What are you doing here, sitting and talking ?

A  pseudo -intellectual , highly opinionated, feeling concern for everything about India - the rampant corruption, poverty, injustice, pollution etc. met UG for the first time.

UG was in his elements talking about the mindset of people,  "You guys are actually jealous of rich people.You envy them and want to be like them! You could not make it rich like them, so you call them ugly.........."

The visitor burst out, " UG, don't you think poverty is real and the poor are exploited the most. I really mean it! I feel the pain when I see beggars on the street & those struggling in the slums.You mean we should just sit & watch and not  do  anything ?"

UG shot back, " Mister, if it is true that you really care for the poor, do you think you will have time to sit and discuss poverty like you are doing now? You will then be doing something. You will be out on the street or in the slum working with them , not sitting here and talking! The fact is  you are not really interested in doing anything at all! Get up & go! Don't waste time, yours or mine! Go do something for them, don't sit here and talk!"

In all the years thereafter, I never saw him even remotely broaching the topic!

UG As A Child...

UG and Baby Sirisha

UG staked everything - his fortune, career, family and reputation, in trying to explore the only thing that mattered to him in life - Brahman or Atma or Self or Reality or nature of existence!  

We see such extraordinary, singular devotion in the lives of Ramana Maharshi, Buddha and a few others of the same ilk. 

Once I queried UG, "Sir, what sport did you enjoy most when you were a kid?"  

I received a lightning jolt from UG, " No sir! As a child, I had absolutely no time for games or sports ! I spent most of my time in mountain caves, in meditation, in chanting of mantras - several thousand times a day! I was put on a strict regimen and never got a chance to play games or sports like other kids!" 

 Such a lonely, regimented childhood!  

Listening to this mind blowing account of his tender years, I momentarily felt a sickening pain in the pit of my stomach.  But before I could even recover from the shock, typical of UG, he had segued on to yet another topic! 

Unthinkable how a tender child could take on such severe penance! One is reminded of Ramana , Nityananda (Ganeshpuri) and that legendary Nachiketa - boy wonders who saw through the falsehood of our living and rejected the worldly life at such a tender age ! They belong to the league of precocious children with monstrous determination and phenomenal guts to plumb the depths of Reality, the only thing that mattered most in their lives!  

Their search was devoid of any selfish motives or ego-centric ambitions, it was 'a search for the sake of search' ! We see pristine purity in their search. We see the qualities of abandonment and sacrifice as opposed to attainment and avarice, the selfish motives behind our spiritual quest ! 

Though UG personally underwent such harsh austerities on his part, he forbade others from taking up such practices and misadventures. He warned us in no uncertain terms, " You will only end up in a loony bin - singing loony tunes and merry melodies"  

UG's characteristic disclaimer is a unique guidepost in spiritual wilderness!  

Why was UG so concerned?  

The devil perhaps lies in the purity or nobility in the intention behind such a pursuit. He repeated ad nauseum," What do you want? What is the single thing that you want in your life?" pushing us to the wall, as it were, to honestly take a look at ourselves and explore our hidden motives or intentions. In short, with these four words, he helped us to explore our hidden agenda! All our actions are tainted with hope, motivation and ambition leading to fear, hopelessness and despondency, sure-fire recipe for disaster and self-destruction ! 

What do you want? What a simple innocuous question and what serious implications ! 

Furthermore, UG spent a lifetime debunking spiritual undertakings of each and every kind. He relentlessly questioned the reality of such goals and exposed the futility of such pursuits to keep us away from traps and treachery, ripe in the spiritual bazaar! 

I recall yet another anecdote of UG with regard to childhood and children.   

  

Once while on a visit to our home, UG thoroughly enjoyed playing with my little baby daughter for a length of time. At one point, I proudly proclaimed that the little one was 'father's pet' and would never part with anything in her hands to anyone else except me - her doting father. UG wasted no time and right away challenged me and said that he would prove me wrong at every turn! The game started - every time  I asked for the pen in her hands, she would turn away, ignore me and hand it over to UG sitting next to her! This happened so many times that I finally surrendered and conceded that I was the looser! UG, the magician, simply had charmed my infant daughter and proved me wrong!

