Q: But other teachers, like J. Krishnamurti, describe a journey of discovery, that through awareness and free inquiry one can find out ...
U.G.: There is no transformation, radical or otherwise. That buffoon (referring to J.K.) talking in the circus tent there offers you a journey of discovery. It is a bogus charter flight. There is no such journey. The Vedic stuff is no more helpful. It was invented by some acid-heads after drinking some soma juice. J.K. is more neurotic than the people who go to listen to him.
Q: If you put no credence in the ancient religious teachings, then do you take modern psychology any the more seriously?
U.G.: The whole field of psychology has misled the whole thinking of man for a hundred years and more. Freud is the stupendous fraud of the 20th century. J. Krishnamurti talks of a revolution in the psyche. There is no psyche there. Where is this mind which is to be magically transformed? J.K.'s disciples have come to the point where all they can do is to repeat meaningless phrases. They are shallow, empty people. The fact that J.K. can draw large crowds means nothing; snake charmers also draw big crowds. Anybody can draw crowds. Excerpts from the book "Mind is a myth"
U G Krishnamurti is a modern day sage who is popularly called the anti-guru, spiritual terrorist, raging sage, walking rudra, cosmic naxalite etc.,
He spent seven years with Sivananda and seven years with J Krishnamurti but finally he discarded both of them.
The books that were published were not written by him. They were written by his friends. In one of the conversations with his friends he said that the Title of the book "Mystique of Enlightenment" should instead be called "Mistake of Enlightenment"!
You can find more info at these sites :
UG's meeting with Ramana MaharshiExcerpted from Part One of Krishnamurti's book The Mystique of Enlightenment.
I arrived at a point when I was twenty-one where I felt
very strongly that all teachers -- Buddha, Jesus, Sri
Ramakrishna, everybody -- kidded themselves, deluded
themselves and deluded everybody. This, you see, could
not be the thing at all -- "Where is the state that
these people talk about and describe? That description
seems to have no relation to me, to the way I am functioning.
Everybody says 'Don't get angry' -- I am angry all the
time. I'm full of brutal activities inside, so that
is false. What these people are telling me I should
be is something false, and because it is false it will
falsify me. I don't want to live the life of a false
person. I am greedy, and non-greed is what they are
talking about. There is something wrong somewhere. This
greed is something real, something natural to me; what
they are talking about is unnatural. So, something is
wrong somewhere. But I am not ready to change myself,
to falsify myself, for the sake of being in a state
of non-greed; my greed is a reality to me." I lived
in the midst of people who talked of these things everlastingly
-- everybody was false, I can tell you. So, somehow,
what you call 'existentialist nausea' (I didn't use
those words at the time, but now I happen to know these
terms, revulsion against everything sacred and everything
holy, crept into my system and threw everything out:
"No more slokas, no more religion, no more practices
-- there isn't anything there; but what is here is something
natural. I am a brute, I am a monster, I am full of
violence -- this is reality. I am full of desire. Desirelessness,
non-greed, non-anger -- those things have no meaning
to me; they are false, and they are not only false,
they are falsifying me." So I said to myself "I'm finished
with the whole business," but it is not that simple,
you see.
Then somebody came along, and we were discussing all these things. He found me practically an atheist (but not a practicing atheist), skeptical of everything, heretical down to my boots. He said "There is one man here, somewhere in Madras at Tiruvannamalai, called Ramana Maharshi. Come on, let's go and see that man. Here is a living human embodiment of the Hindu tradition."
I didn't want to see any holy man. If you have seen one, you have seen them all. I never shopped around, went around searching for people, sitting at the feet of the masters, learning something; because everybody tells you "Do more and more of the same thing, and you will get it." What I got were more and more experiences, and then those experiences demanded permanence -- and there is no such thing as permanence. So, "The holy men are all phonies -- they are telling me only what is there in the books. That I can read -- 'Do the same again and again' -- that I don't want. Experiences I don't want. They are trying to share an experience with me. I'm not interested in experience. As far as experience goes, for me there is no difference between the religious experience and the sex experience or any other experience; the religious experience is like any other experience. I am not interested in experiencing Brahman; I am not interested in experiencing reality; I am not interested in experiencing truth. They might help others; but they cannot help me. I'm not interested in doing more of the same; what I have done is enough. At school if you want to solve a mathematical problem, you repeat it again and again -- you solve the mathematical problem, and you discover that the answer is in the problem. So, what the hell are you doing, trying to solve the problem? It is easier to find the answer first instead of going through all this."
So, reluctantly, hesitatingly, unwilling, I went to see Ramana Maharshi. That fellow dragged me. He said "Go there once. Something will happen to you." He talked about it and gave me a book, Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton, so I read the chapter relating to this man -- "All right, I don't mind, let me go and see." That man was sitting there. From his very presence I felt "What! This man -- how can he help me? This fellow who is reading comic strips, cutting vegetables, playing with this, that or the other -- how can this man help me? He can't help me." Anyway, I sat there. Nothing happened; I looked at him, and he looked at me. "In his presence you feel silent, your questions disappear, his look changes you" -- all that remained a story, fancy stuff to me. I sat there. There were a lot of questions inside, silly questions -- so, "The questions have not disappeared. I have been sitting here for two hours, and the questions are still there. All right, let me ask him some questions" -- because at that time I very much wanted moksha. This part of my background, moksha, I wanted. "You are supposed to be a liberated man" -- I didn't say that. "Can you give me what you have?" -- I asked him this question, but that man didn't answer, so after some lapse of time I repeated that question -- "I am asking 'Whatever you have, can you give it to me?'" He said, "I can give you, but can you take it?" Boy! For the first time this fellow says that he has something and that I can't take it. Nobody before had said "I can give you," but this man said "I can give you, but can you take it?" Then I said to myself "If there is any individual in this world who can take it, it is me, because I have done so much sadhana, seven years of sadhana. He can think that I can't take it, but I can take it. If I can't take it, who can take it?" -- that was my frame of mind at the time -- you know, (laughs) I was so confident of myself.
