Question: Image-worship, puja, and meditation, are natural and obviously useful to man. Why are you denying them and taking away the consolation in suffering which they offer?

#Krishnamurti: Let us understand what we mean by #meditation. As it is a complex subject, you will have to pay continued attention, otherwise you will miss the point. Let us first get the main points clear to ourselves.

First of all, I am not saying that meditation is not necessary. But before we say whether it is necessary or not, we must understand what it means. My guru, my traditions, say 'meditate', so I sit in a room and meditate. Surely, that has no meaning. I must understand what is meant by meditation. What do we mean by meditation? In meditation, several things are involved: prayer, concentration, the search for truth, or what we call understanding, the desire to seek consolation, and so on.

Let us take an example of prayer. What do we mean by it? Prayer is a form of supplication. One is in difficulty, and one looks to somebody to help one out. You and I may not pray, but millions do; and when they pray, obviously they receive an answer, otherwise they wouldn't do it. They receive a certain consolation. In prayer, does the answer come from God, a superior entity, or does the answer come from somewhere else? What is involved in prayer? First, you repeat certain words; you are a Hindu, and you repeat certain words, mantrams. By repeating words over and over again. you induce quietness in the mind. If you endlessly repeat something, obviously the mind is made dull, quiet; and when the conscious mind is quiet, then it receives an answer. Where does the answer come from? Does it come from what you call God, or does it come from somewhere else?

Why do you pray? Obviously, you pray because you are in some sort of difficulty, there is a state of pain and suffering, and you want an answer. That is, you have created a problem; and by praying, which is a repetition of words, you quiet the mind, and then the mind receives an answer. When you do that, what is actually taking place? The superficial mind is in a quiet, inactive state; then the unconscious mind activates itself, and you have an answer. Or, to put it differently, you have a problem which you worry about and puzzle over for a long time, but you do not find an answer. Then you say, `I will sleep on it'. When you wake up the next morning, you have the solution. How does it take place? The #conscious mind, after worrying over a problem, puts the problem aside and says, `I will leave it alone; and when the conscious mind is quiet with regard to the problem, the #unconscious is able to project itself into the conscious, and the answer is there.

You may call it the still, small voice, the voice of God, or what you will - the name does not matter. It is the unconscious that gives the intimation, that gives an answer to the problem; and prayer is merely a trick to make the conscious mind quiet, so that it can receive the answer. But the conscious mind receives an answer according to its conscious desire. As long as the mind is conditioned, its answer will inevitably be conditioned. That is, if I am nationalistic, and through prayer I reduce the conscious mind to stillness, I receive an answer according to my nationalistic conditioning. Therefore a Hitler can say, `I hear God's voice'. That is one part of this question of meditation.

Then there is the problem of concentration, which is a little more difficult; it requires more application of thought and attention. What do you mean by concentration? By concentration, you mean exclusion. To concentrate upon an object, an idea, an image, means to resist and exclude all other thoughts encroaching upon your mind. To resist the flow of other ideas, to try to force your mind to dwell upon one idea, is a constant battle, is it not? You choose an idea, and you try to focus your mind on that idea and resist all other thoughts; and when you are able to concentrate on that idea to the exclusion of all others, you think you have learnt complete concentration. When you do this, what is actually taking place?

Concentration becomes a constant conflict of resistance. Why do you choose one thought, and deny all other thoughts? Because you think that one particular thought is more important than all the others, which you consider to be lesser ones. So, there is a conflict, a constant battle between the lesser thoughts and the more important thoughts. But if you follow and understand each thought as it arises, whether important or unimportant - all thoughts are important - , then there is no necessity for focussing your thought on one idea. Then concentration is no longer narrowing, but strengthening, creative.

Look at a child. Give him a toy, a plaything, something in which he is interested. The child will be completely absorbed in it, you do not have to tell him to concentrate. It is the grown - up people who are not interested and who force themselves to concentrate. The man who makes an effort to concentrate, has no interest in what he is doing. If he is interested, concentration is no effort at all. Most of you indulge in meditation because you are not interested in what you are doing every day. So meditation carries you away from life, it is not a part of your daily existence. Therefore, concentration, which you call meditation, is merely an escape from life; and if you can escape from life completely, you think you have gained something. But if you examine every thought, every feeling as it arises, without condemnation, justification, or resistance, then out of that constant understanding, constant rediscovery, the mind becomes very quiet, still and free.

