The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti, Volume 05 (1948-1949): Choiceless Awareness by Krishnamurti

Author:Krishnamurti [Krishnamurti]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2017-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

Third Talk at Rajghat

Seeing that there are so few of us, should we turn this into a discussion first and answer questions afterwards? Perhaps it might be worthwhile to consider the question of revolution, of change and reform—their implications and their enduring significance in life—and whether revolution is not the only permanent solution, and not reform and change.

Reform in a given social order is merely retrogression—don’t look surprised—is it not? Is not reform merely maintaining an existing social condition and giving it a certain modification but fundamentally maintaining the same structure? Reformation is, is it not, a modified continuity of a social pattern which gives a certain stability to society; and change also is of the same character, is it not? Change also is a modified continuity because change implies a formula which you are trying to follow or a standard which you are establishing—approximating the present to that standard. So, reformation and change are more or less the same thing, basically. Both imply the continuance of the present in a modified form. Both imply, do they not, that the reformer or the one who wishes to bring about the change has a measure or a pattern according to which he is approximating his action; therefore, his change, his reformation, is the reaction to the background in which he has been conditioned. So his reformation or change is the response of the background or the conditioning, which is merely approximating to a self-projected standard. I hope you are following all this. I am thinking aloud. I haven’t thought of this before, so let us proceed.

So, a man who wishes to reform, to bring about certain reformation and change, is really a person who is acting as a detriment to revolution. A reformer or a man who wishes to bring about a change is really retrogressive because either there is constant revolution or merely change—a reforming modification. That modification, being the response of the background or of the conditioning in which he has been brought up, merely continues the background in another form. The reformer wishes to bring about a change in a given society, but his reformation is only the reaction to a certain background; the approximation to a certain standard he wishes to establish is still the projection of his background. So, the reformer, the one who wishes to bring about a change, acts in society as a retrogressive factor. Please think about it; don’t deny, don’t brush it aside.

Now, what is the relationship between the reformer and the revolutionary, and what do we mean by the revolutionary? Is a man who has a definite pattern or a formula and wishes to work out that formula—is he a revolutionary? Whether the technique is pacific or bloody is irrelevant; that is not the point. Is a man who has a formula, a standard, a pattern to which he is approximating his action, a revolutionary in the fundamental sense of the word? It is very important to find this out because

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