Life 32 (Jan 19 - May 19)

[winston]

Why is it important to practice purity and unity, in our homes and communities?

Learn to live in harmony and unity. The village (society) is to the villagers (members of the society) what the body is to the individual.

Every organ in the body functions in cooperation with every other part. If the foot steps on a thorn, the eye feels the pain and sheds tears. If the eye notices a thorn or stone on the road, it warns the foot to avoid it.

Villagers should develop the same sense of unity and share their joys and troubles as one organic body.

There is nothing you cannot achieve with unity as your strength. With purity and unity, you can unravel your Divinity and develop genuine devotion to the Divine.

You should fill your hearts with love and make your lives holy and purposeful. When everyone works in this spirit of unity and charity, the village would become a model for all the rest.

- Divine Discourse, May 22, 1986.

Purity, Unity and Divinity - these should be your watchwords; for they alone can ensure material and spiritual well-being.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Beauty beyond feeling

Without passion how can there be beauty? I do not mean the beauty of pictures, buildings, painted women, and all the rest of it. They have their own forms of beauty.

A thing put together by man, like a cathedral, a temple, a picture, a poem, or a statue may or may not be beautiful. But there is a beauty which is beyond feeling and thought and which cannot be realized, understood, or known if there is not passion.

So do not misunderstand the word passion. It is not an ugly word; it is not a thing you can buy in the market or talk about romantically. It has nothing whatever to do with emotion, feeling.

It is not a respectable thing; it is a flame that destroys anything that is false. And we are always so afraid to allow that flame to devour the things that we hold dear, the things that we call important.

The Book of Life, April 24, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Active but quiet

To discover the new mind, not only is it necessary for us to understand the responses of the old brain, but also is it necessary for the old brain to be quiet.

The old brain must be active but quiet. You are following what I am saying? Look, sir! If you would discover for yourself firsthand—not what somebody else says—if there is a reality, if there is such a thing as God—the word God is not the fact—your old brain, which has been nurtured in a tradition, either anti-God or pro-God, in a culture, in an environmental influence and propaganda, through centuries of social assertion, must be quiet.

Because, otherwise, it will only project its own images, its own concepts, its own values. But those values, those concepts, those beliefs are the result of what you have been told, or are the result of your reactions to what you have been told; so, unconsciously, you say, “This is my experience!”

So you have to question the very validity of experience—your own experience or of the experience of anybody else; it does not matter who it is. Then by questioning, enquiring, asking, demanding, looking, listening attentively, the reactions of the old brain become quiet.

But the brain is not asleep; it is very active, but it is quiet. It has come to that quietness through observation, through investigation. And to investigate, to observe, you must have light; and the light is your constant alertness.

The Book of Life, October 20, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Free at the beginning

If we can understand the compulsion behind our desire to dominate or to be dominated, then perhaps we can be free from the crippling effects of authority.

We crave to be certain, to be right, to be successful, to now; and this desire for certainty, for permanence, builds up within ourselves the authority of personal experience, while outwardly it creates the authority of society, of the family, of religion, and so on. But merely to ignore authority, to shake off its outward symbols, is of very little significance.

To break away from one tradition and conform to another, to leave this leader and follow that, is but a superficial gesture.

If we are to be aware of the whole process of authority, if we are to see the inwardness of it, if we are to understand and transcend the desire for certainty, then we must have extensive awareness and insight, we must be free, not at the end, but at the beginning.

The Book of Life, January 18, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Why is it important to stand-up earnestly and genuinely when we witness wrong actions being done?

Whoever may commit an offence, whether a son, daughter, spouse, a relation or a close associate, one will be free from the taint of being accessory to the crime only if they oppose the wrong action and try to correct the offender genuinely.

If on the contrary, they allow it or encourage it to be done, they will be guilty of abetment and experience the fruits of their action.

- Divine Discourse, Oct 11, 1986.

You can transform even a wicked person through your love.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Is suffering essential?

There are so many varieties and complications and degrees of suffering.

We all know that. You know it very well, and we carry this burden right through life, practically from the moment we are born until the moment we collapse into the grave…

If we say that it is inevitable, then there is no answer; if you accept it, then you have stopped inquiring into it.

