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Review

Krishnamurti, Leben und Werk
Vanamali Gunturu
München: Diederichs, 1997

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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