Question: Do you think that a thorough sceptic, or an intelligent atheist, or a man of few or no ideas, is nearer the realization of that truth of which you speak than a godly man, kind in heart and helpful to his fellowmen?

Krishnamurti: I say that neither the sceptic nor the godly man can realize truth if they lack true intelligence. It is not a question of belief, but of intensity of living. After all, a lunatic, as we call him, is but a man who is possessed by a single idea, with which he identifies himself, so we put him in an asylum. A man of many ideas, when he identifies himself with them, is also a lunatic. This, by the way, I was told by a very prominent doctor who happens to be the head of a lunatic asylum, and I am passing it on to you. Ideas are like water caught up in a vessel from a flowing river. If you cling to an idea it destroys you, as water held in the vessel becomes stagnant. But if you are yourself in the current, you are ever with the moving stream. Then there can be no attachment to a single idea. You can be free of an idea only through the intelligent understanding of its true value, but there is no understanding in merely giving up ideas or acquiring them. So let us for the moment forget the atheist and the godly man, the sceptic and the great believer. Each of them is consumed with an idea whereas I am talking of that living reality in which there is utter freedom from all ideas.