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Magazine
Listening to J. Krishnamurti
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J. Krishnamurti was one of the foremost religious thinkers of the 20th Century. Thanks to technology, his teachings are available to us in their pristine form, in CD, audio and videotapes. This gives future generations the opportunity to hear and see the Teacher in the original and also access those perennial solutions to fundamental human problems, writes S. RAMACHANDER.
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"If I may suggest, watch your own mind; do not merely listen to my words, but through my words observe the operation of your own thinking and discover yourself. I am describing the picture, but it is your picture, not mine. If you really watch yourself as you listen, you will find a radical change taking place in spite of your conscious mind. It is like a seed that, being sown in fertile soil, pushes through the earth and puts out a blossom".
J.Krishnamurti
THE wisdom of great sages of antiquity comes to us mainly through the aural tradition, and so has almost certainly suffered distortion through intermediaries. Fortunately the teachings of J. Krishnamurti, who was described as one of the foremost religious thinkers of the 20th Century are available to us in their pristine form, in CD, audio and videotapes, thanks to technology and the gentle care of the Krishnamurti Foundations. Future generations can hear and see the Teacher in the original in all forms of discourse that Krishanji (as he was popularly referred to) adopted, and access those perennial solutions to fundamental human problems.
Krishnaji probably spoke to more people directly than any other person did in human history. To listen to him apply his searching intelligence to a question, with compassion and seriousness of purpose, is a revealing demonstration of what he described as dialogue, or process of thinking together, towards a deep understanding. It comes when people "meet on the same level at the same time. That happens only when there is real affection between people, between intimate friends. That is real communion". He was able to come to a question every time as if for the first time, completely afresh. You never felt that he was dealing with questions that he must have been asked often in his life. He seems say to you: Come sir, let us examine this together, "like two friends sitting together on a park bench on a beautiful day" — a favourite simile — and talking things over in a spirit of equality. Steadily and gradually, the question unfolds before your very eyes (or ears) and soon it has taken wing and flown to a higher plane altogether. For, every conflict and confusion in life, which are the mainsprings of such questions, can eventually be traced back to the image that one creates about one's self as a separate being that has to be nurtured and protected and developed.
Krishnaji repeatedly told his audiences that his was not a lecture or entertainment nor a guru-disciple relationship, but rather, like equals talking things over together in a spirit of real affection, care, and sensitivity. There are some 15 million words covering six decades of public talks, given all over the world before audiences of up to 5,000 people at a time, intimate and intense discussions with one or two individuals or a group, question-answer sessions, or seminars with experts in many fields.
Krishnaji said that talking to anyone who would care to listen was quite simply the reason for his existence. It kept him going at a hectic pace till his ninety-first year! He put such passion and energy into each occasion that seldom was one disappointed in the coverage or depth of his discourse.
One can thus dip into the recorded words almost at any page and in a few minutes one is likely to be entranced by the language and power of his message.
Krishnaji talked on several mellow evenings during his winter visits to Vasanta Vihar in Madras. His was not a very strong or deep voice but one that nonetheless was resonant and commanded attention. He was very sensitive to the atmosphere and to those listening to him. He seemed to read them like a book. I have even heard him say once "Don't be mesmerised by the speaker!" He certainly included himself — often sharply and explicitly — when he told you "not to accept any authority or guru whatsoever" in matters as profound as the meaning of life, religion, love, meditation and so on. He paused often. "Are you following all this?" was a favourite parenthetical observation.
His discourses were always genuine explorations into the vast and complex human problems common to us all — sorrow, pleasure, fear, ambition, comparison, as well as the desire to "lead a religious life" and "find God".
However, Krishnaji did recognise that what seemed extraordinarily simple and clear to him was very difficult for ordinary men and women. He said: "I am using words, which are simple, which are not technical, because any technical type of expression is not going to help us solve our difficult problems; so I am not going to use any technical terms, either of psychology or of science. I would like to convey, by the very simple words, which we use in our daily life, a deeper significance; but that is very difficult if you do not know how to listen". "I am going to point out to you what is; and not translate it according to my fancy; nor should you translate it or interpret it according to your background or training. Is it not possible, then, to be aware of everything as it is? Starting from there, surely, there can be an understanding". He gave a clue as to what you need in order to enable this quality of listening.
