“A real Guru frees you from himself!”– UG

UG’s ‘teaching’, sorry, blasting was totally unconventional.

His unpredictable, ‘un-rational’ responses to our burning questions, to say the least, were jolting, shattering and bewildering!  

This leaves us wondering if there was any ‘teaching’ there at all ? 

There is no discounting or disregarding the fact that UG played an extraordinary role in our lives. Amidst the cacophony of sermons, UG remains the lone and sane voice that continues to resonate deep within our psyche, awakening us from our deep hypnotic slumber induced by the cultural environment.

We practically live, breathe and die in culture. Culture, the superimposed reality permeates our every living tissue and cell. Epigenetics, the new branch of science has earnestly begun its study on how culture or social environment is influencing our biology. 

UG was unique in many ways. He relentlessly highlighted the tyranny of the borrowed knowledge, the tyranny of the borrowed wisdom! He ruthlessly blasted our (blind acceptance of) traditions, values, beliefs, concepts, notions and our borrowed ideas about Truth or Reality! 

We tenaciously hold on to our heritage, traditions or values from the distant past. They are sacred and sacrosanct to us. UG emphasised that howsoever grand and noble, this borrowed wisdom cannot become our ‘living truth.’ In other words, the wisdom remains conceptual at best and does not operate or translate into action in our day to day lives!

UG was unsparing in his critique and challenged us every time when we tried to sing glories of our tradition, glories of the wisdom of ages or sages, 

“Forget about your Gita, your Upanishads, tell me what do YOU have to say? Do YOU have anything to say, I want to know!” and continued,  

“If any of these things have really helped you at all, in any way, then you will not be sitting here in front of me,  for that matter, you will never visit anyone again looking for answers! That shows all those answers from all those books have failed you, all those gurus have not helped you in any way, I am sorry…!” 

****

An encounter with UG was akin to a ‘dry wash’! His scrubbing and drubbing could wash away the most stubborn of ‘stains’ of the cultural kind. Our cherished ideas, concepts, views and misgivings of a lifetime got flushed away in the wash cycle! 

Even as he was helping us in discarding our crutches, our weaknesses, our dependencies on each and every kind of prop, UG made sure that we did not turn him into our new crutch! He uncannily managed to dodge every attempt to hold onto him, “Don’t follow me! I have no message for mankind....”

UG successfully managed to sidestep all our attempts to cast him in the role of a ‘teacher’ or ‘guru’. There lies his true genius!  

Teaching, in case of UG was more a process of dumping and discarding. Lao Tzu sheds light in the following famous passage in Tao Teh Ching:

“The student of knowledge (aims at) learning day by day;
The student of Tao (aims at) losing day by day.”

Chapter #48, Tao Teh Ching (a translation by Lin Yutang)

****

There is an interesting story of Chi Sheung in the lore of Chan Buddhism.

Chi Sheung was a seeker after Truth and had found himself a guru to guide him on his spiritual path. After sometime, unable to resolve his doubts with his teacher, he presented himself before the Sixth Patriarch and sought his help about his strange predicament in the following words: 

 "After staying there three months without receiving any instruction, and being zealous for the Dharma, I went alone one night to his (guru’s) chamber and asked him, what my essence of mind was. He ( the guru) asked me, 'Do you see the illimitable void?' 'Yes, I do,' I replied. Then he asked me whether the void had any particular form, and on replying that the void must be formless and therefore cannot have any particular form, he said: 'Your Essence of Mind is exactly like the void. To realise that there is nothing to be seen, is Right View. To realise that nothing is knowable, is True Knowledge. To realise that it is  neither green nor yellow, neither long nor short; that it is pure  by nature; that its quintessence is perfect and clear; is to realise Essence of Mind and thereby to attain Buddhahood. This is also called, Buddha-knowledge." 

Chi Sheung continued: 

"As I do not quite understand this teaching, will you please enlighten me, Sir?" 

“His teaching indicates," said the Patriarch, "that he (Chi Sheung’s guru ) still retains the arbitrary concepts of ‘Views’ and 'Knowledge'; that explains why he failed to make it clear to you.”

