U.G. Krishnamurti

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GURU RATING: 1 / 5 (AVOID)

U.G. Krishnamurti (not to be confused with J. Krishnamurti) might be considered an anti-guru guru, or the type of guru that expresses his guruness by denouncing the very idea of gurus. Confused yet? He’d probably sling a few insults at you. What are we to make of this man?

U.G. was born in India into a family of Theosophists. From the ages of 14 to 21, he listened to public lectures by J. Krishnamurti and worked on realizing his true nature. He also met Ramana Maharshi, a man some called the “perfect master”.

One can understand his disdain for ideas, beliefs, or anything of that sort, given the intellectual bent of J. Krishnamurti’s approach — head rather than heart focused.

A guru with a difficult path

Like a teenager rebelling from his parent, U.G. had enough. He realized he’d never reach spiritual enlightenment by listening to these talks. He left his guru.

U.G. Krishnamurti, an always controversial spiritual guru

An abusive guru, a fake or a charlatan? U.G. Krishnamurti always sparked controversy.

He claims to have realized how he was already in “the natural state”. His journey stopped there.

U.G. then made it part of his practice to contradict any idea or statement he heard. Even ones he uttered. He’d say one thing to a disciple and, in the next breath, contradict himself. He offered nothing to hold on to.

This technique is akin to the Zen riddles that have no answer, that are meant to short-circuit the mind’s thinking so that something greater can emerge. At least in theory.

It’s worth considering whether ideas can be useful tools on the path to enlightenment. Arguably, they can point you in the right direction or perhaps help you cultivate the needed skills to make the journey.

Yes, all ideas must be left at the gate sooner or later, but they can at least help get you there. A spiritual practice is just a collection of ideas to help move you closer to Spirit, if properly understood and put into use.

U.G. would rather you just jump straight up to the gate and avoid the journey altogether.

This may have worked for some, the cases of so-called spontaneous enlightenment, but it is hardly the norm. For someone just beginning on the journey, it’s terrible advice. He treated these novice seekers with the same disdain he treated anyone else — insults, tantrums, yelling, anger. He got upset that people couldn’t “get it”.

The Bottom Line

Was U.G. Krishnamurti the real deal, or was he a charlatan who found a loop-hole in the whole guru phenomenon? By becoming an anti-guru guru, one immediately sets oneself in contrast to all the other gurus that take advantage of their disciples and want things from them. That made him look good, perhaps even more enlightened.

But does he actually know anything? Does he have anything of worth teaching? He wouldn’t say so, and we tend to agree.

“People call me an enlightened man — I detest that term — they can’t find any other word to describe the way I am functioning. At the same time, I point out that there is no such thing as enlightenment at all. I say that because all my life I’ve searched and wanted to be an enlightened man, and I discovered that there is no such thing as enlightenment at all, and so the question whether a particular person is enlightened or not doesn’t arise. I don’t give a hoot for a sixth-century-BC Buddha, let alone all the other claimants we have in our midst. They are a bunch of exploiters, thriving on the gullibility of the people. There is no power outside of man. Man has created God out of fear. So the problem is fear and not God. I discovered for myself and by myself that there is no self to realize. That’s the realization I am talking about. It comes as a shattering blow. It hits you like a thunderbolt. You have invested everything in one basket, self-realization, and, in the end, suddenly you discover that there is no self to discover, no self to realize.” — U.G. Krishnamurti

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25 Comments

  1. I was enjoying reading ratings and agreed up until I came to UG Krishnamurti.
    I have read his book and watched him on you tube and definitely feel that he is the real deal. He is very radical like Tony Parsons , his main message that I feel he is trying to convey is that outside of the story of life there is “no thing ” hard for the ego to comprehend as it loves and thrives in the creation of stories.

    • i read UG extensively, seen his videos number of times … now its time to rate guru rating itself … lol zero/5

  2. Very close. UG’s fundamental principle was there is nothing excpet the electrical energy of each sense. Speaking is a 6th sense and continuity is the 4th dimension. Each sense is a seprate self, which only lives for the electrical pulse duration. By the time the mind trys to interpert, the signal is gone. Our brain is operating in the dead past making something from these signals that no longer exist. He is the finaly Guru. He was only interestd in speaking in a manner to bring people to the final level. Other gurus are stepping stones. He freed me even from him. That’s a unique approach that worked for me, or did it? (:

  3. I found that UG’s direct method very rigorous and not for the people who are at the very last stage. As I Zen practioners for almost 30 years, I recognized that his bluntness and directedness liken to those of ancient Zen Masters who challenge their seniors students to let go of clinging to all concepts. He’s has his own unique style which might not appeal to everyone. I agree with one of the reviewer here that UG should be right up there with the highest Gurus. I really loved an interview he had on tv I saw once. When the interviewer asked him: “What is this englightened state like?” UG answered: “What state? I am in New York State”. That was priceless! Unless a spiritual practioner has got to that point of ending of all seeking and preferences for one internal manifestation to another, that person will not experience or understand what he meant. It is the best joke ever!
    UG essentially points to the same place as the Third Patriarch of Zen wrote in “Faith on the Mind”
    “The Great Way is not difficult
    for those who have no preferences.
    When love and hate are both absent
    everything becomes clear and undisguised.
    Make the smallest distinction, however,
    and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.”

