" What kind of human being you want in this world? " - UG

 

" What kind of human being you want in this world? "

Knowledge is a societal inheritance, the collective experience and thinking of mankind from time immemorial.

Some of our material and spiritual goals take their birth in the experience and thoughts of men and women we hold in great awe and esteem. We tend to eulogize and emulate their thoughts and behaviors.

Society showcases two contradictory models or archetypes for our emulation – the first is symbolized by the King (the ruler or the achiever or the top dog in any field) epitomizing the material goals. The second is the Savior (the saint or the philosopher or the guru) evangelizing the spiritual goals. Both models are dangled as worthy of our lifetime pursuit.

There is also the third kind, the hybrid model of the ‘Philosopher-King’ or the ‘Sage-Ruler’ (the benign-leader).

We are brainwashed from childhood to believe that achievement of material goals or the attainment of spiritual goals as the be-all and end-all of our life.

“Your spiritual goals are not different from the material goals” - UG. He maintained that both are fundamentally self-serving or self-seeking activities.

Spiritual goals are mere psychological wants. Psychology is a societal burden, a superimposition on the biology, the root cause of mental anguish.

Wanting to be someone, to be superior, to be different from others is a fake, unnatural undertaking. Not only it involves huge effort and energy, it is the root cause of frustration, restlessness and hopelessness.

“Wanting and thinking always go together – as long as you want something, there is thinking.” - UG.  

Greater the seeking, greater the needless thinking, greater is the misery!

 

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Frustration could arise when someone is chasing some impossible or unachievable goal. Also, when there is an incompatibile goal that contradicts one’s true nature.

UG addressed both these issues in his inimitable ways. He personally helped many individuals through timely intervention. He made some give up their jobs to pursue business instead ( a la banker Nagesh who went on to establish a successful business in Realty Finance) , he made some give up their business to take up a public career ( a la Frank Noronha who gave up tea business and ended up as the Chief Spokesperson for the Government of India), he encouraged some to embrace saffron ( a la Lahiri, an Indian businessman from Europe) while influencing others to give up  saffron ( a la Udipi Swamiji).  

The guidance was always finetuned and calibrated to suit the needs of the particular individual to mitigate the suffering born of impossible or incompatible goals.

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A note from Chandrasekhar Babu, UG's longtime friend and host:

In the year 1983 while I was employed with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore, I got a lucrative offer from a private company in Hyderabad. I went to meet UG who was at the time staying at Goldie's (Film Director Vijay Anand) guest house in Mumbai.

After learning about the new job offer, UG said, "Do you have to relocate to Hyderabad? What a shame!" 

To drive home the absurdity of the choice, he quoted a Telugu proverb, " ఇంత బతకు బతికి ఇంటి వెనక చచ్చాడాన్నట్లు" ("After living life king-size, dying like an outcast!")

UG advised me not to accept the offer.

Soon after, I got a fantastic offer from Hindustan Motors, closer to Bangalore. UG readily approved. I left Hindustan Aeronautics to join HM. 

Years later, once again UG played a key role in my opting for voluntary retirement from service in 1992. I was 47 at the time, with at least a dozen more years of service under my belt. 

I complied with UG's advice, resigning from service on the 9th of July 1992, incidentally on UG's 74th birthday!

My stint with Valentine Model School commenced soon after. 

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Transcript of the Video Clip:

UG: The basic question we all have to ask is, “What kind of a human being you want in this world?”

( Q: the goal of psychiatrists etc.)

UG: We have unfortunately placed before mankind the models of a perfect being. THAT PERFECT BEING IS THE SPIRITUAL TEACHER AND HIS BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS. AND THE WHOLE VALUE SYSTEM IS BORN OUT OF THAT.

And our insistence and demand, on the part of culture and the value system, to fit them all into that mold is bound to fail, because every individual is unique, UNIQUE!

Nature is not interested in creating the human species in one common mold, it is interested in creating different species, it does not use anything as a model, that’s where we have gone wrong. Because of the fear that the status quo of our culture or society or whatever you want to call it, cannot be maintained if we do not fit all the people into that value system.

I am not against the value system at all, but the demand to fit everybody into a common mold, which is the value system, is responsible for the breaking up or breaking down of many people. They have given up.

And the so-called normal man, if there is any, he lives in hope and dies in hope, (that) one day he is going to successfully fit himself into that value system very successfully, and live in harmony with that. And the mad people have given up and so, we are pushing them to make them functional and it is the very thing that is pushing them to suicide.

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Blogger's Note ( See comment below) :

The following episode was narrated by UG himself in Bombay while on a visit to our home.

This happened a few decades ago.

Once while UG was visiting Udipi in South of India, he was invited by the Swami of a Udipi Mutt who was In Charge of Udupi Sri Krishna Temple. The role of the Chief is locally termed Paryaya ( Paryaya is the term used to describe the tenure for a period of two years when a pontiff from among eight different mutts ( Ashta Muttams in Udipi) is chosen to be the Chief Worshipper / Administrator of the famous Sri Krishna Temple of Udupi in Karnataka, India.)

Paryaya is cyclic as every one of the pontiffs of the eight mutts gets his turn to be the Administrator or Head of the Temple for two years and worship Sri Krishna's idol ( Installed by Sri Madhwacharya ) once in every sixteen year cycle.

