Krishnamurti (1895-1986) whose life and teachings spanned the greater
part of the 20th Century, is regarded by many as one who has had the
most profound impact on human consciousness in modern times. A Philosopher and thinker has illuminated millions of mind, including yours truly. His thoughts below are very apt in redefining many societies in the world which have reached its pinnacle of purpose based on obsolete dogmas.
"The companions, the
relationships, the work, the ideas, and the beliefs and the dogmas that we hold
have produced a monstrous world, a world of conflict, misery, and perpetual
sorrow. We accept it as normal condition, we put up with it day after day; we never
inquire into the necessity, the urgency of a revolution that is neither
economical nor political but much more fundamental.
No inquiry is ever possible when
the mind is tethered to any kind of dogma, tradition or belief. The difficulty
is not that we are not capable of inquiring, not that we are incapable of
investigating, but we are apparently totally incapable of letting things go,
putting things aside and therefore with a fresh mind, with a young, innocent
mind, looking at the world and all the appalling things that are taking place
in it.
Only when you can destroy
completely everything that you have held sacred or right or virtuous that you
can find out what is truth.
If one has observed sufficiently
the things that are happening – not only mechanically, technically, but also in
our relationships between people – when one observes that progress throughout
the world is denying freedom, the strength of society in which the individual
has completely ceased to be, and how nationalities are dividing themselves more
and more, one will see that some kind of deep revolt must come about.
Society controls our minds,
shapes our hearts, our actions, whether you live in a communist, Hindu or
Christian world. Society with its structure shapes the mind of every human
being, consciously or unconsciously. The culture in which we live – the
traditions, religions, politics and education –past and present, shapes our
thought. And to bring about a completerevolution –a crisis in consciousness –
you must question the structure of society.
We are concerned with bringing
about a different action, mind, a different entity as a human being; and to go
into that profoundly, we must not be slaves to words.
Society is relationship. And that
social structure, as it is now, is based on ambition, greed, envy, seeking
power, position, prestige, and all the things that man has set up as being
extraordinarily significant in life. That is the actual fact – not your gods,
not the Gita, not your guru, not your saints and saviours, but the daily life
in which you are, which is your ambition, your greed, your envy, your pursuit
of power and wealth and position which you want. And, without altering that
radically, without breaking down the whole system, you cannot have a religious
revolution.
A religious revolution is not concerned with
reaction at all. It is concerned with dealing with a fact and destroying that
fact; that is, being aware that our relationship, our social structure is based
on this extraordinary sense of values – on ambition, greed, envy – and
destroying that completely in ourselves, to tally, wholly eradicating it. That
is the beginning of a religious revolution – not the pursuit of an idea, which
you call God.
You need a new mind because a new
world has to be created – not by politicians, but by you and me who are just
ordinary average persons, because it is we that have to change completely, it
is we that have to being about a mutation in our minds and hearts. It is only
when the mind is completely quiet, free of conflict – it is only then that the
mind can go very far into the realms that are beyond time, thought and feeling." - Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Bombay, February 21, 1962 Courtesy: KFI
Excerpted from Times of India May 28, 2013.
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