U. G. Krishnamurti
| Date of Birth | : | 09 Jul, 1918 |
| Date of Death | : | 22 Mar, 2007 |
| Place of Birth | : | Machilipatnam, India |
| Profession | : | Author, Philosopher |
| Nationality | : | Indian |
Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti was a philosopher who questioned the state of spiritual liberation. Having pursued a religious path in his youth and eventually rejecting it, U.G. claimed to have experienced a devastating biological transformation on his 49th birthday, an event he refers to as "the calamity".
Biography
Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti, famous around the world as simply U. G Krishnamurti, gave the world a unique perspective about enlightenment. According to Krishnamurti, there is no such thing as philosophical enlightenment. There are no philosophical questions to be asked and no intellectual answers to be given to those questions.
This enlightenment-negating thinker was born in India, on July 9, 1918. For him, the concept of seeking the ultimate truth is absurd, as he thinks there is nothing to seek. Nature will provide individuals with the solutions of all their problems; one just needs to embrace it in its entirety.
Many people also tried to regard him amongst the ‘enlightened ones’, but he insisted that he simply exists in what he called the ‘natural state’. For him, the puzzling notions and ideas that people involve themselves into in the name of enlightenment are the only hindrance between them and being enlightened-if there is such a thing.
For Krishnamurti, the need to constantly change, to evolve, is not just impossible, but also a futile exercise. He emphasized on the body and the soul being perfect the way they are. To try to alter bodily actions is considered by him as a breach in the purity, peace and harmony of the body.
His concept of the mind and the psyche is only one of a kind. He believed that the psyche, or the mind, does not exist as a being, but rather it is a demand of the self to bring about a change in this world, or in itself. Self-consciousness for Krishnamurthi is a fascist force, one which only emphasizes on its own importance.
According to Krishnamurti, the business of gurus and spiritual healers is booming because of people who are in search of answers to their pseudo questions of enlightenment and salvation. The quest for these answers is instilled into them through an artificially created cultural environment. The culture demands from people to conform while at the same time it asks them to be unique and special in their own way, infusing in people a constant need for so-called enlightenment which would bring out their exclusive character. The gurus take advantage of this situation and promise of a way towards salvation, a journey by the end of which the puzzled individual will find answers to all his spiritual questions, leading him to the ultimate truth.
For him, the goal of enlightenment is unapproachable, and self realization is futile, because there are no goals and there is nothing to discover in the self. Whatever is happening in the world is just happening; there are no divine interventions and spiritual, mysterious connections behind the happenings of the world. He liked to call himself ‘unrational’, as he totally negated the idea of employing rationality to answer questions of enlightenment. He believed that humans are too busy trying to find the meaning behind things when there is none to be found.
With his talks and words, he tried to wipe off from the minds of his followers previous concepts and cherished truths of history and society. He asked them to start anew, forgetting what has been taught to them all their lives. He denied the existence of spirituality in India, or of communism in Russia, or liberty in America. Instead, he asked his fellows to relate nothing to nowhere.
Death
U.G. Krishnamurti died on March 22, 2007. All his life he worked towards completely erasing of the idea of questioning ones’ self, so that nothing stays behind but a smoothly operational biological mechanism, working with all its natural harmony and balance.
Quotes
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.
Society has put before you the ideal of a 'perfect man'. No matter in which culture you were born, you have scriptural doctrines and traditions handed down to you to tell you how to behave. You are told that through due practice you can even eventually come into the state attained by the sages, saints and saviors of mankind. And so you try to control your behavior, to control your thoughts, to be something unnatural.
We are using the neurons, our identity, to constantly maintain our identity. Whether you are awake, asleep, or dreaming, this process is carried on. But, it is wearing you out.That is why I say the tragedy that is facing mankind is not AIDS or cancer, but Alzthiemer's disease.
Your constant utilization of thought to give continuity to your separate self is you. There is nothing there inside you other than that.
You know, this dialogue is only helpful when we come, both of us, to a point where we realize that no dialogue is possible, that no dialogue is necessary. When I say understanding or seeing, they mean something different to me. Understanding is a state of being where the question isn't there any more. There is nothing there that says, "Now I understand!" That's the basic difficulty between us. By understanding what I am saying, you are not going to get anywhere.
