NOTE: This is the full broadcast portion of the 88-minute interview.

Those who offer enlightenment or salvation appear to often operate more as businessmen than as authentic spiritual teachers. In part one of this two-part series, U. G. Krishnamurti he denies any possibility of knowledge of enlightenment. The very attempt to achieve enlightenment is an obstacle in the path of the proclaimed goal. The search for enlightenment is a device of the mind to perpetuate itself, in denial of its mortality.

In part two of the full DVD, he critiques various disciplines, both mystical and psychotherapeutic, which are said to lead to states of enlightenment. He proposes that states of enlightenment, if they are to be attained, must be gained in spite of–not because of–meditation, devotion, prayer, acceptance, forgiveness, or compassion. Stripped of all our pretenses, facing the despair of the human condition, freed of the imaginary diseases from which “enlightenment” may save us, we can build realistic and practical lives.

U. G. Krishnamurti was a world traveler and author of Mind Is a Myth and The Mystique of Enlightenment. Viewed by many as a liberated individual, he eschewed all gurus, teachings and followers.

Published on August 15, 2011