"You will never know what a Euro is ! " - UG

Mahesh & UG

Mahesh Bhatt narrated this incident with UG from Switzerland.

Once UG thrust a Euro in his face and queried, "Mahesh, what does this mean to you?"

There was an interlude while Mahesh was caught up trying to figure out the equivalent of Euro in terms of Indian Rupee.

Shortly UG intervened, "Mahesh, you will never know what a Euro is! You only know the Rupee, so you will try to understand Euro in terms of what you know!

This is true of whatever I am saying ! You will only translate what I am saying into what you already know, which is nothing but your background. There is no such thing as understanding, there is only translation going on there!"

UG’s oft repeated words were: “There is no such thing as understanding, there is no understanding possible, no understanding is necessary!”

This rhymes with his quote on communication!

Elsewhere UG clarified, “Understanding is nothing but clarification of thought.”

UG, after the Calamity (the death process in 1967), freed from the burden of knowledge, brought in a rare clarity to bear upon words like 'understanding' in light of his uncluttered perception.

Understanding, UG said is nothing but ‘ hashing & rehashing of thought’, basically ordering or reordering of thought, a clarification process that finally throws up a recognizable pattern connected to the past.  

Understanding or clarification is essential, even necessary in the domain of technical knowledge. This will help us in learning a new technique or appreciate the working of a computer but it becomes utterly futile when employed for grasping life or its problems like love, hatred, jealousy.