The Moral Vision
Reply without Reaction
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REPLY WITHOUT REACTION
Mr. J Krishnamurti, 90, is a well-known Indian
thinker. When he is on a public stage, he folds his
hands and says, “Sir, I am a nobody” or, “Sir, I am
just a passerby.” Are we all nothing on reality? His
answer is, “Yes, when you are as nothing, you are
everything.”
Islamic thinkers disapprove of thoughts of this kind
for they lead to scepticism or monism, and both are
just a philosophical license for irresponsibility and
monism. Yet there is an example from
Krishnamurti’s life which can be quoted here with
great pertinence.
Mr. J. Krishnamurti is fortunate enough to find a
large audience at every speech he makes.
Thousands attend his talks year after year, but he
feels unhappy at their failure to move along with
him. At the end of his discussions in Madras in
February 1984, he asked the audience: “Will you
change, sirs?” and declared, “You’ll all go back and
continue doing what you have been doing.” For
more than 50 years he has been travelling round the
