Public Talk 1, Madras, 18 December 1949

Perhaps if we can understand this whole problem of searching, seeking, we may be able to understand the complex problem of dissatisfaction and discontent. Most of us are seeking something at various levels of existence, physical comfort or psychological well-being; or we say we are seeking truth or seeking wisdom. We are always apparently seeking something. Now, what does this mean actually? What is it that we are seeking? We can only seek something that we know of; we cannot seek something that we do not know. You cannot search for something that you do not know the existence of; you can only search for something that you have lost, or something that you have had. The search is the desire for satisfaction.

Most of us are dissatisfied both outwardly and inwardly, and if we observe ourselves closely, we find that this discontent is merely the search for an enduring satisfaction at different levels of existence, which we call truth, happiness, understanding or any other term. Basically, this urge is to find enduring lasting gratification; and being discontented with everything we do, and finding no gratification in any of the things we have tried, we go from one teacher, one religion, one path, to another to find ultimate satisfaction. So our search is essentially not for truth, but for satisfaction. Most of us are discontented, dissatisfied, with things as they are; and our psychological inward struggle is to find a permanent refuge; whether the refuge is of idea or immediate relationship, the urge is basically for complete satisfaction. This drive is what we call seeking.

We try various gratifications, various “isms” — communism included; and when these do not satisfy, we turn to religion and pursue one Guru after another, or become cynics. Cynicism also gives great satisfaction. Our search is always for a state of mind in which there will be no disturbance whatever, in which there will be no longer a struggle but complete satisfaction. Is there the possibility of complete satisfaction in anything which the mind seeks? The mind is searching for its own projections which are satisfying, gratifying;

and the moment there is trouble, it finds one thing troublesome, it leaves it and goes to something else.

We are seeking a psychological state which will be so pacifying, reconciled, that it avoids all conflicts. If we look into it deeply, we shall see that no such state is possible unless we are in illusion or be attached to some form of psychological assertion.

Can discontent ever find satisfaction, and what is it that we are discontented with? Are we seeking a better job, more money, a better wife, or better religious formulation? If we examine it closely, we shall find that all our discontent is a search for permanent satisfaction, and that there can be no permanent satisfaction. Even physical security is impossible. The more we want to be secure, the more we become enclosing, more nationalistic and so on. So, at long as we are seeking satisfaction there must be greater conflict.

Is it possible ever to be content? What is contentment actually? What brings contentment, or what holds it? Surely, contentment comes only when we understand what is. What brings discontent is the complex approach to what is. Because I want to change what is into something else there is the struggle of becoming. The mere acceptance of what is, is also a problem. Surely, to understand what is, is to be passively watchful without the desire to change into something else, that is, to be passively aware of what is. Then it is possible to go beyond the mere outward show of what is. What is, is never static. Our response may be static.

Our problem, therefore, is not a search for an ultimate gratification which we call truth, god, or a better relationship, but an understanding of what is. To understand what is requires an extraordinarily swift mind which has seen the futility of desiring to change into something else, of comparing or of trying to reconcile what is with something else. This understanding comes not through discipline, control, or self-immolation, but by removal of hindrances to see what is directly.

There is no end to satisfaction, satisfaction is continuous; and unless we see that, we are incapable of dealing with what is as it is. Direct relationship with what is, is action. Action baaed upon an idea is merely a self-projection. The idea, ideal, ideology is all a thought-process, and thought is a response to conditioning at any level. Therefore, the pursuit of an idea, ideal, or ideology is a circle in which the mind is caught. When we see the whole process of the mind and all its clever, crafty manoeuvring, then only there is understanding which brings about transformation.

Q: We see inequality among men, and some are far above the rest of mankind. Surely then, there must be higher types of beings like Masters, and Devas, who might be deeply interested in cooperating with mankind. Have you contacted any of them? If so, can you tell at how we can contact them?

KRISHNAMURTI: Most of us are interested is gossip; and gossip is an extraordinarily stimulating thing, whether it is about Masters or Devas or our neighbours. The more dull we are, the more we love gossip. When one it fed up with social gossip, one wants to gossip about something higher. We are interested not in the discovery of equality and inequality but in little tit-bits of strange entities we do not see, thus seeking a means of escaping from our shallowness. After all, the Masters and Devas are your own projections. When you follow them, you follow your own projections. If they were to say to you, “Drop your nationalism and your societies, do not be greedy, do not be cruel,” you would soon leave them and pursue another who would satisfy you. You want me to help you to contact the Masters. I am not really interested in the Masters. There is a lot of talk about them, and it has become a cunning means for exploiting people — e.g., a big brother helping you. We make a mess in the world and we want the big brother to come and help us out of it. A great deal, of that it cant. This division between master and pupil — hierarchical climbing of the ladder of success — is it really spiritual? This whole idea of hierarchical becoming, all struggling to become what you call spiritual, to attain liberation — is it spiritual? When our hearts are empty, we fill with the images of Masters, this means there is no love. When you love some one, you are not conscious of equality or inequality.

