Impressions and expressions

People say it is difficult to understand Jiddu Krishnamurti’s philosophy. I agree. But if you think you have to understand Krishnamurti’s philosophy, you are already on the wrong path. For there is nothing called Krishnamurti’s philosophy. There is only one thing - understanding yourself. Krishnamurti is just a mirror for you to look into yourself. Looking into yourself requires infinite patience and tremendous courage. It is not an easy thing to do. No wonder people never understood Krishnamurti. I first heard of Krishnamurti when I was reading a Telugu magazine article on “overcoming your fears”. It had a side-note on Krishnamurti who said - “ Fear is created by thought - t hought which is the operation of past memory, past experience and past knowledge ”. I thought it was an interesting way of looking at fear and remembered his name. So years later when I found Krishnamurti book stall at the popular Vijayawada annual book festival, I immediately stepped inside to explore his w...

  I saw ZNMD few weeks back and liked it. I read some reviews that made comments on the actors' performance and tried to compare the movie with " Dil Chahta Hai ". All this is quite unnecessary, if we realize that we can appreciate something only by experiencing it all by itself and not in comparison with something else. Most people dislike message oriented movies, especially if the message is delivered in a preachy manner. "Hi, cut all this crap. Give me something entertaining" is the attitude. We are so filled with our ego that it does not like if someone tries to teach things. So this movie chose the right approach of conveying the message in a subtle and mild manner. The message, as I understood, is - " Banish all fear. Live your life to the fullest ." Let us think about this. Fear is a popular word in the spiritual/philosophical circles. The great sage Vivekananda often said that the message of Vedas and Upanishads is - " Be fearless ...

"Feed your opportunities and starve your problems" - this is one advice which Peter Drucker, the management Guru, often gave in his writings. He was speaking in a management context, but I think it applies to life in general. But what does he mean? Is he asking us to ignore our problems completely? How can we stop working on our problems when they are bothering us? Strengths and opportunities are fine, but how can we rely just on them? These were some of the questions inside me when I thought about his advice. It did not make much sense to me. After spending sometime thinking about it, I happened to find an explanation. I am not sure if Drucker meant this when he gave the advice but this is what I understood - " He is not referring to different things when he said "problem" and "opportunity". In the same thing that we call a problem, he is asking us to find an opportunity ". Now this is still not a very clear statement. Let us decipher it. Y...

Around 2 years back, I was chatting with Venkat Konda, who is like a brother to the great lyricist Sirivennela Seeta Rama Sastry. He was remarking that "Sirivennela is first a scientist, then a poet and that his songs have a logical flow". This made me thinking. My understanding is that a logical mind can never be creative.   I scribbled quick notes at that time to support my case. Now when I look at these notes, I felt it is worth blogging. So here we go! The thinker defined First some definitions to understand my theory - a.          Mind (manas) - The thinker, the commentator b.         Non-mind - that which is not mind.   This is not same as heart or whatever. This is simply non-mind. Actually people made many finer distinctions of the above. For example Indian philosophers had around 5 distinctions. But to keep it simple, we will stick to only these two.   Just to put this abstract ...

Philosophy is somewhat boring, I agree! But often it provides us with some new perspectives that can help us live a better life. I was once reading the conversations between the philosopher Jiddu Krishnmurti and Prof. Anderson (these conversations were titled " A Wholly Different Way of Living ") and the following anecdote struck a chord: I [Jiddu Krishnamurti] talked to a monk once. He came to see me. He had a great many followers. And he was very well known. He said, I have taught my disciples, and he was very proud of having thousands of disciples. And he was saying, 'I have arrived because I have learned to control my senses, my body, my thoughts, my desires. I've held them as the Gita says: hold something, you are reigning, you are riding horse', you know, holding. He went on about it for some length. I said, 'Sir, what at the end of it? You have controlled. Where are you at the end of it?' He said, 'What are you asking, I have arriv...

Sometimes I feel we get confused between "means" and "end". Or atleast, I get confused! Worse still, this confusion happens unknowingly. This topic is very philosophical (and hence boring to many!). To cut it short, here are 3 common examples to illustrate my point: 1. Money - These days we are all for money. You want to study in good colleges to get a good job. And the definition of good job is "good job = good money". You want to go to US to get more money etc etc. But interestingly money is only a "means". It is a "means" to get-along in your daily life, to have some pleasures and to make your journey on earth comfortable. This is so obvious but interestingly the lure for money makes you forget it. You think it as the "end" and hence the goal of life and so run for it all the time. 2. Religion - Religion is also a "means" to reach (or realize as they say) the "end" called GOD. This is one of the most f...