Al-Risala (English), September 1984

what hindrances and obstacles lie in one’s path, one soldiers on until one reaches one’s final destination. The conviction that spurs a true believer on is faith in the life to come. He bears all forms of hardship, suffering and adversity in this world. He realizes that this ephemeral world is for the trial of man; in the next eternal world of God he will be rewarded for his efforts. As Helen Hooven Santmyer laboured for over half a century in the compilation of her book, bearing all forms of adversity in her determination to attain her goal in life, so the believer labours all his life for the attainment of reward in the hereafter. And, as Helen Hooven Santmyer’s sustained effort bore her due reward in this world, so the believer’s sustained effort will bear him due reward in the next world: he will be made to enter a paradise of eternal repose and bliss. □ Reply without Reaction Mr. J. Krishnamurti, 90, is a well-known Indian thinker. When he is on a public stage, he folds his hands and says, “Sir, I am a nobody,” or, “Sir, I am just a passer-by.” Are we all nothing in reality? His answer is, “Yes, when you are as nothing, you are everything.” Islamic thinkers disapprove of thoughts of this kind for they lead to sceptism or monism, and both are just a philosophical license for irresponsibility and monism. Yet there is an example from Krishnamurti’s life which can be quoted here with great pertinence. Mr. J. Krishnamurti is fortunate enough to find a large audience at every speech he makes. Thousands attend his talks year after year, but he feels unhappy at their failure to move along with him. At the end of his discussions in Madras in February 1984, he asked the audience: “Will you change, sirs?” and declared, “You’ll all go back and continue doing what you have been doing.” For more than 50 years he has been travelling round the West and India, but has still not relaxed his efforts to make people see what he thinks ought to be seen. Once a man in the audience asked him angrily, “Year after year you say that we are not going along with you; then why do you keep talking to us?” Mr. Krishnamurti politely replied, “Sir, have you ever asked a rose why it blooms?” When you are provoked by a remark of your critic, all you do is react. But when you resist provocation, you are able to give an answer which will render your critic speechless. □