“We can''t (even) live together if you don't believe in what others' believe.” - UG

“You are nothing but belief, and when it dies, you are dead." - UG

We cannot live with another individual, or be part of a family or group if we don’t believe what they believe.

Belief is the entry ticket to coexistence. Not sharing or accepting beliefs of others could mean – ‘no admission’ to the group or worse, the threat of expulsion from the group.

Come to think of it, all our social or political structures are nothing but institutionalized beliefs.

In any social group (including the WhatsApp or Facebook Groups), there is always some form of group dynamic, an element of control, to ensure status quo.

Group dynamics are a ‘soft’ form of control, a power-play where willing members are reined in by ‘the group mind’, an invisible power-center.

Unspoken, unwritten rules (norms) guide activities of many social groups. Rules about how to solidify beliefs, how to recruit members into the fold, how to indoctrinate newbies, how to chastise dissenters, how to rehabilitate deviants ensure the status quo and continuity of the group.

‘Sense of belonging’ is a powerful motive deep-rooted in the human psyche.

Without subscribing to some form of belief, without affiliation to some group, one feels empty, crippled, lost and lonely.

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Is it then possible to free oneself from the tyranny of beliefs and groups and ‘to function sanely and intelligently’ in a society?

UG emphasized three things to be on our own and not to succumb to any influence of a group or a belief system:

First, ‘Brutal honesty’ - this is the place to start with.

Honesty is to see things for what they are, to see or own one’s flaws or ugliness, to junk pretense or fakery, and to dare to be ordinary and real.  

At the same time, it is important not to escape reality by ‘trying to become someone’, or ‘following some model.’  All such efforts will only help keep the old, ugly ‘self’ continuing in a modified form.

UG therefore asked us to STOP, to drop all movement in any direction, at any level, in any dimension.

Self’ is the ‘movement of knowledge’ -UG.

Second, UG spoke of ‘uncompromising and uncomplaining self-reliance.’  

(Psychological) dependence is the beginning of all corruption or corrosion or compromise.

With self-reliance, one gains the ability to say ‘No’ to all falsehoods and fake relationships.

The more one becomes self-reliant, the less is the psychological burden, more the freedom to follow the dictates of one’s heart.

And finally, the third, the ‘the courage to stand alone.’

With ‘brutal honesty’ and ‘uncompromising self-reliance’ already in place, one is naturally freed from the stranglehold of societal dictates, norms and beliefs.

That bestows the strength or courage to walk alone.   

 

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Video Transcript:

 

“IF THE BELIEF COMES TO AN END, ‘YOU’ WILL COME TO AN END”

     - UG

Q: So, you don’t have any belief system, but does that make your life a little bit empty if you don’t believe anything…

UG: I want to assert, and I have time and again asserted this point that there is only a belief there, there is no believer. So, you are that belief. What you call ‘you’. It doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or whether you believe in the assertions of the scientists or value the assertions that President Bush makes time and again that ‘I will see Americans will have the same standard of living forever.’ You invest your faith in that guy…because he is asserting you know, like that.

So, there is no believer there! You don’t have to take my word, you see, there is only a belief. You are that belief, what you call ‘you’ is that belief. It doesn’t matter what that belief is – whether you believe in God or whether you believe in love or whether you believe in this, that and the other.

So, if that belief comes to an end, you as you know yourself and you experience yourself is coming to an end.

Q: When I die, my shit box goes.

UG:  It goes first, before that, what you call clinical death cannot take place, cannot occur.

So, if that goes now, you will drop dead at this moment. What will remain after that is not your interest, is not your concern because you are not going to be there to tell yourself that you are dead.

So, those who say that you are dead, and define it as clinical death, use their knowledge and tell you that you are not breathing, you are not responding to that stimulus, there is no pulse there, using the knowledge and they say that you are dead, but the fact that you are dead is something which cannot be experienced by you or even by them or even by those beloved ones. What they experience is not the death of their dear, near ones, but the void created by what you call death makes it impossible for them to live the same kind of a life forever, you know.

