All that we have invented,
the symbols in the church,
the rituals,
they are all put there by thought.
Thought has invented these things,
invented the savior,
invented the temples in India and the contents of the temples.
Thought has invented all these things called sacred.
You can’t deny that.
So thought in itself is not sacred.
And when thought invents God, God is not sacred.
So – what is sacred?
That can only be...
understood or happen...
when there is complete freedom...
from fear,
from sorrow,
and when there is this sense of love...
and compassion with its own intelligence.
Then, when the mind is utterly still,
that which is sacred can take place.
It was a late summer afternoon.
Near the shore, a group of children were playing.
One of the boys, though ragged and undernourished,
stood apart from the others.
He was described as having a special radiance.
A pure and shining atmosphere surrounded him.
Because of these qualities the child was singled out...
and chosen to be the vehicle for the coming ‘World Teacher’.
This discovery was not an isolated revelation...
for it was believed that humanity was entering a new age...
an age that would bring with it a new Messiah.
During the early decades of the 19th century...
science was beginning to replace religion as the savior of humanity.
As the monolithic church splintered,
new organizations emerged...
offering a balance between science and religion.
One of the many new groups, the Theosophical Society,
spread rapidly throughout the world.
Founded by Russian born Helena Petrovna Blavatsky...
and the American Henry Steel Olcott,
its objectives were to seek truth...
of the ancient religions of the East,
to investigate the unexplained laws of nature...
and to promote universal brotherhood.
So attractive were these ideals that by 1881...
the Society had become a worldwide institution...
with over 100,000 enthusiastic members.
Helena Blavatsky was a deep student of metaphysical lore...
and was sought after...
by those who believed her to possess psychic powers.
Derided by some as a charlatan,
she was, however, a serious writer...
and in 1888 published her greatest work:
two tremendous volumes entitled ‘The Secret Doctrine’.
Annie Besant, a young journalist,
was asked to analyse the work for London’s Review of Reviews.
Turning the pages, she was “dazzled by what she read”.
To her, disjointed facts were now seen...
as parts of a mighty whole...
and the puzzles, riddles and problems of her life...
seemed to disappear.
Within weeks...
Annie Besant made a life long commitment to Theosophy.
This sudden step was not out of character...
for the impetuous Mrs. Besant.
She was already well known to Victorian England...
as an orator, educator, energetic feminist...
and a pioneer on behalf of the emerging labor movement.
She organized a strike of match girls
at Bryant and Mays factory.
Her sense of social justice...
led her to become a Fabian Socialist...
along with Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw...
and Ramsey McDonald.
After Blavatsky’s death,
Annie Besant became head of the Society...
and the most influential force for the theosophical ideal.
It was she who forged Blavatsky’s unwieldy philosophy...
into a popular movement.
Many of the world’s religions speak of a hero or savior...
who appears in a time of crisis to help mankind.
In “The Secret Doctrine” Blavatsky described...
how such a teacher would define truth...
in terms suitable for a new civilization.
Over the years this theme had been developing in Besant’s mind.
By 1900 she was convinced that time had come...
for the reappearance of a great spiritual leader.
Even now she was lecturing in India, Europe and the United States...
on the coming of a World Teacher.
Expectations were spreading throughout the Society...
and thousands thronged to hear her lectures.
Charles Webster Leadbeater...
was another leading member of the society.
He and Besant worked closely together...
and seemed to compliment each other...
as Olcott and Blavatsky had done years earlier.
The year was 1909.
C. W. Leadbeater had moved to India...
and was now living at Adyar,
the Theosophical headquarters near Madras.
Each day, he would stroll with a group of friends...
along the beach on the Bay of Bengal.
It was there, that the young Jiddu Krishnamurti was discovered.
In spite of the child’s thin, uncared-for appearance,
Leadbeater saw a quality so remarkable...
that he announced, that this Brahmin boy...
would fulfill the long awaited prophecy.
Krishnamurti...
was to be prepared as the vehicle for the world teacher.