Finding UG in a joyous mood that day, I took the opportunity and made a light-hearted remark," UG ! As I see it, you seem to thoroughly enjoy the company of children! But your saying ' children are monsters' and that 'you relish the soup made of new born babies' tongues' -this somehow doesn't gel with what I see!" 

UG didn't mince words, " Sir! People don't know - I love children! I enjoy their company! Unfortunately, today there is no school or education system in any part of the globe, that can provide a curriculum to young children without corrupting their minds." 

Behind UG's tough veneer, behind those outrageous remarks and statements, there lurked a gentle, tender spirit! One just needed to scratch the surface!

UG, the iconoclast...

Once a famous Bollywood actor walked in to see UG in a make-shift transit house in Bombay. A few regulars were with him that hot afternoon. UG had arrived from Bangalore on way to Europe.

The celebrity carried himself with the air of a honcho.  He had played some cameos in Hollywood  On seeing UG, he greeted him and recalled their last meeting dating back to a couple of decades. Taking his seat at the small round table where UG and Soni, Mahesh Bhatt's wife were also seated, he tossed his pack of cigarettes onto the table while settling into his seat. The pack went sliding across the table and came to a stop just in front of UG! UG looked at it curiously as if trying to read the brand of tobacco!

  Soni and the actor, both theatre and film personalities enjoying professional familiarity began  hobnobbing with each other on English theatre, Broadway, Bollywood, Hollywood etc. The actor was well known  in Bollywood with a few dozen films to his credit. Of late, he said, he had settled down in a village near London making forays into London Broadway. With the ease and facility of a public icon, he now began discoursing on films, current breed of actors, theatre and so on.

Both got busy talking 'shop', forcing  everyone including UG, to play the audience. UG sat quietly, looking aloof and unconcerned.

After sometime, Mahesh made his entry, exchanged pleasantries with the actor and moved over to a corner at the far end of the hall and got busy watching a DVD on his laptop.

And then it happened! All of a sudden UG burst out, " These scoundrels must be kicked, publicly shot..." And on and on! It was a vehement tirade, lambasting some 'unknown' character . His sudden attack put us all in a quandary.  We were left wondering who had suddenly become the target of UG's ire . Was it some politician or other? He was unstoppable and spewed out venom using choicest slang at his command!

Suddenly the mercury level in the hall seemed to shoot up by a few degrees! The 'heat' became palpable!

What had triggered UG's rage?

The visitor was stunned into silence as the high  drama unfolded! Between UG's bashings. first time since he came in, he accosted me! I was right next to him at the table beside UG. Leaning towards me, he softly enquired :" Who is he talking about ? Why is he angry?" I said I had no clue! He appeared nervous, pulled out his hanky , mopped his visible sweat. He was fidgety...looking uncomfortable, he suddenly decided to vacate the place, he got onto his feet.

At this juncture, he was dismayed to discover that his cigarette pack was lying close to UG. Apologetically he stooped down and picked up his stuff. Excusing himself, summoning a hurried goodbye,  he headed straight towards the door.

There was pin drop silence. All thinking was suspended!

As he reached for the door, UG with uncanny precision timed a parting kick, "Mahesh, is this the same fellow who acted as the 'door boy' in the James Bond film?"

Boy, was it a clean sweep!

With UG, the iconoclast , there was no place for pretence, glam or sham. All affectation and artificiality got the boot, culminated in instant karma, regardless of who you were!

"I Was As Much Afraid As You !" - UG

UG often reiterated, " There is nothing here (pointing to himself) that you do not (already) have!". To the orthodox, who sometimes made a vain attempt to touch his feet, his rejoinder was," Hey! Don't touch my feet - they are dirty! Why don't you touch that servant's feet ? What is 'here' is 'there' too!"

This brutal honesty about UG, his ordinariness and naturalness endeared him to all. It brings to book the false claims by market gurus and godmen who act like potentates, living in palatial mansions with a fleet of cars and retinue of servants. Pretension is the order of the day in the spiritual bazaar.

