" It is absolutely necessary for us to live neurotic life to function in society" - UG

All problems of living in social settings arise out of complex and complicated human relationships and situations. 

Our way of life or 'thought-centric existence' is a far cry from natural living we see operating in children, or across the animal world. 

Society lays down the 'normal' for social conditioning and functioning, legitimizing what is right or wrong, what is good or bad, taking charge of our lives. 

Society runs its agenda through social or cultural memes or algorithms. It uses knowledge or thought to program its surrogate in every individual by establishing firmly its local power-centre in the psyche.  

Thought or cultural knowledge dominates all our individual decisions and actions scuttling the natural response of innate intelligence. Thought-induced fear, anger, worry, anxiety and depression are thus norms in a societal existence. 

UG exposes the sickness of thinking and living by calling out our intellectual slavery, 

' You only hear what they (society) want you to hear, you only see what they want you to see, you wear labels, you eat ideas.... there is nothing there inside of you that you can call your own...'   

Pretentious or neurotic ways of living have turned into norms in society. 

An ancient story from Taoism elucidates the societal dictate or mandate on how one has to live or behave. 

Long time ago there lived a sage in China with his wife and disciples in a modest dwelling in a jungle. One night some robbers broke into the house. They beat up and tied the master, his wife and disciples and began looting the house. To the utter surprise of his wife and disciples, the master looked visibly shaken, turned his face towards the wall and started wailing in a loud voice. This rattled his disciples who found his behaviour absurd and unbecoming of a teacher. The robbers made good their loot and departed. Upon questioning his childish, ridiculous behaviour with robbers, the master finally replied, " Those thugs will not hesitate to kill you if they find that you are fearless and calm. That behaviour is a threat for them. They had weapons and I wanted no harm for anyone of you."

Yet another instance from the recent past.

The great Nisargadutta Maharaj used to apply a big vermillion mark on his forehead and put on the appearance of a holy man when he had to attend some religious festival in nearby villages, saying to the effect, " All this drama is for the sake of these genuine, innocent rural folks who do not understand what I say. They are simple souls." His talks were full of living truths extolled by non-duality scriptures like the Upanishads and the Maharaj knew well that they were pure abstractions for ordinary souls carrying on simple lives in fields and farms. 

These are all wise acts of adaptation, for survival in the human jungle, and are born of natural intelligence. 

Even a sage has to fit into society and UG spells out a golden rule, 

"I am affected by everything around me but am not 'involved' in anything."

The wise one acts, when necessary, not bogged down by reputation or repercussion and moves on. 

Thought has purely a functional value for the wise. UG beautifully sums up the place of thought in our lives,

" The thoughts help us to function very efficiently in this world. It is a tremendous instrument we have. 

So, it is the most difficult thing for us to understand that thought can only create (psychological) problems, it cannot help us to solve the problems. " 

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Audio Clip

Audio Transcription

Q: So, perhaps we teach first, and we believe of course, that you're not good or not good enough, and later when we are grow up, and we still feel not good enough, then we ask or seek for people that can give us the feeling that you are good.

UG: Yes, that is the guilt complex which is put in there by our culture.

So, you feel guilty that you are not up to the mark, that you are not fitting yourself into the environment, that you are not fitting yourself into the value system and so you feel guilty.

It is created by the society and so, then they have an antidote for you or get free yourself from guilt.

So, they have turned us all into neurotic individuals.

But it is absolutely necessary for us to live that neurotic life, otherwise you have no way of functioning in this world.

Q: If you would stop it, you would die.

UG: No, I don't know what exactly you mean by if you stop it. There is no way you can stop it.

Q: Some people believe that they can be good or get on a spiritual, on a higher level by for example meditation.

UG: No, how do they go about?

The only way they can stop their thinking, is through thinking.

So, it is the most difficult thing for us to understand that thought can only create problems, it cannot help us to solve the problems. that's all that we have.

The thoughts help us to function very efficiently in this world. it's a tremendous instrument we have. That's the only instrument we have. There is no other instrument.

But we also know that that is our enemy and it is that that is creating all the problems. But it is very difficult for you to understand that that is not the instrument and there is no other instrument.

When that realization dawns on you that that is not the instrument and that there is no other instrument there is no need for you to look around for another kind of instrument. No instrument is necessary.

Thought falls in its proper place and it functions in a very intelligent and sane way. It helps us to function sanely and intelligently in this world.

It cannot help us to create in what you are interested in. What are you interested in? What is anybody interested in this world?

The quest for permanent happiness. That's all that they are interested in.

All of these religious people who are selling those shoddy piece of goods in the marketplace assure us that there is eternal happiness, that there is another kind of a bliss, beatitude, immensity and all that kind of stuff and they put us on a merry-go-round.

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