Born in 1918, raised by
First instance of revolt:
maternal grandparents,
joined Theosophical
Society
• The author was enamored
Had a couple of falls,
• He challenged authority of
decided to ‘let go’, died in
2007
Kept travelling the world,
had conversations with
people
Met Ramana Maharshi –
Ran away from home to
Himalayas for yoga
by UG due to his unsettling
honesty, lack of pretense,
and ability to demolish
people’s illusions
other gurus, demolishing
their hegemony over
spirituality, and providing
new perspectives; proved
that altruism is not the
only way to create change
Started feeling symptoms,
at age 49 achieved ‘natural
state’
Studied psychology and Acted as lecturer, but left
introduced him to a
philosophy, left degree Theosophical Society
‘special state’
• He offered logical
explanations for various
widely-accepted practices
revolving around
meditation, yoga, and the
Got married, had children,
general state of being
went to US for son’s
• Society puts dissenters in treatment, gave lectures
two silos – either and became popular
extremists in terms of
actions or passive altruistic
protestors. In this case, UG
was a lethal combination of
UG Krishnamurty both, and as effective
Travelled around the Lost interest; got his wife a
world, reached London job and stopped working.
Met Valentine, moved
and sought refuge in Cheated on his wife and
with her to Switzerland
Ramakrishna Mission left his family