Why are you so occupied with the question of Masters? The Masters are important to you because you have a sense of giving authority to something which has no authority. You give authority because it pleases you; it is self-flattery. The problem of equality and inequality is more fundamental than the desire to contact Masters.

There is inequality in capacity, thought, action — the genius and the dull-witted man, the man who is free and the man who practises in routine. Every kind of revolution has tried to break this down and in the process created another inequality. The problem is how to go beyond the sense of inequality, the inferior and the superior. That is the true spirituality; not merely quoting the masters and therefore maintaining inequality. The problem is not how to bring about equality because equality is an impossibility. You are entirely different from me. You see more; you are much more alert than me; you have a song in your heart. My heart is empty and to me a dead leaf is a dead leaf which I burn. Some people have extraordinary capacity, they are swift and capable. Others are slow, dull, not watching. There are no end of physical differences and psychological differences and you cannot break them down; that is a physical impossibility. You can only give an opportunity to the dull — not to kick him, not to exploit him. You cannot make him a genius.

So the problem is not how to contact the Masters and devas; contacting the Masters is very, very dull. When you know the Master you know yourself. A real Master cannot help you because you have to understand yourself. We are all the time pursuing phoney masters. We seek comfort, security; and we project a Master whom we want; and we hope that Master would give us all that we desire. Since there is no such thing as comfort, the problem is much more fundamental, viz., how to go beyond this inequality; not the struggle to become more and more. Wisdom is not the more.

Now is it possible to transcend the inequality which is there and which we cannot deny? What happens when we do not deny inequality, when you do not come to it with a prejudiced mind, but when you face it? There is the dirty village and there is also the nice clean house; both are ‘what is.’ How do you approach ugliness and beauty? In that lies the solution. The beautiful you wish to be identified with, and the ugly you put aside. For the inferior you have no consideration; but, for the superior you have all consideration and deference. Your approach is identification with the higher and disregard for the lower, cringing fearful look upward and contemptuous look downward.

Inequality can be transcended only when we understand our approach to it. As long as we resist the ugly and identify with the beautiful, there is always bound to be all this misery. But, if you approach without condemnation, identification, or judgment, then your response is entirely different. Please try it and you will see what an extraordinary change occurs in your life. The understanding of what is brings contentment, not the contentment of stagnation, not the contentment with the possession of property, or idea or woman. Contentment is the state of your approach to ‘what is’ as it is, without any barrier whatsoever. Then only there is love which destroys inequality; this is the only thing that is revolutionary, that can transform. Since we have not that flame of revolution, we fill our hearts and minds with ideas of revolution of the left or the right, modification of what has been. That way there is no hope. The more you reform, the greater the need for further reforms.

Is it not important to know how to contact the masters; for, they have no significance in life. But, what is important is to understand yourself. Otherwise, your master is an illusion. Without understanding yourself you are creating more and more misery in the world. Look at what is happening in the world and see the narrow spirit displayed by the zealous votaries of peace, of the Masters, of love or of brotherhood. You are all out for yourself only; you wrap it up in beautiful words. You want the Masters to help you to be more glorified and self-enclosed in yourself.

I know I have answered this question in different ways.

I also know that, in spite of all that I say, you are going to perform your rituals and rattle your swords for king and country. You do not want to understand and solve this problem of inequality.

People have written to me saying ‘You are very ungrateful to the Masters who have brought you up.’ It is so easy to make these statements. It is all cant. One has to discover for oneself that no Master can help one. Is it ungrateful to see that which is false and say it is false? You want me to be grateful to your idea, to your formulation of a Master; and when your ideas are disturbed, you call me ungrateful. The problem is not of gratification to the Masters but yourself.

There is much greater joy understanding and discovering what you are from moment to moment; the whole content of what you are. Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. Without self-knowledge you cannot know anything; or if you know something, you will misuse it. To pursue the Master is easy. But, to have self-knowledge, to be passively watchful of every thought and feeling is arduous. You cannot watch if there is judgment or identification. Identification or condemnation prevents understanding. If you watch passively the thing that you watch begins to unfold, there is understanding from moment to moment; it renews itself.

