U. G. Krishnamurti

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U.G. Krishnamurti

Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti (born July 9, 1918 – March 22, 2007), better known as U.G. Krishnamurti, or just U.G., said he was not a guru or a teacher or a philosopher of any kind. [1] Yet some people say he was "enlightened".[2] His ideas and statements are quite iconoclastic in nature and are antagonistic to the commonly held values of society and may be liable to be criticized by a vast majority of people.

Introduction

Many spiritual people [3] have sought U.G. Krishnamurti for guidance on spiritual and metaphysical matters, but he had time and again stated that he had no teaching to give and that it is impossible for such a teaching to be transmitted between persons in any case. Several books have been written with his words, including The Mystique of Enlightenment, The Courage to Stand Alone, Mind Is a Myth, Thought Is Your Enemy, and No Way Out. At the same time, he also said that "enlightenment", spirituality, charity, selflessness are not important anyway, and suggests that bothering with these things is a mistake. He has been called an anti-guru, and stated that "a real guru, if there is one, frees you from himself". He said that he was not trying to sell anything and claimed that he didn't care whether people believe him or not.

The main theme which emerged from the discussions with him was the impossibility and non-necessity of any human change, radical or mundane. U.G. repeated endlessly that the body and its actions are already perfect, and attempts to change or mold the body or its actions are pure and simple violence. The psyche or self or mind, an entity which he denies has any being, is composed of nothing but this demand to bring about change in either the material or in itself. The human self-consciousness is not a thing, but a movement, one characterized by perpetual malcontent and a "fascist" insistence on its own importance and survival.

He also claimed that the reason people came to him and to gurus is to find solutions to ease their everyday real problems or for solutions to a fabricated problem, namely, the search for spirituality and enlightenment. He continued to say this drive is caused by the cultural environment, which demands conformity of individuals and places within them the desire to be special. Consequently, it is this need that is exploited by gurus, spiritual teachers and sellers of "shoddy goods", who pretend to offer the way to reach that goal but never deliver and cannot, since the goal is itself unreachable.

Early life

U.G. was born on July 9, 1918 in Masulipatam, India, and raised in the nearby town of Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh. His mother died 7 days after he was born and he was brought up by his maternal grandfather, a wealthy Brahmin lawyer, who was also involved in the Theosophical Society. In Mystique of Enlightenment, U.G. told this story about his grandfather:

"My grandfather used to meditate. (He is dead, and I don't want to say anything bad about him.) He used to meditate for one or two hours in a separate meditation room. One day a little baby, one and a half or two years old, started crying for some reason. That chap came down and started beating the child, and the child almost turned blue -- and this man, you see, meditating two hours every day. 'Look! What is this he has done?' That posed a sort of (I don't want to use the psychological term, but there is no escape from it) a traumatic experience -- 'There must be something funny about the whole business of meditation. Their lives are shallow, empty. They talk marvelously, express things in a very beautiful way, but what about their lives? There is this neurotic fear in their lives: they say something, but it doesn't operate in their lives. What is wrong with them?' -- not that I sat in judgement over those people."

— (Krishnamurti, U.G.; Arms, Rodney, Ed. [Third Edition, 2001]. Mystique of Enlightenment. Part One. Retrieved April 18, 2005 from [4])

During his teen-age years, U.G. practiced all kinds of austerities and earnestly sought moksha. He spent seven summers in the Himalayas with Swami Sivananda studying yoga and practicing meditation. During his twenties, U.G. began attending the University of Madras, studying psychology, philosophy, mysticism and the sciences, but never completed a degree. In 1941, he began working for the Theosophical Society, in C.W. Leadbeater's library. He then began doing an international lecture tour on behalf of the Theosophical Society, visiting Norway, Belgium, Germany and the United States. Returning to India, he married a Brahmin woman named Kusuma Kumari.

Meetings with J.Krishnamurti

From 1947 to 1953, U.G. regularly attended talks given by Jiddu Krishnamurti in Madras, finally beginning a direct dialogue with J. Krishnamurti in 1953. U.G. describes one of their meetings as follows:

"We really didn't get along well. Whenever we met we locked horns over some issue or other. For instance, I never shared his concern for the world, or his belief that his teaching would profoundly affect the thoughts and actions of mankind for the next five hundred years--a fantasy of the Theosophist occultists. In one of our meetings I told Krishnamurti, 'I am not called upon to save the world.' He asked, 'The house is on fire--what will you do?' 'Pour more gasoline on it and maybe something will rise from the ashes,' I remarked. Krishnamurti said, 'You are absolutely impossible.' Then I said, 'You are still a Theosophist. You have never freed yourself from the World Teacher role. There is a story in the Avadhuta Gita which talks of the avadhut who stopped at a wayside inn and was asked by the innkeeper, "What is your teaching?" He replied, "There is no teacher, no teaching and no one taught." And then he walked away. You too repeat these phrases and yet you are so concerned with preserving your teaching for posterity in its pristine purity.'"

