" The cow looks at me with Choiceless Awareness" - UG

JK and UG 

Years before meeting up with UG, somewhere along the line, I stumbled into Jiddu Krishnamurti or JK who stormed into my life though his mesmerising lingo and catchy phrases. 

In a way,  JK  paved the way for UG. UG himself acknowledged this in no uncertain terms and on numerous occasions. 

JK attacked and lobbed grenades at the stronghold of religion and tradition like no one else before him and loosened the tenacious grip of orthodoxy, the beliefs, practices and rituals on our minds with his liberating and mind-shattering observations. Much of the spiritual dross and clutter of ages got rooted out by JK much before UG took over and UG made a clean sweep of even the intellectual clutter left behind by JK!

I was initially spellbound  by JK's revolutionary thinking, a path breaking approach to life! His persuasive and uncanny discourse made religion look like a practical joke!

Unlike UG who proclaimed that he had no message for mankind, JK was a global brand , a salesman par excellence, who offered intellectual gymnastics through what UG described as ' bogus chartered flights.'  Like many JK freaks, I too enjoyed JK's verbal journeys into ' the unchartered seas' and went on my ego trip that lasted for years!

His fabulous repertoire made JK a great 'wordsmith'! JK improvised in amazing ways. JK's stock phrases like 'the first and the last freedom' , 'the flight of the eagle', 'awakening of intelligence', 'choiceless awareness, ' sounded revolutionary and captured the imagination of many educated and thinking minds of the times ! 

Even UG acknowledged JK's innovative expression! UG was of the opinion that JK's proximity to brilliant minds like Aldous Huxley , Carl Jung among others played a key role in forging his unique style of expression, the famous 'JK lingo'

Once I chanced to meet a top ranking marketing executive. On finding his shelf overflowing with JK books, I queried him regarding his JK connection. He was candid, " More than anything, JK has a great intellectual appeal and supplies me with the  verbal ammunition that helps me crack deals in my high-profile marketing job!"

During my college days, I had breathed JK day in and day out! I hungered after his books, had a huge collection of his audios and videos. In the 80's, there were no Indian prints and all titles were imported and they cost a fortune! My pocket money given to me by my middle class dad vanished in a day or two as I shelled out huge amounts to buy endless JK ‘stuff’!

My ambition to meet up with JK wasn't very successful and was hijacked by a well meaning friend ( his grandfather had donated lands to Annie Besant near Madanapalle where the Rishi Valley School later sprang up ) who deliberately lied to me about JK's dates of travel to US to prevent me from bunking my exams to be with him in Rishi Valley. Incidentally that turned out to be his final visit to India!

My brush with JK philosophy made me feel intellectually superior and puffed up my ego even more! Unknowingly, I had started parroting JK's phrases in my day to day conversations.I spent most of my waking hours practicing ‘choiceless awareness’ believing naively that I was on the road to attaining a highly evolved spiritual state! 

UG was to explain later " When I go out, even the cow on the street looks at me with 'choiceless awareness'!" making it abundantly clear that awareness is just a functional aspect of the brain physiology, a pure biological phenomenon! Awareness is being peddled sometimes as a meditative technique, as a tool to help bring about radical transformation and sold to gullible minds! UG pooh poohed the whole idea! 

Like countless souls, I too was completely floored by some of JK's penetrating statements. Particularly the following ones:

" How can you discover God? You could perhaps discover the needle in the proverbial haystack ! But how can you discover something that you really do not know?"

" In order to understand the 'problem', you must be free from the desire for an answer!"

" In order to encounter a live cobra, you must go far, far beyond the city lights into  the darkness and into the bushes !"

It took several years before I could finally flush JK out of my system! 

One fine morning, it suddenly hit me that the much celebrated JK's ' journeys on the unchartered seas were mere fantasies, pure mental gymnastics! My system summarily rejected JK in a single moment of rare clarity that morning! JK's 'intellectual baggage' of years got jettisoned out, once and for all!  

When I met UG for the first time, he supplied the words to my unspoken gut feeling about JK's pointers to the 'door' and his suggestive expression about 'what lies beyond the door' and his constant refrain about the 'unknown'! UG summarily dismissed any such misgivings saying , " There is no oasis situated yonder; you are stuck with the mirage!" 

UG gave the analogy of an airplane on its take off roll to explain the futility of JK's 'bogus chartered flights': 

" Sir, we would all wait in the tent with bated breath as the plane started rolling forward on the runway for take-off! We waited eagerly as it picked up speed and lunged forward. We wondered, 'Now, this is the moment! It will take off NOW! But... no! Nothing would happen....some more precious moments would slip by! Again we hoped that it would take off NOW! Again and again we were disappointed, talk after talk, we ended up with the same feeling of despair .. nothing....nothing ever really happened...and soon we realised that it was just another case of 'aborted' take-off...the plane never took off but only returned back to the gate....it was like that every single time!" 

