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Enlightenment is always total. If it is an orchestra it is a total orchestra, if it is only a solo flute then it is an absolutely total solo flute. Existence is always total, so is enlightenment always total. The small flower is as total as the sun. Totality is a very different phenomenon than quantity; it is concerned with quality.

Krishnamurti’s solo flute is as total as my orchestra, my orchestra is not more total. Totality cannot be more or less. You think in terms of quantity, that’s why the question has arisen. I am talking about quality. Each act of the enlightened person is total. Whether he is drinking tea or painting a great painting, playing music or just sitting silently doing nothing, each act is total. Krishnamurti is a solo flute player – and a few solo flute players are needed as much as orchestras are needed. They enhance the beauty of existence, they make life richer.

Drop your mind that goes on comparing in terms of quantity. Raise your level of consciousness a little higher and start thinking of quality, and then there is no problem. Krishnamurti is doing what he can do best. I would not like him to become an orchestra, no. That would impoverish the world. He should go on doing what he is doing; that gives color to life, variety.

I cannot become a solo flute player – not that it is not beautiful, it is simply not my way. I enjoy being an orchestra. I would like Atisha to play with me, and Bahauddin and Kabir and Nanak and Lao Tzu and Zarathustra and many, many more. I would like to play with them and all become part of this orchestra.

This is my way. There is nothing higher or lower. Once you are enlightened, there is nothing higher or lower; there cannot be. If a lotus flower becomes enlightened it will be a lotus flower. If a rose becomes enlightened it will be a rose. They both have the same quality of being enlightened, but the rose will remain a rose and the lotus will remain a lotus.

You ask me, [“You have said that enlightenment is always total, never partial.”]

- Yes, it is never partial. Krishnamurti is not a partial flute player. He is a total flute player; he is totally in his act, utterly in his act. He says he is fortunate that he has not read the Vedas, the Bible, the Koran, the Upanishads, Tao Te Ching. Why? – because they might have disturbed him, might have left a few traces behind, might have become part of his being. He wants to be simply himself, in utter purity.

My approach is totally different. I would like to have as big a company of enlightened people with me as possible. It is a difficult company, because they are all such different people; to become a host to all of them is troublesome. But I enjoy it. The more troublesome it is, the more I enjoy it. It is a beautiful challenge. You cannot understand how difficult it is to have Buddha, Mahavira, Mohammed and Moses staying together with you. Mahavira stands naked, and Buddha does not like it at all. And because Buddha is not naked, Mahavira is not happy either. To have all these people stay with you is a great challenge.

Krishnamurti lives alone. It has its own challenge, but that is not my choice. I am not saying that my choice has to be his choice, I am not saying that he has to do what I am doing. I am perfectly happy doing my thing, and I am perfectly happy that he is doing his thing.

Many people have asked me questions saying that I have spoken on dead masters, so many, but why don’t I speak sometimes on a living master? Let Krishnamurti die, then I will speak on him. There is a reason for it. I know how difficult it is even to keep so many dead masters together, but you can manage with dead masters – if I tell Mahavira to stand in this corner, he has to stand in this corner. But a living master won’t listen; he will start meddling, he will start arguing with others. And sometimes I need a little sleep too.

You say, [“Has not the enlightened one access to all knowledge?”]

Enlightenment has nothing to do with knowledge at all. The enlightened one has no access to knowledge. Yes, he has every access to innocence – and Krishnamurti playing his flute is as innocent as I am with my orchestra. It is not a question of knowledge, it is a question of wisdom. Wisdom is a totally different phenomenon – wisdom is innocence. You can even call it ignorance, that will do, but please don’t call it knowledge. It is closer to ignorance than to knowledge.

Socrates is reported to have said in his last days, “I know only one thing, that I know nothing.” This is enlightenment: knowing only one thing, “I know nothing.” The moment all knowledge disappears, the ego disappears, the personality disappears, then the separation between you and existence disappears. Again you are clean, pure, one with the whole.