“If you realise for one moment that these arbitrary concepts ( the concepts of ‘invisibility’ and ‘unknowability’ ) are wrong, then your own spiritual light will shine forth unhindered."

****

A teacher who unwittingly leaves behind a teaching rich in concepts and ideas, has failed in his mission. Howsoever grand and noble may be his cause, he leaves behind him a baggage and a burden!

UG was fully aware of the dangers of verbalization, of views and concepts and their serious limitations and implications. He was extremely careful not to give us a chance to ‘store away’ or verbalise the learnings in his encounters!

UG reiterated, “You don’t have to take my word for it or anyone else’s for that matter. You must test every word of what I am saying and find out for yourself and by yourself whether there is any truth to what I am saying!”

I vividly recollect this particular incident in Major’s farm house in Bangalore when I tasted UG’s chastisement.

I was seriously discussing about something that had bothered me for some time. UG in his typical style highlighted the meaninglessness of my query and dismissed the whole thing as baseless! His words on the occasion were extraordinary! In his words, I suddenly discovered a new dimension hitherto unknown to me. As I vainly made an attempt to further grasp its purport, UG fired back at me from a point blank range, “NO! You don’t understand what I am saying! You have no clue! You will never know what I am saying. Forget it!” Just when I thought I had got what he was saying, here UG was shooting me down mercilessly! I was completely dumbfounded!

With UG, all our attempts at understanding or grasping simply got the boot! He pointed out that they were only clever tricks of thought to dig itself deeper and entrench itself more firmly in our psyche!

UG read our every thought and stopped us instantly, checking us, choking us and giving us no room for escape! Chandrasekhar Babu recollects UG’s promise, “I will leave no room for you to escape, no room at all, I will shut every door, window and even the ventilator, I will completely choke you!”

****

Real Teaching seems more a process of discarding! It is discarding the non-essence, the false or the acquired. It could be unlearning, unburdening where we taste real freedom from the tyranny of culture, of knowledge, of intellect. 

Real Teaching lets the innate, native intelligence to flower and express itself freely. The expression of this essence is pure, simple and natural. The discarding of the burden of human knowledge unleashes the primal energy. 

Real Teaching removes the blockages so there is free flow of life energy. We meet life energy in full display in the untethered movements of the child. The child displays natural spontaneity, charm and innocence. The child and the sage seem to share many a common trait!

Real Teaching does not allow for any build-up! It doesn’t give rise to new doctrines, concepts, views, techniques, ‘isms’.

As one drops and discards the intellectual baggage, there is the overwhelming gush of life energy that is benign, cleansing and healing!

Real Teaching lets one discover and recover one’s own innate intelligence, the inherent greatness lying within one’s own bosom.

Real Teaching rather Real Teacher does not allow any buildup, be it a concept or a relationship!

Unfortunately in today’s sham world of spirituality, many Teacher- Disciple relationships end up as mutually exploitative dependencies. The disciple can’t do without the teacher and the teacher can’t survive without the disciple!

Even the genuine gurus and sishyas might fall into the golden trap of sentiments - the sentiments of gratitude and indebtedness. Howsoever noble, sentiments are debilitating, binding and blinding. They are the ‘warty outgrowth’ of culture or value system! Even the noblest of sentiments could turn into Albatross around our necks and become psychological burden! In the context of ‘Teacher- Disciple’ relationship this could reverse the benefits of teaching and learning!

Who else but UG could sum it up consummately, 

“A real Guru frees you from himself.”  

****

Footnote (Highlighted Text) : The Chi Sheung episode is from the chronicles of the Sixth Patriarch and not from the lore of Buddha and has been edited accordingly. Kindly note the correction, apologies for the inconvenience!

"Sages Yajnavalkya, Aruni, Sanatkumara come out of him and speak to you." - Dr. KB Ramakrishna Rao

UG & Dr. KBR (both in white) and Dr.S.S. Raghavachar

UG And His Encounter with 'Calamity'

---By Dr. K B Ramakrishna Rao

For all purposes, U G (that is how U G Krishna Murthy is known) is like anyone you may come across. But begin to listen to him, at once you feel that a description ‘extraordinary’ would be simply inadequate. He pronounces, ‘whatever he has said or has been saying is tradition‘. This amazes you. For what of that ‘tradition’, he has spoken? As he talked, you were feeling corroded -- and when he says, it is all tradition you feel he is kidding you. For you have witnessed the uprooting of the ‘tradition’ you had known. And its collapse!

