J.KRISHNAMURTI  AND  TIRUVALLUVAR

 

J.Krishnamurti was an etymologist with a difference in that he went beyond the dictionary-meaning of the term, which ordinarily denotes “one who researches into the derivation of words in form and content.”   Take his explanation of the word “discipline” for instance.  According to JK, “discipline” is derived from “disciple.”

 

And who, Sir, is a disciple?  “A disciple is one who is learning and learning until his mind is trained to remain in a state of watchfulness or awareness,” says JK.  Learning is the identifying tag of the disciple, not obeying or prostrating or imitating.

 

The responsibility now devolves on the disciple to react in the right manner when he becomes aware of a situation or an object or a person.  A bird or a beast can also see but its reaction, if any, is based only on instinct, in the absence of the sixth sense, which alone can discriminate, evaluate and respond aright.

 

Let us go to an example. Man witnesses another living being in distress. What is he worth if he looks the other way and hurries along? The human mind alone is programmed to experience the pain of another as one’s own and go to its succour in reflex action. Naturally such a one will never do anything that would cause hurt to another. These two aspects are the ingredients of Virtue, the unremitting practice of which is possible only in the state of Discipline, which is synonymous with and inseparable from Awareness.

 

Does not Tiruvalluvar say that Learning has no fullstop and should be continued till one’s last breath?

  

Sage Valluvar’s maxim, is it in any way different from Sage JK’s ?  Don’t we now see that both – Valluvar and JK - were siddha-purushas imparting to mankind the methodology of Learning and guiding souls step by sure step to the goal of Liberation ?

                       

 

- Sage TGN

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