CURE FOR WORLD’S ILLS

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1934, Page 7

CURE FOR WORLD’S ILLS

KRISHNAMURTI’S VIEWS HINDRANCES TO THOUGHT. RELIGION AND NATIONALISM.

The Indian philosophical teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti delivered his first address in Auckland last evening to an audience which filled the Town Hall. The address was relayed'to the concert chamber adjoining, which was equally crowded.. Krishnamurti’s remarks were mainly directed against hindrances to individual thought and the search for' truth which, he said, offered the only cure for the world’s ills. He criticised in particular organised religion and nationalism. Religious, social and economic problems, said the speaker, could not be solved by treating them as if they were in watertight compartments. Instead of looking for various cures for various ills, it was' necessary to deal with life as a whole. What was needed was a complete reorientation of thought. The individual must cease fo be a mefo cog in the machine, a unit in a religious, social or economic structure. Most people did not act or think as human beings; they simply reacted to their environment. He was not seeking any new system, which would be perverted again in its turn, or to Create new false environments in which mjjids would be caught. No system could bring about the creative intelligence which alone could reach an understanding of truth and discover eternal reality. A religion was a crystallised forrp of thought which came to embody the highest ideals of a community. The basis of a religion was the desire of the human mind for comfort in suffering,' arid for security. In other words, its basis was fear, and fear led to conformity. Where there was a search for security and comfort there was no understanding. To him, all beliefs, all ideals, were hindrances, keeping people apart and preventing man frdm looking at the present with a fresh mind, from developing supreme intelligence and making the indescribable discovery which meant for him everlasting happiness. Fear sought the shelter of society, which was only the expression of the individual multiplied a thousandfold. Society offered security, tradition and what was known as public opinion. Public opinion said that the possession of property was legitimate, and even Conferred honours on those who held it. Socalled morality might consist merely in conforming to a pattern and to circumstances, both, of which were liable to change in course of time. In the speaker’s view true, morality consisted in understanding the absurdity, of possessiveness and of being driven by the opinion of others. Possessiveness found its ultimate expression in nationality, which was the cause of war. It was useless to be a pacifist and at the same time talk of patriotism, to say,‘ “We will protect ourselves first and then we will think of world unity and world peace.” Unemployment in New Zealand was part of a great human'problem, and could never be solved in a nationalistic spirit. It was possible for mankind to find a glorious liberty, but only as individuals. Men were waiting for the mass of humanity to act and hoping for a miraculous change overnight, ’ because as individuals they were afraid to think and act.