QUESTION: In one of your talks you have stated that if a person prays, he receives but he will pay for it in the end. What do you mean by this? What is the entity that grants our prayers, and why do we not succeed in getting all that we pray for?

KHISHNAMJRTI: Are you not happy that all that you pray for are not granted? Will you not be deadly boring then? You should see the whole picture, not only the part you like. Most of you pray to be satisfied. Your prayers are petitions, supplications, to help you to get away from your own confusion. Obviously, you pray only when you are confused, in trouble, or unhappy. You do not pray when you are joyous, but only when there is fear and when there in pain.

What happens when you pray? Please experiment with yourself and watch what happens. When you pray, you quieten the mind by the repetition of certain phrases; the mind is made quiet, is drugged, by repeating a word or looking at a picture or image. When the superficial mind is quiet, into that upper layer of the mind, comes the response which is the most satisfactory. The mass prayer also has a similar effect. You supplicate, you put out the begging bowl to receive; you want gratification, you want an escape from your confusion. So, when the mind is drugged to be insensitive or partly asleep, into it is projected the unconscious satisfying answer, that is the general influence of the world about you. There is the collective reservoir of greed, of the universal demands away from ‘what is;’ when you tap it, you get obviously what you want. But, is that reservoir God, the ultimate truth? Please do look at it, watch it closely and you will see.

When you pray to God, you pray to something with which you have a relationship — which is possible only with what you know, to something which is a projection, either inherited or acquired. When the mind is begging, it will have an answer, but that answer will always be more enclosing and more troublesome, and will create more problems. That is the price you pay. When you sing or chant together, you are only avoiding and seeking an escape from what is. The escapes have their satisfactions. The price is you have yet to meet the problem which pursues you like a shadow. Your prayers are gratifying most of the time; but all the time you are in misery and want to run away. Your search is the search of avoidance. But, to understand requires watchfulness to know every gesture. You are lazy. You have convenient escapes which help you to avoid the understanding of yourself who are the creator of pain. Till you understand the problem of yourself — ambitious, greedy, exploiting, seeking to maintain inequality — that you are the creator of pain and suffering in the world — your prayers are of no use. You are the problem, you cannot avoid it, you can dissolve it only by understanding the whole of it.

Your prayer is a hindrance to understanding. There is a different prayer — a state of mind where there is no demand, no supplication. In that prayer — perhaps this is a wrong word to use — there is no foreword movement, no denial; it is not put together, it cannot be brought about by any kind of trick.

That state of mind is not seeking, is still; that state of mind cannot be thought of, practised, or meditated on. That state of mind alone can discover and allow Truth to come into being. That alone will solve our problem. That quiet state of mind comes when ‘what is’ is observed, watched, and understood; it is capable of receiving the inexhaustible.

QUESTION: There is widespread misery in the world and all religions seem to have failed; yet you seem to be talking religion more and more. Will any religion help us to be free from misery?

KRISHINAMURTI: We must find out what we mean by religion. Religions have failed throughout the world because, perhaps, we were not religious. You may call yourselves by certain names. Your beliefs, your images, your incense-burning are not religious at all. To you all these have become important, not religion. Look at what we have done throughout the world. Ideas have set man against man. Extension of dogma is not freedom from dogma. Belief is separating people. Separation is the emphasis of belief and it is a good means of exploiting people. In belief, you find comfort, security — which is all illusion. Wherever there is a tendency for separativeness, there must be disintegration. Where there is the enclosing force of belief, there must be disintegration. You call yourselves Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Theosophists and what not; thereby you enclose yourselves, your ideas create opposition, enmity, and antagonism; so also your philosophies, though clever and amusing. As a man is addicted to drink, you are addicted to your beliefs. That is why organised religions have failed throughout the world.

True religion is “experiencing” and has nothing to do with believing. It is that state of mind which, in the process of self-knowledge, discovers truth from moment to moment. Truth is never continuous, it is not the same — the Truth of the Buddha or the Christ, it is not comparable. Truth is the alone; It is not the symbol of anything. The worship of any symbol brings about disaster; and so, a mind that is addicted to belief in any form can never be the religious mind. It is only the religious mind, not the ideological mind that is capable of solving the problem. Quoting others is no good.

A mind that quotes, whether it is Plato or Buddha, is incapable of experiencing reality. To experience reality, the mind must be completely stripped; such a mind is not a seeking mind.

