Self-Knowledge in Krishnamurti’s Philosophy
by Merry Halam | 2017 | 60,265 words
This essay studies the concept of Self-Knowledge in Krishnamurti’s Philosophy and highlights its importance in the context of the present world. Jiddu Krishnamurti was born in 1895 to a Telugu Brahmin family in Madanapalli. His father was as an employee of the Theosophical Society, whose members played a major role in shaping the life of Krishnamur...
Go directly to: Footnotes.
3. Bondage from Authority
According to Krishnamurti, another form of bondage is authority. Essentially, authority implies conformity through fear, to a particular pattern, whether of environment, tradition, ideal or of memory. For instance, in religion it could be seen that through faith and belief, man is being held in the prison of authority, because each one is seeking his own security through what is calls immortality. Thus, through fear, one comes to accept authority of religious threats, fears, superstitions, hopes and beliefs. In other words, man has a desire to be secure and therefore strongly defends the authority which is exercised in various forms–the authority of scriptures, parents, gurus, state, and law and police etc. One desires to find a safe and acceptable form of behaviour and would like to be guided as to how they should behave in different situation and to be told what to do. Being confused and worried, one goes to a priest, to a teacher, parents or to somebody else, seeking a remedy of that confusion. Thus, it is the desire in one’s mind to find a particular way of life and way of conduct that creates authority.
Krishnamurti said:
‘I have the desire to be comforted, to be told what to do. So, I create an authority. That authority does not really exist outside me.’[1]
Kinds of Authority:
Krishnamurti identifies various kinds of authority such as outward psychological authority and inward authority which have been constantly preventing individual freedom. Outward authority is what one person imposes on another which comes in the form of rules, regulations and laws enforced by society. Inward authority is living according to one’s own ideals. It is disciplining one’s mind internally. Inward authority starts right from infancy. All the traditions, beliefs, ideas, even the language that one acquired from one’s social and cultural background, only serve to constitute that inward authority which keeps us in bondage.
Krishnamurti again says,
‘And what happens to you? You get crushed, you are just broken. You never think, act and live vitally, for you are afraid of all these things. You say that you must obey, otherwise you will be helpless. Which means what? That you create authority because you are seeking a safe way of conduct, a secure manner of living. The very pursuit of security creates authority, and that is why you become a mere slave, a cog in the machine, living without any capacity to think, to create.’[2]
It is natural to accept very easily the path that is most convenient and pleasurable. An authority dictates and lays down in a religious or psychological system a method, which one is told would lead to security. An individual accepts authority because he/she wants to feel secure and authority has attained its status by already being accepted as the way leading to it. One puts all faith and trust in somebody, or in some idea, conclusion, teaching, and gives oneself to that in the hope of finding some deep satisfaction and security.
When there is authority there is conformity. To conform is to agree to act by the pattern set by another through various sanctions. This is bondage. Yet, if one observes, millions of peoples are following that path and that way of thinking hoping that some day or in some future or somewhere there is going to be security. Besides, one creates psychological authority because there is the desire on the part of everyone to find a save way of behaviour and an individual want to be told what to do. Being confused, worried and not knowing what to do, one approach to priests, teachers, and parents or to somebody else in order to find a way out of one’s confusion. A person think that they knows better than oneself and accordingly approach the guru and some educated man and ask them to tell what to do. So, it is the desire in a person to find a particular way of life that creates to believe in authority. For instance, Krishnamurti illustrates that, one goes to a guru because he think the guru is a great man who knows the truth about God and therefore give him peace. One prostrate oneself, offer him flowers and gave him devotion. One has the desire to be comforted, be told what to do and in that sense creates an authority.[3]
Similarly, there is outward authority of the state, law and police. One creates this outward authority because one has property which he/she want to protect. The property belongs to oneself and does not want anyone else to have it. So, government is created to protect one’s property. The government becomes one’s authority, which is one’s invention to protect one’s way of life and system of thought. Gradually systems of authority were established in the form of state, government, police and army to protect me and mine.
But the question remains whether there is any security in any teachings including religious teaching of the gurus. Krishnamurti clearly argues that living according to an authority is itself a tradition which brings about a conflict between ‘what is’ and ‘what should be’ that is the ideal. One generally creates authority with the intent of seeking a safe way of conduct and a secured manner of living. However, the very pursuit of security creates authority and ultimately become a mere slave and a cog in the machine living without any capacity to think and create.