Unlike JK, UG's uniqueness lay in the simplicity and economy of his expression. For the most part, he stuck to the day to day vocabulary. Sophistry and scholarship found no place in his simple and effective statements. Even children could understand his plain talk and enjoy his tirades and satires immensely. 

Unlike JK, UG was a free man, not bogged down by puritanical inclinations. Unrestrained, UG would resort to slang whenever he needed to throw in a punch line and rubbish some nonsense! And that was quite often! His slang hit the bull’s eye every single time! He pointed out the utilitarian value of slang and referred to Sri Ramakrishna's original Gospel in Bengali that showcased the choicest slang resorted to by the famous sage to drive home the truth!

With UG, knowledge had no place, only pure Life resonated and reverberated there! In his company, one tasted real freedom, felt unburdened and relieved from the clutches of social and cultural tyranny!

In UG's portal, there was no scope for any externalisation or internalisation of thought, no chance for rumination, mentation or ideation. In his presence, there was no scope for any preoccupation! You found yourself flowing along with whatever happened around you - the mirth and laughter, the relentless talk and discussion, the noise and the din of mundane existence - all became part of reality!

UG would metaphorically describe his role as the AK 47, the machine gun that fired away at the slightest stirring of minds around and about him!

UG's whole approach, it appeared, was to spray potent words like bullets that ' silenced the stirrings of our restless minds!' 

In the staccato outburst of his gun fire, our chatter simply got suspended, at least for a while!

"Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens their bones."

- Lao Tzu, Chapter 3, Tao Teh Ching

" “There is no looking back in life, just move on!" - UG

In my early years with UG, I was confounded and often felt chastised when I heard UG repeating, " I only get JK's widows and Rajneesh's divorcees, and disciples of some guru or other, but I never get a virgin", I once decided to counter him openly with, " Sir honestly tell me if there are any virgins out there?", wondering if it is possible to stay away completely from any spiritual influence whatsoever! UG didn't disappoint me, " No! There are no virgins sir!"

People tend to get hooked on to books, temples, doctrines, ideologies, gurus and what have you! Everyone goes through this patch when societal life suddenly turns pale and loses its significance making one restless to seek meaning outside and beyond the mundane existence.

This is the time when many begin to knock at the doors of gurus, god men who claim to know the 'other side of existence', whatever that means! One ends up getting 'married' to some role model or guru or ideology, rarely retaining virginity!  

Even UG's early life is rich with encounters of the spiritual kind. He had a brush with the renowned Swami Shivananda and spent several years practicing severe penance and austerities in the Himalayas, not to discount his well accounted, engaging meetings with JK and that momentous visit to Sri Ramana.

Much before my meeting with UG in 1992, my first flesh and blood guru happened in 1987.

My guru, in many ways was a remarkable man!

He was not a literate, he even had plenty of problems graduating his high school! He spoke eloquently in Kannada but hardly managed a word or two in English.

But this guru of mine did play a role in grounding me into the realities of life and letting me see the shallowness and futility of intellect and its serious limitations in comprehending matters of life.

I particularly recollect an exchange between us , when in his own characteristic way, my guru shed light on the vicious grip of thought, of reasoning and logic that plays such havoc in our lives. This episode again highlights how our intellect is stuck in a rut with no way out!

I vividly recollect the incident.

I was in my kitchen fixing a meal for both of us that morning. The guru relaxed on his bed seemingly buried in a newspaper in the living room. Mine was a compact bachelor pad in Bangalore. Those were the days much before he would become 'famous ' and gather a large number of devotees, the days before his spiritual empire would engulf him completely and irrevocably. He would stay with me for days on end.

At the time, I was  practically 'one on one' with the man and as usual remained foolhardy  investing my entire time, money, energy on the novel idea of plunging headlong on a spiritual journey with a living guru!  

Just imagine the convenience of having a living guru in your quarters, readily available to plumb the depths of life and its mysteries. But there is no free lunch. I did end up paying a heavy price for this expensive luxury!

As I got busy in kitchen that day, I was mulling over a philosophical (intellectual) problem that had bothered me for quite some time.

I didn't let go the opportunity of being next to my mentor. I shouted my question across to my guru in the living room, so he wouldn't miss it!

Pat came his reply! His answer was spot on, my chattering suddenly ceased!  I was thrown into silence.

The silence lasted only for a short while.

The chattering picked up momentum slowly as my thoughts began ‘framing’ his reply - slicing and dicing the extraordinary answer, doing a  'Google search ' in my stockpile of crammed knowledge and experience.  