  5. I have to defend UG myself. When I first heard him speak I was young and felt disturbed. When I was older, and had practice not identifying with thoughts, UG was actually the MOST useful speaker I’d ever heard. Hearing him speak brought me inward, toward peace. He basically shows people who are intellectually bent, or have intellectual tendencies, that their thoughts and reliance on thoughts, beliefs given to them by others, etc. etc. are all to be let go of, nonsense, etc. and for those of us who have his kind of temperament or tendencies he actually does point you the right way.

    I only got this reaction from listening to him much older. If there is a such thing as enlightenment, UG was definitely it. Even though he’d say the opposite, and in truth, he’d be right. There really is no such thing. Any concept you have is not true. Not reality. Other than it being a concept. Concepts are true as concepts, they are what they are, but not what they represent. Etc.

    Anyway, can confirm through the peace and inward pointing I get when listening to UG that he’s the real thing. Even if gururating thinks he isn’t very useful as a teacher for most people, perhaps not, I really don’t know and couldn’t say, but I would no longer doubt that he is in fact the real thing. I’ve experienced it first hand.

    That said, I am about to say something that will turn even more people off. Forget enlightenment, forget teachers and gurus, and believe in Jesus Christ, the way He said to believe in Him. As God, as Savior of the world. Who died for your sins.

    God can give you grace without you doing or not doing ANYTHING, you don’t need any teaching or any ANYTHING if you just do what God says. I was given the experience of Samadhi by doing what the Bible claims you should do. And I didn’t even KNOW to expect anything to HAPPEN. I didn’t do it expecting ANYTHING to happen. I had no expectation. So when I was filled with the Holy Ghost, it surprised me and was an instant revelation and experience of the peace that surpasses all understanding, and it completely transcended all thought, body, and physicality in a way I can’t really describe with words. You could experience both at the same time. The peace of the Holy Ghost, guarding the part of you that is YOU, and then at the exact same time you can experience you body the same as you always do (whether it’s happy, sad, angry, hurt, whatever, didn’t matter) but the only difference was, the part of you that is YOU, is completely untouched. This is pretty much impossible to describe. All I can say is that this was my experience.

    And the way I got that experience? I meditated for years, was not a Christian, and never, ever, came close to something like this, this is outside man’s ability to do on his own. Completely. The way I got this experience was by praying to God, suspending my disbelief, saying I’d accepted Jesus sacrifice for my sins (I didn’t even think Jesus walked the earth as a PERSON at that time) and I confessed my sins, as many really bad ones as I could remember, to the God of the Bible, I didn’t even BELIEVE in sin at the time, but I confessed things that I thought the God of the Bible would consider sins. And I asked for forgiveness.

    Then I thought to myself, if I’m to try this out, I should know the ten commandments. I started reading them and got to about the fourth one when all of a sudden I felt something guiding me inside. It guided me until I felt my heart open up in the back of my chest and liquid peace poured into me from behind and settled in my stomach. It was then that I instantly could see, clearly, the difference between real peace and physical peace, real love and physical love, etc. And I also knew that no day in my life was worth living, I knew it by direct observation. That my entire life was less than a shadow, without having this peace inside of me.

    So long story short. Jesus actually IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I don’t know if enlightenment is real, but if it is, my theory is that God is giving people who don’t know Jesus is the real thing, a measure of His peace, because they love and obey Him, even though they don’t know His name or His pure message, which IS in the Bible.

    Every highly respected and practically undisputed guru to ever walk the earth always teaches people to obey the commandments of God. They might use different words for it, ‘be desireless’ or ‘only desire good things’ ‘be sattvic’ ‘practice morality’ etc. etc. but it all comes down to the same thing. And in the Bible God says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even.”

    Pretty much exactly true. And this last part is important. Whether you keep the Ten Commandments or not, you need to, now or later, keep the one commandment that mankind does NOT know about without God telling us. To have Faith in Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins. There is NO forgiveness of sins, no freedom from Karma, ultimately, without Jesus Christ.

    Just because God extended his Grace possibly to people like Ramana Maharshi, who may not have known Jesus for who he was, you can be certain that upon meeting Jesus if Ramana was a true saint, he would have accepted Him and His sacrifice immediately.

    YOU are without excuse. If you are reading this and know English, you KNOW the words of God, found in the Bible, and you are without excuse. You can’t say, ‘I was raised Hindu therefore my path is okay without Jesus” It’s too late. You’ve heard of Jesus and you now know He’s necessary. Sorry. But you’re better off.

