The curtain came down at the International Kolkata Book Fair on Sunday 12 February, 2023. Many dear Centre friends supported our stall at the Kolkata Book Fair. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to all of them. The Book Fair is always an enriching experience. It is an opportunity to meet people from across the spectrum, interact and share. Our Centre makes new friends and the journey of joint exploration into the beauty of J Krishnamurti’s teachings is very rewarding. A friend from outside Kolkata, who had never been to a Kolkata Book Fair, was absolutely floored by the sheer energy one feels at the Fair.
I briefly heard about some lovely moments of interaction at the stall. There was the Frenchman who spent a lot of time at the stall and seemed keen to buy every Krishnamurti book! He did indeed leave with a lot of books. So too a doctor who purchased many books just before the Fair ended. I heard about the engineer who spent many years in Ukraine and spent a lot of time in discussion at our stall. Then there was a group who came from Durgapur and had a lengthy conversation with our Naresh ji Agarwal, a Centre friend who loves being a part of our book stall at the Kolkata Book Fair.
I am sure there were many more such anecdotes and conversations. These human stories tell us how every human being is wanting to find out the truth in one’s own way. The work of J Krishnamurti is so difficult to describe. It is religious but not in the sense that we define the term. In essence, it is about the uncovering of the truth through honest inquiry without seeking security. It is about a quality of daily living that is rich in goodness, compassion and love.
To put it simply, there is a ring of undiluted truth in those writings.