My  mind was working hard  trying to get a handle on this new piece of information , trying to plug it into a pigeonhole among myriad other voices and echoes in my head!

As my thoughts soaked up the new answer, successfully archiving it, my mind once again became unsettled and began to clamour for more insight! Every answer only whetted my appetite.

I wanted more of the missing pieces of my (intellectual) jigsaw puzzle. The heat and intensity of this mental gymnastics auto generated my next question.

I wasted no time and lobbed my second question straight back at my guru, this one demanding more clarity from him.  He once again obliged me with a remarkable answer in no time at all, flooring me completely! Thoroughly satisfied, I smiled and thought to myself, "Oh boy! This guy is a genius, if only he knew English, he would be as famous as Jiddu Krishnamurti!"

And once again silence reigned supreme!

The thoughts did not stir for quite a while …..But slowly, ever so gently, they made their comeback!

As the second answer began to get assimilated, dissected and pounded in a myriad ways just like the previous one, a brand new question, the third one, began to raise its hood.

Questions were getting progressively tougher and more stubborn with every answer.

I felt feverish now and was doggedly determined to probe the matter till I got to the bottom of my problem!

I now lobbed my latest question without batting an eyelid.

This time, my guru's reply shocked the wits out of me, taking the wind out of my sails!

I was not prepared for what struck me!

"THIS IS THE PROBLEM with you bastards! You, the so called educated ones are incorrigible! Well, if your first question was (like) a police constable, it graduated into an Inspector by the time you came up with your second question! Your third question got promoted itself to the level of a Superintendent of Police!  At this rate, if I let you carry on with your ways, your questions will raise in rank to that of the Inspector General of Police and so on, there is no end to this dalliance!

I say STOP! Stop kidding yourself! Enough of this nonsense! Enough of this mind game! This bullshit doesn't serve you good …with thinking, you will reach nowhere! Talk of 'tyranny of the intellect'….you guys have been reduced to slavery by your so called education , there is no way this logic-bound, well patterned, conditioned ways of thinking can help you see LIFE, all this ( intellectual intercourse) is nothing but sickness !!”        

His words were scorching but healing!

They clearly resonated with UG's remarks that I heard so often in my later years, "All your questions are born of answers." UG nailed it, “Thinking is not the instrument and there is no other instrument."

True, life has no place for thought, reason or logic. There is no way one can get a handle on life or its ever changing dynamics. Life is 'out of bounds' for thought, its poor shadow!

My guru was quite unique in many ways, he essayed a key role in my life but ……he was not against building an ashram or carving out a following of his own.

Personally I always rebelled at any kind of build-up, staying away from all kinds of spiritual organisations, clubs etc. I expressed my feelings quite openly and this was not welcome to him or those who had now started gathering around him. We had to part ways. Another chapter in my life soon came to an end!

I am reminded of UG’s words about genuine individuals who end up in golden chains, "If anyone thinks he can help you, he will inevitably mislead you. And the less phony he is, the more enlightened he is, the more misery and mischief he will create for you!”

Many years later, as I sat in front of UG, in Chandrasekhar Babu’s place, UG started describing how the guru-shishya relationship could become tenacious, exploitative and burdensome. I slipped into reverie reminiscing about my first guru! UG suddenly turned to me and with fierce intensity thundered, “There is no looking back in life sir, we just move on!”

Only UG showed real courage and defiance, never allowing anything to grow around him. Not just that , he would never let any relationship to take root! With UG, no one could ever feel important or close. Pure life was in operation, in a constant flow with no build-up of any kind whatsoever! 

“All your spiritual experiences are just worthless experiences ! " -UG

UG 

My life journey began as a simple pursuit of worldly success! As a dreamy youngster, the word 'success' became my mantra. I never spared a single book that promised success. I started consuming all the inspirational stuff in libraries, blinded by the thought of making it big in the world! 

Inspiration, howsoever great, coming from outside of ourselves, would ultimately end up in frustration! The lucky ones are self-inspired, they get their priorities right and are wise enough to choose their true love as also their career! 

You will find out that many a motivational, inspirational writer or evangelist who peddles ‘self-help’ as the mantra for success in life, for some reason, dedicates an entire chapter on God, grace, luck or destiny. This aspect, we are made to believe, is detrimental to success beyond the regular necessary ingredients like sincerity, hard work, focus and determination! 

God or luck or fate, for most of us, is a formidable excuse to camouflage our ignorance on matters of life. Who can know how life operates or who can fathom its bewildering uncertainties? 

During my maiden encounter with UG , his first wise crack was on 'self-help', “They say God helps those who help themselves. Tell me, if we can really help ourselves, then why do we need God?”

