UG Krishnamurti

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UG Krishnamurti

UG Krishnamurti ( Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti ; born July 9, 1918 in Masulipatam , British India ; † March 22, 2007 in Vallecrosia , Italy ) was a philosopher who denied terms such as “spirituality” or “enlightenment” any reality. In his opinion it was therefore pointless to follow a guru . Paradoxically, for some, he became a guru himself.

Life

UG Krishnamurti was born on July 9, 1918 in Masulipatam in the Madras Presidency . His mother died seven days after he was born. Krishnamurti was then taken to his maternal grandfather who, as a Brahmin, was a wealthy lawyer who belonged to the Theosophical Society .

From 1938 he studied psychology , philosophy , mysticism and other scientific directions at the University of Madras , but without finishing them with a degree. In 1941 he worked as a clerk for the Theosophical Society in the Charles Webster Leadbeater Library. In the interests of society, he read up on international literature and visited Norway , Belgium , Germany and the United States of America . After returning to India, he married 25-year-old Kusuma Kumari, who is also a Brahman. He stayed in the United States for the next 5 years to seek treatment for his critically ill son.

Lifelong interested in spiritual questions, he regularly attended the public teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti in Madras, India, from 1947 to 1953 . In 1953 he made direct contact with Jiddu Krishnamurti, with whom he soon fell out. He separated from his family and was penniless in London , where he joined the Ramakrishna mission and renewed his acquaintance with Jiddu Krishnamurti. Against his will, UG Krishnamurti received advice from Jiddu Krishnamurti about his marital problems and the public teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti did not affect him. In 1961 he finally separated from his wife, who died in an accident two years later.

After that he was only in Paris for three months , then in Geneva , where he met Valentine de Kerven from Switzerland. He lived with her and a lifelong friendship developed between them. When he found out in 1967 that Jiddu Krishnamurti was giving lectures in Saanen, Switzerland , he went to see him there and finally fell out with him. In his own words, the next day he went through a crisis-like change that he called calamity . It lasted for several days and he came out of it "enlightened", although he refused the term. After this profound experience, he made numerous trips to many countries, but kept returning to Switzerland. He always emphasized to people who turned to him with spiritual problems that he had no teaching and that no one could learn anything about enlightenment from an authority, teacher or leader.

In February 2007, shortly before his death, he dictated his final letter "My Swan Song" . One month later, on March 22nd, 2007, he died among friends who cremated him the day after. In his view, UG Krishnamurti did not want to be remembered after his death.

Outlook on life

Its core message is that any change of any kind is determined by the body and not by the spirit. According to him, change is not an additional level that needs to be reached, as the term enlightenment suggests, but a reduction to the essentials, i.e. to the natural. The body is the enduring, not the spirit, because matter does not simply disappear, but changes. The “I” is a pure invention or, in more understandable terms, a concept. Thinking is more of a kind of sphere and nothing personal.

In Krishnamurti's opinion it is pointless to follow gurus or promises of salvation. This knowledge would be of no use, because the search for “salvation” cannot be ended by further knowledge, but only by a non- causal process. In his words hunger is consuming itself .

meaning

In this way it differs significantly from all spiritual or religious teachings. There is no closed following, because UG Krishnamurti said he could not convey anything, did not initiate or encourage followers and described his statements as meaningless and useless. Books of his dialogues were hardly published, the transcripts of the tape recordings are freely available on the Internet without copyright. Some parallels to his words can be found, for example, in Nisargadatta Maharaj .

Quotes

"People call me a materialist. People even go to the extent of calling me an atheist just because I say that God is irrelevant. But that does not mean that I am an atheist. So I am not interested in what kind of labels they stick on me. Believe it or not: it does not make one bit of difference to me. I am not trying to convince you or win you over to anything. "

- UG Krishnamurti

"Detachment is the nature of traumatized man."

- UG Krishnamurti

Individual evidence

  1. ^ UG Krishnamurti passes away . In: The Hindu , March 25, 2007.
  2. ↑ Obituary . Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  3. ↑ Mahesh Bhatt mourns UG Krishnamurti's death. ( Memento from November 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

literature

  • Literature in the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog
  • The Courage to Stand Alone: ​​Conversations with UG Krishnamurti , 2001, Smriti Books. ISBN 81-87967-06-4 .
  • The Mystique of Enlightenment: The Radical Ideas of UG Krishnamurti , 2002, Sentient Publications. ISBN 0-9710786-1-0 . Also published as The Mystique of enlightenment: the unrational ideas of a man called UG , 2005, Smriti Books. ISBN 81-87967-09-9 .
  • Thought is Your Enemy: Conversations with UG Krishnamurti , 2002, Smriti Books. ISBN 81-87967-11-0 .
  • The Little Book of Questions , 2003, Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-029938-6 .
  • Mind Is a Myth: Conversations with UG Krishnamurti , 2003, Smriti Books. ISBN 81-87967-10-2 .
  • No Way Out: Conversations with UG Krishnamurti , 2005, Smriti Books. ISBN 81-87967-08-0 .
  • The Natural State, In the words of UG Krishnamurti , 2005, Smriti Books. ISBN 81-87967-77-3 .
  • Myth Mind - Fairytale Mind: Troubling Conversations with a Troubling Person, Noumenon Verlag, February 2010. Translation: Daniel Herbst. ISBN 978-3941973015 . Original title: Mind Is a Myth. , 2003, Smriti Books. ISBN 81-87967-10-2 .
  • The Deceptive Appearance of Enlightenment: The Radical Ideas of a Radical Man , Noumenon Verlag, March 2011. Translation: Daniel Herbst. ISBN 978-3941973077 . Original title: The mystique of enlightenment. , 2005, Smriti Books. ISBN 81-87967-09-9 .

List of UG's books that can be read online

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Krishnamurti, UG
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Krishnamurti, Uppaluri Gopala
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian anti-guru
DATE OF BIRTH July 9, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Masulipatam , British India
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 2007
Place of death Vallecrosia , Italy