So, meditation is not concentration, meditation is not prayer.Then there is the performance of rituals. Why do you perform a ritual? What is the truth behind it? My mother dies, and I do it for no valid reason. Sirs, this introduces the question of sanity. To do something without thinking, is insanity; to use words without a referent, without meaning, is a state of unbalance. Why do you perform rituals for the dead? If it gives you comfort, you are seeking comfort and not understanding. If you know that, why are you doing it? Do you know the full significance, the whole implication of performing rituals? If you do not, obviously you should not do it. Why do you do it, Sirs? Some people do it because they have nothing else to do, especially women, and it indicates the state of unbalance in which we are living. The performance of rituals is a marvellous escape from the brutality of life, from a brutal husband, the constant bearing of children; and you condemn those who do not do it. To some it is an escape, to others it is a matter of tradition, of authority. Surely, to perform a ritual for the father or mother who has died because it is the tradition to do so, is a state of unbalance. You do not know what it means, but it will please the mother, or the father, or the neighbour. He who does something he does not understand is an unbalanced person. Surely, to quote authority, to do something you do not understand because it gives you comfort, is not the action of a balanced person.

Finally, there is the worshipping of an image, sitting in front of a picture and losing yourself. Why do you worship dead things? Why don't you worship your wives, your children and neighbours? You worship dead things because they cannot respond, and you can attribute to them what you want. It is a marvelous escape. You do not worship the living because they can respond and tell you how silly you are. Now, if meditation is not prayer, is not concentration, is not rituals and the repetition of words, is not the worship of images, then what is meditation?

To understand anything, obviously, a quiet mind is necessary. What do we mean by meditation? If you see that meditation is not the mere repetition of words, is not sitting and looking at a picture and getting hypnotized - if you see the truth of this, what happens to your mind? If you see the truth about prayer, about image-worship, if you see the truth about rituals and their fallacies, what then is the state of your mind? Obviously, if you have seen the truth about all these things, you are free of them, are you not? Being free of them, your mind becomes much more clear, more tranquil, very quiet; and in that tranquillity, reality comes into being.

Meditation, then, is not a disciplining of the mind and heart according to any particular pattern, but meditation is a constant process of understanding from moment to moment. Understanding comes only when there is perception of the truth - not some abstract truth, but the truth of what is actual. If I mistake a rope for a snake, there is a state of falsification; but when I see the rope as a rope, there is truth. There is truth only when I see things as they are, in their right perspective; and this whole process of seeing things as they are, clearly and without distortion, is meditation.

But it is extremely difficult to see what is, not to mistake the rope for the snake, because most of us are incapable of perceiving without distortion. Therefore, meditation is the process of de-conditioning the mind; it means being aware, without condemnation, justification, or resistance, of every thought, every feeling, every fancy that arises according to one's idiosyncrasies and particular tendencies.

So, meditation means freedom from the past. It is memory of the past that conditions your response, and meditation is the process of freeing the mind from the past. But here a difficulty arises. It is necessary for the mind to free itself from the past in order not to distort what is, in order to see things clearly as they are; and how can the mind, which is the result of the past, free itself from the past? Mind can free itself from the past only when you recognize that every thought is the product of the past, and you are fully aware that thought cannot solve any problem.

The problem is a challenge, and a challenge is always new; and to translate the new according to the terms of the old is to deny the new. When the mind sees itself as the centre of distortion and is free, clear and unfettered by the past, when it is no longer separating itself as the `you', the `I', then it is still; and in that stillness there is understanding, recognition, reality. It is an experience which must be felt by each one, it cannot be repeated. If you repeat it, it is old. But if you are interested in solving human problems, there must be meditation of this kind; and when the mind becomes naturally quiet, as a pool becomes quiet when the winds cease, then reality comes into being.

Pune, India 2nd Public Talk, 5th September, 1948