Mind Is a Myth

A scathing critique of contemporary spirituality by one of its most unusual figures. In a world in which spiritual techniques, teachers, concepts, and organizations are legion, U. G. Krishnamurti stands nearly alone in his rejection of it all: The natural state is acausal: it just happens. The author does not equate the natural state with enlightenment, which he describes as an illusion created by our culture. He states emphatically that one can do nothing to attain the natural state.

Born in India in 1918 to Brahmin parents, U. G. Krishnamurti was given a rigorous education in classical Hindu literature. He was raised to take on the mantle of guru, in a manner similar to J. Krishnamurti (to whom he is not related). By the time he met J. Krishnamurti in the late 1940s, both men had rejected the guru calling. For seven years they conversed daily, struggling to uncover the nature of truth, and parted without resolving their differences. U. G. continued lecturing throughout the world. Then in 1961 he left his family and went to London without means and purpose.

U.G. Krishnamurti is the Don Rickles of religion. He makes Madalyn Murray O'Hare, the infamous atheist, look pious. What we call religion, U.G. said, began somewhere along the evolutionary process when humans unlike the rest of the animals began feeling self-conscious and separate from nature. Humanity, he says, long ago started down the path of total annihilation and absolutely nothing can be done to save it. Have a nice day. --Don Lattin, Religion Editor, San Francisco Chronicle