Life and Background
U.G.Krishnamurti, U.G., as he was popularly known and nicknamed as the ‘Un-Guru’, was not an Avatar or a Godman. He was not a Guru or a teacher. He was not a prophet or a cult-figure. He was not a yogi. Not a transformed individual. He can at best be described (for a lack of better word) as a ‘Philospher of sorts’. He insisted that the whole spiritual trip was a non-sense, the whole notion of enlightenment an illusion. In fact, he would say that the very idea of mind or spirit as something different from the body is a myth.
U.G. was born in a Telugu Brahmin family on July 9, 1918 in Masulipatam in Andhra Pradesh. His mother died seven days after he was born. His grandfather, a staunch Theosophist and a very rich lawyer in Gudivada, brought him up in the religious atmosphere. U.G., at quite an early age started on the age old quest for God. At the age of 21, he met and interacted with the sage Ramana Maharshi. The one answer from the sage made a great impact on his heretical mind after which he stopped shopping around for gurus and began to explore himself.
He joined the University of Madras and studied philosophy and psychology, but it gave no answers to his deep questions. Later, he drifted into the Theosophical Society and also attended Jiddu Krishnamurti talks. During those years he had several mystical experiences. In 1943 at the age of 25, U.G. married a girl and had four children. For some years he toured within India and several countries lecturing all over the world. But his heart was not in it.
At the age of 42, his burning quest for ‘Moksha’ assumed alarming proportion breaking up his marriage. He wandered about London for three years ‘like a man with no head, blown about like a dry leaf’. At last, he ended up at the Indian Consulate, Geneva, totally a derelict, penniless and ready to be deported to India. At that juncture, Mme.Valentine de Kerven, a 63 year old Swiss lady working in the Indian Consulate came to his rescue and created a home for him in Saanen, a mountain village high up in Alps, Switzerland.
In the April of 1967 in his 49th year in Paris, marked the beginning of the most astounding and almost incomprehensible mystical experiences one could ever read in the history of mysticism. On his 49th birth day U.G. was sitting on a bench overlooking the beautiful Saanen valley. His body underwent a ‘nuclear explosion’ shattering every cell, every nerve, every gland in his body. That was the beginning of what he calls the ‘Calamity’—an utterly non-religious biological mutation, which went on for seven days resulting in irreversible biological changes in his body. He ‘died’ only to be reborn in what he calls the ‘Natural State’. His life from then on consisted of a series of disjointed events. What was there was a clean, smoothly functioning, highly intelligent and responsive ‘biological machine’ which is the ‘Natural State’.
“It is not the state of a self-realized or God-realized man” says U.G.,” “It is not a thing to be achieved or attained. It is the living state. It is your State as much as mine.” For this reason, U.G. had not founded schools, ashrams, or meditation centers. He had no teaching to protect or disseminate. U.G. died on 22nd March 2007 at the age of eighty-nine in Vallecrocia, Italy. The effect that he has had, and will continue to have on legions of his admirers is difficult to put in words. Till his last breath, U.G. remained vigorously enigmatic, frustrating all the attempts of those around trying to fit him in some frame or the other.
