Banner Picture: View of Ganga from the Study Centre Rajghat, Varanasi

“Can thought explore consciousness?”-Residential retreat between 17-21 January 2025

Krishnamurti Foundation India is happy to announce the residential retreat at the Krishnamurti Study Centre, Rajghat Education Centre, Varanasi from 17th to 21st January 2025. You may register online in the link below. Final confirmation will be provided by email within two days of your registration. For details, you can click on this link for the Brochure: Residential retreat - January 2025.

To register online for the event, please enter the details here: Registration form

Seeking donations to renovate the cottages

The Centre has about 15 cottages along the Ganga where guests who come to engage in exploration of K stay. These cottages were built about 20 to 40 years back. Owing to exposure to extreme weather and usage, many of them are in a state that would require renovation. We are seeking donors who would be willing to extend their help in this regard. You may write to studycentre@rajghatbesantschool.org with your suggestions or donate online on this link.

Vision

The Study Centre is based on the vision of J. Krishnamurti and inspired by the statements he made about his teachings. He wished to bring about Centres where people could go and stay to study the teachings without any organised programmes, and with only their own seriousness to guide them. He said:

'This is a place of learning and austere living with inward discipline, and work, without guru, without leader, and without a system of meditation or working.'

There are many people who, because of distractions of occupations, family, or other factors in their lives, find it difficult to immerse themselves in the teachings. So each one comes to this place on his own, to meditate, to study the teachings, and to do some physical work if he wishes.'

'It must last a thousand years, unpolluted-like a river that has the capacity to cleanse itself-which means no authority whatsoever for the inhabitants. And the teachings in themselves have the authority of the truth.'

'It is essentially a religious centre according to what ‘K’ has said about religion. It is a place where one is not only physically active, sustained and continuous but also there is a movement of learning; and so each one becomes the teacher and the disciple. It is not a place for one's own illumination or one's own goal of fulfilment, artistically, religiously; or in any way, but rather for sustaining each other and nourishing each other in flowering in goodness.'

What does it mean to study the Teachings ?

'If I went to the Study, first of all I would want to be quiet, not bring problems there; not my household problems, business preoccupations, and so on. And also I think I would want what K says to be entirely part of my life, not just that I have studied K and I repeat what he says. Rather, in the very studying of it I am really absorbing it; not bits of it here and there, not only just what suits me.'

'If I went there to study what K is saying, I would want to investigate it, question it doubt it; not just read something and then go away. I would be reading not just to memorise, I would be reading to learn; to see what he is saying and my reactions to it, whether it corresponds or contradicts, whether he is right or I am right, so that there is a constant communication and interchange between what I am reading and what I am feeling. I would want to establish a relationship between what I am reading, seeing, hearing, and myself with my reactions, conditionings, and so on; a dialogue between him and me. Such a dialogue must inevitably bring about a fundamental change.'

'Let us say that a man like you comes to the new study. You take all the trouble to come to this place, and for the first few days you may want to be quiet. I f you are sensitive, you realise there is something here which is different from your home, totally different from going to a discussion somewhere. Then you begin to study, and not only you, but all the people living here, are studying, seeing, questioning. And everyone actually listening with their whole- being will naturally bring about a religious atmosphere.'

Facilities

Ensconced amidst the lush green trees and located on a high plateau above the might Ganga, the Study Centre is a peaceful abode. It hosts the place that Krishnamurti used to stay during his visit to Varanasi from where he conducted his talks. It still has a silent room where he used to rest and spend solitary moments. It is now used for meditation. The expansive hall in the first floor till date remains the seat of Krishnamurti dialogues.

The building also hosts a well-stocked library of books by Krishnamurti and  translations of his works, copies of out-of-print materials, biographies, evaluative studies of the teachings and bulletins of the Foundations. The Study Centre has a catalogued video and audio collection of Krishnamurti's talks and dialogues with facilities to play them. The Study Centre also has a lending library with books and tapes. The Centre regularly hosts video screenings for the public as well as group dialogues exploring Krishnamurti's teachings. Sale of books & audio-video Recordings are also conducted.

The cottages are co-located conveniently around the main building. Visitors are welcome to stay and dine in the Study Centre for a nominal fee. The purpose of the Centre remains as conceived by Krishnamurti. In keeping with the ethos of the place, guests are requested not to smoke and drink on the campus, or treat the centre as convenient lodging houses or bases for sightseeing or transacting business. Food is strictly vegetarian.

Retreats

The Krishnamurti Centre, Rajghat organizes study reteats and gatherings arund specific themes few times during the year. Generally two retreats take place in Hindi and two in English. The schedule of these retreats are announced on this website under Events. The purpose of these organized Retreats is to explore fundamental problems of our daily life in the light of J. Krishnamurti’s teachings. The intention is to create an ambience that would enable the participants to enter into a spirit of serious inquiry. The daily schedule includes: watching of J. Krishnamurti’s video talks on a particular theme followed by group inquiry or dialogue sessions, study of a text, silent sittings, walks in nature and sometimes introductory talks by a speaker. The programme is designed in such a way that there is space to be quiet, to be with nature, to gather the energy necessary to observe, reflect on the theme and share our observations.

KFI Annual Gathering held at Rajghat, Varanasi in November 2018

Publications

The Study Centre also has a Translation and Publication Cell for producing translations of Krishnamurti's books into Hindi and other North Indian languages. It brings out a quarterly bulletin called Parisamvad (meaning "Dialogue"), which contains translation of Krishnamurti's works in Hindi with each issue focusing on a particular theme.

Contact

For all your queries on booking, cancellation, information and other matters concerning Study Centre, please write to studycentre@rajghatbesantschool.org. For any urgent issues, please call +91 6394751394.

The availability time of staff is 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday-Monday and additionally 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on all other days. Please note that India timezone is GMT+5.5 hours. The Study Centre works throughout the year. It closes during the period of May 15-June 15 for summer holidays.