“There must be somewhere something that is not perishable, that is incorruptible, timeless, eternal. That seed has been sown in man from time immemorial. That seed is moving all through mankind, and we have never opened or looked at it, but have said what that seed should be. ” said Jiddu Krishnamurti at a public talk in Chennai ( then Madras) in 1980, whose 125th birthday will be celebrated around the world on 11th May. He was certainly a world-teacher, not in the sense of Jagat Gurus of India. He was such a unique person–rarely we come across this kind of person in the world. He was a Buddha, an Awakened One, a Mystic, and not part of any tradition, any spiritual stream of masters. He did not believe in the master-disciple relationship, though he was such a world-teacher our world had not seen before. He did not establish any tradition to continue after his death.
How can the fresh breeze of enlightenment, the fragrance can be confined into a tradition? How can the vastness of the open sky be encaged in the four walls of a tradition?
Krishnamurti Foundation’s official website informs us: “J. Krishnamurti was born on 11 May 1895 in Madanapalle, a small town in south India. He and his brother were adopted in their youth by Dr. Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society. Dr. Besant and others proclaimed that Krishnamurti was to be a world teacher whose coming the Theosophists had predicted. To prepare the world for this coming, a world-wide organization called the Order of the Star in the East was formed and the young Krishnamurti was made its head.
“In 1929, however, Krishnamurti renounced the role that he was expected to play, dissolved the Order with its huge following, and returned all the money and property that had been donated for this work. He resigned as the figurehead of the Theosophists, and cut all ties to any notion of a religious or spiritual organization. This was followed immediately by a “core” statement, summarized as “Truth Is A Pathless Land: man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection.”
I feel blessed to have seen him during his talks in Mumbai and New Delhi in 1979-80. Once Swami Anand Sant ( Osho’s Gaurd in Pune -1 days) and I attended his talk in Dehli, and after the talk, when he was getting into the car, we gave him 2 books by Osho. We were dressed in our maroon robes and with Osho mala. He took the books gracefully. For us, this was just an excuse to catch a moment of going close to him after his public talk was over.
First time I had seen J. Krishnamurti at his talk in J J School of Arts. And when there were no talks, he used to go to Hanging Garden in Mumbai for his evening walks. One evening I went to visit this garden to see what happens during his walks. I was surprised that he would walk alone so gracefully and so fast that nobody could disturb his walk. And it was surprising to see that no one knew him, otherwise, people would have thronged him. I felt strange: A buddha walking alone in this big city and no one is noticing him. He is a solitary bird in the sky.
He talks about this uncorrupted aloneness: Aloneness is a state in which all influence has completely ceased, both the influence from outside and the inner influence of thinking and memory. Only when the mind is in that state of aloneness can it know the incorruptible. But to come to that, we must understand loneliness, the process of isolation, which is the activity of one’s unobserved and unconsidered beliefs.
He emphasises: Alone is just alone. It is our ideas about being alone that make us lonely.
Osho talks about the same subject and suggest to have Satsang with such people: “The best company is offered by people who allow you to be alone even while you are with them. The people worth developing company with are people who let your solitude retain its purity. Reflection can only happen in solitude.
“The naturalness and nakedness of your solitude maintains its pristine state. Your aloneness, your silence remains untouched and pure. They respect your boundaries and do not become a reason for disturbing your solitude. They provide company, one which does not invade your space. When you call them, they come near to you. Only as near as you call them and no more.
They leave you alone when you want to go inside of yourself.”
