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Reviewer unknown
The author is an Indian philosopher who has lived in Munich
for over than 10 years. He wrote his doctoral thesis [Jiddu
Krishnamurti's Gedanken auser der Phaenomenologischen Perspective
Edmund Husserl's] on Krishnamurti and the German philosopher
and founder of the phenomenological school of philosophy
Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), showing that Krishnamurti was
indeed a philosopher, although he did not have a formal
education in philosophy. His philosophy can be compared
to phenomenology as he taught to look at the basic phenomena
of life with a mind free from its conditionings. Whereas
Husserl stopped at questioning the nature of the I, Krishnamurti
went further and showed that the I itself is not an unquestionable
fact but another conditioning of the mind. The I can be
seen as constructed by consciousness.
The book published by Diederichs is an extract of the thesis
which is translated into a very readily readable but nonetheless
clear writing. In the first part it tells us the life of
Jiddu Krishnamurti. As a boy he was "found" by
the Theosophical Society and got his education there. He
was said to become a new messiah. At the age of 30 he resigned
from being a more mythical than human being and began to
develop his own way of thinking and teaching. He was critical
of all religious traditions and guruism, showing that all
this is but a crutch which keeps people from looking deeply
themselves and finding real liberation. The second part
brings the philosophy of Krishnamurti, that is spread out
in his books and talks, in a systematic way. It starts with
a chapter on "Consciousness and its fragments".
The teaching on consciousness is the Centre of Krishnamurti´s
thinking. Man's consciousness is conditioned and therefore
fragmented through upbringing, society, religion, culture
and so on. There can only be freedom when there is no conditioning.
Krishnamurti always intended in his talks to lead the listener
to his or her own questing, looking at things, especially
at consciousness and the way it works. He did not just give
statements but asked: "Is it possible to live without
a pattern?" and so forth. The second part gives a logical
account of the line of thought Krishnamurti used to take.
The fact of conditioning, the factors of conditioning, the
effects of conditioning (fragmentation of consciousness),
up to deconditioning and the effects that come with that.
When you end the conflict that comes out of fragmentation,
you gather supreme energy which is a form of intelligence.
Having ended thinking then something completely different
appears. Here Krishnamurti comes from epistemology into
the realm of metaphysical or religious experience which
has an ultimate relevance to ethical questions as "What
is love? How can we love?", "What relevance has
the awakening of the individual to the society?"
In the third part of the book Gunturu compares Krishnamurti´s
philosophy with other philosophies, Western and Eastern
(e.g. Buddha, Patanjali, Vedanta, Descartes, Kant, Husserl).
The merit of Gunturu´s book is that he brought Krishnamurti
out of esotericism and the halo of being a religious leader,
and present his message and thoughts in a scholarly way
that is relevant to the present discussions in philosophy,
psychology, sociology and religious studies.
But, as already mentioned, this book can be read by anybody
without scholarly background.
The book will also be translated into English.
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