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RV85DT2 - Can education bring a holistic way of living?
Rishi Valley, India - 7 December 1985
Discussion with Teachers 2



2:07 Krishnamurti: May I raise a very complicated question? May I? Right, sir? Somebody confirm. How would you, if you had a son or a daughter here, you want to educate them, or bring about a holistic life? You’ve got so many students here – capable, intelligent – at least some of them. How would you bring about, through what means, what kind of attitude, what kind of verbal explanation would you go through to educate a holistic way of living? That’s what I’m proposing. By ‘holistic’, I mean whole, unbroken, not splintered up, not fragmented, as most of our lives are. So, my question is, if I may put it to you, what would you do, in what manner would you educate, how do you bring about a holistic way of living? An outlook that’s not fragmented in specialisations. How would you help them, or educate them to bring this about? Is this too complicated a question? No answer?
5:03 HP: Sir, first we have to be holistic ourselves.
5:08 K: That’s understood, sir. But first of all, you are educators here, including myself, if you will permit me. I happen to be in Rishi Valley, I like the place, the beauty of it, the hills, the rocks, the flowers, the shadows on the hills. I like the place. And I am one of the educators here, parents send me one of their children and I want to see that their whole life from the very beginning of their days, while they come here, I want to see that they live a life – ‘whole’ means good. Good, not in the ordinary sense of that word. Good. It has a special meaning, not the old traditional word ‘good’, a good boy, a good husband. That’s all very limited, in the verbal sense. But it has much greater significance when you relate goodness to wholeness. I don’t know if I’m making any sense. Good has that quality of being extraordinarily generous, good has that sense of not wanting to hurt another, consciously – you may do it unconsciously, but the whole attitude towards life, not to hurt, not to do something unkind, consciously, you may say something, unconsciously. Good, in the sense that it is correct – not only for the moment, correct all the time. I’m inventing! Correct in the sense, it doesn’t depend on circumstances – if it’s correct now, it’ll be correct 100 years later or 10 days later. Correctness which is connected with goodness is not related to environment, circumstances, pressures and so on. So, from that, comes right action. I don’t know if you’re following what I’m talking about. So, goodness and a holistic way of living go together. I’m one of the teachers, or educators here, this gentleman sends his son to this school, in what manner am I going to see that the boy grows in goodness and a holistic way of living? That’s my question. Do we rely on each other? Is it an individual problem or is it the problem of the whole school, of the whole body? So, it must be comprehensive – not that gentleman thinks one way and I think one way about goodness – it must be a cohesive action. Right? Is that possible? And do you want that? Sir, please, in the word ‘holistic’ is implied not the orthodox, organised and all that stupid nonsense, but that quality of religion, which we’ll go into presently. So, how am I, living here as an educator, to bring this about? Don’t leave me alone, sir.
11:18 Teacher: Sir, first, I have to is help the child to feel secure in relationship. I’m just exploring. Unless the child feels secure in his relationship with me and with the place, nothing further can happen.
11:52 Radhika Herzberger: Sir, I have to find out whether that’s really what I want to do. I have to find out whether that’s really what I want to do, here.
12:00 K: I’m asking you, ladies and gentlemen. I don’t know.
12:06 RH: And if I feel that is really what I want to do, then I must find out what do I mean by that.
12:14 K: What?

RH: What do I mean by that? If I feel that is what I want to do, then I must find out what is the content of my feelings.
12:25 Kabir Jaithirtha: Would it not be necessary, if we’re working together in the school, not to say what I mean by that or what you mean by that, but to find out if there is something that is valid for all of us. Not because we stick to an idea or we come together around an idea, but in the investigation we see clearly that this is it.
13:03 K: Sir, do we, you and I, for example, understand what it means to be whole, live a holistic life? Verbally even, logically, rationally, sanely? Do we understand what it means to live a holistic life?
13:32 T: Yes, sir.

K: Or is it merely a theory?
13:38 RH: Perhaps, we understand by contrast. We see fragmentation in ourselves and fragmentation around us, and perhaps we build some kind of…
13:51 K: If you see the fragmentation or breaking up in oneself, then you have the problem of how to get rid of it, how to be whole. I don’t want problems. I don’t want a problem which, in solving it, will bring about a holistic way of life. You understand what I mean?

