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last update: 14 may 99

Meeting Krishnamurti  -  by Reza Ganjavi
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I read my first K book after the est-training where his name was mentioned at the very end (est founder was influenced by K). At the time I was studying computer science and philosophy. I had already studied plenty of Eastern philosophy, as well as world-religions. K helped greatly in putting in the right place all of that. He had a degree of clarity and energy and intelligence and freshness that I had never heard before. For a few chapters I could not grasp what he was saying, but once the terminology and the thinking became familiar, it opened a thousand doors. It was incredible. He was pointing out things that I felt I always knew but I didn't know that I knew them - things that seemed so common sense but widly ignored. At the end of the book, I thought, "who is this guy? now, I'm hungry for more.". Soon I found out that he will be talking in Ojai, which was about 2 hours from my house, near Santa Barbara.

I went to Ojai to see Krishnamurti. I would spend the night (and wake up early morning with the orchestra of a million birds) where the line would start so I was almost always the first person in line, and therefore had front-row center seat at almost every talk - right "at the feet of the master". I am joking (because that is the name of the first book he wrote when he was still a theosophist at age 14 or so). K was not a "master". He was a friend. It was like going to a concert after having listened and lived with the CD like a big fan. (In high school there was a guy who only listened to Grateful Dead, all the time, for weeks before they came for the concert). I could really understand K because I had read several books by then. He came on stage and as he usually does, he points out that this is not an entertainment, and that the speaker is not an authority and he is on the platform for convenience. That it is not as though he is talking and you are listening. It is a conversation between two friends. But if 3000 people talk out loud there is crises, so he talks, and we have this conversation quietly... That to take a journey far we must begin anear, and start with ourselves and what we are, and how that is exactly how the world is, so you are the world, and how there's always been wars on earth, never peace, and that is a reflection of our inner fragmentation. Fragmentation meaning being broken up inwardly - e.g. by conflicting desires, and the friction between what is and what should be. The macro is the micro. He'd go on and talk about many subjects such as beauty, nature of thought, love, time, sorrow, death (psychological aspect of these), etc. and towards the last talk he'd get into meditation - what it is not and what it is...

I also went to his talks in the following two years. I continued to always be among the first in line, and also, worked as a volunteer - e.g. in Parking. Half of the seating area was reserved for volunteers, so, I always sat in the front row, a couple of time, a couple of rows back. All in all I went to about 16 talks and Questions and Answers sessions.

After the first talk, I went up to him, and thanked him. He was so open - no barriers. We shook hands and looked in each others eyes as though we've been friends forever and have not met for a long time. He looked at you and smile as though he'd always known you. His eyes were pouring with love. He brought his other hand and shook my hand with 2 hands.

Several other times I went up after the talk and shook hands. One time I was just standing there in silence while he was departing after a talk. A lady gave him a flower. He turned around and gave it to me. A little red rose. I still have it! 

Walking with him to the car, one felt his energy. He had so much energy - it was like walking next to an electric turban. It is hard to describe. He had this aura of very intense strong vibrating energy.

During the talks, specially towards the end of the last talk, he was on fire. His energy and intensity was so strong as he would get into topics such as religion, meditation, and talk about the "otherness" the "immeasurable". After one of the talks ended the guy who was sitting next to me and I looked at each other and went: "wooh"!

(CONTINUED)