There are very few books that entirely change your outlook towards life.Jiddu Krishna Murthy's 'The first and last freedom' is one of a kind.It has left a strong imprint on my mind and changed the formerly known definition of philosophy.Perhaps,'philosophy' is also not the right word to term his perspective of life.Initially,I struggled a bit to understand his approach.His concepts are very complex to grasp.I read some pages twice and thrice,then slowly understood his perception.I can say this is one of the best books I've ever read.
Here I'm sharing few of his concepts from the book.
Ideas always breed enmity, confusion, conflict. If you depend on books of the left or of the right or on sacred books, then you depend on mere opinion, whether of Buddha, of Christ, of capitalism, communism or what you will. They are ideas, not truth. A fact can never be denied. Opinion about fact can be denied. If we can discover what the truth of the matter is, we shall be able to act independently of opinion. Is it not, therefore, necessary to discard what others have said? The opinion of the leftist or other leaders is the outcome of their conditioning, so if you depend for your discovery on what is found in books, you are merely bound by opinion. It is not a matter of knowledge.
What is the relationship between yourself and the misery, the confusion, in and around you? Surely this confusion, this misery, did not come into being by itself. You and I have created it, not a capitalist nor a communist nor a fascist society, but you and I have created it in our relationship with each other. What you are within has been projected without, on to the world; what you are, what you think and what you feel, what you do in your everyday existence, is projected outwardly, and that constitutes the world. If we are miserable, confused, chaotic within, by projection that becomes the world, that becomes society, because the relationship between yourself and myself between myself and another is society - society is the product of our relationship - and if our relationship is confused, egocentric, narrow, limited, national, we project that and bring chaos into the world.
After all, a cup is useful only when it is empty; and a mind that is filled with beliefs, with dogmas, with assertions, with quotations, is really an uncreative mind; it is merely a repetitive mind. To escape from that fear - that fear of emptiness, that fear of loneliness, that fear of stagnation, of not arriving, not succeeding, not achieving, not being something, not becoming something - is surely one of the reasons, is it not?, why we accept beliefs so eagerly and greedily. And, through acceptance of belief, do we understand ourselves? On the contrary. A belief, religious or political, obviously hinders the understanding of ourselves.
Can a mind, can a conscious mind, can a personality be free from this desire to be secure? We want to be secure and therefore need the aid of our estates, our property and our family. We want to be secure inwardly and also spiritually by erecting walls of belief, which are an indication of this craving to be certain. Can you as an individual be free from this urge, this craving to be secure, which expresses itself in the desire to believe in something?
Surely the process of time is not revolutionary. In the process of time there is no transformation; there is only a continuity and no ending, there is nothing but recognition. It is only when you have complete cessation of the time process, of the activity of the self, that there is a revolution, a transformation, the coming into being of the new.
Being aware of this whole total process of the 'me' in its activity, what is the mind to do? It is only with renewal, it is only with revolution - not through evolution, not through the 'me' becoming, but through the 'me' completely coming to an end - that there is the new. The time process cannot bring the new; time is not the way of creation.
Here I'm sharing few of his concepts from the book.
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| image from google |
What is the relationship between yourself and the misery, the confusion, in and around you? Surely this confusion, this misery, did not come into being by itself. You and I have created it, not a capitalist nor a communist nor a fascist society, but you and I have created it in our relationship with each other. What you are within has been projected without, on to the world; what you are, what you think and what you feel, what you do in your everyday existence, is projected outwardly, and that constitutes the world. If we are miserable, confused, chaotic within, by projection that becomes the world, that becomes society, because the relationship between yourself and myself between myself and another is society - society is the product of our relationship - and if our relationship is confused, egocentric, narrow, limited, national, we project that and bring chaos into the world.
After all, a cup is useful only when it is empty; and a mind that is filled with beliefs, with dogmas, with assertions, with quotations, is really an uncreative mind; it is merely a repetitive mind. To escape from that fear - that fear of emptiness, that fear of loneliness, that fear of stagnation, of not arriving, not succeeding, not achieving, not being something, not becoming something - is surely one of the reasons, is it not?, why we accept beliefs so eagerly and greedily. And, through acceptance of belief, do we understand ourselves? On the contrary. A belief, religious or political, obviously hinders the understanding of ourselves.