The child’s mother, Sanjeevamma, had died some years earlier...
and the 14-year-old boy had come to live...
with his father and three brothers...
just outside the Society’s compound.
The dreamy boy suffered from malaria,
and illness often kept him from school.
He was unassuming...
and yielded easily to the suggestions of others.
He seemed to live in another world.
Often oblivious to what was going on around him.
There was a curious emptiness.
Krishnamurti and his younger brother, Nityananda,
were especially close.
And when told of the opportunity of being prepared for great things,
he refused unless Nitya could be with him.
On November 27, 1909,
Annie Besant returned to India...
and met the brothers for the first time.
An affectionate bond was formed,
and she became to the shy Krishnamurti...
a mother, teacher, and friend.
To Annie Besant the responsibility for guiding the boy’s future...
became a sacred trust.
It was decided that...
the time had come to introduce Krishnamurti to the world.
For this purpose the Order of the Star in the East was formed.
With Krishnamurti as its nominal head...
and under the guidance of Annie Besant,
the Order hoped to prepare its members...
to accept the world teacher and his message.
During the theosophical convention held in Benares that year...
nearly 400 new members joined the Order of the Star.
A glorious future was foreseen...
as members spoke of ‘the Second Coming’.
In a wave of emotion the new members fell at the boy’s feet.
And Mrs. Besant publicly announced that Krishnamurti...
was to indeed become the vehicle for the world teacher.
At the end of 1911 the mould had been cast...
and the destiny of the young boy seemed assured.
Narianiah, the boys’ father, was not as easily convinced.
This deification might make him the laughing stock of India...
and he threatened to deprive Mrs. Besant of their custody.
She quickly intervened...
by describing the advantages of an English education...
and stressed the special advantage...
of his sons becoming Oxford graduates.
On January 19, 1912, Narianiah signed a document...
allowing Krishnamurti and Nitya to be taken to England.
He was unaware that it would be 10 years...
and involve a lengthy lawsuit...
before his sons were to return.
In England, news of their arrival spread quickly...
and a large crowd was on hand...
to greet the party at Charing Cross Station.
An English Theosophist described Krishnamurti on arrival as...
“an odd figure with long black hair falling almost to his shoulders...
and enormous dark eyes which had a vacant look in them.”
When I went to Europe for the first time...
I lived among people who were wealthy and well educated,
who held positions of social authority.
I walked about the streets, watching the faces of people.
I went to theatres.
I saw how people amused themselves trying to forget their unhappiness.
I saw people with political, social or religious power.
I watched the amusements of the young people.
I saw people who desire to serve...
going into those quarters where the poor and degraded live.
They desired to help...
but were themselves helpless.
How can you cure another of disease if you are yourself a victim...
of that disease?
I questioned everything...
because I wanted to find out for myself.
Annie Besant gave 3 stirring lectures...
at the Queen’s Hall in London.
The movement was gathering force.
When she returned to India...
the boy’s education began under a series of tutors.
The young man was constantly...
surrounded by teachers and attentive followers.
Never allowed to be alone, he longed for a more normal life.
He grew dissatisfied...
and lost all interest in the role he was being prepared for.
In the summer of 1914, England plunged into the Great War.
Communications collapsed and the boy’s seclusion intensified.
Krishnamurti became more and more restless.
Annie Besant wrote and reminded him as she often did,
that his happiness would lie only in the work ahead.
Though he felt a deep love and loyalty for Mrs. Besant,
inwardly a quiet revolution was unfolding.
I have long been in revolt from all things.
From the authority of others. From the instruction of others.
From the knowledge of others.
I would not accept anything as truth...
until I found the truth for myself.
I never opposed the ideas of others...
but I would not accept their authority...
or their theory of life.
Until I was in that state of revolt,
until I became dissatisfied with everything,
with every creed, with every dogma and belief,
I was not able to find the truth.
The boys worked hard to pass their college entrance examinations.
Nitya had little difficulty,
but Krishnamurti was a slow and indifferent student.
To everyone’s disappointment it became clear...
that he would not be accepted by either Oxford or Cambridge.
