" Mankind' is an extension of yourself. " ~ UG

    In this penetrating discussion (scroll down for the audio clip), UG lambasts our deep-rooted notion or belief in the 'collective' dismissing it as a mere abstraction, a 'mental construct'. 

    A 'collective' mentioned in this context could be a group or club or community or society, or statehood or nationhood, or even the all-encompassing 'idea' of mankind. 

    A 'collective', essentially, is a well-knit group of individuals sharing some common ideology or a set of goals or beliefs or values that bonds them together emotionally. The collective borrows its reality, solidity, legitimacy and identity through solidarity or allegiance and regular interaction of its members. Minus ideology or adherents, there will be no form or substance for a collective and it falls apart. 

    Then why is the idea of 'mankind' so important, so central to the social discourse or cultural narrative? 

    UG readily supplies the answer,

    "It (mankind) is the projection of your own demand for permanence. 

(But) there is no such thing as permanence at all. That's all that I'm pointing out." 

    We feel a deep sense of emptiness, inadequacy and uncertainty within and seek permanence externally in any form of 'collective' or 'community'. Here, culture or tradition plays a huge role in creating, promoting and facilitating the social environment for 'empty' individuals to come together and experience a sense of belonging or fulfilment.

    Interestingly, culture, to a great extent, is similar to the 'immortal gene' (made famous by Richard Dawkins) that exhibits tremendous 'staying power'. We know that the human gene (homo erectus) has continued to survive over the past two million years through reproduction and replication. 

    The 'selfish gene' achieves its 'immortality' by actively reproducing a host or vehicle or carrier for its own survival and continuity (" The body is immortal" ~ UG)

    Also, the gene cannot survive alone, it needs an environment or a 'collective' for its own maintenance and sustenance. The body or the host forms that 'collective'. Not only does the gene get reproduced but it is also replicated into as many copies as there are cells in the host. That's about thirty-six trillion copies in case of humans. (Source: How many cells are there in the human body? | New Scientist)

    Culture, just like the gene, propagates itself and survives through 'reproduction' and 'replication' in its psychological form as the 'social self'.   

    Culture engineers the 'social self' through a plethora of social algorithms including norms, beliefs, rituals, values, memes etc. and propagates itself through entire generations. Culture as the 'collective' then propagates itself through its votaries or proponents or adherents, all various avatars of the 'social self'. 

    As much as the culture needs the individual to play the host by being a believer or adherent, the individual too thirsts for the 'collective' or the social environment to escape being an 'island'. This is the meeting (mating) point of culture and the individual. The 'social self' is birthed when the individual is culturally programmed or indoctrinated. 

    The 'social self' is therefore nothing but the product of culture and is its replica or a copy. Much like the gene, culture makes multiple copies of the 'social self' by recruiting more and more followers or believers or members into its orbit.

    Humans come and go, physical bodies get recycled over and over, but the 'gene' as well as the 'meme' (culture) continue to survive and thrive, physically and culturally propagating through the progeny.

    Interestingly, UG explicates the mechanism of cultural indoctrination through what he calls, the 'world mind'. World mind or culture is the sum total of human 'knowledge and experience' accumulated over the centuries. Each of us siphon off our lot from this cumulative knowledge sourced from either parents or society or university or books or speeches. Yes, there is no escape from culture as long as we stay invested in society. All our thoughts are rooted in culture or the 'world mind'.

    'There is nothing about 'you' that is original' ~ UG. 

    Culture is therefore a psychological superimposition mandated upon us by the social environment. That I am an Indian or American or Russian or Chinese is very deep rooted and firmly entrenched. Through conditioning, culture ensures that we subscribe to a certain ideology that ties us to the collective or community. 

    Collective or culture is thus a 'social necessity' and the key ingredient of survival of the 'social self'. 

    For UG, we human entities are a wonderful expression of life endowed with extraordinary intelligence unparallelled in nature. He clearly draws a line between what is natural and what is artificial or cultural, 

    " Only thing that is valid and living there you see, (is) the 'natural anger' and 'lust' that is essential for the survival of the mechanism. 

    Those are the two things ('natural anger' and lust) that are there, that are part of the biological functioning of the living organism." ~ UG

    The primal emotions of anger, lust etc.  are genetically ingrained in the limbic or reptilian architecture of our brain. These primitive structures and their associated neural mechanisms are meticulously hardwired and integrated into our biology over millions and millions of years. They are put in place to ensure the survival and replication of the organism.  

    UG is careful here in his choice of words. He is talking of 'natural anger' that is physical or visceral as opposed to the 'psychological anger' rooted in thinking. Getting angry when someone slaps is different from getting angry when we lose money. 

    Similarly, physical fears or phobias are natural and associated with our physical survival - fear of fire, or fear of heights etc. while our psychological fears are rooted in thinking, ex. the fear of the unknown, fear of death, fear of disease, fear of betrayal etc. 

    Finally, 'lust' is natural but 'pleasure' or 'want' is artificial or psychological.

    UG highlights that all psychological angers or fears or wants are a superimposition on what is natural,

    " Everything else is superimposed on them (natural anger, lust etc). The greed, the jealousy, the envy, the whole 'cultural nonsense'. All the human values are imposed on them. They have not touched anything 'there' (the original, primordial or natural state)" ~ UG  

    By birth we are biological entities, through culture we become psychological beasts. UG sums it up beautifully,

    There is such a thing as the 'world mind', the totality of man's thoughts, feelings and experiences passed on to us from generation to generation.

    You have to use that to experience yourself as an 'entity'. You know, what you call ‘you’ cannot be experienced without the help of that knowledge (the cumulative human thought).

    So, our very existence as an individual or existence as an entity depends upon that (culture).

    How can you separate yourself from that (world mind or the culture) and say, this is 'me' in that sense? 

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Audio Clip

Audio Transcription

UG: After all, mankind is an extension of yourself. Mankind is an abstraction.

    Because you know that there is a permanence about you and the things around you, you project a thing called mankind and say that must live forever. 

So, what the hell you are interested in mankind? What for? 

It (mankind) is the projection of your own demand for permanence. There is no such thing as permanence at all. That's all that I'm pointing out. 

Q: Is there no function served by self-consciousness?

UG: The functions are created by your culture. You tell yourself that you are 'bored', that you are 'happy', that you are unhappy. What is there is only 'boredom', there is nobody who is bored. That's all that I am saying, boredom. 

    That's a sofa, that's a woman, that's a man, that's a microphone, that's a TV camera. 

    In exactly the same way you say you are happy, you are unhappy, you are miserable, you are greedy, you are this, that or the other.

    All that is cultural!

    Only thing that is valid and living there you see, (is) the natural anger, you see lust that is essential for the survival of the mechanism. Those are the two things that are there, that are part of the biological functioning of the living organism.

    Everything else is superimposed on them. The greed, the jealousy, the envy, the whole cultural nonsense. All the human values are imposed on them. They have not touched anything there. 

    There is such a thing as the 'world mind', the totality of man's thoughts, feelings and experiences passed on to us from generation to generation.

    You have to use that to experience yourself as an 'entity'. You know, what you call ‘you’ cannot be experienced without the help of that knowledge.

    So, our very existence as an individual or existence as an entity depends upon that (culture).

    How can you separate yourself from that (world mind or the culture) and say, this is 'me' in that sense. 

I say you have no freedom of action. When I say that, I am not saying that there is such a thing as fatality and all.

    You have freedom of action if you want to come here or you don't want to come here. That's all. Even there, I don't know how much freedom you have. There is a conflict, see, there also. 

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