Krishnamurti & Krishnamurti

Two well known spiritual figures emerged from India and the theosophical society in the 20th century, both were known as Krishnamurti as their westernized surname, but the two were quite differnt.

Jiddu Krishnamurth was a renowned spiritual teacher, writer & speaker, and had a great influence on the modern New Age movement. I've read about 3~4 of his books in the past few years, and an interesting thing about them is that I am unable to read them in the traditional fashion, ie. continuously from front to back.
Infact if you really follow what he says, you'll end up putting the book down, become observant of your thoughts, emotional states, and the external world. What he says is no longer the focus, as he points the direction of the discussion/exploration back to yourself. So you walk away from the books, and walk back into life and existence.

The other Krishnamurti (U.G. Krishnamurti, abbreviated as UG) was described as a spiritual rebel/terrorist, an anti-guru. He repeatedly said that he has no teachings to give, told people don't bother to listen to or understand his words, but many people find this to be too irresistable that they continued to seek him out for his spiritual wisdoms.

UG: People throw questions at me like they would stones at dogs. Like the dog, my response is also to bark. I am merely barking, which you translate into meaningful language.

Listener: I am sorry, I can't believe you.

Equally amusing was the disclaimer of his books*:

My teaching, if that is the word you want to use, has no copyright. You are free to reproduce, distribute, interpret, misinterpret, distort, garble, do what you like, even claim authorship, without my consent or the permission of anybody.

You have to admit that's at least rather original.

Personally, I have not read any of his words other than the quotes above, hey...if the man tells you that he's got nothing of value to give, why wouldn't you listen to him and walk away?
That's exactly what I do, but I have an appreciation for his style of humor & honesty.

So interestingly, as I continued my journey ahead I walked away from both their books, and travel into the unknown alone.

*Note: according to wikipedia, UG writes no books, but instead others record his talks and publish them in book form.