U. G. Krishnamurti

Nature is busy creating absolutely unique individuals, whereas culture has invented a single mold to which all must conform. It is grotesque.U. G. Krishnamurti

Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti (9 July 1918 – 22 March 2007) was a philosopher who questioned the state of spiritual enlightenment. Having pursued a religious path in his youth and eventually rejecting it, U.G. claimed to have experienced a devastating biological transformation on his 49th birthday, an event he refers to as “the calamity”. He emphasized that this transformation back to “the natural state” is a rare, acausal, biological occurrence with no religious context. Because of this, he discouraged people from pursuing the “natural state” as a spiritual goal.

He rejected the very basis of thought and in doing so negated all systems of thought and knowledge. Hence he explained his assertions were experiential and not speculative – “Tell them that there is nothing to understand.”

He was unrelated to his contemporary Jiddu Krishnamurti, although the two men had a number of meetings because of their association with the Theosophical Society and U.G. has, at times, referred to him as “[his] teacher” in spite of having ultimately rejected said teachings as well as the idea that anything could or should be taught in any spiritual context.