Remembering J. Krishnamurti

Immortal Teacher of the Twentieth Century

Jiddu Krishnamurti, well known to his admirers throughout the world as Krishnaji, was a rare phenomenon of our times. As a philosopher unearthing and expounding basic truths of human life and its purpose, he was unique. As a teacher of the profound inner meanings of human existence, he was patient, painstaking and persuasive. As an uninhibited and outspoken interpreter of human problems, he was an original thinker, par excellence. As an individual human being, he was always gentle, caring and loving, undisturbed by any kind of self-consciousness or self-­importance. All his long life of ninety-one years, he was a living example of nobility, truthfuless, integrity, austerity and simplicity; indeed, he was a true personification of love and compassion. Absolute fearlessness was his forte while propounding his revolu­tionary teachings which sought to free man from the shackles of enslaving beliefs and false values. He was a true and great messenger of peace on earth. “Be a Light unto yourself” was his insistent, life-long message; he was that himself and wanted all of us who had had the benefit of listening to him intently to have this valuable experience by means of fearless self-experimentation.

Forcefully and unceasingly, he wanted us to get involved in the fascinating and challenging quest for self-knowledge which alone could make for meaningful existence on this earth. Although this is what had been advocated by many other seers and sages before him, and the scriptures of all the numerous religious faiths over the ages had also said so, he was different. He alone asserted that this pursuit had to be undertaken without any aids, however sacred or holy. Perception of self-knowledge had to be direct to be meaningful. Pointing out that without this self-knowledge we are all second-hand human beings, he declared, “Word is not the thing; you have to transcend beyond the word, which is thought, which again is the product of memory, the past, to understand and realise what your true self is, which alone matters.” His passionate commitment to enlighten us on the value of self-knowledge as the only path worth pursuing has left its imprint in a lasting manner.

Relevance of Krishnaji’s teachings to our daily life cannot be over-emphasised. He pleaded with us to cultivate and sustain a global outlook and a global feeling for all humanity in all our thinking and action, insistently saying: “You are the world and the world is you”. As a seer who had walked alone, all his life, in the golden path of self-knowledge and self-realisation, he had been convincingly asserting that it was there for everyone of us to tread if only we dared and acted fearlessly. He had maintained that happiness came out of one’s capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life and to be needed. He had seen enough of name and fame to know and to tell us that it created as many problems as it solved and that flowering of goodness in our daily life is the only thing that ought to deeply concern us. That indeed was the life-force which had to be cultivated and nurtured all the time. All of his life, Krishnaji had explored deeply into man’s evolutionary nature and questioned all or many of our most precious assumptions. He exposed us to the fact that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weighed less than a single beautiful action. It was his constant endeavour to awaken us to ever new vistas of truthful meaning of what life is and how to live it with love and compassion in our hearts. He wanted us to put away all self-centred activity and concentrate on universal good. He showed to us how life without order is empty.

Krishnaji’s adherence to truth had been continuous, how­ever arduous and painful. He broke off from his mentor and benefactor, Annie Besant, courageously disclaiming the role of a world teacher which she had lovingly built up for him over a period of two decades straining herself to the extreme. He declared then: “Truth is a pathless land and one had to traverse it alone.” What rare courage of conviction and supreme sacrifice!

Many years ago, when some influential individuals and powerful groups of intellectuals in the western world wished to propose his name for the highly prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, Krishnaji firmly declined to be nominated since he was wholly against any such recognition for himself or his work in any manner by anyone. Henry Miller, the tempestuous writer of some of the finest prose to emerge from North America, in an insightful statement once said: “Krishnamurti has renounced more than any man I can think of.”

How do we make Krishnaji’s teachings meaningful in our own lives? It is in the realm of “relationship” that he felt we could start experimenting with ourselves. Stressing right relationship as the most valuable and essential pre-requisite of joyful living, he advocated infinite patience and everlasting forgiveness to make it friction free. Total eschewing of any hurt feeling, avoidance of comparing one another, elimination of jealousy, hatred and prejudice had all to be simultaneously faced with perceptive watchfulness which he described as being in a state of “choiceless awareness.” He wanted us to make goodness attractive and flowering all the time in all our relationships, be it in the office or at home, in our daily life. For, he pointed out very frankly that happiness, well-being and security dominated by the material world had proved deceptive and illusory for inward happiness in the human being.

It was given to me to receive Aldous Huxley, well known American author, on behalf of Krishnamurti Foundation, when be visited Madras sometime during the ’Fifties to see Krishnaji. After listening to him, Huxley exclaimed. “...the most impressive thing I have listened to. It was like listening to a discourse of the Buddha – such power, such intrinsic authority.”

I shall now give three instances of which I have personal knowledge to enliven my readers’ interest in the teachings of J. Krishnamurti.

A friend of ours had lost a highly promising, grown up son in an accident. She decided to go to Krishnaji to talk things over. Step by step the sad event was discussed and Krishnaji helped the lady to see for herself that any, amount of sadness and remorse could not wipe out the sorrow and that the ending of sorrow had to come by bold involvement of oneself with some creative activity. She founded a school as a result, and this has given her great courage to face difficulties.

Mrs. Indira Gandhi visited Krishnaji in the winter of 1976 when the Indian sub-continent had been placed under an emergency by her. When the topic came for a review he asked her: “Madam, what have you done; don’t you realise that this is the last thing you should ever have thought of to remedy the situation?” This stung her to the quick rather severely and the result was she ordered fresh elections toLok Sabha early in 1977. Although she and her Congress party were routed on that occasion, she did not blame Krishnaji; for, she understood that he had guided her to act rightly and without fear. So, from then on, every time Krishnaji was in India she met him several times both while in and out of office, to pour out her heart and seek his wise counsel.

When K. Santhanam was the Chairman of an enquiry committee set up in 1962 by the Nehru government to go into the whole matter of corruption which had grown to ugly dimensions by then, he met Krishnaji to discuss the subject. After an hour-­long dialogue Krishnaji exclaimed, “Sir, remember that so long as those in high power and authority are not wholly above board and even above suspicion, there can be no rooting out of corruption.” No wonder the report of the committee emphasised this aspect pointedly.

Krishnajl laid great stress on improvement in the quality of education to one of excellence in every aspect of it. He was himself deeply involved with the founding of many schools, five in India, one in Britain and one in America. His dialogues with young boys and girls in the KFI schools was a rare feast to the eyes and ears. He enabled the flowering of intelligence in them.

Krishnaji’s long life was that of a swift flowing stream, its quality revealing itself in innumerable beautiful patterns all the time. He was sad that man had alienated himself from nature and had become a slave to materialism and a false sense of security.

Intensively human in his response, he was indeed a becon to all those who had the benefit of listening to his talks and dialogues.