The Anti-guru is here
Delhi Mid Day, Unlabelable, Saturday, March 23, 1991
By A. R. K. Prasad
U. G. Krishnamurti, called the Cosmic Naxalite, has arrived in the Capital. He does not proclaim “Come ye all and listen to me”. Yet if you do, it will be an electrifying experience. Not that you will be “born again”. Not that you will give up wine, women and wealth and tread a spiritual path. But the pure dynamite of his statements will threaten to blast everything that you have taken for granted.
Here are some samples, “Love is fascist; sex is violence; thinking is born out of some sort of neurological defect in the human body; charity is the most vicious and vulgar invention of religion; thought can only create problems but cannot help us to solve them; if humanity is to be saved from the chaos of its own making, it has to be saved from the saviours of mankind; all the political ideologies are the warty outgrowth of the religious thinking of man; all questions are born out of the answers that we already have; the human organism is not interested in your wonderful religious ideas, peace, bliss, beatitude or any such thing, It's only interest is in its own survival; what society or culture has placed before us as the goal for all of us to reach and attain is the enemy of this living organism; mankind is a virus on this earth.”
UG Krishnamurti is well known in spiritual circles as an anomalous, enigmatic and iconoclastic figure. He has been variously described as the “Un-Guru”, the “Raging Sage”, and also as the “Don Rickles of the Guru Set”. Never have the foundations of human civilisation been subject to such devastating attack as by this seventy-two year old dynamo.
This is what Mr. T. R. Ragunath, Professor of Philosophy at McMaster University (Canada), has to say of UG: Unlike J. Krishnamurti, UG does not give “Talks” to the general public, or “interviews” to VIPs. He keeps no journals or notebooks and makes no “commentaries on living”. There is an unusual but authentic atmosphere around UG. You don't have to beg the favour of some pompous “devotee” or “worker” to meet and talk with him. UG's doors, wherever he happens to be, are always open to visitors. In striking contrast to most contemporary gurus, UG does not appear to discriminate between his visitors on grounds of wealth, position, caste, race, religion, or nationality.
Although seventy-two, UG continues to travel around the world in response to invitations from his friends. His migratory movements over the globe have earned him a rather devoted circle of friends in many parts of the world including China. UG is in Delhi now at the invitation of his friend, Frank Noronha (21/88 Lodi Colony). When asked about his relationship with UG, said Frank, “I wish I knew. I am just a UG freak like somebody else is some other kind of freak. He is simply my most beloved friend. You know, you need someone with whom you can be absolutely yourself. To me that person is UG. Call him God, Guru or what you like.”
UG heads no organisation and does not believe in the personality cult or in a following. He is hated by many a godman and godwoman because he has been warning the people against them. He says, “it is these messiahs who are manic depressive individuals who are responsible for the mess that the people find themselves in”. He dubs all talks of moksha, nirvana, search for truth as pure hoax practised by spiritual conmen. UG says “all these spiritual experiences and visions are born out of disturbance in the metabolism of the body”. In a television interview in Amsterdam, he suggested that if we want to radically change the human condition, we have to change human beings first, and that genetic engineering may be the most effective means.” But he warns, “That will be the end of the individual”.
UG maintains that each individual is unique. Therefore, even if there is something like enlightenment it will be unique for every individual. Says UG, “If there is anything like super-consciousness or higher consciousness, you are as much an expression of that as any of the claimants to cosmic power. Every dog, every cat, every pig, every cow, the garden slug, even Genghis Khan and Hitler are an expression of that same thing. Why should nature or some cosmic power, if there is one in this world, need the help of somebody as an instrument to express itself and help others?”
UG also has some interesting views on social issues. The anti-bomb movement is a good example. UG argues that the bomb is only an extension of the structure which has created the need for the policeman. “The policeman exists in order to protect my little property from perceived threats. The bomb, in just the same way exists in order to protect the collective property of the society or nation from perceived threats.” Another example is the feminist movement. He says that the feminist movement will not succeed as the woman depends upon the man for her sexual needs.
UG is notorious for his response to the '60s slogan “Make love, not war”. He retorts that making love is war! For UG, love-making and war-making spring from the same source, the separative structure of thought. They both presuppose a division between the “self” and the “other”. This is why UG does not take kindly to fashionable talk about “loving relationships”. He points out that the search for relationships of any kind springs from a sense of isolation, an isolation created by the separative thought structure. What one wants is to fill the emptiness or void with someone. It is a process of self-fulfillment, self-gratification.
The significance of UG lies in his radical and original critique of tradition, particularly the religious and spiritual tradition. His most important contribution is that, for the first time in history, the essence of what would be considered as “spiritual experience” is expressed in physical and physiological terms, in terms of the functioning of the body. This opens a new perspective on human potential.