So, for all practical purposes, there is no such thing as death for the body. Birth and death is a simultaneous process. The moment you are born, you have to die!

Birth is a definition, death is a definition, health is a definition, disease is a definition – all these are definitions. We swallow all those definitions. And we think we know what they are talking about. They don’t know, nothing. Nothiong at all!

So, they assert based upon what they think that they have found out through their research projects or through their beliefs passed on to us from generation to generation. So, the assertion that there is no believer but there is only belief cannot be accepted by you. IF THE BELIEF COMES TO AN END, ‘YOU’ WILL COME TO AN END. So, you cannot but replace one belief with another belief.

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“WE CAN’T LIVE TOGETHER IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE”

                                                                                                                  - UG

So, you have to accept all that (beliefs), for what? We can’t (even) live together if you don’t believe (and accept the beliefs of others), in our (own) homes. You know they force us to eat the same kind of a food…

I was not interested in that (societal belief system), I was only interested in my want. Whatever I want, they(society) didn’t want me to want.

My family members, my teachers, everyone (society) - you should want this, and not that!

****

UG is the Blackhole - Luc Sala

UG is the Blackhole, Interview with Luc Sala:   

       

https://youtu.be/ssl77Xl1hXU?si=Ez-HJvepgweWK2gX                                                     

In this hour-long rivetting video, UG is uncompromising and throwing out everything we hold sacred and dear. He is dismantling all that is ‘known’ –theories, beliefs, institutions, and value systems.

Calling the bluff, “Life has no grander purpose than the mosquito sucking your blood”, UG makes us see things for what they are.

In UG’s hard hitting words, “To be free from the need to be free” lies the restoration of life’s balance and normalcy. 

‘To be free from the need to be free’ is true freedom, freedom from all mental chimeras or delusions. This is the real “Stopping in our tracks.”

In his ‘scorched-earth’ tirade against all spiritual undertakings or psychological adventures, UG boots out false search or hope (especially of the psychological or spiritual kind).

Hope is the dope for psychological continuity. Hope fuels thinking, spurring the mind. 

But false hope begets hopelessness and restlessness, guzzling away huge amounts of our energy and vitality.

Most importantly, hope hijacks perception, giving rise to delusions and distortions.

UG surgically goes about uprooting even the tiny remnants of search or hope. This is scary stuff. But when we begin to see the futility of false search and the profound wisdom of his words, we actually become hope-free and grounded. 

Being hope-free or goal-free, is to be free from the tyranny of the mind. It is real healing, unburdening and rejuvenating. 

   ***

Here is a close parallel from an ancient classic, Ribhu Gita, hailed as an exposition on meta-meditation:

किंचिदस्ति इति चेच्चिते सर्वं भवति शीघ्र अतः।

यत्किञ्चित किमापि क्वापि न अस्ति चेन्न प्रसाज्यति।

kincidastiti ceccitte sarvarh bhavati sighrataha.

yatkincit kimapi kvapi nasti cenna prasajyati.

(“Even if there is a little of the ‘mind’ (hope), it soon becomes all. If there is no little, nothing arises whatsoever, or wherever.”)

                             - Ribhu Gita (4-28), 

Ribhu Gita is hailed by Sri Ramana Maharshi as one of the greatest classics offering the closest description of his own state. 

In Ribhu Gita, a sagely figure Ribhu, a close parallel to UG, goes about surgically discrediting all that is ‘known’, brushing aside all gods, scriptures, institutions, traditions, names and forms, to try and quell the stirrings of the mind of his acolyte Nidagha. 

But here, the end-game is still ‘samadhi’ (spiritual goal).

UG, in a major departure from all other sagely figures, fiercely tore down one of the most acclaimed spiritual practices in the Eastern tradition – the negation approach (‘neti, neti’ - ‘not this’, ‘not this’). 

UG pointed out that negation is very much fraught with desire or hope to attain some positive outcome – a state of enlightenment or samadhi. 

