| The City Centre | |
In the last years of the life Krishnamurti was deeply concerned that there be Centres where adults could go and study the Teachings in a serene atmosphere with no any authority of any guru or of any doctrine “..for the Teachings themselves are the expression of that truth which serious people must find for themselves.” In K’s vision a Study Centre is not just a place that housed the materials- his books and writings. He said , “It should be a religious centre where people feel there is something not cooked up, not imaginative….a centre where a flame is alive and of you come to that house, you may take light, the flame with you, or you might light your candle or be the most extraordinary human being.” The Jiddu Krishnamurti Centre, Hyderabad was formally inaugurated in 1996. The Centre houses a Reference and Lending Library of Krishnaji’s books, audio and videotapes of talks and interviews. Regular video screenings, reading sessions and silence sessions, chanting, focused discussions and dialogues on subjects ranging over the roots of thought, mind and brain, personal relationships, fear, death, mediation and self-knowledge are held at the Centre. There is also a bookstall selling books, audio and videotapes of Krishnamurti’s talks and dialogues. |
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The Centre is open to all, the facilities to be utilized to further and depend one’s own enquiry and journey in life. At the same time ambience is that of quiet pleasant informality, and silence. “…as I see it, a study Centre has become a necessity because that is the place where the treasure is… From that treasure you can draw…you can draw your strength, you can draw your energy, you can draw sustenance, nourishment…And from that everything flows”. K’s emphasis that belief is unnecessary to actualize the human potential makes him define religion in very unorthodox terms. He talks of the religious mind and religious living rather than of religion as a matter of faith, a code of conduct to be preached or followed. Can the human mind, which has not outgrown its primitive self-protective and acquisitive instincts assimilate the scientific and technological advances for human growth and well being? What will bring about order in the human mind and society? In a world of increasing fear and confusion what is the way to freedom and right action? Pointing to what he calls a crisis in consciousness, K holds that humanity is at a crucial cross road and needs must discover a wholly different way of functioning. This, in his claim, involves a radical transformation of consciousness. |
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