The close of the war in 1918...
brought increased activity among Theosophists.
In India, Annie Besant was deeply absorbed...
in problems of education and political action.
She was in the forefront of the struggle for Indian independence...
along with Gandhi and others.
But in her lectures she continued to proclaim...
the importance of the world teacher...
and his message for humanity.
Krishnamurti was maturing slowly...
and after a ten-year absence from his native country,
it was decided that his work would begin at Adyar.
In late December the brothers arrived in Bombay.
For Mrs. Besant, the long awaited day had finally come...
as the two brothers, who “left as boys,
returned as men.”
When I came to India I saw that the people there...
were deluding themselves equally,
carrying on the same old traditions,
treating women cruelly.
At the same time they called themselves very religious...
and painted their faces with ashes.
In India, they may have the most sacred books in the world,
they may have the greatest philosophies,
they may have constructed wonderful temples in the past,
but none of these was able to give me what I wanted.
As head of the Order of the Star...
the shy young man plunged into his work.
He wrote numerous books and articles for Star publications.
There were lectures to give and meetings to attend.
The brothers undertook a heavy schedule...
speaking in India, England, Australia and Europe.
These travels became a heavy strain on Nitya.
He became ill and was diagnosed as having tuberculosis.
California was suggested as having...
a healthful climate for consumptives...
and an ideal place for recovery.
In the summer of 1922,
the loan of a small cottage in the Ojai Valley...
brought the young men to America for the first time.
Writing to Mrs. Besant,
Nitya described their new surroundings:
“In a long narrow valley of apricot orchards...
and orange groves, is our home.
And the hot sun shines day after day to remind us of Adyar.
The Indians call our valley the Ojai, or the nest.
And for centuries they must have sought it as a refuge.”
For a time Nitya seemed to recover.
But perhaps best of all, they were alone.
Privacy had been a luxury denied them since childhood.
But now in the silence of the valley...
Krishnamurti had an opportunity to be with himself.
He walked alone in the hills,
climbing through orange groves and scrub brush.
As the days passed, a strange uneasiness seized him.
He became ill and complained of intense pain and suffocating heat.
There were periods of unconsciousness...
as the strange process reached its peak.
Agitated and feverish, he insisted on walking alone...
but was urged instead...
to rest under a young pepper tree that stood near the cottage.
It was there, in the stillness of the night,
that a transcendent event took place...
that shook his life to its foundations.
I could feel the wind passing through the trees,
and the little ant on the blade of grass.
I could feel the birds,
the dust.
And every noise was a part of me.
I was in everything.
Or rather everything...
was in me.
I was supremely happy...
for I had seen.
Nothing could ever be the same.
I have drunk at the clear and pure waters of the fountain of life.
And my thirst was appeased.
Never more could I be thirsty.
Never more could I be in utter darkness.
I have touched the compassion,
which heals all sorrow and suffering.
It is not for myself...
but for the world.
To describe his new perceptions...
Krishnamurti embarked on a world wide speaking tour.
The change was unmistakable.
Everywhere, among all people,
there is a search for something hidden.
For some realization...
which will give greater knowledge,
greater vision,
greater understanding.
And this the people call ‘truth’.
They think that truth lies hidden in some distant place,
away from life,
away from joy,
away from sorrow.
But truth is life itself.
And with an understanding of life,
there is born an understanding of truth.
While traveling, a sudden hemorrhage...
brought back fears for Nitya’s health.
He was weak, in high fever and racked with coughing.
It was decided that the brothers should again return...
to the dry climate of the Ojai Valley.
Once in California Nitya seemed to improve.
And when Mrs. Besant cabled asking...
that Krishnamurti come to India...
for Theosophy’s Jubilee Convention,
he reluctantly agreed.
The bond between the brothers had grown stronger than ever.
There was unquestioning faith that...
Nitya was essential to the work ahead...
and because of this, his life would be spared.
While enroute, a cable arrived saying that Nitya had influenza.
A later wire read, “Flu rather more serious, pray for me.”
