I started questioning from the beginning why we do Pooja, festival celebration, so many gods, so many rituals etc. But did not find exact answer. I then learnt about pyramid meditation, there i saw they deny of doing Pooja and rituals. Then i learnt about Sri Vidya, there i saw people worshipping goddess Lalitha and mentioned she is supreme and all other gods are inferior to her. I then learnt about iskcon, where they mentioned lord krishna is supreme and all other gods are inferior. Then i learnt about Advaita discovered by lord Adi Shankaracharya.
I was almost finding relations among all other conclusions. It was mentioned all gods and one and the same. There is nothing else exist apart from supreme. I started reading about this and i found vasista Rama samvadam (telugu) or yoga vasistam book. I was shocked by reading the book by giving so many anologies and the conclusion connecting to advaitha.
After that i learnt about pranic healing, i was surprised to see so many people got cured just because of some simple practices. But also i saw they mentioned their methods are the best compa red to others. Then i learnt about bramha Kumari meditation. I saw they worship lord Shiva as Jyothi form and they deny that advaitha and oneness. Then i started learning about Isha and attended inner engineering, surya kriya. I was very surprised sadghuru is actually spreading about advaitha in contemporary way. I also learnt from Islam that Allah is supreme and no one else is god. I also read about complete works of Vivekananda where he gave very good explanation of our Hindu dharma. Also i learnt about Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana maharshi.
After going through several spiritual ways and learnt about them, i started questioning everything. Why this many paths, why each one is opposing other practices. Why they say their path is the best and others is not. Why they see results in their respective path etc.
I saw some great things about each and every path. I don't deny the results and I don't deny any path.
After several years of such research, then i came across Jiddu Krishnamurti which influenced me deeply. I was astonished to see how jiddu Krishnamurti gave emphasis on questioning.
This book is not just about jiddu Krishnamurti's teaching. I am going to discuss about how his teachings are contemporary and do emphasis on incorporating the values in real life. Also this book is going to cover examples from Vedas, Upanishads, yoga vasistam and all the spiritual ways to unify the approach of looking at life rather than divide and conquer.
My mine motive is to emphasize on oneness and find middle ground of all spiritual paths. I don't want to call as religion as the term is misleading. We are also going to cover about the practical ways to implement in real life.
The beginning
Before we dive into the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, let's discuss on the human life and problems.
Each and every individual has a problem. An employee has a problem of getting the work done, balancing family and work, job security, politics etc. He/she might have to go through family problems such as taking care of kids, in laws, spouse and fulfilling their needs. A business man has a problem like running the business, competing with others, health issues, customer satisfaction, money management etc. A poor man has problems like feeding the children and family, earning money, surviving etc. A rich man has problems such as money safety, prestige, keeping the power, doubt on others etc.
So the conclusion is every one has to go through the problems.
Let's deep dive into the problems. Why problems exist? Is there any one on this earth not facing problem? No one is exception. Whether it is Yogi, bhogi, they would need to deal with problems.
Lets take some real world example. A well known, always happening story. A monther-in-law and daugher-in-law problem. A son got married. Before his marriage, he was fully dependent on his mother, his mother used to take care of him. He always admire his mother. A girl born in other family was brought up with utmost care, and was treated as princess in her family. Her family members supported every aspect of her life, and try to make sure she is happy.
After marrying to this guy, the problem started. The girl could not tolerate domination from her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law gets suspicious or fear whether her son leaves her and be with his wife. So she treats the daughter-in-law by using authority and try to control in every aspect. The newly married woman can't tolerate the authority, she struggles to adjust with the family as she never had to face this kind of situations in the past. Now coming to the guy, he suffers to handle both women, he can't question his wife, and his mother. So the real struggle begins.
Lets delve into this scenario. Who is bad in this, mother, son, daugher-in-law? Each one is good in their own way. No one is wrong. There is a problem of adding another person to the family. It takes time to get adjusted, it takes time to gel with the family. When I was bachelor, I used to stay in a big apartment, where I was sharing the apartment with four other people. We had differences, it took time to get adjusted. But they were never turned into suffering. Because everyone has to adjust, everyone understood that it takes time to gel with each other. Why this mother-in-law, daughter-in-law problem became universal in such a way that it is natural in every family? Why every soap opera of this problem became huge hit?
Simple reason is no one in the family understood that it takes time to gel with the family. The girl creates pain and agony because she sacrificed her born family, expected better care compared. But the reality is totally reverse, she sees no care from her husband, her mother-in-law. No one really cared her pain. But who is responsible for her pain and agony? It may be hard to digest but the real responsibility is with her. Why? Because there are many girls who are happy with her in-laws. These girls also had the similar problems, but they used their consciousness and faced the reality. They understood it takes time for everyone to accept her, so she adjusted initially.
