The man who would not have any followers.....
Another of those rather unlikely figures for this blog, Jiddu came to my radar when he left this planet in 1986. I was in LOYOLA Madras at that time and the newspapers espcially HINDU carried reviews and euologies on Jiddu.
He was born a Hindu, but there was very little of that in him. Instead one cannot find his religion when one reads him. No mention of religion except may be as a description of a situation in his writings. He was a religion by himself. His main emphasis was awareness. Pure awareness.. Almost on the border of inaction but his thoughts do have the power of action in themselves. He gives clarity to such an extent that by the end of the reading one is trasnported to another world.
I do have the books 'Commentaries on Living' and 'Meating Life' in my collection gifted to me by one Mr. Narayanan a colleague of my former spouse.
He was perhaps the first that I came across as the inventor of the idea that the very idea of observing changes the observed, the very act of observation produces a change in the object, that real objective observation is impossible. Today this is being touted by the western philosophies as well perhaps proved in more empirical ways.
In its place the awareness of oneself and one's thoughts is what counts to him. There is a parallel in Jung where the objective of Psychology is greater consciousness, of bringing that in the unconscious to the conscious. Modern emotional intelligence would say be aware of what is bringing about a particular feeling and act upon that as in rational emotive therapy.
He also says that the world is what it is also because of you however small you are and therefore one cannot complain about the world. His ultimate greatness comes from his insistence that he does not need any followers because that would be contrary to his teachings. The very idea of followers would mean institutions and institutions would be hindrances to real knowing and awareness because instituiotns will develop instituitionalised vested interests!!!!!!
The ultimate of individualism and the complete absense of politics and religion, the pinnacle of pure existence.. that was Jiddu Krishnamurty as I understand him....
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