On the 13th of November,
as the ship entered the Suez Canal,
a telegram arrived announcing Nitya’s death.
The news broke Krishnamurti completely.
It did more. His entire philosophy of life,
the implicit faith in the future...
and Nitya’s vital part in it all,
appeared to be shattered at that moment.
An old dream...
is dead...
and a new one is being born.
A new vision is coming into being.
And a new consciousness is being unfolded.
I know now, with greater certainty than ever before,
that there is real beauty in life.
Real happiness...
that cannot be shattered by any physical happening.
A great strength...
which cannot be weakened by any passing events.
And a great love,
which is permanent,
imperishable...
and unconquerable.
By the time he reached Madras...
his face was quiet and radiant.
The Jubilee Convention of 1925...
celebrated 50 years in the life of the Theosophical Society.
Thousands attended the four-day gatherings...
and the events were eagerly reported...
by newspapers around the world.
A Star Congress followed the convention.
By this time the Order of the Star had grown to over 45,000 members.
Under the branches of Adyar’s enormous banyan tree...
Krishnamurti spoke of the world teacher.
His face was powerful and stern at the twilight,
his eyes half veiled, as if looking inward.
As he spoke, a deep silence spread through the audience.
Some thought they saw a light envelope him.
And many believed that they were in the presence...
of the Messiah himself.
The young man was becoming the focus of deep divisions.
While thousands accepted him as the World Teacher...
others were disturbed by the adoration and attention given him.
In the Netherlands, some years earlier,
the Baron Phillip van Pallandt had given his ancestral home,
the Castle Eerde, to the Order of the Star.
5.000 wooded acres surrounded the 18th century buildings.
The castle had been transformed...
into a meeting place where small groups gathered yearly.
The change that was taking place in Krishnamurti...
was to intensify the following week...
at the Ommen Star camp of 1926.
Close to the Castle Eerde,
the Ommen Camp attracted over 2,000 people of every nationality.
There were huge tents for meetings and for meals.
Lectures were given.
And every evening...
Krishnamurti lit a bonfire and spoke to the gathering.
In order to be happy, need we have religions?
In order to love,
need we build temples?
Truth cannot be found in the dark sanctuary of temples...
nor in the well-lit halls of organized societies.
Neither can it be found in books nor in ceremonies.
Go down to the sea where the breezes are blowing...
and the waves are breaking over each other.
You want to gather and bind all that beauty
into a narrow temple?
Do not allow your mind or your heart...
to be bound by anything...
or anyone.
If you do...
you will establish another religion,
another temple.
You must not create little gods...
and worship at little shrines.
Who wants to worship by the light of one candle,
when you can have the sun?
It was increasingly difficult to reconcile...
Krishnamurti‘s vision of truth...
with the forms and structures not only of Theosophy,
but all organized religions.
His rejection of spiritual authority was a threat...
to the Society and its life long members.
There was open hostility, as the organization...
seemed to be pulling apart.
Lines were drawn, as some stood firmly with him,
while others clung to their cherished beliefs.
Lady Emily Lutyens,
who had been close to Krishnamurti since 1911,
shared the bewilderment that many felt.
“How strange it seems,” she said,
“that for 17 years we have expected a World Teacher...
and now when he speaks we are hurt or angry.
He is making us do our own work...
and that is the last thing we expected of him.”
In May of 1928, the First Ojai Star Camp was held...
under the evergreen oak trees of Southern California.
But with each new talk, each meeting,
the divisions became more apparent.
In failing health, Annie Besant...
was forced to cancel her public engagements.
Yet she still tried desperately to reconcile theosophy...
with what Krishnamurti was saying.
She quoted ancient Hindu scriptures saying...
all paths lead to the same spiritual goal.
But in spite of her efforts the divisions widened.
There were no gentle platitudes.
There was to be no uniting of existing religions.
Ceremonies and organized religions, he said, were a hindrance,
a distraction from the truth.
He offered no method.
There were no steps to follow...
no system that ensured spiritual progress.
His vision of truth was absolute.
