The Natural State

In the words of U.G. Krishnamurti
Peter Maverick    1  ·  2  ·  3  ·  4  ·  5  

Introduction



Here is the end of seeking,
you who are weary of the road.

This compilation of quotes by U.G. Krishnamurti can alter your life. Someone once said to his daughter who had met U.G., “Damned be the day you met this man; your life will never be the same.” Whether we feel cursed or blessed, our coming upon the unique life/energy that is U.G. can change our life forever.

This book, an anthology of U.G.'s conversations, taken from many sources, offers some of the most startling and penetrating of U.G.'s words in short, easy to read paragraphs. The selections link together various statements of U.G.'s in a way that creates a sense of cohesiveness. The overall effect of the book can stun the reader into a recognition of the futility of many of his deepest-held convictions about life. Even if one is familiar with U.G.'s way of seeing things, this book offers a comprehensive overview that provides a useful clarification. If you have newly discovered U.G. through this book, be prepared to experience something so unusual that it cannot be placed in any category of human thought.

Don't underestimate the power of his words. Here is an original thinker unlike anyone you've ever come across before. The hundred thousand books of cliched thoughts on spirituality, psychology and self-help available today offer you ways that are congenial to what you already know. U.G. merely offers to shatter what you know and not to replace it with anything, no new technique, or discipline or way. Are you ready to be shattered, to have your beliefs stripped away and then not be given anything new to hang on to? Then read this book. It's not a way beyond all the other ways. It's outside of ways altogether.

If you shock easily, this may not be for you. Yet there is love here too, though U.G. would never use the word love. A love that can take away everything you thought you were and leave a yearning for more of this strange alchemy that is U.G. So even if you do shock easily, this may be the very thing for you. U.G. is not a teacher in the usual sense of the word. He is perhaps more of a phenomenon of nature, something outside of what human beings have created. Something happened to him in his 49th year, an acausal release from the dominance of the thought structure that encases human beings. U.G. calls this state he is in “the natural state”, and he functions with great clarity and efficiency in this state. Now in his 80's, U.G. travels around the world visiting friends and talking to people from all walks of life.

He does not give you anything to replace your current belief system. But if you see how penetrating his analysis of human belief is, you may be forced to drop many of your most cherished ideas about life. This can free you to some extent, and you may find your life becoming simpler not through any effort of yours but simply because you no longer have to carry the burden of so many belief structures. U.G. is not interested in converting you to a new religion or to any belief system whatsoever.

He expresses a unique point of view and tells you to take it or leave it. He is not trying to make you into a better person. In fact, he says that you don't need to change anything and that it is our tragedy that we are constantly trying to change ourselves. Who you are is completely unique, yet you are trying to model yourself after another, usually one of the “saints, sages, or saviors of mankind”.

In the end, what you are left with after your encounter with U.G.—either through his words or his actual presence—is the feeling that something different has happened to you, but you can't quite say what it is. You feel that somehow your life has changed, but you don't know in what way. There is a kind of energy you feel underneath things, perhaps a slight burning in your heart—you've entered a world that you never knew existed and you will never be the same again. And you can't even say whether this is a curse or blessing, but you know you would never trade your encounter with U.G. for anything in this life—no matter what it cost you.

So if you have the guts to allow your whole way of seeing things to be changed, by all means read this book: life's own energy, freed from thought, is here.

Larry Morris
Albuquerque
blogger