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No way out
I asked a friend, an editor of a magazine, to do a cover story on
U.G. His prompt response was, “U.G. is not a cover story material, he is only for the upper-class intellectuals…has no mass appeal...” “Very few people can understand him and his philosophy,” he went on to add.
On coming out of his office, I pondered over the startling revelation. After all, just because I understood or appreciated something, does not mean that everyone else does too.
I started going through the various material available on / about
U.G. and discovered that the fault did not lie with U.G. or his statements (which I knew already) but with people like us who want to present him to the world.
Just like when we present a rose to someone, we break off all its thorns, we should present the essence of U.G.'s philosophy in its purity, minus the mind -shattering, devastating, blasphemous…thorns.
I am trying to do this exercise and hope to reach the masses!
Sunita Pant Bansal
NOIDA,
India 2002
U.G. His prompt response was, “U.G. is not a cover story material, he is only for the upper-class intellectuals…has no mass appeal...” “Very few people can understand him and his philosophy,” he went on to add.
On coming out of his office, I pondered over the startling revelation. After all, just because I understood or appreciated something, does not mean that everyone else does too.
I started going through the various material available on / about
U.G. and discovered that the fault did not lie with U.G. or his statements (which I knew already) but with people like us who want to present him to the world.
Just like when we present a rose to someone, we break off all its thorns, we should present the essence of U.G.'s philosophy in its purity, minus the mind -shattering, devastating, blasphemous…thorns.
I am trying to do this exercise and hope to reach the masses!
Sunita Pant Bansal
NOIDA,
India 2002
- GenresPhilosophy
270 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 2, 2005
26 people are currently reading
110 people want to read
About the author
U.G. Krishnamurti
66 books135 followersUppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti also known as U.G. Krishnamurti, was an Indian thinker who said that there is no "enlightenment". Although necessary for day to day functioning of the individual, in terms of the Ultimate Reality or Truth he rejected the very basis of thought and in doing so negated all systems of thought and knowledge in reference to It.
U.G was born on July 9, 1918 in Machilipatnam, a town in coastal Andhra Pradesh, India, and raised in the nearby town of Gudivada. His mother died seven days after he was born, and he was brought up by his maternal grandfather, a wealthy Brahmin lawyer, who was also involved in the Theosophical Society. U.G. also became a member of the Theosophical Society during his teenage years.
During the same period of his life, U.G. reportedly practiced all kinds of austerities and apparently sought moksha or spiritual enlightenment. To that end, between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, he undertook all kinds of spiritual exercise, determined to find out whether moksha was possible. Wanting to achieve that state, he had also resolved to prove that if there were people who have thus "realized" themselves, they could not be hypocritical.As part of this endeavor, he searched for a person who was an embodiment of such "realization".
U.G. emphasized the impossibility and non-necessity of any human change, radical or mundane. These assertions, he stated, cannot be considered as a "teaching", that is, something intended to be used to bring about a change. He insisted that the body and its actions are already perfect, and he considered attempts to change or mold the body as violations of the peace and the harmony that is already there. The psyche or self or mind, an entity which he denied as having any being, is composed of nothing but the "demand" to bring about change in the world, in itself, or in both. Furthermore, human self-consciousness is not a thing, but a movement, one characterized by "perpetual malcontent" and a "fascist insistence" on its own importance and survival.
U.G. denied the existence of an individual mind. However, he accepted the concept of a world mind, which according to him contained the accumulation of the totality of man's knowledge and experience. He also used 'thought sphere'(atmosphere of thoughts) synonymously with the term 'world mind'. He stated that human beings inhabit this thought realm or thought sphere and that the human brain acts like an antenna, picking and choosing thoughts according to its needs. U.G. held all human experience to be the result of this process of thought. The self-consciousness or 'I' in human beings is born out the need to give oneself continuity through the constant utilization of thought. When this continuity is broken, even for a split second, its hold on the body is broken and the body falls into its natural rhythm. Thought also falls into its natural place – then it can no longer interfere or influence the working of the human body. In the absence of any continuity the arising thoughts combust.He stated that we inhabit a thought realm. When the continuity of thought is broken, even for a split second, its hold on the body is broken and the body falls into its natural rhythm. Thought also falls into its natural place – then it can no longer interfere or influence the working of the human body. In the absence of any continuity the arising thoughts combust.
