U G

"...So, reluctantly, hesitatingly, unwilling, I went to see Ramana Maharshi... "Can you give me what you have?" ...no answer, so after some lapse of time I repeated that question -- "I am asking 'Whatever you have, can you give it to me?'" He said, "I can give you, but can you take it?" Boy!...I said to myself, If there is any individual in this world who can take it, it is me, because I have done so much sadhana, seven years of sadhana. He can think that I can't take it, but I can take it. If I can't take it, who can take it?... "Can one be free sometimes and not free sometimes?" He said "Either you are free, or you are not free at all."... How arrogant he is! -- that was my feeling. Why can't I take it, whatever it is? What is it that he has?... What is that state that all those people -- Buddha, Jesus and the whole gang -- were in? Ramana is in that state... that chap is like me, a human being. How is he different from me?... What is there? ...What is that state?... I must find out what that state is. Nobody can give that state; I am on my own. I have to go on this uncharted sea without a compass, without a boat, with not even a raft to take me. I am going to find out for myself what the state is in which that man is. I wanted that very much, otherwise I wouldn't have given my life..."

"People call me an enlightened man — I detest that term — they can't find any other word to describe the way I am functioning. At the same time, I point out that there is no such thing as enlightenment at all. I say that because all my life I've searched and wanted to be an enlightened man, and I discovered that there is no such thing as enlightenment at all, and so the question whether a particular person is enlightened or not doesn't arise. I don't give a hoot for a sixth-century-BC Buddha, let alone all the other claimants we have in our midst. They are a bunch of exploiters, thriving on the gullibility of the people. There is no power outside of man. Man has created God out of fear. So the problem is fear and not God.

I discovered for myself and by myself that there is no self to realize. That's the realization I am talking about. It comes as a shattering blow. It hits you like a thunderbolt. You have invested everything in one basket, self-realization, and, in the end, suddenly you discover that there is no self to discover."

- U. G. Krishnamurti was a "misfit", an unadjusted man. This led to family troubles. His family was sent back to India, his wife died in a mental asylum, and he never met the rest of his family until many years later. Meanwhile he was totally lost, drifting from place to place. Being financially and in every way broke, he ended up at the Indian embassy in Geneva, Switzerland, requesting a "lift" to India. A Swiss lady who worked there called Valentine DeKerven gave him shelter and became a lifelong friend, traveling companion and benefactor.

Photos ~ U.G. & Ramana Maharshi
            ~ U.G. in 1945, wife Kusuma and daughter Bharati
            ~ U.G. and Valentine in 1985, in Amsterdam