I was crazy and hell-bent on exploring various aspects of success. My ambition was to make it big in the world! When I read about God, luck, as an indispensable attribute to success, it posed quite a serious challenge! I now started digging deep inside of books seeking answers for the God-riddle. 

UG was to point out much later that seeking answers about life or God is just a futile exercise! All the answers given by others were their own discoveries and could not help in solving any of our problems. In fact, the answers given by others triggered more questions as we made futile attempts to understand and seek clarification! This indeed is a self-perpetuating process - answers, not our own, multiply our questions!

UG clarified, " All your questions are born of answers....they are the answers provided by others...in fact, there is no such thing as your own question!", adding," I cannot help you, in fact, no one can help you find your answers. The only thing I could help, if at all, is to let you formulate your own question...!" 

In my search for answers, one thing led to another and soon 'self-help' books gave way to spiritual classics. I segued into ‘The Autobiography of a Yogi’, leaving behind ‘The Laws of Success’. More spiritual books followed. 

Every serious inquiry or exploration eventually leads one to 'mother of all questions' - What is life, is there a God or soul? I found myself asking the self-same question that has confounded mankind from the beginning of time to this day!

I began seriously exploring 'soul' or 'atma' or 'spirit'!  Strangely, spiritual realm seemed to hold greater charm, more promise than all the worldly goodies! Spiritual success seemed to guarantee even greater glories and awesome power over people and events! At least, that is what the books said! 

Little did I realise at the time that I was walking into a trap - the deceptive world of spirituality - ripe with conmen and godmen! Spiritual kingdom is the last port of call for many a desperate seeker!

At this point, my spiritual pursuit became the be-all and end-all of my life and I became seriously hopeful of getting 'there'! I swapped my material goals for the new-found spiritual goals!

As I reflect back, I think UG nailed it, "You will replace one goal with another, your spiritual goals are no different from your material goals, they are one and the same !  All your goals including the so called spiritual goals are selfish pursuits...you are merely seeking gratification all the time! You will never give up your search because the end of search is the end of you!" 

My foray into the spiritual wonderland was not entirely without excitement. 

It proved quite eventful. Much before this, during my high school days, I used to experience 'death' every night. As I lay on my bed, an invisible 'vacuum cleaner' ( an analogy borrowed from UG who had the uncanny knack of coining verbal equivalents to our wordless experiences!) would start operating, scaring me to death, sucking away my life, even as I desperately fought to wriggle out of its clutches....I would eventually slip away into the 'unconscious'. Next day morning, I would wake up normally! This continued for several months at a stretch!

Now, years later, once again, I began to experience strange things! As I foolishly and feverishly threw myself into yoga, meditation and other spiritual practices (recommended by books!), unsupervised, I began to experience strange things - I felt tingling sensations, crawling of ‘ants’ in my spinal column, sudden expansion of consciousness, inexplicable blissful states and much more! 

I felt intoxicated, I felt that I was really getting 'there', and that I had begun to taste success in my spiritual journey! I started believing that these experiences were an endorsement or validation of my spiritual progress. I felt a sense of achievement!

I couldn’t have been more deluded! Unbeknownst to me, I was treading a dangerous path!

Mine was a heady mix of 'arm-chair' philosophy and 'acquired' knowledge, a sure-fire recipe for delusion and disaster. I had no one around me for course correction, no one like UG to 'put me in my place'! 

At this time, there was another serious problem in my life! I had to grapple with the formidable issue of sex, right in the middle of my spiritual pursuits! My sexual cravings and urges got the better of me every time, setting my youthful frame up in passionate flames. 

Given the spiritual context, the natural and common urge like sex became a burning problem! 

I was caught in a dilemma unable to reconcile my spiritual life with my biological reality. The pangs of sex violently tore me up from inside. It bothered me no end!

Self-deception, in my case, was nearly total! My meeting with UG would change all that very soon!

In my maiden encounter, UG was intense and scorching ! He pounded down my spiritual pride into dust! He pooh-poohed all that I held as profound and sacred. His words were piercing, cutting through my deception and delusion:   

“All your spiritual experiences are just worthless experiences ! However profound, they are just petty little experiences, shoddy piece of goods ! If they have really helped you at all , why are you here? Why are you still seeking answers? Anyway, what is it that you are looking for? Okay, assuming for a moment that your experiences are really true, in what way are you different now? You are the same old person carrying on with the same old prejudices, same old fears and burning with the same old desires....has anything really changed there at all ? You see, you cannot experience anything without the experiencing structure there ( if there is no 'experiencer' there) ...as long as there is the experiencing structure, whatever you experience will only fortify and strengthen that structure (the ego or self)....All your experiences are coloured by knowledge. Experience fortifies knowledge and knowledge fortifies experience. You cannot experience anything new, there is no such thing as new experience at all!"