Religion, therefore, is not belief; religion is not ceremonies; religion is not an idea or various ideas put together making an ideology. Religion is the experiencing of Truth of ‘what is’ from moment to moment. Truth is not at the ultimate end. There is no ultimate to Truth. Truth is in what is, in the present; Truth is never static. A mind that is clouded with the past cannot possibly understand Truth. All religions, as they are, divide man. The beliefs of these religions are not Truth. For instance, Truth is not in your belief in reincarnation; truth is experience in ending, your belief in God is not religion, is not Truth. There is little difference between the believer and the non-believer; they are both conditioned by their respective environment; they separate the world with ideas, with beliefs. Therefore, neither the believer nor the non-believer can experience reality.

When you see things as they are without any prejudice, without praise or without any commendation, in direct relationship with what is, there is action. When the idea intervenes, there is postponement of action. The mind which is the structure of ideas, the residue of all memories and thoughts, can never find reality. Your reading and quoting will not help you to experience reality. Reality must come to you. You can only search for something that you know of; you cannot find reality. Please do see the truth of the matter, see the beauty of the mind that is experiencing directly and therefore acting without a reward, without a punishment. Experience is not the criterion for Truth. Experience is only nurturing memory. Your self is thought and thought is memory; experience is memory as thought. Therefore, such a mind can organise the word Truth and exploit people; but it is incapable of experiencing reality. Only the mind that has no idea can experience reality.

A religious man is the truly revolutionary man. The man that acts on idea may kill others. In direct relationship with

‘what is,’ that is not fabricating idea is sensitive, is capable of seeing ‘what is’ directly, is capable of action. Such action alone is revolutionary.

QUESTION: It has been said that the acquirement of wisdom is the ultimate goal of life, and that wisdom has to be sought little by little by a life of purification and dedication with the mind and the emotions directed to high ideals through prayer and meditation. Do you agree?

Krishnamurti: Let us find out what you mean by wisdom and then you can see whether you can find this wisdom.

What do you mean by wisdom? Is that the goal of life? If it is, then you know the goal, do you not? If you know the purpose of life, it is the known. Can you know wisdom or can you only know facts or knowledge? Surely, knowledge and wisdom are two separate things. You may know all about something; but, is that wisdom? Is wisdom to be acquired little by little, life after life? Acquisition implies accumulation. You seem to mean, by wisdom, the starting of experience. Experience implies residue. Is residue, acquirement, wisdom?

You have already accumulated the racial, the inherited, the acquired residues in conjunction with the present. Is that process of accumulation wisdom? You accumulate and safeguard, to live secure. You acquire experience gradually. Is the accumulation of knowledge, the slow gathering of experience, wisdom? Your whole life is accumulation. Are you wise? Acquirement of more and more of the same kind — will it make you wise? You have acquired something. You have had an experience which has left a residue; and that residue is going to condition your further experience. The response is this experience and it is the continuation of the background in a different way. So when you say that wisdom is the experience, you mean the collection of other experiences. Why are you not wise? Can the man who is constantly acquiring be wise? Can the man burdened with experience be wise? Can the man who knows be wise? The man who knows is not wise, and the man who does not know is wise. Do not smile and pass it off.

When you know, you have experienced, you have accumulated; and the projection of that accumulation is further knowledge. Therefore, wisdom is not a slow process, is not to be gathered little by little like a bank account. To believe that gradually you are going to become Buddha in several lives is immature thinking and feeling. Such statements appear wonderful, especially when ascribed to a Master. When you inquire to find out the truth, then you will see it is only your own projection that wants to continue to experience the same thing as before.

So, accumulation is never wisdom, because accumulation is only knowledge of what is known; and what is the known can never, be the unknown. Also the emptying of the mind is not a slow process, frying to empty is also a hindrance. If you say ‘I will empty it,’ then it is only the same old process, Just see the truth that a mind that is acquiring can never be wise in six lives nor in ten lives. A man who has acquired is already rich; and a rich man is never wise. You want to be rich in knowledge, which is the acquirement in words of experience; but the man who has, can never be wise. Also, the man who deliberately has not, can never be wise,

Truth cannot be accumulated. It is not experience. It is ‘experiencing’ in which there is neither the experiencer nor the experience. Knowledge always has the accumulator, the gatherer, but wisdom has no experiencer. Wisdom is as Love is; and without that, we attempt to pursue wisdom through continuous acquiring. What continues must decay. Only that which ends, can know wisdom. Wisdom must be in the fresh. How can you have the new if there is continuity? There is continuity as long as you are continuing experience.

Only when there is ending, there is the new which is creative. But, we want continuity, we want accumulation, which is the continuity of experience and such a mind can never know wisdom; it can only know its own projection, its effects, and the reconciliation of its effects. Truth is wisdom. Truth cannot be sought out. Truth comes only when the mind is empty of all knowledge, of all thought, of all experience; and that is wisdom,