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First of all, why do
we want a guru? We say we need a guru because we are
confused and the guru is helpful; he will point out what
truth is, he will help us to understand, he knows much
more about life than we do, he will act as a father, as
a teacher to instruct us in life; he has vast experience
and we have but little; he will help us through his
greater experience and so on and on. That is, basically,
you go to a teacher because you are confused. If you
were clear, you would not go near a guru. Obviously if
you were profoundly happy, if there were no problems, if
you understood life completely, you would not go to any
guru.
I hope you see the significance of this. Because you are confused, you
seek out a teacher. You go to him to give you a way of
life to clarify your own confusion, to find truth. You
choose your guru because you are confused and you hope
he will give you what you ask. That is you choose a guru
who will satisfy your demand; you choose according to
the gratification he will give you and your choice is
dependent on your gratification. You do not choose a
guru who says, "Depend on yourself; you choose him
according to your prejudices. So since you choose your
guru according to the gratification he gives you, you
are not seeking truth but a way out of confusion; and
the way out of confusion is mistakenly called truth.
Let us examine first this idea that a guru can clear up our confusion. Can
anyone clear up our confusion? - confusion being the
product of our responses. We have created it. Do you
think someone else has created it - this misery, this
battle at all levels of existence, within and without?
It is the result of our own lack of knowledge of
ourselves. It is because we do not understand ourselves,
our conflicts, our responses, our miseries, that we go
to a guru whom we think will help us to be free of that
confusion.
We can understand ourselves only in relationship to the
present; and that relationship itself is the guru not
someone outside. If I do not understand that
relationship, whatever a guru may say is useless,
because if I do not understand relationship, my
relationship to property, to people, to ideas, who can
resolve the conflict within me? To resolve that
conflict, I must understand it myself, which means I
must be aware of myself in relationship. To be aware, no
guru is necessary. If I do not know myself, of what use
is a guru?
As a political leader is chosen by those who are in
confusion and whose choice therefore is also confused,
so I choose a guru. I can choose him only according to
my confusion; hence he, like the political leader, is
confused.
What is important is not who is right - whether I am
right or whether those are right who say a guru is
necessary; to find out why you need a guru is important.
Gurus exist for exploitation of various kinds, but that
is irrelevant. It gives you satisfaction if someone
tells you how you are progressing, but to find out why
you need a guru - there lies the key. Another can point
out the way but you have to do all the work, even if you
have a guru.
Because you do not want to face
that, you shift the responsibility to the guru.
The guru becomes useless when there is a particle of
self-knowledge. No guru, no book or scripture, can give
you self-knowledge: it comes when you are aware of
yourself in relationship. To be, is to be related; not
to understand relationship is misery, strife. Not to be
aware of your relationship to property is one of the
causes of confusion. If you do not know your right
relationship to property there is bound to be conflict,
which increases the conflict in society.
If you do not understand the relationship between
yourself and your wife, between yourself and your child,
how can another resolve the conflict arising out of that
relationship? Similarly with ideas, beliefs and so on.
Being confused in your relationship with people, with
property, with ideas, you seek a guru. If he is a real
guru, he will tell you to understand yourself. You are
the source of all misunderstanding and confusion; and
you can resolve that conflict only when you understand
yourself in relationship.
You cannot find truth through anybody else. How can
you? Truth is not something static; it has no fixed
abode; it is not an end, a goal. On the contrary, it is
living, dynamic, alert, alive. How can it be an end? If
truth is a fixed point it is no longer truth; it is then
a mere opinion. Truth is the unknown, and a mind that is
seeking truth will never find it, for mind is made up of
the known, it is the result of the past, the outcome of
time - which you can observe for yourself. Mind is the
instrument of the known, hence it cannot find the
unknown; it can only move from the known to the known.
When the mind seeks truth, the truth it has read about
in books, that `truth' is self-projected; for then the
mind is merely in pursuit of the known, a more
satisfactory known than the previous one. When the mind
seeks truth, it is seeking its own self-projection, not
truth. After all, an ideal is self-projected; it is
fictitious, unreal. What is real is what is, not the
opposite. But a mind that is seeking reality, seeking
God, is seeking the known. When you think of God, your
God is the projection of your own thought, the result of
social influences. You can think only of the known; you
cannot think of the unknown, you cannot concentrate on
truth.
The moment you think of the unknown, it is merely the
self-projected known. God or truth cannot be thought
about. If you think about it, it is not truth. Truth
cannot be sought: it comes to you. You can go only after
what is known. When the mind is not tortured by the
known, by the effects of the known, then only can truth
reveal itself. Truth is in every leaf, in every tear; it
is to be known from moment to moment. No one can lead
you to truth; and if anyone leads you, it can only be to
the known.
Truth can only come to the mind that is empty of the
known. It comes in a state in which the known is absent,
not functioning. The mind is the warehouse of the known,
the residue of the known; for the mind to be in that
state in which the unknown comes into being, it must be
aware of itself, of its previous experiences, the
conscious as well as the unconscious, of its responses,
reactions, and structure.
When there is complete self-knowledge, then there is the
ending of the known, then the mind is completely empty
of the known. It is only then that truth can come to you
uninvited. Truth does not belong to you or to me. You
cannot worship it. The moment it is known, it is unreal.
The symbol is not real, the image is not real; but when
there is the understanding of self, the cessation of
self, then eternity comes into being.
Related Article: Jiddu Krishnamurti life in words of Osho
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Jiddu krishnamurti Meditation Sutras
Jiddu Krishnamurti Discourses on Life Issues
Presence of a
Living Master is Essential for your growth
Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa on Need of Guru and Faith in
Guru
The
whole order of Sannyas was created as group work
Jiddu Krishnamurti on Instant Enlightenment
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