"You are a sitting misery, walking misery, talking misery, living misery." - UG

    

    

    As humans, we live and function in a complex environment. Firstly, there is the natural, physical environment we share with all living creatures, and then there is the superimposed layer atop the physical - the cultural environment, unique and peculiar to humans.

    The body's native or inbuilt biological apparatus is hardwired over millions of years to live, function and survive all kinds of threats in the physical or natural environment.  

    The cultural environment, on the other hand, is rooted in thousands of years of human thought, since the dawn of human society. The cultural layer, as such, is referred to as the 'thought sphere' by UG. It is the 'psychological universe' or the 'mental realm' of social traditions, relationships, transactions, norms, values, isms, beliefs, ideals and goals. UG called it the 'superimposed reality' or the 'only reality' in which we all live, breathe and die.

     What Krishna, Rama, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Socrates, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed or Marx or Hitler (UG added Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse to the list) said or did, have all impacted the collective human consciousness, and is part of our culture. The culture, per UG, percolates our biology. Science is probing this fascinating phenomenon of transmission of culture through genes, the study of 'epigenetics'.

    Every thought of ours is borrowed from the 'thought sphere'. We see, hear, think and act as per its dictates. Right from birth, we begin to siphon off tons of thoughts, experiences, artifacts and beliefs that belong to the whole human race or the 'thought sphere'. 

    One of the most powerful, persistent, intimate, stubborn, die-hard belief among all the borrowed beliefs, is the belief in the 'I' or the 'self', foisted upon us by culture. 

    Culture therefore is the crucible where the 'self' gets forged, then maintained or perpetuated through the mechanism of social algorithms or memes. In fact, every social transaction validates and legitimizes the belief in the 'self' or the 'I'. 

  Every walking human is like a 'thought bubble' on the surface of the 'thought sphere'. Individually, we as thought bubbles affect the others, and in turn, we too get affected. All social transactions or contracts are exchanges between two thought bubbles. 

" We are affected by everything and everyone around us." ~UG

    Thoughts dominate and dictate our lives.

" You can't even take a few steps without 'talking' or 'muttering' to yourself - 'this is a nice flower', 'it is a bright day' and so on... All the time you are thinking." ~UG

    While thoughts could be sporadic, episodic, focused or contextual, the 'solidification' or 'institutionalisation of thoughts' happens through the medium of the 'human collective' or the 'society'. 

    'Society' and 'self' are thus basically the manifestations of the self-same 'thought sphere', the obverse and reverse of the same coin. The two are perceived as distinct and separate due to the dualistic nature of social or cultural contracts like marriage etc. But the mental stuff or the substrate is the same! 

    Survival of the 'self' therefore happens to be the survival of 'society' and vice versa. Society will continue to propagate the big lie about the 'self', and the 'self' about the society, to ensure the artificial duality and mutual continuity. 

    A glaring example, right in front of our very eyes, is the transformation of a 'culture-free' infant, unaware of its own gender, into a full blown, 'self-sufficient' adult in the social world, fully capable of exercising 'his' or 'her' own will. 

    This is nothing short of a masterly 'simulation' (Maya) of the 'self' by the all-powerful, cultural environment. At least this is how the Eastern sages like Sri Sankara, Sri Ramana or UG see the workings of the 'superimposed reality' or 'thought sphere' in conjuring up the 'I' or the 'self'. They ask us to inquire into this sham reality and get over with it.

    UG and Sri Ramana Maharshi addressed the die-hard misconception about the 'self' being perceived as a separate and distinct entity from 'society'. 

    When someone queried Sri Ramana whether he should continue his non-profit, providing services to 'others' in the Americas, he responded with a poignant, "Who are the 'others'?" 

    On similar lines, when someone spoke of serving society, UG too observed, 

" Where is this 'society' you are talking about? 'You' are not different from, or other than 'society'. You' are the society." 

    Here lies the fundamental human problem, the painful act of straddling between two different, distinct, conflicting worlds, the biological (physical or real) and the psychological (mental or virtual). 

    UG, after his 'calamity' (death and resurrection), went about his business of cutting to the bone by brushing aside all kinds of social or spiritual authorities, and value systems. For him, all these were all noise and fluff. They are distracting and sidetracking us from the real problem of human restlessness and misery. 

    UG tracks down the origins of our neurotic situation to the constant friction between the physical and the mental worlds. The friction, he says is dissipating huge amounts of life energy, draining away all our vitality and vigour. 

    In this clip, UG makes it clear that 'wanting to end friction', in fact, causes even more friction due to overthinking, ("Wanting and thinking always go together") wrecking the inner peace and compounding the existing misery.

" It is very difficult to understand that (you have) to be free from the very demand to be free." 

"You will not get anything from anybody to be at peace with yourself.

All this is (only) disturbing the peace that is already there." ~UG

    

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Audio Clip

(87-UG TALKING ABOUT VALENTINE JAN 1987-AUDIO - YouTube)   

Audio Transcription

UG: You will not get anything from anybody to be at peace with yourself.

All this is disturbing the peace that is already there.

Your idea of peace is altogether different.

Q: How would it look like if you had no ideas about it?

UG: So, you have to live with your ideas and suffer.

That's all. There is no way out for you. If somebody says there is a way out, go there and stand on your head, hang from the tree, or meditate, do what you like.

But the misery continues. 

There is another (new) misery.

Q: What do you call misery?

UG: Do I have to tell you?

Yes.

UG: Do I have to tell you?

You are miserable.

That's why you are looking your way out.

You are a sitting misery, walking misery, talking misery, living misery.

You want to be out of that.

Get out of that. Whatever it is, you don't call it misery. Call it by whatever name you like. You are choked. What is it that is choking you?

What is it that is killing you? Destroying the very thing that you want.

All that human value, all the good things that you want to be.

The freedom. You want to be free. It is that that is killing you.

You don't seem to understand this simple thing. 

It is very difficult to understand that (you have) to be free from the very demand to be free. 

That's all that you have to do. It's not easy.

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