Commentary of an Academic
(Copyright @ 2013 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).
There are
dispositions where Khrisnamurti has exposed that gurus and spiritual
disciplines are counterproductive. He deems that conventional education makes
independent thinking extremely difficult. Thus, if we have fears to learn and
acquire knowledge, he says that fear blocks intelligent understanding of life.
In most of his
dialogues, he says that the self and every people must not conform to any
formal religion or spiritual disciplines because by conforming to gurus there
is a possibility and attempt to condition their minds. And by conditioning
them, there is blindness to truth and liberation of the body and mind.
It is prevalent
in his dialogues that J Krishnamurti has denounced the concept of gurus,
spiritual leaders, and teachers advocating instead the unmediated and direct
investigation of reality.
Furthermore, he
claims that we may be highly educated, but if we are without deep integration
of thought and feeling, our lives are incomplete, contradictory and torn with many
fears; and as long as education and religion do not cultivate an integrated
outlook on life, it has very little significance. And if we are being educated
by gurus merely to achieve distinction and have a wider domination over others,
then our lives will be shallow and empty (Education
and the Significance of Life (1992), page 9).
For example, he
says that love must begin with the educator, the teacher. Although that is
true. Beyond this context, parents are also regarded as first teachers and
educators of children. Thus he expounds, a society without rivers, it is a
desert, but where there are rivers the land is rich, it has abundance; it has
beauty. Most of us grow up without love, and that is why we have created a
society as hideous as the people who live in it (Think on These Things (2007), page 20). Therefore, if
love must begin with gurus and if gurus have myriad of disciples, then why our
society sometimes ends up to conflict and chaos.
But gurus have
exceptional powers to transform society. But Krishnamurti accuses gurus and spiritual
disciplines as counter-productive by stating that, the mind makes and unmakes
gods, it can be cruel or kind. The mind has the power to do the most
extraordinary things. It can hold opinions, it can create illusions. However,
even if the gurus have exceptional gifts of intellect and mind, Krishnamurti
again cautions that, the mind cannot create truth. What it creates is not
truth; it is merely an opinion, a judgment. So it is important to find out for
yourself what is true.
To counter his
thoughts, I still deem that a guru is indispensible for any spiritual practice.
“Gu” means invisible while “ru” means visible. Therefore, the invisible uses
the visible as its instrument. And the relationship between the guru and his
disciples is eternal and maybe the guru is responsible for his disciples until
the disciples attain liberation.
On the other
hand, guru can be our collective knowledge and experience. A guru may not be a
physical form, but it can be energy, the learning in life, and others that flow
to others.
If gurus and spiritual
disiciplines are counter-productive, how come people continuously try to seek
and believe in truth, light, and salvation. Why formalized religions are still
formidable and increasing in numbers, oftentimes, fighting for their faith and
belief to spread the kind of truth inculcated and conditioned in them. These
are exceptional realities that we still witness in our lives. There may be
different religions with their exceptional gurus and disciples, the multitude
of faithful are becoming stronger to pronounce all the good things and bad
things they may have learned from their gurus.
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