RH: Yes, I understand.
14:23 K: I don’t want a problem about it. Then I’ve already broken it up. I don’t know if you see...?

RH: Yes. But despite that, the fact remains that we are fragmented.
14:40 K: That’s the point. Now, just a minute. You don’t mind going on? I know I am fragmented, my whole thinking process is fragmented. Also, I know I mustn’t make a problem of it because that’s another fragmentation.
15:12 RH: But my feeling of fragmentation is a problem – I don’t make a problem, I see a problem.
15:20 K: I realise I am fragmented, but I don’t want to make a problem of it.
15:26 RH: But doesn’t it mean that when I see that I’m fragmented, that itself is a problem?

K: That’s what I want to get at. I see I am fragmented.
15:37 RH: And I’ve created a problem.

K: I say one thing, do another. Think one thing and contradict what I think.
15:46 RH: I feel unhappy and depressed.

K: Different types of fragmentation. I also see very clearly that I mustn’t make a problem of it.
16:01 RH: Perhaps, I don’t see that clearly.
16:03 K: That’s what I want to discuss. If I make it a problem, I’ve already fragmented it, further fragmentation.
16:14 RH: But there’s an in-between stage.

K: I know all that. Follow what I’m saying, if you don’t mind. I am aware that I am fragmented, broken up in different ways – not wanting, wanting – ten different ways. If I make a problem of it, saying to myself, ‘I must not be fragmented’, that very statement is born out of fragmentation. Something born out of fragmentation is another form of fragmentation. So, I mustn’t make… Am I making myself clear, or am I being dumb? I mustn’t make a problem of it. But my brain is trained to problems. So, I must be aware of the whole cycle of it. I don’t know if I’m making myself clear. So, what am I to do? Careful. What am I…? Yes, sir.
17:40 HP: When you say that I should not make a problem of it, do we have a choice, or it becomes automatically…
17:48 K: What?
17:49 HP: When you say that we should not make a problem…
17:52 K: No, I did not say that – I won’t make a problem of it.
17:58 HP: When you see the fragmentation within you, you say that I would not like to make a problem of it.
18:11 K: I see the truth, not, I will not make a problem of it. I see the fact if I make a problem of it, it is another fragmentation. That’s all. I see it. I don’t say, ‘I must get rid of it’, or, ‘I must do something’. I just see the fact that if I say, ‘I must not’, then that becomes another fragmentation. That’s all. So, what am I to do? I wonder if you’re catching on what I’m trying to get at.
18:58 HP: Is there anything to be done, in this case?
19:03 K: I am going to show you presently. Don’t be so eager, if you don’t mind my saying so.
19:11 HP: The way I see it is that there is nothing to be done, just watching or observing.
19:18 K: Wait a minute. Don’t come to that conclusion, yet. What am I to do?
19:27 HP: Observe, watch.

K: Don’t tell me, sir. These are all words. What am I, seeing that I am fragmented, aware that whatever I do is another kind of fragmentation, so what is left for me? You don’t put yourself in that position, you have already come to a conclusion. Conclusion is another fragmentation. I don’t know if you follow all this. When you say, ‘I can observe’, that is already a conclusion.
20:15 HP: You have to say something.

K: Don’t say anything. Whom are we talking to? Are we talking to each other? Or you are only listening to the speaker therefore waiting for him to tell you what to do. You understand? Suppose I have this problem, or this question, a way of living holistically in which is involved the quality of a religious mind – we’ll go into what is religion – a quality of real, deep goodness, without any mischief, without any duality. I don’t know if you follow. Am I making it complicated?

HP: No.
21:27 K: Why not, sir? My whole brain thinks dualistically. Right? It’s always in opposition, in the sense, ‘I want to do this, and yet I mustn’t do it’. ‘I should do it, but I don’t like to do it’. It’s always taking opposing positions. That is essentially fragmentation. Right? So, what is left for me? I see all this at a glance, or with analysis. I see it, it’s like that. Then, my question is, what am I to do? Don’t tell me, ‘You should…’ I don’t accept anything from you. Right, sir? I don’t. I’m very sceptical, by nature.
22:57 HP: You are asking this question, ‘What am I to do?’ When one is observing, there is no question arising.
23:06 K: Are you doing it?
23:09 HP: Yes, sir.