— (Krishnamurti, U.G.; Arms, Rodney, Ed. [Third Edition, 2001]. Mystique of Enlightenment. Part One. from [5])

Their dialogues continued, but finally came to a halt. U.G. describes the final discussion as follows:

"Again I asked him if there was anything behind the abstractions he was throwing at me, 'Come clean for once.' Then he said with great force, 'You have no way of knowing it!' Then I said, 'If I have no way of knowing it and you have no way of communicating it, what the hell have we been doing! I have wasted seven years listening to you. You can give your precious time to somebody else. I am leaving for New York tomorrow.'"

— (Krishnamurti, U.G.; Arms, Rodney, Ed. [Third Edition, 2001]. Mystique of Enlightenment. Part One. from [6])

After the break with J .Krishnamurti, U.G. went to the United States seeking medical treatment for his son, and stayed there for 5 years.

London period

U.G. ultimately separated from his family and went to London where he lived a bleak existence, alone and penniless, wandering the streets, often depending on the charity of others for survival. While sitting one day in Hyde Park, he was confronted by a police officer who threatened to lock him up if he didn't leave the park. Down to his last five pence, U.G. made his way to the Ramakrishna Mission of London where he met with the residing Swami, who gave him money for a hotel room for the night. The following day, U.G. began working for the Ramakrishna Mission for a period of 3 months. About this time, J. Krishnamurti was in London and the two Krishnamurtis renewed their acquaintance. J. Krishnamurti tried to advise U.G. on his recent marital troubles but U.G. didn't want his help. Still, J. Krishnamurti persuaded U.G. to attend a few talks he was giving in London. U.G. attended the talks but found himself bored listening to him. In 1961, U.G. put an end to his relationship with his wife, who had recently been suicidal (she later underwent shock therapy and died of an accident in 1963). U.G. then left London and spent 3 months living in Paris, using funds he had obtained by selling his unused return ticket to India, during which time he ate a different variety of cheese each day. Down to his last 150 francs, he went to Geneva.

Early Swiss Period

After two weeks in Geneva, U.G. was unable to pay his hotel bill and sought refuge from the Indian Consulate where he met a Swiss woman named Valentine de Kerven, who was active in experimental theatre and a former associate of Antonin Artaud. Valentine and U.G. became close friends and she provided him a home in Switzerland. It was the beginning of a lifelong relationship. By 1967, U.G. was still concerned with the subject of enlightenment, wanting to know what that state was, which all the sages were said to have attained, such as Buddha. Hearing that J. Krishnamurti was giving a talk in Saanen, U.G. decided to attend. During the talk, J. Krishnamurti was describing his own state and U.G. thought that it referred to him (U.G.). He explains it as follows:

"When I Iistened to him, something funny happened to me -- a peculiar kind of feeling that he was describing my state and not his state. Why did I want to know his state? He was describing something, some movements, some awareness, some silence -- "In that silence there is no mind; there is action" -- all kinds of things. So, "I am in that state. What the hell have I been doing these thirty or forty years, listening to all these people and struggling, wanting to understand his state or the state of somebody else, Buddha or Jesus? I am in that state. Now I am in that state." So, then I walked out of the tent and never looked back."

— (Krishnamurti, U.G.; Arms, Rodney, Ed. [Third Edition, 2001]. Mystique of Enlightenment. Part One. from [7])

U.G. left the tent where the talk was being held, and finally permanently broke with J. Krishnamurti.

Calamity

The next day, on his 49th birthday, U.G. experienced what he termed a "calamity", a series of bizarre physiological transformations which took place over the course of a week, impacting all of his senses and finally resulting in a deathlike experience. He describes it this way:

"I call it 'calamity' because from the point of view of one who thinks this is something fantastic, blissful and full of beatitude, love, or ecstasy, this is physical torture; this is a calamity from that point of view. Not a calamity to me but a calamity to those who have an image that something marvelous is going to happen."

