U. G. Krishnamurti

“ The very sight of Brahmachariji, though greatly welcomed, always reminds U.G. of the great heritage and culture of India. He started by saying, "Why do you have to sell Shankara to make a living? What little good or bad he has done is there--the Maths are there. So why do you have to sell Shankara? You preach something about Gaudapada. But it doesn't operate in your lives. Gaudapada said, "No moksha, no sadhana," then what are you selling? That is why I say, one fellow is enough for the whole of India. You don't need any more. ”

“ Because I have assumed that goal, enlightenment, exists, I have had to search, and it is the search itself which has been choking me and keeping me out of my natural state. There is no such thing as spiritual or psychological enlightenment because there is no such thing as spirit or psyche at all. I have been a damn fool all my life, searching for something which does not exist. My search is at an end." ”

“ You want to be content always. It is just not possible. Just forget it. Why should you be content always? To me there is no such thing as contentment at all."
Suguna told him that his lunch was ready and waiting. He got up, excused himself and walked away unaware of the storm he had created in our minds.
It was just for a few minutes that we waited for him. He had gobbled up two idlies, eaten some yogurt, and that was lunch for him. Yet he spoke endlessly when the demand was there, and looked as if there was energy to spare. ”

“ It being a Sunday Chandrasekhar was enjoying his weekly holiday. Even after all these years of having known U.G., none of us had given up even the semblance of hope which we nurtured carefully in our hearts. Chandrasekhar still felt that U.G.'s so-called sadhanas, the countless repetitions of the Gayatri Mantra and Shiva Nama, his visits to the various sages, especially Ramana Maharshi, must have helped him to stumble into whatever state he is supposed to be in and U.G.'s total denial of the fact leaves no room for argument. ”

“ After some time U.G. asked Valentine to come and sit out on the sofa. With her memory loss and advanced age, she resisted such efforts, but found herself inexplicably seated next to U.G. on the sofa. She looked at him and said that he was "worse than disgusting" for giving her all this trouble. She laughed and appeared to be in a good mood. Then U.G. joked about her age, asking her if she was eighty or fifteen. "Are you eighty? Are you seventy? Are you sixty?....Are you fifteen? Are you fifteen Valentine?" U.G. repeated. Valentine seemed to recognize the joke and laughed. ”

“ Thankfully U.G. was very much at home, and I did not mind in the least when he called me names and labeled me as a messy housewife. There were not many guests or visitors, so Shyama asked some question on thoughts, thinking, and desire. And it was just a few moments, enough to let me take my pen and book out of my bag, and U.G. started with that surprisingly natural ease. "Thought is matter. Wanting anything is the beginning of your problem. If you don't want a thing in this world then there is no thinking. ”

“ You think there is silence when you close your eyes, sit in one corner and try to stop the flow of thoughts? You are just choked--that is not silence. Go to the forest--that roar is the silence. Go to a sea--that is silence. Go right into the center of the desert--that is silence. A volcano erupting--that is silence. Not the silent mind trying to experience "silence." Silence is energy bursting. ”

“ They are false, period, full stop, full period. I am not saying I have a teaching, that I am here to save mankind. It is false as far as you are concerned, but if you say that what I am saying is false because the others are right, then you are on the same merry-go-round. I have freed myself from the burden, this choking of the entire past of mankind--that's all. I don't use that for any purpose other than communication, functional living; period."
Then Nagaraj asked U.G. how spirituality was considered so superior in India. ”

“ The traffic seemed blocked at every turn, and the poor frustrated driver, goaded on by the very determined Brahmachariji, worked his way through Malleswaram. Pushpa chose this time to pose her second question to U.G.:
"Why should we not trust a compassionate man," she asked.
"Because," replied U.G., "He is only giving you what is already your due, and making a great big virtue of it. He has no right to possess more than another. It is only his guilt that makes him share his excess with one who is deprived." ”

“ Lunch was soon over, and the obsession with the idle car arose once again. Plans were laid to take the kids and ladies to the Ashoka Hotel so that we could watch the video cassette in Mahesh's room. Mahesh could not understand the need to put the car to use and said, "I must put my hands to use and strangle somebody." We made it to Mahesh's room and enjoyed some coffee at his expense. As the video blared Brahmachariji, Chandrasekhar, Suguna, and Subramanya all showed up, making conversation nearly impossible. ”

“ U.G. answered, "`Love thy neighbor as thyself'--more people have been killed in the name of love than anything else. You can't love your neighbor as yourself and even if by chance you do, your neighbor does not love you. He loves what you have." ”

“ We asked him about our fears and struggles to achieve goals. He said, "The goal is not out there. You are the goal. If the goal goes, you go with it. You can never be rid of fear. You and the fear will go together. If the fear goes, you will drop dead. "It's the body that lives from moment to moment. The body's malfunctioning we call disease, and the body gracefully accepts what you call death. The body does not know it is coming to an end. In a way you can say the body is immortal. ”