UG mentioned that his friend, Prof Dr. Ramakrishna Rao ( Principal of Sanskrit College, Udupi at the time , incidentally my uncle) happened to know the Swami (in Paryaya) well. 

Also, Dr. Rao had mentioned about UG to the Swami and about UG's calamity ( that had pushed UG into his Natural State or Sahaja Stithi) and the Swami had naturally expressed his desire to meet UG in person whenever he was visiting Udipi.

UG could not recollect the name of this particular pontiff as many such swamis from various Indian spiritual traditions ( ranging from Shankaracharya tradition, Ramakrishna tradition , Ramanuja tradition etc. ) came to see him regularly during his annual visits to India. They were curious to know about his Natural State.

UG informed Dr.Ramakrishna Rao in advance that he was not interested to see the Swami if that meant he had to remove his shirt or upper garment, as is the tradition with the South Indian spiritual mutts or ashrams. ( UG dismissed it as 'strip tease'). But the Swami was magnanimous and keen to meet and know more about UG and therefore ready to accommodate and waived all rules in the case of UG.

When UG finally arrived at the mutt, the Udupi Swami was delivering a Talk on the Bhagwad Gita. UG quietly took his seat among the audience.

During the talk, when the Swami began to explicate one of the Shlokas of the Bhagwad Gita, UG wrote on a small chit of paper what he personally thought was the real interpretation of that particular verse and sent it privately to the Swami so as not to disturb the gathering or the discourse.

Interestingly the Swami read the contents of the chit out loud and was rather appreciative of UG's take on the subject and he openly announced to the assembly that UG's interpretation of the verse was exactly the right way to understand or interpret the Bhagwad Gita. His words were to the effect, " What today's UG Krishnamurti is saying is not very different from what Sri Krishna said in the Bhagwad Gita of Dwapara Yuga ( eons ago, during the period of Mahabharata )."

Post the talk, the Swami and UG met each other. UG wasted no time, observing that while the Swami wore his saffron, he was also battling with his own inner demons. UG seems to have remarked, "You are wearing saffron but why are you carrying on an an affair with that girl? ( Pointing to some lady in the audience)

The Swami immediately pulled aside UG into his private quarters and wanted to discuss his real predicament. He was desperate for a solution to his personal turmoil, inner dichotomy that was tearing him apart. He had been initiated at the tender age of eight into a life of sanyas or renunciation by his guru and became a pontiff but as years went by, during his teenage years, this turned into burden upon reaching puberty. The Swami was brutally honest about his sexual urges that had begun to torment him. UG heard him through. He reassured him that he would offer his full support in case he wanted to lead a normal life through some of his own contacts in the US, on condition that the Swami would give up his sanyas or saffron and marry his ladylove.

Soon the Swami did give up his spiritual life and eventually married the lady and settled down in the US embracing the life of a householder with a family and several children.

This incident seems to have taken place somewhere in the late 1970s...or may be early 80s in line with UG's visits to Dr. Rao's place in Udipi during the latter's tenure as Principal of Sanskrit College.

Personally I have no reason whatsoever to disbelieve the narrative of UG given his brutal honesty about his own sexual urges, his one-night stand etc. which could be heard from the horse's mouth  in many audio and video tapes available in the public domain.

A few months after publishing this blog, I had received a painstaking , laboured writeup ( version 1.0) from Mr. Sumant, PhD ( see comment below) that was redirected to me by our long term UG friend, Chandrasekhara Babu. I personally found that it lacked any proof or evidence to refute or discount UG's narrative about the Udupi Swami or suggest an authentic alternative to it.

On dismissing it as lacking any direct witness account to prove or disprove anything about the Swami who had interacted with UG, surprisingly there appeared yet another write up by the same author ( version 2.0, generously edited version of the same version 1.0 ), once again forwarded to me by Babu.

This version had some additions and deletions which qualitatively changed nothing either about the author's claims or in anyway substantiated his misguided enthusiasm to prove that UG had no role whatsoever to play in the Swami's renunciation.

Unfortunately both versions lack any redoubtable proof to refute or contradict UG's own account. There is nothing substantive in terms of testimonials or direct witness accounts to discount or disprove UG's narrative. 

It is indeed a fact that there are now more Udupi Swamis who have shown real guts and gumption to give up ochre robes, say bye to pretentious lives, and boldly marry and lead normal lives. Their lives visibly resonate with UG's wisdom of courage to walk alone and to follow the dictates of one's conscience.

The intention or the mission of the author wanting to refute UG is still remains unclear after two versions of his rebuttal. 

For the records, let me also submit that I personally have utmost respect for giants from Sri Madhwacharya lineage, the likes of Sri Vyasa Teertha, Sri Vijayendra, Sri Raghavendra Teertha etc. who were real beacons of light, of unmatched wisdom , who touched and blessed innumerable lives in the past during their earthly sojourns.

Try as I might , I fail to find any rationale to suspect or question or ignore UG's account about the Udipi pontiff that he had met and helped , given his brutal honesty about himself or even his own sex life. And so many pontiffs giving up saffron for good.

UG remains an open book, fiercely threatening every belief structure and tearing down the citadels of spiritual power that have turned into authoritarian establishments threatening individual freedom to choose one' s path.

No offence meant for any faith or sect

Just an objective recounting of events as they happened.