In the Netherlands, on August 3rd, 1929,
at the Ommen Gathering,
in the presence of Mrs. Besant and over 3,000 Star members,
Krishnamurti dissolved the Order of The Star,
freeing himself from all claims made for him.
I maintain that truth...
is a pathless land.
and you cannot approach it by any path...
whatsoever,
by any religion,
by any sect.
That is my point of view.
And I adhere to that absolutely...
and unconditionally.
Truth,
being limitless,
unconditioned,
is unapproachable by any path whatsoever.
It cannot be organized.
Nor should any organization be formed...
to lead or coerce people along any particular path.
If an organization be created for this purpose...
it becomes a crutch,
a weakness, a bondage...
and must cripple the individual...
and prevent him from the discovery...
of that absolute unconditioned truth.
You can form other organizations and expect someone else.
With that I am not concerned.
My only concern...
is to set man...
absolutely...
and unconditionally...
free.
All religions...
have always said there is only our path,
our saviour,
our system,
our belief,
our rituals,
and only through those you will find salvation.
This has been the constant...
song...
of all religions.
And I happen to have said...
many, many years ago, which is...
which is so,
which has so,
true,
that there is no path to truth.
Truth according to them is a fixed point.
And if it is a fixed point you can have a path...
as many paths as you like.
But if it is not a fixed point, it’s a living thing, moving,
– movement in the sense, in the world...
of no time, which is a different matter –
naturally there is no path to it.
But you see,
we don’t want such a dangerous...
outlook.
We want everything fixed.
We want every object to be final.
I would like to go into the question...
of what does it mean,
that a human being,
should bring about...
a deep, profound change in himself.
We are asking, is it possible...
to bring about...
a fundamental, psychological revolution?
A deep, abiding,
irrevocable change,
transformation.
One has lived as a limited,
contained,
narrow,
individual.
And it is very, very difficult...
to see the truth...
that you are the rest of mankind.
That in you...
is the whole of man.
That is,
you as a human being...
are part of the world.
You are the world.
Not an idea,
not something that intellectually,
has been put together by reason, and says "yes, quite right".
But the reality of the truth of it,
that you represent, as a human being, the rest of humanity.
You suffer.
You are anxious.
You are uncertain, confused,
miserable,
fearful,
hurt, everything.
And every human being has this.
So your consciousness...
is the consciousness of mankind.
Now, it is possible...
for sorrow to end.
If there is the ending of sorrow in one human being...
who is the representative of all humanity,
that ending affects the whole of consciousness of man.
Don‘t accept what we are talking about.
Find out. Test it.
That means you have to be free to observe.
To observe without any wish,
any longing, any pressure — you know.
To observe as you observe a lovely flower.
I wonder why...
human beings throughout the world don’t see this simple fact,
that you cannot possibly have peace on earth...
if you are nationalistically divided.
We want order outside,
in the world.
Politically, religiously,
economically, socially.
In our relationship with each other, we want order.
We want some peace.
We want some understanding.
And...
if the inward psychological state is orderly,
not conflicting,
not contradicting,
if that state in consciousness is quiet,
steady,
clear...
then you can bring about order in the world.
Now what we are trying to do...
is try to bring order...
legislatively,
nationally,
and so on.
Order out there...
in the world.
Which has been proved over and over again...
that it totally brings about disorder.
That is why we are saying,
the speaker – I am saying,
that...
without inward order,
that is, inward...
order in consciousness,
which is in a mess,
which is in a contradiction,
without bringing about order inwardly, psychologically,
you cannot possibly have order outwardly.
And the crisis is there.
We think the crisis is,
national,
economic, social, and so on.
The crisis is not out there.
The crisis is really inward.
And we are unwilling to face that.
It is our...
education, way of living, and tradition and so on,
that something can be given to somebody else.
Jesus can give you salvation.
Or a guru can save you.
Or your wife can help you.
That may be an old...
worn out tradition to which we are clinging.
It may be a wrong approach all together.
You have understanding...
and I haven’t got it.
And you are conditioned...