    It’s much easier anyway, to simply trust in the Lord Jesus, and do what God has said, having faith in his son, confessing sin and asking forgiveness, trying to turn from it, and believe on Jesus for salvation. Be baptised in water as a symbol of your death and resurrection into a new body.

    When I received the Holy Ghost no one was around me and yet I knew I must be baptised. It only occurred to me later that what I did was what the Bible said to do, and that what happened, me being filled with the Holy Ghost, was the result the Bible, that is to say the real God, SAID would happen if you did what he asked.

    It requires faith because you cannot believe what I am now saying, you have to do what God asks in FAITH, then, and only then you receive. Just like getting directions to a house. If you follow the wrong directions you will never arrive. You have to have faith, that is, trust, and follow the RIGHT directions, only then you’ll arrive at the RIGHT HOUSE.

    Grab a Bible, or ask a Pastor or someone who knows this stuff better than me, because honestly I did all this almost by accident. Ask Jesus Himself, he’ll guide you. And you WILL receive the Holy Ghost, and the seal of Salvation. Moksha, Mukti, whatever you want to call it. Real Salvation is found in Jesus, the Christ, and Christ, alone

    If you think these words are detestable and can’t possibly be true remember the words of the Tao: True words are not beautiful and beautiful words are not true.

    The truth is plain. Simple. Easy. Not man, but God gives grace. It is not your effort or practice, it will never get you there. Believe in and follow God.

    May Jesus Bless you, and correct anything I’ve said here that is wrong for you in your hearts and minds by His power, because I am an imperfect messenger, and an imperfect vessel. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

    • thank you, raza. this is what is happening to me after many years of teachers and teachings. it was here all along and it works so simply. bless you.

    • Hello razza I experienced the Holy Spirit about a month ago for the first time in my life, after having prayed to Jesus. It was my only hope. I feel it deeply in my day to day life but I still deeply desire enlightenment/non-dual awakening. It seems as if the more I try to meditate, etc., The less chance I have of reaching it. Did you experience Samadhi any more times after that?

    • The absolute worst thing I hear from Christians is the whole “You have no excuse because you know Jesus exists.” It’s the most collosal guilt trip in the universe and it’s a total fallacy. You could say that about literally anybody. Just because you had this crazy experience doesn’t mean Jesus is for absolutely everyone and everyone will respond the same way. The attraction that creates that kind of response can’t be forced. It’s like trying to force someone to fall in love with you. And what draws us to a particular “spiritual” teacher and repels us from another is something in our makeup that comes from nature. It can’t be manipulated to give the result that you want. And it has nothing to do with some kind of “defect” caused by Satan or some ridiculous thing. Like, “You know deep down that Jesus is the way but you can’t accept him because Satan has gotten ahold of your soul!”. Just more manipulative guilt tripping and shaming.

      Yes, Jesus is the way. For YOU.

    • Comment length = insecurity of commentor and inanity of the argument. Miss me with your religious burden, Razza, go evangelize to more gullible people

    • Sorry Raza but you just can’t be taken serious with that essay on how you got enlightened by the Holly Ghost.

      I’d be more confident that this guy is some christian fanatic rather than someone having any remote interest in eastern spirituality / philosophy / truth.

  11. everybody has their own unique way, all of these teachers say something spot on from time to time, that doesn’t mean that I have to identify with them completely

  13. I think that UGK has been profoundly honest. Profoundly honest especially in the sense that his natural state came as absent of causality whatsoever and that there is no chance one could reach it by aiming for it.
    “He treated these novice seekers with the same disdain he treated anyone else — insults, tantrums, yelling, anger. He got upset that people couldn’t “get it”.”
    Whomever makes these ratings has some idealised image of enlightenment that would bring about a sense of peace, beatitude, love and bliss but all of these are just projections implanted by the other gurus that came before.

  14. UG was incredibly transparent. His life was an open book without hidden agendas. In a world full of charlatans in every field, UG is quite refreshing. Ultimately, he called himself some kind of philosopher and not a guru or anti-guru. UG has unburdened me and many others of a lot of nonsense. Guru Rating, please read the comments left by so many here in favour of UG. Dig a little deeper into one of the most interesting characters of our time and maybe reconsider your rating. Thank you..

  15. 5/5 real deal for sure… i agree that for any human still clinging and singing along to need of any kind, UG offers nothing, and that gets him the 5/5.
    A favourite line: “The very thing you are reading is the thing you must be free from.”
    He was a human Mobius Strip and remains the most useful voice to return to after periods of hysteria and delusion.

  16. He is 1/5 because he is not for beginners. He is for a more advanced level, I would rate him 5/5 as far as the core teachings are concerned. But he would definitely deny any such thing as an advanced level. Beginners might think that he is blatantly and arrogantly rejecting things, well, essentially it is but that is not the essence (even if he would reject such a thing as essence).
    U.G = weeding out the very faulty “fundamentals” our search is based on. If successful, the questions stop including “what next after this success?”.

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