This lambasting, this much needed awakening brought me to ground zero! I didn't have the guts anymore to narrate my so called experiences that I was so proud of all these years. After listening to UG, they really began to look 'shoddy' and 'petty' indeed ! UG was bang on!

UG held a mirror for the first time in which I could clearly see the reality of my situation! He got me off the merry-go-round of spiritual pursuit. 

I got more grounded and began to settle into the realities of life. 

UG also gave me the strength to accept my sexual urges as natural and common and healed my nagging sense of guilt thus putting an end to my inner dichotomy! 

I discovered enough courage inside of me to shed the falsehood and abandon the sham life that I had foolishly embraced! 

Every little experience - spiritual or otherwise had only added to my baggage, and increased my psychological burden, preventing me from leading a simple, burden-free life. 

Thanks to UG, first time in years, I walked out as a free man, more human than ever before!

"Biographies are lies and autobiographies are double lies !"- UG

Sri Ramkrishna Paramahamsa & UG

In those days, Mahesh Bhatt was doing regular columns in a tabloid, the Mumbai Mirror. They were well written and carried a unique fragrance. Rich with personal insights, the columns provided a pleasant reading experience.

On this particular visit, 1999, UG was holed up in Mukesh Bhatt's flat in Bandra.

That lazy morning saw a few regulars hanging out with UG.

Mahesh was there too, propped up against a bean bag. He was completely immersed in a book. It was about the great sage from Dakshineshwar, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.  He was scribbling notes in preparation for his weekly column.

Mahesh says that the fiery saint, Swami Vivekananda, the world-renowned disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa has had a great impact on him, " Vivek' has always had a special place in my heart!"

In the main hall where we all sat, UG kept everyone engaged with his fascinating discussion on varied topics. Every now and then he would steal a glance at Mahesh who appeared oblivious to everything around him, lost in his own world.

At some point, finally UG decided to interrupt Mahesh, "Hey mister! What's it that you are reading?"

Mahesh, "Sir! Going through a book on Ramakrishna Paramahans".

UG, seizing the opportunity and turning on 'heat' in full blast launched a sudden tirade against the great sage.  He went hammer and tongs, spewing out venom. His words sometimes bordered on the slanderous and stung like a whip!

UG, "Oh, you are reading about that guy! Oh Boy! Have you read his gospel? You see, he always surrounded himself with young and handsome boys! That chappie made the boys even give up their families sir!"

UG's innuendos sounded outrageous and UG's bashing continued unabated, nothing could stop him, "He roped in so many young boys! He spared no one including Vivekananda and all those chaps!"

The vitriol made Mahesh wince and shift in his seat!

Visibly shaken and breathing fire, Mahesh suddenly leapt out towards UG's chair. And rocking the chair with both hands, violently from side to side, belligerently hollered,

"Hey! How can you say such things about Ramakrishna? How do you know these things are true? Were you there at the time? "

UG, in a split second, collected himself and poking his finger right into Mahesh's face shot him down,

"Hey, were you there at the time?  How do you know it is not true? "

Mahesh was shattered! Rattled and clueless, he slumped back into his bean bag!

****

The truth is UG held Sri Ramakrishna in highest esteem referring to him as a Real McCoy! “The world has seen only a handful of sages, you can count them on your fingers”, UG would say and include the sage's name without fail along with Sri Ramana Maharshi et al. His reverence for the sage was absolute!

His long-time associate Major Dakshinamurti observes, " UG always referred to him as SRI Ramakrishna with emphasis on SRI, a rare honour coming from UG" .

UG always acknowledged Sri Ramakrishna's guidance in his own life. It was Sri Ramakrishna Mutt in London that sheltered him during the difficult days when UG roamed the streets of London like a destitute. An inner voice guided him to the Mutt. He even had an intense spiritual experience right there in the London Ramakrishna Mutt.

Here is how UG described his experience:

“'I was sitting there and in my mind there was nothing—there was only blankness—when I felt something very strange: there was some kind of movement inside of my body. Some energy was coming up from the penis and out through the head, as if there was a hole. It was moving in circles in a clockwise direction and then in a counterclockwise direction. ”

****

Like his famous tirades against (our blind, unquestioned faith or belief in) Jesus, Buddha and the lot, UG’s attack on Sri Ramakrishna was aimed more at dismantling and decimating our ‘myth making machinery’, a deeply entrenched habit in human psyche!

Unquestioning reverence only serves to discredit the inquiring spirit, smothering free expression and dampening the zest for life.