After all, it is like research. To know what something is, what it is exactly requires research — you cannot translate it according to your moods.
If during this discussion, anything is said which is opposed to your way of thinking and belief just listen; do not resist. You may be right, and I may be wrong; but by listening and considering together we are going to find out what is the truth. Truth cannot be given to you by somebody. You have to discover it; and to discover there must be a state of mind in which there is direct perception.
He linked these themes to the eternal questions of what is love, what is the good life, and what death is. This last was a speciality of his, to which he brought unique and profound insights. He never failed to stun his listeners by asking: Can you die everyday — to your experiences, ambition, achievements and desires? Because we do not know how to do this, to "end" totally anything in our daily existence, we seek something permanent, even after the bodily death. What ends when you die is, according to Krishnaji, something trivial, a name, a form, a bank account, and a succession of images built up in one's mind and others' about a so-called individual self — which really is as insubstantial as a shadow.
Now the question is: can the mind be free of this egocentric activity? .
Which means can the mind stand alone, uninfluenced? Alone, being alone does not mean isolation. Sir, look: when one rejects completely all the absurdities of nationality, the absurdities of propaganda, of religious propaganda, rejects conclusions of any kind, actually, not theoretically, completely put aside, has understood very deeply the question of pleasure and fear, and division--the `me' and `not me' — is there any form of the self at all? And we speculate endlessly about what happens after this identity (which is the only thing we know) goes. Instead of that, if we learnt how to live this life before death rather than the one after, we would do ourselves a great deal of good. And here, Krishnaji is alone amongst the world's greatest thinkers in pointing out that in dying to the notional, individual self, there is daily and continual release from the fear of death — which also cures us of the everyday fears. And then the ultimate physical end has "very little meaning"! He relentlessly pushed people who were sufficiently serious and intent upon the journey, to be a light unto themselves, to see "the source of sorrow, the possibility of ending sorrow" and freedom from the bondage of individual separation from the world. He could see that people would recognise the similarity with the Buddha's teaching, and added amusingly, that if people had really followed what the Buddha said, there would have been no Buddhism!
In the Krishnaji Teachings there was of course no recourse to a method or system recommended, none whatsoever. This is the one hurdle at which most listeners coming in hope, tend to falter and often lose heart and turn away.
Instead, the listener is turned in upon himself and invited to observe the very fact of fear or desire or anger and see for himself that these are not different from his or her `self'. In observing anything totally objectively, there is no distance between the observer and the observed. In seeing one's own mental creations such as fear or loneliness, the gap disappears and object seen undergoes a transformation. It is this transformation that ends psychological time, which is the root of all striving to become. When there is no "thing" that has to become something else, then the verb itself loses all meaning. The world shines in our eyes as if it were born anew. The world is the same, it is just that one's lenses have been washed and wiped clean of this intrusive film of dirt called ego! All of Krishnaji's dialogues and talks are various verbal pathways to bring one to this point. Sometimes he begins with the familiar matrix of desire, pleasure, fear, and pain. At other times he explores sorrow and its several roots and branches. And at other times it is thought in the "psychological world" as distinct from the functional role and how "time-thought" are one.
Of course we need thought — "to drive a car, to learn a language, to go home from here" was a favourite formulation of his. To some the route into this extraordinary teaching was this startling perception about images i.e. the insubstantial and truly imaginary content of our minds, which we so regularly take to be as real as the chair we are sitting on! From there we act as if it were all so real, thus bringing upon ourselves all sorts of heartaches and pains that the flesh is heir to.
In the end, one realises that each of the so-called subjects of his talks and discourses was only a different way of slicing the same apple, the same taste and the core remained. Hence the expression "the core of the teachings" would seem an especially happy metaphor.
Listening to these tapes and CD's is a unique experience. The voice and the chaste diction go beyond the mere word. The words can be accessed even on the net or on a written page but they are apt to be coloured by one's own imagination and vocabulary, whereas in listening there is a possibility of reaching the source, pure and unsullied.
The writer is the director of the Academy of Management Excellence, Chennai.
(To be concluded)
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