– excuse me –
You are conditioned...
in the idea that you can give it to me.
Right?
That may not be the fact at all.
Psychologically, inwardly, do you depend on somebody?
You say, please help me to be free of my arrogance.
Or in your relationship...
you see the arrogance in you.
It‘s gone.
In our relationship with each other,
and I am observing myself.
And in that observation I discover that I am arrogant...
in our relationship.
So I am not dependent for you to point out to me my arrogance.
I am already aware of it.
This is tremendously important sir.
Nobody can give me intensity,
the sense of beauty.
I’m taking [that].
Then...
I am on my own, you follow?
Not isolated and all that.
Then I have to work to find out.
Then in the very working of it I have got the intensity.
When I discard the tradition,
in which I have been brought up...
that is to depend on somebody...
and when I discarded it, I have to work at it,
or I go down the drain, either way.
If I’m...
If I discard that,
I have already got the sense of...
energy, intensity.
Then I am not dependent on anybody.
Can I observe myself...
through relationship?
Can I know myself...
fundamentally, basically,
all the reactions, all the...
the nuances, the subtleties...
of myself,
in relationship?
Now, one’s relationship with another...
is based on memory.
Right?
Would you accept it?
On the various images, pictures, conclusions I have drawn...
about you and you have drawn about me.
The various images that I have about you,
wife, husband, girl or boy or friend and so on.
So there is always image making.
Right?
This is simple, this is normal, this actually goes on.
When one is married, or lives with a girl or a boy...
every incident, every word, every action creates an image.
No?
Are we clear on this point?
Don’t agree with me please.
I am not trying to persuade you to anything.
But actually you can see it for yourself.
A word is registered.
If it is pleasant you purr. It is nice.
If it is unpleasant, you'll immediately shrink from it.
And that creates an image.
The pleasure creates an image.
The shrinking, the withdrawal creates an image.
So, our actual relationship with each other...
is based on the...
on various subtle forms...
of pictures, images and conclusions.
So when there is an image like that,
she has and you have,
then in that there is division.
And then the whole conflict begins.
Right?
Where there is division between two images,
there must be conflict, right?
The Jew, the Arab, the Hindu, the Muslim,
the Christian, the Communist,
it is the same phenomenon.
It is a basic law,
where there is division between people there must be conflict.
Can all this image making,
tradition...
all that end,
without a single conflict.
You understand my question?
Are you interested in this?
What will you pay for it?
That's all you can do.
By paying something you think you will get it.
Now how can this...
mechanism of...
image making...
– not just image making, the desire for certainty, the tradition,
the whole structure of that –
can that end?
Right?
Are you asking that question?
Who is there to tell you what to do?
See this,
when you are children, the parents tell you what to do.
That same mentality is cultivated right through life.
In school you are told what to do,
in college you are told what to do,
in university.
Right through life...
somebody tells you...
this is right, this is wrong, this should be done,
that should not be done.
Which means what?
There is no...
self-investigation.
There is no saying I am really the rest of mankind.
Which you are!
Because every human being right through the world,
goes through a great deal of suffering,
a great deal of pain, a great deal of anxiety,
uncertain, confused,
insecure,
like you, like the rest of the world.
We don’t accept that.
We think,
my suffering is totally separate from other people’s suffering.
And so...
we have this mentality...
that...
I must have somebody to tell me what to do.
Right from the Pope, down to the poor Parish Priest.
Really one should ask a question, “Why human beings...
– though they have extraordinary knowledge –
and yet nobody is willing to change. Why?”
Is it that they find security in...
in the habit, in the pattern?
Your pattern, my pattern,
the Christian pattern, the Hindu pattern, the Buddhist.
They are all patterns, a way of thinking.
So,
patterns may be dangerous altogether,
because they divide people.
And religions have divided people.
Their rituals,
their beliefs, their faith, their saviors.
Now, to break away from all that...
requires intelligence,
requires investigation, study.
Nobody is willing to do that.
From childhood...
we are taught comparison.
We say "you must be as clever as your brother".
Or in school you better get better marks than somebody else.