For UG ‘neti, neti’ therefore, is not a rejection but quite the opposite- the affirmation, the assertion of a goal, a spiritual grail. It puts one on a merry go round, on an ego trip, once again maintaining and nourishing the false ‘self’, defeating the very purpose. 

Spiritual goals and undertakings could indeed be enticing traps. There is always the danger that false hope could push someone into a real state of despondence and delusion with dire consequences.

“There is no oasis situated yonder; you are stuck with the mirage.” - UG

                                 ****

A note from Chandrasekhar Babu:

'Labeling U.G.'s message as "negative" is the mind's defense mechanism - an attempt to discredit and invalidate that which it perceives as an annihilating force capable of dismantling its deeply entrenched structures of thought and identity.'

                               

                                   ****

Transcription of the video clip

Luc Sala: “Not much left! …that’s the main story. UG Krishnamurti, every time I talk with you, you leave me with nothing. I would call you the big Blackhole of our knowledge. Everything that we can dream of, as being relevant, as having meaning, goes into UG’s Blackhole and disappears…

UG: I don’t see any Blackhole.

LS: Well, for me, you are! You are like the way they (what you call), our illusions disappear, I don’t know what is behind the Blackhole, neither do you…

UG: I don’t see any Blackhole there…you see a Blackhole there?

LS: Whatever I see, you make the weapon smoke !

UG: There is a very comforting thing for you to believe that I am a Blackhole.

LS: Even to believe Blackhole, isn’t there…We spoke with UG Krishnamurti, 50 years ago he came to Holland and for about 50 years , he did away with his being associated with Theosophical Society, and everything India stood for and I believe everything that the Western world…

UG: Everything human thought has come up with, everything was thrown out of my system, I am a very lucky guy, I have been freed from the stranglehold of the human thought and I CANNOT BE OF ANY HELP TO ANYBODY BECAUSE, YOU DON’T NEED ANY HELP!

LS: Wow… To feel free from the need to be…

UG: To be free from the need to be free

LS: To be free from the need to be free, That’s a paradox…

UG: It sounds like a paradox…It’s a fact!

LS: To be free from the need to be free

UG: There is nothing there to be free from…

WOW !!!

****

" 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. 

 ****

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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“NOT GETTING WHAT YOU WANT is sorrow, is frustration” – UG

Mahesh Bhatt sparring with UG

The Real McCoys or sages are grounded and purposeless. They go about leading ordinary lives, completely engaged (but not involved) in the mundane affairs of life.

The real men and women shy away from all recognition and reputation, staying clear of ceremony and pomp, security and fortification. The Real McCoy is never caught in the trappings of a Pope or a jagad-guru. (“If Jesus had security, there would be no Christianity.” – UG to Mahesh Bhatt pointing to the heavily-guarded Vatican).

Sages never hesitate to speak out or act when they sense danger or harm either to the community or an individual. When circumstances demand courage and wisdom, they are ready and willing to forsake their reputation and even their lives to avert a crisis or prevent harm.

The sagely utterings and sayings are all born in such benign interventions. Like the sudden onset of an earthquake, or the abrupt eruption of a volcano, the outpourings are extempore speeches or statements, not delivered from the convenience and comfort of pulpits or platforms.

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The timeless classic of Bhagwad Gita was birthed right in the middle of a pitched battle when Sri Krishna got engaged in a dialogue with a deluded and despondent Arjuna who had given up his resolve to fight even before the war started.

The iconic warrior had ironically succumbed to his own internal enemies, the demons of dichotomy, unable to choose between his ‘duty’ (to fight injustice) and ‘loyalty’ (to his elders and teachers standing against him in the opposition camp), he was clueless about his response, completely muddled and utterly perplexed!

This is the deceptive power of a conditioned mind under the vicious grip of a hypocritical value system.

Sri Krishna does not waste time and embarks on the discourse of Gita, exorcising the demons of delusion in Arjuna who then readily embraces ‘duty’ over ‘loyalty’, ‘rightness’ over ‘uprightness’ accomplishing his goal.

Gita has since become a beacon for all those battling with demons of despondence and delusion.