And you also ask, [“Why that tunnel vision of Krishnamurti?”]

That you have to ask Krishnamurti, not me. That is not my business. He loves it, that’s how he has grown. For centuries, for many, many lives, he has been moving toward a tunnel vision. And the tunnel vision has its own beauties, because whatsoever you see, you see very clearly because your eyes are focused.

Hence the clarity of Krishnamurti. Nobody has ever been so clear, so crystal clear. Nobody has ever been so logical, so rational; nobody has ever been so analytical. His profundity in going into things and their details, is simply unbelievable. But that is part of his tunnel vision. You cannot have everything, remember. If you want clarity you will need tunnel vision; you will have to become more and more focused on less and less.

That’s how they define science: “Knowing more and more about less and less.” And if science ever succeeds in its ultimate goal, then we will have to say, “Knowing everything about nothing.” That can be the only logical conclusion of knowing more and more about less and less. Where will it lead? It will lead to a point where you know all about nothing.

Science is a tunnel vision. Krishnamurti is a scientific individuality, very scientific. Hence his appeal for all those who love analysis, dissection, who love going into minute details. He is just the opposite of Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu says, “Everybody seems to be so clear; only I am confused.” A man of the quality of Lao Tzu, a man of ultimate enlightenment, saying this: “Everybody seems to be so clear about everything, except me. I am so confused, I am so muddle-headed, that I don’t know what is what. Everybody walks with such certainty, and I hesitate at each step. Everybody goes so straight, without looking sideways. And I walk like a man in winter crossing a cold, icy-cold stream.”

Lao Tzu is just the opposite of J. Krishnamurti. He has no tunnel vision. His vision is so wide, so spread out, it cannot be very clear. It is bound to be hazy, misty, but that too has its own beauty. Krishnamurti’s statements have logic. Lao Tzu’s statements have poetry.

My vision is even wider than Lao Tzu’s. I include Lao Tzu and many more. Obviously Lao Tzu could not have included me. Twenty-five centuries have passed; in those twenty-five centuries great enlightened people have happened on the earth. I claim the whole heritage, as nobody has ever claimed before.

Lao Tzu had never heard about Krishna, Lao Tzu had never heard about Patanjali. Patanjali had never heard about Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu or Lieh Tzu. Buddha had no awareness of Zarathustra or Moses. Now the world has become a small village, a global village, and the whole history of humanity is ours. I am in a totally different situation. I know everything about Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu, Confucius, Mencius, Milarepa, Marpa, Tilopa, Naropa, Bodhidharma, Mahakashyap, Sariputra, Mahavira, Adinatha, Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Francis, Kabir, Nanak, Dadu, Meera, Rabiya – all. The whole world is available to me.

I see the whole sky, all the stars, all the constellations; my vision is bound to be the most poetic. But the deeper you go into poetry, the less and less logical it becomes. The deeper you go into poetry, it becomes more and more love-like and less and less like logic. At the very rock bottom of poetry, all clarity disappears. Nothing is clear, but everything is beautiful, everything is mysterious. Nothing is clear but everything is simply fantastic.

Krishnamurti has his way, and I am happy that he is in the world. He is at the other extreme. If he is gone, I will miss him more than anybody else in the world.

But I can understand your question. This is not the only question; you have asked many more about the same thing. It seems it has hurt you deeply that I criticized Krishnamurti. You don’t understand me yet. This is my way of paying respects to him. This is my way of declaring that there exists another enlightened person in the world.

If my orchestra does not suit you, then the only alternative possible is the solo flute-playing of J. Krishnamurti. There is no other, no third person who can be of any help to you. Either Krishnamurti or me – there is no other alternative. Right now there is no other alternative.

Krishnamurti is bound to criticize me; I can understand it. His standpoint is simple and clear, my standpoint is a little more unclear. Sometimes I will appreciate him tremendously, because I would like him to become part of my orchestra. And sometimes I will criticize him, because my own liking is not for solo flutes.