So you are always being compared.
And you learn to compare.
Don’t you?
I say, don’t compare...
yourself with anybody.
Right?
You heard that?
Right?
Now,
why do you compare?
To find out who is better.
To find out if you are better.
That is, you compare yourself with her.
She is much more intelligent,
more bright, more clever,
and so in comparing yourself with her...
you become dull.
But if you don’t compare, are you dull?
No. It just...
Just listen, listen, listen carefully.
In examinations in schools, all through life they are comparing.
Tell your teacher, don’t compare.
The relationship between the teacher and you...
she knows more than you do, right?
Academically.
Academically!
By Jove!
Academically you know more than he does.
Now, she is teaching you about biology...
and...
she is giving you marks,
right,
and gradually helping you to pass that examination.
Now, can she teach you without the idea of examination?
How do you test yourself, sir?
– In what? – Without examination.
How do you test yourself, without examination?
You mean to say that an examination is going to tell you...
how you have learned?
– Maybe, sir. – Listen, you are too quick.
Find out.
You are all so used to examinations.
That is your tradition.
That is your habit.
And when you question that, you say...
“Yes, what shall I do?”, you get nervous,
frightened.
When I was learning, when I was at school in England,
I never passed one examination.
Right?
I went through all the examinations but I couldn’t...
I sat in the hall without writing a thing.
Are you interested in all this?
What do you consider is life?
Your life, what is your life?
What is that life that you daily live?
Dependence, attachment, pain,
annoyance, anger, irritation, sorrow.
You know all this don’t you? This is your daily life.
Going to the temple...
and doing some kind of noise with the bell,
and doing puja,
doing yoga.
That we say, that is our life.
Then what do you mean by a religious life?
You tell me.
What does religion mean to you?
The word.
The word religion...
means: to gather all your energy.
That's all it means.
Do you understand sir?
To gather all your energy...
to enquire, to find.
Right?
Not all the nonsense of temples, rituals, and...
all this either, sir, what you put on your head.
You see how you all agree?
The meaning of the word,
that means gathering...
every...
particle of energy that you have,
to enquire into...
what is truth and what is reality.
To enquire into what is meditation.
To enquire into why human beings live the way we are living.
To enquire if there is an end to sorrow.
To enquire into what is love.
Whether one can live without any effort...
and control.
All that is implied in that word.
A religious life...
implies...
being a light to yourself.
Which means...
no outside authority.
We are talking about...
having no spiritual authority.
Including me, the speaker.
Have you any authority,
spiritual authority?
You have had various gurus, Mahatma Gandhi, Mr. Gandhi,
and so on, all the way from the 6th,
5th, 4th, 3rd century...
down to the present.
And where are you, having been led,
for these thousands years?
Where are you?
Or you want to be still led?
So I am asking,
we are asking you...
courteously,
if you have thrown away your traditions?
Traditions being nationality,
your caste,
your beliefs,
your...
rituals,
going to the temples.
All that.
Have you thrown it away?
No?
No.
Then how can you find out what a religious life is...
when you are blind?
So you want to find out what a religious life is...
and yet won‘t leave your little enclosure.
Right?
You are tied to your tradition.
And you want to enquire into something, that demands...
a mind that is capable,
a heart that can really love.
Without that,
freeing yourself from...
your tradition, your culture, your belief,
how can you find out anything?
You can repeat what The Gita said...
or the Upanishads or some other book.
What value has it?
I was told the other day–
some of the gurus now give lectures...
or talks on the Gita.
Is that right?
And there are hundreds and thousands who go and listen to it.
What value has it?
What are we all playing at sirs?
Apparently one doesn’t see one’s own tragedy.
Right, sir?
Psychologically, why should I accept what somebody else says...
when I realize...
that I am the rest of mankind?
Mankind is me.
The ‘me’ is the history of mankind, the book of mankind.
If I know how to read it...
I don’t depend on anybody.
So, can I,
without distortion,
without prejudice,
without choice,
be aware of the content of this book,
which is me?
