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The Pool of Wisdom
BY WHAT AUTHORITY
OMMEN CAMP FIRE TALK, 1927
I know that many in this Camp are troubled about certain subjects that need clearing, that need understanding, and it is my purpose this evening to tell you that it will be fatal if we fight over words. There are people in this Camp, and in the world, who demand that in order to believe, in order to understand something that is very simple -for great truth is always simple and direct- there must be a miracle. I was told by someone that before he could believe that I am that which I profess to be, there must be a miracle. What greater miracle can there be than that you should understand and grasp the Truth? What greater miracle need there be than that a person should be able to lead you into your own hearts, into your own minds, and there help you to discover the Truth? What miracle need there be to understand the smooth waters that flow down to the sea and the boisterous, dancing waters of the sea itself, or to understand the pure, beautiful rose, or the clear skies and a solitary cloud? What conviction need there be on the part of the beholder, on the part of the seeker, on the part of the sufferer, to alter his course of thought, his attitude of mind? I know it is much more difficult to believe the Truth, to be convinced of the Truth, than to be hypnotized by a miracle. If I were able to perform a miracle, you would at once believe. But conviction is not born through transient things; the miracle is for the moment, but the Truth is eternal and permanent. And because I would take you into my heart, and would give of that understanding which I possess, I ask you to set aside all your complications, all your theories, all your judgments, so that you can understand the Truth.
It has been given to me, as I said, to be able, as an individual, to attain a certain altitude where I perceive life differently from the ordinary human being, where life, which possesses most people, does not possess me, where life is understood in its simplicity and in its purity. It has been given to me to attain this Happiness and this Liberation! For it is in freeing, in liberating oneself from all narrowing affections, from all sorrows, afflictions and griefs, that one truly attains the eternal Happiness. It is my purpose to give of that understanding, of the waters of life, which shall satisfy the thirsty, and I shall do it, whether people call me by one name or by another name. And it is because of that intense, burning desire to give, that I would take you to my heart and give you the understanding which I possess. The Truth lies in giving Happiness to others, that lasting Happiness which will liberate them from their own afflictions, from their own pettiness, from their own narrowness, from their limitations and from their prejudices. And I shall be able to do it because in me I possess that fountain. Do not let us quarrel; do not let us disagree over a word. What matters is that you should understand the Truth, because you are suffering, because you are longing to find the Truth which I have found, because you are caught in the wheel of life and death, and desire to escape from its limitation.
It does not matter who gives you the Truth, who gives you the understanding that will enable you to climb to the mountain-top where you will discover yourself and the Kingdom of Happiness. If you worship the personality, the personality of Krishnamurti, if you give your affection to that being, you will suffer, because that being passes away, is destroyed and decays, because it is a transient thing. While if you are the disciples of the Truth, then you will become part of that Truth. When you see the beauty of a sunset, that sunset does not give you a moral code, it does not give you laws, regulations, dogmas, creeds, but if you become part of that beauty, then you need never worry about laws, regulations, modes of life, moral laws and so on. If you have that understanding, you will not be held in the net of transient things, of complicated things that have no value.
In saying all this, I do not wish to exercise authority, but to convince you of your own value, of your own strength, to multiply your own desires so that you may achieve, so that you may give. Whether I am this or that, or whether I am that which I profess to be, is of no value. That which I am remains with me. That which I am not falleth away from me. That which I have gained, that which I possess, that which is part of me, can never go.
So, with that understanding, let us examine the question. The world -what does it desire? It desires people who have found the Truth, who are not swamped by creeds, by dogmas, by quarrels. It does not care what you think of me, or what I think of you, but it desires to drink of that knowledge which you possess, and if you dissipate yourselves in these petty discriminations, you are oblivious of the needs of those people who are suffering, who are afflicted, those people who are longing to find the Truth.