K: Wait. ‘Yes, sir’. No. Are you doing it? If you’re not doing it, but saying, ‘Yes, we must try’, you are in contradiction, therefore duality, therefore fragmentation, and hence no goodness, and all the rest of it.
23:40 JR: As soon as you say, talk about, or think about an holistic state, or a state of goodness, you are already in a duality, you’re already in contradiction.

K: No, no. We are not in contradiction. I’m only putting it into words. Right? Holistic includes goodness. Right, sir? A sense of religious… a brain that is religious. What do you mean by ‘religion’, we’ll go into that presently. But I am asking you, what will you do, what’s your action, what’s your attitude, do you want to educate your student in this goodness?
24:44 JR: But as soon as I think of goodness...
24:48 K: No, no, no. Sir, just a minute. The school has a certain reputation, a certain eclat, a certain feeling about it. There is certain atmosphere in this valley. And I send you my son, hoping that you will help him to grow in this holistic way of life. I am communicating, it’s not contradicting.
25:26 T: I think, if I may explain, the minute I posit a holistic state of life, it’s a contradiction to what I actually am.
25:38 K: Of course, I understand. We are trying to investigate the question. We are not trying to lay down laws about it. At least, I’m not. I really mean it, I don’t. I want to find out in what way I can help the student. I may not be holistic. You understand what I mean? Don’t say, ‘First you must be holistic, then you can teach’. Then we are dead. Right? That will take eternity, and the boy will have gone on to BA, MA, or whatever it is. If you say, ‘I must first…’, then you’ve already stymied yourself. I wonder if you understand. I’m not going to say anything. I don’t know what to do. I really don’t know what to do with the student who comes here, with a parent who wants him to join the army, or business, or law. And I’ve got the tremendous opposition of society – right? – the father, mother, grandfather, want him to have a good job. How am I to bring this about? You don’t answer me. I don’t know.
27:27 KJ: Krishnaji, I will not answer the question, ‘How am I to bring this about?’ but I’m looking at the fragmentation.
27:41 K: Yes. In the boy?

KJ: And in me, and in the world.
27:46 K: So, what does that mean? Follow it, sir, don’t change it, follow it. What does that mean? I am fragmented and the boy is fragmented. Right?
28:02 Right, sir?

KJ: Yes.
28:04 K: Then what’s the relationship between the boy and myself?
28:13 KJ: We are learning together.

K: Don’t use phrases quickly. What’s my relationship with the student who is fragmented like myself?
28:27 RH: I am not different from him.
28:31 K: Of course you are different from him. You are different from him. You teach mathematics, he doesn’t know about that. Don’t say you’re not different from him.
28:48 KJ: Is there relationship at all, if I am fragmented?
28:51 K: Please, sir, answer my question. You’re fragmented, I’m your student, I am also fragmented. Right? Then, what do you do? What’s our relationship? Or, is there no relationship at all? Or, we are on the same level. Right? Ah, that’s it, you won’t admit that. I’m fragmented, he’s fragmented, not you, sir, somebody else. I’m fragmented, he’s fragmented. He’s my student, or I’m his student – that’s better – I am his student. And what is the relationship between these two fragments? You understand, sir? I’m asking you this question.
29:56 T: It can only be a fragmented relationship, if you can call it that.
30:00 K: Yes. No, what is actually my relationship? I don’t want to call it anything. What is my actual relationship with you, who are fragmented, like me, I’m fragmented, what’s out actual relationship?
30:18 T: There doesn’t seem to be any.

K: That’s all. How can fragments have a relationship?
30:29 T: Why not?
30:33 K: Are you really asking that question? Good. You answer it.
30:47 T: You are implying…

K: May I interrupt…? You ask me a question, and I am too eager to reply to it. Right? So, it goes on between you and me. I answer it, you counter it, then I counter it, and so on. If your question is serious, has that question any vitality?
31:35 T: Is it serious?