Unconditional and blind reverence in any realm of life promotes perverted ideologies. Ideologies divide people, division harbours hatred, factions and wars follow!

Taoism cautions that the wisdom of the sage could turn into 'dead ashes' when put into a book, in lifeless words!

" Books cannot really help you or anyone ! If they really could, then we should ideally have heaven on earth, given all those wonderful books in all those libraries, all over the world!", UG explained.

No biography could ever convey the real wisdom of a sage!

Is there any wisdom in studying the wisdom of the sages then?

UG resonated with the great Taoist sages who said, “Catch the fish and throw away the net!”

Wisdom lies in catching the essence and discarding the word. Word is mere husk, the verbal shell that has no real consequence whatsoever.

Sagely utterances or words are just pointers to truth. It is fallacious to think that the words are the truth!

Again Taoism comes to the rescue, " Holding on to wisdom is sheer foolishness."

UG asserted, “Life (or Truth) is not something that can be captured, contained, or given expression to!” 

In a sagely instruction, the words form part of a ‘live transmission’ and carry a ‘life force’ (प्राण शक्ति) that is infused into the words. This does the real trick ! This ‘life force’ cannot be captured, contained or given expression to through any medium! 

The recorded words of a great master (biography), uttered in the distant past, in some unknown context, in response to an unknown question lacks the fragrance, intensity of the original fiery utterances.

When UG was handed a copy of his early book of recorded conversations, Mystique of Enlightenment, he seems to have sighed and said, "Alas, here comes the Mistake of Enlightenment"

He struggled very hard to discount his own verbal utterances, aware of the dangers of verbiage and its serious distortions, " My second statement negates my first statement, my third statement negates my second statement and my fourth statement negates the third as well as the fifth... even before it is made!"

The following parable from the brilliant Chuang Tzu makes this point abundantly clear!

Duke Hwan  seated above in his hall, was (once) reading a book, and the wheelwright Phien was making a wheel below it.

 Laying aside his hammer and chisel, Phien went up the steps, and said, 'I venture to ask your Grace what words you are reading?' 

The duke said, 'The words of the sages.'

'Are those sages alive?' Phien continued.

'They are dead,' was the reply.

 'Then,' said the other, 'what you, my Ruler, are reading are only the dregs and sediments of those old men.' 

The duke said, 'How should you, a wheelwright, have anything to say about the book which I am reading? If you can explain yourself, very well; if you cannot, you shall die!' 

The wheelwright said, 'Your servant will look at the thing from the point of view of his own art. In making a wheel, if I proceed gently, that is pleasant enough, but the workmanship is not strong; if I proceed violently, that is toilsome and the joinings do not fit. If the movements of my hand are neither (too) gentle nor (too) violent, the idea in my mind is realised.

But I cannot tell (how to do this) by word of mouth; there is a knack in it. I cannot teach the knack to my son, nor can my son learn it from me. Thus it is that I am in my seventieth year, and am (still) making wheels in my old age.

But these ancients, and what it was not possible for them to convey, are dead and gone:--so then what you, my Ruler, are reading is but their dregs and sediments!'

(Sourced from the Web: http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/sbe39/sbe39134.htm)

UG's smart quip says it all: " Biographies are lies and autobiographies are double lies !"

“ This is the meaning of Karma" - UG

UG & Parekhji

Most confounding question in our day to day lives: "What is the right action in a given situation?"

UG was staying at Parekhji's Santacruz apartment in Mumbai. Many of us, regulars, hung around him, including some Western friends.

UG sat in his usual 'hot seat' in the spacious main hall.

There was a lull in the conversation that had lasted the whole morning. Everyone sat idly in the silence that followed. Parekhji sat on his single bed with both legs stretched out, his usual posture, given his arthritic condition. UG insisted that he should feel free and stretch his legs out & not bother about the constant influx of people.

Parekhji was then in his late 70s. As a young man he had worked as an engineer in a famous British Civil Engineering  firm. During early part of his career, he he had supervised the construction of  Sharavati Dam as a site engineer in Karnataka. The dam supports a Hydel plant near the famous Jog Falls.

Parekhji was a simple, unassuming person, a kind-hearted soul  who played host to UG and friends for many years. His gracious wife Kaushalya Ben was a housewife and managed the affairs of home efficiently and handled a retinue of servants. She was a great support to their families and looked after education and welfare of their children.

Silence reigned supreme in the living room, everybody sat listlessly...and all of a sudden, the doorbell rang! There was a gentle attempt to push open the door! I immediately sprang to my feet, quickly reached the door, unlatched the bolt & let in the visitor and went back to my place on the floor in front of UG.