Krishnanurti explains that one wants an authority to bring about order in him or her. But the question remains whether authority could ever bring about inward order.
To further elucidate, he says, that:
‘Order imposed from without must always breed disorder. You may see the truth of this intellectually but can you actually apply it so that your mind no longer projects any authority, the authority of a book, a teacher, a wife or husband, a parent, a friend or of society? Because we have always functioned within the pattern of formula, the formula becomes the ideology and the authority; but the moment you really see that the question, ‘How can I change?’ sets up a new authority, you have finished with authority forever.’[4]
So, to accept authority is to submit to domination and to subjugate oneself to an individual, group, ideology, whether religious or political. This subjugation of oneself to authority is the denial of intelligence, that is, the ability to see clearly. Subjugation also takes away individual freedom. Acceptance of any kinds of dogma and a system of ideas is a self-protective reaction. The acceptance of authority may help one temporally to cover up one’s difficulties and problems. However to avoid a problem is only to intensify it and in the process freedom is abandoned.
He therefore says,
‘How can there be compromise between freedom and the acceptance of authority? If there is comprise, then those who say they are seeking self-knowledge and freedom are not earnest in their endeavour. We seem to think that freedom is an ultimate end, a goal, and that in order to become free we must first submit ourselves to various forms of suppression and intimidation. We hope to achieve freedom through conformity; but are not the means as important as the end? Do not the means shape the end?’[5]
Krishnamurti views the problem of bondage due to authority in two different ways. Firstly, he visualizes in the form of influences or authority crystallized by customs, traditions, cultures, religion etc. Secondly, he also visualizes in the form of hidden fears which always lurk in human mind. He opines that if one can reject all authority, one would no longer be afraid of anything. When one reject something false which he /she have been carrying about for generations, one would throw off a burden of any kind. Then one would have more energy, capacity, drive, greater intensity and vitality.[6]
Krishnamurti says that having realised that one cannot depend on outside authority in bringing about a total revolution within the structure of our own psyche; there is difficulty in rejecting our own inward authority–the authority of one’s own particular experiences and accumulated opinions, knowledge, ideas and ideals.
In his own words,
‘You had an experience yesterday which taught you something and what it taught you becomes a new authority–and that authority of yesterday is as destructive as the authority of a thousand years. To understand oneself, one needs no authority either of yesterday or of a thousand years because we are living things, always moving, flowing, and never resting. When we look at ourselves with the dead authority of yesterday we will fail to understand the living movement and the beauty and quality of that movement.’[7]
To be free of all authority is to die to everything, so that one’s mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigour, and passion. Krishnamurti states that, it is only in that state that one learns and observes. And for this a great deal of awareness is required–actual awareness of what is going on inside oneself, without correcting it telling it what it should or should not be. Because, the moment you correct it you have established another authority that is a sensor.
If one is to be aware of the whole process of authority, if one is to see the inwardness of it, if one is to understand and transcend the desire for certainty, then one must have extensive awareness and insight, one must be free not at the end but at the beginning. If the end is freedom the beginning must be free, because the end and the beginning are one. There can be self-knowledge and intelligence only when there is freedom at the very outset. Self-knowledge alone can bring tranquillity and happiness to man, for self-knowledge is the beginning of intelligence and integration. Intelligence is not mere superficial adjustment or neither the cultivation of the mind nor acquisition of knowledge. Intelligence is the capacity to understand the ways of life and it is the perception of right values.
Footnotes and references:
[2]:
Krishnamurti, J. (2010). ‘Life Ahead.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p. 36
[3]:
Krishnamurti, J. (2010). ‘Life Ahead.’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p. 34
[4]:
Lutyens, M. ‘Freedom from the Known.’ (Mary Lutyens Edition, 1969), New Work: Harper Collins Publisher, p. 18
[5]:
Krishnamurti, J. (1992). ‘Education and Significance of Life,’ Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India, p. 60.
[6]:
Lutyens, M. (Eds.), (1969). ‘J. Krishnamurti: Freedom from the Known.’ New Work: Harper Collins Publisher, p. 18
[7]:
Lutyens, M. (Eds.), (1969). ‘J. Krishnamurti: Freedom from the Known.’ New Work: Harper Collins Publisher, p. 19