Gathering For Young
The gathering for young people is held every year at the Study Centre, Valley School Campus during the last week of December. The title of the gathering in Dec. 2008 was “Can we live a life of order and wholeness in a chaotic world?” This was the fifth gathering for young people to be held in India.

The gathering for young people is organized to address some unique challenges young people face as the questions of earning a livelihood is vital at this stage of life. Many young people are in the process of starting new relationships with opposite sex. This involves looking at questions of expectation, commitment, and sometimes breaking of relationships. Some young people have a spiritual inclination and they begin to search for truth through various Gurus, systems, and organizations. After being completely dissatisfied with the different popular approaches they may come across a book of J. Krishnamurti. Then the vital question is how to bring into one’s daily living what JK is pointing out in his talks, dialogues, and writings.

The age group of the participants was from 18 to 35. The participants came from various regions of India and abroad. They came from different backgrounds – teacher, software engineer, human resource, and so on.

The gathering lasted for six days. All the participants lived at the Study Centre, Bangalore. A typical day of the gathering would start in the morning by Yoga or nature walk. After a late breakfast at 9AM, the participants would assemble together at 10 AM for theme video presentations group dialogues. During the week we watched the entire series of four talks in San Diego, 1970. After lunch the participants had options for long hikes, or spending time in art village, or watching complete Krishnamurti videos. In the evening one could play games or go for a nature walk. Before dinner we had half hour of quiet time in the study centre. The dinner was followed with bonfire or Krishnamurti documentary videos. We also watched the documentary “Inconvenient Truth” on environmental issues. This was followed with a dialogue on environmental issues.

Some of the questions examined during the week:

• In IT corporations aggressiveness and competitiveness is encouraged, I have a personal conflict because I read K and he says that competitiveness is unhealthy. I am in conflict. How can I sustain awareness of my competitiveness?
• What are our real physical needs and what are psychological needs? What is desire?
• Everyone wants to be happy. Why there is unhappiness?
• Can we live a life of order and wholeness in a chaotic world?
• What is good culture? Is it possible to bring a good culture in today’s society? Is progress contradictory to bringing about a good culture?
• In finding a right livelihood one has to address the question of social respectability, money, what is one’s need and what is one’s want? Do I want a right livelihood?
• Why the teachings don’t work for me? I still get angry. I still get carried away with pleasure and desire. I still have fear. What is difficulty in living the teachings?