The non-guru and his anti-disciples


Indian Express, Arts, June 20, 1998

By M N Chakravarthy


UG is in town. Every summer before going to Switzerland, he visits Bangalore so that his fans here can have a ‘darshan’, no, chat with him. It is difficult to describe him to the uninitiated. This is how a writer who happened to meet UG described him to a friend:


Friend: I heard that you went to visit UG Krishnamurthy last night. I don't know who he is. Can you tell me something about him?


Writer: He is an anti-guru. Well, he's a man totally opposed to teaching.


Friend: What does he do then?


Writer: Well, he teaches. No, that's not it. He sits around in other people's homes.


Friend: So he lives off other people?


Writer: No, he's quite well-to-do. He's just independent.


Friend: And what does he do while sitting around?


Writer: Talking about gurus and how much he hates them and what phonies they are - every one of them.


Friend: Who listens to him?


Writer: People. No, they are not disciples. They are what you could call anti-disciples.


Friend: How do you know that?


Writer: Well, they make fun of him. They argue with him, insult him. They don't treat him like a guru. And, if they do (and some attempt to), he becomes abusive, angry, contemptuous.


Friend: But he seems to have something of the same format as any other guru. He travels to countries where people hear about him and they come to listen to him speak.


Writer: Everything he does is the reverse of what gurus do. He turns everything upside down. This is why people like him. He is fascinating to watch. That he is.


Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurthy was born in Andhra Pradesh on July 9, 1918. He was brought up by his grandparents as they were told by astrologers that he was one of the greatest yogis on earth. They were convinced that he was a yoga brashta, one who had come within inches of attaining enlightenment in his past life.


He was married with four children. He was involved with the Theosophical Society and has travelled all over the world. After his first son died, he formed the screenplay for Mahesh Bhatt's Hindi film, Saraansh.


At 49 he was ‘enlightened’, an expression he hates to use. He prefers to call it a catastrophe.


The other day he said, “It is nice of you to have come here, but you have come to the wrong place because you want an answer and you think that my answer will be your answer. But that is not so. I may have found my answer, but that is not your answer. You have to find that out for yourself. You should also find out the way in which you are functioning in this world. This will be the answer to all your questions.”


As social scientist Rick Kalman says, “The 20th century has given rise to 10 destroyers, both Eastern and Western. They include Einstein, Heisenberg, Godel, Heinz von Forster, Derrida, B L Whorf and U G Krishnamurthy. All have offered evidence of the limits of man's knowledge. When it is fully understood it will rock the Western world to its very core.”

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