UG wasted no time, immediately turned to Parekhji, "Sir, this is the meaning of Karma ! " and  pointing to me said:  " He heard the doorbell,  got up, opened the door, came back , is there any premeditation there? Or any trace of action? It is all over, no carrying anything in the head. This action is total, complete, a response to a stimulus, this is true Karma!"

On another occasion as I sat in front of UG, lost in reverie, under the same roof, he had pushed his finger hard into my chest and said emphatically, “The only difference between the way you are functioning and I am functioning is this - you are preoccupied but I am not!”

Here is UG explicating his state, “…. My way of functioning is that I am always occupied with what is happening at that moment and there is no room for any preoccupation. You are preoccupied with the things that are not happening there. You see, this seems to be the only difference, if there is any difference…..”

                                                                                                (http://www.inner-quest.org/UG.htm)

Coming back to the episode on Karma, during the afternoon lull that day Parekhji sent word for me from his private quarters where he would retire for an afternoon siesta. Those were intimate moments when he would bare his heart and share personal matters including his ‘sadhana’ with me.

Parekhji asked me, “Do you recollect what happened this morning? I had long wished to know from UG, what is the true nature of Karma! But I couldn’t ask him for some reason or other. You see today he gave me the answer. I wrote it down in my notepad here (showed me). UG was really spot on! He explained it so beautifully using your example of opening the door! There cannot be a simpler explanation!"

The Parekh couple had practiced Vipasana Meditation for decades. UG was introduced to them by a common friend and became a frequent visitor. But UG never once interfered with their practice! Once finally when the couple decided to seek his advice on whether they were on the right track in their spiritual practice, he just told them to continue whatever they were doing and do it with whole heart. 

UG insisted that they should see the whole thing through and discover for themselves whether the meditation really helped them at all. His advice was clear - to see the whole thing through for and by themselves and not seek others’ opinion or listen to what he or anyone had to say about such matters!

Parekhji’s joy of discovering the meaning of true Karma was quite palpable! He appeared thrilled at the discovery of the true essence of action!

Having read treatises and commentaries on Karma, I too felt relieved that after all Karma is really that simple!

UG maintained all along that all action is born of conditioning including the so called responses to various stimuli. UG held that there is no such thing as Pure Action, the traditional definition of Karma as doled out by Vedantic scholars or pundits who read more into the simple conditioned response to a stimulus and complicate matters for others and themselves!

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" Reality is a movement without direction." - UG

Gutsy Mahesh Bhatt sometimes enjoyed playing the role of the 'sounding board’ in UG's portals, not an easy thing to do! Gleefully lobbing questions at the ‘raging sage’, he would tease out UG’s repartee that would benefit one and all!

UG too reciprocated the gesture and recruited Mahesh now and then to act as his sounding board to send across some powerful message or pointer to the audience.

Here is one such fascinating exchange!

UG, "Hey mister, what is your name? What do you call yourself?" 

Mahesh, mimicking a schoolboy, "Sir! My name is Mahesh Bhatt!"

UG, seizing the moment, with great intensity,

"I don't care what you call yourself, there is nothing to that name! ‘Mahesh’ is what they (parents) called you - the name they gave you! In reality, there is no ‘Mahesh Bhatt’ there! In fact , there is nobody there! What you call Mahesh is a fictitious entity put ‘in there’ by society! Your parents named you, and ever since you are stuck with that name, there is nothing to that!"

This observation is not far removed from that of Ramana Maharshi who called into question the very basis of the 'I' or the 'self ' through his famous inquiry, ' Who am I? '. Ramana's was  a contemplative approach to de-construct the ‘self’ by probing into its basis.

Nisargadutta Maharaj, another great master, pointed out the falsehood of ‘I’ or ‘self’ in his characteristic style,

“….now, you may be a very great person, you might be a dictator of the world, but when you go to sleep you forget what you were—your name, your body, your age, your sex, your nationality, everything. This sense of a separate identity is very limited and not the truth; in fact, it is totally false.

So if that is the situation with Christ, what is the case with you?”1

Great thinkers, philosophers, sages from time immemorial have questioned the deep rooted ‘ folk belief ’ in the reality of the ‘I’ or ‘self’ or ‘entity’,  in line with masters like UG, Ramana or Nisargadutta.

Is the 'self' or 'I' then a fictitious entity, is it a 'cross we bear' or is this the psychological burden forced, imposed on us by society or culture through conditioning?

Whatever it is, the fact is, we are stuck with a 'subjective reality' perhaps like no other living creature. We are saddled with the 'I'  and its private, psychological world of wants, fears, opinions, likes and dislikes,  in a constant flux, ever changing and churning like the ocean!