Yes. How can everything that has been or has come into being be 'tradition’?

UG admonishes: ‘No, that is no tradition, that is no authority’.

Then, what is that ‘tradition he says he is speaking of? It is neither old, nor what is believed’. It is the truth that speaks for itself and by itself. Its emergence is not related to time or belief. lt is not corrected by experience, nor perfected through practice and skill. It is not obtained by meditation. It is not a result.

What the sacred scripture (the ‘sastra') has wished to convey, but failed to express, or what it said, but we have failed to grasp, that sprouts here, in UG, with extraordinary power and life. Maybe, what had all along rusted in the course of custom and habit, bursts forth here with a luster, and we are dazzled by its brilliance. We proclaim, ‘how new it is, how refreshing and pure it is!’ In no time we have realised how this ‘tradition’ of U G has exposed all false tradition we have been in and about.

A ‘State’

U G is not a ‘person’. He is a 'state'. lt is this ‘state’ which the Vedanta identifies as the ‘Brahman‘ or the ‘Atman‘, or 'Moksha‘ or ‘Ananda’. We do study the Vedanta and the scriptures. We think we have understood the secrets of Vedanta so well taught by the teachers. We are proud of our learning. But we should only ask ourselves, if really we had the experience of the truth or a glimpse of the thing indicated by the sacred lore. We are too prone to dabble in terms and loudly too on several occasions. We speak of those great terms: Atman, Brahman, Sushupti, Turiya etc. Neither having understood their depth nor having grasped their extension. We speak as though they are like concrete things on our work-table—a ‘fait accompli’. But a single encounter with U G will be sufficient to realise how deluded we were about things and concepts. All our storehouse of knowledge is belied in his presence. He will have destroyed our ‘knowledge‘, and pride too!

Is it, then, our learned knowledge and scriptural mastery ignorance of false?

Meet UG and discover for yourself the answer, how to receive it and how not. ‘Lead us from darkness to light’ is our constant prayer.  It is for this purpose we put our effort, practise meditation, cultivate austerity. But UG brushes them aside, and decrees: ‘all that leads you from darkness to greater darkness’.

U G says: ‘this State in which l am, was not obtained by all such Sādhana, however sincere it was.  For, that is not of the nature of a result. It should happen, and can happen to anybody in spite of endeavour. lt is something far removed from the relationship of cause and effect. And so, l could not obtain it by Sādhana’. We may be surprised at such statements. But they are true we learn in his company. We are taken aback at first, but while coming back, we wonder whether all our labour and schooling had not been futile.

But we ponder, and ask ourselves: How could that be admitted? ‘Haven’t we had numberless saints and mystics in our religious history? Haven't they wanted us to do sādhana? Aren't we told that ‘avatars' themselves had descended to lift us up and redeem’? Aren't we told of devotees in scores getting salvation by grace? We ask, aren't these our evidences for accepting the 'way' tradition has decreed, and the 'goal’ it has visualised? We are satisfied, and nurture our hopes and work for our salvation. We continue our search for a Guru and his promises of a heaven, a bliss, a beatitude, till we, again, encounter UG.

He smiles at us, and dashes our dreams! With a calmness that has the strength of Himalayas, he says : ‘All that you need to know and ought to do is just to seek for food and clothing!‘ ‘Beyond that, any pursuit of bliss or beatitude or salvation is will o’-the-wisp!' This is plain talk and we are told that all aspirations of getting an eternal and unchanging bliss or salvation, would be the first blunder. It is like being in one's own home, but seeking outside its address. It is the sign of having missed what you have, but going out in search of something which is not.

Is it, then UG is a rank materialist, an atheist or a positivist?