“ It is the thinking that results in hitting somebody--your child, for example--and not the anger. You are attributing it to something that is not there any longer. That has set in motion this nonsensical movement of thought. So it is not the anger but the frustration that is your problem. You are not dealing with desire. Desire is life. If you destroy desire you are destroying life. ”

“ The process of thinking is a constant attempt to become other than itself, to change the given or the present condition, however the condition is perceived to be. Thought uses all its knowledge of the past, knowledge of all the things that have given us pleasure or pain, to create a state of permanence for itself, a state of permanent happiness, and perpetually seeks to attain that state. ”

“ Anyway, these sudden outbursts of anger always drive me to attempt to wipe him out from my memory. But there are times when I have thanked my stars for having met the only man on the planet who has his two feet solidly planted on the terra firma.
Speaking about this anger that burned me because of his absolute indifference (from my point of view) , I remember one day when Nagaraj, Chandrasekhar, U.G., myself, and Brahmachariji were just having an idle chat after lunch. I asked U.G. if it really did not matter to him if he never saw my face again. ”

“ If U. G. has no positive teaching of any kind, can he even be called a teacher? If there is no positive "directive" or recipe one can draw from his teaching, why do people still come and see him? He simply does not make sense to people in a sense, because you can get nothing out of what he says. If people still want to see him, it may be because they are still consciously or unconsciously extracting directives out of what he says, or because they attribute to him causation for some kinds of spiritual experiences or other. ”

“ When you are free from anger then you will find yourself freed from property, relatives, children, etc. also. I myself resolved everything into just one burning question: `Is there really something called enlightenment?' Nothing else mattered. I did not attain moksha or enlightenment, which were my goals. The question just burned itself out. The very demand to know the answer to that question, and to be `free' from anything was entirely absent, that's all. ”

“ Upon U.G.'s return to Bangalore Chandrasekhar was going through some old files from the "archives", and Nagaraj was sitting comfortably on the sofa reading some magazine when U.G., suddenly inspired, said to Chandrasekhar, "I want everyone who is interested in this kind of thing to understand: all kinds of transformation--physical or the so-called psychological--are out. When the desire to become something different is absent, then the body is free to function in its own way, that's all. You, the one who is creating the problem, cannot solve it. ”

“ The fear that you felt prevented the possibility of the experience of death. Every feeling, every experience, everything that everybody felt and experienced before has become a part of your being and has to be completely flushed out. ”

“ It is part of life. People are all bored. Whatever you do is an escape; and that also bores you. You bore me. Your sitting here bores me. Your talk bores me." (I knew I had asked for it, but I let him continue.) He said, "What do you want me to do? The subject of God or Reality is equally boring. The talk on spirituality or gossip is as ridiculous as anything else to me. Even repeating Ram-nam is painful because it doesn't do any good. You have done it for long. Instead you can have a drink of wine or alcohol and forget for a while, or take a cup of coffee or tea. ”

“ He says that a man talks about morals only when he lacks the means to corrupt another or be corrupted himself. U.G.'s friends often fear for his well-being when he makes such statements to important members of the government. But in this case the minister was delighted with his honesty and candor, even inviting him to have lunch with a group of ministers to discuss with them his views on life, the State, and corruption. ”

“ The questions just burned themselves out, because there were no answers to them. I found that I had to use somebody for pleasure, and when this dawned on me the whole pleasure-seeking movement was out of my system." One young man asked U.G., "But even eating something can be called a pleasure." U.G. replied, "I eat food because I need some energy, at least to walk to the toilet by myself. What is the special charm in living? I have no other way to survive in this human jungle. This is the only way to fall in line. You do things either for pleasure or for power. ”

“ Then Pushpa asked about consciousness. U.G. replied, "You think thee is something mysterious about consciousness. It is only an instrument through the help of which you become conscious of things around you. The instrument which you are using to understand, if it is used in the technical area, will be very useful. But you are using it for something to which it is totally unrelated." Then we discussed the concepts of beauty, fear, and goals. U.G. spoke patiently: "Beauty is just the framing done by thought and it is cultural. Thought �is� the frame. ”

“ U.G. said, "There is no such thing as `Brahmajnana.' If at all there is `Jnana' then `Brahman' is out!" The very statement sent me to the seventh heaven of delight. Brahmachariji did not give up easily. He said, "Brahman and Jnanam are the same thing." And U.G. came out with, "If they are the same, why use two separate words for it?" And there was nothing else to be said on the matter!
Taste of money is sure to change one's nature....
Lunch was served by a smiling Suguna, and as he munched the papad U.G. suddenly got on the topic of money, his favorite topic. ”

“ You have introduced an `ideal man' and thus created misery for yourself. It is not `Love thy neighbor' but terror which will keep us together." "Man is just a memory. You understand things around you by the help of the knowledge that was put in you. You perhaps need the artist to explain his modern art, but you don't need anybody's help to understand a flower. You can deal with anything, you can do anything if you do not waste your energy trying to achieve imaginary goals."
The scientist then asked U.G. if we could convey any experience. ”