In its natural state, the senses of the body take on independent existences (uncoordinated by any 'inner self') and the ductless glands (that correspond to the locations of the Hindu chakras) become reactivated. UG described how it is the pineal gland (Ajna Chakra) that takes over the functioning of the body in the natural state, as opposed to thought.
U.G. also maintained that the reason people came to him (and to gurus), was in order to find solutions for their everyday real problems, and/or for solutions to a fabricated problem, namely, the search for spirituality
U.G was born on July 9, 1918 in Machilipatnam, a town in coastal Andhra Pradesh, India, and raised in the nearby town of Gudivada. His mother died seven days after he was born, and he was brought up by his maternal grandfather, a wealthy Brahmin lawyer, who was also involved in the Theosophical Society. U.G. also became a member of the Theosophical Society during his teenage years.
During the same period of his life, U.G. reportedly practiced all kinds of austerities and apparently sought moksha or spiritual enlightenment. To that end, between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, he undertook all kinds of spiritual exercise, determined to find out whether moksha was possible. Wanting to achieve that state, he had also resolved to prove that if there were people who have thus "realized" themselves, they could not be hypocritical.As part of this endeavor, he searched for a person who was an embodiment of such "realization".
U.G. emphasized the impossibility and non-necessity of any human change, radical or mundane. These assertions, he stated, cannot be considered as a "teaching", that is, something intended to be used to bring about a change. He insisted that the body and its actions are already perfect, and he considered attempts to change or mold the body as violations of the peace and the harmony that is already there. The psyche or self or mind, an entity which he denied as having any being, is composed of nothing but the "demand" to bring about change in the world, in itself, or in both. Furthermore, human self-consciousness is not a thing, but a movement, one characterized by "perpetual malcontent" and a "fascist insistence" on its own importance and survival.
U.G. denied the existence of an individual mind. However, he accepted the concept of a world mind, which according to him contained the accumulation of the totality of man's knowledge and experience. He also used 'thought sphere'(atmosphere of thoughts) synonymously with the term 'world mind'. He stated that human beings inhabit this thought realm or thought sphere and that the human brain acts like an antenna, picking and choosing thoughts according to its needs. U.G. held all human experience to be the result of this process of thought. The self-consciousness or 'I' in human beings is born out the need to give oneself continuity through the constant utilization of thought. When this continuity is broken, even for a split second, its hold on the body is broken and the body falls into its natural rhythm. Thought also falls into its natural place – then it can no longer interfere or influence the working of the human body. In the absence of any continuity the arising thoughts combust.He stated that we inhabit a thought realm. When the continuity of thought is broken, even for a split second, its hold on the body is broken and the body falls into its natural rhythm. Thought also falls into its natural place – then it can no longer interfere or influence the working of the human body. In the absence of any continuity the arising thoughts combust.
In its natural state, the senses of the body take on independent existences (uncoordinated by any 'inner self') and the ductless glands (that correspond to the locations of the Hindu chakras) become reactivated. UG described how it is the pineal gland (Ajna Chakra) that takes over the functioning of the body in the natural state, as opposed to thought.
U.G. also maintained that the reason people came to him (and to gurus), was in order to find solutions for their everyday real problems, and/or for solutions to a fabricated problem, namely, the search for spirituality
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 25, 2019
Great
As always I enjoyed UG Krishnamurti's message. Despite that there is no message :) great reading, opening different perspective, highly recommended.
As always I enjoyed UG Krishnamurti's message. Despite that there is no message :) great reading, opening different perspective, highly recommended.
November 12, 2010
Cuts through all the nonsense and i mean the religious and "spiritual" nonsense!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews