If all knowledge, ignorance, wisdom, non-wisdom and any sort of mental knot or idea of freedom one might have – would have an epicenter, a sort of a black hole that takes it all and spits it out again with no mercy or regards to your illusionary happiness or well-being. Then this is the man who’d embody such a vortex or black hole.
Given that U.G. Krishnamurti’s talks are very well preserved on both video and audio, we can all get our dose of that in his talks which reminds us about clarity and makes us snap out of it! I have like many others when I first heard something from him, began to label the man. Is he a nihilist? Is he bitter about something? Is he real or fake? Well, he is real and unlike many others he became the reluctant teacher; never charging the people who came to him, allowing people to record him unannounced and in private, refrained from copyright and let loose all he had.
What is he so passionately frustrated about? Is it a frustration or something else, like passion? Although in the videos from his last years he was really oozing bitterness and comments not worthy even mentioning here. For me he didn’t exist, just like he said himself, so focusing on his earlier years and detach those form the actual persona. The recordings of all these types of men like Alan Watts are something independent to each listener and no longer attached or related to the person who made that. We’re like pores expressing the universal fat that needs to get out. Knowingly, unknowingly, aware or not aware. Like John Frusciante said (in a video on inspiration) regarding the ridiculousness that we are responsible for our creativity “We’re only acting into the laws of nature that have given us the possibility that we’re exploring our intelligence we’ve been given”.
In almost all of the surviving recordings he confronts the guests or they confront him desperately.Often in a home, hotel room or something like that. At least there’s intensity. The recordings are genuine and spontaneous; guests would bring a camera and record as they pleased. It’s one thing to plan lectures and talk about stuff and another to be recorded unrehearsed. He did these discussions for so many years and they are raw and uncut. Some of the video recordings are like “perfect moments of cinema” to paraphrase something Werner Herzog would say.
U.G. said in one clip that all the spiritual salesmen never allow their customers inside their private sphere, it’s always staged and set in a certain format. And funny enough, their lives are most often more miserable than the confused people attracted to repetitive feel-good delusions. Be there truth in some of that, U.G. is the only man in this field that resigned form everything, even his family which is cold if you ask me. But there’s no roundabouts, it’s the straight way to get finished!
For those who, sooner or later, get back to U.G.’s recordings after the initial aversion will feel as getting something out of the man. Who’s an embodied black hole for all “schoolboys logic” out there. People came to him, he couldn’t make them stop – and there are funny accounts of that in the many recorded discussions out there.
People came to him, with the same questions and doubts which we all ask and think of – and there so many hilarious moments recorded. He always dissected those questions and ideas.
…I admire his patient manners though all those years of putting up with people coming to him like flies hitting the windshield on Autobahn.
Some of those recordings are like a great movie scene, they are entertaining, they are also helpful reminders and discoveries for first time watchers. For me, after watching tons of material, I’ve noticed the repeating questions and confusion he addresses. Why did he accept all that and take the time? Why not I guess, conversations are a thing most of us enjoy, but in his case people repeatedly couldn’t bear the answers he gave and the “ideas” he proposed or threw back. I also understand that what else should he have done? Either become a bum with nothing or a man of nothing with always something and somebody around him. We’re all humans and as such communication is appreciated, be that formal, artsy or whatever.
In more mundane terms his mental inspiration is that of becoming a black stallion. A healthy animal out in the wild. Anyway, here’s a pick of the most potent U.G. recording out there. Really, no film script can duplicate these intense conversations so sit back, relax and enjoy.
I also recommend this site full of personal accounts with U.G. Krishnamurti – The Final Travels of U.G. Krishnamurti.
What do you think?