He is none of these. He is simply a ‘natural man’.  He has no ‘theory’ to put forth, and no argument in defense.  ‘l am not speaking’, he says, ‘the State is expressing itself’. Yes. His statements have nothing in them of the heat one may find in the dialectic of the pundits engaged in establishing and describing the nature of reality, either as one or many, or as this or that.

There is always a twinkle in U G’s eyes, and his smile beguiles us. He draws us as a magnet would do, and we go. He asks: ‘why have you come here? I cannot do anything for you. Neither can I give, nor can you receive. Get out of here!’  Yet an inexplicable force draws us to him.

If ever we can intuit of what he says, that would be the end of our stay there. That may also be the end of all our seeking, our visits to holy places and holy men! The peculiarity of this ‘magnet’ of U G is, as it draws, so it repels!

Many are caught in to the magnetic web of U G. They lose all awareness of time or surroundings. Hours they sit enraptured and mystified. How does this happen? Look at him straight. He is a spell, both his form and deport. All our scholarship, wisdom, and knowledge of sciences and scriptures get dumb in his presence.

The most talkative gets mute. And the most argumentative misses his logic. The hair-splitter gets lost. The invincible meets his defeat!

But is it ‘defeat?’ No. That should be ‘victory’! For herein, one has unwittingly stumbled upon something he has been in search for ages, and has been missing all along. It is an ‘accident‘, one which changes. You don’t stay there. You run. All by yourself, towards no ‘goal’, but towards yourself avoiding all mentors who may promise heaven, bliss and all glory!

Is this not new? Is this not strange‘?

Not a Recluse

UG is not a recluse, nor a sanyasi. He wears no ochre robe. Neither rides on a palanquin with pomp and pageantry. There is no intermediary or a mediator. Many who have gone to meet him, have asked him ‘where is UG?’ Yes, you can even address him by his personal name. This is extraordinary for one expecting to meet a ‘spiritual guru'. But here there is no embarrassment or need to prostrate or address him as Lordship, Holy presence or World teacher. He says, he is none of these. It is rare to come across a man of the type of U G. He is just there, a simple man. You knock, and he opens the door!

‘Calamity’

Not many have heard of him. And of those who may have heard, not many have met him. It is not enough you meet him, you must be with him—not once, but often, if possible. And what may happen to you, you alone can be your witness! That may be your ‘calamity’ -- not a bad word, indeed, if you come to know what it means in the context of UG.

What is U G's message?

‘Nothing’, says he.

His words are like those of ‘Upanishads'. Many a time you find in what he says reflections of the great sears. Yajnavalkya, Aruni, Sanatkumara, the seer of the Mandukya Upanishad come out of him and speak to you. Buddha, Gaudapada and Sankara stand before you.  For those who cannot follow U G everything would be inconsistent. But for him who can know, it is all joy, nay, it is fulfillment.

The vision that U G gives is new. Here the philosophy of Self of the Upanishads is reconciled with Buddha's philosophy of No-self: the immutable theory of the real is harmonised with theory of eternal flux. Are not these sets mutually contradictory? The question bothers the follower of the Upanishads, even as it does the opponent.  Herein lies the most unique aspect of UG‘s vision.  What U G says, the pundit neither can digest, nor reject. Pointing to his chest, U G says ‘There is nothing here called the Atman, but there is Witnesshood.  Here there is no agent, but all that is action. There is no subject here, but every object creates it. There is no immortality, but nowhere there is birth or death. There is no mind, and if there is one, it is not different from the body. The mind divides life, but if it unites with life, ‘it illumines and makes it dynamic.’

Such statements naturally bewilder us.  Here the ‘tradition’ that we know fails us and logic gets derailed. Yet UG says with a smile: ‘there is nothing that mystifies here, there is no mystery at all!’

U G is akin to an ocean.  Of it, if you ask, ‘is it unchanging, static or eternally dynamic?’ he simply says: ‘it is your question, not mine.  I am not concerned at all. lt need not even be answered. If you realise the meaninglessness of it, it disappears.’  All this is confusing to us. Yet, it we can intuit the 'state' of U G, in the words of the Upanishad, ‘the unheard becomes heard, and the unknown becomes known.’