K: Are you listening...? He asked me a question, and he expects me to answer it, and I say I won’t answer it, because in the question itself is the answer. So, can we look at the question and wait for it to flower? You understand, sir? I ask him a question. He won’t answer it, because he says, ‘I don’t know’, or, ‘I do know but it has no meaning’, because my question is very, very serious. You understand? Let that question itself flower, not respond to it. I don’t know if you follow what I’m talking about. So, the question itself contains the answer. If you let it flower, if you let it alone, don’t kind of immediately respond to it. Because your response is already conditioned, already personal, etc. Leave the question. If the question has depth, significance, vitality, then that very question unfolds. Am I talking nonsense? No, I have done this, so, it is not nonsense. Sir, just a minute. Is there truth? Does truth exist? You don’t know, if you’re honest. Right, sir? So, you leave the question, I don’t know, let’s look at the question. And the question begins to unfold. Is there truth, or only the sense of tremendous, active, vital illusion? I won’t go into all that. So, what shall I do with student who has come here for 4 months, how shall I...? What shall I...? What shall I do? What shall I talk about? I wish you would look at it. Narayan, come on, sir.
35:05 Giddu Narayan: What did you exactly mean when you said, ‘Is there truth...’? You just now said, ‘Is there truth, or only tremendous, vital illusion?’ You are making a distinction between the two.
35:23 K: Of course.
35:27 GN: Can you further go into that?
35:31 K: We’re going off to something else. I am trying to say, if the question has depth, if the question has a sense of great vitality – because you are asking the question, after your own great inward searching, or outward searching, and you’re putting that question – let the question itself answer. It will, if you let it alone. I don’t know if you follow. I’m coming back to my original question, we’re going off.
36:10 G: Sir, as an educator, as a teacher, I have a child coming to me. I am fragmented, the child is fragmented, so there is a non-relation, and there is no relationship.
36:38 K: Are you sure there is no relationship or you’re just saying it?
36:44 G: I think, no, I am sure there is no relationship in the fragmented state, and I find that any response that I give to that child, to the student, would itself be a fragmented response.
37:05 K: Yes. Now, stop there. Then, what will you do? You understand? Is that a statement whatever relationship I have with the student will still be fragmented. Is that a reality or a verbal statement?
37:31 G: It seems a reality...
37:33 K: No, either, it’s real, as that microphone there is real – that’s not an illusion. The word ‘microphone’ is not that. The word is not that. Right? I don’t know if you see the quality of it.
38:02 RH: Are you saying that conceptual understanding…
38:05 K: …is not understanding. When I say ‘the door’, I mean the door, the fact is there.
38:15 RH: Then you’re using words in a very different way.
38:20 K: No. I don’t know.
38:21 RH: When you said, ‘Ask the question and leave it alone...’
38:25 K: Let us see what happens to the question.
38:28 RH: But sir, that means that when we ask the question, what you are implying is don’t ask conceptual questions that flow from the implications of certain statements.
38:40 K: Not only reflective questions, but also, haven’t you noticed how a question has a vitality? So, let’s come back. You are going off. What am I to do, sir? You tell me.
39:04 G: I want to add one more sentence, maybe. Am I fooling myself that I can give a holistic education?
39:12 K: We’re going to find out, sir. We are going to find out, you and I, whether it is possible to do it or not. Right? The first statement is, we are both fragmented. Let’s stick to that, not move away from that. And I don’t know what to do. Right? Right, sir? Are you clear? I don’t know what to do. What does that mean to you – ‘I don’t know’? Careful. I don’t know. You understand, sir? I don’t know what to do. Right? Then, I must investigate. When I say, ‘I don’t know’, do I really mean, ‘I really don’t know’? Or, am I waiting for somebody else to tell me, so that I will know? Which is it? Sorry!
40:31 G: At the moment, the latter.

