Sambodhi 1977 Vol 06

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 52

45
R. K. Shringy
indeed frankly recognised that tl'eurderlying unity of these two traditions was essential and their differences rather superfluous. Sich an assessment may not te considered unjustified at least as far as the Mahāyāna and the Adraita forms of these traditions, which yield the greatest influence among their followers, are concerned. Thus Krishnamurti inherited the spirit of oneness of life as the cry essential feature of Theosophy as it was interpreted in the light of Buddhism and Vedanta. Therefore, historically, Theosopliy, the Mahāyāna Buddhism and the Advaita Vedānta have cxerted the greatest influence upon the mind of Krishnamurti in his formative period. Even the spiritual experiences that he has 'recounted bear witness to this fact. He has spoken of having visions of Lord Krishna, Maitreya and the Buddha, and finally he speaks of the experience of the unconditioned pure being that transcends all images.
Metaphysically, he talks of reality and existence in terms of life; and life to him is relationship. Thus, on the one hand, in his concept of life he realises the unity, or rather the non-duality of reality and existence, of the noumenon and the phenomenon, and on the other hand, he distinguishes existence and reality as conditioned reality and uncondisioned existence relating thein in an essential identity. The fact that he conceives reality and existence as life brings to the forefront the two aspects of the Vedantic absolute (Nirguna Brahman), namely transcendence and immanence, and of the Buddhistic absolute (Sünya or Vijñapti-matra), namely, transcendence and relativity. Therefore his concept of the unconditioned reality presented as the phenomenon of conditioned existence at once relates the three concepts of transcendence, immanence and relativity and thereby achieves a fusion of the best of the Buddhistc and the Vedantic currents of thought culminatiug into an entirely new conception of Life and existence.
Similarly, his concept of liberation or freedom which he identifies with what he calls the 'mutation of mind,' is also radically different from, though not alien to, the concepts of Nirvana and Mokşa. Even though Vedānta provides for the concept of Jivanamukta and Mahāyāna provides the concept of bodhisattva that endows liberation with a social value and an altruistic significance, yet because both of them place the ideal of life outside the emperical world of experience and mundane existence and finally make it realisable only on the total annihilation of the physical body, practically their psychological impact has been to cultivate an otherworldly attitude much to the detriment of the earthly existence. Krishnamurti's concept of conditioned existence does not have this air of existential dissolution. He emphasises the dissolution of the psychological conditioning that is responsible for distorting the perception of reality and thereby evoking, a false response that creates in effect a psychological barrier giving