothing can stop conflict and war and bring peace until one’s own life is no longer aggressive, greedy and no longer seek psychological security. As long as the causes of fragmentation of consciousness are operating in the human consciousness, conflict is inevitable. Despite understanding that war is not a way of settling anything human being is incapable of ignoring it, because the seed of conflict are within each one of us. So, if humanity urges to have peace it should transform the very structure of its consciousness, then only there could be true peace. This could not be done collectively, for the fundamental revolution is essentially an individual transformation. What he means by the total transformation of human consciousness is the abolition of thought and action based on limited self-consciousness, and the initiation of the effortless action of love, intelligence and understanding. Total transformation is not change which is the modified continuity of the existing order.

In his own word,

‘Total transformation can never take place within the pattern of any society whether that society be tyrannical or so-called democratic.’^[2]

Krishnamurti must have come to understand the fact that the crisis of humanity was going through the ages and needed a radical revolution, a total transformation, a fundamental inner change, which could never come about through a slow process, according to a set pattern or idea, but only within an absolute suddenness.

He therefore said that, freedom is freedom from all conditioning–which is freedom to live life as not dictated by something or somebody. But he does not agree that freedom is ‘freedom from something’ or ‘freedom to something.’ Freedom is freedom in itself or by itself. So, when one talks of ‘freedom from conditioning,’ it cannot be understood in the same sense that one understands freedom from other things. Their difference is that, when one talks of being free from other things one is talking of freedom from something or somebody or one’s freedom to do something or somebody. The fact is, when one talk of ‘freedom from conditioning’ there is no more question of ‘I’ trying to become free from something. It is the end of the ‘I’ and as such ‘being free from’ does not arise. Thus, it is not freedom to live according to one’s choice as opposed to living according to others, but freedom which is living. ‘I’ is not free from, or ‘I’ is not free to, but there is just freedom. That is, it rises above being ‘freedom from’ and ‘freedom to.’

Krishnamurti’s freedom is therefore, the dissolution of the ‘I.’ In common parlance, understanding freedom is being free to choose amongst alternatives. But to him, having alternative itself implies lack of freedom. So, freedom is choiceless awareness or perceiving ‘what is.’ To be free is to be clear, intelligent and rational. Freedom is an active and passionate state of mind which does not conform to or be conditioned by anything. It is self-knowledge in action. It is activity of mind which springs from nothingness.

In Krishnamurti’s freedom, there is only one way to act, i.e. acting in seeing ‘what is.’ In freedom one is determined to act that way when one sees ‘what is.’ As such, it could be understood in terms of order–that things are in a certain way and one has to act accordingly. To act in order of things is freedom.

According to Krishnamurti,

‘Freedom does not exist without order. The two go together. If you cannot have order, you cannot have freedom. The two are inseparable’.^[3]

To him, when man is psychologically or internally free, it finds its expression in one’s own relationship with ideas, things and people. He calls such kind of freedom as religious. It keeps the world in peace and order. To him the word ‘religion’ means deprogramming the mind from all system, beliefs, dogmas, superstitions and conditionings. For Krishnamurti, the essence of religion is freedom. It is the feeling of love and compassion and the seeking of truth. The religious life is a discovery of one’s own mind, to be religious is to be choiceless and aware that there is freedom from the known. So, freedom from the known is the meaning of the religious life.

In his own words,

‘The religious mind does not belong to any group, any sect, any belief, any church and any organized circus; therefore it is capable of looking at things directly and understanding things immediately. Such is the religious mind, because it is a light to itself. Its light is not lit by another -the candle that is lit by another can be put out very quickly.’^[4]

When one see all this around him/her as an actual fact, then one does not belong to any groups, any guru, and religion and to any political commitment of ideas. In the serious urgency to live peacefully there must be freedom from all this because they are the causes of dissension and division. Truth does not belong to anyone. It does not either belong to any church or to any group or to any religion. The brain must be free to discover it, as peace could exist only when there is freedom from fallacy.

He therefore said that a man who earnestly wishes to investigate the whole problem of sorrows must begin with himself. It is only through creative understanding of oneself that there can be a creative world, a happy world and a world in which ideas do not exist. So, a person must begin as an individual, because one cannot make the whole world non-violent. This problem can only be resolved when one, as an individual, finds out why he or she is angry, why he or she is violent, why he or she has prejudice and why he or she hates. One cannot put them away by revolting against them but only by understanding them. Understanding them means to look and to observe and to listen.

When there is freedom in an individual peace comes in, because the very basis of peace is freedom. To him, peace is not merely freedom from something, peace of mind or physical peace but the ending of all conflicts. Real peace is found not only in oneself but with one’s neighbours, the environment, the ecology and the world.

To him,

‘Peace is not freedom from something; freedom between two words, between two fights, between two problems, or a sense of physical relaxation is not peace. Peace is something much more fundamental, much deeper than the superficial freedom that one may have or that one may think one has.’^[5]

In his own words:

‘Only when you and I are no longer bound to castes, to classes, only when we are not bound to any form of religion, organized belief, whether it is small or large; only when we are no longer greedy for power, for position, for authority, for comfort–only then will there be peace. Peace is not a result of legislation; peace isn’t going to be brought about by the United Nations. How can outside law make you peaceful? How can outside compulsion make you love?’^[6]

The focal point of Krishnamurti’s discussion with regards to freedom and peace is that the two values are neither to be sought for, nor to achieve through personal endeavour. It could neither be obtained from others nor could anyone provide. The journey has to begin from oneself, that is, through inner transformation. Transformation is possible only when there is total change in the inward being of an individual. Mere change in the outer structure of society without considering the inward conflict is worthless. Real change takes place only when there is total resolution of the conflict within the individual. One has to integrate oneself without any choice and that demands total denunciation of thought which is imposed on the mind. It therefore, implies freedom from the known and freedom from the past. A fundamental revolution is primarily a revolution in the inner world of thoughts and feelings which radically affects man’s psychological relations with the world. Thus, when there is radical transformation, an individual surrenders to ‘what is,’ leaving every forms of thought that pre-occupied him/her. In that realm, one experiences freedom and peace without the interference of past memory, which is the cause of one’s conditioning.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2006). ‘Commentaries on Living, Second Series.’ New Delhi: Penguin Books, p. 57

[2]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2014). ‘Commentaries on Living, Third Series.’ Haryana: Penguin Books, P. 174

[3]:

Krishnamurti, J. (1998). ‘On Education.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p. 29

[4]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2010). ‘Beyond Violence.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p. 133

[5]:

Krishnamurti, J. (2011). ‘Where Can Peace Be Found?’ Boston: Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, pp. 11-12.

[6]:

Krishnamurti’s Talks London, England, (1949). Retrieved from http://jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/print.php?tid=330&chid=4650, dated, 31^st July, 2016.