Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti (9 July 1918 – 22 March 2007) was a philosopher and orator who questioned the state of spiritual liberation.

He emphasized that this transformation back to "the natural state" is a rare, acausal, biological occurrence with no religious context.

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[2] 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.

His mother died seven days after he was born, and he was brought up by his maternal grandfather, a wealthy Brahmin lawyer, who was also involved in the Theosophical Society.

To that end, between the ages of 14 and 21, he undertook a variety of spiritual exercises, determined to find out whether moksha was possible.

[citation needed] He spent seven summers in the Himalayas with Swami Sivananda studying yoga and practising meditation.

He dropped out of the Master's program with the idea that the answers of the West – to what he considered were essential questions – were no better than those of the East.

[note 3] Shortly after, he began an international lecture tour on behalf of the Society, visiting Norway, Belgium, Germany and the United States.

regularly attended talks given by Jiddu Krishnamurti in Madras, India, beginning a direct dialogue with him in 1953.

and his family went to the United States to seek medical treatment for his eldest son, and stayed there for five years.

Down to his last five pence, he made his way to the Ramakrishna Mission of London where the residing Swami gave him money for a hotel room for the night.

Their marriage had been a unhappy affair, and by that time he described himself as being "detached" from his family, emotionally as well as physically.

He then left London and spent three months living in Paris, using funds he had obtained by selling his unused return ticket to India, during which time he ate a different variety of cheese each day.

He was listless, without hope, and described himself as "finished" – he requested that he be sent back to India, which the consular authorities refused to do at the state's expense.

was again concerned with the subject of enlightenment, wanting to know what that state was, which sages such as Siddhārtha Gautama purportedly attained.

Afterwards, he started experiencing what he called "the calamity", a series of bizarre physiological transformations that took place over the course of a week, affecting each one of his senses, and finally resulting in a deathlike experience.

Several times he described the calamity happening to him as a matter of chance, and he insisted that he could not possibly, in any way, impart that experience to anybody else.

also maintained that upon finding himself in the "natural state", he had lost all acquired knowledge and memories, and had to re-learn everything, as if "...the slate had been wiped clean".

often traveled to countries around the world, declining to hold formal discussions yet talking freely to visitors and those that sought him out.

"[14] His unorthodox non-message philosophy and the uncompromising, direct style of its presentation, generated a measure of notoriety and sharply-divided opinions.

[19] Carrying with him a "portable kitchen" in a tiny suitcase throughout his travels, he consumed a great deal of salt and cream, and stated "no meal should take longer than a few minutes to prepare."

had asked that no rituals or funeral rites be conducted upon his death; also, he did not leave instructions on how to dispose of his body.

The self, as he perceived, is an illusory entity projected by thought and sustained by the "demand" to bring about change in the world, in itself, or in both.

"[25] Furthermore, human self-consciousness is not a thing, but a movement, one characterised by "perpetual malcontent" and a "fascist insistence" on its own importance and survival.

The self-consciousness or "I" in human beings is born out of the need to give oneself continuity through the constant utilisation of thought.

Thought also falls into its natural place – then it can no longer interfere or influence the working of the human body.

[citation needed] In its natural state, the senses of the body take on independent existences (uncoordinated by any "inner self") and the ductless glands (that correspond to the locations of the Hindu chakras) become reactivated.

described how it is the pineal gland, or the Ajna Chakra, that takes over the functioning of the body in the natural state, as opposed to thought.

Consequently, the desire for enlightenment is exploited by gurus, spiritual teachers, and other "sellers of shoddy goods", who pretend to offer various ways to reach that goal.