K: Yes, sir. Is there a state of the brain when it says, ‘I really don’t know’? You understand my question? I really don’t know. I’m not waiting for him to answer, memory is not operating – you understand what I’m saying? – expecting someone else to tell me. All those states are waiting for an answer. You understand? But no-one can answer this, because they’re all fragmented. Therefore, I am waiting, watching, looking, observing, listening to the question. Right? I don’t know what to do. I wonder if you understand what I am talking about? Then I ask, what’s the state of my brain which says, ‘I don’t know’?
42:13 T: At that point of time it is non-functioning.
42:17 K: ‘I don’t know’. Or are you waiting for it to know?
42:26 T: Waiting for it to know.
42:27 K: Therefore, you are waiting to know, therefore, you will know. Therefore, your brain is not saying, ‘I don’t know’. It’s all very logical, sir.
42:42 Alok Mathur: I don’t think the brain ever says it doesn’t know.
42:46 K: That’s it, that’s the first thing. The brain never acknowledges, or remains in the state, ‘I don’t know’. Right? I ask you, ‘What is Iswara?’ And you promptly answer, because you have read, or you don’t believe or you believe – Iswara comes as a symbol to you. But you say, ‘What is that element that created this?’ I won’t go into this, this is a tremendously interesting question. What is life? I won’t... It’s too complicated. The beginning of life. What is the life in the seed that you plant? You understand? The life of man – what is the origin of that life? The very cell. I won’t… This leads off somewhere else. So, I don’t know how to deal with that boy or with myself. Any action I do, any movement of thought, is still born out of fragmentation. Right? So, I really don’t know. May I proceed?

GN: Please.
45:06 K: What is love? Is it related to hate? If love is related, then it is still fragmentation. Right? Do you understand what I am saying, sir?
45:41 T: Yes, sir. It’s not the opposite of hate.
45:45 K: So, what is love? It has nothing to do with pity, sympathy and all that. What is love? You don’t know. Right? Is it that state of not-knowing love? Oh, Lordy, you’re all being mesmerised. So, sir... It leads so far, so deep, I don’t know if you want to go into all this. I don’t know what to do with that boy or girl, because we’re both fragmented. I can teach him mathematics, geography, history, biology, chemistry, psychiatry, or anything but that’s nothing. Sorry! This demands much deeper enquiry, very much deeper. So, I said, what is it that is completely holistic? Certainly not thought. Right? Thought is experience and all the rest of it. It’s certainly not sympathy, not generosity, not empathy, not saying, ‘You’re a nice chap, we’re friends’. So, love has – what?
48:23 T: Compassion.

K: Love, compassion. All right. That is the only thing that’s holistic. I’m just discovering something for myself. Right? I say love is not thought, love is not pleasure. Don’t accept, for God’s sake that’s the last thing. Right? Love is utterly unrelated to hate, jealousy, anger – all that. Love is really, completely unbreakable. It’s whole, and it has its own intelligence. Compassion, love, has its own intelligence. Of course. Oh, gosh! Am I talking nonsense?
49:38 T: I have heard you say this before, in different words.
49:42 K: In different ways. I’m coming back to that. So, not knowing, to know, to know. What does that mean, to know?
49:58 T: Is to love.

K: No, you’re not listening. To know. ‘I know my wife’. Can you ever say about a person, ‘I know’? No.
50:23 RH: To know is to shut off in some way.
50:25 K: Yes. If I say, ‘I know Radhikaji’, what do I know about her? So, to say, ‘I know’, is fragmentation. I don’t know if you are following all this.
50:46 T: Is it Krishnaji? To say, ‘I know’…
50:52 K: I’m talking about human beings. I know that is a palm tree. I know that’s a tiger. But to say, ‘I know him’, is a violation.
51:09 T: I understand. The brain is so dull.

K: What? Your brain is so damned dull!

