We had an interesting get-together at the J Krishnamurti Study Centre in Kolkata on Sunday 26 March. Many thanks to all the friends who joined us. We were particularly delighted to see our good friend Sayan Mukerji after a very, very long time. We were also delighted to meet Anis Ben Hlal from France after initial contact was established at the Kolkata Book Fair in February. We discovered from Anis that he has ‘retired’ from the usual pursuits of a routine life and has freed himself so that he can devote his life to inquiry.
We had an interesting dialogue after reading from the book ‘Man is not the measure’. J Krishnamurti was involved in a discussion at Rishi Valley in 1984 with Pupul Jayakar and Achyut Patwardhan. It was fascinating to read the whole chapter on that discussion. Thanks to Sayan, Sudeshna and Gautam who read out the portions by Krishnaji, Pupul Jayakar and Achyut Patwardhan respectively with enthusiasm.
“You raised a question: What is sacred? Without finding that, without coming upon it—not you finding it—without that coming into being, you cannot have a new culture, you cannot have a new human quality.” Over the years, in different contexts and in different words, Krishnamurti kept pointing out that man, with his limited intellect, is always making the mistake of trying to measure life—life which is limitless, immeasurable, incalculable. Can humanity, therefore, turn in a new direction, which is to ‘come upon something which is not man-made, which may be sacred’? That in essence was the subject of the discussion.
We also caught up on the things that have happened since we last met. This included the marvellous work that our friend Gautam has been doing on the dubbing of short J Krishnamurti videos in Bengali. There are now 20 such videos for Bengali audiences. All these short videos dubbed in Bengali will be released by Gautam soon. Friends also shared ideas on how the Centre could function more effectively to reach out even more. As the new financial year 2023-24 approaches, there is plenty to think about.
It was so good to receive a message from Piyali Basu. “It was a great day! I really enjoy coming back to the Kolkata Centre again and again.” She said she loved the openness in discussion and without any conclusion. “This space is really inclusive in that sense. It was an interesting structure – diverging and then converging. Very nice. We need a space for learning, reflecting and for connecting within and without. Thank you so, so much!”
