Question:
"How can we solve our present political chaos and the crisis
in the world? Is there anything an individual can do
to stop the impending war?"
Krishnamurti:
"War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday
life, is it not?
"War is merely an outward expression of our inward state, an
enlargement of our daily action. It is more spectacular,
more bloody, more destructive, but it is the collective
result of our individual activities. Therefore, you
and I are responsible for war and what can we do to
stop it? Obviously the ever-impending war cannot be
stopped by you and me, because it is already in movement;
it is already taking place, though at present chiefly
on the psychological level. As it is already in movement,
it cannot be stopped - the issues are too many, too
great, and are already committed. But you and I, seeing
that the house is on fire, can understand the causes
of that fire, can go away from it and build in a new
place with different materials that are not combustible,
that will not produce other wars. That is all that we
can do. You and I can see what creates wars, and if
we are interested in stopping wars, then we can begin
to transform ourselves, who are the causes of war.
"An American lady came to see me a couple of years ago, during
the war. She said she had lost her son in Italy and
that she had another son aged sixteen whom she wanted
to save; so we talked the thing over. I suggested to
her that to save her son she had to cease to be an American;
she had to cease to be greedy, cease piling up wealth,
seeking power, domination, and be morally simple – not
merely simple in clothes, in outward things, but simple
in her thoughts and feelings, in her relationships.
She said,” That is too much. You are asking far too
much. I cannot do it, because circumstances are too
powerful for me to alter.” Therefore she was responsible
for the destruction of her son.
"Circumstances can be controlled by us, because we have created
the circumstances. Society is the product of relationship,
society changes; merely to rely on legislation, on compulsion,
for the transformation of outward society, while remaining
inwardly corrupt, while continuing inwardly to seek
power, position, domination, is to destroy the outward,
however carefully and scientifically built. That which
is inward is always overcoming the outward.
"What causes war – religious, political or economic? Obviously
belief, either in nationalism, in an ideology, or in
a particular dogma. If we had no belief but goodwill,
love and consideration between us, then there would
be no wars. But we are fed on beliefs, ideas and dogmas
and therefore we breed discontent. The present crisis
is of an exceptional nature and we as human beings must
either pursue the path of constant conflict and continuous
wars, which are the result of our everyday action, or
else see the causes of war and turn our back upon them.
"Obviously what causes war is the desire for power, position,
prestige, money; also the disease called nationalism,
the worship of a flag; and the disease of organized
religion, the worship of a dogma. All these are the
causes of war; if you as an individual belong to any
of the organized religions, if you are greedy for power,
if you are envious, you are bound to produce a society
which will result in destruction. So again it depends
upon you and not on the leaders – not on so-called statesmen
and all the rest of them. It depends upon you and me
but we do not seem to realize that. If once we really
felt the responsibility of our own actions, how quickly
we could bring to an end all these wars, this appalling
misery! But you see, we are indifferent. We have three
meals a day, we have our jobs, we have our bank account,
big or little, and we say, “For God’s sake, don’t disturb
us, leave us alone”. The higher up we are, the more
we want security, permanency, tranquility, the more
we want to be left alone, to maintain things fixed as
they are; but they cannot be maintained as they are,
because there is nothing to maintain. Everything is
disintegrating. We do not want to face these things,
we do not want to face the fact that you and I are responsible
for wars. You and I may talk about peace, have conferences,
sit round a table and discuss, but inwardly, psychologically,
we want power, position, we are bound by beliefs, by
dogmas, for which we are willing to die and destroy
each other. Do you think such men, you and I, can have
peace in the world? To have peace, we must be peaceful;
to live peacefully means not to create antagonism. Peace
is not an ideal. To me, an ideal is merely an escape,
an avoidance of what is, a contradiction of what is.
An ideal prevents direct action upon what is. To have
peace, we will have to love, we will have to begin upon
them, transform them. As long as each one of us is seeking
psychological security, the physiological security we
need – food, clothing and shelter – is destroyed. We
are seeking psychological security, which does not exist;
and we seek it, if we can, through power, through position,
through titles, names – all of which is destroying physical
security. This is an obvious fact, if you look at it.
"To bring about peace in the world, to stop all wars, there must
be a revolution in the individual, in you and me. Economic
revolution without this inward revolution is meaningless,
for hunger is the result of the maladjustment of economic
conditions produced by our psychological states – greed,
envy, ill-will and possessiveness. To put an end to
sorrow, to hunger, to war, there must be a psychological
revolution and few of us are willing to face that. We
will discuss peace, plan legislation, create new leagues,
the United Nations and so on and on; but we will not
win peace because we will not give up our position,
our authority, our money, our properties, our stupid
lives. To rely on others is utterly futile; others cannot
bring us peace. No leader is going to give us peace,
no government, no army, no country. What will bring
peace is inward transformation which will lead to outward
action. Inward transformation is not isolation, is not
a withdrawal from outward action. On the contrary, there
can be right action only when there is right thinking
and there is no right thinking when there is no self-knowledge.
Without knowing yourself, there is no peace.
"To put an end to outward war, you must begin to put an end to
war in yourself. Some of you will nod your heads and
say, “ I agree”, and go outside and do exactly the same
as you have been doing for the last ten or twenty years.
Your agreement is merely verbal and has no significance,
for the world miseries and wars are not going to be
stopped by our casual assent. They will be stopped only
when you realize the danger, when you realize your responsibility,
when you do not leave it to somebody else. If you realize
the suffering, if you see the urgency of immediate action
and do not postpone, then you will transform yourself;
peace will come only when you yourself are peaceful,
when you yourself are at peace with your neighbour."
