Writing about U.G. Krishnamurti (UG) is like trying to capture an eagle in flight, or like trying to fix a point in a stream. He lived in tune with the flow of life, always. He lived in the natural state, or what we call sahaja sthithi. In the history of spirituality, he holds a unique position, in the sense that he marked both a creative continuity of and a radical departure from the enlightenment traditions. While he marked a creative continuity of the enlightenment traditions of the Buddha, the Upanishadic and later Sages of India, he also marked a radical departure from it in the way he de-psychologized and demystified the notion of enlightenment, and redefined it as the Natural State in physical and physiological terms. The world over religion has become a bondage than a liberating force, a divisive force than a uniting one. So it was important to critically relook at religion and lay bare its imprisoning character and set people free from its stranglehold. From 1920s onwards J. Krishnamurthi (JK) took upon himself the task of educating people about the conditioning effect of all belief systems, especially the religious kind, and how poorly they lived mired in fear and doubt, hatred and violence, greed and sorrow. Though he had given up gurudom and was critical of teachers or all forms of authority, JK did function as a world teacher. He started schools and held regular discussions and gave talks, hoping to create possibilities for radical transformation of individuals and thereby of societies. UG, not only shared the theosophical background with JK, but, during his early phase, was quite influenced by his teachings He even worked, briefly though, as a lecturer of Theosophy, but he was not happy with his vocation. He was a quester after truth from his young age, and he was a ruthlessly honest quester. After he went through 'near death experience', significant changes came over him, but soon he realised that he was still a prisoner of the 'passions' and not yet free from the 'experiencing structure' that bound him to the dualistic life. He yearned for nothing less than moksha, nirvana, the ultimate freedom. In 1939, he met Ramana Mahrishi and asked, "This thing called moksha, can you give it to me?" Ramana said, 'I can give it, but can you take it?' The counter question from Ramana helped him to realise in the very marrow of his bones as it were that nobody could give that state to him. 'I am on my own,' he told himself. 'I have to go on this uncharted sea without a compass, without a boat, with not even a raft to take me. I am going to find out for myself what that state is...' Many significant changes took place in his life during the next twenty years. He went to America with his wife and children only to send them back to India as the seeker in him began to burn him inside out. Briefly he visited India to wind up his 'show', went to Russia, then visited various cities in Central Europe and finally landed in London and began to drift like a 'leaf thrown hither and thither', like one who has lost his head, and ended in Switzerland. All his search at an end, in 1967, in his 49th year, he came into his own when he underwent what is be called a biological mutation. Sometimes he also referred to it as a 'calamity', since he was thrown into uncharted waters.
TWICE BORN There is an innate uniqueness in the Bharatiya Parampara (Indian Tradition) which is not found elsewhere. While recognizing every human individual is unique, divine and can develop to greatness, a few among them are re-entered by the same primal energy that caused his/her birth to transmute his/her form and content irreversibly. From then on, his/her life and living or his identity is totally altered as if he is re-born. From then on, he/she can never go back to his/her previous style of living. He/she is the Twice Born, a Dvija, a Brahmavid. Such an Individual is so unique, special and appears mystical because his/her life and living seem to be out of grasp of contemporary memory based structural thinking of human culture. Such Individuals though rare are found to come up from time to time in every culture. Some of us were lucky that one such Twice Born, referred to as UG appeared and was transacting with all individuals who came by. Thought is your enemy; mind is a myth; there is nothing called consciousness at all... he would say often and to the end of his long life he was a living example of the hopelessness of making us understand what it means to live in unison with all of life sans thinking. Astonishing and captivating were his daily gossip sessions, for, UG the incandescent enlightened every moment of it. The people around were stunned and transfixed for though they couldn't understand what he was saying, but, their innate core accented those were true and transparent. They knew his word carried the reality, the reality of all there is to life and living sans cultural imposition.
Shashidhara Vishwamithra (b 1940) is a noted writer in Kannada literature with over thirty titles, both fiction and non-fiction. He is the recipient of: the Book award for humanities for Kadeya Chirathe presented by the State Kannada Sahitya Parishat (1984); The Translation award presented by the State Kuvempu Bhasha Bharathi Pradhikara (2014) for translating Tandava- The quest for Shiva from English to Kannada; and the Prathibha Sampannaru - lifetime achievement award (2014) presented by Vi. Si. Sampadha Foundation, Bengaluru. Besides, he has three non-fiction titles in the field of medical literature.
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Vedanta (398)
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