U G Krishnamurthi – The Global Vagabond

Yesterday one of my friends sent me some photographs of UG and the people around him during his last visit to Bangalore in early 2006. This was his last visit to India. There were many of us who used to go to Chandrashekar’s house to see UG almost every day during his stay in Bangalore. For many of us UG had been a great influence during our formative years. His debunking of the holy business was quite convincing. He atleast made me get over some of the spiritual baggage and helped me see the other side of these well revered teachers, traditions and philosophies. There were some interesting experiences during my practice of meditation so I cannot completely agree with UG that awareness is just a response to a stimulus and a function of the brain.

I first came to know about UG when I read his book ‘Mystique of enlightenment’ in 1989 and as a teenager I was overawed by the way he demolished all the hallowed traditions and gurus. UG did have a strong impact on me. I was also surprised to know that this raging sage lived very close to the place where I used to stay. I met UG for the first time in 1990 in Chandrashekar’s house, Poornakutee in Basavanagudi, Bangalore. I was struck by his words at that time. Some of  UG’s words which hit me during this encounter were:

“Truth is just a logically ascertained premise. Why the hell do you want to go after searching for something which does not exist”

“Tell me something about thought which you have not heard from others. What is there is just about thought and not thought. “ and so on. UG did exorcise the ghost of JK out of a lot of people.

I used to frequent Chandrashekar’s house quite often when UG was around at that time. In between I lost touch with UG and the gang when I left for England for three years. I again started visiting UG during his annual journeys to Bangalore from 2000. I cannot say we were followers of UG but we had a good respect for him and I did not believe like many people around him that being around an ‘enlightened’ man would help speed their process by burning Karma. But it was nice to be around UG during this time.

During the last few years it was quite evident that UG had become senile. He used to repeat the same things over and again. The stories of his life and his funny remarks about various personalities, the anecdotes about theosophists, talking everlastingly about JK and he was becoming exceedingly repetitive. For me it was good fun and entertainment being around UG. Of all the phases of his life this was the funniest part of UG. I used to rush to Chandrashekar’s house after finishing my work and used to hang out for  this ‘free entertainment’. Well I had nothing better to do during my free time and also we had formed interesting associations in the group.

The old man UG talking about fucking, bitches, the money maxims and his physical pranks with Lewis all these were extremely funny and entertaining. Being around UG was almost like being in the speaker’s corner in London except that there is only one speaker here.UG’s words were becoming more and more illogical and incoherent than ever before but his senses were still very sharp. He could read without glasses and his hearing was very sharp. But I felt his mind (which he called a myth) had gone cuckoo. He used to brag about his great acheivements and also used to quote about his greatness by referring to some internet blogs and fringe writings.

He was also quite okay being hero worshipped and there were many people who used to sing songs which were composed in kannada, Telgu and English idolizing and praising him. There were some very funny songs as well. There were songs by Lewis Brawley which were created in the beatles tune of ‘Yellow Submarine’  and the christmas carols. It was called jalasamadhi and if I remember right it went something like this ‘Ramathirtha saw the light and it gave him such a fright and he went into jala samadhi jala samadhi and so on’. There was another song which was something like ‘Jingle bells UG tells JK was a fake; All that we are intrested are his sexcapades. We were dunderheads to listen to all that crap. Choiceless Awareness and all that poppy cock’.

I have practiced many yogas and meditations, I haven’t stopped practicing these even after coming to know UG since the last seventeen years. Many of these have helped me understand a great many things. They have created many interesting situations for me and when existential conflicts have arisen they have helped me face it and try to find ways and means to come out of it. So in a way I don’t understand UG and his obsession with these spiritual things don’t deliver the goods stuff. They do deliver to some extent maybe not take us to the enlightenment or calamity of UG. I have never followed any guru but have been with many of them, have been close to many popular ones as well. I have seen a lot of dirt in these Gurus when I have examined them in close quarters. I know for a fact that majority of them are all too human and have achieved their great spiritual status through good branding and image building and some by the virtue of the tradition they belong to.

I came to know about the death of UG a day after he died. A friend of mine sent an SMS informing about UG’s death. We all were awaiting for this news as we were quite sure that the last days of UG was very near. He had cancelled his annual trip to India and I was told by Mahima Patel (a politician from Karnataka and the son of former Karnataka Chief Minister J.H.Patel) that UG had fractured his leg and had become immobile. Two weeks before UG’s death I was holidaying in Coorg with my Wife and I happened to meet Sudha Chandrashekar and her husband who were visiting the Tibetian centre in Bylekuppe. She told us that she had been to K. Chandrashekar’s house just before Chandrashekar and his wife Suguna left for Italy to meet UG for the last time. She also mentioned that the previous day the well known sage from puttur, Ajja had died. The next couple of days I went to stay in Mysore at my uncle, the kannada publisher D.V.K Murthy’s house. I saw a news Item in ‘Star of Mysore’ that UG is unwell. The editor of ‘Star of Mysore’ ,  Ganapathi was an acquaintance of UG. 

A few weeks after UG’s death I left to California on work and was staying very close to Carmel where UG used to frequent whenever he visited America. During this trip I used to think of our college days when we used to meet UG and he used to tell all the young men and women to get out of this filthy spiritual shit land (India) and go to America and make a lot of money. Well UG belonged to the pre globalization and privatization era and he had this impression that America was still the land of milk and honey. Now there is this time where the Indians in America were investing back into India and planning to settle back in India.

All in all I have a lot of fond memories of UG. Whenever any of the members of our UG gang meet we talk about and recall these memories.