T: Yes, sir. It is rooted. It remains rooted in all this knowledge.
51:32 K: Yes. So, sir, I asked a question, can I help the student or talk to him? Because I know I am fragmented, he is fragmented. I also know, have a feeling, that love is whole – compassion. Therefore, compassion, love has its own intelligence. I am going to see if that intelligence can operate. I don’t know if I am conveying it.
52:28 JR: Sir, is this just an assumption? To say that love has its own intelligence, that love is holistic, is not fragmented, is that just an assumption?
52:45 K: I am talking about myself. It’s not an assumption. Love is not an assumption. My God!
52:54 JR: Maybe it is, because I don’t know.
52:56 K: Then remain, ‘I don’t know’. Now. You don’t know. Then wait, find out. Don’t answer it. I don’t know what the inside of a modern car is. Right? I don’t know. As a matter of fact, I have stripped a car, old cars. I know how it works, I know the gadgets of it. But a modern car, I wouldn’t touch because it’s too complicated. So, I want to learn about it. I go to a garage man and he says, this, this, this – he teaches me because I want to know how it works. Right? I take the trouble, the pain, pay him, if I have the money, or work with him, till I know every part of that car. Right, sir? That means I want to learn, but I’m not sure you want to learn, as I want to learn about a car. You understand, sir? I’m not at all sure you want to learn.
54:39 Rajesh Dalal: But Krishnaji, in this, this very wanting to learn...
54:47 K: Don’t translate it into fragmentation.
54:49 RD: No, I’m not. I’ve done a lot with you on this. I wanted to learn, and wanting to learn itself, as we understand the words ‘wanting to learn’. Today, I don’t want to learn. Please listen to what I’m saying. Today, I don’t want to learn, in the sense to know more about it. I don’t want to do that.

K: Just a minute, sir. I don’t know how those cameras work, and you say, ‘Learn about it’. I ask him, I become his apprentice, I watch how he does it, I learn about it. Then I say, ‘I know how to work that camera’. Right? But human beings are not that camera. They are much more complicated, silly asses! Much more... psychologically, psychiatrically – they are like messy machinery. I want to know how their brain works. Either I become a biologist – just a minute – or a brain specialist, or I study myself, which is much more exciting than going to a brain specialist – he only knows... Just a minute. So, I learn how my brain works. Right? There is nobody to teach me.
56:57 RD: There may be. There may be, also.
57:00 K: I don’t trust them.

RD: But I listen to them.
57:05 K: I don’t trust anybody.

RD: True. I don’t trust anybody.
57:11 K: All their knowledge is from books, or from their small, little self. So, I say I am going to investigate this whole way of living, not just parts of it, the whole way of living.
57:29 RD: Sir, I had a teacher, I had a teacher – please listen – who, I felt, had an extraordinary understanding about the nature of human beings. I wanted to learn. I began learning with that teacher. The teacher pointed out the nature of the brain, the nature of the self, and I began to learn in the same way as I learnt everything else.
58:04 K: Oh, no. I understand, I understand.
58:08 RD: I did. I began to gather knowledge, which is what learning really means – learning, as we know it.
58:16 K: Learning, as we know it, is merely accumulating memory.
58:21 RD: Merely accumulating memory – but there is an observing.
58:25 K: Yes, yes. Don’t make it complicated, learning.
58:30 RD: One observed, one remembered, one got what one called insight.
58:35 K: Ah!

RD: Yes, I know. I said, what one called insight, something new, something which one has not known earlier, something which seemed to make the picture better, larger and so on. You see that this process of making the picture is endless. It has nothing to do with the real thing.
59:05 K: So, at the end of it, what?
59:09 RD: So, what is this learning?
59:12 K: I consider that’s not learning.

RD: Yes, that’s not learning.
59:16 K: So, what is learning? Surely, memorising is not learning.
59:26 RD: No. That’s not learning.

K: But that’s what you are doing! Rajesh, is there another way of learning? Is there something entirely different from the ordinary learning? You understand the question? Is there?
1:00:03 RD: I don’t know.

K: Do you want to know? No. Do you want to find out if there is another way of learning – not memorising, memorising, and then remembering, acting skilfully and so on. We know that very well. He comes along and tells me, ‘Look, all that is mechanical’. He says there is another way of learning. Will I listen to him? Will I take the trouble to say, ‘Tell me about it. I am receptive, I am anxious, I am willing to find out’? So, he begins to tell me. Am I capable of listening to what he is saying? Or my whole brain revolts against this, because it’s used to one pattern, and to break that pattern is the real difficulty.
1:01:35 RD: And trying to break that pattern is useless.
1:01:42 K: That makes another problem. I don’t want problems. So, first, I ask myself do I really want to learn? Go on, sir, don’t ask me, I’m asking you, do you want to learn? Or, is it another chapter to add to your memory, another book? Say, ‘Yes, sir, I’ve understood’.
1:02:15 RD: I see what you are saying.
1:02:18 K: So, let’s come back. What am I to do, or not do? Or, the question is much deeper than merely the boy and the girl whom I’m educating. So, it might be I have not really understood, verbally even, what it means to live a holistic life, understood intellectually, even. I don’t know if you follow what I am talking about.
1:03:09 RD: Verbally and intellectually I would say, ‘Yes’.
1:03:14 K: Are you sure? You’ve used two words. ‘I am sure, intellectually’. So, you have separated the intellect from the whole. Therefore, you’re not – listen, listen.
1:03:33 RD: There’s an issue, but, ok, I’ll listen. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