Can a mind, can a conscious mind, can a personality be free from this desire to be secure? We want to be secure and therefore need the aid of our estates, our property and our family. We want to be secure inwardly and also spiritually by erecting walls of belief, which are an indication of this craving to be certain. Can you as an individual be free from this urge, this craving to be secure, which expresses itself in the desire to believe in something?
Surely the process of time is not revolutionary. In the process of time there is no transformation; there is only a continuity and no ending, there is nothing but recognition. It is only when you have complete cessation of the time process, of the activity of the self, that there is a revolution, a transformation, the coming into being of the new.
Being aware of this whole total process of the 'me' in its activity, what is the mind to do? It is only with renewal, it is only with revolution - not through evolution, not through the 'me' becoming, but through the 'me' completely coming to an end - that there is the new. The time process cannot bring the new; time is not the way of creation.
29 comments:
A very serious read.
Yes.Thanks Indrani :-)
Seems like a good serious book. Will pick it up from my college library. Thanks for the recommendation! Cheers. :)
The one quality I admire about JK is that he never call himself a philosopher, but a teacher. I read many of his books. His writes and speeches may look simple, but has an astounding profundity. You should always get your mind focused if you want to understand what he says.
I appreciate that you've an abiding interest on JK's works.
@ Vineet Digga,
Yeah,It will surely stretch your brain muscles..:-) Thank you Vineet..:-)
@ Arumugam Easwar,
Completely agree with your comment.Thank you so much for your precious words Sir..:-)
Good read ...i think its the perception that can change your surroundings and your relationships :)
@ Enjoyeverymoment,
True.Thank you so much for stopping by..:-)
You are right. Need to read this some lines twice or thrice to understand. I have never read book written by JK. Will read.
@ Ranjana,
Thank you so much dear..:-)
I had picked up this book from the Book Fair, Patna more than five years back. That time, I did not understand much of it, but when I read it later, it did change my thinking. Logically, his philosophy is hard to counter, but it is not very practical though.
Quite thought provoking.
My sons study at a JK School and I have also been exposed to JK;s philosophy. It is really simple yet so hard to practice. I am still trying to understand his books and trying real hard to practice them!
This is a very brilliant post in which the wisdom of a great thinker has been shared.
@ Diwakar Narayan,
"His philosophy is hard to counter"
Very much true.Thank you so much for your valuable feedback.:-)
@ Manish Kumar,
Thank you so much..:-)
@ Meoww,
Your son is lucky..:-)Yes,his teachings are hard to practice.People like him are rarely born.Thank you :-)
@ Kajal Benarjee,
Thank you so much for stopping by..:-)
Looks like a great book to read. Thanks for sharing the learnings.
Thanks for sharing, will try and read
certainly a brilliant charmer... it's really hard to escape from his ideology once we begin to see the fallacies he points out.
@Saru Singhal,
Thank you so much Saru.Wonderful read it was..:-)
@ Aliasgarmukhtiar,
Thank you so much for your comment..:-)
@ Nagarjuna Chary,
True Chary gaaru.This is the book that influenced me so much.It taught me to think about the world in a different perspective.Thanks a lot for being here..:-)
redundancy despatch and i like to take cognizance of your posts
Looks like a Nice Book. . . I will also try it.
My first encounter with JK is from his book 'Sweeya Gnaanam' (Telugu). Struggled a lot to understand it, may because of the impact of sacred texts. Realised that "I am a half filled cup" and need to get rid of existing knowledge to understand it.
His book 'Freedom from the Known' has created a lot of impact on my opinions and thinking which taught me about the process of unlearning.
I am still reading that book... for the nth time now!
Thanks for a wonderful review and making me reminisce for some time :)
PS: I liked your blog a lot! Lot to read and learn from you :)
@ OurJaipur.com,
Thanks for the precious feedback..:-)
@ Pranav Ainavolu,
Thank you Pranav Jee.True,his concepts are quite different from usually known philosophy..And I completely agree with your words,that we need to empty the known knowledge to understand his approach...I was about to read his 'Freedom from the known' ..Thanks for the positive vote..:-)
Once again Thank you so much for your kind words..:-)
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