— (Krishnamurti, U.G.; Arms, Rodney, Ed. [Third Edition, 2001]. Mystique of Enlightenment. Part One. from [8])

Upon the 8th day:

"Then, on the eighth day I was sitting on the sofa and suddenly there was an outburst of tremendous energy -- tremendous energy shaking the whole body, and along with the body, the sofa, the chalet and the whole universe, as it were -- shaking, vibrating. You can't create that movement at all. It was sudden. Whether it was coming from outside or inside, from below or above, I don't know -- I couldn't locate the spot; it was all over. It lasted for hours and hours. I couldn't bear it but there was nothing I could do to stop it; there was a total helplessness. This went on and on, day after day, day after day. "

— (Krishnamurti, U.G.; Arms, Rodney, Ed. [Third Edition, 2001]. Mystique of Enlightenment. Part One. from [9])

"The energy that is operating there does not feel the limitations of the body; it is not interested; it has its own momentum. It is a very painful thing. It is not that ecstatic, blissful beatitude and all that rubbish -- stuff and nonsense! --- it is really a painful thing."

— (Krishnamurti, U.G.; Arms, Rodney, Ed. [Third Edition, 2001]. Mystique of Enlightenment. Part One. from [10])

Post-Calamity

After his calamity experience, U.G. remained based primarily in Switzerland but often embarked on various travels in other countries around the world. He swiftly gained a reputation as an enlightened person, though he always refused the label. Many people [11] sought him for answers to their spiritual dilemmas, and he was always willing to talk with them, but staunchly posits that he has nothing to teach and that no one can really learn about enlightenment by depending on someone else as an authority, teacher or guide.

Death

On March 22, 2007, U.G. Krishanmurti passed away at Vallecrossia in Italy. He had slipped and injured himself and was bedridden for seven weeks before his death. Friends of U.G., including film-maker Mahesh Bhatt and Larry and Susan Morris, were by his side when he died.

According to his friend AP Frank Noronha, U.G. asked that no rituals or funeral rites be conducted; also, he did not leave instructions on how to dispose of his body. U.G.'s body was cremated by Mahesh Bhatt. [12]

Quotations

• "The moment you repeat that which is not yours, you have become the follower of somebody."

• "If books and talks could change people, this world would become a paradise."

• "Once you are relieved of the burden of culture, any potential will be exposed. What stands in the way is the culture, all the teachers and what they have taught."

• "When the movement in the direction of becoming something other than what you are isn't there any more, you are not in conflict with yourself."

• "I am not out to liberate anybody. You have to liberate yourself, and you are unable to do that. What I have to say will not do it. I am only interested in describing this state, in clearing away the occultation and mystification in which those people in the 'holy business' have shrouded the whole thing. Maybe I can convince you not to waste a lot of time and energy, looking for a state which does not exist except in your imagination."

• "Your minds pose as much a threat to the future of mankind as the nuclear weapons. The hydrogen bomb has its origin in the jawbone of an ass. The caveman used it to kill his neighbor. Here your civilized man is doing what the caveman did but you do it for the `good of mankind.' Those who still hold that right is all on their side and that their eternal good will burn away the evil of others are the real enemies of mankind."

• "To be an individual and to be yourself you don't have to do a thing. Culture demands that you should be something other than what you are. What a tremendous amount of energy -- the will, the effort -- we waste trying to become that! If that energy is released, what is it that we can't do? How simple it would be for every one of us to live in this world!"

• "As long as you think you have something to renounce, you are lost. Not to think of money and the necessities of life is an illness. It is a perversion to deny yourself the basic needs of life. You think that through a self-imposed asceticism you will increase your awareness and then be able to use that awareness to be happy. No chance. You will be peaceful when all your ideas about awareness are dropped and you begin to function like a computer. You must be a machine, function automatically in this world, never questioning your actions before, during, or after they occur."

• "There is no such thing as truth. The only thing that is actually there is your "logically" ascertained premise, which you call "truth"."

All of the above quotations are from: [13]

• "So, you never question the solutions. If you really question the solutions, you will have to question the ones who have offered you those solutions. But sentimentality stands in the way of your rejecting not only the solutions, but those who have offered you the solutions. Questioning that requires a tremendous courage on your part. You can have the courage to climb the mountain, swim the lakes, go on a raft to the other side of the Atlantic or Pacific. That any fool can do, but the courage to be on your own, to stand on your two solid feet, is something which cannot be given by somebody."

Taken from The Courage to Stand Alone, Part III

See also

• Anarcho-primitivism - School of thought that holds similar ideas with those of this personality, such as the view of language as a source of alienation and the call for a non-mediated reality.

References

• http://ugkrishnamurti.net/
• http://ugkrishnamurti.org/
• http://ugkrishnamurti.nu/
• List of Books, Interviews, and References: http://www.well.com/user/jct/lists.html
• Some books about UG may be found online at http://www.well.com/user/jct/

External links

• Julius.it, U.G. Krishnamurti Section
• U.G. Krishnamurti en español
• U.G. Krishnamurti in italiano
• A Note on U.G., Jeffrey M. Masson