From the publisher
THE ANTI GURU is a selection of some of the greatest talks ever given by U.G. Krishnamurti, the famed anti-guru who refused to be a guru and shot down all attempts by his followers to deify him. While he has no relation to the famous Jiddu Krishnamurti, who merely shares the same name, he spoke with the other Krishnamurti extensively, and you'll find much commentary U.G. made about him within this book. The first chapter is the full text of a very unique early talk given by U.G. very soon after he experienced his "calamity", the transformation that many have likened to enlightenment. The words are incredibly powerful and direct, and pierce to the heart of his philosophy. This book was published to make U.G. more accessible to the general public. His revolutionary ideas have largely been ignored by our society. The low price of this book shows the editor's desire to make U.G.'s material easier to access for a wider range of audiences. Unfortunately, his books are very hard to find in public library catalogs. Hopefully this will change.
About the author
He was born on July 9, 1918 in Machilipatnam, India and raised in the town of Gudivada. His mother died seven days after he was born, and he was brought up by his maternal grandfather, a wealthy Brahmin lawyer, who was also involved in the Theosophical Society. U.G. also became a member of the Theosophical Society during his teenage years. During the same period of his life, U.G. reportedly practiced all kinds of austerities and apparently sought moksha or spiritual enlightenment. To that end, between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, he undertook all kinds of spiritual exercise, determined to find out whether moksha was possible. Wanting to achieve that state, he had also resolved to prove that if there were people who have thus "realized" themselves, they could not be hypocritical. As part of this endeavor, he searched for a person who was an embodiment of such "realization". He spent seven summers in the Himalayas with Swami Sivananda studying yoga and practicing meditation. During his twenties, U.G. began attending the University of Madras, studying psychology, philosophy, mysticism, and the sciences, but never completed a degree, having determined that the answers of the West - to what he considered were essential questions - were no better than those of the East. In 1939, at age 21, U.G. met with renowned spiritual teacher Ramana Maharshi. U.G. related that he asked Ramana, "This thing called moksha, can you give it to me?" - to which Ramana Maharshi purportedly replied, "I can give it, but can you take it?". This answer completely altered U.G.'s perceptions of the "spiritual path" and its practitioners, and he never again sought the counsel of "those religious people". Later U.G. would say that Maharshi's answer - which he perceived as "arrogant" - put him "back on track". In 1941, he began working for the Theosophical Society, in C.W. Leadbeater's library. Shortly after, he began an international lecture tour on behalf of the Society, visiting Norway, Belgium, Germany and the United States. Returning to India, he married a Brahmin woman named Kusuma Kumari in 1943, at age 25. From 1947 to 1953, U.G. regularly attended talks given by Jiddu Krishnamurti in Madras, India, eventually beginning a direct dialogue with him in 1953. U.G. related that the two had almost daily discussions for a while[not specific enough to verify], which he asserted were not providing satisfactory answers to his questions. Finally, their meetings came to a halt.
