Quest
In 1939, at age 21, Krishnamurti met with renowned spiritual teacher Ramana Maharshi. Krishnamurti related that he asked Ramana, "This thing called moksha, can you give it to me?" – to which Ramana Maharshi purportedly replied, "I can give it, but can you take it?". This answer completely altered Krishnamurti's perceptions of the "spiritual path" and its practitioners, and he never again sought the counsel of "those religious people". Later, Krishnamurti would say that Maharshi's answer – which he perceived as "arrogant" – put him "back on track".
In 1941, he began working for the Theosophical Society, in C.W. Leadbeater's library. Shortly after, he began an international lecture tour on behalf of the Society, visiting Norway, Belgium, Germany and the United States. Returning to India, he married a Brahmin woman named Kusuma Kumari in 1943, at age 25.
From 1947 to 1953, Krishnamurti regularly attended talks given by Jiddu Krishnamurti in Madras, India, eventually beginning a direct dialogue with him in 1953. U. G. Krishnamurti related that the two had almost daily discussions for a while, which he asserted were not providing satisfactory answers to his questions. Finally, their meetings came to a halt. He described part of the final discussion:
And then, towards the end, I insisted, "Come on, is there anything behind the abstractions you are throwing at me?" And that chappie said, "You have no way of knowing it for yourself". Finish – that was the end of our relationship, you see – "If I have no way of knowing it, you have no way of communicating it. What the hell are we doing? I've wasted seven years. Goodbye, I don't want to see you again". Then I walked out.After the break-up with Jiddu Krishnamurti, U. G. Krishnamurti continued travelling, still lecturing. At about the same time he claims to have been "puzzled" by the continuing appearance of certain psychic powers. In 1955, U.G. Krishnamurti and his family went to the United States to seek medical treatment for his eldest son, and stayed there for five years.
Read more about this topic: U. G. Krishnamurti
Famous quotes containing the word quest:
“Clearly, some time ago makers and consumers of American junk food passed jointly through some kind of sensibility barrier in the endless quest for new taste sensations. Now they are a little like those desperate junkies who have tried every known drug and are finally reduced to mainlining toilet bowl cleanser in an effort to get still higher.”
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“Thou art the unanswered question;
Couldst see thy proper eye,
Alway it asketh, asketh;
And each answer is a lie.
So take thy quest through nature,
It through thousand natures ply;
Ask on, thou clothed eternity;
Time is the false reply.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)