REMEMBERING J. KRISHNAMURTI
Immortal Teacher of the Twentieth Century
K. S. RAMANUJAM
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 to Lok 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.