As I have said, I am burning with the desire to give you such an understanding that you will rid yourselves of all your jargons, all your systems, all your philosophies, such an understanding as will put a mirror before you, so that you will see yourselves as you are, so that you will from that vision gather strength in order to climb. To discover yourself, to find yourself, to strengthen yourself, is all that matters, and not your dogmas, your creeds, your philosophies. Because you all suffer, you want to be mesmerized by words, you want to be hypnotized by soft-sounding, melodious notes, but you can never by these means destroy the cause of sorrow; you may pass it by for a season but it will return as inevitably as the sunrise. In order to destroy that sorrow, in order to annihilate that which creates sorrow, you must go within and discover the world of reality, the world of Liberation, the world of Happiness.
The world problem is the individual problem; if the individual is at peace, has Happiness, has great tolerance, and an intense desire to help, then the world problem as such ceases to exist. You consider the world problem before you have considered your own problem. Before you have established peace and understanding in your own hearts and in your own minds, you desire to establish peace and tranquillity in the minds of others, in your nations and in your states; whereas peace and understanding will only come when there is understanding, certainty and strength in yourselves.
What is the purpose of life? Why do you suffer? Why are you afflicted? Why have you to weep? Why have you to exercise control? Why have you to struggle? It is a process of evolution from the very beginning, from the very foundation of the earth, from the time when the spark starts forth on its individual progress. While it is climbing towards that mountaintop, it accumulates those things that are unnecessary, and through this accumulation it creates karma, and gradually, as it progresses on that upward path, it begins to discard, it becomes more simple, until it joins the flame and becomes the Truth itself. From the flame you came forth, to the flame you will return and thus unite the beginning and the end. The purpose of life is to lose the separate self, which started as an individual spark, and when you have done that, then the Truth is established within you and you become part of the Truth, and you are yourself the Truth.
When you go away from here, people will question you, and because they see the light in your face and Happiness in your heart, they will desire to share it. In what manner are you going to give it? Are you going to say: "You must believe in such-and-such an individual with such-and-such a label"? Or are you going to say: "He has opened my heart and has given me understanding and I wish to share it with you"? By that alone you will be judged, and by that alone you will be able to help. People do not require names, labels, badges, societies and orders; they are not going to be satisfied by creeds and dogmas and enforced beliefs, but by understanding, sympathy and affection. They require that water which shall quench their thirst, which shall quench their burnings and their longings, and pacify and give them certainty, and hence strength, in themselves. If you make use of authority -it does not matter whose it is- you are limiting them to that particular authority, and they will suffer and the time will come when they will desire to free themselves from that authority.
That Truth which dwells in each one of you must be uncovered, and in me lies the power to give you encouragement, as the sun shines on the daisy as well as on the rose. If you have the longing, if you have sufficient understanding and purpose, you will understand the Truth in its pure sense, in its simplicity; but if you are complicated, you will pervert it. The river, which meanders down to the sea, feeds all the peoples of the world, without concerning itself as to whether they are brown, black, white or yellow. All that it remembers is that it must keep its source alive and undefiled, so that it may feed those people on its banks who are thirsty, and the trees that have roots deep under the earth. Whether man pollutes it by his machines or by his complications is not its concern.
So, friends, because you have gathered from all pests of the world, and you will go away again and talk of all that you have heard here, I would that you could destroy your misunderstandings of the Truth, your narrow judgments, your limitations, so that you will be able to give to those who are hungry of that which will satisfy them eternally. And to do that, you have to set aside -as you put aside your cloak- your small theories, your complications, and become simple, as simple as a single star in a naked sky. When you see beauty, the beauty of the rose, the beauty of the sunset or of the sky, and you cannot appreciate and understand that beauty, it is of no use for me to tell you concerning the beauty of it. If you have a veil in front of your eyes, I may be able, perhaps, to tear it away, but if you have the power again to grow another veil, woe to you! When you go out, you must have understood the Truth, but if you have little understanding, little narrowness, you will pervert the Truth, you will not be able to help others. I know you give your devotion, your love, to the personality of Krishnamurti, but that is not enough, friends. You must understand the Truth, you must, during these few days, go inside yourselves and there discover Krishnamurti, for there you will find him, as I have found my Beloved. And when you find him, you will have found peace, you will have entered on the path of peace, you will have opened the gates of Happiness and Liberation.