“Another enormous thing which we have lost through this
struggle and through this regimentation, is love.
Sirs, love is chaste- and without love, merely to
overcome or indulge in sex has no meaning.
Without love, we
have become what we are today, mere machines.
If we look at our faces in the mirror, we can see how
unformed they are, how immature we are.
We have produced children without love. Often, we are
emotionally driven without love and what kind of civilization do you expect to
produce in that way?
I know the religious books say that you must become a
Brahmacharya to find God. Do you mean to say that you can find God without
love?
Brahmacharya is merely an idea, an ideal to be achieved.
Surely that which you achieve through will, through condemnation, through
conclusion will not lead you to reality, to God.
What shows us the way to reality, to God, is
understanding, not suppression, not substitution.
To give up sex for the love of God is only substitution,
only sublimation, it is not understanding.
So, if there is love, there is chastity. But to become chaste is to become ugly, vicious, and immature.”
- In conversation by Jiddu Krishnamurti.
The above is an excerpt from a dialogue between Jiddu
Krishnamurti and Dr. Allan W. Anderson, professor of religious studies, titled Love,
Sex and Pleasure. The conversation took place in San Diego in 1974 and
later became part of the larger body of Krishnamurti’s teachings on
relationships and what he often called the “mirror of relationship.” In these
dialogues, Krishnamurti explored not only the nature of love and desire, but
also the deeper psychological conditioning that shapes modern human existence.
Reading this passage by Jiddu Krishnamurti, I feel that
his lament is not merely about sex, morality, or religion. It is about
something far deeper that modern life has quietly lost, the soul of human
existence itself. Life has become so mechanistic, so systematized, that we no
longer know how to live naturally. Everything is reduced into a process, a
method, a measurable outcome. We approach life almost as if we are machines
following programmed instructions rather than living beings capable of love,
wonder, and inward freedom.
Krishnamurti seems to suggest that humanity has slowly
surrendered its spontaneity to regimentation. Even our most intimate
experiences are no longer lived fully but processed functionally. Sex, for
instance, is either reduced to biological procreation or to the fulfilment of
lust. It becomes something to achieve, consume, or suppress. In either case,
the living essence behind it is absent. Without love, sex loses its sacredness
and becomes mechanical. That is why he says we have become “mere machines.”
There is a devastating truth in that statement because one can see how modern
relationships are often driven more by loneliness, desire, validation, or
social conditioning than by genuine affection or deep human connection.
What is even more striking is that Krishnamurti extends
this criticism to spirituality itself. The attainment of God too has become
procedural. Religion often presents enlightenment as though it were an
algorithm, follow certain rules, suppress certain desires, adopt a code of
conduct, practice a discipline, and eventually arrive at truth. Brahmacharya,
in this context, becomes not understanding but an imposed ideal. Krishnamurti
challenges this entire structure. Can God really be found through suppression?
Can truth emerge from fear driven discipline or from the will to become “pure”?
If chastity is forced through condemnation and control, then the mind remains
trapped within conflict. One desire merely replaces another.
This is why he insists that understanding is greater
than suppression. To renounce sex for the “love of God” may simply be another
form of substitution, another psychological escape. The self still operates
through ambition, only now the ambition is spiritual. The mind still seeks
achievement, control, and certainty. In that sense, organized spirituality
often mirrors the same mechanical thinking that dominates the rest of society.
What should be free and alive gradually becomes
empirical and measurable. We now evaluate even inner life in terms of methods,
results, and optimization. We ask which practice leads to enlightenment, which
discipline guarantees peace, which system produces virtue. But perhaps love,
truth, and God cannot be manufactured through technique at all. Perhaps they
can only emerge when the mind stops trying to control itself through rigid
structures.
There is a Thirukkural that beautifully resonates with
this idea,
“அன்பின்
வழியது உயிர்நிலை; அஃதிலார்க்கு
என்புதோல் போர்த்த உடம்பு.” - Kural 80
A life without love, says Thirukkural, is merely a body
covered with skin over bones. That insight feels remarkably close to
Krishnamurti’s concern. Without love, human beings may continue functioning,
producing, reproducing, worshipping, and succeeding outwardly, but inwardly
something essential has died. Civilization itself becomes emotionally malformed
because it is built by people who no longer know how to relate deeply to one
another.
What I find most compelling in Krishnamurti is that he
does not advocate chaos or indulgence. He is not arguing for the abandonment of
morality. Rather, he is pointing toward a deeper intelligence that arises
naturally through awareness and understanding. If there is love, he says, there
is chastity. Not chastity born from fear or suppression, but an order that
comes naturally when the mind is no longer fragmented by conflict and desire.
Perhaps this is why his words still feel painfully
relevant today. Modern civilization increasingly treats human beings as
programmable systems. We quantify productivity, emotions, attention,
relationships, and even spirituality itself. We optimize everything and yet
feel inwardly emptier. In the midst of all this efficiency, we seem to have
forgotten how to simply be human.
Krishnamurti’s lament, then, is ultimately about the loss of humanity
through psychological automation. He reminds us that life cannot be reduced to
formulas without losing its sacredness. Love cannot be engineered. Truth cannot
be achieved through coercion. And God cannot be reached through mechanical
obedience. What restores humanity is not greater control, but deeper
understanding, an awareness that allows us to encounter life directly,
tenderly, and without the machinery of fear and ambition.
Cheers.
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