About the Book

UG Krishnamurti was like a vast ocean towards which many rivers flow. All his friends flow river-like through life's ups and downs, in rage at times, flooding with emotions at others, meandering here and there, but heading ultimately towards the vast all-encompassing welcoming ocean. Those who merged with him are at peace - they may claim otherwise - 'devastated... shattered' are the words they prefer to use, but if they look within themselves, they would find rock-like stability in the understanding that there is nothing to understand. Then, like sand they would flow, along with the flow of the ocean.
This book is a collection of UG's words... undiluted, uninterrupted... culled out from his various talks and conversations.

  About the Author

Sunita Pant Bansal's forte is decoding the philosophy of religion, showing its relevance and application in today's times. Writing for over four decades, Sunita has authored hundreds of books for all age groups, exploring and reinterpreting the timelessness of folk literature and mythology. Her books are sold in multiple languages globally. In her long and illustrious career, Sunita has also produced short films, headed publishing houses, founded-edited newspapers and magazines for readers in India as well as abroad. Amongst her bestsellers are History of India, Hindu Gods and Goddesses, Hindu Pilgrimage: The Teerthas, Kailas Mansarovar: A Journey of Body Mind and Soul, Everyday Gita, and a series on Buddhist Masters: Milarepa, Marpa, Naropa and Tilopa.

  Preface

I chanced upon UG's books as a fledgling publisher and with Mahesh Bhatt's encouragement, gave them a new look and launched them in the market. A decade later, I reviewed them and felt that they needed complete rehauling and revamping.
Meanwhile, I had met not only UG but also many of his friends and followers. I found that a number of people 'felt' UG but could not quite comprehend the 'feeling'. They read his words, but somehow could not quite 'read' them. I wondered why... till one particular person said that his books have far too much stuff! There is a lot of jumping in the discussions, from one topic to another-creating confusion. That hit the bull's eye for me!
Now I had a mission... I sat down with all the material that I had. I did not see them as independent books, but as a huge sea of words. I read everything and made different topics under which I could put down UG's words. The various topics that emerged from this churning of words were: reality, truth, love, body, death, society, certainty, understanding and so on. The logical step forward was to slot the material under these themes.
The result is there for all to see.
These are UG's words... undiluted, uninterrupted... Enjoy!

  Foreword

The Aftertaste

No story has a beginning or an end. Arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. The aftertaste of my address at the International Conference of Spirituality, which was held at the School of Management Sciences, Varanasi, left me with a deepening feeling that the human race is not ready to let go of its fairy tales in its quest for permanence. I guess it's tough for people to accept that the tragedy of the human race springs from its constant desire for an illusion of something that endures, like the soul, an afterlife, and a heaven with God within.
"What did you make of my rantings?" I asked one of the delegates from the Jewish faith, after I had given my talk there. I had run into her in the lift of my hotel, on the night before my departure back to Mumbai from Varanasi. She stared at me as if trying to figure me out. The dying embers of my speech were perhaps glowing somewhere in the depths of her mind. "It undermines everything that we were talking about for the last two days in this convention," she said slowly, as if searching for some answers.
"That's good," I said. "What I really came to share in this seminar were the groupings of my spiritual journey, and the frustration of not being able to sum up anything for certainty. The holy grail for me, if there is one, is the image of my friend, philosopher and guide, the most subversive man to have walked on this planet, UG Krishnamurti... looking at life in his sunset hours with the expression of a child in his crib looking at the world for the first time."