I didn't stay with him, I didn't read any of his books, so I asked him a few more questions: "Can one be free sometimes and not free sometimes?" He said "Either you are free, or you are not free at all." There was another question which I don't remember. He answered in a very strange way: "There are no steps leading you to that." But I ignored all these things. These questions didn't matter to me -- the answers didn't interest me at all.
But this question "Can you take it?" ... "How arrogant he is!" -- that was my feeling. "Why can't I take it, whatever it is? What is it that he has?" -- that was my question, a natural question. So, the question formulated itself: "What is that state that all those people -- Buddha, Jesus and the whole gang -- were in? Ramana is in that state -- supposed to be, I don't know -- but that chap is like me, a human being. How is he different from me? What others say or what he is saying is of no importance to me; anybody can do what he is doing. What is there? He can't be very much different from me. He was also born from parents. He has his own particular ideas about the whole business. Some people say something happened to him, but how is he different from me? What is there: What is that state?" -- that was my fundamental question, the basic question -- that went on and on and on. "I must find out what that state is. Nobody can give that state; I am on my own. 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 the state is in which that man is." I wanted that very much, otherwise I wouldn't have given my life.
Photo
of U.G. Krishnamurti courtesy The Essential U.G.
Photo
of Ramana Maharshi courtesy Sri Ramanashramam
Osho's comments on UG
Question:
with respect n love i request you to tell me the commentary of our beloved osho on the u g krishnamurti. where can i find this?
with regards and love
dr raw n
drrawana@yahoo.com
Hungary
Rajneesh Chandra Mohan
Answers From Osho:
Just the other day I was reading a lecture of U. G. Krishnamurti. He says he went to see Ramana Maharshi. He was not attracted - because he was chopping vegetables. Yes, Ramana Maharshi was that kind of man, very ordinary. Chopping vegetables! U. G. Krishnamurti must have gone to see somebody extraordinary sitting on a golden throne or something. Ramana Maharshi just sitting on the floor and chopping vegetables? preparing vegetables for the kitchen! He was very much frustrated.
Then another day he went and saw him reading jokes. Finished for ever! This man knows nothing. This man is very ordinary. He left the ashram; it was not worth it. But I would like to say to you: this man, Ramana Maharshi, is one of the greatest Buddhas ever born to the world. That was his Buddhahood in action!
U. G. Krishnamurti must have been in search of a pretender. He could not see the ordinariness and the beauty of it and the grace of it. And this same man, U. G. Krishnamurti, lived with Swami Sivanand of Rishikesh for seven years - and that chap was just stupid - and practised yoga with him. And after seven years he recognized that he has nothing; but after seven years, he took seven years. That simply shows that he also has a mighty dull mind. Seven years to see that Sivanand has nothing. Seven seconds are more than enough! And with Ramana Maharshi, seven seconds were enough - because he saw him chopping vegetables or reading jokes, looking at cartoons. That's how the ordinary mind, the egoistic mind functions.
The ego is always searching for something bigger, some bigger ego. And the true sage has no ego; he is an ordinary man. He is utterly ordinary - that is his extraordinariness!
I would like to say to U. G. Krishnamurti: he should have looked in the eyes of Ramana Maharshi. He looked only at the hands which were chopping vegetables. He should have looked into his eyes - with what love he was chopping the vegetables. He should have looked into his eyes to see what love he was. He was the Real Man.
There is only one indication and that is love. But to understand love you have to be a little silent, a little loving, a little open. If you are full of prejudices about how the enlightened man should be, then you will go on missing. You should not have any prejudices.
Just look into the eyes of a real man, and suddenly something will start stirring in your heart too. Tears will come to your eyes, your energy will have a great delight, your heart will throb with new vigour. Your soul will spread its wings.
Osho: Take It Easy Vol.1 # 5
Just the other day I mentioned U.G. Krishnamurti. When he saw Ramana Maharshi reading joke books and looking at cartoons, he was very much frustrated. Not only that: a man asked a question about God and U.G. Krishnamurti was present there - very seriously, bowing at his feet, a man asked about God. And what did Sri Ramana do? do you know? He gave him a joke book and said, "Read it!"
Naturally, U. G. Krishnamurti was very much offended. Is this a way? This seems to be disrespectful to the man who has asked such a serious question - to give him a joke book. This is again a kick in the pants, in its own way.
What he is saying is, "What nonsense are you talking about! God? It is not a thing to be talked about - better read a joke book and have a good laugh.
"If you can laugh, maybe you can know God - not by what I will say. But if you can laugh a hearty laugh, a belly-laugh, in that moment thinking stops."
In the moment of laughter, suddenly you are one with the harmony of existence. Weep... you have fallen apart, you are no more part of it. In sadness, in seriousness, in despair, you are not in rhythm with existence. In laughing, in dancing, in singing, in loving, you are in rhythm with existence.
Osho: Take It Easy Vol.1 # 6