Theos-Talk Archives (March 2006 Message tt00005)

It is hard to believe that this was written 60 years ago. It seems to speak
more than ever to our present situation in th world - Kali Yuga

MKR
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Questioner: You say the present crisis is without precedent. In what way is
it exceptional?

Krishnamurti: Obviously the present crisis throughout the world is
exceptional, without precedent. There have been crises of varying types at
different periods throughout history, social, national, political. Crises
come and go; economic recessions, depressions, come, get modified, and
continue in a different form. We know that; we are familiar with that
process. Surely the present crisis is different, is it not? It is different
first because we are dealing not with money nor with tangible things but
with ideas. The crisis is exceptional because it is in the field of
ideation. We are quarrelling with ideas, we are justifying murder;
everywhere in the world we are justifying murder as a means to a righteous
end, which in itself is unprecedented. Before, evil was recognized to be
evil, murder was recognized to be murder, but now murder is a means to
achieve a noble result. Murder, whether of one person or of a group of
people, is justified, because the murderer, or the group that the murderer
represents, justifies it as a means of achieving a result which will be
beneficial to man. That is we sacrifice the present for the future - and it
does not matter what means we employ as long as our declared purpose is to
produce a result which we say will be beneficial to man. Therefore, the
implication is that a wrong means will produce a right end and you justify
the wrong means through ideation. In the various crises that have taken
place before, the issue has been the exploitation of things or of man; it is
now the exploitation of ideas, which is much more pernicious, much more
dangerous, because the exploitation of ideas is so devastating, so
destructive. We have learned now the power of propaganda and that is one of
the greatest calamities that can happen: to use ideas as a means to
transform man. That is what is happening in the world today. Man is not
important - systems, ideas, have become important. Man no longer has any
significance. We can destroy millions of men as long as we produce a result
and the result is justified by ideas. We have a magnificent structure of
ideas to justify evil and surely that is unprecedented. Evil is evil; it
cannot bring about good. War is not a means to peace. War may bring about
secondary benefits, like more efficient aeroplanes, but it will not bring
peace to man. War is intellectually justified as a means of bringing peace;
when the intellect has the upper hand in human life, it brings about an
unprecedented crisis. There are other causes also which indicate an
unprecedented crisis. One of them is the extraordinary importance man is
going to sensate values, to property, to name, to caste and country, to the
particular label you wear. You are either a Mohammedan or a Hindu, a
Christian or a Communist. Name and property, caste and country, have become
predominantly important, which means that man is caught in sensate value,
the value of things, whether made by the mind or by the hand. Things made by
the hand or by the mind have become so important that we are killing,
destroying, butchering, liquidating each other because of them. We are
nearing the edge of a precipice; every action is leading us there, every
political, every economic action is bringing us inevitably to the precipice,
dragging us into this chaotic, confusing abyss. Therefore the crisis is
unprecedented and it demands unprecedented action. To leave, to step out of
that crisis, needs a timeless action, an action which is not based on idea,
on system, because any action which is based on a system, on an idea, will
inevitably lead to frustration. Such action merely brings us back to the
abyss by a different route. As the crisis is unprecedented there must also
be unprecedented action, which means that the regeneration of the individual
must be instantaneous, not a process of time. It must take place now, not
tomorrow; for tomorrow is a process of disintegration. If I think of
transforming myself tomorrow I invite confusion, I am still within the field
of destruction. Is it possible to change now? Is it possible completely to
transform oneself in the immediate, in the now? I say it is. The point is
that as the crisis is of an exceptional character to meet it there must be
revolution in thinking; and this revolution cannot take place through
another, through any book, through any organization. It must come through
us, through each one of us. Only then can we create a new society, a new
structure away from this horror, away from these extraordinarily destructive
forces that are being accumulated, piled up; and that transformation comes
into being only when you as an individual begin to be aware of yourself in
every thought, action and feeling.      The First And Last Freedom,


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