13 March

Krishnamurti In India: The Last Decade

Rajghat 1985  – 3rd Public Talk

25    So we’ve talked a bit about that. Then we ought to talk about death. Sorry, on a lovely morning, sitting under the trees, quiet, no train is crossing the bridge, we are very quiet on a lovely morning. And to talk about death may seem morbid, may seem ugly, may seem something to be not talked about. They are writing books in America, ‘How to die happily’ (laughter), doctors are doing it, telling their patients how to die happily. Now together we’re going to examine it, share it. Not just you listen and I talk. That’s childish. So, what is death? Why are we so frightened of it? Why do we keep death for ten years later, or twenty years later, or a hundred years later? Why? Living, and death? Then you have not only to ask: what is death, what is dying, but also what is living? Right? You understand what I am saying? What is living? What you are your living. Office from nine to five, as a clerk, as a governor or whatever it is, as a factory worker. Nine to five for the rest of your life, except when you retire; gaga old man. Right? And your life is breeding children, sex, pleasure, pain, sorrow, anxiety, problem after problem, illness, doctors, caesarean operations, pain giving birth. This is our life. Right? Do you deny that? No. And you call this living. Don’t look at me as though a strange man. This is what we call living. And you support it, you enjoy it. You want more and more of this. Right? So this is what you call living. And you put far away death – as many years away as possible. Right? And in that distance of time you are building up that same pattern, over and over – your children, your grandchildren live in the same pattern, which you call living. Right? Don’t deceive yourself saying that nature struggles therefore we must struggle. Monkeys struggle, so we are monkeys. You know there is a very famous author – we used to know him – may I include you in that? – we used to know him – and he wrote, ‘Perhaps we should be behind the bars, not the monkeys’.