To use UG's own phrase, the market gurus are not 'honest, decorous and decent enough' to admit that they too are human with feet of clay. They are frightened that any such candour on their part would only bring them crashing down from their ivory towers to 'ground zero',  sending them into the realm of the ordinary, normal and the common. 

In a path breaking departure from every other teacher before him, UG came down heavily on 'seeking' or 'searching'. He completely rubbished all kinds of spiritual goals (not material goals), emphasising and re-emphasising that 'there is no oasis yonder, you are stuck with the mirage'. His message ( if there was one) was straightforward and simple, " Stop looking for something, there is nothing to look for!"

The older Krishnamurti, Jiddu, nailed it when he said that one could only discover what one already knew! Perhaps it might be  possible to discover the needle in the proverbial hay stack, but there was no way one could ever discover God or the 'unknown'?

 UG went a step further! He brushed aside even the possibility of existence of the 'unknown', in a pointed reference to JK! Such a possibility would only further the 'search' and propagate thinking or thoughts! For UG, the talk about the 'unknown' is still within the realm of the known and therefore a projection of the mind and hence a trap, an illusion, a mirage!

UG never claimed or pretended to be any different from us.

Once he was waxing eloquent about the falsity and futility of spiritual goals. As I sat at his feet wondering what made him so different from the rest of us, he suddenly leaned forward and thrusting his finger into my chest said, " Look here! There is no difference between you and me, none whatsoever ! We both function in exactly the same way! Only thing is that you are in conflict with society and I am not!"  

On a different occasion, UG was speaking of the courage to stand alone. He thundered, " You are nothing but FEAR!" The truth of this utterance hit me like a ton of bricks!

Agreed, we are bundles of fear but then how do we rid ourselves of fear? UG maintained that asking 'how' would  only propagate and perpetuate the mechanism of thought. Any demand for a method or technique to conquer fear would only breed thought.

Thought is nothing but fear! Thoughts can only be about yesterday or tomorrow. Yesterday's failures or tomorrow's losses are what constitute our psychological fears.

Does that mean we are stuck? Are we not capable of this extraordinary courage that he is talking about?

As I sat lost in reverie, UG seemed to have read my mind and in a flash responded, " Sir! I was as much afraid as you are! Only in my case, I was lucky, fear was thrown off my system!" 

I was stunned at his honesty and humaneness. How many gurus can be so open or candid and connect with people, the way UG did?

How many gurus dare say ," I am a dog barking!"  One is reminded of the sage Nityananda of Ganeshpuri who sounded similar, "I am just a crow (raven) cawing ! "

Nityananda was among the countable few that UG held in high esteem.  Sometimes he would narrate to us the extraordinary anecdotes from Nityananda's life.

The real gurus erase all lines of distinction and let us taste the real beauty and greatness of life, our true inheritance. The fake ones create a 'distance' through their self-importance and make us feel 'small' and worthless.

 Once again, to borrow UG's expression, the gurus in the market place are 'riding the tiger', they are simply afraid to get off its back, lest they be eaten alive! The tiger being their persona or façade !

" Don't Succumb To These Things " - UG

UG escorting Nataraj?

                                        

It was March 1998.

I and Kamal, our pilot friend, were in-charge of UG's temporary joint in Bandra, Bombay.

I played the door-keeper , Kamal the chauffeur and Miss Tanuja Chandra, the film director played the store-keeper in charge of the larder, taking care of UG’s supply of cream, coffee and milk.

Mahesh Bhatt remained busy with his directorial commitments and would drop in only towards late evenings!

Kamal and myself were hanging out with UG , most of the day hours. UG was kind and generous and pampered us by preparing our coffees! Mostly, we lunched and dined outside.

Late Nataraj, the German astrologer was accompanying UG on this trip and was put up in a hotel nearby. He was a knowledgeable astrologer in the Western tradition.

That summer afternoon was terribly hot and muggy, UG refused to stir out and preferred to stay indoors. To add to the woes, there was no air conditioning in the flat!

I and Nataraj kept him company. Kamal was out on an errand.

UG kept joking, “Nataraj, where is Pluto? What about Neptune? .....Tell me how it will influence my travel plans this year?..... What about money, will I be making more dollars?.....”