Root of Dharma

UG warns: in this ‘state’ there is no 'religious' content, yet we cannot forget that it is the root of all ‘dharma’ (in its primary sense of an all-bearing and all-sustaining force).   He says there is no ‘social’ content in it, yet we see in it the foundation of all social structure and good life. He says, there is no ‘value’ here, yet we cannot deny that all value originates therein, and gets evaluated.

If such is not the truth, we would not have reason to go to U G, nor like to listen to him enraptured. Even though he does not invite any, what reason compels us to go to him?

Is U G a ‘mystic'? Is he a ‘prophet’?

None of these.  As he says of himself, he is just a ‘natural man‘, ‘the end product of human evolution.'

Not that we can understand such simple statements. Perhaps never can we understand. The Evolutionist, both the philosophical and the scientific, has something new here to encounter in the description:  ‘the end-product of human evolution.’ Does the Evolutionist digest it, or gets dizzy when he does? It is an open question.

Naturally we become curious, and ask: ‘how and when this state occurred?’

And he answers: ‘when all my inherited tradition of history and culture, and all the instruments and institutions that these had fostered broke down in my life.’  And after that he says: ‘l have no biography.’

U G describes it as a strange ‘happening.’ ‘Every cell in my body exploded.  Biological and chemical changes took place. A strange awareness came about. What had hitherto been an unnatural  life, mistakenly taken for the natural, came to a close. That is the happening of the real Natural State.‘  Of this UG calls a ‘calamity.’ For him the term ‘realisation’ is like a worn out coin, much used and disfigured. He does not use it.

What the jnanin, the yogin, the tapasvin craves for, but fails to get, is that Primordial State, which UG calls the ‘Natural State.‘ How can we understand him who is in that State?  Does he help us‘? He says, 'no'! But we hear him saying. ‘it is unique, peerless, deathless and birthless.  It is no effect, has no cause. That is no bondage, nor even freedom.  It is a divisionless awareness, a witnesshood.'

Again, you ask him, for you are enchanted: ‘how to know it, how to be it‘? UG repeats: ‘I do not know myself, I cannot teach. It is a state of not-knowing. To know, and to make one know I have no means with me!' Is it helplessness, or is it the uniqueness of the ‘state’, which does not admit of communication'?

If one who is in that ‘state’ were to say what is said, does it not strike us queer or crazy? No, for that is the very logic of it, as the Upanishad says:

‘How to know that, by which everything is known? How to know the Knower?’

( Reproduced from the Article published by Manasa Gangotri on 20-03-1978 by Dr. KB Ramakrishna Rao. 

Dr. Rao hosted UG regularly in Mysore in the late '70s and also was instrumental in introducing UG to many a friend in Mysore and Bangalore. 

Article Courtesy: Dr. Narayana Moorty, Montery, California)

" If I hear the voice, I know his entire past and future!" -UG

UG rubbished the much glorified, celebrated faculty of Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) as no more than the natural endowment in living creatures not just among humans, even among dogs, pigs and cats.

UG often used to recount a phenomenon that he had observed over the years during autumn months in the Swiss Alps.

 'Man is one of the species on this planet to inherit these things in common with all the other species. Man, in his anxiety to maintain his non-existing and illusory identity, has been using thought to translate sensory perception. Now the yogis are promising these things back to us and making a business out of it. Let me give you an example of how effectively it operates in the animals. In Switzerland, where we live up in the Alps, hunting of deer is permitted from 16 September every year. Would you believe it, on 15 September every year, hordes and hordes of deer come down from all over into the safety of the animal sanctuary next door to us. How do you explain this phenomenon?'

From <http://ug-k.blogspot.com/2007/04/encounter-if-you-are-searching-for.html>

****** 

People who have interacted with UG have witnessed the heightened sense of perception on numerous occasions. Here are some personal experiences. 

My first meeting with UG was on the 10th of July 1992, a day after his 74th birthday, in Poornakuti, Bangalore.

When I reached his place, I learnt that UG was upstairs and all alone. I knew I was walking into the lion's den and was prepared for any eventuality - being 'gobbled' up live or getting thrown out of the house! Come what may, I was determined to seek his audience!