The famous epic Bhagavatam similarly came about during a personal crisis. It was delivered by the sage Suka to King Parikshit while the latter was on a death sentence through snakebite because of a curse.

Socrates gave his famous ‘Defense Speech’ before his death sentence through consumption of the deadly hemlock.

Jesus delivered his momentous sermon while ascending the gallows.

The sagely Nisargadutta Maharaj, on his way to organize his wife’s funeral, stopped short and wholeheartedly addressed the concerns of a spiritual seeker, on a road-side chat, while the seeker remained oblivious to the circumstances.

All of them acted promptly in response to people overwhelmed by their struggles and crises.

Contrast all this with the bogus speeches of today’s platform-gurus. The scripted speeches are filled with cheap platitudes and palliatives, full of entertaining quotes, jokes and stories. They are completely stage-managed by army of cronies, time-bound, carrying huge price tags, pepped up by ceremony and music, in club-class comfort creating the ambience of a ‘spiritual spa’.

Platform performances and con artists in the spiritual business are far removed from harsh realities of life.

The real ‘awakening’ is more like ‘a kick in the gut’ by a sagely character and a grim reminder of reality.

Intense exchanges of friends with UG are real kickers filled with raw energy and emotions.

Only those who remained brutally honest, and prepared for the gut-punches could get into the ‘ring’ with UG, and survive the intense pressure and heat, and the relentless body blows.

A countable few really dared to ‘take the bull by the horn’ teasing out some of the finest repartees from UG, true gifts for posterity.

We are grateful to these daring men and women.

Here is such a high-voltage encounter between the fiery UG and a vicious Mahesh Bhatt.

In this rare clip, UG is holding forte, pushing the envelope and ‘frustrating’ his longtime friend Mahesh Bhatt.

Mahesh is forcefully pushing back, here, he is the very personification of vehemence, taunting UG and touting JK, making a case for ‘frustration’, and doggedly defending the ‘reality of frustration’. He is genuinely and fiercely rooting for ‘freedom from frustration or sorrow’ (some common ‘JK themes’ – familiar to many ‘JK-widows’)

UG, as usual, is unperturbed and nonchalant, brushing aside the rationale for ‘the reality of frustration’ advanced by a rebellious Mahesh.

UG has the last word and nails it, “All your romanticized pain, sorrow or frustration are rooted in NOT GETTING WHAT YOU WANT.” Period!

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Our unfulfilled wants or desires, feelings of hopelessness or pathos, make for rich mental imagery and juicy word-salads. These could be spun into romantic poetry, into drama, movie scripts, into profound philosophical or intellectual or spiritual doctrines (‘the doctrine of suffering’), into enchanting writings and discourses by skilled pundits or wordsmiths.

Words solidify experiences, letting us relive a moment of joy or pain or loss giving it a life and momentum of its own.

Society has always glorified and celebrated verbalization. The gigantic collection of books in world’s libraries is a testament.

Wordsmiths who lack empathy and the sagely wisdom could easily weaponize the words with enormous consequences for humanity.

Only a sage could exorcise the demon of verbalisation. 

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Transcription of the video clip: 

UG: Its all bullshit. Nothing else. What’s sorrow, you are talking about?

Q: No you keep on saying, something which we are battling with every now and then, that it’s not there!

What’s it that there?

Q: It is there!

UG: What is there, you tell me?

Q: I am frustrated! Frustration is concrete. Sorrow is concrete here! You just say it’s not there!

UG: Where is it?

Q: It’s there inside of me. It is there.

UG: Because it’s not there, the vehemence is coming! Its’s not there,

Q: It is there

UG: Where?

Q: I feel it inside my body, as a physical ache, I feel

( The dialogue gets repeated)  

UG: It is throwing out, that nonsense!

Q: What is throwing out?

UG: It is not throwing out, you are talking about it, it is not there.

Q: Where?

UG: You say it is there, I say it is not there, that’s the end of all conversation, finish!

Q: For you its not there,

UG: For you also its not there, you are just talking about that nonsense

Q: It is there for me and it is there for everyone.