You have closed the door to further inquiry; if you escape from it, you have also closed the door. You may escape into man or woman, into drink, amusement, into various forms of power, position, prestige, and the internal chatter of nothingness.

Then your escapes become all-important; the objects to which you fly assume colossal importance. So you have shut the door on sorrow also, and that is what most of us do... Now, can we stop escape of every kind and come back to suffering?...

That means not seeking a solution for suffering. There is physical suffering—a toothache, stomachache, an operation, accidents, various forms of physical sufferings which have their own answer.

There is also the fear of future pain, which would cause suffering. Suffering is closely related to fear and, and without comprehension of these two major factors in life, we shall never comprehend what it is to be compassionate, to love.

So a mind that is concerned with the comprehension of what is compassion, love, and all the rest of it must surely understand what is fear and what is sorrow.

The Book of Life, July 13, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

At times we are immersed in distress and get depressed in our daily living? How should we lead our lives?

Learn the lesson of self-reliance from the bird. A bird perched on the leafy twig of a tree is not affected by the wild swaying of the twig or the storm which might blow it off because it relies not on the twig or tree but on its own wings for its safety. It knows it can always fly away and save itself.

The bird is always happy and carefree. Birds are not concerned about accumulating. They are content to make the best of the present, living on whatever they can get for the day. They do not worry about the careers of their children or the state of their bank accounts. They have no anxiety about the upkeep of houses or properties.

Now think about what you have made of yourself? Sitting on the branch of the tree of life, are you not worried about every little tremor in life; consumed by it, and losing your peace of mind?

- Divine Discourse, Jul 3, 1986.

Contentment is the most precious treasure.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

If the Divine is omnipresent, why is it that we cannot see or hear Him?

The listening or viewing of a musician singing in Delhi in thousands of homes simultaneously, is rendered possible by technology. But when we read in the Scriptures that the Divine appeared simultaneously in thousands of homes, questions are asked whether this is credible.

If man-made gadgets (yantras) can be so powerful, why doubt the power of mantras? Sound waves are converted into electrical waves and transmitted through ether. The waves have a permanence in space and can be received by one who can tune in to the vibrations.

Likewise, if the all-pervasive Divine is received in the radio receiver of the heart by tuning in with one-pointed devotion, the bliss of that experience will reveal Him to you.

- Divine Discourse, Oct 11, 1986.

The Divine is with you, in you, above you, below you, beside you and around you. Tune inward to experience Him.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Begin here

A religious man does not seek God. The religious man is concerned with the transformation of society which is himself.

The religious man is not the man that does innumerable rituals, follows traditions, lives in a dead, past culture, explaining endlessly the Gita or the Bible, endlessly chanting, or taking sannyasa—that is not a religious man; such a man is escaping from facts.

The religious man is concerned totally and completely with the understanding of society which is himself. He is not separate from society.

Bringing about in himself a complete, total mutation means complete cessation of greed, envy, ambition; and therefore he is not dependent on circumstances, though he is the result of circumstance—the food he eats, the books he reads, the cinemas he goes to, the religious dogmas, beliefs, rituals, and all that business.

He is responsible, and therefore the religious man must understand himself, who is the product of society which he himself has created. Therefore to find reality he must begin here, not in a temple, not in an image—whether the image is graven by the hand or by the mind. Otherwise how can he find something totally new, a new state?

The Book of Life, December 8, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

At times, despite all our apparent efforts to please the Divine, He doesn’t seem to be moved. Why?

The Divine belongs to everyone and is not the sole preserve of anyone. There is only one Divine, He manifests Himself in many forms to please different people.

Spiritual Practices alone is not enough to understand this truth. The spirit of enquiry and discrimination is also necessary.

Today, in pursuit of worldly interests and out of commercial considerations, what is essentially one is split and being regarded as many. In this process, true Divinity is lost; people fail to distinguish between what is true and what is false and are unable to grasp the true nature of the Divine.

To fix this, firm faith is very essential. Be steadfast, true and pure. His grace cannot be won if you waver from moment to moment and if your heart is impure.

The Divine judges a devotee by the purity of the heart and not by the elaborate worship performed. If you do nothing, but just cleanse your heart, He will enter it and shine!

- Divine Discourse, Oct 11, 1986.

The best spiritual discipline is to strengthen the inward vision.

Source: radiosai.org