Mahesh Bhatt has contributed almost 50 movies out of which many are award-winning ones like Arth and Saransh, but Mumbai-based filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt says his "most defining work" is a book—a tribute to his spiritual mentor and philosopher U G Krishnamurti.

Bhatt, 59, said, “It was like fire—lava—coming out of my belly on the paper. The book was not an exercise in flashing my writing skills; it was a sense of awe and wonder that drove me to write the book”.

Last month, Penguin Books, India, published the memoir, A Taste of Life: The Last Days of U G Krishnamurti. This book is second book of Bhatt on the philosopher UG.

Bhatt said, “This is the most defining work of my life, even bigger than my movies”.

The book is compiled from the notes he had "managed to put down on paper during his life-altering days with Krishnamurti".

Bhatt said, “He was like a blossom in the wilderness which bloomed, withered and then crumbled—the one that was there on a universal plane and yet not there—kind of ephemeral”.

Bhatt said that UG, the anti-guru who deconstructed the myth about men playing gods, was like a wildflower who chose to die unsung. 

"UG died on March 22, 2007, at the age of 89. He had slipped and injured himself. After a gap of one year, I decided to go through the notes in March 2008 and began to write. By September 2008, I was done with the book."

"I met him in Mumbai 30 years ago during my troubled days. I was drifting through a spiritual wasteland post-my LSD-dropping days. I spent two-and-a-half years with Rajneesh and then went to listen to Krishnamurti."

Bhatt was struck by the UG's simplicity and honesty that stripped spirituality of its divine pretences.

The filmmaker explained the reason of his liking for the UGs philosophy, “UG used to say 'I am not a godman, I would rather be called a fraud'. He was emphatic that the quest for god has become an obsessive factor in the lives of human beings because of the impossibility of achieving pleasure without pain”.

Bhatt analyzed that, “I had the privilege to be with him in life witnessing his staggering experiences and even in death which I describe as the taste of life because it removed the morbidity that one associates with death like the wind blowing on a landscape where bloom and decay were all one”.

“Rajneesh was part of the entertainment industry. He was good at storytelling and offered an alternative reality. UG, on his part, rejected the idea of 'moksha' saying how can you have something that you already possess, “said Bhatt pointing the difference in ideology and outlook between Rajneesh and UG.

Even his daughter Pooja, an actress-filmmaker, has been "hit by the intensity and the positive energy of the book, said the well known Bhatt for the movies like Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Key and Zakhm.

The book involves all the strange incidents and omens that surrounded UG's death.

Bhatt wrote in his book, “On the morning of March 22, I saw thousands of black ants marching in a line on the white carpet, up the white sofa and on UG's stone-like face where they spread out and completely darkened the left side. There were thousands of them moving with the frantic intensity of life. I remembered someone asking him some time ago what the ants were doing in his room. UG had replied they were 'coming for me'.”

The book on UG volume is slim and contains 164 pages and is divided into five chapters.

"I still feel like a child. I feel what I have written is inadequate compared to what I have experienced," says Bhatt.



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Related Books:
U. G. Krishnamurti
U.G. Krishnamurti: A Life
The Penguin U.G. Krishnamurti Reader

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Posted by Amrith K.A on 13 June, 2009 3:15:34 PM IST #