UG: I don’t see, how is it expressing itself?

Q: You are the only person for whom, it does not seem to be there

UG: No, no, no, it’s not there

Q: That’s why a man like J Krishnamurti or a writer like that makes more sense to me than you

UG: Certainly

Q: This Frustration makes more sense to me. I relate to that frustration and not to you. You don’t seem to understand what we are talking about.

UG: I understand you.

No. I don’t think so. You say there is no sorrow, no despair, no frustration.

UG: Why you are still trying to be free from that frustration

That’s my whole tragedy is, I am still trying to…

UG: Why you are still (trying to?), YOU HAVE NO PROBLEMS…

‘NOT GETTING WHAT YOU WANT’

is sorrow, is frustration – UG

****

Go anywhere, do anything you want, that’s the only thing I am saying.

All frustration, write poetry, some nonsense, some romantic stuff, what frustration? What is it you are doing? I don’t see any frustration!

I have frustration (mocking), what the hell you are talking about?

NOT GETTING WHAT YOU WANT, THAT’S THE FRUSTRATION!

WHAT IS IT THAT YOU WANT?

You want to be free from frustration, then you want me to tell you ‘how I can be free from frustration?’, That ( the effort or yearning to free oneself) is the one that keeps the frustration there.

The HOW is related to the frustration. So, you don’t want to be free from frustration. You want to live with it, romanticize it, and make movies and make money, sit on a platform and talk about it – ‘don’t condemn it, don’t justify it, don’t identify yourself with frustration, be choicelessly aware of that…

ONE WHO IS CHOICELESSLY AWARE OF THE FRUSTRATION IS THE FRUSTRATION!

There is no other frustration other than the bastard’s (JK) statement – ‘choicelessly aware of frustration’ – THAT IS THE FRUSTRATION!

Because you will never be free from that, that’s a joke – ‘be choicelessly aware of frustration’, just look at it, that (frustration) doesn’t exist. (It’s) the only thing that exists(are) his empty words, that you have picked up from somewhere else. That’s all. So you don’t want to be free from that.

If you are really interested in freeing yourself from that which you are not (a frustrated human), that shit (all empty words and borrowed ideas) must go…

 

 

 

“All your questions are born of your answers” - UG

What we ‘know’ is who ‘we’ are.’

Culturally filtered, acquired knowledge makes each of us unique. We are all products of a lifetime of intellectual investment.

What each of us know, is the subset of all possible solutions and answers given by ‘others’ for day-to-day problems across every sphere of life – social, political, spiritual or the mundane.

No wonder, greed for knowledge is as powerful as the greed for money.

Every moment, consciously or unconsciously, we are seeking answers from this collective pool of what others have said, felt and experienced.

Coming to intellectual curiosity, many of the fundamental questions of humanity, to this day, have remained the same,
“What is the purpose of life? What is God? What is enlightenment?”

Some wise men and women, here and there, seem to have found their own answers to these burning questions, now part of the vast pool of common knowledge.

While questions have fundamentally remained the same, answers given by the worthies, are each strikingly different and unique.

Perhaps the intellectual makeup, the integrity, intensity, humaneness, and sincerity of the questioner throws up a unique question (specific to the individual) that results in a unique answer.

No wonder, we see multitude of answers, for seemingly, the very same question! We find that many of these answers even contradict one another, giving rise to more confusion, and more questions.

UG’s remarkable observation is that any borrowed answer will midwife the birth of new questions, tormenting you endlessly!

UG said that your question must be your own, and not borrowed from others, “I don’t have any answer” but “In a way, I could try and help you formulate your own question.”

Finally, when you come up with your own question, that doesn’t let you sleep, there is a possibility of finding your own answer!

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Selfishness is ‘survival-ness’ – UG

Selfishness is ‘survival-ness’ – UG

________________________________________

Selfishness is considered evil and held in contempt by most cultures. Selfishness smacks of moral overtones and is considered synonymous with ‘greed’ in many lexicons of the world.