After some more banter about planets, UG appeared tired and tried to catch a catnap.

 There was hardly any conversation now going on in the room. I took this opportunity and decided to query Nataraj on the veracity of the claims of astrology and the planetary influences in one's life.

I personally had no knowledge about astrology and also I was a little sceptical. Of course, there is tangible, documented evidence on the influence of lunar cycles on animal and plant life ! Planets and heavenly bodies do influence our life but to what extent?

Nataraj knew his domain pretty well. He explicated the basis of astrology in a layman's language. He elaborated on many interesting aspects of astrology in a nice way in what was a primer to me! I was beginning to see some semblance of 'science' behind those surmises of the 'unscientific' astrologers! 

As we spoke, UG dosed on and off !  

Between his catnaps, once I caught UG, “Sir, I think there seems to be some truth in what Nataraj is saying! Planets, after all might influence our minds, what do you say?"

UG broke his silence, his words were carefully chosen and measured, "Yes, planets certainly play their role! But it's like this - today is terribly hot and humid. Weather conditions like this are deterring and discouraging ! You don’t feel like going out or doing anything. You are forced to stay indoors. The planetary influences are somewhat similar". And added a key rider, "It is important that you don’t succumb to these things!"

At this, Nataraj jumped  out of his seat , " Yes, UG's right! You should never succumb to such things! ”He was overjoyed that UG had endorsed his views.

This anecdote holds out an important lesson, "Not to be deterred or overwhelmed, when we find ourselves prisoners of situations or circumstances, many times of our own making! Takes real determination and courage to see things through !"

"Do Not Make Failure Into A Virtue " - UG

This was sometime in 2003.

UG was staying at Parekhji's house in Santacruz (West), Bombay.

Many of us had gathered around UG in the morning. 

Shortly later, Mahesh Bhat walked in. Proceeding straight to UG, he suddenly gave him a bear hug and a kiss on the cheek! It was so sudden, UG was caught unaware, his remonstrations proved a tad late and futile. 

Finally settling down on the floor, in front of UG, Mahesh offered the reason for the unabashed display of public affection,

"UG! Thank you! You have given me everything that I ever wanted! I am ever grateful to you! I can't ask for more!"

UG sat quietly! It was a poignant moment! As I sat watching, in a flash, the famous words of Sai Baba of Shirdi, a great spiritual master, came flooding to me!

I seized the moment! Looking straight into UG's eyes, I added, “Shirdi Sai Baba said, ‘I give you what you want so you begin to want what I want to give you’, UG is no different!”

As the import of this extraordinary statement hit Mahesh, he looked overwhelmed and insisted that I do an encore! Fully aware that UG would not suffer any flattery, in yet another bold attempt, I defiantly repeated the statement, half suspecting that the ‘machine gun’ would go off any moment!

Surprisingly UG sat calm and collected. He appeared unusually quiet and reserved.

Talking of material wants and pursuits, sages since long have recommended the fulfilment of biological and material cravings for majority of spiritual aspirants. Unfulfilled wants and desires leave behind deep discontent and dissatisfaction in the individual and could only prove counter-productive in realising one’s true potential.

In fact, a celibate life is not everyone’s cup of tea. UG emphasised that celibacy in the name of spirituality only amounted to ‘denial of nature’! He recommended marriage in many cases. Unfulfilled desires could lead to morbid perversions and act as impediments in the unfoldment of our true and essential nature!

Save in the case of a few select individuals, who were really serious about spiritual quest or ‘sadhana’, UG advocated a normal life to most people who came to see him and backed them in their pursuit of material goals and aspirations. To this end, he worked on a ‘case to case basis’.

To use a metaphor, UG did not offer ‘over the counter’ medicine! That is to say, he did not offer any generalised form or body of formal teaching! Rather, like a true physician, he metered the dosage and potency of the drug , best suited to the individual. His instructions were direct, personal and immediate, like ‘designer drugs’ packaged to serve the special needs of a particular individual.

In this regard, how UG helped Mahesh is quite fascinating!

