26 November

1. Krishnamurti In India: The Last Decade: 1976 – 1986

Fourth Public Talk at Madras : 1978/79

12 You see a nice thing. The seeing, the touching, the smelling, the tasting and the sensations, the sensation which is identified with the image which thought has created, and desire is the outcome of it. Right? Clear? So, I am asking, we are asking: is one of the factors of this contradiction, this lack of relationship – I am using the word relationship in its right sense – to be wholly in contact with each other, not merely sensory contact, not merely sexual contact, but to contact holistically, wholly with another. Is that prevented by desire? So we are investigating, is desire love? Because with desire goes fear and one of the factors of disorder is fear. Right? Must you have all these lamps? Phew!

13 So we are saying, the factor of disorder is desire and fear and the incessant pursuit of pleasure. We have explained what desire is. With desire goes will. Will is the action, concentrated action of desire. Right sirs? Just investigate it. And we function, our life is based on desire, will and fulfilment, and with it goes frustration. And out of this comes fear, various forms of fear. Fear of not being successful, fear of losing a job, fear of being lonely, fear of not having love or given love to you, fear of losing attachment, fear of darkness, fear of physical pain, and so on, so on, so on. You are familiar with all this, aren’t you? So, we are saying the major factor of disorder is the operation of desire always with the picture of achievement and fear. The fear that has not been resolved by human beings: fear of death, fear of loneliness, fear of not having the capacity to act greatly and so on, so on. And also one of the causes of disorder is this incessant pursuit of pleasure. So, we are going to examine those three things very carefully because our concern is to bring about order, and to bring about order one must understand this confusion in which we live, and the confusion is this activity of desire with its changing objects. You may not, when you are young, you may not want to have a great status, great position, great wealth, but as you grow older the thing changes. As you approach death, you want enlightenment, god and all the rest of it. So, the objects of desire change constantly.

14 And fear which is one of the major factors of disorder in our relationship, intimate and not intimate, and the longing, the private, personal pursuit of pleasure. So, these are the major, deep factors of disorder in our life. We have explained the process of desire – seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, the sensory responses, from that sensory response a sensation, with contact, then thought saying how marvellous it would be if I could have that. Which is the thought creating the image of a car, you driving in it and having fun. So that is the movement of desire. We are saying what is fear? Please go with me, find out for yourself because we have lived generation after generation with fear. We have got good brains. We have got capacity to resolve fear, not to live with it. To live with it is to live in darkness. To live with it is to deny the beauty of total existence, the beauty of the earth, the beauty of the sky. So, we have to understand it, not intellectually but delve deeply into the very roots of fear.