K: What about?
1:03:42 RD: For not listening. You were saying something.
1:03:49 K: Sir, when you say, ‘I understand intellectually’, it means just bananas.
1:03:56 RD: I don’t say I understand just intellectually.
1:04:01 K: When one – you are not listening, Old Boy – when one says, ‘I understand it intellectually’, it means absolutely nothing. Right? When you say ‘intellectual’ that’s another fragment. So, don’t use the words, ‘I understand intellectually’. That’s a crime. Now, what am I, an educator at Rishi Valley – I understand partially what it means, verbally even, a holistic way of living. And knowing that he and I are both fragmented. Right? Are you listening? You’re getting bored.

RD: No, I’m not bored.
1:05:14 K: You can’t sustain attention?
1:05:17 RD: Sir, how do you say that? I am not bored, not at all.
1:05:22 K: You were not listening, yesterday.
1:05:32 RD: I don’t know what to say to you.
1:05:36 K: Yes, sir. I have got a watch in front of me. Five minutes more, I’ll stop. May I finish this? I am at Rishi Valley – lovely place, beautiful hills and all the beauty of the earth here. I wonder if you know what I mean by ‘beauty’. No, I won’t go into that for the moment. I’m here, I’m responsible to the parents for that boy or girl. Right? They have sent them because we have a good reputation, we look after them, we do all that. That’s not the point. He comes along and tells me, ‘It’s all right, but what matters is a holistic way of life’. Not intellectually, but the whole psyche, the whole being, the whole entity, which is now fragmented, if that can be whole, then you have done the most extraordinary education – he tells me that. And he goes away and I don’t know what to do. I understand the verbal meaning of ‘whole’, non-fragmented, not broken up, not saying one thing, doing something else, thinking something and doing quite the opposite to that. All that is fragmentation of life. And I don’t know what to do. I really mean deeply, profoundly, gravely, seriously, I don’t know what to do. Right? Am I deceiving myself when I say, ‘I don’t know what to do’, or waiting for somebody to tell me or some book, something will accidentally come along and give me – unfortunately, that word – ‘insight’. So, I can’t wait for that because the boy is growing up in the meantime, kicking around. What shall I do? I know one thing absolutely for certain – I don’t know. Right? I don’t know. All my inventions, all my thinking have collapsed. Right? I don’t know if you feel that way. I don’t know. So, the brain is open for reception. You understand what I’m saying? The brain has been closed – by conclusions, by opinions, by judgments, by values, by my problems – it’s a closed thing. When I say, ‘I really don’t know’, I have broken something, I’ve broken the bottle, which held the champagne. Out of that, I begin to find out, when the bottle is broken. Then I find out what love is, what compassion is, and that intelligence that is born out of compassion. It’s nothing to do with intellect. I’ll work at it. It’s now an hour and 7 minutes we have talked. Is that enough? Have I mesmerised you all? Sir, we never come to the point when we say, ‘I don’t know’. Right? You ask me about God, I have immediate answers. Or you ask me about chemistry – out comes the… The tap is open. Sociology, any damn thing, I’m ready to answer. We meet the day after tomorrow, don’t we? I hope you can bear it. You see, I’m one of those idiots, I haven’t read a damn thing, except novels. You understand? It’s a fortunate thing.
1:12:28 RD: And who doesn’t think, also, sir.
1:12:32 K: No. It’s like a drum, sir, it’s all tuned up. When you strike on it, it gives the right note. I hope you aren’t tired.