To read it very carefully,
never...
distorting it,
requires a great deal of attention,
a great deal of energy,
intensity,
immediacy.
And we are not willing to do all that because...
we think that is too tiresome.
“Tell me quickly what to do and I will do it.”
Or I may not do it.
Generally, I may not do it.
And I personally think that...
this psychological guidance by another,
whether it is the religious guidance,
or the guidance of the psychologist,
is totally wrong.
Because then you are making humanity into children,
who have to be guided, told, encouraged.
We are all grown up human beings after...
5 or 10 million years.
Through negation...
of what is not,
the positive exists.
That is,
love is not desire.
Love is not pleasure.
Love is not a remembrance.
It is as strong as death,
as vital as life.
And you see,
love can only exist when there is no suffering.
Suffering is personal.
Suffering is also global.
Man has suffered endlessly.
And he tries to combine that suffering...
with what he calls love.
And so there is always this contradiction,
this duality.
Whereas if you deny all that...
that which is not love,
then the other thing has its immense beauty,
great strength, and vitality of its own.
Then why do you have to learn mathematics...?
Because part of Mathematics...
is order.
2 + 2 + 2 make 6.
That's order.
Right?
In sequence, it must be.
So mathematics, much more complicated and all that,
is a series of...
sequences and order.
Right?
Are we...
aware of our responsibility to another?
If one has a family,
wife, children,
are you responsible for those children?
That you care.
That you have love for them.
Are you concerned...
that they become...
healthy good citizens?
If you have children, do you feel responsible for those children?
To see that they have right education...
so that they won’t be killed in a war?
They won’t become...
mediocre.
Or you have no time at all for them.
Because you have to go out and earn money,
as the man, and the mother and the father,
as they do now, and have very little time for the children.
That is a fact.
So where is your responsibility?
Oh, you are not interested in all this.
So one asks,
what are you interested in?
I think that is a legitimate question.
You can talk about love, freedom and the beauty of the sky,
but it is only an outside interest.
But basically...
what are we interested in?
Ourselves
That’s right.
You are interested in yourself.
Right?
Wait sir, perfectly right.
Each one is interested in himself.
On that...
our society, culture, religion is based.
Right?
Each one...
interested...
in himself.
His progress,
– all the rest of it.
Do you, as a human being, realize...
that we are all one...
basically?
Not as an idea,
but as a fact.
Because when you go to India...
you see the misery, the confusion, the anxiety,
the despair of people...
running to their petty little gods, whom they have created.
You come to Europe, it's exactly the same thing.
They've got their Jesus, their Christ. You follow?
You come here it is exactly the same.
You understand sir?
First to realize,
not verbally...
but in your heart, in your blood, in your whole thinking,
that human beings right through the world,
go through the same agonies that one goes through.
The loneliness, the despair, the depressions,
the extraordinary uncertainty,
insecurity,
whether they live...
10,000 miles away or 2,000 miles or here.
They are all psychologically bound together.
If one realizes that...
profoundly...
in your guts, in your blood, in your heart, in your mind...
then you are responsible.
You have heard all this, you as a human being.
Why don’t you change?
What prevents you?
If each one of us asked that question,
not...
verbally,
or merely intellectually, as an entertainment,
but asked that question most seriously and deeply,
what's your answer?
What's your answer to this problem...
that human beings have lived this way...
for millennia upon millennia?
Why haven’t they changed?
Why haven’t you, who are listening now,
why haven’t you changed?
You know if you don‘t change what the consequences are.
You will be national, nationalistic.
You will be tribal, insular,
isolated and therefore...
having no relationship globally.
Fighting, fighting, fighting.
Building up more and more armaments to destroy each other.
Now...
why don’t you, if you are at all serious in this matter,
why don’t you ask yourself that question?
Why am I,
a human being...
who has been through all this,
why haven’t I changed?
What would be your answer?
After all,
life is one.
One global unitary movement.
So in the same way...
our consciousness is common to all mankind.
Now, if I radically change,
surely it affects the rest of the consciousness of man.
Now, why don’t you change?