As I reached upstairs, I found him busy in the anteroom attached to the main hall with his back turned towards me. Folding my palms together in a 'namasthe', I gently called his attention , " Good morning Sir!" He spun around greeting me back with folded hands. The lion, after all looked 'harmless'!

I remember Mahesh Bhatt querying me the first time I met him a year later, " Where and when did you meet this monster?" 

UG could 'finish' you! He held a clear threat to our false sense of 'self' or ego!

Major Dakshinamurti once mentioned to UG that Sri Ramana Maharshi used to say that he was like a tiger who swallowed his disciples wholly spitting out only the bones and asked UG what he would do to his people. Seems UG immediately responded," Yes!  I am also like the tiger, I swallow them whole, and here even the bones are not spared, everything is chewed up, even the bones will not be spit out!"    

After initial pleasantries, UG escorted me to the main hall, sat himself on a settee and offered me a seat opposite to him on the other side of the room. We then started talking. I was lucky to get his exclusive audience the very first time. After a while the crowds started pouring in. There were many elders in the audience. I soon vacated my chair for them and sat comfortably on the floor. UG beckoned to me half a dozen times to sit next to him on the settee but I looked the other way, I continued squatting on the floor, I felt more comfortable sitting at his feet, that was my mental makeup! At some point, however Chandrasekhar Babu started insisting that I should follow UG's commands and go and sit next to him which I finally did.  

As the day progressed, some JK freaks arrived on the scene, among them was a pretty young woman.  Very soon there ensued a heated discussion on JK. UG began his famous crusade against JK. Now the woman started arguing furiously with UG.

At some point UG suddenly sprang a surprise, " Look here! You don't know a thing! Your place is not here! You should go to the mental asylum, that's where you belong!"  

This was a shocker to all those present!

The man who accompanied the lady was shocked out of his wits, " UG tell us how do you know? She in fact was being treated in the asylum till recently and has now returned home only last week! Who are you? Are you some kind of a face reader?!"

To this UG turning to me (now I was sitting next to him) with a mischievous smile added, " There is no need for me to look at a face sir! Even the person's voice is enough! The moment I hear someone saying, " Good Morning Sir!" I know his entire past and future!!"  referring to our exchange of greetings early that morning!

******

For sometime I was associated with a saffron-clad Swamiji. He once bade me to carry a message for UG. 

On meeting UG, I said, " Sir, our Swamiji sends his regards to you! He has also sent a message ! One, he says that UG stands for Ultimate Goal ( to which UG immediately mumbled," Sir, I am a Useless Guy!") and he says that he would be soon meeting you on the astral plane!"

UG wasted no time, " Sir! Let me tell you, there is nothing to these astral travels! I used to do astral travels as a student while in Presidency College, Madras! I used to lie down on my bed in my room and 'astral-ly' travel and reach Connemara Library and refer books for my exams the next morning!"

******

ESP and other faculties, perhaps are more common among indigenous people. All the higher faculties find a free expression in the natural, simple and innocent lifestyle of these real people.

Just to instantiate, a few weeks after the tsunami struck the islands of Andaman & Nicobar in Dec 2004, self and Kamal met up with a friend Venky, a helicopter pilot who was in charge of 'Search & Rescue' ( S & R) operations in the Andamans.

Venky narrated to us the harrowing, disturbing scenes after the huge tidal waves, tens of meters high, stuck and ravaged the beautiful islands. Death and destruction greeted them everywhere.

While on this mission, one day Venky & his team ran into a 'miracle'!

As the rescue 'copter landed on top of a hillock, they suddenly stumbled into a group of natives or indigenous people, cuddled up in a make-shift settlement! To their surprise, despite tsunami that decimated the life on the island, the natives in the camp were all unharmed, alive and kicking!

Lo and behold, they found an American scholar among the natives in the camp! He had come to live with the natives to research their mores and medicines. He had even picked up their language. He narrated how they had managed a 'miraculous' escape thanks to the uncanny powers of their tribal chief.