| DATE | LIFE EVENTS |
|---|---|
| 9 July 1918 | Born in Masulipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. |
| July 1918 | Mother passed away. He was brought up by the grandparents at Gudivada. |
| Aug 1932 | Discarded the sacred thread. And left for Himalayas; first meeting with Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh in his 14th year. |
| December 1932 | Theosophical Society convention - met Annie Besant – Jinarajadasa presented him the book ‘I Promise’ – beginning of his Sadhana. |
| June 1939 | Went overseas for the first time. Links with Switzerland and London were established. Discovered Gstaad, the future base. |
| December 1939 | Met Ramana Maharshi – “All that India stood for went out of my system.” – U.G. |
| Early 1940s | Studied Philosophy and Psychology at Madras University. Joined Theosophical Society as a lecturer and gave talks across India. |
| May 1943 | Marriage with Kusuma Kumari. |
| February 1944 | Death of his grandfather. |
| 1947 | Post India’s Independence - Opted for Indian Citizenship; Met J Krishnamurti (J.K) in Chennai. |
| 1949 | First visit to New York, United States of America (U.S.A) as International lecturer of Theosophical Society. |
| 1953 | World tour with the family. |
| July 1953 | Final break with Theosophical Society of India and Jinarajadasa. |
| December 1953 | Close encounter with J.K – near death experience. Extended discussions with J.K. |
| 1955 | Moved to U.S.A with the family for his elder son’s medical treatment. |
| 1955–1959 | Lectured in the U.S.A ; marriage ended ; wife returned to India with children. |
| 1960 - 1963 | Wanderings in Europe; Met J.K in London for the last time – Got stuck in London. Stayed in Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre. Later moved to Geneva. |
| 1962 | Wife died in India leaving behind 4 children. |
| December 1963 | Meeting Valentine de Kerven in Geneva, after Christmas. They moved to Saanen- Gstaad, Switzerland. They became “The fellow travellers with no destination”. |
| July 1967 | A biological transformation ending in the Natural State – ‘The Calamity’ on his 49th birthday. |
| Post Calamity Events | |
| January 1968 | Visit to Chennai, India with Valentine; Started Yoga lessons with Yoga master Krishnamacharya |
| April 1968 | A chance visit to Sringeri, Karnataka and meeting the Jagadguru Swami Abhinava Vidyatheertha; Also, the first meeting with Dr K.B. Ramakrishna Rao, Prof of Philosophy, Mysore University at Sringeri. |
| December 1969 | Meeting Brahmachari Shivaramasharma of Bangalore, first visit to Bangalore and the beginning of his Bangalore Chapter. |
| May 1972 | Gave his only public talk (after Calamity) at Indian Institute of World Culture, Bangalore. |
| July 1978 | First book on and about U.G was published in Kannada language and was released in Mysore, India @ Dr.K.B. Ramakrishna Rao’s house on his 60th Birthday. |
| 1981 | Started visits to U.S.A. & U.K. and meetings with friends in the bay area, California. |
| 1982 | First English book 'The Mystique of Enlightenment' edited by Rodney Arms, published in Goa., India. |
| 1983 | Elder son died of cancer in India in his presence. |
| 1986 | Home for Valentine was arranged in Bangalore under the care of his friends. |
| January 1991 | Death of Valentine in Bangalore. |
| 1986 – 2006 | Multiple round the world travels visiting most of the countries. Wide media exposure – Books, T.V and Radio Interviews, and Audio & Video recordings. |
| 1996 | First website on U.G. |
| Feb-Mar 2007 | Last days of U.G in Vallecrosia, Italy. |
| 22 March 2007 | Death of U.G in his 89th year in Vallecrosia, Italy. |
It was January 20, 1991. That night Valentine died suddenly. She simply dropped off while she was sitting in a chair eating her dinner. The houselights were shining brightly. The light of Valentine, however, which had been shining brightly in our Poornakutee in Bangalore, went out permanently.
It was January 20, 1991. That night Valentine died suddenly. She simply dropped off while she was sitting in a chair eating her dinner. The houselights were shining brightly. The light of Valentine, however, which had been shining brightly in our Poornakutee in Bangalore, went out permanently.
U.G. Krishnamurti, lovingly called U.G.Krishnamurti by his friends and admirers all over the world, is no more. The end came on 22 March 2007 at 2.30 pm at the villa of his friend, in Vallecrosia, Italy. As per U.G.Krishnamurti’s advice, with no rituals or funeral rites, the cremation was carried out the next day at 2.45 pm, in Vallecrosia, Italy. He was eighty-nine years old. U.G.Krishnamurti is survived by his erstwhile family, comprising his two daughters, Usha and Bharati, and their respective families and his son, Kumar and his family. But his actual family is much larger than that, extending over the entire globe and consisting of numerous ‘friends’ to whom he has been closer than their own families and indeed their own selves.
