“You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it,” said Jiddu Krishnamurti, the great Indian philosopher.
You must live your life fully, he would tell you, and not only live it in fragments. That is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and read… (and especially read Jiddu Krishnamurti’s books.) After all, this is life, all this is life.
If you know anything about Krishnamurti, you’d know that it is not easy to read or follow him. It requires great amount of patience, attention and persistence. One of the major challenges I found when I first started reading Jiddu Krishnamurti was that it is very difficult to contain him, label him or put his ideas into any category. One has to constantly reflect and assess the validity of a statement — which is not something that every reader is comfortable with.
This is why the question — how should one read Jiddu Krishnamurti’s books and in what order? — is not as straightforward as it may seem. However, we are still going to persist with it and find a reasonable pathway.
Let’s start, then.
Reading Jiddu Krishnamurti’s books
If you’re not familiar with the great man or any of his works, then it would be a good idea to listen to some of his talks. They are available on YouTube. You would notice that he is very particular about his choice of words, for he cares deeply about verbal communication. As T.M. Krishna once said, “He would hover around a word like a bee buzzing around a chosen flower, admiring it from every possible angle. He loved words, but every word had its specific location and its own moment.” Therefore, it’s important to familiarise yourself with his style before you dive deeper into his teachings.
Below is a short talk from 1985 on the concept of intelligence. It would help you gain access to the Krishnamurti’s world.
Once you are ready, you can start reading his books. This, in itself, is going to be a big challenge, as there are literally hundreds of them (Goodreads says 743). Clearly, finding the right book, especially in the beginning, is going to be a huge ask. Let me help you here.
The First and Last freedom
While many refer to The First and Last Freedom as Krishnamurti’s finest work, it is also a perfect place to start your reading journey. As usual, he starts very gently, making sure you are able to connect with him, understand him.
Krishnamurti begins the conversation by telling us about the art of conversation, especially the role of listening in it. “To be able really to listen,” he says, “one should abandon or put aside all prejudices, pre-formulations and daily activities.” When you listen, you just listen — it’s that simple, although, a hard feat to achieve. Slowly, but surely, you are led into Krishnamurti’s teachings where he strips down every concept and roams freely over the whole landscape of human experience. As a reader you’ll find it deeply refreshing.
The second half of the book mostly consists of the questions that were put to him by members of the public. These range from theological discussions on God to some really personal concerns such as sex, loneliness, etc. Once you finish the book, you’d know a great deal about Krishnamurti’s teaching, his style, and the kind of work he intended to do.
To Be Human
To Be Human presents Krishnamurti’s radical vision of life in a new way. Some readers also prefer to begin with this book. That’s because its new editions contain several introductory chapters written by different authors, placing Krishnamurti’s ideas in a greater historical context and explaining why they are still relevant in the 21st century. So you can start with it as well.
The book is a compilation of posthumously published transcripts of interviews, public speeches etc, meant as an introduction to Krishnamurti’s teachings. At the heart of this collection are passages from his talks that amplify and clarify the nature of truth and those obstacles that often prevent us from seeing it.
Throughout the book we keep coming back to the question of what it means to be human? He repeatedly stresses on how illusory our sense of individual identity is. This leads us to understanding our socially constructed need to belong to social categories like nationalities, religious denominations, political ideologies etc. He makes us see how all these ideas, which constitute our identity, are hugely influenced by the psychological structures of human perception as well as our social and cultural indoctrination. The idea is to be able to see through all this in order to discover our true identities.
Freedom from the Known
Freedom from the Known is an exceptional book. Once again, it’s not easy an easy one to read and one may not understand every idea that the author explains; nevertheless, you must try. The challenge is, the book is ridiculously simple (yes, you read it right!) and it demands the utmost clarity of mind. Krishnamurti starts with some fundamental questions such as who we are, what we are doing in this world, how we can find meaning, etc and pursues them to such great lengths that sometimes it can be hard to follow the thought. But… keep trying.
You can listen to some excerpts on consciousness from the book here:
If read with sincerity, Freedom from the Known can turn out to be a guide to ultimate freedom. Krishnamurti says, “To be free of all authority, of your own and that of another, is to die to everything of yesterday, so that your mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigour and passion.” That’s really the point of this book.
The Awakening of Intelligence
The Awakening of Intelligence is probably the hardest among all that are mentioned here. No wonder, it is being suggested at the end. The book contains a number of conversations (with Jacob Needleman, Alain Naudé, Swami Venkatasananda and David Bohm) and we straightaway dive into them without any prior discussion.
In these wide-ranging conversations, Krishnamurti examines issues like the role of the teacher and tradition, the need for awareness of ‘cosmic consciousness, the problem of good and evil, and traditional Vedanta methods of help for different levels of seekers. Most importantly, he examines the concept of intelligence.
According to Krishnamurti, intelligence comes into being when the mind, the heart and the body are truly in harmony. When you discover your own fallibility, what you are capable of and what you are not, it is then you become truly intelligent. The mind is conditioned by patterns of thought, operating through grooves in the mind that result from clinging to experiences. By repeating and reinforcing these same patterns, a perception is solidified and reality is, consequently, fragmented. The book helps you to get out of this vicious cycle and discover your true intelligence.
This is just the beginning. Once you have studied these wonderful books, you are all set to read Jiddu Krishnamurti’s other works, which, as pointed out before, literally run into hundreds. So, good luck!
Note: We have started a new series called Meditative Dialogues with Jiddu Krishnamurti. You can also check out our podcast on Jiddu Krishnamurti.
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