On the fateful day, the chief had set out to the seaside for his morning stroll. He immediately noticed two strange things - one, the sea was unusually calm and had receded more than a kilometer into the horizon, far, far away from the shoreline, a very unusual occurrence he had never seen before during the low tide! Two - animals like the dogs and cows were seen scampering away from the coastline towards the hillside and some were seen climbing on to the nearest hill.

Without further delay, the chief summoned his people and ordered his band including his American guest to immediately repair to the nearest hillock. Something terrible was about to hit them, he could discern the early signs of an imminent disaster about to strike!

The native intelligence of the animals and a keen sense of observation helped them survive the day!

******

Sages or Real People ( as ancient Chinese described them) are grounded in natural state or 'sahaja sthithi' having escaped the clutches of the 'false self'. Their lives follow a natural rhythm and order, resonating with Life itself. Siddhis or psychic capabilities are natural to them, but never employed for self-aggrandisement or exploitation. All faculties operate naturally and remain in great balance and harmony. 

"Do Nothing! I repeat, do nothing! That’s all!” - UG

Doing Nothing or Wu Wei (Taoism) is a piece of sagely wisdom!

Given our cultural, sociological, conflict-ridden way of life, sages at various points in time have offered us the remedy, "DO NOTHING!"

This happened in Parekhji's place, Santa Cruz., Bombay.

Two young men in their mid-twenties came to see UG, they sat bang opposite to him. They sat glued to their seats, wide eyed, intensely listening to UG as he rubbished all things spiritual, dethroning saints & sages, ridiculing ‘sadhanas’ & ‘sadhakas’, debunking all kinds of search or seeking!

UG was at his blasting best that particular day and once again made it clear to all those present that we were all mere bundles of confusion leading futile, nonsensical lives chasing all kinds of spiritual dreams!

UG nailed it further – ‘”No! You are not even living!”

No one had the guts to defy him!

There was a long pause - the calm after the storm! Everyone had been thoroughly shaken to the roots!

One of the two young men, with a beautifully sculpted face, Jesus-like beard, with black and beautiful pair of eyes had been sitting with his eyes transfixed on UG.  He now got up from his seat, he had been silent all through the morning.

Folding his hands reverentially, he began to speak softly;" Sir, please permit us to take your leave", apparently reluctant to leave UG's presence!

One could sense a sudden movement in UG!  UG's face lit up, leaning forward, showing keen interest in the young man, he inquired his whereabouts, and how he happened to be there. This time his partner butted in, "Sir, we are basically from Poona, we started early this morning, drove in our car to meet you. This is our first visit."

The bearded young man continued standing with hands folded, his eyes transfixed on UG, still mesmerized as he spoke, "Sir, I discovered you on the internet, eventually got hold of Chandrasekhar Babu's number in Bangalore, contacted him & traced your whereabouts in Bombay."

UG smiling, prodded on, "What made you come here? There is nothing you can get here. There is no message! We all sit here and gossip from morning till evening!"

The young man did not seem convinced and began his narrative, "Sir, I was a very devout Muslim, I used to do namaz five times a day. But deep inside I was restless, I was not at all happy! I spent all my time seeking answers on life, its meaning, I wanted to know the existence of God. At some point, I got totally disillusioned. I gave up on my namaz. My parents were very unhappy but I just moved on! My search led me eventually to Sufism, I embraced Sufi practices & I used to spend whole nights singing away Sufi devotionals! I also dabbled in meditation, this whole thing consumed my life for years!  But I found no answers, this was the time I moved on to Hinduism, to Yoga etc. Again there was no luck! I was totally disillusioned. I lost interest in everything! This was when I stumbled on to your website and now I am here in front of you".

Everyone resonated with the young man, his checkered life was not very different from our own.

There was complete silence in the hall.

After a long pause, the young man resumed, "Sir, please tell me what am I supposed to do now?"

UG thundered back, "Do nothing!" staring him in the eye! And then turned away, signaling the end of their meeting.

But the young man was quite determined to get an answer and stood his ground.

He gathered himself once more and began speaking softly. This time he pleaded, "Sir I have to leave now. Please, please tell me what should I do now? What is the message for me?"

UG raising his voice spoke with an air of finality, "Do Nothing! I repeat, Do Nothing! That’s all!” dismissing the young man.