In a way, UG did offer tips to Mahesh Bhat on film making! In early part of his career, Mahesh had only a few flops to his credit. UG cautioned, “Mahesh, do not make failure into a virtue. I will never excuse you if you are not a successful director”.

UG once took Mahesh along to a theatre to watch a blockbuster Telugu film, ‘Maro Charitra’, a movie by the famous film star Kamal Hassan, to bring home the essential ingredients of what makes a film into a box-office hit!

Mahesh recalls, “The year was ‘79. UG insisted I watch this film even though I did not know the language. He sat next to me and insisted I too along with him watch the entire film. Don't ask me why he did that. But that changed my approach to movie making!”

There were many similar success stories among UG friends, thanks to his timely intervention and advise in their lives.

Many flocked to UG for various reasons.

Some looked upon him as a guru! Some were drawn to him for his sheer brilliance, some appreciated his guts and some admired his charisma! Some sought the ‘company of UG's company’ of intellectuals, celebrities, and famous personalities.

Some relished his bashing of gurus, some enjoyed his take on mundane matters including international affairs, politics or economics. Some were enamoured by his astounding knowledge and grasp of science and scriptures.

Some sought peace while others sought spiritual instruction!

But his true genius lies in shedding light on false ego trips including self-centred spiritual pursuits. 

In case of many disillusioned and deluded souls who were lost and shipwrecked in the unchartered spiritual waters, UG essayed the role of an anchor and proved a great stabilising force!

Grounded in Natural State ( Sahaja Stithi), UG was a pure, natural and impersonal expression of Life Force, a rare flower that touched many individuals, each in a unique way!

Happy Birthday UG!

"No! He Has No Cancer" - UG

Chandrasekhar Babu and Pratapji Karvat

An anecdote related to Pratapji Karvat.

Among many in Bombay who regularly visited UG , Pratapji remains singularly unique. He never stopped arguing and challenging UG at every juncture. He vehemently defended JK  whenever UG launched his famous tirades on JK.

One morning, many of us regulars arrived at Parekhji's home to discover that the 'hot seat' was empty. UG had gone out visiting someone.

After a while, Pratapji walked in. He looked pale and completely run-down! After he settled down,  someone asked him why was he looking so dull and weak? 

Pratapji shocked everyone, " I have been diagnosed with brain cancer!"  And pulled out his medical papers from his shoulder bag.  

The news was terrible! Everyone was shaken up! Uneasy silence reigned over the room. 

Mahesh Bhat trooped in a little later, found out that UG was out visiting and proceeded to his usual corner. He got busy with his incessant calls and messages. 

At some point,  someone broke the news of Pratapji's 'cancer' to Mahesh. He too was shocked and expressed his disbelief. Pratapji  gave the details of his medical report that had confirmed the malignant growth in the brain. Persistent headaches in the recent past had forced his doctors to order a brain scan. The result - a devastating discovery of brain cancer! Mahesh too was hit by the tragic news and fell completely silent like the rest of us.

At long last, UG trooped in and settled into his ' hot seat' in the main hall.

Mahesh wasted no time,  quickly moved over to Pratapji and dragged him over to UG, " Sir! Doctors are saying that Pratapji has brain cancer, what do you say?",  eagerly and expectantly looking into UG's face! 

Everyone waited with bated breath!

UG took a long look at Pratapji's face, after a pause, uttered his verdict,"NO! HE HAS NO CANCER!" His words carried a ring of finality! 

What happened next was just incredible!

Pratapji still unconvinced, pulled out his report and started explaining to UG about the tumour. But Mahesh Bhat simply got up, "Pratapji ! Did you hear what UG said? You don't have cancer!" and walked away to his corner without even looking back! He got busy once again on his cell phone!

Turned out UG was bang on ! 

The next morning, a beaming Pratapji walked in and  to everyone's relief, joyfully announced that the cancer diagnosis was a goof up by the hospital staff  who inadvertently mixed up his report with that of a real cancer patient! It was a real case of mistaken identity!

For Mahesh Bhat, UG's words, His Master's Voice (HMV) nailed the verdict!  His trust was complete! Pratapji always called Mahesh a Bhakta, a devotee with consummate faith!