A well-known philosopher and thinker, J. Krishnamurti was born in the midnight of 11th May 1895 in the small township of Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh. His life-story really began in 1909 when he was adopted by Annie Besant and introduced to the world in 1910 as the vehicle of coming World-Teacher. Halley’s Comet became visible in 1910. It was a spectacular sight in the night sky. Traditionally it is believed that the appearance of a comet signifies the occurrence of some great event. Krishnamurti as the World-Teacher, was to give a new teaching to humanity appropriate to the technological age. It is interesting to note that the same Halley’s comet was visible again in 1986 when Krishnamurti passed away in California in the early hours of 17th February 1986.

Krishnamurti had said that his life-story was significant only as the unfoldment of his teaching. In fact just twelve days before his death he was asked a question: “When Krishnamurti dies what really happens to that extraordinary focus of understanding and energy that is K?” It was a very serious question because through Krishnamurti, humanity was in contact with that supreme intelligence, that wonderful energy; and when Krishnamurti died, did that mean that humanity had also lost that contact forever? Krishnamurti’s reply is published in his biography: ‘The Life and Death of Krishnamurti’. But the essence of it means that Krishnamurti will always be available to humanity through his teachings. And if someone lives his teachings, one may somewhat get the touch of that supreme energy. Thus Krishnamurti’s teaching is the only means to contact that supreme intelligence. What is Krishnamurti’s teaching?

Krishnamurti’s teachings are available through scores of his books and audio-video recordings. Once the author was asked by a reader: Why did Krishnamurti write so many books? Couldn’t he say, whatever he wanted to, in one book? The author replied, why one book, he has said it in one sentence and that is: “Observer is the observed.” What does that mean, the reader asked perplexed. That is explained in all these books. Humour apart, the essence of this conversation is noteworthy. Any teaching is in the form of aphorisms but its meaning and significance unfolds only when one correlates and lives it in one’s daily life. To live and verify something is a hard work and normally people are not willing to do that. They will do anything to get money, but they want the spiritual understanding freely and comfortably. So, many people find Krishnamurti’s teaching very difficult and say that it is not for everybody. What are Krishnamurti’s teachings?

Human beings have progressed tremendously technologically but they are very primitive psychologically. Their psyche is full of fear, anger, hatred, violence, insecurity, sorrow, worries, ambitions, attachments and so on. They have divided themselves into nations, religions, races, castes, economic status and are living a very narrow, self-centred life, full of conflict. Thus a highly developed technology with its weapons of mass destruction being handled by a very primitive psychology, has made the human existence highly imbalanced and very dangerous. Krishnamurti calls it the crisis in human consciousness. Because unless this imbalance is removed, there is always a danger that human beings will destroy themselves with these deadly weapons or slip into a lifestyle leading to slow deterioration and extinction of their brain. By changing psychologically alone human beings can remove this imbalance. Krishnamurti’s teachings are all about this radical psychological transformation in human beings. To be able to change anything, one has to understand it first and to understand, one must observe. Hence to change, human beings have to observe themselves exactly as they are and this is possible only in the mirror of relationship.

Krishnamurti’s teachings are very objective and straight-forward. There is no scope for blind faith and spiritual authority. If one wants to change fundamentally, then one has to be a

light to oneself. Somebody else’s light will not help. No guru, no book, no philosophy, no method, no system can help in this. Krishnamurti’s teachings encourage curiosity in human beings and help create real enquiry in them. At the same time they are very shocking to all established traditions and beliefs. Here are some samples: God has not created human beings, but human beings have created god in their image. The social morality is highly immoral. Nationalism is a glorified tribalism. Thought contaminates mind. Knowledge is destructive in human relationship. To kill another human being is the greatest sin on earth and religions have done it. We love God and kill human beings. Man may consider himself free but in reality he is a programmed entity. And so on. When Mahatma Gandhi observed a twenty-one day fast in order to gain entry for Harijans in temples, a journalist asked Krishnamurti, ‘What do you think? Should the Harijans be allowed in temples?’ Krishnamurti replied, ‘Why only Harijans, even Brahmins or for that matter nobody should go to temples because there is no god there.’

Krishnamurti denied the God created by human beings and yet asked a question whether there is something supremely sacred, untouched by thought, uncontaminated by anything that human beings have laid their hands upon. He further said that only a sacred mind can discover the supremely sacred. For him all the existing religions were no religions at all because they were all based on thought, tradition, faith, authority, books and rituals. Religion means to gather all one’s energy to find truth about life and a life lived like that is the only religious life. Probably nobody in human history has defined religion in this way.

Krishnamurti’s approach to education is equally radical and revolutionary. Education should be concerned with the whole of life. Instead of turning out self-centred human beings education should help create a global mind which is capable of thinking holistically. Present education has become merely an accepted means of conditioning a child. Use of fear in education is a kind of terrorism. Reward and punishment is the way to train animals, not human beings. A teacher is as ignorant and uneducated as a student is psychologically. To learn and to teach are not two separate processes but a student and a teacher learning together is a unified process. Therefore a student is a teacher and a teacher is a student. Marks obtained in examinations are no indication of student’s intelligence. To compare one student with another is to destroy both psychologically. Many such unique statements about education are found in Krishnamurti’s teachings.

However objective and scientific Krishnamurti’s teaching may be, love is at its core. Human beings may progress tremendously in technology, they may go to moon, mars or any other planet; but if there is no love in their life, all their achievements come to nothing. If you have love you will be always right but without love you are always wrong. There is no love in human life—probably there never was; that is why human life is so full of problems. Krishnamurti negates all our notions and experiences of love. Love is not attachment, love is not jealousy, love is not emotion, love is not thought, love is not desire, love is not memory, love is not envy, love is not sex. Where there is sorrow, there is no love. Love is beyond space and time. Love is not blind but has its own intelligence. Love is that dimension of life which frees the human mind from all bondage and makes it creative.