J. Krishnamurti: His Philosophy

BY ADHYAPAKA BENOY GOPAL RAY

(Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan)

Only twenty-three years ago a legend was prevalent in this country that Krishnamurti was a highly advanced soul and he had been incarnated in this life to become a world-teacher (Jagat Guru). Annie Besant, the celebrated champion of Theosophy, regarded him as her Guru and she hailed him as “Messiah”. But Krishnamurti disappointed all, especially the Theosophists at Adyar, when he announced in 1927 that he was not going to be world-teacher and he repudiated the Messiahship. He woke up, as he says, from his dream to the reality of life. Krishnamurti says that he knows no Sanskrit and has not read the Upanishads. He does not like to know what other philosophers have said or preached. He hates patterns and theories. He approaches the problem of Reality from a fresh, unbiased and disinterested viewpoint, and this originality of his thinking constitutes the uniqueness of his contribution to world-culture. Today he is a seeker after Truth and he does not care for the establishment of any organisation, school, or Asrama for the dissemination of his ideas. Alone, calm and serene, Krishnamurti today lives in Madras, leading the peaceful life of realisation.

Krishnamurti has not presented his philosophy in a systematic form. His philosophy is strewn over his talks, lectures and answers to numerous questions which have been put to him by his disciples and admirers. According to him all sin, misery, confusion and contradiction are due to the sense of duality. Each individual thinks of himself as one unit and the world as the other. But the individual and the world are not two different entities with separate problems. The individual and the world are one. “Your problem is the world’s problem…..if you kill another, you are destroying yourself. You are the centre of the whole, and without understanding yourself you cannot understand Reality.” (Oak Grove Talks, Ojai, 1945). One has to go beyond the pattern of duality in order to attain Truth. Common thinking leads to dualistic pattern and opposites. What is wanted is right thinking which comes with self-knowledge. “Without understanding yourself, you have no basis for thought; without self-knowledge what you think is not true.” (Oak Grove Talks, Ojai, 1945). As long as the thinker separates himself from his thought, so long the vain conflict of the opposites will continue. In right thinking there is union of the thinker and his thought. When through right meditation the thinker and his thought are thus integrated, there is joy and in joy the ‘ecstacy of the Real’ is experienced and realised.

Krishnamurti does not believe in the reality of religious practices for salvation. “To me all organised religions are utterly false. They do not, in my opinion, lead man to the realisation of eternity.” (1933, Adyar Talks). Again he says elsewhere, “I have followed all these old paths of discipleship and worship and I see they are much too long, too complicated, unnecessary–because whatever path you may follow, whatever God you may worship, whatever shrine you build, you are forced at last to come to yourself and solve that Self.” (Extracts from his talks and writings, V–Star Publishing Trust). This Self is to be realised by clear knowledge and understanding. The ego or the ‘I’ has to be banished. What is the ego? According to him the ego is a mere symptom of spiritual ill-health. Those who are spiritually ward, cannot feel the true and unimpeded flow of life. They are always aware of obstruction and this obstruction constitutes their ‘I-ness’.

Like most philosophers, Krishnamurti too affirms that the cause and effect of suffering is ‘I’. It is the ‘I’ that suffers. The ‘I’, however perfected and glorified, cannot evade suffering and pain. (Star Bulletin, September-December, 1931). The ‘I’ is the seat of all desire and craving. There is no end to our ever expanding desire. This desire leads to passion, ill-will, oppression and war. Krishnamurti draws a distinction between ‘becoming’ and ‘being’. ‘Becoming’ according to him is conflict, sorrow and pain. But the self can transcend the stage of becoming and rest in ‘unpremeditated clarity, a deep ecstacy’. This stage is that of Being.

What, according to Krishnamurti, is the character of the ultimate Reality? He is rather chary of describing the Real which is causeless. Since discursive thinking is occupied with Causation, it cannot comprehend Reality. The real for him is to be experienced in self-knowledge. “Only in utter simplicity, when all craving has ceased, is the bliss of Reality.”

How does he view life and its opposite, death? For him life and death are one. Our ideas of death, as something different from life, are due to our sense of duality. “We think-feel in terms of time, of living, of becoming beyond death. The pattern of our thought-feeling moves from the known to the unknown, from the past to the present, to the future; if there is fear of the future, it clings to the past or to the present. We are held in time, and how can we, who think-feel in terms of time, experience the reality of timelessness in which life and death are one!” (Oak Grove Talks, Ojai, 1945). Life is often misunderstood. Had it been properly understood by clear thinking, the mysteries of Reality would have been solved. While answering certain questions, Krishnamurti on several occasions has identified Life with God or Ultimate Reality. Here is his final account of life. (See J. Krishnamurti: Extracts from his talks and writings, Vol. II–Star Publishing Trust).

Listen, O Friend,
I will tell thee of the secret perfume of life.
Life has no philosophy,
No cunning systems of thought.
Life has no religion,
No adoration in deep sanctuaries.
Life has no God,
Nor the burden of fearsome mystery.
Life has no abode,
Nor the aching sorrow of ultimate decay.
Life has no pleasure, no pain,
Nor the corruption of pursuing love.
Life is neither good nor evil,
Nor the dark punishment of careless sin.
Life gives no comfort,
Nor does it rest in the shrine of oblivion.
Life is neither spirit nor matter,
Nor is there the cruel division of action and inaction.
Life has no death,
Nor has it the void of loneliness in the shadow of Time.
Free is the man who lives in the Eternal,
For Life is.”

While concluding, let us try to determine the place of Krishnamurti in the history of contemporary Indian Philosophy. Contemporary Indian Philosophy begins from Raja Rammohun Roy. Maharshi Devendranath, Keshab Chandra, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Dayananda, Rama Tirtha, Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath, Gandhi, Radhakrishnan and Krishnamurti, are the prominent philosophers of contemporary India. All of them, save Krishnamurti, have re-interpreted the ancient Indian Philosophy. There is hardly a philosophical idea in them that cannot be traced to the perennial spring of the Vedas and the Upanishads. But Krishnamurti, as mentioned earlier, approaches the problems of philosophy from the standpoint of clear reason. His approach, in this respect, is heterodox. Another common feature of contemporary Indian thinking is that philosophy and religion are inter. twined. But, to Krishnamurti, religion is of no value. Unlike the thinkers mentioned above, he has presented his philosophy, not on the setting of religion but on right thinking. The chief contribution of Krishnamurti to modern Indian culture lies in his emphasis on the removal of the sense of duality which leads to evil, pain and suffering. The problem of the Self is the greatest problem and its solution lies in proper knowledge. Krishnamurti, as a seeker after right knowledge of the Self, can well be ranked with the Jnanayogins of all ages and climes.