Acharya Prashant explains that the definition of authority is anything that proclaims itself to be the Truth in itself. The word "author" means original, so "authority" means originality. Only the Truth is original, the point from which everything comes. When Jiddu Krishnamurti says there is no authority, he means that no object can be taken as the Truth, whether it is an inanimate object like a book or a living object like a guru. Nobody is to be taken as the absolute Truth. The Truth cannot come in a form, it cannot be objectified, and it cannot stand in front of you as a thing, place, person, or book. This implies that one should not be too quick to accept their own assessments and judgments. When you fall for something, you take it to be real, but only the Truth is real. When you are afraid of something, you are taking that thing as real. If you knew something was unreal, you could not be afraid of it. Therefore, nothing is to be taken as the Truth. Whatever you are seeing is being seen by you, the seer. To take a seen thing as the Truth is to believe too much in the capacity of the seer, which is to be egoistic. The ego wants to believe that its perceptions are real, for example, that the world is real, or that its love or dreams are real. This is because they are "mine"—my love affair, my dreams, my opinions—and therefore the ego wants to take them as truthful. This is why Jiddu Krishnamurti says not to take your own likes, dislikes, experiences, and past as authority. Because they are yours, and you are not the absolute, none of that is to be given the status of the Truth. When something is given the status of Truth, it becomes unquestionable, and inquiry gets stifled. Whatever is in front of you is in front of *you*, and you are not absolute. Therefore, whatever is there must be available to inquiry, investigation, and questioning. When you are questioning something, you are, in fact, questioning your own seeing, your own perception. That questioning cannot happen if you declare that you have already come to the Truth. You have to work your way out of the ego, through the ego. Spirituality is about engaging with the world in the right way, not about rejecting it. You must engage with the ego, talk to it, and inquire into it.