Lets looks at from the boy's prospective. He created pain and suffering because of his expectations that new girl would be like his sister, his mother would be relieved and would be taken care. He suffered because of his expectations not met. Is every boy suffering after marriage? No. There are so many boys after marriage leading happy life as they understood it is natural to have differences among the family members. It is his responsibility to stay calm and do not support any of them, let the women handle themselves. Due to fear, the boy created suffering .
Now comes to the boy's mother. She created suffering from the problem. She expected the girl to be like her daughter but because of insecurity feeling she ill treated her daughter in law to protect her self.
When you look at each person in the above scenario, one thing is common. Fear future, insecurity, agony, hatred, lack of trust. Just because of this, everyone in the family is suffering and blames one another.
Let's look at different prospective of the same scenario. Is agony of the son and agony of mother and agony of daughter in law is different? No. Agony is same. Is insecurity of each of them is different? No. Insecurity is same for all. Just intensity is different. So when a person is expressing his/her agony, insecurity, hatred, love is no different from other person. What if the mother look at her daughter in law without hatred, insecurity or any other emotions and just look at her as fellow human being. She would never suffer because the insecurity created the agony or hatred. She would never have problem with her daughter in law. Similarly if the girl look at her in laws without any conclusion and agony or fear or insecurity, just look at them as fellow human beings, she would never suffer. We know that as human being it takes time to get mingle with other person. There are differences but will get adjusted as a fellow human being.
This is what the primary aspect of jiddu krishna Murthy teachings. He emphasised on looking at every situation neither accepting nor rejecting, just look without any conclusion. Whole life changes with simple approach. It is not something he discovered first, there are many great scholars or saints emphasised the same aspect. Primary aspect of advaitha is aham brahmasmi and sarvam khalvidham Brahma. Just these two sentences can speak volumes.
Aham brahmasmi means i am the supreme, there is no other supreme. Then immediately we try to demean others but then comes the second statement "sarvam khalvidham Brahma" . This means everything is Brahman i.e., everything is supreme. Then comes the third statement tatvam asi. I am that. Whatever i look is no different from me. Whatever i think is no different from me. Whatever i speak about is no different from me. Everything i speak, listen, think, act about others is about me.
Then people ask if look at filthy stuff, is it me? If i look at a criminal or rapist, is he me? What is this contradictory or hard to digest? The main theme of these statements is neither to look down nor look up on any one.
Let's look at further. Consider the same scenario which we mentioned earlier. The girl suffered because of hatred, agony and insecurity. If she look at her mother in law as no different from her, she would stop blaming. When we stop blaming others for our problems, our mind stops creating stories. Let's say her mother in law did not treat her properly. It's a mistake. Once the incident is over, mind game starts. Mind keep on replaying the same scene again and again. Every time the agony or hatred increases. Initial suffering is 10 units but mind make it 1 million units.
Same is the case with the boy's mother and the boy. They created insecurity within their minds and ill treat the Lakshmi (a woman worshipped as goddess). Because of which harmony of the family got disturbed and every one in the family started suffering.
So the core aspect of Krishna Murthy's teachings is to introspect and self knowledge. He mentioned many times whether you are seeing the other person as fellow human being or just with your mind reflection. If we see other person without any past history in the mind, whole world changes.
So Sri Jiddu Krishnamurti asked very simple yet profound questions. Let's say you are watching a tree. Can you see the tree without any commentary in the back end. It is natural that we always look at the tree or flower commenting how beautiful it is, how good it is. But this created distance between the observer and the observed. Observer in this scene is not seeing the tree as it is. There is commentator in the backend and observer just seeing with that commentary. What happens if the commentary stops? Let's say the observer watching rose flower. If there is no commentry in the back end, how will the flower look like? The real experience according to Krishnamurti is observer and the observed become one. There is no separation between the two.
Similarly he asked to watch sunset without any commentry.
Once there was a guy who wanted to be with krishanamurti. Krishnamurti's routine is watch the sunset everyday. He watches along with many students at least twenty minutes a day. New guy accompanied krishna Murthy shouted how beautiful the sunset is while watching the sunset. Krishanamurti became very angry at that person and told never come to visit sunset with him again. Here his intention is the new guy is differentiating the nature. If sunset is beautiful, then something else is ugly. This creates the difference among people. So he emphasised to look at everything without commenting. If you look at sunset, or sunrise just immerse in the nature without any commentry in the background. At one point of time observer and observed become one. There is no artificial gap between the two. Sun and the person watching the sun is one. Tree and the person watching the tree is one. It looks confusing or contradictory but it is the essense of human being.
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