And in a sudden move, turning over to where I was sitting, "Sir, this is what your Bhagvad Gita says, “Do Nothing!" Taken aback, I sheepishly nodded my head in agreement!

The beautiful young man that day was a picture of deep discontent and sadness. His search for enlightenment, happiness, God had deeply bothered him, and tormented him!

The look of disappointment, as he made towards the door was unmistakable. I thought to myself, “Boy, is he any different from anyone of us here?”

How fortunate we were to have met someone like UG who stopped us, freeing us from chasing these endless chimeras!

Lucky are those who get to hear the sagely instruction, “Do nothing! Just be!” 

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Like the Bhagvad Gita, Taoism also recommends 'Do Nothing' or ' Wu Wei'!

  

‘Do Nothing’ or ‘Wu Wei’ is not advocacy for inactivity or laziness. Rather, perhaps it means doing or acting without a purpose or an ulterior motive! 

The sages are definitely not against action. Do Nothing perhaps means - Doing Nothing on Purpose! Purposelessness of action singles out the sage!

What about UG who recommended "Do Nothing!” Boy, was he not a human dynamo?

Irrepressible and bubbling with energy, never resting for a moment, UG was seen constantly on the move! He trod the globe many times over, meeting friends across continents, tirelessly offering his sagacity in his inimitable style. He spoke to the pouring stream of people throughout the day. He remained a ‘live wire’, scintillating, even on his death bed!

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Bhagvad Gita, the Science of Action, lays it down clearly,

कर्मण्ये वाधिकारस्ते म फलेषु कदाचना

कर्मफलेह्तुर भुरमा ते संगोस्त्वकर्मानी॥

Ch. 2, 47

"Yours is right to work only! Never to the fruits thereof! Never resort to inaction but know that you are not the ‘doer’!"

The sagely Krishna raises a red flag and cautions Arjuna not to fall a prey to doer-ship!

With false sense of doer-ship, one suffers the consequences of accomplishment, of failure, of pride, arrogance, fear, despair or dejection.

The context of the verse is the battle field in Mahabharata.

Arjuna, the warrior, is a tormented soul. He is caught up in a dilemma whether to withdraw or fight the evil in the form of near and dear ones.

Realising that he is inadequate and unable to resolve the crisis, Arjuna resorts to lamentation about consequences of war and consequences of his own action (doer-ship) in war. Eventually unable to live up to the situation, he surrenders at the feet of Sri Krishna.

Sri Krishna, the sagely voice, soothes and heals Arjuna by allaying his fears and calming his nerves by exorcising the ‘ghost’ of doer-ship. He relieves Arjuna of his doer-ship by advocating ‘Non Action (absence of doer-ship) in Action’!

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Just like the Bhagvad Gita, the great classic, योग-वासिष्ठ ( Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha), the dialogue between Sri Rama and the sage Vasishta dedicates an entire chapter to ‘sankalpa’ or ‘purpose’ and its far reaching impact on our thoughts or thinking.

The red flag on ‘purpose’ or ‘doer-ship’, once again is raised, this time by the great sage Vasishta!

Purpose or motive is a tremendous psychological force like no other! It solidifies, coalesces independent, discrete thoughts into a fictitious ‘thinker’ or ‘doer’!

Douglas Rosestone recollects that in the aftermath of Calamity, UG used to insist that he daily read out a few pages from the great Yoga-Vāsisṭha to him!

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UG clarified, “Food, clothing and shelter - these are the basic needs - beyond that if you want anything, it is the beginning of self-deception."

Discarding all that is non-essential and firmly rooted in the essence, the sage performs action in the realm of non action ( without any sense of doer-ship).

Doing Nothing, the sagely recommendation, holds cure for all forms of self-deception! 

 Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and

conveys his instructions without the use of speech.

All things spring up, and there is not one which declines to show
itself; they grow, and there is no claim made for their ownership;
they go through their processes, and there is no expectation (of a
reward for the results). The work is accomplished, and there is no
resting in it (as an achievement).

The work is done, but how no one can see;
'Tis this that makes the power not cease to be.

Tao The Ching, Chapter 2

(http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm)

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