In this lively, captivating talk, UG calls our attention to the little-known facet or shade of ‘selfishness.’ He shows us that it is not such an evil force, after all. It is the benign life force, the primal drive playing its part everywhere in nature.

Selfishness, in this sense, ensures the ‘survival and function’ of every individual cell, and in coordination with the surrounding cells, the survival and function of the entire living organism.

‘Selfishness’, per UG, is nothing but ‘Survival-ness.’

In its benign form, ‘selfishness’ or ‘survival-ness’ is the propensity or tendency of a living cell to care, nourish, protect, survive, and thrive in the natural environment. It is the primitive life force animating the plant, animal, or the human.

Most importantly every living cell is ‘actually and factually’ a phenomenal ‘team player.’ It ‘knows’ that even its own survival is not possible without the survival of all the other adjoining cells, else it is game over!

With its ‘embedded software’ and ‘hardware’, every cell ‘knows’ its part in the grand scheme of things. Like a great soccer team, the individual cell plays its contributory role, as part and parcel of a bigger team, in extraordinary coordination with all other players.

To demonstrate the necessity or significance of this 'benign' form of ‘selfishness’ or ‘survival-ness’, let us consider an airplane flying at 40,000 feet above the sea level.

As we all know, every commercial jet, flying at high altitudes, is artificially pressurized (Remember the pressure bumps on your eardrums during take-offs or touch downs?). That is, all passengers will be supplied with pressurized air inside the aircraft cabin throughout the flight. This supply pressure is equal to the quality (pressure) of air that you might breathe when you are on top of a mountain, roughly 8000 feet high. We call this, the ‘cabin altitude’.

Some bigger, longer-range airplanes offer cabin altitudes of 6000 feet (much easier on your lungs during long-haul flights).

We all know that the air pressure will become lesser and lesser as we go on up and up a mountain. We begin to gasp for breath after a certain point and we cannot survive without an oxygen (pressurized) cylinder above an altitude of 15,000 feet.

Now, imagine if a door bursts open or cracks open (in the news, lately) while flying at 40,000 feet! The cabin will suddenly suffer a pressure loss , also called ‘cabin decompression’ or depressurization. No one can survive the low-pressure air in the environment at 40,000 feet altitude. It is catastrophic to all life forms. Within 8 to 9 seconds, one might lose consciousness and within a few more minutes, one could collapse and die!

Now recall the safety demo given to you before the takeoff about the dangers of cabin decompression, of how the oxygen masks deploy during such times from the overhead bins.

The cabin crew instructions are very succinct and explicit about this danger. And the instruction might even sound ‘selfish’:

“In the event of a sudden cabin decompression, pull the oxygen mask in front of you, secure the mask on yourself FIRST and start breathing normally. AND THEN AND ONLY THEN help your baby or your partner with their oxygen masks.”

Are they encouraging selfishness?

With every passing second, chances of your survival get slimmer and slimmer in a hostile environment like the high altitudes. At 40,000 feet, instead of securing oxygen mask on yourself first, practicing some form of ‘religion’ or ‘selflessness’ will only kill you. Takes only a few seconds for you to become unconscious. You faint and become incapacitated. Without being ‘selfish’ and alive, you will be of no use to anyone – neither to yourself nor to your child nor your partner!

‘Selfishness’ or ‘survival-ness’ remains the primal force at the cellular level. Nature has designed every cell to be ‘selfish.’ At the same time, it has bestowed the intelligence in the cell to remain a ‘team player’, in total harmony and balance with neighboring cells.

On the other hand, a cancer cell is not a normal cell. It is not a team player. It has turned rogue and ‘greedy’, guzzling all nutrients only for itself, dividing and growing alarmingly, invading other tissues and organs with life threatening consequences for all, very typical of human greed!

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Transcript:

Q: Did you say that our bodies are reactors?

UG: The brain, I said.

You see, first of all, you know, the division of that unit (called the ‘human body’), if I may call it, which is not separate from the whole of nature, does not divide itself into brain, into cells, into heart, into all those divisions.