UG explained,

Every time a thought is born, you are born. When the thought is gone, you are gone. But the 'you' does not let the thought go, and what gives continuity to this 'you' is the thinking. Actually there is no permanent entity in you, no totality of all your thoughts and experiences. You think that there is 'somebody' who is thinking your thoughts, 'somebody' who is feeling your feelings --- that's the illusion. I can say it is an illusion; but it is not an illusion to you. ( Mystique of Enlightenment)

On several occasions, UG used the analogy of the movie to explain the illusory nature of the 'self'.

When we watch a movie, a series of pictures are flashed rapidly across the screen at the rate of 24 frames per second. We begin to see the various actors come alive on the screen.

When the stream of pictures is slowed down, the reality hits and we see that there is neither a hero nor a heroine who appeared to be breathing, talking, fighting or singing.

UG emphasised, ‘ When thoughts slow down, one begins to 'see' clearly.' The ‘self’, could after all be the ‘virtual reality’ or ‘subjective reality’ coming into being due to the 'movement of knowledge'. Thoughts, in rapid succession, like picture frames in a movie, conjure up the illusory 'thinker'.

UG elaborated, “ There is no ‘I’ there ! What you call ‘I’ is nothing but the ‘movement of knowledge’! ”

UG clarified further explaining the basis for the 'self', "It is the 'observed' that creates the 'observer' " 

When we look at a tree, he explained, we do not see the tree at all - we are caught up in all kinds of mentation and ideation. Two things happen - firstly we recognise the tree as belonging to a certain species and secondly we begin to associate it with the ideas of tallness (of its form), greenness (of its leaves), the sweetness (of its fruits), the coolness (of its shade) and so on.

Looking at the tree sets off ' the movement of knowledge' about the tree, bringing the 'I' , 'the knower' into existence, much like the actor in the movie. As long as there is recognition and naming (or verbalisation), knowledge is in motion and the movement gives rise to the illusion of the 'observer', 'I' or the 'self'. 

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UG pointed out, ' Reality is  a movement without direction.'

In our case, the ever changing, ever flowing movement of knowledge seems to be the only reality. The labeling of the movement as the 'I'  is more of a social or a cultural necessity. The society has its vested interest, has investment in bestowing reality or identity to the 'I'. It keeps resurrecting , concretising and validating the transitory 'I' for its own survival, to maintain its status quo. The entire superstructure of society revolves around the 'I' as its basic building block and will collapse like a pack of cards if the 'I' is invalidated.

UG, Nisargadutta and Ramana completely exposed the myth of any permanent, psychological entity or 'I' !

Pointing to himself UG said, ‘ there is no one here ’ adding ," 'UG' comes when there is a demand . When you ask me a question, UG comes in to answer, otherwise there is no one here!”

‘I’ seems to come into being whenever there is a need or a demand. Every situation in life is unique and different. There is a constant demand for knowledge to meet every situation, every challenge in the social, cultural environment. This demand triggers the movement of knowledge conjuring up the ‘I’ or 'self', every single time.

Apart from the demand from the outside world, there exists an internal or individual demand for achieving or attaining a certain goal or to become someone. Craving for attainment or achievement breeds the internal demand and keeps the movement of knowledge going, giving a sense of permanence to the 'I'. 

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As I am writing this piece, (my) ‘I’ is characterized by the movement of knowledge about UG and his statements, driven by the demand to narrate. But in the morning,  ‘I’ was a movement of knowledge of a different kind as I stood staring at the sprawling sea through the window. Yesterday 'I' was a different ‘entity’ while ‘I’ hosted friends and reminisced about people and events. Tomorrow, ‘I’ shall be a ‘trainer’ in the setting of a classroom, the 'I'  this time around being 'movement of technical knowledge'.

The 'I' is thus fluid and constantly changing, shifting, morphing and flowing as per the needs and demands of time or place, circumstance or situation, transaction or interaction, now appearing as ‘this’, now appearing as ‘that.’

The 'I' seems to have no fixed identity, showing up in multiple forms or flavours - wearing more than one hat - sometimes as a private entity who is a lover of nature, books, music etc., as a social entity who is a parent, teacher etc. sometimes as a political entity who is a citizen, tax payer, then again as a cultural entity who is a Hindu, Christian or Muslim or Communist.

The 'I' comes and goes but is constantly resurrected and given a new lease of life by society or culture through its incessant demands. 

UG had the last word on how to function intelligently and sanely in this imposed reality foisted on us by society, " Look, I am vulnerable,  I get affected by everything, everyone around me but I am not involved."

Only one who could see through the falsity , illusion of the 'self' could stay in society and still not get involved! 

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1. Sri Nisargadutta Maharaj (2011-07-12). The Ultimate Medicine: Dialogues with a Realized Master (p. 1). North Atlantic Books. Kindle Edition.