It (localization) is for the (benefit of the) doctor to localize the particular part of the body to understand, to know more and more about it.

Otherwise, you will be surprised that every cell in the body has a memory of its own now (recently discovered by science). So, it (the cell) is interested in its survival. So, it knows that its survival depends on the survival of the cell, next to it. That’s the reason there is a COOPERATION (among the 60 trillion cells in the body).

Our phony culture says that ‘you must love your neighbor as thyself’ and that ‘cooperation is something extraordinary’, ‘we should cooperate with everybody’, that’s all phony-baloney!

But here it (the cell) knows in its own way, and that knowing is only for the survival!

It is SELFISH to its very core.

The unfortunate situation we find ourselves in is ‘creation of some selfless thing (goal) out there (value system)’. So it is that (value system) that is responsible for the misery but not the selfishness ( in operation in the natural scheme) that is very essential for its survival.

This selfishness which is part and parcel of the living unit here, cannot harm (disrupt) anything.

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“What is Life? I really don’t know!” – UG

UG, afresh, full of energy and vitality, is effortlessly taking on the intellectual offensive of a roomful of sharp-tongued, theorizing philosophers. Armed with matchless logic and reasoning, the questioners are hell-bent on teasing out the definition of Life on their own intellectual terms and conditions.

As with UG, the vitality of life is on full display, overshadowing the rigidity of intellect.

A bubbling UG, unfazed by intense probing and prodding, maintains that Life is beyond thought or intellect. Life has its own rhythm, its own continuum, way beyond the grasp or boundaries of finite thinking instigated by intellect. And one can never experience Life!

The acquired, sharpened intellect is only an artificial construct, a ‘squatter’ in the biological system. Intellect is the ‘creator’ throwing up ideas and concepts as opposed to the brain which is a ‘reactor’ responding to stimuli to ensure biological function and survival.

Many times, we are easily swayed by artifice or mental conjecture of a mighty intellect, falling prey to its superior reasoning and logic. This is how powerful people and leaders of humanity continue to dictate our thinking, impacting our lives through their peculiar ideas, ideals and ideologies.

The sheer number of mega awards, rewards, prizes instituted globally to celebrate intellectual feats (mental gymnastics) is an unmistakable sign that we slavishly surrender to intellectual hegemony.

UG emphasized and re-emphasized that extreme intellectualization (over-sharpening of the instrument), other than for purposes of learning for earning, of functioning and survival, is a sheer drain on our energy and vitality.

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Q: How do you define Life? If you define a Non-Life, that is ( that will help define) for the rest of your Life…

UG: What is the point in capturing something ‘living’ within the framework of a dead structure and define it? Why do you want to define Life?

Q: Why do you NOT want to define?

UG: We are all defining Life all the time. You see…how to live?

I DON’T KNOW A THING ABOUT LIFE!

The Life never asks the question … am I alive or dead?

If you ask me the question, Are you alive? I would say certainly I am alive because of all these definitions, because of all the information given to me by the doctors and you (too are alive ) because you are sitting here and you are talking or you are responding to the stimuli, you are doing all kinds of things so you are very much alive.

Good, I am delighted that I am alive but the fact that I am alive is very difficult for me to experience.

What is death?  What is Life? I REALLY DON’T KNOW. It is expressing itself…

The expression of Life is energy. You are the expression of Life, I am the expression of Life, the mosquito, if there is, that is the expression of life.

Everything that is there around, is the expression of the same Life!

There is an integral unity but unfortunately we separate ourselves and we have given to ourselves the tremendous IDEA that we are quite different, place ourselves on the top of the whole creation but we are not (different or separate from Life). We ( existing as psychological entities) are NOTHING in the scheme of things. You are no more important!

All of us, all these human bodies will be used by nature because it needs this energy somewhere else. If not cancer, if not AIDS, it will be something else, it will wipe us all out! You can have any number of doctors in this world. They are not going to do it! It is not a pessimistic (view)

…You are no more important in the scheme of things but through our THINKING we are made to believe that we are something extraordinary, that we are souls, that we are life…